A Dog’s Breakfast

Do you remember that little experiment I was planning? You know the one where I was going to thrust the socially reticent player into the collaborative story-telling spotlight. How did it turn out your wondering? Hmm I guess about as well as having some kind of rectal exam. Overall, it was one of the more garbled, incoherent, garbage sessions I have ever run.

As I dissect the session in my head several factors come into play that contributed to this massive steaming pile of a session. The scene began with the players climbing out of the Tarek pit of pleasure after killing the pack of rabid –insert name for a Dark Sun lizard type creature- and earning the right to walk amongst the Tareks without being killed on sight. I gave a brief history of the Tareks transmitted through song by the head shaman during a campfire on the eve of the “Great Hunt”, a kind of Tarek bar mitzvah where they send the young out into the desert to slay a great beast and claim their place as an adult in the society. The song told of the great Tarekian empire during the green times and how society was split into three castes (warrior, shaman, and tinkerer/engineer). Much knowledge was lost as the empire was shattered during the brown times and Ranjaat’s racial cleansing war.

The newly reformed “empire” consists of several of the elder houses and the conclave of shamans. The major player’s involved were the Emperor, head Shaman, Tar Ugu (a former pc), and the Tarek player’s hidden brother. Each major npc had some motivations and possible moves. In terms of the emperor I went with the Son of Mogh story line from STNG where he had falsely accused the Tarek player’s father of selling the newly reborn empire out to the sorcerer king Kalak, thereby seizing control of the empire and having the player’s father executed and house stricken from the stories.

So what went wrong? Well overall my mood was a little off as I had just gotten word that I would not be accepted into medical school for the fall. I was a little bummed and it kind of took some wind out of my sails. Now in the grand scheme of life this is not a major disappointment. I already have a doctorate in clinical psychology and a full time job plus a part-time private practice, so it’s not like I am in my mid-twenties and trying to figure out what to do with my life or stuck in some dead end job that I loathe. I also only applied to one school so I new the odds were slim. None the less I was a little bummed with a sense of loss at missing out on a new challenge. So blabity blah blah basically I was a little flat.

I also think I didn’t frame the scene as well as I could have in terms of layout and positioning of the NPC’s and Tarek faithful. This made the exploration at the beginning of the night a little awkward as things became jumbled with people going off and talking to different factions. It also made coming up with a plan or strategy on how to deal with any potential threats or desired shenanigans more difficult and less clear. Sometimes I forget how dependent we have become on maps and tokens in 4^th edition, particularly when playing online, to set the scene adequately compared to the olden days. I can get a little lazy and forget to put tokens out to help frame the scene. Often this is because I haven’t planned anything out, partly due to said laziness and partly due to a desire to be reactive to player choice.

Now in terms of the socially reticent player who I thrust into the narrative limelight, he reads this blog and was game for it but….perhaps it was a bridge to far and we need more baby steps and supportive coaching. In improv terms he kept blocking himself at every turn, it was literally like he was pulling a gun on himself while shouting no. In one instance he stated that he was going to intimidate the emperor and before I could say anything he stated that wouldn’t work because the emperor was un-inimitable. He also had some good ideas but they mostly came off as incoherent and not fully formed. He had established that he was going to use the inherent psionic link that Tareks have to do something but then abandoned what he had started (later I would learn that he wanted to see if a member of the tribe had any memories of the betrayal that would be helpful). He eventual just rushed up and slapped the emperor which then prompted a battle royal in the middle of the camp that essentially ended with him being dead..again (unconscious and the emperor threatening to coup de grace him if the others didn’t stand down). In talking with him after the game he explained his intent wasn’t to fight the emperor but it was more of a klingon challenge type thing. Which my response was “awesome but how would I know that unless you tell me”. I think I really needed to ask more questions to try and draw his ideas out, but like I said I was a little flat. I think this is important to remember when trying to impose collaborative story telling on less experienced players or those that it doesn’t come as naturally to.   

Overall, I also think I need to be more prepared in terms of potential skill challenges, even though I loathe them. At a minimum I need to think/be prepared for the use of skills to overcome challenges or adjudicate player driven hi-jinks on the fly. I feel like I have sort of hit the proverbial wall in terms of running the campaign and need to bear down and push through it. I figure I have 6 to 8 session left to wrap everything up for the end of the heroic tier and I need to end strong…or at least crawl through the finish line like one of those depleted nut jobs at the end of an Iron Man Triathlon.

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Alternatives

I have been thinking a lot on alternative goals in combat lately. These are not “combat outs” (which were developed to speed up 4^th edition combat and reduce some of the grind that can develop) such as bad guys…”gulp”… actually surrendering instead of determinedly inviting the players to cut them down like shafts of wheat or monsters fleeing when bloody or underlings/minions dropping when the master is slain. What I am really talking about are goals that one or both sides can have in a given encounter that isn’t just curb-stomping the other into Valhalla. I don’t think this concept is particularly limited to 4^th edition, or new for that matter, but given the tactical nature of the combat these kinds’ goals can really make the game shine, particularly if you feel like you have fallen into a bit of a rut with encounters playing out in a predictable pattern of powers and feats each round almost like a combat assembly line. Although this maybe more of a DM issue than a player issue because when I am a player I looove stabbing things until their dead at which point I continue to stab them like I have some kind of stabbing Tourette’s..but I digress.

The alternative goals can be almost anything from needing to protect a high value target during an attack or transport to acquiring an item before time runs out. In the later example imagine a scene where an item is guarded by powerful opponents, perhaps much more so than the players where a straight up brewhahah could go either way. The players then have the option to either throwdown, hopefully survive, and acquire said package or do they have some players defensively engage the guardians while one player grabs the item followed by a measured retreat?

Alternative goals are meant to not only make choices interesting but also failure interesting. Take the former example of protecting a high value target during transport. Say the players are tasked with protecting the king’s daughter on a diplomatic mission to a warring neighbor. During the journey they are attacked and while perhaps they defeat the enemies in the traditional fight mode but fail to protect the princess because the attackers had the alternative goal of killing/kidnapping the princess and not necessarily wiping out the players. What are the consequences of that failure? Probably pretty interesting, particularly of your a sadistic mother fucker like me

I will give you an example from my Dark Sun game. I set up an encounter in the desert where the players were ambushed by the Muto Tieflings. I had several ground troops followed by some Muto’s swooping in on giant bats as I piped in Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries. The Muto’s had the goal of capturing one of the player’s (Quell) who they were calling the Muadeeb for a ritual sacrifice.  It played out rather nicely with the players adjusting strategy to try and protect Quell (I kept trying to have the bat riders grab him and fly away) and the associated tension/urgency it generated. The defenders were overjoyed as the Muto’s repeatedly violated marks to try and get at Quell.

One of the side benefits of having encounters with alternative goals is that you don’t’ need to be so neurotic with encounter balance or scaling (if that is your thing) because there is usually a win button that doesn’t involve total annihilation of the monster(s). A word of caution, like most things in life, with the exception of gaming and maybe porn, moderation is probably best with alternative encounter goals. I don’t think you want them in every encounter or your players might start rolling their eyes every time you frame a scene while fondly reminiscing about the good ol’ days when you could just kill things and take their stuff.

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Simulationists Annonymous

Hi I am the Middle-Aged DM and I am a recovering simulationist, it has been 322 days since I last made my players haggle with a merchant over the price of 50 feet of rope and dry rations….. Now don’t get me wrong I have no problem grabbing a 10 foot pole and a sac of chickens and BECMI’ng the shit up, it’s just that I am slowly getting a sense of what my preferred play style is both as a DM and a player. In some ways it is like going through a kind of gaming puberty or nerdberty if you will.

As a gamer I had been so accustomed to a certain way of playing based on early D&D and the prevailing attitudes on what constituted good role playing and you know a “proper” game. This really shook out as you talking, thinking and acting like your character while wandering around and interacting with the setting that the DM had provided. So if you were just entering a town after several hard days of travel you would probably stop and talk with the guards at the gate, possibly haggle over an entrance fee, then make your way to an inn where you would talk with the stable boy about caring for your horses and then into the inn itself where you would chat up the barman, flirt with barmaid/DM and probably get wasted; or similarly, traveling from the butcher to the baker and onto the candlestick maker gathering the necessary info to find the plot or move story foreword.

Now there is nothing wrong with this style of play, I had fun with it for years, but I always felt slightly frustrated with it, like the pacing was off or something. It is really hard to put my finger on it. Things started to evolve for me the more I read and heard about the so called “story games” with their emphasis on the narrative and collaborative story building. I started viewing the gaming session as a series of scenes, either generated by me or the players, for both combat and non-combat encounters, with Q&A filling the gaps in between. I think this is part of the reason I am still rather fond of 4^th edition D&D as its focus on set piece battles and narrative style works well with this kind of mind-frame, and why a lot of my fellow old-timers hated it so much.

In the aforementioned play examples instead of having the players haggle with the merchant I tend to skip that scene unless there is some sort of interesting complication or interaction to be had. Mundane equipment and dealings I let slide and just hand wave or throw it back to the players to tell me if anything interesting or noteworthy happened. Now if it is something more interesting like say poison or some gear for a scheme or job they got cooking then we might flesh that out a little more (cause I can certainly smell a complication percolating)  with some narration and Q&A followed by some skill roles and we see what happens.

I have also shifted to being more right out on front street with information and sometimes give it as part of the scene set up or through the Q&A or again asking the players what the information they a re looking for might be. I don’t really worry about breaking verisimilitude or immersion as both are again very subjective experiences and not necessarily under the control of the DM or other players. I find I get just as much or more “role playing” and character interaction as before with a little less awkwardness. In my last Dark Sun session I started the session with he players locked in battle (a little media res if you will) except I asked them who it was they were fighting and why? Then we built the scene from there and it set the tone and focus for the rest of the evening.

I guess what it boils down to is the age old debate of simulationism vs. narrativism, which is constantly being flamed back and forth over the forums and interwebs, often disguised and in displaced forms. People tend to argue this issue way past rationality into a black and white stance, when we are really talking shades of grey as simulationism and narrativism are opposite end points on a spectrum or continuum of play styles (with neither being superior). It comes down what your preferred play style is and I guess mine has shifted a bit to the narrativist side of the spectrum.

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Muto-Tiefling Beach Party

This is a continuation of my previous post on LIM’s and will be outlining an example from my Dark Sun campaign utilizing that design. I apologize in advance for being “that guy” talking about his campaign, even though that is kind of what I do on this site, but this just seems way more out there on Front Street and with no dick jokes in sight. I also apologize for the roughness of the material as I mostly cut and pasted from my notes.

I centered the LIM on an oasis that backs into a natural outcropping of caves that is several days from civilization. One of the goals I had with this adventure was to give some spotlight time to the guys playing the Tiefling Psion and Thri-Kreen Warlord to allow for further character development; hence the title of the LIM “Muto Tiefling Beach Party” Quell is the psion that died a couple of sessions ago and who’s consciousness is currently subjugating an old, grizzled human gladiator. Clickk Sandflea is the party Warlord whose previous clutch was killed and has currently adopted the party as his new clutch mates.

Grimm Portents:

The party was traveling through the desert on the way to the city of Alturak. I had a trusted NPC that was traveling with them mysteriously fall ill followed by a not to distant conflict featuring powerful arcane magic. The opening scene was outside the oasis in the recent aftermath of a battle between the Mutated Tieflings and Thri-Kreen. There were scattered bodies of Thri-Kreen and mutated Tieflings riding Kanks (think Road Warrior). I started the action immediately with the players facing off against a pair of elementals summoned by one of the Thri-Kreen’s dying acts as they approached his body.

Factions:

Muto Tieflings

• have been living in the caves for several generations, Dmongous arrived about 5 years ago and assumed leadership of the settlement.
• within the last year or so members have started to become sick, or displaying mutations
• group is tight lipped about worship, some are wary of Dmongous others are fanatically loyal
• being hideously mutated by Dmongous through water and rituals (tainted by the abyss)

Dmongous, leader of Tieflings

• well muscled wears a mask with horns protruding reddish hew to skin
• arrogant, charming, charismatic
• mutters to self at times like he is having a conversation with Someone
• Worships Asmodeous

Tiefling Names: Sorrow, Abscess, Demonstrous, Muadeeb (abyssal for skin shifter aka Quell)

Motivations:

• Release devil through ritual
• Eliminate Thri-Kreen and gain entrance to Thri-Kreen tomb to get relic (could be used to open portal to abyss)
• Expand cult
• Sow destruction and anarchy

Moves:

• attack party
•  Try and get the pc’s to attack Thri-Kreen
• Launch an attack at Thri-Kreen
• Try and trick quell and others to attend sacrificial ceremony
• Try and recruit Quell into cult
• Try and kidnap/abduct Quell (could be used as sacrifice to open portal to abyss)

Thri-kreen:

The Torh-Kreen are a species of Thri-Kreen with bright red carapaces who tended to build and live in settlements. There are rumors of great civilizations north of the Tyr valley. The Torh-Kreen inhabited the caves at the oasis during the Green Time. These Kreen are descendants of the Torh-Kreen and have light reddish tinge to carapaces.
Pack leader has the key to tomb but unaware of its presence or function.

As Clickk approached the oasis I also had his character experience a psionic vision showing the Torh-Kreen living in the caves during the Green Time. I also gave another psionic vision when/if he entered the caves showing the Torh-Kreen placing some item in a tomb and sealing it followed by scenes of battle and use of defiling magic. I left it to the player to tell me what the vision meant and what the item could have been. Clickk felt that the item was probably something called a Seed of Life, an artifact from the distant past used for preserving and creating life.

Motivations:

• Recover ancestral home
• Cure leader who became sickened after meeting with Dmoungus
• secure survival of the pack
• struggle for dominance, hunter/prey mentaility

Moves

• Attack players
• Attack Tieflings in force
•  Have land sharks attack players/trap
• Change in leadership/coup, internal strife
• Challenge players for clutch/pack membership

Thri-Kreen names: Krik Krik (pack leader), Chituk, Tic Tac

Thri-Kreen language:  Clutch of one, larva (insult meaning naïve), Send to the circle (kill someone)

I have been pleased with the LIMs results thus far. I have run 2 sessions and will probably eek out another 2 to 3 more from this location. I haven’t had to do much since the initial prep except to add some minor things based on emergent story elements. Next thing I have percolating, after chatting with one of my players, is making desert travel more of a lair assault type challenge, but will see.

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Location In Motion (What’s your Notion)

So what exactly is a Location-in-Motion or LIM for short? It’s a style of adventure design derived from Dungeon World (DW) concepts and hacked for use in some 4^th edition games that I am involved in, although the concepts are generally applicable to most RPG’s.  Certainly these concepts are not new or revolutionary, and I can’t take any kind of credit for their development or implementation. I first became aware of the LIM from a cat in my home game that was playing a ton of DW and had decided to create a little one-shot 4^th edition adventure utilizing some DW concepts.

The way I think about LIM’s is that they are essentially mini-sandboxes. The DM picks a location that is kind of closed and then stocks it with various factions. Each faction is then given some over-arching motivations/goals that drive their actions and reactions. Following this is a list of “moves” for each faction that suggests potential actions a faction could take depending on the situation or to drive the game forward. Moves can be really general or very specific based on personal preference and whatever would be most helpful to you. For a faction consisting of Mutated Tieflings (from my Dark Sun game) a move could be very general and abstract like “sow destruction and anarchy” to more specific “attempt to kidnap Quell”.  The idea is that if there is a lull in the action or the players do something you can look at your “moves” and either react to the players or use them to spur action.

The initial session starts with the players at the LIM and preferable in the middle of some action. This can be a good place to get some collaborative story telling going by asking the players what happened on the way or how they got where they are. Grim Portents is another concept that helps frame the setting and get the action rolling, usually a threat of some kind that may potentially happen without intervention. At this point the characters are left to interact with the location and factions as they see fit, prompting reactions from the factions in a very organic free flowing way.

Depending on the style of game you are running this frame work allows for a lot of narrative control to be given to the players such as adding motivations or goals to factions or adding story elements they want to see happen or accomplish. The DM is then able to build this into the story, perhaps even adding to the encounters and possibilities within the LIM. For example the DM in the game I was playing in mentioned that there was a temple with a hidden treasure on the island. The Githyanki warlock stated that the treasure must be a Spelljamer helm leading to the conclusion that there must be a ship hidden somewhere on the island that he could use to blast off to the astral sea. The DM was then able to incorporate this into the story adding encounters and motivations/goals to the factions that involved a starship. The “motion” part of the LIM comes not only from the fluidity of the collaborative story telling but also from the idea that the factions continue with their goals and motivations if left to their own devices which can have consequences (good or bad)for the players. If ignored a faction cam become a “front”, essentially a major pain in the ass that can continue in future adventures. For example, not stopping the cult who was planning on opening a portal to the abyss could have major consequences that could play out for a while or become a recurring motif in the game.

In terms of DM prep, this approach is frontloaded and takes some work to set up, but after that you can get multiple sessions out of that prep. With my Dark sun game I am looking at getting 5 to 6 sessions out of the initial prep which included creating factions/motivations/moves and generating a couple of maps and stat blocks. I think the discrete nature of the LIM makes it slightly more manageable than a full open world sand box style, although it is not that different from those types of games that start in a town then progress outward. The idea is that you can then string one LIM after another to create an ongoing campaign.

I think what spawned the LIM was some of the frustrations that can arise with plot-based linear adventures; namely railroading and lack of player choice and the associated awkwardness that can occur as players stumble around trying to find the plot or when the DM is invested in the outcome of an encounter/event in order to drive the plot/story forward. I think what is cool about this approach is that it’s not set in stone, in other words you can’t be accused of doing it wrong.  I picture it like a spectrum with DM/player style dictating where on the spectrum in terms of narrative/plot control the LIM will fall in.

This post is getting a little out of hand, nothing like trying to articulate abstract concepts to make you want to jab something sharp in your eye, so I will end this one and continue next time detailing the LIM I set up in my Dark Sun game.

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Our Own Worst Enemy

I think as Dungeon Masters we are our own worst enemies at times, way worse than any twinked up paladin/warlock hybrid or some snot nosed aspergersish rules lawyer. The problem is our tendency to get all up in our heads and over analyze our games. It can be even worse when multiple DM’s get together and begin to theory craft shit, like some kind of monstrous DM sowing circle. Don’t get me wrong all of this introspection and shootin’ the breeze can be beneficial and help improve your game, it’s just there’s a potential downside to it, namely blowing crap way out of proportion.

Everyone wants to run a good fun game; nobody goes into DM’ing with the goal of sucking the joy from people’s lives or running a game so horrific that it scares people muggle. However, I think we can end up ruminating way too much over such things as whether there is too much plot or too little; too much collaborative story telling or not enough; too much railroad or not enough; are encounters too hard, too long, too short, too easy, are there enough alternative goals; do players choices have enough meaning or too much meaning; is there too little or too much role playing; do my players hate my game; am I a bad DM, am I a horrible person etc…on and on until I want to kick my own ass. I think all of these things are important to consider and when refined can create an enjoyable game experience and patch some bugs. We should probably stop short of a crippling neurotic degree of consideration because for the most part I don’t think players notice or care and are just happy to be playing.

Now for sure there are games with issues both on the DM and player side, some of which can be solved through open communication and some which cannot and seem to represent more of a clash in play styles and personality dynamics. For example, some people just struggle with any kind of perceived authority and act out in subtle or more active ways. Similarly some folks are looking to exert control and dominance for any myriad of reason from feeling an inherent lack of control in their past or present to a gratification derived through dominating others. But by and large I think most games and people fall more in the middle and just enjoy the game, giving wide allowances and tolerance for the ups and downs and limitations of playing make believe.

Take me and my dichotomy of DM and player selves. As a DM I am the ruminator who is waiting for the inevitable player revolt, complete with a bloody coup and burning of me in effigy. While as a player I am the most laid back accepting dude there is. I can find the fun in any play style and am just happy to be gaming. Honestly, the DM could bend me over, burying my face in a pillow, and proceed to railroad the shit out of me and I would still probably find a way to have fun (picture Kevin Bacon in Animal House…”thank you sir, can I have another”). I mean at the end of the day no matter what I can always find joy fighting shit while making dick and fart jokes.

I am beginning to ramble a bit now so maybe it’s a good to time end and sum up: Just relax; don’t sweat it so much, your players are probably having a great time and if all else fails crack a dick joke

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Character Death and the Art of Collaborative Storytelling

“Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealously. The shadow of greed, that is.” …Yoda

I wonder if my players would find any more comfort in this statement than Anakin did as three of their characters shed their “crude matter” in a recent session. I know what you’re thinking…awesome job right, teach those players whose boss. I am kidding…sort of as I do suffer from the occasional bout of bloodlust at times. The deaths came over two encounters, with 2 coming in the first major showdown of the campaign. The players decided to track down and exterminate with extreme prejudice Mr. Sultan Griss, their former slave master, who also happens to be a member of the Merchant House Shomm.

I tried something a little different with this encounter. It started off as a run of the mill bad guy encounter with various hurled insults and soliloquies, followed by bad guy’s underlings attacking. After about 2 rounds things got a little freaky as I had Sultan Griss use defiling magic, sucking the life force from his goons and killing them all, to summon a fire demon from the pits of the abyss and facilitating his escape. Now this was one tuff mofo. I again took a page from Frothsof 4E and his Savage (you can check it out below) concept and made the demon essentially a solo monster with elite defenses and hit points. I re-skinned a 3^rd level white dragon from the monster vault and tweaked some of the powers to make them more fitting of a fire demon. I may have over-shot a bit as the demon tore into the party like a tsunami of whoop-ass leaving 3 players making death saves with 2 eventually succumbing to their wounds (well I did coupe de grace one character as the survivors dragged the others to safety).

There were a couple of things that I think led to this outcome. First, the demon was a brute and put out a lot of damage and did so quickly and when added to first 2 rounds of battle (my dice were smoking hot) with the henchman made for a bloodbath. In hindsight I should have had one round of combat, especially after the opening salvo by the henchmen did a ton of damage, and maybe toned down the damage of the Savage a bit. I also should have made it clearer earlier that the party could have used arcana/religion to damage the ritual that was binding the demon to this plane. Secondly, the main striker was absent from the game that night and the other spent multiple rounds unsuccessfully trying to revive the fallen characters with a non-existent heal skill (we actually envisoned him causing harm in his ineptness). This resulted in the fire demon taking no damage. The demon didn’t have a lot of hp to begin with and I think had things gone slightly different they could have pulled it out.

Death is not the end only the beginning….I think this is where the campaign really began to shine as I have adopted the attitude that if a character dies it is up to the player to decide if they are truly dead. It was pretty interesting to watch as the group engaged in some collaborative story telling to craft the next chapter of the characters lives (all decided to stick with the same pc’s). In true Dark Sun fashion the dwarf warden decided to comeback as an undead banshee for failing his life focus. Dead Kord, as we have begun calling him is now a revenant assassin who’s new focus is to kill Sultan Griss after which he will fade away into the ether (unless I manage to kill him again—edit-oops I did it again, he died again the next session–end edit). Next up was the Tiefling Psion Quell which we decided that the trauma of his dying awakened a hidden psionic potential that allows him to project his consciousness into other beings ala Wrath of Khan. He initially joined with Dead Kord but has recently subjugated Iman Fasile (human ex-gladiator).  These acts of collaborative story telling have really opened the campaign up to different pathways and possibilities allowing for an even greater investment in character development. I even stated up Iman Fasile with a monster stat block in case he is ever allowed to surface. I guess what was most pleasing is that death didn’t derail the game but enhanced it.

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Collaborative Storytelling and the Ballad of Pork Swords

I don’t think I am the best DM. Don’t get me wrong I think I run an enjoyable game that people seem to like but there are some limitations or gaps in my toolkit if you will. I have never been that guy that can create an immersive homebrew setting filled with a rich tapestry of culture, people, and Machiavellian plots. Given my extensive nerd studies, consisting of pouring over tomes and tomes of fantasy literature, I am really better at world pilfering than world building. My games are also not super serious, although I try and get a mix of the serious and humor. I think this is, in part, a reflection of how I shuffle through this world with a sardonic glint in my eye and a fondness for dick and fart jokes.

What I have done since I got back into RPG’s and running games has been to exercise some of these weaker DM muscles, sort of like nerd pumping iron. In my 4^th edition games I am trying to be more flexible and encouraging of the players to narrate actions and do interesting things irregardless of the rule system. Often I don’t’ even ask for a skill check or roll and just try and get them to describe what happens. This also expands into story aspects as well, with more sand boxy elements and brief forays into collaborative story telling. With the latter it’s kind of funny how jarring it can be to the players if they are not used to it and can make for some unpredictable and hilarious moments like what led to the title of this post.

It’s the second session of the Dark Sun game and I needed to introduce a character that was absent from the first session. He is playing a Tarek (aka a Half-Orc) hiring himself out for jobs that target the Sorcerer Kings infrastructure. We decided to have him apprehended and sold into slavery after torturing and gutting a Templar for secret information desired by his veiled alliance employers.  So the party was able to spring Targ-Ugu and squire him back to Iman Fasile (ex-gladiator, tapas joint operator, and veiled alliance contact) with only minor bumps and bruises  then the moment of truth came, Iman, in his gravelly voice asks “so what was the message?”. At which point there was dead silence, followed by some humming and hawing, and then a voice chirped up over skype “Pork Swords”. I was like Pork Swords, really like WTF, but good old Iman didn’t miss a beat, he was all “holy shit that sounds terrible…this is bad news bears….this sounds petty bad, what do you think it means?…It sounds terrible, that’s gotta be some kind of code right?

Did I mention my fondness for dick and fart jokes? Well I guess you do reap what you sow sometimes. So now I gotta figure out how to work “Pork Swords” into some kind of grand Templar scheme…any ideas?

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Leaderless

Well the summer of Dark Sun has begun. The players have managed to free themselves from the Gladiatorial pits after a failed assassination attempt on the sorcerer king Andropenis..er I mean Andropinis. They are currently skulking their way around the under-belly of Balic while being hunted by their former slave master and trying to decide how to get the fuck out of dodge.

I started the game with a battle in the arena where the players were fighting as a team against a Black Dragon posing as a Silt Wyrm. I just wanted to give some props to the Black Dragon from the Monster Vault. At level+1 it was supremely efficient at eviscerating my gang. I managed to drop 3 of the 5 characters without breaking a sweat and needed to take my foot of the accelerator a little to not TPK in the first combat of the first session of the campaign.

The group, through the vagaries of online play, has found themselves without a leader. The current roster is filled with a defender, 2 strikers, and 2 controllers. Is it me or with that make-up are they not just asking for me to pound on them? I mean 2 controllers come on man. This puts me in an interesting spot as no one seems interested in playing a leader and I am not interesting on insisting someone play a leader and the players (at least one) want the game to be brutal in that prototypical Dark Sunny way. I was thinking of adding a 6^th person but there is no guarantee they would want to play a leader either. So what are you going to do? It sort of makes encounter planning a little challenging as the game is balanced around the assumption of a leader.  

So we are going to do some experimenting and see if we can make this work without compromising the feel of the setting too much. What I mean by feeling is that in my view things in Dark Sun need to be extremely nasty, scary, and hit like a sac of doorknobs to the junk.  In the next session one of the NPC’s will dole out some magical fruit (Dark Sun equivalent of a healing potion) which the players can use with a minor action to spend a surge.  So it’s a little better than a regular healing potion but a little worse than healing power. If this turns out to be a viable option then they will just have to use a lot of their resources acquiring the healing fruit. I am still setting the encounter difficulty at level +2 and above and have reminded them that fleeing is also an option in combat….what was Khalid’s catch phrase “better part of valor”

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Brown Note Moments

Does it get any better, as a DM, seeing your players shit their pants as they watch their characters drop like a sac of doorknobs and bleed out all over the battle mat? I think not. I guess collaborative storytelling, character growth, and making the players feel like super bad mofo’s that catches bullets with their teeth is alright, but between you and me I think I still prefer the old brown note moments.

One of the fair criticisms of 4^th edition is the length of combats and to a lesser degree combat grind. I have been experimenting with combat and encounter design over the past little while to try and tweak the grind a bit.   I had to make a conscious decision to move away from making every combat a set piece battle and allowing for smaller skirmishes that fit the story better. For example, if the players were going to get rolled by thugs I would be okay with using 2 lower level dudes instead of a “gang of 4 to 5” to make a balanced encounter. I also started using higher level mooks but less of them to create quicker but still damaging fights.

I kicked it up a notch this past weekend and got me some of that brown notey goodness. I was inspired by Frothsof  4E and his musings on monster design and threat level. He had a post (it doesn’t seem to be up anymore) were he adapted and old 1^st edition module that had a lot of solo monsters. He modified the solos into a sort of elite/solo hybrid that would give decent challenge and play quicker to prevent grinding the adventure to a halt.  His tinkering definitely scratched an itch for me as I like using solo monsters but often feel like the combat can take forever and with little threat (even with many of the post MM3 solos). I needed a badass assassin to challenge the entire party, but I wanted it to be quick and dirty after the Paladin sees the head of his order gutted in front of him.

So I made an “elite solo” and added some of the design concepts that Frothsof outlined. The “Night Hawk” actually exceeded my expectations and I was rewarded with some brown notey goodness with multiple “holy shits” and “this guy is way tougher than I thought he was going to be” and “you seem to be mentioning cock a lot today” (which is not really relevant here but still a valid observation). The Night Hawk ended up being a pretty good challenge for my party of four 9^TH level characters as he bloodied everyone and dropped the cleric and the ranger before the Paladin finally cut him down. The battle was also super quick so I will definatly utilize this style of monster in the future.  You can check him out below:

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