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Pre-made Art for Independent Publishers

August 16, 2010 in Resources by Fitz | 1 comment

Welcome back!

Let me start out by saying that I am definitely not an artist. My artistic skills peaked when I was 12 or 13 and have had plenty of time to regress since then. But I understand the importance of artwork in roleplaying materials. Text by itself, even when you play with layouts, fonts, and lines – simply isn’t sexy enough. You have to add a few splashes of art to break up the monotony of line after line of rolling text.

Now, when I published the Moebius Adventures Core Rules book a couple of years ago, I used a combination of pieces. I contracted out the cover, redo my logo, and a few black and white pieces from Jason Adams (Rogue-Artist.com). Jason did an awesome job and if I ever get the oomph to put out another book, I’ll have him do more art and another cover. His prices were extremely reasonable and he worked with me to get things just right. I couldn’t have asked for more.

The other place I used may surprise you. I have a subscription to Clipart.com. They literally have millions of pieces of art available, including some great black and white shots of castles, knights, priests, and so on. My subscription also comes in handy when I design the occasional t-shirt to sell at my CafePress store or whatnot.

But beyond that, many artists have come forward and started producing commercial-use collections available at places like RPGNow.com.

Sade is one of the independent artists providing collections for use and has nearly 200 in RPGNow.com as of today. And she provides a ton of options – everything from computer-generated art to black-and white and inked pieces – from dragons to steampunk, weapons to templates, even cards for treasure and paper minis. Prices are great too – everything from $0.50 to bundles going for as little as $9 or as much as $65.50. Her Templates collection provides a ton of amazing stuff that an enterprising publisher could use out of the box to make an outstanding book. And her many collections of weapons are simply amazing.

Other companies – from Action RPG Counters to Ye Olde School Stock Art provide an amazing array of bits and pieces that could be used. Everything from fillers to amazingly detailed pieces and even cover art is available.

So if you’re thinking of publishing a book and you (like me) are not an artist, don’t fret. There are lots of available options that are available now. There are some amazing artists out there who will work with you to get you exactly what you want, but there are also some collections of stock art that might be right up your alley. Make sure you look around, check out the licenses for these beasties, and look for something that will work for you.

–Fitz

Where do you find art for your games?

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RPG Blog Carnival: Teaching the Game…

August 9, 2010 in Articles by Fitz | 2 comments

In 1982, when I was just starting the 7th grade, I met up with a group of people who were playing Dungeons and Dragons. We played a lot over the next few years. And there were few boundaries.

We took on Tiamat, the Queen of Dragons, and killed her just to take her loot. Yes, so we might have been a bit bloodthirsty and the mighty haul was enough to keep us entertained. Perhaps it’s the bifocals I wear now as an adult, but I look back fondly on those days.

But here’s the thing. Nobody taught us how to play. We just kind of… figured it out as we went along. We were all bright, curious pre-teen and teenagers. Our parents allowed us (in a time when such a thing as D&D was linked to devil worship and suicide) the freedom to explore the boundaries of our imaginations. I don’t think we ever found them, but damn if we didn’t try.

Now I’m much older and have two little girls. They’re cute and bright and love playing games. The night that I dug out my old Dungeon! board game to play with them and my wife, I think I opened up a door to a new world. My style of parenting is a bit more open than many other parents I know. I will sit and watch movies like Shaun of the Dead, Wanted, and Legend with them even though it’s a few years off that they’ll even come close to PG-13. So when we go through and gather treasure and kill monsters in Dungeon!, we’re still pushing barriers and expanding their imaginations…

I have no idea how I’m going to get them playing roleplaying games. But you know what? I’m dying to try. My youngest is starting kindergarten this year and will be reading soon… My eldest is entering 4th grade and reading at a 6th or 7th grade level already – so they’re both going to be quick learners I think.

The thing is… Should I introduce them to roleplaying? Or do I let them learn on their own? Will I pass along my own prejudices for particular rules systems and settings? Will they get stuck in certain ruts as I do in particular roles sometimes? What’s the downside?

The upside of course is… I know what they’re playing. I can answer questions as they come up. And I get to play along with them. Ultimately I’m just a big kid. I know this. My wife knows this. We’ve all accepted it.

So I guess to heck with it… Soon we’ll be having family game nights that won’t involve Chutes & Ladders or Candyland… Maybe the girls will see it in their hearts to dare attack Tiamat’s lair!?

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GMing and Playing Styles… What’s yours?

July 23, 2010 in GMing, PCs by Fitz | 10 comments

Hi there…

Recently I watched the new documentary Dungeon Masters that featured a GM who managed to kill his whole party simply because they were dumb enough to charge into a Sphere of Annihilation… And it got me thinking.

Over my nearly 30 years of playing RPGs, I’ve encountered a variety of GMing styles. Everything from being adversarial to strictly hands-off “see what happens”, from lockstep “don’t go off the path” to “wow did we just roleplay a NPC-NPC conversation for the last 45 minutes?” They all have a place, but I have to wonder if it’s a progression through which most GMs work through in their gaming careers.

At the beginning of the cycle is the newbie GM and at the end is the battle-hardened GM…

When I was young and just starting out in RPGs in junior high, the GMs I played with were mostly focused on the critical path. Whether it was a pre-written module we were going through or something they had thrown together, we focused on getting the job done. It was less about roleplaying and more about roll-playing at that point. Combat was everything on both sides of the table.

In high school and college, we started getting more into playing the characters. Combat was still important, but less so. We became enamored with the collaborative effort within the party. But our GMs started to diverge a bit. Some were interested in the all-important story, pushing combat to something that only happened rarely. Some were focused on trying to kill players, which made the players more apt to simply trying to defeat the GM’s nefarious schemes.

After college, wow there have been even more extremes. In one Vampire game we played, I swear the GMs (it was a boyfriend/girlfriend pair where one typically played and the other GMed) simply wanted to hear their own voices. However, we were really able to focus on character development to the max. And in one game I GMed I lost control of a game simply because two players became more dominant than I was.

Now I haven’t GMed for a while – at least nothing more than the occasional playtest or one-off adventure. But my goal would be to offer a focused sandbox that gave enough wiggle room, but could accommodate combat and roleplaying in equal amounts. I’d probably sway more towards the roleplaying than roll-playing these days, but there are plusses and minuses to both approaches.

The odd thing to me is the advent of RPGs on the computer in the last 25 years. Everything from Bard’s Tale and the Gold Box games from SSI/TSR to World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights… none of them have managed (beyond Planescape: Torment maybe) to capture the roleplaying/storytelling aspects of the tabletop roleplaying experience. As such, when new folks want to try playing tabletop after playing CRPGs, they tend to focus on the roll-playing combat aspects more than anything else and have to work through all the things the rest of us who started with tabletop years ago went through…

Anyway… Where are your GMs in the continuum? Where are your players on that same continuum?

Where is your GM at on the Continuum?

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–Fitz

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DVD Review: The Dungeon Masters

July 19, 2010 in Reviews by Fitz | 1 comment

Hey there…

People who play roleplaying games sometimes get a bad wrap. We get accused of practicing witchcraft or blamed for the suicides of individuals with mental illness, when all we’re doing is getting together to pretend we’re someone else for a while and hang out. “It’s a game, people” seems to be our regular response to this controversy, but that doesn’t stop some folks from trying to stop creativity and free thinking by banning books.

The Dungeon Masters is a new documentary from director Kevin McAllester (You’re Gonna Miss Me) that shines a light on the lives of three gamers – Richard, Scott, and Elizabeth. Though not typical of those people I’ve met in my nearly 30 years gaming, these three present a unique cross section of roleplayers from across the country.

Each of the three subjects of the documentary is involved in roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons. D&D was introduced in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Now on its 4th edition, it has spawned two feature films and hundreds of books. Games such as D&D provide a creative outlet for thousands of imaginative and creative people around the world to escape the realm of the mundane and experience the fantastic for a time.

D&D is traditionally a table-top roleplaying game, meaning that a Dungeon Master (DM) or Game Master (GM) leads a group of players, each with their own Player Characters (PCs) on an adventure in a make-believe world. Games like D&D provide a structured, yet open-ended, set of rules so that everyone plays fair and doesn’t just start changing the rules as they go. PCs have characteristics to define their strengths, weaknesses, and abilities. And the players, in a way similar to actors on stage or screen, describe their characters’ actions and speak for them.

Scott is a gamer seeking a way to provide for his wife and son through his hobby as opposed to his job as an apartment complex manager. But as most of us with the same dream have learned one way or another, that’s tough to do. As a result, he spins the imagination he uses for gaming into a fantasy novel and tries to get it published through an agent.

Richard’s life is a little different. A reservist, he spends most of his time thinking about GMing his weekly roleplaying game sessions. GMs basically control everything that the player characters see in the game – from the rest of the population of a town or city to the monsters and even the weather. And Richard seemed to take a very adversarial approach to his games – going so far as to kill all the PCs in the game when they went into a Sphere of Annihilation and obliterated themselves, which put a strain on his group that bled even into the next group Richard GMed.

And Elizabeth is a different case all together. She, even more than the others, likes to inhabit her characters fully to the point where she dresses up as a Drow (Dark) Elf with face paint, a wig, and a costume. Elizabeth also plays World of Warcraft on the computer and enjoys Live Action Role Playing or LARPing with other individuals who like to wear costumes and wield fake weapons to get further into their own characters.

Where all of these people fall down a bit is with personal relationships outside the game. Scott’s wife seems to be the main breadwinner of the family while he chases his dreams of being a famous author and having a successful cable television series. Richard’s dedication to running his game meant less time to spend with his wife and within his church. And Elizabeth went from relationship to relationship seeking someone who would accept her as she is as a person and not just as a character.

Though I understand that overall there’s a positive message to the documentary that shows that change is possible for these people and they can mend fences to gain stronger relationships, I’m concerned that it portrays all gamers as socially dysfunctional, damaged individuals disconnected from the real world.

In my own personal experience as a gamer, I have spent time with many different types of people. And yes, there have been some odd folks like the guy who was occasionally on acid or the self-professed Wiccan. But for the most part, they’re just normal people. Most of the gamers I’ve met since college have had jobs, relationships, and are as ordinary as anyone you’d meet on the street. Some, like myself, even have families and still find time to game.

So the documentary seems skewed to me towards the more extreme ends of “normal” gaming behavior. Are there gamers who behave the way the people in the documentary do? Yes. But I can without hesitation say that I’ve never met anyone who tried to run their own cable television show.

Quality-wise, the documentary is very well shot. Most is in widescreen, with older video clips worked in here and there. In addition to the film itself are many outtakes that didn’t make their way into the final cut. I can honestly say that 99% of them would have made the subjects of the documentary seem even more unusual or crazy than they already do.

If you’re a gamer, I would strongly suggest you check out The Dungeon Masters to see how our hobby is being viewed in this case. The documentary provides an unflinching glimpse into the realities of these three lives and how they try to balance their hobbies and real life.

If you’re not a gamer, but know someone who is – I would encourage you to watch this documentary with them so they may provide a different perspective on gaming in their own lives. Use The Dungeon Masters as a starting point for a conversation about roleplaying – not the end.

But either way, I’d encourage you to check out The Dungeon Masters when it’s released on DVD August 3, 2010. For more details, check out the info page at Antidote Films here.

This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.

–Fitz

p.s. If you want to pick up this DVD when it’s released, check it out below:

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Who has the power in a game?

May 31, 2010 in GMing by Fitz | 3 comments

Odd topic, but power is a funny thing. In real life, those who have it typically want more. Those without want some. And it’s not always what you think.

In a roleplaying game, you’d think the GM held most of the power. And to a point, you’re right. But without players, what good is a GM? Players hold the other half of the power in a campaign or one-shot adventure. It’s a give and take between both sides. Don’t kid yourself that there aren’t two sides to the game table though. However, they’re not always in direct opposition.

For me, it’s not (always) a competition between GM and player. Sure, sometimes it’s literally a competition such as a jousting tournament or a game of chance played in the game. But for the most part, the GM is there to keep the world in motion to give the players opportunities for action.

But I digress…

So obviously the GM has some power… but it’s spread thinly between NPCs, monsters, and plots afoot in the realm of his or her control. A fair GM doesn’t let the power of the dice corrupt him or her unfairly. A fudge here or there on behalf of the players is a choice GMs always have, but in the vast majority of cases I have to believe it’s not used against the players or player characters to hasten their demise. So in my view, no GM has absolute power over their domain if they’re playing fairly.

And the players have power to exercise on behalf of their in-game characters… Choices that may benefit the player or the group at large exist in great quantities usually. And it’s easy to see when players step out of bounds through metagaming or by doing something to harm another player, for the GM or other players may rise to the occasion and combat such inequities.

But in the best cases of gaming, it’s a symbiotic relationship between players and their GM. When the relationship becomes one-sided, it ceases to be fun for the other side and bad things may occur. Hard feelings, bad decisions, and things said in anger may result in the downfall of a group and the temporary or permanent harm to friendships between members.

Has anyone seen the demise of a gaming group like this? It’s not pretty.

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What do you look for in a game setting?

April 20, 2010 in Seeking Feedback by Fitz | 5 comments

Hi all…

I’ve been pondering putting aside my dreams of an independent roleplaying game in favor of doing what I love to do most, which is world and adventure design. So as I ponder such thoughts, I wonder…

  1. Role Playing | Technology
    Image by Daniele Muscetta via Flickr

    What are the top three things you look for in a setting?

  2. What types of settings do you tend to look at or read most often?
  3. What are the best setting books currently out there and why?

From my perspective, I look for (1) interesting locations, historical significance, and crunchy problems like the world ending. For (2), I am a fantasy guy first and foremost, so I tend towards traditional fantasy (swords & sorcery) more often than not, but I also like urban fantasy and space cowboys (like Firefly). And as for (3) the best settings, I love the Palladium Fantasy world books. Those guys not only provide amazing backgrounds and locations, but the artwork is typically phenomenal.

I have two nearly complete fantasy worlds (one more traditional and the other not) and some ideas for an urban fantasy setting and even a Steampunk concept I want to explore… So I have many areas to dive into. Is there room for more setting/adventure materials in the already crowded market?

Curious minds want to know. :)

Thanks in advance for any feedback…

–Fitz

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Magazine Review: Kobold Quarterly, Spring 2010, Issue 13

April 19, 2010 in Reviews by Fitz | 1 comment

Hi everybody…

The good people at Kobold Quarterly are at it again, producing another fine issue of their roleplaying games (RPG) magazine. However, I have to warn you – perhaps this issue should have come in a paper wrapper because of the cover. The cover art features a scene right out of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, a forest clearing teeming with fae-looking folk, satyrs, unicorns, and other critters all getting ready to party. Now, there are some carefully placed shadows, hair, and arms, but it’s tough to ignore that a good number attending the revelry are stark naked.

Before anyone gets up in arms, I’m not a prude. But my concern would be for those game stores who carry KQ on their shelves and the pre-teen and teenage gamers who shop there. If we want our industry to be taken seriously, it’s tough if one of our best magazines (who have taken over for the once great Dragon and Dungeon publications from TSR/Wizards of the Coast/Paizo Publishing) is presenting Boris Vallejo-style pictures without properly warning folks first.

Yes, this issue does deal with sex and romance in RPGs, but you could warn a fella first. It’s funny, because I don’t typically object to magazine covers. Many of the KQ covers have been suggestive, but not objectionable. I guess it’s the pure… nakedness… that bugged me here.

That said, the articles inside this issue are the typical top-rate variety that you expect from KQ these days. And alongside the articles about sex and romance, there are articles about gnomish flying machines, magic weapons, and some darker material about creatures like the Shoggoth and using Lovecraftian Gods in 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Again, the mix of content is amazing and thought provoking as always.

Who knew the ecology and psychology of Shoggoths was a topic that needed exploration? These are vile creatures from H.P. Lovecraft‘s Cthulhu Mythos who can now be injected into your own RPG campaigns to add some additional “ick” factor if you need it. “Ecology of the Shoggoth” by Phillip Larwood describes shoggoths as an intelligent ooze that consume living tissue or material and add it to their bulk. But just because they’re intelligent doesn’t mean you can have a conversation with one if you see it sliming down the street. These grotesque creatures embody chaos itself and leave a path of destruction and insanity in their wake. Larwood introduces the concept of cults to these strange creatures who actually feed and worship them… not the kind of folks you want to take home to eat meet your mother.

And if that wasn’t enough to scare your players, Aeryn Rudel describes the properties of some of the Cthulhu elder god and some of the qualities of their worshippers in his article “Lovecraftian Gods”. These gods cover everything from chaos to true evil and I wouldn’t want to run into them in a dark alley. No goody-two-shoes gods here. I do wonder a bit at the game balance qualities of some of the powers the faithful get from these divinities. Things like the Veil of ‘Umr at-Tawil would drive me nuts as a GM or a player for example (a blue silk veil that gives the ability to see all possible actions an enemy may take and then interrupt them), but it’s nice to have additional options.

As a game designer contemplating a Steampunk setting, David Mallon’s article for Pathfinder – “The Arquebusier” – was intriguing. Introducing a class proficient with early firearms such as the Musket and Blunderbuss would certainly add numerous options to a game world. And some of the new feats included, such as Double Tap and Bulletcrafting make this class much more well rounded – giving such a character the ability to not only create such weapons and ammunition, but have proficiency in using them in combat.

By far my favorite article in the issue was Monte Cook‘s “The Thrill of the Unknown” – which cuts to the heart of game setting design, which is one of my favorite things to do. Cook suggests that instead of illuminating all the corners of every dark place in the world, the element of the unknown needs to remain ever present. As he says – “Remember… that the power of the truly unknown is that, because it is entirely undefined, we can never grow accustomed to it.” When you know what’s coming, you can prepare for it. And that’s fine most of the time, but leave a bit of mystery where you and your players can explore it together.

If you’re looking for inspiration as a player or a GM, look no further than an issue of Kobold Quarterly, past or present. Every time I crack open a copy I learn something new or find a new way to look at things… Be sure to pick up your copy of Kobold Quarterly, Spring 2010, Issue 13 at a gaming store near you or online at KoboldQuarterly.com. Even with the questionable cover of this issue, you’re bound to find something fascinating!

–Fitz

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Starting Over…

March 17, 2010 in Design, Playtesting, Rules, Seeking Feedback by Fitz | 6 comments

Just like the rest of life, sometimes it’s time for a do-over. Thus begins a new chapter in the life of Moebius Adventures (MARPG) games.

Dice for various games, especially for rolepla...
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Here’s the scoop. We have a streamlined system. It needs to be tested seriously. So who better to take a look at some of the mechanics than… you! That’s right, it’s time YOU got into the act here.

First, I want to welcome you (back) into the fold. The next series of articles will focus on some core mechanics, character creation, and then how to apply those bits to various genres. After all, MARPG is a cross-genre, universal roleplaying game. Tough to tell that when all we’ve seen so far are examples for fantasy settings.

I WANT your feedback. If you think this sucks and is too difficult, let me know. I’m looking for frank opinions with suggestions on how to make things better. The goal here is to create a solid base mechanic for a variety of settings so gaming groups can pick up the system and play just as easily in a cyberpunk setting as they can in a low-magic fantasy setting. Or if they want to do epic space battles such as in Star Wars or Star Trek or make more intimate “cowboys in space” games like with Firefly, it moves quickly with them.

Like in all roleplaying games, your MARPG character is a set of properties – characteristic values (Mind, Body, Soul), derived characteristic values (Hit Points, Luck Points, Reality Check, and so on), and skills with ranks. All these values do is provide a framework for behaviors, abilities, and experience. They’re just numbers on a page. It’s up to the player and GM to bring the player (PC) and non-player characters (NPCs) represented by those numbers to life.

As a player or GM, in addition to a PC or NPC, you’ll need two d10s. We’re not talking huge sets of dice here.

The basic mechanic is the same for all skill checks, characteristic checks, and combat rolls. You have a target number you have to roll below with 2d10 and modifiers.

The target number comes from the character himself for most actions, with modifiers from the GM for things like weather, fatigue, item quality, etc. In the case of opposed actions, it becomes a battle between the quality of success or failure between opponents.

Bird tracks on a frozen lake
Image by Paul Williams (Iron Ammonite) via Flickr

For example, if a tracker is looking for animal signs and tracks in the woods, it’s a simple skill check. The GM may make the attempt more difficult or easier based on conditions such as how recent the tracks were made, if there was fresh snow, if snow or leaves covered the tracks, and so on.

Let’s say the Tracker has a Tracking skill of 3 ranks. Tracking relies on knowing what to look for and how perceptive the character is, so it’s a Mind-based skill. Let’s say the Tracker has a Mind of 7. By default, without any modifiers from the GM, the target number is 10.

To determine success or failure, you roll 2d10, add modifiers, and compare the total to the target.

In the case of the Tracker, let’s say he rolls a 13. He failed the attempt, so he’s unable to find his quarry.

Roll two 1′s and you have a critical success. Roll two 10′s and you have a critical failure. Compare the total to the target number to determine the Quality of Success (QoS) or Failure (QoF). If your total was above or below the target, your QoS (if below) or QoF (if above) is the difference between the target and the total. If your total is equal to the target, the GM can decide whether the act was directly opposed and it was a draw or if the act was unopposed and it was a success.

QoS = Target Number – Total Die Roll
QoF = Total Die Roll – Target Number

For the Tracker, his QoF was 3. He missed the target by 3 (Total Die Roll 12 – Target Number 10 = QoF 3).

Let’s say he rolled a 3 on 2d10. That would mean he succeeded in finding tracks. In that case, his QoS was 7. He made it by 7 (Target Number 10 – Total Die Roll 3 = QoS 7).

Now let’s say the Tracker is looking for someone deliberately trying to obscure signs of their passing. The Tracker’s opponent uses her Tracking skill at rank 4 and her Mind characteristic value of 5 for an unmodified Target Number of 9. The GM rolls 2d10 and gets a 5, for a QoS of 4. This makes the Tracker’s job harder.

The Tracker’s unmodified Target Number is 10. But since it’s opposed, the QoS becomes a modifier on the skill check making it more difficult. Now the Tracker’s Target Number is 6 (Target Number 10 – opponent QoS = 6). The Tracker would have to make a great roll to get a six or less.

* on the left: German Reitschwert, circa 1530,...
Image via Wikipedia

Let’s add another wrinkle. The Tracker finds the woman he’s been searching for in the woods and a battle begins. Each opponent has a sword and some ranks in the Swordsmanship skill.

The Tracker surprised his quarry and gets to attack first. His quarry can only Parry with her sword or Dodge to get out of the way. The Tracker’s Swords is at 4 ranks and his Body is a 5, for an unmodified Target of 9. His quarry has Swords at 6 ranks and a Body of 5 for an unmodified Target of 11. Both opponents roll 2d10.

The Tracker rolls a 5, for a QoS of 4 (Target Number 9 – Total Die Roll 5 = QoS 4). His quarry has a -4 modifier to her Target to make it a 7. The GM rolls a 9 for a QoF of 2 and the woman takes 2 points of damage…

This pattern of comparing QoS and QoF is repeated throughout the system now for skill checks, characteristic checks, and combat. One mechanic simplifies the rules greatly, while still providing the flexibility and uniqueness of character strengths and weaknesses to appear in sometimes unexpected ways.

In the next article, we’ll talk about character creation and the flexibility available for quickly creating PCs and NPCs for any campaign.

What do you think? Leave me comments here on the blog entry or send me e-mail directly at fitz (at) moebiusadventures (dot) com. I’m looking for negative and positive feedback here – so let ‘er rip!

–Fitz

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The CRPG mindset vs. RPGs – how do you defeat the greed?

February 21, 2010 in GMing, Seeking Feedback by Fitz | 6 comments

I suspect that we’ve all had that moment while gaming when our characters finished a battle or encounter and suddenly had a whole lot of loot to determine how to divvy up and carry out. It’s a gaming staple – doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re playing in a fantasy, modern, or futuristic setting. But it seems to happen a whole lot more while playing a fantasy RPG like D&D.

For some time now we’ve lived in a world where computer roleplaying games (CRPGs) have been around. I remember playing Bard’s Tale, Might and Magic, and the Gold Box Forgotten Realms computer games like Curse of the Azure Bonds to name a few. And from then to now, the general pattern is your character or party heads out to find bad guys to fight, you fight the bad guys, and then you collect the loot. You may not be able to haul it all away, so you leave useless items behind and take the good stuff until you can sell it.

Most of those games came out while I was in high school or in college initially. And I have to admit I played the heck out of them and enjoyed myself quite a bit.

But by that point I had already been playing RPGs (especially Dungeons and Dragons, James Bond, and a few other games) for a good 3-5 years. In that few years, I went from being the treasure hoarding munchkin to GMing and trying to achieve some kind of game balance. Though it was fun to kill the monster and take the loot, that wasn’t necessarily the goal any more by the time I left that period of my life.

And yes, we did all the munchkin things you’d expect. It was 1st edition D&D so we were kicking butt and taking names, even going so far as fighting Tiamat in her lair. (And it’s been asked, so I’ll answer here – no, I don’t recall if it was on her home plane or the prime material plane, but we did it nonetheless and got hoards of loot as a result.) We went up against the forces of Orcus. Did we die? Not usually – the GM and the mood at the time typically gave us enough room to survive. Was it Monty Haul? Of course.

That however was a phase. It lasted a while and then we got tired of simply collecting every coin, scroll, potion, sword, wand, etc. just because it was there.

Now if you look at CRPGs you see the same thing happening over and over because there’s no GM there to prevent it. We (yes, I’m just as guilty) stuff our pockets, backpacks, and saddlebags with everything we can get our hands on that is of value and leave the rest. The good thing is that we do run out of room so there has to be a bit of prioritization typically. The bad thing is that typically we have an infinite amount of time to gather, sort, and figure out where to stash everything.

Because I and many other gamers of our generation moved from traditional pen-and-paper RPGs to CRPGs, we’re less apt to take a CRPG approach to our RPGs.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen others that have gone the other way – from computer to game table – that just don’t get that you can’t haul off the kitchen sink and curtains or the other inhabitants of a particular city might take it the wrong way. Maybe you can do that in a dungeon after you’ve cleaned it out – there’s a certain amount of time you have there. But not every situation has the benefit of time.

Have other GMs and groups run into this bizarre trend? If so, have you solved it? And if you solved it, how did you solve it? We’ve tried lots of things, but logic doesn’t seem to work in this case. Or perhaps we just haven’t provided the right object lesson… I don’t know.

Thoughts? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

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Dungeon Dressing – What’s a dungeon anyway?

December 28, 2009 in Advice, GMing, Inspiration by Fitz | No comments

When you see the term “Dungeon” – what comes to mind? I typically think of a few different things…

  1. The great TSR gaming magazine published for from 1986 to 2007.
  2. A board game published in 1975 by TSR to simulate some aspects of Dungeons & Dragons.
  3. A place where people were imprisoned or tortured.
  4. A series of connected rooms containing possible encounters or combat opportunities.
  5. A power metal/thrash band from Sydney, Australia from 1989 to 2005.

Though I still have a few issues of Dungeon magazine squirreled away in boxes and a copy of Dungeon! the board game, I can truthfully say I’ve never heard any music from Dungeon the thrash band. That said, let’s focus on #4 because we can kind of roll #3 into it.

We often encounter dungeons when we play roleplaying games. Adventures like the Temple of Elemental Evil come to mind when I think of dungeons and dungeon crawls where you enter with your friends and try to survive as many levels and encounters as possible to escape with your loot.

But if you look at the general description, a dungeon in gaming terms is just a bunch of rooms connected by corridors. That could describe just about anything, couldn’t it?

A while back, Johnn Four raised the concept of “5 Room Dungeons”, which are awesome. Just enough space to create a unique situation for a group of players. But what I loved was that they weren’t all underground in medieval settings. Sure, some were. But mixed in were temples, swamps, islands, and other locations that didn’t have to be underground. What a concept! (You can download many of the 5 Room Dungeons at Johnn’s Roleplaying Tips site.)

So we know about dungeons in the medieval sense. Usually these were sets of rooms that existed under existing castles, keeps, or other buildings to house criminals, political prisoners, torture devices, and so on.

What about other places? Why can’t a modern building be a dungeon? Think about a modern hospital. Aren’t the floors in a hospital designed in a manner similar to different dungeon levels?

What about…

  • Spaceships or naval vessels?
  • Laboratories?
  • Office buildings?
  • Cave systems used by freedom fighters or terrorists?

Aren’t they all dungeons of a sort? Multiple rooms connected by corridors. Each room may or may not have “stuff” in it. Each room may or may not have guardians or traps.

So as we go through some other topics in this series, keep in mind that dungeons don’t have to be in fantasy settings or historically-based adventures. A dungeon can be any set of rooms connected by corridors.

Think about that the next time you walk through your house, your school, or your office building.

Next time we’ll talk about doors and what you can do with them in various settings.

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