Burning Through the Luck.. Why it will always fail long term

A Strange New issue occurred when We started playing Blood Rain & Cataclyzm. At first I was worried that I'd forgotten a rule and broke things..

Luck, Burning stats, and Health.

If you're unaware, players can choose to 'burn' a stat in DD12, to gain an instant advantage, The most common of which are Reflexes, Strength and of course Luck.

Reflexes
With an instant burst of speed, a character increases their Combat Initiative by their reflexes, besides the reflexes going down 1 point (after the bonus is applied) the player gains exhaustion equal to their new reflexes score. Typically players use this to get in an extra final hit, or perform an extra action, just in time before something happens beyond normal control.

Strength
With an instant burst of strength, a character increases their Damage by their strength score, or a bonus +3 to a strength roll, besides the strength going down 1 point (after the bonus is applied) the player gains exhaustion equal to their new strength score. Typically players use this to get in extra damage for a killing blow, or perform an feat of extraordinary strength.

Note, the similarities in description. Both are physical stats, and as such, gain physical exhaustion, Mental stats gain mental Exhaustion, but are the same, either a +3 to the same stat, or plus its score to a value related.. they are listed in the rulebook.

But Luck, is a stranger one. Coming from Dragon Warriors, and Warhammers Fate, The idea was to allow players the chance to avoid that blow, that telling deadly blow, or vice versa, to push for a hit. In any case, luck allows a player the ability to modify a die roll, 1 single die, to be rolled differently. If the player NEEDS this next roll to pass, they can spend a luck to change the results of the die, after it has rolled. If, they just wish the whole roll to change (i.e. attack roll + extra dice) they can 'roll' their luck, and if they pass, spend 1 luck, and if failed, spend 2 luck, to negate the entire roll against them.

Because players spend these more often, sometimes 2-3 in a given combat, having some kind of exhaustion, really slows down the game.. the STR or REF ones above are so rare, players will understand the cost, but with luck, we have to think a different way.

This was more obvious in Cataclyzm, and Blood Rain, where players would spent 5-10 luck in their first session, just to survive.. players literally were running out of luck.

And Luck isn't fixed to your own rolls, anyone can luck any roll.

But, Younger, Wiser, well rested me, was smart enough to put in an interesting rule about luck. Its relevant to your ability to take wounds, and your healing.

When a Character has taken damage, A lot of people consider their Health Max to be the value to check against. If Damage > Health, do I die.. well, yes but no..

First, we check if the individual blow is greater than your health + pain threshold bonuses, if not.. you shrug it off, if it IS, then we check your luck, If you pass, lucky you.. proceed, else, suffer consequences (see below)

BUT if the individual blow is above your Luck score.. you're out of luck.. no roll (except now, you'll probably spend a luck, to change the damage die roll to its minimum)

Next, lets see if your total damage so far, is above your ability to cope,

The quick rule is, if Total Damage > Luck + Health + Constitution, then you're going to make a luck check to see if you might die or not. For most people, this will be in the range of 30-50.

Furthermore, Your luck score ties directly to your healing rate, luck is added to the healing rate WHEN its calculated, (not before) so a person travelling with a healing rate of 27% and a luck of 16, gets a 43% chance to heal per day, When rested, they double this to 86%, when under care of a physician, they add their luck again to 102%, Even with a 10 point wound (-81%) they'd have a 1% chance to heal, but a player having reduced luck to 10, this would be -16%, unless their friends can come up with some cash to the local temple, this character is done for.

Given Base healing, Rested Healing and Physicians Luck, maintaining your luck above 10 is worth 30% but, in the moment, burning your luck, and avoiding the damage in the first place.. well, damned if you do, damned if you don't?

Impulse and Dignity

An Interesting Discussion on this concept here:

http://geekxgirls.com/article.php?ID=12617

A lot of pushback by people, as it takes away player agency, along the lines of Alignment, yet it did raise some interesting thoughts..

Is this a stat?

Impulse and Dignity Stats

Alignment in games, sets a set of 'actions' which are requirements, and limitations for players. Most players ignore the stat, they want to do whats right for the moment, regardless of what their "character" would do, and for a lot of gung-ho gonzo new players, this is perfectly fine. Finding your 'role-play feet' takes time, and some people never get them, their characters are always a chaotic mishmash of tropes, funny things to entertain(and annoy) the table rather than a coherent set of actions by a real person in a real world.

The Idea of Alignment may have been one way to 'control' this by GMs and games designers, you can't go killing that peasant, your god won't like it.

A lot of people rile against this form of control, they don't understand that they are ruining the world, the game, the fun of others at the table, as that peasant was crucial to the plot. Games-master don't like to upset players, because a lot of work an effort has gone into creating the campaign, as much for these specific set of players, so the small actions of one player can mostly be worked around.

Impulse, on the other hand, seems instead to be a gung-ho, zany, gonzo GM, trying to get players who are paying their characters more stoicly, to break out of their shell and do zany things.

(Maybe this Zany GM, has had alot of the gonzo players, and thinks this is the norm?)

Dignity, is more or less a way for the players to be able to resist this, provided they stick to their dignity score themselves.. which is what raises the point.

The player, setting a value, that says to the GM, here, this is a self defined value, I will agree to stick to this value in role-play, and the reward for this, is... you can't make me go outside that boundary.

Mind control in games is... tentative. You railroad a player to do something, because a spell says they have to, as often as not its a pass/fail situation. Players don't usually have much control over this, yet in the movies and books, we see a character who goes along with the spell, until such time the spell crosses a line and the character resists.. where is that line..

Here.. this stat, is that line.

The Player can be Dignified, Regal, and very un-impulsive, so if they are 'taken over' by a mind control spell, anything a few points below their Dignity score, the character can make further resistance checks, and possibly even break free of the spell.. giving players more agency in the region of mind control spells, they take careful note of what is being asked of them, and if at any time it seems to go outside the boundaries, they can call it, and make a subsequent roll to escape the spell.

Moreso, with Alignment, if a player has aligned as a good character, they are unlikely to steal if mind controlled, even less likely to attack a friends and would likely break free if commanded to kill. The player is free to play his/her character as they wish, their alignment score moves to match this, but the lower it goes, the more choices the GM has when mind control is in play.

Its already there with Clerics, Gods and their rules.. but with this addition, its now there for all classes.   

Current Projects

Hey, now that I have 3 readers instead of 50, I can probably cope with more intricate topics that previously would get people riled up and posting negative comments right? Lolz

Heres what I'm working On:

1. Top of the List, The Map 100 Project that I kick started, rasied 1020% of my goal of $250, to sit down and draw a map for 6 weekends.. well 1000% of 6 weekends is 60 weekends.. and I'm around 30 into it. Gotten into a good groove, 6 tiles a weekend, around 160 more to go.. so.. yeah.. 30 more weekends should do it.. lolz..
2. Kingdom Death Monster - Playthroughs. Running some events for people, trying to get some gig work doing that. slowly, but surely.
3. Cataclyzm, Related, I have a map for this too, will flesh it out for the book. Equipment Lists, Construction & Gear Manufacture rules, What Character Archtypes are used for the booklet, and testing it as I go of course.
4. Base Rules.. Is that Back to Front? Catacylzm before basic rules? well maybe.. but I'm sorta doing them in tandem. Wondering if I'll do them both as one KS later or two.
5. Combo Dungeon Crawler Rules. This is a Biig project that I really wanna do, partly as a way of making my name bigger before releasing the RPG rules.. everyone does RPG rules, so maybe instead I do these Combo Rules.
The Combo Rules are: A way for people who have backed 2 or more Dungeon Crawler Rules, to bring Minis from one, to the Other. Its not Hard, its just number crunching, but at the end of the day, who better to do it than someone who loves to crunch numbers, play Dungeon Crawls, Run KS projects and be a big data nerd about it.
6. Painting Minis.. comes in last place.. but maybe if I reorganise my life better?

p.s. more realistically in place 0, kids and wife. Has to be said, she doesn't read this blog, but still.   

You should write a book!

I have, it seems, an interesting life.

When someone takes 5 minutes interest, I invariably those words:

You should write a book!

Well, Maybe I should.. but maybe I'll start small with a single blog.. and if I get enough interest, I'll take it further, maybe a blog diary, then maybe a book.

Who I was before:

I was born in the 70s, grew up in the 80s and 90s, but, because Australia was behind American in consumer commercialism, I tend to relate to Americans born in the early 70s, rather than the late 70s.

I listened to The Beetles, Wings and a little of the Eagles and ELO growing up. I was aware of the other music, yet, other than a single song by U2, I can't remember the rest.

I got my first proper interest at 12, with a choose your own Adventure Book. Appointment with F.E.A.R. I think it was. Then later I got Heroquest, Dragon Warriors the board game and one of those 50 in 1 electronic kits.

I got a job looking after kids in After school care, but career wise, I had no interests. I didn't even get the job myself, At a Teachers Social gathering at my house, my mum talking to the woman in charge, understood she was looking for staff replacement of a junior, she talked to me and I politely talked to this 'adult' at this 'party' not knowing it was an interview.

I started a club, invited all the kids I was looking after, from after school party, to a weekend club to play games, entry fee $2.. $6.50 in today's currency. lasted 2 years, til some kids stole a lot of my inventory and I went out of business. Lessons Learned, even kids can be thieves.

A few years of unemployment, I started work as a bartender apprentice in a country pub, that doubled as a bikers pub on Sundays. that was an experience. I could probably write a chapter about that, what people do when they are drunk, in the country, what people tell bartenders.. wow.. half of those people were in their 50s then.. so they're in their 80s now.. if at all.

On to Nightclubs in town, dancing on bars, throwing bottles in the air trying to juggle them, being a bouncer, a stage dancer in "Heaven" nightclub, even a stripper for a small time.

Come my mid twenties, time to "grow up" I worked in finance, restructuring home and business loans, as new bank systems were being put into place, and some deregulation allowed small vendors to sell their own banking products, bought my own house.

Then a turn for the worse, parents divorced, since they were my guarantors for my house, that went belly up, and I was out. $10k in my hand, since my best friend had left for a wild adventure in The Islands, I too decided to go.. the Internet was new, so I went to visit all my new friends internationally. I drew a map, and left Australia just after the Y2K scares all calmed down and plane prices were low enough again.

Country after country, Hong Kong living in apartments smaller than my bedroom back in Oz, Philippines, travelling around and almost, without knowing it, getting married. China, being dragged around as a 'show and tell' toy for some executives, and the black-market-nightlife, without alcohol!

The Trans Siberian Railway.. 9 days on a train.. Moscow.. for 2 weeks, being lost, confused and falling in love, then forced to retreat, again 9 days on the train back to China.

Getting a job OS, as an English teacher, trying to maintain a long distance relationship, with cultural barriers, getting new visas, getting a 2nd job, bar-tending, renting an servants quarters in old France city mansions region of Shanghai.. wow.. losing my keys, and having to climb the fence and getting arrested, but talking my way out of it.

Back on the train, Back to Moscow, being a teacher, and not knowing what to do..

Travelling to South Russia, and starting a school, then my boss is fired, then my new boss is fired, then my new boss fires me, then the students revolt, the school rehires me to finish the term, and I lose my visa, and have to flee the country. Actually that was a lot, more than a chapter there, should have included the meeting of my clone, the boat in the lake, which was a restaurant/strip club for families, getting robbed? meeting strangers on the street. learning Russian phrases so i can buy milk.

Back to Moscow, Fall in Love, Lose her contact details, flight details lost, need new flight, emergency, panic, borrow money, on the plane back to Australia. 11 months I worked to pay back my borrowed money, started University, getting back into the swing of Australia.. no.. can't do it. get involved in a scam, manage to wheedle my way out of it, use the money to go to Russia.

Start working for a Business School, as an English teacher, early morning, late nights, visit old friends in the south, can't find clone, back to Moscow, 'lend' money to a guy, who runs off, get ripped off, get robbed, get beaten up, sleep on bench in snow, drugged by prostitutes and robbed, renting rooms from people who want to practice English, Fighting Russians who just won't stay down. getting a side gig as a stand up comedian, teaching English to people in positions of power, high level singers, actresses, going on TV shows, witnessing all manner of debauchery from people I would never have guessed. falling in love, witnessing the recreation of a nightmare I had as a child and start wondering if there is any truth in clairvoyancy.

Travelling Europe to visit castles, Staying in Backpacking hostels and Couchsurfing, Meeting people from around the world, Starting world wide Roleplay games with interactions.. Being a Professional gamesmaster, highly paid, still now in 2000, I'm still in the top 10, and I haven't been paid as GM in 8 years.

Getting Married, Meeting the President, Being warned to leave the country, returning to Australia, Having Kids while Studying in Uni, getting a job in IT.. all is quiet.. is it over?.. or was that the eye of the storm.....

WaterMelon

If Water Melon is Green, surely the other melons shouldn't be classic Elemental Colours too.. Blue + Yellow = Green, and Blue is Classic, While Yellow is 1 primary shift to the left.

If Fire is Red, then Firemelon should be purple or Orange.

Brown, is a mix of all three, so EarthMelon should probably be Grey instead. (But then, would SteelMelon be Brown or something else?)

And Air was classically Yellow, So If FireMelon was Purple, AirMelon would be Orange, and vice versa (maybe purple suits air better?)

What about the insides? Red (fire) inside its opposite (water)Melon...

So, Firemelon should be blue, Airmelon should be brown, and Earthmelon should be Pale/Pastel.

Seems Legit.. (Is FireMelon Spicy? does Airmelon give you gas? and would Earthmelon be forgable into weapons?)

This, is the way my brain works when I see images like this..

Karma and you in DD12/Dungeonworld

I've seen this question thrown around in forums & social media:

Is a DM who bans a playable race because they do not exist in their home brew world in the wrong?

The general answer is No, of course not, yet goes against the whole movement that the GM should always say Yes. Yet that in turn breaks half of the point of role-playing, trying out a new role.

The Issue:

In general we're all there to have fun, and role-play is very open to a variety of fun, so when anything seems to shut down that fun, there is a push-back.

If we played a board game about vikings, lets say blood rage, and someone wanted to use space marines on the board, the rest of the table might allow the miniatures to be replaced, but they're not going to agree to any rule changes. Board games have rules to establish a fair even start. 

If we played a role-play game about vikings, and someone wanted to bring in a space marine, the rest of the table is going to shut that down straight away, its established that the game is about vikings, medieval historical vikings, because the rule changes to include a space marine would break the game for everyone.

Yet, If we role-played a game about vikings, medieval, historical, vikings and someone wanted to play a dark elf (the viking equivalent), now we're in a grey zone, If the GM wants to introduce any possible fantastical elements later, then world-build wise, there must be an opportunity to allow dark elves. So the GM is stuck, allow something possible, and ruin the surprise later that fantastical elements do exist, or disallow it, and have a belligerent player later.

My Answer: A Rule System

Players can complain that the GM is making life hard, but they general don't complain that the rules are hard on them, and the GM can ease back on a rule to be the good guy. So I created a Karma system to help GMs in character creation.

The Idea is that all things are equal, so players have a common starting point. Players who drop a character, so they can play something else, are not upsetting the campaign and group by doing so, GMs who need to restrict the races or classes can allow players to still choose outside the set standards, but for balance issues, they'll cost some karma.

Also, GMs can start players at higher levels, without just giving them a set level, which is also a whole set of unrealism.

The Karma System

So, Firstly, a GM who has new players can set Karma at 0, all players make up raw, plain, heroic average characters, so they get the feel for the game. Once they finish the first storyline and retire their characters, they earn karma based on the rank they achieved and the number of sessions they took to get there.

The next campaign they play, they have Karma to use for character creation, This will typically give them either a higher leveled character of raw plain, heroic average stats, or they can forgo the starting levels, so they can choose something from the lists that GMs provide.

The GM decides before hand, (or uses some of the pre-made lists) that certain races are rarer to play. Elves are rare as are sprites and fairies, and while you can play as a goblin, you'd need to be accepted in your community, else you'll be run out of town. Players can look over the world-build lists and choose, Do I want to give up 10 karma to play an elf, or 5 karma to gain 'acceptance of race' in the local town.

The Traits and Flaws list, are built with Karma, typically players can only 'buy' 2 traits and or flaws per 5 ranks, or even with extra karma, can buy more traits and flaws and break these rules too.

The idea is to say "Yes, but at a price"

Now, The GM running a historical medieval viking setting can begrudgingly allow the player their dark elf, and "write them into the plot", but the group might all start at level 8, while the dark elf, starts at level 2, to allow for balance in the world.

More unbalanced balance

Its unlikely that any given group of people are all equally experienced, Even people of the same age, and interests, have differing levels of knowledge, usage of skills and talents. Yet In role-play games, there is this strange need for everyone to be the same level.

But, if you give your group differing levels, people will be unhappy that they are 'disadvantaged'

Karma allows a balance, where the group may have different levels, but they have other traits and flaws that balance out those differences. Players are more aware that they are similar, yet different than just a block of stats of equal value.

Then when one player gains a tad more XP than you, because they played the more pivotal role in the adventure last week, your character isn't worse off, you know you have some traits that work well for your character giving you the edge.    

The d12 and the Zodiac

I've not made this public, mostly so that I can 'surprise' the community with it when I release, but then I noticed that others had already picked up on it, and some blogs about it came out, so I probably should have posted this earlier.. oh well..

The Earth Zodiac and the Twelve Sided Dice

There Are Twelve Archtypes in DD12, Based on Yung Philosophy, and the Zodiac. So its no surprise that you can create your character using the zodiac, at least the Earth Zodiac.

In The Coyn World, there are 'other' constellations, most of which I have yet to bother to create the dots with, but Since humans, in the 6th century (mostly) came to the Coyn, they brought all their concepts, including the Zodiac.

So, Player can, if they like, create a Character using the traditional Zodiac, as I'll explain:

You could get a Zodiac dice and roll it, as suggested by Dice Monkey, And there is a game mechanic to allow a character to play where they worship the Zodiac, and gain powers akin to worship of a god.

But in Character Creation, Players could choose the Zodiac Symbol they associate with, and play a character based on a set of structures to create their character.

As an Example: Lets Say you are a Capricorn, An Earth Symbol, Lawful, Practicality, Caution, material world, Action; dynamic; initiative; great force, Navigation of the material realms. Your character Archtype would be Warrior. But say your on the cusp of Aquarius, The Life Bringer, or Healer(Doctor Archtype).. well you could play a Warrior/Doctor.

You can also reverse Engineer this, You might want to play as a Mage, So you look up the Zodiac set and see it aligned to Gemini, so you research Gemini and figure out playing a mage is about Adaptability; flexible; resourceful, Communication; socialization; conceptualization, Highly Motivated. Gives you some building blocks for your characters 'look and feel'

While its not set in stone, Its merely a tool by which to make play of the game easier and yet nuanced enough to be more interesting. 

DnD Hit Points vs Lightning Bolt

This was asked on facebook the other day:

How much damage should a lightning bolt (one from the sky, not magic) do?

Resulting in a BUNCH of answers, Most of them answering with the premise that the question uses the world "Should" and suggests the DMG is wrong and the OP wants a more realistic answer.

The underlying problem is, DnDs HP system doesn't easily allow for 'pure' damage, its 'related' damage.

When a character takes a blow from an opponent, its suggested that the HP loss is a total combined amount from sweat, exhaustion, pain, bruising as much as broken skin, bleeding, internal damage and destruction of vital organs.

It also suggests that higher level characters can take more sweat, exhaustion, pain and bruising, before getting severly tired, and actual damage is mitigated by the character dodging enough to reduce any real damage, relaxing the body enough at the time of impact to reduce muscular damage, AND the idea that a higher level character likely has taken a few blows and their skin is a tad tougher.

So a 1st level character with 8hp, taking 8hp wound is going to be in so much pain and shock, they are reduced to a blubbering mess, and possibly will die just from the shock of the blow.

ok, so you take
3d4, 7d6, 7d8, 9d10 and 3d12 damage,
Still alive? 

While a 10th level character with 80hp, is going to feel a pang of pain, but will have 'mitigated' the blow as though it was only actually 1hp of damage if he were a 1st level.

This of course is often forgotten, players get the wrong impression that their character can take several hits from several weapons, and just keep going.

But when you get involved with actual damage, it goes awry.

Spell lightning involved factors such as dodge, target missing, arcing off nearby metals, seeing the spell coming and getting partially or mostly out of the way, even when hit, where a higher level character can 'notice' these things and mitigate the damage taken, a low level character takes the full brunt of it.

But pure damage should ignore level, and be as equal in killing a high level as it does a 0th peasant.

I think DnD 2nd edition used to have damage dice as a value, and pure damage was multiplied by damage dice. Creatures had damage dice, so certain spells or effects would do d10 x damagedice. But some creatures had d4 damage dice, so a d10dd effect would likely kill them, but other d12 or d20 dd creatures, could likely survive.

<rant>Of course, the modern gamer can't even add up basic numbers to do their own experience, so trying to calculate damage dice would ruin the experience and destroy their immersion</rant>

This is one of the main reasons I liked Dragon Warriors. your health was just that, Health. Checking if the attack was better than your opponents defence, if their armour was thick enough to absorb the blow all came way before health. and health represented the wounds that would bring you closer to death. You were lucky if you got 1 per rank, so while a 10th ranked barbarian with 16 HP fared better against a 10th ranked sorcerer with 9 HP, it was not in such a magnitude of difference than a d20 fireball couldn't kill them both, and all the 6HP peasants standing around.

I took it a few steps further for DungeonWorld v1->3 but HP was a staple for roleplaying games, so I stuck with what players expected..

Version 4, was a time of stripping back to basics and redoing the engine from the ground up with what worked, and trashing the flawed, old-school, chunky rules and looking at what really mattered.

Game Speed, Player Understanding, Luck and Realism.

Players, looking at a situation, see 100HP, see 2d10 damage from opponent, see average 10damage, see 8 rounds of safe combat. Wade in, taking blow after blow, not caring, just need to burn down the opponents HP.
Some DMs will tell them the HP of the monster, and the players will cross reference their damage and say "oh no, we need X more rounds, then include a few heal spells, and viola", why bother rolling the dice.

Sometimes players will slow down their game, to figure this kind of thing out..

So for games speed, My research suggested that players should just 'take damage' as the GM tells them, and if its excessive, make a check. The check should slow them down a few seconds.. because like their character, they are grasping at their chest/wound, life and death on the line.. ANY time a check is being made vs damage, the player can die right there, the tension is real, players are far more engaged and understand the threat.

This could be a lucky 1st level
or an unlucky 20th level

Artist:Gui Guimaraes

Whats more interesting is that a character can, and should, be able to be taken down in any given hit. Not being hit at all should be priority no.1. Also, monster can and should, be taken down with one hit too, if its placed well. Players should be looking to get that hit, and not be hit. and be creative with that.

Luckily, they are Heroes, and can mitigate the wound or the check vs death with the luck rules, allowing lower level characters the chance to avoid mistakes made, and higher level characters should have players who have learnt not to make such mistakes.

There is no way to tell if your going to die from a single 8pt wound or 20 x 2pt wounds, so you can't calculate the odds of surviving several blows from a creature. Don't get hit is the way to survive.

Eventually if you keep putting your character in extremely dangerous situations, odds are they will die, so players will often retire a character that's reached a point of no return, and use them as a support character for their next character to join and learn from.

The Game runs faster, Players don't have 'pure numbers' to game, luck plays its part and its far more realistic without sacrificing game play.

and a lightning bolt will kill 20% of people, no matter their level.. though, holding a metal blade in a lightning storm is more likely to get you hit.

The Demise of G+, what does it mean?

If you're reading this on Blogger, or G+, and you want to continue reading future blogs, please book mark it, or somehow take note of where it is, because its only a few more days til G+ will shut down and you'll not be notified of it as far as I can tell.

The Demise of G+ and what it means to many websites.

There was once a time on this blog that I'd see a reader count of 500+

I noticed first, that the share with community button stopped working, it dropped to 150,

So I had to specifically go find the groups and post them there.. but then groups actively blocked blog posts.. and I was very confused, because as far as I was concerned, the whole point of the communities was to share like topic blogs. The blogging community thrived on topics being raised by those who wished to speak of it, and readers did the rounds of several blogs to get a balanced view.

Three months ago, I posted something interesting.. and hit 30 views!

My Last blog got 2.. Seems that even though G+ is still working, they're already shutting down small part of it.. what next? blogger too?

G+ has its tendrils in many things, the little +1 button for sites, was awesome, if underused.

Imagine, if everyone actually used the google search +1, visit the site and it is what you wanted? +1 so the community can see, this is a legit site, because the 3,000 people who visited said so..

the site that was click bait? 0 +1s..

Blogs got +1s for decent content, so googling blogs showed several sites with good scores.. worthy of a read..

Communities rose up on several topics, you'd join a community and +1 the good ones.

Humans are socialable creatures, without it, our minds retreat, put up defensive barriers to ward off attacks until we break those self destructive walls or die lonely. Google+ was one way to help find like minded people and communicate..

Now?? Don't know.

Facebook has, for the longest time, been shallow, full of haters, and too open to scrutiny.. all your friends, even ones you barely know, can see that you've made a cake or had a birthday or turned 40 or gotten interested in freaky looking board games, and they comment "arn't you skilled" or "happy birthday you ole fart" or "WTF is that? are you into satanic worship now?"

Its too open.

MeWe has so many barriers of entry, you can't see posts unless they are your friend, but you don't know their posts exist unless someone comments on them. There is no personal wall to put up things, you need to create groups and invite people into those groups, and then add all the people in the group as a friends so they can all see your posts..

It needs work. but what else is there?

NPC Lists

I have run a few campaigns that have gone on for years, and I return to them time and again, because I have a lot of data on NPCs, that just 'makes' the game more alive.. Players always comment when they find out, and I thought maybe I should share.

NPC LISTS.. 

A simple 'how to take your game up a notch'.

When we start Gamesmastering, we often have simple notes, names of towns on a map, dungeon locations, maps of the dungeon, but often when players arrive in a town, we have to quickly invent names of Taverns and N.P.C.s. Its so common, many game systems even have charts to help the GM come up with these, in the rules. Usually the Casual GM with a fly by night campaign, will end there.

But what about the consummate professional?

Fable II NPCs.

When players are arriving back in your city or town, weeks or months later, will they ever see your NPCs again? or worse, will they only ever see your NPCS?

If they frequent the same bars, sure, the bartender will likely still be there, but what of the staff? the patrons who frequent the place, might on certain nights of the week, but every single day?

Taverns

A simple approach is to have a page from a calendar, rip one out of an old calendar, re-write over the month with the name of the tavern, jot down the name of the bartender, and depending on your size, 2-3 bar wenches. 

Now, on the first row assign the bar wenches to days of the week, busy nights, get all 3, average get 2 and empty, one or maybe just the bartender. 

On the rows below.. roll on your favourite NPC generator and jot in regulars, each 'day' could cope with 3-6 names, in a social 'group' and on the very last row, non regular visitors.

Busy nights, should have 3-6 regulars per bar wench, so make sure you've got a bunch of names in those columns.. They aren't all going to be brawling 2nd-3rd ranked fighters, there should be some kind of hierarchy, choose 1 per 'group' as a leader, mark him as such. F2 or something. add some key 'visual' feature "broken tooth" or something..

Thomas Schmall: The Inn Keeper : oxpal.com

Viola, Your players arrive in town, you pull out 2-3 'calendar' taverns and ask which one they want to visit, remind them of the day of the week (they should be able to tell based on market activity). Once they choose, glance at your days of the week to determine how busy or empty your tavern is, roll d6 more irregulars, space them out on separate tables.. based on the weather.. cold: put em all closer to the fire, warm? the windows.

If your players engage in conversation, it'd be likely the leader who'd address them, point out your visual feature.. because weeks later when they return to this tavern, they'll remember 'broken tooth' better than they'll remember "Bob Farnsworth"

Now.. heres the fun part..

If your players are using this town as a base of operations.. have your irregulars turn up in different taverns, maybe broken tooth might be brokering a deal in a different place when the players turn up. Players aren't playing this game 24/7 so they'll forget and blunder over to talk to him, remind them.. "You see the broken toothed man from the Boars head, but he's engaged in a private conversation, seems like a bad idea to draw any attention to yourselves", If they now decide to go talk to broken tooth, its their own fault that they've angered him and he's now against the players.. add a -1 friendly to his name.

Over time, you'll add notes to N.P.C.s that players engage with, events that may (or may not) be relevant to the game.. maybe they sold a magic dagger to Klint Korgush, so next time there was a brawl in the Boars head, he accidentally killed a guy, and he sits in jail, blaming the players, his friends in the tavern don't look kindly on the PCs from now on.. 

But how will you know this?

Each session your players are going through adventures.. at the end of the session, roll some dice, consult some charts, and modify some N.P.C.s. Maybe Two NPCS have fallen in love with each other, a regular and a bar wench, or some guy fell off a ladder at work, and has a broken foot..

Make up a chart of things that might happen, roll once per tavern, 3d10 to find which 'day' of the month it happens to, d4 or d6 for which one in your list. it takes all over 5 minutes, 

But when your players come back after a quest, and spy Lillian the bar wench being overtly friendly to Bob.. then after the next quest, Bob has a black eye and Lillian is with Steve, then next time, Lillian has stopped working at the tavern they might inquire and find that she's married Steve now..

Years later, the characters have traveled the world, and return to grab some stash.. and you've been making the rolls all this time, and they walk into the Boars head, and find that Steve is no longer around, Bob is, and he's talking to a 16yr old kid that looks a little like Lillian and Bob, and he's interested in being the players sidekick, learning the ropes to be an adventurer, because Steve used to tell the stores of the adventurers often, before he died defending the town against goblins, and Bob took over as dad, but turns out all along that its Bobs kid..

20 rolls on the chart got me that.. 20 adventures, taking between 3 months and 2 years to perform, 17 years of adventuring, in real life, maybe 2 years, and the players return and the look on their faces when they see Bob in the Tavern, with a kid that looks like Bob, That's the moment, as a Gamesmaster, that my players understand the level of depth my world 'potentially' has.

Not just taverns, but town halls, guilds, and market squares all have the same or similar regulars, and goings on..  Noble families, administrations, governments too.. just a few more rolls.. and now you have a whole continent of NPCs for players to interact with.