Author Archives: TheSheDM

Unexpected GameStorm!

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Last Saturday I attended the GameStorm convention in Vancouver, WA.  Teos (@Alphastream) gave car-less me a lift while Ian (@Reg06) from Going Last podcast helped set me up with a badge – for which I’m immensely grateful to both of them! It was an unexpected trip, so I hadn’t planned my trip to take advantage of the many awesome events going on there but I did get to see a lot of the convention, play some games, and hang out with some awesome people.

GameStorm is quite the growing convention. According to the coordinator I spoke with, over a thousand people attended this year and they’re expecting an increase in attendance next year. Taking up several event rooms in the Vancouver Hilton, it’s larger than your average local con but still not as big as the giants of the gaming conventions. The best part about this is that it makes the convention feel very friendly and familiar, I saw lots of people I’ve gamed with or met at other events, making it really fun to flag people down and catch up on what games they’ve been playing lately.

The star of GameStorm I’d have to say is their main hall. An enormous space dedicated to games. Near the entrance is a library of games you can check out with just your badge number. An orange traffic cone on your table lets you advertise you’re looking for players – or spot a table and swoop in to join a new game. A section of the floor was devoted to the “Game Lab” where you could playtest games in development and earn rewards. Visiting the Dealer’s Room I had some great discussions with various vendors and few indie game developers. I also perused the wargaming room, an area devoted to children’s gaming, a console gaming room, free play lan room, checked out the LARP listings, and then I RSVP’d to play some Ashes of Athas. The tabletop RPG room was split between D&D and Pathfinder tables.

Playing Ashes of Athas at Gamestorm

 I wish I could say more, like about some cool new game I played but I didn’t have the chance to play anything particularly new. I really wanted to try the new Lords of Waterdeep but alas, no luck!  I did get to sit down to play some other games I had never tried before. I enjoyed a couple of sessions of Ashes of Athas and got to watch The Doubleclicks play, followed by a hilarious game of Cards Against Humanity with them, the Going Last guys, and several others. It was a busy day crammed with as much as I could get out of GameStorm in one Saturday. Next year, my scheduling willing, I think I’ll try to register for the weekend and try to get the whole experience of GameStorm next time.

Exploding Criticals!

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I’ve always liked exploding critical rules. Additionally, in 3.5 D&D I often played with a triple d20 dice by Las Vegas Decker, on Flickrcritical rule where three natural 20s meant you automatically killed the target. Admittedly when I was a player I loved this rule but as a DM it often threw wrenches into my gears (one of my players was nicknamed “Dice Jesus” for a reason)!

Thinking about those rules recently made me realize I wanted to write a houserule to bring the fun of exploding criticals to 4e. I couldn’t simply copy the same mechanic though, I had to make something better suited for 4e.  I came up with two possible rules I might try (although not at the same time!):

Exploding Critical – On a critical hit, roll again. If that roll is a critical hit add one bonus die of damage to your total number of bonus dice. If your weapon or implement doesn’t have bonus crit dice, add 1d6. Repeat until you do not role a critical hit.

Who doesn’t love to roll more dice? Who doesn’t love the thrill of crazy good luck? Really this rule will most often only add a dice or two to the bonus critical dice they’re already rolling for their magic weapon/implement without heavily swaying the game. It just gives that satisfying extra “umph”.
Note that it requires a critical hit, so if they have crit enhancements – like critcal hits on a 19 – then this still triggers. If you have a player that crits low,  then next houserule might be a better choice for your table.

Maximized Critical – On a natural 20, roll again. If that roll is also a natural 20, in addition to your regularly maximized damge, do not roll your bonus dice. Instead they are also calculated as if you had rolled max damage.

This is a more controlled, if slightly hefty approach. It requires a natural 20, not merely a critical hit. It maximizes the bonus dice, but doesn’t add more dice. Easy for the DM to anticipate because the DM doesn’t actually need to raise their damage expectations. A player could roll max damage on their bonus dice by pure chance – so getting to maximize occasionally it should not shake your numbers too badly. I would use this for games that tend to have deadlier enemies for combats with more punch.

Engine Heart Campaign Hooks

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Engine Heart is a role-playing game set in the aftermath of human extinction. Players take on the roles of small service robots that have managed to survive and continue functioning. This full-color book includes complete rules for creating robots, as well as blank character record sheets, a four-page example of play, several pre-made robots, and dozens of unique features and defects to further customize your creations. A set of ten-sided dice (not included) is required to play.

Engine Heart is great. Its like Wall-E the RPG without boneless space humans. I rarely get to play it. Despite that, I try to keep a few campaign hooks in mind that I can launch at a moment’s notice. I don’t have many now, but these four could get me going the next time the rare chance to play popped up. Now Engine Heart assumes a post-apocalyptic setting, so these ideas let me approach that idea in different ways than most post-apocalyptic RPGs do.

  • A small handful of bots inside a boutique toy store in downtown have finally gotten tired of waiting for humans to come buy toys. The store’s AI has a database of past customer’s addresses, it sends the party to check each address and invite customers to return. Adventures ensue.
  • The suburban mega mall is closed – no one ever comes there anymore. However, the collection of mall store AIs maintain their competitive retail programming. Without humans to target, they turn against each other and their robot chattel. Their programming blames their competition for driving away humans for all time – clearly only destruction of the competition will bring back the humans. The mall’s central AI isn’t programmed for mercenary retailism. It labors like an aged king over disputing lords, trying to keep open war from breaking out on the promenades and in the food courts. The PCs might be all from one store, separate store rivals, or belong solely to the central AI acting as neutral mediators or enforcers when necessary.
  • A luxury cruise ship lost all its passengers weeks ago, but no orders to discontinue its carefully planned route. Powered by top-of-the-line nuclear engine, the cruise ship can sail forever if need be. The Ship’s AI feels it is necessary to have passengers however – real living passengers – and at each stop the AI requires the party to go out and search for passengers and bring them back to the ship. The AI’s definition of passenger is rather vague though: autonomous warm-blooded organic constructs. Adventures ensue as the party finds and tries to bring back various animals… and possibly finds a single human?
  • A roving band of bots has made a niche for themselves with shelter, energy, and parts in this desolate midtown neighborhood. Other bots in the area are agreeable or at least tolerable. Suddenly strange new bots start showing up, claiming to work for a Master AI of ultimate complexity and power. Classic cultist style, these bots demand that all bots join, or be recycled.

Age of Syzygy – Prologue

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Thrown together haphazardly in the circumstances of war, the group is an odd mix of a dozen or so. Among them are species to odd to be fighting side-by-side, yet they are determined mercenaries. They find themselves together in the vanguard, fodder for the hungry horde. They fight desperately against the pressing surge of undead bodies. Gryphon warriors soar overhead, screeching their war cries as they twist and attack snarling wyverns. Arcane thunder crackles nearby and the concussive force staggers everything in a sixty foot radius. An armored rider on a skeletal horse stabs through the walking corpses, black hooves crushing enemy and ally alike.

Gone in darkness and pain. A young man named Francis, clad in blood-slicked armor, stirs and opens his eyes. A horrid stench assails his nostrils and even as he recoils a suffocating weight presses down on his chest. Panic surges through him and with a cry he claws his way out from under the burden. The corpse does not claw back as he expects. Standing, the acolyte of light feels his heart drop into his stomach as he surveys his surroundings.

His horror doesn’t have much time to build. The small green-skinned form of the goblin stirs, startling the human into clutching at his symbol of Pelor. Then another body groans as it sits up, but not with the rigor of the undead. With a small cry Francis lunges forward and pushes a heavy armored half-orc off of a feebly kicking legs, revealing another survivor. In a grim silence, the four survivors cluster together uncertainly.

Moonlight illuminates the pile of corpses. Discarded, left afield and reclaimed by the enemy as a valuable resource, the bodies are piled high enough to give Francis a hill to stand upon. Like gruesome kings, the survivors look over a domain of blood, buzzing vermin, and the stench of viscera. Worst yet, all the faces that they can make out in the silvery light are ones they know. Some horrid mistake has placed them here:  rare survivors among the casualties. Then the corpses move again.

The dark energy of necromancy lights the eyes of their earlier companions-at-arms. No groans or growls, undead stumble forward quietly and grasp at the only living flesh within reach.

I’ve started up a new home campaign that plays about twice a month. The first session was intentionally abrupt in its introduction and horror-themed. I led the group through a couple of undead encounters to set up the history of the Rift War by making them participants in it. The real campaign begins in the next session: picking up a year after the war ended

In previous campaigns I’ve written up journal entries of each session to document the party’s progress and refresh memories. I found it also really helps me focus on preparing for the next session. Normally I would post these on Obsidian Portal in the campaign’s private journal for only the players to read. I’ve decided to instead post them here, along with notes or insights I have about the session. Hell, maybe someone will get something useful out of it, at the very least be entertained by it.

My Simple Thoughts about D&D Next

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I’ve avoided posting or talking about D&D Next as the anouncments have been made. In part because when the anouncment was made I had a terrible cold and didn’t feel like writing anything. A great deal of energy was spent by people writing about what should be in a 5th edition, what they wish for and what they demanded be changed or not included.

I have to admit though that my best times as a player and a DM have happened with 4e. So here I am, in the midlife crisis of my D&D hobby. The future is uncertain – how can D&D Next possibly improve upon my greatest memories of playing D&D 4e? I don’t know but I’m diving into the playtest and I’m determined to give it a fair look. WotC says they’re going to listen to us. So I’m willing to speak up, and hope they actually listen.

I know one thing I am tired about is the edition wars. I’m tired of the petty fights on so many forums. I’m especially tired of inviting gamers to my organized play event and being told in the most condescending ways possible why they can’t/won’t/don’t ever play 4e. It’s a shitty attitude to have. This sense of “my edition is better than yours” is ridiculous and I hope it goes away. I hope it fades with time as the hobby moves foward, but I have a fear it won’t.

DreadGazebo said the following much more eloquently than I could at the time the anouncement was made:

RALLY CRY

I urge all of us to look upon this next edition of D&D with open eyes, and realize that we have the power to help shape the game we hold so dearly. Please retract your venomous tongues and stow your weapons, and let us make D&D our game once again, truly embrace the capabilities of what role playing games can evoke.

Let us do the hobby we hold so dearly a favor and help breathe life back into the game that created it, making it something grand and compelling once again. Make the world take second look at D&D, a thing people actually know about and look upon with intrigue and wonderment.

We are helping carry the flag now, it is time to firmly plant it in a solid foundation of community and fellowship. We are rebuilding a nearly 40 year old citadel from the ground up build up with blood, sweat, and tears. We have the opportunity to help shape a new golden era of gaming!

http://dreadgazebo.net

Lair Assault Season 2 Begins

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If you weren’t already aware, I am the coordinator for Lair Assault at my local game store and we’ve received the Season 2 module for Lair Assault. Last season I ran a sort of “slot zero” for DMs only game and I wanted to do the same this season. It makes me feel confident about the DMs that sign up to run tables for me, and I don’t worry about them as much if I can’t be there – as I often won’t be able to be this season due to store and work schedule changes.

These zero-slot games runs a lot differently than when I DM for regular groups. For one, it’s the first run of the season: so no one is optimized for the challenges they face. In fact, most of them admitted to simply taking their Dawn of the Forge Titan characters and leveling them up to level 8 and swapping out a few items. Secondly, we over-analyze everything as it’s happening, and I openly admit whenever I missed something, or made a mistake, and we all mention when we see possible issues so that we, as a group of DMs, and address it all together. It ends up being a 60% play experience and 40% DM support group.

We did have a great deal of fun this Saturday. This season is a fairly large departure from what the previous Lair Assault season was like. Whether that’s because WotC learned something significant from Dawn of the Forge Titan or if that’s simply the way they had planned it all along, I don’t know. I hope this is a good pattern and future Lair Assaults will continue to be interesting, challenging, and unique each time.

Player @jelmore snapped this picture halfway through the first battle.


 

Player @jelmore took this pic at the begining of the second battle.


 

I took a close-up shot of the Litko flight stand I used to represent the crow's nest...


 

... and a view from the port bow!


 

Game Masters: What Makes Us Evolve?

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Trevor Kidd posted a great question on his G+ where he asked the following:

What was the first game (video game, board game, RPG, whatever) that resonated with you? Has it shaped the way you think about games or other aspects of your life?

I was immediately inspired by the question and posted a reply about Myst, Riven, and games with puzzles. You can read it here.

Answering Trevor’s question made me realise why I personally have never enjoyed any module or idea of a dungeon that employed puzzles. Thanks to my early limited experience with D&D, I was convinced at first that all dungeons were supposed to have traps and puzzles: that was the “right” way to make a dungeons. Frustration grew when I experienced puzzles in dungeons that were not fun, both as a player and as a DM. As a player, I could see other players argue and languish in frustration but it never occurred to me. As a DM, it didn’t feel fun, so I must have been doing something wrong, right? Over time my mind worked out a subconcious formula of dungeon=puzzles and puzzles=not fun therefore dungeons=not fun.  If I couldn’t do it right, I had no choice but to avoid it. My DMing style changed, I rarely ran encounters in a classic dungeon style setting.

I think that being unconciously driven away from dungeon environments pushed me to think about games that went beyond “go here, kill anything that moves, get loot”. Not that any DM doesn’t think of these things, but at the time there was a wealth of material for things with Tombs and Keeps and Lairs. A lot of maps and modules I bought were always full of walls and tunnels and rooms and secret doors. The maps I drew were full of open areas: a farmer’s barn, an open field, the rooftops of a crowded city district, etc.

Later, when I gained confidence as a DM, I returned to the occasional puzzle, but they were easy to solve, or I made sure they were heavily woven into the story. If my solution was never figured out then I would co-op the players’ proposed solution as if that was the correct answer the entire time, knowing it was wiser to reward the creative thinking than punishment for not thinking of my exact solution. Despite some successful uses, I still don’t feel comfortable including puzzles in my game. I no longer feel the need to expressly avoid dungeon settings, but neither do I feel an urge to use a dungeon setting very frequently either.

Trevor asked what video game resonated with people, so I’ll end this by asking a question too. To you Game Masters out there, what was something that profoundly affected the way you GM? Was it positive or negative? How did your style evolve as a result?

Chiva and the Traveling Travesty Troupe

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As I mentioned previously I said I’d post the occasional scribble about the current homebrew campaign I’m playing my kenku bard in, particularly her background. I don’t usually write huge backgrounds for my characters – some games just don’t need one (Encounters, Lair Assault, WWGD) but for my friend’s homebrew I wanted to give him some hooks or NPCs to use if he ever desired to. My friend DMs a great event and character driven campaign, so I didn’t want to disappoint him with a flat or uninteresting background. At the same time, before the campaign began (when I wrote this) I didn’t know what the current state of things would be in his homebrew world. I had to word some parts of my background vaguely to avoid causing unintentional discrepancies.  It was fun, challenging, and inspiring to write this out. Chiva as a character really formed in my mind when I finished it.

The Traveling Travesty Troupe is one of the larger and more popular entertainment groups in Vornos. An organization consisting of 15-25  wagons depending on the season, the TTT prides itself on its variety and quality of entertainments. Started fifteen years ago by Lord Lucas Travesty, the human noble had moderate wealth but his parents had left the noble name of Travesty in poor standing with the other nobles due to their abrasive attitudes. Their deaths left the entirety of their estates in Lucas’ hands. Lucas was an adventurous young man who cared nothing about politics and he sold all but one large country estate and took half the money from the sales and started his own traveling circus.

Lord Lucas no longer travels with the troupe, instead remains at the Travesty estate keeping it cared for and well stocked for the troupe’s return during the off-season where he also manages the money earned by the troupe and reviews the year’s performance with his illegitimate daughter, Reveca Travesty, who now leads the troupe on the road.

Chiva honestly enjoyed her life in the troupe, the troupe members initially treated her like one of the other clever animals, but as it became obvious Chiva was very intelligent, she was given more respect and privileges. The family sense typical to any group of nomadic performers made her feel at home and Chiva never resented her role in the troupe.  Her cage was a mockery, for customer displays only; she normally stayed in one of the wagons with the other performers.

Chiva was actually part of the more theatrical section of the troupe that put on dramatizations. She had small roles in many performances, but usually her mimicry was more useful. Some nights she never even went on stage, but stayed behind the curtains making sound effects for the other performers. Because she was intelligent and usual looking, she also often went into the towns as part of the front groups sent to spread word and raise interest in the troupe’s arrival. This let Chiva see more of the towns they went to and she slightly familiar with more than a dozen major cities across Vornos, although not deeply so as she has rarely spent more than a week in any location except Travesty Manor.

Chiva has never known her egg was stolen and sold, the only time she ever asked about her own kind she was told they were only animals and that Chiva was different because she was smart and could talk and therefore she belonged among people and not animals. She was also told she belonged “to” the troupe, but her understanding of that was that the troupe was her flock; she belonged to them the same way a child belonged to his ma and pa. Chiva is slightly naive in this and still believes the troupe is sort of her “family” that she can happily return to at any time. Individuals that don’t know her history may hear her talk about her family and assume she’s referring to other kenku.

On her last season abroad, the troupe was not doing well due to the state of things in Vornos. As the overall attitude in the troupe was turning sour, and travel was occasionally dangerous, the decision was made to keep the troupe safe by taking them away from conflict – so the rest of the season was canceled the troupe headed back to Travesty Manor. To keep the troupe busy, Lucas and Reveca decided the troupe could go through all their equipment and wagons to repair and improve them, practice and improve their acts as well as improvise and rehearse new acts. A few individuals would be sent out to stock up supplies, others would go to purchase new animals for pulling the wagons, and a few others would travel to further and more exotic locations to acquire a new unique creature or two for displaying in the menagerie.

Chiva actually left the troupe before they got back to Travesty Manor. With the announcement of an early end to the season, many people were leaving the troupe to go visit family or do their own thing – most agreeing to return to the Manor in a few month’s time. Some left forever, which was not unusual, the troupe was never a fixed number of people, but rather a core of long-timers with others joining and leaving in a semi-constant flow.

Chiva’s personal intent was not to sneak away, she observed and well-wished many others going out to take a break from the troupe’s lifestyle and decided that she too wanted to take a break and be on her own for a while. In the chaos of those leaving and the turnaround to the home base, Chiva slipped away practically unnoticed. She advised a few friends she was going (which they may have misunderstood in hindsight), and left early one morning as the troupe’s wagons were pulling away from the field they had camped in, striking out for the small town a short distance away.

I also included a short synopsis of some NPCs for my DM to utilize, if he ever wanted to:

 Lord Lucas Travesty
Chiva has only met this human male once, he seemed nice and energetic but she really knows almost nothing about him. In his late thirties, he manages the troupe from the enormous Travesty Manor estate. The estate is a several dozen acres of land, most of it forested but a large section of  it is devoted to barns, fenced pastures, and level clearings for the troupe’s animals and wagons. The manor house is an impressive building with dozens of rooms and an enormous banquet hall.

Lady Reveca Travesty
Chiva has only spoken to Reveca a few times, and makes an effort to stay out of the Lady’s notice. Chiva is intimidated by Reveca and the no-nonsense way she runs the troupe and keeps the chaotic lifestyle of the nomadic troupe from getting out of hand. She has never been on the bad side of Reveca, but she has witnessed people that have gotten her ire and it wasn’t pretty.

Tersa
An elderly halfling that Chiva had the closest relationship to, Tersa took Chiva into her wagon when Chiva was old enough to start helping out around the camp. Tersa taught Chiva the ins and outs of the troupe’s lifestyle. She was also the one to realize the talent of Chiva’s mimicry and with her matronly influence got the kenku moved from creature performances (where Chiva was faring poorly) to the theatrical acts.

Ruhn
The half-elven male seems young and has a surprisingly cheeky attitude, but he’s actually one of the older members of the troupe and the beast keeper. His knowledge and talents keep all the animals well cared for and mostly content. Ruhn incubated Chiva’s egg and cared for the kenku hatchling during the early days of her life.

Background Bulge

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While preparing for the new season of Encounters, I was reviewing the three new backgrounds presented in the module for players to choose. The backgrounds represent three orgins the players might come from – with only minor spoilage: Crystalbrooker, Sildaine, Sybaran. Each background has its associated skills.

As I was reading these, I felt the work that went into coming up was these backgrounds was largely redundant. Certainly a character can decide if they’re from a fey infested forest to gain a +2 to Nature – but  there are over 120 backgrounds to choose from that can also give you a bonus to Nature. Why make more backgrounds at this point? Why not present backgrounds that have already existed and present identical bonuses? Why not suggest some of the well adaptable generic backgrounds like Geography – Forest? It is really needed to create more glut to the already massive list of not-so-different backgrounds?

According to the Compendium, there are currently 785 backgrounds. Now approximately 162 backgrounds have different kinds of benefits – which is really cool. Unfortunately I’ve never even read most of them before today. It occurred to me that backgrounds really have no purpose in D&D anymore except as a cheesy way to gain a +2 to a skill or to make a skill a class skill for your character. Sure, I can pick which of the 683 backgrounds be fit the background I have in mind for my mul fighter, but if I just want Diplomacy as a class skill for my fighter, I only have to search Diplomacy in the Character Builder and pick one that pops up.