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How to Start a Campaign - Part 2

Player & DM hopes, key desires, goals, etc.

One of the key things to remember is that although D&D and other tabletop games come with premade rules, and therefore premade expectations about play, the actual game you play is your group’s own game.

At session zero, if your players haven’t thought about it already, they should sit down and have a think about what they want out the of the game.  This will help you make decisions about what to include and what not to include in your game.

Goals can be as simple as “have fun” or “spend time with friends”.  These are valid answers.  If that’s all your player(s) want out of the game, that’s fine.  You have a lot of creative space open to you.

Going a little deeper, other example goals might include “be part of creating an immersive story”, “consider complex problems”, “work on my character role playing/acting skills”, “build the most powerful character possible”, “explore and map unknown worlds”, “win all my fights”  etc. 

Be aware that some players might have personal goals.  I’ve experienced many players discussing how D&D (and other role-playing games) have assisted them to work on their social skills, or assist with mental illnesses like anxiety.  You might invite your players to come talk to you about these kinds of goals privately if they don’t feel comfortable sharing them in a group. 

NOTE: If any of your players share a personal goal of any kind with you, whether you consider that goal serious/legitimate or not, remember you are in a position of power as a DM and someone has put their trust in you.  Be the kind of DM that is worth placing trust in.

Whatever the players goals are, take careful note and write down the players answers.  When you are designing and running your campaign, use the players answers as a compass or an indicator of how your campaign is doing.  To assist you in this process, you might like to use your players’ goals to try and classify your players into their player types. While you probably won’t hit all goals in every session, you should aim to ensure that everyone is getting a little something out every 3-4 sessions. 

This is also an opportunity for you, as DM, to let your players know what you want out of the game!  And I’m not talking about codes of behaviour (for that, see part 1).  Ask yourself some of the following questions:

Why exactly did you volunteer to DM? 

What was it that drew you to DMing rather than playing? 

What would make you feel rewarded for putting in the time and effort to DM a game?

You are putting in the hard yards, you deserve to get something out of it too!

All the best for your planning and playing.

[riccardolll-blog]

How to Start a Campaign

Starting a campaign in D&D is one of the most challenging parts of any game.  Your players do not quite know who their characters are yet.  They don’t know anything about the other characters.  They are unfamiliar with the world.  They expect a story but often want to be dragged into it. etc.

How to resolve these issues?  Session 0.

Session Zero

Session 0 is the most important session you will have as a DM or player.  This is the session before you start your game.  Some general goals of this session include (but are not limited to):

Setting expectations for game play (DM & player)

Discussing the players’ hopes, key desires and goals for the campaign

Discussing DM’s key desires, goals, plans, proposed play styles, etc.

Settling any house or custom rules

Introducing the narrative world (as appropriate)

Character creation

Group bonding

Session scheduling

I will discuss a few of the above points over coming posts, starting with setting expectations.

Setting expectations

It is fundamental to the successful of a game for the DM and players all start on the same page.  This sounds really basic, but discussing the assumptions that each person is bringing to the table is crucial if everyone is going to enjoy playing.

Some suggested discussion points:

Expected behaviours when playing (e.g. sportsmanship, inclusive play, taking turns, listening, etc.)

How to give constructive feedback

Dispute resolution

Where you will play

How often you intend to play (and when)

Expected time commitment for preparation prior to sessions (DM & players)

Expected time commitment for playing each session (1 hour? 2 hours?  4 hours?  6 hours?)

Which rules you will be using (plus any house/custom rules)

The game’s genre (dungeon crawl, epic, mystery/intrigue...)

Expected level of player contribution to the world/story (100% sandbox, strongly DM narrative based, player choice matters...)

Campaign’s tone(s) (gritty, comedic, dramatic, surreal...)

Expected player emotional/intellectual involvement (i.e. whether the game will contain strong themes, touch on taboo subjects, present divisive ethical dilemmas...)

By having these discussions up front, any issues or concerns can be raised and discussed before you start playing.  This will save you time, angst and energy down the track. 

Obviously some of the things you discuss and agree may change over time, in which case it is a good idea (and highly recommended) that you organise to sit down with your group again to re-discuss and check-in with everyone playing.

All the best for your planning and playing.

[riccardolll-blog]

Cluing in Puzzled Players

This puzzle was inspired by Knight of Raven’s Mythical Menagerie post.  

Allow me to set the scene for you.

The players are investigating a conclave of wizards with an interest in shape shifting beings and monsters.  In the dark, the workshops are a collection of strange instrument silhouettes, heavy curtains and an almost musty atmosphere.  The silence of the place hangs over them.  As they sneak about, the players come across what appears to be a large circular room connecting all the workshops.  Sick of fumbling about in the dark, one of the players lights a torch.  As light spills onto the floor, the lightness is relieved by the dark grooves of circles and juts of lines carved into the floor.  Waving the torch around, it becomes apparent that the circles are connected in the shape of a nonagon, with a triangle in the center connecting out to the nonagon at three points.

(For those who are more visually oriented, like myself, here is a diagram of what I’m talking about:)

In neat lines around the room are what look to be granite chess pieces, about 2-3 feet tall.  Peering closer a player notices that the statues appear to be in the likeness of various animals.  Dogs, birds, cows, snakes, lions...  One row even contains several humanoid looking statues... 

---

And so it begins!  The Mythical Nonagon.  My players really got into this puzzle.  It seemed to appeal to their creativity and their problem solving skills. 

Aim

The aim of this puzzle is to place a chess piece on each of the circles, so that the combination of the first circle and any other circle it is directly connected to (by a line) must make up a mythical creature.  What does this mean?  

Take any blue circle which is not connected to an orange circle.  Let’s assume your players put a bird chess piece on that blue circle.   Assume you players then travel one step clockwise around the nonagon, and then place a horse piece.  The combination of the two creates a pegasus - success!  Your players must also connect the bird to another chess piece on the circle which is one step anti-clockwise to the bird.  In other words, they must put a piece on the anti-clockwise circle that also makes a mythical creature, e.g. a lion, so that the combination of bird + lion makes a griffin. 

As you may have guessed, the triangle must use a combination of three animals to create a mythical creature.  Each point also connects out to the nonagon to create a separate mythical beast combination.

A list of suggested chess pieces and creature combinations is at the end of this post, but you’re of course welcome to make your own.

Clues for Players

A room with circles and chess pieces might be ok for intellectual characters(/players), but what do you do when your party is more brawn than brain?  You clue them in. (Haha.)

Using clues for puzzles can be a powerful tool.  At a fundamental level, clues can be positive or negative.  Positive clues encourage a behaviour, while negative clues punish certain behaviours.  It’s important to consider the kinds of behaviours you want to encourage, not only for solving the puzzle, but also for your dealing with your campaign at large.  The following are a couple of questions that might help you think about your broader goals:

Do you want your players to leap into action and keep the story/drama moving?  Or would you prefer your players carefully uncover layers of information and misinformation before taking action?  Do you want them to trust or question NPCs?  Are the players meant to consider the morality of the choices they make?  Would you like the players to be tactical in combat?  Or more curious about their environment? Etc.

Example Positive Clues

Every time the players make a correct combination, a holographic image of the creature appeared above the triangle (I used glyphs on the roof as the basis of the simulation for my campaign).  Use one or two sentences to describe what the characters see as confirmation that they made a correct combination, and to give flavour to the task.  E.g. “A centaur hunts beneath a starry sky, an arrow notched in its rowan wood bow.” “The Cerberus’ teeth snap as the foul scent of it’s breath washes over you, making you gag.”  This kind of positive clue is important so the players know that they were actually succeeding at the puzzle.  Some kind of puzzle based gauge is important for sustained player interest and moral.

A more general positive clue could be that after some exploration and investigating the players discover that the walls of the circular room are engraved with some kind of sequencing that appeared to be connected to different types of shape shifting and hybrid monsters.  While the players can’t read the sequencing code entirely, a DC 13 Intelligence check is sufficient for them to work out that the sequencing has something to do with combining different animal parts to make up a hybrid monster (including a couple of potential combinations, e.g. harpy = bird + human, owlbear = owl + bear).  Or if that’s too advanced, have some scrolls on a desk or dumped by the door in one of the workshops which have illustrations depicting a couple of the potential combinations.   By using this kind a clue, you will encourage your players to look around when faced with obstacles and puzzles, or to investigate before running into action.  Come up with clues that suit the kind of goals you have your players’ behaviours in the campaign. 

Example Negative Clues

On the other hand, if the players just tried a random (incorrect) combination or a combination they knew was wrong, I had a jet of flames erupt out from under the offending circle momentarily.  The player who placed the chess piece had to make a DC 15 dex save for the first round the flames appeared (the surprise factor), and then a DC 12 dex save thereafter to avoid being burnt.  A failed save was 2d8 fire damage, and a successful save was half damage.  This would (hopefully) encourage your players to think, maybe look around and see what else they can find to help them solve the mystery.

If you didn’t want to be as tough on your players, you might allow them a chance to get the combination wrong before you activate the flame trap.  Or maybe there’s no penalty for an incorrect combination, but trying to rig the puzzle with multiple combinations of the same monster trips the flame trap.  It’s up to you and your goals.

Suggested Chess Pieces

Birds x 7, Bear x 2, Hyena x 2, Humanoid x 7, Spider x 2, Rabbit x 2, Lion x 5, Fish x 3, Crocodile x 2, Hippo x 2, Goat x 2, Cow x 2, Lizard x 2, Dog x 4, Snake x 2, Horse x 5

Suggested Combinations (in no particular order)

* Indicates that I allowed multiple combinations of the same animal parts to create the different, separate monsters.

(And yes I did allow false combinations that don’t assist in solving the puzzle as a whole. *cackles*)

Pegasus - horse + bird

Chimera - lion + goat + snake

Cerberus - 3 x dog

Merfolk - human + fish

Sphinx - lion + human

Manticore - lion + human (+ bird)

Cockatrice - bird + lizard

Griffin - lion + bird

Medusa/lamia* - snake + human

Harpy/angel* - human + bird

Minotaur - bull + human

Hippocampus - horse + fish

Faun/satyr* - goat + person

Centaur - horse + person

Hippogriff - horse + bird

Ammit - hippo + lion + crocodile

Merlion - lion + fish

Jackalope - rabbit + deer

Drider - elf + spider

Gnoll - hyena + human

Owlbear - owl + bear

Wyrven - lizard + bird

Werewolf - dog + person

Ichthyocentaur - fish + horse + human

Ophitaurus - bull + snake

All the best for your planning and playing.

[riccardolll-blog]

Adris the Satyr

Following on from the building NPCs with flaws post, an example NPC.

Satyr’s Seclusion by Blues-Design

Name: Adris

Race: Satyr

Class: Commoner (Head Librarian)

Stats: Standard satyr, but with 14 intelligence, and swap proficiency in stealth for proficiency in history checks.

Age: Ancient

“You enter into a large room with high ceilings, tastefully appointed with comfy looking reading chairs, small tables and desk lights.  Along the walls run shelves and shelves of books, interspersed with stately statues and artworks.  From one of the reading chairs comes the sound of soft snoring.  A hand lolls over the end of the chair arm and a pair of glasses have fallen to the floor.  Circling around the chair you find the sleeping form of a satyr, a book rising and falling where it has come to rest atop its chest.  The satyr’s thin salt and pepper furred legs poke out beneath it’s wizened form.  As it dreams oblivious, you notice a soft wetness runs down its cheeks and through the scraggly mess of its beard.”

Adris was the head librarian and devoted aide of the royal family.  During the Fall, rather than rushing to the family’s side Adris hid beneath a chair in one of the library’s alcoves.  When the library and several other parts of the palace were hidden underground to ensure their safety and longevity, Adris was transported with them and has remained locked in the library ever since.  Over time, the palace compound has become the home of various monsters and a dangerous place to wander. 

Adris has waited out the long years, burdened by the guilt of betrayal and fear, studying the libraries’ extensive collections, particularly the books of prophecy and history.  Adris believes that one day the palace will be restored, along with the royal line.  Adris hopes to atone for the past when that time comes.

Some suggested words/phrases to think about when role playing this character:  timid, scholarly, elderly, guilt, isolated, nervous energy

All the best for your planning and playing.

[riccardolll-blog]

NPC Building Tips #1 - Flaws

Why do players come to bond with some NPCs but not others?   What makes an engaging NPC?   How do you create a recurring NPC who your players will love?

I think the answer to this question has a couple of different answers, but in this post I’ll be focusing on what I consider one of the most fundamental requirements for creating key NPC - their flaws.

Why focus on the NPCs flaws?  Quite simply because whatever flaws your NPC has will make the character a) memorable, b) likeable, and c) creates story and world building opportunities. 

Memorable NPCs

Players are more likely to remember the queen who can never find her coronet, much to the exasperation of her elderly lady in waiting.  Or the blacksmith with several missing teeth who likes to whistle loudly through the gaps while he works. 

These tidbits give clues about the kind of personalities your players are dealing with, and can form a reference point for your players when they later want to revist that NPC. 

“Where was that ranger who dressed entirely in snakeskin?  Didn’t they know something about poisons?” 

“Didn’t we meet a young gnome merchant who liked to gamble in that city?  Maybe they know someone from the underground we can talk to?”

Lifelike NPCs

Players are also more likely to connect with a character they see as in some way fragile or lacking because an NPC who revealing their “human nature” is more real/lifelike.  Their flaws will resonate with your players own humanity. 

What’s more is that NPCs with flaws gives you options for story building.  An NPC with no weaknesses has no need for the heroes (or villains) of the story.  To build a story around an NPC, push the flaw to a small extreme and imagine what the consequences would be.  For example, a salty old seadog whose love of sailing keeps him away most of the time comes home one day to find his wife missing.  He now lives in a disorganised dump of a dwelling and pines for his love day and night.  Can the players help?  

Story/World Building Opportunities

Giving NPCs flaws also allows for world development outside the players story arc.   Take the above example our beloved seadog.  After the players successfully reunite the sailor with his wife, there is a graceful cut scene and the players continue on with their adventures elsewhere.  After some time, something brings them back to the coastal town where the seaman and his wife live.  They discover that the sailor has learnt the error of his ways, but still struggles with his passion for sailing/the sea.  In an attempt at loving compromise, the sailor has opened a ship building business.  The business allows him to continue to sail, but means he does not travel too far or for too long.   Unfortunately, it’s early days and the business is struggling which is putting financial strain on the couple.  Etc.

Building NPCs with Flaws

Assuming you’re now sold on the idea that flaws are a critical part of NPC character building, how do you go about picking/dreaming up your flaws?  And how many flaws should an NPC have? 

To be annoying and answer in reverse, generally your players won’t remember more than two flaws in a character, and generally you as DM won’t have enough time to sufficiently illustrate/explore more flaws than that. 

Personally, I think one major flaw and a minor flaw in an NPC is enough.  Remember, your NPCs like your characters have other facets to their characters like dreams, ideals, relationships, etc.  The flaws do not make the entire NPC, but they will be a defining trait.

With this in mind, how do you pick your flaws?  Well, you have two main options.  You can either build your character from the flaw up (see generator below), or if you already have a character with some kind of context/story behind it, pick a flaw that seems to fit with that context.  Take into account factors such as the NPCs age, race, what kind of environment they were born/raised, the society they live in now, influential people in their life and their potential flaws,

E.g. a little mermaid with an interest in goods that fall from passing ships may be naive and strong willed.  Alternatively, an old warrior whose people are facing almost certain genocide from an invading force may suffer from a deep existentialism and be slightly deaf. 

NPC Flaw Generator 

A little silly, but a fun way to get the creative juices running.

Follow the generator twice.

Your NPC is:

Roll 1d4.

A little

Somewhat

Fairly

Very

Roll 1d100

Gullible

Obsessed with [open the nearest book to page 6 and read until you find the first common noun]

Pedantic

Timid/shy

Allergic to something (anything! e.g. herbs, insects, dust, grass, magic, sunlight before 9am, constructs, etc.)

Blustering/bombastic/flamboyant

Frugal/meager/scrooge

Annoyed by people younger than them.

Tired at all times

Cold

Missing something (a nail, eyebrows, fingers, eyes, teeth, lips, limbs, a heart, a loved one, etc.)

Arrogant

Pious and/or religious

Deceitful

Acerbic/sour

Paranoid

Evasive/keen on avoiding questions

Overly cheery/chipper/optimistic about everything

Absent minded

Reclusive

Overweight or underweight

in debt to someone

Traumatised by something (e.g. lost a parent when young, witnessed a murder, was conscripted into a rebel army at a young age, seen a ghost/apparition, experience a severe drought/famine, survived the black plague, etc.)

Unlucky (could be mechanical as well as story based, e.g. always rolls with disadvantage)

Callous/insensitive/tactless/abrasive

Socially awkward

Pretentious

Unsubtle about being a peeping Tom/Tammy

Nosy/in need of getting to the bottom of everything

Unscrupulous

Fastidious

Lazy

Cruel

Servile

Impatient

Ignorant and/or bigoted

Ungainly

Legalistic

Dreamy/disconnected from reality

Susceptible to outbursts of small person syndrome (whether actually short or not)

Cheat

Uncouth

Discourteous

Aggressive/vexatious/pugnacious/cantankerous

Doubtful

Mad/insane

Narcissistic/egocentric

Insomniac

Tall tale teller/liar

Over energetic

Anxious

Patriotic

Mechanical

Psychic

Stubborn

Delicate/frail/sickly

Weak/feeble/elderly

Easily embarrassed

Fussy

Self indulgent

Prejudiced (your choice of prejudice)

Claustrophobic

Tone deaf

Tattletale/snitch

Overworked/stressed

Rebellious/surly

Nihilistic

Despised (by someone specific or in general)

Creepy

Nomadic/itchy feet

Bossy

Idiosyncratic.  Pick a distinct/unique personal behavior proportionate to your first roll.  (e.g. waves their hands above their heads before entering another room, always turns/travels in a clockwise direciton, must always be carrying something in their left hand, will never wash their hair, adopts every stray cat they come across, etc.)

Gluttonous

Guilty about a crime they committed that has not yet been found out

Talkative/chatter box

Domineering

Flirtatious

Fearful of change (a specific change or change in general)

Untidy

Bludger/moocher

Confused

Fickle/capricious

Pessimistic

Easily distracted

Paternalistic

Elitist

Evangelistic for a specific cause (pick your own! e.g. veganism, industrialisation, communal childminding, fitness lifestyles, unions for magic users, compulsory documentary photography, etc.)

Punny, at all time

Conflict adverse

Expensive in their taste (whether they can afford it or not)

Colour blind

Conformist/complacent

Uncooperative

Privileged

Childish/immature

Insecure

Epicurean or stoic

Insipid/irresolute

Procrastinator

Cynical

Which grates on the nerves of:

Roll 1d6.

Family member

Friend.

Authority figure.

Neighbour.

The players.

No one in particular (but may have other consequences!)

All the best for your planning and playing.

[riccardolll-blog]

Creating Interesting Combat Encounters (Part 2)

Following on from my earlier post, the final question to ask is about adding depth and flavour to your encounter after you have a clear picture of the space.

3. What combination of props, hazards and puzzles will your players encounter?

Once you have your answers to question 2, it will allow you to think about the kinds of props and hazards your players can interact with during the fight.   We’ll deal with each one in turn.

You do not have to use everything in every fight.  Think of each of the following as a way to spice up a fight.  No-one cooks with all the same spices all the time.  In the same way, neither should all your fights always contain the same combination of prop(s), hazard(s) and puzzle(s).  Keep it fresh.

Props

These are the object that your players can interact with during a combat encounter.  Readily include props to enliven your action.  Props can be as simple as flipping a table to use as cover from ranged attacks, to more complex items like magic swords stuck in stones.  Remember monsters are just as likely as players to use props, so show your players how it’s done!

Hazards

Areas or objects that are as likely to harm as to help players during combat.  e.g. A jewel that zaps anyone who comes within an x ft radius of it, or a ring of lava in a subterranean dungeon. Great if you can push a monster into the danger zone.  Bad if the monster pulls you in with it.  Include as appropriate to your space. 

Puzzles

Combat and puzzles are not mutually exclusive.  Puzzles in combat can add secondary goals or competing targets for players to aim for, bringing more tension to the fight.  Use puzzles wisely in fights or your players will get sick of them.

4. Bringing it together

Once you have your space sorted and a good idea of the kind of interesting goods you want to include.  It’s a good idea at this point to write down your combat elements and a rough description of the space onto one sheet of paper that you can flick to if/when your players get to that fight.  

The other thing that many DMs find handy is to draw a battle map.  Doesn’t need to be complex.  You don’t even have to show your players.  But it will help  you at the very least work out your dimensions for the flight so that you don’t have to make them up on the fly (and remember them on top of all the other things you have to do as a DM in a fight!).  

I also recommend having a buffer drawn around the fight space and know what is in that buffer.  This is in case your monster flees or your players take the fight outside the planned space.  

Example encounter

I leave you with an example encounter.

“Entering through the false wall, you make out a long, narrow room in the dimness.   Moonlight streams through a single circular cutout of the wall, 20 feet up, lighting 6 sturdy hooks lined 3 aside on both sides of the room.  The cold night air is brisk after the warmth of the secret passage.  To your right three old-style train switch levers stick into the ground.  At the far end of the room, a white haired individual stands facing away from you, at ease.  To your left is a portcullis, its weighty iron barring the way.”

The players find themselves in a 45 foot by 15 foot room.  At the far end stands a monster that has not noticed the players yet.  Many players will not realise this is a combat encounter until the fight is almost on them if you pick a reasonably “normal-humanoid” looking monster.  For this encounter I chose a wight, but you can pick whatever you want.  Part of my fun was describing the increasingly obvious signs that this was not a friendly as the players called out and started walking over to the monster, drawing its attention.

Next to the players are three switches (puzzle), and carved on the wall behind was the following words “Two suns it cannot be, One for us is more than plenty, Three would be the death of me.” (i.e. 2, 1, 3) I made the wall a bit grimy so the players had to roll a DC 12 perception to find the inscription.  

Each time the player pulls a switch, part of the top half wall swung out and formed a slide down which 2-3 new monsters fell.  The switches had to pulled in the order middle, right, left to open the portcullis.  

At the end of each round  I had the players roll perception (DC 10).  Any successful players noted that every 6 seconds a line of floor tiles disappeared and was replaced by a dark void (hazard). In my encounter, the floor up to the switches disappeared, but the switches/floor beneath the switches did not disappear.  If you want all the floor to disappear I recommend putting the switches on the wall.

The hooks (props) were for the players creative use, whether that be for ensuring the party remained tethered in case they couldn’t finish the fight fast enough, or as an anchor for restraining monsters  so the numbers threat could be reduced, etc.  

In the first round the wight kicked a switch to activate the monster slide, and then ran over and tied itself to a hook on the wall.  The players were too busy dealing with the new monsters that by the time they got back to the wight the floor had disappeared and it was picking them off with ranged attacks.  Fortunately for my players, the dwarf barbarian had found boots of spider climbing and so could travel on and use the walls while the sorcerer desperately fired some cantrips.

All the best for your planning and playing.

[riccardolll-blog]

If you ever feel like cooking up your own monster magic, this a good place to start!

Monster Building Panel at Hascon

photo credit: Samantha Pearson

I attended a panel at Hascon where D&D devs and the audience collaborated on designing a new D&D 5e monster. The panel was led by Mike Mearls. Chris Lindsay (Product Marketing Specialist and creator of DMsGuild.com) drafted up stats and Richard Whitters (Senior Worldbuilding Art Director) drafted up a drawing while we (the audience) brainstormed.

What we came up with was a Shark that Walks, a combination of a spider and a shark. There were a ton of abilities that were suggested, but what I think we settled on was burrowing teeth, barbed/gooey webbing that can be fired in a burst (recharge) or at range (at will), spider climbing, and bite and claw attacks. I don’t have a screenshot or perfect notes on its statistics, but I came up with something close at the end of the post. Enjoy!

General Tips:

Keep reading

[riccardolll-blog]

Creating Interesting Combat Encounters (Part 1)

So you want to plan a fight.  Great.  A lot of players come to D&D intending to hit bad guys.  It’s a good way for players to feel like they’ve accomplished something.  But not all fights are created equal.

Maybe you’ve seen some of the great resources for combat building like Matt Colville‘s talks, or Matt Mercer’s battle maps on Critical Role.  Clearly these guys have put a lot of time and thought into their battles.  But if you’re the average person and want to do some quick building of encounters, what are the kinds of things you can think about?  In this post, let’s start by discussing the combat environment.

In this first post, we’ll be talking about two of three useful questions to ask your self when building combat encounters.

1. Inside or outside?

The first and most basic question to ask yourself. 

Being inside or outside will definitely affect your later choices (e.g. monsters, battle props, hazards, spell conditions, etc.). 

Some of this will be flavour, for example there probably won’t be any chandeliers for your players to swing from in the great outdoors, but there might be tree branches or vines or a handily placed archway. 

Other things will be more crucial, such as whether your players can cast large AOE spells when fighting in a 5 x 10 x 50 ft corridor (or if they can, whether it’s a good idea to cast that spell). Or whether they’re likely to find a fire elemental in the local weaver’s dining room. 

2. What are the features of the space?

It’s very difficult to create interesting combat encounters in a flat environment.  10 zombies in a bare room is a slug fest, and unless your players are into that, it gets tiring quickly.

Instead, think about the kind of space your players are in.  Remember the space is 3D.  Think about what’s above, below and around the area you plan to be fighting in.   For example, are you fighting on a ship?  If so, how many (if any) masts are there?  What kind of rigging does this ship use?  Is there a crow’s nest?  Is it climbable?  What happens if a combatant falls off the ship?  Is there spare rope lying around the deck?  What is below deck?  What’s the weather like?

What about in a tavern?  Maybe there’s a mezzanine level?  How many tables and chairs are around?  Where is the alcohol kept?  Does the bartender keep a stockpile of weapons under the bar “just in case”?  Does the bar have an adjoining kitchen?  Does the bar have windows?  Do the windows have glass in them?  

Fighting on a volcano edge?  Is it safe to breathe normally up here?  What kind of rocks are around?  How hot is it?  Are there bits of lava on the floor?  Is there ash clouding the air?  Is there any vegetation close by, either dead or alive?  Is the mountain quaking, getting ready to erupt?  Or is a dormant mountain?  Can your players enter the crater? 

The aim is to build a picture of the kind of space you’re working in.  You don’t need to have every detail buttoned down but you should have a good feel for the space. 

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I encourage you to start planning your encounters by thinking carefully about the space you’ll be fighting in.  Feel free to comment below with a general descriptions of your next planned encounter space. 

All the best for your planning and playing. 

[riccardolll-blog]

If you’ve ever wanted to sprinkle a little bit of “foreign” language into your play, using pre-translated phrases can be fun.  I’ve linked the grey company’s elven stock phrases, but there are any number of sites for translating phrases to elven, dwarven, draconic, and other languages.  You can even use other human languages if you know one or want to learn something useful while playing.

I recommend picking about 5 phrases and sticking to those phrases for a decent time period (20+ sessions).  This has the advantage of:

a) helping them sink into your memory.  You don’t want to be constantly looking for that piece of paper with the words written on it.

b) help your fellow players and DM learn a bit of your language (in group jokes/messages, anyone?).

c) allows for character/world development over time.  Maybe NPCs will come to recognise your standard phrases, or you might find that they are quoted back to you as a “common dwarven saying” in the region you adventure in.  

The alternative is to go for the outrageous.  I know of a campaign where the tiefling used car brands for spells.  The player would yell “Mitsubishi!”  “Holden!” “BMW!” when casting, and it would have the table in stitches. 

Whatever you do, make sure you have fun while doing it.

All the best for your planning and playing.

[riccardolll-blog]

I love this idea from @prokopetz​ for fun world building.  It’s got a lot of potential for depth and creativity.  But once you’ve got your world change(s) and ramifications figured out, how do you communicate all that information to your players? 

Well, start by always trying to show rather than tell.  At a basic level this means to describe - think about the physical cues (5 senses) rather than the actual mechanics.  E.g. “What do my players see when they look at the portal?”  “How does this egg smell?”  “How does the invitation paper feel?”  “Is it quiet or loud in the hallway?” “If my player licked the bark, how would it taste?”

Once you have a rough ideas, use this to build little snippets you might use in your campaign.  What do I mean by a snippet?  Any small encounter you might use to hint to your players about what this world is and how it works.  These are the puzzle pieces your players will use to build their own visions of your world.  

By way of example, imagine a world in which bathing is an intrinsically magic/mystical affair.  Remember you haven’t directly told your players this, but you want to show them so they can figure it out.  Consider the two snippets below:

P1: “I walk about the marketplace looking at the wares that are on sale.”

DM: “Are you looking anything specific?”

P1: *generic player answer here*

*DM requests appropriate rolls*

DM: “You walk around looking carefully at the shop fronts.  While there are a number of smaller and medium wooden stalls selling items like fruit, local wood carvings and minor jewellery, the largest stalls have fancy, if somewhat worn, carpets of bright colours leading up to them.  Making your way inside one of these large stalls you are assaulted by the smell of lavender and sandalwood.  Looking around you see an array of soaps, candles, cloths and other bathing goods.  Folded placards display various animals in front of each ware.  An old lady with a mysterious look steps up to you, her eyebrows wiggling, and softly says ‘Finest quality in the market.  You’ll not regret buying from the best.’”

—

DM: “You continue walking down the main thoroughfare looking for the Three Cherubs pub.  After some helpful directions from a local washerwoman, you take a right down a side street packed tightly with redbrick townhouses.  Some of the neat square windows are open, and from one you hear the sound of singing and gargling.  Curiously, the voices change intermittently between soprano, bass, and some kind of hooting.  A sweaty dwarf traveling in the other direction nods to you as he passes, the pack on his back almost as big as he is.  It’s then you catch sight of the engraved metal sign displaying three winged and very ugly babies, just as it had been described…”

—

Notice that neither of the above snippets say anything definitive about the world your players are in or how the change you’ve made works.  Everything is a little clue, a small stroke in the bigger picture. 

The snippets are also sufficiently adaptable that you can use them in a range of situations.  For example, assume your players decide to ditch the inn and go look for Uncle Freddie instead.  A couple of small changes and the second description can be used on the way to Uncle Freddie’s place.  Or in the marketplace, you can still use the above scenario whether your player rolls well or not.  Who knows?  Maybe the soap vendor also sells fruitcake or diamonds or assassin’s daggers or whatever it was that your player was looking for.  The point is that if your clues are too tight or too tied to a particular scenario/place, you may find your players just miss them altogether.

All the best for your planning and playing.

Fantasy RPG worldbuilding tip #137: mess with what counts as magic.

I don’t mean replicating modern technology with magical analogues - that stuff’s common as dirt. What I mean is taking a step back from the conventional paradigm of starting with a world that fundamentally resembles our own and layering magic on top of it, and asking yourself: what if this obviously non-magical thing is a form of magic in this world?

History furnishes numerous examples. It’s well-known, for example, that the Ancient Greeks didn’t distinguish between pharmacology and sorcery - but did you know that the Vikings considered picking locks to be a form of magic? That it’s demonstrably a mechanical skill that can be learned by anyone is beside the point; that a person was able to learn that skill in the first place was, itself, seen as evidence of consorting with evil spirits!

So run with that: pick a perfectly ordinary skill or pursuit, one that’s integral to our everyday life, and suppose that in your world, it’s a mystical practice that transgresses against the natural order. What does your world look like then?

To pose a common example: literacy. Treating literacy as a form of magic isn’t historically uncommon; the modern word “grimoire” - a book of spells - ultimately derives from the same root as “grammar”. So let’s run with that. The process and mechanics of learning to read are the same as they are in our world, but the implications may be very different. Perhaps knowing how to read books automatically confers the ability to read minds. Perhaps literacy grants the ability to understand the speech of beasts. There’s all sorts of directions you could go with it.

It’s critical to resist the urge to fall back on describing our world with magic laid on top. If you’re doing the literacy-as-magic thing, then you are not describing a world in which a reading-based school of magic exists; you are describing a world in which the acts of reading and writing are and always have been mystical practices, with all the societal weirdness that implies - and further, the mechanics of reading and writing do not materially differ from those of their real-world counterparts, though the outcomes may vary wildly.

The other major trap to watch out for is picking something too esoteric to really dig into. You’ll find plenty of fantasy settings where, say, clockworking or steam engineering is a form of magic - but clockworking isn’t something that ordinary people do in their daily lives. This sort of worldbuilding is much more effective when the practice in question is ubiquitous.

Other everyday activities that might make good candidates for converting into mystical practices:

Cooking or baking

Dressing (i.e., the act of putting on clothing)

Farming or gardening

Keeping pets

Lighting fires

Makeup (i.e., facial cosmetics)

Personal hygiene (bathing, grooming, etc.)

Representational art (that is, drawing pictures of things)

Rhyming (even unintentionally!)

Again, no wimping out; to pick a faintly ridiculous example from the preceding list, if you’ve decided that bathing is magic in your setting, that doesn’t mean that there’s a magical way to take a bath - it means that taking a bath is an inherently mystical process, and there’s no non-magical way to go about it. Similarly, if you went with cooking, what you’ve got is a world in which all prepared food is, in some sense, also a magic potion.

Give it a shot!