Big Book of Random Tables

One of the more useful tools in my DM toolbox is my three ring binder full of random tables and adventure hooks. You never know when your original gaming plans will fall through and require you to improvise, or when you just don't have time to prepare for this week's session. That's when it's a good idea to have a lot of material for generating a super-cool adventure on the fly. I even find ways to use it when running pre-planned adventures, implementing details from character creation tables and random encounter generators.

This binder contains whatever useful tools and resources I can find, and I will share a detailed list of my sources for these in a future entry. When you are making your own Book of Adventures, there might be certain random tables that you have built yourself. Make it unique to your own game mastering style!

Here is a general list of the materials included in my own book:

• The Mythic GM Emulator (Great for improvisational or GMless games, I will review this in a future entry)
• Random encounter generators for various settings.
• NPC trait and appearance generators (Can double as character creation tools for player characters)
• Lore Sheets for various campaign settings.
• The Big List of RPG Plots (And various other plot hook lists)
• Lists of NPC names for various settings.
• Other random tables ranging from tavern menus to alien creature creators to descriptions for scenery and character attitudes!

Consider what kind of info or inspiration you might find useful to have on hand during your next game session. Think of what might inspire you and help you overcome the dreaded writer's block. A book like this one could very well save your next game, or give you a starting point for a brand new adventure!

Happy ventures!

Pixar's Rules of Storytelling Revisited

I have previously shared Pixar's Rules of Storytelling to provide some food for thought when it comes to narrative and character development. Today I'd like to share Kaptainkristian's video essay on Pixar and what makes a story worth telling. It's important to consider how this relates to all kinds of storytelling, even on the tabletop. An adventure with any sort of narrative direction should be relatable to your players (the audience) and have some sort of dramatic purpose. Whether it is the redemption of a band of outcasts, or the fall of an evil overlord, it is important to consider what makes a story truly fascinating and worth telling.

Enjoy the video and happy Ventures!

A Tribute to Rolling in the Open

Today I share a tribute to those brave game masters who choose to roll the dice openly, without screens or cups to conceal the results. Or at least, those whose creed is total honesty, and letting the dice results remain untampered and pure in all cases.

To those who throw caution to the wind, risking the sudden and unexpected demise of player character, I salute you. To those who consider themselves up to the challenge of working around a series of bad rolls, I respect you. As your players face the hordes of flailing, non-threatening foes, I bid you godspeed in keeping their interest. As the critical failures and critical successes lay waste to your best-laid plans, I weep for you.

Yours is not an easy road. Nor is it a path for the inexperienced. The thrill and risk of the naked die roll is its own reward. Fortune favors the bold. So shine on you crazy diamond, giving your players every opportunity to hate you for your blatant concession to the random whims of chance. If you succeed, you will weave a tale of drama and breathtaking suspense in which every die roll holds a fateful twist. If you fail, don't try to blame the dice for your own hubris. You made your choice. You're going to have to live with it.

I salute you, open rollers, and your refusal to fudge or conceal your chaotic dice. You are hardier souls than I ever could be. 

I am impressed by your chutzpah, but I'm going to keep my DM screen, just in case.

Happy ventures! ;)

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!

Pacing: Taking a Moment

In today's entry I would like to follow up on my previous advice on pacing. I humbly beseech every game master worth their salt to be ready to take a deep breath and slow things down for a bit. As much as I enjoy making swift progress through an adventure, I often find myself needing a reminder of this important principle.

Rushing the players can cause as much of a problem as letting the game stall. The important thing to remember is to give these players the time they need to savor the game and make their decisions. 

There are two major instances in which your game may come to a halt, causing you to consider whether or not to give your players a nudge in the right direction. The first is when your players are immersed in the game world. They might be having a lengthy conversation in-character, or describing their travels through the local barter town in excruciating detail.

The other scenario is one in which the players are trying to decide their next move. They argue the pros and cons of what they think would be the best way to take on a challenging situation. It might seem monotonous and wasteful as they dissect every possible route they could take to storm the keep or infiltrate the space station. But before you send a horde of charging minions to get things moving again, wait! 

Are the players enjoying themselves? Are they increasing their investment in the game world? If the answer is yes, then they are best left to their own devices. At least for a while. As a DM, it might be easy to feel like time is being wasted. Especially if you have pages of carefully laid out notes that you want to implement before the end of the session. But the adventure is there for the entertainment of your players, so it pays to let them stop and smell the roses when they feel like it. Give them a push if the meander in circles or repeat themselves, but don't pressure them to speed through the game in such a hurry. Give them clues if they are needed, but don't interrupt them if they are already working their way down the right track. Provide the time they need to figure things out for themselves and the revelation will be much more satisfying for them.

If your players are choosing to take their time experiencing the tabletop universe you have presented, it is a good sign you are doing something right. So don't fret. Kick back and take a moment. Listen carefully to what they are saying, review and adjust your notes, and let your players have their time to work things out. The group will be more relaxed and ready for the faster and more intense moments after they have been allowed these breaks in the action, and your campaign will benefit greatly. 

As always, keep an eye out for genuinely frustrated players (or player-on-player conflict) and get things moving again if that occurs. But otherwise, let these lulls become part of the ebb and flow of your enthralling adventure, so your players can enjoy it to its fullest!

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!

Encouraging Risky Business

Nobody ever became an action hero by playing it safe. If you wanted to tell stories about people staying home, filing taxes, or doing their homework, you don't need any game engine or simulation. Tabletop RPGs are about excitement, adventure, and dynamic storytelling. So the last thing you want is a group of players who are timid and overly cautious about their character actions. You want them to feel compelled by the drama of the game, but not paralyzed with fear.

If your players are too nervous about a trap in the next room, they may linger outside it for far too long trying to find a way around it. If they feel like taking action against a planetary governor will get them into too much hot water, they may not even follow that plot hook. You need to encourage them to feel comfortable taking chances in order to get the most entertainment out of the chosen adventure path.

The method for accomplishing this is two-fold: The old carrot-and-stick approach.

The Carrot is the promise of reward that will drive the players to take more chances. Whether it is loot, character advancement, or the promise of plot-specific rewards like promotions or new allies. It's important for the players to feel that taking chances will pay off in the end, so they will continue to follow the adventurous opportunities that you place before them.

The Stick is the threat of danger posed to the players, but not in a vindictive manner. Instead of threatening to hurt the PCs if they fail to act, I prefer to establish a different kind of conceit... bad things will happen no matter what. Enemies will strike against them, treasures will be lost, NPCs will be endangered... these are all events that may happen in the story no matter what. The key is to show how fighting against these threats and taking decisive action can mitigate their effects. So when your players fail to investigate the ninja monastery, they will surely be ambushed by ninjas when they least expect it. Next time they know better, and will take action before the problem gets out of hand. Better to take on the challenge on their own terms than let themselves be blindsided like that again!

By establishing that bad things happen no matter what, you should remove the overwhelming fear of consequences from the players' thought process. They should be focused less on what is dangerous, and more on what is a compelling course of action.

Of course players should make their decisions based on logical reasoning. Reckless and chaotic gameplay provides diminishing returns in terms of entertainment. But as the game runner, you want them to be willing to face threats and embrace high-risk high-reward actions in order to keep things exciting. So you show them that danger is inevitable and bold action reaps great benefits! By combining these two concepts you will create a much faster-paced and enthralling environment for your players. Put them to use and enjoy the adventures unfolding before you!

Happy ventures!