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Summary: Rollenspieler → RSP
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< : Für *Rollenspieler* gibt es ebenfalls eine eigene [[RSP]] Kategorie.
< The official URL for this site is http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/.\\
< I'm planning to move to http://alexschroeder.ch/ eventually. ;)
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> Für *Rollenspieler* gibt es ebenfalls eine eigene [[RSP]] Kategorie.
This is both a wiki (a website editable by all) and a blog (an online diary about the stuff AlexSchroeder reads and does). If you’re a friend or relative, you might be interested in reading Life instead of this page. If you’ve come here from an RPG blog, you might want to head over to RPG. There are other similar categories to be found on the SiteMap.
Für Rollenspieler gibt es ebenfalls eine eigene RSP Kategorie.
Wir sind nicht zufrieden mit der family events Tabelle im King Arthur Pendragon Rollenspiel. Ständig laufen irgend welche Frauen weg und trotzdem sind unsere Sommer so gedrängt voll mit Ereignissen, dass kaum etwas passiert. Als wir dann auf Telecanters Dramarama Tabelle gewechselt haben, ist zu viel seltsames Zeug passiert: “Die Nichte heiratet den Bäcker und die Lösung ist, du schreibst darüber?” So ein Mist. Klar, man kann sich inspirieren lassen, aber all zu oft habe ich den Kopf geschüttelt und mir gedacht, wir sollten einfach nochmal würfeln. Nur die grosse Anzahl homosexueller Beziehungen fand ich gut. Vielleicht bin ich da natürlich auch von David Larkins Solo Great Pendragon Campaign mit seiner Frau geprägt…
Am Ende des letzten Spielnachmittags beschlossen wir also, eine eigene Tabelle zu schreiben. Jeder trägt ein paar Einträge bei. Wie sich schon am Tisch etabliert hatte, sollte die Szene Verwandte oder andere Bekannte einführen und die Spieler ermutigen, ihr soziales Netz auszubauen, und die Szene sollte uns einen Einblick in den Charakter geben. (Ein Einblick in den Charakter des Charakters?) Dann hat man ein trait oder ein skill ausgewählt, um die Situation zu lösen oder um zu entscheiden, wie der Charakter darauf reagiert. Am letzten Sonntag habe ich dann auch grosszügig Checks gewährt, also ohne einen kritischen Wurf (normalerweise eine 5% Chance) die Möglichkeit zu gegeben, den Wert zu steigern.

Aus dem Bericht beim CRPG Addict.
Wegen den Persönlichkeitszügen musste ich dann an die Charaktererschaffung in Ultima IV denken. Fragen, welche die acht Tugenden gegeneinander abwägen, um herauszufinden, mit welcher Charakterklasse und in welcher Stadt man das Spiel beginnt. Das Resultat in meinem Fall, beispielsweise:
Immer noch!
Kommen wir aber zum eigentlichen Thema des Artikels. Was habe ich denn vorgeschlagen?
| 1 | Eine Cousine ist mit ihrem Vater oder Bruder zu Besuch. Es wird viel getrunken und gelacht. Am Ende lädt sie dich ein, sie auf dein Zimmer mit zu nehmen. Chaste oder Lustful? Falls du mit ihr schläfst, wie verhinderst du, dass alles auffliegt? Deceitful oder Cruel? Falls nicht, womit lenkst du sie ab, Dancing oder Singing? |
| 2 | Du machst einen Ausflug mit der Familie an einen See in der Nähe. Womit vertreibst du dir die Zeit? Boating, Falconry oder Gaming? Am Abend taucht ein Nachbar auf und will mit dir üben. Lazy oder Energetic? |
| 3 | Eine alte Frau will dein jüngstes Kind segnen. Suspicious oder Trusting? Lässt du sie in die Nähe des Kindes? Faery Lore. Falls nicht, warum weist du sie ab: Pious oder Arbitrary? |
| 4 | Ein Priester oder Druide in der Nähe brauchen deine Hilfe, doch du willst auf die Jagd und sagst ab. Warum? Lazy oder Selfish? Stattdessen schickst du einen Sohn oder Neffen. Dieser schlichtet den Streit auf ungeschickte Weise. Sagst du es ihm? Honest oder Deceitful. |
| 5 | Ein Ritter aus der Nachbarschaft ist zu Besuch und rühmt deine Taten in einer Schlacht, als Earl Roderick noch lebte. Erzählst du etwas? Modest oder Proud. Wenn du viel erzählst, oder dich lange dagegen wehrst, Oratory. Wenn du dich stattdessen kurz fasst, damit du die Gäste besser beobachten kannst, Awareness. |
| 6 | Deine Frau oder dein Stewart bitten dich um Rat, weil das Gemüse nicht gedeien will. Wie probierst du zu helfen? Selber machen, Stewardship; Bauern fragen, Folklore; Milch vor die Türe stellen, Faery Lore, in der Bibel lesen, Religion; nach Oxford gehen und einen Text von Hesiod lesen, Read. Nach ein paar Wochen wird ein Bauer gebracht, der die Felder offensichtlich nicht richtig gepflegt hat. Wie wirst du ihn bestrafen? Just, weil er die Aufgabe nicht erfüllt hat; Cruel, damit die anderen Bauern sich nicht ebenfalls gehen lassen; Merciful, weil die Religion dies gebietet; oder Arbitrary, weil du keine Zeit für so Schmarren hast? |
Die Idee wäre, dass jeder Spieler eine handvoll Einträge liefert und wir alle Einträge ersetzen, sobald sie erwürfelt wurden.
When I wrote my Old School Hex Map Tutorial, I noticed the Gnomeyland Map Icons and the Making Hex Maps With Inkscape tutorial by Gregory B. MacKenzie.
After a futile attempt to write a tool that would extract those icons automatically and make them usable for Text Mapper, I did the work by hand. Look at the example below… Beautiful! And since this is SVG, you can quickly generate your first map and later you can keep working on it using Inkscape.
To regenerate the map above, visit Text Mapper and use the following “map”:
include http://alexschroeder.ch/contrib/gnomeyland-example.txt
This loads the Gnomeyland example map which uses the Gnomeyland library.
The Gnomeyland example map uses the tiles from the library. Here’s what you would need to generate just the lower part of the map:
include http://alexschroeder.ch/contrib/gnomeyland.txt 0005-0806 trail 0105 dark-green fir-forest "to the caves" 0106 dark-green fir-forest 0205 green fir-forest 0206 green fir-forest 0305 green firs 0306 soil keep "The Keep" 0405 light-soil 0406 light-soil 0505 light-grey mountains 0506 light-green forest-hill 0605 grey grass 0606 grey marsh 0706 dark-grey swamp 0806 dark-grey castle "Dolorous Garde"
Just paste it into Text Mapper. 
Tags: RPG
Maps
SVG
Text Mapper 
Comments on 2013-06-05 Gnomeyland and Text Mapper
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< Possibly. I remember moving it behind the text labels, but you're right, it would make sense to draw hex backgrounds first, then trails, then trails, then things within the hex and finally the text labels...
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> Hm... I remember moving it behind the text labels, but you're right, it would make sense to draw hex backgrounds first, then trails, then trails, then things within the hex and finally the text labels...
Andreas Gohr I wonder if it wouldn’t look a bit better if the trail were drawn below the icons.
– Andreas Gohr 2013-06-05 14:06 UTC
AlexSchroeder Hm… I remember moving it behind the text labels, but you’re right, it would make sense to draw hex backgrounds first, then trails, then trails, then things within the hex and finally the text labels…
– AlexSchroeder 2013-06-05 14:50 UTC
I wanted to test the recently added Gnomeyland icons for Text Mapper and looked at the following map:
This is the text description I came up with:
include http://alexschroeder.ch/contrib/gnomeyland.txt 0101 water 0102 water 0103 water 0104 water 0105 water 0106 water 0201 water 0202 dark-grey marsh 0203 dark-grey marsh 0204 water 0205 water 0206 water 0301 water cave xml <line x1="30" y1="45" x2="130" y2="45" stroke="#6ebae7" stroke-width="20" stroke-linecap="round"/><path d="M 30,45 c 0,-20 -20,-20 -20,0 c 2,0 3,0 20,0 z" stroke="black" stroke-width="2"/> 0303 dark-grey tower cave "Portal" 0304 grey grass 0305 grey mountain 0306 water 0401 water 0402 grey trees 0403 water 0404 water 0405 water 0406 water 0501 water 0502 light-green tree "Silberbäume" 0503 soil 0504 water 0505 dark-grey forest-hill 0506 water 0601 water 0602 green forest 0603 green forest "Faule Wald" 0604 green forest 0605 dark-grey trees 0606 water 0701 water 0702 water 0703 dark-grey forest-mountains "Einhorn" 0704 dark-grey forest-mountains 0705 water 0706 water 0801 water 0802 water 0803 water 0804 water 0805 water 0806 water lake xml <circle cx="45" cy="75" r="30" fill="#6ebae7" stroke="black" stroke-width="3"/> 0302 dark-grey forest lake "See"
Note some tricks:
Result:
I could work on this some more, or I could just take it, import it into Inkscape, and keep working on it.
The big question is: how much easier is it to work with a text description of a map compared to fiddling with Inkscape directly? As I create new maps, I’m no longer sure this map generator is all that useful, to be honest.
Tags: RPG
SVG
Maps
Text Mapper 
Comments on 2013-06-05 Another Gnomeyland Example
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> [[gravatar:http://www.splitbrain.org Andreas Gohr:b6b4d7dbe3fb7cf61b68e36cd80f8698]]
> I agree with Jensan, a GUI Editor of some sort would be really helpful I guess.
> -- [http://www.splitbrain.org Andreas Gohr] 2013-06-06 08:54 UTC
Jensan I think it could useful as a kind of intermediate language (like MSIL). For instance, you could make a front-end (GUI or website) that lets you tweak some basic things easily (number of roads, cities, amount of water, etc.), and with a push on “Generate”, the front-end then spits out Text Mapper “source code” and feeds it to the back-end, producing the final SVG.
– Jensan 2013-06-05 17:31 UTC
AlexSchroeder Hm, good point. Perhaps somebody could write a random map generator without having to implement the map drawing aspect.
– AlexSchroeder 2013-06-05 20:24 UTC
I like the text mapper. I would rather write the textual description than trying to do this in inkscape. At your level of artistic talent, maybe it’s not that useful …
– Harald 2013-06-05 20:33 UTC
AlexSchroeder Well, even for people not into the artistic aspect of it could get by reasonably, I assume, by opening the Gnomeyland template, for example, and using copy and paste. I haven’t tried it, however. Something to consider.
– AlexSchroeder 2013-06-05 21:09 UTC
Andreas Gohr I agree with Jensan, a GUI Editor of some sort would be really helpful I guess.
– Andreas Gohr 2013-06-06 08:54 UTC
Youseph Tanha asked on Google+ how people identified magic items.
I said:
In my games, I don’t think unknowns add to the enjoyment of the game. After all, nobody knows about them. That’s why I only keep information from my players if one of the following is true:
In all cases, the How of the identification doesn’t matter and therefore I will just allow any character to discover it by examination in thematically appropriate ways (swinging it, aiming it, studying it, handling it, …).
Example magic item of the “random effect” variety: the wand of the chimera consists of a number of intertwined branches with detailed animal heads at the end: a wolf, a goat, a dragon.
| 1d6 | Color | HD | AC | 2 claws | bite | breath | SV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | black | 7 | 2 | 1d4 | 2d10 | acid | 8 |
| 2 | blue | 9 | 0 | 1d6 | 3d10 | lightning | 6 |
| 3 | gold | 11 | -2 | 2d4 | 6d6 | fire | 4 |
| 4 | green | 8 | 1 | 1d6 | 3d8 | chlorine | 7 |
| 5 | red | 10 | -1 | 1d8 | 4d8 | fire | 5 |
| 6 | white | 6 | 3 | 1d4 | 2d8 | ice | 9 |
The hit points of the wand user remain unchanged! The HD are only used to determine the attack of the new form.
This is based on Labyrinth Lord; licensed under the OGL.
Tags: RPG
Old School 
Comments on 2013-06-03 Identifying Magic Items
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< That's right, same thing! :P
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> That's right, same thing! :-P
Jerome “In my games, I don’t think unknowns add to the enjoyment of the game. After all, nobody knows about them.”
This is why I let my players see all my maps and read all my DM notes before every session.
– Jerome 2013-06-03 10:02 UTC
AlexSchroeder That’s right, same thing! 
– AlexSchroeder 2013-06-03 10:43 UTC
![]()
Trajan’s Column by Juan
Francisco Adame Lorite
(CC-BY 3.0)
I have occasionally linked the podcasts I listen to both as an effort to remember and as an attempt at recommendation. It has been more than a year since my last update.
I listen to podcasts while walking. I find walking to be ideally suited to listening because it is neither too strenuous to require much attention nor is it too light to let the mind wander.
Looking at iCatcher! on my phone, I see the following podcasts:




Any podcasts you are listening to you’d like to recommend?

Once you have listened to this overview, perhaps you’ll be ready for The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire— there’s an old recording on archive.org, or various readers on librivox.org.
Update: If you’re a podcaster, check out this EFF effort: Help Save Podcasting!
Tags: Podcast 
Comments on 2013-05-30 Podcast Update
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< I just saw that the author of the History of Philospohy podcast wrote [http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/history-podcasts a blog post linking to other history podcasts].
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> I just saw that the author of the History of Philospohy podcast wrote
> [http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/history-podcasts a blog post linking to other history podcasts].
Andreas Gohr I enjoy Raumzeit by Tim Pritlove and TankRiot a lot.
– Andreas Gohr 2013-05-30 08:52 UTC
AlexSchroeder Thank you for the recommendation.
I just saw that the author of the History of Philospohy podcast wrote a blog post linking to other history podcasts.
– AlexSchroeder 2013-05-30 11:29 UTC
A few days ago Jeff Rients wrote How many commandments have you broken? which lists TSR’s Code of Ethics. At the time I said The TSR code is definitely not cool. When asked to elaborate, I said (edited):
Things that are not cool are:
And so on. Every single point in that ethical code makes the world a bit safer, cushions us from the choices we need to make in real life. Yes, some of this may not be appropriate for all ages. It may have made sense for TSR to have such a policy. Nevertheless, I personally think that this will result in products that I think are not and will never be cool. Cool as in rebellious, exciting, risqué, exploring what it means to be human.
Zak writes about it as well: Thanks For The List, TSR
Tags: RPG 
Comments on 2013-05-29 Decency
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> ----
> [[gravatar: AlexSchroeder:e33b88db6bc04e1c93db25c702baea28]]
> Haha, I have trouble writing adventures with or without the code. Must not make it harder on myself or I won't get anything done. :)
> -- AlexSchroeder 2013-05-29 16:51 UTC
Rorschachhamster Zak also remarks how many of this commandments were broken by TSR itself. Maybe it would be an interesting challenge to write an adventure that adheres to the code 100% without beeing boring… 
– Rorschachhamster 2013-05-29 12:37 UTC
AlexSchroeder Haha, I have trouble writing adventures with or without the code. Must not make it harder on myself or I won’t get anything done. 
– AlexSchroeder 2013-05-29 16:51 UTC
For a while now, I’ve been using Google’s +1 button at the bottom of the page. They’re special because they require two clicks: the first click loads the button code from Google, which you then have to click. If you don’t click anything, no code is being loaded from Google and hopefully you’re not being tracked. I also no longer use Google Analytics to track my stats so in theory Google shouldn’t be seeing any of your reading on this site.
Usually my +1 counts are really low—mostly zero, in fact. Recently I noticed a few blog posts with more than ten +1. And now that I’ve announced the winners of a little contest I’m running every year, I see how far up the number could go… if only I blogged stuff that was more relevant to other people. Look at the last entry…
Oh well. As I’m noticing how much time I’m spending just reading the blogs and Google+ itself, I hesitate before posting on my own blog. Am I really adding much? In a way I felt better when I didn’t think of the audience and felt free to write a two sentence blog post about a movie I saw. These days I often wonder what the readers that come here for RPG posts will think.
Since I don’t know how to make my writing more relevant to my readers, perhaps I should try to make my writing more natural again. We’ll see.
Tags: Blogs 
Comments on 2013-05-26 Popularity
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< What I find intriguing, however, is how the /imagined/ audience changes what I feel comfortable writing about. Perhaps the post was a replacement post for a darker collection of thoughts on self-censorship, the balance between tolerance (benevolent reading of others) and intolerance (the blocking, reverting and uncorcling of others), vulnerability (linking to posts and comments I want to criticize and naming names, the fear of making enemies, attracting the attention of unwanted readers) and negativity (ranting, negative reviews, complaints)… it's still very much muddled up.
to
> What I find intriguing, however, is how the /imagined/ audience changes what I feel comfortable writing about. Perhaps the post was a replacement post for a darker collection of thoughts on self-censorship, the balance between tolerance (benevolent reading of others) and intolerance (the blocking, reverting and uncircling of others), vulnerability (linking to posts and comments I want to criticize and naming names, the fear of making enemies, attracting the attention of unwanted readers) and negativity (ranting, negative reviews, complaints)… it's still very much muddled up.
Josh Ironically, I started following due to some technical post, though I don’t remember exactly what it was now (probably Emacs-related). The RPG posts are bonus material for me. They have reignited my desire to play, which I haven’t done (for a number of reasons) in somewhere around 14 years. Your posts reminded me how much I love it. I haven’t +1’d any of your posts because I mostly read them through my RSS feed reader, but I will make an effort to open the posts on the site and +1 them when I think they’re great. Sorry to bring you down with my lack of feedback.
– Josh 2013-05-28 14:21 UTC
AlexSchroeder No worries. The lack of popularity is not bringing me down.
What I find intriguing, however, is how the imagined audience changes what I feel comfortable writing about. Perhaps the post was a replacement post for a darker collection of thoughts on self-censorship, the balance between tolerance (benevolent reading of others) and intolerance (the blocking, reverting and uncircling of others), vulnerability (linking to posts and comments I want to criticize and naming names, the fear of making enemies, attracting the attention of unwanted readers) and negativity (ranting, negative reviews, complaints)… it’s still very much muddled up.
As for RSS readers: I’m always frustrated by the lack of +1 buttons in Reeder. Google Reader has it and its closing down.
Don’t feel compelled to click through and +1 posts – that’s too much work and I don’t do it when I read other blogs. Do feel free to leave a comment every now and then, however. 
– AlexSchroeder 2013-05-28 14:37 UTC
I saw The Great Gatsby (2013). I had not read the book. I loved Romeo + Juliet (1996). I was less enthused by Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge (2001). I recognized the colors, the party, the mania. I enjoyed those parts. I liked the fact the story works on two levels: the rich & powerful form a separate class and will never allow upstarts into their midst, and men objectifying women. Anyway, that’s how I see it: the framing story says Gatsby’s hope was a shining beacon, but to me, Gatsby’s love was obsessive, his imaginings of how things will turn out stronger than his respect for Daisy’s own decisions. In the end, however, my back hurt and the movie just would not end. It was too long. Or perhaps I just could not sympathize with any of the protagonists. I didn’t feel the love.
Tags: Movies 
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< ----
< [[gravatar: AlexSchroeder:e33b88db6bc04e1c93db25c702baea28]]
< Hahaha. I laughed out loud. :D
< Awesome comment. :ok:
< -- AlexSchroeder 2013-05-26 20:00 UTC
Andreas Gohr I’ve read the book and haven’t seen the film, yet. But from what you describe, the movie seems to be a good adaptation. I was bored by the book and hoped it would end soon 
– Andreas Gohr 2013-05-26 18:01 UTC
AlexSchroeder Hahaha. I laughed out loud. 
Awesome comment. 
– AlexSchroeder 2013-05-26 19:59 UTC
We have the winners of the One Page Dungeon Contest 2013. Download the PDF!
| Author | Dungeon Name | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew and Heleen Durston | Only Acrobats Need Apply | Best Swashbuckling |
| bygrinstow | Arena of Blood | Most Macabre |
| Caelum Roberts | Iron Cloud | Best Sci-Fi |
| Daniel O’Donnell | Down Among the Dead Men | Best Undead |
| Gus L. | The Brittlestone Parapets | Best Wizard Duel |
| Jens Thuresson | The Giant’s Dollhouse | Best Fairy-Tale |
| Jobe Bittman | Into The Demon Idol | Best Homage |
| Josh Burnett | The Burial Mound of Gilliard Wolfclan | Best One Shot |
| Kaylee Thumann | Girly Girl Dungeon | Most Original |
| LSF | A Stolen Spring | Best Fantasy Mystery |
| Matthew W. Schmeer | Wizard in the Woods | Best Non-Traditional Map |
| Misha Favorov | Court of the King of No Men | Best Beastmen |
| Ramsey Hong | Something Happened At The Temple Near Glourm | Best Map |
| Rob S | Citadel of the Severed Hand | Best Myconids |
| Roger SG Sorolla | Devil’s Acre | Best Single Location |
| S. J. Harris | The Baleful Spring | Best Tower |
| Simon Forster | Church of Consumption | Best Religion |
Comments on 2013-05-25 One Page Dungeon Contest Winners
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> ----
> [[gravatar: AlexSchroeder:e33b88db6bc04e1c93db25c702baea28]]
> Only one wish list is missing…
> -- AlexSchroeder 2013-05-29 10:49 UTC
Simon Forster Wow! I won something 
– Simon Forster 2013-05-25 21:28 UTC
AlexSchroeder I just sent out the email to all the winners. Choose wisely. Or unwisely. 
– AlexSchroeder 2013-05-25 22:06 UTC
AlexSchroeder 11 of the 17 winners have already sent me their wishlist…
– AlexSchroeder 2013-05-27 08:09 UTC
AlexSchroeder Only one wish list is missing…
– AlexSchroeder 2013-05-29 10:49 UTC
We’ve been tallying the nominations, looking at our favorites and comparing notes for the One Page Dungeon Contest 2013. It looks like we’re going to have 17 winners this year. This looks about right, compared to previous years. In 2009 there were a lot of honorable mentions and runner-ups but only three winners. I personally like to spread prizes around and celebrate the sheer variety of submissions we get every year. It’s a win for everyone.
| Year | Entries | Winners |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 72 | 17 |
| 2012 | 107 | 24 |
| 2011 | 71 | 15 |
| 2010 | 64 | 18 |
| 2009 | 112 | 3/6/12 |
I hope we’ll be able to finalize the list soon enough!
What will happen next:

Hopefully my work is done before June 8, because that’s when I’ll leave for a two week vacation to Sardinia. Yay!
Comments on 2013-05-23 One Page Dungeon Contest Status Update
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