In which we look back ... and start again.

Ok, we all know what railroads are.  There's a LOT of argument about  sandboxes.  And some folks use the term "amusement park."  And they're all kind of mobile plot points on a graph and fine if you like that kinda thing.  I was HOPING to move beyond that but I keep missing the mark.  We started with the Masks of Destiny campaign and a bunch of little side trips that were fun, when needed, to bump the party up a level.  It was good.  We all had fun.  Until they all died.  

And then we started over.  I wanted it to be more of a "garden" type game, but I couldn't resist the urge to throw in a through-line with a campaign-closing BBG.  So I planted my garden and sowed a bunch of seeds of plotlines that were interconnected.  And they traipsed through the garden for a while.  Then wandered off for a while.  Then came back adn started making progress.  Then they all died.  

So now we're starting over again.  No more over-arching BBG.  Yet.  Tried using a world balance mechanic last game.  Nice touch but surely better mechanics have been developed in the last 40+ years.  So THIS time around I'm trying (more) new things.  Players wanted a little more political intrigue and I have a "mechanic" to handle that.  AND I'm going to try using Dungeon World Fronts more.  After a session I'll review existing fronts, move them forward (or not) and review the session to see if perhaps there's a new front coming.  Party can address the front or not and we'll where that leads.  Already have one front in place.  Two more in development.  As the folks at DW say: 

"Fronts are built outside of active play. They’re the solo fun that you get to have between games—rubbing your hands and cackling evilly to yourself as you craft the foes with which to challenge your PCs. You may tweak or adjust your fronts during play (who knows when inspiration will strike?) but the meat of them comes from preparation between sessions."

Looking fwd to where next Tuesday takes us.

 

In which we kinda have a TPK

 or perhaps have a kinda TPK.  I'm delaying this post for a bit so the party can "move on" from these decisions.  

So .... The party was at the brink of a lost shrine seeking to retrieve a powerful artifact for the Cartographers Guild who would compensate them with some info they'd been seeking.  They enter the shrine, dispatch a few random encounters, move deeper into the complex, locate a hidden secret exit from the shrine. find the McGuffin, outwit the traps and obtain it. They're down to about 50% HP.  There's been a countdown die on the table.  It's gone from 10 to 1 while looking for the McGuffin.  Instead of leaving asap they opt to "explore the rest of the complex."  I keep the countdown die at 1 but their next encounter is with a modified Yuan-ti Night Talker who gives them a vision.  The Barbarian and the Champion see a panorama of the earth opening up, demons spewing across the earth as the party leads Yuan-ti, humans, elves and dwarves in an epic battle against the BBEG.  The Druid sees cultists pouring forth from this shrine, heading through the woods to locate the Druid's mentor in order to kill him.  And The Bard sees that this IS the McGuffin they've been sent to find but that it's also the 2nd part of the three-part weapon needed to slay the BBG.  A tough choice awaits.  

I figured seeing all this would result in them heading out to find the third part of the Dingus.  Nope.  "Let's explore more of the dungeon."  Turned the countdown clock to 0 and the resident BBG found them.  They coulda taken him at 75% but not at 50.  Rather than killing them blindly here I opted to capture them.  They found themselves stripped naked and tied together.  After freeing themselves they set about ... exploring the shrine - hoping to find weapons, clothing, equipment ... before setting out into the below freezing weather for the 5-8 day trek back to civilization.  And that's where we left it.

In the week off I reached out to each character and offered them safe passage to civilization IF they'd swear fealty to their dragon lich demon lord. leave the continent and never return.  None of them have accepted it .... yet.  We'll see what happens Tuesday night.  

In which we start over

 TPK last time out.  In the first hour of a three hour session.  But the last two hours were a fun session of character building for the NEXT campaign.  Players wanted a little more political intrigue, maybe a military invasion, in a traditional campaign setting.   That exists!  Northern hemisphere.  Bucolic forests and beautiful rivers, nestled between a stereotypical Celtic culture and the eastern edge of a bunch of wood elves.  

A ranger.  A warlock.  A wizard leaning toward Hexblade.  And a fighter leaning toward Battlemaster.  With a high level rogue waiting in the wings.  A little short on the healing arts but the players know how to work as a team.  

Ready to rework the econ system just a tad.  Modifying the spreadsheet to account for the presence or raw materials and manufacturers.  Might have a two month breaking hitting which will allow for those changes.  Also need to incorporate the political struggles of a bunch of lordly houses.  Know I have a book coming which will result in the addition of a crap-ton of resources.  And I need to look into that whole military campaign thing.  

The map was largely made.  Took me an hour to rough out the infrastructure.  I need to start dropping POI's.  Come up with a "system" - already incipient.   The last two campaigns were plotted out 20-step mega-campaigns.  This one?  One step at a time.  I'll put together 2-3 plot lines each week and see which hook they bite.  And where the story takes us.

Almost forgot - The Boy (part of my Kitchen Cabinet) pointed me to this youtube video.  I watched it a few years back but had forgotten. 

In which we make a big leap in the plot development

 I admit this is the first time I've "written" a campaign.  Designed is a MUCH better word. And as expected there were ... ahem ... issues.  But the study, learning and development goes on.  I regularly visit a dozen design blogs and follow half as many youtube channels.  And only two podcasts.  But the "how to improve/fix" gene is strong here.  

I've wrongly assumed the party would follow my well-placed plot hooks.  They didn't.  Spent most of the winter (in-world) heading the wrong direction.  But I've FINALLY planted the clues (and they've been taken up) that cajole them back into the maelstrom.  They're finally seeing that that IGNORING the problem will only make it worse - for them, and others.  And they're seeing the other side of THAT coin - that addressing the problem, in no matter HOW small a fashion, will have a positive impact on the world.  

I think when spring came but winter didn't leave is when they realized something bigger than them was up.  Right now they're standing at a doorstep.  There's still ample opportunity to turn away.  To pass the cup (since it's Easter.)  But I don't think they will.  Sometime in the next session there will be three major revelations - one clear and two cloudy.  If they unravel the cloudy ones they will clear up and give them a total of three positive courses of action.  

Or they can get on a boat, sail for Dwarfheim and leave this land to rot.  I'm ready for that too.

ps.  Sorry for starting three paragraphs in a row with "I."  Having an Obama moment.  

and thanx to Red Ragged Fiend.  Followed their advice on "building" a DM binder.  Helped immensely. Even (especially?) the parts I ignored. 

In which we answer questions, add to and improve a product review

 Ok so in the post immediately before this one I reviewed some products from Infinium Game Studios.  I grabbed my copies from here because they were on sale and I'm a cheap bastard.frugal.  I liked the products for the most part but had a couple caveats/concerns/questions.  A few short days later their product that ANSWERED some of those questions and addressed some of those concerns.  

It's their Solo Adventuring Tool Kit!  It's great for those looking for a little "lonely fun" as we used to call it.  It's also great for playing out "off screen" stories.  That was my first use of it.  I had a NPC paladin who needed a quest.  Some dice rolls generated most of the story.  I filled in details based on our current ongoing main narrative.  I then put the facts of the final battle into ChatGPT and let it write a nice synopsis of the final batle.  Tweaked the narrative to get a little more Tolkien and Poe into it.  Will present to the party when they meet back up with the paladin.

As I usually do with IGS products I'm setting up their tables on a spreadsheet so rather than taking space and rolling dice for everything and chewing up a lot of time I can use a simple F9 command, generate the needed random numbers AND give me all of the results in one place.  Do NOT like flipping from page to pade or scrolling up and down to find stuff.  

Nine types of quests - and they hit pretty much everything you can imagine.  Covers about 160 pages.  Tables for urgency, stakes, pace, suggested rewards, consequences (of success OR failure.)  Graphic templates for every variety of quest (albeit a bit simplistic, they CAN help a DM keep plot lines straight.)  

This product is NOT for every table.  If you're playing pre-packaged adventures or campaigns you might not benefit as much.  Monster of the week?  It'll be helpful.  My current game is a vast garden style game and if I need a quick plotline - to be played or just talked about, it takes me (spreadsheet in hand) less than a minuted to come up with the overview of a vast quest - or one that might be reolsved in 15 minutes of game time.

Good product. Can confirm.

In which we actually review a product, kinda sorta

 

I use a LOT of sources to build a world and to run my weekly (?) game. Roughly two years ago I stumbled onto the products of a company called Infinium Game Studio. Their product is called FlexTale. My first work was with their combat tactics. The product was DEEP and a good idea, but you need to know the “role” for every critter and it wasn't somerhing I didn't wanna fidle with. Next up was their Social Choice product. Went DEEP into that one which is where I'll start.

You as the DM assign the role that the interlocutor plays, selects the conditions under which the interaction occurs and the player decides what approach they're taking in the interaction. Find the right chart, roll the right dice, and adjudicate the result. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy. But I HATE tables and charts and turning pages. So I took a few hours, converted the WHOLE thing onto a spreadsheet. Then when I'm playing I can use a simple filter, input the player's dice role and have my result in nothing flat. VERY happy with THAT product.

So a year later they come out with their environmental encounters product. A crapton of information. Again I converted to a spreadsheet. Since a party rarely changes environments (at least at my table) us is even faster. Again: filter, input players role, adjudicate result. Smooth. Working out REALLY well. I'm even taking steps to automate the secondary dice rolls, of which there can be many, so that the entire encounter is presented to me in one place again without having to flip through scores of pages. My party has no idea of the level of detail I'm drawing from.

Which brings me to THIS years acquisition. Their Adventure Omnibus. MY interest was in the hundreds of Places of Interest (POI) generated. From the companies text:

What is This Thing?

FlexTale Infinite Adventures is a concept that applies the Infinium Game Studio approach to points of interest on a fantasy TTRPG map.  Detailed descriptions, endless permutations of things to keep things fresh, easy-to-use tables and resources, and plenty of ideas and inspiration.

This book is the first in a series describing the various Points of Interest (POI) in the Western Realm of Aquilae.  Though it was created with this setting in mind, everything in this book was designed to be system- and setting-agnostic.

Inside, you'll find:

• Discovery, including read-aloud text, "Why You Might Come Here", "So You Find Yourself Here", Hooks, and more.

• Activities, including Adventure Snippets, Quests, Secrets, Threats, and more.

• Location information, including a heatmap / location guide for the POI's presence in the Realm of Aquilae.

• Rumors & Lore table with true, partially true, and false stories about the POI.

• Events and Quirks, describing unique phenomena that might occur as you explore.

More interesting for players.  Easier to run for D/GMs.  Full, out of the box support for solo players.

And above all: NOT BORING!

Contents

Inside, you'll find:

• 668 tables, 129 FlexTables (each one four tables in one), and 150 full-color maps

• Dozens of Utility Tables: quickly and dynamically generate entire dungeon maps, traps, poisons, diseases, curses, treasure, and spells.

• "Jump Right In" introduciton describing exactly how to use this book based on your needs as a G/DM

• Dedicated discussion on how to use this book as a solo adventurer

• Creature Modifiers to quickly make even the most ho-hum, boring common monster more interesting and unique

• Much, much more!

So here's how I'm using it: every week during my game prep I RNG a POI. I read up on it. If it can fit into my immediate location I will. If NOT I'll add it to my list of rumors and perhaps add it to my library research system, in case the parties interest is piqued and they wanna go poking around. Example? I have a paladin NPC who needs a quest for his plate armor. Rolled up a castle, used the provided table for a simple quest

On the downside:

1. Their complete quest engine is apparently in a different product.

2. Each book seems to include more or less the same first 2-3 dozen pages – necissary perhaps but a PITA nonetheless.

In conclusion if you're a GM who just needs an occasional jump-start or a little extra seasoning in your world building soup, these products are for you.

In which we travel

And eat. And hunt. And forage. And carry stuff. All at once.

OK so MANY DM's out there skip ALL of this stuff. There's a TON of discussion out there about overland travel – how to do it, when to do it, even IF to do it. Me? In an immersive world it's an important part of the game. There's an “easy” way to do it. One twenty mile hex per day. Period. Done and done. But not immersive. And passes up some GREAT gaming opportunites. So I designed a spreadsheet. It considers terrain, weather and pace and movement rate and in seconds tells me miles per day as well as MPH, how long it will take to cross a 20-, 6- and 2-mile hex. So every morning after checking the weather the party sets their pace: fast, normal, exploring or foraging. Finding how far they progress on the map is a piece of cake. This is the easy part. Check.

Then there's encumbrance. Again, MANY DM's hand waive this away. I HATE that. A significant part of the game is asset management: hit points, spell slots … and weight! But how much? First there's RAW. Strength x 15. That's it. Oversimplified? Indubitably. After more research it seems that 64 year old 215 pound me is about a STR 7. That means I could carry 105# without an issue. No a US Marine has to do that as a matter of course and I'm no Marine. Then there's a variant rule provided that provides for slowing down if you're carrying it. So my “7” means I could carry 35# without slowing down. That's a little more accurate. I take another step loss at 10x. Again, reasonably accurate. Of course I had to go one step further – what about weight. The CHARACTER's weight. So Alexis has a chart for that and I'm using it. Seems to mesh nicely with the variant rule. Not a fan with how Beyond tracks this though, so I've put together my own spreadsheet. Each character gets a tab. I plug in their weight and STR and list their inventory along with weight (and condition.) Between each session I update it to keep it close. ALSO use this sheet to track the condition of equipment: checks after every 3 hours in a dungeon, 3 days on the trail and the 1^st of every month. Whole thing takes less than 5 minutes. Done.

Which brings me to eating. Sustenance. And travel. And encumbrance. And HERE is where I go down the rabbit hole and over the edge. I'll skip a lot of the failed attempts and see if I can get to where I am – and then maybe where I WANT to be.

1. Characters eat. They consume calories. I use https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/bmr-harris-benedict-equation to calculate the daily expenditure.

2. Rations? Hard tack and jerkey? No thanks. I wanna dive down the rat hole of nutrition! Five

   catagories of food: protied, carbs, fruits/veggies/nuts, dairy, salt/spices/stuff

3. Where does it come from? Town? Hunting? Foraging?

Whatever I do it's gonna be on a spreadsheet. Crunch a LOT of numbers in short order.

<a day later>

Spent quite a few hours reading RAW and variants and AU and dozens of homebrews. And I'm back at the point of beginning. The above stuff is easy, fun and playable. The mechanic lends itself to game play. Player agency matters. Input counts. But I still need a mechanic that doesn't take forever. The fact that my party just finished a long cross-country journey in February may have something to do with my sudden interest in fixing this! No game in season and limited plants to forage.

So how about this. Using all the stuff mentioned above we determine how many pounds of food per day the party needs. My current party requires 56 pounds, so we'll round that up to 60. At the beginning of the journey we set a die with the “6” face showing <edit to add: this number is 1 for each load bearing party member). Each day it resets one lower. When it gets to 0 starvation sets in. In the following we'll refer to the face of the die as “X”.

1. <edit to alter: this only applies if 1/2 X is greater than 1/2 the party)  X is added to the negative repercussions already effecting movement rate, so as food is consumed the MR increases.

2. X is not reduced IF the party passes through a civilized area where food may be purchased although this only adds 1 to X.

3. If the party allows for ½ a day of foraging and the result is <5 pounds the die moves as normal. If between 5 and 15 pounds there is no movement for that day and if more than 15 it increases one.

4. If the party allows a day for hunting and the hunter brings back <4 pounds the die moves as normal, if between 4 and 16 pounds there is no movement. None can be used the next day.

5. Harvested meat counted the same as #4

Spreadsheet calculates lifestyle expenses for days in town and food cost for six days of food plus whatever days are added during the trip via purchases.

I actually think this might work!