These are the Rules I Game by...

So recently a friend asked "I'm planning on running a Tabletop RPG, do you know an good resources to get me started".

Now mind you, it's been months since I've played any tabletop, Amanda and I have spent some time getting moved into a house, and even before that, conflicting schedules left us not much time together.  But, storytelling games are neither jealous nor fickle, when you need to take some time for yourself its books wait patiently on your shelves, its dice and pens sit in their organized cubbies, its hand-crafted map tools and miniatures wait silently in their boxes.  And when you're ready, they embrace you with open arms, and I am ready to start again.  Every weekend that I'm not sitting around a table rolling dice with my friends is a weekend I want to jump out of my skin.

Aberrant Bunny Man, Tentacle Woman, or
Three-Eyed Intelligent Mutant Rat. But a few of
Gamma World's Character Options.

...but I digress! As I said, it's only been a few months, so when the gears started moving there was no rust to stop them.  "Which Game? What kind of story are you running? How many Players do you have? How long will your sessions be? What sort of map are you using? Who're you antagonists? What is your theme?"  of course, before I could ask any of these he added "...Specifically for Gamma World".

Ah...Gamma World, you know what's great about Gamma World? Everything's great about Gamma world.  Gamma World is a little bit of everything.  It's a little like if the Shadowrun tabletop RPG and the Fallout video game series had a baby, but the baby was too ugly so they put it up for adoption, but then it was adopted by Dungeons and Dragons, because D&D has a heart of gold, and Gamma World was too ugly not to love.

To the initiated, I'm of course talking about Wizards of the Coast's October 2010 release of Gamma World (or 7th edition)

To the uninitiated, Gamma World is an adventure game that takes place in an alternate reality where, well, all "Alternate Realities" collapsed on one another, including many like our own in an event called "The Big Mistake" due to the activation of the Large Hadron Collider.  In many realities nuclear war had broken out, in many strange and alien creatures walked the earth, etc.  Just about anything you can imagine can appear in the haunted, irradiated, apocalyptic landscape of Gamma Terra.  You are one of the strange mutated denizens of said planet, your body undergoing constant "Alpha Mutation" due to your strange physiology or perhaps just quirks of reality.  Ruins of countless "old worlds" dot the landscape, as does their discarded technology.

As bleak as this mess sounds, the game's guide urges storytellers and players to "Embrace the Weird".  Storytellers are armed with strange creature to throw at players, while the players themselves create characters from a random table of origins, mixing tropes to make Psychic Yetis, Pyromantic Intelligent Plants, Genetically Engineered Giant Roaches, Kitten Swarms, Empathic Hawk Men, Radioactive Androids...the list goes on, and any combination of those things really.

Penny Arcade knows what it's all about.

The system is based strongly on Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition rule set, making Gamma World, a fantastic game for new players and storytellers alike.  So maybe I should get back to that part, instead of writing a review of the game...

I started to compile a list of what I'd learned as a Storyteller for table-top RPGs, a few rules to live by when it comes to running a game. Said list is as follows.

This guy's D&D campaign would be
awesome...

1. Know your Audience:
Like any great performer, you're looking to make sure your audience has a good time, have an interactive audience makes that job much easier.  These are your friends and loved ones playing a game, tailor it into something they will love as much as it's a cool idea you had for a story.

2. Characters are Characters, Stories are Stories, Know the distinction:
Those new to tabletop gaming often come up with a grand tale when faced with creation in a game, full of scenery and great characters.  None of this great creativity should be wasted, it should be shared.  Storytellers and players alike should remember this is a cooperative storytelling experience. Enforce your roles as players and storytellers, but don't be afraid to give ideas and build a story based on collaborative ideas.

3.  Know the Rules at least well enough to Fake it:
You don't need to know the game like the back of your hand, but you should know it well enough to make rules as you go so that you don't have to waste time going through books.  Just remember to explain to your players that you are taking liberties for the sake of keeping the game moving and they should be pretty understanding.  If you do fudge a rule though, make sure it favors the players; ruling off the cuff is risky, and at the end of the night you can either have people walking away from your table wondering why you were making up rules to cheat them, or talking about how awesome it was when their character used their "Use Rope" skill to lasso an airship and swing to it like Errol Flynn.  I'd prefer the latter.

4. Never Punish your Players:
Friends get goofy, especially if your game goes late into the evening, or allows alcohol.  These antics can go from simple distractions, to game-breaking disruptions that angers everyone at the table.  As a Storyteller (especially in a state of exhausted, Mountain Dew fueled, frustration), it's easy to lose your temper and say "You've been struck by lightning", "your horses are dead", "All your stuff has been stolen", "you don't get paid".

...this one's would probably require
quite a few savings throws.

Catching yourself before "bringing the hammer down" is tough, it's a bit like supressing the urge to strangle the life out of someone who has just slapped you in public and is now laughing to everyone around you about it.  They ruined your game, they've wasted your time, and now they're going to pay the price. (I could do a whole post about this).  IF you have the good sense to identify this situation as soon as it starts say "let's break a few minutes before this escalates". Stand up, grab a drink, talk to your players about what's going on in the game.  If things are going in a logical direction and you think the game can be salvaged, then gather your thoughts and prepare, then get right back in there.  If you feel continuing in this direction is only going to create more disruption, or worse hostility, don't be afraid to call the game for the night.  Everyone's here to have fun, Storyteller and Players.  If someone isn't having a good time, then the game wastes their time too.

5. Challenge your Players, and Never Leave that Challenge to Chance:
A story is nothing without adversity, and if there's anything my good friend Kristina Elyse Butke has taught
me (shameless name drop), it's that "the stakes have to be life or death, anything less your audience won't give a shit about."  Death doesn't just mean character death though, it can also be a change of life as they know it.  Your players should be striving to work through something, and though bad rolls can rob your player's characters of glory, simply leaving such finality to the roll of a dice is boring, especially if they have nothing to gain from it except "Not Dying".  Don't throw needless, tedious combats at them (a crime I have been guilty of, MANY times over), and don't pigeon hole their options to "Door A, that's all".  "Challenge" means more then "heap of monsters to kill", and a player's "hard decision" shouldn't amount to whether or not they can kill something.

Wrapping up, I'm sure I could come up with many more rules, but that would diminish my point.  Running a game is more then memorizing rules.  It's easy to get swept up in trying to recall procedure like "attacks of opportunity", the bonuses you get from certain types of cover, and whether something made a saving throw for ongoing damage.  So long as the people around your table are laughing and having a great time, you can't go wrong.

Roleplaying, True Character, and Letting Someone else Drive

I have a dream that my player's avatars will play in a game where they will not be judged by the numbers of their stats, but by the content of their character!

I haven't had much time recently to play Dungeons and Dragons with space and time contraints due to moving and work, and so my epic "Albion" campaign which I've plotted and schemed on of months has fallen by the wayside.  Usually I would be disappointed, and even greive the loss of the game (or more to the point, the work I put into the world's development).  But, I believe that I developed Albion to the point that the world itself is now a living thing someplace in my head, all I need is to inject players and change the priorities of the world to involve them.  Though my game has died (or at least lies dormant), a world was born, and I am a proud, proud papi!

With that lapse in time a contender has arisen! And by contender, I mean Storyteller who's been doing this much longer then I have.  There was a old Star Wars D20 game on the horizon, hosted by a man named Ryan.  Ryan is a friend of a brother of a friend of mine, who's actually also a friend, but also kind of a brother because my friends' other brother is married to the sister of my actual brother's wife.  So let's just say Ryan is a friend of a friend, and a veteran storyteller and game master.

I've always been afraid that I take my job as a game master too seriously, between things like probing character development questions, and forcing reources like Obsidian Portal on my players.  But, sitting down with Ryan to go over my character concept I realized I'm not the only one who goes to great lengths for the sake of a campaign.  By the time we had sat down to piece together my character, we had spoken on the phone, exchanged emails, and I had even taken an anonymous survey taken by the players to help shape the campaign (I'll be adopting that one).  I usually fleshing out a character after the player has created them, trying to get a feel for my player's character's backgrounds to make the characters seem more real , and less like a group of stats on a piece of paper.

Ryan's approach got in at the ground level of character creation, instead of saying "make a character and show up" asking "what type of character do you want to be?".  At first I didn't think these two approaches were so different, but it became clear to me given the chance to change perspective.  Instead of getting ready to step into you're character's shoes on game day, each step in character creation IS a step in your character's shoes.  The end result was the game starting with you being told, "this is how you got here" and less of "well you're here, now what" (a simple lesson, but one that took me years to actually learn).

"I don't know guys, I just can't shake this weird feeling,
It's like a blaster, right in my back!"

The differences didn't stop there, during the game play, rules and roles were established in character, and soon were flipped, week 1 started with a Jedi led strike team assaulting a seperatist array at the height of the clone wars, and ended with "order 66".  Blessed as I considered myself for getting to play the sole Jedi player character in game, things quickly turned ugly as the other players turned on me, killing my Jedi Master, and knocking my character unconcious and binding him.

I was pissed! Here I was, helplessly watching the other players beat, hogtie, and rob my character and rules, rolls, and the frail Jedi Sage I had carefully built was not enough to stop them.  I know as well as anyone that it is in fact "just a game" and to let things slide, but in the moment, watching other players grind my poor Jedi Padawan's face into the ground, I couldn't help but wonder, "So I drove acrossed town and used some great ideas the create a character so I can stand here and watch him get his ass kicked and do nothing to stop it?".  To boot, not only is it the person who's running the game making your life hard, but 5 of your friends kind of killing your fun.  It's hard not to get salty, and say "why's everyone picking on me!?".

In the end, after my character was taken out of action, the intruige of the story was more then enough to keep me from collecting my things, yelling "I HATE YOU!" like a burning Anakin Skywalker, and running from the house trying to choke back my angsty tears, (ok it wouldn't have been that bad, but I was pretty frustrated.)

"I rolled a 20 against stun and I STILL drop my lightsaber,
NERD RAGE!"

The night ended with my character bound, and the group fleeing the newly formed Galactic Empire.  A week in realtime (and game time) gave me time to reflect.  Walking away from the house, I was threatening player characers and plotting vengeance for my fallen master, but the week between the games gave me an opportunity to do something I haven't been able to do in literal years.  Take time to myself, drop into character, analyze what had happened, plot my next move.  Even better was that my character follows a monastic tradition, so while a week had passed, I read up on the Jedi code, reflected on it's teachings, and returned to the game the following saturday (mostly) free of angry thoughts of vengeance (in character and out).  What's more is that during the course of the evening, there was discussion in character about the current events in the galaxy, what the next step as a group was.  Most of which wasn't moderated by the Storyteller, just a few of us stepped aside, agreed on what our characters knew and didn't know about current events (to avoid "metagaming", I believe I mentioned it in a previous post), and spoke about possible paths and our goals.  For anyone familiar with Star Wars cannon, the conversation between a Jedi padawan and two clone commandos post order 66 was surprisingly respectful, diplomatic, and well played.  I'm not going to say what took place was "LARPing", but actually standing aside with two other people and speaking openly in character, it's the closest I've been.

Got a little side-tracked there.  Long story short, I reached a level of immersion I've been seeking my players to experience for quite a while.  Despite a lot of my experience coming what can be concieved as a negative experience (really frustrated), I was still hooked! Not just because the GM sets a compelling story, but also because those setbacks, both planned and rolled, helped give my character direction and set a challange before me much more exciting and important then target numbers.

So, personal story aside, let's talk a little about character development, more specifically, character development in a tabletop gaming atmosphere.

A character developed in a tabletop gaming session is quite different from a literary character, as they are forced to overcome forces that you can not control.  When writing a book or a short story, you have the liberty of setting challanges before your character that will help shape them into a character you desire, tabletop gaming is quite a bit different.  Your character is forced to weather the crucible of a fiendish DM, and the choices made by other characters (all of whom are every bit as important to the story as yours).  It's easy to forget (especially starting out) that your character is not the main character, that the story revolves around your group, not your persona.  Building a story with multiple main characters is hard on a player who's got a very interesting plot line, and a storyteller who is trying to follow an interesting plot line, but might risk leaving out other characters.  It's alright to play a character who's more of a supporting character then a lead, but even the most avid wallflowers need light, and in leaving someone to take a backseat to the rest of the group langwish you risk at best wasting that person's time and at worst that person becoming disruptive to the rest of the group.

"Trouble" Players are easy to spot, usually they're
holding a rule book, and arguing with the game master.

The key is constant is to be mindful of your surroundings and keep communication between your fellow players and storyteller.  It's easy to start the accept the atmosphere of the game (especialy Dungeons and Dragons, with it's "Adventure Game" roots) as something as more competative, with your Storyteller seen as an adversary and the other player as independant plot lines that speak when you're not speaking, and help keep you alive.  The fact is that like De Niro said in Brazil, "We're all in it together, kid.", that is to say instead of jockying for your turn to talk, you should wait to make sure to wait for others to react and have their say.  Instead of pulling levers in a room you just walked into, make sure the other players have time to check out their surroundings before being "that guy" that says "Hey! What's this do!?".  Sure you could reason "I have an impulsive character! That's just how they are!", but frustrating other player because "that's how my character is" is a slippery slope.  A few slip ups makes for interesting  (and frustrating in a good way) situations, but simply saying "That's how I am, deal with it" is either going to make player characters reconsider inviting your character on future adventures, or make your friends reconsider inviting you to future games.  Your "dark and mysterious" character is interesting, but when their "dark and mysterious" decisions start to step on the liberties of other characters, you've got some explaining to do, opening the way for some great story oriented conflict.  If it doesn't go the way of story oriented conflict (and that which actually reaches a resolution in a timely manner), and you dodge questions and accusations instead of confronting them, prepare to reap the consequences of the wedge you just drove between yourself and your party.

In closing, it's hard being a good game master, but even harder is being a good player, balancing your enthusiasim with patience in a world of adventure and excitment is enough to drive anyone crazy, but remember to share your enthusiasim with the people around you, create bonds with the other characters in the game (and game masters, create situations that force players to work together!  A room full of monsters is not enough to fulfill a team building exercise!).

You could make a thousand characters, and never know adventure
like this heating engineer.

Be prepared to make compromises on how you play your character, to leave room for others.  The only thing worse then a character who doesn't stick to their beliefs, is one too obstinate to make room for the people closest to them, and fictitious or real, people like that don't keep friends for long...ficticious or real.

Immersion, living the dream, and getting Old

April 6th I turned a year older.  I'm now 29 and a year a way from three decades of life provides a great oppotunity to look back on one's life and accomplishments and say "Who am I now, and how did I get here?"

Instead of doing that I took a week off work to play Assassin's Creed 2, buy a Dremel Tool to modify Nerf guns with my girlfriend, and purchased small bits or wood, fake plastic trees, and modeling clay from hobby shops to contruct sets for my table top gaming sessions.  Do I need fantastic hand scuplted statues and personalized game pieces to get my players involved in the game? Of course not! And it's a good thing too, because my hand has never been the steadiest, my brother's the artist, I am the...well...something else equally creative and amazing I'm sure.  But it did make me think, though I was making these pieces mostly because they were great opportunity to do something with my hands other then typing on a keyboard or clicking a mouse, what was so important about small custom made corridors and wooden hand-painted figures?  The answer is simple.  Immersion.

If your character is here, your mind should be too.
(Link to Original Piece)

Immersion in a table top role playing game comes in many different forms.  In a previous blog I'd mentioned the root of said games being fireside tales of high adventure, providing a great atmosphere with crackling fire wood smoke smells, and (usually) tastey food, players may get the sense that they aren't too much unlike their character counterparts, sitting around a cozy fire between perilous dungeons, regailing eachother with stories of adventure and excitment.  Sadly, fireside adverturing games are hard to come by, given the space needed to both play the game combined to with space needed to safely manage an open flame.  It can be done, in fact there's a hundred things that can be done to make a game more special when you're commited to it, but it gets expensive.  And after so much time your relationship with your players is like your relationship with a significant other, you want to find exciting locals and neat experiences to share together, but as time passes and you're more comfortable with each other, just doing it on the kitchen table is fine...

When your player's characters look
like this, your players should feel
like this.

...Aside from the the obvious memorable experience, immersion serves a very utilitarian purpose.  If your group is at all like mine, they have been friends for years, and their Saturday night game is their night to catch up with said friends, talking about news and goings on throughout the week.  "Non-game related" talk can be disruptive and distracting, and when you only have so much time in an evening to weave a tale of high adventure, all involved can shoot themselves in the feet by taking the time to sing Guy on a Buffalo in four part accapella (Though a resourcful storyteller would capitalize on such events by forcing encounters on players where they have to sing or recite epic tales).  This can be mitigated through time management, and immersion.  An immersed player is focused, in character, and ready to play.  So let's look at some immersion techniques.

Decription:
Description is the easiest and most basic form of immersion because it's going to happen some way or another.  If you tell your players "The man you are speaking to is middle-aged, just under 6 feet tall,  completely bald and below sparkling dark eyes and a large nose is a thick handlebar moustache and a crooked grin. Broad shoulders and a barrel chest fill his fine silk clothing, which is a deep green simple and elegant in design.  He greets you warmly, introducing himself as Edgar Belmont, the man soon to become Baron of the city of Saxon and it's surrounding lands." you give them a pretty clear picture of what their looking at.

The alternative is to say, "A middle aged man approaches you, you note he is bald and has a large handlebar mustache. "I am Edgar Belmont" he says, the name familiar to you as you know he is soon to be baron of Saxon, a community known for it's export of fine silk. "Allow me to welcome you to Saxon and thank you for attending my coronation.  I understand you're from York?"

Where the second gives less detail of the man, it does hint at enough to let the players for their own picture in their heads, they know he's probably wealthy given his position and are able to come up with their own "look" with limited features and indication of lifestyle, the important part of this description though is the way he speaks.  Folks have a bias when hear about someone, which is different from when they see them, which is different from when they speak to them.  The moment you open your mouth in chracter to your players, they will make their measure of the "person speaking"  and decide whether they are a threat or an asset.  Aside from interaction, very little description is needed for your players to fill in the blanks, and so immerse themselves.

Though this is the easiest way to immerse your players, long bouts of description turn into lecture (and soon to interuption).  Describe away, but be prepared for your players to interupt and interact.  Don't get angry when they interupt you to say "I'll take a closer look at that!" either ask them to let you finish or indulge them.  If their interuption relavent to what you're describing you have them hooked! If not, ask them to save it for later.

Atmosphere:

If your house looks like this, a little
atmosphere shouldn't be hard to create.

Ambiance is a tricky thing, since most times you're looking at playing at a kitchen table, in a living room, or in a basement.  Depending on what you're trying to convey with the feel of your adventure, you can stick with clever lighting tricks.  A Dungeon crawl of an adventure could take place in a basement with no windows, and candle light.  Stories of court intrigue could be hosted in well lit rooms with plenty of food and drink.  A Kitchen lit (and stocked) properly could have a Taverny feel.  I personally prefer a patio in fair weather.  Fresh air does wonders for a party's ability to think, sounds of bugs and birds does well to lend to a frontier or wilderness motiffs.  The few times I've been able to host on a patio, It's been very well received!

A word about lighting, dice and sheets are hard to read in dim light, make sure your playing space is well lit for players.  Losing pencils, dice, and not reading abilites on a sheet is a problem.  Your ambience should not get in the way of your game.


Tools:

When it comes to tabletop gaming, your experienced players have obviously taken their love of the game to the next level.  First they did this by purchasing all the suppliment books that their game's publisher released to make money, then they started buying tools.  Gaming tools can actually be split into two catagories, Playing Tools and Props.

The Sultan, Lords and Ladies is it pricey, but if you're serious
about tabletop gaming, there is no finer table, until you go
with a touch screen.

Playing Tools are hardware you may associate more with the storyteller, these are things that help the game at it's most basic levels.  Truthfully, a group of gamers with the proper mental capabilities can run a game without paper, but it makes it easier when you have your character sheet, and some graph paper with a map drawn out, or instead a Vinyl Mat with one inch squares, Wet Erase Markers, and Minitures of your specific player's characters.  That second part probably sounds pricey. It is.  But when you start to seriously consider these games as a hobby, spending a money on objects that define your character (as a player) is a personal touch that is worth it.  As a storyteller, being able to use tools to shape a large map is quick, fun, and gives your players a very real image of dangers their facing and the situation their in.  Sure your player's O's can be surround by X's on grid paper, or they could be hand painted figurines, with the likness of each specific character standing in a molded plastic dungeon, surrounded by wicked looking, die-cast lizard people with barbed spears. If you can afford it and you're commited, designing sets can be very rewarding for players and storytellers.   There's also a large amount of free software available to allow you to run a digital game board, most of these are oriented to playing over the internet though, and few port well to a "T.V. based table top map".

Outside and in costume, sure.
But crowded around a table in a kitchen,
foam swords quickly become
why we can't have nice things.

Props are...tricky. Like a personalized figurine, perhaps your player arrives holding something relevent to his character.  This sort of tool is neat because it begins breaching the realms between "gaming experience" and "performance art", unfortunatly it is also very dangerous.  At best case scenario you have people sitting in cloaks with elf ears spirit glued on, worst case scenario one of your players shows up with a freshly sharpened German Bastard Sword. Props to get your players into character are very cool, until your players get bored with sitting and decide to start swinging them at one another.  You can try to tell them "act like adults!", but they did just show up for a glorified playdate.  If you invite props to your game, keep them non-weapon oriented, or have your players sign a waiver.

Again, KEEP IT SIMPLE.  Having extravagent game sets or costumes can be very awesome, but remember that your players are here to play a game.  If set peices and costumes gets in the way of playing, either throw the idea out...or instead of running the game have a costume party!

Media:
At it's simplest incarnation, media enters your game as the player character's pictures, but using visuals and sounds can add more ambience to an adventure.  Visual queues such as pictures of exotic locations might do well to put your characters in the mind set of the area their exploring.  Having a slide show running on a near by Television might be a nice touch.

Amazing Lanscapse like this one can not only give you
Players a great image of the lands they roam, but can also
give you inspiration on what sorts of lands to
base your game around (Link to Original Piece)

Sound can also be a huge boon.  Having background music playing can be a nice touch.  Though you want to tailor the music towards the game your playing, don't work too hard to match it.  Background music in my experience has been as much a distraction as anything, prompting players to pull out their smart phones and decide which music they believe is better for the scene.  Sound effects, though they seem like a good idea are just another thing to keep track of and somewhat cheapen the mood.  When a player fails at something really important in game, having the Price is Right buzzer to punctuate it is funny only once.

Music proves for great inspiration outside the game though, I usually put together an unofficial soundtrack when I'm piecing games together, just something to inspire me while I'm creating encounters and story work.  And for players, there's no reason why a character shouldn't have their own theme song!

Again, media like images and sound can be a one of your greatest tools for immersion, but just as easily become your greatest distraction.  External media is also just another thing to keep track of outside the normal details you have to remember for your game (especially if you're the host!)

Ultimatly, immersion comes down to your players.  You can enforce rules and add tools to help get folks into character, but if they feel like chatting about work and topics other then goblin slaying to blow off steam, there's not alot you can do to stop them. Again, the best thing to do is to let them get it out of their system, don't fight them to lead them back to the game.  After a few minutes, everyone will remember what they're there for and want to get rolling.  Frequent breaks and giving your players time to chat before getting started also helps to alleviate non-game related banter.  Listeners recognize a great tale when they are free to, not when it's forced upon them, then it becomes a lecture.

In closing, truely authentic immersion is the greatest gift a storyteller can give to one of their listeners and vice  versa.  Imagine someone telling you the tale of Henry of York, a young Sword for Hire with a shadowy past, or Mika the Bard searching the world for ancient tales and lessons past, or Wren the Sorcerer, seeking fame, fortune, and most of all, a good time.  Imagine being told their tales and when the tale is done you remember them like you were there, "like it was a dream, but it seemed so real".  These memories and the lessons contained within are the gifts we storytellers share with the world.  Humanity's most potent legacy is The Story, and every last man, woman, and child has a tale to tell.

Share your stories, but remember that when others are sharing to listen and let yourself be swept up in it, you might just learn something.

A New System: Numbers, content, and "Hands Off" Story-Telling

So I'm working on a new System.  "What sort of System" you ask? Why a Role playing Game system, of course!  Long have I wanted to breach into writing (as I've mentioned in the past), but I find myself spinning stories in my head then letting them flutter away as I don't seem to have the discipline to commit them to paper.  So I turn to my favorite mode of getting an audience to experience your storytelling.  Gaming.

The thought of building and balancing a complete System can
be a bit overwhelming, even if it is based largely on another system

More specifically, Table Top gaming.  There's something special about sitting around a table with your friends, sharing tales and telling stories, and this is the closest thing to it these days. Not to sound like an "Old fuddy-duddy", but with TV, Video Games, Cinema, etc., there's not much in the way these days of passing on stories like Aesop's Fables, Grimm's Fairy Tales, that isn't covered by Television.  Don't get me wrong, I too, am a child of technology, but I believe there are some important traditions that have shaped mankind as social beings, and sitting around listening to someone like me who has awesome stories to share is one of them.

Jokes aside, the issue that plagues all tabletop games comes to a matter of balance.  Where does the world fueled on the imagination of all involved (Storyteller and Players) stop and the numbers and rules begin? Is the system you use give a lot of leeway for what your capable of?  Or does it paint your Imaginary Avatar into very finite conditions?  Both can be interesting depending on your style of play, so long as you don't rob your players of their most powerful tool, Choice.  On the other hand, coming from a background of working with players who look for loopholes in a system to work in their favor (thereby unbalancing the game, decimating any possible "challenge" you may have set for them, and leaving other "balanced" players far behind) leads to a Storyteller who pours over text, lawyers rules, and enforces interpretation with an iron fist (which doesn't make players happy, even your reformed loophole seekers).  So, let's break down the system.

Your system, the rules and numbers, are very bones of your game.  If your game is a giant fire breathing dragon, this is the massive skeleton on which rests majestic beatings wings to a powerful rending claws to horrible gnashing teeth.  These are the rules and sciences of your world, and how your players interact with it.  Systems are tricky to explain because they are the part of a game you actually have to learn (obviously) to play.

If your familar with Pen and Paper
D20 games, you know what
fickle mistresses these can be.

For our example we're going to use a D20 system, because it's one I'm most familiar with, and one I'm looking at building my game in itself.  So a quick lesson on how it works is in order...

Step 1. Choose an action to perform, if it's something you have a chance to fail at, the storyteller associates a difficulty number to it.

Step 2. Roll a 20 sided dice, add or subtract any appropriate modifiers to the dice roll result

Step 3. Compare the result of your roll to the target number. If it's above, success! If it's below, failure!

And that's it!  Well, aside from calculating what bonuses your character receives and such.  Obviously it's a bit more complicated, but this is what the system is based on. A difficulty 10 is about a 50% chance for anyone to succeed, but when your character is skilled at the action their taking that add to their roll effective making their target number lower or less difficult.  Here's an example, with a little bit of flavor...

"Axton the barbarian is headed to an Tavern with his adventuring party, when he notices a rather comely Barwench standing in front of the establishment.  Between Axton's party and the tavern is a small stream.  A smile splits Axton's rough face, but he then notices Bartleby, his handsome and roguish traveling companion afixed with the same dopish look.  Axton and Bartleby get along quite well, as they share many tastes, which is precisly what puts them at odds in this instance.  Bartelby breaks into a sprint towards a near by bridge, not wanting to risk fording the stream and making a mess of his fine clothing.  Axton decides to take a daring and impressive shortcut, leaping the stream itself."

This Epic party is waiting....

The Storyteller sets the difficulty at 15, a perilous task with about a 25% chance of success for a 20 sided dice. But Axton the Barbarian is no mere schmuck, his raw strength paired with honed athletic ability give him a +10! Making his target number now a 5 instead of a 15.  Axton's player rolls a 20 sided dice and the result is a 7, adding his bonus makes it a 17...

"Axton easily leaps across the stream in an impressive athletic display, leaving Bartleby panting at the bridge and the Barwench all aflutter.  He throws her a heroic smile, she blushes and eagerly awaits a stellar pick up line to sweep her off her feet..."

Axton has no real experience with exercising his charm, and though is decent looking, gets nervous around pretty girls.  His combined natural ability and lack of expertise net him a -2. Let's say his difficulty for whatever reason is again set to a 15, he now has to roll a 17 or better to succeed.  Chances are his roll probably merits failure, and a heroic line like "Your hair is shiny, and I like turtles...".

Have I lost you? I hope not.

..for this epic party to get rolling!

The real complexity comes in details of what you are trying to accomplish and how capable your character is at completing said action. You Jumping a stream is relatively simple as opposed to calculating not only your chances of tackling a dragon, but what do you tell your players when they say "what angle should I hit the Dragon to get the best effect? i.e. a higher bonus to my roll?".  Previous rules sets expand their rules of character development to cover such actions, micromanaging each specific action your character is capable of for the sake of clarity.  This can be good to help define your character's abilities, but it also it gives your character a list of what can and can't be done, a list they have to remember or write down, a list that your character has to reference in rule books, often while playing and thereby slowing play.

My theory is that it's better to give your a handful of skills that can quantify what your character's capable of, and then leave it up to that.  Put less emphasis on "My character has the ability to do this" and more on "My character has the ability to do many things, because of his knowledge and experience in a general area.  Previous editions featured skills such as "Jump, Climb, Swim, etc" all skills associated with your characters Athletic ability, current editions have combined all of these skills into "Athletics".  You can say "Well just because someones a good climber doesn't necessarily mean they know how to swim!"  But in the context of a game, your character is "Heroic", "Special", and cut from a cloth unlike most other people in the world he inhabits (this of course is dependent on your style of game, I'm making a "Fantasy Adventure" game, there are plenty of Modern Horror and Gothic Horror games who's character design is centered around just how insignificant your character is).

Character development is split into two parts at this point, Creation and Progression...and I am suddenly tired of continuing this post.  Character Creation and Character Progression kind of deserve their own pages, so eventually I may get to those.  So let me close with this....

What was your favorite tabletop game!? Clue? D&D? Chess?  What did you love about your game and why? Mechanics from virtually any game can be worked into a Table Top pen and paper game, and I'd love to hear what's popular, especially from people who don't play Pen and Paper Role playing Games!

Character Death; or Funeral for a Friend, Love lies Bleeding.

Death is something everyone is familiar with, right?  Unless you're pretty detached (if so, here's some news for you), Death is something that is reviled, revered, celebrated, and lamented the world over.  It's a powerful concept, especially in popular culture (what with the injection of zombies and vampires and other supernatural beings).  I'll leave out my prejudices on how death has been approached in said cultural phenomena, and get right to my point, which is the death of someone you're familiar with, and where storytelling is concerned "Character Death".

Hey Y'all, How's bout a hug?

This past weekend, a small group of adventurers ventured into the waterworks of one of the largest cities in the world (that they inhabit) only to find that the murderer they've been tracking is actually a number of murders, or more specifically a Cult.  The adventurers swept through the hidden sanctum, fighting for their lives through roaring subterranean waterways and pipe filled halls until the reached the leader of the cult.  The leader was obviously mad, and mutated by some dark gift.  The adventurers were in the middle of giving the cult a sound beating when a screeched pierced the room, and out of one of the pipes a sickening other-worldly creature arose from a pipe in the center of the room, a brain the size of a man lined with whipping tentacles and affixed with a razor-sharp beak.  The creature set to work sweeping adventurers off their feet and tearing at them with it's scissor-like jaws.  Eventually the adventurers were forced to flee, two barely alive, carrying the third; unconcious, and the last lost, ripped apart by the alien beast and dropped down the well when he was no longer perceived as a threat.


The players were not happy.  No one complained, and I don't think anyone felt I'd cheated them, but the Grell dominated the fight and the only thing worse then players having to run without victory, is that they lost one of their number.  

Depending on setting, most
dead player characters find
themselves an audience with
this lady.  So, you know,
Not all bad.

Most players see the death of their character as a blessing and a curse.  On one hand you've lost all that time and energy put into playing that character.  On the other (and this has been especially true in my group) you get the opportunity to make a new character.  Potentially you can make a character that fits a little more with the group (cover areas that the group needs), make someone that covers the weaknesses your last character encountered, and/or make something/someone else entirely that's just more fun to play.  My players to date love bringing in fresh blood, much to my disdain as it keeps the group loose and trust a rarity among player characters as new faces aren't readily trusted.


At any rate removing a character from any story by Death creates a hole.  Bad storytellers (and Dungeon Masters looking to get on with the story) ignore that hole, worse storytellers make that hole dominate the story.  But a great storyteller recognize this "Death-hole" (wow, I need to work on my word-smithing)  for what it is and what it represents in real life, a challange, a lesson, and a mark.  


Grief is a force to be overcome.  Not ignored, not fought, but to embrace and resolve.  This is obvious to anyone who has ever lost a loved one, you mourn, you allow yourself to feel the pain of loss, and when you've felt the requisite loss, you let go.  The pain of that loss doesn't just end, you carry it with you, but you resolve that loss, you reconcile your feelings, and you move on.  Only the unhealthy seek to not resolve their feelings and stew in them.  They use that pain as a barrier to defend their actions as opposed to taking responsibility for their actions that hurt others because they were overcome with grief.

A healthy person goes to someone they lashed out at (eventually) and says "I want you to know I was overcome with sadness and pain when I hurt you, but that is no excuse.  I'm sorry."

An unhealthy person says "I want you to know I was overcome with sadness and pain when I hurt you, it's not my fault."

...can you tell I've had "Unhealthy people" issues in the past? Also, sadly, unhealthy characters seem to be popular (those characters who seem to lack insight on the issues they're suffering from, and stumble their way through a happy ending without learning any real lesson).  Death is a very real thing, and should be felt and dealt with the same whether the person is fictitious or not.  No one is stoic enough to say "my friends are dead, well, better just suck it up", if that is the case something is wrong with them (and you should run with it).  Should the death of a character enter into your story, I recommend that the impact of their death be balanced with the resolve of those they left behind.  But, I digress.

Dead Player characters never really
disappear, they're just used as monsters in later
campaigns.  Here's some having a party.

So one of my player's characters were killed, he lived a dangerous life and such a thing is not uncommon for an Great Axe wielding Barbarian, but the pain of the loss brought the game down a notch or two that night.  It was right at the end of the evening as well, which made the closing of the game a little difficult.  Everyone hung their heads, apologized, and seemed genuinely lost on how to proceed for the next week. This struck me as a peculiar thing that a fictitious character was lost, but it was the players who did not know how to move on.  Perhaps this lends a little validity to my last post...  

Under any other circumstances I would point the story in a fresh direction, allow players to roll new characters and see if I couldn't salvage ideas of what I took from this story and this cast.  But what my players don't know is that their storyteller has learned a thing or two about Death and how to handle it.  There will be no new story, no new cast characters (well, except maybe in the case of one of them), or new setting.  Resolution will come to my players and their characters the way it always does in Swashbuckling, Spell-slinging, Tales of High Adventure...


...with Vengeance.

Bending Reality; or Storyteller's Delight, Dungeonmaster's Lament!

This Dragonborn is doing
quite well...

So I sat down with a friend this weekend, who is a writer, and is my biggest inspiration for attempting to break into the world of writing with Unrelenting Force (two shout-outs there, 1. to my friend who is an amazing writer, and 2. to Skyrim, with which I've been slaying dragons for the past 4 days).  I find myself once again looking at someone's work and saying "how do you do it!?".  The ease with which she mixes mythical concepts with time honored philosophical tradition boggles the mind.  My attempts to introduce philosophy into my story telling have been failed exploits to be sure.

I think my biggest adversary in attempting some sort of philosophical incursion in storytelling has been that my main mode of storytelling has been Dungeons and Dragons.  Not that D&D hinders the ability to tell a story, not even close, but the story is not just mine, it also belongs to the players.

Here comes the theory....

Imagine if you will someone trying to explain to you, as a character in game that you are not just a character, and not just a player, you are both.  That these people you've created as your avatars in these imaginary worlds are part of your psyche that are every bit as real as you are because you have created them.  Not to cater to the hopelessly lonely or the mentally unstable, not to say "by playing you obviously have multiple personalities", but an attempt to explain that you are not literally a dragon-slaying defender of justice or all powerful arcanist, but that parts of you ARE these things, and therefore you are these things.  That when you a real person, create a representation of yourself to interact with the representations of other real people, those representations become real through belief and action, and that you actually become (one might even say ascend to) a metaphysical being, a multifaceted persona with multiple representations of yourself, you become a walker of worlds.

...these ones seem to be giving me
some trouble.

Now, This is a concept that is fraught with real and imaginary consequences based on personality traits that manifest in players when they participate.  For the sake of argument we'll equate these to a familiar eastern symbol, Yin and Yang.

With Yin you are a unstable mental anomaly cast into a sea of change and chaos, surrounded constantly by ever changing faces, none of which you believe are real, and therefore none of which you trust, and it shows by your actions against them.  Your focus is on survival, pushing out external forces, and protecting your integrity (physically in the case of your character's survival, morally by not being swayed to take action your character would condone) in the face adversity.

With Yang you are a powerful, extra planar being may experience a hundred lifetimes, and learn REAL life lessons, high adventure and true companionship and camaraderie with others.  Your focus is on fostering growth, harnessing change for the benefit of everyone and protecting the integrity of everyone and everything around you, by seeing it through the the coming adversity.

The alternative to these is you take it way too seriously, lose your grip on reality, buy a sword from the state renaissance fair and stand in your yard brandishing your blade at those who seek to encroach upon your lands.  But let's just stick with Yin and Yang for the time being.

This is what game night
must seem like to my friends...

The interesting thing about these personality types is that not only are they constantly at odds with one another, they are two sides of the same coin.  These aren't classic fantasy representations of "Good" and "Evil", but representations of a person's agenda and to which way the lean.  A Person with Yang focus may leave a defeated enemy alive so that that person has an opportunity to live, learn, and change.  Someone with a focus in Yin might kill a defeated enemy, to protect what they stand for from ever being threatened again.  And the best part is that like the player's real selves and character selves, though they may lean more to one side or another, they inherently embody both of these traits simultaneously!

...Ok, the positive and negative influence thing kind of got me off topic.  Can you see my enthusiasm?  Let's bring it on back...

If someone is mentally healthy and can perceive it, there is a lot of healthy things that they can experience through storytelling (I shy away from "role-playing" because of the carnal connotations...though I'm sure they can be cathartic too).

And what did my players say when I presented them with this possibility?  When I designed a game to show them and declare, "You are eternal champions one and all.  You have lived a hundred lifetimes in a hundred worlds and the time has come for you to open your eyes, realize that you are not just mere people sitting around a table drinking mountain dew and eating prepared finger foods, more then opportunistic rogues and raging barbarians, you are all of these things and more! You walk the worlds as travelers of the planes, transcending simple rules and words to become metaphysical beings in touch with creation and spread across the universe!"?

...They weren't ready. Neither was I... 

...Well I suppose it was my fault really.  I wasn't as strong a storyteller as I should've been.  The players seemed bored so I hurried things along, leaving out some key figures to the equation of "you are you, in game and out" because I thought they would catch on.  They didn't.  When I made it glaringly obvious some of them gave glazed over looks, others rolled their eyes.   In the end they killed my in story manifestation of myself, all creation fell away and at the moment they were to take control and rebuild it, said "so who's running the next one?"

...this is what game night is to me.

I guess that's a way of rebuilding.  Maybe they saw me as one of those people I fear, the ones that lose touch and greet everyone with "Hail" and "How art Thou?" (but when not at a Ren fair).  I think I expected too much.  In fact I know I did.  Now, I cater more to the players, who just want a sandbox to run around in as heroes, or anti-heroes.  They fight foes and do legendary deeds, and it's good, because now that I know the limits of what players expect and what I can tweak to challenge them.  At the end of the day my players, my friends, want to play a game, not "be enlightened", but that's fine and definitely fun!

But in my heart, part of me waits, and it's head swims with stars and worlds and wonder.  It waits for a time and an outlet to show that we can all unlock the secrets of the universe when we work together and that truly we can achieve anything with the power of thought and faith.  I was privileged enough to get clued in on the book my friend is working on this weekend.  And that part of me cheered, out loud, and I began to write.  I took myth and remolded it.  Like playing with matchbox cars, they were my houses and streets, and I drove like a madman with a pen and sheets of paper.  When I was done, I reread it, laughed out loud, and closed the notebook.

Inspired again. Fus-Ro-Dah!