The Rope Trick; A Tale of Epic Skill!

So games have come and gone, and recently I've been running a new campaign.  I was lucky enough to be invited to the D&D NEXT Playtest.  Given the specifics of the non disclosure agreement I agreed to (and respect to the developers of the game I love so much) I won't mention much about the rules set, other then I love them and that there are skills.  I don't think that's too much, as skills have been part of the game since...oh...Advanced D&D?  And to those of you who have not played Dungeons and Dragons (you potential new players, you) skills are abilities that define what your character specializes in doing, be it tracking, swiming, expansive knowledge of the world's history, or the ability to read and write foreign languages, like Goblin, (or as I like to call it Goblinese or Gobbledegook). I believe went a bit into skills in a previous post.

Probably not a written
language though...

Anyway, as the game is currently a "Playtest", parts of the game or constantly being changed to see what works and what doesn't.  This includes the list of skills.  And in one itteration, one of those skills was "Use Rope".  One of my players picked it up and for the past couple games was looking to use it at almost every opportunity.  Now this was part joke, as the Use Rope skill itself is a flaccid one, the kind of skill you'd only see in use by a sailor, circus performer, or cattlehand (which this character is).  Seeing as how a player has so few options for skills to be trained in, trying to make Use Rope viable for situations other then tying up enemies, getting yourself out of being tied up, etc. would be seen as a bit of a joke. Or would it!?

I made a horrible mistake once, not too long ago, my friend, roomate, and six-year hetero-life partner Eric made a character based loosely on one of his favorite television personalities, someone so skilled in perception that they would notice clues that even the most dedicated detective might gloss over, and because of this ability, could make deductions so percise they seemed psychic, prophetic, and almost magical.

Skill Focus Perception and
Knowledge: Pharmaceutical

Of course, being the dream crusher of a GM I was (not wanting players to take advantage of the rules, and afraid admittedly of losing control over the game) I said "No! Just because you're proficiant in a skill doesn't make it a magical power!".  You know what, I was wrong.

Epic Tales are my business (except for the making money off of it part), and my favorite by far is the Albanian telling of The Skillful Brothers (which featured seven brothers instead of four), each endowed with a special skill, some not so far out of the bounds of human accomplishment, some definantly on the the side of "Miraculous Power". In the tale the brothers are asked by a king to save his daughter who has been abducted by the Devil, each must use their trait to save her.  The first can find the location of anyone or thing, and finds the Devil's lair.  The next can open the earth to any depth, and does so to reach the Devil's home.  The third could steal anything without being caught (taking first the girl, then one of the devil's shoes, which must've been quite stylish.), The forth threw the shoe to the end of the earth, as throwing was his strong suit.  The Fifth erected an impregnable tower instantly to protect the group when the Devil arrived to reclaim the girl (winded as he was, having taken the time to retreive his footwear.).

The Devil has had many
Depictions in History. This
is my favorite.

Unfortunatly the brothers were a little too trusting, and when the Devil asked for one last look at the fair maiden before leaving the brothers to their victory, they opened a small hole to allow the Devil a glimpse.  The devil reached through and immediatly pulled the princess out and laughed as he flew away.  Leaving the sixth brother (an expert marksmen) to shoot the Devil with an arrow that struck him with such force that he dropped the princess, leaving the seventh brother to catch her (and only he could, as he could catch anything that fell from any height.  Imagine the games of catch between Four and Seven.  Nike commercial material.)

As a side note, this is my favorite telling because when the brothers return, all are rewarded.  And unlike the four brothers, none bicker over who marries the princess as she is the one who chooses her husband to be (Spolier Alert: She chooses brother Seven, who caught her and was the youngest brother and most handsome, as younger brothers often are.)

Now let's tie it all up.  Skills ARE magical powers! The power to speak, the power to write, the ability to influence others, "THE ABILITY TO READ!". These are things that we take for granted, these are things that ARE magical and miraculous.  I work with a guy who could take my car apart and put it back together and it would run just as well.  And though I know that it is possible and not "extraordinary" in terms of what humanity is capable of, in terms of what I'm capable of my car is made of Glass, Metal, Fire, and Magic, and that man is a Caromancer!  The ability to use a rope though we are disenchanted with it, could be something amazing! Look at what Indiana Jones could do with a whip!

Skill Focus: Use Rope and
Knowledge: Archeology

The point is that as time goes on, and I realize that my struggle to contain and control the confines of what characters are capable has been equal to struggle to remain innovative and inventive in my story because the two are inexorably linked! (I really enjoyed that sentance.)  I've been trying to protect a rules set like it's a sacred text when really it's just a decision system.  When I try to contain the world I've created I've served only as it's opressor and to free it I must face simple facts.  I am not an all powerful being, or omnipotent overseer of an alternate reality!  I am merely a chronicler, a watcher, a simple force with the illusion of control! In truth the rules mean nothing! The players have no limits other then what they can imagine!  My imaginary constructs are alive the moment I share them, they slip away from me and the players can take them to heights I never imagined!

And those my friends, have been my very favorite stories, and my job is the best, because no matter how high they go, I get to be the one that catches them.

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.

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!