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8/17/2019 rpgnotes

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8/17/2019 rpgnotes


about the cards and can t say anything, but can grunt, moan, hint, or whatever. In my game, I am house-ruling this away, and if it serves you, I encourage you todo likewise. After a Hunch or Premonition, the players should feel free to reveal what they saw!"

Stratton Speaks: Why I Killed RobJanuary 7th, 2011

Rob is the president of Pantheon Press. I have been good friends with him for almost a decade. He lets me park my motorcycle in the backyard of his house on Long Island. He hosts awesome all-day gaming sessions at his place. So why would Ikill this paragon of the gaming world?

I had to.

We were playing Fortune s Fool; an ongoing campaign I was running inspired by theGrimm Fairy Tales. We were in our 6th session. We had been averaging five players a session. And nobody had died. That s 30 player character appearances without a

death.When it comes to PC death, there is no magic number, but I could tell the stakes were falling. Playing RPGs is serious business. We tell life and death stories. We have fun til somebody gets hurt. So when that 6th session started, I knew it had to get mean.

Don t get me wrong. I didn t target Rob. I didn t cheat. I didn t fudge. And it was entirely possible that everyone could have survived that night. But when his wounded halfling climbed out that window into the night with Little Led Riding Hood s werewolf Grandma prowling around, I was the one licking my chops. And the cards were on my side!

We were all sad when Rob died. Connor (his halfling) was a cool character and had been with us from the beginning. I felt guilty, but I ll tell you what. The next session, when Goldilock s three bears showed up, you better believe folks at ourtable were sitting up a little straighter.

For mustache-twirling GMs out there reading this as permission for next week s TPK, I say, Easy mister! Put the extra trolls back in the box and take a breath. What we are shooting for is high stakes, not broken spirits. Kill a character once in 5 adventures and everyone will take things seriously. Kill a character every day and nobody will care they will not be able to invest.

Character death is a valuable GM tool, but it must be used sparingly. A little is good, but too much is worse than none at all well almost.

Stratton Speaks: Tavernless GamingJanuary 27th, 2011

Okay: Gruffin Elderblade, Frego son of Flatulo, Mina Harkenbronte, and Tav Darkcloak; you all meet in a tavern. Suddenly you are approached by a mysterious stranger. The stranger looks you up and down and begins speaking. My friends, I must ask you for your help. My daughter has been kidnapped

How many campaigns have started like this? Even as I type it, I feel a wave of n

ostalgia. Suddenly I am back in middle school with my hearty ranger ready to journey into another dungeon during school lunch period! But I am writing to suggest a better way, a more mature way, maybe even a funner way: Tavernless Gaming!

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Now this post is not about the virtues of abstemiousness, nor do I mean gaming groups should actually avoid taverns themselves. Personally, I love beer! I alsolove taverns, (because they have beer there). What I am really talking about isgiving the players a better way to invest in the campaign.

Instead of hiring the players to go do something, give them their own reason. If your campaign is about rescuing a kidnapped daughter, cut out the middle man: make one of the PCs the girl s father! How much higher then, will the stakes be torescue her?

Okay, well what about the other 4 PCs, you may ask? They can t all be the girl s father! Totally fair point, my binging friend! There are two ways to handle this. First, you can build relationships TO the PC who is the girl s father. Could anotherPC be the father s brother or sister? Or an old war buddy who owes a favor? Couldanother PC even be the missing girl s Romeo-and-Juliet-esque beloved? Sure the father disapproves, but they must set aside their grudge and work together to saveher!

Second, you can create concurrent storylines to involve other PCs. Got a dark PC who is a stranger and a foreigner? That character isn t going to be happy being the brother or buddy or boyfriend sworn to help. So give them another reason. Sure, this PC doesn t care about the poor kidnapped daughter, but he might be seeking vengeance on the evil mastermind that took the girl. And he knows that he willnever be able to exact his revenge without help.

What about character background and freewill, you ask? Okay, this is a totally legit and fair point. Work with the players when they make their characters solicit willingness. Find out if any of them is interested in being the girl s father,or uncle, or boyfriend. Often a player with a brand new character doesn t have a strong idea. They may be grateful for the guidance!

Taverns are good places to get beer, mead, maybe even a cup of mutton stew! Butthey are poor places to create investment in a storyline. Instead of the tavern, let the campaign start in the lives of your characters!

But I am a hard core GM with hard core players and eventually we needed more. The illusion wasn t enough. My players needed real freedom. Like Jonathan LivingstonSeagull, my GMing style was forced to evolve to the next level. Gradually I learned to let the players truly surprise me. I stopped preparing moments and instead became more generically prepared - for anything.

So my admonition for the Gamemaster:Let the players surprise you. Surprise them right back. Hell, surprise yourself.

Put the camera on the PCs and make sure that they are truly the focus of the story, not your prep work. If they do something unexpected avoid a fight or sceneor story moment go with it and see what happens! When that safety net disappears and you have to rely solely on communal storytelling, it s thrilling.

Of course, this requires a very different kind of prep. You have to have a bigger sense of the campaign and your world, and you have to think quite fast on your

feet. You also have to foster real player investment. They can t just be on an adventure they have to be fighting for their lives!

8/17/2019 rpgnotes


Come Out and Play!June 26th, 2013

This weekend is another of NerdNYC's very popular Recess events; it's an all-day gaming extravaganza, with RPGs and board games alike. And Pantheon Press is going to be running TWO Fortune's Fool one-shots!

At noon, we'll be running "All the King's Men." Set in Elizabethan London, the players are a troupe of popular actors who are accused of a murder that they didn't commit. Can they discover the true killer and clear their names before they are tossed into the Tower of London?

Then, in the early evening, we've got "A Cabaret, Old Chum," a unique twice on the Fortune's Fool world that takes place in Berlin in 1929! The players are a group of intellectuals and artists who must take a stand against a movement started by a familiar mustachioed halfling from Austria. Will Fate protect you from machine guns and grenades? Probably not.

Unfortunately our universe got consumed in a black hole by mistake before I wasable to do much with this character, However I have played a character that used tarot cards.

We were playing World of Darkness, and I was a fortune type mage (please forgive me, it has been some time and I forget the names of all of the mage types) Basically my deck had 5 main 'functions' to start with, attacks (Swords cards) Luckchanging abilities (Coins), Defensive abilities (Cups), meta-magic (Wands) and D

Ms choice (Major arcana). I drew a card, and figured out how to use it in game.As I leveled up I could use the inscribe spell ability to place specific spellson specific cards, but I never got far enough for it to be useful. Still, it was a fun character.

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