Monthly Archives: September 2015

RPGs

Old School Two Part Mapping

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While preparing for my upcoming play test, I made a map of the level that I can show the players. Instead of re-drawing the whole thing by hand, or scanning and printing to make a GM copy, I used a sheet protector. I put the map in a sheet protector and I have pens with Red, Blue, and Green ink that I can make GM notes.

So at the table, I can take it out of the sheet protector to show the players, and put it back to see where things are for the GM.

I have to make sure and line it up correctly so I don’t enact a location base encounter at the wrong time. This is not hard to do.

Since the sheet protector is two-sided, I can put another area in, or draw it on the back of the same page as the other map, and get use of the entire thing.

The drawbacks are that I can’t use this sheet protector for anything else if I mark it with permanent ink. I’m not worried, this sheet protector is probably 25 years old. I bought a pack of 100 sheet protectors on sale for about $7.00 a couple months ago, so I’m not worried about running out.

This old sheet protector does not seem like it would work with a dry erase marker. It is different than my other old sheet protectors. Because it is so old, I didn’t even worry about making permanent marks on it.

Sharpies or other permanent markers could also be used.

So there you have an old school way of doing it. If you didn’t have easy access to a copy machine or nowadays if you don’t have easy access to a scanner, you can make one map do the work of two.

This came to mind as I was in my mapping groove. Not the quality of all the great cartographers online. But I didn’t want to have to get up, come in the office, and scan the map as I made various degrees of changes. I have a U-shaped configuration of tables set up with all the gaming materials, and the sheet protectors were right there, along with all my colored pens.

I still had to scan my maps so I can use them online. I can print out extra copies, or backup copies, or a physical copy I can mark up or modify.

RPGs

Metamorphosis Alpha at UCon

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I just submitted an event to run a session of Metamorphosis Alpha at UCon in November.

If you don’t plan to attend UCon, I am trying to get some play testers to make sure my planned content flows and that there is enough to fill four hours. I have a game scheduled for Friday, September 11, from 7:00 PM – Midnight Eastern. I use Roll20 and Google Hangouts. If possible, I would like to set a time to get characters created before then.

If you are interested in playing Friday, let me know, and I will send you an invite to the Hangout and the Roll20 campaign. I have one player lined up for Friday, and others who previously indicated interest. I need 5 more players, and can run it with two or more, but more is better.

With sufficient interest, I can run it again on Saturday. I will have room for six players.

My plan is to make this a regular campaign, but the more immediate need is to play test this scenario. I haven’t ran Metamorphosis Alpha or played it in over 30 years, so I need just a bit of a refresher before attempting this at a con.

RPGs

SKILL LEVEL OF THE CITY WATCH/TOWN GUARD

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Here are some ideas for how to determine the skill and effectiveness of the city watch.

Skill Level:  d6
1.) Incompetent – Due to being corrupt, apathy, ignorance, stupidity, asshole, drunkard, or combination.
2.) Raw Recruit – Means well but doesn’t know all the tricks. Makes mistakes out of ignorance and inexperience.
3.) Experienced – Doing this a while and had seen a few things. – Depending on level of motivation knows how to avoid reprimands and extra duty.
4.) Veteran/Seasoned – Doing this a while and had seen a few things.
5.) Skilled – Shows leadership potential, energy, drive, thoroughness.
6.) Leadership Quality – Waiting for an opening, or just good at the job and doesn’t want the added responsibility.

NOTE: A bribed in the pocket guard may not be incompetent. They may be very skilled and do their job correctly, accurately, and conscientiously, except for the one/group who owns them. They could be owned by threat of force rather than being bribed or a willing member of the network. Being under a charm or suggestion is also a possibility.

Training:
Similar to skill level is training. Are there regular drills? Are the guards familiar with the laws and do they apply them correctly?

Performance:
The way the guard goes about performing their duties will have a big effect. Are they too lenient or brutal in their enforcement? Guards that are too lenient, too strict, or too brutal will all have a negative impact on how the citizens view them.

Condition of the guard: d8
-Individually, at a particular post or roving squad, or the entire town. A post might be a specific gate, tower, neighborhood, etc. Festivals, celebrations, and quality of leadership can also affect this.
1.) -Alert – paying attention
2.) -Unobservant
3.) -High Alert – Monster incursions, assassination attempt, etc.
4.) -Nervous
5.) -Apathetic
6.) -Drunk
7.) -Drugged
8.) -Incapacitated

Motivation: d10
1. ) -Eh, it’s a job
2.) -I love my job and want to be the best!
3.) -Bribed – Will only go along as long as they don’t get caught.
4. ) -On the Take – Irregular payments from an individual or an organization.
5.) -Blackmailed – Item or loved one at risk. Remove the risk and the motivation changes.
6.) -Charmed – May have been charmed by an adventure party or the local wizard. Perhaps a town with a powerful wizard in charge has charmed all the town guard to make sure he isn’t interrupted, root out the thieve’s guild, etc. What happens when they make their save? Is their charm a potion in their food or drink?
7.) -I live here and so does my family. My job keeps them safe.
8.) -Conscript – I don’t want to be here, but I have too.
9.) -Bully – Likes telling others what to do.
10.) -Plant/Fake – Group of NPC’s have impersonated/replaced/joined the guard for some unknown reason. Monsters seeking to take the city, rob a tomb or temple, take out rivals, doppelganger, demon, etc. Will fit in so as not to be noticed. May not be able to withstand magical scrutiny, a la known alignment, detect magic, true seeing, etc.

Morale:
As usual, the level of pay, training, and rewards from management will affect morale. A detail on the gate to the rich part of town would most likely have a better morale and be more likely to do a good job. A small town in the midst of a drought, famine, monster incursion, military invasion, or other economic downturn might have guards that feel helpless and who won’t stand and fight. In addition to the backstory developed by the DM, the events unleashed on the campaign by the players could have far reaching and unintended consequences.

Strictness – The Law/Chaos scale is helpful to a degree. This can vary from a simple, stay out of trouble and don’t get the town leadership’s attention. The extreme would be any law broken must be attended to and the appropriate judgement and penalties distributed. Would a bar fight get you run out of town or locked up for a period of time? What if you got in a fight with a rival? Would it result in a price on your head? Are the town guard law enforcement officers looking for sources of revenue through fines for infractions of a huge legal code, or keepers of the peace looking to keep thing quiet?

Location – A border town whether it is between kingdoms, or the last bastion of civilization in the area will tend to have guards that are more alert. If not, the town is easy pickings for invasion/infestation. However, border towns can still have a poor quality of guard overall. Cities on the interior of a kingdom might have lax guards who have grown soft and are not up to an invasion or monster incursion.

Equipment – The type of weapons and armor and it’s quality will have an effect on the effectiveness and morale of the guard. If all they have is a badge and a nightstick, they won’t be of much use against a fully equipped party. If they all have plate mail, they won’t be up to a foot chase against unarmored miscreants.

If the gates, portcullis, battlements and walls are in disrepair, it will have some effect on morale. If there was an illusionist in power, a permanent illusion to hide the true condition of the walls could make a big difference to morale. As long as guards weren’t falling through holes, or walls were collapsing, it would work, Mysteriously injured and missing guards would have the opposite effect.

Quality of Officers – This will be similar to the skill level. A new lieutenant due to a political appointment, might want to do a good job but be incompetent from inexperience. Or they might just view it as an opportunity to order people around, and not really get the nature of the duties and responsibilities of the guard. Internal politics of a town or city could influence this also.

If officers are bullies and unresponsive to the needs of their men, this will impact morale. If there is cause for fighting on the walls, officers could have the equivalent of being fragged. For example, the men could fall back in fighting and let them fall, or push them over the wall.

Group Dynamic – Is the guard as an organization honorable and do their best to keep order and keep the town safe? If there is corruption, is it limited to a single gate or neighborhood, or is the whole guard corrupt? Does the corruption go all the way to the top? For example, if the thieve’s guild owns the town guard, do they also control the leadership? Is the leader of the town secretly the guild master of the thieve’s guild?

Popular Sentiment – How does the town view the guard? Are they corrupt, but keep the peace and keep the town safe? Or are they corrupt and a burden to the town? Is the leader/government of the town in on the corruption? Do any problems that get out of hand draw the attention of the nearest feudal overlord, or the king?

Other Groups – In addition the religious institutions, merchants,  guilds, farmers, and others with a stake in how the guards perform their duties. Will the leader of the main temple get involved? Will the mages guild decide to step in for the good of the town, or their own motivations?

How do all the motivations and goals of all the various groups that make up the town or city mesh? If all the groups in a town are more concerned with their own group’s agenda rather than the safety of the place, the guard may not be the best. If most of the groups understand that if the town is not safe that it doesn’t matter what their group’s goal is, then the guard is likely to be better funded and trained.

If town is only a placeholder of civilization to rest and resupply between forays into the local dungeon, then you may not need much detail on the guard. However, if you plan on a lot of city/town adventures, you will want to think about how all of these things inform what kind of guards the PC’s will encounter.

 

RPGs

Other Side Effects/Consequences of Heat and Cold Based Spells

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The idea came to me the other day, when someone is hit with a Cone of Cold spell, there is a sudden temperature drop, and they take damage if they are in the area of affect. Even if they save they take half damage.

The thing is such a sudden temperature drop that causes such drastic cold would cause some degree of frost bite and at the very least hypothermia. With hypothermia, the blood pulls away from the extremities, thus people with severe frostbite having black fingers and losing them. Hypothermia causes those affected to become tired. On the long march back from Moscow of  Napoleon’s army, many soldiers just laid down and died because they didn’t have the energy to keep marching. Thus the efforts of others in the same situation to keep everyone awake, and for rescuers to do the same.

Perhaps a severe temperature drop might be a welcome thing in a hot and humid jungle, but on a cold day, a mountain top, or the depths of winter, not so much.

Similarly with heat and fire based spells, in addition to some degree and portion of the body affected with burns, there could also be heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Heat might be welcome on the frozen tundra, but the steamy jungles or arid scorching desert would be most unhelpful.

Electrical attacks would have effects similar to those hit with high voltage. Lightning bolts should cause injuries on par with being struck by lightning. People hit by lightning often have toes blown off.

I don’t think there needs to be a special table or other additional mechanic or rule for this. this is just something to keep in mind to add some flavor when describing the scene.

If a character takes the full brunt of a cone of cold and fails their save, and still live, they should be shivering with cold, fingers, toes, earlobes, and face stinging from the cold. Fingers slow to grasp things. Metal chilled to freezing temperatures is most unpleasant to hold in already cold and bare hands. For example, a thief trying to pick a lock soon after receiving an icy blast might not be up to the task at peak performance right away. I speak of this from personal experience.

Similarly with a fire base spell or attack,and just how sever the burns are, i.e. first, second or third degree; and how much of the person is affected. One can use the Rule of 9’s to explain the percentage of the body affected.

One can add a bit more realism to the game with just some descriptions and throwing a wrench into the plans. Every game I have ever played where a player is hit by a fireball, cone of cold, or lightning bolt, the player runs their character like nothing happened and keeps going. Other than the change in hit points getting their attention and making them more desperate or more cautious, most don’t play it showing that they have a boo boo.

I know how much I jump when I touch an electric fence by mistake, how cranky I get when I get super cold, and how angry I feel when I get bacon grease on the back of my hand. Add in all the appropriate expletives to let the world how miserable those things have made me. Imagine that magnified a hundred or a thousand times.

Perhaps it is something players should keep more in mind when playing characters affected by these things. I’m not saying that one should aim for an Oscar winning performance. If your style of role playing is just descriptive of what your character is doing, you can still add this bit of flair to it. I know that I am still able to see the action a players describes in my head. That is, I see the scene, be it a room in a dungeon, bar at a tavern, or along a trail, I have an image in my head of what the GM describes and place the characters in the scene. Just like with reading a book, I can make my own “movie” out of it.

Some memorable event in the later re-telling, we all see it and laugh or console each other with each re-telling of our favorite actions from a particularly memorable session. We can bore to tears anyone who wasn’t there. But when even a mere mention with the right group can take everyone back to that moment.

If your thief is suddenly frosted by a cone of cold and says something that fits the situation perfectly, whether serious or humorous, the rest of the party, and the DM will remember it.