Making 'It' Up as You Go

Next Gen Session Stats
GM: Me
Players: +Ken H  (as Phrandor) & +Chris C. (as Odo)
Henchmen: Elizabeth, Oliva, Ragnor, Ravenna
Converts to the Goddess: PShaw
System: Pits & Perils
# of Killed Henchmen: 0
# of Visions: 4
# of Bandits Killed: 2
# of Tax Collectors saved: 1
# of Shitheads slapped: 1
# of Gold pieces gained: 120gp total
# of Drunk Henchmen: 1
# of Suspicious Nobles: 1
# of Mysterious Mages: 1
# of Bird Men: 6

 Last night was my turn to GM in our Wednesday night rotation.  I've had a very busy week at work and over the weekend I just his a brain dead zone so my adventure prep was nearly non-existent.  While I was tired from the week I really wanted to play.  I had a very sparse outline, a few encounters and a picture to draw inspiration from.  I took that and ran it last night.

One of the things I like to do when running (or writing) an adventure is to add small details to add depth or some semblance of a living world.  Give the spaces a lived in feeling.  Whether I succeed or not you would have to ask my players.

The adventure started off with the party returning to the main campaign area after saving an outlying village from a demon.  While traveling, the cleric Odo, spotted a raven with a white breast.  Ravens are known to be the messengers of the gods.  How they communicate the messages vary.  Odo approached the raven and was immediately struck by the image of a raven hanging upside down with a man forming out of the feather on top.  Over his right shoulder there is light, but from the light there is scream and shouting.  Some of the shouts are ones he has heard in the past.  And over the man's left shoulder is darkness.  From the darkness sound of inhuman growls and horrific cacophony of misery.

Adventure Note:  Our adventures have all had a strong religious seasoning to them.  Dualism has played a strong part in our sessions, especially my adventures.  With his training and intensive studies, Odo interpreted the meaning as a clash or a gathering of the armies of light and the armies of darkness.

When Odo awoke from his vision he heard one of the screams he heard in the vision.  A man yelling for help.  They came upon a older man holding the head of his mule that had been viciously attacked and bleeding from a large wound in its neck.  Odo was able to heal the mule (with exceptional success I might add).  The man was very thankful, but told them two men had killed his mule and took his two sacks of grain. 

He pointed to the other side of the ravine.  Two men were climbing their way up the other side.  The party went after them.  As the party reached the bottom of the ravine the bandits stood atop the other side.  They were going to throw rocks at the party and mock them, but Phrandor 'bolted' one of them causing significant damage.  And the archers let loose with some arrows that also caused more damage.

Adventure Note: Spell slots in Pits & Perils are a precious commodity so the fact that Odo use one on a mule and Phrandor used one (three total by the end of the fight) on a bandit was a significant use of resources. 

The party killed both bandits.  They dropped the sacks of grain fleeing.  Phrandor discovered that within the sack of grain were twenty small pouches with 10gp inside of each.  Odo check the sack of grain he recovered and it also had gold within.  There was a seal on a few of the pouches and both recognized it as a seal from a tax collector.  

They returned the grain without immediately telling the man they knew what was inside.  He evaded most of their questions and insisted on leaving, but the party insisted they escort him to his destination.  While having this conversation, Odo saw the image of this man's face on the darkness side.

 Coming Soon:
Part 2: Arriving at the Manor of Lord Walsh

Falling into Thedas (Starting a New Game, New System)

This weekend we are going to start our monthly face-to-face game.  I'd like to do it at least every other weekend, but let's see if we can even manage the once a month gathering.  I'll be running a Dragon Age session using the Core book.  I was going to use the quickstart rules, but all the players bought the PDF of the core rulebook so I'll run with that.

Last night I was prepping the session at the bookstore and one of the things I do to help me learn a system is create characters.  In this case NPCs.  The book has a lot of good pre-made stat blocks included, but there are a quite a few NPCs I wanted to flesh out.  So far I've made an elven apostate and a Antivan Wayfarer who is a ban (or knight) at Redcliffe.  There are a few more I want done before Sunday.

I'm using the background of Dragon Age, I bought the two books from Dark Horse comics to help explain the history and of course I've been playing the hell out of Inquisition.  I like the background, their take on mages and the ever looming threat of the BIG enemy, darkspawn.

What I intend to do is slice off a small section of the world, and as I mentioned already, it will include the Village of Redcliffe, and build an adventure sandbox around Redcliffe and the immediate area.  I've got a general main adventure tumbling around in my head, but I want to build some side adventures, or options if the players don't bite on the main hook. I like giving my players the option on how they would like to die.  I am generous in that way.

So on my to-do list is, make more NPCs, sketch out the main plot, develop a few side stories, a few that connect with the main plot and a few that are independent, reread the combat and magic rules for the 12th time and then maybe draw up some maps if I have time.

If the game goes well I hope to run it on-line in a Google hangout in the future.  I don't want all this Dragon Age knowledge to go to waste.

Esoterrorist Game Props

Over on Google+ I've been sharing some of the game props I've created for my Esoterrorist game.

I recently created the AEGIS handbooks to help the players understand the philosophy behind the organization they are working for.  And of course I couldn't miss an opportunity to make some look old and used in the field. 

The great thing about running a modern day adventure it the amount of material that is available the players can interact with.  There will be times during the adventure that the players may need to find information about a certain organization or event and they can use their computers to get that information.  I develop my adventures using real places, events, organizations and people (although  handful are an amalgamation of two or three people).  This grounds these fantastic and horrible events in a real setting.

"Is this real.  I'm finding all this stuff on-line."  This is what Rob Conley said during the first session.  Because the setting and events were tied in with real happenings its an easier sell to the players.  What also helps is I am using my local area as the setting so I know exactly what services are available.  What judges are kind and which ones are the hard asses.  Hell, I can tell them the price of gas from town to town if that suited the adventure.

I've got a few more props to create.  The cool thing about the game is I have no idea how they will get to where they are going, but I know they'll get there at some point or time and the significance of a clue they find could vary greatly depending on the timing of the find. 

Since we are playing on-line, delivery of props is tricky, but since I am no stranger to the post office and sending things out, I plan on sending my two players a case file, with stuff they've already discovered and sealed envelopes.  These sealed envelopes will contain clues not discovered yet.  Each will  be labeled with a letter.  And when they come across it during game they will be asked to open that envelope. 

Because of the intensity and heavy role-playing aspect of the game I think two players is good.  The larger the group the more noise involved and when I GM something like this I prefer to have as little of that as possible.  Plus, it keep the players more engaged in what's going on.  No one has a chance to slip into the background. 

I think we start next week.  I've forgotten already.  I'm a lousy GM.  I've got work to do on the game yet, but its a pleasure to do so. 

Prepping for Tonight's Adventure

It's my turn to GM the Monday night crew.  I'm running a Frankenstein system with the Swords & Wizardry Complete ruleset as the base.  This is my second session.  You can find my post on the first session, When GM Plan Goes to Shit...Have Fun all the way back in February.  Hadn't realized it had been that long.

Prepping for this session was like prepping for three different sessions.  The party is split into three very different groups. 

• We've got the Silent Knives group made up of Malcom (+Chris C.) and Arden (+Daniel McEntee).  They left off by getting a stern talking to by the higher ups in the guild.
• Hyroth (+Ken H), a battle mage, is in the graveyard with a freaky priest of a death god.  He was critically wounded from a inter-party fight.  He still has no idea who took him out.
• Lastly we have Marrick (+Rob Conley), a ranger, in Baludor.  He just reaped the rewards for cashing in on the pirate captain's head.
• In addition there will be an additional person joining the party this session +Rhandom A will be playing Elderad.  He'll be joining the Silent Knives group.

As you can see I have three very different groups.  What's a GM to do?  He preps for three sessions in one.  A little more work, but I had time between sessions to come up with, what I think, will be fun.  Although last time I thought I'd come up with a cool way to bring the party together...

What I've done is write up a flow chart and each chart has random tables included and variables in the adventure.  I've also included notes about some notes about things they will find in their travels.  Of course there is plenty of room to go off track if they choose.  Within the adventure I've weaved in a few places where the players could intersect.  At that point the players will have to decided what to do.

This is one of the few times I am this prepared and prepped for a session.  I rarely do so much front work.  I usually have a short note where we left off and then write a generic flow chart of events.  Some of which the player will have control on how it goes and a event chart for the world.  These events will occur no matter what the player does.

Looking forward to tonight.  I have a few pictures to upload, but I'm good to go.  We're using Google Hangouts, and Roll 20.  I haven't and won't be using battle maps.  I prefer the abstractness of the battle.  I can build the tension better with 'theater of the mind' than placing pogs.  I use pictures to help set the mood of who they are dealing with or where they are.

A sneak peek at tonight's featured location.

Prep for Playtesting

I've been prepping for the playtest on Thursday night.  I'd forgotten how extensive they can be.  Adventures are not too bad.  You can plug them into your world and just throw a hook to the players and let them run with it.  A good read through and some notes ought to do it.

The one I'm playtesting is a campaign starter, written by Greg Christopher.  He introduces a small section of his world, but for gaming and testing purposes I am going to focus on the priory.  That is the main site in his work.  It's not a matter of where the critters are, but the relationship between inhabitants and businesses, religions and politics.  Takes a bit more time and a lot more note taking.  It's helped me take a needed break away from my own stuff.

As I've mentioned in this case, I've needed to edit down the territory and possible adventures to focus a bit more.  Railroad if you like.  I offer no apologies.  When you're testing railroading is required so you can test what was written.  Otherwise the players may drift.  Time is finite for these projects.  The writer needs feedback in a timely manner. But I do use the hooks as written.  If the players don't bite or it does make sense or not tempting enough I gotta tell the creator. 

When I playtest I write notes about what I liked and what I didn't.  I know a shocking revelation.  More often though I ask for something to be fleshed out.

I've read through Greg's "The Last Candle" a couple of times, made notes, drew a little flow chart to see the connection between NPCs.  One of the things I do is get an idea of the personality then write a note on the side to help make each stand out a little more.  I've got the maps loaded into FG2 files.  Now I just need to size the mini without swearing too much.