10/02/2010 2e AD&D

I'm going to take a nap ... so I can get back up and play 2e AD&D most of the night.  My life right now is pretty sweat!

I just did a Google images search for 2e AD&D this is one of the images I got back:

And the dubious caption:

this is geraldine. she likes swimming in pools, playing advanced dungeons and dragons (2nd edition only), and is a neurobiologist (hobby). she has loads of money and uses said money for buying and collecting mints.


All of a sudden I want to play an assassin who has had his alignment changed to Lawful Good through some curse, I'll run it by the DM.

Keep on the borderlands

Like the good DM I want be I'm doing a little prep work for our first session this Sunday.  Yeah I know we'll probably be lucky to get characters made with my plan to implement the DFRPG aspects work sheet into the process, but I'm hoping to get a scene under our belts as well.  Back on point I'm thinking that any one of the complexes in the Caves of Chaos could quite easily result in a TPK for a first level party, especially if I roll well and they don't (assuming they aren't suicidal in their assault).  Rereading the description of the Keep I'm fairly confident a party could spend a couple of sessions without venturing into the wilderness.  I'm planning a few encounters within the walls for the party to get to know each other, their characters, and my gaming style.  With special thanks to Johnn 4 and his 100 city encounters.  Mostly I'm hoping the party can get in to a significant amount of trouble in the keep and the surrounding area to bump most of the group up to second level.

On the plus side this weekend our 2e DM called for a bonus session this Saturday night ... YAY!

Post-Apocalyptic yummieness!

I have a soft spot in my RPG heart for the Post-Apocalyptic genera.  It probably has to do with growing up in the 1980's snugly sandwiched between our southern NATO/NORAD alia and over the north pole by the Evil Soviet Union.  As teens we played the hell out of Twilight 2000 and TMNT Road hogs.  There may have been other games, but they're long lost to my memory.  We watched Red Dawn, and The Road Warrior almost as many times as Star Wars, and what adolescent teen boy didn't want to rescue Jennifer Grey and Lea Thompsom.

The postman brought me two things today: from Netflix I got The Road, and from Nerdvana Games I received Atomic Highway.  I haven't read it all yet, and may never, but based on the first two chapters it'll defiantly be something to consider running in the future.  When one of the groups I'm playing in asked me to run a game on Sundays I seriously considered running a TMNT Road Hogs game, unfortunately I reread the rules ... so I am going with some thing I know well 2e AD&D/C&C, but now there is a new contended when my ADHD kicks in.

Oh and in case you're interested The Road is kind of depressing.

Back in the Saddle Again (DMing that is)

After a 15 year or so break from role playing that ended late last year I'm going to start DMing again.  Why subject my self to the trouble?  In the last eight or nine months I've played in a bunch of games, most mediocre at best.  First let me say I'm in a great 2e AD&D game with a enthusiastic DM, and a fun group of dudes, they and their play make me want to play more, but alas the DM can only play every other week, which I understand.  Since I left my job with a fortune 500 soul crushing people eater, and cut back on shooting USPSA, I've had a lot more time so after I found the 2e group I started looking for another group, you know for the other weekends in the month.  Not a lot of luck so far:  I found a local guy and tried 4e which was okay, but the crew was scary, smelly dudes and the bathroom might have been cleaned the last time Reagan gave a state of the union speech.  I tried Pathfinder with a large group who ran the pathfinder society scenarios, a great group of people, but the role playing was weak.  I like the idea of organized play, there just wasn't a lot of role playing we ran threw the missions and murdered everything.  I happened on to a 3.5 game that sounded really great a DM who has been running this campaign world for 30 years.  I thought wow this could be a hided Forgotten Realms like gem ... so wrong, and so boring.  Another 3.5 game ran by one of the guys in the 2e group kind of fizzled out, but could have been good.  A Dark Ages Vampire game that has some potential, but I'm not sure if I'm going to make the time for the game going forward.  Lastly another guy in the 2e game had a former student running a 3.5 game on Sundays with our wives, well former student is off to collage and the group asked if I would run a game ... Why not I know I can do better than most of the games I've tried out in the last nine months.

I had my mind/heart set on running a DFRPG game, however you know life as an adult has gotten in the way of me finishing the book, so I'm falling back on what I know best 2e.  I'm torn weather to run C&C which seems to be easy peasy or straight 2e (no complete books).  What I do know is, based on my resent lack of DM experience and this link on Cyclopeatron's blog, that I'm going to run the group through B2 to help get me back into the swing of things.  I've never ran a module as a DM, or B2 as a player so I'm excited for the fun to start this Sunday with character creation (as a nod to the DFRPG I'm gunning to run we are going to try using the aspects sheet/system/idea for the characters) and a little introduction scenario.

The bummer is I'm going to have to bow out of Christian's OD&D game since we are going to play Sunday afternoons.

trouble

I'm finally back in CA after two weeks on the road, I read your email, but have been to busy to respond in the intelligent manner you deserve.  You bring up some great points, and I would hate to think that the little article I sent out a couple of weeks ago was a slam on anyone.  I think Dm Dude makes a good point we all have busy schedules, I know I play the game to have fun.  The reason I sent out the article (which I don't recall all the details of * reprinted below) was that it summarized for me a couple of points a few of us had talked about.  Mainly it's tough to have fun sitting around while the BAD ASS takes a half hour of game time in a boxing match, or he runes off on a suicide mission that takes an hour of game time, and I thought that was kind of a cop out on your part, I liked the idea of the BAD ASS.  Yes the party had problems with him, but you could have stuck it out and role-played the character instead of going off and getting him killed.  The worst when we all have to watch our backs for a potential back stab from one of our "friends".  Don't get me wrong the first time it was fucking brilliant, the second time it allowed Sneaky Dude on Our Side the awesome kill of the assassin, by the third time, well that sucked, and it wasn't fun.  In hindsight I could see Backstabbers frustration about the lack of role playing and I suspect he made the character with a scenario in mind where we didn't role play the introduction etc he was going to make us pay.  I hope I'm wrong, but what's done is done.  

When I ran the pickup game when DM Dude couldn't make it Backstabber and I talked a bit one of the things I mentioned to him was that we had just been killing shit for the last couple of meetings and that I would have like a little more role playing.  Character development is truly one of the things I enjoy about role-playing; I spent hours writing the back-story for my character in Backstabber's WOD game.  Yes for Bob I kind of threw together something plausible, because I wasn't sure how you played and I knew nothing about Greyhawk before I started playing with you guys (and honestly I still don’t know much).  Maybe this differs from the way you like to play, where in the player starts with a brief back-story and lets the character develop.  I was totally down with the Angus character, I thought the back-story we were able to pry out of Backstabber was interesting and I fully intended to find a way to get him resurrected, and I kind of regret not pushing the issue and finding a way to get it done I think that would have been a very interesting story line.  While I'm on the Angus topic it's kind of hard to engage a character when he's limited to a monosyllabic vocabulary.   I role played my interactions with the BAD ASS, Bob being your typical dwarf distrusts and doesn't care for magic users; same with Vragor sorry dwarven hatred of orcs is hereditary (I actually hope that you don't think Bob's attitude towards your characters has been any reflection on my opinion of you).  What I’m really trying to say is that if you want more role-playing then role-play more, Is Archer Guy ever going to get in touch with his character, maybe not, I suspect he’s there to kill shit, on the other hand he might surprise you.

I can't speak for everyone else, but I can tell you that immersive role-playing and complex plots are what I am looking for in my role-playing, and we can have those things, and have fun, etc with out the backstabbing and sitting around while one dude takes the spot light either of which are okay in moderation.

* I have no recollection where this came from, but it's probably Johnn 4

DON'T SPLIT THE PARTY!

Ahem. Sorry. Just... popped out there.
But seriously, this is pretty much almost never a good idea. I don't care what the dictates of narrative demand. Don't give me that "but it's not realistic for the rest of the group to show up so soon" crap.
Did you carve 3 to 8 hours of your day out to sit and watch others play a game that you're supposed to be involved in? If you did, I've got a suggestion for you - go see a play. Or maybe an opera; pick the right one and there's plenty of swords, armor, and screaming.
I will assume players are showing up to actually play. And GMs? If you're really keen to have some or most of your group watch an improvisational performance of you bouncing narrative off a subset of the group, well...
Just don't do it, OK?

"How do I avoid splitting the party?"

This is for Players and Game Masters, since you all have the capacity to impact this situation. GMs can either purposely or inadvertently create circumstances where a group of characters feel like they should break up into smaller groups. Players are, ultimately, the ones who actually decide to split up. So...

• Take the whole group when dealing with each presented option to explore, investigate, or smack upside the head. Then move on to the next one - together.
• Let NPCs - contacts, subordinates, people who owe you favors - handle some of the tasks that might otherwise have PCs buried in a stack of books, behind a computer screen, or watching an empty building while the rest of the team is getting to bury swords or bullets into bad guys.
• Before the Big Action Scene, go ahead and get everyone together. If this means "and you find out this [insert plot note here, after a few rolls], and make it to the rendevous right as Big Joe Boot kicks the door in," so be it. Most players will prefer to miss some personal non-combat skills time if it means they don't miss two hours of their lives watching everyone else play out the Big Action Scene.
• Use the Intarwebs between sessions for those behind-the-scenes sequences. Email, forums, chat, and Skype are great tools for finding that Important Person, talking to him, following his information to another source, searching the house for the Special Clue and Other Information, and setting surveillance devices (or magic scrying doohickies) in place. At the next game session, the character can look all cool and competent as he reports all this neat stuff, and then the group joins together to Kick the crap out of the Boss.
• "I'm just playing my character" has been the ruination of so many games it's not even funny. That's probably a column all its own, but in this case, I am talking about the Impulsive / Overconfident / Vengeful / {Hindrance or Backstory Justification Here} that players use to charge into a situation long before the rest of the group can catch up. Look, I honestly do respect the fact that people want to immerse so far that they simply go with what makes sense at the time. However, you're not just playing a character; you are also a player in the game, and your fellow players are there to play, too. So, if you can, try to balance it a little. Be impulsive, but do so just before the rest of the group catches up. Maybe you get a round of solo action before everyone else starts rolling initiative; this plays to the nature of your character while being considerate of the other players.
• Are you the Leader? Lead. Work to keep the splits minimized, and then work to keep everyone in touch and on their way back together as soon as possible. Forget the movies, where team leaders say "Kowalski, check his alibi. Frobish and Ulcer, get the van in front of the pizza joint and listen to the chatter. Me, Buster, Shooter, and Stabber will go have it out with the Gooba Gang..." You know that's not cool, right? Not for a game. Don't do it.
• Hey, Lone Wolf. Yeah, I'm talking to you now. You know who you are. The one who slips off to run down your own leads. The one who drags the GM off into another room to have private chats about all the cool things you and only you are doing. The one who refuses to include anyone else until you're sure you can bask in the moment of revelation. Yes, I get it - it can be really fun to suddenly reveal that which everyone else has been struggling to figure out. However, you do realize you're the tool that's making everyone else sit around and wait, right? Every moment you monopolize the GM's attention is a moment the rest of the group may as well be reading comics during. Honestly, Lone Wolves should probably be playing adventure games on the PC. At any rate, if they get left out of the Big Action Scene, they really bring it on themselves.

"And if they split up? Then what?"

Inevitably, some of you are going to ignore my precious, glorious words of wisdom and split the party anyway. Maybe there's just too many leads to follow. Maybe the Lone Wolf drug along some of the others while the main group was carousing in the tavern. Maybe it just made too much sense to have half the group sneak in through the sewers while the other half climbed the wall. So...

• Make Time your b-, well, you get the idea. I don't care if it should take 10 minutes for the rest of the group to catch up to the rogue who just found himself in the big room with twelve bruisers. Go Movie Time with it; let the "cavalry" arive at a dramtically appropriate moment. Just make it dramatically appropriate soon. 
• Master Time, Part II - Should it take an hour to fix the chopper, and the rest of the group is headed off to the temple to see if the Main Bad Buy is there? Either let the mechanic go "Oh, hey, just plug this in and..." or let him fly the thing in just as the Main Bad Guy has his twenty soldiers surrounding the party. Did half the party fall behind as the forward scouts ran across a nest of giant scorpions? The other heroes find a shortcut or, even more entertaining, they slip and fall down a hill and plow into the scene accidentally. Forget realism, amigo; it's just not worth screwing your friends over.
• All right, enough about Time. Sequencing can be a very useful tool in keeping players engaged even if the party is split. Go round-robin, giving each player a chance to describe that they're doing in whatever period of time. Just don't let any one player take too long before you move on. The time spent doesn't always have to be equal; some players will willingly let you move on because they know they don't need as much. Reward that by trying to get back to the meat of the plot as soon as possible.
• A variation on the above method is Scenes. This is particularly useful when various characters are talking to different NPCs, or even if they are having distinct conversations with each other that don't involve all of the players at once. Let one Scene play out for a bit, then cut it to let the next Scene take over for a bit. This can be tricky as you try to develop as sense of timing with it, but it is a great way to let everyone do that "but I'm roleplaying my character" thing without imposing on the rest of the players.
• Don't be afraid to fudge things; if the group is splitting up to collect all the info they can, you can decide that all of the information is one place rather than split up all over (as you had originally planned). Quickly narrate the dead ends and let those who ran into those dead ends catch back up to the main group before things really get going.
• Don't be afraid to simply arbitrate; let the players know you have no intention of leaving some of them out just because things turned out that way, and you are ret-conning the situation so that everyone can be involved.

I expect I am going to get slammed by some of you over this. Respectfully, that's fine, but I stand on my initial premise here.

Why would any of you want to screw over any of your fellow players by making them sit there and watch you get to play?

Cheers.

Reading, gaming and my attention span.

I bought the Dresden Files RPG book/PDF bundle from Evil Hat and was stoked that I'd be able to start reading instead of impatiently waiting for the mail.  I've noticed that reading on a computer versus a book I'm not paying as much attention, and my comprehension of the text goes way down.  I find myself rereading passages more often then when I read books.

What I like about DFRPG so far: the collaborative nature.  The book opens with a fairly detailed overview of the game, and characters.  The second section is not on character building, but city building.  The GM and players work together flushing out a setting they want to game in.  As a GM you get ideas of what the characters want in their game.  I like the idea that character buy in to the setting from the get go.  Characters are then created with built in hooks (aspects) for the GM to build stories with.  I'm getting jazzed to start running this game.

Back to my reading and a suggestion you are not the worlds next Gygax so your 35000 word blog post is probably 95% crap.  Edit the idea and get to the point.

Random thoughts on WOD

So I've now played in two WOD games, a nWOD humans game that was a disaster, and a Dark Ages: Vampire game that has gotten much better in the three or four sessions we've played.  The nWOD game failed not because of the system, but an inexperience storyteller could not control a to large table.  I was looking forward to the game the storyteller is a good player in an AD&D2e game we are in.  I spent a good deal of my precious time writing my characters background and had high hopes for the game.  The storyteller then let a bunch of his friends make characters on the spot, no background, juvenile concepts; all they wanted to do was kill shit.  One of who did kill another character (the 2e DM).  The storyteller attempted to get the seven players integrated into his setting lame chaos ensued.  Not much else to say.

The Dark Ages: Vampire game has been much more enjoyable.  The first scene was almost entirely read from the module by the storyteller (not just a railroad, but a subway) after which I considered not going back.  However by our last scene the group was jelling, and the story unfolded in a satisfactory manner, although as a characters there was no way to alter the outcome the folks at white wolf wanted it to happen which is a let down.  When I read the book I thought well this should be cool, opposing dice pools that makes sense, and it should go quickly ... not.  It astounds me how long it takes a player to shake a hand full of dice.  It's painful how long it takes for a player to count successes.  Why wait to be told to roll damage, just grab the dice again a throw them out there.  A little direction could help, but I doubt someone who has to shake his dice for thirty seconds could be coerced into helping the game move along.

20 pages

I've been asked to run a game, any game I want, by the group I'm playing with and while I can do AD&D in my sleep I know myself.  I am an ADHD gamer I see some thing shinny and new and I want to try it out, I read some thing and I want to play it, I see a movie and the cool part in the end right before the hot chick loses her top, that's GOT to be in the next game.

I love the AD&D, I am perpetually interested in all things post apocalypse, supers have been some my favorite game I've played in.  I could go on.  So I want to have some consistency for the players I thought wouldn't it be great if they could make one set of players that could work with want ever my whim is at the moment.  So google and me did some looking FATE/FUDGE, GURPS, Palladium, PDQ, SW, D6, True20, Hero System ... and on and on.  I subscribe to game geeks so I spent some time watching Kurt get excited about Savage Worlds, Unisystem and Cortex and mentioned FATE.  SW seem the most flexible (there are books for supers,  fantasy, P.A. etc) to me so I thought what the hell 15 bucks for a PDF I can afford it.  Then Christian at destination unknown mentioned he was looking for  Dresden Files RPG and I thought to myself, self that sounds fucking cool, and it looks like there are people writing books that will suit my interests for this FATE system.  Will it all work together who knows.

What I do know is after reading 25+ pages of the Savage Worlds Explorers Edition this morning and 20 pages of the Dresden Files RPG this after noon I offer this insight.  If I fall asleep reading the book (SW) I'm probably not going to play the game or spend any more money on your products.  If I don't get how to play the game pretty fucking quickly I'm not interested in playing the game.  If I can't figure out how to make a basic character (like a magic used for a fantasy game, a fighter type looks doable) after reading the character creation section why in the hell would I spend the time to play the game.  Let me say that I really wanted to like SW, it sound like the kind of system I want to play flexible and quick.  Now the DFRPG on the other hand has me salivating for more.  Who knows after I read the character creation rules I might throw my lap top out the window, but at this point I see a clear leader in this race.