Tips from the Trenches

09. Dec, 2011 • Categories: GM Techniques, Organisation

by Rana Loreus

How many times has Murphy visited your gaming session and hurls a few Missiles of Murphy or Power Word: Murphy’s Law at you? GMing is a mind-boggling task – there are NPC’s to keep track off, secret dice rolls to make, complex rules to remember and the power-hungry, partially-insane munchkin power-gamer to keep in line. The potential for committing grave mistakes are great.

Right up I will not say, “Don’t worry, read this article and all will be fine!” Rather, basing on my own personal experiences, I have gathered here a miscellaneous collection of things which may go wrong. Forewarned is forearmed.

But first, a friendly disclaimer. Every GM is a totally different, unique individual with his own style of GMing and their own skill-sets. Hence, depending on who you are, some of the items below may more likely inspire a chorus of “Dohs” than gasps of joy and delight due to the discovery of some awesome insights.

1. An Ounce of Preparation is worth more than a Pound of Agitation

How many times have you heard this? “What’s with all the time-consuming planning? I am the type of GM who flows with the Muse – I will be like a flowing river, able to adapt to any situations the players throw at me.” Without proper preparation, however, it is very likely he will flow as a pool of dark, stagnant water.

A game session requires tones of preparation. Beside the scenario itself, there are character sheets to be printed, dice to be sought, people to be called, and a number of myriad details, depending on what game you are playing and whether miniatures are gracing your gaming table or not. Getting all the logistical details done properly is good for a GM’s emotional health and confidence. Ever got the sinking feeling that you are suppose to bring something all-vital and important, but had forgotten about it? Too much of that could be potentially stressful.

Beside the hard, physical details of the game, there are also the “soft” aspects – the adventure itself. I am the type of GM who loves to details thing out in advance – some GMs I know prefer to leave the details to their spontaneous creativity processes. I am not against GMs who want to “be like flowing river and gliding clouds”, but I believe that preparation is still important for both extremes.

By preparation of the scenario, I don’t mean brain-storming all the possible actions that the players may take, or consulting a psychic hotline to foresee what may happen. What I meant is to gain a general understanding and hone your knowledge about your scenario. Let take your typical defacto dungeon crawl as an example. Say the dungeon is built into an active volcano. Isn’t it a good idea to read up on volcano, the temperature of lava, and the properties of volcanic soil and so on? Let say you plan to have a volcanic eruption during a dramatic battle of epic proportions; will you be hard-pressed to describe what comes out from the volcano beside “fire and lava”?

Isn’t a good idea to brush up on your geography of the area the game is set in? You never know where the players will want to go next, and unless you want to impose your omnipotent wills on them, it’s quite hard to confine players to one small, specific region. There’s no need to remember the specific names of towns or villages, but it helps to understand the geography of the area. For example, say your party decides to head into a coastal region where a famous port is situated, and they wish to find a village inn to rest their feet. Now if you have some idea of what the port is, the general situation of the region (is it filled with bandits?) Is travel safe? Are there any power-mad sorcerers stalking the land?) and so on, you can come up with an imaginary village which fits well into the game world.

Let say that your game takes place in a pseudo-Roman Empire, where culture and events run parallel along the greatRoman Empireof our world. Being prepared would mean reading up on Roman history, understanding their culture, finding out what are common names during those era and so forth, so when you are called to aid-lib you can come up with something convincing and near authentic.

Such research can help you to deal with unexpected actions, and provides juicy materials if you shall decide to wing anything (be it a plot twist, or a NPC, or just some details) on the spur of the moment.

2. Plot Hooks shall always flows into the Main Plot

Let suppose you are one of those enlightened GMs who has given up beginning a new adventure with the equivalent of the tavern scene… Now, you are faced with the difficulty of drawing your players into your adventure. How? One of the time-honored and tested ways is through plot hooks, and they work fine, but like all things, they can be over done.

One of the most terrible things with plot hooks is that players may take the lure – plot, hook and line – in all one terrible gulp and refuses to let go. The plot hook, which you have so cunningly conceived to draw the player into the main quest, has become the main quest for the player in question. He sees the tree for the forest, and pay scant attention to the main, glorious storyline which you have labored on for so long in secrecy.

Here is how I shot myself in the foot. In order to draw two of my PCs to an area where the adventure takes place, I set one after an errant Sorcerer who has razed her home village, and give an objective for another PC to assassinate. The main plot of the adventure is a mysterious plague which is running unchecked. Unfortunately, the two PCs ignore the plague, and go about seeking their own personal objectives. Undeniably, their own personal agenda is more interesting than the plague.

This also has the side-effects of the PCs going solo, and not working together, for both of them has radically two different goals. One player is obsessed with finding the sorcerer, while the other can only think of ways to assassinate the objective. Of course, with some flexibility, the two plot-lines can be reconciled with the main one, but the main thing is this – the plot hooks work too well.

Hence, when using plot hooks, make sure that the plot hooks do not steal the thunder from the main plot, and shall not be too distinct from the main plot-line. Or be prepared to put the “main plot” on the side-line for a while. For my case, a close friend who has been infected with the plague and is asking a PC to help him is a more subtle and appropriate plot-hook.

If you like to give players side-missions to accomplish, then do make sure that the main plot-line grabs their attention as soon as the game starts.

3. Don’t Read from the Text (and don’t rely on the Text alone)

No, no, I am not advocating the memorization of the entire module text. Rather, I am encouraging you not to be bound to whatever text the adventure is based on. Here are some justifications.

First, players know when you are reading and when you are talking. When you read, it is hard to maintain eye contact with the players, and your voice may take on a “droning feeling”. Unless you are a professional newsreader, it is difficult to make read text sounds dynamic and interesting.

Second, when you are reading from the module text, it is easy to be bound by the text description. For example, say that a particular scene takes place in the day, but your players are strange fellows – and when the scene finally happens, it is now night. If you read straight from the text, you have to mentally adjust the text to the situation. What if you come across an incompatible description half-way through the text?

This happens to me. A group of soldiers were beating up on an old man, and so one of the PC cast a Darkness spell to confuse the group. When the soldiers have left, I began reading from the description however how villagers with lanterns went to help the old man, before remembering that there was a magical darkness in the area.

Third, the module text is mixed with stuff that you needs when GMing, and extras which you ought to have read and understand beforehand. Back in schools, when we learnt about doing presentations (such as to introduce a new product, or a topic of any sort), it is a bad idea to bring the entire textbook or script out to the front. One reason is because it is unwieldy. In the case of the book, the information which you need may be buried within a dense block of paragraphs. In the case of the script, you may be tempted to read from it.

The same reasons apply to GMing too. The module text may be filled with information which you don’t need at the moment. The description of the room may be intermixed with the information on how the secret door behind the painting of the skeletal Mona Lisa could be opened, which you do not need at the moment.

All right, so if we abolish the use of module text, what then? Do we expect GMs to remember everything? No, but I am suggesting that GMs shall keep a list of key-points before him. So instead of a whole description of a room, the GM list down the most eye-catching and important features in point-form, with short snippets of descriptive text, and link them together on the spur of the moment. This helps the GM to, at a glance, decide which details to keep and which to omit. A summary can be scanned and processed by the mind faster than a page full of text and irrelevant information.

Of course, this calls for more work, on the GM’s part. But it helps to keep the presentation smooth, and free you from the tyranny of the module text.

4. Be fluent with the use of any extra accessories

With the advent of technology, laptops and PDAs have found their niche among the world of table top role-playing. Accessories need not to be high-tech too. A CD player hooked up to a set of speakers can provide atmospheric music which is excellent in setting the mood of the game.

Whatever extra “accessory” you employ in your game, it is important to remember that the game is about the game, not the cool gadget. You shall not draw too much attention to the gadget. Oh, I do not mean that you cannot say, “Oh, behold the cool stuff which I have set up for our gaming pleasure!” I am meaning that whatever cool gadget you are using, it must not distract the players. There are two likely situations when this could happen.

The first is when the gadget is not working at all. If you panic and flutter, making a scene out of it, it may upset the players and make them nervous, especially if you have no back-up plans. Losing your cool is not good for your composure too, especially since GMing can kill quite a lot of your brain cells in just one day. Or even worse, some aspects of the game may depend on the gadget. For example, if you decide to eschew the sheer joy of rolling dice physically and opt for an electronic number generator instead, your game will be severely crippled if the generator doesn’t work at all. In such cases, always think of a back-up plan. Are you using Microsoft PowerPoint to simulate a “Mission Impossible” style briefing? Great, but prepare some paper hand-outs too increase the power is down for the day and your laptop has not power supply left.

The second is when the gadget is working, but you are not experienced with its use. You may end up with errors, pointless delays when you try to get to the right menu or to choose the correct setting. All this could lead to long stretches of waiting which may cast doubts on the validity of the cool, expensive gadget. When this happens, you are drawing the player’s attention away from the game to the gadget which now dominates your attention and which is now the cause of many hiccups. Worse, you may even lose your temper at your cool gadget and this may cause unnecessary tension among the group. (After all, if the GM is god, and the GM is angry, how would the players fare?)

When a cool gadget works, it shall blend seamlessly into the gaming experience. Hence, when deploying a gadget, make sure you are prepared for it. Let take the example of the simple and humble CD-Player. Do you know what tracks you wish to play? Can you locate the PAUSE or FORWARD button in a pitch? Have you found the optimal volume for the music?

Of course, when trying out something new with your gaming group, it is good idea to hold a few trials first, to see if it really meshes with your gaming style. Some players I knew took an affront to the dice-rolling program on my PDA – they rather see me rolling the dice than to tap the screen with my stylus.

5. Spend as little time on dice as possible

Pareto’s Law basically states that in a process, 80% of the delay is due to 20% of the factors. When it comes to gaming, one of the main causes of delay could be the dice.

Dice are our one of the most time-honored tools of our trade. With it we decide life and death, destiny and fate, black and white. This handy little device, however, could be capacious at times, but can be tamed with little efforts.

What are the problems with the dice? Well, they can slip off the table and roll wildly about. It takes some time to generate a random number with the dice. How can we smoothen the process of using dice?

One thing which I do is to set a cardboard box, or a bowl, in the centre of the table and insists the players to roll their dice into the container. This way, we eliminate the problem of dice falling off the table. Another way, albeit more drastic, is to switch to a gaming system which uses only one type of dice (a d10, in our case). Having to pick out a d8 takes some time when it is mixed around with a whole mess of d12 and d10, unless you have been role-playing for years.

Depending on your game, you can also combine some dice rolls. For example, in D20, you can roll your combat roll and damage dice together, instead of rolling to see if you hit your opponent, and then rolling the damage dice to determine the amount of damage done. It helps if you have dice of different-color, so you can specify which dice is for the to-hit, and which is for the damage.

Another idea is to eliminate dice with pre-rolled dice charts. With those charts, you can grab a random number out from the thin air anytime and any when. Of course, some players may take affront to this as well, so be sure to consult your players. What I would suggest is to pre-roll random numbers for situations which call for numerous dice rolls. For example, in D20, say you are pitting five NPC’s against the players, so you would have to make 5 Initiative Rolls. You can streamline the process by pre-rolling the five Initiative Rolls first.

If an aspect of the rules calls for a roll of many dice (consider the “Overpowered Death Spell 101″ which does 100d4 points of damage), change the rules to streamline the dice-rolling. Instead of rolling one hundred D4, change it to a roll of 1d10 x 1d10 x d4. Now, a rules lawyer may point out the probability chart for 100d4 and d10 x d10 x d4 is different -yes, that’s true, but the time needed to roll 100d4 is also vastly different from the alternative.

6. Be sure to provide enough information to keep the game going

Open-ended gaming has many merits – it has the potential of crafting creative, unexpected storylines and providing a most satisfying gaming experience, as opposed to a “railroad” game. However, it can also be a recipe for boredom of an epic proportion.

In an open-ended game, the PCs have more freedom than in a game where the plot is fixed and railroaded. Hence, you must be prepared to give the PCs enough information to give a sense of purpose, regardless of their actions. Without a sense of purpose, the PCs may wander about in circles, being bored to tears.

Have you ever play a computer role-playing game when suddenly the plot abruptly cuts off, leaving you scratching your head in bewilderment? You have no direction where to go next or what to do, and so you started visiting all the towns in the game, hoping to trigger off the next scripted sequence which will propel the plot forward. This could happen in a pen and paper game too.

As the PCs have freedom as to where they want to go, and to whom they wish to speak to, they may at times miss out on some terribly important events which you have masterfully scripted, or bypass a clue which you have so brilliantly planted. They may ignore crucial NPC’s helpful to their cause or choose a fork in the road which brings them somewhere less interesting. That’s the price of freedom and that where your flexibility have to make up for. Ensure wherever the PCs go, the PCs have enough information to carry on the game, lest they end up just wandering about, just waiting for something to happen.

One such example could be a typical dungeon crawl. Say within theTempleofCertain Doomthere is a locked door which behind it lays a vital artifact to the quest. You have devised a fiendish puzzle to ward the door, and the PCs, for all their worth and mettle, could not solve it.

Now imagine, what if, due to the amount of freedom in the game, they have missed an all-important clue which states that the artifact could be found behind the door. Your PCs may spend a few minutes on the door, then give up, and proceed to spend the rest of the day combing the dungeon for the artifact.

(Some GMs, at this point, may snicker at the worthless party of hapless adventurers, thinking that they are getting what they deserved. True, the party may not be the brightest sparks around and if you feel its fun to gloat at them, go ahead. However, the players will not find this fun, or funny.)

If the PCs know, or realize, that the artifact lies behind the door, then they may seek ways to open the door. But what if, due to the freedom you have given to them, they have overlooked an important clue in solving the puzzle? They may wander all over the place, trying to look for something which can help them, but not being sure what it is actually.

There are two ways the above problems could be solved. One relies on the GM’s ingenuity, the other on the GM’s planning. If the players have freedom, likewise so do the GM. To preserve the flow of the game, you may have to change details on the moment. So the players can’t solve the Fiendish Locked Door Puzzle? Hell, open a new route which test some other skills beside their defective intelligent. Or perhaps drop in a clue the next time they search another spot. Being flexible is a prerequisite for open-ended games.

The other depends on the GM’s planning skill – make sure there are plenty of clues scattered about, and indications as to where help could be found. For the case of the Fiendishly Locked Door Puzzle, you could maybe leave a plaque which says “This Puzzle is Courtesy of the Great Wizard Merlin”. Hence, the players, knowing that Merlin the Wizard is the one who crafted the Locked Door Puzzle, can then start looking for more information regarding Merlin, hoping that they may unearth something which helps.

There is a vast difference between wandering clueless about and following a lead. The latter gives a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, while the former is likely to inspire agitation and frustration.

The examples may be contrived, but they apply in lot of other cases. Throughout the game, always evaluate the amount of information which you have given to the players. Are those enough to give the PCs an idea of what to do next? If not, step in and drop a lead so the plot may continue.

7. Avoid extended, gratuitous sequences of character introduction

It is evident that you have expended time and effort in your NPC development. Each of them features a portrait, a bio several pages long and a detailed write-up about their personality, their family tree and how many times they bath each day. However detailed your NPC may be, do not have too many scenes which purpose is just to introduce NPC’s.

There are some characters that could just go by generic labels, such as “The old innkeeper”, “the young barmaid” and “the scruffy captain of the guards”. Yes, we shall prepare details for those NPC’s, but it doesn’t mean that we shall dump that information on the hapless players all at once, especially if they are not interested in those minor characters. No matter how excited you are about this “cool NPC” which you have labor on, it is the players in the end who chose who they will interact with. and how much they want to know about the NPC.

Try to spread out important NPC’s across the game, if possible. Having too many of them appearing at the same time confuses the players – they have to remember names, who they are, what happened when they were around and what they want. If possible, include them, but do not spend too much time on introducing them.

It so happened once that I spent an hour to introduce about five NPC’s in succession and at the game of the session, a player remarks that it was like watching an episode of a Soap Opera series. Perhaps he had “Days of our Dungeons” in mind.

8. Don’t say “No” too quickly

How easy it is to tell the players, “No, you can’t do that” or “This course of action is unacceptable. Try something else.” Definitely, there are times when players wish to try out some hare-brained schemes, but most of the time, saying “No” too quickly can kill the potential of neat role-playing moments.

There are two cases when GMs would say “No” to a PC. One is when the PC is trying to achieve something impossible. For example, a PC may be trying to lift a lever which is, to the GM’s knowledge, stuck and impervious to all force. The GM could just dismiss the PC’s attempt by saying, “No, the lever is stuck”. But wouldn’t it be better if the GM takes the opportunity to introduce more role-playing moments? Instead of saying “No” straight away, the GM could ask the PC to attempt a dice roll. That may even encourages the PCs to work together, devising a method to pull the lever and at the same time giving the idea that the PCs have the ability to influence events and objects around them. You can, of course, state how difficult the action could be. “The Orc Warlock is too far away for your longbow, but you can still try if you wish to” sounds much better than a “No, you are out of range”.

Even if you are not going to let the PC succeeds at the task, you can take the opportunity to add details to the environment. For example, instead of a flat “The lever is stuck”, you could have the PC to roll the dice, and on a success, have the PC to rip off the lever, revealing the pivot which has been long rusted and rotted away. This is vastly superior to a direct rejection.

Of course, if the PCs put in much sweat and effort in trying to achieve the impossible, you may want to consider rewarding the PCs for their persistence and creativity. You must also be prepared for unexpected moments. When if the PC rolls a critical success while shooting at the Warlock who is supposed to be out of range? What if someone comes up with an ingenious solution which you never thought off?

The second case when a GM will say “No” is to preserve the plot which he has in mind. For example, it may be the GM’s intention for the PCs to be ensnared by a net, and hence are captured, so that the next scripted sequence could begin. But PCs, being the ingenious lots which they are, may come up with various creative ways to escape from the net. So the GM rejects any attempts to escape, railroading the PCs.

While that is a valid course of action, it could be more fun to play along with the players, and subdue them in ways which they truly defeated, not just merely led along by a scripted sequence.

A personal example is during a game, a Sorcerer pretended to be a harmless old man. Along the way, he suffered a fall, and a kind NPC offered to help him back. One of the PCs, who is a healer, attempted to follow the Old Man back. But fearful that the PC may discover the Old Man for whom he really is (it is still too early for the Dramatic Confrontation,), I refused blatantly.

Now looking back, it might be better if I let the PC followed the Old Man back, and developed an interesting encounter which leaves the PC guessing and wondering, instead of just rejecting his action outright.

Usually, GMs who say “No” in such cases have a highly-structured plot and planned script in mind. There’s nothing wrong with that, but for those who prefer running a more open-ended, spontaneous game, consider twice before you say “No”. Instead, think, how could you turn the PC’s sudden and unexpected action to your advantage?

9. Always have a Map for the Players

In the days of yore, players are expected to bring their own graph paper and draw their own maps. Not that it is a bad practice – it’s always good to keep track of where you are when you are exploring uninhabited tombs or dragon caves. However, maps do exists for a reasonable number of locations, and it may not be a good to demand players to map those locations too.

Take for example, a teeming, thriving port-city. Maps for such places are likely to exist, and so naturally the PCs would want to get their hand on one. Or perhaps the PCs find themselves in a remote village, and asks a local villager to sketch a primitive, but effective, map of the surroundings.

Since PCs are always asking for maps, isn’t it much better to prepare it for them before they ask for it? Maps which are reasonable to give to PCs include maps of settlements, of the region and the country. They don’t have to be vastly detailed – just to give the PCs a rough idea of where things are in relative to each other.

Maps are also usefully to give PCs a sense of direction. Imagine, at the beginning of a city-based adventure, the PCs have no clue what to go next. With a single glance at the map, the PCs can find out what are the prominent locations in town and whether those places would hold clues for the PCs or not.

10. Use the “Show, don’t tell” rule judiciously

Of the top ten tips for beginning writers, one of the most often stated is “Show, don’t tell”. It is an excellent guideline to live by, and helps to promote the atmosphere of the game, but there’s a minor problem.

In the game, the GM transmits information by speech, and at times it is hard for players to remember so many details. For a written material where the reader can back-track to re-read sentences, “show and don’t tell” is a good rule to abide by. However, role-playing games use the medium of speech to communicate, and hence keep it as simple as possible.

Don’t use “Show, don’t tell” on everything – use it for important, significant NPC’s or events. Beware of information overload! At times, sparse descriptions could invoke a vivid atmosphere as well.

Also, when using “Show, don’t tell”, consider breaking the descriptions into various segments, so that players can digest them easier and faster. Each description shall allow the players to draw one set of conclusions about the NPC, or the area.

A relative of tip #10 is this — Consider “Show and Tell” from times to times. Let say you have the players have a run in with a raiding party of “short humanoids with pale, green diseased skin, their fang-like teeth gleaming in the torchlight, with curved scimitars and barbed clubs in their hands”. Would the PCs know what those are?

It is unlikely that the players are not able to recognized goblins, but for good measure (and since goblins are so easily recognizable) you might as well tell the PCs what they are. Just keep in mind that for all your detailed descriptions, the PCs may just be unable to catch just what on heck you are describing, so be prepared to tell them as well.

Tags: Flashback Fridays

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My Digital Campaign Toolbox

27. Nov, 2011 • Categories: Tools & GM Aides

Campaign Toolbox GnomeStew author DNAphil recently posted about what digital tools he uses to run his campaign. At the end he asked GMs what tools they use, and I thought I’d respond here in the newsletter.

Four Tool Types

You can divide tools into four categories based on how they’re used by GMs:

Group management and organization
Planning, design and preparation
Aids during sessions
Backup and security

I tend to use a lot of software. I do not think the average GM will use this amount or variety, but I like to experiment and I am ok with installing something that has just one specific use for me.

You might prefer to limit your software choices, which is great. I just want to make sure you do not interpret my list as a tip to use lots of software.

Instead, my tip would be to find what works for you and stick with it unless something more useful comes along.

Two New Trends In GM Digital Tools

You might recall I’ve written about GM software before. In the years since, though, digital GMing options have changed due to two great trends.

The first trend is shocking in how fast it’s emerged. Mobile devices like the iPad and Android have entered the GMing arena, and with them vast apps marketplaces.

Apps allow fast development and single-task solutions. Before, software tended to cover more functionality, 90% of which you might never use. Now, you can get specific with your GM needs and find great apps for them.

This means GM solutions are faster to develop and easier to improve over time. Great news for us!

The second trend covers improved online services. Web 2.0 stuff. Quite often these tools are free, and because they are online, can be collaborative.

That means everybody in your group can get involved, get value from, or interact with each other outside game night.

Category #1: Group Management And Organization

Session logistics

We use Yahoo Groups to coordinate sessions. The group mail feature lets us pick game days through email. Conversations also get threaded at the group site for easy future GM reference.

Groups also offers file storage, database and calendar.

Yahoo Groups >>

I use Google Groups for various non-GMing projects. It offers similar functionality to Yahoo Groups, and you might find this service preferable.

Google Groups >>

Session scheduling conflicts

When it seems like a maze picking the best date to play because everybody’s schedule is crazy, I go to Doodle to help me make a fast decision.

You create a new poll per conflicted session, enter potential dates, and ask everybody to vote for their preferred dates or available dates.

Doodle then tallies votes on each date and shows the winner. Plus, you can see who voted for when. This function is sometimes important if a session requires one or more players to be present for plot reasons.

Doodle >>

Campaign Wiki

We use PBWorks to coordinate long-term information for each campaign, such as character sheets, campaign FYIs, player contact info, player session logs, and so on.

Each session we take turns supplying dinner. So that schedule, plus a list of player allergies and preferences, goes onto the wiki too.

PBWorks >>

I tried using a GM wiki, but I prefer a different tool, MyInfo, which I describe in the next section.

You might also get great value out of RPG wiki-like services, such as Obsidian Portal or Epic Words.

Another option is Google Sites, which has an easy website builder and toolset.

Category #2: Planning And Preparation

Player feedback

I ask for session feedback, treasure wishlists, campaign moment requests, and similar player input. This gets handled in person or by email.

For email, I use GMail to keep this information organized. Using the label feature, you can tag emails however you want.

My labels are:

Ideas
Reference
To Do
Waiting

Ideas are player requests and other inspirational messages.

Reference contains rules discussions, good links and information I might want to refer back to.

To Do is my bucket of action items that crop up in email discussion.

Waiting is stuff I await a reply on from a player. I comb through this bucket before sessions and prod players who need to get back to me on something.

You can assign an email multiple labels. So, something might be Reference, To Do and Ideas at the same time.

Gmail >>

Information Management

I use MyInfo to manage all the details of my campaigns, adventures, NPCs, encounters and game worlds. It’s commercial PC software.

I created a web page that goes into detail about why MyInfo has been my GM tool of choice for several years running. The page includes several screenshots of my Riddleport campaign file and setup too.

From the page, in addition to features info, you can also download a free trial:

MyInfo for RPG >>

If you are looking for free digital tools for campaign info management, you can’t go wrong with wikis or Google Sites.

Tablesmith For Generators

A cool shareware program (just $10) that is your personal random generator.

It comes with lots of generators, and you can get a bunch more from the Yahoo fan group, including tables from my book, NPC Essentials.

You can create your own generators fast with the program’s editor.

Advanced features let you combo tables or create Mad Libs type generators.

Tablesmith >>

Also check out Chaotic Shiny’s generators.

NPC Generation

I’ve spoken about Hero Lab several times in the newsletter, so will not say too much here.

While I use it for Pathfinder, it supports many game systems, including D&D 4E, Mutants and Masterminds, Shadowrun, Savage Worlds and Call of Cthulhu.

You can read a recent review of Hero Lab here.

Productivity

Here’s a new one I have not told you about. It’s called Action Enforcer and it helps me get more done in the limited time I have available to do campaign planning.

I should write a full review of it sometime. In a nutshell, you decide what you want to accomplish, then you set up timers that countdown time remaining for your tasks.

This works for several reasons. A deadline forces efficiency. You are less likely wander surfing when there’s a timer reminding you to stay on track.

You also learn just how long certain areas of game prep take, so you can budget better in the future.

And most important, it gets you to plan what you’re going to do ahead of time.

“Task grazing,” which is moving from task to task with no plan and just doing things as they come to you, is often inefficient. Many times I’ve showed up at a session only to realize I should have spent more time on X instead of working on less important things like picking NPC hair colours.

Thinking a bit first, which usually takes under a minute, and setting up timers for key tasks, easily doubles my productivity.

GoodReader

This iPad app is essential to me. I use it to read my rulebooks in PDF format and to view images and maps. Easy to use during sessions, too.

GoodReader >>

Index Cards

A sweet iPad app that lets me plot things out fast, easy and visually.

It’s basically virtual index cards, but with sorting, ordering, drag-and-place, extended text field, search, projects and list view.

I use it for encounter prep, but whatever you want to use index cards for, you can do with this app.

Index Cards >>

A nod goes to Corkulous. This is like Index Cards but uses Post-It notes instead.

Daily Notes

This iPad app is my idea capture system.

Pen and notebook work just fine, but I have my iPad with me all the time, anyway. And Daily Notes offers me tabbed sections (i.e. Work, RPT, Gamer Lifestyle, Riddleport), tags, search, date sort and digital editing.

Daily Notes >>

CarbonFin Outliner

When I want a bullet list brainstorm, I use this iPad app. Create unlimited outlines, with nesting.

Tasks allow me to create quick action lists. You can tag items, add notes and export to email as text or OPML.

CarbonFin Outliner >>

Penultimate

This was the app that hooked me into buying an iPad. Draw with your finger!

Just like a whiteboard, but it’s portable, offers a square grid background option and lets you export. You can also organize your diagrams and maps into albums.

Penultimate >>

Chronology

A timer iPad app I discuss in detail here.

iThoughts HD

A killer mindmapping iPad app. I love mindmaps for brainstorming and planning.

Category #3: Game Session Tools

This category covers software I use at the game table.

Most of the software and apps have been covered above. What I use to prepare, I use to help run sessions.

However, starting this past September I’ve embarked on a quest to reduce my computer use at the table. That’s probably a discussion better held in an article not about software.

I just found myself looking at a computer screen more and more, and I didn’t like that trend.

But currently, in addition to MyInfo, GoodReader, Hero Lab and TableSmith, I also use a couple other things:

* Google Spreadsheet

I’ve got a pretty slick spreadsheet setup now, after months of in-game use and tweaks.

I use it to track initiative and various PC stats that I prefer to roll myself in secret, such as perception skill checks.

* Pathfinder SRD

What’s better than having the rules online? I can search, bookmark and keep several rules open in multiple tabs in my browser.

Pathfinder SRD >>

MapTool

I also plan on seeing what MapTool can offer for easier mapping and exploration.

Several RPT readers have mentioned this free software, and it’s on my list to learn more about.

MapTool >>

Category #4: Backup And Security

I saved the most boring stuff for last. Hooray! I feel, though, that if you use technology for gaming, you need to protect it.

To protect my data, I use DropBox, which is like a virtual hard drive. The service gives you 2 GB of cloud storage for free.

There is a desktop application, an online version you can use through a browser, and a standalone app.

Plus, most of the apps I mention in this article have DropBox integration.

You can also share specific folders you create in DropBox with your players. This makes file transfer super easy. When you update a file in a DropBox folder, that update simultaneously propagates through all your devices and shared folders. Everybody is always on the same page, so to speak.

You could use DropBox to easily distribute player guides, handouts and surveys. Players could use it to share their character sheets.

DropBox >>

SyncBack

Some data I’m not willing to trust to the cloud just yet. Character sheets? No problem. My tax filings? No.

So I use computer backup software called SyncBack, which is freeware. The best feature is the scheduler, which means backup is automated and hands-free.

SynchBack >>

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

I first used this commercial software to remove a trojan on my computer in 2008.

Trojan and virus removal is free as a one-time service. I purchased the full version for 24/7 protection after it proved to me it works.

And it has caught malware several times for me over the years, before it could infect my machine.

I do not buy computers for my family anymore without also buying a license of Malwarebytes for them.

Malwarebytes >>

Avast Anti-Virus

In the fall of 2008 my computer became infected. I had anti-virus protection, but it failed.

After Malwarebytes cleaned things up, I did some research. Some companies invest a lot of time in reviewing and researching anti-virus software. The common conclusion?

No single piece of software catches everything. There are a few logical reasons for this, such as hackers sometimes targeting one piece of anti-virus software or software virus definition updates come a little bit too late to you.

So, the advice was to install multiple AV applications to create an effective net for protection.

This still does not give you 100% protection, but reduces chances even more. Assuming your RAM and CPU are sufficient to manage multiple AV services running on your machine at the same time, then I recommend adding Avast.

Avast is free and always well-rated.

Avast >>

Microsoft Security Essentials

This free service came to my attention through the Windows Secrets newsletter.

Windows Secrets >>

I had previously not trusted MS anti-virus schemes. But Windows Secrets raved about this new service for Windows owners. They put it to the test and it beat other applications, including Avast, in finding and protecting from threats.

So what the heck. Three is a good number, right? So I also run Microsoft Security Essentials with Avast and Malwarebytes.

Microsoft Security Essentials >>

Conclusion & Caveat

So, that’s a lot of software. And please understand that I like fiddling and trying out software. My list here is not meant to tell you that you need a bunch of software to be a great GM or to run great games. Far from it.

It’s just personal preference. Though, as I mentioned, I’m weaning myself off computer use at the table a bit.

The biggest tip I can offer you, from years of personal experience, is to step away from technology and first think about how you want to organize yourself and operate as a game master.

Make technology work according to your systems and preferences, not the other way around.

Get your systems in place, then determine what aids you need, such as software, hardware, binders, index cards, Post-Its, and whatever else works for you.

Too often we spot software we think is cool and we suddenly change our methods. Most often, it’s temporary, as you discover the inevitable limitations any one piece of software imposes.

Instead, plan your GMing system first, according to your strengths, weaknesses and preferences. Then find software that meets your needs.

You will avoid many false starts, time wasted on data migration, and time wasted learning how to use software that you discard in a few months or less.

For me, MyInfo, Hero Lab and Google Spreadsheet are my core because they work with my GMing methods, not the other way around.

Tags: RPT#534

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Gate 22 Review: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

23. Nov, 2011 • Categories: Reviews

By Silveressa

Today I have the pleasure of reviewing Gate 22, an adventure supplement for the Corporation RPG by Brutal Games.

(Also note I am deliberately leaving out specific details of the adventure to not spoil the fun in case any of your players happen to stumble across this review.)

Overview

Gate 22 is an adventure supplement that takes the characters across the world, providing an excellent mixture of intrigue, action and plot twists that set the stage for part 2.

The book also has an equipment and NPC section that provides new cybernetics, vehicles and personalities for use not only in this adventure, but your regular campaigns as well.

Gate 22: The Good

Gate 22 differs from the usual adventure supplement by giving itself a straightforward presentation of each section of the adventure. By excluding any read aloud sections or special instructions, GMs can readily pick up the scenario and run it with little preparation.

The different locations are detailed in a straightforward fashion that allows GMs to describe the scene without burdening them with superfluous details. For example, theArmanOldCityhas the following for its description:

ARMAN OLD CITY

(More details of Arman Old City can be found in The Eastern Bank)

Air: Polluted, greasy, sooty, slight smell of fried food.

Sounds: Very few cars, domestic power generators, bars, music, shouting, gunshots.

People: Mainly Asian and Caucasian, milling about, a few groups of loiterers. Lots of people in bars.

UIG: Very low presence except for the customs building.

Architecture: Thousands of rotting prefab blocks make up the city.

Language: Mostly Russian, a hint of English and Mandarin.

A similar presentation template is used with NPCs as well, giving enough detail for a GM to present them as individuals without being overwhelmed with information.

Gate 22: The Bad

The book comes across as rather text heavy, with little artwork throughout.

Area maps are bare bones and lack interior detail, with rooms only given labels such as “lab 2” or “Generator Room”. This can present a frustration for GMs who dislike giving lengthy room descriptions, and it makes the maps useless for miniatures.

The lack of artwork is also glaringly obvious in the equipment and vehicles section, with none of the weaponry or unique methods of transportation given more than a bare bones description and necessary statistics, an omission that I found disappointing.

Gate 22: The Ugly

Perhaps the ugliest piece of the entire the book is its ending. It leaves in the middle of the adventure on a cliffhanger, requiring the GM to either invent the next part of the campaign, or purchase the next book in the series. This might upset campaign continuity and frustrate those who are expecting a complete beginning-to-end adventure within the pages of Gate 22.

Conclusion

While the lack of artwork and a cliffhanger ending are sources of irritation, the adventure itself is very well thought out and flows smoothly. It leads the group from scene to scene without feeling like a railroad, and contains enough surprises and flexibility to allow a creative GM to throw in their own material and side quests quite easily.

For those looking for a riveting adventure that will leave players clamoring for more, you won’t regret your purchase of Gate 22. However, those expecting a complete adventure with detailed maps and an image gallery of equipment will be left disappointed.

Tags: Corporation RPG

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Gm Interview: Christopher Burdett

22. Nov, 2011 • Categories: GM Techniques, Players

This week we interview Chris, a free flowing GM who enjoys using a variety of game mechanics, from dice to jenga blocks, to bring his adventures to life.

Please introduce yourself

Your name:

Christopher Burdett – Not the same one that does art for WotC, however.

Do you have a blog, website or campaign wiki?

I don’t leave my campaigns out in the open at the moment, but I have considered it. If I found there was significant enough interest in my work, I wouldn’t hesitate to put one up.

How long have you been a GM?

I have been a GM since 1991, now for over 2/3 of my life. My first roleplaying experiences were in early AD&D 2nd edition games run by my older siblings and their college friends.

I approached them as the annoying kid brother and in a moment they might regret now, didn’t anticipate my tenacity and said I first had to have my Player’s Handbook, have read it cover to cover, and have a set of my own dice.

It’s a good way to know if a young newbie really wants to play, and play I did. It would only be a year before I began running my own games with peers from grade school.

What are your favourite games to run?

I spend a good amount of time running Pathfinder, Shadowrun, Mage: The Ascension, and these days a lot of indie titles.

I occasionally pit my core player group against 24 Hour RPG products that are released on 1km1kt.net; I highly recommend looking through them for freebies.

How did you first get into GMing?

When I started playing, I was not yet a teenager, and it took up at least one day a week. Friends my own age got curious about it. They asked what I was doing with my brothers on those days that had me so busy, and they begged me to run a game for them.

It was only a few weeks before a group of misfits came together: the poor kid, the class clown, the morbid art girl, the curious wealthy kid, and the quiet nerd.

I was the poor kid, so it was quite the rush to have them all focusing on me. It would be a few years before I DM’d anything other than AD&D, but it was like my world exploded in all directions as an older friend handed me Mage: The Ascension and said, “I don’t know anyone who could run this, but you might be interested in reading it.”

I devoured the book, which is daunting in retrospect, and contacted him the next day to say I’d give running it a shot. I’ve DM’d thousands of sessions in dozens of games since then.

How has GMing affected your life over the years?

GMing gave me a creative outlet that both school and other hobbies could not—it allowed me to hone my skills as an oral storyteller.

Oral storytelling was the primary way our species passed on its history for thousands of years, happens around the campfire when you tell a ghost story, in a class presentation when you give a speech, and in the business board room when all eyes are on you, expecting an answer.

It made me quick at responding, adlibbing reasons for events occurring, and gave a significant boost to my ability to see the world through another person’s shoes.

Although I doubt science will give GMing much of a look, in my experience it also has a heavy effect over a person’s empathy. It does bring out moments where it’s too natural to be an egotistical monster that uses GM power against players, but at other times, gives us opportunities to help other people develop their precious creative ideas.

I find great joy in every time I can inspire a narrow-minded Drizzt Do’Urden wannabe to make an original concept character. As a GM, you get to help people make that transition from playing stereotypes to playing new masks of themselves.

Your GMing Stat Block

What is your usual gaming schedule?

1-3 game sessions a week. Usually there is at least one out-of-town GM who comes in for a once a month game, while I run an evening game each week, and another GM takes up a rotation on every second Friday.

There are weeks where we play Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Because of this rotation those weeks are tiring but awesome.

Sessions are everywhere from 4 hours to 12 hours, depending on the frequency of the game. Games that happen less often tend to be a lot longer, while frequent games are more like vignettes.

As a teenager, I GMed every available day off and for whole weeks of free time during summers. But with the pressures of work, school and life needs, it becomes a lot harder to get together.

It has to be a priority to make it work, or groups drift apart. But it’s natural when they do—life must go on, and it’s important you respect your players and their needs to get out in the world and experience it.

Where do you play?

We have played in apartments, in houses, on university campuses and in available low-traffic public places. It depends on what you can get your hands on, how old you are and what the rules are.

Most of our games are either in my apartment or on campus in unused public spaces these days. But when I was younger, we spent a lot of time in peoples’ basements or anywhere with enough sitting space to keep us comfortable.

Do you use published material or create your own?

Both. From my writing desk, I can see a fringe of the collection I’ve bought; all of D&D 3.5, Iron Kingdoms, Spycraft, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, the new World of Darkness (the base game in blue covers is far better than the expansions), Exalted, and so on.

But hidden around the space are copies of indie games like Dread, which uses a Jenga tower as its mechanic. It sounds weird at first, but it is incredible at building apprehension during a horror game. Very little system, a whole lot of play, and very simple solutions to complicated problems.

Over time, I began to discover that most of the things I want to do in a game, I can come up with on my own. The biggest hurdle was knowing how to construct systems, and spending a little time reading high-theory blogs like lumpley.com and wandering the Forge over at indie-rpgs.com made me realize that system is there to settle conflicts rather than create them.

Every since then, it’s a matter of finding an agreement with my players on how conflict is settled—anything from a coin-flip or Jenga pull to a traditional die roll—and then telling each other a story.

System is important when someone starts out. It gives them the rules they need to feel comfortable in the game world they are imagining, but as players become more experienced, there are times where the system just holds you down.

My personal game system, which I’ll find time to release for free online at some point, is based entirely on flat comparisons of stats, so that a hectic combat can happen in hectic near-real time to keep people from sitting around twiddling their thumbs while the wizard tries to decide which spell is best that round.

My advice for that? Don’t give them time to worry. The world doesn’t. And don’t punish them with terrible outcomes if they don’t do what you expect they’ll do. The game has to stay organic and roll with the action.

What non-digital and electronic GM aides do you use (other than books)?

These days I make extensive use of Google Docs. I keep my entire campaign in living, growing documents, where every note I add will be kept for all of time. It lets me create a third-party space for my players to go in and out of, leave me messages between games, explore character development, and track expenditures and leveling where necessary.

In addition, since Google’s data centers will probably be around until the end of time, it keeps a campaign from going missing into the piles of textbooks and notebooks that fill my adult life, so I can pick up a campaign after a hiatus, or use the materials in a later game.

If I could still find all of the materials I had written in the past, I could be a published game designer ten times over by now. But life gets crazy, you need to keep track of that stuff, and if you don’t, it’s like losing a piece of your life.

Minis or no? What do you use for minis, and how do you use them?

Minis are sometimes food. Namely in complicated, large-scale conflicts where players have a good bit of mobility or ranged combat to worry about. It speeds those moments up incredibly, but miniatures can become a crutch for the GM and players if they’re not careful.

After a while, players begin to associate their characters with the miniatures and have difficulty playing them without a mat on the table. This limits the kind of spaces you can play in, and keeps you from being able to enjoy spontaneous games, because everyone (or just the GM) have to remember to bring everything with them every time.

In most of my games, I like to let my players get crazy with the scenery and utilize their creativity to solve problems, rather than relying on squares moved and blast templates. If they had something concrete to work with, I would never get to see their first reaction be to collapse the ceiling on the dragon rather than fight it, because with the room all drawn out and the miniatures all in place, they wouldn’t be thinking in 3 dimensions.

When we are having fun, we tend to be pretty lazy if all of the rules are right in front of us. It makes it too easy not to think hard about a problem.

Minis really are a to-each-their-own kind of thing. Some GMs are way more comfortable describing a scene laid out in front of them. There isn’t anything wrong with that, but I prefer my games to take up all of the space of a dice bag and laptop in my courier bag, rather than a full backpack, a mat tube, and a bag or box full of carefully packed miniatures that I have to keep buying so I can change up my stories.

Our games are limited to our imaginations only, especially when you homebrew your settings, and it adds a lot of legwork when you need miniatures for everything.

Section Two: Opportunities

What is your biggest GMing stumbling block right now? What could you do to fix that?

As a GM, I have a terrible problem with flagging enthusiasm. I can keep some games going for 1-2 years, but others only last 4-6 sessions. It’s like the difference between a story, a vignette, a novella, a novel and a novel series.

When I start a game, I have to sit down and work out how many original ideas I have and figure out if it will be a novella or a novel, and stick to my guns on that.

It’s too easy for everyone to have a lot of fun in a short story and have them beg for it to be a campaign, then give in, even though I have no idea where I would want to take it, and no enthusiasm toward the idea myself.

Creativity makes us a little crazy when it has us in its claws, so we have to know our limits. Too many players or too many plotlines can destroy the memory of a good campaign.

When was the last time you were a player? What insight about GMing did you pick up?

I still play at least as much as I GM, and with very good reason: so I can remember what it is like to be a player. It keeps me in their mindspace and listening to what they want, so I can help make the game match what everyone wants rather than just what I want.

It is like learning—just because you are the teacher all of a sudden, doesn’t mean you aren’t still a student of the game. I have learned so many wonderful things from other GMs that have run games for me from among my friends and at conventions.

The biggest insight I gained from it was the need to encourage mastery of the games for the players. When someone joins our group and plays for a while, I encourage them to try running something in the empty scheduling gaps.

At first it was hard, because you get used to the attention and rules calls being yours. But if you fight it, you discover which of your players are good at GMing, and often these people will be your biggest allies when you GM a game.

They understand what it is like to be in your shoes, to juggle life, papers, family problems, etc. with running games. Players are more forgiving when they know how much work it is to run a quality game.

Describe your perfect gaming session with you as GM.

The perfect gaming session for me happens on a day off, which for most gamers seems to be a Saturday or Sunday. It starts around 2-3pm in the afternoon with everyone (3-8 players) coming together in a large space free of outside distractions, bringing snacks and enthusiasm with them.

Then the chatting begins—every group has to get its tangents out because often we game with our friends, and when we don’t, often who we game with become our friends. Friends need to chat, compare life notes, et cetera, or else they will distract the heck out of your game with every sudden realization of “Oh, I forgot to tell you guys about….”

When that happens, it means you need to spend more time just hanging out beforehand or on other days.

After the chattering we start play. Everyone comes together in a reasonably close circle with good personal space. This could be chairs scattered around a tiny apartment, or chairs around a boardroom table, but everyone should have a pretty equal distance between them. It makes it easier to hold peoples’ attention while you talk with them, and gives everyone a good line of sight while you describe concepts.

I begin the recap of the last game, or by going over the world concept of a new session, describing recent events, timestamping important moments of recent history, pointing out important community figures, looming enemy forces, etc.

Then I ask, “So, what are you each doing at this very moment?” and encourage them to explain some mundane details of their characters’ lives. One is eating at their favorite restaurant, another is visiting a brothel, another is crafting something at home or minding a shop, another is bored and sitting in a public place panhandling.

These tiny details tie them to the characters’ day to day lives. And that is where the conflict begins. All games are about some kind of conflict between two forces, with the players involved directly or caught within the conflict.

At that moment I drag them into it, either all at once, or one at a time, highlighting each character for a few minutes to get a feel for them.

Once the game is in full steam and people are bantering in-character, I run the plot line I had in mind. Sometimes it comes from notes, other times from a collection of incredibly detailed images, snapshots of major scenes, that I have gathered since last session.

Some from snippets of songs I heard or bits of news I’ve read, subtly incorporating what is happening in the world right now with the events in the game, no matter the time period. It helps keep everyone attached to the reality we’re building in the game world and gets stress out.

The game lasts 5-7 hours minus a few short breaks, until minds are tired and everyone is ready to break up, find dinner, get some sleep, and so on. My ultimate goal is that everyone leaves feeling as if they just read book they took part in writing, wondering what will happen next.

I want them to wonder where all that time went, and feel more relaxed when they go back to dealing with their normal life. We game to have fun, and to get all of the crap out of our systems; in my perfect game, it always does.

Section Three: GMing Style

What are the top qualities you look for or need in a player?

A clear understanding of each person at the table’s roles, an ability to separate what makes a good story from a well-ruled game, and the flexibility to listen to what the GM says and think, “Ok, so that happens.” without fighting over every tiny rule they can remember from the book.

Describe in a few words each of your players and their playing style.

The ecologically serious male ranger trapped in a woman’s body who makes decisive and unalterable calls, willing to burn the world to save it.

The modern artistocrat who plays the bad man social deviant with the strong moral code and thinks homicide is justified to save a kitten. 100% pure antihero but always out to save the world.

The mad scientist with the IT day job, who spends his nights dreaming of Victorian life. He deconstructs the scenes he takes part in from behind an old man’s eyes, while looking for loopholes the party can use to game the GM.

The three-term three-service soldier/sailor/airman who walks hard, leaving no doubt he’s in charge, but plays the socially shy misfit teenage kids that always have something goofball to say.

The self-tortured starving artist with a mind full of incoherent images that bring an unconventional approach to anything she touches. The lady gunslinger and ambush assassin who always goes first if the system allows.

The zen psychologist with his eyes on the ivory ring, who vacations inside the emotions of his sneaky rogues while pulling wool over the eyes of others; as misunderstood by other players as by NPCs.

The quiet overachiever who doesn’t speak up much but pre-empts the game session with a 10 page character history that forces a GM to do their homework on the setting. Plays in advance, already aware of a hundred options for every situation.

The shut-in creative genius who lives a life of video games and vivid dreams, but shows up at the game on time, in character, and always ready to be the sly snake or the brave barbarian—living out through games the childhood fantasies we all wish we could hold onto.

Describe in a few words your group’s playing style.

Inverted, deconstructive, unexpected, lateral and hair-pullingly challenging. Every solution is reasonable, intelligent and frighteningly articulate, and keeps the GM jumping from one foot to the other to stay ahead of the blast wave.

Describe in a few words your GMing style.

I am an ad-hoc GM. My style is to construct the world in my head, describe it, motivate it, give voice to the NPCs (often with accents) and completely ham it up. I’m an actor speaking tongues in four voices at once before a small audience, begging them to act back at me.

What is your best GMing skill or ability? What advice would you give to a GM wanting to improve in that area?

My best GMing skill is in lying to my players about how prepared I am. Some of the best games anyone can remember came from a session in which I entered, confident, looking like I had the whole thing planned. In reality, I was well-rested, underplanned and in a playful mood.

But your players are your most creative force for building the story. You’re there to guide them. So sometimes, they will try to describe a scene back at you in a way that is far superior to what you had in mind, changing who the killer is, what the enemy wants, and so on, to the benefit of the story.

If you are trying to learn to run a great story, try to figure out which of those player ideas will work better in your story, and when they bring them up, wink at them as if to suggest they are right. Or coyly smile but not say anything, making a note to change something in the base plot to match.

It makes them feel like they genuinely figured out a mystery of the plot themselves and greatly increases their enjoyment.

Over time, it’s become an open secret in my play group, and honestly, they wouldn’t enjoy the horror games half as much if they weren’t constantly stabbing themselves in the foot by opening their mouths with something terrifying.

What is your typical session planning process?

I am planning every minute between sessions by keeping what happened in mind, and taking in the world. There is inspiration everywhere: music, advertisements, movies, conversations, research studies, household objects, strange videos on the Internet and whatever else I trip across.

I once ran an entire Iron Kingdom’s arc from one line in a Marilyn Manson song I heard by accident.

Other games are an image that fills a daydream when I’m trying to distract myself from another mundane task, and I just reverse engineer the plot to get the characters there, and figure out where it will go after.

It doesn’t work for every GM, but after enough years, you get a feel for what a group can and cannot handle in an encounter, so I can adlib a decent amount of it, but I like to keep in mind their capabilities.

To a young GM, it is important to know what the players can do, but not to count on what the characters can do. Never plan a scene where one specific spell off a single spell list will solve it, or create a fight only one character who secretly has special weapon can defeat in a blink if only they knew to use it.

Why? Because they might not think of the same solution, they may not even pull out that special weapon, and heck, that one person may not even show up for that one session.

What are your favourite online resources for GMing?

GoogleDocs, which I mentioned earlier.

Blogs and websites—these are sporadic, but there is gold in their RSS feed histories. I use Google Reader to look back at them. Many I have printed into PDF ebooks for myself because they are so fascinating.

http://www.20by20room.com/

http://www.1km1kt.net/

http://www.lumpley.com/

http://www.fairgame-rpgs.com/ (see the links for ritual, rpg theory, and freeform over on the right side)

http://games.spaceanddeath.com/sin_aesthetics/

Specific Articles:

A Universal Gaming Theory (I don’t agree with all of it, but good food for thought.)

The Basics of RPG Design

A background in Principled Freeform (think of it as the extreme version of a rules-light system, or improv theater)

What tools or aides do you wish would be created or invented to help you GM easier?

I often wish someone would come up with a product like Github or Sourceforge, but for developed games, so that people could host a gamewiki or similar from it, get feedback and “bug issues” from players, then incorporate it into new versions of the game for either free distribution or updates to production runs of published games.

It would mean that game worlds could easily cross-reference with each other and create interactive cross-dimensional gameplay, not unlike playing Stargate, but with a thousand systems.

After working through these question and getting a 10,000 foot view of your GMing, what is the number #1 thing you’d like to learn about and work on next to become a better GM?

I would like to spend some time working on ways to take my materials and structure them to give away.

Since I do a lot of ad-hoc game design, rules restructuring, and world building, it gets jumbled up despite a pretty decent system for sorting all of it.

I however have trouble sometimes pulling a project together and creating a product (free or otherwise) from it.

GMing for so many years means I get a lot of my thrill from watching a game in play, less from watching someone’s joy at holding a copy of my work. I’m getting better at it all the time, but I need to spend a lot more time developing it.

Now it’s your turn

Dear reader, would you like to do a GM interview? It is fun and easy. Guaranteed, you will learn something about your own GMing when doing it, which is priceless insight to gain.Do a GM interview >>

Tags: Interview, RPT Community

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Starting and Running a Role-Playing Games Club

18. Nov, 2011 • Categories: GM Techniques, Organisation, Players

By Katrina Middelburg-Creswell

Part One: The Birth Of A Club And Some Bumps Along The Way

I’m a Middle School teacher who is a long-time gamer. So when some of my 7th grade students discovered my hobby “Hey – is that an R.A. Salvatore book on her desk? She plays D&D! No way! Cool!” it was a natural step to set up a game for those boys as an after-school activity.

I didn’t realize what I was starting the day I sat down behind my desk to GM those four 7th grade students. Today, five years later, our RPG Club has three faculty advisors, and both Middle and High School students playing. Students carrying dice bags and Player’s Handbooks have become a normal sight in the hallways. We average between 30-40 members each year, have our own website, mini-library of gaming materials, and a page in the yearbook. One parent GM gleefully put it this way: “We’re bigger than the basketball team!”

Along the way I’ve learned a few lessons about setting up not just one gaming group, but an entire club, with 4 or more different campaigns going on at once. Johnn has also helped me out with some of the club’s start-up problems with some sage advice. I’m going to try to cram all this information into a set of tips for anyone out there interested in setting up a gaming club. My tips will focus on advice for setting up a group for younger players, since our members’ age range is 12-18. But I’m sure some of these ideas can be tweaked for working with adults as well.

Before you begin: Get permission. This might sound stupid, but it helps to ensure that your group lasts longer than just one year. Make sure anyone whose facilities you might be using knows that you’re planning the group and that they support you. When I started the RPG club, I went to my principal with the Core Rulebooks and a set of dice, explained the game and got her permission to set up the club.

Club in action.

Before they begin: Get permission. Have your players sign permission slips. In some families, role-playing, especially Dungeons and Dragons, has a very bad name. (Ah, the joys of urban legends.) Having signed permission slips from each player helps protect the club – and you.

Yes, charge them! We ask for a small amount of dues for a yearly membership. It’s about $10. But if we had to rent our own space, that amount would be much higher. That money goes for club supplies (dice, books, pencils, munchies for all-day conventions, prizes when necessary). Also, it helps cut down on absenteeism…if someone’s a paid member, they’re more likely to take it seriously and keep showing up.

Location, location, location. Finding a good place to play is important. We started out in classrooms, but as the club grew, we needed more room. The RPG club now meets in the cafeteria. Everyone is in one space, we wheel the books and supplies in on a cart (saved from the AV discard pile) and snacks and drinks are close at hand from the nearby vending machines.

Everyone playing in the same location is crucial. It helps the students feel like they are part of the larger club, not just their own gaming group. Kids often eavesdrop on other campaigns when they have a few minutes. A powerful, intense battle in one group can draw spectators from around the room. And nothing raises the hairs on the back of your neck (and makes you breathe a sigh of relief) like hearing “Doooooooom!” ring out fromsomebody else’s GM.

The RPG Club's Materials Cart.

A side benefit of playing in a very public space is that the club has become well-known and accepted at school. Parents, teachers and students often pass through the cafeteria and see the group at work. Sometimes people drop in and watch for a while. That’s great advertising – and it helps keep the club’s reputation positive.

Club expectations are important! Make sure everyone involved knows what the rules of the club are. This can be simple stuff like showing up on time, or letting your GM know if you are going to miss a session. But it also involves those more nebulous rules like not hogging the spotlight or willfully messing up your GM’s plans. Our group actually uses the 5 Do’s and Don’ts from Dungeons and Dragons for Dummies (Bill Slavicsek & Richard W. Baker, 2005) as a guideline. And we have the students sign a contract before they get started. That way nobody can use the excuse “But I didn’t know I couldn’t do that!”

Players helping players. Once your group gains a little size, you can start using experienced players as question answerer, character builders, and eventually Game Masters for other groups. We use a tiered system. Only High School students with more than 1 year of experience are allowed to GM. The GMs help with training up new players and have access to their own, private, section of the website where they can ask each other questions and share tips and ideas. We would like to set up a system in which the GMs receive more rewards for the hard work they do, but we aren’t there yet.

By the way, a great way to encourage players to take a leadership role in the group is to link up with anyone at your organization who sets up community service programs. Some of our GMs are fulfilling high school community service graduation requirements by Game Mastering a group each week!

What about newbies? Our biggest problem was the massive influx of newbies at the beginning of each school year. The GMs were so frustrated with the typical newbie stunts – attacking NPC’s, trying to hoard all the loot for themselves, and rules lawyering (or not learning the rules at all, then arguing about the GM’s decisions.) Worst of all, by the time the GMs had gotten their players in line, the school year was nearly over – and a new school year brought in a whole new set of newbies, starting the process all over again.

I emailed Johnn with this problem and asked for his advice. He suggested that we start out the year with a mini-convention in which the new players were mixed in with different GMs and experienced players. This was a great suggestion, and the convention plan we developed has helped us teach good role-playing — fast. (I’ll explain more about setting up a “Learn-to-Play” convention in the second half of this article.)

Other things that have helped with newbies: handing out prizes for great role-playing, strategy and teamwork; giving them pre-made characters until they are able to create their own; putting them in groups with two or more experienced players who can model good role-playing; and having a club library where players can borrow gaming books like the Hero Builder’s Guidebook, Dungeon Master for Dummies, and other great books that help new players get a grip on good role-playing habits.

How do you set up the groups? I wrestled with this one for a long time. After all, the point of the club is to give kids a chance to hang out with their friends and role-play, right? But allowing the kids complete freedom in choosing their own groups kept leading to problems. Sometimes friends aren’t the best match as players. Also, groups kept breaking up and re-forming…which frustrated the GMs as well.

Now we (the “über-GMs”, as we have become known) choose the groups. We ask each player to fill in a survey form at the end of the Learn-to-Play convention and on the basis of these forms (plus the input of the GMs), we set up the groups. We try to put friends together but also keep a good balance of different ages, experienced players + new players, and matching players’ styles with GMs campaign styles. We allow massive switching once during the year, just after the winter holiday break. Often the holiday break comes, and no one wants to switch groups! Now our games are much more consistent and both the GMs and players are having more fun.

XP as more than just an in-game benefit. As the club grew, it became more and more difficult for me to keep close tabs on the adventures of all the groups. With adults, that’s not such a big deal…but because students need to be kept on a bit of a shorter leash, it was more important. One of our new faculty advisors set up a website for the club usinghttp://www.euromoodle.org which only club members have access to. Then, we started using bribes. No, really! Any player who posts a recap of the session’s events can earn a small amount of XP. We also award small XP bonuses for any players who post their character’s history. The result = regular reports of group activity, plus lots of fun for all club members, as they get to read about their friends’ successes and show off their own amazing moments.

Get help! Once the club really took off, it was soon clear that I couldn’t do everything myself. I was lucky enough to find two fellow teachers who are also gamers. Now the three of us share responsibilities for the group pretty equally, GMing, keeping the website up and running, keeping tabs on finances, membership lists and paperwork, and the library. We also keep our classrooms open at lunch for kids to come in, hang out, work on characters or brag about last week’s session. It’s great for me to have that kind of support for the club…and great for the students too, to see that different teachers have role-playing as a hobby.

The bottom line. What started out 5 years ago as a favor for a few students has turned into a full-fledged after-school activity for dozens of kids! Even though it takes a lot of energy and organization, it’s definitely worth it. It’s been amazing to see how much the kids enjoy the club and fun for me to watch the next generation of role-players develop. It’s also cool that there is a place at our school now for those fantasy-loving kids who don’t always fit into the traditional after-school activities like sports or drama.

My advice: if you’re in the position to set up a similar club, don’t be afraid and take the plunge. It’s great fun!

Part II: Setting Up A Learn-To-Play Convention

Here are some tips for setting up a learn-to-play convention.

Advertising. Get the word out. We use posters, ads in the school newspapers and website, as well as just telling people who we feel are interested. Make sure prospective players know they can come with no experience and still have a good time!

Fees. You may want to charge a minimal fee to cover the cost of prizes. We ask for about 5 bucks. That takes care of prizes and lunch. If you need to rent a space, you’ll have to ask more.

Displays. Give the players something to look at when they’re not playing. We laid out a table full of different gaming books, character sheets, dice, and other gaming supplies.

Encounters & PCs. These are the backbone of the day. Each GM is responsible for creating a 1-hour encounter. We set ours up so that each encounter showcased a different kind of game style or hazard: dungeon crawl, tactics, hack-and-slash, negotiation, magic use…etc. Each GM creates 6 PCs for their adventure. We advise them to use a simplified character sheet and/or to highlight important numbers (like HP, AC and Attack Bonuses.)

Figure 4 players to a GM when you calculate the amount of encounters you need. Even if you have more encounters than game sessions, that’s okay. Not every player needs to experience every encounter.

Plants. Match experienced players with GMs. We “planted” experienced players with the GMs to model good role-playing and help newbies along if they got stuck. You can also allow experienced players to rotate too…then you work without the “plants”.

Schedule. Start with an introduction explaining the day and get right down to playing. Each new player rotates to a different group every session. Between sessions, the GMs fill in their cards. Remember to schedule something for lunch! The afternoon is two more sessions, and then a few minutes break (or club explanation) while the winners are being calculated. View sample schedule (Word doc).

Materials. This might be a no-brainer, but make sure there are enough dice, pencils and scrap paper at each table.

GM Cards. The GMs fill out quick cards at the end of each encounter, grading each player on teamwork, strategy and role-playing. View example GM card (Word doc).

Prizes. We handed out dice sets for best teamwork, best role-playing and best strategy. The highest scorer in all three areas got a Player’s Handbook. The highest scorer for the returning players gets a free club membership!

Survey. It’s a good idea to have the new players fill out a survey of the day, with preferences for their ideal group and GM. We use these surveys to review the conference and set up the club’s groups for the year. View sample survey (Word doc).

Future Sessions. Make sure the players leave with all the information they need to join the club or otherwise continue gaming. We handed out permission slips and club information letters.

These mini-conventions have been a raging success. The students love them, the GMs love getting a glimpse of their players to come, and best of all, by the end of the day, most of the new players have a good idea of what RPGs are about, and what good role-playing is – and isn’t!

Tags: Flashback Fridays

8 Comments

Dungeon Master Tools – MyInfo Software

13. Nov, 2011 • Categories: Organisation, Tools & GM Aides

Dungeon Master Tool Review: How To Be On Top Of Your Game Without Breaking A Sweat

Track your entire world, your whole campaign, and every adventure with MyInfo Software

I’ve been using MyInfo as my dungeon master tool for notes and GM organization for years. I’ve tried other methods and other software, but MyInfo helps me run my games best.

A new version was recently released, and MyInfo 6 offers even more features to manage your campaign efficiently.

Created by Milenix Software, MyInfo offers much more than a place to store your notes. It’s a massive Bag of Holding that allows you to manage every detail of your game dynamically.

It lets you make connect notes in such a way that your information becomes a living, breathing Tome of Knowledge for your game this truly is almost magical.

Why I Use MyInfo For GMing

MyInfo is not cheap. The Standard Edition is $49.95 and the Pro Edition is $99.95. However, it’s a one-time expense that, for me, has paid for itself many times over.

I used GM binders for years. Then I switched to index cards. But going digital meant search! I was tired of flipping through pages of notes over and over. A digital campaign organizer gives me unlimited notes and a way to find and sort them fast.

So, in the mid-2000s, I tried a ton of applications out. I tried plain text files, wikis, OneNote, NoteTab, Evernote, WeatherMaster, Hero Lab, MasterPlan, a database and even some free software that offers similar functionality to MyInfo.

ENWorld had a massive thread of GM software. So did the WotC forums. I clicked all the links. I installed all that software, too.

But, after a ton of experimentation, I returned to MyInfo. It offers features and support I can’t get elsewhere. And it’s made my GMing better and more fun because I’m so organized.

But the deal maker for me is always how easy it is to get organized and stay organized with MyInfo. You can spend a whole weekend organizing your binder, cards, OneNote files or whatever system you use. But soon the system breaks down again, right? Stuff gets harder to find as Entropy sinks its claws into your information.

That’s why I’ve stuck with MyInfo for so many years. And each new version keeps offering me new features to help me stay on top of my game.

I’m going to now list all the features I use that makes MyInfo my killer GM app. You decide for yourself whether this software and its investment is worth it for you.

A Quick Disclosure

But first, I want to disclose the fact that if you purchase MyInfo using the link below, Roleplaying Tips will earn a small commission from that.

I’ve been a customer of Petko’s, the owner of Milenix Software, for years. I’ve submitted a lot of feature requests to him to make MyInfo more useful to me as a GM. I use MyInfo for personal and business use as well, which is another reason this software is so valuable.

And Petko has accommodated many of my requests to tweak MyInfo so game masters can get a little extra juice out of it.

He has also supplied many copies of MyInfo to Roleplaying Tips readers as prizes over the years, and I appreciate that a lot. (Thanks again, Petko!)

When Petko emailed and asked if I wanted to be a sales representative of MyInfo, I jumped at the chance. It’s great software. I use it daily. It has my full recommendation because I use the product and get so much value out of it, especially for GMing.

MyInfo Features For Game Masters

Ok, so why is MyInfo a critical hit for GM organization and information management?

Let’s cover the main reasons:

Reason 1: Multiple “Topic” files

Take an app like Evernote. All the meta data – the tags and such – are shared by all the “books” you create. Each book represents a completely separate bucket of information.

For example, you might have one for work, one for home, and one for each campaign.

But all the books share the same meta data! My NPC tag gets mixed up with Weekly Monday Marketing Meeting Notes tag. Work, home and RPG get all mixed up.

Bleh.

MyInfo creates a separate “space” for each topic. So my RPG peanut butter never gets mixed with my work chocolate. Further, my Riddleport campaign peanut butter never gets mixed with my Planescape campaign chocolate.

Yet, you can still search, link and reference between topics. You get the best of both worlds.

For example, I create a topic called “PFRPG Rules” to hold frequent rules my group uses. I also add house rules and house amendments and our interpretations to official rules. When creating an NPC in my Riddleport Topic, I can link to a rule in the PFRPG Rules topic as needed. It’s perfect.

My Info Topics

Here’s a screenshot of some of my Topics, which are arranged like handy tabs. I can switch topics just by clicking a tab. For example, if I’m playing my Castle Amber game, I click that Topic and all my notes are there, ready to use.

And if I want to borrow an NPC from Castle Amber to use in my Riddleport campaign, linking back and forth between topics is silly-easy.

Reason 2: Multiple “Documents” per Topic

Each topic offers unlimited Documents. Consider a Document to be like a single Word file or web page.

Documents are placed in a tree structure. That makes it very easy to find, hide and group related documents together.

If you have not worked with a document tree before, you are missing out!

For example, for NPCs I often have two or three Documents nested under a single Document:

Overview, current status and location and interaction log with PCs
Personality
Game Stats

Multiple “Documents” per Topic

Above, my write-up for the NPC, Durin the Scowler, includes one Document with a picture and fluff, and another Document nested underneath with his stat block.

This means Durin’s crunch is not in my face when I want to roleplay him. And when I’m in combat, all his crunch is in one handy document for easy reference.

Here’s another example:

hide or reveal all the sub-Documents

For my Tsojcanth adventure in my Riddleport campaign, I have three main Documents:

Hazards
Level 1
Level 2

I click the + or – icon beside a Document name to hide or reveal all the sub-Documents.

Here’s what Tsojcanth looks like when all the adventure sections have been collapsed:

sections have been collapsed

And here’s what Tsojcanth looks like when the main Document for it has been minimized:

Document for it has been minimized

But I still have all the encounters and adventure sections available to me at all times. They’re just hiding behind the clickable + sign!

Reason 3: Tags and Filters

A few other software titles offer this powerful tree-based type of navigation.

But MyInfo takes it further by adding Tags and Filters.

But first, a quick note to show that you can sort all your Documents in an entire Topic with a single click. Just choose Sort Documents from the Tools menu. Do that with paper and index cards, hah!

Sort Documents

A Tag is what you’d expect it to be: a word or short phrase that lets you later see all the Documents tagged as such.

This creates very fast look-ups on related information, which is powerful for fast GM reference.

For example, in this screenshot I’ve got a bunch of Documents for my Riddleport campaign:

bunch of Documents for my Riddelport campaign

See the Tags column on the left?

NPCs get tagged as NPC
Factions get tagged with their faction name
Events get tagged as Event
Items get tagged as – you guessed it – Item

When I click on a Tag, all the related Documents come up in a list:

all the related Documents come up in a list

You know what this actually is? A cast of NPCs!

That’s right. Instantly I have all my NPCs at my beck and call. It’s brilliant.

Same with locations, events, items. All there, available in a cool list, with a click.

This is also called filtering. You can create custom filters too, which extends this whole tagging and instant look-up things to a crazy level. But that’s for advanced users and we should move on.

Oh, you might be wondering what an event is. It’s an untriggered encounter. In RPG, there’s really just a small number of things you need to track to become an organized GM:

People
Places
Things
Events

Track those and you’re set. And with events just being planned encounters, you can generate an instant list of encounters to run!

By the way, if you are itching to see the Filter editor, here’s a screenshot:

Filter editor I’ve added arrows to point out some of the ways you can customize your filters.

For example, you want to look up all Documents that are NPCs and have been tagged with the Riddleport location? Create a filter with three clicks, save it, and you forevermore have an instant cast list of all that city’s citizens.

To sum all this up, you can sort, store, find, and form information exactly how you think as a person and as a GM.

Into combat more? Great, use MyInfo as a crunch and rules database.

Into adventure planning? Oh man, I have not even talked about the Templates you can create to make that process a whole lot faster.

You can create a Template of how you’d like your information structured. I call these Stat Blocks, because they that’s what they are. Another word might be form, like a form you’d fill out.

Create Templates for yourself so you can build adventures and encounters fast.

Reason 4: Fast Linking & Auto-Fill

Sorry, I have to move on. If you have questions about Templates, just give me a shout.

Ok, so the killer reasons why MyInfo rules as a GM information manager we’ve discussed so far are:

Topics with unlimited Documents so you can create and organize your buckets of information fast and easy, and you buckets do not bleed or contaminate each other
Tags and Filters so you can look things up fast, as per how your brain works and your GMing style. The software conforms to how YOU think.

The last thing I want to tell you about is the linking feature.

You can link to all sorts of things like Documents, Topics, Tags and Filters.

Below, I’m updating the NPC Butan. Turns out he’s in cahoots with Callius. So I want a link in Butan’s info to Callius. That way I’m only a click away while reading Butan to learn who Callius is.

Filter editor

And here’s the link when it’s complete:

here’s the link when it’s complete

Reason 5: Cloning For Simultaneous Edit

Holy cow. I forgot another must-use feature of MyInfo that’s critical to incredible control over your campaign information.

Cloning.

You can create a duplicate of any Document and place it in the tree area anywhere you want, including under any other Document.

When you modify the cloned Document, you modify all its clones too!

What this really means is your information can be in multiple places at once, but it never gets duplicated or out of synch.

For example, in my Castle Amber adventure I’ve prepped, I’ve got all the NPCs stored under one Document:

I’ve got all the NPCs stored under one Document

At a glance, I can see all the Ambers and click on any to view their NPC write-ups.

However, I also cloned the NPC Documents and placed the clones in the locations where the PCs will meet each NPC.

Here’s how it looks in MyInfo:

Here’s how it looks in MyInfo

Now, let’s say I’m GMing encounter #25. Buried Alive. I have Madeline’s stats right there.

And if I change Madeline’s information, then that change also simultaneously happens to all clones of Madeline Amber.

So if I look her up under the Amber Document from before, all the changes I made appear under that entry, too.

No more duplicated details that get trumped by some other note somewhere. It’s all real time, in one place, updatable anywhere.

Cloning means we GMs can create something once and use it in multiple ways within the context of our task (i.e. our world gazetteer, our campaign plans, our adventure notes, and standalone entries, just as an example).

You no longer have to hunt for information, and have your notes scattered all over.

MyInfo Has All The Features I Want

There are a lot more features you will use as a GM once you dive into MyInfo.

You can export your notes into a full website! (Pro version only.) Just click export, tweak settings how you want, and then export. You get a full-fledged website you can upload or use locally on your computer.

When you change or update your campaign information, just re-export to update your website.

I use this so I can take advantage of all the Firefox features and plugins during sessions while browsing my campaign as a website saved to my hard drive. Easy and awesome.

Search is fast. You can search across Topics as well as deep dive into Documents. Search results appear in a sidebar, so you can keep working. Results are also grouped by locations, for better contextual reference.

You can slurp web pages into MyInfo. Use the browser plugin, or just copy and paste. Or just enter the URL and MyInfo will snag it all for you within the program.

Bookmarks. Reminders. Calendar. Tasks and Sub-Tasks. Reminders.

I use Search & Replace a lot to correct misspellings. For example, when an NPC name mysteriously morphs into something else, I do a quick correction so it’s the same everywhere.

You can customize styles, choose fonts and layout configuration, create tables, link like crazy, and all the usual stuff you’d expect.

The license lets you install MyInfo on every computer you own.

You can also create custom fields. This becomes a new attribute for your Documents. For example, you could create a field called Coordinates. In that goes the map grid cords for all your locations. You can display these in Document tree for fast reference, or just view them on at the Document level. Now you can search, sort and filter by map coordinates!

Tags: Preparation

27 Comments

Role-Playing Games and Kids

11. Nov, 2011 • Categories: GM Techniques, Organisation

By Katrina Middelburg-Creswell
High school teacher and RPG club organizer in the Netherlands

There seem to be two sides to questions about role-playing games and kids. The first one is more about parents – how do you convince them that RPGs are a fun, engaging hobby rather than a life-sucking obsession?

The second point is a technical one, really. How can you run the game itself in such a way that your sessions stay appropriate for the age group you are playing with?

Here I’ve included a series of tips that address both questions. Most of these ideas come from my experiences dealing with gamers, ages 12-18, (and their parents), at the Role-Playing Games Club I run at my school. I hope they are helpful to you!

Dealing With Concerned Parents

Get Permission First

Parents will be much more comfortable about having kids involved in playing RPGs if the group/club has the official support of an organization like a school or library. Parents will also be happier with a group that has documentation of club rules and expectations, especially if they are asked to sign a permission slip. Anything you can do to set the group up professionally will help to assuage parent nervousness. If you’re going to be running a game for your own kids and a few of their friends, you may not need to be so formal about it. But make sure you talk to the other children’s parents so that they know what you’re planning, where you’ll be meeting, and what it’s all about before you get started.

Keep it Open

The best advice I can give for reassuring concerned parents is this: invite them to come and watch a session! Most people fear what they don’t understand, and let’s face it, trying to explain exactly what an RPG is or how it works tends to get even the brightest of us tongue-tied. Letting parents see the game in action, and most importantly, how much fun the kids are having while they play, makes parents’ worries melt like snow.

The second part of “keeping it open” is this: if you want to make sure parents stay comfortable with RPGs, you have to make sure that everything about the game is always open. Play in a public place. Invite guests to stop by regularly. Anybody wants to see your books? Character sheets? Your answer is always yes. You and your group have absolutely nothing to hide. So don’t worry about it. And who knows – you might even end up recruiting some new gamers!

Choose Games Wisely

Sometimes, the type of game you’re playing can make all the difference. If people in your surroundings are resistant to Dungeons and Dragons (and it happens, unfortunately) you can try introducing the Lord of the Rings RPG, or the Star Wars d20 system. Also, superhero games (like the Marvel Comics RPG) can be more successful with parents initially.

Social vs. Solitary

One of the main selling points of table-top role playing to parents is that it is a social activity. Often, kids who would be interested in pencil-and-paper RPGs are already playing RPGs at home, alone, on the computer. When parents compare 4 hours around a gaming table with friends to 4 hours alone behind a computer screen, many of them become converts rather quickly.

Ask Questions

Before you start defending RPGs, make sure you understand what the parent’s concerns actually are. Sometimes you can make things worse by jumping the gun. Try open-ended statements like, “So you’re not sure this is a good idea for your child…” Or, “Can you tell me what it is about RPGs that is concerning you?” You might be surprised to find out that the conflict is actually Johnny’s tennis lessons, which are at the same time as your game sessions! Once you have figured out exactly what the parent is worried about, you can address that issue.

Know Your Facts

Did you know that both Vin Diesel and Terry Pratchett have talked about their role-playing past? Or that role-playing clubs in Sweden can get government funding? Do you know the source of the most persistent urban legends that have given Dungeons and Dragons (especially) a bad name?

Do a little research and make sure you know your facts; become well-versed in positive information about RPGs, but know where the great “myths” about the games have sprung from as well, so that you can answer questions about them seriously and correctly. One excellent website I’ve found to help with this is www.theescapist.com. This site has a comprehensive FAQ answering many questions worried parents might approach you with. They also have a great flier/pamphlet available which might be useful when you’re dealing with non-gamers: “Facts and Fictions about RPGs.”

Why have this kind of information on file? So that if someone does approach you with questions like, “But aren’t role-players usually antisocial criminals?” you will kindly and gently be able to produce evidence that this is not, in fact, the case.

Don’t Dismiss

Dealing with these apparently biased, uninformed fears can sometimes be frustrating. But here’s a word of advice: remember that no matter how ridiculous it may seem, the parent talking to you about this topic is truly concerned. Take them seriously, treat their fears with respect, and give them the facts to combat their worries. Dealing with them in this way is the most effective way I’ve found for turning parents into RPG allies!

The Mechanics of Keeping RPG Sessions Appropriate for Kids

Kids GMing Kids

When younger kids are playing RPGs on their own in a home setting, you have to face up to the fact that it’s impossible to exercise any direct control over the content of the games, unless you sit with the kids as they play for every second of game time. And since part of the appeal of RPGs for kids is the idea: “You can do anything you can imagine!” I wouldn’t suggest trying to put that kind of control on gaming sessions.

You can, of course, give kids a simple ground rule to help them keep game content on-the-level…. I like the “An adult could walk in at any minute” litmus test, which runs like this: “Remember that while you’re playing, Mom or I can walk in at any minute to pick up your dirty laundry. As long as that won’t change your gaming at all, you’re playing appropriately. Anytime you’d stop talking or want to keep the game a secret until we leave the room again, you’re probably heading into the area of gaming we’d prefer you not go.”

To be honest, however, my experience with student-run games is that they tend to regulate themselves, when all the players are about the same age, and that you don’t even need to be that specific about what the guidelines are. Kids on their own are much more likely to say to each other, “Hey, knock that off, you’re just being stupid/gross/annoying,” if someone does something that they feel goes too far. If you’re really concerned, and don’t feel the “adult could walk in” test is going to be enough control, use food bribery to keep the game in a public area: set up a great gaming center at the kitchen table, fill the counter with snacks, and hang around for a session or two to see how things go. Just try not to be offended by the large amount of situations involving extended flatulence or other bodily functions.

That said, I’d like to add a few tips for adults trying to run a fun and appropriate game for kids.

Choose the Right Games

Make sure the games you are choosing are appropriate for kids. D&D, for example, will give you little trouble. Running a child-appropriate adventure in a horror game or even a cyberpunk world, on the other hand, is going to be very, very difficult. Make it easy on yourself, and stick with traditional fantasy, science fiction, or superhero scenarios.

Lay Down the Ground Rules

Before you even begin to run a game, you need to make sure that everyone understands what the expectations are. In our club, one of the house rules is that no one may play an evil character. Period. No matter how awesome those Dark Jedi powers are.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with agreeing as a group that you are going to keep your game “PG” rated. You could even agree as a group to use a catchphrase, like “PG”, which anyone in the group could call out when things are getting out of hand.

When a player responds with, “But that’s taking all the fun out of the game,” (which they will, especially if they are between the ages of 12 and 18) don’t even get into the argument. Simply say, “These are the rules of our group. We want to make sure everyone’s having fun and is comfortable. So…are you playing, or not?”

Stay in Control

Once the game starts, make sure you’re upholding your end of the bargain. Give players fulfilling, fun playing choices without dipping into the seedy end of the barrel. (Example: Good student-appropriate adventure seed: Rescue the princess and return the stolen sword to the king. Bad student-appropriate adventure seed: Commit a series of assassinations to start a guild war.)

Then, go with the old “feeder-bar” system of behavior modification. Reward appropriate role-playing (with compliments, laughter, in-game rewards like cool weapons or spells and the best gaming motivation of all, XP!) and punish inappropriate role-playing (most effectively handled with out-of-game comments.) If you continue to react consistently to your players, it will only take a few sessions before you’ve ironed out the “appropriateness” problem completely.

If you have a player who can’t take the hints you’re dropping, and even your group’s agreements like using the catchphrase aren’t making a dent in their inappropriate behavior, take them apart from the group, warn them seriously, and then eject them from the game if they continue. Our players sign a contract that states that they can be asked to leave the club if their behavior prevents other members from having fun.

The bottom line is: You are the boss. If players can’t agree with your rules, then they don’t play in your group. There is no discussion.

Fight Monsters, Not People

This might seem like an odd one, but (especially from a parent’s point of view) there is a big difference between having characters chase and kill a beholder or a group of marauding orcs than getting them involved in any situation where they must fight and kill people. Give your players lots of creepy crawlies to battle, and when they come into contact with other people, give them other options instead of battle – information trades, etc.

Look, sometimes the evil wizard is a human, and of course, there’s nothing wrong with your players battling him, as one of a series of encounters. But getting a group of young players involved in a palace intrigue situation with assassins and Machiavellian factions working on wiping each other off the face of the earth is going to make it very difficult for you to keep your game appropriate. Go for the gelatinous cubes instead.

Colorful Descriptions Doesn’t Mean Gore

Every game master’s guide has the tip that you should spice up your combat by describing the scene vividly for your players. I completely agree, and it’s very possible to do that in an appropriate-for-children game session. Just remember that the only color in your description doesn’t have to be red. In other words, feel free to describe combat in exciting ways – but leave out the spouting blood, spattering innards, and other oh-so-graphic moments you might find in a really intense bout of Mortal Kombat. Feel like this can’t work? Go watch an animated movie. (A great example is Shrek.) These movies are full of suspenseful chase scenes, fights, and competitions…and are able to do it in ways that raise the excitement without raising the brutal damage quotient.

An orc, pin wheeling his arms on the edge of a deep chasm and finally going over because of a well-aimed crossbow bolt is a colorful, exciting, appropriate combat image. And don’t forget the use of humor to add fun to a combat session. Armor getting stuck at unhelpful moments, fellow players dangling upside down from the tentacles of an otyugh as all their possessions drop out of their pouches and pockets, or the result of a very effective “lightning bolt” spell being that all combatants are now suffering from super-static hair that is standing up on end; just a few examples of using humor to make combat memorable without crossing the “PG” boundary.

Help! My Players Have Hit Puberty!

There is one other way in which a role-playing session can go careening off the path of appropriate-for-kids gaming, and that is when one of the players decides that their character is Casanova, and goes around hitting on every female NPC that comes along. (Feel free to exchange genders in this example, as the female Casanova is a distinct possibility as well – I’ll focus on the male “offender” in my discussion, however, since chances are good that your players will mostly be male.)

In essence, this situation is no different than a player displaying any sort of inappropriate role-playing, and I’d suggest dealing with it in-game, by using the same reward and punishment system I described above. Characters getting knocked on the head by insulted NPC’s will quickly mend their ways, especially when said NPC turns out to be the Captain of the City Guard. Any players not getting the message can be dealt with out-of-game. Remember, the group goal is fun and comfort for all. Anyone ruining that for the others shouldn’t be there.

(While on the topic, if this issue keeps cropping up in your campaign, remember that the way you portray women in your world will have an affect on how the PCs behave with and towards them. And I’m not just talking about making sure your female NPC descriptions don’t include phrases like “buxom” or “scantily-clad.” If your PCs are regularly meeting and interacting with NPC’s who are helpful, interesting, good at what they do, and oh yeah, also happen to be female, they’re going to be much more likely to skip the entire barmaid-as-opportunity-for-embarrassing-repartee scenes and start focusing on barmaid-as-possible-source-of-useful-adventure-information scenes. Think Arwen and Eowyn in the Lord of the Rings movie, or Buffy andWillowfrom Buffy the Vampire Slayer, if you need a hint about what kind of female characters could people your adventure.)

The Sum of All Parts

Role-playing is a great hobby that kids love and enjoy. I started playing when I was 13 years old, and the first thing I did was teach my (then 10 and 7 year old) brothers how to play so we could game at home. If your kids are running games for each other or their friends, don’t worry…chances are, they’re much more concerned about how they can maximize their characters’ abilities than about playing games adults would consider really inappropriate. Encouraging them to play in a public place and letting them know that you will be in the background while they’re playing are both effective ways of keeping closer tabs on things.

If you are running games for kids, laying down a few basic ground rules and choosing smart game worlds and adventure seeds will help you keep your games fun and appropriate. And remember, setting up your group as professionally and openly as possible will go a long way toward convincing parents that role-playing is a legitimate hobby that helps kids develop critical thinking, social and problem-solving skills.

Not to mention – it’s just so much fun!

Tags: Teaching Kids RPGs Week.

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Crimson Dawn Adventure Synopsis #21

07. Nov, 2011 • Categories: Campaigns & Adventures, Dead Reign Campaign Synopsis, Storytelling

by Silveressa

“In light of this whole zombie plague I’m thinking they’re going to have to redefine R.I.P to Rise in Putrescence.” –Riley, recalling the usual gravestone markings.

“How about Rot In Pieces?” –Jessy, proving acronyms can mean whatever the reader intends.

Adventure #21

A cold wind buffets the vehicles as the hiss of static answers Renee’s desperate radio plea, Riley struggling in the back of the cargo truck to stabilize Heather and push the concerns for his wife’s continued safety from his mind, the bright lights from Jessy’s vehicle providing questionable aid, Jessy himself yelling back to Thomas and attempting to get directions to any near by medical facilities, Thomas mentioning the closest ones were in the cities, which would be either ransacked or crawling with undead.

After nearly an half hour of jarring travel over the poorly paved road Renee receives an faint reply to her distress call, one of the Reapers on a handheld set greets her panicked voice, giving her directions to a cache of resources they had hidden along the highway when they passed through that way a couple days earlier, which should have the necessary medical supplies they need to treat her girlfriend. As the voice fades to static Renee can barely make out his warning that other groups may have also heard his directions to the supply cache, be on the way to claim it for them selves.

Increasing her speed, Renee rockets down the highway, keeping an eye out for a deer crossing sign, and a dirt side road down which an abandoned garage and the promised supplies lay. Several bone jarring minutes later Renee spots the turn off rapidly approaching, the dirt road nearly hidden by the jutting branches of a cherry tree.

Yanking the wheel sharply she barely makes the turn, clearing out a mailbox along the way and almost busting her drivers side mirror on a looming tree. Carefully slowing down on the narrower dirt road, the group found Steve’s Garage at the end, several rusting hulks of cars visible on the edge of the truck lights, the main structure itself a faded blue, with the back of a wrecker truck hanging form the nearest garage door.

Leaping from the truck Renee gathers up her shotgun and surveys the silent building before her, joined seconds later by the rest of the group,

(GM note: With her character still unconscious I offered to let Heathers player take control of Thomas for the rest of the session, but she instead asked to play as her surviving dog Maki, which sounded like fun so I readily agreed.)

After a quick strategy meeting, during which Thomas volunteered to stay behind and keep an eye on Heathers still unconscious form, and the road for incoming hostiles the group took Heathers surviving German shepherd and spread out to cautiously survey the garage and attached two story house. Realizing the area was cleaned of zombies by the reapers the group conducted a brief cursory patrol around the building, searching for signs of recent occupation, and finding none entered from the backdoor, grateful; yet slightly suspicious the door was unlocked.

As they entered the houses kitchen Maki’s keen canine nose detected the faint odor of gun powder, blood, and the stronger smell of human sweat, someone had been in this room very recently.

(Gm note: this info, along with other observations Heathers player made while controlling Maki I wrote in quick notes to her, so as not to ruin the suspense for the rest of the group.)

Growling in low warning to the rest of the group Maki cautiously advanced sniffing at the air to discern the occupants’ location.

Taking queue from Maki’s nervousness the group turned off their flashlights, letting Riley give a two second burst of light before moving several steps in the darkness, followed by a second burst of light; a defensive house clearing method Riley had learned in the military. Taking point Maki strained his ears to make out any sounds of occupation, the scent of blood growing stronger as he closed in on the staircase to the second floor.

As the rest of the group neared the stairs Jessy spotted a dark wet patch on the carpet, closer inspection revealing it to be blood, no more then a few hours old at most. Maki, at Renee’s urging, bounded up the stairs, his keen senses now picking up the smell of excrement mixed with the blood, and sounds of wet gnawing on the upper floor.

Creeping close behind Riley pointed to several drops of dried blood on the hardwood flooring, as it leaded down the hall into a bedroom at the end, the same place Renee was told the supply cache had been hidden. Growing more urgently as the smell of blood and entrails assaulted his nostrils Maki took a reluctant lead, looking back at the group for guidance as they neared the doorframe.

From inside the room Maki could make out a faint shuffling like dozens of tiny claws on a chalkboard. Snarling Maki leaped into the room, pinning the humanoid shape slumped against the bed to the ground, his teeth firmly around the corpses throat, the rest of the group close behind as a half dozen field rats scattered between their feet in terror.

The room was brightly illuminated under the beams of all three of their flashlights, the partially rat eaten body of a leather clad man barely recognizable under Maki’s growling form, the contents of a emergency medical kit strewn across the bed, an empty syringe still grasped in the dead mans hand. After noticing the mans partially consumed body the group quickly decided he was no risk of coming back as a zombie, Riley guessing the man had accidentally over dosed on painkillers while trying stitch a nasty looking gun shot wound on his leg.

Wasting little time they carried Heather into an adjacent upstairs master bedroom, Jessy locating, and switching on a noisy generator out behind the garage, the additional light making it far easier for Riley to tend to Heathers injuries. As he performed field surgery, making careful note not to stitch any of bite marks closed. (A successful medical skill roll informing him that suturing bite wounds from any animal, prevents drainage and often leads to lethal infection in a matter of hours.)

As Riley supplies fresh bandages and an injection of antibiotics the rest of the group set about disposing of the dead biker and exploring the house and its adjacent garage, taking stock of available supplies and locating a replacement radiator for their damaged truck. Shortly after Riley finishes his treatment Heather painfully regains consciousness, and is nearly squeezed back into a coma by a tearfully relieved Renee, (much to the embarrassment of Riley, Jessy and Thomas.) Grateful Heather is on the mend the group calls it a night and the guys retire to the remaining bedrooms, leaving Renee to share the master bedroom with Heather.

The next morning as the group enjoys a properly cooked meal (courtesy of the electric stove and generator) Jessy raises the suggestion that maybe since they were at a garage, they should take some time the following day to upgrade their rides, which sparked a in depth discussion as to exactly what kinds of modifications they should make.

(Gm note: This discussion took up a lot of the game time, as they all went into detail of how to best go about “Mad Maxing” their rides, I.E welding on ramming prows, and otherwise armoring up the two cargo trucks to better withstand the dangers of the road, Thomas helpfully pointing out a few of their ideas were likely a bit out of their skill range.)

As the groups discussion of how to modify their rigs draw to a close, Maki (still being played by Heathers player) thinks he spots the movement of several approaching vehicles in the distance, proceeding in a slow convoy down the main road. Barking in warning to the group he heads to the window and looks pointedly out towards the highway, everyone making the connection soon after, Renee takes off in a mad dash for the generator as Jessy grabs his SMG’s and shouts a warning upstairs to Thomas.

The rumble of the generator fades to silence, as the group holds their breath in anticipation, the convoy of camouflaged vehicles in the distance slowing, the lead vehicle turning off down the side road towards the garage, Maki growling softly at it’s approach, the group quickly taking up defensive positions on the second floor, Riley’s hand held radio cracking to life with the indecipherable chatter of an encoded radio transmission.

Minutes later the vehicle pulls into full view, a military hummer, complete with a .50 caliber machine mounted in the roof turret a man in camouflage manning the turret, three other similarly clad soldiers disembarking from the hummer moments after is ground to a stop. Recognizing their body language and the short hand signals the leader of the group gave Riley informed everyone the new arrivals were either mercenaries, or actual soldiers.

As the newly arrived militia fanned out and began to circle the groups cargo trucks Riley keyed his radio, and attempted to contact the soldiers below them.

* * * * *

Will the newly arrived military force prove an asset in their travels? Will Mad Maxing their cargo trucks prove successful? Will Heather find a replacement for her deceased canine companion? Find out in the next adventure synopsis #22, coming November 21st!

Tags: Campaign Synopsis, Dead Reign, Horror, Post Apocalypse, Survival Horror, Undead, Zombie

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How To Create Deep & Compelling Magic Item Backgrounds In Just 60 Seconds

07. Nov, 2011 • Categories: Campaigns & Adventures, Treasures & Rewards

Image via Wikipedia

Give your magic item a quick history. Then use the history to tie a whole bunch of things together that will make you look like a genius.

We’ll get into genius part in a sec, but let’s first create a simple background that you can do in just 60 seconds.

To flesh out your item’s lore fast, give four questions a one line answer each:

Lore Question #1: Origin Story

Who made the item and why? (And when?)

We’re dealing with how the item came into existence. The item’s origin story. And this is always interesting stuff!

I’ve assumed the item was crafted on purpose by someone or some thing, but that need not be the case. A magical event might have imbued a mundane item with powers. Or, if you’re using the Legacy Item system from Assassin’s Amulet, the item might have spawned from energies absorbed by great events or NPC deeds.

Origin Ideas

Some ideas for why the item came into existence:

An NPC commissioned the item to be created
The creator was forced into it by an NPC or terrible circumstances
It was an accident
A magical event, such as a supernatural storm
Manifested when the gods created the world or universe
The gods built it for mortals as part of their plotting
Natural disaster + magical world, such as a landslide imbuing its earthly power into a shovel buried during the catastrophe
A community pours its attention, devotion or spirit into a mundane item that absorbs this energy over time

Date Stamp

Next, give the item a date stamp. While not required, this fact offers you additional context and inspiration.

For example, is the item ancient or new? If so, that’s notable and worthy of further exploration to help detail the item and your campaign.

If you have a campaign management information system, like I do for my campaigns using My Info, then a date stamp also helps you log the item into it.

Example origins:

Created by Servis, a humble village priest, to help protect his northern community from orcs 53 years ago. (Servis was half-orc , which caused interesting problems, but that’s another story.)
The goddess Cyrene bequeathed the item to her loyal guildmaster in CY245 to help him handle recruitment.
Lightning struck the item not once, but three times. Each strike imbued the item with one power. This happened yesterday, to a PC (stinking behirs!) but he doesn’t know that the item he’s been carrying since level one is now magical.

Lore Question #2: Who Used It Last?

In most cases, owners dictate an item’s impact on the world. A magic sword offers no lore if it’s been sheathed since creation. To make history – and interesting campaign material – the blade requires an NPC to brandish it.

On a finer scale, recent ownership can inspire plot. For example, if the item was stolen, the previous owner might want it back.

Loot or Possession?

Items are either loot or possession.

Loot means the item sits somewhere waiting to be discovered. Dungeon crawls, museums and private collections are full of loot, for example.

But that’s boring. We want to know who used the item last, which means it was a possession.

So go back to that point the item was used last and jot a note about who used the item last and how the NPC became the owner.

Answer these questions as succinctly as possible to keep your creation process moving fast:

Who was the last owner?
How did they become the owner?
What did they use the item for, in general?
How did they lose the item? (If applicable.)
How did the item get to be at the location where the PCs can find it? (If applicable.)

Examples:

Servis gave the item to the village’s strongest warrior, Urbat, who used it in many raids against the orcs. A foe finally defeated Urbat after many seasons and stole the item away.
Guildmaster Avram used the item in his presentations to prospective guild members for years. He kept the item’s function a secret, but was never seen without his golden torque. He handed the torque to his successor, and ever since it has become a symbol of guild leadership.
The PC carries the item in his backpack, ripe for a friend or foe’s detect magic.

The main reason these quick facts help you is they offer a breadcrumb trail in your campaign. Armed with NPC identities, locations and past usage rumours, you can guide the PCs to the item, add the item to a PC’s background, incorporate the item into an adventure back story and so on.

Simple details become great hooks and leads with just seconds of preparation.

Lore Question #3: Weal

Next question offers you more grist for your campaign wheel.

Name a time when the item brought good to someone or some place, and briefly describe what happened.

Again, a one-liner suffices. More details are welcome, but if you do have extra time, keep creating past events when the item did some good instead of fleshing out details for just one event. You can always add details when working on other parts of your campaign or on-the-fly during the game. That’s where the genius part I mentioned at the beginning of this article comes in.

Examples:

Urbat slew many orcs with the item, but a legendary moment came when he singlehandedly saved a farm family from a dozen orc raiders. (The village created a holiday in Urbat’s name on the date of this event after the warrior’s death.)
Another time, Urbat used the item to kill an orc champion in a challenge with the orc leader. Urbat’s victory gave the village a one-season reprieve until the orcs reneged.
Bratheon, the third guildmaster after Avram, used the torque to convince city counsellors to stay an execution. The criminal became a guild member, and the family never forgot this kindness.

Lore Question #4: Woe

Now we dive into the dark corners of the item’s past.

Name a time when the item brought harm to someone or some place, and briefly describe what happened.

If you have more cycles, add more bleak spots to the item’s past.

For example:

Urbat stumbled in combat and accidentally slew a friend. This sent Urbat into a funk that was not lifted until he met his future wife.
Avram recruited Nial Crackhammer with the torque. Nial’s clan suspected foul play, and discovered evidence of the item’s magical influence. The Crackhammer clan remains a guild enemy to this day – plus they bear knowledge of the torque’s secrets.

You Are A Genius: Weave A Complex Tapestry Through Simplification

Questions three and four give you campaign depth with little work. This brief effort makes you a genius because the item becomes a catalyst and a unifying element.

Catalyze Gameplay

By having an item do good and evil, you create an intriguing past. The contradiction will make PCs even more curious. The good and evil events generate conflicting views, stories and legends. The PCs might even think they’re hearing about two different items, thereby creating a great future group Aha! moment.

Instead of a ho-hum cardboard magic item, you have one that offers mystery, dilemmas and gameplay potential as players try to sort things out.

Further, these stories of weal and woe give players hints about the item’s powers. Bonus points if you offer clues about the existence and nature of hidden powers or surprise elements.

For your adventures and encounters, the conflicted history brings good and evil factions to the table. The bad guys hear of the item’s evil deeds and want it for their cause. The good guys hear of the item’s good deeds and want it for themselves.

Optionally, each side wants the item to prevent their foes from using it against them!

Unify Campaign Details

During design, we create a lot of details. Each bit of information tends to be its own island within your notes. This NPC over here, that place over there, this event in your adventure background, that event in your campaign history.

Tie some of these details together using the history you just created for your magic item. Each time you link game elements together, you reduce prep work and add depth to your world.

You can even use this to generate some plot. Who did what when to whom? Your item history can take disparate facts from your notes and noggin, and start building such statements in your campaign background using NPCs, places and things drawn from item history tid bits.

You connect stuff. This increases detail for what gets connected, which is great. But it also reduces the number of game elements you now need to track. It’s like a video game where smaller blobs combine into big blobs, and the big blobs get new features and properties from the merge.

For example, you need a village for your adventure. Normally, you’d put a dot on your map and declare that the village. Then you start developing the village a bit.

This time, you make the village the same one Urbat protected for all those years. Boom. A small parcel of details borrowed from an item’s history instantly gives the village great details and campaign context.

Instead of a new village and one more thing to track and design, you’ve got one place with a bunch of interesting details you can include or not, roleplay or not, as you run your adventure.

Go through your item’s history and highlight all people, places and things mentioned.

Each of these nouns becomes a new entity in your campaign. Try to link to these entities as you develop your game.

Use It For the Contest

If you like the four question deep lore method, consider giving it a whirl by crafting an entry or three for the Magic Items contest. Read the Brief Word section at the top of this newsletter for more information about how you can enter and what prizes you can win.

Why I Fell In Love with Staves Again After 10 Years (PFRPG) (campaignmastery.com)
Making The Loot Part Of The Plot: The Value Of Magic (campaignmastery.com)
magic items Gygax forgot to steal from Zelazny from Blog of Holding (blogofholding.com)
October Blog Carnival Wrap-up: A cavalcade of posts about goodies (campaignmastery.com)
How To Create Great Magic Items In Just Three Minutes from Roleplaying Tips (roleplayingtips.com)

Tags: Magic Items, RPT#532

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Gaming Group Grind

04. Nov, 2011 • Categories: GM Techniques, Players

by Jeff Pawlowsk

I’m always amazed by the way some games last years when no one in the game is having any fun. There is something mystical about having a regular game that is comforting and the hassles of finding and integrating into a new gaming group is a daunting task.

It is very similar to couples that date one another simply because it is familiar and the alternative is too scary. I can personally say that I’ve been guilty of staying with a gaming group too long.

The alternative is not scary. Just like you need to dump a relationship that is not working out for you so that you can find true happiness, one must dump the old gaming group if things are not what they used to be.

The Game master is NOT always right

One of the trusty sayings about the rights of game masters, “the GM is always right” has been perverted to the extreme. Instead of a rule that is supposed to expedite the game, keep things moving, and/or settle disputes among players, power-hungry individuals wanting to exert control over his fellows often use this rule. Poor treatment of others cannot be excused by a simple rule.

A GM must be Fair, Equal, and Even.

Fair – Hand out rewards and penalties in moderate amounts. Rewards and penalties that are too large or too little will result in an unbalanced party with some players jumping ahead at points, or gain the resentment of a player for getting too little.

Equal – Rewards and penalties should be set to a schedule and all rewards and penalties should be recorded by the GM for future reference. This will insure that the same rewards and/or penalties will be handed out for the same actions.

Even – This might be the most important and difficult for GMs. A

GM must make it very clear when the rules are being enforced and exact the rewards and penalties immediately for the prescribed behaviors. Letting something slide one time and not the next is not fair or equal treatment for the players.

GMs not following these three simple rules should be on notice. You’re about to

Horses, Men, then Officers

One of the old cavalry stories from the old west was how a cavalry unit would break for camp. The first thing that you did was to tend to the horses. No horses, no cavalry. The next thing that happened was to tend to the men. No men, no cavalry. The last thing you did was to tend to the officers. In spite of their positions, you could lose all your officers and you’d still have a cavalry.

The same thing goes for gaming groups. Players are the most important part of the equation. I cannot tell you how many times I would have loved to run a game but lacked sufficient players for . In spite of their position, GMs are not as important as everyone grants them to be. GMs are wise to deal with this fact and know what is going on with their players.

Are the players happy? Do they like the campaign? What could you do to make it more fun for the players? Ask questions. Listen to the answers and take them to make your game stronger. When you get the answers, don’t be defensive. Be clinical and take notes.

GMs not asking these questions will have no idea if their players will be coming back for the next session.

Personal Enlightenment

Some GMs view their position as adversarial to the players. Many players, in turn, view the GM as their adversary. A game night should never end with one side of the GM’s screen feeling like they’ve lost the match.

GMs need to understand that their role is a personal challenge, struggled with within. The goal is not to create a body count of player characters, but to create the fullest and richest imaginary world you can devise. Like a chess player, you must anticipate and map out the actions of the players with branches upon branches of events.

When this fails, you are challenged to expand upon your world on-the-fly, keeping ahead of the players as they interact with your creations.

The GM’s ultimate reward is seeing the characters grow and be challenged, with the players coming back session after session.

After running through a scenario, if your GM says, “Darn, I should have had you,” versus, “Well done, I didn’t think of that,” be wary.

Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em

Players need to recognize the signs of good and bad GMs. They must make their minds up whether a game is worth their time and/or their frustration or to move on. If the game is worth sticking to, having a quiet personal talk with your GM with your concerns should be in order. The GM’s response should let you know if you’re wasting your time or not.

When it is time to leave, try to leave quietly, with your contact information available to the other players. They’ll want to know why you stopped coming to games.

Try this: “I was no longer having fun with the game. I discussed my concerns with the

GM and felt it was time to leave.” One should feel free to share this article with your fellow players. Who knows, you might be able to find a new GM and move all your players to a new game.

Looking for love in all the wrong places

Joining a new gaming group is very hard. The best thing to do is be flexible. There is no right way to role-play. Some groups might be really intense about the in-character portrayals with character voices and costumes. Some groups may be very relaxed.

The next part is to know what type of player you are yourself. Are you a rules-lawyer?

Do you have “all the books” or just a basic player? Are you a social gamer or one that is there just for the game?

The only way to know if a group is for you is to make contact and sit in on a session or two. Never build a character right away and jump in or you might be entering into another group you’re not going to have fun with.

1. How is the world run by the GM? Does he run in a published campaign setting? Does he run published adventures? Is it a home-brew setting? What books is he using to support his campaign?

2. Is the game too heavy in role-playing or tactical combat for your tastes? Can you take seriously the “hard-core” players in the group?

3. Are the group members personable? Would you go to the movies with the group?

Would you share a pizza? Would you invite them to your house?

4. Can you work with the GM’s style?

Ask questions and make sure the group is interviewing you as well as you interview the group and GM. A group not discriminating can pull in new members later on that you may disapprove of.

You’re planning on spending hours upon hours with these people. Don’t be afraid to walk away.

There are many game groups out there

If you build it, they will come. If you simply cannot find a gaming group to join, you should seriously consider forming a group on your own. In many cases, there are a pool of gamers and GMs in your area also looking for a group.

In most cases, the Internet will be your best starting point. Many online sources list local groups and/or players by location. Start an online community/club/group to organize and advertise your group.

Post a flyer at your local game shop. It is in their best interest to keep gamers gaming, so they should not have a problem with that.

Once you have a selection of gaming group candidates, everyone should meet somewhere neutral and have drinks, dinner, or have some non-gaming event to have everyone in one room to make sure there are not any clashing personalities.

Again, you’re going to be spending a great deal of time with these people. Select one or two candidates to join your group and then get them involved in assisting you to build the group. You will have a great group in no time as the work in building the group compounds with new members.

Gaming is supposed to be an enjoyable experience. If it isn’t, it is time for some changes.

Tags: Flashback Fridays

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