Ravenous Role Playing

Barking Alien posted some questions here. I thought they looked interesting enough, so I thought I would drop a quick post with my answers.

1:What is the most common type of environment or terrain encountered thus far in your current or most recent campaign?

We just started playing last week, and so far it’s just being a dungeon crawl. Once the characters reach the outside, they will be along coastal areas.

2: What is the most exotic or unusual environment or terrain encountered thus far in your current or most recent campaign?

Like I said, we just started gaming, but having the characters wake up a jail cell, being accosted by guards, prisoners and the king himself before the lich shows up and starts disentegrating everyone was fun for everyone!

3: What environment or terrain type have you never used but always wanted to? Why haven’t you?

Edge/Top of a volcano. I’ve never used that. I would love to just for the inherent situational modifiers and strategies involved. I almost got to do this once, but the players managed a McGuffin and bypassed the volcano.

4: Do you have a combat rule or mechanic from another game system you are using in the game system you currently play, played recently or generally play?

I’m playing my own system right now, and it’s cobbled together from many different systems with a glue created from my own warped mind. Oddly enough, it works quite well.

5: In your opinion, what genre has received too little attention in regards to RPGs based on that subject?

Spies hasn’t garnered nearly enough attention. Sure, there’s Top Secret S/I, Spymaster, Leverage and a few others, but that genre has largely been ignored by the RPG community despite the great success of spy thriller movies and books.

6: If a quality RPG on the aforementioned neglected genre came out tomorrow, what would make you buy it? What would prevent you from buying it?

I would buy it if the system allowed for a system in which a critical moment in the game isn’t ruined by a single die roll. It would have to have neat gadgets, too. I wouldn’t buy it if it were d20-based.

7: Do you find it easier to learn the rules of a game by reading the rule book or by sitting down and just playing it?

Sitting down and playing it while referencing the book for “Can I?” and “How do I?” moments.

8: Name a currently available artist not normally associated with RPGs who you’d love to see do some RPG work.

I don’t know or follow artists closely enough to answer this one. Sorry.

9: What one book, movie, video, etc. that is not an RPG that you think should be.

The Long Run by Daniel Keys Moran. Great setting. Fantastic environment. Wonderful technology. All-in-all one of the best (if not the best) cyberpunk books I’ve ever read. I’d also be happy with a Blade Runner RPG.

10: Can you think of an RPG you’ve run or played in which the GM (be it you or someone else) used/referenced non-game related books to run the campaign more often then game related books?

I played in an Alterinty game once where the GM pulled resources from a novel for his story line idea and let us run with it. It was quite fun since no one (other than the GM) had read the book in question. It worked out quite well. We had a blast with the game!

In addition to my 40-50 per week main job, I’ve picked up two more part time jobs. This means that I have to prioritize some things off of my “to do” list and walk away from them. This blog is one of the things getting dropped. I’m going to keep the site and the domain alive for when I have time to return to it. I’m going to continue to read RPG blogs in my spare time, but I doubt I’ll be able to stay on top of them like I used to do.

I wish that I didn’t have to walk away from here, but it wasn’t garnering much enjoyment, money or success because I didn’t have the time to dedicate to writing quality posts here.

I just wanted to let my faithful readers (all 6 of you ) know that I’m doing fine, but am just too damn busy to post here much.

I’m a little slow on the uptake on this theme that’s passing through the RPG blogosphere from Zak. Here are the questions and my answers:

1. Single invention most proud of?

The social class system in my RPG.

2. Last time I DMed?

Last Friday. I’ll do it again today after work.

3. Last time I played?

Last Saturday. I wish I could get together with my Pathfinder group tomorrow, but other plans are in the way.

4. Pitch for an adventure I haven’t run.

Crown Prince Auroon has been kidnapped by parties unknown. The characters, being trusted advisors to King Renthick, have been asked to track down the kidnappers and rescue the crown prince and return him safely to the king.

Alternate: Crown Prince Auroon died in battle against an enemy army. King Renthick, being a powerful magician, used the last wish from his item to have his son return to him. Auroon returns to the kindgom as a risen Lich due to the wish, and destroys most of the king’s palace. Where do the characters come in? Oh. They’re being held in the dungeon below where the king is escaping. He races into the chamber just ahead of the Lich Prince and opens a secret door. The king offers his pardon if the PCs protect him through the dungeon passages under the castle and into the wilderness beyond.

5. What do I do while I wait for players to do things?

Create NPCs or creatures for them to encounter.

6. Do I eat while I play?

Not usually. I tend to go purely with Monster energy drinks or Mountain Dew to sustain me through a session.

7. Is DM physically exhausting?

Nope. It’s a rush. It’s a high. It’s exhilerating to me. I love doing it.

8. Do my players make my serious setting,  not serious?

My players go with the flow of the game that I’m portraying, but it’s usually serious.

9. Last thing I remember my character did when I played.

Doing over 100 points of damage on a critical hit against a normal ogre. We’d been fighting ogre barbarians, which were rather tough. We came across a band of “regular” ogres and didn’t realize that they weren’t barbarians. I went all out on my attack, rolled a critical, rolled really high on damage and one-shotted the ogre. It was a good feeling!

10. What do I do with goblins?

I aggrivate my players with them by putting the goblins in a tactically superior situation and forcing the players to fight on the goblin’s terms.

11. Last non-rpg setting converted for a game.

Battle Circle by Piers Anthony. I created Hero System templates for them back when 4th edition Hero was the big thing. Yeah. It’s been that long.

12.What’s the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

A fellow character’s kensai almost gutted herself with a fumble and went on to slay half the enemy. At one point, the leader of the bad guys asked, “Why did she cut herself open before the fight?” Without hesitation, I replied, “To make it a fair fight.” The rest of the bad guys dropped their weaopns immediately and surrendered. We all had a great laugh about that.

13. What was the last game book you looked at–aside from things you referenced in a game–why were you looking at it?

GURPS 4e Main Book: I was looking for examples for expert (aka: knowledge in other games) skill checks.

14. Who’s your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

I know this is a contentious topic amongst many role players, but my favorite has always been Larry Elmore.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

Yes. Quite often. Not just for the safety of their characters, but also for the outcome of good over evil.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn’t write? (If ever)

I’ve run Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil by Monte Cook three times. It was a hoot all three times with slightly different flavors to each of the games.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

Large table with a white matte finish and an overhead projector for displaying maps, monster images, things the characters see, etc. The table needs to be large enough that the projected light from above doesn’t shine on the player’s area.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

AD&D 1e and GURPS 4e. I love both of them to death, but they are so totally different. AD&D has a “skeleton rule set” and allows the GM to make up the rest as needed. GURPS 4e has rules for pretty much everything. Both have their pros and cons.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

I come back to AD&D and GURPS. One is so free-form and smooth and flowing, but it requires a good GM to be a good game. GURPS is very structured, but has enough rules in existence that you can do pretty much anything you want with it. You still need a good GM for GURPS, but it’s not as vital as with AD&D. I do my best to balance the massive rule set of GURPS and the smooth storytelling of AD&D in my games.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

Engaged. No Warcraft on the laptop while at the table. No texting with friends while at the table. Either you’re here to play, or you’re not.

21. What’s a real life experience you’ve translated into game terms?

My fighting experience from years in the SCA has really helped me create a balanced, fair and (mostly) realistic combat system for my RPG.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn’t?

A cartography guide for role playing. Things from creating worlds to nations to cities to villages to buildings to dungeons to caverns and more.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn’t play? How do those conversations go?

Everyone. I’m not ashamed of my hobby one little bit. I’ll tell everyone that I’m a role player. It can be a long conversation, and I won’t go into all of it here. I usually have to define what role playing is, what players are, what the GM is, etc. Most people don’t ask about Satanic rituals anymore. I’m glad that “fad” has passed.

So I’m a week-and-a-half behind on this post, and much of the RPG blogosphere has picked up the thread and run with it already. I blame work, NaNoWriMo and a general lack of sleep for the tardiness of this response to this post. Here’s what I have to say on the matters at hand:

Book Binding: I’ve only had a handful of books fall apart on me. This is amazing since I currently own hundreds of RPG-related tomes, and have had about a thousand RPG books pass through my hands in my lifetime. The most memorable was my GURPS 4e books. I bought the two “main” books together and the binding came loose within days of purchase. While greatly disappointed, I found that the margins of the pages were wide enough for me to three-hole punch the paper and throw both books together into a single large D-ring binder. It worked out well for me since the two books were numbered consecutively and I never could remember where one book stopped and the other picked up. Now I have them all together and it makes for looking up rules easier. More of a blessing than a curse. The other book that fell apart on me was my AD&D 2e PHB. That’s mostly Dan [REDACTED]‘s fault, though. He was cheating and I caught him, so I felt compelled to huck the book across the room at his head.

Doing Voices: I don’t do voices. I can’t do voices. Despite some acting background in junior high and high school, I just can’t do them. I suppose if I practiced enough, I could do a few, but it’s not worth it to me.

Breaks: We game (almost) every week from 6 PM until we get tired (which is usually around 1 AM.) That gives us a solid 7 hour session. We usually take a single break about halfway through for snacks. People are free to wander away from the table for drinks, snacks, bio-breaks, etc. as they wish, but we like it when people do so when they’re not involved in the direct action at the table.

Descriptions: I love doing flowery, fantastic, detailed descriptions. I’m a fiction writer, so this comes naturally to me. However, I’ve found that if I go overboard, there are two reactions. The first is that my players think that every little detail is a clue to something. The second is that when they latch on to some detail, they tend to forget that I have more to give them. This causes them to forget or ignore something that is more important than something else in the description.

Balance Between Being True to a Character and Being a Dickhead: I can’t comment on this as I’ve never seen this happen. I guess I have seen it happen in online “role playing” games such as World of Warcraft, Everquest and text-based MUDs, but never at the table.

PvP: This happens from time-to-time and it always sucks. It usually (but not always!) ends a campaign cold. There are a few times where we’ve worked past it, but not often. As a player, I don’t enjoy it much and try to avoid it. As a GM, I don’t care much, so I’ll allow the players free reign. They have to stay within their character concepts, though.

Explaining My RPG Hobby: Here’s the spiel that I give: I play role playing games. They’re a type of game where there is no defined winner. Instead, everyone at the table is involved in a cooperative storytelling experience where one person, the game master, runs the world, monsters, determines rewards, plays the role of shopkeepers and everyone else in the world, and adjudicates rules. Everyone else at the table plays a single character, or role, and they work together to overcome the obstacles the game master places in front of them. It may sound like a game master versus the players kind of situation, but it’s really not.

Alcohol at the Table: We’re all mature, responsible adults. Sometimes a beer (or three) is necessary to get into the mood to play after a long and stressful week at work.

Absent Players: In the past, I used to keep everyone’s character sheets in my campaign folder and dole out the missing players’ characters to people actually there. More recently, we’ve fallen into the habit of “the absent player’s character is doing ‘research’ while he’s gone.” I prefer the first method to the second, but that’s just me. It can mean character death while the player is absent, but that’s a known risk if you allow other people to play your character.

I just spotted this link (yeah, I’m a day behind on my blog reading) over at The Other Side Blog. He describes the sale and the details, so I won’t copy/paste his entire post here. It does support The Wayne Foundation, which works to prevent child sex trafficking. Yep. Even in these modern times, there are children being traded about as sex slaves as if they were property, not people. Sickening to my heart, so I’ve already pitched in my $15 to help out.

Stuart over at Strange Magic posted this blog with a list of merit badges for GMs and tons of people have jumped on the bandwagon. In an effort to be part of the droves, I’m posting the one merit badge that I think best exemplifies my gaming style as a GM.

I didn’t choose this particular badge because I hide my style from my players. Rather, it represents the shifting nature of how I run a game. Sometimes there is mystery. Sometimes (though rarely) there  is PvP action. Sometimes I follow the book like it’s the Holy Bible and other times I invoke “rule zero” just to make the game run smoother.

I guess what I’m saying is that it’s hard to stick labels on how I run my games. I change things up depending on system, style, players and other factors. I try to do what’s best for the game. Usually I succeed, but sometimes I fail. Just part of being human, right?

A post over at Hill Cantons challenged the RPG blogosphere to take up arms and give some advice to GMs across the world. I’ll take that challenge!

He stated that we should focus on three ideas, describe how they “pop” and what are the hows and nut-and-bolts of the ideas in action.

Here goes!

1. Pay Attention: This is usually what the players have to do, but RPGs are a two-way street. The GM must pay attention to the players. Not just what they say, but how it’s said and their body language as well. If the GM finds the players stacking dice, then they’ve checked out. The game is not engaging, exciting or popping. Something has to change. Sometimes, it means tossing out the entire campaign/system, but most of the time subtle changes can be made to the storyline or adventure as it’s laid out before the players. Make it personal. Don’t kidnap the princess and offer great monetary rewards if she’s returned. Kidnap a PCs little sister or mother or father or favorite pet. This will engage at least one of the players. If the GM can layer together personal threats, then the entire party can be drawn together and the players will eagerly join the GM at the table each week.
2. Be Involved During Character Creation: The GM should not sit back and watch the party get created while answering the random, “Is it okay if my character has X power for Y reason?” Before party creation even begins, the GM should have a world setup, a background about the immediate area written for the players and a “set the scene” page or two written on why the party is together. Encourage the players to write backgrounds about their characters, tie themselves to the other PCs in the group and the area in which they’ll be starting. Award special items (like silver daggers or something else along those lines) or experience points for performing these types of actions. It will really help the party cohesion in the long run.
3. Be A Boy Scout: In other words, be prepared. While I pride myself on being a great impromptu GM, I’m still prepared. I know the city/nation/state/area that the PCs are adventuring in. That way, when they say they want to sell a boat that they don’t own to the richest gambling hall owner in town, I know what they’re up to… even if I didn’t until they declared the action. I know the largest/richest gambling hall in town and can easily find the NPC in the book (or make him up on the fly if necessary.) I know where the docks in the city are located. I know where they’re going to go to get the proper paper to use for the forgery. I know all of this because I’ve read the materials in question about the setting in which we’re in. If I’m building my own city/nation or other setting, then I know that I have artistic freedom to do what I will. I’m still prepared with notes about ideas that I’ve already had about the area, though. I’m also prepared to scribble my impromptu decisions about NPCs and locations within the area, so that I can incorporate them into my wiki about my world.

There you go. There’s my list and my nuts-and-bolts that go with it. Hope it helps someone out there!

Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles

Some folks over in the UK tested how armor (or armour for you British folks) affects endurance, speeds and all that good stuff. It’s quite an interesting read and almost mandatory for anyone that is creating a fantasy or medieval setting or game system. I’m happy to say that the results from the study closely mirror the results that you’ll get when playing my homebrew RPG. Armor prevents some/most/all damage depending on the type of armor and type of attack, but it’ll take it’s toll in fatigue loss and endurance.

This makes Hungry a very happy gamer.

As you may have guessed by now, I love maps and mapping software. This includes the (seemingly abandoned) Dundjinni. I also love playing GURPS and Hero and pretty much any other “point build” system. However, GURPS and Hero are complex enough that I find that using software (GURPS Character Assistant or HeroDesigner) really helps streamline character builds and exposes me to other options that I may have not otherwise noticed for my character.

I’m not sure what programming language GURPS Character Assistant is built in, but Dundjinni and HeroDesigner are Java programs. Here lies the problem… HeroDesigner requires at least Java 6 (or maybe 5?) to function properly. Dundjinni requires Java 4. Anything newer than that causes the software to not operate properly. The Dundjinni developers claim that there is a bug in the newer versions of Java. I firmly believe that the API changed in some class that they use and since the software is no longer being developed, they can’t bring it “up to spec” to use the new API.

That’s neither here nor there. I want to use both pieces of software, but can’t… or can I?

Here are the basics of what I did to make both pieces of software happy:

1. Install Java 4 (aka 1.4) in C:\Program Files\Java\java4
2. Install Dundjinni
3. Install Java 6 (aka 1.6) in C:\Program Files\Java\java6
4. Install HeroDesigner
5. Write a batch file (remember those???) to point Dundjinni to the 1.4 Java. See below for the batch file.
6. Modify the Dundjinni desktop icon to point to the new batch file instead of the exe.
7. Profit!

Here’s the batch file for those that need it. This took me about 20 minutes of Googling for answers and about a minute to write.

@echo off
set JAVA_HOME="C:\Program Files\Java\java4"
set PATH=%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%PATH%
set CLASSPATH=%JAVA_HOME%
cd "C:\Program Files\Fluid\Dundjinni"
"C:\Program Files\Fluid\Dundjinni\dundjinni.exe"

I really hope this helps someone out there that wants to run the latest and greatest Java for everything, but still allow Dundjinni to work properly.

I’ve updated the blogroll on the left sidebar to include all of the RSS feeds that I follow (plus a few more sites that I visit regularly.) I’ve also removed a few blogs that are now dead and gone. There are probably millions of RPG blogs that I’m missing. Of those millions, a few hundred are worth reading. If you see something missing from my blogroll that you think I might be interested in, please drop me a line or comment here. I’d greatly appreciate any tips for great RPG musing, news, tables, maps, charts or just random mental wanderings.