Play-test Recap 11/02/2019

Play-test Recap 10/26/2019

Play-test Recap 10/20/2019

Play-test Recap 6/22/2019

Play-test Recap 5/4/2019

Play-test Recap 4/13/2019

Famous (and Not So Famous) GMs and How You Can Be Like Them

All creators of any type, be they artists, or songwriters, or storytellers like us GMs, take inspiration from others. "There is nothing new under the sun," says the bible, and I suppose on some level that's true, to a point. Just because I take an idea from a book I read once, or a song I heard, or an RPG stream I saw on Twitch, I always do something new with it. Many GMs, especially some new to GMing, have watched other GMs at conventions or on streaming sites, some quite famous, and try to emulate them exactly. Not only shouldn't this be done, it's really impossible.

There is a lot of angst among the newer GMs I meet on occasion that they can't seem to make their games go the way they've seen other games go. The players keep doing random stuff and won't cooperate with the story the GM is trying to craft and they can't seem to make their campaign go like Matt Mercer's campaigns!

The simple answer is: because that is impossible.

An RPG session is a collaborative story, with emphasis on collaborative, between the GM and the players. That bears repeating, so go back and reread it, I'm too lazy to write it again. The point is, if you want the campaign to go exactly as you want it to go, don't introduce the external element of players, just lay down and daydream, or write a story. Each player has their own goals and objectives and vision of how they want the game to go. Bringing in players to your world, your story, your campaign is to introduce those goals and motives which may not (most likely won't) meet your own. The collaborative story that emerges from the push-and-pull of GM and players - and frankly between the players as well - is what builds the epic tale. Those of us who love RPGs and consistently have fun playing them get a total kick out of seeing what evolves from that interplay. It may not turn out to be epic, it may not be Tolkien- or Rowling- or Martin-worthy, but it'll be original, and unique, and something no one has ever seen before.

Personally, I cant wait to see what that turns out to be.

Play-test Recap 4/6/2019

Why Does the GM Say "No?"

I keep trying to do stuff in the game, and my GM keeps shutting me down. Why does my GM keep saying "No?"

Contrary to how it seems sometimes, GMs don't, as a rule, say NO arbitrarily. There can be several reasons why your GM says no to something you want to try, and we may not always be as clear as you need in explaining it. Here are some of the reasons I've said NO to players in the past that may help clarify for you why your GM has said NO to you on occasion.

• General vs. Specific Attempt - A player states, "I'm going to pick that lock." He rolls the die and fails. Then he says, "Okay, I'm going to use my dagger to try to pick it." The GM says NO. Why? Because you already tried a general attempt to pick the lock and failed. Deciding to use a specific tool to pick the lock is not a substantial change in circumstances to justify re-rolling the dice. You failed a general attempt to pick the lock, and in that general attempt it is imagined you exhausted all tools at your disposal in doing so, including borrowing your companion's lock-pick set. To find reasons to keep rolling the attempt until you succeed it is disingenuous and a clear attempt to game the system.
• Can I Have Advantage? - Players ask for advantage in a task roll for all kinds of things, and the GM must decide in a split second whether an advantage can be allowed under the circumstances or not. "I've climbed a tree, can I have higher ground advantage in combat? NO, sitting in a tree is a precarious position, any advantage you may get from higher ground is negated by the need to keep yourself from falling out of the tree while you swing your ax at the enemy. "I have night vision, can I have advantage to surprise on any guards we encounter?" NO, because the dwarf guards have dark-vision, which is similar to night-vision. "I have enhanced hearing, if I put my ear to the floor, can I have advantage in determining the direction the monster is coming from, in spite of the confusing echoes you described?" NO, that would take a sensitivity to vibration, not hearing.
• Too Complex an Action - Sometimes a player wants to do too much in a single action: "As I climb the ladder, I'm going to hold the little princess's hand and keep my sword out in case there are guards waiting for us at the top of the wall." You only have two hands, if you hold on to the princess with one and your sword with the other, how are you going to hold onto the ladder?
• Acting on Knowledge Not Evident - It is unavoidable sometimes that the players will overhear things during the game that their character couldn't possibly have learned themselves. For example, while Jerold's dwarf is guarding prisoners at one location, clear across the compound an NPC reveals to Mick's character that the guards have placed a spy among the prisoners. Now Jerold suddenly wants he dwarf to search the prisoners to determine which is the spy. Of course NO!
• Acting Against Character - A cleric who, in all previous adventures, has shown nothing but deference for nature and compassion for all the gods' creatures, suddenly wants to order his pet ferret to deliberately get caught up in the giant spider's web to lure it out so the party can attack it. In D&D they call it Alignment, in other games it may be nothing more than the characters past action that define her, but in any case, your GM is often going to tell you NO in such cases.

As I've noted before, it's easy to get frustrated and look at your GM as your enemy, but he/she isn't. On the other hand, keeping a fun, challenging, and consistent world flowing beneath your feet, as players, can be a challenge. If we say NO it's almost always for a very good reason.

New Monster: Sorid Anule

Here's a free monster for your fantasy role-playing campaign:

Sorid Anule

A sorid anule is an amphibious humanoid. He has a frog-like muzzle but with serrated teeth like a shark. Otherwise the features are human, but for the scales. He is covered in hard, coral-like scales on the top of his head, along his back, and on his legs and arms, but softer scales like a fish along his face, neck, and belly. He has webbed toes and fingers and webbing between arms and torso, and he swims with great speed and agility. He has opposable thumbs on his feet as well as his hands, and fingers that end in sharp points. There is an uneven, jagged, and sharp ridge of spines down his back, and a prehensile tail along which the spines get smaller toward the sharp, pointed, stingray-like tail.

The female sorid anule is venomous, secreting poison from a small gland under the tip of her tail that paralyzes her victim (normal Saving Throws apply.) But even on males the tail-tip alone is a formidable piercing weapon.

The sorid anule are sentient and their fighters wear plate armor made of metal scales that slide and pivot to permit freedom of movement, and from which their spines are exposed. They wield barbed weapons (tridents, spears, harpoons, and blowguns).

As a society, sorid anule live in tight-knit tribes, each ruled by chieftains and a ruling class. They are very xenophobic and are more likely to attack first than ask any questions when their territory is intruded. Out in the wild, away from territorial waters, they are a little less violent when encountered, but only marginally so.

They speak their own dialect of mer-speak (the language of the mermen.) They don't count many magic-users among their population, but clerics and the like are more common. Individual motives are as varied as among humans or other races, but overall each tribe seeks to expand territory and influence as their populations grow. Yes, the often fight amongst themselves as well.

When on land the sorid anule must soak in seawater once a day (usually when he sleeps) or begin to take damage as his skin dries and his scales begin to flake off. They are omnivorous and eat with their heads tilted back, sort of moving their necks like lizards to aid in swallowing, a sight many other races find nauseating.

The average sorid anule stands 5' to 5'6", with a tail at least as long as they are tall. They have poor eyesight on land, as their eyes film-over with a third eyelid. When they speak, they prolong their S's: "Ssso, whatsss for sssupper?"

I leave it to you to flesh out their attributes based on the game system you are playing.

KILL THE GAME MASTER!

It's easy to understand - he makes the world in which your characters live and work, he embodies not just the enemies armed with sharp things to poke you with, but also the greedy merchants, the bossy town guards, and the sticky-fingered tavern wench who left you one pouch of gold lighter. He's every frustrating obstacle coming between you and fortune and glory!

So eventually some players, even seasoned players, start to think of the GM as their enemy. You can see this happening as their laughter fades, they begin to grumble about circumstances, and even start to outright argue with the GM about every little detail of the world. They've stopped having fun and they don't even realize it.

They also don't realize how unwelcome they are making themselves to the GM and the other players.

What they forget is that without those obstacles, the story told by the role-playing session would be little more than a boring stroll through a gray world filled with free gold, which has no value because everything else the players want is theirs with just a few strokes of of a dull blade. What would The Odyssey be without Polyphemus the cyclops, the sirens, the six-headed monster Scylla, etc? Who would Hercules be without the twelve labors? Who would Bilbo be without Gollum?

After surviving an epic battle against 24 orcs, is the pile of gold you find really better than the satisfaction of a fight well won? If so, perhaps you should be playing Monopoly instead of RPGs.

Try to catch yourself if you find yourself becoming the whiner of a group. Take a deep breath, slow down, sit back, and enjoy the story that is unfolding. Even if the story is going against you at the moment, understand that tides turn, and your GM is no more interested in seeing you fail than you are. He only wants to make the win worth your while getting there.

Play-test Session - 3/30/2019

10 Fun, Silly, DIRTY Little Tricks You Can Play On Your Players

As GMs, we're always looking for ways to introduce some variety and novelty to the adventures we prepare for our players. Here are some fun, silly little dirty tricks you can play on your players, most of which are harmless but can be fun to role-play. 1. Food Poisoning - During camp one night, have each of the players roll a Saving Throw against food poisoning due to some bad mushrooms or whatever that were added to the stew at dinner. All who fail must suffer eruptive vomiting and diarrhea all the next day, and at the most inconvenient times. (For that matter, there are a whole slew of funny/disgusting/harmless illnesses you can infect your players with, just for fun: pink-eye, lice, jock-itch, lockjaw (tetanus), etc.) 2. Spell-Hiccup-Misfire - Give your magic-user hiccups, causing his spells to misfire at random in unpredictable and hilarious ways. For example, a shrink spell can, instead, only shrink the subject's head. :-) 3. Childhood Crush - Have the party followed around by a little girl (or boy) they encountered in town because of a crush she has developed on one of the players. 4. Sticky Situation - One of the players accidentally encounters a new epoxy glue that a local carpenter was developing and is glued to the very next thing he touches for one entire day. This can get really funny depending on what he's glued to - the side of a carriage, the backside of a mule, a tavern wench, etc. 5. The Illustrated Man - The players find reason to kill a man covered in tattoos, and the first player to touch him after death has all of the tattoos transferred to him. 6. Limp-along Cassidy - After crossing a stream, the shoes of one of the players shrink and, besides the reduction in movement and agility due to pain, cannot removed them without cutting them to pieces (the shoes, not the feet, remember this is only meant to be a silly nuisance, not crippling.) 7. Out Out Damned Spot - One of the players begins developing a flesh-eating sore that continues to grow, but on closer inspection discovers that it is a civilization of microscopic people building a microscopic city of warrens in and under his skin. The fun here can be in the creative and resourceful ways the people find to survive his various attempts to remove them. 8. Legend - The players encounter an aging man who is a legend among adventurers. If he accompanies the players on their adventure, he kills all enemies instantly, not allowing the players any XP or treasure. (Sounds great at first, but the players are going to quickly grow to hate this guy!) 9. Flea Circus - The players encounter a flea trainer, whose fleas are too small to see but do his bidding by stealing things, or throwing guards off castle walls, etc. Later, the players discover there are no fleas, he is just a magic-user with a sense of humor. 10. Landsick - After a short boat trip, during which one of the crew gives them a cure for seasickness, the players who took the cure find that they get deathly ill on land and only feel better when on a boat. Particularly funny for dwarf characters because dwarfs hate boats!

5 Rules to be a Great and Desired RPG Game Master

We did the "6 Rules to be a Great and Desired RPG Player", it's only fair we do a list for GMs. These are rules to be a great GM your players will love.

1. Know what you want - As a GM, know what it is you want from an RPG campaign. Do you prefer dungeon clearing, monty haul, hack-n-slash, or heavy on role playing? Trying to please players by giving them what they want at the expense of what you want is a sure way to resent and eventually dread your gaming sessions. It's a guarantee that if you aren't having fun, none of your players are going to, either.

2. Be transparent with prospective players - Once you've established the style of role-playing you prefer, be clear with potential players about the kind of campaign you run. The player may walk away, but ultimately building a party of players who like what you like about role-playing is much more fun and satisfying for everyone.

3. Be consistent - However you run your campaign, be consistent, not just in your style of play, but in the discretionary decisions you make during play. If you require players to make a certain roll when bartering for goods in the market, be sure everyone must make the roll each time they barter. Inconsistency can frustrate players and make them feel as if your campaign is random and arbitrary and, ultimately, not fair.

4. Keep your secrets secret - If you fudge dice rolls behind your screen, whether in favor of, or against your players, NEVER tell them. Certainly it is your prerogative to do so, but imagine you're a player who just achieved a heroic feat worthy of ballad and song...and then your GM tells you he fudged the result. Suddenly your feat isn't as impressive, you're elation becomes deflation and you no longer feel as good as you did a second ago. Do this often enough and your players will cease to care about outcomes and begin to act as randomly and arbitrarily as they feel you do.

5. Don't rush - Allow the dramatic tension of your current scenario build, give the players room to role-play, and don't try to walk them through a story-line you've predetermined. Allow everyone the comfort and emotional safety to play their characters as they see fit. Don't try to rush the campaign based on a timeline of your devising. Trust that everything will have a chance to unfold, let it do so in its own time.

6 Rules to be a Great and Desired RPG Player

These six rules to become a great role-player that every GM will love are based on the five basic rules for improv - the art of impromptu, unscripted acting.

1) Don't Deny - Never turn away from an obvious attempt by an NPC to engage your character, especially if it is clearly an entree into an adventure. The GM has put a lot of work into his adventures and to deliberately deny an NPC is to disrespect that prep work.

2) Be decisive - When prompted for action, don't demur or wish wash - act! Don't wait for or ask other players to decide what your character should do. Any action, even a stupid one, is better than inaction. Fortune favors the bold, and a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.

3) You don't always have to be funny - Allow yourself to be immersed by the world your GM has created, take it as seriously as you would if it were real. It's certainly entertaining to be silly and funny, but it's also superficial and trivial. Allowing the drama of the adventure to envelope the session is even more engaging and fun, and does high respect to your GM and his prep work.

4) You can look good if you make your party look good - You don't always have to contend to be the center of attention to look good on stage. Just as often, supporting and backing up your party so they look good is a way to make yourself look good as well.

5) Role-play, don't narrate - Always roleplay your character's dialog and interactions, don't narrate them. For example, saying, "Jondyce tells the oracle about the party's encounter with the zombies..." falls flat compared to: "Oh mighty oracle, I shall relate to thee the tragic end of thy cleric in our fight against the foul undead! Upon entering the tomb, we..."

6) Tell a story - Remember that in the end a role playing session is really a collaborative story that everyone is telling together. Always keep in mind that you are helping to recite an epic ballad of mystical adventure and heroism. Use your imagination to contribute to the tale in the most colorful and entertaining way that you can.