A Melorian Siege Burrower (AKA Terror Worm)

(I just landed an unexpected, but very welcome Seminar to prep for and teach in less than 2 weeks, posting schedule will be borked. Expect shorter, less frequent articles, thanks).

Last Friday’s adventure was great.  It was mostly a 3 hour+ set-piece fight but I wanted to duke it out with the players in a no-holds barred slugfest. I cranked damage dealing to the absolute maximum I could without breaking the rules (a design goal of mine). I also did my best to screw with their game plan and use plenty of dirty tricks to give them their greatest challenge in months.

In fact, I did exactly what I wrote about last week.

It was gruesome, tensions rose and player nerves became frayed at times, but they pulled it off without making a single death save (and I tried real hard).

Someone Else is Crashing our Party

We finally started our Gears of Ruin campaign with the most awesome bunch of PCs. We started right where we left off, with the PCs resting for a few hours after their first contact with possessed military grade clanks (mechanical constructs).  They rescued one of 2 agents of Baron Falkenstein’s Intelligence Ministry who urged them to the Factory-mine, some 12 miles further, to save his colleague (he tagged along).

As they moved toward the Baron’s rebellious compound, I described the absence of further opposition.  Ad-libing 100%, I described various acid-eaten gigantic Mortars and broken Boulder-clanks.   The PCs deduced that they had been destroyed by Melorians, the savage, self-replicating, bio-contructs created in the last decade by the previous incarnation of Eric’s Deva Avenger.

As they approached the site, the signs that Melorians were also going there became evident.

Franky: Well, that’s going to be anti-climactic, we’ll get there and the whole place will be a melted puddle of acid.

Chatty: Didn’t you like sleep only 3 hours in the last 48 hours? I’m trying to work with you man.

Unidentified Plot Twist at 6 O’clock!

Shortly before they arrived at the Foundry-Mine where the psychic signal, supposedly at the origin of the Clank uprising, was located,  the Baron’s Spy NPC dropped a rock in the puddle.

Agent: My colleague just died! We absolutely must recover his Watch within 24 hours or his “Transience” (i.e. personality backup)  will be sucked in the Elemental Chas with all he knows.

Rod Stone:  How do you know that?

Agent (points at watch and grins): I’m not supposed to tell you that.

Rod Stone: Can that ‘not supposed to tell us’ tell you where your ‘not alive’ friend is now?

Agent: Wha?

Nar-Beth: Just lead the way to his body.

Agent: Huh? Yeah… That way.

The Falkenstein Works Foundry-Mines

The PCs crested a hill and came upon a the smoke-belching, clockwork-running monstrosity that was The Falkenstein Works Factory-Mines.  A series of buildings and mine tunnels sticking out of a mountain. Surrounded by an electrified, barbed wire palisade guarded by tower-turrets.  The courtyard was filled with refined ore, cranes, piles of crates and drums, huge mounds of dead bodies and clanks walking here and there, some very large.

The compound’s front gate had been crashed open but was apparently unguarded.

Holy Clank: Well, I guess we just need to see what those towers do before we charge…

A flash of light was seen to the party’s right, then a loud thuderclap was heard. A vague odor of ozone and burnt poultry reached them.

Holy Clank: Right, that’s what I thought.

Up next: Mecha in 4e!!!

Credit: Terror Worm image by artist Emerson Tung from The Wandering Men’s upcoming Untold: The Game.

This week, with my post on prepping for my game,cramming it with all the awesome Magitek I can think of and applying lessons from last week’s posts, I caught myself asking, yet again, “Dude, aren’t you just trying too hard here?”  Chances are I’ll spend 4-6 hours of preparation for a 3-4 hour game.  While I’ll likely be setting a solid foundation for the next 2-3 session… one is left to wonder: is it worth it?

If you were to ask that question to my players, most would roll their eyes so far up they would likely pop right out. My friend Yan, Myers-Briggs Mastermind that he is, rarely misses a chance to remind me how much less time he invests in his games that are, overall, pretty similar to mine in scope and play experience, although I suspect he daydreams about it a lot.  Our other group GM, Franky, seems daunted by my dedication to put so much effort in the art of DMing. I sometime worried if he isn’t half-scared that I’ll call the GMing S.W.A.T on him during our monthly Star Wars game.

Nevertheless, when I say ‘trying too hard’,  I means prepping so much game material that an unhealthy chunk  of your free time is sucked out of your life. It also means cramming so many ideas in so few scenes that they become too tangled to play out as cool as they appear individually on paper.

Therefore, I think the question is not if I try too hard as a DM, I totally do, but why I keep doing it after having realized it?  While I almost always overprep games, I often fail to pull off all the potential awesomeness I hope for once at the gaming table.  The ideas end up being too complex, I’m more tired than expected or find myself reacting poorly to an unexpected turn of event.

Let’s not deny that prepping is fun.   If it wasn’t, there would a lot less homebrewed or adapted published adventures.  Heck, even running published ones straight need prep.  I would however  say that should prepping become more fun than actually gaming, chances are there’s a fundamental flaw in your gaming experience that should be explored and addressed before your campaign collapses. I would, however, be curious to see if some GMs would rather prep a game for a friend than run it).

The thing is, I realize as I write these lines that I mainly keep doing it because I’m wired like that and have not reached a point where the disadvantages of doing this outweigh the gains… but I must say that at times, It does.  And when I reach that point, I need to look at my way of preparing adventures and give it a good healthy kick to see what falls off and I don’t really need.

For D&D 4e I realize that weren’t for the fact that I always keep the door open for publication and appreciate having everything (stats, outcomes, descriptions, etc) in one document, I could afford to drop things like templating and as- written mechanics and just page 42 (see Dungeon Master Guide) the hell out of it all.

So what about you?  Do you try too hard and produce prepping works of art that you don’t necessary need?  Do you feel that the work you do is unappreciated by your players (see my posts about giving and receiving  feedback)?  How do you deal with that?

And for those who don’t, I have another Friday Chat brewing for you…

Today, I’d thought I’d share a bit of my adventure prepping techniques for homebrewed adventures.  I’ll start by re-introducing my campaign world and discuss some techniques I’ve been using for planning my bi-monthly games.

Gears of Ruin: Or How Chatty Steals from Everyone for his Campaign.

As many of you know, I’m starting a D&D clockwork campaign called Gears of Ruin set on a dying, water and magic-poor world.  One where the gods nearly lost the war against the Primordials and more or less abandoned this ravaged, but resource-rich husk to its own fate.

The world’s main powers (mostly outerplanar outsiders) are the airborne Humans and their humanoid allies, the fierce native mountain dwellers (like the Goliaths) and the scheming denizens of the Elemental Chaos.

The stakes are high: mineral resources abound, water is a very scare strategic asset and the forces of the Elemental Chaos (Efreet, Demons and Slaads) want to to both destroy the whole place and (in true chaotic fashion) take control of it to invade other planes.

Furthermore, the magic scarcity of this world  has created technological and biological revolutions of such power and magnitude to rival any magi-centric civilizations. This makes the world a prize beyond belief to whomever controls it all AND a multiversal threat should that ever happen.

You can see my description of on technology here.

I’m as excited, if not more, to play this campaign that I was for my Primal/Within one.  I’m pegging its genre as clockwork rather than steampunk because I wanted a more Magitek feel. Plus on a water-poor world, steam machines are downright obscene, making them perfect villain fluff.

From Ideas to the Plan

I usually prep for my adventures on the evenings of the week leading to the game (we play every 2 Fridays baring scheduling issues). But my prepping actually starts on the week before that, I’m just not very formal about it.  When I’m done with a game and I’ve posted the game reports, I start brainstorming where the game will go from the last stopping point.

In our case, the PCs were standing in front of a factory built into the side of a mountain. They are accompanied by a wounded Intelligence Officer of their patron’s government and must recover a second agent trapped within the complex. They have also been tasked to investigate the psychic signals likely emanating from within the factory.

This signal seems to have turned all of the world’s autoclanks (i.e. or non-sentient  programmable mechanical constructs) into homicidal necrotic-powered undead killer robots. Every clank, that is, except for Holy Clank (Yan’s PC), the Hybrid Fighter/Cleric, possibly the only sentient one in the world.

From this premise, I cast out my subconscious mind with the job of making free associations and bringing me elements that would create an enjoyable level 14 dungeon crawl adventure.  My ’specs’ so to speak were to have adventure elements that called to most of my PCs. I also wanted to test explore ways to make dungeon crawling ‘work’ in 4e for me (I may explain why it doesn’t in a future post).

During that brainstorming period, I came up with the concept of the adventure’s villain, a subversion of a classic that will tie in directly with 2 PCs.  While I won’t spoil it, I’ll share the ‘pre-stating block template’ I use for NPCs during prepping:

Description: A one/two sentence describing what the NPC looks like and who he/she/it is.

Background: The story behind the bad guy and, more importantly, why his/her/its plans clash with the PCs.

Agenda: What the villain seeks to achieve in the adventure. This is very important as it will drive the decisions and roleplaying for that NPC through the adventure.

Mechanics (optional): A few notes to guide the design of the combat stat block (if the NPC will have to be fought).

Also, during that time I developed the following setting elements:

• Clanks are the setting’s mecha: all sorts of clockwork machines designed to do work/transportation.
• Auto-clanks are programmable clanks used in repeating tasks in factories and on airships.
• The ‘Baron’ (PCs’ patron) has been developing military warclanks and autoclanks.
• People live in airship cities (or fortified encampments) because raging bio-constructs roam the world, destroying everything and killing humanoids on sight!

All these ideas were obtained while woolgathering (I do a lot of that),  chatting with friends and emailing buddies.  Of course, precious little of this had been written down (this is pre-prepping after all) but by the start of last weekend, I had most of my adventure concept figured out.

For many DMs, like my friend Yan, that (along with a few stat blocs and some rewards/info packets) is enough to run a game.  I need a bit more structure. That’s where the Adventure Plan comes from.

The Adventure Plan

During the week leading up to the game, I fire up Microsoft One-Note (a note-taking application) and I write an outline for the adventure, just like I write outlines for complex blog posts and Standard Operating Procedures at my current job.

Here’s my template:

• Treasure Parcels: A bullet list of magic item levels and monetary value of each parcels.
• Dramatis Persona: List of main NPCs to be developed according to earlier template or copied there if already done.
• Existing Quests: Short list of unfinished quests that are relevant to this adventure.
• New Quests: Short description of new quests introduced in this adventure.
• Player Intro: Recap and/or intro to the adventure.

Structure of the Adventure

• Background: Just enough to remind me what the goal of the adventure is and its context  in our campaign (usually one-two paragraphs).
• Adventure-Specific Mechanics: List of things I’ll need to design in this adventure (monsters, traps, puzzles, skill challenges).

Scene Breakdown (if event-based) or Area Breakdown (site-based) or Hybrid

• Scene 1: Name of scene
  • Goals: What must/can/may be achieved in this scene.
  • Scene Summary: High level structure of the scene, including NPCs involved.
  • Complications/Rule of Cool: Elements to make things more interesting.
  • Expected Outcomes: Short list of possible conclusions and consequences.

or

• Area 1: Name of Area
  • Objectives: Why PCs explore/visit this area, what they may gain from doing it.
  • Threats and Opportunities: What populates the area and how they can be a challenge/interact with PCs.
  • Complications: Anything that may go wrong, make conflict more interesting or blow up in PCs face.
  • Expected Outcomes: As above.

Rinse and repeat.

I then go through the plan time and time again, fleshing it out part by part, adding a new scene here, a stat block there and cutting out things I won’t have time do, shifting scope and adding ideas as they come to me.   All this time, I try to focus on prioritizing what will bring me to a playable adventure the fastest. Getting lost in the details is so easy so I try to be careful lest I start botching it come Thursday night. After, if there is time, I may add more elements like complex traps and such to make things more exciting.

Often, by the time Friday rolls by, I have a nearly complete adventure that only needs minis and battlemaps to be played.  I know I tend to overprep, but I often find myself with material I can recycle into publishable material afterward, so I have an incentive to keep doing it.

What about you? What’s your prepping technique like?  NPCs? Scenes? Regardless of system, I’m curious!

Oddly enough, Dave is also credited in the rules book… and happened to suggest the game to me. 

Anyway, instead of providing another review of the game, I thought I would tell you the story of my ‘character’ to showcase how rich the game is.  Note that while I may flourish the prose of my tale a bit (that’s what being a storyteller is all about), what I will present actually happened during the game.

The Tale of Aladdin

Our story starts with a poor boy called Aladdin who dreams of leaving the city of Bagdhad and discover one of the fabled ‘Places of Power’ that legends talk about (Quest #1). He set off and traveled north through Armenia and Eastern Europe where he stumbled on a talking monkey.  Calling it an abomination upon Allah, Aladdin slew the beast and was cursed by the released demon.  Later, he met a Lost Prince, stole all his gold and got cursed again. (An old persian proverb says “You can’t get cursed twice”)

He then boarded a  an ocean-bound boat manned by a band of rogues that eventually grabbed him while on the Indian Ocean and sent him overboard. As Aladdin was drowning, hands grabbed him from below as he blacked out.

He woke up in the kingdom of the Merfolk and explored its marvels and treasures, trying to learn as much as he could from that hidden culture (Quest #1 completed). That’s where he learned that the Merfolk were preparing to wage war on the surface dwellers.  Our hero rushed back to the surface and reached a nearby Sultan to inform him of the impeding threat.  The Sultan named Aladdin as a peace emissary to the merfolk (Whoa… déjà vu!) and peace was achieved.

Our hero was bestowed the Robe of Renown just as news reached him that the Grand Vizier of Bagdhad had accused him of a vile crime he hadn’t committed.  Aladdin had to sneak back home and clear his name with the Caliph.  On his way back, he was enchanted and got lost for some time, he found some marvelous Roc eggs but had to flee before getting eaten by the mother. He also discovered the fabled Sword of Invisibility lying there on a dead man!

Dodging the guards of Bagdhad, Aladdin returned home and met a beautiful enchantress. He seduced her, she fell madly in love with him and they soon married. Our now legendary hero asked the Caliph to bless their union in the palace.  That’s where Aladdin confronted the Grand Vizier about the false accusations.  Outraged, the Caliph had the Vizier beheaded and named Aladdin as the new one.

End Credit.

I played the game with PM and things didn’t go nearly as well for him.  We’re pretty sure that the game I described above is not a typical experience but more like those people that lose 20 lbs in 4 days on so called miracle diets.  But hot damn was it an awesome game!

Pros:

I can’t describe how much glee I had while playing this game.  It is an explorer’s dream come true.  You have no idea what’s going to happen and while you get eventually are able to influence how the game goes, you are left guessing most of the time.  It feels like the whole ‘choose your own adventures’ and the various skills, statuses and treasures you accumulate allow you to shape how things turn out.

Reading from the book of tales is so cool, seeing the face of the player being told his fate is part of the pleasure of the game.  Even when things go bad for you, it’s interesting.  At least it is for now… I’ll tell you after a few more games.

Cons

The main mechanic that gives  players more control over their fate is represented by status/treasure cards that allow replaying one’s turn after knowing its outcome.  While turns are usually short (less than 5 minutes), this will create longer downtimes and slow the game, especially with 5-6 players.   Also, accumulating many status cards will complicate the game and create more delays.  A variant rule proposes to allow only one status card to affect a player.

Also, much of this game is about reading  stories.  Playing with non-native English speakers could be a challenge, as it would be with awkward, monotonal or slow readers. On the other hand, it would be great reading practice for kids… except some of the tales are pretty mature in content.  Just ask PM what he thought of his stalking love-sick hag.

Finally, the game may be a nightmare for tacticians that need to  know the possible outcomes of each decisions. With over 2000 entries in the book of tales, there’s no way to know how your decisions will shape the outcome of your many encounters.

Conclusion:

Along with Dominion, Carcassonne and Battlestar Galactica , Tales of the Arabian Nights has takes a firm place in my “Games I love” collection.  It seems to my untrained eye that we are going through a board game Golden Age, and I for one welcome our cardboard masters. 

Anyone else tried the game?  How was your experience?

In part 1, I described the “Secret Synergy Bonus” that made players a lot better at dealing with combat encounters that should otherwise be more challenging.  Then in part 2, I started sharing some solutions to bring challenges back to combat encounters, some bad and some easy to implement.

Today, I want to present ideas to make you think about implementing more elaborate solutions to this very interesting phenomenon.  I find the Synergy Bonus to be a very cool aspect of D&D 4e, I’m glad it exists, I just wish it was easier for DMs to deal with when it crops up.  Fortunately, the game offers the best DM toolbox ever created to deal with such issues, all it needs is some creativity and a little flair for “fun” dirty tricks.

Ruin the PCs’ Game Plan

As my players developed into elite adventurers, I noticed that there was a method to their efficiency.  They would pick or settle on a strong point on the battle map. The defenders and leaders would occupy it by forming a line against which the monsters would invariably crash.  The melee striker would then close in and create a triangle with that line, catching monsters in the middle and dishing massive damage.  The controllers and ranged strikers would just stand behind the line and deal death from afar.

I noticed that the sooner the PCs established this (or similar) pattern, the faster they took control of the fight.  That’s what I call the PCs’ game plan. It occurred to me that my goal should be to try to break that plan to swing momentum toward my monsters long enough to worry the players.  Turns out that it worked!

Examples:

• Having lurkers pop behind the ranged PCs a few rounds into the fight
• Having defenders get snatched by flying/tentacled monsters and dropped in the middle of monsters/ in a trap
• Forcing high damage striker to attack minions before reaching juicer targets.
• Traps/magical effects that hit large areas and cause forced movement, sending PCs flying all over the place

Of course the PCs will eventually reestablish control of the fight, but chances are more resources will have been spent and the players will feel more satisfied with the challenge.

Complex Encounters

As I said yesterday, mixing monsters, terrain and traps together can make for phenomenal encounters.  While you can pick and chose encounter elements rapidly as a quick fix, a DM willing to invest some more time can develop his own evil combos and synergies that will rival the PC’s.  Lots of monsters have powers that combine together and with many fantastic terrain and traps.  I personally love ‘pinball’ effects where PCs are thrown left and right on the battlefield into traps and ‘interesting’ terrain.

The trick is to combine various elements together and create interrelationships between them.  Traps are cooler when they interact with PCs and Monsters, fantastic terrain can hide a monster or push creatures into traps and so forth.

Here’s a simple example:

A cave encounter features a bunch of Kuo Toa (Insane Fish men), a few 3X3 pools of what’s apparently water and many Stalagtites/Stalagmites.

The Stalagmites provide cover and have truncated tops that are great shooting platforms for ranged creatures. They can be climbed but they are covered by some gunky sap that deals acid damage to climbers and slows climbing.

The Stalagtites have been weakened by the acidic gunk such that whenever a creature walks within 1 square of one, it falls and crashes in a burst attack (vs Ref), dealing damage and immobilizing creatures hit by it (It also creates difficult terrain).

The pools are very acidic (notice a theme here?) and slightly neurotoxic. They deal acid damage every per round (5 per tier) and slow any creatures in it  (until end of next turn).

But, in those pools are… wait for it…

ACID SHARKS! (Thank you Rich Burlew!)

They are immune to the pool’s effect and have a Grab Bite power, keeping PCs in the pool, getting burned and eaten at the same time.

Finally, the Kuo Toa leader is a Kuo Toa Whip, a controller whose power set includes Sliding PCs….into the stalagmite and pool.

Add a few Brutes, Minions, Artillery (on the  Stalagtites) or Skirmishers and you have a a challenging encounter for your players.

Of course, if your players are truly at “that point”, they’ll eventually crack your setup and start throwing monsters into the pool so THEY get eaten by a shark… but that’s part of the fun of it all no?

For a more extreme example here’s an entry I sent for the Wizards of the Coast Holiday Encounter Contest a few weeks back.   It’s a toy factory line made of dangerous traps.  All monsters have forced movement powers and the line has 2 control panels to trigger traps out of sequence or reverse the direction the whole thing is going.  Tons of fun.

Adding complex elements to split the PCs,  surprise them and screw their game is the way to catch up to them.

Make Encounters not about Combat Anymore

If the players have reached a point where combat is almost always too easy for them. You may prefer to move away from hyper crunchy encounters (like the examples above) and go another way. You might want to have encounters stop being primarily about combat.

What if combat occurred in encounters where PCs had more pressings things to do?  You create scenes where PCs need to perform critical tasks that can’t be interrupted (usually a high-tension skill challenge, one where each failure is harsh  for the PCs) and then have monsters come and interrupt the fun!  Now PCs must deal with the Skill Challenge and the monsters.

In the current issue of Kobold Quarterly, I wrote an article exactly about using skill challenges in combat (woot 2 plugs in one post) to add new dimensions to them (Woot, plug!).

Other examples:

• PCs must find an object hidden in an area, the longer they search for it, the more monsters pop out and attack
  • Indiana Jones Special: The monsters have different roles: Vermin Swarms, Defenders and Rival adventurers!
• Allied Load Bearing King just died and PCs must escape the crumbling castle or be crushed underneath it (a great Skill Challenge just there).  However, the elite guards sworn to die with their deceased sovereign face the PCs, accusing them of murder as the castle crumbles around them (Embedded Skill Challenge or Combat!)!

I could write whole posts about those 3 subjects, and maybe I will if there’s a demand for it.  This is just a few examples to get your brain going.  The Secret Synergy bonus is a great feature of 4e, it’s just that it’s a lot easier to stumble upon it than it is for the DM to master all the elements of the impressive DM’s toolbox to act as a counterweight to it.

I may also revisit this later with a post about helping players transition to the synergistic state.

Thanks for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed my 1st full series here. I’m starting to enjoy myself a lot!

I also discussed that while not a necessity to enjoy D&D 4e, this ‘bonus’ could sneak up on a DM and make supposedly challenging encounters too breezy to create much tension with players.

And just so you all know, I’m currently living through those very issues.  My players discovered that bonus a long time ago and now that we’re into mid-paragon level, most of our fights, while interesting, end up feeling like they could have been harder.  Thus I’ve been in solution-seeking mode for quite some time now.

Today I’ll tackle two types of solutions to bring back challenge into combat encounters with synergistic parties:  the questionable solutions and the quick solutions.  In part 3, I’ll conclude this series with a discussion on using more elaborate solutions to the issue and share some of the tips left by readers.

Less Than Ideal Solutions

When a problem crops up, humans usually look for the path of least resistance to resolve the issue.  We want a simple solution that will resolve everything.

The worse possible solution in my mind would be to try to stifle the bonus by telling players they can’t plot and play like that because it would be meta-gaming (how I hate this word). The game was designed to allow Slayers, Tacticians and Power Gamers (3 of the many types identified in the Dungeon Master Guide) to truly enjoy character creation and combat.   The synergy bonus does not prevent story-telling or roleplaying, but is likely a bonus feature for some players to discover and play with.

Also, to make combat more difficult,  the first reflex is often to play with the encounter’s XP budget and monster levels.  Logic says that if you use higher level monsters, the party will have a harder time dealing with them and thus the fight will be more challenging. However, in practice, while higher level monsters deal more damage (i.e. are more of a threat to PCs) they have higher defenses and more hit points.

So combat encounters may become more challenging, but will also be longer and potentially more frustrating.  Against higher defenses, PCs are going to miss more often and when they do manage to hit, they’ll need to dish out more damage to vanquish monsters.  This is especially true of Soldier monsters. However, some monster types like Artillery and Skirmishers aren’t so bad.  Their defenses and HP are lower to start with and they deal high damage so using higher levels ones can be a workable solution.

I’m also a bit leery of ‘multiply damage of all monsters by X’ and ‘divide all HP by Y.’  I know many DMs use them and I’m the first proponent of house rulings, but in my musings on the subject, these rules may be  patches done to sound game math, if uncalibrated for synergistic parties.

In fact, I’m beginning to suspect that while 4e is dead easy to prep for, it can lure DMs into a form of laziness that is easily exploitable by the synergy bonus.  Blindly fiddling with combat mechanics numbers to make fights more challenging (or to avoid the grind) is risky, but I believe you can do it knowingly.

Quick Fixes

The biggest issue about the synergy bonus is that players get more and more practice playing the same PCs together and become more efficient while the DM is expected to track combat, monster stats, statuses and control monsters (quick tip: Delegate to players and/or software!) The chances of a DM developing such synergies with his monsters during combat  (unless it’s pre-planned, which I’ll discuss in part 3)  is unlikely barring a Tactician DM (Oh yeah, those exist too).

Now while the fixes discussed above aren’t ideal, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t other quick fixes that can help.

First is a little secret I stumbled upon while playing with the Monster Maker Adventure Tool application from D&D Insider.  While creating monsters for my new Gears of Ruin campaign, I noticed that each attack power had 4 damage options: Low, Medium, High and Custom.  Looking at the values, I realized that the low/med/high corresponded to the chart on page 42 of the DMG (and at the beginning of the ‘Trap’ section of the DMG 2).

This made me realize that I could play around with damage outputs within the level range of the p42 chart without changing the XP cost of a monster!  So my first tip is simple:  Max out damage of your monsters attacks by giving them the ‘High’ column of the normal damage section of the table.   If the monster is already at the top, feel free to nudge it up a bit more.  Like Mike Shea of Sly Flourish mentions in yesterday’s comments: feel free to add a +5 damage bonus per tier (Heroic/Paragon/Epic) per attack.

Secondly, add damaging terrain to the fight.  If you sprinkle the battlemap with areas that deal damage automatically when entered (or when a creature starts its turn in it) then you have a more challenging fight.  Remember though, any damage you want to deal without an attack roll should be limited to 5 per tier.  Best of all, there are no XP costs for that.

If you want the terrain to deal those wonderful p42 damage amounts, make the ‘terrain’ a trap with a simple trigger (entering/starting in it), an attack bonus (equivalent to a monster of the appropriate level) and pick a damage amount  from p42 based on level.   The rule of thumb here is that the narrower the trap’s effect is, the higher the amount of damage is.  Don’t forget to factor a XP cost equivalent to a full monster (or a minion if its a one shot trap) but feel free to interpret how many ‘zones’ of damage correspond to one trap and budget accordignly.

You can also use hindering terrain that slows/grabs/restricts PC movement.  Don’t overdo it as getting grabbed/restricted repeatedly gets annoying and encourages PCs to stop moving, which makes combat less exciting for all.

Third, make sure your monster mix is focused on dealing damage.  While you can challenge PCs by stunning, dazing and restraining them to let monsters deal medium damage, this is often a one-way ticket to player frustration.  Massively going after the PCs’ hit points is the way to go here.  You need high damage dealers like Artileries,  Skirmishers, Lurkers and Brutes to worry the players.

Quick Pick Combo

Lastly, you can mix all of the above  for best effect.  Use high damage monsters and increase their damage further as per the table on page 42.  Add damaging or hindering terrain and traps.

More importantly, pick monsters with forced movement powers so they can send PCs into the damaging/hindering zones/traps,  making simple combos of your own!

I’ll get into more details about mixing other encounter elements to make fight more challenging in part 3.

In the mean time, what about your own quick fixes? Some were already posted yesterday but maybe you have stumbled upon your own and you’d like to share.

My Editor-in-Chief and good friend Dave gets stuck with stuff I don’t like as much: editing and housekeeping.

It’s a Win/ Wi… Hmm yeah. I win that one for sure.

If you are a regular CH reader following the main feed, this is not a guest post, I’m now a full  member of the team (with an impressive list of Prima Donna perks).  I hope you’ll appreciate my not-inconsiderable musings from now on.

All right, on with the actual RPG content!

The PCs are too powerful, I can’t keep up!

Many D&D 4e DMs have experienced a shift in their gaming group’s performance since they started playing.  PCs become capable of taking absolutely everything thrown at them with more ease than the game rules assume.  Encounters at the PCs’ level barely make a dent in their resources anymore.

“Dude, I lost, like, just one Healing Surge.”

By that point, higher level encounters are also often dealt with relative ease.

I’m now quite sure this is behind the persistent myth about ‘Unkillable PCs’ in 4e.  I call this the ‘Secret Synergy Bonus’ of D&D and I’m convinced that if DMs don’t recognize its existence (or keep blaming it on something else like ‘Power Creep’), they’ll be stuck with this problem for a long time and may have campaigns crash on them because of it.

The secret synergy bonus theory is simple.  Gaming groups that are used to playing D&D cooperatively will eventually discover that the way the 4e rules were written, similar to Wizards of the Coast’s other bestseller, Magic: The Gathering, encourages them to build and play their characters as if they were each an extension of the same ‘creature’. For those who know Collectible Card Game terminology, a D&D 4e party is exactly like a ‘deck’ made of 4-6 ‘colors.’  If it’s built and/or played sloppily, the party will perform well under its potential, making it relatively easy for the DM to defeat (often forcing number fudging and other DMing tricks to prevent TPKs).  On the other hand, if the party is built with great power combos within and across PCs and if it is played tightly with high focus, it will shoot over the power curve every single encounter.

Spotting the Bonus in Action

It’s extremely easy to spot groups who have stumbled onto this ’secret’ when you walk by their gaming table, they ask each other questions all the time and they listen to each other!

They inquire what other PCs powers do, they compare how they can work together and they level up by choosing new powers as a team. They also ask what others plan to do during combat and, very importantly, they start using delay and ready actions to maximize the effect of each other’s powers.  They ask each other what targets they plan to take down and start planning as a single tactical unit to make sure that PCs aren’t all over the map, diluting their attacks over too many monsters.

When players start doing that, the results are phenomenal and it becomes a positive feedback loop, making encounters easier and faster. The ‘average’ encounter, unless you become creative (oh…foreshadowing!), becomes a trivial challenge.  That’s gaming synergy at its best.

The thing is, many DMs,  focused on writing adventures, weaving stories, or using pre-published adventures, don’t spot or adjust their material to this shift.  They often find themselves left with the feeling that the enjoyment of the game (i.e. challenging players) is slipping out of their control, making them frustrated and giving players a sense that the game is too easy.

Fortunately, we’ll get to solutions in part 2 later this week. (Yeah, I’m such a tease).

What about you? Have you experienced this yet in your gaming group (as a player or as DM)?  If so, has everyone adapted? If not, what do you think is preventing this from happening?

As I stand here by the seaside of Florida, I reflect on the upcoming blog merge with Critical Hits, planned to happen sometime during Sunday Jan 24th. Not so much because I’m having second thoughts about merging with Critical Hits and play the role of Prima Donna (It was my idea after all),  it’s just that in a few days, we’re  going to close something I built with my friend Graham (well he  did the building, I furnished it and brought guests). Something that I’ve been doing mostly solo, and proudly so, since August 2007.

(A HUGE thank you to my many guest bloggers by the way, many of which were nominated in the Open Game Table anthologies 2009 and 2010)

I’m excited about the merge, make no mistake. If things go as planned, minimal changes will be inflicted on readers (our top priority). The original URL and RSS feed will autodirect to the new digs and my blog will start existing in its own corner of the Critical Hits super site.  I’ll be like the grumpy old bachelor with his own separate entrance to the big family house (with full access to the kitchen, of course).

Still, I want to give this old place one last tribute.

Thank you dear website, you taught me so, so much.

I now leave you with enough knowledge of Wordpress to know what I want to do and leave the rest in the capable hands of friends I trust.

I know more about my strengths and limitations than I did 2 years ago when I moved there.  I love to write, I’ve got great crazy cool ideas but I so need an editor.

You helped me prove to myself that I had the skills and the charisma to capture the interest of more than one thousand readers and create a community that cares about what we build and share together.

You allowed me to meet many of my gaming heroes, most of which made me feel like I was just like them, a geek with a passion for RPGs. (Others I scared away… but at least I know why.)

I started and finished some great series over here, chief among those my Robin Laws revisited (thankfully with his blessings), my Dungeon Reality Show series, and my RPG Blog primer series.  My campaign sessions remain my longest standing feature and will remain.  My Friday Chat feature will also remain as it has been very popular.

So thanks little Wordpress install.  I’ll miss you, make no mistake. This is a breakup of the brain, not of the heart.

And thanks to Graham. I may never be able to afford all those Xboxes I owe you, but I appreciate your help beyond belief. I hope I helped you get your current job in some small way.

Now about the merger.  Not everything will be quite ‘prefect’ for the first few days.  I have a new banner in the works that won’t show up for some time. My old one will remain for the time being but will likely clash with Critical Hits’ new color scheme.  Also, sometime during Sunday, comments will be closed while my site is integrated to the Critical Hits database.  So there’s a slight chance that Sunday comments get eaten up during the move, please be comprehensive.

I plan to offer the same sidebars I had before the merge, i.e. archives, best of, blogroll and such.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to run my own “recent comments’ sub-routine (hey! another prima donna demand)  but I’ll try to have a chattydm specific comment RSS feed.

As for what I’ll write once I join them… Well pretty much the same thing. I plan to do what I’ve always done, just in a different venue.  Dave and I spoke of making theme weeks where multiple writers of the site tackle the same subject in their own ways and I’m all for that.  We could also riff off each other’s campaigns and build posts on them.

Also, I have new ideas.  By moving in a wider geek website, I plan to start writing for a wider audience, including the DMs who haven’t been doing this for 10+ years like I have.  Chief among my ideas for new features is a “Pimp the  Dungeon” feature  where I’ll tackle a well known 4e published adventure and show how to hack it to your preferences.

All right, enough sentimentality and promises.  This is it, my last few lines as a solo blogger. Thank you all for following me so far.  I don’t know how most of  you learned about me (but I’m curious) or what exactly made you want to stick around, but know that I value your attention and comments very highly.

I hope I’ll see you all on the flipside.

Talk to you on Monday morning from my new digs.

Peace out!

I got an idea a few minutes ago.  A few days ago, Jonathan Jacobs posted the list of the 375 blog posts nominated for possible inclusion on the second Open Game Table Anthology.  I never got around to announcing the nomination process because I’m really bad at these things… yet I was completely astounded by the following nominations:

http://chattydm.net/2007/09/04/the-rule-of-cool/
http://chattydm.net/2008/02/28/the-rule-of-fun/
http://chattydm.net/2008/12/11/sharing-narrative-control/
http://chattydm.net/2009/07/19/robin-laws-revisited-part-8-improvising/
http://chattydm.net/2009/07/30/for-new-gms-worldbuilding-is-storytelling-complication-complexity-micronarratives-and-your-precious-little-fantasy-world-baby/
http://chattydm.net/2009/07/31/the-one-page-dungeon-codex-and-more/
http://chattydm.net/2009/09/14/roleplaying-games-as-a-teaching-tool/
http://chattydm.net/2009/11/22/cross-class-training-the-10k-hours-gms-teachers-managers/
http://chattydm.net/2009/11/26/cross-class-training-ii-the-teaching-dm/
http://chattydm.net/2009/12/14/creativity-and-the-rpg-mind-part-2-the-right-answer/
http://chattydm.net/2009/12/29/nicos-lego-rpg-assault-on-the-crystal-kings-cave-part-1

12 posts were nominated, and one of those written by the very talented Wax Banxs.

Whoa!  Thank you all, I think I have the most nominations after Gnome Stew… and those guys were  like 8 writers last time I checked!  :)

Anyway, I thought it be a good idea to share with you some of my best reader-selected content while you wait for my return. While I’m at it, I wish to give a shout out to Jonathan who has  been driving this project mostly solo up till now, I wish him the best of luck for part 2!  Thanks for doing this!

Once again, I also want to thank everyone who nominated my posts, it warms my heart to see people care enough to do the little extra needed to get these posts in the hands of the Judges.

I’ll be back next week!

During that time my online presence will be limited to checking emails once a day so don’t wonder why I disappeared from the comments. There’s a chance that spam linkbacks will appear but they are easy to deal with.

I’ll be back by Jan 25th, all ready to tackle new projects like a new Gears of Ruin adventure,  write my 3rd gaming magazine article (one is in the publisher’s inbox) and do a LOT of prep for training seminars.  I also mentioned on Twitter that I’m working on starting a Dungeon Mastering Podcast with both Dave the Game (from Critical Hits) and NewbieDM (from the blog of the same name).  We’ll give you more details soon, we now have a project plan and deadlines!

Also,  as I mentioned last week, I’ll soon be merging this blog with Critical-Hits.com. I don’t have a date yet since many technical details need to be addressed, but we went from the “maybe” category to the “most likely” one.  Dave and Graham are hard at work hammering the details to upgrade CH to accommodate my blog.It will become a special section of the website you’ll be able to access easily from the front page. It will have its own RSS feed, although I hope that many of my readers will discover the excellent material that CH will produce (including lots of new columnists!)

So I’ll see you next weekend, if I succeed in vanquishing the trademarked Were-Rat!

First Contact

This combat encounter had 3 goals:

• Give players a fairly challenging fight to give them a better feel for their PCs’ powers.
• Set a hostile first contact with mechanical monsters, in this case some undead warforged (you read that right)
• Spring  a surprise on the player by playtesting something for a future gaming magazine article.

Freelancer aside: My very first magazine article was published in Kobold Quarterly #12 earlier this week.  I wrote a piece on combining skill challenges with combat encounters.  For a first successful stab at such high writing requirement, I think its pretty decent, thanks to Ben McFarland ’s editing support. Go and get it!!!

I used the D&D Miniature Games pre-drawn Field of Ruin battlemap.  It depicts a battleground featuring debris from a busted airship, siege towers in various state of disrepair and several Siege-Engine boulders.  While we had used that map before, the players later told me that it really worked for this encounter, lending it the perfect feel for the fight.

As the PCs entered the battlemap, a group of derelic warforged, surrounding 2 better-built knights poured out of the remnants of an airship.  All the warforged seemed to be animated by some sort of necrotic energy.  Holy Clank could also hear the psychic commands of the mind behind the rebellion.  It was a strident, enraged mind shouting psychic commands semi-incoherently.  Clank’s inhabiting spirits (the source of his sentience) protected him from the enticing commands.

Minions for the controller? Check.  Undead for the Avenger? Check.  High Target environment for butt kickers? Check.  Absolutely no status effect attack?  CHECK!

The Warforged Derelicts were the level 6 minions of the same name in the compendium database that I upgraded to level 14.  The Warforged Death Knights were simply Helmed Horrors that I re-skinned to deal necrotic damage only.

It’s ridiculous how 4e is easy to customize from behind the screen.

The fight was predictably easy, even though Stef (playing the Dwarven Druid) was absent and things were all fine until the 5th minion was killed on Round 2…

Watch that Rock!

During the next round, I described how 2 of the siege-engine boulders that were shown on the map started making noise, the top of the boulder lifting to form some kind of turret.  Then a panel slid open and a blast of necrotic energy shot from each to blast PCs, dealing lots of damage.

Yan (channeling a certain Mon Calamari): It’s a Trap!

The fight progressed for another round.  At one point an area attack hit monsters and one boulder-blaster, the players asked me if the attack affected the trap.  It should have (I had one countermeasure specifically saying the trap could get hit by a power) but I was too scared to reveal the upcoming punch that I committed this DM sin. Fortunately it wasn’t a really important issue.

Did you just pull an Ed-209 on us Phil?

By round 3, both Knights were bloodied.  (Or oiled?  Or boned?  I’m confused with an undead animate monster) and that’s when the ‘fun’ started.  Both turret Boulders opened up further, turning into humanoid mechanicals made of stone and metal!  Picture the turret as the head and the rest of the body unfolding into an Ogre Sized piece of artillery that shoots you then runs to punch you in the face.

In essence, I had created a Lurker Blaster Trap Artillery Brute…Try to say that 3 times real fast…

That’s not all, when the Boulder Crawlers (as I called them) activated, other nearby boulders opened up to release swarms of ‘Mechanical Death Cockroach Swarms’ (Adapted from a high level swarm).  They were mostly there to allow nerf PC defenses and provide combat advantage to offset the brutes’ horrible attack bonuses.

While cool in theory, the fight kind faltered after the few rounds with the boulder crawlers.  First, as brute, they didn’t hit really often, even with the help of the swarms.  My players are top notch strategists and work well together and with a Warden, a Figther and a Swordmage, being a threat is going to be a challenge.

Thus, with 2 brutes and 4 swarms to fight and no controller, the fight became grindy.  Players stopped describing what their powers did and I even caught myself getting bored enough (alert!) to start getting distracted other stuff on my laptop.  When I realized I was doing so, I tried to snap myself back into focus.

Earlier in the fight, I had described how the boulder-crawlers had this large button thing on their torso… but until the energy level of the game dropped significantly, no one thought it necessary to do so. That’s when I knew my monsters were too weak for the encounter.

I did a ‘patch upgrade” (informing my players) to give the boulder-crawlers  more attacks per rounds and increase their damage output.  When a player decided to pop the button with an athletics check, I described how the monster popped back into a Boulder and could be disabled with a Thievery check at the high difficulty rating for DCs.

No one was trained in thievery… yet they succeeded… for both boulders.  I said it before, I’ll say it again, the revised DCs are way too easy.

Yan: That was a bit anti-climatic…

He’s right, I had a few design flaws in how to deactivate the trap/monster which I identified.  I’ll rewrite it and keep it for that potential gaming magazine article.  For example, I made popping the button a minor, which allowed a PC to disable the trap permanently with a standard in the same round.

Still the fight was cool… my players have all given excellent feedback on the session.

Franky: Dude, it felt like the later Terminator movies!  I really felt like we were fighting machines!

Epilogue

After the fight, they found the wounded intelligence agent who gave them direction to find his second colleague, inside the factory where the psychic signals came from. Also, looking over the remains of the Boulder-Crawlers, they saw the insignia of House Falkenstein on them…

Lessons Learned

• The key to challenging players who perform above the power curve is to exploit the range of damage, attack bonuses and non-XP encounter elements (Puzzles, Damaging terrain) allowed by the game to increase challenge without increasing monster HP, Defenses or level.
• Maintaining high focus on the game will likely always remain a challenge for me, the beer I drink during the game doesn’t help either.
• Using a party creation template works! Those PCs are awesome!
• Starting a campaign with a teaser and then skipping the next game so the DM can go to Florida with his family might be construed as cruelty to players.

Get me some Competence Porn, stat!

The first scene had a few goals.  Introduce the PCs to the first important NPCs of the campaign, give them a quest for the night, but more importantly, make them look good!

The scene started with the PCs waiting to be summoned to show up before their employer, Baron Ezechiel von Falkenstein.  The baron is the tyrant (in the Greek sense of being a commoner rising up to supreme ruler) of the sky-human kingdoms.  His HQ was the airship-city of Castle Falkenstein…

Yes, I’m totally ripping off Mike Pondsmith’s  Castle Falkenstein, the 90s Steampunk RPG.  Hell if you guys haven’t gotten that this campaign is shamelessly stealing from tons of settings and novels, I have a bridge to sell!    This is not a setting I intend to publish, at least not without some heavy duty serial numbers filing off first.

In my defense, I’ve never read Castle Falkenstein, and I think I ended up mimicking Pondsmith’s name selection process.  You see, in tribute to the Girl Genius Clockwork webcomic (another source I’m stealing from), I decided that I’d base the sky-humans on Germanic tropes (i.e. mostly names and the “We’re very industrious and serious” stereotypes).  Thus, I started researching Germano-Austrian nobility names and the coolest one I found to my French ears was Falkenstein, by far.

Where was I?  Ah yes!  The PCs were awaiting the summon to see the Baron, sharing rumours of possible revolt and armed conflict on the surface, not an uncommon occurrence on this water-poor, high-resource dying world (I should get around to naming it soon).

I was careful to pass across that they where honored guests, explaining how they were always escorted by highly polite, white-gloved marines. A new campaign lives of dies on how players feel about their characters and how they connect to the setting.  At level 14, it no longer was necessary to have PCs prove that they were badasses, the whole world knew already.

They were rapidly brought into a military briefing of some sort.  The room had “3″ NPCs.  The Baron, in his military regalia, facing the PC at the end of a planning table looking pained and bored.  There was the Colonel, a bespectacled man, siting quietly, away from the table.  And then there were the Admirals…

I don’t know why I set it up like that, but I pooled all the Admirals sitting around the table into one gestalt NPC.  They had one description, one agenda and one role: Be pompous asses and make the PCs look good.  It worked out perfectly as the players caught on rapidly and interacted with them as an unnamed mass of overweight clueless twits.

The admirals were a bunch of anime-inspired officers (think Castle in the Sky). They were crowding the table, shouting at each other, trying to blame one another for the mess on the surface.  A few weeks ago, all the machines of the Baron’s mines and factories had rebelled at the same time, seizing the means of production and churning out mineral and weapons feeding the rebellion!  The Admirals had been unable to break the revolt and were at a loss.

As the PCs entered the room, an admiral leapt up!

Admiral (pointing Holy Clank): What is that THING doing here?  It should be dismantled and studied to prevent others from developing ‘ideas’!

Holy Clank (Taking is weapon out) : Interesting!  Does that mean I can also dismantle you to see what makes you so noisy?

Admiral:  Baron!  You see! It’s threatening  me, have it destroyed!

Baron: Sit down and shut up admiral. Please sheath your weapon sir. Colonel,  brief them.

Goal…achieved.

The shade-wearing, suit-adorned officer introduced himself as Colonel Zeitgeist, the baron’s Minister of Intelligence and Security.  He briefed the PCs on the situation, telling them that two of his agents had infiltrated into machine-held territory and reported (he tapped his clockwork watch) that a strong psychic signal was emanating from somewhere in the vicinity.  He said that both agents were still alive as their Watch signal was still being picked up.

He also informed the PCs that the machines were stronger and more coordinated the closer to the psychic source the Baron’s soldiers got.  Currently things were at a stalemate as the armies could not safely penetrate the perimeter of the baron’s mines/factories megacomplexes.

He then lowered his voice…

Colonel: The baron has a few prototypes of super weapons, called Clanks,  that could fight the rebellious machines, called warforged, but the actual means of productions are in the factories down there… that’s what’s making the admirals so nervous.

Admiral: We need to throw our elemental portal bombs in there and quick!  We can always rebuild after!

Magma: Hmmm?  What are those?

Colonel: They’re high-powered magical explosive devices that open a portal to the Elemental Chaos, bringing forth elemental vortexes and demons that destroy everything in sight before winking out of existence a few hours later… sucking everything back in… at least in theory.

Magma: Cool!

Vorian and Wrath of Melora (in unison): Are you crazy?

Baron: I will not use these devices unless I get better intel. (To the PCs)  Gentlemen, I believe that you may succeed where those half-wits have failed.  Can you infiltrate this area and bring back more info in what’s happening down there?

Magma (moving to the table’s edge, drawing his sword, making generals scatter like bowling pins): You mean here?

Baron (smiling slightly) Yes, exactly.  Also, if you happen to find the source of the revolt and solve it without my intervention, I would be most pleased.

Eric: Did he have a question mark on his head?

Yan: No, it’s an exclamation point now.

(World of Warcraft quest inside joke)

Colonel: You have any questions?

Holy Clank: Just one.  When can we start?

The players LOVED that scene and so did I!

Up next: Rocky Turret Surprise!

Here’s the 1st game report of what I hope will be yet another awesome campaign.

Dramatis Persona

• Nar-Beth:
  • Female Dwarven Druid from a long established dwarven colony.  Water-seeker that seeks to adapt technology to heal her adopted dying world.
  • Player: Stef.  Motivations: Butt kicking, Storytelling, Casual playing
• Vorian:
  • Githzerai Monk.  Student of a great Gith monastary in the Elemental Chaos.  He was sent by his Sensei to this world to fight Chaos.
  • Player: Mike.  Motivations: Butt Kicking, Story Telling.
• Magma:
  • Earthsouled/Firesouled Genasi Swordmage. A wandering soul from the Elemental Chaos that fled an unpleasant situation with his Swordmage master (and, more importantly, his wife)
  • Player: Franky.  Motivations: Storytelling, Butt-Kicking, Exploration
• Rod Stone :
  • Goliath Warden, another wanderer walking the world, fleeing some past secret.  A creature of few words, The embodiment of the KISS principle and voted ‘best character concept named like a porn star’.
  • Player : Math. Motivations: Supercoolness, Butt Kicking, Specialist (Subverted, he plays one of his first non-arcane, non-ranged PC)
• Holy Clank:
  • Warforged Cleric/Fighter Hybrid (a Dragon magazine option to fuse class features of 2 classes). The first self-aware machine of the world.  Fascinated with squishies as he calls it.
  • Player: Yan. Motivations: Butt Kicker, Brilliant Tactician, Storyteller
• The Wrath of Melora (Awesome name chosen by Eric):
  • Deva Avenger Eco-terrorist. Has been on planet since the war with the Primordial was narrowly won.  Believes that technology corrupts the world further. Wants to Nuke it all and start over.
  • Player: Eric. Motivations: Butt Kicking, Instigation, Psycho-Drama

I have to confess… these are possibly the coolest characters I’ve seen in recent memory.  Not just the mechanistic aspects of them, I mean they are fairly normal, if exotic PCs mechanically speaking.   Yet, the added dimension of filling the party template together  (and nudging  players to conceptualize everything in terms of simple, powerful one-liners) has given each PC depth that would take months of gaming to achieve.

The only one that worries me a bit is Rod Stone because his ‘thing” is to play the silent, simple type.  I hope Math develops some sort of ‘Native Warrior’ feel to his PC that will transcend his tame baseline.

Game Report, Cliff Notes

As is now my usual practice, I’ll summarize the adventure and go in more details in later installment of the report.  It was a very good game yet it ended on a downward curve in terms of participant energy and climax, nothing dramatic, just something I know I can fix.

Here goes:

Amid rumours of massive revolt in the surface mines and factories of the human holdings , our heroes are summoned to the war room of the City-sized airship Castle Falkenstein (yup a tribute). They are mercenary agents of Baron Ezechiel Von Falkenstein, lord of the Skyhuman realms.  There, through the chaos of panicking incompetent generals, they learn that indeed, an out of control machine revolt is ongoing in all mines and automated factories in the Baron’s surface holdings.

Before generals get the green light to start dropping something called ‘elemental portal bombs’ on the various points of revolt, the Baron wants more data and assumes the PC can succeed where normal soldiers and intelligence agents have failed.  The adventurers accept to investigate what seems to be a strong psychic signal coming from a large military factory.

As they approach it, on a battlefield of ruined airships and siege engine boulders,  they clash with a continent of remote-controlled warforged warriors powered by some necrotic source.  As the battle progressed, the heroes are surprised by the transformation of 2 Siege engine boulders into war turrets that blast necrotic bolts of energy!

Stranger still, as the strongest warforge warriors falter, the turret boulders unfold into very large humanoid mechanical constructs while other nearby boulders open up to release swarms of mechanical insects.

The battle raged on until the adventurers figured that the constructs could be crunched back into turret mode by poking them in the chest with a weapon or a rock.  Thus were the machines eventually disabled and dealt with.  After the confrontation, all machines, including the boulder-crawlers were found to belong to  the Baron.

The adventurers found and healed a lost intelligence agent and, following his instructions, moved deeper in the occupied zone…

In Part 2: Competence Porn, D&D style!

I reused the expression more recently. Of course, this made my friend Chgowiz twitch because he espouses a completely opposite philosophy which is “Failure should always be an option”.  After discussing it, we decided to make this an He Said/He Said double post about the subject.  And to talk from a common point, we woulduse the same example as a source, a recent post that appeared on the Retro-gaming blog (we decided to keep the blog private to spare the guy unasked for attention.  The blogger in question is free to pipe so I can  link to him).

You can see Chgowiz’s take on the subject here.

The Situation:

In his adventure, our Retro DM has players that are new to tabletop RPGs and can only play a 3 session adventure.  They start their second session with an open ended plot: “Track down a key in the hands of a a group of guys led by a lvl 5 Magic User” I assume the game system is either OD&D, 1e or a clone.

The NPCs stop for the night in an abandoned Guardhouse and the PCs catch up to the bad guys. There the DM is stunned by the party’s decision to knock on the door of the guardhouse.  Totally caught by surprise by what I suspect the DM considers suicidal folly (flag), the blogger tries to avoid a TPK (flag) by ‘unrealistically’ (in his opinion, flag) having the much stronger bandits make no noise to convince the party to leave.  Then the party tries breaking down the door, forcing the DM to act.

The DM finally came forth and told the players they were too outmatched to survive this (probably breaking immersion in the DM’s opinion) and requested they come up with an alternative plan.

The Analysis

Before I turn the situation to you,  I want to mention a few ground rules.  All GMing situations are easy to judge and analyze in hindsight. When you are away from the GM screen or when it’s not your screen, no situations seems difficult.  So I’ll try to keep all this in mind when I share my insights in this and I ask you to do the same .

The flags I raised in the situation have one common element:

• Totally caught by surprise by what I suspect the DM considers suicidal folly
• Absolutely Avoid a TPK
• Make the Bandit act ‘unrealistically’

In this situation, I think that the ‘Can’t afford to Fail point’ is that the PCs could not be killed by the bandits (further reading of the comments shows another ‘can’t fail’ that I will leave to Chgowiz).   It would have brought the game to a screeching halt too early for the new players to sink their teeth in the joy of D&D.

But that’s a dead dnd only in the DM’s mind because he decided that only logical consequence for player failure/sub-optimal strategies/stupidity in this adventure is death…

Guys!  Stop doing that!  That’s NOT true!

Yet I understand the DM, i really do.  I’ve been there hundreds of time.  There’s something about having bad guys with weapons that make it seem logical and almost inevitable to try to kill PCs whenever they meet.

Here’s an alternative: If the PCs decide to knock on a lair filled with more powerful NPCs, make a memorable fight where PCs feel they may have a chance but ultimately fail to the whiles of lady chance.  However, don’t tell the PCs that the Bandits are fighting without trying to kill them.  I know OD&D and 1e have no/broken subdual combat rules, but screw that!  Use 4e’s “at 0 HP your PC is KO if the NPC wish it so” and move on (if they complain, kill their PC as the rule demand).

Then have them all wake up at dawn, tied up and have them plead for their lives with the bad guy, possibly sending them on a side-quest.

Thus, the main  quest may be  post-poned and a new one starts.

Oh and if the PCs kill the bad guy?  Well, lady chance can be a bitch, I hope you don’t grow too attached to your NPCs.

My Conclusion

Plot dead-ends happen for 2 reasons.

1. The adventure is planned too inflexibly to allow for creative player input, in such case, break the adventure, you’ll fix it later.
2. The DM has a series of pre-ordained consequences for failure that he’s not actually comfortable seeing through. In such cases, change the consequences to cooler, more appropriate ones.

And if you’re really stuck, call a break, take 5 min and ask yourself the 4 questions of improvisation.

Your Turn

Plot Dead Ends, Retro DM’s or yours…  How do you deal with them?  Are they an issue?  Come on, be honest… Heaven knows I have been in my game reports.

I also have a good feeling why the 3rd party module market has dropped (I’m excluding Wolfgang Baur’s Open Design 4e projects because they are patron financed):

• WotC corners the market for ‘generic’ adventures that fit in the official worlds with D&Di and dead tree adventures.
• Some publishers create adventure models incompatible with 4e’s design philosophy (the DCC is a likely candidate, worked great in 3.x, not so much in 4e).
• The financial crisis has hit this ‘non-essential’ part of the industry hard.

Again, my gut feeling tells me that there’s a nook that can be exploited for adventures written under the auspices of the Game System License.  Adventures written based on a different philosophy than previous projects (learning from them).  Adventurers that break the mold in more than one ways.

I smell a business opportunity!

As it so happens, for D&D 4e, writing adventures is what I want to do most.  Now that I’ve sunk my teeth in a 5000 word adventure, I’d love to tackle a 32 pager.  But I also want to be paid an amount a money for it that corresponds to my skills and experience (irrespective of the capacity of this market to pay).

Choices need to be made.

As a freelance adventure writer that leaves very few possibilities:

• Write for WotC
  • Pros: Highest pay rates, highest name recognition, owns the trademark
  • Cons: High barrier to entry, slow/opaque submission screening process, getting paid can be a challenge
• Write for Open Design/Kobold Quarterly
  • Pros: Decent pay rates (for RPGs), excellent reputation, highly professional, rapid responses
  • Cons: KQ takes no adventures, Open Design does but requires familiarity and experience in their patron system
• Write for Goodman Games
  • Pros:  Very approachable staff and owner, established brands, highly recognizable name
  • Cons: Low rates, low product flexibility, editing issues
• Write for an untried/developing imprint (ex: Expy games, Nevermet Press)
  • Pros: High product flexibility, easy to pitch to, very low risk
  • Cons: Uncertain pay rate (often profit sharing), unproven track record and leadership
• Start your own imprint
  • Pros: Full liberty, very instructive experience ( be it in success or failure)
  • Cons: Very high risk, difficult quality vs Cost decisions, Wide skill set needed ($$$), uncertain sales level.

Part of ‘The Plan” for me is to hit all of those over the next year… and this may include the last one (likely in partnership with other like-minded souls) if we conclude that the RPG market is a viable use of  the growing writing talent around us.

In part 2, I’ll do a high-level review of current 4e adventure and share elements that I’d like to see more of in D&D 4e adventure, maybe elements I could cover.

In the mean time, let me know about your own experience with 4e published adventures, publication plans, imprints you like/own/plan to open.

During my scientific training I was thought never to keep a punch till the end if I wasn’t writing a story.  So here it is, I’m seriously considering merging Musings of the Chatty DM into the structure of my friend Dave’s Critical Hits* while keeping a clear, recognizable spot on their website.  I’ll go into details below, but at least the cat is out of the bag.

Like many nerd projects, one often feels the need to move on once things have been mastered.  And while I LOVE writing Musings of the Chatty DM, I’ve grown weary of managing its infrastructure.  That’s why I haven’t changed themes in 2 years, that I don’t try to fix my Feedburner issue, that I hardly ever think of changing the speech in the bubble up there.

Oh and don’t ask me about hacking attempts!

As The Plan unfolds (i.e. my 2009-2010 career reorientation), I realize that I want to write, not learn css or how to secure SQL databases.  While I’m surrounded by people who have done it for me for free, I’d rather work with someone who’s more into it than I am.  As a writer and a teacher, 30 months of blogging taught me that writing and answering comment is what I want to do most.

The idea to merge with Critical Hits came to me while I was answering one of Dave’s recent emails.  He was observing that CH’s original crew (a group of pre-college friends) was re-focusing on real-life issues and that keeping the original schedule was going to be harder.  He was asking us for ideas on addressing this.

I then proposed the merge as a huge ‘what if’.   I no longer post 5 days a week and neither could Dave.  I was weary of managing the behind the scene stuff of a Wordpress blog  while Dave wasn’t.  What if we merged?  A Win/Win seemed possible.

Of  course, when we started talking about it more seriously, I shared my main expectations on this.

• The chattydm.net/com domains would need to be maintained and link to a specific area of Critical Hits where my stuff could be found and well laid out.
• A chattydm-specific RSS feed so readers could keep following my stuff.
• I get to keep full editorial control of my posts, Dave offered some proof-reading and grammar-checking (yeah, I would  need that).
• A dedicated space on the site’s front page where readers can find my stuff like it was a feature on those ‘Magazine’ Wordpress themes. (i.e. the site would be redesigned)
• Give readers who would prefer the  ’ChattyDM’ experience to come in directly, read/comment and leave (actually that one is from Dave, how’s that for service?)
• I keep full publication rights to my posts for possible future blog anthology books.
• The old ChattyDM blog would be closed (there are security reasons behind this)
• A written agreement would be put in place.

None of these seem to be a deal breaker so Dave and I will explore this further.  In essence, I would become part of the Critical Hits team, while at the same time having my own ’section’ of the website doing my Chatty DM stuff.

Heck, I could write about Video Games and movies more often!

But before we do this, I want to ask you what you think!

Given that I will likely go forward with this (barring no technical or contractual obstacles), I’d like to know what your gut reactions tosuch a move would be?  As Chatty DM readers (and potential CH readers too), I would also like to know what your expectations would be to keep you as contented readers during and after the move?

While I’ve always said I write for myself first and foremost but now that we’re about 2000 here, you also get to say your piece.  We’ll pay attention I promise.

So fire away!

*Critical Hits is an Ennies-nominated blog that talks about RPGs, Boardgame, game designs, gaming news, movies and all things geek.  It’s the first geek blog I started reading 3 years ago before I launched Chatty DM.

After having read the first chapter of the Dungeon Master Guide 2, Mouse Guard and having heard about several games where character generation is part of the shared game (i.e. you do it with all players around the table), I decided that we would try doing the same thing for that new campaign. So we decided to make the first session into a character/party generation session.  We had it shortly before the holidays  We spent some time on it and then we did a trial fight to test the PCs.

Thus I thought I would share the annotated version of this “party building template” I built for our campaign (a series of objectives, setting elements and questions to be answered as a group).  I’ll also share some of the cool answers we got.

(Start template here)

Objectives of the Session:

• Create, with player input, a cohesive party
• Create an overarching mission for the party
• Create locales that have a special meaning for each PC

Notes: This was my road map for the preparatory sessions leading to the campaign.   If you adopt a similar template this is where you write your expectation as a DM for the character/party generation session.

Highlights of the World

• Water poor
  • Deep Wells (rare and guarded)
  • Imported from other worlds ($$$)
  • Ice mining from polar caps.
  • Transported from open portals in Elemental Chaos.
  • Drained from people.

• Surface world very harsh
• Most ‘civilization’ is into Airship “towns” or Mountain Cities.
• Some fortified outposts on the surface, built around strategic resources like Iron, Water/ice or equivalent material.
• There are no ‘kingdoms’ or ‘countries’ on this world, just companies, guilds and factions that have a vested interest in this world.
• Unless channeled through from the Elemental Chaos Magic (Arcane and Spirit) is too weak to be invoked without the help of clockwork machinery embedded in magic items, implements or the equivalent of the Wrist watch, an armoured clockwork catalyst.
• Most of the Airship borne factions and companies are Human-centric of vaguely Germanic origins.
• Airships fly because of Helium (lift), precise manufacturing (constructs) and Clockwork.

Notes: I don’t have a Wiki yet for my campaign’s setting so these notes were mostly mine, to present to players and use them as a reference during the upcoming steps of the session.

Names of PC:

• NarBeth the Waterfinder (Stef): Dwarven Druid, born on this world, in a dwarven colony established here over 100 years ago
• Magma (Franky): Earthsoul/Firesoul Genasi Swordmage, voluntarily exiled from the Elemental Chaos. “It’s all behind me”.
• Vorian (Mike): Githzerai Monk from the Zerthaldlun Monastary in the Elemental; Chaos. Fights the influence of Chaos on this world.
• Holy Clank (Yan):  Warforged Fighter/Cleric Hybrid.  ”Squishy things are mysterious and must be understood”.
• Rod Stone (Math): Goliath Warden. Big  and strong… and running from something.
• Eric was missing, he’ll likely play an Avenger. I’m pushing him to make some sort of ecological terrorist of a radical nature cult.

Notes: While the players were giving me their PC names they were also sharing their backstories so instead of stopping them, I noted the main idea and asked for an extra element in the next section (see below).

Party Cohesion

Each PC provides a 1-2 sentence story/background for his PC

• Holy Clank : Squishy things are mysterious. Very curious about out of ordinary phenomenon.
• NarBeth: A water Robin Hood. Finds freshwater wells for poor surface dwellers.
• Rod Stone:  Wanderer, counts coups.  Still searches  for his role in the world.  Has had high stress recently in his native cloud-top village.
• Vorian: Seeks to attain harmony of body, mind and soul.  Emotions get the better of him in stressful situations but he tries to control it.
• Magma: Voluntary exiled from the Elemental Chaos, seeks his lost path.  Two opposed personalities Stone/Fire.

Notes:  This is pure story gold.  I’ve was handed a gift basket of what the players wanted to achieve with their PCs and everyone around the table learned  a simple fact about each other PC.

Each PC creates 2 positive relationships/links with 2 other PCs  (We only had time to do one each  so far)

• Holy Clank:   Developed a friendly competition with Rod Stone about all physical feats.
• NarBeth: Along with Holy-Clank, has made Airship-City Deputy Minister of Security of headquarter crazy with their experimenting with dangerous technology on the main-airship.
• Rod Stone:  Likes to follow Magma’s impulsion, makes life exciting and simple .
• Vorian: Sought Magma out,  following the instruction of his sensei in order to  help him find “The Path”.
• Franky: Sought out a Warforged, met one on a battle field (Holy Clank), fought on the same side.  Became friends.

Notes: If you were to borrow just one ‘question’ from this whole template, I’d say use this one.  By asking players to create positive relationships you require players to start asking the thorny ‘why are we together?’ question at the best possible moment, when everyone is willing to be cooperative all excited about a new campaign.

Each PC creates a Tension with a PC he has no relationship/link with

Notes: We didn’t get to that yet.  This is a nice little drama tool where players get to create little ’stress fractures’ in the party to explore later. Great for Psychodrama-driven players and helping players roleplay PC/PC scenes.

Each PC creates a friendly NPC he is linked to

• Holy Clank:  Killinerix, Adult Bronze Dragon. Philosopher, keeper, mentor and friend.
• Nar-Beth:  Ratchet,  dwarven mechanic and mentor, teaches the Druid about technology.  Also the party’s airship mechanic.
• Rod Stone:  Perre-Grina . The youngest girl of his village’s Chieftain, she’s just too friendly.
• Vorian: His sensei in Zerthaldlun who sent him into this world. Vorian trusts him implicitly.
• Franky:  The “Old Mage in the Park”, an old Archmage who likes to talk about everything and nothing.

Notes: How cool is it to start a campaign with a full set of friendly NPCs?  Plus, I’m a great believer of the one-sentence NPC. And yes, the party starts with its own Airship and crew. Lucky dogs…

Each PC creates an enemy/rival NPC

Notes: We didn’t get to that either.  This is to allow players to create their nemesis and enemies in advance.  This will make your Storytellers really happy.

Each PC creates a locality he/she’s related to.

Notes: This is where players create taverns, temples, headquarters, gardens and so on that have significance to them. They can help to inspire you for creating adventures.

And that’s my template for our next D&D campaign.

Do you know what is the biggest selling point here?  The players won’t feel like they have to do any work. In exchange for one or two hours of game time, we fill the template which often feels like we’re actually playing the game (although the storytelling part), giving the DM a ton of useful leads for the campaign and gives the player some solid bases to start adventuring together.

Do try to keep this as short as possible, as your Power-gaming butt-kickers will start becoming restless after the first hour.

Anybody else, in D&D or other RPGs use something similar?  What kind of questions do you ask?  What would be the benefits for your groups of using a similar template.  What would be the downsides?  Let me know!

As is becoming a tradition on Musings, this is when I look over last year’s goals and set new ones.  I say goals and not resolutions because resolutions are all about ‘have to, and should, and ought to” and I have zero tolerance for that passive aggressive guilt-ridden crap.   Objectives are things you strive for, resolutions are things you hope to achieve, like  maybe, if I feel like it.

So onwards to the objectives.

RPG Writing and Online Presence

Looking over the 2009 list and given the state I was in when I wrote it, I’m impressed to see just how much was achieved.  Without rehashing yesterday’s post, I was able to recapture the fun of blogging and put Musings back on track.

It’s not as meaty as it used to be, I post less often but it sits exactly where I want it to be. It remains my little corner of this digital gamestore where I talk about my campaign, debate ideas, flirt with Indie games and describe my quest to become a better GM.

In 2009, I targeted a few up and coming writers and tried to give them a nudge here and there to get them to consider taking it to the next level (Submitting ideas for publication).  It might be weird for a guy who hasn’t actually published anything in 2009 to do that, but you have to understand I’m as much a teacher as a writer.

More specifically, my talent-senses have zeroed in on the guys who hide behind the aliases of Wyatt Salazar, Gamefiend and NewbieDM.  These guys ooze potential, quite possibly more than I do. I like to think that I helped them a bit over the last year and will continue doing so over the next one.  Be on the lookout for them.

I also did go to Gen Con but I never got around to publishing an e-book.  Missing just one Online objective isn’t bad.

I also officially started writing for RPG publishers, with one 4e adventure and 2 gaming magazine articles written, I overshoot last year’s objective. Yay!  The adventure and one article will see publication for sure.  Let’s hope the other one does too.

For 2010 things are going to be the logical progression of what was started in 2009.

• Maintain the blog , tackle and complete cool series like the ongoing one on creativity.
• Go to PAX east and Gen Con with the primary mission of playing and having fun (less working and schmoozing. Well… Some schmoozing)
• Build myself a name in the RPG industry outside of the online community (more gaming articles and pitches for magazines like Kobold Quarterly, Level Up and Dungeon).
• Make a pitch for one major D&D 4e product (like a 32+ page adventure or a guide)
• Publish at least 2 e-books of material based on my Blog.

Other Objectives

I’ve discussed my personal life too much in 2009 so I’ll spare you the review.  Suffice it to say that re-achieving balance and serenity was only the first part.

I’m also building myself a teaching, translating and non-RPG writing business.  I seriously doubt that it is viable to make a living as a freelance RPG writer and I want to expand my writing horizon further out. I will remain a Hobby-lancer because RPGs are one of my passions. Just don’t be surprised when you see my name pop in other types of blog.

(If you write such a blog, I’d love a guest post invite).

And who knows, maybe I’ll find a way to support my family without needing the ‘day job’ anymore?

So there you have it.  2010 will be about building a name outside of the Blog/online arena and implementing the changes that started in 2009.

What about your goals?  Any armchair designers getting ready to swim with the sharks yet?

But I don’t quite care about that. 

The Year in Review

Oh man what a year.  Last year you could taste the the first signs of the rapid unraveling of my mind in my Dec 31st post.  To say that the first half of 2009 was anything less than hard and painful would be a lie.  Not that my life or job were bad.  My family was spared from all the unpleasantness of the financial crisis.  As I’ve discussed before, like many creative minds out there, I found myself touched with Bipolar Disorder as I went through my 2nd severe depression in 6 years.

Instead of bearing this moniker as a mark of shame, I decided to openly profess what I suffered from and fully accept that I would likely take medication to treat this for the rest of my life (baring a scientific/spiritual breakthrough to explain it).  Had I been a more famous person, I’d likely have written a book about it.

Maybe I will someday.

Fortunately, the medications not only left my creative mind intact (it’s not always the case), it has helped me lower the volume of noise in my overactive mind and helped me focus my ideas more. So much so that during the first half of 2009, while feeling miserable for myself and overly anxious all the time,  I was able to actually start and complete multiple projects:

• I wrote a short D&D 4e adventure for Goodman Games entitled ‘When Madness Seeps through…‘ (yeah, how ’bout that, eh?) to appear in the From Here to There anthology to be published in February 2009.
• I met the inimitable Chgowiz, we ran the The One Page Dungeon contest and published the One Page Dungeon Codex
• I tackled an unfinished project and wrote a Primer for the Dungeon Reality Show.
• Following a positive response by Wizards of the Coast for a D&D for Kids adventure proposal made in late 2008, I wrote an extensive outline for a Feywild-based Goonies-like adventure. I’m still waiting for their official feedback (but it got me to learn how to write an official submission)
• I wrote a gaming article for a well-known gaming magazine.  To be published in early 2010.
• I started creating my own D&D 4e adventures for our campaigns with the highly successful Primal/Within arc.

I went back to work in June of 2009 with The Plan (Get better, Get projects, Go part time, Freelancer) the hell out of it) and everything went up from there. Incredibly so!

At Gen Con, surrounded by friends I trusted, my impression that I could be a successful RPG writer was confirmed. Slapping hands and giving bro hugs to guys whose adventures/book I had purchased the year before (or whose websites were so much bigger than mine) gave me back the confidence that had eroded while my mind rotted in the grips of depression.

Getting invited by Chris Sims to have a few beers with him, a few other WotC freelancers (Hi Miranda!) and some WotC designers and mad geniuses was one of the high non-gaming points of the con.

After Gen Con, the focus was on stabilizing my full time job while I explored other possibilities.  My anxieties slowly abated as did my depressive moods.  I sent out resumes to colleges and universities (for continuing education job and training seminars).

I also sent a pitch for a Kobold Quarterly article that was accepted.  In fact, I just finished writing it yesterday.

Then, by a near-freakish series of coincidences, I scored a dream part-time (about 12-20 days a year) training seminar gig that pay near 4 figures per day. I just happened to contact the center’s director the week before he completed his winter course catalog. I sent him pitches for 3 courses and he really wanted to add them to his list!   Then, he lost a teacher one week before a course and I accepted to take over it and the students loved it, scoring me another new course in the aftermath.

At the same time, at the behest of Chris at WotC, I launched myself into a 6 week project of brainstorming for crazy cool adventure ideas for inclusion in Dungeon magazine.  It culminated in what I hope are killer pitches sent in early December.   Whatever comes out of this, I’ll have learned to write enticing RPG pitches this year.  If it does works, it will be part of my 2010 portfolio of projects.

Right after that, I asked my day job if they’d consider dropping me to 3 days a week… and they said yes, with no conditions!  Letting me understand they’d rather keep me part time than lose me outright.

Wha? Okay!

So starting next week, I’ll be working 3 days a week as a Quality Assurance Project Manager in my Pharmacogenomics Center and spend 2 working on my courses, blog and writing projects.  This is so cool.  And that’s not all, a local vocational college called me to schedule an interview in January to teach pharmaceutical manufacturing classes.

Wow!  On January 1st of 2009, I would never have believed how my life would turn for the better in such a short time.

The dream is back and I have an ongoing plan for 2010!

The Tribe

Throughout this year, one element ties my recovery to the way things have been turning up lately.  My Tribe.

I define the Tribe as the post-modern family.  It combines the elements of those in your family you hold dear, your close friends and all those you’ve let into your circle of trust. In my case, that includes my wife and kids, my mother, my gaming group, some online friends, etc.  People, I’d drop everything to help and those who have done the same for me this year.

People I care for and trust have told me to drop everything and write, others have helped me build The Plan, others did simple things like kicking me into gear and getting me to register for Gen Con when I was convinced I didn’t deserve it!  The Tribe supported me in my doubts and nudged me to get better.  People from my Tribe have called contacts to give me leads for teaching gigs.

But best of all, most of my Tribe has been repeating this near-Mantra to me on a nearly weekly basis

“Are you still taking your meds?”

They all know that my biggest threat now is myself.  I’m better now, better than I have been in years! In such cases, people with my condition often stop taking medication, thinking they no longer are ‘in danger”.  Few people understand that Mood Stabilizers act to prevent manic phases (the ‘fun’ part of bipolar disorder) and that depression are, in part, triggered by the biochemical ‘cost’ of such manic phases.

So yes Tribe, thank you for asking, I’m still taking them.  I’ll take them as long as a better treatment isn’t discovered.

More specifically, I want to thank the following members of the Tribe for this year.

My wife Alex: She was under no obligation to stick around through a second depression, heaven knows she didn’t deserve this. Still she did and I am eternally grateful.

My children Nico and Rory: They are the light of my days. I spent hours with them during my at-home recovery and we forged strong bonds that I hope will long remain.

My mother: She believes in me and doesn’t care about money and status.  She’d rather see me starved and happy than rich and miserable. She planted the seed of The Plan in my mind.

Mathieu: Long time friend, playing RPGs with me since we’ve been 13. He’s my reality check guy. Helped me write The Plan and checks on my mental health periodically. Thanks bro.

Dave the Game: Nudged me when I faltered and strong believer in my talents.  Collaborator and partner in many of my upcoming projects. I think we teach each other stuff about being writers by working together. Expect to see both our names to appear near each other in coming months.

PM: Always ready to provide an oasis of Geek when things became too dark to face, PM has stoked the fires of my creativity and is everything an overlord would expect of a potentially backstabbing  loyal lieutenant. 

To those and many others, I thank you.

And to you dear readers.  You stuck around when things were gloomier.  Yet I see your numbers grow daily (near 2000 now) and am amazed that so many drop by to have a quick read or a quick chat.  Stick around, the fun is only starting.

Tomorrow: Chatty’s RPG goals for 2010!

Cave of the Crystal Kings

I set up the second and final encounter of our little game by piling books and boxes to create a ‘throne’ for the Crystal King.

Chatty: All right,  the king awaits your arrival.

Nico: Oh Dad, wait, I’ve got these gems in the Rock Wrecker.

Chatty: You mean those Crystals Outgrowth you put on top of the machine?

Nico: No, there are nicely cut gems in this little box here, can I use those?

Chatty: Sure, what do you want them to do?  Do you want them to allow you to ‘re-roll’ a contest?

Nico: No, Can they explode if we throw them?

Chatty: Sure!

Nico: And the Crystal Outgrowth can be used to re-do a contest okay?

Chatty: Great!  Let’s see who starts (I win the contest). Okay, The Crystal King picks up the newly created Lil’Crys and throws it on top of your Rock Crusher.  It will try to eat your Crystal Outgrowth to steal your ‘re-rolls’

Nico: No!

Chatty (Winning the contest): Okay it lands on your Wrecker.  What do you do?

Nico: I shoot the Wreckers’ net at him! (Misses the contest).

Chatty: I eat a Crystal, Yum!

Nico: No!!! I shoot a gem at him! (Misses) Since he’s going to eat all the crystals, I’m, going to use them! (Misses another time before winning).  Yay!  He’s caught in the blast, falls off the Wrecker and the machine crushes him.

Chatty: Poor lil’Crys.  Okay, the Crystal King gets real mad.  He’s a large monster so he gets 2 actions okay?

Nico: Okay!

Chatty: He jumps from his throne and lands before the Crusher (Wins contest) and tries to rip out the Wrecker’s cab roof to try to eat the driver! (Wins contest)

Nico: I use another crystal (there were 2 left, he won the contest) so instead of ripping the cab’s top, I ram you with the Wrecker real hard.

Chatty: Okay, the King gets knocked back onto it’s throne.  It screams in anger. What now?

Nico: I shoot a stick of Dynamite in its open mouth.

(Why does that sound familiar?)

Chatty: Huh Oh.  Okay (Nico wins contest).  The King closes is mouth on the dynamite, surprised and not too sure what just happened.  Then he explodes.  Good job Nico.

Nico: Yay! I take all the crystals!

And thus was the game concluded.  It lasted about 20 minutes.

RPG with Nico post mortem

A battle game using Legos lacks the enchantment that many of the early story games Nico and I used to play when he was 5 and 6.  It’s still highly enjoyable but not quite as magical.

Also, as he grows older and gets used to taking instruction from adults all around him, it gets easier for him take a more passive role in such games (and for a parent like me to stay the active voice).

Also, this is a combat encounter, my role becomes closer to the Game Master in insuring turns are taken and narrative control is shared according to the rules we made for ourselves. Regardless, I liked playing Legos like that. The uncertainty of success and possible complication coming from failure is a surefire way of having fun.

Maybe I should try to give Nico the role of the Game Master when next we play.  See how that goes.

I will continue playing RPGs like that with Nico.  Hey, Maybe we’ll start building Lego dungeons soon and make monsters in it…