Chaotek Thoughts

I’ve been listening to a number of podcasts lately, with many more downloaded but untried yet. About half of them are related to RPGs.

• Accidental Survivors – Focuses on modern gaming, especially D20 Modern. The group is very entertaining and experienced. Lots of good ideas for adventures and characters.
• Astronomy Cast – This is a great show for anyone interested in the universe around us. The cast is entertaining and does a great job at explaining very complex topics, such as dark matter and dark energy.
• The Onion Radio News – A fun short satire story everyday, great for killing a few minutes.
• Order 66 – A Star Wars Saga Edition roleplaying game podcast. The cast is very well informed in how the system works. Some of the extra skits are hokey at best, but the meat of the podcast is very good.
• Skeptics Guide to the Universe & SGU 5×5 – A good podcast for skeptics. The podcast does a good job at not being cynical, rather they try to evaluate if fantastical news is valid or held to scientific standards.
• Totally Rad Show – A video podcast, reviewing games, movies, TV, and comics. Very entertaining.
• X-Play Gaming Update – A 5 minute video podcast, informing mostly about the latest video game news.

I’m in San Francisco on business and I found out that at the base of the building I am at, was going the end point of the Torch Relay. Great, I thought–something cool to do at lunch. So we took a late lunch and the group headed down to the Embarcadero right in front of the Ferry Building. There were pro-Tibet protestors, pro-China supporters, anarchists, and general spectators like myself. It was actually pretty entertaining. The anarchists were funny, all dressed in black with bandanas covering their faces. Some were quite prepared, even wetting the bandanas in preparation for tear gas. They shouted a lot about the corrupt military industrial complex, evils of McDonalds, faked moon landings, and the war on terror/Iraq–all with little conviction or education The pro-Tibet protestors generally seemed to fall into two categories: peaceful demonstrators and complete idiots. The peaceful demonstrators, especially Team Tibet, were very organized and orderly. Idiot protestors were just chaos incarnate. My favorite was a sign stating that the US would have boycotted Nazi Olympics, so why would we cater to the Chinese? Uh, didn’t the US attend the 1936 Berlin Olympics?

Anyways, the relay was supposed to start at 1pm. At the beginning, the police were pretty strict about keeping people behind barricades. But as the minutes passed, the police force just seemed to evaporate. People started marching up and down the street. Before too long, it was pretty obvious that the relay wasn’t going to come this route–there was no order. On the news, the Mayor and police explained that they “spontaneously” decided to change the relay route because of the crowds. They said that there were too many protestors, and that the crowd was too large at the beginning of the route rather than spread evenly along the route. What a crock of shit! For one, they had previously decided that there would be no protest permits necessary, so the protesters could be anywhere they wanted. Also, the route had previously been cut repeatedly, and just that morning it was announced that the route would be cut in half again. Duh, the people are going to want to be near the beginning because it might get cut down even more. Before 1pm, for the most part the crowds were reasonable and kept behind the fences except when they were crossing the street in crosswalks. It wasn’t until the police had abandoned the task of controlling the crowd, because they knew that the relay wasn’t coming this route anyways, did the streets get taken over. By then, the decision had long since been made. And you can’t tell me that they didn’t have at least 5 alternate routes for the relay, despite the claim that the route and decision was spontaneous.

The final result: the torch relay was a regular Communist China exhibition, secretive and dodging free speech. The protesters felt somewhat victorious, they got a lot of publicity anyways. The Chinese got a mostly Tibet-less Torch Relay, as if the trick will make people forget their human rights record. Thousands of Olympic supporters, Chinese nationals, tourists and spectators got screwed out of a chance to see and photograph the Olympic torch. Oh, and free speech got a kick to the nuts–though the Patriot Act mostly killed the First Amendment anyways. And now the IOC is suggesting that the International Torch Relay may be cut for future Olympics…

If you are anything like me, you find yourself too busy sometimes to get stuff done. You spend more time figuring out what needs to get done, than actually doing it. I can’t afford to hire a personal assistant to help me out, or can I? Corporations have figured out that there is a massive, cheap labor force ready and able to work. They have started outsourcing jobs to India and other nations in an effort to lower costs while still getting the job done. So why can’t the little guys like us do it too? Well, you can. You can outsource your busy work so that you can dedicate more time—to whatever.

• Always forgetting birthdays and anniversaries? Don’t have the time to order flowers, buy gifts, or need a reminder to call them?
• Too busy to pay bills or file paperwork?
• Want tickets to a concert or movie?
• Want a wakeup call, maybe to let you know what appointments you have today and what the weather is going to be like?
• Too busy to figure out travel plans or make restaurant reservations?
• Want to organize your digital photos, maybe into landscapes and group by person, but don’t have the time?
• Want someone to read your children a bedtime story every night, even when you’re not home?
• Need to hire a contractor or handyman, but don’t know how?
• Do you need legal or medical advice?
• Do you ever need an answer to a question but don’t have the time to look it up yourself?
• Do you have a website and are concerned about indecent or otherwise inappropriate user submissions?
• Don’t want to sit on hold and wait to speak with customer service for your phone/TV/whatever?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, perhaps you’d be interested in hiring a virtual personal assistant, who just happens to be in India. Services like Brickwork, AskSunday, GetFriday, and Your Man In India can help you organize your life. For as little as $1.50 per request or $7 per hour, you have can a personal assistant who can take care of all of the little crap that you don’t have time for.

Services like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk can even add artificial, artificial intelligence (A-AI) to your applications. Amazon’s mechanical turk provides an API which accesses a web service, but instead of querying another application it queries a person. Some programs just require a person instead of a computer. For pocket change per request, you can program into your application or website. For example, want to make sure that people are not posting nudity or ads on your site, but there’s no way you can approve every post? Have a mechanical turk evaluate and approve all user submitted content.
Don’t let big corporations have all the fun, outsource your life!

All praise his glory. To show my devotion to my new lord and master, I will be instituting the following changes to my life:

• I am quitting playing D&D. The game documents accurate rituals for summoning demons and casting spells, all of which is the dominion of the dark one.
• I am burning my comics, as they promote idolatry. Nothing should be greater than man other than god. Super-powers can only be acquired through a devil’s pact.
• I am giving away my washer and dryer as the glass front allows me to see underwear bouncing around, which makes me think sinful thoughts.
• I am also quitting video games forever; aliens and monsters are the spawn of hell and should not be worshiped or even imagined.
• My fantasy novels, especially Harry Potter, will be cast into the abyssal depths of the ocean where the great evil one sleeps.
• I will no longer pay my bills, as the mark of the beast is required to do business and I will not submit my soul to the devil owned bankers.
• I will slay all creatures I choose and burn crop fields. God gave us dominion over the creatures of this world and is disappointed when we plow fields.
• My home has been a sanctuary of sin, I am abandoning it to find a place high up in the mountains where I will be physically closer to heaven.
• I will no longer speak to women, as they are wicked temptresses whose only purpose is to lead men to sin.
• I reject the existence of dinosaurs and the big bang; they are the product of godless scientists intent on corrupting my faith.
• I will keep my pets in accordance to my god given dominion over nature, however they will soon learn what submissive really means…
• I abandon the philosophy of protecting the environment as it is our right to do to it as we wish. If God wanted the world to be different than it is, he would have made it so.
• The smut of the Internet and television is to be eradicated. I will lead a posse to hunt down and slaughter everyone in southern California for their hedonistic ways. Perhaps if I can get my hands on a nuclear bomb, the heathens will get an introduction to the fires of hell moments before they arrive.
• I will no longer utilize technology; it is a distraction from reading the scripture at all times.
• I reject the driving of cars, if God can walk the Earth in sandals then so can I.
• I will spread the fear and terror to the unbelievers; they will convert or die by my righteous hand.
• I believe that before execution, all heretics will be given one last opportunity to convert via the instruments of torture. They will still be executed for their initial rejection, but it gives them one last chance to save their soul.
• I will initiate a program where believers attend church functions on a daily basis. While the faithful should be attending at least 5 times a day, showing up less than once a day is a lack of commitment and the sign of a heretic’s heart.
• I will return prayer to schools, as it is critical to reach all young minds, especially the children of infidels. Bullying will be encouraged against anyone not praying or praying in a different way. Should they still choose to rebel against the faith, stoning to death should be next step.
• I will grow a beard and long hair, just as my Lord has. But anyone wearing such a style who is without faith, such as hippies and punks, will be summarily beaten with a cane.
• I reject modern fashion, as it only provokes sinful thoughts. Rather I think that everyone should wear potato sacks and sandals.
• I believe that murder is a sin, but slaughtering a city of unbelievers is God’s will. Believers will be rewarded in the afterlife with one virgin for every infidel they kill.
• I believe that anyone who doesn’t look like me or who speaks a different language is a barbarian, and we should be careful when converting them. We need them to abandon all cultural beliefs and native languages in favor of our superior customs and language as part of their conversion.
• I reject the preaching of clergy, as no one is between me and my Lord. Suggesting such is a mortal sin which should be punished accordingly.
• I believe that it is a sin to translate the scriptures into any other language. If people really had faith, they would learn my language.
• I believe that the loss of a single unborn human life is against God’s will, however bombing those who perform such operations is also God’s will.
• I encourage the destruction of churches, as they give hope that eternal damnation is avoidable. Man is a sinner and can never be as perfect as God and does not deserve his forgiveness.
• I am planning a crusade to recover the holy city of Washington D.C. from the sectarian government and restore it as a beacon of holiness. Let the world tremble as the might of a unified, god-fearing, nation trains fighters in the tactics of holy terrorism.
• I will sponsor legislation to keep women hidden, away from the eyes of holy men. Any contact between the sexes for a reason other than procreation will result in the death penalty for the seductress.
• I will promote Internet sites which reveal the truth like: http://www.ilmatar.net/~np/gameofsatan

So I was reading an article which interviewed one of the founders of Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR), who published a report in late 2007 about the Xbox 360 achievements system. They found that sales of Xbox titles are directly related to the quantity and quality of the achievements within the game. This got me thinking about what I think are good and bad achievement designs. I’ll start off by stating that Xbox achievements are a brilliant marketing direction by Microsoft, and while I don’t consider myself an achievement whore (yet) I sure do enjoy getting them. But as achievements are determined by the game developer, there is a lot of variance in implementations of them.

The meat and potatoes of any game is the basic story, generally called the single-player campaign. These achievements include completing levels/zones, finishing the story, and doing so on different difficulties. It is the simplest way to implement achievements. All told, I think that completing the single-player game on the hardest difficulty should net about half of the achievement points possible (500). This should include completing the story as well achievements which represent normal behavior within the game. The achievement values for level completion should be progressive, starting low and increasing as the game progresses, to reward dedication and follow-through. The endgame achievement for finishing the story should be a substantial value, such as 100 points, to represent the importance of finishing the story. Games with low endgame achievements like Perfect Dark Zero, which awards 15 points for finishing the story, are pretty anti-climatic.

Most games these days have 2-4 difficulty levels, averaging 3 in most games I’ve seen. Games like Halo 3 and Gears of War implemented a good strategy for awarding the difficulty level achievements. If you first complete a difficulty related achievement at a higher level then it back credits you the achievements for the lower difficulties. Requiring players to play a game on easy, then medium, then hard to get all of the achievements is an asshole thing to do. Whether the difficulty achievements are only seen at the endgame like Halo 3, or at every chapter like Gears of War (either strategy is valid in my mind), the achievements related to difficulty should always back credit you if you first complete it at a higher level.

Secret achievements are a tricky ground. According to the EEDAR, games with secret achievements as less profitable than those where all achievements are visible. While I think the statement is generic, I would agree that a game with ALL secret achievements is going to be unpopular. A lot of a game’s success, much like feature movies, is the initial success of sales. Initially popular games will sell better because word of mouth, as would be the opposite. While you can go online and lookup the secret achievements of games which have been out for 6 month or more, a brand new game with many/all secret achievements is certainly discouraging. Without that initial success, it can be difficult for a game to continue to sell over its lifetime. My recommendation when it comes to secret achievements is to keep them as a minority of the total possible achievements, with passing the achievement virtually guaranteed. An example is Bioshock, most of the secret achievements are the basic story achievements which are guaranteed to be accomplished if you finish the game. They are not listed up-front as they include spoilers of the plot. But there are ways to get around this, as you can try to title the achievement in a way that it doesn’t give away the plot elements. I can see that having a secret achievement that is nigh-impossible to accomplish in normal play is just evil and can discourage players from trying to figure out what it is. Sure, there’s a geek out there who will try anything to solve the puzzle, but a successful game is one that appeals to the average gamer.

Many games include achievements for side-quests, in other words optional activities which may enhance the story but are not necessary to complete the game. Example side quests include mini-games with the game, collecting stuff, and side-quests in role playing games. I think these side quests are a great system for awarding achievements, as its all very possible within the game, but represents an extra level of dedication. I’d like to point out that I really like the collection achievements in Gears of War, as you are progressively rewarded as you complete the collection. So even if you happen to miss 1 tag in the game, you still get at least something for the effort. Whereas in Bioshock, there is no reward for collecting 121 tape recorders scattered, and sometimes well-hidden, throughout the entire game. You have to get the 122nd recorder for it to pay off. All the while you have no idea how far along you are or if you missed one which will make it impossible to ever get the achievement. Whereas also in Bioshock they did have progressive accomplishments for collecting plasmids, weapons, tonics, inventions, etc. Side quest achievements should almost never be secret achievements, as it is possible that people will not be able to figure out how to get them and it is very discouraging.

A fun group of achievements are what I call play-style achievements. Similar to side-quest achievements, play-style achievements are not required to play and enjoy the game. These achievements often require more than one pass at the game, but are there as a challenge to the player to try to play the game in different ways. I think these types of achievements are great as they enhance the replay-ability of the game. Examples of play-style achievements are character choices. An example might be a fork in the story, however minor, where the player has a choice between multiple options. I read about a pair of achievements in the Orange Box game Half-life 2 where you can choose to be submissive or defiant when given a stupid order from a commander. Either choice, you get an achievement, but you’ll have to play the game again to get the other one. In Bioshock, you get an achievement for deciding to rescue rather than harvest Little Sisters, but there is no achievement for choosing to harvest them. I like the idea of being given a choice, but I’d prefer if you got an achievement for either choice, as otherwise it seems like it removes your choice. Other playing style achievements I’ve seen include perfect (no deaths), score based, and abnormal behavior. An example of an abnormal behavior might be to complete a first person shooter level/game without shooting (melee attacks only). Its tough, but not impossible.

Online game play achievements are sticky point for me. EEDAR determined that games with online game play achievements average 50% better sales than those without, however G4TV pointed out that this might be flawed logic. Online games may be more popular in general, regardless of whether there are online achievements or not. The issue that I have with online achievements comes mostly from a lack of players. Games like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4, have no shortage of online players. But older games, or games that were never as popular, make online achievements near impossible to get. In many cases, it seems like the only way to get the online achievements is the cheat, where several people get together with the sole purpose of getting the achievements. This might be a requirement that you play 1000 games, so the players setup 1 minute games and don’t even try to play. Or if the achievement is to kill X people is X seconds without dying, then the players just group up all let one kill the group to get the achievement before doing so again with another player. This is cheap, and some call it cheating, but if there is hardly anyone playing the game anymore, it would be impossible to get the achievements any other way. I think that viral achievements, like the Assassin achievement in G.R.A.W. is pretty cool, but once again it can be near impossible to accomplish if the game has a low online user base.

The group of achievements which I think should be avoided entirely are the achievements which force you to play for an excessive amount of time. For example, Timeshift has an achievement where you have to turn your Xbox into a dedicated server for 48 hours (and you can’t play anything while you are a dedicated server), or the G.R.A.W. achievement for playing a multiplayer game for 8 hours straight. Kill 10,000 people online, host 5,000 multiplayer games, etc. Each of these types of achievements is a way to simply force players to waste massive amounts of time to get the achievements. This just seems like an asshole thing to do; if your game was good enough people would play that much just because they enjoy it–not to meet your insane achievement requirement. Games like Final Fantasy XI, which the EEDAR founder rated as “masochistic”, only give you 30 points for getting to level 75 (roughly 3 months of work)—now you have do it again and again for each of the 14 or so classes to get 30 point achievement for each. Why would you be that much of an asshole as to require that much time to get so few points.

On the other hand, don’t make the achievements too easy to get. Games like Avatar and King Kong are notorious for allowing players to get 1000 points in one sitting (mere minutes on Avatar). Achievements should reflect at least a certain amount of effort, at a minimum I think it should take at least 20 hours to get 1000 points.

My final thoughts on achievements: I think that roughly half of achievements should be attainable through normal game play at the highest difficulty. I think that a quarter of achievements should be for online achievements, which are possible to attain even after the player base has moved on to newer games. The last quarter (or last half is there is no online component) should be for side-quests and play-style achievements to reward players for the extra effort. Don’t make achievements which are near impossible to accomplish, or which strongly encourage players to cheat to get them. Avoid secret achievements unless it reveals the plot and can’t be obfuscated with a generic name. Achievements tied to difficulty should always be retroactive. Achievements should be designed to supplement the game, not hinder it. They should make the game more fun to play, more exciting. Achievements should reward dedication, not require enslavement. Reward hard work, don’t reward people for turning the game on.

After all of this, I still think that achievements are a brilliant marketing strategy for Microsoft as it allows users to go back to the days where you competed for the high score on an arcade game. It’s fun, but not required. If someone doesn’t care about achievements, then it doesn’t matter. They can still play and enjoy the game. But if you enjoy the satisfaction of getting achievements, or the bragging rights of a high gamerscore, then the achievements should represent an accomplishment (not mindless enslavement or stupidly easy accomplishment of inserting a disk) for the hard work of the player.

The recent deaths of Robert Jordan, Gary Gygax and Sir Arthur C. Clarke have got me thinking about the difference between the fans of modern celebrity and the cultish following of these influential creators. Each has a legacy of the worlds that they created, weaving words into masterful tapestries. Sadly enough, I can’t really claim much experience with any of them directly, though this is something I would like to rectify as soon as possible. But their impact to me is still profound, as their talent allowed them to transcend their works and impact the future works that I am more familiar with.

Unlike modern celebrities who gain their fame from beauty and wild antics, these legends are famous for their intellect and creativity. And you can tell by differences between the fans. The untalented celebrities that we see everyday don’t have fans, they have voyeurs. These fans are just as satisfied by watching the celebrity fail just as much as they enjoy their work. With Clarke, Jordan, and Gygax there are legions of fans who truly love the creations of these men even if they wouldn’t know it if they passed by them on the street. There are many other talented people out there who will never have the fame or renown of a movie star, but who will impact the world in much larger ways.

Naturally, the one thing I didn’t work on when rebuilding the engine is going to be the thing that fails. The transmission looks like it might be dead. Its not working, at all. Its possible that the torque converter was damaged when we dropped the engine back into the truck, which would be cheaper and easier fix, I’m betting that its the transmission itself. Judging by the condition of everything else that I’ve fixed so far, I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t require a complete rebuild or replacement.

And just when it looked like I was going to drive it soon…

One of the differences between D&D and non-interactive entertainment like novels and movies is that D&D is generally only shown from a single point of view—that of the players. In movies and novels, you get to see the villain when the heroes are not around, you get the “BeforeIKillYou,I’llExplainEverything” villain speech, the flashback to all of the clues sequence, and other plot explaining devices. As a DM, one of the most exciting and frustrating things about role-playing games is conveying the meta-plot. Purchased adventures provide beautiful back stories, character motivations, and side plots which are what make DMs drool as they imagine how the adventure will play out and the excitement of the players as the plot is revealed. This is even more the case with adventures cooked up by your DM; he/she thought of a story that they think is awesome and put in a lot of work developing a complex web of historical and motivational background information.

But alas, most of this will never see the light of day (or the game table) as the DM can’t force the players to do what is necessary to be able to explain the plot. This is just something you have to accept as a DM, but in some ways it also robs the players of the extra enjoyment of a good plot. Sure, the DM could blab this information after the adventure is over, but that can cheapen the players’ victory by making them feel like they failed even if they beat the adventure. DMs can use devices like cut scenes to try and expose the plot, but more often then not they seem to be shallow in order to protect the mystery, or they give away too much and ruin the story. But a DM can’t just tell you the plot, or can he? Yes, in fact the DM likely really wants to explain the plot and motivations, but needs a little help in order to do so. Here are a few tips that players can use to help the DM expose the plot for the enjoyment of all:

• Always search desks and bookshelves. These places serve as incredible sources for background information of the plot. If you see a desk covered in papers, or a disorganized bookshelf, you have found the mother load for understanding the plot background. In particular, look for journals, letters, and maps. If you state that you are looking for these types of things when you roll your search, the DM is likely more inclined to at least give you a circumstance bonus to your search if he doesn’t just give the goods to you for being specific. This search in particular will often have the most potential for adding future adventure hooks, not just this adventure’s plot.
• Always search bodies. One of the most common gripes among players is the lack of LEWT. Why not, even if you can’t use it, you might be able to sell it to buy exactly what you want. Everyone wants to have a badass character, and equipment certainly helps. Booked adventures always contain lots of good loot, almost always sufficient for the encounter level. And yet, in the same session that someone complains that they don’t have enough equipment, they don’t search bodies. Alright, enough about that rant because searching bodies isn’t just about getting the good loot, its also about plot devices. Like desks and bookshelves, you can find letters and journals which help explain the plot, as well as major plot devices which can impact the outcome of the adventure. And don’t just search the bad guys; search other corpses along the way. Sometimes the bad guys leave clues on their other victims.
• Use detect magic liberally. Let’s face it, 0 level spells are mostly useless. Why not memorize detect magic few more times. This always helps you find the good loot, but it can also help you find critical plot devices. But don’t let the lack of a magical aura stop you from rolling a search. Sure, you can see the glowing stuff and pick it off, but why not dig around to look for other non-magical stuff like coins and evil business plans.
• Interrogate enemies. Unless you are a paladin, there’s nothing wrong with cutting off a few fingers to get to the plot. Well, you don’t necessarily have to torture fallen foes to get them to talk (though sometimes it helps), a kind gesture, the opportunity to continue living, or a mind-affecting spell can get a captured enemy to spill the beans. Don’t just finish off every unconscious bad guy; take a break from battle to beat some information out of him first. If you are so inclined, you can still kill the bad guy once you’re done with him. Though letting a helpful blabber-mouth go once in awhile will help you justify that goodly alignment on your character sheet. You might not let the fanatical maniac go free, but loose-lipped minion with a good eye for details isn’t likely to cause too much harm if set free.
• Ask first, slaughter second. If your enemy doesn’t attack you outright when you encounter them, use this as an opportunity to get some information out of them. It might even be possible to get one of those “I’llExplainEverthingToProveHowCleverIAm” monologues if you give the villain a chance. When given a chance, use social skills like diplomacy and intimidate to get the big bad guy to make an Ego save against good sense and tell all.
• Don’t fight the plot, fight the villain. You are NOT being railroaded; you are being given an opportunity. If you don’t want an adventure, why are you playing? Sometimes its important to step back and ask yourself, am I helping the adventure progress or am I hindering it? If your character’s RP is anti-plot, perhaps its time to adjust that. You’ve dedicating a whole evening to the game; why not make the most of your time. Be active, follow clues, and talk to people. Don’t expect the story to always come to you; sometimes you have to go find it. Sure, there are going to some red herrings, but even an intentionally bad plot hook can be fun to play out and it will help narrow down to the real plot.
• My name is… Everyone has a name; well at least 99% of people do. But when an NPC introduces themselves, pay attention. While not every named person is important; more often than not they are. Better DMs than me might have a full name and history for every person that you run into, but even those DMs try to highlight the important people. If the person doesn’t introduce themselves, it doesn’t hurt to ask. Here’s a hint, watch the DM. If they start digging through notes before giving an elaborate (impossible to spell phonetically) name, then it’s likely an important person. If the DM makes a quick note after giving you a name (no matter how clever the name is), then they are likely making a note of it for their own memory and the person isn’t as critical. Taking notes or looking up are not sure clues, as the DM might have a stock list of generic names that they are referencing, or the name is so unimportant that they don’t care to write it down. Paying attention to your DM will help you determine which are the important NPCs and which aren’t. But even a un-named NPC minion might be useful for information, so don’t completely ignore them just because the DM doesn’t have a name ready.
• Gather information. Taverns, inns, marketplaces, etc. are great places to get clues and adventure hooks. You can also get that a lot of useful background information useful to the plot. Why would people be talking about an ancient ruin just outside of town (or other random reference) over a beer unless it is important for you to overhear? Odds are the two drunks should be complaining about their old-lady giving them a hard time for not taking out the trash or coming home drunk every night, not about some evil wizard who died 200 years ago. Sure, people get things wrong. It wasn’t a wizard, rather it was a demon that some cultists are now trying to set free, but the clue is important. Many purchased adventures include a table of “random information” full of plot clues and red herrings, but even the completely wrong rumors can be entertaining and might have some useful value.
• Knowledge (Anything) is useful. It doesn’t hurt to have a couple skill points in knowledge skills, even if they are cross-class skills. Don’t depend on general knowledge rolls to get you all of the plot hooks and background information. Knowledge (history), or knowledge (local) if you’re in that area, are perhaps the most effective knowledge skills for uncovering the plot and background information. Even knowledge (nobility and royalty) can provide useful information more often than you might think. Work with your party. It doesn’t make sense to have 5 people with knowledge (arcana) with no other skills. Try to diversify with your group. If you know two other people have knowledge (religion), maybe take something like knowledge (engineering) instead. You never know when it might help you.
• Watch for DM tells. Don’t let your mad poker skills go to waste, use them against the DM. I already mentioned how you can use tells to help understand when NPC names are important, but you can also watch for other tells. In fact, most of the tells are intentional because the DM wants you to follow up on something. For example: when describing a rather ordinary room, the DM might give a little extra description to something. Ding, ding, it might be important! If you say you are searching a room, and the DM never once looks at her notes, then likely there is nothing to be found. But if the DM seems to take a moment looking at her notes, then there might be something in that room that is worth finding. Or another party member rolls a horrific roll when searching (or anything similar), maybe you can try searching it too. “But isn’t that meta-game information that I can’t use in-character?” Maybe, but you can easily justify it in RP. If you know that your teammate rolled a 1 on a search, in character that person thinks that they did a great job searching. But another character in the room can use sense motive (or similar skill) to see that the party member just walked around staring at the ceiling and said that they didn’t find anything on the floor. After you, in character, noticed that they did a crappy job searching you now have the RP justification to search again.

It’s not just about the plot. This article focused on trying to uncover the adventure background and overall plot mostly from an entertainment point of view. Without this information, the adventure can seem random and haphazard, which is not nearly as exciting as knowing that you just stopped a complex plot which had been in the works for centuries. But knowing the meta-story of the adventure isn’t the only reason for wanting to get all of the clues and background. In many cases, this information can be very useful to your party. It can include clues to get things moving, hooks to future adventures, and even ways to make the adventure more successful. For example, a certain vampire might be powerless when confronted with a relic of his pre-undeath life. Without the relic, your party may have to fight a powerful vampire lord at a much higher risk of death and expensive limited use items. With the relic, you can completely PWN him. Sure, some of the excitement of D&D is the risk and easy fights are less exciting. But an easy fight is not less exciting if you know that you made it that way through your hard work and preparation.

I started used the comic collection database on ComicBookDB.com.

Whether you’ve ever played an MMORPG like World of Warcraft or not, there are lessons to be learned from them that can greatly improve your success in D&D and other pen and paper RPGs. Given the universal application of these roles in many computer games, it should be obvious that the lessons apply to pen and paper games as well. These roles have evolved over the years as they are very effective in reducing party death, party wipes, and speed of game play.

Party roles are basically to know how you best function in a group. MMOs give us 4 roles to focus on: tanks, strikers, blasters, and controllers. To be the most effective, pick one role and focus on it. This doesn’t mean you can’t change from a striker to a healer mid-battle if you need to save an ally from death, but it means you should focus on how you best help the group. Most classes fit into more than one of these roles, so you can work with your group to split up the roles between two similar characters. For example, you can have a wizard and a sorcerer in the same party. Both would generally be viewed as a blaster, but one could act more often as a controller with mind and terrain effecting magic while the other focuses on direct damage spells.

Tank

The tank is the front line warrior of the party. It is his job to stand in the front and take the brunt of the damage the enemy has to offer. Dressed in heavy armor and high hit points, the tank is the most capable of shrugging off attacks. The tank is in the best position to determine which enemy to attack, and once he does the rest of the party should target the same foe. Ideally the tank should focus on protective gear, including shields and magic items which enhance his AC. Leave it to your allies to deal the big damage while you deal consistent damage while absorbing maximum damage. If you are the tank, make sure to carry a 1H weapon and shield when tanking. You can have the dual weapons or 2H weapon on standby for when you are acting as a striker, but maximizing your AC will be a key to you and your party’s survival. Always protect your healer before anyone else, as you may be able to take a lot of damage, but it’s a finite pool. Keeping them alive is keeping you alive.

As the most seasoned warrior, it is RP appropriate for you to direct the battle. Feel free to direct allies where to stand and who to attack. This is standard practice in any real-world military, the most seasoned veteran is likely to be directing the course of battle. If there is more than one tanking class in the party, perhaps negotiate the roles with them. Either take turns as tank/striker, or focus entirely on one of the roles. In some battle situations, two tanks can be very effective, one to act as the standard tank while the other stands alone against the most dangerous foe until the rest of the party can mop up the henchmen. If you are not the tank, assist them by targeting their target, keep close to him/her, and try to keep the damage going to the tank rather than yourself. The most common tanks include fighters and paladins, though the knight class in the PHB2 is likely the most effective tank base class I’ve seen. Especially important is the class’ ability to take damage on behalf of an adjacent ally as well as the ability to force enemies to attack you rather than anyone else.

Striker

The striker offers the highest consistent damage in the party. They move around the battlefield, striking like special ops. Hey defining points of a striker include good attack bonus, light to medium armor, and high movement capability. These abilities allow the striker the ability to move around the battle and deal damage where it is most effective. Good strategies for a striker include attacking the tank’s target. This allows enemies to fall faster, improving the odds of success for your team. With your high movement, you should be able to move around very quickly to target threats and rescue allies. As you have lighter armor, try to avoid being the primary target for a foe. This is best accomplished by moving often, with tumble and mobility being an excellent to help you move around without impunity. Use your movement to your advantage, that’s why it’s a defining feature of your class.

When effective, strikers can sneak up on squishy enemies, taking out the foe’s back forces before they realize that you are there. Be careful about leaving the tank and the rest of the party behind, as you will be on your own. Don’t get stuck in a drawn out fight away from the group as you don’t have the resources to survive in the long run. Instead focus on acting like a guerilla warrior, strike with surprise then withdraw. Repeating this cycle keeps your enemy off guard without allowing them the chance to overwhelm you. The most common striker classes are barbarians, rangers, monks, and rogues. Each class deals high damage while allowing for high movement, use these to your advantage.

Blaster

Blasters are the artillery of the party, dealing the highest damage of the roles yet often doing so from afar. However the high damage is offset by the lowest HP and armor of all the roles. To be most effective the blaster needs to stay well away from hand to hand combat, keeping the tank between you and your enemies. This way you can lay down the destruction without fear. If an enemy slips by the tank to attack you, call for help and try to move towards the help. Don’t allow even a weak enemy to consistently beat on you as you don’t have the armor or HP to survive for long. Frequently your ability to deal the most damage is also reduced by having a foe adjacent to you, as they increase the chance of you losing your attack because of an unlucky roll.

General strategy for the blaster is to manage your abilities. As you likely don’t have the consistent damage of a striker or tank, you have to decide when to use certain abilities. Against bosses, use your most powerful abilities early and often. Don’t wait until the boss is almost dead to drop your most powerful spell/ability; you should use it at the start of the fight. Try to manage your abilities to make sure they last. Don’t use your most powerful ability on the first enemy you encounter, because in most situations the first encounter is often one of the weakest foes. Try to use lesser abilities against the minions, but don’t hesitate to lay down your wrath immediately when the boss shows his face. Finally, try to focus on the target of the tank in most situations. This allows the enemies to fall faster. Fewer enemies is always a boon for you as many enemies are more likely to be able to get around the tank and strike you directly. The most common blasters are archers and arcane spell casters.

Controller

From the outside, the controller is the least sexy of all of the roles. You’re not laying down the smack-down like the other roles, yet the controller is arguably the most interesting role. This is because this role is one of tactics, strategy, and finesse. Key defining aspects of the controller is the ability to affect the battlefield as a whole, changing the course of combat in your party’s favor. Common abilities include buffing allies, debuffing enemies, mind-control, and terrain control. The controller shapes the battlefield by altering it.

For example, creating a wall (real or illusionary) to split the enemy’s forces is a great tactic. Turning the enemies against one another with mind affecting abilities allows the enemies to kill one another at little to no risk for your group. While buffing and debuffing isn’t as sexy as dealing damage, it can completely alter combat by increasing your team’s effectiveness while reducing the enemy’s effectiveness. It may not seem sexy, but the other roles recognize the impact that these abilities have on their own success. I categorize healers in this role as well as the healing ability definitely changes the battlefield as well as healers tend to have other abilities which fit this role. Common classes in this role include bards, some arcane spell casters, and divine spell casters.

Mixed roles

There are many classes which can occupy more than one role. The druid for example can be effective as any of the 4 roles, even changing roles during the course of battle. All classes can fit into almost any role, so don’t feel hamstrung or pigeon-holed into one style of play. Generally speaking, you should pick one role to focus on. Most of your abilities and equipment should be targeted to this role. However there are no hard rules, and the nature of combat demands adaptability. The key is to evaluate how your character contributes to the overall success of the team. While mixed roles may seem appealing, you will never be great at any one of them. Focusing on a single role makes your character dependable and effective while ensuring the success of the party as a whole.