Old News Mondays: November’s RPG Carnival

By | Published November 21, 2011

They said ‘Yes.’ That is the most insidious trap that any villain has ever sprung on my PCs.

Hosted by Elthos RPG, this month’s RPG Carnival asks us:

“Setting up challenges for RPG Player Characters that make sense in terms of the story is a matter of thinking “What would the villain *really* do?” Learning to think like your villain is a bit tricky because if you think too well then your players may not survive very long, but if you don’t think enough …well, it is just too damn easy. What Tricks-n-Traps have your villains set for those who dare impinge on their turf, or interfer with their nepharious plots? Did the PCs live or die, …or something far far worse?!”

This has really gotten the little hamster wheel that is my mind turning for a couple of reasons. Two things stand out to me. Elthos’ statement that challenging your PCs involves figuring out what the villain would ‘really’ do and the request to describe the traps and tricks you’ve consequently used. To my mind, these two thoughts are almost mutually incompatible.

Rarely, if ever, do the ‘bad guys’ in my games really consider themselves villains. It’s probably a consequence of genre. I rarely run Silver Age Supers or D&D Heroes vs. the Evil Necromancer. As a result cunningly built death-traps designed specifically for my PCs are pretty rare (although I’m working on that for StarGuard).
Consequently, the closest I come to actual traps fall roughly into three categories: Defences, Giving Rope and Saying Yes.

Defences

Everything from the chest designed to shoot a dart if opened, to the undead critters guarding an ancient tomb; anything that is designed to keep people out of a location counts as a defence. It doesn’t matter if it is a dungeon or a secure space facility, if it is secure and designed to be a challenge, it will have defences. Usually these defences will be fairly straightforward, although on occasion this might also involve luring unsuspecting PCs into a more vulnerable position where they can be trapped or slain.

At the end of the day, the defences have to be practical to the task at hand. A highly classified, but largely unmanned, research facility may have all manner of defences to keep people out, but it does need to be designed with some thought to how the individuals at the facility work and live. A temple dedicated to a long forgotten god, on the other hand, may have some obstacles that are designed to test the moral precepts or religious lore of anyone who enters.

Giving Rope

How much rope? Enough rope for the PCs to hang themselves with. My current Icons campaign is, essentially, one big trap involving giving the PCs opportunities to ruin their image on national TV and eventually trigger a crisis that the big bad can save the world from it in a public fashion. If my PCs come after a powerful NPC, the NPC is as likely to pull back and let the PCs swagger after an apparent victory, confident that the PCs will quickly make new enemies that the aggrieved NPC can ally with.

Moreover, by letting the PCs act publicly and not taking any openly dickish actions against them, it’s easy to show why the PCs enemy might be winning over the court of public opinion. There’s nothing better than when the PCs realize that the very actions they’ve taken to thwart the antagonists plan has now turned the community they were protecting against them.

Saying ‘Yes’

You really want that that artefact sword? Why are we fighting? Take it.

I hear you are fighting the Goblin Hordes who are marching south. I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but perhaps we can work together…

Assuming your antagonists aren’t just evil for evil sake, they are working towards a goal and the PCs are in their way. Now while your big bad could just throw ninjas at the problem, sometimes it makes more sense to try and co-opt your opponents. Invite your PCs to a parley and make them an offer.

Nothing big. Not ‘rule the world with me’ big. More like ‘let me help you achieve your goal, and perhaps you can lay-off me’ big. Something that seems small and isn’t too good to be true. Alternatively, let your PCs make a demand (i.e. ‘your cult is no longer welcome in X city’) and have your antagonist say ‘yes.’

If your PCs go along with it, your antagonist can start giving them rope (as above), generally try to compromise them or get closer to them…the better to strike them.

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Stuff to Steal From: The Rockford Files (1974-1980)

By | Published November 11, 2011

The Rockford Files is a free-wheeling detective program starring James Garner that was originally broadcast between 1974 and 1980. Its also a source of easy to steal RPG scenarios, loaded with characters ready to be turned into NPCs. The program featured the misadventures of Jim Rockford, an ex-con turned P.I. as he lived hand-to-mouth working on cases that inevitably proved to be more trouble than they were worth. The show’s appeal had a lot to do with its breezy scripts, James Garner’s charm and one of the greatest opening sequences of all time.

The Rockford Files is a standard, ‘done-in-one’ old-school episodic television show. In nearly every episode:

  • Jim takes a case, reluctantly gets in over his head
  • Is framed for a crime or hunted by someone with bad intentions (often both)
  • Trashes a rental vehicle (seriously, who rents to him?)
  • Solves the mystery and either gets the girl or gets paid (rarely both).
  • Usually this is supplemented by wise-cracks by his father (played by the great Noah Beery, Jr) or Sgt. Dennis Becker his reluctant ally in the police (played by Joe Santos).

122 episodes of The Rockford Files were produced, so don’t expect me to get into any details on individual episodes, but I will say this: GMs running mission based games could do a lot worse, than to steal the occasional scenario from The Rockford Files. Each plot has more than enough twists and reversals to offer a good GM a trick or two to have up their sleeve.

Easily the most liftable element of The Rockford Files is that Jim Rockford’s antagonists are never sitting still. The show takes a page from the Raymond Chandler/Mickey Spillane school of detective writing in that Jim tends to blunder into a situation, usually posing as someone or something that he’s not, stir up a hornets’ nest and then react to the fallout. In many ways, Rockford is more a con-artist than a detective, with the consequence that the show is usually about Rockford forcing people to act in order to uncover the truth.

To me this is gold. Look at it from an adventure writing perspective. Each episode provides you with a solid investigative mission hook for the PCs and a sense of how the various NPCs and factions will react once they inevitably start poking around. Especially if the poking takes an unusual form.

While not all PCs are likely to show up on a mobster’s doorstep pretending to be a health inspector as Rockford is wont to, they do tend to do off-the-wall things and an average Rockford Files episode might inspire you with ways for characters to react to unorthodox behaviour. Bonus points if it inspires you to react in a manner other than ‘they try to kill you,’ although that happens often enough in The Rockford Files.

At any rate, whether you intend to steal some ideas or not, The Rockford Files is currently streaming on Netflix, so if you have an hour to spare and are looking for a good time, check it out. You won’t regret it.

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Old News Mondays: Dungeons and Drinking

By | Published November 7, 2011

I recently read Monsters and Manuals post on ‘Things Role Playing Bloggers Tend Not To Write About’ entry and one of the items was near and dear to my heart: alcohol at the table.

I drink when I run games. My players drink when I run games. We game in a bar and it is a great time. If you are legal, need a gaming space and aren’t worried about being a nerd in public, I strongly recommend it.

It wasn’t always this way though.

For at least the first decade or so of my gaming life, booze and gaming didn’t mix. This may have had more to do with being ten years old, than being morally opposed to drinking though. So let’s just say that any dice rolling under the age of 18 (the legal age in the province I grew up in) was dry.

Then, I went off to university and, for most of my undergraduate years, gaming was replaced by politics, art, chasing girls and being intoxicated. When I got back into gaming, I managed to sell it to my friends as being: a) a great way to flex your imaginative muscles and b) a good time that can be had without spending money (including spending money on booze).

Then, three years ago, circumstances forced me to form a new gaming group using resources like the Toronto Area Gamers, RPG.net and random chance. These weren’t people I knew and I didn’t exactly find the idea of inviting them into my home. And my reluctance to invite strangers into my house has only increased since my wife and I had our son. So finding a comfortable and public play space was important.

My brother-in-law managed a bar at the time, and there was an upstairs space that was rarely used. Preferring that to an empty cafeteria table at a local university, I reserved the space and sent invites to my new players. We met, had a few drinks and a snack, and started what has turned into three years of near-continuous bi-weekly gaming. From time to time we had to share the space, and I became more comfortable nerding it up in public.

Since then, our roster has changed and we now game at a busier, more central pub. It’s an easy commute for nearly everyone and, for myself and the other dad in the group, it is also our big boozy night out. And while I know that there has been at least one occasion where I probably made a call because I was a bit too tipsy, for the most part the relaxed atmosphere has kept things fun. Which is the whole reason we are there in the first place.

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Stuff to Steal From: The Centurion (2010) — Part Two

By | Published November 4, 2011

The Centurion is not only a great film, but it is pure game mining gold. Last time, I wrote about the film’s plot and themes and discussed how its scenario might be used by sticky handed GMs. This time, I’d like to talk about two key elements that are necessary to bring the scenario to life: Characters and Challenges.

Characters

The best way to get mileage out of a Centurion-like scenario is to make sure you have some conflict front-loaded into the PCs. In the film, this is manifested by the characters Macros and Thrax, who are willing to go to any length to survive, including leaving the rest of their comrades to their fate and even betraying each other.

If I was crafting PCs for a one-shot scenario, I would probably do something like this:

  • PC 1 is secretly responsible for the extremity of the PCs plight (stole something or killed someone)
  • PC 2 is almost sociopathic in their desire out to save their own skins
  • PCs 3 and 4 have a reason to intensely hate each other
  • PCs 5 and 6 would be team players, but each would have a reason to trust and distrust one of the above PCs

With a nest of serpents like this, I would hope to get as much drama out of scenes between characters as those involving the Tribal Hunters.

Challenges

To make this scenario work, I think you need the PCs to face a greater challenge than just the Tribal Hunters who are out to get them. They need to find the environment and the journey themselves to be a challenge. This has to mean more than just difficult dice rolls. The players will need to make choices and those choices will have to have consequences.

For instance, if the PCs rush north through the frozen crags, then they need to suffer from exposure and deal with any failed climbing rolls in a hurty way. If they take their time and try to prepare using survival skills, they need to have pressure put on them by their pursuers. If they choose to take an easier path, then you need to make it clear to them that it is easier for the Tribal Hunters too.

Finally, their pursuers need to be more of an environmental force and plot driver than a discreet group of baddies that can be beat in one sitting. At the beginning of the scenario they should show up in overwhelming force and use it ruthlessly. I’d consider keeping a spare PC around that can be handed out to a player who loses their character in these early encounters. That said, once you establish their bad-assity, you also need to give the PCs the option to run, because if they don’t, it is a short game.

As the scenario progresses, give the PCs the opportunity to pick off members of the Tribal Hunters or make it clear that by taking a more difficult route, they are starting to shift the odds in their favour. One option would be to use some glass beads to represent the strength of the pursuers and remove one each time the PCs overcome a difficult obstacle. Once you are down to one or two beads, it may be time to try and steer the PCs towards a satisfying set-piece battle that settles their fate for once and for all.

So there you have it, a great film with a great scenario there for the pillaging.

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Stuff to Steal From: The Centurion (2010) — Part One

By | Published November 3, 2011

Neil Marshall’s Centurion is a tensely paced, graphically violent and perfectly taut military thriller set during the high water mark of the Roman Empire. It tells the story of the Ninth Legion’s last mission before it vanished from the historical record with aplomb and a fair bit of stabbyness.

If you haven’t seen it, you really should. When else will you get to see McNaulty from the Wire, Mickey from Doctor Who and Magneto clash with tribes of Picts who are both extremely deadly and justifiably pissed off.

Also, if you haven’t seen it, from here on out there be Spoliers and suggestions on ways for Game Master’s to steal shamelessly from it. And honestly, I think there is enough material in this film to warrant at least two ‘Stuff to Steal From’ entries.

The Gist

Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender), a canny plebeian centurion who has survived torture at the hands of the Picts, is tasked to help guide the Ninth Legion (led by Dominic West’s Titus Flavius Virilus) on a pacification campaign against said Picts. The campaign is motivated by the political ambitions of a corrupt Roman governor and goes to hell with impressive alacrity. In the aftermath, Quintus leads a rag-tag band of survivors (including Noel Clarke’s Macros) on a rescue mission deep in Pict territory and then, using his insights into Pictish culture, attempts to escape a group of highly skilled Pict trackers.

The bulk of the film focuses on this chase as Quintus and his comrades must overcome the treacherous environment, inhumanly driven Pict antagonists, and betrayal among their own ranks. It isn’t all ‘Run!’ and ‘Stab’ though. There’s a fair bit of character development between the Roman legionaries, amongst the Picts and with the sole neutral figure cum love interest (Imogen Poots’ Arianne). In the end, Quintus is ultimately forced to choose between corrupt Roman civilization and the unforgiving savagery of life beyond the empire’s frontier.

The Centurion as Scenario

The Centurion’s basic plot—a varied group of misfits, thrown together by chance and with different agendas are forced to escape from a superior force—is the stuff that gaming one shots are made from. This scenario is liberally tossed with an examination of the concept of ‘the frontier’ as the characters have the opportunity to move literally and figuratively between the rotten, civilized world of Rome, the brutal and bloody world of the Picts and the uneasy and fragile space that sits right on the edges of both.

As cool as the Roman trapping and setting is in The Centurion, the film really isn’t about Roman Britain, and its scenario and core themes can be dressed in any trappings a GM chooses. One could, for instance, recast this scenario the Star Wars universe by substituting the Romans for Imperial troops trying to escape from a tribe of force wielding aliens. The same themes and challenges would be there.

Next time, I’m going to write about a few key elements I think you would need to bring this scenario to life.

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Life is Cheap, Resurrection is Expensive

By | Published March 25, 2011

I tend to run dirtbag games and resurrection is generally off the table.

With my current group I’ve run a classic ‘have a ship and do dodgy jobs’ Traveller campaign, a Game of Thrones inspired Burning Wheel game, an over-the-top Conquistadors in Space Rogue Trader campaign and some gutterpunk sword and sorcery.

In all of these games I’ve tried to be a ‘dice on the table,’ ‘actions have consequences,’ and ‘PC death is possible’ kind of GM. I’ve generally tried to impart a ‘life is cheap here’ vibe as part of the general flavor of the campaign milieus they move in. Moreover, since none of these games have had any known resurrection magic, my players have tended to be somewhat circumspect in their actions. Somewhat.

The thing is that while my players may do their best not to put their characters at unnecessary risk and are certainly not opposed to stabbing someone in the face as a solution, I find that life and death thematically structure my games in two ways:

1) No NPC wants to Die

Sure they may only be known as ‘the pirate with the oily beard,’ but none of my NPCs actually want to die. Even the Chaos Cultists. Provoking a straight-up fight is something they do reluctantly and usually only if negotiation or other means of achieving their goals have failed.

If outclassed, anyone with a modicum of intelligence will try to surrender, run away or, occasionally, beg for their lives. And if my players are playing hard bastards and murder fleeing or surrendered opponents, then…

2) Actions Have Consequences

Look, if the PCs are behaving like murderous scumbags, then NPCs are going to react accordingly.

Patrons will try not to be too closely associated with their bloody acts. Subordinates will disobey orders or mutiny if ordered into the breach once too often. Friends and relatives of their victims will look for vengeance. Their reputation will precede them (which can be a good thing if they are looking to intimidate them).

At best they will be looked at as disposable tools to be pointed at problems that can be solved messily. At worst they’ll be pariahs trying to escape the destiny their actions have brought upon them.

Final Word

And that’s the thing about life and death in RPGs: How the PCs treat death has to have an impact on how their characters live their lives. Otherwise both are meaningless.

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Stuff to Steal From: Kelly’s Heroes

By | Published July 29, 2010

Confession time: I haven’t stolen from Kelly’s Heroes…yet.kellyoddball

This summer I’m running ‘Rotwang’s Heroes’ with Starblazer Adventures. The plan is to run a Kelly’s Heroes scenario set in a steam-punk post-apocalyptic WWI environment. So really, as far as thefts go, this one is close to my heart.

As I try to resume blogging over the next couple of weeks—and try to be a decent dad—I’m going to chime in on how I’m stealing from Kelly’s Heroes.

Today I’d like to talk about stealing from the film’s basic scenario.

In Kelly’s Heroes you have a motley band of soldiers deserting to steal a fortune in gold. It’s a zany hybrid of war and caper genres that lends itself to adaptation as a one-shot.

The key elements to the scenario are:

A tight window: If you stick closely to the film’s set-up, even though the PCs are the only ones to know about the treasure (even its guards are unaware of what they are guarding) a clock is ticking. If they wait too long:

A clued-in member of the opposition will move the treasureKH3

Their absence from the front will be noticed and their allies will start looking for them

Or, horror of horrors, their allies might get to the treasure before they do, screwing up the whole gig.

Multiple Hazards: The PCs should face a situation with myriad of potential hazards.

They should be behind enemy lines (or the equivalent)

Faced with environmental challenges (how are we gonna cross the river Kelly?)

They should also be in danger from the side they deserted from (if caught the best case would be for them to be hailed as penniless heroes or, more realistically, hung).

The key thing is that, from the moment the scenario starts, damn near everything is challenge the PCs need to overcome.

Flexibility:

The climax of Kelly’s Heroes is, perhaps, one of my favorite endings of all time. It’s such that I really don’t want to ruin it. Needless to say, it is exactly the kind of lateral thinking that your players will probably come up with once you are ready for the big boss fight. The key here is to go with it. There is no obstacle that can’t be overcome by the left-field awesomeness of your average player.

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The Klepto GM

By | Published June 7, 2010

It’s almost easier to ask which forms of outside media don’t inspire my gaming than those that do. I mean, in this blog, I’ve been encouraging people to steal from obscure 70s horror films, comic books, and some of my other favorites.

I’ve even written about my Punk and Prog inspired D&D campaign, which sadly died an ignominious death.RPG-Blog-Carnival-Logo

I think being inspired by outside sources is really a core element of the hobby. Be it the way that Appendix N listed the works that inspired the creation of D&D or licensed games literally wearing their inspiration on their sleeves, I’m hard pressed to find any games out there that don’t draw on a slew of outside sources.

And so should you.

Today, though, I’d like to talk about actually lifting ‘story’ the books, films, TV shows and comics you love. In a nutshell it’s to steal ‘plots’ and not ‘Plot.’

For instance, I heartily endorse lifting Wormtongue’s plot from Lord of the Rings.

It boils down to having a shifty minister poisoning the body and mind of a king who might otherwise be a potential ally of the PCs. From there it should play out however the PCs mangle it. Perhaps they will discover the Minister’s treachery and split him in two. Maybe they will leave the kingdom under the Minister’s subtle control.

For that matter, they may cut a deal with the Minister (and there by found the Wormtongue Dynasty) or seize the throne for themselves.

The important thing is not to force them to follow even roughly in the footsteps of the Plot you gleaned from the Lord of the Rings.

Taking the schemes, traps, and character plots you find strewn in popular culture and using them as hooks in a game is good. Forcing your PCs on a death march up Mount Doom when they’ve come up with their own solution to the ‘ring’ issue is bad.

But hey, your mileage may vary.

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Stuff to Steal From: Global Frequency

By | Published June 3, 2010

Anyone running a mission-based game should consider borrowing from Global Frequency. Be it a Delta Green/Call of Cthulhu campaign, a default Eclipse Phase game or even a Pulp Adventure or Supers campaign there is probably something you can use.

Regardless of genre, when plundering Global Frequency, I suggest looking to three areas: the set-up/premise, the supporting characters and the threats.

The Set-Up1401202748.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_

On the face of it, Global Frequency features your standard ‘your mission should you choose to accept it’ style of set-up. But there are differences. The first, and really the biggest tone center, is the urgency of the missions in a Global Frequency-style campaign.

In the comics, Global Frequency is called in either because a disaster is about to happen right now or they are called into look at the aftermath of a weird event. There is no middle ground; no slow investigative build-up to a near catastrophe. Either a rogue military satellite is going to thin out the human population in 2 hours or an entire village went mad three days ago, there is no in-between.

A great way to capture this feel would be to start all of the adventures in a Global Frequency-style campaign in media res. Each adventure would start with either the PCs frantically moving to deal with a disaster or looking at the aftermath of past catastrophe that could come again.

The Supporting Characters

Global Frequency offers you two supporting characters that are easy to re-skin as NPCs.

On the one hand, you’ve got Miranda Zero- the tough as nails, super-connected, and mysterious owner of the agency who will drop the PCs into the soup because, well, that’s why they’re there.

On the other, you’ve got Aleph- the tech genius/remote field support that the PCs should only ever met through mediated means (over the phone, video-briefings, etc). She should be a pain in the ass, but always providing field support and information to keep the plot going at a breakneck speed.

The Threats

Really, with a little re-skinning these can be stolen for nearly any modern-ish or future game. I’m particularly fond of some of the hostage set-ups and the ‘military experiments gone wrong’ used in the series. The real trick is sticking to the threats that lend themselves to being resolved by the mortal brains of your players and not the better informed experts of the comics.

So next time you are looking to breath some life into a mission based game, grab Global Frequency from your local comic book shop or library and take a few notes. You won’t regret it.

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Bring on the B-Team

By | Published May 26, 2010

Have a Big Bad that needs embaddening? Want to establish some in-game history but want to avoid expository speeches and unread handouts? Would you like to give your players a little extra incentive to go looking for missing teenagers at the abandoned summer camp?

Then tell your players to put down their character sheets and bring in the B-Team.

Not These Guys

Not These Guys

Bringing in the B-Team is a simple technique that takes the often GM-heavy task of establishing facts, characters and themes about a game and includes the players.

It’s as simple as 1-2-3. Let’s take the example of establishing a recurring villain as a deadly threat. Rather than having your villain murder a squad of red shirts before your party’s eyes, let your players play the hapless red shirts and experience this villainy first-hand. I’d recommend that you:

1. Create a group of pre-gen characters less powerful than your current party. This has the added bonus of reminding your players how exceptional their regular PCs are. Keep the pre-gens as archetypical as possible and describe them in no more than 2 paragraphs. If you want to add a little flourish, give each character an illustrative quotation.

Example: Clancey Chase is a gruff veteran of the Chicago police. He isn’t as fit as he used to be, but he makes up for it in experience. Quote: “Put the gun down and your hands up kid. I’ve been chasing punks like you for 30 years and I’m in no mood to run.

2. Drop your newly minted pre-gen party in a setting or situation you might want to use later: A raid on the villain’s lair, in the midst of a world changing battle, driving up to an old summer camp on a dare. The important thing is get the action rolling immediately.

Example: I’d start Chase’s unit off in the middle of a raid on the villain’s lair, racing down a narrow corridor and just about to engage a few mooks standing guard outside the main chamber. I’d give them just enough to establish the mood and an easy obstacle to start off with so the players can try out their pre-gen characters’ capabilities.

3. Get your point across. Do you want to show that Dr. Destructo has kidnapped the mayor’s daughter? Is it important that Evilla the Goblin Queen gained the Ring of Wrathfulness 400 years ago? Make sure your pre-gen party witnesses it first hand. And if you just want to show that the villain is no slouch…

Example: So Chase’s unit of talented cops storms into Dr. Destructo’s lab and sees Mayor Milkin’s daughter strapped into the De-Virtuetron. Now is the time for the good doctor to bust out those powers that will give the main PCs problems down the road. I suggest playing the combat out bloodily but possibly fading to black before the last pre-gen character is outright killed. Players tend to love the possibility of rescuing survivors.

One of the advantages of this technique is that it works well to “show, not tell” when trying to establish facts, moods and characters for your game. It also allows GMs who are a bit on the soft side to cut loose on characters other than the main PCs and establish that their baddies mean business. Plus, many players will feel they have a stake in the B-Team characters and situation.

It may sound odd, but trust me: they will. Nothing motivates players to chase down a villain or follow a lead more than having their nose bloodied, pre-gen character or not. And if you dangle the possibility of a survivor or two out there, I think you will be surprised by how quickly your players take the bait

Most importantly, bringing in the B-Team takes the sometimes frustrating task of providing exposition and embeds it in an adventure everyone can participate in. And really, that’s what everyone is at the table for, right?

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