Category Archives: Roleplaying Games

GMing Mistakes 11 – Experience Doesn’t Necessarily Make Players Better

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I was once in a game where the GM had somehow gotten in his head that he could require as to make harder rolls, because everyone in the group had been playing for so long. So what’s the assumption here? Experienced players get luckier? Experienced players have learned how to get away with cheating? I’m not sure. Sure, we might be able to use the resources we have more flexibly and in different ways, but we still have all the same limitations as the beginning playes.

… actually, I think experience is often a hindrance.

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GMing Mistakes 10 – There’s a Chance You Don’t Get Probabilities

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Okay, so, there’s thief in your group and they want to infiltrate the tent of an officer from an opposing army. Its in the middle of the camp and you want to make it hard, but from your point of view, it would be a good thing if the thief was able to do it.

So, lets suppose the player rolls 2d6 and has to get at least 7 to succeed. They get +2 from their.. skill. Whatever. First, you want them to roll for moving into the camp. Then you want them to roll for moving through the camp. Then you want them to figure out where the tent is and roll for that as well. Then you want them to roll for entering the tent. They’re pretty good at what they do, so this should work, right?

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GMing Mistakes 9 – Randomized Characters

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I’ve heard all sorts of reasoning. “Not everyone is equal in real life.” “It doesn’t matter how good your character is, there’s always something to do.” “Its in the rules.” “I want to push the players to do something different.” Well, these are true. I can’t argue with that. What I can argue with is that these aren’t very good reasons. There are a lot of things that are true, but you wouldn’t really want it that way.

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GMing Mistakes 8 – Underestimating the Importance of the System

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You’ve been playing a while and you’ve been always using CoC and its worked out pretty well. Sure, you have to invoke the Golden Rule every now and then, but at the same time, you know the system, so why not use it for the fantasy campaign you’re trying to sell your players on.

Please don’t. I know many people think CoC is the greatest thing ever, but at the same time, that group of people haven’t usually played anything more sophisticated. They still like to think that the solutions of their youth are still valid solutions today. Would you still use the same computer you used back in the 80s? Probably not. These things have moved on. Why shouldn’t RPG systems? After all, they are of pretty comparable age.

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Review of HARP Loot, sort of

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I was asked to write about this book, but after skimming through it, it felt like just an accessory to a completely unnecessary game. I recently stumbled on this great notion by Oren Harari.

The electric light did not come from continuous improvement of candles.

This book feels like a continuous improvement of candles, when we are already living in a world with electric lights. And yes, despite some romantic notions, electric lights are better, more cost-efficient and better for the environment. Oh yeah, and you can use them for reading for extended periods of time without going blind. So, my discussion on this book isn’t going to be a usual review. Instead, I’m going to try to use the conceit of having a dialogue with my 12-year-old self, who would have loved this book. Gladly, the world has moved on, myself included.

(With thanks to Ville for coming up with this idea.)

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From 13th Age to Fate Core: Same World, Different Systems

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13thfate2

I started a 13th Age game late this summer. I like the world and I admire the design, so I wanted to try it out. The sessions, however, were quite far apart, which was a clear signal that something wasn’t quite right. I wanted to continue the story of the characters and talked the players into converting them to Fate Core; now, I want to share my observations on how system matters. Continue reading →

Sylvan World #2

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use-with-dw-OnLightLast week we had our second session of the Dungeon World campaign. Since the first session was a Funnel adventure I decided to treat this as our “first session”.

To prepare for this I came up with two different adventures. I did not even call them Threats, yet, since neither had that much going on. I presented them to the players at our forum. They chose to defeat lizard centipede first and deal with the lost elven ruins later.

I’ll try to use this post to discuss the First Session of DW by thinking about what happened in our game.

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GMing Mistakes 7 – Homework

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I love Glorantha. Its a rich world with its own interesting cosmology and a wealth of myths. I would love to run a campaign in there. Just to get really into all the stuff I love. And I never should. Sure, I’ve tried, but it just doesn’t seem to work out. Why? Because I can’t ever communicate all things I want to any potential players.

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My #mapvember

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As those who follow our social media, its that time of the year again. What time? #ampvember time. Lauri tried to jumpstart the whole thing a month early, but here we are.

So, what is #mapvember. I guess I would relate it closely to NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month, in which you try to write a whole novel in one month. Here we try to make a map every day of the month. Lauri has been doing his on the social media side, I’ll be doing mine a bit differently.

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Sylvan World #1

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use-with-dw-OnLightTwo years ago I ran my first Dungeon World-campaign and it was fun. But thinking back to it I might have not been familiar enough with the AWengine to make it the most memorable. I liked the basic idea in it though – it was a world entirely covered in forest.

This idea did not come up that too often in the few games we played. So when I started thinking about running a new campaign I realised I wasn’t done with that world. So last Saturday I got a new group together and started a new campaign with my favourite fantasy system. And this time we tried out it with Funnel World. Continue reading →