30 Days of GameMastery--Day 25!

You know it by now:  Lindevi.  "30 Days of GameMastering".  Challenge.  Go!

Problem players and drama llamas:  what's your horror story and how did you resolve it?

So, let's go back to the halcyon days of 2008.  The PlatinumChick and I were still living in our apartment in Fairborn, planning our wedding and eyeing up houses here in the Miami Valley.  Our Friday night game group was still rolling along and 4e was less than a year old.

Enter Richard.  Richard was the co-worker of one of our Friday night mainstays and had been looking for a regular group for quite some time with no luck.  As such, we welcomed him in...which was probably our first mistake.  You see, Richard came with three major problems which, like a bad rash, kept reoccurring.

The first was the least serious, though as a GM, it frustrated me personally.  Richard constantly wanted to revise his character, making significant changes and revisions, well over and above any 'retraining' coupled into the system.  Richard made a nuisance of himself, barraging myself and other gamers at the table, looking for input...which he would consistently ignore, both at the table and in character advancement.  One of the most absurd instances occurred during our "Pirates of the Underdark" game.  Despite the table's protests, he dropped a high-damage area-of-effect power into the middle of the party, hoping to catch a number of their foes in the blast.  Not only did Richard miss every one of the enemies, he damaged all of the party members in the melee, critting two of them!  After several sessions of this chaos, we started referring to Richard's character as "the best player on the GM's team!"

Really, Richard?
You couldn't play at the game store over the weekend
and arrive at our RPG night on time?

The second reason frustrated everyone at the table.  You see, Richard was a big HeroClix enthusiast who enjoyed playing at one of the various game stores in the Dayton area.  However, Richard's night of choice?  You got it:  Friday night.  Typically, our game nights begin around 6pm.  We grab dinner together--either at a local restaurant or take-out joint--and begin playing around 7:30, lasting until 11:30 or midnight.  Unfortunately, Richard's HeroClix games ended at 9pm, which was followed by a minimum half-hour drive to our apartment.  As such, Richard often wouldn't arrive until 10pm!  After a number of requests and emails, nothing had changed on this front.

The third reason, truth be told, was quite personal.  You see, Richard was married.  The PlatinumChick and I were engaged, about to be married in 2009.  However, that didn't stop him from sending her numerous inappropriate texts and making homophobic commentary at the table, fully knowing that I'm bisexual.  This one, I took personally.  I'm as lewd as it comes, but there's a big difference between making jokes between friends actually making moves on a to-be-married woman, especially while you're married.

Three strikes?  You betcha.  Not long after we moved, I finally pulled the trigger on Richard:  during one of the numerous sessions he had missed, I raised my concerns to the group and suggested that we release him.  The next day, I sent him a brief email highlighting our concerns and letting him know he would no longer be welcome at the table.  He took it...well, about as well as one could expect, but it hasn't been an issue since.

I've seen Richard at a few gaming events in the Miami Valley since then and, believe it or not, he's been rather civil.  He actually sat in on one of my Cold Steel Wardens demos and was an eager, invested player.  Maybe there's room for some redemption, I suppose, but I don't really aim to find out.

In the end, not everyone is a 'fit' in every game group.  If it happens, you've got to remain cool enough to speak the truth and do what's best for everyone involved.

30 Days of GameMastering--Day 20!

We're 2/3 of the way through Lindevi's "30 Days of GameMastering" challenge--this post rounds out the "At the Table" section.  Starting tomorrow, we'll start talking about the "Meta" topics, which deal more broadly with the hobby in general.  But, for now, let's talk about our last "At the Table" topic:

What was your best session and why?

I've spoken about this session before, but the penultimate session of my "Tear of Ioun" game really stands out as one of my favorite sessions of all time.  A great deal of session prep went into building siege rules for the scenario and the set-pieces of the battle itself were outstanding, taking almost a full session to assemble the giant Morgordal Keep walls.

My players survey the field in
this massive siege!

The battle itself was really neat, as any great set-piece battle should be.  The combat was streamlined (if not exactly quick, with each player controlling their PC, an NPC ally, a siege engine, and a battalion of troops) and constantly engaging.  Even at the late hour of 1:00 am, my players were eager to play out the siege to its finality.

But, what struck me most?  What I enjoyed the most?  The fact that, in the midst of that sea of miniatures and scenery, in among all those dice rolls and gaming that could easily have descended into simple 'accounting'...my players still were knee-deep in actual role-playing and in-character dialogue.  FridayNightWill's runepriest chanted prayers and maledictions in the name of Kelemvor while smashing aberrations with his warhammer.  Martook's feeble supplications to Moradin before finally turning to Bane in his despair made for a phenomenal moment, particularly when he burst forth from the stomach of a purple worm, radiating power from his infernally-powered armor.

Every GM struggles at some point with the balance between the many desires of his group.  When people can't even agree on pizza toppings, it's up to the GM to try to find a happy medium in terms of game emphasizes.  I'll admit, I was worried that I had erred too far to the side of tactical combat in running this session, but the results spoke for themselves:  my players had a phenomenal session and I was left wondering how I could possibly top that awesome night.

In Which The Warlock Tosses in Everything (Including the Kitchen Sink!)

(Aside:  Have you entered into my 400th entry contest yet?  Three simple questions might be all that's keeping you from a PDF prize pack!  Deadline is September 1st!)

This summer has been somewhat brutal on my gaming schedule.  In addition to our usual convention circuit, two of our usual crew have been finishing up their doctoral degrees, which has put a damper on our usual dice-slinging.  We've gotten in quite a few rounds of Sentinels of the Multiverse and Arkham Horror, but neither of those scratches that omnipresent itch to roleplay.

The Lady of Pain
Ruler of the City of Sigil

With ChaoticFrederick's 4e mini-campaign petering out, I offered to take up the reins for a foray into one of my favorite settings:  Planescape!  However, I decided to do something that flies in the face of traditional "game balance".  You see, I told my players that they could play anything they wanted, as long as they could relatively legally stat it up using d20 rules.

Most GMs, I'm sure, are slapping their heads right now.  And, truth be told, the usual suspects around my game table were taken slightly aback at the myriad of opportunities.  "Can I play Cthulhu?" one asked me.  "Why, yes.  Yes, you can.  Straight out of the book, even!" I replied, as I passed them the d20 Call of Cthulhu book.  "Can I play a Pokemon master?" another retorted.  "Sure.  Go for it," I responded.

Don't tell my players this, but their actual choices in character aren't going to matter much in the scope of the ongoing campaign.  Not to say that they won't have massive input (and plot hooks) hanging on their characters, but rather that the nature of Planescape's oddity will let them fit into the City of Doors with no ill effects at all.  Plus, it gives me a chance to flex my GMing acumen by accommodating a party of wild diversity in terms of both mechanics and background.

So, what did my intrepid players end up choosing?  Let's have a look, shall we?

• A time-manipulating child, claiming to hail from the Lost City of Carcosa, which was drowned beneath the waves of Lake Hali.  With an air of innocence, he claims to know nothing of the sanity-blasting horrors which overtook that dread city in the name of The Yellow Sign. (Level 8)
• A massively powerful centaur scout stricken inexplicably with amnesia, now following a pseudo-Buddhist philosophy of balance, passivity, and non-violence. (Level 26)
• A shifter bard, alternating between charm and grace and phenomenal martial arts prowess, varying only on the beast within her. (Level 7)
• Queen Lilioukalani, the last queen of Hawai'i, gifted with Pele's blessing to control fire and lava.  Lilioukalani believes herself to be the very embodiment of Pele herself:  a goddess given mortal form. (Level TBD)
• Jim Bob, a non-descript farmer...who may have a unique destiny all his own. (Level 2)

My intent is to run "rings around the ring"--one session featuring each Sigil's noted factions, culminating with a chance to escape The Cage, while simultaneously providing a grand tour of Sigil itself.

What do you think, friends and neighbors?  Am I mad?  Am I biting off more than I can chew?  Time will tell, I suppose!

In Which The Warlock Returns to Blogging!

Wow.  Four months goes fast, doesn't it?!

While I'm still in the full-time job hunt, I've decided to refocus my writing efforts and get back on board the blogging train.  Maintaining a blog has been one of those routines that have kept me (relatively) sane over the past few years, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to provide my usual offbeat perspective once again in my scrolls.

On the home front, we haven't actually been doing a lot of serious gaming recently.  ChaoticFrederick ran a short 4e campaign, but mainly we've been subsisting on a steady stream of board games:  mainly Arkham Horror and Sentinels of Multiverse (which I now own every expansion for--thank you, Amazon gift cards!).  I'm looking to start a Planescape game in the near future and may be playtesting an upcoming Cold Steel Wardens campaign when Wittenberg is back in session.

Great for reading;
Even better as inspiration!

Speak of the devil, there's big news for Cold Steel Wardens!  We're forging our way through layout and gunning hard for a GenCon 2013 release.  Buzz has been really spectacular for my debut solo game and I've actually sold out of my five GenCon events!  For only running games on two days, that's a spectacular turn-out!

I'll be running the same two scenarios at GenCon that I ran at Origins:  "Needles by Moonlight", our two-hour demo session, and "We're All Mad Here!", my homage to Grant Morrison's classic Batman storyline, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth.  Unfortunately, the PlatinumChick will not be joining me at GenCon.  That's a real shame, as her Birds of Prey-themed adventure, "Birds in Flight" was a huge hit!

One of the best parts about Origins, though, was meeting so many spectacular gamers.  Some of the newest ones that I've met, in fact, were the Rule Zero Podcast gang, who sat in a "Needles by Moonlight" demo game.  I made such an impression on them that they wanted to interview me!  Check out this interview, where we chat about comics, my gaming origins, some of the neat mechanics of CSW and more:  Rule Zero Podcast: Andy Klosky and Cold Steel Wardens

The whole publishing process has been a blur thus far, though the biggest surprise for me has been the phenomenal work my artists have done.  First up, take a gander at our cover art, done by the phenomenal Talon Dunning!

Cover art for Cold Steel Wardens
Created by Talon Dunning

And, we even have a spectacular logo, created by the enigmatic (though equally talented) Cheshire!

Trust me when I say this:  CSW is becoming a gorgeous book.  I can't wait to see it in print, and the days are coming very quickly!

As a last bit, so you know:  this entry marks my 398th blog entry.  Could it be that I'm gearing up for something big for number 400?!  Stay tuned, lovely readers!

In Which the Warlock Pencils a Potential Plotline...

It's been a while since I've jumped in on the RPG Blog Carnival, but this month's entry gave me some special impetus:  it's being hosted by Lindevi, over at TripleCrit.com!

In light of NaNoWriMo and the concurrent-running NaGaDeMon, DigitalKat posits the following question:

So what about you, RPG Bloggers?  Why do you write about games?  In what form does your writing crop up in your campaigns?  What's your process, your stumbling blocks, your passion?  How has writing helped you or your table?  Or is writing more like a CR 8 Succubus whose torturous siren song hurts so good and dominates your very being?

Writing is part and parcel of my gaming 'process', as you probably could imagine.  Between my work on Cold Steel Wardens and the various convention games I've run over the years, it's been my continual effort to provide a series of adventures and materials to serve as my role-playing "legacy".  While doing so can sometimes be tedious--writing up stat blocks is a particular bugaboo of mine--there are quite a few tasks that I particularly relish.

One of my favorites is the "character vignette".  Usually stemming from an NPC's contact with given PC, these vignettes flesh out the world at large by speaking within a character's voice.

Case in point:  my "Tear of Ioun" campaign from a few years back.  Chris II's character, Martook, came in a veteran of Blackfall's most elite guard, tasked with the unenviable task of securing and destroying evil artifacts.  Chris depicted Martook as a grizzled veteran and family man, on his last mission before retirement from the force.

However, when the group's mission went afoul and the PCs were accused of a series of murders which touched off a small-scale war, Martook and his compatriots had to flee to another plane.  Upon their return to the Prime Material, Martook received the following from his wife:

Dearest Martook— 

I don’t really know how to say this.  I’m going to do my best to not cry as I’m writing this, but I can feel myself already welling up. 

When you told me that you were being recruited to work in The Vaults, I didn't want you to go.  We had just started to raise our family.  We were only married two years when you started there, and Maximilian was only six months old.  But, I let you go, knowing you’d come back to me.  

When you were promoted to Field Agent, and you were sent to find these…things…I didn't protest.  That was last year, and Maria was just a bulge in my belly.   I let you go again, and I knew that you would come back to me. 

When you left to look for this Tear of Ioun, I didn't object.  Maria had just been born, and I was getting back on my feet.  Little Max was only 5, but he was helping around the house as much as he could.  The neighbors helped out, too.  I let you go one more time, knowing you’d come back to me. 

And now?  I have Cathedral Agents at my door, telling me that you’re wanted for murder and treason.  I have Max asking me if Daddy is ever coming back, now that the King’s Men are waiting for him.  He asks me, “Mom, what did Daddy do wrong?  Why does the King hate him so much?”  I don’t have an answer for him.  Little Maria barely knows you.  She’s three now, and caught Gray Fever last winter.  She wheezes at night still, but the clerics of Erathis are confident she’ll recover sooner or later.  

I've been waiting for you most of my adult life.  We've been taken care of, thanks to the Cathedral, but that doesn't mean that we have everything we've ever wanted.  The kids want a father.  I can’t say I blame them.  I want a husband again. 

But now, with you being hunted…I just can’t wait anymore.  There’s been someone else, Martook.  You know him—Dengild Oathhammer, from across the street.  He helped fix our roof about a year ago, after a snowstorm and I asked him to stay for supper and then one thing led to the next and… 

I told myself I wouldn’t cry. 

I can’t even tell you what I want right now.  I've stopped things with Dengild, but my children—our children—need a father, and I need my husband.  I just can’t manage to let you go, the one time where it might matter. 

The kids and I are about to leave Blackfall for a while.  We’re going downriver, to a cottage my parents had east of Kasserine.  I gave this to the priestess Valandor, at the Cathedral, and she promised that she would get it to you.  I’m not sure how, because they say that Wellspring, the town you were at, is in ruins.  I hope it gets to you.  You deserve to know, at least. 

I’m sorry, Martook.  I really am.  Please forgive me. 

---Maleena

Obviously--just take a look at my picture up yonder!--I'm no scorned woman, much less one with two children to take care of and an illicit relationship with her next-door neighbor.  But, being able to write as such a character allows me three primary benefits.

Firstly, it allows me, as a GM, to immerse myself in my own world.  Did I know about Kasserine or any of the other characters in this letter, prior to writing it?  Absolutely not!  But, by including them, I can help flesh out my own world, building in people, places, and ideas that normally would never make an appearance.

Secondly, this provides me an opportunity to directly address a PC's background.  When our group was galavanting through the Shadowfell, it became hard to justify any expansion on Martook's relationship.  But, by including this vignette upon their return, I've not only shown that time has passed (in the fact that Martook's wife has moved on) and hooks him with a personalized side-quest:  make it back to Kasserine to make things right with his wife.

Finally, this allows my player, Chris II, the opportunity to expose the other players to Martook's own personality.  While we can see Martook's personality in the context of the group, there are aspects to his personality which would only emerge when in the presence of his personal friends and family.  Our identity, many philosophers have claimed, is mutable over time--who we are varies based on the course of our lives, the experiences we've had, and the memories we retain.  As such, our group experienced a side of Martook that they might never see otherwise...

While I don't use the character vignette often--maybe once or twice a campaign per character--it provides ample opportunities for both myself as a GM and as a player.  Plus, since it usually takes up less than a page, it's quick!  Try it!  You'll like it!

In Which The Warlock Mulls Analysis Paralysis...

We have something of a running joke in amongst my gaming/social circle:  the "Karl-o-meter".  You see, my good friend ChaoticKarl tends to take his sweet time when we're playing board games.  Karl's a very mathematical fellow, and (despite my monniker for him) likes to use logic in his moves...which doesn't always work, once the highly unpredictable human element is factored in.  It reached a point once where we literally forced Karl to use an egg timer on his turns, automatically moving on if he hadn't moved before the timer ran out.

The thing that held Karl up so often usually was the sheer number of choices in a game.  Do I move move my piece here or there?  Do I build up this skill/tech-tree or another?  Do I hold my resources?  Do I trade?  Do I purchase now?  Do I use the power-up or save it for later? 

Opportunity cost is a funny thing.  It's so fundamentally critical to game theory and the formation of a good game, but the inclusion of additional opportunities seem to increase the complexity in an almost exponential manner.

Look at all the fiddly-bits! 
So many options!  So many choices!
So much...reading.  :(

It makes me wonder, similarly, about the amount of opportunities in role-playing games today.  The so-called "Old-School Renaissance" has been advocating a return to simpler rules-sets--no power cards, no fiddly-bits, no gimmicks or the like--as a return to "real" role-playing.  Simultaneously, though, we've seen the rise of high-complexity, high fiddly-bit games like 4e D&D and Warhammer Fantasy. 

In some ways, I can equate it to this:

When 4e just came out and your 2nd level Fighter, "The Mighty Jim-Bob," leveled up, he had approximately four options for his 3rd level encounter power.  After a few months, Martial Power came out, doubling those options.  After another month, a Dragon article raised your options to 10.  After four years of sourcebooks, articles, and fan-creations...well, you can imagine the choices!

More options can be good, but each decision--meaningful or not!--slows down gameplay and character creation on a massive scale.  The more options one has in front of them, the more likely that they'll consider each of those options, grinding the game to a halt.

Now, here's the weird thing.  The answer seems to be...less options!

You see, when you take away the power options, the feat choices, the skill points and the rest...you're left with pure imagination.  Now, that's a double-edged sword, since it relies on both player and GM to fill in the details each and every time which, needless to say, is an onerous task!

Minimalist, indeed!

Call of Cthulhu may, in fact, be a perfect example of this minimalist economy.  There are no rules for how many actions a character gets in a round, no power choices, no feats....simply a player saying "I do X" and a GM adjucating that action, occasionally using a handful of abstract stats or skills.  But, for all its wonderful storytelling capacity, a good Call of Cthulhu game hinges on its players buying into the mood and atmosphere created by the GM's narration.  Without a willingness to experiment in a "box-less environment," the game quickly becomes a matter of going through the motions or, more likely, simply falls apart.

As with all things, balance seems to be key.  As a designer, how does one find the balance between over-designing a system, making it overly complex, and under-designing that same system, resulting in vagueness and lack of structure?! 

How does one avoid the dreaded Kotov Syndrome?!

In Which The Warlock Returns from the Void...

Apologies for the extended absence, amices.  Both the PlatinumChick and I got sick last week and are just now starting to get over it!  Between the hacking and coughing out here, we haven't had a chance much to game, though I've been working on my Hell on Earth one-off during the downtime at work.

Old school gaming meets
the technological age!

What's new, though, is my technological edge!  Through some means that I'm not privy to discussing (don't worry, they're legal means!), I found myself in possession of a brand-spankin'-new iPad 2! 

While I'm obligated to use this iPad at work as part of a new initiative, the iPad is unequivocably mine and can be used for pretty much anything I see fit....including gaming!  Obviously, my massive amount of PDFs will go into GoodReads and iBooks, but beyond that, I'm a little stumped.

I'm already familiar with a few 4e D&D and Pathfinder apps that exist, but I'm already on the lookout for more.  While TheJourneymanGM's secret senior thesis isn't quite done yet--though I'll be sure to download it when it is!--I need some more!

So tell me, gamer nation--what should I have on my new device?  What's proved useful, and how?

In Which The Warlock Ponders Parallelism...

It's no secret that I'm a writer.  I'm up to nearly 300 entries on this blog, to say nothing of my writing and editing within the gaming world.  But, even beyond that...I'm an English teacher full-time, with a full Bachelors' degree in English Literature.  What you may not know is that I got my start at revision while in undergraduate at Wittenberg.  As a member of the Wittenberg Writing Center, I worked part-time assisting other undergrads with their academic papers and the like.

As such, I had to be on top of my game.  One of the biggest offenses in most of their writing was something referred to as parallelism. 

Parallelism in math...
Parallelism in writing...

Any kid who's taken algebra or geometry should know what parallel lines are--two lines that continue on indefinitely through a two-dimensional plane, in such a way that they will never cross.  Parallelism in writing is similar, yet not quite so finite.

Under usual circumstances, parallelism comes on the individual sentence level.  To use the example from the Purdue Online Writing Lab,--one of the more pre-eminent writing centers in academia: 

Incorrect:
My degree, my work experience, and ability to complete complicated projects qualify me for the job.
Correct:
My degree, my work experience, and my ability to complete complicated projects qualify me for the job.

The 'correct' example uses the same structure throughout the sentence, which is more correct from a grammatical standpoint and is more appealing when read aloud.

Now, what does this have to do with gaming, you may ask?  Well, you see, while most RPG manuals are fairly well-edited, parallelism doesn't just stop at the sentence level.  Rather, it can (and should!) be continued on a paragraph and even on a piece-length scale.

But what about parallelism within actual game structure? 

4e D&D was unique for its verisimilitude between classes.  While each individual class received its own class abilities at level 1--Fighters got a Weapon Talent and Combat Challenge, Warlocks got Shadow Walk and Warlock's Curse--every class worked in the same manner:  2 At-Wills, Encounters on levels that ended with 3 and 7, Dailies on levels that ended on 5 or 9. 

Many gamers critized for 4e for this maneuver, saying that classes were "too similar", but from a written standpoint, the design was flawless.  But, it made me wonder whether parallelism in design could provide a driving force behind a game mechanic....which explains some of the reasoning behind my work on Cold Steel Wardens. 

Part of the "MAFIANAP" mechanic--the fundamental system that I'm writing to drive CSW is built on parallelism--players have 8 Vitals, four of which govern Mental faculties and four of which govern Physical ability.  The 25 skills are arranged into five groups of five--Physical, Investigative, Social, Knowledge, and Technical. 

But, what I'd like to consider the most crucial bit of parallelism to CSW is the "Strain" system.  Every hero can take a specific abount of Strain, before bad things begin happening to them.  This occurs in both the Physical realm (through fights, wounds, and physical exertioin), but also in the Mental realm (through stress, fear, and mental trauma). 

Don't reach your Breaking Point,
or you'll be taking a MAFIANAP!

In either case, every CSW Hero has a "Breaking Point" on each Strain track.  The Breaking Point represents a threshold, at which the Hero's resilience has finally broken down.  At the Physical Breaking Point, the Strain no longer represents"bumps and bruises", but rather broken bones, shattered ribs, and grievous bodily harm.  At the Mental Breaking Point, the Strain no longer represents everyday stress that can be wiped away with a good night's sleep, but rather damage to the Hero's psyche, resulting in psychoses or other mental disorders.

If CSW comes out as planned, the game should be streamlined and easy for newbies to understand, with mechanics that fade into the background during investigation and social encounters.  We'll see, though!  Next up:  Powers!