Author: Stan Shinn (Page 62 of 111)

Low Prep RPG Games: Part 3

May 17, 2016 / Stan Shinn

Continuing my series on low-prep RPG games, this morning I’ll talk about the Inspirational Interlude and Player Punch List techniques.

Inspirational Interlude

Ask for a volunteer who is willing to narrate a bit of background story for a reward (be it experience points, a Fate Point, or D&D 5e Inspiration).

Have the player roll a d4 and then spend a few minutes thinking up and then narrating the backstory type they’ve rolled. Let them know that something is happening in the present which will connect the current players with this past event.

1d4 Backstory Results:

Lost Love — What person (or thing) has the character lost in the past? What stands in the way of fulfilling that love? What event happens in the present that gives the player an opportunity (with the party’s help) to seek that lost love?
Old Enemy — What past foe became the character’s enemy? What terrible consequences came from this old rivalry? What event resurfaces your connection to this enemy?
Secret Need — What undisclosed need does your character have? Why have you kept this a secret? Who or what is in the way of getting your need? What has just happened that gives you hope you might finally fulfil your need?
Terrible Tragedy — What terrible tragedy befell the character or someone the character knows? What collateral damage resulted? What person or creature from the past now emerges that demands you address this past injustice?

After the player has finished their inspirational interlude, kick off the game using their story as a hook. This is usually enough to generate satisfying story momentum. Because the player has created the adventure hook, they are invested in what comes next!

Player Punch List

For inspiration, give the players writing prompts such as:
— A diabolical enemy
— A devious motive
— A mysterious object
— An imperilled victim
— A dangerous obstacle
— An exotic locationHave each players use notecards, a whiteboard, butcher paper, or a battlemat to record and share their ideas, putting the player’s initials next to each of their ideas.When done, take a short break and do a quick ten minute brainstorm on how to kick off the adventure using the player ideas as a basis. Then, run the adventure, incorporating as many of the player ideas as you can. Don’t worry if you don’t have the ending or details all figured out — things will evolve and emerge as you play!As a bonus, give each player a reward (be it experience points, a Fate Point, or D&D 5e Inspiration) the first time any of their ideas surface in play.

In my next post I’ll talk about Villain Flashback and Custer’s Last Stand.

Low Prep RPG Games: Part 2

May 12, 2016 / Stan Shinn

Ad Lib Adventures

Ad Lib adventures follow a fill-in-the-blank approach. Start the game without planning. Read the setup to the players. Ask questions and use the answers to collaboratively build the adventure. Usually it is best if you just ask one question at a time. Once there is a satisfying answer to that question, then move on to the next question. Make it a group discussion: everyone collaborates on the story. Finally, ask “What do you do?” Then, play to see what happens, using players’ ideas and your own imagination!

This format is great for con games or to kick off a campaign. Here are a couple of examples. Feel free to come up with your own!

Ad Lib Adventure: ‘Slayer to Lair’

Setup: “You’re visiting a small village. The streets are mostly deserted and villagers eye you with suspicion. There seems to be a disturbing air of fear.”

Questions:

— “What is the legendary creature most feared in this region?”

— “What cult is sacrificing young virgins to appease the monstrosity?”

— “What else motivates you to slay it?”

— “Where is its lair?”

— “What prevents you from getting there?”

— “Who else is involved and trying to stop you?”

— “What is the the creature rumored to protect or hoard?”

Ad Lib Adventure: ‘Heroes Under Fire’

Setup: “You’re in an overturned vehicle that is on fire. Someone is shooting at you. It’s very important that you protect the vehicle’s content.”

Questions:

— “What’s inside the vehicle?”

— “Why are your attackers shooting at you?”

— “Who are the allies of these attackers?”

— “What riddle must you still solve?”

— “What hazards await you if you approach your enemy’s stronghold?”

— “Who else is interested in stopping you?”

A couple of years ago I had a twelve hour Classic Traveller game scheduled at my house. I spent a lot of time formatting a rules summary and setting handout, and ran out of time to prepare for the game. But, I wasn’t worried. I just pulled out my ‘Heroes Under Fire’ ad lib template, and decided to rework and expand it. Here’s what I had written on a notecard five minutes later:

Setup: “You’re in a crowded, metal corridor. Anxious bystanders walking along the corridor eye you suspiciously. You consult your map, finding the still-distant location of a noble’s child. You’re starting to wonder if the 5,000 credits are worth it. It is very important that you save this person from their captivity. A warning klaxon blares. Over the global intercom, a sultry security agent’s voice urgently demands: ‘We order all security personnel to find the intruders. Shoot them on sight.’ You see assassin robots rounding the corner with drawn weapons.”

Questions:

— “Where are you?”

— “Who is trying to kill you?”

— “How did they discover you were there?”

— “Who paid you for this mission?”

— “What other dangers are ahead?”

— “What are you going to do?”

Moments later the first player arrived, and off we went. We played for almost twelve hours and it was one of the best Traveller game I’ve ever run. Players enjoy being invested in the story because they helped craft it. Aside from those five minutes of prep, the other thing I did was take a ten minute break about two hours into the game. During the break I did some deep thinking about how to make the story interesting. I asked myself my usual question: “How can I twist this into something unexpected?” I decided that the noble’s 14 year old child they were rescuing was not really a victim but rather a super genius mastermind organizing a planet-wide coupe. That certainly put a wrinkle in the events that unfolded!

Here’s a recap with some details behind this twelve hour Traveller game.

In my next post we’ll talk about Inspirational Interludes and Player Punch Lists.

Low Prep RPG Games: Part 1

May 11, 2016 / Stan Shinn

I’m writing a series on ways to run a game with little or no prep.

Published adventures with dozens of pages may take hours to read. Writing your own adventure from scratch can also take a significant time investment. What about when you want to run a game, but have little time to prepare? Let’s first look at some conventional ways: Random Encounters, Adventure Seeds, and One Sheet Adventures.

1. Random Encounters
First up is the venerable use of random encounters. Use encounter tables from your game system or setting of choice to randomly roll up monsters or NPCs. Throw a conflict at the players and come up with motivations and complications on the fly. Works great in exploration games when you’re mapping the wilderness or exploring a city.

2. Adventure Seeds
One sentence adventure seeds are another quick way to kick off an adventure. Start the story with only a sketch of the events in mind. As players speculate about what is really going on or strategize details, craft a story that foils their plans and makes the adventure interesting. Some examples:

A village has pooled their money and will pay you to vanquish nearby bloodthirsty tribal raiders.
A princess is missing, along with her court wizard rumored to be her abuser (but really her lover).
A cult is abducting people to use for in dark sacrifices to an unknown god.
Thieves in league with local corrupt officials have arranged to have you framed for their crime.
A sinkhole opens up overnight and the local village leader’s child is now missing, taken by a Gnoll shaman to sacrifice to their revered Purple Worm ‘deity’ who created the sinkhole.

A variation of this technique are rumors. Let the players overhear some fragment of truth related to the one sentence adventure. Note that many times rumors are a bit misleading! Drop a red herring as part of the rumor to make things interesting.

Keep a list of adventure seeds handy that can kick of a game and start the momentum for an one-the-fly story.

3. One Sheet Adventures

If you have ten minutes to prepare, a one sheet adventure can serve as an ideal framework. Whether it’s a Classic Traveller 76 Patrons adventures, a Savage Worlds one sheet adventure, or a one page dungeon, any short adventure that is only a page or two long is ideal for busy gamemasters who want a ready-to-run story.

Next up I talk about what I call Ad Lib Adventures.

#LowPrepRPG #RogueComet

Fate Answers

May 9, 2016 / Stan Shinn

Answers I came up with from my earlier ‘Questions of Fate‘ post.

Question: “What are the results of a success-with-style roll on a skill check vs. passive opposition (e.g. a skill roll that isn’t combat)?” and “What are the results of a success-with-style roll on an opposed roll that isn’t combat?”

Answer: Both of these situations are considered ‘Overcome’ skill rolls. So essentially all skill checks are an ‘Overcome’ action. They have the boost result as described under the Overcome rules.

Question: “How do you handle allied NPCs? Can you use Mob rules or is that only for enemy NPCs?”

Answer: Named important NPCs don’t follow mob rules, nameless cannon fooder NPCs do. The same goes for allies. The leader and lieutenants of a allied gang are named NPCs, the troops of that gang aren’t. They are allied mobs.

If you have an allied mob, avoid to send it against npc’s while you control it. You start die-rolling against yourself which is a pinnacle of boredom. To solve for this, give the allied mob to the players.

Another way to handle this: have mobs and anti-mobs neutralize each other and emit situation aspects. Mobs of Jets and Sharks give the “Melodious Gang War” aspect to the whole battleground. Or think James Bond: all those minions switch from baddies with guns to background noise in Goldfinger, Thunderball etc., when Bond’s own minion army shows up. Remove mobs, add the “Bullet Hell” aspect to a few zones.

Question: “What skills you can use for Defend and how/when you can use something besides Athletics to defend?”

Answer: Athletics is a catch-all skill to roll for defense in a physical conflict, against close-quarters and ranged attacks. You can also use it to defend against characters trying to move past you, if you’re in a position to physically interfere with whoever’s making the attempt.

You use Fight to defend against any other attack or create an advantage attempt made with Fight, as well as pretty much any action where violently interposing yourself could prevent it from happening. You can’t use this skill to defend against Shoot attacks, unless the setting is fantastical enough that you can catch missiles or swat them from the air or use laser swords to deflect blasters.

One example exception is sneak attacks. For example, let’s say you failed a Notice skill check and you’re unaware of an attacker that sneaks up on you from behind. See this Google+ discussion.

The Notice skill specifically says it is for defending against Stealth:
You can use Notice to defend against any uses of Stealth to get the drop on you or ambush you, or to discover that you’re being observed.
Seems like if you want to use Athletics or Physique in this situation wouldn’t that be a Stunt – to allow you a second defensive roll? Something like:
Merely a Flesh Wound: You can defend with Physique when you are ambushed or backstabbed and fail to defend with Notice
Otherwise, seems like you’ve already been hit.

In another comment, a gamer had this recommendation:

I would say either:
A) defend directly with Notice vs the attack roll; or
B) roll Notice first, and then apply the MoF as a penalty to your Athletics roll to dodge; or
C) a succeeded Sneak roll creates an aspect you can tag on your subsequent attack roll. Defender defends as normal.
Option C is closer to “pure” FATE. Option B is closer to traditional RPGs. Option A I would use only if the character’s Notice is lower than their Athletics.

On a related note, Fate Core has an explicit ‘Backstab’ stunt which is as follows:

Backstab. You can use Stealth to make physical attacks, provided your target isn’t already aware of your presence.

Question: “I believe someone said Free Invokes could only give you a +2, not a re-roll. Is that correct?”

Answer: According to p. 70 in Fate Core, all invokes, including free invokes, give you the option for either +2 or a reroll.

Question: “A Star Trek rules specific questions — how should skills work when Extra’s are piloting an enemy ship?”

Answer: Simply give them the skill associated with their rating. A +2 Fair extra pilot would use a +2 skill bonus to the NPC enemy ship piloting rolls.

Stan's Favorite Systems Compared

May 6, 2016 / Stan Shinn

I’ve played and read dozens (or maybe hundreds) of RPGs over the decades. For the last two years, I’ve settled on these as my current favorites. They each have distinctive features so I’d thought I’d compare each of them. Some of these observations are subjective, but they’re based on what I’ve seen in the games I’ve run.

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