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Category: Game Tips

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In Defense of Alignment

I just want to start off by saying that there are very few wrong ways to play an RPG. If you and your players are having fun and everyone is comfortable, you are doing it right. From hack and slash dungeon delvers to in depth method acting role players, its all valid. Its a game. Have fun.

That said, I’ve often seen people talk smack on alignment. They find it limiting and hindering to their role playing. If their character wants to save a town and then kidnap its children all in the same day, than by Rerox’s beard, they should be able to do it. Who in this life can really just be summed up by two words?

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The Game of Making Maps

This is the third in the series of articles about GMless games. This week’s game is pretty special and unlike anything else I’ve had the pleasure of playing. As you go, everyone works together to tell stories. They are stories of community and the triumphs and difficulties of belonging to one. Often times, it’s not tidy or conclusive, just like real communities and discussions. You don’t know much about it when you start. All you really have to count on is that you have one quiet year.

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Skip the GM

Its not all together unheard of, but I’m one of those rare RPG players who prefers GMing to being a player character. I love world building, I love sculpting back story, and I love coming up with narrative on the fly. While I don’t mind playing a PC, being a GM is really what draws me to the game. It feels good to put my creativity into overdrive.

That said, sometimes I don’t have the energy or I want a different experience. There are a variety of games out there that allow you to skip having a GM all together. From games where everyone gets to play a character to games where you get to solo play, there is a great variety out there to delve into. Over the next few weeks, I’ll talk about some of my favorites. First off, let’s start with a Fiasco.

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Every Story is a Mystery

Something threatens the characters or the world around them. They kill it. They get gold, experience points, and items.

Something threatens the characters or the world around them. They kill it harder with their new found abilities and magic. They get gold, experience points, and items.

Something threatens the characters or the world around them. They super kill it because they are super high level. They get gold, experience points, and items. They yawn.

Congratulations. You’ve become predictable. Continue reading “Every Story is a Mystery”

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Running a Sandbox Campaign, Part 2- Prep is for Suckers.

In last week’s post, we talked about a good system for prepping your fantasy sandbox campaign. This week, we’re talking about a good system to avoid any prep what so ever.

Mutant Year Zero

While not as easy to port over to other games, Mutant: Year Zero has some great systems focusing on sandbox style play. Set on a post apocalyptic Earth, MYZ is all about exploration. You play a group of mutants who, until recently, have never had much reason to travel far from the safety of home, referred to as the Ark. Now, you are presented with a blank map. It’s your job to see what is out there and find things to ensure the survival of your colony.

Continue reading “Running a Sandbox Campaign, Part 2- Prep is for Suckers.”

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Running a Sandbox Campaign

There are a lot of pros and cons when it comes to running a sandbox campaign. It’s main drawing point is complete player freedom. The GM drops the players off in the big wide world and lets them have at it. There is no quest to derail, no story to ruin. If the players want to suddenly leave town and travel across the continent, cool. That’s what a sandbox is for.

There are some drawbacks to this style of play, however. First, it becomes more difficult to implement a continuous story arc. For players who like their games to feel more like a novel, this can lead to dissatisfaction and analysis paralysis due to all the options. If your character can do anything, how do you make the choice to follow a single course of action?

Another downside of the sandbox is prep. If the players can go anywhere at any time, that is a lot to prepare. There isn’t really an end in sight. Depending on how precise you want to be, you could detail every NPC in every inn, court, and alley. Anyone who’s spent time world building knows this curse.  No matter how much world you’ve made, there is still more out there.

There are a few RPG systems that specialize in sandbox play. Even if their flavor doesn’t match what you’re looking for; they’re full of ideas to pilfer and bring over to the RPG of your choice. The two I’ve had the most experience with are Autarch’s Adventurer Conquerer King and Modiphius’s Mutant: Year Zero. Both approach the concept in very different but imaginative ways.

This week, we’ll be looking at Adventurer, Conqueror, King (ACKs).

Adventurer Conqueror King

Adventurer Conqueror King System

Adventurer Conqueror King exists because of D&D 3.0 OGL license. That makes it really easy to port over to your D&D 5E game, or any other edition for that matter. The parts that are important aren’t too edition dependent. ACKs boasts a consistent internal economy based off of actual history to some extent. This means the money you pay for a sword vs the money you pay someone to wield it makes sense. The core book is worth it for this alone.

ACKs also has a rather specific attitude about the scope of your fantasy game. Adventurer, Conqueror, King refers to the three tiers of a character’s career. At first, the character is an adventurer, penniless and striving to make a name for themselves. Their exploits are small and relegated to clearing out the occasional dungeon. Next up is the conqueror, who is starting to perhaps own land themselves and must administer to it. Maybe they are a merchant starting grand expeditions or a cleric raising a temple to their god. They are a somebody and others follow them. 

Finally, there is King. This is a scope for which D&D really doesn’t have the dynamics. ACKs lets you know what the taxes from your province look like. They have rules on how to expand your influence, build strongholds, and raise armies. It’s no longer about one on one combat with a bug bear. It’s about your kingdom and the evils outside its border striving to get in.

What really makes it kick, however, is Chapter 10: Secrets. This chapter in particular contains a wealth of information that isn’t necessarily system specific. The very first part of it is constructing the campaign setting, which immediately deals with one of the most important parts of sandbox play: mapping.

ACKs suggests using hex graph paper, with two sheets to represent two different scales. One represents 6 mile hexes for the players current area, while the other is 24 mile hexes for the campaign setting. This will give you an area roughly the size of the Mediterranean region, which is enough area to have a lifetime of adventures. They don’t offer too much in the way of advice about land features, but there are plenty of resources for that. What they do provide is more valuable than that, however: demographics.

ACKs provides various realms, from Baronies to Empires, complete with population and sizes. It will also let you know how many Baronies are in a March and how many Marches are in a County. A lot of this information is useful for things covered earlier in the book, such as ruling a province. Knowing what sort of province it is that you rule will let you know how much area it covers, as well as its population.

Acks then has you throw in some metropolitan areas, trade routes, and dungeons. They have systems for all of this, of course.  Then, after everything else, it runs you through creating the starting city. Here you’ll make the guilds and figure out what other NPCs are in town, all based on the size of the settlement. ACKs even limits item availability by size of a metropolitan area’s market. It really takes everything into account.

It’s definitely a great how-to guide to creating a sandbox for the players to run around in. On top of that, the book contains everything you need for them to utilize that sandbox and let the characters become more than just adventurers. It goes by a philosophy that, the farther you stray from home, the more dangerous the world becomes. It’s a built in control that keeps the players close by the areas you have fleshed out the most and lets them gradually stray further and further. That way you have time to nail down the details of far away lands.

Adventurer Conqueror King- Domains at War

ACKS Domains at War: The Complete Set

This supplement for the game tackles a really big question: What happens when the scale of the battle grows to the size of kingdoms? Domains at War has that answer. Divided into two parts, it has a wargaming system based on your favorite fantasy game stats. There have been other products in the past that have attempted this. Where it really shines, however, is information on the campaign. It covers rules on raising an army, hiring mercenaries, training new soldiers, as well as what it takes to supply them on the road. Cutting off an enemy’s supply line suddenly becomes a very viable option.

This book really hits a beautiful sweet spot between war game and RPG. In the type of sandbox that ACKs imagines, this is near indispensable as the characters gain levels. Eventually, they’ll have to defend their kingdom… or raise an army to take another.

Adventurer, Conqueror, King- Lairs and Encounters

Lairs & Encounters

Yet another great tool in your sandbox. When it comes to exploring a region, ACKs doesn’t want you to have it all mapped out. Instead, it treats many of the locations in the same way it treats random encounters. There might be a monster lair in the hex you just entered, but it lets the dice decide.

Lairs and Encounters gives you just that: lairs and encounters. If you need a quick point of interest, or the dice decide there is a lair in the area you’re in, this book has it prepared for you. That is a lot off of your plate when it comes to preparation. It also gives some neat systems on searching for lairs. A six mile hex is a lot of area to cover when you’re looking for a single burrow.

Adventurer, Conqueror, King- Dwimmermount

Dwimmermount (ACKS version)

Last but not least, perhaps you want a sandbox style game but don’t want to plan it all out. Dwimmermount is that game and then some.

At its heart, Dwimmermount is a mega dungeon. It contains thirteen massive levels, with each one being more dangerous than the last. It is a plethora of magic items, traps, and monsters. It contains more than just the dungeon crawl, however.

Dwimmermount also has a gazetteer of the lands surrounding the dungeon, making use of the ACKs rules for domains. This provides the potential for a much broader scope of game than just the dungeon when combined with the core rules and domains at war. It also spends some time detailing the character’s starting town, which is intended to serve as their home base. This is old school sandbox at its best.

ACKs is a great tool for sandbox style play, if you like a nice thick system. It is chunky. The upside is that is has rule sets for dealing with so many things that could conceivably happen in your game world. If you don’t mind some bookkeeping and enjoy mechanics, this is a great game for you. This is doubly true of an old school feel if you find an old school feel appealing, as ACKs oozes with it.

Next week, we’ll talk about Mutant: Year Zero, which in many ways is the opposite of Adventurer Conqueror King. It’ll provide you with a system for sandbox play that is very much “make it up as you go.” If you are interested, click on any of the book images to purchase the PDFs. Enjoy your sandbox!

Buy the Books Here!

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Adventurer Conqueror King SystemACKS Domains at War: The Complete SetLairs & EncountersDwimmermount (ACKS version)

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The First Time GM

Sending your PC into hordes of rampaging monsters: easily done without a second thought.

Wielding Magic that has the potential to tear worlds apart: Sure, what is the worst that could happen?

Stepping behind the screen and GMing a session: Terror has never been so real.

It’s a scenario I’ve seen over and over again: a player wants to become gm, but they don’t know where to start. Either that, or they are so intimidated by the prospect that they stay away from it indefinitely. The idea seems staggering. So much power! So much responsibility!

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Be a Better Player!

Being a better player is about a lot more than figuring out the best build for your character. Everyone loves a good dice roll with lots of damage, but there is so much more to the game. Being a better player isn’t something you do just for yourself; it benefits the entire group. The goal is for everyone to have fun, right?

Role playing games are a group activity. You’re all making a shared story using some dice. While part of that story should be enjoyable and unequivocally yours, the same is true for the rest of the group. The game is about everyone’s characters and even the GM in a way. You all get to take part in this really special thing, which entails a certain amount of responsibility. Have fun, but make sure you’re a good neighbor.

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Starting a New Campaign.

This article builds heavily upon the previous one which spoke about what to do before and during session zero. You can find it here.

At this point, if you’ve gone through session zero and its pre-prep, you have a lot of tools in your bag. You know at least a little about your world, the player characters, and the histories of both. Now you just have to mold all that chaos into something cohesive and compelling. This is the fun part. You get to begin crafting the mightiest epic of all time!

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Session 0, Before and After

Starting a new campaign can be a daunting and exciting task. There is a whole new story to create! Where do you start? What about character creation? Should you have a session zero?

One of the things I strive for in my games is getting the players invested. One of the best ways to do that is to make the game about them. If their characters are personally involved in the story-line, that means they are too. You may have a great epic written in your head, but if the characters are just bystanders in it, why would they care?

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Gifting the Players Secrets

   One of the most common new DM mistakes is gifting the players too much treasure. I’ve often seen someone bemoaning high powered low level characters after they had too much magic heaped upon them. Its an easy thing to do, as giving a character a new toy makes the player momentarily happy. It hits that instant reward trigger that many MMORPGs rely upon.

   When players are running around with Vorpal swords at level 3, however, the campaign can be quickly derailed and  the intangible rewards you are giving to fictional characters being to lose their appeal. When they already have the best things, where do you go from there? How do you make appropriate encounters? The characters are still comparatively weak fleshy meat puppets, but they are walking around with cannons. It is not an easy mess to get out of.

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“Its been a while,” or Splitting the Party Long Term

   Once upon a time, in a D&D campaign long, long ago, I came to a dilemma. The party I was GMing for managed to ingest some poisoned food. Half of them failed their saves and ended up passed out and drugged. The other half managed to fight their way out of the situation, but left their fellow party members behind during the desperation of flight. How was I going to handle that?

   Easy. I just split the party.

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“Don’t Split the Party!”

“Don’t split the party.”

  The very phrase seems to be known by every adventuring party ever. If ever a character starts making plans to go off in a separate direction, one of the players is guaranteed to shout this from across the table. If you ask the internet, it won’t hesitate to chime in and let you know what a mistake it is, citing personal examples of character death and misfortune. Scooby Doo’s “Let’s split up, Gang” does not apply when it comes to D&D.

   The basic understanding here is that there is strength in numbers. If the GM throws the big bad at the characters, they’ll have an easier time dealing with it if everyone is together. In a game based on random die rolls, bad things are bound to happen when it is most inopportune. Praying to any intangible gods of luck won’t save players from the game master’s wrath when characters go separate ways.

  There is an even more meta aspect at play as well. Many comics and memes have painted Game Masters as vengeful gods who only exist to punish players. The trope exists for good reason, as those types of GMs absolutely exist. Splitting the party means you’ve made the game more difficult for the GM to run and their vengeance shall be forthcoming. It’s not IF that big bad comes when the party splits, its WHEN, because the GM will make sure that it does. This isn’t a GMing style I endorse, but we’ve all seen it.

  There is a third reason I’d advise against it, and one that is not often considered. Splitting the party has the very real potential to make the game less fun. By doing so, you’ve taken one game and essentially made it two. That means that whenever one half of the group is playing, the other half isn’t engaged. They are no longer part of that story. Sure, some players will still hang on every word, but many more are going to be going to their phones or having disruptive side conversations. That’s not really their fault, however. They came to play a game, not watch one.

   As a player, when faced with the option to split the party, I’ll generally try and take a read on the GM and see what they think. Barring a glance from them that tells me otherwise, my inclination is to stay put. There is always a way to rationalize it in character. It keeps the game together and fun for everyone, which should be the main point.

   From a GM perspective, however, splitting the party can be a great engagement tool if it’s done right. There are times when every player is at work doing something different. Each one has their own little aside in a separate area. It seems unavoidable. When it happens, I focus on two things: length and cliffhangers.

   Keep each player’s turn short and sweet. That way, no one is waiting too long for the lens to shift. That doesn’t mean you have to finish their task; just the opposite, really. Give each player just a snippet at a time, with the knowledge that you are going to come back to them. This lends itself really well to the second technique.

   Whenever you can end one of these snippets on a cliffhanger, do it. These don’t have to be huge. It’s almost better if it is not, as a major happening every moment feels a little soap operaish and cheapens the impacts you want to be larger. Did they open a chest? Let them wait until their next turn to see what is in it. Maybe an NPC asks them a deep or unsettling question.

   “UnQuat stares at you menacingly, his jagged smile unnerving you by its very presence. ‘The Dark God comes,’ he says. ‘She demands a sacrifice. What will you give her?'”

   That would be a great time to take a break and move onto another character. Its a big question and deserves a big question. Any players not involved in the scene listening in will be on the edge of thier seat. The player in the scene in question gets time to think of an epic reply, which can only help the story. If it works out, it keeps everyone engaged and active in the story, even when it isn’t about them.

   There is another time when splitting the party can be a great resource for the GM. An extended split can do some great things for storytelling, role playing, and character development. I’ll cover that in the next article, “It’s Been a While.”

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