My Gaming Notebook (or how I am learning to embrace order)

Let's start by saying I lean somewhat toward Chaotic. My notes, traditionally, are scribbled on margins, envelope backs, and other blank spaces sighted within my apathy radius.

I also have real difficulty with parsing text or writing while I'm talking or listening.

In that context, let's talk about July RPG Blog Carnival topic of "The Gamer's Notebook".  This post sat in my drafts since the beginning of the month as I wanted to take the opportunity to actually think about what I should be doing and if my emergent process is actually any good.

As a GM:

When I run a game I have started trying to keep separate reusable reference sheets for different things depending on their purpose and just reference the ones I need that session. I dread flicking through monster lists at the table as much as I do looking backward and forward in a published adventure looking for a certain piece of information.

Generally I'll want to have:

Sci-Fi Dungeon / Derelict Adventure Generator

I saw there is a One Page Derelict jam on itch.io and thought it would be fun to write up my first Stars Without Number adventure, set on a derelict refuelling station. If these tables give you any ideas for an adventure why not check out the jam?

Based on my seemingly popular 5 Room Dungeon tables from last year. Just roll a set of polyhedral dice and consult the tables for inspiration.

The d20 - Access is challenging because:

1. it is surrounded by space debris.
2. its automatic defences are still active.
3. it is invisible to active sensor sweeps.
4. pirates or other raiders swarm nearby.
5. it was lost due to a hyperspace mis-jump.
6. it is guarded by an alien construct.
7. all the airlocks are on emergency lockdown.
8. someone rich/powerful keeps it secret.
9. it is embedded in an asteroid.
10. it has drifted too far out of the system.
11. it requires antique access keys/protocols.
12. there are rumours that it's haunted.
13. the wreckage is under quarantine.
14. it is infested with vermin or aliens.
15. it drifted into solar storms or radiation.
16. the owning megacorp hushed it up.
17. military access codes are required.
18. a decoy hides its real location.
19. its location is known only to a select few.
20. a rogue AI guards against intruders.

Image (cc) RadoJavor

The d6 - A group of:

(WIP) Playbooks for Stars Without Number

Image (cc) BiPiCado

Midway through my recent SWN campaign I started reading some "Powered By The Apocalypse" games and I really liked the ideas of a) tying the story to the characters and b) character playbooks to help flesh them out.  It reminded me of what I liked about Beyond The Wall.

I started making some "playbooks" for Season 2 of the campaign when one of the players talked to me about not being sure where his PC came from or how it fit in.

They're not complete - by any stretch! - but you can download my Stars Without Number Character Playbooks in their current state from Google Drive and adapt them to your game.

Screenshot below:

Stars Without Number Ship Combat Control Sheet

Image (cc) desuran

I've talked about Stars Without Number a lot. I think I'll probably continue to do so; I love it. One thing I did find hard to keep track of was Ship Combat, fantastic system/minigame though it is, so I decided to make this control sheet. I also think I ran it slightly differently to the book - it felt right to me - so I'll explain how to use the sheet to run it the way I did. I'm sure you can adapt it.

I suggest you have:

• A copy of the Ship Combat Actions for each player (I printed handouts from the free SWN rules) for reference
• One SWN Ship Combat Control Sheet for the table - click to download from Google Drive
• A collection of minis, markers, or tokens to help keep track.  They can represent the players directly or indirectly, it's just for visual reference on the sheet.

On DMing, or How I Learned to Let Go and Embrace the Chaos

Image (cc) Kridily

Dungeons & Dragons is a bad game.*  Bad naughty.  It's irresponsible in that it doesn't show us how to be Dungeon Masters - my favourite term for which is Apocalypse World's "MC" as we are, after all, Master of Ceremonies above all else.

D&D teaches us to build encounters, but not how to build stories and worlds.  It teaches us to think in terms of probabilities and not stakes.  I learnt to DM on 4e and I've spent maybe a decade unlearning how it was presented to me then.  It took Stars Without Number and Dungeon World to open my eyes to how a game could be run.

Friday Freebie: Stars Without Number

Image (cc) Phil Parker on Flickr

How could I not recommend the magnificent Stars Without Number as a top tier FREE GAME?

Stars Without Number is the game that changed how I DM.  It helped me prep just enough and forgot about "building encounters" and start enjoying the game so much more. It's the game I wish I'd run first, but more on that later.

But how does it play?

Mechanically, it's an odd mix of d20 (for combat and saves) and 2d6 (for skills) but the players didn't seem to mind.  Skills are distinct enough without being too granular and it all seems to work.  Being an OSR game there are hit dice and hit points, and my favourite method for rolling HP when you level I have seen so far: roll all your hit dice and get that if it's higher than your current total, or get +1 HP if you rolled lower.  It really helps to smooth the curve.

Making Skill Checks More PBTA

Image (cc) oxpal

One thing I loved when reading Dungeon World was how all the moves fall into the same basic pattern:

• 10+ (on 2d6 plus modifiers) means clean success
• 7-9 means success, but with a cost or limitation
• 6 or less means failure and the DM moves the story along

It's an easy change from pass/fail and it runs right through all "Powered by the Apocalypse" games.  Note how there's no DC. I like this. So often my players roll skill checks and announce the result before I decide the DC that I end up just eyeballing it - so why not get rid of it? This is all about stakes and not about difficulty.