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Visiting the Archives: Using Spell Research to Augment Your Roleplay

2008-10-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

While Dante & I are house hunting this week, our posting schedule will be chaotic at best. We didn't want to leave you without the Stupidranger.com content you've come to enjoy, I am reposting on of my favorite Dante classics, which originally appeared here August 23, 2007. Enjoy it again!

Visiting the Archives: Using Spell Research to Augment your Roleplay

Once upon a time, there was a wizard named Medric. Medric was fascinated with rope tricks, so much so he spent much of his youth learning how to tie knots, do simple rope magic tricks, and generally annoy his parents.

As Medric ventured out into the world and had to use his spellcasting ability to keep himself safe, he quickly became resolved to use his interest in ropes to aid him in his quest.

I asked my Dungeon Master how he wanted to approach spell research, and his answer surprised me a little: write up a spell description based on the rules, and also begin to roleplay researching the spell. When he was satisfied with both sides of that equation, I could add the spell to my repertoire.

Medric spent the next several sessions researching different spells to base his rope magic, and he decided on a force spell similar to Magic Missle to propel the end of his rope through objects, after which it would do some residual rope burn damage if he continued to concentrate to direct the rope.

While he was researching, he decided to use this spell to bust through some melons and other various produce. After some practice, the DM allowed me to use the spell on some attacking orcs. It didn't end too well for the orcs, and Medric was happy that his research paid off.

During the spell research time, the DM would flex how effective the spell was based on a d20 roll. Sometimes it would do more damage than I had written in the spell description that I provided, and other times the spell would fail outright. Once, Medric's rope backfired and entangled him for several rounds.

I found this to be a much more engrossing way to research new spells, and certainly a lot more fun as a player than spending time slaving over a spell description and just having it appear as reality. It also presented some great opportunities for the rest of the PCs to see what was coming and experience the highs and lows along with my wizard.

I liked this approach so much that I have adopted it to use with my own campaigns. I'd love to hear thoughts on this process!

Storytelling Arcs: Radio...

2008-10-01T10:07:00.002-05:00

On Monday, I began discussing storytelling arcs as seen in other media. Today, I'd like to take a look at everyone's favorite yesteryear storytelling device, the radio. For many years, our grandparents generation would tune in to radio serials, which told stories in a very different way than television or movies do today.

Situation and Interaction

Most radio programs are structured in a narrated situation/interaction style of prose. Often, you will find a dissociated narrator to the story that sets up a scene, wherein voice actors play out their roles for a small vignette and then the plot progresses. These small plot pieces are sometimes last the entire length of the episode, and the listener must continue to tune it to see how the story slowly unfolds.

To my mind this format is easily digestable, fun, and interesting because it focuses on strong character interaction. The narration is second to the interplay between the voice actors and this can directly map to your roleplaying campaign. This approach really focuses on roleplay, and has the added benefit of being quite easy for the DM to manage. Simply put your characters in a situation, give them some sort of a catalyst, and let the player interaction both entertain and color the story for you.

The main difference between the classic radio storyline and your campaign is that you will have to be sensitive to how long the "episode" lasts. If your players get tired of talking to one another, are confused, lack direction, or are just plain ready to move on you have to be prepared with the next piece of campaign content to continue the story along, but knowing when to let your roleplayers take center stage can really enhance your gaming experience.

For those of you that have never heard any radio serials before, I found that OpenCulture has provided old Abbott and Costello shows, The Lone Ranger, and more for your listening pleasure.

Roleplayers Trying to Survive the Office

2008-09-30T08:05:00.000-05:00

I came to the realization that my desk has actually been overrun with tiny paper elementals that are constantly in battle for supremacy of my work space.

For those of you who haven't imagined the horror of my desk, it is in fact covered with several piles of paper which are growing at a distressing rate (the aforementioned paper elementals). They have taken over all visible flat surfaces of my desk, four in-boxes, three file cabinet drawers, and they are making serious inroads in their goal to take over the floor space surrounding my chair.

I joined in battle and attempted to eradicate this infestation, and what a spectacular battle it was. I subdued many of paper elementals with the use of my +1 Stapler of Organization, which does not completely eliminate the problem but certainly makes it easier to manage.

The paper elementals fought back valiantly, summoning assistance from the distant lands of the Fax Machine and the Email, and both factions provided reinforcements when the battle looked to be turning to my favor. In the end, I took 1d4 damage to the webbing of my left thumb as one of the tricky little devils bit me.

It is with a heavy heart that I report on my inability to properly defeat this infestation of the paper elementals. It is my hope that when I re-join battle, I will be able to summon the divine power of the Document Retention God, who will grant me the ability to throw away these horrible little monsters.

Pray for me, friends, that I may be victorious.

Storytelling Arcs: Television...

2008-09-29T10:28:00.005-05:00

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to the crafting of story arcs and how this is best achieved in a roleplaying environment. Before long I started considering the story telling mechanisms employed by other mediums.

Let's have a look at the moving picture victrolla first

Before I launch into this too far, I'm going to be totally transparent: I finally got around to watching the season premiere of Heroes and that is where much of this discussion stems from. I will attempt to discuss things at a macro level and will avoid spoiling things. Consider yourself warned.

Some dramatic television shows tend to go for the long story arc that will span an entire season. This was similar to the first season of Heroes, however in tailoring a story this way you set yourself up for either a big payoff or a big let down. Most D&D campaigns I have been in build their storylines in this fashion, for better or worse. I have found that unless something unexpected happens at the end, most of my players fail to remember how the campaign resolved itself but remember more the actions of their characters along the way.

Other shows tend to break things up into parallel storylines, which interweave and wrap around each other from time to time and all aim toward a common endpoint. This is somewhat similar to the second season of Heroes, but the downside to this style of storytelling is confusion and the fact that when you're focusing on one set of stories the rest of the characters (your players in the RPG world) are left out of the mix unless you involve them in some other fashion.

Since there's not much data yet on the latest season of Heroes, I would like to look at the sum of the existing parts that we have seen so far. The third season has started out in more of a "pressure cooker" mode. In this method of storytelling, a lot of activity and plot happens in a short time. This is intended to put the familiar (and even not-so-familiar) characters on a path so you can get ready to follow them.

This method is usually best reserved for the start of campaign or restart of campaign sessions, where you must quickly reestablish the plot and create some compelling reasons to stay tuned. This mechanism is also quite useful when you've noticed that the interest in your campaign is waning or your player characters have recently gotten into something they are not interested in but had to finish by virtue of the task.

A good real-world example is the time I combined a compelling plot point with a pre-constructed module and the module proved to be much longer than I expected. By the end, all the players wanted to do was get done so they could move on, and the time spent finishing the module was grating on them. Once we got out of the module, I kind've hit the fast-forward button in order to get them moving forward along the plot again and the new developments made things more interesting for them again.

Stay tuned for more!

I will periodically be selecting a different medium and trying to find out how we can learn by the way they tell their stories. By standing on the backs of these giants, we might be able to build our own stories in a better way!

Behind the Screen: Memento Mori...

2008-09-25T08:59:00.000-05:00

Memento Mori is a Latin phrase that means "Remember that you must die." It has been used since ancient times to remind people of their own mortality, and I recently ran across this discussed by the always beautful Cory Doctorow in reference to a pinhole camera made from a human skull featured on BoingBoing earlier in the week.

Mortality is an important part of your campaign.

As a Dungeon Master, I really don't like killing my players that much. It is, however, a required aspect of a good campaign... mortality should be a very dramatic thing. This could spiral off into a discussion about how balanced or unbalanced raising the dead is in D&D, but that's not what I'm after today.

Today, I want to talk about various ways to remind your players that they are mortal.

The trick is simply to kill, poison, or otherwise terrorize them.

You can use disease, curses, or even temporary death (he's only MOSTLY dead!) to reinforce that your Level 3 players are not immortal gods among men. Gravely injure them from time to time. Make them walk around with their arm off looking for someone that can restore the damage. Give them a particularly nasty poisonous creature to deal with. Kill them once in awhile, preferably in a way that they would be somewhat satisfied with (for example, no fighter wants to die by getting hit in the head with a rock after winning a battle.)

The beauty of the D&D rules is that most of these things are not permanent, unless you wish to make some special rules to make them so. Restorations and resurrections are only as common as the characters that have the skills to cast them. If used sparingly while the player characters are too young to resolve these issues themselves, you can get all of the drama from a system designed to make these devastating events temporary.

Why is this important again?

Because, quite simply, drama is what makes good campaigns. If you are dead set against giving your player characters setbacks, you can apply these rules to some NPC that becomes close to the players in some way, but they must be VERY invested roleplayers in order for this to make much of a difference.

If you spare the pain and suffering, your campaign will quickly be like playing a video game cutscene. Even if the building blows up, you know the next level hasn't loaded yet and the game isn't over, so something will happen to make the player characters be ok. If you bail them out every single time, they will start taking ridiculous risks (sometimes subconsciously) because they know you'll bail them out of it.

This takes skill and guts to pull off correctly, so best of luck to you all. Memento mori!

Connecting a Little Better to my Character

2008-09-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

Getting lost in a character is one of the most exciting elements of roleplaying. I love to roleplay characters with whom I feel a deep connection. For that brief time when I am in-character, I want to escape reality, and this becomes much easier and more enjoyable when I am my character instead of myself. Here's are three quick, easy ways to connect:

1. A Little Self-Analysis - Review the information related to your class and race. Preview your career options. If you really were your character, you would know who you are and who you want to be. It's merely a matter of knowing yourself.

2. A Little Geography - Take a look at your campaign setting. I'm not recommending that you memorize the capitals or the location of every river in the continent. But, depending on your character, you would probably have a general idea of your surroundings. The broad strokes of the setting can help make it a little more real, and if your world is more real, your character will feel more real.

3. A Little Creative Writing - I love writing backstories for my characters. The creative process involved helps me connect on a very deep level with the character I've developed. A stray memory from childhood, a rite of passage, any little thing that helps make your character unique will help you connect to your character. On of my favorite techniques is to tell the story of how my character came into her profession; not only do you create an insight into how you came to be who you are (Level 1), you have a great reason to keep doing what you're doing (see #1).

Three little step to help me stay connected to my character, but each leaves a lot of room for personalization and adaptation to any character.

Non-Transient Adventuring?

2008-09-22T17:38:00.002-05:00

All this talk (and effort) surrounding moving has made me think about the transient nature of adventuring. It seems that in all of our campaigns, our adventuring parties are travellers that must seek out pieces to the puzzle, explore mysterious corners of the world, or otherwise save the world.

The Reasons, they are many...

It turns out that I am fairly lazy when it comes to planning my sessions. On the occasion that I do plan, crack a sourcebook and research a setting, I find it difficult to come up with street level maps, tavern names, a local government, and the like.

This is why I stick close to impromptu world-travelling type campaigns. I only need a few key facts to make those scenarios work, and I don't get stumped by the unplanned questions that come inside of a city setting. Is there a bank? Is the mayor's wife hot? Is there a place I can research Guatemalan insanity peppers? and so on.

Aside from online tools to help flesh out this type of information, what tips do you use to plan a city-based or non-travelling campaign? Is there any thought processes that you go through to drum out some of these obvious questions, and how to do handle it when your players want to go somewhere "off-script" that you haven't accounted for?

In the past I have attempted to keep a general "city campaign ideas" notebook to capture episodes of city-based content that could be dropped in, but I tend to rope myself into a certain topology that tends to prevent me from executing these ideas. Any advice would be appreciated!

Regarding pointless grinding...

2008-09-18T14:39:00.003-05:00

As previously mentioned, Stupid Ranger and I are preparing for a cross-country move. As a result, I've been forced to burn a few of my precious, precious personal days to prepare our current home for sale. The last two days of my life have been consumed by pointless repetitive tasks.

As a result, I decided to write for a few moments regarding the process of doing pointless repetitive tasks in games as a means to build skill, earn rewards, and roleplay. In many video games I have played, this process is known as grinding.

I might be biased, but I hate this.

In my case, I am grinding not to gain experience but for a monetary reward and to advance the plot of my life. The nicer the house looks, the faster it will sell, hopefully for more money. In roleplaying games, I have played in several systems that rewarded grinding a certain task to build skills (like fletching, masonry, or forging) or to gain rewards (sweep the floor one thousand times and you get a pass to join the thieves guild).

The particular game I'm talking about here is a MUD that I used to play named Gemstone IV. I loved this MUD, however I fell quickly out of love with the fact that many of its systems are built on grinding a task and then resting while your experience absorbed (the time at which it would actually be applied to your experience total). As the years went on, they attempted to tweak their system to allow much more of a constant flow of experience and skill building, but it grew too much for me.

How to avoid this

In my games, I tend to do a few things when tempted to present my players with a long task to "build character". Firstly, don't do it. Make discrete tasks equal rewards whenever possible, doing a certain task one thousand times is just going to be annoying and tiresome to the vast majority of players. Secondly, if you must force your players to grind make it a skill challenge. That at least gives some interactivity and randomness to their success.

Finally, if you are bent on forcing them to do a task in a repetitive manner give them the opportunity to roleplay while they do it, or do a cinematic storytelling moment where you explain that your players spent the next two weeks sweeping the floor and on the other side they are tired, weary, and have their invite to the thieves guild.

If anyone has experienced a satisfying experience grinding a task, please share your experience with us in the comments. If you hate it, let's hear from you too, I'd be happy to spearhead the International No More Grinding Society. Maybe if I gave that name more than three seconds of thought I could've made a cooler acronym.

Oh well, I've got painting to do. *sigh*

Surviving the Crazy Times -- Packing

2008-09-16T12:25:00.004-05:00

As Dante & I prepare for our cross-country move, we are finding ourselves overwhelmed. There's so much to do to prepare for this kind of move. I expect that over the next few weeks, as we're trying to maintain sanity and sell our house and find a new house and try to keep up with the miriad of other details involved in the whole thing, our blogging schedule may be a little off.

Sorting and packing boxes has given me a bit of an appreciation for the sheer footloose-edness of my characters. In our campaigns, we frequently take off into the wide blue yonder with only the contents of our backpacks. If we're really on top of things, we sometimes procure horses and other related traveling paraphenalia, but we're not always that prepared.

I have a hard time imagining myself taking off on a great adventure with only the contents of my backpack. I'm a bit of a pack-rat though, so I'm sure things I would consider necessary might be negiotable. Excluding electronics (assuming no way to recharge them) and cash (move all funds to the First National Bank of Bag of Holding), I would probably pack:

1. Basic toiletry kit - 'nuf said.

2. Towel - Gotta stay safe in case I encounter the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. Also, when I need to replace #1.

3. Hair pin - If Scooby Doo has taught us anything, it's that a hair pin is singularily the most useful hair accessory one can have. But it's not just for picking locks. Use it in place of a cloak pin when you wrap your towel around you for warmth. Plus, it's an easy accessory to make you look fabulous.

4. Notebook (and pen) - I don't travel far without my notebook, mostly because I have a tendency to forget things if I don't write them down. It would be highly useful for keeping track of landmarks to keep from getting lost. Or if you are lost, to make paper airplanes to request help.

5. Bottle of water - even when it's empty, you can use it as a canteen to transport water.

6. Scroll case with lots of useful scrolls - I'm assuming I'm an arcane spell caster. :)

Gaming with too much baggage, epilogue...

2008-09-15T09:09:00.000-05:00

Last week, I lamented my position of having too many old gaming books and paraphernalia laying around. We ended up with a box full of loot that we needed to dispose of, and I was none-too-picky about what we got out of it.

No Longer Trapped in the Closet

I made a cursory trip to my local game shop, Gamers' Sanctuary. The nice lady behind the desk informed me that they would be happy to put up a "FREE" sign on my box of loot, but I could probably get a little bit out of it on their used rack. She recommended that I come back later on to speak with another team member who knew how to price things appropriately and they would help us.

So yesterday, SR and I made the trek back to the game shop, lousy with our box of old 3.0 D&D books, my previously mentioned and unfortunately maligned Deadlands, a Mage: The Awakening sourcebook that was never played (sadly), and some miscellaneous Gamecube games that hadn't seen the light of day in a long time and the system to play them on (replaced with a Wii). Amazingly, they did some math and gave us $71 in store credit!!

I informed them I would be spending that store credit RIGHT NOW and picked up the new Forgotten Realms sourcebook for D&D 4.0 and two boxes of Against the Giants miniatures. Stupid Ranger practiced her awesome skills in divining cool gaming stuff and we pulled a Fire Titan out of one miniatures box, pretty neat stuff!

So whoever provided the advice to take my stuff down the FLGS, THANK YOU! We converted a whole box of crap that we never play with into a shiny new sourcebook and miniatures that we certainly will play with. We also reduced one box down to almost no cargo space, so that will help with the reduction in stuff initiative!

There is still the matter of what to do with the Magic collection, but I'm going to save that topic for another day. The jury is still out!

Riddle Puzzles

2008-09-12T08:05:00.000-05:00

Dante shared his recent post on the macro puzzle... that over-arcing sometimes frustrating puzzle that has to be solved to advance to the next step. These are usually highly frustrating for me because if I don't figure it out right away, I feel as if I've missed something very important.

I prefer riddles. To me, riddles are a much more satisfying intellectual challenge. One of the traditions of GenCon is to earn the Riddle Master badge from Cloud Kingdom as soon as possible once entering the sales floor. Because life as a Riddle Master is grand.

For the DMs out there, I'd like to share a riddle experience that I felt went very well from a player's perspective. At GenCon, several years ago, we met up with a bunch of college friends, one of whom was there with his dad, who was an awesome DM and offered to run a short, one-night hang-out-and-have-fun kind of session. We all jumped at the chance.

This was the basic premise: we mighty adventurers encountered a sage of some kind, who provided us with charms to help us in our quest. To earn your charm, you had to answer a riddle, but you could get help from the rest of the party to solve your riddle.

There were two things I really liked about this approach. First, it was a gift - if you couldn't answer the riddle, nothing bad happened. Second, you could get help; instead of stranding you there with everyone staring at you, waiting to see if you were going to make a guess, you got to ask for help from everyone. The bonus was that everyone stayed involved, even if they already had their charm.

Keeping everyone involved, making the goal achievable without making the stakes too high, and making sure everyone has fun keeps the challenge from being overwhelming.

The Curse of the Macro Puzzle...

2008-09-10T09:45:00.003-05:00

Let's face it, boys and girls... puzzles can sometimes be frustrating. In our recent Ravenloft campaign, we have been marooned on a strange island upon which we appear to be trapped. Our group made several attempts at paddling our lifeboat out into the sea, only to get repeatedly deposited back on the same shores from whence we came.

At this point, I don't know if it is a puzzle or one of those magical effects intended to keep us within the constraints of the general plot, but suffice it to say several repeat failures was a wee bit frustrating for our group.

The cost of moving on

I have attempted to use these larger scale puzzles or traps within my own campaigns, and I constantly run into trouble with people not "getting the hints" or constantly trying the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result. This is actually Einstein's definition of insanity, for those keeping score at home.

One of two things happen: the session grinds to a halt, with frustrated players quickly breaking character and discussing the plot reasons why they aren't able to solve the approach with their best efforts, or they attempt to abandon the puzzle and move on to find out more about their surroundings hoping later to find the key that will lead them to success.

I have two pieces of advice for those wanting to inject this type of event into their campaigns: expect your players to be stupider than you give them credit for. The glaring hint that you have given them will almost never make sense unless you beat the players over the head with it, or give them several data points upon which to connect the dots. Secondly, you should always give your players an "out", where they can move on to explore another part of the plot while they figure out the aspects of the puzzle that are currently unclear.

Luckily, our DMs for this campaign did the latter and allowed us a few leads to different areas of the plot, which we wrapped up the last session by following. Hopefully more will become clear next week, but the progress was encouraging and that is the benefit from this approach.

Bricks in The Road To Hell: A Cautionary Tale of Accidental Roleplay

2008-09-09T00:01:00.002-05:00

Last night, I was playing some Fable 2 Pub Games before bed. I'm not all that crazy about the game, but it's a good timekiller if one is just looking for a little braindead entertainment. Most of the reason I play it is because the controls consist of pushing one button or another, and when you've got a baby in your lap that's all you can use. I didn't preorder Fable 2 to get a free copy, and I would certainly not pay 800 Microsoft points for the thing -- but fortunately a nice lady at Gen Con had a big table full of free vouchers for the game so I didn't have to. I'll probably be picking up Fable 2 at some point after it comes out, but there are also a lot of games coming out in which I need to play a little plastic guitar, and my budget is currently limited.

At any rate, I suck at pretty much every game in the thing. Fortune's Tower is my preferred vice. It's basically a cross between Solitaire and Deal Or No Deal. The way you play goes as follows:

You place a bet.

Your cards literally burst into flames, and you lose all your money.

Occasionally, something will happen that gives you just enough hope to get cocky and think you can win your money back. Then go back to step 2.

Repeat.

If you buy Fable 2, your gold (or debt) can transfer to your character. The game has now started to remind me that excessive debt may have "in-game consequences". I started last night 14,000 in debt, and I started to get on a winning streak. I started to feel hopeful about my character's future, about my ability to play this game, about avoiding the loan sharks' wrath! It was about then that the tables with the more expensive betting limits started opening to me, and the wave of good feelings I was riding convinced me that only good things made out of platinum would come of this.

Two hours later, I realized something very important. I had inadvertently started roleplaying during a game of chance. I created a character in my mind that didn't even exist yet, and gave him hopes and dreams and a credit rating. I desperately wanted him to succeed, and got caught up in the moment. And now I am 70,000 chips in debt. The good news is that I have 5-star gambler rating, and I can borrow LOTS of chips. The bad news is that my poor character is probably going to need new kneecaps. Oh god, you can have a family in Fable 2! Are they going to come after my wife and kids and.... *choke* MY DOG? I vowed then and there to train my character as fast as possible so I could defend my family and lands from these scoundrels, while paying my debt honestly through hard work.

I'm thinking very hard about leaving my debt as is and allowing my character to inherit it just to see what happens. In short, the game itself was boring but I had fun in my own little fantasy world -- and I would have probably done the same thing regardless of whether a "real" RPG was coming out associated with it or not.

The moral of the story here? To put it Yoda-style: Adversity leads to conflict. Conflict leads to drama. Drama leads to story. Gambling leads to depression. Which is not hard to roleplay when you're 70,000 in the hole.

Rituals in Roleplaying

2008-09-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

This weekend, Dante & I helped celebrated our niece's first birthday! Let me tell you, watching a 1-year-old make a huge mess of her little "for me to destroy" birthday cake is pretty darn entertaining.

And as I'm sitting here, grasping for straws for something to write, I am thinking back fondly of the "adult" cake (and how oh-so-tasty it was), and I begin to consider how ritualized the birthday party is. In our family, there's the socializing time, generally including food, followed by presents, then cake. It's a very specific pattern of events that occurs every time, no matter who is celebrating a birthday.

And now to the point... All this reminiscing of birthday party rituals has lead me to consider ritual patterns in roleplaying.

In terms of mechanics, there are patterns of behavior governing actions. For instance, initiative to determine order of combat, actions taken in order. It's the same pattern that is followed every time there is combat.

In-character rituals are a little harder to identify as they are generally subjective. One that comes to mind stems from both parts of our last big campaign. Various characters had their rituals to follow whenever the party arrived in a new town. Nathanial, the goblin-turned-human paladin of Horus-Re, would visit the local temple and clean it. Batloaf, the Rock bard extraordinaire, would scope out the population of available women and select his partner(s) for the evening; I won't share with you the specifics of this ritual so-as to keep this post family friendly.

My character, Ari, didn't really have any specific pattern of behavior to follow when arriving in town. I realize after the fact that this is one of the components of roleplaying that I neglected with this character. I was vaguely uneasy when reaching a new town as it seemed that most other characters had something to do, and Ari didn't really have a ritual to follow. In a fluff-heavy group, not having something fluffy to do made it a little less fun.

It's easy to say that the solution in this case would be to find something to do, but that may be difficult to accomplish, depending on the character's personality. So, unsatisfyingly, I don't really have an answer for this. But I would recommend that if you are involved in a fluffy campaign, take some extra time between sessions to consider your backstory (because it's a fluffy campaign and I know you have a backstory). Is there something there that your character could use to fill those empty hours in town? Maybe you could write letters home or update your adventuring journal: these two options don't require much (if any) in-game time but they can give you a ritual to complete. Plus, it leaves an opening for you to write that letter/journal entry between sessions as a character-building exercise; what would your character have to say about that crazy old oracle you visited?

As a player, if you're having difficulty involving your character, try working with the other players to see if you might find something your characters can do together. Or maybe your DM can offer some insight on what your character could be doing or what areas of town that might be of interest.

Gaming with too much baggage...

2008-09-05T09:31:00.006-05:00

Stupid Ranger and I have been emptying out old college boxes, closets, etc to offload excess garbage. Several days into the assess and pitch cycle, I have been made painfully aware that I have a lot of baggage. In this case, by baggage I mean "stuff" not "emotional problems." The latter is a topic for another place and time.

Trapped in the closet

In boxes that have been lodged in my closet for the four years that we have been in our current home I found the likes of gaming magazines, old sourcebooks, promotional HeroClix (which I don't collect), comic books, DC comic cards, Magic: the Gathering... the list goes on. If anyone has any bright ideas how to archive, accurately price, and sell a large set of Magic: the Gathering I would love to hear it, since that is one of my main collections that I would just as soon do without.

While we were preparing for this year's GenCon, we even found a few bags which had some items purchased on the sales floor last year, pristine and unused. About the only thing that I have identified that I can't find and want to are wire blast radii that we purchased from a vendor two or three years ago. With the advent of 4e and its miniature centric battle rules, those would come in handy.

How does everyone else handle the clutter of gaming lives past? Do you give your stuff away, sell it, just keep it on a shelf longingly dreaming of games unfulfilled? Do you go through an internal evaluation process before buying something new to enhance your gaming? Once again, inquiring minds want to know!

My evolving stance on miniatures...

2008-09-04T08:15:00.000-05:00

As previously mentioned, I have had some difficulty mixing miniatures into my gaming experience. My arguments were varied, usually focusing on my own nature toward perfectionism but the fact of the matter remains: Fourth Edition is more easily adopted with miniatures in tow.

This has forced me to change my stripes a bit and have another look at minis and their role in our gaming experience.

Best shown by good examples

Thanks to our good buddies over at Critical Hits and one Chatty DM, I had a very positive experience playing D&D with miniatures at GenCon this year. Phil did a great job at weaving them into the campaign setting and made a very good move at pre-selecting miniatures that closely matched the player characters that he rolled up.

Obviously, utilizing the abilities in 4e that dealt with range, spaces, and areas of effect were much more easily executed in this manner versus a descriptive, non-miniature fashion. That's what the new system was designed to do.

Combine that good experience with the fact that the new set, Against the Giants, has some way cool huge miniatures and I was sold. I picked up my first booster and got a Death Titan and a Young Adamantine Dragon, both of which just plain rule. I don't know how often (if at all) I will actually play the minatures game, but I will certainly start to find ways to use them in my campaigns from here on out.

My advice to those against miniatures: find someone that uses them effectively and ask them to run you through a one-off to show you how much faster and more intuitive a game can be with them! If that doesn't turn you on, just have a look at them! What self respecting gamer can go without a small replica of a beholder to put on your desk? I KNOW I CAN'T!

Does anyone know good resources for buying/selling miniatures and the rarities in each of the WotC sets? Inquiring minds want to know!

Review of Blackstaff Tower

2008-09-02T08:30:00.001-05:00

At one of Ed Greenwood's author signings this year, Steven Schend was signing and giving away copies of his new novel, Blackstaff Tower (releasing today) from the Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep series. I'll confess that I wasn't familiar with Schend's work, but I seldom ever turn down a free book, so I very happily accepted his book and resolved to read it as soon as I had finished the book I was reading at the time.

Now, I am a huge fan of the Forgotten Realms, but Waterdeep is not one of the places I have visited often. Everyone knows of the City of Splendors, but my knowledge of the history and lore of the city are pretty slim. And I only had passing familiarity with Khelban Blackstaff or the Blackstaff Tower.

Schend did a great job of involving me in the story. The first chapter was very disconnected from the prologue, so it took me a little while to be fully introduced to the characters and how they all fit into the story. Very quickly, though, I was immersed. The story was engaging; I became invested in the characters and needed to know what happened next. Before I knew it, I was a third of the way through and in danger of staying up all night to finish the book! (I didn't, but only because I had to work the next morning.)

It's an epic tale of good versus evil with plenty of intrigue and suspense thrown in for good measure. Without ruining the tale (because I highly recommend reading it for yourself), the story follows the adventures of a noble-born, a spellcaster, a thief, a sellsword and the Blackstaff heir in their quest to prevent the evil mage from taking control of Waterdeep.

There were several things I liked about Schend's writing style. First, he was able to draw me into the quest very quickly and with only a little effort. I was concerned for the good guys, I despised the bad guys, and I desperately wanted to see the good guys succeed, especially during those times when I was sure they couldn't possibly overcome of the odds. Second, Schend easily provided me with the information I needed to feel comfortable in Waterdeep; one of the characters was a student of Waterdavian history, who shared information about the city without lecturing so there was never too much unnecessary information to bog down the story.

Best of all, Schend handled the combat sequences beautifully. As I read about the battles, I could imagine sitting around the table, rolling the dice... the successes and near misses were so vivid. I simultaneously felt as if I was watching the battle and participating in the roleplaying.

The one thing I would have changed was the ending. Not to say that the story didn't end well: all the lose ends were wrapped up and there was a sense of closure. However, it seemed a little rushed; I wanted it to be drawn out a bit. I'm sure this is partly because I was having a great time and didn't want to see it end. To me, it felt hurried during a time when I wanted to savor the successful end of the quest.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely read it again. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys stories of the Realms.

Behind the Screen: Problems with planes and psionics...

2008-08-29T10:04:00.004-05:00

I was reflecting on some old college D&D games, and I remembered a certain guy in our group that always wanted to play a psionic. Eventually, we did have a game where our DM allowed psionics and I remember it being a confusing and generally frustrating process largely because this person would, at length, dictate to us his specific rules for using his skills and it was rather painful.

I have found the same issue with planar travel and trying to weave a storyline that involves traversing ephemeral distances in this fashion. Much time is spent explaining the state of the situation you want your players to get into, the usual dangers of travelling across the fabric of space and time, and the preparations that come along with that.

I've had some limited success in enticing the players with plot or treasure to make the plunge into different planes, but by and large this type of game seems to walk on a knife's edge of fun. It's either really enjoyable, or really painful.

How do you handle introducing these elements into your campaigns? Inquiring minds want to know!

I Used To Believe

2008-08-28T00:01:00.000-05:00

I Used To Believe is a wonderful site where people share silly things they used to believe as a child. The vast menagerie of monsters that children create (most of which apparently live in the toilet) is simply amazing to me, and that section of the site is my personal favorite.

My brother, who is a very nice man nowadays, used to implant very strange ideas in my tiny mind when I was little. One was that if you drank milk and threw up, it would come out in cubes. Another was that there was a new kind of bee that looked just like a fluffy dandelion seed. Of course, they were floating everywhere that time of year, and my poor unwitting mother couldn't figure out why she couldn't seem to remove her hysterical 3 year old from the house.

I started reading my brother's D&D books when I was pretty young. I think I was probably 7 or 8 when I was going through the D&D Basic Set and reading through the section on monsters. Not all of them had pictures, and for some reason when I got to the section on Wights, I envisioned them as a pale, flying, undead manta ray that could drain your levels. About 5 years later, I was in high school and I purchased the AD&D 1st Edition Monster Manual, which had a picture of a wight. Needless to say, when I found out the truth, I was very disappointed.

Did you have any strange D&D misconceptions when you were growing up or first started playing? Please share!

Behind the Screen: Loving the one you're with...

2008-08-27T07:59:00.000-05:00

While at GenCon this year, I got into several conversations about the breadth and concentration of new gaming options on the sales floor this year. As in past years, offerings ran the gamut from new pencil and paper RPGs, board games, video games, and even a few non-RPG games as well.

I was tasked with selecting a game for one of my coworkers in order to introduce his kids to roleplaying style gaming, so I opted for Atlas Games' "Once Upon a Time" which aims to introduce storytelling gaming via a card game where players attempt to use the cards in their hand to devise a storyline. I figured this would be a conservative, non-threatening way to get the kids into free-form storytelling and it should act as a gateway to more traditional roleplaying style games, but time will tell.

An Abundance of Options

As I was searching for this card game, it struck me that it is easy to experience option overload. So many games, so many modules, so many additions... it is great to have options, but as I have mentioned in the past our group is somewhat change resistant so I tend to stick with a familiar system and setting for our games.

It is for this reason that I usually don't leave the convention each year with a truckload of new games, modules, or other miscellanea. Chances are fairly good that we just plain won't make the leap into a new setting consistently enough to justify the expense, which is also the reason that I don't really frequent our local brick and mortar gaming store as often as I should. I have most of the materials that I need to game with and don't need to purchase much extra to keep the fun times a-rollin'.

One oft-cited example of the change resistance of our group is our limited attempt at a Deadlands campaign. I played this game while in college for the first time and was enamored with the spellcasting mechanics (which used a poker hand to determine success) and the alternative history Western theme was interesting as well. It only lasted a few sessions in our current gaming group, they just didn't feel it as much as I did.

The moral to this story is twofold: be sensitive to the enjoyment level of your gaming group as you introduce new games, and do a cost to benefit analysis before you go buying a ton of new gaming supplements at a convention.

If you have a group that is able to switch focus to different games, how do you pace the introduction of new stuff? Do you do a one-shot session and build on it if the group likes the game? Inquiring minds want to know!

Introducing Katherine!

2008-08-26T12:31:00.006-05:00

You may have noticed that a mysterious new blogger posted on Stupid Ranger this morning. Do not worry, we have NOT been hacked by Jesus. This was simply the first post by our new regular contributor!

Katherine, this is the Internets. Internets, this is Katherine.

Katherine plays in our D&D group, and she's an ordained minister. You've probably already seen her first post, which is part of a series called DMing the Bible, which I'd mentioned in a post a couple months ago.

Whether you're a religious person or not, I think this series is important for two reasons. One is because it is a great example of being able to take one's inspiration for roleplaying and character development from any source and adapting it for your own use. The other, which is much more important in my opinion, is that her column proves that you can mix religion and roleplaying. It's better today than it was back in the 80's when people thought the D&D Basic set came with a free sacrificial dagger and pentagram construction kit, but there are still quite a few people out there who don't get what we do and are afraid of it. Katherine makes a wonderful, educated counterpoint to all this blind fear while staying true to her beliefs -- and not by taking sides and arguing points. She simply shows you how to walk the line by doing just that, and in doing so erases it behind her. I haven't really seen anything quite like DMing the Bible before, and we're honored to serve as a place for people to see it.

Katherine also makes splendid breaded pork chops. For these reasons and many others, we have invited her to contribute to Stupid Ranger. Everyone, please give her a warm welcome!

In addition to Katherine, you may also be seeing some guest posts from other authors appearing occasionally. Please do not panic. Or, if you do panic, please post it on YouTube.

DMing the Bible: Taking One for the Team

2008-08-25T09:52:00.005-05:00

Introduction
I think there are few stories that could be quite as fun for a first time out in a new place as the one on the menu for today. For those of you just joining us, back issues (including an introduction to the series) can be found on the blog, "Wry Juxtaposition." We're about a quarter of the way through Genesis, still in the thick of the story of the first patriarch. When we last left him, Abram was traveling by stages toward the wilderness that separated Canaan from Egypt. This time we get to see what happens when patriarchs get frightened and some of the resultant consequences. From an RPG side we'll look at party role playing under adverse conditions.

The Text
Our story for the day actually is three stories. The events of Genesis 12:10-20 are repeated twice over in Genesis 20:1-18 and 26:1-11. So what's the story: Abram (remember they haven't had their name changes yet) and Sarai move to Egypt to escape a famine. Abram knows that Sarai is pretty hot, and worries that somebody there will kill him and take her away. So they devise a cunning plan; they will claim only a sibling relationship. That way if somebody wants her they won't kill Abram first. As it just so happens Sarai attracted the attention of the Egyptian officials and was taken into the Pharaoh's house. They didn't kill Abram, but instead treated him royally well and gave him great swag. However trying to marry somebody else's spouse is a pretty big no-no, and as a result the Lord punished the house of Pharaoh. Somehow the Egyptians figure out what the problem is and Sarai is restored to Abram and the whole group of them are invited to move on. This is the basic theme repeated once more with Abraham and once with Isaac both of those stories happen in the land of Gerar and feature King Abimelech (I really feel sorry for this guy).
In each of these cases the patriarch is feeling ill at ease as they arrive in a foreign land under trying circumstances. The experience of travel to a foreign country then was a great deal different that travel is today (with some few exceptions, granted). In general when we go from our home countries to other lands we don't worry about people killing us to take our spouses. This is because we are fairly confident in the rule of law in these other lands and feel that we will be protected commiserate with the protection enjoyed by the country's citizens. In the Ancient Near East travelers could rely on such assurances. Even in one's own home country the safety of an individual was tied most closely to the relative power of the tribe or clan that he or she belonged to. Being a stranger in a strange land, Abram and later Isaac might have felt that their power was too weak as compared to that of the residents of the lands in which they sojourned.
Whatever the motivation, these stories represent very real threats to the promise that God made to Abram and his decedents. In each generation the promise was made to the patriarch, but could only really be borne out with the active participation of the matriarchs as well. In each of these tales God restores the matriarchs to her husband (though you got to figure he was sleeping on the tent equivalent of the couch for quite a while), and the story of this family of people continues for another generation.
These texts have long been problematic for Biblical Interpreters of every stripe. Abram lies, but is not condemned. The duped pharaoh is punished by divine retribution. Abram seems to have no real problem sending his wife to sleep with someone else to save his own skin. Anyway you slice it there's a lack of a hero here. As a code for moral exemplar, this is not the guy upon which to pattern yourself, but as an example for role playing – he might not be that bad.

The Game
Until I get up to speed on 4e this section is going to be more fluffy than crunchy, my apologies in advance. OK so what lessons about role playing can we draw from this tale of silver tongued behavior. Here are some ideas with a word of warning: If you end up with one character being apart from the party for any period of time, have a good and interesting plan to keep the affected player involved and happy. Personally I like given such a person a real antagonistic NPC to play-- hell hath no fury as a player wronged.

Strangers in a Strange land: though there are thriving towns with efficient town guards and even tempered fair magistrates, it's not a stretch to imagine a town where the PCs are met with hostility. Such a town might regard the party as weak because they are not affiliated with any of the strong area families.

Taking on for the team: In these stories the matriarch is given up as a way of preserving the rest of the party. In your adventure is there a way to try and separate the party? It seems to me that you get a chance for 1. a character who hasn't gotten a chance to shine yet receive a moment in the sun, 2. basically good characters to engage in some mild back-stabbery, or 3. you have provided a story moment that deepens the bond between characters.

Only if you all pull together: As was mentioned above, these tales represent a subtle kind of threat to the promise made by God to these people. In adventure writing there is from time to time the tendency to have the one item of power needed to complete the arch; this is a good idea when writing adventures without a clear idea of who will be playing and the relative natures of the player characters. However there is also what I like to think of as the Captain Planet approach. That is, only when all the characters combine some special thing they contribute to the party can there be success. So at the very least selling the other PCs down the river would be a bad idea, though they might not know it at the time.

Player Perspective on 4E

2008-08-25T00:07:00.000-05:00

I realize that a lot of people have posted reviews, etc, about 4E, and that really, it's not new news. But it was only recently that our group has actually had a chance to play a few short sessions in the new system, and I have a few thoughts to share.

A Brief Non-Disclaimer

When I say we've only had a few short sessions, I really mean it. I've played one session with only a small part of our normal group, and I played two session of Drunken D&D. Also, our Out of the Box Roleplaying session, but I was mostly a background player and I did more roleplaying than combat in that session. So, in the three-and-a-half sessions thus far, I've played two classes, and I am by no means an expert.

My Thoughts on Character Creation

I was extremely disappointed with my first character creation session because it just took so long to fill in my character sheet. Part of it was due to the new character sheet organization... trying to find the places to write down what I knew. Part of it was the new stuff. I did find the character creation list on page 14 of the Players Handbook to be very helpful that first time; by following it, I knew I didn't miss anything. Fortunately, the next time I created a character (for the Out of the Box session), I was more familiar with the process, and it went a lot faster.

My Thoughts on Character Classes

I've only played two classes: Ranger and Warlock. I'm sure none of you are surprised by the fact that I played a Ranger first, but I have tried both ranged and melee Rangers. I didn't notice much difference, in terms of combat. It took me awhile to get used to the Hunter's Quarry feature, giving me the ability to mark one of my enemies for extra damage, but it quickly became on of my favorite class features. Plus, as a ranged combatant, if none of my allies were closer to my target, I got a bonus.. yay! I had a great time in my first session as a Ranger, and as I'm more familiar with ranged Rangers, it was a comfortable fit for my first 4E character. I played a melee Ranger in the Out of the Box session, but I saw little combat and haven't really gotten a chance to try it all out yet.

The Warlock was very different for me. She was my Drunken D&D character, so everything was pre-generated and neatly detailed for me (thanks!), which was great because it would have taken me forever to get that character all together! I didn't use all of the abilities available to me for that character, mostly because I didn't know what all of them could do. I used the Eldrich Blast a lot, as it was a pretty easy-to-understand attack. Also, the ability to curse an enemy (similar to Hunter's Quarry) was pretty fun, especially as you get to curse more than one enemy at once, contrary to the Hunter's Quarry, which is only effective against one enemy. I will definitely try a Warlock again because it was a fun class to play.

Both of my class experiences so far have been with classes that can mark an enemy. As a player, because it can be confusing after a few rounds of combat, I recommend having some system prepared for keeping track of who is marked. In my first session with my Ranger, we encountered small groups of enemies, so it was pretty easy to keep track, especially as the Ranger only marks one at a time. For my Warlock, it got to be a little more confusing once I had more than one marked. We placed d6's on the minis for the first session; for the second session, we used the Magnetic Markers from Alea Tools. It doesn't really matter what method you use: write it down in your notes, place Life Savers over the heads of your victims, make fashionable sashes out of pipe cleaners. Anything will do, just be prepared.

Overall, I have a great time with 4E thus far, and I am looking forward to continuing the adventures with my ranged Ranger.

Critical Hits Brand Sure-Fire Nausea Cubes

2008-08-22T10:28:00.004-05:00

I'm not quite sure why, but ever since I got home from Gen Con, the guys from Critical Hits and the Chinese Olympic Swimming Team have been haunting my dreams.

I wasn't feeling particularly well Tuesday morning, which usually happens when ragweed season hits and my sinuses block up. Simply put, I get vertigo when I lie down, and sometimes I get a little urpy.

Well, somehow this all crept into the dream I was having and I found myself in the Water Cube at the Olympics watching the Chinese team swim. I really don't remember much aside from that whenever I would feel sick, these 1/2" wooden cubes with a drawing of Dave the Game's face on them would fall from the sky and somehow this would make me feel better. This continued for quite awhile, and I was glad to wake up.

Then, about 3am last night, I woke up extremely thirsty but I kept falling back half-asleep thinking I couldn't get up for water because the Chinese Olympic Swimming Team had won the gold, which they had made monkey bars out of, and since Critical Hits had covered it I did not need nor was I allowed to go get a drink. Finally I snapped out of it and got up and felt much better. I suppose this is a step up from the time in college that I woke up with terrible stomach pains, obsessively repeating "American martial arts movie star Jet Li has given me diarrhea" in my head for 20 minutes.

My gut tells me Bartoneus is behind this somehow. Please aim your sanity-destroying satellite brain-lasers somewhere else!

Behind the Screen: How do you break in a new group?

2008-08-22T07:26:00.000-05:00

I learned many lessons from GenCon this year, many of them involve eating too many Monster Burgers from The Ram. On the roleplaying front, this was my first opportunity to play with an entirely new group of gamers since college. Even in college, I had pre-established relationships (mostly friendships) with the rest of the gamers in the group. Barring some online chats, this was the first time I got to play with people who I had not physically met before.

Observations and Advice In Action

As previously mentioned, I had the distinct pleasure of an invitation to Drunken D&D which was run masterfully by our good buddy Phil, The Chatty DM. This was a great way to get to know a new group of people and bond over a common pursuit: a mixture of getting sauced and playing a fun adventure.

After the second successful session of this type of game, thoughts started prickling around in my head (or maybe that was just all the Bud Light)... but either way what Phil did made excellent sense. He engineered an ice-breaker right into a D&D game, which allowed us all to get to know one another in a not-too-serious game setting while enjoying some non-nerd style bonding (i.e. booze) as well.

What I Do...

On the rare circumstance that we welcome new players into our group in Stupid Ranger Central, we tend to have a social "getting to know you" session that sometimes consists of character creation, pizza, or a roleplaying heavy first gaming session where characters and players are encouraged to interact over a session which is intended as a prelude to the campaign proper. This allows new players to feel comfortable in the game setting while getting some light roleplaying involved as well.

Phil did a great job of engineering a game that really accellerated the bonding process, we were all laughing and having fun within minutes of getting together for the first time in person. It was brilliant!

What do you do to introduce new players into your mix? Do you adjust anything in your campaign to allow for a "feeling out" process? Let's hear those ideas!