Threading Carefully

2018-05-232018-05-25

When to say yes and when to say no

There’s a common wisdom in gaming circles with regards to running an RPG. That wisdom goes somewhere along the lines of “Never say no to something the player wants. Always say ‘yes, but…” And for most situations that works just fine. However, there’s also a few situations when saying ‘no’ is the appropriate response. And that’s what we’ll be looking at today.

In today’s post, we’ll be looking at a few situations where the traditional response is either the wrong one and why or where doing the exact opposite is more interesting for your game. So without further ado, let’s dig into it.

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2018-05-092018-05-09

I cast Feather Fall and other situational abilities

This week, we’re talking about situational abilities. D&D’s feather fall is probably the most egregious example but there are plenty of others in different games. Anima’s ki techniques had the ability to build moves that would work on a specific opponent or only at night and games like World of Darkness’ Werewolf had abilities that dealt only with specific targets (Spirits).
Other examples include characters that are highly specialized in a specific skillset (Pilots or Drivers are a good example here) or carry very specific tools (like explosives)

How do you, as a GM give these people the opportunity to shine without making that specific element of play the focus of the campaign? And how do you, as a player, make sure you actually get to use those cool spells and abilities you’ve worked so hard for to have?

That’s what we’ll be looking at today.

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2018-04-112018-04-11

Playing an NPC: The idiot

Aka, how to place your ego aside and entertain.

Imagine, your players are out on an adventure and they meet up with a stuck up NPC who gives them a hard time. The mood is a bit tense at the table and the players may struggle to get what they want from this NPC. (And according to some, unnecessarily so.) Not a few moments later, they meet up with another NPC with a similar, if not down right same, demeanor. They may have different traits, but the feel of the NPC remains the same and seems to be a reflection of the DM’s attitude towards the players. Statistically this is highly unlikely to happen in real life but oh so common while playing a pen and paper RPG with other people. And naturally may lead to your players no longer having fun.

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2018-03-282018-03-23

Non-Combat Combat

Non-combat combat. A weird combination of words, I’m sure, which is exactly why I want to talk about it today. First, let’s break down what I mean by it in the context of roleplaying games.

Combat, in roleplaying games is a remarkably common affair. A group of goblins show up, the adventurers draw their swords and axes and a few minutes later, there’s bloody corpses everywhere.

“Beardman, your turn.”
“I use cunning rethoric!”

What it also is, is a very regimented affair. The goblins show up, everyone rolls for initiative. One by one, everyone takes their turn to perform whatever actions they’re allowed and when everyone’s been, the turn rolls around again. This has a noticable effect on players, who know that when Initiative has been rolled, shit just got real. Initiative means there’s things on the line and people are going to die.

Which brings us to non-combat, which is generally safe, a little freeform and lower-takes than the life-or-death of combat.

So why not combine both?
That’s right, today we’re talking about introducing combat mechanics to ratchet up the tension in non-combat situations.

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2018-02-082018-02-09

Writing a strong Background

Aka, Let me tell you my tale…

When you see people on the street, at a glance, only a few will ever stand out from the crowd. Be it due to their mannerisms, the way they dress or just their overall feel when compared to the bland and common background.
In RPG’s, these usually turn out to be the quest givers, special contacts or even story hooks designed to stand out so that the party has a clear sense of direction.

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2018-01-312018-01-29

The heat is on

This week, I’d like to take a moment and spotlight a specific mechanic found in a roleplaying system that I’ve been running for a good few sessions now.

The system is Infinity and the mechanic I’d like to spotlight is Heat & Momentum. These two combine to turn Infinity from a fairly standard game into a tense game of give and take when it works and a bit of a stomp when it doesn’t work.

Generating Heat the traditional way: insult the city you’re in and bringing a steel folding chair. Not the subject of this post.

So if you’re interesting in learning about generating some heat, and perhaps learning about an interesting system that maybe wasn’t entirely well thought out, read on.

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2018-01-102018-01-10

Creativity at the table

Aka, How to think outside of the box and get away with it.

Consider the following. The house Reyne of Castamere royally pissed off the Lannisters. They end up fighting and the last of the Reyne retreat into their main fortress known for its subterranean systems, defenses and living areas. The fort is an absolute pain to take and could sustain them for a long time. A siege could prolong the war for far too long, being costly and an assault would likely end up with high casualties and loss for the Lannister Army. Tywin Lannister knew this and ended up deciding on a third option. Close off any and all entries/exits to the fort, leaving only a small opening for the massive amounts of water from a nearby river, which he had diverted into the fort. Flooding and killing every Reyne inside, ending the war and suffering no extra loss in the process.

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