Ravenous Role Playing

Changing PCs Mid-Game: Good Idea or Trouble Waiting to Happen?

Janna covers the three most common reasons a player wants to drop a character from an ongoing campaign and how to handle these eventualities. One reason for dropping a character that she forgot to mention was the “I didn’t think my character would turn out this way” reason for dropping it. Some people have a preconceived notion as to what the character will turn out to be, and somewhere the character takes a left turn. This could be due to lack of familiarity with the rules, a poor choice or two by the player or a change in editions in the gaming system that drastically changes the character in a way the player did not anticipate. Over the years, I’ve had plenty of people get tired of their characters for one reason or another. I always try to see if there is a way to work things out to keep the character in the party, but I’m not adverse to outright dropping the character in exchange for something the player will have more fun with.

6 Rules for GMing Great RPG Events at Conventions

I’m about to run off to Tacticon next weekend and run a few 4-hour adventures for a world that some friends of mine and I over at Fluid Games came up with and are trying to sell books about. Patrick has some great advice that I’m going to try to adhere to during my sessions. My favorite piece of wisdom is to bring anything the player will need to play. I was walking into the idea of running a conference game that all players would show up with dice, paper and pencils… I’m glad I read his post. I’ll definitely be showing up with some extras of all of the above.

Old vs. New School: The War for Control of Your Character

Nicholas has some great introspection on “old school” vs. “new school” and I agree with pretty much everything he has to say there. I’m glad to see that by his thoughts, I’m an “old school” gamer because that’s what I’ve thought of myself as ever since D&D 3.0 hit the shelves.

Behind the Screen: Killing Players…

One of my chief complaints about 4e D&D is that it seems to coddle the players too much. Death of a character is such a remote possibility that it is almost not worrisome to the players. I’m glad to see that some GMs out there are still slaying 4e characters. I know that if I ever get my hands on a long-term 4e campaign, the players better worry about their characters’ well beings and long-term health. I’m not saying that I’ll be an evil bastard about the whole thing, but I want to steal the players’ security blankets and make the risks their characters are taking somehow seem more real and larger than life.

Your Coin is No Good Here

I’ve done this! I’ve thrown odd coins from other countries, empires or time periods and then not allowed the PCs to use the coinage to buy basic goods. They had to pay a money changer to get “regular” gold pieces which would then allow them to purchase a room at an inn for the night. There’s nothing better than throwing an entire party of mid-to-high-level adventurers out in the streets for the night just because they didn’t have any regular coinage and weren’t willing to part with a “small” gemstone worth hundreds of gold in order to pay for a few rooms worth 8 SP each. I especially loved Ameron’s intro to the post.

All around the city marbles are falling from the sky. These marbles are no different from the normal toys children play with other than their origin is unknown, and they do not shatter upon hitting the ground.

Enough people have been wounded (though not severely) by the falling items that the local governance has hired the PCs to investigate the odd source of the marbles and put a stop to them.

PS: Sorry for missing the artifact on Tuesday. Work kicked me in the head hard enough that I just went home and almost collapsed in exhaustion.

Adventurer’s Vault 2: Overview and Item Sets
Adventurer’s Vault 2: Immurements…

These two posts by Dante over at Stupid Ranger really got me excited about Adventurer’s Vault 2. So excited that I ran out and bought the book the same day of his second post. I’ll be flipping through the book over the weekend, and will most likely post a review of my own come next week. If you’re on the fence about picking up “yet another equipment book”, I’d suggest you read Dante’s posts on the matter.

Challenge and Complexity Does Not Equal Drama And Action

Here is a great post from John Arcadian over at Gnome Stew about making the game a little more lively, a little more heart stopping and lots more interesting for the players. If you find your games and challenges to be a little blah, then head over to Gnome Stew to learn a recipe for livening things up!

The 10 Freakiest Facts You Never Knew about Gelatinous Cubes

This is a downright hilarious examination of gelatinous cubes. If you need a good belly laugh, head on over to Janna’s post at the Dungeon Mastering Blog.

Has Your Campaign Stalled? (Part 2)

More great advice from Wimwick about how to unstall a campaign before it crashes and burns. I reviewed Part 1 last week, and this week’s continuation of the theme is just as good (if not better!) than the first installment.

Here’s one for anytime after the Great Depression onwards to space faring days.

Smilin’ Joe, the local used transportation dealer (car, hovercraft, space ship, etc.) sells the PC a car. However, the PC is no further than three blocks/parsecs from the dealership when they are pulled over, promptly searched and found to be transporting a tidy sum of illegal drugs in the spare tire (or engine room if a space ship.) Smilin’ Joe claims innocence and now the PC is in hot water with the law. Some unnamed benefactor bails the PC with a note telling them to be at a certain location within a few hours. What can all this mean? Is PC going to get back at Smilin’ Joe somehow? Who is the mysterious helper? The PC (and his comrades in arms) will have to find out as the adventure unfolds.

Slippers of the Silent Night: Heroic Level Artifact

The Slippers are made of the finest silk with a thick pad of cloth on the bottom to protect the wearer from sharp items on the ground and to silence footfalls.

Item Slot: Feet
Property: You gain a +2 Item Bonus to Stealth checks.
Property: You gain a +2 Item Bonus to Thievery checks.
Power (Encounter – Martial, Weapon): Standard Action. You can use king’s castle (rogue, 1)

Goals of the Slippers of the Silent Night:

• The Slippers wish to divert as much wealth as possible from the wealthy to the poor.
• The Slippers wish to assist as many downtrodden and enslaved people as possible.

Concordance:

• Starting Score: 5
• You gain a level: +1d10
• You free a slave or prisoner: +2
• You move at least 100 GP worth of valuables from a wealthy person to a poor person: +1 (Once per week)
• You steal from a poor person: -1
• You are responsible for the imprisonment or enslavement of a person: -2

Pleased (16-20)
The Slippers massage your feet with pleasure at your accomplishments.

• Power (At-Will – Martial): Move action. You can use shadow stride (rogue, 10).

Satisfied (12-15)
The Slippers keep your feet at a comfortable temperature at all times.

• Power (At-Will – Martial): Immediate interrupt. You can use chameleon (rogue, 6).

Normal (5-11)
The Slippers pad your footfalls even in the most difficult of situations.

Unsatisfied (1-4)
The Slippers loosen their bonds on your feet and threaten to fall off.

• Special: The Slippers no longer grant a bonus to Thievery checks.

Angered (0 or Lower)
The laces on the Slippers knot around themselves impeding your steps.

• Special: The Slippers no longer grant a bonus to Stealth checks.
• Special: You gain a -1 penalty to speed.

Moving On
When it is time to move on, the Slippers fall from your feet and run off into the distance outpacing even the fastest sprinter.

You may notice this is a day late. I’m finally over my illness, but now I’m playing catch up. Things should return to normal next week. Now for this week’s Friday Five!

How to improve your DMing in 12.5 seconds

This is some great advice from Yax. The simple saying he starts his games with really helps put the players into a cooperative mood. Not just cooperating with each other, but with the GM as well.

Cool Is Not Necessarily Fun

Telas has some more great advice to any GM that’s experienced or starting out. Some of your cool ideas might turn into cool role playing situation or campaign ideas, but some of them might not. Always examine your inspirations from the point of the view of the players to make sure they hold water.

Has Your Campaign Stalled?

Wimwick has some great ideas on how to inject new life into an old campaign that might seem to be getting long in the tooth. This is a great read that I highly suggest all GMs taking the time to read and ponder over.

Game Starts In One Hour And You Aren’t Ready

Wimwick made me laugh with the title of this blog post. Mainly because I’ve been in that situation way too many times. I’ll have to admit that I’ve taken all four routes to escape being unprepared, though the cancelling the session is a rare on for me. I’m usually more than willing to wing it if I have to.

10 Character Concepts You Don’t See Every Day

Janna has some great words for every player to read. I’ve fallen into the cliche trap way too many times over the decades, and I know I’ll be stealing some ideas from her blog post to avoid that in the future.

That’s the Friday Five for this week. This is the first time newbiedm hasn’t made the list, but he’s been strangely quiet this week. Something about GenCon getting in the way of his posting schedule. Lucky guy!

The local well/fountain/stream/spring that feeds the town’s water supply has suddenly dried up. A local mytic says she can taste magic on the air near the former water source. The town’s leaders hire the PCs to investigate what is going on.

I’ve been beaten up, rode hard and put away wet this week by a series of illnesses. This lead me to miss Tuesday’s artifact posting. I’d love to post it now, but my energy levels are too low to make up for lost time. I’ll leave that as a missed opportunity of the past and move on. I’ll be posting an adventure hook later in the day.

I apologize to the few readers that I’ve collected so far. Things will be better in the upcoming weeks.

Here is this week’s Friday Five:

Running your large D&D party

Another entry by newbiedm! His blog posts are consistently of high quality and very well thought out. In this case, the post contains a ton of great advice on how to handle a large D&D party. Of course, the suggestions can be applied to any game system. If you have more than 5 or 6 players at the table, then it’s time to follow newbiedm’s advice and take control of the game in an organized manner.

Gaming on the Cheap

This is a post my wife needs to read! It goes to show how inexpensive gaming can really be for the hours of entertainment a group can garner from role playing with a minimal outlay of cash. I’m sure we’ve all see the “ultimate gaming table” that costs thousands of dollars. While that’s a gamer’s wet dream, it’s not necessary. As a matter of fact, there are lots of things that I spend my gaming money on that are not necessary to make the game more fun. This blog post gives you some tips and tricks to save some green.

But my father was a blacksmith! – Crafting in 4E

Every game system should have non-combat, non-adventuring type skills. Period. You just can’t make a well-rounded, fleshed out character without them. D&D 4E is lacking in this department in a serious way. I once had a (mostly) retarded dwarf who drew chalk pictures of things he killed. It was a role playing thing. I took the artist skill and rolled my dice with each picture. I would celebrate my “masterwork” art pieces and berate myself (in character) for being a pathetic artist when the d20 showed a low number. This blog post went straight to my heart and explained how to add crafting and craft-related skill challenges into D&D 4E.

Treasure Parcels

This blog post explains how treasure parcels are supposed to work in D&D 4E. I still long for the “Treasure Type C” days, even though the treasure seemed arbitrary for the most part. It was the excitement of not knowing if anything of quality (or sometimes anything at all!) would show up based on the die rolls. With treasure parcels, things are supposed to work more fairly, which I can agree with even if the “slot machine” feel of treasure is worked out of the equation. Despite the DMG’s best efforts, I didn’t quite get treasure parcels. I guess my brain cells didn’t catch it right. After reading this post, parcels make quite a bit more sense to me.

One Shot, One Kill

While the system over at Key Our Cars is a little cumbersome, it does allow for the quick dispatch of a single sentry who is just there to make life a little (not lots) difficult for the PCs. While I call the system cumbersome, it is less hefty that all-out combat, so it is an improvement on forcing the PCs to roll initiative in order to slit the throat of that lone sentry. I like the system quite a bit, and will probably pull it out of my hat when the time comes. It’s definitely a good one. I think part of the cumbersomeness of the system is the reliance on the coup de grace mechanics of D&D, and that’s something Wizards of the Coast has never made easy for the PCs or the GM to remember.

There you have it! Another Friday Five in the books. Have a good weekend everyone, and we’ll see you next week.

An important contact to the PCs has come up missing. A quick investigation of the contact’s hideout/office/home show signs of violence and hasty theft. Where is the contact? Search the mess of the ransacked location for clues and follow them!