Starting a New Game with New Players

I added something new to the Bucket List. Check it out. It is going to be rad...

Recently a few friends of mine have all been talking about starting their own games, with either new or experienced players, new or experienced GMs, or some permutation of the two. Essentially, somewhere, someone is doing something new.

So, I thought I'd jot down some advice I've picked up from various sources and that I've learned myself to help this process along, for as you all should know I love it when new people join our hobby.

Starting a New Game with New Players

Starting a new game is always scary, but if it is scarier than it is exciting, you should definitely try to change that! As a new GM or Player, you should be at ease with your role if you want to have a good time and if you want everyone else to have a good time with you. As such, I've broken this up into five areas: things a GM should do for their players and themselves, and things a player should do for their GM, their fellows, and themselves.

This is what GMing is like. Exactly like this.

Always remember that a roleplaying game is a COLLABORATIVE game. If at any point you're not having fun, there is a problem, and if at any point another player isn't having fun because of you there is a problem. This problem may not be your fault, but it never hurts to help try and fix it.

So lets jump in!

Things a GM Should Do for Themselves

First of all, every GM should get a firm grasp on the rules and setting they are planning on playing in. For a first time GM, this should be an established setting and rules system. You may want to jump in and make your own, but this is suicide so early on.

Hell, even Gary Gygax was a long time wargamer before inventing DnD.

Secondly, you're going to want to prep out your first session really easily. Write down a few things - who is the bad guy, why are they bad, and what are they doing at the beginning of the session. Grab some stats together for the guy, and you should have the basic bare bones for the game.

Next think up where he is doing this bad thing and why the players should care. Usually the players will handle this one for you, but it is a good idea to think it through for yourself. If at any point in time you wouldn't care, then how can you expect your players to?

Lastly, grab a map to represent the area. There are hundreds of thousands online, just a Google search away. If, however, you can't find anything good, drop me a line and I'll email you a bunch.

Also, remember to take it easy. GMing is supposed to be fun (in my opinion, the funniest part of roleplaying), so stay cool and just go with it. If you stop having fun, so will everyone else.

Things a GM Should Do for Their Players

Next you're going to want to jot down a few things for your players. They will have a lot of questions and make it well known that you will answer anything they ask. But try and answer it in the barest way possible that still leaves questions dangling. They will become intrigued enough by what you say to ask more questions and so on. You don't want them becoming bored at any time during this early stage.

Make sure you have some notes detailing the basic concepts in the game. If you're running Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, make sure to mention that whilst magic exists, it is dangerous, rare, and mistrusted by nearly everyone. Mention that Elves and Orks and Dwarves exist, but your average Human wouldn't interact with them on a day to day basis - if (hopefully in the case of Orks) ever.

Friendly Orks. They come around to your house and eat all your legs!

Then set aside an entire session just for Character Generation. This is going to take a loooong time and you need to be ready for it. Don't just expect to be able to breeze through it in an hour.

Also, remember the rule of "Yes"! Saying "Yes" is infinitely better than saying "No". Unless there is a damn good reason why something the players' suggets wouldn't work, just let it. Trust me, it will be way more fun for you anyway.

Things a Player Should Do for Themselves

As a player, you're going to want to try and grab a hold of as much of the setting as you reasonably can. If they exist, pick up a novel based in the setting and give it a read - even the blurb will do. If it is a good book, it should tell you enough for you to get a quick grasp of the setting. Is it fantasy? Is it sci-fi?

The first page of all Black Library books is great for this.

Literally everything you need to know.

This will also give you an idea of the sorts of characters you could play. For your first character, don't be afraid to base them heavily off your favourite book, TV or film character. Even experienced players and GMs do this, as it is a ready made outlook you can adopt. Later on as you get used to the concept of roleplaying, you can tweak it, and make it your own, but copying at this stage is fine. Just keep your GM in the loop.

Looking up some pictures doesn't hurt, either!

Also, give yourself a break. Roleplaying is fun. Make sure you remember the playing part of roleplaying and you should be fine.

Things a Player Should Do for Their GM

Next, you're going to want to ask your GM a lot of questions. A lot. Like... Seriously... Heaps. If your GM is a good GM, they will be excited about the campaign enough to answer your questions (perhaps even answer them too much). If they don't want to answer any questions, then that should be an indicator that perhaps you shouldn't be playing under this person...

You should also endeavour to help your GM build the world - suggest things you want to do, or parts of your back story. Work with your fellow players to tie your story in with their's. Trust me, your GM will love you for this, as this is the hardest part of their job.

Be this guy. This guy is keen.

Finally, MAKE SURE YOU MAKE AN ADVENTURER. So many players go into games with a good heart but then dodge the conflict saying "It's just what my character would do".

That is boring and pointless. You're playing a game of heroes, so make a hero and don't be too cautious with them. Some of the best playing experiences come from character deaths; don't be silly, but don't be so careful that you don't do anything... You may as well not play if that's your plan.

Things a Player Should Do for Their Fellow Players

One of the greatest things all new players - actually all players - need to remember is that everyone is there to have fun as a group. Share with everyone, and everyone will share with you. Don't play an island. Islands are dicks.

See, what a dick. Oh, excuse me, just belongs to a dick...

Be courteous, be polite and be interested in other people's characters. The best part of playing is inter-party communication and activity. This can only happen when you talk to the other players. Seriously.

It is best to prepare an opening scene or dialogue for your character - a sentence or two of what they're doing when the other characters first meet them. Even if your characters know each other in their back story, the first time your character comes "on screen" should be memorable, and it will stick in the minds of everyone at the table.

Also, a name card never hurts!

Hopefully this advice has been helpful, and will lead to smoother first games for all!

Here is another great article on a similar subject, and I encourage everyone to read it!

Making Character Creation a Mini-Game

I want to preface this by saying that I have updated my Bucket List with a few items, and it is ever growing! If any of you remember me mentioning some game I want to make/run at some point which isn't on the list, can you please comment this so I can add it? Thank you!

Making Character Creation a Tutorial Mini-Game

As many of you may know, I have a massive gaming group, peaking at 9 players currently, so when a new game is started it can (literally) take days to create characters. The process is slow and often boring as players have to wait around whilst I run the process for each one, helping them out with their individual abilities and nuances.

Rarely does it go so smoothly.

Furthermore, I always feel that at the end of character generation, most players don't really know the ins-and-outs of their character. They are a mass of numbers and words which sort of make sense to them, but don't really add up to what they have in mind. This leaves them feeling stifled and often overwhelmed with the old RPG question of "But what can I actually do?".

This is a problem. And I'm not the only one who has it.

So what we need is a way of getting players to learn the rules of the setting whilst they make their character, which they can essentially all do simultaneously without having to have the GM look over their shoulder constantly.

It sounds like we need a Tutorial.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Tutorials

Tutorial design is one of the most difficult aspects of games development. You need to teach your players something, and have that information stick in their minds. The process has to be fun enough, but still packed with information. You need to teach them snippets, then test them on it by forcing them to use what they learnt, then teach them something new, and so on until they know everything they need to.

However, it is often said that the best games are one long tutorial. Obviously, this is not a good idea for a long-running roleplaying game, but perhaps it is for the first session...

Walls of text and long expositions kill player involvement, so they must be avoided at all costs. As does bombarding with extra information, like long names and important story details. So we need something that will be short, to the point, and obvious. This is not the realm for grey morality. We need something with an obvious (and easy) combat scene, a quick social scene, and basically a short scene detailing all facets of a character's rules.

This is the Crusader Kings 2 tutorial. It is the worst tutorial. Ever.

But this only covers the rules portion.

Let's Take a Look at Morrowind

Morrowind contained within is a mini-game at start up which presented you with a string of moral choice questions. You lead through those questions and your answers spat out a character type. Now, whilst tabletop roleplaying characters are generally more in-depth and intimate than that, a similar approach can be taken.

No! You can't take me to that quiestiony guy, Juib! NO!

If we can pose a series of questions to the player which are fed through with little glimpses of the setting, we can guide them into the path of what kind of character they will be, and give them traits accordingly.

Always Back to You, Fighting Fantasy

From all of this, I am getting the message that a game book is in order. Not a very long one, but a Choose Your Own Adventure style story along the lines of the old Fighting Fantasy book series. It would need to be short enough that it could be gotten through in less than an hour, and needs to be detailed enough that most of the brunt work is done for the players and GM.

Literally the best thing.

The player could be given a character sheet at the beginning and as they progress, are told to add in different features along the way.

Now, I'm just coming to this as I am writing it, so I don't yet have an example to show. I will, however, work on one and post it as soon as I am done.

Hopefully this works!

Gamification

I'd just like to start this post by saying that, apparently, the Prince of Excess himself decided recently to set up his drum-kit in my brain and never stop playing. As such, I've been getting some pretty horrendous head-aches, so posting schedule may be out the window for a little bit until this gets under control. However, the Maraviglia must go on!

Gamification

Spend five minutes with me and you'll know two things - I think games are more important than out culture gives them credit for, and that gamification is the future of mankind. Big statement, I know, but it is true.

There must be a reason why so many people play games instead of the real world.
It couldn't be that the real work sucks or anything, could it?

For those not in the know, gamification is the process by which one introduces games theory and thinking into an otherwise un-game-like situation. An example could be Chorewars, a project I am working on at the moment to make doing household chores into a card game, or a roleplaying game where you learn Latin, or CodeHero - an FPS game where you learn to code in JavaScript.

These "gameful" variations create far richer and more engaging experiences for their players because they tap into deeper reward systems built into the human brain than other teaching or motivation methods do. For starters, these rewards are intrinsic - a game isn't a game unless it is voluntary.

The Intrinsicness of Play

Whilst "intrinsicness" isn't a word, I believe it should be. But that is off topic.

"Play" and "games" are some of the hardest words to define. That is, define properly. You can say that "play" is any action you do that is "fun", but then, what is "fun"? If you go down that road, you're likely to find the beginning of it again and the realisation that you've made no real progress, pissed off a bunch of theorists, and confused yourself more than you thought possible.

However, there is one definition that I enjoy greatly and believe that it sums up the feeling of "play" better than any other. It goes something along the lines of this:

Play is unnecessary work that we choose to do.

Think about that. There has never been a game that you've been forced to play that you've found fun, right? Perhaps one that a friend pushed you into playing, but never one where, if you didn't play it, you wouldn't be able to function. Because that would be silly.

This all makes sense. Everything else in the world currently doesn't.
Solution: make everything else in the world this. Duh.

Games are, by their nature, voluntary and intrinsically valuable - you get whatever reward you want out of it. If you sit down to play some Minecraft with the sole intention of relaxing, you'll get just that. No one else cares about your achievement of building a virtual cathedral, but you sure as hell do.

The same can be said of your favourite subjects at school - especially elective subjects. You feel great about doing work early, or just going to class, because it is work you don't have to do, but like doing.

When you combine this intrinsic desire to pursue something with a education or otherwise un-gameful pursuits, you create stronger ties to the material.

So What Can Gamification Do?

We know what gamification is, and we know why it is more rewarding and engaging than normal methods, but what can it actually do?

LOADS.

Saving the Earth, one experience point at a time.

Projects like Quest to Learn - a school where New York children are taught primary and secondary education through roleplaying methods - or SuperBetter - a game to help hospital patients feel better about themselves or about their lives - or a myriad of others are springing up.

Hell, I've already mentioned Chorehammer and Light, two projects I am working on to help gamify the world.

Gamification will see our world transformed from this broken mockery we're all walking around justifying to ourselves into the world it should be. The real world must be broken, otherwise we'd be seeing an exodus from video games into "real life", other than the complete opposite. Video games are giving people what they need better than real life, so real life needs an upgrade. And what will we get in this real life DLC?

We will have children who yearn to go to school, not avoid it and stress themselves out to the point of suicide. We will have better functioning economies where money wont represent the be-all-and-end-all (as never before has there been a more extrinsic reward than money). And we will have a happier world at large.

Besides, is it really so hard to let yourself relax a little bit and just play a freakin' game once in a while?!

Gaming Bucket List

I've been thinking about all my myriad games ideas recently, and the fact I have so much I want to play/create/explore in games design and in RPG GMing, that I really need to organise my thoughts on the matter.

That's why, as of today, I will be adding a page up on here called the "Gaming Bucket List". This list will include all games I want to make, run, play and see come to light. I will keep it updated as I get ideas, as well, but it will exist as a sort of scrapbook teaser - a few words, maybe a title, and that's it.

Not exactly that kind of bucket.
In fact, that kind of bucket may prevent this Bucket List from being completed...

So, what will go on there first? In no particular order...

RPGs I want to Run:

• Tiny Terrors - Cthulhu meets Toy Story.
• Dragon Warriors - the nostalgia would be amazing.
• A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplay - I need to run this again some day.
• A Skaven mini-campaign of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd.
• The Enemy Within with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st.
• Mouse Guard.
• Firefly.
• More Part-Time Gods.
• Something with Vornheim.
• Ars Magicka.

RPGs I want to Make:

• A game where you collect elemental Kami spirits in lanterns which you can combine with other Kami to make other elements, or bind with yourself. Think Pokemon, crossed with Exalted with a heavy Japanese mythology vibe.
• Avatar the Last Airbender. So many stabs at this one, nothing has stuck.

Games I want to Make:

• Apex Fera.
• Mutagen.
• Into the Sewers! - a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd inspired investigative dungeon crawl.

And oh so many more... I'll have to add them when the fancy strikes me!

5,000 Views + Transgaming & True Social Games

This morning versamus tipped over 5,000 pages views! I am very very excited about this, and I hope that this means someone somewhere has gotten something useful out of my blog. So, here's to another 5,000, and a continuing posting extravaganza!

However, I can't just sit here all day discussing my blog's stats, so here goes with the actual post of the day:

Transgaming & True Social Games

Long have I played games, and long have I watched friends play games. Some of them prefer RTS (like I do), some refer FPS, some RPGs, and some special few prefer browser-based social games. This is great! The more ways to play, the better, and for a designer and oft-times programmer, it means the more systems I get to crack open and explore. I couldn't be more excited.

Well, that's not true. There is one things that would excite me more. Combining them all together.

The concept of Transgaming is not new, but it is one that is newly being explored by AAA companies. It is the idea that several games work together in the same setting to create a joint gaming experience. Unlike many cross-genre settings, however, the games all interact (success in one game alters the functions of the other, etc). But I can't explain it terribly well, so, for a brief run down of the concept, watch the Extra Credits video on it.

Transgaming Hypothetical

So, lets assume you've now watched the video, or you haven't but understand the concept well enough to discuss it. Now, imagine the following:

A games company releases four games called the following:

1. SpaceWars,
2. SpaceFighter,
3. SpaceCraft,
4. and SpaceFarmer.

Those titles are almost as good as "Revengeance"!

SpaceWars is an MMORTS set in a futuristic world where interstellar empires battle it out across the galaxy. Now, discounting all the current problems with MMORTSs, in this game you essentially build fleets to attack enemy planets and take them over into your empire. All well and good.

Think Empire At War space battles...

SpaceFighter is an online lobby ticket-based FPS (think Star Wars Battlefront or Day of Defeat) where two forces fight each other over some goal (probably base-capture, but many game modes would be possible like any online FPS). You have a certain amount of team respawns before your side loses. Simple enough.

...With Day of Defeat lobby battles...

SpaceCraft is a Minecraft or Terraria style collaborative (or singleplayer) game where you mine materials and build better equipment in your search for more riches, etc. Again, nothing overly fancy.

...Fighting on maps made with Minecraft...

And finally SpaceFarmer is a browser-based social game much like FarmVille in that you can tend your farm and slowly grow it into a more and more advanced system, little by little, playing each day. Once again, nothing particularly new about this.

...All with resources gathered from FarmVille.

However, there is something I forgot to mention about all of these games. When you play SpaceWars and send a fleet to another planet, a lobby is opened in SpaceFighter which all of your in-game friends can join. The amount of tickets available is based on the fleet size you sent. And the resources used to build your fleet are generated by your friends who are playing SpaceCraft and SpaceFarmer. Not to mention the level your SpaceFighter friends are playing in is created by the opposing SpaceWars player's friend who plays SpaceCraft. If you take over another planet in SpaceWars, you friends playing SpaceFarmer get more squares to build on, and a new world is created for your friends who play SpaceCraft to explore and build.

This is a 100% accurate representation of how connected this system is.
But remember, not everyone has to be aware of all the details, just their little part.

In SpaceWars you upgrade technologies that aid all other games, and are paid for by the efforts of all your friends. And, seeing as this is a collaborative game, your friends list exists over all four games, and can include other empires as well. So, suggest a mother and her two sons play these transgames and are on each other's friends lists. The mother players SpaceFarmer in her free time, and earns some resources for her troubles. The exact same amount is sent to both her sons - who both play SpaceWars but against one another. So, even though they are competing, the mother isn't playing favourites  Further, she can benefit from the upgrades and successes of both of her children who duke it out in interstellar combat.

TRUE Social Games

For a long time we have talked about social games where families and long distance friends/whatever can work together to accomplish something in game. Well, whilst this is ideal, it is unrealistic, as not everyone likes the same games.

So make different games which all work together.

Just have a think about the possibilities...

Probably a lot more on this later!

Landmark Moments

Landmark Moments

Whilst I didn't used to use them, I've now come to discover the power of "Landmark Moments" in my gaming, and after successfully using a few of them in my campaign, I thought it was time to shed the word. I'm certain I'm not to first to come up with this concept (in fact, I know they are used in the very very awesome Shadow of the Sun Campaign), but I've yet to see anything written about them.

Not even close to a landmark yet, Frodo.

Basically, I really wish someone had told me about them when I started, so I'll pass it along for anyone who cares to listen.

What are Landmark Moments?

Landmark Moments are key events in a characters life which shift them forwards by a great deal. In the real world, they are often called life changing experiences, but in the realm of roleplaying games, I feel "Landmark" sums it up better.

Consider the following: you have a Dark Heresy Arbitrator character who has been groomed for a long time to become an Inquisitor, and you're a few XP away from realising your dream and buying into an Ascension career. You play one more session, gain some XP and bam, you're an Inquisitor.

Well that was anti-climactic.

Not as anti-climactic as that, but still not great.

What you're missing is something big happening. Something terrible and awesome and life changing so that you can officially grab your Rosarius and state with pride that "I am an Inquisitor (and all you fools can suck it!)" You need a Landmark Moment.

Why are Landmark Moments Useful?

Landmark Moments are useful because the represent a great leap forward for your character - perhaps they come at the end of a long side-quest, or they come after a titanic battle. Perhaps they push you into a new career, or turn the story on its head.

Whatever they do, the character after the moments is different to who they used to be.

This break is especially important for hand-waving significant career advances. For instance, in my WFRP game, one of the players is playing a Grey Wizard. This character is amping up for the Master Wizard career, but is learning from a "retired" Wizard without a spark any more  She is way to far from Altdorf to go back and take her exams, and doesn't really have the time to do so anyway.

You think you can just stumble into this? Nope.

Should I hold her back? Tell her the career is locked to her? No way. I prefer to kill her instead. Then have her fight a mental duel with an Aethyric apparition that has been dogging her footsteps. After she survived this, she had gone through such an experience that the path was now open to her. The magic comes naturally, and the +1 to her Mag characteristic can be purchase.

How to Create Landmark Moments

All great and good to know how awesome they are, but what goes into making them? Well, the same things that go into any great GMing, really.

Make sure you listen to your players and their back stories  Delve into their racial features. Delve into the portions of the campaign which have gripped them the most.

Do they hate undead? Have them defeat a horde of zombies and get knighted for it (about to plan the ceremony, in fact). Do they wish to overthrow the local crimelord? Set up those dominoes for some lovely crime-filled action. Do they have a thing for Dwarven runes?... Can't actually go into this one as [SPOILERS]. But you get the idea.

A hint, nothing more.

Your players should already have an inkling of what their Landmark Moments are, so asking them "what do you really want to do in this campaign" and then riff off of that. But make sure you change it just enough so that you keep them guessing and on their toes. You know they'll pull through stronger than before, but they don't have to.

So, have any of you used Landmark Moments? Let us know your success stories!

The Dangers of Playing with Established Canon

The Dangers of Playing with Established Canon

Who could resist, honestly?

When it comes to running an RPG in an established setting, there are pros and cons everywhere. Many would agrue that the cons outweigh the pros (and would push for a homebrew setting) but I disagree. I'll try and outline my thoughts on it below... Let's see how this goes. 

The Benefits

I'll start with the benefits of playing with established canon/settings.

No! Nothing like this... Oh Sigmar, nothing like this please.

Firstly, for the lazy or busy GM, one of the greatest benefits is that more than half of the work is done for you - in session and pre-session - in that you have tonnes of material already written and (hopefully) balanced to the game world. Not to mention art to go along with it, sometimes novel series, and if you're very lucky, music and movies. You can throw together a perfect immersion track, or give your players an info dump without having to hold a seminar... Just lend them the book, or have a movie night. Plus, you can steal their favourite aspects of these things for your campaign. They really like Hoth? Well, set an adventure there. They are massive on Spiderman? Well, have your new Supers meet him.

Secondly, feeding off the first, is that you don't have to re-establish mood. If you're working with a setting everyone is familiar with, you shouldn't have to explain the sorts of characters you want, nor the feeling of each session. If you're playing Hellboy, then they know what to expect. This means you can focus on key points which make your game cooler - as contrast is easy to build here. They know what should be, but if you change that, it is way more effective.

Hopefully they wont look at you like this, though!

But the biggest thing is probably player expectation. You'll find your players riffing off of the setting a lot more when they know it intimately. In a homebrew Sci-Fi setting you might have players in a bar ask "Who can I go to for spare robot parts?". In Star Wars, you'll have "I look for a Jawa so I can buy some spare droid parts." See the difference? The players know what the world holds and will be able to seamlessly play in it without feeling like they're stepping on the GM's toes doing so.

However, it isn't all sunshine and daisies...

The Problems

Sorry to kill the good times, but I should probably mention the bad things that come along with established settings.

It isn't all this...

One of the worst ones for a GM who likes to world build is definitely the constrains on creative freedom. If you change something too big in someone's favoured setting, they're going to let you know. Very vocally. Some, in our sub-culture, will even let you know vocally for minor things; insignificant to you in the face of a good story, but heresy of the worst kind to them... This can stifle a GM and make them resent planning the sessions because they can't tell the story they want to tell. And be assured of this, nothing, nothing, NOTHING, breaks a game quicker than a GM who hates his job.

Next, and again somewhat feeding off the first, is that is becomes very difficult to break existing tropes. For instance, if you're playing in a Golden Age Superman game, there probably wont be any death. If you put in death, someone is going to become upset, or doubtful, or confused. Likewise if you give your 40k Space Orkz a Welsh accent instead of Cockney Hooligan... People will look at you funny and you'll break immersion pretty quickly. This can cause in group arguments and halt game play for the evening. I know, it sucks, but as I've already said, our culture is based on knowing way too much about something, and introducing cognitive dissonance into that mix rarely works out well.

Lastly is more on cognitive dissonance. If someone knows something, and they are told differently, they are very unlikely to believe the new information. The more that new information conflicts with what they already know, the more likely they are going to disbelieve. Imagine the following scenario: you're GMing a game of Dragon Ball Z, and the players are talking to Goku's father, Bardock, who they've found. Whilst chatting, he reveals that Goku is actually half Human, with a Human mother! Wow!

What're you saying about me?!

This could fly. Goku is unlike most other Saiyan's we meet, and he looks Human enough. Fine. The players might accept this. Instead, say that Goku's mother was Namekian. Yeah... No dice. People are going to argue this. He can't regrow limbs, doesn't have green skin, doesn't shoot eggs out of his mouth when he dies. He has absolutely no Namekian traits whatever... You simply wont get away with that.

But never fear! There are definite solutions to these problems...

Solutions to Said Problems

If you're planning on playing with an established setting (which I hope you do, as there are many great ones) I would suggest using the following solutions to avoid the above problems.

But what are the dragons doing there?

The easiest fix to the continuity/conflicting problems is to set your game somewhere else in the setting. Pull a Fantasy Flight Games and set your 40k RPGs in the Calixis Sector, a previously unheard of portion of space. It is just 40k enough that everyone who loves 40k can get involved, but removed enough that no one kicks up a fuss about all the apocrypha. Perfect!

Just grab a map of your setting, look for a section that isn't detailed much (trust me, unless you're playing the most ridiculous settings out there you shouldn't have a problem with this) and plonk your campaign down in it. Or, alternatively, grab a section of the timeline where nothing much is happening and put it in there. This way you get the locations everyone loves without fiddling too much with everything. I would suggest putting it far enough in the past or future that no one would alive in it that is alive in the canon setting.

But probably the best way to go about it (only if you have an understanding group) is to add into your gamer charter a section detailing the rule YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary. Basically state that this version of the setting is the group's version (don't say your version, but the group's) and that it is alternate to the canon one. It still has everything in the canon one +/- some of the stuff you don't like...

Midichlorians anyone?

But set up a Nolanverse or a where you can do no wrong, and that everything odd is just a quirk of this version of the setting. This solution wont work for every group, but if you have understanding players (and if you include them in the change making process sometimes) they may be more forgiving and just let it slide and enjoy your setting for its oddness.

I hope that has settled some of the problems with using established universes, and I hope it has encouraged you to give it a try! Have you ever had good experiences with established canon? Bad ones? Let me know!

More On: Into the Expanse

More On: Into the Expanse

The other day I introduced the concept of my Into the Expanse campaign – a West Marches-esque, sandbox campaign for the Warhammer 40k RPG line. Today, I am going to discuss it in more detail, giving a list of objectives and campaign features so that it is less a name/pipe dream, and more of a possibility.

The campaign will basically be this cool.
Except cooler.
Hopefully.

What Exactly Is Into the Expanse?

Into the Expanse is a campaign run using the Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader rules sets (with bits of Deathwatch and Black Crusade thrown in when I feel the need), set in a non-canon and “new” sector called “Sector X-736”.

It will be run for approximately 6 players who will take the roles of “middle management Adeptus” – by this I mean, individuals in charge of maybe a large city or small planet’s worth of Imperial jurisdiction, but certainly not a sector. These characters will be thrown into the deep end and sent to Sector X-736 with an ultimatum: “Bring back the light of the Emperor, or your corpse”. I.e. they have to convert the sector or die trying.

But, hey, these are players we’re talking about. They’ll do neither. They’ll set themselves up as pirate overlords and get killed in a barrage of lasbolts.

We're playing somewhere in there... At the furthest portion of space in the Segmentum Obscurus.

How is Into the Expanse Going to Work?

Into the Expanse will work in a similar way to West Marches but with a few key differences. These are outlined below:

• Whilst the session details will be left up to the players (I.e. where they go and who goes, etc), the session time will be pre-planned. As the campaign won’t be run for as large a group as West Marches, and as we all have pretty regular schedules, it makes sense to organise a specific time. However, if a session plan isn’t given at least two days before the session is to occur, no session will happen. Players will need to know where they are going and what they plan to do there in advance – even if this is simply “find out what is in [X] chunk of space, and steal it if it looks good”.
• There will be other intelligent factions kicking around. The most interesting thing about roleplaying to me, and 40k as a whole, is the interactions between the various worldly factions – Xenos, lost human cultures, religions, the Adeptus, and so on. Forgoing these would leave 40k empty and pointless.
• “Town” will be a space ship – the player’s space ship. It will only experience troubles rarely, and may essentially sit in a system for as long as it needs to. Once it is placed there, anywhere in the system is fair game, and the West Marches exploration kicks in. However, there must be total group consensus to move the ship to another system, and all players must be present for this move – even if it is just on a web cam for a few moments whilst it moves and we deliver information.
• Finally, not a deviation from West Marches, but a deviation from my normal rules at a tabletop, but mobile phones are mandatory at the table. Every GM in existence just spat their drink. Sorry about that. The reason for this is that I will send players emails directly from my laptop (which will be in front of me) to their phones which will be dataslates. These emails will be in character and will be data readouts and private messages based on their actions, etc. I still won’t allow nonsense, and if I see a player use their phone when I haven’t sent anything, I’ll know something is up… So don’t *wink*.

And we're playing these chaps.
Not these chaps exactly.
But chaps very much like them.

What Makes Up an Into the Expanse Character?

So I’ve already said that they are “Middle Management”, but I want to be a little bit more specific here. All characters will be considered “Starting Rogue Trader ready”, which essentially means made with either the Rogue Trader rules, or the Dark Heresy rules (with +5000 XP).

There will be no Psykers, of any kind (not even Navigators) in the party and there will be no more than 2 members from the same organisations (so, no more than 2 Tech Priests, or Adepts, or Guardsmen, etc). Further, there will be no actual Rogue Traders in the group.

Other than those restrictions, it is fair game!

So, what do you think? Should these rules be altered? Amended? Added to? Write your response in the comments section!

Introducing “Light”

Greetings all,

I just wanted to post this up here to maybe get a little bit of constructive criticism going. Light, the game I am about to show you, is one I have created (but not finished) for my Games Design course at Qantm College Melbourne. It was created for a subject called Authorship, where in the students are expected to create a game which exemplifies an ideology or belief they hold close to themselves.

Mine was, based on personal experiences way-back-when, Light, a game to model suicide causing depression and to dissuade from suicide being an acceptable course of action.

Click here to download.

I would say more, but it sort of defeats the purpose. Have a go, and tell me what you think. 

I Just Had a Dream

Greetings all,

Firstly, with a new posting surge comes a new layout. It looks much nicer in my opinion, but I would very much like to hear yours... Not to sure about the old background, to be honest.

Anyway, onto the randomness that was my dream (trust me, it is slightly relevant, and I do bring it back in the end). Currently, myself, my lovely companion, and three friends-of-somewhat-dubious-repute are looking to all move out of our current abodes and into a share house (probably around the Balwyn area) and here in much gaming will ensue (as well as, far more likely, a million hours of working time. Fun!). As everyone involved is in my gaming group, we've had a lot of contemplation over the amount of games that we could play/run/host/do, etc.

The dream wasn't this awesome, but it was close...

So, last night when I went to sleep, I dreamed a dream of us house searching. In this dream, we went to a friend's owned property which they were putting up for lease as they were moving somewhere smaller. The place was sparsely furnished (they were moving their wanted stuff and leaving behind their unwanted, etc). We went through and had a look - and liked it - and the rent was reasonable and all that jazz. However, what I found in the back room made the clincher.

Literally thousands of Warhammer models, in various states of paintedness, WFRP adventures, maps, model kits, boxes of paints, terrain features, a massive gaming table, and essentially a young life's worth of serious Warhammer collecting.

I spent the rest of my dream going through it all and dreaming up situations I could use it in. I remember vividly stating at one point "Oh, this Bone Dragon will do wonder for when my players come up against one".

[NOTE: Any players of mine reading this, please be assured that you're not going up against a Bone Dragon. I wouldn't be that mean. Oh wait... I would. But still, you're not!]

Anyway, this got me thinking upon waking up, about the possibilities of a gaming room, and collaborative gaming resources. Namely (even though they weren't much in the dream) RPG books/supplements. That is, of coarse, everything helping in purchase (usually expensive) RPG books so that the cost is individually low.

Is it cool to have a group chip in for supplements for a game they themselves are reaping the rewards of? After the game, who then owns it? Should the GM pay them out?

I'd love to hear some feed back on this one!

My Sudden But Inevitable Return

Greetings all!

My, it has been a long time since I last posted, and unimaginably long since I started this whole blog. I feel somewhat down that I've neglected it so, but I feel in my absence I have grown as a games designer and as a Games Master... And I hope to return to the world of blogging about my exploits in these fields.

I can't much account for my absence. It began with things getting in the way, and continued with it being the furthest thought from my mind. But it ended as something else begins to draw to a close: my WFRP campaign.

I've been running my current Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition campaign for well over a year now, and I have thoroughly enjoyed doing so. My players have experienced necromancers, cultists of all shape and size, vampires, skaven, goblins, knightly sieges, infiltration, deceit, lies and now a daemonic possession... They have lost members and gained some, and have grown along the way to be a mighty band of adventurers all.

But, their tale must end. I am looking over my notes for the future, and it would seem they have left to them less than 15 sessions to go (and as we play weekly, less than 3 months). Things are drawing to a close, and we just had the end of one of our major story arcs 2 sessions past. Another may be culminating very soon as well...

This has gotten me in the mood for thinking about new campaigns, and I have begun planning my next big one - as most of the planning for the current campaign is done with, only minor tweaks as the players change things needed. What I've been thinking is the inverse of my WFRP campaign, in more ways than one.

My WFRP campaign - Shadows Within Shadows - fits to the following descriptors:

• It is contained within a single city, and very very location based.
• It is GM driven, with plots, stories and missions being given to the players.
• It is rather high fantasy (for WFRP, that is) and focuses on small folks dealing with massive problems.
• And it is very regimented in its movement - sessions are planned, played out, and ended according to a flow I (attempt to) plan.

So. What is the opposite of this?

• An open world, with no bounds, where the players can go anywhere they choose,
• That is completely player driven and organised, with situations instead of plots,
• Where in the players are powerful and influential individuals who deal with relatively mundane concerns - running an Empire, forging their fortunes, and directing the tides of war,
• And finally, were sessions are left up to the whims of the players, with those wanting to do something gathering together their fellows and forging into the unknown.

You know what this sounds like? This sounds a little like West Marches... Pure sandbox exploration fun!

And what's more? What could be the inverse of Warhammer Fantasy? Why, Warhammer 40k, of coarse.

Into the Expanse is coming...

Never stop rolling those bones, and enjoying the gaming life,

Ben Scerri.