Action!
(Since I’m working on the back end of my blog, and that’s cutting into my writing time, I’ll be reposting an article a week over the next couple of weeks. The following article was originally posted on August 6, 2008.)
Action Points are one of the better additions to fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons. We’ve seen their like in many other roleplaying games, to be sure — I’d venture that they’re a part of more modern RPGs than not. This isn’t exactly innovation on D&D’s part. Officially including them is a first for D&D, though, and a welcome one. [Edit: Apparently it isn't, as they were included in a 3.5e supplement. This is still the first time they're part of the core system, though.] They serve their purpose — rewarding the party for pushing on in the adventure, and making up to some extent for the loss of expended resources. Better yet, they can have a dramatic effect on a combat.
But what if they could be more dramatic still? Chatty DM has put forth that question, and the various commenters have answered it by providing a wealth of ideas as to how else action points might be used. I’ve developed an addition to the system myself, which I present in more detail here.
Categories: Advice, Original Game Content | Comments (10)
The Lighter Side
Last Saturday’s post wasn’t just a bit of silly fun. It’s an example of something I might actually drop into my game on any given night. Maybe that sounds strange — if you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I prefer heroic, cinematic games. So how does a groaner like the Grape Jelly possibly fit in?
Surprisingly well.
Humor is a good way to enhance the feel of your game, in fact. Some moderation is necessary — going all-humor, all-the-time tends to ruin the drama factor — but a little lightheartedness in the right places breaks the tension, aids the flow of the story, and helps create memorable experiences. Puns, a little less so, but Dungeons & Dragons has a long tradition of them. Consider the tarantella, a spider whose bite causes the afflicted to dance — and the sight of that dance may cause others to join in. This blends an awful pun with folklore to create a nemesis for the party that’s silly from a metagame perspective yet still dangerous from an in-character standpoint.
Categories: Advice | Comments (1)
War and How to Wage It
March’s RPG Blog Carnival on War, hosted by The Book of Rev, will soon be drawing to a close. Before it does, here’s that post I promised about war within a fantasy setting. The typical D&D campaign is set in a fantastic version of late-medieval to early-Renaissance Europe, so that’s the setting I’m considering. Gunpowder isn’t a factor, but magic and mythological creatures are. This is bound to change the way a war is conducted.
For instance, let’s take castles and fortifications. These are, essentially, walls. Walls can prove very effective at protecting one army from another, helping to defend a strategic point even against larger forces. They’re cover for allies and an obstacle to enemies. Confronted with a strong castle full of defenders, many armies of the middle ages were forced to respond with besiegement — what could be a long process of waiting for the defenders’ supplies to run out, or for their commanders to make a mistake. The other major option, if the enemy could not be drawn out, was the use of siege engines, devices intended to breach or circumvent the walls.
But in a game like Dungeons & Dragons, a siege might not make sense. If the army has a complement of flying creatures, for instance, walls become much less of an obstacle. Similarly, there are many creatures that can teleport or tunnel. What impact would this have on the game world?
Categories: Advice, Philosophy and Rants, War Week | Comments (3)
Adventure Design 101: Dungeons That Live
It’s a little delayed thanks to the self-destruction of my network card a few days ago, but now that I’m back online, it’s time to wrap up my thoughts on dungeon design. My previous article covered some important questions that I like to ask when stocking my dungeons. There are other questions you can ask yourself, most of which spring from those. The main question that remains, though, is: What are the inhabitants doing?
I don’t mean in the long run. That, we’ve already covered. I mean, what are they doing right now?
I think that answering this question is one of the easiest ways of making your game world seem more real to your player. It’s one of the main differences between monsters who are just there as opponents and monsters that inhabit your world.
Categories: Adventure Design 101 | Comments (7)
Adventure Design 101: Dungeons That Make Sense
Dungeon of the Chateau de Chillon, Switzerland. Photograph by Ioan Sameli via Wikimedia Commons.
I recently wrote about making your setting work for you. Today’s topic is related: How do you make all of these dungeons feel like a realistic part of your game world?
Say you’ve got a dungeon with goblins in one complex of rooms, a dwarf necromancer and his ghouls down the hall, and a colony of giant ants around the corner. What the heck are they all doing there?
You could just present all of that and answer, “They’re there for the players to outwit, outfight, and make off with their loot.” I think most gamemasters probably started with games that ran like that, and I know many who still do, at least once in a while. It can be a lot of fun to just kick in the door and face whatever’s behind it without worrying about a greater backstory. But let’s say you and your group want that backstory.
That’s where you get into the history and ecology of the dungeon. A lot has been written on these topics, but I’m going to try to break it down to make it as easy to use as possible. Important questions you should ask regarding your dungeon include:
Categories: Adventure Design 101 | Comments (0)
