Thoughtful Thursday #26

I have some experience with gamers that have not played tabletop RPGs, but have played lots of video games including CRPGs. I love the challenge of introducing new players to RPGs.
There are some things you need to pay special attention to:
1) You have to be careful to set expectations. Do not promise what you cannot deliver. GMs like to tell new players that their characters can do anything. But in reality, doing anything is alright, as long as it is not disruptive to the other players in the group.
2) Be wary of video gaming tropes. It is too easy to fall into patterns that seem like you’re just making an imaginary video game. For instance don’t make things impossible for story reasons, create invisible barriers to keep the players on course, killing characters because they do not act in a way you find acceptable or scripting events so that players have no input into the outcome.
3) Finally, be prepared for bizarre activity. At first it will seem like random acts of strangeness. Picking fights with throw away NPCs, trying overly complicated or creative plans to solve problems. What is really happening is the player is testing the limits of what they can and can’t do in this new game medium. They will do this by trying things that video games usually don’t allow. When this happens stop the action and try and explain why what they are doing is a good or bad idea. If you keep these in mind, it will be fun for you to get a new player up to speed and it will be fun for the new player to be able to solve a problem with almost any approach.

Thoughtful Thursday #25

I have some experience with gamers that have not played tabletop RPGs, but have played lots of video games including CRPGs. I love the challenge of introducing new players to RPGs. There are some things you need to pay special attention to:
1) You have to be careful to set expectations. Do not promise what you cannot deliver. GMs like to tell new players that their characters can do anything. But in reality, doing anything is alright, as long as it is not disruptive to the other players in the group.
2) Be wary of video gaming tropes. It is too easy to fall into patterns that seem like you’re just making an imaginary video game. For instance don’t: make things impossible for story reasons, create invisible barriers to keep the players on course, killing characters because they do not act in a way you find acceptable or scripting events so that players have no input into the outcome.
3) Finally, be prepared for bizarre activity. At first it will seem like random acts of strangeness. Picking fights with throw away NPCs, trying overly complicated or creative plans to solve problems. What is really happening is the player is testing the limits of what they can and can’t do in this new game medium. They will do this by trying things that video games usually don’t allow. When this happens stop the action and try and explain why what they are doing is a good or bad idea. If you keep these in mind, it will be fun for you to get a new player up to speed and it will be fun for the new player to be able to solve a problem with any approach.

Forgetful Friday #24

I feel like Advancement means different things to different players. To some, this is leveling up. For others, it seems to revolve around the character changing over time. And still others see it as the character’s story advancing. And I personally feel like all three of these viewpoints are valid. Leveling up is a long-standing tradition of RPGs and it does set the stage for a change in the nature and power of any new challenges. I also feel that if a character doesn’t change on some level, that they will stagnate and get boring to play. Finally, I fell like a good RPG helps the players and GM tell a cohesive story about a character's journey. When I say story, I mean in the same sense that your life or my life has a story to tell.

Thoughful Thursday #23

Geek Social Fallacies
Some time ago, I discovered this link:
http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html
  It was inspiring to me. It is also sad to see people changing the ideals of geeks (truth, fellowship, individualism), into tools to be exploited against other groups of geeks. I invite anyone who reads my blog to visit this post, and think about how you can avoid falling into these pitfalls.

My Game Chef Entry

Here is the current version of my game:
http://casualgamerscorner.pbworks.com/w/page/80302118/Moment_of_Destiny

The setup is that you play the part of a supernatural monster that is working with/against other supernatural creatures with the destiny of a remote village hanging in the balance.

The game play is thtis:
Deal two Character cards to each player. The combination determines your character.
Players play Scene cards to set the Scene.
The Scene ends by resolving a conflict, each player plays a Resolution card that changes the rules of scene resolution.
The entire game is on cards, let me know what you think!

Thooughtful Thursday #22

When I discovered lulu.com, it renewed my interest in writing. At that time, I had not designed any new games since 11th grade and I had not written anything since 10th grade. By the time I had finished about 1/3rd of my fantasy novel, my good friend Leroy convinced me that if I designed a new RPG, he and his friends in the RPG publishing industry could help me get it published. I took the setting I had developed for the fantasy novel and re-tooled it into a fantasy RPG. The basic inspiration was to take the mechanics from CP2020 and re-tool it for 2d6 and a fantasy setting. There were some good ideas in it, but it was not enough to get it published by Leroy’s friends. It was then that I was plunged into the bittersweet world of independent publishing. Being able to design whatever game I want is amazing. However, I had never planned on having to market my designs or sell them on my own. Still, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Thoughtful Thursday #21

The first time I remember seeing mechanics requiring players to spend XPs in order to create magic items was in D&D 3rd edition. It may have existed in D&D 2nd edition (the only version I have not played), but I never saw those mechanics. This idea seems absurd to me. I understand that the intent is to provide game balance. That it prevents PCs from becoming too powerful just because they have spare GPs. However, it also prevented PCs from using magic items to solve problems creatively. Not only that, but the system does not usually provide a profit for creating and selling magic items. How does the Magic item economy sustain itself in this world? It makes no sense to me. I learned to try and balance mechanics versus how much fun it would be, not against how much control it may give or take from any one player.

Thoughtful Thursday #20

By the time D&D 3rd edition had been released, I had no interest in it. I had spent a lot of money on 1st Edition and when second and third came out, I felt it was too expensive. And by that time, I had played so much of 1st edition, that I had no real interest in D&D. It made it hard to find new groups, but I was able make my own group. A friend of mine was interested though. He ran a game and I was invited to play. I was hesitant. The last time I had played D&D, it was awful. I was psyched to play Beyond the Looking Glass (I still haven’t played it by the way). Once we got to the first room, a PvP fight broke out. That was the first time I was exposed to this (and I had hoped my last).
  After our 3rd Edition Adventure had gotten underway, the DM gave each of us a secret objective. After speaking with different players, I figured out that we were all at cross purposes. I did my best to arrange a deal where we would all work together until the end. I had a Druid and my wonderful DM had decided that my wolf companion could not survive if I did not feed it. I asked how it could survive in the wild and he insisted that wolves cannot survive outside their pack. We argued a little bit and finally I conceded. The adventure was fun. We found the McGuffin, got to do some team fighting and generally had a good time. Until we got to the end. We had to PvP, and I had been scouring my spells trying to find one that would give me an edge. I happened across “Summon Swarm.” At our level, the damage done by it would be devastating. I was able to win the final fight, but it felt awful. I didn’t like betraying my friends like that. But I didn’t feel like we had a choice. When I design my games, I try and make sure that the players are all working towards a common goal and that the characters all know each other previously. This does not guarantee that PvP will not happen, but it usually gives the players opportunities to go into it with eyes open.

Thoughtful Thursday #19

CP2020 was the first game to expose me to in-game factions. There were all these story-related entities that all wanted the same thing. Mega-Corps, Booster gangs, Nomads, Governments, rebels, etc. It excited me the way no other game had. I had tried to do interesting faction play in D&D and Top Secret, but the foundation was not there. In D&D the rules and write-ups of possible factions (such as Duergr) forced them into a set pattern that the players could not really affect. In Top Secret, I tried making my own factions and it worked, but not well enough. I was the only one who truly understood the factions in play. But CP2020 had the solution, the factions were well known, had easily understood and competing motivations that could be manipulated by the PCs if they got their stuff together. Even today, more than 25 years later, this is the yard stick I measure game settings by (even my own).

Thoughtful Thursday #18

When I discovered that the makers of CyberPunk had made a Mech game (Mekton II), I had to check it out. Once I learned you could make a mech that was ANY shape, I never went back to BattleTech! This is another one of those watershed moments for me. Up until this point, I had always assumed that tactical systems had to be deep. And that the math of buildng them was a requirement of the system. I had let go of this idea for PCs, but somehow their equipment seemed to still need it in my mind. Especially when that equipment was a big, old honking mech that should take some work to overcome. Mekton II disabused me of these notions. I later went back and checked out the original Mekton. It was OK, but you couldn't build just any Mech. And I was sorely disaponted by Mekton Z, it seemed to be headed more in the direction of Battletech than towards a modern RPG.
Mekton II was a game where the RPG elements and the tactical elements were compatible and overlapped so well. It didn’t take long until I integrated CP2020 into the game and we had a real good time on Mars.

Thoughtful Thursday #17

1    CP2013 had a hacking system. It was pretty cool if prone to GM fiat. But CP2020 had NetRunning. In this system, an entire ‘Run happened in a single turn in real space. To make matters worse, all the rest of the group did in cyberspace was slow down the NetRunner. Because of this, I ruled that either the entire group would be NetRunners or none of the PCs would be. NetRunning was a critical part of the setting, so I made sure the PCs had access to a friendly, reliable NetRunner (usually one of the first friends rolled during Lifepath). Other games have had this issue as well, Mekton, various Star Trek games and to a lesser extent, games that needed mass combat rules. In each case, you either had to have all the players involved in both the street-level system and the special subsystem or none of them. From this I learned to make sure that all the PCs are operating in the same arena/level with my designs.

Thoughtful Thursday #16

I played CyberPunk from 1988 through 2004. Parts of it were flights of fancy (the EU forming), parts of it were sheer genius (mega-corps) and part of it was absurd (poser gangs). I felt inspired by Bubblegum Crisis, Blade Runner, RoboCop and Gibson. My style was to suppress the PCs while allowing them to change the world. One example was to give the players 1,000,000 EuroBucks each in their accounts. Then after they spend it, that is when the Russian Mafia comes to retreive their money. And of course there is the classic rescue that is actually an extraction. This was when I developed a habit of, "if things get slow, Ninjas!" Also, I really learned that there is no reliable way to make a recurring villain (thanks Mike!). The only complaint I ever had about CP2020 was the power creep as more supplements came out. It wasn’t as bad as Rifts with MDC riot armor, but it did escalate to the point where it felt like Power Armor was needed to enter a fight.
In my own games I do my best to avoid power creep and to enable GMs to throw the kitchen sink at the players.

Thoughtful Thursday #15

    Many games feature Luck, gift dice or effort systems. I absolutely love Luck systems. The vast majority require you to spend these resources before the roll. The issue I have with this is one of risk vs. reward. You risk a resource that may or may not replenish, and you pin your hopes on attaining this one roll/accomplishment. However, you have no recourse if the one roll that you identified as being important to you fails. By and large, I allow players to spend these resources after the roll. It allows players to identify which rolls matter to them and allows them to achieve those successes on occasion. When I design these sorts of systems in my games, I make sure that players can use them after the roll as well.

Thoughtful Thursday #14

    As part of my trip down the rabbit hole that is Palladium games, I played the heck out of Heroes Unlimited. For the uninitiated, this is a Palladium System-based  game where you play comic book-style super heroes. Buying super powers was easier than Champions or DC Heroes, but the powers were very specific. They didn’t have a bolt power, they have flame blast, energy blast, etc. The obvious disadvantage of this is that there were loads of powers. The back cover brags about having over 240 Powers and Magic Spells. The clear advantage was that each power got its own treatment so that fire blast and ice blast had rules for catching things on fire and/or freezing them. This was the first Palladium book I bought that had rules for integrating them with other Palladium Games. I latched onto this idea immediately, My crowning achievement was a villain that was a Kung Fu Weasel with 15 attacks per turn! Again, this system suffered from having the rules and subsystems spread around and hidden. Also, it rubbed me the wrong way to have an experience level system for Super heroes. I mean, what does a 1^st level Superman™ look like in comparison to a 15^th level Superman™ (also a reason why I never tried Mutants and Masterminds)? It was good fun though, but I eventually moved on to another game. Heroes Unlimited showed me the value of a universal system and the value of a detail oriented system.

Thoughtful Thursday #13

TOON was another game that I loved, but I didn't really understand its genius until I started evaluating its game design years later (rather than just GMing it or playing it). I have played other comedy games since (e.g., Macho Women with Guns), but this is one of the few games where the game mechanics revolve around actually making the other players laugh. This was absolute fun to GM and to play and it was the first time where my judgment as a GM was challenged. An inexperienced player wanted to play a house plant. I didn't think that a House Plant PC would be able to function, even in a cartoon setting. Against my better judgment I allowed it and it was awesome.
When I design my games, I try and remember that the players can be targeted by the mechanics as well. And when this is done well, it makes the game fun and engaging.