tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77559234472443004042024-03-19T05:32:30.276-07:00Yak-HackYakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-50238313402366904722020-02-14T23:07:00.000-08:002020-02-14T23:07:15.973-08:00THE SKØVD CHRONICLES are live! My contribution to ZineQuest, "The Skøvd Chronicles" is now.....<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq1M8uGt-hbde7nmMIYO-EzGTC20HWoc7Bn356KhdbBDDZVnYM23VQGBHbfVRhrf43TwDHEReOtXm8CtxM2kWfvlaSrlHpWq55IlymQ3N2oP9g9LyAM1IcdccMeg5cdHAHne6RwA1rlNIs/s1600/skvkickstarterright.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq1M8uGt-hbde7nmMIYO-EzGTC20HWoc7Bn356KhdbBDDZVnYM23VQGBHbfVRhrf43TwDHEReOtXm8CtxM2kWfvlaSrlHpWq55IlymQ3N2oP9g9LyAM1IcdccMeg5cdHAHne6RwA1rlNIs/s400/skvkickstarterright.png" width="400" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">...... <span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skovd/the-skvd-chronicles-1-weird-gothic-city-crawl-zine">LIVE ON KICKSTARTER </a></span></span><br /><br />
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skovd/the-skvd-chronicles-1-weird-gothic-city-crawl-zine/description">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skovd/the-skvd-chronicles-1-weird-gothic-city-crawl-zine/description</a>Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-54774790788494592842020-02-07T10:21:00.002-08:002020-02-07T10:21:43.591-08:00THE SKØVD CHRONICLES - ZINEQUEST ANNOUNCEMENT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skovd/the-skvd-chronicles-1-weird-gothic-city-crawl-zine"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRRt2GG19T2f-MY16jPN3uLk31lMXGOqZS714qv-HVvAgpa_IUcHoclPo7_87kHUGfUVAg45R04rvB_Lt9N2Sca-F1y_lAAA2oaB-n1Vk-h8gS_pYvH4laDBsHBJRPxm3Q68wp74DMEpKt/s320/skvkickstarterright.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>THE TIME HAS COME. BEGIN FOLLOWING THE ZINEQUEST "THE SKØVD CHRONICLES" ON KICKSTARTER. WE LAUNCH FEBRUARY 14TH.</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skovd/the-skvd-chronicles-1-weird-gothic-city-crawl-zine">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skovd/the-skvd-chronicles-1-weird-gothic-city-crawl-zine</a>Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-4559297254236685652020-01-06T09:36:00.002-08:002020-01-06T09:36:22.717-08:00you can use dnd to play anything <i>for reasons yet unknown, I will not capitalize the first letter in any of these sentences, unless I want to. calm down. have a snack. call a friend.</i><br />
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have you been on RPG social media for more than 3 hours? have you ever seen one of those hot-take thread wherein people list obvious truisms as if they were controversial? have you ever seen one of those people who will spend their days arguing against fictional people?<br />
<br />
then you've probably heard some version of the following:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
you don't HAVE to play dnd. there are OTHER games, that do what you want BETTER.</blockquote>
they're not really wrong. there isn't a sentiment there that we can make any normative claim against.<br />
<br />
so what's the problem?<br />
<br />
it follows a narrative we've discussed previously - <a href="http://yak-hack.blogspot.com/2019/11/table-centric-design.html">the design centric perspective</a>. It's follies are as follows:<br />
<br />
1. it gives us a value judgement that tells us that specifically curated, "optimized" experiences, that carries with it the intentions of its authors, are superior to those that are discovered or carved out<br />
<br />
2. it posits that "dnd" as a game should be confined to its commodity form - i.e that we should only interpret "dnd" as an intellectual property (Dungeon's and Dragon's 5th Edition) created and sold by a capitalist institution (Wizards of the Coast) who have the final say on what that product is.<br />
<br />
the first one is of course, something we are allowed to disagree with (and we shall). that it is presented as a fact and not an opinion is another issue. it rubs me the wrong way, and reminds me of toothpaste commercials.<br />
<br />
the second one is not only intellectually atrocious, it is contradicted by praxis. dnd not only means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, it also means different things for the same people.<br />
<br />
it contends that "dnd" is a game about killing goblins for money at first, and eventually killing level 50th evil lich-kings for glory at last, which, as played, all around the world, it isn't.<br />
<br />
is it what we want the game to be? maybe, but that is irrelevant.<br />
<br />
is it what the game tells us to do? maybe, but that is irrelevant.<br />
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it is irrelevant because that is not how dnd is played and experienced.<br />
<br />
it is literally IMPOSSIBLE to play not just dnd, but any roleplaying game "as intended", lest it has completely destroyed your capacity to imagine and tell stories independent of it. a dnd table doesn't have to "break" any rule in the PH or DMG to have a completely different experience than what any singular individual intended.<br />
<br />
we play lower-case dnd. the uniquely transformative, live, decommodifiying act of playing a roleplaying game makes it ours, and not the property WOTC, i.e "Upper-Case DND".<br />
<br />
the people insisting that Upper-Case DND should define what the act of playing dnd means and does are giving WOTC a power they don't have, and shouldn't have. the irony is that they do this in an attempt of robbing Upper-Case DND of that very same power.<br />
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the central reason to play this "lower-case dnd" is that it is a language familiar to most, and is thus more accessible. it also, importantly, lacks a core. it simulates, morphs and modulates based on the situation it faces. the very fact that there are so many different editions, hacks and homebrews also means that no single mechanic in any single book is "more" dnd than any else.<br />
<br />
the fact that dnd also isn't "optimized" for any specific scenario means that you can take the fiction where it feels like it needs to go. if we find an aspect of the fiction that our Optimized Genre Narrrative Arc Random Screenplay Generator doesn't want to support, we cant go there.<br />
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with lower-case dnd, you can go there. maybe it won't represent every emotional high or low, or reward drama or tension, but it doesn't *need* to. that's why *you* are there. heroism means resisting your programming (in this case, 6 stats, hp and a d20).<br />
<br />
and this makes dnd uniquely hackable, adaptable and modular. it means you can use dnd to play ANYTHING.<br />
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you can probably also use shadowrun to run anything, but i dont think people are ready for that idea just yet.Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-54633448180009123712019-11-25T12:03:00.003-08:002020-09-30T12:04:12.599-07:00A Conspiracy of Jesters <div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_GRYNZ5ip8qZwvqB5JWRmfc4RyyPkY7Y3lj6_MLO3pK7FdTaQ8A9CD71KB_G29nY5NZjLCi8VoraBBLnyISDWfZy4GXg4fn-NxF7nNNowIJHF8WiInNuSiEXtwmo-5VFZ39K9UzcZ2lZk/s1600/Screenshot_20191125-165450_Chrome.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="1224" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_GRYNZ5ip8qZwvqB5JWRmfc4RyyPkY7Y3lj6_MLO3pK7FdTaQ8A9CD71KB_G29nY5NZjLCi8VoraBBLnyISDWfZy4GXg4fn-NxF7nNNowIJHF8WiInNuSiEXtwmo-5VFZ39K9UzcZ2lZk/s1600/Screenshot_20191125-165450_Chrome.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Privately, have been accussed of being too bleak - that's fine I guess, even though I see my stuff as an exercize in dark pulp comedy. The entire wholesome hopepunk movement strikes me as cynical corporate fanservice confused for pseudo-political empowerment, but to each their own.<br />
<br />
I do however love a good Jest. A goof. A playful little trickster. A tricky little goofster. A jolly old knee-slapper. Did you hate reading that as much as I hated writing it? Well folks, I am but a slave to my impulses.<br />
<br />
Here's a game about being a rebellious Jester, fighting the power with subversion and trickery. You are recently unemployed and since the monarchy is the only one interested in your distinguished and highly specialized talent, you are also unemployable. Your other Jester pals were also let go, and you've formed a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_of_the_Equals">Conspiracy</a>. Go forth and cause chaos!<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>Important disclaimer</b> - I purposely avoided seeing the Joker movie, or reading anything about it. Any and all similarities are a product of the All-Consuming Void and should be immediately sealed into a vault and dropped to the bottom of the sea.</span></i></blockquote>
<br />
It's a hack of what I remember <b><a href="http://natetreme.com/ghoststar">In The Light Of A Ghost Star</a> </b>to be (don't have a pdf handy at the moment, take that, <i>Rules As Written</i>).<br />
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Start with 5hp, 10 inventory slots and 20 shillings.<br />
Assign a d4, d6, d8 among the following stats:<br />
<br />
<b>Performer: </b>When you make use of the physical space around you, use a prop, set-piece or weapon. Also used for prancing, dancing and skipping. (STAND-IN FOR DEX, STR AND CON)<br />
<b>Trickster:</b> When you use your unmatched mastery over the social sphere to manipulate, disguise and subvert. Also used for jokes, riddles and limericks. (STAND-IN FOR WIS, INT, CHA)<br />
<b>Svejk*:</b> When you project so much sheer naive dumbassery that you that the world can't help but conform to the you chaotic energy vortex. You pratfall out of danger, confuse opponents into inaction, frustrate authorities into submission (STAND-IN FOR CHA, PROBABLY, BUT LIKE REVERSE)<br />
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When you don't know if what you're doing is successful, or whenever failure is meaningful, roll the appropriate dice, and try to get a 4 or higher. As play goes on, your character might do one more specific thing consistently well. If all at the table agree that you do it well, write it down, then you can roll the dice twice and pick the one that's nice-uh, the one with the better result. Rumours say that this is what we call "rolling with advantage."<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>__________________________________________________</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
If, for some strange reason, someone were to attack you, whoever attacks you rolls their weapons damage, and you narrate how you're trying to avoid it. You can use whatever stat matches your action, roll it, and if you get 4+ you avoid damage. If you fail, subtract the result from the total damage.<div>
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Your main enemies are Guards and Militias. They have spears that do 1d6 Damage, bows and arrows that do 2d4 damage, or truncheons that do 1d4 damage.<br />
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To regain health, you must tell your friends jokes during downtime. One joke is 1hp. They don't have to be good, in fact, I recommend using <a href="https://short-funny.com/">https://short-funny.com/</a> or some equivalent trash site so that you don't expend undue mental energy.<br />
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__________________________________________________<br />
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The game is played in <b>REALTIME</b> and <b>DOWNTIME</b>.<br />
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<b>REALTIME </b>is when you narrate the specific details of an events that you and your jester friends perform together. You play in turns. Each player gets to move 20 meters and perform 2 actions that don't last more than 20 seconds combined. If appropriate, dice are rolled, resources are spent, money is spent, and the consequences are decided.<br />
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<b>DOWNTIME</b> is where you do stuff that takes longer, and is more abstract, such as travel, resting, planning a larger project, managing health and networking, or dealing with whatever fallout happened in realtime. Dice and resources are still spent here, but they are more of an abstract measure of how well things generally go rather than a concrete narration of what happened. If needed, go back into <b><i>REALTIME </i></b>if acting things out is more fun.<br />
<br />
__________________________________________________<br />
<br />
Advancement is gained when you have obtained enough <b>FOOD</b> to last you a month (4 weeks). You start at level one. (If you don't get any food for 4 weeks you die.)<br />
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Roll 1d4 when you level to see how much your health goes up.<br />
<br />
Also when leveling, choose one stat to increase the size of according to the following progression: d4-d6-d8-d10-d12<br />
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__________________________________________________<br />
<br />
Here's some stuff you might have, if you want. <i>Only scum will sell to you</i>. <b><i>Everything is for free if you can steal it. </i></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>JESTER'S STAFF</b>, 5 shillings, 2 slots, one-handed, deals -1d4 hp damage</li>
<li><b>BAG OF MARBLES</b>, 3 shillings, 1 slot, causes pratfalling</li>
<li><b>MAGICIANS TOOLKIT</b>, 4 shilling, does no actual magic, but contains 1d4+1 common stage magician props</li>
<li><b>DANCING MONKEY</b>, 10 shilling, no slot, 2 hp, a friend indeed </li>
<li><b>MUSIC BOX</b>, 2 shilling, 1 slot, loud and annoying, plays for 1d6 turns</li>
<li><b>SLEDGE-HAMMER</b>, 7 shillings, 3 slots, two-handed, deals 1d8 hp damage</li>
<li><b>ROTTEN FRUIT</b>, free, 1 slot per fruit, missile (range 10 meters), deals -1d4 hp damage</li>
<li><b>PLAGUE MASK</b>, 3 shillings, 2 slots, in poor taste, probably illegal</li>
<li><b>DECLARATION OF ROYAL IMMUNITY</b>, 8 shillings, 1 slot, forged document that will get royal guards and militias to stop harassing you - roll <i><b>Trickery </b></i>with Advantage.</li>
<li><b>FALSE TEETH</b>, 1 shilling, 1 slot, useful for replacing real teeth. Can also do -1hp for free if employed as a sneak attack</li>
<li><b>A REAL NEAT STICK</b>, 1 shilling, 3 slots, about a meter long, just really neat </li>
<li><b>HANGMAN'S ROPE</b>, 4 shillings, 4 slots, 20 meters long. Only incidentally used for hanging - its just rope </li>
<li><b>BUNDLE OF DARTS</b>, 2 shilling, 1 slot, missile (range 30 meters), deals 1d6 damage. You have 1d6+2 darts to start with </li>
<li><b>TICKLIN FEATHER</b>, 1 shilling, 1 slot, can cause fits of laughter</li>
<li><b>FOOD</b>, 100 shillings, 5 slots. Enough to last a week. Strangely more expensive than all this other bullshit, but you need it to live.... Guess you'll have to do something about it, then!</li>
</ul>
<br />
________________________________________________________<br />
<br />
You have to eat. <b>You have to take revenge</b>. <i>You have to jest</i>. <b><i>So whatever shall you do?</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJHZbly59vJaaX0FarwyXpUpDHU-A_1UeO9DMwMjCkMG8xzZSY3dNP5fUqDmKGVEf8uLhrdmmKlc2WPYU1nRturtMGN_Teo0G4O4TNyjPk-0zemQYlkkjPgkunShEB6kFslk7qQzDmWpoW/s1600/jester+king.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJHZbly59vJaaX0FarwyXpUpDHU-A_1UeO9DMwMjCkMG8xzZSY3dNP5fUqDmKGVEf8uLhrdmmKlc2WPYU1nRturtMGN_Teo0G4O4TNyjPk-0zemQYlkkjPgkunShEB6kFslk7qQzDmWpoW/s320/jester+king.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><i></i></b><br />
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<ol>
<li><b>Kidnap the Scrub </b>- When the Jester's Guild was striking, this two-faced faux-Jester was brought in to replace you, untrained and handsomely paid, to profit of your misery. Kidnap him and earn your wages back. </li>
<li><b>Paint the Wagon </b>- the Wagons that supply the market with supple fruits and filling potatoes (2 weeks worth each) are in desperate need of a change in management - to you</li>
<li><b>Pro Jestring Guerilla</b> - in defiance of the treacherous Monarchy, you have decided that Jesting is for the people. Let the people experience your masterful craft - and hopefully pay you for it. Beware, as the militia HATES street performers!</li>
<li><b>Comedic Con</b> - impersonate the powerful, whom you know so well, and use your talents to re-enter your former domain- The Royal Court. If you succeed, all wealth- and revenge, will be yours.</li>
</ol>
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But you should probably figure out what is to be done yourself.<br />
<br />
Anything bad about the game you just read was a goof. And aren't you a sucker for falling for it!<br />
______________________________________________________________<br />
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*<b>Svejk is the literary hero of Jaroslav Hašek. He is an enthusiastic soldier who manages to subvert authority by submitting so deeply to it, and taking it so literally, that authority becomes functionally useless. Play accordingly. </b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_%C5%A0vejk">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_%C5%A0vejk</a><br />
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<br /></div>Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-79157309770887373492019-11-19T23:29:00.001-08:002019-11-19T23:29:39.588-08:00Addendum to "Table-Centric Design" - On MatteringI am extremely pleased and humbled with how many people responded so charitably and kindly to the recent <a href="http://yak-hack.blogspot.com/">Table-Centric Design</a>, were I outlined some recent ways I've been thinking about design. I did however, make a tactically beneficial mistake of referencing the recently dug-up corpse known as <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/system_does_matter.html">"system matters."</a> Tactically beneficial, because a lot of people responded to it, gave good feedback and better criticism, but a mistake since it might leave people with a distorted impression.<br />
<br />
This could have made the impression like I don't believe system matters, which is not true. It could also make the impression that I believe the tangential opinion - that system doesn't matter as much as people think it does. I also don't believe this. I am not trying to be obtuse, I swear.<br />
<br />
System does matter. If you've played games published by other people a lot, you just know it. The pain of a clunky rule that constantly needs to be looked up everytime it is triggered. Character advancement systems that lock us into a style of play. The unwieldy subsystem and the arbitrary micromanagement. The resolution mechanic that should've been there, but wasn't added.<br />
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We also know the positives of system. The rule that simplified and made clear what other games were trying to achieve. The clever solution to a common hang-up. The two-sentence principle that got your science-fiction game to be more Flash Gordon, less Star Trek.<br />
<br />
There are systems that are better suited for playing a certain type of game, or catering to a certain play-style. There are poorly-designed games, and well-designed games.<br />
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These are undeniably things that make a difference at the Table.<br />
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What I am suggesting is that the Designer is the most easily dismissed person at the Table. They exist in a book that can be closed. They are always in subservience to whoever plays their game, and no amount of harsh words about cheating and intended experience can change that.<br />
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We can be upset about that, or we can design around that. This isn't a statement of "players don't care, do whatever", it is a statement of self-recognition - this is how I, as a table-top game designer, exist at the table. I will make <i>that </i>matter, instead getting bogged down with things that either won't matter or matter too much for me to get involved.<br />
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So, system does matter, as do the people who design them, but they are as determinant to how RPG's are played as the ancient Hebrew Texts are to contemporary mainstream Christianity. That is, not very determinant at all, but we do not decide for that reason, that the texts don't matter. Anyone who wants to make a new Bible, or game, might want to keep that in mind.Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-60230404569372526352019-11-17T15:22:00.000-08:002019-11-18T06:50:32.892-08:00Table-Centric Design<div>
Recently, I've been questioning the primacy of "Design" within RPG products. There's a kind of determinism that is generally accepted among RPG folks that Design determines what Play looks like. <a href="https://genesisoflegend.podbean.com/e/episode-21-%E2%80%93-game-design-is-mind-control/">Listening to some versions of what Game Design</a> is, you'd get the sense that the job of a designer is to manipulate and mind-control the people who play it, and perhaps to teach lessons about some things. If they are correct, and game design truly is a form of Vault-Tec style behavioral control, we might have to ask ourselves if this is even desirable?</div>
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I don't doubt that design to a certain extent shapes the behavioral patterns and the choices role-players make, but I find that designers more often than not overrate their own presence at the table in a rather self-aggrandizing way. There is a famous, perhaps dubious sentiment surrounding Vampire The Masquerade - that the games mechanics seemed so contrary to the intended playstyle of the game that it is a wonder anyone played it at all. You'd wonder if that would make these creators question the primacy of game design, or find a separate explanation for why thousands of people still play that game to this day? Instead, they conclude that it is the players who are wrong, and are merely ignorant of the fun they could be having.</div>
<div>
<br />
When the theory of something and its practice differ, then we first question theory. Our first job as "theorists" is to interpret, and the Design-Centric view has failed to account for how RPGs are actually played at actual tables.<br />
<br />
The truth is that our preconceived notions about what a specific RPG is will do more to form the actual play of the game than the rules. The entirety of DND5E is designed around this fact - entire swathes of what defines a DND adventure is <i><a href="https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/43568/roleplaying-games/game-structures-addendum-system-matters">left out</a></i> or assumed to be understood. That has been rather successful for 5E, since it could use it to accommodate those who only know DND from pop culture, or who learned what DND <i>is </i>from different editions. </div>
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<br />
Other games work like this too, except perhaps not intentionally. The reason why people play and played Vampire the Masquerade in-spite of its allegedly broken system is that its premise inspired play, its aesthetic sparked creativity and its rules could be easily ignored, and even more easily forgotten if you so wished. This is of course sacrilege to certain designers, but it is not <i>really </i>a problem. If playing at the <i>aesthetics</i> <i>and framing </i>of a game is not the real <i>playing </i>of the game, then I am here to inform you that the vast majority of people who say they have played DND, VtM or even Apocalypse World are liars!<br />
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And that's obviously not a workable position. So what is?<br />
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<h2>
Centering the Table </h2>
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What if we designed with the knowledge that the table is in control? I know it hurts to think about, but what if our jobs aren't to treat players as lab mice, and instead as the primary creative force in games as a medium? What if we designed games with the premise that diverse people all around the world are going to make it their own inspite of our design?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
It is clear to me that we've merely replaced "The Dungeon Master Is God" with "The Designer Is God". I propose a theological paradigm shift - the "Table Is God". I want to create design with the assumption that it is incomplete without the people actually making use of the design. This doesn't mean system-neutrality, or that the text and presentation lack a genre or reference to external media. It means that whatever happens after I've given (sold, most likely) my design to you, is out of my hands.<br />
<br />
Such a design would : </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Leave spaces, not fill them in </li>
<li>Enable fiction, not dictate it</li>
<li>Enable homebrew rulings, avoid standard actions</li>
<li>Multi-task, not uni-task</li>
<li>Be the spice, not the protein</li>
<li>Be the border of the game, not its end-goal</li>
<li>Create tools, not rules</li>
</ul>
<div>
I'll probably dedicate full blog posts for these, but to clarify:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
<b>Leaving spaces</b></h3>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
If your system or setting is a complete ecosystem that needs no intrusion from players and GMs alike, there is no need for anyone to play it. Leave space for the table to play in, don't overdefine or map it all out.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Enabling fiction</h3>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A role-playing game has the ability to inspire and spark creativity, imagine different outcomes and undermine existing cliches. A role-playing game should help this by providing fictional material - game text, character/NPC creation procedures, cool and dynamic equipments or ways of navigating space, and tools for creating scenarios and adventures. It should not be <a href="https://www.wizardthieffighter.com/2019/anti-canon-worlds-and-the-uvg/">canonical </a>or rely on <a href="http://whatwouldconando.blogspot.com/2019/08/some-unstructured-thoughts-structure.html">specific narrative structures</a> to work. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<h3>
Enable homebrew rulings</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
Most games have <i>standard actions</i>. Your lock-picking, your have-sex moves, your hack-into-computer-whilst-in-a-moving-vehicle. Get rid of em, and just have intuitive descriptors (DnD Attributes, Blades Action ratings, "Skill" in Troika) and a way to develop whatever expertise characters have during play. This isn't to suggest that the skill-lists common in Percentile-based systems and post-AD&D fantasy gaming are mechanically useless, but rather that we don't know what the characters might attempt and what worlds the GM (if they exist) creates yet. There might not exist a lock to pick, nor might the players want to if they could. It is perfectly allowed to use a mechanical shorthand if certain skills and targets become generalized and repetitive during play, or to represent certain advances the character has made, but don't start there. Empower the players to interpret the world through a set of simple mechanisms, instead of providing that interpretation beforehand. This prevents us from presenting the world as a set of mechanical tasks and instead as a real, dynamic place.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Multi-task</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
Table-Centric Designs have no core-loop or universal mechanic. They are not what Alton Brown would call a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/23/460833325/the-unitasker-kitchen-gadgets-alton-brown-loves-to-loathe">"uni-tasker"</a> - they should provide tools, rules and language that can be approached from several angles. Consider the ole DnD "6 attributes between 1-20 and derived modifiers from -3 to +3" - you can use those as follows:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Roll 1d20 and add the modifier to beat a target number </li>
<li>Roll 1d20 at or below the target attribute (alternatively, roll above)</li>
<li>Roll a number of d6 at or below the target attribute (alternatively, above)</li>
<li>Use the modifier to add or subtract another roll - e.g adding the Charisma modifier on a reaction table </li>
</ol>
<div>
These different ways of mechanically engaging with the same information also enables the table to make their own decisions about how to create fiction. A Table-Centric design doesn't tell you exactly when and how to use them, but provides them as suggestions, and a way to navigate the space. </div>
</div>
<h3>
Be the Spice </h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
With such a hands-off approach to gaming, it can become rather boring for the designer. After all, if the role of design is minimized, then what is the fun in it? Well, even in minimalist design, the text and the presentation is incredibly important for the table. Remember what we said about aesthetics and framing being a determining factor to play? Do that. That's the spice. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Be the Border </h3>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The end-goal of a Table-Centric RPG isn't to randomly generate a piece of fiction, nor is it to engage with a core mechanic. You haven't failed to play the game if you never triggered any dice-rolls, you've just played in the spaces between. Now, rolling the dice (or whatever) is fun, and more often than not you will do that, but the mechanic is there to simulate uncertainty, represent complexity or impose difficulty, and none of those are necessarily a given part of every game-session. This is not a failure to play the game - players and GMs are aware of the rules, but because of the Tables decisions, they have chosen to stay within its borders. These borders define play just as much when they are not crossed as when they are. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Creating Tools</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As a Table-Centric Designer, you do not know what your players will do with your work, and you are discouraged from telling them what to do. This shouldn't meant that you <i>under-define</i> <i>what can be done</i>. Create a diverse set of tools or templates that help the table make sense of and resolve things. Make random-table style prompts and imply world-building. An NPC reaction table is not a rule, it doesn't need to be used if other things make more sense, and nothing breaks if you <i>don't </i>use it - but it can add something if it is applied. These are tools for generating fictional materials, not laws of physics or statements of legality, and they help the table rather than constrain it.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Possible Shortcomings</h2>
<div>
First, lets imagine a possible, surface level objection to this:<br />
<br />
<h4>
<i>Isn't this just a restatement of the same old OSR-philosophy? Do we really need another word?</i></h4>
<br />
Not really, since I think it has applications beyond it. I think a "story"-game like Fiasco falls under these definitions. I've talked to several people who've successfully played the game Fiasco, while having no idea what the rules actually intended. There are passages in the original edition that are quite muddled. And I shared that assessment - we all, however, <i>played </i>Fiasco, based on our assumptions of what a game of Fiasco would be. It gave us fictional material and a way of framing play (being the border!) that we were able to navigate in a fairly simple way. Sure, it is sold as a game that emulates a specific narrative - the Coenesque dark comedy, but the stories of the Coens are in themselves multilayered and ambiguous. The meta-narrative of Fiasco isn't singular and intrusive, but multifaceted and dependent on who plays it. There are a thousand ways to make things go to hell.<br />
<br />
It doesn't really matter if your game tools imply High Romance or Grognardy Meat Grinders, what matters is how the game presents itself to its players, and how much it forces players to align to a singular meta-narrative structure, or how much it ties actions to an unavoidable monolithic "core loop".<br />
<br />
So, on to some actual problems, as we are in the business of honesty.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Lack of Depth</h3>
</div>
<div>
The strength of rules-heavy, core-loopy games that center around advancement, character builds and tactical actions is that they are rewarding in the same way most computer and board games are. The designers can put more time into a specific, long-term play experience and predict some sort of outcome. You invest into a strategy and you are able to see it pan out. This is part of why those games are so popular. When it comes to the Table-Centric vision, where rules are assumed to emerge out of the basic framework of play, some players might find this aspect lacking. When the table are already the "Masters" of their play, the act of "mastering" something external to them becomes less exciting. If you want the feeling of being the person who knows what all the Spells in DnD does, this is not for you.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<h3>
Lack of Incentive</h3>
Authority and responsibility is a daunting thing. When there's nothing to tell you exactly what to do and how to make people do it, there is a risk that they won't do anything at all. But we shouldn't let the lack of an intended playstyle and meta-narrative be confused with a laziness regarding presentation and set-up. You should still tell players about the Magic Spire of Immortality hidden in the Volcano Of Sorrow, but what the players do with that information is up to them. You have to be more of a Poet than a Warrior, is what I guess I am saying.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Lack of Objectivity</h3>
</div>
<div>
For some players, the existence of a canonical rule-book external to the GM or other players is a necessity. There is sometimes a legitimate worry that loose structures and vague frameworks can be abused and unbalanced. Having a tome of rules can be a huge comfort. While this is sometimes a more personal or inter-personal issue, I think it is at least useful to consider adding tools for the social aspects of play, the generation of a social contract and the establishment of who has the authority to do what and when. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
___________________________________<br />
<br />
<h2>
Epilogue</h2>
</div>
<div>
I had started writing this before the entire <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=system%20matters&s=03">twitter discourse</a> around just this topic broke out. A lot of things have been said that summarize my position, and a lot of valid criticism of the position has come up as well. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The most common objection is that the intrusion of Design is necessary to keep players from merely replaying the same story, and challenging them to imagine something different. There is a simple distrust of player intuition on display here, or perhaps, a distrust of ones own intuition. I could add that anecdotally, some of these attempts to "force players out of a narrative" have made the entire experience stale and frustrating, playing me more than I played it. But I see the concern. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Let me provide a solution: add a rule that the GM, or whoever has narrative control at the moment, has to test every 30 minutes of play. Roll any even-sided die. On uneven numbers, a Monkey God emerges from a dimensional portal, begging to have his belly scratched. Upon belly-scratch, banana-peels begin randomly appearing on surface of the earth, making any number of people trip on it like a skit in an old silent film. You try telling inherited, rehashed, cliched narratives with that possibility constantly looming over your tables fictional world.<br />
<br />
If only I was joking. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To the objection that people do feel like changing system has changed their play-style and outcome, more power to you. I don't deny that different design-choices can have different outcomes, or I wouldn't have written an entirely list about how to approach design. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What I am <i>advocating </i>for is a broader understanding of why tables don't behave in ways that designers intend them to, why that's probably fine, and a generous, comradely attitude toward the people we are designing for.<br />
<br />
If I'm successful, I will create or inspire systems that can be engaged with in many different ways, by many different people, for many different reasons. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And above all else: Role-playing game design, as discussed on the internet, has no semblance of actual academic work or epistemological attempts at reaching a truth. Let us be clear that we are all making assertions, based heavily on personal experience, biased toward the things we already like, and the people we surround ourselves with. Be excellent to each-other. </div>
Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-63721826466873294732019-11-15T07:31:00.000-08:002019-11-18T06:41:31.219-08:00The Generic Science Fantasy Character Personality and Presentation Generator (GeSciFaChaPerPreGen)Take the following statement as true:<br />
<br />
"Level 1 Characters should not have a backstory. The game is their backstory."<br />
<br />
<div>
If this is true, what do we then do to generate interest and investment in the character? I recently made this personality generator for a campaign of <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/patrick-wetmore/ase1-anomalous-subsurface-environment-standard-paper/paperback/product-15874202.html">ASE</a> that you can use to flesh out exactly how to roleplay them and instruct GMs in how the world might react to them. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Roll 1d6 per table, and intepret as you wish. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
MY GENERAL ATTITUDE IS...</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Cocky</li>
<li>Unpleasant</li>
<li>Charming</li>
<li>Hyper</li>
<li>Cowardly</li>
<li>Morose</li>
</ol>
<h3>
WHEN I EAT I...</h3>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>... slide the whole meal right down my throat</li>
<li>... take tiny little bird bites</li>
<li>... separate all the different food stuffs into different piles</li>
<li>... I mix it all together into a single sludge</li>
<li>... I chew loudly with an open mouth</li>
<li>... I hide my mouth with my hand</li>
</ol>
<h3>
MY WALK-STYLE IS...</h3>
</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Forward-tilting</li>
<li>Crooked</li>
<li>Straight-shouldered</li>
<li>Stiff-necked</li>
<li>Hunched</li>
<li>Backward-tilting</li>
</ol>
<h3>
FAMOUS EXPRESSIONS</h3>
</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Ugh!</li>
<li>Waaaait a minute....</li>
<li>Feck off!!</li>
<li>Toodeloo!</li>
<li>Me first!</li>
<li>Well now the gronk is truly flonked....</li>
</ol>
<h3>
I CANNOT RESIST...</h3>
</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Beautiful clothing...</li>
<li>A good fight...</li>
<li>An enticing mystery...</li>
<li>Shiny things...</li>
<li>Cute animals...</li>
<li>Strange artefacts...</li>
</ol>
<h3>
I AM AFRAID OF...</h3>
</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Darkness...</li>
<li>Large monsters...</li>
<li>Machinery or robots...</li>
<li>Failure...</li>
<li>Heights...</li>
<li>Cramped spaces...</li>
</ol>
</div>
Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-13800779257548077982019-11-13T12:36:00.000-08:002019-11-13T12:36:57.660-08:00Eye of Poseidon+In Heaven Release - and some reflections on growth, and suggestion for Finish The Dang Game Jam<h4>
The game that started it all for me Eye of Poseidon, is finally out!...</h4>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo9-7S_zqG8kqo5erYusBkZBtMC6fxmxl8FYDKGntq_rxk74fpj6bouLfoT8m8nWLjfN74hB2BNmeVEavHzTpHpcCJmGey9-C2Ufd3nC7XMPl1M6aKYCrTQysZXHClReR5t5sd_-XHNvF0/s1600/IMG_20190401_123923.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo9-7S_zqG8kqo5erYusBkZBtMC6fxmxl8FYDKGntq_rxk74fpj6bouLfoT8m8nWLjfN74hB2BNmeVEavHzTpHpcCJmGey9-C2Ufd3nC7XMPl1M6aKYCrTQysZXHClReR5t5sd_-XHNvF0/s320/IMG_20190401_123923.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/eye-of-poseidon-quick-start-rules">https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/eye-of-poseidon-quick-start-rules</a><br />
<br />
(... Somehwhat. This game roughly what it was a year ago, with a few last-minute editions to make it actually-complete, but it is still just a Quick-Start based on the long-abandoned Forged in the Dark system and heavily based on a Moves structure that I've grown out of... more later)<br />
<br />
Want to enact the court dramas of Star Trek? In a submarine? In the apocalypse? With strange underwater flora and fauna, deteriorating underwater settlements and just a hint of cynical<br />
<br />
<h4>
I've also released IN HEAVEN!! </h4>
<br />
<br />
<img src="https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvNTE0MDgyLzI2NzAwMzEucG5n/347x500/c6c7Na.png" /><br />
<a href="https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/in-heaven">https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/in-heaven</a><br />
<br />
<br />
This is a tool for generating exiting and strange afterlives for your PCs once you've ruthlessly killed all of them. It has 5 random tables, most of which contain some kind of mention of Monkeys.<br />
<br />
Buy both of these things. They are great<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
___________________________________________<br />
<br />
<br />
So I started working on Eye of Poseidon in 2017, and have been working on it on-and-off, but mostly off this year. It is strange. When I started, I was all hyped up on the Forged in the Dark train, in fact, so hyped up that I forgot that I didn't like playing it very much. When I realized I didn't, it was pretty much too late - I had playtested a version, and I had playtested it well, but I realized that half of the fun was the framing, rather than the game.<br />
<br />
This is not to say the game isn't fun - I played some excellent games with the system, but that I am very different now. The entire OSR happened to me, the un-happened when it unravelled (G+ closing, the exposing of abusers in the movement), and now I don't know where I sit. You can't unlearn the lessons you've taught yourself, you can merely move on to whatever you like now. So it just so happened that I have the bones of a playable game, that I've spent MONTHS of my life on, but have no motivation to go back to in its present form. What do?<br />
<br />
I very much want to finish Eye of Poseidon. The most common advice designers get is to not get distracted and have a strong vision, but sometimes change is good. Sometimes what you were doing isn't what you think you were doing. Sometimes its something else. Is it better? How the fuck will I know!<br />
<br />
But how? And when will I have the time?<br />
<br />
Well. That's a thing I've been thinking about. Introducing...<br />
<br />
_______________________________________________<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
FINISH THE DANG GAME JAM</h2>
<br />
Arriving on Itch shortly, I will be hosting a jam dedicated to finishing our dang games. Games that are left in your Google Drives, your InDesign projects, games that you've practically made and forgot. I want you to finish it.<br />
<br />
The rules -<br />
<br />
1. You have to have some sort of physical proof of the game you started with, a photo of the paper you scribbled down the idea on, a txt/doc file, a full-on PDF.<br />
<br />
2. Finish the dang game in three months. Want art and good editing? Want long essays about the philosophy of being a game master? Well those aren't the game. Finish the dang game so I can dang well play it. If you can get art and good editing in 3 months, that's fine. Just finish the gosh dang game. I don't care. Jesus.<br />
<br />
3. Upload what you started with and what you ended up with to the Itch and add it to the game jam. It's not a competition, and you should charge whatever money you think is appropriate for it.<br />
<br />
Like this idea? @ me on this tweet and tell me so <a href="https://twitter.com/YakovPettersson/status/1194635070033678338">https://twitter.com/YakovPettersson/status/1194635070033678338</a><br />
<br />
Or comment on this blogpost I guess<br />
<br />
Announcement will probably be on twitter or this blogYakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-88407480198214296242019-10-19T04:34:00.001-07:002019-10-19T04:34:48.805-07:00Rotten Carrot on a Stick: Why XP is not what you think<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ZLza2hDEi65OjazfjejDE-ALhE1wOaoYXHftyDm0bdJpNKDWwhdS0wEN-s0nqJeBD0QlE8InfXeJUdmYG2bvWlMckB_-u3zoLlm70iDC9SgBtMVvisUnMZaiBubuNeN8VSrBHmMEaV0S/s1600/Jimi_Hendrix_Are_You_Experienced_800x.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ZLza2hDEi65OjazfjejDE-ALhE1wOaoYXHftyDm0bdJpNKDWwhdS0wEN-s0nqJeBD0QlE8InfXeJUdmYG2bvWlMckB_-u3zoLlm70iDC9SgBtMVvisUnMZaiBubuNeN8VSrBHmMEaV0S/s320/Jimi_Hendrix_Are_You_Experienced_800x.webp" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
It is a well understood, but little expressed fact that the "theory" behind roleplaying games has very little to do with academic inquiry and the establishing of truths. Instead, most of our theorizing rely on pure guesswork, marketing gimmicks and internalized industry standards. Even if someone approaches a theoretical truth about what Games are (or should be), there is no established and accessible way for the rest of us to know whether what they are talking about makes sense, except an abstract, formal logic. As a result of this vague framework, game developers usually get up hung up on this or that specific, usually highly personal thing. It's their own Theory Heartbreaker, coincidentally related to the new game they are selling.<br />
<br />
The most common among these Theory Heartbreakers are XP. There's a popular school of thought that posits that RPG mechanics are a form of mind control, and believe this is a good thing. Most commonly, they refer to XP as a key proof of this. The idea is that if game designers reward the right thing with XP, they will engender a specific type of play at the table. Makes sense right? Carrot, stick. If I give my child a piece of candy as a reward, they WILL clean their room.<br />
<br />
There are immediate problems, but let me first do a disclaimer: I cannot possibly know what kind of solutions your table or game has, so let the critique be about what I'm actually critiquing. Also, my "evidence" is obviously anecdotal to what I've played and watched, which is a lot, but that's all anyone has to go on. Refer to the first paragraph: we don't really have an academic way of establishing these things as true, and there can always be some other, equally anecdotal piece of evidence contradicting me.<br />
<br />
So, our premise is the following: XP is a tool for players. It is a way to reward certain behavior, and rewarding certain behavior will lead to a specific style of play. Want a game about fighting large foes? Reward fighting large foes with XP! Want a game about bonding emotionally with others? Reward emotional bondning with XP! Want a game about eating the rich? Well they'll get a big, juicy XP once they gobble down that Warren Buffet smoothie!<br />
<br />
Now just like anyone else, I'd be ready to accept most of that premise. I worked on those assumptions myself while designing. But the problem is that this is rarely how it pans out at the table. Sure, there is sometimes one or more people who are completely obsessed with doing whatever gets them XP, but most of the time, the majority of the table do not think like that. They think about their character, the world, the dice they'll have to roll and the challenges they are facing. They think about what is immediate to them. Occasionally there are cheers, laughs and even applause, but it is rarely because they get XP, and mostly because of something rewarding that happened during play. Now, if XP is supposed to be this central aspect to play, why isn't it?<br />
<br />
The obvious answer is that regardless of what you decide to reward, the vast majority of XP systems are not only part of the games dreaded Meta-level, they are furthermore a summary that happens after play.<sup>1<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></sup>That's two levels of removal from what is considered the essential part of RPG play - the interaction with a fictional reality by fictional means. While this level of reflection is certainly necessary for a lot of games, it's also alienating us from actual play.<br />
<br />
My thesis is that XP is mostly an inconsistent tool for encouraging a specific type of play, and games that lean heavily on players getting XP by acting in a certain way usually ruin the activity they are trying to promote, or limit the games potential.<br />
<br />
For posterity, lets look at some systems and their text to see what their actual intention is.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Dungeons and Dragons 5E</h3>
<br />
<br />
The obvious first choice is to look at the punching bag of OSR and Storygamers alike: the 5E experience system. Interestingly, the Players Handbook doesn't even really tell the players what precise actions gets them XP:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"As your character goes on adventures and overcomes challenges, he or she gains experience, represented by experience points. A character who reaches a specified experience point total advances in capability. This advancement is called gaining a level." <i>Players Handbook, p. 15</i> </blockquote>
<br />
This might as well say "you gain XP for playing the game." Perhaps the player can GUESS what this means, because they have a preconceived idea of what a DND adventure is, but it doesn't tell us that the player SHOULD do anything except go on adventures.<br />
<br />
Now, anyone who's had a discussion about Dungeons and Dragons knows that "DND gives XP for killing stuff". This is usually said in a condescending or concerned tone, and implies that it rewards murderhoboism and other asocial activites. But the fact is that the players, if we assume they don't read the DMG or ask the GM outright, would not have any idea that this is the case from reading the rules. While I'd wager that most players who have played more than once would be privy to it, it doesn't change the fact that the Player's Handbook didn't seem to tell the players to do anything but adventure and roll dice. Add to this the fact that most by-the-books 5E players don't seem to have this problem of murderhoboism after extended play, and already our thesis is falling apart.<br />
<br />
So what about the DMG - how does it phrase XP?<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Experience points (XP) fuel level advancement for player characters and are most often the reward for completing combat encounters. Each monster has an XP value based on its challenge rating. When adventurers defeat one or more monsters-typically by killing, routing, or capturing them-they divide the total XP value of the monsters evenly among themselves. If the party received substantial assistance from one or more NPCs, count those NPCs as party members when dividing up the XP. (Because the NPCs made the fight easier, individual characters receive fewer XP.)" <i>Dungeon Masters Guide, page 260</i></blockquote>
So there we have it, mean old WOTC, telling us to kill. Except, even then, it refers to a page in the DMG that tells you <i>how</i> the GM should give it, which means the player-side ability to act on and maximize their XP-output is even more obscure. For you as a player to know whether killing something is worth it, you have to have meta-knowledge of:<br />
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<li>The challenge rating of the foe you're facing, which in cases where the DM or adventure has its own CR, could be impossible</li>
<li>Know the XP treshold of your party, which entails having knowledge about your fellow players character sheet.</li>
<li>Know the "Encounter Difficulty", which is based on the total enemy XP for the encounter compared to a level-based table that exists only in the DMG. </li>
<li>Know how much XP per character you'd receive, which is the total XP divided by all the characters and all NPCs.</li>
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This doesn't look like something that is designed to incentivize a style of play. This isn't an algorithm that a player can be expected to act according to. Now of course, you could just kill everything and get XP that way, but since it is level based, you'd more likely be wasting your time killing whatever low-XP peasant you came upon, and the DMG doesn't seem to encourage that kind of encounter design. </div>
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My main point: XP, in DND5E, isn't for players. It is for the Dungeon Master so that they can plan out level appropriate encounters. You get XP for doing what the Dungeon Master has planned. More than anything, this encourages the Dungeon Master to run railroaded battles completely bound by the current skill of the party, instead of encouraging the players to kill more.</div>
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Dungeon World </h3>
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I ran a Dungeon World game for about a year, and while it was excellent for improvising an adventure on the spot, it was also immensely frustrating to run a long term campaign in. Dungeon World seems, based on what how I've seen the designers talk about it, to be a game designed with the premise that specific types of XP reward specific types of play. In fact, if XP tells us what the game rewards, then Dungeon World rewards like 3 games at once. Some of the XP is based on personal goals that characters set up for themselves, some are goals set up for other players, and some are contingent on the game master giving the players the right hard moves or getting to a space in the narrative. You can also get XP for failing a roll (which is strangely not outlined in the End of Session Move), which is not a goal that a player can actively work toward. except by attempting to roll lots of dice, I guess, but that didn't really happen for us. Here's the move:</div>
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"When you reach the end of a session, choose one of your bonds that you feel is resolved When you reach the end of a session, choose one of your bonds that you feel is resolved (completely explored, no longer relevant, or otherwise). Ask the player of the character you have the bond with if they agree. If they do, mark XP and write a new bond with whomever you wish. </blockquote>
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Once bonds have been updated look at your alignment. If you fulfilled that alignment at least once this session, mark XP. </blockquote>
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Then answer these three questions as a group: </blockquote>
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Did we learn something new and important about the world? </blockquote>
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Did we overcome a notable monster or enemy? </blockquote>
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Did we loot a memorable treasure? For each “yes” answer everyone marks XP." <i>Dungeon World, p. 76</i></blockquote>
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Now, did the XP set-up engender a certain play? Sure it did, but only for one of these. The Bond system, which entails writing a short sentence about another party members character that states their relation to each-other. Once that bond has served its purpose, they abandon them. The player decides how to describe their relation to the other character, but only with the other players approval can the bond be resolved.<br />
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On face value, a bond is a good idea if you want your players to explore their fictional relationships to the other characters. But what happened was that they forgot about all the other stuff. I had prepared all the stuff about new important things about the world, monsters, treasure, I even tried to challenge their convictions.<br />
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But since the players got to set up Bonds as their own mini-quest, what happened was they'd struggle for about 4 minutes to figure out what their Bond should be, spend the entire session trying to resolve them, then spend the majority of the End of Session time arguing for whether or not their bond was resolved. In the unlikely case that the bond was actually resolved, they'd have to take more time writing a new one, and there are only limited example bonds in the book.<br />
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Since Bond-resolving wasn't a guaranteed XP, many sessions were almost completely XP-less. The time we took to ask ourselves if we had fulfilled any of the other stuff felt more like the game designers humiliating us for not having done what they wanted. The alignment stuff was the worst, since it told the players they weren't fulfilling an expectation of a character before that character had even been played, and were thus punished for deviating from that mold. You can change alignment, but then you've just created another expectation.<br />
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But is there a lesson here, more than that this particular XP-system was a bit unfocused and confused. The way XP was introduced as a desirable purpose of play, rather than the natural outcome of play, led to frustration, distraction and resentment. The thing it wanted to include in the game either wasn't included, or felt like a chore.<br />
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I intended to discuss a bunch more, but woo boy did this drag on. On to the next point:<br />
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<b>XP for "Roleplay" makes roleplaying worse</b><br />
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Here's a thing that people are worried about: "if you don't have a rule that says your players should do actual roleplaying, they won't". Now, even if there is a chance that a certain player is particularly uninterested in doing anything but tagging along and experiencing the unfolding narrative, that is fine. Games have the ability to offer multiple levels of engagement, and the premise that people who don't engage on the high-dramatic level are doing it wrong is like the roleplaying version of hating games that have Easy Mode.<br />
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But I understand the impulse. If your game has a thesis or invokes genres best suited for intense roleplay, there's a risk it might fall flat unless all engage on the same level, which is fine if you can find the group. I don't have the great solutions for you, but I will warn you that XP might just make it worse.<br />
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Lets establish what kind of thing I'm talking about:<br />
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"If you expressed your characters beliefs/ideology/core trait etc, gain an XP"<br />
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"Priests can get one XP per session if they pray"</blockquote>
Seems simple, right? Since by this logic, XP is an incentive for Doing Stuff. While this might work for some players, the fact is that roleplaying becomes very difficult when it is held up against the authority of a character sheet or rulebook instead of being a product of play.<br />
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Roleplaying - as in portraying a fictional character with a history that precedes the actual play of the game and has independent motivations from its author, is an incredibly powerful thing. But the exciting thing about roleplay is how a character interacts with the fictional world around them, something a character sheet (or your games equivalent) cannot do.<br />
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The roleplay might be rewarding, dramatic, profoundly transformative for your character, in ways that a character sheet or general XP-system cannot predict or engender. To end such a session with a book-keeping ritual wherein you realize that this play was subpar compared to your character sheet, and then being denied the essential currency of your game for it, just sucks.<br />
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In a roleplaying game, you are in charge and you are acting in a way that you think makes sense. YOU have agency, and we want to see that agency reflected in both game and mechanic. What's exciting is that you can subvert whatever expectation you want, on your terms. When games reward you for fulfilling an archetype there are two outcomes: either you play a character so archetypal it becomes an uninteresting cliché, or it becomes a constant end-of-game disappointment to find out why your character doesn't match what someone not present at the table expected of you. Either no agency or agency punished.<br />
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We once again hit upon the problem of XP being divorced and alienated from actual play. It doesn't tell us what was produced by the playing of the game, it tells us to compare that play based on agame designers expectations. We then get to ask ourselves the most awful kind of question:"Did you have the wrong kind of fun?"<br />
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So what then, is XP for?</h4>
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Hopefully, I've made myself clear. XP does not function has a consistent way to communicate to players how a game should be played. In 5E, it isn't even communicated. When XP is rewarded for a narrowly defined play-style, or for the adherence to the things written on a character sheet, they can become actively intrusive and ruin the fun of play.<br />
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What XP seems to be good at doing is communicating to Game Masters (in games where those exist) how the game excepts you to set up encounters and settings. XP for Gold? Then my system most have Gold, and a place to find it. XP for killing monsters? Then my game must have monsters. XP for discovering new places or truths about the universe? Have that in your game.<br />
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In 5E, as much as I wish it would have been something else, it does literally address experience points directly to the person who is in charge of running the adventure as a form of structuring play, instead of telling players that they should strive toward X or Y. Sure, that structure is implied to be "a slow crawl toward the next thing to fight", but that is infinitely more useful for the table. You don't have to do any guesswork, you are provided a framework and the players are free to do whatever they want. It's just that whatever they want is probably going to result in some form of combat.<br />
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If we inverse XP, and look at it as a GM checklist, it becomes a quite useful tool. Granted, it can be abused, and the excessive focus on balance and controlled adventures in DND is proof of that.<br />
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I think, if we really want to incentivize a specific style of play, we make the immediate mechanical impact of it rewarding. The central reason that people turn to combat in DND is that combat FEELS incredibly good in that system. Not only does rolling a Nat20 feel good, it is also the feeling of using all your special items, weapons and spells. You don't go into combat because you want XP, you go into combat because you're looking to try out that new Horn of Blasting you got from killing a Wizard, or something.<br />
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Similarly, we can dissuade certain player actions by setting up a mechanical disadvantage to them. Don't want your players to fight all the monsters, like you do in 5E? Communicate to them that engaging in all combat is instant death, because of high mortality and the like. Don't want your high-level art thief PCs to pick-pocket every grandma they see? Send the guards after them!<br />
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I find that kind of immediate design, that addressed and privileges the act of play itself, to be preferable over meta-game incentives. Besides, XP-incentivization talk sounds a lot like how neoliberals talk about the unemployed, but that is another discussion for another blog.<br />
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After all that, we still reward XP, but we think about it differently.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="1"><b>1 </b></a>Obvious exceptions, like CoC advancement and XP based on good/bad rolls are not included. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7755923447244300404#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a></span>Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-86372946367559187282019-10-16T10:19:00.001-07:002019-10-16T11:52:43.766-07:00(SKØVD RELEASE+IN THE WORKS) back at it again at the krispy kremeSO I ONCE AGAIN DID A THING<br />
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<a href="https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/skvd">SKØVD - A GOTHIC AND GLOOMY GUIDE</a></h2>
<img height="320" src="https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvNDgzMTgxLzI0OTE4MDkucG5n/347x500/I%2Boy2S.png" width="153" /><img height="320" src="https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvNDgzMTgxLzI0OTE4MDIuanBn/347x500/KQp8Hz.jpg" width="256" /><br />
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<i><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, Lato, LatoExtended, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"SKØVD </strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "lato" , "lato" , "latoextended" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">is a Weird Gothic fantasy mini-setting for Black Hack 2nd Ed. and similar pen-and-paper systems. Exiled from the Empire of Flenn, your adventurers have been stranded in the city of Skøvd (pronounced however you wish), a vile place full of crime, injustice and supernatural occurrence. It is a single A4 Pamphlet, ready to Print and Play! It is not fully fleshed out - on purpose. Take the ideas, tables and plot hooks and flesh them out yourself, or place them in an entirely new context. The narrator is unreliable - you decide the canon of the setting."</span></i><br />
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<b>AVAILABLE AT ITCH FOR $2.50</b><br />
<a href="https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/skvd">https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/skvd</a><br />
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It's been out for a while and has recieved some great feedback.<br />
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The central concept of it is to provide GMs with a world that is distinct enough to inspire play, but ambigious enough to make your own. All Points of Interest are presented as biased rumours and carry the possibility of Table Subversion (the thing where the players don't have to wonder if "this is what Yakov Intended" at all times and do their own thing)<br />
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UPCOMING PROJECTS</h2>
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IN HEAVEN ZINI - </h3>
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A system neutral zini (Bifold Zine) for when there's TPK and you want to keep playing. Generate a strange new afterlife for your players!</div>
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NIGHT CRAWL - </h3>
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Another pamphlet type thing set in the Skøvd setting (or whatever), that is supposed to provide a procedure for randomly generating train carts for a Ghost Train. I've put it a bit on hold because it was, literally but also spiritually, too railroady. Nevertheless, once I solve this, the most ironic problem in adventure design yet, it'll be released.</div>
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THE HOWLING CHILDREN - </h3>
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A Skøvdian adventure where you plunder an abandoned graveyard filled with repulsive wolf children and possibly the cursed head of a fallen king. It's got uh, body horror. Lets just say that. I ran this at a playtest for my own micro-RPG system, and while the system was lacking, I found the adventure to be very fun. I'd hoped to release it in pamphlet form, but it might require some more space....<br />
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SKØVDMANCER - </h3>
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The aforementioned lacking system, its a pamphlet based character creation generator that has it's root in the ole Yak-Hack - but the changes I made to it weren't that good. My idea was that you could run it all with a pair of d6, but I despise the d6, and I didn't like the math of it. Anyways, here's the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MNLtOvP_JRcF-4oc1FxnnmNwC19ifZHH/view?usp=sharing">flawed version, for free</a> . I'm definitely keeping the Pamphlet format, and I love some aspects of it, but I'm thinking of going back to the tried and true d20. Thoughts?<br />
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Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-15300934621597958572019-04-21T10:05:00.001-07:002019-04-21T10:05:45.732-07:00Announcement: Wolf-Eel Games, Patreon and #PamphletJamHello all,<br />
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Exciting times! I'm actually finishing up on a lot of projects and I am making great progress in general. I've decided to make a big move:<br />
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<b>ANNOUNCING: WOLF-EEL GAMES</b><br />
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Wolf-Eel Games is going to be my own self-publishing vehicle. It's going to have a bunch of stuff that I've discussed here and on <b><a href="http://www.twitter.com/yakovpettersson">Twitter</a></b>.<br />
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You can find us at <a href="https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/">https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io</a> and <a href="https://www.patreon.com/wolfeelgames">Patreon</a>.<br />
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<b>ANNOUNCING: THE DINING DEN OF THE FUZZ-MONSTER</b><br />
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The Dining Den of the Fuzz Monster is a submission to the great itch.io <a href="https://itch.io/jam/pamphletjam">"Pamphlet Jam</a>" created by <a href="http://natetreme.com/">Nate Treme</a>. It is a grotesque adventure inspired by the dark humor of Mervin Peake's "Gormenghast" and the terror of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", with a fun and scary monster at it's core. It is based on <b>The Black Hack</b> (duh) and can be used as a pick-up-and-play, dropped in an already existing setting, or as a part of the setting of <b>Skøvd</b>.....<br />
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<a href="https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/the-dining-den-of-the-fuzz-monster">https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/the-dining-den-of-the-fuzz-monster</a><br />
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<b>ANNOUCING: PATREON</b><br />
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I've long had a Patreon - and it's starting back up again! All pamphlets and similar endevours will be available there for $1 a month! I'm currently working on more expansions on the pamphlet format. Find them there before it's released anywhere else!<br />
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VISIT - <a href="https://www.patreon.com/wolfeelgames">https://www.patreon.com/wolfeelgames</a>Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-87649224726369081042019-04-18T01:22:00.001-07:002019-04-18T01:22:56.631-07:00Fever Swamp x Black Hack - An Actual Play Report, Chapter 2. <h2>
OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE UR-CORPSE</h2>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">GAME: </span></b>The Black Hack 2nd Ed. by David Black<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>SETTING:</b></span> Fever Swamp by Luke Gearing<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>LANGUAGE:</b> </span>Swedish<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>PLAYERS: </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><i>Disa</i> as the Fighter "<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.65px; font-weight: 700;">Pravoslav "Pravvo" Storáková</span>"<br />
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<i>Elliot</i> as the Wizard "<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.65px; font-weight: 700;">Eberhardt "Nubbe" Brúntz</span>"<br />
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<i>Jonas</i> as the Cleric "<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.65px; font-weight: 700;">Bohumil Storáková</span>"<br />
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<h2>
SPOILER ALERT </h2>
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I trust that if you are going to play this module, you won't read further. If you like knowing all the secrets and pointing out a bunch of meta-stuff at the table is fine with your group, alright. Personally, I think Deadpooling it isn't all that rewarding.</div>
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<h2>
Part 1: The Actual Play</h2>
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Upon arrival in the Village of Clink, the players had already heard of the bounty regarding Gert Von Hammer and his research. I also introduced them to the creepy Jasmine - the cult-leader for the water-dead god. I loved the cult, even if I didn't get to play with it (or the Village of Clink in general) during play. It follows my general rule that if there is a cult, they ought to be wrong about what they are doing, not just their methods. Too often, the abusive propaganda of cults are treated like secret knowledge - in Fever Swamp:</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"The God is real, but lies far below the ocean, not in this stinking swamp."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">To the end, the players believed that the Water-Dead God was in the Ur-Corpse temple, or somewhere else in the swamp.</span><br />
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So they ventured out, dealing with various happenings and encounters. It all ran pretty smooth - awarding XP for Exploration was a good incentive to keep going. It did, however, powerlevel the fuck out of them! Which was good for them, but I had to reroute it to the XP-per-POI after they hit level 4, as it was going way too fast.<br />
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I had hidden some of the tribal encounters around the map, which were all memorable, and an oppurtunity for me to give out Cleric spells. During play, they got an odd Shaman Apprentice named Siiri by their side, which I gather was a party favorite, as she was easily the most useful NPC for them.<br />
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Some highlights:<br />
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<ul>
<li><i>Hunger the Crocodile</i> was sleeping. I cannot for the life of me remember if I rolled something or if someone cast a spell, or if I was just too worried it was going to kill them (bad move!) but there it was, the giant thing sleeping. I rolled on the BH treasure drop table for the various belongings they could find on the nearby corpses. </li>
<li><i>The Oracular Succubus </i>scared Bohumil half to death as soon as he layed down and heard her voice. Ran away immediately, still got charmed though! </li>
<li><i>The flammable fungus </i>at the <i>Ruined Monastery </i>nearly exploded Nubbe to death. Thank god for stale water. </li>
<li><i>One of the Tribes </i>attacked and killed one of the NPCs - a randomly rolled naked Witch they had just recently encountered. It was one of the more genuinely horrifying encounters. They were going to sacrifice her to the trees. What's more, the Tribes village had just then been decimated by the Corpse Pile, so the tree sacrifices would've been reanimated and all jittery. They didn't pass across that hex, but I still got to spook em with signs of the Corpse Pile. </li>
<li><i>NPC Drama</i> - Our armourer Katerina had a bad time after some corpse fell on her during an encounter and nearly flipped completely as Siiri suggested an amputations of her infected, swollen arm. Some deeply intense shit unfolded as she nearly ran away and demanded that they focus on the mission. </li>
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But the best part was most definitely the Ur-Corpse Ruins. They ventured in, were careful, all of that - except for when they got to the searing light. Bohumil got separated from the others and had taken a lot of damage. Standing alone infront of the Ur-Corpse, he did the only thing he knew to do - steal the god damn Corpse Fragment. Of course the checks to do it carefully failed, and so Bohumil became responsible for the apocalypse. Oh, and all his bones broke.<br />
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When the Ur-Corpse horrifying visage raised all dead around it to consume the living, the party was surrounded by the evil undead, and the world was doomed. It was then Bohumil was rocked out of his unconsciousness with the help of a nice slap on the face. He then realized the fragment he stole could be used to grant life to one dead thing. An ironic end to the campaign. </div>
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Part 2: A Review and some Lessons</h2>
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Review </h3>
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This module rules. It appeals to me specifically, and itches literally every aesthetic itch I have. There are some things which carry the potential for problematic play, as discussed in the first blog-post, but I think that is firmly up to the GM and the Table to manage. There is so much of this book that is unique and worthwhile. The art is so great and evocative - it is beautiful but ugly at the same time.<br />
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Running it was very easy, and my players felt motivated to push forward - there was always something happening and always something pushing the players forward. It had a brilliant "just another hex before we stop" feeling. </div>
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What I love particularly is how it leaves so much unexplained - what the fuck are the Stilt-Walkers about, why do they hang around these cursed places? What is the monolith? Some might find that frustrating, but I find it brilliant. Most of these truths aren't available for the players, so why should it be for the GM. There is a an immense sense of implied world-building where your brain starts filling in blanks.<br />
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Above all it is the mood of the module that stands out. You fill kind of slimy and afraid even GM:ing it. I love stories and games where the characters go through a kind of nihlistic, negative character development, where they face off with things so life-alteringly grim and shocking that they are irreversibly changed. Annihilation, Aguirre and The VVitch all come to mind. Even as my players won all battles, they didn't become glorious heroes known throughout the lands, but scared and broken travelers. That's not a happy place, but it is a good place. What I guess I'm saying is - play this module if you like scary, gross, sorta funny and character-life-altering stuff.<br />
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My only real criticisms: Stilt-Walkers are great, weird and sort of scary characters. They were fun to play around with, but there are way too many of them. They're in most significant hexes, are in the random encounter table, and the fact that 18 of them can appear at once makes it feel sorta samey after a while. Initially, I enjoyed the frantic and overwhelming nature of my players squaring off against such a weird opponent, but after a while, it felt like both me and the players just wanted to avoid them. I get that it is probably there because those hexes have a mysterious nature to them, but I'd scale down the number of Stilt-Walkers appearing, and maybe replace them or create variations of them somehow in many of the hexes.<br />
<br />It is also quite difficult to envision the physical space in hexes that weren't keyed or described. I had to do a lot of breaks for quick map-making in order for me to make a gameable fictional space for the players. That is probably not something I can fault the design for, though, as it would be kind of difficult to include that stuff everywhere.<br />
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With regards to The Black Hack, it worked beautifully (there's a reason everything I write is written with Black Hack in mind), but the lack of comprehensive NPC rules (to the extent that I felt they were needed) meant I had to improvise and houserule. I have some problems with the GM just making up NPC actions/reactions by fiat, especially when it comes to combat, but I still wanted their companions to feel fairly exposed. Flipping a coin for that stuff is fun, but limiting. Some GM's might find the lack of rules for that stuff fun, though.<br />
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Lessons</h3>
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This module taught me quite a bit about both design and GMing. Here's some of them: </div>
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<ol>
<li><b>The Cult is Wrong: </b>Abusive religious groups are often portrayed in fictions as bearers of secret knowledge and truths accessible only to them. Even if they are still presented as evil, they are narratively justified when their sacred beliefs turn out to be true, and their methods turn out to be justified. The Cult of the Drowned is fundamentally misguided and their methods are wrong. As someone who left an apocalyptic cult, I find that to be a breath of fresh air. It inspired me to do a write-up on cults in movies - <i>coming soon. </i></li>
<li><b>Only My Players Can Start The Apocalypse: </b>You ever watch a superhero blockbuster action movie the last 10 years? If so, you've probably seen a movie where the world is ending and only a group of very special and definitely not fascist übermensh can do anything about it. That's fine, they need to make like 50 more of these, so it makes sense. But games are built on player-agency. The sense that you can impact your environment. choose your own path, poke the dragon and face the consequences is what makes gaming so special. When you start the game of threatening to destroy the game world, you're effectively railroading the characters. Sure, it is not railroading in the sense that you are stopping players from going anywhere or just ignoring it, but more likely, they'll try to stop it and do nothing else. This is a caveat I'd put on my piece about <a href="https://yak-hack.blogspot.com/2018/11/inherent-tension.html">Inherent Tension</a> - just because the characters in your world are motivated to act, it does not mean that you should coerce them to act in a certain way. </li>
<li><b>Make Lore You Can Use Without Losing Your Mind: </b>For the longest time, I resisted Lore like death. Mostly it's because I'm Swedish, and every Swedish rulebook is ten pages of unusable block-text that is virtually ungameable (looking at you, Oktoberlandet), and the same goes for tons of WotC and WoD stuff, too. Mostly it is because I feel like it encroaches on my domain as the GM, and becomes another avenue of responsibility that I don't particularly feel like having. Fever Swamp is gracious toward the GM in that the lore is presented in a short and concise manner. It has the place, some things about the place and what might happen there, as well as stats for creatures that might be there and what they might do. What motivates these characters, and why are these places like this? That is up to me. I don't have to adhere to the designers own intentions, but I can use the same tools. <i>It is not the job of a designer to motivate the moving pieces in the game world.</i> </li>
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Part 3: IN CONCLUSION</h3>
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Luke Gearing has made a setting that is so tailored to my specific interests that it is almost frightening. Did you make this for me, Luke? </div>
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This was one of my favorite gaming experiences in long, long while. I'm probably going to run it again, some day.<br /></div>
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<a href="https://www.melsonia.com/fever-swamp-6-p.asp">You can buy it here</a>. Please do. </div>
Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-10851506983840843172019-03-16T08:56:00.000-07:002019-04-22T03:35:54.699-07:00The 4 False Principles of Shitty RPG Debate (Plus a Bonemancer)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw8e5-zbLZxjPlQq_1hyUkQcaYoZUBnB-gUzDgq4NO_NYs6iq7jqMOhNbr_zjHJ6yxWsgpWJIRSnBafFB2XvWQXEt5b7sUd-HEREJqTyhCL0J3ENyqmDIeKSHL2ojUxdc3lSxamjWfYPw_/s1600/spiral-bone-finger-i8211.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw8e5-zbLZxjPlQq_1hyUkQcaYoZUBnB-gUzDgq4NO_NYs6iq7jqMOhNbr_zjHJ6yxWsgpWJIRSnBafFB2XvWQXEt5b7sUd-HEREJqTyhCL0J3ENyqmDIeKSHL2ojUxdc3lSxamjWfYPw_/s320/spiral-bone-finger-i8211.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Ideal Games Debater</i></td></tr>
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Hey, you there! Are you into debating, reviewing or designing games? Do you find yourself alienating everyone you talk to or engage with? Are the people who agree with you all gigantic assholes? I get it, taking a stance and defending it is fun, exhilarating even, especially in those moments where you've really humiliated and "destroyed" another person because of how "good" you are at debating. Maybe it reflects badly on you as a person in some circles, but why should you care? You won, you were correct, and at the end of the day, the <b>truth </b>is what matters.<br />
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Except, of course, that we aren't really talking about truth at all, but a set of assumptions that bad-faith debaters are making about what roleplaying games are, how they exist in the real world and how to evaluate them. Those assumptions can be challenged, and circumvent a lot of toxic, divisive debate. Challenging those assumption might be hard, because you've built your entire persona on them, or the people you oppose are so allegedly awful that making any sort of concession to the stuff they are doing is an approval of their awful behavior.<br />
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The following is a handy guide for people who want to spot bad-faith debate. Lo and behold:<br />
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FOUR FALSE PRINCIPLES OF SHITTY RPG DEBATE, OR THE ROLEPLAYER'S SLIPPERY SLOPE</h2>
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FIRST PRINCIPLE - The Universality of Gaming </h3>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">The first principle you're going to assume is that all roleplaying games are one thing, and that all roleplaying games have the same goals. To hell with "RPG" being a complex, arbitrary label for a hobby that was widely diverse in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunnies_%26_Burrows">content</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsters!_Monsters!">intent</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphosis_Alpha">tone </a>from the very beginning, everyone who sits down at the table is there for one reason and to experience one thing. Didn't you know? RPG's are not a human invention, but a law of nature, to be discovered by humans using science. </span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>What follows from this principle is....</i></span></h4>
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SECOND PRINCIPLE - The Universality of Approach</h3>
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If all RPG's have the same goals, and all roleplayers want the same thing, then there is an optimal way to reach that goal. Just like we can measure the exact temperature at which a liquid will boil, we can figure out the optimal way to reach whatever we've decided the objective goal of all roleplaying games are. Mechanics or systems that don't serve the ultimate goal of roleplaying games are thus to be denigrated and ignored, to be discarded completely in service of better mechanics. Nevermind the silly idea that a game with a different goal might use a different mechanic to serve a different purpose - we cannot judge a game based on it's own merits, but <b>MY MERITS</b>, damnit! </div>
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<i>As we can see from the first two principles, they make the assumption that people can only have fun with their friends in one specific way. This leads into the final two... </i><br />
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THIRD PRINCIPLE - The Deceitfulness of Detractors</h3>
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People who claim to have fun using other systems for other reasons than I do are either lying to me, or deluding themselves. They might <i>think </i>they are having fun, but are really ignorant of the fun that they could be having, were they only to come to same realizations that I have. Not only are they wrong, they are doing the world a disservice by spreading their unholy gospel to others. They must be punished for their ignorance! </div>
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<i>Of course, all of this sounds rather selfish, and like all selfishness, it leads to sadness. Let us plunge into the darkness with the last principle...</i></div>
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FOURTH PRINCIPLE - The Loneliness of the Roleplayer</h3>
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For all the above listed reasons, the Roleplayer will have concluded the following: my idea of fun is the only type of fun I can enjoy. I am incurious, dismissive and will not engage. If I am invited to connect and play with people who do not sign up for my own personal, narrow, arbitrary view of fun, I will decline. Even if I am curious about the people who disagree with me, or think a game looks interesting, I will deny myself a new experience if it doesn't align with my previous experiences. If I do play other games with other people, and if I do find myself having had fun, then I have betrayed myself and my own principles. Maybe I'm bitter, lonely and toxic, but at least I am correct....</div>
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Now does anybody hold these actual opinions outright? Obviously not. But they are the underlying assumptions of most toxic online arguments, even in things that aren't roleplaying games. People don't consciously choose to make these assumptions and follow these principles, but they tend to do so because these principles give their arguments value that they wouldn't have had otherwise. </div>
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This doesn't mean that critiques of mechanics and conceptions cannot exist. There are obviously shitty roleplaying games with bad mechanics and problematic themes. But roleplaying games don't exist in books or in calculators, but at the table, and every table is unique, and every table hacks and homebrews, even if not explicitly. It's value is determined at the table, not against some abstract virtue. I am calling for open-mindedness, not uncritical acceptance of every RPG product out there.</div>
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I try and judge games based on the implied or explicit purpose of the game, on it's own merit. If I don't get the appeal of a game, I try to find people who do, and ask them what that appeal is. I don't have to find that personally appealing, but <b><i>at least I understand something new about other people</i></b>, which has value unto itself. </div>
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Joesky Tax - The Bonemancer</h2>
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Honoring the social contract toward <a href="https://joeskythedungeonbrawler.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/house-rule-for-osr-and-not-osr-games-people-blogs/">Joesky</a>, I hereby present THE BONEMANCER! <b>CW for body horror for those who don't want that sort of stuff!</b></div>
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BONEMANCER - THE CALCIUM FIEND (Black Hack)</h2>
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The Bonemancer is a <b>HD 2-5 </b>creature capable of manipulating bone and fossil. They can make the bones of any creature, living or dead, move independently. It looks undead, but is actually a living elemental force that uses bones to form itself into constructs. It is therefore immune to <b>Turn Undead. </b>Many Bonemancers look like human or animal skeletons, but others are random collections of bone without rhyme or reason. </div>
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The HD of the Bonemancer is determined by the amount of bones it is able to bind to its spirit. Roll 1d8 (adjust HD updward if you wish to challenge players more):</div>
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<li>1-2 - <i>around 100 bones,</i> <b>HD 2</b>.</li>
<li>3-4 - <i>around 200 bones,</i> <b>HD 3</b></li>
<li>5-6 - <i>around 350 bones</i>, <b>HD 4</b></li>
<li>7-8 - <i>around 500 bones,</i> <b>HD 5</b></li>
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<b>(For reference, there are 206 bones in the human body)</b></div>
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Attacks: </h2>
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<b>Throw Bones</b>: The Bonemancer can use any loose bone or dead limb in its surrounding as a ranged attack against any player. DEX to avoid.<br />
<b>Bone Smash</b>: One of the bones of the bonemancer is used as a blunt weapon. STR to avoid. </div>
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<b>Bone Theft</b>: <i>(This is the body horror one)</i> If HD 4 or over, Bonemancer can attempt to rip one of the PC's bones out of their body to add to their own collection. They can attempt to resist this with CON or CHA, or take other actions to prevent skin piercing and the bone joining the Bonemancers collection. </div>
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<h2>
Ecology</h2>
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The Bonemancer has one goal - find more bones and add them to its collection. That is why it is often found at graveyards, tombs or the feeding grounds of predators. They will only actively attempt to steal the bones of the living if deprived of other sources or to take revenge against others. If PC's offer them bones, they can often pass without harm. Many cultures see the Bonemancer as a parasite, others welcome the Bonemancer as a way to dispose of excess skeletons.</div>
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<h2>
JOESKY TAX PAYED</h2>
Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-42151757094704669092019-03-04T09:14:00.001-08:002019-03-04T09:14:11.377-08:00Fever Swamp x Black Hack - An Actual Play Report, Chapter 1. <h2>
OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE UR-CORPSE</h2>
<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/x2siepjmfKwjskOH4WP9blYSIunr2PUHdC7uP5HPlAlV9JTC9We_kO1I-HQnMdcw5IQe3vwEWlc7kWMhPi-sz99TnXOiAvMkj2HHUh2YhtrVxcmH5nTWlMBVeXAJeH_84Kf2x9ea" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/x2siepjmfKwjskOH4WP9blYSIunr2PUHdC7uP5HPlAlV9JTC9We_kO1I-HQnMdcw5IQe3vwEWlc7kWMhPi-sz99TnXOiAvMkj2HHUh2YhtrVxcmH5nTWlMBVeXAJeH_84Kf2x9ea" style="border: none; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; transform: rotate(0rad); white-space: pre-wrap;" width="251" /></a><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">GAME: </span></b>The Black Hack 2nd Ed. by David Black<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>SETTING:</b></span> Fever Swamp by Luke Gearing<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>LANGUAGE:</b> </span>Swedish<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>PLAYERS: </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<i>Disa</i> as the Fighter "<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.65px; font-weight: 700;">Pravoslav "Pravvo" Storáková</span>"<br />
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<i>Elliot</i> as the Wizard "<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.65px; font-weight: 700;">Eberhardt "Nubbe" Brúntz</span>"<br />
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<i>Jonas</i> as the Cleric "<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.65px; font-weight: 700;">Bohumil Storáková</span>"<br />
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<h2>
PREFACE:</h2>
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I had not intended to write a play-report when I started this adventure, so the details are muddy. This won't be a session-by-session retelling, and I might be missing something or misrepresenting stuff. If you are looking for a review: <i>it is very good</i>. This is going to be part a record of a fun mini-campaign and part musings on how stuff could've been done different. Mostly by me, but also stuff about the module and the system. I've decided to split it up into 2 (or more) chapters to keep each post from being overlong.<br />
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<h2>
Part 1. Preparations and Translations</h2>
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Fever Swamp, in Theory, doesn't require a lot of prep-work at all. It has a fairly clear presentation and hook. As is common with stuff that needs to convey a lot of information as efficiently as possible, everything is not completely obvious, but I'll give it an A+ on presentation. However, there was a bunch of stuff I wanted to communicate to the players before-hand, as well as some stuff to prep for my own piece of mind. </div>
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Playing games in a second language is hard. Even with popular games like DnD 5E, you're basically speaking in two different languages at once, which can be a very difficult thing to navigate. You'll go from speaking Swedish to using some English term for a rule or item etc. It is not a huge problem, but it is awkward and I wanted to be as prepared as I could be. Any English-speaking party will have to do significantly less work than I did. It was actually kind of fun for me, though, as I had get my imagination going to come up with what a "Dredger" could possible be called in Swedish (I wound up using "Muddra").<br />
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I created a Google Doc for Environments and Monsters with convenient translations (I'm now realizing it is incomplete.) If you are Swedish and want to play Fever Swamp - <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RXIL-EErfm9W4wOAq5KdjXuWkE6I0D0p1jSGrJkrOqY/edit?usp=sharing">here you go</a>. </div>
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Furthermore, only one of the players had previously played an OSR-style game (Elliot had played in a Rad-Hack game I GM'd). I made some general guidelines as to how Black Hack in particular worked, and how the playstyle in general is supposed to work. Along with this, I wrote a general introduction to the setting and some character creation tips. You can find it <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CJmTEOD-ROW2wa9fYKo8PFmJCYzf7p4Zh5lQDlEzat8/edit?usp=sharing">here</a> (Swedish, obviously). </div>
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As recommended, I rolled up 6 Tribes. The Tribe stuff was personally for me a pretty difficult thing to navigate, as I didn't want to include any obvious anti-Native stereotype or fall into colonial-type narratives about the characters I was portraying. I mostly did that by thinking about the type of rural community that exists in Finland historically and drawing from my own experiences, re-thinking what a "Tribe" was, etc. I mostly thought of them as survivors in a terrible place, with some mythic qualities to them. I don't have any specific advice if you feel a bit uncomfortable with how to present that kind of stuff except to trust your instinct, ask those who know better and to listen to your table.</div>
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I also rolled up the stats for all points of interest-monsters. This turned out to be useful - I can't imagine having to pause like that everytime they hit a POI. Since this was a Roll20 game, I made sure to upload the Random Encounters from the setting, the Black Hack reaction table, HD reference etc as GM-handouts. I used the hexmap (with POI marked out), the Ur-Corpse Ruin, and the Battlemap from Black Hack. </div>
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Then I did some preliminary research - listened to <a href="https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/fear-of-a-black-dragon/fever-swamp">Fear of a Black Dragon</a>, watched <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0br167Of0Xk">Questing Beast</a> and read <a href="https://www.ericvulgaris.com/blog/fever-swamp-post-mortem-1-the-fever-rises">Eric Vulgaris</a>. It helps that I was already a "Swamp Aficionado" of sorts, deeply in love with all things moist and green. I read my<i> Swamp Thing</i> (check out the <a href="http://yak-hack.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-bayou-entity-rad-hack-character.html">Bayou Entity</a> if you want proof of my rather manic obsession with Mr Holland), watched <i>Annihilation</i> and did some google-researching about swamps in general. A main source of inspiration was the Werner Herzog movie "<i>Aguirre - The Wrath of God</i>", an (in my view) anti-colonial movie where a scary Klaus Kinsky-Conquistador goes mad trying to find a land of treasure while traveling on a boat through the Amazon.</div>
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<h2>
Part 2. Swampcrawl House-Rules</h2>
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I had a couple of house-rules for character creation, experience, resources and travel. They are as follows:</div>
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<h4>
<b>Character creation: </b></h4>
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Stats are rolled as standard, but if more than half the stats are under 6 they can be re-rolled (none of them needed to do this).<br />
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Since Character Races aren't a part of Black Hack, nor seem to be a part of the setting in Fever Swamp, I decided to remove decision-paralysis and make character race a rollable option. They rolled 1d8, result 1-6 means they were human, 7 that they were dwarves, 8 that they were elves. (All of them turned out to be human).</div>
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The characters were either of Germanic of Czech naming conventions. </div>
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Backgrounds - I wanted to do my own kind of silly/quirky background stuff as opposed to the Black Hack backgrounds. They probably make even less sense in English, because several of them are references to Swedish media or alliteration (or nonsense). Roll 1d6:</div>
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<ol>
<li>Born on a mountain, raised in a cave</li>
<li>Street rat who loves carrots (Bohumil/Pravoslav)</li>
<li>Rich kid on class journey - down the economic ladder</li>
<li>Bakers child who only wants to eat cinnamon buns</li>
<li>Sausage-maker who hates guards</li>
<li>My parents are frogs, but I'm not. What the fuck?</li>
</ol>
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<h4>
Experience: </h4>
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For milestone XP, I decided to make one Hex one XP. This led to a pretty fast leveling that I thought I desired but needed to moderate after a bit. Going forward, I'd use only POI as XP past level 4. I'd be interested to roll this purely on gold-as-XP, because players had more treasure than they knew what to do with at the end of it all, making exploration less of an option.</div>
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<h4>
Resources, hirelings, loot and survival:</h4>
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All resources and loot are held in common (except if specifically requested to be held as a personal item.) I definitely intended an upper limit for the common loot, but I don't seem to have that written down and my players didn't seem to keep track of it. Oh well!<br />
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They started with 1d4 hirelings following the rules of Black Hack. I let them start out at HD1 for the beginning. I quickly realized that the rules for NPCs/Monsters in Black Hack were a bit too loose, making NPC vs NPC/NPC vs Monster interaction kind of arbitrary GM fiat. I didn't want to be able to arbitrarily get my players hirelings killed, nor did I want them to have plot armor. I took to making rulings by "flipping a coin" or 1d2 to see if NPCs succeeded in attacking, defending or other stuff. The only addition to that rule is that the player could roll charisma once per round to make one hireling do their bidding during combat.<br />
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I LOVE doing binary results whenever player skills aren't involved. The effects are immediately understandable and the tension is high. However, I'd check with your table if they'd like to have hirelings more statted out.<br />
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I used the treasure table/what's on the corpse table from Black Hack for whenever loot wasn't specified in the module.<br />
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Each Hex, the players rolled their Water/Food Usage Die to see how they are managing their food, and 1d10 to see if they contracted a disease. If they rolled a 1 on the disease-roll they'd roll constitution (as an alternative to save vs disease) and then I'd roll a d10 to see what they contracted.<br />
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Using up all Water/Food meant taking extra time to preform quickly narrated scouting mission to hunt, purify water or find a way to filter the water. (More on this later.)<br />
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For ships, they started with two canoes.<br />
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<h4>
Spells and prayers:</h4>
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The Wizard and Cleric have to seek out new spells in Black Hack. I decided to attach certain randomly generated spells in certain POI or taught by random Magic-Users and Shamans. I decided which level they could roll for and they rolled a d4 on that levels spell-list to see which. </div>
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<h4>
Corpse Pile:</h4>
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I rolled 1d8 every other day to see where the Corpse Pile (the horrific travelling hex of undead that moves around the map) would go. On a 1-6, the pile would move toward one of the sides, on a 7-8 the pile would stay put. (They never directly interacted with the Corpse Pile, but they <i>saw it's effects</i>.)</div>
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<h2>
Part 3. The Characters and their Beginnings.</h2>
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The party consisted of two brothers, Pravoslav and Bohumil, two older street rats, and Nubbe, the aggressively Germanic Wizard with a penchant for pastries. Pravoslav was in the national guard, Bohumil was in a sect of the official religion, with Nubbe being the youngling of the group, fresh out of Wizard school. </div>
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They had with them 4 hirelings (though more where to come..), Albert Kratochvil the Torchbearer, Blazena Straková, the Tradeswoman, Katerina Hamplová the Armourer, and the late Johana Majerová, the Sailor. </div>
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They arrived at the settlement of Clink with the promise of gold and glory from the official Nilfenberg government. They were approached by Jasmine about going to find out about the Water-Dead God in the Ur-Corpse Ruin. With very little promting, they set out on their journey. </div>
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But that's a story for next time.... </div>
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<h2>
Continued in Chapter 2! </h2>
Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-89324193931167348972019-02-27T18:31:00.001-08:002019-02-27T18:33:36.302-08:00Yak-Hack - Dungeon Crawl Design Diary #1<b>What do you do when you've awoken at 3 am on a workday and can't sleep? Design an RPG of course!</b><br />
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This Monday I did a bad job of trying to adjust my sleep-schedule, leading to hours with nothing planned and no-one in my timezone to chat with.<br />
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I decided to try designing a character sheet for a simple DND-clone, this time in Swedish. My handwriting is horrid and I can't draw a straight line, so the aesthetics and readability are terrible.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsKl8fFkyn3L8tkEP_mBUkS8DAUP5TA7t3gAsdcMp9uFu8VFDh8OFKyPA5ulI9cBxI9iT7vjvCatjNO-wc7OZ7rdA94zRb2ocmuUonrwJsCJjZC75f4-piNgpSlBhF457rz7LkXQRvS0Rw/s1600/%255BUNSET%255" imageanchor="1"><img alt="" class=" imageResizeTarget" data-original-height="" data-original-width="" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsKl8fFkyn3L8tkEP_mBUkS8DAUP5TA7t3gAsdcMp9uFu8VFDh8OFKyPA5ulI9cBxI9iT7vjvCatjNO-wc7OZ7rdA94zRb2ocmuUonrwJsCJjZC75f4-piNgpSlBhF457rz7LkXQRvS0Rw/" title="" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
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</tbody></table>
I spent most of Wednesday creating a sort of clean version in InDesign:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifn-JhiJIXjZuHJW_uK8kLOkyjMCHu7Z2szLPnasoY5P4MRQeQZp2gu1H6ZzUFLJkUz3COSiYsrFqo45yPlCKvfyvOLf86m9luAp0wwzfAwXz7MKUPo_jDUOnvfhhBJ_1Jr4Edj85u20Xr/s1600/yakhack.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="644" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifn-JhiJIXjZuHJW_uK8kLOkyjMCHu7Z2szLPnasoY5P4MRQeQZp2gu1H6ZzUFLJkUz3COSiYsrFqo45yPlCKvfyvOLf86m9luAp0wwzfAwXz7MKUPo_jDUOnvfhhBJ_1Jr4Edj85u20Xr/s400/yakhack.png" width="282" /></a></div>
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What follows here is a collection of random design ideas and working assumptions I had making it, and how I'll go forward. This text will probably end up being longer than the actual rules of the game, by God!<br />
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<h3>
The Core Game</h3>
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Essentially it has the player-facing roll-under system I most associate with the excellent Black Hack with some clear differences. The advantage of player facing roll-under systems for OSR-style games is that it removes a lot of the cognitive load from the Referee to keep track of Difficulty Classes and the like. Outside of Combat, using DC for task resolution tends to lead to situation where the Referee decides what is a problem and how the players ought to approach it. It is good to keep a set of solutions in mind, but I don't want a game where I tell the players how they are "supposed" to act. That is the players job!<br />
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It also tells the player that their success or failure is on them, as they cannot point to a Referee making up unrealistic numbers, and thus inspires a more careful approach.<br />
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The basic motto of the game is "Featherlight Rules, Hardcore Dungeon Crawling". That means having a system that is easy to adapt and understand, while also enabling the kind of interactive, challenging, and hilariously blunt kind of play I love my dungeon crawls to have.<br />
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<h3>
Layout</h3>
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In terms of layout, I took a bit of inspiration from Mothership, where the layout of the Character sheet also served as both a character creation and summarized some of the rules. I managed to get most of the rules on one page! I'll have to put Equipment, Incantations and Wishes on a seperate page, as well as some basic info for the Referee. Maybe I'll include a one-page dungeon if I do a digital release?<br />
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<h3>
Armor</h3>
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For armor, I decided that wearing armor would give a bonus, increasing both the Strength (Styrka) and Dexterity (Händighet) scores when defending. So cloth armor gives + 1, leather + 2 etc. For Steel and Diamond armor I decided that it will give a disadvantage on Dexterity, even as the armor bonus is higher. Then I thought of having Magic Armor, probably an Inacantation, that has a high armor bonus and no disadvantage on Dexterity. It is basically there to protect the poor Witch, who can get only 1 total HP and can only wear Cloth armor.<br />
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I decided against using the generalized Armor Dice system from Black Hack 2nd Ed., because I felt it was kind of un-initiative. I kept it for the "extra" armor like helmets and shields though, since I feel it could be easier to communicate. The armor you're wearing is a constant bonus to defense, while shields and helmets can be used strategically to avoid damage.<br />
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<h3>
Classes</h3>
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While we are still talking classes, there are 3 basic ones: Fighter (Kämpe), Devotee (Dyrkare) and Witch (Häxa).<br />
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Figther is an amalgamation of the non-magic classes (Ranger, Barbarian, Figther etc) and does the obvious fighter type stuff, having the choice of both melee and ranged as well as all armor. I skipped the Thief class because I want all the characters to be roguish, sneaky and creepy.<br />
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The Devotee is the Paladin/Cleric class. I chose Devotee instead of Cleric or Priest because I want to communicate that this ain't an authoritarian analogue for Christianity, and much more of a low level fanatic creep. I am thinking of renaming them to Cultists (Kultister) instead, communicating the kind of Darkest Dungeon-esque creepfactor I'm looking for. They cast "Wishes", which is more desperate sounding than Prayers.<br />
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The Witch is basically the standard sorcerer/wizard class, but with a Dark Magic twist, their spells called Incantations. Again, I'm trying to avoid the sort of Gandalf/Merlin type Noble Wizard, and I'm trying to communicate that the Witch is probably more of a weirdo outcast. Not evil! But rejected by society. All these characters are supposed to be the kind of social rejects that are comfortable spending their nights risking life and limb in stinky dungeons just to get even.<br />
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Most of this stuff isn't written out, which is why the class names are so important to communicating tone. I had to fit all the relevant class info on one page, and wound up with this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWJXkQ7_HTly5_U3J6hl8-HmxwBBBxhzubMapN8nGOZ1tmqxfPam0H7Qh9PhhH5uLLYcbQ48qqgkZKRi1uvt6BEesy74Unq0zOQSpXJ7TAKmAWqzyr5IJnV8GyIDxOPJEQfjbxosdhyphenhyphenzh/s1600/%255BUNSET%255" imageanchor="1"><img data-original-height="" data-original-width="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWJXkQ7_HTly5_U3J6hl8-HmxwBBBxhzubMapN8nGOZ1tmqxfPam0H7Qh9PhhH5uLLYcbQ48qqgkZKRi1uvt6BEesy74Unq0zOQSpXJ7TAKmAWqzyr5IJnV8GyIDxOPJEQfjbxosdhyphenhyphenzh/" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">That's HP-HD-ARMOR-DAMAGE+WEAPONARY.</span><br />
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I left a blank row for people to add their own Class if they wanted to create one, which shouldn't be hard.<br />
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<h3>
Races</h3>
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I did a similar thing with the Races:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpxUTjKzFYlw8O12NkMKZ1gMig4XK-RJB5AKUiPV9LOPnS1yg1zkQiz7tC0keJK9ur7G2_b9IwIr_TjieLTwMaAHO5Cj4qWP0H2uP-hFTgXCB5g7l0k7m8Z0szWP44YxPxIYTIKC1J7TwK/s1600/raceyakhack.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="986" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpxUTjKzFYlw8O12NkMKZ1gMig4XK-RJB5AKUiPV9LOPnS1yg1zkQiz7tC0keJK9ur7G2_b9IwIr_TjieLTwMaAHO5Cj4qWP0H2uP-hFTgXCB5g7l0k7m8Z0szWP44YxPxIYTIKC1J7TwK/s320/raceyakhack.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">That's LENGTH-WIDTH-DISGUST-ADVANTAGE</span><br />
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More on what that means later. The point is I wanted the player to be able to underline the Class/Race on the sheet and have everything you need right there. What is neat about this is that anyone who wants to hack it can get the gist of it pretty easily.<br />
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For Races, I went with Human, Dwarf, Elf and Orc. The first way their distinct is their height and weight, measured in abstract "units". You dont need to know metric or imperial, just understand their relative sizes. The races also get Advantage on certain actions, Humans get Charm, Dwarves get Search, Elves get Sneaking and Orcs get Intimidate.<br />
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Adding to the "Gross" the<span style="font-size: 1.1em;">me of the game, I added a save called "Disgust" (Äckel). You add your race "Disgust Bonus" to their Constitution to get the "Disgust Save". This is basically a stand-in for a Fear Save, but not as narratively loaded. Basically, whenever something looks, feels, smells sounds or tastes terrible, roll under your Digust Score. On a failure, roll 1D4 and add it to your Stress. </span><br />
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<h3>
Stress</h3>
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Stress is a 1d4-determined number that is gained when a Disgust Save is failed, a player rolls a critical fail on any roll, or is subjected to a spell that specifies stress. Every 5th stress becomes 1 Stress Penalty, making it harder to succeed on Willpower Saves. So 5 Stress is -1, 10 stress is -2, 15 stress is -3, etc.<br />
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<h3>
Willpower </h3>
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Willpower Saves are rolled whenever a character is subjected to a Wish or Incantations, and when resisting unconsciousness when 0 HP are reached. A Willpower Save is essentially like Death Saves in 5E, the player having to succeed with 2 out of 3 saves.<br />
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<h3>
Magic</h3>
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This might be a clunky system, but I had the idea of giving spellcasters bonuses based on what kind of Magical Symbol they use (Wand, Holy Icon, Familiar, Religious text, etc.) It lends a certain weight to finding and getting a better Symbol, same as learning spells by seeking them out in the world. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnARIxd6Qck_cgwxy0lCrS0IUpYTrvxxO5HAY0ksMdpy24jd1mg8rjmMkTk1omfiOnbUqs6qZgGfkD3sx0p1Wo8KNIdzkae4lqv8G96LbakC4o5pxzzEHYlyT6lJP3JdS9D6o5fy-FRJIJ/s1600/yakhack.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="429" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnARIxd6Qck_cgwxy0lCrS0IUpYTrvxxO5HAY0ksMdpy24jd1mg8rjmMkTk1omfiOnbUqs6qZgGfkD3sx0p1Wo8KNIdzkae4lqv8G96LbakC4o5pxzzEHYlyT6lJP3JdS9D6o5fy-FRJIJ/s320/yakhack.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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I haven't written it down, but I did decide that there wasn't going to be any level based spells, instead opting to change the spells dice efficiency by level. This might become a problem for convertibility, but I like the fundamental idea. The dice efficiency of the spell determines damage, AOE and duration, which I think is pretty cool. One possible problem is that it currently has the same UD as Black Hack, so that would mean 1. Rolling for casting the spell 2. Rolling the dice efficiency to see damage, AOE and/or duration 3. Rolling a UD to see if you forget the spell. That's a bit too much rolling, but I don't think it is a huge problem.<br />
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<h3>
Going forward</h3>
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The main challenge of this game isn't really mechanics, it is the presentation. Even as I like how it turned out, the text is hard to read when zoomed to 100% in my PDF-reader. I'm going to see if I can fix that, or if I'll have to cut stuff. I hope not!</div>
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The struggle is going to be putting together the lists of Incantations/Wishes. Not that I think it'll be mechanically different, but lists of Stuff is not my strong point. I want the spell stuff to feel fun and not be the same type of magic-missile stuff that everyone is familiar with, but I want to communicate what the spells are pretty easily. Same with the equipment list - I'm thinking of excluding swords and just allowing Javelins, Mazes, Axes and the like for melee, just for the heck of it. Probably some fun stuff for Ranged Weapons, too. And how am I going to fit the starting equipment on a page? Maybe they'll have to buy all their equipment.<br />
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Lastly, a Referee page. Just a list of proceedures, an explanation of the HD system, etc. How to run an adventure, explaining dungeon turns and iniative, the general stuff. </div>
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What has been most fun about this is that of all my projects, this one just sort of came together and I didn't have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to know what I needed. I look forward to working on it more - perhaps even making an Enligsh version!</div>
<div>
If you know Swedish and want to check out the WIP game - <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FiNgQHU2SkwfcdfMHuuYMPMhOdzxpIS-">here it is</a>. </div>
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Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-79735853851636351762019-02-17T07:17:00.000-08:002019-02-20T16:23:43.697-08:00The Bayou Entity - Rad-Hack Character Class<h3 style="text-align: center;">
A <b>Swamp Thing</b> inspired character class for Rad-Hack</h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/388779639235149824/507570875516583956/unknown.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="553" height="200" src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/388779639235149824/507570875516583956/unknown.png" width="194" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">https://www.instagram.com/godnattmalin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i><b>Bayou Entities</b> are non-human creatures created when powerful alien swamp radiation transfers the dying consciousness of a human unto the vegetation that surrounds them. They rise out of Rad-Swamps that have become the burial ground for unfortunate humans, false ghosts roaming the swamps. They are made entirely out of plant material, their organs serving no real purpose. Often confused about what they have become.<br />
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Player characters that die in Swamps can return as a <b>Bayou Entity</b>. At the start of 15 minutes of play, they must roll a <b>WIS </b>check to combat the feeling of unease that this traumatic transformation has wrought. 3 successive failures will lead the plant body to reject its consciousness, 3 successive successes will lead to the plant body accepting it.<br />
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You can roll-up the <b>Bayou Entity</b> using the guidelines for <b>Human</b> characters in <b>Rad-Hack</b>, or you can transfer the stat of a previous character that you're resurrecting.<br />
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<div>
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">THE BAYOU ENTITY</span></i><br />
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<b>Starting HP</b>: 1d10+3<br />
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<b>HP Per Level/Resting</b>: 1d8</div>
<div>
<b>Radiation Die</b>: d6</div>
<div>
<b>Weapons and Armour</b>: No Ranged and all Melee. Biological bark armor with 4 armor points, proficient in no other armor. </div>
<div>
<b>Attack damage</b>: 1d10 if armed, 1d8 if unarmed or improvising. </div>
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<h2>
<b>GREEN POWERS</b></h2>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
Bayou Entities start the game with 2 randomly selected <b>Green Powers</b> and an ability die of 1d4. To use these, first test the attribute that corresponds with what you are attempting to do, then roll the <b>Ability Die</b> to check if it decreases a step. <b>Reactive Green Powers (R)</b> can be triggered even when it isn’t the targeted player’s turn, and counts as a free action. Players are encouraged to be creative with how they use their <b>Green Powers</b> by making them stronger, altering their effects, etc. Depending on the power of the effect, such tests can be at a Disadvantage. If a roll of 20 is made while using a <b>Green Power</b>, the lose themselves in the Green, turn to a <b>Vegetative State</b> and cannot act for 1d4 turns. </div>
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<div>
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<h2>
SPECIAL FEATURES</h2>
<div>
<b>Biorevive</b>: The character can resist death as long as there is biological plant matter close to their dying body. The consciousness can be transferred unto that plant matter and the creature becomes fully formed during a long rest. </div>
<div>
<b>Flamable object</b>: Disadvantage on resisting fire damage.<br />
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<h3>
LEVELING UP</h3>
Roll to see if attributes increase. Roll 1d6 to determine what attribute to roll twice for.<br />
Increase the Ability Die one step on even levels. Gain a random Green Power on uneven levels, to<br />
a max of five. When gaining a sixth Green Power, that one replaces an old one.</div>
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<h4>
LIST OF GREEN POWERS</h4>
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</th><td class="s0" dir="ltr">GREEN POWERS</td><td class="s1" dir="ltr">Effect</td></tr>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">1. Choking Spores (R)</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 507px;">
Release spores that causes 1d4 nearby enemies to choke and lose their turn.</div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">2. Grappling Vines</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 1007px;">
4 powerful vines that extend out of the body, fully controlled by its host. Reaches Nearby <br />
(Far-Away can be reached but user rolls AD with disadvantage.) </div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">3. Control plant-life </td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 407px;">
Any nearby plant-life must obey one simple command</div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">4. Decoy</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 1007px;">
Creates 1d4 decoy copies of the user that can perform simple, repeated movements. <br />
Advantage against all attacks as long as user is near the decoys. </div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">5. Enhanced Growth</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 607px;">
Make any vegetable matterr grow and mutate at an extermely fast speed, even if its dead. </div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">6. Thorn Projectile </td><td class="s4" dir="ltr">Shoot thorns at nearby targets</td></tr>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">7. Barkskin (R)</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 407px;">
The vegetable skin hardens. <br />
Gain two extra armor points. </div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">8. Fungal Fun</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 607px;">
Grow fungi that causes those<br />
that eat it to experience <br />
vivid hallucinations for 1d4 turns. </div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">9. Disguised Plant</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 707px;">
Transform humanoid body into <br />
exact replication of nearby vegetation to<br />
gain advantage of stealth checks</div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">10. Enlarge Self</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 907px;">
The humanoid body is doubled in size for as long as it choses. <br />
All stats remain the same, but <br />
the user can now reach the top shelf. </div>
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<tr style="height: 60px;"><th class="row-headers-background" id="0R11" style="height: 60px;"><div class="row-header-wrapper" style="line-height: 60px;">
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">11. Psyonic Garden</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 607px;">
Your spores have psyonic powers.<br />
Roll on the pysonics table <br />
once to see which. </div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">12. Homegrown Truncheon</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 607px;">
Your arm becomes a bludgeoning weapon.<br />
Nothing can be grabbed with this hand. </div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">13. Teleportation</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 907px;">
Travel to Distant place that you can see <br />
and that has vegetation. The user<br />
will appear there after <br />
4 rounds of uninterupted concentration.</div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">14. Rooting</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 807px;">
Dig roots into the ground that lock you to that location. <br />
Advantage against being knocked or dragged, <br />
disadvantage on DEX. </div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">15. Project voice</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 607px;">
Create vegetable vocal chords that can project your voice from outside your body</div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">16. Recall past life</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 1007px;">
Recall one Profession, Pysonic or Mutation that your character had in a previous life and get that power. <br />
Roll to see which or use previous character. </div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">17. Shrink self</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 307px;">
Shrinks users body to the size of a small dog</div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">18. Vine Shield (R)</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 407px;">
Creates a sturdy wooden shield worth 2 armor points</div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">19. Plant Prison</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 707px;">
User turns body into a prison for enemies with melee range, completely imobilizing them for 1d4 turns. </div>
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</th><td class="s2" dir="ltr">20. Bloodseed Darth</td><td class="s3 softmerge" dir="ltr"><div class="softmerge-inner" style="left: -1px; width: 807px;">
A piercing projectile infects its target with fast-growing seeds that feed on blood. A vine that grows through the victims veins drains all blood.</div>
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Rad-Hack is created by Karl Stjernberg, and can be found in physical form <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/karl-stjernberg/rad-hack/paperback/product-22811979.html">here</a> as well as in digital form at <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/187874/The-RadHack">drivethrurpg</a>.<br /><br />PDF-version of this Character Class found <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fLWf60irjGBOIjrzudx4GcmDIpjlYcsd">here</a>. </span></i>Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-76900509421887831692018-11-05T08:10:00.000-08:002018-11-05T08:10:05.613-08:00The Ruined City of Vrotrak Valley<i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNAYDohSVxhADR0ddrAzSDWlgoeQJbV9YT_OPrW-SRJHmcwy2j31b723TzB56bhZjpNo92syeQJQvRQSW9zrKE52ssdRIb4rEGTt6Sh0jA0QF5_cnwCmOs2VgufWSpzgb_ZM3m6oohQaNR/s1600/ruined+city.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNAYDohSVxhADR0ddrAzSDWlgoeQJbV9YT_OPrW-SRJHmcwy2j31b723TzB56bhZjpNo92syeQJQvRQSW9zrKE52ssdRIb4rEGTt6Sh0jA0QF5_cnwCmOs2VgufWSpzgb_ZM3m6oohQaNR/s640/ruined+city.jpg" width="450" /></a></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Excerpt from my design document for Vrotrak Valley, a post-apocalyptic Hex Crawl</i>:<br />
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7 hexes. A haunted old metropolis, filled to the brim with dungeons in the form of abandoned warehouses, apartment-complexes and office buildings. Populated by bandits and predatory animals. <i>Ud </i>stands for <a href="https://the-black-hack.jehaisleprintemps.net/english/">Usage Die</a>.<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>A “haunted” suburb that used to be a popular spot for rich and wealthy people. They all had servant robots programmed to love them. After they all died, their machines formed a suicide pact. Robotic body parts litter the area. They can be looted for scraps and fuel, but nothing mechanically useful. The houses of their former masters are filled with fancy technology and the occasional rare artifact. The last robot standing can be reactivated, explaining that it was left here to remember the events that led to the apocalypse. It will refuse to say, or can’t say, what it remembers. </li>
<li>A giant shopping mall that has collapsed into the asphalted-over wetlands it was built on. Inhabited by crocodiles, snakes and unsavory types, it is slowly sinking into the ground, destroying the valuable technology there within. A <i>Wandering Mega-Beast</i> wishes to enter and will cause the structure to collapse within <b>Ud8</b> rounds. </li>
<li>In a town square, an endless street-fight has burst out between warring factions of <i>Meltskin Warriors</i>, humanoid beings that rise out of toxic sludge and dirt that had infected the soil of two neighboring graveyards. The two neighboring graveyards belonged to two different denominations of an ancient Christian religion. Their muddy faux-skin melts off and regenerates instantly every two seconds, occasionally revealing a strange, metallic skeleton. They fruitlessly wrestle each-other in the streets, constantly dying and being resurrected. They are not capable of explaining why they are fighting. There are <b>5d20</b> <i>Meltskin Warriors of Each Faction </i>present in the square at any time. They are <b>HD1 </b>and their attacks trigger a Constitutiom roll to resist radiation poisoning, but they will not attack PCs unless provoked. The abandoned graves can be looted for valuables, but players must roll to resist disease or radiation when spending any time in them. At the center is an abandoned, fully functional tank. </li>
<li>An industrial zone taken over by <i>The Synthwavers</i>, a gang of 80’s-loving mutated humans, led by a tiny psyonic intent on re-introducing the glory of ancient commercial Brands (Bepsi, MockDonalds, Cantucky Flopped Chickies.. you know!). An abundance of resources can be found in the warehouses, factory plants and car retailer joints, but only so much can be taken back without facing the wrath of <i>The Synthwavers</i>, who ride forklifts and possess bazookas. </li>
<li>A huge skyscraper protected entirely by a colony of <i>Fungi-Spiders</i>, dog-sized spiders which filter out toxic air through fungi in their back. <b>The HD 10</b> <i>Spider-Queen</i> rests on the top of the skyscraper, producing spawn and looking for prey to feed it’s young ones. Inside the skyscrapers live the 15th generation of 4 families of master scientists, humans who will protect their (faulty, inaccurate, outlandish) research against anything perceived as a threat. Unfortunately, they perceive everything as a threat, and will attack intruders with machine guns. In their libraries are contained 1000 Coin worth of Invaluable Scientific Research. The fungi on the spiders back can be used as air filtration for the settlements and protect against radiation poisoning <b>Ud8</b> times (for the Spider Queen, <b>Ud10</b>). </li>
<li>A group of <i>pacifist mutants</i> has made this local park into the meeting place of a debate club, wherein the mutant population gather to debate the serious topics of the day. Reasonable and respectful, they invite the players to compete in the art of debating. They don’t mind that a group of <i>Mega-Vultures</i> occasionally swoop down to catch and fly away with whoever decides to go on the make-shift stage.</li>
<ol>
</ol>
<li>At a make-shift farm settlement on the outskirts of the city, a legless, three-armed Psionic child has fooled the entire group of survivors that he has a direct connection to a man living in a space-ship in Earth's orbit. Most worship him, but some fear him. He can mimic any voice and will accuse any outsider of trying to destroy the settlement. If you want to destroy the settlement, the Psionic child has rigged a set of explosives to go off if his ploy is uncovered. </li>
</ol>
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If you like what you're reading, consider donating to help produce <i>Vrotrak Valley:</i></div>
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<a data-patreon-widget-type="become-patron-button" href="https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=11188947">Become a Patron!</a><script async="" src="https://c6.patreon.com/becomePatronButton.bundle.js"></script>Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-15161443638131420132018-11-04T06:33:00.000-08:002018-11-04T06:33:29.505-08:00Inherent Tension<i>Expanded from my <a href="https://dice.camp/@EyeofPoseidon">dice.camp </a>thread</i>:<br />
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Besides the cultural reasons, the fact that violence is employed in games has to do with the fact that it carries with it inherent tension, which is how I'm thinking about design a lot these days. Inherent tension means the very nature of the action your character takes carries with it significant and immediately recognizable risks.<br />
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A move that lets you research the lore of the world or location or person is useful for the player and the world, but it is not dramatic. This doesn't mean that the lore of the world is meaningless and ungameable, just that it is not going to drive the game forward on it's own. If, however, you need to speed-read an ancient scrolls to find the magic word that will stop the arcane death traps closing in on you, that carries with it inherent tension.<br />
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I've been moving in the post-apocalyptic design-space for this reason - it carries with it inherent tension. <i>How do I survive?</i> Any character need to answer that question, and thus part of "why is my character engaging in this world" is already answered. Anything in the game-world that can then be engaged with is then filtered through this inherent tension - dungeons contain various things needed for them to survive and thrive in a harsh environment, the mutated fish are eating all the algae needed to feed the nearby underwater domed city.<br />
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You'll notice that inherent tension usually means that the character succeeds, or they die. But that's not necessarily always the case - if you can't recover the food from the abandoned supermarket, you must find it elsewhere and take on more risk. In Eye of Poseidon, becoming unable to deal with the conflicts in the crew means there is a mutiny and players lose control of their immediate environment. Failing to subvert the tyrannical warlord means a thousand years of oppression.<br />
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This way of thinking helps your gaming become more driven and eventful, and means that the players are going to care about what happens. If your game, GMing style or even playing seems uneventful and dull, think about the various tensions that you can fill your design or sessions with.<br />
<br />Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7755923447244300404.post-48541199944647865602018-10-21T21:08:00.004-07:002018-10-21T21:18:04.822-07:00How to spice up Milestone Rewards with Clocks. <div>
Milestone rewards is controversial in tabletop roleplaying games - this is not a post about that. Instead of looking at the why-nots of Milestone rewards, lets instead work on making them gameable. </div>
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Let's look at what milestone XP is, exactly. The following is the Milestone leveling system as explained in <a href="https://the-black-hack.jehaisleprintemps.net/">The Black Hack</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Adventurers learn through defeating and overcoming obstacles. Killing one boring Kobold won’t bring a revelation of learning to someone. Surviving a dungeon, completing a quest or simply living to tell the tale are the things that bring perspective and growth. The old experience system has been completelydiscarded. For every session/dungeon level/quest/ major event the character survives they gain a level.The GM will decide which, and it’s recommended that this decision remains more or less a constant throughout the campaign- and a GM should be clear and upfront with the players so they know where the ‘goalposts’are.</i></blockquote>
How do we be "clear and upfront" about where the goalposts are? Ignoring session XP, which I'm not particularly interested in, it should be in every good GM's interest to 1. communicate what is considered a milestone to the players 2. keep track of what those could possibly be in a complex sandbox without a fixed outcome.<br />
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The following technique is a way to keep track of milestones and help convert player goals into mechanical rewards. The main inspiration is how progress clocks are used in <a href="https://bladesinthedark.com/progress-clocks">Blades in the Dark</a>, but this leans more toward an OSR type of style.<br />
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A clock is a circle with (usually) an even amount of segments drawn into it. The clock-segments are filled when something in the game triggers it, and a segment is erased and made blank if something else in the game undoes it.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxVvrYoD6hBjYLt043WlQLzbY6LkDw8oU2_tzd2ny8OPdNDW-Ydd80RttDa_WU6PeKGeliXbYwQcyzBpS8GCDOJvsDNMc6OSRL9GWt8cIKKP7VOYqL59AYzzjk9d8aZMXCfAHDTnMfG7AP/s1600/OSRCLOCKS.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="58" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxVvrYoD6hBjYLt043WlQLzbY6LkDw8oU2_tzd2ny8OPdNDW-Ydd80RttDa_WU6PeKGeliXbYwQcyzBpS8GCDOJvsDNMc6OSRL9GWt8cIKKP7VOYqL59AYzzjk9d8aZMXCfAHDTnMfG7AP/s320/OSRCLOCKS.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clock graphics made by <a href="https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/40424/roleplaying-games/blades-in-the-dark-progress-clocks">The Alexandrian</a> - slight modification made to make the one-segment and two-segment clocks. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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When it comes to milestone-gaming, XP and Levels vary from system to system. Sometimes a milestone means getting a set amount of XP, sometimes it means gaining a full level. You can change the metrics of your clock to reflect this. In The Black Hack, most of these would just mean gaining a new level. For milestone XP-based systems, do it like this: if 1000 XP is enough for a character to level up, and a segment is divided into four, let every segment be worth 250 XP. That way, an entire filled clock is one level gained for your party. Adjust the math and value based on the scale and significance in your game system and setting.<br />
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Lets say your campaign as a quest that has you doing the bidding of a wizard, helping him recover mystical objects to gather his powers. Simple enough. What makes sense in this case is rewarding the act of recovering these objects, right? So lets say our party is rewarded when they successfully bring back a mystic artifact to the wizards castle. For sandboxing, this presents an obvious problem we'll touch on later, but for now, lets say it's good enough.<br />
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For the sake of this example, lets say the Wizard will require 6 artifacts before something else happens to spice up the result. There are of course a multitude of artifacts in your world and your players can choose to recover any of them in any order, but even so, the premise of "enable Wizard hoarding" can easily get stale. Simply put, after 6 recovered artifacts, something else will happen, they'll see the true nature of the artifacts, the wizard accidentally creates a world-destroying black hole because he read one of the ancient scrolls you recovered out loud, you discover the wizard is secretly evil, yada yada yada. Maybe he's just done at that point. The important thing is that you created an end-game for this particular milestone.<br />
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<h2>
Clocks: The Basics</h2>
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Lets say your players are into helping this weirdo wizard get his ancient groove on. Draw up a six-sided clock and name it, as below:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG6YxH-GVIxmWsD6N1bIHkrco-9tK9Vki_V9x54he_nRK6F1N5Su65hX5XHfd6rq5lkFplTMbl1xHuOEREh6utVPtgmWe91jNGpibYlN1snhXeN7U-AkUKISLv2DpDIkTKNvel726pY9Lk/s1600/MYSTIC.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG6YxH-GVIxmWsD6N1bIHkrco-9tK9Vki_V9x54he_nRK6F1N5Su65hX5XHfd6rq5lkFplTMbl1xHuOEREh6utVPtgmWe91jNGpibYlN1snhXeN7U-AkUKISLv2DpDIkTKNvel726pY9Lk/s320/MYSTIC.png" width="320" /></a><br />
Show it to the players, an explain that every segment they've completed means milestone XP, or that you level up, depending on your system of choice. You've presumably already given the quest in character, and now you've made it obvious that this is something they can strive for. The formula is: decide what you want to do, and figure out how to reward doing it.<br />
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Any time they've recovered an artifact and brought it to the wizard, they level up, or get XP. The players now know that they could keep doing this if they want the reward.<br />
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But what about sandboxing? In the above example, player freedom is rather limited. The problem of all sandboxing is that the metric for if you are rewarded or not can run contrary to the players agency. Yeah, helping a wizard is all fine and good, but what if my character wants to be a hoarder of ancient rarities too? What if I want to spend my time on earth doing better things than running errands for needy wizards?<br />
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Multiple Clocks</h2>
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The answer is simply to create a new clock. The players can go back to helping the wizard... or maybe not.... but we'll get back to that.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheW5nSFYJXOOeUNhA9wZGWTQHPxKNwV2ByIBHLk2B8ld30WY9mOI9LP33v_pQnKPd3xDYdc8__QFRrqz6SFR0zZu6trSj4vZqnRWx3Ypc9Icl19YoXp6X2W1CJRrDHX20U9EIRFqAXP4DM/s1600/rags+to+riches.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheW5nSFYJXOOeUNhA9wZGWTQHPxKNwV2ByIBHLk2B8ld30WY9mOI9LP33v_pQnKPd3xDYdc8__QFRrqz6SFR0zZu6trSj4vZqnRWx3Ypc9Icl19YoXp6X2W1CJRrDHX20U9EIRFqAXP4DM/s320/rags+to+riches.png" width="320" /></a>Lets say you have that one player that just wants to get that gold. Assuming your campaign world has lots of riches and that getting it is workable and fun, simply draw up a new clock. Call it "Rags to Riches" or whatever. Lets say that 500 gold is a lot in your world, and lets say the endgame of becoming wealthy is having 2000 gold, in coins or in loot, so make it a 4-segment clock. Whenever the player gets 500 gold, mark a segment. They get to level up/gain xp.<br />
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What if they spend all that gold on ale, or lose it in an encounter with some bandits? Obviously you don't rob the player of any of their player-level rewards, but you can remove a segment on the clock to represent that the character will have to do that cash-grabbing all over again in fiction.<br />
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Importantly, the clock can be filled in using multiple different actions. Sure, the endgame is having a set amount of gold, but you could get this by dungeon delving, highway robbery, doing quests for wealthy patrons, getting a dayjob, or whatever else they can think off. A clock should never be something that can be completed in only one way. This limits both your players and you.<br />
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Bad Clocks</h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH1rf-JbpgJwIMzXAx01fACGd_DUe16lVmOmwLwjCA00bXX96RdMKzPtPFpby1BR7tZM6jjUBmCG1kEUq_yReFcsJwD7hqDD1Fra3Zw5_qKB8_1-vgKQNahX5kyFjnD2zc4LEMr52A7VlL/s1600/LAMPOFDOOM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH1rf-JbpgJwIMzXAx01fACGd_DUe16lVmOmwLwjCA00bXX96RdMKzPtPFpby1BR7tZM6jjUBmCG1kEUq_yReFcsJwD7hqDD1Fra3Zw5_qKB8_1-vgKQNahX5kyFjnD2zc4LEMr52A7VlL/s320/LAMPOFDOOM.png" width="320" /></a><br />
Lets look at a bad clock - a one-segment (or empty) clock called "steal the Lamp of Doom from the Dragon Dunkir." Do the thing and get the XP - simple, right? Well, yeah. The problem is that you'll have to show these to your players, and you have to be honest. Remember, good GM's don't dupe their players out of rewards that they've worked towards and that you've promised them, even if not doing so makes sense in the fiction.<br />
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What if the players think they can try to get the Lamp of Doom through negotiation? What if they can buy it? The word "steal" implies too much. So does the fact that it mentions a Lamp of Doom, or a Dragon named Dunkir - things that might not necessarily be true. What if the PCs have been fed false information or misleading rumour? That kind of misdirection is commonplace in gaming, and figuring out whether or not you've received the right info is part of the challenge. Sure, you can be a good GM and give them that XP anyways once they figured it out - but it's bad design to start off with.<br />
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Here's how to fix it: We know two things about our broken clock to begin with. It mentions a Lamp of Doom, and a Dragon named Dunkir. Those are two things that need verification. So instead, lets make a two-piece clock about investigating the place where Dunkir is.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE9aGf9pAXYelpIEG3pMuCviSbaDcyBdMNoMESbA3iaKQuvwkJq2c8E2c_LVpDwjB_B_X4fYZmXqIyTe8GECaVuY2-tue1ylhBEShyphenhyphentJEpssBpb2LKqxyLjTpZ4CakESpHDQ4r4gfHimbi/s1600/INVESTIGATE+RUMOURS.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE9aGf9pAXYelpIEG3pMuCviSbaDcyBdMNoMESbA3iaKQuvwkJq2c8E2c_LVpDwjB_B_X4fYZmXqIyTe8GECaVuY2-tue1ylhBEShyphenhyphentJEpssBpb2LKqxyLjTpZ4CakESpHDQ4r4gfHimbi/s320/INVESTIGATE+RUMOURS.png" width="320" /></a><br />
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This is nice and vague. If the rumours are false, you've still succeeded in investigating them. Also, we've established that only two things are needed to complete this clock, and those might be more than just Dunkir and the Lamp.<br />
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Remember - this is a tool to determine what players are going to be rewarded for, and how much time they are allowed to spend getting rewarded for merely one thing. You could make this clock 24 segments and have the them do the same type of quest or task every session, but this betrays the sandbox nature of the tool. When a clock is full - shift focus. If the players can do anything they want, you must incentivize doing other stuff as well. They've investigated the rumours - they are absolutely true. The Lamp of Doom is in the possession of Dunkir the Dragon. Do they want to steal his lamp? Do they let him keep the Lamp? What happens? That is up to the players, and you'll make clocks accordingly.<br />
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Hidden Clocks</h2>
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Lets go back to our first example, because it illustrates another problem with sandboxing. What if your player had accepted the quest to retrieve the magical artifacts for the Wizard, but spends the next 5 sessions on their other quest to get rich? You could keep the Mystical Artifacts Recovered-clock around, sure, but is the Wizard just going to accept that you abandoned your quest for a couple of days, even months? </div>
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This is a problem with any open world, sandbox game, TTRPG or otherwise - the world can seem static and unchanging. The general logic is that the player needs to have all options available to them at every time, and that quests you've heard about 4 months ago will still need the same help.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsJeuOHq4e0KoWmqDEAUHFV7O9adbjxN1bESu0gGaMmRE5mXAKmxt_93iUxfRecKD5bGalP_ycwpFJxs6LbK4Qv8fv-WnpT_DS1GkZPqn9d5ESJ78anp8kiGse4sm4WeC5UtdpauaSPE-2/s1600/WRATHOFTHEWIZARD.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsJeuOHq4e0KoWmqDEAUHFV7O9adbjxN1bESu0gGaMmRE5mXAKmxt_93iUxfRecKD5bGalP_ycwpFJxs6LbK4Qv8fv-WnpT_DS1GkZPqn9d5ESJ78anp8kiGse4sm4WeC5UtdpauaSPE-2/s320/WRATHOFTHEWIZARD.png" width="320" /></a>You can use clocks to simulate change in the world in a different way. The Wizard is not going to take this insulting disobedience. He's going to DO something! Create a clock, this time not shown to the players, that is going to fill up any time they fill in a segment in another quest clock. Maybe he'll send out spies, or confront the player. Either way, the Quest to retrieve the mystical artifacts is either going to be abandoned or changed completely. If the Wrath of the Wizard clock is filled, it the Mystical Artifacts Recovered clock is changed or completely removed from play. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwGhJ9osvfIrdEwpfpABjh39G79Nzxuhyphenhyphen2ji6XLhcYQqALYy2Lu3cB_X_e9ClEgZedaM9Npx71oCGLIqIUM6Bt1RzIVcOtvLdLOXCCvIrow5mnNALSnOWsij4joHyzi8CfBcSiuIWA-fD5/s1600/THWARTHEWIZARDSPLOT.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwGhJ9osvfIrdEwpfpABjh39G79Nzxuhyphenhyphen2ji6XLhcYQqALYy2Lu3cB_X_e9ClEgZedaM9Npx71oCGLIqIUM6Bt1RzIVcOtvLdLOXCCvIrow5mnNALSnOWsij4joHyzi8CfBcSiuIWA-fD5/s320/THWARTHEWIZARDSPLOT.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Now, that sucks, doesn't it? Not necessarily! This just means a different set of quests can be unlocked. Lets say the confrontation with the Wizard went.. badly. Now he has sworn to make their lives miserable. Create a new clock - "Thwart the Wizards Plots". This time, show them the clock. They're in trouble now. While they were equally rewarded for freely adventuring for their own gain, that freedom came with consequences - just like sandboxes are supposed to work. Now, this is a pretty extreme example - the consequences should be adjusted. Those artifacts were important and interesting, but the side-quest to help the local theater company find a missing actor could literally end with someone else finding him or the actor showing up dead if the players ignore it. Punishing players for not being too hype about literally every quest you throw at them isn't really helping anyone feel like their freedom and agency are respected. Your goal is to make the world feel real, first and foremost, and that's where you should start.</div>
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A last note - the amount of segments on a clock could and should change during a campaign. If the PCs do something that changes the nature of the task performed, so should the mechanical tools you use change to reflect this. Maybe the PCs solution to thwarting the wizard is simply killing him with the 12th level spells they got from doing all the other quests. The 8th-segment clock simply gets turned into a one-segment clock. </div>
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A good craftsperson is not ruled by their tools. </div>
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<h2>
Clocks - a summary</h2>
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So if it isn't obvious why you would implement clocks as a way of managing sandbox campaigns, lets do a quick summary. All of these assumes the system or table prefer milestone XP, so they aren't arguments against rewarding XP for say, getting gold or killing monsters. </div>
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<li>Clocks communicate to players what is considered a milestone at your particular table. </li>
<li>They can string together larger plot treads into smaller quests with clear end goals. </li>
<li>They limit the amount of time your supposed sandbox campaign is spent on doing one thing, and encourages exploration and dynamic play.</li>
<li>They provide a narrative signifier - once a clock is filled, something happens, the world becomes dynamic and changes because of player action.</li>
<li>They are flexible in that they can both be incorporated as a pre-existing quest created by the GM or a player-driven goal created by their actions and stated wishes. </li>
<li>Beyond being the basis of how XP is rewarded, Clocks help GMs keep track of the game world in a holistic way.</li>
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Here's stuff to avoid:</div>
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<ul>
<li>Don't let the clocks describe a way of doing things, just the end-goal of doing them</li>
<li>Don't lie about the nature of the reward - avoid using information that the players aren't sure is true </li>
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<h2>
An example campaign</h2>
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Now, lets create an entire sandbox campaign using this as a foundation. What do we want it to be about?<br />
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Lets say it is a standard fantasy RPG, but with themes of survival and horror. Lets also keep the amount of clocks to five - you're going to be able to create a bunch of player-driven clocks and side-quests down the line. Maybe it's set in a depressing winter landscape, with villagers facing starvation, dying cattle and forests that hide dark secrets. The PCs arrive there, cold and starving. This is already enough for us to create our first clock. </div>
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<i>Clock 1.</i> The PCs need to find warmth and food, or they'll starve. Since this is the first thing they'll do, lets go easy on them. I'll create a four-segment clock and title it "Gimmie Shelter". We don't need to think of how the PC might do that - that's up to them. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAM1VTWTmjrJAqdTB-TFnabGmztDlovK5SIpKwEChdNesF2lgZvi38FtxD2jBD52RXpzre97c30UXXTwN-hNBcFaGCFfkd0Qj8059va5zs1R9m3A7U89cIML-88VqGHQOcSCghZuOygKEK/s1600/gimmieshelter.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAM1VTWTmjrJAqdTB-TFnabGmztDlovK5SIpKwEChdNesF2lgZvi38FtxD2jBD52RXpzre97c30UXXTwN-hNBcFaGCFfkd0Qj8059va5zs1R9m3A7U89cIML-88VqGHQOcSCghZuOygKEK/s400/gimmieshelter.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Our campaign also needs an overarching problem or plot - we could have a big bad evil guy, or a more cosmic plot. Maybe the cold, long winter is a punishment by the Gods? That sounds good. Maybe one of the quests could be to appease the Gods, then? That would mean you could send the PCs out to slay creatures that offend the Gods, or recover ritual artifacts used in worship, or kill false preachers - who knows? This is a big one, and is going to take perhaps the entire campaign to complete. Clocks with more segments than 8 are a hassle, so lets instead make each segment real difficult or time-consuming to complete.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pgdjB_PZjulh4rSv7QpEqop-MoiKWR7nu4wRkVvM1bMnIAu-DyQirq5J8O-qGbjywKMcu-9czljLEtQ1jxLRiE1kTWf3xuouUb4E0NI-wRPaervGO4lBqM7Ny7Ap4MVP7wxDfo6Xintr/s1600/appeasethegods.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pgdjB_PZjulh4rSv7QpEqop-MoiKWR7nu4wRkVvM1bMnIAu-DyQirq5J8O-qGbjywKMcu-9czljLEtQ1jxLRiE1kTWf3xuouUb4E0NI-wRPaervGO4lBqM7Ny7Ap4MVP7wxDfo6Xintr/s320/appeasethegods.png" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pgdjB_PZjulh4rSv7QpEqop-MoiKWR7nu4wRkVvM1bMnIAu-DyQirq5J8O-qGbjywKMcu-9czljLEtQ1jxLRiE1kTWf3xuouUb4E0NI-wRPaervGO4lBqM7Ny7Ap4MVP7wxDfo6Xintr/s1600/appeasethegods.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pgdjB_PZjulh4rSv7QpEqop-MoiKWR7nu4wRkVvM1bMnIAu-DyQirq5J8O-qGbjywKMcu-9czljLEtQ1jxLRiE1kTWf3xuouUb4E0NI-wRPaervGO4lBqM7Ny7Ap4MVP7wxDfo6Xintr/s1600/appeasethegods.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pgdjB_PZjulh4rSv7QpEqop-MoiKWR7nu4wRkVvM1bMnIAu-DyQirq5J8O-qGbjywKMcu-9czljLEtQ1jxLRiE1kTWf3xuouUb4E0NI-wRPaervGO4lBqM7Ny7Ap4MVP7wxDfo6Xintr/s1600/appeasethegods.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pgdjB_PZjulh4rSv7QpEqop-MoiKWR7nu4wRkVvM1bMnIAu-DyQirq5J8O-qGbjywKMcu-9czljLEtQ1jxLRiE1kTWf3xuouUb4E0NI-wRPaervGO4lBqM7Ny7Ap4MVP7wxDfo6Xintr/s1600/appeasethegods.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pgdjB_PZjulh4rSv7QpEqop-MoiKWR7nu4wRkVvM1bMnIAu-DyQirq5J8O-qGbjywKMcu-9czljLEtQ1jxLRiE1kTWf3xuouUb4E0NI-wRPaervGO4lBqM7Ny7Ap4MVP7wxDfo6Xintr/s1600/appeasethegods.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pgdjB_PZjulh4rSv7QpEqop-MoiKWR7nu4wRkVvM1bMnIAu-DyQirq5J8O-qGbjywKMcu-9czljLEtQ1jxLRiE1kTWf3xuouUb4E0NI-wRPaervGO4lBqM7Ny7Ap4MVP7wxDfo6Xintr/s1600/appeasethegods.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pgdjB_PZjulh4rSv7QpEqop-MoiKWR7nu4wRkVvM1bMnIAu-DyQirq5J8O-qGbjywKMcu-9czljLEtQ1jxLRiE1kTWf3xuouUb4E0NI-wRPaervGO4lBqM7Ny7Ap4MVP7wxDfo6Xintr/s1600/appeasethegods.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pgdjB_PZjulh4rSv7QpEqop-MoiKWR7nu4wRkVvM1bMnIAu-DyQirq5J8O-qGbjywKMcu-9czljLEtQ1jxLRiE1kTWf3xuouUb4E0NI-wRPaervGO4lBqM7Ny7Ap4MVP7wxDfo6Xintr/s1600/appeasethegods.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<i>Clock 2</i>. </div>
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But what if actually, fuck the Gods? Lets drive out these assholes from this domain and protect these innocent people from these hateful, wrathful gods.</div>
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<i style="text-align: center;">Clock 3</i><span style="text-align: center;">. </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRvUz8lTpWPDAJuL70-_J8jy24vSV4T5kZTPNTTaDAhp2Jmzd_JEW7XRWPMp6NTLjD4d_QMV7H-o6snlCSrYwHikwAltjZ6og6nwEvN-M6XX8jWw_YdZGgOd_FNmVGbBV84MI-779ASd8O/s1600/rageaginsthedivinemachine.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRvUz8lTpWPDAJuL70-_J8jy24vSV4T5kZTPNTTaDAhp2Jmzd_JEW7XRWPMp6NTLjD4d_QMV7H-o6snlCSrYwHikwAltjZ6og6nwEvN-M6XX8jWw_YdZGgOd_FNmVGbBV84MI-779ASd8O/s320/rageaginsthedivinemachine.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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But this divine tragedy might not interest you at all. Fuck the people here, they all deserve it and they don't need our players help, right? What else is there in this sandbox campaign? Let us turn our attention to the profane - cash. Two heirs of a wealthy landlord are fighting over their inheritance. Both of them promise great monetary gain if you could prove on side right - through legal means, forgery, murder, bribery or whatever else. Doing so unleashes a flood of drama, betrayal and intrigue - weird since the bit of land they are fighting over is barren and uninhabitable. Whenever a major change in the dispute occurs because of player action, mark a segment. </div>
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Only one left. Thus far, we've touched the divine and the profane - now lets do something for the bleeding heart heroes. The only son of a poor peasant woman has gone missing, kidnapped by the creatures of the night. Lets say the peasant boy is some kind of chosen Harry Potter-type kid, and that his significance to the game-world is world altering. Maybe he has some sort of magic power that could make the other Clocks change forever? For each piece of the puzzle uncovered, fill a segment. Save the boy, save the world. If you're into that sort of thing. </div>
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Bringing it all together</h2>
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Now that we've got these various different things to do in our campaign world, we can think of ways to make them all fit into a unified whole. Does the kidnapped kid with the strange gift have the power to change how the Gods view this place? Does the quarreling siblings fight over the land because a strange artifact, desired by the Gods is hidden there? How do you go from having found shelter to discovering the fact that the Gods have punished this place? And can the money the siblings are giving you to solve their dispute grant you access to a secret cult dedicated to destroying the unjust rule of Gods? This is a cool way for you to string together all those adventure ideas you didn't know where to put into a cool larger setting. </div>
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Of course, these clocks aren't good enough on their own to create a campaign. You need to flesh out the details, draw maps, create sidequests, or even another major quest or two. Besides, the players will have their own goals and agendas that need their own clocks. Heck, you should even be prepared to throw out all of these clocks if the party does something extraordinary to make each of them irrelevant. But I'm sure you see how this kinda thing becomes useful. As with all tools used in GMing, be flexible, adjust for your table and be ready to re-calibrate if what you've done hasn't proved successful. </div>
Yakovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06935419479815136828noreply@blogger.com0