Faction Generator Table

For today's quick entry, allow me to share this faction generator that I initially created for a Mad Max styled apocalyptic setting. It could really be used for any number of settings to provide quick inspiration for a group or nationality to include in your campaign.

ROLL A D8 TO  DETERMINE FACTION TYPE

1-2 Civilized: A nation, a village, a citizen's group.
3-4 Barbaric: Savages, marauders, vandals. 
5 Religious: A church, cultists, theocracy.
6 Cultural: Based around a cultural tradition like a sport, an occupation, or a sacred animal.
7 Militaristic: Army, militia, peace corps.
8 Criminal: Pirates, gangsters, thieves guild.

ROLL A D6 TO DETERMINE FACTION'S DEGREE OF SETTLEMENT

1 Settled: Fixed to a specific point of origin, like a city or headquarters.
2 Nomadic: Travelling around the world, unbound to a single location.
3 Fringe: On the outskirts of society, or an underground organization. 
4 Unknown: A faction that is secretive and unknown to most of the world. 
5 Extinct: The remnants of a faction that has since fallen to destruction or the ravages of time.
6 Scattered: A group that is found in various areas, dispersed and disconnected.

Happy ventures!

Campaign Lethality

When it comes to determining how to handle player character deaths in your campaign, there are a few factors to consider. First and foremost you will want to implement a level of lethality that your players can all agree that they are comfortable with. Some groups may like a very challenging game in which they are often at risk of losing a character. Others would prefer alternatives to permanent loss of their in-game avatar.

But another consideration to make is based on the genre and setting of your campaign. What kind of tone and atmosphere is it, and would it lend itself to that kind of high risk gameplay or not? This is also an important factor to consider when choosing an RPG game system and implementing your own custom rules. For instance, when I run the Song of Ice and Fire RPG for my game group, I tend to add minor house rules to make it slightly easier for player characters to fall in battle. My reason for this is that those familiar with the books and the Game of Thrones television series that the game is based on will also be familiar with their infamously fatalistic "anyone can die" mentality. In order to make the experience authentic, I allow for a greater likelihood of PC mortality than I would for other games that I run.

Conversely, I find player death to be seriously out of place in a classic superhero campaign. Comic book supers are notorious for never staying gone for long, and even getting to the point of death is extremely rare. So I would run these games in systems that allow for many other alternative results of the players' defeat.

When you sort these games by theme and genre, it becomes easier to see when you should imperil the lives of the player characters. Horror games are an example of a genre that is typically very lethal, whereas comedy games rarely have such stakes. Narrative-heavy games often place the choice in the hands of the player, allowing them to choose when their character dramatically falls or survives to face some other consequence. Killing or sparing a player character in the wrong circumstances can really undermine the tone of your campaign, so be very sure you know what your players are expecting from the game, and that you have already decided how perilous things will get.

Happy ventures!

Keeping It Eclectic: Running Multiple Games

Today I'd like to share the general outline of how I organize different kinds of tabletop RPGS for my home group. You may notice that I try to use advice and examples in my articles that can be applied to a wide range of games and genres. That's because I like to play in a variety of systems and settings whenever I can.

Since I take an approach to storytelling that sometimes emulates serialized television programs, it's only natural that I use that as an outline for how I coordinate various tabletop campaigns. I tend to divide my games into "seasons," consisting of a few sessions each. This way the players have time to get invested in a particular campaign, making some serious progress with the storyline and their characters.

Then I will break things up with what I call a "One Shot Season," in which we play through a series of episodic mini-adventures using a variety of systems. So after a season of Dungeons and Dragons we might play a season of single or two-session one shots like Deadlands, Mutants and Masterminds, or Spirit of the Century.

I'll let the play group vote on what games we play, offering a wide range of choices from month to month. Then we will return to our major on-going campaigns for another season of adventure!

Running games this way allows me to keep things eclectic and diverse, and gives the players the variety and tactical stimulation that makes for a successful gaming group. Hopefully this gives you some ideas on how to handle things if you think your own group could benefit from such variety.

Happy ventures!

Now Playing: '90s Superhero Name Generator

Anybody remember comics of the '90s? The bulging biceps, overpowered weaponry, grim anti-heroes and pouches galore? One of my previous one-shots was a tribute/send-up of those bizarre and gaudy adventures. To this end, I created the '90's superhero name generator. Now I'd like to share it with you. Create your own savage warrior straight from the fever dreams of Rob Liefeld himself! Characters with over-the-top names like Steel Soul or Kill Claw! Excelsior!

ROLL 1D10 ONCE ON EACH TABLE AND COMBINE THE RESULTS TO GENERATE YOUR '90S SUPERHERO NAME:

1. Blood
2. Death
3. Kill
4. Dread
5. Iron
6. Steel
7. Diamond
8. Grim
9. Dark
10. Tek

1. Spike
2. Fist
3. Blade
4. Stone
5. Claw
6. Dragon
7. Tiger
8. Flame
9. Soul
10. Star

Crossovers and Remixes

When devising new concepts and encounters for a game session, it pays to think outside the box. So the next time you wrack your brain for inspiration, don't be afraid to adapt material from sources in all sorts of genres. Rather than limiting yourself to works that bear immediate similarities to the setting of your game, try thinking ways to remix and cross over people, places, and things into your own campaign setting. 

Maybe an Indiana Jones character could be a fitting NPC in your Star Wars game, or a monstrosity from Buffy the Vampire Slayer appears in a Call of Cthulhu nightmare? Don't be afraid to mix things up and think outside the box.

This doesn't mean you should just add something from your favorite book or TV show as-is. Make the necessary modifications so it will fit within the fiction you are creating. Adapt and alter it to make it into something new. I've done this in my own campaigns, bringing mutants from the Half Life games into a Deadlands RPG, or using Breaking Bad characters as antagonists in a Dungeons and Dragons adventure. As long as you can justify it within the setting, you can use that inspiration to fuel your creativity and your campaign!

To think about what kind of stories to draw these ideas from, you should focus the way you think about your campaign. Instead of thinking about it in terms of the game's genre or setting, reduce your scope to a scene-by-scene consideration. Where is the adventure currently taking place, and what is its tone? If you think about the game in terms of individual scenes instead of an entire genre, you can reference a wide number of concepts from various works of fiction. 

A crime-riddled city could be home to Omar from The Wire, whether it is in outer space or a magical realm. Likewise, a spooky crypt could be inhabited by a shape-shifting monster like The Thing, even if it is buried in the desert sands or a haunted swamp. Think about it in terms of what kind of creature, character, or enviromnent you want to portray and then you can reference all sorts of inspirational material that uses those themes. Whether your players recognize the source of your inspiration or not, it can provide a wealth of ideas and creative material that will bring the entertainment and spice up your tabletop experience.

Happy ventures!

Committing to Themes

There are many kinds of stories to be told on the tabletop. Each genre represents a unique flavor, from fantasy to science fiction, to historical drama and more. The themes commonly associated with your chosen game are the ones that your players will expect to encounter as they play. And while it is great to occasionally subvert expectations, it is important to remember to maintain the unique flavor of your campaign's setting. 

There is a way to run a game in the wrong genre, for instance. If the answer to the question "Could this story happen in another setting?" is yes, you might be running it in the wrong genre. Take, for instance, a story that involves a space cadet chasing an outlaw through a lawless frontier asteroid colony. If that sums up the main storyline, your tale is really a wild western set in space. While it's fine to mix classic genre elements together, it still needs something uniquely sci-fi to justify its reason for being run as that kind of game.

At some point you have to ask yourself why you want to run a game specifically in the kind of setting you chose. What is it about the setting and story that makes them integral to each other? Because if they don't fit together like hand and glove, something will seem off. Your players might not be able to identify what it is, but something is missing from the narrative. 

If you truly want your campaign to shine, include a medley of elements that could only be found in that particular genre or setting. If you are running science fiction, then advanced forms of science should be integral to the campaign (Like a colony of genetic clones.) If you are running a fantasy game, magic needs to be more than just an alternative to technology (Like a phylactery filled with ghostly spirits.) If you are running a cyberpunk game, a certain amount of dystopian grunge is to be expected. Don't just choose a setting at random when you have an adventure idea. Let them match up properly so that the genre can be explored to its full potential. 

Follow these principles and your games will be all the more poignant and memorable! Don't think of this as a limitation, but instead playing to the strengths of your setting. Embrace the core tenants of the genre and you will get the best results in terms of entertainment and storytelling. In future entries, I will highlight and detail a few of these genres, and what they have to offer for your own tabletop endeavors.

Happy ventures!

Fear and Suspense

Whether it's a traditional fantasy dungeon crawl or an eerie delve into the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft, it can be really fun to add elements of horror and suspense to your pen and paper adventure. Of course there are certain types of spookiness that are more appropriate to the atmosphere of the game table. Knowing how to implement the right tone of fear is key to getting your players invested in the environment of a truly creepy horror themed game.

Firstly, remember that jump scares don't work here. Having a monster run around a corridor unexpectedly is an effective technique in movies, where the creature can appear before your mind has time to recognize it. But in a tabletop RPG, by the time you finish describing the monster the player knows just what to expect. Yelling "Boo!" at your players is not going to work, and is going to annoy them more than anything.

The kind of fear you want to cultivate among your players is a creeping sense of dread. And the way to build that dread is through evocative description. Slow down your rate of speech, have a lot of prepared notes, and describe the eeriness of the environment in lurid detail. Set the scene like you would imagine in a creepy novel or scary movie. Let the players immerse themselves in shrouded fog, shadowy corridors, or a cursed temple.

Creative and unique scares are also more effective than cliches. The fear of the unknown is the most effective means of creating fear in your players. Vampires and werewolves can be scary, but their ubiquity in mass media means that most players will be savvy to their usual tricks and traits. Using monsters and hazards that the players have never heard of before will be more likely to bring out the unease and tension you are shooting for. 

This fear of the unknown means that a threat is most effective when it is at its most mysterious. A glimpse of something slithering in the shadow, a rock face covered in bloody etchings, these are hints towards the true nature of a hidden danger that don't immediately reveal what it is. The build up toward a reveal is even more important than the reveal itself, and vital to making a scene truly scary.

Use every one of the five senses in your story when describing something suspenseful. Think about what a room smells like, what a monster sounds like, what the edge of a jagged blade feels like . And don't forget the sixth sense, the sense of the player characters' minds. Scary stuff can have a straining effect on a character's subconcious, so let that play itself out in your narrative. Describe a sickening sensation in a character's stomach, an instinctive feeling of being watched, or a sharp migraine headache when stepping on an altar. Get inside the character's head for a moment and let the player know how a scene is effecting them, through either supernatural influence or just their basic impulses.

Ambient sound and music can really heighten the mood of a scene, so look for some cool effects or sound generators to match the setting's atmosphere. Eerie sound effects can be especially effective, like scraping chains, dripping water, or insidious whispers. Soundtracks from classic horror and suspense movies make for effective musical cues at the right moment. Spooky art and imagery is also good for enhancing the mood. If you can find a photograph or piece of artwork that has a great ambiance, you should definitely bring it to the table!

Finally, remember not to overdo it. If you keep the fear factor cranked up to its highest level at all times it will lose its impact. The players will become numb to the effect, and will cease responding to it. Allow for lulls in the action, for peace and quiet to set in so that it will be more disturbing when the spooky bits arrive. Following a scary scene with a tranquil scene will often underscore the horror in any case, so don't be afraid to include these rest breaks in order to achieve better effects from your scares. 

In fact, another way to keep the players scared is by including enough tranquility that the players don't know when to expect danger. When they are lured into a false sense of security after a series of peaceful interactions with townsfolk, they won't be prepared when a wild beast lunges upon them. If you can keep the players uncertain as to when a threat might appear, you can keep that sense of gnawing concern going for the entire session.

Scares and horror are a great addition to any campaign's tonal palette, so feel free to work them into your next adventure, and enjoy the tension and intensity it brings to your own play group.

Happy ventures!

Now Playing: Star Wars RPG Campaigns

The Star Wars universe is a setting rich with creatures, characters, and adventures to experience on the tabletop. It is a setting with some of the most numerous materials and established histories in fiction. I have been running a Star Wars campaign recently and it has caused me to start thinking hard about how to approach the setting, adding personal touches while staying true to the lore and themes of the series.

What follows are my most relevant tips for running a fun and memorable game set in the Star Wars universe.

Use what's out there.

Recently there has been much debate over what is still considered 'canon.' Disney has chosen to ignore most of the previously established continuity in favor of their own creations. This however, has no bearing on what you do in your own tabletop campaign.You aren't limited or constrained by the standards of mainstream continuity. The entire vast library of Star Wars related fiction and merchandise is yours to mine for ideas. You can pick and choose the best material from the old and new expanded universes to create your ideal setting. Whether it is an old module from West End Games, a recent Marvel comic book, or an apocryphal video game by Lucasarts, there is a lot to pull from if you need inspiration.

Part of the appeal of using an established franchise as the setting for your campaign is that some of your players will already have a baseline familiarity with the universe. It can be a lot of fun when your players recognize a familiar ship or alien species. On the other hand, you don't want to alienate players who are brand new to the setting. Mix your original ideas and creations together with elements from the movies and expanded universe so they blend together seamlessly. Encourage players who are seasoned fans of the series to share and explain things they might recognize from the established canon. Let the continuity be shared between all the players rather than becoming an inside joke between those more versed in the lore.

Make the galaxy your own.

The Star Wars galaxy is a place of fiction that is constantly being expanded upon by a great number of writers and storytellers. This is your opportunity to count yourself among that number. You are free to design your own species, planets, technologies, whatever you might need to tell a good story. One of the more useful aspects of the setting is the fact that it is vast. There are new creatures and planets appearing all the time. So if you want to introduce a new and unique addition to the galaxy, there is nothing stopping you. As long as it fits within the continuity you have established and doesn't contradict anything else in your setting it's all fair game!

The only constraint I suggest imposing is to treat the movies themselves as the one incontrovertible source of lore and information. Most people who play the game will be familiar with at least the movies, so it's best not to stray to far from that source material. Don't go changing Chewbacca's homeworld or the way the Jedi mind trick works unless you're looking for a whole mess of trouble.

Create your own story, but stick to the proper tone.

There are a lot of different styles and genres mixing together to create the Star Wars that we know and love. It's part science fiction, part fantasy, part western... but this intermingling of themes and ideas is what gives it such an iconic style. The parts make up the whole, and distinguish it from other sci-fi series like Star Trek or Firefly.

Your first task is to identify which aspects of the Star Wars setting you want to explore in the most detail. Between exploring new worlds, fighting the Galactic Empire, protecting mystical artifacts of The Force, there is a lot of ground to cover here. The term "Star Wars" isn't quite specific enough to define what kind of game you are going to run, because there are so many kinds of stories to be told in that universe. Fantasy Flight Games makes this distinction a bit easier by dividing their RPG material into three separate games:

Edge of the Empire is all about renegades roving across the fringe of civilization. (I call it Pirates of the Caribbean in Space)

Age of Rebellion is a traditional good guys vs. bad guys war campaign.

Force and Destiny is all about space magic and Arthurian fantasy in the cosmos.

These are all cross compatible. You can combine aspects from each of these games and genres in order to create your ideal campaign, but don't overdo it. Choose which of these themes to focus on the most. This is done to avoid a cluttered, confusing game.

The best way to make this decision is with the cooperation of your gaming group. Find out from your players what kind of campaign they would like to be in. Learn what parts of the Star Wars setting appeal to them the most. Then you can decide what kind of exploits are best for your adventuring party to delve into.

The movie Guardians of the Galaxy is a very good example of what a Star Wars campaign might be like. Specifically, it would fit into the Edge of the Empire category... a band of colorful creatures set off on an adventure across the wild and criminal reaches of the cosmos. They each have their own unique abilities and motives for adventuring, but they run across shared adventures and threats at every turn.

Don't make it about the movies.

There's going to be the temptation to cross over with parts of the movies or explore some of the storylines like the Death Star or so forth. Besides the occasional cameo by a canon character, I recommend against this. In series like Star Wars, the main characters of the cinematic universe will easily overshadow your players' characters. Characters like Luke Skywalker are so significant in the grand scope of the galaxy's history that they make the team's adventures seem less impressive by comparison.

Star Wars is a setting to be used to tell an infinite number of tales and adventures. These adventures can have high stakes for your heroes as well as the future of the galaxy. But don't leave your players trying to follow the footsteps of cinematic heroes. Let them carve out their own legacy, and let the campaign be more about exploring the setting than simply trying to relive the original series.

May The Force be with you!

Building an Improvisational Toolbox

It's always good for a DM to have detailed notes and cheat sheets handy to reference when running a game. For instance, a list of names for NPCs that you have to create on the fly. But I like to take this concept a step further, especially when I am running a game based around a very loose framework which will require a lot of improvisation.

When it comes to these situations I keep more than just a quick reference of game rules on hand. I also have an improvisational toolkit that I call a Lore Sheet. This record is just a simple table printed from a word processor with a list of concepts and names that I could work into a narrative, tailored to the specific setting of the game. It has a list of names apropriate to the setting, occupations, types of enemies that might be encountered, and even titles for places and historical events. 

Most of these concepts are ones that I have not developed any further than their names that I put on the sheet, but they are a starting point for a creative process. The basics that I recommend are Enemies, Challenges, Locations, Items, Names, and Historical events... but each sheet may be different based on the needs of your campaign and the style of your setting. I even include common props and window dressing, so that I can describe vivid scenes in detail without having to read off a script word-for-word. 

More detail is really neat and fun for your players, and provides fodder for more storytelling. Let's say your players ask about the history of a certain place that you hadn't fully fleshed out yet. You look at your Lore Sheet and read off a couple of events: "The Winter Accords," and "The Hyborian Wars," so now you have a couple of ideas for historical background. Similarly, when they step out on the streets of Neo-Tokyo, you can pull from a list of props like "Data kiosok," and "video billboard," for "Alphanumeric Limited"  which is blaring music from a list of genres like "technocore." It's all about building a toolbox of resources... whatever you might conceivably need when the campaign gets rolling. 

My cyberpunk Lore Sheet currently includes a list of street foods, names for computer programs, megacorporations, and brand names. In one section I listed a bunch of ideas for encounters to challenge the players, like a fight in an elevator shaft or a laser grid security system. It's all about making everything run as smoothly and creatively as possible. 

A lot of my Lore Sheets contain material that I cribbed from various existing works of fiction, like the name of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation from the Aliens franchise. Don't be afraid to borrow ideas from other media for your own games. There is no worry about copyright infringement at the privacy of your game table, and there's no shame in copying from the greats. You may trawl the internet for ideas to fill out the sheet, it really helps add some fun details and allusions to a game session. Then add a few original ideas of your own, when you have time to relax and get creative. This way you don't have to make up every detail on the spot, during the time crunch of the game itself. 

Remember, anything that frees you from additional effort gives you more brain power to focus on other matters of game running. It keeps things more relaxed, efficient, and fun, and I highly recommend keeping notes like these very close when your next tabletop adventure kicks off. 

Happy ventures!

(To learn about another tool that can be useful when improvising behind the DM screen, check out my previous entry about Story Cubes)

Link: West End Games' Star Wars Style Guide

Today I would like to share something really neat and helpful for running Star Wars RPGs. The following link collects excerpts from West End Games' style guide for writers of their Star Wars gaming material. Included here is a lot of very sound advice for storytelling and adventure building in the SW universe to maintain its iconic themes and tone of the setting. For those interested in the setting, it serves as a very straight-to-the-point guidebook, advising the game builders to avoid cliches based entirely on the movies and explaining how to treat the galaxy as a vast expanse filled with unlimited potential.

Enjoy these little behind the scenes tidbits, thanks to Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group, and may they serve you well in your next foray into a galaxy far, far away.

Happy ventures!

The Joy of Researching for a Game

One of my favorite parts of preparing for a game session is researching details and fascinating sources of inspiration. In a setting based on our own world, I like to include people, places and things from our own history and geography. Like setting an adventure in the Wieliczka Salt Mines of Poland. (Pictured below)

When the setting is a fantastical realm unlike our own, I might still include details borrowed from the real world... Maybe the local chefs specialize in fixing haggis, and the players might find out just how the dish is made.

Tabletop RPGs are a great source of entertainment, but that doesn't mean they can't be informative as well. Some of the most interesting concepts for adventures could come from real life facts of science and history. Explorer type players will benefit especially from these inclusions, as they provide a new level of immersion and provide them with something interesting to discover in the game world.

Wielicza Salt Mines

It can also lead to further interesting discussion and drive the players to do their own research into a subject that peaks their curiosity. I once ran a World War Two themed adventure which used historical elements of Tokyo Rose, The Treaty of San Francisco, and the sunken city of Nan Madol. While I didn't bore the players with the extensive factual details of these events, their inclusion made laid out a cool and immersive foundation for the story. It also helped to provide some much-needed inspiration, rather than forcing me to wrack my brain for a purely original concept for an adventure.

Nan Madol, Micronesia

Research like this shouldn't be a chore, of course. Sometimes I will listen to an educational program while I tackle errands and chores, and will finish with a bunch of ideas to integrate into my next campaign. I highly recommend checking out some documentaries and podcasts when you have the time between game sessions. Any media that could be relevant to the kind of story you want to tell can be a great source of material. (I will post some of my favorite sources in a future entry.)

And of course, even browsing Wikipedia can provide some juicy tidbits of material. It doesn't have to be an academic-level source or citation, just a modicum of reality to spice things up. In fact, sometimes historical events that might not have happened could be a great addition to your game, like Archimedes' mirror-based Heat Ray. It's a neat idea, and your players may enjoy finding out more about that particular ancient anecdote.

Once again, there is no need to worry greatly about factual accuracy or turn your game table into a lecture hall. But there is so much to draw from in the world around us that it makes sense to use it to enhance our games. I highly encourage every game master to consider this and do their own research to incorporate these kinds of details into their future campaigns.

Happy ventures!

Themes of Paranormal American RPGs

Still from the adventure game Life is Strange

A quiet little community rests in the shade of the pines somewhere in the American Midwest. The wind softly rustles the branches. In the distance, you hear a soft growl. Is it just the sound of the woodland creatures on their nightly hunt? Or is it something else? Why do the townsfolk change the subject whenever you ask? What is that blue light that seems to peek through your curtains just as you drift off to sleep? And why do you keep get the odd sensation that your television is watching YOU instead of the other way around?

This is the kind of introduction you might use if you are going to run a game from the genre that a friend* and I have dubbed Paranormal Americana.  This delightfully weird genre borders on the edge of Lovecraftian horror and science fiction. 

The most notorious examples of the genre are the television program Twin Peaks and the works of Stephen King... and if you are familiar with either of those, you probably have a good idea of what I'm talking about now. 

Other examples in this category include:

• The X-Files (Another staple and trend-setter of the genre)
• Gravity Falls
• Wayward Pines
• Alan Wake  
• Life is Strange
• Deadly Premonition
• The Twilight Zone (Certain episodes, at least)
• Welcome to Night Vale

Night Vale is the setting I usually run these kinds games in, because of the healthy dose of morbid humor and off-beat satire.

But what is this genre really about, and what makes it worth our time? Well, there are a number of common threads that draw people to these stories. The theme of weirdness lurking behind the mundane is always a major theme. More specifically, the genre explores the idea of a sinister purpose lurking behind the facade of the American community. Whether it is a suburban neighborhood or a sleepy little mountain town, the idea that close-knit communities are cult-like conspiracies serving as fronts for something insidious and dangerous. The H.P. Lovecraft story The Shadow Over Innsmouth was sort of a proto-example of this kind of tale, in which an entire fishing village is undergoing strange mutations into something inhuman.

A lot of these stories also draw inspiration from American folklore and urban legends. This covers a wide range of weird but unique phenomenons. Yetis, UFOs, ghosts, anything  that has ever been speculated by conspiracy theorists or cryptozoologists would be a good fit here. A sense of paranoia should be cultivated in these kinds of settings, and classic internet "creepypastas" like Slender Man make for good creative fodder for designing monsters and encounters. 

There are many options for interesting stories and challenges that this kind of game world can offer. For example: in the novel American Gods, Neil Gaiman explored a world where the traditions and superstitions of old world cultures had brought their magic to the new world along with them. The gods of days past then compete with the gods of the new world, gods of media and technology. This is what the setting is all about. Creating a new mythology that is distinctly modern and distinctly American. It's the amalgamation of cultures and traditions with the fears and anxieties of the modern age.

Just remember that when you run these games, don't use combat-heavy systems. These games are more ideally suited for Call of Cthulhu or some version of FATE. They are more about exploration and mystery than battling through obstacles. I think this means that they take a lot of time to think about and prepare, so I don't recommend doing them as long term campaigns. They are better as episodic scenarios, like a really good one-shot session. When I ran a Night Vale game in FATE, I had the players each as a person with a unique occupation and supernatural power. I also gave them very few stress boxes, so that the monsters they encountered would do a lot of damage and be very threatening. For horror games in general, that's the way to go. Low hit points and the potential for lasting and debilitating injury. 

So now you have a fairly clear idea how to start exploring this genre, and maybe some inspiration for a game. It never hurts to introduce some variety to your gaming group,and if your group enjoys the weird and creepy, Paranormal Americana may be just the ticket. 

Happy Ventures!


* I first discussed this terminology with Ryan Teague, proprietor of the Scan Visor podcast, which turns a critical eye to various forms of nerdy media. You can check it out at http://scanvisor.podbean.com.

Explorers In Your Campaign: Find the Ranger With a Compass!

Continuing our exploration of various types of players and their role at your game table, today we will discuss, appropriately enough, The Explorer.

You can typically recognize an explorer as one who likes to actively ask questions about their surroundings and the lore of the setting. Explorers are players who like to immerse themselves in the scenery, lore, and atmosphere of your setting. This means that they benefit most from details that you have prepared ahead of time. Pre-written blurbs that describe an environment and set the scene are very useful to keeping explorers engaged, and are good to include if you have the time to do so. Remember to describe how a scene interacts with all five senses. It's not just about how the dungeon looks and sounds, but also how it smells, how cold the air inside is, what the surface of the floor beneath your feet feels like. Think of how the PCs would actually experience being in the scene, rather than just viewing it from a detached perspective.

Maps are also good for explorers. Have some pre-made for them, and let the explorer help you manage and move around miniatures and props on the battlefield. Include both tactical maps and big picture world maps with borders and geographic features. If the game world feels like something tangible, something that really exists around their character and can be interacted with, they will be happy. 

You can also improvise quite a bit to satisfy explorers. Adding history and 'window dressing' on the fly will make them feel more immersed in the game and give them more to discover. What's the name of the specialty drink served in this tavern? How do the elves celebrate birthdays? Minor details like this might be innocuous but they add to the appeal of the universe in which your game is set. You can deliver a lot of this information as knowledge that the player character already possesses, or even allow the player to fill out gaps in the lore with their own contributions.

Additionally, secret rooms and bonus loot scattered about like Easter eggs are another way to keep explorers occupied. Don't make them meticulously search a room by five feet at a time, or require a roll to see if they find things that are necessary to continue the game. Reward them for things like remembering to search under the bed or behind a wardrobe by providing the occasional secret passage or extra bundle of arrows. Make it worth their while to interact with the environment when they have the time. 

Explorers will still need motivation to go on their missions, exploration is rarely the only reason their PC seeks adventure. But adding these elements is crucial to their enjoyment of the game and will keep them well satisfied with your campaign. 

My number one piece of advice for implementing these details is to really enjoy the setting of your campaign. If you are really interested in fleshing out the details, your enthusiasm will spread easily to your players. You will have a solid grasp on the nature of the game and a sense of what you want it to be which will make it much more natural to share with players. Keep this in mind and you will all have an expansive and wonderful world to explore!

Happy ventures!

Lore and the Joy of Backstory

Lore can make players feel like they are playing an important part in a much larger story

For a lot of players, simply existing in a world of fantasy adventure is enough to provide a satisfying adventure at the game table. But for the more exploratory among us, for those who like to really get involved in the fiction, lore is the key to getting a bigger picture. I am using the term lore in this case to refer to the background details that provide context for everything within your game's particular fiction. Like the history of a nation or the scientific principle behind a certain technology. Every game needs at least some of these elements if you want the players to follow along and interact with the story. 

Do you have to prepare this kind of information in minute detail? Certainly not! But the inclusion of additional aspects like these will provide a sense of scale and immersion that will hook your players in and keep them engaged. 

The lore of your adventure and setting is often the most fun part of preparing a game session. In fact, it is often a little too enjoyable, as some GMs must beware spending too much time designing histories and geographic details at the expense of designing encounters and plot hooks for their players.

Moderation is better. Make sure you have at least a little bit of window dressing for each major part of your campaign. Don't prepare reams of history unless it will be relevant and interesting to your particular play group.  Remember that the game is playground is for your players to explore, not for you to show off your own writing skills.  

Encouraging your players to ask questions is important to the process of sharing these details. You don't want to foist a bunch of gratuitous details on your players if they don't want to hear it, and it can kill the pacing of a game to dive into long winded monologues about Elvish military tradition or the properties of magnetic ore. Instead, you want to drop in some leading hints that there is more than meets the eye about an element of the setting, and let your players ask directly for more details. Saying things like "There is something strange about the way this stone glows in moonlight," or "The elf holds his staff of command as if he is an archon of the Second Order," would be good ways to intrigue your players into finding out more details (Either by talking to NPCs or consulting their own character's innate knowledge of a subject.)

The kind of questions you want to wait for are anything related to putting a situation into context, such as:

Who made this thing?
Why is this event happening?
Has my character seen or heard of something like this before?

This is your cue to share more detail and make your players a part of the world you are creating together. Remember to provide this information a little bit at a time, don't drop it all on the players in a single big 'info-dump.' For instance, you might provide a little detail about an ancient war when your players discover the ruins of a lost fortress, and then talk about a particularly significant battle when they find a carving of it in the interior of the fort.

Having a lot of details prepared isn't mandatory, but it can really pay off

It goes without saying that you don't want to hide these prepared details behind intelligence-based dice rolls that could be failed. Save your dice checks for when the players need an additional detail that would give them an advantage in some situation. There is nothing worse than playing through a campaign without any idea of what's actually happening or missing out on all the interesting parts of the setting, so keep your players informed with the basic lore of your game world whenever they ask for it. 


Another important thing to remember is that sometimes you won't have enough lore prepared to answer a question the players might have about something in the game.  But keep in mind that there is always an answer. Even if you don't know right away, there is always an answer. This is what makes tabletop gaming so great, because you can create an environment filled with background details that develop organically and are as infinite as imagination. You might not have an answer for your player right away when they ask about the availability of dilithium in the delta quadrant, but you can bide your time and devise an appropriate answer for them shortly. Don't be afraid to improvise additional lore and facts about the game world. Look to your players for ideas as well, let them provide some of the details of the setting themselves. Don't be afraid of adding new ideas on the fly, that's what the game is all about!

Real world elements don't need historical accuracy to be fun

Some of my favorite kinds of lore to include in a game are real-world science, history, and geography. In settings that take place in worlds much like our own, the inclusion of true to life subjects and events can be very fun to explore in a fictional context. It's also a lot of fun to research. I'm not talking about detailed study or absolute factual accuracy. It is just entertainment after all, and artistic liberties can always be taken. But the inclusion of background details like these can add an extra layer of fun and learning to your campaign. If your game takes place in ancient Egpyt, for instance, do a bit of reading about the culture and history of that era. Find out what the local industries and cuisine were like and work it into the background of the game. It's a great way to make your players feel like they are actually transported to a different time and place, and to keep them focused and engaged.

Happy ventures!

Things to Consider When Creating Campaign Settings

Setting the scene for your campaign is step one...

The campaign setting is a key choice that will shape the style and storyline of your tabletop campaign. Some game masters spend an exceptional amount of time crafting a detailed world with its own lore, geography, and ecology. Others choose to select from a number of settings designed by writers and game makers. Either way is fine, but remember that the setting is just a starting point. If you have more fun creating the world than having the players interact with it and change it, then you would probably enjoy another form of writing, like short stories. But if you design your fictional world as a stage for your players to step onto, then you are truly thinking like a game-runner.

When either creating your own setting or adapting someone else's one thing to consider is that your players don't necessarily care about the same details that you might. While you might be very eager to expound on the coin exchange rates between kingdoms or the history of bad blood between the local goblin tribes, you needn't take offense if your players don't share your enthusiasm. Remember that whatever information you add to the setting is for the benefit of their player, and if they don't explore that particular avenue that's all right. The interests of your audience still supersede that of the DM, so keep enjoying the creative process while you present the players with only the material that they actively seek out and show interest in.

Don't get married to your ideas about the setting strictly based on pre-written notes. The players might present a golden opportunity to make a key change that you had not previously considered. As long as it doesn't contradict the facts that you have established about your setting, it can be altered organically to serve a better story. Players would much rather let you diverge from your notes if it means a better playing experience. A DM shouldn't blame their own notes or rules or rolls for a bad session. There are always ways to fix those issues that can still result in at least a fairly fun game. A bad game comes from difficult dynamics between participants or an inability to make make adjustments on the fly. Recognize issues and fix them, even when it comes to the most fundamental aspects of your game setting.

Remember not to include a lot of elements in the setting that will overshadow your PCs. NPCs of higher levels than your players only serve to make them seem insignificant and can become frustrating. Remember that this is your players' story, not your own. Plan accordingly. You might even design parts of your own setting after character creation, using your players' character concepts as a springboard for your own ideas. Making the setting more collaborative in this manner is a great way to ensure your players will be invested in the story you present.

Having a lot of detail in your setting is one way to keep things interesting, especially for exploration

Above all, make sure your setting is one that excites and interests you. Your players might ask you unexpected questions and you may have to make up some answers on the spot. Being invested in your own work means that you will want to engage in conversations about it, and at it's core that is exactly what a game session is. A conversation with your players that you will both enjoy if you share a strong interest in the subject.

Finally, having a lot of notes about the setting might take a bit of extra prep time, but it pays big dividends. If you know a lot of details about your game setting, it gives you more to draw from. It gives you more opportunity to adapt and change. It gives you more answers for your players. It gives you a stronger grasp on the nature of the world in which the characters exist. And it can be a lot of fun to invent and share as well!

In a future entry we will delve deeper into this, with advice for adapting existing campaign settings. But for right now, I hope you enjoyed these musings on world-building for your play group. Happy ventures!

Ten Movies That Resemble Tabletop Games!

You may have heard that Dungeons and Dragons is getting another movie treatment in the near future. There have been a number of critically unsuccessful attempts to bring the franchise to the silver screen, but this may well be the one that makes it. One big reason that it is difficult to translate the game into a cinematic experience is that there is no particular story to any pen and paper game beyond the one created by the players. Instead, a movie aimed at paying tribute to the genre should focus on recreating the dynamic of gameplay and player interaction in a fun narrative way. With this in mind, I would like to introduce my own list of movies that capture the "feel" of tabletop gaming. 

Firstly, let me break down the elements that I think are most iconic in role playing games. These are the creative choices that make a movie strongly resemble, say, a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. A movie doesn't have to include all of these elements to make the list, but these are the most commonly recognizable tropes.

• Starring an ensemble cast of characters, each with unique talents and specialization. 
• Delivering a sense of fantasy and wonder in a world that is unique and open to exploration. 
• The characters develop over time, and their personalities and skills grow over this period. 
• There is playful banter and a sense of camaraderie among the group, and they overcome challenges as a team. 
• The characters face a wide array of obstacles that test their abilities in combat, intrigue, and guile. The characters typically follow a clearly defined mission and their adventure is based around this direct goal. 
• The movie has a strong blend of comedy and action. 
• The movie ends with a sense of achievement and promise of future adventure.

"Let's get this adventuring party started"

With that being said, here is a list of my first top ten movies that are like tabletop RPGs:

1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
A classic, oft reference icon of early nerd cinema. This very funny parody of Arthurian legend is one that infamously gets less entertaining as it is quoted by snarky players at the game table for the thousandth time. Still, the comedic quest with the knights of the round table, battling monsters and foes along the way, is a great example of a movie that reminds you of goofier moments playing games of Dungeons and Dragons.

2. The Lord of the Rings series
A classic Dungeons and Dragons inspiration, as we would not have the game of D&D today if not for author JRR Tolkien. The Fellowship travels through a number of epic encounters, splits the party, and completes an incredible quest. With their line up of rangers, halfling thieves, and even a wizard, the heroes from this movie could be considered the first  D&D adventuring party. In fact, one clever internet person has already depicted this in web-comic form and the results are hilarious!

3. The Princess Bride
Another supremely quotable movie that eventually ends up following a pair of swashbucklers, a giant, and a princess in a quest to defeat an evil monarch. With fantastical settings, clever contests of wits and strength, and the fact that the entire story is projected from the imagination of a child, it could just as easily be re-imagined as somebody's particularly humorous game night. The frequent anachronisms serve to make the comparison even more fitting!

4. The Fast and the Furious franchise

This one might seem like an odd choice at first, but this quote, originally attributed to a SomethingAwful forum user, makes it clear why this goes on the list. *Strong language warning*

It's also explicitly a D&D campaign, as confirmed by a Justin Lin interview posted some pages ago. The order in which I saw the movies was 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, and going from 5 to 1 I was floored by how low-key everything was. But it's about escalation. Dom Toretto in Furious 6 is not the same person as Dom Toretto in TF&TF because he's leveled up from like 5 to 20-something. And there are things that are necessary to the process of leveling that far. There's the continuing growth and harmony of the adventuring party/family, and the acquisition and use of magic items/cars. Cars are not just a thing you drive fast in this series (Though it's kinda hilarious how there's the additional parallel of broadening scope of items. In TF&TF, the cars are super important but they don't really do much. They drive exclusively in straight lines, often badly, because these are just +2 Cars compared to the +5 Vorpal Holy Avenger Cars we get later) [Continued]

5. Guardians of the Galaxy
A great movie to showcase unlikely heroes who are each drastically different from one another. This one is all about the party! You have heroes who specialize in swords and melee, others who attack with firearms, some who are good at talking their way out of anything and others who are pure muscle and barely talk at all. A great example of the kind of variety and teamwork that is reminiscent of a fun campaign.

6. The Mummy movies
Monster encounters in caverns and tombs will be familiar to any RPG enthusiast, and this movie has that in spades. With its heroes dedicated to adventure and questing against evil, and the plethora of traps and lost chambers to explore, it sure feels at times like an old school dungeon delve!

7. Labyrinth
This one is all about the dungeon! Literally forced to traverse one herself on a quest to save her baby brother, Sarah recruits a number of other adventurers along the way. With riddles and puzzles and strange environments, this movie really captures the mood of a cleverly designed tabletop game level.

8. Gangster Squad
A lesser known recent film that manages to capture that same type of team dynamic found in others on this list. With car chases, gunfights, and other exciting encounters, this one follows a team of police on a mission to take down a mobster that could very well be the subject of a modern-day campaign.

9. Ocean's Eleven
The ultimate big team movie. With its huge ensemble cast of characters with unique specializations, it's great for showing how to give every player a role in adventure. Like Fast and Furious, the team grows and develops over time, and their collaborative achievements during the heists are very similar to the collaborative storytelling of tabletop gaming.

10. Jumanji
This is an obvious one of course, with its dice rolls for random encounters and the running theme of jungle dangers in a modern suburban setting. The new 'players' are even guided through the rules of the dangerous living board game by Robin Williams, the same way experienced players introduce people to their own favorite game.

Do you have any favorite movies that remind you of a tabletop RPG? Any that inspire you for your own games? Share your thoughts in the comment section! Happy ventures!

Flavorful: The Importance of Imagination

I asked fellow DM and tabletop RPG aficionado Tim Lang to share his thoughts about good game mastery, based on his many years of tabletop experience. His observations highlighted the importance of a game's flavor, the elements of imagination and creativity that mix to create a fun experience. If you want your players to really enjoy your world, this boils down to one big idea: 

You want your adventure to be memorable.

There are two terms that get thrown around in RPG design circles... fluff, representing the lore and description of the game world. And crunch, meaning the rules and game mechanics that make up the system. Both are important, and should be taken in new and exciting directions whenever you run a game. The fluff should be interesting to the players, and the crunch should be fun to engage with.

Basically, if an encounter doesn't sound interesting when you relate it as an anecdote, it should be reworked until it would make a good story.

You don't want "We fought a bugbear in a forest." You at least want "Bugbear ambush at lunchtime. He was disguised as a bush and trying to steal our food." Something people will say "Hey, remember when?" about. 

As Tim puts it, "If you're in a dungeon, you don't want it to be "that dungeon where we fought that guy." You want "the temple to the dead God with all the demonic sigils and the possession traps.Or the underground ruins of the machine city where the ground moved beneath us while we fought. If you're playing high fantasy, you shouldn't be afraid to use fantastic elements to spruce up otherwise mundane activities."

"Tolkien is actually a good reference for atmospheric locations. Just think of all the distinct places he's given us: Shelob's lair, the treetop settlement of Lothlorien, Smaug's monumental trove of treasure. Even before the movies, those were iconic and inspired tons of later fantasy writers."

Theme is the key. Each of those were pretty high concept without being simplistic. If you start throwing everything and the kitchen sink in it becomes too random, but if you just have one environmental gimmick it will be too basic.

Back to Tim: "That's where the environment needs to intersect with who or what is living there, and what the players are doing there. Smaug wouldn't work in a dark winding cave, and Shelob in a tower is likewise ineffective."

Even games based in real-world history can have these evocative qualities. Integrating well-researched history, cultures, and technologies into a game is another way to make things memorable and engaging. 

Originality isn't everything, but transform each concept into your own. 

There is nothing new under the sun, to coin a phrase. So don't worry if your idea is based off a borrowed concept or a popular trope. Just remember to make it your own. Transform the generic into the unique. Turn that magical forest into a florescent wonderland of giant mushrooms with a collective consciousness. Make the evil emperor a lich in disguise. It doesn't have to be the first time the concept has ever been thought up, as long as it is makes for a unique experience for your players. 

For each person place or thing, ask yourself: What is special or unique about this? What will make it memorable?

This whole process of building an evocative setting relates to the foundations of gaming, specifically imagery and variety. Players generally don't want the game to be a droll grind in a world of the mundane. Better to keep things fresh. Mix up a recipe of fluffy, crunchy, goodness that keeps people coming back to the table for seconds. Let the game get dramatic and silly as needed. 

This is a medium that is, at its core, a bunch of people shouting ideas around a table. That's why even at its most strictly regulated, there remains a certain sense of gonzo adventure. Embrace the dynamic nature of the tabletop! Let your imagination soar!

Happy Ventures!