Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #500
Top 100 City Encounters and Plots - Part 1
Contents:
This Week's Tips Summarized
Top 100 City Encounters and Plots - Part 1
- Top 100 City Encounters and Plots - Part 1
Game Master Tips & Tricks
- Links To Laws
- Obstacle Course Ideas
- Extra XP For The Trailer
- Link: Play By Forum Games
- Link: Virtual Gametable Software
- Agents Of The Crown
- Wrack & Rune
- High Valor
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A Brief Word From Johnn
#500!
I started the newsletter in November 1999 as a way to help
everyone, including myself, become a better game master.
That year we were plagued with Y2K panic, Windows 98 was
released, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was
released and Napster launched.
In the RPG world, D&D fans eagerly consumed each issue of
Dragon magazine to learn more about the upcoming release of
3rd Edition. Also, 7th Sea, Aberrant, All Flesh Must Be
Eaten, Lejendary Adventures and Nobilis were released, among
others. (Source:
RPG Encyclopedia: 1999)
In my world, I was just leaving the banking industry and
starting a new career making websites; my friends and I were
playing a lot of D&D, Ars Magica and a bit of Rolemaster;
and I was living in an apartment so small I was renting
storage for my boxes of RPG books and other books.
The newsletter would not have hit the 500 mark without your
tips and feedback over the years. While the game industry
has changed a lot since 1999, running a great game has not,
and your experience and submissions have helped me and GMs
around the world become better at their beloved craft. I
hope you continue to send in and share your tips and ideas.
Roleplaying Tips also owes a debt of gratitude to the many
volunteers who have helped write and edit the newsletter,
plus maintain the website, over the years. Thanks to Scott,
Steve, Hannah, John, David, Erin, Gavin, Leslie, Isaac, Ria
and many others for your help. (I hate doing name lists
because I always miss someone - if that's you, my apologies,
I blame the tinfoil breakfast cereal I eat every day.)
What's in store for RPT in the future? Good question. No big
changes are planned, except one - I am taking the newsletter
bi-weekly again, as various projects and life duties
encroach on time I'd use for the newsletter more and more. I
am currently experimenting with a new RPG Reviews column -
thanks to everyone who sent in positive and negative
feedback about this; more feedback is welcome. The website
has remained unchanged since 2000, and I'd like to make some
improvements on that. I plan on continuing with contests and
the For Your Game column.
Reader Tips will either be phased out or have a sporadic
presence as submissions have basically stopped coming in.
That's a shame as it was a favourite part of the newsletter
for me. I'm open to ideas on how to generate more, but I
think blogs, forums and other venues compete for tipsters'
attention and writing. Contests are a good way to generate
tips, but I like the random one-off tips from readers that
used to pour in back in the day. Perhaps prizes might
generate more submissions, or making tip requests.
I'm toying with the idea of doing interviews with GMs to
draw out more GMing advice and wisdom. If you are interested
in being interviewed, drop me a note.
The RPT blog, campaignmastery.com that I write with Mike
Bourke, has been a tremendous success, so that will
continue. And I have just finished writing a new ebook that
will be released soon, and have started on another, so if
you have liked my works in the past I hope you'll enjoy
what's coming up.
Since issue #1, approximately 2,160,035 words have been
written, edited and published in the newsletter. There have
been approximately 6,500 tips. The newsletter currently
enjoys 5,313 email subscribers, 3,300 RSS subscribers, and
about 20,000 monthly unique website visitors.
That comes to about 30,000 of us trying to become better
GMs! To all of you, I say have more fun at every game by
being the best GM you can. I hope you stick with me for
another 500 issues.
Download All 500 Issues, Plain Text
You can grab all the issues since #1, in plain text format
just like they were published, in a single zipped file.
Get some gaming done this week!
Cheers,
Johnn Four,
johnn@roleplayingtips.com
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Top 100 City Encounters and Plots - Part 1
Over 720 entries were submitted to the City Encounters
contest. That smashes my goal of 500 to celebrate that many
issues - thanks to everyone who entered! Winners have been
contacted and prizes distributed.
All entries will be available for download soon. In the
meantime, I have sifted through and picked 100 entries that
I thought were excellent or that tickled my fancy.
This week, I offer you part 1 - the first 50 entries in my
Top 100. I hope you find these useful for your campaigns.
- The town guard think the party's mage is responsible for
a magical duel fought atop the cathedral roof last night.
Can the party find the real culprit before they are hunted
down themselves? Do they dare, knowing that the criminal
dispatched his last opponent with a frighteningly high level
spell?
- The party is taken aside to the guardhouse upon first
entering the city. They are told the guard captain wants to
speak with them. When the captain arrives, he attempts to
shake down the party under pain of death.
- A woman falls into the street from the second story
window in front of the party and dies on impact. Soon after,
a PC notices a hooded figure skillfully dropping, uninjured,
from another second story window facing into the alley. The
figure quickly disappears into a maze of side streets.
- The party is invited to a manor by an important socialite
for a potential job opportunity. When they arrive, they are
told to wait in an empty room. Soon after entering the room,
the party realizes they are locked in with a magical ward.
- The party stops to witness a funeral procession for a
crime lord. Soon after passing, the party hears an explosion
and sees a gigantic smoking fireball rise into the sky a
block away.
- In need of food and shelter from the elements (or from
enemies), the characters come to a ruined tower full of
revelling adventurers. But the Rules of the House say no one
may enter until they have entertained the rabble with a
rousing tale.
- As you step out of the tavern, a disheveled girl smashes
into you. "Wilkenson's dog is loose again!" she exclaims as
she attempts to hide behind you. You turn back in the
direction she came to see a metal construct resembling a dog
charging toward you.
- The PCs spot a pregnant woman walking through the bazaar.
As she passes the baker's stall she quickly grabs a loaf of
bread and keeps walking, favouring one of the PCs with a
wink as she goes. Is she a thief or the wife of the store
owner?
- The PCs are resting in their inn room when suddenly the
door bursts open. A well-armed man with weapon drawn storms
in and says, "Don't move, I've...crap, wrong room." The
intruder then quickly exits.
- The PCs find the item they have been seeking in the
marketplace. As the purchase is completed and they are about
to leave, a stranger rushes up to the merchant shouting, "I
know you have it Balthasar, and I want my
back now!"
- The inhabitants of a large building start a war against
an identical neighboring building. At the beginning it's
because they are accused of stealing their water, but in
fact they have held many petty grudges for years and this
way they can vent them out violently. The party is hired by
fearful authorities to stop the revolt that threatens to
scale into a civil war, but one of the tenants in the rebel
building is a PC's distant relative. Does the party
intervene impartially, risking a family feud or do they help
the relative exact revenge against his neighbors?
- The party is mistaken by a wealthy man as carriage
caretakers in a shantytown neighborhood. He hands them money
to protect his vehicle. The legitimate caretakers challenge
the PCs and try to steal the wealthy wagon. Does the party
protect the rich man's vehicle or do they leave the locals
to do as they please, risking later persecution by the noble
client?
- 13. The PCs arrive at the inn and find a large group (at
least three times their number) of mercenaries leaving for
the jail where they plan to execute all the prisoners. The
party is connected to one of the inmates (an old, recurrent,
but not particularly hated enemy, maybe they put him behind
bars in the first place) and wishes him to remain alive for
some reason. Do they face the killers, race to save the
prisoner first, warn the prisoners or set them all free?
- The city has a zoo filled with wondrous and dangerous
creatures brought from far places. Just recently, some of
the creatures escaped and now there is a royal reward for
recovering the rare animals unharmed. How can this be done?
- A sector of the city lies under quarantine after an
outbreak of a mysterious fever. The party is being kept
inside, and one of its members is starting to show symptoms
of the illness. Do they try to escape, risking further
contagion, or do they try to find a cure from the inside?
- The PCs are being chased by a criminal party through the
streets of a city that celebrates its anniversary with
improvised shows over plazas. They get caught in the middle
of a show, in front of a demanding audience. The only way
the mob will let them leave is by doing a successful
artistic performance.
- A gypsy intercepts the most charismatic member of the
party and tells him of a vision she had. She predicts the
party member will find a beautiful person in this city and
it will be the love of his life. She provides no further
details. Later on, a beautiful person flirts with the
character.
- One member of the party is seen carrying an exotic
weapon and the authority of the local museum is told about
it. This museum curator has been an adventurer and masters
some kind of whip weapon. He prepares an ambush to steal the
exotic weapon, yelling at the PCs on sight, "That belongs in
a museum!"
- The Tourist. The PCs have messed up (possibly been
framed) in the eyes of the King and have been apprehended.
The King will release the party, if they allow a wealthy,
influential and obese merchant to come along on a dungeon
delve, where there are sure to be many tight spaces.
- Medieval Proliferation. Two blacksmiths are in
competition to create better melee weapons for the King's
army and only one can win the contract. One of the
blacksmiths approaches the PCs to try the weapons and plead
their virtues to the King. He also claims his competitors
are playing dirty.
- Kindergarten Magic. Street urchins are rumored to have
special powers. A representative of the Magicians Guild
approaches your party to investigate. In reality, they are
learning magic from an unknown source. The children have
less inhibition and magical control, but have much more mana
and capability of replenishing mana, making them dangerous
magic users.
- As the PCs turn a corner, a law enforcement officer
slams into them at breakneck speed. As they help him up,
they notice he is covered in blood with grievous wounds. As
he dies in their arms, he begs them to find his wife and
relay his sincerest love and apologies.
- "Psst, do you want to buy a crystal ball that really
works? It's cheap!" says a shady character while sneaking up
on the PCs from an alley. The price really is cheap, and you
might even lead the PCs to believe the ball works when they
try to use it for petty things, but it is unreliable, maybe
even cursed. And the big problem is that one or more groups
of NPCs badly want this crystal ball.
- The PCs witness a break-in at a shop. If they intervene,
then right at the end of the encounter the shop owner shows
up and accuses the PCs of breaking in and causing damage in
his shop. He immediately calls for the guard.
- The party runs over or mortally injures a shepherd's
goat by accident. After apologizing, the shepherd starts
demanding money equivalent to three or four times what the
goat's value is. Then, as things settle down, another
shepherd comes up and displays another goat injured. City
guards start to show an interest in the event as well....
- A merchant discovers the PCs are buying something and
comes to give them a more expensive offer for something of
lesser quality. However, the merchant insists this is a good
deal as his cousin works for the town hall and will cause
great grief to the party if they refuse his offer.
- Two speeding coaches collide, leaving a bloody scene and
angry families. The road is blocked, and the guards seem
disinterested in assisting with either clearing the road or
arbitrating between the families.
- Townspeople come up to the party and blame them for the
local infestation of evil. If the PCs weren't there, so the
argument goes, the evil would go elsewhere. A crowd gathers
in support of their fellow citizens.
- There is but one accepted religion in town. What about
the party cleric who serves what is here deemed a false god?
- Young lovers have taken the PCs' room as refuge to meet
in. They are sought after by families that do not approve.
- Injustice breaks out as revolution against a tyrant. The
PCs are there to see the first flames, and may play a
pivotal role in either supporting or crushing the uprising.
- A fast ship in the bay is bombarding the helpless port
with siege engines. It's out of range for the locals to deal
with, and possibly not alone.
- The PCs hear shrieks from a dark alley where a young
maiden just went. Under the full moon, she is painfully
turning into a werewolf for the first time.
- There have long been rumours of the cemetery being
desecrated by someone stealing the corpses. One night the
PCs chance upon the necromancer walking home with newly
animated undead.
- One or more PCs are short-changed by a merchant who
considers himself untouchable. Whether he truly is....
- An NPC seeks the protection of the PCs. To grant it
makes her enemies the PCs' enemies, and gives them the
responsibility to protect a high-profile, fragile person who
can't or won't leave town.
- PCs are marked by a guild of thieves or assassins for a
contest. Low-skill, would-be guild members keep targeting
the party with attempts on their health or goods.
- The spoiled child of a noble finds a PC has something he
just *has to have*. The noble's staff does what it can to
acquire it, by nearly any means necessary.
- The appearance of the PCs breaks the balance of a cold
war between two rival mages. Each wishes their support to
destroy the other, and fears that the other is successful in
recruiting the PCs.
- A string of building construction accidents has occurred
lately throughout the city. Fortunately, no one's been
seriously hurt, but the accidents are increasing in size and
damage. The local guild has put up flyers asking for help in
solving their problem.
- As the PCs walk across a bridge over the river that cuts
through town, they notice a couple of young boys standing
near the edge of the bridge. They each have a large rock in
their hands, and are watching one of the approaching river
boats with smiles on their faces. As the boat gets closer,
one of the boys raises his rock as if he is going to drop
it.
- While travelling down by the docks, a ship captain waves
the PCs over to talk. He's in a bind, he explains, saying
that some of his dock workers didn't show up for work and he
has a lot of cargo to load onto his ship so he can make the
tide. The captain and crew look disreputable, and nervous,
but he is willing to pay well for the work.
- The PCs come upon a sobbing woman holding a teenage boy
who looks to have been severely beaten. If the PCs ask the
woman if they can help, she explains her youngest son was
beaten up by a gang of toughs. Of more immediate danger
though, is that her oldest son has gone off to exact revenge
on them, and she's afraid of what they will do to him.
- Down the dimly lit alley, two guards can be seen beating
a kneeling man. One rips a coin purse from the kneeling
man's belt and says, "Don't be late next month, old man."
- Storm clouds hang heavy, and thick cold rain pounds down
as it has for hours. Gutters gurgle, and the sewers moan as
if carrying some great weight. From a drain, a swarm of
thousands of black rats burst out and charge the PCs.
- As the PCs are travelling from one district to another
they are confronted by a traffic jam. A building has fallen
in and the umber hulk responsible is hiding, waiting for a
snack to move near it.
- The PCs are hired as security for the auction of a
mysterious artifact. While stopping repeated theft and
auction-rigging attempts, they eventually learn of its evil
nature and have to debate breaking their contract and
destroying the thing while getting away with it.
- Someone falls out the window of a high building. It
wasn't suicide as he had his hands and feet bound together
and three large sacks of gold tied around his neck. What
will be more important, the murder or the money?
- A rich man walks through a bad part of town with obvious
riches and money. If mugged, he gives it willingly. He has
been doing this for the last three days.
- A small animal brushes past the PCs as they walk along a
dock. After it jumps into the water, a group of sailors
rushes onto the dock, firing crossbows and flinging harpoons
at the ripples the animal left in the water. While the
sailors curse and fire the last few missiles they have, one
of the PCs notices the animal left a muddy gem on the top of
her shoe.
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Game Master Tips & Tricks
Have some GM advice you'd like to share? E-mail it to johnn@roleplayingtips.com - thanks!
1. Links To Laws
via the GMMastery Yahoo! Group
From Randal:
Hamurabi's Code of Laws
I found this interesting and educational. I particularly
like rule 5.
It seems like the laws were fairly balanced back then. And
this is Bronze Age stuff. Has anyone done something similar
to this for their game world?
The thing I found balanced was the inter-class laws. Kill a
man and you will be killed. Knock out someone's teeth and
your teeth will be knocked out. Build a house and it
collapses and kills someone, then you will be killed. Very
strict.
I think it is important to give your different cultures some
different laws. For example, the city of Ren is a merchant
society. Almost everything is allowed and every crime is
associated with a fine. If you can't pay the fine then they
amputate parts of the body or sell you into servitude. Kill
someone and you can buy down your punishment. In this city
money is king.
But in T'Aarn, crimes are met with imprisonment, hard labor,
amputation, and death. Very few fines are levied and you
can't buy your way out of punishment. This goes back to the
injustices caused by the wealthy.
In the Empire of Endrak, women have few rights, non-humans
are slaves, humans can be indentured, and the rich can offer
one of their slaves to take their place for punishment.
Thus, death is the most common punishment. They are also
over-crowded and terrified of another slave revolt. There
are secret police who go from town to town to listen for
anti-imperial rumblings and search for heresies against the
God-King.
The Phylinx, cat folk, don't have structured laws, but have
a chieftain court to deliberate and issue punishment. Much of
their law is based on survival. Endanger the group and you
are likely to be banished or sent on a quest of redemption.
Kill someone in a fair fight and you might be praised as a
warrior. Murder someone and your belongings will be seized
and you will be branded and banished.
Most of the time these things hover around in the background
and don't affect the game. But sometimes the law comes into
play so you might as well have a concept of how it works in
your city/campaign.
From Garry Stahl
Atlas of Law
[Comment from Johnn: I think settings are critical to RPG
and important tools for GMs, and the biggest trap is not
designing a setting for game use. Most GMs run a setting as
trivia, looking to use details and novelty to improve
gameplay. Instead, they should look at the setting as a way
to create interesting campaign, adventure and encounter
crucibles.
Laws are a great example of setting design for gameplay. In
my Riddleport game, for example, it is illegal to harm the
property of mages who are members of the Order of Cyphers.
If you steal, damage or destroy a mage's property (and a
mage's health and body are considered his property - but not
his soul) you are struck down and brought to trial by the
Order.
This has made a huge difference in how the PCs handle
encounters with mage NPCs. And on the flip side, NPCs treat
the PC mage with a great deal of respect, or at least, they
do not attack him or steal his stuff. :)
In this case, a setting element was designed with gameplay
in mind.
So, I think GMs should work on their settings a lot - but
not to build a mountain of trivia - rather, to have some
interesting effect on gameplay for short term (encounter) or
long term (campaign) consequences.]
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2. Obstacle Course Ideas
From Josh
re: Roleplaying Tips Issue #335
In response to Jerry's obstacle course request, every once
in awhile I run PCs through things like this. A fun tactic
is to include the entire party, but to divide them up and to
only allow them to fulfill specific functions.
So, maybe the best climber will climb the wall, but the best
archer takes on the role of firing arrows for him to grab so
that he can climb. Then, the group's fighter must defend the
archer from a pack of wild dogs, and the group's spell
caster must keep the fighter alive with healing spells.
In a team effort like this, everyone must do their part. If
the climber is too slow, the fighter and archer will die.
But, if the healer fails to keep the fighter alive, the
climber has no chance to reach the top, etc.
You could apply this teamwork principle as a climax to a
series of regular obstacles to make it more intense. Maybe
the PCs have been chased by the wild dogs through the entire
course, which is why the fighter would need to keep the
archer alive at the end. This would also give a dire sense
of urgency to the group, especially if the fighter was not
allowed to use lethal weapons, only wooden batons or
something of that nature.
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3. Extra XP For The Trailer
From Andrew "BlueNinja" Tripp
With my last group, I was running a game in a TV episodic
format. At the end of every episode, there would be a vote
among the players of which character did the most to advance
the storyline, did the best job of staying in character, or
just plain added the most fun to the episode. The winner
received an extra 1XP (White Wolf system), and the
opportunity to script out the trailer for next week's
episode.
Since all the player scripting the trailer got was a hint,
trailers seldom had anything to do with the actual events of
the episode it was supposed to portray, but it helped
encourage creativity. Depending on the format of the game,
you could call it a trailer, a back-cover synopsis, a
cutscene, etc.
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4. Link: Play By Forum Games
From Andrew "BlueNinja" Tripp
For players looking for games, especially super-hero games,
www.rpg-post.com is a play-by-forum-post site. Our
most popular games right now are Aberrant, Mutants and
Masterminds and BESM, but there's over half a dozen game
systems and two dozen games looking for more players.
Return to Contents
5. Link: Virtual Gametable Software
From Johnn Four
RPT reader Allison emailed me this question:
Hey! I have recently moved 2 hours from my gaming group, and
have no way to keep the campaign going other than with the
help of the internet. Do you know of any instant messenger
type software that has a dice roller and other useful
things built in?
Here was my response:
You have some great options. Each has a bit of a learning
curve, so I suggest checking each out briefly, picking one,
and sticking with it at least three hours before deciding.
Sometimes it just takes awhile to learn how to do the basics
before software's potential opens up for you.
There are others. Looks for a links page at the
Battlegrounds site for a killer list of more software.
Alternatively, you can use IM software like Skype, and a
separate online dice roller. But, I like the software above,
with their added features.
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RPG Reviews
Review by Mike Bourke
I co-referee a Pulp Campaign, and am soon to start a super
hero campaign set in a mid-21st century British Empire, so I
was looking at this product from a number of perspectives.
Unfortunately, it was deficient for all of these purposes
save one: if you are running any sort of pulp or modern
campaign, you *will* get ideas from the content here. As a
source of inspiration, it's quite excellent.
In all other areas, including that of its stated purpose, it
falls short; sometimes by just a little, sometimes by a
quite substantial margin. Perhaps the most serious flaw
comes in the paragraphs devoted to the politics of the
Victorian Government, where the author states "this is too
complicated to summarise here." I'm sorry, that just doesn't
cut it. What IS there is well-done but insufficient and
inadequate.
Much to my surprise, the first chapter, on the origins of
the characters in this game setting, proved to be the most
useful and inspirational. I had expected it to be either the
fourth chapter, the background on the Victorian Era, or the
fifth, which offers a number of NPCs to build scenarios
around, as both allies and antagonists.
There's plenty of value here for anyone running a pulp-style
game, but overall I was disappointed. Don't expect to run
it from this source book and the basic rules alone - you will
need a lot of additional reference and research - there's a
somewhat short starting point in the bibliography.
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Review by Mike Bourke
This is a fun, well-thought-out little adventure. Although
it is designed for Labyrinth Lord, and described as being
compatible only with "older editions" of D&D, it will work
with any D&D-related fantasy game. I would happily run it
for D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder, and expect that it will also work
for 4e.
The module itself is practically a masterclass in logical
scenario creation. It starts by setting up a situation in
which the PCs have a time limit and a puzzle to solve. It
then gives the DM information about the setting of that
puzzle, and deals with the process of investigation in the
sequence that PCs will logically encounter them. It then
gives the GM the solution to the mystery, so that he can put
subsequent encounters and information in context.
A series of connections leads from the starting point to
encounters that in turn provide the different pieces of the
solution, but getting them will need more than combat
skills; it will require roleplay and a bit of nous on the
part of the players. None of it feels unnatural or forced,
and that is a lot harder to pull off than most people think.
The details of these solution points - and a possible side
quest - then lead to the solution to the mystery, but the
PCs problems have only just started; acting on it will
seriously challenge the creativity and battle skills of the
players. So there's something in this module for everyone.
Only a couple of minor problems make this module less than
perfect. The solution to the final problem seems a little
anticlimactic, which is a bit of a let-down, since it falls
just when you would expect it to ramp up for a big finish.
This can easily be fixed with a little creativity on the
part of the GM, but the solution implies a third part to the
adventure, drawing on various elements that are mentioned in
the published material.
The second problem is that the scenario contains a number of
rambling speeches from a slightly senile old woman, but no
real suggestion about how to make the resulting segues
plausible. It would have been nice to at least have the
bones of a narrative thread to follow; this part of the
module gives the impression that it has been written by
someone who has never had a conversation with someone in
that condition, and the result is superficial and rings
false. To avoid undermining this critical element of the
adventure, the GM will have to create these narrative
structures themselves.
Despite these flaws, which suggest that actually playing
this adventure will require a little extra prep time, this
remains a better-written module than many I've read. That is
why those flaws are so jarring - because the rest is so
well-done. Is it worth the asking price? Before I read it, I
was dubious. Now, I answer: absolutely!
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Review by Nick Deane
High Valor is a fantasy roleplaying game set in the world of
Aeia, a fairly standard fantasy world based (like so many
others) on medieval Europe. Beasts and monsters haunt the
wilderness between towns and villages, and the demonic Fane-
Lords seek the corruption and downfall of man. The
characters are heroes who will encounter, and hopefully
thwart, such evils.
At 140 pages the rulebook is a respectable size, with 41
pages focusing on the setting background and 26 pages for
the game master's section. Character creation takes up 23
pages while the basic mechanics take up a total of 5 pages.
Artwork is black and white, and complements the layout and
feel of the book quite nicely.
Character generation is relatively simple. The first step is
to pick your character's race - Dvegr (dwarves), Fomoradgh
(beastmen who rejected the Fane-Lords who created them),
Human, Sidda (fey elves) and Sidhain (magic-tainted humans).
The next step is to pick your character's Traits, abilities
which give bonuses to related checks depending upon their
rank.
The third step is picking a profession, which means adding
more Traits to the character sheet.
Then you allocate dice to your Feat Pools, which are High
Valor's closest equivalents to fixed attributes. Each Feat
Pool - Valor, Faith and Will - starts with 1 dice and five
additional dice to divide between them.
Finally, the payer chooses a Challenge for his character - a
weakness or flaw that will bedevil the character throughout
the campaign, such as Lancelot's forbidden love for
Guinevere in the Arthurian legends.
Game mechanics are straightforward. The player rolls a
number of ten-sided dice equal to the relevant Feat Pool,
takes the highest roll and adds the bonus for up to two
Traits which apply to the situation. If the highest roll is
a 10 then the next highest roll is added to the total.
Traits are merely names or descriptions - it is up to the
player or Teller (as the game master is known in High
Valour) to apply them to checks they feel are relevant. The
target number is determined by the difficulty of the task,
ranging from Lesser to Legendary. Overall, the game
mechanics are quite simple but encourage players to look for
ways to apply their character's most advantageous Traits to
a situation.
This leads into probably my biggest gripe with High Valor -
the combat system doesn't make the grade. While I firmly
believe there's more to roleplaying than simple hack 'n'
slash in a fantasy RPG, battles are an integral component.
The combat system for High Valor simply gives a rank from
Lesser to Legendary representing how capable an opponent is,
which applies to all Traits - attack defence, even
interaction skills. The rank determines the target number to
defeat the creature in one hit, however the combat rules
state that instead of going for a one-shot kill you can try
a series of rolls at a lower level, just like wearing down a
creature's hit points in AD&D.
The big problem is that there are no guidelines for how many
of these lesser rolls you have to succeed at to win the
battle, or if they actually weaken your opponent before you
reach the magic killing number. That is a major failure in
my book. The fact that the monsters of each challenge level
are effectively identical only makes this deficiency even
more glaringly conspicuous.
Despite the failure of the combat system there is a lot of
good stuff in High Valor. One of the things I liked most
about this game, which I feel will also be of great help to
game masters, is the level of supporting material. The
beginning introduction lists a wide variety of possible
themes and goals for a High Valor campaign, from hunting
monsters to gaining renown - not just 'kill things and take
their stuff.'
Each race is given a list of sample names to pick from, but
the authors have also listed the languages those names
derive from, so players can do a little research of their
own to have a wider pool of names to choose from. The
chapter on the world setting covers a wide range of topics,
giving an overview of a number of locations as well as such
details as types of coins and common herbs. Finally, the
chapter on game mastering gives a lot of excellent advice
about game mastering any roleplaying game, not just High
Valor. Printing this chapter separately and giving it out to
new or inexperienced GMs would be a great way to boost their
confidence and avoid many beginner's mistakes.
To sum up, High Valor is a very straightforward and simple
fantasy RPG with an interesting setting and encouragement
throughout the book to role-play rather than roll-play. The
authors have obviously put quite a deal of effort into the
product, as shown by the quality of presentation and the
fluff text. Even with the flaws in the combat system I'd
give this game a 3.5 out of 5. If those problems are fixed
I'd have no hesitation in giving High Valor a 4 out of 5.
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