First, to answer your obvious question: Yes, there is such a thing. No, I don't have it nor did I consult it for DMing.
From the last few posts you can gather that I DMed for the first time a few weekends ago and John's thoughts on the subject. I haven't given it much reflection; though I'm about to begin my next campaign. It's about time I paid it a little thought.
It was a LOT of fun. Honestly. I really enjoyed watching them try to work their way through my puzzles or manipulate the NPCs and chase down leads that weren't really there. It held the game up a little and also taught me a lot about thinking like my players do.
You know what else they did? Tested my ability to think on my feet. No matter how much you read about Use what your players give you! Don't negate them! it's really hard that first time not to get defensive of the hours of work you've put into your campaign the first time it happens.
"Amanda, why is Gnell going to Nenlast?"
"To visit his uncle Gniven who runs the inn."
Internal monologue: But I've already made someone who runs the inn. His name is Will and he's going to tell you all about why you should help them. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
This is luckly the moment when the years of hearing "Yes, And" from my improv coach at No Laugh Track Required kicked in and I said "Great!" and decided that Will ran the pub instead. No problem! This trend continued as they decided to try and be sneaky with the locals and then talk to/berate/insult the head of the local "militia" (which is really just a bunch of farmers). When John's character Brevan nearly had a screaming match with this NPC, it was obvious that maybe it was time to move on... (Side note: it was a choice that this NPC was a jerk. It was also a choice for John that his PC be a jerk and insegate him. Hehehe)
I dont want to go too much farther into the encounter as I dont want to potentially spoil a few things that John and Amanda haven't figured out yet. What I will say is that I mis-read some of the rules and the combat was too easy! I'd been so concerned that I would kill them if only two people were playing and they totally plowed through most of the combat. By the end I was adding extra guys so they weren't yawning. I was a little disappointed in the puzzle I'd made, because instead of solving it they just tried every combination until it was completed. Next time I'll be sure to provide some negative consiquences (hee hee).
It may be awile before Gnell is able to join us again so John has asked me to run a different campaign with the local peeps. That's what I'm starting to brainstorm now.
More to come...
Do you have suggestions on how you DM that you think would help?! Take a page out of Ben's book and send them to me. I'll post them up for all to enjoy! (This means you Adam & Eric)
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Lame Little Video
One reason we came to New York? So I could focus on acting and music. It's been good so far; I started auditioning and playing at open mics... both of which are wonderful and terrifying.
I wrote a new song a few weeks ago and recorded this video on Friday night when I was way too tired to be allowed near the camera.
Enjoy:
I wrote a new song a few weeks ago and recorded this video on Friday night when I was way too tired to be allowed near the camera.
Enjoy:
Thursday, September 24, 2009
After Action Report - Barbarians of Nenlast
Last weekend, Darlene took up the mantle of the DM for the first time. Since a DM needs players, I obliged and played the role of Brevan, eladrin fighter and scion of the House of the Autumn Leaves. Gnell the gnome bard was played by Amanda, our dear and true friend.
What follows is an excerpt from Brevan's fieldbook:
Having met on business in Hammerfast, Gnell and I came to travel together to Nenlast, a small fishing village on the eastern shore of Lake Nen. I was questing after an ancient magical spear, rumored to have been lost on the field of battle near modern-day Nenlast. Gnell was making an annual visit to her uncle Gniven, delivering metal goods from Hammerfast for use at his inn.
The people of Nenlast were ill at ease, and with good reason. The Tigerclaw barbarians, who usually trade furs for salted meat and metalwork, had taken up the habit of raiding for their goods. The fishers and farmers of Nenlast were no match for these brutal and experienced warriors, and had been totally unable to repel them. Needless to say, we took it upon ourselves to confront the barbarians. We gathered what information we could from the villagers about the whereabouts and habits of the barbarians, then set off into the wilderness in search of our quarry.
It was our intention to reason with the Tigerclaws, who had been honest trading partners in the past, but the Tigerclaws would have none of it. We were ambushed by an archer and a beastmaster with trained dogs. The barbarians attacked immediately, without warning and without asking any questions. We bested them swiftly and took the archer as a prisoner. Through a mixture of interrogation and tracking, the entrance to the lair of the brigands was soon found.
The camp was located inside an ancient ruin. Though the wall was crumbling, and had lost much of its former glory, it was still high enough to keep out intruders and boasted a magically sealed gate. Gnell, being as skilled in the ways of magic as she is at playing the mandolin, quickly deciphered the magical lock and opened the way.
Inside the camp, we found not barbarian warriors, but city-dwellers from the south. They had in their tents furs and facepaints like the Tigerclaws wear, but they used them only as costumes for scaring the villagers. Their leader, Regdis, was an accomplished warrior and was assisted by a woman mage with mastery over lightning. They were formidable opponents, but were ultimately defeated. Regdis had a letter from an unknown third party named Korin. They were appartently quarreling, but there were no clues about why these people were so far from home, or why they were impersonating the Tigerclaws.
Nenlast appears now to be safe, but for how long? And what has become of the true Tigerclaw clanspeople? I have some further inquiries to make in town about the old battlefield. Perhaps I will also dig deeper into this mystery.
What follows is an excerpt from Brevan's fieldbook:
Having met on business in Hammerfast, Gnell and I came to travel together to Nenlast, a small fishing village on the eastern shore of Lake Nen. I was questing after an ancient magical spear, rumored to have been lost on the field of battle near modern-day Nenlast. Gnell was making an annual visit to her uncle Gniven, delivering metal goods from Hammerfast for use at his inn.
The people of Nenlast were ill at ease, and with good reason. The Tigerclaw barbarians, who usually trade furs for salted meat and metalwork, had taken up the habit of raiding for their goods. The fishers and farmers of Nenlast were no match for these brutal and experienced warriors, and had been totally unable to repel them. Needless to say, we took it upon ourselves to confront the barbarians. We gathered what information we could from the villagers about the whereabouts and habits of the barbarians, then set off into the wilderness in search of our quarry.
It was our intention to reason with the Tigerclaws, who had been honest trading partners in the past, but the Tigerclaws would have none of it. We were ambushed by an archer and a beastmaster with trained dogs. The barbarians attacked immediately, without warning and without asking any questions. We bested them swiftly and took the archer as a prisoner. Through a mixture of interrogation and tracking, the entrance to the lair of the brigands was soon found.
The camp was located inside an ancient ruin. Though the wall was crumbling, and had lost much of its former glory, it was still high enough to keep out intruders and boasted a magically sealed gate. Gnell, being as skilled in the ways of magic as she is at playing the mandolin, quickly deciphered the magical lock and opened the way.
Inside the camp, we found not barbarian warriors, but city-dwellers from the south. They had in their tents furs and facepaints like the Tigerclaws wear, but they used them only as costumes for scaring the villagers. Their leader, Regdis, was an accomplished warrior and was assisted by a woman mage with mastery over lightning. They were formidable opponents, but were ultimately defeated. Regdis had a letter from an unknown third party named Korin. They were appartently quarreling, but there were no clues about why these people were so far from home, or why they were impersonating the Tigerclaws.
Nenlast appears now to be safe, but for how long? And what has become of the true Tigerclaw clanspeople? I have some further inquiries to make in town about the old battlefield. Perhaps I will also dig deeper into this mystery.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Sage Advice
After being out of commission with my first NYC cold I'm finally getting back on my feet. Unfortunately, it means I haven't had a chance to write another post... so instead I'll be sharing the wonderful input of our dear friend Ben.
In response to my "OMG I'm going to DM!!" post Ben sent an e-mail with some guidance, and I thought it would fit well into the flow as I develop as a Dungeon Master. Unfortunately for my victims... uhh, I mean "players" (hee hee) I didn't receive his e-mail before we played on Saturday (I'll explain later). For now, here you go:
I've been pondering what nuggets of juicy wisdom I can add to what John would tell you about GMing. The first detail that I thought you might not have stressed is that DnD4e has just about every conceit that the theater has. The action is broken down into scenes and acts with a very specific structure for how the action is resolved. While there is nothing wrong with this, and in fact much that is good about it, there are other ways to operate. It is possible to instead conduct the action in a more literary fashion where the primary motivation for playing is developing the characters. This is more akin to what White Wolf games (Vampire, Werewolf, Exalted) try and do. These other games take longer to play since you don't just race to the boss fight and kill as fast as you can. And they also take a different priorities amongst the players and GM.
The other detail that John may well have mentioned but I feel it good to bring up. I, for one, find the best antagonists to be intelligent beings doing what we would consider reasonable if the story were told from their point of view. Like the old Wizard trying to achieve immortality. Our only gripe with him is the collateral damage caused by the ritual. It makes the moral life of the characters more than just words on the page. Again these are harder to motivate and pull together for one-shots and are better suited to a campaign.
Lastly, don't just give experience for what the book tells you to. Do your characters only learn and grow from killing things or set piece skill challenges? The point of the game is to have fun and tell a good story. Whatever helps that gets experience.
In response to my "OMG I'm going to DM!!" post Ben sent an e-mail with some guidance, and I thought it would fit well into the flow as I develop as a Dungeon Master. Unfortunately for my victims... uhh, I mean "players" (hee hee) I didn't receive his e-mail before we played on Saturday (I'll explain later). For now, here you go:
I've been pondering what nuggets of juicy wisdom I can add to what John would tell you about GMing. The first detail that I thought you might not have stressed is that DnD4e has just about every conceit that the theater has. The action is broken down into scenes and acts with a very specific structure for how the action is resolved. While there is nothing wrong with this, and in fact much that is good about it, there are other ways to operate. It is possible to instead conduct the action in a more literary fashion where the primary motivation for playing is developing the characters. This is more akin to what White Wolf games (Vampire, Werewolf, Exalted) try and do. These other games take longer to play since you don't just race to the boss fight and kill as fast as you can. And they also take a different priorities amongst the players and GM.
The other detail that John may well have mentioned but I feel it good to bring up. I, for one, find the best antagonists to be intelligent beings doing what we would consider reasonable if the story were told from their point of view. Like the old Wizard trying to achieve immortality. Our only gripe with him is the collateral damage caused by the ritual. It makes the moral life of the characters more than just words on the page. Again these are harder to motivate and pull together for one-shots and are better suited to a campaign.
Lastly, don't just give experience for what the book tells you to. Do your characters only learn and grow from killing things or set piece skill challenges? The point of the game is to have fun and tell a good story. Whatever helps that gets experience.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Simple Folk (Spoiler)
After writing my blog post last night I started looking through the setting maps in the 4.0 DMG and reading through the descriptions. I'm already familiar with some of the areas from the campaigns that JJMIV has been running, so I wanted to working in an area that we haven't already been playing in his world.
As I browsed the book I came upon the humble fishing village of Nenlast. It's nestled in the northeast corner of the map, a few days from Hammerfast.
Text fromthe DMG:
This tiny human village lies at the east end of Lake Nen. The folk here make a meager living by trading smoked fish to the dwarfs of Hammerfast. They also deal with the Tigerclaw barbarians of the Winderbole Forest. When the wild fold choose to trade, they come to Nenlast to barter their pelts and amber for good dwarven metalwork.
I feel a little lame. I wanted to build a great campaign with crazy monsters that made my PCs go "WHAT!?"; but alas, I've disappointed myself. I've written a straight-up brigand campaign.
From my notes last night, here's my concept:
While there are a few surprises on the way, our adventurers will mostly be taking on the bad boys in the woods. I'm fleshing out the details of the role playing and encounters, and then it's go time! Still have to work out the treasure.
One thing that drove me crazy was the Monster Creator from Wizards of the Coast. "Why?" You ask. Well, I put together all my baddies and though I had everything ready to print... only to realize that it wouldn't print out neat little cards like the Character Creator does for your PC! Why not!? AND - if you've put something in your "clip board" you can't pull it back up to print it. Lame. Meh, it's beta.
Time to get my peeps to roll up characters. Here we go!
-D Mc C
As I browsed the book I came upon the humble fishing village of Nenlast. It's nestled in the northeast corner of the map, a few days from Hammerfast.
Text fromthe DMG:
This tiny human village lies at the east end of Lake Nen. The folk here make a meager living by trading smoked fish to the dwarfs of Hammerfast. They also deal with the Tigerclaw barbarians of the Winderbole Forest. When the wild fold choose to trade, they come to Nenlast to barter their pelts and amber for good dwarven metalwork.
I feel a little lame. I wanted to build a great campaign with crazy monsters that made my PCs go "WHAT!?"; but alas, I've disappointed myself. I've written a straight-up brigand campaign.
From my notes last night, here's my concept:
The simple people of Nenlast have recently fallen to despair; the Tigerclaw barbarians have been praying on their simple lives, but who can help them? The local militia are simple fishermen and can do little to stop the wild woodsmen.
While there are a few surprises on the way, our adventurers will mostly be taking on the bad boys in the woods. I'm fleshing out the details of the role playing and encounters, and then it's go time! Still have to work out the treasure.
One thing that drove me crazy was the Monster Creator from Wizards of the Coast. "Why?" You ask. Well, I put together all my baddies and though I had everything ready to print... only to realize that it wouldn't print out neat little cards like the Character Creator does for your PC! Why not!? AND - if you've put something in your "clip board" you can't pull it back up to print it. Lame. Meh, it's beta.
Time to get my peeps to roll up characters. Here we go!
-D Mc C
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Dungeon Mastery
One thing about New York: because we were apart all summer we've been spending a lot of time together. It's also the first time since we've been together that neither of us is going to school. The trick is finding something to do with that time. So? We've been playing a bunch of D&D.
And it got me thinking about what goes into a game. I've watched John pull together dozens of games since we've been together, but I've never helped; I always felt like I didn't know enough. Well, a person has to start somewhere, right?
So I'm taking on the mantle. I'm slipping behind the screen. I'm going to DM my very first adventure.
Obviously, JJMIV is going to help (how could he not?). We've been listening a lot to the D&D podcasts of the gents from Penny Arcade, Scott from PVP, and (sigh) Wil Wheaton. John and I thought it would be fun for me to blog my DM journey.
(For those playing, I'll warn you when there's a spoiler coming)
I've read the Monster Manual and DMG to start with, though it seems my first major road block is not what I expected: I can't find where to start! The thing I'm having most trouble with is inspiration for a story, a plot. Just that drop that starts the creative juices a-flowin'. Nothing. I've tried having JJMIV tell me about a character he wants to play. I've looked at fan fiction and artwork on-line. I've even tried Wiki-How.
Nada.
I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and force it. (Insert "last night" joke about your mom here)
-D Mc C
And it got me thinking about what goes into a game. I've watched John pull together dozens of games since we've been together, but I've never helped; I always felt like I didn't know enough. Well, a person has to start somewhere, right?
So I'm taking on the mantle. I'm slipping behind the screen. I'm going to DM my very first adventure.
Obviously, JJMIV is going to help (how could he not?). We've been listening a lot to the D&D podcasts of the gents from Penny Arcade, Scott from PVP, and (sigh) Wil Wheaton. John and I thought it would be fun for me to blog my DM journey.
(For those playing, I'll warn you when there's a spoiler coming)
I've read the Monster Manual and DMG to start with, though it seems my first major road block is not what I expected: I can't find where to start! The thing I'm having most trouble with is inspiration for a story, a plot. Just that drop that starts the creative juices a-flowin'. Nothing. I've tried having JJMIV tell me about a character he wants to play. I've looked at fan fiction and artwork on-line. I've even tried Wiki-How.
Nada.
I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and force it. (Insert "last night" joke about your mom here)
-D Mc C
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