Dry Wipe Notebook

So there were a few things I was looking for when at Gen Con that I didn't buy largely because I actually didn't find precisely what I wanted.

Amongst that list was something I only realised I wanted after playing in the Atomic Robo.  Mike was using what is called a WipeBook - essentially it's a dry-erasable pad.

So after asking Mike where he got it from I looked for it at Gen Con but it wasn't available at any of the booths.  When looking into getting one for myself I came across the usual challenge of buying something overseas - shipping...

So at first I decided "Oh well." and forgot all about it but since then I got to thinking - "Surely I could make one myself?"

So I have.

• 1 pack of A4 160gsm card.
• 1 set of Staedtler whiteboard dry wipe pens.
• 1 pack of laminating pouches (well I already had this and the laminator).
• 1 binder to put them in.

To mix it up a bit I used some of the PDF templates from Incompetech to create Hex, Square and Lined sheets and went about printing and laminating the card.

Final result -

I've still to use it properly but I can see me using it instead of squared paper and blank paper to draw maps (not to scale!) and other short term items in games.

I also hope to use it for brain dump stuff that can be wiped in future once they've been blogged or otherwise.

A Touch Of Class

When you're creating a character for any RPG you tend to come into that process with a bit of a plan.

I think the majority of games tend to you lead you down the path of choosing a class, archetype, career or other type of character label.  For ease throughout this post I'm going to refer to this as "class".

Why have a class based system?

Class based systems take some of the pain out of creating new characters and provide a toolkit to create that character.  Want to be a swordsman who likes to take risks and wears light armour?  Sure here's the -insert appropriate class for X system-.  The weakness is that there is an element of shoe-horning the character concept into the class.  Now that's not always to the detriment of the character but class based systems can be restrictive because of their toolkit approach.

Some systems enable you to blur the lines between classes or enable the character to belong to 2 different classes at the same time and helps to offset the shoe horning.

What about non-class based systems then?

The only system that really springs to mind is the Hero System which used in the Champions RPG.
This really gives you the blank sheet of paper and a vast array of options and says "Go, make anything you can possibly imagine!"  For a new player that can be daunting and indeed for some who have been playing class based games for most of the gaming lives (that'd be me) it does sound a little off putting.

The key thing you have to consider when choosing class v non-class based game is whether the player characters are going to fall into archetypes?  If not then before ruling out a class based game, question whether there's a way to give the player what they want without breaking the game.  If ultimately the players want to play in a fresh sandbox with no limits then a non-class based game might be the answer.

Of course there's always the 3rd route.  Play both!

RPG Time Management Part 2

So yesterday I covered the more abstract elements of managing time within RPGs.  Today's post is where the time requires a bit more robust management or perhaps tracking is a better word.

Today's elements are Combat and Real-Time.

Combat
I'm pretty sure this is covered in the rulebook of the majority of RPGs that I own but if in doubt revert to D&D.
Combat in any RPG is an abstraction to give it structure.  Some combat systems provide mechanics to influence that structure but for here I'm going to give it the high level view of what is actually involved in tracking time in Combat.
Situation - 5 smugglers (characters in the party) facing off against 4 Minion groups of Stormtroopers on the streets of Nar Shadda, Tatooine.
Measurement - For me the number of players influences the overall time measurement here but to keep it simple the easiest way to measure Combat is as follows.

• Round - Combat Rounds are where the actual Combat takes place.  So these tend to be between 6 and 10 seconds long and are to represent a complete sequence of combat involving 1 character.  This is also used to timebox any non-Combat actions that a character may take during Combat.  e.g. To buy them more time the tech decides to try and lock the door of the docking bay the characters are in.
• Turn - A combat Turn is to capture the completion of every character (and non-player character) having their turn within combat.  Using the example of the 5 smugglers and 4 Minion groups of Stormtroopers above this would mean 9 rounds are required to ensure that that they have all acted during a round of Combat (in the case of the Minion groups these would act together depending on what system you're using).
  Combat would then continue (assuming there is still someone left to fight with) with a new Turn composed of Rounds.
• End - Once all the combat Turns are completed there is mop up time which is normally used for healing, rummaging through the supplies of the fallen and other stuff.

Real-Time
I like this measurement for when the party are in a pressure situation as it applies that same pressure onto the players to ensure that they remain focussed!  It can also be used to shine the light on a particular character to demonstrate their skills.  Plus I like to use it to strengthen the collaboration between the players .
Situation - John Summer is frantically trying to get this safe open as in about 3 minutes the alarm is going to go off after his sister, Jenny, failed at shutting off the alarm system.
Measurement - So the way I'd do this is quite simple.  Explain the situation to the players, ensure they understand this is real-time and also (optionally) let them collaborate "out of character" to build that team feeling around what they're trying to achieve.  Once I've explained things I set an alarm for 3 minutes and start the countdown.  This is really to recreate that shot in the movies where the heroes save the day with 3 seconds to spare.  The GM might also want to give the players a number of "pauses" if what's they're trying to do isn't working, especially if it's the dice that are acting against them!  These pauses are just that, a pause for normally 15-30 seconds for the players to get the plan back on track.  No actions can be taken during these pauses, only planning for actions!

So that's the fine tuning elements of time in RPGs.  Let me know if I've missed any situations where time could be managed differently.

RPG Time Management Part 1

When playing RPGs the handling of time within the game is something that shifts from 1 mode to another depending on the situation in game.

I'm going to cover this over the next 2 posts and use 4 headlines to cover the spectrum of how time is managed in game.

Those are General (that catch all), Exploration, Combat and Real-Time.  Today's post is about the first 2 of those.

General

There are many many flavours to how this can be measured in game but General covers situations where the measurement of time isn't important other than to say "time passes" and it's now the next hour, day, week, month etc.

There are going to be occasions when the party has a set range of time to complete a task.  This can be handled in a variety of ways but for me the simplest has always been to assign chunks of time to elements of the task and vary that depending on how well the party tackles that particular element.

Situation - The city of Rusteria lies 5 days travel by horse from where they are now.  Once the party arrives they will have less than 48 hours to complete their task.

Measurement - So unless you plan to roleplay your way through the next 5 days of travel (through encounters or side treks or whatever) the simplest method is to say "4 days later you arrive on the outskirts of Rusteria".  If of course the party try to shorten that journey time either through riding harder or perhaps even going without sleep then you can give them the bonus of getting there perhaps 8 hours early but with the consequence of some form of penalty until they rest which likely depletes the 8 hours they've gained.

Exploration

Situational time where the party are exploring an area such as a dungeon, palace, spaceport, ruined army base etc etc is similar to General above in that simply assigning an arbitrary time to the task makes sense with a variable depending on how the party achieves that task.

Exploration is further complicated by it normally involving a number of Combat slots throughout, particularly if that's a dungeon crawl.  For me the simplest way to handle Combat within the overall time for Exploration is to ignore it.  Combat shouldn't take up a large element of time except perhaps for the "big bad" at the end. So the simplest way to accommodate it within the time allocated to Exploration is to give each area of the situation a value of time which can be modified depending on how you and the rest of the party are approaching this.

Situation - Having now reached the entrance to the lost Tomb Of Durthal the party less than 24 hours to get in, recover the Sceptre Of Nurache and get out again.  Oh and perhaps have to take on the hordes of Lizardfolk that lie within and whatever "big bad" awaits.

Measurement - So the party have 24 hours.  Assuming they plan to sleep within the Tomb (which may or may not be a good idea...) the simplest option is to time box the exploration into those 24 hours with some variables depending on what they do.  So the 24 hours would be the maximum time they have available.  So unless the GM wants this to be a mad scramble to the finish this could be as simple as saying "This will take 24 hours to complete, including a 6 hour rest period and assuming the party explores each area of the Tomb Of Durthal."  If the GM really wants to track this then simply break that down into chunks based on the number of rooms that will be explored and the number of combat encounters that will erm be encountered. It's not meant to be scientific just something arbitrary to suggest that time passes when the party are in the Tomb.  If there is a desire to have some of that measured in Real-Time then I'll cover my thoughts on that in the next post.

So that's the coarse tuning elements of time within RPGs, the fine tuning elements will be 

in tomorrow's post.  Any thoughts on how you'd do this differently?

Prison Break

I've referred to a one-shot scenario I've used for Star Wars on here a few times.

The scenario itself is inspired by an old RPG magazine by the name of Challenge which was published by Games Designers Workshop, a now defunct gaming company.

GDW were the publishers of a number of games over the years but Challenge wasn't solely an in-house magazine as not only publishing scenarios etc for Traveller it also covered games by other publishers like Star Wars.

Issue 49 of Challenge had a scenario in it called "Dandrians Ring" where the player characters had to rescue a defecting Imperial officer and return him to the Rebel Alliance.  The scenario itself was nothing special but what I liked in particular was the prison base - Alpha-Omega Prison.

Now as I said there was nothing special about the scenario but what I did find with it was that it provided a great setting to demonstrate playing in a Star Wars universe.  The setting is perfect for running one-shots and specifically works really well in demonstrating whatever ruleset you are using for Star Wars.

Last few times I've used this location I've ran the scenario in 2 different ways.

Prison Break IN

The party have been brought together by a common goal which brings them to Alpha-Omega Prison.  This common goal usually involves a NPC that they each either have a grudge against or some other reason to want to find the NPC.
All they need to do is get safe passage to the prison, break in and take on the defences of the base, extract the NPC (and perhaps other prisoners) and then get back off again.

Prison Break OUT

The party are all prisoners in the base and are all have a reason for someone to want them gone who has hired a group of bounty hunters to bring them back, alive in some cases.

The base has its power supply disabled as part of the attack which gives the characters a chance to get out of their cells.

In some variations I've had it that one of the PCs was a spy for the bad guy and in others I've had it that only one of the PCs was the true target but the characters don't know who that is.

In many respects these are very simple scenarios but alongside that simplicity comes lots of options on how the scenario plays out.

Both can also be used as kickoff scenarios for campaigns as there is potential for the characters to become a team and along the way make some joint enemies.  As I begin to pull together my plans for EotE I am looking to use this location in the campaign at some point.

Are there any specific locations (big or small) that you've used over and over again in one-shots or indeed built whole campaigns around?

Horror & Me

So it's Friday the 13th and other than trying to make sure nothing disastrous strikes today I also wanted to touch on Horror in games and my views on it.

As a genre Horror covers a multitude of things whether that be the splat fest of a slasher movie to something that bit more psychological.

As a gamer and general "geek culture" fan I've never been interested in horror as a genre and in many respects I don't understand why.
I enjoy a good mystery and I also enjoy intrigue in my games but the atmosphere that I think horror needs is often lost on me.
RPG wise I've tried to play and indeed run games like Call Of Cthulhu, Unknown Armies and I've previously mentioned that I own but have never ran the d20 based RPG - The End.
Cthulhu is almost iconic (some would say overly used as such) but having tried both the 1920s era and the X-Files style Delta Green setting I concluded that I couldn't generate the correct environment either through my GMing style or some other factor.
Unknown Armies I managed to run a few games with it but these really only scratched the surface of what UA is about as again I couldn't dig into the setting enough to make the scenarios work.

So why is that? Well the only real conclusion I have managed to come to is that I just don't "get" horror and in some respects I wonder if it's actually a harder genre of game to run to ensure that the atmosphere within the game works.
Now this isn't just for RPGs. Board games like Arkham Horror also just don't click with me. Mechanically I can enjoy the game but the experience is perhaps diluted because of this lack of connection with Horror. The card game Gloom works but that's probably more down to it's comedic elements and being almost Tim Burton esque in it's content.

So am I that bothered? Not really but at the same time I do wonder what I'm missing out on...

Real life situations. Fantasy worlds.

This idea is something that came to me through a variety of sources; many of which really don't add up when I write (type) them.  In the interest of getting to the point I don't plan on breaking it down but if you really want to know the inspirational elements let me know.  A condensed version would be "when magic is not enough".

So.  This is D&D focussed as I'm kicking off a D&D Next playtest game just now so a lot of my game ideas are going into that bucket.

• Setting:  Fantasy city.  Something the scale of York in England but coastal.  Thriving fishing economy and busy port for traders of all kinds.
• Situation: Disease / Plague.  Over the past 2-3 months an illness has spread amongst the people of the city.
• What's unusual?: The disease is only affecting Humans and only those under the age of 40.  The more unusual element however is that it's starting to spread across race with Elves, Dwarves and other races starting to experience similar symptoms...
• What's been tried?:  The Clerics of a variety of churches have called upon the Divine power to cleanse the city of the disease.  Spells work but only on individuals.
• Why didn't that work?:  The disease is spreading quicker than the Clerics can heal.  For every 50 people healed another 60 are infected and that ratio is getting worse for the Clerics.  Despite more coming to heal the disease continues it's march through the residents of the city.
• How do the players get involved?:  TBC.  I have a variety of ideas but given that I actually plan to use this as a kicker for a game I'm going to hold fire on revealing too much.  Ultimately though the situation is dire and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down any time soon so it'll be a race against time to do something...
• Who's behind it?: The immediate problem of the disease has been perpetrated by someone with strong ties to the city.
• Who do they work for?: Someone who has a vested interest in seeing the city fall but also more importantly certain individuals to fall along with the city.
• Who do they work for? 2: Ah yes, there's always a big bad right?  Well maybe not always but in this case, that'd be a yes.
• What's the answer?: Essentially this question is "What is the macguffin?"  Again because I plan on using this in-game I'm not going to give it all away here.  Ultimately though the answer to the disease is to find a cure. What form that cure takes though may be a surprise...

The options around this are quite large but the key to the plot is that the clock is ticking so the party need to get their act together and quickly.

My name is Inigo Montoya...

When creating a new character in a RPG whether that be one used by a player or as a key non-player character a lot has to be considered.
Extending the storyboard approach I've talked about before you have to look for a hook that either connects the character to the ones used by the players.

If this is a new Player Character then the immediate questions that spring to mind are -
How do they know the PCs?
Why would the existing PCs be happy for them to join the party?
What reason does the new character have for joining the party?
Why is the new PC only now looking to join the party?

Each of these takes a different look at the background not just of the new PC but also of the existing PCs.
Yes a lot of them can be brushed over and in some respects you could just ignore all of them "for the sake of the game" but choosing to skip these questions doesn't help unless the game is simply a series of one-shots. If this is a story driven campaign then it makes sense to ask these questions.

Not only does this give the players a chance to write some of their own history it also allows them to shape the setting and gives the party a reason for being beyond the simple "heroes needed to stop big bad" approach.

In parallel to the party cohesion this can build it also gives the GM a chance to look at elements of the plot that previously may have been overlooked.
Does this new character have a background plot point that connects to the overall plot?
Will the villain be prepared for this change in the party?  If not how does that change their plans?

Or maybe the villain killed his father and he now needs to prepare to die...

Storyboarding for NPCs

On Free RPG Day this year I ran a scenario for the Star Wars Edge Of The Empire RPG.  I really need a shorthand version of this name!  SWEotE?.

As part of that I developed (and stole in places) a quick and dirty way of developing a storyboard for NPCs and Pre-Gen PCs.  This is something I'd used on and off during the 1st Chapter but I've refined it over time.

It's not hugely detailed but for a "one and done" game like at Free RPG Day or indeed at a Convention the approach gives the characters more flavour.  My approach is to share these with the players rather than the character sheets that sit behind them.  Once all the players have settled on their characters I would then supply the character sheet to complement it.

This storyboard approach gives the players a chance to review the characters without seeing the character sheets enabling them to select the character that appeals to them most rather than necessary the stats that they want.

Now the storyboard itself gives clues as to what the character's stats may be but given that a lot of the content is based on the perception of those around the character and indeed their self-perception it can be misleading.