Quick Thought - Faster Initiative

Why do we roll for initiative they way we do? It's needlessly slow and dull, even requiring table gimmicks to keep track. But here's a few facts:

 If a player rolls a d20 and the GM rolls a d20, then the player has a 50% chance of beating the GM and gaining initiative. 

After Initiative order is set, who goes first is no longer important after the first round since everyone is taking turns.

How do you speed it up? First, use team initiative. The players will have more flexibility that way and beyond the first round, it's just alternating turns.

The GM is the only one who rolls an Initiative die (d6). If he roll 3 or lower, the enemy goes first. If he rolls 4 or higher, the players go first. Want to spice it up? If the GM rolls a 1, then not only are the monsters aware of the heroes, they've set up an ambush. Their are more monstrous reinforcements waiting to spring on the heroes. If the GM rolls a 6 then the heroes have taken the enemy completely by surprise. Hey, sometimes you don't have to be stealthy to scare the hell out of someone rounding a corner.

Campaign 101: Inspiration!

The well has run dry? If you've read my other posts then you'd know I have been there too. Here's a few things that helped me out of it:

1) The Runehammer Channel on Youtube - If you are stuck in a cyclone of rules, watch these videos. Especially the ones about ICRPG. Hankerin Ferinale snapped me out of my slump and freed my creativity that had been stifled recently (Pathfinder Society did more harm than good to my GM skills, I think). 

2) Online title generators - There are several, I use many different ones. Generate a bunch of titles until one grabs your attention. Treat your campaign like a pulp serial of the 30's. Today's Episode: The Tree of Whispers!

Wait, what does that mean? I don't know but thinking about it gives my mind a target to focus on. Before I was staring at a blank canvas, with nothing there to inspire me. Now I have a title! 

Here's what comes to my mind: An unknown, feral group of forest elves ritually hunt those that wander too deeply in their forest. They give their sacrifices to feed their Great Tree: Annanus.  Annanus has grown old, corrupt, and mad. The tribe and the tree are one. Enter our heroes...

There, now I have the over-arching story. But I need to add dimension to this campaign. What two other problems are there in the area? Are they symptoms of the primary story, or a separate problem that also needs to be addressed immediately?

Side Problem 1) - We can kick off our campaign with this. A lord's son has disappeared (in the elves' forest). Unfortunately he was to be a peace envoy to a nearby kingdom and tensions have reached the boiling point. Since no one is aware of the elves' presence, one side believes the other has captured or killed the prince. Only his return can prevent the war. The heroes may run into scouts of either military force in the forest and neither will want to leave witnesses.

Side Problem 2) - The heroes will be fumbling around for months searching the forest. They need a guide. There is a tribe of Kobolds that have kept themselves hidden from the elves (or the elves didn't find hunting kobolds challenging enough. The heroes stumble across the Kobold, Yatzhee, hanging from a tree snare and panicking. If the heroes free the Kobold and befriend him, he can take the heroes to some of the Prince's company. The Kobolds took pity hid the retinue in their dens. Unfortunately the Prince was taken by the elves. Yatzhee volunteers to guide the heroes to the elf tribe and will tell them all he knows about them.

Let's add one more Side Problem - When the heroes reach Annanus, they see that an entire elf army is preparing to march. If it strikes the two kingdoms while they war with each other, the elves would triumph over both. How can the heroes warn and convince both kingdoms to ally when they must also find and rescue the prince? 

Now I would go about roughly outlining the campaign as I recommended in my post - Campaign 101: Villainy is Afoot!

I hope these ideas help you!

Magic and Technology in the Same Setting...Why?

I'm not saying it can't be done. The premise of Shadowrun is sound, the world embraced technology because magic didn't exist. Magic awoke onto the scene so it makes sense that they would be in conflict.

But let's take your typical D&D Fantasy-Land. Magic is all around. Despite the claimed "rarity" of magic items, the heroes will come across a lot of it, usually in the hands of the villain. Magic has been tamed, identified, and spells can be repeated and taught. Magic is the technology. Given how powerful the idea of magic is (getting something for basically nothing), why would anyone pursue mundane technology? Technology would only advance in areas that magic can't. This is why it's important to know the limits of magic in your setting.

So would there be guns in Fantasy-Land? Traditional guns? Not likely, unless they were developed in a place of no magic and brought into Fantasy-Land. Why invent a gun when Flame Bolt and Eldritch Blast wands are options. A "Gun" developed in Fantasy-Land would likely be magic based, a wand shaped like a modern firearm. In which case, does it matter if you reskin wands as pistols?

Here's another instance of unlikely technology in Fantasy-Land, medical kits. Medical kits take time to use and they suck. However, the dearth of healing potions and low level healing spells are far more efficient and effective and would drive out the medical kit market. Heck, the presence of resurrection magic (if you are rich), throws a huge wrench into the circle of life (see Altered Carbon).

I'm not saying you shouldn't use magic and technology in the same setting, I'm suggesting that you think of them as one and the same. Whatever tech you want in a Fantasy setting, consider a magic-themed item that would do that. The gunfighter in a fantasy setting has been done before. Try adding some new spice to the old trope. If you absolutely want them in the same setting for contrast, make sure they each have limits that only the other can fill. Otherwise the inclusion of both may just feel like cheap fan-service.

Also, consider that if technology is there to make ordinary people as powerful as mages, magic will feel far less amazing in your setting.

World Building 101: That Time of Year

Time in campaign worlds is often overlooked. I am referring to calendars and yearly cycles. It rarely seems important. But every now and then someone decides it will give there fantasy world more depth and they create their own fantasy calendar. The GM promptly stops using it after a while since it only confuses the players more.

"So what day is it?"

GM: It's the twelfth of Grune.

"When is that?"

So why bother? Well, the GM was right. Adding an actual fantasy calendar does help in breathing life to the world but the information that calendar conveys has to be useful/translatable to the players. So how do you do that?

Well step right up my friends because I have the only calendar you will ever need for your Fantasy Realm. It's suitably foreign yet strangely natural to understand. First let's take a jaunt back into our own history and the creation of our modern calendar. Suffice to say what we use today was heavily developed by the romans (July for Julius and August for Augustus Caesar). Before that, the year was marked by two things: Seasons and Astrology. Months are a product of our world that may never have been adopted by yours.

So how about Astrology? You could tell your players what stars are in which constellations, but unless they have your night sky memorized, this will be information the won't digest.

So how about Seasons? Yup. Let's say my world convenient has a 360 day year (close to our year). Divide that by four seasons and you get 90 days a season. Since most common folk can tell what season it is, and it's primary importance to farming (astrology was more for kings), that will likely be how they mark their calendar.

So the next time your player asks "What day is it?", you can tell them it's the 45th day of spring. They now know what season it is, what the climate will be like, and that spring is on the way out. No months necessary.

Okay so what about sci-fi? If your heroes are visiting alien worlds, then time matters less to them. The players will be visiting different weather biomes and time zones so seasons will be whatever they are at the location. If you want, just keep a generic Stardate like 202110.12 (that's todays post date: Oct 12, 2021) and just update each game day to the current date.

Campaign 101: Villainy is Afoot!

People have different interpretations of what makes a campaign. Is it the entire story arch of the characters, or is it the 5 or more adventures needed to solve one major problem? Well, it's both actually. One campaign is about the character's growth and dealing with the trauma that made them an adventurer, but sometimes "THAR'S VILLAINY AFOOT!"

For this example, we'll focus on the "villainy afoot" campaign. Examples of this are every 5th Edition D&D campaign book.

As The Great GM would say, "It begins with a villain. He want something. But something is keeping him from getting it."

So our first building block is who the villain is, what's their plan, what's prevented him/her thus far from achieving it, and how long will the heroes have to stop them (Timers build suspense). 

Once you've got that, you've got the plot. Now, how do you dole it out. How to you stretch this plot into multiple adventures. First, let me suggest that you don't plan on 3 years of epic adventures. Your players' attention spans may not last that long. Here's my recipe:

The First Adventure - The HEROES get hired to do SOMETHING. While doing this thing, they find another group at work. By the end of the first adventure, the player's should know that there is a shadowy group out there doing bad things. And most importantly - the players should hate these guys! I'm not saying tell the players to act like that. I mean get the players to hate these guys. You might have a good idea about the things that would upset your players: Terrorists, cowardly hostage takers, villains that kill puppies, bullies are always in fashion, stealing your player's spaceship is always a sure-fire rage-a-thon. Make your VILLAINs do the things your players despise. That makes your players invested in the story enough to actually care about the details.

The Second Adventure -  The HEROES get hired to SOMETHING that once again crosses paths with the VILLAINS plans, or the players choose to take control to find out more about these VILLAINs. Maybe something leads them to another encounter with the bad guys doing SOMETHING the HEROES must stop. Again, take another opportunity to have the VILLAINs do something to make your players hate these guys. At the end of the second adventure, the heroes should have a name for this evil VILLAIN group, and a clue where to get more information about them.

Adventures Three and Four - The HEROES are following their clue. At the end of each adventure, they should have more knowledge about the villainous group. Mainly who they are, what they are after, and that the heroes are going to need to gather a couple of THINGS to get at the VILLAIN, either information that locates them, security keys to get at them, vehicles or an army to help them get passed the VILLAIN's forces, stuff like that.

Adventures Five and Six - The HEROES gather the THINGS they need to reach the VILLAIN and his base. These could be done in either order.

Adventure Seven - The HEROES face TRIALS getting to the VILLAIN's base.

Adventure Eight - The HEROES face the VILLAIN, but the villain has a new back plan to cause harm to the heroes or to the worlds at large. A new timer begins as the heroes must not only navigate the terrors of the VILLAIN's base, they must defeat the VILLAIN before time runs out!

And that my friends is a great campaign formula. It's not the only one, but it has never failed me yet.