Tales of the Apocalypse, Part 3: Prepping the Game
Last Friday was our second Apocalypse World game. I could see from the email chatter that the players were getting excited about it. This time, Yan was not going to join us so Colonel Allison wasn’t going to be part of the action.
Before I get into the actual game report, I wanted to share some of my prep for that session.
While Apocalypse World is a low prep RPG, it is by no means a no prep one. The game/author reminds us in no light terms to refrain from plotting out a story. Instead, the book provides a series of structured tools to build what’s called Fronts, templates of linked threats that loom around the PCs, trying to forward specific dark agendas the PCs may decide (or have no choice) to go against.
The game offers 2 sets of tools to create a front:
The First Session Worksheet
This sheet is a legal-sized of paper available as free downloads here (I got a full set of those sheets as a Gen Con bonus). You write down the name of each and every (living) NPC or places that interact with the PCs. Each named NPC or significant emplacement is placed on some kind of 2 dimensional matrix that list various threats categories they can represent toward the PCs. Examples of threats are ambition, hunger , ignorance, fear and decay, all of those can be either literal or figurative.
To that list, you add resources that each NPCs (or group/emplacement) has that the PCs might not have direct access to. This creates opportunities for some interesting conflicts and PC-NPC-PC triangles.
For example, in our game, I put Forteress-City (a place) between the “envy” and “ambition” threat as either the party or Fortress-City itself expresses those feeling toward the other entity. The Fortress has a bunch of resources like walls (defence), Living space, strategic position and (why not) books.
Finally, there’s a space on the worksheet for unanswered questions you have asked yourself during the 1st session. In my case, I had the following questions:
- Why is there a rebellion theme developing in Shanty Town
- Does the reprisal from Shanty Town’s raid a normal occurrence or is this one special?
- Can the Factory fall?
Those questions are the fuel on which the fronts can be built.
The Fronts Worksheet
A Front is where you create new NPCS and places or pick them from the 1st session sheet and bring them together in 3 to 4 organized threats from a list of Apocalyptic-themed templates.
For instance, I created a “dictator” leader for Fortress-City called Sun who’s some sort of psycho-paranoid Louis XIV warlord raving about any affront to his rule over the desert. I created an agenda for him focused on wiping out Shanty Town and broke down, as instructed, his plan in steps that I’d cross out as completed or thwarted depending on how the PCs reacted to their changing environments.
Then I I brought together 2 members of Allison’s gang and 2 more from Thunder’s and called them “The Traitors” whose goal was to bring down Thunder. I also created a new NPC called “Frankie” who was a skin collector that wore suits of patches of sewn-up human flesh who was fixated upon the female PCs of the group.
I also created the actual Fortress-City, based on the image you can see in the post’s heading (click to enlarge) and gave it a clear agenda to start shelling Shanty Town with the ship’s guns if the PCs didn’t stop it in time.
So these 4 threats came together in a Front I called “Sun’s Rise” which explained Sun’s intent to crush Shanty Town once and for all using all his resources. You’ll see how it started panning out in part 4. What I really liked about the approach was that I had no scenes prepared and I had no idea what threats the PCs would face and which they’d ignore… because they can’t deal with everything at once.
But they sure tried!
Image taken from the excellent and funny Post-Apocalyptic webcomic Romantic Apocalyptic.
Critical Bits for the week ending 2010-09-19
- RT @joeljohnson: The series creators of HBO's "Game of Thrones" were both AD&D dungeon masters. http://bit.ly/b6vOYU #
- Gamma World preview contains some sample Alpha Mutation and Omega Tech cards, as well as some of the deck mechanics http://bit.ly/cJuNCU #
- The big winner of Essentials: The Rust Monster? http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/293930-big-winner-essentials.html #
- RT @newbiedm: Announcing the new rpgKids. http://newbiedm.com/rpgkids/ #rpg #rpgkids #
- From the Archives:: I'm finally done! http://bit.ly/93wH4Y #charchive #
- RT @Wizards_DnD: Awesome interview with @mikemearls about #dnd Essentials over at @TheEscapistMag http://bit.ly/bNcoNw #
- RT @ThadeousC: My review of the #dnd Essentials Rules Compendium http://bit.ly/dmyD5j *spoiler* I recommend you buy one. #rpg #
- RT @gamefiend: Clocks of DOOM! on At-Will today: http://bit.ly/azBJ0P #
- Erotic Monster Manual Contest Winners (NSFW) http://www.somethingawful.com/d/dungeons-and-dragons/fantasy-art-2010.php?page=1 #
- RT @Morrus: Index of Excellent 4E Posts http://bit.ly/a40ZQj #dnd #rpg #
- RT @DriveThruRPG: The Talk Like a Pirate Day Sale has begun! Tons of products on sale now and hidden free items: http://bit.ly/bJ2REe #
- #ff – Critical Hits featured columnists: @direflail @bartoneus @chrisssims @shawnmerwin @chattydm @loganbonner #
- #ff – Critical Hits frequent guest columnist: @slyflourish , Editor-in-Chief: @davethegame #
- You can't #ff The Main Event and Dixon Trimline because they're not on Twitter, but they and the rest of our writers & readers are awesome! #
- Last #ff – @Linnaeus, guest reviewer, and @newbiedm, producer and one third of the Dungeon Master Guys #
- RT @rdonoghue: Fred talks up his awesome-sounding Inception-based hack – http://j.mp/9421Pd #
- RT @asmor: Random magic items + wishlists + Schrödinger's Gun = Magic Item Coupons http://bit.ly/bmpjeQ #dnd #
- RT @icu_seamus: As promised, my pitch to Wizards is up! Races of Athas: Shadar-Kai and Warforged. http://wp.me/pW32Z-jq #
- From the Archives:: BattleStar Galactica- Season 1 http://bit.ly/acf9QF #charchive #
The Dungeon Master Guys, Episode 5
"I could run a gang!"
Our long-awaited (don’t say delayed) post-Gen Con episode! Chatty DM, Dave the Game, and Newbie DM are back from Gen Con, well rested, and you get to hear some of the great interviews we did during and after the convention. This extra long episode features two great interviews from Gen Con, and one interview following up on an announcement that happened at Gen Con. But even if you didn’t go or will never go to the convention, you’ll still find something to help your DMing.
What we didn’t do was answer any reader questions… because we don’t have any! Email us, leave a comment, or leave a voicemail on 305-349-3026 (make sure to say it’s for the DM Guys) and we’ll try to answer it in a future show.
Warning: this podcast contains some explicit language (mainly from Luke Crane.)
In this episode:
- Chatty DM asks Luke Crane “What can GMs learn from Gen Con?”
- Newbie DM talks to Mike Shea of Sly Flourish about epic-level play
- Dave the Game and Chatty DM interview Chris Perkins, Creative Manager for D&D, about being a killer DM
Stuff mentioned in the show:
- Free Market
- WotC New Product Seminar
- Sly Flourish’s DM Tips Book
- Chris’s Iomanda campaign
- Aeofel’s Return (in Chris Sims’s PAX Report)
Music:
- “What you Want” (ver. 2) by Kevin MacLeod
Sponsored by:
The Dungeon Master Guys, Episode 5 (45 mins, 43 MB)
Essentially Unbalanced: For Better or Worse
I am again preempting my planned column. It feels a little odd to write about the specifics of encounter design when I am sitting here with newly purchased goodies in the D&D Essentials line: specifically the Red Box D&D Starter Set, Rules Compendium, and Heroes of the Fallen Lands.
When the Essentials line was announced, the usual Internet-fueled hyperbole about the end of the gaming world as we know it erupted. When such a reaction is so prevalent, immediate, and sadly expected, it is difficult to weed out the legitimate and well-reasoned concerns amid so much venting of spleens and gnashing of teeth. I will admit right now to being neither a revolutionary nor a reactionary. I don’t consider all change bad, and I don’t embrace change for its own sake. With that mindset, I held off on forming an opinion of Essentials until I got a look at the goods.
Of all the new (or changed) rules that Essentials brings with it, the most controversial is probably going to be the new character class builds. These builds, particularly the rogue (thief) and the two new fighters (slayer and knight) deviate from the well-established class structure that we’ve seen with previous 4e classes. As you know if you play 4e at all, the classes (until now) are on equal footing in terms of structure. No matter what class you choose, you have access to roughly the same number of at-will, encounter, daily, and utility powers. While the powers may differ, the basic structure is the same.
The reasons given for the new structure of class powers in 4e were many, but one of the big reasons discussed was the discrepancy between the power levels and play of the classes. In previous editions of D&D (and its many clones) lower-level spellcasters in the Vancian magic system could easily run out of spells in the first encounter of the day. This led to the dreaded phenomenon known as the “five-minute adventuring day.” The first encounter would end, the spellcasters would be out of spells, and the players would immediately want to rest for the day so they could regain their spells. This system also tended to make the non-spellcasting characters more powerful at lower levels, as they never ran out of their favorite attacks: fighters could always power attack, and rogues could always sneak attack. Certain classes had to play a resource-management game, while others really did not.
I was happy with the direction that 4e took with the structure of the classes. People who never played wizards in the past because they didn’t like the spell system could now put on the pointy hat, and people who only played spellcasters because fighters were “boring” could now use martial powers that were just as exciting as many spells. I liked the balance. But as someone who has played since well before the original Red Box set was released, the superior balance did come at the price of uniqueness. There was something special about playing a fighter in 1st Edition D&D as opposed to a cleric or a wizard or a thief. I think the Essentials designers must have asked themselves after the release of 4e if there wasn’t a way to keep most of the balance while still making things unique within the classes. I think Essentials, as we are beginning to see it, is the answer to that question.
However, I think a more important question is this: does D&D really need that balance at all? Let’s answer by looking at games in general first. [Read the rest of this article]
Reel Melee: The Fateful Duel
About a year ago, as I suffered through a sunburn fever in the darkest, sweatiest part of Cabo San Lucas, my perception broke through a red and shuddery haze and tuned into the movie on TV, a swords-and-sandals extravaganza named The Scorpion King, starring several muscular and oily men. As I watched helplessly, I realized there was a certain rhythm to the battles, a swing and parry, a leap and tumble, a slash and dash and crash… a STANDARD and MOVE and MINOR. All at once, I saw that the action in this movie could be broken into pieces and reassembled into something like the Dungeons & Dragons 4E combat rules.
Now, I’d be only too happy to track down The Scorpion King with all of its Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gloriousness and watch it again and again and again to parse one of its battles, but instead decided to examine a movie that was better known and, presumably, more readily available (hint: if I were you, I’d start by searching online at a site that rhymes with Moo-Doob).
Perhaps you’ve heard of a movie called Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace, which featured the breakout child mega-star Jake Something-Or-Other, who played an annoying little kid who couldn’t act. There was, I admit, quite a lot in Menace to fundamentally despise, but towards the end of the movie, there’s this massively wonderful light saber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Darth Maul, and which features music that rivals (exceeds?) The Imperial March. I know, I know, blasphemy!
In order to make the melee work, I had to figure out the characters and equipment, and then slowly go insane as I tried to stay within the game rules while determining the powers that I was seeing on the screen. I did everything I could to avoid simply house-ruling everything, though there were, I’m afraid, a few elements where I was forced to do a little tweaking (For example, when Obi-Wan fell to the lower catwalk, what the heck was he doing for all that time that Qui-Gon was fighting Maul? His nails?). [Read the rest of this article]
Playlist Design
I’ve thought for a while now that developing game concepts based on a random music playlist could lead to a useful creative exercise and a fun article. So I’ve grabbed five songs at random (but taken from my 4- and 5-star songs so I definitely know the content), ran with the first ideas they gave me, determined which type of tabletop game best suited the idea, and wrote a brief description. I’ll quote the songs when necessary to show what inspired me in them.
“Bargain” by The Who
This is a live version, and the spoken intro inspired the game idea more than the song itself.
“This is a song about what you get for being here, if you’re alive [...] you’re gettin’ a bargain.”
This made me think of the classic “selling your soul” scenario. You’ve made a “bargain” in order to preserve your own life, but you know that some day your debt will need to be repaid. The being you’ve bargained with could be supernatural (like a demon who magically sustains your life) or terrestrial (such as an unethical doctor who uses cutting-edge tech to revive you).
This takes the form of an RPG, with each player taking on the role of person who’s made such a bargain and calling the shots for other player’s savior. The players can expect all their favors to be called in over the course of the game, for different reasons and at different times. Maybe each scene leads to one favor being called in, so the game gets set in motion by the first and gets a last-minute betrayal or change of heart with the last. [Read the rest of this article]
Solving The Sith Problem
Anakin Skywalker prepares for a night of extremely mundane sex.
Since the beginning of Galactic history, there has been the Force. Eventually, sentient beings learned to harness its power for the good of all civilization. Those who chose this path were known as Jedi, or “lightbringer”. Approximately fifteen minutes later, a Jedi decided he’d had enough and decided to not only rebel from the teachings of his Jedi master, but to go murder a busload of space nuns as the first step in a mad plot for galactic domination. This phenomenon proved to be uncomfortably common among Jedi, so much that the Jedi Order decided that there were in fact two sides of the Force — the Light Side and the Dark Side. It is not known at this time when the Jedi Order figured out that the Force was comprised of tiny microorganisms known as midichlorians, but experts speculate this occurred when Dark Jedi provided the Jedi Council with many freshly-killed Jedi for study. Allying with and eventually taking over the Sith pirate organization, these Dark Jedi took on cool names starting in Darth, meaning “bad mother watch your mouth I’m just talkin’ about”. Their last names were always chosen in a secret ceremony involving a great deal of alcohol and the ancient Sith incantation “you know what would sound bad ass”?
For hundreds of thousands of years, the Light and the Dark have clashed — spanning several wars and the deaths of billions of innocent bystanders. Both sides took heavy losses. The Light side was eventually weakened and made progressively more stupid to the point where they were hunted down to near-extinction by people who can’t shoot straight. The Dark side seems to have fared better, having been apparently deprived only of any moisturizing skin products. Therefore, I have studied closely the journey of many Dark Jedi down the road of corruption, and I have come to a simple conclusion:
The Jedi are idiots.
Consider, for a moment, a typical Jedi Padawan. They are found as children, and taught to suppress their emotion for fear they will turn to the Dark Side. This means no anger, no fear, and no strong emotional attachments (especially love). So now take this army of the socially and emotionally hamstrung and then arm them with laser swords, superhuman athletic abilities, and the ability to control minds. They are then sent all over the galaxy and placed into incredibly dangerous situations, putting them under an enormous amount of psychological strain, and then forbid them to so much as go on a date or have a BFF. We’re lucky the Star Wars saga isn’t all about The Galactic League of Super-Rapists vs. the (comparatively) heroic Sith.
The Jedi sit and meditate a lot. You’d think they’d have figured out the reason their pupils keep freaking out and going all chokey and shocky is because they’ve been repressed their whole lives. You’d think they’d figure out that perhaps people who haven’t been infected with mystical bacteria, even those in power, frequently do not try to take over the world when their girlfriend breaks up with them. But no, the Jedi Order likes to tell their students tales like “you can’t love anyone because this one time these two Jedi twins loved the same girl, and then they fought, and the whole planet blew up”. What better reason to let your students vent once in awhile than if they are giant bombs powered by repressed emotions? It’s SCIENCE, people.
Fortunately, since the entire Jedi Council was killed for being stupid, starting over will be easy. The new guy wasn’t raised by emotionally-crippling idiots (though he does get a little whiney at times and was trained hastily in a swamp by a Muppet). Let’s make sure new Jedi don’t wind up all screwed up by treating them like regular folk. Let’s let them have families. Sure, they’d be away for long periods of time. Just think of them as truckers who only carry one thing — AWESOME. Seriously, how much different would the prequels have turned out if Anakin hadn’t been denied anything but a secret relationship with Padme (provided they could get past that 20 year age difference)? They’d meet, fall in love, and then when Palpatine started going around spinning lies Anakin would just slice him up and serve him at the Jedi Holiday Banquet. Little known fact: the Jedi are cannibals, but they can only eat meat carved by a lightsaber. That’s why they use them instead of blasters. Do you think they let all that delicious hand-meat go to waste? Mace Windu’s famous Manual Chili begs to differ.
As for the existing Jedi, let’s take them out and get them laid. Let’s take them to a bar, making sure to tell them not to focus on the guy selling death sticks but instead to levitate a drink over to that hot Twi’Lek in the corner. Let’s let them shove their lightsabers into something besides a blast door. Let’s make sure a Light side Jedi never has to Force Choke anything ever again. Or we can get them therapy. But that doesn’t have any good double entendres.
Together, we can save the galaxy – one Jedi’s virginity at a time.
(Photo credit, and apologies to Chris Pirillo. )
Critical Hits Podcast #23: Tomb of Horrors Actual Play (Part 2)
Running the 4e conversion of the Tomb of Horrors (from the DM Rewards program) continues. In part 1, the party ventured into the Tomb and explored the first hallway, encountering pit traps and riddles. At the end of the hallway, they ignore a certain green devil face (with a darkened mouth) to all leap into a portal. We pick up right there afterward.
As one precaution, there’s a bit of combat in this one. If you’re not a fan of 4e combats, you might want to be prepared to skip through some of this.
Tomb of Horrors Actual Play, Part 2 (61 minutes, 29 MB)
[Download iPod version | Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]
Opening Theme: “Exciting Trailer” by Kevin MacLeod
Chatty’s Mailbag: Good Troll Hunting
Last week, I got an interesting email from M. asking advice about dealing with “That Guy” in his RPG group. Contrary to the ones we discussed in that panel in Toronto, everything seems to indicate that M.’s guy is NOT one to get the generic “you have to be the flexible one to fit him in your game” answer. Quite the contrary.
Here goes:
I need some advice because I’m at my wits end.
Scene 1: The bandits who had attempted to extract a toll from the party for using the road now lie dead at their feet. The party naturally begins to search their bodies for anything of value to them. The gnome bard (brand new player, very first session with us) locates two rubies. He botches a thievery check to slip them into his pocket unnoticed.
The Half-Orc rogue (problem player) decides he’s going to march over to the gnome, lift him by his throat and intimidate him for trying to pocket the rubies. Tension begins.
See here, being the kind of DM I am, I would immediately stop the game right there and have a “players to players to DM” discussion about everyone’s personal thoughts on treasure sharing and willingness to explore thievery, intimidation and bullying as character development themes. I’m doing a little bit of BSing here because I’m 95% sure that “problem player’s” problem is that he’s an incorrigible jerk… but I’d give the bullying player a chance to realize what he’s doing and I’d give the players a chance to take say something and not let their DM do this alone.
Scene 2: The party are doing fairly well making their way through a goblin hideout in the mountains. They then locate a closet filled with items confiscated from the goblin’s prisoners. The bard finds a magic shortsword. He splits the rest of the loot, but decides to keep the shortsword for himself (which is fine, I intended it for him). The problem player begins to whine and complain that the shortsword is much better suited for him and even declares that the bard needs to watch himself because the sword will go missing.
Later after the goblin king is down, the rogue loots him before anyone can get two words in edgewise. And as soon as they locate the treasure hold that the key goes to, he cuts everyone off again and declares that he’s grabbing as much loot as he can. I try to fight this off by him discovering a holy symbol +1 to is clearly meant for their cleric. He informs me that it’s okay that the bard keeps the sword, he’ll sell the holy symbol and use the gold he found for a better weapon anyway.
All right, there’s no question your problem player is a acting like a jerk as such but you have another big problem I’ll go into later. For your more obvious issue, you’d need to deal with with it in a direct way. Talk to every other player between games and get their opinions on the matter, they’ll likely echo your feelings. After that, meet your problem player one on one and share, in a straightforward, assertive way, what you and the others don’t like about the way he plays.
No ‘Mr. Nice Guy roundabout, no vague but “obvious” hints. Go for the kill: “We don’t like it when you… When you said/did that thing, we all felt XYZ and so on.
I touched this subject in two previous articles that might be of interest to people with similar issues:
The Stages of a RPG Team’s Development: Norming: At the end I discuss dealing with selfish players, which acting like a jerks is a very common manifestation.
Friday Chat: Dealing with Aggressive/Jerk Players: A similar mailbag article where I share my very strong position on such players.
However M., your second case indicates something important I missed when I first answered your email. Your group has a treasure sharing problem that should be addressed real quick. All this talk of slipping gems unnoticed and “deciding”‘ that a piece of equipment is now the possession of X mearly by grabbing it first is a disaster waiting to happen.
In fact, I think that your socially disruptive player has honed in on that weakness. Troublemakers often have a knack at putting their fingers on what doesn’t quite work in a game and breaking it open for better disruption. Most of the hat-assery you relate in your letter seem to support that theory.
When the PCs who get magic items are determined by who rushes the bodies first, that’s a recipe for trouble. Modern “vanquish and loot” RPGs are about team play and that can’t stop as soon as the last breathing orc expires or runs away. This should be addressed, either informally or within a more formal agreement known as the social contract (as I discussed in the first document linked above).
But I haven’t let M. finish, go ahead friend…
I’ve had about all I can take of this player. Every character he has ever played has always behaved in a way the shows that he has to be bigger and better than everyone else. And when I confront him about it, he just argues it’s what his character would do and that I asked them to roleplay and that’s what he’s doing. I’m fairly sure there should be a jackass clause in there somewhere.
Yes, there should… but it won’t spontaneously appear in your group sans discussions.
In addition, he whines and complains if something doesn’t work out the way he thinks it should. He complained when the farmers that they were helping defend their farm wouldn’t fight more tactically to help him get into flanking to he can use sneak attack. Another character of his, paladin uses his divine challenge on a blue dragon, then he complains when the dragon is smart enough to focus his attacks on him. It just goes on and on and on.
Yup, selfish as hell… no doubt. Also, like Robin said in Toronto, some players’ core motivations in a RPG is to disrupt the groups social dynamics, all the time. Like those who always play ninjas or elven bards, some players always create bullying asocial brutes and blame the PC for their own acts…
…AKA Trolls.
Hey McBrain! You made the character, hello!
These are the hobby’s rotten apples, throw them away… If they’re a good friend of yours, now’s the time to have a good heart to heart about your shared social activities.
I’m at a lost as to what to do about this player. I feel like I put a lot of effort and time into planning these games and after each I go home wondering why the hell I even bother.
All tough talk aside dude, I really feel your pain. Here are my final suggestions:
- End the campaign, blame DM burnout if you don’t want to confront your problem player
- Start a new one, minus Captain Jerk
- Have players do a group character creation session
- Discuss common group values (both as players and as PCs), including how to deal with treasures
- Start having fun again
Anyone else had/have similar issues? How did you deal with it? Anything you’d like to share with M.?
Image taken from http://ancienthomeofdragon.homestead.com/
Inquisition: Do You Like Essentials?
We haven’t done an Inquisition of the Week in a while, and though we don’t plan on doing them every week I will simply call this an Inquisition as we will be doing one every now and then. Today I’d like to ask all of you about the Essentials line of products for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition that are releasing this month, starting with the Red Box (which Phil reviewed here) that is already out and continuing for the next few months with the limited run of products. This month we see the release of the D&D Rules Compendium, Dungeon Tiles Master Set: The Dungeon, and Heroes of the Fallen Lands that introduces new rules, builds, and options for the most iconic D&D classes – the Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, and Rogue.
Though a lot of what is being introduced with Essentials falls into the category of new options, there is also new errata that includes a handful of changes to the base game that bring things a bit more in line with some of the design philosophies behind Essentials. I am still on the fence about some things that are presented in Essentials but for the most part I like the changes being made to parts of 4E that I have been struggling with for the last two years such as magic items. One of the big things I am still reserved about is the new builds for classes such as the Slayer Fighter that changes the role that class fills, meaning you can have a fighter in your group that is a striker. [Read the rest of this article]
Loading ...
