Talk A Blue Streak

Over the past few months I've had the opportunity to run the Smurfs a number of times and I have some thoughts.

In order to understand some of the ideas my friends and I have for [possibly] improving play, allow me to go over some of the game's rule mechanics. The objective here is to provide a point of reference for rules discussions and not to give you all the RPG's particulars. We're just going for a 'working knowledge'. 

Effort, Smurfberries, Smurf Power, and Thorns

The game has a number of different in-game currencies.

First and perhaps foremost is Effort, with one pool of Effort points for each of your stats - Brawn, Heart, Mind, and Quick. By spending a point of Effort, a Smurf PC can reduce the Difficulty Level of an Action Roll related to the connected Stat by -1D6. If you are desperate to lift a large tree branch off your friend and the Storyteller says its Difficulty Level 3, you would normally roll 3D6 and try to get under your Brawn. However, you could spend 1 point of Brawn Effort and reduce the Difficulty to 2D6.

Smurfberries are next - PCs starting out with 1 Smurfberry and gaining one more when they use Smurf Power. They can also be awarded by the Gamemaster for particularly clever moves or great role play. My players have likened them to Bennies from Savage Worlds.

By spending a Smurfberry the player can add a one-time +1 to one of their Stats for the purpose of an Action Roll. An expenditure of three Smurfberries will return a spent point of Effort to its active pool. The Effort point can be restored to ones self or you can restore one to a fellow PC. 

This got us wondering about other possible uses for Smurfberries. We'll get back to this later.

Smurf Power is one of the most awesome and interesting elements of this system but also the one that led me to wonder if the rules regarding it need some kind of modification. 

Smurf Power begins Active at the onset of every session and becomes Inactive once used. It remains Inactive until either the Smurf PC's Player rolls all 6s - even if rolling just a single d6 (Hmm...OK) - or the session ends and the another session starts. As noted, Smurf Power always starts out as Active at the beginning of a session.

When you use your PC's Smurf Power you switch out one of the action's Difficulty Dice for a special Smurf Power Die. The number on the die doesn't matter and I am honestly not sure if you roll it or not. In the custom dice set there is a larger die with white and red Smurf symbols so I am thinking you do roll it. The important thing is that if the total roll succeeds it Critically Succeeds and if it fails it Critically Fails. 

When a player uses their PC's Smurf Power the Gamemaster gets the last of our currencies, Thorns.

Thorns are points that are given to the GM when a player/PC initiates their Smurf Power that has a few different uses. Most notably, your Storyteller can add 1D6 to the Difficulty Level of a situation, obstacle, or opponent. Another, and my favorite by far, is to activate the Advantage of a foe. Like Smurfs, enemies have a special Advantage but they require a Thorn to be spent to use them (remeber this - it's key). Finally, a Thorn can be spent to remove a piece of Equipment from play, though only if the PC fails or partially succeeds on an Action Roll using that item. The Equipment need not be destroyed permenantly but rather temporarily lost (swept down river, dropped into a ravine, snatched by a raven, etc.). 

Now for some questions, opinions, and potential houserules my friends and I thought up. Here goes...

Smurfberries and Thorns

One Smurfberry gives the PC a +1 to a Stat for the purpose of a single Action Roll. Three Smurfberries can return a point of spent Effort to themselves or to another.

What if you could spend two to give your ally a +1 and/or it costs three to regain an Effort point for yourself but only two to aid someone else? Now, in each case, imagine that when performing these actions you give the GM a Thorn.

Why? Well that partially goes into my issues with Thorns.

The Gamemaster just doesn't get enough of them. The Storyteller only receives a Thorn when a PC uses Smurf Power but what if you're playing with only two or three players/PCs for a four hour game. In that case, as I have experienced now a few times, I rarely get more than one Thorn per session. Considering the fact that Thorns are needed to activate a foe's special Advantage, well, the table doesn't see that happen much. In fact, if there are only two PCs, two Thorns is the most I could possibly have in four hours. 

Smurf Power Alternative

Smurf Power is such a cool idea; the PC gets to decide on a gamble that might earn them a Critical Success or inflict upon them a Critical Failure. I love that. The thing is, you're already expending the ability and giving the GM a Thorn. Why then do you roll it to see if you actually get the effect or not? Based on standard odds, you have a 2 in 6 chance of the Smurf Power Die coming up with a Crit (a 1 or a 6 let's say). 

Instead, my group and I have been using an alternate method:

Once a player expends their Smurf Power (going from Active to Inactive), they roll the total number of Difficulty Dice - no die switched out and no special die included - and if it succeeds it Critically Succeeds and if it fails it Critically Fails. Nice and simple, more direct, and to the point. Basically, once you use your Smurf Power it is in effect for the next roll and that's that. It seems much Smurfier this way. 

So what will I do with the special Smurf Power Crit Die when it arrives? Not sure. I am considering an option where the player can choose to include it in addition to his Difficulty Dice and count a White or Red Smurf Emblem as a Super Smurfy Crit! There's a catch though...the Storyteller gets two Thorns! *Gargamel laugh*

As far as gaining your Smurf Power back...I would say rolling all 6s makes sense but not on a 1D6 roll. For one thing, while there are certainly occasions where the player might roll a single D6 Difficulty, it's rare that I would require one. If your Smurf can reduce the Difficulty down to 1D6 they really shouldn't need to roll. The exception would be if your Smurf is especially bad at the Action in question and has a Stat of only 2 or 3.

Another reason is that there are very few things in the game that are Difficulty Level 1. Again, not none but its really uncommon and it seems odd that you'd regain something as great as Smurf Power just by performing an especially simple and easy task. 

There you have it. The focus is mainly on simplifying things and finding a way to give the GM more Thorns to work with. 

I do have one more Smurf post on my mind but not sure beyond that.

Smurf you soon!

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Barking Alien

The Month of Living Again

February is over and March is here, 'The Month of Living Again'. 

March represents, from a certain perspective, the road to renewal following the cold, dark months of Winter. The phrase itself embodies the promise of Spring and the idea that rebirth and a fresh start are on the horizon. 

What? It's the 11th already?!? F*@%!

*sigh*

I can't pinpoint the exact reason why but I am struggling to blog lately. I have a ton of thoughts and ideas on a variety of subjects but I am not enthusiastic about any of them to put them to post 

About the only gaming subject I am actively excited about is my take on the Smurfs RPG. The thing is, I am not so blinded by my personal preferences that I don't realize how niche this game is. While it may be the only thing I want to write about, I know very few of you out there have any interest in reading about it*. 

That's fine. More for me. 

Where does that leave the blog though?

Damned if I know. More likely then not you're gonna see some Smurf posts anyway as that's just what's on my mind. Maybe accompanied by the occasional usual unusual mix of Star Trek,  Ghostbusters, Supers, and Japanese TRPGs. Just know it's going to continue to be irregular for a while until I can sort out whatever this tabletop RPG malaise is that I'm experiencing. 

Fingers crossed that it passes quickly.

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Barking Alien

Our Smurf House, Is A Very, Very, Very Fine Smurf House

The view count on my 'Base' posts has been quite high but interaction (comments) low and I think the idea just isn't resonating  with my audience. 

At the same time I am pondering several game concepts that have Bases as a key element so bare with me just a bit longer. 

While I was having a conversation with other Smurfs RPG enthusiasts over Discord, I wondered how one would create a Smurf House that would either belong to or be used by multiple Smurfs.

According to the rules for Smurf House Building in the game drafts, every Smurf gets their own home and they can customize them using 'Build Points' converted from Character Points (XP) that the PCs receive. Now, what if a group of Smurf PCs wanted to have a clubhouse or similar facility that they lived in or worked in together? Using one possible 'House Rule' (get it?), I came up with Storyteller Smurf's Cottage and the adjoining Adventurers' Club House. 

The idea is that Storyteller Smurf is basically the Gamemaster in a fashion not unlike the AI of a Red Dwarf game. His Cottage is built using the standard rules for NPC Smurf Houses, resulting in the three story high mushroom home you see in the image above. However, you'll notice that attached to it in the background is a single story, much wider in diameter hmushriom capped edifice. This house is used when Storyteller hosts other Smurfs for things like storytime (Storyteller reading to his fellow little blue folk) or playing 'Adventure Games' (See below).

In my most recent Smurfs session, I opened with the PCs playing a parody of D&D with Storyteller as DM. It is implied the group comes over to play once a week. Because of this, the PCs can add elements to the Club House, with benefits usable by all (sort of - keep reading), purchased at a reduced cost.

Each item costs 1 Build Point per Smurf who receive a bonus from them -1. The -1 discount comes from it still being Storyteller Smurf's property. The number of improvements to the Club House do not get added to the Safety Rolls of the individual Smurf's involved because it isn't their home. When they make Safety Rolls - dice rolls that transport them safely back home when they're in dire straits - each returns to their own Smurf House. Only additions to your own house effect your Safety Roll.

I really like this idea but it still needs work. What if two or more Smurfs actually do live together? Do the roommates both get all the Safety Roll bonuses? Hmmm. 

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Barking Alien

All About That Base

I feel like my previous post was a little all over the place, at least by my standards. It was a sort of 'stream of consciousness' brain dump of thoughts that have been on my mind for a while now regarding Bases in TRPGs.

Thing is, I didn't really address the most important aspects of Bases:

• What is a Base in a TRPG context?
• Why have Bases/What are they for?
• What do they do and what can you do in them?
• How do you improve your Base?

What is a Base?

We'll start with a definition, this one [which purtains to a location] from Merriam-Webster:

a center or area of operations

The company has its base in London.

such as

(1) a permanent military installation, a naval base - The troops were ordered back to base.

(2) the place from which a military force draws supplies

(3) a place where military operations begin

This is a fine explanation of the term but I'd like to define it a bit further in the context of Tabletop RPGs and my own personal meaning. 

A defined area used as the center of operations for a group of RPG characters. 

The PC detectives returned to their base to analyze the clues they'd found.

In addition to giving the PCs and/or NPCs in a TRPG a place from which to organize and execute their plans and actions, Bases may contain but are not limited to:

(1) Living Quarters, a Kitchen/Galley, Lavatories, and other basic living amenities.

(2) Security systems or other technologies and ways of protecting the Base.

(3) Rooms to assist in PC tasks such as Research, Inventing, and even Skill Training. 

(4) Storage of Gear, Loot, Pets, Vehicles, etc.

Now that we have an idea of what we're talking about, let's address why we're talking about it.

Why have Bases/What are they for?

The best part of PCs having a Base [IMHO] is that they become instantly more involved, invested, and immersed in the campaign. Why? Once they have a Base, the players and their characters own a part of the world. The Base may belong to the PCs or they might be in-charge of it on behalf of a larger power but either way, a piece of the game setting basically belongs to them, it's theirs. This is huge in my experience. 

There are also practical, in-game reasons to have a Base. Players, and therefore their characters, love to make plans and having a relatively safe, central place to do so is helpful. It keeps the PCs focused, organized, and gives you the ability to create and dish out handouts more easily. What do I mean? If you want to give the players a map of the region they're heading to you can have one of them [or an NPC] lay it out on a table or tack it up on a wall. What table? What wall? The one in their Base obviously. 

When PCs get their butts handed to them by a particularly tough opponent, where do they do to lick their wounds (or ya'know receive much needed medical attention)? Their Base! This often elevates the players' moods after a big loss and increases their determination to beat the enemy the next time they're encountered. 

GM: "You all limp back to your hideout and nearly collapse as you enter the main room."

Player 1: "Damn. We got our a$$e$ kicked! Who the hell was that guy?"

Player 2: "No idea and right now I don't care. I'm going up to my room and going to bed."

Player 3: "Not yet. Let Doc check you out first. That goes for all of you. (To the GM) I'll get Doc on the phone and tell'em what happened, then I ask him to come on over ASAP. While we're waiting for him to arrive I help everybody find a comfortable spot. Player #2 is hurt the most so I'll lay him out on the counch."

Player 2: "Thanks man."

Player 4: "Hey, don't put me in the big recliner. I'd hate to get blood all over my favorite chair."

What about storage? A place to keep your stuff? PCs in many games obtain items on the regular, from looted treasures to scientific samples, and then they...what? Sell them? Leave them there? Throw them away? I mean really, what is the point of obtaining stuff with no place to put it? Sure, you could find a Magic Wand and then immediately use it until it runs out of...charges ('cause Wands run on batteries I guess)...but what if you could do something totally insane like putting it away until you needed it. 

I know, I know. I'll give you a minute. Deep breaths. You good? OK, we'll keep going.

What if you could keep ancient relics, alien technology, or heck, giant pennies and playing cards in a secure chamber in your headquarters? I'm be down with that 100%. It's not just items either. You can store your horse(s), Speeder Bikes, a Pogo Plane, or other livestock, pets, or vehicles in a Base. Assuming you have the space that is. 

What can Bases do and what can you do in them?

Aside from having a place to meet, plan, recoup, and store things, what other uses does a Base have? That depends a lot on what your Base is and what its capabilities are. Here, some specific examples are necessary to best illustrate the options available to Player Characters and their GMs. 

Think about Ghostbusters (I often do). I mentioned having a GB Headquarters in my post on creating a Franchise a while back but let's take another look at it. What does a Ghostbusters Franchise HQ have, do, and possibly need?

We know it probably has an office or at least a front desk for whomever is answering the phone, doing the accounting, and dealing with the EPA. It has an Ecto-Containment Unit used to store captured paranormal entities. It has a garage to store your Ecto-vehicle. It might also (optionally) have/need sleeping quarters, a small kitchen and place to eat, a library, and a workshop for repairing and developing gear. All useful areas that add to the Franchise's ability to do their jobs. In my kitbash homebrew version of the Ghostbusters RPG this would play into and modify your Franchise Dice. 

A Space Station or Superhero base might have Sensors to detect danger or Deflector Shields to repel enemy attacks. They might have enhanced Medical Facilities or a Computer Archive to aid on research. Bases are like really large multifunction magic items that can aid the PCs in their quest to do, um, whatever it is they do. Depending on the rule mechanics you're using the Base could provide a bonus to Skill use 

I recommend the team's Base not start out with everything they want or need. The basics sure, appropriate to the genre/setting and narrative, but leave some room for the PCs to add and customize the Base to their liking and requirements, some of which they'll discover as they adventure. 

How do you improve your Base?

Since this post is system agnostic, I am going to paint with broad strokes here.

Essentially, what the PCs' Base begins with is very much up to the GM and what would make sense for the game being played. It is possible, as noted in the previous post, to take over a site that already has a certain amount rooms and components that would be 'a given' for the such a place. For example, if a team of PC Superheroes take over the headquarters of a previous super group that's no longer around, the local may already have much of what the PCs need, requiring only that they restart the power plant and do repairs.Similarly, a Horror group may have inherited a Haunted Victorian Mansion, which will be covered in dust and cobwebs but still basically be what it had always been, a Mansion. 

It is also not uncommon for a group to be given a Base by a larger political entity or organization. They could, for example, be awarded an abandoned towert by a King or other high political power. In these instances, the location isn't necessarily owned by the PCs but rather operated by them on behalf of someone else. Perhaps Starfleet has assigned the PCs as the Captain and Command Crew of Outpost 16-Gamma, a small deep space station on the border of the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. It is theirs to run but they operate it for Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets. 

If the PCs are starting from scratch with an empty plot of land, they'll need an in-game source of income or influence that allows them to build a Base on such a site. Maybe one of the team members is a billionaire industrialist or were left the place by their uncle who mysteriously disappeared. 

Before I go off on even more of a tangent, let's assume you have your Base. Now after a big night of adventuring, crimefighting, or studying the planet below you realize you are either missing something or you figure out some things that would make your job a lot easier. 

Games that have Base Building rules as part of their DNA usually require PCs to spend Experience Points and/or Money to improve a Base. Otherwise, they may feature separate 'Building Points' used specifically for creating and modifying Bases. Another option commonly encountered is in point-based games like Champions/The Hero System, where XP that can be used as Character Points to improve your PC can be converted into Building or Creation Points at an established exchange rate (say 1 Character Point can be traded in for 5 Build Points or the like). 

A technique I use in Star Trek is to upgrade the PCs' headquarters [or starship] at the end of a series of roughly a dozen adventures (not sessions) I call a 'Season'. This works best IMO when the Player Characters work for a larger organization or power that does the upgrades for them, such as Starfleet Command in this case. It is a 'free' reward for the great job they've done but at the same time the PCs are definitely 'just doing their job'.

In the upcoming 'The Smurfs Roleplaying Game' each Smurf PC gets their very own Mushroom Cottage Smurf House [as I've mentioned a number of times before]. Experience Points in this game are, as of this writing at least, called Build Points. Players may spend these points to improve Player Characters, Equipment, and/or your Smurf House. Each single point gets you a single room/amenity, which has the dual function of doing whatever it is the feature does plus giving you a bonus to a Safety Roll. Safety Rolls are made whenever your character is incapacitated or unconscious, enabling your Smurf to suddenly awaken safe and sound in their bed in their Cottage (more on this in a future post most likely).  

I feel like I could keep talking about this subject ad infinitum. Seriously, there are so many other ideas I could put forth and I am really curious what your experiences have been with Bases. I'd also be happy to discuss Bases or answering any questions anyone might have on using this concept in your campaigns. 

Might have to do a post with some sample Bases in the near future. Something like 'The Top 5 Bases I Have Known' or some such. Hmm. 

Later Days,

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Barking Alien

All Your Base Are Belong to Us

Bases. Boy, do I love Bases.

Headquarters, Hideouts, Clubhouses, and Secret Sanctuaries, I am a huge advocate for the PCs in a tabletop RPG having somewhere to call home sweet home. One of the [albiet many] reasons the old school idea of the Murderhobo never clicked for me is that most of my heroes aren't aimless vagabonds. 

Batman has the Batcave, Captain Kirk has the Enterprise, the Fantastic Four the Baxter Building, and the Ghostbusters their Firehouse. Most heroes of Comics, Manga, Anime, TV, and film, especially those who work with a team, have a Base from which they head out to investigate problems and return to in order to analyze the clues they found, get the right gear for the job, and/or have a quick meal to keep up their stamina. 

Unfortunately, few games have great Base-Building mechanics. Those that do include a decent number of Superhero games - since that is a genre where Bases are common - and Science Fiction games of the Space Adventure variety. The latter usually appears in the form of Starship Construction but often cover both Orbital and Planetside Stations. A wonderful aspect of the Computer/Video Game 'No Man's Sky' is your character's ability to construct all sorts of cool outposts on your alien world of choice. 

And of course as I've mentioned before, the upcoming SMURFS RPG has Base Buolding rules for your very own Mushroom Cottage. Dang I like that game!

Since each system has different mechanics for handling the creation of Bases, I am going to go rules agnostic and focus on more on ideas for what you can do with the concept.

Base Assumptions

When creating a base, the key things you need to decide on are what form will it take, where is it located, and why is it there.

That last bit may seem rather obvious; after all, 'It's there because we need a base', right? Well sure, in a meta-sense, but let's get a little more creative.

What I'm really getting at is what are the Base's Origins. Before it was your group's headquarters, what was it and what purpose did it serve? It could have been nothing of note, you can even decide it was an empty plot of land bequeathed to the PCs by the local Duke as a reward for ridding the land of a monstrous beast. Perhaps it was a parking lot purchased the the team's billionaire industrialist.

It could also have been:

• An abandoned Space Station left behind by earlier interstellar explorers. 
• The former hideout of an old Supervillain. 
• A foreclosed upon Victorian House in the middle of the woods (possibly Haunted)
• An old Police Station in a rough part of town.

This little touch gives the location or the edifice itself a little more character and adds to your overall World-Building. It also opens up possibilities for adventures connected to the Base itself, likely tied to its past history 

Example: In the original Winghorn Guard campaign (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition w/ lots of House Rules), after the PCs went through the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Module, they set about clearing the place out completely and eventually converting it into a base for their team. I fleshed out a bit more of the 'Mountain's' background and the PCs were constantly finding new secrets, capabilities, and dangers within their unique, adopted HQ.

Underwater Base from No Man's Sky

The next thing I'll address is where the Base is geographically. You know what they say, 'Location, Location, Location!'. This really depends on your campaign and it's tricky to discuss this in generic terms since a Base's placement will be tied to a number of rather specific genre and setting elements. 

Consider the nature of your campaign...

Are you local heroes or criminals, mostly operating in and around a single neighborhood? Conversely, does your party protect a large city, a state, a country, or an entire planet? The Ghostbusters can easily cover New York City from their Firehouse on NYC's Lower East Side but its gonna take a while for them to drive the Ecto-1 to the outer burrows or Upstate NY. Clients might need to call one of the Franchise Offices if there a Class IV Repeating Phantom in Southern New Jersey. 

Is this a Secret Hideout like the Batcave or a publically known location like Avengers Mansion? One is underneath a remote hill some miles outside of Gotham City (a fictional city), while the other is on the Upper East Side of New York City near Central Park. This strongly effects how those using the facilities interact with other people and vice versa, from average, everyday people to their disgruntled enemies. How accessible is the Base to the public?

Cost of operating the Base might be a concern if tracking resources is part of your game. A group of 'Kids on Bikes' hanging out in an old bomb shelter would be focused on snacks, a way to generate power, etc., while a Private Detective Agency would be worried about the rent, the phone bill, and maybe paying a receptionist/secretary. Here Location matters because its a lot cheaper to maintain a Treehouse in your backyard then a fancy townhouse in London's Notting Hill or Knightsbridge. 

Seven Dwarfs' House by Seiji Yoshida

Now let's talk Form, as in 'What Form does the Base take?'. Arguably this could have been the first thing I addressed but I really wanted to put the idea of a Base having a 'past life' front and center.

As with other aspects of this subject, the Form a Base takes is highly dependent upon the milieu in which you're running or playing your game. So what general points can I make here? Well...there are some notes I can make based (no pun intended) on considerations I've made in past campaigns. 

First, when it comes to the size of the Base, one should choose a structure that is somewhat larger than you need it to be. This gives you room, in both a literal and figurative sense, to modify and expand the hideout in question. To put it another way, if you have a 3 or 4 person group of PCs, don't have them occupy a 3-4 person Base. Ideally, their HQ should have the capacity to house and support 6 members, their gear, etc. What if one of the PCs wants to add a laboratory several sessions in? What if a friend hears about your game and really wants in? I'm just saying, leave yourself a little extra space.

Second, have the Form of the Base share the same character as the PCs and the premise of the game. A grim and gritty group of rookie ne'er do wells is unlikely to operate out of a fancy locale. Give'em a place with problems - a leaky roof, right over a train station, and/or next to nosy neighbors - the objective being to reinforce the theme of their lot in life. The opposite is true as well; a government backed, top secret espionage agency should be operating out of a state-of-the-art black ops facility. Of course, if the spy agency is based in a decommissioned bomb shelter or the crooks have a luxury highrise, we know there is a story there. 

The Baxter Building, Home and Headquarters of The Fantastic Four

Marvel Comics

Also, as I've said about Starships in the past, the above is designed to give the Base its own personality. It makes the place are more direct part of the group and the campaign. 

As your game goes on, the Base will likely improve [or deteriorate] right alongside the PCs. When the team's reputation, roles, abilities, and so forth change, the Base will change as well, reflecting the state of PC party.

From Haunted Houses - Ghosts and Spectre, an Usborne Pocketbooks Publication

There is so much more I could say about Bases and may in a follow up post if there is any interest. Let me know if there is something specific you'd like me to cover. Do you and your group love Bases too? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time,

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Barking Alien

PS: Yesterday was the birthday of my dear departed friend David Cotton. Happy Birthday Dave. Miss you a ton.

Today happens to be my birthday so...Happy Birthday to me I suppose.