Prepping for the Con (GenCon 2012 Warmup)

While I was working the company booth at an industry convention, I noticed folks walking this way and that (rarely stopping at our booth), all with the various goodie bags they picked up from the other vendors at the show.

Between failed attempts at using the force to compel folks to visit our station ("This is the booth you're looking for"), I started thinking about GenCon (and how it couldn't get here soon enough!).

Thinking about the con made me realize two important thinks:

1. Pre-reg starts this weekend! That's right. If you're planning to go, you can pre-reg starting this Sun at noon. Pre-reg saves you a couple of bucks and is of course the first step to booking a room as well as events.
2. I need to start training! That's also right. If you've been to GC before you know the layout is massive, and the reports are that it will be even more spread out this year, with more nearby hotels serving as the site for various games and seminars.

In order to be up for the challenge, I need to get back to the gym, and get back to a regular routine of weights and cardio. The dealer's room alone can feel like a half marathon if you're not used all that walking. And the weights? You will be amazed at how fast a few purchases can start to weigh down on you.

And, if you're like me, looking to get ready for the con, know that you are not alone. Take a moment and visit (and sign up) at plus5cha.com to read about and hope get inspired by other geeks also looking to get in better shape.

Listen to Your Characters

As a follow up to my previous post, "Let Your Campaign Talk to You", I've been thinking about new ways to approach developing character backgrounds, and looking at various techniques from literature and television.

Rather than what I suspect is the standard approach, that of drafting the background and incidental details all at once, and typically before even the first game session has taken place, what I'm now envisioning is a process where the character background grows organically over time.

In this new approach, players should at the time of the first game session, know the basics, what's readily apparent from their character sheets, but details beyond that can be left somewhat vague and filled in over time. This could be something as minor as character details, or something as major as character motivations and goals.

In the past I might have a character background that states that "Johnny" is the oldest of 5 siblings. But in this new approach, I might not know for sure if Johnny has has sibs, until a role playing moment comes along where having a sib, or being an only child has some emotional impact. Maybe Johnny did have an older brother who died at a young age, so when Johnny and the group are investigating a series of child murders, the events impact him pretty hard.

Maybe my character at first seems to be adventuring as a way to earn money, but later reveals that he seeks revenge on the man that that killed his parents, who just so happens to be the Big Bad of the current adventure. Plot twists like this are a common staple of literature and TV.

In fact, soap operas offer outrageous examples of "flexible" characters -- where a character is first introduced as a nice quaint doctor, then revealed to be the evil-twin thought to be dead brother who is actually a rogue Soviet assassin. And we think of fantasy literature as highly creative...

By keeping the character background flexible, new plots and dimensions can be added organically from the events in the game so characters and be integrated in ways that can be both interesting for the player as well as the DM.

Now this type of approach does have some caveats. First, all the players and DM have to have a trust one another. It can be easy for some players to monopolize the role playing elements by creating a number of different hooks while other characters don't have much of connection. What you want to avoid is a party where one player is Crocket and everyone else is Tubbs, or worse, a group where one is Drizzt and everyone else is, well, everyone else!

But that said, with the right group of people, this flexible approach can easily open more role playing opportunities,  and provide adventures with more emotional impact.

"Good Complexity" - Initial Thoughts on the next edition of D&D

In case you missed it, WoTC confirmed Monday one of it's worst kept secrets, that they are hard at work on a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Read about it here from CNN, or here from Forbes. The announcement was also carried by the New York Times and EN World.

This new edition, cleverly referred to at the moment as just "D&D Next", seems to have a very daunting mandate, to re-unite the various splinters of the D&D community that have grown out of a dissatisfaction with the 4e rule set. We now have not only groups that still cling to old rule sets (like Basic, 1e, 2e, etc), but also active supporters on emerging edition variants, including Pathfinder and the OSRIC branch of D&D.

I've tried to take some time to distill my thoughts on what I think would be needed for a successful next edition of D&D, beyond things like Vancian magic and

1. Digital Support - WoTC needs a digital publishing plan, and they've needed it for the last few years. PDF support is a no-brainer at this point, with the proliferation of laptop and tablet's at the gaming table, they need to tap in to that user base.
       And don't just provide a flat PDF. Really leverage the electronic format. Provide crosslinks to other sections in the doc, use PDF layers to provide additional information.
2. Optional Tools - I like the idea of online/offline tools to help Players and DMs, like Character Builder, or Monster Builder, or encounter planners, but what I don't like is when game complexity is so high that use of the tools seems almost mandatory.
        And this isn't just a 4e issue. In my 3.5 game, I found it almost necessary to use online calculators for figuring out experience from an encounter.
3. Some kind of open license like the OGL - I hope the new edition will include something along these lines. It was a bold move when WoTC did it for 3e, and the watered down version of what was developed for 4e, was never really took off. I think the benefits far outweighed the perceived costs. By allowing all those 3rd party publishers to rally around a common game mechanic, you cross promote the system, allow the 3rd party to publish the niche products you can't, and take their resources away from non D&D Next projects.
4. Bring back Greyhawk - in some form you need to acknowledge the first setting for what it is. It's as much a part of the history of the game as Magic Missile.
        And also a rule system that doesn't require altering the setting to fit the game principles. The ruleset and the setting should be independent of each other (think HTML and CSS for all you web folk out there).
5. Faster Combat - The single biggest complaint I read for the longest time was about how long combat took. I seem to recall Chris Perkins admitting that combat can get complex at higher levels (in one of the GenCon podcasts). If it takes me 90 mins to run one combat, and my normal play time for a game session is 3.5 hrs, that doesn't feel like an optimal allocation of time per session, especially if I want to fit in some pesky roleplaying and plot advancement. 
6. "Good Complexity" - one of my favorite lines from the Forbes article about the playtest the writer took part in concerned how the new rules have a return to "good complexity". I know what it means to me, and I look forward to hearing/playtesting what it means to WoTC in the upcoming months.

Let Your Campaign Talk to You

My typical progression for a campaign may be little unusual. In the beginning, when the PCs are newly minted 1st level characters that have just been created by their players, I run adventures that don't tie too closely into any character's background.

The reason for this is two fold. At lower levels, simply put, characters may not survive. I never go out of my way to kill a character, but to quote the villainous Leland from Needful Things "these things happen". Secondly, I want to leave things open in case the player decides "this character blows" and wants to play something else.

Replacing characters is much easier to do when said character has no integral connection to the overall campaign. When it's established in the first session that these six noobs are destined to save the world, it's a little hard later on shoehorning in a new character--like the convoluted solution on Charmed when the "Power of Three" needed a new Third after one of the actresses was fired.

I try to avoid this by waiting for the players to see if they like their characters enough to keep them for the long haul, and for the characters to get a few levels under their belt and therefore become more sturdy.

Now the other guiding rule I follow when setting up a campaign is to "let the game talk to you". When I first start a new campaign, I have "notions" of where I would like it to go. But it's important to be flexible with those notions, and let them develop organically from early game sessions into ideas and roadmaps.

For example:

* If the PCs find a particular bad guy troublesome or aggravating, consider upgrading him to BBG status (even if you have to bring him back from the dead). I did this in my first game, when a kidnapper escaped the party, and one of the players frantically searched the area for any trail to follow.

* If you dangle a particularly juicy plot line that the PCs don't follow up on, consider dropping it in favor of something else. In another game I thought the group would research a rare and evil tainted item they had recently acquired. When they left it aside for a foray into a new dungeon, I simply dropped that idea (somewhat).

* If the party shows a preference for dungeon crawls, think about recasting your campaign in way that features more of what the party likes. As I mentioned above, when the group was more interested in a new dungeon rather than hours of library research, I ran a delve, and added some of the same story ideas into that dungeon (through journals and history/religion checks) that would have resulted from the tainted item they possessed.

Every campaign is different, just like every player and every character. You can learn a lot about your own game just by simply listening...

The Monster Engine

During one of my recent wandering on the tubes, I came across a site called The Monster Engine where the artist started off with the children's drawings and then add light and shadow, depth and shading, all the while retaining all the physics-defying, physiology-stretching, lack of reality from the original drawing.

The results are highly disturbing, and from a D&D point of view, look like something right out of the Far Realm. I could easily see the "finished" creatures being stat'ed up as something truly bizare, like something from Raistlin's Lair of the Live Ones (see Jeff Easley's painting here).

Alternately, I could see a modern horror game centering around the original children's drawings, only for the heroes/investigators to confront the manifestations of those drawings (and showing the finished art for that reference).


Either way, I highly encourage you to check out the The Monster Engine.

Dragonlance Comics (Issue 31) - Sword of the Kinslayer (Part 2)

This story begins a few days after the last issue.

Once again, we start with a nice little paragraph from Astinus recapping previous events and setting the stage for this issue.

The wolf-clan dwarves are disposing the bodies of the dead neidar (hill dwarves) in a ritual fashion. Wolfthane stops the clan shaman's ritual short, not caring about his "mumbo-jumbo" and fearing the shaman's horn might cause an avalanche.

Meanwhile, the surviving neidar, including Theolin are camped nearby, huddled around a small campfire and saddened that they must wait for another day to honor their dead.

Elsewhere Riva tells Stonehelm a story from her childhood. One day as a little girl, playing in the courtyard of Castle Silvercrown, Riva came upon a clutch of eggs. As she reached out to touch one, the mother goose, trying to protect her children, let loose a wild attack upon the little girl. She cowered in fear until her father chased away the goose and pulled Riva to him. She recalled how safe she felt and wished her was with her now.

Around the corner, and unseen by Riva or Stonehelm, Wolfthane hears Riva's story and seems touched by her "fragile light of innocence".

As he enters the room where Riva and Stonehelm are being held, there is a slight tremor, which Wolfthane dismisses as the "way of the mountain".

Wolfthane gets into a discussion with Riva. She asks how Wolfthane can kill help hill dwarves. The clan leader claims that everything he does is to make the dwarven peoples stronger. That they once followed the old ways, but now some, like hill dwarves, have grown weak, and others, like Stonehelm, are just mercenaries fighting for money. Wolfthane promises not to kill Riva, and will even spare Stonehelm, since the mercenary is Riva's friend.

Meanwhile, back at Castle Silvercrown, Lord Silvercrown is growing even more obsessed at possessing the Kinslayer blade that Wolfthane owns. When Maric informs his father that Riva has been missing for the last few days, Lord Silvercrown orders Maric to form a search party. The lord begins to say, "to find my sword", but quickly changes it to "Riva".

Elsewhere Wolfthane and his followers are outside the entrance to a cave, along with some of their prisoners Riva and Stonehelm. Wolfthane offers Stonehelm the chance to join with him, to help "bring back the days of dwarven glory".

Stonehelm looks in the cave and appears to see something shocking. But still, rather than join with Wolfthane, the mercenary would rather enter the cave. Stonehelm beseeches Wolfthane that if he really does respect the old ways, that the clan leader will let Stonehelm die like a warrior. Wolfthane honors the mercenary's request--he unshackles the dwarf and gives Stonehelm a weapon to defend himself.

Stonehelm chargers into the cave at full speed. From within the cave there is a deafening roar and a blast of bone chilling frost spills out of the opening along with Stonehelm's weapon.

Then a voice from within the cave speaks, asking if Wolfthane found the girl. He replies that he has, but questions the need to kill her. The voice from the cave demands the girl's death.

Just then Riva breaks free from her chains and she and Wolfthane fight.

Elsewhere, at a crossroads in the hills, Theolin, leading the hill dwarves away to safety, comes across Lord Silvercrown, leading his troops into the mountains. Theolin gives Lord Silvercrown information about Riva and begs him to destroy the Kinslayer blade that Wolfthane possesses. Lord Silvercrown laughs at such a suggestion, claiming that the sword will be his to wield, as he and his men ride off into the mountain.

Meanwhile, Riva is trying to run away from Wolfthane. The dwarf is close behind her, impressed by Riva's resourcefulness. When a mountain tremor knocks Riva off the cliff edge, Wolfthane is quick to her rescue. The dwarf is able to pull Riva to safety, but then finds himself hanging on to her for his life. Wolfthane notices the hesitation in Riva before pulling himself to safety.

The dwarf leader then knocks Riva out with a punch and carries her unconscious body back to the cave lair of "his mistress". From outside Wolfthane hears instructions to kill Riva with the Kinslayer blade. The dwarf hesitates for a moment before pushing Riva away from the cave mouth in defiance. From within the cave, a blast of freezing cold wind blows over the dwarf. Afterward, only the bones of the dwarf remain, still clutching the Kinslayer blade.

The dwarf shaman goes for the blade in an attempt to seize leadership of the clan, but the voice from inside the cave scares him away. Riva is given the chance to grab the blade, and is even shown a hint of the great things she can achieve (including knighthood), if she takes the weapon.

Riva, sensing a trap, refuses the blade, just as her father and his men arrive. Lord Silvercrown pushes her out of the way of another freezing blast from the cave mouth. While his men are engaged with the other wolf-clan dwarves, Lord Silvercrown takes the opportunity to grab the Kinslayer sword for his own.

Commentary

Wow. Another great issue that works on all levels.

The art is just as fantastic as the previous issue, from the uniqueness of each of the wolf-clan dwarves, to all the detail in the background mountains. The chase sequence where Wolfthane is following Riva though the mountains, along and edge and eventually rescuing her from the fall is fantastic work. The pacing flows smoothly though these pages. There's also a great visual metaphor about a wild flower that underlies the chase sequence and ties in to Wolfthane's thoughts about Riva during this issue.

The other visual element I really liked was during the sequence where Riva seems a glimpse of her future self. Here we see Riva in the outfit she is wears throughout the rest of the series.

Story-wise this issue has been on par with the first one. What really worked for me was Wolfthane. In this one issue we see so many sides of him, that he becomes someone we begin to at least understand, if not identify with. He is clearly one of the strongest, well-rounded characters created in this comic (and does so in just a pair of issues). His death towards the end of the issue was a bit of a shock, but seems to be a great way to clear the stage for the finale which I suspect will be Riva v a possessed Lord Silvercrown v the thing in the cave.

At this point, I'm eagerly looking forward to the last, concluding issue, to this story.

Did You Know? Jeff Grubb's Dragonlance Connections

While many people think of Dragonlance as the creation of Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis, there were a lot of other people involved. Remember, Dragonlance originally started out as a campaign setting and module series before the idea of writing accompanying novels was added to the mix.

One of the people who was involved in the early creation process of the setting was TSR employee Jeff Grubb. Mostly known for his work on the Forgotten Realms and Al-Qadim settings, it turns out Mr. Gurbb spent more time on Dragonlance than evidenced by the pair of novels he wrote for the setting (Lord Toede and Tymora's Luck).


The Grubb Vault is a page collecting details on many of Jeff's contributions to the setting. Of note are several links detailing the gods from Jeff's personal campaign that were appropriated for the Dragonlance setting.

Happy reading!