Comprehending Comprehend Language

In (almost?) every edition of D&D is some version of a spell that will easily translate any non-magical writing or even speech. It's usually trivially easy for a wizard, and in some editions even for high level thieves. It's a bypass that lets those who memorized that utility spell avoid having to run back to town to consult a sage, if there even is one available. 

On one hand, as a DM, it I can see why this can be annoying, especially if the spell has a long duration. On the other hand, it is a choice the player took to have their character take that spell. It's a slot that could have been a magic missile or sleep. It's a choice the DM should reward, or at least not punish the player for making it. 

That's not to say that the spell is going to hand everything to the PC's on a silver platter. An important consideration for the DM to keep in mind that the spell translates the words literally, and that not all languages are constructed the same way. For anyone who's studied a language other than their native one, this probably does not come as a shock. Most people I know from the US took a romance language in school, French or Spanish mostly. Either that or German. Because English shares a lot with these languages there's a familiarity to them, and a lot of other languages follow different rules. 

For example, I'm learning Mandarin. You know how in English (and the romance languages) there are different tenses? Past tense, present tense, future tense, etc... Mandarin doesn't. There's context clues, but a literal translation could potentially be any. 

Also there's nothing that says that the words have to be in an order we're used to. Maybe they write like Yoda? Or the subject might not come first in the sentence. 

    We're going to the restaurant that's next to his school with your cousin. 

    Next to his school the restaurant your cousin is going with us. 

To go further with the idea, what if there's no word in the language for restaurant or school?

    Next to his reading place the cooking shop your cousin is going with us

That doesn't take into account proper nouns. 

    We're going to the restaurant that's next to Wang's school with your cousin Zhang. 

    Next to king's reading place the cooking shop your cousin open bow is going with the people. 

Clearly that would be a little more comprehensible with some punctuation, but maybe the language doesn't use any? 

Another trick is to have a word have more than one meaning, or to be used as a slang term. 

What does it mean if the person is described as square? Bad? A herbert? A literal translation isn't going to help much there.

Do I even need to go into memes? 

One last thought. Don't make it rhyme unless it's in a language the PCs speak. I always hated in movies and TV when that happens. 

All of this does require some prep work from the DM, a little more than what would be required if the PCs were using a sage who was familiar with the language and help navigate it for them, but used properly, it can be a fun way to make an ancient civilization (or current but not native civilization) more flavorful.  

Face Your Fears! Painting Minis Edition

Two years ago life was kind of shit for me, which interestingly, made it a great time to examine all sorts of things about my life. One of those things I looked at was my assortment of large and impressive minis that I hadn't dared to start because I wasn't good enough to do them justice.

I knew I'd never think I was good enough. So I challenged myself to paint them anyway, and I settled on a challenge to paint 3 dragons in my collection, Ebonwrath, Kaladrax, and Nathavarr from the Dragon's Don't Share 2 set, and I posted about it here.

Well, things took longer than expected, as always, but I did it. Ebonwrath is finished. Kaladrax is finished (though I still need to paint Hyrekia). And now the DDS set is just about finished.



Are they perfect? No, of course not. And there are things I wish I'd done better. Dealing with mold lines for one thing! But I learned a lot doing it. For one thing, painting can be a marathon rather than a sprint, especially when painting bone after bone of Kaladrax's tail, or scale by scale with Nathavarr. I learned that scenic bases can be a lot of work, and a lot of cleanup (see Ebonwrath's swamp base) but the end result can be amazing.

Such a huge mini!

The number one lesson I learned? Not to be afraid of big impressive minis, cause they're going to look big and impressive when they're done anyway!! And if I somehow screw them up, it isn't the end of the world. It isn't even wasted effort since it's guaranteed that I'll have learned something in the process, even if all I learned was "don't do that again."



Now that I'm wrapping up my 3 Dragon Challenge, what's my next challenge? 2 Big Ass Spiders! Specifically Games Workshop's Shelob and Reaper's Cadirith.

The End of the Campaign...

My Friday night 5e Weird New World game is gong to be wrapping up on October 2. About half of my group will be leaving the area, and I think the general consensus is that we're going to switch to d6 Star Wars for a while. But before we do, this gives me an opportunity to really end a campaign, to bring it to a wrapping up point rather than just let it die like most do. Hell, the fact that this campaign has gone on for 20 sessions already is pretty amazing to me! That there are only 7 or 8 more sessions...

It might be a little early yet, but I'm trying to come up with ideas on how to end the campaign. I've been building up to a major confrontation against a chaos lord, but depending on what decisions the party makes, the last sessions may skew off.

So I guess I'm looking for some advice... how do you end a campaign, and make it memorable?

Playing With Adults

It happens that when you put a group of people together there can be friction. My Wednesday night D&D Encounters game had been having that issue for a while now. Of my 6 regular players, 3 were great, and 3 consistently rubbed each other the wrong way. I hoped that they would put aside their differences and just enjoy the game. Instead what happened was they brought their issues to the table, and it was disruptive and unpleasant in the extreme... and I sat back to let it play out. With the exception of the 17 year old, everyone in the room was an adult (legally anyway), and I wanted them to act like it. Unfortunately the behaviors escalated, and feelings were hurt. Everyone felt ignored, marginalized, and treated with disrespect.

I think my initial approach was the correct one. They are adults, and should be treated as such, not schooled like disobedient middleschoolers. I also think I could have been a more proactive force for cooperation.

It wasn't quite this bad....

Things got worse and I found myself wondering why I was bothering to run a game for people who didn't like being around each other.

I had several offline discussions with individual players, and it seemed like everyone was on the same chapter, if not the same page… but getting everyone onto the same page? It reached the point where one of the players was ready to quit the group, and I was near ready to stop running. I just didn't want to deal with it. But I also realized that it was my table, and so in some ways my responsibility, and I wasn't quite ready to throw in the towel. Would the departure of one player tip the scales and make the game better? Maybe. Did I want to lose any of my players? No.

The biggest problem, from my point of view, was that there wasn't nearly enough communication. They weren't a party, they were 6 individual players who occasionally managed to go in the same direction. They didn't respect each other, or their time at the table.

The announced departure of one player spurred the rest into action. It really was the catalyst that changed the dynamic of the room for the better, much to my surprise. I arrived last week to game to find the players had talked and decided that they'd all give it another go. We spent the first 30 minutes of our 2 hours talking it out, literally going around the table and airing our issues, sharing our thoughts, and apologizing to each other. Even me. Like I said earlier, it's my table, and I feel a level of responsibility for what happens at it.

Beyond talking it out, the players decided to nominate a party caller. This is the first time I've played in a game where a party caller has been used, and I’m actually thrilled to see how that will work out going forward. They also decided that they would make all decisions out of character first, and then role play it out afterword. Both of these choices were very effective last week, and definitely helped keep the players together as a party.

In the end, (or at least so far) my players decided to act like adults, and tonight they'll find they each have a new shiny point of inspiration to start the session off with.

Teaching D&D

I've recently had the opportunity to introduce someone to D&D that knew next to nothing about it. One of the first things I did was to toss most of the rules. She said she wanted to play a wizard just out of school. So I gave her a piece of paper with the 6 basic stats, HP, AC, her weapons, 3 spells, and equipment.

Without a plan, I dropped her down in a city and told her there was a tavern keeper that was having trouble with a thing in the basement. Investigating, it turned out to be some sort of slime creature that she blasted with her firebolt spell from the stairs, rather than going down to face it up close.

Then she heard about a haunted house that needed cleaning out before the new owners could move in. Turns out it was owned by an evil old guy who didn't want to die cause he didn't want to go to hell, so he’d summoned a demon to gain immortality. The demon wanted to be released, and to take the damned soul with him. Feeling a surprising amount of empathy for the damned man (who was a ghoul) she decides to sign a contract with the demon, freeing the ghoul’s soul to go to purgatory. In exchange, her soul will be damned until/unless she retrieves 99 souls that escaped from hell. Everyone walks away happy, and she collects her reward for getting rid of the undead monster haunting the house.

Session 2
The next day the demon showed up to her room at the inn and told her where one of the damned souls was. A nearby bathhouse had suffered a series of mysterious murders. The owner wanted to keep it all quiet, but 3 murders in 3 days…. Investigating the bathhouse, she came across a demon hunter (Paladin) who I had thought might become a companion in her quest. The demon hunter was there for the same reason she was, but she was having none of it. So she fights the Damned Soul on her own in a locked private room.

Thankfully the walls weren't very thick, and as she gets taken down the demon hunter bursts through the door, and takes out the “demon”. The natural form of the damned souls is that of a large grub with a mewling human face. Hardly demonic, and the demon hunter is willing to let her take it for "disposal."

Session 3
After recovering from her fight in the bathhouse, the demon shows up to collect the soul and to take her to the city of doors, since not all the damned souls will come to her little po-dunk world! A little bit of Sigil, mixed heavily with the market dimension of the M.Y.T.H. series. Her demon doesn't have a lead in the next damned soul, so she goes shopping and finds a “soul trap” for sale, but for more than she has in cash. She finds an alchemist who’s looking for basilisk horn, and willing to pay good coin for it. He opens a door to another dimension, and she goes hunting…

Session 4
Hunting the Basilisk in it’s lair isn't too hard when you set a trap for it at the entrance to it’s lair! Setting herself up in a good sniper position, she blinds the beast with a spell, and then alternatively freezes and burns it to death. Sawing off the horn, she returns to the door, hands over the horn, collects her gold, and buys her trap.

Each of these sessions has lasted about an hour, and the rules have been kept to a bare minimum, retaining only the most core elements of D&D: d20 to hit, roll for damage, mostly limited spells (5th edition sort of way with cantrips), and have bumped her level just about every session. Progress will slow at this point to a level after 2 sessions, then after 3, then 4. She keeps wanting to play more, so I must be doing something right... Plus she’s interested in trying out a game at the local game day!

General DMing Questions from Venger

Over at Venger's Old School Gaming Blog, Venger posed some questions about DMing. These are my answers.

On average, how satisfied do you feel about your GMing? Does that feeling or your perception change when you're at the table running (in the moment), hours after, days after, months or years after?
I'm usually satisfied, if not pleased, with my DMing. I put a lot of effort into my time in the big chair, and as long as I feel like I'm doing that, I'm happy.

Have you ever had a (you assumed) moderately satisfied player from the past come up to you months or years later and tell you how much he appreciated your GMing or that you were a great GM compared to what he encountered later? Ever had a player tell you how much you sucked?
I have been complemented by past players, and it's a great feeling! I've yet to have someone come and tell me I sucked.

Does grumbling, complaining, whining, etc. bother you when it comes to either house rules or a particular ruling vs. book rules (RAW)?
Not really. I tend to be fairly relaxed when it comes to the rules, and I usually try to work with my players to come to a mutually satisfactory decision. On those rare occasions I've had to rule by DM fiat it's usually because of something the PC's don't know.

Do you ever feel that you don't receive enough credit, recognition, accolades, understanding, or appreciation for your GMing?
After winning the IRON GM competition, I can't really say that I do.

As a GM, do you feel the need to "entertain" players beyond your usual GM duties?
I'm not entirely sure what Venger meant by this. In general I feel like the duties of being a DM are enough that I can leave non-DMing player entertainment to the players!

Do you think it's best to keep yourself separate or apart from the group to some degree, similar to an employer around his employees? Or are you just "one of the guys" and completely informal and chummy with the players when you're not actually GMing? What about when you are GMing?
Depends on the group, and how comfortable I am with them. My usual take is to be a little bit reserved from the players at the table. Away from the table, it's all good.

How often do you get one or more players in your group asking if he (or she) can GM soon? How do you feel about that? Do you generally take it as a compliment because obviously you make it look easy and fun? Or do you take it as an insult for encroaching upon your turf?
Again, this depends on the group. Some groups it never happens, and others it's semi-regular. I appreciate when it happens, so that I get a chance to see things from the other side of the screen.

How often (if ever) do you wonder how much players are enjoying the game, each session, the campaign, and your GMing? Do you regularly ask for feedback? If you do, are changes ever implemented?
I ask when I'm unsure of how they thought the session went. Sometimes it's easier to tell than others. A year+ ago I was asking more regularly than I am now.

What are the three most important qualities for a GM to have?
A sense of fairness, patience, and the ability to react to off the wall ideas.

Do you have a particular word, phrase, question, or statement that you frequently employ during the adventures you run? What is it?
"Is that what you're actually going to do?"

How long, generally, before you start to feel GM burnout?
Usually it's around 9 months to a year if I'm running things solidly. At this point I thought I'd be there already, but I think the holiday break helped, as does my Sunday night C&C game where I'm a player.

Weather & Time in D&D

In my over 2 decades of playing D&D neither time nor weather played much of a role, except when it was vitally important to the adventure. From Rules Cyclopedia to 2nd, 3.0 & 3.5 to 4e, weather was only mentioned rarely. Didn't matter much whether it was in the deserts of Al-Qadim, the streets of Sigil, Thunder Rift, or the frozen north. If there wasn't a hurricane blowing, a sandstorm incoming, or a blizzard dumping a foot of snow an hour, the weather was always just... baseline normal for the setting. It was as climate controlled as most of the places we played.

The same thing went for time. Unless there was a literal clock ticking in game, outside of combat it was always very loosely handled, and mostly by DM fiat.

And yes, I've read the DMG where Gary says "YOU CANNOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT."

And I ignored it. Happily. With no small amount of success as a DM. And so did the DMs I played under. It just wasn't a big deal.

Except recently my thinking has changed a bit. I'm playing in 2 games right now, a Castles and Crusades game The Ancient Sagas of Everlance, and a B/X Expedition to the Keep on the Borderlands, and both Mario and Peter (the DMs) keep close track of both time and weather.

A calendar from the Realms

The B/X game is a hex crawl, and it's very much a resource management experience. How much can we explore and still make it back to the keep? Or if we're not going back to the keep, where do we keep our crap, and how many days of rations do we still have unspoiled? If it takes 3 hours to get to the pumpkin-head's cave, and 3 hours back, how long do we have till sunset? Is it worth going out of the keep in the rain if it's going to slow us down, limit our ability to really search the hexes?

In the Ancient Saga of Everlance (no, I don't actually know why it's called that) I've been the game's chronicler, keeping an in-character diary. Knowing what happened what day has made a difference. Things happen in a specific order. And yes, Mario handles travel time a little more loosely, but it isn't a hex crawl, and he keeps very close track of days and of the weather, and that has made a difference in how I'm experiencing the game. Hell, knowing my character had the inn's special for the day (curry owlbear chop) further lends a level of immersion to the game that I didn't expect. I would usually just say something about the stew over the fire and move on. Every inn our characters visit (and we've hit a bunch on the road) is at least a little different.

So maybe Gary was on to something? Since I'm going to be starting a DCC campaign in a couple of weeks (my first ongoing gig as a DM in quite a while) I'm going to make a greater effort to keep track of time and weather in my game.

What's been your experience with time and weather in your RPGs? Do you run it lose, or do you keep a really close eye on things? 

Running a Con Game (part 1)

Saturday I had the pleasure of running a game at the winter Charm City Gameday. I've never run a game at a convention before, so I was a little nervous going into it. Not only was I going to be running with people I didn't know, I was doing it in an environment that I wasn't the most familiar with, surrounded by lots of gamers playing other games (mostly Magic the Gathering at a 64 person tournament going on in the same room).

I decided to run the Tomb of Rakoss the Undying, which I've previously reviewed. If you read the review, you'll note that I didn't think very highly of it, calling it an amateurish intro adventure for higher level characters. One of the guys behind the adventure commented, and suggested that my review was perhaps a bit unfair. Over the last 2+ months since I wrote the review, I decided that maybe he was right. Reviewing something that I had only read, and not used at the table was maybe unfair. So when the call for DMs for the Charm City Gameday went out, I signed up to run ToRtU.

To prep for the game I reread the adventure a couple of times in the week leading up to the event, dug out my copy of Labyrinth Lord, the adventure, a DMs screen, minis for all the monsters and characters, my battle mat, dice and pencils. I then used the Labyrinth Lord Character Generator to make 4 fighters, 3 clerics, thieves, and wizards, and an elf, dwarf, and halfling (all 5th or 6th level). I also made sure I had my markers, paper towels, and some water bottles. Everything but the battle mat and the paper towels fit nicely into a plastic bin.

Once I got to Games and Stuff, I was directed to my table, and started getting set up. 5 out of 6 players showed up, so while waiting to see if player 6 would show, I handed out the pregens, and went over the basics, both of Labyrinth Lord and the day's adventure. I also told them the one major house rule I'd be using - The Order of the d30.

Going around the table starting on my left, the 5 players chose Fighter, Thief, Cleric, Cleric, Elf. The guy playing the Fighter for whatever reason just didn't have his head in the game. I'm kind of glad he was right next to me, since I could nudge him along (i.e. "ok, roll this, now this." "Did you want to attack this guy, or that guy?"). He was the only one who didn't have his own dice, and didn't seem to know D&D at all.

Running the game, I did my best to keep everything moving. There aren't a lot of personalities in the adventure for the PCs to interact with, so I tried my best to make the one big one memorable. When they suggested crazy shit, I went with it. All in all I think it went well. The players seemed to have fun, I feel like I did a good job, and we managed to fill the time almost exactly.

Tomorrow I'm going to write specifically about the adventure, so stay tuned!

Brave

This post contains spoilers

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At the heart of Brave is the conflict between a wild daughter and her proper mother. When Merida (the daughter) decides that the life her mother has laid out for her isn’t the fate she wants for herself, she takes matters into her own hands. Fleeing from her fate, she ends up visiting the local witch, where she receives a cake that will change her mother’s mind about the upcoming betrothal.

The cake transforms much more than her mother’s mind, it turns her into a bear!

What follows is a race to undo the spell before it becomes permanent. Various complications inevitably ensue, including Merida’s brothers (triplets) also eating the enchanted cake, the witch going on a trip, and her father (who hunts bears with a Ahab-like devotion) thinking that a bear ate his wife, plus the 3 clans that arrived to fight for Merida’s hand.

Combined with all of the story elements are the stunning visuals of a fantastic 10th century Scotland, complete with a demonic bear, standing stones, and will o’ wisps. Wonderful and evocative character design and voice acting bring all of the film’s personalities to life.

Brave was almost everything that you can expect from a Pixar film; a solid story, beautiful animation, good acting all wrapped up in under 2 hours. It isn’t one of Pixar’s best, but even Pixar’s worst is still heads and shoulders above most everyone elses best.

For Your Game:
Merida wanted a spell from the witch. The witch gave her what she asked for, but not like she expected. As a DM you need to do the same thing with your players! Give them what they want... and then some!

If you show your players a cool location, come back to it, and have stuff happen there!

It’s ok to make NPC’s real characters! Play with stereotypes. Use them, twist them, subvert them, and sometimes play it straight. Merida’s dad Fergus was played pretty straight, but he still was a blast to watch.

Consequences happen. Sometimes that means a cart full of bear wood carvings show up at the castle gate.

Hit Points Followup

Following up on this post about Starting Hit Points, I wanted to share the results of the poll.

Max - 20 (50%)

Whatever you roll - 10 (25%)

Other - 5 (12%)

Reroll if 1 - 3 (7%)

Reroll if under 1/2 max - 2 (5%)

Total Votes: 40

I reordered the results to put them in descending order.

This was not the order I was expecting. Based on my audience (you) being mostly members of the OSR, I really thought that Whatever you roll was going to be the top choice. Yet a solid half of you picked max hit points!

I also had some good comments.

Roger the GS wrote:
Highest of 3 rolls. You'd be surprised how many characters still end up with weak HP under that rule.

Basically 2 re-rolls with the player being able to chose at will.

Sporkchop:
The campaign I'm running started as a first-timer learning campaign, so I gave my players max hp through level 3 and then made them start rolling. Seemed to work pretty well. They're now level 12, so any early benefit has long since been blended in.

For first time player, I like this idea. Basically makes things a little easier for newbies.

blake:
I depends somewhat on the nature of the campaign I am in (epic fantasy migth start with full or schlubs robbing tombs just take yer damn roll).

Right now we play roll your die, accept it or roll again, but the second roll is always binding. When you level, roll a single new die & accept it or...

The choice of starting HP really can have an impact on the style of the campaign.

Keith Davies:
No rolling hit points, they are calculated based on level, attack bonus (fighters are tougher than wizards, deal with it), and Constitution.

Sounds like 4e, which, when I play 4e, is how I play it.

Starting Hit Points

A topic that's been beaten to death, with numerous opinions, styles, and house rules.

Yet, I really have to question how much it matters? Whether the wizard has 1 hp or 4 hp, a goblin with a bow or short sword will likely kill him with a single blow. I tend to be inclined toward making characters roll, but allowing either a reroll (take what you get, even if it's lower) or taking half the maximum.

While it doesn't seem to make much difference at 1st level, it can make a big difference at second level. A wizard getting a pair of 4s vs one that got a 2 and a 3 can actually survive a hit from that same goblin, even if it rolls high!

Of course using the rule that hit points are rerolled every level (without a base) then that isn't a consideration...

So I'm curious what my readers do. I have a poll up on the right.

Slavery and D&D

I never considered using slaves in my D&D games until I read the Al-Qadim setting and found them listed in the equipment section. I remember being shocked at the thought, my 12 year old brain thinking it was crazy for TSR to do that. Seriously pushing the envelope!

Ok, yes, I was a fairly sheltered 12 year old.

I remember that I quickly shifted our game to Al-Qadim and introduced slavery, and for about a week it was edgy and interesting.

After that... it just dropped away. I don't think I ever removed slavery from my game, it just stopped coming up.

During High School and College I was running a lot of Forgotten Realms, and since that setting doesn't have slaves as the default, the only time it came up was when fighting off a drow or Zhentarim slave raid on a village or town.Or freeing slaves from a previous raid. While they weren't generally heroes, they weren't interested in keeping slaves. My 3.x games were pretty much the same, with slightly more heroic tendencies... slightly. On the other hand they were just as likely to use the "rescued" slaves as meatshields/hostages if they weren't given what they felt they were owed for rescuing them.


My 4e game is set in the default "points of light" Nentir Vale, and the PC's are clearly Heroes, so the only slaves they'll likely encounter will be the kind they go and rescue. Actually, they've already done that...and even gave back a reward once.

As for my (rarely run and desperately in need of fleshing out) old school game? Slavery is probably in there somewhere, but I haven't decided how prominent a feature I want it to be.It wouldn't bother me to have it as a significant part of the campaign, but it also wouldn't bother me if it didn't come up.

So I'm curious how common slavery is in your games, and how involved PC's are in it. There are 2 polls off to the right, let me know!

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I think it's stupid that I feel like I have to say this... but here goes: Slavery in the real world is and was a terrible practice, both throughout history and today. I do not support slavery in any way. This is a blog about a fantasy role playing game that combines aspects of history and fantasy to create a realm of imagination. If you can't handle that, go play Candyland.

Hanging Out

In the early days of Dungeons and Dragons, people would take their characters from table to table, playing with different groups, different DMs, and experiencing a wide variety of games. Sometime later, as the fad of D+D faded, that tended to happen less and less. Even when I was playing in High School, we all had different characters for when different people ran games, even if it was for the same system (usually AD+D2e). That trend continued through my running 3rd edition, and honestly it was one I reinforced, as I wasn’t ever really thrilled with the idea of bringing characters from other worlds into MY world.

I admit, I was a petty and jealous God of the Gaming Table hiding behind a DM's screen.

Now, much less so. I have played in only in two G+ campaigns and I have different characters for each (I’m not positive that one of them is flailsnails). However I have also run a game with characters from different worlds, and even different systems (including a 3.5 character!!) trashing things in my megadungeon.

This has proved to me several things:

• G+ games are awesome as both player and DM
• G+ games are pretty easy**
• My megadungeon needs some work. It’s one thing when I’m looking at the map myself, it’s another when I’m trying to describe it.
• I need to play more (I knew this already)

How do I plan on addressing this?

• Sign up for more G+ games!
• Run more G+ games!
• Revise my megadungeon based on play experience (and player feedback)!

I've noticed a few other things about hangout games:

• Tablets are great for prep, crap for actually running games. For now, stick with a real book, and real book marks.
• Don't be afraid to try new things. If it works, great. If it doesn't, change it. No one will be mad at you, and if they are, just don't play with them again!
• Don't let one person run the party. If you're a player, step up. Offer ideas, suggestions, etc. If you're the DM ask the other players what they want to do. 
• Figure out at the start what the marching order is, and who's going to keep track of the treasure. Note: it's not the DM's job!
• If the DM uses group imitative, figure out who's doing the rolling.
• If the DM uses individual initiative, put your rolls in the chat screen. Trust me, it's easier!
• At the end, thank your DM and your fellow players. It's just nice.

If any of you out there that haven't yet tried playing on a hangout, I'd be happy to run a one on one quick game so you could try it out.

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**Aside from some technical issues. My netbook doesn’t handle hangouts very well, so I picked up a $30 camera & mic that I use on my desktop. Also, connecting from the east coast to Hawaii sometimes has lag issues.

Mistaken Monster Identity

In my post introducing the Strigoi I showed the inn patrons panic in the belief that there was a vampire out to get them. While the creature was a dangerous one, knowing that it wasn’t a vampire saved the adventurers a lot of grief. Imagine going out to face a ‘vampire’ armed with holy water, cloves of garlic, holy symbols, and wooden stakes, only to end up against a nest of stirges?

Something I’ve noticed in various adventures is NPCs being way too accurate when describing the local boogie. How many villages know the difference between hobgoblins and orcs? Or a Dragon and a Wyvern? Are the ghosts in the cemetery really ghosts, or will-o-wisps? What's the difference between an an ogre and a hill giant to a peasant? Or an ogre and a troll for that matter? Is the witch up on the glen really a druid, or is she a foul necromancer or just an old lady who prefers to live alone?

Isn’t it more likely that the villagers will only know that something bad attacked, and farmer Jim-Bob was ripped apart? They’ll blame whatever the local or historical monster is, even if there isn’t any evidence.

That isn’t even factoring in that locals may have a local name for the bad guys. What if the local goblin tribe wears redcaps? What if they've never seen the beast, but call it Grendel? Or Smaug? Or just "It"? There could even be a taboo about naming or describing it. If it's an intelligent monster that's good at sneaking, keeping the locals in fear could be even better than killing them all!

My point is, don't just presume that your quest giver knows that their talking about! And to DMs, don't always be clear about the threat is!

Thunderspire Session 3 Thoughts

This should have been written significantly sooner than after session 4, however I didn’t get around to it until now. I don’t have too many thoughts that haven’t been covered in my previous post session thoughts.

The upgraded stats worked much better, and seemed to amp up the challenge.

I’m still not thrilled with the skill challenges mechanic. It feels too forced. I’d really like to see someone who’s good at it run it. It’s one thing to appreciate the magic of Disney, it’s another when you’re trying to do the same thing with you as host.

A significant portion of this session was spent off of the official adventure, making use of some of the material developed in the H2 Orcus conversion. I can not speak highly enough about this. Seriously, if you’re going to play H1-H3 you NEED to download this series, and incorporate it into your game.

My one big thought about the game was what I expected to be the big encounter of the night, the fight with the shadow dragon! I need to do a whole post on how I’ve used (and not) dragons in my games. This one is a young shadow dragon, with some fairly potent powers. Appropriate for a dragon solo, even a low level one. What didn’t work for me was how easily the players managed to shut down the encounter, even before it got off the ground.

They didn’t mind! They'd just kicked a dragon’s ass!

Me? I minded. I’m pretty sure I didn’t take it as well as I should have. I’m pretty sure I looked at the board, picked up the dragon and said something like “Well... shit.”

What I did do was take a break, reshuffled my notes, and forged on.

I had expected earlier in the session that the players would confront Brugg the Enforcer afte burning down the tavern*, but they managed to avoid him. As we still had lots of playing time to go (since I had expected the shadow dragon to take much longer) I decided that Brugg would be waiting for the players in an ambush.

Quantum Ogre in action?

This ended up being the final fight of the evening, and I think it went well. It was big, bad, and had my players on their toes. It felt like everything the dragon fight should have been... and yet I’m not sure I should have included it. It made sense, story-wise, considering their prior actions, but I kinda feel like I did it more to satisfy my own need for a big finale for the evening...

I’d really like to know your thoughts. I’ve set up a poll, but comments are even more welcome.

Session write up soon!

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*It seems as if it isn't a D&D game if someone doesn't burn down the tavern!

Building a Better GM

Bedoo threw down the gauntlet by saying “something I'd like to see more bloggers discuss is their successful table techniques that translate into good games"

Ckutalik codified this with these 3 questions:

1. Name three “ best practices” you possess as a GM. What techniques do you think you excel at?
2. What makes those techniques work? Why do they “pop”?
3. How do you do it? What are the tricks you use? What replicable, nuts-and-bolts tips can you share?

1. Be prepared. I’m not talking about knowing the rules, or having read through the module you’re going to run, that’s a given. I’m talking about being ready for when things go wrong. For example in my last session the players managed to take out a dragon in 2 rounds, making what should have been the big tense fight of the night into something that was at once awesome, and yet a bit of a let down. “Dragon” is half the name of the game! It shouldn’t be a 2 round encounter. Just... no!

But it happened.

We moved on, and they still got a big boss fight before we wrapped up for the night. Because of they way things went earlier I had an encounter that they skipped that I tweaked on the fly to beef it up a bit, and I dropped on them. It was everything the dragon encounter could have been.

Things are not going to go according to plan. Be prepared, mentally, to go with it.

2. Ham it up. This is Dungeons and Dragons, not Lord of the Rings. You are not a professional actor or writer of works of literary genius, you are a DM. Use funny voices, odd speech patterns, hats, props, and your hands. You don’t have to be (or even just look) crazy, but put some life into it. It’ll get your pulse going, which will get you more into the game. This will spread to your players, even if they don’t get in on the act. My players are almost pure 3rd person when it comes to their characters, but I can tell they respond better when I get into it.

3. Provide options and back doors. This goes back to point 1 - Your players are not following a script, and they especially aren’t following your script! Be sure that if you give them a situation that they can get into, they you give them a way out. I’m not talking about a free pass, but if you stick them in a room without any doors, windows, or anything else, no one is going to have any fun. Give them a door, but make it cost whoever opens it. If they’ve been stupid, maybe it costs a hand. Who’s going to sacrifice a hand to let everyone out?

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This might come as a shock, but August's RPG Blog Carnival topic is Animals and it's being hosted here at the Tower of the Archmage! How can you get involved? Easy! Write a post about animals, anything about animals, and then share the link!

Thoughts on running Keep on the Shadowfell

There are plenty of reviews out there of the first 4e adventure, and most of them (the fair ones) are accurate (the paper sucks, the layout is odd, the map sheets are nice, the adventure is so-so, etc.). This isn’t so much a review of the module, but more my thoughts on running it.

First, and most importantly - It’s fun! Over the 4 all day sessions we spent playing KotSF we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. I still maintain that 4e is Dungeons and Dragons!

Second - The adventure, as written, needs a little work. Not a lot, but some tweaking is definitely in order. Luckily the Alexandrian’s modification combined with Myrhdraak’s H1 Orcus Conversion supplement both do a a lot of the heavy lifting. That does add to the prep time needed, but I think it was worth it.

Third - My Chessex Battlemat was invaluable! While dungeon tiles and Hirst Arts make for much more attractive battlegrounds, the Battlemat is quick and easy, which helps keep things moving along at a good pace. Along with this, I’m glad I took the time to presort my minis for the game. Being able to just grab a bag of orcs or goblins or undead saved me from having to dig around the box. I wish I had done that for the first two sessions. Live and learn, and now that they’re all sorted I just need to keep them that way.

Fourth - The Pacing - We squeezed in the entire adventure, minus one side encounter (Alexandrian’s attack on Lord Paldrig’s Mannor) over 4 days of playing. Total game time was probably around 24-28 hours. There were times we were all rushing, especially toward the end of each of the days. Unfortunately this means that when we got to the final battle we were all tired. I had planned on playing Kalarel as your typical over-the-top, moustache-twirling, cape-flipping cartoon villain. By the time we got there, with the clock ticking down, and my throat feeling raw, I had him chant in a dark language the entire battle.

Eh.

Cory and Alex even commented with surprise that he didn’t launch into some sort of BBEG monologue. Stupid me, I didn’t take their cue and run with it. Months later, I still am kicking myself over this. I resolved that when we got to Thunderspire, I wasn’t going to hold back with the outlandish characters or the funny voices, and BBEGs would get played up.

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tl:dr - Keep on the Shadowfell is fun, I still like 4e, ham it up with NPCs, battlemats and sorted minis are useful.

Help a Blogger Out

A while back I wrote about being a part of a community, and what that means.  Since then I’ve come up with another way that you can be a part of the blogging community: help someone out!

Now, before you get the wrong idea, I’m not talking about giving money for anything. Not birth, not death, not illness, not research, no money at all.

What I think you should give is some time and effort. It’s something you give with every blog post, and every comment, but there is another way to give. As you read through the various blogs that you follow you see ideas that get put forward; monsters, magic items, classes, races, even whole adventures! Sometimes you see something that just doesn’t quite work. Chances are the author knows this, but doesn’t know what’s off, or how to fix it.

But you do. Or you at least have some ideas.*

Recently Dylan aka the Digital Orc posted an adventure called Death and the Lady which involved some crazy cultists and the xenomorphs from Aliens. It was interesting, but it needed some work. Here is where I did something different. Rather then just moving on I printed it out, and read it though it a couple of times. Then I started making some notes. Then I turned those notes into a post, where I dissected everything I thought was wrong with the adventure.

You didn’t miss it because I didn’t post it.

I turned it into an e-mail, and I sent it off to Dylan. I wasn’t sure how he would take my critiques, and I must admit I was a little worried about it. He replied rather promptly and thanked me for my thoughts, and said he’d get back to me. A couple of days later he did, addressing my thoughts and critiques. He even went ahead and shared part of our e-mail exchange!

Another example is the amazingly prolific Bat of Ancient Vaults. I have no idea how, but he daily posts a new spell, monster, magic item, or god. Most of the time I think his creations are both wonderfully imaginative and fairly well balanced, but there have been one or two that we’ve commented back and forth on, discussing the finer points, be they charges, XP value, or anything else that I think could use tweaking.

I am currently reviewing a copy of Lord Gwydion’s Flying Swordsmen RPG to edit and review. I’m really looking forward to getting into this one because like many of you I’ve been generally unhappy with the way monks and their ilk are portrayed in DnD. I expect that Lord Gwydion and I will be going back and forth, and that this will take some time, especially considering this first draft is 79 pages long! Time that I could spend mapping, painting, writing blog posts and comments, or even mowing the lawn... ok, maybe that last one isn’t really a big deal, but you get the idea. But the way I look at it, it’s probably going to be time well spent.

*One thing to keep in mind is that just because you’ve offered your opinion doesn’t mean they’re going to rework their project for you. There have been times were people have told me “thanks for the comment, but I think it’s fine the way it is.”

V is for Virginia's Play Style

Welcome to the Tower of the Archmage’s April A to Z Challenge!

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “V” the number “22” and the support of readers like you.

Thank you.

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People are different from one another. This may seem like a fairly simple and obvious observation, and it is, but it’s important to remember when gaming with them, and even more so when you live with them!

I’m going to use World of Warcraft to illustrate the differences in play styles between Virginia and myself. Now, I have not actually played WoW, but I’ve played other games like it, and I know myself. Part of the reason I haven't played it is because we've only got one computer that would really be able to run it. When Diablo III is finally released, that'll change, but until then...

Virginia started playing about 9 months ago, just before the Cataclysm. In that time she has started a number of different characters of various races and classes, but her primary is a Night Elf Hunter that is currently hovering at just under level 70. The fact that her primary hasn’t hit the level cap of 85 says something about her playing style. She is taking her time with her character, exploring the world, and completing quest chains. She is also working on a number of different achievements that are not directly related to leveling up, including reading all of the in-game books, loving one of each of the critters, and slaying one of each of the pests, and exploring every corner of the game world as she goes along.

When playing a WoW-like game, my strategy would be almost the complete opposite of what Virginia is doing. I’d have my primary character level-capped by this point, and would have started 2 or 3 other characters that would be well into their 30s-50s. My primary character I would play for a little bit every time I played, as I worked toward completing whatever achievement I had set as my next goal.

Virginia is also soloing the entire game. No quests that require multiple players, no raids, no PVP. Given how little time we have to enjoy video games I wouldn’t be very different in this aspect, but if there was a dungeon or raid that I wanted to tackle, I’d be more willing to try to find someone to quest with, at least for that instance. Going along with that, Virginia has avoided joining any guilds, though she frequently gets offers. The issue with guilds is that they require a certain investment of game time, and that isn’t always doable, especially as we’re both working on our Masters degrees!

Another aspect of the game are the professions. While Virginia has spent a lot of time working on her secondary professions (first aid, fishing, cooking) her primary skills (skinning and leather working) are languishing a bit. This is due to a couple of factors, including that she’s leveled past what her leather working skill can handle. This means that the leather she’s collecting her skill isn’t good enough to work with, necessitating buying leather to work with. In addition to that, there is all the other stuff she needs to buy like dyes, thread, etc. This serves as a hindrance to her using and advancing that skill. I’ve occasionally researched the next couple of recipes so that she knows what to buy. That way she doesn’t have to keep running around trying to collect everything. I do this just because I get frustrated at her lack of advancement in leather working!

In the end, our characters will both get to the same places, and we’ll both have fun doing it, we just take different routes getting there! I find this most noticeable when I watch her play, and I have to remind myself that she isn’t doing it wrong, she’s playing the way she wants to play. She's having fun, and that's what really counts.

S is for Shadows

Welcome to the Tower of the Archmage’s April A to Z Challenge!

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “S” the number “19” and the support of readers like you.

Thank you.

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A shadow is an interesting thing. It exists, but doesn’t really. There, but not. Traditionally in RPGs Shadows are monsters (Not Undead!) or things for thieves to hide in, but I’ve been watching a lot of Babylon 5 recently (I’m into season 4). If anyone is unfamiliar with Shadows from B5, they are an ancient alien race, one of the “first ones” to inhabit the galaxy. They were fanatically devoted to the idea that in order for life to survive it must have conflict.

As an ancient race they used an advanced biotechnology in their ships. The ships, which used captured sentients as CPUs, were incredibly powerful, yet until the end they were content to remain hidden, and use other races as pawns in their game with the ultra-lawful Vorlons. The few times that Shadows are shown in person, rather than their ships, there isn’t usually combat. They’re able to become invisible at-will, so will usually work though an intermediary rather than show themselves. The few times they are involved in combat, it tends to end fairly quickly. They don’t do very well against energy weapons at short range, but then who does?

What the Shadows can do in an RPG is to serve as a powerful villain! They’re incredibly smart, with access to great power which they’re perfectly willing to share, but at a cost. They introduce themselves by asking “What do you want?” A fairly innocuous question, but when the adventurer responds “the bugbears on level 3 dead” and then they go back to level 3 to find them all dead? Plus all the treasure is still there, untouched! What price would the PCs be willing to pay? Could they convince the local lord to go to war with a neighbor? They’ll help things along by killing a few cattle and a villager or two. Maybe they can lead the attack?

Of course you don’t need to use a new monster to accomplish this. Any of a number of powerful and sneaky beings exist already in the game that can serve; vampires, Medusa, lycanthropes, evil cultists, devils, and of course Mind Flayers!