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

Wild Hunters, Saru the Monkey’s Epic Adventure

Review #21 – Free Video Game

Wild Hunters, Saru the Monkey’s Epic Adventure

You know what? Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned plataformer? Wild Hunters takes us all into a Shōnen-quality adventure through some colorful and quite challenging levels.

The game is full of quirky bosses, weird power-ups and some really interesting game mechanics. Even if you don’t play it for the game itself OR the story (both worth it), you should see it as inspiration for your own game ideas.

Here in Wild Hunters you have an amazingly done game, one that doesn’t shy away from combining plataformers, combo attacks, some RPG elements and some unique ideas.

-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://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/202335-wild_hunters

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

Arachnophilia, Spider Simulator

Review #20 – Free Video Game

Arachnophilia, Spider Simulator

This game is described as a “spider simulator”, and who am I to argue? In Arachnophilia, your goal is a simple one: eating everything.

Taking control of a hungry spider, you’ll use your mouse to guide it and build the strongest web you can. Keeping the spider fed is a harsh challenge, but as you go through the levels you’ll find it harder and harder to maintain your arachnid slaughterhouse in one piece.

Fun, fast and addicting, this browser game is a must play.

- 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.digyourowngrave.com/arachnophilia-spider-web-game/

Is death cheap?

Babbling at the Counter #19 – Video Games

Is death cheap?

This is something roguelikes got me thinking about: How important is the character’s death on a game?

You see, in most games, death is an inconvenience. You die, so you play the stage again. Nothing bad really happens. You’ve just lost some time, and maybe now you know where that hidden enemy is.

But, on the other hand, roguelikes and old video games take you back to the beginning when you die, erasing all of your progress. And even though it’s not nice, I rather like it.

Having played my fair share of games, I’m familiar with the first kind of deaths, and I understand when it’s the best choice. In an RPG, for example, having your party killed shouldn’t erase thirty, forty, or even fifty hours of play.

The thing is, we are used to games treating death like this. We are used to playing the same screen until we get it right. And sometimes, I can’t help but feel that’s not the best gameplay choice.

- The Storeman

A Quest to Far, a.k.a. “I’m too old for this”

Review #19 – Free Video Game

A Quest to Far, a.k.a. “I’m too old for this”

Most of us remember the old police chief announcing his retirement on his introduction to the movie, only to die a few minutes later. Now you can play that character!

Ok, let’s get serious. A Quest to Far is a roguelike where you take the role of a veteran adventurer braving his last dungeon to save his grand children. The twist is you already have the experience, so in this game you don’t get stronger. Here, the only way is down.

You begin the game with an inventory full of magic items, and monsters don’t really stand a chance against you. But as time goes by, you tire. Your joints give up. All this armor and stuff start to seem heavier. In the end, everything becomes a burden.

Dare you push your limits on this last delve? A Quest to Far is an interesting change from the classic roguelikes, choosing to focus on decay instead of growth. See for yourself.

- 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.randomstuff.org.uk/~geoffrey/roguelikes/aquesttoofar.html

We Do, We Learn

Babbling at the Counter #18 - Game Design

We Do, We Learn

I'm far from an expert, but after what could be called (at least by me) a success last week, I'm still riding high on the fumes from my work on Wacky Love (my RPG). So why not share my insight while it's still fresh on my head?



Here's what I've learned: Follow your design, don't make it go your way.

When I started working, I was expecting a traditional RPG (as in, everyone on the party works together to attain a shared goal). Even when you experiment with narrative games, the group as a whole wants to create a story together. It's by far the most common way an RPG works. My idea, though, was nowhere near that.

As soon as I settled on "potential protagonists for a movie fight to make the love interest fall for them", it was pretty obvious that the game wasn't going to be seeing a lot of teamwork. Still, I tried to push the idea. I spent a lot of time trying to "fix" this. The thing is, there was nothing to fix. If the game required people to compete, then they would.

The end result wasn't what I expected, but there wasn't much I could do. It was either dropping the project and starting again or working in the direction it pushed me. By keeping the work up, I ended up with a game I could have never planned. And I am proud of it.

Sometimes, you see something and it gets your mind going. Embrace it. Even if it doesn't work in today's project, it might be great tomorrow. Just don't push things to much. If it doesn't "click" in place easy, then you might be placing it in the wrong place.

-The Storeman

Pockets Full of Adventure, Dimensional Pants Hopping

Review #18 – Free Pen and Paper RPG

Pockets Full of Adventure, Dimensional Pants Hopping

What’s not to love here? The setting is great and straightforward, but the cool mechanics is where this game really shines.

You take on the role of… someone, tasked by Keeton the Scientist to travel to other dimensions through his pocket-portals and retrieve his stuff.

To crate your character, you grab a book and play a mad limb kind of game. You choose some words from a page at random to complete this sentence: “You can think of your PC as (Adjective) (Noun) with and (Item) who can (Verb)”. The result is crazy and fun, trust me.

And the conflict resolution system has a nice twist in it. You play cards to take actions, and discard them when hurt. Face cards can interrupt another character’s action. It’s simple and fast, making action dynamic and keeping the game moving.

Right now I should say that, on the “counter” thing, we made a house rule as soon as we started playing. Following the written rules, to counter an action you have to play a card of the same suit as the action card. We didn’t do that. NPCs didn’t have normal skills (to much bookkeeping) and if you could only counter with one suit, it limited your defenses. Instead, we forgot that rule. The GM could play any card she wanted as an action, and one could counter with a face of any suit. It worked great for us.

So, final “rating”: solid, fast and exiting game. You should definitely give it a try.

- The Storeman

External Links Ahead!

This game was an entry to the “Harder than Granite” 24 hour game contest. I might talk about some other submitted games. Check the rest out!

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.1km1kt.net/rpg/pockets-full-of-adventure