Fictions & Fragments

When you're playing a game, there are times you don't want to roll. Playing any version of an RPG, such as Dungeons & Dragons, there are things that you need to accomplish and things you want to accomplish. The things you need to accomplish are the things that make sure everyone has fun and feels supported. When I say 'fun' I don't mean that their characters win. I mean that they are able to be in a social situation with friends that makes them feel comfortable and like they'd want to return. When I say 'feels supported' I mean that they should be able to express how they feel about the game and the way they are able to interact with the other players. When I play a game, I do it to share an experience with others. If they're not my friends at the start of the game (probably because this is the first time we've played together), I treat them like I want to be their friends by the end. I've made some mistakes doing this. They...

Here's a pitch for a new game setting for D&D I'm working on. First, I recommend you read Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa. I'm enjoying it a lot; it's a fantasy Japan with a lot of great characters and fun over-the-top fantasy. The Dragon's Pool is an Asian-inspired setting that focuses on the mystical and magical. Long-term goals are to zoom out and see the lands of China, Korea, Mongolia and southeast Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia). Short-term, Dragon's Pool will focus on a mythic Japan and the sea that surrounds it. Some of the homebrew topics I'm dealing with are the yokai (monster) races of Kitsune and Tanuki and a lot of mapping D&D Classes and Archetypes to Asian tropes. You can follow along for more and also check out the World Anvil page at https://www.worldanvil.com/w/dragons-pool-hans

I'm taking the long way around to another Cypher System hack. There is a lot to love about the Cypher System; in this case I want to emphasize the ease of creating NPCs and other entities by level. The Cypher System uses levels to abstract everything outside of player characters. They're generally rated 1-10 with 10 being the best. When you compare 2 things and they have different levels, the one with the higher level wins. You can make quick decisions based on that system or do things in a more granular fashion using these same rules. So here are some things I want to lay out in Cypher System for a monster battling setting. 1. Easy monster creation and ways to classify weakness/strength based on type. This would be something like: Splash (Level 3 Water Mon) Water Type is Strong against Earth types and Weak against Wood types. 2. Character Types based upon Monster Battling. Revising the default types of Cypher (Warrior, Adept, Explorer, Speaker) to be based around...

Stakes Save the world or survive the night A game for 2 or more players, 1 acting as Guide. The other players are Survivors, describing how they work to survive. The Guide describes the Results of their choices. The formatting on this as a webpage is terrible, so if you prefer to read on Google Docs, you can do so here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AS8-2qrUUMdXoxqfs97hcCVRXILqreOnFV5beY3ozWM/edit?usp=sharing Playing a Survivor When you play a Survivor, you are stuck in the woods far from civilization. You have a simple goal: survive. There are eldritch horrors at your heels and not enough time to finish all that must be done. To win the game, you need to Get Out. What you have You have 2 hands so you roll 2 dice (normal six-sided dice). Roll them at the same time. If you get a odd number, you get a mysterious occult item. If you get an even number, you get a practical powerful item. If your dice match, you get to have one more item than usual. Roll again ...

Level 0 characters are a topic I didn't know I wanted to write about until @DnDEdition tagged me in a post describing a homebrew approach to Level 0 characters. While I like the creativity they put into their Level 0 character generation process, here are my thoughts on using Level 0 characters. Level 0 character generation Follow the steps described in the Basic Rules/Player's Handbook as follows: Choose a Race skip Choose a Class. Your base Hit Points are 6. Determine Ability Scores Describe Your Character Play the game. Race Your choice of race will influence your Ability Scores and Skills. At Level 0, this can be especially important. A magical Cantrip is a potent spell and a Skill Proficiency is something most characters will not have. If you use Variant Human rules including Feats, you should grant the Feat at this stage. It may not have the same effect for a Level 0 character as for a standard Level 1, but that seems appropriate. Skip Choose a Class T...

Monster Pets A small RPG for quick interactions Everyone has a Monster Pet. These small creatures need the companionship and care of a human to reach their fullest potential. The best Monster Pets get lots of socialization so that they grow up caring and courageous. As a Monster Raiser, you get to help your Monster Pets to achieve their very best! Making a Monster Pet Your Monster Pet has 4 statistics: Bravery, Calm, Energy and Obedience. When you make a new Monster Pet, choose 1 statistic to be a 4, 1 to be a 3, 2 to be 2s; your statistics could look like this: Bravery 4, Calm 3, Energy 2, Obedience 2. Think about making a sketch of your Monster Pet. This is one of the most fun things about Monster Pets- describing them to your friends when they interact! Raising a Monster Pet Having lots of interactions with your Monster Pet is the best way to have it grow up and build its statistics. Every time you have an interaction, there's a chance your Monster Pet will grow an...

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 ...

I like Harry Potter. It's something I can share with my whole family, because everyone is a fan, so it's a constant interest of mine to see Harry Potter and the Hogwarts world in RPG systems. Genesys seems like a very good candidate for this. It has a very open magic system that seems like it would work well with HP. Something I enjoy about the idea of Genesys is the narrative dice system. My goal in creating an HP game is to have a co-GM game where my wife and I can play without feeling the burden of creating stories rests on either of us. I'm also happy that Genesys uses incremental (non-level) character gains. It seems to me like it fits the HP model well. So running down character creation step by step in Genesys, first you need a Background for your character. This is more descriptive than statistical. You answer questions about your character's life and upbringing pre-game. In my HP example, I want to start with Year 1 Hogwarts students, so the Background w...

I haven't posted anything in a while! It's been a busy time. Day job work has been more intense and I've done less direct game design and more game running. I've also had the very pleasant opportunity to play Dungeons & Dragons on a schedule that works for me via play-by-post! So all in all, while there's been a change here, things are continuing like normal. But I wasn't posting here, and sharing my game ideas has always been an outlet for me, even if no one reads or comments on them. I like to keep myself accountable for designing and adding to the conversation on games. I've read a lot of fantastic blogs lately including work by Rob Donaghue of Fate and a developer on Pathfinder who also is making an RPG called Delve. I've been reading about representation, diversity and how to keep your gaming group strong and feeling like their ideas are included in the game. I've been playing more, and trying to give the lead away to the players m...

Since I've begun working with 3d printed tiles I've noticed that there aren't a lot of resources on setting up your own dungeon using tiles. My previous builds have all been flat cardboard tiles. There are a lot of things I love about flat cardboard tiles: No walls get in the way of the player view. You can always build vertical surfaces for important elevation. No planning space is lost because of tile size. They are FAST and easy to make! 3d printed tiles, like commercially-purchased dungeon tiles, have a different place in a game. There's time and expense in making or purchasing the tiles and painting them.They are awesome show pieces but there's a very different level of investment. Also, it seems like most easily found dungeon maps aren't easily duplicated in dungeon tiles. With either 3d printing or commercial purchase there are several different distinct tile shapes- floors, walls, corners, doors, etc. I wanted to have an idea of how many of eac...

A show my wife and I really enjoy is Leverage. The writing is great, the show doesn't get too dark and the premise is fun. There is a Leverage RPG out of print which I recently found at a used book store but didn't find interesting. I decided I'd rather remake the premise in Fate Accelerated. I'm calling it Caper because it 1. is about stealing things 2. evokes a sense of fun and whimsy so that things don't get too grim. Fate Accelerated (FAE) is simple and easy to get involved in. It's been seen as the system for Rollplay Nebula Jazz and the Dresden Files Accelerated (DFA). It's just like Fate Core but with a set of Approaches instead of a series of skills. I've enjoyed the way that DFA implemented Mantles, which as Classes/Roles/Playbooks that add some focus to character creation. Roles For this game, I wanted to define a few roles that work like Mantles. They are directly taken from Leverage. The characters from Leverage each have very clear ro...

Working with an idea for a new D&D campaign, I want to provide lots of freedom for play, allowing players to contribute to the world, but I also want to have a central direction for the story and a drive to play. With that in mind, I want to design a small part of the Rediscovered Land, Shuul, that the characters can immediately access, as well as a small sampling of powers that influence the characters. Worship in the Outlands Everything outside of Shuul. These are the realms known to the characters. In the Outlands, divine worship is common but given little emphasis. Everyone says the name of a deity or deities but few truly believe. Temples are small and tend to be universal, serving as places of worship for many disparate deities. The powers of nature commonly worshiped by druids are known but given grudging respect. Outlanders consider nature a foe to be fought; much of the territory surrounding the Outlands is claimed by dangerous beasts such as dragons. Finally, b...

Invisible Sun is the game I'm looking forward to the most in 2018. Among the many features of the game I'm looking forward to is Development Mode. Development Mode is a simple system for narrative play that does not require the whole game group to be present. This is something that's been a part of role-playing games for a long time and in a lot of forms. The innovation is in a game considering this a standard mode of play. That means people who want to introduce development mode have the support built into the system. It means fewer outside books and source materials to have the thing happen. It also plays on the simple resolution system that Monte Cook Games has always been known for. Invisible Sun gives a great way to handle whole scenes with a single system. I'm excited about the idea of Development Mode because it  follows the concept we are seeing in other games such as Blades In The Dark, Mouse Guard and The One Ring of alternative modes of play. More than ju...

I recently got a copy of the Genesys Core Rulebook from Fantasy Flight Games. The Genesys system is the updated and revised system that has been used in the Star Wars RPG products Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion and Force & Destiny. I've been very pleased to read through the Genesys rulebook because it's a great update and clarification to the SW RPGs and also a fantastic sandbox for creating your own games. The Star Wars games have a really interesting engine revolving around narrative dice. Until recently I found this difficult to embrace because it violates my two preferred points in RPGs: 1. A free System Reference Document (SRD) or Quickplay that introduces the system and rules before you purchase it. RPG books get expensive and I like when companies believe in their product enough to share it and give people a chance to try before they buy. Fantasy Flight doesn't do this with their RPG products. To make things harder, the system requires specialized...