Ending a Campaign
Just before the holidays, I was finally able to draw a three year campaign to a close. This was a challenge to both me and my players, as this was the first campaign of mine to reach a close. Here are two things I learned from running the session.
Prepare a quick ending. When we started the session, the general understanding was that we had two or three more sessions in which to conclude the game, and the pacing of the game was set up to mirror this. Unfortunately, this was only the result of poor communication, as one player could not return after this session due to an imminent relocation to another state. This coupled with a player’s significant other having severe car trouble, and we were left with two hours in which to conclude a three year campaign which I had planned on spending another two nights on.
As a result of all this, the game was most certainly rushed, scenes were skipped and some mysteries went unsolved during the game. Worst yet, there were two prophecies hanging over the game, one much more recent and naming a lot more events and entities, albeit very vaguely. This second prophecy gave me another five or six events which I had to pull to a close quickly. For each of these events, if I had prepared an alternate event which could have taken its place, my job would have been much easier.
It’s important to have a quick ending prepared not only in case the schedule suddenly shifts, but in case the game itself does. For many experienced game masters, it isn’t a terrible problem when a campaign takes a strange turn, as there is always time left in the future to get things back on track or adjust for the sudden shift. With the end of the game approaching, however, this is not always the case.
The key question to determining if something needs a quick way to end it is “Will the game be worse off if this isn’t resolved before it ends?” If the answer is yes, then be sure to prepare something. If the answer is no, then there is no harm in sweeping it under the rug (or behind the screen for that matter.)
Prepare an alternate ending.
There was a point prior to the end of the campaign where the party (thanks to a Deck of Many Things) was nearly wiped out. If not for a remarkable stroke of luck, the party would have been dead and the campaign over with no even remotely reasonable way out of it. If a situation like this crops up and you are unprepared, it can be devastating. With proper preparation, it can be made into a great plot hook and even a new campaign.
For instance, let us say the goal of a campaign is to stop a demon overlord from coming through a portal and beginning the apocalypse, and the players, for some reason or another, fail at this. The demon overlord comes through the portal and triggers the apocalypse, as well as several options for a follow-up campaign. Perhaps the next campaign will take place in this post-apocalyptic world, or perhaps it will continue the fight on the other side of the portal, rebelling against the demon overlord. Perhaps fighting the apocalypse is useless, and the next campaign is focused around trying to survive during the apocalypse itself.
Being prepared for the campaign to end differently allows you to not only set the stage properly for these events, but make the failure something more: a tragedy.
Get positive feedback. Ending a campaign is very draining and tiring, as well as the culmination of a lot of work. While it might not normally be your practice to make your players offer feedback, now is an appropriate time to do so. After the session is over, grab some limelight for yourself and enjoy it as your players tell you about how they enjoyed the game.
How do you end a campaign?
Five Ways to Improve Your Game
A few days ago, Yax wrote on article on several ways to improve a DnD game.
Remove every distraction possible. It’s universally agreed upon that distractions and disruptions in any game not only makes the game less enjoyable by itself, but also removes people from the game and causing the quality of the game to suffer for a time after the distraction/disruption ends. Turn off cell phones, shut down instant messaging clients, and hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door if needed.
Whenever any situation comes up in the game where you feel something has provoked a character, or you would like it to, ask the player to share the reaction with the group. This encourages character immersion and does a lot to set the mood by having players describe how their characters feel.
If the party splits up, if at all possible, keep everyone at the table, or at least in the same room. Making players stop playing for a time in the middle of a session breaks the flow of everything, and results in boredom. If possible, have the players stay in the room so that they can listen. You may also want to consider having a small project for them, such as having them write up notes about the game, or write a character journal entry relating to something. A small reward for the player encourages them to do this, and doesn’t remove them from the game.
Exaggerate NPC characteristics. I don’t mean you should do this to a ridiculous degree, but times where I have exaggerated NPC characteristics to make them particularly noticeable, annoying or endearing, my players have never thought I was exaggerating the characteristics. It may seem over the top when presented, but rarely when it is received - especially if you don’t happen to be an actor.
Recognize that the story being told may well be bigger than the characters which the game focuses on. By making this apparent to your players while keeping the main focus on them, you add a lot to the feeling that they are making a difference, and that what their characters do actually matters.
Game Weather
Weather in RPGs is one of the most overlooked and simplest way to add flavor and attitude to a game. Because weather rarely comes into play as far as logistics goes, it often goes ignored. In the last four years, the only time I have heard players ask about the status of weather, it was because they were wondering if they could use a storm or wind based spell that required certain weather conditions.
How do you create weather in RPGs that is realistic, interesting and doesn’t come across as repetitive? Go outside on a regular basis during different times of day and write down whatever weather patterns are presenting themselves. Learn the conditions when dew turns into a misty fog in the early morning, or whatever else you can gleam. Use these descriptions to create a scene for your players to imagine in their heads.
For instance, here is a description of adventurers waking up in the woods without weather being part of the description:
The last watch shift ends at dawn, and you begin breaking down the campsite and hiding any record of your presence lest you be tracked. Calls of wild-life emanate from within the forest.
Compare this to a description of the same scene with weather included as a factor:
The last watch shift ends at dawn, and you begin breaking down the campsite and hiding any record of your presence lest you be tracked. A low fog rolls over the ground, forcing you to go up a tree in order to scout the surrounding area and get your bearings. Looking out over the forest, many patches are filled with an obscuring mist. Calls of wild-life emanate from beyond the mists, reminding you of how little you see of what’s around you.
These scenes are essentially the same as far as any mechanics go, and there may or may not be an ambush or other peril waiting for them within the fog. The image of it, however, is quite evocative and sets a mood for the players. Encouraging them to imagine the scene allows them to create an image of it in their minds, forcing them to interact with the game and become more immersed in it.
How do you create weather scenes and descriptions?
Changing Your Game’s Alignment
Alignment is one of those tricky substances that can make or break a game, and I have yet to meet someone who feels about and defines the alignments the same way as the next person. Here are some house rules you can implement your game to help make alignment run a bit more smoothly and feel more meaningful when it comes into.
Detecting alignment does not detect the alignment of anything that does not have the Evil/Good/Lawful/Chaotic/Whatever descriptor on it. It is, however, able to detect current intentions and thoughts, so that a person contemplating an evil act would show up to Detect Evil. This solves the problem of a lawful good society declaring it illegal to be evil and simply executing everyone who glowed red when Detect Evil was cast. Additional story lines may-be weaved in involving sleeper agents, a la the Manchurian Alignment.
Alignment detection only detects the alignment relative to the person detecting it, so that the detection will only detect evil/good/law/chaos as defined by the character. This creates more roleplaying opportunities and allows characters to be blinded by their prejudices, while simultaneously reducing the concreteness and definitiveness of alignments.
Allow players to declare no-alignment, meaning that they do not gain any alignment based DR and they are unable to overcome alignment based DR, or be the subject of any alignment based spells. Doing this causes alignment to become special again, and someone with a Good alignment or Lawful Good alignment is someone special and someone who is especially dedicated to those beliefs. An added benefit is that when doing this, sorting out the proper alignment for a character is far easier - if it is clear, then the alignment choice is easy, but if not then Null Alignment seems the best choice.
An additional benefit from implementing the two rules above is that it stops players from engaging in combat simply because of alignment, which stops a lot of mindless slaughtering and encourages actual roleplaying.
What house rules have you introduced to deal with alignment in your game?
Evaluating Your Game: Part Three
This is part three in an ongoing series, designed to help you evaluate and improve your game from the ground up. Previously, I discussed Genre, Setting, and Scope, followed by an analysis of Character Generation Methods. Today, I’m going to explore the role that randomness plays in your game.
When I talk about randomness, I mean meaningful randomness which affects the outcome of events purely through game mechanics. Rolling a die for an attack roll is a good example, where deciding what clothes a random bar patron is wearing is not.
First, what does the randomness represent in your game? Is it luck? Favor of the gods? An independent range of outcomes? A range to succeed or fail, determined by skill? While many people may be tempted to assume it is the last one, keep in mind that in many games, the range of randomness is never affected by skill, simply what is acceptable in that range to succeed. Be sure to consider this in all aspects of the game, skill use, combat, and character creation. For instance, why are hit points random?
Once you’ve determined what role randomness plays in your game, determine how big of a role it can play in the course of a game. You may be surprised.
For instance, in the d20 system you may assume that someone has a Base Attack Bonus of +10. In addition to this, their stat modifier gives them a +4 bonus to their attack roll. Further, they have managed through use of superior equipment, positioning, and tactics to acquire an additional +6 bonus to their attack roll, giving them a total of +20 to their attack. This means that thorough skill and preparation which borders on or exceeds the “realistic” human limit plays an equal role to pure, random chance.
Once you have figured out the role that chance plays, determine if it is the correct role. Does it play too big a part? Too small? Does it scale the way you want it to? (If scaling luck is of importance to you, I recommend looking into systems with dice pools.) If the answer to all these questions is no, then you need to ask yourself if your players will be happy with the role chance plays - if it plays too big a part, players may feel that chance simply dwarfs their character.
If you are investigating new systems, one thing to look at is how they present the odds of chance. Simply on a practical level, percentile is the easiest to work with, as people usually think in percentages when they think in terms of chance - it’s simply more natural than increments of 1/20th or 1/6th.
The final consideration with chance and randomness is how much you will do during play to minimize or alter it. If you are going to allow re-rolls in many instances due to clever thinking, or it simply being appropriate in the situation, this will slowly control the role that chance plays.
Best Game Resources
Some games and books are ideally suited to providing inspiration and ideas for games, even if the game to be played is of an entirely different genre. Here are some of my favorites:
Dark Matter. The Dark Matter campaign is ideally suited towards conspiracy and paranormal games, and provides a lot of space geared towards describing organizations in enough detail to provide a slew of hooks and plot ideas. Each organization is fairly universal and may be exported or converted to other settings with little in the way of problems.
Complete Mafia for d20. The historical information available in this book provides a good history of how criminal organizations work in the real world, and the detailed descriptions of criminal organizations and roles of members will give you a great start on detailing the criminal aspect of any world or setting in your own game.
Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition. Theoretically, any edition of the game will work, but I have far more experience with this version. Anytime a truly “alien” entity or effect is needed, a flip through this book will provide either a great example or great inspiration. The d20 version may provide more direct compatibility with other d20 games.
Rifts, Heroes, GURPs, or any other “universal” point-buy system. While these games aren’t always as universal as we might like, there’s a lot of diversity in those systems, and the books are written to encourage the building of anything - both through mechanics and stirring up ideas.
Planescape. In my mind, Planescape is the most complete Dungeons and Dragons setting in existence. Anytime something in the game happens that involves any plane other than the Prime Material, I consult with Planescape for ideas, rules, and inspiration.
TSR Wizard’s/Priest’s Spell Compendium. Four volumes each, these compilations take spells and descriptions from almost every TSR game, setting, adventure and magazine release for several decades. The spells are updated for balance and use, and provide the widest variety of spells and abilities I’ve seen in any set of DnD products. Alternatively, you can get the wizard or priest spell cards, which contain identical information.
Darwin’s World. Darwin’s World combines elements from numerous genres, providing ample information and inspiration for post-apoc games, mutant games, or high tech games. The affiliates and organizations in the game also provide great templates and can easily be exported to other games or genres. (I still would love to play an X-Men game with Darwin’s organizations.)
What resources do you go to when you need some inspiration?
Resuming a Campaign
A long time member of my gaming group is set to return from AIT in the middle of the month, allowing us to continue a campaign that after nearly three years, approaches its conclusion. While this is very exciting, it can also be daunting, as it has been several months since any of us has played that game, that world, or even that system.
In honor of this upcoming event, here are some tips for resuming a campaign that has been on hiatus.
Group Memory Jog. Get as many members of the group together sometime before the game, and simply discuss the game. Good topics that will help jog the memory include character biographies, stories over how items came to be with the party, and goals that characters had. All of this will help get rid of some of the cobwebs and get peoples’ mind going about the game.
Role-play Before the Game. Set up a basic premise which will cause the players to role-play their characters, both with each other and a small cast of NPCs. This can either be part of the game or a separate exercise to help people get started. This gives people an additional chance to get used to their characters skin.
Hang-out Without Gaming. If the group has been apart for long in addition to the game being on hold, not only does everyone has a lot of catching up to do, but they may need some time to get reacquainted and used to each other again. Make sure everyone is comfortable around everyone else again before you try resuming the game.
Pre-pare a “Best of…” By preparing a best of list for each of the characters, you’re reminding everyone not only of the things that made the characters great and their greatest accomplishments, but also of what the characters were like and what had been important to the storyline and the game. Make sure to prepare a good selection which both demonstrates the past experience of the game, and prepares everyone for the experience ahead.
Field Questions. Before the game starts, open up the floor to questions for everyone. These questions can go in any direction - player to player, player to narrator or narrator to player. These last minute clarifications can prove invaluable.
Start Off Slow. No matter how much preparation you put into it, things are likely going to start off a little slow. If this is the case, you simply need to allow for some time for the game to once again pick up momentum. Sometimes this can take one or two sessions, but usually by the middle of the first session the game seems to be in full swing again.
What do you do to resume a game that’s been on hold?
First Time Narrating
One of my players and best friends has wanted to run a game of d20 Mafia for sometime. After I picked up a copy of it at PhilCon I provided my friend with access to it, so he could learn the system in preparation. This has inspired me to write an article with some advice for him and other first time Narrators.
Don’t Worry. We know it’s your first time, and we’re going to be patient. More over, we know about the game you’re running, and we’re already interested. You’ve already won us over.
Don’t Skip A Beat. When I studied musical instruments, my instructors always told me to continue playing without pausing, hesitating, or reversing if I made a mistake. It might be glaringly obvious to me, but most likely, no one else. And no matter who noticed it, more people will notice it if anything is done to draw attention to it.
Ask For Help. There’s a good likelihood that your players have learned the rules to at least some degree, either from playing previously or simply studying them prior to the game. This is an excellent resource for you to take advantage of: Not only can you use them as a direct resource, but you can use their knowledge of the reference materials to find information quickly.
Don’t Over Reach. It’s your first game, and it’s the first time anyone else is playing your game. Keep it simple - your main goal should be to introduce yourself to the game and to running it, and your players into playing your game.
Take Feedback. At the end of the session, or even during, ask for some feedback. If you ask for some during the game, try to keep it quick so as not to disrupt the flow too much, unless a break is already being taken.
Accept the Feedback. There can be a tendency to second guess the feedback of players, and think that they may be praising the game simply so you won’t feel bad. While certainly people will be more patient with you the first time, they know it is in their interest to be honest. Accept the feedback.
Pat Yourself on the Back. Narrating for the first time is not only difficult, it’s scary. Regardless of any other level of success, simply getting through it is an accomplishment.
Any advice you’d like to share with anyone who’s running a game for the first time?
A Different Kind of Artifact
In traditional Dungeons and Dragons-esque games, Artifacts are items of immense magical power, usually with a terrible price attached to their use, such as a curse, or something else. In fact, the rules are written to encourage this type of item.
For some artifacts this proves a good model, especially if the item is already in the control of an enemy. But so artifacts to spawn creativity and story ideas, and to be able to be a continuing source of them, I think a different set of creation criteria is needed.
The best artifact I can remember encountering came from the third Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in the form of the scepter which allowed the turtles to travel through time. What are the elements that made this item so perfect?
Re-usability. The scepter has no reason to be destroyed, which means that it can easily be re-used at any point, whether because of a return to the past, or someone else stealing the item. There are many different stories to be told with this one item.
No Strings Attached. The scepter never forced anyone into a story line or line of action, in fact all it does is create opportunities for new and different things to happen.
Plot Driver. The scepter drives the plot in new directions naturally, just by having players explore the consequences of the items abilities.
Zero Repulsion. There are many artifacts which players and characters alike will do their best to distance themselves from. This item not being one of them means that it encourages players to embrace the story, instead of making the story about escaping the story itself.
Infinite Possibilities. Perhaps the best part of the scepter is that it can allow time travel between any points where the scepter exists, so long as equal mass is displaced. This means that in addition to returning to ancient Japan, travel is possible to other points in the past as well as the future.
How do you like to design artifacts in your game? What kind of artifacts would you like to see more of?
Flashbacks
One of the more difficult things to pull off when running a game is the flashback scene, especially if that scene proves vital to the story.
Why introduce a flashback into your game? They provide a great way to give players information when it is relevant - especially useful when establishing world and character backgrounds. More importantly, they allow players to get this information through self-discovery, making them more likely to be able to remember the vital details later.
Flash backs also allow for a consistent non-linear story-telling mode whereby you’re able to temporarily by-pass scenes which are boring and irrelevant initially, but might become very important hours or even sessions later. Applied in the short-term, this method can be used as a framework within sessions to preserve pacing, mood, and progress for the night.
A key thing to avoid in flashbacks is unnecessary tension. Building tension in a flashback scene is almost entirely impossible - the players most likely know what is going to happen ahead of time, who will be alive, and who won’t. Resolving tensions, or using pre-existing ones can work, so long as the tensions are not the primary focus. Tensions self-contained entirely within a flashback almost always fail.
The second key thing to avoid in flashbacks are burdens, things which are relegated to flashbacks and must be resolved, explained, and meet up with a pre-determined point in continuity. While some burdens are almost always required in flashbacks, it is important too many can stop the flashback from flowing properly.
Bad Example: A show once had an episode which was comprised primarily of flashbacks, going nearly a year back in the story. Two characters spent five minutes arguing over which one would die in a suicide mission; while normally this might be entertaining, the audience already knew for a certainty who lived and who died, by virtue of who was alive in later episodes. This is an example of failed tension in flashbacks.
Good Example: The Highlander TV series featured at least one new flashback in almost every episode, and they did a very good job of it. Each of these flashbacks added to the overall character development, provided background on new characters being introduced, and did not intrude on the story or feel burdened.
Honorable Mention: Arrested Development had an interesting and relatively unique method of handling flashbacks and similar events. The show’s narration makes this compatible with a visually oriented Narrator.
How do you handle flashbacks in your game?
