The application period for being a peer reviewers closes December 31st, 2009. These individuals will be responsible for reading the entries (not all of them mind you, I will spread the word count around) and interacting with me during the final decision making process. If chosen, your names will be witheld until publication of the book. If you are interested, please click here for more information and to submit your information: http://rpganthology.wufoo.com/forms/open-game-table-volume-2-peer-review-application/

The submission deadline for nominations of blog posts closes January 15th, 2010. I’ve streamlined the submission process so that all you need to is submit a valid URL. Up to 5 per submission form can be accomodated; but there’s no limit to how many you can send in. The nomination form, and more information, can be found here: http://rpganthology.wufoo.com/forms/open-game-table-vol-2-blog-post-nomination-form/

The play was finally performed and reviews for it are glowing! Pictures of the production are available here. This one’s my favorite:

GOBLINS!!!

So why the reaction to change? There are typically two reasons; 1) A fear of the unknown and 2) An expectation of loss. For example, people who played D&D had been playing 3rd edition for many years before 4th edition hit the shelves. They had time to digest the ruleset, play with it, and make it their own. But 4th edition had new features and updates of which they were completely unaware. And, because of that, they expected to lose features of their game that they hade come to know and love. And even when the new edition did hit the shelves, the people who resisted change would read with a critical eye, looking for anything that would support their theories. By the way, replace “3rd edition” and “4th edition” with “2nd edition” and “3rd edition,” respectively, and you have the same reaction.

What about the edition wars? Should you try to assuage people’s fears or argue with them? In short, no. The longer answer is, “it depends.” If you read something on the internet and a person/people are grousing about the changes to “their beloved game,” then you’re not going to be able to change their minds and you’re just going to get frustrated at their “inability to see things my way.” And why is that? Because you have no personal stake in them. In a personal setting, you interact with people directly. You are there to help them along the way, holding their hand when necessary, and present a friendly face to let them know that the change is not going to hurt them. In the anonymous environment of the internet, these posters don’t know you from Adam and so you’re rebuttals to their arguments will fall upon deaf ears.

In real life, however, that’s where it goes from “no” to “it depends.” If you have a friend or acquaintance who is complaining about changes, then you might be able to calm their fears and, perhaps, get them to at least reasonably examine the changes before forming a negative opinion. Even then, it may not be worth your time, but your relationship with them will give you a better idea on how to proceed. You may even be able to convince them to take the rules out for a test drive to see how they run and then see if their opinion still holds water.

So, in the end, it all boils down to the fact that people are people and human nature regarding change has not changed much (read: at all) in the centuries we’ve been on this planet. In gaming, edition wars will come and go. The best that you can do is to try things out for yourself and then form your own opinions. And if you come across someone with a negative opinion of something they’ve never really taken the time to get to know, you only have one option: Kill them and take their stuff.

Here’s a list of what the Points give you

Action Points: Click here

Hero Points:

The key thing to remember about hero points is that awarding them to PCs, or not awarding them, is totally up to the DM.

On his turn, before determining the success or failure of an action, a player can announce that he is using a hero point to help accomplish the action. Normally, the hero point adds a bonus of +20 to the action, if the roll of a d20 dictates its success or failure. However, there are exceptions:

1. If used with an attack roll, and the attack roll would have succeeded without the hero point, the hero point doubles the damage inflicted by the attack or it allows the PC to make a “called shot,” inflicting a special effect.
2. If a character uses a hero point to act when it is not his turn, he can take a normal round’s worth of actions out of the regular initiative sequence with no special bonuses. He then returns to his normal initiative count.
3. If used when a character is being attacked by either a physical attack, a spell, or some other threat, the hero point can be used to add a +1d20 luck bonus to Armor Class or to a saving throw. If used with a saving throw for half damage or a partial effect, if the character would have made the save without the help of the hero point, he takes no damage or ill effect at all.
4. If used when a die roll determines that the character will die, the character avoids death and instead suffers a great and debilitating injury determined by the DM—the character gains a disfiguring scar, loses a hand, loses an eye, gains a limp, and so on. This is the only case when a hero point can be used after the result of an action is determined.
5. A character can use a hero point to make something work in a way the rules normally do not allow. This requires careful DM adjudication.

With Pandora you can explore this vast trove of music to your heart’s content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings – new and old, well known and completely obscure – to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you.

If you’ve never used Pandora Radio, I highly recommend you create an account right now. Essentially, you create radio stations based upon your favorite artists/songs. For example, you can create a station by entering Howard Shore as your favorite artist (Shore scored the LotR movies) and it will play music that is similar to his. This way, you get good music within the same genre. Now, not every artist is going to be on there. For example, it couldn’t find Basil Poledouris, who scored the class movie Conan the Barbarian.

Regardless, there’s a lot of good fantasy music out there. With Pandora Radio, you just need to know one or two of the artists in the genre and it will return a whole slew of artists who fit the bill.

Image via Wikipedia

In my years playing RPGs, I’ve always been envious of those who are able to put together models of locations for the players. I’ve tried it myself but I’ve found that a) I don’t have enough time to make everything I want, b) it’s really, really expensive, and c) the stuff you make isn’t very recyclable and is usually only used for a session or two. So I was wondering, are there any products out there that 1) aren’t terribly expensive and 2) are easily reusable? And then it hit me; Lego. While Lego may be a bit pricey, the reusability of them makes them pretty cheap in the long run. And if you have kids, you probably already have some lying around the house!

There are a lot of websites out there for inspiration to create Lego scenes. Below are a list of some of the better sites I’ve found.

LEGO.com – The official website allows you to search for building instructions by keyword.

LEGOAT.COM – The main aim of the website is publishing numerous building instructions for LEGO® sets. Here you can find step by step instructions for many LEGO® models. All of them are available for free download (jpg, ldr, mpd, dat).

Classic-Castle – Committed to providing you with all the resources for building not only castles, but all sorts of creations ranging from farms and livestock, to magical towers and beasts.

Brick Town Talk – A showcase of creations and designs build in the same style, creating its own small town.

Classic-Space Lego – The place on the web for all things LEGO space.

MOCPages – The community includes children, teens, adult hobbyists, LEGO company employees, LEGOLAND employees, artists that use LEGO as a medium, engineers that use LEGO as a robotics platform, and more!

I’m sure there are many more, but these should work for a while. Lots of good creation in there.

What about you? Have you ever used Lego in your game? Got pictures?

So why did I tell you all this? Because I’ve seen too many GM’s who get really nervous behind the screen or players who don’t want to GM simply because they don’t like the pressure of speaking before their group. I’ve decided to give some tips on getting over your fear or, at the very least, speaking better before an audience.

1. Don’t over-prepare.

The reason this is number one is because I think it’s the most important and relatively simple. Don’t over-prepare. Let’s say I’m going to run my players through an adventure. I know my starting point (A) and my ending point (B). I know the characters involved and I know the basic storyline. But when I start to prepare so much that I know the minutiae of the plot, that’s when any little thing can throw me off, causing me to “um” and “ah” a lot and making me nervously explain what occurs next because I’m not only trying to tell the players what is happening, I’m trying to rationalize, in my head, how this is going to change the entire adventure. It’s just not worth it. Know the basics and have your notes in front of you. Then you’ll be able to just “go with the flow” easier.

2. Allow yourself to pause.

The reason people throw in “um” and “ah” a lot is because people, in general, hate silence when they’re talking to someone else. They think it’s a bad thing. If someone’s not talking, then something is wrong. That couldn’t be further from the truth. If you need to think about something, then say “hold on a second,” or just stay silent for a few seconds, and think about it. Look at your notes. Try to figure out the best course of action. Don’t stumble across your words; just stop talking and focus your attention on letting the player know what’s happening.

3. Don’t use the same word or phrase over and over again.

I used to use one word constantly when I taught: basically. Whenever I would explain something, I would start with “basically” and go from there. After a while, I even hated when I said it. If you find yourself doing something like this, you need to ween yourself out of the habit. Find other ways of phrasing your explanations. If you need a new word to start with, grab a thesaurus.

4. Eye contact is important.

When you speak directly to someone, look them in the eye. When describing a scene to the group, make sure you scan your players and make eye contact with each and every one of them. I played with a DM who would only look at one other player when describing anything to the group. It always made me feel that I was less important to the DM than the other player. Don’t let that happen to you.

5. Mistakes happen.

Sometimes you’re going to say the wrong thing. Don’t let it throw you. Acknowledge that you made a mistake and move on.

6. Stand up.

I hate sitting down when I’m teaching. I also hate sitting when I’m DMing. By standing, you allow yourself room to be more animated. This can make the session more exciting for everyone.

7. Relax.

Your group is not out to get you; they’re there to have fun. So are you. Just be yourself and you’ll be fine.

8. Solicit feedback.

If you’re truly worried about how you come across as a speaker when GMing, then ask your group for feedback. Don’t get mad or nervous if they point out flaws. Thank them for their honesty and then work on your presentation style.

There are other suggestions that I could delve in to, but I think these are the most important and the simplest to work on. Hopefully they’ll be useful to any “nervous GM” out there.

What about you? Do you have any suggestions so you won’t be nervous when speaking in front of your gaming group?

Here’s a scenario: You’re walking through a city and catch a scene out of the corner of your eye. There’s an orc in an alley. He’s hassling a human for money. They get into a fight. Who does your character help? The human? Why? The orc? Why? That’s what I’m talking about when I say “shades of gray.” According to the Monster Manual, orcs are evil. In that world, the PC would attack the orc because he’s evil.

But what if the orc wasn’t evil?  What if the human had approached the orc for protection money and what your character witnessed was the orc trying to take his money back? Or what if the human had simply short-changed the orc on a business transaction and the orc had asked the human “to step outside” for a moment? Both of those scenarios, to me, are a lot more interesting than “orcs are evil, orc takes money from human, pc protects human from orc,” ad nauseam.

In a recent comment on one of my posts, binaryturing stated the following:

in my corner of the world, gm/dm is a role accepted by default. everyone wants to play, no-one wants to be dm.

we buy adventures, and ad-lib the surrounding world and generally accept that meticulous planning hasn’t happened.

While that obviously flies for their group, and as long as they’re having fun, don’t look to me to knock their gaming style , I would find it boring to have every species, every race, pretty much every character/npc/monster act in the exact same fashion. Heck, I can see someone pulling out the Monster Manual, looking at the tactics for each monster, and decide that every monster attacks like it says in the book.

So here’s my challenge to all you DMs past, present, and future: Shake it up! Don’t play the monsters as written. Don’t play the races as written! Make them unique. Make them stand out. Make them surprising. Challenge the PC to decide whether the orc in the alley is innocent or victim! You never know; you might just have fun doing it.

And here’s my challenge to my readers: Comment below and tell me about the times you’ve shaken things up and challenged your players by “going against type.”

• Go to http://accounts.gleemax.com/ and log in.
• Click on the new Manage D&DI Auto-Renew option on the right side.

• Choose the option to Cancel Auto-Renew and click Submit Request. You will then get a cancellation confirmation from WotC.

That’s it! Thanks Chuck!

• I logged in to my D&DI account and clicked My Account.

• I clicked the link that says D&DI Order History.

• I had to log in again with a different account (my Wizards.com account).

• I clicked the link to view My Payment Information.

• I had to log in again.

• Again, I clicked the link to view My Payment Information.

• I was presented with my info so I deleted my Saved Payment Options.

Easy, right? Yes it was. However, when I went to try it again, I kept getting a java error so I couldn’t add new billing info if I wanted to. I’ve also read of others getting this message before they were able to delete their payment method at all. So, essentially, canceling the auto-renew was impossible.

Update: I tried it again this afternoon and did not receive the java error.

• Click Help at the top of any page on Wizards.com.
  • Or click here to go to the Help Page directly.
• Input the phrase auto-renewal in the Search by Keyword field.

• Click on the link labeled D&DI Stop autorenewal to see the following page.

• Click the link that says “click here to open the form.”

• Fill out the form and hopefully all will be well. But I can’t promise anything.

Sloth

GM: Ok folks. It’s been two weeks since our last session. Are y’all ready to continue and hunt down the BBEG?
Player: Oh, yeah. I forgot to update my character. Can I take do that before we start?
GM and other players: *Much gnashing of teeth*

Players – The GM, if he’s a good GM, puts a lot of work into a campaign. He/she wants to make sure that everyone is having fun while walking through a scenario of the GMs own imagination. As a player, it is your responsibility to make sure that you and your character are ready to go before the session. That way, the group can jump right into the action and continue your quest to greatness.

GMs – Your players are counting on you to come up with a fun and interesting campaign in which they play. It takes work to be a GM and, sometimes, it may feel like real work rather than just a hobby. But that’s what you take on when you take on the mantle of GM. If you’re too lazy to work on the campaign, why should the players work on their characters or even care about the campaign at all? Don’t ever let that happen.

Wrath

Player: Natural 20! And the zombie prince goes down!
GM: *seething* Suddenly, ten more zombies shamble out of the hallway.
Players: WTF?!

Players – A good GM is not out to get you. A good GM is there to guide the campaign and adjudicate the rules accordingly. It’s an effort between both player and GM to create the world together. Sometimes the GM will throw something at you completely unexpected. It may be difficult, but a good GM will never give you a challenge they don’t expect you to overcome. When this happens, getting angry clouds your judgement. The best thing is to approach the situation calmly, trying to come with a creative/practical solution.

GMs – RPGs should never be about GM vs. Players. Gaming should be collaborative. You lead the players through your game and the players make the decisions that affect the world as a whole; or at least the small part of it in which they currently reside.

Pride

Player: Is it possible for my character to pick up the sword, run along the wall all Matrix-like, and come down on the BBEG hard?
GM: *thinking* I’m going to have to say no.
Player: Oh this is bull****!

Players – Sometimes you may disagree with the ruling by a GM that goes against your character but getting mad about it never helps. Remember, the GM is not attacking you. The GM has made a ruling about what your character can or can’t do. Your best bet is to calmly discuss it with your GM during some down time and figure out how to best handle similar situations in the future. I’m a big proponent of communication and of rational discussion. The best way to handle disagreements is not to hold it in and stew about it. It’s also not best to yell at the GM. The best scenario is to discuss it, calmly, because everyone is trying to have fun and that’s the whole point of gaming, right?

GMs – There are going to be moments in the campaign where the players will lay waste in a matter of minutes to plans that took you hours to put in place. There are also going to be moments where the players disagree with the way you rule on a situation. In both cases, the worst thing you can do is get angry (and the latter situation is something I have to work on myself). Your plans going down the tubes? Well, that’s part of the game. The players won’t always do exactly what you expect them to do. Learn to roll with the punches. As far as rules questions, I give you the same advice I give the players. Be calm and talk it out and try not to take it personally.

So there you have it. Hopefully you’ll be able to recognize some of your behavior, I know I have while writing this article, and try to avoid falling into the trap of the Seven Deadly Sins.

You can read part two here.

The Seven Deadly Sins; it’s not just for Catholics anymore! In gaming, it’s easy to correlate the sins to common mistakes that both GMs and players will make. How easy? Keep reading to find out.

Envy

Player: I read about a guy who used the X feat from the latest supplement to make his character do some cool stuff. Can I use it?
GM: But we’re not using that supplement.
Player: That’s not fair!

Players – Be happy with your character. Yes, there are a multitude of options available to the average gamer when it comes to character building. And you will, at some point, read something online where a fellow gamer describes certain options they took in the same system you’re playing. And you look at those options and think, “That would be cool if I could do that.” But, before you try to rationalize changing your character completely, think about it. You built your character from scratch. Through extensive play, you’ve molded him/her into the hero of your world. Do you really want to change all that because of something you read on the Internet? I wouldn’t.

GMs – Yes, the latest sci-fi flick on the Sci-Fi Channel was cool. Yes it had mutated lizards, a buxom heroine, and a dashing leading man. No, you don’t need to change the whole campaign to fit a similar scenario into what’s already taken you hours to come up with. Same goes for that new supplement. Granted, if you’re using these to create parts of the campaign you haven’t yet written, that’s one thing. But I’ve seen too many GMs change an entire already-written campaign just to fit in the “latest thing.”

Gluttony

Joe: Did you see the new supplement from [insert big RPG company here] is out?
Bob: Oh yeah. I got it yesterday. I just had to have it.
Joe: Cool. Think you’ll ever use it?
Bob: Probably not.

I have the same advice for both players and GMs alike: If you don’t need the book, don’t buy it! I’ve heard/read about way too many gamers complaining about how Wizards of the Coast, for example, are churning out book after book and are “screwing over” gamers by doing it. To be fair, I’ve posted before about how shocked I am that WotC is putting out so many books in such a short amount of time for 4E but I’ve always caveated it with the fact that I’m all for free enterprise and a company has the right to make money however they wish. As a consumer, I have the right to not buy what they’re selling.

If you’re a player and/or GM, you may see a book and think “This is awesome!” and shell out $40+ right then and there. But then you get it home and it sits on your bookshelf, collecting dust, because you never could find the right campaign in which to use it. I’ve definitely been guilty of this. Next time this happens, think hard before you shell out the bucks. Are you going to use it? When do you think you’ll get the opportunity to use it? If you’re the GM, would the players have to have a copy of the book if you use it? If you’re a player, would your GM allow it to be used in the campaign? Lots of stuff to think about.

In the end, if you still can’t decide what to do, I recommend walking out of the store and donating the money you would have spent to your favorite charity. That way, you will definitely know that your money is not being wasted.

Greed

GM: You open the door and before you lies an immense treasure beyond your wildest dreams!
Players: *yawn* So what’s in the next room?

Players – Don’t be greedy. If you’re in a campaign and you don’t feel underpowered, don’t tell the GM that “according to the book, I’m supposed to have X gold pieces worth of equipment at my level.” (Yes, this happened in a campaign I ran). Be creative. Come up with new ways to use the equipment you do have to overcome challenges.

GMs – Two words: Monty. Haul. Don’t be that GM. Don’t throw treasure after treasure at the players. After a while, it just gets boring and the campaign has no more spark. On the other hand, don’t give them so little treasure that they have to scrape by and barely survive every encounter. As a GM, you have to find the right balance in what you give the PCs.

Lust

A guy sits at the gaming table, listening to the GM describe the scene in the bar they’ve just entered. “What do you do?” the GM asks. “I seduce the barmaid!” the creepy gamer responds.

Players - Don’t be that guy (or girl). Yes, RPGs are a form of escapism, but that doesn’t excuse any boorish behavior on your part. Not every girl is there for you to seduce. Not every guy is there for you to come on to. Not only does it usually make your fellow gamers uncomfortable in the moment, but it can have negative consequences away from the table.

GMs - Don’t let every encounter with an NPC of the opposite gender lead to some sort of sexual situation. In small doses, sex can be used as a plot device. The evil NPC sorcereress needs to get the information from the PCs, so she chooses the weakest willed one to seduce. That can lead to some memorable campaigns. But if every bar scene ends with you pulling out the BOEF, then you’re taking it too far.

That’s all for today. Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion!

1. Replace “You” with “I”

People don’t like to hear things like “Your way of doing it is wrong” or “You are an idiot for doing it this way.” Instead, say things like “I don’t agree with the way you’re doing it” or “I was thinking of another way of doing it.” When you start off calling someone out, they immediately get defensive. It’s human nature. By not placing the “blame” on the other person, it’s less likely they will become defensive.

2. Don’t call people names

Seems simple, doesn’t it? For some reason, perhaps because of the anonymity or perhaps because people don’t have to deal with the consequences of their actions immediately, folks are more than willing to call other people nasty names. They never resolves anything. It only leads to hurt feelings.

3. Don’t be condescending

People don’t like being talked down to. I don’t like it and, more than likely, you don’t like it. Well if you don’t like it, why would you do it to other people?

4. Apologize if necessary

If you apologize, it doesn’t make your argument weaker. It doesn’t make you weaker. Let’s say that someone thinks you are being condescending and tells you so. If you didn’t mean to do it, apologize because you didn’t mean to. If someone misunderstands what you’ve typed, don’t say “You misunderstood me” or “Try for better reading comprehension.” Say something like “I’m sorry I wasn’t clear” and then try to explain it in a different way.

5. Don’t get personal

Remember, you’re arguing about a gaming system, not about the other person.

6. Be ready to swallow your pride

If someone makes a valid point, swallow your pride and admit they have a good point. Don’t be so prideful that you’re ready to dismiss any counter argument off-hand.

7. People are different than you

This is a big one for gamers. Some people like to game one way, some like to game a different way. That doesn’t make either group wrong or stupid. It makes them different. Both groups are having fun, so is there really a problem? For example, I don’t like 4E. I’ve tried to enjoy it but couldn’t. I’ve posted before about it and tried to be respectful because I know there are a lot of gamers who do like it. I have nothing against those folks. I’m glad they’ve found a game they enjoy and wish them all the best. I would like them to be just as respectful to me.

8. We are family (I got all my sisters with me)

As gamers, we belong to a subset of society-at-large. As long as there are gamers, regardless of whichever system they’re playing, be happy that there are gamers at all. Who else is going to listen to all your stories about your character?!

1. You need to have a goal.

The first of the King’s Quest series was Quest for the Crown. Here’s the plot synopsis:

The Kingdom of Daventry is in serious trouble because its precious magical items have been stolen: a mirror which tells the future, a shield which protects its wearer against danger and a chest always filled with gold. King Edward the Benevolent (who has no other heir) sends his bravest knight, Sir Graham, to retrieve them. If he succeeds, he will become the next king.

It’s a very simple plot but provides an overall goal to the story. The newest RPG meme is “sandbox gaming.” While great for gamers who wish to explore more of the world their characters are in, there still needs to be an overall goal or you’re just wandering around aimlessly.

2. Railroading is unnecessary.

Classic adventure games were about puzzles. You get to a door and you need X to open it. But what is X? Do you have X? Can you combine things you already have to make X? It’s a roadblock until you figure it out. But games like Space Quest wouldn’t just put up a roadblock and then force you to only look for X. No, there were other things you could do. There were side quests available to you to let you forget about X for a while. You knew you had to come back to that door in order to accomplish the overall goal but it could wait. You were having too much fun with these side quests right now.

The same is true for RPGs. If you throw up roadblocks, don’t make the only option available to the PCs getting around it. Give them more. Let them sort through other issues, perform other quests, until they get back to the main storyline.

3. There’s always room for humor.

Monkey Island is my favorite game of all time. One of the things that makes it so memorable for me is the amount of humor that was injected into it. For example, I clearly remember “the stump.” Our hero Guybrush Threepwood is able to interact with a stump. He looks at it closely and notices that the top is hinged. He opens it and looks inside. “There’s an entire underground labyrinth down there!” he exclaims. You tell Guybrush to enter the stump. Suddenly, a prompt appears asking you to insert disc 12 (remember that we played these on 5 1/4″ floppies) when there were only 8 discs total. So you pressed the button to move on and it says “Insert disc 42.” Again, you press the button. “Insert disc 105.” Press the button again. Guybrush then puts down the lid and says “I guess we can’t get to that right now.” I still laugh thinking about it.

Humor is important in RPGs as well. It helps break the tension. It also helps create memorable moments. Most people, when discussing their favorite moments from an RPG, talk about the scenes that made them laugh.

4. Memorable NPCs are a must.

Monkey Island also had this in spades. Everyone who’s played it remembers the sword master. Not only did she teach you to fight with a sharp sword, she also taught you to fight with a sharp tongue. You went back and forth with her trading insults. In fact, you had to fight many pirates in order to learn enough insults to beat the sword master. In RPGs, a great NPC is one that the players remember, for good or for bad.

Oh! And don’t get me started on Stan.

5. The BBEG doesn’t have to make an appearance until the end of the adventure/campaign.

Looking at Monkey Island again, the BBEG was LeChuck. In the original game,Guybrush didn’t meet him until the end. Now, Guybrush knew of LeChuck. He saw the results of LeChuck’s work. But he didn’t actually get to confront LeChuck until the final scene where he was able to defeat him. (Bonus points for anyone who knows how! )

In an RPG, the PCs can do the same thing. They see the destruction the BBEG has caused. They try to track him down but he’s always one step ahead of them. And then, in the end, the showdown is not only the final scene, it’s the first time the PCs and the BBEG meet face-to-face. If played right, the tension should be thick enough to cut it with a knife.

6. Dying sucks.

If there’s one thing these old games were known for, especially older Sierra games, it was the F5 and F7 keys. F5 was used to save your game and F7 was used to load your saved game. The problem was that dying was very easy. You scale down a mountain. You hit F5. You move two steps to the right and die. F7 to load your game. Move one step to the right. F5. Move down three steps. Die. F7. Wash, rinse, repeat.

In RPGs, dying sucks just as much. Never place your players in a situation where dying is the most likely scenario. Always give them an out and don’t make that out extremely difficult to get to.

7. Games are meant to be played together.

My friends and I would sit around for hours playing these games. It was always a lot of fun to bounce ideas off of one another and try to figure out the puzzles or where to go to next. Of course, the exact same concept holds true when it comes to RPGs.

I think that’s about it. I’m sure there are more lessons I’ve learned but those are the ones that leap to mind. If you haven’t played these games before, I highly recommend you try to find them and play them. You won’t be dissapointed.

1. A non-black T-shirt

A t-shirt is the way a gamer expresses him- or herself to the world. They tell passers-by that “I’m here to lay pipe” or that they’re big fans of Mythbusters and they “reject your reality and substitute [their] own.” But, of course, statements of this nature don’t belong on just any t-shirt. No. They belong on a black t-shirt. The message is loud and clear: “Don’t hate me because I’m awesome!”

2. A really nice pen

Seriously? A pen?! First, they’re just going to lose it. Second, pencils are where it’s at. You can’t erase hit points with a pen. You can’t up your stats with a pen. What were you thinking?!

3. Anything “collectible”

Don’t get me wrong, collectible items are cool, but gamers want to play with their toys. They want to hold them in their hands and make pew pew! sounds while pretending to shoot their coworkers. That replica 13th century broadsword you gave your nephew? Yeah, right now there’s a houseplant missing it’s top six inches of stalk and the cat is scared ****less.

4. Snacks that don’t end in “tos”

You’re at Sam’s Club, or some other “buy in bulk” store, and you decide you need to get your gamer a plethora of snacks to tide them over for a month or two. Do you reach for the pretzels? No! Peanuts? No! Beef Jerky? N… maybe… what? Oh yeah. No! You buy something from the fifth food group: The “tos” food group. That’s Cheetos, Doritos, Fritos, and/or Tostitos. Write it down if necessary.

5. The Book of Erotic Fantasy

Seriously, if you’re going to get this for a gamer, just buy them a subscription to Playboy instead.

6. 12-sided dice

Hit points gained per level in Fourth Edition are static numbers now. Even barbarians now find d12′s useless. 12-sided dice are the redheaded stepchildren of the dice industry. If you buy them, your gamer will hate you forever, guaranteed*.

*This is not a guarantee.

7. The Dungeons and Dragons Movie

I know the impulse is strong. It’s about D&D. It’s in the bargain bin. Your gamer will love it, right? Wrong. They will loathe it. They will spit on you and attempt to ruin everything that is good in your life. They will curse you to live out a sad existence of spinsterhood surrounded only by your cats and memories of loved ones who no longer call. Or they will laugh and want to watch it with you to poke fun at it. Just brace yourself for deep disappointment either way.

8. Anything from Hot Topic (if you’re a parent)
   

This is not because gamers don’t like Hot Topic. In fact, a lot of younger gamers love Hot Topic. But if you’re a parent and you buy them clothes from Hot Topic, and your gamer wears said clothes into Hot Topic, the clerks will know. Oh, yes, they will know. And their blank, ever-judging stares will burn deep into your gamers psyche, tormenting them for the rest of their lives. It is a shame they will never be able to live down. Their lives will be ruined forever and they’ll never be able to leave the house again. Just ask any teenager.

I hope to have provided you some insight into buying presents for your gamer. You’ll see a lot of lists for items you should buy your gamer but only RPGCentric provides you with a list to help you save face and not embarass yourself and your gamer thoroughly. You’re welcome.

Once a week, we will post a podcast based around questions and comments that we receive from players. We will also, eventually, have special guests and such but, for now, we’re starting small. So, if you have questions you would like to send us, feel free to use the form below or send us an e-mail directly at gamershelpinggamers@gmail.com.

1. Characters in HEX can be hard to make, but not for the reasons you think.

We started off the session making characters. The mechanics of character creation in HEX is pretty simple. But even though the players, who had never played HEX before, found it easy to come up with a character’s mechanics, it took two hours for everyone to be ready to play. Why? Hard to find options? Asking a lot of questions on how to do things? No. The hardest part was actually coming up with a concept.

HEX is a pulp game. But what is “pulp?” What defines the genre? These are the questions my group faced. There are many examples floating on the Net of what forms of entertainment define pulp. From books like Tarzan or Journey to the Center of the Earth to movies like Jurassic Park or Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. I think the best thing to do before starting a HEX game would be to find good examples of pulp and send them to the group. Also, I would recommend sitting down and watching a couple of movies that help define the genre and discussing why it’s full of pulp.

For example, Jurassic Park. What makes it a pulp film? First, it has dinosaurs. Second, it has people fighting for their lives. Third, it has over-the-top scenes of danger, death, and survival. And, finally, it has dinosaurs.

2. The players don’t want to wait while the NPCs fight each other.

In the final battle, the group of four PCs, along with an NPC and six ape-men, fought a group of 13 Nazis, which included the BBEG. In the first round, I made the mistake of rolling for every Nazi and every ape-man as they fought each other. In the subsequent rounds, I ditched that and just described what was happening and removed a few Nazis and ape-men from the board as they died. It made the combat go faster and it focused more of the spotlight on the PCs and the BBEG. It also added a bit of cinematic flair to the encounter as the “camera” was focused on the PCs but you could definitely see a lot of action in the background.

3. Over-the-top is where it’s at.

Style points play a big part in HEX. Technically, they only allow you do things such as boost a Talent or take an extra action during combat. However, a friend of mine, Tom, ran a HEX one-shot where the PCs could use style points to do things they normally couldn’t do. I put this into place in my game as well.

Unfortunately, my players didn’t really get into the swing of this as much as I wish. They took advantage of it a bit but nothing really stood out to me as “over-the-top.” For example, one player was 30 feet away from the BBEG. His gas gun had a 25-foot range. I told him that rather than taking the penalty for firing beyond range, he could spend a style point to do something cool. He spent one and then proceeded to jump off the building and fire in mid-air. Granted, it was really cool, but I’ve seen it before. What I was picturing in my mind was the PC firing the gas gun not at the enemy, but rather at the rooftop of the building next to him. The camera would follow as the canister rolled down the roof, into the gutter, rolled a bit more, rolled down a drainpipe, and then landed at the BBEG’s feet, exploding gas onto him. But that’s just me.

Anyway, I think my players could definitely get into the swing of “over-the-top” if we played a long-term campaign with HEX.

4. Story trumps combat any day.

The adventure in the back of the HEX book is a great introduction to the setting. It only has one combat written into it but it still gives a great feel of what HEX is all about. A lot of perception rolls were made to notice strange phenomena occurring as they traveled to the North Pole. Hiding from the T-Rex was really cool. The scientist in the party decided to get a little too close to the natural flora, so I threw in a carnivorous plant which was taken out handily by the ex-Marine in the party (One shot. One kill). The point is, the story was so great and the players were so into the setting that they didn’t care that they really didn’t get to fight anything. They were enthralled with the fact that stuff was going haywire in the ship and that the person they found alive in the Hollow Earth thought he had been there for a little over a year when, in fact, it had been eight years.

And, really, this is true of any setting. You can throw combat after combat at the party but, unless it has a compelling story, the players are going to get bored.

5. Rolling lots of dice is great.

Since HEX isn’t d20, you end up rolling a lot more dice. For example, the BBEG’s defense roll was made using 10d6′s. The number of evens on the dice was the number of successes gained. I’ve always loved being able to roll a lot of dice in D&D when doing damage so it was a a blast to roll so many dice every time the players shot at the BBEG.

6. Trying different genres of RPG is a lot of fun.

I’m lucky to be in a group willing to give different RPGs a shot. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s always fun and it’s always a learning experience. In this case, it was a lot of fun and everyone had a good time playing.

Conclusion

HEX is simple and fun to play. I can definitely see making a long-term campaign based upon it. Right now, we’re playing different RPGs because we’re not getting together as much because of the holidays and because we stopped playing 4E. But I definitely think HEX would be something we come back to in the future.

Creative Commons License photo credit: Steve Wampler

For many gamers, talking to non-gamers about playing RPGs can be an embarrassing subject. Some people will give you strange looks. Some will poke fun at you. You never know what to expect. For that reason, a lot of gamers keep their habits to themselves.

Today, I thought I’d give those folks who feel like they can’t talk about their favorite hobby tips on how to explain RPGs, and why you play them, to non-gamers.

• Tip #1: Don’t tell them about your character.

I know, I know. Your character did something really cool and you want to tell your coworker all about it. Don’t. They don’t want to hear about it. They don’t care. If they don’t care that Shadowfax was the name of Gandalf’s horse, what makes you think they’ll care that your elf ranger slayed an ogre with a well-placed arrow to the ear?

• Tip #2: Ask them about their favorite movie.

One way of relating the game to them is to ask them about their favorite movie. If they’re fans of fantasy films, like LotR, then you’ve got an in. If not, have them describe their favorite scene from whatever movie they want and ask them what it would be like to be part of it. Ask them how they would have handled the situation and if they would have done anything differently. If they say yes, let them know that, in RPGs, they have the ability to do just that. Also tell them that it doesn’t matter about the genre of film, you can use RPGs to play out pretty much any type of movie.

• Tip #3: Don’t equate it to a children’s game.

Some people like to describe playing RPGs as “playing pretend” or something like “cops and robbers” as a kid. Don’t do that. Don’t give them any fodder to think that RPGs are childish or something only played by kids. We all know that RPGs are nothing of the sort but there are preconceived notions about the genre and it being childish is, unfortunately, one of them.

• Tip #4: Ask them about their favorite books.

With books, it’s the same principles as movies. You can ask them to describe scenes and how it could be played out in an RPG. If they don’t read fantasy novels, you can suggest some good ones for new fantasy readers. Here are some series that I would tell them about.

• A Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin
• Inheritance - Christopher Paolini
• Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling

Those are some good ones they can start off with before delving into someone like Tolkein, whose writing style is loved by a lot of people but is loathed by others.

• Tip #5: If they ask about the rules, keep it very, very simple.

Do not go into too much detail on the rules. If they ask about character creation, for example, keep it very simple. Here’s what you want to tell them.

• Figure out the type of character you want to play.
• Make them as fast, strong, intelligent, etc., as you want.
• Make them really efficient in some areas.
• Give them equipment.

And that’s it. Very simple. If they want you to elaborate, you can but this gets across the basic idea of what you do to create your character.

If they do ask you to go in depth, make sure to keep the details short. For example, if they ask “How do you make a character really good at picking locks?” you can tell them you put numbers into the characters skills and the higher the number, the better. So you put a high number into lockpicking, add that number to the ability you use to pick locks, probably Dexterity, and that’s how good you are at lockpicking. When you try to pick a lock, roll a die and add that number to your lockpicking number. The higher the result, the better, and the more likely you’ll be able to pick the lock. It’s simple and straightforward while still giving them the correct answer. Anything else and they start to get a glazed over look in their eyes. Trust me, I’ve seen it.

• Tip #6: Ask if they play video games.

Video gamers can be some of the easiest people to convince to play RPGs. They can also be the most difficult. Some will be interested in trying something where they can shape the world they play in. Some will scoff at the idea of not being able to pick up a BFG and kill all monsters on this level.

The best way to handle gamers is to simply tell them that, in RPGs, they have the ability to interact with everything, just like in a video game. And, just like in a video game, their decisions determine whether their character lives of dies. RPGs can easily be equated to just about any video game.

• Tip #7: Be enthusiastic.

RPGs are fun. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t play them. When talking, make sure you convey this important fact. When I talk to people in my office who don’t roleplay, I am always enthusiatic about it. Granted, don’t be overly enthusiatic and start droning on and on about your Warcraft clan’s raid on an opposing guild, but do let them know that you have a lot of fun playing this game. People like to have fun and, if they see that you’re having fun, they might just think that this “RPG-thing” might be something they could at least try once.

Conclusion

Hopefully, these tips will help you break the “wall of silence” between you and your peers and allow you to talk about RPGs freely without being embarrassed by it. If you decide to put this advice to the test, let me know how it went!

Yesterday, I had an idea for a filk based upon Wild World by Cat Stevens. I decided to make a song based upon the life of a kobold and actually sing it. Hope you like it.

Cruel World – The Kobold Song

Lalalalalala…

Now that we’ve lost half the tribe again
You say you wanna take the fight to them
And you’re packin’ your spear and leather
Hope it’s not pleather
But if you’re gonna leave, make light your pack
Cuz I doubt you’ll be comin’ back
You’ll probably end up a goblin snack

CHORUS:

Oh, kobold, kobold, it’s a cruel world
Adventurers kill you just to pass the time
Oh, kobold, kobold, it’s a cruel world
You’d probably live longer working as a mime, yeah

You haven’t seen a lot of what PCs do
And you’re gonna be split in two
You’re barely stronger than a minion
Not just my opinion
But if you’re gonna leave, make light your pack
Cuz I doubt you’ll be comin’ back
You’ll probably end up a goblin snack

CHORUS

Lalalalalala…

Kobold, don’t do it
But if you’re gonna leave, make light your pack
Cuz I doubt you’ll be comin’ back
You’ll probably end up a goblin snack

CHORUS (x2)