From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Feb 18 10:44:01 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:45 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Parties in Roleplaying Games Message-ID: <3C711F18.E1D11F10@burningvoid.com> February 18, 2002 - Time to Celebrate! Volume 3, Issue 3 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives, visit the Twilight Time: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime Good morning! Lately we've covered a lot of serious issues: character death, free will, game tension, and so forth. It's time to have a little fun this month - hence the topic of parties and celebrations! In other news, we moved our site to a hosting provider just over a week ago. For the most part this didn't change a thing. Since the hosting provider runs their own list services, however, we moved the list over. Old links to the list info page shouldn't break since we put in a redirect. However, if anyone wants to update their links, the new URL is: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime I apologize for the extra emails this month as we migrated the list. I promise it's worth it - our traffic has been steadily ramping up for a while now, and there was only so much we could do with a 56k connection (it didn't help that our blurry kitten photos are inexplicably popular). So life has been exciting around the Void this month. One of our kittens broke *two* mice this month. And yes, I do mean the kind that attach to your computer! I'm still learning to use voice recognition software to give my tendonitis a break. Luckily this article was written before I started using it; I'm still finding it difficult to ferret out all the extra weird word substitutions. :} (So if you see anything particularly strange in an article that goes up on the web site, please do let me know!) In the meantime, our thanks to Johnn Four and his Roleplaying Tips newsletter: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/ By saying some nice things about the zine, he's single-handedly boosted our subscribership by 25 readers since last night alone! Thanks Johnn! :) Have a great day! Heather Ratings: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Parties in Roleplaying Games I'm sure you're wondering what on earth I'm going off about this time. Parties? Roleplaying games? Parties *in* roleplaying games? Just hear me out for a little while, and I think you'll find this useful! Most gaming groups forget about and ignore party occasions. How often do player characters (PCs) have in-game birthdays? What about New Year's parties? How often does a character get married (PC or NPC) and throw a reception? And why should you care, anyway? Some of you might remember our "instant plot hook" issues (they're still some of our most popular issues). Instant plot hooks are brief things that you can drop into your game at a moment's notice. They're designed to use up a spare half-hour or so when your players totally short-circuit what you had planned and leave you stranded, but they also tend to make very good fodder for longer-term plots. At times they can inspire some pretty weird stuff - since you didn't plan the plot out, you often have no idea where your players will take your instant plot hook. In-game parties and celebrations are gift-baskets of instant plot hooks! Such an occasion can be a bit like tossing a handful of plot hooks up in the air and watching your players scramble to catch the falling pieces. Parties can have repercussions for game-months afterwards. Here are just a few of the ways in which you can use celebrations in your games. Celebrations Are Great Places to Start Big Plots Parties are fantastic places to kick off unusually high-epic or high-intensity plots. Who hasn't read a book where the big event that starts off the adventure happens at a party? Everyone remember Bilbo's disappearing trick at his birthday party in "Lord of the Rings"? What about your average dinner party murder mystery? I guess you could say that weird things like an audience! I believe this approach is so popular because the switch in tone is so remarkably effective. You're going from an atmosphere of celebration and joy to one of shock and surprise with hardly a moment's notice. It also makes a certain sense - some characters *like* a flashy entrance or exit. They enjoy showing off and surprising lots of people. This premise lets you set up a scene that's as dramatic as you desire! Gifts as Instant Plot Hooks One of the categories of instant plot hook in the original article was the gift. You can use presents as an excuse to slip all sorts of weird and wild things to people. These don't have to be terribly powerful items (see next month's article for more hints on creating cool things that aren't super-powerful). They can appear simple but have unusual properties. They could be totally normal yet come with unusual histories. They might be stolen items, with former owners hot on their trail. They could be magnets for trouble of one sort or another. They could have emotional import to the PCs. All of these are possible even if the giver has the best of intentions. But what if he doesn't? What if an enemy of the party wishes to take advantage of the situation to slip in something dangerous? He could sell something that seems initially harmless to one of the gift-givers. He could switch a dangerous item in for a real gift. He could send the gift anonymously, or the gift might not appear to be gift at all, but for the timing. The great thing about this latter possibility is that you have the perfect opportunity to hand the party something dangerous that will make their lives interesting rather than smush them. After all, in order for that enemy to pawn something off as the perfect gift, he has to make it appear harmless, or even beneficial. The dangerous effects have to be subtle or slow in order to avoid initial detection. Besides, what long-time enemy could resist the temptation of a party? What bitter rival could see the PCs having a joyous celebration and not try to ruin it? So bring out your bundle of instant gift hooks. Spend a little time coming up with interesting things that have some fun background to them. See what the party does with them, and where things go. Plan some of the things to come into play weeks or even months on down the road, so your gifts will last you a long time to come. Throw some completely normal, mundane items in there just to make things seem halfway normal (or at least to confuse the PCs). Throw a couple of really nice things in to give them a little bonus (and to keep them from swearing off parties forever after ;). Heck, send some gifts from people the PCs have never met before as a way of introducing them to a new & different part of your world. You can also turn the entire gift idea around. What if your PCs have to find an appropriate gift for an important person before attending *her* party? Perhaps getting her the right gift could get them later favors or alliances, or getting the wrong gift could be disastrous to some plan. You could get weeks of plots out of the PCs' attempts to find and procure the right gift! Parties that Catch the Wrong Sort of Attention Really want to have a wild night? Maybe the party in question attracts all the wrong sorts of attention! A cabal of evil wizards shows up, thinking it's the perfect place to hold dark rituals. A gang crashes the festivities. Vampires decide the party looks like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Someone uses the party as the perfect place to ambush their enemies (who, of course, nicely put themselves in one place by coming to the party). Your PCs could spend most of the night running from crisis to crisis, trying desperately to keep the whole thing from tumbling down around their ears. If they keep enough people alive, they could also forge some great new bonds and alliances out of the night's festivities, or at least rack up some future favors. An additional source of concern when you have a wild party is - the neighbors! Who lives nearby? How loud does the party get? Will anyone call the police? This can be yet another source of plots and plot hooks. Who takes an interest in the PCs because of the party? Whose ruffled feathers do the PCs have to soothe? Who do they have to pay off or do a favor for in order to avoid trouble with the law? Putting All the Wrong People in One Place and Shaking Them Up Have your PCs been making friends on both sides of the fence? Have they been trying to keep their darker friendships secret from their nicer allies? Have they been hiding a few too many skeletons in their closets? Have you been dying to find a way to shake things up a bit? Maybe the PCs go to someone else's party (New Year's party? Birthday? Grand re-opening at their favorite night club?) and find that a few too many of the people they know are there. Maybe they throw their own party and some of their less savory friends find out and decide to crash. How do they keep their differing friends apart? How do they choose who to make happy and who to anger? What lies do they tell? Which secrets come out? How many weeks of game-play does it take them to patch things up afterward by running around, explaining everything, and doing favors for people? Be a little careful with this one - it *will* shake up the PCs' alliances and friendships. If they've put a lot of work into those alliances your players might not be so happy about this - and understandably so. Try to make sure they're okay with this sort of thing first (ask them point-blank if they mind you shaking up the game), and particularly try to make sure that there are ways for them to repair the damage afterwards. You should be able to get half a dozen great plots out of the favors they have to do and contortions they have to go through in order to win their friends back. Parties as Villain Weaknesses What about your villains' celebrations? What about their birthdays and triumphs? Even bad guys have friends and allies who want to be wined and dined, after all. A party could be the perfect chance for the PCs to get creative about destroying their enemy. A party could be the perfect chance to slip in with a disguise. Or to waltz in openly and trade thinly-veiled threats in a situation where open violence would be a bad idea. Or to sneak in the back door while the normally effective guards are distracted by party problems. Variation If you're going to play with parties now and then, vary the kind of party. There's your loud, raucous, destructive party. There's your fancy dinner party, or your big, pompous affair of state. There's your intimate gathering of family and friends. There's your strained reception with family you don't like. There are costume parties, theme parties, club parties, and more. Do something a little bit different every time! Fostering a Party Atmosphere Okay, this one's a little tough: if you really want to do that whole atmospheric about-face we talked about earlier, then how do you build up a party atmosphere? It can be tough to get your players into the mood just by telling them that they're at a party, and not everyone enjoys roleplaying small-talk, which is how these things usually start out. What, then, can you do to help? To start with, if you're up for it, try to make the game-night itself a little out of the ordinary. Serve a nice dinner to start off with (home-cooked if you're into that; delivered if you aren't); begin the roleplaying at the dinner table if people are up for it. Pull out the table-cloth and the nice glasses if you have them. If you don't want to go that far, at least bring something a little nice (a cake? Some sparkling cider?), light the candles, and clean up the gaming room a bit. Put some quiet-but-upbeat music on in the background. Remember to smile a lot as you roleplay the guests at the party. Think of a few fun and interesting things to chat about as you set the stage (keep notes around - maybe a list of guests with a potential topic or two for each). Talk about past successes the PCs have had and amusing anecdotes from their history - making it personal should help to draw them in. As always, remember your details. Describe the room, the decorations, and what people are wearing, and make it sparkle. If you have any friends who've been wanting to play an NPC for a night, invite them to come play party guests. Try to keep the pace moving. Every time things slow down too much, bring in a new guest. Have one guest insult another's taste in clothing and almost start a fight. Describe a late arrival's weird taste in clothing, unusual bodyguard, or ostentatious gift. Most importantly - have fun! Enjoy yourself. An in-game party should be fun for the players and the GM, even if it drives the PCs crazy! What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! Next Issue: How do you give the PCs cool stuff without unbalancing your game? Coming in just a few weeks (mid-March). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/uniquepcs.html Players Playing Characters III: Unique Character Choices People seem to have a real thing against unique player characters. Why is that? Here I'll give you all the reasons why unique characters can be a *good* thing! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/rpworld2.html Game Worlds Designed for Roleplaying II: Reasons to Get Involved Your PCs need *reasons* to get involved with all of the plots going on around them. Sure, some of that is the responsibility of the GM and players. But some of it can be dealt with during the process of game world creation. http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/mainadvent.html Providing Adventures in Roleplaying Rulebooks A discussion of the merits and disadvantages of the different sorts of adventure material that you can include in a roleplaying book. http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/rpworld3.html Game Worlds Designed for Roleplaying III: From Party Play to Law and Leeway Mythology, practicality, party play, legal systems... a handful of things to consider when designing your roleplaying world. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FOR THE WRITERS OUT THERE: The following are articles from the writing resources page rather than the roleplaying resources page, but I thought some of you might be interested (since there are so many roleplayers who like to write). I'm putting together a series of warm-ups and exercises to help writers like myself get started when they're having trouble sitting down and writing. http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/exer1.html Writing Warm-Ups and Exercises 1: Intro and the Review There are many more (we're up to 18 so far) - just follow the "Next warm-up" link at the bottom of the warm-up, or go to the writers' resources page for the full index: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html Some are of particular use to people preparing RPG material, such as "The Portal," "Visit Your World," "Character Variation," and more. I have no idea how many we'll eventually end up with, but I expect we'll continue to add a few more here and there. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email me to come to an arrangement. I'm also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements each issue. (I reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a court order to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in with the password you received via email (if you've forgotten it, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Mar 11 08:40:02 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:45 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Fun Items (With Balance!) Message-ID: <3C8CB180.B5AA8958@burningvoid.com> March 11, 2002 - Fun Items (With Balance!) Volume 3, Issue 4 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives, visit the Twilight Time: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! This issue of the Twilight Time is dedicated to Richard Dansky, former "Wraith" and "Vampire the Dark Ages" developer for White Wolf (and still going strong as a writer!). I just got my comp copies for "Dragon-Blooded" (for White Wolf's Exalted), and it's the second project I've worked on with Richard. I also got a copy of one of his novels for Exalted, "Chosen of the Sun." You have to understand, Richard is responsible, pretty much single-handedly, for the fact that I became an RPG writer. Without his prodding I never would have even thought of the possibility. There would be no Twilight Time. There would be no Burning Void Roleplaying Resources. I would have gone on playing the occasional roleplaying game, doing my writing, and keeping the two interests separate. He changed the direction of my career for a long time to come. (Well, at least 7 or 8 years so far, and no sign of stopping yet.) While Richard was at White Wolf he developed a reputation as a real gentleman. He hung out on Wraith mailing lists and handed out information whenever he could. He taught a handful of us freelancers the value of professionalism and doing the best job we could. He ripped my first couple of manuscripts apart - rightly so, because I had a lot to learn (and still do). In the process he taught me a lot about writing and the roleplaying business. Even after he left White Wolf he was still networking on my behalf. At a time when I was busy enough that I might have let the whole thing slip if left to my own devices, he kept me in the business. In short, all of this is his fault, through no small amount of effort. So this issue is dedicated to Richard. May life bring him happiness in all of his endeavors! Have a great day, Heather PS - Welcome to all of the gazillions (okay, more like 100) new subscribers since last time. We hope you enjoy the zine! ********************************* DM's Familiar: Become a Better Game Master DM's Familiar is a software program that will make you a better DM. DMF's Combat Board will make your combats smoother, faster, and more exciting! DMF puts rules - Spells, Feats, Monsters -- at your fingertips so that your players will think you're a rules god! Go to http://www.paladinpgm.com/dmf now to download your FREE 30-day evaluation copy. ********************************** Fun Things to Hand Out (That Won't Unbalance Your Game!) Copyright 2002 by Heather Grove and Jeffrey Howard Every now and then it's nice to hand out something a little fun and special to the player characters (PCs). The trouble is, you don't want to hand out too many really powerful things because you could unbalance your game - the PCs become too powerful and they run roughshod over your world. You could find a way to take their advantage away from them, but you're often better off just not giving it to them in the first place. This leaves us with a quandary: how do you give your group the occasional cool, neat, or interesting thing without making the PCs way too powerful? The secret is in how you define "cool stuff." Many people just think of interesting items as falling into one of two categories: worth a whole lot of money, or having great powers. Instead, we're going to define a few other sorts of neat and interesting items that you can play with. You can make them worth some (but not too much) money, or you can make them mildly magical or powerful, or they could be completely mundane - their only value the context in which they're placed. The Plot-Relevant Item Whenever you're in the middle of a complex, convoluted, wild, or just plain cool plot that has your players saying "wow!", consider throwing a plot-relevant item into the mix. The party might be excited to get a trophy to represent the amount of work they put into a plot. Or they might find an item fascinating simply because the plot surrounding it was similarly fascinating. You can use the dramatic build-up to your plot as a dramatic build-up to the item as well. Think about the plot for a bit. Is there a particular item that you would consider representative of the plot? This might be the disputed item that started the first argument that led to the war, or the lucky charm of the sorcerer who was behind the dastardly plot that the PCs foiled. Find a way to work that item into the unveiling of your plot. Try to make its discovery a bit exciting, dramatic or interesting. The Item Once Owned by Someone Amazing Pepper the background of your world with interesting people. Let your non-player characters (NPCs) have their heroes and their villains as well. Don't make the PCs the only amazing people to have sprung up in your world. Then allow the occasional item once owned by an ancient hero or someone's idol to make it into your game. After all, in real life people go to ridiculous lengths just to get their hands on items once owned by their favorite celebrities. Seed your world with its own celebrities. Wait and see whether your PCs become fascinated by any of them (try to make some them relevant to the hopes and dreams of the PCs). Then introduce an item once owned by such a celebrity. Perhaps it's a weapon - not incredibly powerful, but at least a little spiffy. Maybe it's a trinket or amulet of some kind. Perhaps it's a book or journal, or something else relevant to the person's life, hobbies, interests, or family. Add in another little bonus - having such an item might make certain people more favorably disposed toward the PCs. ("You wield the Axe of Kartan? He was a great hero to my people! Sit down and let me tell you some stories...") If the celebrity in question is still alive, he might be willing to give the PCs an audience and perhaps even do them a small favor if they return his belongings to him. The Historically Relevant Item If your world has an interesting history, with plenty of historical events (wars, famines, dragon-slayings, revolutions, magical cataclysms), then you could introduce an item relevant to the history. What about the magic item once used to end the war - now useless and cracked, but an object of awe nonetheless? What about the sword used to kill the dragon, with traces of its dried blood still caked in the corners about the handle? Wait to introduce this item until the relevant bits of history have come out during the course of the game - otherwise it'll be just another sword or amulet. Try to pay attention to *which* bits of history interest your players and their characters, and play off of those. The Personally Relevant Item Another alternative is the item that is personally relevant to one of the PCs. This could be a family heirloom. It could be something once owned by the PC's mentor, or some hero of the PC's profession or tribe. It could be a gift from a beloved family member, or an item the PC once owned years ago that was stolen from him. It could be a symbol of some sort of rank he has attained or some trial he has passed. It could be a trophy representing something amazing he's done, or a birthday present from a friend. It helps to wait until the PC has built up some personal relationships before you try to work this one in. These items are much more personal if there's a close relationship to make them important. The Unusual or Unique Item This item may not be very powerful or worth a lot of money, but it's probably one-of-a-kind, or close to it! This is the weapon forged from a meteor that fell to earth, or the item from another dimension made of a material that cannot be found on the PC's world (or made using technologies or skills unavailable on his world). This is the hide of an albino dragon, born only once every 10,000 years. This item is often best handed out as a part of some epic quest or struggle. Unique items are made all the more unique by the unusual plots and circumstances in which they're found. What Such Items Can Be Worth Of course, in many of these cases it's appropriate that the item have *some* interesting power to it, or be worth some amount of money - which is just fine as long as the amount of money isn't too ridiculous and the power isn't too broad and unbalancing. So how do you go about picking such a value or power? Many of the items described above might be valuable to collectors or historians, who won't necessarily have huge amounts of cash to spend. So it's easy to make them worth a decent chunk of pocket change without making them worth so much that the PCs will be able to buy something ridiculous with the profits. Alternatively, the PCs might be able to trade the items for favors or use them as the basis with which to forge new alliances. This is an even better option than giving a monetary worth, since favors and alliances are more unusual and interesting than plain old cash. One trick to making items of small or moderate power interesting is to make the power unusual. Don't use it to duplicate a spell effect already in game, or a common magic item. Pick something a little out of the ordinary. Try to make it relevant to the history of the item. If the item is from another dimension, perhaps it summons some weird creature unique to that dimension to act as the wielder's familiar or helper. If it was worn while stopping a magical cataclysm, then maybe it bears traces of that wild, warping power within it. Drawbacks and Flaws You can also balance the power of an item by including a few drawbacks - hidden flaws, trouble that the item attracts, and dangers involved with using it. Perhaps activating the item takes five years off of the user's life, attracts monsters, or has a 1-in-20 chance of summoning a demon. Think carefully, however, to make sure that the drawback isn't something the PCs can shrug off. For instance, if they can magically alter their own ages, then taking five years off of their lives isn't really a flaw. If they're capable of killing a demon, then summoning one won't make the item dangerous. At the other end of things, if the flaw or drawback is particularly dangerous or possibly deadly, then make sure that the PCs know this before they use the item! The whole point of a flaw or drawback is to give the PCs incentive to not use the item too often. If they aren't aware of the flaw and it's capable of killing them, then your objective of giving them something neat that they can only use once in a while won't be reached. Instead you'll just kill them, which isn't much fun. So make sure the PCs have reason to believe that there's a danger to using the item. Even better, make sure the danger isn't something that will kill them out-of-hand. The demon, for example, might be more interested in getting them to do it a difficult favor than in ripping their hearts out, particularly the first time or two that it's summoned. If possible, you should lead up to deadly flaws gradually and obviously - they shouldn't happen immediately or with no warning. Restrictions, Narrowness, Lack of Control, and Lack of Information In order to keep the item's power from being too unbalancing, make it *narrow.* This means that it isn't a broad, applies-to-everything power - it's something that only applies to a narrow set of circumstances. Alternatively, add in a certain lack of control. Items that only activate under certain circumstances, particularly circumstances that aren't understood or aren't controllable by the PCs, can keep an otherwise powerful effect under control. Perhaps the amulet they found only works on clear, starlit nights when the moon is full. Maybe it activates automatically during an earthquake. This is another area where knowing the background of the item can help you. If you know who designed it and why, you might be able to come up with restrictions that would have made sense to the creator or the circumstances he found himself in. You can also add a degree of strategy this way - the PCs may have some powerful resources under their control, but they have to maneuver their foes very carefully to work them into position to take advantage of that. To use a mundane example, what if the PCs get their hands on a high-powered sniper's rifle in a game where people mostly use pistols? Sure it'll make their life easy the first time they use it, but what about after that? Their enemies are likely to spend a lot more time in difficult-to-shoot locations after the first sniper-killing. Law enforcement will watch rooftops. PCs carrying odd brief cases might be searched. People will learn to look up! The PCs will have to put some effort into getting their enemies into the right situation in order to use their advantage. Even an extremely powerful item isn't necessarily unbalancing if it takes the PCs years to unravel all of its abilities. (Ever seen the TV series or comic book "Witchblade"?) Entire plots can be wrapped around the gradual unveiling of powers, the restrictions that go with them, and the ways in which the PCs *can't* control how they're used. Many a classic fantasy story has had the stunningly powerful item that sits undiscovered on someone's mantle or finger for decades. Ancient items rarely come with instruction manuals, and their original owners probably didn't run around telling everyone what their spiffy items could do! The Fun Extras Load the history of the item up with plot hooks! If the item was worn while stopping a magical cataclysm and has traces of that wild power within it, then maybe it could be used by a dastardly villain to re-create some minor version of the cataclysm. If the item is from another dimension, then maybe someone could make use of it to rip a hole open to that dimension, sparking a very unusual journey. Also remember to come up with unusual, interesting, or beautiful descriptions for such items. The items should reflect their origins. They should attract a little attention, captivate the senses, or disturb the viewer. As I'm fond of saying under many circumstances - use your details! Related articles: Interesting abilities I: Things to think about http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001q1/000011.html Interesting abilities II: Variation http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001q1/000012.html What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! Next Issue: A list of weird, unusual, and mostly low-powered items that you can toss into your game. Coming in just a few weeks (early April)! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html As we've mentioned a few times in the past, we are slowly (one small piece at a time) redesigning the web site. For the first tiny increment in this plan, take a look at the main page of the site: http://www.burningvoid.com/ or the roleplaying resources page linked to above, and check out the cool banner donated by Johnathan Jones! Check out more of his work at: http://jjoneslogos.tripod.com/ http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/mental4.html Mental Illness in Roleplaying IV: Admission and Understanding This time we delve into a few ideas on plots and themes when working issues of mental illness into games. http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/rpworld4.html Game Worlds Designed for Roleplaying IV: Mysteries and Secrets A few things to consider when working secrets into your game world. The difference between a mystery and a secret, and why one is more useful than the other! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/rpworld5.html Game Worlds Designed for Roleplaying V: The Trials and Tribulations of Arc-Plot Not sure whether you should use lots of arc-plot in your game world or avoid it altogether? Here are some thoughts on the nature of arc-plot and the issues you might want to take into consideration. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TIPS FROM OTHER GAMERS: (copyright remains with the person whose comments they are; posted with permission) [Editor's note: All tips and stories this week are regarding last issue's topic of parties in roleplaying games. These stories and suggestions just go to show that there are quite a few variations on the theme, and all sorts of ways to keep things interesting and unpredictable!] From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Apr 1 13:26:48 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:45 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Bride of Instant Plot Hook - Items I Message-ID: <3CA8A33D.3000303@burningvoid.com> April 1, 2002 - Bride of Instant Plot Hook - Items! Part I... Volume 3, Issue 5 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, or view the archives, visit the Twilight Time: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! ...And happy April Fool's Day! It's been a wild three weeks - we have four new articles and a review up (check out the site update after the article), and things have been hectic around here. We hope you're continuing to enjoy the site and zine, and we welcome feedback! (heather@burningvoid.com) Without further ado (although I have that nagging feeling that I'm forgetting something - don't you hate that?), on to the article! Have a great afternoon, Heather Ratings: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Bride of Instant Plot Hook - Wild & Weird Items Part I More than a year ago we introduced the concept of the "instant plot hook" - these are little things that you can drop into your game at a moment's notice. They're meant to give your players something to do when you've run out of material half-way through the night, or when you're having a bout of non-creativity, but they can often be expanded into longer, more interesting plots. They also have a tendency to go off in weird and unexpected directions, since they're designed to be dropped into the game without much planning on your part. Last issue we talked about interesting items you can drop into your game that can give the player characters (PCs) something a little "special" without unbalancing the game. These are items that *aren't* overly powerful or valuable, but have other aspects that make them interesting. This month we're going to combine these two concepts. Provided for your amusement and use, instant plot items! Or should that be, instant item hooks? Or maybe... oh, right, not all of these are entirely "instant." Some of them will need to be worked into the structure of your game world a little. Others you can drop in and *then* work into your game world. Still others can be used entirely randomly. Note: we're using the same categories of item that we came up with in the last issue, mostly so you can easily use this issue as a set of illustrative examples as well as a set of actual, usable items. As an additional note, remember to detail any powers that an item has in the terms of your own game system! If you haven't read it yet, you might want to look at last week's article, "Fun Items (with Balance!)" first: http://two.pairlist.net/pipermail/twilighttime/2002/000001.html Plot-Relevant Items For obvious reasons this is probably the toughest category to give you good, usable examples for. After all, you want to give the PCs something that's relevant to *your* plots, not mine. Hopefully you can use these as illustrative examples, however - things to guide you in coming up with items relevant to your own plots. You might also be able to adapt some of the concepts. #1. Perhaps a tragic death sits at the center of your current plot. A prince was killed just before his wedding night by some sort of villain, who happened to take the locket given to the prince by his betrothed (it was a trophy, the killer needed proof that the deed was done, or perhaps the locket just looked valuable). In defeating the villain, the PCs get their hands on the locket. The locket has a mirror inside of it. Anyone who gazes into the mirror sees the face of their beloved (or, if they have no beloved, they see a blank silvery surface that appears to reflect nothing). They see their beloved in her current circumstances. Although they only see a slight bit of the area around their beloved's face, this might allow them to figure out if their beloved is in trouble. It might also allow them to see enough of the background to figure out where their beloved is. The prince's beloved might be grateful to the PCs for returning the one memento she has of him. Or they could use the locket to help someone else in a later plot who wants to find the love of his life. If one of the PCs has a beloved, he might find the locket directly relevant. #2. The current plot involves a long-dead madman. Somewhere along the way the PCs found a pair of gold-rimmed glasses with a slight aura of power to them that used to belong to said madman. What sort of glasses would a madman want? Ones that helped him to see the "truth" of the world (as he saw it)? Ones that allowed someone else to see what he saw? Might the visions induced by the glasses give the wearer insight into himself, ultimately strengthening his will or resolve if he can withstand the truths shown him? Perhaps the glasses would show the wearer things that are invisible - and hallucinations of things that aren't really there. How do you tell the difference? What's real and what isn't? Whatever the glasses show, it should be relevant to the form the man's madness took - not random. It should be helpful to the PCs as well as difficult or warping! #3. Almost any plot involving someone whose life must be saved (or whose life was saved in the past) could yield an item with healing powers. If a life must be saved, then the item could be very narrowly focused (it will only heal wounds caused by cursed blades; it will only heal a certain class of poisons; it will only heal wounds inflicted by a certain race of people) yet extremely useful. The value would come from what the person whose life needs to be saved is willing to do for the party once they save him - a valuable alliance could be forged; a favor could be owed. If someone's life was saved by the item in the past, then part of the value would be the reverence in which it is held by those who know of its past. That mystique could rub off on the PCs if they have the item; they could be seen in a more favorable light by the people whose ruler or hero was saved by the item. Items Once Owned by a Celebrity #1. An old and respected member of society was once a great hero in his days of youth and strength. He is still approached for his counsel and wisdom, although he is too old and frail to take up arms. The PCs find the first weapon the hero used, whether a handgun or a dagger, axe or sword. It is rough, poor quality, and flawed, but lovingly made or cared for. Carrying or using the weapon might increase a PC's status in others' eyes. Some non-player characters (NPCs) might see the weapon as a sign that the PC is the heir to the old hero's legacy. Or returning the weapon to the old hero might cause him to offer the party something out of sheer sentimentality (his advice? An introduction to someone else who normally wouldn't give them the time of day?). The item also might carry some small bonuses to damage or to hit, based on an enchantment that the hero had laid upon the weapon. #2. A twisted and terrible person was once a good man, on his way to becoming a hero, in fact. Something made him go bad, and no one knows what. In the process of fighting him and his forces, the party somehow gets their hands on a simple silver ring. They find out that he gave this ring to the woman he planned to marry, who died mysteriously and violently before they could be married. The ring and the woman's tale could lead them to information about the villain that could help them to defeat him. Some old friend of the villain's could decide to talk to them once shown the ring - it could be a reminder to him that something needs to be done. Or showing the villain himself the ring could distract him just long enough with his memories to allow the PCs to defeat him. Perhaps the woman's ghost is connected to the ring, and she would be willing to help the PCs if they convinced her that they didn't actually want to *hurt* the villain. #3. April Fool's: A PC gets his hands on an old top hat that once belonged to an excellent stage magician (no one knows exactly what happened to him - he disappeared in a puff of smoke after a show one night). The hat has the wonderful property that as long as someone wears it he cannot be tied up or shackled - any such devices simply fall away from his wrists, ankles, and so on exactly ten minutes after he is bound. After the first few times he wears it, however, something strange will happen every time the PC removes the hat. Real flowers will tumble out over his head. A rabbit will be sitting on his head. A handful of fireflies will fly out of the hat. Streamers or confetti will shoot out of the hat and over the wearer's head. Occasionally one of the surprises might even be a little bit dangerous. All the wearer has to do is keep the hat on his head. Which is easy to do, right? Until a strong wind comes along, or someone takes offense at the fact that the wearer hasn't respectfully removed his hat! And then there's the matter of taking it off to sleep... Historically Relevant Items For obvious reasons these will overlap a bit with the last category - celebrity-related items - since historical events are often intimately wrapped up with the people involved with them. #1. Many years ago a revolution occurred (there's always a revolution). This particular one wasn't successful. The mastermind of said revolution (now a martyr, of course) had adopted a particular symbol as the sign of his movement. In fact, he'd had that symbol cast in gold and inlaid with some sort of precious stone. Or maybe there are words in an odd, alien-looking script across the back. Maybe he didn't design the symbol at all - he used it because he found the item somewhere. This item can have several layers of significance. If there are people around who still wish to revolt, and who still think of this man as a martyr, then the symbol could provide something for people to rally around. If the symbol existed before the revolutionary, then maybe it gradually shapes its wielder into a revolutionary by causing him to see actions of the government in the most negative light possible - a mild twisting of the senses. You could add in a little something nice to balance that out, like an increase in the wielder's ability to attract followers to his cause (an increase to a Leadership skill or a Charisma-type ability). #2. The PCs uncover a hand-written book - the actual accounting of what happened during some mysterious event in history, written by someone who was there at the time. It could give valuable plot clues; it could simply fulfill the players' curiosity if you've built up a great mystery around this event. It could tell the PCs where something valuable is hidden, or how to use some technology that no one understands any more. It might contain hints that could guide the PCs in creating rituals that have been lost for centuries. These sorts of books make great plot hooks, but try to make the book an interesting item in its own right! If you have way too much spare time on your hands, you might even pick up a nice blank book from a book store and fill it in. #3. The PCs find that a certain ancient tree in a forest nearby was the first tree ever planted in their part of the world, when the area was colonized or settled some centuries ago. The significance of this depends on the type of world you run. If there are spell-casters who use material components, then perhaps parts of this tree substituted for similar components might have unusual and beneficial effects on spells (they might inflict, reduce, or heal slightly more damage than usual, increase the range of effect or number of people affected, or have even stranger effects). If herbalism is a skill, then perhaps the leaves, bark, or roots have unusual (but not spectacular) healing abilities, or can be used to magnify the effects of other herbal preparations. Alternatively, the town or colony's founders might have buried something important in the tree's roots. Or the tree could house a spirit that watches over the town - perhaps that spirit sleeps now, but it could be woken if the town were ever in great danger. Personally Relevant Items #1. A PC inherits her mother's wedding band. As long as she has it the spirit of her mother will watch over her in little ways. This ghost cannot entirely interact with the real world, but she can move very small objects, and uses this to try to warn her daughter of dangers or help her in other ways. It's a little like having a weak guardian angel. #2. A PC is given a weapon handed down in her family through many generations. It has strange powers, but those powers work differently for each wielder, so her parent cannot tell her how it works. Such powers might take the form of visions regarding people she must help, or a berserker battle-frenzy that allows her to stay standing past the normal point of unconsciousness in battle. It should be something related to her own personal hopes, dreams, and abilities. #3. Upon completing training with a particularly harsh taskmaster of a teacher, a PC is given a token by the teacher. This token could take the form of a ring, a pendant, pin, brooch, torque, circlet, or any other small and mysterious item that is worn on the body. The PC is told only that the item is a symbol of his achievement during his training. However, if a significant amount of the wearer's own blood is ever spilled on the item (for example, during a fight the wielder is injured and bleeds on the ring he wears), some sort of protective effect springs up around the wielder. Depending on the system, the wielder becomes more difficult to hit, or the first couple of hit points or health levels of any blow dealt to him doesn't affect him, or something similar. Define the amount of blood that must be spilled in terms of hit points or health levels (or whatever your system uses) dealt to the PC in one blow. Yes, this does mean that if he ever figures the amount out he can activate the effect by deliberately injuring himself - keep that in mind when deciding how effective it is! Join us next time when we finish off our list of spiffy items. Related Articles: The Instant Plot Hook: http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001q1/000009.html Creepy Plot Hooks: http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001q1/000015.html Fun Things to Hand Out (That Won't Unbalance Your Game!): http://two.pairlist.net/pipermail/twilighttime/2002/000001.html What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! Next Issue: Item-Hooks Part II! Yet more wild & weird items for your games. Coming in just a few weeks (late April). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Reviews/0302-1.html Jeffrey Howard's review of "Rage Across Egypt," a region sourcebook for White Wolf's "Werewolf: the Apocalypse" that's packed chock full with 120% of the USRDA of plot hooks! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/rpgwrite12.html What it's like to write for the RPG industry 12: Getting your game published! I guess this article has been a long time coming, judging by all the emails I get asking about the subject. First we talk a little about the state of the industry with respect to publishing your game. Then we move on to a few things you should think about before trying to get your game published. Finally, a few thoughts on your publishing options and some places you can go for more information. http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/beyondability.html Players Playing Characters IV: Playing Beyond Ability How to help your players play the characters they love - even if their characters are smarter or more charming than they are! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/playercomm.html How to Get Along with Your Gaming Group I've written plenty of articles for GMs on accommodating player preferences and getting along with their players. It's only fair that I take a look at things from the other side... http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/mental5.html Mental Illness in Roleplaying V: Treatment and Stress More themes, topics and plot hooks for GMs and players who want to explore the subject of mental illness within roleplaying games. Don't worry - we haven't finished the "Game Worlds Designed for Roleplaying" series of articles. The next article will come out soon. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only.) When we get long press releases we only excerpt a couple of paragraphs; check out the provided URLs for more information. From a Guardians of Order press release: http://www.guardiansorder.com/ GUARDIANS OF ORDER LAUNCHES CREATOR-OWNED IMPRINT: MAGNUM OPUS Guardians Of Order, Inc. proudly announced today the formation of Magnum Opus, their new creator-owned role-playing game publishing imprint. The new line, which Guardians Of Order will produce, distribute, and administer on behalf of their creative partners, will feature core rulebooks and game supplements developed under license for the critically acclaimed Tri-Stat System. Three new game companies - La Mancha Games, Phile, and Primal Utterings - concurrently declared their intentions to produce products for the Magnum Opus imprint. Guardians Of Order also announced that they are currently negotiating with several other companies to publish Magnum Opus titles in 2003. From a Hogshead Publishing Press Release CORRUPTING INFLUENCE: THE BEST OF WARPSTONE Volume One http://www.hogshead.demon.co.uk/ http://www.warpstone.darcore.net/ Warpstone, the independent magazine for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, is pleased to announce the release of Corrupting Influence: The Best of Warpstone Volume One. Corrupting Influence gathers together the best articles, background, fiction and scenarios from issues 1-9 of Warpstone magazine. These early issues were originally published between 1996 and 1998, but are long sold-out and exchange hands for over twenty-five times their original price. "With such demand, we couldn't say no to requests to reprint the early material. With a few years' distance and the ever-increasing popularity of Warhammer FRP, it seemed an excellent time to revisit these issues," co-editor John Foody observed. From an ISSARIES, INC. PRESS RELEASE Oakland, CA March 18, 2002 http://www.glorantha.com/products/1001.html As some of you know from the GAMA Trade Show last week or the Issaries, Inc. web site, Hero Wars 2nd edition is no more. HeroQuest is back! Issaries, Inc. proudly presents HeroQuest, Roleplaying in Glorantha A new game by the Grand Masters of Roleplaying HeroQuest, Roleplaying in Glorantha is the culmination of 27 years of design, creation, and revision. Says president Stafford, "For 27 years I've said it would be out 'next year.' Well, now it is next year. HeroQuest will be released 'this year,' after it goes through the entire editorial process. I am excited to finally have this ready for the world." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a court order to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong! Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Apr 22 06:16:01 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:45 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Bride of Instant Plot Hook II (yet more items!) Message-ID: <3CC3D271.3050004@burningvoid.com> April 22, 2002 - Bride of Instant Plot Hook - Items! Part II... Volume 3, Issue 6 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives, visit the Twilight Time: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! I know that April Fool's Day is over, but seeing as this is a continuation of an article that came out on April 1, a couple of the items will still be a little weird & wacky. Believe it or not we're still keeping up with weekly articles on the web site, a new zine issue once every three weeks, and link collection updates once a month. I removed a few sites from the listing for being effectively dead - don't you hate it when a site is still up, but hasn't been updated in years, and all the links (including to their own articles) have finally gone dead? We're well up over 700 subscribers (welcome to the new folks!), we have several new articles up that I think you'll enjoy (check out the update section after the article), and we have some great reader comments enclosed toward the end. So I hope you enjoy the latest issue. In the meantime, one of our cats is having eye surgery in a few days, so wish him good luck! Have a great day, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Bride of Instant Plot Hook - Wild & Weird Items Part II! Last issue we started out on our item-quest - lots of weird items you can drop into your games that won't unbalance them. We covered plot-relevant items, historically relevant items, items once owned by celebrities, and personally relevant items. This time we're going to get more into the mechanics of items that are unique, flawed, restricted, and so on. If you haven't read part I of this article yet, you can find it at: http://two.pairlist.net/pipermail/twilighttime/2002/000002.html If you haven't read the article on non-unbalancing items that spawned this two-part monstrosity, you can find it at: http://two.pairlist.net/pipermail/twilighttime/2002/000001.html We've been following the categories laid out in that article. Unusual and Unique Items As so many movies and books have told us, "unique is always valuable." You might not be able to get a lot of money for a unique item, and it might not give you world-altering powers. But it's bound to get attention in some way. Unique items make great candidates for symbols of office - royal scepters, mayoral seals, and so on. They're also good candidates for prophecies. After all, how better to identify the subject of a prophecy than by identifying a unique item that he bears? They also make great subjects for theft and other sorts of unwanted attention, and perfect plot hooks in general. #1. The party finds a melee weapon that appears to be made of glass, with an edge every bit as sharp as that implies - except that it cannot break or be shattered. No one can determine what it's actually made of. #2. The party finds a gem that shifts colors over time. It looks like a totally different gemstone at different times of day, or in different seasons or months, or even different years or decades. Perhaps the change is tied to some cycle in your world that isn't so clearly defined. (Hint: if you want your players to catch on to the gemstone's nature, have them get their hands on it right before a point of change in the cycle.) The gemstone is set in something beautiful and a little alien-looking, perhaps a ring, circlet, pendant, or scepter of unusual design. It has certain powers that depend on the phase it's in. They're related to the color, or to the type of gemstone (you can find books that will tell you what qualities are associated with different gemstones), or perhaps to the cycle the stone is tied to. If the stone is tied to the seasons, then the effects might be climate or weather-related. #3. The party finds a remarkably lifelike statue of a beastly little gargoyle-like creature (or a dainty, pixie-like thing) - clearly something out of fantasy, because nothing like it exists on your world! When the statue is spoken to directly, it comes to life and does as its "master" bids. How does it determine who its master is? Well, that's the tricky part, now isn't it? Perhaps it's whoever speaks to it first, feeds it, keeps it for a certain period of time, speaks a command phrase, wears a certain ring, performs a certain ritual or spell, or some other requirement that suits your needs. You have three choices for keeping this particular "item" from being too powerful. Either the little beast has low stats and no particular special powers - it can only do simple things for its master. Or it has strict limitations and weaknesses - sunlight will kill it, or if your game has an alignment system it can only harm, steal from, or otherwise negatively affect creatures of a certain alignment. April Fool's: Or it's a mischievous little imp, and doesn't have to strictly obey it's master. Perhaps it tends to get distracted from its duties by opportunities to make trouble! It pulls practical jokes, tries to make dignified or important people look silly, and otherwise gets itself and its "master" into all sorts of trouble. (As always, try to make sure it's useful enough to keep its PC master from feeling too screwed over by this.) Items with Drawbacks and Flaws The trick with flawed items is to try to balance the positive with the negative - the item should be somewhat more useful than not. You need the item to be useful enough that it's worth keeping around (and seen by the PCs as valuable). You want it to be dangerous enough that it will only rarely be used (the more powerful it is, the less often you want it to be used). Balancing these two things can be difficult. Remember that the less powerful the item is, the less you have to convince your players not to use it too often. The more familiar you are with your players, the more you know what they value and what they consider an unacceptable risk, the easier a time you'll have with this. #1. One of the traditional flawed weapons of the fantasy genre is the blade that must draw blood before it can be sheathed. It does extra damage when it hits, but if the PC draws it from its sheath and doesn't end up drawing someone else's blood with it, he must draw some of his own (do some damage to himself) before he can sheath it again. Variations include the blade that must take a life (for particularly powerful weapons), or the blade that causes misfortune (or presages disaster) whenever it is drawn. The April Fool's version of this: the blade that wants something totally off-the-wall, gratuitous, or silly before it's put back in its sheath. It wants to be sung to; it wants its bearer to compose a poem about how lovely the blade is; it wants to be flattered and told how beautiful it is; it wants to be cleaned, sharpened, and polished (even if it's still clean and sharp). #2. Another traditional flawed item is the item that gives the wielder power over something or someone but eats away at his mind or soul. This is a ring that allows the wearer to charm people, but each use causes him to lose a little more touch with reality, or makes his nightmares that much worse, or twists and warps his thinking (gradually making him evil). Reserve this one for a really good character-player - madness, nightmares and soul-twisting evil don't have a lot of effect on characters whose players aren't into that aspect of roleplaying. #3. A device of augury (tarot cards? Crystal ball? Reflective pool? Rune-stones?) could give results entirely in metaphors and symbols. In the case of tarot cards and rune-stones this should be inherent to the item anyway. In the case of crystal balls or reflective pools, this might surprise your players a little more than usual. Every portent of the future becomes a puzzle that needs to be solved. This prevents such devices from being instant plot-busters, while still allowing the PCs to make use of them. The April Fool's version: the device of augury that gives results entirely in the form of nursery rhymes, psychedelic visions, gratuitously silly riddles, or something equally wacky. Items with Restrictions, Control Issues, or Unknown Aspects One of the best ways to figure out appropriate restrictions is to think about the history of the item. What would the creator have wanted? What would have been useful to her? #1. Weather-control items can easily have restrictions that make sense. An item that brings rain might only operate during high heat or a drought (the creator wanted to make sure it could only help, not harm). An item that causes tornadoes might only operate in certain specific climates (the creator wanted to make sure it could only be used on his enemies' kingdom, not his). #2. What about a protective item that decides for itself when it's needed? It could be some sort of force field that protects the wearer from weapons. But the device itself decides when it's needed, and the creator's idea of when it would be needed might not be the same as a PC's. In a well-balanced game you'll often find that the narrower such an item's effects are the easier it is to create. So the creator had plenty of reason to make an item that did only what he needed it to and no more. Perhaps his enemies only used one particular weapon (or type of weapon), and the force field will only kick in when such an item appears to be nearby (whether or not it's in the hands of an enemy!). Perhaps the creator only considered one (or several) races of creature to be enemies, and the field will only kick in when members of those races are within combat range (whether or not they're the wearer's enemies). #3. Perhaps the PCs found a device with many buttons, labeled in an unknown language. Figure out what the creators would have used it for and make a list of the functions. The PCs can, of course, try pushing buttons and playing with the item. They can also try to find a way to translate the language (particularly if they have other samples of it). Make sure that some of the functions depend on what's going on around the PCs at the time or what they've done first. For instance, say the device has to do with food - its preparation, storage, and eating. Whether a particular button appears to do anything or not (it slices! It dices! It juliennes fries!) depends on whether a potato is fed into the tube first, or the device is placed overtop of a food item, or a separate button (which releases the blades) was pressed first. (All right, so that's a particularly April Fool's example. I'm sure you can come up with something much less silly than a food-prep device.) Putting in contingencies and context-dependent relationships like this turns the exploration of the device's effects into a longer-term endeavor that requires puzzle-solving, or quests to find out more about the people who created it, or bits of research here and there during down-time. A good rule of thumb, however, is that the more effort the PCs have to put into figuring out what the device does and how it does it, the more useful the device should be to them - which of course makes our potato slicer a bad example unless you have players that enjoy a good joke now and then. If possible, turn such a device into a puzzle that requires some thinking and some in-game quests and research, rather than simple random button-pressing. The former can be an interesting plot; the latter is boring. One-Use-Only Items I'm going to throw one more category in that wasn't in the original article - items that can only be used once, or items that can effectively only be used once or twice. This category comes with one, very important caveat: keep in mind that players and their characters can be very creative and clever! Think hard about whether any of the characters might be able to think their way around any of the things you've done to guarantee that an item won't be useful for long. If possible, have a back-up plan in case they think of something that you didn't! Perhaps the party gets their hands on a huge, futuristic cannon-type device that can take out a building with ease. Sounds insanely overpowered, right? There are any number of ways to keep it from being so: #1. Lack of consumable components - the cannon can only be used with a certain type of ammunition which cannot be made in the party's society and world. Or, if the cannon uses (and uses up) a particular kind of gemstone not found on the party's world, then they won't be able to keep it operating. #2. Lack of fuel - the power-pack has enough energy for one or two shots, and it cannot be recharged given the party's tech level. #3. Lack of repairs - the cannon breaks down easily. This isn't a problem for its makers, who can just as easily repair it. But the party's world lacks the technology to make the repairs. #4. Lack of understanding - the party doesn't know that if they don't press the odd buttons in a certain order, then the cannon will overheat and melt down after one use. #5. Lack of context - the cannon is designed to be used on a special set-up designed to support its weight and the recoil generated by its use. Without that, it can do a lot of damage to itself and the area around it when used. These ideas can be generalized to other items to create one-use-only or short-term-use items. These things can seem pretty amazing to the players and their characters, but they won't unbalance the game long-term. Hopefully these articles have given you a few ideas for ways in which you can hand out neat things in your game. Too many people feel that there is only a choice between handing out neat things and unbalancing the game, or not handing things out at all and keeping things under control. Luckily that isn't the case - you can keep the game fun while still handing out toys for the PCs. Enjoy! What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! Next Issue: Create your own instant plot hooks! Coming in just a few weeks (mid-May). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/rpworld6.html Game worlds designed for roleplaying VI: Game material will be used! The cardinal directive that most RPG writers seem to forget sooner or later - anything they put into a game will be used by the people who play the game. If they don't plan for that, then their material could be useless (or at least awfully frustrating). http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/rpworld7.html Game worlds designed for roleplaying VII: Scope, Scale, and Epic Level A few words on what scope, scale, and epic level are, how they'll affect your game world, and how *you* can affect *them.* http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/mental6.html Mental Illness in Roleplaying VI: Research Resources In earlier articles I've mentioned the fact that a little research can be awfully useful when working mental illnesses into your RPG. But where do you go to do that research? This article will point you at plenty of web sites and books to get you started. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TIPS FROM OTHER GAMERS: (copyright remains with the person whose comments they are; posted with permission) From Jason Leisemann: As usual, your article was excellent - several reminders of things to throw into my next story and/or game. One thing, though. One type of "plot hook" item I didn't notice (though, admittedly, it could be in the next article) was perhaps the oldest one in the book - the Villain's Bane item. Would probably go under Plot Relevant items, as it's main usefulness is to a current plot, but basically it's that one thing that can get the villain with relative ease - in fairy tales, it's frequently something like a flower, in stories, the ancient weapon that was specifically made to deal with demons/dark elves/wizards/dwarves/aliens/mutants/what-have-you. Perhaps one of the best examples (in my mind) is in a story from the Brothers Grimm - one of their fairy tale witches (can't remember which one) was defeated when the hero thrust a special flower into her face, and undid all her magic, changing his beloved back into her human form (from the bird the witch had turned her into). Maybe a better way to handle it would be the way seen in Final Fantasy 4 (Japanese version - 2 in U.S.) - there's a scene where one of the monsters has a vulnerability to metal weapons, so he's focusing his power into a magnetic field in his cave, so you can't use metal. An item you pick up previously allows you to break his concentration and fight him on a more even level. That aside, still an excellent article! Thanks for putting these together - very helpful all around. [Editor's note: a category I hadn't thought to include in the non-unbalancing items article. It makes a lot of sense - it's very narrowly focussed, and the item doesn't necessarily have power in its own right - it just has power over the villain. A great idea!] From David Stoddart comes a suggestion that readers might enjoy submitting work to the Games Workshop publication "Inferno!" Submission guidelines can be found linked to from the following URL: http://www.games-workshop.com/blacklibrary/contri.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Ratings: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a court order to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon May 13 08:36:00 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:45 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Create Your Own Instant Plot Hooks Message-ID: <3CDFA2B6.6050005@burningvoid.com> May 13, 2002 - Create Your Own Instant Plot Hooks Volume 3, Issue 7 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options or view the archives, visit the Twilight Time: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! Whew - that ws close! This mailing list used to be set up to automatically post any email sent from me; it just blocked other posters. But lately the spam and viruses have been flying fast and thick, and they have a new twist: forged headers from your own network. I saw one of these and immediately changed things so that even my posts needed approval in order to go out. Sure enough, three days later - mail tried to go to the list, supposedly from my address. There *should* now be no way that spam or viruses can end up going to the list. My fingers are crossed! In the meantime, it's Spring, and you know what that means - yard work. For the very first time we have a yard to take care of, and we decided to start with all the bushes around the house. No problem - until we decided we needed to rip out a rose bush (ow! Thorns!) and cut down a tree. What was going to be the work of a few hours has gone on for a whole day so far, and will probably take another. Still, there's a nice feeling you get from doing it yourself. And that's what this article is about - doing it yourself. Sure, we've had all sorts of variations on the instant plot hook concept. But this time we're going to talk about what makes a good IPH and how you can come up with your own. I hope you enjoy it! Have a great day, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Create Your Own Instant Plot Hooks In January of 2001 we created something we called the "instant plot hook." These are little items and ideas that you can drop into your game at a moment's notice, with very little preparation. The idea is that they can take up a spare hour or half-hour here or there when your players have unexpectedly run through the material you prepared a little faster than you anticipated. Or you can drop them in when things seem a little slow and you want to liven things up. If the instant plot hook attracts the attention of the players and seems to be working out in an interesting way, then you can flesh it out into a full plot during the time between game sessions. Since then we've gotten several articles out of the instant plot hook idea. If you never saw it, you might want to take a brief glance at the original article: http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001q1/000009.html This time, instead of simply handing you a bunch of IPHs, we're going to help you make your own. Remember the Mystery Most important to an instant plot hook is mystery. If it's just a random event, entirely explained, then there might not be a whole lot for the party to investigate and you won't serve your goal of filling up that half-hour or so. This isn't always the case - there are IPH categories that don't require mystery - but it is a common theme. Gifts have unannounced senders, odd undiscovered properties, or otherwise mysterious origins. Cases of mistaken identity have a trail of problems to track back to their source (the same with mis-deliveries and switched documents). Prophecies and visions often have metaphorical elements that must be puzzled out and matched up with reality. Hopefully there's enough mystery that the party can start checking things out, ask a few questions, investigate a lead or two, but not get too far in the space of that half-hour you need to fill. That way you have the time between game sessions to fill in the gaps in the story and expand on the IPH, turning it into a full-blown plot. The other advantage to a mysterious IPH is a lack of detail tying it to a specific plot, place, or person. This means that it's less likely to be rendered obsolete when that plot goes in an unexpected direction, the player characters (PCs) move to a new city, or a related person dies. The mystery gives the IPH a much longer shelf-life, allowing you to hold onto it until you need it. Examples of mysterious IPHs: #1. When the party wakes up one morning, they find that the world is trapped in an unending night. The sun never rose. Everything is dark and quiet. What happened? Is it a natural phenomenon? Who could have done such a thing, and why? #2. A non-player character (NPC), preferably a friend of one of the PCs (or someone they need), vanishes in front of their eyes. Where did he go? Did someone take him, and if so, why? Or could the problem be with the PCs... Keep it Short & Flexible Keep the IPH short. One, maybe two paragraphs (at most) is usually good. Sometimes it only takes a sentence or two. There's a good reason for this - unless you're sure you'll use that IPH within the next session or two, you never know when you'll make use of it. It could happen next session, next week, or next year. This means IPHs have to be as flexible as possible. The more details you pin down in advance the more assumptions you're making. Such as what interests your party, what they're likely to check out and how, and where the plot is likely to go. If you don't end up using the IPH for a while, then for all you know the party might have moved to a different city, developed an interest in an entirely different type of plot, or even switched membership a couple of times. The NPCs you worked into the IPH's plot might have died. Any of these things could make your well-detailed IPH irrelevant to your current game or party. The "instant" part of instant plot hook refers to the fact that you don't have to change a lot of details before you drop it into your game. The fewer details you pin down in advance, the fewer details you'll have to change. Examples of short & flexible IPHs: #1. A party member's shadow takes on a life of its own. What does it do? Why has this happened? How can it be fixed? #2. An enemy of the party comes to them for help, and it isn't a trap... Think in Categories If you're trying to come up with a nice long list of IPHs that will last you a while, then start with categories instead of single items. If you have difficulty with this at first, then start with a hook and work backwards to figure out what sort of category it might fall into. Here are the categories we've played with so far: Basic instant plot hooks: * Gifts, * Cases of mistaken identity, * Mis-deliveries and switched documents, * Muggings, thefts, and random combats, * Prophecies and visions, * Disasters and catastrophes, * Job offers, * Mysterious nonexistent relatives or friends, * Sudden trips. Our creepy plot hook categories: * Blood, * Things that aren't quite right, * Body changes, * Mind changes, * The hunt, * Monsters, * Mysterious disappearances. Our item hook categories: * Plot-relevant items, * Items once owned by a celebrity, * Historically relevant items, * Personally relevant items, * Unusual and unique items. I'm sure there are quite a few more that we haven't thought of at all! There are a couple of advantages to thinking in categories. First, it helps you to make sure that you don't use the same sort of IPH too many times in a row - you know that if you recently used an IPH from one category then it's time to move on to another. Second, if you can come up with an entire category that works well, then it can be even easier to brainstorm later IPHs from that same category. Make it Exciting Try to make the IPH something that will immediately catch the interest of the party. Mystery is a part of this - any player characters (PCs) with a healthy dose of curiosity will hopefully get caught up in a mystery. Excitement can come in any of a number of forms, however. You know your players best, so hopefully you have some idea of what will interest them and pull them into a plot. Use that! Although what excites one group of players can be totally different from what excites another, we'll do our best to give you a couple of examples of exciting IPHs: #1. A cinematic chase scene happens right in front of the characters. Unfortunately for them, one of the participants decides to drag the PCs into it. He hides behind a PC, tries to take a PC hostage, begs them for help, or something similar. Who are these people and why are they trying to kill each other? #2. One of the PCs starts to have flashes that he thinks are hallucinations. Unfortunately for him, as events unravel he starts to realize that he's seeing through someone else's eyes. That someone is doing something terrifying, horrifying, alien, or just plain weird (something that can be narrated in a gripping manner). Who is the other? Why is he connected to that particular PC? What is the other trying to accomplish? How can the PC find and (stop/help) the person? Include Questions Include a few questions in your IPH that your PCs might look into or try to answer, or that you will need to answer. It's a quick way to get you thinking in the right directions, since you'll probably be picking out your IPH in the middle of the game. It's an easy way to remind you of what you need to fit into the game and get across to your players. You might think of your questions as sparks to help you improvise. #1. When one of the PCs arrives home, he finds some other family (seemingly perfectly normal) living in his home, claiming all of his possessions as theirs. If he does any checking, no one except him and the rest of the PCs remembers him as living there (although anyone who knew him well seems a little uncertain), and any paper records show the other family as living there. Who are they? Why have they moved in? Why does reality seem to agree that the home belongs to them? #2. [Another alternative is to add a few possible answers to those questions, to give you something to work with when the time comes. Even if none of those suggestions end up being appropriate to the current situation, you can use them as inspiration:] A package arrives for one of the PCs. Inside that package is a locked strongbox with a note on it saying "Beware: Highly Dangerous," but the contents seem simple and ordinary (a cheap bracelet, a random library book, or a bottle of spring water). What's dangerous about the item? Who sent it? Why did they choose one of the PCs as the recipient? Why is there no explanation of the item included? The item might have been sent by an enemy, mentor, unknown family member, or random person who has heard of the PC's reputation (or who has heard a prophecy regarding the PC). He might have sent the item for safe-keeping. It could be a trap. It could be dangerous but helpful, and he wanted the PC to have the use of it. Perhaps he left the explanation out because he thinks the PC wouldn't believe him, and thus wants the PC to find out the details to his own satisfaction. Perhaps he didn't want to risk the explanation falling into the wrong hands. The item could be magical or mystical, or simply important because of what is prophesied to happen to or around it. It could be some sort of illusion or disguise covering up something important, or it could have something important hidden inside of it. It could be a puzzle or message of some sort. Practice Improvisation First It helps to have at least a little experience with improvisation before you start messing with instant plot hooks. They are, after all, the antithesis of fully prepared material. This is all right, though, as improvisation is important to game mastering (GMing) for so many reasons! Check out the following articles if you need a little more help with your improvisation: Improvisation Made Easy: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/improvfreewill.html Improvisation Tricks: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/itricksfreewill.html Hopefully all of this has given you a few ideas for where you might start when creating your own instant plot hooks. They're so useful when your players short-circuit what you had planned. They're kind of a safety net, so you don't feel like you have to railroad the PCs into following your plot - you can let them take things wherever they want, and then use your IPHs to fill in any blank spots that causes. As always, free will in roleplaying rules the day! What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! Next Issue: Defeating villains! Coming in just a few weeks (early June). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html We have lots of new articles for you this month! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/firewall101.html Firewalling 101 for Players Having trouble keeping player and character knowledge separate? Not even sure what the heck I'm talking about? Check out our article for players on "firewalling" - we provide tips and tricks to make dealing with out of character information much easier. http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/rpworld8.html Game Worlds Designed for Roleplaying VIII: Plot Hooks Plot hooks - why to pack 'em in, and how to train yourself to write them! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/reallife.html Using Real Life Material as the Basis of Roleplaying Plots We're tackling that old, controversial subject: is it okay to use real-life events and tragedies as the basis for plots in your roleplaying games? If so, when? And how? http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Reviews/0502-1.html Jeffrey Howard's review of "A Thief's Tale," a Guildhouse Games $5 d20 supplement. Definitely worth checking out! (The review *and* the module. ;) http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/outlines.html How to Write Useful Outlines for Writers Not all outlines are created equal. Some do a much better job than others at getting across what they want. Learn a few tips & tricks for getting across what it is that you want! An article from the writing resources page that some of you might find useful: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/workhome.html How to Successfully Work from Home This one was inspired by some of my own problems, and includes all the tips & hints I could think of to make working from home easier and more successful. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a court order to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Jun 3 09:18:04 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:45 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Defeating Villains! Message-ID: <3CFB5B8E.1010904@burningvoid.com> June 3, 2002 - Defeating Villains! Volume 3, Issue 8 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives, visit the Twilight Time: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! As you'll note in the announcements section at the bottom, online voting for the Origins Awards is ongoing. Anyone at all can vote, although certain categories are open only to members of the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design. Voting will close in one week, on Monday June 10, so get your votes in now! The online ballot can be found at: http://www.originsawards.com/ Meanwhile, not including the Twilight Time articles or the reviews, we now have more than 100 articles on the roleplaying resources portion of the web site! I hope you find the articles useful. It's great to hit such a milestone. It's summer here, and summer means lots of green things, and ice cream, and temperatures that see-saw between cold and really hot & humid. Hopefully wherever you are you're having nice weather. In case you aren't, here's something to read while you stay inside! Have a great day, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Defeating Villains There are plenty of articles out there on how to play good villains, create good villains, and come up with cool plans for your villains. Today, however, we're going to talk about something slightly different - how to allow your players to defeat your villains. No, I'm not talking about scripting your game; I'm talking about making sure that there are ways for your villains to be defeated. If you take as a given the idea that your villain does her research and is fairly intelligent, she can become fairly difficult to stop. Part of this is because of you, the game master (GM): you know all sorts of things about what the player characters (PCs) are doing, and have the chance to sort through that and decide which things the villain might be able to learn. Part of this is because intelligent, creative, resourceful villains have everything the PCs have, plus a possible something extra: a lack of morals that allows them to get away with more than the PCs can. Today we'll talk about ways to make sure that your villains can be defeated (can, not will). We'll talk about flaws and problems you can give them that offset some of their advantages, and ways to make their advantages less unbalancing. Intelligent Villains With all of this talk of toning down advantages, why would you want to make intelligent, creative, resourceful villains in the first place? Why not just make them dumb and lonely? There are plenty of reasons why you might want to use intelligent villains: * Your players are pretty creative, and you want to give them a challenge. * Your players' characters are pretty powerful, and you want to give them a challenge. (Note that there's a difference between providing a challenge and creating an unstoppable opponent - hence this article on villain flaws.) * Dumb villains can get really boring after a while. * Dumb villains can get pretty silly after a while - if they're so foolish, why do they survive long enough to be considered real villains? * Intelligent villains can make for more interesting plots. * Intelligent villains can provide a wider variety of potential plot solutions than simple hack-and-slash. Villain Flaw #1: Inhibitions People often assume that morality is the only reason why someone wouldn't want to kill or harm another. Thus, villains will never have qualms about harming innocent bystanders, making it much easier for them to harm the PCs than for the PCs to harm the villains. And of course, an intelligent villain will take advantage of this in order to get a leg up on the heroes. Luckily for you, morals aren't the only possible thing getting in the way of your villain's killing spree. Inhibitions also provide a great obstacle to your villain's success. It's entirely possible for someone to avoid killing for a reason that has nothing at all to do with morals: * Your villain is squeamish. The sight of blood makes him faint, or the idea of death scares the living daylights out of him due to some childhood trauma. * Your villain is practical and killing is impractical. Perhaps the local authorities would be willing to look the other way if the villain killed the party for some reason, but they wouldn't look the other way if innocent bystanders died. * Someone the villain cares about or doesn't want dead is among the innocent bystanders. * The villain just hates guns (or other relevant weapons of destruction) for some reason. I'm sure there are other possibilities; this should give you some ideas to start with. Inhibitions, weaknesses, obsessions - intelligence does not mean that your villain is perfect or perfectly capable of making entirely rational judgments. A lack of morals doesn't mean that he's willing to use any means necessary to achieve his objectives. Villain Flaw #2: He Has Issues! Everyone falls prey to fears and worries. What worries your villain? What frightens him? What past actions haunt him? What past events echo into his present? Here are a few things you can play with: * Phobias, fears, anxieties, terrors, and traumas. If your villain is afraid of something, that can be used against him! * Regrets, disappointments, humiliations, shameful secrets - if your villain's mistakes can be exposed, his allies might leave him. If he can be reminded of his humiliations, he might lose some of his confidence and make a mistake. * Deep-seated traumas, mental illness, a need for medication - such things can be exploited by a clever party. Check out our series of articles on mental illness in roleplaying for more ideas, starting with article #1 (keep clicking on the "Next" link at the bottom of each article to take you through the series): http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/mental.html Villain Flaw #3: The Blind Spot Just because someone is intelligent doesn't make her omniscient, even with respect to her own psyche. Particularly with respect to her own psyche! Pretty much everyone has personality quirks, flaws, weaknesses, or problems to which they are blind. Intelligent does not mean perfect, after all, and people tend to have a lot of trouble recognizing their own problems. A blind spot is a problem or weakness which the character does not recognize, has trouble keeping track of or remembering at important moments, or simply can't get past. Here are a few examples of possible blind spots: * Emily is overly trusting, and even when people obviously lie to her she's likely to believe that the person was simply mistaken rather than lying. * Max is overconfident, and is likely to take on challenges he isn't quite up to. * Jim loves his sister and would do anything to protect her, even though he knows she doesn't approve of his actions. * Mary has a great deal of drive and stamina, and doesn't tend to notice when her allies and compatriots are burning out and wearing down. * Eli is convinced that he's doing things for the right reasons, and thus that he isn't a villain. Because of this he tends to forget that most people would disapprove of what he's doing, and sometimes allows information to slip that could turn people against him. * Norma is so enraged at the actions of the enemies she fights that her judgment slips during tense, emotional battles. She becomes so angry that she's less likely to notice problems or remember to check everything she should. Another thing to remember - intelligence does not mean all-encompassing intelligence. There are plenty of people who are intelligent in one area (tactics, quantum physics, whatever) and downright dumb in another (interpersonal relationships, staying calm under pressure, etc.). Villain Flaw #4: The Traitor or Informant No matter how careful or suave or convincing the villain, it's always possible that he might have at some point hired (or otherwise trusted) the wrong person. Perhaps one of his old employees has a little information and would be willing to sell it. Maybe one of his trusted lieutenants is starting to feel under-appreciated. Or maybe there's an undercover agent in his minions' midst who's been cut off from his own people and is looking for someone to help him. Villain Flaw #5: Luck and Random Chance Every now and then, things just go the PCs' way. Obviously you don't want to overuse this one or it'll seem like you're solving the game for them rather than allowing them to win on their own merits. But if sometimes things just go badly for the PCs, then you might as well allow things to go well now and then too. Maybe they stumble across a pointer to the information they need, an informant comes to them, or they happen to be in the right place at the right time to witness something helpful. Think of it as karma, or plain old opportunity. Villain Flaw #6: Unexpected PC Resources The villains can't necessarily predict, find out about, or expect every resource the PCs could potentially get their hands on. Allow your PCs to put some hard work into finding an extra resource or two that could tip the scales. Send them on a quest that will give them an item that will help them defeat the villain. Allow them to woo allies who could turn the tide of battle. Tip: Leave Evidence Make sure there's a way in game for the PCs to discover the villain's weakness. It doesn't help that the villain always orders his special cigars from one particular bribable store clerk if there's no way for the PCs to discover that fact. Tip: Provide More Than One Piece Of Information Prepare more than one thing for the PCs to learn about the villain. Otherwise it becomes painfully obvious when they discover the blind spot or weakness that they've virtually solved their plot. Give them a handful of things they can research and uncover, some of which are useful, some of which are dead ends or misinformation, some of which might or might not be useful depending on how clever the PCs are. Let them sort through things, find ways to verify information, and decide which things to take advantage of - and how. Tip: Think Small Sometimes One traditional way to deal with villains is to have one specific, glaring weakness that can be exploited. Once in a while, try giving your villain a handful of smaller things instead. There's no silver bullet that'll do the trick. The party has to dig up several things and make use of all or most of them if they want to weaken the villain enough to give themselves a fighting chance. Tip: Disguise Weaknesses as Color Remember those random details that you use to give color to your NPCs? Things like the imported leather jacket, the unusual tattoos, and so forth? Disguise some of your weaknesses as these bits of color. The imported leather jacket can be tracked down to a dealer who has the villain's delivery address. The tattoos are linked to an unusual set of religious beliefs. If you're used to throwing in bits of color that don't have any meaning within the context of the plot then it might take your players a little while to catch on. Thus, the first couple of times you do this, you'll have to go back to that first tip: leave evidence of other kinds as well. When putting villains into plots, it's important to think about both how the PCs might lose and how they might win. How might the villain get away with his dastardly plans? How might the party stop him? Give the villain a few subtle (or not-so-subtle) weaknesses, and you'll be off to a great start. What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! Next Issue: How to create a three-dimensional skeleton (err, skeletal *character*) - and why you'd want to! Coming in just a few weeks (late June). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/mental7.html Mental Illness in Roleplaying 7: Player Character (PC) Disorders Ever wondered which mental illnesses would make the most useful PC disorders? Which ones wouldn't interfere with party play and getting involved in plots? Well here it is - our definitive guide to PC disorders, complete with links to research information! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Reviews/0502-2.html Jeffrey Howard's review of "Red or White" - a Guildhouse Games d20 supplement. Unfortunately, this module has more in common with "The Succubus Bride" than with either "A Green Place to Die" or "The Thief's Tale." http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/gmfwall.html 5 Firewalling Tips for Game Masters - if you get Johnn Four's wonderful "Roleplaying Tips Weekly" ezine, then you've already seen this article about helping your players separate in-character and out-of-character information. Otherwise, check it out! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/mental8.html Mental Illness in Roleplaying 8: Plot Seeds Not sure how to work mental illness into your roleplaying game, but interested in trying? Hopefully these 12 plot seeds will give you a place to start! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TIPS FROM OTHER GAMERS: (copyright remains with the person whose comments they are; posted with permission) From Karl: Hi Heather, keep the tips coming. I have a confession to make. About 99% of all the GM'ing I do is improvised so I rely heavily on being attuned to what my players are attracted to and developing it between sessions. Can't say any of my players really mind.... have been running a game in the same game world with a regular crew of players for about 8 years. Here's a couple of tips for the improvisers amongst us: 1) Balance: An equilibrium must exist between what the players are responsible for and what the rest of the world is doing. If you have long established kingdoms, powerful magic users and established theologies in your world then don't assume its the job of the 1st level (or 20th for that fact) PCs to save the world. It doesn't make sense that the whole universe is waiting for the team to turn up and solve all the mysteries. Balance what the rest of the world is working for and what the PCs are trying to. This will allow you to insert new plots, wrap up old ones (or one's the PCs aren't that thrilled by) with a quick NPC appearance. It's important to acknowledge what the PCs have done but they aren't the only capable sentients in your world. Of course if they ARE the only ones who can solve the 2000 year old riddle (or whatever) then improvise a good reason for it (a prophecy, curse, a particular item). 2) NPCs: The 1st level PCs aren't going to get in to see the Pharaoh without a bloody good reason (which can be improvised any time you like); but they may interact with an imperious NPC administrator who is just as much fun as the pharaoh (this can be bad fun or good fun). As the PCs get more powerful it becomes more likely they'll attract the attention of the real decision makers. The same goes for the major bad-person NPCs. This means new threats, allies and others can be quickly and easily made up and inserted into the game without really affecting the overall plot. (i.e facing the new henchman of a major villain, or the new librarian of the Unseen University... same essential elements continuing through the game but new personalities every so often to keep the players amused- especially if they come with some characterization) 3) The Bloody Good Reason (The absolute savior of the improvising GM.): It may be that your players do want to save the universe every now and then. That's good!!! But make it believable. The Emerging Dark god is not going to let chump adventurers interrupt his (?) plot to manifest on this world. Sure he (?) may be put off by the legions of light rolling by with holy paladins in tow and the Pope of Hope in reserve. This is unless the PCs have the Blessed Star meteroite (endowing them with new powers, protecting them from harm or giving them new insights) that fell near their camp site the other night. Lucky isn't it? The BGR will allow your PCs to do anything they (or the GM) like. Plus it satisfies the comic book reader in us all (you know what I'm talking about). 4) In game notes (This is basically all the writing I do): Make sure you record who the NPCs like and don't like in the party, what hooks did the PCs prick their ears up to and what ones sailed by like a ship in the night. This not only promotes continuity and stops you having egg on your face at a later stage but makes it look to your players like you actually do prepare each session. With balance, continuing or independent plots spiced up with interesting NPCs and the odd bloody good reason you'll be surprised how a little cogitation between sessions will keep the game movin' along without the need to write it all down; especially with a few in game notes to remind you of the flow. Hope this is helpful. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only.) ORIGINS AWARDS VOTING LIVE: Origins Awards voting is now open. You can vote online at http://www.originsawards.com/ . Voting ends Monday, 10 June 2002 at midnight PDT. Please remember that you must be a member of the Academy to vote for the graphic awards (Best Graphic Presentation of a Card Game, Board Game, and Book Product, and Best Illustration) and for the Hall of Fame. NOBILIS WINS Grog d'Or AWARD VOTED BEST ROLEPLAYING GAME FOR 2002 London, United Kingdom -- May 23, 2002 -- Nobilis, the acclaimed new roleplaying game from Hogshead Publishing, was recently selected as the recipient of the Grog d'Or Award from Guide du Roliste Galactique, a French roleplaying game review and promotions Web site (http://www.roliste.com/ ). Nobilis was selected as the Grog D'Or winner from a list of twelve nominees. "We're very pleased," said James Wallis, Director of Hogshead Publishing. "To have been chosen as one of the finalists for the Grog d'Or was flattering enough, but to be selected as the winner and chosen as the Best RPG for 2002 is wonderful." Every month the volunteer staff of Guide du Roliste Galactique elects a game of the month among the games that are "hot" (i.e. new games or game lines having an important supplement shipped). Then, each year, the Greg d'Or is selected from among the twelve recent games of the month. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a court order to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Jun 24 10:18:05 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:45 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Creating a 3D Skeleton Message-ID: <3D171727.8030901@burningvoid.com> June 24, 2002 - Creating a 3-Dimensional Skeleton Volume 3, Issue 9 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives, visit the Twilight Time: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! We didn't post quite as many articles as usual this last month, but hopefully you can forgive us. It's beautiful and sunny, and the intermittent problems we were having with our net connection inspired me to take a bit of a break. I'm still playing around with stuff in the interests of overcoming a bit of writer's burnout, and I think I'm finally getting somewhere. So hopefully you'll be seeing more articles real soon now. In the meantime, we've discovered that the best ice cream shop in the world is right up the street from us. Gazillions of very creative flavors, nice people, and huge serving sizes! Our weekend search for RPG shops was a bust, however, so we're still stuck with buying online. I guess you can't have everything, huh? But then as long as I can look over to the desk on the other side of my office and see one of our cats chewing on the yellow paisley plush Cthulhu doll, life must be good. :) Have a great day, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Creating a Three-Dimensional Skeleton We've talked a lot in previous issues about creating three-dimensional characters with depth and background. There are a number of advantages to this sort of character creation, but there is also one potential drawback. If you're playing in a high-death game, where there's every chance that your character will get killed off after just a few weeks of play, you might not want to put so much effort into your characters. Why put all that time and effort into details that you'll never get to explore? Why get interested in and attached to the character if he's just going to get himself shot in a few days? Does this mean that you have to create boring, one-dimensional characters for high-death games? That you can't create interesting character background for these characters? That you can't have all the benefits you get out of in-depth character creation? Not at all. It just means you have to do things a little differently. Instead of creating a full, flesh-and-blood character, you create a three-dimensional skeleton instead - something you can hang a few scraps of flesh on now, and fill out later if he manages to survive. Bones First you need the very basic stuff, the kind of things you really can't have a character without: * All the statistics appropriate to your game, of course. * A name really does help too. * A brief explanation (at least one line) of any unusual quirks, flaws, merits, advantages, disadvantages, etc. that you might have taken. * The names and/or occupations of any contacts or allies you might have. This is the kind of stuff you can write down in about 15 minutes of quick thinking (except perhaps for the statistics - how long that takes depends on your game's character creation system). Cartilage and Ligaments Next you need a few things to hold those bones together. Consider writing maybe one page (or at least a few paragraphs) of character background. This is the minimum of details that explain your character: * Who is your character? * What does she do for a living and why? * What training has she had? * Who and what is important to her? * If you have a specific character "concept," what is it? No need to go into reams of detail here. Just the basic facts will suffice (and perhaps a few plot hooks). Scraps of Flesh This is the important part, if you're interested in making use of the benefits you get out of a three-dimensional character. While you don't want to fully fill out your character, you do need a few scraps of flesh to hang on the bones and expand on later - assuming your character lives for a while. I've described this method once before when discussing ways to make non-player characters (NPCs) interesting with just a few details. I called it the Bright Spots of Detail method of character-building. The basic idea is this: pick a few bold, bright, interesting, exciting details to give your character. These are quick things that you can describe in a sentence or a short paragraph, but they should be interesting enough that they obviously have *potential* to them. In other words, it's easy for you to see how you might expand on these things later. They have a certain energy or excitement to them. They inspire you and give you ideas. They provide plot hooks that the game master (GM) can choose to make use of. If you need a little help coming up with these details, then consider answering a couple of questions from one or both of the following articles: Bright Spots of Detail and NPC-Building Questions: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/npc-questions.html The Player Character Questionnaire: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/pcquestions.html Knitting Flesh The real trick is this: the longer your character lives, the more you can flesh out these details and expand on your character concept and background. Thus the amount of effort that you put into the character ends up being directly related to the length of time that the character gets to exist within the game. The longer the character lives, the more complete and full a character you have. If the character dies after a couple of sessions, you didn't have too much effort invested in him. Pick out a portion of your character background now and then - probably after every one to three game sessions. Think about it a bit. Come up with some of the details you left out before and expand on it a bit. Think about how it affects your character's life. Flesh out a contact your character has, or a friend. Detail some past event that had a strong effect on your character's life. If you don't feel like expanding on something you've already written, then come up with something new. Go back to those questionnaires and answer another question. Come up with a childhood friend for your character. Detail a hobby your character has. Obviously you don't want to use this to slip things past your GM once the game has started, and it helps to have his permission and/or assistance in this process if there's any chance that what you're doing could affect the game. Show anything you write up to your GM and make sure he's okay with it. This can be a great way to create interesting characters for high-combat games. It doesn't require you to waste lots of effort on a character that won't last, or to invest time and interest in a character you'll never get to explore. But it does allow you to create characters that will have some depth and complexity to them, bringing you all (or at least most) of the benefits of a traditional three-dimensional character. Related articles: Three-Dimensional Character Creation: http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001/000025.html What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! Next Issue: Coming in just a few weeks (mid-July). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/fanthorror.html Mixing Fantasy and Horror in Roleplaying Games A few questions answered on handling monsters, treasure, magic items, and spells in a fantasy/horror cross-genre game. Burning Void Writers' Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/burnout.html Recovering from Writers' Burnout - Steps to Happier Writing If you're feeling a bit burned out on your writing, perhaps we can help you regain your enthusiasm once again! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only.) ShoreCon2002: October 10-13, 2002 At the Cherry Hill Hilton, Route 70, Cherry Hill, NJ One of the largest Gaming conventions on the East Coast RPG's, Miniatures, CCG's, Board Games, and The Cherry Hill Experiment http://www.completestrategygaming.com/ Guests include Author Elaine Cunningham +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a court order to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Jul 15 09:46:40 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:45 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Burnout! Message-ID: <3D32C24A.4090906@burningvoid.com> July 15, 2002 - Burnout! Volume 3, Issue 10 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives, visit the Twilight Time: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! We have an unusual (for us, anyway) new series of articles going up on the web site this month, detailing some interesting magical masks. Here's the link to the first part (you'll find more down below today's article, where we normally list new links): http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/evamask1.html It isn't the sort of thing we've done much of in the past, so I'm curious to know your responses as the series unfolds. Want to see more of this kind of thing? Want me to stick to the old stuff? Let me know! (heather@burningvoid.com) I generally try not to step on the toes of Johnn Four, who runs the inimitable Roleplaying Tips Weekly newsletter. This time, however, I'm going to run an article on a subject that he recently covered. I think there's enough difference between the articles that the perspectives should prove interesting and complementary. Here are links to Roleplaying Tips' articles on the subject: "9 Symptoms of GM Burnout": http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue130.html "8 Tips for Recovering from GM Burnout": http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue131.html If you haven't checked out Johnn's wonderful zine yet, you really should! We also have some great suggestions from readers this week, so I hope you enjoy. Have a great day, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dealing with Burnout for Players & Game Masters Recently someone suggested that I might adapt my "how to deal with writers' burnout" article to game masters (GMs) and players. Well, I've certainly dealt with roleplaying burnout before, so I thought, why not? Since I'm adapting an article that was originally meant for writers, I hope it will result in some unusual ways of looking at the problem. This article is aimed at the GMs and players who burn out - as well as those who game with them! #1. Take a Vacation! This one is obvious - take a short break. Take a week off and do something fun. Then, try taking a vacation not from roleplaying itself, but rather from the *way* you roleplay. This can take several forms. If you're a GM, get someone else to GM for a week or two while you play for a change. If you're tired of playing then convince your group to let you try GMing for a week, or play an NPC so that there isn't as much pressure or need to concentrate. (Pick someone with a personality that suits what you're up to. Perhaps a flamboyant and witty NPC would rekindle your enthusiasm, or a chance to play the villain might be a fun change of pace!) You could even try watching the game for a week rather than playing. If you're just tired of the character you're playing, then see if the GM will allow you to create a new one that you would enjoy more. Try a new genre or style of gaming. Try diceless, or switch from fantasy to science fiction or SF to horror. Pick up something unusual like "Nobilis" or "Children of the Sun." Play something like "Paranoia" if you really need some fun! HOW TO HELP: If someone in your group is feeling burned out, don't push them to keep going. Let them know that you'd love to have them stay in the group, but don't make them feel as though they're under some sort of obligation to continue. If they want to try something new, then help them do that! If your GM wants a break then give GMing a try, even if it makes you nervous. Be open to trying a game the burned out person has always wanted to try. If you're the GM, allow a burned out player to try a new character that appeals to her. #2. Exploration of Self Figure out what elements led to your burnout. Are you stressed at work? Are you unhappy in your relationship? Are your players or GM driving you nuts in some way? Then try to work on that issue. If you're unhappy with your life you're going to have trouble being happy in your hobbies as well, after all. Most importantly, sit down with your gaming group and talk to them. Explain what the problem is and ask them to give you a hand. Have some concrete, constructive suggestions for small ways in which they might help you. If you're just too stressed right now to handle marathon all-night gaming sessions, for example, suggest a switch to a shorter and earlier time frame. If you find that Fridays are your most stressful day at work and therefore you're miserable after work on Fridays, then see if you can switch your game to a different day. HOW TO HELP: Do your best to accommodate these requests, or suggest other things that you believe might help. Most of all, don't add further stress to the burned out person's life! If there's something about the sort of roleplaying you do that bothers the person and you'd like him to continue in your gaming group, then try to figure out a way to make things easier on him. #3. Take Care of Yourself If you're burning out, that's a good sign that you need to take better care of yourself, your energy level, and your enthusiasm. If you just don't feel you have the energy to GM, then sit down and write out what all you do during your week that uses up your energy. Prioritize the list. Write out *why* each activity matters to you. Reorder your life a bit so that you're putting your energy into the things you really want to do. If roleplaying is less important to you than other things, then maybe that's a sign that you need to find a way to do it that uses up less time and energy. If it's more important, then maybe that's a sign that you should stop doing some other activity that matters to you less. If some members of the group are very critical and vocal with their criticism, you might feel as though it isn't worth putting time into GMing or playing. Talk to your group about the concept of constructive criticism. You may have to explain it a bit - many people incorrectly believe constructive criticism to be a process of ignoring problems or being dishonest. It isn't. Honesty is key to the concept of constructive feedback, which focuses on solutions and positive change rather than accusations and blaming. Encourage the members of your gaming group to clarify the problems they have, give specific examples of what bothers them, and suggest solutions. Remember that it's okay to screw up. Every GM and player makes mistakes, particularly in the heat of RPG combat and quick decision-making. Don't expect yourself to be perfect. Remember also to relax. Roleplaying games are supposed to be fun! Try not to stress out so much over preparing the next run or doing everything exactly right during game. HOW TO HELP: Try to be less vicious with your criticism. Don't berate people for making mistakes - after all, if you're being honest with yourself then you should be admitting that you make mistakes too. Nicely explain why something bothers you and what you see the solution as being. Try not to pressure the GM or other players with respect to the amount of preparation they should be doing or the number of times that they do something you consider to be wrong. Relax, and let people have fun with their gaming experience! #4. Exploration of Roleplaying Instead of just reading one game, read a variety of gaming material. If you can't afford to buy it then poke around on the web. Read new games, particularly ones that are wildly different from the ones you already play. (Even if you don't play them, they might give you interesting ideas that re-ignite your enthusiasm for roleplaying in general.) Let your excitement be your guide. When something strikes you as really cool or neat, go with that! Check it out. Find more information on it. If possible, convince your GM or players to let you introduce it into the game (or start a new game based on it). Play around. Experiment with plots, characters, rule systems, and so on. Perhaps you could convince your group to let you start up an experimental gaming run (instead of *or* in addition to your normal one). You could use it to try new games, play with unusual plots and material, and just generally fool around with things that seem like fun. Find people who like to talk about roleplaying who have enthusiasm and a similar desire to play around with things. Have email conversations about neat roleplaying ideas. Chat with other players in your game about the neat things that have happened or that you think might happen in-game. HOW TO HELP: Give someone a chance to play with something new. Be open to trying unusual things. You can always alternate gaming runs if you don't want to give up your previous game. #5. Roleplay for Yourself Remember that roleplaying tends to be a very personal thing for many people. Play with characters that interest you. Explore themes in your games that interest you. While you should always take the rest of the group into account, also make sure that you aren't ignoring your own desires and needs. Enjoy yourself - that's the whole point of a game! HOW TO HELP: Remember yourself that roleplaying is a game. Don't put undue pressure on the GM or other players - let them have fun! Allow the GM or other players to play around a bit with things that interest them, even if you aren't entirely thrilled with what they like. (Besides, if you let them play with the things that interest them, then maybe they'll be willing to do the same thing for you when what *you* want doesn't interest the others.) Figuring It All Out If you're having trouble figuring out exactly why it is you're burned out, then take a page from writing traditions. Pick up a notebook and pen and start writing about your burnout. Use "free writing" - i.e., write quickly. Don't stop to think. In fact, don't think of it as writing - think of it as thinking on paper. Don't even worry about grammar or ending your sentences with periods. Set a timer for 5, 10, or 20 minutes and write through the whole time non-stop. If you start to slow down and aren't sure what to say, just start writing about how you feel about being burned out, or about the fact that you aren't sure what to say. If you seem to be digressing onto a different subject, then go with that - it might be more related than you think. Most people find that this eventually leads to some surprising revelations as they write down things they just weren't expecting to say. So there you have it. Much of this boils down to the idea that you need to take care of yourself. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Play around and try new things. Pay attention to the rest of your life as well as your gaming life - the two aren't entirely divided and separate. Hopefully these ideas will help you if you're experiencing problems with roleplaying burnout. The original article that this one is based on is "Recovering from Writers' Burnout": http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/burnout.html What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! The next issue is coming in just a few weeks (early August). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/evamask1.html The Masks of Lady Eva I: Masks of Magic The first in a new series of articles - a set of magical masks with an interesting background and some unusual properties! This first article details the system for using the masks. http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/evamask2.html The Masks of Lady Eva II: A Mask of Peace The background story of these masks - who made them, how, and why. Don't worry, there's more to come in this series, including details of the masks themselves, how you can adapt them to your own game, and more! Burning Void Writers' Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/critlearn.html Criticism and Learning to Write - If you're working your way toward a writing career, here are a few helpful thoughts on criticism and your education. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TIPS FROM OTHER GAMERS: (copyright remains with the person whose comments they are; posted with permission) From Chris Cooper: First, I love this e-zine. You cover topics that could easily be dismissed as "too basic", but are really at the heart of roleplaying. One thing I found missing in your last issue was concrete examples of what you were talking about. For instance, when you list questions to answer about a character, you could follow up by providing a brief sketch as an example. Thus, in a D&D 3E setting: --this is Mrith, a half-orc barbarian. --she is a hunter and scout for her tribe. --she is adept at surviving in the outdoors, stalking prey / enemies, finding her way in the wild, fighting with bow, shortsword and great spear. --she values freedom, her clan and tribe, the thrill of the hunt and a well-told story. --Mrith's tribe are nomadic horse herders / riders, raiding and sometimes trading with the more 'civilized' peoples. Recently, a drought on her home plains has caused terrible famine. After helping her people prepare for the winter as best they can, she leaves voluntarily to ease the strain on their meager supplies. Intending to return with food, wealth (which in her culture means lots of fine horses), trophies and good stories, she sets out with a bold stride... In my experience, a lot of new gamers are stumped when asked to create character background out of nothing. Giving them an example such as above is helpful in jump-starting their imaginations. Such can be made even more generic, which seems to be your preference for the 'zine. Please keep up the great work. From Karl: Hi heather, Good to hear spring and summer are treating you well. We're just gearing up for winter here down under so its out with the thick blankets and all that. Here's a quick method we've used to flesh out PC's: 1) Get the player to write up a short (Up to 1 page) on how the character sees himself. 2) Get the player to write a slightly longer (up to 2 pages) on how others see that character. Get them to include how the character's parents, friends, enemies, former companions see them as this will give plenty of potential for deeper development. The whole exercise can be done very quickly and it gives a great handle on who that characters enemies are going to be, who their friends are and what they have in the way of status, training and access to resources. The rest of the character (stats, advantages, feats..... whatever) can be filled in relatively quickly and voila a quick PC with some good initial plot hooks and a player with a fair grip on the dimensions of that character. From James O'Rance: Hullo Heather ~ Thanks for the Twilight Time zine! I like to take them home and read at leisure, and I've got a folder full of them now that I sometimes skim before a game, just to refresh some of the ideas there. Your article about creating three-dimensional characters in a "high-death game" was interesting. I've played in a long-running Call of Cthulhu game, where life can be somewhat cheap and over quickly, and yet CoC is a game that positively demands three-dimensional characters. There's no horror to the meaninglessness of life if your character is pretty meaningless to begin with. I don't go through the step-by-step process that you describe; it's a bit concrete-sequential, and I'm a very random-abstract person. What works for me is to start with an engaging concept, such as Jesuit missionary, trigger-happy flapper or former sanitarium patient (all concepts that I've used in the past). There needs to be something different about the character concept, something new that hasn't been done in the campaign before. That gets me interested and motivated. Next I start thinking about the kind of personality that I'd like to play. The former sanitarium patient had an uncertain, lonely personality, because I realised that most of my characters had been very self-assured types. I think about how the character might react to a few different situations, and some situations that I'd like to play through. The character's personality is very important to me, so usually I want it to have some appealing features and some that are less appealing. A contrast is usually very interesting to play - such as the flapper who was a tough young thing but brittle, so that when she finally snapped everything fell apart. Once I have a good idea of how I want to play the character, I sort of extrapolate backwards to determine the essentials, like family, occupation, training, and so on. Basically the stuff that you refer to as Bones and Cartilage and Ligaments. It's a lot easier for me to figure these things out when I have the concept and the personality worked out. For example, why is the flapper so hard-edged? Her mother died when she was very young and she was raised to be tough by her uncompromising father - but she doesn't have the emotional strength that a supportive childhoood would have given her. Why is the former sanitarium patient so uncertain around others? Because he's lonely and desperately wants friends, but has accidentally hurt people in the past. Answering these "why" questions fills in most of the important details. This doesn't take me very long; it's easier with practice, and I can do a lot of it while actually playing the game. And as you pointed out, the longer any character survives, the more time there is to fill in the details. Working backwards from the roleplaying personality to the background means that I can get right into the game, and background details are sometimes only determined when they become necessary. While lists and step-by-step procedures are great for some people, they just draw blanks from me. I thought you might be interested in seeing a different way to solve the same problem. [Editor's note: Oddly, I hadn't really meant the article as a step-by-step process - I too tend to do things in whatever order springs to mind rather than following steps. I think since many people seem to like step-by-step articles that I unconsciously tend to phrase things that way now and then. At any rate, James has some great ideas here!] +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only.) ISSARIES, INC. ANNOUNCES GLORANTHACON VIII The world of Glorantha beckons and the Glorantha Tribe gathers once more! Issaries, Inc. is pleased to announce that Gloranthacon VIII will be held in Toronto, Canada in March, 2003. Jeff Kyer is coordinating the convention, and we expect that it will be the Gloranthan event of the year. Jeff needs brave volunteers to run events and help out at the Convention. He is trying to gather as many of the old guard and the new to bring to North America the kind of Gloranthan fun that has been far too long absent from these shores - those Europeans shouldn't have all the fun! Visit http://www.gloranthacon.com/ for more information, including guests of honor, hotel information, call for events, and more! WEST END GAMES HOUSE SYSTEMS LICENSE AVAILABLE http://www.westendgames.com/html/press16.html Humanoids is pleased to announce the establishment of a "West End Games House Systems" license. Created by popular demand, this license offers fans the opportunity to design and sell their own roleplaying game worlds, adventures, and more using any or all of the West End Games rules sets, including D6 Classic, D6 Legend, MasterBook, Torg, and Shatterzone. Check out the full press release (URL above) for more details. SJ GAMES LAUNCHES ONLINE d20 MAGAZINE - First Four Issues Free! http://www.d20weekly.com/ On July 3, just in time for Origins, the publisher of the award-winning Pyramid will launch another online zine . . . d20 Weekly. d20 Weekly is the only professional online magazine for the d20 System. Edited by Dale Donovan (former editor of Dragon Magazine), with the help of Pyramid editor Steven Marsh and a staff of industry pros, this is the hobby's source for d20 news and reviews, advance material from lots of different publishers, "how-to" articles, and lots of characters, gadgets, magic items, and situations. Our industry news is updated immediately, whenever a d20-related story breaks, and new reviews and articles are posted every Wednesday. The site is at www.d20weekly.com. A trial subscription, covering the first four issues, is FREE. After the July 24 issue, a subscription is $20 per year for 52 weekly issues - about 6 cents a day. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a court order to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Aug 5 10:30:24 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:45 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] The Psychology of Freelancing in the RPG Industry Message-ID: <3D4E7CD3.7030402@burningvoid.com> August 5, 2002 - The Psychology of Freelancing in the Roleplaying Industry Volume 3, Issue 11 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives, visit Twilight Time: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also send an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to: Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! More and more material has appeared on the web regarding freelancing in general, the RPG industry, writing, and so on. But I haven't yet seen anything to help you figure out whether you'd actually *enjoy* freelancing for the RPG industry. This is a shame, since RPG freelancing requires an unusual sort of writer, and the wrong sort of writer will probably find the experience miserable. If you're wondering what my perspective on things is - I loved it for 5 or 6 years, spent a year or two liking it, and then disliked it over the last year. Not because of the specific contracts I worked on, but because the needs of the industry are not the needs of your average writer or person. Even someone who is reasonably well-suited to the industry can eventually find that they aren't well-suited *enough* - or that they've changed a bit over time. So here you'll find a guide to figuring out whether you'd enjoy freelancing for the roleplaying industry. Hopefully it will help you decide whether you're perfect for the industry, a good enough fit that you can enjoy it for a while, or such a poor fit that you should flee before it's too late! Have a great day, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Psychology of Freelancing for the RPG Industry Many roleplayers entertain thoughts of getting into the roleplaying industry - some of them as freelance writers. Many of these people, however, aren't suited for the peculiarities of the industry. So they have a miserable time, the companies that hired them have a miserable time, and everyone goes home mad. I've been researching writing and creativity lately. Add on top of that a slight background in psychology (I was working on getting a degree in it before we moved, and I'm certifiably nuts, which should count for something), roughly eight years of freelancing for roleplaying companies, some experience with writers' and roleplayers' burnout, and a tendency to just listen to and observe the writers around me. Somewhere in there I started coming to conclusions about what, exactly, made a writer suited to working in the RPG industry. What Is Freelancing? A freelancer takes odd contracts and jobs, doing what's needed where it's needed, whether for different game lines or different companies. Companies pay you by the job, not with a regular paycheck, and they hire you to write individual manuscripts (or pieces of manuscripts). There are several different ways that you might go about freelancing: #1. You talk to a company that has books already chosen, planned out, and scheduled. You give them writing samples and whatever accompanying material they want. If they want you to write for them, they give you a contract and an outline. You write whatever that outline tells you to write - not something of your own devising. #2. Thanks to the advent of the d20 phenomenon, there are now more companies willing to take a look at your own, pre-written manuscripts (or pieces of manuscripts) rather than hiring you to write up their ideas. While not everything in this article will apply to this kind of freelancing, you might find such sections as Redlines & Rewrites, Copyright & Contracts, and Critics & Reviews relevant to you if you want to do this sort of work. (For companies that take proposals instead of pre-written manuscripts, add in Deadlines, Word Counts & Ability Assessment, and Outlines.) If you develop a heck of a reputation as a freelancer and game designer, you might get to the point where you can walk up to various companies, give them proposals for projects you want to write, and have them reliably agree to publish your projects. (Most freelancers don't ever get to this point.) This largely follows the pattern of #2, so you'll want to look at the same sections. Or you could decide to start up your own company and write your own material that way. This might seem like a quick way to avoid most of these issues, but the truth is that if you want to be successful, you'll still have to deal with things like deadlines and rewrites. The Psychology of Outlines When you write to a company's outline, someone else controls what you write. Outlines vary from vague, loose instructions to minutely detailed monstrosities that control nearly every level of what you write. According to Susan Perry, PhD, many writers lose motivation when they believe that someone else controls their writing (through outlines, deadlines, or what have you). And many writers hate working with outlines in the first place; this removes the mystery for them, and mystery acts as a powerful motivator for many writers. Others just find that they don't consciously control where their writing takes them, so they simply can't follow an outline. If you have serious trouble following outlines, or hate the idea that someone else will be in control of your writing, then avoid the first type of freelancing. You might also dislike proposal-based freelancing, since most companies will want to see an outline before you write the manuscript. At least you get to write the outline yourself in this case, however. [Note to companies: the implication here is that by using looser, less minutely-detailed outlines, you might attract some writers who would otherwise dislike this sort of work, because you'd give them more control over the writing. In particular, you might use this to hold onto long-time freelancers who are getting restless and want to start working on their own material. I don't know how well this theory holds up in practice, but it's something to think about.] The Psychology of Co-Authors For the first type of freelancing, a company will often assign you a co-author (or five) to work on a book with. Even people who agree to give up a certain measure of control to the person who pays them often have trouble giving up any control to a peer. Following your outline becomes particularly important here, because if you don't, you can screw over your co-author in various ways. A good partnership with a co-author can work wonders. If you each accept feedback from each other and work closely together, it can result in a much better manuscript. If you don't, it can result in a manuscript with problems. Can you play well with others? Can you take criticism from a peer? If not, the first type of freelancing might cause problems for you. The Psychology of Copyright & Contracts Most RPG industry authors write on a work-for-hire basis (there are good legal reasons for this in most cases - I won't get into them here). This means that the company owns your work in its entirety, and all rights to it (including derivative rights). This goes up against that control issue mentioned earlier - many writers hate the idea of signing over their work. (Many writing industries also see a lot of misuse of the work-for-hire contract, and thus it has acquired a bad reputation.) If you can't handle signing over the rights to your work, then you might reconsider your desire to work in the RPG industry. The Psychology of Deadlines Some people find that externally-imposed deadlines motivate them and challenge them. Others see them as yet another restriction placed on their writing. Make sure you know your tendencies before you decide to freelance. Think back to high school or college. Did you procrastinate until the last minute and do hurried, shoddy work? Did you turn things in late all the time? Then reconsider any freelance career that involves deadlines. Do you find that you can only get yourself to write when a deadline looms? Then you might enjoy freelancing after all. Word Counts & Ability Assessment Agreeing to contracts you can't handle is a quick way to overwhelm yourself, burn yourself out, and annoy companies. Know what sort of word count you can write per day. Spend two weeks writing stories or adventures (you'll need a writing sample, after all); use your word processor's word count function and a spreadsheet to keep track of how many words a day you write. Think back to your *lowest* per-day output when deciding whether you have the time for a contract. If your output is so unreliable that you can't predict your writing rate at all, then you might not find freelancing to be your ideal job. Know which sorts of material you write well and which you don't (adventures? Rules systems?). If you can only do one thing well, you might not want to become the first sort of freelancer - companies could get tired of offering you contracts only to have you say no all the time. Or worse, you take the contract, you hate what you're doing, and they hate the results. (There's nothing to say you can't try to widen the range of things you can do, of course - an openness to trying new things is a valuable trait in any writer.) Working Hours Many prolific writers maintain their energy level and enthusiasm by writing for half a day at a time, rather than all day every day. Figure out what works best for you and take that into account when assessing your ability to handle a project. Keep in mind that those few people who make a living freelancing usually do it by putting in very long hours. Do you enjoy writing all day every day? Then you might like freelancing. Research You'll almost always have some sort of research to do for your contracts. For one contract I read 8 background books from the game line. For another, several long fiction series. For another, I watched quite a few movies. If this sounds like too much work to you, then you probably weren't meant to be a freelancer, at least of the first variety. Sometimes for type 2 you can come up with projects that don't require as much in the way of research. By the way - remember to factor research time into your assessment of whether or not you can handle a contract. The Psychology of Redlines & Rewrites After you turn in your first draft, the line developer or line editor will read the manuscript, mark up everything he wants you to change, and send it back to you. If you can't stand the idea of changing your words to suit someone else's sensibility, don't become a freelancer. If you can't stand any kind of criticism, then find a different line of work. You will find this process gets easier the more self-confidence you gain. This doesn't mean that you need to be immune to criticism or perfectly self-confident to work in the industry - almost every writer finds criticism difficult to deal with. But you do need to be able to handle your negative reaction in a positive way. Our suggestions for making the rewrite process easier on yourself can be found in the following article: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/redlines.html [For companies: if you don't want to drive away writers, then don't go overboard when writing comments on manuscripts. There's a difference between being straightforward and being nasty. You might find our article on "Redlines that Get Better Rewrites" useful: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/editing.html ] The Psychology of Creativity & Criticism Mari Messer's experience, as well as that of many others, has shown that criticism, when given too harshly and too early in the writing process, can squash creativity. Writers need to feel free to screw up in the very early drafts or they become afraid to take risks. Make sure you can accept early criticism, or at least make sure that you have enough time on your contracts for you to do a rewrite or two before you turn in your first draft. That should give you the buffer time you need to be able to handle the criticism you get. If you can't handle criticism until you've had quite a while to work on a manuscript, then the deadlines the first sort of freelancer will face might prove too difficult for you. Handling Critics & Reviews After a company publishes your work, someone will inevitably say rude things about it in a review. Someone will say "it sucked!" on a newsgroup, mailing list, or forum. The wide variety of roleplaying products in existence proves that different people want very different things out of their RPGs. So no matter how good your work, someone somewhere will dislike it. If you can't handle this with equanimity, think twice about freelancing as a career. It's normal for writers to feel hurt by such things, but that's different from not being able to handle it. You can feel hurt or angry and yet move on anyway. Many writers simply ignore such reviews and criticisms so that they don't get discouraged by them. Others cultivate the ability to act in a polite (professional) manner, and move on. The Psychology of Motivation Susan Perry's work shows that most writers have a much easier time writing if internal factors motivate them - the pleasure they get from writing, giving life to their ideas, challenging themselves, and so on. External motivators, such as other people's deadlines and outlines, feedback from editors, and so on, *can* end up demotivating writers if they outweigh the internal motivators. This means that if you can't find enough joy and motivation from the simple act of writing, or if deadlines and outlines sap your enthusiasm, freelancing could potentially burn you out. While you certainly don't need all of the following personality traits and abilities in order to become a freelancer, it helps to have at least a few. Some items (such as a desire to try new things) tend to be common among writers. Others (such as a lack of need to write about your own ideas) are not common among writers. * Professionalism * A sense of responsibility * Being a "workaholic" who enjoys writing long hours * Being the type of person who finds deadlines, word counts, and outlines challenging rather than restricting * An ability to write whenever you want, rather than needing to wait for inspiration to strike out of the blue * A good sense of your abilities and limitations * A desire to try new things * An enjoyment of research * Self-confidence, resilience, or at least equanimity * A lack of need to write about your own ideas (most freelancers I know find that they don't have extra time to write their own material) * An ability to enjoy writing for its own sake, no matter what outside concerns (like deadlines and outlines) may exist Keep in mind that there are no hard-and-fast rules where personality is concerned, so these are rough guidelines, not regulations by any stretch of the imagination. Also keep in mind that with effort, people can often *learn* such attitudes and skills, if they really want to. So even if you don't see yourself in the above list, that doesn't mean you'll never be able to work in the industry. It just means it would take a little more work for you. The Psychology of Burnout There are many things that can lead to burnout for a writer. Since burnout consists of a lack of motivation, enthusiasm, and desire to engage in an activity that once felt good, all of the information in this article about motivation applies. Here you'll find a number of things that can contribute to burnout, depending on your personality: * That feeling of lack of control. * Harsh criticism (particularly too early in the process, or criticism directed at *you* rather than your writing). * Since freelancing almost never seems to leave much time for writing your own things, the fact that you don't get to write what you want. * Having to meet a deadline. * Knowing you don't own any of your published writing. * Having to do research you hate. * Realizing you've taken on more work than you can handle * Feeling that your work no longer challenges you, or provides you with anything new and interesting to do. * Having to work with a co-author (particularly one you can't get along with). * Having to work long hours. Odds are that no one of these things would lead to burnout, but gradually add in one after another over a period of years, and before you know it you're sick of writing RPG material. Keep in mind that things do change. What works for you this year might feel tiresome and annoying five years from now, and what sounds annoying now might seem easy five years from now. I've noticed a very high burnout rate among RPG freelancers. So many of them end up feeling grumpy and trapped, or simply move on to other things. Many people start out being ideal freelancers, but after 10 years they're more than ready to move on, to write their own material for a change. Given how much RPG freelancing violates all of the research-supported ideas of what motivates writers, this doesn't surprise me at all. It seems to me that the writers who stay in the industry the longest are the ones who find ways to gain greater autonomy and control over their writing - by starting their own companies, or gaining a great enough reputation that companies will often publish whatever the author wants to write. Is It For You? If you can't decide after reading this whether you can handle it, then try a small contract and see how it goes. Or give the second type of freelancing a try, and leave the first alone until you see how you like it. Just keep in mind that ten years from now you might want to give a different sort of writing (or other work) a try if you're burned out on freelancing; leave that option open to yourself so you don't feel trapped. There's nothing that says you have to *remain* a freelancer if you decide to go that route for now. Don't do something you aren't suited for and will hate. This leads to many of the "horror stories" you'll hear about freelancers who disappear in the middle of a job, fail to turn anything in, turn in something that bears no resemblance to what was contracted for, refuse to rewrite a manuscript, and so on. After all, if you hate what you're doing, then you probably won't want to stick around and finish it. Many people simply shouldn't freelance for the roleplaying industry; the average writer isn't suited to it. I don't think of the ideal freelancer as a lesser or greater sort of writer than others - just different, and oddly suited to an unusual sort of job. Judging by all the research on what makes writers tick, in fact, I think it's pretty safe to say that the ideal RPG industry freelancer is an aberration, a very peculiar sort of writer. So don't push yourself to write in a way that you won't like. Don't become another horror story - do the kind of writing that's right for you, whether that's freelancing - or not. Bibliography * Susan K. Perry, PhD, "Writing in Flow: Keys to Enhanced Creativity," Writers Digest Books (Ohio), 1999. * Mari Messer, "Pencil Dancing: new ways to free your creative spirit," Walking Stick Press (Ohio), 2001. * Todd Walton and Mindy Toomay, "The Writer's Path: A Guidebook for Your Creative Journey," Ten Speed Press (Toronto), 2000. * Ray Bradbury, "Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity," Joshua Odell Editions (Santa Barbara), 1994. * Eric Maisel, PhD, "Living the Writer's Life: A Complete Self-Help Guide," Watson-Guptill Publications (New York), 1999. What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! The next issue is coming in just a few weeks (late August). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/evamask3.html The Masks of Lady Eva III: A Perfect Trio If you've been keeping up with our new article series, this article continues our series about a set of magical masks, their creator, their back-story, and the mysteries that surround them. Article 3 is all about three special, un-flawed masks: the Hawk of BarraMoor, Shadow's Path, and Dragon's Glimmer. http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/evamask4.html The Masks of Lady Eva IV: Flawed and Dangerous Next we move into the flawed and dangerous masks that Lady Eva made for the warlord's generals. Here are the first five of those masks. There's still more to come, including an entire article on using the masks in your campaign! If you haven't read the first two articles yet, you can go to the roleplaying resources page and find the whole list: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html#material +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only.) NEWS FROM GREY GHOST PRESS! Gamemastering Secrets Second Edition is at the printers! The printers have promised 100 copies to be rush-shipped to GenCon early in the week of August 8th, with the bulk to be shipped to the Wizards Attic warehouse in Kentucky as soon as they're ready. The books will be in game stores by the end of August. You can learn more information about this product -- including cover image, table of contents, contributor biographies, and more -- at the companion website, http://www.gmsecrets.com/ GAMING DISPATCH ANNOUNCED http://www.gamingdispatch.com/ MindShift Design LLC is pleased to announce the launch of Gaming Dispatch, a new free PDF-based adventure gaming publication. The first issue of Gaming Dispatch will be available for download on Monday August 19th, 2002. Each issue will be 48-64 pages in length, and will be persistently available from the Gaming Dispatch website and other locations. It will support all adventure gaming industry products. New issues will be published bi-weekly and be available every 2nd Monday after the initial launch issue. We are currently looking for submissions and will continue to do so on an ongoing basis. Details on what we're looking for, as well as submission guidelines can be found at http://www.gamingdispatch.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.submissions . We are paying for submissions at the rate of $0.03 US per word, and all ownership remains with the author. We purchase initial publication/re-publication rights and persistent consecutive re-publication rights. We will also be purchasing commissioned artwork under US work-for-hire rules, as well as licensing existing artwork to supplement our content. If interested in supplying artwork, please send portfolio links by email. Do not send samples unless requested. See the website linked to above for more information. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a court order to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Aug 26 10:32:02 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:46 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Challenging Your Players Message-ID: <3D6A2A89.7070302@burningvoid.com> August 26, 2002 - Challenging Your Players Volume 3, Issue 12 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives, visit the Twilight Time: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! It's a long article today, so I'll keep the intro short. We're starting another interesting article series on the web site - like the Masks of Lady Eva, it's a series of game material articles. Unlike the Masks, it has somewhat broader use. If people continue to like these series, we'll keep producing them! (As usual, you'll find links to new web articles down below this zine article.) I'm afraid there are only two articles on the web site this time, due to illness, but at least I got the zine article out on time. I also finally got a new link checker, so I've started to update links around the web site. I'm not done yet, but I'm making progress! Have a great afternoon, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Challenging Your Players Copyright 2002 by Heather Grove and Jeffrey Howard In a recent issue we talked about ways to make sure that it's always possible for your player characters (PCs) to defeat the villains in your game. This time we tackle the opposite problem - finding ways to challenge clever players and powerful PCs. Under some categories I'll include a "Fatal Flaw." If you find that villains who follow these suggestions become *too* difficult to defeat, make use of the flaw to tone things down a little. Smart Opponents There's no reason your villains can't use their heads. They can make plans, use tactics, think strategically, watch their backs, and so on. Find one of those "if I were an Evil Overlord" lists floating around the internet and take a few notes. Look carefully through your plans for the villain for "stupid villain tricks" - i.e., dumb things that villains tend to do simply because it's traditional for villains to think in certain ways. For example, instead of creating a villain who's a brooding loner, make a friendly, charismatic villain who has plenty of friends and allies willing to help him out. Instead of creating a villain who's content to lure the good guys into his lair where they can kill him, have him be proactive and send flunkies out to kill the party. Scrutinize all of your villain's plans with this single question in mind: "is he doing something dumb for no good reason?" FATAL FLAW: A villain doesn't have to be stupid in order to have weaknesses. Everyone has a blind spot somewhere; everyone makes mistakes. Just make it something unusual, that requires a little research and ingenuity to take advantage of. Adaptable Opponents A smart opponent adapts. This means that if your players come up with an unbalancing advantage, the enemy can come up with a way to counter or reduce that advantage. I remember once hearing someone talk about how his party came up with "the unbeatable tactic" - shooting out opponents' eyes so that they got horrible penalties to their actions. An adaptable villain could counter this easily by giving his people durable goggles, helmets with narrow eye-slits, or spells that protect against missile weapons. Or he could say, "hey, that's a great idea!" and turn it around on the party. FATAL FLAW: Your PCs can use this same tactic against the villain. Allow them to research *his* weapons, subordinates, and strategies. Opponents That Use Spies & Listen to Rumors Too many villains operate in a vacuum, without knowledge of party tactics and foibles. Allow your villain to use spies and listen to rumors. Have him take advantage of party weaknesses, and make plans to counter oft-used party strategies. For instance, if a villain finds out about a PC's drug addiction, he can use it to his advantage (cut off the PC's supply, blackmail the PC, lace his drugs with something). If the party isn't careful to keep its powerful weapons and strategies secret, then the villain can devise his own strategies to counter them, research their weaknesses, or find things against which those weapons or strategies will be useless. A villain who pays attention to the party's actions can try to stay one step ahead of them. FATAL FLAW: Not all rumors are 100% accurate. The villain might have gotten a fact wrong somewhere. CAUTION: Giving the villain too much information about the PCs can make it feel as though the game master (GM) is the true villain - because the villain can start to feel as though he has access to the GM's head. Be sure to figure out exactly what is reasonable for the villain to uncover, and what isn't. Monsters That Use Tactics Don't just look up statistics for your monsters and then conduct combat willy-nilly. Have monsters use tactics and strategy when they fight. This can make them much harder to deal with. A couple of things to remember: #1. Take intelligence into account when figuring out monster tactics. A really dumb monster isn't going to use sophisticated battle tactics. A really smart monster probably won't just bash someone over the head if there's a smarter tactic to try first. #2. Take the monster's motivations, living conditions, and abilities into account when planning tactics. Monsters might use some pretty unusual tactics just because they make sense given what the monster wants from its victims, the sort of terrain the monster grew up in, or the unusual abilities the monster possesses. FATAL FLAW: Item number two is the villain's fatal flaw as well as his salvation. Unexpected tactics due to a monster's needs or experiences might surprise the PCs, making things harder for them. Or those unexpected tactics might also have unexpected holes in them. Adding Layers to Plots If your PCs solve your plots too quickly, then try adding extra layers to them. The obvious revenge plot might just be a cover-up for a much more devious machination. I try not to refer you to television shows too often, just in case you can't see them where you are, but "Law & Order" is really the best example of this I've ever seen. So many times it seems like it's obvious who the killer is, and then one last piece of information falls into place and you realize it's someone else entirely. A couple of hints: #1. Have multiple suspects for crimes, multiple people who had motive or opportunity, multiple things that could be going on. #2. Include clues that are "split." In other words, one piece of information doesn't make sense, or at least doesn't point to the real culprit or scheme, until it's put together with another (separate) piece of information. That way you can reveal things in bits and pieces. #3. Use clues that are time-dependent. A witness will wait three days to come forward because he doesn't read the newspaper and it'll take him a while to hear about the investigation. Forensic lab tests take time to conduct. This way, you can deliberately keep certain bits of information from coming together until later in the plot. FATAL FLAW and CAUTION: Ideally, you want to have at least two different ways that any particular vital clue can make it into game. That way, if the PCs miss something, they aren't completely dead in the water (which can be really frustrating). Always have a back-up plan in case the PCs totally miss the "real" plot. For example, if they haven't stumbled on any of the clues you've laid and after a while they become frustrated, plan to have new information come forward (just make sure there's a good reason why it didn't come forward before). Misdirection & Red Herrings Use misdirection (clues that lead to incorrect conclusions) and red herrings (things that seem important but aren't) to complicate things, slow PCs down, distract them, and so on. Something that seems to be a vital clue in a case could be completely irrelevant - blood on a floor could belong to someone other than the murder victim. Someone who seems to be an obvious suspect in an investigation really has nothing to do with it - the man who brought the dying girl to the hospital and ran away from the scene really was just trying to help her. Split clues (from the last section) are a great way to make use of misdirection. The first half of the clue seems to point in one direction, but when put together with another detail it points in another direction entirely. For instance, your PCs find out that a man was seen running away from the scene of the crime, and that makes him a suspect. Later, when searching for him, they find out that he's a reporter. They go to his apartment and find a message on his answering machine from that fatal night telling him that something news-worthy is going to happen in a certain warehouse, and he should bring his camera. Suddenly he isn't a suspect but rather a missing witness, and the voice on the answering machine is the new suspect. FATAL FLAW and CAUTION: Always make sure that there's a way for the PCs to figure out that the misdirection or red herring isn't their perpetrator. If the blood isn't the murder victim's, then they need to have a way to find that out. If the man didn't commit the crime, then there have to be clues to that effect. Listen to Your Players When They Talk In-Game My favorite GM taught me this one: listen to your players. As they speculate about the fiendish plot you've wrapped them up in this time, they're likely to come up with things that are more twisted and paranoid than anything you could have thought of! Use that. Every now and then, grab one of those ideas and run with it. Make sure to pay close attention to the discussion. If you're lucky, your players will sit there discussing which speculations are possible, which aren't, how they might determine whether or not a certain thing is going on, and so on. This helps you to figure out which paranoid creation of the players is viable, and what details you have to seed into the game to make it work. If you have a proactive set of players, they'll sit there telling you exactly what you need to know to make the plot work! Try to change a few details here and there so you don't make things too easy on them. FATAL FLAW: This one sort of has its own built-in fatal flaw. On the one hand, you can stay one step ahead of your players for a little while by listening to them. On the other hand, by picking something they've discussed, you can make sure you're picking something they have at least some idea how to investigate. CAUTION #1: On the one hand, you can use this technique to draw out a stunning and well-paced discovery plot. On the other hand, some roleplayers feel very uncomfortable with the idea that their GM would change things on-the-go, even to make for a better game. Do what's right for your gaming group. CAUTION #2: This tactic will work well with most roleplayers. However, there are a few people in every crowd who will use things to their advantage. If you have the kind of players who will use anything and everything to their advantage, then be very careful using this tactic. If they realize you're doing it, they might try to lead you in certain directions by talking about certain things. Or they might avoid talking about directions they don't want you to go in. In other words, use this trick now and then - not reliably. That should reduce the chance that your players will pick up on it or be able to use it against you. Do the Unexpected Once in a while, have your bad guys do something absolutely, totally unexpected! There are a couple of ways to go about this. #1. If your bad guy is a fully-developed character, with hobbies, family, associates, foibles, and a childhood, then it should be easy to come up with things he cares about that would surprise the PCs. #2. Think like a real person instead of a character in a game. Even bad guys go on vacations or search out weird presents for their mothers. #3. Come up with something totally unexpected and figure out what your bad guy would do in that situation. If you read the newspaper and see that there's been a car accident, imagine that your bad guy gets into a car accident. If you're reading a novel and someone in that novel has a stroke, imagine that the bad guy's daughter has a stroke. Draw a tarot card from a shuffled deck; if you draw a card that discusses inheritance, then imagine the bad guy just inherited something special from a relative. What are the consequences? You can also apply this to other non-player characters (NPCs) - not just the bad guy. You can even apply it to the PCs! Some Actions Have Consequences In beating up the bad guys and stopping their evil plans, the good guys often have to do a lot of shady and not-quite-legal (or not-quite-nice) things. Take advantage of that. Every now and then, make sure their actions have consequences. Some of the possibilities: * Lawsuits * Jail time, fines, banishment, etc. (depending on the crime and the justice system) * Someone hurt by one of their plans becomes a later villain (vendettas) * They lose friends and resources due to their actions But it can get weirder than that. What if a PC wants information from a druggie, and the informant won't talk unless the PC takes drugs with him? This could have all sorts of consequences: bad trips, addiction, flashbacks. The PC's good name or career could be ruined if someone found out; he could lose allies, or someone could blackmail him. In other words, allow the PCs' own actions to complicate the game for them. CAUTION: Don't overdo this. If you do, you can create a real problem for yourself. If every time the PCs do something they ruin their lives in some way, then eventually they won't want to get involved in plots for fear of things going wrong, and you no longer have a game. Add Plot Complications Not every obstacle in the PCs' path has to come from the bad guys, as the last section shows. Put problems in their way that have nothing to do with the villain (or which are only tangentially related to the villain). Maybe they need to acquire an item that isn't for sale and belongs to someone whose good will they require. Create plot complications that require the use of diplomacy, stealth, strategy, sacrifice, ingenuity, and so on. Here are some of the sorts of plot complications you might play with: * Moral quandaries * Personnel matters -Angry allies -Harried henchmen -Uncooperative but necessary contacts and allies * Limited resources -The party needs access to facilities that are in use by someone else -Something the party needs is in short supply * Tradeoffs and sacrifices that must be made -Too much to do in too little time; the PCs have to decide what to let slip * Matters of diplomacy, negotiation, convincing, and bribery -Getting a star witness to talk -Convincing someone to help who doesn't want to -Getting two rivals to work together on a project * Distasteful choices that need to be made -Save the innocent bystander or stop the bad guy's escape? * Distasteful actions that must be taken -Apologizing to someone the PCs hate in order to get his help CAUTION: Any particular type of plot complication, repeated too often, can become annoying, silly, or frustrating for the players. Variation is key. A Few General Words of Warning #1. Always leave more clues to what's going on than are strictly necessary. Otherwise, all it takes is one clue that doesn't get uncovered to leave the PCs frustrated. If you know your players are very good at solving mysteries, then make some of those clues time-dependent - they won't come out until the players have already had time to look into things for a while. This gives the party a chance to solve the mystery the "hard" way, then makes it progressively easier as more time passes and they fail to solve it. #2. There's a difference between compensating for unbalancing advantages and taking away the party's toys. You can usually find a way to compensate for a PC's advantage without making a player feel as though his cool toy was taken away from him. This is usually a better tactic, as it's less likely to create hard feelings between you and your players. #3. If you have the kind of gaming group where it's okay for you to adapt your plans as you go along to make for a better game, then try to stay *slightly* ahead of your players - not too far ahead. If you get too far ahead of them, it becomes harder to adapt things on the fly. #4. Unless you have players who don't mind the occasional unwinnable plot, always think about how the players might solve the plot ahead of time. Don't tell yourself "I'll figure it out during game." Have at least a vague notion of how the group can solve the plot, and preferably think about a couple of specifics as well. Don't mistake this for a suggestion that you create one specific plot solution, however - you're better off coming up with a couple of ideas and thinking of them as *possible* plot solutions. This allows for more creativity on the part of the players. As you can see, there are plenty of ways in which you might challenge your players that involve something more than just throwing extra monsters at them. Or even bigger monsters. Start small; add in one challenge or complication at a time. If people get frustrated, then back off a little bit. The key is to challenge your players enough that they feel excited and victorious when they win, as though they've achieved something amazing, without making them feel stupid or as though they're stuck in a plot they can't solve. Do vary the plot difficulty now and then, however. Having an easier plot once in a while can be relaxing, and varying the difficulty also helps you to vary ingredients such as pace and tension - other things that also benefit from change. Helpful Articles: I know that the villain topic is right up the alley of Roleplaying Tips Weekly's Johnn Four, so after I finished this article I went and pulled the URLs for a bunch of his old villain articles. Here you go: * From One Tyrant to Another: Villainous Tips Inspired by a Real World Dictator: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue125.html * Six Tips for Making Monsters Meaner: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue113.html * 14 Great Villain Tips: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue30.html * Six Devious Villain Tactics: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue27.html * Five Tips to Creating a Truly Evil Villain: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue14.html What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! The next issue is coming in just a few weeks (mid September). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html Good news: I finally have a link-checker again. Bad news: there are so many links for me to fix that it's going to take a little time! I plan to do a few at a time until I work my way through them. http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/evamask5.html The Masks of Lady Eva V: Flawed and Dangerous (part two) Another five flawed masks for you to play with, along with their histories, backgrounds, and personalities. That's right, personalities. If you haven't yet checked out the rest of this series, you can find it on the roleplaying resources page! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/barakah1.html Our new series details the unusual men and women who have one human parent, and one jinn parent. What are they like? What unusual powers do they have? How do they get by in the world? We hope you continue to enjoy the items, people and creatures we create for your use. Burning Void Writers' Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only.) GOOD NEWS FROM EDEN STUDIOS http://www.edenstudios.net/ http://www.allflesh.com/ The 15th annual Datlow & Windling Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthology hit stores recently, and Eden Studio's The Book of All Flesh is nicely represented in the Honorable Mentions for 2001 list at the book's tail end. 11 of the 25 stories in BoAF appear on the HM list, just short of half the book. Congratulations to the authors and James Lowder (editor of BoAF) for a job well done. In July, the BoAF won the Origins Award for Best Game-Related Short Work for Prometheus Unwound written by Matt Forbeck. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a court order to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Sep 16 10:33:42 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:46 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Providing Ammunition for Your Game Master Message-ID: <3D85DAA9.90600@burningvoid.com> September 16, 2002 - Providing Ammunition for Your Game Master Volume 3, Issue 13 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives, visit the Twilight Time: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! A game of HackMaster last night led to the whole party imprisoned in a temple to the Death God, and one character saying to the mage regarding their undead captor: "Could you set him on fire? It would make me feel better." Said mage was a pyromaniac, so much wackiness ensued. Somehow it actually led to the party's escape, too (at least for now). Moral of the story? Ahh, who needs a moral when you're playing HackMaster! :) But back to the zine at hand... Most of our articles are aimed at game masters, but this month's issue is one for players. We're always looking for more ways to make your gaming experience fun and entertaining, and that's the province of players as much as it is of game masters. Hopefully you'll enjoy our suggestions, and maybe even find a few of them useful for your own games. While you're at it, check out this month's review of Grey Ghost Games' "Gamemastering Secrets"; it's been a while since I reviewed an RPG book, but I'd been looking forward to this one: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Reviews/0902-1.html It's a very interesting book, and well worth checking out! Have a great afternoon, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Providing Ammunition for Your Game Master Copyright 2002 Heather Grove and Jeffrey Howard When people write up backgrounds for their characters, they often don't stop to think about what their game master (GM) would particularly like to know. There are certain things that can, in the space of just a paragraph or two, give your GM plot hooks, ways to pass information to your character, and the means to turn what would otherwise be an ordinary plot into something stunning, emotional, and personally compelling. Here, then, is a list of things you could include in your character write-up. Some of them could be considered ammunition for the GM to use against your character - but then, how better to have a tense and exciting game? There's no need to use all of these; pick one or two that appeal to you and enjoy! #1. Daily Schedule By providing something of a schedule for your character detailing where she goes, what she does, and when, your GM will have a better idea how he can get information to you and have other things happen. If he knows your character goes to the gym, then someone trying to spy on her can go through her locker. If he knows she goes to Church every Sunday, he can have a significant event happen to her on her way to or from services. If he knows she reads the newspaper every day, then he can more easily slip news and clues in via that route. Besides, working up a quick schedule for your character can, oddly, help you to get a better handle on her personality. Does she always sleep through her alarm and go to work late? Is she a night-owl? Does she go out with friends, or stay at home reading? You don't always have to keep to that schedule during game; just remember to tell the GM when you deviate from it significantly. You also don't have to give exact times for everything. "Reads the newspaper every morning" should be good enough. Schedule details should fulfill two criteria: o They're minor enough that it's plausible that they might not put in an appearance in the game before the moment at which the GM wants or needs to use them. o They're familiar enough to the character that they don't come across as a "deus ex machina" or as overly suspicious. Creating a schedule for your character acts much like the tricks we recommend in our old article, "If you don't know what to do, go for a walk," except that you don't have to specify what you do each time. You also give the GM the chance to plan things out in advance: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/goforawalk.html #1b. Media Bias A wonderful related note to hand your GM is a quick break-down of *which* news sources your character gets her information from. Some people watch the nightly news. Some people read the daily paper. Others read the tabloids. A character might have a favorite conspiracy theorist magazine they like, a subscription to "New Scientist," or even subscriptions to trade journals. Different information sources have different editorial biases or spins, providing a golden opportunity to slip information into the game - true, suspect, and blatantly false, depending on the bias of the writer. #1c. Familiar Faces Familiar faces aren't people you know well enough to call them contacts, but if the GM wants a new face to exploit for a purpose, they're easy to pull into the role. This could be a cashier at the supermarket, the proprietor of your character's favorite small bakery, or her cat's veterinarian. If the cashier recommended a particular kind of produce your character would give it a look; if the bakery man needed a hand hauling a cart-load of stuff out to his car for delivery, she'd pitch in. If she saw the veterinarian at the store, she'd probably stop to say hi. The difference between them and total strangers is that if they give you a tip, gentle warning, or reminder, you know them just well enough to not immediately suspect them of having appeared out of nowhere to set you up. Other examples might be a doorman at an apartment where the characters live, a friendly fellow guild-member in a guild, or one of the personal trainers at a health club. Familiar faces are listed under daily schedule instead of friends and acquaintances because your character has probably met most of these people simply by going through her daily routine. NOTE TO GMs: If you don't want info from one of these familiar faces to seem too suspicious, it can also help to have them put in occasional one-line appearances, even if it's jut the waitress warning the characters not to have the soup today. That way, when they do have a clue to slip in, it won't seem as though there's a neon "PLOT HOOK HERE!" sign flashing over their heads. #2. Goals & Drives Knowing your character's goals and drives is useful to you as well as your GM. When you write out these things before the game, it helps you to see whether your character has enough ambition, curiosity, responsibility, or specific interests to draw her into the game's events. If you try to write out her goals and drives and find out that she really doesn't have any, then you know you'll probably have trouble getting involved in plots! Time to work something your character cares about into her background. Writing these things out also provides easy plot hooks for your GM. If he knows your character has a goal of eliminating all the members of a certain conspiracy, then all he has to do to get you into a plot is to hint that the conspiracy might be involved. (It also serves as a nice reminder to him that he might want to work that conspiracy into his game in order to play with your personal plots.) He can glance at your list of drives and goals and know pretty much immediately whether your character will fit in with the sort of campaign he imagines, giving him a chance to have you change things, or to alter his campaign's direction a bit. Comparing drives and goals with other player characters can help you to determine whether the group will be compatible. #3. Dreams & Fears If you can't think of any dreams or fears whatsoever for your character, that's a possible warning sign. Everyone has things they want; everyone is afraid of something. Without dreams why would your character embark upon all of these difficult adventures? Without fears, how can she possibly be human? (Or a reasonably sentient and emotional humanoid, depending on your game.) If nothing occurs to you when you think about these things, then something vital may be missing from your character. Keep in mind that dreams and fears don't have to be conscious. Your character might not even realize that she has a deep-seated fear of imprisonment until someone arrests her and puts her in jail. By knowing your character's dreams the GM knows how to pull her into plots, as well as how to give your character moments and rewards that will appeal specifically to her. It makes the game more personal. By knowing your character's fears, the GM can also play on them to draw your character into a more personal and interesting situation. He can find ways to make plots difficult without always having to resort to bigger and better monsters, which can get a little monotonous after a while. #4. Favorites & Least Favorites Take a moment to list a few of your character's favorite and least favorite things. Try something simple along the lines of: o Favorites: Sunshine, hot days, excitement, new discoveries o Least favorites: Having to stand in line, rain, boredom, wasps This helps the GM to tweak the mood and atmosphere to have certain emotional effects on your character. #5. Acquaintances & Friends Acquaintances, contacts, and friends serve several purposes. First, if your character has no friends, then this might be a sign that you've created a loner. Such a character can end up tearing apart a party in the long run. Making sure that your character is capable of having and keeping friends is one way to keep yourself from accidentally creating a loner. For more on this issue, see "The Problem with Loners:" http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001/000024.html Acquaintances and friends are also automatic plot hooks for your GM to make use of. They're resources for your character, a means for the GM to interject information and clues into the game, and a way to make sure that your character is emotionally attached to and involved in the game world. #6. Family Write up a brief paragraph or two explaining which of your character's family members are still alive, where they live, and how much contact your character has with them. The GM can use family members in any number of ways to keep things interesting. Remembering that your character has family is also a quick way to make sure that you think of your character like a "real person" - creating a character with no family can be fairly unrealistic. #7. Hobbies, Interests & Collections I ripped the "interests and collections" part of this one bleeding from the "HackMaster" non-player character (NPC) generation charts. They have two handy charts, one for NPC interests (politics, religion, good wines, etc.) and one for NPC collecting interests (coins, gemstones, medals, etc.). Listing a couple of interests for your character gives your GM an idea of what an NPC might walk up and talk to your character about in order to catch her interest. It also gives him a way to know which news stories and other tidbits might appeal to her. Hobbies are similar, and may provide handy plot points for the GM. If he knows your character enjoys oil painting, then he can provide an NPC who loves good paintings who might be willing to help such an artist. If your character collects something, then your GM has a ready-made way to put items into a plot that your character will want. Instead of putting some random thing you don't care about at the center of the dungeon he wants you to explore, he can place something your character will truly desire. This makes things easier for him, and has the side effect of making things more personal and interesting to you. Level of Detail You can write out the category(s) you choose in just a few words, or devote a page to them. It can be as simple as: o Goals: Recover missing memories; find family o Drives: Intense curiosity; friendliness and wish to help others; love of learning new things Or you can write out a paragraph explaining each item. Remember that you can write up one or two of these things at the beginning of the game, and now and then write up another during the course of the game. This keeps you from having to write up too much at once. It keeps the GM from having to read too much at once. It also gives the character a chance to "gel" - I don't know about you, but I sometimes find that a character's personality ends up being a little different than I predicted once the game starts. And finally, it reminds you to take a step back now and then and think about where your character is and how she's doing. Keep in mind that which category(s) you pick might be at least partially determined by the game or genre you play. For a horror game, fears & dreams is a big one; friends or favorites might help as well. For a modern-day game, daily schedule should be appropriate. For a hack-and-slash game, something you can write up in a quick sentence or two might be best: favorites, hobbies and interests, or family. Changing Details Remember that your character's drives, goals, interests, etc. will tend to change over time in response to things that happen during the game. She might recover her missing memories and discover that aliens killed her family. Now her list could become: o Goals: Prove the existence of aliens; destroy all aliens o Drives: Revenge; hatred; bigotry Remember to update her motivations now and then during the game. Hopefully these tidbits will help you to have a more personal and exciting game. Hopefully they'll also help your GM to plan game events that will appeal to you and keep things interesting. Many of these items are aimed at giving the GM credible ways to slip items, events, plot hooks, and information into the characters' laps without having them fall out of the blue. Some of them will help to give the game world that "lived-in" feel - it'll seem more like a living world that moves and breathes even when the characters aren't looking. Don't expect that just because you've written these things up they'll make frequent appearances in the game; the idea is to provide opportunities for the GM and allow him to make use of them as he sees fit - not to force him to shape the game to your every desire. Hopefully the result will be fun for the entire gaming group! What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! The next issue is coming in just a few weeks (early to mid October). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/barakah2.html Barakah Mechanics and Rules Presenting a handful of thoughts on mechanics and rules (original and adaptational) for those human/jinn crossbreeds we introduced last time. http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Reviews/0902-1.html My review of the new "Gamemastering Secrets" book from Grey Ghost Games! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/pcquestions.html We've added a small section of questions to the end of our ever-popular PC Questionnaire: Moods and Reactions. Burning Void Writers' Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only. We reserve the right to edit press releases for length.) BITE MARK 02 NOW AVAILABLE Bite Mark 02, quarterly ezine dedicated to the worlds of Ironclaw and Jadeclaw, is available for your perusal. This issue contains a plethora of information about wu-xia in the Jadeclaw world. Bite Mark intends to fill in the gap between the release of Ironclaw and Jadeclaw supplements. Its current format follows the traditional Sanguine style of general backgrounds as well as player and host information. Please bear in mind, however, that the rules discussed within the article are for future publication and remain optional. Sanguine Productions Ltd. does not endorse the production of the stated material. Bite Mark 02 can be found at http://www.romancingcathay.com/newsite/pdfs/BiteMark0102.pdf Jadeclaw Website, http://www.jadeclaw.com Ironclaw Website, http://www.ironclaw.com Submission Guidelines, http://www.romancingcathay.com GET READY FOR GLORANTHACON WITH EXCLUSIVE THEMED GOODIES Issaries, Inc. Press Release Oakland, CA September 8, 2002 The great gathering of the Gloranthan Tribe nears. Gloranthacon VIII, to be held in Toronto, Canada on the 7th-9th March, 2003, will revive an old tradition of fun and intensive conventions concentrating on the fantasy world of Glorantha and the Hero Wars and HeroQuest games systems, successors to the popular RuneQuest system. To raise funds and to start getting people into the spirit of the event, Gloranthacon organizer Jeff Kyer and Issaries, Inc. are proud to announce that a range of products featuring convention art and logos is now available through the CafePress online store. The store, at http://www.cafeshops.com/gloranthacon, includes t-shirts, fleeces, mugs and all kinds of other items, from a clock to a mousemat. Full details of the convention are at http://www.gloranthacon.com, while discussion of the convention as well as help and advice for events can be found at gloranthacon@yahoogroups.com. Email us directly at gloranthacon@glorantha.com. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a court order to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Oct 7 09:26:05 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:46 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] "Don't Split the Party!"? Message-ID: <3DA17CC1.9090009@burningvoid.com> October 7, 2002 - "Don't Split the Party!"? Volume 3, Issue 14 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! This month we take on one of the long-held tenets of roleplaying - "don't split the party," and come up with a typical ambiguous answer: "maybe." There are plenty of new articles on the web site this month, including the last two planned articles in the "Masks of Lady Eva" series. Next we plan to take on more of the Barakah articles, as well as a couple of odd topics here and there. We also have a review of a d20 ebook. As usual, check the new link listing below this article to find links to these articles and more. Meanwhile, having a house seems to be infecting us - I'm taking up gardening in small doses. It remains to be seen whether my "brown thumb" causes the flowers and the new baby lilac bushes to die. I guess we'll find out in the Spring! Happy gaming... Have a great afternoon, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Don't Split the Party!"? I vaguely remember an old joke in which one listed out the top ten rules of roleplaying, and nearly every other one was "Don't split the party!" - in other words, keep all of the player characters (PCs) together and in the same place at the same time. Recently I saw this guideline repeated in a gaming article for game masters (GMs) written by an industry author, and that got me thinking. Today we're going to look at why this became such an important guideline, what value it still has - and what value it *doesn't* have. Why So Important? #1. Strategy: When most of what your party is doing is dungeon-crawling, keeping the party together is simple common sense. In a maze of twisty passages, all alike, it's terribly easy for characters to get lost and never find their way back to each other. And when they're separated for any length of time, it's much easier for monsters to kill everyone. This goes double in a game where you have character classes, and thus, not having a single character (the thief, who needs to find and disarm traps, or the cleric, who's needed to heal people) in the right place at the right time can get you killed. #2. For Ease of Play: Splitting the party can be a headache for the GM - he has to keep track of multiple separate groups, somehow figure out the relative timing of the groups' actions, and just generally keep track of two or three times as many things at once. #3. To Avoid Boredom: Splitting the party means that at any given time, only one group of PCs can be in the spotlight and acting. Other players are just sitting around and watching. If the players are good at entertaining each other, and if the GM is good about switching the spotlight around frequently, this isn't necessarily a tragedy. But often this can end up with bored players who are frustrated because they're just watching the game, not playing in it. #4. Party Coherence: A party that splits up a lot is sometimes a sign of a party that lacks coherence, and that can cause a lot of other problems. If the party isn't coherent enough, it can be much more difficult to get everyone involved in plots and keep everyone interested and excited in the game. #5. Planned Events: If the GM likes to plan events related to the plot, then having the PCs split up could throw a real kink into his plans, particularly if he isn't very good at improvising. When You Shouldn't Split the Party "Don't split the party" makes a good general, loose philosophy. It's good to remember that the party needs to act together in large part in order to keep the game interesting. If the party is doing a lot of "dungeon-crawling" and the like, then yes, it often does make good strategy to keep the party together. This is also the case in very dangerous game worlds where lone characters are more likely to get targeted for robberies, muggings, and the like. It's also the case in most games based on narrowly-defined character classes, where characters can get killed just because they don't have the right kind of character with them. If the GM likes to run very tightly-plotted games with scripted story-lines and lots of planned events, and has trouble improvising when PCs leave the beaten path, then splitting the party unexpectedly is likely to throw heavy kinks into his plans. If his players enjoy the game he runs, then they might not want to split up too much. It'll only frustrate the GM and lead to confusion and boredom when he isn't sure how to react to what the players are doing. If there are players in the game who have a tendency to "hog the spotlight," and who tend to do boring things when they go off alone rather than things that would entertain the rest of the group, then trying not to split the party can definitely help to keep everyone entertained. When You Can Split the Party Despite all of the reasons why the "don't split the party" directive came into being, some very good reasons for *not* following it have also come into being. Sometimes it just doesn't make any sense for the group to stay together. A more sound strategy might involve sending a couple members of the party around behind the enemy. Or leaving two PCs to watch the tied-up spies while the others go to fetch help. A non-player character (NPC) might not want to talk to a horde of eight people at once. A PC might not want to have a very personal conversation with an NPC in front of seven onlookers. The moment games started to include character background and personal plot, it was inevitable that characters might want to do some things privately or on their own. Fighting against this too hard is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole - it's trying to make these games into something they aren't. Games set in the modern world are also harder to reconcile with the "don't split the party" rule. After all, you don't spend every waking moment of every single day with the same group of people, do you? (Okay, there are some situations where it works, but not many.) There's nothing wrong with splitting up the party occasionally, as long as it doesn't get excessive. The players should make sure their characters have a good reason for going off on their own. They should try to make sure they're paying attention to everyone else around the gaming table and thinking about their fellow players' fun as well as their own. Let's go through the "why so important" items one at a time here: #1. Strategy: Well, strategy is rather subjective. Sometimes sticking together is a good strategy, and sometimes splitting up is better for whatever reason. Players should do what they think is best, but err on the side of keeping the party together when possible. #2. For Ease of Play: It's best not to split the party up for long periods of time, or split the party up into more than two or, at most, three groups. The more the party splits up, and the longer the characters spend apart, the harder life gets for the GM. Short periods of time apart, however, really shouldn't be a problem. #3. To Avoid Boredom: Again, time apart should remain relatively short. Individuals shouldn't hog the GM's time and attention - they should give him a chance to switch around between groups frequently enough to keep everyone interested. (Along those lines, they should try not to go off and do things while other characters are asleep or out of the action if they can avoid it. That keeps players sidelined for longer.) Players should try to be entertaining and engaging about what they're doing, if possible; keep boring actions to a minimum. Characters should have a good reason for going off on their own, rather than doing it just because they feel like it. They should also get back with the rest of the party as soon as they can. Players don't have to go to extremes here, but they should keep each other in mind. #4. Party Coherence: Players should design and play their characters in ways that encourage party play. Characters should have reasons to work with the other members of the party; they should not be loners. Characters should have reason to be interested in other party members' activities and plots. However, that doesn't mean they can't have personal plots and personal interests - they just have to be willing to share these things with the rest of the party after a certain point. #5. Planned Events: Players can't necessarily anticipate a GM's planned game events. As long as players keep their party together when feasible and reasonable, then the rest should be up to the GM. Learning to improvise while GMing isn't nearly as difficult as it sounds; here are a couple of articles to help: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/improvfreewill.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/itricksfreewill.html Besides, improvisation is often the key to a truly satisfying game! Number of Players Splitting the party tends to be easier on very small gaming groups. If your game only has two players, it's easy for the GM to keep track of both and switch back and forth between them often. If your game has twelve, then it's harder to keep track of groups that splinter off. And since six sidelined players are much more likely to start chatting and getting distracted than one player is, you have a much higher risk of failing to entertain the other players. The more players you have in one room, the more you need to try to keep them together when possible. A Few Guidelines for Players Do try to keep the party together when there's no good reason to do otherwise - it makes things easier on the GM, and decreases the amount of time that players spend sidelined and bored. Do try to pay attention to the players around you. Do they look bored? Then try to draw them into the action more. Make sure you're taking the fun of everyone else into account, as well as your own fun. "Slant" your character's actions. (For more information, see our old article: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/slant-actions.html ) If you're playing a game that calls for personal plots and characters with depth, then do allow yourself (and others) to have personal moments away from the other characters. As long as it isn't carried to extreme, or used to keep other players out of the action, then there isn't anything wrong with this. I've seen games carried to both extremes. I've seen games where the party was practically a gestalt, with few individual feelings or interests, because that would (horrors!) lead to situations where the party might split up. By and large, those games weren't incredibly engaging and didn't particularly pull people in. (Although if you really enjoy party-oriented hack-and-slash gaming, there's nothing wrong with that. If everyone's into it, it can be a lot of fun!) I've also seen players wait until other players' characters were asleep, then go off and spend two hours of the game night doing boring things that they had no good reason to keep to themselves, resulting in everyone else feeling frustrated and resentful. As in most things, the key is moderation. Allow PCs to have their personal moments, but remember that a game is about a group of players and their characters, not about individuals. Take advantage of all that neat character background, but remember that you're playing a game that requires certain conventions to be followed at least minimally in order for all of the players to have fun. Roleplaying is a social activity, and you need to take that into account. If you want to play solo, then find a GM who's willing to do that - don't shanghai someone else's game and try to keep it to yourself. If you're a GM who's afraid that any split in the party could ruin your carefully-planned plot, then learn more about improvisation and the creation of adaptable material - and, like your players, remember that everyone's there to have fun. Create some dramatic personal moments for players' individual characters and they're likely to feel more personally involved with the game. In other words, split the party - with care. What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! The next issue is coming in just a few weeks - late October or early November. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/hmcollect.html Additional NPC Collection tables for "HackMaster" - also usable for other fantasy genre games such as "D&D." http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Reviews/0902-2.html Jeffrey Howard's review of "City Guide: Coffer of Coins," a d20 sourcebook of merchants from Dark Quest Games. http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/evamask6.html The Masks of Lady Eva VI: Adapting the Masks to Your Campaign Plenty of tips & hints to help you adapt our series on magical masks to your own game - no matter what genre you're playing in! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/evamask7.html The Masks of Lady Eva VII: Plot Seeds A handful of plot seeds to help you find new and interesting ways to make use of the masks from the previous six articles. This is the last planned article in this series! Burning Void Writers' Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only. We reserve the right to edit press releases for length, and we give no guarantees as to the legitimacy of any offers mentioned here.) ProFantasy Software Releases CC2Pro! http://www.profantasy.com/products/cc2.asp ProFantasy has released a new version of Campaign Cartographer called Campaign Cartographer 2 Pro. It has been improved with one mantra in mind: "More powerful; easier to use." Check out the link for more information! DRAGONMEET GETS DORKIER http://www.dragonmeet.com Dragonmeet, London's friendliest games event, is proud to announce it will be hosting Dorkstock Europe, the one-day festival of games, activities, talks and signings focused around 'Dork Tower', the award-winning comic-book of nerd-culture delights by John Kovalic. There will be tournaments for Munchkin, Chez Geek, Apples to Apples and other games that John has worked on, auctions of rare Dorky material, and much more. Dragonmeet will also be running the amazing Game in a Day: a team of professionals and amateurs will attempt to design and publish a complete role-playing game, from scratch, in twelve hours - and you can join in. Will it be any good? Is it even possible? Are we completely mad to try it? Whatever happens, it'll be a unique crash-course in the perils of game creation. Dragonmeet takes place on Saturday 30th November, at Kensington Town Hall in London. Doors open at 10am. More information and online ticket-booking are available at http://www.dragonmeet.com PEP Writers' Contest II Write a 500-word (or less) story that begins with this sentence: She sat on her suitcase waiting for a taxi. Prizes: First Prize = Up to $10,000.00, Second Prize = Up to $5,000.00, Third Prize = Up to $2,500.00 (See website, noted below, for explanation.) Submissions: All entries must be prose (no poetry please), written and printed (either laser or inkjet) in English, double-spaced, on white paper using Times New Roman or Courier New 12 point typeface. Entries must be postmarked before November 15, 2002. Contest entry is strictly limited to the first 1,000 submissions. Entry Fee: $25.00 (USD) Mail to: PEP Contest c/o Donna M Chavez 605 W Jackson Avenue Naperville, IL 60540-5207 Questions: mailto:donna@thewritecoach.com or call 1-800-235-6156 Visit http://www.thewritecoach.com/contest.htm for complete contest rules and entry Form. 2003 Bernheim Fellowship Programs Application Deadline: December 31, 2002 Bernheim is pleased to announce that we are accepting applications for the annual Bernheim fellowships: Artist In Residence (for visual artists working in any medium) Writer In Residence (for writers working in any genre) The goal in all of Bernheim's activities is to help realize its mission of strengthening the bond between people and nature by finding new ways to connect nature with people's everyday lives. An excellent way to do this is through the arts. To that end, Bernheim awards two fellowships annually, one to a writer and one to a visual artist. Each fellow has the unique opportunity to live and work at Bernheim for three months to create original work that is informed by nature. Bernheim provides housing, studio space, and a generous stipend to each artist. Details about guidelines and application procedures are available on our website: http://www.bernheim.org/arts.htm +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a legal requirement to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Oct 28 10:30:49 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:46 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Reader Views on Splitting the Party Message-ID: <3DBD4A08.7090603@burningvoid.com> October 28, 2002 - Reader Views on Splitting the Party Volume 3, Issue 15 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! It's getting cold where we are - we had our first brief snow of the season last week, and our second this weekend. And we're coming up on Halloween, when a gazillion kids will come walking up our driveway looking for candy. (No, really - I swear last year more kids rang our doorbell than there are people in this entire county!) We have two new articles up on the web site for you, both of which are a bit interesting and different for us, and a review of AEG's "Farscape Roleplaying Game." Links to all three can be found after this week's article. Speaking of which, this article is a little bit different than usual. I hope you enjoy - and don't get sick on candy! Oh, yes, if for some reason you haven't read last week's article yet, you might want to read that one first: http://two.pairlist.net/pipermail/twilighttime/2002/000011.html Have a great day, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ More on "Splitting the Party" [Copyright of reader comments remains with their authors] I didn't express myself all that well last time; some of the people who sent me responses thought I was coming down on the side of not splitting the party in a roleplaying game. That article sprang up because I *don't* like the whole "don't split the party" truism. Oops! My bad! It's just that I can see how it sprang into being, and why it's important to some people, even if I don't always agree with it. The suggestions for ways to make splitting the party work (or when to do it or not) were meant to give people who have problems with splitting the party something to work with. Unfortunately, I can see how people came away with the wrong impression, looking back at the last issue. In a belated attempt to get what I said to make some sort of sense, I'll try a slightly different approach: When I say that in general it's a good idea not to split the party, I mean it in a conceptual way. I don't mean that literally every member of the party should stick together in the same space at the same time, doing the same things. As long as everyone in your gaming group is enjoying themselves, the things they're doing are connected in some way, and they aren't bored or resentful of other players, then in spirit you *haven't* split the party. Only worry about doing more than that if you're running into problems. Mostly what matters is that each of the players (and the GM!) keeps in mind the fun and enjoyment of the other players. Sometimes that means that they cut short their solo expedition and bring the party back together. Sometimes it means that they keep having their lone conversation with an NPC, because everyone's enjoying it. As long as they're remembering to pay attention to how the other players are getting along, that's great. As it turns out, though, my lack of clarity worked out remarkably well. How's that? Because lots of people sent me their wonderful suggestions for why and how it's okay to split the party - and now, I'm going to share them with you! From James O'Rance: Hullo Heather ~ A very pertinent Twilight Time this month! I would really love to see a follow-up article directed at players - when to split the group, what to do when the GM has to divide her attention between two groups of players, how to bring split groups back together more easily, that kind of thing. Personally, I find that a bigger problem than split groups is solo players. Sometimes these players make "loner" characters, sometimes they are just so self-focused that they forget that other players would like to be involved in situations. To encourage solo players to take at least one other PC with them on activities, I began to abstract encounters that didn't involve the majority of players. I was quite honest about this - "I can't afford to spend to much time on this, because six other people are waiting." The more people that the solo player takes along, the less abstracted the encounter would be. This had some measure of success - the solo player began to always bring an off-sider or co-conspirator along. A split group can be quite fine if each mini-group has something to do. In my last campaign there was a session where half of the PCs spent a lot of time looking for a mysterious tower, while the other half drew up an extensive mind-map of character names and events on the whiteboard (we played in a university room). I kept an ear open for them while handling the first group, but they kept themselves busy. A similar situation involved players deciphering a coded letter for about an hour while I introduced a new player. This only works with particular people, though. Players who don't enjoy puzzles would have been bored witless by the coded letter. It's not something that I can plan for, just take advantage of when the situation arises. Thoughts From The Editor: There are some great ideas in here for keeping sub-groups occupied. I've only rarely seen a GM pull this off, so it wasn't a solution I thought of. Thanks for the ideas, James! For more on players who tend to create loner characters, we have an article on "The Problem with Loners." It's primarily before-the-game stuff rather than during-game stuff, but hopefully it'll help some people: http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001/000024.html And one on party coherency: http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2000q4/000007.html And one for players on creating useful PCs: http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001q1/000013.html Certainly the loner problem is a good topic to bring up with your players before character creation. As that first article mentions, it's possible to have characters who have the loner mystique and personality but who can also serve as team players. As for players who go off on their own not because they mean to shanghai the game, but rather because they don't stop to think about it - perhaps we can help them remember. James' suggestion to abstract activities that only involve one character and don't entertain the rest is a great one. Also try things like experience point awards for keeping the group entertained (specifically mention the idea of not stranding other players with nothing to do if you have no good reason to do so); that can serve as a great memory aid. Depending on the player, you could sit down with him and ask him what the two of you can do to help him remember - changes to the character, gentle reminders, etc. As always, these are just suggestions - do whatever works for your group. As a side note, James and I got into an interesting discussion about *why* players tend to create loner characters. If you look at popular media, most of the heroic or semi-heroic characters out there are loners. It's very rare to find a fantasy, mystery, horror, or science-fiction TV show, book, or movie that has a true ensemble cast of equals. Two of the TV shows that I think work best along these lines are the Sci-Fi Channel's "Farscape" and the new Joss Whedon show, "Firefly." Both of them depict ensemble casts made up of very disparate, unique individuals. You might try finding a good movie or TV show with a real ensemble cast (yet unique, heroic or semi-heroic characters) and showing it to your players before character creation begins. From MoonHunter: Hello Breaking up the party into smaller sub-parties, in non tactical/ dungeon situations, is perfectly okay. Sure your beginning GM will have issues with it, but it is really no harder than running several characters in a city environment. There are two tips to making this work: The first is the most important and one of the most revered, ancient gamemaster secrets... assign players that are in the off camera to NPCs and Monsters "on Camera". (Well, to be honest the secret is not that old, but I'm an ancient gamemaster soooo) I have always found myself in the unenviable position of running large groups, that are normally broken down into smaller ones (Current record is 32 people in a Stalking the Night Fantastic Game). This technique has always served me in good stead no matter the group's size. I have used it in groups as small as 3. By assigning PCs NPCs and Monsters, it allows the active group to interact with the game world, without tying up GM time/ processing power. I can set up one sub group talking with another, and move on to yet another sub group. These subgroups could be 1-3 players. The techniques are valid for anytime the group is "dispersed". Caution: Make sure to assign the right PC to the right kind of opposition or monster. Just don't assign them positions because they are there... they must be able to handle the position. So don't force the player who uses few words to be the flamboyant NPC.. it just won't work. I like this technique for a couple of reasons. It allows me to split my attention between players. I can set up two sub groups to interact with each other and do a longer interaction with the third that requires my direct attention. I can be fairer in my play; because I don't have to dumb down the monsters because I am the All Knowing GM. The monsters are normally being played with the cunning of a PC, so it makes them more challenging. I, as the GM, can return to the referee aspect of the job, rather than the authorial (in control of the world) portion of the job. PCs must be rewarded with EPs and Karma points equal to their performance as the NPCs/ Monsters. This rewards good play and prevents players from running the opposition "stupid" so their friends will win easily. (An extension of this "tip" is to create a troupe of actors: Every character will have NPCs associated with it, supporting cast. These are their coworkers, landlords, guild members, significant others, pets, family members, and a host of others. When a player is interacting with their supporting cast, it ties the GM up and leaves the other players with nothing to do. Assign supporting cast members to other players in the troupe. The GM gives the player running the supporting cast member a little direction, and off they go. This frees the GM up to set up other scenes, advance plots, and still allows the player roleplay opportunities with their environment.) The second tip is not required, but helps make the first tip work better. It is learning when to cut scene or change which players are "on screen". You need to think of game action in terms of movie shots... and learn to change scenes when it is dramatic or the scene has gone on for too long. Keep changing back and forth between groups. This keeps everyone engaged in the game and their characters, keeps the story moving, and (cue evil GM glee) keeps the players off balance. [Editor's note: the "cut scene" tip is the whole "switching the spotlight" thing that has come up in some of our other articles.] Pacing is important in any game/ story, and more so when you are running sub groups. As the GM you must keep the drama and or action (these are not synonymous in this context) going at all costs. If one group is slowing down the play, cut to them less and less often. Their own desperation will make them "speed up". As for the occasional lone wolf. Sometimes it is appropriate for a character to go off by itself. That is fine. They do the job and get back to the group. Sometimes it is just the player searching for glory/ spotlight time/ their own thing to do. That is not fine. Roleplaying games are group activities, a mutually supportive game. These kinds of lone players often find their "camera time" coming in shorter and shorter intervals (and their opposition being ratcheted up a notch or two... after all they were going to need friends to deal with them). If you then assign NPC/ Monster opposition to the other PCs, the lone player often finds themselves at a serious disadvantage. Just a few thoughts on the subject. Thoughts from the Editor: I realize now that after so many articles, I've started leaving out some of my usual caveats because it feels to me like I'm getting repetitive. Unfortunately, I forget that most people won't have read the insane backlog of articles on the site. Thanks to MoonHunter for reminding me of one of the more important caveats: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Splitting the party is only a problem when it's a problem, just as loner characters are only problems when they're problems. My suggestions for dealing with loner characters and splitting the party are only meant to be played with if you're having problems with these things - not if they're working out just fine. (If they're working out just fine, then obviously you don't need to fix them!) *Anything* can work out all right in someone's group - as our friend here has illustrated, the right GM and the right players can make a group of 32 people work out all right (whew!). Roleplaying is such a personal thing that only you can know which things need to be fixed in your game - and which things don't. I like to address "problems" that seem common in gaming, but that certainly doesn't mean that you personally are one of the people who's experiencing that problem. I don't think there's a single problem that can be considered universal in roleplaying. Thank you to MoonHunter for some great suggestions for dealing with split parties - visit http://www.openroleplaying.org/ to find more of his tips! From Paul Runstedler: Hi Heather! Just read your latest "Twilight time". Interesting discussion. I've often found splitting the party can be really fun, but as a GM you're walking a very fine line. Often there are one or two players in the group that tend to be the most energetic and the most active. This leads to a great deal of spotlight time being absorbed by them during normal 'party' play. This isn't bad, and the players don't necessarily mean to 'hog' the spotlight. It's just their personality. One way I've found to help satisfy the less outgoing player is to have personal moments, that I've created for them, both with and without the party. As you said, you don't want these things to last too long or else everyone else can get bored and frustrated... On a similar note, I've (in a previous game) toyed with splitting up the characters (not the party) for long periods of time. I realized during one of my games that if the party met an NPC and that NPC traveled with them, or helped them out of a scrape or what-have-you, that certain members of the party formed a tenuous bond with that NPC. Now when I took that NPC away for a while (months of game time), then brought them back, the tenuous bond that existed before suddenly became much more powerful. It was as if the party had met some long lost relative that they hadn't seen since childhood. I'm still not sure about the psychology of what's going on here, but the players seem to really enjoy this stuff... So... Back to splitting up the characters. I figured if the bond between character and NPC strengthened with absence, what would happen if this same situation were to occur with the PCs? I took one PC out of the mix and had the other players roll up brand new characters to travel with this PC. Then the one player whose PC left the party rolled up a new character for the original party. Both parties traveled for quite a while (both attempting to complete separate quests that would help prevent a great evil that was scourging the land). It worked quite well actually. We would play the one party for a while, then switch over to the other party for a while (like chapters in a book often do). Eventually when the party was re-united with its former member, they were ecstatic. The bonds between that PC and his former party were still present, and in fact seemed to be strengthened by his absence. Back to splitting up the party for a minute... Not sure if you remember that we talked previously about a game myself and my brother were putting together (a while back). Our plan was that we'd both GM it as a sort of tag-team GM team. So far it's worked out wonderfully. Battles are more vivid (one person keeps track of the nuts and bolts while the other provides elaborate descriptions) and game play doesn't get frustrating for the players very often. If someone wants to go off and do something on their own, the other GM steps up and continues the game for the rest of the party. Take care Heather! Thoughts from the Editor: If you have enough people to form a GM team, that can be a great way to handle split parties. It can take some forethought, planning, and coordination, but it's a great idea! I'm also curious to play with the psychological dynamics of absence that Paul brought up. It's an interesting phenomenon... From Nicolai Paulsen: Heather, As always: I'm impressed! This week's topic is particularly pertinent as the two main characters in my group have developed a genuine hostility (bordering on hatred) for each other. This is, of course slightly influenced by, and influencing, the players and their relationship to one another. We have had to split up the campaign in two parallel ones, despite the fact that the youngest of the two characters has been around since 1996 and the oldest since around 1989. Very sad, but that's how it goes when a highly independent and self-reliant personality clashes with a (mostly self-professed) natural born bully... sorry: leader for long enough (no free tickets to Fort Lauderdale for guessing which one I play!). So that is one point I think you overlooked a bit. In a game with a strong emphasis on storytelling and character development over long periods of time, characters with free will may simply HAVE to go off into seperate directions. As an aside to that, we have for the longest time used a little pearl of wisdom we found in SF author John Varley's Titan-series, where a character at one point says: "In every movie I ever saw, splitting up happened just before the big disaster." We tend to say that together every once in a while. Usually after the big disaster, though. Maybe we are slow learners in my group. Looking forward to your next newsletter Thoughts from the Editor: Nicolai brings up a very important point. No matter how much care you take to ensure that the group is capable of being compatible, sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. That's okay! Going back to that whole "if it's a problem, then it's a problem" thing, this isn't necessarily a problem. Some players can get wonderful roleplaying situations out of such a turn of events. Sure, if relationships between PCs get bad enough you might have to split your game in two, or have one character eventually exit and have his player roll up a new character, but that's okay. The roleplaying you do in the meantime can make it worthwhile. It's only a problem if this starts tearing apart the group of *players*, or in some other way makes the game unplayable or not fun. (In which case, maybe it's time for one or both of those characters to make an exit, and for the players involved to roll up new ones.) I hope you've enjoyed all of the wonderful suggestions from your fellow readers. (And thank you to everyone who sent in tips!) As for me, sorry about the misunderstanding! As we've mentioned in other articles: all that really matters is that GM and players should all be having fun. As long as that's the case, it doesn't matter whether you're doing things in ways that other people agree with or not. Roleplaying is a very social hobby, and as such how it works for each group depends entirely on the people involved. Do what's right for *your* gaming group! What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! The next issue is coming in just a few weeks - mid- to late November. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/integration.html How to Integrate Elements from Different Roleplaying Game Systems There are good reasons why so many people disapprove of "crossover" games, or of allowing players to create new and unusual character types. Here we talk about how you can address those issues, and go on to create a crossover game or new character type that will make for a fun gaming experience! Warning: this is a long one... http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Reviews/1002-1.html A review of the "Farscape Roleplaying Game" from AEG! If you're despondent over the cancellation of your favorite TV show, never fear. The RPG is here! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/barakah3.html Barakah Powers Listing Part 1: Fire, Sand, Heat, and Wind We're once again adding to our series on the half-human, half-djinn Barakah, and we hope you'll enjoy the first installment of the powers we've cooked up for these folk! And, believe it or not, we've once again updated the majority of our links listings. :) Burning Void Writers' Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only. We reserve the right to edit press releases for length, and we give no guarantees as to the legitimacy of any offers mentioned here.) GATEWAY RPG http://gatewayrpg.fateback.com/ Over here at Gatway RPG we write. We have several different 'handlers' controlling their own character each, and these stories often intertwine. About once every month characters meet in a fight, and whoever has written the best story, in the opinion of our VP and Prez, wins. The more battles your character wins the more powerful he, she, or it becomes. Along the way you can buy weaponry, spells, and armor with the money you earn in battles. When your stories, or roleplays as some people call them, are judged and pitted against your opponent(s')'s stories your stats, weaponry, and the spell you chose to use are factored in. All you need in Gateway RPG is some patience and creativity. You have surpeme authority over your character, and the storylines you write are limited only by a few basic rules. We have a relaxed atmosphere over at Gateway, really all you will get for a broken rule is a little warning. We would really like it if some new guys came in and tried it out for a while. If you don't like it then you can go, but I've been doing this for some time, and I can't imagine leaving it. Check us out at... http://gatewayrpg.fateback.com/ EDEN STUDIOS http://edenstudios.net/archipelagos/ Eden Studios, Inc. and Oriflam are excited to announce an agreement to translate and distribute a different kind of d20 system product. For two years, Oriflam has been delighting French-speaking gamers with a series of campaign adventures set among the islands of the Archipelagos. Now, for the first time, these unique d20 system books will be available in English language translations. Eden Studios will offer translations of the first three books in the Archipelagos story in early Spring 2003. . +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a legal requirement to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Nov 18 09:22:14 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:46 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Plots from Relationships Message-ID: <3DD8E89C.5010503@burningvoid.com> November 18, 2002 - Plots from Relationships Volume 3, Issue 16 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to: Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! Please forgive the lack of activity on the site in the last few weeks. One of our cats had a medical emergency (a severe allergic reaction to a vaccine). And we already had colds when we stayed up all night to watch over her and rush her back and forth to the vet, so we ended up staying sick for a while. Then after all that our stove died and had to be replaced. (Gaaah!) As a result, not a whole lot has gotten done around here. The important thing is that Selene is fine - thanks to the late-night efforts of our wonderful vets - although after all the stress she did catch a cold. Also due to the unusual circumstances, this is one of our shorter and simpler articles. We hope you find it useful nonetheless. We won't be doing a lot of catch-up until December, as we'll be spending the next week or so cooking for our annual Turkey Day feast. We kind of go a little crazy and make way too much food for the number of people coming. I guess that new stove will get a real workout. Here's hoping that you all have a wonderful month! Have a great afternoon, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Plots from Relationships One of my favorite ways to come up with plots for roleplaying games is to create people, see how they relate to each other, and then come up with plots out of those relationships. No, I'm not talking about some soap opera mix of love plots, missing babies, and evil twins. What I mean is that most plots arise, in one way or another, out of the interactions between people. Step 1: Make Some Non-Player Characters (NPCs) Use your game world to help you come up with a bunch of nifty NPCs. If your game uses random generation for character creation, then use that - roll lots of numbers and see what sort of characters emerge. If your world has lots of interesting in-game groups, then come up with some representatives of those groups. Tip 1: Create NPCs in Clumps or Groups. Make about 3 to 7 NPCs at a time who are all related to each other in one way or another: they work together, they're kin to each other, they're all part of the same group, team, or organization, etc. Many games provide a clear way to do this. In "Werewolf: the Apocalypse" you'd create one pack of werewolves at a time. In "HackMaster" you could create one adventuring company at a time, or one temple of priests to a certain god, etc. Give each NPC a clear personality and one or two goals to accomplish or projects to work on. Also give group goals to each group. Tip 2: Keep Things Simple You don't have to go into huge detail on this unless you have lots of spare time & energy. One-line goals and brief personality descriptions are fine for now; you can even use a tarot card or three to figure out what each character is like, particularly if you're running low on ideas. Later, when you figure out which NPCs are likely to play the biggest rolls in your game, you can flesh them out. Consider using the Bright Spots of Detail method of NPC generation: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/npc-questions.html Step 2: Delineate Group Relationships As you create these NPCs, ask yourself how they feel about working with each other. If you've given each NPC a clear personality and specific goals this should be pretty easy. Remember to play with group dynamics as a whole, not just one-on-one relationships. Who squabbles? Who's fanatically loyal? Who follows whom with blind devotion? Which followers fight each other madly for their leader's approval? Who back-stabs at every opportunity in order to get ahead? Who has ambition that can't be fulfilled by his group's goals? Who tries to keep things "just professional"? Who wants revenge for some past hurt? Who tries to protect his co-workers or friends? Step 3: Look for Holes, and Fill Them Either you'll find yourself doing this automatically as you go along, or you'll probably need to wait to do it until you have several such groups of NPCs sketched out. As you work out the details of NPCs, look for convenient holes that need to be filled. For example, you write down under one NPC that he's an ambitious fellow hampered by an active conscience, who wants to find someone totally unscrupulous he can use in his rise to the top (after all, his conscience won't bother him if he uses someone who's corrupt, right?). Well, there's a hole to be filled here - now you need an NPC who fits the description of that unscrupulous pawn-to-be. Look around the other NPCs you've come up with. Does someone already fit the bill? Could someone fit the bill if you tweaked him a little? If not, look at any notes you have about NPC groups you still want to come up with. Is there a specific place such a character would fit into well? If so, then make that the next group you write up. Step 4: Ask Questions Ask yourself what's keeping that ambitious soul from fulfilling his ambitions. Is it another person? Can you turn it into a plot that could involve the player characters (PCs)? Look at the goals each group has. How could the PCs get involved in, help with, or obstruct those goals? What consequences would it have? How can you flesh that out into a plot? Look at the various group dynamics you've detailed. How will those loves and hates affect the groups and what they're doing? How can they influence your plots? How can you turn a love between two NPCs into a fatal flaw that the PCs can exploit in the pursuit of their goal? How can you turn a rivalry into something the PCs can exaggerate and take advantage of? Or, how could you turn the results of that rivalry into a plot the PCs need to clean up after? NPCs and their relationships can tell you all sorts of things: who's easy pickings; who has powerful friends; who won't give up until he wins or gets killed; who might be convinced to betray his allies; who might run to the PCs for help, and so on. Put together a handful of small groups, even in simple terms, and you'll have more than enough to work with! What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! The next issue is coming in just a few weeks - mid-December. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/ccmethod.html An Introductory Survey of Character Creation Methods An article for players on some of the methods of character creation out there, as well as their advantages and disadvantages. I'm afraid that's it for the last couple of weeks! Burning Void Writers' Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only. We reserve the right to edit press releases for length, and we give no guarantees as to the legitimacy of any offers mentioned here.) EDEN STUDIOS: As a special Halloween treat this year, Eden Studios and Fountainhead Pictures are proud to announce the first peek at Walking With The Dead, an All Flesh Must Be Eaten movie. Check out the Behind the Scene footage and Halloween teaser, not to mention a few production stills. Walking With The Dead is a direct to DVD feature based on Eden Studios' All Flesh Must Be Eaten RPG and will include special, behind-the-scenes footage of the movie-making process, commentary tracks from the filmmakers, and a ready-to-run adventure for the AFMBE roleplaying game detailing the zombies, world and cast of the movie. The DVD is scheduled for Fall/Winter 2003. To view the teaser/trailer, check out http://www.walkingwiththedead.com/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a legal requirement to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Dec 9 09:08:12 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:46 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] Eight Lessons RPG Writers Don't Want to Learn Message-ID: <3DF4983F.8030109@burningvoid.com> December 9, 2002 - Eight Lessons RPG Writers Don't Want to Learn Volume 3, Issue 17 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! This week's article is one more for those who write or want to write for the RPG industry. It's a companion piece to an article that went up on our writers' resources page: "Seven Lessons Writers Don't Want to Learn." (As usual, the link can be found in the site update after the article.) Next issue we'll get back to GM and player material. By the way, you'll also find links below to two (yes, two) more listings of powers for our Barakah series. That's right, I went a little wild. I was going to do one little article, and somehow it turned into three, with a total of almost 150 powers. I did, by the way, go back and add a few more to that first article. I was never any good at doing something half-way. I'd say that I'll show more restraint with whatever I decide to add to that series next, but I know it isn't true... We'll see you again around the end of the year. In the meantime, have a great winter holiday of your choice! Have a wonderful afternoon, Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Eight Lessons RPG Writers Don't Want to Learn There are certain aspects to writing professionally (and writing for the roleplaying (RPG) market) that people don't like to think about when they sit around fantasizing about their dream job. Facing those details and dealing with them, however, is much more likely to get you a job you enjoy in the long term! Lesson #1: Writing, Roleplaying, and Designing All Matter Knowing how to design good RPG material isn't enough. Knowing how to write well isn't enough. Knowing your way around a company's products and game world isn't enough. Learn as much of all three of these things as possible - it will make you and your editors much happier. It'll also make you much more likely to get more and better-paying contracts. It'll cut down on the research, harsh redlines and revisions that accompany your contracts. Lesson #2: Writing Under Contract Isn't Writing for Yourself There are certain things you can't do when writing under contract. You can't decide that you don't want to do what's in your outline, and write something totally different without telling your editor. If you feel stuck you can't put the contract aside and wait until you feel inspired - you have a deadline to meet. You can't send copies of your work to your friends or put them up on the web. (Heck, sometimes you can't even tell people the title of the book.) You can't decide that you're tired of the manuscript and junk it. Any of these things are likely to cost you your paycheck when you work for someone else. Worse, the company will probably never hire you again. You can do these things when you write your own material, but not when you act as a professional. Lesson #3: Even the Best Writer Writes Bad Stuff ALL writers have trouble learning this lesson. Every writer writes bad stuff. Every writer has their off day or their off manuscript. No one writes perfect material all the time. Learn to accept this. Learn to discriminate between your good writing and your bad so that you can junk the bad stuff entirely or revise it into something good. Lesson #4: Revision is the Philosopher's Stone of Writing Revision turns the lead of your rough draft into the gold of a finished manuscript. No one wants to believe that their first draft needs help, but it does. Even the most accomplished writers revise, revise, and revise again. Your final draft probably won't look anything like your first. Revise your manuscript *before* your editor ever sees it. If you have no idea how to revise your work, then buy a copy of "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers" by Browne and King. (Okay, so it's for fiction - but it'll still teach you a lot.) Other good resources: "Keys to Great Writing" by Stephen Wilbers, and the classic "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. Most importantly, know that revision is necessary and make a conscious decision to engage in it. Lesson #5: Craft Takes Time and Practice Everyone wants to believe that their very first attempts to write are perfect and publishable. They aren't. (Ten years from now you'll look back on them and cringe.) While talent can be helpful, most of writing consists of skill - and skill takes time and effort to learn. It includes a knowledge and understanding of everything from grammar to pacing, concision to characterization, passive voice to genre conventions. The good side of this? You can learn a skill. So even if you think you have no talent, you may still learn to write well. Lesson #6: Learn by Doing... Sort Of To a certain extent you need to learn to write from other people. Read your favorite authors' work and see how they do what they do. Take classes and workshops. Get your writing evaluated by teachers, editors, and peers. Read books and magazines (and web sites) about writing. Participate in forum discussions about RPG systems and mechanics. Read reviews to see what sorts of things matter to people. However, none of these things can teach you how to apply this information to your own writing. None of them can teach you how to decide which pieces of advice apply to you and which don't. No forum discussions can tell you for sure which techniques and mechanics will and won't work in the course of your game design. You can only learn these things by writing. So sure, go ahead and take classes and read books - but don't forget to write, too. Try things out and playtest them into the ground. Lesson #7: Someone Hates Your Work If you publish your writing, someone will hate it. This is true no matter how talented or brilliant you are. We all like different things in our RPGs and our writing. I like horror; some people hate it. I don't like most literary novels; some people love them. The game mechanic that wows your sister will be met by scorn from your brother, and vice versa. So don't take it personally when someone writes a negative review about your work or says something derisive on a newsgroup. It's going to happen. It isn't the end of the world or your career as a writer. Let them have their opinions; don't get defensive (feel upset in private, not in public). After all, you'd be pretty unhappy if someone told you that you weren't allowed to dislike romance novels or mysteries, wouldn't you? So why should you yell at someone for not liking your work? It just gives you an ulcer and makes you forget what's really important: doing what you love. Lesson #8: The Conditions Suck Take your pick: short deadlines, vicious editors, late (or missing) checks, low pay rates, writing something in a way you don't agree with; nasty reviews... I could go on. Eventually you'll encounter one (or mostly likely most) of these conditions if you work in the business. Keep in mind that even for "normal" writers, the average professional writer makes about $4,000 per YEAR. Ugh. Not many people can live on that. Of course, you'll encounter many of these same conditions in other writing industries, and in plenty of other non-writing industries as well. I think one of the reasons they burn so many people out in this industry is that people think of writing RPGs as a magical dream job. They don't *expect* these conditions, so they get worn down by them. Know what you're getting into before you start, and decide whether or not you're willing to deal with it. If you aren't, then do something else. You can always write RPG material for yourself in your spare time even if you can't stand doing it as a professional. I'm trying to make sure that if you really are interested in the job, you'll stick around longer than your first contract. You won't get scared off by the tight deadlines and nasty redlines. You won't perform a career-limiting move or ruin your chances of getting a contract by turning in a completely un-publishable writing sample. You won't be shocked by the low pay or the months-late checks. In short, you'll know what to expect - and you'll know whether or not you're ready for that. What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! The next issue is coming in just a few weeks - late December or early January. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/barakah4.html Barakah Powers Part 2: Resistance, Sensitivity, Intuition, Prophecy, Information http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/barakah5.html Barakah Powers Part 3: Shape-Shifting, Beguilement, Deception, Transportation, Movement Burning Void Writers' Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/unwanted.html Seven Lessons Writers Don't Want to Learn: all the things you really should know about writing but don't want to hear. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only. We reserve the right to edit press releases for length, and we give no guarantees as to the legitimacy of any offers mentioned here.) HOGSHEAD PUBLISHING: GAME OVER http://www.hogshead.demon.co.uk/ As of 30th November 2002, Hogshead Publishing Ltd is leaving the adventure-gaming industry. Please note that the company is not going bankrupt. It is refreshingly solvent. However we are bored, creatively frustrated, and increasingly despondent about the future of the specialist games industry. After our successes in 2002, particularly the mould-breaking and critically acclaimed games Nobilis and De Profundis, we think we've gone as far as we can and this seems a suitable high-point on which to call it a day. Nobilis has moved to Guardians of Order, and will be available from them with immediate effect. The second printing of the Nobilis rulebook will arrive in the USA in mid-December and can be ordered from GoO or its stockists. The English-language licence for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay has handed back to Games Workshop. SLA Industries is back under the control of Nightfall Games. Warpstone magazine will continue publication under its own imprint. All the future products Hogshead has announced products are cancelled. The only exceptions to this are the Nobilis line, which will now appear from Guardians of Order, and the full-length Warhammer FRP adventure 'Fear the Worst' by Michael Mearls, which we are making available as a free PDF download from our website, as a farewell-and-thank-you present to all our players and fans. The majority of Hogshead's existing stock has been sold to our favourite distributors, and the rest has been destroyed. We have retained a small amount in the UK for mail-order, and will be keeping that part of our website running for a while, so if there are any Hogshead items you want but haven't bought yet, this is the moment to get them. Our gratitude and our apologies go to all the fans of our games. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a legal requirement to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com From heather at burningvoid.com Mon Dec 30 08:52:01 2002 From: heather at burningvoid.com (Heather Grove) Date: Wed Aug 18 00:40:46 2004 Subject: [Twilight Time] 10 Instant Holiday Plot-Hooks Message-ID: <3E1044D6.7000106@burningvoid.com> December 30, 2002 - 10 Instant Holiday Plot-Hooks Volume 3, Issue 18 This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: http://www.burningvoid.com/ Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means without direct permission. To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the archives: http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of "subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com Good morning! On December 19th we got our one-thousandth subscriber. We made cupcakes to celebrate; unfortunately it's kind of hard to email you cupcakes, or I would. It would also take a long time to make 1,000 cupcakes. ;) Thank you to everyone who has helped to make this zine far more successful than I imagined when I started it! Now I'm looking forward to our two-thousandth subscriber... sometime in 2010 or so. *grin* I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, celebration, or whatever. Here are a few holiday plots to surprise your players with when they come back from vacation. Happy New Year! Heather +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 10 Instant Holiday Plot-Hooks It's the time of the year when lots of holidays happen. Even for people who aren't religious it can be a time of beauty and terrible shopping conditions. So, in the spirit of the season, here are a handful of instant plot hooks designed to bring a touch of holiday cheer (or madness) to your game. Enjoy, and happy holidays! NOTE: I'm sure most of you have seen one or more of our instant plot hook articles by now. But just in case, for you new folks, here's the original article: http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001q1/000009.html And here's the "create your own instant plot hook" follow-on: http://two.pairlist.net/pipermail/twilighttime/2002/000004.html #1. The Gift Everyone in the party gets a gift. Each gift is elaborately wrapped; each card says something mysterious, or simply has a recipient's name on it. Each gift is tailored specifically to its recipient's interests. These aren't powerful things, but they are meaningful things. Who sent the gifts? Was it someone the party helped? Is it someone who wants to start an alliance with them who can't afford to reveal his interest yet? How did the mysterious ally find out exactly what gifts to give? How can the party find out who sent the gifts - and why were they sent anonymously? #2. The Apocalypse A gloom-and-doom cult predicts the end of the world at the end of the year. Are they lunatics or prophets? How can the party find out? And what can they do about the situation? (What if the cult is *partially* right? The end of the world isn't coming, but something horrible is.) #3. Vacation! Plenty of companies hold end-of-the-year contests and sweepstakes. Have a player character (PC) win a trip to an exotic locale for [the number of people in the group, plus or minus one or two]. The whole thing could be a set-up and trap. It could be an attempt by someone distant to get help from the PCs in solving their problems. Fate could be leading the party to something it needs. Or the party could simply encounter some unusual things while on vacation. #4. The Charity Drive A local organization collected toys for orphans and poor families. Someone stole those toys, or they vanished mysteriously. Can the party find the presents and retrieve them before the holiday? [Hint: don't use this one on a party that's wealthy enough to buy all-new toys.] In a second version of this plot hook, an organization collected money with which to buy food for needy families. Then the guy running the show skipped off with the money. Can the party find him and recover the holiday for all those families? #5. The Charity Drive: Aftermath A charitable organization gave lots of toys to needy children. Now those children are disappearing. Where did the children go? Is there a link to the toys, and if so, what is it? Can the party figure out what's going on before all the children disappear? And can they find the children who have already vanished? #6. 'Tis the Season An apparent rash of suicides hits the news. Everyone thinks it's just the holiday blues, but there's a clue that makes the PCs think that something's going on. Perhaps they knew one of the people who died, and just know he wouldn't have killed himself. Are the deaths really suicides? If not, what's the connection between the deceased? Does the party have a serial killer on its hands, a dastardly cover-up, or something more bizarre? #7. It's a Miracle! Many TV shows and movies center around the traditional holiday miracle. Create a miracle of your own - then twist it. The "miracle" was arranged by someone, who wants payment now. The source of the miracle was supernatural, alien, or demonic rather than celestial and the recipient has become tainted in some way. Is there a way to fix things? Does the cure require giving up the miracle, or can there be a happy ending after all? #8. Cancel the Holidays The holidays are fast approaching, but a mysterious illness results in quarantine and widespread panic. Can the party figure out what's going on and find a cure (or help someone else to do so) in time to keep the holidays from getting canceled? Even more importantly - can they do it in time for people to get a few shopping days in?! #9. Only 5 Shopping Days Left... The party needs to impress a potential ally. Can they find out what the perfect gift would be? Can they get their hands on it once they know what it is? And what do they have to do or pay to get it? #10. Prized Possession An ally sends the party on a wild chase for a mysterious, important item. He won't tell them what it is, but he can describe the distinctive package it's wrapped up in. The party finds this task surprisingly difficult. The bad guys seek to take the same item. Other good guys seem desperate to obtain it. What could it be? Finally the party gets the package [or they fail and have to tell their ally of their failure]. That's when they find out what the whole thing was about: the latest, greatest holiday toy that all the parents want. It's a present for their ally's son. I hope you've enjoyed our little spread of twisted holiday plots, and even more - I hope you're enjoying the holidays! Best wishes for a happy new year from the Burning Void! What's Your Opinion?: Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic requests? Drop me a line at (heather@burningvoid.com). If I pass any of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you don't want me to use your name and/or comments! The next issue is coming in just a few weeks - mid- to late January. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SITE UPDATE: Burning Void Roleplaying Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/gingersnaps.html Gingersnap Magic - an unusual type of magic item for "HackMaster"! http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/barakah6.html Sand and Dreams VI: Barakah Influences This time we provide sample strengths and weaknesses for our human/jinn cross-breeds. I promise I didn't go nearly as far overboard this time. ;) http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/barakah7.html Sand and Dreams VII: Barakah Vestiges Vestiges are the small traces of jinn heritage that taint the Barakah. Here we give you more than 20 samples and a few hints for customizing them to your character. Burning Void Writers' Resources: http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/writeforself.html Write for Yourself On the value of knowing why you write, and remembering that, either way, it's good to write for yourself. Also, how "write for yourself" can be made compatible with "write professionally"! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RATINGS: You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let us know how we're doing: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288 The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page: http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ READER TIPS: (Copyright remains with the author of the tip) From Martin L. Shoemaker: Lesson #4 has a dark side. Heinlein once advised: "Never rewrite except to direct editorial order." I thought that was awfully egotistical. Heinlein sold his very first SF story, and almost everything else he ever wrote. So that seemed egotistical, AND it seemed like poor advice for those of us not so lucky/talented. Now I'm working on my first book (on software design); and I'm learning what Heinlein REALLY meant. Someone who likes to write (me, for one) can rewrite every word of every sentence of every page, every single day. It's not always getting BETTER, just DIFFERENT, as I have different moods on different days. But if I do this, progress slows to a crawl. So I need the editor to tell me when I NEED to rewrite. It's not that rewriting is bad, but it can be a seductive trap. Very good article, by the way. Martin L. Shoemaker http://www.MartinLShoemaker.com http://www.UMLBootCamp.com [Editor's note: It's true, endless revision can be a real problem for many writers! The trick lies in learning to tell when you're treading water and when you really need to revise. But don't let that little statement fool you - this is a VERY difficult thing to learn. Some writers can't learn it at all. Sometimes you can learn it by taking classes that require you to critique others' writing. Sometimes you can learn it by reading books that help you to get a better handle on what needs revision and what doesn't. Sometimes you learn it through the long, hard road of experience. Failing that, you might find another writer to partner up with whose opinion you trust, and who can tell you when to stop revising (or an editor who can do the same). Some writers have set themselves hard schedules - dates by which they *must* stop revising and actually send their work to an editor. It isn't always possible to stop on your own!] +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANNOUNCEMENTS: (Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for identifying purposes only. We reserve the right to edit press releases for length, and we give no guarantees as to the legitimacy of any offers mentioned here.) ANNOUNCING THE GAME MECHANICS! December 13th, 2002 (Renton, WA) - We are pleased to announce that former Wizards of the Coast, Inc. employees JD Wiker, Rich Redman, Marc Schmalz, and Stan! have pooled their design, art, and business expertise together to form The Game Mechanics, Inc. The Game Mechanics is a roleplaying game design studio dedicated to creating top-quality roleplaying game sourcebooks, adventures, accessories, and campaign settings using the d20 System under the Open Game License. The Game Mechanics d20 products are suitable for use with most major industry releases including Wizard of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons and d20 Modern roleplaying games, as well as D&D and d20 Modern compatible products from other game publishers. The Game Mechanics, Inc. will offer downloadable, printer-ready products as PDF files--available through such "pay-for-download" sites as RPG Now! and RPG.net. And in the future, The Game Mechanics hopes to partner with a traditional game publisher in order to expand into retail outlets with printed versions of our products. The goal at The Game Mechanics, Inc. is to take what we've learned from working at Wizards of the Coast and other game companies, and emulate and improve upon the business model of other successful electronic publishers. Our plan is to offer the best quality products at a low cost from some of the most recognized names in the roleplaying game industry. Check us out at http://www.TheGameMechanics.com/ ! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Advertiser Instructions: If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please email to come to an arrangement. We're also willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any ad or announcement.) Privacy Policy: We do not sell or give out your information. We will never ever hand out your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up with), barring a legal requirement to do so. Unsubscribe: The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, let us know right away at . In order to unsubscribe, visit http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request@burningvoid.com