Roleplaying Tips

Enter The Combat Swipe File Contest – Deadline Feb 27

Johnn — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:43:15 +0000

Roleplaying Tips reader Adam made the following Tips Request recently:

“The other issue is coming up with descriptions that aren’t repetitive after the 3rd combat.”

I have the same problem. And it’s time to fix it for everybody.

Let’s do a new contest.

The prizes will be MyInfo software and some PDF GM books.

You can enter multiple times for a chance to win more than once!

Here’s how to enter

Fill out a short combat description for each item in this block:

Melee attack success:
Ranged attack success:
Spell attack success:
Defense / miss:
Insult / challenge:

One or two lines for each is perfect.

For example:

Melee attack success: “Your weapon whistles through the air and opens an angry wound in your foe’s brow.”
Ranged attack success: “With a loud THOINK! your missile penetrates your foe’s armour and he screams in pain and rage.”
Spell attack success: “As the dying words of your incantation float into the air, there’s a sudden sizzling sound followed by a brilliant flash. Your foe staggers and grunts in pain.”
Defense / miss: “Your foe’s foul breath almost overwhelms you as he laughs heartily at your feeble swing.”
Insult / challenge: “You think that’s tough? I’ll show you tough! Watch out puny bug, I’m about to step on you.”

I’d like your entries to contain one description for each item in the block so I get a good balance of answers. I’ll edit the entries and repost them for us all to build our swipe files with.

Entry deadline is Feb 27, 2012.

I can tell this is going to be a fun contest. Bring on your combat prose, gory descriptions and best trash talk!

Preparation of Material for a Roleplaying Adventure

Silveressa — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:15:11 +0000

by Heather Grove

When you create your own campaign there’s so much you could spend your time on. Should you write up non-player characters (NPCs) with rich backgrounds? What about scenes you expect will take place in game, and speeches spoken by NPCs? Should you detail the background of a plot, or the things you think should happen next? What about designing puzzles and contests, or even maps? Are you better off creating rough notes or intricate details?

There are two rough axes involved here. One is level of detail, and the other is type of material. Let us start with type of material, because level of detail tends to be wrapped up in the type of material you write.

Non-Player Characters

NPCs are the backbone of many good adventures. If you’re big into role-playing rather than hack-and-slash, NPCs are probably the most important part of your preparation. Even if you prefer the hack-and-slash they can provide many a quest or adventure idea. As long as you have a well-detailed character you can adapt him to any situation. If you know your character’s motivations, he can be a part of long conversations that require little preparation at all.

When creating NPCs who are meant to be more than combat-antagonists, the following are useful details to think about. Whether you write a sentence on each or entire paragraphs, you’ll find your effort more than repaid in plot ideas and conversational material during game.

Start with the character’s family. Who are his parents, his brothers and sisters, his spouse, his children? Too many characters in roleplaying games seem to spring fully formed from the head of the game master (GM), with no family and no childhood. The more layers your NPCs have, the more interesting they will seem to your players.

The character’s history. How did he get to where he is today? The more you know about his motivations and ambitions, the events that shaped his life, the easier it will be to figure out what he should do in the context of your game.

The character’s abilities. What is he good at? What is he bad at? How, where, and from whom did he learn such things?

Mundane details of the character’s life. What job does he have? Where does he live? You don’t need lots of detail here; just a few things to work with. Characters seem much more “real” when they have these sorts of details. It also becomes easier for your players to attempt actions related to an NPC if you know where he’s likely to hang out and what he’ll be up to.

The character’s plans for the future. Almost everyone has at least some idea of where he’s heading and what he wants out of life. If he’s a scientist, what projects does he work on? If he’s a sorcerer, what magic’s does he seek? What research does he work on? What personal goals motivate him?

The character’s blind spots. Everyone has them, and few GMs think to detail them. Does your NPC trust a certain type of person implicitly? Does he believe himself invincible, even though he isn’t? This may provide the foundation for how your players can blackmail or defeat an NPC.

The character’s personality. How does he act? How will he react when treated in different ways? This is one way to make each of your characters stand out from the others.

What does the character look like? A person’s appearance can convey a great deal about him.

You might think all of your plot ideas will come from the “plans for the future” and “history” sections, but you’d be surprised. The most amazing inspirations come from family, mundane details, personality, abilities, and even appearance.

Scenes and Speeches

Scenes and speeches can be useful at times, but they’re of limited value. For one thing, it’s very easy to obsolete them. If your players make a single choice or ask a single question that you don’t expect it can invalidate an entire scene or speech.

Under certain circumstances they’re useful. For example, if you know that a certain character will have a certain dream, and that he will observe it passively, then it’s probably safe to write it up. If the characters will hear a public speech that they have no reason to interfere with, then there’s a decent chance it will go off as planned.

Instead, you might be better off loosely sketching out scenes and speeches. It takes much less time to outline a scene briefly than to write out every detail. Make a note or two about the physical details of the scene to give you a place to start from when describing things. Note who is likely to be in attendance, and what their attitudes and likely actions will be. Write a sentence about what purpose the scene is meant to serve, so that if it goes wrong you can try to save the purpose if not the details. Then you might note the expected beginning point, the expected end point, and any major events that should take place. If you think of things that might not go the way you want, make a note or two about how you’d handle them.

In the case of a speech, you might loosely outline the points to be covered, and write down any choice turns of phrase that occur to you. Know everything you can about the speaker – his motivations, what he’s trying to achieve with his speech, and his attitude toward the player characters (PCs). That way you can adapt the speech to any events that you didn’t expect. And if the players’ actions have eliminated the scene or speech you had planned, you won’t lose nearly as much prep work.

Writing out a list of possible scenes with a few helpful details for each can give you an entire evening’s worth of material that you can adapt to player action as necessary. It also means that you won’t feel pressured to make sure that your scenes run as planned. If you believe that your scenes must happen in a certain way, then you may railroad the players into playing the game your way – and this tends to frustrate players.

Plot Background

The background of a plot consists of a number of details. Take, for example, a seemingly simple quest in which the PCs must retrieve a holy relic from a derelict church. Who has asked them to perform this quest? What is it that she wants the relic for – or what does she really want, if not the relic? Who is she and what is she up to? Who will the PCs encounter along the way, and will they seek to help or hinder the PCs? Why? Where do the PCs need to go? What do they need to do? How may they fail or succeed?

A line or two on each may be all that you need. Or you may deeply detail each person and possibility. You may also want to make notes based on this background as to what might happen during game (see the notes on “Scenes and Speeches,” above). The longer you expect a plot to take, and the more intricate it will be the more prep work you’ll want to do. Also, if you expect the NPCs from the plot to stick around in-game afterward, then it pays to detail them up front (this keeps them consistent).

As long as you have this background, then you have material to work with. Whether you extrapolate from it before game starts or as you go along, you know where you’re coming from.

Puzzles and Contests

Puzzles and contests come in all sizes, complexities, and flavors. Whether you’ve planned a simple trial by combat or a complex puzzle with clues hidden throughout an entire civilization, you’ll need to plan ahead. Small, simple puzzles are usually pretty straightforward. Intricate ones may consist of entire webs of clues and payoffs.

You may expect me to say that keeping track of your clues, where the PCs can pick them up, and what they lead to is the reason to plan these things out ahead of time. In fact, there’s another reason entirely. You can’t ever be certain in advance which clues will work out, which ones will make no sense to your players, and which will be sidestepped altogether. After all, no GM can anticipate everything her players will think and do. You’ll want to be able to fix things on the go. If you plan ahead of time, you can double-stack each clue or piece of information, hiding it in two places, providing two means to get to it, or at least giving yourself a back-up plan in case anything goes strange.

Maps and Props

If you have to give players props like maps, make them as enigmatic as possible. The more details you put in writing, the less you can change in order to keep up with your players. Also, keep in mind that a map of places the PCs haven’t gone yet doesn’t have to be entirely accurate -so even if you do mark everything up, that shouldn’t stop you from changing things.

If your players are the sorts of folk who will really enjoy the feel of an authentic-looking scroll with real hieroglyphics on it, then you may wish to spend the time to create one. If they’ll look at it once and then never pull it out again, you’re probably better off making a five-minute knock-off.

When considering how much effort to put in on something, always think about what the payoff will be. It can be frustrating to spend an hour lovingly crafting a prop, only to have it ignored. Similarly, it can be embarrassing to put five minutes in on it, only to have the players minutely study every detail.

Flexibility

When it comes down to it, the preparation of material should be all about flexibility. You can never predict everything your players will do, so you need to be ready for the unexpected. The more flexible the material you’ve prepared the more ready you’ll be. Background material is infinitely changeable, and provides a great deal of inspiration for in-game events while retaining its flexibility; thus, you can detail it to your heart’s content. You are limited only by your free time. In-game material is easily rendered obsolete, and thus you’re usually better off roughly sketching such material and leaving yourself as much wiggle-room as possible. You’ll need your rough notes in order to keep track of where things should be going, but the more detailed they are, the less flexible they become.

Flexibility benefits both you and your players. For you, it means you’re less likely to throw out hours of work. For your players, it means that you’re less likely to feel it necessary to railroad them into your preferred course of play. Everyone wins.

Now I’m going to tell you a secret. If you’re a GM without a lot of experience, the idea of improvising from rough notes probably makes you nervous. You think the players will notice that you seem unprepared. Believe it or not, GMs tend to come across as more unprepared when they detail everything that’s supposed to happen in-game.

Why? Because more often than not they get caught with their pants down when the PCs do something unexpected, and then they have no idea what to do. GMs who improvise tend to feel as though they’re disorganized, and that it must show horribly. But the players rarely notice.

I’ve heard lots of players comment on how well-detailed and gorgeous any given campaign or chronicle was, only to see the GM’s eyes widen. He then makes some comment about how he was really doing everything by the seat of his pants, and felt terribly disorganized.

Yet this comes across as more prepared to the players rather than less, because the GM makes things suit the PCs’ actions. It’s the GM who sits there staring at his intricate scene details and then tries to find a way to shoehorn the PCs into them who comes across as unprepared.

Download Free Preview of GM Mastery: Inns & Taverns Essentials

Johnn — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:30:24 +0000

This book gives you 260 pages of design advice, how-to information and GMing tips to craft unforgettable gaming locations.

Download a preview of my book, GM Mastery: Inns & Taverns Essentials.

95% system neutral!

Inns, taverns, and restaurants – these are the places of role-playing legend. Well, maybe not so much restaurants, but places to eat are important too!

Such businesses are often the first place characters go when they enter a city, and the last place they leave before waving goodbye. In the history of RPGs, taverns have spawned more adventures than any other location.

Inns are important too, because they serve as urban home bases and refuges for recuperation.

Restaurants are less common game elements, though I hope this book will change that. They are a fresh break from typical locations, and are places for PCs and NPCs to meet, intrigue, and plan.

In many campaigns and groups, inns and taverns are gamed so much they’ve stopped being special. They’ve become clichés.

GMs run the same ideas and concepts over and over, stuck in a rut they might not even know they are in. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it, right?

However, breathing new life into these classic pillars of your game sessions is important.

Nothing should be taken for granted. Don’t let things become mundane, stale, and uninspired. This is a sure route to burnout and player apathy.

Next time the characters enter an inn, tavern, or restaurant, surprise your players.

Get the free preview:

150 Benign Urban Fantasy Encounters

Silveressa — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:50:13 +0000

by Chris Buono

Chris polled members of the GMMastery Yahoo group for benign urban encounter ideas and then added a few of his own to come up with this awesome list you might find useful for your own campaigns. Editor Isaac and I added a few more as well. Thanks Chris, Telas, and GMMastery contributors!

Try using this list a few different ways:

To help with impromptu descriptions.

An injection of scenery when designing city encounters and locations.

Encounter hooks. These items are perfect micro-situations on which to layer a larger conflict, clue, or circumstance. For example, pick an item from the list and use it as a distraction while the real encounter triggers. Your players will enjoy the one-two punch.

Inspiration. If you’ve got writer’s block, these items are perfect for getting the ideas flowing.

The List of Benign Urban Encounters

Chamber pot emptied near/on
Cats chasing each other dart past
“Please watch this cart for me, just for a minute.”
Birds of prey circling overhead
Urchin approaches for minor scam
Shadow passes across the ground
Smoke rises in distance (brush fire)
Feeling of deja vu
Insect swarm/nest on building
Howling/barking in the distance
Beggar asks for alms
Children pester party
Local teen wants to join party
Graffiti on building
Stumble onto amorous teens
Child looking for pet frog
Snake slithers away
Street vendor (food, drink, trinkets, etc.)
Rainbow in the distance
Group of bats rise in the distance
Drunken fist fight
Stumble on lover’s quarrel
Religious pilgrims with vow of silence are jeered at
“Recognized” by a drunk
Overturned vegetable cart
Criminal held in public stock
Sudden sun shower
Wind kicks up
Street performer(s)
Religious fanatic
A discarded, tattered cloak
A rusty old weapon found in gutter
Dark storm cloud approaches
Large beetle buzzes around head
Kids playing game (hide ‘n seek)
Criminal in custody is marched past
Mother looking for child
Sandstorm
Small dust whirlwind
A dead ox causes a gridlock
An overturned cart causes a gridlock
A few sun bleached papers blow by
Well-armed adventurers pass by
Roof tile falls, barely missing party
Approached by prostitute(s)
Smell of baking/cooking
Pimp (“you messin’ with my woman?”)
Wailing baby
One person chasing another
Stench of feces
Ray of light seems to surround one person
Unusually cool breeze
Rats are following you
You get a dull, throbbing headache
Injured bird lies helpless
Skunk smell
Eerily quiet
Customer angry with shopkeeper
Food fight occurring
Stung by a bee
Arid dust coats your mouth
Cop/guard walking a beat
Spoiled brat wants party item
Someone teleports away
Very friendly cat
Parent scolding child
Someone bumps pouch–nothing’s missing
Find a copper piece
Parade in honor of minor saint, hero, etc.
Foreigners arguing in their own language
Allergic reaction to exotic spice/pollen
Discount holy water salesman
Witness a minor crime
Something scurries away (chipmunk)
Street preacher accosts you
Witness a major crime
Two religious processions meet head-on
City watch follows you for 2d4 blocks
Find a silver piece
Dogs chasing each other run by
Very active beehive nearby
Howling gust of wind
Approaching lightning storm
Crow squawks repeatedly at approach
Rubbery mass stuck to your boot (gum)
Step in crap – dog, dire rat, etc.
Someone stomps in nearby puddle–splash!
Street cleaner sweeps by
Unconscious stranger on side of road
Pair of small birds harass you
Feral cat is trailing the party
A case of mistaken identity
Cloud shaped as holy symbol
Shopping list for potions is found
Old ring is sticking out of the dirt
One person has an intense itch
Hawk takes mole/mouse near party
Find a gold piece
Loose chickens peck at the street
Passing child drops pottery, cries
Raven lands in path, stares, leaves
Injured mounted scout charges through the street
Noble is carried past in a sedan chair
Two hooded people whisper on street
Young consumer is watched closely
Singing floats out of nearby building
Circus wagon trundles past, animal calls
Weapon sharpener approaches party
Large flock of birds flies acrobatics, then darts away
Private guards flank a door
Distracted senior totters straight for party
Weary knight is mobbed by adoring children
Partial eclipse of the sun
Emaciated children tug at party sleeves
People cheer for the party
A strong, young, healthy beggar asks for coin
A politician on a box of soap during a speech makes eye contact with a PC
A cat is stuck in a tree and mewls at the PCs
An escaped pet rodent rolling around the street in its ball bumps up against a PC’s leg
A religious leader and his incense burning retinue cuts across the PCs’ path
A diseased old man resting in a chair asks for help standing up
A paint can spills from above and splashes PCs
Political activists on parade beckon the PCs to join
A dangerous fish in a tank bumps loudly against the glass
A bee stings a nearby child who blindly runs to a PC for soothing
A small bird egg drops out of a nest from above and land intact nearby
An elf walks by with living snakes wrapped around his shoulders
A visitor stops to ask for directions to an interesting place
A fish vendor bends over to vomit and people point and laugh
A sheet of music blows into a PC’s face
A garbage bin rattles; inside is a tied sack of kittens
A depressed bard asks sing-song, rhetorical questions of the PCs
A dangerous-looking racoon has claimed an apple cart as his–merchant beseeches PCs
A known crime boss sits and reads while sweating shoe shine boy buffs and casts the PCs worried looks
A woman with too much fashion going on breaks her shoe and stumbles into a PC
A man gets down on one knee and proposes, drawing a crowd and knotting traffic
A beggar with his hand down a drain hole brings up a ring and immediately asks the PCs to buy it
Three performers in masks surround the PCs and do a ring dance around them
Clothing tossed out a window during a lovers’ spat lands on a PC
A woman drops a basket of fruit–can the PCs dodge before squashing some?
A crazy man points at PC’s equipment and lists its magical properties–and he’s right!
A little boy confronts the PCs and shoots them with an imaginary crossbow
PCs pass an alleyway blocked by a new spider web
A fishmonger dumps a cart of rotten fish for scavengers to clean up
A young noble passes trailed by a pickpocket
A messenger collides with the PCs and numerous papers start blowing around
A body of an evil wizard tied to a stake, body still smoking
A chatty bard walks alongside the party
A chess match
A person passed out from too much drink, looted, with writing on forehead

Masks, the good, the bad, and the ugly

Silveressa — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:00:06 +0000

By Silveressa

Today I have the opportunity to review Masks, a system neutral RPG supplement written by the authors of gnomestew.com.

Overview

Masks is perhaps best described as a “must have addition to any GM’s tool kit.” Contained within is 1000 NPCs, categorized by genre, skill set, trait, disposition towards party etc. (The book marking in Masks is really quite extensive and impressive.) No matter your game, or your style as a GM, Masks has a plethora of NPCs you’ll find useful.

Aside from 1000 NPCs, the book also contains a separate section detailing the finer points of how the NPCs were written up, and giving some points for GMs to use them to the best possible effect within their games. Rounding out this area is a smaller section giving tips on how to portray NPCs in their games and make them truly memorable.

Also, those ordering the electronic copy will receive Masks in both DRM-free PDF and plain text formats. (The plain text files make cutting and pasting NPCs into your adventure notes a snap, and are ideal for use with text-to-speech software.)

Masks: The Good

Perhaps the best feature of Masks is its layout. The entire book has been extensively indexed, hyperlinked and bookmarked for easy reference, making quick access at the gaming table a breeze.

The characters themselves are well detailed, striking a nice balance between providing a GM with all the info necessary to run them on the fly, without overwhelming her with a wall of text.

Each NPC comes with five paragraphs of pertinent info and a few keyword traits and personal quote that summarizes their place in a story nicely. For example, Osuk Nar appears like so:

Osusk Nar

Eccentric Alchemist

“Go ahead and collect the treasure. I’m going to remove these glands. I have a special potion in mind.”

Appearance: Osusk is a short man whose simple clothes have small tears, rips, stains, and burns. His beard is thick and his hair wild. He carries a large knapsack filled with all manner of tools and containers.

Roleplaying: He is always thinking about the next great potion or discovery that he will make. He will sniff everything and taste most things, without knowing what they are. He examines everything from every angle.

Personality: Osusk has never fit in anywhere, but he doesn’t care. Social cues don’t register with him. Coupled with being direct and curious, Osusk is usually saying or doing something different from everyone else.

Motivation: Two factors drive the alchemist: a thirst for knowledge and a weakness for food, wine, and women. Both of these have left him without coin for most of his life. Only by selling what he learns and makes has he survived.

Background: Born in the wilderness, Osusk learned quickly that his mind was a better weapon than his brawn. He learned how to make things people wanted from items found in nature; he specializes in brewing potions. He learned that his items fetched a better price in the more civilized lands, so that’s where he sells his wares. Despite doing his best not to act like a barbarian, he sometimes caves to temptation and blows all of his money on wine, women, and food.

Traits: (PV) Eccentric, impoverished, primal, scientist

Masks: The Bad

One thing I found missing from the NPCs was a list of two or three specific skills each NPC would be considered especially competent in, making it easier for GMs to quickly get a feel for what abilities an NPC could offer the player group. (Using the above example, listing potion crafting and wilderness survival as significant skills would have been handy.)

Such a minor omission is barely noteworthy however, and most GMs can easily glean an NPC’s skill specialties from reading their descriptions and background.

Masks: The Ugly

In a book of NPCs, perhaps the ugliest part one could hope to find is the selection of vile villains. And in that regard Masks delivers in spades. There are 249 villains throughout the book (83 per genre), ranging from the teenage psychopath who likes bloodlust and fuzzy kittens in equal measure, to a kind and gentle healer who is possessed by a predatory demonic entity.

All of the villains contained within are memorable and can be tailored to work as henchmen for a greater evil, or be masterminds in their own right if the GM so desires.

Conclusion

While the sheer number of NPCs may seem intimidating to new GMs, finding the perfect candidate for any session is as easy as it is enjoyable; making Masks a super addition to any GM’s toolkit.

Even those who aren’t GMs will enjoy owning a copy of Masks, as the NPCs contained within make great inspiration to base a PC on, and can provide great allies and adversaries to put in their character’s background story.

How to Create a Bureaucracy

Silveressa — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:43:46 +0000

By Gareth Hodges

The Aaargh factor

Technically, a bureaucracy is designed to help a government or large group deliver services in a timely, efficient and effective manner. Traditionally however, they are viewed as mockeries that frustrate, delay and ultimately fail to produce results. The first step in creating a bureaucratic system for your gaming world is what I term the “Aaargh!” factor…if you’ve ever stood in line at lunchtime in a government office, you’ll know what I mean. In game terms, how well do you want the system to actually do what it is “designed” to do?

In a roleplaying game, especially futuristic ones, it is possible to create a system with little or no Aaargh. Instantaneous communication, automated systems and well trained, well placed and friendly staff or efficient AIs could mean that your waiting time is negligible. This doesn’t lead to very much opportunity unless it goes wrong, in which case it can rocket up the Aaargh scale and lead to all sorts of fun.

Moderate Aaargh is probably what people encounter in their daily lives in developed nations. Not every person is appropriate for their job, not all the rules make sense to the people enforcing them, there is either too much or too little redundancy in the system, blurry lines of responsibility, low accountability for individuals, and a less than adequate consumer focus. Somehow, things still get done, they may not be perfect, but it’s still a step forward.

High Aaargh can be bewildering, complex and downright infuriating. Perhaps you have to bribe your way through each level of authority to get things done…the concept of “baksheesh” (or socially accepted palm-greasing) is still in force in Turkey today. People who work in the system might look out for themselves, do the least work possible, and not care about results. The legislation they work with could be highly misinterpret able, contradictory or out-of-date (such as inIndia, which had the most complex and bewildering legal system ever known). Things can happen without people knowing why; blunders can change or even end lives and none of makes any sense to anyone…

This can be a lot of fun to role-play through; if your PCs are prepared for a lot of frustration…they didn’t have a Dragon Slaying License? “Section 354 (f) of the Greater Reptile, Snake and Associated Large Scale Cold-Blooded Organisms Act of 1376 clearly states…”

Headless, Hydraic or Cyclopic Bureaucracies

This way of looking at an organizational structure can give you lots of ideas for campaign background and story hooks.

The Headless bureaucracy

The Headless bureaucracy goes nicely with high Aaargh…no-one knows who is ultimately in charge because the lines of communication are so tangled. Orders come in and are followed just because that’s what happens, and the results are no-ones fault because there is nowhere to point the finger. A version of this is the Decapitated bureaucracy…a formerly ordered system which has failed for some reason, and now procedures are followed out of habit.

The Hydraic bureaucracy

The Hydraic bureaucracy is what most of us are familiar with…there are a lot of heads waving around, responsible for different things. They can get tangled, but there are several defined points of authority that are ultimately responsible. They can do a lot of different things at once, and if they all pull together they are a force to be reckoned with…more often they’ll be pulling in opposite directions, which creates the tension you can use in games.

Perhaps one group of the system is doing something that overlaps/impinges on/contradicts another’s area of responsibility and the PCs are sent in to find out what is going on…be prepared for a lot of hard-talking! Typical example is in the jurisdictional disputes we see in law enforcement. To use the American example, having “The Feds” called in to take over an investigation can lead to a lot of story hooks.

The Cyclopic Bureaucracy

The Cyclopic bureaucracy is one that has a single vision, a single purpose, and is going to get there, regardless… Dictatorships, or other bodies with a single individual or group at the helm can come under this category, if the whole bureaucracy is geared toward a specific outcome…i.e. placing an economy on a war footing changes every level of governance relating to the economy.

In a highly religious system, the whole flavor of it, and all the laws, guidelines and codes can be oriented toward furthering or promoting the religion. For a good modern example, just read a bit about the Taliban inAfghanistan.

Bureaucracies can also be Chameleons…they may look Headless, Hydraic or Cyclopic, but are they really? Only those behind the scenes can tell you.

“How can I help you?” or “How do the PCs interact with the bureaucracy?

The most important aspect to consider is the interaction with the game. You don’t need to detail all the areas of a monolithic bureaucracy if the party will rarely encounter it. Are there offices in every major population centre for people to make inquiries, get relevant documents and complain? Are their traveling “auditors”, inspectors or enforcers of the rules of the bureaucracy? Is the blacksmiths shop your PC just opened going to get a visit from the local Smithing Guild inspectors, or do they just apply for a permit? What standards are expected when dealing with the bureaucracy and what would they ignore? How far can you step over the line before you are warned, closed down or charged?

When a PC needs something official attended to, how long will it take? How many hands does it pass through to get where it needs to, and how many of those people actually know what they’re doing? Do the PCs just walk into an office and speak to an attendant at a counter, or do they need to petition to see a hard-to-reach official?

Rather than the old bar brawl, maybe the group meets in a stifling waiting room at the local government offices, or a long line of weary applicants for a certain permit.

Also remember that PC’s may not be able to circumvent certain levels of bureaucracy…how difficult would it be for you or me to get to see the President of theUSA, the Queen of England or the Pope? Besides, the real power may not rest with the obvious head anyway.

All of these issues, of course, require people to interact with. A single chain of command in an organization can provide a huge variety of NPC’s for the group to deal with, and they don’t have to be cardboard clones. If you work in an office, you have a whole range of personalities that you already know well just waiting to be used!

Red Tape

Why not present the PCs with a form or three to be filled out…applications for gun licenses, hunting licenses, border passes and passports, car registration, certification as a professional in their field, birth, marriage and death certificates, and so on…if you have the right form you can make the most mundane thing an exploration of bureaucracy…and if your PCs haven’t filled in the right forms, then they could be in a lot of trouble…see what happens when you are caught with an unregistered semi-automatic in Australia.

Then there are the positives; letters of Marque, Citations, Awards of Achievement and the range of other accolades officials can shower on you. Have the PCs done some civic-minded things? Have the Mayor hold a celebration in their honor. Bureaucrats and politicians are notorious for their interest in public ceremony. And what can you do with the keys to the city?

In essence, if it needs a signature, stamp or seal, it can be a plot hook. What happens when the local Merchant Guild master has his official seal stolen?? How grateful would he be to get it back? And what kind of mess can that seal cause in the wrong hands?

Making the World Go Round

Ultimately, your bureaucracy will at least be paying lip service to achieving something. The more people are involved in creating a bureaucracy, the more you have the opportunity for plot ideas as the system tries or fail to deliver. Anything from an overworked, overstressed official hiring the group to ensure his confidential documents reach the head office, to carrying out some bizarre and cryptic order handed down from on high, to traveling around troubleshooting various problems within the organization, to hostage negotiation when a maddened worker goes “postal”. From the outside, a bureaucracy can make your PCs lives hell, or grease their way to easy street, if they learn how to deal with it.

We all interact with bureaucracy at some point in our lives…look around you, make a few adjustments, and you have the basis for a fun, challenging and different game.

Crimson Dawn Adventure Synopsis #22

Silveressa — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:24:15 +0000

by Silveressa

It’s been almost 2 months now since I last updated Crimson Dawn, due in part to the hectic schedules of the holidays making time to sit down and write a synopsis (or even run a game) hard to come by.

These real life obligations combined with a nasty case of food poisoning; conspired to keep me away from the keyboard and gaming table for far too long. Now with the New Year before us I hope to resume bi monthly updates to Crimson Dawn without further delays. Now without further ado, I present the next Installment of: Crimson Dawn

“There’s another reason they call it the chain of command you know.” –Riley, recalling his military training.

“Because they tie you in chains if you don’t obey it?” –Renee, taking a wild guess.

“Because the lives of everyone under your command weighs like a ball and chain around your neck.” –Riley, remembering the troops who looked to him for leadership in the war.

Adventure #22

After a moments hesitation Riley sends an open inquiry across the radio, identifying himself as “Sergeant Riley,” and asking for identification of the unknown forces outside the building.

Seconds after his transmission the troops outside came to a dead stop as their commander crouched down near the front wheel well and keyed his ear mike, apparently taking orders from someone further away. A minute more of tense silence ensues before an commanding voice breaks across the radio, demanding Riley identify which unit he is part of and to give a current “sit rep.” (Situation Report)

A brief discussion ensues between the group as they debate what to tell the unknown forces outside, a second, more demanding inquiry putting a stop to their discussion as the group decided on telling the forces outside the truth. Keying the mic, Riley tells them his is a lone solider with four civilians who sought temporary shelter after a wild animal attacked one of them; and that they do not seek conflict with military forces.

A few more minutes of tense silence follows, as painfully Heather dresses herself and straps on her weapon belt, the group keeping a careful eye on the soldiers outside, two of the unknown militia having moved out of their sight around the sides of the building. Moving quietly Renee carefully moves from room to room, trying to get a better view of the soldiers from the second story windows, quietly reporting back they have taken up position at the rear door of the farm house.

A burst of static fills the radio for a heart beat before the same commanding voice informs Sergeant Riley he is now returned to active duty and part of Charlie Company effective immediately, and for him to instruct the civilians to lay down their weapons and exit the building at once for processing and return to base camp Bravo.

As the group sits in stunned silence the voice continues, informing them, the military vehicles outside the building have been rightfully repossessed by remnants of the US Army for military use, along with any other needed supplies to be determined after assessment by Commander Braddock. In the distance the group sees a M1 Bradley pulling away from the convoy and slowly down the dirt path towards them, followed by a cargo truck.

A heated argument immediately erupts among the group, who are reluctant to relinquish their transportation, as Riley suggests they may be able to convince the Army to assist them with the gang problem back in Ruthton. After Renee points out the military convoy may well take most of their supplies and leave them stuck at their compound, as well as taking Riley from his pregnant wife, the group agrees unanimously not to submit to military command.

(Gm note: I was expecting them to lay down their arms and submit, and had an adventure involving a splinter faction of the military at base camp, unhappy with their commander’s leadership going rogue with the groups help; but alas the side plot went unused and cut this session somewhat shorter then planned.)

Thinking quickly Riley told everyone to follow his lead and take turns with the only radio they had (They had smaller hand held sets but didn’t consider them having enough range for the military to get a clear signal) using a separate radio channel, and convince the approaching military forces they were about to be ambushed. (Which got a lot of confused looks around the table before everyone nodded in agreement)

Grabbing up the radio and setting it to a different channel Riley began to speak:

Riley: “This is Echo-Four to Spearhead, the recon force is parked right over the surprise package, and they got two more transports about to enter the KZ, (kill zone) are we cleared to proceed?”

Jessy taking the radio from Riley: “Hold fire until both transports are in the blast zone, we want this diversion to keep their attention.” A pause as Riley motions for him to keep talking. “Hammer and Anvil are you in position to hit the main force with the party favors?”

Renee, quickly snatching he radio from Jessy: “Hammer here, ready to pop the party favors on your go. Are you sure this stuff won’t take us out too if the wind shifts?

Riley Taking back the radio and giving her a thumbs up: (and making a Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Warfare skill check) “This is Echo-Four, risk from sarin exposure minimal in current atmospheric conditions, stand by to-“ He stops speaking as Heather slaps his shoulder to get his attention and points to the window.

Outside the group notices the approaching APC and cargo truck are quickly reversing course, with the convoy in the distance suddenly being covered by a smoke screen, obscuring the vehicles from view.

Down below the smaller force surrounding the hummer is quickly falling back as smoke grenades erupt around the hummer, the soldier manning the machine gun falling over the side of the vehicle in his haste to get away. Riley gives the group a thumbs up and mentions they need to keep selling it, tossing the radio to heather before running off down the stairs. (As Riley’s player passed me a short note with his plans, which I greeting with a smile and a note back telling him the requisite skill check and difficulty)

Heather on the Radio in a panicked voice: “This is Anvil, main target is a bust, I repeat, main target is a bust, they’re rabbiting, what are your orders?”

Jessy taking the radio back from Heather: “Spearhead to all engagement forces, go to radio silence and pursue convoy with MBT’s at distance, and wait for rogue element to update with convoys new position and status; I say again, maintain radio silence and pursue convoy with main battle tanks at range and wait for rogue element info.”

(The former bit of improv was pulled off surprisingly smoothly by the group, with them using a near by empty juice bottle as a prop for the in game radio; and playing off each others convos without a hitch once Riley’s player got things rolling.

I was originally going to call for a few knowledge: military etiquette or performance skill checks to see if their bluff worked, but with how well everyone did with this bit of unexpected bluffing I decided to let them succeed without a skill check.)

As Jessy moves to pass the radio to Renee, a loud explosion outside the building knocks them off their feet, several windows shattering form the concussion wave. As they pick themselves off the ground they notice the wrecker truck in flames just outside the garage, a coil of oily smoke erupting from the wreckage.

As Jessy, Renee, and Heather look at one another in bafflement they see Riley outside giving them a thumbs up next to the hummer, where they all quickly rejoin him. Riley grins and explains he used a welding tank from the garage and a little improvised demolitions (and demolitions skill check which he scored a critical success on) to make it appear from a distance their surprise package had taken out the hummer.

Their morale bolstered by the brilliant plan the group agrees not to stick around long enough for the military convoy to see through their diversion, and decide to abandon the damaged cargo truck in favor of the well maintained hummer the recon force was kind enough to leave behind in their haste to withdraw.

Wasting little time the group piles into the Hummer and undamaged cargo truck, (Dubbing the hummer “Hammer” and the cargo truck “Anvil”) Jessy taking a couple extra minutes to spark a cheery blaze inside the farmhouse, hoping the ensuing fire will further cover their retreat. As the group drives away in a south east angle through the cornfields, Heather makes a startling inquiry: “Anyone seen Thomas around since the military arrived?”

* * * * *

Will the groups newly acquired Hummer and .50 caliber machine gun prove helpful in their upcoming trials? Will Thomas’s whereabouts be revealed? Will Charlie Company find them again? Find out in the next adventure synopsis #23, coming soon!

Drama Doubloons

Silveressa — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:00:10 +0000

by Lord Skudley

Drama Doubloons {DD} will be awarded to any Character who commits a selfless act or brave deed that can only be called Heroic. Likewise Drama Doubloons can be offered to an evil aligned character that performs a particularly vile act. They can be used at the player’s discretion to perform amazing, often otherwise impossible acts, or to advance their character’s profile. The GM will receive one Drama Doubloon per PC as well as one Drama Doubloon for each Drama Doubloon spent by the PCs. A player may not hold more than 20 Drama Doubloons; The GM may not hold more than 40.

On their turn, before the success or failure of an action, a player can announce they are spending a DD to help accomplish the action. This may involve adding 1d4 per DD, to their roll. This cannot be stacked with the Panache Feat nor added to damage.

If used with an attack roll, and the attack roll would have succeeded without the DD, the attack is upgraded to an automatic Critical.

One DD may be spent after a roll to add 1d4 per DD to the roll. This cannot be stacked with the Panache Feat nor added to damage.

One DD may be spent to re-roll any failed roll. The second roll may not be re-rolled.

One DD may be spent to “Take 10″ on any roll that normally does not allow for a “Take 10″.

One DD may be spent to “Take 20″ on a roll that normally allows a “Take 10″

A player or GM may spend a DD to purchase a called shot.

One DD may be spent to activate a Hubris/Flaw or a Virtue/Wile.

If used when a character is being attacked; one DD can be spent to add a +1d20 “Luck Bonus” to the Armor Class or a Saving Throw. If used with a saving throw for half damage or partial effect, and the save would have succeeded without the DD, then he takes no damage or ill effects at all.

One DD may be spent to make something work in a way the rules normally do not allow {i.e. popping open a lock in the middle of combat by banging on it just right, firing an arrow, or throwing one’s sword to cut the bonds of a bound ally in the middle of a fight, or not only disarming a foe, but sending the weapon sailing into the hand of a nearby ally}. Actions allowed at the GM’s discretion.

Rollin’ the Bonez: If an action or die roll determines the character will fall below con points or die, a DD may be used to Roll the Bonez. The GM determines the outcome from the Bonez Chart (ranging from a Disfiguring Scar to a Gruesome & Horrible Death) the character takes no wounds, but passes out and is assumed dead by any attacking party.

If an action or die roll determines the character will die, two DDs may be used to purchase a “Kat’s Life”. A “Kat’s Life” negates the death of the character and reduces the current wounds / damage by half {round up}. A “Kat’s Life” may only be used Nine times. Each “Kat’s Life” purchased after the first costs one additional DD. Cannot be used against a Coop De Grace.

Two DDs may be spent to purchase one Skill Point. Up to the maximum of four skill points at each Character’s level up.

DDs may be traded for one extra Feat at twice the character’s current level per feat; a character may buy a maximum of four feats. May only be used once per character level. A Skill may be purchased as a permanent Class Skill for the same expenditure.

Rollin’ the Bonez

The character passes out and is assumed dead by any attacking party. Other players must perform a spot check of DC 10 or a search check of DC 8 to notice that the character is still living. Do not disclose the affects until the battle is resolved. For all rolls involving the option of left or right roll again: odds right, evens left.

“The Bonez tell me nothing!” (no damage)

Impressive Facial Scar: Both suave and rakish. +2 to charisma.

BattleScars: Neither particularly suave nor ugly, this mesh of scars gives the impression that you have seen a lot of fights. +1 to reputation.
Severe Scar: Nasty and memorable. – 2 to diplomacy, +1 to reputation & intimidate.

“The Bonez tell me nothing! ” (No damage)

Disfiguring Scar: Powder burns, deep wide cuts, flayed skin. -2 to commonality, +2 to reputation & intimidate.

Hideous Scar: Worse than merely disfiguring, these are Hideous; missing nose, ear, part of your face… -3 to commonality, +2 to reputation, Frightening Countenance.

Throat wound: You can no longer speak above a horse whisper. +2 to any skill where a disturbing voice could be useful. Then again you can no longer shout.

Loss of an eye: -4 to all spot checks. Hopefully this is your first, otherwise…

“The Bonez tell me nothing! ” (No damage)

Develops a limp: -5 to speed, -2 to climb, jump, tumble, & balance. However you now have an impressive swagger. +1 to charisma.

Loss of a leg: -10 to speed, -5 to climb, swim, jump, ride, tumble, balance, move silently & reflex save. +2 to reputation.

Loss of a finger: Roll a d10: 1&2 thumb, 3&4 index finger, 5&6 middle finger, 7&8 ring finger, 9&10 pinky. If more than 2 fingers lost -1 to craft, disable device, forgery, slight of hand and use rope.

Loss of your passive hand: -2 circumstance bonus to attacks with two handed weapons, climb, craft, disable device, escape artist and use rope.

“The Bonez tell me nothing!” (No damage)

Loss of your dominant hand: -4 circumstance bonus to attacks with two handed weapons, climb, craft, disable device, escape artist, forgery, open lock, slight of hand and use rope.

Serious wound: DC 15. If failed -2 to con, may be regained in 1d4 months.

Really Serious wound: DC 15. If failed -3 to con, may be regained in 2d4 months.

Especially Serious wound: DC 16. If failed -4 to con, may be regained in 2d4 months.

“The Bonez demand more!!! ” (Roll on the Brain Bonez or roll a d8)

Loss of your passive arm: -5 to climb, craft, disable device, escape artist and use rope.

Loss of your dominant arm: -10 to climb, craft, disable device, escape artist, forgery, open lock, slight of hand and use rope.

Weathered: You have seen too much of life at its harshest, too many storms at sea, too many battles that you have barley survived. -1 to dexterity, strength and -2 to constitution. You are not yet dead +2 to reputation!

Worn: Life has not been kind to you. Too many years of battle, disease and abuse have demanded their sacrifice. -2 to dexterity, strength and -4 to constitution. But, by god, you may still have a little more fight left. +4 to reputation.

Mortal wound: must be attended by a doctor, DC 19. If failed death.

Dramatic Death: Your death will long be remembered and be celebrated in story & song.

Gruesome and Horrible Demise: Your demise will be spoken of in dark whispers and remembered with a quiet shudder.

“The Bonez tell me nothing!” (No damage)

Brain Bonez

1-2. Strange Quirk: You have developed a personal “tick” such as an odd swagger to your walk, or a distinctive way of speaking. +1 to reputation

3-4. Compulsive Disorder: You acquire a mannerism you continually repeat. Such as persistently sharpening your cutlass or shouting “I am not a dog! ” +2 to intimidate, -2 to hide and move silently.

5-6. Mild Phobia: You develop a slight irrational fear of something. When confronted by the thing that you fear, make a Will Save, DC 15. Success means you gain a + 1 Circumstance Bonus to all attack rolls, failure means you become shaken until you leave the presence of whatever is causing your fear. See Phobia List for examples.

7-8. Depression: Your experiences have left you world weary and somewhat bereft of hope. You tend to see the gloomy side of every situation and aren’t particularly fun to be around. -2 Charisma.

9-10. Kleptomania: You can’t resist taking small objects that have no particular value. Whenever you can steal a small object, without being noticed, make a Will Save; DC 15. Failure means you attempt to pocket the item. Sleight of Hand is now a class skill for you, however, you must do your best to keep the condition a secret from every one around you and if you are ever caught, you’ll deny it till your dying breath.

11-12. Mild Delusions: You believe things that simply aren’t true or perceive things that aren’t there, such as you are invincible. Make a Will Save; DC 10 or your delusions start kicking in.

13-14. Phobia: You develop a strong irrational fear of something. When confronted by the thing or condition that you fear, make a Will Save, DC 15. Success means that you are merely shaken, while failure means that you are frightened until you leave the presence of whatever is causing your fear. See Phobia List for examples.

15-16. Paranoia: They’re out to get you, you’re sure of it. You aren’t quite certain who they are, so you’re always watching to catch them at it. You trust no one. Whenever any stimulus occurs that could set off your paranoia, make a Will Save; DC 15. Success means that you can act, normally, but you have to do your best to “keep an eye” on whatever it was that set you off. Failure means that you are shaken and you loudly, publicly accuse your “enemies” of their “deceptions.”

17-18. Megalomania: The time has at last come for you to embrace your great destiny. The weak willed fools that once held you back must either be killed or showed to a place at your feet where they can be your lackeys. Only you have the foresight and the will to govern. All others are merely pawns, to be used and discarded at your whims. You get a +2 bonus to Will Saves and a +2 bonus to Intelligence. You must make a Will Save; DC 20 in order to tolerate orders of any kind, from anybody.

19. Major Phobia: You develop a completely irrational fear of some horrible thing. Anyone that doesn’t share your fear is, potentially, a lunatic or inhumanly brave. You actively go out of your way to avoid any situation that you reasonably suspect may expose you to the source of your phobia. Whenever confronted by the thing you fear, make a Will Save; DC 15. Success means that you are only frightened, while failure means that you are panicked until you leave the presence of whatever is causing your fear. See Phobia List for examples.

20. Powerful Delusions: You believe things that are blatantly untrue and perceive many things that aren’t there. Your delusions are eternally present, in one form or another. You have to make a Will Save with a DC 25 to even catch a glimpse of the “real” world or remain lucid for a brief time. Failure means you’re lost in your delusions and unreachable outside of their context for a few hours. Example: You’re an ancient dragon and you cannot understand why your “fiery breath” wasn’t more effective in stopping those horde robbers.

Rollin’ the Bonez: If an action or die roll determines the character will fall below 1/2 con points or die, a DD may be used to Roll the Bonez. The GM determines the outcome from the Bonez Chart (ranging from a Disfiguring Scar to a Gruesome and Horrible Death) the character takes no wounds, but passes out and is assumed dead by any attacking party.

Two DDs may be spent to purchase one Skill Point. Up to the maximum of four skill points at each Character’s level up.

Rollin’ the Bonez

“The Bonez tell me nothing!” (no damage)

Impressive Facial Scar: Both suave and rakish. +2 to charisma.

Battle Scars: Neither particularly suave nor ugly, this mesh of scars gives the impression that you have seen a lot of fights. +1 to reputation.
Severe Scar: Nasty and memorable. – 2 to diplomacy, +1 to reputation & intimidate.

“The Bonez tell me nothing! ” (no damage)

Disfiguring Scar: Powder burns, deep wide cuts, flayed skin. -2 to commonality, +2 to reputation & intimidate.

Hideous Scar: Worse than merely disfiguring, these are Hideous; missing nose, ear, part of your face… -3 to commonality, +2 to reputation, Frightening Countenance.

Throat wound: You can no longer speak above a horse whisper. +2 to any skill where a disturbing voice could be useful. Then again you can no longer shout.

Loss of an eye: -4 to all spot checks. Hopefully this is your first, otherwise…

“The Bonez tell me nothing! ” (no damage)

Develops a limp: -5 to speed, -2 to climb, jump, tumble, & balance. However you now have an impressive swagger. +1 to charisma.

Loss of a leg: -10 to speed, -5 to climb, swim, jump, ride, tumble, balance, move silently & reflex save. +2 to reputation.

Loss of your passive hand: -2 circumstance bonus to attacks with two handed weapons, climb, craft, disable device, escape artist and use rope.

“The Bonez tell me nothing!” (no damage)

Loss of your dominant hand: -4 circumstance bonus to attacks with two handed weapons, climb, craft, disable device, escape artist, forgery, open lock, slight of hand and use rope.

Serious wound: DC 15. If failed ?2 to con, may be regained in 1d4 months.

Really Serious wound: DC 15. If failed ?3 to con, may be regained in 2d4 months.

Especially Serious wound: DC 16. If failed ?4 to con, may be regained in 2d4 months.

“The Bonez demand more!!! ” (roll on the Brain Bonez or roll a d8)

Loss of your passive arm: -5 to climb, craft, disable device, escape artist and use rope.

Loss of your dominant arm: -10 to climb, craft, disable device, escape artist, forgery, open lock, slight of hand and use rope.

Mortal wound: must be attended by a doctor, DC 19. If failed death.

Dramatic Death: Your death will long be remembered and be celebrated in story & song.

Gruesome and Horrible Demise: Your demise will be spoken of in dark whispers and remembered with a quiet shudder.

“The Bonez tell me nothing!” (no damage)

Brain Bonez

1-2. Strange Quirk: You have developed a personal “tick” such as an odd swagger to your walk, or a distinctive way of speaking. +1 to reputation

7-8. Depression: Your experiences have left you world weary and somewhat bereft of hope. You tend to see the gloomy side of every situation and aren’t particularly fun to be around. -2 Charisma.

11-12. Mild Delusions: You believe things that simply aren’t true or perceive things that aren’t there, such as you are invincible. Make a Will Save; DC 10 or your delusions start kicking in.

Hierarchy of Evil

Silveressa — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:38:51 +0000

by Malcolm E. Hays

Introduction

Many GMs have a tough time working out some of the details in a campaign. To be honest, designing a campaign can be a lot of work, especially when you have other things that also occupy your time like school and work. GMs like to put as much detail into their campaigns as they can because they feel it really spices it up.

Players, on the other hand, like to have a free hand in the direction a campaign takes. A rigidly scripted campaign might be fun for the Game Master, but the players will soon tire of it and try to take the campaign in an unexpected direction.

Since this is often the case, I present to you an alternative and easy method of generating a really fun and exciting campaign. This method is designed for the Quest type of campaign, where the players strive to achieve some well-defined goal. It is a simple method of 11 steps, each of which requires a little work, but not as much as many GMs are used to putting into a campaign.

There are two main parts to the 11-step process: designing the Hierarchy of Evil, and Character Generation. The first part is GM intensive, while the second part is player intensive.

Hierarchy of Evil

Step 1: Decide on a Goal for the Villains

Villains in a fantasy campaign always have a goal they are trying to accomplish. Generally, it is a goal that involves acquiring more power and influence over the affairs in the region, country, or world. The scale of the campaign influences what sort of Arch Villain is most likely to be in charge. A global-spanning campaign might involve deities and powerful kings.

On the other hand, a locally based campaign in a small village or town might only involve the Sheriff or local noble. The nature of the Arch Villain is left up to the GM. Many great villains begin in goodness, but are corrupted by an increase in power.

Some of the worst evildoers are the ones who do not realize their actions are causing harm. For example, a witch hunt led by the local clergy, who burn and persecute those accused of witches in the name of goodness. The clergy are trying to do good works, but they are actually severing ties between neighbors and turning villagers against each other, leaving only suspicion and paranoia.

Step 2: Choose an Arch Villain

Once the goal of the villains has been decided, you must choose the grand architect of the evil scheme. He is the major mover and shaker of the campaign, though he will not always be known to the Player Characters (PCs). In fact, for real excitement, the PCs should be completely in the dark as to who the real villain in the campaign is.

At the start of the campaign, the Arch Villain should be many times more powerful than the most powerful of the PCs. There are a good number of reasons for this. For one thing, the Arch Villain is trying to alter the shape of the region, kingdom, or world. That requires a fair amount of resources and power.

Also, the more powerful the Arch Villain, the more the PCs have to work together to defeat his schemes. No single PC should ever be able to defeat an Arch Villain by himself. This really emphasizes the use of cooperation in solving a difficult task and leads to a more balanced party.

On the other hand, there are reasons for choosing an Arch Villain who could be weaker than the PCs, but will acquire vast amounts of power by the end of the campaign and need to be destroyed.

Sometimes it is just a matter of the wrong device falling into the wrong hands at the wrong time. The bumbling wizard Akar Kessel in R. A. Salvatore’s The Crystal Shard is an example of this type.

In order to represent the Hierarchy that develops from the Arch Villain, it is useful to create a tree diagram of the Hierarchy. The Arch Villain is at the top, and the lower levels branch out from his (or its) evil influence.

Step 3: Choose the Arch Villain’s Chief Lieutenants

No Arch Villain ever acts alone. He (or she) always has cohorts, underlings, flunkies, and a host of assorted cannon fodder. These are usually controlled directly by the Chief Lieutenants who answer only to the Arch Villain.

These might include a local Lord who has made a Pact with a Demon for more control over his serfs, a General serving his King by leading a conquering army across the sea, a lesser Mage serving a greater Mage for more power and riches and fame.

All Chief Lieutenants are motivated by personal gain, though some might also be motivated by duty or loyalty. They almost always know what is going on and can be even more difficult to deal with than the Arch Villain. They are the last line of defense for the Arch Villain and should be almost as powerful as the Arch Villain, though never equal to him.

The main reason they serve the Arch Villain is because he, she, or it can offer them something that they believe will make them greater (though this is often just a self-delusion; demons are notoriously untrustworthy).

Sometimes the Chief Lieutenants have no choice in the matter, though. They could be enslaved or blackmailed by the Arch Villain into serving him. These are important considerations because this then becomes a weakness that can be exploited by a clever group of adventurers.

Step 4: Decide on the Cannon Fodder

Cannon Fodder is the term for anyone below the rank of Chief Lieutenant in the Hierarchy of Evil. The Chief Lieutenants are the only ones who are indispensable to the Arch Villain.

Cannon Fodder serves as the eyes, ears, hands, and mouth of the Chief Lieutenants. They include soldiers, apprentice magi, beggars in the street, merchants, assassins, and anyone else who serves the needs of the Chief Lieutenants but will not be missed if they suddenly turn up dead.

At the top of the Cannon Fodder food chain are the Lieutenants. These are the direct underlings to the Chief Lieutenants and directly control most of the actions of the Cannon Fodder. They are extremely useful to the Chief Lieutenants but can always be replaced if the PCs get a lucky shot in and take out a Lieutenant.

Cannon Fodder is useful to the PCs because they provide the necessary clues that will lead them to the Chief Lieutenants and subsequently to the Arch Villain. However, they can also be used to lead PCs astray by providing false or misleading information.

They are also good for ambushes, especially when the PCs start getting too close to the Chief Lieutenant. Cannon Fodder seldom knows who the real Arch Villain is, and sometimes not even the Chief Lieutenant. They are often contracted by other Cannon Fodder to do the dirty work for the Chief Lieutenant who then has “plausible deniability”.

Step 5: Relationships Within the Hierarchy of Evil

One major consideration in our Hierarchy of Evil that is often overlooked is the infighting that goes on between members. Cannon Fodder’s main goal in life is to become the next Chief Lieutenant.

With that in mind, they are quite willing to sell out their fellow Cannon Fodder for a chance of advancement. This can often be beneficial to PCs who know the value of a well-placed bribe. The Chief Lieutenants have to watch out for daggers from the shadows and the Arch Villain has to keep his Chief Lieutenants from becoming powerful enough to become a threat to their own schemes. It is very, very dangerous to be in the Hierarchy of Evil and the road to the top is paved with daggers.

Character Generation

Character Generation is at least as important as the Hierarchy of Evil and, depending on the course of the campaign, can become an integral part of the Hierarchy itself (e.g. by infiltrating an organization).

The players are an integral part of the campaign as much as the Villains. The GM and players work together to create the story of the campaign and thus the GM must take an active hand in Character Generation.

The GM represents the world and the player represents a character living in that world. The player should interact extensively with the GM when creating his character. This is an excellent time for the GM to start introducing campaign “hooks” to intrigue the player and get his character more involved in the world. A player should not present a completed character concept to the GM.

Rather; he should present it at various stages and ask the GM for advice, suggestions, and ideas. In that way, both the player and GM share more of the responsibility in designing a unique and memorable campaign.

Step 6: Attributes

Most role-playing games have various methods of generating attributes. Many players generate them without thinking about why their PC has the attributes they do. Why does their Mage have a high Intelligence? Why does a fighter have incredible Strength?

These are generally a function of upbringing and natural inclination. Magic-using types generally come from a moderately wealthy background and are naturally studious. Fighters can come from any walk of life and are athletic, energetic, and highly physical people. There should always be some reason why the attributes turned one person into a Fighter, while another person became a Thief.

This leads us to our next phase of Character Generation:

Step 7: Skills

Not all games have skills, but most do in some form or another. These are very important to the PCs and the GM because they determine the balance of the party. A party that has few combat skills is not going to be running around in the middle of a battle.

The GM needs to pay attention to which skills the PCs have, so he can tailor his campaign to the general inclination of the PCs. Likewise, a combat oriented group is probably not interested in political intrigue and would much rather be dungeon-crawling.

Skills are a good way to gauge the flavor of the party and the direction the campaign is likely to go. As with Attributes, Skills should have a reason for being. They should fit the PCs personality and desires. A Mage who studies swordplay makes little sense unless the background of the PC allows for a Combat Mage. The wise party of adventurers will seek a balance of social, magical, and physical skills so that every potential situation is covered.

Step 8: Other Abilities

In some games, PCs have certain extra abilities, such as Advantages & Disadvantages in GURPS, Benefices & Afflictions in Fading Suns, and Quirks & Counter quirks in Dangerous Journeys.

Each extra ability should have some logical reason for existing and being part of the PC. Ghost, a PC from GURPS, has the Advantage of Shapeshifter (Weresnake). This is a result from his training by an evil mage to be sorcerous assassin. He eventually broke free of the evil mage’s control, but he still retains the ability to become a python on nights of the full moon.

This also gives him a snakelike appearance and adds to his reputation (another advantage) of being a ruthless killer. At the same time, a major Disadvantage is his fear of open spaces, a result of living the first 10 years of his life inside a tower.

Step 9: Special Connections

Special Connections are the PC’s contacts. They supply miscellaneous information throughout the course of the campaign when the PC is looking for vital clues. These can be predetermined or developed over the course of the campaign. Most Connections will have an “effective” skill level that determines their general usefulness.

They will also have a certain trustworthiness based on their relationship to the PC. A close friend is much less likely to betray the PC than the leader of the local Thieves Guild. Even though the leader of a Thieves Guild can provide great quantities of information, it is of a dubious nature at best. A university professor who is specialized in a topic of interest to the PC’s, such as History or a branch of Magic, is going to be extremely knowledgeable on his topic and is therefore a highly reliable source of information.

Most Connections should be chosen based on the PC’s interests, social standing, and personal life. A Thief from the gutters is not going to be on friendly terms with the local Duke, unless there is a really good reason. However, he will be quite familiar with the local tavern owners in his area and other assorted thugs, cutthroats, prostitutes, etc.

Step 10: Background

Every Player Character has to come from somewhere. They all were born, grew up, and became adventurers for one reason or another. Each player should determine a comprehensive history for his PC. This history should include where he was born, his family, some significant events from childhood, some more events from adolescence, and some more details from his recent adult life. Probably the most important consideration in creating the history is determining where his Skills, Attributes, and Other Abilities all come from.

There are also many personality traits associated with one’s upbringing that will emerge through game play. Illand the Sage was always intensely curious about everything as a child, so when he grew up, his natural inclination was to become a scholar.

This curiosity often gets him into trouble, but he always learns something new (usually what button NOT to press!). Clever Game Masters will incorporate background histories into the campaign. Players like this because then their characters become more personally involved with the campaign.

For example, Zander the Bard has been chased by mysterious figures who are trying to kidnap him. He later finds out that it all has to do with his ancestry. A powerful force for evil needs to use him in a dark ritual to free itself from its prison. His family history has hidden this secret for generations and now it has come back to haunt them.

Step 11: Tie It All Together

Now we have decided on a plot, created a Hierarchy of Evil, and created PCs. What happens next? The PCs must somehow be integrated into the story. Their backgrounds should all tie into the storyline somehow, though not necessarily directly.

The Hierarchy of Evil should at times act independently of the PCs as the plots are furthered and the Hierarchy changes. The involvement of the PCs should seem accidental at first, but then they start realizing what is going on as more information is revealed through the actions of the Hierarchy.

Gradually, the PCs will begin thwarting more and more schemes of the Arch Villain, who will not be happy at all. The Arch Villain should become more and more involved with the PCs as the campaign continues, eventually resulting in a show-down between Arch Villain and PC. However, Arch Villains are very difficult to kill and even more difficult to capture. They should always have a way out so they can return in the sequel.

Conclusion

Designing a campaign really only takes a few sheets of paper: one page of notes on the general goals of the Arch Villain and how he is going to accomplish them; one page of notes for the Hierarchy of Evil, including the relationships between various members; one page of notes on the PCs strengths and weaknesses.

However, this is not so the GM can exploit them, but so he can get a feel for how the PCs will react in certain situations. Most of the work should actually go to the players in designing their backgrounds for their PCs. This is the real meat of the campaign. The GM provides the guidelines for the campaign and the players flesh it out. Above all, the goal of GM and players alike is to create a memorable and enjoyable campaign, one that will be talked about for years to come.

Tips from the Trenches

Silveressa — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 07:29:03 +0000

by Rana Loreus

How many times has Murphy visited your gaming session and hurls a few Missiles of Murphy or Power Word: Murphy’s Law at you? GMing is a mind-boggling task – there are NPC’s to keep track off, secret dice rolls to make, complex rules to remember and the power-hungry, partially-insane munchkin power-gamer to keep in line. The potential for committing grave mistakes are great.

Right up I will not say, “Don’t worry, read this article and all will be fine!” Rather, basing on my own personal experiences, I have gathered here a miscellaneous collection of things which may go wrong. Forewarned is forearmed.

But first, a friendly disclaimer. Every GM is a totally different, unique individual with his own style of GMing and their own skill-sets. Hence, depending on who you are, some of the items below may more likely inspire a chorus of “Dohs” than gasps of joy and delight due to the discovery of some awesome insights.

1. An Ounce of Preparation is worth more than a Pound of Agitation

How many times have you heard this? “What’s with all the time-consuming planning? I am the type of GM who flows with the Muse – I will be like a flowing river, able to adapt to any situations the players throw at me.” Without proper preparation, however, it is very likely he will flow as a pool of dark, stagnant water.

A game session requires tones of preparation. Beside the scenario itself, there are character sheets to be printed, dice to be sought, people to be called, and a number of myriad details, depending on what game you are playing and whether miniatures are gracing your gaming table or not. Getting all the logistical details done properly is good for a GM’s emotional health and confidence. Ever got the sinking feeling that you are suppose to bring something all-vital and important, but had forgotten about it? Too much of that could be potentially stressful.

Beside the hard, physical details of the game, there are also the “soft” aspects – the adventure itself. I am the type of GM who loves to details thing out in advance – some GMs I know prefer to leave the details to their spontaneous creativity processes. I am not against GMs who want to “be like flowing river and gliding clouds”, but I believe that preparation is still important for both extremes.

By preparation of the scenario, I don’t mean brain-storming all the possible actions that the players may take, or consulting a psychic hotline to foresee what may happen. What I meant is to gain a general understanding and hone your knowledge about your scenario. Let take your typical defacto dungeon crawl as an example. Say the dungeon is built into an active volcano. Isn’t it a good idea to read up on volcano, the temperature of lava, and the properties of volcanic soil and so on? Let say you plan to have a volcanic eruption during a dramatic battle of epic proportions; will you be hard-pressed to describe what comes out from the volcano beside “fire and lava”?

Isn’t a good idea to brush up on your geography of the area the game is set in? You never know where the players will want to go next, and unless you want to impose your omnipotent wills on them, it’s quite hard to confine players to one small, specific region. There’s no need to remember the specific names of towns or villages, but it helps to understand the geography of the area. For example, say your party decides to head into a coastal region where a famous port is situated, and they wish to find a village inn to rest their feet. Now if you have some idea of what the port is, the general situation of the region (is it filled with bandits?) Is travel safe? Are there any power-mad sorcerers stalking the land?) and so on, you can come up with an imaginary village which fits well into the game world.

Let say that your game takes place in a pseudo-Roman Empire, where culture and events run parallel along the greatRoman Empireof our world. Being prepared would mean reading up on Roman history, understanding their culture, finding out what are common names during those era and so forth, so when you are called to aid-lib you can come up with something convincing and near authentic.

Such research can help you to deal with unexpected actions, and provides juicy materials if you shall decide to wing anything (be it a plot twist, or a NPC, or just some details) on the spur of the moment.

2. Plot Hooks shall always flows into the Main Plot

Let suppose you are one of those enlightened GMs who has given up beginning a new adventure with the equivalent of the tavern scene… Now, you are faced with the difficulty of drawing your players into your adventure. How? One of the time-honored and tested ways is through plot hooks, and they work fine, but like all things, they can be over done.

One of the most terrible things with plot hooks is that players may take the lure – plot, hook and line – in all one terrible gulp and refuses to let go. The plot hook, which you have so cunningly conceived to draw the player into the main quest, has become the main quest for the player in question. He sees the tree for the forest, and pay scant attention to the main, glorious storyline which you have labored on for so long in secrecy.

Here is how I shot myself in the foot. In order to draw two of my PCs to an area where the adventure takes place, I set one after an errant Sorcerer who has razed her home village, and give an objective for another PC to assassinate. The main plot of the adventure is a mysterious plague which is running unchecked. Unfortunately, the two PCs ignore the plague, and go about seeking their own personal objectives. Undeniably, their own personal agenda is more interesting than the plague.

This also has the side-effects of the PCs going solo, and not working together, for both of them has radically two different goals. One player is obsessed with finding the sorcerer, while the other can only think of ways to assassinate the objective. Of course, with some flexibility, the two plot-lines can be reconciled with the main one, but the main thing is this – the plot hooks work too well.

Hence, when using plot hooks, make sure that the plot hooks do not steal the thunder from the main plot, and shall not be too distinct from the main plot-line. Or be prepared to put the “main plot” on the side-line for a while. For my case, a close friend who has been infected with the plague and is asking a PC to help him is a more subtle and appropriate plot-hook.

If you like to give players side-missions to accomplish, then do make sure that the main plot-line grabs their attention as soon as the game starts.

3. Don’t Read from the Text (and don’t rely on the Text alone)

No, no, I am not advocating the memorization of the entire module text. Rather, I am encouraging you not to be bound to whatever text the adventure is based on. Here are some justifications.

First, players know when you are reading and when you are talking. When you read, it is hard to maintain eye contact with the players, and your voice may take on a “droning feeling”. Unless you are a professional newsreader, it is difficult to make read text sounds dynamic and interesting.

Second, when you are reading from the module text, it is easy to be bound by the text description. For example, say that a particular scene takes place in the day, but your players are strange fellows – and when the scene finally happens, it is now night. If you read straight from the text, you have to mentally adjust the text to the situation. What if you come across an incompatible description half-way through the text?

This happens to me. A group of soldiers were beating up on an old man, and so one of the PC cast a Darkness spell to confuse the group. When the soldiers have left, I began reading from the description however how villagers with lanterns went to help the old man, before remembering that there was a magical darkness in the area.

Third, the module text is mixed with stuff that you needs when GMing, and extras which you ought to have read and understand beforehand. Back in schools, when we learnt about doing presentations (such as to introduce a new product, or a topic of any sort), it is a bad idea to bring the entire textbook or script out to the front. One reason is because it is unwieldy. In the case of the book, the information which you need may be buried within a dense block of paragraphs. In the case of the script, you may be tempted to read from it.

The same reasons apply to GMing too. The module text may be filled with information which you don’t need at the moment. The description of the room may be intermixed with the information on how the secret door behind the painting of the skeletal Mona Lisa could be opened, which you do not need at the moment.

All right, so if we abolish the use of module text, what then? Do we expect GMs to remember everything? No, but I am suggesting that GMs shall keep a list of key-points before him. So instead of a whole description of a room, the GM list down the most eye-catching and important features in point-form, with short snippets of descriptive text, and link them together on the spur of the moment. This helps the GM to, at a glance, decide which details to keep and which to omit. A summary can be scanned and processed by the mind faster than a page full of text and irrelevant information.

Of course, this calls for more work, on the GM’s part. But it helps to keep the presentation smooth, and free you from the tyranny of the module text.

4. Be fluent with the use of any extra accessories

With the advent of technology, laptops and PDAs have found their niche among the world of table top role-playing. Accessories need not to be high-tech too. A CD player hooked up to a set of speakers can provide atmospheric music which is excellent in setting the mood of the game.

Whatever extra “accessory” you employ in your game, it is important to remember that the game is about the game, not the cool gadget. You shall not draw too much attention to the gadget. Oh, I do not mean that you cannot say, “Oh, behold the cool stuff which I have set up for our gaming pleasure!” I am meaning that whatever cool gadget you are using, it must not distract the players. There are two likely situations when this could happen.

The first is when the gadget is not working at all. If you panic and flutter, making a scene out of it, it may upset the players and make them nervous, especially if you have no back-up plans. Losing your cool is not good for your composure too, especially since GMing can kill quite a lot of your brain cells in just one day. Or even worse, some aspects of the game may depend on the gadget. For example, if you decide to eschew the sheer joy of rolling dice physically and opt for an electronic number generator instead, your game will be severely crippled if the generator doesn’t work at all. In such cases, always think of a back-up plan. Are you using Microsoft PowerPoint to simulate a “Mission Impossible” style briefing? Great, but prepare some paper hand-outs too increase the power is down for the day and your laptop has not power supply left.

The second is when the gadget is working, but you are not experienced with its use. You may end up with errors, pointless delays when you try to get to the right menu or to choose the correct setting. All this could lead to long stretches of waiting which may cast doubts on the validity of the cool, expensive gadget. When this happens, you are drawing the player’s attention away from the game to the gadget which now dominates your attention and which is now the cause of many hiccups. Worse, you may even lose your temper at your cool gadget and this may cause unnecessary tension among the group. (After all, if the GM is god, and the GM is angry, how would the players fare?)

When a cool gadget works, it shall blend seamlessly into the gaming experience. Hence, when deploying a gadget, make sure you are prepared for it. Let take the example of the simple and humble CD-Player. Do you know what tracks you wish to play? Can you locate the PAUSE or FORWARD button in a pitch? Have you found the optimal volume for the music?

Of course, when trying out something new with your gaming group, it is good idea to hold a few trials first, to see if it really meshes with your gaming style. Some players I knew took an affront to the dice-rolling program on my PDA – they rather see me rolling the dice than to tap the screen with my stylus.

5. Spend as little time on dice as possible

Pareto’s Law basically states that in a process, 80% of the delay is due to 20% of the factors. When it comes to gaming, one of the main causes of delay could be the dice.

Dice are our one of the most time-honored tools of our trade. With it we decide life and death, destiny and fate, black and white. This handy little device, however, could be capacious at times, but can be tamed with little efforts.

What are the problems with the dice? Well, they can slip off the table and roll wildly about. It takes some time to generate a random number with the dice. How can we smoothen the process of using dice?

One thing which I do is to set a cardboard box, or a bowl, in the centre of the table and insists the players to roll their dice into the container. This way, we eliminate the problem of dice falling off the table. Another way, albeit more drastic, is to switch to a gaming system which uses only one type of dice (a d10, in our case). Having to pick out a d8 takes some time when it is mixed around with a whole mess of d12 and d10, unless you have been role-playing for years.

Depending on your game, you can also combine some dice rolls. For example, in D20, you can roll your combat roll and damage dice together, instead of rolling to see if you hit your opponent, and then rolling the damage dice to determine the amount of damage done. It helps if you have dice of different-color, so you can specify which dice is for the to-hit, and which is for the damage.

Another idea is to eliminate dice with pre-rolled dice charts. With those charts, you can grab a random number out from the thin air anytime and any when. Of course, some players may take affront to this as well, so be sure to consult your players. What I would suggest is to pre-roll random numbers for situations which call for numerous dice rolls. For example, in D20, say you are pitting five NPC’s against the players, so you would have to make 5 Initiative Rolls. You can streamline the process by pre-rolling the five Initiative Rolls first.

If an aspect of the rules calls for a roll of many dice (consider the “Overpowered Death Spell 101″ which does 100d4 points of damage), change the rules to streamline the dice-rolling. Instead of rolling one hundred D4, change it to a roll of 1d10 x 1d10 x d4. Now, a rules lawyer may point out the probability chart for 100d4 and d10 x d10 x d4 is different -yes, that’s true, but the time needed to roll 100d4 is also vastly different from the alternative.

6. Be sure to provide enough information to keep the game going

Open-ended gaming has many merits – it has the potential of crafting creative, unexpected storylines and providing a most satisfying gaming experience, as opposed to a “railroad” game. However, it can also be a recipe for boredom of an epic proportion.

In an open-ended game, the PCs have more freedom than in a game where the plot is fixed and railroaded. Hence, you must be prepared to give the PCs enough information to give a sense of purpose, regardless of their actions. Without a sense of purpose, the PCs may wander about in circles, being bored to tears.

Have you ever play a computer role-playing game when suddenly the plot abruptly cuts off, leaving you scratching your head in bewilderment? You have no direction where to go next or what to do, and so you started visiting all the towns in the game, hoping to trigger off the next scripted sequence which will propel the plot forward. This could happen in a pen and paper game too.

As the PCs have freedom as to where they want to go, and to whom they wish to speak to, they may at times miss out on some terribly important events which you have masterfully scripted, or bypass a clue which you have so brilliantly planted. They may ignore crucial NPC’s helpful to their cause or choose a fork in the road which brings them somewhere less interesting. That’s the price of freedom and that where your flexibility have to make up for. Ensure wherever the PCs go, the PCs have enough information to carry on the game, lest they end up just wandering about, just waiting for something to happen.

One such example could be a typical dungeon crawl. Say within theTempleofCertain Doomthere is a locked door which behind it lays a vital artifact to the quest. You have devised a fiendish puzzle to ward the door, and the PCs, for all their worth and mettle, could not solve it.

Now imagine, what if, due to the amount of freedom in the game, they have missed an all-important clue which states that the artifact could be found behind the door. Your PCs may spend a few minutes on the door, then give up, and proceed to spend the rest of the day combing the dungeon for the artifact.

(Some GMs, at this point, may snicker at the worthless party of hapless adventurers, thinking that they are getting what they deserved. True, the party may not be the brightest sparks around and if you feel its fun to gloat at them, go ahead. However, the players will not find this fun, or funny.)

If the PCs know, or realize, that the artifact lies behind the door, then they may seek ways to open the door. But what if, due to the freedom you have given to them, they have overlooked an important clue in solving the puzzle? They may wander all over the place, trying to look for something which can help them, but not being sure what it is actually.

There are two ways the above problems could be solved. One relies on the GM’s ingenuity, the other on the GM’s planning. If the players have freedom, likewise so do the GM. To preserve the flow of the game, you may have to change details on the moment. So the players can’t solve the Fiendish Locked Door Puzzle? Hell, open a new route which test some other skills beside their defective intelligent. Or perhaps drop in a clue the next time they search another spot. Being flexible is a prerequisite for open-ended games.

The other depends on the GM’s planning skill – make sure there are plenty of clues scattered about, and indications as to where help could be found. For the case of the Fiendishly Locked Door Puzzle, you could maybe leave a plaque which says “This Puzzle is Courtesy of the Great Wizard Merlin”. Hence, the players, knowing that Merlin the Wizard is the one who crafted the Locked Door Puzzle, can then start looking for more information regarding Merlin, hoping that they may unearth something which helps.

There is a vast difference between wandering clueless about and following a lead. The latter gives a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, while the former is likely to inspire agitation and frustration.

The examples may be contrived, but they apply in lot of other cases. Throughout the game, always evaluate the amount of information which you have given to the players. Are those enough to give the PCs an idea of what to do next? If not, step in and drop a lead so the plot may continue.

7. Avoid extended, gratuitous sequences of character introduction

It is evident that you have expended time and effort in your NPC development. Each of them features a portrait, a bio several pages long and a detailed write-up about their personality, their family tree and how many times they bath each day. However detailed your NPC may be, do not have too many scenes which purpose is just to introduce NPC’s.

There are some characters that could just go by generic labels, such as “The old innkeeper”, “the young barmaid” and “the scruffy captain of the guards”. Yes, we shall prepare details for those NPC’s, but it doesn’t mean that we shall dump that information on the hapless players all at once, especially if they are not interested in those minor characters. No matter how excited you are about this “cool NPC” which you have labor on, it is the players in the end who chose who they will interact with. and how much they want to know about the NPC.

Try to spread out important NPC’s across the game, if possible. Having too many of them appearing at the same time confuses the players – they have to remember names, who they are, what happened when they were around and what they want. If possible, include them, but do not spend too much time on introducing them.

It so happened once that I spent an hour to introduce about five NPC’s in succession and at the game of the session, a player remarks that it was like watching an episode of a Soap Opera series. Perhaps he had “Days of our Dungeons” in mind.

8. Don’t say “No” too quickly

How easy it is to tell the players, “No, you can’t do that” or “This course of action is unacceptable. Try something else.” Definitely, there are times when players wish to try out some hare-brained schemes, but most of the time, saying “No” too quickly can kill the potential of neat role-playing moments.

There are two cases when GMs would say “No” to a PC. One is when the PC is trying to achieve something impossible. For example, a PC may be trying to lift a lever which is, to the GM’s knowledge, stuck and impervious to all force. The GM could just dismiss the PC’s attempt by saying, “No, the lever is stuck”. But wouldn’t it be better if the GM takes the opportunity to introduce more role-playing moments? Instead of saying “No” straight away, the GM could ask the PC to attempt a dice roll. That may even encourages the PCs to work together, devising a method to pull the lever and at the same time giving the idea that the PCs have the ability to influence events and objects around them. You can, of course, state how difficult the action could be. “The Orc Warlock is too far away for your longbow, but you can still try if you wish to” sounds much better than a “No, you are out of range”.

Even if you are not going to let the PC succeeds at the task, you can take the opportunity to add details to the environment. For example, instead of a flat “The lever is stuck”, you could have the PC to roll the dice, and on a success, have the PC to rip off the lever, revealing the pivot which has been long rusted and rotted away. This is vastly superior to a direct rejection.

Of course, if the PCs put in much sweat and effort in trying to achieve the impossible, you may want to consider rewarding the PCs for their persistence and creativity. You must also be prepared for unexpected moments. When if the PC rolls a critical success while shooting at the Warlock who is supposed to be out of range? What if someone comes up with an ingenious solution which you never thought off?

The second case when a GM will say “No” is to preserve the plot which he has in mind. For example, it may be the GM’s intention for the PCs to be ensnared by a net, and hence are captured, so that the next scripted sequence could begin. But PCs, being the ingenious lots which they are, may come up with various creative ways to escape from the net. So the GM rejects any attempts to escape, railroading the PCs.

While that is a valid course of action, it could be more fun to play along with the players, and subdue them in ways which they truly defeated, not just merely led along by a scripted sequence.

A personal example is during a game, a Sorcerer pretended to be a harmless old man. Along the way, he suffered a fall, and a kind NPC offered to help him back. One of the PCs, who is a healer, attempted to follow the Old Man back. But fearful that the PC may discover the Old Man for whom he really is (it is still too early for the Dramatic Confrontation,), I refused blatantly.

Now looking back, it might be better if I let the PC followed the Old Man back, and developed an interesting encounter which leaves the PC guessing and wondering, instead of just rejecting his action outright.

Usually, GMs who say “No” in such cases have a highly-structured plot and planned script in mind. There’s nothing wrong with that, but for those who prefer running a more open-ended, spontaneous game, consider twice before you say “No”. Instead, think, how could you turn the PC’s sudden and unexpected action to your advantage?

9. Always have a Map for the Players

In the days of yore, players are expected to bring their own graph paper and draw their own maps. Not that it is a bad practice – it’s always good to keep track of where you are when you are exploring uninhabited tombs or dragon caves. However, maps do exists for a reasonable number of locations, and it may not be a good to demand players to map those locations too.

Take for example, a teeming, thriving port-city. Maps for such places are likely to exist, and so naturally the PCs would want to get their hand on one. Or perhaps the PCs find themselves in a remote village, and asks a local villager to sketch a primitive, but effective, map of the surroundings.

Since PCs are always asking for maps, isn’t it much better to prepare it for them before they ask for it? Maps which are reasonable to give to PCs include maps of settlements, of the region and the country. They don’t have to be vastly detailed – just to give the PCs a rough idea of where things are in relative to each other.

Maps are also usefully to give PCs a sense of direction. Imagine, at the beginning of a city-based adventure, the PCs have no clue what to go next. With a single glance at the map, the PCs can find out what are the prominent locations in town and whether those places would hold clues for the PCs or not.

10. Use the “Show, don’t tell” rule judiciously

Of the top ten tips for beginning writers, one of the most often stated is “Show, don’t tell”. It is an excellent guideline to live by, and helps to promote the atmosphere of the game, but there’s a minor problem.

In the game, the GM transmits information by speech, and at times it is hard for players to remember so many details. For a written material where the reader can back-track to re-read sentences, “show and don’t tell” is a good rule to abide by. However, role-playing games use the medium of speech to communicate, and hence keep it as simple as possible.

Don’t use “Show, don’t tell” on everything – use it for important, significant NPC’s or events. Beware of information overload! At times, sparse descriptions could invoke a vivid atmosphere as well.

Also, when using “Show, don’t tell”, consider breaking the descriptions into various segments, so that players can digest them easier and faster. Each description shall allow the players to draw one set of conclusions about the NPC, or the area.

A relative of tip #10 is this — Consider “Show and Tell” from times to times. Let say you have the players have a run in with a raiding party of “short humanoids with pale, green diseased skin, their fang-like teeth gleaming in the torchlight, with curved scimitars and barbed clubs in their hands”. Would the PCs know what those are?

It is unlikely that the players are not able to recognized goblins, but for good measure (and since goblins are so easily recognizable) you might as well tell the PCs what they are. Just keep in mind that for all your detailed descriptions, the PCs may just be unable to catch just what on heck you are describing, so be prepared to tell them as well.