Month / July 2023

by guyeatsfood

Bad Player Habits – And How To Avoid Them (Part Two)

A while back on twitter I posted about one of my gaming bugbears (not the furry kind) – players avoiding risk when the rest of the group is embracing it. This led to part one of this post, where I looked at Risk Avoidance, probably the biggest – and most frustrating – Bad Player Habit (BPH). Now it’s time to look at the other two big BPHs – Revisiting and Un-Roleplaying. 

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

Remember, this isn’t me dicking on noobs – in my experience these are always done by players who should know better – experienced roleplayers who probably do this every single game. And, again, whenever I’ve seen this it’s been one player not realising the effect they’re having on the rest of the group – maybe spotting these is something players should think about too.

Revisiting

GM: Right, so you’ve discovered the Ruby is in the Caves across the Desert of Ja’darr – and secured a guide who thinks he can trick a roc to get there. So as you creep across the mountain to the rocs nest….

Player: Wait, before we set off I want to talk to the merchant again. What does he know about rocs?

GM:….

Player: And does he have any more clues about the Caves?

GM:….

Player: Also, I want to buy a new sword.

This is the enemy of pace, and it can be frustrating for everyone at the table. It’s not hard to see how it develops – some types of games reward methodical analysis, and risk missing important pieces of information if every room is searched and every possible witness interrogated. These types of games are rubbish, by the way – avoid them.

How To Avoid It

One way you can mitigate this is by being clear when all the information is extracted – “so, the merchant has told you everything,” and even add in whatever in-game reason to prevent further investigation “well, the sun is nearly down, I’d better pack up for the day – I cannot talk any more!” Do this in-character first, and then move to direct, in-game if the hint isn’t taken. It’s also fine to say no if the player wants to go back in time – if everyone else at the table, including you, wants to move to the next scene, you can certainly go to the next scene. 

The passage of time also helps – I think having a pace in investigative games of each location, clue, or witness taking at least half a day is a good pace to start with. Prep your clues sufficiently far apart to support this, and any investigation game needs a looming countdown or other pace-setter to help investigation be done at speed.

Un-Roleplaying

GM: The merchant eyes you across the table… “Aye, I could tell you how to cross the desert, but I promised to never speak of it to outsiders again…”

Player: We knew he’d say this. Can we bribe him?

GM: …

Player: Why doesn’t he want to speak to us? I’ll Intimidate him (rolls dice)

GM: “Outsiders must never discover the secrets of Ja’darr…”

Player: Is 16 enough? Will he tell us now?

Look, I get it. There are some players who do not want to talk in character. I have a particular balance of tastes about the amount of in-character talk at a table, and I’m left cold by the lengthy in-character discussions that some streamed games have (it’s an audience/player distinction, though – I get why they do it). But you can get players who will actively resist any kind of character interaction, including just saying what their player 

But if you get just one player who actively resists talking in character, it can mean nobody at the table does. And while we all might have different tastes, I’d like more than zero of it in a session. If they really don’t want to, narrating what they say is fine (“I ask him what his problem with outsiders is” is a way round that doesn’t interrupt the rhythm of the game).

How To Avoid It

So how can we encourage a bit of in-character talk? Well the first thing is by baking in some character relations in our pregens or session zero process. If they’ve got some stuff to talk to each other about, they might actually do it. The other is by having some NPCs to start the conversations, who can ask in character for players to respond to. Having some sort of feckless ally travelling with them into the dungeon is a great way to make sure there’s some in-character chat even in the most barren of RP landscapes, and they can provide a helpful Greek chorus-echo of what’s going on.

The amount of in-character chat is a good thing to handle at the start of a one-shot or in a session zero, too – getting this element of play culture aligned is really crucial.

So, there’s the top three BPHs covered. Do you have others? Or are some of these acceptable at your table (let me know, I can pass some players your way at the next convention we’re both at!) Let me know in the comments below.

by guyeatsfood

Prep Techniques: Dilemmas

Credit for this technique goes to the game in which it is most explicitly modelled, John Harper and Sean Nittner’s Agon – a game of Greek heroes travelling home by way of a series of perilous islands – and each island begins something like this:

  • Will you command Meletia to use the island’s gold to restore the ruined temple of Hera and receive divine protections? Arts & Oration vs. Meletia.
  • Or will you command Ionestes to cease speaking false promises of divine aid and instead support the construction of practical defenses? Arts & Oration vs. Ionestes

(Agon, Isle of Kryos)

Each choice offers a chance at resolving the conflict introduced, and taking sides in an ongoing dispute – the following scenes will differ depending on which approach they take (and whether or not they are successful). These happen right at the start of the adventure, as the players arrive in the isle, and thrust them directly into the action. But there’s no reason we shouldn’t use these with other games, and they’re a really effective way of launching a session.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

Why They Work

They give players clear options and genuine choices and let them engage with the adventure immediately. Particularly for one-shots, it can be easy to start with a fight that is just thrust upon the players, and they can feel like they’re just setting off on a railroad – this gives them a choice right at the start. There’s also no need for them to be limited to the options you’ve suggested – they can come up with their own approach, but you’ve given examples to help them make that decision.

By choosing one option, they also cut off the other, and there will be NPCs on each side that will want to engage with them to resolve the choice. Ultimately, either choice might lead in similar directions, but how that direction appears will be coloured by their choice – and whether or not they are successful.

How To Prep Them

Begin with your initial scene and think of a couple of ways they can be resolved. This doesn’t have to be amazingly original – your players may come up with other choices, too, when you’ve shown them two, and that’s fine. Have an immediate call to action inherent – either a threat to something the PCs care about, an ongoing mission that will take them directly into this conflict, or a personal link to the issue.

Then, give some thought to how each option could be resolved. Try to make them equally exciting – you might balance a combat with a skill challenge of some sort, or a series of skill rolls with accompanying risk. They don’t have to be equally difficult, of course – but try to avoid offering an obvious answer to the dilemma.

Examples

Let’s say you’re prepping the most vanilla D&D plot ever, of a village in danger because of raiding goblins in the forest. You’ve, correctly, thought to start with an encounter with bandits on the way to the village – who are desperate because of the goblin displacement and could even be useful to find the goblin camp later – and had originally planned for them to leap out and attack the caravan they are guarding.

Instead, let’s have the PCs come across a robbery in progress. Around the corner, they see a merchant being turned over, with crossbow-wielding bandits in the trees above trained on them as they try to bargain with them. The merchant in front is clearly having none of it, and it looks like it could turn nasty – he hasn’t seen the robbers in the trees.

Do you charge in and intercede on his behalf, and try to cow the bandits with your force of arms and courage?

Or do you sneak around and dispose of the bandits in the trees to even the odds?

Or perhaps try and tackle the leader by surprise before his archers have a chance to react?

We’ve got a trilemma there, and although most of them probably lead to combat, it’s a much more vibrant and interesting initial scene. We’re assuming that heading into the forest to avoid the bandits isn’t an option – if it is, there’s always goblins to tackle them.

In cases where the PCs have a clear mission, your dilemmas can be more like options for them to pursue. For instance, if your PCs have arrived at a party to steal a crown from the host, we should add a bit more action. So begin with them seeing a drunken guest causing trouble, about to challenge another noble to a duel.

Do you attempt to sneak behind the scenes straight away, looking for a route upstairs while the guards are distracted?

Or do you intercede on either nobleman’s behalf, trying to create more chaos and maybe win some allies here who might know about the crown?

It’s an interesting challenge to try and add this to a session you’ve already prepped – particularly in the initial scene, where it will have the most impact. As I said, for more examples, look at Agon or the Paragon family of games, who all model this excellently. Have you used dilemmas in your games during the starting situation? Let me know in the comments.

by guyeatsfood

Wyrm’s Teeth: 13th Age Glorantha – A Retrospective on a Short Campaign

I’ve just spent a sunny afternoon prepping the final session of a short 13th Age Glorantha campaign, and it’s been great to get through a short season entirely home-written. I’ll have run 6 sessions by the time the finale is over, and we’ve taken 3 PCs from 1st level to the cusp of 4th level – we might come back to them at 4th level for a sequel, when we can rotate it back into the schedule.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

And it’s been great. I thought I’d review and share some of the prep techniques that worked for me. In fact, I’m going to look at adapting it and getting it up on the Jonstown Compendium, Chaosium’s fan-made storefront. In advance of this, Patrons are going to get sent my unedited, raw prep notes – they can let me know if they think this is a good idea.

Run What You Know

I’ve never actually run an ongoing 13th Age game before, although I’m fairly sure I’ve run more 13th Age Glorantha at conventions than anyone else over the past few years. I’ve a real love for the crunchy narrative combat / freewheeling player agency interlude bit of 13th Age, and this was a great chance to see it fly with players that were involved with it. 

So, if it isn’t too obvious, pick a game you like and ideally one you know the rules to pretty well. This gave me a good feel for making combat balanced and exciting (pretty important in a game like this) and how to handle the narrative techniques like montages.

Have A Campaign Plan

By “Campaign Plan,” I literally mean just a bullet point for each session. I didn’t follow it exactly, but it helped make prep easier as I wasn’t starting from an empty page each time – I’ll be doing this again with every season going forwards.

In fact, this was what it looked like:

  • S1 – Defeat cattle raiders, learn of encroaching chaos L1
  • S2 – Investigate chaos, learn of lunar magics upsetting balance L1
  • S3 – Secrets in the Cackling Caves – dungeoning L2
  • S4 – Consult with corrupted Silver Wolf tribe
  • S5 – Travel to Jonstown to find who could have learned of this – citycrawl beset by lunar spies L2
  • S6 – Fight the lunar spies in the Compendium / somewhere else exciting L3

We ended up going to six sessions, partly because session 1 was a sort of combined session 1 / session zero with character generation folded into it – so the first session took a couple of sessions really. Jonstown, too, ended up a bit different, because I thought it’d be a good idea to have the city burned down and besieged by Lunars. Session 6 is also completely different – they’ve dealt with a Lunar ghost and now have to find how to finally lift the curse on the lands.

Starting the campaign with a cattle raid, classic Glorantha. The presence of two rhino riders is a result of Roll20 teething problems.

Then Prep A Session At A Time

After that sketch was done, I stuck to only going one session ahead at a time. Why? Well, this allowed me to reincorporate player ideas. 13th Age has montages, hazards, and other opportunities for players to add elements to the story, and this let me re-use them in following sessions. I’ve written before about how effective reincorporation is, and this let me respond to it without having to feel like I was improvising too much.

This led to an entire session changing – I’d thought of the Cackling Caves as being a Broo encampment, but this became a corrupted Brown Elf shrine when elves were introduced in a montage the session before. I did a fair bit of checking in with the players for what they wanted more of through Stars & Wishes, too – which meant I had plenty of material to work with each session. Adding parameters, like with anything creative, usually makes things easier rather than harder, and this is a campaign I’ve genuinely enjoyed prepping.

Use Random Generators

Speaking of the Brown Elf Shrine, I actually used a random dungeon generator (well, sort of) for it – and similarly for the Silver Wolf tribe. In fact, I used the same generators each time – the tools in Kevin Crawford’s excellent Worlds Without Number. There are many more available, and although I’d recommend these, use whatever you want to spike inspiration within the parameters set.

Make Up Monsters

While 13th Age Glorantha has a great bestiary in the game, it’s also been fun to lean into 13th Age’s recommended way to freeform monsters. Most of the time I’ve either reskinned existing monsters, but I’ve also used the standard stats in 13th Age core – flavour counts for more than statistics in a game like 13th Age, and so picking up a few of these has been great.

So, a run down of how I’ve prepped a full campaign for a (relatively) trad game. I’ve learned a lot from these processes, and a lot of them I’ll use again. Are there any go-to prep techniques that you use for campaign planning? Let me know in the comments.