A Year of Games: Planning My Online Sessions

THE RUNNING MAN

So I’m planning what run for The Gauntlet Hangouts TGIT Series. Those are two-three shot online sessions Thursday nights. It’s gotten some great games off my bucket list: Cryptomancer, Feng Shui, Chill, Coriolis, Worlds in Peril and more. Right now I have 7^th Sea, Kingdom, Shadowrun Anarchy, and Dresden Files Accelerated on the schedule. In April I’m planning on running Mutant City Blues and Kuro. For the former, I’m going to strip down the abilities and mechanics to make that express version I posted about. For the latter, I’m going to take my cues from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (among other SMT games). I wish Cubicle7 had kept Kuro in print (since they have its supplements available), but at least you can get it is pdf form.

Running this series has been super fun. I’ve run online for several years. In the past putting games together and tracking folks has been like herding cats. Things fell out at the last minute or people didn’t show up. I haven’t had those problems with my Gauntlet sessions. I think there’s a couple of reasons for that. One, there’s an expectation you’ll RSVP and follow through. If you don’t do that, GMs may pass that on to other GMs. Two, if somoene can’t make it, GMs have tools and groups to draft other players. Three, everyone takes it pretty seriously. Anyway, that’s my two cents about why you should consider the Gauntlet Patreon.

Below you’ll find the top twelve other games I’m thinking about running this year for that. I’m focusing on games with a quickstart, an adventure included in the core book, and/or pre-gen characters. I have several products that fit those criteria but have some obstacles. Some have dense or complicated characters sheets- Mundus, Sorcery & Super-Science. Some have crunchier tactical combat- Contact, Infinity RPG. Some use cards, either unique or standard deck- Crone, Upwind.

The Twelve I’m Thinking Most about But That Will Probably Change in the Next Ten Minutes

Cold Shadows

A spy game currently in Kickstarter. It’s funded and they’ve promised a draft of the rules once that closes. It’s based on World of Dew, a game with interesting group and social interaction mechanics. I haven’t looked much further than the pitch line and authors, but I’m excited.

Chthonian Highways QS

There’s a rough “Alpha Draft” available on DriveThru. The idea is post-apocalyptic highway riders in a world overwhelmed by the Old Ones. I think. At least that’s what I gotten from a quick check. That’s a grabby idea. The system doesn’t look too crazy.

Fragment

A game about machines, identity, and humanity. From the intro, “This roleplaying game explores technology through humanity, supporting players to develop stories about the increasingly complex relationship between machine and human. The players take the role of machines; isolated, discarded and possibly obsolete.” The QS looks sharp, but the use of card mechanics makes it less usable online.* Still the presentation of this story game overcomes some of my hesitation.

*Yes, I know you could write up something to take the place- a table or custom decks in Roll20 or Tabletop simulator. But I want to keep my work simple.

Grimm

I have the hardcover of this weird, one-off rpg from Fantasy Flight. Children get caught in a broken and horrible fairy-tale land. It originally came out as a d20 supplement. Grimm’s final version expands it with interesting character archetypes, rules for growing up, and much more detail on the world. You can choose how dark or comedic you want things to be.

GUMSHOE: Ashen Stars or Fear Itself

As I mentioned, I’m going to try a slimmed version of Mutant City Blues. If that works I’d like to try that with one of the other GUMSHOE lines that’s gotten less attention. Fear Itself offers a ‘horror movie’ experience. You’re trying to figure out what’s going on to keep it from killing you (usually). I don’t love the set up, but it does have a solid intro scenario in the book. On the other hand, I like Ashen Stars’ sci-fi universe. There you’re not detectives, but hired problem solvers. Slimming it down might be serious work.

Kult QS

So a few weeks ago they released the QS for the forthcoming new edition of Kult. I’m not a Kult fan and I didn’t back the Kickstarter. But when I looked at the rules, I knew I wanted to try it out. It has one of the strangest adaptations of PbtA, going for 2d10 resolution and multiple levels of success. The QS includes characters so it wouldn’t be hard to whip together a story and take it for a spin.

Mutant Year Zero

I’ve been running this f2f for several months. The system and approach has gone over well, so I’d like to show it off to other people. There’s a QS version we could play from. Two challenges. First, I’d have to figure out how I wanted to handle Ark development. That’s a great sub-system in the game, but really geared to campaign play. Second, I’d have to use Roll20 for this. MYZ uses a particular die-rolling and push mechanic, difficult to do in a straight die roller. There’s an MYZ module available for Roll20, allowing players easy automation.

Polaris QS

Future undersea sci-fi game. The QS looks quite nice and has a robust adventure included. Simple system, so it would be easy to teach. There’s some seashell boobie armor, but the rest of it doesn’t make me shake my head.

Scion 2e QS

I backed the new Scion game, mostly because I love the concept. I have no idea what the new system will actually look like. It’s Onyx Path so I suspect at least moderately crunchier than I care for. But one of the stretch goals was a QS adventure, so that might have a streamlined version. They’ve done that with the nWoD games: stories using their SAS system. That might also be something else to look at- the quickstarts for things like Hunter the Vigil and Demon the Descent.

Seven Wonders: “When the Dark is Gone”

You can see my overview of this here. I ran Before the Storm a couple of times last year. I’d really like to get one or two more games from this collection to the table. I have to revist WtDiG to see how well it might work online. It might not be the best venue for atmospherics. I’m not sure.

Tenra Bansho Zero

After several false starts I finally managed to read through and mostly grok the rules for TBZ. There’s still some elements I’m not sure about, but there’s at least one actual play available online. It has an element of resource management and trading, so I’d probably have to use the Roll20 interface for visuals. But there’s some hyper-cool stuff inside.

Tianxia: Blood, Silk & Jade

I love classic leaping swords & fists wuxia. But the many games I’ve picked up to run it haven’t been that great: Qin, Swords of the Middle Kingdom, Legends of Wuxia/Weapons of the Gods, the two BRP attempts. Tianxia looks like it comes closest to what I want—interesting styles combined with cinematic resolution. While I own it, I still haven’t gotten it to the table. Fate’s isn’t that hot in Gauntlet, but it might be doable.

Other Games in the Running: Apocalypse Prevention 2e QS, Awaken QS, Bubblegumshoe, Conan QS, Death of Legends, Delta Green QS, Demon Hunters, Faith QS, Any Fate World of Adventure, Fragged Empire QS, Hot War, Legend of the Elements, Motobushido, Musha Shugyo, Rockalypse, Rotted Capes, Shinobigami QS, Spark NeoNihon QS, Tales from the Loop, World of Dew

Suggestions? Thoughts?

The Many Names of Gamemasters (2016 Update)

BOW BEFORE ZOD!

Over the last few years I've collected the wide range of "interesting" names rpgs give to the person running the show. To celebrate the end of this awful year and close out with slightly edited filler, I present an updated list of these titles. 

GM’s my preferred term (because that’s what I do).  On the other hand, to me a DM or Dungeon Master, is someone actually running Dungeons & Dragons. That's a matter of taste and experience I suppose (or I'm just plain wrong). For each I've listed just one example system, even when that name appears in several games (Storyteller, Narrator, Director). Additions in red. Many were suggested by my excellent colleagues on the original list at RPG Geek.

Feel free to suggest any I may have missed!!!

With GM as #1 and DM as #2, here are 138 others...

Absolute Judge (Mechanical Dream)
Action Guide (World Action and Adventure)
Administrator (Top Secret/SI) 

Adventure Master (Dragonraid)

Airedale (Knights of the Road, Knights of the Rail)

Animator (Toon)

Antagonist (ΑΓΩΝ)
Ape Master (Terra Primate)
Arbiter (Archetype) 
Author (Age of Empire)

Bartender (Tales from the Floating Vagabond)

Big Mac Daddy (StuperPowers!)

Booker (Kayfabe)
The Boss (Low Life)

Campaign Master (Star Ace)

Cannibal-in-Charge (Cannibal Contagion)
Caretaker (Small Things)

Castle Keeper (Castles & Crusades)

Cat Herder (Call of Catthulhu)
Cavemaster (Cavemaster)

Chill Master (Chill)
Chronicler (WitchCraft)

City Planner (Nightlife)
Consul (Super Dungeon Explore)

Continuum Master (TIMEMASTER)

Control (Agents of S.W.I.N.G.)
Corporation (Merc)

Corpse Master (Rotworld)
Creative (World Wide Wrestling)
Croupier (Fastlane)

Cryptkeeper (The World of Tales from the Crypt)

Dawg Master (Dawg the RPG)

Dealer (Dust Devils)
Demiurgo (Lex Arcana)

Director (Night’s Black Agents)
Dispatcher (Ninja Burger)
DJ (Spirit of '77)

Dolphin Master (Everything is Dolphins)

Dorn Keeper (Dorn)

Editor (Pandemonium)

Editor-in-Chief (Rotted Capes)

Engineer (Steamfortress Victory)

Everyone Else (Everyone is John) 

Evil Mastermind (Scared Stiff)
Excursion Master (Excursions into the Bizarre)

Fairy Godmother (I’m a Pretty Princess)

Fairytale Teller (Wiedzmin- trans. from the Polish)

Fate (The World of Synnibarr)

Fixer (Leverage)

Galaxy Master (Starfaring)

Game Control (Spycraft)

Game Moderator (Wild Talents)

Game Operations Designate aka GOD (The Legend of Yore)
Game Operator (Legacy)
Game Organizer (Dystopia Rising)
Game Shepherd (Spiritual Warfare) 

Game Sheriff (Dzikie Pola- trans. from the Polish)

Gamekeeper (Tales from the Wood)
Gamesmaster (Victoriana)

GeekMod (Way of the Geeky)

General Management (Time & Temp)

Ghostmaster (Ghostbusters)

Grand Master (Witch Hunter: The Invisible World)

Grey Eminence (Agone)*

Guide (Don’t Look Back)

Hand of Fate (The Secret of Zir’An)
Hazard Master (Perilous)

Hollyhock God (Nobilis)

HōLmeister (HōL)

Host (Ironclaw)

Interrogator (InTERRORgation)

Journey Master (Dangerous Journeys)

Judge (Marvel Super Heroes)

Jump Master (Jumpers)
Karma Fate Destiny Master (Refuge in Audacity)

Keeper aka Keeper of Arcane Lore (Call of Cthulhu)

Kennel Master (Woof Meow)

Labyrinth Lord (Labyrinth Lord)
Lead Narrator (Valiant Universe)

Leader (Shadows of Esteren)

Lejend Master (Lejendary Adventure)

Loremaster (The One Ring)
Maelstrom (Maelstrom Dreamers)

Magister/Magistra (Kata Kumbas)

Maim Master (F.A.T.A.L.)
The Man (Starchildren)
Market (Red Markets)

Marshall (Deadlands)
Master Creator (The Secret Fire)

Master of Ceremonies (Apocalypse World)
Mastercyb (CYB: Gioco di ruolo in un lontano futuro)

Mayor (Kobolds Ate My Baby)

Meister (Das Schwarze Auge)

Mission Director (Recon)

Moderator (Blue Planet)

Mutant Lord (Mutant Future)

Mythguide (Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth)

Mythmaster (Mythender)

Narrator (Houses of the Blooded)

Navigator (Mermaid Adventures)

Operations (Wilderness of Mirrors)
Operator (Qi: Living Energy)

Overlord (Descent)

Overseer (Catacombs)
Parser (Parsely) 

Playwright (The Play's the Thing)
Producer (Primetime Adventures)

Programmer (Engine Heart)
Project Director (Morrow Project)
Prophet (The Seventh Seal)

Puppet Master (Puppetland)
Quest Master (QuestCore)

Rattenmeister (Ratten!)
Referee (Traveller)

Runner (Rune)

Scenemaster (Non-Essential Personnel)

Seneschal (The Riddle of Steel)

Sensei (Chi-Chian RPG)
Sherpa Guide (Sherpa)

Sholari (Skyrealms of Jorune)
SIEGE Engineer (StarSIEGE)
Skeptic (Dude, Run!)

StarMaster (Space Opera)

Story Master (Dungeons the Dragoning 7th Edition)

Storyguide (CthulhuTech)

StoryHost (Enter the Shadowside) 

Storyteller (Vampire: the Requiem)
Superintendent (Panty Exposion)

Superuser (Freemarket)
Troublemaker (Flatpack)

Umpire (Lace & Steel)

War Master (Weird Wars)

Watcher (Marvel Heroic Roleplaying)

Watchtower (Smallville)
WorldMaster (Adventure Maximum)

Wulin Sage (Weapons of the Gods)**

Zargon aka Morcar (UK) (HeroQuest)

Zombie Master (All Flesh Must Be Eaten)

______________________________

*Eminence Grise in the original French

**If I were to run Weapons of the Gods, I would require that the players address me as the Wulin Sage at all times.

Others I missed?
Have a great New Year-- please, please, please be safe in this coming year. 

Gamey Dozen: Twelve New RPGs I Ran in 2016

NEW TO ME

I ran twelve new games this year. That meant learning these well enough to manage at the table. How well I succeeded remains a matter of debate. I enjoy figuring out new games and calculating the minimum I need to know to not crash & burn. As with most of my rp work I’m trying to find the path of least work. Two of these games I ran as campaigns, a couple for conventions, but most are part of The Gauntlet Podcast’s TGIT Hangouts.

For that I’ve focused on running two Thursday sessions of “new to me” games. I put priority on with a sample adventure and/or pre-gens. If I see something new & cool come out, I’ll try to get that to the virtual table (hence City of Mist and Coriolis on my list). I’ll be running this series in 2017, starting with Feng Shui 2e, Chill 3e, and 7th Sea 2e. I don’t think I’ll double the number of new games I run in the coming year, but I’m going to try.

Before the Storm

One of the Seven Wonders anthology games I reviewed earlier this year. It’s GM-less, so moderated more than GM’d it, but it counts. Since I planned to take it to Gen Con, I ran one session for my home group. That gave me perspective teaching it. I ended up running just a single session of it for Games on Demand. It’s a good game. I love the premise: a group gathered on the last night before the final battle, dealing with all of their fears and feelings. This goes in my one-shot collection. Tangent: Before the Storm uses playing cards and I had a Dragon Age pack that really fit the setting.

City of Mist

Noir Mythic Superheroes Powered by the Apocalypse. I ran two sessions of this game while it was in Kickstarter. It had an excellent and complete quickstart packet. As a result I backed the project. I’m looking forward to seeing what the final release looks like. I wrote up my thoughts on the sessions here. We recorded two actual play videos (first and second). I talked about it on Episode 77 of the Gauntlet Podcast.

Coriolis

Another Kickstarter I backed. I took the plunge for two reasons: my experience with their other game, Mutant Year Zero, and the evocative setting. Coriolis describes itself as “Arabian Nights” in space. While I am a little nervous about potential Orientalism, the production and material looks good. It feels like Fading Suns done with another cultural template (i.e. not high medieval Europe). I ran two sessions from their excellent quickstart packet. I talked about my experience on The Gauntlet Podcast Episode 81. I’ve also posted the AP videos (session one, session two). The final book’s apparently at the printer so I hope I get it in the next couple of months.

Crowsmantle

My game and my first attempt to hack PbtA. In it grown-ups return to the secret fantasy world of their youths and find it changed. I tried to get closer to the simplicity of Worlds of Dungeons with this. I don’t think it worked, in part because we had a strong genre feel that I could have exploited. I made several mistakes: the first being how I structured the campaign. I’d do it differently next time. As for the mechanics, I needed more “build-your-own” move examples or handled it as I did with The Last Fleet. There players told me talents they wanted and I wrote those up. Despite all that I’m glad I ran it.I recorded the sessions and I’ve written a longer post about it. I talked about it on Episode 58 of The Gauntlet.

Cryptomancer

One of the best surprises of the year. As with Godbound, I went in unsure and came out ordering a hard copy. Cryptomancer’s tag line- fantasy hacking- intrigued me, but I’d been burned before. Miraculously it delivered that and more. I ran two sessions which we recorded (first and second). You can see my full write-up and review here. Long story short: if you’ve seen the game and had a spark of interest, it’s worth picking up.

Legacy: Life Among the Ruins

A post-apocalyptic PbtA game aimed different play level than most games. Players have a family (with moves) and a character (who has influence/control within that family). I ran three sessions, one for the character creation and two for play. There’s a lot to like here, but I’m not sure it holds together. We found it hard to shift between levels. I’ve thought about other approaches: starting much further away with the family level, but I’m not sure how to get to scenes between players. That’s where the fun is. Still I think Legacy’s a neat game and worth checking out if you have an interest in new takes on PbtA or community-based games. You can see my write up on that here and the two AP videos here (session 1, session 2). We talked about it on Episode 72 of The Gauntlet.

Mutant: Year Zero

So good. Mid-year we wrapped a fantasy campaign using Action Cards we’d begun in early 2014. I put four new games before the group: Mutant: Year Zero, Genlab: Alpha, Urban Shadows, and The Sprawl. MYZ won, though the other three tied in points. I wasn’t sure how it would go. We moved from game of high competency to one of serious struggle and danger. The players took to it- especially the tools for developing their Ark community. We’ve just finished session seven and we have one more left in the year. I’m enjoying it and the group seems to dig it as well. I like how the metaplot is rolling out and the society has evolved. We've talked about it a couple of times on The Gauntlet. 

Mutants & Masterminds 3e

I switched over to M&M 3e from M&M 2e. I really liked 2^nd edition, but I’d knew third had made interesting changes. It has, but I’m still not entirely sold on it. Or rather I feel like I struggle with the rules from time to time. Part of it comes from the crazily complex system of conditions, each with different mechanics and names. I like to keep things moving, so tracking conditions’ effects and recovery bugs me. Don’t get me wrong, 2e had lots of conditions. But this version uses those as the key building blocks so they’re everywhere.

On the plus side M&M 3e moved to universalizing result checks and modifiers. That simplifies but butts up against the conditions. M&M 3e also shifts to a completely effects defined system (ala Champions). Previously we had a mix of effects and pre-built powers. It was messy, but made pick up and play easier. Finally in retrospect I wish I’d had players tell me what they wanted and built the characters myself. Yet despite my uncertainties with the system, I’m digging the campaign. We used tools from Microscope and Masks to develop the world and the characters. That’s helped deepen things.

Silent Legions

I’ve only run one session of this OSR-style Lovecratfian investigation game. It has a simple system, the same one powering many of Kevin Crawford’s other releases (like the amazing Godbound). Because I dug the one-page Luchadores frame at the back I’m running that. But Silent Legions isn’t just a CoC-style investigation game. Instead it’s a toolbox for creating your own Mythos -- elder gods, aliens, cults, relics, tomes-- and using them in a sandbox horror game. It isn’t a Cthulhu game, instead it gives you amazing random generators to build something that feels like one. That means players will always be uncertain about what they’re facing. They have to learn the mythos themselves. Crawford smartly gives examples and walk-throughs for using the many table sets in his book. I’ve seen other collections of tables skip this. The examples help and pull everything together. Neat game worth buying for anyone doing horror.

Threadbare

I ran several sessions of this- both at Gen Con and home. I like the “Stitchpunk” premise of toys in a strangely post-apocalyptic landscape. The demo pack’s light on the setting or digging into the implications, so I’m looking forward to the final project. I backed this on Kickstarter before I’d even read the rules. It has a neat starting scenario (“Furry Road”) that made each session distinct. I will probably run this again.

Worlds in Peril

I’d played a couple of WiP sessions in a short-lived online campaign. We had a great GM and solid players, so that colored my memories. I wanted to run it since I’d finally GM’d some PbtA games and had my KS-backer hardcover sitting on the shelf. Worlds in Peril makes all powers abstract and a function of the fiction. That means a lot of wiggle room and discretion with their use. That’s combined with a broad set of moves and a condition system. Conditions track damage and can have additional effects- again depending on the GM’s discretion. It’s looser than City of Mist’s approach to that mechanic. I had a good time running WiP, but struggled. I’m not sure if that’s style, unfamiliarity with the mechanics, or my trad supers background interfering. Regardless, if you’re looking to play “comic book” superheroes with PbtA this works. I talked about our games on Episode 79 of The Gauntlet and recorded the AP sessions for YouTube (first and second).

World Wide Wrestling

MTV launched during my formative years. I watched more of it than any other TV channel. So I saw the “Rock-and-Wrestling” era begin with Cyndi Lauper and Hulk Hogan. And I hated it. That dislike stuck with me; I’ve avoided pro-wrestling. In the last few years my attitude has softened. Matt, from my M&M campaign, has contagious enthusiasm about wrestling. Plus many comic book blogs frequently went off on WWE PPV events and happenings. I picked up World Wide Wrestling on Rich Rogers’ recommendation and told Matt about it. He asked me to run it.

I wasn’t sure, so I played in a session Nathan Paoletta ran at Origins. It hooked me immediately. Even eliminated in the first round, I had a great time with my character. I came back home and ran it online and f2f- digging every session. It’s my game of the year. I talk about that on The Gauntlet’s Best Games of 2016 episode.

What Do I Want to Run in 2017? 

A longer Coriolis game when it arrives. Godbound either online or f2f. Urban Shadows for my f2f group. Dragon Age or Cryptomancer, not sure which. Tianxia for someone, maybe just as a couple of sessions. Tales From the Loop for Sherri. More 7th Sea than just the two-shot I have scheduled. If I could figure out how to do Wrath of the Autarch, I’d consider that. I’d like to try a streamline approach to NBA, Ashen Stars and/or Mutant City Blues. They’re all good options. 

What new games did you run? What new rpgs do you want to run in 2017?

Rookie GM Mistakes

I have run some dire, dreadful sessions over the years. I suspect many didn’t crash & burn as badly as I remember. Others…well others I know did. I have been a Rookie GM and have made those classic mistakes. And when I’ve hit a system I didn’t quite grok, I’ve fallen back to being a newb even after years of play. That’s the undertow when you desperately swim in new rules. In this episode of Play on Target we talk about those classic mistakes- things we soon picked up on the fly. They’re 101 problems, but you have to learn somewhere and in some cases, like mine, relearn from time to time. I’ve made all of these mistakes…hopefully not in the same session.

Play on Target: Rookie Mistakes

Play on Target Episode Roundup

A Few More Ideas We Didn’t Hit Directly. Assume that where I say “GMs have…” I’m also saying “I have…”

1. Ask Players. I started out thinking that any screw up undercut my authority. Some of that came from early years running for players several years my senior. I dug myself deep holes. I had to contort desperately to make up for my contradictions. If you’ve forgotten a detail at the table, check with the players. You can avoid coming up with something you’ll have retcon it when it turns out you were wildly off-base.

2. Chill about Unearned Triumphs. If the players can’t figure out your clever plot, the bad guy miraculously escapes, or they get defeated by an overly potent villain, don’t gloat. Tease in situations where the players had choice and control, but came up short. Use those moment to generate excitement for the next scene/confrontation. I’ve seen new GMs arrive assuming the players are their adversaries. They hit them hard to prove who runs the show. Those unearned victories make the GM smug. Often they think their crowing pushes the players to hate the villain, when it instead encourages frustration with the GM.

3. Nod and Keep Going. The flip side is that players will gloat. Let them. Express a little regret and “I’ll get you next time” but don’t immediately hammer them down. When the players win, give them a chance to revel in that. Don’t always shatter their triumph as they relish it. Yes, you can turn the tables, but if you continually ignore or denigrate victories, you devalue them. This can be as simple as glossing past their success. I’ve also seen GMs have NPCs express disdain: treating them still like lowly folk despite their good work, refusing to acknowledge their victories, critiquing their methods. Make those moves for character reasons, rather than from frustration.

4. Bringing the Funny. I’ve seen GMs bomb running comedy games (Paranoia, Toon, etc). They try too hard. They go straight to 11. Put absurdity out there with a stony face. Play the straight person. Take it seriously. Let the players find the comedy.

5. Telegraph Success. Sometimes player actions will upset nefarious plan and operations. But that’s behind the scenes so logically they might never see the outcome. They’ve won, but don’t know it. This usually happens when you’ve got complicated plots, mysteries, and many stories juggling at once. I’ve run and played in these campaigns. The players work and work but feel like they aren’t getting anywhere. They are, but the GM isn’t telling them. Think about alternate ways to get this info to them: second-party analysts, telltale signs from abandoned locations, turncoats telling them the inside story. I really wish I’d done this many times. Instead I kept my silence when the players got angry at the table: “Little do they know they’re succeeding…” I thought. Little do they know being the operative phrase.

6. It Was Really… Here’s a related point Sam made to me: don't brag about the clues players missed, or tell them what they didn't find that would have sent the game in a different direction. Yes you’re clever, but at the table that comes off as annoying. Save that stuff for later, you may be able to reuse it.

7. Here’s Another Shopkeeper. It’s easy to get rolling and drop in NPCs just to fill a role. When you do that, there’s a risk of making your NPCs monotone. I’ve played in games where everyone had the same sneer: regarding the PCs as scum or marks to be taken advantage of. You might be selling a tone, but at the same time it isn’t interesting. Vary the color palette to make it more striking.

8. Deal With It. Sometimes things don’t go well. A session trips up, moments fall flat, the group doesn’t have it together. Don’t just go home and beat yourself up about it, don’t blame the system, don’t post angry rants about your players on Reddit. Talk to them about problems. Start with questions and get their reactions and impressions. Don’t call people out, instead try to find common ground. And if a person does turn out to be a source of friction and tension, be ready to ask them to leave. Don’t keep them around to avoid conflict if their presence makes things worse. (And it will…Christ it will…)

9. Kill Your Darlings. Sometimes the game doesn’t work. Have a conversation about it. Then, if you’re certain, put the game to bed. Don’t just stop running: BOOM. That’s hugely frustrating for players. And it’s something that will stick with you: an unfulfilled promise. If you’re unhappy, tell the players you’re going to move to a good stopping point the next session. If the players aren’t happy, ask them to give you one more session to wrap things up. Ghosting or perpetually putting off a campaign does no one good. It clogs schedules, makes people not want to trust you again, and leaves you with regrets. I have several campaigns where I wish I’d gotten one more session to finish the story (my Wuxia game, our Crux Exalted campaign, M&M Arkham Harbour, Changeling Lost Vegas). Their dangling storylines still bug me.

Play on Target: Rookie Mistakes

Play on Target Episode Roundup

If you like RPG Gaming podcasts, I hope you'll check it out. We take a focused approach- tackling a single topic each episode. You can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Google Play, or follow the podcast's page at www.playontarget.com.

Building My Middle Earth: A Project List

This post may be a little "inside baseball." I want to be better at tracking the steps of my gaming projects so I can accurately assess time budgets later. This details everything I did to prepare for our new campaign, an adaptation of our existing homebrew Action Cards. I've written this for myself, but I hope others find it interesting and/or useful. 

FROM ROKUGAN TO ENDOR

Back in December we wrapped our Legend of the Five Rings campaign. It ran for almost three years and could have continued, but we’d hit a good stopping point. That particular group’s played together for twenty years now on alternate Sundays. Several times Middle Earth came up as a campaign option. We have at least one player who loves the books and really wanted to play there. But it’s been outvoted or veto’d each time. I decided for 2016 I would run a Middle Earth campaign, lasting the full year.

I’m not a huge Lord of the Rings fan. As a kid I read The Hobbit and made it partway through The Fellowship of the Ring. But it bored me. I didn’t read the full trilogy and Simarillion until after college. I never got everything about the setting. Most of my actual understanding came from reading Middle Earth Roleplaying supplements. That offered a format I could understand, though I still had to flip back and forth between books to get a decent picture. I knew I couldn’t do an accurate Middle Earth game, but I could do one that felt like the setting.

The players agreed to the campaign and I offered them two choices. Either set between The Hobbit and LotR or the much earlier period covered by MERP. They surprised me by picking the latter. I figured they’d go for the one closer to the movies. In that case I’d have used The One Ring pretty much as is. Setting the game in the past meant figuring out another system. TOR’s cool, but incredibly connected to the period it covers and a narrow geographic range. Some players suggested MERP or Rolemaster, but I didn’t want to go down that road. MERP 2e is solid, but hard to find at a reasonable price. It’s also a little crunchy. GURPS and 13th Age also came up, but they have problems. I said I’d figure something out.

SHERRI INTERVENES

I fiddled around with ideas for many days. I knew I wanted to set it in Arthedain, but that was about it. I had four weeks over the Xmas/New Year holidays to put everything together. A few generic systems occurred to me: Savage Worlds (I’m not a fan), Fate (players hate the dice), and Cortex (would require more work figuring out). I decided I would go with Pugbuttah and started planning. I sketched out playbook ideas, tried to figure out if Dungeon World could easily be adapted, and generally mucked around.

Eventually Sherri made me sit down and explain my thinking. She listened to me spin around with my plans. As she always does, she patiently asked "why aren’t we doing it with Action Cards?” I didn’t have a great answer. I’d gotten it into my head we needed to do something other than the homebrew we’ve been playing. She grilled me about my goals for the game. Slowly she demonstrated I’d be better off and happier working with our homebrew. On these things she sees more clearly than I...

At that point we talked about the changes we’d want to make. For one, I wanted a class/ playbook approach. The players should be able to jump into a character mold and get running easily. I also wanted to try a simplified skill system. Skills had changed over the years in Action Cards. They always offered a redraw, but some versions skipped a skill list and let players simply make them up. Others had larger suggested skill rosters. In recent years we’d moved to Skills and Specialties. A skill gives you a redraw, and having an appropriate sub-specialty, nets you a second one. It added color and differentiated the PCs. But it also meant players ate up time hunting through specialties on a check. I wanted to see if the gain in simplicity matched the loss of color. With all of that in mind, Sherri and I built a seven “callings” and divided the skill list among them. Each would get three skills only they could buy the second rank of. The callings would also get unique stunts, a distinct profession skill, and a particular talent.

REWORKING THE CARDS

Each version of Action Cards forces me to think about how players assemble their decks. We’ve had two standard approaches. For longer campaigns we use “Fill In.” Players have a certain number of standard cards they write results in for, plus four blank unique cards they come up with. For shorter things we’ve done “Draft.” Players collectively draft prepared standard result cards and unique cards to fit their character conception. The former allows more tailoring and ownership, while the latter’s faster and takes pressure off the players.

I wanted to try a hybrid with our Middle Earth. On the one had, players would fill in their standard result cards. I retuned those player decks to create symmetry. Each now had eight cards to fill in, rather than 6. That means I created an equal distribution on the fixed cards. This is all foggledy-fook, I know. On the other hand, I had players draft their unique cards. Each would draft an extra good & bad unique, so they could pick which ones they wanted for each session. With that in mind I revised the set of unique cards, removing any that didn’t fit with the setting and tone. I redid card titles, so “Head in the Stars” became “Second Breakfast,” a card representing distraction. I used titles from the Lord of the Rings Trading Card game as inspiration. I also changed the fonts on the cards, which meant playing with the layout for a while. I found several Tolkien-esque fonts online.

I also reconsidered Wound cards. Currently they operate like Fate consequences, with two levels of them. That's had problems. It requires bookkeeping and PC could move them out of the deck quickly. This time each wound card reduces damage by two; players could take as many as they liked against a hit. All wound cards would be the same. But they wouldn’t clear from the deck when activated/drawn. Instead they’d require first aid, rest, or other healing to remove. I decided to make a broader category of “condition cards” with wounds as one type. Players could take up to six of these cards, but having 5 or 6 in their deck opened them up to harder GM hits/moves. Other condition cards would be Weary (from travel) and Shadow (from corruption). I made up special cards for the latter.

BUILDING THE STUNT LIST

Next I went through the Stunt list. I used the lists I created for Masks of the Empire (a fantasy game) and Sky Racers Unlimited (a dieselpunk game) as the basis. They represent my most recent thinking. I’ve been changing and cutting stunts based on their use at the table. After integrating and trimming the MotE and SRU lists I had a decent assortment and only had to revise a few names to make them fit. Since I had some new skills (Travel) I developed several new ones. I also tried to rebalance some skills. In the past Athletics had a lot of the cool stunts, while Physique seemed limited. I shifted strength/endurance stunts from the former to the latter

.

BUILDING THE CALLINGS

In parallel with creating the stunts I built the callings. We’d settled on seven:

• Animist: Either a druid/nature type or a crafter. Focused on using rituals to create things ahead of time. I took some inspiration from DFAE’s approach.
• Bard: A specialist in travel and entertainment. Doesn’t have magic, but instead access to songs with some abilities.
• Envoy: Diplomat, merchant, and spy. Knows people everywhere and has insight into political alliances and group dynamics.
• Fighter: Warrior, soldier, guardian.
• Hunter: Scout, woodsman, tracker.
• Mage: I thought hard about this. MERP gets flak for its relatively high level of magic. I think that’s reasonably true; mage-types feel more like D&D wizards there. But I wanted to have magic, and there’s reason to think magic hasn’t yet been lost in this time period. I ended up with a flexible approach: on-the-fly casting with a cost. I also established that the standard hard bargain for success with magic would be a Shadow card.
• Thief: Burglar, Con Artist, Rogue.

Each calling has a Profession Skill. Usually they will use these with their talents and common actions (Performance for Bard, Wizardry for Mage, Theft for Thief). In two cases, it didn’t make sense to have a distinct skill, so instead those ranks allow picking additional bonuses (Fighter, Hunter). I gave each calling an individual talent (like casting magic for the Mage). Next I went through the stunt list and lifted four unique stunts for each calling. Other callings could take these but at a higher cost. I tried to distribute the “always taken” stunts among those. Then I went back and made sure each base skill had at least five associated stunts. Finally I added a checklist for character creation at the end of each calling playbook as well as an example image.

ADAPTING JOURNEYS

The One Ring has a cool and detailed system for resolving Middle Earth travels. It isn’t exactly crunchy, but does has several steps and stages. It also makes a point about play in that setting: journeys offer important challenge. I’m a GM who has usually handwaved those moments in recent years. In the past I’ve relied on simple survival rolls. But I’ve rarely measured hard distance or ever done a hexcrawl. This time I wanted to give this a try.

I have the TOR pdf, so I copied the text into a document. I went through and considered how to simplify this and make the mechanics fit. Most of it came easily. I shifted some of the numbers to reduce the overall number of checks. I have failures on travel tests generating Weary cards. I think I’ve got the number and frequency right, but we’ll see in play. The One Ring uses a 1 in 12 result on a die to trigger hazard episodes. I opted to set one of the players’ unique cards (“Play the Draw”) as the trigger. That’s 1 in 24, but redraws raise that chance. Finally with the mechanics done I crafted new stunts related to the system.

ASPECTS AND KEYS

In previous Action Cards versions, I’ve stuck with the standard Fate approach: High Concept, Trouble, plus 2-3 additional aspects. Players generate those additional ones either in a phase trio or on the fly. I’ve found players either hit their high concept all the time or not at all. I’m not sure why that is. For this version I decided to have just two aspects players could build or pick during a Q&A relationship (or Fellowship) phase towards the end of character creation. They could also come up with those and even their trouble aspect on the fly if they wished. We’ll see what effect that has.

I also wanted to try out something Rich Rogers suggested. He mentioned adding Keys (from Shadow of Yesterday and Lady Blackbird) to campaigns. I decided to try that. I assembled and revised a list of Keys from those games, as well as other LB hacks I found online. In my version, you hit a standard key for 1XP or hit a major key for 3XP. Players can also buyoff a key and gain 10XP, but then have to wait a couple of sessions to take a new one. I’m starting them with a single key for the moment. That’s another factor I’ll have to track; should they have more?

FINISHING TECHNICAL DETAILS

After that I dealt with the final mechanical details. I opted to stay with diced damage in this game, given the players' familiarity with it. I tweaked the numbers, in particular increasing the spread of armor success numbers to make damage a hair more common. I also approached shields differently (just damage reduction now). I wrote up the rules for damage and condition cards, including how healing worked. Deciding on experience point costs took some time and I went back and forth on numbers. Ultimately I opted for simplicity over detail. I made stunts and skills cost the same and eliminated any X for Y cost structures. Since Action Cards decouples stunts and refresh (as opposed to Fate), I decided to try some limits. I capped Refresh at 4 and raised the cost to increase it. Players can still trade out refresh for more initial stuff. I also set the rule that players couldn’t buy a new stunt without a significant failure (i.e. “Learning Experience”) to trade in. Finally I wrote a quick reference sheet for skills and a worksheet for assigning results to cards.

SUMMING THE SETTING

I made a list of all the details I thought players would need to know at the start of the campaign. You can see that full write-up here. I tried to keep things short and tight. Ideally I don’t want to bog down in minutiae. When we play I won't to assume players have read this, but I'll direct them back to this doc for further info when I explain something. Tolkien’s trickier than something like Star Wars, especially set as far back as this game is. I needed to establish a canon baseline. I hope to have players establish facts in play and not feel constrained by the world.

With this in hand on Saturday evening, I sent everything off to be printed for Sunday’s game. Binding cost too much, so I had them three-hole punch everything.

CHARACTER SHEET

Almost done. I finally sat down to do the character sheet Sunday morning. I changed formatting a little, running the complete skill list down the right hand side of the page. I played around with the page elements, trying to give priority to those things referenced most often. In the end I opted to put weapon and armor stats at the bottom. I’m hoping that by putting it in a significant place (“check the bottom of your sheet”), players will learn to move their eye there instinctively when they look for that info.

MAPS & LIST

These last things I did on Sunday afternoon. I sketched a quick list of the character creation process and what we would do at the table. I sorted my Backstory Cards for use in the phase trio. I pulled out my big map of Middle Earth as well as some from The Lord of the Rings RPG. Finally I printed, cut, and assembled maps from some of the MERP supplements.

Actual Writing of Project Begun 12/26/15. First session 1/10/16