|
 |
Genre In General
- See also the “Plunging Into Game Physics” series (especially parts 1 and 4) on the Metagaming page for a discussion of the limits that should be applied to genre influences.
|
- A Campaign Mastery 750th-post Celebration includes advice from a host of GMs on just about every subject as the climax of the party (and some from stragglers in the comments). So I’m listing it at the start of each page, as well as a handful of places where specific content warrants inclusion.
- 7 Steampunk Resources – As part of the Blog Carnival for June 2009, Johnn lists seven resources for those interested in the Steampunk Genre.
- Epigrams Of Life and Gaming: Selection #2 – Some of these are more directly gaming related than those of Selection #1, which only made it more surprising that these articles did not seem very popular on the website. I might bring them back as an occasional “extra post”, because I fervently believe there’s some good stuff here. In this particular post, there are insights about Genres, Writing, Randomness in real life, and Values, amongst others.
- Fantastic Flop: GMing Lessons from a filmic failure – I deconstruct the failure of the rebooted Fantastic Four movie to discover lessons every GM should learn from. It’s a shame that those responsible for Man Of Steel and Batman Vs Superman didn’t read the article, because they made many of the same mistakes – admittedly to a lesser degree – and compromised their products earning powers and entertainment value as a result.
- To Every Creator, An Optimum Budget? – After reiterating a conversation about Hollywood Blockbuster budgets, which ends with the determination that for each individual, there was a sweet spot in terms of budget. I then equate movie budgets with GM time budgets after realizing that the same principle applies, coming to the conclusion that “the neglected question of game prep is knowing when to stop.” That’s followed by a necessarily-fuzzy technique for finding your optimum, and then applying the concept of a limited budget to what you most need by way of prioritization. The different requirements of different genres are briefly discussed. I show how to calculate the game value of a task, how to adjust that value for relevance over multiple adventures, and finally, the psychological and creative value of artificially weighting inspirational prep prioritization more highly. DON’T skip the section aimed at Beginners or you will get lost very quickly.
- A Stack Of Surprises: Blog Carnival November 2015 – After introducing the month’s Blog Carnival (it was once again Campaign Mastery’s turn to host), listing all the things that could be written about under the heading of “Suprise” and “The Unexpected”, I turn to analyzing the sticky question of “Should Surprise Stack?” – or it’s more intrinsically comprehensible alterntative form, “Do multiple surprises compound?” in both D&D / Pathfinder and the Hero System. This article does NOT follow the usual Campaign Mastery pattern, with practical application first, then generalizing and theory afterwards. As usual, when pushed too hard, I find that all three game systems’ rules have a hole that may need to be patched with a House Rule. There’s a lot of logical analysis of combat mechanics and principles, and both alternative answers are given a thorough going over before avoiding a definitive general conclusion. Instead, this is shown as one issue that each GM and each campaign could and perhaps should handle differently. The impact of genre on that choice is also discussed.
|
|
|
|
|
The “Touchstones Of Unification” series
This trilogy explores those things, including genre, that can give a campaign a unified feel, and how to design them, use them, and live with them. The series is directly relevant to writers as well – some people pay good money to get the same advice from writer’s workshops. (If you are looking to use this series for that purpose, you should check out what Hungry at Revenous Roleplaying has had to say; click on the link in the comments).
|
|
- Pt 1 – Themes – deals with definitions of some key terms, theme and concept as they apply to RPGs, explores the differences, and looks at how themes are linked to the campaign by the concepts that create the in-game ramifications that are actually experienced by the players. Full of excerpts and links from other articles of relevance – some of which might not seem directly relevant from a superficial look at the titles – making this series a great starting point.
- Pt 2 – Concepts – covers the second of the key terms, and looks at how concepts scale, and can be expressed as adventure ideas, character ideas, encounter ideas, or principles that encompass and shape everything from game physics to spells to races. Instead of excerpts from past articles, this generates new examples.
- Pt 3 – The Big Picture (Genre and Style) – covers not only the two explicitly-named unifying factors but how the whole comes together to create a ‘Campaign Fingerprint’ which has practical value to the GM.
|
|
|
|
|
Pulp
|
- House Rules – For Pulp (and other RPGs) – This article lists (and offers as a freebie download) the house rules that my co-GM and I have developed for our Pulp campaign, the first in a series of four on the subject. I then discuss the meanings and implications of some of the rules, and the broader principle from which they were derived (which apply to every campaign.
- A strong wind blows: Environmental effects for RPGs – This is the second of four articles containing the House Rules in use within the Pulp campaign that I co-GM. This is all about cold weather and wind-chill and their very dangerous effects, bringing together research from a number of sources. The rules are available as a free download from the site. These rules can be adapted to any campaign. I recommend anyone reading this article to also read the unexpected follow-up, Stormy Weather – making unpleasant conditions player-palatable about how to use weather in-game as something other than a boring-but-deadly background element.
- ‘I Can Do That’ – Everyman Skills For Pulp – After (briefly) explaining the skills system within Hero Games’ Champions Fifth Edition, I look at the everyman skills that we give the PCs (and NPCs) in our Pulp Campaign, provide some additional rules relating to their use, then expand on the concept of Everyman Skills to adapt the principle to other game systems, like D&D/Pathfinder.
- On the binding of Wounds – Everyday Healing For Pulp – After describing the normal Hero System damage rules, I run through all the reasons why they don’t work as well for Pulp and similar “Normal” genres, then propose variations that might solve those problems but that don’t completely satisfy. That’s all set-up for presenting the Medical Intervention rules, which do solve the problem, and some explanation. The rest of the article looks at applying those rules to other game systems, in particular D&D / Pathfinder.
- Shadows In The Darkness – The nature of True Evil – My pulp co-GM and I debate and discuss the question of what is “Absolute Evil”? The goal was to define a functional answer that was universal in nature. Did we get there in the end? Well, kinda…
- Oddities Of Values: Recalculating the price of valuables – This article starts off talking about currency conversions and getting a ‘feel’ for the price of things in a pulp campaign using modern currency values. It then defines a pair of new “units of currency”, NTDs and Ms – “NTD”s is “Nineteen Thirties US Dollars” and “M”s are “Modern US $”. These are necessary because many of the values that we have recorded are from different time periods – our main sourcebook only goes up to 2005, for example, and there’s been significant changes since then. We then turn to the pressing question that sparked the discussion – How big is a LOT of money, say, M100 million? In Pulp Campaign currency? In large bills? (The answer is, 122 lb and the size of a large suitcase). I then look at the same value in Gold, which works out to 16.6 TONS of gold; and diamonds (7.7 lb of 1-carat diamonds, or a stack 3 inches by three inches and 2 1/4 feet tall. Unfortunately, by now, most readers seemed to have decided that there was no value in the article for them because they hand-waved encumbrance in their campaigns. This is shortsighted – even ignoring the encumbrance issue, don’t you want to know how many rubies can fit in that pot? But it was at this point that the article took a turn to the left, relative to where I had expected it to go, by looking at the rarity of larger gemstones, game treasure tables (especially those in D&D / Pathfinder), and how to value them. I also look at Collectable Coins, other Collectables, Art, and Land, then devise a fast and simple universal system for deriving valuations for these things for any game system, regardless of genre or commodity. Along the way, I look at three die rolling methods for generating rare high values and routine middle-to-low values. There’s also a discussion of how to use the system as a tool for delivering campaign background information in an interesting way. So those who tuned out early missed out on a LOT of meat.
- Pieces Of Creation: Lon Than, Kalika, and the Prison Of Jade contains some thoughts on the pulp genre in general, and imputes more information on the adaption of 1920s-30s material for a modern audiance. No-one who knows the beliefs of ISIS could fail to note the parallels between them and those of Lon Than, for example, giving this game material a relevance not obvious to anyone else. The primary purpose of the article is to relay four pieces of content from the Adventurer’s Club campaign for others to use: Compiled information on “the mystic properties of jade”; Lon Than, a pulp villain (and his organization), who could easily be translated into a Fantasy or Superhero Genre (there’s some advice on doing so at the end of the article); and a ‘reinvention’ for game purposes of the Hindu Goddess, Kali, and a “twin sister”, Kalika, whose duality has an unmistakable resemblance to Cyrene, the Deity featured in Assassin’s Amulet. Trust me when I say that it would take an expert in the faith to find where we have twisted the lore, but the cumulative effect is to produce a figure that is far more sympathetic and relateable than most RPG representations (who don’t see beyonf the Thugee and get most of their information on that from the second Indiana Jones movie). The fourth item is a very brief summary of the way these items were used in-game, from dangling plot hooks through to adventure.
|
|
|
|
|
The “Reinventing Pulp for Role-playing” Series
An epic eight-part series co-written by my co-GM for the Adventurer’s Club, our Pulp-genre campaign. All told, the series attracted a total of 39 comments containing the normal mix of links to related articles, kudos, suggestions, and clarifications – which makes them worth reading. Oh and one more note: the series is designed to enlighten players as to the conventions of a Pulp universe as much as it is to help GMs out there. Don’t be afraid to point your players in its direction.
|
|
|
|
|
Sci-Fi
|
- Quantum Distractions With Dice: Types of Sci-Fi Campaign – I break down the general concept of “Science Fiction” into 21 specific subgenres and look at each from a gaming perspective. As examples, I offer 11 specific sci-fi campaign premises. Along the way, I give readers a copy of “Buy Low, Sell High”, a set of quick game rules I wrote for handling Trade in Traveller, which can be easily adapted to other campaign genres.
- Fascinating Topological Limits: FTL in Gaming – I examine Faster-Than-Light travel, and point out the flaws in the assumptions that lead people to assume it isn’t possible. Then I examine the different types of approach used in RPGs. The conversation in the comments was one of the most enjoyable I’ve ever had at Campaign Mastery and is not to be missed by any devotee of science fiction or future-world-oriented games.
- A Twist in Time: Alternate Histories in RPGs – I offer the general principles that I use to construct a viable, believable, alternate history or parallel world.
- The Physics Of Uncertainty – An anomalous article for Campaign Mastery that is only indirectly game-related. I reflect on some of the stranger implications of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty, use the results to prove that anything that can be measured contains an uncertainty, and consider some of the consequences that would manifest in a sci-fi/superhero campaign or novel. Speculative physics can be so much fun :) I just wish I could have gotten some real-world physicists to comment.
- A Hint Of Tomorrow: The Future Evolution Of Homo Sapiens – I consider the evolutionary pressures on modern humans in an effort to understand what the humanity of the future might be like – something relevant to just about every sci-fi and cyberpunk campaign.
- Quantum Entanglement and the Tech of TomorrowI examine the concept of quantum entanglement (now a proven phenomenon) and the technological applications that could result, from the near-certain to the highly speculative.
- Taming The Wild Frontiers – This article starts out as a think-piece inspired by the oft-cited comparison between the early internet and the American Wild West and marches headlong into the subtle but profound impact on RPGs of Political Correctness and then the socio-political models on which most Sci-fi games (and novels!) are traditionally based – and showing that there have been opportunities missed on all sides, and that the baby has been thrown out with the bathwater, in particular serious examination of the issues surrounding colonialism, equality, and exploitation. This article struck a chord with a lot of readers; one even told me that using it, he finally understood what he had been missing in modern games that turned him back towards “old-school” gaming.
- The Blind Enforcer: The Reflex Application Of Rules – The speed of events in the computer world mandate that rules be codified and violations detected, and acted upon, automatically. Yet, human behavior does not readily boil down to neat straight lines, and that opens the door to rules being enforced when they shouldn’t, or not being applied when they should. Human Error is an inherent part of the system. I use these thoughts to re-examine the question of how much dominion the GM should have over the rules and update a previous article, Blat! Zot! Pow! The Rules Of Genre In RPGs, which examined these issues from a genre-and-campaign perspective.
- If I Should Die Before I Wake: A Zenith-3 Synopsis – You may be wondering what a synopsis from my superhero campaign’s archives is doing here in the Sci-Fi ‘Genre Overview’ section. In a nutshell, this takes what is essentially a fantasy idea, wraps it in a classic sci-fi trope, adds a new perspective on life if you could shrink to a quantum scale, and makes the whole thing palatable in a sci-fi or superhero context. The quantum stuff alone makes it worth including, never mind the implied example of how to “retool” ideas from one genre to another.
- A Population Of Dinosaurs and the impact on RPG ecologies – I get curious about how many species of dinosaur there were, so I devise some calculations to answer the question. That might be interesting enough in its own right, but then I see how quickly genetic engineering could produce new (well-adapted) species. This is so interesting that it holds my attention until I realize that it has other ecological value to the GMs of D&D / Pathfinder – for example, the same process could be used to tell you how long Dragons have lived in a Fantasy environment just by factoring in their average lifespan and the number of different varieties.
- The Expert In Everything? – I may sometimes give the impression of being an expert in everything. Such an impression is a long way from reality, but being a good GM means knowing how to fake it. In this article, I share my quick-fire research techniques, how I build up layers of expertise in a looong list of subjects, the techniques I employ to look more educated than I am (while behind the metaphoric GM screen), and how to use technobabble and how to misuse it to further enhance your credibility as an expert. I even show how to get out of trouble when confronted with someone who really knows the subject.
- Alien In Innovation: Creating Original Non-human Species – the first of two articles for the November 2014 Blog Carnival, this one asks “How do you create an original alien species?” then immediately points out the Fantasy RPG applicability before providing three answers, with multiple examples, including an entire alien environment and ecology. More examples and discussion in the comments.
- Studs, Buttons, and Static Cling: Creating consistent non-human tech – This is the second article for the November 2014 Blog Carnival. I contend that GMs underestimate the value of giving alien/non-human races technology an appropriate but unique look-and-feel, and set about providing a technique to remedy the shortfall with minimal effort. This article deliberately applies itself to Fantasy and Superhero campaigns as well as Sci-Fi. It identifies five fundamental principles that should apply, then provides a step-by-step process for creating the right look-and-feel for a race by using those principles.
- A target of inefficiency: from Dystopian trends to Utopia – Starting with local issues, I highlight a disturbing trend in infrastructure collapsing because maintenance is too expensive, and couple that with other modern issues like Climate Change and the distribution of income to show that they are all connected by a common thread. Dystopian expectations have become near-universal, and utopias are considered unbelievable fantasies. All this is grist for the mill if you want a Dystopian setting for your sci-fi campaign; less so if you want something more optimistic. But then I thought of a simple solution to the problems in two steps…
- The Care and Feeding Of Vehicles In RPGs 1 – First part of a two-part guest article. This part deals with PCs acquiring vehicles. Lots of adventure seeds result. If the PCs have, or are likely to acqiure, a vehicle in your game, you need to read this.
- The Care and Feeding Of Vehicles In RPGs 2 – Second part of the two-part guest article, with rather more content from myself than the first. This part is all about what GMs should do with vehicles once the PCs have one. Lots of adventure seeds, and serious questions about campaign planning and locations and adventure design for the GM to answer. Once again, if the PCs have, or are likely to acqiure, a vehicle in your game, you need to read this.
- Blog Carnival: The Unexpected Reality – A submission to the RPG Blog Carnival (that CM was hosting at the time) opened a pandora’s box of a concept: deliberately leaving things out of player briefing materials so that they can be revealed as surprises in the course of play,” in other words, using Plot as a Rules Delivery System. This article uses my Shards Of Divinity campaign extensively, and especially the Illusion rules, as an example and as a tool to test the arguements along the way. I identify three specific dangers inherent to the proposal, but when examining solutions to those problems, find that there are indeed circumstances (including a variant on the sci-fi campaign rules/campaign that inspired the article in the first place) in which this can be an asset to, and positive virtue of, a campaign – if they are used properly. Mid-way through outlining the article, I realized that this sort of thing happens on a smaller scale all the time – every time you encounter a situation in which the established rules are inadequate and have to concoct a house rule to resolve the situation.
- The very-expected Unexpected Blog Carnival Roundup – This lists all the posts submitted to the Nov 2015 Blog Carnival, “The Unexpected”. I start by analyzing a couple of mistakes that I made as host in introducing the topic and blaming them for the lower-than expected turnout. There’s the “Void Shock” series, my Gates and Portals series (linked to individually), a post on the game mechanics of surprise (again from CM and listed individually in the blogdex) and some ideas for plot and narrative surprise from my fellow GMs.
- Oddities Of Values: Recalculating the price of valuables – This article starts off talking about currency conversions and getting a ‘feel’ for the price of things in a pulp campaign using modern currency values. It then defines a pair of new “units of currency”, NTDs and Ms – “NTD”s is “Nineteen Thirties US Dollars” and “M”s are “Modern US $”. These are necessary because many of the values that we have recorded are from different time periods – our main sourcebook only goes up to 2005, for example, and there’s been significant changes since then. We then turn to the pressing question that sparked the discussion – How big is a LOT of money, say, M100 million? In Pulp Campaign currency? In large bills? (The answer is, 122 lb and the size of a large suitcase). I then look at the same value in Gold, which works out to 16.6 TONS of gold; and diamonds (7.7 lb of 1-carat diamonds, or a stack 3 inches by three inches and 2 1/4 feet tall. Unfortunately, by now, most readers seemed to have decided that there was no value in the article for them because they hand-waved encumbrance in their campaigns. This is shortsighted – even ignoring the encumbrance issue, don’t you want to know how many rubies can fit in that pot? But it was at this point that the article took a turn to the left, relative to where I had expected it to go, by looking at the rarity of larger gemstones, game treasure tables (especially those in D&D / Pathfinder), and how to value them. I also look at Collectable Coins, other Collectables, Art, and Land, then devise a fast and simple universal system for deriving valuations for these things for any game system, regardless of genre or commodity. Along the way, I look at three die rolling methods for generating rare high values and routine middle-to-low values. There’s also a discussion of how to use the system as a tool for delivering campaign background information in an interesting way. So those who tuned out early missed out on a LOT of meat.
|
|
|
|
|
The “Putting The SF into SciFi” Series
Scientific speculation can be huge fun, but a lot of people don’t think they can do it without a deep understanding of science. Sci-Fi games often have limited and unoriginal future-tech as a result; this series sets itself the lofty objective of making it possible for the average GM to run a Sci-Fi campaign that’s rife with plausible future-tech.
|
|
- In Creating The World Of Tomorrow, Part 1, I look at the problems, show why any solution other than some original creativity is going to be second-best at best, and then offer practical solutions that make it possible for the average GM to create that original content by extrapolating from the world of today.
- Creating The World Of Tomorrow, Part 2 considers some core technologies that everyone creating Sci-Fi needs to make unique: FTL, AI/Computers/The Net/VR, Entertainment Tech, Medical Tech, Communications, Local Transport &/or Teleporters, Food Distribution Tech, and Convenience Tech. You don’t need to be a Physics Geek or a Maths Guru to do this stuff! Sure it can help – but it can also hinder. That requirement is bypassed by once again making the focus about how the characters (both PC and NPC) will interact with these technologies, and how the tech will interact with the stories and the gameplay.
- As originally planned, Creating The World Of Tomorrow, Part 3 would wrap up the series by considering how the technologies developed in the previous parts would shape the world around the characters – regardless of the medium in which the tale is being told. Along the way, I codify three principles of technological advance: The Bootstrap Effect, Tech Serendipity, and Tech Cascade. There’s a lengthy discussion about the potential for extracting hydrocarbons from Jupiter’s Atmosphere in the comments.
- And finally, in The Design Ethos Of Tomorrow (a postscript article tacked onto the series a week or two after the fact), I look at how to create the look and feel of the world of tomorrow in everything from starships to coffeepots.
|
|
|
|
|
Time Travel
|
- Ask The GMs: The Passage Of Substantial Time – How can you have substantial time take place in between adventures, with characters aging and eventually being replaced due to old age / death? I begin by analyzing the theoretical underpinnings and implications of this type of campaign, then move into practical considerations of the difficulties that will be faced in creating and running a “Discontinuous Campaign”. Topics touched on include delivery of campaign backstory, technological advances, The evolution of Language, Development of Infrastructure, Social Advances, Attempted Player Rorting, Metagame issues, the Impact of the Campaign Concept on characters, and The need for rules to cover Aging, R&D and Manufacturing, and Investments. There are a lot of similarity between running a Discontinuous Campaign and running a Time Travel campaign – though this is certainly one of the more prosaic and yet unusual forms of ‘Time Travel’.
- The Expert In Everything? – I may sometimes give the impression of being an expert in everything. Such an impression is a long way from reality, but being a good GM means knowing how to fake it. In this article, I share my quick-fire research techniques, how I build up layers of expertise in a looong list of subjects, the techniques I employ to look more educated than I am (while behind the metaphoric GM screen), and how to use technobabble and how to misuse it to further enhance your credibility as an expert. I even show how to get out of trouble when confronted with someone who really knows the subject.
- The Unexpected Neighbor is the first part of the “Portals To Celestial Morphology” series. It starts by defining six parameters that singly or in combination can radically transform concepts of a portal – having 3, 5, 10, 7, 5×17, and 7 possible options each, or a total of 624,750 variations on the basic concept. This constitutes a “something extra” for this article, which then turns it’s attention to the five big ideas. The first four come under the general heading of “Temporally Unstable Portals” and are, respectively, Portals to the Future, Portals to the Past, Anarchic Time – Closed (i.e. restricted to a “window”), and Anarchic Time – Open (i.e. restricted to anywhen BUT sometime close to the end of the portal that the PCs are using). Idea #5 derives from something pointed out earlier in the article, and its proximate inspirational source – “The Neighbor Of My Neighbor Is Closer Than You Think”. Trade & Economics, Politics, Logistics, Resources – just a few of the things that can become all messed up by the creation of a permanent or semi-permanent portal. The common theme to all five of the main ideas in this post is “travel to a ‘neighbor’.”
|
|
|
|
|
The “Time Travel In RPGs” Series
This series started as part of another article, Blog Carnival June 2010: A Medley Of Inspiring Media but very quickly outgrew it. It was also hugely fun to write.
- The first part, When Inspiration Is Not Enough, looks at using the existing media as a foundation, but ends up concluding that the best examples aren’t good enough, that what’s needed is a game metaphysics to give some operating principles to time travel.
- In part 2, A Journey Of 1,000 years, I describe the Time-Travel physics that I employ in my superhero campaign. Even though this is more than 20 years old now, it still holds up in the face of modern physics discoveries.
- Finally, the third part, Like Sand through the Klein Bottle, looks at the in-game consequences and implications of using that game physics – the fun stuff, in other words.
|
|
|
|
|
Espionage/Spy Games
- “Look and Feel” is so important to this genre that I recommend a lot of use of Cinematic Combat, as described by the series of the same name in the “Alternative Healing & Combat Rules” subsection of the Rules & Mechanics page.
|
|
|
|
|
Historical Inaccuracy In FRP
|
- Wood and Silver or Iron and Gold? – Historical Inaccuracy in FRP, Part 1 – Phil McGregor examines the historical military reality on which most FRP Games are based. There’s a lot of supplementary discussion in the comments.
- Wood and Silver or Iron and Gold? – Historical Inaccuracy in FRP, Part 2 – Part two of Phil’s article considers the historical economic reality and contrasts it with the D&D Economic system. Again, lots of supplement in the comments.
- Disease and Despair – the healing-resistant nightmare – I start this fantasy-oriented nightmare scenario by looking at the historical impact of disease, and then the ramifications of the existence of the low-level D&D Spell, “Cure Disease”. Those show that from this factor alone, the historical accuracy of fantasy games would be severely impacted, infusing social changes from the reformation and population dynamics closer to those of the 19th or early 20th centuries. With that, and a quick review of the Black Death and its impact, I briefly discuss an article I wrote for Roleplaying Tips, Putting The Fear Back Into Disease (still available, I just checked), all as foundation for what follows: What would happen if a Cure Disease-resistant disease arose? To call the results dystopian is like calling The Great Wall Of China a “backyard fence”. Ironically, I also explain that if the GM has adopted the “Putting The Fear Back” approach, the impact would be minimal! I then look at how to integrate this social disintegration – and the responsibility for fixing things – can integrate with an existing campaign, before showing that having the disease also be Heal-resistant is actually less disruptive than the alternative!
|
|
|
Online Gaming
|
- Digital Roles: Two Calls For Help – I’m not an expert on online gaming and neither was Johnn, so when we received a couple of questions on the subject, all we could do was throw them open to our audience. One question requests a source for maps and images for an online game, while the other asks which tabletop RPG game system best translates to an online environment.
|
