I Hate Dealing With Money

I'm slowly getting back the use of my arm, but dreading those emergency room bills I'm about to get hit with during the holidays.

But enough about real life.

I hate dealing with money. In my opinion, the pursuit of treasure is what makes the Murder Hobo meme. I admit I've killed kobolds for their shoes at 1st level. I've stripped enemy bodies clean all to maximize my profits. After all, treasure made you more powerful. The more gold you had, the more healing potions and armor you can acquire.

That was all well and good in a game like AD&D where death and theft was all of the plot you needed, but collecting enemy footwear would look a little awkward in a game like Shadowrun. And what happens when you have all the equipment you need? What do you do with all of that extra money you acquire? For my characters that had no interest in cyberware or fortress management, the result was wealth without purpose. I didn't need to adventure. The only reason I kept that character going was because I wanted to play, but any economic challenges my gm through my way (like everyone has to pay 20 credits if they want into the club where the adventure is happening) was a non-issue. I was so rich that it didn't contribute to the story. In time we just stopped worrying about tracking money.

For those of you who don't know, the Optional Wealth rules for Nemezis has been made into a free pdf download from DrivethruRPG. It handles wealth in a very abstract way and for games where the heroes are can come from very disparate incomes. It creates a Wealth trait rated as a die type and you roll for whether you can purchase an item. My only issue with the system came up in play when a player failed his roll to buy a gun earlier in the game but succeeded with a raise in his attempt to buy a car later. But it didn't occur to me until much later that I could have explained this away with "the gun required cash, but you were able to get a loan for the car." It can get a little twisted when purchasing multiple items of the same cost. Still, if you have players who are willing to go along with the idea that this is a game, it's a cool resource.

If I were to work it into my Cargo Run rules from "Adventure...or Deliver Cargo", I would award a +1 to wealth Purchase rolls when the crew gets their payday. And a -2 if the screw up the delivery (as well as owing a favor to the client).

On Damage, My Damage

Today's post is full of pain.

I was driving home last night on my bike when, yet again, another idiot facing my direction turns left in front of me causing me to crash. Unlike last time, I was doing 50 mph (the speed limit on that road is 55). The person involved fled the scene.

So I dislocated my shoulder, fractured my Humerus, and spent the night in an ER.

So no game posts this week. However I am spending some downtime reading Sly Flourish's The Lazy DM and hope to post my thoughts on it soon.

Peace Ouch!

The Ill Effects of a Gaming Haiatus

I find this interesting. I have been working on my sci-fi setting for nearly a year now it seems, and I haven't played Savage Worlds in about two years.

So I lost my last gaming group to a variety of life problems, as well as the fact that no one wanted to play Savage Worlds. All of the gaming I have been doing has been Pathfinder Society. Nevertheless my life feels unfulfilled with that system and I want to get back to creative action. I promised myself the next game I was going to run would be Savage Worlds Sci Fi and I started working on this setting.

Now it's a year later, the setting isn't done (not because it is exceptionally detailed, I just can't get my mind to settle on the setting background). I'm beginning to think that part of my problem in making this setting is that I have no players. That I haven't had players in a long time.

I need to get off my butt and start running again.Part of my brain thinks that once I get players for the system, details will just fall in to place. I will be able to build on what the players want and not just what's rattling around in my head.

I'm thinking that technically I have enough of my sci-fi setting to start running it and that the rest can just be made up on the way. I take courage that works like Daring Tales of the Space Lanes really offered no setting but still were a lot of fun.

So today's lesson I learned is "Get out there and play!"

Deus Ex Machina

Sorry for being gone so long. I've been taking care of my Autistic niece and that's taken all of my patience and free time. I admire any parent that is willing to take on that task with losing their cool.

So...let's talk Deus Ex Machina. Most old hats already know what this means but RPG gaming is getting some new blood who could use an explanation of what it is and why it's a problem. And it is still a problem, make no mistake. I've been through at least two published Pathfinder Scenarios that dipped into DEM.

Deus Ex Machina means "God in the Machine". It was a staple of Greek Drama where the heroes would struggle against insurmountable odds, only to have the Gods intervene at the end and set the world right again, reward the devout, and punish the evil. The message tended to be "Man is nothing, and always subject to the will of the Gods". The problem is that we don't think that way anymore. Our heroes can succeed, can change their destiny. We strive, we fight, and sometimes we win. 

In RPGs, it is the same. We are the heroes when we play. It's our challenge to overcome, our story.

Now let's say you have fought your way to the Big Bad through a hell of blood and dead orphans. Your party is pumped and ready to unleash a rage of righteous whoopass on the bad guy. Then all of the sudden a more powerful NPC comes in, says the Big Bad is far too powerful for you, and defeats the Big Bad on his own.

Do you feel cheated? I do. Who the heck is this NPC anyway? He didn't share the battles leading to this point. He didn't earn the right to be there. And if he was so powerful, why didn't he just deal with the entire problem himself? But he came in, and he took away your story, your player agency, and your glory.

Typically this occurs with bad GMs that insist on adding their own PC to the party. The GMPC then becomes a hero who can do no wrong, and far more powerful beyond the rest of the party. It's the biggest mistake a GM can make (seriously even not learning the game rules takes a back seat to this one.)

Now on to Pathfinder. There shouldn't  be a GMPC problem because these are printed and published adventures and Pathfinder Society is very strict about running the games as written. So why is DEM showing up here? Well I think it's because the writer wants a big finish to the adventure, like a fight with forty Hobgoblins (this happened). However, these big finishes are often too big for a party of six to handle. Rather than scale it down, the writer adds in a very powerful NPC to balance the odds.

So let's count the issues...

1) The heroes are being shown up by an NPC. It's no longer players' story.

2) There may be a big ending, but the heroes will only participate in a small part of it. So the big finish is just set dressing.

It makes me wonder why any adventure writer would think the big finish is worth it?

Economies Part 2 - The Rebuttal

Hey folks. There were a lot of good responses to my last post that were useful. I do want to address the idea of a Wealth stat - or die and the problems I have had with it. Also I wanted to go more into detail about how purchases add or don't add to the game play experience.

The Wealth Trait

This suggestion came up and to tell the truth I was using this several years ago in one of my first Savage Games. The problem I and my players found was in the swingy-ness of the rolls. For example-

• The player in question wants to buy a new pistol. He rolls his wealth die and fails. So he moves on to another vendor and decides to buy a car. He aces the roll and buys a car. This actually happened and left the player questioning how he could have enough money for a car but not a pistol.

So the randomness doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Even if you figure in some haggling, the odds that someone could haggle a new car down to below the cost of a common firearm breaks belief.

Which brings me to the gameplay experience

Now was there anything wrong with just letting the character buy the gun? It wasn't going to break my game so it really isn't an issue of balance. In Savage Worlds there isn't a power creep of items like you have in D&D.  Sure a Bazooka is more powerful than a pistol but it has several built-in drawbacks: weight, slow reload time, lack of concealability, and the fact that any law enforcement will shoot at you on sight.

The mechanic of purchasing equipment is binary, meaning you either can buy it or can't. There's no challenge in purchasing, no extraordinary successes. You either get it or you don't. I'm not sure that it qualifies as a fun game mechanic. Even in D&D, the characters eventually gain enough money to make purchase-limitations inconsequential. 

Ultimately equipment acquisition comes down to game balance. Do you want the characters to have access to that or not. If you deem the object to be too powerful, you will find a reason that the heroes can't have it even if they can afford it, and whether you are counting coins or not. 

Love to hear more feedback.

Economies - A New Way To Play?

If you are a fan of Savage Worlds and you haven't been tuning in to the Savage GM's Hangout, you should. 

So here I was wallowing in a lack of inspiration to get back into writing my blog or diving back into Starpunk, then I listened to their podcast on Money and my brain has reopened.

The podcast touched on an interesting point about in-game economies, and that is the fact that you don't necessarily need one. 

Here is the problem I tend to have with game economies like D&D. The players go out, defeat monsters, gain enough treasure to technically retire, and come home. When the next adventure starts, the hero has lost no money for living costs, just the money he has spent on his equipment. His treasure hoard builds and builds.

Some people like this style of gameplay. They need these rewards to feel like they have gained something at the end of each adventure. In fact the accumulation of wealth starts to be the focus instead of the adventure. Case in point - "I loot the bodies".

But can a game be played without monies and prices? Yes, and in fact some games have been doing it for a while: Military and Espionage games. In these games, a characters gear is usually picked or assigned to them by the agency they work for. But what about regular games where the heroes aren't a part of a wealthy organization? Games like Starpunk? Well...I'm thinking of just applying common sense to the problem.

Starting Gear

The hero starts with whatever gear makes sense for the character. If he's a bounty hunter then he will have a weapon, handcuffs, and possibly some armor. I might make it a simple armor if he's just starting out. If a player wants their character to start out with something a little more advanced, then they should make a compelling argument. It will likely give me something in their backstory that I can use against them later.

Buying Gear

If a hero wants to get a new piece of gear for some reason and it's believable that an average person could afford it, then they buy it. If they have the Poor hindrance then you might be more stingy about what they get. If someone has the Rich edge, that's going to open up a lot more options to the group. Getting special or illegal items may still require a Streetwise roll.



Voila, no bookkeeping.

One big reason I like this idea is that the price of equipment always seemed like an artificial barrier to me. Being poorly equipped should be a function of whether or not the character is prepared as opposed to what the character can afford.

Encumbrance

This is one that I will be keeping an eye on. If characters could conceivable acquire a great many tools and weapons, the player may mistakenly think that he/she has access to it all at any time. Nope. Like any adventurer he/she is going to have to pick and choose which gear they are likely to need and hope for the best.

So it's a simple idea and I don't see much that can go wrong. If a player wants a piece of equipment that you feel may unbalance the game, then money doesn't really come in to it (especially since in most games the players have hoarded enough money to buy the item). So balance issues will come up whether you are counting pennies or not. In the end you will still have to GM your way through game balance.

Leave a comment if you find a fault in the idea.

Rolling When You Need To Roll

Still rocking the mass overtime, making updates difficult.

So let's talk about when to roll the dice. More importantly, when not to roll the dice.

JiB over at the Savage GM Hangout describes rolling as "Whenever the player and the GM disagree about the outcome of a certain action." That's a good paradigm, but I think novice GMs (and some experienced ones) need a little guiding on when to agree with the outcome.

For example: I had a GM who had us roll for just about everything. If I wanted to land the ship, I had to make a piloting roll. If I wanted to drive a hoverbike, I needed a piloting roll. But these were mundane tasks. People weren't shooting at me. There wasn't a meteor storm or earthquake going on. And heaven help me if I didn't have a piloting skill, which was a real possibility given the limited skills you could get in Star Wars Saga. Every time we attempted anything it was a nail-biting experience and that didn't feel very Star Warsy.

Honestly it didn't make any sense to me. In Star Wars everybody can drive or fly a ship or use a computer. These are ubiquitous technologies. So why then are so many characters unable to do any of these things? The answer is that the GM was doing it wrong. Per the book, anybody can perform a mundane task in Star Wars. Everybody can fly a hoverbike, but only some can make it do a barrel roll. Everyone can pilot a ship, but not everyone can fly it through an asteroid field. Anyone can use a computer, but not everyone can reprogram it. 

Mundane or easy tasks shouldn't require a roll. Unfortunately some games still have a difficulty level for Easy. The concept that a hero can fail at any task is a bit annoying. If I had to roll in order to walk across the room in D&D, then I'd always have a 5% chance of falling on my face. What happens if I roll a crit? Do we really need to test every piece of minutiae? 

Another time to let the player's have their way is when it is crucial to the story.

For instance:

• The heroes need to find a clue to advance the plot or identify the criminal.
• The heroes have to get passed a trap or cave in or something that blocks there path. You can make them roll to avoid damage but they shouldn't have to roll to get through.

Keep these in mind and it may help to speed up your game, or at least curb flagging player interest.

NPC Concept- Nargaster the Great

Right now with the time crunch of work going on, I take whatever inspiration I can get. Today's post was inspired by discussion on Gaming BS podcast as they were talking about overused tropes such as Elminster, who sounds as if he has become a Mary-Sue. As I was listening on my long motorcycle ride home, my mind came up with a more twisted, and perhaps more truthful version of Elminster. Behold, Nargaster the Great!

Legend: Nargaster is a swarthy master magician that could wipe out a horde of dragons with one magical sneeze. In every village he has left many a buxom lass heartbroken yet "satisfied". He is considered one of the greatest living legends of the world and where he goes, justice follows.

The Truth: Nargaster is a wimp that knows a few minor magic tricks. His legend is a result of his childhood sweetheart, Grezelda the Bard, who's heart he inadvertently broke. Rather than compose "rage ballads" of his inadequacies, she has built him up to a legend that he can never live up to. The tales have even taken on a life of their own and many great deeds that are accomplished by other heroes are becoming attributed to Nargaster.

Whenever he tried to cash in on his fame with towns, he found himself asked to do magics he is incapable of against threats that would squish him like a bug. And as for the ladies, when faced with the reality of Nargaster they tend to unleash mocking tirades. Nargaster has now been branded as a cheap, weaselly impostor of himself.

Nargaster is not a bad guy. He genuinely does want to help people and will often try to recruit adventurers to help those in need. Unfortunately whenever the heroes are successful, Nargaster's fame grows and the forgotten heroes take it out on Nargaster.

Nargaster would work as a reoccurring npc, always trying to drum up help for some village in need. 

He may also have his own character arc: The only way for him to break out of Grezelda's curse is to actually become the Nargaster she has built him up to be. Having the heroes help him to become that person could be a great moment in the game. Heck, maybe they can even get him and Grezelda back together!

Yeah this type of character is fit for a Fantasy campaign and I have been hounding on sci-fi a lot lately, but as I said I have to take my inspiration where I can.

Here's a Few Links I'd Like to Share

First up is from Geek and Sundry and Wil Wheaton. It's his new live-play videos of the Ashes of Valkana. It uses the same game system that the Dragon Age rpg uses. The system is intriguing...

Introduction to Valkana

The Journey Begins

Evil Awakens

I really like the production of it: the die roll display and the occasional art pieces flashing. I also respect the fact that he isn't using a game board and is sticking with "theater of the mind".

And a rather lengthy review of D&D 5E from Kurt Weigel. He reviewed D&D 4E (Part 1, Part 2) once upon a time and it was scathing and full of flame. Watch them both to see how things have changed in the industry's big bad baby daddy.

If you aren't familiar with Kurt's reviews then you should check him out. He has reviewed a lot of Savage Worlds games and he is a fan of the system. His review of Marchland convinced me to head over to Drivethru RPG to pick up a copy. Kurt has also been a guest on Jerrod "The Savage Daddy" Gunning's Savage Worlds GM Hangout.

Regarding Figure Flats, Tri-Folds, And Pogs

I'm feeling over-worked, but very crafty.

So people seemed to really enjoy the Slipstream Tri-Folds. I'm considering doing some more "paper heroes" in the future. However I'm unsure of the format that works best for people.

For me, the best format is 2-sided flats that I can mount into game stands. They collapse for easy storage and I can carry a huge amount of figures in a Plano deep storage box.

I built the Slipstream characters as tri-folds because that's how Pinnacle made their set and I wanted to maintain compatibility. However tri-folds seem frail and hard to manage imho. Sure they stand on their own but once they are glued together they take up more storage room and are still quite delicate. Also a slight exhale over the game surface may scatter them, more so than flats on stands.

Then there are the pogs, or tokens. I also make these since facing isn't really an issue in Savage Worlds (or most games these days now that I think about it). You still get a lot of storage, but you sacrifice full body art. They are very stable and if you glue the pictures to inexpensive wooden discs from your local craft shop then they won't slide around when people breathe. Just when they bump the table while reaching for more pizza.

So which do you guys and gals prefer for paper heroes: Tri-Fold, Figure Flat, or Pog? Leave a comment if you want to be immortal...

And speaking of Pogs...

Triple Ace Games announced these new and totally cool gems for their Helfrost setting.

These are awesome and beautiful. I wish the folks at TAG good luck on their sales. 

A few people like me are wishing for some generic versions but I don't know if that's possible. The artwork is very integrated with the pog, so they would need to shotgun a whole bunch of art onto them and pray that people would want to buy the sets. The safer bet is to stick with IPs.

Still it is giving me ideas for some homemade Pogs. They wouldn't be as sturdy or cool as the official ones but for crafty gamers on a budget...

One idea was to use a rotation wheel in a sleeve, like those old decoder wheels or the life trackers for Magic the Gathering. Problem is that would put an axle pin right in the center of the art.

Another idea is to print out pogs and coat them with something that would allow me to use wet or dry erase markers. I'll have to think about that for a but as I'm worried that the constant erasing and marking might slow down gameplay.

Dogged Indecision

It's one of the things severely cramping my mojo right now, and why I am spending so much time (too much) on starship design. The problem is a lack of clear vision of how I want starship combat to work and feel. It's a trifecta of clashing issues: reality, individuality, and cool-ality. 

The reality of space combat is incredibly boring. And even though I'm not shooting for reality, some aspects of common sense keep dogging me. For instance why is every ship armed in Star Wars? A stock light freighter coming off the line is equipped with a laser cannon. In reality things would be more like Firefly where civilian vehicles don't run armed, they just run.

Individuality? Well, what sets my setting apart from thousands of others? Do I make space combat more unique or do I just keep doing the same thing everyone else is doing?

And Cool-ality. What will my future players enjoy? What do people like? Do they even want a (semi) unique yet common-sense approach to space combat because it is different or do they want Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off?

Self-editing is the problem here. I keep going over and over the same rules, the same design concepts, all because I can't work out which of these three voices to satisfy. This is where having a second voice, a writing partner, makes all the difference. Unfortunately I'm all alone here on space station Yelp. Unless you count the voices in my head.

If anyone has any advice to get me out of this rut, I'm all ears.

Slipstream Trifolds Part 2!

Did I say no post this week? You know I couldn't stay away.

It's finally done, the second sheet of Slipstream Trifolds!

I finished out the races, but there wasn't much left to do. The page wasn't filled so I included two Mudmen and two Raptormen per sheet. I also added two big monsters: the Rastagar and the Kriplixx. Stat them up as you see fit.

I admit that doing all that drawing was wearing on me. I had to re-do the Rurite Female because the first drawing was terrible, boring, ugghhh. By the time I got to the big monsters, I was just slapping quick pencil and ink strokes down. They also came out pretty good. It seems I do better with gesture art than I do while taking my time. Maybe I should stretch that out and see if I can come up with an art style from it.

But I ramble.

Next week I'm going back to looking at how I handle starship design. I've reviewed the Vehicle Conversion guide that was put up on Pinnacle's website. I was also looking at the vehicles in the SWDEX and how they were converted. It seems that some designs are wrong (at least as far as wiki is concerned). I also looked at other sources of real world vehicles converted to Savage Worlds rules, such as those found in Thrilling Tales by Adamant Entertainment. It turns out that they didn't follow the SWDEX design either (of course the printing predated the SWDEX).

So while I have been racking my brain to make something consistent with vehicles in the SWDEX, I find that it's not really possible, nor is it necessary. Internal consistency is key. I can create whatever conversion rules I want as long as all of the vehicles in my setting follow the same design rules.

That was a liberating thought.

Adventure... or Deliver Cargo?

I've asked several groups of players "What type of character would you play in a sci-fi setting?" Invariably they say they want to be smugglers or traders. But the answer is misleading. What they really want is to be free of obligation or allegiance. They want to go wherever the wind takes them.

They don't want to spend each game making transport contracts, balancing the books, and studying which ports need what commodities.... all the things that preoccupy the minds of real cargo haulers.

Sure, cargo deliveries can be a source of plot hooks. You have...

• Deliver dangerous cargo
• Deliver cargo that other people don't want delivered
• Deliver cargo that other people want to steal
• Steal the cargo, then deliver it

And of course there is the ever popular plot twist "The client betrayed you!", which every player sees coming.

But lets face it, cargo delivery can be a bit monotonous. The real adventures that the heroes will be involved with are going to be illegal, personal, or outside the bounds of simple cargo runs. The Sci-Fi Companion has rules for trade, logistics, wages, and etc if you really find number crunching interesting. I would prefer another way, and Interludes may offer me a solution.

Think of the show Firefly. Non-consequential cargo runs conducted between planets (the jobs that get the heroes to the start of the adventure) are run off screen between episodes. We see them just finishing up a job when things start getting interesting.

So in that vein, at the beginning of each game we might assume that the heroes have made a cargo run that has taken them to the new planet. 

First, roll for the payday...

3d6 x $100 That's the profit the heroes earn after ship logistics are paid for (fuel, food, maintenance). This ought to keep the bookkeeping down.

One person can take the roll of negotiator (no cooperative rolls) for haggling the deal. For every Raise they score on the Streetwise roll, they increase the amount by $200. A Success leaves the payday unchanged. A Failure reduces the payday by $200.

Then Draw an Interlude card for the ship...

The card draw determines how things went for the crew.

Clubs

Something bad went wrong with the job. Rather than earning a payday they now owe the amount. They can either pay up, get hunted, or do a favor to whoever holds the lien (plot hook).

Diamonds

The job went smooth and everyone got paid. Each crew member gets a cut.

Hearts

The job broke even (no extra cash beyond the logistics fees), but the heroes gained some information or favors. Each crew member gains an extra benny for the adventure.

Spades

The job went even better than expected. Not only does the crew earn its payday but they also gain vital information or inspiration for the next adventure (+1 benny/ each).

So what do you think? Poll on the right hand side of the page.

Toughness vs Hit Points

I have seen some debates on this. Typically someone is asking which is more realistic.

The answer: Neither.

If you want realism in your game, then you'd have a hit location chart with severe consequences depending on where you got hit. The number of push ups you do that morning or your healthy diet won't make a lick of difference to a bullet that impacts your cranium.

The argument stems from the misconception that these systems are trying to model realism, when they are really trying to model fiction (literary, comic book, pulp). Why? Because they bend the laws of the universe to give the hero a chance. And because it is a game.

In a real firefight there is a very good chance that the hero will be killed or permanently disabled with a single bullet. That wouldn't be much of a story. What would Star Wars be if Luke had suffered major brain damage from the Tusken Raider's attack? I bet Obi Wan would have wished he had started training him earlier then. Besides, Reality is just the cage we build for ourselves.

The current RPG damage systems give you a second chance. Wham! A shotgun blasts you in the chest, but your still alive and can change tactics (or roll better). Why? Because it is a game. Because checkmate in one move is boring for both the players and the audience. Because the Quiddich ball game is pointless if catching the Snitch is all you have to do to win... oh.... umm...

So which is better? Depends on how they are handled, and personal taste.

I dislike D&D style hit points because your character gets healthier with higher levels. In fact, going form 1st to second level doubles your hit points. And don't try to give me some BS about it reflecting your fighting ability because we already have armor class and Dexterity isn't adding in to hit points, Constitution is.

I prefer games where the hero's general health doesn't increase unless he's done something to earn it like changing his diet and exercise (attribute bumps). Even then, the increase should only be minimal.
It's one reason I like Savage Worlds Toughness but I have also seen it done with Hit Points in Cortex Classic (Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural RPGs).

I also dislike games that offer no penalties for injuries. In D&D I fight at full potential until I reach 0 Hit Points. Then I guess I suffer a heart attack or something. Gee, I looked so healthy and virile, having a good time... and then I just stopped.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, why bother modeling a game on reality if you have to use your imagination to play it? Go outside. I hear that Outside is chock full of Reality, in an expansive 3D multi-player world. Just be careful, I hear the player base is full of Trolls and the tech support is crap.


BTW sorry for the late post. E3 is coming up so I'm pulling 11 hour work days. It's cramping my free time.

Wow! And a Personal Note.

According to my site traffic, the Slipstream Trifolds are a huge hit. Maybe I should do more designs after I finish Slipstream. Whatdaya think? Any feedback would be helpful.

And on a personal note, my divorce was finalized today. I feel a great weight lifted from my shoulders. You never realize how soul crushing a bad marriage can be until you are free from it.

And May the Fourth Be With You.

The First Round of Slipstream Trifolds

Are Here.

Male and female versions of Akwasians, Antelopos, Aridians, Borealians, Charadonos, Crystaloosians, Drell, Equines, Frigim, Lill, and Magrozites.

How Miniaturization Covers My Crappy Inking

I tried my hand at inking with a brush pen when I started doing the Slipstream figure flats. Actually I was doing them as concepts of what the other aliens looked like and it occurred to me that they would be prefect for figure flats. Anyway I decided to do the quick and dirty, Saturday morning cartoon style. After all there is a lot of art to do.

My inking sucks. What's more, the Faber-Castell brush pen wore out its tip quick. Suddenly I couldn't do fine lines. I thought it was just my lack of brush control. Considering I was working on a mini sketchbook (5.5 x 8.5) I thought I was going to really need that finer point. Anyhoo, my inking got steadily worse as the pen wore out and all of my characters were made up of these thick lines.

Well yesterday I started to shrink them and put them into a tri-fold document. Given that the Slipstream flats are 1.25" tall, these things got majorly shrunk. They're so tiny, that I'm glad they have thick lines. finer detail would just get lost. here's an example of an Aridian in both full size and flat size. I hope this shows up right.

So my crappy inking was a blessing. The moral of the story is that thick lines are necessary if your going to shrink the image a lot. I'll keep going with the brushpen but I bought some Micron pens for practicing detail work on other art. My inking is coming along well and my proportions and posing are getting much better. I got five female alien versions done today. Hopefully I'll be able to put together the figure flats sheet before the end of the month.

Cheers.

PS> If you want to see more of my crappy inking, the other figure flats are posted in this thread.

Short Games

So I've been playing D&D 5E Encounters on Wednesday nights. For those who don't know, D&D Encounters are, well.. this is from their website...

D&D Encounters is our weekly Wednesday play program, geared for a casual play audience with short sessions each week. It serves as a great introduction to our main storyline events, and uses material right from published adventure product. Each session only takes 1-2 hours to play, so it’s easy to fit your game in after school or work. And each week there’s a new and exciting challenge. Jump in anytime!

It sounds like a cool idea, but I'm having some problems with it. I don't know if the source is the GM, or if this is how they really intend it to go.

One to two hours is not a very long time to game. It might work fine if heroes are given clear problems with quick resolutions every week, such as "You come across a an empty wagon the has been attacked by dire wolves." You fight the stragglers then learn that the wolves have taken the children back to their den for feeding later. You fight the Dire Wolves in their den and rescue the kids. It's quick, it's clear, and it has a resolution.

But that's not how we are playing. We are playing the game like any normal game, with a long quest involving many battles, rping, etc, but we are doing it in 2 hour snippets. The result is we lose the game's momentum every time we stop, long bouts of role playing often leave us with little progress, and sometimes crucial party members are absent for a game.

I've played for 3 sessions now and I still haven't a good idea of how the game flows.

Lastly, my experience at my FLGS with D&D 5E hasn't been the best (although this is a criticism of the group at this FLGS and not the game itself). When I went to join, I was told that all of the tables were full with regular groups. I was finally shoe-horned into a group whose players didn't show up on a regular basis. In short, I felt like I was being treated as an outsider during an event that was designed to advertise the game to people who weren't already playing it.

The North West Pathfinder Society gets mad props on this one. If you walk in and the tables are full, the organizers will draft a gm to start a new table. They will make room for you. Although there are regular players, there are no regular groups. In my experience, I think NWPFS has the advantage since their games are longer and scenarios get resolved that day. No "To be continued".

So what has all of this to do with Savage Worlds?

Well it's good to get out there and play new games. See what is working for the big boys and steal/adapt it for your own game. My take away from this experience is that if you want to run a long campaign, it might be advisable to break it into manageable chunks so that in each sitting a chunk of the plot can be resolved.

Example: 

The overarching plot is that the characters must hunt down a madman who is gathering the power to destroy and reshape the world. However, each night I run this game I will only have about 4 hours before I have to get back to real life responsibilities.

So one scenario might be "The players must retrieve a stone tablet from an illegal art collector that might hold clues as to what the madman is planning." A little roleplay, a raid, and the resolution is getting the tablet.

Next scenario is "to hunt down and find a lost historian who can decipher the tablet." A bit of travel, a fight against cannibal kobolds, and a resolution where they free the historian and get the translation.

This stuff may sound basic, but I've played too many games where the goal for the night is unclear, the party gets sidelined with role play shopping, and by the end of the night the story hasn't budged an inch. The players go home feeling like nothing was accomplished and the drive to resolve the main campaign conflict starts to wither and die.

So be careful with your short games. Don't try to play them like 8 hour games. If you try to stretch the plot told in short games with too much minutiae or off campaign distractions then your going to lose player interest. Short games need to be tight, focused, and move the plot along, even if it's just an inch.

Building a Setting

There is a difference between a cool story idea and a game. Being in the video game field I have had a lot of people pitch me their "game" ideas and what follows is a story. Here's an example:

"So there's this girl and she comes from a long line of ancient beings who are like angels but they look like demons, but they helped create the religion of this world."

Interesting story, if a bit cliched. However that was a story pitch, not a game pitch. It misses out on the biggest questions of game design: what will the player do and how will they do it?

If you are planning on using an established rpg system, the "how will they do it" question is mostly answered for you. Although you may need to add some new rules here and there to fill any gaps or capture the feeling you are going for that the system might be missing.


But first let's start with the basics:

What is the action?

What will the heroes be expecting to do in your game? Are they spies committing acts of espionage on rival governments or evil organizations? Are they exploring dungeons looking for loot? Are they taking the One Ring to Mordor?

This is the single most important question in your game. Answering this question informs you about what kind of campaign you are building: an open ended campaign where there is a new quest every week or a fixed goal that ends the story. Use the answer to this question to create the elevator pitch to your players. 

What is an Elevator Pitch? Imagine you walk into an elevator and inside is a big hollywood producer! You have only seconds to grab his attention before he shuts you down or you reach the next floor. So you have to communicate enough of your idea to peak his interest before the meeting is over. A good pitch is short, one or two sentences. It should communicate who the heroes will be, what type of action can be expected, what genre, and the promise of a conflict or mystery (or both).

Example of a Fixed Goal Elevator Pitch: The heroes are pirates on an alien, watery world with a dark secret. With magic, cutlass, and cannon they must uncover the secret to save the world from a growing evil.

Example of an Open Ended Elevator Pitch: The heroes travel around in a funky van, uncovering the truth behind haunted locations and ghostly occurrences. 

Before you add in any more work, you should pitch the idea to your players and see if it interests them. Their input might even alter the pitch into a new concept that they are more eager to play. 

Once you have a winning concept, take notes! Throw down every idea you come up with about the setting. Don't bother editing yourself at this stage. Just because you jot something down in a notebook, that doesn't make it canon to your setting. You can weed through the ideas later or as you play. What you think of as a bad idea may play into your world as it evolves around your players.

What do I need?

Once you have your pitch, next is figuring out what you will need to play. Obviously you'll need to pick a game system. If you can pick one that already has the rules you need for your chosen genre, great. If not, you will need to create a few items.

For the pirate pitch, I will need:

• gear appropriate to the setting
• rules for magic
• rules and stats for ships and ship to ship combat
• the source of the dark secret, how it is threatening the world, and what might the heroes accomplish to defeat it
• any additional rules that I might need to give the setting that pirate-y feel, like rules for being drunk or the advantages and dangers of carousing.

Ironically I have to do less work for the Open Ended pitch up front:

• rules for gear appropriate to the setting
• rules for magic if I intend to consider it real
• any additional rules to reinforce the setting. In this case since I am dealing with hauntings, a fear mechanic would be necessary.

For the pirate campaign, because it is telling a fixed conflict I need to create that conflict as well as important locations to that story. I have to create the world with a check list of things that the heroes can to do to resolve that conflict. 

Side note here: The story should be flexible enough that the heroes can fail to meet some of the requirements and still bring about the resolution to the conflict, or have the freedom to find a new way to end it. Remember, you don't want to railroad your players!

For the ghost hunting campaign, I'll need to tell a new story every week. I will have to design "What everyone in the area thinks is happening", "What is actually happening", and a possibly a unique twist to the monster to make it memorable and keep things from feeling stale.  

That's really it for the basics of creating your own campaign. Nail these two and everything else ought to fall into place.

Starpunk - This will be a tough post.

My mojo-block is at it again. I have the gear and the starships and the arcane background. The time has come for some adventures...and nothing. Creative block.

It's not total block as I have plenty of ideas for D&D-esque adventures, even adventure ideas for Star Wars. Something about Starpunk specifically is blocking me, so it's time for more self-examination/ blog therapy.

As near as I can tell, the problem is that I am working in a vacuum. Established settings already have a life to them. If I want to run an adventure against a crime syndicate in Star Wars, I know that I can grab the Hutts for it and that my players will have a good idea of the environment, the alien mentalities, everything that makes the adventure breathe. The bulk of the work has been done for me in these settings and I don't really have to explain anything.

But in building my own universe, I have to start from scratch. This is complicated by my avoidance of the Planet of Hats Trope. I didn't want to pigeon-hole my aliens into specific stereotypes, but as a result I destroyed any short-hand I could use for myself and my players to establish the feel of the setting. I am discovering that trying to build a setting as huge as infinite worlds with infinite aliens, a type of short-hand might be a necessity I shouldn't have over-looked.

So now I have infinite choices with nothing established for me, and I'm getting mojo-lock. What's worse is I am beginning to question whether or not I have lost my creativity. As an artist, the very idea scares the sh#t out of me. My dogged determination hasn't let me quit but the more I push, the more I'm stuck. I have spent hours of time coming up with nothing.

Fortunately everything I have done in the way of equipment and rules is good and generic enough for a space-fantasy style game. But it is clear that I am going to have to completely rework my setting idea if it's going to be of any use to me. I'm also going to have to get over my desire to stay away from tropes used in other common games if I am going to make this setting accessible to my players.

It's also possible that Sisyphus is clawing at my brain again. I though I would save myself work by creating racial templates, which is true, but what I also did was get rid of any setting flavor that individual races might introduce. One piece of advice I came across on the net was to "build 4-5 major races and let other aliens be background set dressing". In other words, flesh out a handful of core races, and I can add new races as I see fit as set dressings for adventures. If the design is popular, then I can always add said race to the core with a more fully fleshed out background.

Ugh. I thought that creating a homebrew setting would be easy. At least it's giving me stuff to write about.

D&D 5E Test Play

So yesterday I figured I would try playing D&D 5th Edition at my FLGS (Games and Gizmos in Redmond).

Since it and Pathfinder is pretty much 90% of what is being played in the area, and since Pathfinder is becoming a bit too bloated with power creep and supplement books, I figured that perhaps it was time to look at a new system.

I didn't actually buy in to 4E thankfully. I appreciate what they were trying to do, bring new players into the game, but it was too much a board game for my tastes. I have heard a lot of good things about 5E, easy of entry and faster combats, but what made me truly want to look into the game was the abbreviated stat blocks I saw in the Monster Manual.

However, the books are $50 each and that's a $150 buy in to the system. I want to experience it in play before I decide to buy. Especially since there are bound to be more Monster Manuals and Fiend Folios on the way.

So I joined into a D&D encounters group. We played for two hours that covered my character introduction, the long walk down a cave corridor, and finally an encounter with 4 flying zombies and a mysterious dark mage in the background. The combat lasts only a few minutes and didn't give me much of a feel for the rules play. Plus we were only 3rd level. I will say that there was no rules-lawyering or looking up things in the book. I'll keep playing with an open mind, but I'm also keeping an eye on supplement saturation. So far it looks like they are focusing on campaign splat books which is awesome.

Of course, one problem with waiting before buying into a game like this is that if I do decide to pull the trigger, odds are the buy in cost will have gone up with a lot more supplements being available. That's what kept me form Star Wars Saga and to an extent Pathfinder (although I do own the Core book).

It's seems to be a real Catch 22 in our hobby. To keep the publisher going, they need to produce more content to buy. But the expense of that content and the buy in for the game saps our funds and may keep players from exploring other systems. The publisher wins, but I'm not sure the gain from the arrangement. It explains why Savage Worlds and Fate are enjoying a boom, with their low priced core books. Unfortunately I don't see many of them on store shelves.

Starpunk- Dumping Psionics

Yup. I'm dumping Psionics.

Why?

Because everyone that wants a little "magic" in their sci-fi setting uses "psionics". I really want a setting with a more unique flavor. If I'm just retreading a "typical" sci-fan setting then why even bother getting out of bed? I need to put a different shine on those abilities.

Another problem was that I approached psionics as strictly mind-affecting powers. It's not original but still a nice twist since everyone tends to go the "kitchen-sink" route with powers. However, in a sci-fi setting where there is gobs of technology that is immune to mind alteration, the setting was weakening the "magic".

I'm trying to let loose my logical side and get into that 70's/ 80's groove. I was re-watching the good episodes of Buck Rogers (80's version), and in between ogling Wilma and Ardala I noticed that the people with "powers" in the show typically just had one power. Even in the original Star Wars, there were only a few powers on display. It wasn't until the EU and the prequels that Jedi really became unstoppable badasses. Okay, Luke did do a lot of butt-kicking against Jabba's boys. The point is that these "powered" characters did a lot with just a little.

I think that I want that charm again, where even having one power made someone special. Looking at the SWDEX, the Arcane Background (Super Powers) fits the bill. I'm going to re-skin it to AB (Anomaly). I wanted to use Abberant but White Wolf beat me to the name. It will also be Spirit based in my setting since I want willpower to be driving these powers. AB (Anomaly) will be available to all races, but they are rare. Also, cultures will view Anomalies differently so there's role-play shenanigans to be had. Then there is the mystery of what causes Anomalies. Could be a nice sized adventure arc.

The only powers that will be off limits for this setting will be:

• Banish 
• Detect/ Conceal Arcana
• Drain Power Points
• Quickness - Too powerful and allows one player to dominate combat.
• Smite
• Summon Ally
• Warrior's Gift
• Zombie

If your itching to enlighten me to the existence of the Super Powers Companion, I already own it. It's a great supplement but I want a lower power level. Also I want to stay with just one book requirement, namely the SWDEX.

Updated Starships Doc

After some feedback I decided to expand the weapons systems available to starships besides just one cannon type. There are a few other changes as well, including prices for ships and ship cannons.

I opted for a very Slipstream approach to starship weaponry where vehicles have turret "slots" and the heroes can add in the weapons they choose. I'll add more weapon options if I come up with them.

I really envy the Savage Worlds GMs Hangout for actually having a group of people to bounce ideas around with in real time.

New Starships Doc

General Musings - Harry Potter and Star Wars

My new girlfriend has three daughters, two in college and I am helping to raise the third. It's a new experience for me. Fortunately the youngest is a geek like me, but she has never seen Star Wars and has shown no interest in it. For me, someone who saw the movies when they were first released in the theaters back in the 70's, this is unfathomable. But how to convince her?

I took her to her school band concert last night and her band played a medley of Harry Potter music and that's when the idea hit me. After the concert I told  her that someday when she's my age she is going to meet kids that have no idea who Harry Potter was. 

That stopped her in her tracks.

"That will never happen," she said. "Harry potter is awesome!"

"So is Star Wars. When I was a kid everybody was watching it. But hey, time moves on."

She thought about this for a while and finally gave in. "Fine I'll watch it."

"Cool. Did you know they are going to make more Star Wars movies? I wonder if Harry will get anymore sequels?"

<Evil Grin>

And I have met people who had never seen Star Wars. My ex-wife had a twenty year old friend who had never seen it. She also claimed to be a geek. We sat down and watched it with her one day in a marathon. When Obi Wan got cut down by Vader, she screamed.

I clutched my chest and said "Really? I hadn't heard someone scream at that scene in thirty years!"

Getting old is weird.

Designing My Starships

Why? Seriously, with the Sci-Fi Companion out now, why would I put myself through this pain?

Answer: To save myself some headache and heartbreak later. There is a lot that I do not need and do not want from the sci-fi companion for my setting. 

• I don't need star-fighters, or a hundred different scales of ship
• I don't need armor and AP (especially since one typically cancels out the other in the SFC)
• I don't need mega-weapons that kill with a single hit, or a ton of weapon varieties. 
• I don't need complicated rules for building a ship from the ground up since my players won't be focusing on that in-game.

This left me with a lot of streamlining.

• I have only one style of cannon for starships and it deals 3d6 damage (with no AP). This let me balance the Toughness of all of the starships that were roughly the same size. I might add different starship weapons later but they would have very different gameplay effects. 
• I built a basic chart of starship statistics, then adjusted them by applying a template (passenger liner, courier, military, etc).
• Capital ships exist, but they don't have stats. They are like the Death Star, huge and bristling with weapons. A typical starship has no hope of taking on one of these behemoths so I use my own version of the Obstacle Rules for when heroes flee these things.
• By homogenizing the starship scale, I can allow heroes to modify their ships capabilities.
• I don't need rules for how many escape pods or crew quarters a ship has. It is assumed that the ship is designed adequately for its roll.
• Ships have a Toughness and Shields act as armor. I decided to keep things simple at first. I may add more shield maintenance rules if it seems that starship combat needs more things to do.

So here are my Staship Rules and designs. Sorry no art for this yet but It's still a work in progress.

General Musings - Why So Many Dice?

As I stated in one of my Travelling Light posts, no gamer actually needs a bucket of dice. Why then do we end up with them? 

Disclaimer: I'm not a psychologist or expert on the "gamer mind". I'm just some schmuck with a blog and an opinion. 

I think there are several reasons:

Frugality

We spent good money on the dice, they practically last forever, so why be wasteful and throw them away?

Cravings

I like to hangout at my local game store. It's a toy store for my sensibilities. Who goes into a toy store without buying something? However the store either doesn't carry my chosen game system or there isn't anything new published for it, and rarely are there any big item purchases that I want or don't already have. So that leaves me with small item purchases, which for our hobby is either miniatures or dice.

Primary Tools

Dice are the primary tool of our hobby. They are essential (unless you are playing Amber). Both GMs and Players use them constantly throughout the game. In fact imho, you aren't a real gamer until you pick and buy your first set of dice. There's a lot of gamer psyche involved with dice: are they lucky, do they look cool, what do they say about my personality? Are these dice going to get me through the next dungeon alive? Dice are to gamers what shoes are to some women. 

New Shiny

There are always new styles of dice right around the corner. New colors, new shapes, new materials. Tastes change, and so we pick up the cool new looks and use them until we get bored with them. Then we hear the siren's call of the New Shiny.

Of course I'm basing this off of my own experiences and I am currently hearing the call of New Shiny right now. I love rolling Jumbo dice, I just wish I could get them in the cool color schemes of normal-sized dice. Right now I've got my eye on a set of yellow and orange swirled dice, mainly because they make me think of popsicles. 

Starpunk and Cybernetics

I've been reviewing my ideas about using cybernetics in my sci-fi setting. It's odd considering I am also listening to the "Savage Daddy" who is building an actual Cyberpunk setting with the Savage Worlds Rules.

I've decided to drop "cybernetics" from my setting for a few reasons.

• This is future-tech, where cellular regeneration is common-place. They can regrow your arm if you lose it. We are actually closer to this technology now than we are to mind-controlled power suits.
• Cybernetics represent an ability to purchase a better character with credits. Like super powers, it's great when that is the status-quo. However, it goes against the feel that I am looking for. 
• I don't want to dive into the transhumanist angle.

So in my setting the merger of mind and machine never happens. You can get prosthetics that act like normal limbs and are controlled through muscle twitches, but they don't offer greater strength or super agility. They are just cheaper than having a limb-regrown.

I've created Prosthetic (Minor) hindrances that halve the penalties of the One Arm, One Eye, and One Leg hindrances.

Waxing Nostalgic Again - Dice

I still have the original dice that came with the original Blue Box D&D. Here they are, in all of their opaque-brown glory next to a standard sized d20 from Gamescience that glows in the dark. Yes, my first dice were soooo tiny. You kids today don't know how good you got it.

The dice we received in those early boxed sets didn't have professionally painted numbers. Instead we got crayon that came with the box set and instructions on how to color those numbers in. You rubbed the crayon wax into the grooves and then wiped away the excess. That would last you about to game sessions and then you'd have to do it all over again.

And you didn't always get a crayon in the box.

Some day I'll have to roll those old dice again. Maybe someday at a con. I'll bust them out and see if anyone recognizes them, or if the young-whippersnappers give me grief over my ratty old rolling bones. 

Building a Universe

I have been frying my brain over the details of my sci-fi setting. Sisyphus had made me his bitch. keep in mind that this setting is a huge universe of planets where the heroes could go anywhere. My mind was abuzz with the history of this galaxy, and what made it unique and what are its people...

Then I took a walk to clear my head.

That's when a credo I used to live by, but had been long-forgotten, bubbled up in my brain-pan.

Question: How much of the game world do I have to prep?
Answer: Only what the character's see.

I shouldn't be busting my butt designing things that are outside the heroes' experiences. Who runs the Stellar Authority? Who cares, the heroes will never meet them. And if they do, it will be revealed in the adventure so I should worry about it then. The players will experience the setting through the adventures I create so there is no point designing the worlds they will never visit. It is enough for them to know that they are out there.

That said, what do I need to build using the Savage Worlds core book to make this setting work?

An Elevator Pitch - The heroes are average-joe scumbags and privateers out to make a quick starbuck and stay out of jail while working for a secret society outside the government that is trying to end corruption and protect civilization from collapsing to darker forces.

Races - I've built templates but the rules for creating alien races is already in the core book.

New Edges and Hindrances - Only if I need something to help capture the feel of Eighties sci-fi. So far all that comes to mind is the ability to mod a starship.

Weapons - Use the same stats for modern weapons, but ignore AP. Assume Blasters can penetrate any armor. Just give the guns spiffy sounding names. For instance the shotgun is now a Disintegrator Gun.

Gear - The current fad is combining, (my phone is a computer, camera, radio, tv, news, and weather device). So roll up all of the ubiquitous tools into a single device.

Starships - Okay this will take some work. This is the heroes primary base of operations and transportation. The rules for this may play a big deal in the setting. Also their are a lot of things in the sci-fi companion that I either don't need or doesn't fit the feel I am looking for. This is where I will be spending most of my work time.

I'll post what roughs I have when they are presentable. Right now my notes are scattered all over the place.