Jeffrey

I am a long time RPG gamer with a heavy slant towards fantasy RPGs. I am currently running and playing Pathfinder. When I am not keeping computers running, tending chickens, playing games or out for a run, I write about RPGs. You can follow me on Twitter or see more from me at The Iron Tavern.

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Kingmaker Reflections

Pathfinder, Role Playing Games, Table Top 2 Responses »

Apr 102012

image courtesy openDemocracy at Flickr

Last week my local gaming group finished up the Kingmaker Adventure Path from Paizo. We started the campaign very near Gen Con 2010 and just finished last week. I was the GM for the campaign as it was my turn in the GM’s chair. The campaign was certainly not without its challenges, both in character and purely from the getting the group together perspective.

This was one of the longer-term campaigns our group has completed and the first Adventure Path we have completed. It was a fun campaign and I think the group had a fairly positive feel about the experience.

This post is a reflection on the campaign from the GM’s chair touching a little bit on the out of game factors to a successful long term campaign and from the in game perspective.

The Meta

As I noted above, we started this campaign right around Gen Con 2010 and just finished last week for a total of about 19 months from start to finish. During the course of play we did have a couple of extended scheduling issues.

The first was an event at home that necessitated a gap in play where I could not GM. During this time the other major GM in the group stepped up and ran us through a mini-campaign arc of Star Wars. This Kingmaker sabbatical allowed me the time from GMing to focus on the more important issue I had going on at the moment. Luckily the other GM in our group was able to keep the group with some momentum by running another game at this time frame.

The second extended break which lasted about five weeks ironically enough happened just before the finale of the sixth book. It did not have a single significant event but truly was a set of continuous scheduling difficulties between various group members. In fact for the last session we were actually short one player, but with another on vacation this week we as a group felt it best to simply continue forward rather than lose more momentum.

Despite these two scheduling issues we were still able to take the campaign to its completion. I attribute a lot of that to our group being a good set of friends who are all very patient. Each is aware that scheduling issues and other matters sometimes surface and we as a group just roll with them. That is a huge factor in the success of any long-term campaign in my opinion.

Having another GM within the group to help keep the group gaming when I had the first extended absence was also quite helpful. It helped keep the game on everyone’s schedule and keep things fun instead of simply missing session after session when I needed the sabbatical.

The Campaign

The Kingmaker campaign was a lot of fun, though not without its challenges. One of the early challenges was the small number of encounters per day aspect of Kingmaker. During exploration it was frequently the case that the players would only face a single encounter, maybe two if they had a random encounter as well. This allowed the characters to use the best of their resources in most combats as they did not have as much motivation to hold back a little. This seemed to make a lot of the encounters relatively easy. There are several mini-dungeons in the AP and those were the more fun sessions for me. The party seemed more challenged and the fights seemed more interesting.

A lot of people will say use the random encounters more to keep this one encounter per day from being an issue. That works when used occasionally, but it just didn’t feel right to repeatedly throw random encounters simply to scale up the daily challenge. I simply decided that letting the characters be heroes on a regular basis was not a major issue.

My other recommendation for GMs running Kingmaker is to read all six of them well ahead of time before running the campaign. Several people find fault with book six because it seems to come from out of nowhere. If you know what is in book six it makes it much easier to foreshadow certain events and make sure book six fits in a little better. I think this was one of my stronger points of the campaign, making sure that book six was adequately foreshadowed so it didn’t seem so out of left field. In fact book six was my favorite one to run out the whole AP. It really helped make up for the single encounter per day issue noted above.

Now one of my shortcomings for the campaign was not developing the NPCs thoroughly enough. Kingmaker is quite sandboxy and ripe for the creation of interesting and fun NPCs. I dropped the ball here and too many of my NPCs felt like cardboard cutouts. I am taking this as an opportunity to improve my GMing for the next campaign though and learning to put more time in NPC development to add that layer of depth to the campaign. So if you are running or planning to run Kingmaker, make sure you have a good method of building and creating NPCs with some depth. I think it will really add to your campaign.

The group I ran for did do the Kingdom building. Only one player really handled the Kingdom side of things and a lot of the building was done outside of our face-to-face sessions and done on the message forums we use between sessions. It worked well for us and let them build a kingdom without necessarily consuming face-to-face game time. If your group does not seem to interested in the Kingdom building portion of the AP, I would encourage you to use the Kingdom in the Background rules and not feel pressured to make your players tackle a portion of the AP they have little interest in doing.

Wrap Up

The Kingmaker was a fun time for our group. Here I have tried to outline some of things that contributed to the campaign’s success – both at and away from the game table. Several of these thoughts could easily be applied to your own long-term campaign, whether it be a published module or a home brew.

What have you found to be keys to your long-term campaign’s success? Downfalls?

Adventure Modules as Time Savers?

Role Playing Games 1 Response »

Mar 272012

Like many GMs I find myself strapped for time with responsibilities of work to put food on the table, family events and general chores that need to be done around the household. While I enjoy running games I often look for ways to save some prep time for a game and quite frequently fall to running published adventure modules as a means to save that preparation time.

My most recent campaign is in the final stages of finishing up the Kingmaker Adventure Path from Paizo for the Pathfinder RPG system. It has been a very fun campaign so far and the players have been having a good time so far.

But I have to question whether I actually saved myself time by choosing to run a published adventure path instead of just coming up with things on my own. I frequently find myself asking this question when I run published adventures usually amidst reading through the module trying to make sure I have all the plot hooks woven into the tale straight so I don’t paint myself into a corner later on in the module or adventure path.

With published modules I inevitably end up spending a fair portion of time just making sure I have all of the plot hooks straight, fully understand the NPCs in the module and watching for areas where the players might go “off track”. With published modules there is more pressure to keep the players somewhat on the path that is set out in the module or at least be thinking of them to bring them back to it if need be.

Are these published modules really saving me that much time? I am not so sure.

Even as a busy GM I think I might be able to run just as entertaining and certainly more fluid sessions just by crafting my own adventures in the beginning and then let the players decisions drive the game from there. I would likely choose some small section of an already established campaign setting, do my initial research on the region and then sketch out a few major happenings. Create a few power groups, a few noteworthy NPCs and then think of a few starter adventures to help get things going in the early sessions.

As those early session unfold the GM can get a better sense of what the players are after and adapt on the fly as the campaign unfolds to explore those areas more. The GM will still need to prep for sessions, but I often think the prep will have greater gains than simply trying to prepare a module that might not be hitting the areas the players want to focus on.

In addition I think I would be more relaxed during a session as well. I will have much less worry about describing an NPC wrong or doing something on the fly that contradicts something in the module later. In a world where the adventures are my own I will have that full control. I won’t have to worry as much about invalidating something that was pre-written later on in the module. This new found flexibility would likely allow me to adapt much better to the PCs as they do something unexpected or spend more time interacting with an NPC I had not expected.

Running a game takes work on the GMs behalf. Whether it be studying a published module or sketching out the background of an adventure you write, there is work to be done. I am beginning to think though that the work put into my own adventures and campaigns would lead to a more relaxed and enjoyable session due to the flexibility. Perhaps the next game I run will be one of my own devise instead of defaulting to a published module because I am too busy.

What do you think? Do you think published modules actually save you time? Or can you get more out of a session you prepped yourself with about the same amount of work going into it?

Drawing A Blank

Role Playing Games 2 Responses »

Mar 202012

You have a game coming up at the end of the week and your mind keeps wandering in circles, drifting off to other things and not doing what you want it to. Give you ideas for the game you need to run! Think, think and think and it just is not cooperating. You have hit that wall, the wall that good ideas do not seem to want to cross.

Maybe you have read my previous post on images as inspiration. And now you have spent an hour trolling the Internet looking at various images from many sites across the Internet. Still nothing. Not even images are providing that spark for your upcoming game and time is running out.

Let’s take a look at some other source of inspiration that can sometimes be used to spark either a small idea for an upcoming gaming session or even kick off a whole campaign.

Television

When looking for ideas there is always television. Choose your genre, watch a few shows and then adapt something from there to your game. The fun part of this is that you can choose to watch something that might be science fiction based and then adapt a core concept from that show to a fantasy genre. Or you can go the other way as well. Watch a fantasy based movie and take a concept from that and redress it as something for your futuristic science fiction game.

I have even had good luck with kid’s cartoons to come up with ideas on the fly. I actually really enjoy watching a Scooby Doo episode and taking a couple of ideas from it to adapt for a gaming session. I still have a village that was uncovered when the water from a lake disappeared that is screaming to be included in one of my games.

Drowning in Options

Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Role Playing Games 9 Responses »

Mar 062012

I have noticed a trend in my gaming habits over the many years. As a system starts to release more rules supplements I slowly begin to lose interest in that system or at the very least begin to feel overwhelmed at the number of options. With the D&D genre as an example and a touch of Pathfinder thrown in my gaming pattern highlights this trend.

The Sea Grows Deeper

I stuck with 1^st Edition D&D right up until the 2^nd Edition of Advanced D&D came out. I played that during high school and early college and then the options increased with the release of numerous “splat” books. Some of them were actually pretty fun and did offer interesting options, but as time went on the sheer number of options became overwhelming. Coupled with other life events I took a break from RPG gaming.

I came back with the release of D&D 3.5, yes, I skipped D&D 3.0. D&D 3.5 was great fun. It scratched all the right itches. I really liked the flexibility and felt like I had the tools at my disposal with the class system, skill system, skill resolution and feats. The core books provided everything I needed. I even bought into some of the Complete series of books as well, though that did signal the start of option creep to me as well. Eventually as more option books and rule supplements were released I began to lose interest with D&D 3.5 as well.

I took a much shorter break from RPGs during the awkward 3.5 to 4e phase, made even easier as the 4e rule set just did not attract me to that release. When I sought to come back to the RPG table it was with Pathfinder. At the time there was only the core rulebook and Bestiary in the Pathfinder rule system. It was great – I was back to a core set of rules, there weren’t hundreds upon hundreds of options to choose from. It felt safe and the game felt less about the rules and options and more about playing the game. I really enjoyed my early days of Pathfinder gaming.

Next the Advanced Player’s Guide was released. I also enjoyed this book, it added just the right amount of options and choices in my opinion. A very solid product offering and I easily put it in with my core release assumption of the Pathfinder System.

Now it seems Paizo has started with the unrelenting release of rule supplements with the Ultimate series of books and the even more recently announced book with 30 new prestige classes due in the upcoming year. So once again I find myself trying to stay afloat in a sea of feats, classes, options, archetypes, spells and more. And once again I find myself intrigued by other systems as my life raft to regroup and refocus.

I think there are two seats at the table to look at the amount of options, that of the player and that of the GM. Let’s take a closer look from these two seats through the Pathfinder lense.

Morality Systems and RPGs

Role Playing Games, Table Top 5 Responses »

Feb 282012

I say morality systems in the title of this article, but that may be too specific. I really mean any system within an RPG that seeks to classify NPC or other player reactions to others based on previous actions and scorings due to those actions. Morality systems seemed to be the phrase that brought the right concept to mind, but one could also say approval systems fall into the same category.

Within the past week I have read some comments on Twitter about some of the moral choices in Dragon Age the video game compared to Dragon Age the roleplaying system from Green Ronin. The GM commenting was @newbiedm and he had commented that his players were feeling the moral decisions that seem pervasive in the Dragon Age world even though there were not mechanics in the AGE system to reinforce this. Some of the comments had a feel that people would like to see a morality system within AGE to help reinforce the impact of one’s decisions along the way.

I am not sure I agree with that.

Morality Systems and Computer Games

Computer games seem to be the biggest driver to making morality systems a more common term. Games such as Fallout, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age to a degree all have some form of morality or approval system. These are obviously popular RPG style computer games and have the audience to shape a lot of people’s thoughts, sometimes spilling over to table top RPGs.

Morality systems in computer video games do make sense to me. In fact they are a great addition to the game as it can shape your game experience as you play. Your play through of the game might have several different twists than my play through just based on how I made certain decisions along the way. Computers make decisions based on 1’s and 0’s. To make these subtle shifts in game play they need a way to tally or keep track of certain decisions over the course of the game if they want to present different options later in the game. Morality systems and their likeness allow them to do this.

If I decide to let the helpless woman be accosted by the bandits on the road because I am not sure my party can help or are willing to risk helping, the computer can now track this decision and gauge my decisions on a statistical scale. It is the only real way for the game to make these customized options for me.

Gaming and Social Media

Role Playing Games, System Neutral, Technology 3 Responses »

Feb 212012

photo courtesy flickr user My Melting Brain

Social media is certainly a modern day buzzword. Despite that I wanted to take some time to pause and take a look at social media and its relationship to RPG gaming.

Social media networks seem to have permeated our lives in some form or other. For some social media is Facebook, for others Twitter and still for others the recent entry, Google+. Facebook is reportedly around 845 million users, Twitter is reportedly around 383 million users according to some sources, and Google+ has crossed 90 million users. That is a lot of people using social media in some form, it only stands to reason there are a number of RPG gamers amongst these networks.

Gone are the days of not having other gamers to connect with because of your location. Whether you live tens of miles from the nearest one traffic light town or in a bustling city, you can find gamers to communicate with on one of the major social media networks.

Facebook

Of all of the social media networks, Facebook, while the most predominant, is probably the one I use the least for gaming contacts. I am sure my experiences do not reflect everyone’s experience though, so let us take a look at what Facebook brings to the table.

Facebook is a good place to follow the gaming companies you like – whether it be Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Green Ronin or any number of other gaming companies, chances are they have a Facebook page. This can be a good way to keep up with new releases, previews and more from these companies.

Going Gridless

Role Playing Games, System Neutral 3 Responses »

Feb 142012

Image by James Bowe

Every so often I will see various forum threads or Google+ posts about people considering trying to run a Pathfinder or 3.x game without a grid or without a battlemat. Though they hear the siren’s call of playing without the battlemat, they have reservations about the move as they fear things just won’t work. Feats that were once useful will become much less so, time will be wasted trying to figure out where everyone is at and so on and so on.

I used to be of the same mindset from my early days of playing 3.x. I needed my battlemat and my minis. Then I played with a GM who didn’t feel the need to use a battlemat and I learned that the game played just fine without a battlemat. I am here to tell you that if you hear that siren’s call, don’t be so afraid to answer it.

How I Went Gridless

I used to use a battlemat for all of my 3.x games. I always had my battlemat, my minis and dry erase markers ready to go. Then I met a GM who did not believe that a battlemat was needed all the time. He tended to run a lot of combats without a battlemat anywhere in sight. Occasionally he would break one out (well, actually borrow one, I don’t think he actually owns a battlemat). These occasions were for situations with an extremely large number of combatants involved or a very unusual terrain instance.

There was another factor that made this lack of a battlemat attractive for our group and hence quite open to trying it. Our environment. We play every Thursday in our host’s living room. We have super comfortable seating with a very plush couch and a nice comfy GM’s chair. And the world’s smallest coffee table. Okay, maybe not the world’s smallest, I did see a smaller one posted to Twitter once. But small enough that getting a battlemat on there requires a little bit of finesse.

These factors led to our group trying the gridless option.

Rules, Rules, Rules

Role Playing Games, System Neutral 3 Responses »

Feb 072012

photo courtesy Daniele Muscetta

Rules. Every game has them. Some games have a lot of them, others not so much. There has always been a lot of talk about how many rules a game needs. Some prefer a lot of rules guiding every decision, others want just the bare minimum for their game. With the announcement of D&D Next there has been a resurgence in talk about rules and just how many it should have. Several of the recent conversations that have drawn my interest were whether rules are insurance against a bad DM or how rules do not protect players from bad DMs.

I think most will acknowledge that rules are needed to at least provide a common framework for a game. This framework of rules can be relatively simple for one game and work its way up to a much more complex level from there.

For me rules are there to provide a tool set for the game in question. I do not need them cover every scenario a GM is likely to encounter when running a game. I do need them to provide some guidelines on how to resolve issues the players are apt to face. These issues could be resolving combat situations, bluffing someone, trying to climb a wall or fighting off a poison. If the rules provide me some form of resolution system for these things and gives me a rough guideline for difficulty levels or appropriate target numbers I am pretty comfortable.

I readily acknowledge that rules cannot possibly provide an answer for every situation that is going to come up when my friends and I sit down to game. The books for popular games would become even more unwieldy than they are already and would still have corner cases they failed to define. Due to not being able to explicitly define every single situation one is likely to encounter I much prefer just set of guidelines. With these guidelines I now have the tools I need to apply them to any situation my players are apt to encounter.

I do not even think this necessarily boils down to a rules complex versus rules simple discussion. I tend towards the 3.x/Pathfinder rule sets these days, both of which most would agree are on the heavy side. There are numerous rules in these systems and they are on the complex side. Their combat rules are pretty well defined and it is relatively clear what one can and cannot do. The skill systems in these rule sets are also fairly complex, though for the most part they boil down to a set of guidelines for the DM to use to adjudicate skill checks that come up during the course of the game. I do not find these systems overly rigid, though they are complex frameworks.

On the other side we have lighter systems, we’ll use Dragon Age as an example. A much smaller set of rules which defines some basic encounter resolution systems. Certainly not as complex as the 3.x/Pathfinder systems, but still providing a basic framework to give a GM what they need to run a game.

I think we start running into trouble when we start asking the rules to solve problems that they simply are not suited for. One of these is trying to use the rules to protect you from a bad or abusive DM. This is not possible with rules. Gaming sessions will soon turn into a game of who can support or defend a rule’s phrasing rather than a group of people getting together to have a good time. It is as if concrete, black or white rules will protect the player from a DM’s ruling.

A bad DM is not going to be stopped by rules to maintain their power or control over the players. They can easily work within the framework of the rules to provide a less than optimal play experience. There is simply not a good way to prevent bad DMing via the rules. If you feel you need protection from the DM it might be time to find a new group.

Roleplaying games are fairly unique in the amount of interaction and unpredictable situations the party is likely to find themselves in. The dynamic nature of roleplaying games really need some trust at the table in my opinion. I want the DM to be able to make judgment calls on the fly when my character wants to try something off the wall. I do not want them to feel bound to the rules to a degree that my character can’t pull off something cool that might be flirting with the edge of the rules. Let’s work more on building trust at the table and less on trying to build a rule each and every situation one might encounter.

What do you think? Should rules provide a set of guidelines to establish a common framework at the table to play the game by or should they try to define to the letter of the law every situation?

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