David vs. Goliath

Babbling at the Counter #51 – Pen and Paper

David vs. Goliath

I guess most roleplayers can say they’ve had this moment: Your party and you get into a fight (as parties are wont to do) and after the first round you realize the though brute in front of you can shrug your attacks like they are nothing. So… what to do now?

I’ve already covered unstoppable juggernauts before, but inspired by a recent experience and Aaron's latest Tiny d10 post, I wanted to revisit and add to the idea.

My invincible monsters had a simple but effective rule, to know: They should deal average damage. There were reasons for that (see link), but let’s break that rule and think outside the box. How can one handle a creature that’s really powerful and really dangerous?

A few weeks ago, my group and I (I wasn’t the GM) found ourselves fighting inside a prison. We didn’t had access to our weapons or armor, the mage couldn't perform magic and our rival was a giant crocodile man (so bite and tail club were natural weapons, oh, and he had natural armor).

We were done, we knew that. But given the GM, he clearly expected a fight, and we didn’t disappoint. I don’t like fights, so our most tactical player took the lead. We scoured through our character sheets, looking up any kind of skill trick or combat advantage we could use.

I must say, we feared for our characters. The GM is new to GMing, and the encounter was completely unfair. Still, we survived, and it was awesome!

The thing is, some GMs don’t like killing characters. I know I don’t. When I read the Horror of the Lake for Tiny d10, I kept thinking “Instant Death? That’s not cool”. Then I remembered Power Points could help with save rolls. I started thinking that, yeah, T10 Toughness is a problem, but it’s not impossible to beat. Now I actually want to fight against that.

Yes, this is a delicate art, and can easily be the end of inexperienced or lazy players. That’s the main reason I said no “overpowered” monsters in my previous post. So, while not restricting yourself, thread carefully. And if you have any advice on how to run monsters out of the character’s league, drop by the comments and let us know!

- The Storeman

Blog Carnival – April 2014 – The Game Master’s Binder

Babbling at the Counter #38 – Pen and Paper

Blog Carnival – April 2014 – The Game Master’s Binder

It’s been a while since the last Carnival entry on the site, so let’s get to it!

This month, Scot Newbury from of Dice and Dragons, tries to make me talk about my GM binder. Well, no dice, mister Newbury! I wont talk about it!

Joking aside, my GM notes are a real mess. I do realize I should work on that, and I will, but what’s the point of the Carnival if I don’t share something fun?

So, while I don’t have a binder with notes, I always carry around my Catalog. It’s a folder full of RPG material, that I keep in my bag. As a lot of Free RPGs out there are only a few pages long, it doesn’t take up much space, while having a selection of more than 10 different games.

This way, whenever we need a quick, low on preparation game in short notice (because something happened to the current game or GM, or maybe because we weren’t planning on roleplaying), I can just take the Catalog out and see if there’s a new game to test or an old classic to revisit.

It’s a great way to be prepared for the unexpected, and to have a few simple, rules-light games at hand in case we have an RPG virgin that wants to play.

Ok, while not a GM’s binder in the strictest sense, this Catalog idea can work out for a perpetually designated GM, as long as improvising and running a game on the fly doesn’t cramp their style!

Don't forget to check the current and previous Carnivals! Link in the image to the right.

- The Storeman

Seeking the Truth

Babbling at the Counter #37 – Pen and Paper

Seeking the Truth

This is an idea for Mystery Investigation that I have been toying with for a while now. It’s incomplete, and it may not work, but maybe getting it out there will help develop it.

I remember a blogger (I'm now pretty sure it was Robin Laws, author of the GUMSHOE system, thanks to Aaron on the comments section. If I eventually find the original post I’ll link to it.) saying that the problem with using skills and dice rolls to run a mystery was that a single failed roll would stop everything on it’s tracks. He made this comparison (I’m paraphrasing): Imagine this. You enter a room, there is a monster there. If you miss your attack, then you can never go into the next room. You are trapped.

That was meant as a parallel with missing a clue in a way that made it impossible to go to another scene. But it got me thinking about something else.

When you fight a monster, you make a few rolls to attack it, until it’s dead or defeated, thus solving the situation. Now, you could do exactly the same thing with any other obstacle, including a mystery.

Instead of making each and every clue a challenge by itself, you could treat the whole mystery as a single “entity”. Every roll, you are “damaging” it, only you don’t stack damage until it’s dead, you take away some of the mystery until it’s solved.

As I said, it’s a pretty unfinished idea. I still don’t know how you can run a whole session with a single “entity” to defeat. But I think this can be used in smaller doses for a lot of other things.

A single scene, like a dance contest, for example, could be treated as a fight. Each move damages your opponents “image”, until one of you is humiliated and defeated.

So weird idea today. Hope at least it gets you thinking about alternatives to single roll resolutions. See you soon.

- The Storeman

Mysterious - Cont.

Babbling at the Counter #30 - Pen and Paper

Mysterious - Cont.

Last week's Babble wasn't what I wanted. I mean, I said what was wrong with Investigation Plots, but didn't offer a solution. So today, I'll talk about how to actually run a mystery.

The Layout of this post will be this: I'll use the same sub-titles as last week, but instead of whining about a problem, I'll offer an alternative. Then, a little example. As supernatural investigation is one of my favorite genres both on TV and to run as GM, I'll use it.

Too Many Moving Parts:

To make clues more fun, make getting them the challenge, not understanding them. Getting a peek from the crime scene, stealing the files from the police station, finding the witnesses, these are all nice challenges for a game. Players can come up with creative ways to overcome them and the character's stats will be used.

Now, once they have the clues, make them obvious. After all, the characters know what they are doing, they should figure them out easily. This way you make sure the players won't get stuck. The characters should know their city pretty well, and even if they don't, sitting around to read is something you shouldn't roll for. They will have actually accomplished something (getting the clues) and the game can keep moving.

Ex: There's been a mysterious death at the piers. To get a shot at the crime scene before normal police officers have a chance to mess the supernatural evidence up, two of the characters decide to dress as the CSI team to collect evidence.
They botch their rolls pretty badly, so a veteran sergeant recognizes them and tries to get them arrested. Even though they all get away, now the characters have to come up with another approach.
Meanwhile, another player decide to have her character talk to all the street vendors and hobos nearby, in case someone saw something. Luckily, they did! They describe the creature as a fish-like man, with razor sharp teeth. After mangling the poor soul that stumbled in his way, it jumped into the water and disappeared.
Now the characters have a clear path to the creature (it may live or at least travel through water), but a lot of ways to get to it. They could wait around for the next attack, or actually go after it with cameras, scuba gear or even a water breathing spell or submarine (if it's that kind of game). They even have witnesses, so they could take one back to HQ and show him pictures of sea monsters till he identifies it.

Less Talk More Rock:

Research is a vital part of investigations, and different series devote different amounts of time to these scenes. Here we are going for an action/investigation kind of story. So action comes first, priority-wise, and we'll set aside just enough time for research.

We are looking for something like Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. Even though there was investigation on the show, it was mostly one of two kinds (and there was at least a fight scene per episode, if not more):

What is it: Maybe the characters got a good look at the creature before it got away, or maybe it has a particular way of killing, but after this scene, the characters already know it's name, what it wants, and more often than not, how to kill it. This is usually a quick scene at the library, with a few jokes before someones finds the right book.

How to stop it:  Sometimes, it's easy to know what it is. Is you find an empty sarcophagus and people from Egyptian descent are the target, it doesn't take a genius to think "mummy!".
The question then are what does it want and what does it fear. Any of those things could work to stop it. The characters can set a trap for it, or use it's weakness to design a weapon. In some cases, like the mummy, it's motive and weakness could be the same thing. The mummy might need the blood of the pharaoh's descendants to return to life before the minions of Anubis drag it back to the Underworld.

Ex: Not to be denied, the characters decide to steal the lab results on the crime scene  from the police station. They stage a big distraction outside, while the most agile character sneaks in to take a peek from the file.
They learn that the creature left behind some kind of oil, and that it deteriorated quickly when exposed to sunlight. Now they know the creature is nocturnal (to help predict it's movements) and that sun is a handy way to kill it (maybe a tanning bed could have the same effect).

The Clue Conundrum:

Don't be too strict when it comes to giving away the clues. The players can't read your mind, so they'll do what makes sense to them, not to your plot. Taking a sample from the crime scene to analyze, stealing the lab results, or even getting the lead investigator hammered at a bar to loosen his tongue, are all possibilities and should be equally useful. In the previous example, the characters stole the lab files because they couldn't get into the crime scene. It doesn't matter, they get exactly the same information either way.

I have said this before, but it bears repeating: don't expect the players to connect the dots. You may leave a few things for your players to figure out, as long as they are not vital parts of the plot. I'm not saying everyone is too dumb to figure out the clues, what I'm saying is...


It's not a job:

People at the gaming table want to have fun. Some of them have just gotten back from work, or have spent the whole day studying. Others may just be looking for awesome stuff to happen to their characters. Other just want to hang out with friends. More often than not, though, they are not looking the acquire the real abilities of a detective.


Bottom Line:

Playing an investigation can be a blast, but for most groups, it means laying the investigation down a bit and making the action central to the story. It's not only about fights. Chases, climbing dangerous places, sneaking past enemy lines, having a stressful negotiation, that's what players are looking for. Things that get the blood pumping and that make great stories.

- The Storeman

Mysterious

Babbling at the Counter #29 – Pen and Paper

Mysterious

A comment on a recent post got me thinking. I love mystery and investigation fiction. As a matter of fact, I’d say at least a half of the fiction (series, books, movies) I consume falls into this category. So, why did I recommend NOT running a murder mystery last week? Here’s why:

My main point is that seeing an investigation on TV and running one on your game a two completely different animals. Even though it can be fun to see a mystery, solving one can be a bummer.

And before I begin, I mean a “real” “Sherlock Holmes quality” mystery, a.k.a.: lots of talking and clue gathering before a big reveal.

Lastly, as this entry is rather large, you may prefer to skip to the conclusion/short version if you are pressed for time.

Too many moving parts:

Making a good mystery means striking a delicate balance. It must be hard enough to pose a challenge, but easy enough to be solved.

In TVland, that’s easy. The main characters are going to find the answer because the writer knows it. It doesn’t really matter if the audience can do that too, because the story will get resolved even if not a single person can guess who the killer is.

At your table, that’s not the case. The writer and the characters are not the same person, and if the players can’t find the answer, they'll get frustrated and it won’t be fun.

Unless everyone is fine with railroading, the mystery will have to be on the “easy” side of the spectrum, taking the challenge away.

Less Talk, More Rock, please:

Do you watch the series “Elementary”? Or “The Mentalist”? “Law and Order”? Even “Fringe” or “Psych” apply here, really. What those series have in common is that (as real investigation does) they include pretty few fist fights. And gunfights. And chases. They are, mostly, a bunch of people doing surveillance and waiting for some analysis to get back from the lab.

On TV, that’s fine. We see the really intelligent and insightful character find clues and figure them out. In the end, it was their minds what got them to the perp.

At the table, on the other hand, that means players ask for information, roll to get it, then hear it. If you don’t see the problem, let’s go for an example:

“What can I see on the crime scene?”

“A footprint. There’s a substance on the footprint, roll for the chemical analysis. (…) Great, it’s resin from a tropical tree, roll to know where you can find it in the city. (…) Great, roll to calculate a three mile radius around that place. (…) Great, roll to check the police database for people with the perp’s profile on that area (…)” Etc, and etc.

That’s how they do it on TV, and I love those shows. I sure as heck would hate the previous exchange at my game table, though.

In the end, characters in those shows can be pretty passive creatures. Players, by nature, are not.

The Clue Conundrum:

Another must on mystery RPG discussion is the old: And what if they miss a clue? Some GMs have had a game grind to a halt because the players missed an important clue. And some had the same when the players couldn’t connect them.

Again, on TV, the author makes both the clues and the connections. In an RPG, the GM makes the clues, the players the connections. That sometimes doesn’t go so well.

Playing a strong character is the same being a weakling or a bodybuilder. It's all on your Strength (or similar) score and a roll of the dice. Coming up with theories on an investigation is not so easy for everyone.

I mean, you could roll to ask the GM for the connections, but that makes the game too mechanic for my taste.

And this brings us to my last point.

It's not a job:

Detectives are not a TV invention, they do actually exist. So, if real people can solve real mysteries, why can't the players? Easy, because they are players, playing a game. As you don't have to know actual cartography to find a dragon's hidden island, you shouldn't need actual forensic knowledge to identify a stalker. Getting information should be a simple and fast task at the table, so the players can go on, and make choices and do stuff.

After all, it's a game. How do I know who the guy is won't be as satisfactory as knowing my plan to get him worked. If all I do is follow clue after clue until I confront the guy, then it's over (as most cop shows do), I'm a passive observer. I want to fight him, to run after him, to design a trap, etc. My pleasure doesn't come from seeing him behind bars, but from actually putting him there.

Conclusion/Short Version:

Running a mystery at the tabletop can be hard.

Take an average episode of a mystery show and count the times they “roll” (or would roll if it was an RPG game) to get information from a lab or from memory, or from any kind of source that would have to be given by the GM; and compare them to the number of times they “roll” to catch up with a perp, or jump a fence, or wrestle someone down, or seduce someone, or anything that wouldn't be a “question/answer” with the GM.

Oh, and let me know if you could have made the leaps on logic that are required to figure out the mystery before the characters tell the answer. Remember, if you can't, the game won't advance. If it's too easy, you'll get bored and the game will end really fast.

I'm not saying it's impossible to run a mystery at a tabletop. Just that you must remember it won't be like TV.

- The Storeman

Blog Carnival – February 2014 – The Icy Embrace of Winter

Babbling at the Counter #28 – Pen and Paper

Blog Carnival – February 2014 – The Icy Embrace of Winter

New month, new Carnival. This one is hosted by Nils at Enderra, and is winter related. So thank you Nils! Hope this post makes a good addition to the Carnival!

What can you do with winter? Well, let me offer you a multi-purpose, multi-genre idea: “Snowed In”. You had seen it before? Yeah, it's an oldie but a goodie, so let's disassemble it.

For those at the back of the class, the idea here is to use the inclement winter weather to trap the party at a location. This gives a few advantages; the most important one is a closed and controlled environment. Of course, this only works if the characters can't deal with the snow easily. No teleportation or such non-sense is allowed.

You may be tempted to run a murder mystery or something like that here. I'd rather you didn't. You see, that kind of things can go off the rails in a snap. My recommendation is taking advantage of the character's inability to leave the place to create tension and drama.

I'd go with either a creature on the shadows or have the building itself turn hostile. In more realistic games, an unusually tough madman can do the trick. Make it about whether or not the characters will survive the storm. Take advantage of the unknown. Where will the next attack be? What is the enemy working on?

Clever players may build fortresses or safe rooms, given enough ingenuity and resources. Just remember that whatever is stalking them can do the same. Taking out the power is a simple but effective first step, and even better with creatures of the night. This, though, is far from the only thing to do.

Water is interesting because you both need it to live, and because it can kill you. Poisoning the water supply can make the characters leave their safe place, and hallucinogen drugs can make that panic room a mortal trap. On the other hand, we have the option to flood them out of there. Combine the two if you are really nasty.

Talking of death by oxygen deprivation, smoke can work, too. Fire adds another layer of dangers, and as always, an enemy that's immune to it has home advantage. You may find this “Unstoppable Monster” idea useful to plot, so I'll just leave the link.

Now, if your group likes “Horror” more than “Adventure”, trapped + time = horrible, horrible stuff. To the usual lack of food and water you can add a bit of dementia, and some pests only make things worse. Not an expert on this kind of stuff, but I'm sure there are enough books and movies to get you started. What makes this different is the time the characters will be trapped. A good monster adventure can take only a night, or even a few hours. For more “horror” inclined games, the character may spend days if not weeks trapped.

Well, hope something here sparks your imagination. Till next time, have fun in the snow!

- The Storeman

Blog Carnival – January 2014 – Transitions

Babbling at the Counter #26 – Pen and Paper

Blog Carnival – January 2014 – Transitions

I was reading this month’s Carnival description at Hereticwerks when I stumbled upon this suggestion: “Are you going to take your first turn as a GM, or step back and be a player for a while?” and something made Click! inside my head. I was afraid of leaving the GM chair and becoming a player.

You see, the player’s at my group have started GMing more frequently. After taking charge of a few sessions, they got more comfortable with the idea. And now, I’m facing a few one shots and campaign plans where I’m nowhere near the head of the table. And I don’t like it.

I can’t seem to place the root of this discomfort. It could be I don’t like giving up all the “control” being the GM gives you over the story. Or it may be that I’m afraid they won’t ask me to go back to that chair. It could be that my characters tend to be kind of weak at fighting (and we are fighting a bit more now). Or, most probably, I just don’t like change.

This is what happened in my group, but it could have been anything. A new player changing the group’s dynamic. A setting change that makes some character archetype obsolete. Having to give up the GM chair. Etc, etc. Groups make a lot of transitions, and as soon as I find a way to deal with them, I’ll let you know.

- The Storeman

The GM as a Ringleader

Babbling at the Counter #24 – Pen and Paper

The GM as a Ringleader

You see, for me, GMing is really about confidence. And like a good con artist, it’s about working on other’s confidence.

I’m not the smartest one at my table. I mean, one of my players is not only ahead of every move I make, but also knows the rules better (both game rules and world rules, like physics). That means, that the game can (and has) easily fallen into his hands.

It didn’t take me long to realize that shouldn’t happen. How did he manage to do it? Simple, I was playing his game, not mine. As GM, you are the referee. Not a “rules” referee, rather a “fun” referee. My main job at the table is not the story, not really. As I said, my players and their theories usually shape the plot as much if not more than I do. No, no, my real job is that of a ringmaster: I make the players shine and balance the spotlight between them.

Being a GM means that, at least to me. I’m not a Mastermind behind nefarious schemes. I’m not the devious Architect of mortal traps. I’m not a Writer weaving a fantastic story. I just make sure the real performers (the players) can do their stuff. And that’s really goddamn satisfying by itself.

- The Storeman

The Power of Words

Babbling at the Counter #23 – Pen and Paper

Consistency in Game Design #1 - The Power of Words

The ideas here may seem pretty basic for experienced designers, but my goal is to actually talk about those things so “simple” that most of the time go without saying. If this post is not for you, it’s not for you.

Think of a great RPG you like. Now think of the “abilities”, or whatever they are called, that you can buy for your character. They may be simple descriptors, like “Strong Build”, “Nimble”, or “Charismatic”. They may be classic one liners, like “So crazy it might work”, “Takes one to know one”, or “Wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses, would you?”. They may be anything really, based on anything.

Right now I’m asking you to find the common denominator between all those names in the game you picked. Got it? Then you have just found the game’s “tone”.

Why? Well, players not only will be mentally assembling their characters while reading those names; they’ll also have them written right in front on them, on the character sheet, the whole game. Funny names will get you a more relaxed atmosphere than serious ones.

You may be saying “This is so obvious”. And you are right, naming your abilities has a pretty direct effect. But what about the game actions?

Let’s take a throw of the dice, for example. Some games call them “dice rolls”, some “tests”. One I had once called them “rolling the bones” every time. Is it the same calling it an “opposed roll” or a “challenge”? No, it’s not.

And it’s not just being gimmicky and funny, it’s about making a statement. In Wacky Love (my game), other players could use your personal Foil against you. Even though the Foil entering play was in their hands, those scenes where called “Facing your Foil”. They made you Face YOUR Foil.
These scenes where about you and your character. You had the spotlight. It didn’t matter who made you Face your Foil, that was irrelevant. The moment was for YOUR personal growth. See what I’m talking about?

During your project, give a little extra thought to the names. After all, it’s better to SHOW how your setting works, rather than TELLING people “do this, do that”. Show, don’t tell.

- The Storeman

Weren’t you a pro? Or, can characters really screw this up?

Babbling at the Counter #22 – Pen and Paper

Weren’t you a pro? Or, can characters really screw this up?

I was reading an article up at Goblin Labs and it got me thinking. When a character fails a roll, are they really messing everything up? I mean, they should be good at what they do, right? Can a thief forget how to pick a lock? Can a scientist add sugar instead of cyanide to the poison?

Let’s take combat, for example. If you roll and fail, it’s not that the character forgot how to stab; it’s that the enemy deflected or avoided his attack. The character did everything he could. He had the fighting stance right and he attacked as soon as he saw an opening. But the enemy got away faster than expected and that’s why he missed.

By the same token, if a rousing speech fails to mobilize the masses, it might be because it was bland and boring, sure. Now, that’s not likely to happen to a career politician. So why did he fail? Maybe a nearby ruckus caused by a fleeing dog frightens the people (thinking it was the royal guards coming to get the traitors). Maybe someone in the crowd spokes up against the characters and he is just more respected than them (or the townspeople are more scared of him that of the party). It could even be that it starts raining and the people just decide to leave (a great speech does nothing if no one hears it).

It may fell wrong to take the failure out of the character’s hands, but that’s what happens in combat and no one bats an eye. Just think, what’s more probable: that a seasoned veteran chef forgets how long to leave the food on the oven, or that the door gets stuck and that’s why he burned the chicken?

- The Storeman

Situations, a new best friend for GMs

Review #22 – Free RPG Material

Situations, a new best friend for GMs

Instead of a game, today I offer you a nice guide for GMs. It's setting-free and easily adapted to your favorite system, so I'm pretty sure anyone can find it useful. If you don't plan on GMing soon, send this link to your GM! Let's help some Masters out there.

“Situations” offers six broad structures to build an adventure around. They are just bare

skeletons, but they make it easier to put your ideas down on paper. Written in a simple and complete way, you'll find yourself creating adventures while you read the guide even for the first time.

The cases are (taken from the index): “Long Knives is used to create situations for intrigue that the characters are tied to. Broken Places builds situations where a villain of some

sort has taken over an organization. The Quest is used to generate adventures that will take the characters out on significant journeys. Transgression is a generator for social movements and the resistance to those movements. Predator Souls is a means for making monster-hunting scenarios for your games. Nine Rooms is a method for setting up dungeons, the classical limited-space perilous situations.”

If you ever GM, you should definitely check it out. Even if you don't use the specific structure proposed, you'll find your ideas more organized in no time.

- The Storeman

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of virus and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.

External Link: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/102507/Situations-For-Tabletop-Roleplaying?src=s_pi

For the Author’s site: https://sites.google.com/site/amagigames/home

Blog Carnival – December 2013 – Taking Charge!

Babbling at the Counter #21 – Pen and Paper

Blog Carnival – December 2013 – Taking Charge!

This month's Carnival is being hosted at Casting Shadows. So first of all I'd like to thank Runeslinger and leave a link to his blog.

Well, isn’t this carnival's theme just great? As I’ve said before, more than once, whenever players take charge of the course of events during a game, awesomeness can happen.

The thing is, as a GM, not everything I make is gold. I know that. And the people I play with don’t sit in front of me like some kind of TV, just wanting to see the plot and then going home. You play an RPG to actually have control over the stuff happening in the story.

Now, this is a two way street. Players should be committed to the game and their characters, adding some roleplaying and flair to the narrative. One can even try to introduce simple but flavorful scenes. Characters can (some may say should) have hobbies and other interests besides adventuring. Go to the local theater or go buy a gift for someone special. If your GM is cool enough he could have an adventure come out of it.

On the other hand, GMs have to be careful with how they handle information. To have an impact on the overall story and make sense, players will have to reveal their intentions and plans clearly and often. A GM that abuses this information will get players that shut up for their characters sake. A gaming group should foster trust between players (GM included), not a crazy “survival of the fittest” subgame. Unless that was what you where going for.


Ok, closing up. As you can see, this topic is pretty important to me. I’ve thought about this for some time and I hope you can scavenge some useful information from all this mess. See ya!

- The Storeman

More than you bargained for

Babbling at the Counter #20 – Pen and Paper

More than you bargained for

What are you willing to give for power? Or at least, what's your character willing to give? For, you see, power comes at a price. And characters usually work to get very powerful devices or spells. It's such a staple on most fantasy or supernatural stories that you have to find a way to use it in your games. Here are mine:

Less Human: The more power you have, the less human you feel. I use this in games where there is a “charisma” stat, and unless it was pretty good to begin with, it's going to become negative really fast. The idea here is that, as you get further away from humanity, humanity wants less and less to do with you. NPCs get hostile and uncooperative, and only threats or supernatural abilities can make them help the PCs. This makes even the players start to see NPCs more as obstacles than characters, and will play accordingly.

Out of Control: Can you keep it cool? The most common way to deal with this is making every failure on the dice a catastrophic failure. It's not just that the spell didn't work, it misfired and hit something else. But why don't we go the other way? If the target number was 5 and you rolled a 25 (extreme, I know, bear with me for a second) what does it mean? Was it really good, or too good? Rolls that exceed the target for too much could also result in bad consequences. Maybe, instead of charming that cute barista, the whole coffee shop is now in love with you. Do something before the strongest amongst them takes out the rest and comes knocking at your door.

Unintended Consequences: I may be taking this one from a TV series (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) but that's because it's a good one. Each and every spell or superscience device has secondary effects. Using them not only means looking for components and whatever, it's also about cleaning up afterwards. Just don't make them affect the characters directly. If the secondary effect of the phasing spell is disintegrating until death, player should find a way to prevent it so they don't lose the character. Now, if that spell brings and interdimensional menace that attacks friends and family, then you may kill someone. That's a more permanent price to play, but it doesn't stop the game.

Do you have some interesting way to handle great power in your games? Tell us all about it!.

- The Storeman

Having a Clear Agenda

Babbling at the Counter #16 - Story Structure

Having a Clear Agenda

This is something video games are great at (and both writers and GMs can benefit a lot by learning from them). The question is: What's the protagonist/player (or players) supposed to be doing? Because, sometimes we all forget about it.

For example, each episode of "Mighty Morphin (sic) Power Rangers" follows a simple script: The evil guy tosses the Rangers around for a while, a lot of Troopers fight them, monster starts losing, they make a ridiculous superweapon, the bad guy grows, megazord, it dies. Say what you want, but they are consistent.

Now, think. In your story, who are the Troopers? Do your characters have a signature weapon? How are they supposed to defeat their enemy?

The Troopers (a.k.a. "Mooks") are the cannon fodder; the kind of obstacle that you send to shave away some hit points and other resources. They are not really a challenge, but successive encounters can weaken the protagonists. In a game, you see them all the time, everywhere in a given level or zone. In a story or RPG, they are the easily identified creatures that the heroes eat for breakfast. You can get some character development or set up a mystery in a scene with them, but most of the time they provide "danger" in a familiar setting with an easy solution.

The signature weapon is how you expect the characters to end an encounter. It's a sure way to get things done, and unless they cannot use it, why the heck won't they use it? If you want to keep some level of suspense, using this weapon should require that the characters "soften" the enemy first. Think the Ghost-trap from Ghostbusters: first they shot the ghost with some proton pack beams, and then they trap it.

Now, do your characters kill their opponents? Or they just capture them for the police? Yeah, you'll want so shake things up now and then, but most of the time it's useful to have a "formula" or procedure to follow.

There are a lot of other "fixed points" you can have to help you organize your ideas (like, "where do the missions came from?", for example) but I'll save them for a future Babble.

It's not about limiting your creativity, it's about setting some guidelines to help yourself (and your players). As a game designer called Mark Rosewater (maybe you've heard of him) says: “Restrictions breed Creativity". Have fun!

- The Storeman

Know when to stop and how to get back

Babbling at the Counter #15 – Pen and Paper, Blogging, Game Design, anything really.

Know when to stop and how to get back

I don’t have the time to make a complete post today. It's been harder to squeeze my hobbies between my obligations. Is that so bad? Not really. Sometimes, life gets in the way. Be it your blog, your campaign or the game you are working on, sometimes you just have to stop.

Just don’t let the spark die. If you miss a deadline, make completely sure to hit the next three ones. Even try to make up for the time lost if you can.

It’s easy to get discouraged at the first sing of trouble and throw everything away, but if everyone did that we would have nothing around. Keep it up.

I’ve really got to go now. Be back next week, and the ones after that.

Don’t let the spark disappear. You started for a reason, right?

- The Storeman

Confusion Fu, a.k.a. Unusual Attack Maneuvers

Babbling at the Counter #14 - Pen and Paper 

Confusion Fu, a.k.a. Unusual Attack Maneuvers

Unusual attacks can be a pain in the ass for a GM. If a punch and a sword swing do different amounts of damage (can you believe that?) then dropping a shelve over an enemy should do its own damage too.

I'll give the specific example that brought this to my attention: a friend and I were working on our own system, so I run a "test drive" for him. At first everything went fine. It was when he was chopping some hay golems when he got an idea. Instead of attacking them individually, he wanted to squash them pushing a ruined column. The system was simple enough to allow a Strength check as an attack, but the damage was problematic. As they were flunkies, I ruled instant death, but it opened the door to a full adventure of unusual attacks.

Dropping statues from some flights of stairs, setting straw golems on fire and dropping a giant bell on the final boss were only some of the multiple maneuvers he did. It was like he didn't even wanted to use his damned sword! On the end, I had to drop the whole "damage" aspect of the game and measure the enemies on "moves". “Weaklings” required a single move to kill and could be destroyed in numbers. “Though ones” required one or two moves, but could be attacked one at a time. The Boss was slowly eroded, taking some "status effects" as results of attacks (he immobilized him first, and then stopped it from attacking him physically, though it could still use its magic) and, finally, dying.

The whole HP concept and the Str equation for damage turned out to be useless... but we did manage. So, how do you deal with unusual combat maneuvers? Is there a good system to check out for ideas? I liked mine, but I fell it won't work on more complex systems. Could try, though.

- The Storeman

Why do we play?

Babbling at the Counter #13 – Pen and Paper

Why do we play?

I’m not going to answer that. I can’t. I can tell you why “I” play, maybe even why some of my friends do, but not why you do. Now, ask yourselves: Can you tell ME why YOU play?

Once, a friend asked my why I did get up in the morning. Even though I wouldn’t give the same answer today, coming up with that answer was really fun. Roleplaying, especially if you are the GM, requires a lot of effort. There must be a very good reason why you do it, don’t you think?

You are going to get tired sometimes. You are going to get angry with another player. You are going to get bored on more than one session. But there is a reason why you play. Find it, and keep it in mind. Make sure you get what you want of the game. And if you don’t, don’t be too afraid to go looking for it. Maybe your group can try something new. Maybe you need a new group. Your fun is up to you.

Just sitting down for a while and thinking about it can be fun, too. So ask yourselves: Why do you play?

- The Storeman

Get out of my mind!

Babbling an the Counter #12 – Pen and Paper

Get out of my mind!

Miscommunication can kill a character. We’ve all seen it on more than one occasion: the player says what the character is doing and the GM can’t comprehend “why” he is doing it. Most often than not it’s because someone didn’t understand something, either the player didn’t express himself clearly or the GM had set the scene in a weird way.

But there might be something else at play here: Maybe the player wants to keep something from the NPCs, and that’s why he didn’t explain his whole reasoning to the GM.

As GM, you should make everything you can to prevent this from happening. You should never use that kind of information to wreck some character’s plan, because all you are going to get is players that don’t want to share their character’s thinking with you.

It’s especially important because it’s an easy mistake to make. If you have the information, you can improve the NPCs behavior, so why shouldn’t you? But, I repeat, don’t do it. Clever characters make better stories, and clever players are happy when their plans pay off.

- The Storeman

When is a railroad not a railroad?

Babbling at the Counter #11 – Pen and Paper

When is a railroad not a railroad?

I was reading this post Sandboxes vs Railroads at The Space Masters and it got me thinking.

While I agree with most of the ideas expressed there (mainly about the dangers of the sandbox style), I think that railroading should be a last recourse option for a GM. Instead, I offer two alternatives to start a campaign or to keep the motivation up and the story moving forward:

Heroes and other White Hats

First of all, unless you are playing a survival-kind of game, it’s assumed the characters are going to be on the adventurous side. They should have their own reasons to go out and risk life and limb on quests. If they didn’t, they’d be innkeepers instead of wandering swordsmen, right?

Maybe they do want to avenge their homeland; but why would they help a poor farmer if they are not heroes fighting the good fight?

Unless each and every action they take is tied to the main plot, they’ll have to go out of their way every now and then to complete a mission, and they should be as motivated as ever.

That’s why most fantasy characters are noble and/or greedy. It’s not just about the Big Bad threatening the universe; it’s about saving damsels from bandits, too. You don’t need to threaten the party with “Save the world or suffer the consequences” if they are Heroes. You just need to point them towards an injustice and they’ll take care of the rest *.

*For greedy characters, replace “injustice” with “treasure” or “monetary reward”.

You brought this on yourselves

Now, this is a neat idea. Start your campaign with a sandbox kind of world. Let the players do whatever they want. Then, use that to create the main problem to solve. You see, instead of taking aim at the characters’ motivation, shoot for the players directly.

Maybe they survived the zombie attack, kudos! Oh, wait, remember that little girl they saved? Yeah, should’ve taken a look to be sure she wasn’t infected. Now they have to hunt her and everyone she bit down before they infect the city. That’s a good campaign starting point.

Or perhaps the dungeon they destroyed on their way out was the prison of a demon. Better put it back, pronto!

The idea here is not to tell them what to do, it’s to say: “Well, what you did caused that, are you going to do something about it?”. If they refuse, they clearly don’t want to play this kind of game. What about backgammon or something else?

Final Thought

Yes, a campaign with no motivation is bad. But one with a player driven motivation is even better than the railroaded alternative.

What do you all think?

-The Storeman

Extra reading: A way to railroad stealthily, if you absolutely need to. 2 Links (Schrödinger'sGun a.k.a. RailSchroding)