Lead Your Players Not Into Temptation

I've been thinking recently that I'd love for a way to tie religion into the Alignment system in my Caliburn setting. The battle between law and chaos in the wake of the King's death is a large setting wide conflict, but on a smaller and more personal scale it is the battle between good and evil that plays a much more important role. Obviously no one, in the real world or a fictional setting, is perfect.  We each have our vices and our virtues.  To emphasis this fact, and to track each for the PCs, I've made a Temptation Mat.

This is kind of a rough draft of the Seraphist version (A religion that blends of several real world faiths and includes many Judeo-Christian beliefs and values) which pits the Seven Deadly Sins against the Seven Heavenly Virtues on a sliding scale.  At the beginning of the game each player will be given thirty five points that they are allowed to assign to one of the seven scales.  Since the starting point for each scale is the -5 spot you could either start with a totally blank slate (all Zeros) or you can have some virtues and some vices. 

During play the scales with shift depending upon the actions of the character.  If a character murdered someone who slighted him his Patience/Wrath would slide a point toward the Wrath side.  If a character gave a poor stranded man his horse his Charity/Greed would slide a point toward Charity.  Only significant events or a multitude of smaller events would result in a shift. 

NPC Cards

 I wanted to share something really cool from our currant Call of Cthulhu game.  I'm not running the game, The Professor is.  He, like the rest of us, was new to the system when we began, but that has not impeded his ability to GM.  So far the game is absolutely awesome and part of it is the small things like his NPC Cards.

The concept is simple and certainly not a new one, but there is a reason this has been around for a while... It's a great idea.  The Professor's execution of the concept is flawless.  He lists pertinent information to the character like their name, nickname, and a Fraternity or Sorority if they belong to one.  Then he gives some key biographical notes like where they are from, what their major is, what clubs and/or sports they are involved in, etc.  Finally he lists character traits and events that have become clear as the PCs have interacted with them.  For example, Ruth has proved untrusting of the PCs every time they have met her, Beth has a short temper and constantly yells, and Bobby beat the crap out of Revil's character, Kenneth.  

Perhaps the most important feature of the card is the photo.  Ever one for authenticity, The Professor has gone back into archives of old yearbooks and pulled actual student photos from the late 20s.  It's a great touch that makes each NPC seem that much more real and gives each NPC card a yearbook-ish feel.  That works really well as our characters have gone to old Yearsbooks as important sources of information on various persons around campus.

One person in particular, Reginald St. Birmingham III, has been of particular interest to our characters.  Birmingham is the villain of this chapter of the story and is obviously up to some shenanigans, though our characters aren't sure of exactly what at the present time.  When investigating him we started our research (where else?) in the yearbook.   His entry provided some background information and some important clues on where to look next.    One of the characters, Charles (Doodle's character) is also from Newport and had heard of the affluent St. Birmingham family and knew what kind of business they were in, their general reputation, and where they live.  We proceeded with our investigation by looking into the activities Reggie was involved in, specifically the Bohemian Club and Sigma Phi.  While we haven't cracked the case yet, this information certainly put us on the right track.

NPC cards like this are easy to make and definitely worth the time and effort.  They help yours players connect with the various important NPCs and provide them with a quick reference guide to the pertinent facts about them.  If you are playing a CoC game, particularly one set at Miskatonic University, you will want to also follow the Professor's lead and lean heavily on old yearbooks from the 20s and 30s as a resource of both pictures and great information about the time.

A Gamer's Bibliography

"Cite your sources!!!" Mrs. Marsh, my 10th grade English teacher, shouted at us over and over again.  While I'm not doing a paper on Mark Twain anymore that doesn't mean that I'm done with research.  In fact I find myself doing more research for Gaming than I ever did in school, and enjoying it far more.

Research can add depth and a sense of stark reality to your games.  It provides rich details, and insights you wouldn't otherwise have to the setting in which the game's adventures take place.  For my current Caliburn game I've found myself doing a host of research on everything from Knights to the Black Plague.

We are fortunate to live in the information age.  The amount of information we have access to is simply mind blowing if one stops to think about it.  Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, is a perfect example of this.  In just a few seconds one can search about nearly anything they want from astrophysics to pistachio nuts. It is a great tool for getting general information and finding refence material to continue your research.  Google books is another great research, with over 10 millions books scanned. 

Here is a list of books I am using for research for my Caliburn game, while they are by no means all equally useful sources they have all had some important information to offer.

Armies and Warefare in the Middle Ages: The English Experience

Sword in Hand

The Archeology of Weapons

The Politics of Enchantment

Medieval England

The Landscape of Britain

Archeology of Medieval English Monarchy

Medieval Castles

Woman in Early Britain

Early Metallurgy

Food in Medieval England

The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic

Ancient Europe

the Archeology of Medieval Ireland Armies

For those with less time or inclination for in depth research you may find some shortcuts.  For example TSR did some really great historical setting books during 2nd Edition's reign.  I've found some very good information in the Celtic Campaign Sourcebook as well as the one for Vikings, Romans, and Crusaders.  Books such as these have done a good deal of the research for you and help save a lot of time. 

Ending a Long Campaign

Nothing is worse than playing a game for an extended period of time; months, years, decades, only to see it whither and die with no satisfactory conclusion.  When that happens it just leaves everyone who took part feeling very unfulfilled with no sense of closure.  When you have invested so much in a character you don't want to leave him right in the middle of a quest, you want to see him make it through it.  Unfortunately that doesn't always happen.

My group has been together a while now, but up until recently we just couldn't finish a game.  Now a big part of this was the philosophical debate within the group about whether or not a game should have an end and not just be a constantly running thing that ends only when the players have all lost interest.  I have always approached a game I am building as one might view a single season of a television show.  TV seasons have a beginning, middle, and ending, but that isn't to say that the cast won't reunite for another season.  If a game is successful there is almost always room for a sequel campaign. 

That was the approach I took during the last game I ran, Legacy of New Lago.  I wanted the end to provide not only a sense of closure, but a real sense of accomplishment.  I wanted the players to know, if they were victorious, that they had really achieved something special.  In short, I wanted a truly epic ending.  I got some advice from DNAPhil's article on Delivering the Goods over at GnomeStew, but I still felt I was missing something.  I wanted the end of the game to be truly special, to do something no one in our group had ever done.  Then the idea hit me... I would build out the battlefield.

I had a picture in my head of the final battleground.  An ancient ruined temple with weather worn statues and crumbling buildings, I figured I could give it a try.  I did some research online and got some helpful tips and set out to purchase or requisition what I would need.

Here is a picture of my supplies.  Nothing overly expensive here, in fact I was able to salvage a lot of it from my parents garage.  What?!  They weren't using it.  Some things, like the plaster of paris I did buy, but it was dirt cheap at Home Depot. I had to buy a massive board for a base and have them cut it so I had a ton of leftovers there.  My end board was 3 feet by 5 feet, the rest of the twin sized bed plank I never used.

Next is a look at my work area.  I'm not going to lie... it got pretty messy.  That pink you see is the left over  foam board I used.  Everything you see is made out of the foam board, it's really great stuff.  Don't try to use superglue on it though.  It dissolves the foam and releasing some really nasty (and more than likely toxic) fumes.

Here is the best picture I have of the whole terrain piece.  I took it when I put it into storage... also in my parents' garage... What?!  They weren't using that space anyway.  The PCs began the battle on the near side while their opposition began on the far side already "entrenched" in the ruins. 

The water is made of silicon, also very cheap and very smelly.

Here are some close up shots of the ruins.  Made of that pink foam board.

Again I'm going to mention the usual disclaimer... I have no artistic talent to speak of.  But just like with digital mapping you don't need it, sure it helps, but you don't have to be artistically gifted to make something that your group will love and that will create a long lasting memory.

This terrain is crap compared to what some people can make, but it did its job well.  My players realized that this was a serious battle, the fate of the world was at stake, to say nothing of the lives of their own characters.  They had fought battles against their arch enemy over the course of the whole campaign.  Some they won and some they lost, but none of it mattered as they stepped onto that final battlefield with everything on the line.  Even without these pictures to remind me I'll always remember this fight.  How Trogan and Klemdo hid behind the weathered obelisk, how Viola and Kain fought off Voraptis' minions while their allies charged ahead, how Alexis took cover behind some rubble while being blasted with spell after spell, and how Phineas who was hopeless the whole campaign rose the challenge and became a true hero.

That's what it's all about, the stories and memories we take away from the game.  No part of a story is as important as the end, it is the part that leaves a lasting impression in everyone's mind.  Next time you are working on a new campaign spare a thought for how the game will end and find some way to make it truly special and memorable.  Whatever it is your players will appreciate it and the end will be that much sweeter.

A Hidden Gem

I played Hackmaster 4th edition, but I never served as GM.  HM4 is something of a bitter sweet memory to me, one that I haven't discussed to date.  I do plan on discussing some of my group's experience with the game, and the horror stories of our time in the trenches, but not today.  Today I want to talk about something I've only recently become unaware of.

How Amazing the Hackmaster 4th Edition GameMaster Guide is.

The reason I didn't know is because, as I mentioned above I never GMed.  Unlike D&D where we all had a copy of all 3 books (much to my chagrin) the GM forbade us to bring or even own a copy of the GMG of any of the HoBs (Hackolepdia of Beasts).  That was one of the few decisions I can say I was really in line with for that campaign.  By ensuring that none of us had access to those books it really helped maintain and air of mystery about the game, something I really enjoyed.  But years removed from the game I happen to stumble on my copy of the GMG that I had purchased when Kenzerco ran their bundle deals and decided to give it a look. I was very glad I did.

The GMG has so much information packed into it that I couldn't help but be blown away.  This is a book I think I'll keep on hand any time I am running a game, regardless of the system.  Aside from mining info from their HM4 specific rules like spells and training, there are numerous charts such as their expansive critical hit and critical miss tables to be taken advantage of.  On top of that already valuable information they have generic information about everything ranging from Horses, to forms of government, to types of punishment used in medieval societies. The treasure chapter goes outside the confines of HM4 and talks generally of currency, taxes, and types of merchants.  I think my favorite might be chapter 10: GameMaster Procedures.  This chapter deals generally with being a GM and all the pitfalls and difficulties one might face from record keeping to arguments and complaints.

Because their deal with WoTC expired Kenzerco can no longer sell the vast majority of their 4th edition material.  However, you can still purchase the GMG and other Hackmaster products through Amazon vendors.  Prices at the moment start at $13.08 used and $34.90 new.  I recommend GMs of all systems pick up a copy, there is great information for everyone in there. 

  

Hero Machine

I've always wanted to do character portraits, both as a player and a GM, but as you all know I am artistically challenged (to put it politely). For a long time I would make do without pictures or else make do with other people's art that I found online. But before my most recent game I found Heromachine, and it solved a lot of my problems.

Heromachine is an online application that allows you to create portraits of all kinds of characters. Male, Female, Dwarf, Ogre, Monster, Angel, Sci Fi portraits, or Fantasy portraits, Heromachine can do it all. It is simple and straightforward, but its wealth of options more than make up for its simplicity. I used the program to design all the villains from my Legacy of New Lago campaign, here is an example of a collage of several of them.


Anyone can use Heromachine and it doesn't take long. Head on over and check it out!