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The things that bother me the most are less game and more player things.

If you say you are going to show up then you should show up.

It seems to be popular now to commit to a session and then not bother to show up, let anyone know you will not be coming, etc.

If this was a rare event, it would be one thing, but it seems to be pervasive.

As a GM, if you are willing to put many hours into prep then the least the players can do is make realistic predictions about their attendance.

Fellow Gamers,

I have started to put together some videos of interest to gamers on Tech Topics. There are four so far.

They are all posted here on YouTube:

Gamer Skillz Videos.

What are some other topics that you would like to see covered?

In service,

Rich

I would love more input from you all given that we have had 6 years to get to know what the rules can do.

It works well for folks who have played in an MMO, but have not played a tabletop game before.

Check out my 4e campaign at Bold Beginnings .

Might be a total and complete shot in the dark here, but I've been getting the itch to write an adventure/module/anything and the task is quite daunting when you're all by yourself.

Are there any fellow GMs on here that would be down for some collaboration and creation?

I always have a few interesting ideas knocking around and I figure you may as well.

I would be willing to chip in.

Check out gaming site for ideas about what I could help out with.

Hi all,

Looking forward to hearing your stories.

I summed it up here: Old School Gaming Comparison.

In service,

Rich
The Original Dr. Games since 1993

Different legal systems. Most monsters would classify as either enemy nations or 'outlaws.'

As my own campaign setting is predicated on nation states, 'humanoid tribes' classify as outlaws or criminals, as their citizenry is for the most part civilized and the ones living in caves are there for their own jackass reasons (essentially, civilization got the orcs/kobolds out of caves, and then some decided that 'real orcs live in caves' or claimed oppression, or simply wanted to be bandits, and went back there).

A tribe who's obviously murdering their way through things though tends to step into the hostis humani generis situation though. But just an orc on the road? He's got rights just like you.

@Spook Good points!

It is an entirely different situation. Our fantasy worlds do not have the same ethical structures that our civilized, peaceful, modern world does.

In service,

Rich
PS Come see my seminars at GENCON 2013!
[url="http://zhalindor.com/staats2.htm"]Staats GENCON Site[/url

I've been playing for 5 years and GMing for over a year now, and there's been a pretty clear trend going on with the characters I've seen, both in the games I run, and that I play in:

No one makes a religious character "just cuz".

How many people go for in-game religions purely for flavor, when their character receives no crunch benefit for doing so?

Players derive pleasure (utility) from many different things.

In my world, religion is very much a part of everyday life for most of its occupants. There are competing religions, but there are almost no agnostics and fewer atheists.

Holy days, rituals, manners of speech, etc. are well know, and my players know about these things too.

Many of my players derive pleasure from role-playing in the context of the world. They enjoy getting into character, and the NPCs rect more positively to observant and respectful characters.

So, over the years, we have had a higher than average share of religiously observant PCs.

In service,

Rich

One of my GM's said in the begining that he takes bribe...i do understand what that mean but i'm not sure I agree with that...

I used it once, i had a deck of many tings, lost 10 000xp...and others bad things (I SWEAR I'LL NEVER TAKE CARD AGAIN! WE SHOULD BURN THAT DECK! WE ALMOST DESTROYED AN ENTIRE TOWN OMFG....enyway...)

So i gave him a McCain chocolat cake and i retrieve my XP'S....

On the spot that sounded good, i was chill with that...but somone else diD it too, in order to have an adamantium armor for almost half of the price and i felt injustice....then I tought: Maybe that's what happen when u do it...when i did it, they all felt the same?

So i'm asking: Would you do it? Or as a GM, do you allow bribes? What do you think about it?

I am assuming it was a joke.

I do use bribery with my players.

My player who scribes the campaign log gets an experience point bonus for doing it.

I bribe my players to stay active in the Campaign with food and prizes.

I encourage creativity and good role-playing by giving out candy treats for noteworthy actions.

I hope they don't take away my GM card!

:-D

In service,

Rich
The Original Dr Games since 1993

Some good information at world building links . The document on world building has a lot of good pointers for creating maps.

I used to draw, paint, and do calligraphy by hand.

I started DMing for a DnD 4e group a couple of years back and began using my copy of Campaign Cartographer, because the 4e system is so tied to square, consistent layouts.

See some of the maps in this introductory video.

In service,

Rich
the original Dr Games site since 1993

So, reading this read does anyone out there think that the computer IS better than table top?

The computer is better than table-top when it comes to doing all of the really horrendous calculations, table updates, etc. in a very, very large wargame with logistics, political will, research, etc. all thrown in.

Back in the day, we used to spread big WW II table top simulation games over entire living room floors and spend two plus hours per turn calculating things out.

Besides the real-world issue of finding the space to set-up the game and the tedious nature of the calculations, there is the issue of finding players. The computer is always ready to play.

That said, I have had probably two dozen table-top gaming groups over the years play in my world, and nothing compares to the joy that comes with socializing and playing in a table-top group.

In service,

Rich
Dr Games World Building Site

I can think of tons of games that lack class, Macho Women with Guns, Furry Sexcapades, ...

OH! That is not what you meant! Sorry!

;-)

-Or are socially awkward people drawn to gaming?

*laughs* Well, that is a stereo-type.

Hmmmm ... it would be interesting to do a survey of average education and income levels for folks who have gamed for at least a year at some point in their life and do that survey at say age 45.

My guess would be that the "socially adept" rabidly non-gamers who were stud-muffins and "uber-kewl" in high school probably would not fare as well with a mid-life check.

I would expect to see the creative and clever gamers tending to do better at life over the long-term.

My son, raised as a gamer, told me that the lessons that he learned in the Zhalindor campaign literally saved his life on more than one occasion in combat in the Middle East.

I used role-playing as a tool with my principals to prepare for a variety of situations and missions on the ground in as diverse and grim a set of circumstances as you can imagine.

Socially adept? I'm not sure what that means, but I would hazard to guess that role-players end up being "better" at life in terms of position, income, and generally happiness over the course of their lives.

in service,

Rich
http://www.zhalindor.com/

** Worst GM **

My experiences as a player only a couple of months, but that was sufficient time to learn many lessons about how to run a campaign and do's and don'ts of GMing.

The original GM (call him Jon) committed about as many of the faux pas of GMing as are humanly possible. (By the by, he is still active in the gaming world; I just saw a press release indicating he took a technical editing job for one of the few remaining gaming firms.) There were three main players, myself, a long term friend of Jon's (call him Keith) and a mutual friend of shorter acquaintance (call him Dave). Keith's characters showed an extreme form of divine protection. While Dave and I spent nearly as much time rolling up new characters between sessions as actually playing, Keith's PCs were blessed with immunity to all manner of negative effects. He did occasionally roll up new characters, but only when malaise overtook him. (``Send the character away --- he no longer amuses me!'')

On one occasion Keith's character was holding a grenade which detonated. Dave's and my PCs were felled by the explosion while Keith's character was merely grazed. Keith blithely indicated his character was stripping his colleagues of any funds or usable equipment. When Jon indicated that Keith's character's ``friends'' were still breathing, Keith quickly scribbled a note to Jon. Jon indicated that, after Keith's PC was done, Dave's and my PCs were no longer stirring.

Although the most glaring and irksome, favoritism was not Jon's only talent. He was equally capable at being arbitrary and capricious. You never really had any idea of what was possible and what wasn't. During one session, it might be reasonable for your character to get up, walk over to the faucet and get a drink without much difficulty, and during the next session, you might have to roll on a drowning table!

Jon also did some of the worst NPC portrayals I have ever seen. To describe these characters as cardboard would be to do a disservice to paper products everywhere. If there were ever more than one NPC interacting with the party at a time, it was nearly impossible to tell with whom any particular party member was speaking. Jon usually reached his frustration point after a minute or two of character interaction and declared a general melee. (An interesting society to say the least! Imagine the following scene. You walk into a department store, and you ask a clerk where to find the toilet paper. You suddenly realize that you are talking to the manager, and the clerk was either an illusion or teleported away. The manager answers a different question entirely than you asked, but undaunted, you try to follow-up on his cryptic comments. Enraged, the manager, who has inexplicably transformed back into the clerk, pulls out a hitherto unseen great sword and begins hacking at you.)

One would associate some lack of care for the fate of the NPCs under such circumstances, but alas, nothing was further from the truth. Each of Jon's NPCs or monsters was sacred. Nothing enraged Jon more than harming one of his antagonistic NPCs. Frequently rolls would be visibly fudged. NPCs teleported around the encounter area seemingly at random. Weapons' effects changed without warning or cause, and the NPCs commonly evolved abilities as the melees turned against them. Imagine the following scene (these items did not all occur in the same session in this close of proximity, but all of them did occur at one time or another).

Jon: the Kobold blasts you with his staff of fireballs and flies away with his wings,

Rich: But Jon, you said he was badly wounded and that we already stripped him. When did he grow the wings? OK, I'll roll for my character to hit. Wow! A natural 20! Cool! What should I roll for damage?

Jon: None! He has a cube of force!

Dave: Jon, you said I was able to tie him up; plus, you said it was an earthworm!

Jon: The fireballs home in on your two characters. Luckily Keith's character does a triple backflip and avoids all damage.

Keith: Jon, while I'm flipping through the air, I take careful aim with my crossbow and shoot at the Kobold; you know just like I used to do back home.

Jon: [Rolls a one in front of the party, puts the DM screen in front of the dice and states] Nice job! You hit the Kobold through the neck *and* are able to catch the cube of force before hitting the ground.

Dave and Rich: How much damage did the fireball do?

Jon: It doesn't matter; you're characters are dead again.

Keith: Jon, I go over to the Kobold and cut off the wings. Can I graft them onto my own back and fly?

Jon: Great idea! Sure, now you have wings!

Needless to say, Dave and I quickly figured out another means of role-playing.

** Worst Player **

I've been blessed with only one truly antisocial player in all the years of GMing. We'll call him Michael. The gaming group has always done more than just role-playing. We have always stuck together and played other types of games, done trips, attended movies, etc. Michael's mother came up to me and asked if her son could join the gaming group. Two of the other players' mothers had told her about the group. In both cases, the players, call them Todd and Chuck, had had some minor scrapes with school officials and the law. After playing in the campaign for a bit Todd became an honor student, and Chuck was elected to the student body government. (Todd went on to study history in college, and Chuck became a police officer.) Michael's mother explained that Michael was a good boy, he just needed a positive peer group and some role models. (Yeah, right!) I didn't really have the option of turning her son down without good reason since I was running the group through the auspices of the community youth center. The horror, the horror.

Michael immediately turned the gaming group against him. He took utter glee in having his imaginary friend backstab (literally) the other characters. Michael continually made inappropriate and embittering comments to the other players. I took Michael aside on several occasions and explained ``things'' to him. I spoke with Michael's mother and told her that her son was just not appropriate to the group. Soon afterward the head of the community youth center told me I *had* to keep Michael as part of the group or else we gave up our meeting place. Eventually Michael came around somewhat at the gaming table. One day though Michael just stopped showing up. When I queried what had happened to him, I found out he had been taken into protective custody for assault with a deadly weapon.

** Second Place Worst Player **

There have been unpleasant situations where players have turned to the ``dark side.'' In the Palladium role-playing game (tm) there is a class known as Summoners (tm). The rulebook explains that most summoners eventually take on an evil disposition as time goes on. I stole the class for my own campaign, and I have had several Summoner PCs over the years. The most recent of these followed a classic example of corruption. Let us call the character Reamer. Reamer started off claiming to summon only faeries and other fey folk, but as time went on, Reamer began to dabble more and more with summoning dark forces. Slowly Reamer's motivations became less and less honorable. I knew that the PC had slipped irrevocably to evil when Reamer's controlling player told me that Reamer was going to summon the most powerful demon he could and the instructions would be to ravage the land! Shortly thereafter Reamer summoned an eldritch fiend he was unable to control and sold out the remainder of this party in exchange for seven years of power. Reamer *immediately* became an NPC.

** A Bronze Medal **

I had another player whose character became more and more involved with vile chaos magics. The trouble began when the party first found the dire manuscript. Almost to the last member, the party advocated burning the tome, but this character, call him Pee-Wee, said he would hang on to the dark book. Pee-Wee began reading the book, and it was only a matter of time before one of the spells in the book proved useful to the party. It was not long before Pee-Wee began casting truly horrific spells. (In one case, he inserted an undead cuttlefish into his own abdomen for an extended life span. Yuck!) The last the party saw of Pee-Wee was when the party was captured and Pee-Wee cast a blindness spell on the remainder of the party to improve his chances of escape. Pee-Wee too joined the ranks of NPCs.

In service,

Rich
The Original Dr. Games since 1993.

Post your most bizarre or unusual encounter.

There are too many to pick from, but one fun one comes to mind ...

Backstory

We were playing RuneQuest back in 1982 ...

RQ has levels of success in skill checks. If you roll low, you can get a critical success. If roll sufficiently high, you can *fumble*, and rolling a fumble is really bad.

To advance a skill in RQ I & II, you had to successfully use the skill to get a "check."

Sometimes players would find very creative uses and situations to use their skills in order to qualify for that precious skill check.

RQ tended to be a relatively bloody and often deadly game.

The design team, mostly Steve Perrin and Gregg Stafford, used their experiences in live SCA fighting to form the basis for the in-game system.

There were no resurrection cemetaries ... there were no three saving throws before death ...

On to the story ...

The Set-up

The party happens upon a scaled, winged critter with two legs and a barbed stinger for a tail ... *obviously* a wyvern.

Wyverns in RQ are tough and bad --> deadly to PCs.

So, like a nice GM, I gave them plenty of advance notice. I never intended for the party to interact with the critter except to notice its deadly beauty from long-range.

One of my players said, "hey Rich, I use my 'Animal Lore' skill to try and identify the creature."

I said, "you all know that it is a wyvern."

He insisted. Why not I figured.

He rolls ... a "00," the worst kind of fumble.

Thinking on my feet both for what would constitute an appropriately painful fumble and to send a message about meta-gaming the skill system.

So, I said, "you are absolutely convinced that it is a friendly, wooly wyvern."

"Really ..."

"Yes, in fact, if you go up and hug a wooly wyvern, it will be a friend for life."

*sigh* "I rolled the dice and am willing to pay the price. Shadow walks up to the wyvern to give it a hug."

The rest of the PCs cowered in fear, readying their weapons, but all hoped that Shadow would just die quickly, preventing their own potential deaths from the wyvern.

To be fair, I rolled the wyvern's reaction roll out in the open on the table -- afterall, a potential PC death was in the offing.

The Punchline

I rolled on the hostile table ... "00" --> wildly, enthusiastically friendly!!!

Shadow walked right up to the wyvern and gave it a big hug!

The wyvern wrapped his tail around Shadow and give the PC a big, friendly lick with his forked tongue.

The party had that darn wyvern for eighteen months of play, and they never failed to use it to the best possible advantage.

It was awesome fun!

I am still a huge fan of allowing a high degree of randomness in gaming ...

In service,

Rich

apology for folks signed up for my GENCON events.

Revolutionary socialism is way cool!

If you don't like it, you're a stooge of the plutocracy!

[Leans back in chair and reads The Warlods of Mars while waiting for visitors to arrive.]

It is interesting ... I have used many of the social and economic systems that exist in reality as fodder for societies or to generate campaign themes in my RPGs, but I have actually never used communism ... hmmmmm ... Oh wait! That is because it doesn't make any sense. *LOL*

In service,

Rich
Member of the Plutocryptocracy