RPG Blog Carnival: Endings

Apologies for my lack of involvement over the last few months, real life gets in the way sometimes. I do have a post still in draft for the September Carnival theme, then Orktober took over, and had I previously posted something on the theme for November and was struggling for ideas...

But on to this Carnival! To bookend Scot's January topic of "Beginnings", for December 2023 I've chosen an intentionally broad theme of "Endings" to close the year. 

Image credit: NataliaDrepina

Some suggestions:

Campaign finales and closing plot arcs

(I'm particularly interested in this; as much a fan of shorter campaigns that I am, I still struggle with endings - it's easier to just keep the story rolling on!)

Character death, retirement, and TPKs

(I've talked briefly about the latter before, but I still think it's an interesting topic)

2023 in review / retrospective

(I don't usually do this, but I like reading them; and I think I will this year as I started the year off with hopes and dreams - if you are too then please share here!)

But anything goes that fits the theme!

Drop a link to your themed post in the comments on this post, all welcome, and I'll post a wrap-up at the end of the month when the Carnival moves on.

After this month the 2023 RPG Blog Carnival is ending - signups to host in 2024 are open at the hub on OfDiceAndDragons, along with general info about getting involved (and why you should) and links to all the past Carnivals too.

RPG book review: A Visitor's Guide To The Rainy City

As this month's RPG Blog Carnival topic relates to weather and seasons, what better time to get round to reviewing one of my favourite setting books?

Photo ironically taken on the only non-rainy day this week...

Who are the players and what do they do?

PCs are denizens of, or visitors to, the Rainy City - an island city at the end of the world and enduring constant rain.

Piracy, exploring, smuggling, protecting/exploiting the weak, guild work, diving (to explore the flooded ruins of a magical academy), starting a cult or a will-o-wisp business, founding parliaments, flaunting their riches, salvaging shipwrecks, serving wizards... There are no set adventures, but a huge number of seeds, ideas, and potential hooks here.

What's the core mechanic?

None - the book's all fluff and no crunch. What's great is that it's all written as prose, from the pen of Beauregard Hardebard of the Master and Four Wardens of the Fraternity of the Art and Mystery of Haberdashery and Millinery. The core mechanic I guess is settling down to read it.

What's good?

Each area of the city is sketched out over a couple of double-page spreads, each has its own feel, goings on, denizens, and weather.

So much varied rain. The rain varies by location, be it stormy, misty, or - on the Headlands:

The rain varies by season (Quiet, Firelight, Rainy, and Windy seasons) and creates interesting challenges (and solutions) for lighting, heating, and cooking. Hats are important.

Every location is crammed with rich nuggets of interesting prose, characters, things, events ... Honestly there's so much going on you could run whole sandbox in each district. Nothing is wasted and all of it is enjoyable.

If I ever run Blades in the Dark again, I want to run it in the Rainy City.

Honestly the best thing about this book is just how much fun it is to read. Close second best is how many ideas it conjures in your head; it's an OSR DM's dream!

What's bad?

I guess some people would want some of the named locations to be mapped out, or more explicit adventures, or explicit "quest givers". I think it's a breath of fresh air and I love it.

Bottom line?

It's great. If you want somewhere to game that's more Ankh Morpork than Saltmarsh then this is the place.

Even if you never play it, you'll enjoy reading it!

Please drop your thoughts in the comments if you've used this book - how was it for you?

Changing gears: on the beauty and realisation of short campaigns

When I, or my group(s), run a game there is a tendency to build each session on the previous ones, weaving a story based on what went before and where it feels like the characters are heading.

This ends one of two ways:

1. Everyone has a blast and the campaign finds a natural and memorable conclusion
2. More frequently people drift away, or burn out, or something else means we never get finished

This month's RPG Blog Carnival topic, changing gears, has inspired me to post my thoughts on having more short snappy games - especially now life and work interfere more!

I would totally recommend switching games every few months. Switch system, switch setting, switch DM, maybe mix up the player group slightly. Decades-long world defining campaigns with the same group are not the goal, and I feel getting less and less likely.

Changing up games is more fun. We get to play more new games, we get to finish more campaigns, we get to switch out DMs which helps with burnout. As a player it feels more satisfying to finish a shortish 2-3 month arc than plough through a multi-year story. As a DM it's more satisfying to run that shiny new book and wrap it up ready to run the new-new book...

Why not try out a different genre? Image credit: Paddy-One

Changing up games is less pressure. If we don't like a system or setting then it's only a few sessions. There's less fear of a campaign finale falling short. There's more chance of getting to that finale with the same group of players who started! If someone can't make it for a few weeks they can probably (hopefully) join the next game...

If a game is a big hit, run a second season like a TV show. Axe it when it runs out of steam (like a TV show) - and bring it back for a reunion in 10 years with the original cast.

The only problem I have with short campaigns is keeping them short. I like to meander, I like to find out what happens to the characters. I dislike prep (too much like the planning I have to do for work) and I don't plan ahead. Here's what I have learnt:

1. Work out what the main elements of your setting are and how they are connected (I spent a fair bit of time talking about my ideas about this in the past) 
2. Use those connections to plan out a series of plot points. These are stepping stones, anchors, the landmarks on your campaign road trip. Depending on how long you want to play for, and your tendencies, either plan more (and don't sweat about hitting them all) or less (and fill in the gaps when you feel inspired by events in play) than that number!
3. Build an adventure around each plot point. Don't force them. They don't have to sequential. The plot point can be the hook ("thieves guild want to steal the crown") or the twist ("find out the necromancer is the Duke's father") or background ("the goblins lay siege to the city") for the adventure, but it's better if the adventure isn't the plot point itself so the outcome isn't predetermined.  No railroading.

Let's say we want 2-3 months of weekly sessions, so let's go for 10 adventures. We can skip or add 2 and still be about right, let's not sweat it.

We know the things, NPCs, places and antagonists we want to work the story around and we know we want 10 adventures.  The classic "3 act story" suggests there are (variations on) nine generic plot points:

1. Exposition - setting the scene and the status quo
2. Inciting Incident - something propels the protagonist(s) into the story
3. Turning point 1 - The Point Of No Return 
4. Confrontation / Rising Action - tension builds, stakes are raised, obstacles emerge
5. Midpoint - gaining confidence, taking action
6. Turning Point 2 - everything is going so well ... then
7. The Dark Night - oh it's all gone wrong
8. Climax - but the protagonist (usually) pulls through and wins in the end
9. Denouement / Conclusion - what happens after? 

I dislike using the "3 act story" template (because I don't think it works for our medium) but I think some of the plot points are crucial: we need an Inciting Incident and a Climax, really, and I think it's good to start with some Exposition/Setup, so that's adventures 1 (setting the scene), 2 (the Inciting Incident that launches the campaign), and 10 (the Climax, plus often the Conclusion in montage). 

We need seven more plot points adventures... 

Perhaps better inspiration for plot points are found in the Hero's Journey which is analysed and explained very well by the AngryGM here? 

Or better aligned with our medium (but perhaps less deeply analysed in the Gnome Stew post that brought all this fresh into my mind) is the Heroine's Journey?

Find a structure that works, for you, but they're all basically:

• Players get a feel for the world and some of the key players
• Something kicks off that gives them a Quest
• They explore, learn, find artefacts and information, make friends and enemies, win and lose
• There is a final confrontation to end the Quest, and we see how the world is changed

Let me know your preferred structures or go-to plot points in the comments?

You'll get better each time, and if you keep changing gears there's always a next time.  Thanks to Lair of Secrets for hosting, and thanks to Of Dice & Dragons for maintaining the Carnival - check the archives or sign up to host here.

On creating elements for a setting

When I saw this as the title for the April RPG Blog Carnival my mind started ticking over campaign and setting planning and how I want to go about it.

Image credit: cosmicgrooveart

It's easy to just start building things that will never get played and I think a solution is:

• to break prep into separate and reusable elements (I've talked about this before)
• to only plan what you need

So, leaping off from that into the void, what sort of elements and what does each need?

Places

TTRPG games generally involve some exploration, and even if they don't the scenes have to be set somewhere.  Places are everywhere from towns to rooms to dungeons to continents and planes!

In my opinion, Places are often containers but I think they need the following themselves:

• Flavour descriptions / scene setting (depending on scope and scale)
• Rumours / things to interact with

As well as being the basic things you need for a dungeon room, these settle nicely with the start of a "three act" story - Set the scene, call to action - so can often lead to setting up a sidequest nicely.  Can we run the full mile and prep some of the rest too?

• Rising action
• A climax
• How the place is left changed

Oh - there's a location based adventure!

Antagonists

TTRPGs are about conflict and resolution, and where would conflict be without antagonists to rub against our protagonists (the party) - these are the factions and moving parts!

Working on a #dungeon23 meta (mega?) spark-table-of-spark-tables

As you may know, this month I am very much thinking about procedure. Being a fan of procedural generation generally, and spark tables specifically, I'm building up a mega meta-spark-table where each entry references another spark table (or set of spark tables).

For level 2 of my megadungeon I rolled "Fungal Wasteland" on my original d100 spark table, so for further inspiration I built some more quick spark tables, for "Fungal" and for "Wasteland" specifically:

Fungal

Adjectives: toadstool, spore, rotting, corrupted, infested, slime, mushroom, fermenting

Places: farm, forest, spore-field, giant cap

Antagonists: mycologists, fungusfolk, harvesters, cultists

(NPCs will come from the above)

Things: world-stool, spores, juice/extract, truffles

Situations: infestation, hallucination, feast, rot

Wasteland 

Adjectives: feral, forgotten, jury-rigged, wasted, disused, rusted, barren, scrap/junk

P: ruin, wastes, refuge, camp

A: raiders, survivors, prospectors, treasure hunters

T: artifact, cause (of the desolation), prophecy, scrap heap

S: collapse, ambush, awakening, restoration

Sparking

Rolling a few times on these (an Adjective from one + something from the other) gave me this little lot of potentially useful ideas:

February 2023 RPG Blog Carnival: Procedures

I've been thinking a lot about procedures, and reading a lot about OSR procedures, while working on dungeon23 (you can follow my progress here if you're interested) and so the topic for this month's RPG Blog Carnival, hosted right here, is "Procedures"!

The carnival is open to all RPG bloggers, all that is required is to write a post on the broad topic of procedures and post a link in this post's comments.

This could be about - but not limited to:

• Procedural generation for dungeons or hexcrawls?
• Procedures for dungeon crawling or wilderness exploration?
• Character generation or world building procedures?
• Procedures for adventure writing or campaign planning?
• Procedures and social rituals at your game table?
• Procedures for arbitrating certain situations or running certain types of scene or adventure (chases, social "combat", etc.)?

At the end of February I'll write up a round-up post and the carnival will move on to another blog. If you'd like to host one month or find out more then please check out the home of the RPG Blog Carnival for more info.

If you're working on dungeon23 too then you may also be interested in the contributions from last time I hosted the carnival, all about building dungeons.

Beginnings: #dungeon23, 2023 in gaming, and 2023 in blogging.

It's a time for beginnings.  My - lapsed - group and I am beginning a new campaign and beginning tabletop gaming together after a long period of doing other things. I have begun working on #dungeon23, as a personal challenge to get more productive geeking done more than anything else.

I rolled "Artisan Mines" on my hastily constructed dungeon themes spark table and felt I could run with it:

The beginning of Level 1...

The challenge is to write a 12 level, 365 room megadungeon - one room a day. I find that somewhat intimidating so I'm aiming to average a room a day and still try to do a level a month.  Some may be big, some will be small - I suspect August's and December's won't exist - but my aim is to share one level each month here for all of 2023.  Fingers crossed. Beginning to blog again.

I spent a lot of time panicking, mainly about what to build and how to stock whatever dungeons I did build, but I think I'm settled down now.

I found a great tool for "cyclic dungeon generation" on itch.io which has been a boon for inspiration about shape and flow.  I searched for the old school tables for dungeon stocking but found a rule of thumb that - back in the day - dungeon level = monster level = hit dice that I like, so I'm riffing off of that for encounters. I found so many resources about treasure, and that treasure is so different between systems, that I'm going abstract with it so the details can come later.

These are my dungeon beginnings:

• Room: Dilapidated dormitory. 2d6 [goblins] asleep here on any given shift.
• Room: Shelves cut into the walls hold gems (major treasure) seemingly arranged by texture and flavour.
• Room: Privy. Smells bad. (I'd had a busy day)
• Room: 2 yoked golems trudge mindlessly, endlessly, on a circular path turning the machinery via cogs and shafts.
• Room: Empty. Carvings on all walls depict feasting trolls. Large double doors, locked and barred from this side. Bell calls a single [goblin?] wearing overalls and fancy hat.
• Room: Short cut? But far too dangerous to pass through when machinery is turning.

I had planned to begin thinking more about dungeon and adventure design way back last year for the RPG Blog Carnival. That panic that I overcame by beginning was what meant I never began this before, despite wanting to for so long. I needed a push to start before I felt I was ready, 'cos I was never going to feel I was ready otherwise!

Coincidentally, this month's RPG Blog Carnival theme is beginnings. That struck the chord to begin work on #dungeon23, and begin a new campaign, and motivated me to begin blogging again.

So, this beginning technically has its beginnings in the Carnival. Signups are open for hosts for 2023 so why not check out the RPG Blog Carnival hub on Of Dice and Dragons and consider beginning to join the Carnival if you're an RPG blogger?

I'll be beginning a new campaign soon, most likely Mothership. I will be beginning to play Warcry this year too, and maybe Blood Bowl again. That means I'll begin painting minis again too.

Let me know your beginnings in the comments? Whatever you begin in 2023 I wish you well.  Sometimes beginning is the most important thing.

d100 #dungeon23 spark table

Happy New Year! I've been meaning to start making some dungeons for a while now, so what better time to start than now.  Whether I actually do or not, I've thrown together this spark table for inspiration; please do feel free to use it:

1	Ancient	Childhood
2	Death	City
3	Sunken	Factory
4	Love	Touch
5	Empire	Fall
6	Heavy	Pit
7	Rural	Library
8	Darkness	Ocean
9	Bloom	Song
10	Rust	Roots
11	Noise	Bones
12	Time	Gardens
13	Excess	Portal
14	Decay	Idol
15	Flood	Door
16	Sleep	Light
17	Cold	Bridge
18	Ash	Mask
19	Meat	Rise
20	Solitude	Galleries
21	Growth	Cliffs
22	Greed	Road
23	Luck	Badlands
24	Chaos	Trench
25	Laugher	Labyrinth
26	Smoke	Passages
27	Forgotten	Junction
28	Song	Causeway
29	Roots	Caverns
30	Bones	Mines
31	Hangman	Riverbed
32	Blood	Crypt
33	Prophet	Vents
34	Stars	Warrens
35	Cut	Meadows
36	Sacrifice	Shafts
37	Incense	Jumble
38	Gold	Crawlways
39	Obsidian	Wasteland
40	Winding	Halls
41	Fractured	Canyons
42	Deep	Shore
43	Flooded	Chasms
44	Dripping	Maze
45	Sulfur	Worm-casts
46	Ice	Edge
47	Misty	Darkness
48	Artificial	Refuge
49	Crystal	Wonderland
50	Gem	Jungle
51	Endless	Arches
52	Fungal	Pillars
53	Lava	Geysers
54	Noxious	Dunes
55	Giant's	Burrows
56	Jagged	Battlefield
57	Ashen	Railroad
58	Steaming	Ossuary
59	Haunted	Nest
60	Ooze	Hunting Grounds
61	Twisted	Society
62	Enchanted	Factory
63	Antimagic	Tonic
64	Pastry	Heap
65	Highrise	Chimney
66	Loud	Debt
67	Overgrown	Crowd
68	Burnt	Museum
69	Disputed	University
70	Repurposed	Office
71	Dirty	Distillery
72	Glass	Art
73	Electric	Canal
74	Murder	Tourism
75	Paper	Lizard
76	Smoked	Graveyard
77	Bombed	Council
78	Fat	Slum
79	Luxury	Music
80	Wild	Ruins
81	Broken	Fort
82	Prototype	Market
83	Artisan	Rookery
84	Antigravity	Holy Site
85	Biomechanical	Lair
86	Cosmic	Homesteads
87	Floating	Boomtown
88	Folding	Harbour
89	Hallucinogenic	Prison
90	Hypnotic	Vaults
91	Living	Town
92	Orbital	Paradise
93	Regenerating	Rain
94	Slippery	Sea
95	Silken	Belt
96	Soul	Fleet
97	Space	Cloud
98	Truth	Titan
99	Vanishing	Worldtree
100	Wizard	Wheel

This is using the words from Sean McCoy's original expanded post, plus some borrowed or stolen from the excellent Downcrawl / Skycrawl and from spark tables I have bookmarked at both Bastionland and Prismatic Wasteland.  Plus a few words I sprinkled in as the mood or inspiration took me, or when I realised I had duplicates and needed to replace them!

Image credit: midgptjourney

This is so intimidating that this might just be it for today for me. If you're looking for more then you may like my 5 room dungeon generator and this dungeon-related RPG Blog Carnival round-up post - good luck.

Comments are always welcome.  If you use this I'd love to know what you rolled, and see the results...

Go Build a Dungeon!

A better-late-than-never wrap up of all the great posts from August's RPG Blog Carnival, plus bonus gems on the subject of dungeon building:

If you build it, they will come... Image (cc) Kanut55

Lapidary Ossuary gave us this series of insightful posts detailing dungeon building from the ground up, with the finished product as a showcase. As a reader of dungeons/adventures, the layout analysis is particularly interesting.

Campaign Mastery gives us another, equally detailed, dungeon building methodology with an emphasis on lore and history.

Codex Anathema goes all out with posts on dungeons in both Eberron and Ravnica, and guidance on building dungeons and running dungeons in your games!

Dreaming Dragonslayer provided an excellently referenced framework for dungeon building, with an example 5 room dungeon, with a well reasoned argument for keeping the number of rooms in the 5-9 range.

Dragon's Keep shows how we can apply any of this dungeon building methodology to any node-based adventure location - in this case the jungle - by looking at it through the right lens.

Swords & Cloaks also takes the dungeon outside of the dungeon, and defines rooms in this context using classic video games in part of an ongoing series on outdoor dungeon crawling.

All rounded off by shorter posts from Rising Phoenix on building dungeons from terrain pieces and from The Other Side on exploration in the Vault of the Drow.

Bonus: a classic post in this vein is Goblin Punch's Dungeon Checklist from 2016; seven timeless things that every RPG dungeon should actually have (in my opinion too)

Now go build a dungeon (and let us know how you get on) and don't forget to check out September's RPG Blog Carnival over at the Five Foot Square!

Join the August 2021 RPG Blog Carnival - Let's Build A Dungeon!

I want to get better at building adventures.

Dungeons are essentially adventures where the shape, flow, and structure is clearer, so August 2021's RPG Blog Carnival topic is "Let's Build A Dungeon", hosted right here.

This is an open invitation to all RPG bloggers, please feel free to join in:

• Write a post taking us through your dungeon building process or
• Write about any good dungeon building advice, methods, resources, or tools you love or
• Write a post taking apart a great published dungeon and explaining what makes it great or
• Grab a cool map and/or some random tables and go where your imagination takes you - just tell us what you did and what you think of the end result - or
• Write a post about any other aspect of RPG dungeon building, map making, or design!

(And of course, "dungeon" can refer to pretty much any point-and-node shaped or location based adventure really)

Drop a comment on this post with a link to your carnival post so we can come and see it. Go see everyone else's too!

Need a map for inspiration? Image (cc) constantly-confused

(Blogger requires you to use HTML in the comment to add a clickable link; don't worry if you can't or don't want to, just post the URL and I'll sort it later)

Early September I'll put up a summary/digest post linking to all your carnival posts, and the Carnival will move on to another blog, so you have the month of August to write and submit an entry. Looking forward to reading them all!

I'm going to have a go too. If I can learn how to build a better dungeon I can extrapolate out to building a better adventure. Or at least that's the plan...

On Maps and Mapping

I have come to dislike maps.

Don't get me wrong, I love actual maps - I'm a big fan of the cartographic arts - but not so much in my games.

Drawing maps takes time

Image (cc) xkcd webcomic

When I am planning an adventure I'm usually trying to get as much information out of my head and onto paper as I can, and drawing maps slows me down.  I move things around until they "fit" (and often change them in play anyway) and worry too much about filling all the space.  I learned a lot from reading "Draw Maps, Leave Gaps" in Dungeon World.  Now I might sketch a grid with notes on relative positions, or room ideas, because:

Drawing out maps on the table in play can be painful. If the DM does it, it can break the narrative flow while everyone waits.  If the players deputise then it can end up being a long game of reverse Pictionary as the DM explains how a wall is 35 feet long - 5,10,15,20,25,30,35, is that right? - and then there is a 10 foot alcove. No, ten feet wide not 10 feet deep...

Also: Published maps may look beautiful, but  they never make it onto my table intact; all just wobbly lines of whatever-coloured dry-wipe marker.

Maps can be restrictive

Join the January 2021 Blog Carnival: Characters, Stories, and Worlds

Happy New Year! 

Image (cc) victoriaclare

I'm pleased to be hosting the first RPG Blog Carnival of 2021, to join in simply write a blog post on any of these topics...

• Character or NPC creation
• Writing character backstories and motivations
• How you play interesting/fun characters
• Plotting campaigns or story arcs
• Tips or tools for writing adventures
• Your favourite adventures or setting books
• Worldbuilding resources or tips

...or any topic of your own choosing that loosely fits the theme.  At the moment I'm particularly interested in how we can build player backstories and goals into the campaign story and world and would love to know how you build your characters, your stories, your worlds.

Leave a comment on this post with a link to your submission, and go check out everyone else's while they check out yours.  At the end of the month I'll wrap up all the submissions in a debrief post and hand over to the next host, so be sure to check them out and take part in February's carnival too!

Not a blogger? If you're inspired to start a relevant thread on Reddit or Discord or a forum or Twitter (etc) then please post a link to it in the comments too!

If you are a blogger and would like to host the Carnival one month, or anyone who wants more information or to view the carnival archives, just head on over to the official RPG Blog Carnival home page on the OfDiceAndDragons blog.

Note: Due to the arcane inner machinery of the Blogger platform, you'll need to add an HTML tag when you comment for your links to show - like so:

<a href="http://plasticpolyhedra.blogspot.com/post-url.html">Name of your blog post</a>

(or just post the URL and I'll sort you a link ;) )

Looking forward to reading your submissions already, and I wish you all a great year!

Random 5 Room Dungeon Generator

I had meant to do this for the August RPG Blog Carnival but missed it due to real-life problems.  However the idea stuck in my head so now it's here, hope you enjoy.

Image (cc) miszla

This generator uses the 5 Room Dungeon model, which I always think works better as themes/areas than explicit rooms so the results are designed as hooks and inspiration so it fits better into your campaign.  As always, roll a set of polyhedral dice or use the JavaScript roller at the bottom of the post...

[Update: I made a sci-fi RPG version too]

The d20 - The entrance:

1. is up (or down) a sheer cliff.
2. has become the lair of a beast.
3. is hidden by thorny undergrowth.
4. has soldiers camped outside.
5. has sunk underwater.
6. is guarded by a magical construct.
7. was magically sealed.
8. is guarded by an intelligent undead.
9. has collapsed, is there an alternative?
10. is haunted by vengeful spirits.
11. requires a lost key (or keys) to open.
12. is guarded by the local militia.
13. is not located where the maps say it is.
14. has been infested with giant vermin.
15. can only be accessed using magic.
16. is the home of an elemental or similar.
17. is opened by machinery that is missing a part.
18. is trapped in some way.
19. is known only to a select few.
20. is one of many, the rest are decoys or deathtraps.

Populating the RPG Planning Grid, or Filling Your PANTS

Let's imagine I'm starting my new campaign, and to keep prep low and help tie all the emerging plotlines together I'm using my 5x5 grid of Places, Antagonists, NPC's, Things, and Scenes.

Image (cc) AsymmetricButterfly

I need something going on in the background, so I'm just going to roll up a random plot arc:

Crafted long ago by Lizardfolk, from the bones of a gargantuan beast to be wielded in a war against Undead, this is a spear of destiny. It makes the wielder speak in the language of the creator until attuned and is well balanced, or somehow blessed or guided, adding +1 to attack rolls. The wielder must avenge the death of the last hero who fell using it to awaken its powers, when it will become a +2 magic weapon that blazes on contact and deals an additional 3d6 damage to the intended enemies

This might be the main plot arc of the whole campaign, or it may never get any screen-time.  It doesn't matter, it matters that it gives me some elements and a vague idea for a story.  The story can (and will) change, but that's cool. That's the point of the grid.  Quickly I scribble some stuff in:

Places	The graveyard of the Gargants
Antagonists	The massing forces of the Undead
NPCs
Things	The Gargantbone Spear
Scenes

Now what about our characters' stories?

Campaign Planning, Reusability, and Separation of Concern

Some important concepts from my work in computer software can definitely be applied to campaign planning. Let's talk about two of them.

Image (cc) Tim Probert

Separation of Concern

Think of any dungeon* you've seen - or have written - with a map of the layout, lists of encounters for each room, key items and notes on where they are hidden.  How many times have you, as GM, had to skip, rearrange, shuffle or rebuild parts in response to the party's actions? Exactly.

Separating the elements means more flexibility.  Generally, the dungeon map doesn't care what monsters lie within and the monsters don't care what important treasures they guard. So if we plan loosely we can make it easier to change or add things on the fly.

RPG Blog Carnival - One Roll Fae NPCs

Since my last Carnival post I've been thinking about Faerie NPCs, what sort of things they might want and what interesting trades they might offer unwary PCs … grab a set of polyhedral dice or use the JavaScript roller below to find out!

The d6 - Type

1. Dryad or other female Fae
2. Satyr or other male Fae
3. Sprite or Leprechaun
4. Pixie or Faerie
5. Wild Elf or Gnome
6. man-beast of some kind: Faun, Centaur, Kitsune...

The d4 - It has an aspect of

1. spring - bright green shades, suggestions of flower buds
2. summer - vivid colours, suggestions of flowers in full bloom
3. autumn - red / brown shades, suggestions of fruits and seeds
4. winter - grey or white shades, suggestions of bark or twigs

Railroad / Sandbox / Other - The Third Alternative

Image (cc) Dean Peters

There is a sliding scale between the "Railroad" and the "Sandbox" when it comes to RPG campaigns, and between pre-planned and on-the-fly content.

Railroads are pre-set linear story paths that the players can break by deviating from them; this is the main criticism that tends to be levelled at traditional published adventures.  The storyteller in me wants a beginning, a middle, and an end for my campaign "season" just like a TV season, but I don't want to railroad the players. And I don't want to prep it all up-front!

Sandboxes are environments that let the plots be driven by the players; the GM leaves hooks and clues for them to find but the story follows the players' choices.  The storyteller in me loves this, I love to build in player stories, but I don't want to prep a load of stuff that won't get used and I don't want to wing too much

But these aren't the only structure options, these are just the options we see in modules because they are the options that are easy to publish.  I'm looking for a low-prep option 3.

Dynamic RPG Plotting Project

Image (cc) paganjesus

I'm the kind of person who likes to have a project, so I'm setting myself one right here.

For years I've been looking for a way to weave the player characters into engaging plots while still keeping prep low and flexibility high, and it finally feels like things are falling into place. My hobby project for the rest of this year [EDIT: now ongoing!] is going to be formalising my ideas and getting them down on paper. Electrons. Like so:

1. How I Learned to Let Go and Embrace the Chaos
2. Railroad / Sandbox / Other
3. Reusability and Separation of Concern 
4. Using a Grid for Plot Components
5. Populating the Grid 
6. Using the Grid for Planning 
7. Reshuffling Items in the Grid 
8. Example Campaign 

Sounds manageable, and by the end I'll know if it works or not. Hope you'll follow along. I'll be using this post as an index as I go and post a retrospective at the end, wish me luck!

RPG Blog Carnival - A Band of Fair Folk

Image (cc) amorphisss

Fae don't seem to feature much in Dungeons and Dragons games (that I have played) and I think it's probably because they're low challenge in combat. But why would faeries, who are essentially physically weak extradimensional magic users, be interested in engaging in combat when they could be playing to their strengths?

By their nature, the Fair Folk are otherworldly, capricious, playful, powerful, and broadly disinterested in us and our world unless they can derive some entertainment or gain.

Here are my thoughts on how to take advantage of this nature to have fun at the table: