There are a number of other problems that can come up with introducing a new character to the party, one of the biggest ones being referred to as the union card - the near instant inclusion of a player’s character, despite whatever circumstances they meet under.

Trust, specifically, is an issue when introducing a new character to the party.  Many groups will undoubtedly have secrets, and quite possibly enemies.  The worry that someone might betray them upon discovering this, or even that they were sent by their enemies, is quite realistic.  This worry is even more important if the group is involved in something greater than itself, perhaps a noble quest.  If this is the case, any group would be extremely leery of letting any newcomer simply join their ranks.

Clearly, these issues of trust are best dealt with if you want the best role-playing and story-telling opportunities possible.  What can be done about it?

In a DnD game my wizard character would announce to the party that he was going to give them all some sort of “mental buff,” and then proceed to pretend to cast it on everyone in the party but the newcomer, who would be saved for last.  He would then have Hypnotism cast on him, and since they would fore-go the saving throw the spell automatically succeeded, followed by a demand for a statement of the character’s intentions.  This quickly established at least a basic level of trust.

In situations where the magical or technical means of ensuring an honest answer aren’t available, the best situation is often to have the characters sit down and talk for awhile.  This can be a great opportunity for some role-playing, or you can simply skip over the conversation and come to a general consensus of what was discussed and what the results were.

Unfortunately, many times this is simply not an option due to time constraints or some other obstacle.  If this is the case, the new character should have something immediate to offer the party that would gain at least their temporary trust - until they have time to further establish it.  Some examples of things for the newcomer to offer:

• Money
• Information
• A contact
• Transportation
• Medical Aid/Healing
• Hiding place
• Aid in combat

It is possible to by-pass most of these concerns if the new character some former connection with the PCs, either they had met previously or share a mutual friend.  It is easy to say that the characters had become friendly with someone in their neighborhood who played a minor role that never came into the spotlight - until now.  The other option is for the newcomer to have a referral of sorts from someone who is trusted by the group.

The other concern characters might feel when a newcomer joins the party is that they could wind up being a liability, either because of previous enemies they’ve made, or mistakes they might make in the future - mistakes that could result in the party being killed.  It is not uncommon for many veteran fighters to refuse to fight alongside someone who is unknown to them, or to rely on their preparations for a fight.  Anyone with common sense would be cautious when placing their lives in someone else’s hands, which is exactly what happens when you enter combat with them.

To get over this, it’s best to simply let the newcomer demonstrate their worth.  Put them in a fight that the characters can observe, either against an outside enemy or against a member of the party in order “to prove his worth.”

Remember, when you introduce a new character you are setting the stage for everything else that character will do in the game - a bad introduction can create plot holes or inter-party problems.

What other problems have you run into when introducing new characters?  What do you do to ensure the process goes smoothly?

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Introducing new characters into an existing campaign can be very tricky. There are a number of issues that can complicate things further such as the realism of someone being in the immediate area or the existing PCs having any reason to trust the newcomers with their money and secrets, much less their lives.

Last week I ran a session of my Star Wars game, which takes place sometime after the Sith War, about 4,000 years before the movie. The existing party was made up of two young Jedi who each left the Order and were going through trials to be initiated by Sith Spirits. The requirement for their initiation was that they hunt down and kill at least one Jedi for each of them.

We explained all this to the two new players before the game. Brian chose to play a Force Adept with a strong inclination to the Dark Side, who was found by one of the Sith hopefuls and recruited. All in all, a good concept and a good match with the party.

Nevin’s character was a stark contrast. He built a Rodian Fringer, a mechanic with piloting abilities. He was Force Sensitive, but had no force abilities and no real combat ability. I had reservations in the beginning, and I voiced my concerns, but said that he “should play what [he] wanted,” as I don’t, as a rule, tell players what they should and shouldn’t play.

Looking back, this was a mistake. I should have vetoed the character and either helped Nevin’s rework the character into something viable or helped him build a new character from scratch. As it was, Nevin’s character barely fit in with the party and was barely engaged in combat when the rest of the party entered it. In fact, there were barely any opportunities for his character to shine - and the character build was only half the problem.

Mentally, the character was incongruous with the group. Everyone else had something that drew them to the Dark Side in some way or another, an anger or hatred or fear that they had. Nevin’s character did not. In addition to this, the rest of the party were, in the words of Zorg, “killers - dyed-in-the-wool killers. Cold blooded, clean, methodical and thorough.” Nevin’s character, however, was not.

All of these differences were highlighted and made more clear when their initiation began, and they were presented with a series of Force Illusions which tested their reactions to different circumstances, and were generally designed to push each character further down the path of the dark side and down the path of power. Nevin’s character went temporarily insane almost immediately.

The lesson from all of this is simple, when introducing new characters, it’s important to be willing to veto the ones that just won’t work out, and then help the person correct the problem or build an entirely new character.

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So what do you when you’re ready to come back to gaming after an extended break?

Switch roles. If you’re usually the game master, may-be it’s time to just sit back and let someone else weave the story while you get to be a hero. This takes a lot less creative energy than preparing and running a session and juggling NPCs, storylines, facts about the world and game mechanics.
On the other hand, if you’ve mostly been a player, may-be it’s time to sit down behind the screen and tell a story. There is something very gratifying about taking control and responsibility for a story for the first time, and getting to weave different elements of a story together can be a great way to recharge your batteries if you’re used to navigating the maze of a story instead of designing it.

Do something different. For me, this was finally playing an evil character in an evil party - a Cult of Vecna to be exact. As I’ve wanted to play an evil character for sometime, finally getting to do so with the approval and cooperation of the group was very gratifying. Moreover, it completely changed the roles our characters had to play, and even the way we went about playing the game. It easily inspires roleplaying situations, and gives us a lot of opportunity to interact with people while trying to keep a secret agenda.

Play a game that works differently. I often find that feelings of burnout or futility are tied into over familiarity with a game system. After awhile, seeing the same basic list of feats in different d20 games makes the games, and the characters in them, feel much more repetitive than they should. Another solution could be playing a different edition of a game you’re already playing. The differences between the Dungeons and Dragons editions are remarkable, even if you don’t count the 3/3.5 editions - previous editions use very similar mechanics, but the abilities and structure of classes and races are laid out differently in each edition.

Keep the sessions short. Before I took a break from gaming, twelve hour sessions seemed like nothing to me. Coming back into gaming, I notice my attention starts to wander after five hours or so. It’s not that I’m not longer having fun, it’s simply that I’ve had enough. Continuing past this point, especially on a regular or repeated basis, will quickly lead you back down the path to burnout. It’s better to cut the session short and be eager to start again next time than get overly drained and burnt out again.

Go at your own pace. It can be tempting to start gaming a lot without much time in between, especially if that’s what the rest of the group wants and is pressuring you to do.  Your duty is to remain firm:  Anymore than you’re comfortable with and you’ll just wind up burnt out and not gaming again.  Arrange for a second game to be played when you’re not there, or for your character to pop in and out of gameplay as your schedule permits.

Ask “Why do I want to game?” Whatever your reason for gaming, you need to be clear with yourself about it so that you can pursue it instead of hoping that you get it.  If you game to relieve frustration, talk to friends, or tell stories but you don’t wind up doing enough of these things then you are going to burn out again.

Find a new group. In some cases, it may simply be that you were not compatible with the whole or part of your gaming group.  Perhaps you had different reasons for playing, different style of play, different preferred games or just an unsolvable personality conflict.  Whatever the reason, a fresh group could fix the problem.  Consider this carefully before acting on it, and be sure not to burn any bridges - you, or they, might come around some day.

Is there anything that’s helped you ease back into gaming after a hiatus?

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If you want to take advantage of the map making power in the ProFantasy tools but don’t want to invest a lot money take a look at their map catalog. These can provide you the detailed map you want, and with a little clever photoshopping the names and descriptions can be adapted to display whatever you want, leaving the geographic maps in place.

Dundjinni is a great alternative to ProFantasy at only $39.95. Offering one software package, there is some great functionality in Dundjinni that’s lacking from ProFantasy - Dundjinni comes with built in creature stats from many different games, making adventure authoring much simpler. You can find a complete list of features for Dundjinni here.

AutoREALM is a free GNU program designed to map out castles, cities, dungeons and overland views. While AutoREALM lacks some of the features and powers of the more costly alternatives, its a great program to give you some power without spending any money.

Intense control and expert maps can be made with software like Photoshop and Corel Draw, but this is far from my field of expertise. If you are interested in making professional quality maps with this kind of software, I highly recommend this guide, which comes complete with pictures and examples.

RPG Map Share is an online community dedicated to sharing maps of different levels of detail, as other visual aids for games. This is a great place to check for pre-made maps, as well as to upload your own creations for other people to enjoy and use.

If you’re looking for more free options, check out iG-Tools map section. The first section will provide you with several hundred pre-made maps, while the following section provides some online interactive map makers which are labeled as experimental.

Games which take place in modern day Earth can take advantage of tools like Google Maps for not just the overland maps, but the map to be used on the fly during game play. During a d20 zombie game set in modern day New York, we once set up a laptop at the game table which allowed us to look at close ups of New York City and see exactly what our characters saw - buildings, streets, alleys - things which wouldn’t show up on normal topographical maps but are of extreme importance.

In another game I played in, the world bore a striking resemblance to Greyhawk in terms of geography. In fact, the game master had copied the Greyhawk map out of the book, re-labeled everything and adapted it all to his game, and proceeded to use it for a long-term campaign. This worked beautifully for him, issues of similarity between his world and Greyhawk never once cropping up.

Invisible walls are something that have been used in video game maps for years to great effect.  The name comes from a literal invisible wall which would be placed in 3D video games to limit the playing field while still making it appear vast and open ended.  Invisible walls can be subtle while remaining just as effective.

Grand Theft Auto 3, a game famous and popular for it’s open world nature, brilliantly employs the use of visible walls to limit the area the player moves around in at the beginning of the game.  The bridge being out stops any player from advancing too far too quickly, while also relating itself to the game’s story.  This is an invisible wall of practicality - a virtual wall that is formed by circumstances to achieve the same effect.

The same thing can be done in your own map making and world building.  Long stretches of harsh terrain, beset by either temperature extremes or impassable nature, such as a near endless ocean or a high-altitude mountain range.  Storms and other weather events can also be used as excellent invisibles walls.

Invisible walls can also be made out of living creatures.  A classic example of this is the beast guarding the bridge, requiring tribute in the form of goods or information before anyone could pass.  In Lord of the Rings, Moria was filled with invisible walls in the form of the trolls and orcs as well as the balrog.

Used carefully, invisible walls can limit the movement of players while you continue building the world and prepare the next stage for them.

One final and optional thing to consider when creating maps for your world, and especially when presenting them to players, is that since the maps are most likely being created entirely on a two dimensional surface, which means that there will be some distortion in terms of shape and size.

To gain an idea of how big an effect these distortions can have, they are the reason that on Mercator maps Greenland looks bigger than South America.  For a quick overview on map distortions and examples of the different kinds, see this Map Projection Overview.

Do you know of any map tools, tutorials or techniques I didn’t mention here?  Share them in the comments!

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At the behest of my friends, I entered a Magic: The Gathering booster draft tournament with them.  As Wikipedia says:

In a booster draft, several players (usually eight) are seated around a table and each player is given three booster packs. Each player opens a pack, selects a card from it and passes the remaining cards to his or her left. Each player then selects one of the 14 remaining cards from the pack that was just passed to him or her, and passes the remaining cards to the left again. This continues until all of the cards are depleted. The process is repeated with the second and third packs, except that the cards are passed to the right in the second pack. Players then build decks out of any of the cards that they selected during the drafting and add as many basic lands as they want.

This was my first booster draft game, and I was more than nervous given the unpredictable nature of it.  I wasn’t sure how to plan what cards to take to put into my deck, or even what a lot of the cards might be, as this tournament was limited to cards from the Ravnica block, which I was unfamiliar with.

I put on my brave face and built my deck, determined to have a good time regardless of how I did and to learn so I could build a better deck during the next draft.  In my first match, I was paired up against an obviously experienced player who entered these sorts of tournaments on a regular basis.  Each pairing played best two out of three, so I knew that I had more than just one chance.

During our first game my opponent, who we’ll call The Judge, was quick to spot any flaw in game-play.  For instance, after noticing that I had played my cards in the incorrect order, playing a creature card before I had played the last land card needed to pay the cost, he insisted I untap the land and return the creature to my hand.  I obligingly did so, re-tapped the land and played the creature again.  This made no difference in the course of game-play.

He continued to give advice of this sort to other players as well on both sides of the table, pointing out if someone had done something wrong or misread a card.  Grumbles were thrown at him from around the table, as well as at least one evil eye.

I lost the first game, but I re-shuffled my deck and started the second, hoping to best him.  At some point in the first few turns, we came to a disagreement about how to interpret a card I had just played.  The person in charge of the event noticed our dispute and came over to resolve it and declare an official ruling.  When he approached and asked what the problem was, my opponent raised his hands and declared quite loudly, “It’s cool.  I’m a Judge.”

The Judge then insisted that the official leave, and actually managed to bully him into it.  As I was pretty sure I was going to lose anyway, I scooped at this point to save myself further contact with him.

I continued to sit at the table to wait for my friends to finish, and happily watched their games and dissected different matches with them when they weren’t in the middle of a match.  The Judge continued to offer advice, criticism and rulings on matches that he was in and observing.  At several points, he was physically threatened with violence by other players at the table.

I’ve never encountered a player quite like The Judge before, and with a little luck I never will again.

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According to the SRD, “Your hit points measure how hard you are to kill.” It goes on to expand, “Hit points mean two things in the game world: the ability to take physical punishment and keep going, and the ability to turn a serious blow into a less serious one.”

However, according the 3.5 PHB, hit points are “a measure of a character’s health.”

Here we have a conflict in the definitions and the beginnings of a problem. The problem is further convoluted by the PHB and the SRD both saying “Constitution represents your character’s health and stamina.”

These descriptions and definitions only give us half the picture of exactly what everything does.

Constitution provides bonuses or penalties to the fortitude save and hit points, indicating that it provides a general understanding of the creature’s over-all health, regardless of it’s current condition. The fact that normal combat can take place, and a creature may be slain without it’s Constitution being affected until it’s death. In fact, as an ability, Constitution cannot be damaged in normal combat.

Hit points have a direct and obvious correlation to the creature’s death - at -10, the creature is dead. This would obviously imply a connection to health, but there are still multiple ways to interpret this connection.

One interpretation says that the SRD definition, that hit points represent “the ability to take physical punishment and keep going, and the ability to turn a serious blow into a less serious one,” can be said to apply to any and all hit points beyond the first. The PHB definition, that hit points are “a measure of a character’s health,” applies to the hit points between negative ten and one, which is represented by the character becoming disabled or dying after dropping below one hit point.

A second interpretation says that both definitions apply simultaneously to the whole range of hit points. This interpretation, while less realistic, is much simpler when calculating the effects of different in-game events and mechanics that relate to hit points, such as damage reduction and healing.

A third interpretation states that hit points represent health and only health, and that “the ability to turn a serious blow into a less serious one” is represented sufficiently through Damage Reduction.

Determining what definition of hit points applies in a game helps interpret exactly what happens during play, painting a smoother and more consistent image for the participants.

How do you define hit points? Is it something you ever think about? Has the definition ever affected game play, and not just your enjoyment?

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Key questions to ask yourself before beginning:

• How much time am I willing to invest?
• How much energy am I willing to invest?
• How much money am I willing to invest?
• What resources do I already have?
• Is there a deadline?
• Who will play in it, and what do they want out of it?
• What am I building the campaign world for?

The first five questions are designed to determine how big a task you are willing to tackle. The sixth question is to establish who you are building the world for, and what they want out the setting. It’s a terrible disappointment to find out that a player is only interested in a sword and sorcery setting or games that involve a lot of intrigue after spending weeks building a setting for a pulp action game.

The last question attempts to determine how big the task in front of you is. If you are a building a campaign world to host a single campaign, then you are able to create a smaller and more linear world for the game to take place in. If, however, you are creating a campaign world to host a number of campaigns, adventures, and characters over a longer time span, then you’re looking at a much more complex task.

When examining what resources you already have, pay particular attention to your existing game materials. Go through your old game supplies and look for software, charts, maps, organizations and NPCs. Make mental or physicals notes of where different materials exist for future reference. For example, if you happen to have the old TSR Core Rules CD for Second Edition DnD, you have two map makers: one that is proprietary and rather simple, as well as the more complex and intricate Campaign Cartographer 2.

Tomorrow, I will discuss building maps for the campaign world.

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After getting my computer working, I began working quite hard on re-working the Aleph Fantasy game to incorporate a number of changes and modifications that had come to me in my dreams the week before. Most of the changes are largely cosmetic and focused around filling in some blank spots and tying game elements together. Unfortunately, because my data files had not yet been restored, this meant that I had to re-type the ~90 pages by hand, reading the old hard-copy version and making changes as I went along.

Tuesday night I ran a quick test session to ensure that the changes didn’t have any unintended ramifications of impacts. If you’ve ever spent two solids days re-typing, modifying, formatting and editing information before staying up all night to run a game you can understand and appreciate the coma that followed.

I’ve had a lot of 4e rage lately, a lot of which resulted from reading the Races and Classes preview book, and being shocked by how uber the Dragonborn are and the knowledge that Tieflings would be in the core books, but not Aasimar because, to paraphrase, it’s hard to make them look cool. However! They will be introducing a new Celestial race that’s crafted out of the same pool of uber as the Dragonborn.

The next bit of 4e anger came when I read a Wizards article on Death and Dying in 4e, which included a little section on how to implement the 4e-style rules in a 3e/3.5 game:

If you’re dying at the end of your turn, roll 1d20.
Lower than 10: You get worse. If you get this result three times before
you are healed or stabilized (as per the Heal skill), you die.
10-19: No change.
20: You get better! You wake up with hit points equal to one-quarter your
full normal hit points.

…What? As far as I can tell, you’re not be healed or treated in this instance. This is for someone who is bleeding out on the ground by themselves. And there’s a 5% chance they go from dying to one quarter health. I simply can’t wrap my mind around that logic.

The article insinuated that the actual 4e numbers are likely to be a bit bigger, so we’ll see what changes are made there, how well it’s explained and how well the rules work together (the most important bit). If you’d like to read the article in it’s entirety, you can find it here.

Or if you don’t want to sign into Wizards to read it, you can read a copy of it here without signing into anything here.

One of the best things that can happen to me is getting an e-mail about some new gaming service/product/website from a reader or company, it always make me happy to see how much content there is out there and how much more good content there is for me to discover.

Recently I was e-mailed and alerted about a DnD Blog called the Tavern of the White Wolf. The content seems to exclusively be DnD-related, and a lot of the content can be pretty easily adapted to other systems. The content is all of a good quality, and since the site is still active and updated once or twice a day, you’ll likely find a good stream of DnD content here for at least some time.

I was also recently contacted by Trask from LivingDice.com who has started a nice gaming blog with some great content as well as a heads up about free d20 modules.

So what’s next? For the next week, I’m going to work on a series to help you build a campaign world. Information will be included on topics from map making to religion design.

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Drama moments are those moments in a game where all the rules are thrown out or bent for a moment so that, in a moment of GM Fiat, the right thing can happen. Drama moments are often employed to match excellent role-playing, to ensure that the story continues on the right path or that the story ends on the right note and in general to ensure that the over-all enjoyment isn’t compromised.

Some examples of drama moments include:

• A character casting a spell they do not know or do not have access to
• A character taking extra actions
• A character shrugs off damage
• A character automatically accomplishes something that normally requires dice to be rolled
• A character over-comes a powerful magical effect

But why include drama moments when GM Fiat is generally considered a bad thing? Drama moments are not random or in place solely to gratify one individual - they serve the story and the communal enjoyment of the game.

If you’re not sure if a given situation is appropriate for a drama moment, ask yourself the following questions:

• If the wrong thing happens, can the game still be fun?
• Does it affect the entire group?
• Can the game/story continue if the wrong thing happens?
• Can they try again?
• If the wrong thing happens, does that prevent the right thing from happening later?
• Is the wrong thing primarily left up to chance?

If the answer to most or all of these questions is yes, then you’ve most likely encountered a drama moment where GM Fiat is acceptable.

Some things to keep in mind with drama moments:

Try not to let the player’s know it’s happening. By keeping it hidden, the players enjoy it more because it feels natural to them. If the situation would normally call for dice to be rolled, roll them behind your screen so that players cannot see them.

Make the players feel responsible. If you’re ensuring that an unlikely turn of events plays out in the game, present the players with something they can do to “improve the odds.” By doing so and having the players do this, they will not only feel more responsible for the events, but they will be more accepting of the unlikely turn of events because they “made [the events] likely.”

Have a reason handy as to how and why things worked differently.  If the player accessed an unusual level of magical abilities, a new source of magical power that was tapped and run dry during the drama moment is sufficient to explain what happened.  Similarly, outside intervention, luck, favor of the gods, adrenaline are all acceptable excuses.

Remember, the worst thing that can happen from a drama moment is the players trying to futilely to re-create the circumstances or accomplish the same phenomenal task.

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If you’re looking for the most up-to-date information about fourth edition, you’re probably better off cruising ENWorld or Wizards’ website.  If you want timely information that’s also updated and collected into a rumors and facts section for quick referencing, then this is probably for you.

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