Choose your Own adventure paths, Quick plots for time poor GMs

 About 30 years ago, the Fighting Fantasy Novels were published for us teenagers that were just starting down the path of fantasy roleplay. They're simplistic, but written well enough to use for your own games, and if your audience is under 30, they're unlikely to have read them to interfere with the game.

Reusing published works for time poor GMs

One thing that comes up, commonly enough, is the Gamesmaster needing to prepare a lot for play. Its true to say that to run your own game, in your own world, you will need months, if not years of preparation.

I've discussed several ways to speed up those processes, to get your world built faster, with enough depth to springboard into play, but what if you just want a single adventure, just a few sessions long, and you want 'enough' depth to make it interesting , but you need it THIS weekend?

p.s. I consider even published works, to be more work to prepare, as you typically need to pre-read all the entries, the NPC dialogs, and get a real solid feel for what's going on.

One thing I did as an experiment was to grab an old Fighting Fantasy, Choose your own adventure. Forest of Doom. I had a photocopied version, but I understand copies are readily available online.

My players were introduced to the plot, via the intro text, sure I just read it from my photo copies, but my players were as likely aware that I may have written it myself, the only real thing I needed to do was clarify the paths and choices as I went, and rejig the creatures & combat, based on my group size.

I had a group of  four level 3 characters, so I just grabbed the Monster Lore for the creature in the text, and made between three and five of them, based on how my group looked after previous battles.

In my opinion, it was successful, the players got to play out a decent plot, got some interesting puzzles, some interaction with NPCs and Monsters, resolved the quest and it took 3 sessions. because of the plot of Forest of Doom it also left a cliff hanger to go on to the other adventures, Temple or Terror and City of Thieves, We could have scheduled more sessions and played it out, but Covid lockdowns and such.

p.s. Temple of Terror would require you as GM to pre-read the book, and in some books you might want to map out some places, but again, these are pretty commonly found online, so most of the work is already done. 

[Game Rules] Potion making vs playing the game

 Once again , as I breathe in all the internet wafts in my direction, I took this scent..

When Designing games, do players want to actually DO stuff, like making potions? If they don't why do they expect unique outcomes?

I think its pretty straight forward, If you give players 3 ingredients (and order is important), and 3 variant instructions, resulting in 120 variances, and only 1 will result in a healing potion, 80% of them will quit and say its too hard, and look online for the other 20%s answers.

The desired outcome here, is that players can enjoy searching for potion ingredients. the relevant character brews them up into the desired potion, or if the rolls fail, into a random sludge or possible poison.

As my goal for this game, players with no previous experience should take some time figuring out the possible combinations, we should not take away the players experimentation, just to speed along the story. But, once players have discovered enough, or have no interest in this, the rules should obfuscate away the complexity, in favour of narrative flow.

One consideration is varied side effects, and possible 'less than ideal' results.

Lets consider the following. There are 8 possible 'good enough' solutions to the healing potion, 3 of which have lesser effects, crossed over with 4 being cheaper and 2 being expensive, based on dosage of certain herbs, 5 have a mild poisonous effect, 2 have a major poisonous effect. 

If the GM counts all 8 of these as failures, as per a die roll, the players never get to experience unknown flawed play. In which characters go through their world with less than ideal potions, and deal withy it as best as they can.

The Scenario: Our group has experimented with the 3 ingredients, in varied amounts, and finally a potion is tested on a goblin victim, who not only survives, but appears to heal quickly from wounds. The group test it on themselves.

The potion costs 3 gold worth of ingredients, much better than the shops assumed 50 gold price tag (they have yet to buy one to try out), though yes, it did cost 500 gold to set up, and test ingredients, but after 11 potions, they'll break even.

Next, the potion heals 4 HP over 2 rounds and has a +10% healing rate for the next 2 days, but has a side effect, the character is also slowed, sluggish and has a -1 to their reflexes & initiative for those 2 days.. its not such a major effect, so the group feels like its a cost they can bear.

The spend the next 3 years of their adventuring life, adding a side quest to pick up the ingredients needed, to each mission, in order to save on those expensive healing potions.

Interestingly, the GM has not told them, that the potions second side effect is to make them smell as delicious for the rock sharks, which has resulted in a +10% wandering monster as a rock shark for all hilly and mountain regions.. the players just thought this area of the world has a lot of rock sharks, and have taken precautions over the years.

This one little aspect, this one failure to produce the 'correct' results on their potionsmith roll, but instead from player exploration, has led to a backstory to this group, that makes it so much more interesting.

Moreso, when they, as players, meet other players, in the same game region, with a different potion recipe, swapping stories.. the second group having never encountered a rock shark, begins to ask questions about them, making the first group suspicious..  then in a group encounter, the 2nd group, doesn't want to spend their expensive healing potions, is aghast that the first just quaffs them down, so easily, asks: How do you guys afford so many Healing Potions? 

"We make them ourselves, not so expensive that way"
" But, we also make them ourselves, the ingrediant cost alone is in the hundreds, and none of us are good enough to be raiding phoenix nests for feathers, yes its 47gold vs the shops 50, but having 6 days of improved healing is worth it, vs the shops 5 days.."
" 6 days? we only get two.. but pheonix feathers? - Harold, we don't use pheonix feathers, whats going on?"

turns out, the 2nd group has also failed their rolls & gone ahead with the overly expensive, but slightly more powerful variety.. between the two of them.. they may yet discover that even the shops version is not the most efficient.

This way also, GMs can have a variety of cheaper vs expensive items in shops, lower quality, vs higher quality..

p.s. Bunglmans Burp Potion, has instant heal of 7, +25% per day, cumulative, for 3 days, costs 180 GP of ingrediants, but.. you will burp, from both ends, halving your base stealth, and -6 from ongoing stench, you'll be practically unable to perform any delicate skill, the character sheet has a -7 from day 1, reducing(improving) by 1 per day over 7 days. Its a rare potion, most people who 'discover' it, don't think its worth making, ever, but, as healing potions go, its so powerful, any adventuring party should own at least 1 bottle of the stuff. the nearest equivalent potion, Harthwarks Healer at +6, +20% for 4 days, with a 10% poisonous effect for 1 pt, at a whopping 800 GP, is the cloests equivalent for high powered healing.  

    

Necromancy, Afterlife, and Apprentices

 There are often whole thoughts on why X would work, or wouldn't work.. and today I read about Necromancy here: 

Ban on Necromancy

So the thought for me is, that we are forgetting many external factors. such as Gods, and Afterlife.

Gods, not wanting their followers to be removed from their heaven, would maybe get a bit miffed at someone resurrecting's someone, and offering them a better deal

"Welcome back to the land of the living, now that you had a taste of your gods 'hell' (or meagre version of heaven) would you like to convert to our faith, where even the morally ambiguous are granted a half decent hovel in our heaven"

Does the act of the body, affect the permissions of the soul? what if an evil necromancer raised a paladin from the dead, and have them using their smite abilities, fought off their own kin, and the god, talking to the paladins soul, saying, 'sorry buddy, I don't write the rules, you've now killed too many people, you don't get to stay here now'

I would guess not, but that's down to an individual gods abilities.. maybe the pantheon they are a part of, hold strict views on the body, the soul, the wraith and the spirit, as any commits a crime means the whole has committed a crime. 

In DD12:

Necromancy exists in 4 basic forms, and in combinations another 6 forms

Fire, Earth, Air and Water, with Fire+Earth, Fire+Air, Fire+Water, Earth+Air, Earth+Water, and Air+Water.

(technically there are 10 other forms, as Fire+Earth is not identical to Earth+Fire, just similar enough that most people don't realise there is a difference) also rarer are the 3 form combinations, and the singular 4th form, which technically also has 16 variants

90% of necromancy is Earth, and ignores the other 3 basic elements, allowing any force to inhabit the earth

Earth Necromancy:

Matter, the form of the body, the Bones, the Flesh, is reanimated. Unknown to the Necromancer though is that water + Fire also inhabit the body, as the Electrical current that flows through the body to signal the muscles, to animate the form.. and this leaves a 'gap' in the pysionomy of the Undead, that demons and spirits can inhabit this empty shell. (any port in a storm)

The Original Inhabitant of the body, can also, if they know the magic, return to the body (why would they?) and take back control.

So, a Necromancer, would never, re-animate another sorcerer, the body might want revenge. And the Mage, might want to come back and have another go, using this 'undying' body to get some actual work done, without needing to eat, sleep, defecate or even breathe.

Though, some Necromancers, might want apprentices.. 

[game Idea] Oil Rig

As game ideas go, they can be fun / useless, just jotting it down here before I forget: 

Worker Placement.

Oil Rig:

One is the pipe fitter, One is the worker on the pipe, one is the worker on the drill and one is the worker on the joint sealer?

You place a Pipe, and a worker, and it sucks up an oil. You then sell that oil at the end of the round for cash? hire more meeples? which represents cash/work flow.

If you still have meeples, you can drill more, BUT you draw a damage card for each round of drilling after the 1st. 

If you want to drill deeper, you need more pipes, you can place a meeple on the drill, draw a pipe from the stash, and place it under the 1st pipe (in a column) If it has no pipe fitter, you need to move a meeple down the pipe to 'fit' it. You get paid 1 oil per pipe+meeple. 

At 5th & 10th (maybe 3rd 6th and 9th?) there is a drill operator symbol, you need to place a meeple into the drill operator room to go further.

If you have meeples spare, place them into the joint sealer space, and either discard 1 damage, or maybe draw a sealer card, to counter damage.

Once you have run out of meeples, the round ends for you, excess damage takes away pipes (you can always place a meeple in the drill operator and draw 1 pipe)

Each round, you press your luck, to place more pipe without sealers, and potentially lose more pipe in the next round, or shore up with more meeples to counter the damage..

Should it be oil drawn from a deck? in sets of 1 or 2? 

Then since you might be stuck, how many meeples can you 'house' on your rig? maybe it costs 1 oil for the 1st, 2 for the 2nd, etc, but also maybe at 5, it costs 1 upkeep

The pool of oil cards is in the centre, once its 'dry' the game is over.

Meeples cost to buy, but maybe rooms on the rig cost too? Do you forgo the cost to house meeples, instead hire temp meeples for the round, to pull out more oil, because last round a LOT of 1's got drawn, so you suspect lots of 2s and 3s are left.

Maybe rig cards/boards are on display in a market, with a 1,1,1,2,3 cost. 

Rig cards might be upgraded drill, which houses 2 early drill guys, +1 pipe each.

upgraded sealer housing, 1st meeple gets a +1 seal.

upgraded meeple housing, these meeples don't go back to the bag when you end your round.