Flipping through my thrilling purchase, I had some questions about the mega adventure. So I reached out and asked Tsar author Greg A. Vaughan some questions. As a bonus, I rolled a 20 on my Diplomacy check and he’s shared some GMing tips with us!

The first thing I want to ask you, Greg, is how you stayed fresh during the writing of hundreds of encounters and almost 1000 pages. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Greg: Stayed fresh? What is that? This thing sucked the life of me like a good demon lord should.

The inspiration for the adventure came directly from Rappan Athuk, which I’ll get into more in a bit. As for the encounters, I kept a little notepad with me at all times, and every time I had a thought on a good encounter or NPC that would fit in with what I was wanting to do, I took notes.

I kept it by my bed and carried it with me. I ended up filling two steno pads with notes for encounter and design ideas.

I worked on it for a year and a half, which gave me lots of time to come up with stuff, and the result was that I horribly overwrote the thing. Bill wanted about 100,000 words, and I gave him 550,000. However, it also allowed me to use all of my ideas without abridging them, which was pretty awesome I have to admit.

I’m a backer for the Rappan Athuk Kickstarter, which gets funded July 2nd 1:59 PST [hint, hint readers]. Is there any way I can use that campaign with Tsar? And, does Tsar allow GMs to run side adventures throughout, or is it fairly linear in style?

Greg: You can absolutely use them together since they’re both big sandbox adventures. There is an overall plot to Tsar, but it’s not a railroad for the PCs to follow but rather a series of secrets that they can discover.

Likewise, Tsar’s development led to the creation of an overall plot for Rappan Athuk, since the two are intimately connected. However, other than the difficulty level of encounters, there is nothing to dictate what order things are done in.

So, a party with some teleport spells could absolutely bounce back and forth between the two. I think that would probably create an even richer gaming experience as the players could see how the relationship between the two unfolds.

In addition, there is at least one magical gate in the lower levels of Rappan Athuk that leads directly to the Hidden Citadel in Tsar. So, they are a natural fit together.

Tsar starts at PC level 7. And I’m salivating at the thought of running it. However, I like it best when PCs start out at first level. It gives campaigns nice continuity. Plus, when the group finishes Tsar, they can brag about how their characters were just wee pups when it all began.

What build-up adventures would you recommend I run to bring the PCs from level 1 to 7? Feel free to mention Frog God adventures, or any others. I’m just wondering if you have any recommendations that fit the theme and style for a smooth transition to Tsar.

Greg: I wrote Tsar with the Necromancer Games adventures The Wizard’s Amulet, The Crucible of Freya, and The Tomb of Abysthor in mind as the lead in. In fact, that’s how I ran it for my own group.

The Tomb of Abysthor will take PCs to above 7th level, so you’d have to have them head out early to get them into Tsar at the appropriate level.

For my own game, I had the churches of Thyr and Muir in Bard’s Gate contact the PCs with the mission to Tsar just after they had raided the Temple of Orcus on Level 4 of Abysthor. That not only fit in thematically (there is a temple in Tsar that emulates the temple in Abysthor), but it also allowed them to learn a bit about the Justicars of Muir and their tombs which ties directly into the first book of Tsar.

My idea was to tie a bunch of Necromancer Games products together when I first wrote Tsar, and that goal continued into its current incarnation with Frog God Games.

Alternately, now that Rappan Athuk is being expanded to include play for first-level PCs, you could also have a party cut its teeth for 7 levels on the upper portions of the Dungeon of Graves before heading over to Tsar since they both tie directly together.

Long-term campaigns have just come up as a topic in Roleplaying Tips. A game master was having problems making his campaigns last. What advice do you have for GMs thinking of running a long-term campaign like Slumbering Tsar?

Greg: Other than one-shots in convention play, long-term campaigns are just about all I play. I have always found that to keep it going long-term is to make it about the characters not the adventures (though you definitely need cool adventures, too).

I have my players roll up their first level characters and provide me a paragraph of backstory (more if they like) subject to my approval.

I then take those backstories and weave more into them, some of which they know and some of which they don’t and will have to find out over the course of the campaign. It creates a huge buy-in from the players as they not only get to contribute to the meta-story of the campaign with their backstories, but they also get to have the experience of learning the secrets about their characters’ own personal story as they progress.

I know campaign fatigue can be a problem – especially with a meatgrinder like Tsar – but my group spent seven years playing through it and stayed engaged throughout because it was always about the characters and their stories first and the adventure itself second (one PC actually murdered another one without the others knowing, and the victimized player took it in stride because it fit their characters so well).

It takes some creative thinking on the part of the GM to personalize an adventure or series of adventures, but that is something I think gamers typically have in spades and is not an insurmountable task.

When you wrote all the installments for Tsar, did you have the whole plot outlined in advance? Could you tell us a bit about how you went about planning a massive adventure?

Greg: I planned the overall plot for Tsar from the beginning when I made my initial pitch to Bill, and then spent a year and a half filling in the details.

Since it was originally a three-book series, that wasn’t as difficult as it sounds since I wasn’t juggling 14 separate components. Only later, when we decided to publish it as a serial, did it get divided into 14 parts along the most logical divisions.

As for the planning of the adventure, it all began with Rappan Athuk. There’s a little bit of flavor text history at the beginning of Rappan Athuk that talks about the battle of Tsar and how it resulted in the creation of Rappan Athuk.

I always felt that paragraph left a lot of unanswered questions and was just rife with potential. My whole thought process began with: Why, after the Army of Light was defeated at Rappan Athuk, did the city of Tsar remain abandoned if it had been such a stronghold for the victorious followers of Orcus?

That led me to believe it all must have been part of some greater master plan, and from there it was just writing the history of Rappan Athuk by exploring what happened at Tsar.

A lot of it practically wrote itself since there was such a wealth of undeveloped campaign detail in many of the products by Necromancer Games. I think the biggest compliment I ever received was when I was still working on the third book building off of material that Bill and Clark had created, and Bill sent me an e-mail saying, “Hurry up and finish. I want to see how this ends.” Highest praise, in my mind.

There’s an obituaries section at the end of the book for successful GMs poor characters that don’t survive. That’s awesome. Whose idea was that? Have any fans reported back on their kill counts?

Greg: That was created by Bill, if I recall correctly, and I think that just gives a little insight into the mind of the man who personifies Tsathogga. What can I say, he thinks adventurers are delicious.

I have seen messageboard threads here and there talking about PC kills, but nothing organized yet. However, the book was only recently released, so I’m expecting for something like that to pop up eventually.

[Update: Frog God just let me know there's a PC obituaries section up at their website now. ]

Encounters are the building blocks of great adventures. Could you give my readers two or three tips on how they can improve their encounters and make great ones?

Greg: Forget the math and trying to balance it. Come up with a cool encounter idea that is atmospheric, fun, challenging or all three. Then go back and make it fit the game balance you want.

The worst thing to do, in my opinion, is set out to make a bunch of perfectly balanced encounters with level-appropriate monsters and treasure. I think that just creates bland, predictable, homogenized encounters.

Make awesome encounters that are fun to play and run, and then tweak them so they fit the power level you want. The rules are there to help you, not hurt you.

What are you working on next? Will it be so heavy it collapses my mailbox too?

Greg: As revealed by the sneak peak at the end of Tsar, my next major project is The Sword of Air as a sequel of sorts to Tsar (though it will also start at first level).

It will be big and will be released in a serial format and will be big (did I mention that), but I expect it will not be as big as Tsar. I expect I’ll never write anything as big as Tsar again because, let’s be honest, writing Tsar that big was nuts.

It was the ultimate gamer dream of writing and publishing his campaign exactly how he wants it with basically no restrictions, but it’s not a very practical idea. I think Bill would not consider me to be a very much of a contributing part of Frog God Games if I only cranked out one adventure every 8 years.

But it’ll be big, and it’ll be fun. So your mailbox should be safe…unless it was perhaps structurally weakened by the delivery of Tsar, in which case all bets are off.

We’re also in development of a new series of adventures by Richard Pett revisiting his decadent and desolate home campaign world that has previously been represented by the Styes in Dungeon Magazine and Carrion Hill through Paizo. It’s going to be a lot of creepy fun.

That sounds awesome. Thanks for your time, Greg!

No, thank you. It’s been fun. I hope you and your players have a lot of fun with Tsar. And be sure and fill up those pages in the back!

It’s been almost 2 months now since I last updated Crimson Dawn, due in part to the hectic schedules of the holidays making time to sit down and write a synopsis (or even run a game) hard to come by.

These real life obligations combined with a nasty case of food poisoning; conspired to keep me away from the keyboard and gaming table for far too long. Now with the New Year before us I hope to resume bi monthly updates to Crimson Dawn without further delays. Now without further ado, I present the next Installment of: Crimson Dawn

“There’s another reason they call it the chain of command you know.” –Riley, recalling his military training.

“Because they tie you in chains if you don’t obey it?” –Renee, taking a wild guess.

“Because the lives of everyone under your command weighs like a ball and chain around your neck.” –Riley, remembering the troops who looked to him for leadership in the war.

Adventure #22

After a moments hesitation Riley sends an open inquiry across the radio, identifying himself as “Sergeant Riley,” and asking for identification of the unknown forces outside the building.

Seconds after his transmission the troops outside came to a dead stop as their commander crouched down near the front wheel well and keyed his ear mike, apparently taking orders from someone further away. A minute more of tense silence ensues before an commanding voice breaks across the radio, demanding Riley identify which unit he is part of and to give a current “sit rep.” (Situation Report)

A brief discussion ensues between the group as they debate what to tell the unknown forces outside, a second, more demanding inquiry putting a stop to their discussion as the group decided on telling the forces outside the truth. Keying the mic, Riley tells them his is a lone solider with four civilians who sought temporary shelter after a wild animal attacked one of them; and that they do not seek conflict with military forces.

A few more minutes of tense silence follows, as painfully Heather dresses herself and straps on her weapon belt, the group keeping a careful eye on the soldiers outside, two of the unknown militia having moved out of their sight around the sides of the building. Moving quietly Renee carefully moves from room to room, trying to get a better view of the soldiers from the second story windows, quietly reporting back they have taken up position at the rear door of the farm house.

A burst of static fills the radio for a heart beat before the same commanding voice informs Sergeant Riley he is now returned to active duty and part of Charlie Company effective immediately, and for him to instruct the civilians to lay down their weapons and exit the building at once for processing and return to base camp Bravo.

As the group sits in stunned silence the voice continues, informing them, the military vehicles outside the building have been rightfully repossessed by remnants of the US Army for military use, along with any other needed supplies to be determined after assessment by Commander Braddock. In the distance the group sees a M1 Bradley pulling away from the convoy and slowly down the dirt path towards them, followed by a cargo truck.

A heated argument immediately erupts among the group, who are reluctant to relinquish their transportation, as Riley suggests they may be able to convince the Army to assist them with the gang problem back in Ruthton. After Renee points out the military convoy may well take most of their supplies and leave them stuck at their compound, as well as taking Riley from his pregnant wife, the group agrees unanimously not to submit to military command.

(Gm note: I was expecting them to lay down their arms and submit, and had an adventure involving a splinter faction of the military at base camp, unhappy with their commander’s leadership going rogue with the groups help; but alas the side plot went unused and cut this session somewhat shorter then planned.)

Thinking quickly Riley told everyone to follow his lead  and take turns with the only radio they had (They had smaller hand held sets but didn’t consider them  having enough range for the military to get a clear signal) using a separate radio channel,  and convince the approaching military forces they were about to be ambushed. (Which got a lot of confused looks around the table before everyone nodded in agreement)

Grabbing up the radio and setting it to a different channel Riley began to speak:

Riley: “This is Echo-Four to Spearhead, the recon force is parked right over the surprise package, and they got two more transports about to enter the KZ, (kill zone) are we cleared to proceed?”

Jessy taking the radio from Riley: “Hold fire until both transports are in the blast zone, we want this diversion to keep their attention.” A pause as Riley motions for him to keep talking. “Hammer and Anvil are you in position to hit the main force with the party favors?” 

Renee, quickly snatching he radio from Jessy: “Hammer here, ready to pop the party favors on your go. Are you sure this stuff won’t take us out too if the wind shifts?

Riley Taking back the radio and giving her a thumbs up: (and making a Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Warfare skill check) “This is Echo-Four, risk from sarin exposure minimal in current atmospheric conditions, stand by to-“ He stops speaking as Heather slaps his shoulder to get his attention and points to the window.

Outside the group notices the approaching APC and cargo truck are quickly reversing course, with the convoy in the distance suddenly being covered by a smoke screen, obscuring the vehicles from view.

Down below the smaller force surrounding the hummer is quickly falling back as smoke grenades erupt around the hummer, the soldier manning the machine gun falling over the side of the vehicle in his haste to get away. Riley gives the group a thumbs up and mentions they need to keep selling it, tossing the radio to heather before running off down the stairs. (As Riley’s player passed me a short note with his plans, which I greeting with a smile and a note back telling him the requisite skill check and difficulty)

Heather on the Radio in a panicked voice: “This is Anvil, main target is a bust, I repeat, main target is a bust, they’re rabbiting, what are your orders?”

Jessy taking the radio back from Heather: “Spearhead to all engagement forces, go to radio silence and pursue convoy with MBT’s at distance, and wait for rogue element to update with convoys new position and status; I say again, maintain radio silence and pursue convoy with main battle tanks at range and wait for rogue element info.”

(The former bit of improv was pulled off surprisingly smoothly by the group, with them using a near by empty juice bottle as a prop for the in game radio; and playing off each others convos without a hitch once Riley’s player got things rolling.

I was originally going to call for a few knowledge: military etiquette or performance skill checks to see if their bluff worked, but with how well everyone did with this bit of unexpected bluffing I decided to let them succeed without a skill check.)

As Jessy moves to pass the radio to Renee, a loud explosion outside the building knocks them off their feet, several windows shattering form the concussion wave. As they pick themselves off the ground they notice the wrecker truck in flames just outside the garage, a coil of oily smoke erupting from the wreckage.

As Jessy, Renee, and Heather look at one another in bafflement they see Riley outside giving them a thumbs up next to the hummer, where they all quickly rejoin him. Riley grins and explains he used a welding tank from the garage and a little improvised demolitions (and demolitions skill check which he scored a critical success on) to make it appear from a distance their surprise package had taken out the hummer.

Their morale bolstered by the brilliant plan the group agrees not to stick around long enough for the military convoy to see through their diversion, and decide to abandon the damaged cargo truck in favor of the well maintained hummer the recon force was kind enough to leave behind in their haste to withdraw.

Wasting little time the group piles into the Hummer and undamaged cargo truck, (Dubbing the hummer “Hammer” and the cargo truck “Anvil”)  Jessy taking a couple extra minutes to spark a cheery blaze inside the farmhouse, hoping the ensuing fire will further cover their retreat. As the group drives away in a south east angle through the cornfields, Heather makes a startling inquiry: “Anyone seen Thomas around since the military arrived?”

* * * * *

Will the groups newly acquired Hummer and .50 caliber machine gun prove helpful in their upcoming trials? Will Thomas’s whereabouts be revealed? Will Charlie Company find them again? Find out in the next adventure synopsis #23, coming soon!

 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!

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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.

Related articles

• 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)

From Michael Garcia

Michael recently put these random events tables together with help from the GM Mastery Yahoo! Group. Thanks for letting me put them in RPT Michael!

d100 Spring Current Events

01-12 Nothing

13 Alliance Offer

14 Ancient Ruin Discovered

15-20 Banditry

21-25 Border Dispute

26-30 Bumper Crop

31 Charlatan

32-34 Clashes At Sea

35 Corruption Discovered

36 Crop Blight

37 Earthquake

38 Enemy Leader Rises

39 Extreme Manpower Shortage

40 Fire

41-49 Flood

50 Foreign Emissary

51 Founding Of An Order

52 Guild War

53 Heresy

54 Holy Man Emerges

55-56 Hunnar Raids

57-58 Important Birth

59-60 Important Marriage

61 Inactive War

62 Inflation

63 Inspiring Artist

64-65 Livestock Rustlers

66-69 Manpower Shortage

70 Meteorite Strike

71 Mysterious Beast

72 New Artistic Movement

73 New Resource Discovered

74 Organized Crime

75 Peasant Rebellion

76-80 Pirate Raids

81-84 Plague

85 Protest

86-88 Refugees

89 Shocking Crime

90 Signs In The Sky

91-93 Storm At Sea

94 Tornado

95 Treasure Found

96 Tribute

97 Unauthorized Conscription

98 Unexpected Guests

99 Volcano Erupts

100 Witch Hunt

d100 Summer Current Events

01-10 Nothing

11 Alliance Offer

12 Ancient Ruin Discovered

13-20 Banditry

21-28 Border Dispute

29 Charlatan

30-32 Clashes At Sea

33 Corruption Discovered

34 Crop Blight

35-39 Drought

40 Earthquake

41 Enemy Leader Rises

42 Fire

43-49 Flood

50 Foreign Emissary

51 Founding Of An Order

52 Guild War

53 Heresy

54 Holy Man Emerges

55-56 Hunnar Raids

57-58 Important Birth

59-60 Important Marriage

61 Inactive War

62 Inflation

63 Inspiring Artist

64-67 Livestock Rustlers

68 Meteorite Strike

69 Mysterious Beast

70 New Artistic Movement

71-72 New Resource Discovered

73 Organized Crime

74 Peasant Rebellion

75-77 Pirate Raids

78-84 Plague

85 Protest

86-88 Refugees

89 Shocking Crime

90 Signs In The Sky

91-92 Storm At Sea

93 Tornado

94 Treasure Found

95 Tribute

96-97 Unauthorized Conscription

98 Unexpected Guests

99 Volcano Erupts

100 Witch Hunt

d100 Autumn Current Events

01-18 Nothing

19 Alliance Offer

20 Ancient Ruin Discovered

21-24 Baby Boom

25-29 Banditry

30 Border Dispute

31-34 Bumper Crop

35 Charlatan

36-40 Clashes At Sea

41 Corruption Discovered

42 Crop Blight

43 Earthquake

45 Enemy Leader Rises

46 Extreme Manpower Shortage

47-49 Fire

50 Foreign Emissary

51 Founding Of An Order

52 Guild War

53 Heresy

54 Holy Man Emerges

55-56 Hunnar Raids

57-58 Important Birth

59-60 Important Marriage

61 Inactive War

62 Inflation

63 Inspiring Artist

64-65 Livestock Rustlers

66-71 Manpower Shortage

72 Meteorite Strike

73 Mysterious Beast

74 New Artistic Movement

75-78 New Resource Discovered

79 Organized Crime

80 Peasant Rebellion

81-88 Pirate Raids

89 Plague

90 Protest

91 Refugees

92 Shocking Crime

93 Signs In The Sky

94-95 Storm At Sea

96 Treasure Found

97 Tribute

98 Unexpected Guests

99 Volcano Erupts

100 Witch Hunt

d100 Winter Current Events

01-20 Nothing

21 Alliance Offer

22-27 Avalanche

28-31 Banditry

32-36 Blizzard

37 Border Dispute

38-45 Brutal Winter

46 Charlatan

47 Clashes At Sea

48 Corruption Discovered

49 Earthquake

50 Enemy Leader Rises

51-58 Fire

59 Foreign Emissary

60 Founding Of An Order

61 Guild War

62 Heresy

63 Holy Man Emerges

64-68 Hunnar Raids

69-74 Ice Clan Raids

75-77 Important Birth

78 Inactive War

79 Inflation

80 Inspiring Artist

81-83 Manpower Shortage

84 Meteorite Strike

85-87 Mysterious Beast

88 New Artistic Movement

89 New Resource Discovered

90 Organized Crime

91-93 Protest

94 Refugees

95 Shocking Crime

96 Signs In The Sky

97 Storm At Sea

98 Tribute

99 Unexpected Guests

100 Volcano Erupts

“I can’t help but wonder if this whole undead business is restricted to humans or if it affects animals too.” –Riley, pondering the effects of “the wave.”

“You do know humans are just another animal in the grand scheme of evolution right? –Renee, showing off her intellect yet again.

“Ssh! Not so loud, you might tempt fate into having us find out!” -Heather, displaying an unusually superstitious fear of fate. (And of tempting the GM)

Adventure #20

After returning to war wag one the group carefully secures the vehicle, Heather making sure to check underneath the truck and in back for any unwanted passengers, her dogs continually glancing back up road at the wreckage of hamburger lane in the distance, faint shadows of movement visible in the fading light.

As darkness falls over the group they quickly discuss whether to abandon war wag one until dawn and seek safe refuge elsewhere for the night, or to make the repairs using flashlights and quickly leave the area before their noise and commotion draw more undead down upon them.

Renee helpfully points out they have no clue where a safe place to spend the night even is, and they would be burning even more fuel to return and repair the truck the next day, the group reluctantly agrees to make the repairs that night, Riley mentioning the cigarette light adapter for the soldering iron should prove sufficient to make the repairs inside of a couple of hours.

While Riley and Thomas struggle to repair the holed radiator the rest of the group set up a defensive perimeter, with Renee laying on top of war wag one with her rifle to pick off any incoming corpses while Heather and her dog walk Patrol, Jessy heating up dinner for everyone using a few cans of sterno and a portable camping stove in the back of war wag two, grateful for a chance to be off his injured leg; the bullet wound from over a week ago still not fully healed.

No sooner did everyone stop to eat, when they noticed Heather’s two dogs abandoning their meal to growl at the darkness beyond the headlights of war wag two, the low rumble of the trucks engine drowning out any attempts to hear what within the shadows. Suggesting it was scavengers drawn by the smell of the cooking food Renee flicked on the light under her shotgun and swept it across the cornfield, the swaying stalks making it impossible to see more than a few short feet within.

Dropping their food the group draws their weapons and Heather’s dogs back up closer against her they hear a faint moan, echoing on the wind, joined soon after by a half-dozen more, the origin unknowable in the wind and darkness, although Jessy insists it’s from up the road where Hamburger lane is located.

Forming into a defensive circle the group decide to quickly refill the still damaged radiator and put as much distance between themselves and this area before the vehicle overheats and forces them to stop again, Riley certain the few leaks that remain would allow them to make at least twenty miles or more.

All seems quiet as they split up into teams and start to re-enter war wags one and two, (with Thomas offering to ride in the back of war wag two with Heather’s dogs) However, as heather steps up to enter war wag two’s driver seat, (and botches her perception roll) she catches a flash of a black shadow from the side seconds before it slams into her, sending her tumbling sideways into the cornfield and out of sight, a predatory growling arising from the blackness as her dogs leap from the back of war wag two to the rescue, Renee blinking in surprise at Heather’s sudden disappearance.

(GM note: Originally I had planned to attack the last person to enter a vehicle with this deadly aggressor, which I expected to be poor Thomas. However, Heather made sure her pups and Thomas were loaded first before entering the vehicle herself, making her the unlucky target.

Botching her perception roll, and then failing her unarmed combat/dodge rolls made this attack far more effective than I originally planned, but since this is a survival horror game I let the dice fall as they wished and ran with it.)

Screaming out a warning Renee dives back out of the cargo truck and charges into the cornfield after her girlfriend, the frenzied barking of Heather’s dogs, and the screeching of the unknown attacker drowning out all attempts at normal conversation, Jessy and Riley running close behind as fast as their injuries would allow.

Roughly eight or so feet inside the cornfield Renee’s shotgun mounted light highlights a scene of gruesome carnage, with Heathers’ bloody form lying in a patch of broken corn stalks, one of her dogs broken body limply splayed across her, a bright spray of arterial blood and entrails covering them both, to their right, mere inches away Heathers’ remaining dog rolls in a tangle of fur and fangs with a heavily muscled black shape, the twisting and thrashing of their forms making identification of the monstrosity all but impossible.

Raising her shotgun Renee fires blindly into the tangled mass, fearing more for her safety then the life of  Heathers’ canine companion. Her shotgun slug misses both creatures, the loud explosion of sound panicking the attacking monstrosity as it rolls backwards away from the blood soaked dog, hissing in outrage; Heathers’ light illuminating the sleek muscled form of a blank panther. (An escapee from the zoo months earlier.)

As Renee racks the shotgun to chamber a fresh round Jessy and Riley arrive on the scene and open fire with abandon into the panther, sending it spinning into the cornstalks in a shower of blood and fury. In the aftermath Renee collapses to her knees, cradling Heathers’ head in her arms and crying, Jessy choking back the taste of bile as it rises in his throat, Riley, remaining eerily calm as he recalled he’d seen lots worse in his tour of Iraq, and deeply wishing they had a real doctor for situations like this.

Pushing the gutted canine from on top of her, Riley does a quick examination of Heather, noting the large welt on her head and the deep lacerations across her ribs and shoulder, reassuring Renee that while seriously injured and unconscious, she was still alive, but needed stitches and a compress to stay that way.

The quick sense of relief at his news vanished as more gunshots are heard from behind them, back at the parked military vehicles, the bark of Thomas’s .308 Springfield a sharp reminder danger was still close at hand. Rising to the occasion Jessy tells the rest to “Get Heather and her mutt loaded into war wag one, I’ll help Thomas hold off whatever else has found us and follow you in wag two.” before charging off into the darkness towards Thomas, ignoring everyone else’s protests.

Leaving the rest to care for Heather, Jessy emerged from the cornstalks to find several undead scattered across the road, Thomas gripping a .45 1911 in one hand while leaning out of the back of the truck, giving Jessy a silent thumbs up, offering up only six words in explanation. “Stayed behind to watch your back.”

Nodding to Thomas who began to reload his rifle, Jessy wastes no time running back to the front of the truck and pulling it around behind war wag one, sighing in relief as Heather and her surviving dog are loaded into the back by Renee and Riley, Renee returning to the driver’s seat and pulling away, leaving Riley in back to apply first aid, Jessy following close behind and hoping his trucks light will help Riley see well enough to tend to Heathers’ Injuries.

Upfront in war wag one, Renee struggles to keep sight of the road through her tears and makes a panicked distress call over the CB, asking for anyone in range with medical skills to please respond, anyone…

* * * * *

Will Heather and her dog survive their injuries? Will the partial repairs to war wag one prove sufficient? Will Renee’s distress call be answered? Find out in the next adventure synopsis #21, coming November 6th!

Hi Johnn,

I am new to being a GM and have only been running a D&D campaign for about 6 weeks now. I’m a high schooler and have convinced some friends who have never played before to play.

Due to schoolwork and activities it is hard to get everyone to come all together, which makes it difficult to keep a story going.

What should I do to get a story or campaign to stay consistent? And how do I manage PCs when they are gone?

Several readers wrote in with great tips. Thanks very much!

Tristan, I hope the following advice helps you out. Good luck with your campaign.

Here’s A List Of Possible Reasons

From Dan,

Hi Tristan,

Come up with a list of things a PC might be doing while his player isn’t at the session. Even better, make sure you can introduce the PC mid-game if the player shows up late.

For example, a PC can oversleep. To the remaining players, just say, “Binkie the Elf oversleeps, so you pin a note to his shirt and set off for the dungeon without him.” If the player shows up later, you can say, “A door behind you bursts open and you see Binkie leap out, into the fray, his sword drawn. Roll a d20!”

There are a bunch of other things that a PC might be doing without his player:

• Scouting ahead
• Guarding the rear
• Guarding the party’s camp
• Giving orders (“Go to the dungeon. I’ll supervise from here!”)
• Simply missing (“Can’t find Binkie; let’s go without him.”)
• On a personal adventure (“Binkie had to help his mom.”)
• Being trained or training somebody else
• Talking to the King or some other VIP
• Taking the long way around
• Tracking a monster
• Sick or hung-over
• Wounded or limping
• Repairing equipment
• Visiting an oracle or sage

If a player is gone for a while, you can briefly explain, “Binkie says, ‘The orcs have attacked my hometown so I must leave, my friends. Fare thee well!” Then, if the player returns, “‘Hail, my good friends! My hometown is safe and we can take up our fellowship again!’”

With some practice, a GM can become good at inventing useful explanations for the PCs of absent players.

By briefly using the PCs as NPCs, you can also keep the story going.

Even if the PC is vital to the story, with practice a GM can come up with some explanation why he isn’t with the party or needs to leave the party.

In time, you’ll be able to smoothly insert and remove PCs from the game with a variety of explanations. The other players will even wonder whether you planned them all along.

You can also use the excuses as opportunities to make your story fuller: when the PC returns, he can give a brief report about things that are happening offstage in your campaign.

Create A Campaign Chronology

From Jeremy

A campaign chronology that says what each player did on a certain game date helps.

Developing some out-of-game email correspondence also helps. We send the dwarf and the wizard to investigate legends in the local village while we plunge on into the dungeon. Gives a good deus ex machina reason why the other characters suddenly reappear.

One meta game thing I’ve seen done is that the missing PCs are present but incredibly dumb. They’re guarding the rear, feeling poorly or are stone miniatures. They don’t contribute unless the GM needs a voice in the party, and they’re basically non-entities. But when their player returns they become active.

Another possibility is to revolve the campaign around any steady players that are always there and use the others are supporting guys.

Work That Trapdoor, Baby!

From Loz Newman

One way to handle campaigns with sometimes absent players is to use it to your advantage. Set up an over-arching organisation, mentor or academy that “selects agents to fit the mission.”

The PCs currently at the table aren’t the only ones capable of fulfilling the mission goal. The story becomes broader, and thus can take hits and keep on coming back for more.

The mission goal is now set by the Organisation, and thus out of the players’ hands. In reality, the players set up their plans and – my, what a coincidence! – they exactly match the Organisation’s plans.

DMs may take the occasion to insert a bit of common sense or impose minor secondary mission goals improvised to give specific PCs a chance to shine.

Sometimes it’s a real stretch to justify why PC A is included, and vastly-more qualified PC B isn’t. Players should accept this as an attempt to give an acceptable in-game reason for an absent player’s PC not being around.

• “He’s off chasing down a lead.”
• “He’ll join you later.”
• “He’s having / had travel problems.”

If the scenario is a follow-on to the previous campaign, this can be hard to explain. So, there is only one possible solution: a cosmic trapdoor swallowed him whole and spat out the PC who’s taking his place!

“He was teleported in by a friendly mage/Mad Scientist, but unfortunately the Resonantial mass-swap Zarkoff Hyper-curve Trapdoor-Rebound-effect exchanged him with PC A. Dang, we’ve got to get that bug ironed out someday! Oh, well, no help for it. Let’s get started, we’re running out of time!”

SUIM (“Shut Up, It’s Magic!”), which means “Don’t Waste Time Looking For An Explanation, Let’s Get Our Game On!” If logic gets in the way, it’s going to get steamrollered.

I used this technique during an eight-year-long Knights of Saint Seiya game, and it worked without a hitch, all the time, every time. The players and the GMs wanted it to work, so that all the players could get maximum in-game fun. And that’s the goal.

Long live the Cosmic Trapdoor!

Let Players Run The Absent Player’s Character

From Biff

Most of my players are older and we have jobs and families. Sometimes work overtakes play, so we run into this problem often. What works best for us is to let the players run the absent players characters. I like to keep some things secret (stats, alignment) so I don’t give them full-blown character sheets but just the basics.

This helps me by allowing my players to have everyone still work as a team. And it takes a lot of the burden off of me.

However, I do not let players use the PC as fodder, and it’s known that at any time I can veto what a PC does under the direction of the group if it goes against the PC’s historical actions or I think the PC is being abused.

Also, I let the absent player know that his character will be played and that they won’t be getting any XP, but will still be along for the ride and usually the rest if the players share the spoils with them.

The alternative I’ve found is to run the PC myself, but that can get tiresome and frustrating because I have enough to keep up with running the game.

This has also worked, I might add, with a party NPC that was created in the early days of the game to give the characters some extra muscle and I just forgot to have him leave when the characters could deal with fights better on their own. Our party wizard usually runs the character so that, when he’s out of spells or in a fight he isn’t very effective in, he can still join the group and not just sit and watch.

Give Them A Quiet Exit

From Stuart

When I was in high school, I just quietly had a character exit at the first opportunity, typically because I didn’t feel comfortable running someone else’s character. PCs always had individual goals, so it was a simple matter of facilitating a character’s exit and then allowing them to complete a personal goal whenever there was time.

I still prefer the quiet exit tactic whenever possible. In a more recent occult horror game, a missing player’s character mysteriously disappeared, returning with missing time and a synthetic kidney that helped reinforce the UFOlogy theme of the game.

You have a few other options, though. Some GMs take control of the character for the session, trying to make fair decisions while the player is absent. Others just have the character in the background (The Gamers by Dead Gentlemen Productions shows this trope in action).

Even though it’s not something I would be inclined to use, I think I may have come around to the Occam’s Razor approach used during D&D Encounters sessions. Since these are played at game shops and do have not the benefit of a guaranteed player base from one session to the next, any player absences are simply ignored.

The game continues with whoever arrives that session, and people who drop in and out are just brought up to speed at the next session. While this may not be the best option in terms of the narrative, I’ve found it actually works if everyone is amenable.

Additionally, it works nicely in situations where gaming time is limited and the extra narrative time necessary to explain an absence would be a liability.

Get your players together and discuss what’s best for all. Maybe they’re all right with letting you play their characters until a given character can make his or her exit. Maybe they’re all right with the idea of glossing over player absences. These are all things to consider.

At The Will Of A Patron

From Chad

This is a chronic problem in face-to-face gaming. School, work or family obligations often interfere with regular attendance at scheduled gaming sessions.

Over the years , borrowing something I picked up playing Champions (where it can be purchased when building a character) and RuneQuest (where it was pretty much a given part of character background) I have developed a fairly genre-independent technique for addressing unpredictable player attendance.

From the outset, as part of their individual backstories (or in the case of Tristan’s already-underway game, as a specific adventure hook) I contrive to have each member of the PC party be a member of some more-or-less-powerful organization to whom the character has a part-time obligation.

This organization, in exchange for being an occasional source of information and logistical support for adventuring activities, can in turn be expected to demand the services of one or more of the PCs with little warning or opportunity for avoidance.

The PCs can all be members of the same organization (this goes a long way toward explaining how they know each other and why they are hanging out together in the first place) or for experienced or bold GMs, different – even rival – organizations (cf. Paranoia’s obligatory Secret Societies, for example).

Professional guilds, fraternal orders, temples and sects make excellent benefactors of this type. I have had the most success with the technique in a science fiction setting using the vagaries of Traveller’s Scout Service to shanghai individual “Detached Duty” Scout player characters. I had steered all the players into choosing this as a background with tales of exciting adventure and the lure of a free starship.

This sort of thing worked just as well for RuneQuest, RuneLords and RuneMasters back in the day. When the pantheon calls, the faithful must answer promptly or else there will be a reckoning. The Powers That Be know what they are doing, no matter how important the current adventure might seem to the PCs at the moment.

This then provides a handy excuse for any player (or players) who could not participate in that week’s chapter: duty has called them away to attend to official business. Upon player return in a subsequent gaming session, they might even bring with them new characters and new plot threads.

This is an excellent way to bring new players into the group. Have the relevant someone concoct a brief backstory of how the newbie and the absent character went on this awesome mission together. They became colleagues, and oh, by the way, heard this interesting rumor or found a mysterious clue that seems like it might have something to do with what the rest of the party has been up to in the meantime.

This works equally well for introducing all types of new NPCs.

The point is to build (or in the present case, add) something into the background of the characters, both individually and as a group, that provides a limited benefit to their adventuring activities in exchange for an occasional time-consuming obligation. Then use meeting that obligation as the reason for a character needing to sit out a session or two.

The downside is that this forces a bit of extra planning on the part of the GM. Each gaming session needs to be a somewhat self-contained chapter. And it must end with the characters at some place or other from which party members might reasonably be split off or re-join.

The effort is worth it, though, if it keeps the overall story moving forward.

A steady NPC presence can facilitate continuity in this regard. It can be helpful to provide some puppet the GM can use to keep driving the plot forward, even if said plot tends to wander all over the map as such things are apt to do when player-characters are involved.

by Silveressa

“Thomas Baker? An interesting name for a Bakery store owner.” –Heather, musing over their new acquaintances name.

“Back in the day it was common for people to have last names based on their profession. Smith would be a blacksmith, Carpenter a woodworker, and so forth. –Renee, showing off her intellect.

“If that’s true, then what about John Hancock?” Jessy, being a dirty old man, like usual.

Adventure #19

Riley takes little time in yelling up to Heather and the rest how the sniper assisted him against the zombies, after which they quickly regroup outside next to war wag two (seeming to forget the earlier moans of the third remaining zombie in the clothing store) Initially the group is unsure whether to trust the snipers aid, Jessy voicing his concern the man may be baiting them into the open for a clearer shot so as to conserve ammo. After several minutes of debate the group hears the sound of a car engine, and peering around the corner of the clothing store spot a light blue sedan driving up the main street from the bakery towards them, a white flag attached to the antenna.

Reading their weapons the groups nervously awaits the newcomers’ arrival, the moans of a zombie seeming to mix in with the approaching vehicle, although no one was able to detect the source. Upon its arrival the drivers’ door opens and an older man in his mid forties steps out, several days’ growth of beard covering his face that breaks into a toothless grin upon seeing the group.

He quickly introduces himself as Thomas Baker, and apologies profusely for the unintended bullet into the trucks windshield upon their arrival, gesturing to the dead child zombie and mentioning that it was perched on top their roof and he was trying to pick it off before it could ambush them when they stopped.

While slightly doubtful of the truth behind his claim, the group decides to take him at his word, and begins an inquiry as to what happened within the town, and why he was here by himself, Heathers two dogs growling and pacing uncertainly. (This put the group even more on edge about this new comer, and focused all their attention on him.)

While Renee patched Riley’s new injuries with the trucks medical kit, Thomas quickly recounted his tale of “The Wave” and how the town tore itself apart in the aftermath, when even his own wife who had died of the pandemic arose and a walking dead and he was “forced to put her down like a rabid dog.” As he finishes his tale with recounting his survival within the brick bakery living off the supplies he had in the cellar, the sounds of shattering glass echo across the town followed a fraction later by a body plummeting from the second story window of the clothing store to land nearly on top of poor Thomas.  (Queuing up an .mp3 of breaking glass made everyone at the table jump as well, which worked nicely, throwing everyone off balance and refocusing their attention which had been drifting during Thomas’s tale.)

The groups panic at finding an enraged zombie in their midst after being lulled into a sense of relaxation by the mans story proved disastrous, with none of them prepared for the assault, every scrambling for their guns and rolling out of the way, leaving Thomas to face the zombie in unarmed combat for several dangerous seconds. Jessy was the first to recover, raising his MP5 to unleash a full auto fusillade at the zombie, only to have Riley kick the gun from his hands, yelling that he would hit Thomas as well. (This upset Jessy’s player to no end, spoiling what would have been a critical strike on the zombie.)

As Thomas fell to the ground screaming, Heathers two dogs leaped upon the zombie, tearing into its rotted form and giving Renee an opening to drag their new found companion to safety as heather carefully dispatched the walking corpse with a single bullet to the head. As Renee checked over Thomas for injuries Riley and Jessy got into a heated argument about friendly fire, Jessy claiming he was preparing to shoot but was going to hold fire for a clear shot, and Riley recounting his numerous full auto experiences before this as evidence of his lack of trigger discipline.

The inter group argument was ended abruptly by the declaration from Heather that “Either you both knock it off or I’ll find the ugliest pair of granny panties in that store and wear’em till doomsday!” (This made Renee’s player laugh hard enough to shoot Pepsi out her nose, allover her character sheet, and completely diffused the mounting tension outside of game.) Blinking in shock at Heathers statement both Riley and Jessy blushed several shades of crimson, and dropped the argument entirely as Thomas looked on in bewilderment and Renee choked, Riley quickly changing the subject to that of auto repair, and citing how important it was to be back on the road before darkness overtook the town.

After a quick inquiry to Thomas as to the towns’ layout, the groups piled into war wag two and headed to the hardware store, spending little time in ransacking the place to essentials, Jessy in a flash of brilliance suggesting they use soldering tool to patch the holes in the radiator, which the rest of the group happily agreed with. After gathering some other supplies, mostly flashlights, batteries, and several sets of hand held two way radios.

After some more discussion of the fate of the world with Thomas, and how he would be better off with them, the group drove back to war wag one with their new team mate and his bolt action Enfield rifle, hopeful the truck repair and next leg of their journey would be less eventful.

* * * * *

Will Thomas prove to be a useful ally to the group? Will Jessy finally learn trigger discipline? Will Heathers ongoing commando style of dress continue? Find out in the next adventure synopsis #20, coming October 2^3rd!

The Assassination Game @ Lungfishopolis – How to do assassins well as PCs or NPCs.

My Home Brew Old Hack: What about Assassins? Need them or not? @ The Geek Life Project – Grogtard talks about his OSR homebrew game and whether assassins should be a class.

Assassins in My Game @ World of Alidor – Jon says assassins are silly and why. (Consider your Coin of the Dead scooped for my campaign!)

Grupo de Asesinos @ El Hacedor de Dados – Talks about the assassin theme, in Spanish!

Asesinos @ Laboratorio Friki – And Spanish blog post about assassins. Also check out their second post for the carnival, Asesinos, como encajarlos en una partida.

Almas Blancas/White Souls @ La Choza del Friki – Another Spanish post that picks up the gauntlet.

Assassins in RPGs – Character Class or Character Type? @ Roleplaying Market – Looks at an alternate idea of what an assassin class could be. I agree.

RPG Carnival: Gremio de Asesinos de Canalburgo @ Los chismes del Narrador – Another Spanish blog, with a first-time entry in a blog carnival.

Assassins @ Board Enterprises – Asks who is the most useful assassin-type in games.

RPG Blog Carnival: Character Types – Part 17 – The Assassin @ Reality Refracted – Talks about running assassins as a GM and playing them as a player.

just a job to do @ Fame & Fortune – Offers three historical iconic assassins.

And STAY Dead! @ Lizard’s Gaming Blog – Offers a collection of items and rituals designed to aid in killing NPCs. (I could have used his Oil of Eternal Silence earlier in my Riddleport campaign.)

Inspirational Viewing – The Mechanic (1972) @ Sea of Stars RPG – Reviews the Bronson Classic about a professional world-weary killer.

Aptitud de asesino @ Detras de la Pantalla – A Spanish post the covers the assassin class plus another post about an unexpected type of killer.

Roleplaying Tips offered two articles on the topic – How to Contact and Hire an Assassin and 5 Effective Combat Tactics For Assassins.

And Campaign Mastery celebrates the upcoming release of a product Mike and Johnn worked on called Assassin’s Amulet -

• The Creation Of A Deity: The Origins Of Cyrene
• Dark Shadows In The Night: Lessons from the writing of Assassin’s Amulet
• Five (Plus One!) Effective Combat Tactics for Assassins
• 50 Assassin Hooks
• Roleplaying Assassins: An excerpt from Assassins Amulet.

Thanks to everybody who contributed to the RPG Carnival. I hope you had a lot of fun writing about this classic game element.

Be sure to head over to October’s carnival, Making The Loot Part Of The Plot.

For the first time, the PCs deliver a major blow to a faction in the city, and they do it on purpose.
‘Till now, the group has been reacting to things happening to them and around them.

Things were different this time. They had a goal, made a plan and executed it as a team. Unfortunately, their chosen enemy had a few surprises in store for them.

Calistril 27, 4708AR

The Chalice Bastards, as the PCs are called by the locals, head back to the recently discovered caves under the city. They return to the harem-like chamber to confront the short, turban-topped man they encountered before.

The PCs wanted answers. The bad news: the man is gone. The good news: his harem isn’t. The characters use all their charm and guile to weasel information from the ladies and learn the man’s name is Epherion and that he is a smuggler lord.

Then the PCs learn that one of the girls is actually Felicia, Gaston Cromarchy’s daughter. Gaston is Riddleport’s leader. The PCs ponder over the implications of this as they return to their inn.

Gang Duties

Vigor and Crixus speak with Rictus (their vampiric patron) trading the info gleaned from the caves for their weekly payment. Rictus agrees to forgo another payment if Epherion is killed.

The PCS also sell Rictus the Rod of Lordly Might found as treasure awhile ago. Back when they were first level, I’m sure none of the characters in their wildest dreams thought they’d ever give up an item like this willingly. But their current debts and obligations weigh heavy.

The rest of the party goes to see why Wren is late with their fence money, only to find her dismembered in her apartment. The group investigates the grisly scene and find a note written in blood by her hand that says “Saul.”

Further investigation and NPC interaction ensues. The group learns Epherion is staying at a nunnery of Shelyn, which also happens to be HQ for the drow faction. Rictus tells them their top priority is to find Igwilv’s Prize in the caverns.

We Challenge You

With most of the session spent exploring and roleplaying, there’s time left for one encounter. We decide to play a bit late to fit it in.

Long story short, Vigor the paladin picked up a negative level a few sessions ago. When he asked for relief from his church, they said if he killed the dragonspawn leader, Akiku, his glory would be restored.

So, the PCs concoct a plan to whack the faction leader. They do some investigation and learn he would be susceptible to a personal challenge from Rictus, lord to lord, to an arena match between their champions.

The PCs arrange this and plan an ambush for Akiku as he travels with his entourage to the arena for the noon spectacle.

Battle!

The Bastards open up with an ambush in the streets – a retinue of dragonspawn pass by and Akiku follows five minutes behind with four dragonspawn animals as an escort. He is slain quickly, his corpse illusioned to look like a covered wagon, and is then dragged back to the inn for “processing” by the PCs.

The paladin’s glory returns and the PCs quickly gear up for their arena battle. Though the leader is dead, honour compels them to complete the challenge against the dragonspawn champion. The session ends as the PCs grimly head to the fight.

Post Game Analysis

This session played in late June and ended Season One of the campaign.

We have a brief discussion at the end of the session. The players are frustrated by the lack of party cohesion and purpose.

In a previous RPT issue I talked about there being good stress from challenging play and bad stress from poor GMing, campaign structure or gameplay element.

While the players love the content of the campaign – survival in an evil pirate city factioned-up by eight crime lords and their monstrous allies – they dislike the constant party friction from all the personal side plots and different directions everybody wants to go.

In my mind the irony is that, in a campaign with freedom to do whatever they want, the PCs choose to disagree.

However, the problem is my fault for not working with the group on more integrated backgrounds from the beginning, with mutual and multiple goals for the PCs to pursue as a group.

Further, in this campaign I’m holding the cards close to my chest. I want the PCs to work at gathering information and untangling all the faction and NPC relationships and plots.

However, in a group of six PCs where each has their own circle of NPC contacts, side plots and goals, it’s difficult achieving the unity needed to successfully interact with NPCs. When it takes a lot of party discussion to decide which NPCs, locations or clues to investigate next, gameplay slows.

That structure is my fault. Plus, I’m also paying for not spending more time before campaign start designing various game elements, such as key NPCs and locations. In a sandbox campaign, it’s essential to do a certain amount of prep so you can lead the PCs better with clues and information if they get stuck.

We ended Season One with great feedback and keen interest to resume play in the fall, but with a slightly different campaign structure to keep gameplay rolling along fast and furious.

Resources Used

No new GM aids or tools used this time. Primarily the 1st edition AD&D module, Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, Monster Manual V for the dragonspawn, and Pathfinder Core Rules. Oh, and my lucky dice, of course.

GM Advice

I’m very glad the players had their heart-to-heart with me. It’s important everybody has fun. Our discussion revealed the game needs to change a bit for the return of maximum fun to Riddleport.

So, I encourage you to stay open to player feedback:

• Ask for it often
• Best time to get it is after a session while details are still fresh
• Do not get defensive or take things personally (probably the hardest thing to do)
• Repeat feedback back to your group to make sure you understand what they’re telling you
• Act on it, but make small tweaks over time instead of sweeping changes all at once