How to play RPGs Real Good Part 2: Referees, Basement Leaders and Crypt Lords

Your role is multitudinous and profound. It’s tedious and dull. It’s cosmic and mundane. You are the killer of pencils, mangler of accents, appropriator of ideas, nerd wrangler and setter of the final percentage. These are my thoughts on how to be a better Basement Leader:

1) The rules should ooze from your pores. No one should be able to discern where you end and the rules begin. You are the one behind the curtain who pulls the right lever at the right time. Imagine the great and powerful Oz saying “...wait a moment while I check...page 43….hang on, illness….idiocy...ah, here it is illusion”. This is the sort of rampant sloppiness of lesser beings! Slogging through game mechanics during play makes the game run like a glitchy Tom & Jerry cartoon streaming through an old dial up modem. A referee who waits to learn the mundane workings of the rules while running the adventure is shameful indeed! They are not worthy of the term "master". Learn the rules beforehand!

2) Know your adventure. Imprint the logic of the adventure way down into your reptilian brain. This is key, because it’s impossible to document for every action the players may take in advance. Even so, creating such a vast archive would be tedious and wasteful. Record only the data you need to keep things flowing. This deep understanding will free you from the tyranny of the written key. I am completely against those prepackaged text boxes that appeared in so many TSR modules. You embrace the dullest of dooms by reading these. Sure, they are convenient, but they encourage you to understand nothing. Any creative thoughts you may have had will be whitewashed. By understanding the logic you can describe what players are seeing in a much more fluid and interesting way. This is one of the reasons why I use drawings and bullet points as my key. The images are rich with detail and have be described, bullet points let me know what is really important upon first contact with that area or event. Players will pick up on whether you are engaged or reading pre-written descriptions. Because they know you have a deep understanding of what’s going on, players will exercise their agency. Just be sure to jot down anything you create of consequence for future reference. 

3) I hate the term NPC. Non player character is not unlike a government acronym where by definition something is defined by naming it what it is not. It’s an artifact from the original D&D, in which non player “henchmen” were created to be used as pack animals and fodder to test a situation deemed too dangerous for your real character. Applying this worn out term devalues your participation in the game. Since when is a persona you are playing a “non” character? Your personas, whether selling a bauble, ordering an execution or hiding in a shadow are equally important to the narrative. They are your voice, your hand, your thoughts. Commonly accepted ideas should always be held suspect until tested as useful. There are so many lame “rules of thumb” and “common sense” notions hidden in plain sight. Change the language and you change the game. How about “In-Game Persona”? Anything is better than NPC.

4) Talk like a fool.  Elocution is the quickest way to bring your creations to life. Try out the high pitched whine of the effete warlock or the giggling cuteness of a twitching psychopath. Ever wanted to talk like Peter Lorre on an opium kick? Now is your chance! As I  create In-Game Persona’s I always note how they will sound: “Jessica Rabbit” or “Sam the Eagle” or “Paul Lynde”. This becomes a starting point when I start to talk like that character for the first time. I am always surprised how entertaining it is.

5) Be impartial. You simply must be as fair as possible. Strangely, RPG games illicit the old “Dungeon Master versus the Players” paradigm, as if every creature under the referee’s control should act as one mind to hunt down and expunge the players. I have experienced a few of these and while charming in their own way, the blood lust hollows pretty quickly. The game setting should be experienced as neutral and react to player inputs thusly. Otherwise players will feel they have no agency and will stick to solving problems using the dull solutions already built into the game. Impartiality rewards clever players because they know “the game is not out to get them”. Being impartial also means to let random things happen, things that  don’t seem to fit what you thought the story was. You need these external inputs to shake up the your thinking. If everything is always coming out of your head the game will start becoming predictable. Random mutations is a mechanism that forces you to evolve. This is one reason why a good game system has lots of tables to generate random characters, events and so on. They give you a starting point for something that you would not have created. Using these things exposes you to a new ideas. 

6) Players should have an idea what they are getting into: This gets at the heart of a couple of things, game balance and player agency. Consider: If you subscribe to the concept of “game balance” your players will know that for every situation they find themselves in, they have been matched up evenly to whatever the challenge is. Where is the agency in that? Discerning the danger level of a situation and then making choices on what to do is where all the excitement is. If they know everything is balanced, it really makes no difference what they choose. Think how Lord of the Rings would be with balanced encounters. Once the players realize that a decision could lead to a truly deadly encounter, they will definitely be more engaged because they know their decisions matter. This means they need to be able to figure out what the risk level is. As referee you will need to describe the game state in such a way so as to not hand them too much information on a silver platter. You should be unbiased, so if they ask smart questions they can figure it out. This kind of play creates a lot of excitement and you will marvel at the solutions they come up with. Sounds scary, but wait until you see the glee on their faces as they willingly choose to embrace doom!

7) No exit signs: Do not figure out the solution to an adventure in advance. If the thing you have made has one specific solution, then you have to make sure they stay on that track in order to solve it. If they have to follow that particular track, then where is the surprise? A game that is predestined, is not interesting. The excitement of a narrative unfolding is the uncertainty. Coming up with solutions is their job anyway. This does not mean the adventure should be unsolvable or that there are not useful things in it for them to exploit, it just means that you haven’t connected the dots for them.

8) A game session is made up of little bits.  These bits are sometimes called “atoms” and are a short sequence of actions that make up an event within the gaming session. They should not be treated as throw away things. RPG’s are by their nature made up of details and often they don’t always seem to fit neatly together. This is actually desirable, because if everything is meshing too well, that means the agency of the game has probably been compromised. The narrative is constructed from all these little bits. Seemingly unrelated bits become connected with one another simply by being together. For this to happen they all need to be treated the same. Think about how some random detail in a Sherlock case suddenly becomes important. Or how a strange coincidence suddenly changes the story. These seeds are here in the details whether they are contrived or random.

9) Serve up equal slices of pie. Sweep from one end of the table to the other continuously and make sure everyone gets an equal chance to do something. Don’t let loudest people suck up more than their fair share of your attention. By constantly sweeping back and forth from one player to the next you can make sure everyone gets to do something. During combat this is easy as game mechanics pretty much resemble a turn based game at this point. But also get in the habit of doing it all thru the game. There is always a quiet one in the back...the crazy one who is going to take a bite of that unidentified mushroom, jump up on the creepazoids back and get this party started!

10) Own your weakness: I suck at making things up on the fly. And I get flustered sometimes. So I prepare beforehand by creating a bunch random junk that I might need. It’s not much, a few lines, but it seems to be enough. The flustered thing, when I feel it coming I’ll excuse myself for a minute or two and think about bowling or something. Weakness is a reminder to not take your eye off the ball. Weakness is strength. I think that’s carved on a ministry somewhere. 

11) Keep up the pace. As basement leader it’s up to you to manage the time flow. You are the director making sure the production is moving along at the right speed. Watch just about any action movie from the 70’s and you will know what I mean. Do we really have to watch someone get into their car and drive for 8 minutes? Time is plastic, so the unimportant stuff can be summarized in a quick sentence or two. Keep things moving at a rate that is consistent with the players actions and the what is going on. This doesn’t mean that everything should be moving real fast all the time, sometimes things deserve to be stretched out to fully enjoy their impact. Like the oozing of nearly coagulated blood down the pitted face of a giant skull right before it...you get the idea.

12) Meta-Gaming: This whole idea that players can only act within their characters in-game knowledge is total BS. It is the most anal way to suck the fun out playing RPG’s. “Metagaming” is the fun real world social interaction that happens when players talk to one another. This is where the jokes are, the irony, begging/cajoling someone to do/not do  something. This is the reason why we are here. Limiting players to what their personas only know in the game will turn your social interaction party into a tedious tactical miniatures game. Somehow anti-metagamers believe RPG’s are quantifiable like a real game. That the player with the highest xp, money, power, is comparable to a basketball player. RPG’s are not games the same way basketball is. The rules of basketball do not arbitrarily change. Basketball players are not allowed to attempt any action to score points. Even the idea of what winning means are not in sync. “Metagaming” is equated with cheating, which is absurd. How can there be cheating in a game in which the referee can instantly change things, often times without the players even knowing it? I mean OMFG. I am out of breath. Phew. Idiots.

13) Anything may be attempted. This is the most unique thing that RPG’s have over any other game experience. Players have the freedom to attempt any action and you then decide what the chances of it working will be. This is the essence of RPG’s and why they are so  compelling. For some referees, when players try unusual stuff (which can push against the boundaries of the game system) they get a little nervous. This is OK, roll with it and work out a way to that allows the action to be attempted. A simple die roll is the easiest. The crux here is to let them try stuff. Otherwise the single most powerful aspect of role playing is lost.

14) You are not responsible for all the fun. It’s up to you to prepare the adventure beforehand. Dice have to polished. Chairs reinforced. Never mind all the complex referee stuff you need to attend to while play is in progress. Snacks must be arranged alphabetically. It’s a lot. It would seem logical then that you are also responsible for all the fun. You are not. Being part of an RPG game is a collaboration between everyone present. The players have things they need to do (see How to play RPGs Real Good Part I: Players), one of them is to get off their lazy behinds and play the game well.

Cheers!

"...I Don't Want To Go On The Cart..."

Here I am, listening to Hans Zimmer's greatest hits on You Tube, thinking thinky things during this in-between time, before the grist mill comes back on line. Crypts and Creepies is on deck for an a new shiny version. Time has allowed my brain to structure this into something that I can get excited about. Blind will also get released, I've run it a number of times, once I have the support material I need...yes.

Enough hollow promises. Oh, wait, here is one more:

I plan to put in writing on how to create an RPG. Strangely, there is really nothing substantive out there on the subject.

To this end I have collected, read, reread and taken copious notes. This is the main references I'll be using.

Here are my picks as core books on actual game design:

Playing at the World (by Jon Peterson) is the essential history of RPG gaming. A book with a terrible name (picked to sell), it describes Kriegsspiele, Braunstiens, Diplomacy and Chainmail. Seeing how these were congealed into D&D allows the game designer of the future to understand the artifacts that were passed forward to the present. My review: https://crypts-n-creepies.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-review-of-playing-at-world-by-john.html

Rules of Play (by Salen and Zimmerman) and Characteristics of Games (by Elias, Garfield and Gutschera) are design textbooks from MIT and are the only ones I have found that give specific details on actual design. They cover all types of games, so the stuff relative to RPG design has to be distilled. Some have complained that these are "dry" and "hard to read". These are not beach reads, they have real data in them, for most folks (who are not into game design) I recommend something more pleasurable, like Twilight. 

I have a number of books on designing wargames, The Art of Wargaming (by Perla) and The Complete Wargames Handbook (by Dunnigan) are my top two. Reading about Pol-Mil and Naval War College type games is a must.

Randomness (by Bennett) gets into the history of dice and the math behind probability. Gotta understand your tools, especially if you going to create new ones. I got this from the bibliography of another text, always check those lists.

Hack & Slash Compendium Blog Collection 1 (by Campbell). This is a Lulu print of posts about player Agency, it gets to the meat of RPG issues on this subject, so also essential to any RPG designer. Oh, lastly up there is my own notebooks, if you are really in this, then you need to keep track of your own thoughts and reactions to what your reading. My review: https://crypts-n-creepies.blogspot.com/2015/11/hack-slash-compendium-volume-1-review_8.html

I completely forgot Hanz wrote the music to Gladiator and Pear Harbor. Bleh.

Here are some books that will punish you, lot's of promises, no content.

How to Write Adventure Modules That Don't Suck (by Goodman Games, essays by various authors) has a lot of advice that amounts to "write things that are fun". A lot of vaugue theoretical advice, but no actual words on how to design anything specific. People love to spout design theory's, I have learned this is all very interesting but means nothing until you have actually made something. If you have always wanted that kool barbarian coffee table off Etsy, but lacked a flashy game design book to put on it, then buy this book and you'l be set. If your looking to learn to design RPG game mechanics and adventures, then just skip it. (BTW, one of the essayists is James Ward. I had the pleasure of running an adventure a couple of years back next to his "Women Only" table at Gary Con. If only Fame were a thicker whitewash.)

Tome of Adventure Design (by Frog God Games) is really a glorified Ready Ref Sheets (a very old and wrinkled Judges Guild product). It is marginally useful to have lists of different types of unusual book bindings, thematic ideas for mastermind humanoid races and information content of rumors. This is not a bad book, but not really useful for any kind of thoughtful design.

One reviewer said that "whilst
Cyborg Commando isn’t the
worst game written, it is
outstandingly poor.
This is a product that should
be held up to designers as a
lesson in how not to write a game."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg_Commando

Lastly there is Role-Playing Mastery (by Gygax), which when read is the psychic equivalent of having gravel rubbed into one's rectum. I bought this back in the day for 4 bucks and attempted to read it through on several occasions over the last decade. I had convinced myself that the creator of Cyborg Commando must have some useful knowledge to pass forward on RPG design... Sadly Role-Playing Mastery is a thinly veiled swill of "Why I am a Master" and "D&D is the best" described in very, very, very long sentences. Surely it is a skill to write so much and have it mean so little. I can only recommend it to get your blood boiling on what not to do when designing an RPG game.

Here is some game materials that can show a correct path.

The original Dungeon Master's Guide (by Gygax) is a treasure trove of inspiration and even after combing through it for literally decades, I still find interesting things I never saw before. It's "official" so you know it's got to be good. It's a mess of contradictions and bizarre mechanics that make no sense, but still an amazing catalyst when thinking about RPG design.

The Weird That Befell Drigbolton (by Norman and Gorgonmilk) is a current adventure module that is strange, easy to digest and well written. It is not over-designed and not a railroad. Just a really good model as excellent adventure creation. I have already reviewed it here: https://crypts-n-creepies.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-weird-that-befell-drigbolton-review.html

Yoon-Suin (by McGrogan) is a city/region supplement. While I have some technical issues with it, it's greatest strength it's not another cookie cutter European city. Someday, RPG games will get beyond LOTR crap and there will be non-white cultures, trans-damsels in distress and characters who have hard to explain mixed up ethics. Someday. Assuming, if our prez, mr. T, doesn't turn the clock backwards too much.

The Dungeon Dozen (by Sholtis) is a compendium of d12 tables from the Dungeon Dozen Blog. This is useful because the restricting construct of making weird tables of 12 results forces you into a new place. Carry forward RPG design will need new maps.

Interactive Fantasy (by Rilstone) is an old magazine collecting thoughts on game design. Useful, in that it addresses the actual question by people who have useful thoughts on the subject. Long out of print, but you can find digital versions floating around.

Maze of the Blue Medusa (by Sabbath and Stuart) is a mega-dungeon. Shows we can get over "Room/Treasure/Monster" and make something that is engaging and says FU all at the same time. A very well executed and designed adventure, so important to any designer simply for that reason alone. My review: https://crypts-n-creepies.blogspot.com/2016/07/change-your-head.html

Deep Carbon Observatory (by Stuart and Princess) shows the way to what adventure design can be by being bold enough to follow it's own logic and not that of money formula. The presentation is rough, but the adventure design breaks new ground. It is amazing what we take for granted, without thinking, Carbon will open your eyes, if you let it.

Finally, Blucher (by Mustafa) is a table top Napoleonics miniatures game. Talk about a genre of games that defines tired and old. The design of Blucher shows that stepping back and really looking at what you are doing and trying to accomplish by asking questions can bring you to something amazing. All this and a rule book that is extraordinarily well written. Again, I wrote about it here: https://crypts-n-creepies.blogspot.com/2015/12/stand-back-for-love-of-god-hes-got.html

OH, I almost forgot. There are these books outside game design proper. Very important to get ideas outside the box you are in.

Understanding Comics (by McCloud) of course is required reading for any creator. It has been around for a while and speaks to RPG issues in terms of character and narrative. If you are a game designer go read this book right now or I'm going to tell your mom.

Designa (Wooden books) is something I stumbled across in a book store. This book is icing really, but has hundreds of two page articles on how borders and patterns are created. I tend to be visual, not wordual, so this one works for me. It shows that there is a reason for everything.

The New Analog (by Krukowski) is a music book that talks about the shift to digital medium and talks about signal and noise. RPG's are essentially systems and reading about mediums (which are basically systems) will change how you design. Krukowski shows the importance of noise in communication. Judge's Guilds Ready Ref Sheets has lot's of "noise": bad drawings, typos, poor typesetting and crummy paper. Nowadays the accepted standard is to make your game look all polished and shiny. Finished artwork becomes more important than the game experience itself. Selling becomes more important. Bleh.

How Music Works (by Byrne) shows the importance of understanding how the medium defines the creative process. When I wrote my game back in 87', I simply sat down wrote up some rules and gave no real thought to anything. For me (at that time) it was important to create this idea that my game was a legitimate thing just like the others on the market. It needed clever rules and artwork. I never questioned the underlying system. Until I did that (which was recently) I was never able create something that would mean something. I will never sell lots of games, but I will have something of value. Cardboard boxes make the best toys. However, to really grow you must knock them apart and cut holes in them with a kitchen knife.

Yup. My goal is different now. I have no interest in the old definition of success. I don't need to make some big audience happy. Yup.

Workable Encounters: God's Workbench Part 6

Getting ready for Gary Con IX suspended work for a couple of months. Don't fret, I am still here, still beating the proverbial dead horse. The encounter mechanics have been lying idle and picking them up last week, something bothered me about them. They were...clunky. First the Crypt Lord had to figure out how often to check for an encounter depending on circumstances and then roll for each interval to see if there was an actual encounter.  There had to a better way. Once again, I sat down with my dice and some graph paper…

I tried all kinds of crazy stuff to cram several random results into one die roll. It can be done, but you would have to go through some crazy mental gyrations and cut holes in cardboard. The trick was keeping things as simple as possible.

What I wanted was a standardized roll that had built into it both frequency and whether there was an encounter or not.  The dice should show this without having to look at any tables. Here is it is: Roll 3d8 at the start of each OTU (8 hours). If you roll either a pair or three of a kind, there is an encounter. The number rolled indicates the hour of the OTU it takes place. Further, if there is a greater chance of encounter, add one d8, (for a total of 4d8), which increases the odds dramatically.  If there is a much reduced chance, subtract a d8 (roll two d8). I wanted to easily mod this roll to take into account areas in which encounters were more or less likely.

In the design there were a couple of things I wanted to keep. First, the time interval. The outdoor movement time division is the OTU, or Overland Travel Unit which is 8 hours long. This will prove to be quite useful as the number of hours corresponds to a d8 roll and a day is logically broken up into 3 OTU. The second bit of infrastructure is a modular 24 row table and it's corresponding Thumbtrix.

In it’s simplest form the table is designed around a d12 and has two banks of 12 fields each, for a total of 24 slots. To use you roll a d6 "controller" and a d12 for the result. It is designed to be modular so it can be plugged into any game subsystem to generate results. You can generate either completely random or weighted results depending on the current need. I took the same the same 24 fields and rearranged them into a different format, or what I call a Thumbtrix. The Thumbtrix allows the user quickly generate multiple results without rolling any dice.

Example: I roll 3d8 at the beginning of an OTU and get a pair of 3's. This means there is an encounter and it's during the third hour. The card above is an overview/cheat sheet.

It so happens we are in the magical land of Pewlon, so I grab the encounter card for that region and roll a d6 and d12. The d6 is a "controller" and the result indicates the column (1-3 left or 1-12 and 4-6 right or 13-24). This is a pretty traditional way to roll a result off a table.

Using further tables I can determine other elements of the encounter. The blank cards allow me to easily customize for different terrains, towns and regions.

Here are the same tables (above) with the same information, but now in Thumbtrix format. The disc has 12 results, 1-6 twice (one set is "repeat" the other "consecutive").

The Thumbtrix are stacked and spun or rotated (usually under the table in a random manner). After spinning them around, line up the stack.

The number up on the disc tells you which result number to start on (there are 6 in each quadrant) and if you repeat or go consecutive. Notice that you get a lot of information all at once. In this instance I got "2" and "consecutive", so the first Thumbtrix starts at 2, the second at 3 and so on. Once you have these, they are totally reusable and great for urban encounters when you need stuff on the fly.

I usually have a few encounters generated beforehand. Here are notes for the one shown above. I treat the encounter as a kind of mini table top miniatures game. Some are elaborate, others not. The system allows for great flexibility. Having a bunch of key word elements jazzes things up. I have a simple method for determining which group in the encounter has the "Upper Hand", that group gets to control some of the set up.

So that's the encounter system, next time I'll show how I worked "Epic" encounters into it. These are the reoccurring narrative non player characters...

Whisp-Lock

Whisp-lock

Size: 10 feet
Number: 1
Movement: floats 50 feet per Na-nuta
Disposition: Performs acts of evil to prove itself
Heat vision: Yes
Surprise: +4
CHP: See hair color, below
Muscle Power: 2d12 (Ave 12)
Cerebral Energy: d12+14  (Ave 26)
Nimbality: d6+8 (Ave 11)
Armor: None, however may only be harmed by creatures who themselves are bald.
Blind Panic: 65%

Description:

These malign creatures are as feared as they are rare. A Whisp-loc is created when a Gargo-goat eats a single strand of a sleeping female Arcanists hair during a gibbous moon. The creepazoid is released 12 days later from the excrement fully formed. It’s sole desire is to outperform (by a factor of at least ten) the Arcanist donor in every way. To accomplish this it will use the most direct and immoral means necessary to inflate its ego. Whisp-locs have the same abilities as an Arcanist (including combat arts, MERP and spell usage). If you meet one, run. These things void insurance covenants at 1,000 yards. Good luck. 

Attacks/Defenses:

x2 claw slashes inflict 1d8 PHP each (cannot use these attacks and cast a spell).

May set fire to itself (inflicting normal burning damage), however the effect is so olfactorily vile that all creatures in a 60 ft radius must pass an insanity factor check or suffer an effect from the Freakout matrix (p:130).

May completely unravel to escape. This takes 1d4 Na-nutas and the 100 meter strand can slither into the smallest space at a speed of 160 feet per Na-nuta.

Hair Color: Roll a d4

1) Gray: CHP: 14d4/Arcanist Grid 4

2) Black: CHP: 16d4/Arcanist Grid 5

3) Blonde: CHP: 18d4/Arcanist Grid 6

4) Red: CHP: 20d4/Arcanist Grid 7

Live Action Rule:

If the Crypt Lord catches any player fiddling with their hair the combat sequence is instantly reset to the beginning of a new Na-nuta. All actions that may have been performed are lost. As always to start the new Na-nuta scroll, pincer, ingot is used to see which side strikes first. However, the player side is restricted from using ingot during the determination.

The lowdown on the “Weird” non-popular game stats: Some of the terms can be intuited and converted. If this seems an arduous task simply leave a nice note in my comments and I’ll throw some stats together for that unmentionable more popular game. The other option is to...never mind.

Now Available on Lulu!

Guaranteed to put bricks to sleep! Core rules to the the game that has annoyed my wife for decades! It's lots and lots of words and some are even in the right order.

This is an original game.
Not a retro-clone.
OSR? Sure.
This is the definitive original edition.

All you need is some time, brain power and a few chewed up pencils.

My friends promise you will have a great time.

I am not making any promises.

You can find it on Lulu as a softcover or PDF.
We have a long way to go.
Cheers!

The Game With No Name

IMAGINE sitting down, character in hand and starting an adventure with no knowledge of what genre you're in. 

Maybe you’re Orphan Black watching herself jump off a train platform. Or Agent Cooper dreaming your first visit from the Giant. Or John McClane stepping out of the room to change your clothes on Christmas Eve.

In the beginning they had no idea what kind of story they were in. And neither will you. 

Your story could be like any (or none) of these and just like them you won’t know what game you're in. Conspiracy? Magic? Espionage? Pulp? Adventure? Sci-Fi? Super Hero? Cthulian? Thriller? Super Science? Time Travel? Horror? Something New? My lips are sealed. 

Are you up for a challenge? This will be the most interesting game you will ever play.

Welcome to The Game With No Name...

The Game With No Name debuts next March at Gary Con. Once I reveal the setting and play commences it’s up to the players to figure out what they're up against. Can they prevail? 

The print version will be released during Gary Con and will include the game system and three unique game experiences.  Each is designed for a group of 6 and will play out in 2-4 game sessions. (Note, the G-Con version is a 6 hour tournament styled event).

UPDATE: Stat-less Characters for The Game With No Name

These are prototypes, basically a test run of the layout and form factor. One of the concepts of this game experience is the rules are kept hidden from the players. As such, character information will be presented in this format using text descriptions instead of stats and percentages. The colored chips indicate how character damage will be represented. Players will need to rely on the referee's descriptions to decide just how wounded they are. The rules part of the game is shaping up nicely, but to insure secrecy I have no other comments on that matter.

I am in the process of writing a number of modules, these will also be getting a similar card treatment. There are a number of advantages. A key one is that because they are not being presented in a linear narrative, it will be easier to rearrange them, thus increasing player agency.


The Game With No Name debuts in a few short months at Gary Con and in print.

God's Workbench Part 4. Designing a New Encounter System (2 of 2).

In part 3,  we talked some theory and settled on movement rates for the Troupe. Time to unveil the remainder of the encounter subsystem. Oh joy!

I have a thing for dodecahedrons, so this new system would be built around them. (d12’s are used profusely in Crypts and Creepies, so it seemed natural). I wanted the players to be able to make some choices about how they would move overland. It boiled down to speed and visibility:

Thus, TSV = Troupe Speed & Visibility. TSV is made of two combined factors. When its time for an encounter check, roll a d12.  If the result is equal to or less than the TSV an encounter occurs.  At the moment I use “common sense” to assign the values to the adventure troupe, so a typical group is normal/normal, or 2 + 2 = TSV/4. If they are all ninjas and moving slowly, they are a TSV/2. If it’s a whole clan of Ruprecht wannabes running around yelling “Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma”, then they are an TSV/8.    

How often do you check?  This way:

Land is the most common form of movement in the game.  I wanted encounters to seem random, so no bell curve, just a 1-20.  This way the numbers will be all over the place.  Remember, it’s a check to see if there is an encounter, not a bonafide encounter. On average, you will make a check every 10.5 miles traveled. A troupe with a TSV/4 will have 3 - 4 encounters every 100 miles traveled.  Ninjas (TSV/2) will have a 1 or 2, and the Ruprechts (TSV/8) about 8. For Air and Sea the checks are more infrequent. The logic is you are moving faster and there is just less to encounter. Resting or sleeping outside, basically warrants a check.

The object of the system is to be simple and make sense, so you can remember how to use it. I’ve used it a couple of times, it seems to work just fine.

Whooo. Encounter tables next up:

Early on in this series I talked about how I like to make forms. They are cheats really, just to get things going. They also help when you get stuck. They are not gospel. Here is my encounter worksheet. Since I made these for myself, not everything is explained, so here goes.  Top box is what/where it is. In this case, the land of Pewlon. When an encounter is indicated, a d12 is rolled to determine if the encounter is common, uncommon or special (the three blocks on the left). There are two ovals (x - x) on top for the for the range (remember, your rolling a d12). In this case I decided 1 - 9 is common, 10 - 11 is uncommon and 12 is special. Another d12 roll in that box pulls out the specific encounter. (Biodiversity, is really for city encounters).  To the right is a list of typical motives (some are weighted or more unique to certain areas) and are nudges to setting up encounters.  The bottom has a shorthand version of the encounter system. My system is set up with empty slots to slot in creepazoids as they are created.

This is a crib sheet of the details of encounter. The 8 ovals (on the far left of each encounter listing) are spots for the consecutive d20 rolls (movement on land).  For each I make a d12 check vs the troupe’s TSV. If a d12 result is equal to or less than the troupes TSV an encounter occurs and I circle that number and note the encounter particulars to the right. These crib sheets are great for sand boxes. I roll up a swath beforehand. It allows me to do more role playing when the crunchy bits are worked out beforehand.

Lastly there is this thing:

This stages the encounter based on the troupes TSV.  If you take the ninjas (TSV/2), you will be using the green 1 - 3 column. Because the ninja troupe will be moving stealthily and slowly,  a roll of 1 - 8 (out of 12) means they will be more in control of the encounter situation. This means spotting them first, picking the terrain for the encounter and so on. There is still a chance they can roll that 12 and basically "blunder" into the encounter just like the Ruprechts of the world. This really makes encounters much more dynamic.

For some encounters I need more details worked out, for these I have this baby:

(Its really just a piece of graph paper?) You will notice this one is set up like a miniatures game.  In this example the troupe was leaving Pewlon, but Iphy (Her Most Lofty Preponderant Zwink) had learned that the troupe had the phial of Tubor extract (one of the 3 ingredients for the poison antidote she so desperately needs). Her plan is first to ask “nicely” and if that fails bring out the velvet hammer. Because Pewlonians have a way of dealing with this, I gave it some thought and set things up. It doesn’t take much to lay it out. I learned the hard way that I am terrible of doing this kind of stuff on the fly.

This is my encounter toolbox. It’s still a little rough, but so far has worked very well.  Next time, designing countries.

God's Workbench Part 3: Designing a New Encounter System (1 of 2).

I needed a good method to generate random encounters. I am have been putting a lot of energy into this fantastic world, let's get it right. I tried to recall how it was done in D&D1e. I vaguely remember rolling a d6 a twice a day. If it was a 1, go to the appropriate terrain/monster table.  Here's what the DMG really says:

Use the upper unnamed table determine the level of civilization you're in. Next, consult the “Frequency Of Encounter Chance Time Checks” by cross indexing the time of day with the type of terrain you're in. (What’s the difference between plain and scrub?  What about forest and hills together?) If there's an X in the column you need to make a roll to see if there is an encounter. To make the actual check either roll a d20, d12 or d10 based on the level of civilization (from the unnamed table above). A result of “1” indicates there is an encounter. I will never stop loving my DMG for its unparalleled ability to be f***ing byzantine as possible (“FBAP”). Based on the scant space given for random outdoor encounters, they must have been considered ancillary to the game. (Interestingly however, while exploring underground in a dungeon, there are no rules on how to check for wandering monsters - no time interval or chance given of occurrence. I checked the player's handbook and the monster manual. Nothing. Pretty odd, given that there are pages and pages of tables in the DMG to generate random monster encounters based on the level underground.)

I have just burned up 45 minutes looking for information on 5E’s outdoor random encounter system. All I found were these 2 pages of number bashing that will supposedly help the DM to create balanced encounters. Really? Honestly, no one, except paid authors writing modules for D&D are going to use this. I bet they will even fudge the results. More searching only got me I people’s questions on forums about outdoor encounters and some clunky home brew systems...but nothing else. If you can’t find a popular game system’s core mechanic...that’s a problem. Enough D&D.

The focus of Crypts-N-Creepies is crypt bashing. Time spent traveling back and forth to the various enclaves of doom was seen as time wasted.  As belaboured in the rule book, “the main play of the game is opening crypts for inspection and removing swag product for economic reinsertion”. Traveling overland and having random encounters was purposely truncated to keep the “Proverbial Evening Of Gaming” from getting bogged down fighting randomly generated creepazoids. I opted for simplicity and created an abbreviated overland travel system which was intended to recreate the flavor of traveling. Well...things change and I have decided to take a step back, in order to go two steps forward. Movement rates overland are intertwined with encounters, so might as well rethink this as well.  Deep breath.

Here are two abstract theories of encounter systems.  Let’s call this first type the “Set Up” model.  It wants to be a close simulation of the real world.  Monster populations are located on the map beforehand.  As players explore and get closer to these fixed locations, the more likely they will encounter the monsters that live there.  So if the #1 on the map is a ruin where four Urk's are holed up, when you go there, bingo!  #8 is an abandoned temple complex and home to 53 Blue Boldies.  And so on. 

There are several big issues with this approach.  The biggest is that you, as creator, will never have enough energy to fill it.  Or the space to record it.  Or find what you need when you need it. It’s a lot of damn work, no getting around it.  Second, design it and I promise the players will avoid it.  Consciously or unconsciously.  Never fail.  The model represents a snapshot in time and doesn't take into account that creatures will be moving around visiting their aunts and so on.  Well, you could make tables for this…. But again more unnecessary complexity.

I call this second model the “On Demand” system. Areas of the map are defined with boundaries and within them random encounters are generated from a table. The table is made in such a way as to offer up typical encounters for that area. The areas size may range from hundreds of square miles to a single small hill. So, if a random encounter is called for in the Red Forest, the table for this zone is used to generate the random encounter. This model defines the world in broad strokes.  

The huge advantage with the “On Demand” model is the Crypt Lord can come up with generalizations to define areas, thus liberating him/her from having to design everything in excruciating detail. There is a level of abstraction with this, as things magically appear as you need them.  This flies in the face of realism that some players prefer, but it’s important to remember that RPG games are narrative based.  Besides, who needs more work to do?  One flaw of this model is that the encounters, because they must come from a generalised matrix can seem a little cookie cutter after a while.

A third issue, is both of these systems handle essentially only one facet of encounters, namely, how often to check, the chance of occurrence and what the monster is.  Neither of these models (or existing RPG encounter systems) help you with much anything else. What is the actual terrain?  What are the relative distances between you and the other parties?  Can one see other first and hide before being seen?  What if your group is super stealthy?  Or obnoxiously loud?  What about generating an encounter that is part of the game narrative?  Or an encounter type that is outside what is “typical” for the aera?  The game systems I have seen pretty much leave this up to you.  I don’t know about you, but I would like a little more structure to bounce off of. Here’s my wish list for the new encounter system design:

An encounter matrix with results that ranges from typical to special.

Status of the encountered creature, such as what it’s doing, mood, etc.

Take into effect what players are doing, how stealthy, loud and their speed traveling.

Provide some details of the physical setting of the encounter.

How encounter can be rolled into the current narrative.

Be easy to use (this one’s a killer).

It’s starting to take form.  Let’s refer to the players while traveling as a “Troupe”.  I find having an odd term like this helps in keeping things clear.  When you use the word “troupe” (unlike party, or level for that matter) everyone knows we are talking about a group of crypt openers moving overland.   So let’s go back to the overland travel rates.  I’ll need to make a table showing traveling speed based on a number of variables.  Notice that a troupe must choose to travel at one of three speeds, cautious, normal or hustling.  This is not an a new idea, but I was reminded of it because I’m playing Blucher (a hot new Napoleonics game).  In it units can move at different speeds (having different effects during play).  Lastly, I searched the web and found a good discussion on movement rates to use as a guide.  You can find it here:  

https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=19730

Here is the first component of the new random encounter system, the overland movement table.  I know it looks a little complex.  It’s not bad and you only need it once.  Basically the troupe will move the speed of its slowest member.  The races are on the left.  Let’s say we have a troupe of 3 Humes and a Welf.  Welfs are faster, but the Humes will slow him/her down.  Looking at Humes we have three speed choices, slow, normal and hustling.  In general, moving slow means you are searching or encumbered, normal is what usually takes place, and hustling is at a fast trot which will sacrifice noticing things and so on.  These speeds will factor into how the encounters work, later on.  It also gives the players some control over how thier encounters can turn out.  There is a second part to this table, astute readers will have noticed that movement rates mounted and employing veyances are not shown.  I’ll finish up random encounters in the next part.

BTW, this will be incorporated into the newest edition of the popular Crypts-N-Creepies rule book. 

The Amazing One Roll 01-100 Trick!

I have been obsessed with dice as of late.  I have been reverse engineering them to make a custom set.  More on that later. Looking closely at my various d20's has yielded this:

The indica on this Gamescience specimen are placed relative to each other, so that the following are true: 1) the two matching numerals (in this case 8's) are on exact opposite sides.  This means the other 8 is on the bottom.  2) If you look at all 9 faces which are up, they form a ring around the 8.  No matter what you roll, if you imagine the dice as having an equator parallel to the table surface, all ten values 0-9 will be showing "up". This is built into the design of the die, who ever at Gamescience came up with this was a F-genius. 

Koplow

This is a Koplow (which I use a lot), notice the indica arrangement is not uniform as the Gamescience d20, above.  Nice and hard, she is, but wacky.

Bleh.

This is what those kids are rolling these days when they are not playing their devil's music.  This is marked 1-20.  Bleh.

So here is the cool thing.  As a crypt Lord, often you want to make rolls quickly to just determine stuff during play.  With this method you can roll a % by making ONLY ONE ROLL.  Listen:

Roll the die and draw an imaginary site line from your eyeball to the center of the up face (red line).  The number it crosses MOST on this imaginary ring is the second number.

Like so.  Remember all the other 9 numbers are in a ring around the top number...

...EXCEPT the other matching number (which is on the bottom).  If you get a "liner", then double the number.

Another liner...this gives 100%.  This kind of liner is a tougher one, but remember, you will be using these as shorthand rolls for mundane stuff.  If it's life or death...make the a standard roll.

Does anyone remember how to roll-n-read a d20/0-9x2 any more?  Kids these days.

Teletransmission 2.0

Teletransmission 2.0

Type: Arcanist/Movement

Spell Speed: 1 Nn (Normal)

Range: Self/Touch

Duration: Instant

MERP: 1d4 MERP for caster, 1d6 MERP per passenger

Effect: Using pseudo hard science the Arcanist is able to transfer themselves to any spot in the T-Zoid of Real Life instantly at a cost of a 1d4 MERP. By holding hands, passengers may be transferred at an additional cost of 1d6 MERP each. As the Arcanist disappears there will be a rush of air and an audible pop.

How it works: Every location in the TZoRL has a unique locator code made up of an X, Y and Z Zoidal Runic Coordinate.  The more completely the casting Arcanist knows of a locations total XYZZRC, the greater chance they have of nailing a precise landing at the desired target destination. Some XYZZRC’s are “common” knowledge to most Arcanists, such as important libraries, shops that sell hard to find Arcanic wares and that seedy pub on the other side of the aqueduct. Additionally, every starting Arcanist can set 1d4 locations of their own choosing as long they are areas they have frequented.  These must be noted on the persona’s sheet and given a thumbs up by the Crypt Lord. The full XYZZRC is known for these areas and Teletransporting to those spots is 100%.  

An Arcanist may perform research in order to find a XYZZRC of some location they wish to transport to (such as a far away town or crypt).  Arcanists have several channels open to them, such as Orbnet, Orbo’s Cyclopedic Summoning, pestering colleagues and even pen and paper research in libraries.  The usual die rolls apply and availability will be up to you Crypt Lord.  Note, incomplete or even “false” XYZZRC’s can be learned (see below).  

Finally, an Arcanist may spend time in a location to learn it’s XYZZRC.  To conduct this study they will need 30 ulbs of fragile and costly equipment.  Each Gar-nuta of study allows them to make a d100 roll vs their “spot arcane”.  If the roll is made, they learn one of the Runic Coordinates. Every location has three such coordinates (X, Y and Z), the more the Arcanist knows, the better.  If only one or two Zoidial Coordinates are known and an Arcanist wishes to risk Teletransmission, use the percentages listed below:

1 Zoidal Coordinate Known: 30% of reaching desired destination

2 Zoidal Coordinates Known: 70% of reaching desired destination

3 Zoidal Coordinates Known: 100% of reaching desired destination

Failure of the die roll indicates the caster and passengers are re-directed into a Zethertrap.  Zethertraps are small chunks of alternate realities that drift in the Zetherscape. Typically they are cone shaped (see illustration) and the upper surfaces range from 1,000 to 10,000 feet in diameter. Most are inhabited by some manner of life that may or may not follow the physical laws of the T-Zoid of Real Life. Escape from a Zethertrap may range anywhere from easy to impossible.  It is not within the scope of this spell description to go into detail on Zethertraps, they will be dealt with in detail in a further post. See also: http://crypts-n-creepies.blogspot.com/2016/01/map-of-cosmic-all.html

In the case of two Arcanists Teletransporting to the same destination at the same time, the groups can appear either one after the other, all mixed up, repelled apart on landing as desired by the Crypt Lord.