#no guide for GMing it yet

[pirateprincessjess]

I wrote a Sonic the Hedgehog TTRPG system.

I’m calling it Rodents and Robots until a can think of a better name.

It’s a Powered by the Apocalypse system (heavy inspiration from Masks, Root, Avatar RPG, Simple World, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians)

It has some basic gameplay rules, a character creation guide, and 10 playbooks (classes). The game is in a (very rough) playable state.

Would anyone be willing to look it over and give feedback? (Especially spelling and grammar. I’m dyslexic and struggle with proof reading)

I’m mostly just doing this for fun, and anyone is welcome to use it modify the system however they see fit. Any and all feedback is appreciated

[open-hearth-rpg]

That Was Dave

CW: Death

On the drive over to the funeral Sherri and I went back through all of Dave’s characters we could remember. His Engineer in Star Trek Adventures, his sorcerer in 13th Age, his Hound in Blades in the Dark, his Gearhead in Mutant Year Zero, Roaming Wolf from Mutants & Masterminds, Master Mummer Sokka Sokka from Libri Vidicos, his Skaven from Arcane Rails, his Runemage from Rolemaster, Lat and Na from the parallel GURPS Fantasy games…

A few others we couldn’t recall the details of like his character from Guards of Abashan, the name of his weird mage from Triad, his characters from the one time I ran D&D, and his earliest characters from various Cyberpunk 2020, Hunter, and Vampire campaigns. He had a type– always a little weird and off-kilter, often with clear vulnerabilities. His weirdo characters could be unpredictable but they never, ever caused pain or discomfort to the rest of the group, to the players at the table. I’ve played with too many folks who made their eccentricities everyone’s problem. But Dave never did that

I met Dave in 1992 or 1993. He was in high school. At the time I helped manage a game store with an attached upstairs game room. He hung around, quiet, in a thin black trenchcoat (as was the style at the time). He had a couple of annoying pals who also hung around– Dave was the best of them. He got involved in Warhammer 40K, started playing ttrpgs, very occasionally played TCGs, and became a regular fixture. When I moved on from there in 1997, he stayed part of the group. I played with him pretty solidly for almost the next twenty-seven years. 

Dave had been born in 1976– so seven years younger than me. That was enough to put a fairly major generation gap between us in terms of how he’d been raised and what he’s been exposed to. He grew up on Nintendo. When I finally went to play the PS version of Final Fantasy VI, he photocopied an entire NES FFIII strategy guide to help me through it. He loved that game. 

I’m not sure entirely what else he loved– like media, games, movies. He was quiet and rarely gave out his opinions on things unless he felt strongly about them. He loved the Fallout series, he hated the Fist of the North Star action game I lent him, he loved Rock Band except when they decided not to have keyboards support anymore. If you suggested things to him he’d nod. Occasionally he’d get back to you that he’d tried them. But he remained quiet, kept to himself, and yet always managed to be a solid, fun and warm presence at every gaming table. 

I have been extraordinary lucky to have a stable gaming group for three+ decades now. I have folks in my extended circles who I’ve played with since 1988. Most I’ve played with for several decades. One I knew in Middle School. The group has changed and shifted– I used to run 2-3 face to face games. Now that’s just one. There are two parallel games with different mixes of people from this connected group, but I’m not part of those. I thought about that today when I saw someone post this from https://www.instagram.com/couldbeworsecomic/ , with comments about the unreality of this…

Dave passed away on Father’s Day. There’s a story there but let me circle around to get to that. 

In thinking about it, one of my biggest regrets was not sitting down and asking Dave how he thought my GMing had evolved and changed. Sherri’s been along for me on this ride, but she’s been privy to all the behind-the-scenes and helped shape my approach. I wish I’d asked him what he thought the differences were and how he liked or didn’t like them. He was a good GM. I twice played in campaigns he ran: a GURPS Fantasy one and a hack of Fallout using the Action Cards system I’d created. He did striking and unique things with that. 

It always struck me how long he thought and planned for his campaigns. For both he’d clearly worked on them for years before he ever suggested he wanted to run. He came to the table with props, new options, and great ideas. He’d done his world building– but it never felt closed off. Like the best GMs, he invited you to both tour and shape the worlds he’d built. It felt like a far cry from me who has been running tons of off the cuff short campaigns over the last several years. 

Though that’s been an online phenomena. In our face to face groups, we’ve mostly focused on longer campaigns. Even short ones have a dozen sessions. So many of the campaigns of mine which Dave played in lasted for years and years. We got to see the characters change, grow, and evolve. I mentioned he would run oddballs– often the character type with the least growth. But his characters always grew and became something better. 

He grew and became something better. In the mid-00’s his wife Chas joined the table. She was and is great: solid and determined. One of those players who makes a choice and lives with it. The two of them together always made things even more fun. 

So I don’t know the full details, but apparently within the last year Dave started to have some mood and personality swings. I only saw him and Chas bi-weekly for our sessions. I didn’t notice anything. But it was serious enough to warrant a separation between the two of them. Again, I didn’t have a real sense of what was happening there. But then Dave passed out in his home and had to go to the ER. He was diabetic so I and others assumed that was a contributing factor when he was released the next day. 

But then a week or so later he had another episode, being again sent to the hospital– this time with seizures. They kept him in for several days of treatment, but again they weren’t sure what was happening. I’m assuming they gave him some meds for that before releasing him again. Less than a week after that, on Father’s Day, he passed out in his bathroom and hit his head, as I understand it. And he died. A wellness check a day later found him. 

After the funeral, Sherri and I again went through the list of his characters, their personalities, and their stories. I remembered when another person from our playgroup died, Barry, back in 2006 at the age of 37. Not long after that I ran a D&D 3.5 campaign which had a sub-story about the PCs rescuing Barry’s character who had sacrificed himself closing a demonic portal at the end of the campaign only a few months previously. That campaign had a riff on Final Fantasy VI, Dave’s favorite video game. 

I’m not sure I can do anything like that for Dave, can do anything like that again. I’m older and the last few years have made me more raw, more easily broken. I’m not sure I can face that pain. I’ve tabled the Star Trek Adventures campaign we’d been in the middle of. I hope we can keep playing, but I don’t think I can run STA, with Dave haunting the table. We will see. 

I don’t have a big conclusion here: maybe keep an eye on your mental health and tell folks when things are getting rocky. But I wanted to write something down. I hunted around for photos of Dave, but I’ve never been a person to take pictures. The images throughout have been from the table and it took me a long time, but I found one. 

That’s Dave there in the middle, hand on mouth, contemplating his next action.

I hope there’s something after we die and, if there is, I get a chance to talk to Dave again.

[loopy777]

I got an email that the Avatar TTRPG is now "officially available" for retail purchase. The digital copies were distributed to the Kickstarter backers a while ago, and I got my hardcopies about a month ago. I haven't finished the "Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide" book yet, but I'm halfway through it, and I finished the while main rulebook. So in honor of the official release, I suppose I'll share my thoughts:

Lore

This is a very conservative view of the setting. I like the nature of each of the Avatar eras and the 'feels,' but the details given for each era are very limited. The Order of the White Lotus isn't mentioned anywhere in the worldbuilding (but I can see that getting its own expansion book later on), the only settlements provided are the places we saw in the various cartoons, and Chey of all people is listed as an important figure of the AtLA era.

It's clear that aside from a few Avatar Studios-approved additions meant to help promote the product, there was absolutely no freedom here to reveal new lore. At the very least, I'd love the names of various Fire Nation islands, the provinces for the Earth Kingdom sites visited in AtLA, and more settlements/tribes of the Water Tribes. I like when RPGs provide all the mundane junk that's hard to come up with on the fly, but this game essentially expects you to bring all your own Avatar knowledge to the game- or buy future sourcebooks.

That said, there is some cool new history here and there. These books aren't completely devoid of interest.

Gameplay

I'll be honest, I'm a bit boggled by the description of gameplay here. It's a storytelling-driven game, which I initially thought would be a good choice, but I am having a hard time wrapping my head around how it's supposed to work in practice. I'm especially confused by the Balance mechanic, as it doesn't seem to actually represent any kind of balance? A PC gets 'retired' as having grown beyond being worth playing -- essentially, 'winning' the game -- when they max out one of the two balance axes, but that doesn't seem to be what 'balance' is in the context of all the Avatar storytelling we've seen. I'm also weirded out by GM advice that says not to pick out a culprit in a murder mystery adventure, but rather to let the players' action organically pick out whodunit. I know these types of games are supposed to be about collaborative storytelling, but that's ceding an amount of control which just feels wrong to me as a former GM.

I'm also horribly disappointed that there are no mechanics whatsoever for martial arts in the game. Players can just describe whatever they think sounds cool, and the actual fighting mechanics are super-abstract. I'm not entirely against what the game is doing -- I like the 3 'stances' concept and how new moves are learned -- but I guess I'm just disappointed that a franchise which started with such fealty to real-life martial arts consistently fails to live up to that with everything else it produces.

Another disappoint is the 'playbook' character archetypes. It feels very limiting -- and thus a way to sell further playbooks down the line -- and too bound to the idea of a Coming Of Age character arc. The 'Wan Shi Tong' expansion at least adds a Mentor PC playbook, but I would have liked a bit more variety than just teenagers coming of age. The moves assigned to these playbooks also seem super arbitrary, and if I was GMing a game, I'd encourage my players to mix'n'match those things. I can't see how I can realize my idea for a kleptomaniac Air Nomad nun, but perhaps future playbooks will provide a foundation.

(Hilariously, after all the controversy amongst Azula fans about how the game presents her as an antagonist for the players, there's a playbook that's pretty much Azula Doing A Redemption where multiple moves for the characters are named after her dialogue from the cartoon.)

I also can't help but laugh at the rules which say PCs shouldn't kill their enemies, and if they do, it should change them forever. Avatar isn't about that kind of thing, it claims. Yeah, tell that to Sokka after he killed Combustion Man. XD

Conclusion

Despite my complaints, I don't dislike this game. I mean, I haven't even actually played it, so all my complaints are theoretical, and despite my Old Timer Grousing it might be super fun for a group of friends. I haven't actually played a TTRPG with living people since Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was being sold. Now that I've read the full rules, I'll going to check out some of those recorded samples again.

As a Lore book, I can't recommend it to anyone who isn't interested in the game itself. The little information it adds to the canon can just be read on the Wiki, and as a summary of existing information, it's too limited to be of use. But I do like the themes and feel of the different eras, and can see that being of use for people who want to write fanfic in eras outside what we saw in the cartoons. I hope Yangchen's era gets an expansion once her story in the books is done.

But as a cool Avatar thing, I think it's wonderful and amazing that a produce of this quality exists.

What do you think of the information supplied by that new Avatar table top (?) game? I mostly approve of it, since it feels pretty true to what we saw in the show. I especially like the Roku era. Have you been keeping up with the game, either through actually playing it or reading the Avatar wiki. If so, what are your thoughts?

I haven't played it, but I do have the digital copies of the books. I'm not much of a digital reader, though, so I've only skimmed the portions that seem more lore-related. From what I've seen, I'm fairly satisfied (making some allowances for the nature of the product and the status of my favorite characters) and the various eras are well-realized.

I plan to do a deep dive when we (eventually) get our hardcopies, but for now I'm not in a rush. I'm still working through my backlog of reading material, and we have a Yangchen novel coming out next month...

[finderstrails]

Highway Woes [Session 2]

Our characters for this session are :

Pirrip - A sweaty cacogene with extending limbs and a hydraulic bicep. He’s the caravan clerk and has a habit of gambling.

Fane Many-Moons - An imposing, but fragile, chimera synth with a single green eye. She’s the caravan oracle and is preoccupied with Urth’s moons and satellites.

Symmeon - A sneaky synth powered by blood. His priest outfit got him hired has a healer, although he was programmed an assassin.

Samar Xan Hevran (NPC) - Leader of the Hevran caravan, she’s a fierce True-Kin looking for the fabled city of Oralens.

Jamik (NPC) - A quiet and careful New-Coyote, the right man of Samar.

Storm Discussions

After the fight from the previous day, the Iron Slug convoy makes its way through terrible weather. A fiery sand storm and thunderous lighting hits the blue desert which ends up clogging Fane with sand and her metallic joints take a bad hit. The whole convoy is slowed but the downtime lets the travelers discuss various subject.

"Fane, what exactly is the future?" asks Symmeon. "The future is a past that hasn't happened yet." answers Fane in her metallic and catatonic voice. The assassin synth is confused. He leaves and meet with Pirrip.

"Do you believe in chance?" as he hands Pirrip a dice he stole in Sulfri a couple days ago. "Oh... sure yea... of course. You need chance sometime..." mumbles the stout man. Pirrip tosses the dice getting an unimpressive result. Symmeon focuses on the metal object, spinning the score to 20. Pirrips stutters with excitation.

The next day, Samar ask Fane for foresight. They meet in the Cartographer's quarters with Jamik.

The Cartographer explains : "So there are two exit to the R3 Interchange, which we should be arriving any time soon. The Prima North, which leads to some sort of plateau and eastward toward Calban's Crevasse. Both paths are somewhat heading north east."

Looking at the moons, she wonders at both alternative. Invoking her augury gift, she sees that The Prima North seems to lead to a higher plateau, away from the desert storm and toward a large sphere tube structure. Heading eastward appears to be a calmer route with the bridge going over Calban's Crevasse still in proper shape. Both journey through the interchange presented the possibility of bandits and hazards, but in the end, the small group voted to go toward Calban's overpass.

Dead Ends Loop

The convoy eventually reaches the R3-Interchange, a large multilayered road structure hanging over the desert. Desolated and full of wrecks, the ruined highway intertwines in a series of large loops of busted concrete. At the entrance, a large highway sign has been spray painted : Dead Ends Loop. The caravan slowly navigate toward the Calban's Crevasse, smashing the littered cars and junk upon their way. Pirrip notices another sign : Murphy's Dinner, best Coffee and Bean, R2 exit 71. "That sounds good... Everyone needs a good coffee!"

Fane guides Jamik, who's now driving the first Iron Slug. Because of her previous vision, they avoid hazardous section of the road. Everything goes well until they hear loud sounds coming from the upper levels. Motorbike, obnoxious laughs and series of gunshots. The convoys stops and everyone is tense and a few put their hand on their weapon. Suddenly, someone screams : "ROCKET! ROCKET! " and everybody ducks as the projectile explodes near the rear end of the caravan, injuring a couple of members.

Jamar puts the Iron Slug in full speed, trying to escape the biker gang. Symmeon, frenetically watching back and forth for other threats, detects the two bikers launch a second rocket, now heading straight for the head of the convoy. Without making any grand gesture, the synth channels its new magnetism gift at full force to deflect the missile, who crashes a few feet away from the road. They finally get away from their firing range but still hear their irritating hysterical laugh.

As they climb their way up the second level at full speed, everyone fail to notice the large cave-in section of the highway. Jamik tries to stop but the Iron Slug slowly tips over the edge of the road. Fane, quick on her feet, treads to the back of the large Iron Slug. Pirrip locks his magnetic boot on the platform while Jamar and Symmeon are pushed forward, tilting the vehicle in a dangerous position. In a desperate attempt to stabilize the situation, the heavy chimera lift on two legs and deploy her wing. Everyone held their breath... until the bulky vehicle finally  landed back in a thunderous racket.

Now travelling with extra rattle, they decide to head over Murphy's Dinner for a much needed coffee... and repairs.

Coffee and Mushroom

Murphy's Dinner is located away from the R3 Interchange but is connected with a single road leading to this outcast section. The small settlement is built around a singular loop, 30 or so feet above the ground. Two mains buildings, Murphy's Diner and Rusty Ratchet make most of the small but active shelter. Bikers and travelers are either snacking on beans, trading motor parts, waiting for repairs or delivery. Pirrip is asked to find someone to fix the Slug while Fane and Symmeon go on their own, recharging their battery (... or blood reserves).

Pirrip heads in the diner for his coffee and tries to find someone who could do the repairs. He can't help but notice the four identical red mushroom figures sipping silently on the same coffee bowl and chuckles a bit. At the bar, two fellows are talking about the pro and con of electro-propulsion so Pirrip chimes in and ask if they'd be willing to repair their big wagon in exchange of three questions to be answered by a real oracle. They agree and get to work, eager to get this divine knowledge.

The nights goes on to the sound of flux torches and UV welding. Meanwhile Symmeon inject himself with disgusting green cacogene blood, all he could find during the day. He also spends the night talking with Tyrus, a small quirky pyramid synth who's part of the expedition.

The next morning, Samar, Jamik and our crew talk about the next course of action until they notice two red mushroom, seemingly starring at them (without having any eyes). Pirrip yells at them to scare them off but this seems to trigger the opposite.

"Your caravan is noisy, we could feel you from miles away. You disturb the balance." The mushroom notices Pirrip's iridescent pistol. "Where did you get this weapon?" Pirrip tries to smash him but the two red mycomorphs scoot away in the diner.

Symmeon sneaks on them for a bit until one mushroom discerns him. Unscarred, the mushroom asks him about Pirrip and his weapon, where the caravan is headed and is he would be interested in taking his arm. "Wait sorry? Taking your arm?" "Yes, yes, take my arm!". Symmeon pulls and the flimsy tiny mushroom arm splits and curls up in his hand, still twitching. "Thank you Mr. Symmeon"

The Iron Slug now repaired, the two mechanics find Pirrip for their reward who then introduces them to Fane, the grand oracle. The chimera, surprised, listen to their question, some petty some quite curious. "There's this strange transport vehicle on R3, I've been trying to access the inside but I can't find the entrance.." She answers calmly "You will find the door when the sun shine the brightest...". The last question surprises everyone : "Oh grand Oracle, how can you be sure that time doesn't actually flow backward? The sun isn't dying, it's being born, isn't it?" Fane pauses for a second "Vaarn will eventually be in darkness, I fear it is inevitable..." "I assume you're right... strange times". Upon leaving, Fane asks the repairsynth for a brush, which he agrees to give as a parting gift. She then uses the brush to clean out the left over from the sandstorm.

Now with functional vehicles, and the belly full of coffee and beans, they return to Dead Ends Loop once more, hopefully with better luck this time.

GM’s Note

This was a good session, but I realize that my GMing for travelling (in the desert, first part) was the weaker part. Maybe it was just too long? It gave the player some time to roleplay interesting discussion about chance and time. 

Also, I should have made the repair time at Murphy’s Diner longer, not only it would have leaded to more interesting encounter there, but also would have made the vehicle damage more important to consider

[basil-shipping]

dnd oc time!!

really the only characters i have coherent references/things typed out for are my rpg characters and i want to participate in oc sharing time so here are some of em!

the newest of the bunch is camille! they’re a character that i’ve had for a while but a friend of mine just started GMing a call of cthulhu campaign and i didn’t have a character ready to go so i decided to just repurpose them. 

- generally a soft and sweet soul although they can be slightly… off-putting at times. 

- may or may not have accidentally summoned a demon in a forest one time.

- works as a librarian and pretty much spends all of their time reading and doing research. most of it is about the occult, but that’s a secret the other player characters will find out later!

kairea was meant for a monster of the week campaign, but unfortunately the GM backed out of it so she’s currently not being used for a campaign! i still love her a bunch though.

- absolutely the grimiest forest fae out there. in both a physical and moral sense. which is saying a lot, because forest fae aren’t particularly known for being the kindest critters or the cleanliest.

- as per MOTW’s “the monstrous” class, she was set up to be an energy vampire! she just kind of gradually slurps at people’s souls like a cool smoothie.

- i was given a character prompt when i was creating her and it ended up being “archaic fae”

- she was really only going to very begrudgingly help the other player characters, she’d much rather be back in her forest if it weren’t for the much bigger and powerful monsters moving onto her turf

i haven’t drawn my baby vyn in a bit, so this is older art, but they’re a homebrew faun ranger for an ongoing dnd campaign!

- the dm, as a joke, let me roll to see how many deer (as vyn was raised by a herd of deer) followed me out of the forest area once we journeyed beyond it. she made a mistake of letting me roll a d20. 17 deer now follow me around wherever i go! and they’re not my official ranger’s pet so they are granted entire plot immunity. everything could be going to shit and i would still have 17 deer.

- they’re not super good at socializing and solve a lot of their problems by charging at them head-on. they got a door stuck on their horns once

- just a funky forest lad! the campaign they’re in is currently on hiatus and i miss playing a fun faun baby

and lastly, this is orrin/odran! the campaign they’re going to be apart of hasn’t started yet but i’m very excited to start playing them.

- their birth was prophecized to be the mark of the end of the rabbitfolk and they were fated from the start to become a traveling druid trying to preserve the last of their culture 

- they are completely blind but they have a homebrew/mix and match of dnd spells that allow them to be sort of guided by the nature god of their universe (who has not yet been decided)

- really all of these characters have baby energy to an extent but i think orrin has the most baby energy out of all of them (seconded by vyn, and then camille. kairea has the least baby energy)

[baphall]

Secret project review - Practical Guide to Being a Great GM

Secret project review - Practical Guide to Being a Great GM I was one of the pre-Kickstarter reader's for @HowToGM 's new book, A Practical Guide to Being a Great GM. Here's a summary of my thoughts, and why you should check out the KS. #ttrpg #GreatGM

A few weeks ago I mentioned I was doing something hush hush. I can now reveal I was one of the readers going through a new book about GMing before it reached Kickstarter – which it now has. So, here’s a sort of review of a project you haven’t seen yet, a bit of an idea of what you can expect from it without giving too much away. The Practical Guide to Being a Great GM is brought to you by Guy…

[origami-goblin]

Perfect Imperfection - GM Preparation 

—

 The first time I went backpacking, the planning process was full of worry, doubt, and circumstantial preparation. Would I have enough food to cover the journey? Was I ready to trudge through the brush in a torrential downpour? Could I even carry this much for any extended period of time? Not only was I essentially a greenhorn to backpacking, but my lack of experience meant I didn’t have a clue which of my worries were rational and which ones weren’t. 

After preparing a checklist that was a conglomerate of several sources, it was clear that I simply had too many items. Too much weight. Even worse, I hadn’t even factored in the weight of my meals and sustenance for several days of hiking. I didn’t have any choice; I’d have to leave some things behind and strip down my pack to the bare essentials. Mowgli would be proud. 

Extra clothes? Gone. Flashlight? Swapped for a 1oz headlamp. Sleeping pad? I’d have to do without. By cutting out the extra chaff and non-essential components, I was able to bring the total pack weight down substantially and completed the week-long trek. 

Relax - I haven’t abandoned my Gamemastery blog in favor of The Backpacker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This short story is merely the vessel I’m using to propel us into a greater discussion about GM preparation and knowing when to put down the pen and be content with the planning you’ve done. That backpacking trip taught me an important lesson about planning that carries beyond tabletop RPGs, but I will do my best to stay focused on that singular point of view. 

On a recent episode of Cannon Fodder, a weekly recap and behind-the-scenes look at The Glass Cannon Podcast, resident GM Troy Lavallee made a comment about being incredibly nervous and anxious at the beginning of each session, taking as much time as possible to prepare for the players. He goes on to say, “I just want it to be the best episode it can be every single week.” 

Taken by itself, this quote can be a bit misleading. Let me explain. As a GM, we are laden with a sizable chunk of the preparation. Enemy statblocks, maps, character voices, setting descriptions, rules knowledge...the list goes on and on. Running a pre-published adventure can knock down some of the prep time considerably, but in he case of a homebrew campaign, the work can be seemingly endless. We may feel the need to make everything PERFECT. That mindset, however, can easily get us into trouble. Perfection is impossible to achieve and if we set that as our only standard for whether or not a campaign is worth our time, we will be sorely disappointed. 

Too much preparation is nearly as bad as not enough. Tailoring the world to cater to your players’ every whim is difficult enough, but if you write out a complex plot with multiple levels of intrigue, red herrings, and suspense, and fail to leave any room for the creative agency of your players, that’s essentially railroading. Tabletop RPGs like Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons are a collaborative storytelling experience that must involve the players alongside the GM. 

What happens if the players take a path completely detriment to your story? What if they miss an essentially connection with an NPC that takes the story in a completely different direction than the one you intended? Will you force that same story so that your preparation won’t go to waste? Instead, have a loose framework of where you think the story is going to go. Let the details come out of the play. Their ideas of how to solve problems and approach situations can easily be better than anything you could come up with anyways! Prepare ahead enough so that you aren’t caught off guard, but not so far as to risk forfeiting your efforts. 

Back to Troy’s quote. The important takeaway isn’t that he’s striving for perfection; it’s that he holds the DESIRE for perfection. Having a GM that cares about the players and the story that much has a passion that can’t be faked into existence. He wants to prepare so that everyone has a good time, and if the session isn’t fun it isn’t because he didn’t prepare enough. Once the game is no longer fun it will come to an end. Having the fire inside you to want to put in the time preparing to facilitate collaborative storytelling - that’s the key character trait that all GMs should have. 

The nervousness and anxiety before a session isn’t caused by the fear of not reaching perfection. It shows that the GM CARES enough about the campaign that they just want the players to be just as invested as they are. Experiencing some level of anxiety is completely normal. I get it all the time! Just like my backpacking excursion, I don’t want to leave anything out. Special abilities, interesting bits of dialogue, meaningful character development - of it’s fun i just don’t want to forget to include it. 

If you’re a new GM waiting for your very first session, don’t let that fear paralyze you. Everybody has started somewhere and everybody has made mistakes. Each session is a learning experience and you’ll get better with every subsequent session. And, hopefully, you’ll always get at least a little bit nervous with the excitement of the secrets and enjoyment that your players are on the verge of uncovering. 

After that first backpacking trip, the preparation became easier. My checklist was whittled down so that I already knew I wouldn’t have to cut as much equipment. I saved time and worried less. It became a science. Now, as I look at my jumbled scraps of notes and half-formed ideas floating around in my mind, I realize that my GMing isn’t a science. Not even close. But you know what? I’m okay with that. I prepare myself for fun foremost!  

If you haven’t been enlightened yet, please check out The Glass Cannon Podcast. They produce a high-quality episode every week of their Pathfinder campaign through Paizo’s Giantslayer Adventure Path. It’s seriously too-notch, and I’ll be writing a complete primer/review in the future. In the meantime, there’s over a hundred episodes of backlog for you to sink your teeth into! 

[itsbenedict]

No Driver’s License: Session 7

[adventure log- from the beginning]

[session 6]

[omakes 6.1 and 6.2]

Last time on No Driver’s License, the team recuperated from a long day spent fighting monsters and witches and evil girls who summon giant ghost sharks. They sat around the fire and shared tragic backstories, growing closer as a team and earning a few points of Hope.

Also, Tama-chan showed up and gave them the main quest! Specifically, she told them what the main quest was (stopping some very strong badguys), and then informed them that she’d given up on it and that it was a stupid idea to try and give them the quest in the first place, and apologized for trying to get them involved. Predictably, the team’s response was “fuck you, we’re going to do the main quest anyway!”, which I will personally take credit for as a brilliant stroke of GMing prowess, thank you, thank you.

less brilliant was how they ended up totally alienating their helpful guide and driving her off entirely, such that i was left without a mouthpiece character, but HEY THAT’S DRAMA

This time, the party ends up having to contend with...

Bain à la Grenouillère by Claude Monet. Uh... okay??? Sure???

So, first off, after everyone went home, they all took some action based on what they wanted to accomplish.

Sakura started doing some internet research, on top of her primary objective of “read a lot of magical girl manga for helpful tips”. Her search for magic phenomena turned up a couple things- one, a well-documented sighting of an inexplicable Gundam above Tokyo that’s been causing a stir amongst conspiracy theorists; and two, a rash of unexplained mass narcolepsy incidents across the world, probably linked to the appearance of witch barriers.

Makoto just wanted to figure out how to live in the real world- and so she’s been enrolled in school. She’s been placed in remedial classes, and- her player, koholitl, was unable to participate in the session this week due to medical problems, so Makoto’s just going to spend her time in those classes- with her good roll, she’s earned an extra point of Real from her lessons.

Seina also rolled Keep Up With Life, like Makoto- but she got a very very bad roll, and so unfortunately for her, she’s facing the consequences of “suddenly disappearing one night while staying over at Reiko’s, and not telling her parents where she was”. She’s... super grounded! Except for school, but her dad is a teacher at school, so she’s under near-constant supervision now. Whoops!

Ibara, meanwhile, decided to hit the streets looking for info. Specifically, she tracked down her delinquent buddies from school- Nails and Shibu. She asked them if they knew Yamauchi Yoshe, and... turns out they do! Yoshe’s an upperclassman at their high school, and they super duper hate her. Not because they know she’s an evil magic cannibal- it’s just she won a beauty pageant at the school festival and they’re super bitter about it because fuck the popular kids.

Yukari was tagging along with Ibara, but got distracted on the way to the school- she finally found Nishi-chan, and broke off to go chase her. Nishi-chan, though, was apparently headed for the same place- when she finally corners Nishi-chan at the school, it’s in view of Ibara and her delinquent friends.

So that’s where we begin the session!

Yukari doesn’t beat around the bush, and takes Nishi-chan to the rooftop where they can talk without being overheard. She... does this by straight-up jumping up to the roof in plain view of Nails and Shibu, which causes them to freak out and forces Ibara to have to confess that she’s involved in some Weird Magic Shit™. 

Nishi-chan says that she came to the school to try and defuse a crisis- someone in the school is on the verge of witching out, according to her vague senses about this sort of thing. She asks if anyone in the party is in bad shape emotionally, but as far as Yukari knows, everyone’s fine- and Reiko just witched out like yesterday, so it probably wouldn’t be her.

So, Nishi-chan concludes, it must be one of the at-least-five other magical girls in the school. 

WHAT? Yukari asks, and Nishi-chan begins spilling the beans. A lot of magical girls go to this school, apparently! She indicates that three of the girls at this school are the big bads Tama-chan mentioned, confirming that they include Yamauchi Yoshe and Katou Kimiko. She also mentions- without stating their affiliations exactly- Otsuki Orino, an upperclassman in the art club, and Akagi Anzu, a freshman. She’s about to name a third, but...

There’s an earthquake. A very short earthquake. A massive dust cloud rises from the baseball diamond on the school grounds, visible to the entire party save Makoto. Sakura and Seina are in the same chemistry class, and manage to slip away as the classroom empties in a blind panic. Yukari’s on the roof, and has a clear view. Ibara and her friends can also see it- and she instructs them to run like hell.

Yukari rolls for Prophecy and only gets one for this session- and decides to save it rather than check whether they should intervene. Of course they should intervene, and she wants to be able to ask a more useful question once they know what they’re intervening in.

Ibara is the first to arrive on the scene, stepping through the barrier and bucking tradition by succeeding on a Real roll.

The witch-  Ｐａｉｎ à ｌａ Ｇｒｅｎｏｕｉｌｌèｒｅ, which yes I realize technically would be read as Bread a la Grenouillere instead of a badass thing, but shut up- is the tree island thing in the center of the painting. It’s way scribblier than in the painting, though, with unintelligible love letters instead of leaves. The people in the painting are all stick figures wearing better-rendered clothing, and they turn into stick mermaids in the water that attack people- the witch’s familiars. (This witch is a Hive Mother youma, in Magical Burst’s parlance).

It’s not alone, though- apparently someone is already fighting the witch!

The mysterious girl seems to be begging the witch to stop attacking, trying to appeal to it with reason. This, of course, has little effect. On noticing Ibara, she waves, and tries to explain what’s going on.

Seina and Sakura follow into the barrier, with Yukari staying outside to keep watch for any evil megucas who might try to ambush the team while they’re inside. They both roll Real.

They manage to fend off the familiars and climb into a boat- and from there, we roll for our first Skirmish!

Ibara and Seina roll Go on the Offensive! Ibara scores a crit, getting two hits on the witch. Seina... fails her roll, so familiars sneak up and yank her off the boat and underwater. Sakura, then, rolls Protect Someone to ensure Seina doesn’t take a Personal Consequence from the fight- and nails the roll, saving her. (Which... I mean, a valid Personal Consequence is taking Trauma, and Seina has yet to acquire any totally harmless experience points of that sort, so was that really a heroic move???)

With the mystery girl’s additional Hit, the Skirmish ends with Spread+1 (only 2 Spread), and the witch is vanquished handily.

Ibara immediately rolls against the stranger to try and claim the Grief Seed.

Mystery girl gets the seed! She gets it real good! And she...

Whoever she is, she apparently knows about the cannibalism situation, and was worried that Ibara had dark intentions. 

The group tries to convince her that they’re on the same side- that they’re really just there to help, and didn’t want to eat... the girl’s referring to the former witch as “Ori-san”. ??? isn’t totally convinced- partially because the team showed up without an Incubator to revive her.

Wait, without an incubator? Yukari turns around to check where Nishi-chan should be, and... oh, shit.

At the same time, ??? is noticing that her Incubator- “Fumi-chan”- is also not showing up. This gets her a little bit panicked, especially once Yukari reports that Nishi-chan is temporarily dead for like the third fucking time, jesus christ. Everyone’s seriously on edge, ??? thinks they’re cannibals, and suddenly...

What everyone except Seina didn’t notice (good job Seina! +1 Hope for smartness!) is that telepathy was still working, meaning that an Incubator had to still be alive, probably.

This is confirmed when the source of the laughter turns out to be an incubator, who jumps out of the dugout laughing her goddamn head off. 

??? is about to hand the seed over to Fumi-chan, but Ibara interrupts, asking why Fumi-chan has two eyes instead of three. ???, though, doesn’t seem to find this strange- Fumi-chan’s always had two eyes. No reason to be suspicious.

Fumi-chan then spits out the soul gem, and- rather than any sort of horrible trap happening- it regenerates into a girl.

According to ???, this is pretty normal for Ori-san.

Yukari makes a guess. 

The team decides to warn Emiko about the cannibal girls who go to this school. She seems shocked by this information- but hints that maybe Orino, who was being bullied, was being bullied by those cannibal girls specifically so they could make her witch out and eat her.

Then the team asks Emiko to follow them somewhere where they can talk without potentially being ambushed by the cannibals- since it’s pretty suspicious that they haven’t shown up yet, what with the loud explosion sounds and whatnot. Emiko doesn’t immediately trust this- she still has no reason to think the party aren’t cannibals, and following them to a secluded area sounds to her like a bad bad idea.

Yukari comes up with an idea, then. She spends a prophecy on a certain action she’s about to take, and finds that the outcome-goodness stays pretty much neutral if she does it, save for a few significant but unlikely dips. She goes ahead with it.

This is a pretty cool idea, and Emiko is about to trust them! But...

Yeah, this piece of shit doesn’t want them to trust each other, for some reason. Yukari... attempts to bypass Fumi-chan’s objection.

Yukari’s extremely practical and effective idea to which there can be no objections is, unfortunately, sabotaged by Fumi-chan again.

(Behind the curtain for a second here- I typed out “Her body could be concealing traps” as just like, an obvious immediate generic objection to the search plan, and only after typing it realized the horrible offensive double-entendre. And then... kept it in, because Fumi-chan really is just a gigantic piece of shit who would absolutely make a godawful joke like that specifically to make Sakura feel bad. What a fucker!)

Sakura takes a point of Trauma on Fear of Female Failure, and Ibara tries to get things back on track.

This doesn’t entirely work, since Sakura has fled the scene in tears, pursued by Seina, but Yukari and Ibara fill Emiko in on the known identities of the cannibals- including Yamauchi Yoshe.

KOTONO YUKARI, MASTER OF TACT

Emiko is in denial about Yoshe, and starts getting really defensive. Yoshe can’t be a cannibal! She’s- she’s too nice! That’s impossible!!!

fuckin... shut your telepathic mouth, Fumi-chan.

Anyway, Emiko is eager to change the subject, and starts talking about taking care of Orino. They agree to let Emiko take the unconscious Orino to the nurse’s office. “Why’s she asleep, anyway?” someone asks.

They exchange contact information- and Emiko tells them what class she’s in.

So they head off, and Yukari and Ibara try to track down Sakura- who’s shut herself up in a bathroom to try and stave off a mental breakdown.

Seina gets there first.

Sakura’s about to confess something to Seina, but then Yukari, MASTER OF TACT, barges in with Ibara. They try to understand why Sakura is upset, but- since they don’t know Sakura’s trans, they don’t understand what Fumi-chan said to hurt her. 

Eventually, Sakura decides to confess to the entire group.

To the group’s credit, nobody is particularly upset by the revelation. There’s no “WHAT, you’re REALLY a BOY?!?” shit- but also, there’s not a lot in the way of emotional support for Sakura. Yukari’s attitude is essentially “What? Why would that bother you? Who cares? Fighting evil is more important!”, and it takes a while for anyone to interrupt her rant about how Sakura’s emotions don’t matter and she needs to suck it up. Sakura boils over and throws a candy axe at the wall, shattering a mirror.

This finally gets Ibara and Seina to speak up and object to what Yukari’s saying. They get Yukari to back off, and try to reassure Sakura while also clearing up what turned out to be a miscommunication. Yukari, who is about as capable of reading the mood as a cat would be of reading a “do not claw at” sign, had assumed that Sakura was literally scheming to assassinate an incubator rather than asking for emotional support- and changes her tune to “...well, duh, we’ll support you, that’s what friends do, you should have known that”. Which is kind of a really transparent attempt to deflect blame for hurting Sakura’s feelings, but apparently that’s good enough. Hugs for everyone!

They then spend something like fifteen minutes attempting to repair the broken mirror. Sakura’s magic, when used to repair objects, has an irritating tendency to leave them with a cartoon watermark of her face going ;P, completely without her intending to do so. (It’d be fine if she ever rolled an 11-14, but APPARENTLY THAT’S JUST IMPOSSIBLE). Ibara smashes and Sakura repairs the mirror over and over again, to no avail. The last attempt results in...

Screw the mirror! It probably just broke in the earthquake or something! Whatever!!!!

Seina, at this point, goes back to class- but the rest have one last loose end to tie up.

They head back up to the roof, where Nishi-chan’s corpse is still sitting. It is time for CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION: MAGIC VICTIMS UNIT (ft. guest star Maurice Mousse, Sakura’s magic familiar.)

Yukari takes some photos, and she and Sakura inspect the scene, passing Real rolls to investigate.

Yukari investigates the air conditioners, but doesn’t find anything. Maurice Mousse, Ace Pet Mouse Detective, manages to turn up a few clues.

Unfortunately, they don’t find enough information to determine the culprit. With magic involved, there’s any number of potential causes of death- they’ll just need to ask Nishi-chan next time she respawns.

The real mystery, though... why kill Nishi-chan, but not Yukari, who was right there when Nishi-chan was silently killed? Was she deliberately left alive? Why?

For now, the team’s gone back to what they were doing. Tune in next time, when... well, I won’t say what happens next time.

[kayawagner]

Ultimate Hyper Fantastic Magical Girls Role Playing Game

Publisher: Ultimate Hyper Games

This contains the Players Guide, GM Guide, and the Corruption Compendium (a monster manual). I put them all together for convenience (even though they should probably be separate documents), so I'm sorry if the page numbering gets funky!

What is Ultimate Hyper Fantastic Magical Girls Role Playing Game? UHFMGRPG is a lightweight (ish) tabletop role playing game like Dungeons and Dragons. It's designed to be easy to learn, fun to play, but still have a lot of meaningful choices to make as a player. Its theme is the classic anime trope of Magical Girls! If you like flashy, exciting battle sequences with magical girls fighting monsters, this game is for you!

What will I need to play? When I play tested this, we played online using Roll20, so I guess you don't really need anything, but if you want to play in person, you need a standard set of playing cards, 6-sided dice (at least 10), and paper and writing utensils for character sheets. It's nice to have things like miniatures, maps, etc., but these are not necessary to play (or can be improvised with whatever you have lying around).

What sets UHFMGRP apart from other Tabletop RPGs? Fun mechanics: The biggest innovation in UHFMGRPG is its card system. To use your special abilities, you need to discard a card, but you can also use cards to empower your abilities, so there's a real dilemma on how and when to use your cards. It's also a lot of fun to use and empower abilities since players are encouraged to shout out the name of their abilities (just like in an anime) and when empowered, it just gets better. One of my favorites is an ability called "Final Strike" which has the special ability of allowing all players to contribute to the empowerment of it. Nothing beats shouting out "ULTIMATE, HYPER, EPIC, MEGA, FINAL STRIKE!!!" and dealing massive damage to an enemy!

Fun Dice: UHFMGRPG uses a dice system very similar to "Betrayal at the House on the Hill". I like how this feels better than a lot of other dice systems since it produces pretty consistent results, there's some randomness, but not as much as a D20 system like Dungeons and Dragons. When you roll exceptionally well, it feels really special, and when you roll really crappy, it's still kinda fun. The only downside to this, is that it's best to play with the dice from "Betrayal at the House on the Hill", but normal 6-sided dice can be used.

Hard, meaningful choices: There are so many good choices for character selection and ways to play each Aspect (sort of like a class) that it becomes a challenge to determine which set of choices is the "best" and no two characters will likely be the same. There are a lot of awesome abilities and perks to choose from and how and when to use these all matters!

No game is perfect, what's wrong with this one? UHFMGRPG does a great job at being a Magical Girl battle simulator. Combat feels great and it plays nicely as a game. Where it lacks most as a system is handling what happens outside of combat. There's just not a lot of applicable mechanics for the day-to-day life of the Magical Girls. This was rarely, if ever a problem when I was GMing, I had great players though, who like to roleplay and it all worked great even without hard defined mechanics. But, my only regret at this point is not capturing that aspect of the trope in more solid terms.

The free playtest beta is available for a limited time. I really hope to create something that any RPG player might be proud to have on his or her bookshelf. If I get good feedback, I plan to hire an artist, and work on making this into a real guidebook. I don't know how all the pieces will fall into place yet, but I don't want the hard work I've put into this to be wasted.  If you would like to help support this endevour, I have placed it as "Pay What You Want", but do not feel any pressure to donate. 

If you have any feedback, please email me at ultimatehypergames@gmail.com

Price: $1.00 Ultimate Hyper Fantastic Magical Girls Role Playing Game published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

[purplelizardman]

GM's Easy Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) - World Creation Kit (make vivid worlds, quickly)

As a GM, one of the most fun and daunting tasks you can undertake is the creation of worlds.

New gods, myths, legends, artifacts, heroes, villains, history, kingdoms, cultures, religions… there’s infinite room for creativity and no shortage of fun to be had!

The problem is that there’s literally infinite room for creativity. 

Knowing where to start can be tough and when rushing in head-first it’s not uncommon to find that you’ve wrote yourself into a corner. When this happens it’s easy to lose enthusiasm for the world you’re creating.

It’s a problem I’ve encountered many times during my 7+ years of GMing. For each campaign I would create a new world and eventually I developed a set of methods that makes the world creation process fast and fun while producing vivid, consistent, and imaginative worlds.

It all begins with the first step:

Choose the Gameplay

Worlds in RPGs (both tabletop and otherwise) are not stand-alone constructs: they are meant to be played in.

The first step to creating a vivid and interesting world is to decide what type of game you want played in that world. 

Ask yourself the following questions:

What does the typical session look like?

Is it straight combat? Very little combat? A mix of puzzles, riddles, combat, and social encounters?

Are the players classical, good adventurers or are they mercenaries, space pirates, or planar pillagers, etc..?

Where do I see these encounters happening?

In dungeons? In cities? In spaceships? In temples built out of bones of decaying gods?

In locales that span a wide range of heavy metal album covers?

In all of the above?

How do I want to guide story progression?

Is the game entirely player driven or will NPCs and world events drive most of the plot?

Do the players exist within a command structure, fulfilling orders? If not, are they free agents on a mission, mercenaries for hire, or a rag-tag bunch of outcasts that gets into mischief?

Is the progression driven primarily by exploration, social encounters, or pre-determined events?

Choose Central Conflicts and Environments

Once you’ve answered the previous questions you should have an idea of how you see gameplay and plot unfolding in a typical session, in other words: the assumptions of your game. 

Now that you have a clearer idea of the assumptions you’re working with it’s time to build a world around them. 

Worlds are meant to be played in, so start with the environment: create a reason for the environment to be the way you envision. Give the players incentive to explore the environments that you’ve chosen.

This ties in closely with the central conflict or theme of your world: if it is a war time campaign, the environment should be blistered with the signs of battles, cities will be impoverished, nature will marred by weapons of war. If an eternal winter has spread across the continent, everything will be cold and harsh, but nature may yet struggle on.

If the primary method of story progression is exploration, define a few interesting locales with good backstories and a home base, for example:

The material plane has been shattered to thousands of pieces. The players begin on a shrinking shard of the plane (a single kingdom), drifting through a dark sea of stars, gradually breaking into smaller pieces. On their journey they will likely encounter the Volcanic Stronghold of the Fists of Hextor, the Sunken Kingdom of the Drowned God, The Impossible Tower of the Mad Mage, etc…

In 3 short sentences we have defined: a central conflict/theme (the material realm being shattered), provided the players motivation for exploring (their realm is literally falling to pieces), and formed an idea of 3 interesting places for the players to visit.

A second example:

The gods could never agree on how the world should be, so they made two worlds and separated them by a thin veil. Now the veil is weakening and new, bizarre cities, towns, and kingdoms are popping up everywhere along with dangerous monsters in unexpected places. If it’s not stopped the players will lose everything familiar to them and their entire world. The players will probably visit the Crag of the Crab King, the Industrious  Imperium of the Formic Hive, and the Brain Bakery run by Granny and Grandpa M’Flayer.

We’ve outlined a central conflict/theme (two worlds colliding), provided player motivation (anything they know and love could be destroyed or swapped with something at any moment), and 3 interesting places.

Entire articles can (and will be) written on how to flesh out interesting locales and encounters. Once you feel you have enough interesting locales and a strong enough central theme to create new environments throughout the campaign, it’s time for the next step.

Create NPCs and Flesh out the Backstory

The environment implies the backstory of your world as your descriptions of the environment reveal the world illuminated in the light of the central theme. Yet it is the NPCs who will ultimately become the face or even the very personification of your world, it’s backstory, and its central theme. 

When writing NPCs it is important to flesh out the backstory of your world. The central conflict of your world is going to have 3 main facets:

Cause – How did the conflict come to be? i.e. creation myths, political events, a wizard did it, etc…

Resolution – How is the conflict resolved (the ultimate goal)? Gather artifacts, dethrone a mad king, etc…

Factions – Who’s on what side of the conflict and why? Doomsday cultists, angry gods and their followers,  bellicose Kings, devious dragons, the merchant guild, a rogue sect of angels, etc…

Define the factions you’d like to see in the world and the cause for their conflicts, then create the NPCs that will be agents and eventually faces of the faction. 

Most important of all: make your NPCs interesting! Not every shopkeeper needs an important backstory or a quirk, but important NPCs do. Make the backstory related to the central conflict, but keep it personal so that your players will be motivated by it. 

Define a few NPCs for each faction that the players will interact with early on. At a minimum you should define a leader, a high-ranking officer, and one or two low ranking people.

You can get by with a short description of a name, personality/mannerism, and a sentence or two describing them and how they act.

For example:

Iara Tsun, the unusually tall dwarf who owes a life-debt to the King. She is never seen outside of her formal armor and never uses a word when a nod will suffice.

Zorc the Mad, a half-elf mage with a dragon facial tatoo, obsessed with the summoning of demons. He wears a cocky expression to match his attitude and truly believes that summoning a powerful demon may allow him to free his son’s soul from hell. 

Auren the Keeper of the Gate, an immortal former-human who is mostly made of glowing blue stone; his former knightly robes hang off him in tatters. He speaks in a loud booming voice that sounds like it comes from far away; he has guarded this portal for ages and will allow only the worthy to pass and receive the truth contained beyond.

Rog Horf the disgruntled half-orc cultist in charge of new recruits. He keeps his cultist robes pristine and is mindful of prejudice, choosing to annunciate each word carefully, but feels he is woefully underappreciated for his talent and intelligence.

The best part about using the short description method is that NPCs can be inserted into nearly any role we need on the fly: their role in the game is only set in stone once they make an appearance on the stage.

This saves prep time and makes the game flow smoother, giving you a pool of NPCs to work with for when your players do something unexpected.

After you’ve defined the key factions and some interesting NPCs, spend some time fleshing out the myths and lore: this will make your factions and NPCs more believable. 

CAUTION!!!

A lot of GMs fall into a trap at this point and end up developing extensive lore, legends, religion, etc. While this is fun, you should finish out the “party facing” aspects of your world first i.e. develop the starting local, it’s NPCs, factions, and environment. The PCs will definitely see this part of your world, but there’s a chance they will never delve deep enough into the lore to learn the deeper and more obscure parts of your world backstory.

Focus on the parts the players will see first then, if you have time, feel free to circle back around to lore and flesh it out even more.

Finishing Up

At this point, you’ve identified your assumptions about the game, you’ve defined a central conflict, a motivation for players, the environment with several interesting locales, NPCs, and the backstory of your world.

All that’s left is the quests, plot hooks, and encounters. 

By now these should flow very naturally, but if you’re having trouble just look back at your NPCs and factions and ask “How would they get the party to help them? What would they do that would harm/hinder the party?” For example:

Would Zorc the Mad use an alias to post a reward for the retrieval of a magical artifact from a dangerous dungeon?

Would Rog Horf send the PCs out on his personal errands where chance encounters will surely alter their fate?

Would Iara Tsun require the PCs to prove themselves against an encampment of orcs that suddenly appeared in the lower quarter of the city?

Start with at least 3 potential plot hooks and get a feel for which one you think will be most impactful to your group (which one they will like or at least remember best). 

At this point: you’re done!

You’ve made a consistent world built around a central conflict, interesting locales, memorable NPCs, and enough plot hooks to start the adventure. Add more interesting NPCs, locations, plothooks, and factions as needed.

    If you enjoyed this article you may also like Active Player Agency – A Crash Course or A GM’s Guide to Communication

GM’s Easy Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) – World Creation Kit (make vivid worlds, quickly) was originally published on Friendly Neighborhood Lizard Man

[swipestream]

The 8 Steps to Adventure Design

I noticed something. There are zillions of articles talking about *running* an adventure. There are volumes of information on campaign design. There is a lot of writing dedicated to campaign and world building. But there is comparatively little written about creating adventures and story arcs. The 5th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide finally contains some helpful advice and tools, but still, in my mind at least, could have gone farther. Besides that, with the exception of some half assed EHOW articles, and one very obscure TSR book, virtually nothing exists about building the actual adventures themselves. I have a big problem with this. One, because it turns our entire hobby into an inside conversation, which in turn makes “taking up the chair” that much more difficult. Two, this hobby is decades old. Some of us are teaching it to our kids. It’s about time someone just set this down like stereo instructions. (I’m going to say that’s a Beetlejuice reference, and not a statement that carbon dates me.)

This is my attempt to describe adventure design to someone who hasn’t done it before. This is by no means the only way to do this. But it is a functional way. This may look like playing scales to more experienced GMs, or (hopefully) they might find something they like in this approach. Either way, everyone is more than welcome to contribute their ideas. That all being said:

The 8 Parts of Adventure Design

Adventures can be broken down into these component parts:

What is the objective?

Who are the bad guys?

Who needs the help?

Where does it happen?

How many/what kind of fights?

How many/what kind of crime scenes?

How many/what kind of challenges?

What is the hook? Why will the players want to get involved?

Objective

This is what happens when an adventure lacks a clear objective.

A solid objective gives a game a sense of direction and purpose. It unifies the other elements in your adventure, and it unifies and focuses the players. It is why your players are adventuring in the first place. A good objective is always an actionable goal (break into a tyrant’s treasury vault and rob him blind). But, an objective that also contains a possible consequence is often better (the treasury actually belongs to a sleeping dragon, and it is expected to wake up sometime very soon).

Bad Guys

Who is the villain? What does the villain want? Who is the villain employing/working with to achieve this goal? You develop the villain and the villain’s objectives because these all inform the villain’s methodology and actions. You don’t need to write a novel of backstory, but development here allows bits of the adventure to write itself. For example, Hissy Fit the Halfling Barbarian leads a growing gang of bandits that now rivals a small army. No longer content with taking tribute from surrounding villages, she has set her sights on a nearby city and, some say, a campaign of conquest throughout the region. With this premise, you have your main villain, your villain’s objective, and the main troops involved.

Who needs help?

Who benefits from the actions of the players? Why do they need the players’ help? Are they being completely honest with the party? Common examples include a town’s mayor asking for help against a hostile army, a rich benefactor who needs to work outside of official channels, a simple farmer trying to locate a missing child, or perhaps even the player characters themselves have scores that need settling. As a side note, you know your objective is a good one if failure causes bad things to happen to these people.

Where?

Where does the adventure take place and how does its location influence the player’s actions? Also, when does it take place? What time of year? What is the weather? Who are the locals? What is the local culture like? What types of terrain and conditions predominate? Also, where are the inevitable battles going to take place? Who will be attacking who? What will be the backdrops? What sort of terrain features will affect the outcome of the fights? Will the party be operating in a city? The wilderness? Underground? In a shipwreck? A fully operational clock tower just before it strikes midnight? Also, how many different places will the players need to travel to before they accomplish their mission? World and local city/town maps can be very useful aids here, assisting in role play and also allowing everyone to be on the same page.

The Fights

How many combats will this adventure contain? Who will the party be fighting? Under what circumstances will the fighting start? Will there be an ambush or will the villain pause to do some boasting before sending his lackeys against the players? How hard will the fights be on the party? How lethal will the injuries be? How smart are the enemies? Can they be reasoned with or talked down? Maps used here cut down confusion and also allow the use of minis.

Crime scenes

Sometimes the players will be investigating actual murders. Most times they will simply be searching for clues about the bad guys. In either case, they’re often acting like detectives, and detectives need chains of evidence to follow toward a conclusive end. People leave behind all sorts of things, and spells/sci fi tech allows all kinds of novel ways to discover hidden information. Perhaps the most important rule to remember here is to offer more than one trail to your next scenes/encounters/sets of clues. This is because players will often ignore the things you think should be obvious, and yet somehow find new and ingenious methods that threaten to unravel your plans. Also keep in mind that if an adventure fails because a player failed to discover relevant evidence, players will tend to feel cheated, railroaded, or both.

Other challenges

RPGs aren’t just about fights and playing Scooby Doo. A party might encounter a physical challenge, get stuck in a game of riddles, negotiate, or need to perform any number of other interesting tests of capability. Consequences for failure may be expensive, or harmful, or slow the party’s efforts. Such challenges are associated with the terrain or location the party is in. They may need to win a game of cards to get the attention of a crime lord. Encounter a sphinx in a dessert tomb. Or simply need to climb a rope over a chasm after the rotting rope bridge breaks apart. Occasionally, adding such challenges to a combat can make both the combat and the challenge more fun and interesting. Perhaps the sphinx insists on playing riddles while a host of undead mummies tries to eradicate the party. Or maybe that rotting rope bridge fell apart because it couldn’t support both the party and the bad guys sent to stop them.

The Hook

Why should the players even bother? True, there is no game unless they take the job. But logically speaking, adventurers are in the business of doing very dangerous things. They need a compelling reason to take on the risks found in the endeavor. Money may not be enough. They might not care if a town gets destroyed. They may hate the long lost brother who shows up asking for a favor. Never assume that your party will just dive into your adventure. You will need to sell them, pull heart strings, make them angry, or otherwise find some sort of genuine motivation. The more personal investment you can get out of your players, the more likely they will experience all of the highs and lows your designing into your day’s events. You don’t have to think too hard on this, just be sensitive to your players, what they want, and the type of characters they build.

And, oddly enough, that’s basically it. There is certainly more that can be said about all of these elements. But as long as you’re using each of these eight parts, adventures can (and often do) write themselves. Follow this method long enough and eventually you might find you have the ability to employ it on the fly, which can really come in handy when your players inevitably do something you hadn’t planned.

And this is where I invite the GMing universe to chime in and let the world know what they consider adventure nuts and bolts. What steps do you follow? What structures and skeletons do you use? How do you progress from idea to game day?

The 8 Steps to Adventure Design published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[songofswordsrpg]

Update #8: A-Hunting We Will Go!

Mar 11 2017

The Hunter’s Handbook has been unlocked! Every single stretch goal (thus far) has been reached! Exciting battles and fiendish foes await. All backer tiers who have the Digital Pack will now receive a copy of the Hunter’s Handbook!  

But wait there’s more! We’ve got two new shiny Stretch Goals! Read below for more information, and check the Stretch Goal graphic on the main Campaign page for details.

Monster Deck  

Now that we’ve unlocked the Hunter’s Handbook we’d love to be able to make monster decks! Much like NPC decks, there will be 60 unique monster statblocks for GMs to use in campaigns, and for players to fight against. Once unlocked these will be added as a PDF to the digital pack, and also available as printed add-ons.  

Tales from the Tattered Realms: Plot Hooks and Narratives

You’ve got the rules, you’ve got an adventure, and you’ve got monsters to fight. So, the question is, what’s next? Well, in our plot hook guide you will get a more in-depth introduction and style guide to GMing for Song of Swords, and within the Tattered Realms itself. This will give GMs tips and tricks, best practices, and suggestions to maximize the system. Additionally, the real meat of this book will be the plot hooks section, which will provide a series of narrative scenarios and short stories to inspire campaigns, and provide examples for what could be happening in the Tattered Realms, suitable for all types of gaming groups.  

Days left

We’ve got 7 days to go! With just over a week left this will be the final push to get you as much content as possible! Our team may be small, but our determination is great. So, if you haven’t just yet, make sure to tell your friends, and spread the word!

[kayawagner]

Mordenkainen's Marvelous Bundle [BUNDLE]

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

This special bundle product contains the following titles.

Epic Level Handbook (3e) Regular price: $15.99 Bundle price: $7.94 Format: Watermarked PDF Legends Begin Here Songs are sung and tales are told of heroes who have advanced beyond most adventuring careers. They confront mightier enemies and face deadlier challenges, using powers and abilities that rival even the gods. This supplement for the D&D® game provides everything you need to transcend the first 20 levels of experience and advance characters to virtually unlimited levels of play. Along with epic magic items, epic monsters, and advice on running an epic campaign, the Epic Level Handbook also features stat blocks for epic NPCs from the FORGOTTEN REALMS® and GREYHAWK® campaign settings. To use this supplement, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual. A player needs only the Player’s H... Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk (3.5) Regular price: $17.50 Bundle price: $8.69 Format: Watermarked PDF Mordenkainen needs you. The good people of Greyhawk need you. What are you waiting for?   *** Twenty-seven years ago, a band of adventurers led by the great wizard Mordenkainen entered the dungeons below Castle Greyhawk and released the evil demigod Iuz, intending to slay him. Betrayal led to failure, Iuz escaped, and many lives were lost. Today, evil has returned to Castle Greyhawk, and Mordenkainen must place his trust in the hands of a new generation of heroes. Those who fail will be lost, and those who triumph will be legends.   Castle Greyhawk has become a grand fixture of the Cairn Hills, tempting the likes of Mordenkainen, Bigby, and Tenser with its dark mysteries. Today it lies in ruin, ravaged by years and countless assaults. However, many of its greatest treasure... Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium (4e) Regular price: $14.99 Bundle price: $7.44 Format: Watermarked PDF A wondrous collection of magical treasures for any campaign. Few wizards know more about magic than the mighty Mordenkainen, whose arcane achievements are without peer. He’s the Archmage of Adventure . . . and no stranger to unearthing hidden lore. Stand aside, Tenser! Back to the books, Otiluke! Few can match Mordenkainen’s collection of magic items. Still, he hardly seems the type to settle down and open a magic shop. And yet . . . Welcome to Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Emporium, a wondrous collection of magic items—each one with a story to tell. This tome provides Dungeon Masters with a ready assortment of treasures to tempt greedy players, along with historical nuggets and alluring adventure hooks that set these items apart from your run-of-the-mill flaming ... The City of Greyhawk (2e) Regular price: $9.99 Bundle price: $4.96 Format: Watermarked PDF Greyhawk - City of High Culture and Low Life! From the high towers of its grand universities to the rancid alleys of its darkest slums, the City of Greyhawk awaits you. Center of magic and learning in the Flanaess, Greyhawk is also the home of powerful thieves, mighty warriors, traitorous ambassadors, and honest craftsmen. They all await you within the pages of this information-packed boxed set. You get four full-size, full-color maps, each depicting a different aspect of the Greyhawk campaign. Two 96-page books give you a detailed overview of the city and a closer look at its more influential citizens - and its more notoriouus criminals. Many detailed, colorful adventure cards provide players with short adventures in the city and throughout the surrounding realms of Greyhawk. N... The Rogues Gallery (1e) Regular price: $4.99 Bundle price: $2.48 Format: Watermarked PDF No longer will you the Dungeon Master need to spend precious time laboring over the task of generating non-player characters. This valuable booklet contains hundreds of pre-rolled non-player characters of all classes and types, complete with alignments, sex, personalities and much more. The Rogues Gallery is specially designed to be compatible with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It will save you time in creating your non-player characters, thus allowing you to pursue the other interesting aspects of your campaign. Product History "The Rogues Gallery" (1980), by Brian Blume with David Cook and Jean Wells, was the first in a series of new GMing supplements for AD&D. It was published in January 1980. About the Name. "The Rogues Gallery" lacks... WG5: Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure (1e) Regular price: $4.99 Bundle price: $2.48 Format: Watermarked PDF Four great and powerful heroes travel in search of adventure. Led by Mordenkainen, wizard without peer, they have come to mysterious Maure Castle, a forlorn and foreboding place, source of wonderment and awesome adventure, following a strange and terrible story. For, somewhere deep beneath Maure Castle, from whence no person has returned alive, there stand two massive iron doors -- doors without latch, lock, or handle -- the Unopenable Doors. And if the doors are opened, what then? Such potent evil, such terror lies beyond, that even the bravest adventurers may quail before the ultimate test! Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventureis a challenging adventure for high-level play. Four original characters from Gary Gygax's famous Greyhawk campaign are included for your use. ...

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Price: $68.45 Mordenkainen's Marvelous Bundle [BUNDLE] published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

[kayawagner]

The 8 Steps to Adventure Design

I noticed something. There are zillions of articles talking about *running* an adventure. There are volumes of information on campaign design. There is a lot of writing dedicated to campaign and world building. But there is comparatively little written about creating adventures and story arcs. The 5th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide finally contains some helpful advice and tools, but still, in my mind at least, could have gone farther. Besides that, with the exception of some half assed EHOW articles, and one very obscure TSR book, virtually nothing exists about building the actual adventures themselves. I have a big problem with this. One, because it turns our entire hobby into an inside conversation, which in turn makes “taking up the chair” that much more difficult. Two, this hobby is decades old. Some of us are teaching it to our kids. It’s about time someone just set this down like stereo instructions. (I’m going to say that’s a Beetlejuice reference, and not a statement that carbon dates me.)

This is my attempt to describe adventure design to someone who hasn’t done it before. This is by no means the only way to do this. But it is a functional way. This may look like playing scales to more experienced GMs, or (hopefully) they might find something they like in this approach. Either way, everyone is more than welcome to contribute their ideas. That all being said:

The 8 Parts of Adventure Design

Adventures can be broken down into these component parts:

What is the objective?

Who are the bad guys?

Who needs the help?

Where does it happen?

How many/what kind of fights?

How many/what kind of crime scenes?

How many/what kind of challenges?

What is the hook? Why will the players want to get involved?

Objective

This is what happens when an adventure lacks a clear objective.

A solid objective gives a game a sense of direction and purpose. It unifies the other elements in your adventure, and it unifies and focuses the players. It is why your players are adventuring in the first place. A good objective is always an actionable goal (break into a tyrant’s treasury vault and rob him blind). But, an objective that also contains a possible consequence is often better (the treasury actually belongs to a sleeping dragon, and it is expected to wake up sometime very soon).

Bad Guys

Who is the villain? What does the villain want? Who is the villain employing/working with to achieve this goal? You develop the villain and the villain’s objectives because these all inform the villain’s methodology and actions. You don’t need to write a novel of backstory, but development here allows bits of the adventure to write itself. For example, Hissy Fit the Halfling Barbarian leads a growing gang of bandits that now rivals a small army. No longer content with taking tribute from surrounding villages, she has set her sights on a nearby city and, some say, a campaign of conquest throughout the region. With this premise, you have your main villain, your villain’s objective, and the main troops involved.

Who needs help?

Who benefits from the actions of the players? Why do they need the players’ help? Are they being completely honest with the party? Common examples include a town’s mayor asking for help against a hostile army, a rich benefactor who needs to work outside of official channels, a simple farmer trying to locate a missing child, or perhaps even the player characters themselves have scores that need settling. As a side note, you know your objective is a good one if failure causes bad things to happen to these people.

Where?

Where does the adventure take place and how does its location influence the player’s actions? Also, when does it take place? What time of year? What is the weather? Who are the locals? What is the local culture like? What types of terrain and conditions predominate? Also, where are the inevitable battles going to take place? Who will be attacking who? What will be the backdrops? What sort of terrain features will affect the outcome of the fights? Will the party be operating in a city? The wilderness? Underground? In a shipwreck? A fully operational clock tower just before it strikes midnight? Also, how many different places will the players need to travel to before they accomplish their mission? World and local city/town maps can be very useful aids here, assisting in role play and also allowing everyone to be on the same page.

The Fights

How many combats will this adventure contain? Who will the party be fighting? Under what circumstances will the fighting start? Will there be an ambush or will the villain pause to do some boasting before sending his lackeys against the players? How hard will the fights be on the party? How lethal will the injuries be? How smart are the enemies? Can they be reasoned with or talked down? Maps used here cut down confusion and also allow the use of minis.

Crime scenes

Sometimes the players will be investigating actual murders. Most times they will simply be searching for clues about the bad guys. In either case, they’re often acting like detectives, and detectives need chains of evidence to follow toward a conclusive end. People leave behind all sorts of things, and spells/sci fi tech allows all kinds of novel ways to discover hidden information. Perhaps the most important rule to remember here is to offer more than one trail to your next scenes/encounters/sets of clues. This is because players will often ignore the things you think should be obvious, and yet somehow find new and ingenious methods that threaten to unravel your plans. Also keep in mind that if an adventure fails because a player failed to discover relevant evidence, players will tend to feel cheated, railroaded, or both.

Other challenges

RPGs aren’t just about fights and playing Scooby Doo. A party might encounter a physical challenge, get stuck in a game of riddles, negotiate, or need to perform any number of other interesting tests of capability. Consequences for failure may be expensive, or harmful, or slow the party’s efforts. Such challenges are associated with the terrain or location the party is in. They may need to win a game of cards to get the attention of a crime lord. Encounter a sphinx in a dessert tomb. Or simply need to climb a rope over a chasm after the rotting rope bridge breaks apart. Occasionally, adding such challenges to a combat can make both the combat and the challenge more fun and interesting. Perhaps the sphinx insists on playing riddles while a host of undead mummies tries to eradicate the party. Or maybe that rotting rope bridge fell apart because it couldn’t support both the party and the bad guys sent to stop them.

The Hook

Why should the players even bother? True, there is no game unless they take the job. But logically speaking, adventurers are in the business of doing very dangerous things. They need a compelling reason to take on the risks found in the endeavor. Money may not be enough. They might not care if a town gets destroyed. They may hate the long lost brother who shows up asking for a favor. Never assume that your party will just dive into your adventure. You will need to sell them, pull heart strings, make them angry, or otherwise find some sort of genuine motivation. The more personal investment you can get out of your players, the more likely they will experience all of the highs and lows your designing into your day’s events. You don’t have to think too hard on this, just be sensitive to your players, what they want, and the type of characters they build.

And, oddly enough, that’s basically it. There is certainly more that can be said about all of these elements. But as long as you’re using each of these eight parts, adventures can (and often do) write themselves. Follow this method long enough and eventually you might find you have the ability to employ it on the fly, which can really come in handy when your players inevitably do something you hadn’t planned.

And this is where I invite the GMing universe to chime in and let the world know what they consider adventure nuts and bolts. What steps do you follow? What structures and skeletons do you use? How do you progress from idea to game day?

The 8 Steps to Adventure Design published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com