External Links: Creating Conflict!

Conflict is the centerpiece for any good story, as well as an important element of role playing. Today, I'd like to share a couple of thought provoking pieces on creating conflict with your characters that can be applied to both players and game masters alike.

The first is this link to a screenwriting article about ways to create conflict in a story.

The second is this image that I found making the rounds online (Sorry, I'm not sure of the original source) 

Hopefully these will ignite your creative spark and get you thinking about your own ways to create conflict in your tabletop campaigns!

Happy ventures!

Start With the Simple

When designing RPG characters and scenarios it can be easy to get carried away with complexity and intrigue. Details will snowball, grow more elaborate, and eventually become a wide web of relationships and events. A character might be part of a triple cross, a monster encounter may include an extensive chase scene, or a villain might be motivated by principles the heroes themselves would agree with. 

Complexity is all well and good, but keep in mind that it comes with risk. The more complicated a story, the more difficult it will be to convey to your players. It will also take a lot longer to sort out a convoluted scenario than a straightforward one, so it can create pacing issues. Nobody wants to run a game that would be considered 'dumbed-down,' but that doesn't mean that every storyline needs to be multi-layered. 

What I recommend is at least starting with a straightforward concept, and make sure it is a strong one. What emotion do you want to convey? Go all out in your pursuit of this feeling. An archduke is seeking revenge. A terrifying monster devours all travelers. A battle will rage in a thunderstorm. Use this as a starting point. Individual players enjoy getting involved with characters and adventures in-depth, but a play group will benefit greatly from artful simplicity. 

Don't let things get boring, or lacking in variety. Go ahead and include shifting terrain, a secret spy, or whatever else strikes your fancy. Just don't overdo it. Don't throw so many things at the players that they feel bewildered. Let them add complexity to the story themselves. They might decide that a bad guy is sympathetic based on their own interpretation of his actions, and that is just fine. But creating a situation in which the heroes don't realize the true foe can easily become more frustrating than exhilarating. (The heroes working for the bad guy is an obnoxious cliche among inexperienced DMs, and hurts DM-player trust)

Sure, there is a time and place for the type of character backstory or encounter design that needs a flowchart to understand. But for most games, it is best to start with the simple. It helps to draw out the foundation of ideas and emotions that will make for a compelling game. After all, the scene that your players will most likely remember from an intrigue-heavy game will more likely be a personal exchange with a character than the interlocking politics of the a royal court. 

There's an elegance in simplicity, so have a key concept that you can explain clearly and concisely for every character and situation you invent. Then you, and your fellow players, will be sure to have a clear understanding, being able to fully delve into the game world and all of its trappings.

Happy ventures!

Recurring NPCs

Some recurring characters blasting off yet again

If you have a really neat and well-developed non-player character as part of your ongoing tabletop campaign, chances are you will want to keep them around for future encounters. As a DM, this can become quite a feat to pull off, especially when the players hold so much influence on an NPCs ultimate fate. Here are a few things to keep in mind when running a game with characters who will be recurring as part of a regular cast in your games.

First, let your players decide which NPCs should hang around in future sessions. Watch their reactions, and see which characters they respond to the most. Your best NPCs should fall into two categories: those your players love, and those your players love to hate. If your players find a character boring or just distasteful, don't cling to that NPC just because they are your favorite. Move them away from the spotlight and bring in the characters that your players prefer. Bring in allies that they cheer for and villains who they truly desire to bring down.

Speaking of villains, there is a time-tested problem that you will need to address at some point with any good major villain... how to keep them around for more than one encounter. If you stat it, your players will kill it, so how do you keep a bad guy from being taken out in their first engagement with the heroes? One way is to not have them directly encounter the heroes at all until their first and final confrontation. A villain who pulls strings and taunts the hero from a hidden lair can be a fun antagonist, even if they aren't personally engaging the party. Have them establish themselves through machinations and schemes rather than combat, leading to the ultimate showdown with the players.

You can also build safeguards into each encounter, multiple means by which the villain can escape and elude the heroes in the eleventh hour. But don't make it entirely impossible for the players to catch their foe. Always leave a bit of leeway, and plan for a scenario where the players might succeed overwhelmingly. If you rig the game, it takes away the organic progression that is a touchstone of tabletop RPGs. You are free to stack the odds in favor of your baddie's escape, but be prepared for the small chance of his failure. If anything is a foregone conclusion, it's naturally not as fun to experience and discover through gameplay.

Jetpacks, trapdoors, teleporters.. main villains need an exit strategy.

This rule can be applied to allied NPCs too... never put an NPC in harm's way without a plan for what happens if they fall to that harm.  If you want to keep any character safe, keep them out of combat or give them gimmicks to escape and run away. Don't make them invincible or impervious to danger. It's cheating and makes the players feel inferior by comparison. If they are in a combat that has no bearing on the adventure, you might handwave it away, but if they fight directly alongside the PCs they shouldn't have special advantages over the players.

Bring back popular characters and don't force your own preferences on the group and you will have a cast that your players truly connect with. Find ways to weave the characters in and out of the narrative, and let your players offer their own suggestions on how to do this as well. If your players want to return to a particular blacksmith they met previously, all the better! You are surely doing something right. At the same time, be prepared to make changes to your cast of NPCs based on player input and the natural progression of the game. The same old faces can get stale after a while, so always be ready to change things up and add some fresh new characters to your gaming world!

Happy ventures!

Five Surprising But Common Problems That Ruin Games

Artistic depiction of a player dealing with these common mistakes.

Here on DMpathy I try to put a positive spin on things, because I believe that providing positive suggestions is a better motivator for running games than negative criticism. However, it is still important to recognize some of the major pitfalls that can bring down a good game session and get in the way of having a fun time. Time and again on this blog I have run down some of the biggest mistakes to avoid when you are game mastering. But there are a few in particular that I run into with notable frequency, and I think it would be helpful to put them down here in list form.

These particular problems are surprisingly common among game groups, even if they may seem easily avoidable at first glance. I have played with several different game runners, and many of them fell prey to at least one (if not all) of these issues. And yet some of them avoided making these mistakes altogether. These significant errors can affect any DM or gaming group, but they are especially common among groups that are just starting out or have inexperienced DMs. If this ever happens to your party, there is no reason to make anyone feel bad about it, but it should be corrected before it causes the game to get too boring or disorganized. With no further ado, here are five of the most common pitfalls of game mastering and how to address them.

5. Too much dice rolling

"You want to search the drawer for the treasure map? Roll your perception...*Rolls* You don't find anything." *Players can't continue adventure without the map*

Whenever you call for a roll, there is a chance of failure. Don't force players to roll so frequently that they fail basic actions or become afraid of taking actions because of those failures. Have the players ask before they roll dice, limit the randomness to situations in which you can work around the possibility of failure. And NEVER make the players roll the dice multiple times until they succeed at something. That's just silly.

Suggested reading: Don't Roll Them Bones Unless You Mean It!, Fudging The Dice: Honesty Behind The Screen, Slaves to the Dice

4. GM Nerves

"Now that you have killed the guild master, you... Oh man, let me think... I didn't plan for this, guys. It's all messed up...Umm..."

We all get nervous, we all get stressed. Even the most skilled DM runs into situations they hadn't accounted for. When this happens, take a deep breath and take your time. Put the game on pause for a moment if you need to and let the players enjoy snacks and conversation while you collect your thoughts. Don't panic or give yourself anxiety over the game. Your outward energy effects the group, and negativity will begin to snowball if you let it start getting to you. 

The second worst thing to hear from a DM is "Uh oh," or "Oops." The absolute worst thing to hear is "I'm sorry," because it suggests that you don't have a way to fix things, it makes everyone feel bad that something is going wrong, and it puts the players in an uncomfortable position with a lot of nervous tension. 

Believe in yourself and your ability to correct mistakes. You can do it. You can apologize for any snags and snafus after the game is over, but focus on the good that you can do going forward rather 
than the mistakes you have made in the past.

Suggested reading: When To Become DM, Sharing With Players and Clear Communication

3. Lack of direction/too much freedom

"Now you've killed the town guard, broken into the winery, forged a letter from  the mayor, and saved a random orphan from some wild dogs... what was your quest supposed to be again?"

Lay out a clear objective when a new campaign begins. The DM always has the initiative in the opening scene to establish where the players are and what they are doing. The mission should be clear and present to the players. Don't force them to wander around town looking for work or coming up with reasons why they should care about the quest to fight the goblin clans. Make sure there is a premise for the campaign that is clearly defined and some very apparent directions the players could take to follow their mission.

New players will often abuse the creative freedom of tabletop RPGs to act out and do unproductive and chaotic things. You can curtail this politely by providing lots of cues and hints to direct players toward the main quest and more constructive actions. If the players still don't care about the objectives of the campaign, you might need to re-assess what they want out of the game and make some changes to the planned adventure.

Suggested reading:Running a Tabletop Adventure For New Players, Raising the Stakes, Keeping Bad Guys Bad, Sharing With Players and Clear Communication

2. Annoying NPC

"Ha ha! Looks like you ragamuffins need a helpful guide to lead you through The Jungles of Eternity! Never fear, I will protect you bunch of scalawags from your own mischief! Ho ho!"

This obnoxious son of a gun shows up so often that I can set my watch by his appearances in a campaign. For some reason, many DMs feel the need to vicariously commentate or antagonize the players through an NPC that follows the party around on one or more missions. They might range from incredibly powerful to the point of overshadowing the player characters to helplessly weak and constantly getting into trouble. The one thing they all have in common is that they are way too involved in the game. They talk too much, hog the spotlight from the players, and generally get in the way. They often criticize or ignore player characters, and provide more irritation than entertainment.

If your players need guidance you can provide that out of character with polite side notes as a DM. Don't use an NPC as a sock puppet, and don't force players to work with characters that will be unpleasant with no recourse. If you are a DM, your main goal is to provide an adventure for the players to experience and enjoy, not your own non player characters.

Suggested reading: "The DMPC Must Die!", Players Make the Game!, A Conversation With Myself: NPC Interactions, Friend or Foe? The End of Adversarial Game Mastering

1. Player versus player

"The paladin squares off against the thief for purloining The Sacred Tome of Azura, despite the fact that the established purpose of this quest has always been stealing this artifiact."

Here's a tip to avoid a lot of grief and inconvenience in your first campaign: Always vet and approve player characters before the game begins. Make it clear what the adventure is going to be about, and how the party is going to work together as a team. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a new party descend into in-fighting and bickering because nobody was coordinating with the group when they designed their characters. Everybody built characters of different alignments and allegiences, one of the players started working against the group's interests, nobody worked together to establish any history between the characters as a team... it's all so easily avoidable yet all too commonly a problem.

If your players don't want to play characters who work together, then your game is a bust before it even begins. A little conflict or drama can add spice to a campaign, but if your party can't work together then your game is going to fall apart in short order. So collaborate with your players and solve these issues before the game begins. Make sure everyone is on the same page about their roles and relationship to the group. Make sure everybody is ready to get along and your campaign will run much smoother for your efforts.

Suggested reading: Link: Regarding the Phrase "I'm Just Playing My Character", Character Motivations, There's No "I" in "RPG"

Happy ventures!

A Conversation With Myself: NPC Interactions

NPC on NPC dialogue can turn your game into a puppet show if you're not careful.

This is a classic problem I run into when I DM my games... what happens when you have more than one NPC in a scene? Eventually it may become necessary for them to interact. Then you will be placed in the awkward position of carrying on a one-man show, conversing back and forth with yourself in different voices. This can be both confusing and dull for players who will be forced to watch these interactions and try to follow them. 

So what is to be done about this? Well, there are a few options that can minimize the problems that tend to crop up in these situations.

Firstly, you can usually avoid situations where more than one NPC is speaking by simply minimizing the number of relevant NPCs in each scene. This is a good idea for a number of reasons. Players that are presented with a number of important characters simultaneously are more prone to digression and confusion that will delay the game and over-complicate things. If there is a single important NPC in the scene then the players can focus exclusively on their relationship and interaction with that character and get to the core of the scene more easily. This doesn't have to be a blatant decision, it can be pulled off very subtly. Have a character step out of the room to get them out of the way, or make it so that certain characters are only available to converse with at certain times. Create convenient circumstances that avoid having more than one major NPC in the scene and you will be able to keep things simple and clear.

When it is unavoidable and you need to have NPCs interact, there are also ways to make the conversation more comfortable for yourself and your players. One such method is having a script written up ahead of time. If you know there is a chance or certainty that two NPCs can converse, you can prepare a pre-written dialogue that will clearly and concisely convey the content of their interactions, and allow you to improvise off of this outline. Performing the dialogue for a single character while playing into their motivations and goals is hard enough, but playing out two or more personalities and voices can swiftly become an ordeal.  Having this framework to build off of will clear up a lot of issues.

Another option is to allow players to perform certain NPCs during these scenes. This is especially important in situations where the party is split and certain players don't have anything else to do while their character is "off screen." You may lay down the ground rule that players can't control an NPC to directly help or hinder the player characters. Otherwise, you can let them play the character as they see fit, so you can have exchange words with a real, interactive person rather than an imaginary dialogue of one. 

If you absolutely must include more than one NPC in a scene and perform them yourself on the fly, keep dialogue short and sweet. Try to use distinct voices and accents for each character, or simply describe what they are saying to the characters in narrative form(Such as "They argue about the specifics of the sale, but the merchants eventually reach a consensus.") Make sure they address most of their dialogue to the characters and make sure the players have a clear understanding of who is speaking and who they are speaking to. Just like playing combat encounters without a map, social interactions can become very confusing when they are abstract and involve many moving pieces.

Whatever you do, don't have frequent NPC on NPC interactions! Keep them limited and concise to avoid making the players into passive spectators in a non-player melodrama. The players are the key to your game, and they are the ones who are the most important. Keep the spotlight on them and use these methods to keep things as clear and simple as possible, and you will be much more likely to have non player characters with whom your players will welcome interaction. 

Happy ventures!

Creating NPCs on the Fly

Don't let your NPCs be an ERROR

It is a classic situation... you have a guardsman escort the group through the palace to speak with the king. They ask this guy a few questions about the lay of the land and his own role as a guard. Next thing you know, they want to know his name and address so they can come back and find him later. What's a DM to do?

Firstly, don't worry. It's better to have your players clamoring for more non-player characters than less. If you included too many named, prepared NPCs the players will feel confused and lost in the shuffle. Most of the extras in your campaign do just fine as nameless and sometimes without games stats. The laymen of the realm, who aren't really fleshed out yet. However, there are times as mentioned previously in which you will need to create some details to support the story and their role in it. Be prepared for this contingency, and understand ahead of time that is is practically guaranteed to occur at some point during a session.

Building Character

The best place to find ideas for a new character are your campaign notes. Remember, everything in your campaign serves the story in some way or another. Even if it just establishes background features of the setting, it should be directed toward telling the story of the game. So look through your notes for what you are wanting to convey to your players right now. A miner who is a victim of a goblin attack, a snobbish aristocrat, a noble paladin... each of these could indicate something different about what kind of place the characters are in, and what is happening. These on the fly NPCs can even surprise you, and become some of the most important allies or enemies in your campaign.

If this is going to be a legit NPC, you will need to find a name for the character. I recommend keeping a list of names on hand at all times. Cross a name off the list when you use it, and add the name to your notes. Chris Perkins has made a great name list for Dungeons and Dragons, and for other settings there are random name generators available online. Print out about twenty names and keep them around for when players inevitably ask for the name of the local barkeep.

For making an NPC memorable just after he popped out of your head, it might be a good time to brush up on your impersonations. Basing the character's voice on a specific performer or cartoon character is an easy way to make a character stand out and distinguish themselves. After all, a character you made on the fly is not intended to be a stand-out original creation, but should be kept interesting.

When it comes to stats, these kinds of characters only ever need certain attributes anyway. They don't need to be meticulously worked out. If you have a generic stat block for certain levels of civilian or soldier, that will work fine. If not, you can decide these values on the fly based on what seems reasonable. The point is, don't sweat it.

Player Involvement

Some of these instant NPCs can and should be brought to life by the players themselves. I often let the group add minor details or names for new characters to drive the story and re-establish their role in building the adventure. In fact, my challenge for DMs who have a bit of experience under their belt is this: introduce an NPC who you don't know, and let the players tell you who it is. A familiar face walks up to a player, let them decide where they recognize them from, who they are, what they want. As I said before, every NPC should be important to the story, and what is more important than someone associated with a player character? It will give you more to work with and also draw out more details about the PC that you can use. And in the end, your campaign is about the PCs, so any opportunity to build upon them should be embraced. On the other hand, even a character that is brand new to your PCs can benefit from some "crowd-sourcing." Let your players add details and quirks to some characters sometimes, and you will have an easy source of fine details that have been personally endorsed by the group. (There's more on building around player preferences and expectations in this previous entry.)

For even more instant NPC inspiration, check out Dungeon World's nifty NPC generating tables. Also, you might be interested in using Story Cubes as part of the process. Next week there will be a lot more about the benefits of letting the players direct the story, how to draw out details about their characters, and how to keep your group engaged and part of the action. Until then, happy ventures!

Keeping Bad Guys Bad

Player: "I don't know if I want to fight this guy or join him!"

Moral complexity is very interesting and thought-provoking when implemented in story-telling of any medium. However, it can lead to problems in gaming when it muddles the goals of the campaign and causes players to argue. This article is based on the assumption that your party is not comprised of murderhobos, but that topic is worthy of an entire entry itself (which I will address at a later point in time.)

Shades of Gray Morality

When it comes to tabletop RPGs, characters that are morally ambiguous and have complex motives must be implemented sparingly and carefully. Most enemies serve as cut-and-dry antagonists to the player characters. The rank and file of enemies in your game should have clear motives and intentions. This is a facet of the game that has been a staple since every edition of Dungeons and Dragons, where characters have a quite literal set moral alignments that define their behavior as good, evil, or neutral. While an enemy does not have to be evil-aligned to be a threat, they do have to have some malicious intent in order for the encounter to be satisfying.

Even if you do have some deliciously evil villain, remember that the players will need to see some kind of proof of their villainy in order to really care about their defeat. Nobody wants to be the actual antagonist of the story, causing trouble and making the game world a worse place. As long as the players see it that way it will affect their enjoyment of the game, regardless of your actual intentions.

A cool guy with charisma and a taste for world-ending destruction

Remember to show, don't tell. Show signs of what might happen if your villains succeed. Show signs of past evils and their consequences. Above all, keep your bad guys menacing and malevolent. If your villains are tyrannical, they should be seen threatening and oppressing the populace. If they are murderous, then they won't accept any negotiation before they attack. Above all, the players should have a reason to oppose them that anyone could agree upon.

While this may seem obvious, you won't believe the number of times that I have seen groups choose to avoid confrontation because they didn't see any reason to oppose the campaign's main antagonists. Even if they did take action, they would often feel like the heel rather than hero. When there is no clear reason to oppose the so-called villains, the game becomes murkier and the players become indecisive. As fascinating as this may sound, I can assure you it is not. It only causes the game to grind to a halt as the players become discomforted by the question of moral relativity. If you want to ponder the complexities of ethical ambiguity, a tabletop action game isn't the best format to use.

Introducing Moral Complexity

There is a way to implement these complexities without messing up the game, of course. My favorite instances of this are characters who are capable of redemption. Bad guys who can be reasoned with are a great way to encourage the players to sometimes seek diplomatic solutions to their problems. The important thing to remember is that these characters do not need to crop up so frequently that their entire cause seems to be composed of misguided individuals. If the players start trying to save every goblin guard they encounter, your campaign is going to cease to be an action game.

Another kind of nuanced character is the bad guy with good intentions. This is harder to pull off, because this is the one that most commonly derails a campaign. The more your players sympathize with a character, the more likely they are to support them. What you must always keep in mind is that you must show the terrible consequences of the antagonist's actions clearly and compellingly. A sympathetic villain is still a villain and must be stopped at any cost. Their actions have consequences even if they don't realize it, and their actions are inarguably wrong. If your villainous scheme is justifiable from a reasonable ethical perspective, you can bet your bottom dollar that your players are going to argue about whether or not to intervene. In a best case scenario, some of your player characters have to compromise and still regret the actions the group takes. In the worst case the party splits or your campaign falls apart.

This will not be a problem as long as you remember to provide a good reason that the 'bad' guy has to be stopped. People will suffer, the world's safety will be threatened... an objectively bad result that must be prevented. Keep this end goal in mind, and make sure it is something the players would care about it. For more neutrally aligned characters, you might resort to a more personal threat, a scenario that would endanger something important to them.

A satisfying conclusion to a redemptive story

Of course these principles should work the other way around, too. You could have an ally of the team who is not entirely good, or perhaps even evil. This is just a matter of making sure that their evilness is inconsequential to the player. As long as the character doesn't cause overt harm with their wickedness, there is a chance that your party will be willing to work with them towards a common goal. In any case, attempting to force a collaboration between characters of opposing principles is a risky proposition. Keep in mind that it is an unusual case, and be prepared in case it does not acutally work.

Conflict Can be a Good Thing

Disagreement between player characters is just fine and makes for compelling story-telling! I do not advocate a play style of characters who always get along and agree. My advice is intended to avoid situations of irreconcilable differences between characters, scenarios which affect the group as a whole. There may be plenty of times that characters don't see eye to eye or have rivalries with one another, and that's okay. There are even instances where a character's conflict with the party results in the player choosing to have his character leave the team and rolls up a new one. As long as it is in character and no player feelings are hurt, that's totally cool.

Conflict is the spice of good storytelling! Don't be afraid to go there, but just remember not to set up moral quandaries to confound the team unless you and your players are prepared for such a scenario. If that's what your game is all about, more power to ya, but inform your players clearly and specifically ahead of time and plan for it. As with all rules in tabletop, you're free to ignore any of these recommendations as long as you have an alternate plan, clear communication, and consent of your group. Make a game that your players enjoy, that they can find common ground upon. And above all, enjoy your games!

Happy ventures!

"The DMPC Must Die!"

He is every player's nightmare.

He knows more than the players already.

He is a higher level than the party members.

He has an incredible secret that won't be revealed until the time is right.

He speaks for the player characters, and sometimes fights their battles for them.

He can't be killed and his inclusion in your adventuring party is mandatory.
He is to be escorted and protected, yet instigates conflicts.

He is The Bad Dungeon Master Player Character.

The "DMPC" is sometimes helpful to balance out a smaller party, fill a tactical role in the group, or deliver information to player characters. But there is a type of DMPC that shows up far too often in campaigns, a character who insinuates themselves into the adventure and undermines the game itself. A character like this is the most common DM mistake in the book. I have heard, read, and experienced many stories about this guy. It is with the best of intentions that I broach the subject, because I don't like to emphasize the negative, but we will all be better off once this contrivance is put to rest.

At some point in your DM career you may fall prey to this. You create an NPC to facilitate the characters' adventure, to help give you a voice in the game world and move things along. A trail guide, if you will. But here's the thing. This isn't their story. Your focus should be on the quest itself, not the characters undertaking the journey. And sometimes the characters you create to join your players become an unwanted intrusion in their adventures.

I myself have been guilty of creating characters that I really wanted to be popular with my players, but ended up being loathed. This can be worked to your advantage, as I have described previously. Just don't try to force a character onto your party, or introduce the dreaded Mary Sue. If your NPC fits any of the characteristics listed at the beginning of this article, it is worth considering a change.

Bad DMPCs take the power away from the player and the satisfaction they get from overcoming challenges by their own abilities. They steer the plot along a strictly controlled route that they have little to no say over. At their worst, they make the players feel inferior, or become a channel for the DM to act out passive aggressively.

There is a place for NPCs, but challenging your players for heroism isn't one of them. The player characters should be the main characters in your campaign, and the main agents of change and story development in their environment. This is the main difference between writing scripts and novels and playing tabletop RPGs... the writing process. A novel is a singular vision realized. An RPG is like a brainstorming session. It is ideas being shouted out from around the table. Does this always produce the best stories? Sometimes it does, it has given us series like Dragonlance and Malazan: Book of the Fallen. But the purpose of the RPG is fun, entertainment, and community. A crowd-sourced story may not be anything worth publication, but it can still be a story that is enjoyed and remembered fondly by the players as their own.

Happy ventures!