I use Akismet to filter the spam comments.
I have to approve every comment to keep the spam from ever showing. I get about 20 spam comments a day.
Today, I had my first comment to my blog that was flagged as spam in error. Not bad for thousands of spam comments since 2009.
I had my second experience with playing D&D via Google+ and Roll20.
We had 6 players plus our DM.
We played straight AD&D 1st Edition, except the missile weapon speeds are from second edition. Also OSRIC is available for reference.
Each player had a session with the DM to roll up a character and a backup character. The idea behind the backup character is to use it when the primary character is training, or otherwise incapacitated, or if they die we have a character ready to go.
With 7 people on the hangout, we disabled video to minimize bandwidth issues. We only used Roll20 for token placement of characters, initiative tracking, and dice rolling. I liked this as it minimized distractions and let us focus and develop the scenery in our minds. There is one more player who was unavailable last night.
This was much more my style of D&D. However, there were a lot of rules used that we ignored in our games way back when, as it added more complexity than we wanted. Weapon speed really changes the way of initiative. I recall reading something a while back about everyone using daggers for speed in a fight, now I know why. This added a newness to the game. There were some other rules that I don’t even remember them being there related to combat. I’m still not clear on some of them. I will have to re-read that bit.
Our DM has a well though out campaign area that is a sandbox. We are in an island chain and came from the backwaters to the largest island and its largest city. He described a harbor very well and gave a sense of all the sights, sounds, and smells.
My character has taken more hits than any other, three, so far, and the last knocked him to -2, but the cleric used cure light wounds before it was too late.
We had to stop mid-adventure due to time constraints for a mid-week game, but we are all looking forward to the next session.
I am off work this week, as my youngest is visting me over his spring break, so I took advantage of the 150 bonus XP to write up the session. I took notes as we went of names and things, so I had a very detailed session log that received a lot of positive comments.
We are using a Google+ community for the campaign. There are sections to organize the community for an RPG group: All posts, General Discussion, Resources, Session Summaries, General Experience Awards, A section for each players’ characters (so there are seven sections for those), and Events. This makes for a good way to organize things so everyone can easily follow along. Resources has links to documents via Google Drive for the pitch, campaign background, house rules, OSRIC, a fillable PDF character sheet, etc. Session Summaries is the place for the summary for each week’s session. Experience awards are where the DM list what experience the group has to split. The character session is where we each post the link to our character sheet PDFs on our own Google Drive accounts. The Events section is where each week’s session is scheduled.
One thing I learned from the Events, is that players that join the hangout from the event page don’t end up in the same place as those who click the join button the DM sends out. I am not sure why that is. I posted a note to help us avoid that next time. This was only the second hangout I ever participated in, so I am not sure what was up with that.
I learned more about the Roll 20 scripting and macros. This DM is more about getting us up to speed. I don’t like that each campaign requires re-coding every macro. One has to have a log in to use Roll20, is there an easier way to port dice macros to avoid re-creating the wheel with every campaign? That is something I am researching.
Other than getting the hand of Google+ and Roll20, which easily integrate, I think they are excellent tools for modelling roleplaying for geographically varied groups. We ended up with a group of people that seem to be on the same page and enjoy the style of play that AD&D embodies. We range in age from a 17 year old, my son’s age, to a near 50 year old, me. I am not sure of all the other ages, but most have played AD&D before and know the rules. Our 17 year old player is more familiar with newer versions and rolls to sense motive, and is liking that roleplaying aspect to figure things out. The majority of dice rolls were for initiative and combat.
I am looking forward to next Wednesday!!
So far, there are 13 RPG related blogs in the challenge that I have identified.
Not everyone used the tag (GA) when they signed up, so I have been checking back everyday to scan the names, and if they sound like an RPG blog, I check them out.
There aren’t enough hours in the day to keep posting on my own blog, read those I follow, and inspect hundreds of blogs to make sure they are RPG blogs or not.
If I missed you, let me know, and I will add you to my list.
With AD&D not every table is summarized in an appendix like it is in retro-clones. I don’t have an later D&D rulebooks, so I don’t know about them. For example, there are three tables that are used for player character generation in the DMG, secondary skill, height, and weight. Only two of those are together, the third is back in the NPC generation tables. Combat tables and saving throws are in the same general area in the DMG and on the DM’s Screen, but I lost that part and had to print them off and make my own screen.
In addition to my mostly re-built collection of AD&D books, I have all of the books in PDF from DriveThruRPG. I have printed off the tables that I feel are needed most often, and plan to organize them with cut and paste, not in a word processor, but old school cut and paste, to collect them in a sense that makes sense to me. For example, all of the tables for character generation will be together to avoid page flipping.
The other issue I have is my DM’s Notebook. I organize things by topic, then I still can’t find it when I need it. I pull out the information relevant to the player’s current scenario and put it in a manila folder, or clip it together with a binder clip. Even the few dozen pages that might be get shuffled around going between my map and the monsters/opponents and any helper NPCs. That is the most frustrating part that slows down play.
I have two white plastic folding tables I use, one is a 6′ long 30″ wide table for players, then I put the 5′ serving table on the end to make a ‘T’ and I have an end table and a wooden TV tray on my left, for books and less needed stuff. To the right of the table is a desk in the living room with a short bookshelf next to it. I put my CD player on the bookshelf for incidental music. I sit with my back to my office/computer room. To the right of where I sit is a wall, which is for the closet in my office. I try not to spread out too much, so I can find stuff I need. Part of my struggle is that my sons and I don’t get to play very often, so any system I come up with fades from memory.
No matter how well I plan my organization to smooth out play, the plan never survives actual play. The same goes with planning the sandbox, the players always choose to go somewhere that I have planned the least, or planned so long ago, that I forget what I planned and need to review it.
These are the struggles of every DM/GM. Learning to go with the flow and let the player’s choose among their known options. They always seem to ignore the advice of NPCs, but still manage to find adventure and survive. The main things is that we have fun, and they want to keep playing. At least I have a hook to get them to spend time with me because they want to.
Picking a name for my characters, i.e. that I play when not a GM, seems to be tough. I have come up with a few good ones over the years, some I still remember without having to try to find old character sheets.
I start in a new Google+/Roll20 game tomorrow. We have a main character and a backup to use when the other is in training/unavailable/dead. I have a dwarf fighter and a human ranger. For the dwarf fighter, I used the name of my Lord of The Rings online dwarven champion, Thorfus Ironhand. As an aside, I started playing LOTRO so I could get a D&D feel on my own. It is not the same as D&D, and is far too repetitive. The dungeons, rescues, wars, and quests in D&D may have repetition, but the interaction of players and DM with the chaos of players running around the DM’s sandbox is rarely repetitive, except for some meme that develops among the players and recurring NPCs. There are few things that a single player can do on his own in D&D, unless working on things that below level. D&D is designed for team effort.
Yes, there are lots of random name generators online and I have some of my own, and lists of names. Sometimes, you just want to be creative, but often it is like only the sound of crickets is found….
I’m thinking of Rallan, rhymes with talon. Talon had come to mind, but if memory serves, there is some character in a book, TV series, or something that uses Talon. I don’t want to be accused of copying something I have not read/seen.
Now on to buying equipment and back stories….
Here is a link to an article about a name generator I made.
One of my son’s plays his character as if he is all that, and tries to hit on the daughter/barmaid or a powerful NPC who runs a tavern/inn. The characters know Olo’ (short for Ologran) is powerful, because they have seen him in a fight and other patrons of the tavern talk about him. He is a retired adventurer who got tired of the risks, but likes to help out other adventurers with good equipment and tries to steer them away from the dangers he knows about that green adventurers should avoid. Although the players are free to ignore his advice….
My son acts like his character is important and the rules of social convention don’t apply to him, so I throw it back in his face, and Olo’, charges him exorbitant prices or ignores him.
My son acts this way IRL, and my attempts to show him this is not right via his interactions with NPCs has caught his attention. Raising children is hard, but this is one way I can get through to him without him suspecting that I am trying to get through to him.
I have the wisdom of years and experience to know how to play the NPCs, in the character of the NPC, and not end up with a scene.
What is funny, is that since we play AD&D, there is training before claiming the skills and abilities of the next level. Olo’ trained him for 2nd level fighter and beat on him pretty good for a couple weeks. He made it to third level fighter and got beat on for three more weeks. He quit hitting on Olo’s daughter, but still tries to talk to Olo’ like he is his equal or his better. Olo’ believes in merit and honor, but is not above an tall tale, or embellishments of his exploits. Those who know him, are never quite sure when Olo’ is telling it straight, or stretching the truth, or just making it up.
I find playing with my sons to have a different quality than playing with my siblings and friends. I find that I am teaching them lessons about life, where the game parallels real life.
It is fun playing with my sons, and we still have moments of laughing at the silliness of some situations or things that happen with dice rolls. In our last session, if I made the initiative roll, I couldn’t hit, but if I lost initiative, I tended to hit.
I have read of other dad’d playing RPGs with their kids of different ages and there is a different aspect of teachable moments at different age levels. The youngest kids, it is about understanding the game, and making good choices about equipment, etc. From my experience, the teaching of teenagers and older, comes in the roleplaying and how they choose to have their characters interact with NPCs.
What sorts of teachable moments have you had with your kids, grandkids, nieces & nephews, etc?
I had an idea for a combination Trick/Trap.
It is a pit trap that is triggered by the first person to cross it. A combination of flash powder and a shaking thud from a huge stone going into place where the pit was. There is dust in the air and a small pile of dust where the former character stood.
To his companions, it appears that he was disintegrated. It would be funny to see them scoop up the “remains” for a burial or some small hope of resurrecting the deceased. Keep a straight face and go along with what they try to do.
To the character who sprung the trap, he is dropped down a chute and a 10′ x 10′ block goes into the area of the pit behind the character. The character then has to wait for rescue or figure out how to get back to the party.
At your discretion, the character can find a treasure and have an easy time of it, while his companions run into trouble.
Options:
This is my 100th post published on my RPG blog!
This is an exciting milestone.
I feel like a magic user who can cast a new level of spell!
I have to thank the D&D 40th Anniversary Blogging challenge for getting me back on track with my blog.
I find blogging about ideas and fleshing out concepts helps me to clarify and solidify them so that I can present them to players as a better DM.
Reading and commenting on so many other bloggers and G+ pages and Facebook RPG pages adds to the ideas.
I find that it is a banquet where there is so much to try or look at, there is no time to eat.
In other words, I am spending so much time gathering ideas and tables that I am not generating adventures and lists of pre-generated encounters. I like the idea of 3×5 cards with pre-generated encounters of whatever it is I have on my standard encounter tables, so it is ready to go. Don’t write on or destroy those cards. They can be re-used. I think one could have variations on an orc patrol. Have 6 variations of numbers, weapons, leaders and treasure. Roll 1d6 to see which one it is. Use pencil to check it off the players destroy it. For towns and cities and patrols on their frontiers, determine how much of the city guard is set aside for patrols and spec out one or more patrols. Instead of 3×5 cards, one can use a text file or spreadsheet to track the information.
My youngest is here to visit over his spring break and he, big brother, and I are wrapping up our last scenario and onto new things. I wish he was closer so we could do more. We had a lot of fun and hope to squeeze in another session before he has to go back to his mom’s.
There are two kinds of tools for DMs/GMs and RPGs.
I started old school, so hand written notes and notebooks. They have the advantage of working without power, but are fragile where water and fire are concerned. I have the combat wheel from Dragon Magazine. I photocopied it and pasted it to some cardboard. DM screens, dice bags, book bags, milk crates, boxes, graph paper, hex paper (I still have several sheets of the hex paper TSR put out in the 80s.) battlemats, miniatures, pens, pencils, markers, dry/wet erase markers.
Electronic tools for note keeping, PDFs of rules, graphics programs, mapping tools, random generators, websites of others to glean ideas get maps, CampaignWiki, spreadsheet programs, word processors, genealogy programs, etc. Web-based tools for campaigns, social media for online games, rpg table software – game table?
I wrote my own dice roller on a TI-99/4A in BASIC. I could specify the number of dice and how many sides. I rolled up 1,000 kobolds, 1,000 orcs, etc.
When I got back into building my campaign, I also used NoteTab to build outlines and clips to help stat NPCs, Kingdoms, cities, etc.
Desktop/Laptop/Tablet/Smartphone
Electronic tools have the advantage of carrying more in a smaller package and if well organized, easier to search. downside – Requires power/long battery life, not easy to let a friend look at your PH while you are consulting the map, or DMG, etc. Not good for playing around a campfire.
I have a Galaxy Tab tablet and I like it for PDFs of my RPG books. I can also convert my notes and other information to PDF and use it. This is really useful for the RPG books I can easily get in PDF, but have not found locally, or turned to eBay. I did buy a second 1e Player’s Handbook on eBay, so my original will last longer.
I have used a GTD Wiki, Campaign Wiki to put together some information on my campaign. I have yet to move it to my Galaxy Tab and see if it will meet my needs.
I have found a dice roller that lets me specify the types of dice. It will be useful to use to roll up stuff over my lunch break at work, so I don’t need to haul along dice and all my manuals and notebooks to work on dungeons, etc.
I recently found three helpful apps, OS RPG Tables, OS Monsters, and OS Spells from Appbrewers. The RPG tables are mostly player related tables and combat tables. Monsters are from all the books and some OGL creatures, and spells are all the 1e spells and cantrips and can generate random spellbooks or you can create your own spell book. I will do a more in-depth review of these in one or more posts.
There are lots of tables for different situations on blogs, some just on a page/blog article, or others in free PDFs. Some bloggers even have free compilations of all their stuff. One thing I have found, bloggers that might have good ideas, but no search box and no tags, make it hard to find all of their good stuff.
Then there is RPGNow and DriveThruRPG with tons of free and low cost PDFs. I will discuss some of the things I have acquired over the years, in addition to 1st Edition AD&D Manuals.
This is an idea I am putting up so I can flesh it out. Many other RPG bloggers have said the same thing. Variations on the numbers of goblins, orcs, kobolds, ogres, etc. and their appearance and weapons only go so far to be interesting and avoid a slog.
Now throwing monsters into an odd situation, like a group of orcs with some stuck in quicksand, or kobolds climbing up or down a sheer cliff, can add some interesting spice to an encounter. Do the orcs help their comrades, do they stay and fight, or run away? Why are the kobolds climbing a sheer cliff? Did they find a cave with treasure, or are they fleeing something big and bad?
Encounter Tables don’t have to be just monsters. They can be natural phenomena, landscape features, special locations, etc.
If not an encounter table or tables, these things need to be kept in mind for wilderness, dungeon/underground, and town adventures.
Phenomena/Things/Locations
Pits/Traps/Deadfalls -> Monster or Fen or Special
Quicksand/Muck & Mire/etc.
Crevasse/Cliff/Landslide/Avalanche
Tangle of Vines/Dense Foliage
Patrols/Special/etc.