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

Badass, The Roleplaying Game That Kicks LOGIC in the FACE!

Review #26 – Free Pen and Paper RPG

Badass, The Roleplaying Game That Kicks LOGIC in the FACE!

I didn’t write that title. That’s 100% from the game. And when a game introduces itself like that, you know you are in for a treat. The only requirements to play Badass are getting rid of logic and fear. Got it? Then let’s begin.

Badass is a simple system, perfectly crafted for the genre. There are no stats or skill, just a blanket badass type (Kickass improves physical rolls, Smartass mental ones and Wiseass social) and a few flavas or abilities. All rolls are 2d6, and can be improved spending Badass Points.

And that’s one of the games best features. You see, by spending Badass Points, either when using abilities or to augment your rolls, you turn them into Awesomeness Points. Get enough of them and you can acquire some new abilities.

Pretty fast our game turned into a race to spend Badass points, even though it was a one shot, so characters weren’t going to spend Awesomeness. Three of the five characters did get enough points though. So right before the end, after they “defeated” the final boss, I asked them what they were buying. Cue an epic soundtrack (One Winged Angel, from Final Fantasy) and the real boss! That way they got to use their shiny new powers.

If you run a one shot with Badass, I seriously recommend finding a moment to buy flavas. It makes the game a completely different (and better) experience.

Another great aspect of Badass is how it handles NPCs. Quick, dirty, most mooks are a mob and bosses have a few special “bad guy-only” flavas. Highly recommended for wild and fun escapades. Leave your serious face home.

- 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://www.stargazergames.eu/games/badass/

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

Tiny d10 – My First Playtest

Babbling at the Counter #15.5 – Pen and Paper / Tiny d10 Playtest

Tiny d10 – My First Playtest

What’s Tiny d10? Well, it’s a free RPG system that’s in its early stages of development. As such, its author is asking for some feedback about what’s been published so far.

As the game is “Absolutely free… forever”, it’s right up the Warehouse’s alley. I, as the Storeman, had to give it a try. So here are my impressions with the system, after testing it with a friend.

Note: This isn’t a weekly review because the game is not complete yet, but it’s actually playable. If you give it a spin, please let the author know your opinion, so the game can continue growing and improving.

Tiny d10

Core Rules: The rules are well-written and are easy to understand and follow. They are simple right now, but I expect to see more specific rules when the Setting Supplements are published.

Character Creation: It’s fast and simple. Once you get it, it takes a minute to create your character. You have four stats, and between them they cover every kind of action: Power (physical strength), Reflex (quick feet and readiness), Intelligence (mental ability and knowledge) and Aspect (social skills). You choose what you are great at (+3), good at (+2) and the rest gets +1. There will be character classes, but they are incomplete right now. As my player didn’t used the special abilities we made (following the guidelines on the site), I can’t say how they would have worked.

Conflict Resolution: Here’s where I fell in love with this system: single d10 + Stat + Skill (if you have a useful one in the situation). The target numbers used are 6, 8 and 10, and they work great. You easily know which stat to use and then creating a difficulty is fast, too. Combat is treated exactly the same way (redundancy in rules is good design, as it helps learning and remembering them).

The game offered a lot of creative freedom. My job as GM was very relaxed. It was obvious which stat we should use and it was better to play to your strengths, but the character wasn’t crippled if he tried something weird.

The Luck System: This is one of the weakest points of the system. I loved the idea “ask for something and see if the dice give it to you” but, as the chances of luck actually happening were so low (1 in 10), there was no suspense. When he used his luck ability, neither one of us was expecting it to succeed. And it didn’t.

I’d rather give players a more direct control over the narrative, like “Destiny points” or “Plot points” if you’d like. Something to “spend” to catch a break instead of a gamble that will most surely fail.

Action Points: Something like this (read Luck System if you skipped the paragraph and have no idea what I’m talking about). Action Points can be spent to increase your odds of success on any given throw. They are simple and nice. I just would offer the chance to use them as “plot tools” instead of relaying on the separate Luck Mechanic.

One unexpected twist here is that your Action Points come from the same pool that your Health Points. At character creation you have 10 points to split between the two. It’s not a bad twist, though. I see it as having two polar opposites: a lucky bastard that can make explosive moves but goes down with one hit; or a tank that plays it safe. You can make anything in between, favoring Action or Health, or maybe looking for a balance between the two. It’s new and unusual, but in a good way.

Bottom Line: I enjoyed Tiny d10 and plan on playing more of it. It’s the kind of simple game we look for here in the Warehouse. It gives both players and GM freedom to work with, and its rules are explicit enough that no one feels cheated.

I can’t wait to see more from it, and you can expect to see more here. I’ll try to keep you updated, but don’t forget to check the official site, too.

External Link: http://tinyd10.wordpress.com/

- 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

How many points did I have again?

Babbling at the Counter #06 – Pen and Paper

How many points did I have again?

So, I'm continuing with my columns about simple role playing systems. Last week I talked about creating Values on the spot while GMing (http://warehouseoftrinkets.blogspot.com.ar/2013/08/how-tough-is-tough-creating-obstacles.html).

For today, I promised to tackle the topic of Logistics. This time I'll divide the analysis into two broad categories: Character Customization and Rolling the Dice. Shall we begin?

Character Customization:

Sometimes, it's not about how the game handles conflict. Some people need to invest themselves on their characters, so they feel them more alive. A "complex" system in term of Values (as described last week) can create that feeling. A character can be strong and resilient, but slow. Or strong and fast while fragile. Or even fast, resilient and weak (that strikes me as a bad build, but they must have their reasons). So, even if a Warrior, a Knight and a Thief are all melee classes that deal damage based on their “Combat Prowess” (see last week’s examples), you expect this Value to be different, even if only because they have a different Speed Value (in our example we said Combat Prowess equals [Body + Speed]).

The point is, if all you do is assign points to "Soldier", sometimes it gets hard to see if you are supposed to be fast or strong or both. And it gets worse if you compare it to another character. Taking Risus (again, http://warehouseoftrinkets.blogspot.com.ar/2013/08/risus-anything-rpg.html) as the example, we can take a "Commando 4" vs. a "Mercenary 4". Outside of combat, it's pretty obvious how each one is different: For example, when calling their contacts, one would call people on the military or government, while the other might call soldiers of fortune and black market merchants.

But in combat, how are they different? It's implied they both can fight hand to hand or with firearms. They might be even supposed to know how to lead a team on the field. Is there really a difference between my “Commando” and your “Mercenary”?

The answer is both yes and no.

No, because there is no mechanical difference between them, so we both take four d6 for our rolls, and we have the same chance of success or failure.

On the other hand, yes, they a very different. Wasn’t my Commando specialized in jungle combat? In my story says he is, so, instead of punching you in the back of the head as a surprise attack, I’ll hide under this table and grab you from the feet, like I did hidden in tree roots back in the day. Mechanically speaking, as far as Risus is concerned, it’s the same to punch you or grab you. If I win the opposed contest, I’ll damage you. If I don’t I get damaged. But doesn’t the second one feel better? In terms of narrative, it’s at least more personal for the character.

So, what happens when you’d rather have a numerical bonus instead of feeling warn and fuzzy inside (good narrative feels nice)? Well, some games have specializations, so you get a bonus if you include some kind of concept on your action. Instead of “Commando 4”, it would be “Commando 4 (Jungle Combat)”. As my action ties to my specialty, I could get a bonus.

That’s an optional rule that can be implemented in almost any game, if needed be.

Rolling the Dice:

Ok, now you have the character you want and each action she does feels right, unique and according to concept. Then you try to tackle a guard only to discover that it requires a roll of 4d6, 2d8, 1d12 and 1d3. Every result over half the dice value adds a success to your attempt, and every 1 subtracts a success. Except for the d12, that one can add but not subtract.

Following me so far? Even though this is an extreme example, I hope the idea is clear enough. It’s really hard to play when it’s hard to remember how to do things, from the players’ point of view.

Every one of you must have seen something like this. You are deep in battle, the enemy commander is escaping and only the fighter can stop her. But he only has a sword and she is too far away for a melee attack! Maybe he could throw to try and incapacitate her. So… how where the rules when you throw a melee weapon? How many of my abilities apply to a ranged attack with a sword? Which Value should I use, Body or Speed? How much damage does a thrown long sword do?

See? It took us right out of the story and into a rulebook. And let me ask you: how often should that happen? Never, most of you must say.

Even though the player had memorized and written down every aspect of his combat style, he just didn’t thought he might need to make a ranged attack with his sword. He had a bow and everything, but in this singular and unique situation he didn’t had time to reach for it.

The story shouldn’t suffer just because a weird situation (rules wise) happened. Unless the aim of the game is tactical combat, where everyone has to constantly check their position and every possible action they can try, the rules shouldn’t be constantly checked.

Well, I’ve really gone overboard with the word count today, haven’t I? Hope you all found this interesting, or at least useful. See you next week.

- The Storeman

Risus, The Anything RPG

Review #5 – Free Pen and Paper RPG

Risus, The Anything RPG

Risus is a simple universal system, and also a pretty good one. There are special rules created for it, some online, some only found in the deluxe, paid and paper made version, but using just the core, it’s easy to adapt it to your needs.

The basic (and only) characteristic of the PCs and NPCs are “clichés”. They could be anything from “Hardened Veteran” to “Pediatrician” or “Negative Nelly”. Each one has a score from 1 to 4 and, whenever you want to do something, you just take as many d6 as your highest relevant cliché. Throw and add all the results together to try to equal or surpass the difficulty chosen by the GM.

Your clichés tell your character’s story, define his abilities and are used to measure wounds. Fights are opposed contest between a combat oriented cliché of each character, whoever loses reduces his cliché by a dice. If you somehow use a non-combat cliché in battle and win, your opponent loses three dice. If it’s due to their embarrassment or just your sheer lunacy is never quite explained.

As you can see, there is not much to know about Risus, as I said, it’s simple. Character don’t have more that four clichés so they are easy to keep track of, combat and all opposed contests resolve fairly quickly and the system rewards creativity when using your clichés.

What you might not like about this system is that characters are not very mechanically different, so it demands a little more roleplaying that other systems. And it can take a while for the GM to get used to setting difficulties, as adding dice is (at least for me) a bit more confusing when it comes to possibilities of success.

Nevertheless, a solid universal system to have at the ready for any kind of occasion.

- 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://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm