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Friday Links for November 6, 2009

November 6, 2009 in Advice, Articles, Friday Links, Resources by Fitz | No comments

Welcome back!

Hi all!

While my own efforts have been bashed in the head with the baseball bat that is reality… I have to show the work of a few other folks whose creativity makes me realize that even if my brain has a dent, I should keep plowing on – because how can you not be inspired by these people??

  • Friday Links Banner 150x150Over at the Free RPG Blog, Rob Lang has done a review of… the Nevermeet Press website?? Yes, that’s right – he’s reviewing the website as a source of great, free, system-generic resources for roleplaying games. This has to be one of the best breakdowns of what a particular site provides that I’ve seen. Jonathan and Michael have done amazing work and Rob is just letting us all know we should pay more attention. :)
    http://thefreerpgblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/illuminate-your-tired-grey-matter-with.html
  • At Game in the Brain, Nikolas has provided a list of great free open source resources you can use to create your game materials. Everything from OpenOffice to create the textual content to GIMP for the graphics to Scribus for the desktop publishing. As someone who has been working in open source for the last 4 years or so, it brings tears of joy to see open source applications heralded outside the software industry! I’d also add FreeMind, an open source mind mapping tool, to his list as a great resource.
    http://gameinthebrain.blogspot.com/2009/11/some-open-source-tools-for-game.html
  • From The RPG Athenaeum we have a wonderful list of 100 street scenes for Medieval settlements – otherwise known as “adding crunch” to what might otherwise be a static world. I know that I will soon be leveraging any number of these simple prompts in a game to spawn some creativity when things go stagnant. Why don’t you roll 2d10 and see what you end up with? Ah… #50 “While walking past a temple, a hero is struck in the back with rotten fruit (in warmer months) or a snowball (in winter). The only person visible when the hero looks behind him is an elderly woman, ambling about nonchalantly.” Happens to me all the time!!
    http://rpgathenaeum.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/one-hundred-street-scenes-for-medieval-settlements/
  • Wimwick at Dungeon’s Master.com has some thoughts on getting players engaged. Starting with a little, tantalizing bit of information sometimes gets the imagination going into overdrive and causes players to… ask questions, get involved, and generally dive into the world and adventure to find answers to the questions that they have to answer or else go insane… :)
    http://dungeonsmaster.com/2009/11/engaging-your-players/
  • And Yax over at Dungeon Mastering has come up with 30 fiction writing tips to make us all better GMs… And, like Wimwick’s thoughts about engaging players, Yax’s #1 tip is to focus on the well crafted detail or NPC to help tell a great story. How can anybody really argue with that?? This is the first 10 tips… more are coming in the next couple of days!
    http://www.dungeonmastering.com/tools-resources/30-fiction-writing-tips-that-will-make-you-a-better-dm-part-1

Hope everybody has a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!! And if you feel like providing some feedback, take a look at my Design Question of the Week and throw your $0.02 into the mix. I’d love some more input!

–Fitz

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Friday Links for October 30, 2009

October 30, 2009 in Friday Links, Inspiration, Resources by Fitz | 4 comments

Hey all…

Yes, I’m a bit late this week. Sorry about that. First ugly cold of autumn for me and work has been keeping me busy. That didn’t stop a whole mess of people coming up with some interesting articles to keep us all thinking about gaming. :)

Friday Links Banner 150x150We’ll get the list started off this week with some Halloween-themed posts:

  • Dungeon’s Master has an awesome Zombie Survival Flowchart this week, which made my week. Definitely check it out! I started giggling as soon as I hit “Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse?” -> no -> “You wet yourself.” -> “Do you change into clean clothes?” :) Zombie Survival Flowchart
  • And from Dungeon Mastering, we have an awesome summary of all things “zombie”… You must know your enemy to combat it! And it definitely helps to follow rule #4 – “Find the Necromancer.” :) Zombie-pocalypse

A few posts about magic:

  • Tankards & Broadswords today brought up using magic actually inspired by the realms of the occult, wicca, and so on. And though I won’t be sanctioning trying to summon beings from the lower planes in real life, I have to admit to a fascination with the “rules” of magic practitioners in the real world. Great food for thought, whether your campaign is in a fantasy realm or the “real” world!Putting Some Real Magic in Your Gaming
  • At Troll and Flame, I found myself presented with an idea that I’d bounced around with Mike (our GM) a number of times. “Magic Missile” is a pretty boring spell name when you think about it. I changed it to “Finger of Death” so I could give your enemies the “finger” whenever we were in combat… The solution in the article is to NOT name the spell – but let the player name it. What a concept – easy way to get the player involved in the world by defining a part of how his character interacts with it!Magical Monday – Personalized Magic

A few posts about the RPG industry:

  • The Seven-Sided Die has an interesting article about the cost-effectiveness of POD and shipping, which I found very interesting because I’ve used Lulu for publishing Moebius Adventures Core Rules. It is definitely not cost effective for one copy, but gets more cost effective the more copies you buy.A Comment on POD and Shipping
  • LivingDice has a very interesting way of looking at the RPG business model, from The Citadel to the Beer Garden and finally to the Bazaar. Anybody involved in publishing (or trying to, like myself) RPGs should give it a look and see what they think. I know I’ll be spending some brain power on it.The Citadel, the Beer Garden, and the Bazaar
  • Another article about RPG business comes from Wondrous Imaginings by Joe the Lawyer… He contends that D&D at Wizards of the Coast might not have gone the same way it has if it had focused more on PR and customer service. It definitely makes me think that PR & customer service should be high on the priority list for any small game company or game designer. Honestly that’s a good idea in any business. :) The Role of Customer Service in a RPG Company

And finally, a scattering of posts on a variety of other topics:

  • Over at the Sea of Stars, I found a well-thought-out view of evil and why evil characters work in a campaign. It’s along the lines of my own idea that there really is no good or evil, but an individual working toward a goal. If you think it’s ok to chop off a few heads along the way, you might be evil. :) Game Theory: Moral Dilemmas – Playing Evil
  • At Abstract XP, we get a bit of a primer on the difference between plot and story. And it’s a great refresher if you haven’t considered the difference for a while (like me!).Plotting Adventures: Part One
  • Also in the vein of defining “evil”, at the World of Alidor blog we find them discussing a greedy, but not quite evil god named Yol. But what really got me thinking was the comparison of evil to a deadly virus like ebola. Sure, it can spread, but it typically kills so quickly that it dies out and becomes dormant, waiting for the next opportunity to strike. I like the analogy. :) The Good, the Bad, Gods and Spirits of Alidor
  • Critical Failure – the GURPS Podcast pointed us at a great article on the anatomy of Japanese folk monsters, with some amazing images. You have to love the Japanese for their dedication to detail, even if it’s for a mythological creature!Potential Encounters: Anatomy of Japanese Folk Monsters points you to… Anatomy of Japanese Folk Monsters
  • And lastly, in the category of “go ahead, lay some history on me” we have an amazing article on the Persian Empire from the Sea of Stars blog… This is another one I’m going to have to devour a piece at a time to milk as much as I can out of it. :) Through the Lens of History 5: The Great King

As per usual, thanks to all the writers of these great, thought provoking posts! Have a great weekend and a wonderful Halloween!

–Fitz

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Review: Open Game Table: The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs, Volume 1 Edited by Jonathan Jacobs

October 21, 2009 in Books, GMing, Inspiration, Resources, Reviews by Fitz | 4 comments

Hi all…

As my contribution to the RPG Gamer Network’s Small Press Week, here’s my review of Open Game Table: The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs, Volume 1.

small-press-weekAs a lifetime player and gamemaster of tabletop roleplaying games (RPGs), I’m constantly amazed at the amount of passion, knowledge, and depth of other members of this collective of people who play RPGs. There are players that might as well be actors with as deeply as they get immersed in their characters. There are gamemasters (GMs) who know not only the art of story construction, but how to keep campaigns alive for years by constantly changing things up.

And then there are people like me. I straddle between the two camps, or at least try to, gleaning what I can from experts on both sides of the divide. I try my hand at writing roleplaying games, playing myself, and hopefully soon starting to GM again.

So when I come across new resources such as Open Game Table: The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs, Volume 1, I am blown away by the creativity and imagination bound up within. There are countless roleplaying blogs now, and Open Game Table aims to collect some of the finest blog articles from 2008. The articles may have been dusted off, edited, and illustrated to make them shinier, but they are the same thoughts that appeared on the internet first.

Jonathan Jacobs runs a blog known as The Core Mechanic and participates in a network of roleplaying bloggers known as the RPG Bloggers Network. And it’s many of the writers from that network that grace the pages of this first volume of what I hope will be many.

Jacobs and the other editors have arranged the book into broad chapters – Play Style, Game Play, Characters & Players, Monsters & NPCs, and so on. Each chapter collects a number of articles on the broad themes for that chapter. I have to say that with the sheer number of authors, pages, articles, and words, there were bound to be a few typos here and there, but they were all extremely minor and never caused any issues.

Some of my favorite content includes:

  • “Giving the Players a Reason to Enjoy the Campaign” by Brandon Daggerhart from Turtles all the Way Down – actually ASK the players about their characters and get them involved in the campaign earlier in a more interactive way.
  • “Extreme Makeover: Tavern Edition” by Stephen Dewey from Musings of the Chatty DM – so you’ve got a ratty old tavern in your campaign… maybe it needs some atmosphere, better descriptions of the food, or a gimmick?
  • “The Adventure Funnel” by Andrew Reyes from I Waste the Buddha with my Crossbow provides a stone simple way to focus your adventure ideas and funnel them into a complete experience – including the idea, obstacles, details, assistance and rewards

This is just a sampling of the many, many great, thought-provoking articles throughout this collection. What’s exciting about this is that it’s just volume 1! The potential is here to produce volumes of this sort of content as long as people are playing roleplaying games and blogging about them.

I have to commend Jacobs and the many authors and editors for putting together such a quality product. Open Game Table: The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs, Volume 1 should be on the “want list” of all gamers, whether you’re a player, a GM, or a writer. Order your copy from Lulu today as a hardcopy or PDF or check out RPGNow.com! (Jacobs also let me know that the book was picked up by Studio2Publishing, and is now in retail distribution so you should be able to pick up a copy from your friendly local gaming shop!

–Fitz

p.s. You can also order it from Amazon:

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Friday Links for October 2, 2009

October 2, 2009 in Friday Links, News, Resources by Fitz | 1 comment

Hi all…

It’s time for another episode of the Friday Links! No, we’re not talking about golf here. We may however be talking about chain mail, perhaps a ball and chain, or just another link in the chain… Wow, it just gets worse from there.

Anyhow… Here’s the list of interesting links I found this week while perusing the ‘net…

There were many more great articles this week, but I’m sure there will be just as many next week.

Thanks to all the great article authors on all these wonderful blogs. It’s all great food for thought and my brain is always hungry. :)

Have a great weekend!

–Fitz

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Five (Plus One) Questions for Players to Answer for a Character

October 1, 2009 in Advice, Inspiration, Resources by Fitz | 3 comments

All of this discussion of finding that emotional bond with a character in a campaign brought up something I was discussing a while back with Mike (forged). There are questionnaires all over the ‘net for fleshing out a character, but that only gets you so far.

drama_masksI was reading an issue of SciFi Magazine a couple of months ago and found an interview with actor Joe Morton (Eureka, Terminator 2). He was talking about how he prepares for a role. And he said he tries to answer five basic questions when he works on any particular story.

1. Who am I?
2. Where am I going?
3. Who do I expect to meet?
4. What do I want?
5. What extent am I willing to go to get it?

These questions work just as well for characters in a roleplaying game as they do for an actor or actress in a feature film, television, or other kind of performance project.

I’ll add another question to this list also… because we as roleplayers don’t have a props department or costume designer at our beck and call.

6. What does my outward appearance tell others?

This may not help me create a character I can emotionally engage with right away, but it might help me gain some perspective before gaming. Looking at these before a session may prepare me in ways I can’t immediately see.

For example, in our current gaming group we only get together once a month or so. Answering these questions would reacquaint me with my character and what we were doing during the last session, as well as reconnecting me with my fellow PCs – all of which would hopefully get me engaged more quickly than I have been in my current campaign. I might even go so far as to write down answers to these questions at the end of a session so I might quickly refresh my memory at the beginning of the next.

What do you think? Six simple questions to help get back into the swing of things.

–Fitz

p.s. If you’re interested in some ideas to answer question #6, check out the freebie PDF that you get if you subscribe to the Moebius Adventures News – 7 Areas to Consider to Make Magic Users Unique!

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Great List of Roleplaying Websites at Dungeon Mastering…

December 6, 2007 in Resources by Fitz | No comments

Hi all…

Thought I’d post a link to this amazing list of resources over at Dungeon Mastering… The top 50 (or 52, but who’s counting) RPG websites.

It includes some of my favorites, including:

But it also includes many I hadn’t seen and will now be visiting frequently like:

Be sure to check it out!

–Fitz

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Upcoming projects…

November 28, 2007 in Books, Resources, Seeking Feedback by Fitz | No comments

Hi all…

I thought I’d post about some of the upcoming projects from Moebius Adventures in the next few months.

The big one is of course Covert Directives (CD). CD is the first world book and supplement to the Core Rules book for the Moebius Adventures Roleplaying Game. CD adds rules and setting for a modern and near-future world. Rules for firearms, bio- and genetic-engineering, vehicles, cybernetics, and so on. It’s a cool mix of James Bond meets the Bionic Woman.

We’re shooting for June 2008 for a release for Covert Directives, so keep an eye out for more information as we get closer.

Beyond that I hope to get out three small projects (50 pages or so) between now and the release of Covert Directives. These include:

  • Blue Steel – A cops and robbers application of the Core Rules book to show how modern weapons work, how to add modern backgrounds, and so on. It also will have an adventure that can be played from either side — from the side of the cops chasing the robbers or the robbers attempting to get the goods and run.
  • Touch of Magic – Adds magic and the fae to the world begun in the Core Rules along with a few new monsters to make things interesting.
  • Killer Moon – A futuristic/space-based addition to the Core Rules book that takes place on a lunar colony plagued with an alien discovered during an excavation. This will add robotics, some advanced weapons, and new alien species to keep things hopping.

So there are things on the horizon!

And as always, I’d love to hear what you think of the Core Rules book — good, bad, or indifferent. Nothing is set in stone. I’m still also working on a way to speed up and streamline character development for rapid play.

Hope you’re enjoying the run up to the end of the year!

Have a great day!

–Fitz

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Random Generators Galore

October 26, 2007 in Resources by Fitz | No comments

Hey all…

Just stumbled upon a great RPG/writing resource that lists between 25-35 different random generators for a variety of things, including, but not limited to:

  • Female names (French, Japanese)
  • Male names (French, Japanese)
  • Medieval Names
  • Trendy Names
  • Gnomish Names
  • And a variety of other name generators

And then there’s these lovely numbers:

  • Detailed Character Generator
  • Character Description Generator
  • Place Name Generator
  • City Generator
  • Chinese Restaurant Name Generator (love this one)
  • Fictional War Generation (really!)
  • Cuss-o-matic
  • Plot Twist Generator

And many others…

This lovely resource is here… Check it out! I’ll also be adding it to my resources link list…

Until next time…

–Fitz

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