1. I am in sci-fi geek heaven.
2. My wife is one of the most understanding people on the planet.
3. Star Trek uses a science fiction universe to tell stories from every genre.

Some episodes of Star Trek  are mysteries, others comedies, a few can be classified as horror, and with the plot devices of time travel and holo-decks the various series could introduce any genre imaginable for a single episode. The various Star Trek series are not the only nor the first television series to take this approach, but they certainly mastered the approach from what I have observed.

Why not apply the same techniques at the game table?

Use the “official” genre to establish the episode’s genre.

Whenever an episode of Star Trek strays from being a work of science fiction it uses science fiction to explain how the temporary transition into another genre is achieved. An alien might alter reality to allow for a an episode in a fantasy setting, or a malfunctioning technology causes the crew to get stuck in a Western setting. This allows the show to break the established expectations of the viewer by using those very same expectations to justify the change to the viewer. The transition back to the series genre at the end of the episode is achieved via the same method, but the bulk of the episode is firmly seated in the “invading” genre.

You can easily do the same thing with your typical RPG’s setting. How does a session of D&D where the PCs have to cross the trenches of a World War I battlefield sound? Just have a wizard cast a spell or introduce a magical portal that transports the PCs to that moment in history. Or maybe your supers game could use a haunted twist for a change. All you need is a super villain that can summon ghosts, goblins and other ghastly apparitions to  establish a horror game if only for a single session. If the transition is introduced and removed by a method aceptable to the series’ genre then the episode’s genre can be anything you wish.

Introduce the change early, but have it exit cleanly.

If you are going to switch up the genre for an episode of a television series you should do it no later then the end of the first act. Likewise the episode’s climax should be the event that returns everything back to “normal” with no serious long term consequences (such as creating alternate timelines to prevent altering history significantly due to time travel). The switcheroo of swapping genres works best when you do not give the audience time to think about what has happened. Get to the good stuff, and once the story has peaked get back to the normal mode of operations.

If you want to temporarily switch the genre of your game you should try to introduce the change within the first hour of play. During that brief period of bewilderment that the players might have as they contemplate the change in genre reassure them that the change is limited to the session and not the campaign. Establish the goal for the session that will get the campaign back on track and state it clearly to the players. Also make sure to clearly explain that while the characters may suffer serious consequences during the session (injuries, loss of items, even death) that the game world will remain intact if the goal of the session is achieved. This will provide both incentive and reassurance to the players.

Jump into the deep end.

If you are going to have Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock deal with prohibition era Chicago gangsters you might as well have the whole planet be nothing but prohibition era Chicago gangsters. If the heroes enter a mirror universe where the good guys are now bizzaro world bad guys then turn them into over the top really evil barbaric bad guys! There is no point in dipping your toes into the waters of a different genre, so you might as dive in head first and see what happens.

As a GM if you are going to use this technique you might as well go for broke. Take that idea of a D&D game that for one session is set in a WWI battle. You could play it safe and have the PCs just deal with a few members of the infantry, but why not throw in a tank instead? Have mustard gas launched into the trenches, and machine gun nests protected by barbed wire. Use the stats for equivalent monsters and spells or create your own, but take the best elements that you can think of from the “guest” genre and milk it for all that it is worth.

How do you switch it up?

Those are the tips and tricks that I have observed being used in Star Trek, and I have used them with some success in the games that I GM. What about you? Have you switched the genre of your game for a session or two? If so, how did you pull it off? Leave a comment below with your own tips and tricks to share with the rest of us!

(Want to provide anonymous feedback to me with the option to have me respond? Visit my SayAt.Me page and have at it!)

Here is a “how to” on constructing a modular dungeon set with a single mold, using the kinds of crafting materials that are available at craft stores and big box retailers.

1. Selecting the mold

I purchase molds from HirstArts. For this exercise I chose one of the least expensive. Cracked Floor Tiles, Mold No. 203 is an excellent choice as a starter. It costs $29. You can use it to create 1-inch dungeon floor pieces. It’s versatile: The smaller pieces can be used to create some three-dimensional structures as well.

2. Casting

I learned to cast from the instructions here. I use craft-quality plaster, which is available at the local home supply retailer, but can also be purchased from a craft store in a $5 jug. More durable molds can be obtained using dental plaster.

You will find that your first couple of attempts may not yield “picture perfect” casts. Don’t be discouraged. Like with anything, the more you do it, the better the results. Keep your spoiled tiles. They make great rubble for dioramas and other terrain effects.

3. What’s the game plan?

I will be constructing a modest floor tile set, one that’s modular so that you can construct a dungeon level with several rooms. I’m using these Dungeon Tiles from Wizards of the Coast as a model. (However, I’ve also planned out my terrain building with quick sketches on graph paper).

Constructing such a set will require about 250 1-inch squares, which means I’ll need 25 castings of my mold.

25 Castings?!?

Yes, that sounds like a lot, and it is. Rarely do I make castings for a specific project. Rather, I devote one morning a week during the warm-weather months to mixing plaster and pouring the molds. I’ve got a spot under a shade tree behind my house where I set up an old card table and my molds. Counting mixing, pouring, setting, removing the casts and cleaning the mold, I average about 1 set an hour. I do about two sets of several molds I own each time, then set the pieces out in the sun to dry. By devoting the warm months to making casts of all the molds I own, I then have stored away the hundreds of pieces I’ll need for building terrain during the cold weather months.

4. Cutting out mounting boards

I use a thin foam board — poster-sized pieces can be obtained for under $4 — to mount the tiles. But I’ve found that cork and cardboard works well, too. (However, I’ve found the cork tends to crumble after repeated use and the cardboard starts to bend under the weight and pull created by larger tiles).  The foam board retains its rigidity for large pieces.

I use a straight edge and knife to cut out bases for the sizes I will need.

In Part 2, we start assembling and gluing the castings.

When such things happen, it can be difficult to “take it back” without hurting feelings or impacting the campaign. In some cases, the rules work against you; the PC’s new power was a legitimate XP purchase, the uber-weapon was lying in a treasure trove of a published adventure, or the war machines were legitimate salvage.

I think in theory, most GMs would say “if it is ruining the fun, get rid of it,” but this is easier said than done. Is it worth the aggravation and hurt feelings? Is it easier to try and work around it, even if it means cutting your campaign much shorter than you’d intended?

I’ve found that, as I’ve grown with experience, I can catch these things early and nip them in the bud with minimal fuss. The player is usually content so long as she doesn’t feel weakened by the taking; she gets her XP back, she’s offered something else of equivalent, but less game-breaking, value, or all the PCs take the same hit, equalizing the loss.

There are still times, though, when a player gets to keep something for several adventures before I realize it’s an issue (or I’ve stopped trying to work around it, which also isn’t fair to the player).  By this point, the player has become attached to the new power and she has a paper trail of adventures to back her argument. Unless she can see how her power made those adventures less fun, then she’s going to have a difficult time wondering why you think it’s a problem.

So, fair or foul? If a PC acquires something that is problematic, should you take it away? Do the circumstances of the acquisition or the timing of the proposed taking matter? If you did take something away, how did it affect the rest of your campaign?

Here’s one way that you can tell that our first annual New Year, New Game challenge had some excellent entries: After the first round of secret ballot voting for our favorites, there was a three-way tie. We broke that tie with a runoff vote between those three entries.

Because we received over 50 entries in the contest — the threshold for awarding a second prize — we’ll be giving away two awesome prize packages courtesy of our sponsors: DriveThruRPG, Engine Publishing, Obsidian Portal, and Tabletop Adventures. Here they are!

Our two winners both rocked the house with inspiring, entertaining game ideas that made us want to play these games (and of course they followed the contest rules, too).

Second Prize Winner

I’m please to announce that the winner of our second prize goes to Gnome Stew reader BrownBeard, who will be receiving a $30 DriveThruRPG gift certificate, PDF copies of Gnome Stew’s two GMing books, a 6-month Ascendant membership to Obsidian Portal, and two Tabletop Adventures PDFs of their choice. Congratulations!

Here’s BrownBeard’s awesome NYNG entry:

I’m calling my new campaign “Explorers of the Python River Basin.” It already has a fledgeling wiki on Obsidian Portal. The campaign is basically a jungle-crawling Indy-Jones take on Ben Robbins’ seminal West Marches campaign: the players take the roles of your usual D&D fantasy adventurers exploring a ridiculously dangerous tropical rainforest for fortune and glory. They can look forward to fighting all manner of beasts and giant vermin, making first contact with reclusive tribes of goblins and lizardfolk, seeking out the fabled court of the Gorilla King, spelunking vast cavern systems and abandoned mines, and raiding the ruins of a fallen lizardfolk empire.

I want to run this game primarily at my local hobby store’s weekly board game night for a flexible roster of players: whoever shows up that night gets to send their character out with that week’s expedition. Obviously this sort of sandbox campaign, characterized by convention-style pickup groups, is going to stretch my improvisational talents to their limits – it’s difficult to do all but the most general prep when you have no idea who’s going to show up or where they’ll want to go. But I think Kirin Robinson’s Old School Hack game system is up to the challenge. By all accounts it postively thrives on spur-of-the-moment shenanigans. And practically everything that new players will need to learn, rules-wise, is contained on their character sheets and a few other printable visual aids.

The biggest challenge will be recruiting a large enough player pool so that I can count on having a party of at least 2 or 3 PCs for each session. Since the hobby store’s weekly game night only lasts a few hours, I’ll also have to streamline the pacing as much as possible if I want to get the party out into the bush and back to their home base again so I can start a fresh expedition the following week.

Why am I so stoked for this? Ye gods man, it’s freaking Indiana Jones with dwarves and wizards – dungeon fantasy meets pulp archaeology. What more do you want? If this game doesn’t turn into the most hilarious and breathtaking high-octane hurricane of pulp blockbuster tropes seen this side of Exalted, then I’ll eat my GM screen.

Grand Prize Winner

With further ado, the grand prize winner of NYNG 2012 is Razjah! Congratulations on your winning entry! Razjah will be receiving a $60 DriveThruRPG gift certificate, print and PDF copies of Gnome Stew’s two GMing books, a 1-year Ascendant membership to Obsidian Portal, and three Tabletop Adventures PDFs of their choice.

Here’s Razjah’s grand-prize-winning NYNG entry:

My upcoming campaign for the spring semester is a fantasy noir campaign styled game using Burning Wheel. This game takes place in a grim, dark city where crime rules, even the best citizens are only out for themselves, and everyone has a past. Picture a fantasy Sin City; you need to take big risks for trivial rewards, crime is nearly in the open, and you can’t turn to the corrupt officials or city watch. The city will be similar to Venice with as many liberties as I need to take. It is a sprawling city with traders, craftsmen, nobility, crime, and vice.

Some major players operate here. The noblesse de ancienne or the royal family, the three noblesse d’epee or duke families, the nine noblesse de chancellerie or the count families, and the twenty seven noblesse de letters or the baron families. Crossing even the weakest noble family is dangerous. Other famed groups are crime related, the five families and fifteen street gangs. While magic is feared and dangerous it is suspected that these groups employ them secretly.

I’m excited to be running this because I am finally getting a group of players who enjoy role playing their characters and a system that encourages it. Burning Wheel is about testing characters. Testing them and watching them grow and evolve through the campaign. Most other systems I have used have the characters level in all abilities, regardless of use. Burning Wheel has much more organic advancement.

The biggest challenge is going to be keeping the role play intensity high. Hopefully the group will help fuel each other and the system will support this. I am going to be making sure that I follow a new year’s resolution to eat before the game, and not junk “gamer food”, to keep my energy up and to help me stay focused on bringing the world to life. The only other major challenge I see before character creation is keeping the genre strong. In other games I have run in a non-traditional fantasy setting the players slowly drifted back to their comfort zones and dragged the campaign with it.

Thank you to everyone who entered our NYNG contest, blogged about NYNG and new games as part of our first-ever blog carnival, spread the word about the NYNG movement, and otherwise helped to make the first annual NYNG challenge such a rousing success!

If you’re in need of inspiration, check out the 57 game ideas (for 39 different RPGs!) that are now posted on the NYNG website, as well as the 15 blog posts about running new games that were written for our blog carnival.

My latest game is NPC heavy, and almost all of the NPCs are politically motivated in some way or another. This puts an extra bit of importance on NPC actions and when they occur. There are a lot of balls I’ve got to juggle, so I’ve been looking for effective ways to do so. To keep things organized, I’ve been doing something that I call timelining.

Timelining, in my version of it as it applies to RPGs, is the act of writing out NPC actions and plans in a generalized order in which they will likely occur. It is drawing out the straight line of action for an NPC or NPC group if everything were to go according to plan.

This is different from merely plotting out an NPCs motivations in one key way. When you timeline an NPC, you begin by taking the PCs completely out of the equation. This gives you a view of their goals and actions, building a version of the character without tailoring them around the campaign or the PCs. You can watch the PCs intersect the NPC timeline and react to the actions, as opposed to building the NPC with the campaign in mind and being tempted to try to constrain the PCs to the pre-plotted courses.

An Example

Malvora the Spider queen is the main villain NPC in a space opera game I’m not currently running. I start by writing out Malvora’s Timeline in a very basic fashion. I set up her actions and plans beforehand, making sure to merely think about it from Malvora’s side and not accounting for any way the PCs might be invovled. This gives me an idea of what her actions are and what she is planning.

Malvora’s Initial Timeline (Sans PC Interference)

• Malvora hears about the Techtron Modulator, a device that works out the equations she has been missing for time travel drive her scientist’s have been working on.
• Malvora sends Denarius, her lieutenant, to capture the device. He ambushes Doctor Ferris at his lab one night.
• Encountering little resistance, Denarius brings the device back to Malvora.
• It takes her scientists 3 weeks to decode the device’s security and make the device ready.
• Federated Earth Council forces mount an attack against Malvora’s fleet, attempting to recover the device or destroy her fleet.
• An epic battle ensues, but Malvora is able to hold the forces off long enough to get the device working for one jump.
• Once the device is ready, Malvora is able to use her fleet’s flagship to jump her fleet through time. It takes a lot of effort and material to do so. She requires massive amounts of Macguffin X, a fuel that must be refined and is semi-rare, to do so. She jumps to a safe location and is able to stock up enough fuel to begin her universal time war.
• Malvora begins a conquest of planets, taking them over at the peak of their industrial revolutions. This gives her well developed slave planets who can work and have tech, but who are not at high enough levels to overcome her forces.

Ok. So we’ve got a timeline of Malvora’s plans without PC interaction. We know what her general plan is and what steps there are from the beginning to the end of Malvora’s plan. We have a general idea of other factions which might act against her and how that might go. The backbone of the next couple of sessions is built out, and ready to get decimated. She is a much more organic NPC than if we had written her out while thinking about the campaign and how she will act towards things the PCs are likely to do.

The PCs actions can intertwine and screw up Malvora’s plans all to high heck now, but we have a base for what Malvora intended. If we introduce the PCs to the game by having them foil Denarius’s theft, we can take this timeline and extrapolate the changes that the PCs bring. If they fail and Denarius gets away with the device, then we know that it will take the scientist’s 3 weeks to decode the security on the device, giving room for the players to pursue the action in their own ways or giving us hooks based on what occurred in the previous game. Maybe Dr. Ferris hires them. Maybe the FEC forces throw the PCs in jail, misinterpreting the situation.

With an approach like this, Malvora gets a chance to grow and be affected by the PCs actions instead of allowing predetermined outcomes to cage the PCs in.

An NPC’s timeline is fairly linear to start with, but as things get changed the
timeline becomes more of a flow chart. The NPC is still trying to fulfill their plans,
but they must accommodate for the the continual changes create.

Why I Find It Useful

Timelining out an NPC’s plans this way is much more work than I normally do for NPCs, and it does create more work as the game goes on. However, it has one huge advantage to me: The NPCs grow along with the PCs. They aren’t static creations meant solely to hinder the PCs. In a game like the one I am currently running, that is a wonderful thing. The players know that the NPCs aren’t merely foils to their plans, they are living and evolving characters whom they can interact with.

From my perspective as the Game Master, I know the NPCs plan out to the end. I know their end goals and what they were aiming for. When the PCs interfere, I can accommodate and change things while still aiming for the end goals.

Malvora might decide to use her resources to covertly hire the PCs to work for her rather than try the head on approach if they prove overwhelming to her militarily. Maybe she will decide the Modulator is too troublesome and send her minions after a supercomputer, one that has more raw power but is not built to the task. I can merely timeline out her plans for that in a basic way and then figure out how the PCs would encounter those.

Doing It Yourself

Timelining an NPC’s (or many NPCs) actions might not work for every game or play style, but it has some nifty applications. The process is also a fairly simple one.

1. Take an NPC and write down, in a very brief way, their goals and actions as if the PCs didn’t exist.
2. Make sure to include interactions with other NPCs or NPC groups. Don’t be afraid to use words like Might, Should, or Will Likely when intersecting multiple NPC timelines. (When Malvora and the FEC fight, it is likely that Malvora will win, but the course of the game and the PC interactions will definitely change things.)
3. Plan the generalities our far head, but not the details.Knowing the generalities, especially the NPC goals and their attitudes, is what will help you modify the timeline as you go along.
4. Start the game. As the PCs actions intersect with the timeline/s of NPCs, determine how they deviate and if/how the NPCs will still try to reach their goals. Abandon later game changes if they don’t seem in line for the changes that have occurred. Get ready to modify. Remember, it’s not a static railroad, but the NPCs plan.

Some Tools

2 Columns/Index Cards  – When I do this for my current game, I generally use 2 columns on a 1 page sheet or 2 index cards. In one is the initial timeline and goals. In the other column (or other card) I place checkmarks if things went according to plan or I write notes and draw lines to point to where things lead. Here is a recreated version of what happened in the Malvora example (apologies for the handwriting and shorthand).

Flowcharts  – One thing that works well for timelining NPCs are flowcharts. If you can do it electronically, you can really modify things as needed and keep things neat. It works really well, especially if you have multiple NPC timelines in play.

Gliffy – I used Gliffy, a mostly free online flowchart maker to do the flowchart example above. It worked really well, but Kurt “Telas” has used it for extended periods and mentions that it gets nerfed after a 30 day trial. 0
http://www.gliffy.com/

Dia – Dia is a freeware flowchart maker that I’ve heard highly recommended on many forums.
http://dia-installer.de/index.html.en

yEd – Another free flowchart program that I’ve heard recommended.
http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.html

Final Thoughts

The big downside of this approach is constantly updating the timelines. The big upside is having a concept of the NPCs and their goals that you can deviate from to make the NPCs feel more organic. Malvora’s example is very general, but I’ve got about 6 timelines going in my current game that help me conjecture on how one NPC will feel about another NPC being defeated by the PCs, or how linked plot points are affected by PC actions. It helps to keep the chaos of the multiple PCs under control, and when I’m at the actual game I’m in total improv mode. I know how the NPCs feel, I know what goals they are working towards, and I don’t hear that wiggling little voice saying “That will totally destroy Suvid’s plans!!!! Stop him!!!”.

Do you think that timelining an NPC out would benefit your game or would it be too much work? How do you generally plan out NPC motivations and actions?

Prep For Success

Whether you’ve never been behind the screen before or an old pro, you may find yourself in a similar position. This isn’t about improvisation, it’s about making use of an accelerated prep timeline and focusing on the important few.

• Make a list of exactly what will be done in the first session and you need to have ready. In this case we’re doing character generation. That means being familiar with the creation rules, not necessarily the entire rules set or combat.
• Strive to meet those minimum requirements and, if time allows, then expand into what you’ll need to know for sessions 2+. Don’t spend time on, say, the experience or advancement rules yet.
• In the case of a setting or backstory you’re not familiar with, lean on your campaign guide or online resources. Most campaign or players’ guides strive to compact the essence of “what is this game about?” into a concise summary. You don’t need to be an expert but you do need to have a common foundation and language to work from.
• If someone else in your group is familiar or has knowledge of the game then utilize them to help spread the workload and explain it to other players (or you!).
• Online resources continue to be an excellent way to help shave time off your prep. Handouts, logs, spreadsheets, etc can bring relief to your limited timeline.
• Have a plan to get ahead of the prep; being just one session ahead isn’t a sustainable model for success in most cases and will sap your energy.
• When the rubber hits the road for that first session, consider a pre-created one. Introductory adventures tend to be well-tested, contain a number of newbie-friendly hooks (good for you as well), and are character-neutral. That is to say, they tend to work of all characters. Later sessions can focus on your newly-created PCs. It’s easier to read an adventure designed for new campaigns and GM/players rather than writing your own under the gun.
• Don’t be afraid to pull the eject handle. If, in the first session, you get up to where you were able to prep, don’t be afraid to stop. End the session, explain that you’re as far as you were able to prep, and setup for the next session. That’s better than trying to stumble ahead, ill-prepared; and your players will see it, too.

Again, none of this is improvisation, just good time management.

What’s That Game?

As mentioned in the lead-in, I was a little surprised to walk away having to plan for a campaign for the A Song of Ice and Fire RPG, aka A Game of Thrones. Beyond the HBO miniseries and the first novel, a setting I’m not intimately familiar with. The system roughly the same, although I’ve been researching it for the past month as a potential Birthright replacement, something we’ve been eager to play but not saddled with the D&D rules.

Fortunately the first session will be all about House creation and the setting’s default state is just prior to the first book, alleviating some of the prep concerns for only have a week to begin. But all of this is rather academic when confronted with excited and engaged players. It doesn’t feel like work at all!

Any tips to share about a quick game prep turnaround? Share below! Also, want to toss a Gnome a bone (or halfling)? Give me your Game of Thrones campaign ideas!

(Carolyn’s always in the mood for something fresh, so after weeks of train games and card games like Poo, Uno and Hike, she was willing to dive back into an rpg, while Jonathan was eager to use the new plaster dungeon terrain set he helped construct and paint).

Considering the buzz about 5E/DnDNext from the D&D Experience — that the first public play of the new rules harken back to the days when adventurers cut their teeth on module B2:  The Keep on the Borderlands  — I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic.

So I decided to dig out my two copies of the Basic Rules (Moldvay edition). It turned out to be an excellent choice to run for children, and it reminded me again of why I have such fondness for this version of the game.

Character creation is a snap

Does it get any easier than this? Roll 3d6 for six abilities, roll up hit points, and gear up by selecting from Ye Fast Pack in the back of Module B4: The Lost City? In about 10 minutes were were up and ready to roll, with Carolyn playing a magic user, Jonathan a thief and me running an NPC fighter.

My regular group loves the built-in complexity of Third Edition/Pathfinder skill selection and feats, and in previous sessions my kids have enjoyed the cool-sounding names (and effects) for 4E character powers.

Detailed character creation can be its own kind of fun. But we were interested in exploring a dungeon and rolling dice in some combat, not worrying about a host of modifiers for skills and combat.

On the fly adjustments

Not everything about the Moldvay edition is sunshine and roses. So I made some rules adjustments to keep the action going.

• Nixed character death for the kids (hey, even with a fighter around, 4 hit point thieves and magic users go down quick). Characters reaching 0 hit points are ruled unconcious. Each character also started out with two healing potions. (And it was interesting to see which player was willing to share their healing potions.)
• The magic user was not subject to fire-and-forget. Rather, I allowed the magic user to recast after 1 turn of rest. I’ve learned a lot about how fun encounter and at-will powers can be for casters in 4E. And frankly, magic missile used this way still does less damage than an archer who hits every round.
• Pincushioned hides. Monsters with natural armor had their AC raised by 1 (to a maximum of 10) after each successful hit to reflect the wear and tear of battle. Effectively, as the battle wore on, they got easier to hit (remember, under THAC0, the lower the AC number, the better).

Giant toads are still a hoot

Fire beetles, vipers, and yes, even giant toads with 15-foot long sticky tongues and a taste for humans are still fun to run and to fight.  And interestingly, because I gave the PCs a quest — item retrieval — they started to discuss the need to bypass some encounters because they discovered their resources were being depleted

Four-star recommendation

Look, the old rules have their shortcomings, especially during campaign play, because the PCs aren’t being rewarded as they level up with a raft of additional powers and abilities like they do under more robust systems.

There’s adventure to be found around the next bend. Just mind the white roses and any nameless jovial priest whose acolytes have taken a vow of silence.

Heroes and villains come and go, but traitors live on in infamy! The traitor does not just turn her back on the cause – she takes its secrets with her to the enemy’s camp! As a GM the traitor NPC can serve multiple roles. A traitor can add to the drama and tension of a story. The traitor can also serve a tactical role when he undermines the defenses of his former comrades. The traitor is a classic role in fiction that any GM can use to add some intrigue to the game.

Time to look at our cards! Here are three types of traitor NPCs for you to use in your game.

#1 – Just Plain Bad

This traitor has the simplest of motives. She sells out her friends for money, power, or something else of a similar and base nature. Perhaps she just wants to be on the side of the “winners”, or she wants to humiliate the PCs whom she is secretly envious of. It does not really matter, for in the end her motives are petty and self-indulgent. She is a traitor simply because she was never really dedicated to the cause in the first place.

#2 – Forced Into Treachery

This traitor wants to remain loyal to his cause, but something of even greater value to him is threatened by the enemy unless he does their bidding. Perhaps the enemy has materials that they are using to blackmail the traitor with, or maybe the traitor’s loved ones are being held hostage. The important detail to remember here is that the traitor is both the offender and the victim. This presents the PCs with a dilemma of their own: punish the treachery or help their suffering comrade?

#3 – On Your Side

She is a traitor like the others. She might even have motives similar to the others. There is one major difference though, because this traitor is defecting from the enemy camp to come join the PCs in their mission! Her reasons can range from noble to purely selfish ones, but she has information and skills that the PCs can use to their advantage. Whether or not the PCs trust her though is for the players to decide.

GMing Tactics to Use

The most important consideration for a GM when introducing a traitor NPC into the game is when will the actual betrayal take place. Timing is everything in this case. A good rule of thumb is that the less significant the NPC is to the story the sooner the betrayal should occur. Likewise the more significant the NPC is to the story the later the betrayal should occur.

Having that betrayal come to light at just the right moment is crucial to playing the traitor NPC. The impact of the betrayal from a tactical point of view is not nearly as important to your game, because good players can roll with those kinds of punches all day long. But if the NPC has earned the PCs’ trust over a long period of time (or has long been the recipient of their scorn in the case of traitor #3) then your players are going to have a bigger reaction to the revelation of the traitor’s true nature when it takes place.

Have an idea or two for what will occur if the PCs discover the traitor’s secret earlier than planned. My personal approach depends on the quality of the PC’s evidence. A mere hunch that an NPC is a traitor even if that hunch is correct is not going to help the PCs very much at all. Revealing that hunch to the traitor in the form of a “We’re on to you!” type speech is just going to make the traitor extra cautious in covering up his tracks.

If the PCs have some solid evidence though and can put all of the pieces together let the chips fall where they may. It can be great fun to watch your plan for an ambush against the PCs be reversed into an ambush against the traitor. Good GMs realize that forcing a game to go according to plan is far more risky than it is to adapt to what the players come up with.

So throw a traitor into your game and see what happens, and do not be afraid to twist the archetype to challenge your players even more!

How would you play a traitor in your game? Do you have your own variation on the traitor archetype? Perhaps a favorite tactic or two for dealing with treacherous NPCs? Leave a comment below and share your ideas with the rest of us!

(Want to provide anonymous feedback to me with the option to have me respond? Visit my SayAt.Me page and have at it!)

Writers Dice: A Quick Summary

Writers dice are d6’s, but rather than the standard numbers they have the following words on them: AND, OR, AS, SO, BUT, and IF. You use the dice to connect one thought to another. For instance:  The heroes must enter the dungeon…ROLL…SO… that they can find the cure to the plague in the town…ROLL…BUT… the cure is guarded by trolls.  Simple and fun.

The dice were not made for any specific game, though they are a great fit for story-based RPGs like Do: Pilgrims Of  The Flying Temple or Fiasco. But what about more traditional RPG’s like D&D or my current campaign, All For One?  How could these Writers dice help enhance the game?

As I worked on my most recent session notes, I sat the dice on the table next to me, and started to look for ways to integrate them into my game. I came up with a few ideas…

Idea One: Consequences of Failure

This concept is covered in the Writers Dice guide and is not my own idea, but its a natural fit. When a character fails a skill check, there should be consequences for their failure (something I talked about before). Often GM’s, myself included, take the mental shortcut and just say that the skill check failed.  Writers dice can be used to help create consequences for failure.

GM: Make a Larceny check to pick the lock.
Player: Failed.
GM: You fail to pick the lock. Rolls: OR
GM: The lock does not open OR the lock opens but your lock pick is broken in the lock.

It can work just as well with with a successful check, but for my use, I am going to stick with just failure since success often has a good definition of what will happen built in.

Idea Two: Enhance Player Narrative

I like to include scenes in my game that are not key to the plot, but are there for the player to expand and grow their character. For instance: The character goes and talks to their teacher, goes shopping in town, or they decide to live it up in the tavern. In these cases, I typically will just ask the character how it went, and often get a very safe answer: “I talked to the shopkeeper for a bit and then got the equipment.”

With the writers dice, you can now ask the player to narrate and include one or more writers dice in their description.  For instance:

GM: “You went to see your teacher…”
Player:  rolls  AS and AND
Player:  …AS he was in the middle of an argument with another student, AND the student attacked my teacher.”

Now from a simple trip to visit his master, a new story has unfolded.

Idea Three: NPC Motivations

You can use Writers Dice to help decide how an NPC is going to react to a situation. Perhaps you know the overall disposition of the NPC: friendly, unfriendly, indifferent, etc, but the players now ask a favor. Using the Writers dice you can enhance the NPC’s response.

Player:  Captain, you must take us across the sea, we need to get this cure to our people.
GM: The Captain is unfriendly. Rolls: BUT
GM: The Captain is no friend of yours, BUT her sister lives across the sea so she will help.

A Dash of IF and a Sprinkle of SO

Writers Dice can be a fun way to enhance your game. The word on the die takes you down a path that you may not have thought of at first, and in doing so can create those serendipitous moments of gaming that are unforgettable.

Writers dice are not out for general sale yet. I talked to Daniel Solis on G+ and he let me know that after all the Kickstarter backers have been sent their dice, they will be available for general sale. Details will be posted on his blog page about Writers Dice. That pages also has links for getting the Writers Dice app (iOS, Android, and Windows) as well as the Writers Dice Guide.

I have named three ways you could use Writers Dice in your game, now how would you use them? If you have a set, what ways have you worked them into your game?

Person of Interest stars Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson as Mr. Reese and Mr. Finch, respectively. Mr. Finch has built a top secret machine fed by NSA data in a post-9/11 world that allows the machine to detect “relevant” threats to the country. The machine also spots “irrelevant” threats, such as a premeditated murder plot or a person who could be the target of a violent crime. Every night the machine erases the irrelevant list after sending Finch a copy comprised of nothing but social security numbers.

Overcome with a desire to help those in need, Finch enlists the aid of a former black ops CIA officer who’s life is in turmoil after the loss of his lover some years back. Afforded an opportunity to help those in need—and in time—they fight crime!

Each week Person of Interest focuses on the protagonists trying to help—or stop—the person who’s name has come up. The machine doesn’t give details, which turns each person of interest into a bit of a character study. Who would want to kill them, or is the irrelevant person actually the threat?

Person of Interest has several sub-plots going as well, most notably how the machine was built, Finch’s guilt over the death of his business partner and friend, as well as the demons that haunt Reese. If that wasn’t enough the police aren’t keen on having a vigilante running around New York. It’s an intriguing setup with multiple layers. Personally, I like seeing Jim Caviezel channel his inner Count of Monte Cristo one more time in the suave and soft-spoken John Reese.

So what takeaways from Person of Interest could be drawn into our games?

Credible Threat

One of the mid-season changes in the show revolves around the determined Detective Carter (Taraji P. Henson) who’s trying to capture the mysterious Reese. It served up for some good drama for half the season until it became clear that Carter was out of her league. Thus enters the CIA, looking out for their missing asset, unwittingly pulling Carter into their plan to either recover or eliminate Reese.

It’s a good example of raising the stakes and challenging the character with a more credible (and believable) threat. While Carter and Reese had some nice cat-and-mouse encounters, there was never any doubt that Reese would outwit her.  The CIA now provides that overarching element of risk that Reese and Finch have to deal with every week while still trying to protect innocents. It’s important in our own games that the characters be faced with credible threats worthy of their status.

Consequences

Previously I’ve highlighted the qualities of making characters more believable in making them fallible. The occasional mistake or plan that doesn’t quite go as intended. Person of Interest does this as well but even upped the ante some more. In one episode Reese is betrayed by Carter and left in the sights of the CIA, who put a bullet in his gut. Bleeding out, Reese barely escapes with the help of Carter and Finch. Where this deviates from most storytelling escapades is the following two episodes still has Reese dealing with these consequences.

In the next episode, which has wonderful shades of Rear Window, Reese is confined to a wheelchair, leaving Finch to do much of the spycraft in the episode. It’s a pleasant role reversal. It also humanizes Reese for the viewers. Following that, Reese is back on his feet but takes a punch in his still-healing wound that ends a fight with the opponent getting away. Reese still wins—he’s the protagonist and a badass—but he’s still dealing with the consequences of being shot two episodes ago.

Most games abstract not only damage, but the healing as well. The story typically moves on, and the wounds of the past forgotten. Resist that urge and have the scars of the past linger a bit longer.

Looking Ahead

Foreshadowing is a powerful tool and it’s a darn shame that Person of Interest lets a ripe opportunity go by every episode. The machine spits out a new number every night, an obvious bridge from episode to episode, teasing into the next. Sadly, the writers don’t take advantage of this opportunity.

Realistically most GM’s probably won’t be able to pull this off either, but if you have the luxury of planning an adventure ahead, consider doing so. The tease help sets up the story for the next adventure, gets your players thinking—and anticipating—the next session. Even if you don’t have your next adventure plotted out, consider dropping the tease anyway to place yourself under some creative pressure.

A fan of Person of Interest? What elements of the show could you incorporate into your own game?

This was our first blog carnival, but it won’t be our last — and with 14 participants (15 with us), I’d say it was a great first outing. A big THANK YOU to everyone who took time out of their January schedule to write a blog post for or about NYNG!

Posts about Running New Games

Want tips, ideas, and inspiration about running a new game this year? Check out these posts (appearing in the order they came out):

Sinister Forces

My New Game for the New Year! — Sinister Forces is the personal blog of Gnome Stew author Patrick Benson, and he used this post to share some details about the approach he’ll be taking when he runs Star Trek later this year.

“The Gassy Gnoll” at Game Knight Reviews

Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men with Nine Kids — GKR shared a session report about a recent new game: Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men, a kid-oriented RPG run for no less than nine kids!

Monkey in the Cage

New Year, New Game — Karen shares her group’s plans to run not just one new game this year, but four: Mouse Guard, Shadowrun, Pathfinder, and a homebrew called Society of Odin.

Paper & Plastic

How do you choose a new game? — Paolo Cecchetto shares advice about how to choose a new game — for him, it’s all about three key features.

Get Off My Lawn

New Year, New Game — Robert M. Everson (who, incidentally, worked with us on Masks) looks in his crystal ball and sees the Dresden Files, a D&D 5e playtest, and a one-shot of the new Marvel RPG.

Wired.com

A New Year and My New Game: The Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box With the Kids — GeekDad blogger MJ Harnish talks about running the PFRPG Beginner Box for his son, another dad, and that dad’s two sons.

Nearly Enough Dice

A simple tip to running a new game with a new system — Liz shares what really is a simple tip, but it’s one that has all sorts of repercussions if you don’t take it seriously (I’ve fallen into that trap myself).

The Player’s Side of the Screen

Burning in the New Year — Andy Hauge talks about why he GMs, why you should GM, and his plans to run Burning Wheel this year.

Robust McManly Pants on Average Display

New Year, New Game, New System, New Worries — Michael offers up an in-depth analysis of the potential problems — and opportunities — presented by his NYNG game of choice, Apocalypse Prevention, Inc.

Stargzer’s World

New Year, New Game — Stargazer is planning to run Shadow, Sword & Spell in 2012, and in this post he talks about this game’s build-the-world-as-you-go premise.

The Iron Tavern

New Year, New Games — IronWolf delves into a topic most GMs know well: breaking out of ruts and changing routines, and the motivation to do so.

The Contemporary Quixotist

New Year, New Gamers — rpgadvocate sets a high bar by choosing five games to run in 2012: Macabre Tales, Toypocalypse, Cosmic Patrol, Fiasco, and Lost Days of Memories and Madness.

Of Dice and Dragons

New Year, New Game — Scot Newbury focuses on running a new campaign (rather than a new RPG), and lays out five challenges that should make it an interesting experience for him as a GM.

Brightwind

New Year, New Game: Dogs in the Vineyard — David Bowers shares what happened when he tried, back in 2011, to run Dogs in the Vineyard set in the Star Wars universe.

Gnome Stew

How I Prep for the First Session of a New Game — To close things out, I shared my approach to running the first session of a new game here on the Stew.

Posts about NYNG

In addition to posts that were part of the blog carnival, NYNG itself also got some press from RPG bloggers. Thanks to these fine folks for spreading the word:

• Wired.com: New Year, New Game Launches
• Adventurando-se: Novo Ano, Novo Jogo
• Pontos de Experiência: Ano Novo, Jogo Novo

If I missed a NYNG post anywhere, please drop me a comment or an email and I’ll rectify that right away.

I hope you enjoyed reading these articles and taking part in the NYNG challenge. if you have any feedback for next year’s NYNG event, fire away in the comments.

Meet the character sheet archive!

I must admit that, for the sheer number of times I’ve had similar issues to those above the idea of keeping a character sheet archive took a long time to gel. I usually keep copies (or the originals) of all the PCs in my campaign, but they were usually reasonably up-to-date versions. I’ve since discovered that it’s really handy to have each step of a PC’s development at my fingertips for when one of these weird situations pop up.

With information technology being what it is these days, it’s painfully simple to keep a PC archive, especially if your group uses spreadsheets or character generator software. Simply give each iteration its own file number and you’re good to go. I tend to play rules-light games, which means it’s relatively easy to design a character sheet in MS Word and just update it as we go along.

Alternatively, you could keep initial character sheets and just keep track of XP expenditures. I generally do both. I track XP expenditures when “at the table” and update the sheets later.

Having a character sheet archive is handy for several reasons:

• We’re only human and even computers glitch on occasion. It’s easy to reverse-engineer a mistake if you can go back and look at the archived sheets.

• Regular updating leads to regular oversight. Not only are you better able to nip mistakes in the bud, but players are likely to be more careful if they know they’re being scrutinized.

• Some games have different rules for spending points at chargen and as XP. Having an archive makes it easy to determine what was spent where.

• My crazy campaigns do sometimes involve time travel or alternate universes. It’s handy to be able to “regress” PCs back to what they actually were. Ditto if I want to run a one-shot with the PCs at an earlier stage of development or a flashback scene.

• While D&D and its various iterations do a great job of keeping track of XP, I’ve found that in other games I’ve been lax in remembering how much XP I gave out and my players generally only keep track of unspent XP. Without a tally it can be a nightmare to do a PC rebuild or check for accuracy if you don’t know the total XP spent (GURPS is a notable exception, since its “character points” are uniform from creation through experience).

Do you keep track of your PCs’ progress along the way and keep notes of the changes? If so, has it been overly burdensome or do you find it useful? If not, do you think this is something that may come in handy?

This article was written for the first annual New Year, New Game blog carnival hosted by Gnome Stew as part of the 2012 NYNG challenge.

This past weekend I wrapped up a 16-month Star Trek campaign, and ending it (always a tricky affair) made me think about how I started it — which in turn seemed like a pretty good topic to cover for NYNG.

I’m going to talk specifics because this stuff all worked for me, and for this particular game, but the trick to starting a new game right is learning what works for you as a GM and for the specific game you’re going to run. It’s a fuzzy process, and both GMing experience and time spent as a player watching what other GMs do help make it go more smoothly.

Basically, I prepared for my first session of Star Trek by stealing everything that wasn’t nailed down.

Steal What Works

Three Things: I stole fellow gnome Don Mappin’s Three Things technique to get my players to come up with usable ideas for the game, increasing their buy-in in the process. Over the course of the campaign, I hit every one of their three things in the game.

First session structure: I also stole Don’s approach of running a fairly “character-neutral” first session — one that showcases the game’s highlights, but which isn’t deeply connected to any of the PCs. That doesn’t mean a session where the PCs are just color, or don’t have anything to do, just one where another group of PCs could have been slotted in without any problems (IE, more like a published scenario).

Templates: From the excellent Star Trek Narrator’s Guide (sadly OOP, but well worth tracking down; it’s full of excellent GMing advice and tools), I stole templates for the series profile (a quick summary of the tone and focus of the campaign), episode structure (the three-act model, which was a great way to get sessions to feel like Star Trek), planetary profiles (to provide pertinent info on the worlds featured in the game), and more. I can’t praise this book highly enough as a GMing aid. The Stew’s own DNAphil has also written some excellent material about using templates in your game, notably Prep-Lite Manifesto: The Template.

My own advice from years past: I also ate my own dog food (which I guess counts as stealing from myself?), sticking closely to GMing advice I wrote back in 2005 and 2007, respectively: Lead with the Cool Stuff (don’t save your best ideas — use them!) and PC Backgrounds: Pressure Doesn’t Make Diamonds (if you ask for backgrounds, ask the right way and use what you get). And, of course, I used my three playlist system for background music.

Antogonists: And finally, I stole from my players again by asking them what enemy group/race they’d like to see be the focus of season one. They chose Romulans, which drew a box in which I could play to one of my biggest strengths as a GM: creativity with constraints. I used a Romulan NPC from one player’s background as the central villain for the whole season, and made every other episode about Romulans to a greater or lesser degree.

Try New Things, Too

Running a new game is a great excused to step outside your comfort zone, and I always like to try a couple of new things when I start a new game. Not too many, because that tends to overwhelm me, but a couple.

Going digital: The biggest new thing I tried was going almost entirely digitial for this campaign. I used Obsidian Portal to do that, and it worked beautifully as a repository and tool for collaboration. I also used Google Docs to take notes during sessions.

No screen: Despite being a screen fanatic, over the past few years I’ve warmed up to the idea of not using one at all. This was the first game where my screen stayed folded up in front of me with its most useful tables showing, not set up to shield things from my players’ view. With a laptop and minimal paper, there’s nothing to shield!

One hour of prep per session: I made it a goal to prep in an hour or less for each session, and generally hit 30 minutes of “semi-prep” — brainstorming in the car and writing down a brief bulleted outline of the episode — followed by one hour (sometimes 90 minutes) of actual prep. Given that I used to spend 4-8 hours per session in past games, hitting 60-90 minutes was a huge shift — and one that worked really well, forcing me to pack in only the important stuff and rely on one of my strengths as a GM: improvisation.

Next time I start a new game, I’ll do many — though likely not all — of the same things. This is my current groove, and it works well for me; I hope that some of this advice resonates with you, as well.

How do you prepare to run a new game?

Similar to the questions on Metagaming, I would like to see an article on how a GM can give hints and clues for a story without the players immediately leaping upon it. You know, the old “if the GM mentioned it, it must be important!”

Example: The PC’s are meeting an important dignitary for dinner, and the noble goes, “Ouch!” as he apparently gets a nasty splinter from his chair. The PC’s immediately all jump up, start casting spells to locate bad guys, cast anti-poison in the NPC, etc, etc.

Is the answer to just litter your game with inconsequential incidents for NPCs? Is it to make them roll to have noticed the NPC getting the “splinter”?

Long story short, Iceberg–what you’re hoping for is actually difficult to accomplish.

Your suggestion–littering your game with inconsequential incidents for NPCs–strikes at the heart of the matter. The first solution to the problem is to litter your game with incidental details. What do I mean? Well, here are a few quick examples:

“The corridor continues straight for thirty feet, opening on a (GM draws a room) room 30′ wide by 20′ long. Three orcs stand, brandish their axes, and… roll for initiative!”
versus:
“The wainscotting continues down the corridor, a polished oak that must keep his staff endlessly busy with dusting. Ahead, the corridor passes through a rounded oak arch sculpted with angels and demons. You hear guttural voices suddenly still in the room ahead, and hear the scrape of furniture being pushed back. From Jayen’s angle, she sees two thickly muscled figures wrapped in grimy finery standing and raising battle axes from the floor…

Those could both be descriptions of the same developing scene. I know that I can get lazy when describing things, particularly when I’m looking forward to the next fun combat. Still, if you’re looking to include subtle surprises, you need to add a layer of subtlety to your game on a continuous basis. Otherwise, every detail that’s described is important, so of course your players are going to react to it–it’s important! In fact, if you want to subtly direct more attention to things, you should follow John’s advice in Defining Importance: Making sure the things you want to be remembered about your game are. (In fact, my article is just the complement to his key tip: Present the things you want to be remembered in a way that makes them stand out from the rest of the events going on.)

It does take more time to describe things in more detail, or to describe incidental events–but it’s less additional time than you think. For most traditional games, combats take something like 30 to 120 minutes. If you cut one round of one combat, you’ve probably saved enough time to add dozens of conversational asides and world-deepening (but plot inconsequential) flavor.

Switching modes (from “sufficient” to “verbose”) is better handled steadily, over time, than in an overwhelming blitz. If you suddenly take five sentences to describe a room that previously took one, you’ll overload your players–and probably struggle to come up with that much material consistently. Instead, slowly add more conversational asides, have NPCs talk about the weather, describe a few more terrain features. When more of those features are revealed to be interesting but not plot arrows, your players will come to appreciate the more detailed world… and never notice that you can slide in subtle hints more easily without raising red flags.

Here are some easily implemented flavor ideas to get you started:

• Have someone praise a PC’s clothing, armor, or weapon.
• Describe the texture of the wall in the next room.
• Have someone ramble on about a missing sheep within earshot of the PCs. Have another NPC sigh tiredly, and mutter, “She’s always on about her sheep” to a PC.
• Introduce a strong smell: sewage, oleanders in bloom, or ammonia.
• Ask a PC where they learned [something]–then have their asker interrupt with his own story about learning smithing from old Davard.
• Have an NPC complain that everything is going wrong; life was better when they were a child.

It’s not foolproof, but that’s the path I’d take to chivvy players away from reacting to every burp and bush flowering out of season as a plot hook.

Two Kinds of Comments

There are two things that I’d love to hear. First: If you have a different solution to IcebergTitanic’s problem, please share your approach. If there’s a fast, easy path, I wouldn’t mind adding that to my quiver of options. Second: My list of flavor ideas was pretty short. More bits of scenery that are easy to work into a game and conversations that add depth, but don’t point to a plot, would be handy to have ready the next time a GM wants a more detailed game-world.

Characteristics:

It’s easiest to choose encounters by keeping in mind a few characteristics of the area in which the encounters will occur. Each of the following aspects can help choose both the frequency of different categories of encounter and the particular encounters that fit into that category. These characteristics only need to be classified as Low Medium or High and no more than a few seconds needs to be devoted to choosing each one. If you’re unsure if you should use Medium or High for a particular characteristic, just flip a coin and move on.

Life Level:
How alive is the area? How much diversity of plant and animal life is there? How much is there overall? Verdant forests, fertile grasslands, and vegetation-choked swamps all have high life levels while scorching deserts, rocky badlands and frigid tundras all have low life levels. The higher an areas life levels, the more slots should be in your final encounter table, and the more entries of each type.

Hazard Level:
How dangerous is it to live in this area? Do things live brutal short lives? Do you want lots of dangerous creatures? Is the area itself deadly? Different from life level which measures how many things and types of things live in an area, hazard level measures how often the things that do live there die.  Deadly mires, inhospitable crags, and plague pits all have high hazard levels.  Elven glades and  carefully tended farmlands have low hazard levels.

Difficult Terrain Density:
How easy is it to move around the area? How maneuverable do you have to be to chase or evade prey? Can you take an afternoon jog without breaking your ankle or falling to your death? Jagged rockpiles, sinking bogs and dense forests all have high difficult terrain densities, while rolling grasslands, ancient roadways and sunbaked dirt flats all have low terrain densities.

Resource Level:
What’s here that anyone wants? Are there mineral deposits? Can the land be farmed, timber or wildlife harvested? Is the area tactically or economically valuable? Rocky terrain with rich ore veins, coastal land, and defensible high points have high resource levels. trackless wastes, rocky scrublands, and intraversable mud pits have low resource levels.

Ecological niches:

With these characteristics in mind there are six ecological niches in which encounters can fall. In general one to four encounters from each niche will create a complete list though this can be tweaked to work with particular games, campaigns, and areas.  In general the higher an area’s life level and the lower it’s difficult terrain level, the larger the group it’s inhabitants should form.

Herbivores:
In this context, we’re defining herbivores as “Creatures that eat the environment” so while traditional herbivores fall in this category, wildly different environments like mine shafts, abandoned building, alternate planes and the like will have different sets of “Herbivores”. For the most part, we’re only interested in big nasty herbivores that regardless of whether they want to eat you or not will kick your ass for looking at them funny,large groups of herbivores that will trample you when spooked, or otherwise dangerous creatures. Rabbits are simply not an encounter unless they’re vorpal (and they’re still not herbivores).

Predators:
Usually predators are the most dangerous creatures in an area because they have to be able to kill and eat the rest of the population to survive. Again, depending on the mix of other creatures, what qualifies as a predator can be unusual. In a primal forest populated by plant creatures, that moose may well be your alpha predator.

Scavenger:
Creatures that eat other  dead creatures but aren’t above an occasional fresh meal, there are a huge variety of scavengers but they’re usually underrepresented in gaming resources especially for odd environments.  In a pinch lower level predators can fill the role of scavengers. The higher an area’s hazard levels the more scavengers can be found there.

Hazards:
Hidden deadly creatures such as vipers are hazards. Adapted to live is a high competition environment by being super lethal, but not super durable, they can often be handled as traps or skill checks. Unlike other encounter types, these are usually found singly and are most often found in areas with high hazard levels. Though most items on the list are creatures, hazards can be inanimate objects such as quicksand, pits etc…

Humanoids:
Able to live anywhere, there’s usually at least one group of humanoids living in or near any given area. Places will be hotly contested, and thus be home to more humanoids if they have high resource levels.

Elementals:
Some creatures have no ecological niche but live in areas simply because they are part of them.While this includes elementals, it might also include golems, fey, robots, or other weird creatures that are tied to a certain area and fall in no other category.

Putting it together:

Now you should have a list of creatures appropriate to your area that fill a variety of roles.  All that’s left is to put them on a table. Chances are there are one or two too few or too many to fit a convenient number, so just ditch a few or grab a couple of your second string choices, toss them on a table and you’re good to go.

A brief note on die choice: With a single die, all outcomes are equally likely. The more dice you use, the greater central tendency of your roll, and the rarer the high and low values. Using dice of unequal size on the same roll will create a small “plateau” of probabilities in the center. It’s in no way essential to sit and crunch numbers, but keep in mind that if you use 5d6 for your table, the probability of rolling a 5 or a 30 is .01% so don’t expect to ever see it.

Example:

Here is an example using Fenwood from my Location Template Article:

Name: Fenwood
Life: High
Hazard: High
Difficult Terrain: High
Resource: Low

Herbivores: catoblepas, giant beaver, elk
Predators: vampire, crocodile, cougars
Scavengers: giant beetle, mold men, dire crow
Hazards: viper, ant swarm, quicksand
Humanoids: swamp gnomes
Elementals: dark fey, living plants

2d8
2 – vampire
3 – catoblepas
4 – giant beaver
5 – crocodile
6 – giant beetle
7 – ant swarm
8 – swamp gnomes
9 – quicksand
10 – elk
11 – cougar
12 – mold men
13 – dire crow
14 – viper
15 – living plants
16 – dark fey