Bone Method: RPG Rules As Written

There's been a lot of talk around the web about RPG gamers who stick too closely to the rules.  I've been called all sorts of things for even suggesting that the letter of the rules be upheld in all circumstances, from just flat wrong to all sorts of names that describe various vulgar acts being performed on various vulgar objects.  Today I'm going to elaborate on why we use RAW, how it's used at the Wargate, and why it's better than using GM fiat in our particular group.

So, why are we so finnicky about using the rulebooks here?  It probably has to do with all the wargames, which are competitive and the letter of the rules is often used to resolve attacks correctly and any disputes that might come about during the game.  Happens all the time really, and there's two ways a club can deal with such situations.  For us, we simply consult the rulebook and have a 3rd party interpret as well.  Since most of us are very technical, the legalese in the books reads very easily and most arguments are clear cut once the rules are read aloud.  However, there are a few occasions upon which a player has read fluff passages to me indicating they were rules and that's what was happening.

During our game sessions, whichever game that is, you can bet there are at least two basic rulebooks at the table.  At least.  Those get passed around quite a bit, and over a decade ago I got used to the idea of RPG players having their own Player's Handbook (or equivalent) for that game in their hands.  I also got used (surprisingly quickly) at players coughing up passages from the rulebook when I was about to rule something, and that sorta started the trend of the players here being able to jockey the rules as well as I.  Keep in mind, I was used to being the only person who had even read the book, let alone knew what rules to call up during the game.

After a few games like this, something dawned on me.  It was much easier to adjudicate the rules if the players had the damn books as well.  Being freed from having to look up every spell description, every skill DC, every piece of equipment with a special effect or what happens with this or that characters' feat was a great boon to me as DM.  It was so awesome in fact that I swiftly integrated it into the game, and made it clear to the players that any time they could find something that overruled me in the book I would (without fail) adjudicate the scenario from the book.

Today, this is the unspoken writ of the Wargate, but today...well it's now actually writ.  There are usually three Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbooks for our 1st Edition game hanging around the table.  Navigating the MESS that is AD&D 1e's ruleset, we've learned quite a bit about it, and feel that our take on the adjudication of combat is quite stellar compared to some attempts I've read about.  Certainly, we have more than one rulebook at the table with more than one person helping to determine how actions are resolved.  We adjudicate the rules RAW as best we can, but that brings me to another point.

We actually prefer games that have more delineated rules so that we can reference them easier.  It's amazing how fast a game goes when everyone is on the exact same page, literally.  In fact, at this point it's anathema to suggest not using the rules, and any DM who repeatedly threw out sections of the rules manual (for whatever reason) would find themselves quickly deposed.  Unless, of course adjudicating a scenario in a certain way was dictated in the scenario notes themselves, whereupon the DM would conduct the resolution of actions in the manner so noted.

Some folks feel that that sticking to the rules so hard actually somehow limits the reign of the DM in designing scenarios, but how could that even be?  It's done nothing but make my job easier and easier over the years, and I can't really stress that enough.  I really don't understand some trains of thought on this, and I'll reiterate one last time.

It's better when all your players know the game, and can have free access to the game rules.

For games that don't present a coherent set of rules, but that we feel we want to play anyway (we're looking directly at you, Siembieda) we'll be taking a different approach.  There will be a sort of FAQ or other document on the table that will take the place of the rulebooks in certain scenarios.  The first of these will be available when we return to the Palladium Megaverse, and will compile all combat sequences and protocols from across the entire line to present a coherent reference for our games.  Since they can't be bothered to do this, we will.

Next weekend, have your Player's Handbook ready...you'll need them to reference your spells and (most likely) roll up a new character - because AD&D 1e RAW is so far the most deadly design of any RPG game we have thus far encountered.

The Raiders of the Ruthless East and the DM

In the vast and hugely marketed world of source books and scripts, Middle Earth is a prime place for adventure that is still fresh and unknown to many seasoned gamers.  Not only did this entire campaign happen in Middle Earth, it began simply in Mordor.  Thats right friends, Evil Roleplaying was happening from the start.

Using 3.0 Dungeons & Dragons core rules and various Middle Earth media, I shaped a dark land called Mordor into a the prime ground for evil roleplay. My name is Jerry Wargate, and I will take you on a crash course into my campaign (of Evil!).  I made this campaign because I was told it could not be done, that it wouldn't be fun, that Middle Earth was played out.  Most importantly, I made it out of a long love for Middle Earth.

The long and murderous campaign is now over, leaving in its wake a long list of dead PC's, permanently disfigured characters, as well as over half the party ending the game at level 1.  As DM and responsible master of this campaign, I wish to explain (and even encourage) this state of roleplay that is Mordor.

I started this campaign with the long time dream of simply playing the servants of Mordor, but I little expected the full blunt and hard hitting truths about such servants and the way of life that comes with being employed by the Dark Lord.  I opened with a talk to my players about what we all expected and tolerated in advance, but no one had any real clue of the madness they were entering.  I expected quarreling and tribal leaderships.  I tolerated most all PC interaction: be it fighting, stealing, cannibalism, ect.

Evil Roleplaying in fantasy seems to be frowned upon by alot of gamers.  Myself I always root for the bad guy - the villian or henchman.  They are always more interesting and human than the heroes.  All rp gamers should experience evil roleplay once.  Its a great change-up of speed and makes for a lot of interesting roleplay.  A lot
of players tend to become set on a certain character or class that is constantly re-rolled for every campaign and session.  This can make the gaming stale.

Murder and Robbery were constant!  No loot was really looted correctly until someone died over it.  Only one magical item ever came into the groups' possession.  4 murders over many weekends, and all for a +1 sword.  I kept the magical loot scarce to increase tensions, and I think it did well.  PC's robbing other PC's became a daily routine.

I give a 5 star rating to the group for actual roleplay!  I saw alot of players realing making a good hard push to perform in-character roleplay, and somehow being a badguy is easy roleplay for our group.

I allowed the dead to reroll characters and return to the group at level 1 a few times (more than 10 times).  I believe only 2 deaths were from actual monster or questing play.

Everyone was pleased with that. The group lost three different leaders (bosses) during the length of the campaign.  All in all this was an awesome campaign I enjoyed it, my players enjoyed it, and I hope others will delve into this experience.

Additional Notes

Character Creation
I limited everyone to the Half-Orc race, followed with the class choices of Fighter, Rogue, Barbarian.  Simple and elegant, Middle Earth allowed no orc wizards, orc bards, or orc clerics.  With game integrity in mind, I wanted no magic users or heavy healers, as no over skilled orc ever existed.  I allowed virtually nothing as far as gear and items went, this was done to further the fact orcs are many and never well equiped often.

Player Disclaimer
The first night of play I left my PC's know what I expected and would tolerate. Backstabbing, robbing, murdering, conspiracy, mutiny, cannibalism, lying, ect. is totally expected and tolerated.  I wanted an orc mob that was by the books.  Evil turns on evil often, so why not let us delve into the darkness and depravity?

Game Play
In game the Dark lord musters his forces to train as a military force.  Our PC's were forged into a war party through their trials and tribulations.  Over the period of many weeks and many adventures we ended with 3 of 10 players surviving to level 3, all other players who died were allowed rerolls new characters as raw recruits.

DM Notes
I never could have expected so much murder and thievery, even out of a band of orcs.  The PC's seemed to enjoy the gameplay as much as I did!  No weekend went without some excitement or wild happenings.  Murder and mutiny, thievery and swindling!  It had it all.  Over 12 deaths occured... 90% were Player Killings!

I was also glad everyone roleplayed and then afterwards had no hard feelings on the game. This was a game to be played and explored, and I think it was worthy.  Absolutely not one named character from the book interacted with our PC's, no ring was ever found, and only the dead ones were the lucky ones.  Mordor forced some of the best roleplay Ive seen our club do in a while.

I think also this idealism has allowed my PC's to experience death on an epic game level.  Making a 3.0 character sheet is easy for everyone now!  And it has also taught the lesson.  Its just a game and I can have fun at level one, roleplaying, with absolutely nothing but my character.  I appreciate everyone who played, and I hope soon we can return to Mordor for more of this awesome gameplay.

Shrodinger's Doan - A Short Essay on Group Timing

Howdy folks!  Happy Christmas weekend!

Today I'm going to talk about one of the ways we can move a huge group through the stages of encounters in an RPG.  Yes, I'm going to tackle that bugbear - splitting up the group.

We have a large regular turnout here at the Wargate, and sometimes all those characters can't be doing the same thing at the same time.  Forcing that can take it's toll on your verisimilitude, but fortunately you don't have to worry about it anymore.  Using a theory I call "Shrodinger's Doan" and using the scientific principle (or at least a hollowed out idea) you too can run split groups in the same session with relative ease.

Sometimes groups become split apart by chance or misfortune, and sometimes they do it by design.  No matter how it happens, you'll eventually have to narrate actions from different groups happening in different locales but at the same point of game time.  This can happen during any narrative action, but is most prevalent during combat.

It can be jarring to have to bounce between each player as you would normally, as they are in different scenes and the setups can be very different.  Also, it sometimes leads to a lot of player confusion in a larger group that has seven or more players, and therefore actions, going on.  Therefore, I believe the best way of dealing with these sorts of situations is to deal with them entirely separately from one another with each individual group..

When one group strays from another, focus on one group above the others for a while.  Leave the others in sort of a "momentary pause", sort of like you see in movies and on television.  Something dramatic happens to one group, whose members are left at that spot ready to jump into the action from that point.  Switch to the other group and take their actions and resolve the scene, then go back to the group you left on pause.  It's really that simple, but technique issues arrive when certain questions pop up.

What happens if one group's outcome is dependent on another?  What if they need to accomplish a certain action in a certain combat round at the same time?

This answer might be hollow, but my advice is try to avoid those situations.  Try not to engineer a scenario so it's hinged on actions like this, as it can be a nightmare to run unless you happen to have a second GM and table to help with the book keeping.

It's not just the book keeping, however, that can drag this sort of thing down.  You have to maintain a steady pace of entertainment to keep the whole group engaged.  While one group is waiting, keep the immersion steady by asking members of the second group questions about their combat readiness, or any other dramatic inquiry that might engage the player in that scene.  Kind of like rolling dice behind the GM screen for no reason other than to get your player's attention.

It's ok to leave one group on cliffhanger for a few minutes while you resolve a certain set of actions for another.  In fact, you will probably have to deal with this sort of split in your group at some point.  Don't worry too much about it, and split the groups up so they can be dealt with one at a time.  If one group's goal must happen before the other, you know which group to focus on first.  If not, go with the smaller group - these can usually be dealt with as a minor "off" scene before you return to the larger group, and other players tend to have the attention span to remain interested in smaller vignettes.

I'll leave you with an short example from one of Captain Video's Hunting Humans game:

Agent Doan manned the helicopter bay's machinegun, fixing it on the guard towers and making sure they had their heads down.  There was a rocket or two, but no problem.  The rest of the team disembarked the heli as we sat it down in the middle of the compound.  In a few short seconds, the assault team was away - but we had one issue.  Who was going to stay with the chopper?


Doan volunteered, and as the assault team entered the building the guards on the compound's perimeter regained their composure and closed in on the vulnerable helicopter with Agent Doan inside.

What happens next is where the art form begins.  Remember when I said smaller groups should be done first? That's just a rule of thumb.  In this example, the action follows the assault team inside the compound.  Thus, Shrodinger's Doan - is Doan alive when the assault team returns to the chopper, or is he dead?

For purposes of the scenario above, it was dramatically superior to follow the assault team - since Agent Doan's untimely demise would definitely change the course of the mission and would have immediately prompted metagame responses - such as returning to secure the chopper.  The Storyteller decided to resolve Agent Doan's battle around the helicopter after the assault team had exited the building, out of time with the other group.  This was a longer stretch of downtime for Doan's player (me!) but in the end it was a great example of split groups.

Even though one group was like eight and the other was only one.

We're going to be in session on Christmas Day this year, so if you're in the neighborhood and want to stop by for a game or two feel free!  It's the last weekend for our Q4 game, so get in the final battles this weekend and  prepare for the New Year - which will be filled with more games than the last two combined!

We've grown a lot in the last year and a half, and we're only gaining momentum.  My sincere thanks goes out to everyone who's made that possible and contributed to our club by participating in our games.  Next year's going to be fantastic for the Wargate!

See you on Game Day!

Building RPG Campaigns

Out of all the people in the world, precious few are gamers.  Of those, only a small portion have it in them to actually coordinate an RPG game as the "Game Master".  A Game Master needs to be very prepared before he steps into the ring at the Wargate.  Having a strong campaign theme is critical, as well as having a good idea of how the individual game world will react to the players.  Today's diatribe contains bits of my methodology when creating new adventure stories.

For those that don't know me, I've been RPG gaming solid since 1992.  I've done lots of different genres, games and even been lucky enough to have a few players who've been with me for more than a decade.  Aside from that, I've run countless games for more folk than I can remember.  I've had hits and misses, and in this methodology article I'll elaborate on what I've found works best for me to constantly crank out adventure stories for our club!



A Million Systems
The first choice you will have to make is what system you are going to use for the campaign.  Sometimes this will be an obvious choice, as sometimes the system itself is what spurs you along.  Other times, there is an overwhelming number of options as to what you can do with the same system.  Do you run your D&D game in Dark Sun or in Ravenloft?

This seems like a "gimme", but choice of system is quite critical to the delivery of your game.  Certain schools of thought tend towards the "any game system can handle any genre", and to an extent that's true.  Online you'll find tons and tons of "house rules" that modify systems to more accurately reflect another genre.  D20 is a great commercial example of this, but remember - if significant conversion to the basic system seems necessary, you might want to rethink the choice of system.  There's not any reason to spend a lot of time changing minutiae of the systems to reflect some tiny thing that seems out of place - unless you want to make that the point of your project.

In particular, at the Wargate, we have TONS of games that are on constant rotation.  Dungeons & Dragons, World of Darkness, Warhammer Roleplay - all these games are pretty much known quantities to our players.  The rules are in firm grasp by everyone, and even new games take very little time for the group to learn.  Don't be afraid to introduce new systems, as they will be devoured by the members of the club quite swiftly and without any warning.

Personally I like to change systems every few months, but in practice few GM's will run more than one system or setting for a myriad of reasons.  For just as many reasons, this is actually a desirable effect within a large gaming club like ours - it allows each GM to "own" a different portion the world(s) / settings and specialize in that system!

There's lots of options even within a single setting to keep gamers coming back for years, and the amount of material available for each line is staggering.  Fantasy settings tend to have "Oriental" or "Arabian" type settings in addition to the standard sword & sorcery routine.  When beginning your trek to Game Mastery, think about the sorts of campaigns you'd like to run and decide which systems would be best for those campaigns.


A Million Adventures
Now that you've got your system in hand and your books all studied up, you can begin structuring your campaign.  For the moment, we're going to assume you aren't using any published adventures but will have the basic rules collection on hand - whatever you consider the 'basic' rules to be.  That is - I generally include all the 3e player's books (Sword & Fist, Defenders of the Faith, etc..) in my games of D&D 3e.  Not all GM's will include the same books in the same system.  The Smith includes Palladium FRPG books in his Megaverse games, but I stay far away from that planet - even though we both use Ninjas & Superspies as a basic rulebook!

So armed, where do you begin?  What sort of campaign are you going to run, within the system you have chosen?  Do you already have an idea, or just sort of a vague notion of something cool?  Do you have a theme you want to present?

I like to brainstorm campaign ideas long before I ever actually get around to fully fleshing them out, much less actually running them.  I keep a list of campaign ideas I've written down during brainstorming sessions where I sit and try to organize my disparate thoughts of destruction and adventure into tangible stories that make sense, and fit well with the system I want to use.  Try it out and see what sort of results you get - you'll frequently surprise yourself by coming up with new ideas, or new ways to use your old ideas.

Try this brainstorming excercise - begin with an idea list.  To start with you'll need, lets say, 10 ideas for different campaigns.  If you want to use different systems, divide it up however you like, but the idea is to get "slots" that you want to "fill" with an idea.  Blank slots are meant to be on the list in order to drive your creativity!  If you want to focus on particular supplements for your range, be assured you can get a whole campaign out of adding one book!

For example, take D&D 4th Edition.  No one at the Wargate has really put this one on the table, though the idea has been broached before.  Let's say I wanted to introduce it into our club's rotation.  Eventually, it will happen...so I'm going to brainstorm a few ideas for it.

I know that I want it to fit neatly in with our other D&D adventures that I'll be running...from AD&D 1e, through 2e and 3e.  I won't be exploring old school D&D (BECMI) or the white box.  At this time.  So, the "basic" rules for the campaign will be Player's Handbooks 1-3, the Dungeon Master Guide and Monster Manual I-II.  This is for no other reason that I think those books include enough material not to infuriate my players.

I also know that our club's campaigns tend to last about 15 weeks/sessions, almost 4 months of actual time.  I also know how the 4e games are organized into tiers.  So armed with this knowledge, I proceed to my list of 10 ideas for 4e campaigns, along with potential products I would be interested in obtaining as an RPG consumer.

1. Points of Light (Dungeon Delve + other published adventures for 4e)
2. Rise of the Spider-Kind (Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide)
3. Into the Northlands (Neverwinter Campaign Setting)
4. Beneath the Icewind Dale (Underdark + Caverns of Icewind Dale)
5. Sands of the Serpent (Persian Flavor Homebrew + The Shadowfell)
6. The Orbs of Dragonkind (Draconomicon 1 + 2)
7. The Magical Mirror of Five Suns (Manual of the Planes)
8. Into the Abyss (The Plane Below + Demonomicon)
9. Dark Sun (published adventures for Dark Sun 4e)
10. Dark Sun: The Edge of the World

It took me about 40 minutes to come up with this list.  Most of that time was spent looking at the 4e product catalog for ideas, which I haven't really explored much yet.  Pretty nifty, there's a lot of campaign sets available.  I don't actually have any of this material, but it sure looks cool on the outside.  This is a totally top down experiment, as I've not done a 4e brainstorm, ever.  Well, I really wanted to run Dark Sun when it came out.

Colored sets represent ideas that can "ramp" into one another - that is, use the same characters when we reconvene for that game.  Other products I saw that I could totally brainstorm on include Hammerfast and The Plane Above.

If you have the idea for your campaign, then you're ready to proceed to the adventure building stage.  


What Stories? Keep it focused!
Well, you've had your system and campaign idea in mind all along, so how do you begin plotting adventures?

There are two broad schools of thought on how campaigns should be run:  Linear or Sandbox.  Linear adventure progressions occur much as video games do - sure you can change things around a little, but in the end the final boss is the final boss and he's on level 8.  Sandbox games sort of plop you into a realm and let you run into things.

I take a middle stance.  I usually use a linear progression for adventures (events) but allow the players lots of free reign to do what they like, within the context of the current campaign.  This is done with a set of Plot Threads, which I'll discuss later on.  There's all sorts of ways the linear progression will change due to player action, since I don't actually write the adventure until the week before the session.

The biggest problem is laying out a coherent arc that will resolve enough of itself within the allotted campaign time, which is 3-4 months at the Wargate.  It's difficult to present a coherent story without first taking the time to think about how the story will progress.  If you want your players to perform occult investigations and unravel the secret of the Witch-House, that's a great campaign idea and has a story arc - but you'll have to work carefully to present the arc.  You know roughly how long the campaign will last and have final say on how many sessions you run - so plot for between 12 and 18 sessions' worth of material.  Hmm...sounds like another outline...



Story Outlines for Campaigns
Who said nothing we learned in school wouldn't help us in the future?  Since RPG's are run mostly on the fly, with a little help from some reference materials, it makes sense that an outline can help hobbyists in almost every circumstance that could possibly call for one.  This is one of the reasons I like them so much.

This time, however, we're outlining the campaign itself!  Let's see...to continue with our current club model as an example, we know we need to plot for about 15 weeks worth of game.  Our sessions typically last 3-5 hours, so short scenarios are best for 1 night games, but longer adventures simply stretch over week to week. We are frequently resuming play where we last ended the session, like face down in the Electric Lizard Pool.

The chief goal of any RPG campaign (usually) is to present a coherent adventure story.  It has to make sense.  If your players can't reconcile in their minds that the strange scenario could be likely (given that people have superpowers or what have you) then you won't achieve verisimilitude.  If your players can't make logical leaps because the story is out of place in the genre, it will stop making sense to them.  This can happen when the "feel" of the game changes, such as setting or genre swaps, if it's not handled well.

To illustrate, I'll use an outline for a Dark Heresy campaign I ran last year - Under a Vast Grey Sky.  This outline comes from my adventure notebook, and is the first thing I wrote for it.  It was modified a few times as the game went on and PC actions altered events, so here's the final result.

1. Distress at Lucruzu - how the PC's come to Lucruzu
2. The Mission - base of operations
3. Death at Tithesgiving - Attempt on the Governor's life
4. Band of Basterds - Mercenary group is fingered, PC's go hunting
5. The Windswept Steppe - Chasing after Andrei, the PC's must cross a huge wilderness
6. Band of Basterds, Part II - Second portions of original adventure #4
7. The Pogrom - Moving back into the city, the PC's encounter the rough end of a pogrom
8. The Outlaw Torn - Meeting up with Andrei, the players expose traitors in his men
9. The Murderous Truth - The PC's confront the corrupt High Priest
10. The Steeple - PC's confront Liev at the Cathedral

In this campaign, agents of the Inquisition arrive on a world that doesn't welcome them at all.  An attempt is made on the governor's life, and the players begin a hunt for the perpetrators.  All is not as it seems, however, and the players must hunt one of the governor's own sons.  However, it is eventually seen that the other brother wishes to seize power by any means necessary, even by exterminating his own people.  The players confront the masterminds of the governor's overthrow while eluding the ruling houses' military elite as they work to restore the governor to his seat.

Neat campaign.


Outlining Sandboxes
Sandboxes present a little more of a challenge.  You still have to put the adventure thread in there, but it requires a little more lateral thinking, and focusing instead on what I call Player Character Plot Threads.

To begin with, you need your milieu...any sort will do.  Let's say, Smokefall Ridge - a western town in 1875 Indian Territory.  You want to do a sandbox your players can play with, but how do you design one that seems believable?

Start with the basics...a plot progression that is independent of the players.  They can interact with this segment of the campaign progression as much or little as they like, but you need a constant "timer" that clicks out time in manageable segments.  For example, the War of the Red Band (as it will come to be called) is going on around Smokefall...but the players have only encountered the Red Band in small groups.  Several campaign events hinge on battles between the U.S. Cavalry and the Red Band not far from the town, but the players don't have to seek out the war.  It still happens, though - and that gives you plenty of opportunities to throw new things at players and use the context of the changing world around them to create a sense of verisimilitude.

I'd start with five points you definitely want to use as adventures during the campaign.  If they have to occur in a specific order, be sure and put them in the correct order.  I'll use Smokefall as an example, so my players can consider this as the jumping off point to the next western campaign.  This game is run with World of Darkness and I'll still be using The Book of Spirits as my main supplement for this next campaign.

1. Red Band Warriors only go where the spirits tell them.  Eventually occult players will have to deal with them.
2. Simmons Lumber will be moving into Smokefall.  Disputes over land are likely to arise.
3. The town may soon have a new Locus in the Lodge, if those two hooligans keep at it.
4. Twin Pines Fine Horse Mall will need plenty of top-quality horses, and lots of hands!
5. An alarming number of outlaws pursue outlawry right to Smokefall Ridge.  That's where the PC's live.

Ok, so I can get a good night's game out of each of those items.  There are other things to mention though...Player Character Plot Threads.

I run them in non-sandbox games also, but find that they work best to direct the action in sandboxes very well.  Basically, a Plot Thread is a subplot involving that character, and tailored to that character.  These can vary wildly from character to character, and when they are resolved you replace them with another Plot Thread.  For instance, take my players in the above western game.

• Samuel Brady - Interested in bringing land reform to the Indian Territory to help the "Red Man" enter civilized society.
• Ignacio & Seamus - Founders of Twin Pines Fine Horse Mall!  It's sort of like the Ponderosa, but in the Twilight Zone.
• Juan Ortega - The Goat Herd of Juan has many strange properties...
• Doc & Injun Hoy - Following ancient Indian rites, these two mystics are about to cross the line between normal and paranormal.
• Caleb Tinker - The best gunsmith in town will invariably be placed for unique intrigues, especially as the town grows.
• John Skinner - A large number of tales involving this enigmatic and seldom seen mountain man have begun to surface.  There's no telling how many are true, or how many folk believe them...

These are all Plot Threads the players have given me.  Not like, filled out on a paper - but by designing their characters and playing in the first few sandbox sessions.  I can see where they want to go, and can imagine the path.  Keeping track of them this way helps when writing the night's adventure, as I can weave them into the games throughout the course of the campaign.  In this way, you have to design your sandbox sort of ... lateral instead of linear.

Need a few more things to make a full circuit of 12-15 weeks, but these two short lists can be developed into at least 10 weeks of gaming scenarios.

Using Published Adventures
Published adventures are fun for a number of reasons.  For one thing it sort of both sets a standard and brings something new to the table almost every time.  If you're going to be using published adventures during your campaign there are a few things you should keep in mind.

Keep in mind, it's hard to judge how long published single adventures will last. A good rule of thumb is 2 full sessions.  Only very rarely will we be able to finish one in one night, but we might get close enough to finish too early in the next session.  That's why if you make your "game plan" and stick to it, you'll never be out of material!

Depending on the module, it will vary wildly how long it takes us to finish one of them.  The best thing to do then, is to be ready to run the whole adventure.  If we have to break too soon, be ready with a small side quest for the next session to pass the time if you aren't ready to start the next adventure in the middle of the session.

Make sure to reconcile the locales of all your published adventures, or be ready with the explanation of travel in the downtime.  That is, if you run your old school Greyhawk adventures, you should probably focus on one area of the Oerth at a time.  Continent hopping adventures are cool, but sometimes it's hard to suspend disbelief if your players are overly familiar with the map of the campaign setting and too much time and space have passed.  Another option is to alter the presentation of the locations in the adventure, which is another great idea.  When doing this, be very familiar with the material in the module - remember to change all relevant setting references during presentation.

Most importantly - research all the published material you want to use and make sure to present it in the correct order!  Most of the time this is self evident, but when you mix module lines it bears mentioning.  You might run two Wizards D&D adventures and one by Mongoose, so make sure that when you present them to your players is appropriate.  If the Mongoose adventure is L5, but so is one of the Wizards modules...some changes to the plan are in order.  Either find a different campaign for that module, or change the difficulty somehow to better match where your players are in the experience progression.


Closing A Campaign
Almost as important as running a campaign is closing it down.  When the campaign winds down, you'll want to have your main plotline for that campaign resolved.  That is, if the Hobgoblin King in your sandbox is the bitter enemy of the players and has been sending them stews of boiled cabbage, if you want this to be the focus of the campaign you should set events in motion to resolve the conflict.

Closing the campaign here at the Wargate doesn't necessarily represent retirement for the characters involved. Indeed the opposite - depending on how far you want your players to advance, you can vary the amount of experience gained per session (in the 15 or so weeks), or you can simply continue the PC's adventures when you reconvene your game.

For instance, in What Lies Below, Bignutt the DM brought our characters up to around level 3 or 4.  His last campaign ended earlier this year, but he's up for a new game as DM in a few months.  We'll be returning to our last characters, to continue with the adventure path and up the experience progression.  I can't say as to how high of a level he will eventually take us, but I'm pretty sure it will be at least L20.  And that's just the one set of adventures - we've already spoken of the Oriental Adventures and other setting details they'll be releasing for Golarion.

That said, you can also finish a campaign up for good.  Some World of Darkness games might be suited to one campaign, and some Call of Cthulhu scenarios pretty much make sure it will only be one campaign.  Decide how you want your campaign to wrap up, as we usually make some sort of deal about these things.  Consider contributing to the Wargate, as we like to post items from the DM before, during and after the campaign.

Well that's enough for now.  It's a bit long, I apologize if you read the whole thing.  Leave us a comment on your own methodologies for building campaigns below!

Prep Work Isn't Homework

Howdy folks!  Sorry for my absence for nearly a week, but the Wargate is back in session this week with some serious fun for everyone!  All our current games are running strong, and I have a little less time to write these days.  Interestingly, that's going to be today's topic - the work we put into our games.

Every Game Master knows by now that they have to be truly into the game in order run one.  GM's will devote more of their "real time" to the game than any other player, simply by virtue of having to prepare a game.  Preparing the game takes time, but it's not that much out of our weekly schedule - unless you're just pouring details onto the page.  Nevertheless, it's still something that has to be done on a weekly basis by a Wargate GM.  The bad part is that players who haven't GM'd don't always understand this.

Unless you're using a published adventure, it can take a long time to sit around coming up with ideas.  A brainstorming session is always the best way to start a new campaign or adventure, and I for one know that my brainstorming is best done under certain conditions - that is, when I'm completely alone.  Sometimes I listen to music while I write notions down, sometimes I need the silence to help me concentrate.  It's critical for me to come up with all the ideas I can before distilling them into new RPG stories.  

It also helps clear a little bit of the confusion left by reading certain passages.

That said, I usually brainstorm long before I actually write an adventure.  Getting everything you want to explore in the game out on the table (of your mind) prior to when you actually sit down to write can speed you along when it comes time to start planning encounters.  I have several "Story Workshops" in an Excel spreadsheet (many of you who know me know of my predilection for spreadsheets) and write outlines there for specific campaigns.  I wrote the outline for The Rough Edge of Night almost a year ago, and a printed version of that outline now accompanies my composition pad for the game.

That is to say, I only brainstorm and blog on the computer.  There's just something about putting pen to paper for me, I use composition pads to actually write adventures in.  It helps to organize things long before you sit down, and having a general idea of an story can help you develop a further outline for the adventure without having to spend time brainstorming week to week - other than taking last week's character actions into account.

Most GM's have something similar - a spiral notebook, a trapper keeper, it's all the same: A Game Tome.  It's a place to work and keep ideas.  The Wargate has a lot going on, and I have several spreadsheets to keep track of all the festivities.  However, for those of you working only from the notepad - carve out the first few pages of your Game Tome with outlines and ideas for your campaign.  Having thought out the whole plot through key points, you can guide the campaign by writing your weekly adventures as you go.  You have a point of reference, a plot idea to go by and your player characters to guide the action.

Even with all that in place, it still takes time to do the work.  With the proper preparation, you can reduce the amount of time you spend on a game, but nothing is so important as your work area.  You'll need space to write in your Game Tome, of course - but you'll need space to open important reference manuals as well during that time.  A large table where you won't be disturbed is best.  Get all the manuals you need for the adventure, your outlines and your Game Tome.  Then put the pen to paper.

The Wargate has regular gaming schedules, so you can plot your adventure by your time slot.  Each of our game days have a certain time and length they normally run.  Sunday's Schedule 1 games begin at 6pm, and last 3-4 hours on average...but we've had sessions that run 6 and 7 hours.  Thursday night Schedule 2 games also begin at 6pm, but only last 3 hours normally and 4 or 5 hours maximum.  So generally speaking, we'll be doing RPG's on Sundays and Thursdays from 6-11pm.

Using this as a rule of thumb, you can now determine how long your adventures will take.  The way in which the club approaches these sessions is actually conducive to building games, since it lends itself to an episodic manner but is frequent enough to RP day by day, depending on the nature of the individual game.  These methods mean it takes me about three to five hours during my week to write a night's worth of gaming.  If I'm ready to write, the encounters and game minutiae flow easy.  Having an established idea, with a well planned outline and enough space to work in a comfortable and quiet spot - that's the best time for me to write an adventure.

It's important that each GM have a real passion for his game, since he'll be spending the most time within the world as he writes his adventures.  As players, it's important we understand and appreciate the amount of time that goes into developing the games we play.  If  players abandon an adventure when you were sure they would follow through, or a game night gets curtailed for some reason, can be harrowing to a new GM.  While we're in GM's game, we should play the game they want to play, whether that's heroic adventure against an evil order or evil backstabbery in the land of Mordor.

In general, open sandbox games at the Wargate do not work.  There are too many players, and they can come up with some wild agendas in the context of a certain plotline - never mind free rein to do whatever they wanted.  Don't be angry if you're not doing what you want to do in a game - it's just not possible in all games, or even most of them.  Most of them will have a narrow focus, like on a band of warriors or mob of orcs.

It goes without saying that GM's enjoy the game they are running - for those with a passion for gaming, the prep work is not homework at all.  It's a great experience to design a run a game, and more fulfilling than simply writing a story for a great many reasons.  It takes a lot of passion to keep coming back with a game week after week, especially when everyone tries so hard to bring something new to the table with every campaign and adventure.

If you don't like a game or for some reason don't want to follow along with the story, wait until the GM and game changes or run a different game.  After all - there's always another game on the Schedules...and there's always room on the Schedules for another GM.

Bone Method: How to Build An Adventure

We're having plenty of game here at the Wargate! And no visible shortage of it, either! This is great - we'll get a chance to play several different games, experience several different stories and Game Masters, and share our own stories with our closest friends through the interactive medium of tabletop gaming.

However, it's not always easy to get the game you want out of a system. Sure, the story is in your head, but the players have no idea about anything...sometimes it can become a serious hassle to keep "player information"(that what a player knows about the scenario), "GM information" (that what the GM knows that the players do not) and "character information" (that what a player's character knows about the scenario) separate. Multiple plot threads come flying around and unwound due to PC actions, and sometimes you can see your carefully crafted adventure go straight down the tubes, all because one of the players really really, really, really wanted to hunt those buffalo.

I'm going to share with you a few methods for building adventures I picked up along the way to the Wargate. Take these few rules of thumb to heart, keep them in mind when designing your scenarios, and you'll reap the benefit of a smooth running, fast paced game.

---

So, what's an 'Adventure'?

Sometimes you hear them called by different names. Sometimes they are called Stories, or Modules, or Scenarios...by any name you call them, RPG scenarios will always be "adventures" to me. I like that name...it really says what it needs to be. An adventure...an exciting scenario for your players to roleplay through.

An adventure can be as long as it needs to be, spanning multiple play sessions or character levels. For the purposes of this article, an adventure is simply a single portion of a campaign...or one chapter in a story.

For an adventure to be successful, it is dependent on a number of things. Basically, these are simply the elements of a story linked together through the medium of the RPG, which is like no other form of storytelling because of the open-ended nature. This is the most important aspect - if the story is not open ended, with several possible outcomes, it becomes GM Railroading. This is a term used to denote where a GM attempting to run a scenario does it too rigidly, or doesn't allow for enough player choice in the scenario.

Throughout the article I will be providing specific examples and even show you how I generate adventures with my tried and true 10 point Adventure Method (patent pending), wherein you basically make an outline for a term paper or short story for creative writing class. It's very original. The key here is that you establish the three things that every story needs for your adventure - that is, a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Above all, do NOT let your players "sandbox" for very long. This stagnates the game and players begin to drift away when you play to their whims.

---

Finding the Story

The first thing you, Adventuresmith, must do is uncover your story. You may have a premise, but it's the meat of the story that counts. When writing campaigns, I'll often have a story arc built into a certain number of sessions (say, for example...ten) with notes about the general plot of the adventure. We're not going to focus on campaigns this time, but if you have a story for your campaign, the stories for your adventures should occur quite naturally.

An adventure has several elements that you should not ignore as a writer or GM. I cannot stress this enough - you must spend time preparing. In fact, the Game Master is the person who must actually devote time to preparing the game. This is his responsibility, and by taking up the mantle of Game Master you are telling us you are ready to handle it.

To that end, it truly pays to come prepared for more than you'll conceivably need so that you can access new information on the fly. Also, writing things down tends to cement the thoughts in your head. If you know the story, how the NPC's will react to certain stimuli or what will happen when the characters decide to go off-course there won't be any room for plot holes or inconsistencies. It also clears up instances of ret-conning due to inattention or strange actions by the players. It is for this reason that games that are run mostly "by the seat of one's pants" tend to run out of steam or collective purpose. The very same applies to "sandbox" games. Without any direction, your players will wander - perhaps even away from the table.

When writing a new adventure, I always start by writing a short synopsis of the plot. The synopsis should include at least two possible outcomes to the scenario (success and failure). Once you've written this part out, you should have a really good idea as to the tone of the adventure, and can begin to write in earnest.

Once you have your synopsis, you're ready to add character hooks. Character hooks are the starting points of the adventure - they provide the player characters with reasons to do the things you want them to do in the scenario. It's not a good sign when the hardest part of the scenario is getting the players to work with each other and to pursue the scenario goal. Simply having someone who outranks the players command them to do something they would not normally do is alright for some scenarios, but it can quickly become bothersome if used excessively (unless that is the gist of the campaign). If your campaign features player characters that are not military oriented, do not create military adventures - it's a lot of hassle that could easily be avoided by writing an adventure more suited to your player's characters, or by decreeing that player characters need to be military in concept.

Options are always better, unless the players have warranted being commanded (Quest-ed) by the NPC's by way of their own actions.

Usually character hooks are easy, but sometimes it takes some conniving to make it fit where you want it to in your story. There are many methods to hook a character, but the easiest is to show him that something he wants is at the end of a particular course of action and let him decide to engage it. Heavy handed methods include arresting player characters, drafting them, placing a Geas spell upon them, or simply murdering their family. Hooking characters is hardest at the beginning of a campaign, but in some cases you can snag characters with a hook that binds them to the entire story of the campaign in the first adventure.

Example: My adventure is about trolls from Dollytown eating all the township of Springburg's cabbage. In this adventure, players will travel to the hamlet of Springburg, where they find a famine brought on by this lack of cabbage. Character hooks include basic sympathy for the plight of the people of the village, or perhaps a village elder offers the player gold, renown, a magic item, knowledge or any other critical item that could provide a reason to do the extreme things adventurers do all the time. If the players are successful, the people of Springburg will be rejoiced and throw a festival in their honor, but if not, most likely they were eaten by trolls.

Beginning, middle and end.

---

Adding Encounters

In the early days of my youth, I got my learnin's at the Dungeons & Dragons School for Beating Player Character Ass. Tuition was steep, but I got my degrees in Dungeoncraft and Game Theory, as well as finishing my minor in RPG History. I took some courses in Gygaxism as well, but like all those ancient philosophers he wasn't right about everything.

The term encounter comes from that game, but I have used it for every game, ever. It's useful. It's basically just what the original RPG game used to denote different sections of a scenario. Encounters weren't codified with ratings until the YEAR 2000, with 3rd Edition's release. So don't worry...you can still use encounters in other games.

An adventure simply consists of several Encounters put together in a chain, though you probably got this from your old Dungeon Master's Guide. Of course, an encounter is a portion of the adventure where your players interact in some way with other characters or with the game environment. Setting up these encounters and timing their execution is critical to sustaining the "fun-factor" of the game.

So what goes into an encounter? What do you put in it? How do you start it?

There are two main methods for beginning encounters. When you create your adventure, you must decide how many encounters will be site based and how many are event based. A site based encounter happens when the characters arrive at a certain point (usually a dungeon room or some other fixed location). It happens whenever it is triggered (such as the door opening or the alarm is raised). Event based encounters happen whenever some event occurs in game, regardless of where the party is. An example of such an event would be one day after the characters emerge from the dungeon to regroup and heal, the General of the Empire will arrive in the city with two hundred fresh troops. This happens no matter where the players are, but sometimes an event happening miles away can trigger another encounter, or even change the descriptions of site based encounters.

So now you have a couple of ideas, but you really need to get started. Let's get out our pens and composition pads (I'm old fashioned) and simply make an outline. You know, like they taught you to do in high school when you had to do that nightmarish term paper (or had to pay someone else to do it). I begin populating my adventure with encounters by drawing a small, numbered list from 1 to 10. In those 10 points, I write down where in the pacing of the adventure that I want my "key events" to take place. Once my "key events" are in place, I can then build the rest of the encounters around them safe in the knowledge of when and how each particular encounter can occur. These key events define those things that the story MUST have: a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Example:

1. Arrival in Springburg (the pc's arrive and become involved)
2. ?
3. A Big Ass Hole (the pc's negotiate a yawning chasm to find trolls)
4. ?
5. Encounter with Trolls (the pc's find trolls!)
6. ?
7. ?
8. Battle for the Cabbage Fields (only force can drive out the trolls!)
9. ?
10. Celebration in Springburg (Rewards handed out)

Here, I have mapped 5 encounters. These are the encounters that must occur if my story is to come to completion, thus they are the key events. Now I can add flavored encounters or encounters that address plot threads woven by the players that don't fall within the strict parameters of the key events. Let's say I have a paladin player, and he's totally about to fall out with God. I could alter my encounter list to include an encounter specific to this storyline. Or you can create new ones. I figure we can do both...

1. Arrival in Springburg (the pc's arrive and become involved)
2. ?
3. A Big Ass Hole (the pc's negotiate a yawning chasm to find trolls)
4. The Devil Wears Owlbear Skin (demonic servant approaches paladin)
5. Encounter with Trolls (the pc's find trolls!)
6. ?
7. ?
8. Battle for the Cabbage Fields (only force can drive out the trolls!)
9. Ol' Crippy (one legged man tells the story of treasure in the land beyond Dollytown)
10. Celebration in Springburg (Rewards handed out)

What else can we do? It's a good idea to mix random or optional encounters into the mix that don't necessarily have anything to do with the rest of the story, and do not have to be completed or executed in any way, like optional encounters. This is to maintain a sense of verisimilitude - that is, that things are happening in the world the pc's are in. It makes the game feel more alive if you can breathe that into how your encounters are sequenced.

1. Arrival in Springburg (the pc's arrive and become involved)
2. Big Gay Al's Magic Wand Superstore (players encounter wizard npc in town)
3. A Big Ass Hole (the pc's negotiate a yawning chasm to find trolls)
4. The Devil Wears Owlbear Skin (demonic servant approaches paladin)
5. Dances with Trolls (the pc's find trolls!)
6. The Frog Caves (giant frogs in a separate cavern near the trolls - site encounters)
7. Oi! The trolls are coming! (pc's can warn outlying farms of incoming troll attack)
8. Battle for the Cabbage Fields (only force can drive out the trolls!)
9. Ol' Crippy (one legged man tells the story of treasure in the land beyond Dollytown)
10. Celebration in Springburg (Rewards handed out)

These new encounters don't have to be ran at all, but are extra content that your players can earn or find if they manage to. They are non critical, but nonetheless relevant to pc interests...giant frogs always have piles of loose change and magic swords. One encounter is an npc encounter whom the players may eventually earn as an ally, who can also perform magic for the player group...for a fee.

I have included another small dungeon within this adventure! The Frog Caves are just that...inhabited by giant frogs, but it's very close to the troll lair...unwary pc's might even mistake it for the troll lair. In this instance, I would map a small frog cave, label the areas as you would any dungeon map and jot it all down in my book under the section labeled The Frog Caves. I usually include mapped areas simply as encounters all their own - though technically site based entries like these might actually contain several more encounters depending on what exactly suits your needs.

The third encounter is sort of a bonus. If the pc's are good, or just worried about their own skin, they may attempt to gather the families of the outlying farms into the defenses of the town proper. This is sort of a bonus round...extra awards may be given for a significant number of townsfolk getting to safety. Conversely, if this were an evil adventure, you could replace this encounter with something diabolic, like luring the trolls straight to the mayor's house.

Remember also that encounters do not strictly have to take place in the order they are originally ordered, due to any number of events brought on by active player characters. For example, if the players didn't go down the south road (or whatever) after the Battle for the Cabbage Fields (encounter 8), then perhaps Ol' Crippy doesn't see the characters until the Celebration in Springburg...if even then. Everyone could be dead by then, you know?

Note that 10 encounters is by no means a hard and fast rule, but rather a starting place to find how many encounters you need. Encounters can be as long as they need to be in order to address what they are designed to address. Encounter 10 can only happen if encounter 8 is successfully completed, and if encounter 5 goes bad it may also affect how encounter 8 is executed, even if only by altering the number of enemies, representing the trolls regrouping after defeating the players. A failure on any encounter that is critical could alter the title of the last encounter to "Sorrow in Springburg".

Now, we have us a proper adventure that can entertain the entire group for an entire evening. Preparation rules!

---

Rewards of Adventure

So, now that all the trolls have been defeated, what do the players have to show for it? Lots of cabbage? It's unlikely the townsfolk have piles of gold to part with, if anything at all. The players in this example adventure will probably get a pittance of coins, free room and board until healed (which is likely quickly) and some extra rations on top of experience points. Why so little for so heroic a deed?

Rewarding the players for their actions is actually a very tough job for a Game Master. You have to balance risk vs. reward or something, right? If you're new at it, it can be tempting to dole out craploads of everything in an attempt to please your audience. I could wax lyrical about the whole deal and address every side of the story, but since this is my blog I'm only going to seek to promulgate my own philosophy on the subject. The secret is, the teeter-totter of player satisfaction is actually tilted in the Game Master's favor. The players are not satisfied with extra treasure or skills, but rather the game itself. Therefore, for the vast majority of adventures the players will get only what they need to continue the campaign (and maybe just a little more) in terms of rewards.

I have always seen the campaign as a game with a climbing difficulty. That is, it gets harder as you go on. Giving out too many rewards clutters the future adventures with extra crap. Also, sometimes players tend to forget they used things, and you might forget they used them...especially with tons of notes of equipment and coins. It is critical that the game remain in the control of the Game Master, and depriving the players of ridiculous gains of money, power and influence can help you direct future adventures and encounters to develop along the lines of your story. Not that players cannot direct the story...rather the extra bonuses you have given them will not.

However, it is important to make each adventure a stepping stone for the next, harder adventure. In general, expended menial resources like food or water should be taken care of, even if it is in the form of enough coin to bed down in the next town's inn. In general, if the group is small, 1 upgrade can be given to each player. In larger groups, you need to be stingy - the players already have an intense advantage in numbers. The more players there are, the more tactics they can execute. That said, if you know the party will need a certain amount of magic (or satchel charges, or power armor, or political influence or whatever) then make sure at least one or two members have the opportunity to gain the needed item.

The basic rule is:

Don't give more than what they need.

Ever.

---

Linking Adventures

Where to next? This is an important question...if you can give hooks in one adventure, the next session doesn't seem so forced - in fact the transition will come quite naturally. You don't have to do a song and pony show about how the players get to the next town, because last week they would have told you they were going to get the treasury Ol' Crippy talked about.

If you do it right, it might be hard for the players to distinguish where one adventure ends and the next begins, especially if you never reveal the titles of your adventures to your players (thereby denoting them as separate stories). The players will be walking along doing their own thing.

While I make notes about future adventures, these are subject to change. I knew a Pastor once, who wrote his Sunday sermon every Saturday night. He had a book of notes, of things he had thought of to talk about someday...and when Saturday night came he would retire to the den with a cup of tea, take his "thought-book" along with a plain orange pad, and write his sermon. The reason he did this is so he could make sure his topic for that Sunday would resonate with the Congregation.

I'm not deliberately comparing our Sunday meetings where we all gather to listen to one of our number talk passionately and loudly about something we all care about to going to Church. Rather, I learned something from this man I once knew, and he happened to be a Pastor. That thing is to never write your adventure until the last adventure has been completed. Kind of a long way to walk for that piece of advice, but let me tell you, it is gold.

If you don't write one adventure until the last is completed, you can work and rework the gist of the adventure to take on any story developments that previously occurred and thereby achieve yet another level of verisimilitude. More importantly, it allows you to control encounter composition and difficulty.

---

In Conclusion

If you reduced this article to it's basest points, I really only offer a couple points. First, plan your crap out. Second, make the crap hard. Third, don't make the crap a straight line or a squiggly line, but a line with a couple of squiggles instead. Fourth, don't give your players crap. Fifth, make sure your players have plenty of crap to do. That's it.

Sorry for the long, long post guys. I hope I made all my points clear, and would love to further discuss adventure design with anyone who is going to be running a game! Of course this was just a basic primer that basically just showed my method for creating an adventure, and I'd love to hear how the rest of you cogitate your games!

If there is a point anyone wishes to examine further, don't hesitate to send me a shout out!