RPG a Day #6 Flavor

 

I’m going to try and take part in the #RPGaDay writing prompts for 2021. The idea
is there’s a prompt every day that asks you to write about something in RPG’s you really like. There are a couple of alternate prompts offered but I’m going to try and do the main one every day. If you want to try it yourself, you can head here for the calendar for this year.

How to judge Flavor in RPG’s. I’m not sure when it first became a thing in my games, but I remember some of the times the world and its functions and practices really drew us in. one of the biggest games for the flavor of the world altering how I played was a game called Legend of the Five Rings. It’s the first time the setting and the game made me have to think different.

The system of honor and courtesy that fills that game made me have to rethink how I played characters. I had to learn new ways to solve problems and interact with the world. How your character approaches the world didn’t just reflect on their reputation but also that of your family. This was massively important. Up to this point reputation wasn’t something I’d ever worried about. I didn’t care if the world thought about my character. Here, I was worried about how my actions made the world think about my cousins.

It’s the first game that made me think different.  It’s something that I now look for in gaming. I want a game that forces me by its setting to think in ways I normally wouldn’t. For that reason I think flavor is important and I look for it in other games. I want a detailed world that lets me work in its confines. I’ve even begun looking for it in games where it didn’t used to matter to me.

I used to not care about how people viewed my D&D characters and now I want them to have influence on the people around them. I work to make my characters more approachable by employers in Shadowrun, and I make sure I’m acutely aware of my Sponsor’s in X Crawl.

Not a lot today, but those are my thoughts on Flavor. I did consider talking about the question of, “How do you want to do this?” but figure someone else more versed in it than I will take a swing.

How about you, what sort of flavor do you look for in games?

Tomorrow I’m back again with Small.

RPG a Day #5 Throne

 

I’m going to try and take part in the #RPGaDay writing prompts for 2021. The idea is there’s a prompt every day that asks you to write about something in RPG’s you really like. There are a couple of alternate prompts offered but I’m going to try and do the main one every day. If you want to try it yourself, you can head here for the calendar for this year.

It took me a while to figure this one out. Throne is such a nebulous term that I wasn’t sure where to go with it. I think I’m going to talk about one of the few times I included royalty in a game I ran.

I was set to run a Vampire the Masquerade campaign back in the early 2000’s. I’d decided to go with Dayton as my city since I lived there and everyone knew where all of the landmarks I wanted to use were. It also helped that I picked up a Haunted Ohio book and was prepared to use all of the Dayton section as story hooks. Since I was setting up a ghost hunter ideal as part of my story it gave me a great starting place for the Prince of Dayton.

It’s been a while since I set up this campaign that sadly never came to fruition so I’m hazy on some of the details, like the Prince’s name. I do have a journal where I set up tons of charts and trees that laid out who all the major power players in Dayton were; I hope to find it one day. Until then, let’s talk about what I do remember.

The Prince in my campaign was never meant to be the villain. His job was to give my players work that would move the campaign along. He survived as Prince by being far cleverer than the rest of them and knowing how to leverage his connections to keep himself safe. At the time almost every Prince I’d heard of was an absolute bastard of a monarch and I wanted to do something different. For me it made more sense that the Prince would be nice to people as it would make keeping him in place easier too.

The one thing I had that might be considered a negative was his obsession with the occult. Part of this was his clan, I think he was a Tremere. I wanted him to be looking for magical items and relics that would help him increase his power base and research. I wasn’t sure what he was researching since we were at the beginning of the campaign, but I knew he was looking into something.

As I said, I never got to run the campaign. I was excited to do so and ad set up the first session and what would happen there. I even had players ready to go. I can’t remember why we never go to play. I’m sure I’ll figure it out at some point or possibly get to run the game at some future point. I know some changes to the setting would certainly make that easier. Coteries have been introduced and that will make my job as the storyteller significantly easier. In the original game I had to come up with a reason for all of them to be working together.

Anyway, that’s my take on Throne.

See you tomorrow for Flavor…

RPG a Day #4 Weapon

I’m going to try and take part in the #RPGaDay writing prompts for 2021. The idea is there’s a prompt every day that asks you to write about something in RPG’s you really like. There are a couple of alternate prompts offered but I’m going to try and do the main one every day. If you want to try it yourself, you can head here for the calendar for this year.

I thought about this topic for a while. I’ve had a lot of discussions over the years with friends about the different weapons my characters have used in role play games. I’ve been accused of playing sub optimally based on weapon choices. My mage in Shadowrun used a Remington Roomsweeper, in Rift’s I used dual pistols, and in Legend of the Five Rings I sent the enchanted sword home to my family and kept my Katana. In all of these cases someone didn’t like my choice and felt I wasn’t playing the game to its highest level. I probably could have written about any of these choices.

However, I decided to talk about the weapon I had the most conversations about; a sledgehammer. In 4^th edition D&D Adventure League one of the charters I played most often was Brac, a wood elf barbarian with sledgehammer. Adventure League was a set of rules that allowed you to play the same character at conventions, gaming clubs, and private events all over the world. It gave a set of guide lines that formed what you could and couldn’t do to your character. It made it easy to have characters ready to play in different places and have characters ready for when you go to a con.

With Brac there were many conversations about his weapon. I used a sledgehammer, or maul to use the games official name for the weapon. It was a 2-handed hammer; you know, exactly like a sledgehammer. The idea for Brac was it would be fun to play a wood elf barbarian with a sledge hammer. The disconnect for most people wasn’t that I was using a sledgehammer, It was that I wasn’t using a Mordenkrad.

A Mordenkrad is a dwarven 2-handed hammer designed for war. The reason most people argued that I should be using it was because it was a better weapon. The sledgehammer dealt 1D10 damage the Mordenkrad did 1D12. The Mordenkrad also had a rule that let you reroll every 1 and 2 you rolled for damage to get higher numbers. Since I was a barbarian there would be times I’d roll six and seven dice so getting to reroll those 1 and 2’s would have been a big deal. The only drawback was you needed to use a feat to use a Mordenkrad. You only ever go so many feats but most people felt it was worth it to use one of them to get their hands on the Mordenkrad. Objectively they were right. The Mordenkrad was a better weapon. Even giving up one feat to use this one specific weapon would have been a small price to pay. The only problem, it wasn’t a sledgehammer.

The entire basis for Brac was that it would be fun and funny to play a wood elf barbarian with a sledgehammer and it was. Brac cut a striking image, a muscular wood elf barreling across the field screaming at the top of his lungs and swinging a sledgehammer. This was layered out by me using all of Brac’s feat to take anything that improved his movement and charge attacks. Brac sprinted into battle; usually far ahead of the rest of the party. I like to quote Donald Suttherland from Kelly’s Heroes when asked about Brac’s speed. “He liked to get out of trouble as quickly as he got in.” Giving up any of that for the use of a Mordenkrad felt wrong.

But the main reason for the sledgehammer and this article on weapon is based on the nature of sledgehammers; their tools. Sledgehammers have a specific purpose, they exist to destroy. You don’t build or create with sledgehammers, you tear things down. That’s all they’re good for.

A Mordenkrad on the other hand was a weapon of war. It was designed to be used in combat by warriors. A Mordenkrad was meant to be used my tactical thinking soldiers. People who went into battle and judged which foe would be the best target.

Brac was a sledgehammer. His entire job was to go into battle, sprint at the biggest thing on the field, and wreck it until he couldn’t swing any more. Brac wielding a sledgehammer became a deliberate choice. Again, it started as it would be fun and funny to use a sledgehammer. In the end, the idea that a wood elf used a sledgehammer meant something. It wasn’t an axe or sword which were more typical weapons for barbarians. It wasn’t a club which would have been closer to what a wood elf might use being most often made of natural materials like wood or bone. A sledgehammer was a manufactured tool. It was something Brac had to go and find. It was a weapon that wouldn’t have been readily available in the forest where he grew up. That Brac used a sledgehammer was as much a part of his personality as was his need to protect his friends, eventually kill a dragon, or launch himself at the biggest thing on the battlefield.

I never minded having the conversation about Brac using a Mordenkrad. I understood why people brought it up. But it never felt like the thing Brac would do. Still it was fun to hear their reasons for it.

To this day I remember few of the characters I played with in Adventure League. I can point to a warden who set me on fire several times, a dwarf cleric who managed to keep Brac from going unconscious for an entire fight, and one or two others. Most of the characters blended together. They were all some version of the best way to roll up character X. I sometimes wonder if any of them remember Brac and his sledgehammer.

Maybe they did, or maybe it’s just me hoping he was unique enough to remember.

Tomorrow, Throne. How the hell am I going to talk about that?

RPG a Day #3 Tactics

 

I’m going to try and take part in the #RPGaDay writing prompts for 2021. The idea is there’s a prompt every day that asks you to write about something in RPG’s you really like. There are a couple of alternate prompts offered but I’m going to try and do the main one every day. If you want to try it yourself, you can head here for the calendar for this year.

I had to think about this one because tactic really implies you’re using minis in your game. I have done this; I actually default to this more often than not. I think with minis using tactics is easier and far more expected. 

However, because of 2020 I ended up playing a lot of RPG’s over discord. Because of this we tried a lot of different games and systems. This ended up causing up to play games without using minis. Paying things like Star Trek Adventures, Blades in the Dark, and Quest forced us to try play by picturing the games in our heads. 

At first this made thinking tactically difficult. It got easier over time, but I missed having the nicely set up map and all of the figures set out to show me where everyone was. When you start playing theatre of the mind though you have to give a lot of things to faith. You need to rely on the other players to give some leeway into where everyone is. 

Part of this is that sometimes you’ll have different ideas of where your characters are standing. It’s easy to say my character runs across the hall and ducks behind cover. However did you mean they stepped into a doorway or ducked behind a trash can? Because of this there’s the chance you’ll all have very different ideas about what’s going on in a scene. 

I found that the players need to be more specific when describing action. This helps remove most of the confusion. But, sometimes there will still be a few moments where something goes wrong. For my group we found striking a happy middle ground seemed to work the best. Okay, you did duck into a doorway but the guy shooting at you would instead fire at someone he has a better shot at, moved first, or chose a different weapon. 

I still love minis based combat. There are some games where that sort of thing is just perfect. Through the Breach, X Crawl, and D&D work great with this sort of combat. Tales from the Loop, Blades in the Dark, and 7th Seas work well with theatre of the mind. However, I would believe if someone told me the exact opposite. 

What do you think?

I’ll see you all tomorrow for weapon.

RPG a Day 2021 #2 Maps

 

I’m going to try and take part in the #RPGaDay writing prompts for 2021. The idea is there’s a prompt every day that asks you to write about something in RPG’s you really like. There are a couple of alternate prompts offered but I’m going to try and do the main one every day. If you want to try it yourself, you can head here for the calendar for this year.

I’ll be honest I’ve thought about this one for a bit. I almost did one of the alternate ideas but decided to go ahead with Maps anyway. There isn’t a specific map that I can think of as a great example. Because of this I’ve decided to talk about how I do my own maps.

There’s a lot of map making software out there and I will on occasion use it to get me what I need especially if I need to share the maps with my players. But if I have my choice I prefer to work with a packet of graph paper and a pencil. I really enjoy the tactile feeling of drawing the map myself. I like having to get out a ruler to keep the lines straight and tidy. It’s a similar feeling to painting miniatures for me. I want the hands on approach. It’s restful.

It does limit my handouts as I’m not as great a map maker as I’d like to be and for towns and such I’ll tend to modify maps from other campaigns and settings; if possible. One example of this is playing Tales from the Loop which encourages you to set the adventure in your own home town. We used a Google map of our area and I took a separate copy and made notes on it for myself. I added in things the group wouldn’t be aware of, like government facilities, and where the mystery was leading them that adventure. I tried to keep things color coded for that setting so I could easily remember at a glance where the location was used.

I’m also currently creating a modern day D&D setting where I’ll be setting it in and around my area. I’ve already set up a couple of maps using Google to figure out where some things are and what’s in certain locations. I’ve also pulled up things like the local mall map to figure out how to modify it for my purposes since that’ll be their first dungeon. It’s also fun, since they’ll be able to pull up the malls layout on their phones. Their characters will have phones so they’ll have access to these as well. Though I’m not sure if I’ll point it out to them or let them figure it on their own.

That’s Maps. I’ll see you tomorrow for Tactics.

RPG a Day 2021 #1 Scenario

August 1st

I’m going to try and take part in the #RPGaDay writing prompts for 2021. The idea is there’s a prompt every day that asks you to write about something in RPG’s you really like. There are a couple of alternate prompts offered but I’m going to try and do the main one every day. If you want to try it yourself, you can head here for the calendar for this year.

I’ve been gaming for a ton of years, since the late 70’s early 80’s. There’ve been a lot of adventures I’ve played over the year and I considered several. Pool of Radiance for 2^nd edition D&D was one of the first massive adventures my group finished. Harlequin from Shadowrun is one of the best experiences my friend Scot ever ran. I particularly love Las Vegas Crawl from X Crawl. I even considered talking about some of the battle interactives I played in from the old Adventures Guild but those are more about the experience than the story.

However, I decided to talk about the Hunt. This was a D&D Adventures Guild scenario from 4^th edition. I really loved this scenario. It was my go to adventure when running the game for new players or people who wanted me to throw together a quick adventure. I’ve probably run it at least six times and would do so again if you asked me to.

The Hunt was a simple premise, the party is taking part in a hunting challenge. They’ll head into the jungle, follow tacks, and attempt to bring back the most impressive kill. There’s a slight mid-adventure fight where the party gets jumped by another group of hunters. The middle fight is tense and challenging against a team of distinct adventures. After that they keep heading into the jungle and find the final encounter.

The boss fight is affected by how well they do in a couple of skill challenges, how difficult they try to make it one themselves, and what level the party is at. I like that the players can choose to make the final fight more or less difficult. The adventure has several brackets to adjust the difficulty for the party based on their level so you can have as tense a time with a level 1 party as a level 20. I also particularly loved the boss at the end. I’ll not list them here since I don’t want to spoil it if it ever comes back in fashion or you manage to hunt a copy down for yourself.

I really enjoy this adventure and have very fond memories of it. Yes, it was originally set for 4^th edition and that will be a reason some players never saw it. However, if you find it and it’s been or you don’t mind updating it to your chosen edition then I think you’ll have a great time.

Another Difficult Topic

 

*Note* Much like the last time I wrote one of these, this is a rough piece. Like the last time I won’t be editing this, cleaning it up, or going back over it. I apologize for any disconnect in the words.

I was driving to the store when I heard about the capitol. I’ve wondered off and on if I’ll remember that the same way I remember being at work when 911 happened. I reacted the same to both, as soon as I had access to a TV, I turned it on to the news and followed along. In both instances I was angry, hurt, upset, and stunned. I wasn’t sure what would happen, if everyone would be all right, or even how long it would last.

In the time since I’ve gotten to think about that day and the people who were there. Not just the rioters and the politicians. There were other people there too. The congress had their staffers present. There were cleaning staff, security, and maintenance. I think there’s a cafeteria which means those folks were there too. I hope they were safe too. I don’t know though since no one talks about them.

I want to be angry about this.

On some level I am. I’m angry it happened, I’m angry people were surprised. I’m angry the National Guard wasn’t there because the Mayor’s request was turned down. I’m sure it’s because someone decided there wasn’t a credible threat. I wonder what they think now.

I’m mad at the politicians who pushed the fraud narrative without a single piece of proof. They keep saying they have it but never produce it. We’re just supposed to accept that it exists I guess. Funny how they won’t take our word for things that have studies backing them.

I’m mad at the media that backed them up. The ones who went out night after night and just kept spewing this information. Propping it up and calling it real. The ones who did it even though they couldn’t seem to provide any proof either.

I’m mad at Donald Trump for pushing the lie. Screaming it at the top of his lungs. For courting the people who did this. For calling out to them and telling them they were right.

I’m torn over being mad at the police. Some of them tried. They fought back; pepper spray, shields, and barricading doors. Some of them didn’t; opened gates, guided rioters, and had selfies and fist pumps once they were inside. There was even one officer I saw, alone, running from a crowd of armed men. The last I saw on the video was of him turning and readying his baton to try and hold them off before the video ended.

I want to be mad at the rioters. I really want to, but I can’t be any madder at them then I am at a bullet. That’s what they were; a bullet. The rally was the gun and Donald Trump aimed it at the Capitol (he even told them what road to take) and pulled the trigger. He had help, his son, Rudy. They all helped. “Trial by combat”…for fucks sake.

I want to be mad at the rioters but I keep thinking back to an interview I watched when I was in high school. A Jewish gentlemen whose family escaped Germany just before the war when he was a teenager talked about the night he broke curfew. He eft all of his identifying marks at home, snuck out of the house, and went to a Nazi rally to see what happened there. He recounted watching the soldiers, hearing the band, and listening to the speeches. Then he came out. The evening ended with Hitler speaking. The gentleman in the video talked about how the speech was long and powerful. During it he blamed the Jews for all of Germany’s ills and the crowd cheered; even that young Jewish teenager hidden among them. He was very specific about this part. You see he wasn’t cheering because he was afraid he’d be found out. He was caught up in the moment; calling for the cleansing of the Jews. It wasn’t until he got home, back in his room, and sat on his bed that he’d realized what he’d done that night.

He got out, he was lucky. I often think back to that interview I watched all those decades ago. It haunts me. I wish I could remember his name. I’d love to credit him here.

Because of that story I can’t completely hate the rioters. Not all of them. Some of them; yes, but not all.

I’d written an entire half a page on how they’d been lied to, but it’s unimportant here. I may write it again later. For now, let’s focus on that day.

I said earlier I don’t hate all of the police there but I do hate some of the rioters. The overlap is in that officer I saw on that video as he ran away. As armed men chased him, other officers posed for selfies and fist-bumped the rioters. Today I saw a photo of the one officer who died during this. I’m almost positive it was the same man. If I’m right then that video probably ends just before he did.

*Note* Since I published this I have learned these are not the same officer. The officer running from the crowd was risking his own life to lead the rioters away from the Senate and others. The Officer who died while trying to hold the crowd back outside when they were hit in the head with a fire extinguisher and then beaten to death with American flags. Bot officers were heroes trying to do their jobs. The rest of my statement still stands.

I have family and friends who are Law Enforcement; not in DC but still. I have friends and family who are in the medical field, fire fighters and paramedics. I can’t imagine he didn’t try and call for help. I can’t believe he didn’t try to reach out for another office to come to his aid. While he was doing that, some assholes were posing for pictures and handing out fist bumps. I can’t help but think of my loved ones who hold that same job. The worst part is, I just know that every officer fist bump and detective selfie that was in the Capitol will go to that man’s funeral and tell his widow how sad they are; how it’s a real tragedy what happened, and if only they’d been there. I can only hope that every one of those officers at the very minimum lose their ability to work as police ever again. Ideally, they get to go to jail too. Unfortunately, when this is all said and done, I’m mad because they’ll probably still be cops.

I’m back.

I know for you it’s only been a single space but I had to walk away for a little bit. I have a lot more I can talk about right now, but this is already pretty long and I want to wrap it up.

Here’s a few bullet points.

People keep saying Donald Trump can’t be responsible for this. How was he to know? If this were the first time, I would give it to him. I know this because I did. The first time it happened that someone acted on Trumps words and shot people. I even gave him the benefit of the doubt the second time it happened. It has now occurred so often, including someone sending bombs to people Trump said were enemies of America that I have ask how he could not know this was going to happen. At this point I can’t believe he’s not doing it expecting this outcome.

The Mayor of DC asked for the National Guard and was told no. They were eventually called in, by Pence; not Donald. He was too busy calling the rioters beautiful, special, and loved. The same group that said they were going to do this before the riot have announced their intention to return for the inauguration with more weapons, armor, and numbers than any modern military can hope to stand against. I imagine the Mayor of DC will once again ask for the National Guard, I wonder how it will go this time.

Several members of the public, media, and government have repeatedly told Black Lives Matter that they have been protesting wrong. That kneeling peacefully is the wrong way to protest. Marching peacefully is the wrong way to protest. Holding peaceful sit-ins is the wrong way to protest. These same people have announced the rioters who assaulted the capitol were just doing what they felt was right as Americans. That arming themselves and assaulting the government was the right thing to do. I cannot help but wonder if any of the Black Lives Matter movement won’t take this particular lesson and run with it and at this point, I won’t be surprised and I’m not sure I can blame them for following the example.

On my way home from the store I pass several house who were still flying Trump 2020 flags. Even Tuesday as the assault on the Capitol occurred I saw them flying in yards. Today as I drove home three of those house had removed the signs. I take that as a positive.

I talked about a lot of things I’m mad at. Which is unusual for me. I tend to look for the best in people. I’ve always loved America as long as I can remember, I’ve loved this country and look for the best in it. I know we aren’t perfect. We make mistakes and the thing I’ve always been proud of is how America comes together to try and fix those things. That is something that has always stuck out to me. No matter what, we can always try and make things better.

The problem and the thing I’m most angry about is that I’m not sure I believe that anymore. The one thing that I feel defines us as a country is gone. I don’t know that we’ll get it back, and right now…I don’t want to be proud of America anymore. That’s not true, I want to be proud of America, and I’m just not right now. I’m not even really mad about that. I want to be, but I’m not angry about it. That’s the hardest part, I just realized I’m not even mad. It hurts me down to my soul and is a cliché, I’m not mad…I’m just so goddamned disappointed.

 

We should be better than this.