Endless Bag of Games

Thirteen sessions behind, tomorrow we have the fourteenth so I decided to draw a small “session-map” while I was designing tomorrows session to see what has happened so far. It is a good way to summarize roughly what has happened in the campaign. I create such pictures to work as a tools in my dungeon mastering “work”. Campaign inspection and consistency is a important matter for any game master so I think that alone explains why I do draw such images.

Here are some potential benefits of a session-map:

• Dungeon master remembers what has happened before: Does these events have consequences now after few sessions has passed? Such events make the world around the players more alive.
• It reminds dungeon masters to stick in your plan and how to alter the big picture according to player character actions.
• It helps dungeom masters to see how many sessions it roughly take to make X happen (according previous sessions drawn to the map)
• Players remember what has happened in the previous sessions. How has my character responded to these events or have I just been casually gaming (nothing wrong in that.

In my quest for more organized, consistent and interesting gaming experience I’ve decided that now it is time introduce some improvements and adjustments to our game, which I have decided to implement to our campaign. Rule of thumb is that I’m not going to fix anything that is not broken, but to guide the campaign to respond to our group’s desires and needs; we have decided to use following house rules:

Our group likes cinematic scenes. I try to encourage my players to cinematic actions regardless the rules. At best, the rules eventually are the necessary evil. Cinematic scenes are usually exciting and fun and the ones that are often remembered. Usually we recall those thing way back so I thought. Eartdawn has Karma points, Shadowrun has Edge, Star Wars Saga edition have Force points and 4th edition D&D has action points. These things work very well and sometimes allow players to do awesome things, but the question still has been “How to encourage players to do awesome things even more? Well.. by just allowing them!

To do that, I developed the idea with the keyword: Awesome in mind. This cinematic climax should be somewhat similar to the idea, when heroes in novels have their moments. So I decided to try this Limit Breaker, which has been use in our earlier games, but this time with the exception that it can be done once in adventure and so it is something that players will not want to waste.

The second House Rule I got the idea from At-will’s Using your powers in roleplaying situations. This rule also supports the keyword awesome and in the same time gives motivation to the roleplaying part. The whole point of this rule is about looking at your powers in different perspective (To get clearer image you can visit At-will’s blog). We start to look your powers more as part of your characters ability to execute such actions. The chosen powers can be thus dismantled and reconstructed and aligned also to roleplaying situations. And those situations usually are, well.. Awesome once again, clever at least if nothing else. At At-will there is an example about ranger’s power Split the Tree, but I try something different to avoid repeat. Let’s use Warlord’s level 1 Daily power: Lead the Attack.

Under your direction, arrows hit their marks and blades drive home. Ok, now we have the flavor text and we can start to dismantle the power. What kind of person can deliver such commands; one who has authority to do it and people will listen. He is a leader, which warlord is. Then you can think what kind of person is a good leader, what does he have that others don’t? He has passion, he is confident and he has focus. There are several things which define the good leader, but here we have examples enough. Warlord also have the heavy martial experience, he sees the bigger picture and is thus able to organize things in his mind quickly. He is smart and thinks beyond. He uses his knowledge, ability to read people and charisma to appeal to people in various situations.

Your party sits in a council, trying to develop a defensive plan against the invader who has an army marching towards you as we speak. You have the map, you know soldiers numbers and abilities at the field of battle and see the consequences of actions. Others however don’t possess the ability and could not lead as you do.

Now it is time to convince the other war leaders and lords about your plan, and you have your Lead the Attack used and you receive the bonuses in that diplomacy throw (or somewhat similar in skill challenge). Thanks belong to At-will for this awesome idea!

The last one is not a house rule, but a reward for minor quests. The honors belong to Mike’s Mind.

“Quest rewards are a great method to help the players feel a part of the game and add more interaction with NPC. The idea behind the quest reward is a special card that has some kind of in game effect. There are two types of reward cards you can create for your players, Reusable and One Shots. Reusable cards have an effect that can only be used under specific conditions or once a day. One shot reward cards are just that, its a NPC owes the PC a favor and once the favor is called in that’s where it ends.”

Example: Free accommodation

A farmer’s daughter were recently kidnapped by goblins for some dark plan, the farmer stumbled upon the adventures and asked them to help save his daughter. If the PC’s do, the farmer will have a greater reward for the party. Benefit: While in countryside near the farmers house you have access to a meal and a room for your efforts saving his daughter. +2 temporarily hp from a good night’s rest at the start of the day.

Many times I have thought that running a campaign is somewhat similar to running actual business. Today I will focus on issue which I call Campaign Quality Control. Now I will be starting a series of posts titled Game Management which will address several issues about gamemastering and its depths.

Campaign Quality control (CQC) is set of procedures intended to ensure that you, as a manufacturer of the performed service, adheres to a defined set of quality criteria or meets the requirements of the players. It involves examination of the campaign thoroughly to meet the specific standards set by the gamemaster himself and players. If a problem is identified, there is need to find a suitable solution and clarify the course of actions.

Usually it is the job of the quality control team within business, but here the quality control team is you and your players. The team members however are always not the same. It is You when (1) the issue is about what is happening inside the campaign and here the NPCs are your salespersons. (2) It is you when the issue is about deepening the world around (or with) the players. It is you And your players when there is need to find to common tune i.e. the campaign theme.

We will take notice that players are your employees as they are your customers. They are the most important parts of any company. If a company has employees that don’t have adequate skills or training (rules or being reckless for example), have trouble understanding directions (GM doesn’t provide enough information to get the clear picture what to do), or are misinformed, quality may be severely diminished. When quality control is considered in terms of human beings, it concerns correctable issues. This means you as an gamemaster have to take care of your players, help them to understand the flow of information around the gametable, inside the campaign and everything related so every “stakeholder” can be satisfied.

Finally, the CQC process must be ongoing to ensure that remedial efforts, if required, have produced satisfactory results and to immediately detect recurrences or new instances of trouble.

What is different to the real world and organizations is that You, as a Gamemaster, hold just as much resources you want to use to run the whole thing. Players are your Customers, NPC’s and Players are your Personnel, You are the Management and Customer Care. The line always can’t be drawn clearly since you and your players are usually playing several parts. Running a successful business requires quality control to make the product successful; my opinion is that so does campaign and gaming in general.

Campaign Quality mainly comprises of three major elements: Gamemastering; ethics and independence around the table; acceptance and continuance of player character relationships and specific engagements; and of course campaign monitoring. These components are necessary to meet the demands and expectations of everyone around the table

How could I improve our game to the goal we call FUN! FUN! is the most important thing that the game masters and players need running a successful and good session. That’s right. It is the most essential thing that goes ABOVE everything else. Next I will present you the CQC Tools. I’ll try to clarify the whole CQC process with a picture and then explain the required processes one by one.

Everything begins with a good amount of planning ahead. What is going to happen and what is the main theme. Here, I have found most useful to take effort to meet with the players, discuss about wants and needs, theme and mood of the game etc. When it comes to planning, it should be done, but there is danger overdoing it. Every good gamemaster must be able to improvise, because the sessions won’t go as you have planned. It’s almost a guarantee.

Strongly linked to the Campaign Planning and Improvisation part, here Player Knowledge means literally knowing your players, their characters, motivations, player types (power-gamer, tactician…) emotional kicks. Seeing how do they react around the table. Are they bored and so on. My opinion is that in campaign creation, knowing your players comes always first, since it will work as basis for good campaign. Enough said, it will help you in your campaign planning, keeping the excitement in the air around the gametable. There is no point planning a dungeon delving campaign to players who enjoy political intrigue. Planning may also prevent us from falling back on old frames and first impulses. It is essential to take into account the tastes of your play group. As a further reading I suggest Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering or Chatty’s Robin’s Laws Revisited: The Complete Series. Read it, if you haven’t already.

Campaign Inspection & Consistency control deals with several important issues. The adventure structure for example. Over planned adventures can quickly fail because the complexity of it. We as human beings are incomplete and information flow is a major obstacle also in many companies. It is not a surprise that the clear awesome superb vision that gamemasters have in their heads always doesn’t transmit to the players and if it does, it is distorted. Good adventures are actually quite simple and information thus should always be as much available as possible in order to prevent misunderstandings. Illustrations during sessions etc always provide a much clearer image than just explained one. As Robin D Law says “You don’t need to make an adventure complicated. The players will do that for you”. Checking from time to time, that the adventure has clear ending and players are enough informed and STILL interested in that adventure is vital.

Session Control is also important. It helps you to keep things interested during the actual sessions. Here, I cannot dictate what is the best way to do this, it requires a whole post, so I just suggest that you take a look to Chatty’s Robin Laws’ Revisited: Part 7, Running your Game.

And of course there is one final source of information which is very helpful. Feedback from your players. By Reading your players, asking their opinions you can get valuable information about likes and dislikes. Are you doing everything right etc. Be careful, not everyone cares to say for example that his friend is taking too much attention in front of him. Ask feedback in general after the session or when you see your friends in environments that others can’t hear you. Be creative, since it is more useful than you think. They usually see the things you don’t.

And when you have gathered all the information, you know what to do and make the Imrovements and adjustments. Results may include: Homebrew Rules, Contracts, Incentives, Storyline alteration, bringing new elements, Deeper player knowledge. etc.

As a summary, when you have everything in control it will provide you a More organized, consistent, interesting experience which makes the game more fun. A quality campaign!

Starting a campaign can sometimes be overburdening. As a game master, you’re the one who does most of the work and you’ll be the one who makes it happen. Is this the truth? It is true, that game masters may get their FUN! also from other sources than players. I even wrote about it months ago, but that is not the issue here. Do you think players also can also contribute when the actual game begins? Are there any requirements for your players or do you allow them to be this “I’m this fighter, I don’t remember his name – let’s play” type of players. I don’t because I require a “budget” to establish the campaign. Let me explain;

Imagine yourself to be a marketer in a big company and the boss comes to you and says: “Hey nerd! I want you to renew the whole marketing of this company”. You agree and wonder where to start. Then you think about your marketing budget and notice you don’t even have one. You cannot do your work, if there is no budget. There is no basis for your work.

The same comes to the one and only requirement that I have as a Dungeon Master and that is the character background. It does not have to be novel or anything grand, but it should answer some key questions of the character and in the same time, the player wants as well. That’s difficult you say? Have you heard about The 10-minute Background (developed by The_Stray)? In an attempt to get all the information I need to create stuff from character backgrounds without having to continually push for information, I am asking my players to create their background with the steps of the 10-minute background:

That wasn’t too hard. Now you have a budget and you know where you can and moreover where should you go with your campaign. Even the character creation helps dungeon masters to guide their campaign in the right direction. To the direction where the players and dungeon master together wants it to go. But this was only my requirement because it helps me as a DM to deliver the FUN!

What are your requirements? Do you have any? Explain why and help me see the other side of the coin!

I have always liked one-stop places sites to see all the necessary links and resources to get for my games. I believe that there are numerous such places, but even the thought the process of finding them is very tiresome. So now it is time for my contribution since recently I’ve been introducing new set of players for upcoming 4th edition FR game and. Once again, I needed those resources. So without further ado, here are the 10 most useful resources I’ve stumbled upon (Character sheets, Character generators and other resources:

(1) 4th edition official character sheet – Official sheet from Wizards of the Coast

(2) Shado’s Character sheet – This is a visual, color landscape character sheet. It comes with complete sheet to record your powers as well as a sheet for rituals.

(3) Kiznit’s Character sheet – This is the one I use. Simple grayscale character sheet way better than the official one. The slot item on the second page is fantastic. Great place to store the power cards. I suggest using Kiznit’s character sheet with Granpa’s power cards. Works like a charm.

(4) D&DI Character Builder – The D&DI Character Builder allows you to create characters from levels 1 to 3 for free. So far as I have seen, it is very useful and easy to use. Excellent resource.

(5) Seventh Sanctum – This is not actual generator, but it holds several useful and funny tools for backgrounds and quick NPC’s and concepts as well.

(6) Granpa’s Power Cards – (1500+) set of power cards in PDF format. Not only power cards, but cards for feats, class features, items, weapons etc. Very useful collection and my favorite. Comes with a template to add something your own.

(7) Monster Cards – Everything from Monster Manual 1 and They are formatted to print out at 6″x4″ and include the stats, but not the history or tactics. Very useful to make the things behind DM screen more clear.

(8) Sortable Monster Manual index spreadsheet with built-in encounter calculator – A must. Nothing more.

(9) The Official DM screen. – Just buy it, not too expensive and most useful and good quality. Worth of mentioning even in this list.

(10) Adventures and maps can be found at http://www.dungeonmastering.com/ Worth to take a look at.

Latest Oots script #611 got me thinking. Our gaming group is a light roleplaying group. We laugh a lot during our sessions and the mood isn’t too serious. Somebody usually has a terrible hangover or something like that so intensive playing usually does not happen. This however has its pros and cons. It is very difficult to create roleplaying atmosphere. Player characters are seldom serious thus even in dire danger, they seem to be very confident about themselves. There are always exceptions, but usually it goes like that. So we play just for the fun of it, we enjoy the fun! This however does not mean that there is no serious roleplaying at all in our games. It just means that doesn’t happen too often.

As a DM I (and I think our other players too) like cinematic scenes. I try to encourage my players to cinematic actions regardless the rules. I have noticed that cinematic scenes are usually exciting and fun. Those usually are the moments we remember after the gaming session. Usually we recall those thing way back so I started thinking. Eartdawn has karma points, Shadowrun has edge, Star Wars Saga edition have force points and 4th edition D&D has action points. These things work very well and sometimes allow players to do awesome things but the question still is “How to encourage players to do awesome things even more? After discussing the matter with one of my friends I decided to add my first House Rule to our Aerithia (D&D 4th edition) campaign and it is called Limit Breaker (or Awesome Point or whatever you like): (image from Order of the Stick comic #611)
Limit Breaker: Limit breaker is character’s luck, that unexplainable factor that allows him to beat the odds. A character can use his limit breaker once per level and doing so consumes also all of his current action points. Limit Breaker is not something that you add to your rolls or that enhance your abilities to do damage or such. Limit Breaker allows you to bend the rules and do things normally would be impossible in a single combat round or outside combat (see the picture above). It is something considered cinematic and awesome. It cannot give the character serious bonus to any situation (except being awesome), it cannot drastically alter the outcome of the combat but it can give you automatic successes in some manner. I.e. imagine a situation where you stand in a top of the building and a dragon flies by. Quickly, spending a limit breaker (if you have action points left) you decide to jump to dragons back and hold on. Normally DM would ask player to throw all kinds of checks. Athletics, grapple falling damage etc etc.. and character could fail and possibly even die. But by spending limit breaker it would be an automatic success. Dragon packs a punch heavy enough that one rider in his back wouldn’t be too serious threat. This scene would be cinematic and a situation that, I at least, would consider awesome. Limit breakers are agreed with DM during sessions and DM has the rule to say is it possible or not. As a DM I want to say (as encouragement to my players) the better you describe the situation, the better odds are that your awesome stunt works.

And a little last note to my players. There are lots of pirate action coming up, so if you want to be creative you can watch the pirates of the Caribbean movies and possibly you can come up with few good ideas