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Deven Rue – A New Website

If you are a fan of the cartographer and overall creative genius, Deven Rue, you may have noticed that her website rueink.com isn’t working.

This is because she changed her URL to devenrue.com. So update your bookmarks and check out her new site. Wow, did she ever make it look cool!

She also has a Patreon and her website is designed to cater to her Patrons. She offers a cartography course, and a birthday option to get cool things on your birthday. There are many other tiers each with their own rewards.

So if you like maps and props for your table, then visit her site, and support her Patreon to help her keep making cool things!

To say I’m a fan, is an understatement. I’ve enjoyed her work since before she started her Patreon, and backed her Patreon before things really took off for her after her first mention on Critical Role.

The initial display of Deven Rue’s new website. It rotates between different images.

Noteboards Leaving U.S.

Stattys, the company that owns Noteboard is closing their US branch. They have a 20% off sale using the code
“we-wish-you-well”

I have one and just in case, bought another using this code.

I am not affiliated with the company.

These were all the rage in the G+ days. If you don’t get one now, you’ll be paying European shipping prices to get one.

It has a grid on one side and blank on the other. Use a wet or dry erase marker and you’ve got a portable flip map for minis or just drawing a map to show players. Great for use at convention games.

Here’s their website: https://thenoteboard.com/

I bought one a few years ago. I first used it at Gary Con 11 in 2019. The very first game I used it, I got distracted and used a permanent marker. Thankfully, going over it with the permanent marker in short sections make it relatively easy to erase.

A few years ago when the original crew behind Noteboard was seeking a buyer, I considered buying it, but didn’t think I had the right capital or experience. Part of me wishes that I’d at least tried to get it.

I’m not sure if I’m the first to blog about Stattys closing their U.S. location, but I am sure the effects of COVID-19 are a big part of this decision.

I Must Be Doing Something Right

Yesterday, I woke up from a nap to see the following on the Discord server for my Sunday Roll20 AD&D game. [Listen to the companion podcast here.]

I made a comment of appreciation and got this reply.

I guess I’m going something right, this is how I feel about my brother Robert’s game. If I didn’t live nearly 600 miles away, I’d do something about that.

One thing I’ve found about a campaign world you engage in, is that it becomes an important part of your life. The creativity feeds an itch you can’t otherwise scratch. The bonding with family and friends is a great way to have stories that are over the top hilarious to us, and without a long set up to give background, are maybe a chuckle from others who weren’t there.

I think this is why things like Critical Role are so popular. It is an invitation to participate in the game world and the fans buy in with creativity on their side. There is fan art, fan fiction, fan cosplay, etc.

While they are not rolling dice and actually playing the game, they are still going along for the ride, filling in the blanks with their own imagination, just as in any RPG game, or a radio show, or reading a book. They are getting the creative, living in the moment, as observers of the heroes, and are essentially seeing the same benefit as playing does. The audience is like the crowd in the streets observing the heroes. They are unnamed NPC’s.

Some say the not actually playing the game doesn’t make them real fans of the game. I bet if they could find a group, they’d play.

I can only hope that all DMs/GMs can evoke a living world with the collaboration of their players. Once the world comes alive for the players, they will get hooked. It came alive for me as DM the moment the players started interacting with it.

Session summaries

Having write ups of a game session is helpful to keep track of when the party was where, and whom they met, and what they did.

I first experienced session summaries, as an official thing players can do to earn XP, in the AD&D [Affiliate Link] campaign, Graveyard of Empires, of over four years of Wednesday nights. I’ve written about it many times. The DM gives 150 XP per level, so at 7th level, I’m earning 1,050 XP per session. John, the DM, wants at least one player to do an “official” summary, but each player can participate. We used a G+ group for this.

For the AD&D campaign, John made us pay for training. After awhile, he modified the Session Summary award for virtual GP equal to our XP awards that could be used to pay for training, and could be shared with others.

John carried on with that in the two year Stars Without Number [Affiliate Link] campaign, and now the follow-up to the original campaign, called After The Fall, using OSE [Affiliate Link]. The Stars Without Number game was posted to a Discord server. For After The Fall we are using a wiki software called MediaWiki that the GM hosts on his website.

My Campaigns

I use session summaries that I write as GM for my games, to ensure I don’t lose track of anything. I write them for the players, as I know what the GM needs to know, but also sprinkle in some things they didn’t necessarily know to reward them for reading it. I used the free Campaign Wiki site. It requires manual formatting, but is simple, and one can export it to text or HTML.

I first did this with my AD&D [Affiliate Link] campaign, The Broken Lands, and then the Delving Deeper campaign, Delver’s Deep. With Delver’s Deep I also put it into the Markdown editor Joplin. Joplin has a desktop and an Android and iPhone app and it can be synced vie Dropdown or similar service.

It may seem like a lot of work, but the information is built over time. the most amount of work is getting the starting information the players need, and to cross-link things as they begin interacting with the world. After 10, 20, 30, and now 43 sessions, The Broken Lands wiki looks quite impressive.

For the most part I try to do the summaries right after the session so it is more complete. I do this for both the Wednesday night campaigns and my campaigns.

The Benefits

There are several benefits for a campaign wiki:

  • The GM has a handy cross-linked reference to minimize forgetting what the players know and keep track of multiple threads of information.
  • Diligent players can keep up with things, and also have a reference.
  • New players or players that miss a session can more easily get up to speed with what is going on.
  • It could be the basis for a novel or short stories, or help create modules based on the campaign.

My First Experience With Campaign Summaries

Campaign summaries are nothing new to me. Back in the day when I first played Griswald, the namesake of Follow Me, And Die! i wrote up a personal summary of what Griswald did. I maintained that for every session for a few years of real time, and over ten years of game time. I did this because my brother Robert, my first and favorite DM, has a very rich campaign world. It is about 36 years old. Now his wife and kids and spouses play in it.

I still have it somewhere, and at one point when I had a decent enough computer, I typed up those notes.

One funny thing is I used the dating system of my brother Robert and I have Griswald at one year ahead of where Robert said I was. He said he was DM and he was right, so I accepted it.

What is your experience with campaign summaries whether back in the day, or more recently?

How I run AD&D

I’ve mentioned bits and pieces of how I run AD&D in various blog article and quick blurbs on various social media, but I don'[t think I’ve ever done a complete explanation.

AD&D (and by that I mean 1st edition), is what I’ve played and ran the most. AD&D is a collection of “modules” that one can use or not use. My preferences for how I run it are largely influenced by how we played it back in the day. One example is weapon speed. We tried it a few times and gave up on it.

In some ways AD&D is a better as a source of an example system for something, like random gems and jewelry. I like a simpler set of rules, like Delving Deeper. The Dungeon Master’s Guide is a great tool for any GM for any game.

AD&D is also a great example of how NOT to organize an RPG rule book. Like rules should be near each other, like height, weight, and age tables. I recall similar things being near each other in the DMG, but that is only my mental catalog, some things have 40 or 50 pages between them. Then there is something like multiple attacks by fighters like 3/2 attacks per round, which is mentioned in a couple places in the Players Handbook and a couple more in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

I used to have a fully functioning catalog and ability to find stuff in the various manuals, but over the years, some things have faded. Things that I recall as near each other, are nowhere near each other. I am slowly getting the pieces needed organized.

Books Used:

For the DM, whatever I want. But generally the Dungeon Masters Guide, Monster Manual, Monster Manual II, and Fiend Folio. I use all kinds of things for planning settlements, lairs, tombs, and dungeons.

For the Players, the Players Handbook and spells from Unearthed Arcana as they discover them.

[All of the above links are Affiliate Links.]

Character Creation

4d6 arrange as desired. I have a rule I call, “But I want it….” that allows players to have the minimums they need to run the sub-classes.

But I Want It – Players wishing to play a class who do not roll the stats for it, can set the minimum stats for those ability scores that are pertinent, but all other stats will be rolled on a d4+8 making their range 9-12.

Starting gold is 3d6 x10.

Hit points are maximum at first level, including the bonus or penalty from Constitution.

Death at -10 Hit Points. Binding wounds stabilizes, but does not bring consciousness. If knocked to negative hit points, you have experience trauma and are out for 1 hour per negative. Magical healing can minimize this.

Birth Date: Calendar is 12 months of 28 days, so d12 for month and 3d10-2 for 1st-28th day of the month.

Alignment: Good and evil are as one does. I have evil characters who are saving the world as long as they continue to get rich off it. Are they truly evil?

Alignment Languages: NONE. We NEVER used them that I can recall back in the day.

Detect Evil – Only beings of great power and consciously and consistently devoted to evil will register. I don’t necessarily play kobolds, goblins, and orcs as evil, just against the status quo of the “civilized” groups. I take this from the DMG. Good or Evil are based on one’s actions. Call yourself evil but if you save children from a burning building, you’re not necessarily evil.

Classes: Players Handbook, bard class document. Any race can play any class. I also allow non-standard multi-class options, like a half-elf cleric/ranger.

Experience Points for casting spells. Spell casters get 100 XP per level of spell they cast that benefits the adventure. The spell has to work, so interrupted spells are just waster, no benefit. I took this from my brother Robert, my first and favorite DM.

Reading Spells – We never required Read Magic to read spells. That’s how I still do it, as do most I have played with. Nor do we require Write to inscribe a spell into a spell book.

Spell Components – We alternated or were not consistent with spell components. sometimes back in the day we were super strict about spell components. Other times we only required components for the big power spells that needed rare or valuable components. In my campaign, I don’t worry about spell components.

Spell Range and Area of Effect – Range is in feet indoors and yards outdoors. Area of Effect is ALWAYS as stated, feet are always feet. It’s easy to confuse this and an enormous AoE gets used, when it really isn’t that big.

Gaining levels. If the party acquires enough loot to level up, they must be in a safe place, such as getting back to town, or a fortified location that allows them to rest up. On the journey across the sands of The Broken Lands, I have ruled that the lairs they cleared out are secure.

Don’t Roll a 1 – When a task is relatively trivial, but there is urgency, danger, etc. I tell players, “Don’t roll a 1.” on a d20. This ratchets up the tension and focuses everyone to watch and see if the 5% chance of failing a simple task under stress thwarts their plans. I use this mostly at convention games, and use it in all games I run, not just AD&D.

Deities – Not really a rule, but they way I’m handling deities in my campaign. Instead of pantheons and all the different bits, the main focus is the general phrase powers of light and powers of darkness. There are individual deities, but few stick to just one. This has a bonus for the home brewing GM. You don’t have to make up a pantheon to fit your world, or file off the serial numbers from another pantheon to make it fit.

The powers of light support life and natural death. The powers of darkness deceive and promise eternal life, that ends up being undeath. This is the good/evil conflict in my campaign.


GM Rulings

As situations come up in the course of play, I make GM rulings and add them to a GM rulings document in Roll20 for the players to see, and to remind me.

Shooting Into Combat – Normally, there is a chance to hit allies. After a fight with an Ettin, I decided to make a formal change, so it is clear. It makes sense to me that when the party is fighting a giant sized creature and no one in the party is Enlarged/Polymorphed/Etc. to also be giant sized, and there is sufficient illumination/vision to see both targets, that there is no chance for friendly fire. I made one formal check and no one was hit. I silently decided not to make further checks to avoid bogging down the combat with discussion. If you do missile fire into the dark or vs. an invisible opponent, even if a giant, there is a chance to hit an ally.

Spell Casting While Invisible – Enlarge does not constitute an attack when cast on an ally. Thus an invisible caster stays invisible. My current party loves to enlarge their tank so he hits harder.

Adding spells from Unearthed Arcana – I added some spells as part of the normal spells, like ceremony, phantom armor, and alter self.

Brazier for summoning Fire Elementals – As per MM p. 37 Elementals can only be summoned once per day per device. A device capable of summoning more than one type, can summon one of each type each day.

3/2 Attacks per Round – Like so many other simple things in AD&D, all the rules for this are scattered. I made a GM ruling that gathers all the information together and how it works.

This rule is all over the place and buried in the Gygaxian prose. It ONLY applies when fighting non 0 Level types. Any classed PC or NPC or monsters of 1 or more Hit Dice. For 0 level types fighter classes get 1 attack per level up to 6 available opponents, if surrounded.

3/2 means every other round of melee you get 2 attacks, once at beginning of the round, and once at end. The first attack goes first, in spite of the initiative.

This is made clear on page 63 of the DMG (see quote below in yellow) that the 3/2 means every odd numbered round of melee they get 2 attacks. (Every odd numbered round of melee for that individual is how I interpret this. If the first round of combat is only melee for SOME combatants, and those with 3/2 don’t engage in melee until round 2, then it is their 1st round of melee. One attack at beginning of round, and one at end.)

Those with 2 attacks per round get one at beginning and one at end of each round of melee.

Haste adds one to this number, 3/2 would be 3 attacks one round and 2 the next. 2 attacks per round becomes 3. Slow removes the 2nd attack in melee.

Casting Verbal Component Spells underwater – Water Breathing or Airy Water or similar required to cast spells while underwater.

Water Breathing in air – Air breathing creatures in air with this spell can breathe normally and don’t need to stay underwater until the spell expires.

Rules From Other Games

I like the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic from D&D 5e. This would make sense in a situation where a player or party says they avoid the medusa’s gaze. If the medusa tries to gaze into their eyes rolling the save vs. petrification with advantage makes sense.

I also like the Usage Die from Black Hack [Affiliate Link]. This makes a lot of sense for a magic item with charges. The DM assigns a usage die and that way there is the mystery of no one knowing how many charges it has, and the benefit of the DM not having to keep track.

Fudge/Fate dice are interesting and can add a special element to a challenge or other scenario. The plus, minus, blank options could be used to gauge the degree of something. For example, with a reaction check, you could “flavor” the role with a fudge die. + means the best possible interpretation, – the worst interpretation, and blank a meh interpretation.

I have yet to incorporate these into my campaign, it is there in the back of my mind, in case there is a situation where it makes sense to use it.

Conclusion

I feel like I’m leaving something out. If I think of it, I will update the above. Part of my method is habit and preference born of habit. The rest is either from my experience as a GM or playing with various GMs.

GMs Reference Library

Cavegirl has this to share on Twitter.

I don’t know what instigated this, but this was my reply. I thought it good enough to make a blog post out of it.

What fool said this?

My role as both GM and player is a hodge podge of every book, comic book, TV show, movie, play, conversation, random thought, and past play experience.

I’ve taken ideas from they way we ran our games BITD, plus ideas of bloggers, and other games.

I like advantage/disadvantage, usage die, and other simple tweaks that can make a game fun and flow.

I’ve tweaked my GM style with the way other GMs do things. It may be subtle, but I still learn something from every game I run and play.

In recent weeks, it finally sunk in to my old set in my ways self, that I have a passive/aggressive streak that comes out in all my characters when I’m frustrated with what another player is doing to drive the narrative.

Strongly outspoken people who will talk nonstop really bring that out.

It was like I’m naked under a floodlight in a crowded room when the lightly went off.

I’ve been playing over 40 years and didn’t see it til now.

This may seem like a segue, but this illustrates the player growth aspect.

Now I can work on not doing that and changing my timing by anticipating these things and using my player agency to improve the session.

What are your resources? You should have an enormous reference library in you memory.

Work on utilizing it.

Brainstorming, free association, just writing whatever comes out, daydreaming, etc.

My whole blog is built on using my ever expanding personal library. My ideas that become PDFs on DriveThruRPG use that same library.

It’s OK to play or just read other games. You might find something you like, or think about something in your favorite game and get an idea to improve it.

Change is inevitable. We can either waste our strength resisting change, or we can ride the wave and see what we can do with new information.

Another Blog

As I have written in several recent blog posts, I had surgery for prostate cancer. To keep this blog’s focus on gaming, I started a new blog to share my story from diagnosis to prognosis. I hope to learn more and also help other men navigate prostate removal surgery from my experience.

If you’re a man, or otherwise interested in men’s health issues, check out my new blog: Men’s Health In My Perspective

I also have social media for the new blog, so you can follow on Twitter and Facebook.

I’m currently doing a brain dump of all the ideas for the new blog, so I may not have another new post here for awhile.

A Village Of Healing

Imagine a remote village with a remnant of an ancient tradition. Every decade of life, a person gets a cure disease. End to parasites, cancer,etc. As long as one does not meet an accident, or disease they can’t survive, hey will reach their maximum age.

As a remnant of a past age there is only a 5th level priest who can only do one 3rd level spell per day, baring an 18 wisdom and time to rest and relearn spells.

Twins and triplets would be a challenge as oldest gets the day, etc. Get 23 plus people together and 2 of them will share a birthday. (I had a logic professor who proved this in every class.)

I see an overworked aging cleric with a young assistant not up to the task.

The aged would be honored. Death would have a grand ritual to show the deceased into the nextv realm.

In ancient times, all healing spells would be available. Healing, restoration, disease, etc.

A lost or hidden town or city where this is still the case would be a fun adventure.

Customs and norms a party would wreck, or be a welcome relief.

A healing fountain that is broken or lost to living memory would fit well here.

My inspiration:

I got home from surgery for prostate cancer and would love a cure serious wounds to get some energy back. Then I realized cure disease would have handled the whole thing. My mind naturally wandered to an adventure scenario.

Point Crawl-Like Session Planning

I tried something new with session planning for the last few sessions of my Sunday AD&D [Affiliate Link] game on Roll20. The party is traveling West across the sands of The Broken Lands. Rather than do a map of where everything is and have to measure, plan, and plot things on a map, I decided to try more of the Point Crawl method.

With a Point Crawl the focus is more of traveling point to point and not necessarily all the things in between. In my game, there are sand sailors (vikings) with ships that sail the sand. Endless miles of shifting desert terrain (dunes and the things the sands cover and uncover) is much like the endless terrain of the seas. I gloss over the boring parts, and only mention the things that stand out.

How I Did It

I’ve written about using desk pads of graph paper before, here and here. (I also backed the Dungeon Desk Pad Kickstarter.). I took one of my graph paper desk pads and figured out the distance based on how long it took the sand vikings to cross from the West. It took them three days because they had favorable winds. The party has had 3 days of unfavorable winds, so the journey is taking twice as long.

I divided the journey into groups of squares and drew lines after that many squares and determined how many of these groups there were. I numbered them from East to West. These became the “points” of the journey. I determined wind direction, weather, random encounters, adventure locations and other mechanical things that put bookends on what could happen each session.

This is a picture of the actual desk pad, but blurred to be illegible and avoid spoiling things for players. (It’s amazing the clarity and legibility of a cellphone picture. The original is very easy to read.)

These loose parameters gave me a basic outline to present to the players during each session. The party is free to choose to stop and investigate anything I explain that they see in the distance. So far, they have stopped to check out most things, or gotten close enough to check things out and kept away from danger.

I set this desk pad on a TV tray next to my chair at the computer where I run the game. I can then check off things or make notes on this check list.

I have found that I was quickly able to plan the journey across the sands and so far two sessions of play have gone very well. I expect at least three more sessions for this crossing, depending on what the players do. Players are always doing things that make travel take longer.

The players seem to be having fun, and I’m having fun as a GM. I’ve been using monsters that either I’ve never run as a GM, or never encountered at all in my years of play. I’m randomly determining treasure, including the magic that appears. Magic items I’ve never had in any game are also fund to have. They finally found some powerful ones in the last session. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

It has given me the flexibility to organize notes and think about repercussions of what they have done, and plan for what is on the other side of the desert. I find that I am planning as much as I need and less likely to go overboard writing or planning things the players will never see. I’m trying to do all the cool ideas. Even if my execution is not how I see it in my head, I’m having less stress in prep and more fun running sessions. As with all things in life the more I do this, the easier it gets. The stage fright is always there, but once I get started, I don’t have time to think about how nervous I am. Even with 4+ decades of gaming, I still have nerves before running a game.

My last podcast episode was a play summary of two weeks ago. I’ll do another summary of last weeks game. I’ll at least do summaries to get them across the sands. I’ve had some summaries of other sessions. If you like that sort of thing, let me know. I’m trying to get my momentum back after getting derailed by COVID-19 and a cancer diagnosis.

CELEBRATION

This article marks the eleventh anniversary of this blog that started on July 18, 2009 with this article. I hope to be around and blogging and gaming for many more years!

A themed Mask

When I saw that Teespring finally had masks, I made a mask [Affiliate Link] to sell beside the T-shirt on my Teespring store [Affiliate Link].

I hope it’s a bit a humor for this horrible situation of a deadly global pandemic that feels like it will never end. We all at least probably know someone who has lost a family member to COVID-19, if not knowing someone who has had it or lost someone we know. I mean no disrespect to those in pain. I just wanted something to dress up my face covering.

I’m thinking about another design, “FUCK CANCER! Follow Me, And Die!” Instead of waiting, I went ahead and added a new T-shirt: “Cancer is the new Red Shirt. Follow Me, And Die!” [Affiliate Link] Something along those lines sounds appropriate when I go in for surgery. Well, anytime between now and then, and after.

For those who didn’t know, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the end of April. I was supposed to have surgery in July, but COVID-19 and the first lock-down put all non-emergency surgeries on hold. The backlog from that pushed my surgery to August. I just learned this yesterday. So this means I am still waiting for the phone call to schedule my surgery.

The good news about the long wait is that I am mostly over my existential dread of surgery. Now I have a fairly calm acceptance about surgery. However, I am annoyed at having to wait. I hate waiting.

So while I wait, I’m trying to get back the focus I had on creating RPG stuff on a regular basis.