The 'Common' Language in RPGs - Some Thoughts

 

Disclaimer. I'm not a linguist. I'm not a sociologist. I'm not any kind of '=ist'. What I am is someone who plays different RPGs and discusses them online. I know that makes me a geek/nerd but I'm not sure if it makes me anything else.

There was a bit of a discussion about having a common language in a game setting. Most of them do for the purpose of having an easy way for everyone to talk without a problem. Very rarely do PCs not have Common as a default language and very very rarely does even the most basic village not speak Common. Anyone else find it weird that there's a single language that everyone in the world seems to understand?

That got me thinking about the situation and what shenanigans could happen if Common wasn't what players expected. That's what this post is about.

It would make more sense that Common was more of a trade language than a full featured one and that's a pidgin language by definition. There may be some negative connotations to the word (or not) but it seems like it would be the best way to consider Common, if we were looking at it from a more real world viewpoint.

That would mean a lot of things in a role playing game. Characters would only get to express complex ideas in full languages. Entertainers would be in various languages. Everyone would be stuck for conversation if they were in an area where no one spoke the local language.

Now this might be a really fun way to role play. I can see a game of telephone through several people as they translate more complex statements. Frasier had a bit of that in one episode and it worked very well for comedic effect. The same thing can happen in game but only if one of the links is an NPC. Otherwise the translation is flawless unless the players decide to muck it up. It would make the game longer and after a few times it would get tedious, maybe.

I like the idea of keeping Common as a strict, basic language. Having the players reformulate their questions into simpler language would be quite fun occasionally. Having them do the telephone translation thing would also be fun occasionally. It would certainly keep them on their toes and remind them that they're out in a much larger world.

It would take GM planning to make it work. Having a local NPC that speaks one of the languages negates the telephone aspect since they can talk to them directly. Having another adventurer that has the bridge languages can do it. Rolling for accuracy will also help with how well the translation chain works.

It's something to think about in a game. How does it work when the characters are in a location where there is no common language they share with the locals and no single person can translate within their group? It's tricky but it can be done. It takes the right setting, the right location, and the right group.

That 'right group' is the other variable. You need to be sure the group is going to find the game of telephone as engaging as you might. If you know one of the players is going to flip the table at an extended attempt to get information they feel should be a simple question and answer session then you may need to set it aside. If the rest of the group is having then then that player needs to sit down and accept that the game isn't all about them. As with so many things it's up to the GM to balance it based on the players.

I would never expect my players to actually speak in that form of Common. I'd be their guide to let them know when they need to rephrase things more simply and to give occasional incorrect answers based on the questions. But it's like asking the bard to actually perform when they say they're going to do it. Players are not characters and should not be expected to be able to do what the characters can do.

Anyway. Think about it and how you might want to use a less built out Common language in your game. To learn more about it, since GMs tend to have very odd search histories, here's a link to the Wikipedia article about Pidgin so you can get a feel for what it is and what it isn't. That may help you decide if you want to bring it into your game or not.

I don't recommend thinking of it as Esperanto. Just .. don't.

How I Roll - My Traveling GM Bag

Another blog had a post asking what people kept in a traveling GM bag. Rather than comment there (burying the answer and giving that blog traffic instead of mine) I decided to do a post on the contents of my traveling GM bag.

I used it when the game went virtual as well because we were going with a camera on the battle mat so it was still a physical game and I needed all the same things. There was no point in having things scattered about more than they were so it stayed as-is.

My Traveling GM Bag

Here's my oh-so-glamorous GM bag

This is a rolling suitcase I bought at the thrift store on half price day. It probably cost me about $5 or less. I know there's all kinds of fancy cases out there but honestly I'm frugal and needed some way to transport all my stuff. A suitcase works just fine if you don't mind that it's not all fancy and things can get messy.

As I said, things can get messy. Everything moves to the bottom of the suitcase as it gets moved around. I don't mind that and pack with the idea that it's going to happen. Heavy stuff near the bottom, more fragile/lighter stuff near the top. Even then contents can shift during travel.

One of the most important things a GM needs - a way to take notes. At least that's what I consider most important. I've written on my feelings about taking notes before so this should be nothing new. I did try the Rocketbook and while it works for some people it didn't work for me. Printouts of the transcribed notes are in the green folder. I went back to my trusty spiral bound notebook for the last couple of sessions and found myself much happier. I never decided if I was going to put the pages from the spiral bound notebook into the folder or not before the game ended. Since I will be using written notes in future games it's not a consideration. But notes and the way to take them are extremely high on my list of things to have.

This is my GM screen. Isn't it fantastic? Isn't it perfectly in keeping with the theme of the game? Another thrift store buy it's wonderfully horrible. I thought about covering it with something more appropriate but decided to leave it in all its tacky glory. However this thing is perfect as a screen for me.

It's short enough I can see over it when I'm sitting down. It lets me put sticky notes for things like player-character names, special abilities, PC ability scores, etc. The center lets me put in notecards with more detailed information and I can add as many sleeves as I want. Hint - put some tape around the bottom of the sleeves or the cards fall out.

Even better if you run more than one game you can start from the other end and have a separate screen for the second game. It's pretty cool that way.

I use a screen to hide my dice rolls and keep my notes less visible. I don't need a lot of room for that and having a custom setup for my 'in my face' notes is perfect.

Pencils, pens, and the markers I use on the battle mat. Of course I'm going to have a pouch of pencils, pens, erasers, sticky notes, and other writing related materials. I'm a GM. The center box holds the special pens for the Rocketbook. That's a leftover I never bothered to remove. The markers are self explanatory and I don't know why I even keep the yellow marker since that color never shows up anyway. But they're all there, ready to be used.

Dice. Of course there's dice. What kind of GM doesn't have dice? I swear even in a fully virtual game I'll have dice on hand just for the tactile click clack they give. I tend to keep three full sets of poly dice and swap them out when I want a different look or I think they're not performing up to snuff. I also have:

• D24 (hours of the day)
• D30 (Forgotten Realms has a 30 day per month calendar)
• Weather dice (the set of 2 - one for current, one for forecast)
• Place value dice into the millions (because I bought them and would maybe have a use for them some day)
• Pink D20 (the D20 of Shame)
• Random dice (because dice)
• Red glass blob (makeshift campfire marker)
• Black cat eraser (something I've had with my dice for a very long time)
• Orange tricorder accessory from a ST:TNG Data figure (so I don't lose it)

The triangle you see with a note and a value is from a treasure notecard. I'll get into notecards next.

I love this. I keep this handy. I love 3 x 5 notecards. I absolutely love 3 x 5 notecards.

I use notecards to have item information I can hand off to players. I make trinket, treasure, and magic item cards as the need or inclination hits, then keep them here for when I give out loot. The top card is a low value magic item with the name, the information on what it does, how it works, and in the corner the actual value. When I hand out these I rip off the corner so they don't know what it's worth. I take a picture before I do so I have it available to me - I don't have second copies and if the player can't keep track of their own inventory (game and physical) I can get it back if I feel like it.

Up at the top is a fine tip black Sharpie. That's my writing instrument of choice for notecards since it's permanent and dark. It also means I throw out a lot of notecards when I make mistakes in writing them up.

The trinket and treasure cards are from various item generators. I have a big thing for item generators. All the links are affiliate links so if you buy them I'll get a few pennies, so I can buy more item generators. Inkwell Ideas  has my favorite ones in their Infinite Choices products. Rusted Iron Games has some smaller, more focused generators in their Roll With It! series. Dicegeeks has a great selection of random item generators along with other types of random lists.

These folders have non-campaign specific paperwork. The red one has blank characters sheets and other things that are useful when people need them or I'm working on something. The bigger one has the 'working' paperwork. Let's get into that.

I like combat tracking sheets. You can see one there. I don't require players use them but I offer them every time there's combat. It has places for the round, initiative (I reroll every round), character action, result. I find these help a lot in the combat details - like how many rounds an effect lasts, what damage was done, overall what the character did at the time. I have them in various sizes so they're not wasted. Short combat? Short sheet. I also have bits of scrap paper for notes, maps, blank treasure and XP tracking sheets, etc. There's nothing in these folders that is essential to the specific game. I just keep it together.

These folders, on the other hand, do contain campaign specific materials. Notice how much less there is in them than the non-specific materials. I try to keep these thinned out so I'm not hauling around maps from months previous that will never be used again or I have online and can look up if needed. I also try to build a nemesis party for every game I run and rarely get to use it. It's so fun to have when it works and is always a subplot to have handy.

The campaign paperwork generally has notes and printouts for the next session or two and what was done in the previous session. I thin it out when I'm reviewing my notes before the next game so it's an ongoing process. I keep some of it if I can use it in other games, like maps printed to scale or canned encounters I found useful. Others get tossed during the winnowing.

The characters! I ask the players to send me copies of their character sheets so I have them on hand. Whatever version I have is the one that will be used when that player isn't available so it's in their best interest to make sure I have the most current version. I also have their backstories and any other information I've given them or they don't know yet in their folder. If you're going to do this you'll find very quickly you can't write directly on the folders. Put down a piece of tape, write on it with a Sharpie, and put another piece of tape over that so it doesn't rub off. I put both player and character names on the folders.

I keep each version of the character sheet. Their entire character history is in their folder. I can look up numbers or abilities at the table and I find it even more useful when doing game prep when I can reference whatever I need. I can also put things I want to give the player into their folder and know where it is when I need it.

As much as I'd like to have a fully immersive game with appropriate minis for every encounter I just can't do it in a traveling game. Instead I found this workaround. Those are old Stratego game pieces with colored, numbered paper sleeves. Note I said they're the old version of the game. The old version has a smooth top edge. The newer versions have crenellations. Another thrift store find and if you can find them here's the sleeves you can print out for yourself. Print at full size and 1/2" tape fits perfectly around the bottom. You get 10 each of 6 colors.

They're not as sexy as the minis but it makes it so much easier to keep track of things in combat when someone says they're attacking Red 6. You can also make the different colors different monsters. They fit into the 1 inch squares and I didn't get around to making something that would fit more squares for bigger monsters. But these are a good start.

I could have bagged each color individually but that's a waste of bags and I generally needed 2 colors for each encounter so having them together helped. Kind of since they were all mixed up.

Hint - don't stress about having them in any kind of order. There's no need to pick through so you have 1, 2, and 3 unless you feel that need. 2, 5, 9 work just as well.

The position of the token also can be useful. My standard is upright is active, on their side is prone/unconscious, flat is dead/down. They still fit in the square and help the players determine their actions. They also continue to take up space on the mat if you leave them there, which makes for obstacles and other fun issues.

Books. Where would we be without books? These are the only ones I carry since they're the ones needed pretty much all the time. The DMG is pretty self explanatory and I don't use it as much as you might think. If I didn't bring it I would need it, of course. The setting book is a must. And the player's handbook as well. If there were other setting or game specific 'required' books I'd have them in the bunch. But books are heavy and I also don't like the abuse they take from being hauled around. So I keep them to a minimum.

My final tool - my tablet. I have the SRD apps for my games and use those for things like monsters so I'm not hauling around those books. I can also keep copies of splat books (or pages of splat books) on there so I've got them as needed. I have the PDF copies of most of the books in my Dropbox (no, I won't link that) so I can look them up in a pinch. I use this as a tool but it's not a central tool overall. It's an accessory. 

There's a lot of debate about electronics at the table. This isn't me being a hypocrite since I ban electronics at the table and I haven't gotten anyone saying anything to my face. Unless I need it for the game I don't play with it.

Not shown is my battle mat. I don't put it in the suitcase so it kind of doesn't fit in this post but it's something I always bring. I still have the plastic sleeve for it and I think the packing tape patches add character. I just added a wrapping paper core support so it won't sag when I stand it in the corner. Even if the game doesn't use squares it's a way to draw out the scenery at least.

Summary

I can carry a lot of stuff in a rolling carry on sized suitcase. I try to carry as little as I can since it makes the stupid thing heavy. Finding a place to put it during the game can also be a problem since space is always at a premium. Keeping the bag handy is much better than having the contents strewn about the table is my opinion. My preference is to have a chair within reach and have the suitcase across the arms so I can dig through it as needed.

I use a lot of different kinds of folders. I like thinking I know where things are when I need them. That doesn't always hold true. I put things in the wrong folders at times. But in general I prefer to have them as organized and protected as I can.

Hopefully this will spark ideas on how to make a traveling GM bag. We always have to carry the most stuff so finding a way to do it efficiently and effectively is a task. My way still needs that space to hold the bag where I can get at it quickly. I carry a lot of stuff now that I look at it. But I also use a lot of paper in my game so that adds up. I'm more old school in that I like pencil and paper at the table so I lead by example. Lay out what you always use, what you like to have, and what you keep around because of habit. Out of that you should be able to assemble a good set for games away from home.

Forgotten Realms Campaign - Start to Finish

This is probably going to be a long post. It's also the last post about this campaign so it will talk about the game itself and then have GM commentary at the end. If you've read the posts where I did my best to spin each session into a chapter of a story then some of this will be familiar to you. If not then you get the whole shebang here.

Campaign Summary

The campaign lasted for just over a year and 20 sessions. We were scheduled to play every other week and we kept pretty well to that. I'm surprised. I didn't do the math. However, in game we covered under 30 days.

Over the course of 10 days a wizard, a cleric, a rogue, and a ranger meet up, decide to become an adventuring party, and head out of town towards some ruins they heard were lootable. Traveling with a caravan they find out the road is dangerous even reasonably close to a city before turning off onto a lesser road toward the mountains with the ruins.

While staying over in what amounts to a fantasy world truck stop village (forever named TruckStopVille) they discover some stuff that seems to tie that village to the Underdark. They move on towards the mountains and meet up with another rogue along the way.

While exploring the mountains they find more things that not only imply an Underdark connection but a blocked passage that's supposed to go to the Underdark. They rescue and befriend a goblin tribe at this time. The cleric prevents the ranger from slaughtering them since he has a special hate-on for goblins.

Not finding much they move to a different place in the mountains and find access to the ruins they heard about. The ranger is carried off by a peryton (very crabby bird-stag combo) to an unknown fate. The smaller party explores the ruins, has some trouble with minor Underdark based beasts, and finds an abandoned but ancient hideaway. Maps and design lead them deeper into the mountains.

They find an underground river with boats. The map seemed to imply that upstream was a bad way to go and downstream would get them out. Being an adventuring party they start to go upstream but are turned away by the threat of death by undead. They grudgingly go downstream.

A stopover finds them releasing a demon that had been trapped there and driving the people in the area insane. After releasing the demon they take what they find and the no-longer-insane people help them leave the mountain. They're returning to the village that the party had just left, help them leave the mountain, and go on their way.

With the plan to go back to the big city to follow up on some other possible stuff to do they follow the no-longer-insane people and find the empty wagon. Following footprints they go into the woods next to the road to see what happened. After a spot of trouble they find the people again and a couple of rough campsites. Gathering up the people they head back. The wizard is starting to get a bit stingy on sharing information about stuff they found.

Once back in the big city they try to sell off some stuff, the original rogue is assumed to be part of the large thief's guild in the city due to stuff he had pickpocked before they left the first time, and the wizard is even more reclusive as he does wizard things. They all look for stuff they can do that will line their pockets.

They accept a job guarding a caravan to a nearby city. Along the way they notice some oddness with creatures that seem to be watching them. Once they're in the city they look for more work and settle on a job helping guard a ship making the passage across the big lake so they can get to that area. Abruptly the wizard says he's taking the job, they're not needed, and leaves. The party needs to find other work.

A barbarian attaches herself to the group and they go along with it. There's problems with bandits on the road between this city and the next one so they head out to see what's going on and what they can earn for clearing out a few of them. After a bit of a problem in the city they head out.

There's a bandit hideout back in the woods so they see if they can handle what's there. They can because after some fight the remaining bandits leave the hideout to them. It's a fortified place that has a LOT of loot for them to find, more than they can carry. Rather than leave in the morning they decide to investigate the stairs going down.

They do. They find unused quarters and caverns underneath. They follow the caverns to find some undead and their now deceased owner-cleric who has set up shop by a portal. Investigation shows the portal will take them to another city on the other side of the large lake. They take it an end up in an empty shop but not sure what city they're really in.

The original rogue finds what he was looking for in the form of a new guild to join and leaves them there. He does give them information about a potential bit of larceny on the road into the city in a few days. A young wizard has been trailing them since they got there and after introductions they accept him into the party.

Following the road they do find some excitement in what seems to be the place another ambush was being planned but don't have anyone alive left to question it. The spot is way too perfect for ambushes not to be used on a regular basis.

At this point the story ends. Of the original group only the cleric remains.

GM Commentary

I freely admit this was not my finest hour for being a GM. My pacing was entirely off. My story hooks weren't hooking the players. I didn't have a cohesive story arc for them to follow.

I will say that the group itself never seemed to gel. I gathered them from a MeetUp post and we lost two players after Session Zero which threw things off. We had a lot of discussion about what they wanted out of a game and I tried to give it to them - a mix of role play and combat. However I don't know that everyone was really on that page.

The location of the game moved around. At first we played in the event room of a local craft brewery because that was listed as a place we could play but it turns out they only let one group use it for free. After the uncertainty of that one player offered to let us play at his home. Then that player left and another one offered his place. We played there until for obvious reasons we moved the game online using Discord.

The first player that had to leave (the ranger) had to leave for real life reasons. I'm not sure how sorry people were to see him go since he wasn't really playing as part of the group. He had a character type he seemed locked into regardless of the situation plus he wanted to write a novel about the campaign so he spent a lot of time taking notes. The PCs skills were sorely missed and his character was referenced in future games by the players and by me ("A ranger would sure be handy right about now") which may have contributed to the next player leaving.

That player's spot was filled by a friend of the wizard's player and he chose a rogue as his character. I'm taking the bulk of the blame for his choice since my normal style is to let the player choose the character independent of who else is playing what. He wanted a rogue. He got to play a rogue. Two rogues makes for some challenging GM work.

I tend to have problems balancing treasure per encounter. I need to work on that. It seems to be feast or famine in my games. I do enjoy making magic items tailored to the players and in this case I was trying something new with random time duration items. I prefer to make more low level items that give the players options but they also have to decide if they should use it or not because it takes time to recharge itself. There was the new option of them not knowing how long an effect would last. I'm going to keep that in my pocket for later games if the group is right.

The second player to leave was the wizard. This was after we moved online and he suddenly said he was done in the middle of a session and left. I knew something was wrong and tried to talk to him before it happened but he seemed to have made up his mind and acted on it. The crappy thing is that the first player had to leave because of this guy (real life situation, not personality). It also left the group without any arcane magic.

I adjusted the house rules so that potions could be identified by various PCs based on experience. There was also a magic item they found early (and the wizard was kind enough to leave behind whether he wanted to or not) that let anyone perform the Identify spell. They weren't left in the lurch as much as they could have been.

I was frustrated because every time I tried to pull together a nemesis group to thwart them the group composition changed so I had to start over. The first one had a druid to mess with the ranger but then the ranger left. I was retooling that when things fell apart.

I tried putting together a larger story arc based on their actions and items that they had found along the way. That's when I found out that the group wasn't good at putting together the clues. I tried. Oh how I tried. Finally I realized that I had to spell things out for them if I wanted to get information across. That disappointed me as a GM and made me feel like I was railroading them since they would take the information as gospel and go with it rather than decide what to do on their own.

Another problem for me was the setting itself. Forgotten Realms is great if you're sticking to the Sword Coast where all the Driz'zt books happen. Outside of that it's a brief sketch without much more. Even the locale is mostly empty space. Trying to stick with the setting was more hindrance than help. I had decided to use the locations and make up stuff when it was getting to be more of a burden than I wanted to carry.

I wasn't enjoying this game after about the first half of it. When the wizard player left it was a real problem. One player had a decent back story and I started using it to drive the story forward. The rest boiled down to "out for the lulz" which is useless when it comes to trying to incorporate them into a larger story. I know my one page back story rule can be limiting but I expect more effort than that.

The extremely slow pace of the game also frustrated me and probably them. We couldn't get anywhere. Once we were in a city everyone scattered. Trying to run three different story lines meant that the players who weren't involved didn't have anything to do. They even admitted they knew it was a problem but kept doing it. The original rogue really wanted to do a lot of stuff on his own. I could have done that after the session but things he wanted to do would have in game impact.

That player said he would change to a caster and I accepted after making sure he was really good with leaving his other character behind. I think he was bored with having a second rogue around so a change was good for him. He didn't get much of a chance to show off his magic skills since the game ended soon after the switch.

I knew it was time to end the game when prep time was more of a burden to me than a pleasure. I was tired of having to present them with everything on a platter. I was tired of them splitting the group into splinters that had to be run during the sessions. I was just tired of the group because it never became a party.

Moving online didn't help. I couldn't read body language and people kept talking over each other. Trying to pass information to a player meant me having to stop everyone so I could focus on one thing rather than dashing off a quick note. We got into discussions rather than them accepting what they were given. That slowed things down even more in an already slow game.

What would I have done different? I've really thought about this. At some point I do want to run more games and I'll probably end up in the same situation of a group of strangers from a MeetUp or Facebook group. Here's some of the things I've been considering.

Have more toys in the sandbox. It's great to give the players full control but as someone said if you have a sandbox you need to provide the players with toys. If you don't then they don't know what to do. This game proved it very well.

Find out how much the group likes piecing together what may seem to be random events into a larger whole and then keep an eye on if they can really do it.

Talk about pacing. If they want to spend time in the cities doing role playing things that's great as long as they realize it's going to eat up sessions. I'm fine with as much role play as they want to do, as long as everyone wants to do it.

Talk quite seriously about splitting the party in role playing situations, especially when what they want to do has game impact. There's only one of me so taking a large portion of my time isn't fair to the rest of the players. I'm fine with setting up time outside of the game to take care of business, as long as it doesn't invalidate things that happened in the previous session.

Treasure. I need to get much better about the party finding the appropriate amount of treasure per encounter. I also need to stop making up magic items that can be easily abused to unbalance encounters. I had several of those in this game and it caused me headaches.

Party composition. I don't like forcing people to play characters they don't like but having two rogues showed me just how much of a problem it can be when there's a non-standard group. Losing the wizard was a real eye opener for everyone. I had to tailor encounters both to handle the extra rogue but also take out most magic from their opponents since they had no way to counter it. That brought high fantasy down to low fantasy.

I like the 3.5 rules. I really do. We could have moved the game to Fantasy Grounds and used the OSR except for the Forgotten Realms setting. That was never licensed out. Changing mid-game would have meant losing feats and equipment that the PCs already had. It wouldn't have been fair to expect them to lower their abilities when we had the other option of using a camera and Discord. It wasn't great on the whole but to me it was better than the alternative.

Online vs in-person. Had this game started out online it may have been different. Moving from one format to another was difficult for everyone. We did our best.

Did I fail as a GM? Yes. Did they fail as a group? Yes.

I think we had a decent start and then it began to fall apart when the first of the story arcs I tried to include came into being. That's when I found out the players weren't good or weren't interested in the long game. I started looking for modules I could adapt to run over a couple of sessions that were interesting to me and allowed for them to be challenged. Either I'm very choosy or there aren't many of those. I did find some publishers I like a lot for that kind of thing so that's good for the future.

Had the game continued it would have been a series of module adventures strung together with some of my own ideas to keep them into a cohesive story. I know I would have still had problems with the role play/combat balance just based on their reactions to events. Maybe not problems so much as adjustments to the balance.

I know real life had a big impact on everyone's mood. Abruptly losing a player was also a blow since I think I was the only one who saw it coming and that's because it's part of my job to monitor the player satisfaction. We wanted to escape the stuff in the real world but we also carried it with us. That made games more frenetic and more focused than prior. Losing the physical proximity didn't help keep the group together either.

I don't know when in person gaming will start up again. I also don't know where we can game. The local store where I used to try to game moved to another storefront and there's no good place to run role playing games. Other stores may have them but I think the setup is the same - they've got tables for playing MtG and some wargaming but nothing that will work well for RPGs. We'd have to take two of the tables and find a way to be heard over anything else going on in the store. Plus make sure there's space for us.

I've been debating the idea of running one shots with pre-gens online. I want to learn the system so I can run longer games there as well as find out if I can enjoy running online. For all that I'm antisocial I think I need the energy that comes from a gaming group. If I can get and give some of that online then it may work. Maybe having the program handle all the mechanics is the key there.

I don't miss this gaming group like I do the previous ones. I was friends with most of those groups. I didn't become friends with this group. That may be another problem I had with engaging them or at least wanting to engage with them. At least I know that there's far less chance of it happening with an online only group and can adjust my expectations accordingly.

Summary

This game was mostly a failure for a number of reasons. As the GM I can take on a lot of those reasons but not all of them. I'm not going to hang that around my neck. I've learned from it and will hopefully bring those lessons into the next games I run. I also know now that I can't force the necessary creativity to run good games. When that happens I need to talk it out with the group and see what can be done, if anything. That's another burden I can't take on myself.

I may have to give up on 3.5 Forgotten Realms as a setting. 5e is so prevalent now that I'm coming to terms with the fact that may be the version I have to run. I do have books and online books for it. I may find I enjoy it as I get used to it. Having cut my teeth on 3.5 it's a downgrade to go to 5e, especially with the latest changes to races or whatever they're calling them these days. Political correctness has been wiping a lot of the things I liked about the game and I know I can't tell people to ignore those changes, even though it's my prerogative as the GM to make those decisions. I'm not that stupid.

I wanted to give people reading this some kind of conclusion to the campaign since I started writing about it. I felt it was only fair. I didn't get the chance to do that with the group since after our last session and my email telling them I was ending the game I haven't heard from any of them. That was another tick mark in the "wasn't a tight group" column.

Finally, I never truly felt appreciated as a GM. I know that sounds petty. It's how I feel. They said all the right things at the right times, I'll give them that. Their actions showed me more. I'm not expecting banners and huge amounts of praise. It would have been nice to not have to chip in for the food I didn't get a chance to eat since I was running the game. And it would have been nice to get at least one token of appreciation from them for the work I did. Not knowing if that's petty or not doesn't help either.

So, Um, What's Going On?

If you follow me on Twitter (hi!) or are a Facebook friend (hi!) then you know the real life stuff that's going on with me. If you don't know me from either of those places then all you need to know is that real life stuff is going on with me.

I've been quiet here because I haven't felt I would have much to say about gaming, which is the primary focus on this blog lately.

The game hasn't been going well. I think it's a combination of an ill-matched group, an ill-matched GM and group, and moving the game online. The only thing out of those three that could possibly be changed is the online part but it wouldn't fix the other two.

The ill-matched group has some odd dynamics since it's morphed so many times. There's now a husband and wife team, their friend (at least I think he's their friend, he may be the friend of the guy who abruptly left), and one person who's stuck through from the beginning. Their characters haven't meshed into a party - they're four people hanging out and doing stuff but they're not a PARTY in that they're forming interpersonal relationships. Not the players, the characters. Which is also the players but not really.

Only one player gave me enough backstory to work any of it into the game. The others gave me a little along the lines of "I'm trying to find my father but not really" and "I want to learn more magic before I go home". That's not enough for me to find a way to work them into a story. It's separate people with separate goals.

Here's where I get to vent a little. I want them to enjoy the game. I want them to try to put together larger pictures from what they gather as they adventure. I want everyone to have fun. But this group just can't see clues. I wondered if I was being too subtle so I literally attacked them with NPCs that should have spurred them into trying to figure out why they were being followed. Nope. As soon as the encounter was over they barely talked about it even though the NPCs got away. When they were attacked again, same result. How much more obvious do I have to be that there's something going on?

This is why I think the group and I aren't a match. My GM style doesn't mesh with their play style. That's not saying either one is bad. That's saying they don't work well as a game. It means no one is having as much fun as they could and should.

This leads into why my short lived "How I Roll" suddenly ended. I couldn't come up with enough things to continue it. That was an offshoot of me doing game prep and how things worked in my game. Since I no longer get any pleasure from game prep and the things that go on in my game aren't worth mentioning it ended that set of posts. Maybe in the future I'll pick it up again, maybe not. I don't know how much people liked it.

Ending a game is a difficult decision. I've done it in the past when I knew I wasn't giving them the game they deserved. I never heard from any of the players again after it ended so I know I made the right choice. That hurt, by the way. No one even thanked me for that game or the one before (most of the group was from the previous game that ended due to players moving away).

Ending a game in these times is an even more difficult decision. Everyone needs an escape. Gaming is a wonderful escape. But when it becomes something I dread rather than look forward to with anticipation then I know there's problems. Big problems.

I've tried to fix it by asking players what they wanted out of the game and got non-committal answers that didn't help me at all. They were along the lines of what I already said. Mostly they want to play and this is a game they have. It's not that they want to play MY game. It's that they want to play A game. At least that's the feeling I'm getting.

I could run a series of loosely collected pre-generated adventures to keep the game going. No one seems to be looking for a long term story arc. But that would put me in the position of reading Powerpoint slides. That's not what I want to do. Sure, it's easy to prep. Print off a map, print off the adventure, run them through it. I have plenty of those that I use for inspiration. But if that's all they want then there's a lot of other GMs to do that. I want to get engrossed in the story they weave. I'm there to support that and they're not storytellers.

This is me talking myself into ending the game, if you couldn't tell.

I am looking at Fantasy Grounds and running regular one shot adventures for people who just want to show up, grab a pre-generated character, and play for a few hours with no long term consequences. There's so much league play these days where every result is a permanent result I want to think that there's people out there who want carefree play too.

That would let me have some fun with adventures and also play with no long term consequences. Sure it might seem little different than what I said I didn't like about my current game but it's different. It's meant to last a few hours then end forever. One shots as opposed to a string of encounters.

I have a few days left before I need to make a decision. Wednesday before the game is my traditional time to contact the group and remind them we're playing. That's a way for people to say if they can't play as well. I canceled the last game due to the stuff from the first paragraph and one player would have had to cancel anyway due to their real life stuff. So we're already several weeks out from the last session.

What will I do for a creative outlet?

I can work on learning Fantasy Grounds since I like learning things and seeing how to make games there.

I can work on my hobbies.

But I know that my full creativity is blocked at the moment. It's been blocked for a while. The world changed. We're all excused for having bad mental reactions to what's going on. For me it means that I don't think I can run games right now. I can't give myself over to the fun of figuring out imaginary challenges to overcome when we're all dealing with real life challenges. That's not fun.

Anyway. I wanted to let you know that I've been feeling guilty about not posting an update. I'm still around and I hope to be posting about other things that I can do. They probably won't involve gaming as much. I have many other hobbies and interests that I enjoy sharing. Maybe switching to those will put me in a better place to be creative in general.

How I Roll - The MacGuffin

If you don't know what a MacGuffin is Wikipedia has the full explanation. Think of it as a plot device that has no other use than to advance the plot.

We're all guilty of using them. They're easy to drop into a game and then be forgotten by everyone, including the players.

In a way using these can be considered lazy. It gives the players a thrill of achieving something and then they go on to find something else. It can be unexplained as to why they're looking for it or what it does. It can be and do nothing in particular.

Sometimes that's what you want. Not every encounter has to end with a world shaking revelation or major plot twist. If they find the Amulet of Sugary Cereal then so be it. At that point it can be decided if it has significance.

Who decides? Good question.

If the item miraculously meshes with a character's motivations and/or backstory then hey, it's no longer a MacGuffin! If they decide they must know why the Rock of Shiny Crystals was so well guarded then they're off to the sages. Maybe the name sparks something in that overworked GM brain and it connects with something else that was in the overpacked filing cabinet of ideas.

Or maybe it's just a goal that they'll sell in the next town.

One thing it can do is break the players of the habit of expecting the results of every encounter to have long term ramifications. Finding the Cloak of the Sloth Prince when there's no empire they know of that has a Sloth royal family is an achievement that makes them feel good for finding it but is kind of a sorbet to the plotline palette. It's refreshing, it's welcome, it's not important.

Something that's far too easy to do is to use them too often. If you make most of the things at the end of encounters MacGuffins then you're stringing together random encounters and it's an extended dungeon crawl. You know your group. That may be all they want. Fight their way through to get the treasure then move on to do it again. Or they could be looking for meaning and a longer, deeper story arc.

I use them. I admit it. When I can't come up with a reason for why they're doing what they do I toss a random (probably) valuable reward at the end so they feel they've accomplished something. It also gives them something to RP about when it comes to what it is and how it got there. Sometimes they keep it, sometimes they leave it behind, sometimes they take it along, sometimes they sell it. The significance of the thing can change based on how the players perceive it.

Example time!

I love my random item generators. A rogue was very successful in his pickpocketing adventures and one of the things he got was a preying mantis in black glass. That's what got rolled up and I picked it out of a stack. The way the story was running I decided that this was what a thief from that guild would have with them when they were going to carry out an assassination, as a sign that they should receive all possible aid from others in the local guilds. Of course the rogue who stole it had no idea about that so now he's terrified that not only is he's pretending to be a member of the guild he's also got 'proof' that he's going to assassinate someone. So that one worked out.

Another time they got some minor magic items for their troubles. Minor enough that they sold about half of them since they didn't see a use for them in the future. So those are gone in all respects.

I'm not giving an opinion one way or another on these. I rarely given opinions in these posts. I show examples of what I've done or not done and let you - the reader - decide how useful the information is.

So this is kind of but not quite a MacGuffin itself. Go figure.

How I Roll - The Lonely GM

A post on Twitter got me thinking about sitting behind the screen. That post talked about how lonely it is to be a/the GM.

It's true. It can be incredibly lonely. There's a party on one side of the screen and on the other side the GM is watching it. Sure we get to be everyone in the world but those aren't the same as being invested in one very specific role.

In my opinion this is why some GMs introduce essential NPCs. That way they get to play and be at least on the fringes of the group. But it's never quite the same. It's always us against them even when it's not adversarial.

The GM holds a lot of the cards. The players know this. They work together to figure out what's going on and how to overcome it. The GM is reactive to that and also proactive in keeping the story moving in some direction or another.

Moving online has made that worse, at least from what I've been hearing and experiencing. They're still a party. The GM is still this nebulous person off to the side, telling them what's going on. With all the problems of a conference call the party is still a group, even if it takes longer to get them all on the same page.

The GM? Sitting there listening and waiting for their chance to say something.

For some in person games there's consideration for the work the GM does. They don't have to pay their share for the pizza. Someone brings the snack they like. There's a time after the game when they're thanked. Or not. It depends on the group. But the option is there.

In my opinion one of the worst things a group can do is treat the GM like a component of the game - rulebook, dice, GM. We're people too and we work darn hard to make sure that there's something for those hours when everyone gets together.

Online I've found that the break between the party and the GM is even more pronounced. People get excited and start talking over each other and the GM until some kind of order is restored. Then they do it again. There's no good way to use body language and manners seem to be different when they're not sitting across from another player. The GM gets even more marginalized when the players don't have to see them sitting there, behind the screen, running the game.

The point of this one is more for me to express the intrinsic loneliness that comes from running a game. Sure the players can be friendly but once the game starts there's a screen between the players and the GM, even if they don't play a game with a screen. It's a power dynamic that can't change.

And it is all about power. The GM decides what encounters the party will face and what happens when they finish it. They decide when the party levels. They have the power over that aspect of the game. The players have power over the social aspect of the game. The GM can't mandate that the players are nice to them, even if they should be.

I've been feeling removed from my game and I think this is why. I think that distance between me and my players has grown as we moved online and given that I don't know when we'll be back in one location I don't know how well the game will progress. I honestly don't know. It may not survive the transition from in person to online. Right now I don't know how I feel about that, which is not a good place to be for creative work.

If you're a GM I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on if you feel lonely. If you're a player I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how much the GM is integrated into the game. Either way I think it's a topic that doesn't get enough attention in the world of gaming.

How I Roll - I Got Nothin'

One of the most frustrating moments when being a GM is when you draw a total and utter blank when trying to do something.

Right now that means me building the story arc with encounters for the group I'm running. It's not really a cohesive group. But that's more specific than these posts are meant to me.

If you can't come up with the name of a town, an inn, and/or an NPC you can pretty much always wing that one. If you know that's a weakness of yours there's plenty of online generators where you can either make a list in advance or bring them up to save your bacon. 

It starts getting more difficult as you try to plan more elaborate things. Encounters are currently my stumbling block. I know I need to progress the story and I also need to make sure the encounters are balanced, appropriate, and enjoyable. That's a difficult set of requirements.

I'll probably go into these in more detail in separate blog posts but here's kind of an overview.

Balance isn't too bad given the CR system to use as a base. That and winging it based on how well the encounter is progressing. The intent is to make the characters work towards the end goal and not stroll through to it. At least it is for me. The characters should feel like they've accomplished something at the end of it.

Appropriate starts getting into more murky waters. That means you should have some idea of a goal in mind. Simply doing a dungeon crawl that ends with a big monster doesn't really advance the story much. Being appropriate can be a dungeon crawl to line their pockets if the loot has been less than what they should have at that point. They're good for that. But a random "hey - dungeon!" can be distracting and feel gratuitous. At least to me.

Enjoyable is another one of those nebulous and difficult things. Enjoyable for who? Do you want to showcase a character's abilities in this encounter? Do you want them to use their skills to the best of their ability? If your players like solving problems do you put the right kind in their path? Do you have players who sulk when they can't be the bestest and how does that come out in their play style?

As you can see there's a lot of questions. I've used pre-build adventure modules as either a base or a launching point for my encounters. I drop in what is suitable for the party and remove what isn't. I change things on the fly if I can sense it's not clicking with the group or if it's going off the rails. I've painted myself into a corner more times than I can count and have to work to pull it out of my hat. 

What I've found works best for me personally is to have a few opponent types available, some kind of reward that they need or want to get further along in the story, and try to make it so at least half of the party can show off their skills. That's my outline. Then from there I can work around it to make a more fully fleshed out encounter.

But I still keep names and other necessary things in physical lists so that I don't have to come up with the name of the goblin in the corner of the inn when they're back from whatever they were doing.

How I Roll - The Monty Hall GM

In a way this relates to last week's post about how fast PCs level. It's about the GM who hands out a heck of a lot of toys and treasures during the game. Suddenly the PCs have access to all kinds of toys.

Mind you, I'm going to talk about 3.5 type games. I'm looking at 5e and there's less of a chance of this happening due to the restriction on magic items but it can still be done. Any game where there's loot given out it can be done. And it's far too easy to slide into that problem.

I consider it a problem. Having been on the receiving end I've got the perspective of seeing what happens in the game when PCs have access to really powerful stuff. And I've seen what happens when the GM simply can't keep track of what they've given out.

I'll give examples.

My PC acquired a sentient weapon that also had several magical abilities. We were of a high enough level that it wasn't completely inappropriate. But the weapon didn't have what I consider to be necessary limits on it. That meant every morning everyone in the party could use it to get four different magical effects for the day and we did. By getting those effects (I can't find the card with all of them) we got the benefits of a lot of higher level spells being cast on us in a way that we couldn't have done if we didn't have that shiny toy. It might not seem game breaking but when you have +10 resistance to something and +2 to an attribute and so on and so on it's going to make it so the PCs are more overconfident of their abilities. And it means taking options away from the GM.

My PC also had masterwork armor and enough money was given to us that I could have multiple magic effects put on it. That armor almost didn't need my PC to function at the end. It was impossible to catch me unarmored as my PC had the ability to summon it and be fully armed as a fast action if my PC was within some distance of it. It turned spells. It did all kinds of things. My PC was not just a tank but also some other kinds of offensive and defensive weapon.

Finally I'll get to one of my best stories. It has to do with careful bookkeeping, judicious GM management, excellent dice rolling, and good players. As the party accountant my PC was very careful (that meant I was as the player) to note what we got, how we got it, where we got it, and when we got it. The GM had one of her pet NPCs (who was like 35th level or something) give the party 3 bags of dispelling dust she made so we could accomplish a quest for her. I noted that down. We used 2 of them in the quest. I noted their usage. We never gave back the last one.

In a different encounter a couple of years later we were up against a wizard who polymorphed himself into an adult dragon. This is where it gets fun. I had that dispelling dust and threw it at him. Since it was created by her pet NPC it easily defeated his save and he went back to being a squishy wizard. The warlock turned him into a greasy smear. What was supposed to be a huge boss fight was over in one round.

The GM was upset and asked where we got that. When I pulled out the paperwork and told her exactly what happened she had to accept it. She gave it to us, she didn't remember to ask for it back, we used it in an appropriate situation. It was really her own fault since without that magic item it would have been the big boss fight she prepped.

Side note - she later tried using Mordenkainen's Disjunction on us in another encounter that wasn't going her way. If you're not familiar with this spell it's a nasty one to cast on your players. The short version is that any magic item you're not carrying has to make a saving throw or lose its magical ability. It's kind of the equivalent of trying to take away all the magical loot the PCs have acquired.

The group rebelled and said if she was going to do that then we all quit. We were at pretty high levels so we had a lot of high level magic we'd found or bought. This was seen as the cheap trick it was and we called her on it. She backed down in the face of unanimous group opinion and realized that she couldn't give out stuff and take it back because she got played.

Anyway. To summarize the point of this. Be careful about how much loot you hand out. It's fun to give the PCs stuff they can use. It's fun to give them treasure. But it's also a way to unbalance your game and set expectations that every treasure pile is going to have magic items and piles of gold. Judge it carefully so the loot is appropriate to the encounter. Just don't go the other way and make the players perpetually poor. That's another blog post too.

How I Roll - The Level Race

I've played in games where the GM seems to be in a rush to get PCs to higher levels. I can understand that. Lower levels mean lower challenges. Or they have a story they want to get to but the PCs aren't ready yet.

I don't like it.

It's part of my Session Zero to tell the potential players that I level slowly. I want them to be able to explore their new abilities and learn more about their characters before moving up the ladder of levels. I find it kind of sad when someone gains a new feat or skill only to get to use it as their premier shiny thing for a few games before they get a new shiny thing.

I also like challenges suited to the character levels. Yes, kobolds are boring after a while but that's a challenge on me to make encounters that are level suitable but still interesting. It also lets me learn about the players and what they want out of their characters, out of me, and out of the game in general.

I start very low level. Depending on the game and players I'll either start at level 1 or level 3. I want those characters to develop. I want them to learn how best to use the character builds they made. I want them to have time to adjust things that seemed like a good idea at creation but aren't working out in the game.

If we're doing more of a "kill the monster, get the treasure" game then character development isn't very much of a concern to the players. In those cases I'm fine with starting at a bit of a higher level and letting them advance faster. But I end my games at level 20 so the faster you get there, the shorter the game. There's always a trade-off.

Players like to level. It's a milestone. It's a visible show of accomplishment that they've done stuff. I can fully understand that and accept it. It's why I use a combination of XP and milestones (more on that in a future post) to level up the characters.

Another thought to bring into the discussion is that the higher the characters advance the more it takes to get them to the next level anyway. Lower levels means learning the basics. Once you get into higher levels there's more options and more things to do before you move up. At least I like to think so.

I also dislike having characters level in the middle of an encounter. It throws everything off when we're in a multi session encounter and in the middle one or more of the PCs levels. It kind of breaks the scene for me. Suddenly they figured out how to Cleave while they're sneaking through the sewers to find the lair of the offshoot of the assassins' guild? It doesn't make sense. So holding off on it until they've got some in-game down time is my goal.

Other GMs like the race to the top. That's fine. If the players want it too then that's the game. It's yet another reason why Session Zero is important. You need to find out what the players expect in terms of character advancement, which is something not typically discussed. While my preference is for slow leveling if the group wants to go faster I can go faster. It means the encounters will be more difficult to compensate for their faster grasp of skills and feats. As I said, it's a trade-off. And it's completely up to the group as to how to handle it.

How I Roll - Cool Points

I like to reward players who come up with really cool ideas and actions. However the dice may not agree with what they want to do. That's where 'cool points' come into play.

Yes. I know many game systems allow for some form of this as part of the rules. If that applies to your game then you're already set.

Cool points are different than inspiration points or bennies. Here's what I do when someone attempts something that is impressive.

Unless they miss the roll by a good chunk of what's necessary to stick the landing I give it to them. That's the reward for coming up with the cool idea. They get to do it. Pretty simple, right?

It means deviating from the strict target number ideas that are embedded in many game systems. It may not be possible if you're playing online. I still need to research that one. But the basic idea is to encourage players to try new things. They may fail, they may not. But they tried.

Honestly I find this applies more to rogues than anyone else. The players who make the fancy rogues tend to want to do the cool things. So I'll use a rogue as an example.

Say the rogue wants to run the length of the table, jump on to the creature's back, stick their dagger into it, then ride down the side of it to the floor while carving a gouge out of its flesh. Pretty darn cool, right?

That's a lot of checks to make if you're going by the book. Off the top of my head that's a jump/acrobatics to get onto the table, a charge (is it 10 feet?), another jump/acrobatics to land on the creature, an attack roll to see if they can get the dagger into it, then yet another acrobatics roll to get to the floor as they intended. That's four or five different rolls and four or five different places to fail.

However it's a darn cool move if they can pull it off.

So. My ruling on this one would be one acrobatics to land on the creature and one attack. That covers getting to where they want to go and sticking in the dagger. If they succeed in both then they're going to do the damage. I'd have them do two damage rolls - the initial hit and then another one for the slice down the side. If I were feeling cheeky or if the player had been overconfident I may have them roll one more time to find out what state they're in when they land but that's situation dependent.

I've reduced the failure points significantly and in my own head I'll adjust the target numbers as I see fit. I want them to succeed on cool things but not if they're way off the mark. If they don't make the leap then of course they're not getting the attack. If they don't make the attack they're not getting the damage. If they don't stick the landing they're going to be prone, if I choose to add that one.

But in all the rolls I take into account the fact that the player came up with a really cool idea and image that they want their character to do. If I don't reward that kind of imaginative play then it's going to discourage them from trying cool things. Which I feel would diminish the player, the character, and the game. Not to mention the example it sets to the other players.

If your game allows for it let your players do cool things. Don't throw the rules out the window but pretend you don't see them if it's going to help the story along and make the player feel like they're made of awesome.

Final note here. Don't forget to reward the player with praise. Bring it up in the game if NPCs saw it. Have a bard put it into song in the next town. Let the character brag about it until the other party members want to smother them with a pillow. But one thing I don't recommend is rewarding them with experience. Not every player can or will try the cool stuff. By rewarding the ones who do with extra experience you're punishing the players who don't. Balance is the name of the game here. They tried something cool in character, reward the character.

And if they roll a 1? See my previous blog entry and be just as explicit about how badly they failed.

How I Roll - Critical Fails

I like critical fails, both for my NPCs and for the PCs. I like critical successes as well but that's another post. Note that my games are role play intensive so I have a lot more leeway in the results of a critical fail. If your games are more action focused then by all means keep doing what you're doing.

Critical fails are really just another 5% chance on the dice. In theory there's nothing special about them. In practice it's a chance to have some fun.

Yes. I said critical fails can be fun. Let me explain.

I don't use critical fail charts or any of that nonsense. I don't have a PC shoot one of their party members on a critical fail. I don't have the weapon break. Instead I embarrass them.

Yes. I also consider rolling a 1 on anything to be a critical fail, even when there is no such thing. You cannot critically fail a save or a skill check. Those are all additive results. But again, I like to have fun with them. Because there's always a chance that not only will the PC fail but they will fail in a spectacular fashion.

Mind you this is my opinion and my play style. If you like the charts and PCs getting an unexpected arrow in the kidney then have at. Some of those charts are really creative. It's my personal choice not to use them.

I also don't like the idea that one bad roll is going to take a PC out of the encounter. A broken bow string may not sound bad but that's at least one if not more round out of combat and if there's no cover then they're gonna get hammered. A broken sword has much longer lasting consequences. Yes I know both happen in real life. But this isn't real life unless my real life is very very dull.

Where I find this especially fun is where a character literally cannot fail a check. Sometimes the modifiers are so high that even when rolling a 1 they're going to succeed. That doesn't mean they do it well, which is where the embarrassment comes into play.

The oh-so-confident rogue can easily climb the knotted rope without a skill check but I have them roll anyway and tell them "just don't roll a 1". Which of course encourages their dice to try to do it. If so they still climb the rope but they aren't nearly as cool looking as they want to be, people notice, and/or they end up with visible rope burns from a mishap while climbing. Nothing changes the result - they climbed the rope - but the circumstances around it change the action.

Another example is when someone using a bow rolls a 1. There's plenty of options here. They drop the arrow before they can let go of the string. They snap the inside of their wrist with the string when they release (which hurts like a mofo and is why archers have those protective arm guards). The string snaps back and leaves a visible red line down their face for a day or so. None of them mean that the PC is out of the action or has done anything really bad. But they sure didn't succeed at shooting the baddies.

Let's face it. We as regular old people make mistakes. We trip over nothing then look around to see who noticed. We try to use the car remote to unlock the front door. We drip red sauce on white shirts. We critical fail in real life quite a bit more than we want to admit. And for the most part it's harmless but embarrassing. Bring that into your game - if appropriate - and you'll let the players relate to the PCs more. They can imagine a minor mishap very easily. Let them.

How I Roll - The Value of Dice

As you may or may not be aware I collect dice. However this isn't about the monetary value of dice. Because I don't want to disappoint if that's what you were expecting here's a pretty d20:

This is a Chessex Aurora Boralis Confetti d20. The value of this is approximately $300 to $500 if not more, depending on the sale. Yes. That's for this single die. The last selling price of the set was over $2,000. Needless to say this is a very high end collector set and yes I have the whole set as well as the extra d20. No I did not pay that much for either of them. No I don't bring them to the table.

Now that we have that out of the way let's talk about GM styles and dice.

There's open roll, hidden roll, and what I call pretend roll.

• Open roll is where the GM rolls in the open and what the dice roll is what happens.
• Hidden roll is where the GM rolls where the players can't see but still uses the results more often than not
• Pretend roll is where the GM rolls and may or may not use the results.

Every GM has their own opinions and styles. None of these is more or less valid than the others. I won't get into that argument but I will give my opinions on them. Which is far different than making pronouncements. In my opinion.

Open Roll

I'd say this is more useful for modules when there isn't much in the way of ability to deviate from what's been laid out as the story. Honestly the only thing that can happen that isn't already considered is that the PCs can die. Otherwise they're going to do what the module says and end up where it says. So the dice are only there to find out if they make it or not.

In a less structured game this is a bit of a harsh way to play. It takes a lot of storytelling options away from the GM. By depending on the dice rolls the PCs may not be able to defeat the minions to get to the BBEG and die on the doorstep. They don't see the hidden door.

Some say this is the most honest way to roll dice. I don't disagree with that, if your intention is to have your game driven by random events.

Hidden Roll

To me this means rolling the dice and fudging here and there to make sure that the game progresses in a fun and semi-coherent fashion. The GM may roll a crit but just call it a regular hit to minimize damage. They can use opposed rolls in whatever fashion they like. Or they can use the rolls as-is to keep things more honest.

This combines the random aspect of dice with GM discretion as to when they should take precedence over the story and the table. By relying on them more often than not there is a randomness that makes the game chaotic like open rolling but not as deadly, unless the GM wants it that way.

Pretend Roll

The GM rolls dice, does whatever the heck they were going to do in the first place. The dice rolling is all for show (sound?) so that the players think there's randomness. The GM may even accept some of the dice rolls as part of the game.

This one has me conflicted. On one hand it means the dice don't run the game. On the other hand it means that there is no chance of something wonky but interesting happening. The GM is pure storyteller in this mode.

Summary

I had to make a break so this didn't seem like part of the roll type descriptions.

Personally I go with the Hidden Roll method. I don't let the dice decide my game but I want to give the players the same randomness they have to deal with on their side of the screen. I fully admit I fudge like crazy, especially damage rolls. My dice want to kill the PCs. I won't let them.

I can honestly react to the dice rolls as well which is a very underrated action. The GM is always on stage. The players are looking for non-verbal clues in how you react to what is happening behind the screen. So rolling dice and seeing what they want can give you ideas and even more important a few minutes to think about where the situation is going.

Yes. Dice rolls can also be used to gain precious thinking time.

As I said I don't leave my story up to the whims of shiny math rocks. I use them as tools to help me figure out what I want to happen in the near and mid term encounters. Maybe a dice roll can have long term implications. But I'm always the one who decides that.

As the GM it's ultimately your decision on how you want to use dice in your game. I will repeat that none of these is more valid than the others. It's very much a personal decision on what method to use, unless you're using a rule set that requires a certain method for the GM to roll. If not then figure out which one suits your style, your game, and your players. Then use it. There's no reason you can't use a different style in a different game. Or even change to a different style in the same game.

Do what works for you. The mantra of most of the advice you get when asking how to GM.

How I Roll - Losing a Player 2

Losing a player is different than losing a character. In game losses are tough. Losing a person at the table can go either way. Let's be honest. As a GM there's players you wouldn't mind seeing the last of.

We lost a player recently. I knew he was unhappy even though the game included things he said he wanted. I asked him about it. The response I got was long delayed and I could tell he was working up to leaving. But I was more than willing to give at least one encounter I knew would intrigue him. The rest of the group would enjoy it as well.

I also think the shift to online didn't help. There will be more on that in a future post. But the disconnect between in person and online seems to have been a problem for him. I honestly think he couldn't keep his attention on the game when he didn't have the people there. I would see him off in other channels while we were playing and he always had excuses why his camera didn't work.

Even when you see it coming a player leaving can be a shock.

In this case he left in the middle of the game, sending a message to the group chat that it's been fun but the game isn't for him anymore, and wishing us well. Completely out of the blue, at least to the rest of the players. It hit everyone.

So how do you deal with it? Especially when it brings the group down below a critical mass for an effective game? I used the time right there to talk it out. I wanted to let the rest of the group wasn't to blame (his message could have read that way) and that we could move forward in a few ways. These work even when the player leaving is something with notice.

First I asked if anyone knew someone who wanted to join. Players talk to other players. The best way to get someone in line with the group is to have someone from the group recommend them. There's a couple of reasons for that. One is that the person already knows what the game is like. The other is that the person has a reason to behave since they were recommended.

We lucked out and one of the players said his wife was interested in joining. She and I talked after the session and she seemed like a potential good fit. I have my own issues with couples at the game table and addressed them (yet another post here). So that's all handled.

If we didn't have a player on hand then I would have advertised the game on Meetup and in the local Facebook groups. Although we're online now we want to go back to in person so that means local. It also means finding a new place to play since the player that left was the host. Really the only place open will be mine, once I clean up my junk. Finding a new player this way means interviewing.

Another option is not to replace the player. Most games are optimized for four players but it can be more or less. If the group has decided not to play when players are missing then it's not that much of a problem. If they do want to play when people can't be there then it is a problem. Again, this is a group thing.

We had another issue with this player leaving. His character was the wizard. As of now the group has no access to arcane magic besides magic items. Since I refuse to force people into "missing slots" and the new player chose a non-arcane class it's on me to rejigger the encounters so they are arcane magic lite. I've also made it so that once a magic item is identified they don't need to roll Use Magic Device to use it. They know how from the identification. This lets me replace the wizard with trinkets.

I won't lie. Losing a player hurts. Losing one this way makes me doubt myself. I've gotten past that by referring to my notes and how the player changed when we had the long break then restarted online. He's an in person gamer. That's fine. I think he really wanted to try the online gaming. It didn't work for him. But he chose a very poor way to leave. No one got the chance to say goodbye.

That's the thing. A group of players tends to be more than strangers who sit down at a table every so often and roll shiny math rocks. They form a party. When he left the game he hurt every person in that party. I had very little issue with throwing shade on him for his actions, both in game and out. His character had been very dickish the last few sessions and getting very greedy. The other players were noticing and were trying to play it out. But alas, it didn't happen.

I've lost other players for other reasons. Sometimes life gets in the way. Sometimes they decide the game isn't for them. Sometimes they don't give a reason.

I recommend spending a little time contemplating what they were like prior to leaving (exceptions for those who leave for real life reasons) and see if there was anything that could have been done. That doesn't mean you should beat yourself up. It's more of an evening worth of going back through your notes and thinking about how that player reacted to things in the game. Then decide if it was the game or the player. Or both.

The important thing is to have an open discussion with the rest of the group. Let them know that they can bring up any problems to you. I know there's a school of thought where after every game the GM asks the players what they did and didn't like. I avoid that kind of thing and I'll tell you why. Issues players are having with other players never get disclosed. I send out occasional emails to each person asking what they think of the game and what's missing for them, if anything. I word it better than that. But it's between the two of us so I hope they feel they can be more honest.

The summary of all this is that you can't please everyone. Players are going to leave your game. The game can go on, the game can end. You don't know. But in every case take the time to think about why that player left and if it's something that can be and/or should be avoided in the future. Just because one player didn't like something doesn't mean it's wrong - don't obsess.

How I Roll - Session Notes

Session notes. The oh-so-necessary drudge work of taking session notes. It's the only way to remember who did what when where and why. And what is going to happen to them because they did this other thing.

I feel it's necessary as a GM to take session notes in sufficient detail that I can read back to get the flavor of what was going on as well as the facts. That's me. My games tend to be an equal mix of role play and combat. If yours lean more towards combat you can have fewer notes. Probably.

In my past games I've had a spiral bound notebook with notes in my rather unique handwriting that I would have to decipher later, paging through to try to remember when things happened. It worked well enough and I could keep up the with the game for the most part. I'm old school that way as I don't allow electronics at my table.

Honestly I don't know that I could GM and write notes on a laptop. The clicky clicky would be a huge distraction to me and the players. At least that's my opinion.

Mind you, these are my notes. They're never meant for the players. That's a different blog post.

The reason this post came into being is my newer way of taking notes. I use a Rocketbook (link goes to an unaffiliated Amazon product) which was recommended by some of the GMs I follow on Twitter. It gives me the best of both worlds - writing by hand but having the notes electronically.

OK. This isn't me plugging the product. I'm describing how it works so I can move past that into more about session notes.

A Rocketbook is a spiral bound notebook with plastic pages. You write using a particular kind of ballpoint pen that kind of works like a whiteboard marker. You can erase with the end of the pen or with a bit of water on a paper towel. Then when you're done you use the app to take pictures of the pages and send them to online storage. I use Google Drive because it saves the pages as a single PDF and it does an OCR transcription that isn't bad. In theory this is the best of both worlds.

I'm also addicted to notecards so I take pictures of those when I hand loot to players. I take pictures of the battle mat and maps drawn on it.

Since my session notes are made into a document via OCR I have to go back over them and not quite rewrite them but clean them up. Sometimes heavily. I end up with notes in my format and I can embed the pictures into the notes for the session, which is a great thing for me. It really helps me know what was given out and what it does. I also don't have to keep a physical copy of the card for myself since it has the magic effects on it.

I do wonder how much time I save, if any, by using this nifty new toy. I still have a printed copy of the notes in a folder for fast reference. I haven't tried searching the documents as a whole for words. I honestly don't know if a regular notebook and typing up the notes would save me any time over the technology toy.

I do know that transcribing them helps me with getting the flow of the game session in writing. I use these notes to make the campaign posts here. If I'm caught up I do both at once - clean up the notes and write the next chapter of the story. If I'm not caught up I get the notes transcribed because I need the space to write.

I don't know how I'll handle session notes when using Fantasy Grounds. I'll have to play with that in the sample game. I might be tapping away during game or writing it down and typing it in later. That's not really what this post is about.

Now that I'm past all that let's talk about what's in my notes. Don't tell my players.

I try to get a lot of information into as few sentences as possible. I summarize things. I jot down interesting turns of phrase. Notable interactions between players and with NPCs are documented. Anything that annoys me gets documented. Interesting future plot points they bring up as part of trying to figure out what's going on very much get documented. For me it's the playbook of the game. What happened, who did it, who didn't pick up on stuff, who went off into the weeds, who was on the mark, and what happened around them. It's actually a lot of information.

Having said that my notes are generally at most 4 typed pages in a bullet point format. I'm not writing narrative when I take these notes. I'm getting the high points and things I want to remember for later. The players will never read them.

Session notes are also good for doing a retrospective about where things went off the rails. And things do go off the rails. By having decent notes you can see what led up to the change and either get it back where it should be going or find out why it went the way it did. Or both. Without a decent set of notes you can't go back and learn from the mistakes that were made. You also can't snicker over some particularly fun piece of gaming that happened. Without notes you're stuck if a player insists something happened and you don't remember it that way.

Yes. These are also meant to keep the players honest. If you're not tracking the loot you give out then how can you be sure where they got that magic item? Or how many coins they got? Or who struck the final blow in a combat? All these are things that can't be left to memory. Well. Maybe the bandit thing but not if you're going to hang an story on the bandit's sibling tracking them down.

You can't write down everything. You could record the session but then you're in an even worse place for trying to find specific events. There's a signal to noise ratio that each GM has to find for themselves. Some don't care about the nitty gritty and want to know the big things. Some want every detail (not recommended). Most seem to fall somewhere in the middle of wanting to know enough that they can figure out what they had planned before the players screwed it all up. I mean, wanting to know how the group handled encounters and interactions.

Notes are also where you keep track of NPCs, which are yet another blog post in the future. But at least a precis of them - name, race, occupation, where they were - can be helpful along with the names of shops and inns. It's amazing how you can work them back into the narrative and it's also amazing how quickly the players pick up on you reusing names.

If you're running pure modules then you probably don't need very detailed notes. If you're running a long term game with a bunch of stuff strung together then you probably need a decent set of notes. It's a matter of what you feel you need as the GM to keep the game flowing.