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The Main Event is an alumni of Dickinson College and The University of Miami Law School. He writes dungeon mastering advice in his Pain of Campaigning series. Now a practicing attorney in Maryland specializing in Wills, Trusts, and Estates, The Main Event is an aspiring author and always looking for new clients or avenues of publication.
Review: “DC Adventures: Hero’s Handbook” RPG
My only major purchase at Gen Con was the DC Adventures: Hero’s Handbook RPG, which is an updated version of Mutants and Masterminds. After playing in a demo run by (I believe) game designer Steven Kenson, I was certain it was just the superhero flavor I had been looking for many moons. I haven’t run my own adventure yet, but I did play a demo. Here are my thoughts:
Critical Hits
- Emphasizing Style Over Crunch: Make no mistake, this system is EXTREMELY crunchy. There are rules for the entire gamut of comic books, but the game does a great job emphasizing the difference between mechanics and the in-game explanation of powers. If you shoot a bolt of energy, it doesn’t matter if its fire, lightning, awesomeness, or willpower, it all has the same basic framework with tons of modifiers to suit your fancy. [Read the rest of this article]
The Left Hand of God: Review and Contest
Background
A nominally young adult novel set in a dystopian world that mirrors our own past, The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman is a book of impressive vision and puzzling inconsistencies that ultimately provides a gruesome, but highly enjoyable read. The book follows the trials and travails of a young boy named Cale raised in a brutal dogmatic monastery of a twisted parody of Christianity. His life is forever changed upon witnessing a deed horrifying even to his own warped perspective.
Setting
The world has a religious martyr named the Hanged Redeemer, but this isn’t the cuddly Crucified Martyr we all know. The followers of this religion are engaged in a bloody civil war much like the Reformation period. Very little information is given about what the differences are between the Redeemers and the Antagonists (who don’t appear on camera), but we can loosely assume that the Redeemers are dogmatic quasi-Catholics and the Antagonists are revolutionary thinking quasi-Protestants. The Redeemers are headquartered at The Sanctuary, a place where children are taken from parents to be turned into brutal lifelong soldiers. There they eat boiled feet (?), are made to recite prayers that lose all meaning, and suffer constantly brutality under at the hands of the Redeemers. The book moves from the Sanctuary to the world at large, which is terrifying and awful in its indulgences rather than its depredations. The ambiguous quasi-historical nature of the book is intriguing, if occasionally puzzling, while some of the plot holes in the cultural fabrics that inhabit the world is puzzling in a more aggravating way. We’re told that the children eat terribly (and the feet of cadavers, potentially), yet they grow strong. The world’s most powerful nation is made up of heavily armored nobles that refuse to field archers or siege weapons, but have virtually conquered the world. These strange points annoy me, and perhaps will be answered later, but for now are quizzical stray steps from and otherwise dark quirky world.
Story
The story progresses linearly, with certain plot points withheld until they become relevant. Other plot points are dangled at astute readers, but end up resulting in nothing. Hopefully, this is because they become relevant in a sequel, but it’s frustrating when they’re handled so brazenly. As for the parcels of story that come abruptly, the characters reluctance to disclose their full past is well-explained, but a few times this lack of information comes across as cheap. It’s easy to forgive a bit of chicanery, as the characters are interesting. The protagonist struggles between the harsh lessons of his life and the emerging gentler visions he sees. His comrades are amusing, though more archetypal than well-developed. The plot whisks along fast- sometimes too fast. Again, huge plot points drop on the reader like exposition filled anvils from the sky. It’s unsubtle, but it keeps the book from being dull. The climax itself is bizarrely devoid of anything but forced character involvement and oddly precise compared to the brutal and visceral violence early in the book. Yet, the aftermath of the book sets up a sequel in an interesting, and unexpected, way.
Overall
B-. As with many fantasy series, this book exists as much to set the stage as tell a story on its own. Despite my gripes, I found myself liking the story more the more I read. Similar to The Darkness That Comes Before the book is not without its faults, but it does plenty enough to pique my curiosity for reading its sequel. Check for a contest to give away some free copies of the novel.
The Left Hand of God Contest
You may have read the preceding review, or you may not have. It doesn’t matter either way, because you can play the contest regardless. The book’s title sound suitably fantasyish, doesn’t it? Well, that my friends is the basis of our contest. Come up with a description for “The Left Hand of God” to be used in an RPG setting. If it impresses our judges enough, you win a copy of the novel! You can make it a plot hook, crunch it out as a 4E item, or even make it an NPC (perhaps it can hang out with the Atropal). Just leave your entry in a comment (or a link to your entry in a comment) to enter.
Contest opens today and ends by the end of Friday, August 20th. Panel of judges will select their top 5 entries, and each of those entrants will win a copy of the novel Left Hand of God. Entrants must provide a valid email address to be eligible so we can contact the winners. Entries can be disqualified at our sole discretion (especially if they infringe upon existing content.)
The Guest DM
Occasionally, DMs need a break. In long-running highly developed game worlds players may find that there are parts of the campaign or the world that they are particular interested in. If they notice that the DM needs a break, but is still is gung-ho about his game, this presents a golden opportunity. Running a single adventure in the regular DM’s game world is an unusual break for him and a change of place for the players. To be successful requires communication between the standard DM and the guest DM, an understanding about the place in the campaign of your solo adventure, and the right personalities to embrace and enjoy the role reversal.
First, the anecdotal example I’m using: I am part of a long running SAGA Star Wars campaign. Its timeline began after the end of Revenge of the Sith and has already seen one set of 19th level characters enter semi-retirement. Amongst those characters was my accidental Jedi Master. My DM and I agreed it was time to put him on a bus because he had hung around too long and didn’t fit the fluff of the era. He started off as a guest character/macguffin doomed to die, but for whatever reason he managed to keep escaping his destined fate. So, I agreed to have him leave. He took a power that let him masquerade as if he was a dark side character and secretly “joined” the Emperor and his Empire with the identity of an Inquisitor he had vanquished. Now, the new PCs were being sent in to infiltrate his compound (at my suggestion) and I offered to run it as a “reverse dungeon.”
For starters, this Star Wars game is very big on its in-game canon. As such, weeks ahead of time I made a nice flowchart of the adventure to show what would happen. Last minute adventure prep is not the way to go here. The nuts and bolts of the adventure were fine, but my DM made sure to insert the correct proper nouns into the mission fluff. It was a bit more formally planned than usual for me, but I felt it was important to assuage any concerns about me planning on giving the party millions of credits to ruin the game. For the procrastinating DMs out there, this is a bit of a change, but it’s a sacrifice that has to be made in such a collaborative effort. If you try to run an adventure like this, be prepared for tinkering of some kind. It may be with the core of the adventure itself, however, the important thing is to make sure that you’re on the same wavelength and not get too married to any one idea. Campaigns are the DM’s precious baby, and it’s only natural that they may be a bit of a helicopter parent when it comes to loosening the reigns.
Second, you want to make sure you know about where your adventure takes place in the campaign as a whole. In my example, the DM has been using three parties on a rotating basis. He wanted a story option that would explain phasing out one party (if the players chose to do so) and a way to gracefully have a character whose player left bow out. This was done by having the entire “mission” against my old character be an elaborate ruse for him to make contact with Rebel elements and hire the mercenaries that undertook the attack against him. It could also be a simple side quest without any real tie to the game at large. Even so, you can always ask to use certain minor NPCs to give them more development in the game world as a whole. Be wary about making the adventure revolve around your current character. Bringing back retired favorites for a cameo is fine, but don’t have the game devolve into a wankfest.
In addition, both the DM and the DM-substitute need to be easy-going enough to allow their creativity to be tinkered with. In my case, the regular DM and I have played games with each other for nearly 15 years. We respect one another’s playing and DMing, so it was not a hard sell. Even so, he had to deal with my general disinterest in Star Wars equipment and pseudo-science during the adventure and I had to deal with his “interpretation” of the character he was playing (read: he was hamming it up as a player). It was all well and good, but you have to willing to accept the differences in the game. Moreover, you need players that are willing to accept an abrupt change in style. While I blew at least four different rules calls during the game, I also let players automatically succeed more often even if the rules called for a check. I killed off mooks that were close to dead rather than meticulously keeping track of hit points. In the end, you just have to have a group that’s focused on fun and unique play over consistency and regularity.
Guest DMing can give a player a chance to flex his DMing muscles, the old DM a brief respite, and a chance for a new take on the game world and the game itself for the players. It requires collaboration, a good working rapport, and an open-minded group, but the opportunity and uniqueness of the change is well worth the effort.
Tabletop RPGs and Music: The Beautiful Thieves
Inspiration for adventures, campaigns, and characters oftentimes come from the same shared geek sources. If your play group is a mirror of your social circle, chances are you share the same touchstones of inspiration: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, a few book series, some choice TV shows, and shared experiences from the past. As such, if I were to introduce a debilitated gunslinger to my RPG group the would roll their eyes at me and say “Doc Holiday from Tombstone, AGAIN?!” While it’s perfectly legitimate (and even encouraged!) to use shared sources as fodder for your RPGS, sometimes using an unusual source subject to interpretation is superior. Music can be evocative of particular emotions and aesthetics, but possess lyrics sparse enough to spark imagination and allow you, as the GM/DM or player creating a character, to own the concept while still owing your inspiration to another source.
Every RPGer struggles to make their game special. No one wants to run a forgettable, generic game. In my opinion, music can very easily fuel ideas for unique campaign settings, adventure, or character concepts. As a player, in TheGame’s notorious Kitchen Sink D&D game, I chose Frog from Chrono Trigger’s theme song for my idealist psionicist team leader, Levi Black (kudos if you figure out where I ripped that name off from). Hearing that song, even today, really puts me in the character’s shoes (sorry Frog you were great too!) As a GM I offered an XP bonus to anyone that picked a character theme song and explained to me why they chose it. When I was planning adventures I’d key up those songs to help me evoke the character and their attitude and persona. [Read the rest of this article]
The Plot Kill
Like the unfettered dawn shall he blind us, and burn us, yet shall the Dragon Reborn confront the Shadow at the Last Battle, and his blood shall give us the Light. Let tears flow, O ye people of the world. Weep for your salvation.
– Wheel Of Time Series, Prophecy of the Dragon.
In the ongoing debate of killing of PCs and total party kills, one aspect of PC death is often left out: The Plot Kill. Having turned Plot Kills into defining campaign moments and having received some memorable Plot Kills myself, I think the concept warrants discussion.
First, to define Plot Kill: situations in which the DM plans for a PC death and executes either with or without mechanics. Examples could be playing out a “Last Stand” against a never ending horde of minions (played out to see how long the other characters actually have to make an escape) or requiring a PC to sacrifice himself to contain the essence of a mad god (no roll required). In this article I am going to discuss the guidelines of planning a Plot Kill, advise DMs on how to handle these occasions, and make a case to DMs for turning EVERY PC death into a Plot Kill. [Read the rest of this article]
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