In my mind, randomness is irreplaceable in table top roleplaying for at least two important reasons.
The dice are more creative than me
Explaining results that arise randomly force us to stretch and go places a rational planning mind would likely never go. An example that I think is fitting is a hireling rolled up using my Hireling Traits Spur resulted in having "missing feet." I would have never made a hireling with physical disabilities available myself. And that seems a shame, because that hireling might be most likely to risk the dungeon to try and eke out a living. And that's the rationale our group came up with: previous hireling death and the risk of this particular dungeon meant only the most desperate were available for hire.
That leads to a subpoint of this: by having the random results generated in the open, collaboratively, it allowed the group to help me explain the random result and the group is more creative than me as well. In fact, I can't think of a way to bring the group in more to the shaping of your world. A DM who pre-plans everything, or follows an adventure path only allows the players to express crativity in what their characters do, what they say, what they steal, what they burn down. I think its cool if you could solicit ideas from the group: "Why would this be here?" In fact I often do something like that in post-play chatting.
The dice are smarter than me
I don't want to be responsible for your player's death. I don't want to be responsible for creating an expected course of events that will be the exact amount of tension, danger, speed, fighting, and treasure. What I mean is, I realize it is my responsibility as a DM to have a rough amount of treasure/monsters/empty rooms available in proportions that we know from experience are generally satisfying, but I don't want to be plotting a movie: first they'll fight the trolls, then over the waterfall, find the magic sword, cue closing credits.
Why, because it is impossible. Okay, maybe it's possible, but it only if you are really good, have a lot of experience, know your players, and then get lucky: Whoops, I expected you to take those trolls easy, you'll miss the waterfall now . . .
I will never be able to perfectly predict what the players will feel like doing, how they might try to solve problems they will face, or, especially, what course of event will please them most. Randomness lets me unshoulder this responsibility. Certain things are likely to happen, there are clues and indications in the game to these more likely events and players are free to choose a course with this fate-filled world.
An example of how I tried to negotiate this just recently was in my tomb complex. I decided on a pattern that Mahbit tombs would follow, including 2 false burial chambers for every person buried. I pretty much determined the condition of the tombs ahead of time-- flooded, collapsed, looted, pristine-- and I had a general level of danger/reward in each.
Then I rolled randomly to determine which of the three chambers in each tomb of the complex was the actual burial chamber of each ancient scholar.
Finally, I knew I wanted the four ancient scholars buried in this tomb complex to have 1 of four magic items and a possibility of having the main quest item. I rolled randomly to determine this during play when the characters breached the first real burial chamber. This way I didn't have any expectations as to which way the characters should/would go. I wouldn't be displaying facial tics or signs of impatience if the players were wasting time in the wrong area of the dungeon. And, hell, it was more fun for me, after 2 failed attempts at the complex would this party waltz in and find the quest item in the first place they tried? Nope, not this time.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Simple Sandbox II: Dude Where's the Bank?
Haha, with one question all the wonderful theory about letting a world emerge becomes problematic. Yes, after finding a hoard of thousands of silver coins they could barely carry my players asked about banks. When I reminded them that the place they got their mission from was just an inn, barely a wide spot in the road, they decided to set out for a town. So, where is the next town?
To be honest, other complications were arising for me about letting a game world just emerge:
I have certain things I'm interested in as a world builder
I like the subject of ancient Rome and like the shadow it casts over the ages after its fall: documents, inscriptions, lost
knowledge. That means I'm more likely to think about ancient roads and how they would span a continent. I'm more likely to think about how far imperial influence reached. Don't these things require a little pre-planning? Languages, cultures, I think you have to have a loose idea of the flavor of the world you want before just letting things emerge. Don't you?
I'm not sure. Maybe what I really need is a way to randomly generate what a hex contains. Something like discussed here. But that would require a little work on my part to explain odd results: "Why a imperial fort here, when there isn't another for hundreds of miles?"
What is outside of the close focus
This, the where-is-the-next-town-problem, is more problematic. Even if you had a way to randomize terrain and points of interest that you were satisfied with, building a world around player movements is not going to tell you where the nearest X is outside that ring. Unless you randomize that too and just roll miles until next town, or something.
There are patterns and relationships in the world
But everything isn't just random. I'm thinking of the missions that Spaniards
built along the California coast. It would be cool if players encountered a pattern like that to use it to find the next dungeon/fort/mine location. But what set of complicated charts is going to generate that for you?
Or the ways cities usually form in certain geographic settings. Or the way cities have certain areas of influence.
I think like much of old school philosophy the secret to success lies in how we utilize randomness to our advantage but without fetishizing it. So maybe, as long as using some randomness lets me loosen up and actually create a world without needing to know every single detail in advance, that's a good thing. But it also doesn't mean I have to go completely random, with things falling onto the map without rhyme or reason.
To be honest, other complications were arising for me about letting a game world just emerge:
I have certain things I'm interested in as a world builder
I like the subject of ancient Rome and like the shadow it casts over the ages after its fall: documents, inscriptions, lost
knowledge. That means I'm more likely to think about ancient roads and how they would span a continent. I'm more likely to think about how far imperial influence reached. Don't these things require a little pre-planning? Languages, cultures, I think you have to have a loose idea of the flavor of the world you want before just letting things emerge. Don't you?I'm not sure. Maybe what I really need is a way to randomly generate what a hex contains. Something like discussed here. But that would require a little work on my part to explain odd results: "Why a imperial fort here, when there isn't another for hundreds of miles?"
What is outside of the close focus
This, the where-is-the-next-town-problem, is more problematic. Even if you had a way to randomize terrain and points of interest that you were satisfied with, building a world around player movements is not going to tell you where the nearest X is outside that ring. Unless you randomize that too and just roll miles until next town, or something.
There are patterns and relationships in the world
But everything isn't just random. I'm thinking of the missions that Spaniards
built along the California coast. It would be cool if players encountered a pattern like that to use it to find the next dungeon/fort/mine location. But what set of complicated charts is going to generate that for you?Or the ways cities usually form in certain geographic settings. Or the way cities have certain areas of influence.
I think like much of old school philosophy the secret to success lies in how we utilize randomness to our advantage but without fetishizing it. So maybe, as long as using some randomness lets me loosen up and actually create a world without needing to know every single detail in advance, that's a good thing. But it also doesn't mean I have to go completely random, with things falling onto the map without rhyme or reason.
Session Post Mortem
I'm realizing I never know what to call these posts, Post Session, Post Play and that most people have a name for their campaigns. I have no clue what to call mine, the Noob Meat Grinder? I haven't been able to place a tentpole dungeon yet which is what the campaign names often come from.
So, some reflections on play. I keep a file of tips I run across reading various blogs. Ben Robbins of ars ludi is right on the money when he says "let players see traps." Because my tomb complex is set up in a uniform fashion, my players saw evidence of a trap that had been set off centuries before. This caused just as much tension and drama as having a trap go off killing a party member. More so, I think. There is probably still a place for the awful surprise to a group of a fatal trap, but that is just an instant, and doesn't necessarily mean they understand why the trap went off, leaving them tapping 10' poles everywhere. Knowing there was almost certainly a trap in a certain location left the sense of danger and suspense but allowed for the party to engage the environment and try to find ways around the obstacle.
The statue puzzle was a success, but just barely. Some tips I gather from play, if you are going to have a puzzle with a solution involving steps:
A random assortment of observations:
So, some reflections on play. I keep a file of tips I run across reading various blogs. Ben Robbins of ars ludi is right on the money when he says "let players see traps." Because my tomb complex is set up in a uniform fashion, my players saw evidence of a trap that had been set off centuries before. This caused just as much tension and drama as having a trap go off killing a party member. More so, I think. There is probably still a place for the awful surprise to a group of a fatal trap, but that is just an instant, and doesn't necessarily mean they understand why the trap went off, leaving them tapping 10' poles everywhere. Knowing there was almost certainly a trap in a certain location left the sense of danger and suspense but allowed for the party to engage the environment and try to find ways around the obstacle.
The statue puzzle was a success, but just barely. Some tips I gather from play, if you are going to have a puzzle with a solution involving steps:
- make sure to signal that there is, in fact, a solution,
- make sure that solution is relatively simple,
- that solution is internally consistent,
- that trying for said solution gives feedback to the players and,
- there aren't too many steps in the solution.
A random assortment of observations:
- Zepharia's player was a great player. Maybe a real natural. Of all the people I've DMed since getting back into the game she has been the best by far, careful but not cowardly, trusting there is a sense to my game world and trying to discover it.
- At one point the players asked if there was a latch to release an iron bar trap. This was something I hadn't thought about at all. So I rolled for it and the dice said they absolutely did. Not sure how I feel about that. Related to that, they asked an npc about a treasure item. I ridiculously had not thought out what he might know, rolled, the dice said he knew everything about the item.
- I had completely missed the exceptional intelligence rule for mages and realized both Zepheria and Ehud should be able to cast 2 first level spells! Huge power differential there. On doing so, made the off-the-top-of-my-head ruling that mages can't memorize duplicates of the same spell. Weird, why have I never heard of that option for Vancian magic? Seems logical and will cause mages to use a greater variety of spells.
Post Session Narrative
As it turned out three mages headed back into the Tomb of the Tutors: Ehud, Lico returned for a bit, and a newcomer Zepheria. Ehud had his two hirelings Hamo and his mother accompanying him again as well.
Previously the parties Ehud had been in ventured into two of the four tombs in the walls of the recessed tomb complex revealed by a sinkhole. One of these tombs appeared to have been looted centuries ago with the remains of some unfortunates looters still present. The other appeared pristine, each doorway sealed tight with an earthenware door.
On returning, the party was about to enter a tomb never inspected, the one with a muddy stream pouring into its mouth, when Hamo asked Ehud about the statue. (I wasn't trying to steer the party here, it seemed like Ehud's player had forgotten about the statue they'd encountered and it seemed natural that Hamo might ask about it).
The party decided to return to the antechamber of the sealed tomb that held a many-armed statue. They knew from the looted tomb that it should slide sideways to allow access to a door, but they didn't know how to make it do so. Previously they found that many hand gestures did nothing, but certain hand gestures caused bad things to happen to them, Ehud had been shrunk 3 inches, for examples.
Now followed hours of experimentation in which Lico's face was covered with acne, Zepheria's hair curled and she was shrunk 3 inches, Ehud's hair fell out completely he was blinded and everyone became severely paranoid at some time. Lico decided to give up and leave which made the paranoid Ehud determine they were plotting and he cast Sleep on them.
Finally, they determined the exact hand gestures in the exact order that caused the statue to move aside. They smashed the pottery seal and entered the tomb that had been sealed for 1000 years. Having seen a huge stone on a skeleton in the looted tomb, they expected a trap in the next corrido and when tapping with a 10' pole didn't achieve anything they very gingerly avoided stepping in that particular area.
A few more broken seals lead to a burial chamber with a huge central pot. Zepharia cautiously advanced to have iron bars slam down behind her, separating her from the party. After a tense few moments in which Zepharia found the pot was empty anyway, Ehud found a lever on the outside that released the bars which they lifted and Zepharia was able to roll under.
Back to the trapped passage, more careful stepping, and exploration began to the west. This burial chamber turned out to be another decoy where the only thing of note was Hamo seriously injured his face while trying to throw and secure a grapnel up a shaft.
So the party was faced with the last doorway that they expected a trap in front of. putting more weight on her 10' pole, Zepheria was able to trigger the trap. A huge stone block came crashing doan and broke her beloved 10'pole. A few more passages and Ehud climbed up into a the burial chamber of what turned out to be Decimus Fabricus one of the four Imperial Tutors. The floor of this room was paved with thousands of squarish silver coins. The central pot revealed a cross-legged mummy with a shock of jet black hair. Ehud, frightened, smashed the mummy's head in with his staff, but it appeared truly dead.
In the pot were more silver coins and in the hands of Decimus was a strange object:
After filling all their packs with silver the party made an uneventful trip back to the roadside inn. There, Hugh told them that this was a Seal Box, not the Eyes of the Rubricator. Our happy Adventurers didn't care, with their packs stuffed to bursting with silver coins they only wanted to rest and plan on how to spend it.
Previously the parties Ehud had been in ventured into two of the four tombs in the walls of the recessed tomb complex revealed by a sinkhole. One of these tombs appeared to have been looted centuries ago with the remains of some unfortunates looters still present. The other appeared pristine, each doorway sealed tight with an earthenware door.
On returning, the party was about to enter a tomb never inspected, the one with a muddy stream pouring into its mouth, when Hamo asked Ehud about the statue. (I wasn't trying to steer the party here, it seemed like Ehud's player had forgotten about the statue they'd encountered and it seemed natural that Hamo might ask about it).
The party decided to return to the antechamber of the sealed tomb that held a many-armed statue. They knew from the looted tomb that it should slide sideways to allow access to a door, but they didn't know how to make it do so. Previously they found that many hand gestures did nothing, but certain hand gestures caused bad things to happen to them, Ehud had been shrunk 3 inches, for examples.
Now followed hours of experimentation in which Lico's face was covered with acne, Zepheria's hair curled and she was shrunk 3 inches, Ehud's hair fell out completely he was blinded and everyone became severely paranoid at some time. Lico decided to give up and leave which made the paranoid Ehud determine they were plotting and he cast Sleep on them.
Finally, they determined the exact hand gestures in the exact order that caused the statue to move aside. They smashed the pottery seal and entered the tomb that had been sealed for 1000 years. Having seen a huge stone on a skeleton in the looted tomb, they expected a trap in the next corrido and when tapping with a 10' pole didn't achieve anything they very gingerly avoided stepping in that particular area.
A few more broken seals lead to a burial chamber with a huge central pot. Zepharia cautiously advanced to have iron bars slam down behind her, separating her from the party. After a tense few moments in which Zepharia found the pot was empty anyway, Ehud found a lever on the outside that released the bars which they lifted and Zepharia was able to roll under.
Back to the trapped passage, more careful stepping, and exploration began to the west. This burial chamber turned out to be another decoy where the only thing of note was Hamo seriously injured his face while trying to throw and secure a grapnel up a shaft.
So the party was faced with the last doorway that they expected a trap in front of. putting more weight on her 10' pole, Zepheria was able to trigger the trap. A huge stone block came crashing doan and broke her beloved 10'pole. A few more passages and Ehud climbed up into a the burial chamber of what turned out to be Decimus Fabricus one of the four Imperial Tutors. The floor of this room was paved with thousands of squarish silver coins. The central pot revealed a cross-legged mummy with a shock of jet black hair. Ehud, frightened, smashed the mummy's head in with his staff, but it appeared truly dead.
In the pot were more silver coins and in the hands of Decimus was a strange object:
After filling all their packs with silver the party made an uneventful trip back to the roadside inn. There, Hugh told them that this was a Seal Box, not the Eyes of the Rubricator. Our happy Adventurers didn't care, with their packs stuffed to bursting with silver coins they only wanted to rest and plan on how to spend it.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
The Simple Sandbox
I've stumbled upon another exciting and elegant solution to a DMing problem. I found it via The Welsh Piper but a lot of crunch is added there that I'm not sure I'd use. You can certainly check it out. The original idea is from Greywulf. He calls it Six sided gaming: hex magic. I'll call it Simple Sandboxing.
I had a session early on where I asked my players what they planned to do for our next session so I could prepare. One player said something to the effect of "Were obviously going to follow the treasure map, cause there's really nothing else to do." I felt horrible when I heard that. What I wanted to provide was a world where players had options, could go wherever they pleased. But, beacuse of all the work and the many decisions of world building I only provided enough info for that particular session. I don't think I even provided the town they started with a name.
Greywulfs idea might seem obvious at first, to help you as DM prepare for a campaign with as little work as possible. Here's Greywulf's instructions:
I am absolutely comfortable now letting story emerge from play. In fact, in the session we will be playing today the object the players seek might be in one of four roughly equivalent places in a tomb complex (I'll roll as when they search each to determine if it was in that room). I did this so I wouldn't subconsciously try to channel the characters a certain way with my dungeon design. Or have expectations of what they should do. I also thought it might force me to think more about what might happen if players went any of the possible four paths, were some more perilous than others etc.
I'm confident that their explorations will feel natural to them and a sense of story will emerge from the adventure. But with my gameworld I feel a paralyzing desire to know everything in advance of play: what was the ancient world history that might result in tombs and treasures, what are all the world religions, what is the current political setup, what does this whole continent look like, etc. etc. Why can't I let these details emerge in exactly the same way? In actuality, because I was unable to make the hard decisions and perform the labor intensive worldbuilding I wanted to I, in effect, am following Greywulf's philosophy: I added an ancient culture (Similar to the Mauryan Empire) to account for the latest tomb, a treasure map found in said tomb indicates there are apparently more of said tombs along this coast, oh yes, I made it a coast so I might use my previous one-page dungeon the Coastal caves, etc. So by necessity my world is already emerging.
The difference between my haphazard emerging and Greywulf's idea is one of elegance and purpose. If I can come up with ~6 adventure hooks/hints that surround the starting adventure area than I can plan a little more how those things affect each other/work together, but, more importantly, I can offer players a variety of options they can choose from, to follow their own interest and let them drive the emergence of the world around them.
For example, I have them on a coast, if I make sea travel an option with an island hook, they may take to that route with zest and have an entirely nautical campaign and that would be cool.
So, thanks to Greywulf for this. I'd really like to think and write a little more about the implications of this idea, but have to go now to finish preparation for today's session.
I had a session early on where I asked my players what they planned to do for our next session so I could prepare. One player said something to the effect of "Were obviously going to follow the treasure map, cause there's really nothing else to do." I felt horrible when I heard that. What I wanted to provide was a world where players had options, could go wherever they pleased. But, beacuse of all the work and the many decisions of world building I only provided enough info for that particular session. I don't think I even provided the town they started with a name.
Greywulfs idea might seem obvious at first, to help you as DM prepare for a campaign with as little work as possible. Here's Greywulf's instructions:
"... use a simple blank hex grid. Set the scale small - say, one hex = 3 miles - and put one adventure inside the centre hex. Populate it according to the needs of that adventure, then move on. Work around that one hex adding other adventures, all around roughly the same power level. Think about the kind of adventures you (as GM) enjoy playing, and the feel you want to impart.Very nice preparation aid. Efficient. Practical. But the exciting thing for me is the reason Greywulf gives for doing this:
By the end of this, you've got seven adventure settings and a solid core for the game world."
"... evolve the world as the game progresses."Of course! The most elegant ideas seem obvious once you encounter them. And this isn't too different from the idea of random world building, where you let the dice determine ahead of play what is in the world. But it is different enough to really deserve notice.
I am absolutely comfortable now letting story emerge from play. In fact, in the session we will be playing today the object the players seek might be in one of four roughly equivalent places in a tomb complex (I'll roll as when they search each to determine if it was in that room). I did this so I wouldn't subconsciously try to channel the characters a certain way with my dungeon design. Or have expectations of what they should do. I also thought it might force me to think more about what might happen if players went any of the possible four paths, were some more perilous than others etc.
I'm confident that their explorations will feel natural to them and a sense of story will emerge from the adventure. But with my gameworld I feel a paralyzing desire to know everything in advance of play: what was the ancient world history that might result in tombs and treasures, what are all the world religions, what is the current political setup, what does this whole continent look like, etc. etc. Why can't I let these details emerge in exactly the same way? In actuality, because I was unable to make the hard decisions and perform the labor intensive worldbuilding I wanted to I, in effect, am following Greywulf's philosophy: I added an ancient culture (Similar to the Mauryan Empire) to account for the latest tomb, a treasure map found in said tomb indicates there are apparently more of said tombs along this coast, oh yes, I made it a coast so I might use my previous one-page dungeon the Coastal caves, etc. So by necessity my world is already emerging.
The difference between my haphazard emerging and Greywulf's idea is one of elegance and purpose. If I can come up with ~6 adventure hooks/hints that surround the starting adventure area than I can plan a little more how those things affect each other/work together, but, more importantly, I can offer players a variety of options they can choose from, to follow their own interest and let them drive the emergence of the world around them.
For example, I have them on a coast, if I make sea travel an option with an island hook, they may take to that route with zest and have an entirely nautical campaign and that would be cool.
So, thanks to Greywulf for this. I'd really like to think and write a little more about the implications of this idea, but have to go now to finish preparation for today's session.
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