It’s a meme! This one, stolen from Stargazer’s World, promises to reveal what type of player I am. The results:
You Scored as Tactician
You’re probably a military buff who wants to have the chance to think through complex problems. You want the rules, and your GM’s interpretation of them, to match up what happens in the real world or at least be consistant. You want challenging yet logical obstacles to overcome.
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This also happens to be tenletter’s 300th post. Yay!
- jatori
And so it happened. I mentioned, in my original post regarding the revival of Durban’s gaming scene, that I tend to travel a lot. Obviously, a lot of travel may restrict my involvement in Durban-based activities. Starting next week, I’ll be working in Johannesburg for the next few months, only spending one or two weekends per month in Durban. I’ve even already started telling friends and family that I’ll be staying in Sandton and occassionally holidaying in my Durban weekend home – sounding very pretentious, even though I’m still a wee little worker bee. For my international readers, this places me somewhere just below carrying a chihuahua in a Louis Vitton puppy purse. Yes, I know who LV is. Gag.
This doesn’t mean that I’m giving up on Durban! When I’m not in town, I will still actively support and advertise events (online) as best I can. And, when I am in Durban, I’ll see that I manage to run a game or two. Plus, not all be gloom and doom: I see this as opportunity to properly explore the gaming scene of Joburg and Gauteng – an opportunity previously not afforded to me, despite my semi-regular trips to the region. So, prepare for store reviews and related articles regarding Joburg in the near future. Don’t worry, the place isn’t that bad a place to visit as a tourist… provided that you didn’t skimp on perception-based skills/abilities during character generation; didn’t take naivety as a character flaw; and have mastered your own personal brand of Fu.
Just to further prove that I’m not giving up on Durban: my third game day is scheduled for Saturday the 15th of August. Game still to be determined. Suggestions welcomed.
- jatori
Paizo, the good people that bring us Pathfinder, have for two years now hosted the RPG Superstar competition. It is with shame that tenletter has to admit that it hasn’t made enough effort to compete in the dog-eat-dog cutthroat world of the hyper-elite RPG game designers. But no longer will we lower our heads dejectedly! Today I will start a process of development and refinement that will surely lead tenletter to the zenith of RPG superstardom!
As such I will follow the rules and regulations of the RPG Superstar 2009 competition in an attempt to create the perfect wondrous item for round 1 of the competition. Turns out that the 200 word limit was a surprisingly hard restriction to comply with – early designs of the item were significantly more verbose. Nonetheless, I hope I can get a lively set of responses and constructive criticisms that can help to fine tune my current submission. Kudos to Neal Herbert for his extensive advice to improve the suggestion.
Aura faint universal; CL 3rd
Slot neck; Price 200 gp; Weight -
Description
Few realize that these aptly-named pendants forge a contract with the bearer and the church of Asmodeus. Pact pendants of life create weak conduits of positive energy that, collectively, act as a reservoir of life force into which Asmodeus can tap. The pendants are designed to be subtly addictive and life preserving to ensure their continued use. Despite the creation cost of pendants, the church of Asmodeus commonly sells them for as little as 100 gp.
Equipping a pact pendant of life has no effect initially. After 24 hours the wearer of the pendant suffers a -2 penalty to Constitution. Additionally the wearer may add her hit die to any roll a number of times a day equal to her Constitution modifier (minimum 1). Finally, the wearer of a pact pendant gains Fast Healing 1 while her hit points are below 0.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, cleric of Asmodeus; Cost 100 gp
This post may contain spoilers for the Rogue Trader quick start adventure. </spoiler alert>
Yesterday, I was part of the 2nd Durban Game Day, aimed at reviving the Durban (and KZN, as a whole) gaming scene. After the initial, yet small, success of the first game day, I was very optimistic about yesterday’s gaming. Though still very small in scale, yesterday provided some good signs of promise and future growth: three players were repeats from the first game day; two players, avid WH 40K table top players, were new to the role playing side of the hobby; and two more, who drove down from Pietermaritzburg made the number of attendees eight, including me.
The session began with 5 players, the 3 repeats and 2 40K veterans. It was great having players that knew the 40K universe well – their knowledge and love of the setting helped really bring the game to life. Here, I must confess, that this was my first real experience with the 40K universe (one day I shall talk of my con days when I spurned the wargamers and role players, cackling in the dark corners with the other card gamers). En dit het my ou Matie hart goed gedoen om Afrikaans weer by die tafel te hoor. Also, this was my first experience with a role playing game that based its core mechanic on a percentile roll.
I found the preview adventure to be fun and easy to get into, leaving a lot of scope for player creativity (improvised explosives and bungled strength rolls make for an exciting final showdown). Hopefully, I can convince one of the players to write and share a play report in a later post. For now, though, here are some thoughts I have on the Rogue Trader system as presented in the preview:
All skill tests are against your characters own statistics, rather than opposed by an opponent’s defense, for example. A character’s attributes are expressed as a percentage and a d100 roll of equal or below your attribute score is required for a success. Skills and circumstances can add bonuses or penalties to this check. I rather liked this mechanic, though I’d require further exposure to it before I can make a proper decision on it.
It was easy getting accustomed to the combat system and it suited, rather than restricted, cinematic play. I chose to run the game without any miniatures/battle grid, but found that the combat still satisfied the more tactically-minded players.
Leadership of the PC group is determined at character creation. I’m not sure if I like this or not. One character is the Rogue Trader, effectively making him/her the in-game leader. I much prefer games in which all members of the PC group are of equal social standing, with leadership emerging naturally based on skills and situations. Now, I know that mature groups should have no problem with one PC holding a higher rank than the others, or the Rogue Trader may just be assigned a Deus Ex Machina NPC position, but I would still be watchful of ‘pulling rank’ scenarios.
Towards the end of our gaming session, we got a few enquiries from walk-in store customers (e-mail addresses and websites were traded), but the biggest (and most pleasant) surprise of the day occurred when the two from PMB arrived. Not wanting to have had them make the journey just for a handshake, we invited them to join the game. The adventure actually makes allowance for introducing new characters (discovering the survivors). So, we ended the game with 7 players and the Rogue Trader laying claim to a profitable salvage.
- jatori
No, this is not a post about the GM bringing his significant other to the game table (though I could tell you a tale or two that just happen to include PB as a player at the table). Instead, today, I’m going to talk about GMing in-game romances. This post forms part of my ‘things I’ve never done as a GM, but might like to try‘ series and, obviously, one of those things that I’ve never tried, includes GMing during a romance between two (or more) player characters or between a NPC and a PC.
It’s not that I’ve been against GMing a romance; it’s rather more a case of it never happening. I almost always throw some sort of romantic background into any of my long-term games (very useful for explaining NPC motivation, introducing new NPCs, or even just to generate an ‘Awwww, that’s so sweet!‘ from the occasional more rom-com sensitive player). In fact, my very first DnD campaign as GM ran against the background of tragic love story, which involved betrayal, murder, the undead and the selling of souls for ultimate power. I don’t think my players noticed, as the foreground involved epic battles of awesome, with them as the battlefield heroes.
Now, I’m not about to force a romance to happen. Rather, I’m just stating that I’d be interested in GMing through one, should the opportunity present itself. However, I did once play through a romance (sort of) as a PC:
As per normal, after the last session in one of f00’s long-running games, PB and I found ourselves requiring new characters. At the time, I had some bizarre fetish revolving around the 3.5 spell Shield Other. (Tangent: Somebody remind me, one day, to write about the different uses I got out of Shield Other [or similar abilities], as I came up with quite a few.) So, we thought that we’d create our two new characters with a shared background. We came up with an adventuring elf, from a minor noble house, for her and a multi-classed human tank (that could also cast Shield Other) for me. We created my character as the elf’s bodyguard, complete with Kostner/Houston implications. Well, to cut a long story short, towards the end of one long and arduous combat, PB provoked an attack of opportunity and got hit. f00 rolled a natural 20 for his scythe-wielding villain. He confirmed the critical hit and, as we all know, in 3.5, scythes have a x4 multiplier. Thanks to Shield Other, PB’s elf survived. My character, built as a melee tank, already severely wounded, could just not soak up the shared damage and died protecting the love of his life.
PB and I still argue, to this day, whether or not the AoO was needlessly provoked.
- jatori
As a GM, you eventually discover your own style of GMing. This style includes everything from the types of games you like to run, the techniques you use to keep the game running, and even the situations that you’re good at or comfortable with GMing. Now, I wonder, is it possible for a GM to get stuck into a personal-style-enforced routine or habitual method of GMing? You know, when all the games you run tend to be horribly similar, even if the rules set differs.
So starting today, I’m going to be looking at various GMing techniques and in-game scenarios that I’ve never tried. Hopefully, in the near future, I’ll get to do a follow-up report to let you know how my attempts went.
Number 1: Narrating scenes in which no player characters are present:
We’ve all seen this done in film and television: The heroes, after having successfully kicked much ass, let a few villainous individuals slink off to tend to their wounds. Often, however, while the primary protagonists are off screen, those that were previously thought to be the big bad boss villains turn out to, in fact, not be the big bad boss villains. Countless Saturday morning cartoons introduce new and stronger villains through this technique. Extra information is provided to the viewers, often in a very Aye, Dark Overlord! fashion, as the now defeated villains report to their superiors.
I don’t rate myself as a very good storyteller (I prefer story facilitator), so I’m not too sure how I’d work with this, without it coming off as a bit, um, off. I’m thinking of perhaps running a purposefully cheesy superhero game, ending each session with the stereotypical henchmen kowtowing before the Kingpin-type supervillain.
Or, perhaps, even ending each game with a session of Aye, Dark Overlord! in which all the players take on the persona of one of the defeated villains. Wait, this is against what I’d want to achieve, but… wouldn’t that be a lot of fun? 
- jatori
On the 25th of July, I shall be hosting a second RPG game day in Durban, South Africa.
Time: 10:30 – 15:00 (I know, rather odd times, especially for a Saturday, but it follows store hours and leaves enough time for a lunch break).
Venue: Destiny Bookstore, Windermere Center (Google Map)
Game: Rogue Trader Quick Start
The venue has kindly agreed to allow two tables, so if you’re willing to GM or know of somebody that would, let me know. The quick start comes with 5 pre-generated characters, so we’re looking at 3 – 5 players per table. Seats can be confirmed via this Facebook event (If you can recommend a software solution that’s superior to FB, please do).
These are some of the games I’d like to run for future events. Recommendations to be added to this list are welcomed.
Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition:
WWDDGD 2 MM 2 (Rerun)
Khyber’s Harvest
WWDDGD 3 DMG 2
Shadowrun 4th Edition Quick Start
Savage Worlds Test Drive – I’ve actually owned the Savage Worlds rule books for several months now and just haven’t had an opportunity to try it out yet. So, I’m really interested in this one.
And it should go without saying, but if you plan on playing in an event, don’t read the adventure beforehand.
There are a few other things I’d like to discuss in the future, such as:
Incorporating players/GMs from Pietermaritzburg.
Alternate venues and play times.
Home games.
RPGA events.
Bigger events?
Hope to see you there,
- jatori
Every adventure (whether it be a scripted, pre-written, rail-roading, shop-bought adventure or a heavily improvised, random-table-filled, homebrewed, non-linear game) requires a certain amount of player character buy-in. There is no adventure if the PCs decide to rather not go out and, well, adventure. Therefore, at least some effort needs to go into creating adventure hooks – those little things that motivate the PCs to get out there and adventure.
Today, I’m going to propose that adventure hooks that directly address a player character’s needs (as defined within the context of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) are some of the most effective hooks. For the purpose of this post, I’m going to assume that you are familiar with Maslow’s work. If not, the link provided to the wikipedia article (above) should provide sufficient background information.
Gleefully jacked from Wikipedia
So, how exactly does this all work? Well, to better illustrate things, I’m going to refer to one of the greatest pop culture symbols of sandbox play: the video game. Specifically, games like Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row, Oblivion and Fallout. All of the listed games have massive, fully explorable worlds that are all filled with all manner of side-quests, diversions, mini-games, hidden treasures and so forth. However, all of these games also have a primary story-line or main quest. Yet, in a world with so many options available, how does the game get the player on to these main quests?
Well, not surprisingly, each game begins with the player unable to fulfill her basic needs and, surprise, the main quests (at least the start of it) often provides the easiest way for the player to build up a solid base around which she can satisfy her basic needs. Once these needs are addressed, the player is better able to tackle those quests which address higher needs and so on. For example, in Saints Row, the player starts by securing weapons and cash, looking for a way to just survive. Later in the game, more focus is placed on grabbing territory, protecting your homies and earning respect. In fact, the only way to completely secure your empire in Saints Row is through the complete destruction of your enemies, which can only be achieved through following the primary quest lines. The Grand Theft Auto series goes further by bringing in close friends and family and, even, love interests of the main character. In fact, many of these games focus quite heavily on ascending further up the pyramid, aiming on escaping a life of crime or debt (survival/safety).
OK, so that’s all good and well, but how do we use this to inspire our PCs to action? Well, short of giving a list of examples, I think through understanding what drives our players and their characters forward would help us craft hooks that work more often than not. Maslow’s theory is just one possible way of looking at things and hopefully provides you with a new and fresh starting point when preparing for your next game.
This post was inspired by the comments following a previous post, entitled: Complexity and why every game is a sandbox game.
- jatori
