Bugbears and Ballads

A Sibling's Closure

2020-04-16T09:10:00.004-05:00

Mina pressed the pads of her fingers into the side of the controller, guiding the vessel ever-so-slightly to the left. As she pulled back on the throttle and extended the landing legs, she smashed the well-worn button labeled “Lazy-Ass Communicator” and barked into the mic. Crackling over the speakers, echoing through the steel halls of The Pigeon her voice resounded: “Arrival time! Get up and meet me in the cargo hold – we have 3 hours before we’re due at Herald’s place!”.

A familiar muttering and the sound of movement in a hammock echoed back down the halls to the bridge from the engine room, where a large, burly man slept. As she looked over her shoulder, Mina caught a glimpse of Gerimiah rubbing his eyes, maneuvering roughly through the corridors, muttering something about coffee. She smiled as she turned back to the command console, precisely flipped a few switches, and set the craft down softly on the landing pad.

Source: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dravian_Starport

Mina messaged her legs as she stood up, arched her back, and did a few torso-rotations. It had been a long flight from Yerbock. The jump into Lupine set them about 100,000 kilometers off-world, which meant a long in-system propulsion to reach the starport. “I’m better than that, I hope Gerimiah isn’t too ticked. He knows I’m usually right on the money…” she thought as she grabbed her spiral notebook off the desk and strode quickly to the cargo bay. Here on Lupine, 30 tons of crystaliron and 20 tons of salvaged drone components will pay a pretty penny. Lupine was a hub for shipwrights and machinists, just far enough away from the Central Systems so that they have easy access to the products, but don’t have to feel like they live in an industrial sector. “Ya know if every noble from a viscount on up has their own artificial atmosphere around their estates, why do they care about some vaporized metal emissions in the other hemisphere?” Mina said absentmindedly as she entered the hold.

“Caring about useless shit is their job. If they stopped that, us common folk might finally have time to realize how useless they are,” Gerimiah responded in an even deeper tone than normal, as he poured coffee into two cups.

“Well until then we have to make ourselves useful.” Mina retorted as she accepted a cup from Gerimiah. “Alright I’ll go talk to the port officers, the cargo should good to go. If the brokers come around, make sure that they don’t try to short us. Everything we have should qualify as StarLux-standard…apart from, well, you know.”

“Aye-aye captain!” Gerimiah shouted in a much-too-chipper-for-this-hour tone, and cracked a wide grin, exposing several gold teeth, as Mina whipped around with a glare.

“Call me that once more and you’ll be out on the street finding someone else to use that title on” Mina spit back. She kept her scowl as long as she could before it shattered into a grin to match Gerimiah. “Get to work! Lots to unload!” she smile-shouted as she ducked under the rising bay door, and made her way out into the madness of a Class A starport. As she strode under hulls of merchant vessels to the port office, she went over the plan again in her mind. There should be a man working at the port office named Kell. She would pay the port officer the docking fee, and register The Pigeon. She would then declare her 50 tons of cargo, along with her intention to offload it here on Lupine. She would ask him if they could rent a mag-cart for the day; they were planning on picking up some supplies on-world before they departed. She would ask Kell where the best outfitter in Lupine City is located. He would list a few options, then she would ask if Herald was receiving guests. Kell would respond: “Yes, Herald is receiving guests. He could certainly outfit you with what you need.” He would then process the rental of the mag-cart with a cloaked compartment, and Mina would be on her way.

Source: http://travellersandbox.blogspot.com/2019/03/connecting-starports-with-their-worlds.html

As she approached the port office, passing Imperial Guards wielding laser carbines, she performed the breathing exercises her brother had taught her when they were children. His voiced echoed in her head, “one…two…three, and out slowly, one…two…three. This will stop your heart from racing, and keep you from sweating. They have tech that can read you heart rate from 100 meters away. If it goes up while you’re lying, then that’s it, they’ve got you.”

Mina wondered what he would think of who she had become. Would he be angry or disappointed at the lengths she had gone to, just for him? Just for the possibility of a whisper of his presence? It had been 8 years since his Scout ship had been lost in the Paragon Nebula. No salvage had ever been found, of course, and the Paragon’s dark roiling clouds still twist and contort, silently, obscuring whatever occurred within. During the first few months of his disappearance, she would sit on a mountain on Excelion for days at a time and watch the amorphous mass through her scope. But nothing ever appeared, nothing in her sight ever changed except for the masticating clouds in their wordless play.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard_68

Everyone she confided in had told her she was mad, and some even begged her to call off her plans. The Paragon was a death trap, everyone in the galaxy but her foolish brother seemed to understand that. But their pleas fell on ears deafened by grief. Deep and profound grief for the only soul in the galaxy that had ever loved her and cared for her. Grief that maybe, just maybe could be lifted if she could find him. She knew her brother had gone into the Paragon for a reason, and it wasn’t just to die. It would take another 5 years of this life to save up enough for a down payment on a Forerunner-Class Scout Ship. Herald was just another rung in the long ladder – a rung that paid well for refined uranium…

Mina stepped up to the clerk’s window, and looked down at the man who smiled up at her. “Hello, I’m Port Officer Kell, how can I be of service to you?”

The God of Magic is an Outcast

2018-08-07T22:30:00.000-05:00

In most fantasy tabletop role-playing games, the most impactful decisions surrounding the structure of your character are made at the moment you decide on your class. Maybe later you’ll pick up feats that afford the opportunity to enhance abilities outside the sphere of “druid” or “fighter” or “wizard”, and of course throughout the game you will be granted items of power and significance that help you unlock previously restricted options. But by and large the bulk of the character’s mechanics both immediately accessed, and promised at future levels, are set in stone the moment you select your class. There are of course many schools of thought surrounding this paradigm, some of the more oppositional ones have led to the creation and adoption of “classless” systems. Despite that offshoot of playstyle, classes have been a fundamental part of Dungeons and Dragons since its inception, as they facilitate a diversity in abilities among party members, and allow each character/player to fill a niche which they can feel exceptional in.

In the original Dungeons & Dragons boxset created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, later published by TSR in 1974, there were 3 classes: the “fighting-man”, the “magic-user”, and the “cleric” (the “thief” was added later in the year). We are all familiar with these persistent archetypes. The fighting-man is ostensibly the front-liner, the one that wields a sword and shield, wears a suit of armor, and slays beasts through sheer might. The cleric finds their power through dedication to a deity, who grants them the boon of divine magic because of their staunch faith. The magic-user can (of course) also wield magic, but their powers are derived from a different source. Magic-users cultivate their abilities through careful academic study of the arcane arts (in the case of a wizard), or their proclivity for arcana is intrinsic due to some peculiar connection in their past (in the case of a sorcerer). Here we see that this distinction between “cleric” as a practitioner of divine magic and “magic-user” as a practitioner of arcane magic has been present from the beginning of D&D and fantasy TTRPGs as we know them today. The differences between arcane and divine magic aren’t just semantical either. Divine casters generally have access to spells associated with healing and buffing allies, while arcane casters can specialize in a variety of schools such as transmutation, evocation, or abjuration, to both aid and abet. In more recent editions of D&D, clerics can specialize a bit more with their domains, which allow them to better represent a devotee of any god, not just one that is all about healing and good and light. Another basic facet of the cleric kit is their ability to turn and destroy undead; a reasonable power to be granted by deities, as undead are basically direct rebukes of their authority to delineate the boundaries of life and death.

Photo by: @AestheticRift on Twitter

The source of arcane casters’ power is slightly more nebulous. Wizards and sorcerers understand how to manipulate the fabric of the universe in ways that are similar to divine casters, but they require no fervent devotion to a higher power. Do they draw from the same source? Have arcane casters simply bypassed the gods, tapping into the same magical font as them? Have they reduced these all-powerful to mere divine middle-men? Everyone who runs a game or creates a world will have slightly different answers to these questions, but in my mind, I think a more interesting world is created if all the answers are yeses. If that is the case, then the gods themselves would feel cheated by these devious arcane artists. The fundamental power that suffuses the universe can be siphoned by mere mortals as well! Therefore the entirety of arcana is also a direct rebuke to the gods, just like undeath, which just so happens to be associated with corrupt masters of the arcane arts who have defied death by becoming liches! This helps explain a great deal on a wizard’s implied agnosticism, and general disinterest in worship. And even if they did have a deity they liked and could get behind, that deity would reject them as a follower, refusing to grant them recognition, except under very rare circumstances.

The other night I was planning my next session and I had to reference my pantheon to remember a goddess whose name had slipped my mind. I use the Dawn War Deities, and I quickly found the name I was looking for, Avandra, goddess of change and luck. But then my eyes got caught on another moniker for a second, that of Corellon, goddess of the arts and…magic. Maybe you can see where this is going, but at the time I had no idea why I developed a sudden interest in Corellon, a pretty minor goddess in my opinion, possessing nothing too ludicrous about her domains. I closed the tab, and kept writing, unaware of the fictional earth-shattering irony I had stumbled upon.

The next day, I was talking to my friend, who happens to also be the other contributor to this blog, about various rpg matters of great importance, when that idea of a god of magic came to mind. Suddenly the context and all the exposition at the beginning of this post began to fill my head. That odd feeling I had the previous night about Corellon, goddess of the arts and magic, suddenly became clear, and explainable; if divine magic is the gift of the gods, and arcane magic is the mortal man’s defiance of the gods, then why in the hell was there a goddess of magic? If every god can dole out divine magical privileges to the believers and devotees, then for god’s sake (oh you betcha, pun intended), why is there a god who needs to specialize in that realm? Wouldn’t that be totally redundant? Isn’t it implied that magic is a force all gods can manipulate and parcel out as they please?

But what if…what if she is not just the goddess of magic, but specifically the goddess of arcane magic?

That was certainly a more interesting question than any posed previously, with implications that would definitely require more exploring. SpamIam and I mused over this for a while, and eventually arrived at a fascinating conclusion, one that surprised and delighted us. If the goddess of magic is the creator and custodian of arcane magic, then she is an outcast. In fact, not only is she a black sheep, but she is a rebel, who actively compromises and marginalizes the powers of her peers. She has revealed the secret of how to access forbidden power, which previously only the gods could obtain and gift, to any mortal who has the patience to sit down and read a book. She would not only be shunned, but most likely sought after with malicious intent. This is an issue that could even unite deities from across the divine aisle; the act of treason damages the length of Vecna’s reach as much as Pelor’s, Bahamut’s as much as Asmodeus’.

I’d like to argue that this reality of the goddess of arcane magic being an outcast would be a perfect setup for an epic level game, or perhaps a backdrop for an entire campaign. And this is my blog, so I’m gonna, and no one can stop me.

The god of magic (we’ll use Corellon) at the time of creation, thought that the exclusive access her kind received to the great font of power that suffused the universe was unfair. She believed that their creations should also have a method of accessing and harnessing it, albeit in a much less significant way, if they worked hard enough and dedicated themselves to the art. She took her first domain to be that of art, and imbued the creations of the world with the ability to paint, dance, sing, and create that which was beautiful and significant. Outwardly, she took no other domain for her own, feigning satisfaction with just her one contribution. But in secret, she fed knowledge to the mortals that had just been molded into beings of their own, all lit with a doomed fire that would one day be extinguished. She taught them how to tap into the font of magic for themselves, to gain access to a portion of the powers of the creators. They thanked her for the secrets that would help them live better lives, but did not revere her in the same way as others did toward more prominent gods and goddesses.

Corellon knew what wrath would possess the other deities when they discovered her slight, and foresaw the punishment that would befall her if she could then be sought out. So Corellon constructed a prison, not to keep anyone in, but to keep others out. She hid it between the planes, somewhere outside comprehension, striking deals with powerful creatures and tricking some of the other gods into assisting her in her endeavor. When it was complete, she sealed herself in her undiscoverable, impenetrable fortress, away from everything else.

When the gods discovered what she had done they became enraged, and blamed each other for their stupidity and complicity. They vowed to destroy her, but they couldn’t seem to locate her. She had disappeared, although her presence was still felt in the mortal world, meaning that she persisted elsewhere.

When the gods do locate her, as undiscoverable and impenetrable are less absolute to those who are deemed unkillable and immortal, they will destroy her, thereby erasing the secret of arcane magic from the minds of mortals and beings of the planes.

This conflict would first of all be an amazing adventure at epic levels. The heroes would be implored to pick sides. Do they ally themselves with the desperately outnumbered oppositional force of Corellon, and fight for the life of arcane magic? Or do they side with the combined might of the pantheon, but in doing so kill the most generous god of all, and ensure the destruction of the arcane arts once and for all. Either way, it would be a legendary adventure.

If that conflict was the grand finale of a campaign, maybe the next campaign takes place in the aftermath. Perhaps arcane magic does not exist anymore, and the gods have instituted some sort of divine martial law, where everyone must be a strict devotee and swear allegiance to a deity, or else they are pursued by the minions of the divine. Or on the other hand, maybe Corellon was saved, and managed to repulse the attacks of the gods with the help of the players. Maybe the other gods’ powers have greatly diminished, whereas those of Corellon have flourished! Perhaps the world now is chock-full of arcane magic, and now it’s power is bolstered. Everyone now knows a few spells, and the true masters have become de facto demi-gods! A world flooded with arcane magic would progress rapidly, cities would modernize transit from horses and carts to flying carpets and airships. Farmers could make plows drive themselves, while they sit back and relax. Society would be changing radically with every passing day, but that also insinuates great consequences. Those who seek to commit selfish and destructive acts now have had their abilities enhanced, and although those who seek to hinder this evil have also been bolstered, it is still easier to destroy than to rebuild…

I guess the unintended conclusion of this commentary is that gods don’t have to be adversarial toward each other solely around the axes of law vs. chaos, and good vs. evil. Instead they can be multi-faceted beings, who have distinct relationships with one another that affect the very essence of the world.

This is just one interpretation of the consequences implicit in the existence of a god of magic in the mythos I’ve described. There are of course infinite other interpretations, but I hope that this particular way of seeing it is entertaining and intriguing. If you have the urge to steal it for your own world/game, I encourage you to satiate that urge! To me, that is the highest form of flattery, and by god I've stolen enough ideas from other content creators, it about time I gave something back.

Crunch-Optional – a design philosophy, and how Traveller does it well

2018-08-05T17:15:00.001-05:00

One game design philosophy I’ve started to ponder is the “crunch-optional” philosophy – that is, the amount of crunch (e.g., the straight mechanics, rules, and numbers) one experiences from a game is based only on player investment. Those who wish to simply sit down and enjoy the game only need the base mechanics, while those who want to delve into the meat of a game have the option to explore the different rules and subsystems. Most importantly, however, is that players who do decide to “do their homework” and explore the crunch of a game are not objectively superior to those who did not – system mastery does not make player skill irrelevant, it just allows those who are interested to find more fulfillment in the rules.

Enter Traveller

I believe Traveller does this well (at least, the versions I’m familiar with; I have only played Mongoose Trav 1e and 2e, and am nominally familiar with Classic Trav), and this is why I play it frequently with both people who are new to RPGs and seasoned players.

Introducing new players to Traveller usually goes a little bit like this:

1. Send them to this character generation website and explain in 5 mins what each attribute does, what the lifepath process is like, and how they will interact with it through the website. (This tends to be very intuitive for most people – when you automate the process and simply leave the player to make decisions, it goes very quickly.)

2. When they finish, help them output their character sheet into something they can read easily and do finishing touches like picking benefits, purchasing equipment, party skill packs and finalizing character traits/background. (takes 5 mins usually – a character sheet can easily fit on an index card, and the lifepath process creates a backstory as you play the character creation minigame)

3. Begin playing the game. When the first time they need to make a skill check arises, simply explain that they roll two 6-sided dice and add their attribute modifier and skill level. Higher is better. (this takes less than a minute to explain).

4. Congrats! You are playing Traveller. Any other mechanics (combat rules, HP/damage, ship combat, etc.) are introduced as they come, and at their core base themselves off of the 2d6+attribute+skill mechanic.

Total time to get started – about 15 minutes, in my experience.

This level of engagement is more than sufficient for most people I play with, and the simple mechanics tends to lend itself very well to OSR-style play – that is, players tend to utilize creativity and problem solving to solve issues.

(Tangent: I wish Traveller was discussed more in the OSR-spheres of the web, as I think it’s a great example of the philosophy in action. Alas.)

It's rumoured that Firefly was inspired by a game of Traveller Joss Whedon played in college.

How does this lend itself towards the crunch-optional philosophy?

- Players can make their characters quickly and simply with the online tools, OR

- Players who want more robust character creation options can find careers in the supplementary books that introduce extra mechanics and options. (The Robot creation rules in Book 9, the Organization Rank and trust rules in Book 5, the investment/trust fund rules in Book 8, etc.).

Sure, these can create characters who are richer/have more connections/tougher in combat than other characters, but I’ve rarely found that to be too much of an issue – my campaigns tend to have enough of a mix between combat, exploration, trade, and political and social situations that characters who excel in one specific area don’t overshadow those who don’t, and interplay between Law Levels on different planets and the high-lethality of the combat system prevents those with better combat skills and gear from completely overshadowing those without, as combat is rarely the best way to solve your issues.

- Players who want to buy vehicles and starships/start out a campaign with one can just crack open a book and choose what looks best to them. If characters ask if they can add a few things, it’s simple enough to find the cost of, say, a particle beam and slap that baby on, OR

- Players who want to design their own aerospace fighter-bombers can dive right into the ship design chapter and create whatever they want.

Players might design ships that are better optimized than the ones in the core book. If so, good for them! They deserve to be rewarded for good engineering.

Players might also design ships that have all the bells and whistles and can take on any system defense boat they encounter. If so, it’s going to be prohibitively expensive, and governments are going to be suspicious why a pocket warship is frequenting their space lanes (plus, governments have much more money to spend on a naval budget than even the wealthiest players…)

- Players who want to make money off of trade can pick up cargo for a flat rate/ton and be done with it, OR

- Players can examine the starchart, find the different trade codes, and delve into speculative trading to potentially make (or lose) hundreds of thousands of credits.

Most trade situations in my campaign end up like this, but with more guns

This crunch-optional design has also been valuable to me as a sandbox GM and worldbuilder.

- To create an NPC, all I need to do is jot down attributes (In the simple to use UPP format) and a short list of skills and equipment. I add two notable character traits, and boom! Jimothy the starport attendant is ready. I can do this on the fly in the middle of a session, OR

- I could use any of the robust careers in any of the splatbooks to fully realize an NPC’s background and skills. Time to generate can be variable from 5 mins to an hour, but fully depends on how long I want to spend creating this character.

- Space encounters work the same way – grab a ship from a book, choose a general crew level to add to all rolls and I’m ready, OR

- I spend hours building their ship and generating the crew with the lifepath system, while outfitting each crew member with interesting personalities, weapons, armor, other equipment, and thinking of specific tactics and plans for them. Again, it only takes as long as I want it to.

- World generation can be just as simple – I can head over to the donjon Traveller system generator and have a whole star system created for me in seconds, OR

- I spend as much time as I want not only hand creating the UWP, but also the extended UWP to create a system with my own personal touch.

Heaven and Earth is my favorite world creation tool - I highly recommend it

Of course, what largely contributes to this is the ease that Traveller’s subsystems can be automated and the wealth of resources available online for GMs and players (One needs to look no further than the wonderful Traveller Tools created by Grauenwolf to find most everything you need to run the game), and you’d be right, it helps a lot. That’s the power of a small but dedicated community right there.

Traveller is definitely not perfect in this regard – for example, in both Mongoose Traveller 1e and 2e, the ship combat rules could be improved for both those who wanted low-crunch and high-crunch options. As they stand, they require a bit too much investment for new players, and lack a variety of tactical options for players seeking high crunch. Someday I’ll think of an alternative, if I get around to it.

I’ve spent hours thinking of and writing Traveller scenarios with custom ships, fleshed out NPCs, and in-depth planets and systems. I’ve also run sessions where literally nothing has been prepared beforehand and everything was improvised. This crunch-optional game design lets both my players and myself prepare just as much or as little as we want, yet have good rewarding games.

In the end, all you need to do is roll 2d6 and play the game.

Festivals: The Case for Relaxation and Levity in D&D

2018-07-28T00:29:00.001-05:00

Let's face it, D&D is intrinsically a dark game. The acronym doesn't stand for Daffodils and Daylight, and for a good reason. While a system with that title would be fun to play*, it isn’t what most people want from a game as it doesn’t sound very challenging. Daffodils smell nice, and daylight makes them grow! While that is just delightful, it doesn’t set the scene for something that is captivating and dramatic.

Dungeons and Dragons, on the other hand, paints an image of dark, dank corridors, that bend out of sight, terminating in the lair of something great, powerful, mythical, and horrifying. That image breeds a feeling of fright and anticipation in a player, but also one of excitement and engagement. There is real possibility of failure; a chance that you might not make it out alive…or at least whole. The name Dungeons and Dragons suggests that there is something to be vanquished, and while there is a price for failure, there is an equally alluring prize for success.

While light-hearted games have the same root structure of overcoming obstacles and solving problems, they generally don’t make us feel the same way as do traditional TTRPGs, the most obvious example being D&D. Ultimately, we chose to play a roleplaying game like D&D because we want to populate characters whose abilities are beyond the realm of our own, and who confront challenges and obstacles that we would not find in our real lives. We also want these obstacles to force us to make difficult choices wrought with consequence, but we want these consequences to be meaningful. That’s not to say that a game rooted around friendship and flower-tending wouldn’t be meaningful, but that specific tone significantly constrains the emotional range of the story, both in intensity and diversity. Dungeons and Dragons provides the opportunity for not only immense joy, but also deep sadness; a sense of desperation, but also of hope. A mountain is only made majestic by the valleys which surround it, the warmth of the summer is not appreciated without the chill of winter. There is no light without the darkness lingering beyond its shine. For this reason, grim, ultra-dark settings and systems struggle to span the entire emotional spectrum in the same way light-hearted games do.

Rooting around a haunted crypt, stumbling across dismembered corpses (and creating some of your own) is dark work. A good GM will convey the emotional weight of the experience, and the players will feel the heavy load of it. While dungeon crawls, combats, and confrontations with evil are the meat of the game, a good meal has more than just one dish. Eventually the players will either emerge from the grim crypt, or not. If the latter option turns out to be true, then the game stops, and there is a real-life pause in the action. Next steps are considered among players, who are now characterless, of how to proceed. Often new characters will be drawn up and introduced in one way or another, but that takes some time. At any rate, there is a respite after the tension and action for everyone at the table to decompress and take a breather. Maybe hash out what went wrong, crack some jokes about it, and allow that humor to wash away the feeling of peril and uncertainty. The new characters that are created will eventually be introduced, and that introduction will wash away some more of the dread from the previous adventure. On the other hand, if the characters survive, they are thrust out into the world, with the weight of the previous conflict on their backs. They may have lost members of their party or have experienced other traumas. Where do they go next?

If I want to take advantage of the full unabridged range of emotions that a system like D&D makes available, the only answer to the question is to oppose the previous adventure with something on the other end of the spectrum.

“Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise”**

-Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

I think my point will be better conveyed from now on in the form of an example. I was recently running the Lost Mines of Phandelver scenario for my friends (a venture which has transformed into the campaign I currently run). They had completed most of the material in the scenario, and basically all they had left to do was go to Wave Echo Cave and defeat the forces that had taken hold there. I won’t spoil what exactly is inside for people who haven’t played it yet, or are currently playing it, but the way I portrayed the interior of the cavern was as a dark and twisted place, with ghastly creatures corrupted by the magic within. They spent a few sessions in the cave itself working their way through it, spending almost a week in-game underground in this unwelcoming cave. They managed to make it out alive at the end, just by the skin of their teeth***. They returned to Phandalin, victorious, but weary. I sensed that they were drained from the adventure and seized the opportunity to capitalize via emotional acceleration. Their characters had been through the ringer, but they succeeded! This was an opportunity for celebration, for enjoyment, for…a festival!

I don’t know exactly what it is about running festivals that I love so much. Maybe it stems from my fondness for the Minnesota State Fair from an early age on. I also always loved holidays as a kid, more than most of my peers. Whatever the reason may be, festivals embody happiness and joy to me, and I think they fit well into the structure of D&D. Not only are they an opportunity for the characters to spend their new-found wealth from the last adventure on expensive and exotic wares, but they are places to meet NPC friends both new and old, to participate in contests and events, and to be reminded to remain hopeful for the good and joy that exists in the world, which is hopefully what they are fighting for (maybe not all the time). Festivals and events of group celebration akin to them allow the game to transition smoothly from one plot to another, as the GM can drop new hooks in front of the players, or give them time to discuss some of the hooks they’ve already nibbled at, without the pressure of limited time or imminent danger. A festival gives the players time to grow hungry for the next adventure that will pitch them downward to face the unseemly side of the world once again; to pillage vast dungeons, and slay ancient dragons.

Some things I recommend including in a festival:

Contest/Competitions that the players can use to compete with one another with little to no stakes involved:

Feats of Strength/Athleticism:

Arm-Wrestling
Tug-of-War
Log Pitching
Boulder Toss
Climbing Contest
Foot-Race
Gymnastics Competition
Downhill Running
Obstacle Course
Long Jumping
High Jumping
Wife Carry

Tests of Skill:

Hunting Competition
Bobbing for Apples
Archery Competition
Music Competiton
Dance Competition
Drinking Competition
Pie-Eating Competition
Baking Competition
Find-the-Gnome

Luck-Based:

Guessing Games
Raffle
Ghoul Dice

NPC's:

People that were involved in the adventure and contributed in some way, who they can reunite and talk about their success with.
Notable persons from around the area.
People from PC's past who are passing through the area, who present some connection, and opportunity to engage with a backstory.

Opportunites:

Plot hooks to continue the story.
Momentos of the adventure and physical manifestations of the impact it had on the area and community.
Time for the party to spend reflecting.
The arrival of someone important.
Vendors traveling through the area peddling exotic and rare goods.

Here’s the schedule for the festival in Phandalin that I ran after Wave Echo Cave. Feel free to modify it or use it straight up!

-Squash

*I’m thinking every player is a bunny who lives in a small, diverse community, where everyone’s sole purpose is to tend to the daffodils and make friends. The only adversity is when it rain too much, so they have to hold little umbrellas over the daffodils, sitting on each other’s shoulders to get the umbrella over the petals, or construct water diversion structures that route the floods around the flowers. They also sometimes have to resolve social issues, but everything always works out in the end. (I’m thinking a combination of Mouse Guard, and Golden Sky Stories)

**Most of Les Mis is super depressing and everything feels very futile for much of it, and then eventually everyone dies, but then comes back to join in the chorus singing the song of hope which this line is taken from. Maybe this isn’t the best example to fit with my point, but jeez I just couldn’t help throwing a Les Mis quote even if it confuses people.

***Actually there was only once they were really in danger of a TPK, but still, there were a couple pretty close calls.

Booker Starcrash must die: a scenario for the Traveller RPG

2018-07-16T22:05:00.001-05:00

Here's a bonkers scenario I made for my Traveller Campaign set in the Sol System.

The party is contacted by an enigmatic corporate contact by the name of Tegan Rosek. Raised on the low gravity of Mars, Ms. Rosek is tall and unnaturally thin, with jagged silver hair and bright opalescent eyes. She wears a black suit and has a neural interface, kind yet sociopathic.

Her mission is simple: Board the luxury star liner Renegade Spirit while in transit to kidnap Booker Starcrash, the front man of the ThrashPunk group Gory Starcrash.

Rosek wants Booker kidnapped for reasons she is unwilling to disclose (Her boss, the SuSAG megacorp, has fronted him millions of credits worth of an illegal narcotic called Gentixent. To pay back this debt, they want to acquire him to study his biology on how he is able to take so many of the damn drugs.) His band is on a tour of the Sol system and the pay is 2MCr, with a bonus of 2MCr if the kidnapping is incognito and nobody is killed.

The current route for the liner is Amalthea -> Thebe -> Callisto -> Io -> Europa -> beeline through the asteroid belt -> Mars -> Earth.

Shakarkha Class Level 1

Shakharka Deck 2

Shakharka Deck 3

The ship is a SHAKARKHA CLASS STAR LINER (s10, MERCHANTS AND CRUISERS, pg 97) equipped with 12 double beam laser/sandcaster turrets for self-defense.There are 30 staterooms for the crew, 40 Luxury staterooms for the band and groupies. The cargo bay contains mostly equipment for setting up the stage/performance stuff (of which there is a lot), but locked in the vault are 10 tons of illegal drugs and luxuries, costing 1MCr total, as well as 3MCr worth of cash, luxury goods, and rare band items (signed guitars, other things that crazed fans would spend a fortune on.) The lock can be unlocked with Booker’s DNA which, disgustingly enough, has a 50% chance of being available on any of the groupies.

The band itself is a trio lead by Booker, with rhythm guitar and backup vocals by Sammy Thompson, and drumming done by a mysterious man in a gimp suit named The Saw.

The security complement (10 marines) are armed with Combat armor and Laser rifles, and the armory has enough pistols for the rest of the crew (another 30). Besides the band members, there are another 80 groupies/partiers on board the vessel.

The kicker: Unbeknownst to most, Booker himself has had an unexpected reaction to the prototype narcotics - if given an adrenaline rush, it acts as an enhanced combat drug giving him unnatural strength, speed, and stamina as well as hallucinations induced by intense paranoia. If he’s high, stats are FFF47B. Be very afraid.

Another kicker: There’s an assassin on board who has managed to disguise herself as a member of the security personnel. She has been hired by the lead guitar player and backup vocalist, Sammy Thompson, who is jealous of the fame and stardom and wants to take over as front man.

ANOTHER kicker: One of the groupies is a serial killer named Jato. He’s a real fan of the band, but has really come into his stride by forcing people to OD on narcotics.

When the PCs are on board, the ship is having a drug fueled jam session/groupie orgy (as always). Lots of loud music, black lights and strobe lights, booze. If bullets start flying, expect utter fucking chaos, panicking drugged out partiers, an armed marine response, and an unintentional drug enhanced super-soldier...

Booker is either:
1: Playin a rad guitar solo and singing
2: Bangin 1d6 groupies
3: Getting really fuckin high
4: drinking a shitton
5: Arguing with his bandmates
6: PTFO’d

And he is:

1: Onstage

2: in the bar

3: in his room

4: in a groupie’s room

5: in the engineering section

6: in the cockpit

Random staterooms:

1-3: Empty

4-5: Groupies doing one thing from the booker table

6: Dead body (1-3 overdose, 4-6 serial killer)

c9rcle by ianllanas
https://www.deviantart.com/ianllanas/art/c9rcle-336264470

When I ran this scenario, the players got on board by making Booker one of their contacts and getting invited on board. (For those unfamiliar with Traveller, character generation works out as a lifepath system/minigame where they receive skills, life events, equipment, and relationships with NPCS. One player decided that Booker was a friend from college and used a contact slot she earned in character generation to create that relationship.)

Of course, a series of bad decisions and bad luck resulted in a 3-way firefight between the party, the assassin hired by Sammy, and the marines on board, all while a super soldier version of Booker tore groupies in half. Needless to say, they did not earn the bonus in the contract.

The Fundamental Rights of the TTRPG Player and GM

2018-07-14T15:57:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I get on Reddit in the wee hours of the morning and scroll through my D&D and worldbuilding sub-Reddits, drooling at people's gorgeous hand-drawn maps, or stifling my laughter at hilarious accounts of poor decision-making in-game. It's those stories of epic success and failure, sprinkled with comedic relief, that I like to read when I really should be sleeping. But every time I browse these forums, searching for a smile or a laugh, without fail I manage to click on a post detailing someone's absolutely horrendous experience at a table the previous night. Either a player attempted personally to assassinate the GM's arduously-prepped story, or a guy spends an entire session making jokes about a female character's boobs, or a GM introduces an NPC that is at once an Adonis, with the body of a Titan, and a genius at everything, that swoops in and always seems to get the final blow, and can't be killed, and is named some variation of the GM's actual given name.

This hobby of TTRPGs has always been informal by nature; played discretely in a basement between friends, around a card table, with snacks present. There are leagues and organized play, but the majority of people interested in the hobby don't participate in these types of events. This informality is inherent in the structure of the game; it helps people feel comfortable and allows them to pick it up just by going over to a friend’s house and rolling up a character. There's no admission fee, no audience, no stakes. Once you get over the hump of learning the basic mechanics, and you have the aha moment of "I can do anything*?", you've basically been indoctrinated into the cult. The problem, I feel, is in how we teach players the rules. First people learn the big ones, like how a d20 works, and what stats are, and then eventually more niche ones like class abilities and combat maneuvers. There are so many rules in the book, we forget to mention the ones that are most important; the ones that are implied, but never explicitly mentioned. People who are new to the hobby might have a sense of these, but why not include them right out in the open?

I've scanned through many sites and editions of official Dungeons and Dragons products, but I have yet to find a list of these most important stipulations. And maybe that's for good reason. Most of the examples I've thought of are common sense, just some extension of how you should treat people in everyday life. But if it's just common sense, then why do I see so many testimonials online of people who have been hurt, offended, and turned-off to the idea of ever playing a TTRPG ever again?

Some people will be quick to point to the sensitive fact that for many people, playing TTRPGs is one of their only social outlets; for people who feel ashamed of themselves in some way, and want to live as a hero for just a few short hours. Maybe they don't know how to act respectfully and properly in a social situation in the real world, so why would they in a world that is fantasy?

Personally, I think that argument is garbage.

Maybe in a few isolated incidents, that's the case, but for the most part, I think that people who have infamous stories written about them are just:

a. People who have never been told that what they are doing makes things less fun for others.

b. Shitty people who have been told that what they are doing makes things less fun for others but continue to act in the same destructive way.

Option B, I don't think anyone can do anything about. Those people are resigned to operate solely based on self-interest, and they're probably never going to find people who want to play with them, unless they make the conscious decision to change.

Option A, on the other hand, is what I think I can help prevent. So below is what I've come up with. The 8 basic, fundamental, inalienable rights of both a TTRPG Player and a GM. I strongly believe this rule set should be included in any rule book for a TTPRG, adjacent to the rules on what dice you need, and how modifiers function. They might not touch on everything, but they do cast a wide net. There are other supplementary rules and rights that could be included, but I think then they would introduce exceptions into a list that does not, and should not have exceptions. Any infringement on these rights at the very least constitutes a "party foul", and repeat offense is a clear indication of an Option B kind of person.

The Fundamental Rights of the TTRPG Player

1. The Player always has the right to leave the table for any reason.

a. Their absence may cause their invitation to the Game to be revoked, but never should the player be goaded, insulted, or retaliated against in any way as a result of their decision to leave the table.

2. The Player always has the right to request that the GM or another player avoid certain subjects, or reduce the amount of gratuitous language, violence, sexual imagery, etc… If the GM or player refuses to comply, the player may refer to Right #1.

3. The Player should never be targeted by another person at the table as a victim of harassment, pejorative language, or personal denigration, regardless of their character’s decisions.

4. The Player always has the right to speak as much as any other member of the group, and should not be talked over.

5. The Player always has the right to control the actions of their character, and for that character to operate solely under their own volition, unless said character is otherwise manipulated by a foe for a brief period of time.

6. The Player should be able to expect that their character can take actions that are in no way correlated to their real human ability. The Player should also be able to expect that their character in no way must resemble the Player in gender, sexuality, race, personality, etc…

7. The Player should expect that their actions will provoke consequences in the Game.

8. The Player should be able to expect that the other players will arrive on-time to the session and be prepared to play, and will be respectful at the table.

The Fundamental Rights of the TTRPG GM

1. The GM always has the right to walk away from, cancel, or otherwise end a session or series of sessions of the Game.

The GM should never be goaded, insulted, or retaliated against in any way as a result of their decision to suspend/cancel the session and leave the table.

2. The GM should be able to expect that all players will arrive on-time to the scheduled session, and if they must cancel, notify the GM in a prompt and timely manner.

The GM has the right to continue with a planned session, even if there is a cancellation and one or more members do not show up.

3. The GM should expect that all players will arrive prepared to play at the designated time, and will not bring others who the GM has not approved.

4. The GM should never be harassed, denigrated, or otherwise violently or aggressively retaliated against for any decision/ruling that they make.

5. The GM should expect that the Players will attempt to engage with the story presented to them.

6. The GM should expect that the Players will not be on their phones, watching TV, or otherwise intentionally distracted/tuned out while the Game is being played.

7. The GM should expect that they will not be talked over during the Game while adjudication, narration, or NPC dialogue is occurring.

8. The GM has the right to remove anyone from the game who is repeatedly being offensive, making other players uncomfortable, derailing the Game, infringing upon any of the rights listed here, or otherwise being toxic in a manner that degrades the quality of the Game and compromises the enjoyment of the rest of the Players and the GM their self.

Even if you don't think these rights are useful, or that I'm exaggerating the severity of the issue, I would challenge you just to take a look at them before your next session. Keep them in mind, and if you catch yourself doing something that infringes upon another person's rights, correct it. You might find that you check your phone and tune out more than you thought, or that you talk over someone occasionally, preventing them from giving their input. We can all strive to be better players, better GMs, and better to one another, whether that be at the table or elsewhere. I hope this list will at least point people in that direction, and help both new and veteran players and GMs to more fully understand the rules of the game.

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-Squash

*Accompained by the requisite "well you can try to do anything".