Embrace the Chaos

I have done it. I’ve given in to the madness and just let my players run amok in my world doing as they will. You know what, though, it was actually quite brilliantly fun. I enjoyed it a lot and I think the players did to.

I did realize I really need to work on descriptions I give to my players. I think part of it is I just need to take more notes and have some stuff ready but I pretty much failed at conveying that the army camp they were going to was a big ass army base.

I did this session by the seat of my pants. My only planned item was for them to find the small camp at the beginning of the session. From there I just played by ear. We had fun but it was a lot of work and I’d like to cut it down to where I don’t have to scramble for things for them to do.

 

When last we had left our heroes they had just reached the boarder to Milana. They decided that the missing boy and his family had followed the river North and then cut East to Queen’s Portal.  Here we picked up with the guys crossing a toll bridge to get on the Eastern side of the river and then head out from there.

They spot some smoke in the distance and the cleric tries to get his pet raven to go ahead. It does fly ahead but does not come back for over half an hour. Most of the group waited, the Paladin, however treks on. She discovers a grizzly scene. A camp with six dead bodies in it.

Five of the bodies were humans, three had their throats slit. All five had been stripped down to their underwear, but their armor had been tossed aside. The sixth was a changeling wearing leather armor with no marking or identification of who he was or which country he’d come from.

They look around camp and find some money in a pouch, a lot of shovels and pickaxes and wagon tracks leading North. There were lots of boot prints around the camp and leading away both North and South.

After the PCs bury the dead they camp there for the night and get attacked by a small pride of lions. Because it’s a savannah they’re on, that’s why.  In the morning they pack up and leave heading North following the cart tracks.

They make it to an Army Base. They’re asked if they’re enlisting and learn that Milana and Jinash have just declared war on each other. The officers eyeball the changelings in the group and the Paladin signs for them, making them her responsibility. They sell off all of the gear they’ve gotten from adventuring so far, as they’ve looted a band of orcs, a band of goblins and the camp they just came from.

The paladin then decides they should go to the Cantina to try and find out more about this war. The PCs walk in and the place goes silent, everyone is looking at the two changelings in the party. One, the mage, is suitably terrified and tries not to catch anyone’s eye. Not so, the rogue. The rogue assuming that since he is spoken for he cannot be touched is smiling at everyone, and oogling the women folk.

A drunken soldier gets up and gets in his face,  throwing a punch. He misses but the barbarian perks up and punches the guy. A brawl breaks out and several things happen in quick order, the Paladin, cleric and mage run for the MPs and the mage drops obscuring mist.

The brawl rages on through the mist filled tent and eventually the rogue decides to get the hell out of dodge. The Paladin finds the MPs but they’re content to let the men fight it out and pick up and punish the pieces later. And the barbarian keeps fighting until he drops.

The paladin takes the barbarian away with the rest of the group who stop a mile or so away from the base. She then goes back with cleric in tow to find out more information about the war. She gets a list of bountied persons and tried her hardest to enlist the group, but was told to hold off by the cleric.

They returned to the rest of the party and we ended with them arguing about if they should join the army or not and why.

 

In the end I decided that It’s going to be okay that they veered off of what I had imagined for this campaign. I have the advantage of knowing the world. I’m just going to keep following where they lead because it might be somewhere awesome and that I have never expected.

Herding Cats, Session 2 as DM

I survived my second session running my game, and I even had a lot of fun doing it. Still had some wack-a-doodle attendance issues, two players are still MIA, one who was there last game couldn’t make it for school reasons, but on the bright side my Cleric decided she was up to playing AND I had a new player join us.

I got the message about the new player only a few hours before game so we started late to give him some time to create his character. I corralled all of my PCs to a tavern where my barbarian was asking if anyone had seen his tribe by way of saying “Have you seen anyone like this?” and pointing to the crest on his shield.

The running joke was everyone asking him how you lose a tribe.

My players caught onto the hook I had planned with the missing family. They spoke to a silver smith who was upset his apprentice had gone missing and negotiated a reward for finding him. They met a thief (New player) who could show them out into the slums where the missing family lived.

With a massive bluff roll our thief stole the house from squatters claiming he’d bought it and the paladin who’d waited behind was his personal guard. He then put a large for sale sign on it and asked an exorbitant price.

The Barbarian found an iron skillet that had been thrown into the river from the boat the family had left on. It piqued curiosity since the apprentice was a changeling.  They found out that the family had traveled north on the river.

They used knowledge local to figure out what was up north. I said it was toward the city proper, and then they asked what was beyond the city and found there was nothing until you reached the border with the next country. They did not check the city. They decided that the family must have fled the country.

Well crap.

I’d hoped to get them to check the city itself outside of the slums, but they ran off into the wilderness. Now they are at the border and headed toward Queen’s Portal. Interestingly this brings them back by an abandoned hook from the first game. I ended game when they got to the border because I am not yet very good at planning on my feet.

How am I going to get them back to the right country? I don’t know. I don’t want to railroad them but almost all of my planning for the campaign centered on them being in this country at least.

We’ll see how it goes from here.

I’d love to know what a more experienced DM would do in my shoes. I’m a little out of sorts but I still have a week and a half before my next session. Surely something can be planned in that time.

I’m a level 1 Dungeon Master

Last Saturday, the 22 was the first session of my game.  It got off to a bit of a bumpy start. Mostly it was my fault, I sent out the world info very late and the game happened to be three days before Christmas. One player chose not to play in the session and we had 3 who didn’t show up. This left me with 4 active players.

When the host’s wife decided she didn’t feel like playing I took control of her PC because she was playing the cleric. I think that shocked her a little bit, but I couldn’t let my PCs go on without a healer. In general I just let them know there were more guards they just weren’t being talkative. Since it was the first game I didn’t have a frame of reference to portray the character beyond giving out healing.

From there on I looked over some random encounter tables and gave them something to do. They ran across a pack of wild dogs, which had the hilarious consequence of having the PCs need to make checks to make sure they didn’t hit the barbarian’s pet war dog.  They also ran astray of some giant mantis and a boar. A couple times I knocked PCs out of the fight, but nobody died…yet.

In all I think the best part was when the PCs got robbed by a thief. He only stole one thing, a letter for a diplomat in the capitol that the paladin had been carrying. They managed to catch him, and beat him until unconscious. They turned him over to the Caravan leader, but tried to question him themselves.

It was the first time I really got into an NPC role. In fact to portray him I was actually channeling one of my DMs. He loves to play the bastard rogue and that’s just what this NPC was. As a player the DM went for the paladin this time and he gave me the hairy eyeball when the thief gave non-answers to questions.

My personal favorite:

Paladin: Who hired you?

Thief: Tall guy, gray hair.

Mage: Can you be more specific?

Thief: (indicates taller than himself) About this high, gray hair.

In the end I finished the game once they’d gone to the capitol and delivered the letter.  Three of the players for the session were DMs themselves and they all told me that they’d had a great time. I could have cried I was so excited I didn’t fuck it up.

It was a little rocky, and it felt like I had no earthy idea what I was doing, but in the end all of my players had fun and that was probably the best feeling in the world. I know I am neurotic sometimes but I think if I can remember that this is not so terribly serious I can get by.

Custom Mechanics and Races Oh My!

It’s been a while, but I have reason to take up the blog again, I’ve got three weeks to get my butt in gear and get my campaign ready to be played by my wonderful gaming group. Now, this is not the Grimm game I’ve been talking about forever. My DM, Delusional Muse, convinced me to set a game in the same world as one of the novels I have written.

I decided that I would create a Pathfinder game set in my world of Isabia.

So far smooth sailing but some of the mechanics didn’t fit the world I’d created which has very limited magic and only two races.

So here is my solution to magic, Delusional Muse and I created a new mechanic:

Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid, and Cleric are no longer playable classes in my game.

Magic(Arcane) and Magic(Divine) are feats.

There are no spell level requirements.

Spells must be learned, taught, or bestowed.

Spell points per level = 1+ 1/2 int(Arcane) or 1/2 wis(Divine) modifier. Should a character take both magic feats it goes off of the higher modifier.

Upon taking magic the player chooses 20 levels of spells known with 0 level spells costing 1/2 level each.

Spells cost 1 point per level to cast, level 0 spells being free.

Players can spend 1 temporary point of Con to gain 5 additional spell points, for every Con point sacrificed after the first they take an additional 1d4 con damage.

Spell points are recovered at 1+ Wis or Int Modifier per hour. Additional spell points gained from sacrificing Con must be recovered before regular spell points are recovered.
In addition, all spell DCs are +5 because of the rare but potent nature of spells in this world

All spell like abilities are gained as normal, but spells require the magic feats.

I think it’s a nice system we got worked out but I’d love to hear from you if you have any concerns about how it affects balance in the game.

The other problem I had with my setting is the races. Humans were easy enough because their mechanic is already written in the game. My other race is changelings. I know that the Pathfinder Advanced Races guide has a build for changelings but it didn’t fit with the world I’d created so Delusional Muse and I took a swing at creating our own version.

Changelings are quicker than humans, more adept at magic and have keen senses. They are however more fragile than humans and have a weakness to cold iron.

They get:

+2 Dex, -2Con

+1 to spot, listen, and search

Dark Vision

+1 to spell DCs

Vulnerability to Cold Iron

Let me know what you think.

Exciting, terrifying opportunity

I’m sorry for the radio silence recently. I’ve not had much luck making time to plan my game, but I do have something to write about. Delusional Muse, one of my fabulous DMs has asked me to run a small side mission for his Shadowrun game. Told me that it’d be a good trial run for DMing.

He asked me yesterday, I got the notes today, and the game is tomorrow. The notes and cheat sheets are already very helpful. He’s been walking me through planning the rest that he’s given me the freedom to plan making suggestions here and there.

I am terrified. The mission has quite a few magical elements, an aspect of the game I have not played up until this point. I also have to handle quite a few more creatures/characters then I’m used to. Running all the monsters (topping out at 67 when all is said and done, I believe) and run my PC as an NPC guarding the car. Then making up my own NPC handler for the team.

It should be fun but it is going to be a challenge, both of my fabulous DMs (Delusional Muse and Boyfriend) are willing to help me out. I’m excited, but still mostly terrified. I’ll let you guys know how it goes.

I’ve Been a Slacker

Time to come clean I haven’t done any on paper planning for the campaign in a while. I’ve been wrapped up in writing, and socializing it’s just fallen to the way-side. I think about it fairly often but I’ve not been as active a planner as I should. I’m going to be trying to fix that, but for now I’ve got nothing to show for my work.

I still don’t quite know what I’m doing and I think that’s what’s really stopping me here. I try new things all the time, but this just seems like a tough nut to crack.

If I don’t post something marked Not Safe For Players at least once a week I’m not doing my job and I need someone to hold me to this. Please, release the inner troll to keep me going. I do want this to be a fabulous game for my players and it’s not going to get that way overnight.

Next post will be Monday, if I don’t have something to show for working over the weekend on this you all have my permission to taunt me into submission. I’m counting on you guys.

This is Not Edition Wars

I’m going to go ahead and say it. I don’t hate 4^th Edition D&D. The fact that I blogged and posted on some social networking sites about having a bad experience with it has been the cause of some drama in my life and I would like to state a few things right now.

Not every game is for every gamer. It’s a no brainer but it needs to be said. That being said, I am all for encouraging people to try your favorite game or edition. What I don’t want is a bunch of people gathering to talk about how much an edition sucks.

Sure, by all means let’s share what we didn’t like about an edition or game. We gotta remember though, that there are people out there who like and play the things we don’t like. Just like there are people who will say our favorites are not their cup of tea.

I don’t want to host edition wars. It creates needless drama.

Sometime this week I’ll be posting stats for some of my NPCs.

I Can’t Do Things The Easy Way. Oi

I can’t make anything simple, as it turns out. I decided to run GRIMM using the d20 system because I know it and there’s a book for it. Great, awesome. So I start going back over the GRIMM d20 book.

Huston, we have a problem. Whoever wrote the Grimm d20 book (64 pg paperback Horizon) only intended for Grimm to be a short game spanning six sessions or less. They tweaked the system a bit so that you’re supposed to level up after every session, you get a feat ever other level, and so on.

HUGE problem.

I have been planning for a game that will take as little or as much time as my players want to spend the in world. I don’t have a six session mini-campaign. Now I’m back to trying to figure out what to do.

Shadowrun DM has been pushing me towards CoC(Call of Cthulhu) d20. I admit to being a stubborn old bitch sometimes but in the end I gave the book a look and borrowed a copy from one of my gamer friends (who is currently unable to play with us). The system is actually ideal. Since it’s classless it gives my players some freedom and I can give them a push toward the Grimm established classes for suggestions.

So, I’m going to scan the Grimm book and make PDFs for my players to look at to get a feel of what I’m going for. I’m going to write up my personal rules for character creation. It’s pretty much CoC rules here but I’m having them use the Grimm skill list which is geared more toward children characters. I’m going to figure out how I’m doing feats and such.

In other news I need to make myself some a DM cheat sheet for DCs, Saves, and all that fun stuff so I’m not scrambling when I get up to the DM’s Chair. I know that DM Screens have this kind of information but I’m still probably going to make my own sheet given the nature of how my game is becoming a mix of things.

Now all I have to do is create my new Starwars character and I should be golden.

Switching to d20 System

At first I wanted to pull my group away from playing all these d20 games, there are tons of options out there and I’d settled on Savage Worlds, I bought the books and settled into planning. Only I was anxious, Savage Worlds is pretty much different from every game I’ve ever played. And this is my first time DMing.

I didn’t really realize how much the added weight of a new system was stressing me. Finally I snapped, said fuck it, and decided I’ll just run it using generic d20 since I’ve got the book for it.  The bad part is breaking the news to my gaming group, considering at least one person already got Savage Worlds because of me I feel pretty low about making the switch but it really has been a weight off of my shoulders.

That being said I’ve not gotten much done but I am beginning to see the pattern of how my game is going to go. I’ve got a  plot which I am slowly working out of my brain and I can’t wait to get started. I’m even beginning to stat my NPCs. Much easier since I know the system pretty much like the back of my hand.

I do believe I will run a savage worlds game later on. I do like the system, but I’m thinking this is better for my first time out. So, that’s pretty much it for today, a short update for now but I’ll probably have a spoiler-ific post a few days from now.

I swear, I’m planning as much for this as I am my novel.

Spoilers for the Spoiler God — On The Endgame

PLAYER’S BEWARE YOU’RE IN FOR SPOILERS

 

I feel so silly doing that but I’ve got at least two prospective players from my gaming group who read and comment on the blog. So I’m sorry guys, this whole post is spoilery.

 

Now, down to business.

I was talking to my lovely DM(of Shadowrun, you know it’s funny to say that because when I first started playing the OTHER DM was the one running Shadowrun) in the hypothetical about if I want the end-goal to involve the characters getting home how many options for them to do that should I make.

He said I should have 3-5 originally, then he changed his story to only one and we began talking about the brilliant ‘You bastard’ moments that happen in our games. In any case I’ve settled to make two. But they both come at a cost and only if they do them in the right order will everyone come home.

I’ve already had it in my head that Sleeping Beauty will be a major part of my endgame. Now that I’ve had time to simmer I have figured out the details of BOTH ways to go home.

When it comes to Sleeping Beauty there are two things to know. One, is that it is actually an enchanted ring (made of a strange green stone [kudos to those who know what this is from]) which when touched will send the children home, until the last child. Each child who leaves by touching the ring makes Sleeping Beauty age just a little bit. When all but the last child are gone she will wake up.
She’s an old woman when she wakes up and she will take the last child and force the ring onto the left ring finger. She is frail after this and can only manage to say one phrase, which she whispers over and over again. “Dorothy’s slippers”. A spot/notice check will show that her clothes have changed once she takes the ring off to clothing from around the 1950’s and definitely NOT from Grimm.

The other way, home which you I’m sure have guessed, are Dorothy’s slippers from The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. Now, I am staying true to the book and she slippers are silver, not ruby. She lost them when she went home from her own stay in Grimm, they were found and returned to a museum of Grimm history. If the children choose to use this method only ONE child can go home and again the slippers will be lost in transit. This means that unless they save the slippers for AFTER Sleeping Beauty, one child will be stuck there forever.

That’s about all I got for now. Imagine that my players will hate me when they come to know these objects in the game.