Improve Your Game

Come to me my jungle friends!

August 31, 2010

by Sunglar in Advice, Fluff/Inspiration, Improve Your Game, Legacy D&D, Pathfinder, Random musings, RPG

Recent events in my life have me thinking about pets. Be they familiars, animal companions or summoned animals, whatever way your system of choice calls them, why do we feel the urge to have pets in our games? I can see why… The joy and happiness they bring into our real lives is one we want to recreate in the game as well. Or maybe we are just looking for a way to inflict more damage during combat. It’s a toss up, I’ll admit it.

Looking back I don’t think I’ve ever run a game where there was not at least one animal, either a pet, familiar, or simply a beloved steed or pack animal. In AD&D 1^st edition at one point my players all decided to get pets, I remember the ranger with his pet iguana the most. In AD&D 2^nd edition I had a player who loved wolves and always wanted his characters to have a trained wolf no matter which character he played. In D&D 3^rd edition where the rules for the animal companions and familiars were codified with grater detail, characters enjoyed the mechanical benefits of said companions in the game. I fondly recall the Dwarf Druid with his wolf animal companion and all the command words he made up. It was an integral part of his role playing.

Animals in my campaigns have also met with some terrible fates. There is a running joke among my players that no horse survives long in my table. Although I’ve broken the tradition, for the longest time horses died like flies in my games. One time players spent a whole session acquiring horses with special qualities, named them, equipped them, only to tie them to a tree outside the dungeon and go in! Needless to say when they came back there was no sign of the horses.

Currently in our Pathfinder game a player created a Summoner from the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Players Guide. This class has a special companion called an Eidolon and the player has gone into great detail about the creature, its personality, making sure it is an integral part of just who his character is, a detail I am not soon to forget.

Of course, for every memorable animal in a campaign, there have been familiars that seem to be forgotten until needed, like Vaarsuvius’ familiar in the Order of the Stick. They are there, in the periphery, and only come into play when the player or game master remembers them. Systems that mechanize the rules for animals as allies for players add an incentive for the player to handle and remember the rules for their pets. In the instances of memorable animals in my campaigns the players have been critical in making sure the animal just doesn’t fade into obscurity.

But as a Game Master it is also my responsibility to maintain a sense of realism, to present to the players a believable world that contains all elements, including their pets. Here are some tips to help you achieve this:

I keep NPC lists to make sure I don’t forget anyone. Especially lists of recurring NPCs or NPCs that travel with the group. Always make sure to write down the name, species and a short description of pets there as well, that way when you review the NPCs for the next session you don’t forget them.
If you don’t like to keep lists of NPCs, I’m pretty sure you at least keep notes about the player characters. If so make sure you write the name of the pet along with the name of the character that way you’ll associate one with the other, eventually the pairing will become second nature.
If you are more visual, consider giving the player a visual cue that will remind you of the animal. A picture he or she needs to keep close, a plush version of the animal or even a toy. That way you’ll both be constantly reminded of the pet.
Make sure you include the animal in your descriptions, cement its existence in the player’s minds. Describe the smell, the behavior, real animals are easy to portray if you watch Animal Planet or after a quick search online. Fantastic animals are even better, you can make up details such as diet and behaviors, making it seem real! Remember an animal needs care; be sure to mention to the player the time spent doing this. Try to include the animal in at least one description during every game.

These are all simple solutions that when used can make that animal accompanying your player’s character that much more real. I hope they are useful and help keep those poor animals from vanishing into thin air!

PS – This last bit is purely personal so feel free to skip it and move on to the next post, I assure you it will be more interesting that this!

Allow me to take a moment to dedicate this post to Akira, my faithful animal companion for 17 years. She recently failed her saving throw and is no longer with me. I’ll miss her immensely, but it was her time. She left me with two other pets, Lula the dog and Morphy the cat, which also miss her. She can’t be replaced but she’ll always be remembered!

PS 2 – In case you didn’t get it, the title for the post and accompanying image, come from that unforgettable movie classic Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

Dungeon Master Burnout… My cure!

July 26, 2010

by Sunglar in Advice, Improve Your Game, Random musings, RPG

Some context… I read a post by Chatty DM on twitter this past Sunday about him possibly taking a D&D sabbatical and ended up briefly tweeting with Greywulf about D20 burnout and how despite having been a D20 game master continuously for over 17 years I’ve avoided it. Greywulf suggested this may be a good blog post, so here it is!

I’ve been a DM most of my gaming life. With counted exceptions, I am the Dungeon Master/Game Master for the group’s regular gaming sessions. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love being a GM, I’d much rather do it than be a player. From what I gather, this makes me a rarity.

Gamer burnout is a reality, when you do something repeatedly, no matter how much you love it; it can become a chore. People change, go through different situations in real life that affect their leisure; responsibilities, concerns, a new outlook, can all change what we do for fun. Sometimes we need to try a new game, a new system, or take a break from gaming all together. For a game master it can be that much worse, since we usually spend much more time on the game beyond that spent around the table.

Don’t worry; this is not a preamble to me announcing I’m quitting the game! My regular gaming group meets weekly since 1993, and for those 17 years I’ve been the GM, for most of that time we’ve played D20 games. True, back then they were not called that, it was just AD&D 2^nd edition. We’ve had some breaks, Heroes Unlimited, Alternity, Silver Age Sentinels and the dX system by Guardians of Order, but those were the exception, not the rule. I will admit that I’ve felt some burnout, some exhaustion has crept in, but like any good marathon runner I know it’s all about the pacing, and I’m it for the long haul!

So how do I avoid burn out? First of all, playing what makes ME happy, true that as GMs we want to entertain and engage our players, but what we do must also entertain us. I took a long hard look at what I enjoy about being a GM and I concluded I love creating worlds. World building, despite its difficulties is one of my favorite aspects of being a GM so I rarely play pre-packaged campaigns, even when I do, like our Star Wars Saga System game, I personalize the setting. In the Star Wars example, the campaign was a Star Wars infinities type campaign, my own version of the prequels.

I also play games I feel comfortable game mastering, that I know my gaming group will enjoy. That means that I’ve played D&D in its various permutations through most of the past 17 years. Put those two together and it means I play D&D (Pathfinder RPG currently) in my homebrewed campaign for most of that time.

I also realized that endlessly changing games and starting a new campaign every other week hurts the longevity of a campaign so I’ve avoided trying every new system that comes out. I know this has led to me not playing many systems I have on my shelf, but I prefer the satisfaction of a long-lasting campaign over the thrill of a new system. Your mileage may vary!

My average fantasy campaign lasts about three years of consecutive weekly gaming, sometimes more, so to avoid total burn out I add some variety. Remember those other games on the shelf I mentioned on the last paragraph, this is when I break then out. I plan most of my fantasy campaigns into three story arcs, that way I can usually take a break between arcs and play some other game. This plan is not an exact science; don’t imagine I have everything locked down, dates set on the calendar, by the very nature of the game there is some wiggle room. I plan to play the main campaign for little over a year, and then break for a different game that will last anything from two to four months, maybe six if the players are really into the game.

In my experience this is long enough for the players to miss their old characters and want to go back to them, but not long enough for them to forget the plots and storylines of the main campaign. This structure also gives me some space to refocus, rethink and maybe if necessary retire a campaign that is not working.

Another detail is planning. I’m a middle of the road type of GM, I plan my campaigns and the world with great detail, but individual adventures are more outlines than comprehensive scripts. I like to leave space to incorporate character backgrounds, ideas and feedback. One key thing to avoiding burnout for me is this. I plan the next campaign while playing the current game. That means that while I’m currently running my homebrewed fantasy game, I’m doing background work on the next game coming up. Most of the work for this campaign is already done, all I have left to do is work on the adventures and modify accordingly. This is not a railroad straightjacket game where no matter what the characters do the end will be X, Y and Z. But I’ve done enough of the groundwork to carry this through until the break comes up.

Meanwhile I am doing prep work on the next campaign. Taking notes, looking for art to inspire me, colleting ideas, so when the break comes I’ll be ready for the next campaign! This means that even when I’m thinking about the current game, I have the future campaign to keep me entertained, distracted, and I can go work on it to avoid burnout.

Those are my strategies to avoid burnout. Very important, and although not necessarily related to burnout, I think this is also useful: Always ask your players what they thought of the game, be prepared for some of them to be nonchalant about it and not give you any useful feedback, and others to be brutally honest. Listen to everybody and use your constructive criticism filter, what the players say will help guide your games. Thinking “It’s my game, you better get used to it!” is a recipe for breaking up a group. Also campaign questionnaires are great ways to get feedback, even from those players who may be reluctant to give it face to face. So get to know your players, you are playing this game together.

Sorry if that just went of on a tangent at the end, just trying to give you my best advice. In case you are wondering I’m a normal guy with a regular job, just like the rest of you my gaming time and prep time is limited, but I try to make the most of the time I have, and to make the game as enjoyable for me as I try to make it for my players. I don’t always succeed but even when I don’t I persevere and go on gaming!

What do you do to avoid burnout?

Combat Tiers Review

June 30, 2010

by Youseph in Advice, Guest Post, Improve Your Game, Props, RPG, RPG tools

Recently I ran into an issue with my weekly D&D game. My players where trying to attack a dragon while it was flying away. It became increasingly difficult to track how high up and how far away the dragon was as it flew away. Because this was such a pain in my game I started investigating solutions.

Enter Combat Tiers by Tinkered Tactics. A set of durable acrylic platforms and stands with a one inch by one inch grid making it much easier to track your in air combat.

Paizo.com has a family pack of Combat Tiers for 40 bucks which is the set I bought.

Combat Tiers Paizo

Free Stuff Friday: Tolkien Fonts

June 18, 2010

by Youseph in Advice, Freebies, Guest Post, Improve Your Game, Props, Random musings, RPG, RPG tools

It’s Friday and it’s time to give you some more free stuff!

This week’s Free Stuff is: Tolkien Fonts
Fonts? What the heck would I need fonts for? Well let me tell you buddy. Sometimes when I play an RPG I like to have notes or cryptic messages for my players to fine or decipher. They love doing stuff like that and just eat it up! This is one site I have used in the past to find a font I could use in my game. So Go check it out and down load some FONTS!

On the Tolkien Fonts website they wrote this stuff up: “Here you can find various Lord of the Rings fonts, especially the Ringbearer Font and Aniron Font“

So please check out the site and start downloading some free fonts.

Fonts

The Worst Game of My Life

June 16, 2010

by Youseph in Advice, D&D4e, Guest Post, Improve Your Game, Random musings, RPG

A couple of weeks ago I ran the worst Dungeons & Dragons game of my life! It was the kind of game that felt like a slow motion train wreck. Something had gone horribly wrong and I didn’t think my players, or myself for that matter, where going to make it through the whole game. When it was finally all over, I sat back thinking, “I would never play Dungeons & Dragons again.” I know that sounds dramatic, but that was truly my state of mind at the time. It was all-in-all a horrible experience.

It started out with everything in my favor. I had the luxury of time to plan this particular adventure. Over a month of time to be honest. All the while I continued to run my weekly game, building up each session to the mother of all climaxes. I had great traps and monsters designed. I had help from other Dungeon Masters. I drew some really great maps on my battlemats. I was so very much looking forward to this game. With all the time and effort I had put into it, I could hardly wait for my group to play it. I knew they where going to have an unbelievably great time!

However, by the end of the encounter, my perfectly planned game with all its wonderful traps and monsters fell apart right before my eyes. The energy and fun was all sucked out by players questioning the balance of the encounters and debating whether or not it was even a fair game to begin with. It was all I could do to keep them playing and letting them know there was a light at the end of this very long game.

So how did this happen?
I over planned. I was to so caught up with making my monsters and NPCs look cool and act cool. I was DMing like it was me vs. the rest of the party. I forgot something very important about roll playing games – you run a game for everyone to have fun, so everyone can feel important and like a hero. Sadly, I had let my own ego get in the way.

As a result of this, I was in a self pity funk for the better part of a week after the game. When I was finally able to pull myself out of it and dust off, I started to think about what I was going to do next. I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over a year now and have almost always had a great time running it. I was not going to let this one bad game defeat me. I decided that if I was going to keep playing D&D I needed some help. I needed to talk with other Dungeon Masters about what I did wrong and how I could avoid it again. I needed to see what other people where doing online to keep their games fun and exciting. I needed help and I was not afraid to ask for it.

Dungeon Masters.
I first went to Mike Shea of Sly Flourish. Though I have never actually spoke to Mike before, I have followed his website and twitter posts for sometime now and he seemed like a nice enough guy. I thought it was worth dropping him an e-mail and seeing what he thought about my recent adventure. I wrote to Mike with specifics regarding my last game, hopping he could point out how I could have ran things better. He got back to me with much needed great advice.

Next, I wanted talk to someone who could slap me around a little and explain to me what I did wrong and how I could not just improve, but also make up for it at my next game. The first man I went to was Capitain Pike.

Captain Pike was the very first Dungeon Master I ever met. He ran 3.5 games with me and some friends several years ago. I always had a good time at his games and have sought his advice before when I needed it. The good caption has always been more then willing to help me out.

Captain Pike’s message to me was one of congratulations followed by discipline. He pointed out that the reason my party was getting so upset was because bad things where happening to them. My party had become attached to their characters, so of course they are going to feel hurt and upset if something negative happens to one of their characters, and of course they are going to question if your game is fair and balanced. Players put a lot of time and effort into their characters. They have a personal investment in them.

Captain Pike also congratulated me for sticking to my guns and not wavering.

Online
While I was down and out I discovered a new website (to me) called DiceMonkey. The thing I like about this website is that the main writers are a husband and wife team that remind me of myself and my fiancé. I went to the very first post on this site and read it all the way through to its current post. One post in particular got my attention over the others. It was a post regarding a small book titled, Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering.

Based on the advice of this post, I picked up a copy of the book from amazon (I now see you can buy a cheaper PDF version) and read it cover to cover the first night I got it. It’s filled with so much great information that applies to all role playing games. It really did remind me that we all play role playing games to have a good time. The pages of this book are filled with some great advice on how you can plan an interesting game and a fun encounter for you and your friends. It reminds me of something I read from a Jeph Lobe interview regarding the Batman: HUSH series he wrote. He said in this interview something to the effect of, “I try to write stories people want to read and see on the page. People want to see Batman fight the Joker. People want to see Batman match wits with the Riddler. People want to see Batman fight Superman. So I just give them what they want.“ I think of that quote every time I sit down to plan my next D&D game. My players want to crawl through dungeons and they want to fight dragons; It’s even in the name of the game we are playing. So I try my best to give them what they want each time.

From this whole experience I have take with me a few hard learned lessons.

Run a game for the players.
When they succeed, you succeed.
The game is called “Dungeons & Dragons,” so give them what they want. Give them dungeons to crawl and dragons to fight.
Remember the rule of fun.

Batman Battlemat Caption Pike Jeph Lobe Robin's Law Twitter

Improve Your Game: Character creation as a team effort

June 7, 2010

by Stargazer in Advice, FATE, Improve Your Game, Other Systems, Random musings, RPG, WHFRP

In some modern roleplaying games, especially games based on FATE rules, character creation is something one player can’t do on his own. In order to create your character you have to cooperate with your fellow players. The character creation method in FATE makes sure the background stories of the player characters are already intertwined in some way. The GM (and the players) will never have to face the issue of the dreaded “team of loners” that have no reason to cooperate.

Another game that makes cooperative character creation necessary is the latest edition of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game. In that game each party has to chose why they are working together (there’s a limited number of choices) and each party type grants certain abilities. There’s even a mechanic for handling in-party stress.

What I’ve learned in my years of roleplaying experience is, that a game definitely profits when the first session of a new game consists of character creation and coming up with a reason of why these characters work together. And in my opinion game masters should make it clear that the characters are supposed to cooperate. In-party intrigue and infighting may be fun once in a while, but when the party members are on each other’s throats all the time, it has usually an detrimental effect on any game.

My advice to GMs is, that when you’ve decided what game to run, schedule a character creation session. Talk about what the players have to expect. Then ask the players to discuss their character concepts and make sure each character at least knows one other character in the party. Another possible connections are being a friend of a friend or having the same mentor, patron or enemy. Whatever it is give the players a reason why the would work together. And trust me, forcing the player characters to work together “because the king said so” never works. It’s better when the players come up with something themselves. The GMs role should be to encourage them to think about reasons.

As with all roleplaying advice your mileage may vary, but creating characters as a team effort definitely made things much easier for the players and the GM. If you haven’t done so, give it a try.

Improve Your Game: Narrative Control

May 26, 2010

by Stargazer in Advice, Improve Your Game, Random musings, RPG

This post is the first of a series of posts in which I want to share some of the things I’ve used to improve my game. Those tips may not be applicable to all games, but I found them very helpful for the games I’ve run so far.

Today I want to talk about narrative control and how the GM can improve his game by giving up some control to the players.

Usually the GM has almost total control over the game world. Players are limited to control the actions of their characters. While there’s nothing wrong with it, I have found out that handing some of my GM powers over to my players not only made my job as a GM easier, but also helped to immerse the players into the game.

Allow your players to come up with minor elements of the world, like who the NPC is, they are about to meet or if there’s a certain shop in the town they are about to visit. It can also be interesting to allow players to describe how a task they attempted to perform failed or succeeded.

Some games actively support this, but in my opinion it can be used with pretty much every game system. What usually works well is, that players have to pay some resource in order to get narrative control. If the game you are using doesn’t support this you can hand out special rewards that allow players to influence the game world. If you don’t want to come up with a system yourself, check out how the FATE system handles fate points and narrative control. This method an be easily adapted to any game.

What is your stance on giving narrative control to the players? Do you think it could improve your game or do you want to hold the reigns all the time? As always every comment is appreciated!