Ind of the Year - The Colors of Magic

On December 1st, there will be a nice bundle of small, indie itch RPGs from around the world called the Ind of the Year Bundle 2020 that includes The Colors of Magic, a little game I created.  

 

The Colors of Magic was a way to express my ideas about character-drive GMing in RPG form.  What does it do?

Strict Limits for the GM

When you create a character in The Colors of Magic, you create two beliefs and three NPCs you have a relationship with.  One is a villain on the scale of a typical campaign antagonist. When creating this villain, you also describe their lair and the sorts of beings they use as their minions.  Another is an influential ruler (can be anything from a thieves' guild leader to a queen).  The third is character you love, but where that relationship is imperfect.  

The GM then notes down all these things.  Why?  It's not just good practice:  The GM is not allowed to use any antagonists, NPCs, or settings that aren't connected to or implied by the stuff the players invented in character creation.  If the players invented a mysterious dragon, evil necromancer queen, and vampire prince, the GM is not allowed to make up a chained elder god antagonist without making it part of one of the player-created antagomists.  

The GM can still use their elder god idea, but it has to be tied to a player's antagonist, and the player's antagonist has to take precedence. Is the chained elder god the source of the necromancer queen's power?  Is the mysterious dragon the elder god, now escaped?

Beliefs are Character Growth

Characters in The Colors of Magic have two beliefs.  These support the character-driven GM approach, but I'm going to have to tell you more about the game's genre before continuing.  The Colors of Magic attempts to evoke an animated YA "cartoon wizards" fantasy, similar to Avatar, Dragon Prince, many 90s and 00s adventure cartoons, and tons of anime. YA fantasy novels are also central to the game's genre definition.  These stories tend to include a moral dimension - questions about maturity, bravery, responsibility, friendship, and trust.

Protagonist Characters (PCs) in The Colors of Magic have righteous beliefs that define the game's themes. Each belief is essentially true in the "moral physics" game world. (The Colors of Magic uses script change safety tools, so there are plenty of backstops against GMs and players using these beliefs in harmful ways.) The righteous belief expresses the game's "cartoon wizards" theme. 

If a character's righteous belief is "true friends are always there for each other" then anyone who is defined as a true friend will always be there for you, and anyone who ever lets you down is not a true friend. The GM's job is to give the PCs ample opportunities to decide who their true friends are and take risks for them.

The characters' wrongheaded beliefs define their character growth. Each character has a belief that is foolish, arrogant, cowardly, or immature. The GM's role is to push them to make mistakes and cause harm in pursuit of their wrongheaded belief, and then either admit their flaws, learn, and grow as a character or double down on their mistaken belief and fall.  Like the genre The Colors of Magic is inspired by, characters never really give up their wrongheaded belief. They are constantly tempted by it.  

If a player really believes their character has overcome their wrongheaded belief, the character arc is essentially over, though they can always take on a new one.  (I admit, I've never run a long enough campaign of The Colors of Magic that a character ever overcame their wrongheaded belief.  It seems ideal for 6-30 hour mini-campaigns, but it also works well as a one-shot.)

Zero Gamism

The Colors of Magic gets mechanics entirely out of the way.  Because the players of the game can always choose the outcome of any risk they take - never spending points or rolling dice - the GM's only ability to "challenge" the players is to challenge their characters and only their characters.  The player can decide their character succeeds without complication, succeeds with some extra benefit, succeeds with a minor complication, barely succeeds and suffers a significant complication, or suffers a serious calamity.  

Gamism is an old "Big Model" Forge-era term for the creative impulse of game challenge -- outthinking an opponent in a game.  It's often found in tactical combat games with initiative rolls, where you have to beat some monsters in combat without using too many resources or taking too much damage from them.  But it's also found in "storytelling" games about out-maneuvering dark conspirators in the court intrigues of secret vampire societies, conserving your bennies and fate points properly in pulp action RPGs, and choosing the best crew upgrade to make your scores in the dark more effective.  

Game challenge is fun, but as I was laser-focusing a game to show off character-driven GMing, I had to take it out.

Put it All Together

When you put the three aspects of The Colors of Magic together, you get to play a system that:

• Forces the GM to use settings, characters, and antagonists that the players care about, because they invented them and made them special to their character, and
• Urges GMs to stimulate the other players' creativity by challenging their characters' beliefs and relationships -- not their tactical game play skills.

You'd think it would be hard to GM The Colors of Magic and plan out adventures for it, tying in all the PCs' beliefs and relationships and stuff.  It's not!  I've included two tools to help make it a cinch.

The first tool is a printable GM Tracking Sheet - a table to write down all the PCs' magic, beliefs, and relationships in.  It's a single page, so you have everything you need to improvise right in front of you, ready at a glance.

The second is a set of three "mad lib" style fast adventure planners.  Once you've filled out the GM tracking sheet, if you're at a loss as to where to start, pick one of the fast adventure "mad libs" and fill it out.  Check out a preview of the first one!

Get the Game

Normally, The Colors of Magic is a little $3 game on itch, and you could click the link on this blog and go buy it now!  But there's a good chance you already did!  It was included in the enormous Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality in 2020. The folks who played it since getting it in that bundle gave it 4 stars, so it looks like they liked it.

If you missed out on that, you can also wait and get it as part of the Ind of the Year Bundle 2020 (opens in a new window), which will be released on itch on December 1st. (Since it's international, the launch is technically November 30th at 6pm my time, US Eastern Standard Time). 

The Ind of the Year Bundle 2020 includes dozens of indie games by creators from around the world, and the price is around 75% off the "cover price" cost of buying all the games individually.  So even if you already have The Colors of Magic, you can snag the bundle and still get a lot of cool games for a good discount.

100th Post

For my 100th post, I figured I'd do a "clip show" -- a retrospective on all 99 posts that came before.  I went back and looked at every single one.  I made sure to yellow-highlight my favorites, and I made red notes to give myself assignments to revise or rewrite old articles.

This also serves as an annotated index of the first 100 posts on this blog.

2012 (32 posts)

1. The Case for Hooks.  My first post.  It's due for a rewrite (along with Story Structure and Hooks).  I'm surprised how basic this idea is, yet how hard it is for new GMs to realize how important hooks are.
2. Sowing Hooks.  This post definitely deserves a rewrite.  It's a new idea for character creation for campaigns, where the GM asks the players to include certain hooks in their characters.  Who has what hooks doesn't matter.
3. Story Structure and Hooks.  When I revise the Case for Hooks, I ought to roll this one in.  It's about how hooks work in different campaign structures.
4. Character Driven Storylines.  This is about character backgrounds and how to make them fit. It ties into the other hook posts, and may be a good frame for them all, as a series when I revise them. 
5. The Pitch.  This is one of my favorite articles.  The campaign pitch is very important.  I have strong opinions about it.
6. Flaws: the Great World of Darkness Innovation.  Here I discuss mechanics that allow the players to choose to fail, without feeling like failures or being seen as knuckleheads.  It's very important in a role-playing game!  Inspiration and Flaws may be the greatest innovation in 5th edition D&D nobody's talking about.
7. Playtesting Next.  A session report after running a D&D Next playtest session.  I decided not to do a lot of these.
8. Spicy Character Classes.  After making a Pathfinder character, I was inspired to talk about character classes actually adding plot to the game.  I just had a talk a few weeks ago with that DM about item crafting and character class and how the two combine to create awesome plot hooks.  This post rambles too much.  I've gotten better at blog writing since then, but it may not deserve a rewrite.
9. Level One.  Exploration of the concept of "level one" in fantasy fiction and tabletop RPGs.  Actually a very entertaining article in retrospect.  It deserves a rewrite if only to clean it up and shorten it.
10. What I'm Up To.  I don't write a lot of posts like this anymore.  Good thing - I don't think anyone cares!
11. Giving Back.  Once you've done a hobby for 10 years, you should do something to mentor new people in it or advance it in some way.  Even if that's just another GM blog.
12. I Heart Metagaming. I love metagaming.  You should too.  I'm not sure this is really GM advice or just general hobby politics.  
13. Your Title.  In case you're wondering why I always say "GM" instead of "Keeper" or "Referee" or "DM" or whatever title a particular game uses.
14. Throw Me a Pitch.  I was naive enough to think I could drum up some interactive discussion in comments.  That's what twitter is for!
15. Running Social Scenes.  Ever wonder why there are skills like Diplomacy and Etiquette in RPGs?  Why do we use system in them at all?  How can you maximize the benefits of using system in them so it's not a needless intrusion?
16. VaCay.  Where I go on vacation and give you a guest post I did on another blog.  See it here.
17. Adventure Style LARP.  A basic piece on what that is.  It's one of my favorites.
18. Elysium Style LARP.  A basic piece on what that is.  It's one of my favorites.
19. Example of GMs and GNS.  In which I discuss GNS theory (Ron Edwards) from the GM's perspective.  You should be familiar with GNS theory.  It's very useful as a frame for discussing what you like in RPGs.
20. PATV on Game Theory.  This is a discussion of the Extra Credits episode on aesthetics of play and MDA.  This needs a rewrite, because of the blogger format changes.
21. Playtesting Asylum.  Another playtest report.  This for a game still in development now as I write this summary!
22. Man vs. Nature.  A discussion of using impersonal conflict in RPGs.  Pretty useful and totally deserving of a rewrite if I can think of a better way to present the idea.
23. Format.  A discussion of the logistics of running a game.  I forgot about this one.  It needs revision because of the blogger format update.
24. Food.  How do you handle food at the table?
25. Slow the Pace.  This is when I went from twice a week to once.  It was more realistic for me.  
26. Cut to the Chase.  Also about pace!  But this time, pace in your game.  "The players know what they need to do, but they see a lack of urgency from the GM as a suggestion that there is more they need to do to prepare, more that can be done here and now..."  so cut to the case!
27. Resource Management in RPGs.  This is almost a game design piece, not a game-running piece.
28. House Rules.  Look!  It's actually a listicle!  I should do a "Top 5 House Rules" post.
29. MET Revision.  A LARP post about a heavily house ruled Mind's Eye Theater game I ran once.
30. The Maltese Falcon.  I recall I had just read the book...  This article uses that story to demonstrate pacing and internal story hooks (increasing the stakes), but goes on a few tangents.  It deserves a rewrite.
31. Conceptual White Space.  This post is about how to color in the white space of your setting without actually writing a gazetteer and almanac.  I should go back to it and turn the tips at the end into some kind of listicle.
32. The Scout Motto.  Here I confess to enjoying (some kinds of) prep.

2013 (49 posts)

1. Happy New Year.  My 2013 New Year's Resolutions.  I should check back to see if I actually kept them!
2. Try Something New.  I shared some news, but mostly talked about the idea of contingency envelopes in LARP - a useful tool.
3. LARP Prep.  My manifesto on LARP prep.  You can get away running a tabletop game on improv and a 3x5 card.  You can't do that with LARP.
4. Conflict Resolution Options.  Here I outline different ways to design a conflict.  This is an earlier take on my latest post on conflict.  My ideas are evolving.
5. GMing Sim Play - Scaffolds and Boundaries.  The main idea here is what a sim scene looks like from the GM chair and how you can prep for it to make it run smoother.
6. Risk in Game Design.  I contributed my definition of risk in RPGs to a game design blog (see it here).  I still define a risk as a "consequential decision based on incomplete information."
7. World Building.  I don't feel like a lot of world building is necessary. I'm not a "no myth" GM by any stretch, but I prefer just in time design to just in case design.
8. Golden Rule Chicken.  Sometimes players try to get power beyond their own means to cope with, were it used against them.  It's one of my favorite posts.
9. Combat Resolution.  Another post in the evolution of my thinking on how to create more interesting fantasy RPG encounter-level conflicts.
10. Optional Rules.  Venting about 5th edition D&D design.  When the 5e DMG comes out, we'll see if my venting was justified.
11. Re-Blogging: Broadened Focus.  I meander around the idea of point-build games and how players rarely use skills that another PC has at a higher rating.  
12. The Fifteen Minute Workday.  I really delved into the problem of the fifteen minute workday, and suggested a lot of solutions for GMs.  Since 5th edition D&D is out now, and spell slots are back, I may need to dust this off and revise it!
13. Splitting the Party.  This is one of my favorite posts, and also one of the posts I should rewrite for clarity and readability.  
14. Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Rewards.  In which I talk about an Extra Credits episode.
15. Directly Applicable.  I used to be naive enough to think people would come on my blog and start a discussion in comments.  Ha!  One day...  one day...
16. MEM.  This is one of my favorite posts, in which I talk about using an ensemble cast of characters for horror games, so the GM can kill, maim, and drive them mad without disrupting the continuity of the story.
17. Modulating Interest.  Based on an Extra Credits episode, I discuss the different player activities used in different kinds of RPG scenes, and use the Extra Credits piece to urge GMs to change up scene types.  I need to revise this and make it one of my favorites.
18. Initiative Tents.  If you're not using these in a tactical combat RPG, you're missing out!
19. It's a Mystery!  Here I discuss three kinds of mystery story structures in RPGs. Yes, there are at least three.  The "hard way" is one of my favorite story frames and I need to write a new article to focus on it on its own.  I should also write a full article on the clue chase.
20. God Machine Chronicle System Review.  This is sadly one of the most popular links to my blog, and one of the weakest examples of my writing.  I should rewrite it.
21. Morale, Pursuit and Evasion.  In God Machine Chronicle, there's a concede option in combat (Fate does it better, FYI).  D&D used to have an "evasion" rule.  I pull some historical examples of alternate combat resolution in D&D.
22. Building Encounters Angry DM Style.  Like me, the Angry DM advocates more interesting conflicts in fantasy RPG encounters.  I discuss his excellent method.
23. The Horror-Hunter Ladder.  This is a flip term for mood and genre in your campaign.  This is one of my favorite articles, but it needs some formatting help with the new blogger layout.
24. AdSense.  I turned AdSense on in May 2013.  I haven't even made five bucks.  Should I just turn it off?
25. The Pick Two House Rule.  A house rule for XP in point-build RPG systems (like Gumshoe, World of Darkness, Cyberpunk 2020, etc.) that actually allows story perks as XP rewards without unbalancing your game!
26. The Five Minute Workday.  Links to two game designers on the problem.  Naturally the less known one with the actual statistics degree has the better analysis.
27. Hiatus.  Just FYI, because of my work, I will always have a hiatus in late June and early July.
28. Taking Advantage of Levels.  I actually like class/level systems.  Here's how to make the most of them!  This is a favorite post of mine.
29. Wandering Monsters.  I am not a fan of wandering monsters. I describe how to use your game's story to serve the same benefits as wandering monsters are supposed to provide.
30. Wandering Monsters, Addendum.  GM blogger Sly Flourish discussed wandering monsters, too.  I had to incorporate that.
31. Easily Replacing 4e Combats with Skill Challenges.  First, it's a favorite. Second, it's a useful tool.  Third, it relates to my ongoing quest to make conflicts that don't end in a pile of corpses.  Fourth, it helps you learn how to use 4e skill challenges -- something the designers failed to do.  
32. Protagonists Always Seem to Win.  This is a go-to article for me.  It describes the basic irrationality we foster in RPGs:  The goal is to help players feel like their characters are in more peril than they actually are.
33. A New Golden Age.  Are we in a new golden age of tabletop RPGs?
34. 4e Skill Challenge Example.  This is maybe my favorite article.  It's painfully missing from the 4e DMG/DMK.  It's just an example of a DM using a 4e skill challenge in play.
35. Motif.  On how to use motif in your RPGs.
36. Storytellers, Puppetmasters and Toymakers.  Storytellers are GMs whose purpose is to tell a story they have through events.  Puppetmasters are GMs whose purpose is to tell a story through villains.  Toymakers are GMs whose purpose is to tell a story through conflict.  I need to write a new take on this concept, since my short summary there is clearer than the silly quizicle I wrote.
37. Incorporating New Players - Troubleshooting.  This is basic troubleshooting for adding new players.  Basic social engineering.
38. Last Words on Next.  For a (sort of) weekly blogger, I managed to avoid talking about the 5th edition D&D playtest process too much.  
39. GM Tips from GUMSHOE. The GUMSHOE system makes a few big statements about how to run a game.  I pull them out for you.
40. Dealing with Absent Players.  A common GM problem.  How do you handle it?  This is one of my go-to articles.
41. Toymakers and Storytellers Part 2.  I ramble a little more on the idea.  
42. Social Arsonists.  This article is particularly inspiring for LARP GMs.  It's a favorite of mine.
43. Two Steps.  I like to prep, but I only prep two steps ahead, or else I risk writing material I'll never use.
44. Frame Stories.  I love frame stories.  Here's how to use them in RPGs.  It's a favorite of mine.
45. Hot Topic: The Strange Frame.  Just some musing on how to use a frame story in The Strange RPG by Monte Cook Games.
46. 4e Combat Social Conventions.  This deserves a rewrite.  These social conventions could work for any tactical RPG.  They came from my experience playing 4e at the paragon level, where combat takes a long time (that edition's greatest flaw).
47. The Unarmed Skeletons.  Two examples of how I love making the players feel like they're awesome.
48. Nights Black Agents Operation Cards.  I should probably give this a CC3.0 license.  They're useful cards for operation planning for anyone running a spy RPG.
49. Theater of the Mind Action.  Some tips on running action in the "Theater of the Mind."  The key: No "gotchas."

2014 (19 posts, counting this one!)

1. Designing Elysium Style LARPs.  This is the conclusion of my thinking on Elysium style LARP.  If you're going to run a "competitive" LARP, read this.
2. Level Up.  This is one of my favorite go-to articles.  So many fantasy RPG GMs have questions about XP and leveling, and this lays out common methods they may not be familiar with.
3. Death and Resurrection Table.  This needs to be updated with D&D 5th Edition!  The Basic Rules that were released last week cover the death and resurrection rules.
4. Calibrating CR.  I'm not sure any GM is actually going to ever use this tool.  It's designed to help Pathfinder GMs calibrate the CR system for the level of optimization of their players' characters.
5. Dungeons.  One of my favorite articles, because it digs deep into how to write a dungeon, the staple story frame for the world's most popular tabletop RPGs.  
6. The Hex Crawl.  Not only is this one of my favorite articles, it's also got a pretty cool short campaign or long adventure baked into it!
7. Distributed Processing.  How to choose a game system based on your group's level of enthusiasm for system mastery, and why this is important.
8. Plans are Worthless but Planning is Everything. My philosophy on prep, and an example of a day-long session I've prepped.
9. My Vampires.  I'm running Night's Black Agents, and wanted to show what that game looks like, from the GM side.  Seriously, read the GM advice section in that book.  It's fantastic.
10. Thieves' Guilds.  I responded to another blog about Thieves' Guilds, but I used the opportunity to demonstrate the importance of defining mood and genre in your campaign.
11. Magic Beans.  This is an article about campaign design, laying down undefined hooks (magic beans), recording them for future use, and then using them later.
12. Example Adventure Style LARP Session Agenda.  This is part of my series on running a LARP; I'm a huge fan of Adventure Style LARP, done well.  
13. Puzzles.  I wrote this for myself, to help get inspiration for writing puzzles in fantasy RPGs.  It defines and classifies puzzles in RPGs.
14. 5 Things to do your First Session as a GM.  My first attempt at a listicle.  It's good!
15. Storium.  A stub post about the online play-by-post game engine.
16. My GM Credo.  How I see my role as a GM as that of a facilitator.
17. Pathfinder Types and Select Subtypes.  A printable resource sheet listing the types and some subtypes for Pathfinder monsters to speed up play with spellcasters.
18. Conflict is a Stretch.  How to write encounter-level conflict so it's more interesting than a simple kill-or-be-killed battle.
19. 100th Post.  This one!

Some stats!

Pageviews all time history... Top 3 posts... 1. God Machine Chronicle System Review 2. The Hex Crawl 3. 4e Skill Challenge Example After google, most of my hits come from Facebook and Twitter.  Almost half of you use Chrome.  Most of you are from the US.

23,133

My GM Credo

Some months ago, The Angry DM suggested that GMs should write down their GM credo.  This was an attempt to urge GMs to become more self-aware.  As I am a big fan of self-reflection and self-improvement, I strongly support his idea.

See Angry's original GM Credo post.

Here is my personal GM credo.  Like my article on prep, this is about me, not advice for how you should run your game.  This is how I run a game.  You might have a different credo.

My credo is based on my personal vision of the GM as a facilitator.  First, the GM has to sell the game concept to the players.  After the players have bought into the campaign and adventure premise, the GM becomes their facilitator.

Notice that rule #1 is very important.  It's rule #1 for a reason.  If I want to run a particular game, I have to sell it first.  I have to be transparent, descriptive, and clear in the pitch.  Railroading only happens when the GM forces the players toward an objective they do not share, so if I get everyone to buy into my pitch, then unless I lose sight of my own vision, I'm not likely to railroad the players.

Here are the rules, in short form.  They are written as instructions in the imperative tense for my own use as a GM.  They tell me to do things.

1. Attain group buy-in to the premise
2. Strengthen the group’s consensus of the game’s shared objectives
3. Listen and respond to the players
4. Create the challenges of the story from the highlighted player-suggested ideas
5. Facilitate inclusion
6. Decide when to use the game rules
7. End scenes that suck

I know what these shorthand instructions mean, but you're not me.  Here's some more explanation of each one.  

1. Attain group buy-in to the premise

I must attain group buy-in to the premise and objectives (story hooks and artistic objectives like genre, theme and mood) of the campaign and each major chapter (or adventure, scenario, or module) of the campaign.  This will be referred to as shared objectives.

2. Strengthen the group’s consensus of the game’s shared objectives

I must promote, maintain, and strengthen the group’s consensus of the game’s shared objectives over the course of the game.  I will help the group come to consensus and resolve out-of-character disagreement over how to apply their shared objectives to the problems they encounter in the game.  I will promote in-character discussion of how to resolve the problems the PCs encounter in the game, so that the players can explore different ways to resolve them in terms of their characters’ abilities, hooks and personalities.  If the group’s shared objectives evolve and change over time, I will have a frank, out-of-character discussion with the players and achieve consensus on the new shared objectives.

3. Listen and respond to the players

I will listen and respond to the players, repeating, asking for elaboration on, and emphasizing the ideas and plans they come up with that best underscore the group’s shared objectives.  I will remind the players to propose actions that would take the story in directions that they would enjoy playing, not just what their character would do.  

4. Create the challenges of the story from the highlighted player-suggested ideas

I will create the challenges of the story from the highlighted player-suggested ideas.  The challenges include the obstacles to achieving the PCs’ plans and the actions of the antagonists.  In a way, the players decide who, what, when, where and how, and the shared objectives establish guidelines for me to offer them a reason why.  Example:  The players decide to go seeking a lost golden dragon egg.  I decide that the egg is in a hidden temple in some remote, ancient ruins guarded by evil cultists who are trying to corrupt it.  Later, they decide to sneak into the temple.  I decide to present stealth challenges and temptations to risk being noticed along the way.  Later they decide to banter with the evil high priest with swords drawn, so I should banter back instead of end the banter prematurely by having him try to get the drop on them.

5. Facilitate inclusion

I have a responsibility to, and therefore must facilitate inclusion.  I must design situations in the game that allow all the players to participate at the level they want to, to the best of the GM’s ability.  Where a conflict arises, such as a lot of players who want a lot of spotlight time, the GM will design situations in the game that equitably balance the players’ desires.  I will ask players to step up or step back to include more introverted/shy/anxious players.  Another definition of inclusion is awareness of privilege and sensitivities.  I will keep the game from wandering into areas that could be awkward or uncomfortable for players.  I won't tolerate any form of gatekeeping.

6. Decide when to use the game rules

I will decide when to use the game rules. If the rules of the game produce fair and transparent outcomes, I will use them to add drama to the situation.  If the rules bog the situation down (and the situation is not supposed to feel bogged down), I should chuck the rules and allow the players to resolve the situation.  Fudging die rolls is OK, as long as it’s not done in secret.  I should feel free to announce a die roll result, then explain why I want to fudge it.  If the players don’t care, then I can do so.  I should also be OK with players objecting to die rolls and asking for the result to be fudged.  

7. End scenes that suck

I will end scenes that suck.  If a combat or skill scene is dragging; if the players are locked in “analysis paralysis”; if some of the players – myself included – are not having fun, I will end the scene as soon as I realize this and skip as much action as necessary to get to a scene that might be more fun.  If some players object, see rule 2, but also see rule 5.  If all the players object, see rule 3 and 4.  If the system doesn’t allow it, see rule 6.  As for which scene to move on to, see rule 4.

Disclaimer:  These are living ideas.  This is a document that will always be a rough draft.  If your credo differs from mine, it doesn't necessarily mean we disagree.

My Vampires

I've talked about running Night's Black Agents before.  I love the game because it encourages me to wiki-dive for hours about ancient legends and mythology, occult practices and organizations, international organized crime, spies and tricks of tradecraft.  Just thinking about the setting and characters is a lot of fun.

If you're are curious about this game, you should know that there aren't stats for vampires per se.  You, the "director" (which is a pretty good name for the GM of an action thriller game), get to make up your own vampires.  That means the legend, the mythos, the facts about them, their supernatural ecology, their stats, etc.  You do this with a little input from the players - what they would like to see, and what they would rather not see.  But you keep it a mystery from them.  Night's Black Agents uses GUMSHOE, a system built for investigation, so it focuses on tools to create a strong discovery aesthetic.  That means your players are not empowered to direct the narrative.  What are they empowered to do then?  In GUMSHOE, they are empowered to find clues - GUMSHOE characters cannot fail to find clues that move the story forward.

So you build a huge secret mythos for your vampires, and then a huge conspiracy that the vampire master is at the head of.  The players spend the campaign looking for clues to unravel the conspiracy, foil the vampires' fiendish plots, learn how to destroy them, and then do so.  But it's not just following from one clue to the next -- anytime the players want to learn something, they can set about to learn it, at which point you, the GM, have to either give them the information they want or give them a clue to how to find the information they want.

Anyway, here's what my vampires and my conspiracy look like.

(If you're one of my Night's Black Agents players, don't look at these!)

This is what my vampires are like.  I left out the game mechanics and stats and focused just on a brief overview.  I also left out a lot of the results of my wikidiving.  You can do that on your own!

This is what the conspiracy looks like, just in Marseilles.  I don't think my players would be surprised to hear that it goes way deeper than just one city.

Plans are Worthless but Planning is Everything

As a GM I love to prep.  This isn't because I like to "tell a story" - I like to build toys and see how my players play with them.  I'm 75% toymaker / 25% storyteller.  I've talked about my prep process a little before.  I build a session in detail, but I never plan in significant detail more than two steps ahead.  That lets me throw everything out if my players go in an unexpected direction.

The title is a quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower, from the 50s.  He knew that no plan survived contact with the enemy, but he also knew the value of planning.  Planning creates movable pieces that can be rearranged to respond to unexpected events.  It fills in rough areas so that you have details thought through when they come up.  While you may still need to improvise in many places despite your plan, it will help there, too.  It makes sense:  If I spend an hour learning about carrots, I know a lot about carrots, but a little about root vegetables, gardening, vegetable farming, nutrition, supermarket supply chains, cooking, cell biology, etc.

WARNING!  SPOILER ALERT!  My Eberron players should not read any further!

What's in the file at the bottom of this post?

Today's post is my prep notes for an upcoming Eberron game.  This is for a long (12 hour) session, and may resolve in less than the full time, but I have other material prepared (not included) in case that happens.

This is Not Advice!

Most of the time on this blog, I give general advice that's good for any GM running the type of game I'm talking about that week.  This week, I'm not.  Not every GM is a "prep GM" like me.  I wouldn't say "there is no wrong way" to run a game.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have this blog, right?  I know there are wrong ways to run a game, because I've done almost all of them.  But there are a lot of right ways.

I'm also not saying "if you prep a lot, you'll do fine."  You can prep well, and you can prep poorly.  If you write a scenario that says stuff like "the PCs will do this and that," you may be railroading, or at least making too many assumptions.

Not prepping, or prepping very little, can also be done well or poorly.  There are lazy dungeon masters and then there are lazy dungeon masters. Sly Flourish doesn't advocate being lackadasical, he just wants to cut out the prep that you don't technically have to do, if you don't want to, so you can focus on the parts you like best.  If you like to prep, like me, Sly Flourish's advice is still good at helping you more efficient.

My prep notes attached here make the assumption that the PCs will follow the hook.  But this is dozens of hours into the campaign, and it's a hook they've set themselves:  They're the ones who sought an artificer to have Aric Blacktree's doomsday device analyzed, so presumably they will follow up and investigate the supposedly-sealed lab where the artificer says it must have been made.  I don't make assumptions about how they will get to the lab.  Encounter 1 is just a framework for a skill challenge, not the actual details.  It contains the DCs and success/failure check boxes, and some skill choices if the PCs choose stealth.  But they could try other tactics, and I can use that page to crib a skill challenge for any strategy they choose, from bribery to slipping in during a party to digging up from the Cogs.

More non-assumptions:  These notes have 6 combat encounters, but 3 have alternate non-combat resolution options, and 3 are totally avoidable -- After the first encounter (unavoidable action scene to get the pace up) the PCs can choose to go to LABORATORY or STORAGE.  They know the plot is in the lab, but being PCs, they will probably want to go loot the storage area.  I just have a feeling...

Some Ideas You'll See

Also, I like having ways to end a combat other than just killing everyone.  This is part of why I try to make around half of my encounters have built-in options for avoiding them with skill checks, and I try to mix roleplay and skill scenes in for variety.

• Encounter 1 is a very open skill challenge.  My players like planning and executing "runs" in the old Cyberpunk 2020 / Shadowrun style, and this will probably entertain them for an hour.
• Encounter 2 must end with the PCs destroying the sentinel automata
• Encounter 3 can be avoided or prevented by bypassing the traps; but if it is triggered, it must end with the PCs destroying the guardian golems and escaping the traps
• Encounter 4 can be avoided or prevented with a mystical challenge; but if it is triggered, it must end with the PCs destroying the wraith figments
• Encounter 5 can be avoided; but if the PCs go in that room, they must fight to the death because the trap haunts will try to possess them and make them kill each other.
• Encounter 7 can be prevented with a tense social challenge; but if triggered, the PCs can fight the warforged to a rout and chase them off or force them to surrender; or they can knock them all out and tie them up.
• Encounter 8's opponents have different goals:  Hammerhand is trying to defeat the PCs, and he and the two berserk warforged must be killed or knocked out; while Beryl d'Cannith is trying to flee.
• Encounter 9 is actually a live-action roleplay scene.  The rules don't get involved at all, and it uses an unusual GM technique.  

Encounter 9 is not something they teach you in the Dungeon Master's Guide.  I've said it before:  LARP is a crucible of GM skills.  Encounter 9 is an example of a technique I picked up from a LARP, brought into other LARPs I ran or played in (by talking to their GMs), and imported into tabletop gaming a long time ago.  It's also a great example of a situation where heavy prep can be superior to improv (the opposite is also true: Improv can be superior to heavy prep in some situations).

The idea is that if one PC is getting a roleplay scene (or a few of the PCs), but the others aren't present, and you can predict this, you can design the scene so that there are exactly as many NPCs as players whose characters are not in the scene.  Then you can write NPC bluesheets to give the players of absent characters.  In LARP - especially adventure style LARP - this is a great technique because it involves more players in a scene, and if you are running a scene with more NPCs than GMs, you need people to play them anyway (otherwise you're running a tabletop game at a LARP, which I generally oppose).  NPC bluesheets are hard to write.  In one side of one page of well organized, large font text with lots of white space, NPC bluesheets have to instruct the players who get them who they are, what they should try to accomplish in the scene, and how they should make it resolve.  The bluesheets need to be continuity checked -- that means you write them, then make sure they cross-reference each other correctly, their goals are in just enough conflict, the PC's role is clear, and they know how the scene should start and end.

So showing my prep process is a very self-conscious task.  Attached are my notes for this session.  I claim no ownership of trademarks or copyrights of stat blocks or rules or images or anything (I sometimes use art in here, and I pull stats from the compendium).  This is just for educational purposes, to show you what I do to prep.

Click here to see it. (PDF, served from box.net)

Self-conscious disclaimer:  This is NOT meant to be published or printed.  It hasn't been copy edited.  There are probably tons of typos and sentence fragments, awkward sentences, and occasional inconsistencies.  It hasn't been playtested or even run once.  

The Unarmed Skeletons

The room was full of bones, the remains pulled from four huge mass graves.  The previous grave robbers had taken anything of value, leaving bones, rusting weapons, and rusting armor.

"Let's take all the left femurs,"

"That would work, but it would take hours.  There are hundreds.  The tomb raiders left all the bones, but took most of the weapons and armor."

"There are weapons in there too?"

"You see a few dozen scimitars and other blades."

"We take them and pile them up outside the room.  That shouldn't take long."

"No, maybe five, ten minutes tops."

...

When the negative energy burst came and the skeletons rose, our heroes were ready for them.  And the skeletons were unarmed!

"The skeleton attacks, with its claws.  Because it doesn't have its scimitar.  12 vs. AC probably misses.  It looks resentful."

...

Eventually I had a player ask why I was so mad about them taking the scimitars.  I had to explain I wasn't!  I was just roleplaying the skeletons' frustration at finding themselves unarmed as they desperately tried to kill what they perceived as grave robbers.

I love to show the players the bad guys' feeling cocky or triumphant or proud, but I also love to show the players when the bad guys are feeling scared, disheartened, or frustrated.

What happened here is that the players were kicking the disarmed skeletons' asses and they assumed that I as the DM would feel frustrated.  So when I acted for the skeletons, some of them thought it was me.

I should make a point to make sure my players know it doesn't bother me if the monsters are losing.  On the other side of that coin, though, it doesn't bother me if the monsters TPK unless it's because of a bad rules call or house rule I made.

The best way I can communicate this to my players is the Beholder Story.

So in a certain module I ran, there is a boss fight against a Beholder.  This guy is a deadly threat that should at least threaten to kill a PC or two.  It's also an epic fight where lots of off turn attacks fly both from and toward the Beholder as it shoots eye rays on every PC's turn that starts even remotely close to it.

They evicted it from reality temporarily, then stun-locked it for the entire fight.  It failed four saves in a row.  I was tempted to fudge one of those, but I didn't.  They kept it locked down and hacked it to pieces.  It was a much easier fight, but you know what?

They were so thrilled!  Every round it failed the save they were out of their chairs with glee!  That's what I want for my players.  That's why my skeletons were acting SO FRUSTRATED every time they missed!

I just have to make sure the players know it's not personal.  It's me trying to show how awesome they are.

AdSense

FYI:  I've applied to include Google AdSense ads on this site.  I'll limit the ads and make them inconspicuous colors etc. -- as much as possible.  If they clutter the layout too badly on PC, mobile or tablet screens, I'll remove them.  If AdSense is a pain in the butt to use, I'll stop using it.  If my friends all start going broke because they're buying stuff from ads on my little gaming blog, I'll stop using it.  Heh.

Anyway...  Why add ads?  Well, I thought "why not?"  I mean, if they don't hurt the site, so what?  I could make enough money to buy a pack of gum every few months or so.  I expect that this little blog may get 10,000 pageviews by its first birthday.  That's not a lot, but if 1% of the views leads to an ad click, and I get 20 cents a click, it's a case of good beer, right?

Anyway, don't feel obligated to click the ads if they're not genuinely interesting to you.

Happy New Year

Happy new year, readers!

I realize I missed last Friday.  I was playing stay at home dad during holiday week, so you get a Wednesday post this week instead.  I think everyone who runs a game should have New Years Resolutions for their GMing.  New Years is about saying goodbye to the old and hello to the new, so my resolutions are based on those concepts.  Here are mine:  Two endings, some continuation, and a beginning!

1) This is hardly a resolution, as I would probably be strung up for failing to do it:  I will finish up the half-decade-long D&D 3.5 campaign I've been running in a way that satisfies the players.  Then never run 3.x again except maybe guest GMing or one-shots.  The labor involved in designing encounters took too much time, and as levels increased I spent a greater proportion of my time on combat not because there was more combat, but because prepping it took longer and longer.  The second last encounter sitting in my dropbox is 14 pages long, not counting the terrain (6 pages of printed map).  The players in this campaign are great.  The characters and stories have been spectacular.  And the system was actually really good up to around level 6 or 7.  

2) Conclude the story arc for my Vampire LARP character (it's an 80s game; ask me about it in comments below!).  I can see where it may end, and I will leap down that path when it comes.  If it doesn't come by the end of the year, I will retire him and then decide if I want to make a new character or not (and just NPC until the chronicle ends).

3) Continue, continue, continue!  I will continue trying new games.  Exposure to new systems is key to staying up to date as a gamer; and exposure to new GMs is key to your success as a GM.  Also, I will continue and probably complete the long format Madness at Gardmore Abbey runthrough I've started.  Finally, I will continue playing all the tabletop games I'm playing.  Specifically, I resolve to keep better notes in them.  Now I have an iPad, I will try to type up session notes and email them to the other players or keep them in OneNote if I don't feel like tidying them up.

4) Begin, begin, begin!  I will begin playing a new world of darkness LARP, run by people I know and trust to put on a good show, though they're new to some LARP logistics.  But part of citizenship in a community is helping, and while I don't think I will contribute anything to their story (they totally have that covered!) I may be able to help them with logistics, if they want.  I will also begin playing the Pathfinder game that follows after my 3.5 game ends, and I have put a lot of effort into making sure my character fits the GM's idea of the game's themes and direction, and will be mechanically fun to play.  Finally I will start another long-format all-day-long 4e D&D game, with different players, is I can convince my wife to let me out of kid responsibilities for a Saturday every other month.

 Do you have any New Years gaming resolutions?  Commit to them publicly here!

What I'm Up To

I suppose I should take a moment and explain what games I'm currently running and playing.  That way, if you're following my blog, you can use that for some perspective.  We all come with biases, after all.