Mr. Exposition

 It's just an idea that popped into my head one cold and windy eve. The idea was "why not put a GMPC with the party?"

WAIT! Hear me out!

The Storyteller

This character travels with the heroes and fulfils the roll of telling players what they don't know. Typically this is left to the players - the one's who don't know yet. Result? The GM distributes the exposition and the player/ bard replies "Yeah, I say that".

Well, let's get rid of the middleman? The GMPC should be the bard of the group. He's a total non-combatant, and is just tagging-along to write the heroes' saga. So what can he do?

1) Speak in character while extolling pertinent information.

2) Be used as an adventure seed. A player might mention "I wish I had a magic shield that I could throw and have return." Then the musty old Tenku bard fixes a bleary eye on the character. "You mean like the mighty shield of Kappn M'rika? Perhaps I shall tell you the tale when we have less important work to do." Then, when you've figured out the side quest for the Shield of Kappn M'rika, the bard can tell the tale (of where it is and how well it is guarded).

Now this bard provides no other support. He's just there to give that juicy backstory you worked all night on that the players wouldn't encounter otherwise. He isn't there to talk the party's way passed the guards, gather information, cast magic of any kind. He's just an encyclopedia for your heroes.

You could also make Mr. Exposition an exceptionally well informed Henchling (the one who carries the luggage).

Oh yes, remember you can always kill him if the heroes become too fond of him.

Even more FREE STUFF! A Fillable NPC Card PDF!

It was requested, and now it is delivered. Very special thanks goes out to Savage Matt Leonard for diddly-doing the dealy-boops with the PDF editing. We had to make some compromises but in the end I think we came up with something cool.

As always, it's best to print on cardstock. Just trim and fold the cards in half (front and back). Glue the halves together and you got yourself an NPC card.

These cards are 3x5 so they won't fit into a card sleeve. But the increased size allows you to fit in all of those character details you don't want to look up. If it doesn't fit, then shame on you for power gaming :).

Click the pic to get the schtick.

FREE STUFF! My Eye of Kilquato Tools!

I've gotten word back from Jodi Black at Pinnacle. I am clear to release a PDF that contains all of my tools used for the Eye of Kilquato. Well, all except for my Status Tokens.

Get the file right here.

Edit: I update the file. They are supposed to be crocodile Cultists, I guess.

Post Game Report: The Eye of Kilquato

I ran the Eye of Kilquato last night for my game group. This is the second time ever that they have played a Savage Worlds game and the first time I got to use many of my new tools.

So first up, I downloaded The Eye of Kilquato as well as the Map and the Paper minis from the Pinnacle website.

My tools involved:

• a redraw of the map (Pinnacle's version was hard on my eyes)
• NPC Cards
• Vehicle Cards for the Boats
• Status Effect Tokens (I made my own but there are sheets available from the Pinnacle Website)
• Taking the trifold figures and making bi-fold pawns
• Tent cards for character sheets

So how did the tools work out?

• Map - It was fine but only used in the last parts of the game. The rest was all accomplished with Theater of the Mind.
• NPC Cards - They helped a lot, but added to the cluttered mess of my GM station. 

• Vehicle Cards - These barely saw use since the combat was less about sinking each others boats than picking off whoever was on deck.
• Status Effect Tokens - Wow, these were a hit! They helped keep track of Shaken, Wounds, who was taking an Aim action, etc. 

• Pawns - This was the chief source of the mess at my GM station. There are a lot of figures for this game, and you will likely use less than half of them. I should have kept them sorted from each other to make pulling them out and locating the right ones easier.

• Tent Card Character Sheets - This also went over like gangbusters! The character portraits not only helped them get into character (Kator was awesome), but the portraits on the outside of the tents got the players treating each other as their characters.

Issues that I had with the adventure:

• It's supposed to have crocodiles but the Pinnacle tri-folds say alligators
• Spoilerz!: There are two eyes of Kilquato, but while the first one doesn't match the description at all, it is also considered a real one. I'm guessing this is in case the adventure runs long at a Con, it gives you an early ending spot as an option. It should be explained for anyone who is new to running con games.

But despite these little quibbles, everyone had a lot of fun. My next outing will involve them picking a setting and having a Session 0 (aka group character creation).

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.

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.

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.

Adventure Monday! - Planet Sonti

It's time for a new Planetary One Sheet so leave the kids behind because Planet Sonti is the world where any seedy fantasy can happen, if the money is right. What happens on Sonti stays on Sonti. The local authorities guarantee it. Just make sure it doesn't happen to you.

Free Stuff Fridays! - Generic Character Tokens

As promised on Wednesday, here are new Generic Token Sheets for the GM on the go. They will work with either the 1" or 3/4" punches.

Here's a preview of the four types: Beasts, Villains, Constructs, and Bystanders

GM Wednesday! - DIY Tokens/Pogs

Today we are going to talk about Tokens, or pogs, or whatever you want to call them. These are flat counters that can be used to represent characters or enemies and can be made quite easily with the right tools.

But before you rush off to spend money and get crafty, let's talk about the advantages and disadvantages of using tokens in your RPG.

Edges

• Relatively cheap to make.
• Durable.
• Won't blow over every time a player exhales.
• "Fits" visually if you are using a 2D Map.
• Easy to make your own custom pieces.
• Stacks and transports very well. You could load an entire army in your backpack without too much weight (as long as you don't make them out of metal).
• Two sided so can be flipped to indicate "Bloodied" or "Shaken" conditions.

Hindrances

• A bit more expensive than paper standees.
• 2D means the best vantage point to see what's going on is a high angle, so you may find your players standing over the map if you have a large table.
• Usually, people prefer standees and miniatures for looks.

Despite the disadvantages, I like to keep a stock of these around. They are my "go to" for running games at locations where I need to travel light such as at conventions. The last thing I want is to be burdened down with a heavy pack, or to load up really cool minis only to have them get lost or forgotten on the game floor.

So here's what you will need.

• Glue (glue stick or a bottle of Elmer's white glue will do)
• A craft Circle punch 3/4 to 1 inch diameter (available at most craft stores like Michael's)
• Token art printed on standard paper
• Token bases (anything about 1" in diameter and flat)

For Token Bases, I like to uses 1" Wooden disks available from Michael's or other crafts stores. They are fairly inexpensive and lightweight, but still beefy enough to pick up without relying on fingernails to grip them. This pack has about 20 disks.

Because these disks have a beveled edge, using a 1" diameter circle punch would be too big so I use the 3/4". It's a bit tight for pictures and I'll probably switch to a 1" and see how well it fits when I get around to it.

The circle punches can usually be found in scrap-booking sections.

Warning!: Do not mount your images to chip board and then try to cut them with the punch. The punch is good for paper or cardstock only. You will break your punch trying to go through anything thicker.

As for the art, well unless I start uploading some for Free Stuff Fridays you will have to make do on your own. Just find some pics and print then out at 1" portraits on a sheet of paper. Don't worry about making them round since the punch will do that for you. Just try to frame them as best you can. Also, make a duplicate of the same picture and add an outer, red ring if you want to flip the token to indicate a special condition like "Bloodied" or in my case "Shaken".

You can also paint the tokens or used colored bases before you add the picture. This helps a lot with identifying tokens quickly. For instance, I make all of my villain bases black, my heroes red, and innocent civilian npcs in yellow.

You can see above that I have flipped a couple of these npcs to Shaken. These guys make great hostages. Innocent bystanders getting in the way of combat is an under-used combat environment, imho. Also notice I used just silhouettes for these portraits. That's because they are npcs so they are fine being generic looking. 10 generic npc tokens are enough for  all of my civilian npc needs. I also plan to make some generic "Monster", "Villain", and "Robot" tokens. It makes them re-usuable, and if I want the players to get a visual of what they are fighting, I can always flip a larger picture over the top of my gm's screen.

Tokens, as mentioned before, are also versatile. There is nothing stopping me from making corpse counters, fire counters, or any other environment hazard that needs representation. All in all, tokens are a useful GM tool.

I think I will add my generic Token art into a Free Stuff Friday Post after all. It will give me time to create the next Alien One Sheet.

Game On!

New Free Stuff Page!

So it seems that Google Chrome doesn't like Mediafire. That might explain why people have had a hard time with my free stuff downloads. Well I have collected all of the Free Stuff I have posted and put it onto Google Drive. And if you look right over there --------->

You will see a new FREE STUFF page that has links to all of the stuff I have posted.

A Couple of Aliens

So I'm still in the process of moving. My wife has a lot of stuff.

I haven't abandoned anyone or anything, and for your patience I thought I'd just leave these here. Use them as you see fit.

How do I work this doohickey? - NPC Cards

So I figured I would start off my blog with some freebies that might keep you coming back for more (I know you really aren't interested in me). Now I just need to figure out how to post downloadables...
First off, here are some NPC cards for Savage Worlds. They are 3x5 in case you are wondering.

 I print them out on cardstock and slice them up over at my local Kinkos. That way I can build up a library of my own critters for a campaign and keep them in a index card folio. Then I can just pull them out and use them as I need them. Plus it's nice to have a few blanks around when I get a great idea for a critter or a new villain.