#RPGADAY 20. Investigate

 

#Investigate.

The idea of investigation is hard coded into all of my RPG play. People do things for reasons, good or bad. When I have a bunch of people sit at the table, I don't have any idea of what they mean to do. I have to investigate. 

Coffee or Pop? Pop or Soda? Lots of role play or lots of dice? I have no idea at the first meeting. Once I start to feel out the players, investigate them, I then know. 

For this reason, I tend to put a lot of features into my world building. I offer some details but not all. The players, if they are so inclined, can investigate any or all or none of them. 

If I present an evil cleric at the head of an undead army, it is on the players to figure out the best course of action. If they are all hack and slash, investigation is limited to what weapons work best on undead. On the other hand, I have already thought of a goal and reason for this tactic used by cleric. It is equality valid for the players to figure that out, too. 

Role play is investigation, of both the real and imagined. 

Video Test Post

 I had one job with this video... make upside up. 

I missed and had to go monkey with youtube's code. Annoying. 

#RPGADAY2020 19. (The Dark) Tower

 

#Tower

Tower is easy. 

The Dark Tower, by Milton Bradley. My dad came home with this game and it became a fixture at the dinner table. We'd eat and the game would come out. No one fought over the pieces, because the Tower was the goal of every player.

My Mom, Dad, and sister all played this every chance we got. I wish we had pictures because those were good times. I did a retrospective post on it, since I don't have an actual game to review. 

Game play was easy and it left a great impression on me. While it isn't an RPG, it reminds me of Barbarian Prince by Dwarfstar Games. 

The mechanics were easy. Move a piece on the board and the electronic tower responded. Each turn cost food, some ratio of food to solders. You fought brigands from time to time, got lost or walked into a plague. If you collected up the 3 keys, you could mount an assault on the Tower itself. 

There were some special events, fight a dragon, find a Pegasus, or a magic sword. The sword automatically defeated the dragon, but you lost the sword. A Pegasus would allow you to hop across a single kingdom. Checking in at home gave you more soldiers. 

You could hire a beast, a scout or a healer to offset some bad events. Records were kept with simple cards and a sort of pegboard tally sheet. It was so simple. 

One of the standout features was the artwork. It was weird and cool at the same time. Each image appeared on the side of the tower, lit by an small light bulb. Recently, I was able to figure out that it was done by Bob Popper. There is even a brief interview with him over at WellOfSouls.com. In that interview, he imagined the characters or teams going on endless quests. His unique style did that wonderfully. 

I can still hear the win condition music from the game, which is of course linked to the images. 

Tower... the timeless setting. 

#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.