Preparing for today’s Alternity game and I came across something called Skill Ladders whilst reading Wolfgang Baur’s Dataware book.

Skill ladders are presented by Wolfgang as a way to avoid the monotony of Alternity’s complex skill checks. A complex skill check requires a certain number of successes before a number 3 failures. This can descend into just totting up successes and failures at the table until you’ve either succeeded or failed.

Wolfgang outlines skill ladders, just a quick to write list of what each success or failure of a hacking attempt actually means. Here’s a quick example from my prep for today.

Hacking bio tagged laser weapon

Successes

1. Removed take down pin
2. Gained access to internal ciruitry
3. Bypassed authentication routines
4. Weapon unlocked for any user

Failures

1. Mild electric shock
2. Ammo halved by power discharge
3. Weapon locked. Power discharged. Ammo depleted.

This is a quick an very easy way to write simple game raising things to respond to each failure or success with. Next time I’m doing 4e skill checks I think this easy method would transfer quite well as well. It’s a good way to show your players that they are actually progressing through a skill challenge and gives them an idea of how far is left to go.

I can’t stress how quick this is to knock up, and how powerful it is in use at the table. Here’s another example that I knocked together in a few minutes at lunch today.

Opening Hanger Airlock Doors

Successes

1. Bypass microswitches and remove access panel undetected
2.Find power conduit
3. Reroute power to door controls
4. Disable anti tamper device
5. Inner door open
6. Override safety measures
7.  Access airlock sub routines
8. Outer doors open

Failures

1. Power fails needs re-routing
2. Alarm sounds
3. Safety measures kick back in. Any open doors shut. Power fails. Start again.

I’ll definitely be writing more of these, maybe even at the table, they are that quick.

How about you?

Comments: 2 comments

Tags: DMing, GMing, Sci Fi

I like to sometimes right a short story as part of my character backgrounds. Usually only a scene or two, like the first chapter of a novel or something similar. I find this really helps set the scene for the play to come, even if it’s something way back in the past, such as the following example, it lets me and my DM help lay some foundations for the character in question.

Memories

My earliest memory is from the age of five. There is nothing before that, just a deafening blindness.

It is not like most children’s earliest memories, lost in misty half remembering. It is vivid and almost physical. Fading shafts of late-evening sun pouring through the many arches along the balcony. The chill of the shadows under the bed where I lay quietly. The brush of soft footsteps approaching across the polished floor.

All of these memories began in this one single moment, as if someone had lit a lamp in darkness, or whipped away the drapes, rudely awakening a late sleeper.

The pastel designs of the marble mixed with the bright and still warm colour of a spreading pool of blood. Two bodies lay twisted and broken on the cold floor, faces frozen in death, gripped by masks of surprised pain. I don’t recall being scared, as perhaps a five-year-old girl should have been. I felt nothing for the dead bodies, not knowing, or being able to recall, who they were.

Soft shoed feet approached my hiding place. Suddenly the bed was lifted away, thrown against the wall, banishing the shadows and revealing me.

Shocked by the sudden noise and movement, I flinched and shrank into the corner. Fearful now, I looked up and saw a face masked by wrappings of dark cloth, only two shadowy eyes were visible.

I could not tell if it was a man or woman, but they examined me intensely for a number of seconds, as if pondering some great question. “Even for House Philarlan, I will not kill a young child,” they said in a low voice. The masked killer continued to stare at me thoughtfully, before continuing, “You have been orphaned today, but do not think harshly of me, you may learn, in time, that I am simply doing my duty.”

And then, twisting on one foot, the killer turned and ran towards the balcony and leaped onto the stone rail, settling there in a crouch, before slipping off and disappearing from view, dark cloak billowing behind.

Left with a feeling of sudden loss, which I couldn’t fathom, I stood up and walked to the bodies, avoiding the glistening pool of sticky blood. So these were my parents, and I was now an orphan? I bent down to look closely at them, yet I still had no memory of them alive.

I heard soft moaning from the open doorway. It appeared to be coming from the room opposite mine. Frightened I quickly ran and slammed shut the door to my room.  I did not want to know who or what was making the noise, or whether they were alive or near death.

My eyes began to water. I felt nothing and instinctively wiped tears away with my sleeve. I was confused, not at all sure why I was crying. Overcome by a sudden exhaustion, I lay down, my back against the sturdy wooden door, and fell deeply asleep.

~***~

I awoke abruptly, it felt like the floor had moved under me. I looked about, realising that the door behind me was being forced open. I gathered my limbs to myself and tried to be as quiet as possible.

“Anyone in here?” a voice spoke softly from the open crack of doorway. Terrified, I did not answer.

The door pushed against me again, slightly harder. I let out an involuntary gasp, and clasped my hands over my mouth.

“Someone’s alive in here Oliith!” the voice from the door shouted. The door was then pushed fully open, being behind it I could not see who stood in the doorway. “I know there’s someone in here, come out, there is nothing to fear.”

I kept my hand still tightly held over my mouth, trying not to even breathe.

The door closed a little and a woman’s head peered around the edge, “Why hello, it’s a little girl, are you okay?”

Conclusion

It’s a fun technique and gets me practising my writing skills. Anyone do anything similar?

Comments: 2 comments

Tags: Character Building, Ideas

Last year our regular D&D game fell on April 1^st, so I decided to try and see if I could con my player’s characters out of some gold.

I’d been reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, a worthwhile read which features a number of con tricks. The book inspired me to head off to the internet and research the art of hustling. This is what I came up with, I hope it inspires you to do something similar this year!

Missing, One Glass Eye

The Glim Dropper is similar to the  more famous Pigeon Drop, or Fiddle Game cons, and relies on the mark being convinced that something of no value has much greater value. In this case a glass eye.

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Comments: 2 comments

Tags: Articles, DMing, Player Choice

(This is an article that I recently wrote for Obsidian Portal.)

Should I use music in my game?

Can you imagine watching your favorite movies without a soundtrack? Film directors use music to control audience expectation and trigger emotional responses. As a GM, you too can make use of these techniques at your gaming table.

How do I add music and sound effects to my game?

The simplest plan is to put an album on to play. Slip in a CD, get your iPod out, and press play. I once ran a Sci-Fi campaign with just two soundtrack albums: The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell.

Keep the volume low and the music acts as a backdrop. During battles and other exciting moments pump up the volume and select a more upbeat track. At little more volume can wake up your players, make them fight a little to be heard, and raise their heart rates!

Take it further by using playlists, on your iPod or laptop. Playlists can be much longer than a album and less repetitive. Set up playlists for various situations, and leave them to run through on repeat. As the mood of the game changes, simply switch to another playlist.

To add sound effects such as explosions, spells, or battle sounds you could explore soundboards. Soundboards are simple online flash applications that trigger different sounds at the click of a button. A search online will turn up soundboards with effects that interest you.

For the deepest experience, there are applications available for GMs that combine music and sound effects. The best are RPG Soundmixerand Softrope, they both allow you to build complex soundscapes from small loops of sound. These combine into larger, less repetitive combinations. If you want complete control over sound effects and music at your table then both applications are worth exploring further.

Softrope in action

What music can I play?

Find a movie or game that matches the genre of your current RPG and buy the soundtrack. You can often lift soundtracks from a computer game’s install. Baldur’s Gate and all of its sequels, for example, are a great source of background music.

When selecting music, try to avoid anything too distracting. Usually it is best to stick to instrumental tracks, as vocals can be very off-putting. There are exceptions, the last time I used a vocal track was to add atmosphere to a seedy retro jazz bar on a backwater space station.

It is well worth choosing a theme tune for your campaign, it helps focus the player’s attention. Play your theme tune after the players have had their weekly catch up and it unconsciously signals that it is time to start. Signature themes also work well for your reoccurring villains.

One final tip: Keep your finger near the volume control. Volume is a key tool for reacting to your table. Read the table carefully and lower the volume when you can see it is detracting from the experience, then raise it again as the players are reacting positively and having fun!

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Tags: music, softrope, sound effects

The work of building a world is usually left to the DM. DMs can spend large chunks of their life building the perfect world for their players to play in. They create maps, histories, classes, races, continents, nations, power groups, and plots.

It’s a lot of work, and often thankless as well. Even once you’ve handed out the condensed campaign introduction document, the players will never be as deeply immersed in your personal world as you, as writer of it, is.

Build a bare-bones world

In our last campaign I tried something different. I wrote a very quick bare bones history of the world. Here’s the original entry from my design notes. This campaign was following from a failed Shackled City campaign, where a gate to hell was opened at the end of the campaign.

The Great Gate opened and Demons enslaved The World That Was. The powers of the Astral Sea won the millennia long war, at great cost: The world was catastrophically flooded, and the population decimated. Now, a few generations later, the people of the New World are recovering, spreading out across the vast archipelago that The World That Was has become.

This led to a map, upon which I slapped some hurriedly invented names. I then presented this to my players as a post apocalyptic pirate infested archipelago.

A quickly imagined archipelago

Now it was time to get the players to join in…
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Comments: 2 comments

Tags: Ideas, Player Choice, World Building

Making the Switch

I’ve recently switched from being DM to running a PC. After many years of DMing this is the first time I’ve had a chance to really spend a couple of weeks playing, attempting to get into character, and drawing character portraits.

Apart from a couple of sessions here and there I’ve not played a PC for any length of time since 1992, that was at university where I also DMed more than I played. It could be said that I’m not a very experienced player of RPGs, particularly in this latest case where it’s the first time playing D&D 4e for me.

Learning the ways of a PC

I’m struggling to be a good PC, and I’m convinced being a DM makes me a bad player. I’m constantly second guessing our DM, questioning the need for dice rolls, adding up encounter budgets, and other annoying habits. I hasten to add I’m not doing this out loud at the table.

It’s detracting from me concentrating on my character somewhat.

And then there’s the points where my inner rules lawyer raises his hackles…

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Comments: 10 comments

Tags: #DnD, Articles, D&D, DMing, Playing

How the problem arose

In a game of 4e D&D recently, the topic of sunrods brightly burned in our groups close scrutiny for a short while.

We’ve just started a new campaign with a new DM. The first time someone used a sunrod the DM seemed suddenly taken aback by it, we guessed he was a little bit worried that it was ruining whatever he had prepared to surprise us with.

In 4e sunrods burn for 4 hours and shine out with a bright light to a radius of 20 squares. Potentially that’s lighting up 1,681 squares!

“How many squares!”, he did quoth.

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Comments: 3 comments

Tags: #DnD, 4e, D&D, Equipment, Player Choice