It seems many of my imaginary readers do not posses the 120-sided die (a numbered pseudologohedron) required to make use of my previous list of Gamma World NPC names. In light of this I have cut the list down to a more manageable number, secreting 20 of the most dangerous names away and leaving only the 100 names that I can trust in the hands of the public.
Get the Gamma World NPC Names D100 Table right HERE!
If you have any trouble getting the file let me know via semaphore, pony express, email, twitter, or even the Comments Section. I wouldn't be surprised if it's broken; I barely know how to use this thing!
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Gamma World NPCs
Hmmm. This old blog appears unused and in disrepair. Might be a good place for me to store this Overlong and Ever-Mutating list of Gamma World NPC Names!
**: Thanks, @AllenShull!
***: A Twitter Spambot that favorited one of these name tweets.
Wow! that's a lot of silly names! I better not add any more, or the list will become inconvenient to roll on a single 120-sided die (Note to self: Add more names for further inconvenience).
Remember, these names were neither randomly nor procedurally generated. They were each lovingly handcrafted by the mentally ill (just like those brown wooden clipboards at the drugstore). What's that you say, imaginary reader? You would like me to write a procedural generator that can ceaselessly crap out names of this caliber all the live-long day? Be careful what you wish for, imaginary reader, you just might get it...
Update: Download a printable sheet of the initial 120 names HERE!
-Special Thanks to M. Murray for giving me an excuse to compile this!
- Douchious Pentagon
- Arrogant Waxley
- Salvo G. Riptide
- Horsefeathers McCleane
- Queen Billy
- Hairemy
- Doracho Swain
- Grizz Ricola
- Paul Shoulders
- Barugan Wattaburger
- Rufus Municipal
- Toad the Wet Richardson
- Crevice Hercules
- Phil "Lynette" Lovesong
- Pharticle Pysicist
- Monsanto CrazyTrain
- Philander Grimace
- Free-Range Chelsea
- Unlicensed Tina
- Epsilon "Detour-next-2" Miles
- Clover Grieveland
- Alpo Cerberus
- Creme-de-Mentholyptus
- Hippo Graceland
- Depth-Charge Kissinger
- Jean-Claude Van Rainbows
- Eleanor Severance
- Paco Supreme
- Dainty Jon Cinderblock
- Rascal Vats
- Fortitude Chompski
- Sandy Credulous
- Frequency Club Theodore
- Wyatt Album
- Tron Destiny
- Jaundice Kremlin
- Apache Katydid
- Norman Solvent
- Deepak Shakur
- Herman Funster
- Manticore United
- Non-Toxic Andrea
- Barbie Kloch
- Oedipus Regional Sports Complex
- Heavenly Frazier
- Coffeemate Wendy
- Ashley Ovenmitt
- Jeep Lancaster
- Seth-From-Concentrate
- Grassley Ferment
- Yonder Swordsman
- Grout Discount
- Dianne Soundscape
- Frenetic Kingsley
- Rompin Todd
- Chirps Finnegan
- Greg Carnivorous
- Circus Wakazashi
- Clear and Present Beatrix
- Broccoli Midnight
- Glen Washington Hewer
- Dog the Odor Hunter
- The Highland Park Presser
- Bulletin Bill the Paper Mill
- French Fried Po-Travis
- Grant Exemption
- Fiona Terminal
- Gibbous Boonedoggle
- Hearty Cynthia Chillidog
- Momentary Delaney
- Fritz Heightmap
- Tracy Reese's-For-Breakfast
- Trusty Leatherface
- The Quick and The Donny
- Frail Trimothy
- Judge Suburb
- Bluetooth Olga
- Grape Ludakrisp
- Nelson Fandango
- Zhang the Sentinel
- Swearword Mullins
- Vanilla Square-Enix
- Colonel Telethon
- Chastity Financial
- Relevant Holmes
- Flip Amex
- Prudence Whitendon***
- Drain the John Rockson
- Highball Diamondback
- Scimitar Wrigley
- Chief O'Chiefly
- Burningwood Celibate III
- Memento Morine
- Heavenly Pickler
- Eunice Battletoad
- Mangrove Filibuster
- Lady Reach Ten
- Lovehandle Macklemore
- Apple-Cinnamon Frydaddy
- Shapely Musgrove*
- John Carter Lemonhead*
- Conundrum Menace
- Mister E. Broot
- Quantum Hogan
- Frauline Danny Mezzerschmitt
- Halcyon Spectrode
- UltraHank
- Asimov Bullroarer
- Krÿlön Bïrkënstök
- Frenemy Cox
- Gattacca Daisy
- Bonk the Poolman
- George "Terror" Lindsey
- Partly Claudia
- Grape McMuffin
- Porterhouse Dreamliner
- Liz Fedex
- Bedknob Motorway**
- Downtown "Don" Aboretum**
- Talking Reginald Telescope
**: Thanks, @AllenShull!
***: A Twitter Spambot that favorited one of these name tweets.
Wow! that's a lot of silly names! I better not add any more, or the list will become inconvenient to roll on a single 120-sided die (Note to self: Add more names for further inconvenience).
Remember, these names were neither randomly nor procedurally generated. They were each lovingly handcrafted by the mentally ill (just like those brown wooden clipboards at the drugstore). What's that you say, imaginary reader? You would like me to write a procedural generator that can ceaselessly crap out names of this caliber all the live-long day? Be careful what you wish for, imaginary reader, you just might get it...
Also, these are presented in the order they were originally conceived (or at least tweeted). Naturally there are some names near the front of the list that don't perfectly fit, and some names at the back of the list that conform a little too well. I imagine that (as with most things in life) the most interesting bits are in the middle.
Update: Download a printable sheet of the initial 120 names HERE!
-Special Thanks to M. Murray for giving me an excuse to compile this!
Friday, August 31, 2012
D&D Next playtest abuse: Dwarven Shocktroops
I know the current playtest is not intended to be testing chunky mechanical number balance. I'm also not generally into CharOp, which is the art of abusing loopholes to build crazy-powerful characters. That being said, here's a goofy and powerful combo that I thought might be fun.
1. Make three Mountain Dwarves with high intelligence (Arn, Braegi, and Crag). buy the heaviest armor and shields you can. Convince the DM that three dwarves can easily fit shoulder to shoulder in a 10ft wide corridor.
2. Make all 3 dwarves Rogues with Thug Tactics
3. For feats, at level 1 Braegi takes Guardian while her buddies take Arcane Dabbler (shocking grasp and magic missile). Vice Versa at level 3.
So by 3rd level (which under the current XP guidelines should happen halfway through the first session) you'll have a shield-wall of dwarves with 18+ AC that grant disadvantage to all attacks against them and hit with shocking grasp plus sneak attack for 1d8 +4 +4d6 every round. Each. And if the bad guys won't come to you all 3 of you have magic missile auto-hits. Biggest drawback is that rogue doesn't gain any bonus to magic attacks so you're only getting INT mod to hit, but with ACs being pretty low so far at least 2 of you will be hitting each round.
So that's Dwarven Shocktroops, use them at your own risk! If you really want to mess with your DM then after you TASER everything in the dungeon to death demand that your group's Bad Reputation (thug feature) means you don't even have to pay for your victory party! Have Fun!
Monday, August 27, 2012
Make-Shit-Up-Theater
While I was writing up a post about the D&D Next playtest I realized 3 paragraphs in that I spent more words defining Make-Shit-Up-Theater than I had to say about the playtest. Since Make-Shit-Up-Theater is one of my favorite aspects of RPGs in the first place, I thought it deserved it's own post.
Aside: I mean "Shit" in the nicest way possible
I really mean no disrespect to the game, gamers, GMs, DMs, grandmothers, or people who make shit up for a living. "Make-Shit-Up-Theater" is what I and some close friends have called this concept for years, and it seems dishonest to call it anything else. I do not intend to offend.
That being said I love Make-Shit-Up-Theater, which is when someone does something not covered in print, whether adding something to a scene, fleshing out a setting, or improvising rules. It can (and should) be done in pretty much any RPG, and you've probably all done it before as part of whatever game you play, but I find you get more out of it by thinking about Make-Shit-Up-Theater as it's own thing, so that when it happens you do it with purpose and certainty.
The concept of a Dining Room is more important than a map of each chair's relationship to the table.
First I'll talk about adding something to a scene. This is where players logically use what would be present in a scene, but that hasn't been mentioned, to do something cooler that simply roll their dice at the monster. Some games are built entirely on this kind of Make-Shit-Up-Theater, and the best example I can think of is Feng Shui. Feng Shui is a Hong-Kong Cinema style Action RPG that tells the GM right off that "The Map is not your friend". The general idea is that the mere presence of a map will hedge in imagination and that you will lose out on cool opportunities because of dumb things like distance calculations. Feng Shui style Make-Shit-Up-Theater can best be presented as an example:
GM: "You guys bust into the warehouse. There are a bunch of bad guys loading drugs onto a truck. They pull out guns. What do you do?"
Gun Dude: "It's an illegal smuggling operation, right? They want to make as few stops as possible so they'll have some big fuel tanks in the corner where they fill up before leaving. I light 'em up, Both-Guns-Blazing, catching a couple mooks in the blast!"
Martial Artist: "So there's a big explosion of burning fuel? Well there's gonna be a big stack of drugs somewhere that they were loading up, and it's on fire now for sure! I charge up and kick a mook into the stack, so he comes out flailing, covered in burning drugs and catches another mook on fire!"
Ninja: "It's a warehouse, so there's a catwalk with a couple of gun-toting mooks overseeing the operation. I ninja-leap up to the catwalk and run along the railing past the mooks. When I'm at the end I slice through the cables suspending that end of the catwalk so that it clangs to the floor in front of the garage door, blocking the truck in. I of course flip to safety atop the truck as the catwalk falls, crashing to the ground and scattering the mooks on it."
Water Elementalist: "A little too much fire for me here (Gunfire and otherwise". The fire sprinkler system must be about to start spraying, so I'll amplify the water pressure so that it drenches all the mooks in a massive downpour, hopefully making their guns inoperable. Just for good measure I'll make the chemical eyewash station agaisnt the wall (There's one of those right? Just because you're running a drug smuggling operation is no reason to skimp on OSHA compliance) burst in a massive firehose stream, knocking a couple of mooks off their feet."
Spirit Summoner: "Wait, wait, I've seen this one! They're smuggling the drugs in big terracotta soldier replicas right? Let's see how they like it when one of those big clay suckers animates and starts pounding the crap outta them!"
Remember how the GM started that scene? Warehouse, Mooks, Drugs, Truck, Guns. That's it. Not even how many mooks, just "a bunch". Each PC adds something to the scene and uses it to make something cool happen. The biggest stretch is the terra-cotta soldiers, and really, in a game about kicking bad guys, why shouldn't that happen? Basically, Feng Shui tells the GM that if you're gonna say no to something, there better be a damn good reason.
Now imagine that same scene in a traditional game with minis on a grid. Does the gunman have line-of-sight to the fuel tanks? How far can the martial artist charge? How high can the ninja jump? Is the catwalk even near the garage door? I don't see any eyewash station on the map! What terracotta soldiers? Giving the PCs a part in setting the scene makes a big difference! This is Make-Shit-Up-Theater at its finest.
Masterpiece Theater this ain't.
Another aspect of Make-Shit-Up-Theater is setting. Traditionally in RPGs the only setting the player ever had a hand in creating was his own backstory, and the player was lucky if it ever got mentioned in-game. Setting was the explicit purview of the GM, or the Campaign Setting bible. In the worst case, this led to games where intricately crafted settings, plots, and NPCs were yawned at or hacked through because they only had meaningful connections to one person at the table, the GM.
In my last post I talked about the FATE system, and how it taps PC creativity to build story elements that connect the individuals to the group and the group to the world. This gives GMs and PCs a wealth of story elements that they can use to create worlds and plots that really resonate with the players instead of seeming like generic adventures full of stock characters. Even if the story elements players introduced are generic adventures full of stock characters, they are their generic adventures and stock characters. Don't worry about creating unique, never-before-seen kindly barkeeps.
Don't limit Make-Shit-Up-Theater to backstory and character generation either. The 4e DMG2 has some really cool examples for letting the PCs introduce new elements in-play, such as "You see the tower, what does it look like" or "You find someone hiding in the alley. Who is it?". PCs will probably be stuck at first (mine were) but with some coaxing and practice they'll be giving you story elements to thread into the plot like it was their story all along (which it sorta is).
Just roll and see what happens.
The last piece of Make-Shit-Up-Theater is doing things that the rules don't cover. Most games reward improvisation and creativity. Those that do not usually have pages of complex rules attempting to cover every situation imaginable. Even 4th edition D&D (which I love warts-and-all) constantly reminds players and DMs about improvising and trying things not covered in the rules (this is unfortunately overshadowed by there being a power for nearly anything, thereby accidentally implying that the action cannot be done without said power). This is the least fun aspect of Make-Shit-Up-Theater, only because it usually comes after two or three people at the table have tried to find a rule for the action in question, sucking energy away from the game. Make-Shit-Up-Theater is best invoked immediately when a rules question comes up, before any looking up of rules occurs. If you can use Make-Shit-Up-Theater to move your game forward immediately, any rules mistake will be overpowered by the sheer awesome (ideally, at least).
So that's Make-Shit-Up-Theater, an RPG tradition going back to even before the first PC tied a lamp to his 10-ft pole. Purposefully invoking Make-Shit-Up-Theater can help keep your game from slipping into a series of rule lookups and Most Strategically Viable decisions. I've found that just saying the words brings a little more energy to the table.
Has Make-Shit-Up-Theater been missing from your life? What's your favorite example of something made up out of nowhere that really took off? Do you think it should be spelled "Make-Shite-Up-Theatre" because you are from England? Well if you don't let me know in the comments then you will take that dark secret gnawing a hole in your heart to your grave! Have fun! And if you don't know the answer, make some shit up!
Aside: I mean "Shit" in the nicest way possible
I really mean no disrespect to the game, gamers, GMs, DMs, grandmothers, or people who make shit up for a living. "Make-Shit-Up-Theater" is what I and some close friends have called this concept for years, and it seems dishonest to call it anything else. I do not intend to offend.
That being said I love Make-Shit-Up-Theater, which is when someone does something not covered in print, whether adding something to a scene, fleshing out a setting, or improvising rules. It can (and should) be done in pretty much any RPG, and you've probably all done it before as part of whatever game you play, but I find you get more out of it by thinking about Make-Shit-Up-Theater as it's own thing, so that when it happens you do it with purpose and certainty.
The concept of a Dining Room is more important than a map of each chair's relationship to the table.
First I'll talk about adding something to a scene. This is where players logically use what would be present in a scene, but that hasn't been mentioned, to do something cooler that simply roll their dice at the monster. Some games are built entirely on this kind of Make-Shit-Up-Theater, and the best example I can think of is Feng Shui. Feng Shui is a Hong-Kong Cinema style Action RPG that tells the GM right off that "The Map is not your friend". The general idea is that the mere presence of a map will hedge in imagination and that you will lose out on cool opportunities because of dumb things like distance calculations. Feng Shui style Make-Shit-Up-Theater can best be presented as an example:
GM: "You guys bust into the warehouse. There are a bunch of bad guys loading drugs onto a truck. They pull out guns. What do you do?"
Gun Dude: "It's an illegal smuggling operation, right? They want to make as few stops as possible so they'll have some big fuel tanks in the corner where they fill up before leaving. I light 'em up, Both-Guns-Blazing, catching a couple mooks in the blast!"
Martial Artist: "So there's a big explosion of burning fuel? Well there's gonna be a big stack of drugs somewhere that they were loading up, and it's on fire now for sure! I charge up and kick a mook into the stack, so he comes out flailing, covered in burning drugs and catches another mook on fire!"
Ninja: "It's a warehouse, so there's a catwalk with a couple of gun-toting mooks overseeing the operation. I ninja-leap up to the catwalk and run along the railing past the mooks. When I'm at the end I slice through the cables suspending that end of the catwalk so that it clangs to the floor in front of the garage door, blocking the truck in. I of course flip to safety atop the truck as the catwalk falls, crashing to the ground and scattering the mooks on it."
Water Elementalist: "A little too much fire for me here (Gunfire and otherwise". The fire sprinkler system must be about to start spraying, so I'll amplify the water pressure so that it drenches all the mooks in a massive downpour, hopefully making their guns inoperable. Just for good measure I'll make the chemical eyewash station agaisnt the wall (There's one of those right? Just because you're running a drug smuggling operation is no reason to skimp on OSHA compliance) burst in a massive firehose stream, knocking a couple of mooks off their feet."
Spirit Summoner: "Wait, wait, I've seen this one! They're smuggling the drugs in big terracotta soldier replicas right? Let's see how they like it when one of those big clay suckers animates and starts pounding the crap outta them!"
Remember how the GM started that scene? Warehouse, Mooks, Drugs, Truck, Guns. That's it. Not even how many mooks, just "a bunch". Each PC adds something to the scene and uses it to make something cool happen. The biggest stretch is the terra-cotta soldiers, and really, in a game about kicking bad guys, why shouldn't that happen? Basically, Feng Shui tells the GM that if you're gonna say no to something, there better be a damn good reason.
Now imagine that same scene in a traditional game with minis on a grid. Does the gunman have line-of-sight to the fuel tanks? How far can the martial artist charge? How high can the ninja jump? Is the catwalk even near the garage door? I don't see any eyewash station on the map! What terracotta soldiers? Giving the PCs a part in setting the scene makes a big difference! This is Make-Shit-Up-Theater at its finest.
Masterpiece Theater this ain't.
Another aspect of Make-Shit-Up-Theater is setting. Traditionally in RPGs the only setting the player ever had a hand in creating was his own backstory, and the player was lucky if it ever got mentioned in-game. Setting was the explicit purview of the GM, or the Campaign Setting bible. In the worst case, this led to games where intricately crafted settings, plots, and NPCs were yawned at or hacked through because they only had meaningful connections to one person at the table, the GM.
In my last post I talked about the FATE system, and how it taps PC creativity to build story elements that connect the individuals to the group and the group to the world. This gives GMs and PCs a wealth of story elements that they can use to create worlds and plots that really resonate with the players instead of seeming like generic adventures full of stock characters. Even if the story elements players introduced are generic adventures full of stock characters, they are their generic adventures and stock characters. Don't worry about creating unique, never-before-seen kindly barkeeps.
Don't limit Make-Shit-Up-Theater to backstory and character generation either. The 4e DMG2 has some really cool examples for letting the PCs introduce new elements in-play, such as "You see the tower, what does it look like" or "You find someone hiding in the alley. Who is it?". PCs will probably be stuck at first (mine were) but with some coaxing and practice they'll be giving you story elements to thread into the plot like it was their story all along (which it sorta is).
Just roll and see what happens.
The last piece of Make-Shit-Up-Theater is doing things that the rules don't cover. Most games reward improvisation and creativity. Those that do not usually have pages of complex rules attempting to cover every situation imaginable. Even 4th edition D&D (which I love warts-and-all) constantly reminds players and DMs about improvising and trying things not covered in the rules (this is unfortunately overshadowed by there being a power for nearly anything, thereby accidentally implying that the action cannot be done without said power). This is the least fun aspect of Make-Shit-Up-Theater, only because it usually comes after two or three people at the table have tried to find a rule for the action in question, sucking energy away from the game. Make-Shit-Up-Theater is best invoked immediately when a rules question comes up, before any looking up of rules occurs. If you can use Make-Shit-Up-Theater to move your game forward immediately, any rules mistake will be overpowered by the sheer awesome (ideally, at least).
So that's Make-Shit-Up-Theater, an RPG tradition going back to even before the first PC tied a lamp to his 10-ft pole. Purposefully invoking Make-Shit-Up-Theater can help keep your game from slipping into a series of rule lookups and Most Strategically Viable decisions. I've found that just saying the words brings a little more energy to the table.
Has Make-Shit-Up-Theater been missing from your life? What's your favorite example of something made up out of nowhere that really took off? Do you think it should be spelled "Make-Shite-Up-Theatre" because you are from England? Well if you don't let me know in the comments then you will take that dark secret gnawing a hole in your heart to your grave! Have fun! And if you don't know the answer, make some shit up!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Cribbing Pt 1: Cheating FATE
It's not the 70s anymore, so there are hundreds of different rulesets out there governing the fine art of pretending to be someone else while sitting around a table rolling dice. Since my table is a D&D table most of these games are relegated to One-shots or merely bookshelf decor. But just because you can't play them all doesn't mean you can't strip em down and take them for all that they're worth! Cribbing is about stealing mechanics or storytelling tools from other systems (RPGs, Video Games, even Board Games) and using them in your regular game.
Now this isn't about copy/pasting rule elements from other games, although that could be fun too ("I tap my Glitterboy's celerity to jump-jet above the guy and Alpha strike, granting me Combat Advantage"). This is about using the ideas that other games are built on to improve your own game in some way. Starting with my personal favorite, the FATE system.
FATE is the chassis that the Spirit of the Century and Dresden Files RPGs are built on. Here's a link to the SotC SRD in case you want to familiarize yourself with the system. I haven't played Dresden Files yet, but the two short games of SotC I was in were Fun Pulpy Goodness. FATE does a really great job of tying game mechanics directly to the Hero's personal story and the shared created world. What I'm Cribbing here is the way FATE creates Fleshed-out, connected PC groups and the world they inhabit in a few steps during character generation: The Five Phases.
Now FATE uses the Phases to create PC game elements called Aspects, which are like feats that tell a story at the same time. Imagine if you had a feat called "Stubborn as a Mule" that you could use whenever an NPC tried to mind-control you AND to avoid being overwhelmed by an opposing ogre, but that the DM could also use to force you to open a door you showed interest in, even if the other PCs told you it was a bad idea(For story reasons, of course). That's a FATE Aspect.
I've used the Aspects in 4E D&D before, and they added a lot of cool story bits to the game, but it's a lot of technical stuff added to an already chunky game so I'll be skipping Aspect Implementation today. What this piece is about is using the Five Phases to make a party with a connection much deeper than "Drink at Same Tavern".
Redefined for D&D, the five Phases are:
This phase sets the groundwork for your character, but is the phase with the fewest possible connections to the story. You may get a few place-names or possibly a mentor figure, but this is mostly backdrop.
Eberk's family moved from the Mountainhome to Ringing Forge when he was young. As a youth he rode with the caravans and heard songs and tales in dozens of taverns across the lands.
125's birthname lies forgotten in the past, but he dimly remembers his parents smuggling him out of the Drow city of his birth to live among the surface-worlders.
Phase 2: The Crucible
This phase describes the event that determines why your character is an adventurer instead of doing whatever it is that normal people do. Traumatic events abound. Last time I had players do this, 3 out of 4 hometowns were sacked, raided, or burned, sometimes more than once! Expect Nemeses, enemy organizations, mysterious benefactors, and the like.
When he was old enough to properly swing a craghammer Eberk earned his keep as a caravan guard. His skill in the art of story and song kept spirits high on the trail. But one day the caravan returned to Ringing Forge to find it's gates unmanned, yawning open and silent save for the moans of the restless dead within. Eberk and his fellow warriors entered to find a Necromantic Plague had taken all inside. Eberk sang Battle-Songs to inspire his fellows and Mournful Dirges as they buried the honored dead, but when all was done Eberk had no songs left in his heart for Ringing Forge. Though his fellow dwarves were determined to rebuild, Eberk could not face his former home, once so full of life, now empty. He left with nothing but his hammer, his songs, and the only clue as to the perpetrator, a scorched book of spells bearing the symbol of a flaming skull.
125 remembers a great fire consuming the city. He remembers being trapped under rubble, smoke scorching his lungs, unable to even scream. As he died, a voice spoke to him, offering power and life in exchange for a few favors to be called in later. He accepted, and awoke in a massive makeshift morgue full of victims of the fire. Unable to remember his own name, Burn Victim #125 escaped the house of death with a mind blazing with unfamiliar arcane power.
Phase 3: First Adventure
This Phase describes the first time the PC sets out on his own to accomplish something big. The first adventure can be a continuation of the Crucible, or a completely different story. Leave a lot of open space here though (story-wise, not literally), because the cool story interactions are about to start. Note that the SotC setting has players write this phase like the Back Cover Copy on a Pulp Novel, but here I'm using the more familiar D&D narrative style.
Eberk's wandering soon took him to The Rafters, a slum on the edge of a quarry town. People in The Rafters had been disappearing, and some talked of seeing a strange figure with a flaming skull for a head travelling the swamps at night near the old abandoned keep. Eberk gathered some bravos to investigate and discovered the keep to be crawling with Undead. Cut off from escape, Eberk led his companions deep into the keep where they discovered a vile necromancer performing rituals to animate the dead. Eberk roared when he saw the focus for the necromantic power was the Mirror of True Thoughts, an artifact from his home made of perfect crystal-glass. The Necromancer had perverted it to channel dark energies from the shadowfell. Enraged at this mockery of beauty, Eberk forgot his magical lore and charged the crystal, smashing it to shards with one blow. Unable to control such dark powers on his own, the necromancer withered away to a skeleton just before completing his dark ritual. But the terrible energies unleashed threatened to drain the life from Eberk and his Companions. As they fled the writhing shadows, Eberk had only enough time to snatch a scrap of scroll bearing the seal of the Order of the Flaming Skull...
125's unique talents soon had him fall in with The Fangs, a criminal gang in a larger city. Acting as an enforcer, he was ordered by his boss to steal a powerful Cloak of Shadows from a rival gang Blackwater. When he got there the rival gang had been slaughtered, and the cloak was missing. Returning to report, he was accused of lying and stealing the cloak for himself, set upon by his former allies, he fought them off and fled the city.
Phase 4: 1st Guest Star
This is where things get interesting. So far we've done little more than write half-decent backstory for a couple of D&D PCs, but now we get to connect the dots! On this phase, shuffle up a small stack of cards with each PCs name on one, and deal them out (trade or reshuffle if a PC gets his own name). Each player then gets to Guest Star in the First Adventure of the Player whose name they drew. Collaboration is key, because this is where PCs get connected to each other in a meaningful way. This is a chance for characters to contribute to another character's story and for Players to add complications or other details. These don't necessarily have to be directly concerned with the First Adventure (Although that is the most Action-Pulpy way to do it), but should connectsolidly to the story.
Brother Graeme the was among those who joined Eberk that night at the abandoned keep. And it was the Holy Light of Pelor that kept them from being torn apart by undead as they ventured deeper in. After they escaped, Brother Graeme told Eberk about a time long ago when members of his order banded together to destroy a faction of Necromancers that controlled an entire city in the western mountains. At the time they thought that Pelor's Light had destroyed all trace of the Order of the Flaming Skull, but Catacomb City may yet have new secrets to uncover.
After arriving at The Rafters Eberk met a mysterious Drow with terrible scars. The Drow had many questions, particularly concerning legends of Archfey. Eberk was no expert, but told him all he knew. The Drow was especially interested in the Burning Aurora, a Fey Queen who manifested cold flames in strange hues. Her reputation for dangerously toying with mortal affairs was well known, even to a Worldly dwarf such as Eberk.
Phase Five: 2nd Guest Star
Repeat phase 4 again, reshuffling cards and redrawing in case of duplicates. Add more details, wrinkles, plot twists, and complications. Go Nuts!
By the time you're done your whole party should have no more than 2 degrees of separation from any other character. Time to start adventuring! Now you have a treasure trove of locations, villianous groups, NPCs, mentors, and all other sorts of plot hooks to work with. If you already had a plot in mind you can just change names and details to fit what the PCs are looking for. I guarantee that no matter how cheesy "The Order of the Burning Skull" sounds when you say it out loud, nothing will get the PCs more fired up than seeing that dire symbol carved into a dungeon wall.
Of course, since you now have a whole party of complicated, three-dimensional characters with a wide range of backstories, motivations, and quirks, you may have to just have them meet in a tavern after all. At least it's not for the first time...
Have you tried this idea? What do you crib from other systems for your game? Does Eberk need to get over himself? Let me know in the comments! Collaborate!
Now this isn't about copy/pasting rule elements from other games, although that could be fun too ("I tap my Glitterboy's celerity to jump-jet above the guy and Alpha strike, granting me Combat Advantage"). This is about using the ideas that other games are built on to improve your own game in some way. Starting with my personal favorite, the FATE system.
FATE is the chassis that the Spirit of the Century and Dresden Files RPGs are built on. Here's a link to the SotC SRD in case you want to familiarize yourself with the system. I haven't played Dresden Files yet, but the two short games of SotC I was in were Fun Pulpy Goodness. FATE does a really great job of tying game mechanics directly to the Hero's personal story and the shared created world. What I'm Cribbing here is the way FATE creates Fleshed-out, connected PC groups and the world they inhabit in a few steps during character generation: The Five Phases.
Now FATE uses the Phases to create PC game elements called Aspects, which are like feats that tell a story at the same time. Imagine if you had a feat called "Stubborn as a Mule" that you could use whenever an NPC tried to mind-control you AND to avoid being overwhelmed by an opposing ogre, but that the DM could also use to force you to open a door you showed interest in, even if the other PCs told you it was a bad idea(For story reasons, of course). That's a FATE Aspect.
I've used the Aspects in 4E D&D before, and they added a lot of cool story bits to the game, but it's a lot of technical stuff added to an already chunky game so I'll be skipping Aspect Implementation today. What this piece is about is using the Five Phases to make a party with a connection much deeper than "Drink at Same Tavern".
Redefined for D&D, the five Phases are:
- Early Life
- The Crucible A.K.A Why you are not a Farmer
- Your First Adventure
- 1st Guest Star
- 2nd Guest Star
- Complete each Phase as a group.
- Have the players share what they have so the rest of the group can keep it in mind for connections later.
- Each step should introduce a story element (Place, item, person, event, etc...).
- Don't tie up all the loose ends (No killing your nemesis during character creation unless his ghost now haunts you)
- Collaborate with other PCs and the DM to tell the best story possible.
This phase sets the groundwork for your character, but is the phase with the fewest possible connections to the story. You may get a few place-names or possibly a mentor figure, but this is mostly backdrop.
Eberk's family moved from the Mountainhome to Ringing Forge when he was young. As a youth he rode with the caravans and heard songs and tales in dozens of taverns across the lands.
125's birthname lies forgotten in the past, but he dimly remembers his parents smuggling him out of the Drow city of his birth to live among the surface-worlders.
Phase 2: The Crucible
This phase describes the event that determines why your character is an adventurer instead of doing whatever it is that normal people do. Traumatic events abound. Last time I had players do this, 3 out of 4 hometowns were sacked, raided, or burned, sometimes more than once! Expect Nemeses, enemy organizations, mysterious benefactors, and the like.
When he was old enough to properly swing a craghammer Eberk earned his keep as a caravan guard. His skill in the art of story and song kept spirits high on the trail. But one day the caravan returned to Ringing Forge to find it's gates unmanned, yawning open and silent save for the moans of the restless dead within. Eberk and his fellow warriors entered to find a Necromantic Plague had taken all inside. Eberk sang Battle-Songs to inspire his fellows and Mournful Dirges as they buried the honored dead, but when all was done Eberk had no songs left in his heart for Ringing Forge. Though his fellow dwarves were determined to rebuild, Eberk could not face his former home, once so full of life, now empty. He left with nothing but his hammer, his songs, and the only clue as to the perpetrator, a scorched book of spells bearing the symbol of a flaming skull.
125 remembers a great fire consuming the city. He remembers being trapped under rubble, smoke scorching his lungs, unable to even scream. As he died, a voice spoke to him, offering power and life in exchange for a few favors to be called in later. He accepted, and awoke in a massive makeshift morgue full of victims of the fire. Unable to remember his own name, Burn Victim #125 escaped the house of death with a mind blazing with unfamiliar arcane power.
Phase 3: First Adventure
This Phase describes the first time the PC sets out on his own to accomplish something big. The first adventure can be a continuation of the Crucible, or a completely different story. Leave a lot of open space here though (story-wise, not literally), because the cool story interactions are about to start. Note that the SotC setting has players write this phase like the Back Cover Copy on a Pulp Novel, but here I'm using the more familiar D&D narrative style.
Eberk's wandering soon took him to The Rafters, a slum on the edge of a quarry town. People in The Rafters had been disappearing, and some talked of seeing a strange figure with a flaming skull for a head travelling the swamps at night near the old abandoned keep. Eberk gathered some bravos to investigate and discovered the keep to be crawling with Undead. Cut off from escape, Eberk led his companions deep into the keep where they discovered a vile necromancer performing rituals to animate the dead. Eberk roared when he saw the focus for the necromantic power was the Mirror of True Thoughts, an artifact from his home made of perfect crystal-glass. The Necromancer had perverted it to channel dark energies from the shadowfell. Enraged at this mockery of beauty, Eberk forgot his magical lore and charged the crystal, smashing it to shards with one blow. Unable to control such dark powers on his own, the necromancer withered away to a skeleton just before completing his dark ritual. But the terrible energies unleashed threatened to drain the life from Eberk and his Companions. As they fled the writhing shadows, Eberk had only enough time to snatch a scrap of scroll bearing the seal of the Order of the Flaming Skull...
125's unique talents soon had him fall in with The Fangs, a criminal gang in a larger city. Acting as an enforcer, he was ordered by his boss to steal a powerful Cloak of Shadows from a rival gang Blackwater. When he got there the rival gang had been slaughtered, and the cloak was missing. Returning to report, he was accused of lying and stealing the cloak for himself, set upon by his former allies, he fought them off and fled the city.
Phase 4: 1st Guest Star
This is where things get interesting. So far we've done little more than write half-decent backstory for a couple of D&D PCs, but now we get to connect the dots! On this phase, shuffle up a small stack of cards with each PCs name on one, and deal them out (trade or reshuffle if a PC gets his own name). Each player then gets to Guest Star in the First Adventure of the Player whose name they drew. Collaboration is key, because this is where PCs get connected to each other in a meaningful way. This is a chance for characters to contribute to another character's story and for Players to add complications or other details. These don't necessarily have to be directly concerned with the First Adventure (Although that is the most Action-Pulpy way to do it), but should connectsolidly to the story.
Brother Graeme the was among those who joined Eberk that night at the abandoned keep. And it was the Holy Light of Pelor that kept them from being torn apart by undead as they ventured deeper in. After they escaped, Brother Graeme told Eberk about a time long ago when members of his order banded together to destroy a faction of Necromancers that controlled an entire city in the western mountains. At the time they thought that Pelor's Light had destroyed all trace of the Order of the Flaming Skull, but Catacomb City may yet have new secrets to uncover.
After arriving at The Rafters Eberk met a mysterious Drow with terrible scars. The Drow had many questions, particularly concerning legends of Archfey. Eberk was no expert, but told him all he knew. The Drow was especially interested in the Burning Aurora, a Fey Queen who manifested cold flames in strange hues. Her reputation for dangerously toying with mortal affairs was well known, even to a Worldly dwarf such as Eberk.
Phase Five: 2nd Guest Star
Repeat phase 4 again, reshuffling cards and redrawing in case of duplicates. Add more details, wrinkles, plot twists, and complications. Go Nuts!
By the time you're done your whole party should have no more than 2 degrees of separation from any other character. Time to start adventuring! Now you have a treasure trove of locations, villianous groups, NPCs, mentors, and all other sorts of plot hooks to work with. If you already had a plot in mind you can just change names and details to fit what the PCs are looking for. I guarantee that no matter how cheesy "The Order of the Burning Skull" sounds when you say it out loud, nothing will get the PCs more fired up than seeing that dire symbol carved into a dungeon wall.
Of course, since you now have a whole party of complicated, three-dimensional characters with a wide range of backstories, motivations, and quirks, you may have to just have them meet in a tavern after all. At least it's not for the first time...
Have you tried this idea? What do you crib from other systems for your game? Does Eberk need to get over himself? Let me know in the comments! Collaborate!
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Monsters as PCs as Monsters part 1
Since I so rarely get to play on the PC side of the table, when I do I go all in. I grab whatever concept I've got and run like the wind! This leads to some fun stuff, like my Human Barbarian prince Grigor who had been part of a cultural exchange program with the nearby dwarves and is probably still the only barbarian to ever utter the words "Someone should notify the proper authorities". Or Vitriol, the Insult Comic Bard, who never played an instrument and only knew one song. But we're not even into the weird stuff yet...
Sometime back in early 4e there was a developer sidebar titled "My Son the Fire Archon" by James Wyatt (Oh, look: a link!). It was a cool idea, and it stuck with me. The idea that you could make a monster out of PC parts, and then play it like a PC that FEELS like a monster was to good to forget. So I did it. More than once.
First there was Talak the Desirable, who was a spider. On paper he was a human wererat mage, but inside he was a spider. Talak was a spider that thought he was pulling off a human disguise. He had lines like "We should listen to what the human has to say, because humans use speech to convey information. I should know, for I am human" and other weird circuitous-logic stuff that immediately marked him as not human. It didn't help that whenever a fight started he would turn into a big nasty spider and use webs and poisonous bites. The only mechanical change I made was I got the DM to switch the wererat's bleeding bite to a poisonous one. Everything else was just flavor-text tweaks. Only 2 Sessions, but tons of fun.
Then there was Ravana Khan. On paper he was a Sorcerer, but that dude was a Rakshasa. He looked and acted like a Rakshasa who was on vacation to the material plane, causing unwarranted strife amongst the city's criminal guilds for his own amusement. Power choices were on a strictly pick-the-coolest-one basis. Lightning Breath: Check! Spectral Claws: Check! A spell that lets you and your assassin buddy fly to the rooftops while your enemies are stuck on the ground with the party tank: check! He wouldn't set foot on holy ground. He bought new clothes anytime he got blood on his old ones. His first step in a murder mystery plotline was to demand the execution of the Guard Captain (for either complacency or incompetence, didn't matter which). And, (like most sorcerers) enough blessed crossbow bolts to the chest would kill him!
Monsters-as-PCs-as-Monsters are loads of fun to play, but since I spend most of my games DMing I rarely get to pull these ideas off. Here's a bunch more (4e style).
Sometime back in early 4e there was a developer sidebar titled "My Son the Fire Archon" by James Wyatt (Oh, look: a link!). It was a cool idea, and it stuck with me. The idea that you could make a monster out of PC parts, and then play it like a PC that FEELS like a monster was to good to forget. So I did it. More than once.
First there was Talak the Desirable, who was a spider. On paper he was a human wererat mage, but inside he was a spider. Talak was a spider that thought he was pulling off a human disguise. He had lines like "We should listen to what the human has to say, because humans use speech to convey information. I should know, for I am human" and other weird circuitous-logic stuff that immediately marked him as not human. It didn't help that whenever a fight started he would turn into a big nasty spider and use webs and poisonous bites. The only mechanical change I made was I got the DM to switch the wererat's bleeding bite to a poisonous one. Everything else was just flavor-text tweaks. Only 2 Sessions, but tons of fun.
Then there was Ravana Khan. On paper he was a Sorcerer, but that dude was a Rakshasa. He looked and acted like a Rakshasa who was on vacation to the material plane, causing unwarranted strife amongst the city's criminal guilds for his own amusement. Power choices were on a strictly pick-the-coolest-one basis. Lightning Breath: Check! Spectral Claws: Check! A spell that lets you and your assassin buddy fly to the rooftops while your enemies are stuck on the ground with the party tank: check! He wouldn't set foot on holy ground. He bought new clothes anytime he got blood on his old ones. His first step in a murder mystery plotline was to demand the execution of the Guard Captain (for either complacency or incompetence, didn't matter which). And, (like most sorcerers) enough blessed crossbow bolts to the chest would kill him!
Monsters-as-PCs-as-Monsters are loads of fun to play, but since I spend most of my games DMing I rarely get to pull these ideas off. Here's a bunch more (4e style).
- Pixie spellcaster focused on range attacks w/ control effects = Young Beholder
- Goliath Psion/Dual-weild Fighter or Barbarian = Umber Hulk
- Water Genasi (Flow through cracks and enemies) Melee-focused Acid Elementalist = Sentient Ooze
- Psion with some sort of melee execution move and a ritual that lets you steal memories from the dead = Mind Flayer
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