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<title>Alex Schroeder: advice</title>
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<pubDate>Mon, 20 May 2013 10:14:53 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Alex Schroeder: advice</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki</link>
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<item>
<title>Player Engagement</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-12-11_Player_Engagement</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-12-11_Player_Engagement</guid>
<description>&lt;div class="right" style="float: right"&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kensanata/8221269456/" class="url http"&gt;&lt;img class="url http" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8340/8221269456_acc1e3864d_n.jpg" alt="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8340/8221269456_acc1e3864d_n.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;What motivates a referee? I think positive feedback is a key element. I&amp;#x2019;m not just thinking of players thanking you for running the game or players saying that they like your style. What I really enjoy is players who get excited when they&amp;#x2019;re thinking of the next session, players who&amp;#x2019;re sad if they have to miss a session, players who tell other people about the funny things they did, the terrible things that happened. &lt;em style="font-style: normal; letter-spacing: 0.125em; padding-left: 0.125em;"&gt;Player engagement&lt;/em&gt; is intoxicating, infectious.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;DM Peter recently ended one of the campaigns I&amp;#x2019;m playing in, citing lack of player engagement. It&amp;#x2019;s a tricky subject: who is responsible for it, how do you measure it, how do you foster it? Here&amp;#x2019;s what has worked for me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Alpha players&lt;/b&gt; are always at the forefront of everything. They edit the campaign wiki. They write a log. They never loose track of their character&amp;#x2019;s experience, wealth, equipment and encumbrance. Their characters have plans. Their characters have issues. If you get one or two of them, that&amp;#x2019;s great. I found that my games can take a lot of casual gamers, however. Not everybody needs to be an alpha players. Quiet people, hard working people, parents, people with little time between sessions are just as entertaining at the table. Realizing this has made it possible for me to enjoy more games. If I need more games to fill the time between sessions, I run more games or join more campaigns.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Session reports&lt;/b&gt; are a measurable by-product of our games. Long session reports that cast the events in a mythical light, provide more intimate glimpses of the characters, provide extra details and entertaining complications are great. There will always be players that don&amp;#x2019;t have the time to write such session reports and there will always be players that don&amp;#x2019;t have the time &lt;em style="font-style: normal; letter-spacing: 0.125em; padding-left: 0.125em;"&gt;read&lt;/em&gt; such session reports. Preposterous, you might think. And yet, this thought will set you up for disappointment. If one person keeps a few notes on the back of their character sheet and can bring everybody back up to speed at the beginning of the next session, that works just as well. Realizing this, I have cut down on my session report writing. These days, I don&amp;#x2019;t write to entertain, &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-06-16_Session_Reports_Are_Read_Just_Once%2c_If_At_All"&gt;I write to remember&lt;/a&gt;. A short list of events is all that is required. Now I no longer feel close to session writer burnout, I&amp;#x2019;m no longer disappointed by the disinterest of my fellow players.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Player contributions&lt;/b&gt; are an inspiration: I try to encourage players to contribute little elements to our fairly traditional game. Sometimes the personality traits of a player character turn out to be the personality traits &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-03-21_My_Shadow_Elves"&gt;of an entire culture&lt;/a&gt;. Sometimes the ambitions of a player can shape an arc of the campaign. Sometimes, however, none of the players seem to be willing to contribute anything other than playing their character. In this case, a referee might feel cornered into the role of the untiring entertainer, a thankless job of crafting adventures for unappreciative players. This can be deadly for a sandbox campaign. I have found two solutions to this problem in my campaign:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Recurring villains&lt;/b&gt; and big bosses are ideal. They get mentioned at least once every session. Their goons can be defeated, their lieutenants keep showing up, they keep looming in the distance. The lich queen of grey elves. I think that an invisible enemy doesn&amp;#x2019;t do the same job. We &lt;em style="font-style: normal; letter-spacing: 0.125em; padding-left: 0.125em;"&gt;want&lt;/em&gt; players to engage with their nemesis. How can they hate unknown forces? There can be betrayal at the very end, there can be reveals further down the line, but in the end, the players must feel like there is a constant, personal threat by a limited number of known enemies that they can focus on.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Achievable goals&lt;/b&gt; are the positive counterpart to villains. I present these as opportunities for players. There&amp;#x2019;s a dead god and some people still pray to him. Maybe a player takes it upon himself to &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-10-11_Traveller%2c_Spelljammer%2c_Planescape"&gt;revive the dead god&lt;/a&gt;. There are temples to a god of justice and rumors of her paladins. Maybe a player want to pursue this? Maybe a dead character can be offered this choice in order to get revived? I think the key part here is that these are options presented to the players as part of the setting. These are not part of character creation. I also think it&amp;#x2019;s important to keep introducing more of these goals such that players have a real choice. Don&amp;#x2019;t invest a lot of work into these options before a player has picked it. Start developing it once players are hooked.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Addictive elements&lt;/b&gt; to game play. Yes, it&amp;#x2019;s mean. It&amp;#x2019;s called the &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement#Effects_of_different_types_of_simple_schedules"&gt;variable ratio reinforcement schedule&lt;/a&gt;: a reinforcement schedule in which the number of responses necessary to produce reinforcement varies from trial to trial, according to Wikipedia. I feel that&amp;#x2019;s why &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-08-15_Unbalanced_Encounters_Are_Fun"&gt;unbalanced encounters are fun&lt;/a&gt;. There can be two or three sessions where practically no treasure is found and characters gain less than a hundred experience points each and other sessions where the major hoard is found and each character gets a thousand experience points or more. Knowing this puts some of them on edge. They want to make sure not to miss the one gold session that will pay off big time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I hope these points help you adjust your expectations and help you increase player engagement in your campaigns.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/RPG"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=Sandbox"&gt;Sandbox&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/Sandbox"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=advice"&gt;advice&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/advice"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=Keep%20It%20Short"&gt;Keep It Short&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/Keep%20It%20Short"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:48:11 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2012-12-11_Player_Engagement</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
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<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2012-12-11_Player_Engagement</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2012-12-11_Player_Engagement</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>Sandbox</category>
<category>advice</category>
<category>Keep It Short</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>Death</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-08-25_Death</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-08-25_Death</guid>
<description>&lt;div class="right" style="float: right"&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kensanata/6078971449/" class="url http"&gt;&lt;img class="url http" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6195/6078971449_0b628959d1.jpg" alt="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6195/6078971449_0b628959d1.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Christian wonders whether he&amp;#x2019;s being a &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://unknownzine.blogspot.com/2011/08/pushover.html"&gt;Pushover&lt;/a&gt; and says: &amp;#x201c;I am growing weary of playing it safe. Safe bores me as a player and I am starting to feel that as a GM. […] My games are safe and the players know it. If PCs never die, why fear anything?&amp;#x201d;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I wonder. Is death in D&amp;amp;D and friends not simply a speed bump on the way up levels with all the resurrection magic available?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In my D&amp;amp;D 3.5 sandbox campaign I had deals offered by factions that knew resurrection magic (the lammasu ruling over the dwarves, the horned devil trying to break free from his cave prison, the Orcus priests, the elf druid in a village threatened by the troll king). Players could pick the kind of quest they want to embark on by picking the right faction. The resulting geas has always enriched our game.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The complications and side-tracking involved work well for a sandbox campaign. It&amp;#x2019;s trickier to do in a straight adventure path because of the extra experience points gained and because the plot itself might impose in-game time limits.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The detraction also works well in a sandbox because players have picked their own goals for their characters (the conquest of the subterranean city, the building of a tower, the finding of a planar sage). Thus, delays due to character death, resurrection and follow-up quests delay the achieving of in-game goals. Death is still something to be feared and groaned over.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table class="user"&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a class="image noborder" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/gm_badges/characterdeath.png"&gt;&lt;img class="upload" title="" src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/gm_badges/characterdeath.png" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;Players characters &lt;b&gt;Death&lt;/b&gt; is a likely event in my games.&lt;br /&gt;It doesn&amp;#x2019;t happen often, but it does happen once in every five to ten sessions, it seems.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;This approach doesn&amp;#x2019;t work in games where death is final. That&amp;#x2019;s something I disliked about the short-lived Rolemaster campaign I was part of: I was afraid of my character dying not just because the system was deadly but because character generation took so damn long!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For my new Labyrinth Lord game, ressurection is hard to come by. Usually characters don&amp;#x2019;t die per se, they are taken out by the &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2008/06/playing-with-death-and-dismemberment.html"&gt;Death and Dismemberment&lt;/a&gt; table in use. Forced to retire their characters for several weeks with broken bones, they often finish the adventure using a henchman, skip many weeks of in-game time, and resume. I usually take the liberty of advancing many of the plots by a few weeks as well. Trails are lost, new factions arrive, rivals grow stronger…&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/RPG"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=advice"&gt;advice&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/advice"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:40:26 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2011-08-25_Death</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
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<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2011-08-25_Death</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2011-08-25_Death</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>advice</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>Building a Better GM</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-08-20_Building_a_Better_GM</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-08-20_Building_a_Better_GM</guid>
<description>&lt;div class="right" style="float: right"&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kensanata/5674092962/" class="url http"&gt;&lt;img class="url http" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5227/5674092962_751e832e77.jpg" alt="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5227/5674092962_751e832e77.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;I just read about the &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2011/08/building-better-gm-challenge.html"&gt;Building a Better GM&lt;/a&gt; challenge over on the Hill Cantons blog:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Name three “best practices” you possess as a GM. What techniques do you think you excel at?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;What makes those techniques work? Why do they “pop”?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;How do you do it? What are the tricks you use? What replicable, nuts-and-bolts tips can you share?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hm, thinking back on how other games are being run in the area, I think that first and foremost &lt;b&gt;I am a good host&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;I actually run as many games as I can manage instead of just talking about running a game. The worst way to run a game is to not run it at all.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;We have no kids that require our attention, my wife also likes to game, we have a big enough living room and a nice gaming table. No matter how hard you try, it&amp;#x2019;s going to be harder if family members need to sleep, babies need attention or the table is tiny.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I pick dates for months in advance, use Google Calendars and send friendly reminder emails. This takes energy and discipline. If the weather on Sunday is damn hot and I&amp;#x2019;d rather go for a swim in the lake&amp;#x2014;no can do. I promised to host and that&amp;#x2019;s that. I&amp;#x2019;ll try very hard to make it happen.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I try hard to resist changes to commitments made. If one player out of five can&amp;#x2019;t make it, that&amp;#x2019;s unfortunate. Starting an email discussion discussing alternatives risks confusing and annoying everybody.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;People will learn that I am dependable. I am a rock. When I am dependable, others will be as well. Avoid uncertainty and doubt.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;When I was a teenager, a player told me that he loved my scenarios. There was always great scenery. These days, reading about &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://planetalgol.blogspot.com/"&gt;Planet Algol&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2011/05/review-vornheim.html"&gt;Vornheim&lt;/a&gt;, I feel humbled and don&amp;#x2019;t feel like I can claim great creativity. But I can claim something else: &lt;b&gt;I improvise well&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;When I returned to role-playing games in 2006 and to D&amp;amp;D 3.5 in particular, it did not take long for me to realize that I desperately &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2007-06-29_Save_Prep_Time"&gt;needed to save prep time&lt;/a&gt;. I decided that preparing one hour for a four hour session was the most I was willing to invest.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Even if running D&amp;amp;D 3.5 or Pathfinder, I stick to this rule and make up the rest. I don&amp;#x2019;t fiddle with stats. I either use a monster from the monster manual, or I make up plausible stats on the spot.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I don&amp;#x2019;t plan where the campaign will go, but I always have around five plots on hold waiting for the players. Sometimes I&amp;#x2019;ll advance or end plots because by choosing to ignore the appropriate plot hooks my players are telling me that they don&amp;#x2019;t want to pursue these plots.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I may not know where the campaign is going, but I have a pretty good idea of where it went in the past. I usually maintain a &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.campaignwiki.org/"&gt;Campaign Wiki&lt;/a&gt; for every campaign. This helps me remember stuff that happened and allows me to improvise motivations, events and NPCs that fit into the greater picture. This also imbues past events with more significance and helps the suspension of disbelief.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;This last point warrants emphasizing. I may not prepare a lot &lt;em&gt;before&lt;/em&gt; running a game, but I certainly will think about it a lot &lt;em&gt;after&lt;/em&gt; running a game. (I called it &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2009-06-26_Postparation"&gt;postparation&lt;/a&gt; in jest back in 2009.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;After six or ten sessions, you will need to prepare less and less, because you already prepared dungeons and towns and hex maps for previous adventures. You can return to old locales, old acquaintances, old plots and keep on adding detail. The lizard patrol you met is looking for the old lizard druid that you defeated a few sessions ago. The sage you seek knows how to unlock the portal you saw a few sessions ago. The pasha tells you to fight the blue dragon that took your magic items a few sessions ago.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I make sure my players have a map of the region. As they explore, they get to add new places and people to the map. Having the map in front of them allows them to remember past events and makes it easy to point somewhere and go back to places they have already seen and visit people they already met.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;By picking up past events, places and people multiple times, the world seems to be rich and solid. I don&amp;#x2019;t have to improvise all the time. Whatever I improvised, I will take note of it after the session.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;And lastly, &lt;b&gt;I am very tolerant&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;I am willing take a lot of shit before kicking people out of my games. I don&amp;#x2019;t &lt;em&gt;want&lt;/em&gt; to suffer a lot before making hard choices but I am often amazed at how long I am willing to make excuses for other people.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I will run games in German or English as required.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I will take the time to introduce people to the game at their own pace. I will make sure that more experience players don&amp;#x2019;t push inexperienced players around and I will not be impatient. Instead, I will offer them two or three smart moves to make when their turn comes up.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;When I don&amp;#x2019;t understand how players behaved at the table, I talk it over with my wife. Seriously, getting an outside perspective is important to me. Am I imagining things? Am I overreacting? I need to find a benevolent explanation for what they said or did. I don&amp;#x2019;t want anger to build up.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I&amp;#x2019;m not good at confronting people. This is something I need to work on, maybe. Here in Switzerland confronting people involves loosing face, even though everybody claims that this is what one should do.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I can handle all &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2007-07-23_Player_Types"&gt;player types&lt;/a&gt; at my gaming table even if I have my preferences.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I am willing to use different rules. In fact, I am curious about different rules. I have tried D&amp;amp;D 4, &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://norwegianstyle.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/archipelago/"&gt;Archipelago&lt;/a&gt;, and everything in between. I am interested in all systems without having developed Gamer&amp;#x2019;s Attention Deficiency Syndrome. (I try to keep system purchases down and rarely switch campaigns to different systems just because something new and shiny has caught my eye.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Be benevolent, understanding, patient, curious&amp;#x2014;and firm. Make it a point to work on your social skills.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;So, there you have it. I am a lousy encounter builder. I don&amp;#x2019;t use terrain a lot. In fact I like my combat to be very short. I don&amp;#x2019;t like thieves, I don&amp;#x2019;t like traps. I spent a lot of time learning the D&amp;amp;D 3.5 rules and know them well, and yet I can&amp;#x2019;t make character builds that rock in a min-max kind of way. I rarely do funny voices, my setting is vanilla fantasy of the &lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;Wilderlands of High Fantasy&lt;/em&gt; sort. But the three practices that keep my games running are the following:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt; I am a good host.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt; I improvise well.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt; I am very tolerant.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;(The collection of all the advice given by the various participating GMs has been &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2011/08/now-playing-at-free-download-near-you.html"&gt;collected over at the Hill Cantons&lt;/a&gt; as a free download.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/RPG"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=advice"&gt;advice&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/advice"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Sat, 20 Aug 2011 20:12:16 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2011-08-20_Building_a_Better_GM</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2011-08-20_Building_a_Better_GM</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2011-08-20_Building_a_Better_GM</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>advice</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>Tools for a Sandbox Referee</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-05-05_Tools_for_a_Sandbox_Referee</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-05-05_Tools_for_a_Sandbox_Referee</guid>
<description>&lt;div class="right" style="float: right"&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kensanata/5662000738/" class="url http"&gt;&lt;img class="url http" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5142/5662000738_b9e7309e0f.jpg" alt="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5142/5662000738_b9e7309e0f.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;The following developed out of a discussion on Google Reader regarding Rob Conley&amp;#x2019;s &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-manage-sandbox-campaign-box-of.html"&gt;How to manage a sandbox campaign: The Box of Stuff&lt;/a&gt;. A friend started the discussion by saying more or less &amp;#x201c;I miss techniques that can help a GM improvise – except for random tables which have been discussed a lot. What other tools are there?&amp;#x201d; My reply turned into the following list of lists.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Random encounter tables have been discussed before. More generically, I prefer to organize my &amp;#x201c;stuff&amp;#x201d; in the form of lists. Keep these on index cards if you like. I keep meaning to do that, but I&amp;#x2019;m too lazy so all of this just ends up on pages upon pages in my little campaign notebooks or on my &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.campaignwiki.org/"&gt;campaign wikis&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here are the kinds of lists I keep. Usually these act as todo lists, not as tables to roll on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Lists of names and NPC traits in order to quickly improvise people. I also like to use a d6 for male/female and young/middle/old age. This works well if you run a game in a particular culture such as a 1001 Nights setting: &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/txt/Arabic%20Feminine%20Names.txt"&gt;Arabic Feminine Names&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/txt/Arabic%20Masculine%20Names.txt"&gt;Arabic Male Names&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A lists of relevant factions and their goal. In a hex crawl those can be the nearby tribes.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A list of current events, rumors, contact people. These provide easy plot hooks. In one of my campaigns I keep two separate lists for the two locations the players like to return to; one basically provides lawful missions, the other provides chaotic missions.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A list of drop-in events specific to particular players. These act as plot hooks, and they act as surprise fillers.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A list of monsters, or drop-in encounters to place on random encounter tables or to be dropped in at low points.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A list of nearby adventuring locales that have more preparation than just a few names of people and their jobs. I like to place entries from the &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://campaignwiki.org/wiki/DungeonMaps/One_Page_Dungeon_Contest"&gt;One Page Dungeon Contest&lt;/a&gt; on my maps and adapt them on the fly, usually over the course of two or three sessions.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A list of random gear (to roll on) for starting characters in order to inspire players to come up with a recent past. This is often silly stuff like random &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2010/08/bx-headgear-new-charts-to-gear-up-your.html"&gt;Headgear&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;After every session, go over the list of factions, events, rumors, contacts, and remove some, change some, add some. From preparation to &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2009-06-26_Postparation"&gt;postparation&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;After every session, go over the things players expressed an interest &lt;em&gt;in game&lt;/em&gt;. They researched something, followed up on something, asked people about something. I think it is important to ignore players just &lt;em&gt;talking&lt;/em&gt; about something because talk is cheap. This is how detail gets added to whatever players care about and nothing else.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also, watch a lot of cheap movies and read a lot of science fiction and fantasy books. &lt;img class="smiley" src="http://www.emacswiki.org/pics/smile.png" alt=":)" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/RPG"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Old%20School"&gt;Old School&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Old%20School"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Sandbox"&gt;Sandbox&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Sandbox"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=advice"&gt;advice&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/advice"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Thu, 05 May 2011 11:34:15 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2011-05-05_Tools_for_a_Sandbox_Referee</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2011-05-05_Tools_for_a_Sandbox_Referee</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2011-05-05_Tools_for_a_Sandbox_Referee</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>Old School</category>
<category>Sandbox</category>
<category>advice</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>Seven Players</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2010-07-07_Seven_Players</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2010-07-07_Seven_Players</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;Over on the &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://forum.35privatesanctuary.com/"&gt;3.5 Private Sanctuary Forum&lt;/a&gt; somebody asked &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://forum.35privatesanctuary.com/viewtopic.php?p=7372#7372"&gt; The Big Group Issue - Save Us!&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; and I suggested the following measures:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Roll initiative at the beginning. Take the highest initiative modifier for the enemies and just roll once. Announce the number. &lt;b&gt;Any player character who beats this number can go. Then the enemies go. Then all the player characters go again, in any order.&lt;/b&gt; Either by how quickly they can decide, or go around the table. This works because they could delay for another anyway. The only thing that you loose is unconscious and dying characters effectively get to delay as well, but that&amp;#x2019;s not problem for me. The benefit is that you can just ask &amp;#x201c;has every body gone?&amp;#x201d; and if nobody says anything, enemies go. Plus: indecisive players automatically have more time to decide.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;No take-backs for players or DM&lt;/b&gt; once the next person has gone. Explain to your players that the DM also makes mistakes, and there will be no take-backs either.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Encourage a caller/leader&lt;/strong&gt; player. Sometimes a lot of people at the table can lead to indecisiveness. Ask: &amp;#x201c;so, who&amp;#x2019;s the leader? who has the most experience? who has the most charisma?&amp;#x201d; and then start asking them instead of asking the entire group. Make sure your players are ok with that. Make sure players don&amp;#x2019;t have to announce the obvious stuff. Assume the elf is always searching, the rogue is always sneaking, etc. If you&amp;#x2019;re benevolent like that, they&amp;#x2019;ll accept more guidance by a caller/leader player.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Skip over the obvious parts. &lt;b&gt;If the enemies are loosing, have them run away&lt;/b&gt;, or surrender, or let players narrate how they finish them off.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Modify spells that require a lot of die rolling.&lt;/b&gt; Entangle or Web are such spells: A lot of creatures get caught in the area, need to save, every round, etc. Agree upon alternate solutions such as &amp;#x201c;can move as many feet per round as their &amp;#x201c;strength or escape artist (dex) bonus&amp;#x201d; and be done with it. Or have one roll for half the enemies, or all the enemies.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;Limit the game to lower levels.&lt;/b&gt; Higher levels means rolling lots of dice and doing lots of additions. Depending on your game, that slows players down.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Encourage players to &lt;b&gt;write the current bonuses down&lt;/b&gt; so that they don&amp;#x2019;t have to add up effects after rolling dice (avoiding &amp;#x201c;uh&amp;#x2026; prayer +1, haste +1, bull strength +2, …). Less calculations while everybody is waiting.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Use the &lt;b&gt;simplification for multiple attacks&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-rules-discussion/248004-iterative-attacks.html"&gt;suggested by Wulf Ratbane&lt;/a&gt;. All iterative attacks now have the same attack bonus and get easier to resolve.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;The simplification for multiple attacks works as follows: Instead of the cascading bonuses for current iterative attacks, up to a possible 4th attack at BAB +16, the variant works as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;At BAB +6, you get a 2nd attack. Both attacks are made at a -2 penalty (instead of 0/-5).&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;At BAB +11, the penalty drops to -1.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;At BAB +16, the penalty drops to 0.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;When hasted you get an extra attack using the same penalty.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;With Two-Weapon Fighting, you gain an extra attack with your off-hand.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;With Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, you gain two extra attacks with your off-hand.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;With Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, your penalty for fighting with two weapons decreases by 1.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Statistically, you get similar damage output as current iterative attack rules, except at the corner cases when facing foes whose ACs are extremely high or extremely low relative to your attack bonus. The big advantage – fewer rolls, but in particular fewer different bonuses to add!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You can allow both rules as written and the above simplification at the table. Some players might feel that they&amp;#x2019;re quick enough at adding things up and they like the rules – no problem. Those that are slow might prefer this simplification.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And finally, enjoy the chaos at the table! Maximize the part that is cool about having so many people at the table. It&amp;#x2019;s not intimate. It&amp;#x2019;s not personal. It&amp;#x2019;s about chaos, mayhem, confusion, and action. If there&amp;#x2019;s one person that gets the spotlight such as a bard or paladin doing Diplomacy, make sure that this too plays fast and make sure to allow other players to help out. Simply encouraging a lot of Aid Another is a good way to start.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Additional suggestion by Adrian in the comments:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Let players &lt;b&gt;know the AC&lt;/b&gt; of their enemies so that players can &lt;b&gt;pre-roll attacks&lt;/b&gt;. The slight advantage gained by characters using Power Attack in the first few rounds is negligible.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;If you have some favorite spells or dragon breath attacks, &lt;strong&gt;take the average of ⅔ of your dice&lt;/strong&gt; and write it down. Just roll the remaining ⅓ of your dice at the table.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/RPG"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=advice"&gt;advice&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/advice"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:25:18 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2010-07-07_Seven_Players</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2010-07-07_Seven_Players</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2010-07-07_Seven_Players</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>advice</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>Quality Dungeons</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2010-02-05_Quality_Dungeons</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2010-02-05_Quality_Dungeons</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;What do I personally like about small dungeons? The kind that keep us busy for a session or two? The kind that would make appropriate entries into the &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://campaignwiki.org/wiki/DungeonMaps/One_Page_Dungeon_Contest_2010"&gt;One Page Dungeon Contest 2010&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;A handfull of named NPCs with goals and quirks to interact with.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Potential allies for the more politically inclined players.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Maybe even a third party beyond the party and the enemies.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Relations between these NPCs in a sentence or two. A is hiding from B. C really hates D. E escaped from the prison run by F.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Factions that these NPCs belong to. Actions will have long term consequences if factions are involved.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Intelligent opposition. If the monsters are too stupid, no amount of trickery will help.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;If monsters are not intelligent, make them interesting. Slimes are more interesting than low-level undead because we&amp;#x2019;ve seen so many of those.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Good looking maps. A good looking map appeals to the referee and says &amp;#x201c;Pick me! Pick me!&amp;#x201d;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Notes on the map itself make it easier to get an overview of the place.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Multiple entrances for players to choose from.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Multiple exits for referees to append to.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A map that suggests multiple goals. Rescue prisoner here, kill boss there, find hidden treasure over there. That adds replayability.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A map key that is easy to skim by using &lt;b&gt;bold keywords&lt;/b&gt; for monsters and other stuff of prime importance to players.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A setup that can be exploited in combat by tactically minded players. A bottleneck, a ledge, a bridge, a fortified position, a sally port.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;An opportunity to spy on enemies for the stealthily minded players. A murder hole, a grate, a tiny tunnel, a scrying ball.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A map that could potentially work as the beginning of a campaign. It suggests greater things beyond its edge.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Memorable magic items. A rod of thunder and lightning is better than a &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt; +1&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Stuff to interact with for players who like to experiment. Add suggestions for possible reactions.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Traps that trick players such as finding amulets from a faction and the suggestion to wear them somewhere, and then realizing that an opposing faction built a trap for fools just like that.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Opportunity for long-term change to the player characters. Getting a title, an extra arm, the blessing of a god, a fancy familiar.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;These thoughts culled from my comments on some of my favorite submissions in last year’s contest: &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2009-07-01_Personal_Favorites"&gt;2009-07-01 Personal Favorites&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2009-07-02_More_of_my_1PDC_Favorites"&gt;2009-07-02 More of my 1PDC Favorites&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2009-07-19_One_Page_Dungeon_Contest_Favorites"&gt;2009-07-19 One Page Dungeon Contest Favorites&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2009-08-23_The_Last_Bunch_Of_Favorites"&gt;2009-08-23 The Last Bunch Of Favorites&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do you agree? Do you have other preferences?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;PS: There&amp;#x2019;s still time to submit your entry to the &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://campaignwiki.org/wiki/DungeonMaps/One_Page_Dungeon_Contest_2010"&gt;One Page Dungeon Contest 2010&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; we have tons of prizes and I have only received two submissions until now. You still have a bit more than &lt;b&gt;three weeks&lt;/b&gt; to work on it. Deadline is the first second of March 1, 0:00 GMT (careful about the timezone!)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;PPS: Don&amp;#x2019;t let the list intimidate you. I&amp;#x2019;m just one of the seven judges. And my own submission to last year&amp;#x2019;s contest was in no way close  &lt;img class="smiley" src="http://www.emacswiki.org/pics/smile.png" alt=":)" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/RPG"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=maps"&gt;maps&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/maps"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=1PDC"&gt;1PDC&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/1PDC"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=advice"&gt;advice&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/advice"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:09:23 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2010-02-05_Quality_Dungeons</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>updated</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>3</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2010-02-05_Quality_Dungeons</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2010-02-05_Quality_Dungeons</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>maps</category>
<category>1PDC</category>
<category>advice</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>DM Advice – Speed Up Combat</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2008-04-07_DM_Advice_%e2%80%93_Speed_Up_Combat</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2008-04-07_DM_Advice_%e2%80%93_Speed_Up_Combat</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;In response to a thread on &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.enworld.org/"&gt;EN World&lt;/a&gt; about &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=4150795"&gt;Suggestions for Speeding Up Combat&lt;/a&gt; I provided the following list:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Let one of the players handle Initiative.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Let one or two players handle rule questions. I was both lucky and unlucky for having rule lawyers in my group. The bad part is that they really want to play it by the book. The good part is that they bring their books along and are willing to look things up when it is not their turn. Fight fire with fire, I say! Works for me&amp;#x2026;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Roll as many dice together as possible.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Provide &amp;#x201c;combat sheets&amp;#x201d; for your players where they can write down their to hit, damage, etc. for the various common buff combos. No more mumbling &amp;#x201c;well&amp;#x2026; +7 to hit, +1 because of Bless, don&amp;#x2019;t forget Prayer, Protection of Evil, and now I&amp;#x2019;m Enlarged, or does that cancel? Uhm&amp;#x2026; and favorite enemy&amp;#x2026; Uhhh&amp;#x2026;&amp;#x201d; Let them compute it once and write it down. Some people can add up lots of numbers very quickly. I&amp;#x2019;m not one of them, and neither are some of my players. This is for us.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Suggest a common-sense action or Delay if they aren&amp;#x2019;t sure what to do. I find this helps the not-so-tactically-minded players. I suggest &amp;#x201c;Ready an action to hit the first monster to come within range!&amp;#x201d; and they&amp;#x2019;ll brighten up and nod. Great! Avoid providing more &lt;i&gt;choice&lt;/i&gt;. More choice results in more time spent making a decision.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;All spellcasters should have &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/dnd3e/#sheets"&gt;Spell Record Sheets&lt;/a&gt;. Spellcasters are not allowed at my table unless they bring those sheets along! &lt;img class="smiley" src="http://www.emacswiki.org/pics/smile.png" alt=":)" /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;None of the players liked the idea of there being a real timer or the DM hustling the players along.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=browse;tag=1;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=browse;tag=1;id=advice"&gt;advice&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:56:21 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2008-04-07_DM_Advice_%e2%80%93_Speed_Up_Combat</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>updated</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>3</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2008-04-07_DM_Advice_%e2%80%93_Speed_Up_Combat</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2008-04-07_DM_Advice_%e2%80%93_Speed_Up_Combat</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>advice</category>
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<item>
<title>Character Creation</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2008-03-01_Character_Creation</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2008-03-01_Character_Creation</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;In a recent thread on &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.enworld.org/"&gt;EN World&lt;/a&gt;, somebody asked: If you were a player in a new campaign, how would you feel about answering 10 questions about your character for the DM? &lt;a class="url http number" href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=4079235"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;1&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I answered as follows:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a player and as a DM I hate to provide too much information because I&amp;#x2019;m not here to read and write, I&amp;#x2019;m here to play. So if we&amp;#x2019;re talking about stuff at the table, I&amp;#x2019;m fine. If I have to do stuff alone at home, I&amp;#x2019;m bored. My creativity also depends a lot on having ideas bounce back and forth between me and other players. Doing this stuff alone at home makes everything bland and shallow. I&amp;#x2019;m of the conviction that what we’re playing right now is going to turn into the background of our future selves.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That said, the following worked very well for me. I wanted to make sure that there was enough cohesion in the group. I therefore wanted to make sure that all characters had in-game reasons to adventure together, and that even replacement characters had a reason to join the group. I started the first session by saying that I wanted the following:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;Every character was to have a backup character.&lt;/em&gt; This can be a friend or a relative that would start making inquiries if the first character disappeared or died. This generated uncles, brothers, friends, and aquaintances in high places. People that will offer advice and clues, people that wield some influence.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;Every character had to provide a reason for knowing two other party members.&lt;/em&gt; Implicitly, this generated a profession or a relative or a common interest. Butcher and hunter who knows the undertaker, son of an undertaker who contracted the gnomish ranger to clear the various crypts of vermin, a character being fascinated with elves, a half-elven noble daughter looking for excitement&amp;#x2026; It all came together in that first hour at the table.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not too specific, not a lot , and interaction at the table. I was very happy with the result and got happy player feedback.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=browse;tag=1;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=browse;tag=1;id=advice"&gt;advice&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:54:56 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2008-03-01_Character_Creation</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
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<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2008-03-01_Character_Creation</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2008-03-01_Character_Creation</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>advice</category>
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<item>
<title>Keep It Short</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2008-02-02_Keep_It_Short</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2008-02-02_Keep_It_Short</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;In a game I want to keep things short. This post has grown out of a number of posts on the topic. &lt;a class="url http number" href="http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=3992005&amp;amp;postcount=5"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;1&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;dl&gt;&lt;dt&gt;Descriptions&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;From my personal experience, I don&amp;#x2019;t like DMs who spend a lot of time on descriptions. We are not published authors. Our prose will never be good enough. I&amp;#x2019;m sitting at the table to &lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;do&lt;/em&gt;, not to &amp;#x201c;read.&amp;#x201d; When the DM spends more than a few sentences on the amazing sights, and there&amp;#x2019;s nothing we can do about it, then&amp;#x2026; &amp;#x201c;Let&amp;#x2019;s move!&amp;#x201d;&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;Introductions&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;I don&amp;#x2019;t like players who introduce their characters talking about the color of their cloak and the exact boots their wear. This is not Creative Writing class. I try to say it all in one or two sentences. Here are two examples:&lt;dl class="quote"&gt;&lt;dt /&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Thorhall: My character has a helmet on, a longspear in his hand, a warhammer dangling from his belt, a dagger in his boot, a huge backpack with a longsword and a shield strapped to it, pouches, dangling stuff, maps, and various pieces of armor. What a mess!&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt /&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Rhysalis Eina: She wears a chainshirt and carries a polearm. Her tan face is stern and her brown hair is tied into a tight bun.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;Scenes&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Eliminate pseudo-choice. Avoid situations where there is one correct solution and the players have to guess it. Assume that players make sane choices and move on. Example: There&amp;#x2019;s a village, or a door, or whatever, how do you want to approach it? There&amp;#x2019;s not enough information to make a rational choice. Just skip ahead until something important comes up. Once something dangerous happens, it&amp;#x2019;s time to sync mental images. This can be difficult. You think all characters are in the room, most players feel they would have never entered the small room. It&amp;#x2019;s better to ask a question instead: &amp;#x201c;Ok, so who&amp;#x2019;s in the room after a minute?&amp;#x201d;&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;&lt;p&gt;Make every single word count. Focus on &amp;#x201c;What do you do?&amp;#x201d; instead of &amp;#x201c;And this is what you see&amp;#x2026;&amp;#x201d;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Similar advice:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://urdwell.blogspot.com/2006/09/technique-jareds-rule-of-three.html"&gt;Jared’s Rule of Three&lt;/a&gt; by Thor Olavsrud&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/RPG"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=advice"&gt;advice&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/advice"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=Keep%20It%20Short"&gt;Keep It Short&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/Keep%20It%20Short"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:30:42 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2008-02-02_Keep_It_Short</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>updated</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>8</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2008-02-02_Keep_It_Short</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2008-02-02_Keep_It_Short</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>advice</category>
<category>Keep It Short</category>
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<item>
<title>Save Prep Time</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2007-06-29_Save_Prep_Time</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2007-06-29_Save_Prep_Time</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;How to avoid a &lt;b&gt;burnout&lt;/b&gt;? A reader &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=200034"&gt;asked for help on EN World&lt;/a&gt;. Here&amp;#x2019;s what I recommended.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Figure out what is taking you so long, and drop it.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;dl&gt;&lt;dt&gt;Spending too much time on NPC stats? &lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Buy some, or have several sessions fighting only monsters, or just use the generic stats from the DMG, or use the &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.aarg.net/~minam/npc2.cgi"&gt;NPC Generator 2&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;Spending too much time preparing spellcaster tactics? &lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Do away with spellcasters for a while. Use monsters with lots of hitpoints, big damage reduction, high AC, good saves, high damage per second ratings – and no spell like abilities, no supernatural abilities, no special abilities, none of that.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;Spending too much time on adding class levels to monsters? &lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Don&amp;#x2019;t do it. Pick a different monster, or let them use magic items, or use a simplified warrior class: +1 to-hit per level, +1 Fort per level, +1d10 per level. Done. No feats and save some time.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;Spending too much time crafting NPCs using Prestige Classes? &lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Use core classes only and use fluff to bridge the gap.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;Spending too much time picking feats? &lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Either do away with feats (like the simplified warrior above), or pick a feat chain and have all NPCs of a certain type follow the same feat chain. This makes things easy. Pick NPC level, figure out the number of feats, start at the beginning. An example from &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Kitsunemori"&gt;Kitsunemori&lt;/a&gt;: Iaido – This martial art is all about drawing a weapon first to deal maximum damage in as little time as possible. Feats: Quick Draw, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Overrun, Improved Sunder, Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Specialization, Weapon Technique, Improved Critical, Deadly Arc (samurai only), Zanshin (samurai only), Improved Zanshin (samurai only).&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;Spending too much time drawing maps? &lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Reuse. In my current campaign, I&amp;#x2019;ve reused a little seven-room ruined castle five times. Whenever the party left, something evil came back eventually.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;Spending too much time inventing background? &lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Drop it. Running adventures is not about being a Fantasy-author wannabe. It&amp;#x2019;s not story-telling all by yourself. It&amp;#x2019;s about being there, at the table. Focus preparation on the stuff that is going to happen at the table. If players go in unexpected directions (&amp;#x201c;You said they had one of the biggest libraries here, right? My character will read up on the hobgoblin rituals!&amp;#x201d;) don&amp;#x2019;t be afraid to say you&amp;#x2019;ll think of something, and prepare an adventure hook. Just switch to meta if you don&amp;#x2019;t want adventure hooks (&amp;#x201c;You spend hours and hours pouring over the ethnology books, and truly it is fascinating. But it won&amp;#x2019;t help you in this quest. Let&amp;#x2019;s go back and join the rest of the party&amp;#x2026;&amp;#x201d;)&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;&lt;p&gt;Finally: &lt;b&gt;Take a break and let somebody else run a game or two.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Somebody else said: &amp;#x201c;The thing that burns me out is unfamiliarity with spells or combat maneuvers while statting NPCs.&amp;#x201d;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think the solution to that is (if you&amp;#x2019;re writing adventures yourself) to reuse. For my Asian campaign I have various samurais: Sam-1 for guards, Sam-3 for young relatives of the samurai, Sam-5 for the lord, his eldest son, his commanders, Sam-7 for the sensei. They all take the same feats. Thus, I minimize on feat variety and make it up with more fluff.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I usually try to minimize the number of spellcasters. If they get to cast spells, I plan for five rounds of combat max. Then I pick the spells I&amp;#x2019;d like them to have. I go the same route as for the samurai. There is a death cult, they are all Cle-5, and they all like to use &lt;i&gt;Sanctuary&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Summon Monster&lt;/i&gt;, and when summoning monsters, they all like to summon hell hounds. What varies is that the first of them had many undead to fight for him, the second had an unholy spear +1 on him, and the last one read a scroll of &lt;i&gt;Planar Ally&lt;/i&gt; and made a deal with a bearded devil. Stat-wise, the clerics were all identical, and I only really had to know three spells for every fight.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The person also said: &amp;#x201c;I&amp;#x2019;m constantly playing a balancing game to make sure they&amp;#x2019;re not over- or under-whelmed. […] I have to adjust up all the HP, AC and equipment/treasure for each NPC.&amp;#x201d;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I said that I&amp;#x2019;d never do that. I&amp;#x2019;d just add or remove standard mooks. If the party is unfairly overwhelmed, reduce their opponents&amp;#x2019; morale and have them flee sooner. If the party is unfairly underwhelmed, have reinforcements coming. Adjusting the number of standard monsters or mooks is much easier than fiddling with the stats.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I also liked &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=3615088&amp;amp;postcount=45"&gt;DM Jeff’s advice&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Draw a map. Don&amp;#x2019;t maintain separate room descriptions, just scribble on the map.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Use tiles for the players. That is something I have not been using a lot. Maybe I should.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Collect NPCs from other sources and keep them in a binder and reuse.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;I specially liked his example for an encounter description. The second half is optional. &lt;img class="smiley" src="http://www.emacswiki.org/pics/blink.png" alt=";)" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Cursed Swan lake.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;3 dire slugs (Blasphemy Press PDF, page 21)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Treasure: Crown of Acarra (AEG’s Mercenaries page 203)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Claw-like tree hangings&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Darkly sky&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Lack of natural noises&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/alex?action=browse;tag=1;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/alex?action=browse;tag=1;id=advice"&gt;advice&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:38:56 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2007-06-29_Save_Prep_Time</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
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<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2007-06-29_Save_Prep_Time</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2007-06-29_Save_Prep_Time</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>advice</category>
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