How they failed/How they Fumbled

"You got a 13, you miss."
A phrase often heard at the gaming table: a sad and uninspiring statement that renders the PC's actions and efforts meaningless; It shuts them down; and takes them out of the game.
The idea that I had was to let them describe their failed attack in terms of the encounter (or challenge) allowing them some narrative control.
The next time a PC misses I am going to ask them: "Describe what happened?"; "Tell me about the attack that missed" or "Tell us what went wrong".

Just a short thought for the day.

Nogg, Elderly Night Door watch man

Situation: The players approach a small town after dark.

Nogg 63 Human Male , Night Guard

Stooped, elderly, with dim, watery eyes and sparse gray hair. 

Volunteered: Question 1: "Who are you, and what you be doing at this hour of the night?"

Friendly:

What do you do here?: I have been the night guard of this gate for more years than I care to count. It is my job to not admit "Strange Folk" after dark. 

What do you want?: I'd prefer to spend my nights sleeping, though I don't know that I could do that any more. 

Has/Is [NPC] been through the town: I do not know can you describe them?... 

[Thinks for a moment and answers honestly].

Can we come in?:Ey, you look honest enough, not like those [refer to a plot relevant NPC/Organization or rumor].

Confrontation:

We don't have time for this: Let us in!: Nay, "Strange Folk", must wait for dawn.

[Offer of a reasonable bribe/Toll] Oh, yes, I see no "Strange Folk" here [opens the night door and recommends an near by Inn].  

So you can be bought, wait till we tell the Capitan of the Guard: Please, no, I don't want to end up like Jenkens. [returns the bribe] He still hasn't gotten all of the pitch off. 

Physical:

Volunteered: [Slams the night door] Help, Night watch...[Runs to fetch the night watch, leaving the gate unguarded for a 1d10 rounds]. 

Consequences:

If physically confronted: Add a check to "City Guards". 

If treated in a friendly manner remove one check to "City Guards". 

Dirt, Free Man of the World

History: Hasir was a man of weath, status and influence who married into an impoverished Noble line. 

Premise: One day he was touched by a divinity and has renounced worldly wealth and power. He now lives, wandering from town to town, performing day labor for any who will pay him with a place to sleep and a bit of food to eat. After a few days he moves on leaving 99 gold coins behind. 

Problem: His spouse wants him back; The family patracrh wants the everfull purse back even more so.


Dirt/Hasir Human Male, 43, Laborer/Noble.
Appearance: A human male in his low forties, in simple plan but clean, often mended, clothes. He has dark hair and dark eyes. His voice is quite and humble.

Volunteered:

What's your name/Story: "I be Dirt, Sir, a free man of the world. I have nothing but my clothes and a strong back. "

Why do you live this way/what do you desire: "I desire only to do a days' honest work. Though some food and a place to sleep would be nice. "

Friendly:

If a discussion of Poltics/Nobility/Society happens in front of him: He will comment, aside, with accurate and insightful information. When confronted, he will fumble, applogise, and feign ignorance. 

Confrontation:

How do you know these things: I am very sorry sir, I mean no harm. (lie) I once worked for a powerful man and learned a smidgen about such things. 

What was his name, where did you come from: His name was Hasir, he was a powerfull, small minded and shallow man. 

Are you Hasir/What is your real name: Please sir, do not make me go back, that life was hollow, empty of meaning.

Physical:

Any physical assault or threat will make Dirt/Hasir cower and surrender. 

Volunteered: Don't hurt me.

Consequences:
Spouse: She is initially overjoyed at his return, but becomes increasingly upset at his new world view. Eventually she will send him away after one too many confidence of his to a peer.
Patriarch: Pleased over the return of the artifact. He may need to deal with Hasir, possibly through more violent and covert means.

A Link to Dragons

If you are in need of inspiration on Dragons Look Here.

Here is a sample:


Snork

An Apology and a Teaser

I must apologize to all who saw the pulled back post on the rss feed: I inadvertently published an article out of order and before it's time.

As a way to make up for it I thought I post a little teaser of my next project.

Produced with and using textures and materials provided by Fractal Mapper and released under Creative Commons, Remix - Attibuation share and share alike 3.0a license.

In Praise of: Snows of an Early Winter

Snows of an Early Winter is Call of Cthulhu Modern adventure written by Louis Agresta and published by Super Genius Games (Available in print and PDF). It covers the quest for local power by a Librarian in possession of an unnatural book.

The adventure its self is well written with no investigative dead ends or stumbling blocks. Additionally the adventure is well paced with a good mixture of investigation and combat. The combat is scales to larger and larger fights as the adventure nears it's climax.

Louis Agresta created two Adventure layout innovations that I feel compelled to share:

1. A NPC template that assists the referee in the characterization and dissemination of NPC knowledge.
2. Trigger Tracker - A tool for tracking the attitude and response of interested NPC's and Groups.

NPC Template

Name, Age, Profession/Role

Stat Block

Volunteered:

In character Statements, facts, warnings and threats given freely during the encounter.

Friendly

If the PC's act in a friendly manner they may receive the answers to:

Question 1: Response

Question 2: Response

...

Confrontation:

Skill checks (psychology, Fast Talk, or idea rolls) that must be passed to coerce the individual into answer:

Question 1: Response

Question 2: Response

...

Physical:

Skill checks or amount of damage that must be done before the individual is compliant enough to answer:

Question 1: Response

Question 2: Response

...

Consequences

A discription of how the actions of the pc's change the values in the trigger tracker table. Examples would include

If the PCs made contact add a mark to group 1

If the PCs were mean to remove a mark from group 2

Trigger Tracker

Personality	Marks	Threshold	Event or Action
Npc/Group 1		2 4 6	Name of Event 1 Name of Event 2 Name of Event 3
Npc/Group 2		4	Name of Event 4 Special: The event only applies on after other events or at a specific time.
...

These two innovations would be very useful to mystery/investigation games; and would have utility in non-linear open plot (Sandbox) style campaigns.

In Prase of: D&D Doodle

I encountered this site via a Google reader feed: D&D Doodle the character sketches are good and stylistic but the maps are Amazing:

I love the detail of the isometric 3D maps.

Also take a look at the Fallcrest town map.

NaNoWriMo Thoughts

It's been some time sense I last posted anything real here (2009/06/01 as a matter of fact). So many things I have missed commenting on:

Mega Dungeons

Mapping

Gencon

RPGBloggers Controversy

etc.

However I am not goning to comment on any of those today.

Today I am thinking about NaNoWriMo and what I might do during November.

I am Tempted to use that time to actually do a write up of "My Campaign World" which I call "The Living Lands": A world suffering from a plague of Immortals into which the Players, or Heroes, are born.

The world is, save for an excel spreadsheet and a map, existing largely in my head and I do believe that it is time to commit it to "Paper". A Friend of mine did something similar last year for his world and I am rather pleased at the result.

I plan to use the very nice "How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox" guide from Bat in the Attic as a road map for the development of the document.

Places of Intrest in the Living Lands that should be covered in the Gazetteer:

• MoonFell
• Libraries of the Ancients
• City of Glass
• Tilted Tower
• Sky Thread
• Shattered Dome

The Races of the world that will be covered are:

• E'tenal - a mixed population of standard PC races (elves, humans, Dragonborn etc) that were rendered childless but functionally immortal.
• FeralKin - which includes Clawfoots, Wigs, Bigtooths, Dog-Faces and many other of the non-immortal, "Uncivilized" humanoids.
• GreyKin - a race of Undead once noted as the greatest of Healers.
• Plauge Dreamers - Rarely encountered diabolical undead.

The premmis of the game is that very rarely, an E'tnal will give birth to a child, who is mortal (or "Hero" as they are know) and has no normal role in society. So the Heroes are trained and set out into the world to "Make a Difference". Three major hero quests are:

• Return the memories that were lost 691 years ago.
• Cure the Infertility of the E'tnal
• Remove the curse of Immortality from the E'tnal.

With much effort I do believe that I can get 50K words in 30 days (but I am not certain enough to actually sign up for it). Maybe, after some review and editing I will post a PDF of the world.

As for this blog, I want to post snippits and progress on the project. After it is done I will get back into a regular posting schedule of NPCs for Pathfinder, 4E, Traveller and Call of Cthulthu (4th edition and possibly Trail of Cthulthu).

Note: this post is a result of me committing to my self that I would spend an hour writing and this was the easiest place to start. I am also attempting to see what pace I write at and after 43 minutes I now have 519 words. Given that I need to write 1666 words a day that means that I will need to write for 2.3 hours (or improve my writing speed by 130%).

Thanks,

Snork

TerrainlinX: Himmelveil Streets

It is amazing how far paper diorama's have come:

(This is not a paid placement. Nor do I own this product (Yet)).

Found at RPGNow.

Adventure Tools: Monster Maker

Ok Monster Maker, especially once it's out of beta and has an html/cut-paste option, has me won over.

Admittedly, it's a bit of an 800 lb gorilla especially when compared to Asmor's Monster Maker but the ability to look up powers/other monsters is pretty huge.

Hey, what-da-ya-know: I posted an NPC.