Ability Checks vs Skill Checks

Ability Checks vs Skill Checks

When we call for a roll at the table we have a few choices at our disposal – Saves, Abilities and Skills. The uses of and when to use Saves is kind of obvious. We leverage that kind of roll when the player has a chance to save their character from something either an effect or an external force of some kind. What can get a little wibbly wobbly is when to call for a general Ability check and when to call for a Skill check. Sometimes we like to think of them as the same thing when in actuality they cue the player into very different things. Anyways in case you didn’t get it by now this is what I am going to be ranting about today.

I haven’t done one of these in a while but I’ll do my best to get started right from the get-go. Let’s start with a classic DM Dalliance move with definitions. We will be using the specific language tied to D&D 5e but most TTRPG systems have base stats and then skills that build off those items. So while the language will be specific the theory and application can be used across most systems agnostically. Our first definition goes to Ability Check – “An ability check tests a character’s or monster’s innate talent and training in an effort to overcome a challenge.”  This means that this is an umbrella term that provides a catch-all for a lot of things where there isn’t a specific thing tied to it outside of an ability category. Narrowing in on things we then have the Skill Check – “A skill represents a specific aspect of an ability score, and an individual’s proficiency in a skill demonstrates a focus on that aspect.” So a specialization or enhanced skill in a very narrow item that may fit under one of the Ability categories.

A great example to just further solidify things for everyone before I really get going on this rant is that of taking an Ability like Dexterity and looking at the skills under it and how diverse their functions really can be. Under that Ability we have both Acrobatics and Sleight of Hand, one where you can tumble through enemy legs and the other with the ability to nimbly pickpocket someone. A similar foundation in that you need to be flexible and have control over your body but the application of which is very different. Someone who is great at flipping through the air and landing with grace somewhere doesn’t necessarily have the ability to be a good pickpocket and vice versa. They focus on different muscles doing different things and have practiced those to a level of expertise. Now you may have someone that is extremely good under a single Ability category and therefore they have expertise and practice in multiple ones that make them a broad expert in Dexterity.

When we take this back to our discussion on when a DM should call for an Ability Check vs a Skill Check you can already start to see where I’m going with. Whenever possible you should let the players shine by calling for a skill check that fits because their character has put in the time and effort to specialize in things. It gives them more of a spotlight as the rogue can pick the lock while the monk can run up the wall to an open window. But Ability Checks are useful as well because as we all know players like to do things that throw us for a loop. Every so often they’ll ask a question that will just leave you doing the owl blinky eye thing as your brain scrambles for what rules apply to the request. The application of these two rolls are easily divided and I could leave it at that and have a short rant but I’m not really that kind of ranter.

My main point for this particular dive into the minutia of the TTRPGs we love is the cues and impact calling for each type of roll has on how the player perceives the task, how it can color how we handle success/failure for the roll, and how a player might try and bend things a little to get creative. Let’s tackle those in order and see if I can get you to see how their differences and understanding how you can use those actually make for a more nuanced game. First our lovely cues and impact statement what the hell do I mean? That is a great and insightful question imaginary internet audience. When we talk about cues and impact we are talking about the kind of learned language between a DM and the players at the table. Like if they ask to do something in game and you replied with “Let me just get this straight” or “You can certainly try” or “You do what?” they’ll probably start rethinking that decision enough that it might buy you table to figure out how to make it a feasible in-game thing. The same is true when we ask for different checks. Calling for a Skill Check is the bread and butter of most systems and is how the players interact with the majority of the world in game. It is so normal that its the expected and if you know anything about me you know I pay close attention to that in games because subverting that expectation is how we can play with storytelling things like tension. Players want to have skill checks asked for because chances are they have looked at their character sheet once or twice and know what they are capable of and are using those skills to get creative to solve a problem. Like in the example I mentioned earlier with the Rogue picking a lock while the Monk wall runs to an open window. Two creative but different solutions to the same problem of trying to get into the house are solved with different skill checks that control not just what success looks like but what the failure in it might look like too. The monk could end up just running face-first into the wall and the rogue could break their tools off in the door. So when we ignore the skills that the players have and call instead for an Ability Check we are telling them a few things – 1) there is no way they could have experience in doing this thing, its too specific or has never come up before or is a super bizarre application of a character’s abilities. 2) maybe that to pull this off is going to take more than practice in a skill, it might instead encompass more than one which makes it more of an overall ability check and 3) if we use it too much it signals the players that aren’t familiar enough with the rules to know what skills to call for or that there won’t be as many opportunities for their characters to shine.

Wow that is a lot for a check to say to a table but sometimes its the backing behind the calls that is the best use of deciding between Ability or Skill check. When we call for any kind of roll there is the knowledge that this could either succeed or fail. Kind of a given right? But for DMs we have to often come up with what both of those options for the roll look like on the fly even if we are running a pre-written adventure. So we can use which we call for to help shape that in a way that keeps us from feeling so overwhelmed. If we called for a Strength ability check on someone trying to carry a heavy chest a failure might look like them going to lift it and the handle snaps off, a crit failure might be dropping the chest on their foot for damage. On the flip side a success could be the ability to carry it at half speed with a crit success making it so that you could carry it on one shoulder without it harming your speed. Lets say we called for instead an Athletics skill check to do the same thing, this kind of narrows down our window of options. The Athletics skill covers things like difficult situations you encounter while climbing, jumping, or swimming. It is your endurance for a foot race or to pull up a fellow character up a rope and into a window. Which means if they are lifting a heavy chest its their physical prowess to overcome the obstacle. Success with this skill check would be lifting with their back and carrying the chest, a failure might be straining a muscle. Both end up close too each other but you can see how the broad vs the specific changes that you as the DM might provide as the outcome from a check.

Now the obviously fun part for a player is the chance to get really creative with what they can do to try and improve their chances of success or do something really cool, potentially… if they succeed. I would say that if a player tries to do something crazy and doesn’t think the right check was called for or was trying for an approach to leverage a specific skill, I’d let them explain what they are doing that makes it apply. This is a great way to learn how your players problem solve, a chance to have either a great story from the table even if it fails, and lets your players have the freedom of both choice and creativity. We want them to engage with the world enough that it gets them thinking to that degree about things. Sometimes even they know what they are trying is so batshit crazy and out there that they don’t even know what skill it is but are trying instead to leverage their foundational ability score to try something in a wheelhouse of things that they are good in. Honestly this is one of my favorite things because as you get used to exercising the difference in these two checks you’ll see your players stretching those creative muscles more and more when it comes to obstacles. Its some sort of psychological trigger that just prompts the players that such attempts are welcome at the table.

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.

The Practical Application of Session 0

Something we talk about alot in this community is Session 0 and how important it is to running a healthy, safe and enjoyable game for everyone at the table. It is a thing that as a collective we leverage to continually improve the dynamics at the table and with each other. I see it talked alot in the abstract or broken into items that need to be discussed. When I first started doing Session 0’s it was a little hard to know how to move through it in a way that made sense and was actually useful to my table. So this rant is all about just that – making the Session 0 work for you with a useable guide on it. But first, just what does a Session 0 mean?

Well a Session 0 is a meeting of the group you will be playing at before any actual game play will be happening. This is before that time where the characters meet and start adventuring, before any dice are rolled, and before things have begun. Think of it as a dress rehearsal before the big day. Except that up till you have a Session 0 you aren’t really sure if everyone has been reading the same script or if they are even in the same play.

In steps the Session 0 to save the day in several ways. This gives us the time and space to really talk to the group not just about the campaign itself but of everyone expectations of the game, their expectations when interacting with each other, and the agreements that we all hold. Sure you could go off and assume that you are all on the same page because of all the messages or talks you have had piece mealed across your communication medium of choice. But I have find that often times that assumption of being on the same page is just going to make an ass out of everyone at the table. I’ve mentioned before that we are all different at the table, we bring our own experiences and life into things that color the game for us. Even if we might we working in a similar color they will always be slightly different shades. Understanding that and using the opportunity provided though we can take the time to align what that means for the game. Knowing that I’m working in royal blue and you are working in sky blue helps us to avoid conflicts when we both start interacting with things.

Now sometimes characters will purposefully have odd understandings of the world for in game reasons. That’s perfectly fine, I love it. Have a character who sees the world through rose colored glasses and has toxic positivity if you want. BUT the players behind those characters have to have understandings of things going on. They have to know how to work together in the space in a safe and freeing way that is only possible with a Session 0.

That’s waxing philosophical is all well and dandy JustKay but you promised us actionable intel here and all I see is wordy gobbly-gook. Well thank you for that reminder you weirdly targeted self extension for story propulsion. Alot of things could possibly go into Session 0 that just depends how you as a DM feel most comfortable running your games and how well you know your players. What we are going to do though is divide it into what you SHOULD ALWAYS DO and some options you COULD DO.

First up on the SHOULD ALWAYS DO list is of course safety tools. These come in alot of flavors but should always come with an agreement from everyone at the table to respect each other, respect the issues that may pop up at the table, and to be open to working together to solve anything that pops up that wasn’t expected. Sometimes we don’t always know something will be a triggering event for us or not till we are in it. But alot of great tools exist out there for this so I am not going to be reinventing the wheel here but suggest instead you check out – https://twitter.com/ttrpgsafetykit

Next following up in the SHOULD ALWAYS category we have a decision on the kind of game that will be run. Talk about genre of the game, tone of the game, things that you will be tackling as concepts, and style of play. Newer DMs might not know the answer to all of these or even how to identify them in their games, especially when it comes to something like style of play. That’s perfectly fine! A good place to start is with allegories to entertainment that is a little more universal for examples. For instance a game that fits the genre and style of Terminator is very different then fits Wild Wild West. Okay so those are in completely different wheelhouses but you get the idea. When you are having a hard time trying to describe these things to bring them up for discussion instead use examples to help express what is in your head about the game to the rest of the table. Use books, movies, shows, plays, comics, etc. The more you can give the clearer it will be to everyone about the kind of game they are agreeing to be involved in.

Lastly on the tour through SHOULD ALWAYS DO list is the rules and agreements portion of the session. These include table rules, expected behaviors, and yes even the homebrew rules that will be happening in your game. For instance I always do the flanking rules + potions are bonus actions. Bring up each set of rules, read through them and discuss as needed. Make it very clear that agreeing to play the game means that they are agreeing to follow these rules/agreements that will be in place, which means that breaking them will have consequences and repercussions that may include being asked to leave the game.

Now on to the most longer list of things that COULD BE in a Session 0 if you have the time, or like the idea for them to help with your group. One thing that I like doing at the table during Session 0 is to have the players write down 3 rumors, at least 1 of them is true and 1 of them is false. Then I take these shuffle them and deal them out so that all of the characters have heard at least something about each other character. It builds a sense that the world is living and that they don’t live in isolation from each other. In addition to this I will also use Relationship Strings similar to other systems like Monsterhearts, Questlandia etc where you asking questions and have each player answer it in relation to one other character at the table (which the other player agrees to). Things like who has your character worked with in the past? Who does your character have a grudge against? Who does your character have a crush on? Who does your character owe a favor to? You could do as many or as few of these questions as you want but make sure that each player has to answer at least one of them. This is a quick short cut to helping players build existing relationships and makes that ‘how the group got together’ way easier for the DM.

The classic COULD DO is to have an open time for people to finish building their characters. I’ve met alot of players who prefer to not build their characters in a vacuum, they like helping balance the group by knowing that others are playing. Or they want to talk to other players about ways their characters could interact. Provide the time and space for this to happen and it will encourage discussions about character relationships along with all the mechanically crunchy bits.

Following the character building right along with world building. I mentioned this in the Collective Consciousness post but you can have a set of papers with titles of things in game, give players sticky notes and let them contribute to that item. Lay down a paper with ‘Religion’ on it and let people contribute aspect or things to it. Discuss everything that gets laid down so that you all understand it and are on the same page. You can do this with as much or as little as you want, it not only provides you with the short cut you might want to fill out the world. But it is also an engaging tool that helps determine what your players are really interested in since the more sticky notes there are is a pretty good indicator of that.

My last suggestion for now in the COULD DO section is one that I honestly always do if there is time – a pilot session. What do I mean by that? Well TV shows often have a pilot episode which is a test of their concept. Sometimes the pilot can look drastically different from the rest of the show, sometimes there are just minor tweaks or growth between the pilot or the show and sometimes the terrible pilot lets you realize you should scrap it all together. But this isn’t just a pilot test of your game concept its a chance for the players to take the theoretical for their characters into the actual. Alot of times little tweaks or mistakes made in character creation will pop up or the player maybe assumed something in the mechanics that doesn’t quite match either the reality of the mechanic or how the player wants the character to be. Give them a chance to test it out. The test is all good and all but couple it with something actionable like a mulligan for something that might be wrong with a character. Obviously they’ll have to talk over what they want to change with you and get the okay to do it, but let the players know you will work with them after Session 0 if their character didn’t quite work the way they thought.

I have tossed alot of things you can do in your Session 0 but we are missing an important part of this whole thing. How do you structure the Session 0 in a way that is functional and actionable.  Right now I have handed you an armful of building blocks clapped you on the shoulder and told you to go at it champ. Well I did promise to make this a guide so I’ll go through how I would run it, for that I’m going to assume all of the items I have mentioned above fit with my game. I often run longer games especially when they are in person and set the expectation that Session 0 will be about as long but that we might end early if we get through everything. I’ll also state that if the players need it they are more then welcome to stay longer or to ask additional questions that Session 0 isn’t me kicking them out but rather letting people go and respecting the time we agreed to if they need it.

Everyone is present and at the table so its time to get started with your Session 0. I start off with introductions both character and player, then a 5 minute elevator pitch of the campaign that they’ve all heard before at this point. We will have questions and discussions about the concept which I’ll often use leading questions to engage the players with if need be. Ask them what they are excited about, concerned about, where they think their character fits in, etc. Conversation at first will be a little rough as everyone is feeling each other and the dynamics out so keep at it!  After everyone has had time to talk about it I’ll remind them we can come back to any of these things if any questions or things pop up for them as we continue along, and that the same goes for anything we discuss during Session 0.

Rolling right along its a good time to go into matching expectations on the game with everyone. Its time to talk about genre of the game, tone of the game, things that you will be tackling as concepts, and style of play. Not just your own though but those that the players have. Ask about the types of media they enjoy and what they enjoy most in games. Talk about which tones, genres, etc the players want to explore and which ones they’d rather avoid. Style of play is a hot button topic in TTRPGs mostly because no one can decide on the classifications enough for the community to come to a consensus to identify their own styles of play. Most of it at the moment is guess work, magic wand waving and equating what we do with TTRPG to different gaming areas. That isn’t a bad thing, we are a continuously growing community but it does make the discussion of it hard. Think of it in terms of how you want to interact with the pillars of play – combat, exploration, roleplaying. These are often scene as intrinsically tied to D&D but they are true for any TTRPG system even if they aren’t explicitly stated in their system books.  How much of each do you like? How much of each do you want from your game? Which one or two will be the focus of your game? Which ones most excite you and your players?

At this point depending on how the conversation is flowing I’ll either go into the Safety tools and how we will be using them or the agreements/rules portion. Which ever one I do first the other one will follow because I want it to be clear where we all stand. These will be brought up again at the end of the session before I release them back into the world to return to their adulting duties. I could honestly write a whole post about just how to do the safety tools and agreements portion of things. Thankfully if you do some googling you will find a ton out there with different approaches to help out.

I’ll follow this up with the rumors and relationship strings, get the players thinking about how their characters will interact with each other. Some of this may take more leading questions and poking and prodding to get the players rolling on it. You can even gamify this by giving everyone 2 tokens that represents inspiration that they have to give to someone else as they develop the relationship strings. It makes it fun and encourages the interactions while giving them a fun thing to start the game off with. This will often get paired with a world building session if I have anything I want their feedback on or I want them to kind of take ownership of. A company they work for, a guild they are involved in, a town they are based in, etc. If you know that people need to finish building their characters I’ll often do that here as well since the relationships and mechanics may inform each other.

Lastly I’ll run a micro session with some RP, some combat and a bit of world lore in it. This will let the group work together for the first time in game, to kick the tires on their characters, and is just a fun very interactive way to end the Session 0. Make sure you have a debrief afterwards and if you want to explain how the mulligans between Session 0 and Session 1 for characters will work. I also like providing a way for them to ask questions about anything talked about before Session 1 by doing check ins with each player. There is also always an open door policy for anything they might have questions about in game. Everything we went over, agreed to, and discussed will also be sent out to the group after Session 0 just as a way to record it and something to reference again down the road if needed.

Whew that was a whole lot and this is probably going to be one of my beefier posts but I think we all needed it to be honest. It is great to see the information for it all in one place and I hope that it is a benefit to any DMs out there who haven’t been too sure how to run a Session 0. It is like a muscle like anything involving running a game though so don’t worry if it doesn’t go perfect the first few times. You’ll get your DMing legs and feel out the best set up that works for you and your flow. In the meantime you’ve got your buddy JustKay here giving you this great blueprint on how to run a Session 0 that will set you and your group up for success in the long term when it comes to a happy, fun, and safe game for everyone at the table.

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.

Secret to Consistent Games

The bane of any game group – scheduling. How do we help keep the session momentum moving if we don’t have consistent games? The answer is you can’t really. But that doesn’t mean all is lost. There are alot of things we can do in order to help keep the momentum going during sessions and motivate everyone to continue showing up. Of course you still have to make sure it stays on everyone’s calendars. So this little rant time is all about the tips and tricks that I have come across over my *coughmumblecough* years of running games of all kinds of systems. I’ll give you some dos, some donts, some maybes, and some truly batty ideas before we are done here. But as always I am my chaotic best by just jumping right in.

Let’s start with what not to do. These aren’t hard or fast stops, you have to know your players to know those. But these are things that I often see kill a gaming group. Campaigns have crumbled and been left for dust from many of these. Remember – only you can prevent collapsing game syndrome. Our first culprit is going to have to be just the tangle which is that ding-dang-dong adult thing we call schedules. Too much back and forth can get everyone’s availability lost or things can change mid discussions for people. I’m not saying I have the miracle for scheduling TTRPGs sessions, if I did I’d patent it and make an app or something to be super rich. Instead some things that work for me – polls with days to pick from, keep the time frame of the game consistent so players know how long to expect to have to set aside, a Google Calendar for games that invites the players to the scheduled events, regular check ins the day before the game is scheduled, and a policy in place for if one or two of your players can’t make it one session. The last one is actually super important. Life stuff pops up at some point no matter how prepared you are. You can’t account for fender benders, burst pipes, or emergency dentist visits. What you can do though is talk about what missing one or two sessions look likes, what does the group do with that character, and deciding if a particular character is pivotal to the next part the players are tackling. For instance you might not want to have a session without your rogue if you are pulling off a heist, but if you are going to be in a magic library then yeah easy miss. I’m going to be honest most of the bad stuff comes from us having to adult and play TTRPGs. Try not to have too much time between sessions without engaging your players in some way. That can be through downtime activities in text, encouraging the players to interact in character in a chat, asking the players questions either individually or collectively about the world or what is happening in the campaign currently. I also see having super long sessions, especially those without breaks, tend to break players way quicker as well. If you are meeting like once a month sure go 6+ hours but provide breaks – eat, drink, walk around, and let people shoot the shit before refocusing everyone. I don’t know about you but I get antsy being still in a chair that long.

We had some no’s so now some do’s. I know this sounds like a no brainer but – keep it consistent. But I really truly mean consistent – same week day, same duration, same expectations, etc. Build it into a habit through consistency it will be harder for the players to shake and they’ll WANT the next session to happen because not having that in their schedule feels wrong. Psychology is useful to those trying to run games. I also like to give my players some in game rewards for being in a session, nothing huge that will throw off the balance of things, but something as simple as DM Inspiration or a reroll. Dopamine is a powerful thing especially for those of us that are easily distracted by things. Heck I’m only able to write this as I type because I found a cool game that lets me defeat monsters via a word count. When you hit a block keeping sessions with a group you need that something extra to get over the hump and back into the habit.  Rewards are a great way to do that. Also as I mentioned reminding the players that the game is still there waiting for them is great. I am a big out of sight, out of mind person for better or worse. Which means unless I get reminded I am very likely to forget but the second someone is like ‘hey what does your character want to explore next session?’ I have a big flashing ‘OH YEAH~’ over my head and immediately reinvest. Let players do their downtime activities between sessions in chat (with rolls and everything), encourage RP between characters in chat this can be cannon but can also just be for fun to help figure out dynamics, or maybe provide some mini games or a quiz that if they hit a certain mark gives the group a boon in the next session. That could definitely engage them especially if they were about to go into a battle before you ended last time.

But what about the session itself, how does it help or harm us when trying to keep it consistent. The things happening in the session can help motivate or demotivate players when it comes to getting to the next session. If its something the players are engaged and excited with they’ll want to get to it as soon as possible, I’ve even had the group all pull out their phones and schedule the next game right there and then. If its something they are kind of meh about it can have the opposite effect. If its a story line they aren’t really vibing with, or the ‘boring part’ to them then its going to hurt your momentum to get the group to the next session. This can be really hard to control and balance among all the other things that DMs keep an eye on during a session at any one time. I know sometimes I have problems with this especially because I am a big believer in the actions of my players having consequences. Say you are hiding a run away and get caught by bounty hunters that then lead to a cart chase through the city onto private property to hide. Its not like the bounty hunters are going to throw up their hands and give up. In the case of one of my games the manor was served a writ of search, the players escaped with the run away to hide out at a church and claim sanctuary, and now they are in a legal battle. I’ve had several delays getting the next session going because of adult scheduling and emergencies. But the group just got paid for one job, already have the details of another one but now they have this distraction going on. They don’t have the chance to spend their money and enjoy themselves so there is less motivation there. One way to help with this is to learn to leave on a high note. End the session early if you need to in order to let them end on a high instead of diving back down into the weeds before ending. You killed the hill giant and the final blow makes them fall backwards, the forest is quiet again. The group finds a small stash of things from the victims of the hill giant and have made a hefty sum from slaying it as well. Have the curtain fall as they set camp talking about the fight they just had and fade to black before the watches. This isn’t always possible but practicing knowing when to do this will go a long way to things. Another good thing to remember is that we are all creatures of habit and all kind of crave keeping our habits a bit. I tend to host my in person games and cook for my players. Everyone tends to arrive on time or a little early so that they can see what’s cooking and enjoy a drink while catching up before we jump in. Halfway through there is always one break, there might be more then one if things get intense. Combat runs fast with people on deck planning while turns are happening. We end about 5 hours after we start. It lets them plan other adult things around my games and makes it easier for them to not just be there but to be present during it.

We are balance the real world adulting slug with our TTRPG groups in our own ways. These are the things that I have found that work or don’t work in my time but I’d love to hear from all you lovelies out there on the void called the web. What has killed your game or campaign? What has kept your long running game going?

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.

Collective Consciousness of a Campaign

When we talk about TTRPGs we often talk about the DM acting as the world. They are the AI interacting with the players, creating the NPCs and the world for them to play around in, we forget that the DM isn’t the only one building the world. Today I’m going to talk a bit about this idea of a collective consciousness of a campaign. This could be as simple as the people at your table or as multi-faceted and complex as thousands of games all around the same campaign. It is a unique thing to think about, this idea that one person isn’t the sole knowledge base of a game. But it makes sense when we really get into it. I don’t know about you but I definitely lean on my players to remember not just what came before this session but to build on aspects of the game. One of my favorite tools is to allow a player to take ownership of an aspect of the world that directly effects them and their character. That isn’t to say that the DM doesn’t have finally say but my players have come up with things that make far more sense in the world then I would have on my own. Its also a really natural way to more closely tie a character into the world. The investment is there if they have some hand in making say the guild that they belong to as a rogue, or the business that their parents run, or even the name of that annoying mayor that they humiliated.

But I’m getting a little off track here – let’s break it down into chunks like I normally do so I can get us back on track. 

The idea of a Collective Consciousness comes from this idea that there isn’t just a million billion separate minds floating through the world it is instead this idea that some where in the background of all of this we are somehow connected on a deeper level to things. To each other. That each person somehow effects the others through their experiences, knowledge, and lives. It is thought that maybe dreams come from this place of connectiveness. So I’m not exactly in that boat BUT I do believe that when we are building a fictional world together that is 1000% the case. How do I know that? Because we are all actively working together to build the world with all of our actions at every point of the game. Add to that the fact that it is then a group of people at a table playing make believe to be a bunch of other people at the table, all who roll dice to determine the outcome of events we aren’t sure about. Now doesn’t that sound a little meta like and a little like maybe a shared mind is going on when it comes to the world. Yes parts of that mind hold more knowledge then the others, obviously the DM, but that doesn’t mean they know everything. They certainly don’t know how the players are going to react to things or what the consequences of those actions might be. That is something that is built together as the dice land and it is something that is beautiful to see happen. And I know I sound a little woo-hoo when I say that. But it really is a beautiful thing to see happen no matter if you are the one running the game or the one playing in it.

How does me rambling about this help your games? Well if you think about it that Collective Consciousness is something we should strive for in our games. There are many ways we can go about this to make it happen but let me first get through the why of it. Why should you care? Why should you add something else to your campaigns? Why are you even reading this silly ranting JustKay on the deep void of a web? It is pretty easy actually if you want any of the following in your games you should want to do this for your players and for everyone else at the table, yourself included. 

  1. You want an immersive living world that exists outside of your players little in game bubble.
  2. You want your players to have the biggest and easiest by in to your campaign.
  3. You want to not have the stress of having to come up with literally everything in your game all the time.
  4. You want to avoid your players feeling like what they do in game doesn’t matter.

That all sounds great I hope otherwise I’m really questioning why you are continuing to read this. But honestly who among us trying to run a consistent campaign isn’t looking for those things to help us along? If I’m being honest I have seen a way higher ROI then the amount of work it takes to implement some steps to building this sense of Collective Consciousness in my campaigns. And I have never had players say anything bad about having more power in their own hands when it comes to lore and the world building.

Knowing that its a cool kid thing to do is great and all if I’m just going to rant at you to JUST DOET! What you really want is how to add it into your games, which is completely understandable and is in fact the next point I’m getting to.

Adding the Collective Consciousness to your games isn’t all that hard. You can take baby steps into it that will help take things in that direction. It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing situation, even just adding in the bits that look easiest to you given how you run your games will make a big difference. Easiest step you can do? Pick one or two things that have a high impact on each of your players that you haven’t had alot of time to flesh out and ask them about it. This you can of course do with questions to help guiding it a certain way but I often like to give a prompt or something first to help direct the conversation. For instance I recently created a country that borders the one the campaign is actually set in with a player who decided their backstory had them coming from someplace else and escaping to find a new life. I asked about what their parents did, did they see them as good people, what the justice system looked like, and what religions might be dominate there. I let them add as much or as little as they wanted after each questions. You’ll have to feel this part out as some players will dive in head first with no prompting and some will want to stay as light on details as possible. Its all about how much they are comfortable with and if they aren’t use to being asked those kinds of questions its likely it won’t be very. But the more you ask and provide opportunities you’ll see them to start to get more confident about it and providing more input. Now I can already hear people shaking their fists about the players meta-knowledge and the DM should build the world blah blah blah. To them I would like to point out that what the player could be telling could also just be what they know from the character’s perspective if you feel like it truly goes against your world. Say a player whose character is a royal who escaped with their life and ran away across the ocean to a life of adventure. They might see their kingdom as a peaceful place meant for all with a corrupted minority trying to usurp the rulers. But the reality might be that the rich crush the poor, living conditions are terrible and its actually the people rising up that drove them out of their home. Having them come back to the kingdom and having to learn about that and process that – INSTA CHARACTER STORY ARC. You are welcome. I tend to let players take ownership of certain pages in my campaign wikis after I initially set them up. Its a really easy way to make them feel comfortable enough to provide some feedback and insight to a good direction to go. 

Next baby step into the Collective Consciousness is through the use of NPCs. Yes the TTRPG stereotype is that the parents are dead or tried to kill the kid or missing. I can rant about getting away from that in another blog post. But another easy way to help your players, and your DM, step into releasing that control just a little bit is through NPCs. If a group has been in a place for awhile I might ask them during their downtime who they meet, who they choose to spend time with, and anything interesting that happens. When running this I tend to ask this series off questions, letting each player answer one before starting it over again until I’m satisfied.

  • Who is one new person you met?
  • What shop or establishment did you frequent?
  • What conflict popped up for you?
  • One activity you did
  • Name one location, what strange character there caught your eye?
  • Are you a regular anywhere, who is the owner?
  • Have you made an enemy in town?
  • Who is one person you have a little crush on?

You could go on all day if you want to but you get the idea. Questions that help spark conversations that end with the creation of a new NPC or filling out an existing one. They could totally answer that they are a regular at the tavern you already made whose owner they’ve met. But maybe they know a fun fact or story that the owner told them one night when it was slow. Or maybe they witnessed an altercation between the owner and another patron. Don’t feel like you are limited to only the direct answer – heck sometimes I roleplay it out a bit with them to help them get rolling. Step into the role of the tavern owner serving them drinks and asking how they are. Let the ownership lead to stories and the stories lead to interactions and to deeper immersion.

If you want to try this right from the start of a new campaign, the go big or go home method, the best way to do that is right from Session 0. I talk about Session 0 alot, as should everyone. It is needed and I think benefits every campaign and game I have ever been in. On top of the safety tools, the discussion of campaign tone, the players getting to know each other, and dozens of other things you can do in a Session 0 let me add one more. You can pass out sticky notes to your players, I’m partial to giving each player a different color, and then lay out a piece of paper or something to stick to that has a title of something in your game. For instance ‘Religion’ – then each person can add a single sticky note, the group discusses and then the opportunity for another rounds of adds are done before repeating discussions. The talking part is about understanding what is on the sticky notes but also coming to some sort of understanding as a group how things work. Do this for as many or as few things as you want. To be honest I kind of stole this in part from a fantastic system called Questlandia (and my favorite spin off Noirlandia) as its how they handle world building when there is no DM. Honestly this takes alot of the intense pressure to have everything already figured out and solid before a campaign starts off. Not only because your players will help you but also because you can easily tell which things the players most care about by how many sticky notes and how long the discussion was. Gotta be sneaky.

That’s all find and dandy but I’m running a pre-written campaign – says you that person on the other side of the screen. First kudos for making it this far if that’s true but just because its pre-written doesn’t mean it can’t have a Collective Consciousness. Think about some of the big named campaigns in D&D – Curse of Strahd, Out of the Abyss, and Wildemount. You might not have personally experienced those but I can guarantee you that you know something about them if you are in the D&D space at all. Right we know Strahd is hot daddy vampire, Out of the Abyss is underdark and do not want to fight that thing, and Wildemount has some civilization that decided to fight the gods and lost and now their war is found in pieces of artifacts all over the place. Even with pre-written campaigns you should be having a Session 0 ESPECIALLY because any triggers, tones, etc should already be known to any DM and should clearly be communicated and given a greenlight by players. Take that opportunity to fill in some of the fuzzy stuff – there are items that the designer didn’t have time or word count to fill out the way they wanted to or that got cut from the final project. Like the Hag in Curse of Strahd that lives in the windmill, or the Drow society Machiavellian conflicts, or if the ancient civilization had internal groups against the war. You can leverage your players to expand on what is there and let them feel like this is really their campaign even if it is just a pre-written one.

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.

RIP Vamiris – Letting Go Without an End

We have all had it happen, the terrible. A game falling apart or a campaign stopping before the end. There is no closure on the loose ends and suddenly the character you have been playing is regulated back to just stats on a page with no life. It can be hard to handle and even harder to grieve for it. Yes, grieve. We forget sometimes how invested we become in stories and in the characters we build but its hard to let go when we never got a chance to say good bye. Its one thing if the character dies or chooses to go off into the sunset of retirement. But the lack of an ending can really drive you nuts. I just recently had it happen to me again so its fresh on my mind while I begin this ramble.

Let me tell you about Vamiris. They are a trip and a half. I was joining an existing game after they’d been playing for awhile and were in need of a new player. After talking with the DM and sitting on a few sessions I asked what gaps they saw the group needing to be filled by a new person. I was told a talker, a face – someone to help navigate the high magic political intrigue parts of the campaign that the group had kind of been getting through while causing alot of chaos on the hapless NPCs. Whelp I knew the build for that pretty instantly. High charisma Bard College of Eloquence, especially at the level we were starting I couldn’t roll lower than a 21 for persuasion and 18 for deception. I had a little fun with race and chose a Dhampir, I wanted them to have a secret and plenty of history for the DM to work with however they’d like to. Meeting with the DM and learning about their campaign world we fleshed out where they were from and who they might know, what info they might already know etc. During this, we stumbled into the fact that it was hard to get info to the players sometimes and make sure they were hitting the story points. So was born a spy organization that Vamiris was a part of. At this point I was given full ability to go wild and I mean I did – secret language and symbols, the structure of the organization and some key members. I pretty much told the DM whatever they needed the players to know or get nudged towards to use me as needed. Vamiris became this charismatic nonchalant mover in high society circles that happened to know alot of things from high insight and some helpful ‘detect thoughts’ applications. They knew more than they said, sometimes cause a little drama by letting choice tidbits slip in a blase way as if they assumed everyone knew and wrapped NPCs around their finger when it was useful. At least on the surface. I had just started to show some of the cracks to Vamiris when adulting life and the need to step away for self-care by the DM (1000% supported by our group) the game ended. 

With no end how do you feel like its completed? That is a hard one to answer as it can be a little different for everyone. I am a child of the internet so I always suggest providing yourself some of that through a sort of fanfic of the campaign. What would happen to get your character to the end of the story arc that got caught off? Help tie up some of those loose ends to get a feeling that what was started was finished. Now you can’t always do all of the loose ends in the fanfic unless you go deep into the rabbit hole because some of those would probably have developed over many story arcs. But some is better than none. I’ve also gone into text-based RPs with the players from the group that ended that wanted to finish out some of those story threads to figure out where it would have gone. This is obviously more reminiscent of Gaia Online than a TTRPG as there isn’t a DM calling the shots, and rolls if they happen at all are at the discretion of the player. Often though the parts of a cut-off game that bugs me the most is that the budding interactions and relationships between characters are cut off, or that we didn’t get that grand reveal of a suspicion or character aspect. No one got to find out that Vamiris was technically undead, we didn’t get to deal with the fact that they were turned against their will and forced ‘into the family’ for some creepy Stockholm vibes, before finally running away and not looking back. Well kind of they couldn’t completely get out of their grasp but they could stay very far away under the guise of performing business for the family. Vamiris and another character who is an amputated Drow pretending to be an animated armor didn’t get to bond over hiding who they are to be more palatable to others, being what others need instead of what they want. Everyone thinks that Vamiris is a genderfluid fuck boi and care free partying high society citizen on a rousing trip paid for by daddy. To be fair they did meet them on the arm of a dignitary at a royal banquet going around smooshing with everyone possible, and then they took everyone out to party at a dance hall.

With so much left to explore how do you just stop? I honestly think about Vamiris alot since we stopped playing. I had made them a playlist on Spotify called ‘The Themby Daddy Bard You Didn’t Know You Needed’, I went back many times after session to expand on who they were and their backstory. When I do something like play a game I am all in, there is hardly ever part way for me. Vamiris was fun to explore cracks and all for the time I had. Alot of us, myself included, have a hard time just being told we won’t get to know what happened. They are a living character to me after I’ve been in their shoes for awhile. You learn what they would do, what they would want, and how they would react. So it can kind of feel like the death of a character when a game just stops before the end. Which means that you need to grieve that character. Yes you might use them in another game down the road, but they will never be exactly same as they were for the game they were originally created and played in. There will probably be alternate universe versions of Vamiris for me in the future, but its important to grieve. That means processing what it means to no longer play that character, it means moving through the steps of grief, and it means giving myself the space and grace to not be okay with it and have that be okay. Do I still get sad? Yeah of course. But I would still have joined that group to play for the time I was able to even knowing it would cut off early.

Remembering the character in a way that makes sense to you is important. When I have a campaign close out, especially a long one, I make a little shadow box for the character. Often it will have art of the character, it might have a before/after of what they looked like and I might even add a group piece. I’ll have some items in there that express the character along with a set of dice that remind me of them. It becomes a sort of in memoriam for a story and character I gave alot of time to. For a long time, like 3 years or so, I played in a Firefly game with some amazing people as an orphan mechanic. She went from being 15/16 to being 18 by the end of things and had not only created a found family with the ship’s crew but learned about her actual family too. I have like 2 – 2 1/2 notebooks full of session notes on her all about the adventures they went on and what she was thinking at the time. It seemed right to send her off in a way where she had a future and it was a little unknown, she was still becoming an adult in the scary space that exists in Firefly. But for a character I didn’t live in for very long it is hard for me to feel the same kind of closure or accepted end by doing a shadow box. It makes more sense to me in that case to get a piece of art to remember that version of the character in the snapshot and save it somewhere where it might eventually live with alternate versions. Some people retire the dice they use for the character, we all know how personal picking out a set that goes with a character can be. Others find doing a quick flashback of what is going on with the character to be that ending they couldn’t get, and a way to remember who that character was. However you go about it remembering them in your way will let you close the book on the grieving process and become ready for not just that next game but for the next version of a beloved character.

We don’t always have control but we can process the aftermath. As players, and even as DMs, we don’t always control when a game ends or a campaign fizzles out. The only thing we can do is learn how we best process and handle those situations. To learn from the things that might have caused it, if there were any, and how to best prepare ourselves for the next game. I do post mortems on everything in my life probably sometimes to my detriment, but it helps me learn that even when I don’t have control of a situation I do have control on where I go after its over. For me its always forward into the next game, the next campaign, the next adventure. Don’t let fizzled or disbanded games discourage you from enjoying the world of TTRPGs. When you find that group that goes the distance it is the most satisfying thing ever and you will have an amazing time making memories with that group. You’ll get your own set of ‘remember when’ snap shots and inside jokes that will bring you right back into the moments. You’ll find friends in the players at the table as your characters grow their own relationships. We all love adventuring, exploring, and battling the good and the bad. It is why we have chosen TTRPGs as part of our lives and its those parts of things that we have to remember when it comes the harsher endings.

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.

Lessons from the Table – Info Hoarding Players

So I’ve been around for awhile and have encountered many things in my time as both a player and a DM, and I continue to run into things that often trip up newer DMs. I thought I’d take the opportunity presented to me in a recent session of one my groups so that I can show ways to handle it. One of the things I want to do with this blog is provide the resources for DMs to grow and learn so if you have any situations at your table as a player or a DM please feel free to pop over to my Contact page and ask!

You’re party has split up, okay not the best or smartest move but it turns out pretty well for them. The teams have each found information that is needed to solve the mystery that is afoot. Except one of those teams never shares the information. The players on the team know the information and how it all fits together but the characters know nothing. This is a tough one to handle on the best of sessions but can absolutely kill any mystery story arcs or investigations your players currently have going on. So how do you handle information hording?

Its not too off from ‘Missing Out on Plot’ which I’ve talked about before. However there are some big differences that handle the way you need to navigate the situation at the table. First navigating the problem of players not sharing important information with each other. That’s a potentially big problem not just for the current session but for future story arcs you may want to put your players through. But labeling it as a problem also comes with figuring out the why behind it. If it really just was that the character couldn’t figure out a way to share it or maybe they thought it was about their backstory and wasn’t ready to share that yet. Those are two situations that you’d handle in a very different way from the assumed – “I just didn’t.” or “No one asked or engaged politely with my character.”

Not knowing how to share something in character or assuming it is about your character are easy things to spot and correct course on with some practice. In general when the cause is the connection, wither true or not, to the character’s backstory you can tell because of two main things – the player is suddenly alot more engaged in whatever you are saying or describing AND there is that attempt to have a poker face while conveying the covert confirmation to you the DM. Its kind of hard to explain but after running games for awhile there is this look that players will give you when they are picking up the hint and things you are laying down. When I’m on the other side of the screen and I’m in that situation I tend to nod while furiously scribbingly notes and muttering ‘coolcoolcoolcoolcool’. Of course my characters also tend to have sus backstories so I just assume everything from them is trying to kill me. This is really easy to course correct through a few methods – the skill check and confirmation, the bait and switch description, and the narrator voice are my personal favs.

For the skill check and confirmation its just as it sounds. Call for an appropriate skill check – History, Insight, Perception, etc and feed them answers to redirect them back onto the right path. Now if they fail terribly at a roll you may have to lean into their misunderstanding of things and roll with it. I’ve done that a few times to great affect where what I had planned was completely different but between wild player leaps, pour rolls and letting the players conspiracy talk amongst themselves it turned it a way better storyline. This is of course easier for those DMs that prefer to lean towards the improv styles of running a game. Generally that gets easier to do the more comfortable you are with the system you are playing around in and the world that you are running things in.

If you go with the bait and switch description method you need to keep in mind a few things. But first lets back track a second to what I mean by bait and switch description. Let’s say your players are investigating a wizard’s tower that is now abandoned, you have a wizard in your party. You start describing things they find in the tower not thinking about it and noticed the signs we talked about earlier – the player is suddenly alot more engaged in whatever you are saying or describing AND there is that attempt to have a poker face while conveying the covert confirmation to you the DM. That flag goes up in your head and you’ve decided you want to lean into this being the teacher from the character’s backstory. Where you had been a little vague on some of the details in rooms you can now fill it in – a picture of a young wizard and teacher together, a toy from the tower’s familiar, a room decorated as if by a teen, etc. Where the character wasn’t tied into the investigation suddenly they are. That is Door A, but we can hard left turn as well. Instead you could go with Door B which would mean keeping the same descriptions and let the player/character freak out more and more about it AND~ then make it about an NPC so there is an emotional tie in to either find out what happened or to resolve the situation. You are baiting the character’s backstory, using it as an emotional hook to the current storyline and NPCs and switching the focus back to them.

Now as the DM you are obviously already narrating all of the things as both god and the living embodiment of box text. But what I mean is more those scenes from shows and movies where the character is like “its all going to be okay!” and then a voice cuts into the audio and corrects them with a “it was not all okay”. As the acting world for your players it is okay to cut in with the narrator voice to help them. I am in no way saying railroad (though there is a time and place for railroading) your players into everything all the time with an ever present narrator voice. Instead what I am saying is to recognize that sometimes players miss what characters wouldn’t, or misunderstand what the characters might understand. I don’t know about you but I am not a wizard studying enchantment magic or a cleric with proficiency in medicine. Both those characters would know and could do things I as an unfortunately mundane completely normal human person who is not the main character of my own fictional plot can not. So if the group came across a murder options would be available to their characters they may not think of. Its our jobs as DMs to poke and prod in those case to give them every chance to know and learn what their characters could. At the very least provide them with the opportunity or the chance to even if they don’t know to ask for it. I find even just asking the simple base questions in a situation gets the players thinking enough that from that jumping off point I can help them navigate to how they could get the right info. Things like – “you are all now in the room, is there anything you’d like to do?” “the blood still drips slowly to the ground, would anyone like to examine the body?” “papers and books cover everything in this room with drawings and quickly scrawled notes, what would you like to do?”. These are very leading but most of the time that is all people need, a little jumping off point to get going. Decision paralysis is a big thing in and out of game and with a TTRPG with a seemingly infinite number of options a helpful hand from the DM to give some focus can help players new and old.

If the player just is at a lose for how to share that information in game with the rest of the group that’s pretty easy. I try and provide opportunities for RPing as a group when they come back together after splitting up. Sometimes you still need some of those leading questions we just talked about above. But I’ve found when you get the group in the habit of taking drinks together and talking things over, or having campfire talks to figure out next moves those potential pitfalls of not knowing how to convey it go away. Though I will say I also don’t force my players to RP how they share that information if they aren’t sure how to, I just let them describe what info they give out of character. I do encourage them to RP it out since it leads to situations where they play a game of telephone or leave things out I can take advantage of later. If they are doing a heist and the rogue clocked the manor’s security and gets back to RP out what they saw and forgot that the grounds had patrolling guards AND dogs well then surprise attack pup when they hop that manor wall. After awhile you’ll also get a handle on what information sticks out to your players which will help you better craft information that is important to the story arc. But again that’s a larger discussion for later.

We’ve covered the best case scenarios in the info hoarding situation and some ways you can handle it if that is the case. Its now time for that unpleasant sentiment of “I just didn’t.” or “No one asked or engaged politely with my character.” This is generally coming from someone playing a character either at odds with the group, who is paranoid (character not player), or is a spot light hog. By that last one what I mean is someone who always needs the scene to be about them RP or otherwise. So since no one engaged them, and why would they if they didn’t know the character had important information, they won’t engage with anyone. Frustration nation for sure with that one. This can be one of the harder things to deal with in game. Most of the time this instead needs to be a conversation with the player outside of game about the difference between being true to what their character would do and remembering they are playing a game with a group of people to all have fun together. TTRPGs aren’t a solo embarking effort (unless its that specific subgenre but still) and we need to remember to balance that with the characters that exist in that space. I’ve played dhamper bard’s from the college of eloquence who are part of spy organizations so super secret collector, but still managed to leverage that to help not only my fellow players but the DM. (great source for a DM to get info to the players by the way if you have a player who wants to do that) I’ve also played clerics with crazy high passive insights who just read NPCs like a book from the corner who is brand new to the group and doesn’t have the relationship built with any of them to openly share things yet. What I’m saying is that its the job of both DM and players to work together to figure out the balance between RPing characters and playing the game. Cause that what we are all doing at tables with dice, playing a game together. Its always going to be a see-saw game between the two that is only navigable through communication in and out of game. Talk it out between sessions to help fix the upset to that balance when they pop up.

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.

Creativity in Battle, Be Reasonable

Look no matter if you are brand new to the TTRPG scene or if you are old school, you quickly realize that any combat can become very repetitive no matter what class you play. Some of that is because as players we try for the optimal. We mix in a bit of gamer mentality from other areas of our life – obviously, the thing that does the most damage or the spell with the most damage for its level is the best way to go. I can’t count the number of times I have heard, or in fact made, the joke about all wizards do after a certain level is cast fireball. I also would go cross-eyed trying to track in my combat notes the number of times it says that my Mombarian Nakon attacks with her Acid Battleaxe twice while raging. Yes sometimes the mindlessness of not needing to make decisions in combat is actually very zen and peaceful, it lets me focus on RP and making sure my fellow players feel supported to try some of their crazy abilities or spells.

Then I asked myself why was my assumption always that Nakon would rage and hit two times with her axe? During level ups I had scooped up the Charger and later the Sentinel feats. I did this because after thinking for awhile about my character I realized why I assumed that. The obvious answer would be she is a barbarian, that’s just what they do. Now outside of me unpacking why that assumption is super wrong for now and gliding past it for another blog post rant later – I thought about her motivations for what she does. I call Nakon a Mombarian for a reason. She is the mom of the group keeping the chaotic kids in line. No rogue we can’t start fires and burn down the city because people are dodgy about answering our questions. Maybe we don’t dare a guy to eat the mummy’s heart? (granted that one happened anyway and spoilers it didn’t turn out well) When it comes down to it Nakon is traveling with this pack of high chaos stirrers because she doesn’t think they’ll live long otherwise and while a lot of what they do tends to end with us in some sort of fight, she recognizes that they are good. Even if their methods are questionable their intentions are in the right spot while she slowly conditions them into better ways. Which means yeah I’ll rage but you know what? I am an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian which means the first creature I hit after raging has disadvantage on attacking my friends. So I’m going to pop that rage on and Charge right thru to the biggest threat to whamp it twice. Then that creature is going to be pissed at me, can’t hit anyone else and isn’t going anywhere if it tries to get out of my reach. I’m still the tank but my actions aren’t repetitive because now I know I’m going to make sure Nakon is perceived as the biggest threat by the biggest threat in the room. She makes noise, chucks barrels and crates, shouts insults in draconic, tackles spell casters posted up in the back, and goes at each round of combat knowing its her job to soak up as much damage as possible as she deals it out.

I think that is something that every player should do as an exercise with a character they have had a chance to play for awhile. Really think not about WHAT your character SHOULD do in combat but WHY they would do anything in combat at all. You’ll find your options open up a lot even for those classes that we assume our combat actions are kind of already predetermined for. Alot of the reason I am able to do this is also because I have an amazing DM for that game and its a game I’ve been playing in for going on like 4 years (holy shit that is longer then I thought).

Which lets me have a nice lead in to the next part of this big rant. How to handle creativity in battle as a DM, I know it was a super long lead in for this but that’s why I call the rambles and rants. Zooming out to a macro view for a moment you know I love to define things before we really dig in. Creativity in battle means using a feat or ability to try and turn the tides of things, or shift the balance of power in an encounter. It means using spells in ways within the conflict that they maybe weren’t intended for (within reason, always). This also includes you setting up the shot for your players by making the ENVIRONMENTS OF ENCOUNTERS DYNAMIC. Okay so that’s a lot of definitions in one go but you know the next step – the breakdowns.

Feats and abilities in the game can be seen super-specialized, overused, or useless depending on the player and the subject in question. I understand some of it because having two melee characters with the Sentinal feat locking down the battlefield all the time could be very frustrating. But the reasons those characters do it might simply be holding the front line while the other players do their thing. So the intention is good but maybe needs to be redirected with help from those nifty environment tweaks we will talk about later. An Actor feat might seem like a non-option in combat at first but what about mimicking the commander’s voice to order his men to stand down? It might not work forever but it might confuse them enough to buy you enough time to either GTFO or to set up a really nice surprise attack by another player. That is a feat we often only think of in terms of RP or social encounters, maybe intrigue trying to bluff your way into a place. With some reasonable logic its clear its useful in combat too. I know my monk fans love using stunning strike (I mean come on its the bee’s knees) which can feel a bit like spamming A in street fighter but if they are going after the creature doing a lot of damage or dropping characters it makes sense. They are the only one that can do that outside of something like Hold Person to lock down something temporarily. But what if their environment gave them other monk ways to do that as well?

Creative uses of spells. I know, I know I heard all of that groaning from here and here isn’t technically even here cause internet and things. But I heard it! Yes players who play spell casters will often try and stretch a spell out beyond its capabilities. “Hey DM can I cast Shape Water on that dude?” “Uh… why?” “I want to fill his lungs with water.” “…Okay but he will get a save against it.” “But its water in his lungs! He should insta-die!” “First its a cantrip, no cantrip is going to insta-kill anything. Its why its a cantrip. Second, its a spell trying to affect a person so they get a save, if he fails he’ll be incapacitated a few rounds while he coughs up water but if he saves he fights the spell off.” “That’s not fair!” A scenario that has been making the rounds again as of late, I’ve seen a few TikTok videos on it. But trying to stretch what a cantrip would be able to do or how powerful it is, well that’s a tale as old as time. I have the same argument with Shape Earth all the time in my Cross & Axe game. Even in the above scenario though I think the way the DM handled was way more than fair. He took what the player was trying to do into consideration, took the spell and its level, and gave the player a possible effect it could cause to help the situation. That’s the best way to handle spell creativity when you are just starting to get your feet under you with this whole creative use thing. To that I might add one other piece though. Outside of the above ‘effect attempt too strong for the spell level’ I often see trying to stretch a spell a little outside of the way the spell was worded. I know a lot of people in that case are going to default to the spiel about well then they can make a spell in game that does the thing. Which yes I agree with 100% BUT how do you think they discover the idea of what to research or attempt again to be able to do that. The first time a player asks about trying something outside of the way the spell is written I take into account how far off it is, if its reasonable I have them do some rolls to determine if they can bend the weave enough to pull it off. If it happens great its solved but even if it doesn’t well now they have a brain worm about something they want to dig into and make a thing they can do in a repeatable way which means spell research and creation, BAM! This of course comes with needing to be comfortable enough with whatever system you are playing in to know what does and doesn’t break things, to know what the right roll calls and DC stakes are, and what if any consequences there will be if it doesn’t go off the way it wants. If people want I can do a whole spell research for players blog to give examples and more in depth on but for now we are moving on to what I think is a pivotal piece that DMs can do.

ENVIRONMENTS OF ENCOUNTERS DYNAMIC! Please for the love of all that is good, it doesn’t take a whole lot of extra time or effort to do but it will make your combat so much more enjoyable for everyone involved. I know DMs hate how robotic combat can feel, just as much as players do. So what do I mean? Let’s take an example every DM runs at some point – bandits on the road. Its a classic especially for low level characters traveling. The normal encounter would be lets say 5 bandits ambushing the group either on the road or while they are camping, attacking them to either slaughter or subdue to steal and GTFO. Typically that would play out with just lots of damage, whamping from both sides, and hopefully no character deaths (don’t ask). Pretty standard, pretty boring, and repetitive rounds of combat. But if we add horses, that’s a creature that either side could use to their advantage. Spook a house with a bandit rider to incapacitate them or run them off. Run down a player while on horseback who thinks they are a safe distance away from the action. Next lets switch it up and remember despite most of us playing on 2D maps online at the moment that we do have the Z axis to play with still. Okay we will have 3 of the bandits on horseback charging and corraling the players, and 2 in trees out of reach providing cover fire as either casters or range fighters. I also like adding potential additional waves of enemies if it seems the players are destroying the encounter but to a lesser extent and as a random chance. For this lets say that means backup swinging into the scene via a grapple and rope. All of that makes for a very different experience then just a default bandits on the road. Give your players surprises but also give your players something else they can interact with, deal with, or take advantage of. Go knock off one of the tree shooters and become one yourself. Grab that rope from the guy that just swung in, kick him in the gut and take off across the battlemap. Unseat a bandit from their horse and become a mounted fighter yourself or use it to pull a fellow player on and call a retreat. Now I know I said not a lot of additional prep, and its not if you include the logic of it in your encounters while you are planning them anyways. But even easier things to do is to add things in the environment that players can actually interact with, just be prepared for what that might cause. Hay bails near torches, spikey walls, ledges, barrels or crates near stairs. Small things that you can drop down on the map that when seen and known to be an option for combat sparks tons of creativity from your players. And lets be honest might be a good way to lead them off the murder hobo road with a carrot… or have them burn down an entire village its like 70/30 unless you combo it with other carrots and possibly sticks if you really need to.

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.

Mombarian – Unionizing the Red Light District

So honestly alot has happened since the last time I did a storytime on Nakon. It would be too much of an info dump to try and get ya’ll all caught up BUT I am going to tell a story from my notes that I think you all will enjoy. That being the same internet I yeet all of these posts into I’m assuming at some point you were, or perhaps will suddenly become, infatuated enough with my Mom Friend Barbarian that you’ll know about her earlier stories to try and set up the characters in this group some.

With that assumption out of the way here are the basics – former work game now only 1/3 still work there. Our group is made up of a Tiefling Rogue, Human Ranger, Dwarf Cleric, newly gained Gnome Warlock/Bard, are no longer having a face Elf Fighter and myself the Goliath Barbarian (because I have to live out the fantasy of ever being tall somehow). Will I be explaining how we got the Gnome Warlock/Bard in this post? Probably not. Or maybe just why our faceless Elf Fighter is sans that face thing? Also no. So what will I be telling the tale of this time?

Now last we talked about Nakon they had just dealt with a not so fun house of many undead hands and other horribleness [see ‘Mombarian – Not So Fun House Part 1‘] then got yanked into a side adventure with my great great great great great great grandpa [family drama~ an elf with purple eyes] then back to the creepy AF house to round things out. All that was around Session 12 so August 2019 if we speed forward to past blackmailing a mayor to unionizing sex workers instead of doing the actual plot put before us in Session 18 May 2020. In true fashion of any good adult adventuring party the first thing we did when we hit a big city as find a decent cheapish place to crash then hit the party distract. This is where we forced our DM to come u with a red light district on the fly and I think he did rather well. Multiple establishments of varying cost and attractions, one even added magic to the mix for an extra fee. Our dear Tiefling Rogue Isle even got asked if they needed to make a little extra money because Tieflings weren’t common in city but they definitely attracted clientele.

After being discerning patrons and visiting each establishment first we circled back around to one we thought reasonable for the price that we wouldn’t walk away from with a magical STD [I wouldn’t put it past the DM, you’ll understand when we get to mister no-face Elf Fighter]. Now Isle and I had been curious about how much the workers made especially since she’d been approached about making some extra money doing it. When she talked to the two she’d contracted for the night and found out how little of the gold she’d paid they’d get she tipped them very well to make up for it. Then in the morning when she and Nakon met up again she kept having a brain worm about it till Nakon told her to either start a union over it or let it go. Whelp~ you can see where that leads.

Before we continue I want to make a few things clear – everyone at the table for this game is an adult. We have all done the work to be comfortable drawing lines and veils at the table when needed or fading to black. The partying in the red light district started on a lark as did forcing the DM to come up with the businesses there. But character-wise it made the most sense that Isle and Nakon were the ones to actually participate in one of these establishments. Isle is pretty chaotic and carefree seeming BUT they did recently have a massive trauma around killing the girl they were courting thanks to mind control nonsense by this Goddess we are now all kind of vowed to have revenge on for various also traumatic reasons. Its not a completely healthy response to turn emotion off and just have fun but this is the first time that Isle has even thought of fun since that incident happened so Nakon didn’t want to discourage it, but knew someone needed to keep an eye on Isle. For Nakon she is very confident when it comes to fighting or stepping in to take care of her group when they go a little too chaotic monkey with a flame thrower on things and dials them back rather easily. But she is extremely lacking confidence when it comes to anyone possibly liking her that way and is in fact a bumbling gangly teenager around anyone she likes. Though she is mostly also dense in that area as you’ll see if I ever get to the story about how we started a sex cult in a small town unintentionally by the DM ‘yes anding’ our joking at the table as players. For a night Nakon just didn’t want to feel like she was going to break anything or worry about what someone thought – it was a win/win for the Goliath and the Tiefling.

Now Isle has this bee in her bonnet about starting a union for the sex workers of the city but isn’t sure where to start. Immediately jumping to going to intimidate and strong-arm the owners into better pay without establishing a system for the workers to take control of that. IRL I go down many research rabbit holes for various reasons which often includes boredom or deadline avoidance, one of those had recently been unions I forget why except that probably because my partner at the time was very involved with a teacher union or that maybe my dad had mentioned something going on with the nurse’s union. So I asked the DM if I could roll to see how helpful Nakon would be at this union thing with Isle, turns out very helpful. I pointed out that we first need to make flyers to get out the word of a possible union to the workers because we don’t even know if they want our help or not. We also suspected we’d get push back about this so we decided to use our newly found secret base in the city as a kind of union HQ in case we needed to hide any of the workers. So of course that meant a secret sign as well as a call and response, I don’t remember for what but at some point Nakon talked Isle out of doing a super chaotic thing in exchange for carving her wooden tokens that union members could use to show who they were.

After all was said and done we finally got a packed room in our underground HQ full of workers ready to at least listen about unionizing. They were ready for Isle to take the stage and talk to them, the rest of us were loosely hanging out in the back because it was our HQ so it made sense. She gave an opening spiel to get the riled up and ready to go and then as I’m doodling in my campaign notes I hear ‘And Nakon will take it from here’ as the player for Isle got up to go get another drink from the beers in the fridge. Very deer in the headlights I give a generic ‘together you have power’ quote and then asked if everyone could form 3 lines so we could take attendance and collect grievances so we’d know where to start as a union. At this point it was pretty clear that it would be happening like it was packed in there and everyone seemed eager for the changing. Tons of grievances and tons of signatures.

But there was this one NPC named Pearl that I’m pretty sure has become Nakon’s nemesis. She would not shut up and was the Karen of Karen’s. The DM did too good of a job playing her because both myself and Nakon just wanted to rage and off with her head. I’m pretty sure that when Isle’s player came back they were ready to sneak attack them as well. Literally, all she has done the whole campaign since we’ve met her is complain, tell us we are useless and not doing enough (its been like a week in game since that first union meeting), and causing problems with rumors all over the city. We will probably come back to Pearl because of our group’s burning hate of her. Random side fact she apparently writes terrible dime romance novels that she tried to sell at the meeting as well.

That’s kind of where this part of the story ends, we finally let the DM distract us with actual plot stuff for awhile. Also kind of saved the city from being burned to the ground by the Tapestry and then had to hide out cause they kind of control the city through a puppet king at the moment. I feel like that’s an important thing to go over buuuuuuuut~ you’ll have to wait till next time for it. Anyways its been about a week in game but tons of stuff happened so keep an eye out for the next installment of Mombarian!

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.

Product Review: 52 Fates Zine

As the spoons come back from the disaster that has been the 2020’s so far – We will be doing these Product Analysis posts the first Sat of every month (fingers crossed) so keep an eye out for more reviews!

Our current review is on ’52 Fates Zine’ by Dice Pencil & Paper.

To keep these posts consistent across the board we will be using a few categories to gauge where the product lands at the end of the day.

  • Aesthetic – art, layout, font, etc.
  • Writing – lore, adventure, etc.
  • Design – monsters, encounters, NPCs, etc.
  • Accessibility – ease of picking up and go, accommodations for disabilities, etc.
  • Complete package – do all of the elements fit well together and lead you down the lane to a fun game?

Aesthetic

Now as zine’s go this product is actually pretty clean. The layout is readable, two columns to pack in the info, and clear headings. There isn’t any art on it but that would take up the page space needed by the amount of rules overview they manage to pack in. It seems they are establishing a sort of style guide as well that I hope to see carried through to a full systems book with key bolded words and acronyms that seem to be systems specific.

Writing

Again very impressed for a zine to have clean writing. There were a few places where they flipped between singular and plural within a paragraph that tripped me up. But for the most part clear and easy to follow.

Design

I think it has a lot of possibilities, I love the idea of using cards rather than dice. Personally I think if I ran it I’d use multiple decks, a card shuffler and maybe even up the hands to 5 or 6 so I could throw the players at more things before one of them drops. Now being as a zine this is a sneak preview of a bigger systems book. So I’m not expecting everything that is in the full system to be in here. We get a look at the magic system, combat, and 2 of the 3 classes. That’s actually a lot for a zine. You could definitely run a whole campaign with just the info in the zine. There would be more work involved than if you bought into the whole system, as that seems to maybe include monster stats as well. But it’s doable and probably the same amount of work if not a little less than the typical setup you’d have to do for a TTRPG session you were running. I think the design I see so far is smart, I’d really like to get my hands on the full system and try it out for a bit. Maybe dive into expanded on some aspects to see how easy homebrewing in it is. Since as we know it that’s where most of the fun for customizing a game to your table ends up.

Accessibility

Well for access at least it’s accessible – it’s available on itch.io for ‘pay what you want’. However, using it with a reader didn’t go well so it’s not an ideal situation for anyone that might need that. But a system without dice is actually a big accessibility win not just because it is a lower bar of entry. No dice means those with mobility issues and sight issues could at the table be in a better position. There are cards with large fonts out there that would be perfect, and if I’m remembering correctly a company called VSone (and I’m sure others) that produce braille cards that allow for both sighted and touch play.

Complete Package

For someone wanting a low buy in to a different type of TTRPG to try at their table, I say go for it. But be ready to put in the extra work needed for prep and be prepared for the repeated questions you’ll receive at the table for the first 2-3 sessions. This would make a great palate cleanser one-shot system in between big campaigns or be perfect to pull out for a party where you don’t know if people will come with dice. The zine provides you with the tools you need to at least get started should you later decide to want to try and dive in with the full system book.

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.

Whimsy at your TTRPG table

It might seem pretty natural for whimsy and TTRPGs to go hand in hand. Alot of us use our time in these games to escape the real world and explore a fantastical setting with a group of like minded adventurers. However not every setting, system or campaign is suited to the whimsical. At least not what we typically think of as whimsical, which I honestly find to be a shame. When we talk about the dark gritty realistic campaigns, which I’m here for I love the tough situation it can put the players in, I think we automatically think of whimsy as its kryptonite. In actuality, we could use those touches of whimsy as a touch point to clue in players. Now before I ramble on too much about dark gritty games (I’ll do plenty of that in a second) let’s first talk about what I mean when I say whimsy.

The like literal definition as dictated by the Mirriam-Webster goddess is

whim·sy – noun

  1. playfully quaint or fanciful behavior or humor.”the film is an awkward blend of whimsy and moralizing”
    • a whim – plural noun: whimsies; plural noun: whimseys
    • a thing that is fanciful or odd.”the stone carvings and whimsies”

Yes technically that is pretty clear on what it means in most applications. For books, movies, music, art I’d say take that definition at face value and run with it. But the medium of TTRPGs is a very different space to work in. Its equal parts a story like a book, movie or musical piece might be but its also kind of like a group hallucination. I use that phrase on purpose – you, a group of assumingly sapient humans, have chosen along with several others to sit around a table with dice and pen in hand to imagine a story together that largely takes place in your collective consciousness. So its not just about how you picture something or your assumptions of how this made up world works. It is in fact about finding a common imagination of these things. When it comes to TTRPGs that can mean a lot of things from NPCs, magic systems, and even a whole country’s inner workings. Which brings us back to the definition of whimsy – how is it different for TTRPGs? This collective cohesive hallucination becomes a melting pot of not just character backgrounds but player backgrounds and how their real life colors how they code things in game. We code things based on experiences and what we were taught the easiest examples of this are the gestures we use when talking. In the US the okay symbol means just that in other countries its like giving someone the middle finger. Which means what the group codes as whimsical will largely depend on that melting pot of history and background. As a DM its our job to scoop up that gooey melted goodness and know how to paint in the whimsical clues and details.

Before we go running around with a big whimsy paint brush to go ham with we need to talk about some guidelines of how to use it. In other words how to not misuse or overuse it at least not without intention. Any rules or guidelines I lay out in these blog posts yeeted into the ether are just that, there are going to be instances where breaking them benefits your game. But until you are comfortable using whimsy correctly in your games maybe listen to me. I’m not your boss and this is the internet and we will probably never meet so I mean you do you boo. Back on track now – where should we have whimsy in our games? I’m personally a big fan of small but impactful touches using our IRL coding to flip things on its head and suck my players a little deeper into the world. Its a great tool to help speed along that suspension of disbelief we all look for in game as kind of an A+ to when our players are having a good time in the world we’ve built for them. Some examples of this are as small as transportation – instead of a horse and cart (snore boring~) maybe griffons or teleportation circles that act like bus stops or an automaton carriage. Take a thing that is kind of background to the game and is often handwaved to use that whimsy brush on. Pop it back to life, add flavor to your game, and pull in your players.

In our standard fantasy game, these small touches do their intended purpose. Whimsy to act as a flavor deepener for our game dish. However, if we flip back to those darker gritter games I mentioned earlier we find that whimsy can have another use. To flag something as not quite right. For our typical fantasy games we’d use the uncanny valley or the touches of macabre to hint that something isn’t quite right or to put the players on edge. That wouldn’t work in darker games because that shit is everywhere, its the norm. So we use its opposite, whimsy, to flag when our players should start getting antsy. The most perfect example in the world for this is the Grimm’s Hansel & Gretel. All of their stories are dark, creepy and don’t turn out well for anyone involved. Plopping down a big old house made of sweets, the touch of whimsy, immediately screams at us that something is wrong. Maybe your players are deep in a dungeon having drag out knock down near death experiences. They are dodging traps, taking out cave critters and looting treasures. But suddenly way down in the depths of this dungeon they start to see little touches of soft glowing plants, then mushrooms that form into chairs for them when they approach, and then a long table of desserts. THAT’S SO MUCH CREEPIER THAN WHAT THEY WERE EXPECTING! It throws them off the expected rhythm of the game, gives them a loop-de-loop and gives you an opportunity to surprise them in the campaign.

Up till now we’ve talked about where you can use whimsy, even in a game type you might not expect for it to fit in. So we’ve come to that time where I use the big bad NO hammer to tell you some don’ts when trying to implement this in your games. I honestly always just picture the wallace and gromit train track gif but with like a hammer and nails instead for this part of things and don’t even feel bad about it. ANYWHO~ some things I’ve learned don’t go so well when using whimsy at the table. 1) There is a difference between a really nice dish with just enough seasoning and a dish that is drowned out by that same seasoning. Its equally as true with anything you do in game. As DMs a lot of our jobs is building layers so that the world seems alive even when the players aren’t actively in an area. One of those layers we can use is whimsy – but for the love of god do not make it the only note in your games. When we were kids we all read those scholastic’s book fair books that were like rush jobs and were so single note so as to be best suited to over marketing to a younger demographic that everyone who read them believes them still to this day to be a fever dream. Don’t become that at the table. 2) Your whimsy might not be everyone’s whimsy. I mentioned this earlier but what we have consumed, our upbringings and what we were taught all make slightly different versions of what we build up as whimsical in our minds. Personally, I’ve consumed a truly amazing amount of things both from my own generation and those of my parents. I was lucky in that my dad was as big of a book nerd as I was. He owned Anne Rice books, the Wheel of Time series, and even did things like read the Wrinkle in Time series to us. But I have friends who grew up with mostly traditional folk lore because they were mainly raised by immigrant grandparents. So while there may be a lot of similarity in the way we both code whimsy, we greatly differ on a few touch points. What I might code as spooky or more horror genre they might ready see as whimsy because of that cultural understanding I don’t have. 3) Do not assume your players will pick up on every touch of whimsy. We’ve all been there as a DM where we were like “oh hohoho my players will love this and get a kick out of this I can’t wait for them to latch onto this” and instead they go become besties with that goblin in the corner of the bar we named Bob because they put us on the spot for a name. That’s fine let them flow and go where they may. But keep adding those whimsy hints into the game until they latch onto one, then reinforce that as the thing to do. Maybe that is thru reward but that can also be from reinforcing the idea that it means something is wrong or bad. You know almost kill them in a witch’s house made of candy, a little oven time will do them good. MMMMMM~ extra crispy players.

I know I said I was going to talk mainly about whimsy in game but I want to take a not so tiny space at the end of this to talk about whimsy in systems. Now don’t get me wrong I love some heavily whimsical systems – kids on brooms, lasers and feelings, pugmire, amazing tales and more. Its important when you are trying to figure out where and how to fit whimsy, if you should at all, into a system to know one thing very clearly – YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE. That will influence if your whimsy is mechanical, strictly aesthetic or both. Which will in turn cascade into how your game feels when picked up and played at a table. To a lesser extent, this is true for anyone writing an adventure or 3rd party publication for it. But the base system is going to dictate a lot of that from the get-go and how deeply into that whimsy pool you can dive without breaking things. For instance, I personally wouldn’t put whimsy heavy mechanical systems into 5e in say a magical school-type setting who has to overlay things into an already established system. Trying to force that without breaking the existing mechanics and systems in place didn’t really feel like it worked. It instead felt like they were trying to play off a different game as a 5e game. That feels like a more light-touch aesthetical whimsy place with system mechanics that maybe instead back up things like experimentation with magic, an NPC mentorship of player characters, and maybe some fantastically whimsical new creatures for them to befriend and interact with which would have fit in better with their existing items. Whimsy heavy mechanics though in a game specifically built to be and only be about kids at a magic school make sense. It lends to the feel of that permeating every aspect and makes the game exactly what its target audience wants. If you pick up Kids on Brooms you want to live out your Tamora Pierce school of magic, Harry Potter chosen one, or Magicians dreams (for the darker among us cause those folks never really had a happy time did they).

Whelp a doodles ya’ll a heck of a way to bang in the new year on this blog – With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.

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