- A Poisonous Monster must be killed and a sample of its poison must be returned.
- A Valuable Monster is loose and must be captured alive.
- The Heroes fame as made them a target by wannabes that want to prove themselves.
- A Wronged Noble needs a champion to fight in a duel of honor.
- The players are caught between soldiers and separatist rebels, and must choose sides.
- Mischievous creatures have targeted the heroes for fun. They must be appeased or destroyed.
- The Heroes fame as made them a target by wannabes that want to prove themselves.
- The Heroes are hired to bring peace to a restless ghost, allowing it to fade away.
- A power player is getting advice from their dead consort. Is it real or is there a dark secret?
- The Heroes are hired to plant listening devices into a rival company’s system so that a competitor can listen in.
- The Heroes are sent into the bowels of a planet’s machinery to capture a rebel leader, only to find out they have captured a patsy, or have they?
Monday, June 30, 2014
Adventure Monday - Part 4
Back again with ten more seeds.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Free Stuff Fridays! - Warehouse Standees
Today we have some decorations for the ever-popular urban battlefield, the Warehouse. We've got palettes and crate-shelf standees.
And now for something completely different...
Halfling to Barmaid - "Hey, you got a little Hobbit in you?"
Barmaid - "Noooooo...."
Halfling - "Good, I'll get a ladder."
And now for something completely different...
Halfling to Barmaid - "Hey, you got a little Hobbit in you?"
Barmaid - "Noooooo...."
Halfling - "Good, I'll get a ladder."
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
GM Wednesday- What I Bring to the Table
A Word About Note Cards
I write all of my adventures on Note Cards now (4x6 usually or 3x5). The reason is because I am now a firm believer in "less is more". If I use a notebook I am tempted to fill the space with a lot of plans and schemes. I end up adding a lot of detail that makes me inflexible and might not even get used. a Note Card forces me to work minimalistic.
Now back to our irregularly scheduled blog update...
Adventure Prep
If you have ready my Adventure Mondays posts, you'll see the types of seeds I use. This is where I start, very rough and vague and each new iteration brings more focus. The danger here is bringing too much focus until you have an entire story written. If your heroes deviate from the plan then your whole adventure is trashed. You don't want to go this far.
Let's start with one of my example seeds, "The heroes are caught in a siege."
I decide that this time the heroes are just minding their own business when local political upheaval sweeps them up and traps them in a siege.
Now I need to know who is attacking, who is besieged, why is this happening, and what is the imprisoned area.
Attackers - Local SWAT
Besieged - Refugees and displaced persons
Why - The news claims that a terrorist group has holed up among the homeless here. Since the players distrust anything the news media says and are always expecting something more nefarious going on, I decided that the twist in this story is that it is all true. However I won't tell the players that unless they choose to do some investigating. I have now added a new element of what is going on and will need to rough in what the terrorist group wants and how they intend to get it. Keep in mind that the heroes may just want to get out of the danger area and ignore this plot line.
Where - Try to pick interesting locations. I am tempted to use the trope of a rundown part of town or abandoned industrial area. To spice things up a bit, it's a burned out part of town that has been turned into a garbage dump. Partially collapsed walls emerged from a floor of loose garbage to offer random cover, but the ground is unstable making movement difficult and possibly dangerous. The terrorists have developed "snow shoes" to move rapidly. It's weird, but it's also plausible and memorable.
Total Work - A 4x6 card's worth of plot information or two sides of a 3x5.
Challenges
The next thing I need to prep are challenges. I say prep but mainly I just need to have some rough ideas. I'll have the NPCs so there won't be much paperwork here. The idea is to just be ready and flexible.
Getting out - Well the place is surrounded by SWAT snipers and teams with orders to shoot on sight. They aren't overly concerned with innocent victims in this area. So how will the players get out? I don't know. That's for them to figure out. If they come up with a plan, go with it and let common sense guide the SWAT teams response. Just be ready throw a SWAT team or two at them if the plan goes bad (and give the heroes the means to retreat back into the siege zone to regroup and come up with another plan).
Finding the Terrorist Group - Clues
The nice thing about this adventure is that I won't need to jot down the clues. The players will actively go searching. Really the only clues that matter are getting Rumor Confirmation (the news was telling the truth?), and location.
You could have an encounter where a news reporter has sneaked into the siege zone and a couple of terrorists have grabbed her. The heroes could get the confirmation from the her or any of the terrorist captives. They may even get the location from the captives. They could also get the location from asking around until they find a coherent homeless person in-the-know. I won't write this encounter down because I can easily improv it as long as my npc cards are ready.
Total Work - Just some prepared ideas. I won't write them down. This part could all be fluid and may or may not be used so I keep it to a minimum. If I must make notes, it might require another 4x6 or double sided 3x5.
Maps
I use a variety of methods so I think I will cover this in another post.
NPCs
For this adventure I'll need stats for SWAT (Focus on teamwork abilities in their design), Terrorists, a Terrorist Leader, a generic news reporter, and a generic homeless person.
A Word About Aspects
Some of you may have heard of a game called FATE. I won't go into the details of the game itself but it does use something called Aspects. These Aspects are short phrases that describe the character and what they can do, or certain elements of the scene.
While I don't borrow the mechanic that FATE has built around these Aspects, I do use them as little notations that provide more flavor to scenes or people.
For instance, I might jot down "Buggrit! Millennium Hand and Shrimp!" on the generic homeless person's card to indicate he is way off his rocker. I could right "Mad, unlikely to get information out of him" but the previous Aspect tells me all that and gets me into the character quicker than a sterile description.
So here is a list of Aspects that I would note on the cards.
Homeless - "Buggrit! Millennium Hand and Shrimp!" "Mmm...Sterno" "We don't go over there onna count o' the ghosts"
SWAT - "Keep the paperwork to a minimum" "Cover is my friend" "At least we don't have to worry about hostages this time"
News Reporter - "My big break!" Ugh, its filthy" "Anything for an exclusive!"
Terrorist Leader - "What isn't mine, I burn" "All that matters is what you can take" "I'll write my message in blood"
Total Prep- So I have two or three cards for the adventure, a few NPC cards, and that's about it (aside from any maps I need which I will cover later).
Total Time- I came up with this whole adventure in about an hour. I found that my biggest stumbling block was the original inspiration, but now I have a bunch of seeds to get me through that (that I am sharing with you on Adventure Mondays!)
The most important thing I can bring to the table is an open mind ready to invent new problems for the heroes. That is the scary part of improving, but I suggest you try it. You may surprise yourself with just how good you are and how much better you become. I'll try and give some rough suggestions about how I improv in another post.
So it looks like I have generated a couple more topics to talk about later - namely Maps and When Things Go All Wednesday On You (Improv and the Art of Unpredictable Players). I'll also chime in on how to write a mystery adventure at some point.
Game On!
I write all of my adventures on Note Cards now (4x6 usually or 3x5). The reason is because I am now a firm believer in "less is more". If I use a notebook I am tempted to fill the space with a lot of plans and schemes. I end up adding a lot of detail that makes me inflexible and might not even get used. a Note Card forces me to work minimalistic.
Now back to our irregularly scheduled blog update...
Adventure Prep
If you have ready my Adventure Mondays posts, you'll see the types of seeds I use. This is where I start, very rough and vague and each new iteration brings more focus. The danger here is bringing too much focus until you have an entire story written. If your heroes deviate from the plan then your whole adventure is trashed. You don't want to go this far.
Let's start with one of my example seeds, "The heroes are caught in a siege."
I decide that this time the heroes are just minding their own business when local political upheaval sweeps them up and traps them in a siege.
Now I need to know who is attacking, who is besieged, why is this happening, and what is the imprisoned area.
Attackers - Local SWAT
Besieged - Refugees and displaced persons
Why - The news claims that a terrorist group has holed up among the homeless here. Since the players distrust anything the news media says and are always expecting something more nefarious going on, I decided that the twist in this story is that it is all true. However I won't tell the players that unless they choose to do some investigating. I have now added a new element of what is going on and will need to rough in what the terrorist group wants and how they intend to get it. Keep in mind that the heroes may just want to get out of the danger area and ignore this plot line.
Where - Try to pick interesting locations. I am tempted to use the trope of a rundown part of town or abandoned industrial area. To spice things up a bit, it's a burned out part of town that has been turned into a garbage dump. Partially collapsed walls emerged from a floor of loose garbage to offer random cover, but the ground is unstable making movement difficult and possibly dangerous. The terrorists have developed "snow shoes" to move rapidly. It's weird, but it's also plausible and memorable.
Total Work - A 4x6 card's worth of plot information or two sides of a 3x5.
Challenges
The next thing I need to prep are challenges. I say prep but mainly I just need to have some rough ideas. I'll have the NPCs so there won't be much paperwork here. The idea is to just be ready and flexible.
Getting out - Well the place is surrounded by SWAT snipers and teams with orders to shoot on sight. They aren't overly concerned with innocent victims in this area. So how will the players get out? I don't know. That's for them to figure out. If they come up with a plan, go with it and let common sense guide the SWAT teams response. Just be ready throw a SWAT team or two at them if the plan goes bad (and give the heroes the means to retreat back into the siege zone to regroup and come up with another plan).
Finding the Terrorist Group - Clues
The nice thing about this adventure is that I won't need to jot down the clues. The players will actively go searching. Really the only clues that matter are getting Rumor Confirmation (the news was telling the truth?), and location.
You could have an encounter where a news reporter has sneaked into the siege zone and a couple of terrorists have grabbed her. The heroes could get the confirmation from the her or any of the terrorist captives. They may even get the location from the captives. They could also get the location from asking around until they find a coherent homeless person in-the-know. I won't write this encounter down because I can easily improv it as long as my npc cards are ready.
Total Work - Just some prepared ideas. I won't write them down. This part could all be fluid and may or may not be used so I keep it to a minimum. If I must make notes, it might require another 4x6 or double sided 3x5.
Maps
I use a variety of methods so I think I will cover this in another post.
NPCs
For this adventure I'll need stats for SWAT (Focus on teamwork abilities in their design), Terrorists, a Terrorist Leader, a generic news reporter, and a generic homeless person.
A Word About Aspects
Some of you may have heard of a game called FATE. I won't go into the details of the game itself but it does use something called Aspects. These Aspects are short phrases that describe the character and what they can do, or certain elements of the scene.
While I don't borrow the mechanic that FATE has built around these Aspects, I do use them as little notations that provide more flavor to scenes or people.
For instance, I might jot down "Buggrit! Millennium Hand and Shrimp!" on the generic homeless person's card to indicate he is way off his rocker. I could right "Mad, unlikely to get information out of him" but the previous Aspect tells me all that and gets me into the character quicker than a sterile description.
So here is a list of Aspects that I would note on the cards.
Homeless - "Buggrit! Millennium Hand and Shrimp!" "Mmm...Sterno" "We don't go over there onna count o' the ghosts"
SWAT - "Keep the paperwork to a minimum" "Cover is my friend" "At least we don't have to worry about hostages this time"
News Reporter - "My big break!" Ugh, its filthy" "Anything for an exclusive!"
Terrorist Leader - "What isn't mine, I burn" "All that matters is what you can take" "I'll write my message in blood"
Total Prep- So I have two or three cards for the adventure, a few NPC cards, and that's about it (aside from any maps I need which I will cover later).
Total Time- I came up with this whole adventure in about an hour. I found that my biggest stumbling block was the original inspiration, but now I have a bunch of seeds to get me through that (that I am sharing with you on Adventure Mondays!)
The most important thing I can bring to the table is an open mind ready to invent new problems for the heroes. That is the scary part of improving, but I suggest you try it. You may surprise yourself with just how good you are and how much better you become. I'll try and give some rough suggestions about how I improv in another post.
So it looks like I have generated a couple more topics to talk about later - namely Maps and When Things Go All Wednesday On You (Improv and the Art of Unpredictable Players). I'll also chime in on how to write a mystery adventure at some point.
Game On!
Monday, June 23, 2014
Adventure Monday! - Part 3
As promised, more adventure seeds for you.
- A Rampaging Monster is creating a nuisance for the locals.
- A Monstrous Plague is coming and threatens to kill everyone.
- A Monstrous Plague is coming and threatens people’s livelihoods.
- The players are set up as scapegoats for the secret misdeeds of their current employer.
- Something causes the wild animals in the area to attack humans out of desperation.
- The players are betrayed by a former employer for bounty money, and are hunted by mercenaries.
- The heroes fame as made them a target by wannabes that want to prove themselves.
- A prophesy of doom is uttered from someone who has never been wrong. Can the heroes stop this prophesy from coming true?
- Someone is forcing a hero to prove his innocence in a crime. If the heroes fail, many people and the heroes themselves will suffer.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Free Stuff Fridays! - Grocery Store Standees
First Up- Some free Stuff! Grocery Store decor and standees. Basically this set is just shopping carts, registers, and grocery shelf standees but they should come in handy when your heroes get holed up in the Store Mart during a zombie apocalypse.
Second Up- Last Sunday I had the privilege of shaking Mike Pondsmith's hand at Uncle's Games in Redmond. I'd just like to say I played the heck out of Mekton II and Mekton Zeta and look forward to the upcoming Mekton Zero. I even wrote a modern review of Mekton Zeta over at RPG.net.
Third Up- I like the sound of Free Stuff Fridays and I need to pace myself. So looks like I'll try uploading new standees and tokens every Friday.
Now back to our regularly scheduled program...
Second Up- Last Sunday I had the privilege of shaking Mike Pondsmith's hand at Uncle's Games in Redmond. I'd just like to say I played the heck out of Mekton II and Mekton Zeta and look forward to the upcoming Mekton Zero. I even wrote a modern review of Mekton Zeta over at RPG.net.
Third Up- I like the sound of Free Stuff Fridays and I need to pace myself. So looks like I'll try uploading new standees and tokens every Friday.
Now back to our regularly scheduled program...
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
GM Wednesday - Inspiration
If you look up creating campaigns or creating adventures on the internet you will find a lot of advice on what to do with your idea to make it a playable game. What they won't tell you is how to get that idea in the first place. You need inspiration and for me that was the biggest stumbling block. Here's a few suggestions for you that might jog your creativity.
1) Talk with your players.
Why shoulder all of the work yourself. Get your friends together with a notebook or two and chat about cool game ideas. What if we run a sci-fi game? What kind of sci-fi? Let's say Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. Okay, but then why not just play Star Wars (besides why I ranted about it a while back)? Hmm, how about there are no aliens, just a bunch of modified humans. Some are animal hybrids and others are just crazy skin dye jobs and augments and such. Okay, what would be our roles? What will we be doing? How about were all secret agents for the Empire, but the Empire isn't blatantly evil like in Star Wars. It's just too strict for most people so there are fringe terrorists groups and other anarchists out to grab a slice of power.
Get the conversation going and you'll come up with cool ideas that you know your players will want to play. I confess that I haven't had much successes with this one but that's just the nature of my group.
2) Look up weird things.
New technology or weird news stories can become an excellent source for adventure seeds.
I came across a story on the net about a group who decided to build an arcology in the deserts of Arizona. I was running a game set in the turn of the 20th century and my heroes were heading out West. What would cause someone to build an arcology back in 1897? I went with a religious doomsday cult. They were convinced by a charismatic leader that the world was going to end in 1900 so he gathered up his wealthy flock and found an abandoned Silver Mine near Tombstone.
Okay that sounds pretty harmless. How are these events going to get the heroes interested in the arcology? Things must have gone horribly wrong in the arcology. Now the wealthy parishioners are kidnapping folk from Tombstone and using them as food. The heroes are entering a town where the people are under attack by a mysterious outside force. This ought to get the heroes' attention.
3) Steal.
Seriously. You can re-skin just about anything enough that your players won't know where the idea came from, if you do it right. I ran a Star Wars game where the heroes were young jedi tasked with destroying a planetary gun before the clone fleet arrived with reinforcements. Sound familiar? Have you ever seen The Guns of Navaronne?
Honestly they are so few actual stories in the world. What separates on story from another with exactly the same premise is the uniqueness of the characters, the uniqueness of the situation, and how the hero chooses to handle it.
Take Alien and Snakes on a Plane. The basic conflict is that the hero is in a confined space with a threat lurking in the shadows that will kill him/her and anyone else trapped with him/her. The differences are one is on a space ship, one is a plane. Sigourney Weaver's character is very different than Samuel L. Jackson's character, and the reasons for why it was all happening. Same roots but different movies.
4) Start with the Villain.
Create (or steal) a villain. For me it helps to think of who is playing the villain (Kevin Spacey or Christopher Walken, etc.) Figure out what he ultimately wants, how does he intend to get it, and how far is he willing to go (for a true villain there is no line he won't cross).
Creating a compelling villain puts you in the role of a character. Once you've hatched his evil plan, you now have the source for an adventure. I will advise this, don't get too attached to your villain because your heroes will be trying to defeat him. You can stave off his quick and untimely death by making sure he uses surrogates, lieutenants who are actively doing his bidding and leaving the real threat out of reach for a while. If it is a good villain concept, this lack of contact with the enemy will make him more aggravating and memorable to your players. Just remember that you can only pull the old switcheroo for so long before your players get apathetic toward him. A villain with constant plot protection is a real game killer.
Next I will talk more about what I actually prep.
Game On!
UPDATE: Jerrod 'Savage Daddy' Gunning and the guys over at the Savage Worlds GM Hangout beat me to the subject and uploaded a podcast on Tuesday covering this same topic, Inspiration.
1) Talk with your players.
Why shoulder all of the work yourself. Get your friends together with a notebook or two and chat about cool game ideas. What if we run a sci-fi game? What kind of sci-fi? Let's say Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. Okay, but then why not just play Star Wars (besides why I ranted about it a while back)? Hmm, how about there are no aliens, just a bunch of modified humans. Some are animal hybrids and others are just crazy skin dye jobs and augments and such. Okay, what would be our roles? What will we be doing? How about were all secret agents for the Empire, but the Empire isn't blatantly evil like in Star Wars. It's just too strict for most people so there are fringe terrorists groups and other anarchists out to grab a slice of power.
Get the conversation going and you'll come up with cool ideas that you know your players will want to play. I confess that I haven't had much successes with this one but that's just the nature of my group.
2) Look up weird things.
New technology or weird news stories can become an excellent source for adventure seeds.
I came across a story on the net about a group who decided to build an arcology in the deserts of Arizona. I was running a game set in the turn of the 20th century and my heroes were heading out West. What would cause someone to build an arcology back in 1897? I went with a religious doomsday cult. They were convinced by a charismatic leader that the world was going to end in 1900 so he gathered up his wealthy flock and found an abandoned Silver Mine near Tombstone.
Okay that sounds pretty harmless. How are these events going to get the heroes interested in the arcology? Things must have gone horribly wrong in the arcology. Now the wealthy parishioners are kidnapping folk from Tombstone and using them as food. The heroes are entering a town where the people are under attack by a mysterious outside force. This ought to get the heroes' attention.
3) Steal.
Seriously. You can re-skin just about anything enough that your players won't know where the idea came from, if you do it right. I ran a Star Wars game where the heroes were young jedi tasked with destroying a planetary gun before the clone fleet arrived with reinforcements. Sound familiar? Have you ever seen The Guns of Navaronne?
Honestly they are so few actual stories in the world. What separates on story from another with exactly the same premise is the uniqueness of the characters, the uniqueness of the situation, and how the hero chooses to handle it.
Take Alien and Snakes on a Plane. The basic conflict is that the hero is in a confined space with a threat lurking in the shadows that will kill him/her and anyone else trapped with him/her. The differences are one is on a space ship, one is a plane. Sigourney Weaver's character is very different than Samuel L. Jackson's character, and the reasons for why it was all happening. Same roots but different movies.
4) Start with the Villain.
Create (or steal) a villain. For me it helps to think of who is playing the villain (Kevin Spacey or Christopher Walken, etc.) Figure out what he ultimately wants, how does he intend to get it, and how far is he willing to go (for a true villain there is no line he won't cross).
Creating a compelling villain puts you in the role of a character. Once you've hatched his evil plan, you now have the source for an adventure. I will advise this, don't get too attached to your villain because your heroes will be trying to defeat him. You can stave off his quick and untimely death by making sure he uses surrogates, lieutenants who are actively doing his bidding and leaving the real threat out of reach for a while. If it is a good villain concept, this lack of contact with the enemy will make him more aggravating and memorable to your players. Just remember that you can only pull the old switcheroo for so long before your players get apathetic toward him. A villain with constant plot protection is a real game killer.
Next I will talk more about what I actually prep.
Game On!
UPDATE: Jerrod 'Savage Daddy' Gunning and the guys over at the Savage Worlds GM Hangout beat me to the subject and uploaded a podcast on Tuesday covering this same topic, Inspiration.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Getting Back My GM Mojo
Previously I talked about some of the circumstances that killed my creativity. Here I'd like to talk about a few things that helped bring it back.
1) Following John Cleese's advice about how to activate an open mind
I used to spend a lot of time thinking and prepping with the TV on for background noise. The problem is that the noise was still a distraction that my mind would latch on to because it was easier than trying to think. Also there was the pressure I was putting myself under, which extended into the time when I wasn't even running a game. So not only did I have to find a quiet place but I had to accept that I was just going to think about rubbish. No idea was finished, no idea was needed. I had to free my mind to explore strange and new things and be okay with the fact that a lot of it was going to be crap.
2) Rediscovering my self confidence
Somewhere along the way I forgot that I can improv, and had run games off the cuff for a long time. I think when the writer's block first began, I looked to prepping more as a means of fighting back. This started the pressure as I felt like I had to create finalized adventures every week, forgetting that the reason I like GMing is reacting to how the players dragged me in unexpected directions.
One of a few days that I simply couldn't prep anything, I just started running something off of the top of my head. I started with the heroes overhearing a shot from an alley way and discovering a dead body. The dead man held the recently fired gun and showed no signs of violence or self-inflicted wounds. What was going on? I had no idea. I just surfed the wave of speculations coming from my players. The man may have been the victim of something supernatural, or he was poisoned and upon realizing it he had fired at the poisoner. It was up to my players to drive the direction of the story BUT... I didn't tell them that. I was so desperate for ideas that I felt I needed to cheat the system. In fact what I did was run one of the best games ever, and the entire time my players believed I had created the entire adventure before hand.
One player enjoys breaking my carefully planned scenarios so I felt compelled to do extra prep for things she might attempt. This time she asked me if she ever broke my game. I told her the game broke as soon as I sat down.
But I had rediscovered why GMing is fun, and my players loved just how flexible the adventure was. They never got the feeling that there were railroad tracks because there weren't any tracks at all.
Now I know that improv GMing may sound scary. I can't bottle it or quantify it for you. I can't teach you how to improv, at least not right now because I never thought much about what or how I do it. However I will say that the good folks at Gnome Stew have taken a stab at it with their new book Unframed. I haven't read it yet but I have read their other works and found them useful. Once I have the disposable income I fully intend to order a copy.
3) Becoming a Lazy GM
I won't link to the post because it is an older post on RPG.net. Just do a search for The Lazy Man's Guide to Gamemastering and read the first post. It was a big wake up call for me.
What I needed to do was less prep, not more prep. I needed to trust myself and my abilities and stop trying to control everything. because no adventure plan survives first contact with the players. I used to know that.
This is one of the reasons I love Savage Worlds. I don't necessarily need to make an npc beforehand because it can easily be done on the fly. I can't do that in games like D20 and Pathfinder as there's just too much math in character creation.
Next time I will talk about my methods of prep (at least at the moment).
Game On!
1) Following John Cleese's advice about how to activate an open mind
I used to spend a lot of time thinking and prepping with the TV on for background noise. The problem is that the noise was still a distraction that my mind would latch on to because it was easier than trying to think. Also there was the pressure I was putting myself under, which extended into the time when I wasn't even running a game. So not only did I have to find a quiet place but I had to accept that I was just going to think about rubbish. No idea was finished, no idea was needed. I had to free my mind to explore strange and new things and be okay with the fact that a lot of it was going to be crap.
2) Rediscovering my self confidence
Somewhere along the way I forgot that I can improv, and had run games off the cuff for a long time. I think when the writer's block first began, I looked to prepping more as a means of fighting back. This started the pressure as I felt like I had to create finalized adventures every week, forgetting that the reason I like GMing is reacting to how the players dragged me in unexpected directions.
One of a few days that I simply couldn't prep anything, I just started running something off of the top of my head. I started with the heroes overhearing a shot from an alley way and discovering a dead body. The dead man held the recently fired gun and showed no signs of violence or self-inflicted wounds. What was going on? I had no idea. I just surfed the wave of speculations coming from my players. The man may have been the victim of something supernatural, or he was poisoned and upon realizing it he had fired at the poisoner. It was up to my players to drive the direction of the story BUT... I didn't tell them that. I was so desperate for ideas that I felt I needed to cheat the system. In fact what I did was run one of the best games ever, and the entire time my players believed I had created the entire adventure before hand.
One player enjoys breaking my carefully planned scenarios so I felt compelled to do extra prep for things she might attempt. This time she asked me if she ever broke my game. I told her the game broke as soon as I sat down.
But I had rediscovered why GMing is fun, and my players loved just how flexible the adventure was. They never got the feeling that there were railroad tracks because there weren't any tracks at all.
Now I know that improv GMing may sound scary. I can't bottle it or quantify it for you. I can't teach you how to improv, at least not right now because I never thought much about what or how I do it. However I will say that the good folks at Gnome Stew have taken a stab at it with their new book Unframed. I haven't read it yet but I have read their other works and found them useful. Once I have the disposable income I fully intend to order a copy.
3) Becoming a Lazy GM
I won't link to the post because it is an older post on RPG.net. Just do a search for The Lazy Man's Guide to Gamemastering and read the first post. It was a big wake up call for me.
What I needed to do was less prep, not more prep. I needed to trust myself and my abilities and stop trying to control everything. because no adventure plan survives first contact with the players. I used to know that.
This is one of the reasons I love Savage Worlds. I don't necessarily need to make an npc beforehand because it can easily be done on the fly. I can't do that in games like D20 and Pathfinder as there's just too much math in character creation.
Next time I will talk about my methods of prep (at least at the moment).
Game On!
Adventure Monday! - Part 2
It's that time again. Time for ten more adventure seeds.
- A Hidden Monster is loose and ambushing people in a confined area.
- A tinkerer is selling dangerous items (cursed or poisoned) to unsuspecting buyers.
- One of the heroes learns he has a claim to property, title, or money. However there are groups that dispute it and want the prize for themselves.
- A Carnivorous Monster has picked up the hero’s scent and is hunting them.
- The heroes have been framed for a crime and must clear their names.
- A lost Person or Group must be found somewhere in Monstrous territory.
- A wronged noble or friend is facing a duel he cannot win as a part of a Villainous plot.
- A large cash prize has been offered to whoever wins a cage fighting tournament.
- Vengeful ghosts have descended on the area, and begin possessing children to begin new lives.
- A wronged person turns to the supernatural to get revenge against their oppressors.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Losing My GM Mojo
No free stuff today, just internet therapy.
Some time ago when I first discovered Savage Worlds, my head was full of ideas and adventures. I wrote some of my best plot-lines that year, found a group, and was off and running. A year later I floundered. The game I had imagined had changed, one of the players was creating problems both in and out of game, and although my players said they loved my game, they wanted me to change systems to D20.
I lost my mojo for six years. Suddenly I couldn't plan an adventure. I forgot everything I knew about GMing and the biggest thing I lost was my self-confidence.
I spent years hanging out on RPG.net and browsing the web for adventure and campaign advice. While I learned a great deal about things I didn't know and things I didn't realize I knew, the deluge of information that I absorbed just added to the brain fog. You see I wanted to find the magic bullet, the step by step instructions to GMing success that I could look at and find where I got lost.
No such road map exists. It was time I looked around on my own and find out where I was and how I got there. Warning, Here There Be Dragons.
Dragon #1) Inflexibility
I had a game that I wanted to run, and a table of players who weren't thrilled with the system. They lacked the desire & flexibility to play something new and I lacked the desire & flexibility to run what they wanted to play. I was the wrong GM for this group.
It was so demoralizing to know that these players weren't enjoying the game as much as I was. They said they were having fun ..BUT... There was always that but, and it took its toll on my creativity.
So my advice is always discuss things you would like to run with your group before you start an emotional investment in a campaign. Make sure that your players are as jazzed as you are. If they aren't that interested in the system or setting and you are still determined to give it a go, try running a one-shot: a single adventure with no commitments so they can experience both the system and the setting you have in mind. Maybe they will like it, maybe not.
What if it doesn't work out but you are not ready to give up on the system?
See if there are any local gaming groups that do play the system. If your schedule allows time, it might be worth running your game at the FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) for an entirely new group of people. I'm not saying you need to dump your friends. I am saying that there is no rule that states you can't also pursue other interests on your own time.
Dragon #2) Biting off more than I could chew
I was running a weekly game and the adventures I worked on were mysteries. First of all, writing a mystery is no easy task. Writing one a week is a nightmare. Balancing the clues so that your players can add them up and get the right answer...priceless...and a total pain in the ass. Mystery writers have the advantage of knowing that their heroes will find the clues and decipher them correctly because the writer is in total control of everyone and everything. In GMing circles if you try to do that you are railroading your players and that is BAD.
I managed to pull it off for the first four games. Damn they were good. The problem was I couldn't keep it up. I couldn't out-do what I did last week and the more I strained to pre-plan my adventure, the more I drove myself into writer's block. It became a self-powered Maelstrum. I couldn't come up with an adventure so I stressed and the more I stressed, the less likely I could be creative. The pressure was too much and I have no one to blame for it but myself. I forgot that I was playing a game. The pressure was a dragon of my own creation.
My advice- This is a tricky one and I am still working through it. There was a lot that I did wrong. First was trying too hard to make my players like the system. Second, in my desire to make "perfect adventures" I was both taking on more work and removing more freedoms from my players. I was doing the exact opposite of making a good game.
BTW this video of John Cleese on being creative is worth watching.
Dragon #3) I put player joy over my own
I am not saying that I should put my own joy over everyone else's, but there are two problems with putting your player's entertainment before your own. First, you can't ever be sure what is going to be fun and entertaining for someone else and if you are wrong then nobody is having fun. Second, the process becomes work when it should by fun.
Strangely enough, I find the best thing to do in the circumstances is don't worry about what your player will think is fun. Just ask yourself "Would I think this is cool?" Odds are good that if you think it is, so will your players. Don't be afraid to go a little wild and indulgent. Just remember that the players want to be the coolest characters in your setting, and you can help them earn it. A perfect example is the Penny Arcade live play of D&D from PAX 2013 where the heroes piloted a giant statue against a Kaiju. When was the last time you did something that cool in a D&D game?
Next time I will list a few things about how I prep, GM, and links to advice that has helped me get my mojo back.
BTW, I have received a request form someone to make some supermarket standees for his Zombie Game. Of course I will post them for free downloads as they get finished.
Some time ago when I first discovered Savage Worlds, my head was full of ideas and adventures. I wrote some of my best plot-lines that year, found a group, and was off and running. A year later I floundered. The game I had imagined had changed, one of the players was creating problems both in and out of game, and although my players said they loved my game, they wanted me to change systems to D20.
I lost my mojo for six years. Suddenly I couldn't plan an adventure. I forgot everything I knew about GMing and the biggest thing I lost was my self-confidence.
I spent years hanging out on RPG.net and browsing the web for adventure and campaign advice. While I learned a great deal about things I didn't know and things I didn't realize I knew, the deluge of information that I absorbed just added to the brain fog. You see I wanted to find the magic bullet, the step by step instructions to GMing success that I could look at and find where I got lost.
No such road map exists. It was time I looked around on my own and find out where I was and how I got there. Warning, Here There Be Dragons.
Dragon #1) Inflexibility
I had a game that I wanted to run, and a table of players who weren't thrilled with the system. They lacked the desire & flexibility to play something new and I lacked the desire & flexibility to run what they wanted to play. I was the wrong GM for this group.
It was so demoralizing to know that these players weren't enjoying the game as much as I was. They said they were having fun ..BUT... There was always that but, and it took its toll on my creativity.
So my advice is always discuss things you would like to run with your group before you start an emotional investment in a campaign. Make sure that your players are as jazzed as you are. If they aren't that interested in the system or setting and you are still determined to give it a go, try running a one-shot: a single adventure with no commitments so they can experience both the system and the setting you have in mind. Maybe they will like it, maybe not.
What if it doesn't work out but you are not ready to give up on the system?
See if there are any local gaming groups that do play the system. If your schedule allows time, it might be worth running your game at the FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) for an entirely new group of people. I'm not saying you need to dump your friends. I am saying that there is no rule that states you can't also pursue other interests on your own time.
Dragon #2) Biting off more than I could chew
I was running a weekly game and the adventures I worked on were mysteries. First of all, writing a mystery is no easy task. Writing one a week is a nightmare. Balancing the clues so that your players can add them up and get the right answer...priceless...and a total pain in the ass. Mystery writers have the advantage of knowing that their heroes will find the clues and decipher them correctly because the writer is in total control of everyone and everything. In GMing circles if you try to do that you are railroading your players and that is BAD.
I managed to pull it off for the first four games. Damn they were good. The problem was I couldn't keep it up. I couldn't out-do what I did last week and the more I strained to pre-plan my adventure, the more I drove myself into writer's block. It became a self-powered Maelstrum. I couldn't come up with an adventure so I stressed and the more I stressed, the less likely I could be creative. The pressure was too much and I have no one to blame for it but myself. I forgot that I was playing a game. The pressure was a dragon of my own creation.
My advice- This is a tricky one and I am still working through it. There was a lot that I did wrong. First was trying too hard to make my players like the system. Second, in my desire to make "perfect adventures" I was both taking on more work and removing more freedoms from my players. I was doing the exact opposite of making a good game.
BTW this video of John Cleese on being creative is worth watching.
Dragon #3) I put player joy over my own
I am not saying that I should put my own joy over everyone else's, but there are two problems with putting your player's entertainment before your own. First, you can't ever be sure what is going to be fun and entertaining for someone else and if you are wrong then nobody is having fun. Second, the process becomes work when it should by fun.
Strangely enough, I find the best thing to do in the circumstances is don't worry about what your player will think is fun. Just ask yourself "Would I think this is cool?" Odds are good that if you think it is, so will your players. Don't be afraid to go a little wild and indulgent. Just remember that the players want to be the coolest characters in your setting, and you can help them earn it. A perfect example is the Penny Arcade live play of D&D from PAX 2013 where the heroes piloted a giant statue against a Kaiju. When was the last time you did something that cool in a D&D game?
Next time I will list a few things about how I prep, GM, and links to advice that has helped me get my mojo back.
BTW, I have received a request form someone to make some supermarket standees for his Zombie Game. Of course I will post them for free downloads as they get finished.
Friday, June 13, 2014
More Standees! - Sci-Fi Doors
So here you go, Sci-Fi Door Standees, free for download.
As always you can check the new Free Stuff page for anything you might have missed in previous posts.
I think I'm going to focus my artistic efforts on sci-fi since the next big launch for Savage Worlds will be The Last Parsec. I can hardly wait. All this overtime money I have been earning needs to go somewhere.
Warning! Rant begins!
One reason I am eagerly awaiting it is because of Star Wars. I love the idea of the Star Wars universe but I can no longer game there because of the fans (and the EU).
No matter how many times I tell my friends that I am not going to use the EU (Expanded Universe), they will always whip out some nugget of information that...
a) Their character couldn't possibly know
b) Is not actually happening in my setting
c) Confuses the players who were trying to get a feel for my take on things and don't know the EU by heart.
So having an encyclopedic knowledge of a game setting is not going to add to the game play unless you are the gm as well and your players are interested in learning what you have to teach over the course of the adventure.
If you are not the gm and this knowledge is so dear to your heart that you find yourself correcting the game master every time he opens his mouth, I suggest you leave the table. You aren't going to have fun, the people around you are going to get tired of your interruptions real quick, and the more you press the issue - the worse you will look.
My players came to play a game that involves kicking space Nazi butt. They don't need someone like you to point out that the Nazis went to Argentina, and not the Moon.
So why do I hate the EU?
There were some decent books but look at the state of the Star Wars universe...
The movies... Empire and Sith defeated. Peace restored to the Galaxy. A new Republic is born.
The books...It's Tuesday so that means more Sith have showed up and overthrown the Republic of tissue paper. Vader's sacrifice was pointless. Luke's struggle was just a transitory victory. The new Sith get beaten, but then Tuesday comes around again.
And other than a Sith lord with lightsabers on is elbows and knees, jedi Ewoks, even a jedi Hutt, there is the jedi power creep. Every book has to outdo the threat of the previous novel or movie. "Death Star, pah! See my Sun Crusher!" And the authors have a choice, to have their characters use the tools already available to them in a new and intelligent way or...Invent New Jedi Powerz! Powerz Moar Powerful so they can stop the Moar Powerzful Sith! Guess which path the authors chose. The Force Unleashed was just a matter of time.
So I patiently wait for the Last Parsec, a mostly unknown universe, with expectation and glee. I'll strap on my goggles, prime my drives, and explore it hand-in-hand with my players. And the legends of my game will be the ones we make.
May the Force be with you. Not the Force you want, but the Force you deserve.
Game On!
As always you can check the new Free Stuff page for anything you might have missed in previous posts.
I think I'm going to focus my artistic efforts on sci-fi since the next big launch for Savage Worlds will be The Last Parsec. I can hardly wait. All this overtime money I have been earning needs to go somewhere.
Warning! Rant begins!
One reason I am eagerly awaiting it is because of Star Wars. I love the idea of the Star Wars universe but I can no longer game there because of the fans (and the EU).
No matter how many times I tell my friends that I am not going to use the EU (Expanded Universe), they will always whip out some nugget of information that...
a) Their character couldn't possibly know
b) Is not actually happening in my setting
c) Confuses the players who were trying to get a feel for my take on things and don't know the EU by heart.
So having an encyclopedic knowledge of a game setting is not going to add to the game play unless you are the gm as well and your players are interested in learning what you have to teach over the course of the adventure.
If you are not the gm and this knowledge is so dear to your heart that you find yourself correcting the game master every time he opens his mouth, I suggest you leave the table. You aren't going to have fun, the people around you are going to get tired of your interruptions real quick, and the more you press the issue - the worse you will look.
My players came to play a game that involves kicking space Nazi butt. They don't need someone like you to point out that the Nazis went to Argentina, and not the Moon.
So why do I hate the EU?
There were some decent books but look at the state of the Star Wars universe...
The movies... Empire and Sith defeated. Peace restored to the Galaxy. A new Republic is born.
The books...It's Tuesday so that means more Sith have showed up and overthrown the Republic of tissue paper. Vader's sacrifice was pointless. Luke's struggle was just a transitory victory. The new Sith get beaten, but then Tuesday comes around again.
And other than a Sith lord with lightsabers on is elbows and knees, jedi Ewoks, even a jedi Hutt, there is the jedi power creep. Every book has to outdo the threat of the previous novel or movie. "Death Star, pah! See my Sun Crusher!" And the authors have a choice, to have their characters use the tools already available to them in a new and intelligent way or...Invent New Jedi Powerz! Powerz Moar Powerful so they can stop the Moar Powerzful Sith! Guess which path the authors chose. The Force Unleashed was just a matter of time.
So I patiently wait for the Last Parsec, a mostly unknown universe, with expectation and glee. I'll strap on my goggles, prime my drives, and explore it hand-in-hand with my players. And the legends of my game will be the ones we make.
May the Force be with you. Not the Force you want, but the Force you deserve.
Game On!
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Oh, I Ain't Done - Fantasy Standees
Yup, as I finish up a lot of half-completed projects you can reap the benefits. I originally did these as flats since I have a whole lot of Pathfinder stands thanks to owning the first three Bestiary boxes. This first set for fantasy games is trifold and includes double doors, single doors, secret doors, bookcases, and weapon stands.
Fantasy Standees Part 1
If you have any requests for a specific standee, just holla in the comments section.
My next set will be sci-fi doors and computer panels. I'm hoping to have quite a library of sci-fi tokens and standees built by the time The Last Parsec launches <drool>.
Fantasy Standees Part 1
If you have any requests for a specific standee, just holla in the comments section.
My next set will be sci-fi doors and computer panels. I'm hoping to have quite a library of sci-fi tokens and standees built by the time The Last Parsec launches <drool>.
Monday, June 9, 2014
Adventure Monday! Part 1
Today I am going to do something different. I am going to put out ten generic adventure pitches.
I used to try random adventure generators but I found that many times they didn't help unblock my brain. At times they were just too random. So instead I perused and distilled plot lines, breaking them down into their essences and removing anything that was setting specific, and while doing that my creative brain got jogged to writing more pitches.
So here goes...
I used to try random adventure generators but I found that many times they didn't help unblock my brain. At times they were just too random. So instead I perused and distilled plot lines, breaking them down into their essences and removing anything that was setting specific, and while doing that my creative brain got jogged to writing more pitches.
So here goes...
- The heroes are caught in a siege.
- Law Enforcement suspects the heroes of criminal activity and attempt to apprehend and interrogate them. The heroes may be innocent but do they have something else to hide?
- The heroes are caught up in a slave/poverty-stricken revolt.
- A new drug is causing random outbreaks of violence.
- The heroes get caught up in an epidemic that affects everyone, the poor, or makes the local animals dangerous.
- The recently acquired item of a player bears a terrible curse, the only remedy for it lies in a distant temple.
- A cult has sprung up that engages in ritual murder, and has claimed a party member’s childhood friend as a victim.
- One of the players is mistaken for a wanted murderer by a group of vigilantes.
- Hostages have been taken and one of them is important to the heroes.
- Teenagers on a joyride steal from the players and start a fight. If the players fight back, they find themselves in trouble with the law thanks to the connections of the teens’ wealthy parents.
"He spent the night making love under the stars...on a volcano."
Your life is more interesting than you realize, if you think about it.
Game on, my friends. Game on.
Your life is more interesting than you realize, if you think about it.
Game on, my friends. Game on.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Another Rant
You might be asking why I have been so productive lately. It's because I miss playing rpgs.
Currently I am on day 18 of working without a day off. Sure the overtime is good and I really need it, but I haven't played in over two months. I haven't even played or run Savage Worlds in over two years! Mostly I have just been piddling around with Pathfinder.
Don't get me wrong, I love Pathfinder Society. But when I hear people talking in the group, they aren't talking about who they saved or what they fought or why. They talk about their character builds. They brag about their character builds.
I think that the reason people like complex games like Pathfinder, etc, is because they enjoy navigating the rules. They want to see just how powerful they can make a legal character.
More than once I've had these people tell me what to do during a combat when my turn comes around. I start with a gentle reminder that it's my character and I get to play the game too. If the don't get the hint, I start holding my actions. This tends to drive the worst offenders bat-shit crazy, especially when it causes a TPK. I don't mind character death, but I do mind when people make decisions for my character.
Sure they may be right and their plan is of incredible tactical value. I don't care. This is supposed to be a group play thing and Pathfinder Society doesn't exist solely for the advanced players. In fact it's a marketing campaign to get new people to play. I for one want to see our hobby grow, but if newbies are sitting at a table being told what to do then the game isn't going to draw much interest.
I wish there were more Savage Worlds gamers in my area. In fact I wish there were a Savage Worlds Society in my area.
*sigh* PC/GM LFG!
<Rant End/>.
Screw it, lets end on a joke.
An Archaeologist and a Priest are walking through the desert in Israel when they come upon a cave.
The Priest looks around the cave and exclaims "At last we have found the tomb of Jesus!"
The Archaeologist looks around and says "But there isn't anything in here."
The Priest shouts "That proves it!"
Currently I am on day 18 of working without a day off. Sure the overtime is good and I really need it, but I haven't played in over two months. I haven't even played or run Savage Worlds in over two years! Mostly I have just been piddling around with Pathfinder.
Don't get me wrong, I love Pathfinder Society. But when I hear people talking in the group, they aren't talking about who they saved or what they fought or why. They talk about their character builds. They brag about their character builds.
I think that the reason people like complex games like Pathfinder, etc, is because they enjoy navigating the rules. They want to see just how powerful they can make a legal character.
More than once I've had these people tell me what to do during a combat when my turn comes around. I start with a gentle reminder that it's my character and I get to play the game too. If the don't get the hint, I start holding my actions. This tends to drive the worst offenders bat-shit crazy, especially when it causes a TPK. I don't mind character death, but I do mind when people make decisions for my character.
Sure they may be right and their plan is of incredible tactical value. I don't care. This is supposed to be a group play thing and Pathfinder Society doesn't exist solely for the advanced players. In fact it's a marketing campaign to get new people to play. I for one want to see our hobby grow, but if newbies are sitting at a table being told what to do then the game isn't going to draw much interest.
I wish there were more Savage Worlds gamers in my area. In fact I wish there were a Savage Worlds Society in my area.
*sigh* PC/GM LFG!
<Rant End/>.
Screw it, lets end on a joke.
An Archaeologist and a Priest are walking through the desert in Israel when they come upon a cave.
The Priest looks around the cave and exclaims "At last we have found the tomb of Jesus!"
The Archaeologist looks around and says "But there isn't anything in here."
The Priest shouts "That proves it!"
Friday, June 6, 2014
Just something I dug up.
I posted this on RPG.Net waaaaaay back when. Still... Doc Savage, Savage Worlds, I think it's time to add it into my blog for posterity.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Tiled bathroom? How about Tiled Sewers?
During my misguided brain frenzy I had a lot of unfinished projects. I figured I would polish up one that I originally dumped in favor of the Paizo Battlemats.
Here are some free Sewer Tiles. Each tile is 4"x 4" (two per page) so you can build out a simple fantasy sewer tunnel.
I figured it would just be easier to draw them out on the Paizo Battlemat but it is such a simplistic design that a simple line drawing isn't very evocative.
So there is some free stuff. By the way I wish someone would comment. I'm working in a vacuum here. I'd like to know if anyone is having trouble with downloading now that it's on Google Drive.
Here are some free Sewer Tiles. Each tile is 4"x 4" (two per page) so you can build out a simple fantasy sewer tunnel.
I figured it would just be easier to draw them out on the Paizo Battlemat but it is such a simplistic design that a simple line drawing isn't very evocative.
So there is some free stuff. By the way I wish someone would comment. I'm working in a vacuum here. I'd like to know if anyone is having trouble with downloading now that it's on Google Drive.
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