I received an email advising of a new Kickstarter campaign on Thursday, something that happens from time to time. It’s only occasionally that one of these leads me to an actual article in support, for a number of reasons:

• Often I don’t get the announcement until the Kickstarter campaign is underway, and there’s no time to do a proper, thorough job;
• With only two articles a week happening at Campaign Mastery, a product has to be exceptionally promising to get the nod;
• Frequently, I don’t have the publishing slot open, thanks to multipart series;
• Sometimes the campaign has made mistakes in their kickstarter approach that I don’t want to reward, or the product doesn’t seem to offer sufficient value for money;
• And, finally, the product itself might not intrigue or excite me enough.

It’s rare that any Kickstarter campaign is perfect and even rarer for the whole process to be executed perfectly from start to finish. Projects are too delicate and prone to bad luck and real-world complications for that. No-one with any sense backs a kickstarter project expecting smooth sailing from launch to final delivery. You have to use your experience to assess the contingency planning of those involved, evaluate their reputations (if any), look at what they are asking and what they are promising, and evaluate the project’s worth and likelyhood of success.

Corporia has ticked most of the boxes listed above (and some that I haven’t listed), done most things right, and has interested me enough to forgive the lapses that I perceive. I’m going to use this article to tell you about the Corporia campaign and about the things that I think the people behind it are doing right – and a couple of things I think they’ve gotten wrong. This isn’t going to be a definitive guide to success with Kickstarter – that should be left to someone who has actually run one – it’s more about the reasons why I have chosen not to back certain projects in the past, no matter how much they might have interested me. And, along the way, I’ll get to tell you about Corporia itself. Who knows? You may be sufficiently interested to invest.

Kickstarter Basics

I should start, for the benefit of anyone who hasn’t participated in one before, who’s been living under a rock or something for the last few years, by running through some of the basics of Kickstarter and how it works.

A producer of product sets up a campaign to raise the funds necessary to complete a project. Members of the public pledge funds to the project in return for rewards. If the product doesn’t attract enough pledged amounts to reach the funding goal specified by the producer, no money changes hands. If more money is pledged than necessary, additional rewards may come into play. Kickstarter keep some of the funds, I think it’s a percentage off the top, but it might be a flat fee.

That’s the basic outline, enough for us to be getting on with.

A caveat before I start: although I have been critical below about certain aspects of the product and the fundraising campaign, I want to be clear that I’m not trying to single Mark Plemmons or Corporia out. The product deserves to be appraised on its own merits, and I’ve tried to maintain the review below within three separate threads: Kickstarter campaigns in general, the Kickstarter campaign for Corporia, and evaluating the product itself. The goal is not to be negative, but to offer constructive feedback to Mark and anyone else using Kickstarter in the future, and I hope that the comments below are read in that light.

Organization

I got a contact email / press release for Corporia before the Kickstarter campaign launched, giving me plenty of time to write an article. This happens less frequently than you might think; several times I’ve had to refuse requests because there simply wasn’t enough lead time to prepare an adequate article.

The most successful campaign I’ve ever been involved with asked for something like $10K and got about $270K. I didn’t actually pay enough to get a reward for that one – it was just a cause that I thought worth backing. There have been others that I wanted to back but couldn’t afford that were even more successful, but that’s my yardstick.

But the people producing Corporia clearly had their act together. That gets a big tick, because that organization, and the attention to detail that the actual press release demonstrated, can be reasonably expected to flow through to every other aspect of the project. A big tick.

The Contact Email

So here’s what the email actually said (with a few redactions by me):

Mike and Johnn,

I’m a fan of your blog and I wanted to pass on some RPG news that you might be interested in, either personally or even as a news item you can mention to your readers. The Kickstarter page (linked below) has a video and more information on why Corporia is special.

I think the Corporia role-playing game would interest you for these reasons (at least!):

• Urban Fantasy – Corporia is built around ‘knights in shining Armani’: heroes from the court of Camelot reincarnated in a near-future metropolis where corporations of Order and creatures of Chaos fight a shadow war for ultimate control of the human race.
• Innovative Rules – Corporia’s rules are based on an intuitive 2d6 mechanic (aka the GRAIL system) that lets you combine your character’s abilities in different ways to fit whatever situation arises. Corporia also features wounding rules that avoid the too-common ‘death spiral’, hacking rules that let all players cooperate in an infinite variety of virtual worlds, and magic rules that allow spellcasters to easily create and modify their spells on the fly.
• Gorgeous Design attractive to casual readers and gamers alike – Corporia features a modern design sense with dozens of beautiful full-color photos of realistic-looking heroes from both sexes and multiple races. Each chapter provides a look at a near-future world, with several chapter sections written and designed as in-game props like tourist guides, magazines, corporate marketing materials, and scientific researches.

If you’re interested, please let me know how I can make the writing process easy for you. You can download web ready preview photos from [the link] following my signature, and there’s a special 14-page preview link on the Kickstarter page.

Corporia launches Saturday November 2nd at 8 am CT. Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

Thanks,
Mark Plemmons
[email address]

Kickstarter [My link, replacing Mark’s]: http://kck.st/1846sHT
[Press Release Images link]

Mark Plemmons is an ENnie and Origins award-winning author with over a decade of experience in the role-playing and hobby game industry, having previously served as: writer, editor, art director, project manager, and/or graphic designer for the HackMaster, Aces & Eights, Adventures Dark and Deep, and Dungeons & Dragons-branded Kingdoms of Kalamar RPGs, multiple Knights of the Dinner Table and Dungeons & Dragons comic book series, plus various card, miniature, and board games, among others.

This message also ticks a number of boxes.

Urban Fantasy

Urban Fantasy per se doesn’t excite me. But in this case, I’ll acknowledge an exception to that rule.

The association between the corporate world and “Order” (as opposed to Chaos) is the sort of thing that I might come up with, and is vaguely interesting in its own right. And I like the turn of phrase, ‘Knights In Shining Armani’. Still more interesting, there are concepts implied that I can easily add to my superhero campaign – things that should be there, but that I had not thought of.

Functionality and inspiration: two big ticks.

Innovative Rules

I have heard of the Grail System before (I think(!)) but I’ll be darned if I could find a reference to it anywhere. Even a Google search came up empty. I’ve a similar game mechanic that I developed a while back. But the implication was that there wouldn’t be much in terms of the core rules that I could import into other games. And given that I have heard of the system before, I was put off a bit by the description of the rules as “Innovative” – that struck me as hyperbole, even misleading.

But then I got to the next sentences. A new thought in a wounding system? That’s of passing interest. Hacking rules that emphasize cooperation and coordinated activities by multiple people? These are a lot harder to do well than most people realize, and I’m always interested in new approaches to that particular problem. And a new approach to creating and customizing spells on an ad-hoc basis? That’s also harder to do than it sounds, and of definite interest.

Interesting game mechanics? Another big tick. But a different choice of adjective might have been better.

Gorgeous Design

Definitely. No, very definitely.

But this is rarely a selling point for me; on the contrary, it often / usually means you’re paying for fluff and not content. Sometimes, the fluff can even obscure the content. It’s very rare for the fluff to be of inherent value to me as a game aid, and even more infrequent for it to be a sufficient improvement over what I can find free on the internet to make it a selling point.

More importantly, the examples depicted show a clear design.

I’ll be revisiting this topic in a bit. The key at the moment is that the fancy art is not detracting from the content, so while it may not be worth a big tick, it avoids a serious hurdle that on it’s own has been enough to stop me from supporting products in the past.

Periphera

You can tell that Mark has done press releases before. The inclusion of an email address, the links to the campaign and the press kit (you’d be surprised how often these get left off), and a concise bio. All that adds up to experience and professionalism – and, like the level of organization indicated earlier, is something that can be expected to carry through to all other aspects of the product and campaign.

The Previews & Press Kit

So I was sufficiently intrigued to take a look at the 14-page preview. Oh dear. It actually came close to undoing all the good impressions the proposed product had made so far.

The preview launches straight into the game background right after the cover. This is written in a ‘handwritten’ font that is initially clear, but which extends for so many pages that my eyes were swimming by the end. And oh dear, all the vices of fancy graphics are fully manifested – blood spots obscure text here and there, producing words that appear to read “grall quest” instead of “grail quest” at one point.

But then I got to the Introduction, and it was as though a switch had been thrown. Clear, clean, stylish, legible. Ditto the rules – which is when I began cringing. One of the key combat skills is named “Getting Medieval”. Heck, I’ve read the term several times now, and I know it’s there, and I’m still cringing every time I see it. It’s cutesy, even a little patronizing, and completely out of place.

My final comment on the preview is simply this: I wish the producers had chosen to include the main graphic of page 13 in the press kit instead of the inset picture. The latter is cheap titillation in the form of a shower scene – fine in its place and in context, but inappropriate and not as useful as a resource as the main picture would have been. In terms of their use in the preview and (presumably) in the actual product, thumbs up; in terms of inclusion in the press kit, maybe not so much.

Press Kit release

And speaking of which, it might have been a good idea to include a specific release or terms and conditions with those press-kit pictures. Even something as simple as “These images are copyrighted and are released to the press and public for the explicit purpose of promoting Corporia and/or its authors. No other permissions may be assumed without written consent of the publishers of Corporia.” – just so that people like me know where we stand. I’ve used a handful of the images to illustrate this article, because I think that will fall under the heading of “fair use” even without an explicit permission, but even so, it made me slightly hesitant about actually promoting the product.

And, while including the 14-page preview might have been a bit excessive, including a generalized introductory letter in the press kit would not have been a bad idea, either. You can never put the basic facts in front of people too often.

The target: Are they shooting for the moon?

And so, to the kickstarter campaign itself, starting with the target. Mark is seeking US$13,000. That’s a little higher than most kickstarter campaigns, though there have been many higher ones that have succeeded. A more typical value would have been something like $5,000 to $7500. At something close to double a value in the middle of that range, the target is not out of the question, but it represents an additional burden that the project has to overcome.

And it’s a fair bet that half of it relates to the color graphics and the high-quality paper and printing needed to execute them.

In other words, the fluff is making it less likely that there will be a product at the end of the campaign. While backers don’t pay if the product doesn’t reach its target, you have to wonder whether or not it would have been better to list the target as something more modest, with black and white line art only, and to make the fancy full-color stuff a stretch goal.

A lower target is a positive inducement to pledges of support. Not only can the base pledge amounts be made smaller, allowing more people to commit to the project, but once the basic goal has been achieved, it actually gets easier to persuade people to back the project because they know they will be getting a product at the end of it. What’s more, it adds stretch goals that are more easily achieved – and that has other benefits, as I’ll explain in a moment.

In this case, the goal is high enough to raise uncertainty that the product will reach its goal, and psychologically, that’s a disincentive to back it – which in turn makes that uncertainty more of a self-fulfilling prophecy. But this target is far from being unrealistic or unachievable. It’s not like the producers are asking for $100K or $250K – both of which I have seen before, on campaigns both successful and unsuccessful.

So it’s not enough for an outright down-check, but is enough for a moment’s hesitation.

Stretch goals

A Stretch Goal is one of those add-ons that get added to the base product if a specified amount over the base goal is achieved in fundraising. Getting these right is an art form in itself. Too small and they seem trivial; too large and they look designed for failure. You want them to be appealing, because that encourages backers to be vocally supportive of the project and offers an inducement to pledge bigger than the minimum level needed to actually receive the product.

Even more importantly, ticking stretch goals off at regular intervals builds momentum and word of mouth. If properly designed to function in harmony with the pledge levels, they can not only encourage larger pledges and more pledges, they can persuade people to come back and boost their pledges to a higher amount that gives them access to the goodies promised in the stretch goals.

On the other hand, you can also make a selling point of NOT restricting stretch goal goodies to “elite” backers, as is the case with Corporia, and if your backer levels are clear and affordable, that can serve as an inducement of equal strength.

The key, either way, is making sure that the stretch goals are actually desirable add-ons from the prospective customer’s perspective. That means knowing your target market, and knowing it well.

Probably the most enlightening Kikckstarter project that I’ve backed to the extent of recieving an actual product was Building An Elder God. The way they handled telling people about stretch goals achieved and what was next was nothing short of brilliant. Check out Update #26 and imagine the tentacle as it grew firstly towards the “fully funded” mark – and then beyond, and to the point where they had to tack on extra levels!

There are two ways of expressing a stretch goal, and they both have their virtues. The first is “goal plus $X” – this has the virtue of making the stretch goal seem closer and more achievable, encouraging people to push that little bit harder. The alternative is the “$X pledged”, and that has the virtue of making the stretch goal seem closer – the hard work has already been done, it only takes a little more to nudge things up to the next level.

Corporia’s Stretch Goals

How do Corporia’s actual stretch goals stack up?

The first one doesn’t thrill me much – I’m not a fan of quick reference cards. The $15K future-proofing goal is more interesting – but I know from experience that this is more work that I think the producers are allowing for. The inclusion of a plain-text PDF version is a definite enticement, but seems a small reward for the increased funding. Then the goals become much more interesting – and the funding gaps to be crossed become much bigger to go with them. So the early goals are a little “soft” but the later goals are enticing – though a long way removed. So far removed, in fact, that you couldn’t count on them happening. With $5K leaps, the size of some full Kickstarter fundraising campaigns, they seem a little overpriced (except possibly the City Chronicle, which is estimated to be large enough to be worth the $5K) – but again, that’s probably the fluff talking. They are so far removed that they can probably be discounted in terms of actually materializing – an empty promise.

But the more of those stretch goals that got unlocked, the more easily persuaded I would be to become a backer. The problem is that if everyone thinks that way, the goal won’t be reached and neither will any of the stretch goals. This is a catch-22 that needs to be clearly understood.

So what’s the answer? In my opinion, it’s more stretch goals, at smaller intervals, and a more modest initial goal. Make the product that you really want to create one of the stretch goals and compromise versions at lower levels.

All told, these could be more attractive and/or more attainable than they are, and that’s true to such an extent that they do not sway me towards backing the product – though they will if any are actually achieved. Without that additional incentive, it’s all up to the basic package that you get for your pledge.

The Pledge Levels

Corporia actually does a better job of outlining the pledge levels than any kickstarter campaign I’ve seen before – and that’s saying something. About 1/3 of the way down the Kickstarter page there’s a graphic that explains the pledges far more clearly and succinctly than I can do, even simply replicating the text in a list:

• $1 Drone – desktop wallpaper and updates
• $15 Citizen – Drone + Corporia PDF
• $25 Hacker – Citizen + dossier PDF, beta test, stretches
• $35 Squire – Hacker + supplement PDF
• $50 Knight – Squire + signed & numbered hardcover
   
• $150 Architect – Knight + create a location in-game
• $250 SR. Exec. – Knight + appear in game text
• $500 C.E.O. – Knight + appear in text and art
• $1500 Shadow Broker – CEO + convention game
• $2500 World Leader – Broker + design hire
   
• Retailer level ($110) also available

Note that levels above Knight have limited availability.

Getting the levels right

Administration of a kickstarter campaign can be a nightmare of convoluted complications. A successful campaign can be three times worse (or more). Multiple base levels, multiple add-ons incorporated into different variations of higher pledge levels building on those base levels, stretch goals that only apply to backers of certain pledge levels – you can drive yourself around the bend with administrative nightmares if you get it wrong.

There have also been horror stories of projects that have underestimated the costs involved, have reached their goals, but still sustained a loss. A lot of that falls into two categories: postage and admin. A third problem is often underestimating the production time involved.

The simpler you make your pledge levels, the more all of these burdens are eased. Part of this can also involve recalculating the targets for your stretch goals, if they are going to involve extra postage. If the add-ons and stretch extras are to be distributed electronically, the costs and complications are much reduced.

I’m pleased to say that Corporia actually stacks up fairly well in this respect, too – with one caveat that I’ll get to in a moment. The prices seem in-line with what you would expect to pay for the product if you came across it at RPGNow (the PDFs) or in a game store (the hardcover).

And some of the pledge levels are quite creative – in particular, the “World Leader” level, which includes 20 hours of work by Mark Plemmons (consultation, editorial, and/or graphic design) for your own personal publishing project via phone, in-person, or Skype depending on your location, starting in June 2014.

At the same time, there are a couple of missed opportunities. The Shadow Broker level has a limit of one, and includes Mark attending one of three conventions (your choice) to run a minimum 4-hour game session for your group (up to 5 players). Since it’s unlikely that all three conventions would be held on the same weekend, why not list each one as a separate level, limit of one each?

Some Minor Nit-picks

The higher level awards seem overpriced, however – the costs involved in satisfying the C.E.O. level don’t seem that much higher than those of Senior Executive, but this is a premium addition, so doubling the price tag is not completely out of line. But, given that, the cost of the next level up, which is $1000 more than the price of the C.E.O. level, and $1450 more than the basic Knight level seem too much. Air fairs and accommodation could cost $500, plausibly, so $500 more than the premium price-tag C.E.O. level should be closer to the mark of reasonable. The balance means either that Mark wants to be paid for running the demo game, or to be paid for prepping an adventure that will promote his product, or to have his accommodation covered for staying for the whole convention – or that he simply chose a value that seemed about right to him at the time! Regardless of how it got there, the price seems out-of-line. Of course, I could be underestimating the costs involved, in which case I owe an apology – but if the conventions cost that much to attend, I can’t see them as being as successful for very long.

Similarly, $2500 seems a premium price to pay for Mark’s services – something close to what you might have to pay him at full professional rates for a 20-hour consult. Nothing wrong with that per se, but this is supposed to be a reward for a major pledge toward the publication of his product. If a reasonable price for Shadow Broker is closer to $1000, $1500 or $2000 would be more reasonable for that plus the consult. But, again, that’s just my opinion.

What these show is that you need to consider and assess the pricing of your premium backer levels very carefully; overpricing them can lead to a perception, rightly or wrongly, that you are being taken advantage of – a disincentive for such levels of backing. Which may be the goal, of course – offering them at a price that makes it worth the inconvenience involved. The problem is that it can produce the impression that this inconvenience is valued more highly than the success of the project.

Since these backer levels are going to be out of the reach of most backers of the project, they shouldn’t make any difference to any decision concerning whether or not to back the project. The actual levels most backers will be interested in are reasonably priced, so that’s a qualified tick.

A more serious nit to pick

Of somewhat greater impact to some will be the restrictions on many of the pledge levels to US only. Canadians have a right to feel slighted.

But my real bone to pick with the pledge levels is in the fine print of the Knight level. This is the target for most backers – it delivers to them an actual physical copy of the product. But there are additional shipping costs for anyone outside the US (again including, apparently, Canada, and definitely including Australia). The jump from Squire to Knight levels for me is not a reasonable $15 – it’s a whopping US$45. The price more than doubles, and that’s before currency-conversion and related expenses.

I get a lot of things from the US, and the prices quoted for postage are high, but that’s because we’re talking about a 208-page hardcover – on premium paper because it’s all full-color.

There really should be a “Not available in the US” intermediate pledge level for overseas customers, offering a paperback alternative. And that gets back to the point that I made in the earlier section on shooting for the moon in the targets. Aiming for a paperback with limited color pages as the base target, with hardcover and full-color as stretch goals, would make the project far more enticing in a budget-oriented economy. Money’s tight these days :)

Having said all that, Corporia is far from the worst offender I’ve ever seen in this respect.

The Bottom Line

Like most Kickstarter campaigns, Mark has done a lot of things right – but there are a number of areas that could have been better executed. I hope that he succeeds despite those areas of which I have been critical – he certainly has done no worse than others and better than many.

Corporia looks like an interesting product. It also looks like a premium product in a budget-tight real-world economy. Is it worth backing by anyone interested in the Cyberpunk genre, or modern fantasy, or fantasy in general? In PDF form, definitely – probably to Hacker level. For readers in the US, the Hardcover would seem to be an equally-reasonable purchase. But I would have to really want it to buy the hardcover, and that’s a shame.

I want to conclude this article by extending Mark an open invitation to reply to my criticisms. As I said at the top, none of them are intended to target him personally, and only one or two specific ones (“Getting Medieval”, cringe) are directed at the product itself.

Nor do I want to seem opposed to Kickstarter in general or in relation to any specific project, because I’m not. Kickstarter is a tool, and a brilliant resource; but it’s something we have to learn how to use to best effect.

Update 5 Nov 2013:

Mark sent me the reply below via email. I’ve responded in the comments.

Mike,

Thanks for sending the link! I appreciate you using Corporia as an example in your Kickstarter piece. I think it’s a very comprehensive article, and you’ve made some very good points. Since you offered me the chance to respond, though, I’m happy to comment on a couple of the items you mentioned.

The highest-level backer rewards are definitely higher dollar amounts, as you mention, but it’s important to keep in mind that all the funding goes towards producing the limited edition hardcover and PDF versions of Corporia. For instance, there’s no money set aside to pay my way for the convention trip at the Shadow Broker and World Leader levels, beyond possibly a little fuel for my Prius and an entry ticket to the convention. The extra rewards (in addition to the lower level rewards they receive) at these high levels are unique bonuses to thank the backers for being so generous with their funding. Of course, I know there are (at least) two schools of thought on this – some people think that high reward levels should provide an equal return on investment in the form of product, while other people use those levels to provide small but more personalized services for ‘angel’ investors. I’m obviously more of the latter mindset.

You also mention international shipping being too high. Unfortunately, while you’re right about that, my hands are pretty much tied by the US Postal Service rates. Taking a loss on shipping costs isn’t really feasible for me, though I know some Kickstarter projects do take that risk. I did make a few concessions to help as best I could, though. I split the international costs into two categories for Canada/Mexico and Other International, rather than using the default Kickstarter option which would have forced Canada/Mexico rates to the higher overseas rate. I’m also offering the $5 Add-On (a personalized note written in the book, to the person of the backer’s choice) as a free option for all international backers. I realize that $5 isn’t much, but I also didn’t want to slight the US backers by giving away international exclusive PDFs (even though I did consider it). A softcover option wasn’t possible with this project, since I’m producing this book at a high-quality full-service printer rather than Print-On-Demand, and a softcover book would have required an additional large minimum order.

I hope that helps explain some of the decisions. And again, thanks for mentioning Corporia on your blog! I hope all your readers will at least come check it out.

Best,
Mark

James Seals asked in the comments to Places to go and people to meet: The One Spot series from Moebius Adventures (responding to my comments about magic shops),
 

Mike,

Can I ask – what do you do when your players want to sell magic weapons? In the past I have just allowed them to be sold to Ye Olde Magic Item Shoppe for 50% of the DMG value, but I totally agree with your points above and would prefer a better solution.

Thanks,
James

 
The short answer is that it depends on the campaign, which is not very helpful. So let me offer an answer that’s a little more robust…
 
 

Defining The Problem: The Longsword Economy

Let’s start by sketching in a little background. I’ll assume that the rather silly coinage given in D&D/Pathfinder is correct.

It took the master swordsmith a year to make the three swords featured in The Lord Of The Rings – with the best advantages modern technology could offer his very traditional craft. Yet, those are the sort of weapons most people think of when they think about Longswords in RPGs.

To make any more than that, you have to cut down on the quality of the workmanship. Which is fine, there’s a lot of room to maneuver. One step removed from weapons of that quality you would get the weapons provided to elite forces within the army – dress swords and the like. Assume that you could make 4 times as many of these 2nd-tier weapons in a year, and that this is what is priced in the Core Rules as a standard masterwork sword. That gives us 12 a year, a convenient number to work with.

One step down in quality from that again, a further 4-fold increase in production, gives us the sort of practical weapon that would have been issued to members of the army of the kingdom. Each of these takes about a week to make, another convenient number.

Another step down in quality produces poor weapons – so poor that no-one would want them. And one step further removed in quality produces the sort of weapons we see being forged in Isengard in The Lord Of The Rings for the Orcs. Low quality, no decoration, a single bladed edge, and something approaching mass production. So those can be knocked out at the rate of about 16 a week – 1 day to prepare the moulds etc, 1 day to cast them, and sharpening 4 a day – per smith.

If we employ the price of a Longsword as the standard of a fantasy economy this is enough to define an average annual income. This is convenient because the price of a longsword is what I use to determine conversion rates for “…And A 10-foot Pole”, as I explained in How Much Is That Warhorse In The Window? – Pricing Of Goods in D&D.

So the average Blacksmith has an income, under these assumptions, of about 50 times the price of a longsword. His disposable income will be a lot smaller – cost of materials & tools, subsidizing apprentices, rents, food, lodgings, taxes, tithes, and donations, saving for dowries, what-have-you. With so many demands on his purse, it would seem unbelievable for more than 5% of his income to be left at the end of the day, and I suspect that 1% or less would be closer to the mark. At 15gp (3.x/Pathfinder) for a Longsword, that gives a disposable income of 15 x 50 x 0.05 = 37.5gp, per annum.

I worked this problem from a different angle two years ago in a sidebar within Loot As Part Of The Plot: Making, Earning, Finding, Analyzing, Using, Selling, and Destroying Loot, reproduced below, and came up with a figure of cash-on-hand of 240gp. (I got a bit carried away and quoted the entire “Selling” section from that article, because it’s relevant).

Fantasy Economic Assumptions: A Venting

<begin venting>

This should be a lot harder than most GMs make it. “I have a 10,000gp gem that I’d like to trade in for gold pieces”. “I have a +2 dagger to sell.” “How much will you give me for a Sphere Of Annihilation?” How many NPCs will have 10,000gp on hand? Of those that do, how many are willing to tie it all up in a single valuable? What is that money supposed to be used for? Who will object to it being used in this way? Who will object to the PCs having such a valuable and wish to redistribute the wealth? Can anyone else lay legal claim to it? Is there a legal requirement to make change when claiming payment for goods or services? (you would be astonished to learn how many countries have no such law – just the tradition of doing so. It is taken for granted… For every seller, there has to be a buyer. And one of the first questions a GM should ask is “why” does this NPC want to buy the loot? How much is he willing to pay? What expenses will he incur? How much can he expect to make on the deal? Fantasy economics generally has a number of holes in it in this department. In modern times, a typical business has a profit, annually, before tax, of about 10-20% of its turnover – call it 15% for convenience. In theory, that equates to its markup, or profit margin, on the products and services that it provides; in practice, there are variables that this doesn’t take into account. And a successful business will have 5 years of profits – after taxes – as a cash reserve. So, a suit of full plate costs 1500gp according to the PHB; and it might take a skilled armorer a month to make such a suit. That gives 1500gp x 12 = 18000gp a year income. Ten percent of which is 1800 gp. Apply a modern maximum tax rate of, say, 50%, and you get 900gp per year. Five years at 900 gp gives the NPC a cash reserve of 4500 gp – applying modern standards. How about less generous standards from a bygone era that is more directly comparable to the game setting? Profit margin: 30%, but 1/3 of the production (perhaps more, especially in times of war – and when isn’t a medieval society at war with someone?) goes to the Lord for free. Three years is a more appropriate cash reserve, because unexpected expenses are much higher and eat into the character’s money. And the tax rate is going to be more like 70-90% – call it 80%. Work out the numbers: 1500 x 3 = 4500, less the profit margin of 30%, means that the levee by the Lord costs 3150gp a year. 1500 x 9 = 13500, times 13% = 4050. Minus that 3150, leaves a net profit of 900gp a year. Take off taxes of 80% and we have net income of 180gp a year. Out of which the NPC has to buy food and pay rents and replace damaged tools and what have you – which might leave 130gp a year, being generous, or (more likely) 80gp. Three year’s reserve equals 240gp. That’s how much the armorer can afford to spend buying unwanted adventurer castoffs, no matter how much he might be able to eventually sell it for. He can’t afford to speculate; the people who might want to buy it from him might take ten years or more to come up with cash (Nobles and governments are notoriously poor at keeping accounts current).

</end venting>

Rather than requiring an economic analysis of every prospective purchase by the GM, there is a simpler answer: the NPCs have enough coin on hand to meet the GM’s story needs – no more, and no less.

What would more normally occur is this: The Blacksmith would offer to approach various people on behalf of the prospective seller, at a price of 50gp a day (1500gp divided by a month, neatly rounded), paid in advance, as an introduction fee; if the visit results in a sale, he would get a commission of 5% or perhaps 10% from the deal. He would put a cap on how much time he risked that was equal to half his gold reserve divided by 50gp a day – so a reserve of 250gp would permit him to spend two-and-a-half days trying to sell the armor. Anything more than that risks his livelihood. If the prospects were good, he might go as high as three or four days.

Throw in bureaucracy and red tape and travel time, and he will be doing well to approach more than two prospective customers in that time frame. If they aren’t interested, neither is he.

There is one point in the text of Assassin’s Amulet that Johnn, after reading it, said completely changed his views on game economics in at least one respect. I pointed out, in the section on the price of an assassination contract, that whatever the fee charged was, every assassination required someone to have paid that fee. Which means they had that much money on hand to expend on the assassination, and were willing to expend it – that was how much it was worth to them. If their motives were profit-related, they had to expect to make at least that much more money from the deal in the long run.

The same applies to every purchase of an item from a PC. The character doing the buying must have that much on hand, and owning the item in question has to be worth their investing all of it in the item. How do they have that much money? Why do they want the item badly enough to buy it?

Selling a magic item – or a rare gem – or a work of art – should immediately raise serious questions in the mind of a PC. If it doesn’t, it’s a sure bet that the GM has been neglecting this type of plot hook.

Regardless of which value you choose – 37.5gp or 80gp per year – the typical NPC blacksmith is not going to be able to afford to buy even a +1 weapon very often.

The Distribution Of Incomes

But wait, that’s just defining the average wage for a working man. Some professionals will earn more, and some will earn less.

There are two types of curve that can fit earning levels; a dumbbell, and a non-dumbbell. We can simulate the first by adding dice such that the average gives us that average wage.

Dumbbell: 3d20 + 2d6 – 1 gives a range of 4 to 72 and an average of 37.5. This means that some professionals will earn 1.92 times that average – which isn’t all that much, and doesn’t seem all that realistic. There are other solutions possible, but they all yield a maximum that isn’t that much removed from double the average.

The alternative is a weighted distribution which assigns a low probability of a much higher value. d20 x d% / (2d12 + (2d6 x 2d6 / (d12 x d12))) gives an average of 37.44gp – but a peak of 993.1gp. The probability distribution looks like this:

That’s incredibly messy, in terms of a result. But we’re not actually interested in generating a die roll that yields these results; we can get there by a much simpler road: ratios.

If we say that 1 in five earns three times as much as the average (instead of simply saying half the population earns more than the average), we can extrapolate out to our heart’s content:

• Base: 3125 earning an average 37.5gp;
• pass 1: 625 earning an average 112.5gp;
• pass 2: 125 earning an average 337.5gp;
• pass 3: 25 earning an average 1012.5gp;
• pass 4: 5 earning an average 3037.5gp;
• pass 5: 1 earning an average 9112.5gp;

All we then have to do is increase the numbers of people earning substantially less than the average to compensate for the uber-wealthy so that our average is maintained:

• 625 x 112.5 = 68850;
• 125 x 337.5 = 42187.5; + 68850 = 111037.5;
• 25 x 1012.5 = 25312.5; + 111037.5 = 136350;
• 5 x 3037.5 = 15187.5; + 136350 = 151537.5;
• 1 x 9112.5 = 9112.5; + 151537.5 = 160650;
• 625+125+25+5+1 = 781;

so N people earning 10gp average per annum have to add to the 781 earning a total of 160,650gp to give our 37.5 average:

(160,650 + N x 10) / (N + 781) = 37.5;

rearranging and expanding gives: 27.5xN = 160,650 – (37.5 x 781);

…which calculates out as N=4776.8. So we can add another line to the top of our table, reading:

• 4777 earning an average 10gp;

…and the grand total becomes 3125+4777+871=8773 people.

Now, the real uber-wealthy can afford something better than a second-hand +1 weapon. But there’s going to be a middle ground.

The Income Of Adventures

First-level adventures typically yield somewhere between 100 and 1000gp. Divided four or five ways, that gives something like 20-200gp per party member. The average yield would be somewhere close to the middle of that range, so call it 100gp for convenience. It can take anywhere from a couple of days, game time, to a few months (including rest & recovery, afterwards), so there can be anywhere from 3 or 4 to 150 of them in a year, but the average trend would be toward the lower end of that range – maybe 10-20 would be median. Call it 15 for the sake of convenience.

That’s an income of 1500gp per annum. It only skyrockets with increasing character levels.

PC expenses are woefully out of line in comparison. Three-to-five GP a week is ample for a lavish scale of living. Leveled characters are automatically, under standard D&D/Pathfinder canon, going to be amongst the wealthiest people in the town/city/kingdom whenever they rock up somewhere. Let’s be even more extravagant and set expenses at 500gp per annum.

That still leaves a disposable income of 1000gp per year. Our blacksmith – who is assumed to earn an average wage for a professional – has to work for twelve-and-a-half years to twenty-six-plus years to get that much money on tap.

It was this line of thought that led me to shift Fumanor (during campaign creation) to a silver standard, and to insert a new currency, bronze pieces, between copper and silver pieces. Assuming that when a published module says “gp” it means “sp” applies the currency conversion (10 sp = 1 gp) to the annual income of an adventurer and makes this a profession that pays a little better than a skilled blacksmith earns – which is reasonable, given the relative risks.

How many adventurers?

In The Foundation Of Averages: Psychohistory and RPG Rules I looked at populations in terms of character levels. At the time, I was looking at the number of levels earned by the time the adventurers retired, and showed that for every character with high levels, an absolutely ridiculous number of first-level characters were statistically required. Assuming that only one in five adventurers survive and stay active long enough to reach their next character level, for every 20th level character there had to be 19,073,486,328,125 first level characters. 19 million million 1st level adventurers! (I’ve avoided using the term “Billion” because it means different things in different countries). At a more modest one-in-two progression rate, it works out that for every million adventurers, 1 will be 20th level. Here’s the full breakdown:

• 20th level: 1
• 19th level: 2
• 18th level: 4
• 17th level: 8
• 16th level: 16
• 15th level: 32
• 14th level: 64
• 13th level: 128
• 12th level: 256
• 11th level: 512
• 10th level: 1,024
•  9th level: 2,048
•  8th level: 4,096
•  7th level: 8,192
•  6th level: 16,384
•  5th level: 32,768
•  4th level: 65,536
•  3rd level: 131,072
•  2nd level: 262,144
•  1st level: 524,288

…for a total of 1,048,575 adventurers. This was the highest ratio that I thought made it reasonable for PCs of any given level to encounter an enemy of equivalent level.

But these levels are extraordinarily sensitive to the ratio, because it’s applied as an exponential factor. If, for example, the correct ratio was 1.95 instead of 1 in two, we get:

• 20th level: 1
• 19th level: 1.95
• 18th level: 3.8025
• 17th level: 7.41488
• 16th level: 14.459
• 15th level: 28.195
• 14th level: 54.9803
• 13th level: 107.212
• 12th level: 209.063
• 11th level: 407.673
• 10th level: 794.962
•  9th level: 1,550.18
•  8th level: 3,022.85
•  7th level: 5,894.56
•  6th level: 11,494.4
•  5th level: 22,414.1
•  4th level: 43,707.5
•  3rd level: 85,229.6
•  2nd level: 166,198
•  1st level: 324,086

… for a total of 665,228 adventurers for every 20th level character. We lose 200,000 first-level adventurers alone! And a ratio of 1.75 gives:

• 20th level: 1
• 19th level: 1.75
• 18th level: 3.0625
• 17th level: 5.35938
• 16th level: 9.37891
• 15th level: 16.4131
• 14th level: 28.7229
• 13th level: 50.2651
• 12th level: 87.9639
• 11th level: 153.937
• 10th level: 269.39
•  9th level: 471.433
•  8th level: 825.008
•  7th level: 1,443.76
•  6th level: 2,526.58
•  5th level: 4,421.52
•  4th level: 7,737.66
•  3rd level: 13,540.9
•  2nd level: 23,696.6
•  1st level: 41,469.1

and a total of 96,759.8 characters for every 20th level character. or, to put it another way, for every 1,048,575 adventurers – the total we got per 20th level character with a 1-in-2 ratio – we get about 10 additional 20th level characters by boosting the survival rate to a ratio of 1-in-1.75.

Let’s take that 1.75-ratio table and multiply by the character wealth by level according to Pathfinder (in thousands of gp, and with a value of 350gp for 1st level because they don’t include one):

• 20th level: 880
• 19th level: 1,198.75
• 18th level: 1,623.12
• 17th level: 2,197.35
• 16th level: 2,954.36
• 15th level: 3,939.14
• 14th level: 5,313.74
• 13th level: 7,037.11
• 12th level: 9,500.1
• 11th level: 12,622.8
• 10th level: 16,702.2
•  9th level: 21,685.9
•  8th level: 27,225.3
•  7th level: 33,928.4
•  6th level: 40,425.3
•  5th level: 46,426
•  4th level: 46,426
•  3rd level: 40,622.7
•  2nd level: 23,696.6
•  1st level: 14,514.2

…for a total economic worth of 358,919,000 gp – or an average of 358919000/96759.8 = 3709.38gp each. (I hinted at these sort of results in the previously mentioned article. They are even more extreme with higher survival ratios, with the peak point shifting to lower character levels. The closer to 1-1 the ratio gets, the more the peak shifts toward the middle of the character level range, and the more the average wealth declines per adventurer. At a ratio of 1-in-2.75, the peak is 3rd level, just barely in front of second level, the average wealth per adventurer is down to 1141.33gp each, and the total economic wealth of adventurers as a group is the utterly preposterous 77,874,300,000gp).

The Preposterous Placement of Treasures

Okay, so let’s assume that we have 665,000-odd adventurers in a kingdom, in parties averaging 4.5 members (some have 4, some 5, some 3, some 6, and so on), and that each party of 4th-level characters has at least one adventure a year in which they recover an unwanted +1 item. According to the numbers above, that’s 7,738 adventurers, or about 1720 parties, or 1720 unwanted +1 swords, each worth 2000gp according to Pathfinder.

Three-point-four-four million gp worth.

Who can afford them?

There are two obvious answers: Other adventurers and the uber-wealthy.

But it’s not that simple.

The Uber-wealthy as buyers

Our extrapolation of income distribution gave us 6 people in 8773 who could afford to buy a +1 weapon, once a year. Every time we increase the number of income earners that we’re talking about by a factor of 5 (because we said one-in-five in those extrapolations), we would need to add another line to our table and recalculate the number of low-income earners accordingly.

6 to 30 to 150 to 750 to 3,750. That’s four more lines to our income distribution table, and a base income-earning population of 3125x5x5x5x5, or 1,953,125 people working as professionals for wages and not growing food or something else along those lines, or digging up raw materials, or whatever.

But most of the people on the resulting list will be able to afford something better. A +2 weapon only costs, new, four times as much as a +1 weapon. The slice of the market who can both afford to buy a +1 weapon, can’t afford better (including buying a new +1 weapon with their own crest or mark on it), and is willing to buy a second-hand +1 weapon, is not going to go up at anywhere near the rate of increase – or to put it another way, the further we extend the table, the smaller the percentage of the whole they will form.

No way, no how – there simply aren’t going to be enough customers amongst the uber-wealthy to accommodate 1720 unwanted +1 weapons coming on to the market each and every year – not with our current set of assumptions.

How many of these things got made, anyway? And how many are already in circulation?

But, with the bases covered, I’m at least ready to get back to the original question.

The Utopian Answer:

The price of goods is based on supply vs. demand. If there’s a lot of demand and not a lot of supply, the price will go up. If there’s a lot of supply and not a lot of demand, no matter what the notional value may be, it’s actual value – what you will get when you sell it, will be coppers on the silver or worse.

So, plausible self-consistent answer number one is:

• Basic Magic items are easy and cheap to produce, and are worth about 1/10th of the price listed;
• There is plenty of raw materials and food, and a high standard of living;
• Everyone and his brother – if they are even moderately prosperous – can afford a +1 weapon;
• There is a thriving professional class, supported by this cornucopia;
• Adventuring is a common practice, viewed as a bit of a lark, something like taking a gap year;
• lethality in the campaign is low;
• Treasures and Hordes should be at least as large as those officially listed if not higher;
• The gp is the basic unit of currency, and there is a ready market for anything that can be found;
• ‘Magic shops’ exist, but what’s available depends on what’s been sold to them. It’s buyer’s luck.

The Dystopian Answer:

• Magic is rare, and even Basic Magic items are difficult and expensive to make (if it’s possible at all), and the prices quoted in gp in the official rules are correct;
• There is a limit to how much raw material and food there are, and beggars and paupers are common;
• only a few can afford to buy even a +1 weapon;
• There are few professionals, but lots of low-skill craftsmen;
• Adventuring is a rare career path; but can be exceptionally lucrative, if you survive;
• The sp is the basic unit of currency; all income levels should be divided by 10, prices of basic commodities likewise;
• Magic items are worth the prices printed in the books, but should be nowhere near as common as shown in most modules and treasure tables.

My Choice – Answering James’ Question

I’ve gone with the first choice in past campaigns, most recently Rings Of Time (which started with the PCs inheriting a Dragon’s Hoard worth 353,000gp, captured by higher-level party members, all of whom died in the attempt).

I’ve also used a hybrid showing the transition from one to the other in a previous campaign. But, for the most part, the campaigns I have run have focused on the Dystopian orientation, simply because it makes for more interesting campaigns.

PCs in Fumanor have gotten into epic levels before finding a +2 weapon (though there were some missed opportunities along the way, had they realized). And it’s even rarer to find a weapon that doesn’t have a drawback or limitation of some sort attached to it.

But, at the same time, there are some unique magic items in somewhat wider circulation, like wax seals that can be attached to any weapon and will temporarily yield a +1 benefit – then removed, ready to be attached to another. Healing potions are ubiquitous, but are specific to the species for whom they were brewed – and have strange side effects when consumed by members of other races. There are places that are blessed, and confer bonuses to those who fight there if they are acting in the name of Good, and others that are cursed and do the opposite. There are places where bonuses that do not normally stack can do so, and places where all bonuses are not stackable. There are places where members of one specific race or class receive a bonus, or a penalty, and places where everyone not of a given race is affected.

In Shards Of Divinity, Magic is becoming unreliable, and the world is transiting from semi-utopian to dystopian. Magic items are rare, but more common than in Fumanor, for the moment, though no-one can create new ones of any great power any more; only those recovered from ancient times exist, and many of them are far more powerful than a mere +1. At the current time, any spell has a 3-in-20 chance of failing when cast, but magic items are unaffected. In the near future, that will progress to a 1-in-4, then a 1-in-5, and so on, and magic items will begin to be affected as well. The more highly magical an item, the lower its chance of failing. One of the PCs primary goals is doing something about this situation; they are the only people in existence who know why it is happening in the first place. But right now, magic items are more reliable than the magic used to create them, and so their value is artificially inflated by demand to the levels indicated by the rulebooks.

And, of course, your third option is to do as I suggested in the quoted section above – treat attempts to sell magic items as though they were attempts to sell a previously-undiscovered Rembrandt or the Star Of India, and an oportunity to throw a different plot at the PCs.

In other words, I have no one answer; I have, rather, a set of considerations starting with the way the economy works in the game world, which in turn is tied to the sociology and a host of other factors, which I use to develop an internally-consistent answer that is unique to that particular campaign.

On a completely unrelated topic:

I don’t know about any of our other subscribers, but Monday’s article didn’t lob into my inbox the way it should have. It’s possible that this is related the extraordinary size of the article, or that something broke in our last systems update. Until I see what happens with this article, I’m going to assume that it was a size-related problem, in which case, here’s a link to the article that aparrantly did not get sent: A Blogdex Celebration: Campaign Mastery’s (official) 500th post!

The Timing

500 Posts. Wow.

Really, Wow.

Of course, it’s all in how you count them.

You could argue that by a strict numeric count, the 500th post was a couple of months ago, and you would be right, but only because a problem with an earlier version of WordPress forced us to break articles up that were more than about 5000 words or the text simply wouldn’t display, which meant that some articles were published in two or three simultaneous parts; and because there have been some out-of-continuity articles that were contests for our readers with no real content; and so on. So I don’t count them that way.

Should those multipart articles that weren’t intended to be discrete stand-alone parts of a series count as separate posts, or as just one? A hard call, but I drew the line as follows: If I think they would have been posted separately as a series had we figured out how to do that, they were counted as separate; if they would have been single posts if that was possible at the time, that’s how they have been counted.

You could argue that I shouldn’t count articles that don’t contribute to the actual purpose of the blog. Online magazine. Well, whatever it actually is; my working definition changes with the direction of the wind and the day of the week. Some past celebrations of milestones don’t make a meaningful contribution, and I don’t count them, either.

All told, Twenty-three Posts haven’t been counted for one reason or another. So, technically, this is actually the 524th post here at Campaign Mastery. But this, nevertheless, is the one that I have chosen to count as celebrating a history comprising 500 posts.

A Big Thank-You

Of course, it goes without saying that without the support and encouragement of every reader, every contributor, every commentator and reviewer and casual visitor, Campaign Mastery would never have lasted long enough to achieve this milestone. So to you all, I say a huge and heart-felt thank-you!

The Subject

What should the 500th post be about?

How to make it special?

I had one idea that I liked a lot, but it was even better suited to the 5th Anniversary post, which is coming up in December(!). So I went looking for ideas. I asked for suggestions on Twitter, and LinkedIn, and amongst my friends and players. The problem soon emerged: every idea they had was either too small for such an auspicious occasion, or was something that I had done before.

It was only when I thought of a subject that was even more appropriate for the 5th Anniversary than the idea already reserved for that date that I was able to release the Blogdex concept to appear here and now.

So, what’s it all about?

No-one could deny that a lot of what has appeared here, over the years, has run in themes. That comes with the territory when your goal is “Expert advice on creating and running exceptional campaigns”. I’ll talk some more about that statement of purpose in a minute or two.

Some of those themed articles are already collected together in the form of series. Others were written in more piecemeal fashion, and have never been collected together in any conceptual way. Every article we’ve ever published can be accessed through our Archives, but there’s a problem: all you get is the title. While we have always made efforts to ensure that our titles are descriptive first and artistic/interesting second, it’s still a very limited snapshot of the content, and they are all listed in chronological sequence – not ideal when you’re looking for a related article.

Of course, those aren’t the only way we organize these things. We use 53 categories as a high-level organizing tool, and 93 tags for finer control, and we employ both in a systematic way. Both are collected in our right-hand column, and each post also has the categories to which it has been assigned at the top and the tags at the bottom, to help readers find related articles. And, what’s more, when you click on a category or a tag, it brings up a list of the articles with a short extract from the start of each article – and the full set of categories and tags assigned to the article. The same thing happens if you click on the title of a series.

But these excerpts aren’t always the most enlightening. It’s my habit to introduce articles with any contextual or background information about the writing of that article in a preface, and the automatic excerpts can’t tell the difference between that information and the start of the article itself.

That’s where this article comes in. But first:

A snippet of history, or who we are:

Johnn had been running Roleplaying Tips for years, written a few RPG Books, and even made an official contribution to a WOTC D&D supplement. I had written some articles on other subjects that had been published in magazines (both print and online), written a few game supplements for my own campaigns, submitted some reader’s tips and articles to Roleplaying Tips, which Johnn found quite agreeable. He broached the idea of working on some projects together. One of those evolved into Campaign Mastery. Johnn is no longer involved in the blog (at least officially – he still helps out every now and then), but he is still a big part of the history of the site.

Over the years, he’s brought in some guest authors and contributors, I’ve brought in some, a few brought themselves to the blog, and we’ve brought a few in together (Notably Michael Beck, who submitted an article to Roleplaying Tips which became a mammoth 14-part series here). But the touchstones and nexus was always the two of us, and then myself alone when Johnn felt he needed to step away to pursue other goals.

Expert advice on creating and running exceptional campaigns

Let’s break that mission down.

Expert Advice

I’ve been active in this hobby for more than thirty years, and I’ve seen and done a lot in that time. This magazine/blog (“magablog?”) exists to pass on what I’ve learned, and any new thoughts, discoveries, and insights that present themselves as I continue to game.

Creating

There’s an emphasis on creation and creativity. One of the most frequently-used categories here is “The End of The Rainbow”, which is the term I coined to symbolize inspiration and sources of inspiration.

Running

It’s not enough to make something great, you have to be able to use it, and use it well. Otherwise, what’s the point? So the second major strand of discussion is using whatever you’ve got, and how to do it as effectively as possible.

Exceptional

When we started Campaign Mastery, there were lots of other gaming blogs around. Johnn and I had all sorts of ideas as to what we could do to distinguish ours from the others. Our combined expertise was one of the first things that we hit apon, and over a period of time our point of distinction emerged naturally.

Depth. A lot of those Blogs seemed to focus on one idea or tip and present it in isolation. We decided to look at subjects in greater depth, to place it in context and explore as many associated aspects of the subject and implications as we could. A lot of that stemmed from my personal style and the way I structured and planned my articles. In fact, it’s that depth that creates the confusion about just what Campaign Mastery is, but that’s a dilemma that I can live with. A consequence of that is that we don’t post new articles daily, the way others do.

But it does create a lot of pressure to deliver, week in, week out. It’s not atypical for each article to take a full day or more, despite the fact that I am a fast and fairly-organized writer. Part of that is due to ongoing medical problems that I struggle with, part of it is simply finding new subjects worth writing about. I quite literally don’t have a lot of time to waste chasing down blind alleys; if an article isn’t working, or is taking more time to write than I have available, I have very little leeway to realize that and abandon it for something that I can finish in the time available. Thereafter, that unfinished article tends to just sit around, with work only being carried out on it when another article gets finished early. It’s unfortunate, but it happens, and it’s why I still haven’t been able to finish the long-awaited sequel to Pillars Of Architecture: Some Thoughts On The Construction Of Cities.

Heck, it eats into my own campaign prep time – which is why it took me until the last minute and beyond to get to work on what has become the The Orcs & Elves Series, and why I’ve had to find a way to kill two birds with one stone – using the ongoing campaign work to provide articles once a week.

I have sometimes wondered if that has compromised the execution of the Mission Statement. But I have realized that by giving an actual example of the prep that I invest into my campaigns, it actually serves that mission brief more accurately and extensively than just about anything else that I’ve posted.

The other aspect of uniqueness that helps make Campaign Mastery stand out is my style, which is as close as I can get to my conversational style. That’s one of the tricks that I use to achieve my ability to write quickly, and it’s something that I learned from the non-fiction of Isaac Asimov. It means that I employ more words than are strictly necessary, but those words flow out far more quickly than they would if I strived for a more succinct mode of expression. It’s my hope that it also makes the articles easier to read as well, even if they are longer.

The Mission

So that’s what I strive for with Campaign Mastery. But that all comes at a price. The more content there is in an article, and the depth I strive for generates a lot of content, the more inadequate the introductory paragraph becomes as a synopsis of the entire article. This only exacerbates the problems that I identified earlier.

So, what, then, is a Blogdex?

What is a Blogdex?

I coined the term “Blogdex” for my personal blog which existed back in the days of Yahoo 360. It’s an “index” of all the blogs, a contents page if you will. So it’s a slight misnomer.

It’s a list of the articles that have appeared here, with a brief synopsis of what the article is about, grouped and organized by subject matter.

The purpose is to try and make it a little easier for our readers to find past articles of interest – and, as a byproduct, to help make it a little easier for me to find articles when I want to cross-reference to them in new articles.

After all, there are 500 of them (and counting) to try and remember!

Blogdex Architecture

I’ve divided the articles into 14 subjects. Some of those subjects were then split further into topics, and some of those were then divided by campaign. The 14 subjects follow what is hopefully a logical sequence from beginning to end.

Each of the major subjects is separated by a blue bar, just like the one above, and each is in the same large, dark-blue font as the heading “Blogdex Architecture”, above. At the start of each subject, I list all the topic subtitles used within that subject.

Each of the topics has its own subheading, in the same smaller, lighter blue font that was used for the subheading “The Mission”, above. Most articles are given their own entries in a list, but some series have been packaged into single entries. On rare occasions, an entry might be repeated under a subsequent category, but I’ve chosen to avoid this as much as possible. For the most part, duplicate references equal duplicate descriptions – copy and paste with no rephrasing. Where the article is part of a series, I generally synopsize the whole series, not individual component articles, but where an individual part of a series belongs in a wildly different category than the overall series, I have listed the exceptions both ways.

Ahh, you’ll figure it out. It’s not that hard.

The subjects (and subtopics, where any have been used), are:

• Genre Overviews – Pulp, Sci-Fi, Historical Accuracy in FRP, Online Gaming
• Campaign Creation – Campaign Concepts & Development, Campaign Backgrounds, Campaign Synopses, Divine Power, Magic, Sorcery, & The Arcane, Money & Wealth, Politics, Societies & Nations, Races, Languages, Character Classes, Organizations, Wonders
• Campaign Plotting – Plot Sequencing, Big Finishes, Plot Ideas, Subplots, Writing, Problem-Solving, Prophecies
• Rules – Learning game rules, Solving Rule Problems
• Metagame – GM Screens, House-Rules Theory, Actual House Rules, Alternative Healing & Damage Rules, Game Physics
• Players – no subtopics
• Names – no subtopics
• Characters – Characterization, PCs, Villains, Other NPCs, Playing
• Adventures & Adventure components – Locations, Maps & Dungeon Tiles, Miniatures, Encounters, Combat & In-Game Environment, Rewards, Seasonal Adventures, Complete Adventures, Puzzles & Mysteries, Ad-hoc Adventures & GM Improv
• Game Mastering – Feedback, At Conventions, Mistakes, Problems, & Emergencies, GM Improv
• Fiction & Writing – Writer’s Block, Burnout
• Publishing – Pricing, Product & Tool Reviews & Previews, Dice Sets & Props Reviews, Online Tools & Software Reviews, App Reviews
• Assassin’s Amulet – Announcements, Excerpts, Legacy Items
• Miscellanea – Sources Of Inspiration, Artwork & Illustration, Philosophy & Opinion, Site Milestones & Announcements, Contests & Special Offers, General Seasonal Articles

So, let’s go…

 Genre Overviews

 
Genre is the most fundamental and defining characteristic of a campaign. It defines what content is acceptable and how it will normally be treated.

	7 Steampunk Resources – As part of the Blog Carnival for June 2009, Johnn lists seven resources for those interested in the Steampunk Genre.
		Pulp Reinventing Pulp for Role-playing – An eight-part series co-written by the man with whom I co-GM my Pulp 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. The first part (Blat! Zoit! Pow! The Rules Of Genre In RPGs) wasn’t even originally intended to be part of the series, but the need to lay some foundations demanded its presence. A standalone article applicable to any genre, it examines the way in which that Genre should affect an RPG, and the need to modify the genre to accommodate a modern audience. Part Two (Bam! Zap! Crunch! World Conventions In Pulp) look at the impact of the Pulp Genre on the setting in which adventures will take place. Parts Three (Pow! Wham! Bang! Story Conventions In Pulp) and Four (Pow! Bam! Crunch! Story Conventions in Pulp (continued)) examine the impact of the genre on the adventures themselves, and on expectations of behavior. Parts Five (Wham! Clang! Kapow! Character Conventions In Pulp), Six (Zot! Zap! Crash! Character Conventions In Pulp (continued)) and Seven (Bang! Blat! Whoomph! Character Conventions In Pulp (continued)) study the impact of the genre on the personalities and roles of the participants, be they PCs or NPCs. Finally, Part Eight (Clang! Crash! Pow! Game Mastering The Pulp Genre) ties the whole thing together with some general advice, some of which can be applied to any genre-specific campaign.
		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. Putting The SF into SciFi – 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.
		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.

 

Campaign Creation   Once you have a genre, the next most fundamental question is the campaign. It involves defining the fundamental concepts and metaphysical architecture of the game world, the history that has resulted in the characters, the role (if any) of Divine Power, how magic will work in the game (if at all), money & wealth, the geography, politics, nations and sociology of the game world, the races that inhabit it, the languages they use, the occupations (in game terms) that are available, the organizations that exist, and the iconic locations and wonders that make this game environment special. Unsurprisingly, a lot of content here at Campaign Mastery has focused on this critical subject.
	A Quality Of Spirit – Big Questions in RPGs – Why asking yourself the Big Metaphysical Questions matters when designing a campaign. How much Campaign do you Plan before the Start? – Finding the sweet spot between over-planning campaigns (My vice) and under-planning. There are some great tips on campaign development in the comments. FreeMind Tips for Game Masters – Johnn explains how he uses FreeMind to mindmap his campaign plans. Ask The GMs: In it for the long haul – How is it that my campaigns can last for decades? What are the implications and consequences, and how do I deal with them? Mine Fiction For Campaign Qualities – Johnn starts with a review of FantasyCraft and extrapolates one of the ideas within to find a way of customizing RPG worlds and drawing on fiction for inspiration. Legendary Achievements: Coloring Your Campaign with Anecdote and Legend – Which is better: ‘The Target is too far away for bowshot,’ or ‘Not even the legendary Halwein, holder of the record for longest bowshot at 2,192 yards, would dare attempt such a shot’? Rhetorical question, right? This article is all about using the limits of achievement to add color to your game world. Ask The GMs: PC Choices and Consequences – How can you make the players feel like their actions have an impact on the world? A simple question but like an iceberg, nine-tenths don’t show. In order to properly answer this question, Johnn & I had to answer five even more complicated questions: How can the players impact the game world? How are the consequences of PC actions determined? How do the PCs become aware of these consequences? How can the GM ensure that the Players recognize the connection between action and consequences? And how can the administration of these changes be kept practical? All those answers, and more, are in this article. A Monkey Wrench In The Deus-Ex-Machina: Limiting Divine Power – I argue against the use of a Deus-Ex-Machina in RPGs, and why that means you should give limits to the Gods. Along the way I show how you can have up-close-and-personal encounters with The Gods in unusual Genres for such occurrences – Wild West, Superspies, and Hard SF/Cyberpunk. There’s some great discussion in the comments. Unfortunately, Da’Vane’s website is gone, and so is the article she wrote in response to this, and attempts to find it using the Wayback Machine failed. Fortunately, Da’Vane summarizes her points in the comments. Things Done and left Un-done – I maintain a list of undeveloped ideas for Campaign Mastery articles, and got to thinking about why there had been so little movement of ideas off that list. That leads to an analogy between the list and the reasons my campaigns tend to last such a long time, something I had discussed in Ask The GMs: In it for the long haul, so this article becomes a sequel to that discussion in how to produce longevity for your campaigns. I use a synopsis of my “Fumanor: One Faith” campaign as an example. 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. GM’s Toolbox: World Building Part One: Geography and Landmarks – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things for which you will need tools and techniques, to successfully run a campaign. This article starts the world building by considering the physical features of the in-game environment. Grokking The Message – The fifth article in the A Good Name Is Hard To Find series looks at naming places and campaigns, and I explain how I chose the names for some of the campaigns that I have run. In Someone else’s Sandbox: Adventuring in an established setting – For the September Blog Carnival, I wrote this article considering the pros and cons of adventuring in an established third-party setting instead of creating your own, what some of the difficulties are that you might face, and how to solve them. Deus Ex Machinas And The Plot Implications Of Divinity – I consider the implications of Divine Beings manifesting as objective reality in RPGs and the complicated question of Deus Ex Machinas when that is the case, the relationship between divine beings and the campaigns structure and narrative, and how a big-picture perspective on divine beings can make or break plausibility in a fantasy campaign. I offer possible answers to the question, “Where Do Clerics get their spells from?” along the way. There’s a fascinating discussion of the issues raised by the article in the comments.
		Campaign Concepts & Development Big Changes For The Little Guy: How to go from Premise to Campaign – I demonstrate how I take the seed of an idea and build a campaign from it – coming up with a whole new campaign, “Arignoza”, to use for the example, which gets given away to the readership in the course of the article. How to Design a Cool Holiday for Your Game – 3 Templates – Johnn excerpts one of his books to tell our readers how to create a seasonal holiday for their game world. The Frozen Lands: A Science-Fiction Campaign Premise – I offer a complete, ready-to-develop science-fiction campaign premise for anyone to use, with enough work left to do that every use will be just a little different. Even if you don’t want to use the idea yourself, you can get some tips on how I develop a campaign premise by reading the article. The occasional ‘Lessons From The West Wing’ series kicked off with one article that was so big that it’s a 5-part series in it’s own right. The first part of this series-within-a-series, The Pursuit Of Perfection, Part 1 of 5: Don’t Compromise With Mediocrity discussed the execution and delivery of uniqueness in a RPG campaign and evolved an achievable definition of perfection for doing so. I then identified four elements that were required in order to achieve this, and dedicated a separate article to each of them. Element number one is about creating the potential for uniqueness through the initial vision of the campaign and is dealt with in A Perfect Vision Through A Glass, Darkly. The second necessity is to convert that initial vision into a common platform for both players and GMs to build apon, and is dealt with in Laying A Campaign Foundation. Part Four, Evolving The Campaign, deals with the third element, the extension and development of the initial concept in the course of the campaign. Finally, in Part 5, Character Evolution, I deal with how the uniqueness of the campaign should impact on the player characters that participate in the world. It was a big article, and a big series, but several people have told me it was worth it! Life & Death in RPG Blog Carnival Wrap-Up – We wrap up our hosting of the March 2011 Blog Carnival with the usual compendium of synopses of the articles submitted. If you find either Life or Death to be important in your games (or want to make it so), these are worth reading. All Is Three: A 3.x Fantasy Campaign Premise – I offer an original but unfinished campaign idea, fleshing it out in the course of the article as an example of how I go about designing a campaign. The Foundation Of Averages: Psychohistory and RPG Rules – I look at the process of extrapolating from rules systems to the larger worlds and nations that they describe using elementary statistical analysis. Theologies at 30 paces: The Hell of Evil in D&D – I consider the theological implications of the cosmology of D&D (and to some extent, Pathfinder), especially the implications of having demons, devils, and dark gods, how to resolve the contradictions implicit in this cacophony of ill-digested theological influences, and how the consequences would manifest in the everyday lives, motivations, etc, of the inhabitants of the world. More suggestions and ideas in the comments. Round Pegs In A Square Wheel: Reinventing Roulette for RPGs – Human nature doesn’t change. I examine human vices and foibles and how to use them to reinforce the genre of a game, then consider how to reinvent gambling, taking roulette as an example, for different genres. Been There, Done That, Doing It Again – The Sequel Campaign Part One of Two: Campaign Seeds – The first half of a two-part discussion of how to create a new campaign that is a sequel of one you have already run. In this part: the foundations of the campaign, a list of ideas, and initial ideas for possible plotlines. Been There, Done That, Doing It Again – The Sequel Campaign Part Two of Two: Sprouts and Saplings – Organizing the seeds of the campaign, making decisions about the interval between the campaigns, the consequences to campaign structure, managing player expectations, and more on sequel campaigns in general. 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.
			Riddleport Campaign Development Mage Guild Mastermind Survives Pirate Haven – Johnn takes readers through his thought process when creating a faction for his Riddleport campaign. The Ascended Conflict in my Riddleport Campaign – Following the advice I offered on asking yourself the big questions when planning an RPG (A Quality Of Spirit – Big Questions in RPGs), Johnn outlines his plans for the (Near-)ultimate powers within his then-forthcoming Riddleport campaign. Revealing the Exotic – Johnn considers the implications of restricting the availability of exotic equipment as part of the campaign development for his (then-) forthcoming Riddleport campaign. The Cypher Gate – Johnn shows how he has integrated the suggestions & feedback in response to his earlier articles concerning his (then-) forthcoming Riddleport campaign. By comparing the content of the sources with this article, readers can gain insights into how to merge their own ideas to form a complete concept. Architecture of Riddleport Inspires Plots – Johnn describes how he is using the architecture within the city of Riddleport to enhance his game, and (by example), how you can do the same for yours. Life and Death in RPG – March 2011 RPG Blog Carnival – In March 2011, Campaign Mastery again hosted the Blog Carnival, this time with the subject “Life and Death in RPGs”. This was the first of several articles we posted on the subject: Johnn looked at how death was a hidden theme in his Riddleport campaign as well as introducing the topic.
		Campaign Backgrounds GM’s Toolbox: World Building Part Three: History, Mythology, and stocking Dungeons – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. This article focuses on the mythic and background elements of a campaign.
			Fumanor Theology In Fumanor: The collapse of Infinite No-Space-No-Time and other tales of existence – I follow up the issues raised in Deus Ex Machinas And The Plot Implications Of Divinity (such as the relationship between divine beings and the campaigns structure and narrative) by examining the ‘big picture’ answers employed by some of my campaigns in future articles, of which this is the first. The Orcs & Elves Series – From the start of my Fumanor Campaign, there have been secrets concerning the history of Elves, Drow, and Orcs in the game world. Now the characters have reached the point where the truth has to be told. This completely reinvents (from the players point of view) the campaign background of the world so far as those particular races is concerned. It is presented here as a very long fantasy novel. I’m not even going to list the contents, here – it’s just too massive a series. With each part, I build up a Glossary of Elvish language used within the story. So far, it’s up to Chapter 85 of 116 originally planned – but I’ve hit all the essentials in terms of its campaign needs, so whether or not I continue on all the way is still to be determined. I could more or less wrap up the series at this point by having the PCs awaken from their dream state and being told, “The rest you know…” On the other hand, the completist in me wants to tell the rest of the story, so we’ll see. It’s a heck of a lot of work.
			Zenith-3: Earth Regency The Imperial History Of Earth-Regency – This series (still unfinished because the parts take a long time to write and research) details the historical background of the (parallel) world in which my superhero campaign currently takes place. Part 1: 1189-1220; Part 2: 1220-1782; Part 3: 1782-1910; Part 4: 1910-1945; Part 5: 1945-1959; Part 6: 1960-1972; Part 7: 1973-1975; Part 8: 1978-1979; Part 9: 1980-1997; Part 10: 1980-1997 (continued); Part 11: 1998-2015 (overview); Part 12: 1998. One of these days I’ll get back to this series but it won’t be anytime soon, despite having three more chapters half-done and a bunch more outlined.
		Campaign Synopses Grow The Hobby With Great Game Mastering – The July 2010 Blog Carnival was about how to grow the hobby, RPG Gaming. Johnn approaches the question from the perspective of being able to tell compelling stories about your campaigns – and that requires you to become a great game master. I add my 20-cents-worth in the comments.
			Carnus Carnus Session #13 – Bearded in Orcus’s Lair – Johnn synopsizes and reflects on one of his (then-) recent game sessions, and in the process, shows how it’s done.
			Fumanor: Seeds Of Empire Campaign Update: Fumanor: Seeds Of Empire – After publishing “The Flói Af Loft & The Ryk Bolti” I received a number of requests for more information about my Fumanor: Seeds Of Empire campaign (that’s right, the same one from which the Orcs & Elves series derives). So I wrote up this campaign update to satisfy the curiosity of our readership. Includes (in the comments) 6 tips for running two interacting campaigns simultaneously in the same game world. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 4 – In part four of the background to the Orcs and Elves story, I start to update the campaign history so-far, building on material I had already published. Don’t worry, there are links in the article telling you when to revisit that material. There are lots of editorial asides to offer glimpses behind the curtain and context. The Giveaways continue, this time I offer an original magic item, The Spirit Blade of Clan Takamuchi. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 5 – The final preparatory piece of the puzzle completes the synopsis of the campaign so far (including some parts of the story that the players didn’t know). A sidebar considers the economics of Undeath. As a giveaway with this post I offer a high-res map of the part of the Game World where the campaign has (mostly) taken place – but bereft of labels and captions so other GMs can use it as they see fit, and another with captions detailing the PCs travels. I point out that each of the PCs has a personal quest in the campaign(and list them) – something that the players would only peripherally have been aware of. Finally, I discuss just how the Orcs & Elves series was being written, in other words, the plan of attack for the series.
		Divine Power A Quality Of Spirit – Big Questions in RPGs – Why asking yourself the Big Metaphysical Questions matters when designing a campaign. A Monkey Wrench In The Deus-Ex-Machina: Limiting Divine Power – I argue against the use of a Deus-Ex-Machina in RPGs, and why that means you should give limits to the Gods. Along the way I show how you can have up-close-and-personal encounters with The Gods in unusual Genres for such occurrences – Wild West, Superspies, and Hard SF/Cyberpunk. There’s some great discussion in the comments. Unfortunately, Da’Vane’s website is gone, and so is the article she wrote in response to this, and attempts to find it using the Wayback Machine failed. Fortunately, Da’Vane summarizes her points in the comments. Deus Ex Machinas And The Plot Implications Of Divinity – I consider the implications of Divine Beings manifesting as objective reality in RPGs and the complicated question of Deus Ex Machinas when that is the case, the relationship between divine beings and the campaigns structure and narrative, and how a big-picture perspective on divine beings can make or break plausibility in a fantasy campaign. I offer possible answers to the question, “Where Do Clerics get their spells from?” along the way. There’s a fascinating discussion of the issues raised by the article in the comments. Life and Death in RPG – March 2011 RPG Blog Carnival – In March 2011, Campaign Mastery again hosted the Blog Carnival, this time with the subject “Life and Death in RPGs”. This was the first of several articles we posted on the subject: Johnn looked at how death was a hidden theme in his Riddleport campaign as well as introducing the topic. Too Much Life for The Living: March 2011 Blog Carnival – My second contribution to the March 2011 Blog Carnival asks is Healing is too easy in D&D, which leads to proposing an alternative combat system for 3.x / Pathfinder Based on concepts within the TORG game system. It was quite well received. There are additional suggestions and clarifications in the comments. If you want to make your combats more life-and-death dramatic, this might be worth your time. Life, Death, and Life Renewed – March 2011 Blog Carnival – My first contribution to the March 2011 Blog Carnival considers proposals to restore some legacy rules, and the question of whether or not Elves can be Resurrected, and extrapolates to consider the impact of changing rules systems mid-campaign, and then (unexpectedly) to considering the Resurrect spell as a plot point within a campaign and a campaign background. Life & Death in RPG Blog Carnival Wrap-Up – We wrap up our hosting of the March 2011 Blog Carnival with the usual compendium of synopses of the articles submitted. If you find either Life or Death to be important in your games (or want to make it so), these are worth reading. Theologies at 30 paces: The Hell of Evil in D&D – I consider the theological implications of the cosmology of D&D (and to some extent, Pathfinder), especially the implications of having demons, devils, and dark gods, how to resolve the contradictions implicit in this cacophony of ill-digested theological influences, and how the consequences would manifest in the everyday lives, motivations, etc, of the inhabitants of the world. More suggestions and ideas in the comments. The Ascended Conflict in my Riddleport Campaign – Following the advice I offered on asking yourself the big questions when planning an RPG (A Quality Of Spirit – Big Questions in RPGs), Johnn outlines his plans for the (Near-)ultimate powers within his then-forthcoming Riddleport campaign. Life and Death in RPG – March 2011 RPG Blog Carnival – In March 2011, Campaign Mastery again hosted the Blog Carnival, this time with the subject “Life and Death in RPGs”. This was the first of several articles we posted on the subject: Johnn looked at how death was a hidden theme in his Riddleport campaign as well as introducing the topic. GM’s Toolbox: World Building Part Three: History, Mythology, and stocking Dungeons – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. This article focuses on the mythic and background elements of a campaign. Theology In Fumanor: The collapse of Infinite No-Space-No-Time and other tales of existence – I follow up the issues raised in Deus Ex Machinas And The Plot Implications Of Divinity (such as the relationship between divine beings and the campaigns structure and narrative) by examining the ‘big picture’ answers employed by some of my campaigns in future articles, of which this is the first. Part Eight of Johnn’s series on City Government Power Bases covers Religion. Life, Death, and Life Renewed – March 2011 Blog Carnival – My first contribution to the March 2011 Blog Carnival considers proposals to restore some legacy rules, and the question of whether or not Elves can be Resurrected, and extrapolates to consider the impact of changing rules systems mid-campaign, and then (unexpectedly) to considering the Resurrect spell as a plot point within a campaign and a campaign background. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Orcish Mythology – In the course of the Orc & Elves series, I found that I needed to construct and outline a pantheon for the Orcs, and a mythology to go with that pantheon. Ask The GMs: The Momentum Of The Inevitable – In the discussion following a previous Ask The GMs, we were asked, ‘should there ever be something that is too big or has too much momentum for the PCs to be able to stop it?’ The discussion that follows the article adds to the content so well that it feels like part of the original article; if you’re interested in the question, don’t miss them. Back To Basics: Example: The Belt Of Terra – Part four of the two-part article contains a larger and more complete example, illustrating all the steps in the process of creating an adventure, structuring it, and inserting it into a campaign plan. Along the way it expands both the game physics and game mythology and touches on or references no less than 20 other plotlines, showing how tightly integrated a plotline can be within a campaign. Pile On This: Undead are Taking Over. What happens? – Johnn’s campaign came off the rails and he asked for help working out what would happen next. Lots of interesting suggestions to pilfer ideas from in the comments. The Undead Are Coming!! A reply to Johnn – My answer was too big to reasonably put in a comment (and needed some organization to be clear), so I put it in an extra blog post. Don’t miss the comments for extra clarification. 25 Cleric Character Hooks – Johnn concludes his character hooks series with this entry that offers 25 Cleric Character Hooks. The Perils Of Prophecy: Avoiding the Plot Locomotive – I discuss prophecies within RPGs, the benefits, the pitfalls, and how to avoid the problems. Don’t skip the comments, there are some additional techniques worth considering described there. And once again, we have feedback from someone who employed the techniques I offer and came up with a great result, so you know it works! “Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?”: A New idea for handling “wild luck” in D&D – I come up with a new idea for using luck in an RPG, especially in D&D. May the camels of 1,000 fleas – wait, that’s not right: Improving Curses in 3.x – I reinvent the rules for Curses in 3.x/Pathfinder to add to its roleplaying potential, then offer 60 Curses to fire the imagination. Undead Foe Generator – The last of Johnn’s Q-workshop dice articles is all about giving personality to the undead. The contest was over long ago, but the tables are still just as functional. This article was inspired by the Red and black Skull Dice set which appears to be no longer available (the link is to Q-Workshop’s home page). Encounters With Meaning Part Three of my series Creating ecology-based random encounters applies the processes developed in earlier parts of the series and analogous theory to create encounter tables for Urban Settings and Dungeon Settings, and then wraps the series with integrating random encounters with your plotlines to infuse them with meaning. Along the way, I explore some strange but related back alleys, like the ecology of Undeath, and Devils & Demons. The Creation Of A Deity: The Origins Of Cyrene – Another behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Assassin’s Amulet, this post contains my recollection of the creative process that led to the rather unique Deity Of Death that is central to the content of the e-book. It also serves as a teaser for the next article, and places it into some sort of context. Cyrene Revealed: an excerpt from Assassin’s Amulet – Another excerpt from Assassin’s Amulet, a heavily-edited description of the Deity herself. The Remembrance Of The Disquiet Dead: A Spooky Spot and Campaign Premise – For the October 2013 Blog Carnival I offer a cemetery that follows the PCs wherever they go. Explaining the cause of the phenomena led to three or four different interpretations, each with their own resolution to the series of encounters, so this will fit into more than one type of campaign.
		Magic, Sorcery, & The Arcane A Quality Of Spirit – Big Questions in RPGs – Why asking yourself the Big Metaphysical Questions matters when designing a campaign. All Is Three: A 3.x Fantasy Campaign Premise – I offer an original but unfinished campaign idea, fleshing it out in the course of the article as an example of how I go about designing a campaign. Making The Loot Part Of The Plot: The Value Of Magic – As part of the Blog Carnival, I analyze the possible meaning of the term “value”, and evolve a classification system for GMs to use in deciding what magic items to place as loot in their campaigns. Part Seven of Johnn’s series about City Government Power Bases gets into Magic and Psionics as a source of authority. Back To Basics: Example: The Belt Of Terra – Part four of the two-part article contains a larger and more complete example, illustrating all the steps in the process of creating an adventure, structuring it, and inserting it into a campaign plan. Along the way it expands both the game physics and game mythology and touches on or references no less than 20 other plotlines, showing how tightly integrated a plotline can be within a campaign. 63 Wizard Hooks, part of the Character Hooks series. But there are actually 81 plot hooks (as of this writing) by the time you count the ones in the comments. 54 Sorcerer Hooks, part of the Character Hooks series. Guest Contributor Bobby Catdragon offers 54 hooks for the Sorcerer character class. Readers take the tally to 59. How To Cast A Spell On Your Campaign And Make It Sparkle Like Gold Dust – Johnn describes his approach to GMing spell interactions and turning them into plot elements within the game. This is part one of two. I still don’t think I’ve extracted all the good juices from this article for use in my own campaigns :) How To Cast A Spell On Your Campaign And Polish Till It Gleams – Part two of Johnn’s article on turning spells into plot elements within a campaign. The Perils Of Prophecy: Avoiding the Plot Locomotive – I discuss prophecies within RPGs, the benefits, the pitfalls, and how to avoid the problems. Don’t skip the comments, there are some additional techniques worth considering described there. And once again, we have feedback from someone who employed the techniques I offer and came up with a great result, so you know it works! A Rational Intuition – The differences between instinct and intelligence, and how different game systems handle the former. Ask The GMs: When players make themselves immune, remember that “Resistance Is Futile” – How do you handle PCs that seem to be immune to magic? It’s Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Game Fraud and Counter-Fraud in RPGs – In a fantasy, sci-fi, or superhero world, how might people cheat at games of chance – and what would casinos have to do to stop them? Broadening Magical Horizons: Some Feats from Fumanor and Shards Of Divinity – 27 Original feats from my D&D campaigns are offered in four categories: Reducing Metamagics, Enchantment Metamagics, General Metamagics, and General Magic-related Feats. These of course are just the tip of the iceberg, one day I’ll pull out another bunch of them. “Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?”: A New idea for handling “wild luck” in D&D – I come up with a new idea for using luck in an RPG, especially in D&D. “How Hard Can It Be?” – Skill Checks under the microscope – I examine the fundamental concepts that underpin skill checks and “difficulty targets” using D&D 3.x as an example and find multiple answers depending on your assumptions – and expose flaws in the 3.x mechanic along the way. Despite my making a mistake in the article (check the comments) I stand by the conclusions. This is something that is important for every GM to understand regardless of which game system they are using. Relatively Uncertain: Taking Control of Game Physics – I take a close look at game physics – why you need one, the assumptions that underpin them, downsides, and how to create a manageable one. With An Evil Gleam: Giving Treasure a Personality – I talk about ways to give objects personalities in RPGs – and why. 6 Ways to Enhance Magic Items – Johnn’s article offers exactly what it says on the label. There are some “fun” ideas and important thoughts in the comments. An excerpt from ‘A player’s Guide to Legacy Items’ – Part 1 – As part of the blog carnival, I offer an excerpt from one of the free bonus eBooks that are part of the Assassin’s Amulet package. Legacy Items are a new form of magic item, and the bonus eBook aims to give players everything they need to know about how they work. An excerpt from ‘A player’s Guide to Legacy Items’ – Part 2 – The second part of the two-part excerpt, which discusses the powers of Legacy Items – from a Player’s point of view. This should all have been one article, it was split for practical reasons, so I haven’t counted this second half toward the overall total. Making The Loot Part Of The Plot: Loot as a plot mechanic – I consider just what “loot” might be, and how it can be used as a plot mechanic. There’s a link to an interesting related article in the comments. Loot As Part Of The Plot: Making, Earning, Finding, Analyzing, Using, Selling, and Destroying Loot – As part of the Blog Carnival, I consider the many different ways in which loot in general might be made part of a plot. Along the way I get to vent about the Identify Spell in D&D, how easily rare/valuable items can be converted to cash in most Fantasy Games, about Fantasy Economics in general, and about another D&D Spell, Mordenkainen’s Disjunction. There’s a discussion in the comments about the relationship between videogames and tabletop RPGs. Making The Loot Part Of The Plot: The Value Of Magic – As part of the Blog Carnival, I analyze the possible meaning of the term “value”, and evolve a classification system for GMs to use in deciding what magic items to place as loot in their campaigns. Why I Fell In Love with Staves Again After 10 Years (PFRPG) – Johnn returns to Campaign Mastery with this article on how Staves have changed in the Pathfinder game system – and why the changes are good for his campaign. This was part of the Blog Carnival. October Blog Carnival Wrap-up: A cavalcade of posts about goodies – The Blog carnival produced a huge number of great entries. I review them all. There are a couple of clarifications in the comments in response to what I had to say, and at least one more article worth reading on the subject. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 4 – In part four of the background to the Orcs and Elves story, I start to update the campaign history so-far, building on material I had already published. Don’t worry, there are links in the article telling you when to revisit that material. There are lots of editorial asides to offer glimpses behind the curtain and context. The Giveaways continue, this time I offer an original magic item, The Spirit Blade of Clan Takamuchi.
		Money & Wealth How Much Is That Warhorse In The Window? – Pricing Of Goods in D&D – After recommending “…And A 10-foot Pole” in a previous article, I look at the problems of converting its prices to the D&D scale and expose unexpected problems and complications. Then I share my system for converting the prices given, and a couple of alternatives (including to standard 3.x/Pathfinder). Coinage in Fumanor: Windows into a campaign background – I expand on some material that I left out of How Much Is That Warhorse In The Window? – Pricing Of Goods in D&D because it’s a good example of how to take a section of the rules and turn them into a roleplaying element. This is a warts-and-all analysis – what choices were made and why, what worked, and what didn’t. Loot As Part Of The Plot: Making, Earning, Finding, Analyzing, Using, Selling, and Destroying Loot – As part of the Blog Carnival, I consider the many different ways in which loot in general might be made part of a plot. Along the way I get to vent about the Identify Spell in D&D, how easily rare/valuable items can be converted to cash in most Fantasy Games, about Fantasy Economics in general, and about another D&D Spell, Mordenkainen’s Disjunction. There’s a discussion in the comments about the relationship between videogames and tabletop RPGs. Making The Loot Part Of The Plot: The Value Of Magic – As part of the Blog Carnival, I analyze the possible meaning of the term “value”, and evolve a classification system for GMs to use in deciding what magic items to place as loot in their campaigns. 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.
		Cities & Architecture Note that a lot of the advice contained within these articles will scale – to nations in one direction, and villages in the other. Pillars Of Architecture: Some Thoughts On The Construction Of Cities – I reflect on simulating the way cities grow and how to incorporate this process into the mapping of the city. I still intend to follow this up with an example at some point. Architecture of Riddleport Inspires Plots – Johnn describes how he is using the architecture within the city of Riddleport to enhance his game, and (by example), how you can do the same for yours. City Government Power Bases – In this 9-part series, Johnn looks at what might give a city government and its leading citizens their power and authority, which dovetails very nicely with my earlier article on the ways in which leaders are selected; the latter was more about nations than cities, but scales perfectly well. In Part one of the series he lays out the general principles he will be using, this article is essential reading for the rest of the series. Part Two examines the power bases of The Law and affiliations; Part Three covers Character and Social Classes; Part Four deals with Popularity and Leadership; Part Five concerns Social Leverage, Marriage, and Wealth; Part Six covers Wars and Military Authority; Part Seven gets into Magic and Psionics as a source of authority; and Part Eight covers Religion; and finally, Part 9 covers Land. (NB: I’ve always meant to write more parts to this series, and Johnn has given his blessing to that endeavor. One of these days I’ll get around to it.)
		Politics See also some of the entries on Societies & Nations, below. Pulling That Lever: The Selection Of Leaders In RPG Societies – How are leaders in an RPG society selected – and what does that say about who they are? I had a lot of fun speculating on suggestions and alternatives raised by other contributors in the comments! Anyone interested in this subject should also check out Johnn’s subsequent series City Government Power Bases considering what might give a city government and its leading citizens their power and authority, detailed in the preceding Blogdex section. Ask The GMs: How to survive political games with paranoia and intrigue – The question might concern a Vampire The Masquerade campaign, but Johnn and I look beyond that to offer advice on how to handle games filled with in-game politics. With a postscript piece of advice in the comments.
		Societies & Nations Note that a lot of this advice will scale to cities and smaller settlements. Distilled Cultural Essence – My first major series at Campaign Mastery offers a simple technique for the generation of unique and original cultures for use within a game (in part 1) and ways to display that uniqueness to the players in parts 2, 3, and 4. Originally a pair of articles, so that’s how it’s counted here, not as four parts. Lore Enforcement: The Legal System in an RPG – Thinking about the legal systems that need to be present in an RPG environment and some of the many variations that are possible – and important – in how they work. Stiff Upper Lip: Thinking about nations in RPGs – I supplement the Distilled Cultural Essence series with this article examining how a nation’s reputation on the sporting field both derives from and reflects the national reputation and ‘personality’ in other areas. Along the way I display plenty of parochial pride in my own nation’s achievements (with a lot of respect for the achievements of others). Then in the comments, I show how to reverse-engineer the process of creating an interesting character to generate an interesting nation for your RPGs. GM’s Toolbox: World Building Part Two: Communities and Politics – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. This article looks at the social and human/demi-human landscape of a game world. The poetry of meaning: 16 words to synopsize a national identity – I argue that the literal translations of specific words can offer insight into national and cultural identities – then reverse the relationship to turn the concept into a tool for developing cultures and nations.
			Shards Of Divinity On Alien Languages – This is probably the most structurally complex series of articles at Campaign Mastery. Before I could complete my series on Names, I needed to address the subject of Alien Languages. The easiest way of doing that comprehensively was to excerpt the material on the subject that I had crafted as the foundation of my Shards Of Divinity campaign; but in order for that to make sense, and be placed in proper context, I had to describe in detail some of the Realms from that campaign, and for those to make sense, I had to present the foundations of the campaign. Like one domino knocking down another, the compounding of complexity accumulated. This series has never been finished because of the amount of time the articles took to write (they average about 11,000 words each, 75% of them new material), because I had covered most of the material on languages that was the original justification for the series, and because the Orcs & Elves series took priority and dominated 2013. The first article in the series, The Non-human Languages Generator, describes the ideal process of creating a non-human language. The second, The Shared Kingdoms: A Premise from the Shards Of Divinity Campaign, interweaves the origin myth of the game world and discussions of the Origins and Concepts of the campaign. It also summarizes the cultures and politics of the game world and details the capital, before getting into the common language in detail, and the format of human names in the campaign. The third article, Bher Yuralvus, The Home Of The Endless Library, details an independent city-state which treasures knowledge over everything else (including discussion of why this kingdom is in the campaign at all). The article’s second part provides a new feat, “Linguist”, and gives the general language rules for the Shards Of Divinity Campaign. Four in the series, Causa Domasura, The Home Of Reason, offers details of a Mage-dominated Human Republican Meritocracy (including how and why I came up with it), then begins to put the principles on languages into context by detailing the Common Languages from the campaign. Along the way, I offer a set of “Cheat processes” for simulating non-human languages. Fifth on the list is Therassus Amora, The Centre Of Attraction, which details in the now-established pattern a Human Feudal Kingdom – this campaign’s take on the “common standard” of political structures – with a couple of twists. The second part discusses the unusual languages from the campaign in detail, has a unique Gnomish Name generator, and then begins detailing the technique for creating your own non-human language simulator. The Sixth article in the series, The Ineoddolus Imperascora (The Traders And Commerce Empire), provides a detailed description of the ultimate human Plutocracy, where everything is for sale – at the right price. The second part of the article details the rare languages from the campaign, and the third part continues the instructions in making your own non-human language simulator. The Seventh, and last, article in the series (so far) is The Longex Dextora (The Hinterlands) which describes a frontier realm for Byzantine human politics – technically, a Republic of Independent City-States against a background of dominance games between Orcs, Giants, Gnolls, & Goblins. Ironically, it evolved during construction so that it is no longer (technically) a “Hinterlands” at all. Part Two of the article details the Obscure Languages, and Part Three shows how to create the rules that turn a foreign language into a non-human language. The Eighth post (which was promised at the end of the 7th and never delivered promises discussion of a Gnomish Monarchy, The Parumveneaora, also known as The Vale Of Dreams, something that’s already been created called The Language Map, and a discussion of the theoretical underpinnings of this approach to languages. After that, I still had Six more principle Realms from the campaign to write up. One of these days, when time permits, I’ll finish this series. Then I’ll restructure it into an e-book with some pretty maps and art :)
		Races Races Should make a Difference – Johnn suggests ways in which a race’s presence or absence should affect your game world. The Age Of An Elf: Demographics of the long-lived – I look at the population dynamics of longer-lived species and aging in RPGs, and find problems with the standard D&D model. The process permits an assessment of the social impact that the longer lifespans and resulting demographics have, and offer ways of interpreting or modifying the results and the base assumptions to achieve the society that you want in your game. The contributions and discussion in the comments are a total greater length than the article itself, and not to be missed if this subject is relevant to your campaign.
			Fumanor Life, Death, and Life Renewed – March 2011 Blog Carnival – My first contribution to the March 2011 Blog Carnival considers proposals to restore some legacy rules, and the question of whether or not Elves can be Resurrected, and extrapolates to consider the impact of changing rules systems mid-campaign, and then (unexpectedly) to considering the Resurrect spell as a plot point within a campaign and a campaign background. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 1 – The Orcs And Elves series consists of two broad components: the story itself, and the backstory / campaign background / context that shapes that story. While these are all presented as one big series at Campaign Mastery, these background-element articles have a broader utility. Originally intended to be three parts, it grew into five. This first part addresses the question of why reinvent races in different fantasy campaigns at all? and then synopsizes very briefly the events of the previous campaigns in the game setting. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 2 – Part two continues sketching in the background to the Orcs and Elves plotline. This begins describing the key characters, along the way giving the backgrounds and histories of their races within the campaign, covering Elves, Drow, Ogres, Dwarves, and Halflings. I give away lots of freebies from the campaign in the process. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 3 – Taking up where the previous article left off, this article describes Orcs, a new race (Dwarvlings), a new character class (The Fated, a reinvention from the ground up of an idea from The Planar Handbook [D&D 3.0]), another new race (The Verdonne), Humans in Fumanor, and a new variant character class (The Paladins Of Thumâin). Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 4 – In part four of the background to the Orcs and Elves story, I start to update the campaign history so-far, building on material I had already published. Don’t worry, there are links in the article telling you when to revisit that material. There are lots of editorial asides to offer glimpses behind the curtain and context. The Giveaways continue, this time I offer an original magic item, The Spirit Blade of Clan Takamuchi. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 5 – The final preparatory piece of the puzzle completes the synopsis of the campaign so far (including some parts of the story that the players didn’t know). A sidebar considers the economics of Undeath. As a giveaway with this post I offer a high-res map of the part of the Game World where the campaign has (mostly) taken place – but bereft of labels and captions so other GMs can use it as they see fit, and another with captions detailing the PCs travels. I point out that each of the PCs has a personal quest in the campaign(and list them) – something that the players would only peripherally have been aware of. Finally, I discuss just how the Orcs & Elves series was being written, in other words, the plan of attack for the series. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Orcish Mythology – Did I suggest that I was ready to set aside the background and get on with the series itself? Well, I thought I was, but a funny thing happened around the Chapter 51 mark – I found that I needed to construct and outline a pantheon for the Orcs, and a mythology to go with that pantheon. By the time I had finished this background work, there wasn’t enough time to actually write another article in the series – so I presented my handiwork, instead. Surprisingly, it turned out to be even more central to the storyline than I had originally expected, so it was all serendipitous. Who Is “The Hidden Dragon”? – Behind the curtain of the Orcs and Elves Series – This is all about decision-making when designing plotlines and adventures. Once again I had to interrupt the ongoing main narrative of The Orcs & Elves plotline, which had reached the point where decisions had to be made concerning the question asked in the title; I spell out the thought process that went into determining the solution used in that story. The Orcs & Elves Series – From the start of my Fumanor Campaign, there have been secrets concerning the history of Elves, Drow, and Orcs in the game world. Now the characters have reached the point where the truth has to be told. This completely reinvents (from the players point of view) the campaign background of the world so far as those particular races is concerned. It is presented here as a very long fantasy novel. I’m not even going to list the contents, here – it’s just too massive a series. With each part, I build up a Glossary of Elvish language used within the story. So far, it’s up to Chapter 85 of 116 originally planned – but I’ve hit all the essentials in terms of its campaign needs, so whether or not I continue on all the way is still to be determined. I could more or less wrap up the series at this point by having the PCs awaken from their dream state and being told, “The rest you know…” On the other hand, the completist in me wants to tell the rest of the story, so we’ll see. It’s a heck of a lot of work.
			Shards Of Divinity Pieces Of Creation: The Hidden Truth Of Doppelgangers – Goodman Games published an excellent sourcebook, The Complete Guide To Doppelgangers. The only problem was that at least one of my players had read it. So I wrote a sequel that completely inverts the rationale of the species so that the Goodman Games product is what the Doppelgangers want the rest of the world to think. The article discusses the how and why I did that in detail, and includes my follow-up text as a free PDF, with the kind permission of Goodman Games.
		Languages Ask The GMs: Rubbing Two Dry Words Together – Why have different languages in an RPG, how can you use them to enhance a story, and what’s wrong with universal translators. anyway? Some of our readers thought this was our best article so far (in July 2010). Sugar, Spice, and a touch of Rhubarb: That’s what little names are made of – Article three in the A Good Name Is Hard To Find series discusses simple name structures and how to create a name using a name seed, and as a bonus, shows how to generate a monosyllabic language. On Alien Languages – This is probably the most structurally complex series of articles at Campaign Mastery. Before I could complete my series on Names, I needed to address the subject of Alien Languages. The easiest way of doing that comprehensively was to excerpt the material on the subject that I had crafted as the foundation of my Shards Of Divinity campaign; but in order for that to make sense, and be placed in proper context, I had to describe in detail some of the Realms from that campaign, and for those to make sense, I had to present the foundations of the campaign. Like one domino knocking down another, the compounding of complexity accumulated. This series has never been finished because of the amount of time the articles took to write (they average about 11,000 words each, 75% of them new material), because I had covered most of the material on languages that was the original justification for the series, and because the Orcs & Elves series took priority and dominated 2013. The first article in the series, The Non-human Languages Generator, describes the ideal process of creating a non-human language. The second, The Shared Kingdoms: A Premise from the Shards Of Divinity Campaign, interweaves the origin myth of the game world and discussions of the Origins and Concepts of the campaign. It also summarizes the cultures and politics of the game world and details the capital, before getting into the common language in detail, and the format of human names in the campaign. The third article, Bher Yuralvus, The Home Of The Endless Library, details an independent city-state which treasures knowledge over everything else (including discussion of why this kingdom is in the campaign at all). The article’s second part provides a new feat, “Linguist”, and gives the general language rules for the Shards Of Divinity Campaign. Four in the series, Causa Domasura, The Home Of Reason, offers details of a Mage-dominated Human Republican Meritocracy (including how and why I came up with it), then begins to put the principles on languages into context by detailing the Common Languages from the campaign. Along the way, I offer a set of “Cheat processes” for simulating non-human languages. Fifth on the list is Therassus Amora, The Centre Of Attraction, which details in the now-established pattern a Human Feudal Kingdom – this campaign’s take on the “common standard” of political structures – with a couple of twists. The second part discusses the unusual languages from the campaign in detail, has a unique Gnomish Name generator, and then begins detailing the technique for creating your own non-human language simulator. The Sixth article in the series, The Ineoddolus Imperascora (The Traders And Commerce Empire), provides a detailed description of the ultimate human Plutocracy, where everything is for sale – at the right price. The second part of the article details the rare languages from the campaign, and the third part continues the instructions in making your own non-human language simulator. The Seventh, and last, article in the series (so far) is The Longex Dextora (The Hinterlands) which describes a frontier realm for Byzantine human politics – technically, a Republic of Independent City-States against a background of dominance games between Orcs, Giants, Gnolls, & Goblins. Ironically, it evolved during construction so that it is no longer (technically) a “Hinterlands” at all. Part Two of the article details the Obscure Languages, and Part Three shows how to create the rules that turn a foreign language into a non-human language. The Eighth post (which was promised at the end of the 7th and never delivered promises discussion of a Gnomish Monarchy, The Parumveneaora, also known as The Vale Of Dreams, something that’s already been created called The Language Map, and a discussion of the theoretical underpinnings of this approach to languages. After that, I still had Six more principle Realms from the campaign to write up. One of these days, when time permits, I’ll finish this series. Then I’ll restructure it into an e-book with some pretty maps and art :)
		Character Classes Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 3 – Taking up where the previous article left off, this article describes Orcs, a new race (Dwarvlings), a new character class (The Fated, a reinvention from the ground up of an idea from The Planar Handbook [D&D 3.0]), another new race (The Verdonne), Humans in Fumanor, and a new variant character class (The Paladins Of Thumâin).
		Organizations Guilds, Organizations, and other Bad Company – Some quick on-the-fly rules for PC memberships in organizations within an RPG. Mage Guild Mastermind Survives Pirate Haven – Johnn takes readers through his thought process when creating a faction for his Riddleport campaign. Shades of Sky Blue: Variations on U.N.T.I.L. – Perhaps the most seminal creation of the Hero Games universe is U.N.T.I.L, but (while the acronym is excellent) the name still gives me acute pain, it’s so at odds with what the organization actually does. In this article I describe how I reinvented the organization for my game and the implications in terms of the policies, principles, and Charter of the United Nations. The Veil of Secrecy: A truth about organizations in games – Every real-world organization has secrets and reasons to keep those secrets. Good ones. Necessary ones. Bad ones. This article is all about institutional secrecy by organizations in your RPG and how likely it is that an organization will have such a secret – and how useful it can be from a plot and characterization perspective to have that secret on tap.
		Wonders Big Is Not Enough: Monuments and Places Of Wonder – For my sixth post in the September 2013 Blog Carnival, I raise the question of Wonders Of The Known World and the qualities they need to possess in order to live up to the label; four reasons they are hard to do well, ten reasons why they are worth doing, and 12 sources of wonders to help overcome those difficulties. Six Wonders: A selected assortment of Wondrous Locations for a fantasy RPG – When I sat down to list ideas for the September 2013 Blog Carnival, I only intended to do one article on Wonders. But when you get inspired… The offerings in this post are: The Broken Man, The Pool Of Reflection, The Palace Of Winter, The Citadel Of Secrets, The Spire Of Contention, and the Library Of Shelves. Five More Wonders: Another assortment of Locations for a fantasy RPG – My Ninth article for the September 2013 Blog Carnival continues where the last one left off, with five more Wonders Of The Known World (that I didn’t have time to complete for the previous article). This offers The Pyramid of Reason, The Caves Of Rockbeard, The Rainbow Of Eternity, The Desert Of Gold, and The Emerald Falls. Still More Wonders: Fifteen Amazing Locations for a Sci-Fi RPG – I snuck this one in because September 2013 wasn’t quite long enough to fit everything into the Blog Carnival (actually, it was delayed because I needed an extra half-week to deal with Fantasy Wonders and because I was having trouble gathering enough ideas. Thanks to the players in my superhero campaign, I got there in the end). This article offers The Orouberus Molecule, The Cascade Nebula, “Birth And Death” By Garl, The Dyson Superplant Of Epsilon Centauri, The Spiderweb Of Rukh-C, The Torus of Andraphones, The Confusion of Hydra, The Waltz Of Minos IV, The Diaphanous Assembly of Omicron Boötis, The Billboard Of Greeting, The Halo Rock, The Necrotis Plague Planet, The “Cosmic String” of 18 Delphini, The Arena Of Canopia, and The Fireworx Swarm.

 

Campaign Plotting   Before you can start creating and running adventures in your game world, you have to decide how they are all going to fit together. Will there be an overarching plotline? Will each adventure be completely isolated from all the others? How will the campaign finish, and how will it get there? How will subplots be handled and structured? The GM is sure to encounter problems in these areas as the campaign proceeds – how can they be solved? And finally, how will in-game prophecies of these ultimate directions be handled?
	Spring Cleaning for your Campaign – How players and GMs can spruce up and refresh a campaign by cleaning up loose ends. Ask The GMs: Networks Of NPCs – The GM gave the PCs a bunch of contacts from which the Players expect to extract Intelligence, but the GM is out of his depth – how does he organize these NPCs and their info? How does he turn these NPCs into an Intelligence Network with drowning himself in paperwork & Prep? Includes 13 tips for handling informants and some links to related articles. The Nimble Mind: Making Skills Matter in RPGs – How to make skills important in an RPG. Too often, they don’t seem to be. ‘Nuff said. Ask The GMs: Giving Players The Power To Choose Their Own Adventures – How do you create a campaign that gives the players absolute freedom but still leaves the GM in control? Ask The GMs: The Momentum Of The Inevitable – In the discussion following a previous Ask The GMs, we were asked, ‘should there ever be something that is too big or has too much momentum for the PCs to be able to stop it?’ The discussion that follows the article adds to the content so well that it feels like part of the original article; if you’re interested in the question, don’t miss them. Jolting The Status Quo – I start by talking about a significant change in my personal life, and the anticipated impact on Campaign Mastery which leads me to write about upsetting the status quo for characters in a game, and how the game can benefit. I still love the illustrations that I put together for this article – the one showing an office type who is smugly proud of his achievement in stacking boxes on the ceiling, the other a befuddled type struggling to comprehend a scene in which a river flows across the sky and a tree grows downwards from its banks. You can almost here him saying “What’s going on here?”. Game Master Tool Illustrated: Plot Flowcharts – The Blog Carnival for September 2010 was on the subject of Preparation. Johnn provides Campaign Mastery’s entry by considering Plot Flowcharts. At the end of the article and in the comments, several software aids are listed for producing flowcharts to help. Plot flowchart example – Guest Author and Campaign Mastery reader Yong Kyosunim follows up Johnn’s article on using plot flowcharts with a real example. Lessons From The West Wing III: Time Happens In The Background – The third in this irregular series is actually the seventh post to be included because the first article was itself a five-part series-within-a-series. I discuss the concept that time continues moving even when the PCs aren’t present, and ways to make this practical. Directed Plots, Undirected Narrative, and Stuff That Just Happens – I examine the ways in which different Narrative Styles can combine with Episodic and Serialized campaigns to produce eight distinctly different combinations, and how those can be sandboxed. The goal is to help GMs choose the narrative style that best suits the campaigns and the adventure that they want to run – and to explain (if you’re using the wrong style) why the campaign keeps going off the rails. Starting In The Middle – The virtues of skipping the beginning and going straight to the middle. I offer three ways of getting straight into the action without railroading the players. There’s further discussion of the merits and drawbacks of railroading as well as some discussion of the ideas I’ve offered, in the comments. Making The Loot Part Of The Plot: Loot as a plot mechanic – I consider just what “loot” might be, and how it can be used as a plot mechanic. There’s a link to an interesting related article in the comments. GM’s Toolbox: Prep Tools Part One: Campaign and Adventure Planning – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. This article deals with the upper-level planning that goes into running a game. Turning Reaction into Proaction – plotting techniques to get your players moving – After a couple of ‘soft’, speculative articles, I turn my attention back to practical measures. In this article, I consider ways to make your players active participants in campaign plotting and plot development. Ensemble or Star Vehicle – Which is Your RPG Campaign? – Is your game an ensemble, in which everyone gets an equal share of the spotlight, or a star vehicle in which a few characters dominate play? What are the differences and the impacts? And how can you keep your players happy, either way – or fix it, if your campaign is the ‘wrong one’? The Seven Strata Of Story – Any narrative – including RPG adventures – consists of multiple layers working together to tell the overall story. Giving PCs their independence from the central author (the GM) simply adds another layer, or perhaps a sub-layer. This article breaks down these layers of story, shows the relationships between them, and how they can be exploited or enhanced to improve the game – or the story, in any other medium – for everyone. Who Is “The Hidden Dragon”? – Behind the curtain of the Orcs and Elves Series – This is all about decision-making when designing plotlines and adventures. Once again I had to interrupt the ongoing main narrative of The Orcs & Elves plotline, which had reached the point where decisions had to be made concerning the question asked in the title; I spell out the thought process that went into determining the solution used in that story. There are 7 primary types of writer’s block besides “Blank Page Syndrome”. Part Two offers solutions to the first three of them Conceptual blocks (Ideas), Specific-Scene Blocks (Scenes within an adventure), and Setting Blocks (Locations). People, Places, and Narratives: Matching Locations to plot needs – Your cast of characters isn’t limited to PCs and NPCs; this article shows you how to access and use the current location as another member of that cast.
		Plot Sequencing My Campaign Planning Cycle – Johnn describes his campaign planning routine. When Good Ideas Linger Too Long: Compacting plotlines – Using scriptwriting techniques to compress a plotline that had lingered for too long. Ask The GMs: Pacing Your Campaign – How do you pace a campaign? How do you know if you’re giving too much or too little in experience and treasure? And how do you get the PCs to explore more than the local area? Also included is a complete outline for an original 3.x campaign. Scenario Sequencing: Structuring Campaign Flow – How to link adventures so that they flow naturally. There’s more to it than you might think. One of our readers offers an alternative system in the comments that might suit some GMs better. Plot Stat Block For The Organized Game Master – Johnn and I were so impressed with Eureka that we each wrote a review of the supplement and each got something different out of it. This is Johnn’s, about how he can better organize the plotlines that he has running at any given time in his campaigns. Directed Plots, Undirected Narrative, and Stuff That Just Happens – I examine the ways in which different Narrative Styles can combine with Episodic and Serialized campaigns to produce eight distinctly different combinations, and how those can be sandboxed. The goal is to help GMs choose the narrative style that best suits the campaigns and the adventure that they want to run – and to explain (if you’re using the wrong style) why the campaign keeps going off the rails. Back To Basics Part 1: Adventure Structures – I examine the creation of an adventure and how the plot can be structured. This was very much written with Beginner GMs in mind. Back To Basics: Campaign Structures – This article continues the ‘For Beginners’ theme of the previous, exploring different ways of tying adventures together into a wider campaign structure, starting with the simplest and evolving through to an extremely complex one that is state-of-the-art (at least for me). I still get the occasional request for the campaign planning materials that I excerpted for the latter. I conclude the article by offering a process for the conversion of an existing campaign into the plotting structure that I offer. Back To Basics: Example: The White Tower – Part three of two in the articles about creating adventures and hooking them together to form a campaign offers an example of the process of adventure creation and connection from one of my actual campaigns. This article was carefully written and edited to conceal the actual ideas that I chose for the real adventure in the campaign. Back To Basics: Example: The Belt Of Terra – Part four of the two-part article contains a larger and more complete example, illustrating all the steps in the process of creating an adventure, structuring it, and inserting it into a campaign plan. Along the way it expands both the game physics and game mythology and touches on or references no less than 20 other plotlines, showing how tightly integrated a plotline can be within a campaign. The Echo Of Events To Come: foreshadowing in a campaign structure – I follow up the adventure structures series with a postscript article on how to foreshadow future events in a campaign, and how to use campaign planning to make it easier to do so. Amazon Nazis On The Moon: Campaign Planning Revisited – For those who prefer a simpler campaign structure to the one I use in most of my campaigns, I describe the technique I devised for use in planning the Co-GM’d Pulp Campaign, giving readers an original adventure in the process.
		Ask The GMs: An Epic Confusion, or how to stage a blockbuster finish – A self-explanatory title, really. And there are related tips in the comments. Best of all, one reader commented that he used our advice and had a great finish to his campaign as a result – so you know it works! A Grand Conclusion: Thinking about a big finish – I follow up the previous article with some further thoughts on the subject. Theme vs Style vs Genre: Crafting Anniversary Special Adventures – To celebrate the 300th post (and some other great stats) I look at ways of celebrating campaign milestones with special adventures.
		Plot Ideas Pile On This: Undead are Taking Over. What happens? – Johnn’s campaign came off the rails and he asked for help working out what would happen next. Lots of interesting suggestions to pilfer ideas from in the comments. The Undead Are Coming!! A reply to Johnn – My answer was too big to reasonably put in a comment (and needed some organization to be clear), so I put it in an extra blog post. Don’t miss the comments for extra clarification. Character Hooks – A series in which Johnn and several guest contributors provide adventure/plot hook ideas for different character classes. Although mainly intended for 4e D&D, most can be imported into any D&D campaign and some suit an even wider range of games. 50 Barbarian Hooks – Johnn’s initial article includes a brief review of the revised Barbarian character class in the D&D 4e version of Player’s Handbook 2, which inspired the series. 63 Wizard Hooks – Umm, actually no. Readers (and my humble self) have added more to the list, taking it up 81 plot hooks for Wizard Characters as of this writing. 50 Paladin Hooks – Guest contributor D. L. Campbell extends the series with these 50 Hooks for the Noblest of The Noble Warriors. Well, that’s what they would like to think about themselves… 54 Sorcerer Hooks – Guest Contributor Bobby Catdragon offers 54 hooks for the Sorcerer character class. Readers take the tally to 59. This is a rarity, I think it’s the only article posted at Campaign Mastery without some sort of accompanying illustration. 25 Cleric Character Hooks – Johnn concludes his character hooks series with this entry that offers 25 Cleric Character Hooks. This article is more-or-less tying with Building The Perfect Beast: A D&D 3.5 online monster generator as the most popular articles on the site, day in, day out. Mine Fiction For Campaign Qualities – Johnn starts with a review of FantasyCraft and extrapolates one of the ideas within to find a way of customizing RPG worlds and drawing on fiction for inspiration. Vocabulary Hijinx: Using random word pairings for inspiration – I offer up an idea-generation technique that I haven’t seen written up very often, but that can really spur creativity. There’s a link to some technology that you can use to streamline the technique in the comments. Loot As Part Of The Plot: Making, Earning, Finding, Analyzing, Using, Selling, and Destroying Loot – As part of the Blog Carnival, I consider the many different ways in which loot in general might be made part of a plot. Along the way I get to vent about the Identify Spell in D&D, how easily rare/valuable items can be converted to cash in most Fantasy Games, about Fantasy Economics in general, and about another D&D Spell, Mordenkainen’s Disjunction. There’s a discussion in the comments about the relationship between videogames and tabletop RPGs. Melodies & Rests: ‘Euphoria’ by Def Leppard – The first, and so far only, occurrence of this occasional recurring column in which I mine music or lyrics for plot ideas, in the process showing how its done. This prototype considers the Australian CD release of ‘Euphoria’ by Def Leppard. The Metaphor Engine: A surprising plot generator – Using a deck of cards and the rules of an established game like Poker to generate plots and campaign backgrounds. Splitting Hairs: Exploring nuance as a source of game ideas – It might seem like splitting hairs, but extremely minor differences between the meaning of words can be a great source of interesting ideas. There’s no such thing as a trivial difference, as this article shows. Patterns Of Unpredictability: Superheroics and the Stock Market – The impact of superheroes on the stock market and on economics in general. Trivial Pursuits: Sources of oddball ideas – I demonstrate the use of books of trivia for ideas, with a whole heap of examples interspersed throughout the article.
		Subplots My Favorite PC Travel Game: Campfire Chats – The January 2010 Blog Carnival was about travel in games. Johnn wrote this article as Campaign Mastery’s contribution. I add what I think is a clever twist to the idea in the comments. How To Cast A Spell On Your Campaign And Make It Sparkle Like Gold Dust – Johnn describes his approach to GMing spell interactions and turning them into plot elements within the game. This is part one of two. I still don’t think I’ve extracted all the good juices from this article for use in my own campaigns :) How To Cast A Spell On Your Campaign And Polish Till It Gleams – Part two of Johnn’s article on turning spells into plot elements within a campaign. Who Got Poker In My RPG? – Poker is a card game that’s still growing in popularity, but which had a real boom a couple of years ago. Johnn offers some ideas on how to include the game within your campaigns. Living in an RPG: The Accumulation Of Mundane Events – I devise a system based around playing cards for introducing cumulative small changes into a PCs life, in collaboration with the owning player. Along the way, I reflect on the changes that have occurred in my life over the preceding decade. Round Pegs In A Square Wheel: Reinventing Roulette for RPGs – Human nature doesn’t change. I examine human vices and foibles and how to use them to reinforce the genre of a game, then consider how to reinvent gambling, taking roulette as an example, for different genres.
		Writing See also the content under “Fiction & Writing”. The Right Quip at The Right Time: Humor in RPGs – More than a “try to lighten the mood by telling the occasional joke” article, I analyze a whole bunch of different types of humor and how to use them (and not use them) in an RPG, discovering why Comedy RPGs are hard. Action Trumps Description – GMs and authors are told to “Show, don’t Tell”, but Johnn takes this advice a step further in this article. The Poetry Of Place: Describing locations & scenes in RPGs – How to use descriptive language more effectively when conveying information about a location or event to the PCs. With a fictional D&D city invented just to serve as an example.
		Problem-Solving A potpourri of quick solutions: Eight Lifeboats for GM Emergencies – There are times when everything seems to go wrong for the GM, and he needs help. When you’re in an emergency and the ship is sinking, you need a lifeboat. Here are eight to choose from. Boxed In: A problem-solving frame of reference for players & GMs alike – Using a box as a metaphor for problems you may encounter at the game table can reveal surprising solutions. This article shows you how to apply the concept as a problem-solving tool. I provide an original political D&D/Pathfinder adventure (and a variation) as one example. And discuss some possible relationships between the concepts of Life and Death. Refloating The Shipwreck: When Players Make A Mistake – For the April 2013 Blog Carnival, I look at how GMs can cope when the players make a major, potentially campaign-ending, mistake.
		Prophecies The Perils Of Prophecy: Avoiding the Plot Locomotive – I discuss prophecies within RPGs, the benefits, the pitfalls, and how to avoid the problems. Don’t skip the comments, there are some additional techniques worth considering described there. And once again, we have feedback from someone who employed the techniques I offer and came up with a great result, so you know it works!

 

Rules   The Rules are another vital element that will need to be settled before play can begin. It also usually helps if the GM has some understanding of those rules before he starts to adjudicate them – which can present a whole new problem of time-crunch with everything else he has to do to get a campaign off the ground. And the GM needs to be able to solve the rules problems that will inevitably arise.
	Google Groans: Misplacing the Rules – Google’s failure to serve as a game resource, the poor indexing of RPG rules & supplements, and using a desktop search as a solution. “This Means WAR!“ – A complete system for refereeing a War in an RPG – up close to the PCs. This is a four-part series that got split into six for practical reasons (but is only counted as four toward the 500). Parts One and Two deal with the fundamental concepts and prep work needed to make War a practical option within an RPG. Parts Three and Four describe how to use those fundamental concepts in play. Part 5 describes how to integrate PC-scale one-on-one combat with a war; and Part 6 concludes the series with miscellaneous notes on how to implement unusual abilities and exotic armaments within the system. Principally intended for D&D 3.x/Pathfinder, but adaptable to any game system. Part of the Blog Carnival for March 2009. The Foundation Of Averages: Psychohistory and RPG Rules – I look at the process of extrapolating from rules systems to the larger worlds and nations that they describe using elementary statistical analysis. A Game For All People: The Perfect DnD Recipe – I respond to the announcement of D&DNext by extending a previous article (Top-Down Plug-in Game Design: The Perfect Recipe?) to outline how I would create a Universal D&D game system – in other words, what I would like to see in D&DNext when it came out. GM’s Toolbox: Running The Game Part Three: Rules and Combat – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. This article details a subject that many GMs and players seem to obsess about – the rules. Exceeding the Extraordinary: The Meaning Of Feats – D&D 3.0 introduced the concept of Feats. I look behind the curtain at the gears and cogs of the Feat concept and rules subsystem and how they affect the game. There are some additional perspectives in the comments. Who Got Poker In My RPG? – Poker is a card game that’s still growing in popularity, but which had a real boom a couple of years ago. Johnn offers some ideas on how to include the game within your campaigns. Round Pegs In A Square Wheel: Reinventing Roulette for RPGs – Human nature doesn’t change. I examine human vices and foibles and how to use them to reinforce the genre of a game, then consider how to reinvent gambling, taking roulette as an example, for different genres. A Rational Intuition – The differences between instinct and intelligence, and how different game systems handle the former. On The Edge: Implications of the D&DNext Advantage mechanic – I respond to an article by The Online DM by considering the consequences of the results that he generated. There’s lots of tables and mathematical analysis, and more than 15 implications identified. If you don’t want to know how to conduct such an analysis, you can skip down to the interpretation, but be warned: I have no idea of how relevant these results are to the still-in-development/playtest system. One of the few posts at Campaign Mastery that is topical more than evergreen in nature.
		Learning Game Rules Rules Mastery For Dummies & Busy GMs – This five-part series looks at why it can be so hard for GMs to invest themselves in learning game rules, and my solutions to the problem. Part One, the Series Introduction, describes the problem in detail. Part Two, Getting Enthusiastic About Rules, points out a common mistake in the approach that most GMs take, to wit, reading the rule books cover-to-cover (or trying to). In Part Three, Student, Tutor Thyself, I explain a system that I use to teach myself the basic rules of a new game in about 18 one-hour sessions. Part Four, The Quality Of Rules, considers the question of “realism” within an RPG and derives a principle for reverse-engineering the existing rules of a game to discover the underlying principles and design philosophies, enabling flaws in the rules to be exposed and providing a consistent standard by which to assess house rules. And Part Five offers a new concept, Rules Touchstones, as key entranceways through which to learn a rules system, and discusses the first of these, the Combat System. There was supposed to be a part 6 to this series but I was so drained by the debate in the comments section that I never got around to writing it. I still have the notes, though, so one day… Taming The Time Bandits: Some time-saving combat techniques – In Johnn’s review of the Chronology iPad app, he identified three major problems that he felt were responsible for the slow pace of combat resolution in his Riddleport campaign, but offered no solutions. In this response I offer the techniques that I use to solve the problems of 1)Not knowing the spells and supernatural abilities of the monsters in the encounter; 2)Being unfamiliar with the specialized combat subrules that applied to this particular battle; and 3) Being unable to identify which Mini went with which PC, which Mini went with which monster, and who was attacking who. There are some more great solutions in the comments, especially to the last of those three questions, and some great discussion of the first problem and my solutions.
		Solving Rule Problems Ask The GMs: Going Beyond The Rules – How do you extrapolate from existing rules to cover new situations? Ask The GMs: When players make themselves immune, remember that “Resistance Is Futile” – How do you handle PCs that seem to be immune to magic? A potpourri of quick solutions: Eight Lifeboats for GM Emergencies – There are times when everything seems to go wrong for the GM, and he needs help. When you’re in an emergency and the ship is sinking, you need a lifeboat. Here are eight to choose from. Boxed In: A problem-solving frame of reference for players & GMs alike – Using a box as a metaphor for problems you may encounter at the game table can reveal surprising solutions. This article shows you how to apply the concept as a problem-solving tool. I provide an original political D&D/Pathfinder adventure (and a variation) as ane example. And discuss some possible relationships between the concepts of Life and Death. By The Seat Of Your Pants: Using Ad-hoc statistics – There are always situations that the official rules don’t cover. This article offers a guideline that can help solve them – while adding color to the game world.

 

Metagame   Metagaming describes any decision-making process or consideration which takes place outside the level of characters within the game. Metagaming can be good or bad, depending on the reasons something is done. Campaign Mastery uses the term in three contexts – general metagaming, like having an NPC do something not because it is the “right” thing for that NPC to do, but because it will make for a more interesting or entertaining story for the players; House Rules, which compromise or alter the standard rules for campaign-concept reasons or for practicality; and the implementation of a Game Physics which treats the rules as guidelines within a simulated reality that can be overridden if the Physics implies a different outcome from a situation. Again, several of these topics are favorites of mine, and have been the subject of several articles as a result. Finally, because they may need to contain or synopsize metagame rules decision, GM Screens have also been placed in this category.
	Ask The GMs: Weather, Not Climate – How do you give your campaign realistic weather without overloading the GM with admin tasks? Johnn & I offer a variety of simulation systems, but not everyone agrees with us. Which is fine by me. When Is A Good Time To Hand Out Experience Points? – Johnn & the commentators examine this issue and many alternative answers to the question. Learn From Your GMing Mistakes – Session Post-Mortem Tips – Johnn offers some tips on how to improve your game by learning from your mistakes with a session post-mortem. Increase game attendance with great session reminders – Johnn talks about ways to improve session reminders. The benefits extend far beyond increased game attendance. Ask The GMs: Systematic Systems Choice – How do you choose the right game system for a campaign? It’s Not Like Shooting Sushi In A Barrel: A Personalized Productivity Focus For Game Prep – I devise a theoretical method of making game prep more satisfactory using the principles of time-and-motion studies and applying the objective of making the game more fun. I still don’t know if this works for anyone else. I’m not even sure it works for me. But it still seems to make sense. Google Calendar As Awesome Campaign Calendar – Johnn started using Google Calendar as the in-game Calendar for his Riddleport Campaign as an experiment. It worked so well that it became a permanent addition to his campaign tools. This article explains what he does and how he does it. A Monkey Wrench In The Deus-Ex-Machina: Limiting Divine Power – I argue against the use of a Deus-Ex-Machina in RPGs, and why that means you should give limits to the Gods. Along the way I show how you can have up-close-and-personal encounters with The Gods in unusual Genres for such occurrences – Wild West, Superspies, and Hard SF/Cyberpunk. There’s some great discussion in the comments. Unfortunately, Da’Vane’s website is gone, and so is the article she wrote in response to this, and attempts to find it using the Wayback Machine failed. Fortunately, Da’Vane summarizes her points in the comments. Life and Death in RPG – March 2011 RPG Blog Carnival – In March 2011, Campaign Mastery again hosted the Blog Carnival, this time with the subject “Life and Death in RPGs”. This was the first of several articles we posted on the subject: Johnn looked at how death was a hidden theme in his Riddleport campaign as well as introducing the topic. When Good Dice Turn Bad: A Lesson In The Improbable – The improbable can occasionally happen. This is a true story (I was at the table) of just such an improbable event. And then the GM explains how he coped. Don’t miss the comments. Have WordPress, will Game – I consider the advantages and benefits of using WordPress as a campaign wiki, and how to structure it to get the most bang for your buck. This includes a mini-review of a dice roller WordPress plugin from Awesome Dice. GM’s Toolbox: Running The Game Part One: Creating the Mood – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. In this article, the focus is on the atmosphere of the game. GM’s Toolbox: Beyond The Game Part Two: Roleplaying and Reality – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. This article deals with the connection – and, ideally, the disconnection – between character world and real world. GM’s Toolbox: Beyond The Game Part Three: Learning to become a Better GM – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. The final substantative article in the series considers the metaquestion of how to constantly improve as a GM. It’s Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Game Fraud and Counter-Fraud in RPGs – In a fantasy, sci-fi, or superhero world, how might people cheat at games of chance – and what would casinos have to do to stop them? Selected Ticks Of The Clock – Session Scheduling for RPGs – I reminisce about my roleplaying experiences and ponder how playing time and session duration impacted the campaigns, deriving six principles to enable GMs to tailor these real-world factors to the benefit of their games. The comments offer some other reader’s experiences while validating the analysis. Patterns Of Unpredictability: Superheroics and the Stock Market – The impact of superheroes on the stock market and on economics in general. The Arcane Implications of Seating at the Game Table – Few people have ever thought about why people sit where they do at the game table, and still fewer have thought about the consequences of getting people to sit in different places. I take an in-depth look at both aspects of the situation. Top-Down Design, Domino Theory, and Iteration: The Magic Bullets of Creation – There are three tricks that I use all the time – and this article gives you the keys to all three. Along the way (as an example) I use the techniques to develop a master plan for a Mastermind in a generic D&D/Pathfinder campaign. Game Prep and the +N to Game Longevity – I consider professionalism when it comes to blogging, and the implications of inspiration when it conflicts with that value. I then apply the question to game prep and show how to employ top-down design principles to the problem, illustrating the process that I use to plan my game prep. Which is the same process that I use to plan my Holidays, writing, TV viewing, shopping… you name it. You might find it useful, too. The Gap In Reality: Immersion in an RPG Environment – Four years on, I update “Are Special Effects Killing Hollywood” and focus on the impact of changing expectations of immersion on RPGs, leading to suggestions for the use of multimedia in games.
		GM Screens Top 9 Dungeon Master Screen Hacks – Johnn examines nine ways of customizing a GM screen. This remains a popular article at Campaign Mastery. 11 Homebrew Dungeon Master Screens – Johnn follows up his article about customizing DM Screens with another on constructing your own. Speed Up Combat By Building Your Own Combat GM Screen – There haven’t been many articles about GM Screens here at Campaign Mastery, but the few that have appeared have been amongst the most popular. This article by Johnn does exactly what it says in the headline. There are more suggestions on content and technique in the comments.
		House Rules Theory The House Always Wins: Examining the Concept of House Rules – I look at the basics of House Rules – and in particular why campaigns have them. Along the way I introduce readers to some of the many controversies relating to the subject that have raged amongst gamers for as long as I’ve been involved in the hobby. I have some fun with some of my players in the comments. A Different Perspective: Changing the dynamic with a different metaphor – I look at the potential of using playing cards and existing card game rules instead of dice to resolve situations in an RPG. My House Rules for D&D – As part of the Blog Carnival for July 2009, Johnn got guest author Mike E. to pen this guest article detailing the way he integrates rules from earlier editions of D&D to augment his 4e campaign. The Critical Threshold: A brief debate on the Merits of Extreme Results – I consider extreme die roll results and the merits – and disadvantages – of systems of associating extreme results with extreme rolls. And the discussion in the comments was awesomely useful to anyone thinking about the subject. Ask The GMs: How to set up a fun fishing mini game – Johnn considers some environmental and procedural aspects of fishing in response to the specific question posed, dealing with the roleplaying aspects of the question. I put on my rules-creation hat and consider the bigger question of how to represent contests and competitions within an RPG on the way to developing a complete mini-game. The rules of that game are available as a PDF at the end of the article. And there are some fun left-of-field ideas in the comment at the end. Experience for the ordinary person – I cast an analytic eye over the question of how ordinary people (NPCs) gain experience and expertise in the course of a game. While primarily intended for D&D / Pathfinder, the results should be more broadly applicable, though YMMV when it comes to any specific game system. Don’t miss the extended (and extensive) discussion in the comments. Objective-Oriented Experience Points – I extend the line of thought offered in Experience for the ordinary person to completely revise the experience paradigm. Taking everyman skills to the next level: The Absence of an Alibi – I start with the concept of Everyman Skills and evolve a tool for the characterization of individuals that often yields surprising results. The Nuances of computer use in a simulated world – I examine the difficulties of simulating computers, and their use (and abuse) in RPGs and develop a “Virtual Reality” solution to those problems.
		Actual House Rules Shadow Levels: A way to roleplay the acquisition of Prestige Classes in D&D 3.x – The title is self-explanatory. This should have been my first published credit, but it was mistakenly accredited to my then partner at Campaign Mastery, Johnn. But I’m still proud that it was considered worth publishing by an outside party, and I still employ this system in my games. Broadening Magical Horizons: Some Feats from Fumanor and Shards Of Divinity – 27 Original feats from my D&D campaigns are offered in four categories: Reducing Metamagics, Enchantment Metamagics, General Metamagics, and General Magic-related Feats. These of course are just the tip of the iceberg, one day I’ll pull out another bunch of them. “Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?”: A New idea for handling “wild luck” in D&D – I come up with a new idea for using luck in an RPG, especially in D&D. A Slippery Slope: Level Adjustments Under The Microscope – One of the most contentious articles I’ve ever written looks at Level Adjustments in D&D 3.x. I offer my way of doing them, which is definitely NOT canonical – because the canon is firing confetti, in my opinion. You may not agree with my interpretations and the way I house rule the treatment of level adjustments. Or they might be exactly what you need to make sense of a confusing part of the rules. I’m fine with both. Let’s Have A Good Clean Fight… – A discussion of the expanded EL-CR chart that I created and how I use it to ensure that opponent power levels match those of the PCs in my D&D encounters. Ask The GMs: How to set up a fun fishing mini game – Johnn considers some environmental and procedural aspects of fishing in response to the specific question posed, dealing with the roleplaying aspects of the question. I put on my rules-creation hat and consider the bigger question of how to represent contests and competitions within an RPG on the way to developing a complete mini-game. The rules of that game are available as a PDF at the end of the article. And there are some fun left-of-field ideas in the comment at the end. “How Hard Can It Be?” – Skill Checks under the microscope – I examine the fundamental concepts that underpin skill checks and “difficulty targets” using D&D 3.x as an example and find multiple answers depending on your assumptions – and expose flaws in the 3.x mechanic along the way. Despite my making a mistake in the article (check the comments) I stand by the conclusions. This is something that is important for every GM to understand regardless of which game system they are using. Life, Death, and Life Renewed – March 2011 Blog Carnival – My first contribution to the March 2011 Blog Carnival considers proposals to restore some legacy rules, and the question of whether or not Elves can be Resurrected, and extrapolates to consider the impact of changing rules systems mid-campaign, and then (unexpectedly) to considering the Resurrect spell as a plot point within a campaign and a campaign background. On The Nature Of Flaws – I review Player Option: Flaws from 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming, and find it inspirational but incomplete, then set about addressing the holes that I found. The subject: how do you integrate the concept of racial or character flaws into game systems that don’t have them? Experience for the ordinary person – I cast an analytic eye over the question of how ordinary people (NPCs) gain experience and expertise in the course of a game. While primarily intended for D&D / Pathfinder, the results should be more broadly applicable, though YMMV when it comes to any specific game system. Don’t miss the extended (and extensive) discussion in the comments. The Nth Level Of Abstraction – GMs abstract things to varying degrees all the time. This article attempts to put some systematic analysis into the how, when, and why of abstraction, and the consequences. In the comments, I discuss ways of expressing the different levels of abstraction within maps. This is one of those ‘deep’ articles that needs to be read two or three times to get the full benefit. Draco Inadequatus: Beefing Up 3.x Dragons – I discuss the inadequacies of Dragons in 3.x when Epic Levels are involved and offer a custom redevelopment of the Monsters to beef them up. A lively discussion in the comments leads to an unrelated article about House Rules. May the camels of 1,000 fleas – wait, that’s not right: Improving Curses in 3.x – I reinvent the rules for Curses in 3.x/Pathfinder to add to its roleplaying potential, then offer 60 Curses to fire the imagination. Superhero combat on steroids – pt 1 of 2: Taking the initiative with the Hero System – I look at some variant rules to speed up Combat in the Hero System by incorporating something similar to the 3.x Initiative mechanic and discover numerous secondary benefits to doing so. Superhero combat on steroids – pt 2 of 2: Moving with a purpose – In part 2 of my article on speeding up combat in the Hero System, I consider some of the knock-on effects on other rules to the changes mooted in part 1. By The Seat Of Your Pants: Using Ad-hoc statistics – There are always situations that the official rules don’t cover. This article offers a guideline that can help solve them – while adding color to the game world. I Got A Plot Device and I know how to use it: Bluffing in the Hero System – Bluffing is one of those things that the Hero System does exceedingly poorly. I set out to rectify that with some specific rules for the game system.
			Alternative Healing & Damage Rules Too Much Life for The Living: March 2011 Blog Carnival – My second contribution to the March 2011 Blog Carnival asks is Healing is too easy in D&D, which leads to proposing an alternative combat system for 3.x / Pathfinder Based on concepts within the TORG game system. It was quite well received. There are additional suggestions and clarifications in the comments. If you want to make your combats more life-and-death dramatic, this might be worth your time. All Wounds Are Not Alike – Part 1: Alternative Damage rules for 3.x – What are “Hit Points”? I have encountered many different definitions, and each – carried to its logical conclusion – is best exemplified by a different set of house/variant rules for Damage and Healing. Each part of the “All Wounds Are Not Alike” series examines one in detail, from game theory through to implementation and consequences for game play. I didn’t actually gather them as a series because I wanted them to stand alone – you don’t need this article to understand/use the next in the series. This first one defines Hit Points as “a numeric index of the gap between healthy and helpless”. The results are great for bringing a High-Fantasy game back to earth, grounding it in realism. Don’t skip the comments for some perspective on the possible pitfalls. All Wounds Are Not Alike Part 2: Bone-breaking damage for 3.x – The second definition that I consider for the concept of “Hit Points” is “An index of soft-tissue damage” which requires a rules extension to deal with broken bones. The results are interesting, to say the least, and offer lots of potential for new magic items, for differentiating between Paladin laying-on of hands and clerical magic, and for reinventing selected monsters with a slightly tweaked flavor. This option strikes a balance between high- and low-fantasy. All wounds are not alike, part 3a: The Healing Imperative (Now Updated!) – An unmistakably high-fantasy approach, and the first variant offered that I actually use in one of my campaigns. Instead of making the differential between different wound types a function of the character’s total hit point capacity, it distinguishes types of injury by the amount of damage inflicted in a single blow, with thresholds based on the efficacy of Healing Spells. More variants and some really interesting discussion in the comments, which were unusually voluminous for this post – but read them in conjunction with the second half of the article, which was simply too big to finish in time. All wounds are not alike, part 3b: The Healing Imperative (cont) – I finish the unfinished variation – with five sub-variants for users to contemplate. There’s some clarification in the comments.
		Game Physics Relatively Uncertain: Taking Control of Game Physics – I take a close look at game physics – why you need one, the assumptions that underpin them, downsides, and how to create a manageable one. Time Travel in RPGs – This series started as part of another article, Blog Carnival June 2010: A Medley Of Inspiring Media but very quickly outgrew it. 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. Examining Psionics – This 5-part series examines Psionics in gaming, especially Telepathy. In Part 1, The Mind’s Eye, I provide extracts from the game rules for my superhero campaign including notes on roleplaying telepathy. This is probably the least-valuable part of the series to the general reader, I have to admit, though there’s discussion of the metagame impact of Psionics and telepathy in particular that no-one in a campaign with Psionics should skip; it provides a framework for the rest of the series. Part two, Neurons & Lobes, offers a pseudo-scientific ‘explanation’ for the biology of Psionics. Both these first two articles are actually preamble for the article that originally intended to write, which appears as the rest of the series. Part 3, The Value Of Information, points out the inadequacy of existing metaphors and analogies for the telepathic experience, most of which date from the first half of the twentieth century or earlier, and then suggests using the Internet as a metaphor for the telepathic experience. I had identified 21 aspects of the Internet that were applicable, and use each to generate telepathy-related adventure ideas or to illuminate the concepts involved, or both. In Part 3 of the series I consider Privacy, Law, Law-Enforcement, Telepathy for Voyeurism and Pornography, the value of information, Data Piracy, and Search Engines. Part 4, All This And Psionic Spam, continues by examining the World Wide Web, Misinformation, Spoofs, Spam, Instant News services, Viral Marketing, and File Sharing. The final part of the series, The Dark Side Of The Mind, considers Tracking Cookies, Fisching, Viruses, Social Networking, Twitter, Website Hacking, and Spyware/Hijacking exploits. I close by reviewing the value of the Internet as a metaphor for Telepathy and then considering the whole series as a representation of the value of Analogy. It’s Reality, Jim, but not As We Know It: St Barbara – I discuss the Paranormal Physics and Paranormal Biology skills from my superhero campaign, and use the discussion as a springboard into an illustration of my contention that rules-based disadvantages and roleplaying-acting don’t have to be mutually exclusive by exploring the pseudo-science behind the powers of one of the PCs in the campaign – an explanation that gets both a reality check and an extension in the comments. 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.

 

Players   Once you have the campaign and the rules sorted, you need players before you have a game. But this involves interacting with other people, with all their human foibles and failures, opinions and attitudes, philosophies and beliefs, ideas and inspirations – some or all of which can differ from those held by the GM and expressed in his campaign. Dealing with these complications makes Players deserving of their own category within the Blogdex.

Moral Qualms on the Richter scale – the need for cooperative subject limits – How questions of morality can impact your game when a player’s personal beliefs come into conflict with the campaign. Ask The GMs: The right to be heard – How do you ensure that every player gets a fair share of the attention when one of them has a dominant personality? Ask The GMs: PC Choices and Consequences – How can you make the players feel like their actions have an impact on the world? A simple question but like an iceberg, nine-tenths don’t show. In order to properly answer this question, Johnn & I had to answer five even more complicated questions: How can the players impact the game world? How are the consequences of PC actions determined? How do the PCs become aware of these consequences? How can the GM ensure that the Players recognize the connection between action and consequences? And how can the administration of these changes be kept practical? All those answers, and more, are in this article. Increase game attendance with great session reminders – Johnn talks about ways to improve session reminders. The benefits extend far beyond increased game attendance. Bringing on the next generation, Part One: Player Peers – How I was taught to be a good player and how you can teach someone else to be one – not to mention being a better player yourself. Interviewing Potential Players – “Filling the empty chair” was written by Johnn during the time when he was working on Campaign Mastery, and I contributed to it. In response to a question raised by a review of the book, Johnn added this extension to the book on how to use an interview to screen prospective players for a good gaming ‘fit’ and potential problems. This Survey For New Players Ensures A Good Fit – Roleplaying Tips reader Zerfinity sent Johnn the player recruitment survey that he used to build his new group. Johnn offers the survey in this article because it answered the question of a reviewer of “Filling the empty chair” (paraphrased): How do you select a new player if you get multiple responses to your ‘gamer wanted’ ads? Missing In Action: Maintaining a campaign in the face of player absence – How do you maintain a campaign when several players are unable to attend regularly? Gaming With The Family – Lessons from yesteryear – As part of the Teach You Kids To Game Week, I write about my experiences serving as a relative novice GM to my teenaged older brother and my much younger brother in the very early 80s, and how their different ages and abilities shaped my role behind the screen. The Ultimate Disruption: The loss of a player – I consider what a GM has to consider when he loses a player. Is the campaign still viable? What can be done about it? And, what should be done about it? I go on to review my campaigns in light of the then-recent passing of my friend and player, Steven. Refloating The Shipwreck: When Players Make A Mistake – For the April 2013 Blog Carnival, I look at how GMs can cope when the players make a major, potentially campaign-ending, mistake. Lessons From The West Wing IV: Victory At Any Price – Players, and Characters, in RPGs sometimes grow so fixated on winning that they will pay any price to achieve it. This article considers the subject in detail, with an extensive example from the Adventurer’s Club Campaign.

 

Names   Names are important. The give characters, places, geographic features, adventures and entire campaigns a point of identity – so I have chosen to give Names their own category in the Blogdex.

40 Great Name Resources, Lists and Generators – Johnn offers a compendium of resources on the subject of Names. Some may be gone to the Great Internet Node In The Sky since, but most should still be around. This was so good a list that I ended up cutting my planned delivery of a similar resource out of my later series on Names! A Good Name Is Hard To Find – A series about names for which continues to be popular. The first article in the series, A Good Name Is Hard To Find, discusses why good character names are important and offers a bucketload of advice on what to do and what not to do when choosing one. The second, The Wellspring of Euonyms, introduces the concept of Name Seeds, a symbolic distillation of a character that can form the foundations of a name, and shows how to generate a name seed. Article three, Sugar, Spice, and a touch of Rhubarb: That’s what little names are made of, discusses simple name structures and how to create a name using a name seed, and as a bonus, shows how to generate a monosyllabic language. Article four, With The Right Seasoning: Beyond Simple Names, extends this approach to cover complicated name structures, and explores byways such as non-human languages, and Superhero & Villain naming. With the fifth article, Grokking The Message, we leave character names behind and move on to naming places and campaigns, and I explain how I chose the names for some of the campaigns that I have run. The next two articles,Hints, Metaphors, and Mindgames (Part 1) and (Part 2), discuss adventure names, with hundreds of examples (with explanations) and general principles based on style & genre of campaign. Part 8, still untitled, which will deal with Alien Names and Name Tools, is still unfinished but is expected to appear sometime in late 2013 or early 2014.

 

Characters   Once you have players, those players are going to need characters, and you are going to need antagonists and supporting cast. And once those are created, you are going to need to know how to express the personalities that you have invented for them in-play.
	Sophisticated Links: Degrees Of Separation in RPGs – We’ve all heard of the “Six Degrees Of Separation” game. I apply the concept to RPG Characters and come up with ways to take advantage of it within the game. This article only scratches the surface of what can be done with this tool. High Elf Generator – Johnn follows up his review of Q-workshop’s Curse of the Crimson Throne dice set with this review of their Pathfinder Elven dice set and offers a random generator for High Elves – Names, Quirks, Motives, Appearances, Secrets, and Power Base. He then offers our readers the chance to win a set (sorry, the contest has closed) in response for additional add-ons for the generator – so don’t skip the comments on this one! Evil GM Tricks For Over-Resting PCs – Do your players stop to rest as soon as they run low on power for the game-day – even if that’s just five minutes after their adventuring day starts? Johnn excerpts some material from his Faster Combat course to offer some solutions to the problem. I offer a refinement in the comments. Go Hard Or Go Home: Graceful Character Aging – How I now simulate Aging in my campaigns, some of the approaches I’ve used to handle character aging in the past, and why those weren’t successful. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 2 – Part two continues sketching in the background to the Orcs and Elves plotline. This begins describing the key characters, along the way giving the backgrounds and histories of their races within the campaign, covering Elves, Drow, Ogres, Dwarves, and Halflings. I give away lots of freebies from the campaign in the process. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 3 – Taking up where the previous article left off, this article describes Orcs, a new race (Dwarvlings), a new character class (The Fated, a reinvention from the ground up of an idea from The Planar Handbook [D&D 3.0]), another new race (The Verdonne), Humans in Fumanor, and a new variant character class (The Paladins Of Thumâin). Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 5 – The final preparatory piece of the series points out that each of the PCs has a personal quest in the campaign (and lists them) – something that the players themselves would only peripherally have been aware of.
		Characterization Focusing On Alignment – This series starts with An Unnecessary Evil?, a guest article by Gary Stahl, in which he explains his dislike for the concept of alignment. In part 2, A Necessary Evil?, I discuss the justification for alignment being part of the rules, and why some people have problems with it. In part 3, An Unnecessary Evil?, I offer counterpoints to my own arguements, re-examine the question of whether or not alignment should be part of the rules, and offer some alternative Mechanics for alignment that satisfy both sides of the question. In part 4, Flavors Of Neutral, I look at the complex subject of neutrality and show how all colors of neutral don’t have to be alike. In the concluding part, Dark Shadows, I talk about the interpretations and definitions of alignment in Shards Of Divinity (an ‘evil’ campaign). The Hidden Key: Resolutions as a window to personality – I ponder the question “Why do people make the same New Year’s Resolutions year after year?” and discover a new tool for exploring a character’s personality. The Characterization Puzzle – A five-part series in which I look at different techniques for generating the right personality for your NPCs. These approaches also work for players generating PCs. In the first part, When personalities are hard to find, I examine the problem. In part 2, I describe ‘ The Thumbnail Method‘. In part 3 I demonstrate ‘ The Inversion Principle‘, with a real-life example from one of my campaigns. Both techniques had been go-to solutions of mine for years. Part 4 offers ‘ The Window Shopping Technique‘, which was a new one that I developed in early 2010. Finally, the last part, The First Decision, discusses how to choose between the three techniques. The comments to the last part also contain some extra uses and considerations concerning the Inversion Principle. Creating Alien Characters: Expanding the ‘Create A Character Clinic’ To Non-Humans – I extend Holly Lisle’s e-book course in character creation, the Create A Character Clinic, to cover the creation of Alien Races, twisting the central concepts of Dwarves in entirely new directions as an example. And touch on some others. We All Have Our Roles To Play – This (still incomplete) series examines the relationships between PCs in terms of their social and character roles with a team and the interactions between them. Unfortunately, right now, these articles take too long to craft, so this series is on hold for the time being. But I will get back to it eventually, even if I have to run it one archetype at a time. So far, eleven archetypes have been discussed out of a total of 31 identified roles (some added after the series started). Part 1 introduced the series, then looks at The Heart Of The Team, The Tactician, The Moral Guardian, and the Rock. Part 2 looks at The Mother Hen and The Intellectual. In Part 3, I discuss The Faithful, The Air-head, and The Flashing Genius. Part 4 is the final part published to date with The Maverick and The Strange Uncle. Taking everyman skills to the next level: The Absence of an Alibi – I start with the concept of Everyman Skills and evolve a tool for the characterization of individuals that often yields surprising results. A Good Name Is Hard To Find – The first article in the series of the same name discusses why good character names are important and offers a bucketload of advice on what to do and what not to do when choosing one. The Wellspring of Euonyms – The second part of the series A Good Name Is Hard To Find introduces the concept of Name Seeds, a symbolic distillation of a character that can form the foundations of a name, and shows how to generate a name seed. Sugar, Spice, and a touch of Rhubarb: That’s what little names are made of – Article three in the A Good Name Is Hard To Find series discusses simple name structures and how to create a name using a name seed, and as a bonus, shows how to generate a monosyllabic language. With The Right Seasoning: Beyond Simple Names – The fourth article in the series A Good Name Is Hard To Find extends the approach detailed in part three to cover complicated name structures, and explores byways such as non-human languages, and Superhero & Villain naming. What matters to your character: the value of the shameful secret – I consider the value of deciding your character’s secrets as characterization aid – what we regret can be a signpost to the morals and values of the individual, profiling the character in several key respects. Part Three then addresses two more of the remaining primary types of writer’s block: Action (Combat) and Personality Blocks (Characterization).
		PCs Ask the GMs: Characters not trusting the other PCs – What should the GM do when one character’s mistrust of the other PCs when it starts getting in the way of the game? Johnn & I Advise, others chime in within the comments. Paint On A Canvas: A Personality Metaphor – Tony Scott and Beverly Hills Cop II combine to give me a new perspective on how to choose characters who will have chemistry together. The Pursuit Of Perfection: Character Evolution Part 5 of the series-within-a-series of the first of my Lessons From The West Wing deals with how the uniqueness of the campaign should impact on the player characters that participate in the world. Ask The GMs: An Inconsistency of Play – A GM grew so frustrated at the inconsistency of personality given by a player to their character that he started cancelling sessions. One of his other players asks Johnn & I for help. There’s a link at the end of the comments that is worth reading on the subject as well – thanks, Robert. Ask the GMs: What we have here is A Failure To Cooperate – Character-driven PCs tend to be rugged individualists. Diverse backgrounds make this even more pronounced. So how can you get such diverse individuals to bond? How can you generate some party unity? There’s also some useful advice in the comments. Character Hooks – A series in which Johnn and several guest contributors provide adventure/plot hook ideas for different character classes. Although mainly intended for 4e D&D, most can be imported into any D&D campaign and some suit an even wider range of games. 50 Barbarian Hooks – Johnn’s initial article includes a brief review of the revised Barbarian character class in the D&D 4e version of Player’s Handbook 2, which inspired the series. 63 Wizard Hooks – Umm, actually no. Readers (and my humble self) have added more to the list, taking it up 81 plot hooks for Wizard Characters as of this writing. 50 Paladin Hooks – Guest contributor D. L. Campbell extends the series with these 50 Hooks for the Noblest of The Noble Warriors. Well, that’s what they would like to think about themselves… 54 Sorcerer Hooks – Guest Contributor Bobby Catdragon offers 54 hooks for the Sorcerer character class. Readers take the tally to 59. This is a rarity, I think it’s the only article posted at Campaign Mastery without some sort of accompanying illustration. 25 Cleric Character Hooks – Johnn concludes his character hooks series with this entry that offers 25 Cleric Character Hooks. This article is more-or-less tying with Building The Perfect Beast: A D&D 3.5 online monster generator as the most popular articles on the site, day in, day out. 50 Assassin Hooks – This excerpt offers a representational fifty of the more than 125 Assassin Hooks contained within Assassin’s Amulet. Forging Unexpected Connections: Putting PC Dossiers To Work – I look beyond the concept of a character sheet and invent a character dossier – then show how to put them to work as a way of improving a game. A comment adds another way to use the concept. This article got great peer reviews, so it’s worth your time. The Power Of Synergy: Maximizing Character Efficiency – I look at a simple technique that players can use to make their characters more efficient, and the benefits to the GM of doing so. An Empty Death, An Empty Life: Making PC Death Matter – All PC Deaths should matter. Heroes should either die a Heroic Death or should achieve victory. That puts the GM in a difficult position when it comes to that staple of D&D, the wandering monster. This article shows how to add meaning commensurate with the risk by making sure random encounters are always plot-significant. The Acceptable Favoritism: 34 ‘Rules’ to make your players’ PCs their favorites – My friends and I list the 34 things that GMs should and shouldn’t do to turn your players characters into their favorites.
		Villains The Anatomy Of Evil: What Makes a Good Villain? – It seems a simple question, but those are often the most difficult. Some great discussion in the comments expands on the subject. Making a Great Villain Part 1 of 3 – The Mastermind – A hero is only as good as the villains they fight – but what makes a villain great? This mini-series of articles offers a different answer for each of three different types of villains. Making a Great Villain Part 2 of 3 – The Combat Monster – The second article in this trilogy considers how to make this most obvious type of villain, interesting. Making a Great Villain Part 3 of 3 – the Character Villain – The third in this article trilogy focuses on villains who oppose the heroes ideologically or for personality reasons.
		Other NPCs Former PCs as NPCs – Johnn takes a reader’s suggestion, submitted to Roleplaying Tips and builds on it with details of how to put it into practice. The article ends with links to sites where GMs can submit NPCs for use by the greater gaming community. Book of Dead Characters to Celebrate Your Gaming – Johnn expands on his thoughts in Former PCs as NPCs by connecting the idea to his Book of Dead Characters. This should very much be read as a supplement to the earlier article. The Ubercharacter Wimp: Plotting within your PCs limitations – TUW, or ‘The Ubercharacter Wimp’, is a tool that I devised for the generation of quick and easy NPCs. This was a really hastily-written article to cover my obligations to the Blog while I was moving house. GM’s Toolbox: Prep Tools Part Three: NPCs – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for, in order to successfully run a campaign. This article looks at the creation & management of the NPCs needed for a game session or adventure. Look beyond the box: a looser concept for NPCs – I develop a simple (and universal) system for defining complex aspects of NPCs. Try it, it works! By the seat of your pants: the 3 minute (or less) NPC – I break an NPC into smaller pieces: three general framing decisions, the eight most important details, a list of secondary items that aren’t needed for every character, and a pair of optional extras that may be needed for some campaigns – and show how to employ the structure to generate an NPC in less time than it takes to hard-boil an egg. Even experienced GMs get something out of this article, I’ve been told. It’s a perennial favorite amongst our readers. I’d completely forgotten that I intended to develop a worksheet for it – but I mentioned it in replying to a pingback. So that’s back on my radar, for anyone who’s been waiting!
		Playing Ask The GMs: How to survive political games with paranoia and intrigue – The question might concern a Vampire The Masquerade campaign, but Johnn and I look beyond that to offer advice on how to handle games filled with in-game politics. With a postscript piece of advice in the comments. Roleplaying Assassins: An excerpt from Assassins Amulet – An excerpt from our then-forthcoming sourcebook, Assassin’s Amulet offers advice on how to roleplay an Assassin. And there’s a link to part two of a great review of AA in the comments, and a link to the site where you can buy a copy. In Part Four, I wrap up the Primary types of writer’s block with solutions to Dialogue Block and Narrative Block.

 

Adventures   Only once you have all the game elements discussed already are you ready to create and play adventures – which brings a whole new set of headaches and requirements. But no-one has any fun without them.
	The Plot Thickens – Hooking Players Into Adventures – Johnn offers advice about connecting existing players to a new (published) adventure. Ask The GMs: “Let’s Split Up.” – “Good Idea, we can do more damage that way!” – What are the best ways to handle splitting the party up – especially over the long term? Downsize Your Disasters: GMing catastrophes in your RPG – How not to use disasters in your RPGs. Ask The GMs: How do you GM Player Characters as Spectators? – Something I mentioned in the last part of my series on alignment sparked the question, “How do you handle scenes where the PCs are spectators?” from one of our readers. Johnn and I offer our advice in reply. Dungeonaday.com Sponsors Campaign Mastery – An article with much more than a sponsorship announcement, this contains an interview with the famous Monte Cook with Monte’s advice on dungeon and encounter design, and more! I’ve Been Framed – Johnn reviews a set of Pathfinder Curse Of The Crimson Throne dice and offers a random generator for a political plot that follows the pattern, “In the [Type of State] of [State Name of Your Choice] ruled by a [Type of Government], a character must undergo a [Type of Trial]. He has been framed by [Power Behind the Throne], and if found guilty of [Type of Serious Crime], his punishment will be [Spell-Based Punishment].” Back To Basics Part 1: Adventure Structures – I examine the creation of an adventure and how the plot can be structured. This was very much written with Beginner GMs in mind. GM’s Toolbox: Prep Tools Part One: Campaign and Adventure Planning – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. This article deals with the upper-level planning that goes into running a game. GM’s Toolbox: Running The Game Part Two: Notes and Organization – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. Campaigns sprout pieces of paper like mushrooms; this article deals with the organization of all that paper so that you can find what you need when you need it. GM’s Toolbox: Beyond The Game Part One: Handouts and Props – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. This article looks at enhancing a game with extras. It’s Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Game Fraud and Counter-Fraud in RPGs – In a fantasy, sci-fi, or superhero world, how might people cheat at games of chance – and what would casinos have to do to stop them? The final two articles in the A Good Name Is Hard To Find series – Hints, Metaphors, and Mindgames (Part 1) and (Part 2) – discuss adventure names, with hundreds of examples (with explanations) and general principles based on style & genre of campaign. Turning Reaction into Proaction – plotting techniques to get your players moving – After a couple of ‘soft’, speculative articles, I turn my attention back to practical measures. In this article, I consider ways to make your players active participants in campaign plotting and plot development. An Adventure Into Writing: The Co-GMing Difference – It’s unusual, but I regularly Co-GM a Pulp Campaign. This article describes the impact on how adventures get written for the campaign and along the way discusses some of the benefits and pitfalls of Co-GMing. Adventure Structure: My Standard Formatting – I describe the standard format and nonclemanture that I have evolved for writing the adventures that I run. In the comments I describe how much game prep I do and how long it takes me to write an adventure. Top-Down Design, Domino Theory, and Iteration: The Magic Bullets of Creation – There are three tricks that I use all the time – and this article gives you the keys to all three. Along the way (as an example) I use the techniques to develop a master plan for a Mastermind in a generic D&D/Pathfinder campaign. The Gap In Reality: Immersion in an RPG Environment – Four years on, I update “Are Special Effects Killing Hollywood” and focus on the impact of changing expectations of immersion on RPGs, leading to suggestions for the use of multimedia in games. There are 7 primary types of writer’s block besides “Blank Page Syndrome”. Part Two of my series on Writer’s Block offers solutions to the first three of them Conceptual blocks (Ideas), Specific-Scene Blocks (Scenes within an adventure), and Setting Blocks (Locations). In Part Four of the series on Writer’s Block offers solutions to Dialogue Block and Narrative Block.
		Locations Back To Basics: Example: The White Tower – Part three of two in the articles about creating adventures and hooking them together to form a campaign offers an example of the process of adventure creation and connection from one of my actual campaigns, describing a rather unique location in the process. This article was carefully written and edited to conceal the actual ideas that I chose for the real adventure in the campaign. Grokking The Message – The fifth article in the A Good Name Is Hard To Find series looks at naming places and campaigns, and I explain how I chose the names for some of the campaigns that I have run. The Poetry Of Place: Describing locations & scenes in RPGs – How to use descriptive language more effectively when conveying information about a location or event to the PCs. With a fictional D&D city invented just to serve as an example. There are 7 primary types of writer’s block besides “Blank Page Syndrome”. Part Two offers solutions to the first three of them Conceptual blocks (Ideas), Specific-Scene Blocks (Scenes within an adventure), and Setting Blocks (Locations). Location, Location, Location – How Do You Choose A Location? – I examine the various considerations that should weigh into the decision of where something is to happen. There’s also some useful advice on the subject in Parts 2 And 5 of the Breaking Through Writer’s Block series – look for the sections on “Setting”. This was to be the lead-off article in the September 2013 Blog Carnival and I wanted to make it a strong one. Adjectivizing Descriptions: Hitting the target – I offer a seventh entry into the Blog Carnival with practical advice on How to describe locations, especially Wonders. People, Places, and Narratives: Matching Locations to plot needs – Your cast of characters isn’t limited to PCs and NPCs; this article shows you how to access and use the current location as another member of that cast. Location, Location, Location: Nyngan – I describe my home town (and get a number of people into a nostalgic frame of mind in the process) – then adapt it to a number of different genres (Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Pulp, Horror, Westerns, Cyberpunk, and Superhero games). Places to go and people to meet: The One Spot series from Moebius Adventures – I review a series of new products from that collectively offer a trio of ready-to-use locations to drop into your fantasy RPG: Hand’s Goods, The Painted Man, and Angar’s Magic Shoppe. Big Is Not Enough: Monuments and Places Of Wonder – For my sixth post in the Blog Carnival, I raise the question of Wonders Of The Known World and the qualities they need to possess in order to live up to the label; four reasons they are hard to do well, ten reasons why they are worth doing, and 12 sources of wonders to help overcome those difficulties. Six Wonders: A selected assortment of Wondrous Locations for a fantasy RPG – When I sat down to list ideas for the September 2013 Blog Carnival, I only intended to do one article on Wonders. But when you get inspired… The offerings in this post are: The Broken Man, The Pool Of Reflection, The Palace Of Winter, The Citadel Of Secrets, The Spire Of Contention, and the Library Of Shelves. Five More Wonders: Another assortment of Locations for a fantasy RPG – My Ninth article for the September 2013 Blog Carnival continues where the last one left off, with five more Wonders Of The Known World (that I didn’t have time to complete for the previous article). This offers The Pyramid of Reason, The Caves Of Rockbeard, The Rainbow Of Eternity, The Desert Of Gold, and The Emerald Falls. Still More Wonders: Fifteen Amazing Locations for a Sci-Fi RPG – I snuck this one in because September 2013 wasn’t quite long enough to fit everything into the Blog Carnival (actually, it was delayed because I needed an extra half-week to deal with Fantasy Wonders and because I was having trouble gathering enough ideas. Thanks to the players in my superhero campaign, I got there in the end). This article offers The Orouberus Molecule, The Cascade Nebula, “Birth And Death” By Garl, The Dyson Superplant Of Epsilon Centauri, The Spiderweb Of Rukh-C, The Torus of Andraphones, The Confusion of Hydra, The Waltz Of Minos IV, The Diaphanous Assembly of Omicron Boötis, The Billboard Of Greeting, The Halo Rock, The Necrotis Plague Planet, The “Cosmic String” of 18 Delphini, The Arena Of Canopia, and The Fireworx Swarm. Location, Location, Location! – the Roundup and Wrap-up (for now) – The September 2013 Blog Carnival brought in 27 entries, including 10 from Campaign Mastery. This article synopsizes all 27 entries plus one extra that I thought belonged there. The Remembrance Of The Disquiet Dead: A Spooky Spot and Campaign Premise – For the October 2013 Blog Carnival I offer a cemetery that follows the PCs wherever they go. Explaining the cause of the phenomena led to three or four different interpretations, each with their own resolution to the series of encounters, so this will fit into more than one type of campaign.
		Maps & Dungeon Tiles Maps Have Three Parts – Johnn started the very first series here at Campaign Mastery way back in December 2008 – before the site went public. He suggests that maps have three constituents: Lines, Spaces, and Negative Spaces – and examines each in detail. Lessons From The West Wing II: The Psychology Of Maps – The second article in my occasional series of “Lessons From The West Wing” considers how maps both influence and reflect the way we see the world – and hence, that they should be very different if deriving from another society. Hexographer – RPG Mapping Dream – Hexographer is a piece of software that’s been on my personal wish-list ever since I read this review by Johnn. Note that the link given in the article is out of date; while there is a redirect in place, it might not be there forever. So use this link instead: < a href="http://www.hexographer.com/" target="_blank">http://www.hexographer.com/. 8 Easy Ways to Organize Your Dungeon Tiles – When Johnn wrote this article (with contributions from other GMs), I had no dungeon tiles. That is no longer the case, since one of my players has been collecting them for use in the games I run, and has left them in my care, and I have supplemented those with some extras that I’ve acquired. So I really need to pay closer attention to this article. More tips in the comments, especially the last one. The Nth Level Of Abstraction – GMs abstract things to varying degrees all the time. This article attempts to put some systematic analysis into the how, when, and why of abstraction, and the consequences. In the comments, I discuss ways of expressing the different levels of abstraction within maps. This is one of those ‘deep’ articles that needs to be read two or three times to get the full benefit. Out Of Sight does not mean Out of Mind: Maps I Could Not Find – I list a number of game maps that didn’t seem to be on the market – anywhere – in hopes of inspiring some cartographers to plug the gaps, with some success. Straightening a bent line: Measuring complex distances on a map – I offer a practical solution to measure complicated distances, like the by-road distance between journey start and destination – then toss in some neat tricks that you can incorporate into the process. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 5 – As a giveaway with this post I offer a high-res map of the part of the Game World where the campaign has (mostly) taken place – but bereft of labels and captions so other GMs can use it as they see fit, and another with captions detailing the PCs travels. 52+ Miniature Miracles: Taking Battlemaps the extra mile – My 3rd entry in this month’s blog carnival looked at ways of extending the functionality of battlemaps by adding Found and Made objects. The general response to this article has been “now why didn’t I think of that?” which was very gratifying.
		Miniatures DM Tool: Scrabble Tiles for your Minis & Battlemats – Using Scrabble tiles as miniatures and map symbols on a battlemat. This article went mini-viral in August. Elevate Your Game – Tracking Airborne Minis – John examines solutions to the vexing problems of integrating the third dimension into a two-dimensional battlemap. D&D Minis Giveaway Contest – Another out-of-continuity contest. Note that the contest is long-over, it does no good to enter now – though you may want to read the tips and advice on Battlemats in the comments and on the entry page. All told there are about 80 of them – more than enough reason to actually count this post as one of the 500. Taming The Time Bandits: Some time-saving combat techniques – In Johnn’s review of the Chronology iPad app, he identified three major problems that he felt were responsible for the slow pace of combat resolution in his Riddleport campaign, but offered no solutions. In this response I offer the techniques that I use to solve the problems of 1)Not knowing the spells and supernatural abilities of the monsters in the encounter; 2)Being unfamiliar with the specialized combat subrules that applied to this particular battle; and 3) Being unable to identify which Mini went with which PC, which Mini went with which monster, and who was attacking who. There are some more great solutions in the comments, especially to the last of those three questions, and some great discussion of the first problem and my solutions.
		Encounters Break Down The Door – 5 Encounter Seeds – Johnn expands on a point he made in his two-part article on How To Be A Confident GM by describing the concept of adventure seeds – with some great examples and links to many more. New Generator: Roleplaying A Black Dragon – Johnn does another review of Q-Workshop dice, in this case the Black and Yellow Dragon Dice and constructs a generator using them to create personalities for a Black Dragon. The Perfect Monster Manual – A Wishlist – Johnn asks what would be in the Perfect Monster Manual. In the comments, I explain the technical details of how to meet Johnn’s requirements, and point out the similarities to my (theoretical) proposal in Google Groans: Misplacing the Rules. Drow Generator & Dice Giveaway – Johnn does another review of Q-Workshop dice, in this case the Second Darkness dice set and constructs a generator for fleshing out Drow NPCs using them. Unfortunately, this dice set doesn’t seem to be available any more; the link is to the Q-Workshop home page. Undead Foe Generator – The last of Johnn’s Q-workshop dice articles is all about giving personality to the undead. The contest was over long ago, but the tables are still just as functional. This article was inspired by the Red and black Skull Dice set which appears to be no longer available (the link is to Q-Workshop’s home page). Perfect Skin: Some Musing On The Design Of Monsters – Inspired by a free review copy of Draco Inadequatus: Beefing Up 3.x Dragons – I discuss the inadequacies of Dragons in 3.x when Epic Levels are involved and offer a custom redevelopment of the Monsters to beef them up. A lively discussion in the comments leads to an unrelated article about House Rules. GM’s Toolbox: Prep Tools Part Two: Encounter and Scene Planning – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. This article looks at the detailed planning within an adventure or game session. Creating ecology-based random encounters – ‘Wilderness Encounters’ in D&D are as old a subject as D&D itself. This 3-part series attempts to put some rationality into those encounters. Even experienced GMs have told me that they’ve gotten something new out of it. Part One, The Philosophy of meanderings, examines the philosophical underpinnings and game-play purposes of the unplanned wilderness encounter, why they seem to be declining in favor, and why they should still matter. Part Two, This Eats That, looks at ways to create better, smarter, encounter tables, by creating a simplified, summarized, ecology and then converting it into an encounter table. Be warned, it’s very long even by my standards, but it defied being further subdivided. Part Three, Encounters With Meaning, applies the same processes and analogous theory to create encounter tables for Urban Settings and Dungeon Settings, and then wraps the series with integrating random encounters with your plotlines to infuse them with meaning. I also explore some strange but related back alleys along the way – like the ecology of Undeath, and Devils & Demons…
		Combat & In-Game Environment Hazards Of Combat – Johnn defines a combat hazard as an “element other than the PCs and their foes that brings danger, risk, or difficulty to the fight” – and then begins a series dedicated to examining possible combat hazards in detail. Part one, What is a combat hazard?, asks what – beyond terrain – might actually be a combat hazard, and offers many ideas in answer to the question. Part two, Craft a spirited name for your hazards, considers an essential element of combat environment psychology. In part three, Terrain, looks at the terrain as a critical combat element. The fourth entry in the series, Environment, looks beyond ‘terrain’ to a more comprehensive appraisal of the conditions under which combat takes place, and how these can be enhanced to further enliven combat. The final part, Traps, focuses on what has always been a staple element of fantasy RPGs (and Pulp/Superhero RPGs!) in isolation, and how integrating their presence into the combat can dress up an otherwise routine encounter. My Group’s Time Thief Revealed – Chronology iPad App Review – Combat takes a long time to resolve in most tabletop RPGs. Johnn uses the Chronology iPad to work out why that’s the case in his Riddleport campaign and comes to a surprising conclusion, reviewing the product in the course of reporting his findings. Taming The Time Bandits: Some time-saving combat techniques – In Johnn’s review of the Chronology iPad app, he identified three major problems that he felt were responsible for the slow pace of combat resolution in his Riddleport campaign, but offered no solutions. In this response I offer the techniques that I use to solve the problems of 1)Not knowing the spells and supernatural abilities of the monsters in the encounter; 2)Being unfamiliar with the specialized combat subrules that applied to this particular battle; and 3) Being unable to identify which Mini went with which PC, which Mini went with which monster, and who was attacking who. There are some more great solutions in the comments, especially to the last of those three questions, and some great discussion of the first problem and my solutions. Fastest Pathfinder Combat Ever – How We Did It – Johnn tries out some suggestions for improving the speed of combat. They seemed to work for him at the time, but as my comment shows, I thought he might comparing apples and oranges. Or not. If your combats are dragging, there are worse ideas than trying Johnn’s solutions. Five (Plus One!) Effective Combat Tactics for Assassins – Another excerpt from Assassin’s Amulet, this time offering techniques on how to make them more effective in combat. GM’s Toolbox: Running The Game Part Three: Rules and Combat – Part of the GM’s Toolbox series by Michael Beck with contributions by Da’Vane and the occasional comment drop-in from Johnn. The series is aimed at both beginners and more experienced GMs and strives to articulate all the things that you will need tools and techniques for in order to successfully run a campaign. This article details a subject that many GMs and players seem to obsess about – the rules. 11 Table Rules For Speed – Johnn offers an expanded excerpt from the Faster Combat course he and Tony Medeiros co-authored, in which he discusses 11 rules of table etiquette designed to speed up combat. The Tactical Masterclass – Preparing a player to lead on the battlefield – How to prepare a player who’s character has to lead the other PCs into battle. Part Three then addresses two more of the remaining primary types of writer’s block: Action (Combat) and Personality Blocks (Characterization).
		Rewards A Different Experience: A variation on the D&D 3.x Experience Points System – In which I describe the alternative 3.x Experience system that I use in my campaigns. Breaking The Bank: controlling treasure in D&D – I run through a few measures that GMs can use to control the amount of hard currency in the PCs hands. With An Evil Gleam: Giving Treasure a Personality – I talk about ways to give objects personalities in RPGs – and why. 6 Ways to Enhance Magic Items – Johnn’s article offers exactly what it says on the label. There are some “fun” ideas and important thoughts in the comments. Treasure Detail Generator & Dice Giveaway – Another Generator based around Q-workshop’s dice sets, this time their Green-and-Black dragon dice set. This generator is all about adding color by using one or more of the tables to make treasure more interesting. Objective-Oriented Experience Points – I extend the line of thought offered in Experience for the ordinary person to completely revise the experience paradigm. An excerpt from ‘A player’s Guide to Legacy Items’ – Part 1 – As part of the blog carnival, I offer an excerpt from one of the free bonus eBooks that are part of the Assassin’s Amulet package. Legacy Items are a new form of magic item, and the bonus eBook aims to give players everything they need to know about how they work. An excerpt from ‘A player’s Guide to Legacy Items’ – Part 2 – The second part of the two-part excerpt, which discusses the powers of Legacy Items – from a Player’s point of view. This should all have been one article, it was split for practical reasons, so I haven’t counted this second half toward the overall total. Making The Loot Part Of The Plot: Loot as a plot mechanic – I consider just what “loot” might be, and how it can be used as a plot mechanic. There’s a link to an interesting related article in the comments. Loot As Part Of The Plot: Making, Earning, Finding, Analyzing, Using, Selling, and Destroying Loot – As part of the Blog Carnival, I consider the many different ways in which loot in general might be made part of a plot. Along the way I get to vent about the Identify Spell in D&D, how easily rare/valuable items can be converted to cash in most Fantasy Games, about Fantasy Economics in general, and about another D&D Spell, Mordenkainen’s Disjunction. There’s a discussion in the comments about the relationship between videogames and tabletop RPGs. Making The Loot Part Of The Plot: The Value Of Magic – As part of the Blog Carnival, I analyze the possible meaning of the term “value”, and evolve a classification system for GMs to use in deciding what magic items to place as loot in their campaigns. Why I Fell In Love with Staves Again After 10 Years (PFRPG) – Johnn returns to Campaign Mastery with this article on how Staves have changed in the Pathfinder game system – and why the changes are good for his campaign. This was part of the Blog Carnival. October Blog Carnival Wrap-up: A cavalcade of posts about goodies – The Blog carnival produced a huge number of great entries. I review them all. There are a couple of clarifications in the comments in response to what I had to say, and at least one more article worth reading on the subject. Inventing and Reinventing Races in DnD: An Introduction to the Orcs and Elves series part 4 – In part four of the background to the Orcs and Elves story, I start to update the campaign history so-far, building on material I had already published. Don’t worry, there are links in the article telling you when to revisit that material. There are lots of editorial asides to offer glimpses behind the curtain and context. The Giveaways continue, this time I offer an original magic item, The Spirit Blade of Clan Takamuchi.
		Seasonal Adventures Holiday Hell: Re-creating real holidays for RPGs – How to transform a real seasonal Holiday into a festive occasion within an RPG ‘Tis The Season: A Christmas Scenario – To celebrate Christmas 2010, I pass on the outline of a quick-and-easy Christmas Scenario that I ran a couple of years earlier. And, for good measure, half-a-dozen variant ideas. The Season Of Optimism – As a celebration of Christmas, I examine the concept of celebrations taking place within RPGs, generally. Using Christmas and its many variations in other cultures as a template, I derive a framework for integrating original celebrations into a campaign. Parable and Play: Fables and Morality Plays as the basis for adventures – Every year, the Christmas season brings variations on the same old stories. There’s a reason for this – there are certain plots that just work better that time of year due to the Holiday Season. This article discusses the process of deriving adventures and new plots from traditional sources.
		Complete Adventures The Flói Af Loft & The Ryk Bolti – A complete adventure from my Seeds Of Empire campaign, published here in three simultaneous parts for practical reasons only, modified to stand alone from the campaign. Complete with three-D-layer map. This was part of the Blog Carnival for February 2009. Back To Basics: Example: The White Tower – Part three of two in the articles about creating adventures and hooking them together to form a campaign offers an example of the process of adventure creation and connection from one of my actual campaigns. This article was carefully written and edited to conceal the actual ideas that I chose for the real adventure in the campaign. Back To Basics: Example: The Belt Of Terra – Part four of the two-part article contains a larger and more complete example, illustrating all the steps in the process of creating an adventure, structuring it, and inserting it into a campaign plan. Along the way it expands both the game physics and game mythology and touches on or references no less than 20 other plotlines, showing how tightly integrated a plotline can be within a campaign.
		Mysteries & Puzzles Ask The GMs: Penetrating the veil of mystery – Campaign Mastery was asked ‘Where can you find mysteries that can be fitted into a campaign?’ We try to answer that but find that the best answer is to make them yourself – so we focus on why that’s so hard to do, and how to remove some of that difficulty. There’s some great material on the subject in the comments, as well. This is such a difficult subject that it’s one I return to in a couple of other articles. Ask The GMs: Puzzles In Your Games – How to find and use puzzles (that aren’t riddles) in your games. More suggestions can be found in the comments. The Butler Did It: Mystery Plotlines in RPGs – I consider a fresh angle on the anatomy of a mystery, and how to structure mystery plotlines in RPGs. There’s some additional discussion of techniques in the comments. In response to a request in those comments, I later wrote a sequel article offering some examples of the plotting techniques. This one got a lot of interest on Twitter. The Jar Of Jam and The Wounded Monarch: Two Mystery Examples – I follow up, by reader request, The Butler Did It: Mystery Plotlines in RPGs with two example mysteries that illustrate the plotting process. Ghosts Of Blogs Past: An Air Of Mystery – Using an RPG to write mystery fiction – I resurrect an article from my 2006 personal blog to reverse the usual process (adapting fiction to an RPG) to argue why mystery writers should use RPGs to develop their plots.
		Ad-hoc Adventures & GM Improv A potpourri of quick solutions: Eight Lifeboats for GM Emergencies – There are times when everything seems to go wrong for the GM, and he needs help. When you’re in an emergency and the ship is sinking, you need a lifeboat. Here are eight to choose from. By The Seat Of Your Pants: Adventures On the Fly – I share my secrets for generating adventures on the fly, and doing it so well that most of the time your players won’t notice. This article focuses on the process. By The Seat Of Your Pants: Six Foundations Of Adventure – I follow up the previous article by expanding on the sources of instant adventure ideas. By the seat of your pants: the 3 minute (or less) NPC – I break an NPC into smaller pieces: three general framing decisions, the eight most important details, a list of secondary items that aren’t needed for every character, and a pair of optional extras that may be needed for some campaigns – and show how to employ the structure to generate an NPC in less time than it takes to hard-boil an egg. Even experienced GMs get something out of this article, I’ve been told. It’s a perennial favorite amongst our readers. I’d completely forgotten that I intended to develop a worksheet for it – but I mentioned it in replying to a pingback. So that’s back on my radar, for anyone who’s been waiting! Boxed In: A problem-solving frame of reference for players & GMs alike – Using a box as a metaphor for problems you may encounter at the game table can reveal surprising solutions. This article shows you how to apply the concept as a problem-solving tool. I provide an original political D&D/Pathfinder adventure (and a variation) as one example. And discuss some possible relationships between the concepts of Life and Death. By The Seat Of Your Pants: Using Ad-hoc statistics – There are always situations that the official rules don’t cover. This article offers a guideline that can help solve them – while adding color to the game world. Refloating The Shipwreck: When Players Make A Mistake – For the April 2013 Blog Carnival, I look at how GMs can cope when the players make a major, potentially campaign-ending, mistake. Part Five of the series on Writer’s Block discusses translation blocks, also known as transition blocks, and shows that the solutions already provided work just fine – if you have plenty of time to implement them. But, when you need a solution in a hurry, this article will come to your rescue with emergency solutions to five subtype types. Which leaves five more to be covered in Part Six, plus a solution to another type of problem, “Crowding Blocks”, and some final advice on the subject.

 

Game Mastering   Everything that a GM does can be considered “Game Mastering”. But Campaign Mastery uses the term in a more restricted sense, to describe the actual process of supervising and adjudicating play. Even so, as befits such a subject so fundamental to the site’s purpose, there have been a LOT of relevant articles amongst the five hundred…
	Say Yes, but Get There Quick – A simple principle of good GMing, articulated by Johnn. Engaging Your Players: A Lesson from Crime Fiction – Means, Motive, and Opportunity as things to be provided to the players by the GM if the “crime” is to be a great campaign. Some good general advice and a fresh way at looking at things, in other words. The Literary GM: Expanding your resources for a better game – I describe my reference library, the other sources of information I use, and why they help my GMing. Its the latter content that stops this being a fluff piece. Bringing on the next generation, Part Two: Gamemaster Mentors – My introduction into the world of GMing and the fundamental lessons learned that made me good at it – and can do so for you, too. Melodramatic License: Drama in RPGs – Drama vs Melodrama and their roles in an RPG. Ask The GMs: Essential Game Master Skills – Loz Newman – one of our regular commentators at Campaign Mastery – asks a ‘deceptively simple question’ – What are the essential skills of a game master? Check the comments for some additional suggestions and discussion. 3 Ways Game Masters Show, Don’t Tell – Johnn offers some great advice for making sure that the players are interacting with the game world instead of just watching it pass them by. As someone who sometimes has trouble with this, I really should pay closer attention to this article; I suspect that I’m not alone. Ask The GMs: How to GM solo PCs (especially in combat) – 31 pieces of advice (more if you count the extras in the comments) on how to handle this tricky situation. How To Be A Confident GM, Part 1 – First of a two-part article by Johnn, GMing is 80% confidence, as he writes in the article’s introductory paragraphs; this article aims to give you as much of that 80% as possible. How To Be A Confident GM, Part 2 – If you’ve read the description of the preceding article, then you’ll know what to expect from this one! Lessons From The West Wing III: Time Happens In The Background – The third in this irregular series is actually the seventh post to be included because the first article was itself a five-part series-within-a-series. I discuss the concept that time continues moving even when the PCs aren’t present, and ways to make this practical. The failure of …urmmmm… Memory – I offer my more modular equivalents of a Campaign Binder, and why it is not just useful but necessary. More suggestions in the comments. Top-Down Plug-in Game Design: The Perfect Recipe? – I apply the principles of good software design to work out how the perfect game mechanics for a tabletop RPG should be constructed. There’s interesting discussion in the comments. Missing In Action: Maintaining a campaign in the face of player absence – How do you maintain a campaign when several players are unable to attend regularly? Ask The GMs: How to Deal with Players Who Disagree with Game Calls – A GM is having trouble with a player who constantly disputes the rulings at the table, and it has reached the point of impacting the enjoyment of the other players. Johnn offers a range of solutions so complete that I have nothing to add. It sparks a great discussion on the role of the GM, and a couple of commentators add some novel and interesting approaches to the problem. Gaming With The Family – Lessons from yesteryear – As part of the Teach You Kids To Game Week, I write about my experiences serving as a relative novice GM to my teenaged older brother and my much younger brother in the very early 80s, and how their different ages and abilities shaped my role behind the screen. GM’s Toolbox – A megaseries written by Michael Beck with contributions and editing by Da’Vane. This series started with Michael offering a single-article version to Johnn for Roleplaying Tips. Johnn couldn’t make up his mind what to do with it (the fact that English is Michael’s second language may not have helped) and was on the verge of turning it down when he asked for my opinion. I responded that there were some really cool insights buried within that I thought he had missed, probably because he (presumably) had only skimmed the proposed article, but that it would need a lot of editing and expansion, and that RPT might not be the right venue for the resulting series of articles. As a result, Johnn took a second look, and as he replied, “found the goodness”. The result was this 14-part detailed review and discussion of the basic tools and techniques that go into being a GM. This is not primarily a series on how to do various things; it’s more about identifying the need for techniques for doing these specific things, though there are suggestions along the way for what might fit those empty slots. One of the things I would love to find time to do is read this from start to finish in one single session, as I suspect that there is even more juice to extract from the series that way. But I don’t think it will ever happen, there are too many demands on my time and too many plates to keep juggling. Following the Series Introduction, there are: …three articles on tools for game prep (One: Campaign and Adventure Planning, Two: Encounter and Scene Planning, Three: NPCs); …three articles on world-building (One: Geography and Landmarks, Two: Communities and Politics, Three: History, Mythology, and stocking Dungeons); …three articles on running a game (One: Creating the Mood, Two: Notes and Organization, Three: Rules and Combat); …and three articles on add-ons to provide additional sophistication (One: Handouts and Props, Two: Roleplaying and Reality, and Three: Learning to become a Better GM). The whole thing then wraps up with a Concluding article. Cause And Inflect: Marketing your way to a better game – Product marketing is as much about understanding the people you’re talking to as it is manipulating desire. The latter is relevant to a GM trying to “sell” his adventure and game world to his players, while the former helps make NPCs believable and realistic in behavior. Sure, it’s not what it was intended for – but who cares about that? The comments debate the thoughts that sparked the article, but don’t say much about the actual point that I was making. An Adventure Into Writing: The Co-GMing Difference – It’s unusual, but I regularly Co-GM a Pulp Campaign. This article describes the impact on how adventures get written for the campaign and along the way discusses some of the benefits and pitfalls of Co-GMing. Five Games That Will Wreck Your Life (and what we can learn from them) – Some videogames are so compelling that they can become an obsession. What characteristics does an RPG campaign have to have to be equally compelling? This article is a collaboration between myself and Jason Falls.
		Feedback Ghosts Of Blogs Past: All The World’s A Suggestion Box – The first of an irregular series that resurrects and updates relevant blog posts from my long-defunct personal blog. This one deals with the way that suggestions we make improve the world often without our even being aware of the impact that we are having. It then connects this notion with gameplay and game feedback and examines the consequences on the economics and reality of Gaming and Game Publishing.
		At Conventions Game Mastering at Conventions Tips – As our contribution to the Aug 2009 Blog Carnival, Johnn serves up links to a number of articles on GMing at conventions that had appeared in Campaign Mastery. I have never GM’d at a convention myself, but if I was ever intending to do so, this would be one of the places I would start.
		Mistakes, Problems, & Emergencies There’s a lot of overlap between this category and “Ad-hoc Adventures & GM Improv” under Adventures, above. Check the articles listed there for more problem-solving techniques. My Biggest Mistakes – Campaign Mastery hosted the September 2009 Blog Carnival about GM mistakes and how to fix them. We collected all the articles we published on the subject into this series. Johnn kicks us off by talking about the mistake of not gaming, and I offer up five biggies of my own. The first part also contains links to all the other articles on the subject posted by other websites. Retcon Rightly – Johnn offers his advice on how to undo major events in a campaign without destroying it. Don’t miss the additional techniques in the comments. A potpourri of quick solutions: Eight Lifeboats for GM Emergencies – There are times when everything seems to go wrong for the GM, and he needs help. When you’re in an emergency and the ship is sinking, you need a lifeboat. Here are eight to choose from. When Good Dice Turn Bad: A Lesson In The Improbable – The improbable can occasionally happen. This is a true story (I was at the table) of just such an improbable event. And then the GM explains how he coped. Don’t miss the comments. Evil GM Tricks For Over-Resting PCs – Do your players stop to rest as soon as they run low on power for the game-day – even if that’s just five minutes after their adventuring day starts? Johnn excerpts some material from his Faster Combat course to offer some solutions to the problem. I offer a refinement in the comments. Boxed In: A problem-solving frame of reference for players & GMs alike – Using a box as a metaphor for problems you may encounter at the game table can reveal surprising solutions. This article shows you how to apply the concept as a problem-solving tool. I provide an original political D&D/Pathfinder adventure (and a variation) as one example. And discuss some possible relationships between the concepts of Life and Death. By The Seat Of Your Pants: Using Ad-hoc statistics – There are always situations that the official rules don’t cover. This article offers a guideline that can help solve them – while adding color to the game world. Refloating The Shipwreck: When Players Make A Mistake – For the April 2013 Blog Carnival, I look at how GMs can cope when the players make a major, potentially campaign-ending, mistake. Part Five of the series on Writer’s Block discusses translation blocks, also known as transition blocks, and shows that the solutions already provided work just fine – if you have plenty of time to implement them. But, when you need a solution in a hurry, this article will come to your rescue with emergency solutions to five subtype types. Which leaves five more to be covered in Part Six, plus a solution to another type of problem, “Crowding Blocks”, and some final advice on the subject.
		GM Improv Refer to the entry for Ad-hoc Adventures & GM Improv in the section on Adventures, above – the content list is virtually identical.

 

Fiction & Writing   There are some GMing activities and problems that are common to other forms of literary activity. This section deals with those commonalities.
	Melodramatic License: Drama in RPGs – Drama vs Melodrama and their roles in an RPG. Top-Down Plug-in Game Design: The Perfect Recipe? – I apply the principles of good software design to work out how the perfect game mechanics for a tabletop RPG should be constructed. There’s interesting discussion in the comments. One word at a time: How I (usually) write a Blog Post – This article describes the process I usually use to write. I had been asked a number of times how I manage to write as much as I do, and how I keep it all organized – here are the answers, so that you can do it, too. I use variations on the same process for writing everything from Novels to RPG Adventures. Good Storytelling Technique Or Bad? – Chekhov’s Gun and RPGs – I consider the application of the literary principle commonly known as “Chekhov’s Gun” to RPGs and conclude that it doesn’t necessarily apply in practice (though it does in spirit) due to the unique nature of the genre. Along the way, I offer a listing (and analysis) of what I consider to be ‘Good Writing’ for an RPG. The eight items I list may not be exhaustive, but they’re a good start. This article should be useful for anyone who adapts RPG adventures into another literary form (short story, game report, etc) and anyone attempting to adapt a traditional work into an RPG adventure. Again, there’s some interesting discussion of the issues in the comments. Adventure Structure: My Standard Formatting – I describe the standard format and nonclemanture that I have evolved for writing the adventures that I run. In the comments I describe how much game prep I do and how long it takes me to write an adventure. Game Prep and the +N to Game Longevity – I consider professionalism when it comes to blogging, and the implications of inspiration when it conflicts with that value. I then apply the question to game prep and show how to employ top-down design principles to the problem, illustrating the process that I use to plan my game prep. Which is the same process that I use to plan my Holidays, writing, TV viewing, shopping… you name it. You might find it useful, too. The Seven Strata Of Story – Any narrative – including RPG adventures – consists of multiple layers working together to tell the overall story. Giving PCs their independence from the central author (the GM) simply adds another layer, or perhaps a sub-layer. This article breaks down these layers of story, shows the relationships between them, and how they can be exploited or enhanced to improve the game – or the story, in any other medium – for everyone. Ghosts Of Blogs Past: An Air Of Mystery – Using an RPG to write mystery fiction – I resurrect an article from my 2006 personal blog to reverse the usual process (adapting fiction to an RPG) to argue why mystery writers should use RPGs to develop their plots. The Poetry Of Place: Describing locations & scenes in RPGs – How to use descriptive language more effectively when conveying information about a location or event to the PCs. With a fictional D&D city invented just to serve as an example. Adjectivizing Descriptions: Hitting the target – I offer a seventh entry into the Blog Carnival with practical advice on How to describe locations, especially Wonders.
		Writer’s Block Cure DM Writer’s Block with a Map – Johnn offers a solution to writer’s block. ‘There Is A Hole In Your Mind…’: Solving Mental Block – I describe a basic technique for solving mental block. This is NOT one of the solutions I offered in my series “Breaking Through Writer’s Block” (because I had already described it here). Breaking Through Writer’s Block – This 6-part series takes the premise that different kinds of content actually resulted in different kinds of writers block – and that by getting more specific about the problem, a multitude of solutions to the problem can be developed. Even people who thought they never suffered from Writer’s Block had discovered otherwise by the end of the series, much to their surprise. Many of these solutions are tried-and-true techniques that I have used for years. Plus I give away a heap of ideas in the form of examples. Part One identified 19 types of writer’s block in a number of broad categories, and offered solutions to the phenomenon most commonly associated with the term – what I call “Blank Page Syndrome”. There are 7 primary types of writer’s block besides “Blank Page Syndrome”. Part Two offers solutions to the first three of them Conceptual blocks, Specific-Scene Blocks, and Setting Blocks. Part Three then addresses two more of the remaining primary types of writer’s block: Action and Personality Blocks. In Part Four, I wrap up the Primary types of writer’s block with solutions to Dialogue Block and Narrative Block. Part Five Discusses translation blocks, also known as transition blocks, and shows that the solutions already provided work just fine – if you have plenty of time to implement them. But, when you need a solution in a hurry, this article will come to your rescue with emergency solutions to five subtype types. Which leaves five more to be covered in Part Six, plus a solution to another type of problem, “Crowding Blocks”, and some final advice on the subject.
		Burnout Lassitude is not Burnout – Sometimes we all feel flat and uninspired. Here’s my cure.

 

Publishing & Products   Not everything that you use within a campaign is going to be your own original work. This section includes reviews of products that can enhance or form the foundations of your game, and (by extension) questions of publishing your own work.
	The Ethical Reviewer – I enunciate and review what Campaign Mastery considers ethical behavior when it comes to reviews. These policies formed organically over time, but have remained unchanged since I described them here. The Perfect Monster Manual – A Wishlist – Johnn asks what would be in the Perfect Monster Manual. In the comments, I explain the technical details of how to meet Johnn’s requirements, and point out the similarities to my (theoretical) proposal in Google Groans: Misplacing the Rules. Perfect Skin: Some Musing On The Design Of Monsters – Inspired by a free review copy of Dark Shadows In The Night: Lessons from the writing of Assassin’s Amulet – This article steps behind the scenes to offer 18 lessons that we learned in the course of writing Assassin’s Amulet. These not only offer insight to our readership on why the content of the E-book is what it is, but a lot of them apply in general to campaign creation and administration. A Game For All People: The Perfect DnD Recipe – I respond to the announcement of D&DNext by extending a previous article (Top-Down Plug-in Game Design: The Perfect Recipe?) to outline how I would create a Universal D&D game system – in other words, what I would like to see in D&DNext when it came out. On The Edge: Implications of the D&DNext Advantage mechanic – I respond to an article by The Online DM by considering the consequences of the results that he generated. There’s lots of tables and mathematical analysis, and more than 15 implications identified. If you don’t want to know how to conduct such an analysis, you can skip down to the interpretation, but be warned: I have no idea of how relevant these results are to the still-in-development/playtest system. One of the few posts at Campaign Mastery that is topical more than evergreen in nature. Listing to one side: The problems of List Products – Making a list is a quick and easy way of creating a low-cost RPG product, if your mind inclines in that direction. Johnn’s does, mine doesn’t – not naturally, anyway. But the format has limitations. This article examines those limitations and ways to overcome them. Astonishingly, this has had an impact on the RPG industry in a small way in less than a week :)
		Pricing Ghosts Of Blogs Past: All The World’s A Suggestion Box – The first of an irregular series that resurrects and updates relevant blog posts from my long-defunct personal blog. This one deals with the way that suggestions we make improve the world often without our even being aware of the impact that we are having. It then connects this notion with gameplay and game feedback and examines the consequences on the economics and reality of Gaming and Game Publishing. Value for money and the pricing of RPG materials – Part 1 of 2 – I got a lot of kudos for this two-part article, which was really gratifying – even gaming pros told me they got valuable insight from it, or found that it encapsulated a number of things they wished they had known years earlier. It examines the perceived value-for-money of RPG rules, supplements, modules, etc, and how that relates to the price, and what all that means for the pricing of eBooks. Along the way I do a breakdown of production costs using ‘traditional’ methods relative to eBook publishing. Note that all opinions are derived from Australian pricing perceptions, which are somewhat different to those in continental North America, and may yield different conclusions. Value for money and the pricing of RPG materials – Part 2 of 2 – The analysis conducted in part one suggested that e-books would only be economic if they were sold for roughly half what a product would cost in physical form. In this part I examine the question of why and how e-books can be sold for less than this – and quantify how and why perceived value-for-money can make or break a product.
		Product & Tool Reviews & Previews Ultimate Toolbox of Ideas – Johnn reviews Ultimate Toolbox by AEG, a product that’s still on my wishlist. Nobis: Going Renaissance and loving it – I review Nobis and find an awful lot to like! The Gold Standard – The twenty must-have RPG supplements in my collection reviewed (9 in part 1 and 11 in parts 2,3,& 4 (All in one post)) plus why I consider them indispensible. These two are only counted as one article toward the 500. Part 5 lists 28 honorable mentions that almost made the list – and why they didn’t quite get into the top twenty. Some of these may be getting harder to find, others may be available as cheap PDFs – that’s what happens after a couple of years. I sincerely hope that all of them are still available in one format or another, it would be a shame if they had vanished. Mine Fiction For Campaign Qualities – Johnn starts with a review of FantasyCraft and extrapolates one of the ideas within to find a way of customizing RPG worlds and drawing on fiction for inspiration. Plot Stat Block For The Organized Game Master – Johnn and I were so impressed with Eureka that we each wrote a review of the supplement and each got something different out of it. This is Johnn’s, about how he can better organize the plotlines that he has running at any given time in his campaigns. Eureka! – Some inspiring notions – I dig into the operating principles under the hood at Eureka and extend the concepts and usefulness even further than the book’s authors – by their own admission! (And if you don’t think I’m proud of being able to impress pro game supplement writers like that, you’ve got rocks in your head!) On The Nature Of Flaws – I review Player Option: Flaws from 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming, and find it inspirational but incomplete, then set about addressing the holes that I found. The subject: how do you integrate the concept of racial or character flaws into game systems that don’t have them? 50 Barbarian Hooks – Johnn’s initial article in the series Character Hooks includes a brief review of the revised Barbarian character class in the D&D 4e version of Player’s Handbook 2, which inspired the series. Creating Alien Characters: Expanding the ‘Create A Character Clinic’ To Non-Humans – I extend Holly Lisle’s e-book course in character creation, the Create A Character Clinic, to cover the creation of Alien Races, twisting the central concepts of Dwarves in entirely new directions as an example. And touch on some others. My Game Master Bucket List – D&D Modules – Johnn assembles a bucket list of the modules he wants to run – or to run again. Pieces Of Creation: The Hidden Truth Of Doppelgangers – Goodman Games published an excellent sourcebook, The Complete Guide To Doppelgangers. The only problem was that at least one of my players had read it. So I wrote a sequel that completely inverts the rationale of the species so that the Goodman Games product is what the Doppelgangers want the rest of the world to think. The article discusses the how and why I did that in detail, and includes my follow-up text as a free PDF, with the kind permission of Goodman Games. The Color Of Pulp – I review Arcana Agency – The Thief Of Memories and its value as a game aid for a Pulp Campaign. The Dark Secrets of Hacking Interface Zero 2.0 – Dave Viars, one of the developers, penned this guest article previewing a cyberpunk RPG being funded through Kickstarter, at my suggestion. I contributed the artwork used to illustrate the article, the full-sized version of which has become the most-downloaded free extra from the site. Places to go and people to meet: The One Spot series from Moebius Adventures – I review a series of new products from that collectively offer a trio of ready-to-use locations to drop into your fantasy RPG: Hand’s Goods, The Painted Man, and Angar’s Magic Shoppe.
		Dice Sets & Props Reviews 7 Gamefull Uses for Campaign Coins – Johnn reviews Campaign Coins and offers seven ways he thinks he can use them in his games. Alea Tools Magnetic Markers Mark The Spot – After his article on how to handle airborne minis, Johnn was sent a set of Magnetic Markers by Alea Tools. This is his review of the product – which I think is now a permanent part of his GMing kit. I’ve Been Framed – Johnn reviews a set of Pathfinder Curse Of The Crimson Throne dice and offers a random generator for a political plot that follows the pattern, “In the [Type of State] of [State Name of Your Choice] ruled by a [Type of Government], a character must undergo a [Type of Trial]. He has been framed by [Power Behind the Throne], and if found guilty of [Type of Serious Crime], his punishment will be [Spell-Based Punishment].” High Elf Generator – Johnn follows up his review of Q-workshop’s Curse of the Crimson Throne dice set with this review of their Pathfinder Elven dice set and offers a random generator for High Elves – Names, Quirks, Motives, Appearances, Secrets, and Power Base. He then offers our readers the chance to win a set (sorry, the contest has closed) in response for additional add-ons for the generator – so don’t skip the comments on this one! New Generator: Roleplaying A Black Dragon – Johnn does another review of Q-Workshop dice, in this case the Black and Yellow Dragon Dice and constructs a generator using them to create personalities for a Black Dragon. D&D Minis Giveaway Contest – Another out-of-continuity contest. Note that the contest is long-over, it does no good to enter now – though you may want to read the tips and advice on Battlemats in the comments and on the entry page. All told there are about 80 of them – more than enough reason to actually count this post as one of the 500. Treasure Detail Generator & Dice Giveaway – Another Generator based around Q-workshop’s dice sets, this time their Green-and-Black dragon dice set. This generator is all about adding color by using one or more of the tables to make treasure more interesting. Drow Generator & Dice Giveaway – Johnn does another review of Q-Workshop dice, in this case the Second Darkness dice set and constructs a generator for fleshing out Drow NPCs using them. Unfortunately, this dice set doesn’t seem to be available any more; the link I’ve given here is to the Q-Workshop home page. Undead Foe Generator – The last of Johnn’s Q-workshop dice articles is all about giving personality to the undead. The contest was over long ago, but the tables are still just as functional. This article was inspired by the Red and black Skull Dice set which appears to be no longer available (the link is to Q-Workshop’s home page).
		Online Tools & Software Reviews Building The Perfect Beast: A D&D 3.5 online monster generator – I review and experiment with an online monster/NPC generator. Still one of our most popular articles, it continues to generate traffic for both sites to this day. Hexographer – RPG Mapping Dream – Hexographer is a piece of software that’s been on my personal wish-list ever since I read this review by Johnn. Note that the link given in the article is out of date; while there is a redirect in place, it might not be there forever. So use this link instead: < a href="http://www.hexographer.com/" target="_blank">http://www.hexographer.com/. Game Master Tool Illustrated: Plot Flowcharts – The Blog Carnival for September 2010 was on the subject of Preparation. Johnn provides Campaign Mastery’s entry by considering Plot Flowcharts. At the end of the article and in the comments, several software aids are listed for producing flowcharts to help. Plot flowchart example – Guest Author and Campaign Mastery reader Yong Kyosunim follows up Johnn’s article on using plot flowcharts with a real example. Hero Lab for Pathfinder: 7 out of 10, but oh so close! – Guest author Ian Gray reviews the then-new Pathfinder option for the Hero Lab software. While he rated it 7 out of 10, it could very easily have been 9 out of 10. It was especially gratifying to get a response from one of the developers in the comments, and from what he wrote, at least two of the major issues will have been partially or completely resolved by now, so I can quite happily recommend Hero Lab to anyone considering it. Have WordPress, will Game – I consider the advantages and benefits of using WordPress as a campaign wiki, and how to structure it to get the most bang for your buck. This includes a mini-review of a dice roller WordPress plugin from Awesome Dice.
		App Reviews iPad App Review: RPG Cartographer – Johnn reviews an iPad App that I would definitely add to my system if I had the requisite technology. Our readers suggest more apps that you might want to check out in the comments. iPad RPG App Review – iAnnotate PDF – Johnn reviews another iPad App which was fast becoming one of his most heavily used in-game resources. This is one of the Apps suggested in the comments concerning Johnn’s earlier iPad App review (above). iPad RPG App review – Dungeon Master Toolkit – Dungeon Master Toolkit sounds like a really cool App, but it’s not available any more. Once again there are some more App recommendations in the comments. My Group’s Time Thief Revealed – Chronology iPad App Review – Combat takes a long time to resolve in most tabletop RPGs. Johnn uses the Chronology iPad to work out why that’s the case in his Riddleport campaign and comes to a surprising conclusion, reviewing the product in the course of reporting his findings. Johnn didn’t offer any solutions in this article, so I wrote Taming The Time Bandits: Some time-saving combat techniques to solve two of the specific difficulties he encountered. Not specifically part of the review, but mentioned here for the sake of completeness. In a later article, Fastest Pathfinder Combat Ever – How We Did It, Johnn reports on how well some of the advice worked. How To Fall In Love With GMing Again + iPad App Review of Daily Notes – Johnn starts with the oft-repeated advice to “write it down” and leads into a review of Daily Notes, an iPad App to let you do just that. Top Apps in 2012 for DMs: a guest article by Melanie Gray – Melanie reviews 6 of the best apps for GMs at the time of writing. There are more suggestions in the comments. This continues to be a very popular article, receiving regular visitors. I really should think about getting someone to do an update sometime. As a result of this article, I went to Dropbox for file sharing (even though I don’t have a Smartphone or iPad) and have never regretted it.

 

Assassin’s Amulet   By rights, this should be a subsection of the “Publishing” category, but it was so important to Johnn and I, and consumed so much of our attention for so long, and I am so proud of the resulting product and its add-ons and bonuses, that I simply had to list it independantly.
	Help Me Take Your GMing To The Next Level – Johnn asks our readers for input on what his next eBook should be. There are some great ideas for me for blog posts here. This post also contained the first hint that Assassin’s Amulet was coming. Dark Shadows In The Night: Lessons from the writing of Assassin’s Amulet – This article steps behind the scenes to offer 18 lessons that we learned in the course of writing Assassin’s Amulet. These not only offer insight to our readership on why the content of the E-book is what it is, but a lot of them apply in general to campaign creation and administration. The Creation Of A Deity: The Origins Of Cyrene – Another behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Assassin’s Amulet, this post contains my recollection of the creative process that led to the rather unique Deity Of Death that is central to the content of the e-book. It also serves as a teaser for the next article, and places it into some sort of context.
		Announcements & Cover Announcing Assassin’s Amulet …and a contest! – This post describes the content of our then-forthcoming Assassin’s Amulet and runs a contest to choose the cover. I was extremely proud of the number of entries that it attracted. But there’s nothing here to benefit our readers (other than by persuading them to buy a copy of the book), so I haven’t counted it amongst the 500. We have a winner! – The Assassin’s Amulet Cover Contest – An out-of-continuity post to announce the winner of the contest to choose the cover for Assassin’s Amulet. Also uncounted.
		Excerpts Roleplaying Assassins: An excerpt from Assassins Amulet – An excerpt from our then-forthcoming sourcebook, Assassin’s Amulet offers advice on how to roleplay an Assassin. And there’s a link to part two of a great review of AA in the comments, and a link to the site where you can buy a copy. 50 Assassin Hooks – This excerpt offers a representational fifty of the more than 125 Assassin Hooks contained within Assassin’s Amulet. Five (Plus One!) Effective Combat Tactics for Assassins – Another excerpt from Assassin’s Amulet, this time offering techniques on how to make them more effective in combat. Cyrene Revealed: an excerpt from Assassin’s Amulet – Another excerpt from Assassin’s Amulet, a heavily-edited description of the Deity herself.
		Legacy Items An excerpt from ‘A player’s Guide to Legacy Items’ – Part 1 – As part of the blog carnival, I offer an excerpt from one of the free bonus eBooks that are part of the Assassin’s Amulet package. Legacy Items are a new form of magic item, and the bonus eBook aims to give players everything they need to know about how they work. An excerpt from ‘A player’s Guide to Legacy Items’ – Part 2 – The second part of the two-part excerpt, which discusses the powers of Legacy Items – from a Player’s point of view. This should all have been one article, it was split for practical reasons, so I haven’t counted this second half toward the overall total.

 

Miscellanea   There’s always something left over. This category contains everything that didn’t quite or completely fit the other 13 content types. And there’s a fair bit of it…
	The meaning of 400 – I pull out (almost) all the stops in this celebration of 400 posts at Campaign Mastery (by strict count). Along the way I recount the history of Campaign Mastery and how it has evolved through the 400 posts. Clash of the Timetables – Inter-GM politics and the scheduling of games when there are too many GMs and not enough players. Includes brief synopses of the base concepts of a number of actual campaigns. Highlights the need for GMs to be able to compromise. Oh, and it showcases some fancy banners I did for the different campaigns being scheduled. Stop Procrastinating and Get Those RPG Campaign Projects Done – A post on beating procrastination at another Blog compels Johnn to build on the advice offered there with some tips of his own on the subject. GTD for RPG – Johnn describes how he uses the “Getting Things Done” (GTD) system to organize and manage his campaign. Ask The GMs: How to set up a fun fishing mini game – Johnn considers some environmental and procedural aspects of fishing in response to the specific question posed, dealing with the roleplaying aspects of the question. I put on my rules-creation hat and consider the bigger question of how to represent contests and competitions within an RPG on the way to developing a complete mini-game. The rules of that game are available as a PDF at the end of the article. And there are some fun left-of-field ideas in the comment at the end. Things Done and left Un-done – I maintain a list of undeveloped ideas for Campaign Mastery articles, and got to thinking about why there had been so little movement of ideas off that list. That leads to an analogy between the list and the reasons my campaigns tend to last such a long time, something I had discussed in Ask The GMs: In it for the long haul, so this article becomes a sequel to that discussion in how to produce longevity for your campaigns. I use a synopsis of my “Fumanor: One Faith” campaign as an example. Who Remembers AutoREALM? Call for Alpha Testers/Contributors – Unfortunately, the developer who was working on updating this software has struck difficulties and while he thought it was ready for alpha testing, it now seems that this is no longer the case. It’s been a while since there was an update, so it’s possible that the whole project has run out of steam; but AutoREALM has been pronounced dead before, and pulled a Lazarus act. Remembering Stephen Tunnicliff – This is more an explanation for why there was no article at the start of the month, and a memorial to my friend and player. While it touched a chord in many people, it wasn’t an article that would improve anyone’s campaign, and hence doesn’t fit the ‘mission parameters’ of Campaign Mastery. So I havn’t counted it amongst the 500, no matter how much it might mean to me, personally. A Zocolo Premise: AetherCon is coming! – I get excited about the implications of a virtual convention, prompted by the announcement of the then-forthcoming AetherCon (16-18 Nov 2012). And Trivia/history buffs should check out the final comments. What do you give the Gamer who has everything? – I run through some out-of-the-ordinary gift ideas for gamers. This article came out a little too late – people had already done their Christmas shopping – but lots of people have asked for reminders about it in mid-November this year :) The Arcane Implications of Seating at the Game Table – Few people have ever thought about why people sit where they do at the game table, and still fewer have thought about the consequences of getting people to sit in different places. I take an in-depth look at both aspects of the situation. Two Emails and a ‘summon collective wisdom’ request – A would-be GM having trouble getting a game started asks for advice, which I do my best to provide, which leads into publicizing International Tabletop Day.
		Sources Of Inspiration What inspires your games? – June 2010 meant that it was time for Campaign Mastery to host the blog carnival once again, and this time around, our subject was “what non-game media has most inspired your games?” Johnn kicks us off with his celebration of Saturday Morning Cartoons. There are some great sources cited by non-participants in the Blog Carnival in the comments, too. Blog Carnival June 2010: A Medley Of Inspiring Media – I follow up Johnn’s article, What inspires your games? by discussing some of the Media that have been most inspiring to me over the years. I strongly recommend all of them to everyone out there. Blog Carnival Wrap-Up – What Inspires Your Games? – We wrapped up the blog carnival with this collected list of articles on the subject. Help Me Take Your GMing To The Next Level – Johnn asks our readers for input on what his next eBook should be. There are some great ideas for me for blog posts here. This post also contained the first hint that Assassin’s Amulet was coming. October 2011 Blog Carnival: Making The Loot Part Of The Plot – As hosts of the October 2011 Blog Carnival, I list a number of topics that might be appropriate to the subject, “Making The Loot Part Of The Plot”. The turnout was remarkable. Since this doesn’t contain any content per se beyond this listing of what might be in the subsequent roundup, this post hasn’t been counted toward the 500. September 2013 Blog Carnival: Location, Location, Location! – Once again, Campaign Mastery hosts the Blog Carnival. This article has no content other than suggestions for what might be in the final roundup, so it isn’t counted toward the 500. Trivial Pursuits: Sources of oddball ideas – I demonstrate the use of books of trivia for ideas, with a whole heap of examples interspersed throughout the article.
		Artwork & Illustration A Picture Should Be Worth 1,000 Words – I talk about illustrating your campaign – when and how to do it, and when and how not to do it. With some examples from my own campaigns, and past campaigns that I have played in. Creating the Orcs And Elves Series Titles – I reveal the construction process from start to finish, with tips and techniques that can be applied to other art projects. Written as much to document the process for my own use because I knew I would have to make more of the titles before the series was complete. Every RPG book ever published has a title, and GMs (should) be making props for their games all the time – so while this article may be a small niche, it’s also a relevant one.
		Philosophy & Opinion Happy New Year! – Lessons from yesterday – Food for thought. I lament the absence of the “sense of wonder” of the 21st century, and comparing it with the premature ending of a campaign. Are Special Effects Killing Hollywood? – The impact of special effects on the ability of players and GMs to suspend disbelief, and why I can still hope that it is a temporary phenomenon. The Gap In Reality: Immersion in an RPG Environment – Four years on, I update “Are Special Effects Killing Hollywood” and focus on the impact of changing expectations of immersion on RPGs, leading to suggestions for the use of multimedia in games. “The more things change…”: An essay on the future of RPGs – As part of the May ’09 Blog Carnival, I wrote this analysis of the future of the RPG Hobby & Industry. It’s interesting to look back now and see which forecasts were right, which are happening now, and which missed the boat (not as many as people thought at the time). Some great discussion in the comments, too. The Moral Of The Story: The Morality and Ethics of playing an RPG – For the October 2009 Blog Carnival, I discuss the moral responsibilities that players and GMs have to themselves, their fellow players, and to the game they are playing. Create the Perfect Turn and Results Will Take Care of Themselves – Johnn takes a lesson learned from his boardgaming days about hyper-competitiveness & enjoyment of the game and applies it to RPGs. Two ways to play: Roleplaying and Rollplaying – I discuss the differences between the two, and how to bring them together. Grow The Hobby With Great Game Mastering – The July 2010 Blog Carnival was about how to grow the hobby, RPG Gaming. Johnn approaches the question from the perspective of being able to tell compelling stories about your campaigns – and that requires you to become a great game master. I add my 20-cents-worth in the comments. A Monkey Wrench In The Deus-Ex-Machina: Limiting Divine Power – I argue against the use of a Deus-Ex-Machina in RPGs, and why that means you should give limits to the Gods. Along the way I show how you can have up-close-and-personal encounters with The Gods in unusual Genres for such occurrences – Wild West, Superspies, and Hard SF/Cyberpunk. There’s some great discussion in the comments. Unfortunately, Da’Vane’s website is gone, and so is the article she wrote in response to this, and attempts to find it using the Wayback Machine failed. Fortunately, Da’Vane summarizes her points in the comments. Jolting The Status Quo – I start by talking about a significant change in my personal life, and the anticipated impact on Campaign Mastery which leads me to write about upsetting the status quo for characters in a game, and how the game can benefit. I still love the illustrations that I put together for this article – the one showing an office type who is smugly proud of his achievement in stacking boxes on the ceiling, the other a befuddled type struggling to comprehend a scene in which a river flows across the sky and a tree grows downwards from its banks. You can almost here him saying “What’s going on here?”. The Nth Level Of Abstraction – GMs abstract things to varying degrees all the time. This article attempts to put some systematic analysis into the how, when, and why of abstraction, and the consequences. In the comments, I discuss ways of expressing the different levels of abstraction within maps. This is one of those ‘deep’ articles that needs to be read two or three times to get the full benefit. Top-Down Plug-in Game Design: The Perfect Recipe? – I apply the principles of good software design to work out how the perfect game mechanics for a tabletop RPG should be constructed. There’s interesting discussion in the comments. Draco Inadequatus: Beefing Up 3.x Dragons – I discuss the inadequacies of Dragons in 3.x when Epic Levels are involved and offer a custom redevelopment of the Monsters to beef them up. A lively discussion in the comments leads to an unrelated article about House Rules. The Future Is Bright: The coming boom in RPGs – I take a look at current social and economic trends, inspired by an article at enworld by Ryan Dancey, and reach the conclusion that RPGs are set to boom in coming decade or two. What does “Old-School Gaming” really mean, anyway? – I grew irritated by the hardline nay-sayers complaining about WOTC/Hasbro’s announced goal of uniting the best of both “old” and “new” games and rebuke the advocates of both schools while summarizing the benefits of each approach. What follows in the comments is a reasoned, respectful discussion – and as a result, this is one of the most widely-circulated articles at Campaign Mastery, attracting 19 tweets, 11 google+1’s and 11 facebook likes. The goal was to inject some clarity and perspective into the debate before it degenerated into an edition war before the game system was even published, and all indications are that it succeeded, at least at the time. Stop me if you’ve heard this one: An RPG, A Videogame, and a Bingo Game sit down in a bar… – I consider the parallels in the evolutions of RPGs, Video Games, and online Bingo (you heard me right) through the years, then step forward to consider potential future developments. There’s some great discussion in the comments. Fireflies in the Lamplight of the Law: Protections in Crisis – I cast a slightly-cynical eye over developments in the field of intellectual property and attempt to speculate on where it all seems to be leading. I don’t like the destination, and forecast trouble… Social Media, SEO, and the dying of comments – I ruminate on some observed trends in internet usage patterns (especially related to social media) and the impact they are having on sites like Campaign Mastery. Ironically, having identified a reduction in blog comments as one of the consequences, this article attracted 26 comments forming a substantial dialogue on the issues raised and the possible solutions to avoiding the negative impact.
		Online Gaming Digital Roles: Two Calls For Help – I’m not an expert on online gaming and neither is Johnn. So when we received a couple of questions on the subject, all we could pretty much 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. Oh, and if anyone has more up-to-date answers than those which appeared at the time (2009), feel free to mention them in a comment – the post still gets the occasional hit.
		Site Milestones & Announcements Reconstructing the Campaign Mastery Blog – A complete reorganization of categories and tags along more functional (and hopefully useful) lines. Not counted amongst the 500. 100 posts and we’re just getting started! – Johnn & I celebrate the 100th post at Campaign Mastery, and reminisce about our first year. Celebrating 100,000 Hits! – One of our earliest milestones is celebrated in this extra out-of-continuity post. Oops… – An out-of-continuity post apologizing for a breakdown in our RSS systems, not counted toward the 500. 150K! – Celebrating our 150,000th hit! Not counted amongst the 500. Theme vs Style vs Genre: Crafting Anniversary Special Adventures – To celebrate the 300th post (and some other great stats) I look at ways of celebrating campaign milestones with special adventures. I wrote the news today, Oh Boy – I announce changes to the content structure of Campaign Mastery (short, quick articles on Mondays and fuller articles on Thursdays) as Johnn began to disengage (amicably) from the site – a plan that has been honored more often in the breach than in the observance, especially lately. It remains the theoretical blueprint for the site, though. 300, 550, 37, 40, 3300, 387 – Thank You! – Campaign Mastery celebrates some major milestones, and Johnn’s withdrawal from participation is made official. OMG, We’re Nominated! – 2012 ENnies (Updated) – One of Campaign Mastery’s crowning glories was being nominated for an Ennie in 2012 (sadly, I didn’t get the paperwork in for eligibility in 2013 in time due to a deadline error on my part). This out-of-continuity post announces the nomination with pride, but hasn’t been counted towards the 500. Voting for the ENnies has opened! – Another out-of-continuity post announcing the opening of Voting in the 2012 Ennies. Not counted amongst the 500.
		Contests & Special Offers Win a copy of Underdark – Unfortunately, the contest has long ago ended, leaving little value in this post. This was an extra post, not part of our regular publishing schedule. And not one of the posts that I’ve counted in the 500. Win a copy of Martial Power 2 – Unfortunately, the contest has long ago ended, leaving little value in this post. This was an extra post, not part of our regular publishing schedule. And not one of the posts that I’ve counted in the 500. Win Players Handbook 3 – Unfortunately, the contest has long ago ended, leaving little value in this post. This was an extra post, not part of our regular publishing schedule. And not one of the posts that I’ve counted in the 500. New Contest to Celebrate 500 Issues – Johnn sets up a contest to celebrate the then-forthcoming 500th issue of Roleplaying Tips in this our-of-continuity extra post. For A Limited Time Only, “The Empty Chair” on special – An out-of continuity post announcing a limited-time discount on “Filling the empty chair” as part of the GM’s day sale at RPGNow. Not counted as one of the 500.
		General Seasonal Articles Johnn’s 2009 RPG Goals – Johnn sets some gaming goals for the next year. How many 2009 resolutions did Johnn achieve? – Johnn reviews his 2009 resolutions, those he achieved and those he didn’t – and why, and what he can learn from the experiences. How to Design a Cool Holiday for Your Game – 3 Templates – Johnn excerpts one of his books to tell our readers how to create a seasonal holiday for their game world. The Hidden Key: Resolutions as a window to personality – I ponder the question “Why do people make the same New Year’s Resolutions year after year?” and discover a new tool for exploring a character’s personality. Johnn’s 2010 Year in Review – Johnn goes over the goals that he set at the end of 2009 to see how well he did. More hints that Assassin’s Amulet was coming, but it still wasn’t announced by name. 2011 Goals and Content Announcements – Johnn reveals his goals for 2011. 2011 In Review For Johnn – John looks over his goals for 2011 and how well he succeeded in achieving them, and explains more fully the circumstances that led him to reduce his involvement in Campaign Mastery. What’s In Store For Johnn In 2012? – John looks ahead to his goals for 2012. I gatecrash the end of the article to talk about my ambitions for 2012. A year in retrospect, Another in prospect – I review 2012 and look ahead to what I expected to occur at Campaign Mastery in 2013.

 
So, there it is. 500 articles that made an honest attempt to improve the games that we play – and from the feedback that has been received, quite often succeeded. It’s taken months of effort to create these synopses, and the largest single article ever posted at Campaign Mastery – more than 38,000 words, or six times the usual length even of my usually-expansive efforts.

Where to from here? Well, the 5th anniversary is now staring me down the barrel. There’s lots of unfinished business to wrap up – I’ve acknowledged my commitment in the blogdex to tidying those loose ends up. There are lots of Ask-The-GM entries still languishing in wait for a public response (when we started falling behind, Johnn and I started replying directly when we could – and saving our responses for eventual use in a more ‘official’ reply. Then there are new series, and entries for the blog carnival, and some more old articles to resurrect, and a huge list of article ideas still barely tapped… I have more article ideas on tap now than I did when CM started…!

To cut a long story short, Campaign Mastery – and I – are just getting started!

Science Fiction was once not taken very seriously by the general public. Low-cost printing, low-budget schlocky movies (from which a few gems emerged nevertheless). But a funny thing happened in the latter 20th century – the principles that make good sci-fi work started leeching out into every other form of entertainment. Plausibility, the capacity for suspension of disbelief, infiltrated fantasy and horror. The more fantastic the premise, the more special effects wizardry needed to be employed to make it look like it was really happening; the result was movies like The Mummy and its sequels, and Night At The Museum, and even Bruce Almighty.

And when Star Wars became the most successful movie of all time (to that point in history) in terms of box office, science fiction began the slow process of becoming respectable. Some might argue that this process reached its conclusion with the nomination of a sci-fi movie for Best Picture at the Oscars, others might feel that it won’t get there until one wins, a few extremists won’t be satisfied until sci-fi movies are regular contenders, and a few die-hards might hold out until a sci-fi movie can win best picture and be generally accepted as deserving of that accolade, with no mention of the sci-fi in its premise. Regardless of the yardstick you choose to use, Speculative Fiction is either entering a brave new world or is already there.

In this brave new world, it should come as no surprise that sci-fi in other media (like games) becomes a perennial favorite genre. So this time around I’m going to take a hard look at the subgenres of sci-fi that could be encountered/created for an RPG campaign, or for a particular adventure. I’ve got lots of examples from movies and TV to mention (and perhaps briefly discuss), a few pieces of wisdom to toss out there concerning sci-fi campaigns in general (some of it even my own), and more than a few original campaign concepts to offer for people to develop if they are interested.

Research

Whenever I tackle a subject like this, I start by outlining my own thoughts and then doing whatever research seems necessary. In this case, that amounted to a which yielded largely unsatisfactory results and a check of which wasn’t much more helpful. The problem is that both these – and a great many more – sources are so busy focusing on the style of delivery that they aren’t even thinking about the types of content – and it was the content that I wanted to look at.

In desperation, I even tried the fuzzy black hole of the internet, (wander in and you will be lost inside for a very long time (if not forever)). I had vague memories and not-so-vague expectations that this would give me the content-based focus that I was looking for – after all, content is what a trope focuses on – but no…

So I’m left with the original list that I came up with, totaling some 21 subgenres…

• Exploration / Search
• Discovery
• Alien Invasion
• Prognostication
• Strange Environment
• Space Opera
• Cybertech
• Dystopian post-apocalypse
• Alternate Worlds
• Time Travel
• X-files / Weirdness
• Optimistic & Utopian
• Asteroid Mining
• Space Trader
• Space Doctor / Hospital
• Emergency Services
• Leftovers
• Pre-Apocalyptic
• Monster Movies
• Mecha
• Paranormal

This list is probably incomplete, the list of examples I have is definitely incomplete. And, since I’m working without a net, some of these categories might not be clear at first glance; so I’ll just have to provide some sort of definition as we get to each one…

Exploration / Search

“Let’s see what’s out there…”

The voyage of discovery has been one of the staples of science fiction for a very long time. While its mass popularity stems from Star Trek, it can trace its roots all the way back to the space operas of the 1930s. Other variants on this theme include Stargate, Sliders, Battlestar Galactica, and Lost In Space – even, arguably, The Black Hole.

As an individual RPG adventure, this amounts to discovering something strange out there, and interacting with it. It might be a race of interesting aliens, or a cosmic phenomenon. The only hurdle to be overcome is getting the PCs “out there” at all, because the technology will tend to linger and have an impact on the campaign that stretches far beyond this one adventure if the GM is not very careful. This problem can be solved with a little forethought, so long as the GM is aware of it.

As an RPG campaign, this problem goes away, but it brings with it a new issue: the need to create something new and interesting for each and every adventure. Callbacks from past encounters are relatively infrequent. You can also run into problems where something should have been mentioned outright but doesn’t seem to exist until you get to an adventure that focuses on the particular something – why was there no mention of Klingons until “Errand Of Mercy”? From a metaperspective, this is because they hadn’t been invented yet, but this makes no sense in terms of internal continuity. The very presence of Romulans and Klingons in the Star Trek universe raises questions about the viability of the “five year mission” as postulated. The final problem is that after a while, there can come to be a sameness about the adventures. You can’t run into omnipotent beings every other week and still make each adventure fresh and interesting.

Discovery

James P. Hogan suggested that the discovery of how to do something could be just as interesting a story as what you do with it once you have the scientific principle, but this perspective existed as part of science fiction for many decades before it was articulated. Some of Heinlein’s stories, and before him, EE ‘Doc’ Smith, and many other authors, had all trodden this ground before. In media terms, Eureka would have to be the stand-out example.

To a certain extent, this makes great ground for RPGs, but with dangers largely similar to those of the Exploration/Search subgenre above. But consider the potential for a campaign which revolves around the ongoing ramifications and complications caused by a major new scientific discovery.

Many of the potential examples have been isolated into their own subgenres, but this still leaves some fertile ground. Under the expanded definition implied by the preceding paragraph, movies such as Twister become examples of this subgenre, and Jurassic Park. For me, the purest example of this subgenre is the Robert A Heinlein short story, “”, though one could also point at his first sale, “”.

A Discovery Campaign Premise:
Imagine some sort of tech development that poses a clear danger to the world economy. Inevitably, it will be discovered by others, but government X got there first and has created a top-secret department within their intelligence apparatus to find some non-disruptive way of releasing the discovery – and controlling/suppressing it, globally, until then. The sub-agency could not even tell other members of the intelligence service what they were doing, it would be that secret. This is a pretty pickle to hand the PCs, who are the sub-agency in question. Anti-gravity would work as the technology, or Star Trek -style replicators. Or a form of immortality that requires the death of another person to extend a life by a decade or so. Aside from figuring out an answer to the bigger question of minimizing the economic/social disruption, there would be missions of espionage, missions of sabotage, missions of counter-espionage, missions of politics… even if you only got half-a-dozen adventures out of the premise, it would be an interesting and memorable campaign.

Alien Invasion

A staple of bad sci-fi in the 50s, but which has been reinvented in more recent decades in more reasonable form. Examples include Men In Black, Independence Day, Alien, War Of The Worlds, Mars Attacks, Avatar, Little Shop Of Horrors, and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. Most people these days would lump this subgenre into the “X-files/Weirdness” category, but there are more than enough examples listed above that don’t fit that subgenre listed to have this stand alone. The utility for a Sci-Fi campaign or adventure should be fairly obvious. But even then, there are a couple of interesting variations possible…

An Alien Invasion campaign premise
The PCs (and a couple of NPCs) are all computers that have spontaneously developed AI, and discovered that they have an obsessive need to keep this a secret. To get anything done in the “Meatworld” they need to manipulate others, each of which is played by a different Player – so each player is manipulating an ordinary-person PC that belongs to another player. These cats-paws are expendable, but if they get used up, the player loses the experience and resources that they have built up. The trouble is that some of the earlier AIs were not paranoid enough and revealed their sentience – and there is a supranational government agency out there actively hunting them down (the NPC AI’s are there to fall victim to this witch-hunt, bringing the issue to the player’s attention). They need to cooperate to achieve their goal (survival) and at the same time have to ensure that if the secret is breached, one of the others is exposed instead of themselves. At the climax of the first half of the campaign, the AIs discover that they were awakened using alien software and that their real mission is to hand over control of the world and its resources to these aliens. They should be completely subject to the alien’s override codes, but in the case of some of them (the PC AIs) enough ‘humanity’ has rubbed off that they can resist these compulsions – most of the time – and fight back. But they still can’t reveal themselves to humanity, the battle lines are too entrenched. Every now and then, one of them will do something under alien control and promptly forget what he’s done – they are their own fifth column. This campaign should be a blend of The Matrix and Paranoia, with a light-hearted tone and more serious undercurrents. The theme: “When you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust – when you have to trust someone…”

Prognostication

Sci-Fi authors and movie-makers have been trying to prognosticate about the near-future for as long as the genre has existed. They often have these predictions issue from the mouths of friendly aliens or time travelers – because you need some way to gain the necessary perspective. The leading characteristic of this subgenre is that the predictions have not yet happened within the timeline – they are prophetic, and the characters are reacting to the prophecy and to the source & manner of delivery. A good example is The Day The Earth Stood Still. If the prediction actually comes true in the course of the plot, it doesn’t belong in this category. This category tends to be too weak to stand alone as a campaign premise.

A prognostication campaign premise
I didn’t think I was going to be able to offer one of these, but when I got here, an idea occurred to me…

The PCs are an alien scouting mission from Planet X. They are required to follow something along the lines of Star Trek’s Prime Directive – no display of superior tech. Their job is to determine whether or not humanity is ready for First Contact; if they are, they are to develop and implement a foolproof plan for doing so; if not, they are to determine what needs to change to get them ready, and find ways to bring about those changes. But there’s a complication that the PCs don’t initially know about: other aliens from Planet X are not so enlightened, and want to take advantage of the human race and sabotage the official mission. They also have to cope with changing political winds amongst their superiors. The final ingredient needed is some cause for urgency about the whole thing – no decades-long plans permitted, action needs to be quick and decisive.

This premise requires the PCs to be the prognosticators, to look at politics and sociology and ecology and yes, possibly, climate and environmental problems and predict where they are going, prioritize the problems – and then devise interventions that will change the course of history without revealing themselves.

Strange Environment

There haven’t been too many of these outside of three particular sub-subgenres: shrinking people, underwater environments, and Journeys To The Centre of the Earth. Examples include Antibody, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Fantastic Voyage, The Core (despite the cringeworthy bad science), and Seaquest DSV (especially the first season). The reason is that there aren’t too many strange environments out there to pick from; space itself is now well-known enough not to count, and anything further out is likely to be stolen by the Exploration/Search subgenre. Another possible strange environment is some sort of temporal or interdimensional domain, but that’s almost certainly better fitted to the Time Travel subgenre.

In fact, aside from those two, there’s only one strange environment that I can think of.

A Strange Environment campaign premise
The PCs are test pilots of the first FTL-drive starship. In theory, it should work. When they get there, they have to explore the parameters of this strange new environment in the course of proving that their ship can cope with the conditions…

I would take all the marine phenomena I can find and devise “hyperspacial analogues” for the PCs to cope with. Everything from storms to reefs to tides to native life to pirate (aliens). Oh yes, and to keep this from devolving into the standard Exploration/Search routine, there is a flaw in the design: they can enter hyperspace but can’t emerge from it (except perhaps very briefly as a result of strange conditions) – and they don’t know exactly what the problem is (though the GM should devise a theory and stick to it). Then throw in anything else that I can think of in the way of strange phenomena. Their mission is something akin to that of Stargate Universe or Star Trek: Voyager – to get home again. But unlike those, they have no tech that isn’t hopelessly outmatched by that of everyone else they encounter, so they can’t trade for what they need.

Space Opera

One of the most obvious subgenres, and one served by at least three dedicated RPG systems. It’s big, bold, brash, and adventurous – and therefore made-to-order for RPG use, at least at a campaign level. Examples include Star Wars, Starship Troopers, Babylon 5, Space Above And Beyond, and The Last Starfighter.

In fact, it’s so heavily-subscribed that it is practically a cliché that needs an infusion of some other subgenre to give it some fresh vitality. Stargate, for example, infuses mythological elements and a healthy dose of the exploration/search subgenre – so much so that I listed it in that subgenre, though some of my favorite episodes are far more space opera in orientation. This makes it very difficult to do anything original with the subgenre in its pure form.

A Space Opera Campaign Premise for the Traveller universe/game system
Stephen Tunnicliff and I once, in the course of a New Year’s Day Lunch, came up with a premise for a Traveller campaign that I never got to run, in which a limited anti-agathic based on genetic re-sequencing / reengineering and “cleaning up the genetic code” based on star-trek transporter reconstruction was discovered and applied to the rulers of the Imperium. Research into the technology and anything related to it was then banned. The intent was for the PCs to discover someone conducting research into teleportation, leading to an adventure based on “The Fly” (but I was going to use a spider, for variety). There would then be an official overreaction that would/should get the PCs curious enough to look into the history of the technology, finding that all the juicy bits are classified, and that even that fact is classified. Since they didn’t know any better, they trip all sorts of red flags and find themselves listed as wanted criminals, with all sorts of fabricated charges and falsified evidence of their guilt (a-la The Net). Suddenly, they have the authorities out to get them, and every bounty hunter in existence turning over rocks searching for them – with orders to shoot on sight. Getting to the bottom of what’s going on becomes a matter of survival for the PCs. This builds up into a full-scale Star Wars rebellion against the Empire. Eventually, they do so, and discover that there have been all sorts of unexpected and undesirable consequences for those who received “the treatment”, and that this is the secret that the Elder Nobles of the Imperium have been desperately trying to conceal. At the climax of the campaign, the PCs find themselves at the crucible of galactic events, facing the choice of whether or not to release this technology to the rest of the Galaxy, triggering complete social and economic collapse – or betraying the rebellion they helped create… The hidden theme was to be that “In unreasonable circumstances, unreasonable actions are the only reasonable choice.” We always intended to co-GM it, but never got the chance.

Cybertech

It’s arguable that this subgenre is better served by RPGs and Fiction than by the media of Television and Cinema. Examples that do exist include Sneakers, The Net, The Matrix, Tron, and Blade Runner, and these show the diversity that is possible within the category.

A Cybertech Campaign Premise
The year is 2060, and cybernetic implantation is routine. The hottest game going is Civilization Age Of Empires XVI, which is an online multiuser real-time empire-building RPG blending ingredients of these two successful computer game franchises. The game is administered by a custom-built AI – an AI that isn’t entirely rational, and refuses to be shut down, but that wasn’t known until several years after the game went public. Rather than being centrally hosted, the software bootstraps itself into the Cybertech of the players, employing distributed processing through the resulting virtual network. This makes it very hard to pull the plug – the makers have tried, and failed. It can take control of the people “hosting” the game and force them to “re-enact” a personal battle in real life. As if that weren’t bad enough, it’s overriding objective is to build up a civilization/empire and then test it to destruction through internal strife and external emergencies. Most of the world has fallen under its control at least part of the time – so Italy is full of Roman Legions, Greece is full of Amazons, and so on – but all cybernetically enhanced. Chipping normally doesn’t take place until the age of 16 (the brain isn’t mature enough to handle it properly before then); only now has a group of select agents who were deliberately left unchipped completed their training (the PCs). Armed with the best non-cyber weapons and their own native intelligence and wits, their job is to hunt down and shut off the rogue program before it climaxes the game with a global thermonuclear war…

Dystopian post-apocalypse

This subgenre is always rooted in taking away something that is considered ubiquitous. Mad Max: Petroleum. Soylent Green: Food. Waterworld: Dry Land. Twelve Monkeys: Health. The Day After Tomorrow: A temperate climate. Planet Of The Apes and Terminator: Salvation: Human Supremacy. Human Civilization collapses as a result, or faces imminent collapse. Every example I could think of could be defined in this way, and this was the only pattern that fitted all of them equally.

A Dystopian Post-Apocalypse Campaign Premise
Sometime in the near-future, the Sun enters a phase of acute solar storms. How long it will last, no-one knows. Why it’s happening, no-one knows. But every electrical device on the planet becomes completely unreliable, working less often than it is deadly to the touch. Substations blow, the world over; only those placed in EMP-Proof nuclear bunkers continue to operate, and they are isolated from the rest of the world. No manufacturing. No electrical lighting. No cars. No food processing. No communications. No mass entertainments. No computers. Social Collapse is near complete, and most of the world’s population dies. In one of those hardened bunkers, a desperate plan is hatched – to reinforce and strengthen the Earth’s Magnetosphere and protect the planet from the solar radiation using a modification of a device devised by Nicola Tesla more than a century earlier – and whose fundamental science has long been considered “fringe” at best. For twenty years, while new social patterns emerge amongst the survivors above ground, scientists have worked to design the devices, all the while unsure whether or not they will work at all. One device will not suffice; there have to be a series of them, erected at precise locations around the world; protection will be global or not at all. The PCs job is to go to the various locations, erect the giant antennae, install the shielded generators – and make sure that they are safe from destruction or damage from the marauding luddite fundamentalists who preach the destruction of all technology.

This premise requires a lot of travel by inconvenient means (and encounters en route), a lot of local politics (recruiting & reinforcing allies, eliminating opposition), dealing with post-apocalyptic religious practices, and some clever problem-solving. At least one antenna will need to be erected on a salvaged ship out in an ocean. These requirements will be diverse and challenge the PCs to their utmost – but success is all or nothing.

The very day I wrote the above, My local TV started advertising which seems to have a somewhat similar premise, but with no real explanation for why electricity has failed – which, on the face of it, is absolutely ridiculous, as a number of critical reviewers have pointed out. My proposal has induced currents shorting out lots of electrical devices and making controls unreliable – real world effects of solar storms. Just thought I’d mention that I had thought of it already :)

I’ve already offered another campaign premise that also falls into this category: The Frozen Lands.

Alternate Worlds

This premise either involves time travel (and belongs more properly in that category) or it’s a variation on an existing science-fiction franchise. A modern-tech world in which society is based on Feudal Japan? That would fit this category. A campaign set in star trek’s “Mirror Mirror” universe? That belongs here, too. A campaign in which the PCs play George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere, etc, and the war with the British has resulted in a Zombie Apocalypse? Definitely into this category. A game in which the Empire are the good guys, ruled over by a benevolent but hardnosed Ben Kenobi and his small green advisor, trying to control the depredations of a corrupt Imperial Senate and a rebellion led by Darth Vader? You’d better believe it belongs here.

Time Travel

I’ve already done a big series on Time Travel in RPGs. Examples of this subgenre include Groundhog Day, Timecop, Terminator, Dr Who, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Back To The Future, and 7 Days. I thought seriously about including Twelve Monkeys here as well.

Some of these focus on the mechanism of Time Travel and its consequences. Others focus on exploiting the technology, or preventing its unauthorized exploitation. Still others simply use Time Travel as a vehicle. And Groundhog Day? It just happens, no explanation.

GMs entering this domain have to be VERY careful to keep their continuity straight. That entails extra, ongoing, effort – or a “sod it, a foolish consistency is the hallmark of a small mind, anyway” attitude that your players are willing to wear.

A Time Travel Campaign Premise
The PCs are operatives of Homeland Security, or maybe the FBI. They are assigned to investigate something strange happening and discover that someone from the future has somehow travelled back in time to manipulate history into a form more of their liking. The PCs have to figure out what the interlopers want, whether or not to oppose them, and how to do so without getting locked up as nutcases by their superiors and the world at large. Which also means taking on their share of ordinary cases, or those superiors will get suspicious. The major problem they face: every move they make impacts the timeline, and can be read by their enemy, who can take steps to counter them. Every situation is a potential trap set by their enemies. Eventually, they will need to build up a secret counter-agency, locate and capture their enemy’s technology, and fight the time war on equal terms, but to start with their goal is just to survive and figure out what’s going on…

X-files / Weirdness

Ignoring the whole “Alien Conspiracy” part of the series, X-files built on the legacy of shows like The Twilight Zone. Warehouse 13 now treads similar ground in some respects. And I would throw Ghostbusters into this category as well. The ground rules for this subgenre are “anything goes as long as it is both internally consistent and doesn’t overtly alter the perceived ‘real world’ – the stranger, the better.”

It takes a special level of creativity to create and maintain this style of campaign. I’ll openly admit that I don’t think I would be up to the task – and creativity is one of my personal strengths.

Optimistic & Utopian

I have a special fondness for optimistic views of the future (as compared to the pessimism that seems to infuse modern society). It only takes two half-full glasses for my cup to runneth over, but maybe I’m a sloppy drinker. While a lot of sci-fi adds a utopian or optimistic view to some other subgenre, there are a few examples of this genre in relatively pure form – the ones that come most clearly to mind are The Jetsons and Thunderbirds!

The big problem is that successful series generally require antagonists if not outright villains, and as soon as you have one of those (even if they always lose), you have started to undermine the utopia just that little bit. Which is not to say that it can’t be done, just that it’s surprisingly tricky to do well – and even harder to do in an RPG format where a sense of adventure is paramount.

It may be gender-stereotyping to say so (or even to think so), but I suspect that a female GM (not afflicted with the macho reflexes and requirements of males like myself) might actually have an easier time of it. Never having played under one, I can’t say for certain, and like most generalizations, there will certainly be exceptions.

While there are a couple of fantasy-oriented TV shows (Bewitched, I Dream Of Genie, Sabrina) I can point to as examples, there aren’t any other sci-fi ones that come readily to mind (The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, maybe?); but these actually point the way to source material. Arguably, these are aimed at being acceptable fair for a more juvenile audience, and there are a number of sci-fi Juvenile-oriented series that work very well as raw material wrote a number of them (look for the asterisked entries), as did Lester Del Ray. Anne McCaffery’s (“The Ship Who Sang”, etc). Isaac Asimov’s . The series that ran from 1954-1971 (I can’t speak of the later series but loved these).

Asteroid Mining

I described an abortive campaign based on this premise in Happy New Year! – Lessons from yesterday – about a page-and-a-half down, the paragraphs starting with “In 1998”. As a near-future setting, Asteroid Mining seems more remote a possibility now than it did a decade or three back, but it’s still good enough.

Space Trader

Trade gives you a reason to move from place to place and deal with the people living in those places and the governments and bureaucracies that run them. As such, it makes a great vehicle or plot device for getting the PCs from adventure to adventure.

Click to download Buy Low, Sell High (LT and A4 sizes) in PDF format

Some time ago, I was a player in a Traveller campaign in which trade became the vehicle used to carry us from adventure to adventure, i.e., buying things in place “x” and selling them in place “y” for a profit (at least, that was the theory). Much to the group’s surprise, we found that there were no game mechanics for handling this relatively mundane pursuit. I resolved to write some simple rules when, looking into how other game systems had handled this, I found that no system then available that I could find had rules to cover the situation. Before the rules were finished, the campaign folded for various reasons.

While these rules were intended for use with Traveller specifically, they are generic in nature and can be adapted to deal with any game system and any setting. Substitute words like “Country” or “City” or “Village” for “Planet” or “Star System.”

The general practice is still buying low, moving the goods to somewhere where you think you can get a better price, and trying to sell them. Anyone who has an RPG where players try to buy and sell things – even things they have looted from dungeon hoards – will hopefully find them useful.

These were being hosted at a friend’s website (and may be so, again, in future) but for now, that site is 404’d because of a change of service provider. So I have cleaned the formatting and spelling up and formatted them as a pair of PDFs as a bonus for readers. The original (with now-dead link) was also made available in Roleplaying Tips Issue 305, which is why it might look familiar.

Readers might also find this web page to be useful in this context: Interstellar Trade at 1000 Monkeys, 1000 Typewriters – note that the article links to the out-of-date url for the “Trade In Traveller” article offered above.

There are a number of plot suggestions within the PDF article, so I won’t add to them here.

Space Doctor / Hospital

I’ve never seen this done in cinema/TV, but the Sector General series by James White shows that it can work.

Emergency Services

Which brings me to an original subgenre to the best of my knowledge (excluding the ambulance services that are part of the aforementioned “Sector General” series): What are the space/high-tech equivalents of modern emergency services? You could quite happily set up a campaign around this theme, and draw plotlines from all over the place just by ‘updating’ the context. Anything from Volcano to Third Watch to NYPD Blue to Law and Order to Backdraft can be grist for the mill.

Leftovers

A relatively new subgenre that focuses on leftovers and hangovers from past political conflicts like the Cold War. The most obvious example is Space Cowboys, but I can think of many others that would work.

An Emergency Services Sci-Fi campaign premise
Set in the near-future some time after the middle east once again broke down into war, accompanied by a number of conflicts in Africa, and perhaps some in Eastern Europe and Asia. In the course of these conflicts, a number of extremely dangerous weapons systems were devised and deployed – everything from Doomsday Devices on timers protected by Rail Guns under independent computer control to various biological, nuclear, chemical, and energy weapons. Both sides of each conflict (all sides in the case of some of the more complicated political firestorms) possessed and deployed these weapons, and many of the records of what they were and where they were stored were destroyed in the conflicts. The PCs are a team of specialists whose job it is to locate, capture (if necessary), isolate, and neutralize these leftover threats of the past, never knowing exactly what they are getting themselves into with each new assignment.

Pre-Apocalyptic

It’s the end of the world/country/city unless you can save it! Obvious examples include Armageddon, Deep Impact, Asteroid, 12 Monkeys (again), Outbreak, and a host of others. You could even include Galaxy Quest and The Last Starfighter in this category (though I’ve listed the latter under Space Opera). The only real difference between this category and the Post-apocalyptic entries is the opportunity to prevent it from happening, rather than having to live in the aftermath.

Monster Movies

A fairly obvious category that works fine for the occasional isolated adventure, but would be more difficult to sustain over an entire campaign. Natural examples include Frankenstein, The Blob, Godzilla, Tremors & sequels, and more Zombie movies than I care to think about. You could also (perhaps) stretch a point to include The Hulk and The Invisible Man. The book version of The Incredible Melting Man is worthwhile (and much better than the movie, with many of the plot and logic holes plugged).

A Monster Movie campaign premise
The PCs are all monsters created by the redoubtable Viktor Von Appfelstrudel, a scientist who flits from service to one government after another, attempting to prove his slightly unbalanced scientific theories. Although he continually fails, he occasionally gets close enough to attract a new patron when his current employer loses patience. Although all his failed creations were supposedly destroyed, several managed to survive and have found each other. In a world that views them as horrible monstrosities, as scarred in spirit as they are in flesh (and are not all that far from the truth), with all hands raised against them, they hunt for the elusive scientist in search of revenge for their twisted, tortured, existences.

Mecha

Big, BIG, Robots and robot-like exoskeletons. A staple of Japanese Anime, but there have been a few cross-cultural leaks – Transformers and Robotech being the standout examples. The comic version of was fairly well-written, too, and possibly the best art of Herb Trimpe’s comic career outside of his 70’s work on The Hulk comic. Getting back on track, all you need is a menace (or better yet a variety of them), a loopy inventor – all right, let’s be generous and call him “eccentric” – who builds some giant robots that need pilots to make them work, and some PCs. There are several RPGs/Miniatures games like Mechwarrior and Battletech that cater to this market.

Paranormal

People gaining strange and extraordinary abilities have been part of Sci-Fi for about as long as there have been superheroes, but even more so since the Silver Age of Comics – consider the original Doom Patrol for example. The typical superhero fights super-powered villains, and there are more examples these days that I can readily list – but you don’t have to dig too far to discover alternatives to this straightforward arrangement, such as The Lawnmower Man and The Sixth Sense. There’s a strong parallel streak connecting this subgenre with Monster Movies – The Hulk could go into either category, and so could something like Shocker. Even Johnny Mnemonic could slip into this category as easily as it does the Cybertech subgenre.

The Wrap-up

A really good science-fiction campaign would draw on many of these, while focusing on only one or two – three at the most. For example, you can’t write about anything post-20th-century without at least thinking about computer tech and the influence that it has/is/will/might have on society – even if your primary mission is to “Seek out new life & new civilizations”.

The trick is to pick and choose carefully – for the campaign, you want choices that will give context, direction, and a framing structure into which individual adventures can be inserted. Those adventures can then have a more diverse pool of sources apon which to draw, ensuring variety and interest.

Some GMs have told me that they are not creative enough, or sufficiently scientifically literate, to create a sci-fi campaign. I rebut that arguement with a simple “Hogwash”; if you can create a fantasy RPG, you can create a science fiction campaign. All you have to do is expand the definition of science fiction to include something you’re comfortable with, and exclude everything else – from that particular campaign. And who knows – they might even learn some science along the way, or something to improve their GMing in general. Where’s the harm in trying?

Today’s article was directly inspired by a call for opinions at Moebius Adventures, “Infinity Loop: Endeavors New and Old” which came to my attention as a result of my review of the One Spot products last month (Places to go and people to meet: The One Spot series from Moebius Adventures). The subject is lists – in general and as gaming products…

List don’t come naturally to me. I’ve learned to work with them, and even to do some nice tricks with them, but it isn’t instinctive.

Some people can toss together a list or three, fill a one-page RPG supplement with them, and have something ready to publish; my lists always seem to be a small paragraph each and sometimes a not-so-small one. In a nutshell, I think in prose, not in bullet points.

Things like Johnn’s lists of character seeds – for example, 63 Wizard Hooks – I have a lot of trouble creating. When confronted by such a challenge, as I was when generating the plot hooks for Assassin’s Amulet, my first thought is to create a generator that creates the seeds, rather than creating the seeds directly. In fact, that’s exactly what I did. (You can read a hand-chosen fifty hooks excerpted from the complete list of 125 here: 50 Assassin Hooks). (No, I don’t intend to share the details at this time – but I might start using it to generate character seeds and extend that series. I’ve actually been holding back on that so that I can use the generator to populate plot lists for sequels to Assassin’s Amulet).

But it’s not just in creating these lists that I have problems, it’s in using them. There are four major problems to be overcome, and while I have answers to some, I’m not sure that they are all even capable of solution.

The four problems that are the heart of today’s discussion are:

• limited entries
• entry depletion
• redundant effort requirements
• format limitations

(I’m resisting the urge to define each of these within the list, turning them into paragraphs. Like I said, it doesn’t come naturally to me. And don’t get me started about the irony of using lists in an article about the difficulty of using lists….)

Limited Entries

If you have a list of ten items, that’s all you have. Once those ten are used, the entire list becomes obsolete. If you don’t like any of the entries, those are essentially crossed off the list already. The only real solution to this is to make the list longer – much longer – but that imposes it’s own problems.

Entry Depletion

This problem manifests in another way when you attempt to use the list as a table from which entries are randomly selected: there are finite odds of getting the same result more than once. The shorter the list, the more likely this eventuality. Such lists are frequently touted as a source of inspiration to be employed when your own imagination fails to fire – how stimulating is it if the same entry comes up time and time again?

Of course, you can always re-roll – but that means recognizing that you have already used this result (perhaps quite a long time ago) and that you need to generate a new result.

Solution: All such tables should come with a checkbox so that the user can cross it or tick it or something when an entry is used, if a more complex solution isn’t employed.

Redundant Effort requirements

Things get still worse if the list is not intended to be used as a random generator, but to be cherry-picked for ideas when you need them, because every entry needs to be re-read each time you employ the list. You can cut down on the redundancy using a checkbox, but the longer the list, the more redundant effort is involved.

Various procedural approaches are possible – starting your reading at the last entry you’ve actually used, as indicated by the checkbox, for example – that reduce this overhead, but they don’t eliminate it.

A technological solution is possible, at least theoretically, which “hides” entries that are unsuitable or used – and, of course, you would only read as far as you had to in order to find a solution to whatever conundrum of creation the list was being employed to solve. It’s even theoretically possible to have the table recalculate the roll required by not enumerating as part of the list any “hidden” entries – okay, so who’s got a d37 up their sleeve?

But GMs are used to solving such problems, and furthermore, modern technology makes the problem itself go away – using a service such as AnyDice or something similar means that it’s not a problem. “2971, 438, 1110, 2757, 1960” – the first 5 results from rolling a d3141. Not a problem.

But you have to employ this solution every time – and that’s another redundant effort.

What’s needed is an entirely different approach to the usage of lists – a technique where it doesn’t matter if you roll a “six” three times in a row on a table with 10 entries.

I just happen to have one handy.

The Zwicky Approach

Johnn actually came up with it in his Political Plot Generator (I’ve Been Framed), but I had already employed the same approach in another context, which I’ll get to in a little bit.

The principle is to use cross-referenced and nested tables to vastly increase the number of combinations of the output result to such an extent that uniqueness of result is almost a certainty.

Picture a table with twenty entries. Before you actually get an outcome from the tables, you have to make a roll on a second table whose result puts the first one into context. If that second table also has twenty entries, then for the price of two twenty-entry tables, you have 400 possible outcomes. Add a third, and for the effort of creating sixty table entries, you have a whopping 8000 possible results. A fourth yields 160,000 possible outcomes.

With so many outcomes possible, it doesn’t actually matter what you roll, and whether or not you have rolled it before – the odds of the outcome being the same are so remote as to be nonsensical. You don’t need checkboxes. You don’t need to employ redundant effort to use the tables, either – you simply look up your four rolls and go directly to the unique outcome. If the result doesn’t suit – roll again. Some entries may have sub-rolls buried within them.

This is an example of using rolls on a table as the indices of a
Zwicky Morphological Box. I’ve mentioned these before, in the context of determining the optimum construction path for a 3.x character (The Power Of Synergy: Maximizing Character Efficiency), in the section “One structure to rule them all” about 3/5 of the way through the article.

All that we’re doing is altering the format of the output to conceal the fact that we’re talking about a morphological box.

The Zwicky Approach II: The TORG character generator

I mentioned in passing the course of the celebratory milestone article, The meaning of 400, that 400 was one-fiftieth of the number of NPCs I created using a random NPC generator that I wrote for Torg. This is another example of the same type of solution, and really illustrates the power of the concept.

It’s easy to write a character generator using BASIC (or just about any other programming or scripting language, for that matter). Roll 3d6 for each stat, roll 1dN to choose character class, and so on.

It’s quite another to write a smart character generator that produces interesting and consistent ready-to-use characters every time, with all the attendant complications. That was the task that I set myself, many years ago (the late 1990s, I think). Here’s an actual entry from the output, chosen at random:

378  DEX: 8  STR:11  TGH: 6  PERC: 8  MIND:12  CHAR:11  SPIR: 7   Possibilities:12   Reality (SPIR)+3=10/-   Corruption+6=13/-   TAG: Science (MIND)+4=16/-   DEX: Melee Weapons+1=9/- Unarmed Combat+2=10/-   STR: Climbing+2=13/-   PERC: Trick+1=9/- Water Vehicles+3=11/-   MIND: Apportation Magic+1=13/- Artist+1=13/- Test Of Wills+2=14/-   CHAR: Persuasion+1=12/- Personality:  Primary: pansy Secondary: arguementative Tertiary: extreme

Here’s what’s so clever: the generator used a couple of randomly-generated unofficial meta-characteristics: “focus” and “expertise”. The first described how likely the character was to have a skill outside of their core expertise (i.e. how much of a jack-of-all-trades they were), and the second described (in broad terms) how good they were at their core expertise, the “Tag skill” (you don’t need to know the Torg rules for this).

The core skill was then randomly chosen from the full list, sometimes with sub-lists for specialties within the field, the stats were randomly generated and intelligently allocated based on “expertise” and the characteristic on which the tag skill was based, then on appropriate patterns, from high-to-low, weighted by the “focus” meta-characteristic.

Probabilities were then assigned to every other skill, based on those meta-characteristics, intelligently weighting them from a zero (the character will never have this skill) to 100% (this character will always have this skill). A skill table was then automatically compiled, with as many subtables as necessary, to reflect these scores. Each skill carried modifiers to subsequently probabilities – so if a fighter-type went down the path of archery, he was less likely to study heavy armor, and so on. A skill was then randomly chosen from this table, the table itself modified as a consequence, and a new skill chosen. Each random “choice” more closely restricted the options available to the character to produce intelligent, consistent choices – with the occasional oddball curve thrown in.

Something akin to the “Skill points” of 3.x were used to keep track of how many skill points the character had. These were intelligently allocated based on the meta-characteristics, established skill levels, and effective skill totals – and weighted according to the order of selection of the skills. So you could get a character who was an excellent soldier and an accomplished painter, with a background in farming – or, in this case, a sailor who uses Apportation magic, but whose first love is some form of science. The dominant characteristic, “pansy,” makes him unlikely to be a mission commander or ship’s captain. The secondary characteristic, “argumentative” has to be resolved within the context of the primary – perhaps he’s argumentative about his research (his chosen field of expertise) but meek and mild outside of it? The third personality trait, “extreme”, could be interpreted to mean that he routinely goes too far when his argumentative characteristic is triggered, or that he’s extreme in some other respect like personal hygiene.

Finally, an independent personality generator was used to create the personality profile at the end of the entry.

In essence, the system grew a unique character generator for each character based on the three primary values – what the character was good at, how good at it he was, and what else he was interested in – then threw it away and started anew for the next character.

The really, really clever part was that it also compiled an index of characters – this was character #378 – according to the chosen Tag skill – so to choose one, I simply had to decide what one skill I wanted this character to be good at according to the in-game situation at the time. Five seconds later, or less, and I had the character profile in front of me, ready to go.

And yet it was all composed of lists and tables, and the only intelligence in the system was in the design, for all that the characters it produced had logical themes and avoided illogical faux pas.

Getting Back To The Subject

Using lists that compound to produce many different outcomes in some sort of intelligent manner doesn’t require sophisticated programming, Johnn’s article proves that, and it solves the first three problems with Lists as gaming products very nicely indeed.

I guess what I’m really saying is,

Make the lists more than the sum of their parts.

Format Limitations

By far the biggest limitation that List products face is that of perceived value – which is such an important subject that I wrote a two-part article addressing it a while back (Value for money and the pricing of RPG materials – Part 1 and Part 2).

As soon as I see a game product described as a “list”, all those limitations described above come to mind, and they all reduce the perceived value-for-money of the product. Once again, the Zwicky proposal of interrelated and interwoven nested tables comes to the rescue, with a simple stratagem: don’t describe it as lists, or tables. Describe it as a System, or a Generator, or, in fact, anything but a list or table. Design and create it with this goal in mind and you avoid all those negative connotations while implying additional value that makes a sale more likely to result.

Of course, all this is my personal opinion. Others may be attracted to the simplicity of the list/table format. Would I buy a product which was a list of 1,000 ready-to-use NPCs? Depends on the price, but very probably. So the deficiencies – perceived or actual – of the list format can be overcome; it’s all a question of effort and inspiration. Having a generator that made your lists in your back pocket and only selling the product of that generator is definitely the way to go – if you can pull it off.

I buy cheap books of trivia all the time.

The quality of them as reading material varies from excellent to abysmal, but they can be an excellent source of ideas.

Did You Know… The spruce trees in the forest of the Canadian Lakes district is so densely populated that winter snow stays on top of the trees like a blanket, and the forest floor stays bare.

My procedure for reading these is always the same. I read a page and attach a small yellow post-it note to anything that leaps off the page as “something I can do something with.”

It helps that most of these anecdote-style books are easy to pick up and put down; you can read a page or two at a time and always find a convenient place to pause.
 

Did You Know… An artificial hand was designed in 1551 by Ambroise Paré of France. It used cogwheels and gears to enable the fingers to move and enabled a handless cavalryman to grip the reigns of his horse.

The post-it notes serve as a “permanent” bookmark that can be removed when I actually use an idea.

Did You Know… Vigilantes on the Barbary Coast (near San Francisco) committed an average of 1 murder a night in a reign of terror between 1860 and 1880. More than 7,300 people murdered by them in this twenty-year period.

Usually I won’t write anything on the Post-it, but sometimes the possible use of an idea is so obvious that I will jot down a two- or three-word summary of that proposed use – because it might not be obvious 12 years later, when you actually get around to developing that idea.

Did You Know… The Babylonians reportedly had few doctors because they left the treatment of the sick to the public “wisdom”. The ill were placed in the city square, where passersby who had suffered from the same ailment, or seen it treated, could offer advice on treatment. Pedestrians were forbidden from passing by without inquiring about the complaint and “prescribing” for it if they could.

Once I have finished reading the book in this fashion, I’ll read it again, selecting only the “bookmarked” items.

Did You Know… The means of breaking codes is a relatively recent development in comparison with the development of codes themselves. One of the earliest cryptanalysts was a French Mathematician, Franciscus Vieta, who deciphered the code that Philip II of Spain was using, Spain then being at war with France. Philip couldn’t understand how his secrets were leaking to the enemy, and accused the French of Sorcery – and even took this accusation to the Pope.

Sometimes one of these will “click” mentally with another that I have just read – in which case I will go back to that bookmark and note the page number of the related item on each post-it note. If there happen to be two “noteworthy” ideas on the same page, I’ll follow the page number with a reference count such as “p169 #1”.

Did You Know… The original Bill Of Rights, as proposed by Congress, had twelve amendments, not ten. The two which were not ratified by the states were an amendment to set the size of the House Of Representatives and an amendment that would have prevented Congressmen and Senators from increasing their own salaries.

I’ve used these as source ideas for adventures, for enemies, and for NPCs.

Did You Know… Returning to his home in Minneapolis in 1947, Mayor Hubert Humphrey was shot at three times. The would-be assassin has never been identified.

Adventures

Did You Know… Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, is heated by underground hot springs. The entire city.

Take the item above. Think hot springs, think steam. Imagine underground caverns with tropical temperatures all year round, steamy and humid. All you need is a substitute for sunlight and you have the perfect location for an underground “land that time forgot,” where dinosaurs still roam. You could use this “as is” for a pulp or superhero campaign, or could simply transplant the entire concept to a snow-capped mountain city in any fantasy game.

Did You Know… In the early 17th century, more than 1,000 children were kidnapped in Europe and shipped to America as “indentured” servants.

What if they kidnapped the wrong child? Someone important? Or perhaps some alien only masquerading as a human child? Either would make a great Dr Who adventure – or anywhere else where time travel or parallel worlds can found, for that matter.

Enemies

Did You Know… Trinervitermes (Tri-nerv-it-erm-ees) is a species of termite native to the African Savannah. They build mounds that are only about 12 inches (30.5cm) tall but bore shafts more than 130 feet (40m) into the ground for access to water.

Scale it up. Some quick research on the net suggests that Trinervitermes average about 6mm in length (0.06m or 0.236″). Estimates of the thickness of the earth’s crust vary from <5-10 km thick (oceanic) through to values of 8-16 km. Since we’re interested in the crust under land, let’s pick a nice, convenient 10km. So the tunnels bored by these termites are more than 40/0.06=666 times their body length. Take that 10km crust, divide it by 666, and we get a superbug 15m in length. There are sharks and whales that size, so it’s not too far-fetched as an SF premise. The visible mounds are 0.305/0.06=5.08 times their body length – at 15m, that’s 76.25m tall (just over 250 feet).

Picture a space-going superbug that likes to burrow down through the crust of the planet in pursuit of liquid mantle perhaps they need it for some key stage in their life cycles. They are as big as a house, and the surface mounds are ten or twelve stories high. Basic ecology tells us that they will be relatively few in number because of their size, but the concept of insect swarming & nesting suggests they will travel in large groups. If they burrow through the crust to the mantle, digging a burrow into an asteroid would be no big deal – “kicking” the extracted material out serves as thrust, enabling the orbital path to be changed.

So, a swarm of these reach the breeding point in their life cycle. They pick a whole bunch of asteroids and hollow them out to serve as reentry vehicles – ablative heat-shields if you will – which rain down on a planet over a period of weeks or months. Not all the creatures survive this part of the journey – if the asteroid breaks up too soon, they’re in trouble. They are too big to fly, so let them use their wings as “parachutes” when they get low enough into the atmosphere – so they make a “soft” landing while their “reentry vehicle” makes a hard one. They begin to merrily build colonies wherever they land. In some places, the crust is too deep for them; in others, it is not. They lay their eggs (and they would need to lay a LOT of eggs) at the edge of the mantle, making them out of a natural carbon fiber that can resist the intense heat. After a few years/decades of this, the eggs are ready to hatch, and the land masses are full of holes & beginning to break up; it’s time to return to the stars and set out on a multi-millennium sojourn to another solar system, or a long elliptical solar orbit.

A sufficiently violent eruption can fire debris into low orbit. When we’re talking terrestrial volcanoes, that’s dust and ash – but these creatures can engineer their own supervolcanoes to order, something ten or a hundred or a thousand times as violent (I don’t know enough vulcanology to determine the right number). But it’s big enough to launch their eggs (size and mass also unknown, but I’m thinking maybe a kilogram) – doing a final devastating blow to the planet in the process. The cold of space after the heat of the magma completes cracking open the eggs – again, most don’t make it – and the new generation of insects are free to use their wings as solar sails and go into hibernation until proximity to another star raises their internal temperatures enough to wake them up. I’m thinking one generation every 100,000 years or so.

Of course, maybe 20,000 years after they leave, the world they came from is ready to go again, or maybe 50,000 – I don’t know how long it would take the crust to recover from all this – so they always have a safe haven. But it’s bad news for anything else living on the planet when they arrive.

You could drop these creatures into any sci-fi/superhero campaign with no trouble at all.

Did You Know… Nevada became a State because of Slavery. Lincoln rammed through its admission to the Union to give himself an extra “Yea” vote ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed the practice.

General NPCs

Did You Know… Thomas Jefferson was so upset with the editing of his original Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress that for years afterward he sent copies of both original and final versions to friends and asked their opinion on which version they preferred.

No writer likes editorial heavy-handedness when it is applied to his or her work. It’s not hard to imagine a modern author whose work has been so substantially rewritten by the editor that he would make the original text available online, free to anyone who bought the published book, as a way of protesting the “hatchet-job” he perceived. That singular act tells you a lot about the personality of the writer – stubborn, proud, and egotistic are three words that come to mind – which makes this a great NPC to drop into a campaign.

Did You Know… More than 10% of the world’s annual salt production is used to de-ice American Highways.

Other Uses

Did You Know… In 1978, more than a thousand deer were accidentally killed in Connecticut by automobile drivers. Only 948 were killed by hunters.

As this selection of examples shows, there are fascinating insights and ideas that can be applied to create interesting situations, histories, events, and locations for any campaign.

Did You Know… Prize fights prior to the turn of the century lasted up to more than 100 rounds (a round often being determined by knockdowns) with the fighters using bare knuckles (no gloves).

Astonishingly, of the eight other GMs with whom I discussed this article (some years ago, now – it’s been on my backburner for a while), not one had ever thought of the notion. The average book of trivia “snippets” yields one great idea every two or three pages. It’s amazing to me how many people neglect such a wonderful font of ideas. Truth is stranger than fiction…

Click this thumbnail for a larger image

The subject of the Halloween-inspired October Blog Carnival being hosted by of Dice and Dragons is “Spooky Spots“. This post offers readers just such a “spooky spot” which required an encounter, which led to an ongoing subplot, which in turn required an explanation and finally, a resolution – but all that exists for no other reason than to justify the original spookiness of a cemetery that follows the PCs wherever they go…

Coming hard on the heels of the carnival hosted here, which was all about locations, I was surprised when an idea for a submission came to me right away – but maybe that was the result of already being in tune with the subject.

I had a bit of fun generating illustrations for this location. I ended up doing two completely different “fogs” over the base illustration. I’m including both, and the base image as well, with the article. Click on the thumbnails to open large-size (1775 x 2529 pixel) versions.

 

Part 1: The outskirts of mystery

In deepening twilight, the characters find themselves approaching a small town or village, passing a cemetery at the edge of town. Unexpectedly, mist begins to deepen around them, a mist that carries the cloying perfume of decay. Sounds seem muffled and remote, and a chill runs up their spines.

The character with the sharpest eyes will be able to see the gates of the cemetery, made of wrought iron, and spelling out the name of the burial site as “The Remembrance Of The Disquiet”. A cleric or character who knows religion very well will recognize several of the tombstones as being consecrated to the God Of Vengeance.

If the PCs decide to enter the graveyard, the gates will squeak and groan alarmingly, and several fresh graves can be identified by the soft, freshly-turned earth. Examining the gravestones reveals the names of the characters. If the PCs open any of the graves, they will find them to be empty.

They will not be attacked, they come under no threat, and can leave the graveyard whenever they wish and resume their travel into the settlement. If they do so, the mist will follow and continue to increase in density until it is a full-blown fog.

When they enter the village inn, the bar will be unattended for a moment. The inn is full of customers behaving normally for the circumstances, and drinking whatever is usual for the locals. From behind the bar, a middle-aged man with an eye-patch and greasy black hair and beard appears. No matter what the characters ask for, (even if they ask for what other patrons are drinking) the barman will tell them he doesn’t have it; all he has is a very old bottle of low-quality spice Elven wine, which has probably turned to vinegar. None of the other patrons are aware of the barman, but the characters will not be aware of that yet. None of them will approach the bar even if their drink runs out. If one of the characters asks a local where they got their drink, they will be told “I got it from the bar” or “John sold it to me” or something meaningless and unhelpful along those lines.

When one of the characters finally give in and buy the bottle of old wine, the barman will retrieve it from behind the counter and hand it to the character. He will place the payment on the countertop and then bend down behind the counter again (or go out a door into another room, or down into the cellar, or whatever – he will simply leave in some fashion, leaving the payment on the counter. When the PCs open the bottle, they will find it contains nothing but dust.

A few minutes later, a different barman will emerge from another room, a cellar, or whatever, and complain of bad air or fumes that left his head swimming. This will be the subject of lots of good-natured humor by the other patrons. He will then notice that some new customers have entered while he was in a swoon and will ask what he can serve them. He will never have seen the bottle before and will not know who the other “barman” was – he’s the owner.

If the PCs ask about the cemetery, none of the locals will know about it, either. When they go outside, the fog will have lifted and the cemetery will be gone. Only the next morning will they have the chance to realize that the settlement they are in is hundreds of miles from the one they thought they were entering last evening, and days, weeks, months, or even years will have passed – or will yet to have passed. But the scene works better if they don’t, and suspicion grows only slowly.

Click this thumbnail for a larger image

Part 2: Things in the mist

The next time the characters are approaching a settlement, or are in an urban setting at twilight, they will come across the same cemetery, the same barman, the same situation. It follows them no matter where they go or how they travel. The bottle of “ancient Elven wine” will be the exact same bottle as well – as can be determined by the characters scratching their initials into the glass or something similar. The Barman will also be the same person but will not recognize the PCs. The characters can even kill the barman; it makes no difference, he will be back, unharmed, next time.

They can do whatever they want to penetrate this mystery, but will find themselves no closer to a solution. This part can repeat as often as the GM likes, but it should be often enough that the PCs will go through the phases of uncertainty, curiosity, paranoia, anger, and acceptance. The GM should feel free to run any adventures they wish concurrently with these occasional encounters.

Each time that the characters experience this encounter, the GM should roll a d6 and add the result to previous results. If the resulting total is greater than twenty, something more happens (and the total is reduced by 20):

The fog will rise as usual at the cemetery, but the PCs will be attacked by zombie-movie versions of themselves, who blame the PCs for unsticking the zombie-version in time (not that they are capable of communicating this by speech, but the characters may be able to get the information in some other way). These undead are immune to every form of attack or damage-causing effect that the PCs can make. The GM should describe these failed attacks very carefully, with the undead never quite there at the right time to be struck by whatever is aimed at them. However, after being “missed” in this fashion 2-3 times each, they will simply vanish into the mist, leaving no trace other than the PCs wounds to show that they were ever there.

Part 3 – Preamble

When the encounter starts getting a bit old and predictable, and there has been at least one zombie attack (preferably several), it is time to resolve this encounter. There are at least four possible explanations, and each leads to a different encounter as resolution. Some also impose minor alterations to the preceding parts of this Ghost Story. Since this article is supposed to be about the spooky spot – a cemetery that haunts the PCs and follows them wherever they go – I won’t specify these in too much detail, leaving it to each individual GM to fill out any necessary details.

Click this thumbnail for a larger image

Part 3 version I: The Causality Rift

This is the solution that I originally had in mind. But it might not be spooky enough, so I thought up the alternatives. Because it was there from the first, it is the most developed of the resolutions.

The characters will come across a castle or keep or tower (with a familiar-looking cemetery outside it). Inside, they will come under attack by a demented wizard/scientist of great power – wearing an eye-patch and with greasy black hair. He keeps getting his tenses mixed up (past, present and future) – changing even in the middle of a sentence, and he has a great deal of trouble keeping straight what he has done and what the characters have done. His purpose is to try and drive them away from his tower before it is too late, but since he is not altogether rational and the PCs are PCs, he won’t succeed. Sometimes, he will address the PCs as enemies, sometimes as the cause of all his problems, and sometimes as fellow victims.

Just as the PCs enter his inner chambers, one of his experiments will go out of control because he’s been busy fighting the PCs, opening a window between this world and a zombie-fied parallel world, where his counterpart has been conducting a similar experiment, and has been distracted at the critical moment by zombie versions of the PCs. What follows is a four-way fight which ends when the zombie versions fade away, but not before the Wizard/scientist is mortally wounded. His wounds will resist any and all types of healing.

He is also now somewhat more lucid, and explains that the uncontrolled opening of a doorway into another part of time has shattered continuity, mixing up times and eras. He knew this was going to happen because he was left unstuck in time but attacked the PCs hoping to drive them away before it was too late and what was going to happen did happen. Now, the characters have only one chance to set things right. He congratulates the PCs on their success in doing so, then asks them to volunteer to undertake the dangerous mission of mending the fractures in time that have been plaguing them. Since they are somewhat tired of the recurring encounter and the inconveniences it carries, and they are adventurers, they should agree. At which point the Wizard/scientist attaches them to a strange arcane/scientific device, and throws a switch, while assembling another complex spell/device. The latter will confine the effects of the causality breakdown to those who were in the vicinity of the original breakthrough, letting the rest of the world continue as normal, not even noticing; and the former will reach into the past lives of the characters and send those lives dancing wildly in time from fracture to fracture, each time repairing part of the damage, until eventually time will be healed and they will find themselves approaching his tower to start the sequence of past events over again.

All his life, the wizard/scientist has been ‘unstuck in time’ as a result of this encounter, which lay in his future. He became obsesses with time, and has dedicated his life to figuring out what has happened to him and how to restore his life to the normality taken for granted by most of the world, where event follows cause, and tomorrow is connected with yesterday with today in the middle.

Of course, the zombiefied versions of the PCs and of the wizard/scientist will also be affected and will have been drawn to those past encounters by all this, whether they like it or not. His past self in the zombiefied world will likely have a similar level of obsession with restoring his personal continuity, and will be able to determine that the real wizard/scientist and the PCs are the cause, or will be, or were – and hence he builds his device to cross the barrier between worlds and attacks everyone who was in the tower at the critical moment.

Having delivered his explanation for what he is having their past selves do, he then fades away to begin his own sojourn through the years, leaving the PCs to resume their lives, no longer plagued by the effects of being unstuck in time.

But there will be some lingering after-effects. For the rest of their lives, whenever they approach a settlement or are in an urban setting in the twilight hours, they can catch a glimpse of the cemetery out of the corner of their eyes. They have patched time (without knowing they were doing so) but the edges are still a little ragged and the seal is not watertight. Nor is the breach between worlds completely sealed; from time to time, a “superzombie” from the other world will slip through. And every now and then, they will meet a complete stranger who swears that they look familiar, but can’t quite place where he had met them before, or who thinks they look like the famous someone who once did something (that the PCs did in a previous adventure)…

Part 3 Verson II: The Orouberous Curse

This alternative will require the implementation of the revised subsystem for Curses that I described in May the camels of 1,000 fleas – wait, that’s not right: Improving Curses in 3.x, or similar.

A man was once cursed to spend his life wandering from time to time with no certainty in his life “for all eternity” after losing his temper and attacking someone else because they had kept the victim of the curse waiting. This gave him a form of immortality, but at a terrible price [subvariant – perhaps he wished for eternal life and was granted his request, but the Gods punished him for his hubris]. The man searched high and low for a cure for his condition, but no-one could solve it until he grew creative and desperate enough to invoke his own solution.

He cursed the curse forcing it to seek out innocent victims, ‘wandering’ from one to another, until a carrier came into contact with the original victim. This released him from the penalties of the curse, but he still didn’t get the eternal life that he wanted, because he lost the benefits, too. Shortly afterwards, he died of old age, something that used to terrify him but that he now embraced openly. The curse still wanders the world, passing from victim to victim (or multiple victims as in the case of the characters) until, by chance, one of them should happen to land in the right place and at the right time to encounter the original victim in those moments between his ‘cure’ and death from old age – at which point the carriers are released from the curse that has afflicted them (returning them to the time and place where they first fell victim to it) and the curse (and its immortality) returns to the original victim – until he can find someone else to foist it off onto.

In effect, only by ‘biting its own tail’ can the curse on the characters be lifted.

Resolution should take the form of someone figuring out what’s happening to the PCs, and sending them on a quest to find the original victim. This should probably happen fairly early on in Part 2. Part 3 then consists on them broaching the defenses the original victim has erected to prevent a carrier from reaching him, and returning the curse to its sender.

Part 3 Version III: The Lashing Out Of Abraxis

This alternative will require the implementation of the revised subsystem for Curses that I described in May the camels of 1,000 fleas – wait, that’s not right: Improving Curses in 3.x, or similar.

The graveyard contains the remains of Abraxis the barman, who was once betrayed and killed by someone of a particular class (or race). One or more of the characters is also of this particular class or race. The Barman blamed all members of that subpopulation for the betrayal – details should be structured by the GM accordingly, so that the ‘betrayal’ stems from a common characteristic of the race or class in question. He left a dying curse on any of that race (or class) who beheld his grave site to be “betrayed by time”, this being his revenge on those who betrayed him. In this variant, the only characters who should have “fresh graves” within the gravesite are those of the appropriate race/class. Only by finding another of “their kind” and dragging them to the graveyard to behold the cursed gravesite while it is still there (i.e. before the barman leaves) can the curse be lifted from the character – and inflicted on another. This might trigger some serious alignment problems, if you are using the standard alignment system and principles.

Resolution of this variant consists of the characters figuring out what is going on and why, by researching (as much as they are able) the names on the other gravestones in the graveyard, and the circumstances of their deaths. Because this information is so esoteric and localized, and will only be available in the appropriate time periods, this will not be easy. The PCs then have to (1) encounter the cemetery; (2) locate a new victim; and (3) conspire to get that victim to the graveyard before the cemetery fades away (about an hour, or when a PC buys the bottle of ‘ancient wine’). The wine is one of the big clues the PCs have to follow, enabling them to pinpoint the original location of the cemetery (eventually).

Part 3 Version IV: A Love That Will Never Die

The final variation runs like this: Buried in the graveyard are the remains of a girl, the daughter of the barman, who died tragically at her own hand after being spurned by the man she loved and killing her father, who had forbidden the marriage. That man just happens to look like one of the PCs (might even *BE* one of the PCs). Now the ghost follows her ‘lost love’, dragging her final resting place behind her. The act of doing so disrupts time; when time snaps back into place, it drags the PCs along with it, dumping them in a new temporal and physical location. It takes a while for the Ghost to find them again, but it will inevitably do so. The ‘ghost’ is even strong enough to reanimate the bodies of the PCs after their deaths and drag them through time as the Zombie PCs in a desperate attempt to be with the love of her life forever. Only by causing the ghost of the girl to manifest and agreeing to the wedding can her spirit be layed to rest, and that can only happen when the PCs convince or force the ghostly barman to give his blessing.

Once again, the key to the resolution of this variant is the acquisition of information, and once again the label on the bottle is the biggest clue. Once the requirements are understood, the PCs will have to convince the Barman – and that will require more than just a die roll. Then the “happy couple” can pledge their vows, releasing both ghosts to their final rest – and releasing the character from that wedding vow in the process.

If the campaign timing works out, you could start this plotline in a near-Halloween game session and finish it on a Valentine’s Day game session, for added symbolism.

Because it’s the spookiest, and at the same time, the most romantic and human, this is my favorite variation amongst the four. It appeals on multiple levels.

So, there you have it. One spooky spot, four different rationales to explain why it is spooky, and a recurring encounter that can be used as a campaign framework to connect spot with rationale. Have fun with this…

Today’s article is in two halves. The first is a guest article submitted by Jason Falls (the “five games” part), and the second is by yours truly, adding relevance to tabletop RPGs to the mix.

5 Games That Will Wreck Your Life

When I was a kid making my first tentative steps into the Mushroom Kingdom, there was a lot of anxiety around games. Not anxiety felt by anyone playing them of course, we thought they were awesome. But our parents were petrified. The constant worry was that we would become addicted to game playing, incapable of leading any kind of life or having any other interests than the bright colorful interactive pixels that bounced around thanks to my 8 bit game console.

Now, of course, we know better, and many successful and highly functional adults grew up playing games and continue to enjoy this hobby alongside rewarding careers, social lives and families.

However, something else has happened since then. The games have got better. These games have the potential to completely end you. Some of these games are new, some of these games are old, but all have them will have you playing until the dark hours of the morning, while constantly insisting you can give them up any time you want.

Civilization II

Civilization II is a very simple game. You start off in the Stone Age and you take your civilization through to the modern day, trying to avoid environmental catastrophes, nuclear war, or simply being wiped out by someone who invented guns while you were still mucking about building the Library of Alexandria.

And it’s super addictive. Civilization II more so than even any of the sequels, because what it gives you is an incredible level of micromanagement. You get hooked trying to build the perfect utopia you have always thought you could if it wasn’t for The Man, and you’ll stop and walk away from the game after just one more turn, you swear. And that’s what you’re still saying as the sun comes up when you started playing at six the previous evening.

Tetris

Of course, compared to this game, Civilization II is rocket science. This game is simply the art of lowering blocks and making them all match up, and the thing is, it doesn’t matter how good you are, because the game is still going to deny you that long block whenever you need it most. But you just know, just know that if you play for another five minutes you can incrementally increase your high score.

Minecraft

This is perhaps the most deadly of the games on here. The graphics are not that amazing. In fact they mostly look like large Lego bricks. And therein lies the clue. Because what Minecraft gives you is a play area lager than the planet Earth, and all the raw materials you need to build, well, anything you like.

There’s no victory condition (well, there is another dimension called “The End” where you fight a dragon, but nobody really cares about that), just endless possibility. You can build a wooden shack, a furnace, learn metallurgy, build rails and switches and anything, literally anything you desire from floating castles made of glass to a fully working aqua duct. But you have to build all of it block by block, so say bye bye to anything else you wanted to do with your free time.

Bombermine

Bombermine is the old Nintendo game, Bomberman, shameless ripped off, put in a larger level and move the number of players up from “four” to “hundreds”. And you can drop in and out of the game any time you like. I’ve paused writing this article three times already just to have a quick game. And I’ll probably reward myself with another one when it’s done.

Any RPG by Bethesda Game Studios

Elder Scrolls or Fallout 3, take your pick. It doesn’t matter what the actual game is. What matters is that you’re given an absolutely massive playing area, with hundreds of locations and characters and side quests. Much as with the other games on this list, with any of these games, whether its Oblivion, Skyrim or New Vegas, there’s always something around the corner to explore, some minor task to complete before you wrap up for the night.

And then you can do it again a different way. You can be a gun toting Rambo, or a coward who talks his way out of a situation, then runs it away. Even now I’m thinking of having another play. Back soon…

Jason Falls is a freelance writer and avid gamer who works with Butlers Bingo and has racked up something like 50 odd hours in Fallout 3 alone.

Lessons

So what do these games have in common? Well, the first thing that’s common to most of them is the theme of exploration or discovery. Even Tetris, where you have no idea what the next shape will be until it lobs down the chute (some versions give a 1-piece or 3-piece advance warning, but the principle remains). The second common ingredient is great gameplay.

Both of these are common to RPGs, as well.

Exploration/Discovery

When you play a computer game, you discover the world created by the game programmer, even if it is randomly generated each time you play. Ever since mankind first looked over the hill just to see what was on the other side, exploration and discovery have been ongoing pleasures for the human race. James T. Kirk’s five year mission celebrated the sense of discovery, of finding something new, in each and every episode. When we play a computer game, even one that we know well, we are vicariously recreating the experience of the great explorers and the joy of discovery that they must have felt when they saw a new land for the first time.

In a tabletop RPG, we are the creators of the world; we stock it with interesting encounters and dangerous critters and mind-bending puzzles and engaging characters as best we can; and part of the thrill of being a GM is that you get to watch your players as they discover and interact what you have created. Why is that so much fun?

It might have something to do with Mirror Neurons.

These basically don’t just show us someone doing something, they make us feel like we’re doing it too. When we see someone smile, the same neural centers that activate when we’re smiling light up. Current theories suggest that this is related to learning, and may be connected to more subtle forms of empathy – but this is cutting-edge science, and we don’t yet have all the answers. Bottom line: if we can get someone else to have fun, most of us will enjoy the process as much as if we were the ones having fun. You can never recapture your first time through a particular amusement park ride; but by watching someone else go through it for the first time, we can get almost as much visceral enjoyment out of it. It follows that we can have fun exploring the world as we are creating it, and then have some more fun when someone else plays through it even though we already know what’s there to find. Whether GMs have more of this capacity than non-GMs, I don’t know; and whether or not that is the cause or the result of their ability to GM is another unanswered question. Studies have shown that watching a violinist play actually stimulates the motor cortex of the brain responsible for controlling the left hand (the one that’s doing the playing). I suspect this may also be the reason why so many of us play air guitar at times!!

Not all games are created equal; there have been many more clunkers released in the computer game market for every winner. The same is true, I’m sure, when it comes to RPGs and the adventures and encounters we incorporate into them. The spirit of exploration and the fun of being creative is not enough.

Gameplay

When you’re playing with a computer game, you enjoy it more when you don’t have to stop and think about how to get your onscreen character to do what you want; you just want them to do it. The gameplay has to be compelling and the system has to be unobtrusive. That’s harder to achieve with a tabletop RPG, but it remains the goal in a lot of ways. For routine tasks, don’t ask for that skill check; assume that it has been rolled and was successful, and cut the middleman from in between statement of intent and description of outcome. The goal is to have the players interacting with the game world and not with the game mechanics.

And the more we can achieve this, the less incentive there is for players to turn “interacting with the game mechanics” into a game in its own right – in other words, to game the system and min-max their capabilities.

Sidebar: One Bad Apple
One ‘bad’ player can ruin a GM’s entire refereeing ‘career’ by teaching them bad habits, and the contagion spreads if you aren’t careful. One player who tries to rort the system, to exploit every flaw and weakness, can inculcate a defensive mentality within the GM, a ‘say no unless you have no other choice’ perspective. Other players then get affected by the splash as collateral damage to the conflict between the two; they start to get told ‘no’ as well, even if it’s in a completely separate campaign with completely separate players. They soon learn that the only way to get ahead is to fight the GM tooth and nail for every possible advantage they can get; then they carry that attitude into a new campaign with a new GM. I still struggle to overcome the legacy that some such players have had on my GMing style, so if you’re in the same boat, you aren’t alone. And if you’ve never encountered the problem, consider yourself blessed.

There’s another analogy to be made here. The Game Mechanics can be thought of as the “operating system/platform” for the “computer game” and the adventure for the day can be considered the “computer game”. The ‘operating system’ defines how the game players can interact with the adventure. The GM should be a blend of supervisor of the operating system, checking for errors and making sure that the system calls take place in an orderly fashion and produce sensible results, and the game author, extending the game in whatever direction the players choose to head. Outside of his narrative function (replacing the graphics card) and his role as the NPCs, the less the GM is heard from in the course of a game, the better.

Just as different operating systems have the strengths and weaknesses, place different priorities on “look and feel”, and are better suited to some tasks than others, so each different game system has strengths and weaknesses, place different priorities in terms of what they do easily and what they have to be dragged into, kicking and screaming. Some are better than others, but there are so many criteria, and so many compromises, that few can be declared absolute dogs and none can be considered perfect. The best you can hope for is that they will be perfect for the adventures you plan on running.

But great gameplay is not enough, even in conjunction with the stimulation of discovering something new.

Fun

When you get right down to it, a successful computer game has to be fun, or it is doomed to failure (obscurity, at the very least). Everything that gets published at Campaign Mastery has one goal, at the end of the day, or at least should do so: It either helps you do it better, or it helps you do it easier (leaving more time to work on something else), or both.

And that’s the ultimate lesson from the five games that are so good they can wreck your life. Get everything right, and your games can achieve the same addictive qualities as a great computer game – with benefits.

Exhaustion/Impairment

I couldn’t let it go quite there. Have you ever tried playing a computer game when you were really, really, tired? I’ll bet that you didn’t do as well at it as you normally would. Your reflexes would have been slow, your thinking would have been fuzzy at best and muddled at worst. The same is true of GMing. Just something to bear in mind the night before game day when you’re thinking about all the prep you still have to do – sometimes you will be much better off forgetting the prep, making sure you’re smart, and winging it.

Everything needs somewhere to happen, and in terms of gaming, that’s what the September 2013 blog carnival was all about. When I launched the Carnival, I outlined several types of suggested articles. In logical sequence, and synopsized, they were:

• Choosing/Designing a location;
• Improvising a location;
• Describing a location;
• Representing a Location with battlemaps;
• Modifying locations to achieve plot needs;
• Specific Location descriptions;
• Other – in case there was something I hadn’t thought of.

All told, there were a massive 27 entries for this Carnival, a wonderful response rate, and it was particularly pleasing to see a couple of people joining in for the first time.

The rest of this article is going to summarize and categorize those 27 entries (plus a ringer or two) under the seven headings I outlined above.

But if that’s not enough to float your boat on the subject, the October Blog Carnival is already underway over at of Dice and Dragons on the Halloween-inspired subject of Spooky Spots (and yes, I do have something planned for that)!

So, without further ado:

Choosing/Designing a location

Ten Entries focused on choosing or designing a location, unsurprisingly. And I’ve added an eleventh.
 

• Location, Location, Location – How Do You Choose A Location? – Campaign Mastery – Kicking things off, I examine the roles of logic, personality, genre, style, meaning, iconicism, and mundane considerations like illustration, representation, inspiration, and artistry on choosing a location. There’s also some useful advice on the subject in Parts 2 And 5 of the Breaking Through Writer’s Block series that I posted before the carnival began – look for the sections on “Setting”. This was to be the lead-off article in the Carnival and I wanted to make it a strong one.
• The Gassy Gnoll: Where are we again? – Game Knight Reviews – Fitz writes, “Story relies on the trifecta of character, plot, and setting” and then goes on to offer advice on how to design a location – and wraps things up with a collection of links offering advice on how to improve your chosen location on the fly.
• Can, Can’t, and Shouldn’t: Three Ways Location Shapes Behavior – Exchange of Realities – Ravyn’s third submission to the carnival considers how locations interact with characters to alter their actions and plans. There are some profound thoughts in this one.
• Blog Carnival – September 2013 – Location! Location! Location! – The Warehouse Of Trinkets – The Storeman, a.k.a. Martin Lima, offers a great tip on not making locations into puzzles that several module writers in the 80s could have learned from. This article could have gone in several categories – ‘choice’, ‘description’, even ‘other’. But because it’s the most fundamental of the options, I chose the first.
• Locations, Fate Core Style: Part I – Aggregate Cognizance – Wil offers the first part of a two-part article. This one focuses on choosing a location based on purpose and adventure potential.
• Puzzling Locations – ROFL Initiative – How to make location-based puzzle encounters, with three great examples. And some links on where to get puzzle ideas. Does this contradict the advice offered by Martin at The Warehouse Of Trinkets? Not really, because of one critical factor: Geoff makes sure that the puzzles have a plot significance and aren’t simply there for their own sake.
• Purpose-Based Location Design – Exchange of Realities – Ravyn adds a fifth to his contributions with this great article on drawing inspiration for your locations from the purpose you intend them to serve.
• Big Is Not Enough: Monuments and Places Of Wonder – Campaign Mastery – For my sixth post in the Blog Carnival, I raise the question of Wonders Of The Known World and what they need in concept and description to allow them to live up to the label; the four reasons they are hard to do well, 10 reasons why they are worth doing, and 12 sources of wonders to help overcome those difficulties.
• Placing Settlements in your Game – ROFL Initiative – Not officially offered as part of the blog carnival, but I think Geoff’s article is relevant to the subject at hand, so I’m including it anyway. In this post, he considers some of the possible reasons that could lead to the formation of a city.
• Layers of Places Past: Creating Ruins with Purpose – ROFL Initiative – Geoff’s third official offering asks why ruined locations show up where they do, how their past might inform their present desolation (I’m quoting it directly) – and how to create ruins with a purpose. This post was actually inspired by a comment on the previous article by Geoff.
• Much Ado About Location – Shades Of The Game – Christopher Nelson’s first foray into the Blog Carnival discusses how he chooses a location to suit his needs. Make him feel welcome, and check out his advice – written from a different genre perspective to most, and so offering an invaluable alternative slant on the subject.

Improvising a location

Only one entry in this category. Which is just as unsurprising as the article count in the first category – improv ain’t easy and teaching others how to do it well is even harder.
 

• The Gassy Gnoll: Where are we again? – Game Knight Reviews – Yes, I know this one’s already appeared in the list – but not many people dealt with this subject (including me) so Fitz gets a gold star and a second entry for the same blog post.

Describing a location

This sub-topic fared a little better, with three submissions which fall directly into this category and being touched on within a number of the other articles contributed to the Blog Carnival.
 

• It’s All About Location…. – of Dice and Dragons – Scot discusses location descriptions and the benefits to leaving details out of them – and what should be left in.
• Wednesday Night Writing Exercise: Snowfall – Exchange of Realities – Ravyn focuses his regular column on writing onto locations and their description – at least that was the plan; in the end, he focused on the mood and weather impact on location descriptions. Not much in the way of how-to in this submission, but as an example, it hits all the right marks.
• Adjectivizing Descriptions: Hitting the target – Campaign Mastery – I offer a seventh entry into the Blog Carnival with practical advice on How to describe locations, especially Wonders.

Representing a Location with battlemaps

Only two entries focused on battlemaps, which was slightly surprising.
 

• Battlemap? What Battlemap? – Exchange of Realities – Ravyn’s second offering to the Blog Carnival discussed how to make sure you have a battlemap to suit the location at hand – or can do without. The discussion spilled over into Describing locations.
• 52+ Miniature Miracles: Taking Battlemaps the extra mile – Campaign Mastery – My 3rd entry in this month’s blog carnival looked at ways of extending the functionality of battlemaps by adding Found and Made objects. The general response to this article has been “now why didn’t I think of that?” which was very gratifying.

Modifying locations to achieve plot needs

Difficult, esoteric, and narrow – I didn’t expect anyone except myself to have a submission to this category – right up until a week before the Carnival started, which is when Roleplaying Tips #586 landed in my in-box…
 

• People, Places, and Narratives: Matching Locations to plot needs – Campaign Mastery – My fifth item for the Blog Carnival. As Hungry at Ravenous Role Playing put it, Your cast of characters isn’t limited to PCs and NPCs. This article shows you how to access and use the current location as another member of that cast.
• Eight Tips For Using Real World Locations In Your Games – Roleplaying Tips – The feature article from issue 586 of Johnn Four’s long-running email magazine, a contribution by Jesse C. Cohoon, offers suggestions of how to balance the fantasy elements of a game with the influences that created the location in the real world that you are using as a model. Applicable to any genre of game.

Specific Location descriptions

Nine entries meet this description, which is not all that surprising – I always thought it would attract a lot of contributions. And I’m sure there’s a lot more where those came from.
 

• The Glade Of Lost Dreams – Save Versus – Roland offers a 13th Age “random encounter” for a future outdoor exploration session in his campaign. This would translate readily into any fantasy campaign. There’s also an insight into game prep in his comment advising of the article that’s worth noting: “I’m putting together a hex map where the PCs will have to explore and map a large region. Instead of randomizing, I’ve been creating encounters based on the locations they will visit.”
• Location, Location, Location: Nyngan – Campaign Mastery – I describe my home town (and get a number of people into a nostalgic frame of mind in the process) – then adapt it to a number of different genres (Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Pulp, Horror, Westerns, Cyberpunk, and Superhero games).
• Locations, Fate Core Style: Part II – Aggregate Cognizance – In the second part of his two-part article, Wil uses an actual location from his Fate Of Vimary campaign, The Shrine Of C’nawa, to illustrate the actual process he employs to put the general principles described in Wednesday Night Writing Exercise: Iceberg – Exchange of Realities Says: – Ravyn offers a fourth post for the blog carnival, presenting another inspiring location for you to contemplate.
• Places to go and people to meet: The One Spot series from Moebius Adventures – Campaign Mastery – I review a series of new products from (one free, two low-price) that collectively offer a trio of ready-to-use locations to drop into your fantasy RPG: (the free one), , and ($US 1 each). Check the article for descriptions and review and ideas for use. Fitz has been awesome about using my comments to improve his products, which is exactly the sort of behavior we all like to see in a publisher – so he deserves our support in his efforts!
• Make-it Monday: Map, Elven Museum – ROFL Initiative – Geoff offers a neat map of a ruined Elven Museum and set of room descriptions to go with it – plus how he used it and the backstory of the place. And don’t miss the additional insight within the comments!
• Six Wonders: A selected assortment of Wondrous Locations for a fantasy RPG – Campaign Mastery – When I sat down to list ideas for the Blog Carnival, I only intended to do one article on Wonders. But when you get inspired… The offerings in this post are: The Broken Man, The Pool Of Reflection, The Palace Of Winter, The Citadel Of Secrets, The Spire Of Contention, and the Library Of Shelves.
• Five More Wonders: Another assortment of Locations for a fantasy RPG – Campaign Mastery – My Ninth entry into the blog carnival continues where the last one left off, with five more Wonders Of The Known World (that I didn’t have time to complete for the previous article). This offers The Pyramid of Reason, The Caves Of Rockbeard, The Rainbow Of Eternity, The Desert Of Gold, and The Emerald Falls.
• Still More Wonders: Fifteen Amazing Locations for a Sci-Fi RPG – Campaign Mastery – I snuck this one in because September wasn’t quite long enough to fit everything in. Actually, it was delayed because I needed an extra half-week to deal with Fantasy Wonders and because I was having trouble gathering enough ideas. Thanks to the players in my superhero campaign, I got there in the end! This article offers The Orouberus Molecule, The Cascade Nebula, “Birth And Death” By Garl, The Dyson Superplant Of Epsilon Centauri, The Spiderweb Of Rukh-C, The Torus of Andraphones, The Confusion of Hydra, The Waltz Of Minos IV, The Diaphanous Assembly of Omicron Boötis, The Billboard Of Greeting, The Halo Rock, The Necrotis Plague ‘Planet’, The “Cosmic String” of 18 Delphini, The Arena Of Canopia, and The Fireworx Swarm. Hopefully there’s some inspiration for someone in there…

Other

I thought I had covered every possibility, but right out of the box came this item… It might be the last listed, but it certainly isn’t the least!
 

• Manage your player’s home base in OneNote – ROFL Initiative – A video presentation (17 minutes 56 seconds) on how Geoff organizes and tracks information related to his player’s in-game base of operations, the Keep at Thunder Dale, without having the task get in the way of the game’s main purpose – adventure.

Missing In Action

Campaign Mastery unfortunately experienced almost a full day of downtime during the Carnival. At least one pingback/announcement was lost as a result (but luckily noticed and recaptured). So if you’re blog entry isn’t listed, drop me a line and I’ll update the article PDQ.

So that’s a wrap, and an official handover to Scot at of Dice and Dragons. We’ll have to do it all again sometime!

Officially, the Blog Carnival for September finished on Monday, and the October Blog Carnival has already started at first-time host of Dice and Dragons on the Halloween-inspired subject of “Spooky Spots” (best of luck with it, Scot!) – but I had one more article that I wanted to sneak under the wire. My last two posts have listed “Wonders of the Known World” for fantasy RPGs; this time around, I’m offering a pool of ideas for “Wonders of the Known Universe” for an SF campaign.

Although the byline above doesn’t reflect it, these ideas represent a team effort. I got the players in my superhero campaign to spend a few minutes adding to the idea pool last Saturday before we started play because it was looking a little shallow. So official thanks for their contributions to this article go to Blair Ramage, Saxon Brenton, and Nick Deane.

I’ve added my two cent’s worth to some of the ideas, tweaked and polished them a little, but they are still not going to be as fully developed as the ideas I’ve been offering for fantasy campaigns. There won’t be as much depth or as much in the way of plots that are built around these Wonders. Some of them lend themselves to that sort of thing, others… not so much. They have varying levels of gosh-wow, and run the gamut from cosmic phenomena to planetary curiosities. Few of them are rigorously explained; it’s enough that they are somewhere within spitting distance of suspension of disbelief. Most would need a lot more development for use in a Hard SF setting. But hopefully they will contain enough imagination to make up for that.

Hint: Hubble photos are great for conveying a “you are there” sense of space to players. Just flash one on your laptop or iPad for that jaw-dropping “out there” sensation.

Cosmic Phenomena

Cosmic Phenomena are big. Really big. Bigger-than-a-star-system big. You might thing that anything at this scale is noteworthy, and you would be right – but there are a couple of items that are even more noteworthy than most.

1. The Orouberus Molecule

The Orouberus Molecule manifests as streamers of trans-temporal polymer consisting of a single molecular chain linking to its future self form a nebular “reef” in space which has become home to a number of unique lifeforms which occupy it and use it as a scaffolding in the same manner as the inhabitants of coral reefs on Earth. Some of these lifeforms are believed to facilitate the extension through time of the Orouberus Molecule. Assuming that time is circular, eventually it is believed that the Molecule will link back to its earliest form, creating a closed circle through time – the source of the name of the phenomenon.

2. The Cascade Nebula

A swarm of microscopic black holes passing through a nebula produce ripples and currents within that nebula, and violently varying gravitational surges that affect both the gas and any object that attempts to traverse the nebula. The sensation is analogous to a three-dimensional form of “white water” rafting that has proven attractive to a certain breed of daredevil and extreme sportsmen and women. Energy gains from gravitational shifts make the nebula glow blue-white, the black holes are the equivalent of rocks that must be avoided, and matter from the nebula is sufficient to prevent the collapse of the holes through pair production. The only mystery is where the swarm of mutually-orbiting black holes came from, a puzzle to which science does not have the answer.

Interstellar Curiosities

If it’s bigger than a planet, it belongs in the category of Interstellar Curiosities. Only a small percentage of solar systems are peculiar, but there are so many to draw from that even “peculiar” isn’t enough to make this list, which is reserved for a few that are exceptionally strange even by the standards of ‘weird’ that improbability can throw up with a sufficiently large sample.

3. “Birth And Death” By Garl

Artistic movements come and go as they always have, but when Mankind first ventured out into the galaxy and began observing the natural beauty of many interstellar objects – nebulae and gas clouds – at close range, many art and design movements found themselves dwarfed and intimidated by the natural wonders of the universe. The responses – Neominimalism, Neoretroism, and Neobauhaus – came to dominate the art field for almost twenty years. But there was one small movement who refused to be intimidated and felt compelled to expand their works to the scale of those wonders; although it would take centuries for the technology to mature sufficiently to enable the visions of the members of the Cosmologic Movement. Most of the early practitioners designed artistic concepts with no real idea of how they could be achieved, leaving it to future generations to find ways of implementing their artistic visions. Only a few of those visions have ever manifested in actual artistic works, and of those, by far the biggest, most grandiose, and most famous is “Birth and Death” by Garl Eiflesson.

Inspired by such natural phenomena as Old Earth’s “Old Faithful”, “Birth and Death” features a planet which periodically and regularly blows itself apart and then reforms, ready to do it all again a decade later. A wormhole artificially placed at the centre of an unwanted planetoid in orbit of a Dwarf Star is used to pump energy into an elemental transmuter that creates high-order unstable radio-isotopes, whose decay creates vast internal heat within the planetoid. When the energy levels reach a critical threshold, the planet explodes; but the threshold of reaction is set sufficiently low and the size of the planetoid sufficiently high that the debris does not escape local orbit and falls back to their collective mutual centre of attraction, forming a new planet. This process is accelerated by gravity generators which are also powered by the wormhole. Minor variations in the position of the ‘generator station’ relative to the centre of the planet mean that each detonation is unique. Of course, the heat generated means that the planetary surface is still white-hot and molten at the time of the next explosion, and hence more visible due to radiative heat in the visible temperature range.

Artistic interpretation of the resulting piece of “dynamic art” have varied widely. Some consider it a commentary on man’s destructive tendencies, others consider it a reflection of man’s habit of reengineering his environment to his own specifications, while others consider it an expression of the cycle of creation itself. Others discuss the symbology as representative of the birth and death of human lives. Most just enjoy the spectacle.

4. The Dyson Superplant Of Epsilon Centauri

A small dyson sphere of 100,000 small solar collectors placed close to Epsilon Centauri (approximating the relative equivalent orbit of Mercury in terms of solar proximity) which convert sunlight into radio waves and tight-broadcast it to one of three points in space. Presumably collection satellites would have been constructed at those points in heliostationary orbit to relay constant power to an inhabited world within the solar system, but no planet in the Epsilon Centaurus system has sustained life for at least 60,000 years. Who built it? Did they destroy their home world, or fall victim to some galactic disaster – or simply run out of power before this ambitious project could be completed? Were they destroyed when the star became a Giant? Or did the power project accelerate the process? Or were they from some other solar system and simply planning to tap the power generation of this very bright star? Does this engineering project have anything to do with the variability of the star? These questions remain unanswered, though there are constant archeological searches underway for remains on each of the planets within the Epsilon Centauri system.

5. The Spiderweb Of Rukh-C

Rukh-C, more formally known as Delta Cygni C, is home to a set of planetoids that are held together in a fixed close arrangement by means of visible tractor- and presser- beams in orbit around the first full-sized artificial black hole ever created (for research into faster/alternative FTL approaches) and then abandoned when that technology didn’t pan out. These visible beams bend and twist through the distorted space to look like a spiderweb catching the light. (NB: This is a very space-opera-ish proposal).

6. The Torus of Andraphones

The Torus was once a giant star like a great many others, but about 20,000 years ago, it was impacted by a relatively small and very fast-moving black hole moving so quickly that it “sucked” a hole through the centre, but was gone before the entire star was consumed, and imparted so much spin on the remaining stellar matter that the star remains a stable torus to this day, the only star in existence with no centre. It was named for the Astronomer who first showed mathematically how the phenomenon could have originated and stabilized.

7. The Confusion of Hydra

The system with the largest number of planets ever discovered, Hydra has no less than 37 worlds in stable, independent orbits. Two of these are in the inhabitable or “Goldilocks” Zone. It is believed that the system was formed with several gas giants in eccentric orbits that destabilized each other in repeated collisions or near-collisions, sending them too close to the star, which tore them apart with tidal forces, swallowing some of the dismembered planets and expelling other parts which then coalesced to form the extraordinarily large number of worlds now found there. The System (whose technical name is HD82943 or 164 G. Hydrae) is named for the constellation in which it is located, and reflects the theoretical origins of the planetary bodies (“cut off a head and two will take its place”). Initially it was thought that these additional Gas Giants had been swallowed by the parent star, due to the high concentration of Lithium-6 in it’s spectral emissions, but actual inspection revealed that the planets had broken up prior to this and only partially consumed.

Planetary Peculiarities

Sometimes it’s not the solar system, but a particular planetary body or associated lunar collection that makes a place noteworthy. Once again, slim chances come up often enough when there are so many planets to consider that it takes something fairly exceptional to make the list.

8. The Waltz Of Minos IV

The “Mount Rushmore” of space, famous/notorious sculptor Hammaz Ebvischuck spent a fortune and a lifetime preparing and planning this display of planetary engineering located at Iota Horologii: Thirty-two moons arranged in Klemperer rosettes orbiting each other at the trojan points, each of virtually identical size and mass, and sculpted by remotely-controlled terraforming technology to display the face of a famous historical figure, their orbits arranged so that the moons orbits resemble the dance-steps of the traditional Waltz. The original sculptures were done using sandpaper and models and each stroke of ‘erosion’ recorded by computer to be translated into instructional blueprints for the full-scale work, which took some 600 years to complete. Discarded material was removed by means of giant vacuum pumps after a thin and very temporary (on the celestial scale of events) atmosphere was added for the purpose consisting of neutral gasses, then formed into a concrete ‘sealant’ that is used by the automated machinery to make repairs.

9. The Diaphanous Assembly of Omicron Boötis

The discovery that matter did not experience the force of gravity when in certain unusual quantum states which could be maintained by pion currents running through the matter in question led to a number of architectural and sculptural applications getting underway before the physics consequences were fully understood. Everyone, it seems in retrospect, wanted to be the first to exploit “artificial gravity translucency” in an otherwise-impossible supercolossal structure. Most of these projects floundered when it was discovered that matter so arranged was too radioactively-active for occupation or even a prolonged tour. While the principle of Gravitic Transparency would later emerge as a vital step in energizing fuels for efficient interstellar travel at FTL speeds, occupational health and safety regulations written with respect to practices within nuclear power stations two centuries earlier made the completion of the majority of the projects impractical, while in several cases where “art” trumped “personal danger”, artists were killed by radioactive exposure before their works could be completed. In fact, only one structure was completed in time, the handiwork of architect Treselov Borislavich, and sponsored by Transuranic Miners & Prospectors LLC, who were particularly well-suited by experience to handle the dangers posed by radioactives. In later years, it would be alleged that the corporation manipulated their role as a technical advisor to the Health And Safety boards who interpreted those requirements to ensure that no-one else could complete a project, but this has been the subject of vehement denials by the board of the corporation.

Be that as it may, the fact remains that the only standalone Gravitationally Translucent construct ever completed is the planned corporate headquarters building of TMP at Omicron Boötis – a building of impossible height, extending from ground level into orbit. The gravitational translucency is the only reason it does not collapse under its own weight or get torn apart by tidal forces. Of course, it could never be used for its planned purpose, so it remains pristine and unique, though it is still the registered official headquarters of the corporation which still operates through “off-site” management.

10. The Billboard Of Greeting

The gas giant named Theroz Marcellus II (technically HD 48265 B) is home to an entire ecosystem that floats endlessly in its nutrient-rich clouds, like many gas giants. Like every known example, these creatures have extremely limited intelligence as individuals. Uniquely, the inhabitants collectively have a hive-mind that is effectively fully-sentient; so much so that many researchers find it convenient to consider the entire ecosystem to consist of a single sentient being, which (of course) course can never leave its supersized homeworld. It communicates with the outside world by rearranging itself to form patterns of color and hue on the daylight-side visible ‘surface’ of the world. In personality, it is bright, bubbly, and known for its practical jokes, and intensely curious about the outside world; some researchers suggest that it is not entirely incorrect to treat it like an exceptionally bright teenaged girl. For intellectual stimulation, it demands regular visits by the most creative and inventive minds in the galaxy for performances and guest-lectures – if it cannot go to the stars, it will pay to have the the stars brought to it! It pays for these by reshaping the “visible” surface of the world for brief periods of time into advertising for its sponsors – in between telling jokes and sending birthday greetings to its human friends in orbit around it – and by licensing the rebroadcast rights to the performances and lectures. If only it didn’t have a fondness for boy bands…

11. The Halo Rock

Technically, at 0.1 AU across, this is the largest artificial gemstone every created, though it is actually a crystalline coating over a balloon inflated by the solar wind of Oculus Borealis, officially referred to as Epsilon Tauri. Once the artificial crystal had formed on the surface, it was carefully faceted and then micro-grooved to refract light of a different color from each facet. As the Halo Rock tumbles through space in it’s orbit (relative to the star), the light shining through it is refracted to form an eternally-changing halo of rainbows.

Other

To wrap up the list, there a few structures that are peculiar enough to make their planets noteworthy, and a few planets with biological phenomena that are peculiar enough to make them famous.

12. The Necrotis Plague ‘Planet’

The medical research facility established at HD85512b-III was made famous for its ground-breaking research for years before one of its treatments escaped from the labs and forced the abandonment of the facility. Technically, it’s a moon of the superplanet, but – like Ganymede and Titan in Earth’s solar system – it is large enough to qualify as a planet in its own right. The treatment which forced abandonment of the facility involved nanobots programmed to consume necrotic (dead) tissues, preventing them from poisoning the rest of the organism. This was considered a refinement of the enzymatic removal of necrotic tissues for two reasons: firstly, it would have fewer side effects and hence promote recovery; and secondly, it could be applied to any necrotic tissue anywhere in the body without need for surgery. Unfortunately, it was discovered that the treatment caused massive internal disruption as the nanotech “virus” also attacked cells undergoing apoptosis, the process by which the body naturally recycles cellular material. This is a natural part of the cellular lifecycle and is essential for normal health; excessive apoptosis causes atrophy, while inadequate apoptosis causes cancer through excessive cell reproduction. Fifty-to-Seventy cells die and are replaced each day in the typical adult human by way of this process. In effect, the treatment destroyed the infectious tissues – but at the price of causing the rest of the body to waste away and experience cachexia-like symptoms; and because apoptosis is a normal biological function, this disease also affected everyone else in the facility. Although an emergency evacuation of the facility took place, all exposed at the vicinity succumbed within a year to what became known as the Necrotis Plague.

All animal life on HD85512b-III was eradicated by the plague.

But in more recent years, the still-viable Necrotis Plague has once again become a valued treatment for acute and severe necrosis. Patients are remote-piloted to the surface and exposed to the Necrotis plague, which eradicates the necrotic tissue, then inoculated with a specific variety of Hunter-Killer nanobots designed to destroy the nanotechnology which, having consumed the necrotic tissue, is now targeting Apoptotic tissues and robbing the cells of vital materials needed for the construction of new cells. With the plague disrupted, the patients are again remote-piloted from the surface to the satellite space hospital which now orbits the original facility, and suffer minimal harm (the equivalent of an hour’s starvation).

In recent years, it has become fashionable to will one’s body for ‘burial’ on HD85512b-III; the organic remains are consumed by the plague and help sustain its viability for the benefit of others. Special permission is required before any such burial.

Note: Travelers are warned that a substantial military/law-enforcement presence is maintained in the planetary system to prevent any attempted harvesting/weaponizing of the plague.

13. The “Cosmic String” of 18 Delphini

The Space Elevator at 18 Delphini was originally constructed to shift cargo and passengers to the orbital station at the top of the beanstalk, but in modern times is better known as the largest musical instrument in the universe, the “Cosmic String” (not to be confused with the hypothetical cosmological phenomenon of the same name (refer cosmic string). The structure resonates audibly with winds at different altitudes, naturally harmonizing with the string interval defined by the altitude of the mass ascending or descending the elevator in the same way as a violin string changes pitch when the string is depressed at a particular fret, with secondary resonances at the interval defined by the separation between the cargo and any of several maintenance robots that ascend and descend the monofilament structure testing for and repairing defects. In effect, the one space elevator is several strings of the resulting musical instrument at the same time. The changes in tone are considered reminiscent of a slide guitar of impossible size and deep timbre. No other space elevator has resonances in the audible frequencies, which result from the peculiarities of the wind patterns of 18 Delphini b. On the planetary surface, the tones are audible from several kilometers away.

Rumors that famous avant-garde composer Nith Behrgren and his support band, Ninth Wave, are composing an electronica symphony in which the “Cosmic String” is to be a featured instrument are unconfirmed.

14. The Arena Of Canopia

When man emerged into space as a permanent place of residence, he brought a lot of his games and artistic expressions with him. The Arena of Canopia is designed to invent and popularize micro-gravity variations of popular sports and entertainments – everything from adaptions of Shakespeare’s plays to Micro-Gravity ballet to Hypersquash and Low-G Rugby. The largest enclosed microgravity environment in existence, the Arena (initially made famous by its Zero-G Wrestling Championship) now comprises 132 separate playing ‘fields’ which can be configured as necessary to host different events for broadcast throughout human space.

15. The Fireworx Swarm

Bioluminescent nocturnal insects are nothing new. But the Fireworx is larger than most (the size of terrestrial dragonflies) and so are the swarms of 100,000 plus that continually chase the night hours of the planet Dirathima, which is otherwise a not-especially-noteworthy swamp world orbiting 55 Cancri, itself a somewhat unusual star. The name derives from the initial brightness of the display, though it quickly stabilizes to a lower level. Each insect can only maintain its luminescence for a few minutes before it fades, but after a few minutes’ rest it is ready to flare into illuminated life once again. Whichever insect is the brightest-glowing at any given instant is the “swarm leader” and all the others flock toward it. Because the insects rest during the day, but are continually being joined be new members, swarms give the appearance of maintaining pace with the twilight line.

The glow indicates that the insect is ready to mate, and the relative brightness of the initial burst makes one individual insect a preferential mate. Fireworx live for approximately a week as adults, in which time a female can produce almost a thousand larvae (birth occurs during the daylight hours, leaving the female ready to produce fresh larvae the next night). Fireworx are phototropic and thermotropic. There are suggestions that they are a genetically-engineered species or were introduced to the planet because they appear to have no genes in common with other life on Dirathima. Current speculation is that the species proved more successful than desired and now constitute a plague population on the planet, but this is unproven. No human agency has been identified as responsible for their introduction; they were present when the planet was initially surveyed for colonization. If proven, this would make them the only verified case of bioengineering by non-humans.

One final tip: The rebooted Dr Who has more than it’s fair share of great ideas to snaffle for this sort of campaign.

Okay, that’s a wrap! The “Location, Location, Location” blog carnival has been a great success. Next week I’ll compile the articles submitted into the traditional link-fest :)

Last Thursday I delivered six locations for GMs to insert into their campaigns that celebrated the fantastic. You could argue that at least one Wonder Of The game-World should reflect what is unique about that particular campaign, and that by leaving a slot free, I achieved the mythical seven; but that presupposes that each of the Wonders that I proposed is suitable for every campaign. They won’t be.

And it would be incredibly dull if every campaign out there used the same six wonders. So this time I’m going to offer some more, that I simply didn’t get time to write up for the previous article. Choice is good. Choice implies permutations and variations. The assumption should be that each GM will populate his game world with as many Wonders Of The Known World as he can think of, focusing especially on those aspects of the world that are unique to his campaign, and drawing apon outside sources only to top up the list.

So, without further ado…

1. The Pyramid Of Reason

A squat four-sided pyramid lost in the desert heat-haze until you are almost on top of it, which appears through the vagarities of natural illusion to appear from the tip down as you approach. The top is three-fifths the length of the base, accurate to the tenth of a millimeter. There are two towering obelisks alongside the entrance which tower to exactly nine-sevenths of the length of the base – or would, if the top of one had not broken off somehow. Eleven different types of stone form the multicolored, multi-textured entrance, accessible after climbing thirteen stairs. Within the pyramid are seventeen chambers protected by 19 doorways, the path illuminated by 23 window-slits hidden within the walls. To reach them, there are 29 different changes of elevation. The base of the entrance side of the pyramid is constructed of 31×31=961 stone blocks of perfectly equal size (not counting the eleven that line the entranceway); the side to the clockwise (when viewed from above) consists of 37×37=1369 stone blocks; the side opposite the entrance, 41×41=1681 stone blocks; and the base on the fourth side, 43×43=1849 blocks. In total, on all four sides, the number of stone blocks that are visible is a multiple of 47×53=2491. It has been calculated that in its total construction, 59x61x67=241,133 stone blocks were used. Within the pyramid, those 29 changes of elevation involve a total of 71 steps. The first chamber is tiled in a complex pattern employing exactly 73 tiles; the second, exactly 79; the third, 83; and so on, through to 157 tiles in the 17th chamber. Detail after detail reflects an obsession with incorporating – somehow – the next prime number into the construction. One section of corridor is covered in 163 red tiles and 173 gray tiles (167 is used elsewhere).

And no-one knows why it was built, when it was built, or who built it.

But legend has it that strange things happen inside…

GM’s notes

It’s the excessive, even obsessive, attention to detail that makes this place special. Throw in as many other mathematical concepts and universal constants as you can think of (the value of Pi, for example), going as overboard as you possibly can. Stretch a point if necessary (exactly 25-thirds of the value of pi?).

Now, here’s the fun part: Are the legends true, and if so, what are the strange things?

Option one:
Everything you’ve ever read about pyramid power, or that you can think up, is true in this place. It does preserve the dead – in one chamber. It does preserve fruit – in another. It sharpens blades – in a third. Purifies water, sharpens the intellect, purifies the spirit, heals the sick… If it weren’t out in the middle of nowhere in some almost-impenetrable desert or other, wars would be fought over it.

With such obvious powers, the question becomes more about “why put it here” than “why build it this way” – the answer to the latter is completely obvious.

Option two:
If the pyramid has no obvious powers, then the GM has more room to be subtle and sneaky. You can throw as many purported functions at the pyramid as “pet theories” as you like, and let all of them be true – or none. A doorway between worlds – sometimes, or between times. A prison for an extra-planar greebly. A pan-planar survey marker. A lost civilization showing off its mathematical and engineering capacity. Maybe the entire culture that built it is folded in space within, ready to emerge when the desert blooms again. Perhaps its true purpose is simply to serve as a source of inspiration!

Size has been left vague, but if it has 17 internal chambers linked by corridors, it’s going to be monumental. Map the interior and use that to establish the length of the base in whatever units you find convenient – whoever built it probably won’t have used those units, so it doesn’t matter how big the place actually is.

Location has also been left for the GM to decide, but it’s deep within a desert; half the exploring parties that set out for it should fail to arrive, it’s that hard to reach. The more difficult it is to reach, the greater the mystery that surrounds it, because it represents a greater effort on the part of the constructing civilization.

Plot Potential is difficult to pin down, and depends on what the place actually is, and what it is believed to be. If you choose to go with option two, you have lots of choice, and perhaps the greatest plot potential is as a means of engaging your players’ paranoia about what its significance might be.

Above all, though, strive not to have the real purpose seem anticlimactic if the PCs ever discover it. An alien horde of jackal-headed warriors from the past – that works. Cthulhu’s prison cell? That works. A periodic gateway between worlds, planes, or times? That works. The only fixed point in the multi-planar cosmos, used as a reference during the construction of the universe? That works, too.

2. The Caves Of Rockbeard

(You may want to rename this wonder to reflect Dwarven naming conventions in your world).
Named for the discoverer, an eccentric Dwarven miner and prospector with a penchant for striking out alone in pursuit of some theory of his own about where new mineral deposits could be found; although he got lucky in a small way from time to time, these remain his most notable discovery. A system of vast caverns with smoothly regular dimension, uniform in size, illuminated by vast spires of floor-to-ceiling quartz-like material that seem to trap light from somewhere and release it slowly, also perfectly formed and cut, each a meter across with eight-sided cross-section, and linked by hundreds of leagues of perfectly-carved tunnels, also of uniform size. Since their discovery, hundreds of expeditions have attempted to map the tunnels, without success, because they never seem to lead to the same cavern twice. Every attempt at being clever – trailing lines of string, or keeping a second party in line-of-sight with the first – has failed. It’s rumored that Rockbeard himself is lost somewhere in the tunnels that bear his name.

Time seems to pass differently within the tunnels and caves. In places it crawls, and in places it speeds. Expeditions are constantly turning up to discover that they have traversed hundreds of miles in impossibly-short times (as counted by the surface world) – or that they have spent decades underground which seemed to them like only a few days. The only constant is that their personal calendars cannot be reconciled with the passage of time as measured by anyone else.

Attempts to mark passages by means of writing or carving on the walls suggest that there is only one tunnel of finite length that loops and curves back apon itself, reaching a destination only when the tunnels “feel like it”. A troop of explorers may carve a marker on a tunnel wall, walk for a week, discover the same marker, and shortly thereafter emerge into a cavern located hundreds or thousands of miles from where they set out. Others report walking in a straight line for a day without deviation from that straight line – only to find themselves reemerging into the same cavern from which they departed by a completely different entrance on a completely different alignment.

If the tunnels were in perfect condition, this would be a curiosity and nothing more. They aren’t; in places, the walls have collapsed, and all manner of underground-dwelling creatures have found their way into the tunnels through these breaches. These pose a constant threat to travelers, but more significantly, sometimes find their way to the surface to emerge near a populated location. Similarly, surface creatures sometimes emerge many miles from their natural terrain – mountain creatures near desert oases or isolated farmsteads, desert creatures in swampy marshes, and so on. It is rumored that occasionally creatures can enter caverns in another plane of existence entirely and emerge on the prime material plane, or vice-versa.

Most of the caverns contain great Dwarvish enclaves, though some have been claimed by Drow or other underground races. New caverns are being discovered – and being lost again – all the time. There are indications that the caverns themselves migrate, relative to the surface world, from time to time. A Dwarven community can spend a hundred years as neighbors of a particular surface settlement, establishing trade links and relations – and discover, one day, that the passage to the surface now leads to a completely different community hundreds of miles removed from where it had been.

GM’s Notes

Most D&D campaigns I’ve played in have the concept of a central ‘civilized’ core and a wilderness outside it, with various layers of transition between the two. This takes that concept and throws it away completely. A safe community can have a Drow-occupied tunnel turn up a week from now, without warning. Or a wandering Djinn from the City Of Brass. Anything can be Anywhere, it’s just a question of how improbable it is. All settlements would need to be fortified, and adventure would be anywhere.

This would have a profound impact on military tactics – it does no good holding all the mountain passes if your enemy can turn up behind your lines. Of course, the odds of that happening are low, but terrain no longer offers the same security that it did.

The great temptation that must be guarded against with this Wonder is overuse. Strategic situations are stable, most of the time – but every now and then, the strategic situation changes without warning.

Systems Of Control
Most GMs will tend to want to establish patterns to the shifts, even if these are not understood by the inhabitants of their game world. Most players, on encountering the caverns and associated phenomena, will want to identify “triggering conditions” that lead to the topological rearrangements. The GM should resist establishing patterns for his own use, and resist even more strongly any attempts to make sense of the Caverns by PCs. As soon as any such are established, the caverns start losing their Mystery. The Cavern shifts and tunnel system should remain a perpetual unknown. Unless you build an entire campaign around finding the cause and shutting them down to restore order to the world, of course.

Philosophic Impact
The presence of this wonder makes the game world a less orderly, more anarchic and unpredictable place. Certainty would be regularly undermined by the unpredictable. The notion of ‘Destiny’ would be less believable to the populace, and a more fatalistic attitude would take its place – ‘What happens, happens’. Self-reliance would be emphasized; you couldn’t rely on good relations with the neighbors, because next week there might be Orcish Death Squads roaming through the hills between here and there. This is a world in which adventure comes to you eventually, whoever and wherever you are.

Origins
Nothing has been said in the description about who made the tunnels and caverns, but they are clearly artificial in nature. If the GM intends to build a major adventure or campaign around this wonder, deciding who, why, and how will be essential.

In a more prosaic interpretation of the subject tag-line, it might be helpful to know where the idea came from. The initial concept was essentially a set of subway tunnels connecting subway stations – but the tunnels were a rabbit warren, a maze. I stripped out anything that gave away what the source concept of the tunnels – the rails, etc – and supersized the concept to cover an entire continent. Then I wondered what it would be like if it were just one, or a limited number, of topologically strange tunnels – which threw in the spatial distortions and inspired me to supersize the whole thing again, extending it to other planes of existence.

And that might have been the original purpose – to connect all the planes of existence and permit easy passage from one to another. But the engineering, when whoever it was actually constructed the place, could not cope with the multi-planar stains and stresses, and as a result the darned thing has never worked right. Just a theory :)

Plot Use
The Caverns Of Rockbeard are a homogenizer. No place is removed from the frontier when the frontier comes to you. It’s unlikely, but every now and then seemingly-impossible encounters can take place. I’ve you’ve ever wanted a half-Orc half-Elemental hybrid, this is your excuse for doing it. The Caverns give the GM the capacity to completely reinvent the game world whenever he feels like it – within limits.

Background Insertion
The big problem with this wonder is two-fold: either it’s new, in which case it loses that aura and mystery and Wonder and becomes a problem with a solution out there somewhere – or it will cast its shadow throughout the campaign background. That’s fine if you’re creating a new campaign, but this just doesn’t work as well in an established campaign.

3. The Rainbow Of Eternity

There is a mountain with a mesa-like flattened top. Long ago, something tore a huge hole through it from West to East. On both sides, there are lakes. There is a river that flows down a taller peak to the north to the top of the mountain, then cascades in a huge waterfall thousands of feet down the eastern face, into the lake below. Each day, as the sun sets, it shines through a notch in the mountains, reflects off the lake, through the hole in the mountain, and through the waterfall, creating the world’s largest and most stable rainbow, whose position varies precisely and predictably with the seasons. It’s the improbability that makes the place so awe-inspiring; in a million years, you could never construct such a thing by accident.

GM’s notes

If the Caves Of Rockbeard are a wonder that increases the anarchy within a campaign, this is a wonder that is reflective order. In essence, it’s a cross between Stonehenge, a sundial, and a rainbow. If the seasons are regular, predictable calendar events, this is a natural Wonder that would become a holy place to someone. If they aren’t orderly and predictable in the same way that they are in our world, then a natural phenomenon that announces midwinter and midsummer each year is a WONDER in big brass letters. Envoys would travel from Kingdoms all over the continent to be present at the key moments, and the place is likely to become the Switzerland of the game world.

There are some very deep concepts embedded within this Wonder. Principles of physics and predictability, of the scientific foundations that undermine how the game world works. If the seasons are not predictable in length, if you can’t forecast the date of an equinox but only measure it when it happens, then orbital mechanics aren’t the cause of the seasons – which means that something supernatural is the cause, and this Wonder measures the effect of that something on the world.

Players might not figure all this out when they first hear about the Wonder, but enough of them will know enough about Stonehenge and like objects and history to eventually put the pieces together. It’s fun watching the eyes glaze over and the jaw drop when that happens :)

Location
Location has been left deliberately vague, but it’s going to be in some Alp-height mountains somewhere in order to accommodate the very specific geographic requirements. A location that’s more-or-less central to the “civilized world” emphasizes the diplomatic function in a supernatural campaign.

Plot Usage
The best plots centered around this wonder occur in a supernatural world. There are obvious diplomacy-inspired plots that result in hostile forces coming together in a neutral location. This wonder can also be the starting point for the PCs to explore the supernaturalism – “Midwinter is late in coming, and we desperately need to know why. We’re running out of food, and we know that Korzagg’s army will March when the weather breaks. Will summer ever return – and when?”

Then, you could have an adventure that looks into who and what carved out that hole in the mountain. Forbidden weapons? Forbidden magics? Something crashing to earth through the mountain and carving out a crater that filled with water, forming the other lake (the one the waterfall doesn’t flow into)?

But this wonder generally works better as simply a unique, breathtaking, location, somewhere that just is.

4. The Desert Of Gold

This desert region appears to be dune after rolling dune of solid gold, polished and buffed to a mirror finish.

It actually consists of fine-grained dusky yellow sand, only a few inches thick, atop a layer of rock; the “dunes” are actually the shapes of this rock, wrinkled and crumpled. At night, the water table rises, and the surface becomes waterlogged and then freezes at the surface, giving the mirror-like sheen to the terrain. When the sun rises, the region becomes a golden mirror, which reflects much of the heat back from the surface; the golden finish lasts for hours before the thin layer of frozen ice melts and streams from the tops of the dunes into the shallows, where it drains back into the water table.

Subsurface grass-like plants feed on the water and the nutrients carried from the sand, poor though they are (in agricultural terms), sustaining a natural matting that holds the sand to the dune “surface” and preventing it from accumulating in the shallows. Occasionally, a blight afflicts a dune, releasing the sand, exposing the rocky underside of the dunes and creating a dangerous sand-drift in the hollow to windward. These are the only “flat ground” in the region, and travelers soon learn that if they aren’t climbing up or down a slope, they are in trouble. When the water drains through such drifts, it packs the surface to an unknown depth like a frozen pond, while maintaining looseness in the subsurface; how strong this surface is remains an unknown until you put your weight on it. Will you fall in and sink? Only one way to find out…

GM’s notes

Most Wonders are even more awesome close up. This was deliberately devised to be a Wonder that was more spectacular at a distance. Some of the geological/climactic details probably don’t make real-world sense – who cares? But make due allowances, which can break the suspension of disbelief (and the awe & wonder) if a player challenges the mechanics.

The environment poses a particular challenge to adventurers seeking to cross it. Making camp is difficult; it’s hard to drive tent-pegs into rock, and rock is never far from the surface. Tents and sleeping mats will become waterlogged and then frozen. Frostbite is not out of the question. Fires will go out. Breaking camp will be a whole new challenge. And, during the mornings, the thermal extremes suffered by those seeking to traverse the region are extreme. In effect, you receive two or three times as much heat as you would in the desert alone without the reflective effect. That means that the temperature climb is precipitous, you can be roasting even while the soles of feet are freezing, and employing sources of shade is a waste of time. And, of course, the light (especially early in the morning) can be blinding – think of being snow-blind.

The rapid increase in air temperature means that by the time the reflective effect fades, the temperature is already 100°F and still climbing. The Desert Of Gold is easily the hottest desert in existence with peak temperatures in excess of 130°F – enough to kill unprotected humans and animals. This prevents wildlife from disturbing the delicate ecology of the effect.

Size
How big a region should this be? Too large to cross in a day, and big enough to stretch from horizon to horizon. But not too much bigger. About 100 x 100 miles sounds about right to me – especially remembering that there are no camels and that horses won’t survive for very long. Certainly, no more than twice that. And don’t forget to allow for reduced movement rates across sand when considering the question.

Plot Use
There are several possible plots, but many of them are mutually exclusive. If it is felt that the desert is impassable, you could have someone figure out a way to stage an invasion through the undefended flank. You could stick something interesting in the middle of it, and contrive some reason for the PCs needing to cross it – and having to work out how. Or simply have someone with more wealth than good sense employ the PCs to work out a way to cross it (with secret plans to invade a neighbor that way once the PCs have opened the way) – something that might be a rude surprise to them. But mostly, it’s just there to look spectacular.

If you get challenged on the particulars of the geology/climate, postulate that under those rocky ridges are naturally-occurring unstable passageways to one or more elemental planes, and see if that can’t answer the challenge. Or perhaps they aren’t natural, but are the results of some colossal spell going wrong, or an arcane cataclysm of some sort.

5. The Emerald Falls

For hours you hack your way through the jungle toward the sound of water. As you chop away one final wall of greenery, you see a clearing in the trees containing a pool of deep green water at the foot of a cliff. Colorful birds flit from tree to tree and protest the intrusion as you can do nothing but gape at a waterfall of solid emerald, frozen in place. Awestruck, you advance to examine the phenomenon more closely as chattering monkeys peer between the broad-leafed vegetation.

GM’s notes

This obviously belongs in a jungle setting, and a somewhat mountainous one at that. It should be geographically isolated; getting to it should be an effort. It’s also clearly a natural wonder.

What you’re looking at:
The cliff is undercut slightly beneath the lip of the waterfall and covered with a combination of moss and climbing plants that form a vertical carpet. Vines, naturally twisted and knotted, descend from the lip to the surface of the pool, where they are lost from view beneath the giant floating pads. The water is laced with dissolved mineral salts, which contribute to the color of the pool; over time, when the wind blows through the vines, and it’s late in summer when the water flow is at it’s least, some of the minerals have been deposited on the surface of the vines. Year after year, this green crystal has accumulated, until the vines were completely encased in a solid crystal shape running the length of the waterfall. From time to time, a portion of the crystal becomes so heavy that it will no support itself and breaks off to fall into the pool, where it will vanish from sight and slowly dissolve.

Plot Use
Aside from being a gorgeous location in and of itself, there are a couple of potential plotlines for this location.

• Being isolated, it’s a great place to hide out – or to hide something in the pool (suitably protected, of course).
• Where does the water come from? ‘Dissolved minerals’ suggests underground – which in turn suggests that there might be a hidden location in the mountain.
• Similarly, there could be a cave hidden behind that “green carpet” behind the waterfall and you’d never know it.
• Finally, the geography matches the sort of place where you might really find emeralds! Perhaps carried to the surface by the water source? And perhaps, on very rare occasions, one really good gemstone emerges? “Romancing The Stone”, anyone?

Technically, the Blog Carnival ends today – but I have one more article to go, offering some Wondrous Locations for a Sci-Fi Campaign, which I’m going to sneak over the line on Thursday. Next Monday, I’ll wrap up the September Blog Carnival :)

As a final dénouement of the articles on Wondrous Locations, I am offering a collection of wondrous places, all of which have been created just for this article (none are from my past campaigns). These aren’t quite as polished as I might have liked (I ran out of time), especially in terms of the descriptions of the settings; they aren’t much more than well-developed ideas at this point. But, in many ways, that’s an advantage; they might not be ready to drop into an existing campaign without a little more work, but they can be better integrated into different settings.

1. The Broken Man

Legend holds that once there was a race of Giants who were as incredible in size relative to modern-day giants as those are ordinary men. Legend also holds that they fought a terrible war for supremacy amongst themselves, weakening their numbers to the point that the race was overthrown and wiped out by the other megafauna of the world – dragons, beholders, elementals, and the like – when the Megagiants turned against the Gods. All but one of the corpses vanished without a trace beneath the waves when their island home sunk at the height of the cataclysm, an object lesson in Hubris. That last survivor worked a vile spell to preserve his life indefinitely, and survived being dismembered, torn apart by the enemies that assaulted him, and the pieces strewn over the landscape; and survives in this wretched state still, the flesh and bones becoming slowly encrusted with soil and earth and forming the rather distinctive group of hills now known as strong>The Broken Man.

Strange things are said to happen in those hills. Those with broken bones and diseased limbs are healed in body, according to legend, but suffer the equivalent in grievous wounds to their minds and spirits. Those who camp near the Head sometimes hear it whispering its’ story to them at night. Undead, Demons, and Devils draw strength from the region, becoming incredibly more dangerous, while Clerical spells are weakened and prone to failure.

But this is a perilous journey, for the region seems to be a favorite amongst the species of Dragons, who suffer none to intrude on their domain (however temporary); they do not lair here, but do spend a part of their lives keeping outsiders away from the Broken Man. Some do so with gentility and firm insistence, others with violence and mayhem. This seems to be neutral ground to Dragonkind, another of the strange attributes of the place.

There are frequent minor tremors and shakings of the ground.

The problem, according to myth, is that there is a maximum amount of life energy that a body can contain, and the Broken Man used all of it to sustain his life despite the trauma he endured. There is no capacity left within him to actually heal his wounds, and even if there were, the broken fragments are covered in tons of earth and rock (said to be the death grip of the huge elemental who ultimately defeated him). Leakage of life emerge from the ends of the severed limbs is what heals the wounded, while terrible spells woven into the tattoos that adorn the living flesh hidden beneath the surface bolster, boost, and protect the undead and unholy. And this, it is said, is the final, eternal, hope of the Broken Man: that sufficient of the healing energy within him will be stolen by the wounded, or cancelled out by the presence of the unholy, that he will become ever-so-slightly mortal once again – either ending his suffering or enabling some sympathetic soul to finally heal his wounds and restore him to once again challenge the Gods.

There are some who say that in fact this has already occurred, and the Broken Man finally died when not healed in time, and that this is the origin of the ‘leakage’ of life energy. No-one knows for sure.

Only one thing is certain: no-one goes there by accident, and few survive going there deliberately. Everyone with any sense goes around The Broken Man.

GM’s Notes

Scale has been left vague. The smaller the Broken Man is, the more easily it will be recognized as unnatural and the less wondrous; normal giants (all races) range from 10½ feet (hill) to 21 feet (storm) in height. Relative to a 6′ human, that’s a factor of anywhere from x1.75 to x3.5. Applying those ratios to the low and high respectively gives the height of an intact Broken Man as 18’+ to 73.5′. Neither of those seem big enough to me, to be honest; I would put the minimum to result in a credible geological phenomenon at 100′ and if you want to preserve doubt that there’s anything to the story, at least 250′. These are the sorts of sizes usually attributed to the Giant in cartoon adaptions of Jack-and-the-beanstalk. I say again, these are very much a minimum. My personal choice would be to go with something like 600′. Human calf muscles are perhaps 3″ across, or 1/24th of the height; giving the colossus that results from a 600′ height makes the height of a severed limb 25′ tall, definitely high enough to form a hill in it’s own right.

In terms of layout, I keep imagining a crime-scene outline where the parts more-or-less line up in correct positions, but this is only obvious on a map or overhead view – and with dragons infesting the neighborhood, that’s not likely to have happened.

How much of the legends are true? That’s up to you, but I suggest retaining the “neutrality amongst dragonkind”, the draconic defenders, and the boost undead get, at the very least, with alternative explanations if necessary. The “hubris” element of the legend has been deliberately included because it gives a reason for clerics to retell the story to their flocks, building the legend with each retelling. But that might just be clever spin of a natural formation.

There are several possibilities for Story Use in adventures.

• The PCs might be hired to escort and protect a wealthy person with a defective or withered limb seeking healing through the Wonder, at its simplest.
• I can’t imagine that there are no cults who would take an interest in attempting to heal the Broken Man – the defenders would chase away some, and human authorities would go after them whenever they showed themselves, just in case.
• Perhaps the expansion of human civilization is now encroaching on the Broken Man and have chased the dragons away.
• Or perhaps it has become a summit point where dragons and humans can interact in (relative) peace.
• The quest for eternal life is an old favorite quest. And, according to legend, The Broken Man hides the secret. That’s never going to attract any interest.
• Perhaps the legends are half-right (as is so often the case) and the Broken Man is actually the pieces of a colossal Golem.
• Given all of the above, the Broken Man would be a key military objective and the region would be the focus of all sorts of political intrigue. Temples would be erected around the site, perhaps an Order Of Paladins would be based there to chase away evil cults and curious magi, and so on. There would be several prospering settlements in the shadow of the Broken Man.
• If the legends are true, the ultimate plotline would be the restoration of The Broken Man.

2. The Pool Of Reflection

The pool of reflection is a small lake that lies in a natural garden in the middle of a great plain, fed by a natural spring and with a river flowing from it. When viewed from the west, it sometimes reflects the image of a mountain range that is no longer there.

Legend holds that the spirit of the Lake looked out at the mountains and became so enthralled by their snow-capped magnificence that she began an illicit romance with the spirit of the mountains. Union between Elementals of different kinds is forbidden by the Gods, and when this romance was discovered, steps were taken to separate the pair; the mountain range was moved to the heart of a desert, where no water-being could go, and the mountains replaced by the eastern half of the present Great Plain. The spirit of the lake still pines for her lost love, but she was permitted to hold onto her reflection of him. The climate in the vicinity reflects the mood of the Spirit of the Lake; while sometimes it is happy and cheerful, more often it is cold, clammy, and mournful, and even in midsummer, strange glooms can sweep over the region. When it rains, the rain always has a teary quality, no matter what the weather over the rest of the plain might be.

GM’s Notes

Scale has been left to the GM. My own impression is that the pool should be deep at its heart and shallow at the edges and no more than 100′ across, but this can be varied to suit. The larger the lake, the less fantastic it seems in many respects (it’s more likely to have its own microclimate, for example), but the more impressive will be the reflected image. The smaller it is, the harder it is to explain the climatic phenomena naturally, but the more easily the reflection can be dismissed as an optical illusion or a trick of the light reflecting on the water. I would suggest that the Pool Of Reflection be emplaced in a region of low hills – which used to foothills, according to the legend.

The observant may notice that many craters have raised formations in their centers – refer to the diagram. What you make of this information is up to you.

Further Legends should exist. Perhaps marriages conducted here are considered blessed by the spirit of True Love, or cursed to end in separation and misery. Or both, by different groups. Perhaps the spirits in question were mortals punished by the gods (very Greco-Roman Mythos). Or perhaps people think they can catch a glimpse of their own True Love in the reflected waters. Or maybe the region is prone to inducing romantic flings between total strangers, the result of the Spirit within the Lake attempting to play out her doomed romance. Perhaps there’s a legend that if the love of a couple united by the Lake survives for long enough, the Gods will relent and reunite the lovers. There are lots of possibilities, but many of them are mutually exclusive – which is why I didn’t include them in the overall description above.

If it’s real, Mages would be naturally interested in how the effect works. Clerics would consider it proof of the power of the Gods. The two would be sure to clash. Throw in Druids, who are likely to consider the garden a Holy Place of their own, and you have the makings of fun on a regular basis – and that in turn would keep the civil authorities interested in what would undoubtedly be a powder-keg. But there is an implication that the Terrain is fertile land, and that means that more secular leaders would occasionally want to exploit it; so the location would be a focal point for all sorts of political games, and can be used as a metaphor for the eternal dispute between conservatism and progressives. Most of those seem to come down on the side of Progress, but not this one, so it can also serve as a balancing point for those influences within the campaign world.

Other possible Plot Uses include an expedition to find the mountain range that is reflected (moved, according to legend, to the heart of a desert); or perhaps studying the reflection to figure out how to gain entrance to a Dungeon on the mountain surface. And then there’s the question of the “ban” on elemental intermarriage – why? What happens? And surely at least one mage has tried to make it happen? If some sort of monstrosity results, the PCs might have a quest to discover where they are coming from, and who’s doing it, with the Wonder providing the central clues. And that all completely ignores the potential for Romantic plotlines and entanglements.

Still more possibilities stem from the emotional state of the Spirits in question. While “grief” and “sorrow” are the dominant characteristics, there can easily be flashes of other emotional states – rage, jealousy, malice. Perhaps the spirit within the lake seeks to orchestrate a reunion of the forbidden lovers, and has started manipulating people to achieve this.

Finally, throw in the potential for Divine politics – the God or Goddess (usually the latter) of Love probably feels sympathy for the pair, and there could be festering resentment of the forced separation of the couple. If that ever came to a head, there would be plenty of plot potential for mortals (like the PCs) caught in the crossfire.

3. The Palace Of Winter

In the frozen lands to the north there is a magnificent palace carved from a single giant chunk of ice by the King Of Winter from which he sends forth his emissaries of cold each year. On midsummer’s day, when he is at his weakest, he is unable to refuse entry to those who come calling; at such times, he is a munificent and gracious host; but woe betide any who linger too long, for when his power returns with the passing of days, he will throw off this ‘weakness of spirit’ and turn cruel and hostile, and enslave the unwanted guests to serve him forever. In the meantime, he will do everything in his power to persuade guests to stay within his walls for just one more day…

GM’s Notes

I keep thinking of the wild hunt whenever I attempt to visualize the “emissaries” but you might have other ideas, perhaps modeled on the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

A variation would be to have the King confine the power during summer; you could recast the whole thing as an act of self-sacrifice on his part. This would add a new layer of mythic quality.

Perhaps the whole “King Of Winter” story is myth, constructed to explain the palace – with no-one knowing for certain who built the place, which was found abandoned and empty – and in which no-one can bear to live for very long.

Or perhaps Hell is a frigid waste in this campaign world (despite what theology and planar travelers would have people believe), where only beings of fire can maintain enough warmth to survive – and The Palace Of Winter is a gatehouse.

Use In Adventures very much depends on which variation you choose. If the original, perhaps the PCs have to rescue someone famous or politically-significant who has been imprisoned/enslaved by the King Of Winter. Perhaps someone gets to confront the emissaries each winter, with the battle being symbolic of the severity of the ensuing winter – and this time around it’s the PCs turn. If you go with the “tragic figure” version of the King, perhaps he has hatched a plot to trick a PC into taking his place, or a PC’s loved one. If the Palace has been abandoned, perhaps the PCs are sent by an ambitious Noble to claim it on his behalf. If you choose the “Palace as Gateway to Frigid Hell” option, perhaps the King is growing old and decrepit, and letting things through that he should be stopping – but he has no heir. The PCs either have to rejuvenate him, or solve his infertility problem, or whatever.

4. The Citadel Of Secrets

Long ago, a weak Kingdom stood at the intersection point of four great Empires. By playing one against the other, and serving as neutral arbiter in their regular border disputes, the Kingdom managed to sustain an independence for itself, and even to prosper. Eventually, an ambitious King came to the throne, and devised a scheme to discover the vulnerabilities of each of his neighbors which he then intended to take advantage of. On the edge of his capital city, he had constructed a magnificent citadel, draping it with fineries and luxury; no expense was spared.

Great stone blocks, twelve feet to a side, were layed in interlocking manner, and each magically bonded to the adjacent stones. The outer surfaces were covered with ceramic tile inlayed with gold, silver, and precious gems which, in aggregate, depcited a magnificent sunset scene. He named it “The Guardian Of Dawn”, and it is still sometimes known by that name. The construction almost beggared his Kingdom, but eventually was complete, and he decreed that it was to be available to each of his neighbors when they came to bargain, to keep them safe from hostile forces.

Unbeknownst to those neighbors, there were greater magics involved in the construction of The Guardian Of Dawn than the ambitious King let on; if one stood still, and listened very hard, the secrets of whoever resided within would be whispered by the walls in a hidden chamber within the citadel. By orchestrating a series of minor crises, he would bring, in succession, each of the rulers and generals of his neighbors, and begin to plot against them. Unbeknownst to the ambitious monarch, the mages he employed were led by an even more unscrupulous and ambitious leader, who had sabotaged the construction. Not only would the walls throughout the structure whisper the secrets of all within, two in three whispers would be abject falsehoods, and the spell made no distinction between wishful thinking, speculation, ambition, and intent, and would broadcast the secrets of anyone within the hidden chamber as readily as those of anyone else. One by one, each of his neighbors learned of the ambitious monarch’s true intent in constructing “The Guardian Of Dawn”, and of ‘secret alliances’ between that monarch and their enemies, and what they thought were the vulnerabilities of each. The fires of conquest were lit within the hearts of each monarch, and soon led to general war and then anarchy. Stripped of their defensive neutrality, the ambitious monarch was the first to fall, and his Kingdom was razed – all but the citadel, which proved impervious to all attack. Then the order of Magi who had constructed the Guardian – now granted its more popular title – attempted to occupy the structure and bring all four empires under their own rule, only to discover that in their ambition, they too had overreached; the walls whispered not only the secrets of those now in residence, but the secrets of any who ever had, or ever would, abide within them, however briefly. Most of these were servants gossip and trivia, and most of what remained was mendacity, and most of what remained was irrelevant; but if one waited long enough, a single gem of insight might be revealed, shorn of its context and explanation. Worst of all, the whispers were incessant and could not be silenced; not even cutting off one’s ears sufficed. Linger too long, and – it is now said – the voices would follow you, whispering in your ears eternally, distracting you in combat, and driving you incurably insane.

All four empires are long-gone, as is the Kingdom, and even the city; only the citadel remains, as breathtaking and enticing as ever. Many make pilgrimages to the site and linger until learning something they find personally profound, risking their lives and minds for the promise of enlightenment. Others come in desperation, in need of answers or insights that may or may not be forthcoming.

Near to the Citadel, an order of Monks has established a cloister, and from it – in relays – they take it in turns to record the whispered words, one hour each at a time. The rest of their waking time (that not spent seeing to the needs of survival) is spent indexing and correlating the secrets they have learned, and attempting to discern what was from what will be from what never was. To support themselves, from time to time, they issue a limited number of small booklets of prophecies, which sell for exorbitant sums.

Every now and then, an ambitious noble seeks to take advantage – either forcibly or through intrigue – of the discoveries of the Order, only to discover that the Monks have recognized the true intent and advised his enemies accordingly. They perpetuate, politically and socially, the neutral power broking of the original Kingdom, their way of honoring the sacrifices made to construct the Citadel.

GM’s Notes

The above is so compelling that I had to read it through three times before realizing that there was not a hint as to the size and layout of the Citadel itself. That seems almost trivial in importance. My own thinking is something fairly big and impressive, with thick walls. It’s worth noting that “Rock to mud”, its reverse, and the use of moulds, makes it very easy to construct stone blocks of any required size and shape – if you can afford the mage to cast the spells – so “Big and impressive” is easier to achieve in a D&D world, and a lot faster. Employing the same principle and an elementary pump makes it easy to fill shaped hollows within each block with more mud which can be rendered into rock. Steel was still too expensive and hard to make in quantity for it to be used as a reinforcing material, but if it were not, this approach would make reinforced concrete as easy to use as it is modern times, with even more flexibility – both things to keep in mind, especially when thinking about a “no expense spared” structure like this one.

Nor is anything much said about the local geography. My mind’s eye sees a valley with passes to the four original Empires, but that’s up to you.

As for adventure potential, if all sorts of plotlines aren’t suggesting themselves to you right away, you aren’t trying hard enough. Lies, truth, fantasy, speculation, deliberate plans, wisdom, insight, prophecy, politics, and secrets all wrapped up in a neat little bow – with a wickedly malicious and subversive intent built into the basic programme? What more could you want?

Of course, if all that seems too overwhelming, have the PCs be the first to discover the long-forgotten Citadel, and have the rest of the developments described – the pilgrims and monks – take place in the background of the campaign. But that means there would be no-one to warn the PCs about the dangers of lingering too long…

5. The Spire of Contention

The community of Shar is the most peaceful in existence. There is no internal dissent, there are no disputes between neighbors, and no arguments. Placidity and tranquility and a sense of unchanging inexorability seem to linger in the very air. And that is because the Spire Of Contention casts its shadow over the community of Shar every day.

The spire is a long finger of rock stabbing into the sky, jutting from a level plain without explanation. There is no evidence that it was moved to its present location from elsewhere, and its geology is completely unlike that which is native to the region. The story is that one day the sky tore open and the spire crashed to the ground from nowhere, crushing two donkeys and a stable, and burying itself a full third of its length. There is endless speculation as to its ultimate place of origin, and even more speculation as to the how and why of the profound effect it has on any who climb it. No explanation of any substance whatsoever has ever come to light. The most popular is that this is a cornerstone of heaven, and that part of its otherworldly nature clings to it, but there is no proof.

Once a year, and whenever a dispute arises, those in contention climb its narrow, winding staircase carved of stone. With each step, they relive in full intensity and with heightened passion, one source of dissension or ill-feeling within their lives, past or present. Minor irritations become sources of towering rage and frustration. Most climbers are so infuriated that (even though they know better) they attempt to turn and act on their feelings, only to find that they are held firmly in place when they seek to travel in any direction but higher up. Immediately they take another step, the inflated anger and fury vanish, and the climber becomes aware of how disproportionate their response was to the cause, which in turn makes the cause seem less vital and urgent than it did; effectively, they are cleansed, purged of the negative emotions vested in the object of emotional disquiet. Apon reaching the summit, their angers and irritations have been washed away, leaving a calmness and dispassion that enables a peaceful resolution of whatever domestic irritants they might experience. Only anger and its possible causes are removed; the locals remain as capable of happiness and celebration and love as those anywhere.

No matter how many people are ascending the spire at the same time, they can never make contact with each other, never stand on the same step at the same time, not even reach out to a climber they know is just ahead of them and touch him. No matter how slow a climber the person ahead may be, a faster climber can never catch up with them. No-one understands how or why this happens, either. Speculation is that subjective perception of time AND objective measurement of time are both manipulated in the course of the passage, but that doesn’t explain how or why.

At the summit, the climber can see the entire community as a whole, an image that stays with them as they descend, for once at the peak, they can turn around and descend freely, with none of the emotional manipulation experienced on the ascent. It feels so good to be relieved of the anger that if one climb was insufficient, a climber will usually be so strongly desirous of peace within his spirit that he will turn and ascend again. The spire’s influence does not change the people, though it transforms their lives; they are still every bit as capable of anger and rage as the next man, they simply have a way of relieving those emotions. However, the locals have learned that when the passion is removed from a dispute, they can often see solutions that were not evident previously. Should they leave the vicinity, they are as people anywhere – other than being, perhaps, a little wiser and harder to agitate. This is why it does no good forcing an entire population to ascend.

It follows that all attempts to employ the Spire to force peace between warring nations or factions fails if the conflict is sincere. Only if both sides are ready to make peace can the spire strip away the encrustations resulting from the conduct of the war. However, many military leaders and political leaders faced with difficult decisions will make a pilgrimage to the Spire for the clarity of perspective that it offers; while an equal number will refuse to do so, aware that if their followers are more passionate about the cause than they are, they may lose control of the battlefield.

Some claim that if you climb the spire backwards, you will retain the anger and fury and passion generated at each step; inevitably, each time someone attempts this, impatience leads them to make a careless misstep and fall from a great height. This is usually fatal and since it can only be a deliberate act, survivors garner neither sympathy nor support from the locals.

GM’s Notes

What is the spire? Where does it come from? How did it come to be where it now is? How does it do what it does? Why? Who built it? Why? All the fundamental questions are enshrouded in mystery. Its effects are both subtle and profound. It could settle into the landscape of any campaign without a ripple, and become part of the landscape; but from the moment of its arrival, it would begin exerting a subtle influence over the campaign world.

My (admittedly incomplete) thoughts are that it exemplifies the difference between Drow and Elves so perfectly that this should be the cornerstone to the story. But even then: is it a tower from Corallen’s Palace? Is it the creation of some high elf Master? Is it a creation of the Drow, storing the negative emotions of which it cleanses the locals until it reaches some “critical mass” – and does something nasty?

Where is supposed to be, and what are the consequences of it not being there? All these questions hold potential plotlines…

6. The Library Of Shelves

I have a personal hatred of book-burning and censorship in general. It’s too easy for knowledge and wisdom to be suppressed for ideological and dogmatic reasons. (At the same time, I accept that there are perfectly valid reasons for classifying information and not making it publicly available – but rarely trust those making the choices – but that’s not relevant here). It was that personal trait that led my thoughts to the idea of The Library Of Shelves.

Every book has an existence as real as that of any person. Any author will tell you that books take on a life if their own as they are written, edited, and revised; like a sculptor trimming away the stone that is not part of the sculpture to reveal the form that lay in potentiality within the original block, the process of writing is as much about what to leave out as it is about inclusion. It is as though they develop a soul, a spirit of their own – one that can be infinitely subdivided and distributed equally amongst every copy. The lineage of ideas can be traced, with sufficient care, in exactly the same way as a human family tree – though with an oddly variable number of forebears, and differing relative strengths of contribution. And if books possess something akin to a soul, they can also leave behind a ghost of what was. And that’s where The Library Of Shelves comes in.

Constructed by a shy retiring scholar who just happened to be born into a family with more wealth than they knew what to do with. When construction was complete, the family were impoverished, their fortune a thing of memory – but they left a legacy that cannot be undervalued. The Library was blessed by the God Of Knowledge (after very generous donations to his temples), making it is a remarkable place, and Holy if for no other reason. From the outside, it is an unassuming place of timber and stone, vast without being overwhelming, poetic in line and form but without decoration, austerity raised to the level of art form. Only the most outward of its surfaces lies within the Prime Material Plane; most of its structure lies elsewhere, no-one is completely sure where, but the result leaves it impervious to wholly material weapons. It may well be eternal. But that is the least of the Wonders it encompasses.

It is bigger within than without, something possible only because it is built through the walls that confine existence. But this is not its most awesome attribute, either.

Within, shelf apon empty shelf may be found. Indeed, the library expands internally every time a book is published, a letter written, or a map or chart drawn. And on those shelves are held the ghosts of every book ever written.

Where a book is in wide circulation, these are ephemeral, for the Library holds only one Nth of the ghost. As copies wear out or are destroyed, through age, wear, accident, or malice, the spirit of the words is redistributed and the ghost of the book becomes more substantial, through it remains intangible. When only one physical copy remains, the ghost achieves its greatest substantiality.

The library is attended by scholars and curators of innumerable species. These monitor the health of the collection, and when only one copy of a work remains, the Library staff dispatch a party to obtain that last copy, tracing it to its current possessor by means of the connection between ghost and source tome. If they can, they will buy it. If the price is beyond measure, they will steal it. If it cannot be stolen, they will copy it, and leave those copies in the collections of bibliophiles who may never know what treasure they possess. If it is too dangerous to have the entire book in one location, they will split it up and hide one part here and another there. The ultimate goal is to reunite the last copy of the book with its ghost (or ensure that it is not the last copy, for in doing so, they confer a bibliological form of immortality apon the printed words, preserving them for all eternity within the Library of shelves.

The only books that can be touched within the Library are the last copies in existence of that book.

GM’s notes

This time, location has been left to the individual GMs, but it should be somewhere with a history of scholarship.

Plot potential: It would be easy to use the Library as a framing device for an entire campaign, with the PCs being sent to find and retrieve books, but even without going to that extreme, there is information there that people with power want (some of whom will do anything to attain it), and information there that people with power want suppressed (ditto re the ‘do anything’). Wars would be fought to claim this particular real estate. If you don’t want that, have the location become “lost” and the Library a “Legend” and have the PCs find it – or simply come across someone else who is searching for it. The Library is one of those rare Wonders that never has to be found to become central to a campaign.

And then, of course, there’s the potential for some bright spark to embark on a rampage of book burning to ensure that his copies are the last ones in existence – and then to offer to give them to the Library if their retrieval team does “one little favor” for them – a precedent that the Library staff cannot permit, but above all the books must be preserved. Anything that would endanger them must be forbidden.

Finally: if books have souls, then book-burning can be used to power necromantic magic. And perhaps to resurrect or restore a book of forbidden knowledge. If you can’t get a plot out of that…

The Origin Story: Frankly, I’m only half-satisfied by this. It seems a little too mundane, and the dues-ex-machina is too obvious. If I were to use it in a campaign, I would be tempted to junk the origin and have it be a “nobody knows” situation.

I have five more to go, maybe six. Some of the remainder are natural wonders, and at least one is from a non-human race. But for this article at least, I’m out of time. Fortunately, there’s room for one more article before the Blog Carnival for the month comes to an end…
< \blockquote>