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.