Chaotek Thoughts

I am currently working on finishing the campaign log for a recently ended Dark Sun game I ran. As I’m writing it, I’m reminded that this campaign included one of my favorite moments as a dungeon master. This moment was a massive plot twist, that had caught the players completely by surprise.

In the game, the heroes learned that there was an artifact called the Chrono Rod, which could allow them to travel in time. The group planned to travel back in time, and kill Rajaat, the man most responsible for the post-apocalyptic setting of Dark Sun. The group was fired up to activate the rod and do this great deed. To activate the rod, the rod had to be placed in the hand of a certain statue. As the rod was activated, the group was ready to charge through the portal to kill Rajaat. Well, it didn’t quite go that way. Time had taken its toll on prophesy, and what the rod really did was awaken a champion of Rajaat who was still very loyal to his master. Instead of stopping Rajaat in the past, they were now looking at the possibility of bringing Rajaat back into the current world so that he could finish the job.

There was a moment as the champion of Rajaat was awakening, where I was looking at the players and you could see the brimming excitement suddenly get crushed by the reality of what was really occurring. This might sound a little sadistic, but the point is that the game completely changed direction in an instant. Sure, the players were pissed, though not at me. They were fired up by the situation.

What makes the story one of my favorites is that the players had become so deeply invested in the story. This wasn’t a plot twist, it was a reality twist. As a game master, the most you can hope for is to develop a plot deep enough that the players immerse themselves in the story–and this game was a great example. It is a rare game where I get that kind of energy from the players, making the experience of this campaign one of my best experiences behind the DM screen.

Now, I don’t expect that every campaign should have such a big plot twist. But I definitely encourage other game masters to develop stories and worlds which draw in players. In other games it’s been a reoccurring villain that the players hate with a passion, or an NPC that the players love to interact with. I’m specifically referencing the difference between an in-character reaction and a player reaction. If the players are not invested in the story, then you’re not much better than a video game. The goal of role playing is to develop stories and characters which allow the gamers to suspend their disbelief and feel like a part of that world.

I’ve noticed that my PCs and party NPCs more often than not tend to be be anti-heroes, rather than heroes.  Some of my favorite characters in games have been patriotic necromancers, vigilantes, addicts, grey Jedi, and a plethora of characters who barely have a handle on their sanity.  For the most part, these characters do not result in intra-party conflicts–despite their evil leanings.  The characters are always loyal to the party, and have an “ends justify the means” mentality.  The characters are always shades of grey (more like a Christmas light in a dark gymnasium).

I don’t think it’s because I’m incapable of playing a truly heroic character, because I have.  However when I do, the games tend to be less enjoyable.  Sure, this might be because I feel constrained by the limitations of being a “good guy.”  However that seems too simple to explain the entire story.

When making a character, I want the character to be interesting.  Interesting might include the shininess of being a little tasteless, but it also includes conflict.  I’m talking about internal conflict and external conflict.  It’s hard to play a conflicted character when you’re toeing the line of goodliness.  To me, a righteous character shouldn’t be conflicted by wanting to do something and not being able to because it’s bad–dark thoughts are just as evil as dark deeds.  The only conflict I come up with for truly good characters is being a lawful stupid paladin, which means your conflict is being a cop for other player characters.

Outside of gaming, some of my favorite characters are anti-heroes, my favorite comics include Punisher, Ghost Rider, Deadpool, Iron Man, Wolverine, etc.  I’m not a fan of true heroes like Superman or Captain America, not that I dislike them but I just don’t enjoy the stories as much because there is far less conflict.

I think the best way for me to play a good character, is to be faced with an enemy who is the dark mirror.  It has been said that heroes are defined by their villains.  Without a truly vile villain to measure up to, I don’t think I have the ability to play a completely heroic character.  Maybe I just have an unfair standard for my heroes…

After many years of gaming, there is one aspect of traditional D&D which I can’t stand more than anything else—dungeons. It may seem odd, as half of the title of the game I play the most is dungeons, but I just can’t stand them.

I understand why dungeons are often the core of published adventures; they are easy to write. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to design an adventure for others to use without a dungeon. With a dungeon there is a limitation on possible player choices and solid rewards for accomplishing the dungeon. This is why video games utilize the concept as well. It is a very simple, easy to document, and easy to understand method of covering adventure material.

However I feel like dungeons, and published adventures in general, or not very much fun. I like using a published adventure for inspiration, but every time I use a published adventure the game becomes very stale and boring. Sure, 5 rooms of cutting down enemies might be fun, but any more than that and I think me and my fellow players stop trying to enjoy the story and just ignore everything to just finish the dungeon. Its where dungeon crawling becomes a chore.

I do think there is a way to apply the benefits of dungeons to published adventures which do not include dungeons at all. For an example of this, check of the 3.5 book Heroes of Battle. This book includes a good example of how to design an adventure like a dungeon without including a dungeon. Heroes of Battle uses the example of an overland adventure, where player choices affect the next phase of a battle in the midst of a war. The example provided is a D-Day style invasion, where the party arrives on a beach. After stopping the initial defenses, the heroes can continue down the breach to support another landing party, or move up the cliff-side to take out an enemy fortification, and so on. There is a very good diagram of how this can be defined using a flowchart. Even better, there is a time-based flowchart which defines what the enemy forces will do, and how it could react if the players interfere.

The point here is that I believe that published adventures can be much more interesting and immersive if dungeons became a thing of the past. For those who are designing their own adventures, using these ideas for adventure design can provide a robust pre-planned adventure, without the need for a boring dungeon crawl.

I’ve been reading a lot on TV Tropes, in addition to Wikipedia. It’s a facinating site, defining and providing examples of common media plot devices. Very entertaining. For gamers, you can use the site for inspiration, or to avoid common plot pitfalls.

I’ve had some time to review the Eberron Player’s Guide, and it was a very solid resource book. First off, I’d like to point out that the Eberron setting has been implemented in 4E like Forgotten Realms should have been (a retroactive cannon fix). A common tactic used in television and comic books, you just act like this is how it always was. There’s no wonky time-warping or world changing.

As to the game rules, I found the new player races to be effective and desirable. While the races are not necessarily new, changinglings (as doppelgangers) and warforged were covered in the Monster Manual, I think that they work well and gained a bit by being printed formally as player races. The new class, Artificer, seems to be an effective and unique leader class. I like the alchemy path as an alternative to rituals, and I expect that future books will support this concept. Regarding the Dragonmark feats, I feel up and down. First, I do like that the dragonmarks diverged from the spellscarred system from the Realms, however I was left wanting for more. I don’t like the idea that anyone can get any dragonmark, and I will house-rule this so no problem really. However I hope that future supplements will include the ability to improve the dragonmarks, perhaps with a follow-up feat in the paragon and epic tiers for greater capabilities. Overall, I think the rules match the feel of Eberron and do not up the power curve significantly.

Regarding the setting material, I’m really not a fan of the “Cliff’s Notes” setting material found in the Eberron and Forgotten Realms Player’s Guides. Once the campaign setting book arrives, this material makes me feel like I got ripped off by getting largely reprinted material in two books. I understand that you can argue that players only need to buy the smaller book, but I still feel cheated somehow.

I started my first Eberron game a few weeks back, in anticipation of the 4E books. I’m disappointed that I’ve missed out on Eberron back in 3rd edition, and I really like the flavor of the setting over almost any other officially printed setting of 4E or 3E. I think that this book is a good start to the setting. I’m really hoping that more supplemental material will be printed after the player’s guide and campaign setting are out, however I’m not holding my breath. I am going to hold on to 3rd edition books however as they are a gold mine of valuable material (once again unlike the Realms…).

Overall 4.5 out of 5 Stars.

Last night we started a new campaign, using a new system, and a first-time game master. That’s a lot of new, suggesting the session would turn out to be an all-around train wreck. As it turns out, the session was very smooth, with the issues primarily around learning a new system. Afterwards, we discussed some tips for the first time GM. The primary issue I’ve seen with first time game masters is a strong desire to tell a story-at the cost of the players’ fun. We call this railroading, where the players feel like they have to control or input into the story. The players become glorified dice-rollers at best, bored story listeners, or at worst angry ex-players. So here are some thoughts on how a first-time GM can avoid railroading:

Be a minimalist in describing the situation. I’m not saying that description isn’t important; in fact it is very important for story immersion. What I’m recommending is restricting your description to the minimum required to set the scene. Then allow the players to interact with that environment, thereby allowing for more description. If you completely describe the pub that the players walked in to, down to every detail of the inhabitants, then there is very little for the players delve deeper. By being a little vague about the description, you’ve created an air of mystery that the players will want to solve.

Don’t over think the adventure. In a given adventure, simplify your story idea into 2-3 plot points with huge gaping holes between them. Don’t spend a lot of time deciding how the players are going to get from one plot point to the next. If you plan too much, you’ll quickly lose your entire plan as the players go a different direction. Allow the players to decide how to get from one plot to the next. For example, if the players need to find out information about a nasty relic they are looking for, don’t plan on how they will learn that information. Allow the players to decide, such as they might consult a library, ask around town, or seek divine inspiration. All you need to do is plan the end result (in this case you might have the location of the relic), and let the players get there by whatever creative means they think of.

Start off small. For your first game, consider not planning a grand campaign plot at first. A first time GM will kill themselves planning an intricate, multi-month plot only to have the players destroy the possibility of that plot in the first session. Instead, focus on a single adventure at a time, and then incorporate reoccurring themes. It will seem like you planned it all out in the end. Long term campaign ideas lead to railroading more often than anything else in my view, because the game master wants to get to the end-plot and is less concerned with the current plot and the chaotic players. Once you get some experience, use the adventure advice above to develop a campaign story arc.

Don’t do anything on the players’ behalf. I heard a great bit of advice on the Fear The Boot podcast, the GM has control over the entire world, whereas the players only have control of a single character–don’t take that away from them. Try to stay away from changing character backgrounds or personalities. Don’t tell the characters as they walk into the pub that they move up to the bar and order a drink–let them say that they are moving up the bar to order a drink. Even if you can accurately predict the players’ actions, let them do it anyways.

Your plot is not set in stone, and that’s a good thing. If your plot revolves around the players getting ambushed on the way to village X but the players decide to go to village Y, who says that the ambushers are not on the road to village Y instead? If the players decided not to leave town, let the ambushers come to them or save that plot point for when they do–next session. If your plot points are vague enough, as suggested above, they can occur almost anywhere and for any reason. The players have no idea what you planned, and will think that their actions (or inaction) let to the plot progression. If the players kill someone you were going to use as a reoccurring villain, then use someone else to fill that role in future plots (it doesn’t mean the entire plot collapses).

Unless you are making up the entire game as you go along, which I don’t recommend for first-time game masters, and then you have developed some sort of plot for your game. The key is to let the players believe that they are in control. In a way this suggests that it’s just an illusion of control, but a most important illusion. Freewill in the real world can be considered an illusion of control. The players feel like they are in complete control, and yet you are doing an awesome job keeping up with them. When in reality, you always knew that a platoon of bad guys was going to find them–no matter what they did.

Sure, you can and should take the player’s actions into account. The most important part of being a game master is to facilitate the player’s fun, so allow them to have fun. Make them feel like their actions and personalities matter. Oh, and never use a published adventure for your first time in the GM chair, as a published adventure will go against every suggestion here.

I found a blog post awhile back called How to Awesome-Up Your Players. Ever since I read the article, from time to time I think about this as a basic theory of gaming. The entire point of roleplaying games, unlike any other type of gaming such as video games, is that the players get to be the hero. Sure, a video game might let them play a hero, but it doesn’t let them be the hero. The theory is almost like the service industry’s motto of “the customer is always right (even when they’re wrong).” If you are a game master, your players are your customers. If they don’t like what you’re selling them, they’ll get a new GM or decide they don’t want to game at all.

Now this doesn’t mean that the rules system goes out the window. Sure, if they want to kill the BBEG or burn down the inn, they still have to accomplish the task within the confines of the rules system. The point it, you are letting them try. I think that the biggest failing of any game masters is when they tell a player no, the player can’t do something. Saying no is very different from saying that something is really hard, but is possible (however remote). At this point even if the player’s action fails it’s a failure of a bad roll, not a mean GM who doesn’t allow players to play the game. The blog post encourages the use of GM caveat in favor of players as well, suggesting that even if the action should be near impossible rules-wise, that the GM should help the action succeed. This is a good idea as well, within limits.

At the end of the day, try to say yes to your players, and avoid saying no at all costs. It’s not about giving the players anything they want, but allowing them to try.

I’ve completed the campaign summary for the Mutants and Masterminds campaign “Control & Variable” on RPGHerald.net that we finished last Tuesday. Check it out. Perdue did a great job GMing the game, and I’m looking forward to the Serenity RPG game that I’ve been dying to play for months now.

I think the campaign left off at a good place, the end of the major story arc, but is left open for future games. I think there’s a lot more stories to be told in that world.

After a year of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, I’ve collected some thoughts on the latest incarnation of D&D.

The Rules

I am a huge fan of the balance of the system. In my experience with the system, which does not yet include Epic tier, I think that this is the most balanced version of D&D, even more balanced than most RPGs out there. Every class feels useful and interesting at all levels of play, unlike the weird power curves of previous editions. However with such strong balance, there is a certain amount of similarity between many character classes. For the most part, you could take all of the classes and simplify them into 4-5 classes with more choices. Even across different character roles, the same damage, dice modifiers, etc all feel the same. But class familiarity is far more preferable to feeling useless because your class won’t become useful for another 3 levels.

Encounter design and balance is massively improved from the previous edition, though its mostly a throwback to 2nd edition. However the XP budget really is a misnomer—just because a monster is within your XP budget for the encounter does not guarantee its balanced. Stretching outside of the PC’s level up or down more than a level or two guarantees that the encounter will not scale well. You are much better off taking a monster of the PC’s level and changing them to be a minion or elite than trying to use a monster higher or lower level than the PCs.

The Setting

To date, only one setting has been released, though the next is days from release. I am a fan of the Points of Light concept, where there are large gaps of dangerous areas isolating pockets of civilized society, as a generally better setting for gaming. It helps the immersion into the setting because it does make sense that a town could disappear or monsters could be nearby for the heroes to deal with. A highly civilized world like medieval Europe just doesn’t feel like a world of monsters.

Regarding the Realms, I understand why changes were necessary even if I don’t agree with the outcome. The world was dramatically changed, supposedly with the points of light concept in mind (as well as the change in magic), but the end result doesn’t match the original purpose. The world still feels very civilized and heavily populated, just without the great history that made the Realms so attractive. Some of the most “points of light” regions were removed from the setting and replaced with more civilized regions. Finally, there have only been two products for the Realms in 4E. In the past year, or the coming year, I don’t know of any other Realms books. This is disappointing, as the first two books were really the same book (one being the Cliff’s notes version). There is still a lot of information about the world that can be provided while maintaining the overall mystery of the new setting for the Points of Light feel.

Speaking of which, the Eberron campaign setting is out soon and I have high expectations. Eberron in 3rd edition accomplished what is missing from the 4th edition Forgotten Realms—mystery yet detailed. Since Eberron is not getting the overhaul that the Realms got, I have much higher expectations for the setting to get it right in 4E.

The Future

As noted, I have high expectations for the coming campaign settings (especially the rumors of Dark Sun which I can’t put much faith in). Additionally if the coming books maintain the same quality of the current books I think 4E has a good future. My worry however is that the system might not be able to scale well over time, especially since setting material seems to be a secondary thought to rules supplement books. The problem I foresee is that since I noted that most classes have a very similar feel (outside of RP fluff), the coming expansions to the rules for new classes, etc will start to curve the power levels up in order to make the new material appealing. This has already happened with PH2, with the worst offender being the Invoker (i.e. the better wizard). This was seen in previous editions, but I think that 4E has the potential to be the worst to handle this. I hope this will not be the case, but my prediction and fear remain.

Overall, I am pleased with Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. I will continue to purchase all books as they come out. I just hope it has the durability withstand the test of time that previous editions did.

I’ll be the first to admit that there is a lack of Firefly/Serenity RPG resources. I don’t know why, but there is no official publisher support for the game. So here’s some resources I recommend for playing the Serenity RPG:

• CortexSystemRPG.org is as close as it gets to an offical site for Cortex system
• CortexWaves.com has a good fan book
• FireflyRPG.com is another good fan site, good new ship deck plans and props
• Wikipedia is a good resource, including locations and background
• SteveD.org has some adventure hooks based on Elton John songs
• HubPages.com has a list of adventure seeds

There is also a multitude of forums to look at that might have good content. There might be more out there, but these are the sites that I found that seem to have the best content. Let me know if you find others.