Game Masters, when creating an adventure story which is better? The obvious villain or the hidden villain? Granted not all situations need an antagonist, but there is usually one in most stories. This is something that GMs should consider when setting up adventures and campaigns.
The Obvious Villain: This could be the dragon that the kingdom needs to have slain. The orc chief that is holding the village hostage. The rival adventure party trying to reach the hidden treasure room first. With a clear obvious villain(s), the party has a goal to focus on. The obvious one would make for an easier setup by the Game Master, however the GMs should not make their antagonists so powerful that the party cannot defeat them. Another problem with a good bad guy is that having them come back from the dead too many times would cheapen the past defeats. Especially if the party took extra steps to make sure the villain cannot come back again.
The Hidden Villain: An example could be the Lich who secretly hires the party to recover his stolen tome. Another possibility is the head of a cult that is also in a position of power within the city. Section 31 working on behalf of the Federation is another hidden villain, doing the dirty work that others don’t want to touch. Some hidden villains may set up an obvious villain as a red herring for the players to chase. The amount of planning and clues would generate a lot of work for Game Masters, but if done well, would make for a great story. The clues would have to be intelligent, without being too difficult or too easy. It’s almost a walk on a tightrope and probably not something that new GMs would want to take on right away.
Final Thoughts:
Day 15 had some pretty good suggestions for topics. I wonder how many blog posts will list a ‘Fiend” as a possible villain? “Move” wouldn’t be a bad topic as movement is a big part of most RPGs and tactical games. “This is not the greatest song in the world, no. This is just a tribute!”
How it feels watching some of the online arguments.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of August 16th through the 22nd.
August 16 (Just before departing on another mission) “Here we are again. Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Archer- Borderland, Date: May 17, 2154 #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet
August 17 “Truth, Doctor, is in the eye of the beholder. I never tell the truth because I don’t believe there is such a thing. That is why I prefer the simple straight line simplicity of cutting cloth.”? Garak- Cardassians, Stardate: 47177.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet
August 18 “Those who hate and fight must stop themselves, doctor. Otherwise, it is not stopped.” Spock- Day of the Dove, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet
“Scientists believe that no experiment is a failure that even a mistake advances the evolution of understanding.” Dr. Pulaski- Unnatural Selection, Stardate: 42494.8 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet
“I’m sorry I’m late, I was watching the first Enterprise on the holodeck. You know, Archer and those guys? What a story. Those guys had a long road getting from there to here.” Riker- No Small Parts, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet
August 20 “I’m just going to have to give up coffee. That’s all there is to it.” Janeway- The Cloud, Stardate: 48546.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet
August 21 “Our only influence, Minister, is by example.” Picard- Half a Life, Stardate: 44805.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet
August 22 “What is it? Why, lovely lady, it’s a tribble.” Jones- The Trouble with Tribbles, Stardate: 4523.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet
All right. The topic of the day is “Supplement”. I’d like to post some covers from my favorite role playing game supplements that I’ve collected.
The Star Trek Ship Construction Manual by FASA: I used this supplement for the Star Trek Role Playing Game so much that I had to tape the book together. Not only had I collected every starship for the game from different supplements, modules and magazine articles, I used this book to create stats for vessels found in various tech manuals and blueprints. I started scanning some of the printouts that I made in the 90’s and you can find the ships (or links) here.
The Gazetteer series by TSR: I LOVED this series. I was a bigger fan of the BECMI Dungeons and Dragons game in my earlier days of gaming. As I mentioned during the Maps entry into the #RPGaDAY2021 Challenge, I loved the created world that was presented in the game. When I heard about the Gazetteers I knew I had to check them out. I remember hoping on a bus and taking a ride to a downtown book store just to pick up the first book. It had pull out maps and a ton of details on the lands that we had only briefly seen in the game manuals. I also liked how it added elements to the game such as Dwarf Clerics in The Dwarves of Rockholme supplement. I wondered if these extra rules ever got collected into a single book.
The Prisoner by Steve Jackson Games: I had played a few GURPS games, but I was not a big fan of the system. What I did like was the many, many supplements that was released for the system. Even though you may not play GURPS, the supplements contained a good amount of information that you could use for other games. Being a big fan of the British surreal spy-fi television series, The Prisoner, I had to pick up this book when it came out.
Final Thoughts:
This was a great topic. When I was creating the spreadsheet in July with all of the suggestions on them, I filled in an idea for this topic right away.
I’ve been reading up on the Star Trek Adventures role playing game by Modiphius (I still don’t know how you pronounce that). I’ve only had one chance to play in a session and I’d love to get into an actual campaign. The 2d20 system sounds logical (no pun intended) and I can see how it would work. There are several interesting and huh tidbits about the game. One of the interesting tidbits is one of the subjects for today’s #RPGaDAY2021 challenge. “Momentum”.
When you roll your d20’s in Star Trek Adventures you have to roll under a target number (based upon your Attribute+Discipline+any variables) to earn a success. If you only needed two successes to accomplish the goal and you ended up rolling three or four, you gain what is called Momentum. For example if your character is attempting to scan an energy source on an alien device and you earn Momentum, you can spend a point or two of Momentum to gain some additional information. It is a reward for a well done roll of the dice. Momentum can also be used to create an advantage in a situation (or remove a disadvantage), add additional damage, re-roll a die, and more. The Momentum doesn’t have to be used right away. A player can elect to place it in a pool for anyone in the party to use (max number of items in the pool would be six). Thus the player can decide to help the party if they are having a bad day at rolling dice.
Game Masters have their own pool of dice, called “Threats”. If a player decides that they don’t want to spend Momentum (or they don’t have any Momentum to spend) they can request a Momentum from the GM who gains a Threat to use or place in his pool.
I thought this added an interesting twist to the game. Now if I could get a session in that actually explains how the combat system works.
Final Thoughts:
This was a much better batch of suggestions compared to the past few days. “Fun” is the primary reason we all play role playing games and there was a lot of possible topics that could have been discussed about that. I’m certain that “Limits” could have talked about some of the limits of spells or abilities in various games. “Safety” was another good one as it should be a big goal of both players and game masters.
Unless a published adventure talks about extreme weather, I don’t think I’ve seen a lot of it in my many different adventures that I’ve played in. Since it’s easier for player characters to interact with the world the GM is running, most adventures take place on normal days. The temperature is not too extreme, the roads are clear and it’s a standard day.
But who can predict the weather? Or an earthquake? And an even bigger question, what would be the effect of a natural disaster on a city full of gangsters, a western frontier town, a colony on another planet or a fantasy dungeon?
I doubt that you the reader would like me to describe every natural disaster that is out there. I would like to through a few ideas out on the table for Game Masters to ponder. While I was doing some quick research for this article I came across two websites that may be of interest for GMs. Wikipedia has a List of Natural Disasters with links to individual pages for each type of disaster that contains additional information. Our World in Data also does a deep dive into the numbers on natural disasters.
Flood- Flooding happens when the amount of water becomes so great that it submerges the land. The water can be increased by a breaking dam (how did the dam break?) or very heavy rainfall. I remember watching documentaries where large bodies of water in an ice filled area like the Antarctic would suddenly drain. That water has to go somewhere. While it is easy to find historical examples of flooding on cities and towns, I’d love to see what would happen if a dungeon became flooded. Water takes the path of least resistance when it is being pulled down by gravity.
Hurricanes- This is a tropical storm that forms with high winds over the sea and then moves towards land. Thanks to modern technology meteorologists can track hurricanes when they form and attempt to predict the path they might take. What would happen to a coastal city in medieval times or the roaring 20’s where they do not have this technology? I could see a scenario where a group of gangsters go to make a hit, only to be trapped in the same hotel as their targets when the storm hits.
Earthquakes- A shift that occurs along a fault line that release a lot of energy resulting in a lot of ground movement or waves in the ground. There are two major points to bring up about earthquakes. Most governments in current times have building codes to make buildings safer during an earthquake. These codes would not exist in not so developed countries or before a certain point in time. The lack of these codes would increase the amount of death and damage to a community hit by an earthquake. The second point to bring up is that there is rarely just one earthquake. There are also after-shocks. While they may not be as big as the first earthquake, they can still be dangerous to an area that has already been damaged. That chasm bridge looks rickety, will it hold before the party gets across?
The effect of a natural disaster affects more than just the party. How would animals react during or even before a natural disaster. “Sir Garett, why did the pack of rats run past us instead of attacking?” “Never mind the rats friend Teno, what is that rushing sound coming towards us?” Also think about how the disaster would affect other intelligent beings? The natives could be worried about the explorers that just landed on the island, or they could head back to the village to check on their families after the volcano erupted. Another effect of natural disasters is that resources such as communication, food deliveries, law enforcement and more could be unavailable for a period of time. The players could be hired by worried relatives to go into an area affected by a natural disaster to find an individual or a group. Players could also be deputized by local law enforcement to prevent looters.
A weird thing I came across while reading various articles online is “Disaster Tourism“. How is a thief supposed to pull a heist if there are groups of people who want to see the city flooded by a Tsunami?
The opportunities for Game Masters to “shake things up” are endless. I wouldn’t recommend making it a common occurrence. But if you wanted to pull a surprise on your players, a natural disaster may fill that need.
Final Thoughts:
Yet another round of suggestions where I looked at all of them and felt uninspired. It wasn’t until I actually started assembling the blog post that an idea struck me for a subject. We do a lot of “Improvise” in games. But nothing that I wanted to blog about. “Doom” sound ominous. I guess that I could have talked about Dr. Doom or the Doom video game franchise. I almost made a post about dice “Pool”s, however I’m still experimenting with some of these RPG systems.
“To feel the thrill of victory…there has to be the possibility of failure. Where’s the victory in winning a battle you can’t possibly lose?” Dr. Pulaski- Elementary, Dear Data, Stardate: 42286.3
I’ve been playing role playing games for a long time. Probably longer than some of my readers have been alive. I’ve seen and heard about many different styles of gaming and GMing. I know these #RPGaDAY2021 posts are supposed to be focusing on the positive side of our hobby. But I wanted to make today’s post some constructive criticism.
Monty Haul – A campaign (or the DM running it) in which greatly excessive amounts of treasure and/or experience are given out.
Further insight on this is where the name came from. Monty Hall was a game show host who’s famous program was “Let’s Make A Deal”. He was known for giving away a ton of prizes to the contestants. DMs and GMs who give a lot of unique items, money or experience points to players beyond the scope of their character level, run the risk of giving too much. Thus the term “haul” in “Monty Haul”.
I know that when I’ve reached the top of the mountain, I’ve accomplished a major goal. That mountain I may be climbing could be a earning rank advancement in my Star Trek club through service, a character I’ve moved from 1st to 15th level naturally, or even enjoying the vegetables from my garden that I tended all summer. If I’m a 3rd-Level Fighter, don’t bequeath me a castle just yet, I know that I haven’t earned it. Yet I’ve had a DM try to do that. Let me work my way through the levels, role playing my way in the game. I know eventually I’ll get that castle/hideout/wizard’s magical realm in another dimension.
Giving away items that are too powerful (or quickly running us up through the levels by awarding excessive experience points) reminds me of the cheat codes in video games. I’ve had friends that would only play these games with the cheat codes. They wanted to get through the story faster is what I was told. I only used cheat codes in very difficult circumstances or if I’ve already played the game a million times and I want to get past an unpleasant level. WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness was a really popular video game that I enjoyed. I would still play it now. It is also popular when we use to hold LAN parties (I haven’t heard that word in a long time) with WarCraft II being one of the games scheduled. I recall one LAN party where we all had our computers in the same room with our speakers on. We could hear where other players were at when units were created or buildings finished. You could not use cheat codes in WarCraft II without the benefits also being applied to the other players. So we agreed not to use them. As I was managing my resources and building my troops, I was able to create three Griffin lairs. Griffins were flying troops and very nasty in large numbers. I had planned it so that all three would generate a new unit at the same time. In the middle of the LAN party the sound coming from my speakers was not one, not two but three Griffin cries (the sound the unit made when it was ready for battle) happening one after the other. From across the room I suddenly heard one of my friends exclaim: “He has three Griffins? Crap! I haven’t even made it to Archers yet.” My triumph was listening to the sounds of panic fill the room as suddenly everyone was re-adjusting their defenses to counter my upcoming aerial assault.
There is no winning in role playing games other than everyone having fun. I believe that fun should come through overcoming the challenge naturally and not having triumph handed to me on a silver platter. Don’t give me a helicopter to fly to the top of the mountain, let me make that climb with the possibility of my character failing.
Of course that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Final Thoughts:
Today’s suggestions was a difficult batch. It was days like this one that made me wonder if I wanted to participate in this challenge. Other days have been just as uninspiring. “Think” didn’t make me think of anything. Same with “Consensus” and “Deep”. I almost waited until the day of to see what other participants were posting about. But I also wanted to get these blog posts done in advance and schedule them for the day of. I was really worried that I was going to turn today’s post into a massive soapbox. I may have still stood on one, but I hope it helps some DMs/GMs with their future campaigns.
One of the marvels of our internet age is the ability to obtain almost any role playing book from a variety of sources. DriveThruRPG has a large number of current titles and some classic favorites. Charity sites such as Humble Bundle and Bundle of Holding always have sales where you can get a large number of PDF books at a very good price.
However there is nothing like the feel of a physical book in your hands. Every time I pick up a role playing book from the shelf, I feel like this..
These books had weight. The best books were laid out eloquently and had wonderful artwork. Even in my later gaming groups, while we still have access to the information in soft copy and internet, we still had our books on the table. If you had just one or two books, it wasn’t that big of a deal to throw them into a backpack and head off to your friends house for the session. I’ve known some RPG buddies that have started placing their books in those portable filing boxes (with the lids that lock and the handle on top). I even recall a friend from the early gaming days that purchased a moving trunk to put his books into. This way he could just place the trunk in his car when it was time to go to the game.
My last wizard character had an Excel spreadsheet for a character sheet (provided by the DM). I remember spending time making links on the spell list to the online descriptions for quick access. I’m starting to get use to reading books on my tablet (and I like the fact that I can mark some of the text for later reference). Having the RPG books at my fingertips on my laptop for quick reference has been very useful. But when it come time to introducing myself to a new gaming system or just reading an older gaming book to relax, there is nothing like the weight of a heavy book in your hands.
Final Thoughts:
“Wilderness” wasn’t a bad suggestion and I’m sure it will generate a lot of posts about hex crawl adventures. However I think I already touched upon that topic with “Explore” a few days ago. “Listen” will probably generate some posts about past stories of trying to listen at the door. Both were decent suggestions. “Despair” made me scratch my head. I don’t know how that could be a positive #RPGaDAY2021 entry.
One of the things that Game Masters have to keep in mind is the ingenuity of their players. I had one GM keep a tally sheet for the Star Trek RPG by Decipher game that he was running. He had goals he wanted to mark down as they were part of the plot. If we accomplished the items he had set out, we earned points for meeting them. Then he had a miscellaneous section on his tally sheet. We would come up with ideas and solutions that he hadn’t thought of.
Back in the days of gaming with my junior high crew, we had come up with a few of these unusual ideas. One that has stuck with me all these years has been the “D&D Flashlight”. One of the members in our party played a wizard. He took a wand that had run out of charges and cast a spell of continual light on it. He then took some black felt and lined it inside a small scroll case. When he needed light, he would open up the cap to the scroll case and it would shine a beam in one direction. It was a magical short range flashlight. He could pull the wand out if he wanted to use it as a lantern. When he was done, back in the special scroll case it went and the light was covered up.
Every once in a while I’ll see something that reminds me of an older gaming session and how we impressed or shocked (sometimes both) the Game Master.
Final Thoughts:
This was another set of suggestions that had some good and some bad in them. “Trust” was really broad and could have been anything. It is the same with “Conscience”. None of them really inspired me for a blog post. “Advantage” had some possibilities, but lost out on the memory of the “D&D Flashlight” recipe.
The primary reason I enjoy role playing games is the opportunity to participate in a story with a bunch of friends. I’m certain that if I asked the reason why most gamers participate in RPGs the answers would be very similar to this one. However there is a secondary reason I enjoy role playing games, especially those based off of an Intellectual Property. It provides me with a system that I can use to compare two different things within the scope of the game. A really good example has been the discussion held in geek circles about how two characters/items can stack up to each other. Would a Klingon have an advantage over a Moclan in combat? Which starfighter would be better in combat, the X-Wing or the Starfury? How would Mr. Spock and Yoda do in a chess match with each other? While there hasn’t been an official multi-IP role playing game, fans have homebrewed stats for popular characters, ships and races for their favorite RPG systems. There have also been enough official publications for generic systems (such as D20 for both Star Wars and Starfleet Battles’ Prime Directive) that you could start to put together an educated guess.
While the above mentioned D20 system is very useful for ease of game play, I feel like it lacks on the comparison side. I believe that both Klingons and Moclans would end up with a +2 to their Strength attributes and doesn’t help with the debate. This is why I thought the FASA entry into the Star Trek role playing license was perfect. It was based off of a percentage system for both attributes and skills.
For example: I remember trying to create the FASA stats for the character of Will Decker, the Captain demoted to Commander in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In a D20 system, he would have looked pretty similar to other command grade Starfleet officers. But in the percentage system of FASA, he becomes a little more unique. Sure sometimes the difference may only be a few percentage points, but on paper he is different. I brought my Decker stats to a few of my fellow FASA players and we had a debate on the numbers I had brought in. One friend thought I had Decker’s luck too high (since he lost his ship and his captaincy in a sucky situation). I was really hoping to find my notes from that discussion, but it’s been years since I’ve seen them. Knowing my luck, they will turn up in a box that I’ll be cleaning out of the garage. If I find them, I’ll post them here.
Now I’m not saying that the FASA system is superior to other IP based RPGs. But it is one that I’ve enjoyed a lot more because of the way that they used percentages in the game. I’m aware of other gaming systems that use percentages, but I’ve never had a chance to try them out or look them over.
Final Thoughts:
I’m not certain what to think of all the other suggestions for this date. “Medium” is mostly a size (unless you count the magical medium). I could have done a blog about the different “Role” methods used to generated D&D stats. “Emotion” didn’t elicit any emotion from me. Yea I’ll see myself out for that last one.
“James T. Kirk was considered to be a great man. He went on to captain the USS Enterprise, but that was another life.” Nero- Star Trek (2009) #StarTrek #WeAreStarfleet
“Am I better off dead? I’m an xB, I have no home, I don’t belong anywhere. Why don’t I just put a phaser to my head and get it over with?” Seven “Because… I’d miss you.” Elnor- Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #WeAreStarfleet
August 11 “Well, I’ve been a husband and I’ve been a wife and I know that look from both sides.” Dax- House of Quark, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet
“Spock, …the retraining of your mind has been in the Vulcan way, so you may not understand feelings. But as my son, you have them. They will surface.” Amanda- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Stardate: 8390.0 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet
“If you ever disrespect me like that again, I’ll skip the court martial and blow you out the airlock!” Freeman “Cool. Well, live long and prosper.” Mariner “Don’t you give me that sarcastic Vulcan salute! BECKETT!” Freeman- Moist Vessel, SD: 57538.9 #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet
August 14 ““You canna chance the laws of physics,” I told him but he wouldn’t believe me.” Scotty- Relics, Stardate: 46125.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet
August 15 “I’ve been equipped with an autonomous self-sustaining mobile holo-emitter. In short, I am footloose and fancy free.” The Doctor- Future’s End, Part II, Stardate: 50312.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet
