Dice or Cards? Choose your weapon!!

My regular gaming group (Hello Dualers!) have had the opportunity to sample my products in the early stages of development and this Friday was no different as I used them for playtesting my Decision Deck.

What's a Decision Deck? you say, well it's a pack of cards which I use instead of rolling dice.  Each card has a dice roll value corresponding to the size of dice be it a coin toss or D3 to D30.  In the production version I've added a number of other random metrics including Critical Hit, Fumble, Poker Hands and Dice Hands.  It means I don't have to look for the appropriate dice anymore or have to consult a random result chart.

I know some players object to using cards instead of dice themselves but I gotta say as a GM I really felt they worked for me.  I had my numbers ready at the turn of a card and the combat ran smoother and quicker than with dice.

What are your thoughts on the legitimacy of GMs using anything other than dice?

...Errata, Erata, I love you Eratta...

...You're only a fay say day away   


As you are by now aware I have started a little publishing venture, and proof reading has kept me away from blogging.  Today, was the first time I have had to publish an errata notice and this got me thinking.

I don't know of any other publishing genre which has so many errata which slip through the net.  Fiction certainly doesn't, magazines and newspapers print retractions, but that's a content matter and not typos or other cockups.   Do we the buyers seem to accept these errata more readily because we see ourselves as RPG fans first and consumers second?  Do we appreciate the publisher's hard work that goes into even the smallest $1 PDF download, rather than wail on their poor proofreading skills?  I'd like to think we're a better kind of people and we know how much love goes into the games we buy.

BTW if you've bought RGP001 - ITEM CARDS Set 1: Adventurer's Gear the errata have been corrected and you can download them in the FREE Item Card Sampler.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa...

Games and 3D Printing: Thorn Dice

3D Printing is one technology I just can't wait to get my hands on.  The possibilities for gaming in general are pretty exciting particularly in the realm of P'n'P (Print 'n' Play) where you can print your own miniatures, scenery and other game components.

I spotted these Thorn Dice this morning courtesy of the guys over at Make Magazine.  Designed by Chuck Stover (aka ceramicwombat) and available to buy from shapeways, they look strangely lovecraftian.

Happy New Year and Roleplaying Resolutions for 2011

Happy New Year to you all.

And, as sure as eggs follow bacon, the time has come to make some New Year Roleplay Resolutions:

1. Take more notes - Over the last few years, with respect to note taking, I have become just plain lazy and has often resulted in me taking a back seat in games as a player when I should be taking the lead. When DMing, I've been relying on my player's memories and notes way too much and I need to start driving the scenario rather than it driving me. This has got to stop!! My new campaign starts in a week's time and I want to start writting session resports again.  I find they invaluable in helping me record the improvised detail I generate in-game that you don't get during normal worldbuilding activities.  If I don't record it, type it up and publish it on the campaign website, it will be lost forever.

2. Build a weekly blog series - Frankly I'm jealous of the likes of Dyson Logos: Geomorphs and Land of Nod: Deviant Friday and thought it was about time I created a weekly(ish) series which might possibly be gathered together into some sort of publication perhaps.  Ideas so far are:

• Monday Motivations: Inspired by the excellent Campaign Mastery: Character Hooks, this series of articles gives some suggestions for PC Background Motivations, why does a PC become an "adventurer" or embark on a "career class" in the first place?
  
  
• Tuesday Trailer: I get a lot of my inspiration from movies and TV although I rarely lift a plot from a movie.  It might just be a single object or a character or it may even be something as intangible as the art direction which gets the creative juices going and I want to share that with you all.
  
  
• Dramatis Pictura: I hate reading NPC descriptions which don't have a character portrait to go along with them, in fact I find it hard to visualise a fully rounded character without one.  Shouldn't be too hard to find some good NPC portraits in deviant art
  
  
• Serious Locations: On my travels round the interweb I stumble across some amazing photographs many of which inspire RPG locations.
  
• City Geomorphs: There's enough folks doing dungeon geomorphs to last me a lifetime and most of my adventures take place in urban environments so I'm going to take a crack at cities.

3. Blog in advance more regularly - At the moment I blog when I have an idea it's a cause and effect relationship.  I'd like to get in the habit of writing in advance and maybe even set articles to publish on a time delay.

Anyway, I think that's enough to be getting on with, if you have any preferences for series ideas let me know.

Scenario Writing - The art of the one session scenario

I've run one session scenarios in the past, mostly on special occasions like holidays, birthdays and halloween.  Here are a few of the techniques I've used:

Holiday Theme - If you're running a game on a holiday then use it for your plot inspiration.  There are plenty of plot hooks buried in the characters, myths, folk lore and cultural references of the various holidays.  Such as:

• Good Santa / Bad Santa - Saint Nick has a split personality (how else could he make informed choices about whose Naughty or Nice?) this year his bad side has gotten the better of him with all the personality defects that go along with it.  The PCs are elves (or charity / department store santas) whose job is to keep him on the straight and narrow so he can deliver all those presents in time or maybe the world needs to do without this year.
   
• The Easter Bunny's been kidnapped - A bunch of do-gooding dentists and dieticians have teamed up to rid the world of the Easter Bunny.  Kids all over the world have suddenly lost their appetite for chocolate.  Willy Wonka is in despair and has hired your paranormal detective agency to find the culprits and set the world straight again.
   
• Halloween Jack - A notorious psychopath has escaped from a secure facility and the PCs are on the tube, returning from different fancy dress parties, when the power fails.  No-one knows each other but one of them is Halloween Jack, the cops are on his trail but all they know is he's disguised in a fancy dress costume.  Oh, did I forget to mention that you're all dressed in the same outfit with a Jack 'o' Lantern for a head.

Birthday Boy/Girl - Make the player whose birthday it is the center of the action.  If they're up for it you could turn them into the villain of the piece, depending on the player, you might want to let them know where you're taking the story and maybe even set up some cues for them to trigger some events.  It's nice if you can factor in a few "in jokes" or references for each of the other players, they'll really get a kick out of it.

One location - when the PCs are trapped in one location the focus turns to escape. Your job as DM is made easier as you just have to think of all the ways they're going to try to break out.  Having some of the more mundane "what-if's" pre-thunk means that you can concentrate on the more bizarre suggestions that players inevitably come up with.

• Internet / TV / Telephone / Mobiles - Do they exist in the genre and if so are they working, If not why not.  If you've let the PCs have access to a phone and diall 999 (that's the UK version of 911) will the cops come and if they do how do you get rid of them.  I really like using this as a tension mechanism, you can have them come out look around and leave as though nothing is wrong.  Or you can kill them in some bizarre or predictable way. Watch the looks on the players faces as they realise that they're responsible for luring them to their deaths.
   
• Outside - Can there an outside?, can they see it?, Can it see them?  If your players are trapped it won't be long before they start to think about what's happening in the outside world, you can play with their minds by making their prison a wrap around universe.  A player manages to escape a room through a door only to re-enter from the opposite side of the room or down the chimney.
   
• You are not alone - Don't leave it too long before you start hinting that they might be sharing their reality with someone or something else.  Maybe they put an object down moments ago and now it's moved or vanished entirely.  Perhaps it's a spirit hopping from one body to another, give each of your players a secret message containing instructions when they start playing the spirit.
  
• Horrible history or location - Take an event or location that your players know very well and twist it into an evil or sinister version.  You can be as wild as you want as long as you don't warp it beyond recognition otherwise the players may miss the gag.
  
• Player Secrets and Paranoia - If you want to ramp up the tension you can give each PC a piece of knowledge about one (or more) of the PCs at the beginning of the game. Later on that piece of info might be pertinent and the player must decide to act on the information.

Body Swap - Your players have passed into a parallel universe and inhabit each others bodies.  They now have to find the secret to swapping back otherwise they'll be stuck forever.  This works best if the players are randomly swapped multiple times, everyone should get a chance to play each other.  Pick 3 good and 3 bad traits (don't be too cruel though!!) about each player and sit back and let the fun begin.

Survival Game - If in doubt run a survival themed game.  My players always react well to a bit of zombie slayin'.

How do you do it, share your thoughts, tricks and ideas.

Scenario Writing: Linear Plots

First off, what's the difference between a linear and a non-linear plot?  

Characteristically, linear plots will feature a single timeline of events or scenes which the PCs need to resolve one after another in a specific order (e.g scene 1, scene 2, scene 3, etc...).  This is the formula used by most theatrical productions which use the Three-Act Structure. 

Linear Plot - The Three-Act Structure

Non-linear plots can have multiple timelines, flash-backs and the scenes do not need to be completed in a specified order, or at all (even though some scenes may be missed out entirely any events in those scenes may still occur).   If you've never experienced non-linear story telling then try playing a game of FIASCO.  This indie RPG introduces flash backs and flash forwards as an integral part of the collaborative story telling mechanism.  Games take about 3 hours and there are a hundred genre playsets to choose from.

There's nothing wrong with a linear plot, they're undoubtably easier to write and run, especially if you are a time poor DM, and they can be just as entertaining for players.  Here's a few techniques that I've used to make them seem less linear.

Scenario Timeline - One of the biggest drawbacks of a linear plot is that it's easy for players to start thinking that the world revolves around their characters. Using a scenario timeline allows the DM to trigger events independently of the the PCs actions, they might only hear about the event as a rumour or hearsay or over the radio, tv or net, they will still encounter the scenes you have arrange in a predetermined order but they will feel like there's more to the story that they can't influence.  

If you split your party the timeline can become a useful aid to keeping track of WHEN each group of PCs are rather than WHERE.  It's possible to have multiple timelines in operation but make sure that there are key events which tie them together otherwise it's easy for a subgroup of PCs to get too far ahead of the other party members.

Fast Pace - In my experience it's not a good idea to give players too much thinking time in any adventure.  When this happens they start reverting to their player archetypes and end up thinking about where their next power-up or wander off trying to find an interesting NPC to chat to.  A fast pace to a game often focuses players minds to the immediate task at hand.

Elastic Time - Remember that time is elastic, if you need characters to trigger events and they're in danger of missing it, Don't worry you're the DM, stretch time, but keep up the tension as they race to the next scene otherwise they'll get into the habit of dawdling.  If they're on the ball and ripping through scenes like a chainsaw you might need to slow them down a bit by throwing a  wandering monsters or random encounter at them.  

It's a good idea to have a few of this sort of thing in your DMs toolkit anyway, they don't have to be related to the plot, just the setting, a bit like the little old lady who asks the policeman to help her across the road whilst the perp is running away.

NPCs (aka Plot Monkeys) - When a party does get bogged down in a decision it's useful to have a recurring NPC in the plot you can use to prod them in the right direction.  I often have an NPC as a member of the party for this exact reason and they also come in very handy when you have a drop-in player that needs a character.  Be careful how often you use them though, PCs sometimes take exception to NPCs giving suggestions all the time especially when you have an insecure de-facto leader.

Clues - When you leave clues in a scene to further the plot, make them really obvious.  I can't tell you the number of times that a party has walked past a too subtle clue or picked up on it to only miss it's significance.  It's an easy trap to fall into when writing scenarios as you become immersed in the plot during the creative process, what seems obvious to you at the time of writing may be a leap of cognitive faith several weeks later when a player encounters it.  

I often leave multiple clues in a scene which reinforce each other and the correct path to take to the next scene, if the players miss one, they may pick up on the others and players often get a big buzz out of finding clues.

Use What Works for your Players

These are just a few of the techniques I use when writing, the important thing is too see what works in your sessions and what doesn't and see if you can improve the player (and DMing) experience.  If your players begin to get too comfortable with your writing style mix it up a bit.

Dragonmeet 2010

Anyone going to Dragonmeet 2010 this year?  I know I am and will definitely blogging about my favourite UK Con on here.  Maybe I'll even meet a few fellow bloggers on the day (look on the con message board), maybe I'll blog at the con.

For those of you who don't know Dragonmeet 2010 takes place on Saturday 27th November at Kensington Town Hall, doors open at 10:00am.

Whilst I'm there I'll also be:

• looking to pick up copies of D&D Essentials map tiles The Dungeon and The City after seeing Thaseus C's wonderful unboxing video on his blog "This is My Game".
  
  
• playing a few con games (lots of choice for morning and afternoon RPG game sessions are scheduled)
  
  
• supporting the traders by buying Castles & Crusades rulebooks to use as the system for my upcoming The Lands of Dual campaign

Hello Whirled! ...grr... Hello World!

Just had my case for membership of the rpgbloggers.com network approved, so woot! is me.  Sadly the first of my posts which was visible was an abortive mobile blogging attempt via BlogWritter app on my 3GS.  Damn unintuitive GUI!! I've just worked out that if you're in the "New Post" screen you can save a post in draft format just by tapping "Back".  Lesson learned...

"What was your first post then!" you ask

It was an instructable on how to make a scroll case from a Pringles can.

Let me explain, I'm looking through my old copies of Dungeon to get a few scenarios to link together to form a new plotline for my campaign world The Lands of Dual and I came across the scenario "A Race Against Time" (Issue 81 Jul/Aug 2000).  The scenario features a nice 3 hour timed plotline which calls for the delivery of a message in a scroll case delivered via juvenile winged snake courier.  The message is the cornerstone of the scenario and will be poured over ad-infitum by the players, so I thought it would be nice to give them a nice handout to look at.  The theatrics are very important for the message's punchline so I need to make a scroll case to hold the message.  The campaign starts in Jan 2011 so watch-out for more posts about the make and a session report.

What's in your DM's bag?

Whilst writing the article Trouble with Torchlight I thought it would be neat to share pictures or descriptions of the contents of your DM'S bag.  Bags can be SPECIFIC (the one you use for your favourite game or the one you're currently using, GENERIC (containing all the things a DM just can't be without) or FANTASY (a bag you wish you owned or could even exist in this dimension)

In my GENERIC DM's Bag I have:

• Dice - I've forgotten these and then borrowed a players dice and blamed them for lucky monster successes.
• Munchies - gotta keep the DM awake somehow.
• Grid Paper - for drawing off the cuff maps when you're too lazy to
• Note Paper - for writing secret notes when you're too lazy to take the player out of the room.
• Adventure - yes once or twice I've forgotten to pack this, with hilarious consequences.
• Character Sheets - Some players don't like giving back their characters at the end of the night, but I find it makes it easier to cope I have to NPC a player's character in their stead when they can't make it to a session.
• Pens, Pencils and Markers - At my regular Friday night game we have a box of club resources such as dice and stationery.  We also use club battle mats (kitchen lino) so OHP pens come in handy for drawing walls and doors etc.
• Beverage - My beverage of choice is mineral water.  It doesn't exacerabate the sugar rush of the munchies and keeps me alert and hydrated.

Trouble with Torchlight - Part 1: Ideas

A session of a recent Diamond Throne game I played involved a short dungeon crawl.  The age old problem of lighting for the non infravision equipped players reared it's ugly head.  This got me thinking about ways to show the limit of torchlight in different ways, without turning this into a massive maker project.  I thought I'd brainstorm the options and jot them down here and then produce a few prototypes and document how each one works in a game.

2D Templates

The simplest (and perhaps most obvious) of options to make is a flat template:

Pros & Cons:

• flat and therefore easy to transport in a flap or a pocket in a ringbinder.
• easy to make, print on OHP (Over-Head Projector) film and cut out.
• cheap.
• can't simulate the height of anything

Idea 1: Single Zone - this template is the simplest to make, just use a compass to scribe a circle of the appropriate diameter on a sheet of stiff transparent plastic.  A good source for the plastic is packaging windows, you know the ones, the boxes from those toys you bought for Christmas with the big plastic windows so you can see what you're buying yourself.  There's no need to print anything on, but if you make lots of different ones for different effects you might need to write effect names on them with Permanent Marker. 

Idea 2: Multiple Zones - Slightly harder to make, and you might need to design something on the computer and then print it out onto OHP film.  Another way is to stack them on top of one another, pin or fix together with glue to show different effect zones.  If you can't get hold of coloured transparency film then colour with careful use of permanent marker.  The zones don't even have to be for the same game, the possibilities are up to you.

A 2D Multi Zone template

3D Templates

Same as 2D but with the added dimension of ... height. 

Pros & Cons:

• They're 3D so probably won't fold and therefore difficult to transport
• Harder to make or find suitable component
• More expensive
• Bulkier in play, do they interfere with other miniatures, move them

Idea 1: The Dome or Tub - Finding suitable components for this will be tricky but I should have at least 1 by the time I write Part 3.  Some options are plastic soft drink bottles, CD drums, caps from Frappucchino or smoothie cups.

Idea 2: The Ring - a simple ring of stiff transparent plastic which stands on it's rim.   This I will definitely try to make.  A more advanced design would be adjustable like a belt so you can expand the ring for different sized zones.  The width of the ring can be made to simulate the height of an effect.  I'll make the belt style and try it out.

A Ring

Idea 3: The Cone - A cone of transparent plastic which can be placed over a miniature.  Cones stack inside each other for transport.  They can also be made out of a flat sheet of stiff transparent plastic like OHP film.

A Cone

Idea 4: The Cube - a transparent box which can be be created from flat sheets of stiff transparent plastic.  Sounds like papercraft to me, let me at it.

The Weird & Bizarre

A combination of 2D templates with a stand or something totally different.

Pros & Cons:

• clumsy to use in play
• expensive
• hard to make
• hard to store

Idea1: Tripod & Torch - Use a length of stiff wire or a wire coathanger and a pare of wire cutters to make a rudimetary tripod and a ring over which you can hang a small torch.  If the torch has a beam focus you could use it to give different size effect areas.

Idea 2: Tack and String - Less of a template and more of a measuring device.  Push a pin into the base of a plastic miniature then knot lengths of string to the pin.  Trim the string to the appropriate length or if making a multipurpose string add coloured tabs to the string.  Each miniature then has a handy radius measure

Idea 3: Radius rod.  Using a thin brass rod, dowel or heavy gauge wire.  Thread a 2D template onto the rod through a hole in it's centre.  A step or a blob of glue can be used to stop the template falling off the rod during use.  Templates can be removed for storage.  I'll have a go at this one.

If you've got some ideas that you want me to explore in prototype, feel free to comment below and if they pique my creativity I might just make them.  If you've got any prototype pics you've made yourself feel free to add links.

Old Skool: The view from the UK

I read with interest many of the blogs from the otherside of the Atlantic and get a very different view of Roleplaying as a hobby.  There seems to be much more of a focus on playing commercial modules, and less about creating your own worlds and adventures.  How an industry which creates a rules system which offers you the opportunity to create your own world full only limited by your imagination manages to sell more product has always puzzled me.  Once I've bought the core rulebooks for a system I've usually written my own scenarios and source material (with the exception of Cyberpunk which I just loved).

Also the con scene is quite different in the UK.  Single day events being the norm and sharing fans across the gaming spectrum including wargamers, boardgamers and the odd sci-fi con.

The most startling difference is in my experience of how gaming groups are formed.  I've always gamed in large groups of between 10 to 20, congregating in public spaces such as church halls, libraries, community centres and even the odd public house (aka a bar).  I've hosted games at my home but these have always been as an extra to my regular weekly game session as part of an organised club.

I can guess at one or two of the reasons, America is a much bigger country with a lower population density than the UK, but this doesn't explain everything.  If you're reading this from the US (or any other part of the world) please feel free to set me straight.

Where's the gateway game for the tweenies?

A few new members have joined my regular game group over the past year and very few of them are younger than thirty, which got me thinking are roleplayers an ageing breed, are there young players out there? Casting my mind back to my impressionable youth I remember the gateway games which drew me into this amazing hobby, the Fighting Fantasy gamebook, the primitive computer text adventure games.  Which then set me wondering what is today's gateway game?

The console game world is littered with fantasy and sci-fi adventure games and first person shooters where the action is visceral and immersive.  With literacy levels dropping throughout the first world are kids really going to want to get into a hobby where it requires effort to read and to visualize for themselves?

I've dabbled in the CCG world with games such as Magic, but they always left me feeling a little bewildered and frustrated as excercises in strategy and lack any opportunity for imagination or storytelling.

The gamebook is still there but has expanded into newer titles such as the popular "Doctor Who: Decide Your Destiny series" or the classic Choose Your Own Adventure Series which is available as an app or an ebook (depending on your taste in tech).  The big difference now is that you'll never bump into a copy of D&D (or in my case T&T) by browsing the shelves of the app store.

There are lots of big box adventure boardgames such as DOOM, Descent, Talisman, Runebound, World of Warcraft and now the Ravenloft Boardgame.  But are these gateway games to RPGs or Boardgames?

Warhammer is still alive and kicking, but with the Rogue Trader and WHFRPS being being sold off to other publishers do the kids ever get exposed to these titles when they walk into their local Games Workshop store?

The future is pretty uncertain for RPGs (I doubt we will ever have an influx of youth again like we did in the 70s and 80s) unless technology changes our hobby into something that young people want to consume.