#RPGADAY2020 18. Meet

#Meet

Ok, meet, in respect to RPGs. Usually, "Meet" is all about how the party gets to know about each other. There are some classic tropes for meeting: 

"They all met at the tavern." 
"You're all locked in adjacent cells." 
"The lord has called upon you for secret mission." 
"The offer seems intriguing, so you make your way to the table." 

As good as all of those are, that isn't what actually happens. I'm my mind, we do not need to meet the characters. The characters need to meet themselves and show what part they have in the party.

When you meet someone in real life, by virtue of your senses and expectations, you go in with information about someone else. Whether you are right or wrong helps you formulate an opinion and hopefully, a relationship if only limited or transactional. In the theater of the mind, none of that exists (unless a player is an artist and has a picture of their character). 

At the RPG table the party isn't meeting each other so much as themselves. Wherever or how ever they meet, you, the DM need to be a good host and allow the players time to interact. I know it seems like a great time to throw them into the action, but just a few minutes of engaging each other helps the players get to know not only the other characters, but themselves. 

I've had players show up with five page thesis statements on their character. I don't care what you dreamed up over a period of weeks and many drinks. I want to know what you'll do now, with the resources given. "The Templar Knight of our Lady of Death" is not going play real well will singin' dwarves and a boozy cleric. 

As you can imagine from my prior posts, I can't resist hitting the big red reset button. Usually, right from the get go. My intent isn't to disrupt the player's idealization of their characters, it's to stop them from imposing their ideas on each other and whatever story I have dreamed up. 

I do have some stock buttons to push for the players if they start going to far into themselves, vs how they are going in be in the party. A fight from the get go is usually too murderous or too contrived, so I avoid it. 

The whole idea of their first day in a new town, at a bar they should have never seen is loaded with jolts and tricks to make the players describe how their character will function in the party. Nothing makes someone explain themselves more than a deviation from expectation. Think about the following scenarios and what they would do for your character development: 

• The innkeeper brings you your key and states: "No one has been in your room, as you instructed." (When did I do that?)  
• A messenger show up with a sword or holy symbol with your name on it, except you can't draw the weapon or touch the symbol. 
• A cleric bursts in and says, "We didn't bury enough of you to resurrect. Why did you come back?" (Not, "how?", but "why?") 
• If all of that seems like too much, a death threat from a seemingly overpowered team of competitors might do. 

When you meet, the point isn't to tell other people about your character, it's about showing how your character will act in the group. 

#RPGADAY2020 17. Comfort

I feel pretty comfortable running ahead a day. The 17th prompt is #Comfort. 

For me, comfort is drawing. 

The paper is a kid's drawing pad and the pen is from Walmart. I'm going without my glasses, while holding a phone. I wish I had started filming at the beginning. Not optimal, but whatever is? Gaming and play is never optimal until you look back on it. 

The idea came and simple tools made it flow freely from brain to paper with no constraint. It's not perfect, but I like it.  

Finished? No. Completed, yes. 

#RPGADAY 16. Dramatic.

 

#Dramatic. 

In game play, what can you do build a dramatic scene? If you're my dad, you do the above. 

Not everyone has those resources. What if you are doing purely theater of the mind? What can give your players a sense of tension and drama? 

Here are some of my favorites when playing D&D.

1. Use Morale. Morale is an often ignored mechanic. It usually means someone runs away from danger, not in to danger. But by basic definition, it means someone is confident or not. Perhaps over confident. 

Make your monsters and villains act accordingly. High morale causes cockiness. Let some of your antagonists miscalculate the situation. They start of with no weapons, then pull out the big guns as the players take away some of that spirit. 

Mechanically, as the villains lose hope, you could start putting minuses on their attack rolls before they actually break and run for it.  

2. Force the players to use a caller. A caller is there to help the DM run through a routine set of tasks. By forcing the players to use a caller, it creates the expectation of routines. Everything has a place and an order. As the DM establishes order and the caller implements it, taking it away leaves the players on the edge of their seats. Bypassing the caller by saying, "Ok, Ted. What will you do?" is jarring. It also needs to be reserved for truly dramatic effects.  

The inclination of the DM to impose this sort of chaos is usually a negative thing, but it doesn't have to be. Indiana Jones vs. the Swordsman is a classic example of having the character's routine actions changed in a positive way. Laughter is an expression of intense happiness, just like sweating is to fear. Whatever you do, taking away the established routine of a caller can really elevate people. 

In all cases, it's better to remove a social convention such as the caller than it is change a game mechanic to pump up the drama. 

3. Failure isn't death. There's the old line, "A fate worse than death". Nothing jolts the players so much as moving the goal post. Suddenly, it's not about life and death, but something more upsetting. 

A good example of this is the characters are fighting on the rooftops of a town. The danger of falling or dying is ever present. Imagine how they will react if they realize the reason they are up there is a rouse to get them away from gates as the enemy pours in? What if their long time friend is dragged into a wagon on the street below? That changes the dynamic. Instead of win or die, the situation is about escape or die or pursue or lose a friend. 

4. Abuse the button. The first 3 items throw the players into an elevated state, physical responses are not in tune with reality. No one at the table is ever in danger of being eaten by an orc, but if you get the player in the spirit of things, they will be sweating about an unreal situation. And you can use that to really lay on the dramatic. 

With TV shows and to a lesser extent movies, the biggest dramatic moment is the cliffhanger. Now, if you tried this with a run of the mill combat session the players would be confused. However, you can fake it. When the party sets of for the big brawl, you slam your book closed and announce: 

"Well, this is as good a place to stop as any..." 

This is the exact the same trick the grandfather pulls on Fred Savage in the Princess Bride. And you should play it as such. "Ok, I guess we can play this out. If you don't mind." Don't actually force an ending on the players. But if you abuse that button and it works, you know you've got the party's attention.  

These techniques of abusing the button can be for good or ill. 

If the party is trying to do something quietly, start whispering until the proper wham moment arrives. Then make it a literal wham. You don't need to shout, you can simply go back to a normal voice. 

In an outdoor game session, I pretended to be distracted by the cicadas' buzz. It goes up and down, and starts and stops suddenly. I kept it up all session, forcing the player's awareness of the noise. When cicadas naturally stopped, I leaned forward and said, "All of the forest's sounds stop." Their eyes got really big.  

This is a very strong technique. It needs to be used with care, because if you put the players on the edge of their seats, kicking them too often isn't a good idea. Nor should these moments always lean to the negative. As much as you can shock a group, you're main effort should be engaging the group. 

#RPGADAY2020 15. Frame

#Frame. 

I wish New Blogger wasn't so glitchy with positioning pictures alongside text.  Anyway, today is frame and I only have 12 minutes to write this, otherwise it will be tomorrow and that is dramatic. 

Frame, is the border of something. In RPG's the frame is the divider between you, you players and the rules and what happens in the game. If the frame says "fantasy", you get hobbits and dragons and other stuff. If your frame says "sci-fi", it's all bullets, gees and no aliens. 

Wait... no. Yes, that is the wrong definition of "sci-fi", but it is one of many frames. 

In my campaign, the players exist in a damaged world. For the most part, magic has over taken technology, but technology still exists. To a degree, anyway. I have marines and elves living in the same place, thanks to the frame I have developed. It really doesn't matter that I play a mashup BX and AD&D, it can simulate fire arms and technology. 

I find it interesting that as a DM, your frame is portable. My friend Doug had all of us living in Naria for a time. Mark, had a shadow-world campaign, very similar to I.C.E. rules on Middle Earth. What made all of this interesting is, the three of us shared DM duties and our players assumed that our collective campaign was the same place. Mark and Doug disagreed, but I said, "yes, it is." 

The non-DM-ing players took the logical next step. My game allowed for styles that encompassed other two DM's style of play, which made it a transitional frame between Mark and Doug's worlds. They believed in all of us like these were real places and things. 

It was pretty obvious that I enjoyed Mark and Doug's world as much as my own. The way that they personally framed their stories made me not care that I wasn't participating in a world of my choosing. 

Framing is a powerful tool. Better yet, if you can make a DM want to be a player in your framed world, that's an amazing skill. 

So, if you made a DM want to play in your world or there was DM that made you want to play in theirs, you've had some amazing table mates. 

#RPGADAY2020 14. Banner

#Banner

The word banner makes me think of one thing. My wife, Kitty. Er... Meant to say "two things. My wife, Kitty. And Farscape". 

Kitty does not do science fiction. Aside from the first three Star Wars films and The Fifth Element, she hates all science fiction. On the eve of our 19th anniversary, I am thankful that all movie theaters are closed and we have exhausted all mutually enjoyed movies on four different streaming services. There will be zero awkward moments where I stomp into a theater because I wanted to see something cool and my wife made me see something not cool. 

Wait, the prompt was "banner". 

Right. How does banner play into this? And more importantly, what about Farscape? 

Back in 1996, Jennifer and I started dating. She didn't have her "Kitty" nickname yet. Just a few months in, I suggested we see The Fifth Element. She went along for the ride, but as the credits rolled she said, "Aside from Star Wars... and this movie, I hate science fiction." At the start of relationships, I guess you just roll with a lot of crap. 

By the end of 1998, we had seen dozens of movies together. Virtually all of them were not science fiction. I guess a man has got to grow, eh? 

In late '98 or early '99 tragedy struck. One of the trailer was a commercial for Farscape and I said, "That is so cool..." 

My not-yet-wife said, "Ick." She was horribly disappointed to find out it was TV show. Every Friday night on Sci-Fi channel. Kitty would powernap during Farscape before we went out the bars. One evening, she woke up in the middle of the show and said, "This isn't as good as the ones with The Walkers." 

Shocked, I said, "I thought you slept through all of Space Above and Beyond." 

"I wish," was her response. 

Fast forward one wedding and three children later. Kitty and I stopped going to movies. We were as broke as broke could be. Out family budget for entertainment was parks, drives and buying a paperback book that I would read to everyone at bedtime. We barely had cable and the internet was still dial up because we couldn't afford better. 

One day, I picked out The Last Unicorn book at Barnes and Nobles. It was $2.99 on closeout. However, I also spotted a copy of Farscape the Roleplaying Game, also on closeout. At $5.99, it was way over our budget. 

Kitty asked what happened to the show. I said it had been canceled. She nodded and said, "You should get that game". I nodded and we walked out with our closeout copy of The Last Unicorn. 

Any sort of misgivings or bad feeling I had were wiped away when I read the first lines of the book and I could see that my wife and kids were entranced, 

"The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did

not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow..." 

(Click here for the Almost Ugly, Unicorn Princess Story to see how much of an impact this book made.)

Ok. The scene has been set. The Banner, right? 

Kitty, like her namesake, may disapprove of something, but she never forgets. That Christmas, she bought me the DVD set of Farscape and it came with a copy of The Last Unicorn.  

"Did they ever get that show back on the air?" I explained that they did not. 

"Will there be a movie?" she asked. 

I said that the show went off the air so long ago, that a movie was unlikely. I was very careful not to mention The Peacekeeper War, which was not a part of the boxed set. That would be ungrateful. 

My wife said, "Gee, that's weird. There was that huge campaign on MySpace..." 

"Do you mean Facebook?" I asked, "no one really used MySpace anymore." 

"Oh, no. It was just a little while ago... On MySpace." 

Intrigued, I dug around for my MySpace password. Then I had to dig around for the email address that I used to register so long ago. After about an hour with tech support resurrecting my old email account I reset my password and logged in. 

I'm sorry to say, this has got to be theater of the mind. If you can remember how gaudy MySpace used to be, imagine how it would look if your wife spent weeks, no months, adding animated BANNERS to your page, all of which read: 

"Bring back Farscape!" 

Sometimes, you don't know why someone likes, wants, or believes in something. But you have to wave their banner. 

#RPGADAY2020 13. Rest

#Rest

Easy prompt. 

There is always a need to rest but not always an opportunity to rest. Everyone needs a break sometimes. 

I have this great post about how I let myself and my players get tired at the table. I'll let you read that. Or I'll suggest that you take a break and read that novel you picked up last year or if you are like me, the three zillion free downloads from DriveThruRPG. 

Me? I'm going to take the day off and reread BSOLO -  The Ghost of Lion Castle. Maybe, I'll map it out like I did Star Smuggler. 

Session Report - Keep on the Borderlands, Strange Game Play

We played outside, until the wind flipped the table and scatter our dice and sheets. 

That's ok. This second session was a building session and since I cleared up the character sheets, I can put names to stats, so to speak. 

Lauren is a human ranger, second level. 
Aleric is a half elven fighter-cleric-magic user. He is the only 1st level character. 
Vandohl or Vandal (spelled two different ways) is the dwarven cleric. 
Belaphon is an elven magic user. 
Solvo is the hobbit thief and the only character injured in the last session. He has 1 hit point left.
Helvani is a human paladin. 

There is an odd PLAYER dynamic happening, I have three players controlling two players each. Ranger is matched to thief, the cleric with the paladin, and C-F-MU with MU. Two people can heal the thief, but no one has offered and it hasn't been asked for. Not sure why. 

So, let's rewind to review session one. The characters got chased off by the kobolds after entering area A. They now know there is a pit trap and at least 8 kobold guards. They knocked two kobolds down to zero hp, but their friends dragged them into their lair. They will heal up. 

Instead of participating with all of the archery, the thief (Solvo) ran into the Ogre's lair. He was struck for 6 points of damage and played dead. The Ogre ran at the party but was driven off by missile fire and spells. When he returned to his lair, Solvo killed him with backstab in the dark. The party dragged the body to their original camp and laid him out like a sleeping camper. In the image below, the red circle is the abandoned campsite, which has the ogre's body and a fire.  

At the start of session 2, the players have posted guards at the entrance to their cave E. They are watching for monsters. They noticed movement above the tree over cave A, marked in orange. These things are too big to be kobolds. They noticed the kobolds seem to appear out the tree, apparently they sneak up there from the entrance. The yellow line is another set of creatures, they are bigger than kobolds but smaller than humans. 

In the morning the party hacked down some branches to sweep out the litter in the cave and promptly discover the treasure. The thief immediately noticed some of the gold pieces are lead. The team formulates a plan. 

Lauren, Belaphon and Helvani will return to the Keep with their found gold pieces and the party's remaining funds for more supplies. 

The according to the map, the keep is about fifty 100 yard squares away. The module says characters can cover 3 squares or 300 yards an hour. I've never bought that one. It's about 3 miles away, they have a map and a ranger. The Keep is 1 to 2 hour away from the Caves, if no mistakes are made. 

While the party is divided, Solvo, Vandal and Aleric discover the magic arrows, the potion and the scroll while cleaning. They debate over the purpose of the gold plated lead coins and count everything else. They take turns cutting firewood with the only hatchet they have.

They have three interesting sightings through out the day. Vandal heard goblin voices from the east. Instead of spotting actual goblins, he spied a mountain lion. Later in the day, Solvo notices three smaller orcs foraging for firewood. They seem to be children and the party retreats deeper into the cave.  

After dinner, the rest of the party returns. They pause at their old camp and notice that an animal has eaten part of the ogre. Mountain Lions. Ick. From there, they make a crazy slow-panicked dash to their new home, with many odd things. 

Back at the Keep, the players were determined to find several dogs. They found two full sized mastiff like dogs and a collie puppy. The mastiffs were used to tow two small wagons. These wagons are children's toys and were lashed to the dogs with two 10 foot poles each. In the wagons were a barrel of water and a large wooden chest packed full of iron rations plus a few implements like shovels, axes and brooms. Each PC was carrying 50' of rope, three wine skins and three waterskins. They have quivers of arrows and slings and an extra pair of bows lashed to their backs. They are dying from the weight. 

They also have 3 books, ink and pens which the ranger bought to write down spells. This sparked a heated conversation with the mage who knew they weren't the right materials. Before leaving, there was a second fight about bankrolling the remaining gold. The weight made the choice easy, but tempers were short.  

It took an hour to get to the keep at a jog, 3 hours to find the dogs and less than an hour to buy all of the rest of the stuff. The return trip was a 4 hour circus, because the dogs aren't draft animals and the alternative was the players leading a dog while pulling a wagon, which left the third PC to keep track of the puppy and items that were dropped. 

The characters all settled in their new hobbit hole. Half the party ate and sacked out immediately. Solvo, Vandal and Alaric straighten up a bit and drew straws for guard duty. Belaphon grumpily pitched in when not pretending to sleep. He spent some time talking about the merits of magic over prayer while examining the found scroll, which is clerical in nature. 

Three times in the night, the guard sighted orcs by the tree and heard both kobolds and goblins. Solvo could swear he heard goblins right in their cave, but could find nothing. 

The players didn't seem interested in experience points, so I didn't award any this time. I have to tabulate the pool, but I think they earned a total 600 from the treasure alone and probably an equal amount as role play and clear thinking awards. By the way, Solvo is up one hit point from natural healing. I'll allow it this time, but he needs magic or rest. 

If you like the character sheets from the image above, you can download them from DriveThruRPG. There are 2 styles, both with 7 stats for AD&D and Unearthed Arcana.  

Character Sheet for AD&D

Character Sheet for AD&D

#RPGADAY 12. Message

#Message

What to do with this one? 

Have you utterly sent the wrong message to the players? Have your players misinterpreted a message and decided to play another game? 

As a DM, this is frustrating because usually a message, especially a written message is supposed to be super clear, totally unambiguous. 

My last campaign died of COVID-19. We have no particular plans to start up again. But it was suffering from a horribly ambiguous statement I made. I gave the characters a note which said they were to receive 5,000 pounds silver. I actually wrote it down for them. 

This one was special, I cribbed it from history. I pieced together details from a couple of manuscript and books on the death of William the Conqueror. The oldest son, Richard received all of Normandy and the William Rufus, the middle son received the Throne of England, 

"...while Henry received five thousand pounds in silver, which he hastened to secure, having it carefully weighed out to make certain that none of his appanage was denied him." 

~~Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Peterborough MS)

So Henry ran off to count his money. These documents have a biting edge that amused me and I thought that it would amuse the players to see something like this. 

It did. 

Except for one little thing. As I pieced together several documents to get the flavor right, but forgot the actual message because this often occurs in these historical writings. You have to piece together several to get a good read on the actual message of the author. Clearly, they are taking pot shots at their leadership. They also have pretty low opinions of them, because these families are clearly fighting with each other. 

William the Conqueror left these funds to Henry so he could purchase his own lands... but only left Henry enough silver to purchase about 1500 acres or 2.3 miles. So, Richard got Normandy, William Rufus got all of England and Henry got some silver, which is nothing when compared to what his brother's got. Talk about sending a message! 

Unfortunately, just like the Chronicle above I forgot to name the purpose of the silver, leaving the party with a ridiculous sum on paper. They were to buy or rent a ship with it. Worse, the way I phrased it, the players never actually got their hands on the physical silver, just a letter from the Emperor promising the silver to whoever was reading it. So, the party could show the letter saying they were to have access to 5,000 pounds silver worth of goods and then nothing... For relatively small purchases, no one would take this letter from the party. The party wrote out an IOU from the Emperor's treasury, which is hysterical when you think about it .

And boy, did they use it to the fullest. 

The message of this post is, don't forget the message.