Critical Hits is Two!
Though the exact date of our start is undetermined- we were posting under a different name and address before we bought Critical Hits- today is a good enough time to celebrate us finishing our second year of posting, and entering our third!
We did a little bit of reminiscing on our “One Year Later” post (and hopefully were able to implement most of the suggestions made then) and asked about our readers recently. Here is a more “behind the scenes” approach, with some bulleted lists of our various stats. We only installed tracking software about a year ago, so many of these stats are relevant only for the previous year and will be noted as such. Our traffic has increased quite a bit in the past year, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the numbers from this year blew away the year before. But when it doubt, round up for awesomeness!
Overall stats as of October 1, 2007:
- 18 Different authors wrote posts
- 635 Posts made. (not quite 1 per day, but not all that far off either!)
- 2,894 Comments made.
- 350 Different nick names were used in the comments
- 70,000+ Visits in the last year.
- 52,000+ Absolute unique visitors in the last year.
- 120,000+ Pageviews in the last year.
- 2 minutes Average time on the site (stick around for a while!)
- 10,000+ Spam eaten by Akismet (since we opened comments to everyone)
An Excellent Music Video
I’ll just get it out there right now, I was reading Kanye West’s Blog. Please don’t have any a heartattack yet, but if you haven’t heard his new album Graduation yet you definitely should and then you might understand. The music video here isn’t one of his, though his newest one does have some awesome live-action Akira homages in it, it’s actually a music video for a Louis Vuitton bag (PLEASE stay with me here) done by the very cool Takashi Murakami:
The music and visuals have pretty much mesmerized me, and so I have to watch it every day or so just to satiate some portion of my brain. Here’s a youtube in which you can learn a bit about Murakami and his artwork, etc: [Read the rest of this article]
Real Ultimate Showdown Round 4
[This round is over, go vote in the FINAL ROUND]
The final four combatants… or is that the fatal four? The fighting grows more intense in this penultimate round of the Real Ultimate Showdown.
Venture on to vote for WHO YOU WANT TO WIN in both match ups to determine who will advance the final round, and whose proxy will have a chance to win the grand prize. Voting for this round ends October 10th, 11:59P EST.
The Stages of a RPG Team's Development, Part 5: Performing
This series compares the development of a RPG gaming group with that of a workplace team through the concepts of the 4-stages of team development. This installment talks about the blissful stage of a performing group.
- Your players spontaneously discuss, in-character no less, the approach to a problem you sprung on them… and the agree to a common solution!
- E-mail exchange in the days prior to the game literally explodes between group members.
- Your DM makes a point of working-in at least one occasion where each character in the party gets to shine according to the player’s own preference.
- Focus is maintained throughout most of the evening and the game flows at a surprising rate.
- The players and DM leave the game giving positive feedback all around and discuss the best parts and funniest quotes of the evening.
This is a RPG group performing at its best.
Definition
Some teams will reach the performing stage. These high-performing teams are able to function as a unit as they find ways to get the job done smoothly and effectively without inappropriate conflict or the need for external supervision. Team members have become interdependent. By this time they are motivated and knowledgeable. The team members are now competent, autonomous and able to handle the decision-making process without supervision. Dissent is expected and allowed as long as it is channelled through means acceptable to the team.
At this stage, the party is united and means business. Each player has a role he/she understands and takes it wholeheartedly in the game. More often than not, one player acts as the party’s voice to inform the DM of group decisions. The players are used to their characters and are aware of the abilities of the others. The efficiency at combat and task resolution increases to a point where the party can adventure longer before replenishing Hit points and Magic than the system expect them to.
The party can split, but it’s on a consensual basis and for a precise, short term objective. Role-playing becomes more natural and less awkward. Advancing the story and actively shaping the DM’s plots become rewarding by and of itself, regardless of the bling factor inherent to the system used.
Supervisors of the team during this phase are almost always participative. The team will make most of the necessary decisions.
At that point, the DM is really just the Roadie to the players’ Rock Stars. Trust is complete, rules issues dissipate and adventure design actually becomes easier. Players may spend a good chuck of an evening discussing in-game issues. It’s not impossible to actually see the DM lean back, arms crossed behind his head with a huge, contented smile on his face.
I have lived such a level of performance in the second half and 1st half of my 2 previous campaigns. It was heavenly! After 20 years of DMing, this was the pinnacle of my ‘career’ and I was really proud of our group. However…
Even the most high-performing teams will revert to earlier stages in certain circumstances. Many long-standing teams will go through these cycles many times as they react to changing circumstances. For example, a change in leadership may cause the team to revert to storming as the new people challenge the existing norms and dynamics of the team.
Any significant changes can return your gaming group to an earlier stage. A new player will lead to a new forming and possibly a storming stage. A new campaign, or DM will undoubtedly lead to the return to an earlier stage.
The big difference is that a group that has tasted performance will want to return there rapidly and won’t expect the DM to do the job alone. The presence of high motivation and experience from the established players of the group will lead to faster progression through the stages to return to the truly satisfying experience.
Take my own experience. Our new campaign experienced a severe crash on the 1st session, but instead on storming for an extended period, our level of motivation and trust was such that we all agreed on another approach and we put tools in place to make it better faster:
- My DM logs with liked, disliked and lessons learned.
- Fast, direct feedback by the players on our gaming group and on this blog
- Pre-approved plot lines and adventure themes.
We’re still moving back and forth through the storming, norming and performing stages but I feel we’re reaching equilibrium faster than before.
I hope you have experienced such a level of satisfying game play with an RPG group, that’s what keeps me at it after a quarter of a century. If you haven’t, talk it out and agree on a common definition of fun and work at it.
If you have reached that point and aren’t there anymore, think how you could return to it by making small changes and discussing it as a team. The DM is just a member of the team, with the extra job of showing the way early on and giving the group the tools and hooks to make it a great game later.
Bonus: After I wrote this series, I was informed of a simlar work available on the Internet and was inspired to write about a 5th stage: stagnation.
Amusing Words
Here are some amusing made-up words about corporate life I have discovered: [Read the rest of this article]
Closed for audit purposes…
I’m hosting a pair of scientists for a quality audit of my lab on Wednesday and Thursday (I’m a Quality Officer in a Genomics service lab). I’m more or less focused on this so I have little creative juices for this here blog.
But never fear dear reader, let’s see what excellent stuff I browsed lately that might be of interest to you.
Lawful Stupids vs Chaotic Jerks
Vanir of StupidRanger.com talks very passionately about the D&D alignment system. While I do not currently share his apprehensions on the subject, he makes excellent points on the ‘Always and Never’ that some players use to rationalize their, often stupid, actions. The discussions in the comments is very interesting. See this Trope, also very ‘à propos’.
Your inner Halfing
Have you tried Yax’ Inner Character quiz yet? Apparently I’m a Lawful Good Hafling Rogue (told you I was crazy!)
Save or Die, but read this 1st!
Have a look at Greywulf’s new RPG Ezine. It’s called Save or Die and it’s worth the read. I enjoy his House rules and I have already stolen a few. Greywulf has a great way with words, graphics and Photography. A man of many talents it seems.
Harrassed Webartist
Finally, it seems that Shamus of Twenty Sided has hit some very heavy controversy already with his new webcomics Chainmail Bikini. In the last few strips, a male character groped a female character (both played by guys). This has exploded on both the comics’ forum and on Shamus’ blog.
I’m in the ‘you guys need to take a chill pill’ camp. The act of rape is totally unacceptable period. Talking about such a strong subject and tackling it with humour is okay in my book, and legal last time I checked our respective constitutions.
Immature/objectionable sexually-themed issues have been seen in most if not all Role Playing games table. Just look at these examples:
- The Farador Skit
- Jeff Rient’s Tale from the Dorkside
- Martin’s All holes filled with Harn post (in theory this was consensual with all players)
I believe It’s a function of having mostly male players with varying degrees of issues to work out about the opposite sex (we all have them). I think that if this happens in your group to a level that causes discomfort or worse in some of the players, there’s some serious Storming issues going on that should be addressed really fast. Talk openly about it with the DM or players if it affects you, and leave the group if no compromise can be reached.
Shamus took quite a risk in tackling this so early in a very scrutinized strip. But it needed to be approached. Pity the debate became so crystallized so fast. Go Shamus!
On a lighter subject
This is such a stupid game, totally unrelated to RPGs but I somewhat keep playing it…
Oh well, I guess the juice does come out when the fruit is pressed…. See you on on Thusrday night!
New Milestone!!!
Image Source: Mille Bornes! (What? You never played that game???)
This here blog thingnie hit the 100 unique visitor’s in a day mark for the 1st time yesterday at midnight.
And that was before Martin’s shout-out this morning (Thanks so much, it means a lot to me)!
I might as well spend a few lines to talk about where I want to go from here.
I wrote an insane number of posts in September and I know I won’t be able to keep up. Heck I don’t know if you, dear readers, can keep up!
I’d love to keep at least a 1 post a day schedule and would maybe take one day off on Wednesdays which is, so far, the lowest point of the week traffic-wise. (My lab is being audited tomorrow, don’t expect anything since I’m the lab’s quality guy).
I plan on concluding the 4-stages series this week or the next. I’d also like to re-edit them and create a PDF for it as I have already had 1 indication of interest. I could host it on the GM Google group I created or have a nice soul host it for me on a GM-site like Treasure Table or Dungeonmastering.
I’ll continue the Adventure Preps, DM Logs and RPG Tropes series because I’m having a blast writing those. Also, now that Yan has tasted the joys of Feedback, I’m confident I can count on him to continue writing the players logs. (You really rock man. I knew you could do it!)
I’d also like to tackle another series project after the 4-stages thing. I’d like to discuss the concepts of awesome DMing and playing practices side by side with those of Emotional Intelligence. I feel there is a gold mine to explore there also. All in the lighthearted but-not-dumbed-down approach I hope I have been able to achieve.
I’m also having a ball jumping between the Fluff and Crunch subjects (and I see I’m not alone also) but I don’t see those as features or series yet. Expect more!
I keep doing this because I have been receiving absolutely phenomenal feedback from you and the rising numbers of readers who don’t necessarily drop comments seems to indicate that I’m doing okay so far. Feel free to suggest subjects or issues to tackle. I’ll try to rise to the challenge!
Thanks again!
Guess Post: A Fey's Journal, 2nd Entry. Part 2
This is the final part of Yan’s second Player log. See the 1st part here.
At the shop everything went smoothly. Our shadier-looking members went in, pretending to be from another town and explaining they wanted to extend the market of this drug called Green Welcome. They gave the shop keeper a large bribe and he gave us his source without too much hesitation.
It seems that he was getting his stuff from some gnomes in the … you guessed it! SEWERS !!! Why was I not surprised!?!
Here comes the shock of the day. We are there, waiting for the Aravar’s wounds to close up, thanks to this neat armour he has. Then Nogard, our crazed Dragon Shaman decides to search the pile of Garbage the Otyugh sat upon. Needless to say we looked at with a mixed look of shock, disgust and disbelief!
The stench of that thing alone was driving me nuts, and there he was, shoveling in it with both hands! He came back with a bag of gold, grinning like a maniac. I certainly did not want any of his filthy money. We all agreed that he had earned the right to keep it all. Out of pity for my nose though I cast an Hygiene spell on him, at least I’ll only have the image burnt into my eyes; my nose should recuperate in a month or two…(Chatty DM: Priceless!)
As this entry comes to an end we did manage to have another surprise. As I was following the tracks leading from this cave, I had a nagging feeling… Gnomes, drugs… There’s something familiar in all of this.
As I was wracking my brain on it, it hit me… Well technically it hit Crueger first, as we were ambushed by them. Those were not gnomes! They where Spriggans! Well known for being members of the nefarious Dogbane fey Noble House.
This House has been expelled from the Faerie Queen’s Court for their vile rituals and prohibited activities. Finding them here might entail a more organized threat then was first anticipated… Especially if Raketi is behind all this…
YouTube of the Week: No Rolling Required Edition
Just a neat dice stacking video, of which there are many on YouTube. This particular one recommended by Boingboing.
Big Fluff, Small Crunch
I’m still working on the Big Eyes, Small Mouth-Pokemon game for my 5 year-old son. I also read Dante’s and Martin’s excellent post on Improvising. I’m taking notes here!
I bought 2 starters of The Pokemon Trading figure Game. My son whips my butt on a consistent basis and he loves those spinning figurines. I now have an Ash and a Pikachu figurine for the ‘party’
I also bought a Pokemon Trading Card Game 2 player Starter deck kit…I have more minor Pokemons to be captured, trained or fought in the Arenas of the gameworld. Ah yes, my son also beat me to our first game too…
Which means he’s a mean gamer or that I just suck at trading games or that I let him win (I soooo wish it was the 3rd one)…
Finally I am currently re-reading my copy of BESM 2nd Edition…
I know I’m a very D&D centric guy… because I love it and it’s the only RPG I have time playing. However, BESM is some good too! It’s heavy on Fluff and rather light on Crunch and still delivers a satisfying RPG experience for the Crunch Junky that I am.
The BESM character generation system is simple yet it delivers a Gurps-like feel for the range of concepts available. I remember having been able to pull off converting our 1 year old Gurps Fantasy campaign to BESM in one evening. If I recall correctly, each of the character’s flavor was maintained (do you agree Yan?). We played only 1 session, which ended up with the Big-Bad Dragon being sushied in 1 round but it was a satisfying RPG experience for me. I think my players liked it but were ready to move to another, non-point based system. (Then one of my players bought me the D&D 3.0 Player’s Handbook and the rest is history).
BESM’s task resolution system is so simple and the skill sub-system is even optional. One of the key rules is : Why roll Dice? How fluffy is that? 
As soon as I’m done re-reading the rules, I’ll read the Cute and Fuzzy Seizure Monsters supplement and make the characters. I’ve read parts of it and it is a very cynical and satirical approach to the Genre (Which I could have done without).
It’s a shame that fellow Canuck gaming company Guardians of Order folded.
Anyway, I’ll post my version of Ash and Pikachu as BESM character and Pocket Monster as soon as I’m done.
Oh and if you are a gamer with kids, do check Gamer Dad’s site. It’s more geared toward video games and board games but that’s where I learned about how good the Lego Star Wars games were. My son and I grinded (thanks for the grammar tip Dave) both to near completion!
