Principled Playing

I got Apocalypse World and Dungeon World through the Bundle of Holding back in November and since then I have been in love with them, especially the advice they provide for GM'ing games. Setting aside the idea of Fronts, which are excellent (see Sly Flourish for a nice concise article about how they could be hacked into D&D) what I'm most excited about working into the games I run are the Principles. Now for both Apocalypse World and Dungeon World, the Principles are there to tell the GM explicitly how to run the game. The game designers are pretty explicit that they think the game's other rules will run best and after running Apocalypse World on Sunday, I think in their original games they do just that. But if you take them out of their original games, they work fantastically as well focused general GM advice. Let's take the Principles of Dungeon World that I'm trying to incorporate, more or less intact, into both of my D&D Next campaigns.

Podcastery

Apparently I was tricked into podcasting... but the joke's on the Ginger Giant because I have schemes now... You can go check it out here: http://citizensmusings.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-insecurity-blanket-podcast-episode.html We discuss a recent 4E D&D game as well as the first Apocalypse World game I've had the pleasure of running.

Donjon Design: More than Just a Cellar Full of Monsters

So after a six month hiatus, I'm getting ready to dive back into running Fourth Edition D&D, albeit on a limited basis.  I'm taking over one of Citizen Ben's three D&D games for a brief spell and I'm also planning a massive weekend long mega-dungeon in celebration of the 30th anniversary of my escape from the womb...   As as I get together my notes and actually start the design process, I've started keeping a list of goals for how I want to design these two dungeons. **Note, for the purpose of this post, consider Dungeon to be synonymous with Adventure.**

(brainstorming for Iskender's Tomb)

GM Commentary: The Hydra and the Viper or Last Rest Episode 8 vs. Fading Suns Chapter Two

First, The Abyss from OGLAF (this link is SFW, but much on OGLAF is delightfully NSFW, so fair warning.)  I'd like to think the PCs in my game are like the Thaumaturge, but I suspect they'd rather be the commoners as that's the much more enjoyable path.


"Self," I thought to myself, as I am wont to, on Tuesday afternoon, "You're going to keep things moving & not going let tonight's Fading Suns become a Plot Gobbler, right?"  "Yes, other self," I told myself, and I'd like to think I succeeded.  Truth is, I've been running lots of Plot Gobbler sessions lately, where I, as GM, do a piss poor job of keeping things moving along or at least staying enjoyable and instead let the game slow to a grind of intra-party dickering and pointless NPC interactions.  While I was able to reign it in for the last Fading Suns session I ran, I'm unsure it it will be as easy when I run my next session of Reign...  Part of it is Final Fantasy NPC Syndrome and part of it is in the different Nature of the Beasts of the two games I'm running.

(as always, you'll be better served if you read my Episode summary at the Last Rest blog, though this last one was a little threadbare and not up to my usual standards)

Descent Into the Lair of the Ginger Giant or "So You're Playing D&D for the 1st Time"

You’ve gathered a party of hearty friends, packed your rations, your casks of ale, acquired strangely shaped, mystical gems and descended into the subterranean lair of the Ginger Giant.  With indecipherable sheets of parchment clutched in your hands, you find yourself before a strange goatee'd frog creature, who is goggle-eyed and drooling, clutching a dozen worn tomes, full of arcane charts, jumping from foot to foot and cackling manically “You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourselves into… bully…wug…bully…wug” in between belts of some foul smelling liquor.  Before you can figure out what is going on or what you’re supposed to do, you hear the booming voice of the Ginger Giant, “Roll… for initiative…”

For the uninitiated tabletop role playing games can be every bit as terrifying as the flavor text above, especially when joining a group that has experienced players, who sometimes are Lawful Evil jerks who treat newcomers as ignorant and in the way of the game and the story, or who use the PCs of new players as disposable cannon fodder or gullible marks, instead of taking the path of Good and mentoring new players.  It can be daunting to look at the 200+ page Player’s Handbook, not to mention the dozens of other ancillary rule-books  and to wonder just what you need to know to play the game.  Here is my take, both as an experienced player of D&D and a longtime Dungeon Master, on some tips, hints and tricks that will improve your first Dungeons and Dragons experience.   A word of caution, too, before we begin… In addition to being a seasoned player and DM, I am, of course, also a crazy person (demonstrated by the tortured structuring of this poor, mangled sentence), who, as this blog attests to, spends entirely too much time thinking about these sorts of things.  That said, I do think that keeping the things below in mind, whether you decide to follow the trail of breadcrumbs I lay down or not, will help you as you take your first steps into the nerdy abyss that is tabletop role-playing.

GM Commentary: Last Rest Episode 7: Swords and Secrets

Same disclaimer as always, go read the Summary of Reign Season One, Last Rest Episode Seven: Swords and Secrets...  You should also read the Teaser for Episode Eight:  “Down the Perimeter / Ringing the Bell…” as I'll talk about that briefly as well.

ALSO, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE TAKE MY 2-PART SURVEY ABOUT THE GAME: PART ONE and PART TWO.  It's for both players and non-players and it will help me make the game as enjoyable as I can going forward.

Introducing Guðleifr the útlegð AKA Gleb the Exile

So last Saturday was the character creation session for the new D&D game that inspired my last two character creation manifesto posts (parts 1 and 2).  As previously threatened, I made good on my promise to Citizen Ben to hijack the game, standing before the seven other players and pontificating about what I thought the party goals and game plot should be, as well as shepherding all through the character creation process.   The other players decided on the following:

• Aldous Kordam - Satyr Skald
• Alora Aluringcast - Eladrin Arcanist
• Samir Dastinky - Dwarf Slayer
• Hyrulan - Elf Sentinel
• Ichiro Katsou - Half-Elf Swordmage
• Zarach - Githzerai Avenger
• ??? - Halfling Storm Sorcerer

And I, of course, went with my plan to play Guðleifr the útlegð AKA Gleb the Exile, Goliath Barbarian.