Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer

These are questions that I feel players might actually benefit from with their characters after every campaign.  During a campaign characters are bound to experience a multitude of things, hardship, suffering and triumph.  But like real people characters become more interesting when they change along with these situations.

This doesn’t mean of course that all characters should become something else, but there’s a bit of benefit to showing how a character has been irrevocably altered by his or her circumstances.  Some learn to become better, others make the choice to become worse.  But one thing that change does implement is that it makes characters memorable.

If you’ll forgive another “Let me tell you about my Character” moment, I’d like to take Shiba Tetsuya from the current Legend of the Five Rings campaign.  He began as a tortured soul suffering from an unrequited love for the woman that his best friend married.  Instead of lashing out in jealousy, he found renewed purpose in raising their daughter as his own when his best friend died, and the woman had to return to the spirit world.

At first everything seemed clear cut.  Tetsuya was a stickler for the rules, but what was a surprise to himself was how deep his devotion for his ward ran.  When it became clear that the Empire itself was a danger to his ward, Tetsuya forsook all bonds of honor and status, abandoning his duty as a Samurai in order to steal her away and make sure that nobody would be able to harm her.

Throughout the campaign he found himself doing things that he would never have considered as an honorable samurai, but slowly began to rationalize things along the lines that he was a true villain.  Now that the campaign is winding to a close, Tetsuya knows that he’s done so much and broken enough of the societies rules that he’ll never really have a place in the empire he’s worked so hard to save.

What will become of him?  Well, we’ll find out this weekend, but it doesn’t look pretty.

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That being said, Tetsuya wouldn’t be half as interesting if he stayed the same, never learned, never adapted to the situations.  Did he become a better person? Well… it’s debatable.  But he sure as hell became a memorable character.

Exalted has always been something of an odd duck.  A curious blend of mythic fantasy meets anime inspirations blended together with an extensive powers system that has combos and trees and various crazy names, this is the kind of game that polarizes people.  I know people who love the game to bits, and can recite Charm mechanics verbatim off the book, and I know people who hate it just for being what it is without even reading the contents.

I however, have always found myself in an odd love-hate relationship.  I love Exalted’s setting.  It’s bright, new, daring and opens itself to a lot of the kind of playstyles that makes my heart sing.  The systems however has gotten so much more complicated lately that I’m stuck mired in the mud of mechanical drudgery, killing off all these wonderful flighty ideas that I have in concept when the characters die purely because the villains were Better Built™

And so I’ve come to this.  In what could be reasoned as a last ditch attempt to reconcille my expectations with what is, I’m going to dive into this headfirst, and try reading the exalted book from cover to cover, dropping notes and annotations as I go along, bringing up the questions of a man struggling to try and make sense of this game.

What follows is a chapter by chapter read through of the game, accompanied by some of my comments (in blue).  For those who haven’t read Exalted, it might serve as a review.  Though a word of warning, it’s a long post.

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Here’s something that just popped out of nowhere… I’m fairly certain I’m not the target market for this, but if we can get the younger crowd into RPGs with these kinds of books then I’m all for it:

The accompanying copy reads:

“In the world of Witch-Girls power comes in all shapes and sizes. So be nice… or be a toad”

Witch-Girls Adventures is a table top role-playing game that allows its players to participate in a world of magic and mischief. Players take on the role of witches they design from scratch, choosing their powers, skills and abilities. They can attend one of the many magic schools, solve mysteries both magical and mundane and go on adventures limited only by their imagination.

Designed for beginners with simple rules and fantastic illustrations by some of the best up and coming illustrators around Witch Girls Adventures is fun for players of all ages.

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I dimly recall that there was also some sort of Pokemon Adventure game that was similar to an RPG as well.  It’s good to see that even with the major players out there, we’ve got some creative few that are busy plugging away at their own games.

A shame that this probably won’t see the light of day here in the philippines though.  Given all the young girls crazy for W.I.T.C.H. and various other light romance fantasy comics out in the market today, it might actually sell.

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On a side note, I’m pretty happy about the cover.  It’s tasteful, appealing to the eyes, good composition, reasonable use of space, and doesn’t have to rely on sexist imagery to get the point across.  My biggest complaint about it would be the logo though… it seems a bit too tacky as compared to the rest of the image.

While Campaign Creation is on hold (due to it not starting yet and hence nothing to write about), I’m moving on to other things.  Mainly the question of Characters, and how people come up with them, and eventually roleplay them.

Personally, when I’m making a new character, I consider the following:

Concept
A short, one or two sentence summary of what the character is.  For example, some of my characters were initially conceptualized as:

• Shiba Tetsuya (Legend of the Five Rings) - Grizzled Shiba Veteran who holds his love for his ward in higher regard than his Honor… and perhaps even his sanity.
• Wayward Falling Star (Exalted) - Tireless bearer of the light of the Unconquered Sun, dedicated to bringing freedom to the downtrodden and solace to the suffering in Exalted’s harsh and unforgiving world.
• Roscoe Waylan Tomlin Gemfinder (Dungeons & Dragons) - Gnomish cleric of Waukeen, whose tireless devotion to the missing goddess fuels his ability to excel in all things.

History
Where there any significant events that could have influenced the character in the past?  And if so, do these moment give them strength, or erode their will?  Both strengths and weaknesses are good character defining moments.

• Shiba Tetsuya (Legend of the Five Rings) - Fell in love with the mother of his ward, who ended up marrying his best friend.  The unrequited love proved to be both a source of strength and a test of loyalty to Tetsuya.
• Wayward Falling Star (Exalted) - Being raised by a wonderful grandmother who taught him all he needed to know about being a Shaman and a Chieftain of his tribe gave him a solid foundation of Morality.  Even in his ascension as one of the most popular Solars in the Southern portion of Creation, he was able to stave off the Great Curse thanks to the kindly old woman’s words of advice.
• Roscoe Waylan Tomlin Gemfinder (Dungeons & Dragons) - His dissatisfaction with tinkering with gadgets in Lantan and subsequent soul searching resulted in his most powerful religious experience in being ordained as a priest of Waukeen, the goddess of Commerce.

Excellencies and Shortcomings
Everyone wants to play a character that’s good at something.  Sometimes pinning down what your character is good at is a good way to keep tabs on how his build will turn out.  In addition, try to think of things that your character isn’t good at, as those also give more depth to your concept.

• Shiba Tetsuya (Legend of the Five Rings) - Tetsuya is a master when it comes to fighting with the Naginata, he’s also an accomplished diplomat.  Unfortunately being out of the city and surviving on wild roots and game isn’t his thing. His tracking skills on open wilderness leaves a lot to be desired.
• Wayward Falling Star (Exalted) - Wayward is nothing but tough and charismatic.  He’s taken hits that would drop and elephant and shrugged them off like it was nothing.  He’s rallied armies to his name, but he can’t do simple multiplication to save his life.  Planning isn’t his forte, and he finds that he has to rely on the other characters to help him read the contents of a letter.
• Roscoe Waylan Tomlin Gemfinder (Dungeons & Dragons) - Roscoe is cunning, manipulative and downright sneaky.  His mastery of divine magic gives him a lot of options, but they’re a finite resource.  Once he’s all out of spells, and caught in a bind (like the grip of a thug) he’s pretty much helpless.

It’s only at this phase that I actually consider Mechanics.  Rules are great, but I don’t optimize too much that I lose sight of things that humanize my character.  As some of my players can attest, they’ve read stuff like “Hobby: Piano Playing” on my villain’s character sheets if only to round it out and make it more realistic.  I like thinking that the characters I’ll be portraying are human enough to have hobbies, lives, loved one and responsibilities outside of the game.

What shortcuts do you guys use when building a character?

Well, what do you know? I actually hit a year of posting rpg related stuff!

From a half-baked idea meant to just see if WordPress was going to be better than Blogspot, to a full on effort to write about my favorite hobby, I can say that it’s been a fun ride, and I’m already trying to think of new and better ways to improve the blog.

So, if anyone has any suggestions for Articles they’d like to see, drop a comment below, and I’ll see what I can do.

This entry is all about villainy.  If there’s anything that makes a game memorable, it’s the presence of great heroes, and the villains that stand before them.  I’ve actually gone into a lot of discussion about villains before, but given that we’re looking at a whole new set of heroes, let’s take a look at some of the villains that might see play in this campaign.

Like the previous entry, I’ll be splitting the villains into two groups, one for each of the teams.  The villains will also reflect the tone of the game, as some I imagine, maybe more comical than the others.  Knowing that my players will be reading this, I’ll try to keep thing into broad strokes, maybe a hint or two about each villain’s motivations, but I’ll avoid showing my hand even before the game begins.  I don’t have names for these villains yet, but I’ll get to that eventually when I finally stat them out.

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With Saturday come and gone so quickly, I’ve managed to talk to most of my players and sort stuff out.  I’ve got two groups up, as mentioned before and they’ve given me an overview of their characters.   Much in line with the Players article for Campaign Construction, these are the concepts I’ve received, and plot hooks I’m looking to pursue to meet each Players preferences.

So far what I have are:

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Hey guys,

After a little bit of thought, I wouldn’t be able to go and discuss characters with my players until the weekend, so I suppose I could work on something else.  In this case, it will be about Themes and Styles of Play.

As you may have read in the previous article, I’m actually running two campaigns as I’m splitting my group of players into two groups (5 players, and 6 players respectively.)  Due to the size of the group and the diversity in playing styles, I’m pitching two different campaigns with similar elements.

Already I can tell that my job is getting more difficult as now I’ve got the same premise viewed in a different lens.  The common denominator is that both groups are still going to be part of the esteemed Pathfinder Society.  From there I’ll be taking two different paths:

Elements for Group 1:

• Adventure
• Exploration
• Intrigue/Comedy
• Some Politics
• Plots and Plans

Elements for Group 2:

• Adventure
• Exploration
• Action/Comedy
• Mass Combat
• Ale and Whores

This isn’t to say that there won’t be cross-pollination of these elements, only that I’m gunning for a slightly different feel to each one.  Group 1, for example might find themselves having to make their way through a war-torn territory, to the point that they might have to take on mass combat.  At the same time a character from Group 2 might find himself having to bail out with some really creative fast talk after being caught with the Wizard’s daughter in the hay barn.

At this point I’d like to review my style of play.

Lethality

As a GM, I’ve occasionally been told that I’m too lenient, or that I’m too nice, so I’m hunkering down this time and putting on my war hat.  First session would be good enough for people to find their sea legs, but after than, I’m going to have to go all out.  This is actually perfectly acceptable due to the Raise Dead Ritual available in D&D, while death is a big deal in other game systems like say… Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying.

Interactivity

Character Interaction is one of the few things that I focus a lot on.  Players in my games can get a lot of things done by just negotiating or talking their way through things.  I’d like to retain this feature of my games, though I’ll have to curb it for the non-humanoid races.  After all, the world is a simpler place if orcs were evil and goblins couldn’t be rationalized as a sympathetic and misunderstood race.

Tone

This is where things will be slightly different.  Admittedly one half of my gaming group doesn’t really care much for ethical or moral conflict.  These guys look forward to gaming in an admittedly simple social environment.  Good is good and Evil is evil, and all the bad guys must pay.  Taking enemies prisoner isn’t part of the norm unless it’s to torture them for information.  Kicking down doors and taking names is the standard fare.  I don’t have anything against this preference in style of play, so I’ll probably increase the volume and frequency of combat, and probably not bother too much with creating cleverly hidden plots for villains.  A dragon or something big at the end of the campaign would probably be just right.

The other half of the group finds fun in both kicking ass, and outwitting the enemy.  Plans that outmaneuver and outwit opponents and bypass combat is the usual fare.  As such, I’ll be granting full experience for disabling or bypassing a threat completely rather than just killing everything in sight.  I want to be able to cater to both play styles, and just to keep things interesting, I’ll probably have a villain or two with forward thinking and planning capabilities as well, just to make sure that I get to match strength for strength.

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With that out of the way and the weekend just a few hours away, I’ll be looking at character concepts in my next entry, which I’ll probably be posting on monday.  There we’ll take a look at the group’s characters, possibly their backstories, and who joins which team to give everyone a game they’ll enjoy.

(warning: LONG article)

Since RPGs are a social activity, you really can’t get anywhere without players.  As such, it’s always good to get to know your players before you start any attempt at a big game.  Likewise, it’s good to know what expectations players have of your game as well.  Both the GM and the players should view themselves as participants in a fun activity.  Neither side should end up as a passive audience for the other.

For this section, I’ll also include their tolerances to various aspects of a roleplaying game as I’ve observed previously.  For new players that I’ve never handled, I’ll hazard a guess or at least give a rating of “unknown”

The Ratings are as follows:

• Roleplay Tolerance - How much “talking” and in character behavior a player can stand
• Story Tolerance - How much of the plot will a player be willing to lead her character through
• Mechanics Tolerance - How much number crunching can be expected of a character

In addition there’s also a short comment on Possible Hooks I can use to appeal to the player.

That being said, I’ll go through my gaming group’s players (in no particular order, and only via nicknames or first names) and rate their preferences as best I can.

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Hello everyone, and welcome to Campaign Construction, a new multi-part article I’ll be working on as I put together an upcoming game of 4e Dungeons & Dragons for my gaming group.

The purpose of this series is to explore the process of Campaign Design from the ground up from my persepective, and will serve as a reference of things that did and didn’t work.  As such, I’ll most likely put up a post-mortem analysis of the campaign when it draws to a close and compare it to the things that I would have written here.  Comments and Questions are highly encouraged, and I’ll make sure to reply to all questions as necessary.

Like all endeavours, a campaign is never a sure hit.  Having been part of dozens of campaigns, both big and small, I’ll be the first to tell you that there is always a possibility that a campaign can go sour.  Whether it dies stillborn before it even sees play, or if it fizzles out midway due to burnout, campaigns sometimes see untimely deaths.

That being said, the first step is to always plan.  Planning helps soothe a lot of the bumps encountered along the way, and in this aspect, I’d like to go over the basics of campaign design:

The Rules

For this campaign, I’m aiming to run Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition.  Having just picked it up, most of the D&D fans of the group are looking forward to giving it a spin, and having never really run a complete D&D campaign before, it seems like a great place for a fresh start.

I have the rulebooks with me, and so far a quick study of them shows that while the systems is slightly less flexible in the number of rules that govern situations out of combat, I’m certain a little GM elbow grease will fix any odd situations.

The Setting

It’s arguable that D&D is it’s own Genre.  Unlike regular fantasy, it has it’s own ground rules, like the solid definition of Good and Evil factions, as well as the undeniable existence of Classes as an actual thing, rather than a metagame distinction.  Given this constraint, it’s also somewhat comforting for new GMs to have part of their work made out for them.

I’ll be working with the default “Points of Light” setting, that the designers had described as a fantasy world where civilization are these points of light in a vast darkness represented by the unknown wilderness and the dangers that lurk there.

The Players

Player expectations and the management thereof is a huge point for me, and I try very hard to tailor my game to appeal to as many of their interests as possible.  The player characters are the stars of the show after all, and if they are constantly frustrated by meeting inappropriate opposition the fun factor of the game drops to an all time low.  I’ll go into further detail of the players in a separate article as it requires quite a large amount of depth.

Inspirations

Given that this isn’t my forte when it comes to Campaign Settings, I’ve decided to rip out the Pathfinder Society from Paizo Publishing’s excellent Pathfinder line of products.  I’m probably going to rip apart NPCs, and fold, spindle and mutilate things to fit my campaign, but the basic idea of a Society of Explorer’s whose exploits are famed the world over will stay.

Also, I’ve been reading up on Robert E. Howard’s Chronicles of Conan, to give my campaign that little bit of exoticism meets heavy metal edge to it.  Revisiting worlds by David & Leigh Eddings gives me an idea of campaigns revolving around Big Damn Heroes, and a little Terry Brooks to add a little more realism.

Anime is not in this particular campaign, and neither is Wuxia.  We’re going back to the ideas of high fantasy, sword & sorcery and good old western fantasy.  No whatever-no-jutsu, just thews of iron and arcane spells.

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Next up on my agenda:

A cursory review of my players and their favored playing style.  General plot hooks I can use and character concepts submitted thus far.