Dice Deliberations

Life is made of experiences and memories, and today I am going to share my own new experiences of the last year, since the last time I did one of these essay marathons. Because of Covid, the list is more limited than I would like, but I think it will be an decent list. New Campaign as a Player My alternate GM, Marc, ran his first 5e campaign, for about a year, ending right around the time that Covid hit. I think our last few sessions were fully online. In that campaign, we all chose to play mercenary hobgoblins in the land of humans. None of us had spent much time with 5e at that point, aside from a 3-session trial we ran to see how it played at different levels, so it was completely unique. It was also unique because we were coming off a long campaign as champions, so it was interesting to be back to 1st level grunts--especially with 5e's "everybody's equal" at 1st level. Perhaps the most unique aspect for me was that I designed my character to be the exact opposite

  You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. Twilight Zone, Seasons 4 and 5 opening Today's word, portal , got me thinking about things that takes people from where they are now, to some other place. Sometimes those things are subtle: walking into the throne room of royalty or the Oval Office of the United States. These are in some ways just going through a simple door to a place that is only a few feet different...just one room over--but in context is a shift to a physical center of true power. Of course, there are portals that dramatically take let you take a non-linear jump to a different location, such as the Dimension Door spell (or the incredibly popular video game, Portal.) or which take you to entirely different planes of existence. Rather than a treatise on planar topologies, though, what to

  Never name your horses! This was a loud and clear lesson my regular Thursday group learned in our alternate campaign. Like something out of Monte Python, we named our horses, and they were killed. So we got more, and named those, and they got killed. We eventually got a third batch, but learned our lesson and didn't name them...and they were the most long-lived horses of the campaign. One of the undersung heroes of RPGs is the trusty mount. Carrying not only your character, but most of your junk and doing so at a better speed than you could manage. They move the game along, but they are also the catalyst that lets you hear "Thank Goodness! You got here just in time" instead of "Sorry, Mario, but the princess was taken to another castle two days ago." Today's essay is dedicated to all the horses and non-horses that have graced my campaign over the years. Regular Horses Horses are a luxury at low levels. They are expensive given that you only have a few gol

Today I'm going to talk about relationships in RPGs. My this, I mean how characters relate to each other, to the NPCs who make up their personal connections and even how those NPCs relate to each other beyond the existence of the PCs. Getting this right, and making it honest is a key element of truly successful storytelling, and is at the same time one of the hardest things to deliver realistically.  PC Connections Connections between characters are technically the easiest. The party comes together for some reason, and over the course of their adventures forms bonds, habits, quirks and irritations. This becomes easier as the character sheets become more real, and then the connections begin to form. Sometimes this manifests as "these two people tend to do tasks together" or "this person always hates the plans of the others." These are great, but what you're really looking for is the ability to know how each character feels about each of the others. In my firs

  For literally 20 years, I've been running my games in the highly lawful meritocracy of Thorin. The campaign itself was "The Guardians" which were a group of military problem solvers who reported directly to each of the seven Dukes of Thorin, with some who reported directly to the King. The characters joined this organization because they felt a sense of duty, and because it offered opportunities for growth through success. My new campaign, the third set in this part of the world, is a totally different country within the same region. The country is called Buchar, and the players all reside in its capital city of Jadir. I mentioned in an earlier post that Jadir is a city where things work a little differently. Bribes are standard; smuggling is only questioned when people don't get their cut, and who you know is a major factor for any transactions. Key to all of this is a system of favors. The first adventure of the campaign was a 1st level warehouse guarding event: j

  TM and © 2019 Monte Cook Games, LLC Today's word is "Strange" and while I could easily go any of several ways, I have to go with an essay on the RPG of the same name, which is one of my favorite games of all time. This is not a review. It is an essay on why this game resonates with me so strongly as a GM. Background For a bit of background:  The Strange is the second game by Monte Cook Games , and like Numenera , is based on the Cypher System Ruleset . It started off well, with a very strong Kickstarter. And what they delivered was truly exceptional: proof of this is that including the independent podcast about it, The Strange was nominated for seven ENnie Categories in 2015 and won silver awards in three of them, including best game, best setting and best interior art. It was originally conceived and largely created by Bruce Cordell, who is a longtime friend of Monte Cook. Bruce went to Monte with an idea for a novel, and Monte suggested that instead, he should come

One of the most insidious and effective dungeon elements available to a GM is the "Hobbit Trap." It is so called because of Peregrin Took, who accidentally sends a bucket into the depths of the Mines of Moria thereby alerting every creature in the area to the Fellowship's presence. More generally, it is something the players come across with the words "It's a trap" practically written out in neon above it. And yet, the players are irresistibly drawn to it like a moth to flame, often with the same results.  The most obvious of these is a lever with no clear purpose. To make it a true hobbit trap, it can't be something that the players misunderstand. You can't have a portcullis with a lever nearby--the average person would logically believe that pulling the lever would quickly release the gate in case of emergency. If you had it do something else, that's just cheesy. You also can't have it be the only clear option available to players. If they

Having a good sense of humor is a wonderful personal characteristic. In Role Playing Games, it's an essential quality. Games are at once long, intense, frustrating, fun, confusing and silly. The people you are playing with are often friends, too, but even if they aren't, a connection between the GM and the players, and between the players is critical to having fun. This leads to both situations and people's responses to them often being funny. There are lots of categories and opportunities for humor, but I'm going to focus on just two of them. Ad-hoc Humor It seems impossible to get through a game session without the action devolving to a set of movie quotes, book quotes, references and/or puns. People who play RPG's are generally creative and good at tying different clues or situations together to make a whole. These characteristics are invaluable for the solving puzzles or working through problems. They also mean that any situation the players encounter can be tie

There is nothing wrong with edgy entertainment; millions of people like it. Whether it's the dystopian world of Katniss and District 12, the sympathetic vampires of Anne Rice, or the pre-battle rituals of a man who claims "I am...father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my revenge in this life or the next." Some people even can appreciate the horrifying rendition of "Singing in the Rain" as performed by Malcolm McDowell. Our society has consistently shown that we like at least some of the entertainment we consume to have an edge. The fact is, dark themes resonate with people. Some people like to be there with the villain, and even to root for them. Others like to see how bad things can get before somebody rises up to take down the evil authority. Some like to safely get into the heads of the bad people, and some just like to have that dark itch tickled occasionally before returning to their normal life. Role playing games are no diff

  Every year I participate in the RPGaDay writing prompt event. It's fun; it lets me remember and gives me a chance to tell stories, share what I've learned and wax philosophically. It also forces me to write every day, and leaves me with a sense of real completion when I'm done. And while I do it for myself, there are also a dozen or two people who read and enjoy them, which makes it an especially worthwhile way to spend the time. That said, I have a few rules for myself as I write them: I never start the essays before August 1st. The list of prompts comes out in July or earlier, but aside from getting a copy as prep for the event, I never start writing anything ahead of time. I thought this might make things easier, but I don't for two reasons. Writing them in real time tends to keep them fresh, and make them "fun" rather than a chore I'm trying to accomplish. Sometimes, events happen during the essays and things that are playing out in my world, or goin

Scientists have calculated that the chances of something so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.         - Terry Pratchett Today's word is rare, and I'm going to share some of the "rare" things that seem to come up in RPGs all the time. Rare Luck Streaks I've spoke about how dice need to be trained, shamed or otherwise influenced to roll well. However, most gamers have had roll events that defy all laws of probability. Carolanne was playing The Strange with me, and she conservatively had six rolls during the game. Let's assume that includes rerolls. She did not roll above a 4 the entire time. Odds of that? One in 15,625. If it was more like 10 rolls including rerolls: More like 1 in 9.8 million. One of my friends playing Paranoia accidentally set of a nuke. The GM ruiled he could survive the point blank explosion if he rolled 3 20's in a row to use hi