Eloquent Player

What If the PCs Are the Bad Guys?

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Yeah, you've read it right! What if the player characters are the bad guys, in the end? Have you ever thought about this? So, in this blog post I share with you this vision of mine, which, I believe, few of you have thought…

This is an old idea of mine, actually, and I've put it in practice twice, in different times. Both were really successful and provided unforgettable game sessions, for me and the players. To begin with, what you would you do if, in the end of the adventure or campaign you realized that all you did was wrong?

If you imagined yourself together with your group being misled to commit bad actings which you thought were the best acts you could take, you thought it right! Sure, that's not good cheat the players in such way, but, who stated that the things must happen the way they imagine?

Now, think of the possibilities after they realize everything. It would be an epic for redemption and vengeance, at the same time! In my case, when I did it, my players realized that the things were not so easy as they seemed. First, they have got upset, however, I showed them all the points they left behind and they got it was a fair ending and they would seek to repair all their evil acts.

How I demonstrated to them, you ask? Well, I showed our own history and using movies to make'em understand that treason and traps are so common that, due to them, we got where we are! Remember, Caesar, the Emperor, was betrayed by the one he loved most. To those religious, a nearer example: Jesus and Judas. These are just examples, but it's just a beginning…

Taking in account the "hollywoodian"part, remember Gladiator. The main character was a general fighting for Commodus empire and is turned into a slave, becoming an attraction, a show to the Roman empire. Thereby, he tries to redeem himself form all of destruction and blood he spilt in wars.

Have you seen all the possibilities this plot can lead? Well, there are many others less dramatic ways to turn PCs into villains, including the one I'm telling you now: They know they are villains.

Credit: Hani7

The technique I used was something like this: I started with a group, just like we always did, they were the good guys fighting monsters and enemies alike… However, I was called to master other game session with other gaming group and, with'em I decide take a little different approach. I told their group would be the enemy group from the first group I was playing. With this, the continuance of each other group would be connected to the other's actions.

Of course, it was hard to make things work, since adapt things based on what each group has done is no easy task. But it's really rewarding. It's amazing deal with so much variables. One unique scenario, same system, same story. There are just a few challenges on build up situations, put monsters inside dens, nothing you can't deal.

When we narrate in the traditional way, we know what to expect most of the time. We know which challenges the players gonna face, just like we were fortune telling. But, with two groups, both gonna fight for survival using many tactics, different paths and the like. A box full of surprises. I recommend if you never tried this out.

And you know, when the player has the chance to do everything the good guys normally can't, many big surprises await those game sessions. Many actors and actresses say something like this: “Giving life to a good guy is really good, but, giving life to a evil one is better”.

Have you tried to do this? How the things turned out? Leave your comment and expand this topic.

See you fellows.

The simplistic D&D I would like to play

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:52:00 +0000

Credit: sojourncuriosities

This is going to be a simple and fast blog post. Fasten your belts and continue reading.

I'm not a fan of D&D. Ok, I like some adventures, images and ideas the game brings to us, but the overall system I don't like. Hate me, but it's true.

Differently from most of the people, it was not the first RPG I've played (it was GURPS). But, when I played it for the first time, I liked. However, the more I played, less I liked it.

Its mechanics are simple: Roll a D20 + modifiers against a difficult and if it's higher than the difficult, you're done (in most of the cases). That's great, but, if you look further, there's a lot more to learn than just this. Starting in the character creation. Damn it, man, it takes to much time to finish a character sheet and have time to play the game in the same day. Increase this time if there are newbies in the group.

You have to learn which Hit Dice you have to roll; which level is needed to learn/use some power or item; how much weight you can carry; how many simple/complicated actions you can do in your turn; and the like. It can be overburdening to newcomers.

Fortunately, Greywulf's Lair brought to us a simplistic D&D game engine to teach and play. While you cannot expect it to be balanced, you can put all your coins that it must be fun, letting players and masters focus into what RPG are meant to do: create a story.

As far it concerns me, it's the best version you could have of a D20 game system. Kudos, Greywulf.

Rules, fun and newbies

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Credit: FatherStone

Some time ago, I was reading a review to D&D.Next and had a link to another blog post opened in another tab, waiting to be read. In the latter, the author was talking about his son's capacity to pick an old RPG game and, together with a friend, they managed to play it. He realized that, while not fully understanding the rules, his son and friend were having fun. And this is what really mattered.

Before getting into this conclusion, he even thought of tell them they were misunderstanding the rules and playing wrong, therefore, he would teach them how to play. However, he remembered that the boys were going through the same learning process he already experienced and, under no circumstances, could take away that moment from them.

You must be asking yourself why I wrote this little introduction to this post, aren't you? I'll tell you. Since when I started playing, almost 13 years ago, I never really cared to rules. Though using it when necessary, I never let them control any of my sessions. So, while reading this post, it came to me: Methodological teaching of the game's rule and the charging to the players to use it at all times, can be really frustrating.

When I started playing, the master who taught me, charged a lot. The excuse to the master was to "facilitate" the game session. But, they—the game group—never asked me if I could do that like they did. Actually, some players and masters forget that what's most important in playing RPG is the fun, not being stuck to the rules. I'm not telling you to let the rules out of your games and just roleplay, if I wanted this I'd tell you to become an actor or just pretend create a collaborative history on the fly without books, settings or anything else.

Credit: DjBisparulz

I know it seems a rant— and it is —but I'm tired of seeing masters talking about supplements, rules, how to create 1st lever character which do thousands of damage, that they hate company X or Y because she is modifying their beloved system. And one thing that really pisses me of is when these masters give tips on how you should create your character to maximize his potential.

"Dude, let me play! Let me make my own mistakes. If I wanted your opinion I would ask for it", that's what I'm willing to say to one of those. Ok, perhaps, they don't want to see us taking the same wrong road they once took, but, if it wasn't for those faults, they were not in that position. We cannot achieve the same knowledge they got but, at least, we learned how we like to play.

Forcing a beginner to fill out those humongous sheets using numerous supplements, 100% correct, 100% strong and bullet proof, it's nonsense! As masters, we are there to guide, not to impose… We're there to have and make fun. And remember, newbies are there to learn, not to swallow down tomes of rules or being tormented by a bunch of rules that, a priori, won't make any sense to them.

I hope you got the idea. That's now for today.

Goodbye, friends.

Great villains don't force others, they give choices

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Credit: Scummy

No, the title isn't wrong at all and it wasn't to call your attention. Ok, it was to call your attention, but to your villains. There's a thing I learned watching movies, series and cartoons, and reading comics was that great villains—strange, but that's it—don't force others to do the things they want. They always give choices.

Yeah, they always say “Choose between your beloved one or the wagon full of innocents”, “Sacrifice yourself or I'll push the button which activates the bomb in the middle of the city” and the like… Obviously, the choices they give are not the easy and simple ones. They're not villains for nothing.

Of course, some of them are monsters without a high intellect and we find them saying “Give item to Grosh, or Grosh smash”. Who never saw things like this? This kind of villain is great to precede the real one to your adventure, to weaken the characters before the final fight.

When the players get to the real villain, he gives them the choice. Probably, they'll have to think a lot, since it's a great risk try to fight him without full energy. It's probably they won't succeed in both missions.

Credit: JHarren

We are used to see this, named as dilemma, which was the name for this blog post, but, in the last minute I changed my mind. My villain was my own post, whom asked me, at each word, what would be the text title, if that was I really wanted to it and this doubt grew and grew…

And that's it what a villain want to do with a character: create a doubt over his capabilities, create propositions which disturbs his ego, his convictions, his self-sufficiency. Many villains see themselves like heroes in their minds, and you, the good guys, are the real villains, deserving no mercy.

Use and abuse the characters. Use their weaknesses, infuriate them. Many comic authors have great villains which you can search for inspiration: Gaiman, Miller, Eisner, etc… Get inspiration in villains from James Bond movies and Japanese comics (mangas). Yes, mangas—not the XXX, of course. Some of them are great in immersive and psychological thoughts. When there's a villain, they're really great!

As it may seem cliché, giving choices allow players to choose what to do (most of them love to know what to do in moments like these). You can evolve the story to different ways, evolve better one path, and let the other opened. If players choose the "opened" path, you guide the game session, from now on, on improvisation. If they choose the other path, you have more control. Doing this, you can improve yourself and your mastering skills.

Credit: LaLuneNoir

But, if you really want great villains, go for the Disney ones. Who, here, never wanted to kill Scar in the Lion King movie? Or hated Ursula, from the Little Mermaid? And Jafar, from Aladdin? They knew how to create great bad choices to Simba, Airel and Alladin.

Get inspiration from them, re-watch the movies with your little brothers, sisters, cousins, daughters or sons, and keep a notebook near you to write down everything of evil they do, to bring back to your table.

As you can see, making the bad guys give choices to the PCs is a great way to improve the history, making it richer and dynamic! You and the players are going to have a great time together, I assure you.

Well, that's all for today.

Goodbye, folks.

One-shot Adventures

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Credit: breathing2004

I don't have much time to play in these days. Much of my free time is to be with my daughter, wife and mom, since I work everyday, from 7-to-7. But, even with this agenda, I do want to play. Unfortunately, most of players, friends of mine, don't call me due to this lack of time. So, the chance I have to play is when someone calls me to an One-shot Adventure.

What is a One-shot Adventure? Well, it's a game session where everything finishes in the same day. See, normally, you'd take a few sessions before reaching the climax and finding out where's the villain. The big boss battle almost always lies in the last of a series of game sessions. With One-shots, that's not what happens. The climax and big boss battle happens the same day the group started playing.

To players like me, without much time to play, that's exactly what we're looking for. Obviously, if we could have a better frequency of game sessions, we would play, but, in our case, One-shots match perfectly our needs.

Some can argue one-shots are not that fun, since we play with different characters each new game. I have to say it is not really necessary. We can play with the same characters from previous one-shots. Well, imagine this games like some series episodes.

Credit: Not-Quite-Normal

Early episodes from Supernatural and CSI are great examples of "one-shot". Everything happens in a full episode. Supernatural gets its mystery, Dean and Sam find out what's happening and, finally, they banish the ghost, monster or demon. In CSI we have the same: They have a crime scene, the agents investigate what happens and, finally, arrest the bad guy.

From one episode to another, can pass many days, so, probably, there's no need to remember if the characters were injured or not. In one-shot games is the same. You don't have to keep track of HP, travel ration, spells per day, etc. The characters are rested and in full power to confront the problems for today.

Even with this kind of play, you can advance the characters. You gain experience, advance levels and get new powers like always, and don't have to worry how the character got some skill or power. It just did.

As master, you can make things even better, creating a thin relationship between all those one-shots, again, just like early days of Supernatural. They fought many monsters to discover that everything had a reason. They are pre-destined.

There's other things that make this kind of gaming really good: Sometimes we are tired from a long campaign and need fresh air. Playing something different for a day, we can regain players' will to play the campaign.

Credit: ohka

You can, even, use it as a part of the main game. The PCs had hired some mercenaries to accomplish a mission they couldn't go, due to unforeseen circumstances. In the next game session, bring character sheets to these mercenaries and give to the players. They'll play with these characters. This mission success, and the campaign itself, is on their hands.

Can you see why I like one-shots? That's not simply because they're short and fit my schedule, that's because the have their own purpose. What you think about one-shots? Do you play like them? Have had great time playing?

That's it for today.

Goodbye, people.

Screwing Up the Characters' Party

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Credit: faile35

I don't know you, but I realized a pattern in many 'heroes' movie: They are presented to us then, for the most part of the movie they're screwed and, just in the end of the movie, start to win their fights. Nothing wrong with this approach, thousands of movies go this way. So, why don't you too choose it?

Yeah, screw the party. Don't hesitate and make it. They won't like it and will huff you, but, continue on. In the end they're going to remember how they avoided the monsters, how managed to survive the hazards you've put there and how epic the adventure was. So, imagine something really bad and throw them there, add some particularities to your game and, you're done.

So, you haven't bought the idea?

You're asking yourself ”Why the heck should I do this?”, aren't you? First, you should show the players that, this time, there's no easy end and their lives are in real danger. They need to tell themselves “Dude, we're screwed”. The world of adventures is not an easy one. They've chosen this path for their own, so, they should face the fate too.

Second, it's fun to do this. You get out of the cliche "heroes are better than villains and are going to prevail", and present them a real and entertaining piece of game, which they'll remember forever as a masterpiece! Don't you like this idea?

I like to put this kind of game in shorter adventures: 2~3 sessions are enough to complete the whole adventure. Doing this, you don't overload the players with so much tension, as this could lead to a disaster. Keep short and you're good.

Credit: RalphHorsley

But, besides this, there are three more tips I can give, if you choose to follow this path and they're independent from adventure types:

Take them out of their safe place

This is easy to accomplish. You probably have the players' sheets, then, analyze them looking for their strong and weak spots. Throw them in a place where they almost can't use their strong ones and the weak get bigger. Remember how the Predators movie was made: The ‘human heroes’ realize they're in the middle of a battle and need to survive. Almost none of their knowledge work properly there. They just count with the guts.

An example? If they've got street knowledge, put them in a jungle and vice-versa. Almost no knowledge from the streets works inside a jungle. They must hurry or the party is going to turn into lunch for the monsters.

Take the characters equipment

Many players are confident just because they've got a light saber, a long sword +5 or a kevlar suit. But rip their items and you'll see something different happen. Battles are avoided, no more treasure hunting or dungeon crawl, at least not until a new equipment is acquired.

If they choose to not going to the mission, there's a really great chance of everything fails and everyone are going to vanish from the planet. That's the price to bad decisions. The point here is to see them adapting themselves to the new situations. Remember how MacGyver did things with just one clip? That's the spirit.

Put an enemy bigger, faster, stronger and scarier agains them

Insecurity is the key. How would they fight against a megalith? Run or die are the most picked choices, being the first the righteous one, to me. A lost battle is not a lost war, so better run the hills and live to get stronger than die in a already lost battle. And, better to you, there will be more room to future adventure plots!

Credit: Karuma9

The players shouldn't be ashamed. A premature death is something no group deserves. Staying together in every adversity should be kept in mind: Win as group fail as a group. Ever!

——

Ok, if you don't want to wait a new adventure start to put these things to work, just put them into your actual adventure. At least ti will be a plot twist without precedents. If you're playing in medieval fantasy game, make'em be enslaved by orcs, led to a mountain and all their equipments broken. If your adventure is an investigation type, set a job in another country where they have no jurisprudence and can't take their guns either. You have a thousand choices.

Obviously, many players can not like this kind of game playing, since we wanna be the heroes, at least, in pretending lands. But, in short or on-shot adventures you should give it a try.

Goodbye, fellows.

Voices can give lives to NPCs

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Credit: dontBeNice

Every master out there, wishes the players characters are balanced. In other words, we awaits more than just fights. We need they roleplaying, to give life to their characters, otherwise, they just are a sheet with a great amount of numbers in it. What good ask and root for that, if themselves don't do this? How could them ask something they do not even do?

Masters have the duty to give life to non-player characters too. That's how the group is going to interact with you. It's how you receive in-game feedback. You need give them something before starting to ask them for something else (unless they're proactive players. So, I'll write another blog post about this. Let's continue).

Like items, vestment and skin tone can give personality to a character, his voices can express a lot about them. We all know that what the players imagine in their heads always starts with the master speech. Then, nothing better put some differences into the NPCs voices.

This is not an easy task, of course not. Don't you think creating and maintaining a voice to a character through all game sessions is something anyone can do, do you? Ask someone who had acting classes if this is easy to accomplish. He can even say “yes, that's easy”, but, for sure, he will complement stating it was hard in the beginning and he just did it, due to hard work.

Now, think about: One voice already is hard, imagine multiple voices. That's it. It's a hard task. However, you don't need to be an expert and remember exactly how each character can talk. First, learn how to intonate to show of the character. She has a pitched voice? So she probably is a woman or a child. A deep voice? It can be a man or an equipment to alter the voice. He talks s…looow…ly, like he was tiiirrred? Maybe is an aged or sick man — perhaps, both!

Credit: miki3d

As you can see, intonation is really useful. Just using this little technique —which you learn in a day-to-day basis, of observation of other people —is needed to create a massive number of characters to your game sessions. Nevertheless, all this could be not enough. So, we have accents!

Accents are easily perceived in someone speech and mix very well with intonation. It's easy to distinguish a Texan accent from a British one, isn't it? Despite being the English language, both seems to be really, really different when spoken. This is a nice addition to your game. Now, think of a british elder man and a young Texan boy talking to each other. Easily recognizable.

To support accent, exists the grammar and pronunciation, whose could change to symbolize a something totally different. One word in Texas could be seeing as a compliment, in Britain could not. The grammar and pronunciation can lead the players to recognize the origins, motives and, maybe, a little more of a given person.

Another tool is creating expressions to your characters. Do they have their own characteristic expression mark? Some talk to much "erh…erh…" or use some specific bad word in his sentences? Expressions fulfills characters and make it easy to remember them, by the players. If you don't use'em, I recommend you to start using now! They're great alternatives.

One last trick: Write down how any or your "main NPC" talks. It's easier to remember how to make their voices, greatly advancing you in game mastering skill. That's it, for now. I hope you all like these ideas.

Goodbye, fellows.

Humans: One Race to Rule Them All

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Credit: Vyrhelle-comm

There's a thing that which always impressed me in medieval worlds from RPG: their Fantasy. Magic, monsters, races and stories! A bit of everything. However, I always wanted to play in "our" medieval era with this fantasy mood, but always keeping coherence with history. To this, I had to do a bunch of adaptations and the first of them were related to the races.

As we live in a world where there's only one race, the human race, keeping elves, orcs, halflings and other playable races from fantasy worlds would be really complicated without a interesting reason. So, I decided to think in something that let players with a range of choices, that could differentiate them, such like the other races did, but with a reason to be.

While I searched for a bombastic happening in history to use as a starting point, I had this great idea. Though it seems obvious and many others masters already had for themselves, it fits perfectly: Each fantastic race would turn into a regional species.

It's easy to understand: Elves, half-elves e eladrins, who are graceful, intelligent and slender races, could be someone from the Iberian Peninsula since, they say, the people there were like so. And, remember, France and Italy had been considered great cultural centers in the Middle Ages.

The dwarves and orcs could be vikings, whom tend to be stronger and have a culture much more towards war and the like. But, such as vikings, despite honorable between them and their culture, they were considered unkind, just like dwarves and orcs are. However, there's a difference between them: Dwarves tend to be more like "noble savages" while the orcs tend to be the ones who created the legend of pirate vikings.

Credit: JHarren

Besides this, there are a few a couple of things to distinguish them: Their language and height. The Dwarves are smaller and have a more understandable language which could place them near Constantinople, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. While the orcs, being taller and with a coarse language, they could be placed near Germany, Poland and Ukraine.

Halflings and gonmes could be Pygmy. They are African people, but you can place them separated. Gnomes in central Africa, being the 'real Pygmy' and the halflings towards to Middle East, being the 'Pygmoid', since the latter are a little taller than the former.

Until here, everything is ok. But we often have to find something the players want to use in sessions, right? Remember the D&D 4e tieflings and dragonborns? Well, tieflings being exotic and refined such they are, could be Turkish or Saracen people. They could be assimilated there.

Dragonborns could be people from Mongolia, since that region has a relationship with martial arts and is near of icy, mountain and vulcanic regions, everything that could be used to explain any fire, ice, electric power Mongols have. Remember, they substitute the dragonborns and these have the dragon's breath from their parents.

If we choose to put real dragons in the world and make them like in the Dragon Heart movie, dragonborns could be sons from the people who had the second heart of a dragon with them. This would be an easier way to put them into play without messing our history line.

Credit: billybobs

Fill the gaps of this approach with your own ideas and you'll have in hands a world with a unique playable race, but letting the players have a great variety of choices, nearer of the conceptual character they imagine, since the mechanical part stays almost the same. The thing that changes is the background for the races.

Sure, sure. Certainly, someone already has thought of this, but it's really great to remember or bring this point of view, isn't it? I used D&D examples, though this is not limited to it. You can use it in whichever system you want: Gurps, D6, Fudge, etc…

I hope you liked this little idea of mine. I'd like to see a little of your thoughts, any tips and critics to make this approach better. Who would like to have a multi-system supplement with this? Let me know, ok?

Goodbye, fellows.

RPGfolio, the art of recycling in RPG

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 20:01:00 +0000

Portfolio is a collection of (creative) works reunited by someone to show off his skills. So what we could say about RPGfolio?

Credit: erebus-odora

If you thought of a reunion of creative works related to RPG, you're half right. You won't show your abilities to someone, it'll serve as a source for inspiration, mainly to you. Everything interesting enough to collect must go to your RPGfolio, form where you'll recycle those things to use in later campaigns.

When I say, recycle, I refer to save your character sheets (both non-player characters and player characters), maps, items, enemies and monster, villages, cities, empires, images and so on. Well, everything you have created must be there (or, at least, they should be).

It's well known every master do this by nature, but enforcing an organized way instead of the pillage of papers together is much wiser. When you search for something, you'll probably find it if everything is in its place.

By the way, the RPGfolio should have as many categories as you think it's necessary. Doing so, if you suddenly are in need for a new villain and remember you have kept his sheet from an old campaign you played, you just pick it from the villains category and there'll be no lost time creating a new one from scratch and you and your players can freely have fun.

With so much prepared material, you may just need adjust a few things and, perhaps, create a unique/special thing to this game and, boom, you have a whole new adventure/campaign. And the best of all, you just have to create if you don't find anything that fits the other parts you already got. Think of the time you'll save preparing the sessions!

Now, it's up to you: Do you have any RPGfolio? How big is it? How to you keep it? Do you put any notes there besides the ones in the sheets, maps and images? Is it electronic?

Goodbye, folks.

Traps are in the details

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Credit: EiMy86

Every master likes traps. Almost every player hates traps (except for player whom choose to play a rogue character). This post brings some little tips on how master can make traps to catch unaware players. If you like the idea, sit back and read through the next paragraphs.

Let's start in the player character room. This is a place where almost every character looks for when arriving in a new town. There, she left out all her problems and just relax. They put their things in the bedroom, open the window and look across the street. But they shouldn't.

Their rooms are one of the most potential threats they could have. They just don't realize it. They don't seek for traps in their inn rooms. But, if the villain is aware and ahead of them, he may have bribed the innkeeper, planting any or all kinds of traps: from mechanical to magical ones.

Another place where player characters almost never look further for a trap inside is at the saloon. One more time, if the villain have bribed the bartender, the player could be in danger. Imagine if he gives them a poisonous drink or gives them a magical coin, which can point their location to the villain? There are so many possibilities we, as masters, can think of, that the players are in bad sheets.

These possibilites are the details which most players don't take into account. Details are really important. They make your scenes shine compared to the scenes of others. This makes players become tense, asking themselves if everything is in peace or if is there something else behind?

Isn't life full of surprises, is it? Why don't your adventures too? Mundane things that don't draw attention from the players are really great to these things. Enjoy and surprise everyone!

Which kind of traps are you used to use? The most commons, inside dungeons and dens or those one I just mentioned? Any other?

See you, guys, looking for your comments, huh?

Character vs. Character — part two

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 17:04:00 +0000

Credit: Pe-u

This is a continuation to my first real post, where I stated a few points where player characters can face each other. So, besides those points, there are a few others I left out, on purpose, to this post, since these are direct related to the players—e.g., your friends sitting around the table next to you.

Sometimes, some players create characters which have a conflict of alignment with another character from a different player. Nothing wrong with this, but some players believe that as "we are a party group to save the world we cannot have disparities inside the group". Conflicting alignment wouldn't allow a great session to everyone to them. I couldn't disagree more.

Conflicting characters are one of the most beautiful ways we can see a group succeed together. If they can overcome these difficulties, its a clear sign they can overcome most of their adventure problems. These conflicts are just the spice to the adventures.

Everything is just a matters of perspective. If you can't figure out a way you and another player can have fun in an adventure with those characters, that's bad.

An example from one of the most read books nowadays, Harry Potter. We all know, now, how Snape is important to the history and, let's admit, he is one of the good guys and we see, through the most of the books, he has a completely different alignment if compared to Dumbledore and Harry Potter.

We can have five completely different aligned characters in the same party. We just need realize how to make them work together in their own pace.

Moving on, there's another special way the players can be one against other. I used the approach below in one campaign and it was a success. Despite they gonna be a group, they can start as enemies. Think of different sides in a war. Then, for some reason, they have to work together to accomplish some mission. This is just a simple example, but, you can create a real hostility between characters (only in-game, ok?) to, later, see them proud of their working together.

How else can we put/see characters vs. characters? Share with us your opinions about this.

Goodbye, folks.

When is there fun to the characters?

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:30:00 +0000

Before writing the second part for my previous blog post, I'd like to share this little piece of thought with you. That's something always strikes me when I'm not the master. All I see, when I'm a player is that my characters live lives full of problems. There's no rest to them. There's no funny moment, despite one or another joke within the group. So, when is there fun to the characters?

I don't know if you stopped and thought about, but, let's put this straight, our characters have never got a fun moment after they go adventuring, haven't they? Do they feel great jumping from one battle to another?

Being honest, I'd be really stressed and wouldn't know how to deal with people. Most of all characters in RPG games don't think twice before they leave and get into those hazardous missions, whichever they are. I couldn't say if they're really altruists or lack some screw in their heads or even if they got an empty space inside the chest.

Whichever "calling", they will get tired of this life, this routine. Seeking bad guys and defeating them; stoping any evil from this world; etc. There are many things they must do, that it seems they're paid or forced to do all of this. I don't know you, but, this things, over and over again, would let me down, for sure.

See the heroes from comics, movies and books. There are many examples already written out there that, doing something for a long time and for many times, not getting credit for that, the people get sad, frustrated, tired and stressed with… everything!

Super heroes, great thinkers and personalities also tend to get tired, even with so much to do all day, being those things important or not. Why, then, your characters would always be willing to enter in a battle where there's a big risk to not come back?

There must be something to stimulate, to push them to make everything they do every single day, since the beginning of their starting point. Some stop adventuring in group, and try to find out that sparkle again. Many of them don't find it. They try hard to be back into the world of adventures but they're just a shadow from what they already were. Others get lost in the way and get forgotten.

There is, also, those who find a sparkle, a different one, which put them back into the rails. Unfortunately, just a few keep their codes of conduct. Many of them go against all they sworn defend one day, but they have found back their fun, their will to battle.

What you have to say about your characters? Have they got this iron will, that keeps pushing them, even when there's more problems than bonanzas? Tell me what your characters feel now. Are they ok, having fun, or have they got at that moment when there's no sense to keep a sword straight?

Many of mine got forgotten, but still trying to find their sparkles again. But, maybe, someday I'll help them find their sparkle and walk the world of adventures again.

Character vs. Character — part one

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 01:31:00 +0000

The threat which players characters must face are not only the monsters and villains we put on their way. Many times, PCs are forced to fight each other to survive.

Fight isn't the best term to describe, but you got it. The "heroes" defeat the villain and you let them there, quiet, resting or piling everything they want? Of course not! Imagine everything starting to trembling and collapse of nowhere. Even they are part of a group, each one must run to survive. For their lives.

Maybe, one or another player risk their lives, trying to not let anyone left behind, but, given the circumstances, the first option is, indeed, more likely to happen. Each one for himself could be something like "Hey, elf, get out of my way!" here, "Get, you, the fuck out of my way, dwarf. Your tiny little legs are so slow" there, but not flurry one to another.

Other moment when players are forced to fight each other is when the villain kidnaps one relative from the PCs group, imposing that, if they not fight each other, the kidnaped relative is going to die. This time, the blood talks louder the friendship. We see this frequently in books, movies, series, etc e this can be a great ace in the hole, creating a better drama to the game. But, don't overuse it. It gets obvious easily and can screw things up, instead make them better.

Another one is when a character falls under a magic spell or ritual, being possessed and his actions controlled at distance by someone, which could be the villain or not. One example I've already tested: In Supernatural, many ghosts possess people and make them do awful things, but, some do to help the others and never would put mother against daughter.

In which situations are you used to create those kind of tension in your sessions? This is, do you create moments like those? If yes, everything went well or something got (really) wrong?

See you later, people.
Goodbye.

Eloquent Player is here

noreply@blogger.com (Erick Patrick) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:43:00 +0000

Hello and welcome, everyone. I'm Erick Patrick, and I'm here to publish some thoughts on Tabletop Roleplaying Games. My main language is Portuguese (I'm a Brazilian guy) and I used to maintain a well know niche blog in Brazil: RPG do Mestre. I'll probably bring some translations from there, since I think English bloggers lacks a little of my writing style.

You may be thinking "Why the hells he is blogging in another language, since he already has one blog in his native language?". Just like my characters, I like challenges. This is a new challenge to me. Blogging in another language, trying to express things the same way I'm used to in Portuguese is a real challenge to my communication skill.

If you're willing to know what kind of post I'm going to bring up with, think of use cases for RPG sessions, commenting about problems, annoying things, tips & tricks and many more. Right now, I'm translating one of the very first posts I wrote. You'll probably feel as you've already read something about that, but, I guarantee, you won't be disappointed with this other post.

I really hope my English is not so bad, letting you absorb the most of my thoughts about RPG. Stay tuned to the next post.

Good bye.