actual-play podcasts

On the search for a good-quality actual-play podcast. The WotC/Penny Arcade casts were so fun to listen to, and are a great way to get further exsposure on a new system/ruleset, that I’m on the search for others–note however I’m only interested in ones with a reasonable production quality–good sound, compression, etc … Listening to someone’s dog suddenly barking or three muffled tableside conversations is painful … But–if you have suggestions, please let me know!

back!

Back. Heh. And now testing WordPress’ iPhone app. Right after my last post our regular game went into a deep and prolonged flux–we couldn’t get our regular Tuesday night game going to save ourselves. But now, we’re back on and hoping to kick off some quick summer 4e delves–some Eberron, and some homegrown Pathfinder-based adventures. Sweet.–I’ve realy missed it. Plus, my copy of Mouse Guard will be here soon, so I’ll blog about that too … So, here we go!

DM’ing: day one update

So as I mentioned I haven’t DM’d in many years, so we set aside some time to run some test combat to become more familiar with the Fantasy Grounds interface. And … well, I’ll say this: the things I wanted to do/experiment with/understand went really well–the combat tracker, handling the interface, the map tool, etc., was a piece of cake.

But, I found my DM’ing lacking in some of the things that I had just assumed would be easy. I found that I didn’t do enough prep on the various environmental descriptions and flavor stuff … for example,  my combat (because I was so fixed on the mechanics of the interface) was kinda flat! Damn. 

So, the party worked its way though a crypt structure and encountered a Skeletal Troll in the final chamber. Cool enough for test play, but I should have done just a little more with it … maybe the party could have heard strange and horrible noise as the beast defiled the crypt, or it could have surprised them by throwing a sarcophagus at the party or smashing through the doors … just something to shake it up … hurling coffins would do the trick I would think …

Moving forward I guess I really need to focus on the cool little details that surround a featured encounter. I’m fairly new at this, so I expect to get a little better with playing “on my feet” and improvising, but until it starts to come a little more naturally, I just need to put in the time.

 Any ideas for making set-piece encounters more unique? Something  or process you do to catch places in your adventures that come off a  little weak?

DM’ing: Day One Approaches

Finally kicking off the mechanics phase of DMing a campaign. Basically, in an effort to not screw up my main story with stunning incompetence–I’ll be running a light-story short encounter so I can better familiarize myself with the various ins-and-outs of Fantasy Grounds (the virtual tabletop we use for our games) … the links, IC, OOC text, the combat tracker, etc.

The story will kick off with scattered reports getting back to town that there are  raiders hitting some of the solitary fishing homesteads up the Lost Coast for loot and slaves. Our party will be asked to investigate and will (one way or another) have to make their way onto the Raider ship to free the captives. Should be plenty of opportunities there to get into trouble, right? 

 So, to prepare I did find some great community tutorial videos on the FG site and a couple fantastic maps on the RPGMap Share site (boats and homesteads) which should be perfect for a night of prototype wielding, training-wheel gliding, arms-a-flappin water-wing’d n00bis DM goodness. (Yes, that’s me.) I’ll let you know how it goes.

Planning, Planning … oh, damn–forgot about the players!

So, straight up–the adventure  I’m working on is not supposed to be just a crawl.  And as I’ve built it out, my theory has been that if you create/define and build the sandbox well enough, then your players can just wind up and go: they should have multiple on-ramps to the story, plenty of freedom to resolve the story in a way that makes sense to them. (Of course the game will be the true playtest of that.)

And as I thought about the details: setting up introduction scenes and descriptions, characters, backstory, and motivations … my god, a flowchart … I suddenly realized that the one thing I haven’t built into my mental picture was–the players. (Remember the scene in The Meaning of Life when the doctors in the OR had all the monitors and machines–even “the one that goes beep” but felt like they were missing something …. hmmm, what is it? … OH–the patient!)

You know what I mean–when it’s game on, there’s that moment where the set-up is done, the town is alive … maybe something has happened,  and the DM turns to the table and says “Okay–What do you do?” So, clever reader you, no doubt, understand what I am just now realizing about my work so far–yes, I’m over planning the crap out of it. So, in defense of the flowchart: I just wanted to map out several places where a party can hook into the story. I’m trying to make everything else just a scene/location … we’ll see if that works.

about the adventure …

The Lost Coast

So, here’s where we’re at for the one-shot adventure design … I’ve kicked off some pages here with a teaser, the main cast, and a list of the events/backstory that leads up to the current day, and a flow chart of possible ways that the party could become engaged in the story. I don’t want to put the party on a rail, so I’m going to come up with a few different intersections into the story that they can take if they choose.

So–I’m calling it “Shade of the Blackthorn” The events are set in and around the Lost Coast of Varisia, in Sandpoint from Paizo’s Pathfinder setting … For those who are not familiar with it, it’s a small coastal town of about 1,200 people nestled into deep cedar forests that, even in the summer, seem to find a shroud of fog and misty rain.  The town is tight-knit and hardworking, and like many small frontier towns is trying to keep its foothold in the wilderness. (For more info, see Rise of the Runelords: Burnt Offerings)

I chose this town because the story I wanted to craft behind the adventure is not an epic arc, but instead a very local, community one–our party (four lvl 3 characters) have a great bond with the people of Sandpoint, which will mesh well with the story and give me hooks-a-plenty to get them going on the path to the Blackthorn. ;-)

In general, it’s more of a mystery/intrigue/horror rather than over a dungeon crawl. Players will have to hear out at least two sides of the same story and figure out a path. Of course that path becomes increasingly important as the people start to die in troubling ways … Here’s the teaser >>

Oh–BTW: please give me some feedback on what you think and maybe stuff that you’ve found to be effective (or, for that matter, what’s a total bust in adventures like this one.) thx!

other mapping ideas

Just a quick note: I saw this post from Newbie DM, he demos some really compelling looking maps based on scans of Dungeon Tile sets … very nice. Newbie goes on to give a tutorial about printing Battle Maps to an inch scale too …

Nice. I’m working on these maps for my short one-off campaign

RPG mapping: so, what’s over that hill?

So, one of the things I’ve always really enjoyed about the various speculative genres (Science Fiction, Fantasy, other random weirdness, etc.) is the existence of a whole world. Remember poring over the Tolkien’s maps when you were a kid? Half the fun was the tease of the world that was outside the narrative—the places that the story never went to. Those passing references to some far-off mountain stronghold or a half forgotten people. In fact, playing WoW I fell into the PvE/Explorer role far easier than anything else. The world seemed so big, with so much to discover, I loved it. And, even before that, when NWN came along I actually enjoyed the creation tool even more than the game itself.

Anyway, back to the point, the part I’ve always looked forward to in creating games/campaigns has been the map. And back in the day, it was the graph paper that you dutifully filled with geometric corridors, the obligatory maze, or the hidden temple under the lake … the tiny cave you hoped your players would notice as they scrutinized the mysterious parchment.

So for this latest effort I’ve started to look into map-making programs and found Dunjinni. I downloaded the demo and started screwing around … and while the demo has limited tilesets, it’s still really cool. Really scratches that map-making itch. Check out these screens.

Dundjinni tools screenshot

more detail

 

Interior of expedition base camp

campaign creation: of poodles and hoops

We were talking today about the balance between the pleasure and pain of crafting a campaign or adventure—my buddy Dangerfish called it “jumping through the fiery hoop” which I liked, especially if you are willing to picture yourself as a well-quaff’d poodle in a tutu circling the great center ring of your game-group circus … (And for the sake of analogy, I’m relatively cool with that) … Because the metagame of creation is a balancing act. There’s the great fun of creation countered by some level of burden—of canon, of setting, of expectations of your players too … And ultimately (assuming you’re on board with the whole poodle example) it’s also about you being the type of show dog that wants to get it “just right” and not singe your sweet, cloud-like tail … So, even as I’m drafting behind the great work that Paizo has done with their setting, I still spend time worrying that something will clash or break or just not make sense. … And yeah–oh well, I guess you just prep until it’s time, circle twice, tuck tail and go!

But that resolution said, I’d love to hear what anyone else does to dovetail canon, prep for unexpected player behavior, etc.

back behind the screen

So, here’s the deal. I played D&D as a kid. And back then I just loved being the DM, I would hand-draw maps, and build NPCs from scratch–so fun … well, and goofy. I mean, the epic, bizarre plots you came up with as a kid seem hilarious now, don’t they?

Anyway, jump ahead–years ahead. Now it’s well after college, I’m in a professional position at some tech company, I wear fancy pants and the whole nine yards. My buddy and I are talking at lunch about console and PC games (RPGs) and have that *moment* … some of you will know this one–it’s the moment where we both admit to playing D&D as kids and that we’d really like to try it again sometime. Sweet!

So we did, and he ran a great Eberron campaign, then we moved over to Paizo’s Pathfinder (which is amazing), and now … It’s my turn to have a go at DMing again. I’m really excited–totally geeking out on the maps, the plot etc. … just like when I camped in my room as a kid, dreaming up a world.

So, what I’m going to do here is blog the creation, post the maps (I’m demoing Dundjinni’s mapping software), the plot ideas, and then info about how it went. Of course it’s a little different from the standard table-top game, as we use Fantasy Grounds online to play (so the maps and media matter a fair amount), but the game will be set in the town of Sandpoint, in Pathfinder’s universe … stay tuned if you like, and please–advice for a mostly new DM is always welcome!