Tag Archives: Advice/Tools

RPGs

Note Taking

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I type a lot of my notes directly into various documents. I start with a text file, I use NoteTab. I’ve used it since mid-1997, and have been on the beta test team for most of that time.

When I’m away from my computer, and need to make a note of something, I use Evernote on my cell phone. When I get back to my computer, I can log into Evernote and copy and past my notes to the appropriate document. Usually the notes are anything from a grocery list to ideas for a scenario for a game, or an idea for a blog article.

However, I also make notes on all kinds of paper. I use the backs of scrap paper, note cards, writing pads of various sizes, lined, unlined, graph paper, etc.

Since I work from home and my home office is in the same room as my personal office/computer room, I have collected notes for different things on different scraps of paper. Ideas cross my mind at the oddest times, and I grab the nearest piece of paper that is OK for that note, and write it down.

Over time, this can lead to a lot of random notes. I then have to transfer them to my computer. If I have multiple notes for different topics on the same paper, I check off which ones I have dealt with, then chuck the whole thing once they’re all addressed. Sometimes it might be a list of reminders. If I think of something important while in the middle of something else, I have to write it down, or I forget about it.

I think this just shows how my thoughts never stop. 

This non-stop flurry of activity is hard to tame if I’m not actively cultivating it. This morning, I overslept and my whole day was colored by it. I managed to have all of my poor interactions with other people over the past 25+ years come into my recollection in rapid succession. I managed to get myself out of that downward spiral of negative self talk by focusing on work until I woke up enough to forget about it until I wrapped up this blog post.

Bullet Journal

It is this crazy and chaotic style of making notes that can be tamed by a more organized method. Whether it is just a notebook/journal one enters their ideas, or a more organized approach, like a Bullet Journal.

A year ago, I posted on my personal Facebook page how adhering to my bullet journal (BuJo) helped me crank through on cleaning up odd scraps of paper and organizing things for work on personal.

I got away from my BuJo for work and personal stuff, and it has been a challenge getting back into it. The chaotic nature of my day job can take me down a totally unexpected rabbit hole that consumes one or more days, and then I’m lost as to what I was working on of the multiple projects I seem to always have. 

The last few weeks I have had great focus on getting projects done, and putting miscellaneous scraps of work notes into either my BuJo or the appropriate computer note keeping files. As the senior tech on the team, I’m always getting interrupted to help the others with their issues. The BuJo concept really does help me. The reminders in Outlook, and various notes in various text files and documents have their place, but I can’t wrap my mind around all the pieces. With a BuJo, I can make a spread that holds my focus and speaks to me about what I must do and how far along things are.

I intend to use this focus to wrap up loose ends before busy season starts in December. My day job is supporting accounting and payroll software and we get slammed with every client calling multiple times to get help with procedures they only do once a year. Triple the normal call volume leaves little time and energy for anything else. 

My goal with this year end, is to have work wrapped up and the stress managed, so that it doesn’t suck away all of my energy and enthusiasm for creating content and running games. I’m also working ahead on my planned monthly PWYW PDF releases on OBS so if I don’t do so well on maintaining my energy, I can still put out the planned PDFs. 

I’m working on a BuJo video idea that I started over 6 months ago. I’ve got to tighten the focus and the script and plan the shots. I’m trying to figure out how to fit it in and get my other planned RPG projects done. My submission of games to run at Gary Con needs to get done. Also I need to flesh out my game ideas that I’ll be running at UCon in November. And Marmalade Dog is, and if GMs submit games before December 31st, they get free admission for each day that they run a game. It’s all doable, I just need to focus and implement and adhere to my BuJo strategy. Breaking down the complex into doable pieces. 

Here’s a companion podcast.

RPGs

First Experience with Self Publishing

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My first experience with self publishing was as a proof reader, and crafter of the table of contents for The FRONT [Affiliate Link], by +Mark Hunt. 

Google Docs vs MS Word

What I found is that collaborating on a manuscript has certain pitfalls. Google Docs does not handle Word documents well. You can read them, but it messes up the page count. If you convert it back to a Word Doc, it easily doubles the page count due to how it mangles formatting.

There is supposed to be a way to edit Word Docs in Google Drive, without even having Word, but I am not getting it to work. I found this after Mark and I gave up and I just edited the Word Doc and sent it back to him. Google Docs has change tracking and comments, so it is good for the basics. 

From my experience, Google Docs can be used for the collaboration process to get the text right, then worry about the formatting. If Google Docs can handle linked TOC’s and save them to PDF, then it would be a great tool.

If that doesn’t work, then all parties collaborating on a document would need the same tools. For example, MS Office, or the free Libre Office. A way to avoid sending a file back and forth across Google Drive would speed things up noticeably. Preferably a way to avoid using money to buy a solution. Small self-publishers don’t make a lot of money, especially not until they get started and have enough success to buy potentially better tools.

If you are working on your own, and do it all, and can edit/proofread your own work and do it right, then you can get by without a need for collaborative tools. Maybe there is no free and simple way to do this. Perhaps it takes total isolation of the file in the hands of one person at a time. The main requirement being all involved have the same software to get the same results. However, this means that if one person sees an issue, they can’t fix it in real time and have the other(s) inherit that change.

I am curious about how others have approached this and what their experience has been with the tools used for collaboration on RPG products.

Text First Then Layout

My take is to get the text edited and right and then worry about formatting. This is the standard way to do it anyway. Think old school. One didn’t start laying out type on a printing press to write their document. They wrote and edited the document, then figured out the layout. That is why many prefer a plain text editor for getting the text right, and then worry about formatting and layout.

  A template geared towards automatic formatting of page size, font size and spacing, etc. can minimize the need to getting too fiddly with formatting in a word processor. For a more polished look, something like the free and open source Scribus for layout; or the costly version of various Adobe products can give a sharper more varied layout. PDF’s can be generated by more free software than in the past, and it can even have cross linked TOC’s and indexes. NOTE: I used Page+ by Serif for my first PDF on OBS.

Otherwise, you need the author, an editor, and a layout person. Often a layout person can be a good editor/proofreader, but that should not be assumed, as they are different jobs. A proofreader is focused on looking for typos and other obvious issues, while an editor is that plus making sure it all ties together. A layout person makes sure the visual presentation is appealing and improves the readability. Layout people charge a lot more for proofreading and editing. 

Rarer still is someone who can do their own art for a project, most use either stock images that are public domain or low cost, or custom art bought to order for a given project. One must be aware of copyright on images. If you buy art, usually, you only by the right to use it for a particular purpose or amount of time. I recently found Pixabay for public domain images. One also needs to ensure that the fonts they use are free for business use. Lots of licensing out there to keep in mind.

Getting It Out There

Then, there is one of the various publishers that offer PDF’s or POD, or both. If selling one from your own website, you can easily sell the PDF’s, or make them free. For physical product, you either need a POD service, or make arrangements with a printer that can provide the final product desired.

OBS via RPGNow, DriveThruRPG, and DM’s Guild make it easy to do PDFs and POD on a custom platform for RPGs. Lulu supports both PDFs and POD, but many choose to do PDFs on OBS and POD on Lulu for greater profit. I find that Lulu tends to do a better job of packaging so your POD orders don’t rattle in the box. OBS (and Amazon) leave a lot to be desired to prevent books from sliding around in the shipping box. The marketing, emailing, and statistics available on OBS, plus the ready made niche audience, makes it the best choice for one-stop service.

What I Know Now

Now that I am a publisher on OBS and have my first PDF available, I have seen all the tools that OBS makes available. Without a lot of effort and success, it is hard to get away from OBS. There are many that use both OBS and direct sales from their website. As a one man outfit, I like the utility of OBS. It is one large project I don’t have to undertake and maintain to duplicate on my website. I definitely lets the small publisher get a lot of value for the percentage taken by OBS. Otherwise, the number of eyes that might stumble on your offerings is a lot smaller. If you are a one person publisher looking to get started, OBS makes it easy to get a slice of your niche in a small niche. The present prominence and success of D&D makes now an even more opportune time to ride this wave. How much longer can it last?

[NOTE: I started this article back in 2016 after my experiences helping with the TOC. I reviewed my back list of drafts over Labor Day weekend, 2018 and completed a few of them.]

RPGs

My Process

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Someone on my G+ post about Saturday’s blog post about prepping to launch a Patreon said they’d like to know what my process is. I will endeavor to lay out how ideas come to me.

Connections

I see connections between things that most people don’t see. Someone says ‘X’, and I almost immediately think of ‘Y’. When someone asks how I came up with ‘Y’, I lay out all the points between the two. It is all about what my mind picks up and adds to my knowledge store. I don’t have eidetic memory, but I seem to be good at remembering various facts. It makes me very good at Trivial Pursuit and Jeopardy. Even some categories where I have a weak knowledge, I am able to come up with answers.

Sometimes I hear a word and it triggers a train of thought with unanticipated results. It is also a curse, as this can find a connection that takes me back in time to some memory I’d rather not recall.

I have also seen words “sideways” that at a glance the word or phrase I think I see isn’t the word or phrase that is there. In some words, changing the order of a couple letters gives a different word. Or the order of the words is reversed.  I’m probably the only one to get a chuckle out of the weird things that result. An example is “Isle of Wights” instead of the Isle of Wight. An additional letter makes it a dangerous place of undead.

Visual

I am a visual person, so when I had the question in Trivial Pursuit of which state is surrounded by the most other states, I started by narrowing the focus. I focused on the continental US, and eliminated the coastal and border states. Next I eliminated the big Western states. Because I know the states and have a mental map of the state boundaries within the boundary of the US, I could count the states surrounding the states that didn’t have a coast or international border. I won’t give away the answer, but the state is surrounded by eight other states.

Metaphors

When I try to explain things to people, especially technical things, I have metaphors come to mind to help explain things. I work with financial software and users who don’t know accounting always want to treat the budget like how much money they have. I point out that the budget is like Monopoly money. You can have a budget of a million dollars, but if you don’t have a million dollars in the bank, you can’t spend that much.

My metaphors are sometimes ridiculous, but they can help me to develop ideas with an RPG.

Alliteration

I have gone on kicks with alliteration on several blog posts over the years. Sometimes I see it as a challenge to some up with a list that is all alliteration. I think the last one I did was a six word dungeon challenge, and I did A to Z with six alliterative words for each letter of the alphabet.

Narrow the Focus

The concept of narrowing the focus is the same one I use in my day job of troubleshooting client issues. I do high end tech support for financial applications. I’m the senior tech, so end up digging into SQL to figure out where the data went wrong. I’ve used the programs so long, that except for the newer features, I can see the menu options in my mind’s eye and can talk a client through all the menu clicks without looking at the program.

My brother used to tease me about my spouting off apparently random facts in the middle of conversations because someone would say something that fired off something in my mind. He’d say, “And yet another entry into the book of useless facts and worthless information.” I still slip up sometimes and don’t give the right contextual information when that happens and when I say something, I manage to put my foot in my mouth.

RPG Filter

When it comes to RPGs, I don’t always remember to flip the switch to think about some random thought in an RPG context. However, when I do, I can spit out a detailed string of ideas that are fun and interesting for RPGs. I usually take my real life knowledge and experience and just run things to a logical conclusion.

For some ideas, I can run out of steam before it looks complete. Kind of like McCoy going from “It’s so easy a child could do it!” to struggling to recall the simplest detail in the “Spock’s Brain” episode of TOS.

Then for other ideas, the ideas keep flowing and I can’t write or type fast enough to keep up.

Intentionality

I am sure that if I would be intentional about applying an RPG filter to what I think about on a consistent daily basis, I could leverage it more. Historically, I have tended to go in spurts where a lot of information flows until I hit an eventual drought of ideas. I have yet to identify a consistent set of rules that makes this work for me.

One year on the blog I posted an article every day. I did leverage the bursts of creativity, and I would write multiple articles in a day. Then I would schedule them to post on consecutive days, with the most pressing first. I managed to have several weeks of posts done in advance, and would have multiple posts on days when there was a timely idea.

Organization

I have been lax in my organization, and have multiple notebooks and computer files with all kinds of ideas. Applying organization to the madness will help.

Self Care

My greatest nemesis is the crazy busy time at work December through February. It ends up sapping my energy and creativity to a ridiculous degree. I have not found a solution to deal with that. I am sure it is diet, exercise, and enough sleep. I have always struggled with that.

Personal Knowledge Base

I’ve played different RPGs since back in the day. AD&D, Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World, Boot Hill, Top Secret, Gangbusters, Star Frontiers, Marvel Superheroes, Traveller. Also some exposure to, like one game of Tunnels and Trolls, Runequest, and some others. We also made our own space games. We had a space pirate game that was a board game. We had a planetary war game where two planets were at war. We also made a space RPG that had a little bit of something from every RPG we had or new about, with lots of our own ideas.

I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy back in the day. I don’t read as regularly as I used to but still read SF & Fantasy. I’ve been reading the Appendix N authors I never read back in the day. For example, in recent years, I have read the Dying Earth series and Conan. I’ve read many of the Tarzan books, John Carter of Mars, the Venus series, and some others by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Some, such as The Hobbit and LOTR I have read multiple times.

I have a strong interest in history and have a BA in history. My interest is on the ancient near east and Mediterranean, and Europe from ancient times up through WWII. I have pulled out old college history books and re-read them. I’ve read history of other regions and eras too.

I tend to get lost reading an article in an encyclopedia and all the side references. The arrival of Wikipedia online has caused me to lose many hours of follow the rabbit trails of connected knowledge. I see something that catches my interest, read it and see things mentioned that peak my curiosity. The next thing I know I’ve got a dozen or so tabs open of things I want to know more about.

I’ve studied four languages other than English or programming languages. Spanish for three years in high school, German for three semesters in college, and koine Greek and Biblical Hebrew in grad school. I also know a smattering of words and phrases in a few miscellaneous languages that have not been incorporated into the English lexicon.

My high school actually had a geography class. I have always liked maps. I wish I still had all the maps I colored in with colored pencils.

All the books and articles I’ve read, TV shows, movies, and plays I’ve watched, people I’ve met or observed, places I’ve been, and things I’ve done all inform how I view the world and I draw on them automatically when working an RPG idea.

I have 80% of the first draft of a sci fi/fantasy novel. The idea came to me in 1985 or so. I didn’t start writing it down until 2009 or so. I only had the first chapter until I did NaNoWriMo in 2014 and got to where it is now. I exceeded 50,000 words so I “completed” the challenge. It actually wasn’t that hard to do. I just sat down and did it, and was cranking 3,000 plus words some days. As with most first drafts, it’s terrible. I really need to do the last few chapters so I can do the second draft.

Blogging

The hardest part of blogging is staying on topic. I can easily start off in one place, and go down a side passage of an idea, and end up entirely off the point I intended to make. This is why my posts are so long at times. I’ve got several posts in my drafts that don’t say what I meant to say, and I don’t know how to fix them (apart from starting over) but don’t want to delete them in case I can somehow use them. I have over 700 posts and can easily do a “new” post and later discover I wrote a nearly identical post a few years ago.

What I like about blogging, is that it allows me to capture my ideas, so I can come back to them later.

Conclusion

I think my process is similar to others. Each of us makes connections between ideas in our own way. Through repetition and intentional practice, we can get better at it.

RPGs

First Published Atlas Honored in Today’s Google Doodle

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Today’s Google Doodle honors Abraham Ortelius who published the first atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, on May 20, 1570. The Wikipedia article on the atlas says, “[T]his was the first time that the entirety of Western European knowledge of the world was brought together in one book.”

That line from Wikipedia reminded my of the first fantasy world that I bought, The Greyhawk Gazeteer [Affiliate Link], back in the 1980’s. Alas, it was one of the items lost in the water leak I have mentioned several times here on the blog. Technically, the product was called World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting, and included a booklet called the Gazeteer. I and my group from back in the day always called it “the gazeteer,” as I do above, and “the map,” when referring to the iconic map by Darlene.

Unrealistic Standard

The details of the Greyhawk maps and gazeteer was held as a sort of standard on which to build one’s fantasy campaign world. It led to much work and little or no play to live up to that standard. I put loads of time into my original campaign world, more a European sized area, but only ran a few games in college. Then not again until a few months before I started this blog, when I got my sons and some of their friends playing. We played for a few years, and their adult responsibilities increased and left them with less time to game.

Simpler is Better

When I started with my sons, I used tips from all the OSR blogs I was reading, and focused on a single area with a town and seeded with a few dungeons and abandoned city.

A year ago, I created a new area of my campaign world. I went in large brush strokes on the geography of the area, as I wanted to be able to encounter any geography or geologic activity on one map. I roughly placed the nations of various character and monster species. Finally, I focused on the starting town, with the Inn, classed NPCs, and the nearest dungeon.

I did not even name the Kingdom until after play began, and the player’s haven’t asked for it yet. I built a town and city back towards “civilization,” when I set up a situation that invited the players to go that direction. TIP: Don’t slip and say something that invites players to go and do something you are not ready for. If you do, be prepared, and have quick generation tools so they can go there.

By keeping things simple and only building what is needed for each session, in time, one can build something worthy of a gazeteer and atlas. Trying to write one up from scratch is daunting and leaves little to no time to actually game.

DIY

While published worlds are cool and all, you have to do a lot of reading if you want to use all the names and lore of that world in your game. This leads to some being purists about the lore of the world, and players who know the lore may decide to challenge your interpretation, expression, or variance from what’s in the book.

While you can dish it out verbatim, if you wish, that is not a simple nor organic way to handle things. For me, a world where I set a few starting parameters, then let it grow and evolve as the players do things, is much more organic and alive in the minds of the players. It also becomes more alive for me, and much easier to run any situation the players discover.

I pay attention to what the players mention in their cross talk about interpretation of events in game. I give clues to invite them to go a certain direction. However, the players can choose to ignore the signs and clues that a BBEG is gathering strength. There are more places to explore and the lure of riches beyond bearing.

All I need is my game notes, list of names to use, dice, paper, and a pen or pencil, and I can run a game in that world. I know where it makes sense to place tombs, cairns, dungeons, lairs, and the hideouts for bad guys from the bandit raiders to the BBEG.

The more I think and write about my game world’s locations, and the more I describe them, the more they begin to take on three dimensions in my mind’s eye. These locations become more real for me, and I am better able to see the hiding places for thieves in dark alleys, and lurking monsters in the shadows.

My Own Gazeteer

While I have enough information that I could put out my own game world as a PDF, it is just a lifeless skeleton. Without the actual play of the group’s imaginations stepping into that world, it is nothing. Much like an atlas or gazeteer of the real world only contains descriptions, it is a far cry from actually going to those places and making one’s own memories.

If you just can’t seem to make your own world work, or have no desired to do so, there is nothing wrong with using a published setting. If you prefer to use published modules instead of writing your own adventures, you can link them together as locations in a published setting or your own world. As long as the players at the table are having fun and want to keep playing, you’re going it right!

RPGs

RPG Community Spotlight

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I have slowly been dipping my toes into YouTube as another creative outlet for my RPG ideas. Like most, I have been a long time subscriber to various channels that interest me. Today, I’d like to focus on highlighting four RPG related YouTube channels and what they have to offer. If you are not already following them, check them out and see if their content is useful to you. I have a companion YouTube video here.

Bill Allan

Bill Allan
Bill Allan

Bill Allan covers a variety of RPG topics, from cons to building terrain. He has a background in television and video production, so he makes high quality videos. His skills led him to take the lead in the live feed of the Maze Arcana events at Gen Con 50. Bill is also very helpful in sharing his knowledge so other You Tubers can improve their videos.

His various videos from Gen Con 50 were very cool for those like me, who weren’t there. Being able to see a bit of the museum showing the history of Gen Con and RPGs and other table top games was very interesting and satisfying.

Here he discusses how to run monsters in RPGs. A few helpful hints, and perhaps a few you haven’t thought of.

You can find Bill on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Vimeo.

7D System

Gareth Q. Barrett - 7D System
Gareth Q. Barrett – 7D System

Gareth Q. Barrett has two channels, I’ll focus on 7D System today. The focus for this channel is Gareth’s 7D System, but there is a lot of system agnostic content here. He produces high quality videos with music and all the fancy things one comes to expect from a YouTube video. He is also very generous in his sharing of tips to help YouTube newcomers improve their own videos. There are a lot of ideas and insights here.

He is a talented artist, and produces some impressive drawings on camera. Check out his Monsters for RPG Games playlist.

Gareth likes to mix things up so you never know what manner of speaking you’ll find from him. I really like his video on minor changes to the way you speak to help roleplay different characters – Acting and Voice Acting.

You can find Gareth and 7D System on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and G+.

Questing Beast

Ben Milton - Questing Beast
Ben Milton – Questing Beast

Ben Milton is a regular and prolific producer of quality content on multiple internet outlets. He has done a lot of reviews of games and modules. Actual books are presented onscreen and their pros and cons are highlighted.

He has also developed his own simple and free RPG in the OSR minimalist style, called Maze Rats, available as PWYW. He has a love for the OSR and it shows in his posts and videos.

As a school teacher, he works with kids in an after-school RPG program, playing in the old school style. He shares his experience and how the kids learn and evolve through play.

Ben is a talented artist and has done some cool maps and has videos showing how he does particular map features. He also does maps for commissions.

Recently, he started interviewing other creators on YouTube in a series called Old School Academy. His first guest was Zak Smith [Former Link: https://youtu.be/kAjk5LvV9Hc]. [UPDATE: This video was removed on or about February 10, 2019, due to this post on FaceBook.]

He is very active on OSR topics on Reddit, G+, and Facebook.

You can find him here: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and G+, Art Station for his maps, Tumblr, and his blog. He also has a Patreon.

WASD20

Nate Vanderzee - WASD20
Nate Vanderzee – WASD20

Nate Vanderzee has a broad spectrum of RPG videos on his channel. One series is on teaching people how to play D&D 5e from scratch. He assumes zero roleplaying experience, and no familiarity with the rules. His strong onscreen presence reassures the viewer that he knows his stuff.

As with anyone teaching something new to others, he assumes no prior knowledge. Many of his videos can be applicable to teaching the basics of any RPG.

Nate also draws maps, has unboxing videos, reviews, DM & player tips, miniatures & crafts, and shares about video games. He also does maps on commission and has a regular map drawing livestream. He has the site Sellsword Maps if you want to see examples of his work.

You can find him here: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and G+, and his blog. He also has a Patreon.

OTHERS

I want to make a quick shout out to Jorphdan (the ph is silent) for mentioning me in his YouTube video spotlight.

Jorphdan has a channel dedicated to the lore of the Forgotten Realms. His intro video is hilarious and sets the tone for what you can find there.

His other series are about D&D Cosmology (the planes of existence), a vlog and campaign diary, and live play.

You can find him here: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and G+.

+Matt Finch has launched a new project, Old School Gamer Radio, a just completed Kickstarter, with the YouTube Channel, Uncle Matt’s D&D Studio. His earlier series on the OGL is a must see for anyone publishing under the OGL.

Cody Lewis of Taking20 has a fast growing channel. His start was showing people how to get the most of Roll20. He has branched out into all kinds of efforts this year. I wrote about his channel here, and reviewed a 5e module he co-wrote here. Cody is a welcoming and generous supporter of all RPG creators.

Matt Collville has a fantastic channel. He is focused on getting more people into the DM seat. While I don’t agree with everything he says, I have picked up something from each of his videos. I first wrote about him here. Matt has not enabled ads on his fast growing channel, but he funds it with the sales of his fantasy novel series. I recommend his novels. I still need to write up reviews of them.

QUICK LIST

There are more RPG related YT channels than I could practically cover in one article.  Here is a quick list of some you might want to check out.

Chalice in Chains

AskaPathfinder

Dum Dum Die Podcast

unMadeGaming Also on Twitch.

Nerd Immersion

Encounter Roleplay Also on Twitch.

Tabletop Terrors

Wyloch’s Crafting Vids

theDMGinfo

Black Magic Craft

Gamer_Goggles

You can view the companion video on my channel here:

RPGs

Thoughts on Character Death

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Yesterday I uploaded a YouTube video on the death of the character in my weekly Wednesday night AD&D game I play in on Roll20. You can read the other posts I have about the game here. There is a companion video to this article here.

One of the other players in the game commented on the G+ posting for the video. As I answered him, it hit me that it didn’t bother me about the character’s demise, as I am not really in the same place in my life to play a taciturn dwarf. While I can easily play a dwarf fighter, there is something about it that I am not in a head space that it feels like a go to character. It just isn’t the specific character.

In the last few months and especially the last few weeks, I have had a realization that I am not in the dark and cloudy haze it is too easy for me to fall into. I am generally more happy and satisfied with life, and far more productive personally and professionally than I have been for some time. I have made progress on other things, and not used my need to write for one blog or another or make a new video as a reason to avoid other things.

I am downsizing my stuff. Things I haven’t touched in years, and most likely will never touch except to move them out of this house. I’ve been divorced about eight years, had one relationship since, and a few dates via online sites. I don’t need that. I’m OK with being single (but still open to the right person). So much so, that I deleted my online dating profile.

I have greatly limited my watching of shows through the summer, and only watched a few movies on Netflix here and there, with only an occasional binge, instead of most weekends. It is AMAZING how much one can get done when cutting out shows.

While in the process of reducing the cruft in my life, I am focused on defining what it is I want and what personal projects really matter to me. I find that as I let go, that I am more at peace. In some ways, I would make a good dwarf or dragon hoarding stuff. It’s not like I can’t get in or out of my house, but I have so much stuff I haven’t really touched since my divorce, and some before.

This new perspective and attitude has subconsciously affected the type of characters I want to play. Part of it is my age. I’m in my early 50’s and my life-long worrying about what others think seems to be nearly gone. The, I’m not taking crap off anybody mentality – “Get off my lawn!”

I’ve also always wanted a long beard, so I quit cutting my hair and beard in late April/Early May. It was a lot of fun to see the reactions of people at Grand Con who hadn’t seen me in several months. If it weren’t for arthritis, I’d be braiding it. Perhaps once it’s longer I can manage it.

My demeanor and disposition is noticeably different and others at work and home have commented on it.

I’m just curious if others find this in their own roleplaying, if their head space nudges them towards certain character concepts, i.e. race, class, background, and actual presentation of the character via roleplay.

I’m avoiding adding a lot of new stuff to my plate. However, I have plans to add a planned amount of things, like playing in and later running a 5e game and running something at my FLGS. Before that, I will be adding more content to the blog and more videos to my You Tube channel. I got more memory for my computer so videos render faster, but my upload speed is now the bottleneck. My new video editing software defaults results in huge files, so I’ve got to get a better handle on the settings so I’m not spending two plus hours uploading a five minute video.

I’ve got opportunities to really grow my blog and YouTube channel and other social media. Getting my stuff “right-sized” for the life I choose to live will really make a difference.

I’ve got it figured out how to get out of debt and still go to the cons I want. Things are coming together quite nicely.

RPGs

Trap Idea – Take One Thing and Expand on It

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Take something simple, and think of all the ways this could be used, it could all be in the same dungeon, or series of dungeons/tombs. Perhaps all the tomb builders of a certain epoch used them.

I’m just now dipping my toes into Reddit and decided to build on a comment I made to a thread asking for trap ideas for a kobold infested dragon cave. [It’ll be at least 30 days before I can make my own subreddit. You can find me here.]

Have a giant rock or cube the shape of the corridor fill up the space.
It doesn’t have to kill. Use it to stop entrance or exit and otherwise direct the adventurers along the path most favorable to the kobolds.
Think of all the ways you can use a giant block of stone to impede and frustrate their efforts. Be sure to think in 3 dimensions.

Examples with a 10X10X10 dungeon corridor.

  • The block that falls can’t be pushed or pulled as it is a tight fit and there is a slight lip in the floor around its base.
  • The block falls just in front to make them turn back or aside at an intersection.
  • The block falls after they enter a room and exit on opposite wall has one that will fall before they can leave the room.
    • There can be no exit and the party waits for rescue or attack, or figures a way out.
    • There can appear to be no exit, but there is a secret door or trap door in the flor/ceiling.
    • The room is water tight or mostly water tight. Maybe there is a secret drain that opens up when the room is full and the occupants are passed out.
    • The room is airtight and the party passes out 1d6 rounds after the torches go out.
      • If no fire-based light and they have magic light, perhaps it lasts several hours or days before they pass out. It all depends on the size of the room.
    • The cliche walls/floors/ceilings of spikes close in.
      • Have it stop a few feet from the players independent of their efforts to stop it and the floor drops out from under them.
      • How can you make that fun & different?
        • Hallucinogenic poison makes them think they can see through or walk through walls….
        • Instead of filling with water or sewage, fill it with snow, ice cubes, or gold (molten if you’re mean.).
  • Have a giant stone fall so fast that the party doesn’t see the person in the lead simultaneously fall through a trap door. The person appears to have been squished into paste. If it’s an NPC, you can have them show up in a totally unexpected place. If a player, they will have to play along, depending on how strongly you want a big reveal that they aren’t dead.
    • Related to this have a cloud of dust roiling as the person who sprung a trap falls through a trap door so fast it looks like they disappeared. All that is left is a pile of dust on the floor. You know, like they were disintegrated.
  • Spring a trap door and a stone block falls:
    • It can crush those below it, or have enough of a lip to seal the pit.
    • The pit could be a container that is replaced by a block, i.e. slid aside, before the stone falls. Those looking down will see those in the pit slide away. think fast and step back….
  • Have ways the kobolds can easily move blocks out of the way, and players will come back around and the stones are gone….
    • Sliding walls can receive the block that is pushed across the hallway and an elevator contraption reloads the trap.
    • Other creative mechanisms. They don’t all have to be automated.
      • They could require kobolds or their prisoners to use a “hamster wheel” like used for ancient & medieval cranes.
      • It could require ropes and pullies and work gangs of kobolds to reset.
  • A stone block actually is a secret room but the players have to find it in the portion facing them.
    • The secret door could lead to the passage on the other side.
    • The secret door could lead to the room to the side of the block. The block could be two blocks wide with a portion of the wall part of the enormous Tetris-like block.
      • If not an extra big block in a Tetris-like shape, don’t [Oops, what did I mean to say?] the person who finds and opens the secret door…
  • Add in trap doors in the ceiling and floor for kobolds to drop down on the part or come up behind them, or to have cover/concealment for firing at the party.
  • Add in sliding walls to open firing platforms or direct players trough a maze. They can be automated when they step on a trigger or require the kobolds to have enough of them to keep up with the party’s advance.
  • You can even throw in a gelatinous cube being dropped from the ceiling…. They’re 10′ cubes, at least in the versions I play.
    • There could be a nesting ground of them above the dungeon level and when ceilings open up under their weight, they fall.
      • Or the dungeon designers seeded them and have triggers to let them drop at the right time and place.
    • Use sliding floors to reveal a 10′ cube pit with a gelatinous cube in it. Remember its pseudopods can draw in food.
    • Have a couple that are particularly full of treasure  and well back-lit to help overcome the party’s reluctance to fight it.
    • Drop cubes at opposite ends of corridors when the party is at halfway, and stone blocks drop behind the gelatinous cubes.
    • Swap out any other kind of slime, mold, or jelly.
  • In addition to all of the above, the blocks and such can be used to direct wandering monsters, whether intelligent or not, into the party. Why should the kobold fight when the big nasties they found in here can do it for them?
  • Swap stone for ice, have a Wall of Ice spell go off in the right shape. Remember in AD&D a falling wall of ice is like an ice storm….
    • Swap stone for anything else you can think of.
  • Use round stones, a la Indiana Jones.
    • Pick other fun shapes to make the trap stand out and either be a time waster for the party to puzzle over, or really be a puzzle.

In the above examples, determine if the kobolds (or other intelligent monster) found these existing traps and embraced them, or if they are of their own construction. Or are the kobolds maintaining what they found, but “not up to code?”

For comic relief, roll for a chance for the kobolds to pull the wrong lever at the wrong time revealing their rope-powered winches and pullies. Roll for surprise to see if the Kobolds can recover before they are noticed. Except for the noise behind the party….

I started with a stone block and added in pits, moving walls, floors, and ceilings, and so forth. In the same way, start with something simple and look at it just a bit differently.

  • What can you do with it that you or a player wouldn’t expect?
  • What can you do with it with and without magic? (Technology for other genres.)
  • Find one of your child’s or grandchild’s toys or other household item.  What can you do with that?
  • Pay attention to the things you see at the big box stores or hardware store.
  • What overheard conversation from public places sparks an idea?

Don’t limit yourself to traps. You can do this with secret doors, hidden compartments, etc.

If you grab onto one of these ideas of taking one thing and going with it, you can end up with ideas coming so fast that you can’t keep up with them. Embrace those moments. Make notes, organize them, make tables and charts to help generate more ideas. (There’s another series of articles for the blog in all this too!)

 

 

RPGs

Ship Names

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During the AD&D games I ran at the last Marmalade Dog I needed a good ship name, and didn’t have a good one, so I asked the players, and got a great one, the Storm Witch.

I then decided that I could make a table to come up with other usable names.

The most basic such table is a list of adjectives and a list of nouns and roll a die for each column.

Of course, with adjectives you have colors and other descriptors. Powerful action oriented descriptors are cool, like the Flying Dutchman, or the Red Witch (Wake of the Red Witch).  Ships have the idea of motion and speed. A name that foreshadows a very fast ship is only fitting if the ship is fast. A slow merchant would tend to have a name evoking reliability or stability, or perhaps a humorous name. A pirate ship would most likely be renamed to something more suiting. a naval ship would have something indicating power, like Dreadnought, Dauntless, Intrepid, etc.

Certain colors tend to give an image of ferocity, danger, dread, etc.

Use the name to draw forth a description for the figurehead. For example, when the player suggested the Storm Witch, I immediately had an image in my head and could describe the figurehead to the others. A woman with hair blown about by the winds of storms.

Some ships might have a single name, like the Dragon, and others could have longer names. Come up with naming conventions by different nations or races. Elves might name their ships after stars or trees. Different human nations might emphasize something different with their ship names.

Below are some tables to mix and match and give ideas for naming ships. This could apply to naming water borne ships or spaceships.

Adjective/Noun (d10)

  1. Flying
  2. Soaring
  3. Sea
  4. Dusty
  5. Red
  6. Fast/Quick
  7. Sun
  8. Flaming
  9. Smoldering
  10. Smoking

Noun (d8)

  1. Witch
  2. Waif
  3. Spirit
  4. Sprite
  5. Dragon
  6. Kraken
  7. Merchant
  8. Maid

Sea Related Words

  1. Sea/Ocean/Waters
  2. Mist
  3. Wave
  4. Surf/Surfer
  5. Surge
  6. Storm/Tempest/Thunder
  7. Foam
  8. Deep/Depths/Abyss
  9. Whirlpool/Vortex/Eddy
  10. Maelstrom
  11. Aurora
  12. Wind/Squall
  13. Calm/Becalmed/Stagnant
  14. Shore
  15. Isle/Island
  16. Murky
  17. Shallows
  18. Reef
  19. Shoal
  20. Fathom

Ship Related Words

  1. Sail
  2. Oar
  3. Deck
  4. Plank
  5. Keel
  6. Mast

Crew Related Words

  1. Hand/Sailor/Crew
  2. Mate
  3. Captain
  4. Owner
  5. Carpenter
  6. Rigger
  7. Master
  8. Chief

Navigation

  1. Star
  2. Sun
  3. Moon
  4. Compass/Sunstone
  5. Sextant
  6. Astrolabe
  7. Eclipse
  8. Twilight
  9. Dawn
  10. Dusk
  11. Midnight
  12. Morning
  13. Evening

Type of Ship

  1. Merchant
  2. Galley/Bireme/Trireme/Longship
  3. War
  4. Pirate/Buccaneer/Privateer
  5. Escort
  6. Whaler
  7. Trawler
  8. Cruiser
  9. Caravel
  10. Corvette
  11. Ironclad
  12. Galleon

Sea Creatures

  1. Squid
  2. Octopus
  3. Turtle
  4. Whale
  5. Kraken
  6. Barracuda
  7. Shark
  8. Eel
  9. Ray/Manta/Mantaray
  10. Crab/Lobster/Crustacean
  11. Clam/Oyster
  12. Snake
  13. Crocodile
  14. Manatee
  15. Dolphin/Porpoise
  16. Trout/Bass

Other Creatures

  1. Harpy
  2. Hag/Nag
  3. Witch
  4. Dragon
  5. Wolf
  6. Chameleon
  7. Lizard
  8. Bird/Sparrow/Eagle/Hawk/Buzzard/Gull/Albatross
  9. Mermaid
  10. Nymph
  11. Horse/Mule/Pony/Stallion
  12. Cow/Bull/Bison/Buffalo
  13. Sheep/Ewe/Ram
  14. Deer/Buck/Hind/Roe
  15. Camel
  16. Hippopotamus/Behemoth

Weapons

  1. Spear/Javelin
  2. Sword
  3. Lance
  4. Dagger
  5. Trident
  6. Net
  7. Shield/Buckler
  8. Bow/Arrow/Archer/Bolt

Things

  1. Skull
  2. Rock
  3. Bone(s)
  4. Timber(s)
  5. Sand
  6. Fire/Flame
  7. Jewel(s)/Jeweled/Bejeweled
  8. Silver
  9. Gold
  10. Copper
  11. Quartz
  12. Opal

Colors

  1. Blue/Azure
  2. Green/Verdant
  3. Red
  4. Yellow
  5. Violet/Purple
  6. White
  7. Black
  8. Grey
  9. Brown
  10. Orange

Patterns

  1. Plaid
  2. Striped
  3. Barred
  4. Dotted
  5. Variegated
  6. Changing
  7. Pale
  8. Dark
  9. Scattered
  10. Hidden
  11. Mystery
  12. Geometric

Descriptor/Modifier

  1. Flying
  2. Soaring
  3. Sailing
  4. Fast
  5. Unvanquished/Undefeated/Victorious
  6. Indefatigable/Untiring/Persistent/Patient
  7. Fearless/Dreadnought/Dauntless
  8. Mighty
  9. Powerful
  10. Reliant

List of Pirate Ship Names

List of Royal Navy Ships – With links to ships that start with each letter of the alphabet.

RPGs

Crit Success Rings – A Review

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Back in March, 2016 at GaryCon 8, +Satine Phoenix gave a bunch of us these d20 rings, that you can wear and roll a d20. Very cool.

They are CritSuccess rings.

They take a bit of working the grit out, dish soap & warm water work well. Once you have them spinning freely, they seem to generate random numbers.

It is a cool trinket for those of us who collect dice and other game memorabilia.

I can see using them for a DM roll of a d20, if it needed to be secret.

They also have rings for other single dice and multi-dice combinations like 3d6. If you really like a ring or two on every finger, this might be for you.

RPGs

Aaand It’s Gone….

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I was sitting in my chair at my desk after a long week. I work from home, and the best spot for my home office is my home office. So for over a year it has been both my work place and my play place.

So I sat here with my eyes closed, my mind adrift. I recalled that tomorrow will the the deadline for the One Page Dungeon Contest. I haven’t yet done anything, but am hoping to come up with an idea. Suddenly it hit me, a cool name. I went to write it down and the name was gone. I still have the kernel of an idea, but wish I had that name.

I closed my eyes again, and drifted. I thought, “I really should post about the latest package I got in from Wayne’s Books.” I continued to let my mind drift. As before, I came close to dozing off. I had several other blog ideas come to me. I sat up to write them down and thought of something at the last minute – I need to officially schedule time off for a couple of conventions. I wrote that down and noted to post something about my package from Wayne’s Books. I went to write down the 3 or 4 other ideas I had, and they were gone….

I don’t know why, but I have this ability to get these really cool ideas that I can see the whole thing, but before I can just make a note to hold the place of that idea, it vanishes.

Usually, when I get ideas like that, I don’t loose the bulk of them, I can at least get two or three of them noted before they fade.

It’s supposed to be too chilly and wet to put in my garden this weekend, so I’ll try chasing nebulous ideas and whipping them into shape so I can share them with others.

As I was proofreading the above, I had an idea for a spell:

The Ungraspable Thought

Level: 3
Range: 1″ per level
Duration: Permanent
Area of Effect: 2″ x 2″
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 3 segments
Saving Throw: Negates

This spell causes those affected to be unable to solve the nagging feeling that they know something. The caster must name the idea, concept, or fact that the one affected cannot grasp. It must be quick and simply stated.

For example, “You cannot know me, my description, or my location.” This will prevent those affected from getting a handle on who the caster is, what he looks like, or where to find him. The one affected will continually ask, “Where are we going?” “Who are we after?” “What does she look like?”

A magical trap might cause adventurers who find a treasure to never be able to re-trace their steps.

The material component is refined smoke, costing 100 gold pieces. The caster can make it with the outlay of 100 gp for processing it.

A save versus spell negates the effect.  A more general and broad command will add +2 to the roll. For example, an evil wizard telling a sage to lose the names and faces of everyone they meet.