"This sounds like an epic dream."

This is what a friend of mine said when me and my girlfriend first introduced her to our game.

It was really difficult to tell her about it as well. Not a single adventure could really be explained simply, there was always more to talk about. We had to talk in a breaking and self-interrupting fashion so that she could understand everything the party had gone through. All that they had achieved, and lost.

As a GM this is possible the highest compliment she could've given me and she didn't even realize she did it. Until she said that I never realized this is pretty much exactly how I want my game to be.

Of course I have my players to thank for that. Obviously I couldn't even run a game without them, but they do so much more than act as an audience for whatever I've created. They're just as responsible for many of "the plot's" twists and turns. Their decisions make the game so much better than if it was just me writing out events.

I want my game to be fun (of course) but also cool, and extreme. It should be bizarre, beautiful, creepy, deadly, and rewarding.

I've wanted to achieve all of these things in past games I've ran, but I've never been satisfied with how it played out. Until now.

I'm not sure if it's my current group, the different system, the different genre, reading so many blogs, or my growth as a GM. I don't really care though, I'm really happy with how things are going.

This is the best campaign I've ever ran, and I feel blessed because of it.

Answers for Zak

Zak, who you've probably heard of, posted some questions for GMs to answer. Here are my answers.

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?
The Road Tripping table for modern fantasy games. It's not perfect but it creates fun.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

Friday the 13th, January 2012

3. When was the last time you played?

Sometime early January 2012

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

The St. Louis Arch is secretly a trans-dimensional gateway that cultists are trying to open.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Sometimes I'm hooked with suspense. Other times I roll on random tables or think about what is likely ahead.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

Pizza mostly, but also sandwiches and all kinds of junk food. 

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting? 

I used to but not so much anymore. I find it depends on the group and their collective attitude that day.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

I had my guy chop off one of his own fingers to confuse a bunch of cultists. Look it's kind of a long story, it did grow back though.

 

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

They do both. Things that threaten them they usually take seriously but not always.

10. What do you do with goblins?

Goblins haven't showed up in my current game and I'm not sure if they will. In the past I've had them ride giant insects and fight with poison.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

I guess this would either be the weeping angels from Doctor Who (an instant puzzle monster) or the secret-door magic from the Chronicles of Chaos.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

One of the players switched genders, there were jokes about it for the rest of the night.

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

Vornheim, it even works for modern cities and the players are in New York.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

As much as I love good drawings I don't have too many opinions on the subject I guess. But if I could get Kevin O'Neill from League of Extraordinary Gentleman to illustrate some books that'd be awesome.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid? 

 One of my player's, Katie, I'll often overhear saying, "That's so scary!" so at least sometimes. My group is also terrified by any old woman in my game. Though based on their experience this is probably a good thing.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

I definitely prefer writing my own. I've definitely had good times with pre-mades but as a GM it's so much fun for me to watch players succeed or fail against things I've made.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

I want one of those custom game tables where everyone has slots and stuff to keep their own stuff. I've always wanted to play outside on a nice day with no wind. Or how about a holodeck from star trek?

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

GURPS has like a bunny supplement I've always wanted to try. Also Nobilius seems pretty interesting.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

American history and geography and old world myths (Greek, Norse, the Bible, it's all good)

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

Someone who is smart and pays attention. They cooperate well with other people and they are willing to try new things. 

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

 Various road trips and my time spent working at a newspaper for creating investigation-based adventures.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

A product I've made. I should probably get on that.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

This used to be my girlfriend but she's an active player now. Both of my brothers often listen to me and give me ideas about games but I can't get them to play for some reason.

Entropic Adaptation

Note: This entry is specific to Villains and Vigilantes rules which consists of players rolling random powers anyway. Those who don't know or play that system may find it still useful especially if they have or are considering a supers game.

Upon rolling this power the player rolls a different ability from the Power list (or some other list if you like) and makes the decisions concerning it as normal.  The next time they go rest for the night (6 hours or more) they lose this ability and awake to find a new power in its place (roll again).

For groups who do not wish to stop in the middle of a game for the player to work out how exactly their new power will work (such as chemical power, size change, or poison/venom) they can have the player roll each game session rather than each night of rest.

If the player rolls an ability they already have they can either roll again or strengthen their power as per the normal rules.  This ability is intended for player's who wish to play a hero with random if sometimes unreliable powers.

If player's wish for their abilities gained through Entropic Adaptation to be more specific the GM should be encouraged to come up with new charts more tailored for that character's 'theme'.

So energy characters could have something like this:
1-10: Power Blast
11-20: Disintegration Ray
21-30: Flame Power
31-40: etc.
and so on...

or animal characters:
1-10: Natural Weaponry
11-20: Poison/Venom
21-30: Pet
31-40: etc.
and so on...

Depending on what other powers are available to the player they may wish to tie this ability to death such as the Resurrection man.

Steampunk Dice

 

These are so cool!

11.50 seems relatively cheap for something with such fine detail, but it's also only for a single die. It'd be amazing if they had all the polyhedrons required for standard adventuring dice. If my group were to ever do a steampunk setting (at least seriously) I think I might have to get at least one of these.

Season 2 and stuff I plan to do

So break is winding down and I'll be getting back to school soon. This means a lot of things but one of the things I'm looking forward to is picking up with the gaming group I've set up there.

We left off on a pretty epic, holiday-themed adventure. It kind of served as a season finale episode and I was pretty happy with it.

But now we're coming back so I thought I would list some things I want to introduce or move forward with. I find it nice to have some clear goals to keep campaign momentum going.

• Their Modern Fantasy adventure is heading to New York City, one of the most diverse cities in the world. I'd like the magic their to reflect that. There should be magic from all kinds of cultures.
• A few places in the city should reflect this magic taking hold. This can get weird, strange gravity, mutations, people talking backwards, whatever. Everything's strange but no one notices. It's a dark secret people sweep under the rug. Like stereotypical New Yorkers when most normal people see something strange they ignore it and keep on about their business.
• The player's are investigating a dark and mysterious business called the Nero Corporation. I should make ways for them to infiltrate the place. Something like a fancy party filled with intrigue, masks, and assassins.
• I kind of want the players to get betrayed, arrested, and taken down by someone with no visible powers but can exploit their weaknesses. Maybe all at once? hmm...
• There's a drug called Läesh they've run into before. It has varying effects, one of which is boosting the crap out of supernatural abilities at a cost. There should be something with this in the bad parts of New York, or the good parts.
• One of the players has a weeping angel trapped in his visual cortex so that's gotta change. Maybe he can make a deal with it?
• Another player has a burning hole of the apocalypse in her brain. This has to do with the Nero Corporation as well so that can probably come up then.
• Maybe something with New York's art scene?
• All the players just got new powers which they still need to pick.
• I might be getting a new player, she wants to be a belly-dancing Gypsy pirate which sounds like it could be the coolest thing ever.
• One of the players wants someone from her past to show up. She's an experienced treasure hunter and ship sinker (siren) so maybe something like from Indiana Jones where they are allies/rivals/enemies all simultaneously for the same artifact.
• One of the players has family in New York, they are not on good terms, something about stolen technology.
• I think some sort of fish king might show up demanding the fish-person in the party be his bride.
• The mad scientist should show up again.

Okay that is a lot. More than I expected I guess, I've got some planning to do. But I'd love to here your thoughts.

Evil Christmas and Adventures within New York City

Last game the players ended up saving Christmas. The holiday is still a week away but it was our last game together so I made a holiday themed adventure on the epic side of things.

Santa was for some reason in the Appalachian mountains, corrupted by the Book of Terrible things (or the Naughty List as most might know it) which has been recording the sins of humanity for so long it seems to have gained sentience.

The players fought some giant toy tanks and life-sized tin soldiers with permanent stuck on smiles. They did pretty well, though known of them can pilot a tank for shit and this almost got them blown up several times.

Santa's elves were building these war machines because of all the evil corruption going and the players decided it might be a good idea to stop this. That, and they discovered that Santa planned on shifting the poles which would have nearly destroyed the magnetosphere, which would have been bad for pretty much the entire planet.

Other highlights of the adventure include the players narrowly escaping a weeping angel made of ice, befriending a top hat-wearing ice elemental named Frosty, and getting there names written in a book that messed them up pretty bad.

The final fight with Santa included mind control on both sides, homicidal knife-wielding elves, flying reindeer, and two characters nearly dieing. This battle was made even more complicated by the fact that the players were getting dose with magic that increased their powers. But also made their bodies pour out energy and their abilities go haywire. Think telekinetic storms, swarms of summoned spiders, and floods.

Most of the time the players looked like this. I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who recently.

They ended up surviving the process and freeing Santa from his possession. As a reward he offered to teleport them and the car they are so fond of to wherever they wanted to go. They recently found out about a shady business called the Nero Corporation in New York City so that's where they chose to go.

It was an incredible session. Several of the players told me how it was out best game yet and ended up being quite epic. We won't play again until after our winter break so that was basically a season finale for us.

And I could not have a better option for a season premier. Throughout this campaign I've had vague ideas about what can be found throughout this semi-magical Earth I've been building. I've tried to keep most of these ideas loose so I can easily respond to the players.

New York is a big place even without supernatural elements. It's safe to say a lot goes on there. You could spend an entire campaign in the city in a variety of genres. I'm not sure how long the players will want to stay in New York but getting into the Nero Corporation won't be easy so chances are they'll be spending at least a couple sessions there.

I'm trying not to let myself get overwhelmed with what all I could put together but there are a few things I want to focus on. I'll probably expand on these in a later post:

-An area of decadence: The upper crust of society hiding out in high-rise penthouse apartments. Making multi-million dollar business deals and spending the gains on often times corrupt hobbies. This could include personal armies of adventurers to gather artifacts for them, dealing with expensive, and often times enchanted, artwork, throwing elaborate parties, and secret murders or potential rivals.

-An area of delinquency: Like the show misfits minus the accents. Everything is punk rock, recreational drug use, one-night stands, and superpowers. Nearly everyone in this area has a criminal record of some kind though it's often. Everybody is scrounging around to make a decent living but a select few have a wish of theirs answered by a gaining a superpower one day. This of course creates quite a bit of chaos.

Not sure yet what all this is going to entail but I'll try and keep posting about it. Let me know what you think especially if you have any ideas of your own.

A Chart of Terrible Things

My players are about to go up against someone very much like Santa (the holidays are coming up) and his first mode of attack after they mess with his shit is trying to figure out their names.

Once he does that he can add them to The Naughty list. At least that's what he calls it, it's also a slightly telepathic book of really evil things and causes terrible things to happen to those who have their names written in it.

Before you say anything, this is totally like the Book of Vile Darkness and the Death Note from the show Death Note. I'm glad it is because those things are cool.

Here's what can happen to you if your name is written in the book. Feel free to use it as a random curse chart as well.


1- random possession turned to coal
2- shadows writhe around you and attack at ill-opportune moments
3- vomit up stomach contents and can't keep anything down very easily
4- confronted by your worst fear
5- a loved one turns on you
6- you feel constantly embarrassed and uncomfortable, this makes it hard to do most things especially talk to people
7- vital organ is separated from rest of body, still functions but is very vulnerable, must be carried and protected
8- greatest weakness is exaggerated
9- hears constant whispering, can't hear as well, will eventually go mad
10- all body hair turns to webs, at best this is highly itchy, they will bite if someone tries to remove them, if player has venom/poison so will the spiders
11- a terrible deed you once did is now done to you
12- you develop a craving for your own flesh
13- Terrible luck, critical failure three times as often
14- you sweat blood, also pours from eyes, ears, nose, and mouth
15- teeth grow extremely long and twist together, cannot talk or eat unless broken or fixed
16- become brittle like glass, when your struck you tend to crack or shatter
17- dead loved one rises as murderous intelligent zombie and will come after you (think blackest night) they'll likely rise where they were buried (though they may just appear near you) either way you'll feel the dread as they track you down
18- people around you are compelled to tell you terrible things and critique you
19- change genders (may not be so bad)
20- your own personal plague follows you around, this can be anything from locusts to a cloud of fire, it'll act fairly randomly but mostly in your disinterest

I'll leave it up to you on how player's can reverse these curses. For me it's going to be some heavy duty magic or ritual, or maybe just invisible ink over their names. The book's pages are normally indestructible so you can't just tear your name out.

There's also a Nice list and having your name in that can cancel out any effects of the Naughty list. Just having your name in that book gives you a random benefit that I may post later.
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