Fictions & Fragments

I just ran my roughest game in a long, long time. The issues in the game were things that could have been prevented or mitigated, but instead I had to do damage control and bring things to a halt. Some of the lessons I learned (again): Safety tools need to be introduced. Use a session zero or pre-session to assess how a group works together.. No game is better than bad game. If you want to use something during your game, prep it. Safety tools need to be introduced No one wants to cause a problem or halt a game. Everyone came to play, so players will put off a lot before they find themselves objecting to the direction of the game. As a gamemaster (GM) I outlined a series of safety tools and put them in the game prep area. I congratulated myself on doing that before I even put in character creation steps. Then I promptly left them alone until there was a problem. When there was conflict between players, I could have handled it sooner. When I did handle it, the offended play...

OK, last week I had a D&D campaign I wanted. This week saw the release of the Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron, which has just about everything I wanted. The Guide is well done and explicitly calls out examples of races that do not follow the common trope, including 'monstrous' races like gnolls that have working societies and codes of honor. Eberron has also always been great at having a fun level of magic and adventure. I'm excited to read more. I think my idea Eberron campaign would start in a city like Sharn, have a few episodes devoted to city politics and inter-House intrigue with the Dragonmarked Houses, then continue into an exploration arc in an area like Xendrik. From there, I would try to visit on some interesting monster civilizations and return to Sharn for a Dragonmarked House follow-up. There would be elemental airships and lightning rails for sure.

I've had a random shower thought about a D&D homebrew world I'm encouraged to pursue: The world has lived through a generational event- war, followed by extreme isolationism. The humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and many other races separated themselves from the world, building the strongest fortresses possible. There they guarded their treasures and noble families, securing them against their foes. As time passed, all of these fortresses fell to ruin. There were still people in the world: all the races had their cast-offs and undesired who had been left in the world. Others were conscientious objectors. Some were religious pariahs following ancient traditions. In current times, people live in smaller communities. They have learned to accept one another and band together. The ruins of these ancient fortresses loom over the land. Their ancient traps and spells make them dangerous places to explore. Adventurers are valuable and well-received in the hope that they can make ...

No Thank You, Evil! (NTYE) by Monte Cook Games (MCG) is a lot of fun. It's designed for kids, but they let adults play too. I've had the opportunity to play it adult-to-adult and to run it for mixed groups and I love it. Like all games I love, I want to do more with it. There's  a Netflix show called True and the Rainbow Kingdom that is incredibly popular with our kids. The premise of the show is that the protagonist, True, a young girl who lives in the Rainbow Kingdom, solves problems that occur with the help of magical wishes, each of which is a tiny being that reminds me of a Pokemon. They all have names and special powers which are useful in different situations. In NTYE you get 3 Treats at the start of the session, which you use to ask your Companion to deal with problems. The Companion is a Robot Dog, a Big Bad Wolf, a Little Sibling, etc. and they are the conduit through which players access Cyphers, a staple of MCG designs. These are always fun and creative ways...