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...

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.

These are some quick ideas about Talents for Harry Potter characters. The first are Rank 1 Talents for characters by house, expanding their Career Skills. Gryffindor Rank 1 - Gryffindor Student: Cool becomes a Career Skill for you. Hufflepuff Rank 1 - Hufflepuff Student: Survival becomes a Career Skill for you. Ravenclaw Rank 1 - Ravenclaw Student - Perception becomes a Career Skill for you. Slytherin Rank 1 - Slytherin Student - Skulduggery becomes a Career Skill for you.

Describing difficulty to players Some RPG games have player mechanisms that affect success. In D&D there's Inspiration, Advantage and a number of race/class abilities that can affect rolls. In Numenera and all the other MCG games you can spend from your Ability Pools to affect success. In Star Trek Adventures you can spend Momentum, use Talents, use Foci, etc. Some games like Apocalypse World tell the players exactly what they need to succeed: 7-9, 10+, etc. But for these other games you need to know what your target for success is to play the game in the best way possible- which to me, means have fun, feel like you have knowledge and agency in game). Explaining the rules to players is a part of the job for anyone inviting others to play a game. You can tell them to read the book, recommend they check out an article, or do anything beforehand, but at the time the game is taking place, if you want to run the game, you have to help players engage with the rules, includin...

Careers are an important way of defining core skills for a character type. Since all the HP characters are Hogwarts students, I tried to frame Careers like cliques, describing how the character expresses themselves and their motivation at school. The Careers I decided upon are Athletic, Mischievious, Popular and Studious. Everyone gets Arcana as a Career skill, because a HP game is going to rely upon using magic. Athletic Athletics Discipline Coordination Perception Piloting (as Riding(Broom)) Resilience Brawl Leadership Mischevious Alchemy (as Potions) Coordination Skulduggery Stealth Streetwise Arcana Deception Negotiation Popular Cool Vigilance Arcana Charm Coercion Deception Leadership Negotiation Studious Alchemy (as Potions) Discipline Mechanics Medicine Vigilance Arcana Knowledge(Magical) Knowledge(Magical Creatures)

As an idea for starting or fleshing out a campaign, consider using the characters' backgrounds to help you determine the important people and places of your starting campaign setting. Backgrounds are a great tool for describing how characters relate to the game setting, so lean into it and use them to make your initial location matter to your players. Start your game prep with getting your players together and having them make characters. This can be done in person, which is a terrific way to see how people work together and get them comfortable collaborating on story ideas, or online using something like a shared chat. In this example, the key element of the characters will be the Backgrounds. When you're talking over backgrounds with your players, think about how likely they are to be useful in the game. If your game is a one-shot or short campaign, make sure the background will see some use! In a city or town game the Outlander's background feature may not see a l...

I've been reading a lot of quick starts for games recently. These are the short 30-page-ish versions of games that are designed to entice you to buy a full-priced product. I generally find these lacking in one way or another, which can keep me from buying the game altogether. The Gamemaster (GM) section of a book is really important to me. There are many games where I skip it altogether, but in others I really enjoy the rules. Some of my favorite books for GM sections are the Cypher System Rulebook by Monte Cook Games, Blades in the Dark by One-Seven Design and Fate Core from Evil Hat Productions. They all have good examples and advice for Gamemasters to prepare their games. I've found that there are a few things that are really important to me to understand a game. 1. A well-explained task resolution system. I feel like most games need a single primary mechanic, which needs to be well-explained with examples and commentary. Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars series does...