Stealing ideas from video games.

So while playing the lite-RPG that is Ghost Recon Wildlands -yes it is, and even a sandbox one at that- I was letting my thoughts wander as I flew yet another aircraft 5 to 10 km across digital Bolivia. I realized while doing this that the system for gaining and calling in rebel support could be partially ported over to a short set of rules and tables. Which then lead me to the fact that no matter what you do to the cartel or corrupt military force, your always hip deep in both with the slightest blunder. At max for the military, you have cobra gunships circling you like sharks, and a whole lot of troops. Fixes to this have occupied most of my time at loading screens since I first started playing the game.

First off, the basic frame for the influence system would start with a paired down version of DCC's dice chain mechanic: D6-D8-D10-D12-D20. Most people have a basic dice set that includes these, so this system is not going to require more than they already have. However, if you do have a full set of DCC dice, I wouldn't go under D6 and I certainly would not go above D30. This die would then be rolled against a fixed table consisting of "Opposite of Request", "Nothing Happens", "Request Fulfilled", and "More Then Requested".

Now every group the players could influence or be influenced by, gets a dice (D6 to D20). What die -high or low- they start with, depends on the circumstances of the area and whether the players are trying to work with or against them.

---

For example, if the players headed over to medieval Nottinghamshire and set themselves up as Robin Hood and his merry men, interacting with the peasantry and the Sheriff and his men. To start the groups there would get:

• Peasants - D6
• Sheriff and his men - D20

The peasants aren't to sure about this whole idea of robbing people on the road (and they certainly don't think they'll see any of the money), and the Sheriff and his men are no worse then most at this point. So if the players request aid or a favor from them, their still iffy about it. On the otherhand, if the Sheriff or his men tell them to do something, they'll most likely do it.

---

Now after several weeks of robbing the rich and giving to the poor, the Sheriff's overreacting, and the players generally making him and his men look like fools, things might shift:

• Peasants - D12
• Sheriff and his men - D10

The peasants are now more likely to assist the players and not the Sheriff. Its now sure bet, but at least they won't be ratted out at every turn.

---

When the Sheriff is finally run off or killed -and his men as well- things might look like this:

• Peasants - D20
• Sheriff - N/A

Cue the wedding music and the return of King Richard, and roll credits on the this adventure.

---

All of this can fit on a 3x5 card, doesn't require remembering any modifiers or what not. Short and simple.

So what do ya think?

My own thoughts on "Homework" in RPGs.

An interesting topic came up over on The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms blog earlier in the week, concerning "homework" that players would have to do to be able to participate in an RPG. The thought started over on Necropraxis, and also spawned a reply at Chicagowiz's Games blog and a followup post on Nine and Thirty.

Now I know I'm sort of riding coat tails here, but I felt it a bit topical as I enjoy a good open sandbox of a game and linear-ish adventures equally. I mean, my white whale is running the complete (ish again) Dragonlance modules, so I can't say I'm total on board for minimal background knowledge on the players part. To run that, you would have to know more then a handful of bullet points as they suggested. Though Chicagowiz has a two step system -a quick page for handing out at games/conventions and a full on wiki- for his campaign world. Which seems to strike a good balance between the two. I would highly encourage you to read what they said, not just because their interesting reads, but their also better writers then I.

My own addition to the conversation goes to both sides: an even more minimal approach, that I used once, simply focuses on the game's overall tone. Conversely, there is a minimum amount of background that would be required to actually be ready for a Dragonlance Classic campaign.

For minimal I present my short lived FATE Starship Troopers game, the set of power point slides I whipped up to show my players, that pretty much summed up my thoughts on the various version of SSTs. 

Using the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly motif, I laid out my thoughts on the game's tone. Keeping their -player's characters- tone in line with the novel or the better adaptions that were the animated movie (Traitor of Mars wasn't around yet) and show, would be okay. Dipping into the movies would cause a nudge from me, and uttering the phrase -after we started; I let them get it out of their systems up front- "Would you like to know more?" would incur a painfully stiff penalty.* Thankfully I never had to use the penalty. The game started well, and if our schedules hadn't caused the game to disintegrate, our group might have had more adventures.

My approach was fairly similar to the keep it simple approaches used in the above posts. My homebrew setting details also only filled the front of a page because FATE is a very off the cuff system to begin with. The emphasis was on enjoyment and playing the game, not being overly detailed.

On the other end of things, the minimum background needed for the Dragonlance Classics modules is a bit more involved. In no particular order, players would have to know about:

• The Cataclysm 
• The Pantheon of gods and their absence
• Various races - Three major races of Dwarves; three races of Elves; dozens of races of Humans; the walking aggravations that are Gnomes and Kender; and the "Goblinoid" races. And thats just what characters might know, otherwise that list is huge. 
• Each races internal "pecking order", and how much all the races distrust/hate each other. Not to mention the various feuds that includes.
• Magic, its three schools/moons, and the rules system that goes with them
• Steel is more important than gold.
• No clerical magic (thus no healing spells) and possible persecution for those that find it  (to start) 

And thats if your not using the Innfellows (characters of the books) for characters and their back stories. Because it is a set of modules, you can't just off the cuff run things, particularly with the fact that many of its pieces are tied to specific locations in the world.**

A final thought, if you were to run a game set in the Star Wars or Star Trek universes, what would you expect the players to know? Just the movies/TV shows? Both in the case of Star Trek? If everyone is mostly familiar with the setting, would homework even be necessary?

---

*As you might guess, I really don't like the live action movies, nor Traitor of Mars. The tone is completely opposite of the book's and as much as I like Robocop, Verhoeven blew it when he made the movie. Imagine the shit storm that would have happened if the guys who made the Dungeons and Dragons movie, slapped a layer of Lord of the Rings over it. The second animated movie had the same writer as the three live action movies and it shows.

**I know DLC catches flak for railroading, but it is set in a series of novels, so its kinda of implied. The fact that it pretty much caused all following modules to be railroads is a very valid point, and I don't try to fight it.

Still alive

So I'm still around, I just went from some time to no time around the end of the spring 2016 semester. I got a part time job and then had to knuckle down for finals. And working on this blog went from back burner to fridge to bottom of the fridge.

Kinda happens when you complete your degree's required classes in 2.5 years. Though I now have a Bachelors of Science in Psychology. Yay me. Would have had Summa Cum Laude, but apparently I still suck at Chemistry.

Now I haven't been all work and no play, I kept up on all the various gossip and issues going on in RPG community via G+. Some of you probably even had a conversation or two with me there (as of right now there is only a month or so left on Google Plus, so if your reading this down the road, thats why you can't find it). I backed a few RPG Kickstarters -the reprint of Aaron Allston's Strike Force, Worlds of Cypher, all of Goodman Games DCC/MCC projects, Tales from the Loop/Things from the Flood, The Umerican Survival Guide, and Main Gauche. Granted all of them ended up on shelves after a read through, but once I get a 9 to 5 type job, they'll get their play time.

Now having mentioned Mutant Crawl Classics (MCC) it goes without saying that is were my Kowloon City dungeon will go. I'm thinking subing it in for one of the various Chinatowns in either Chicago or LA. Either works for a sunken city: Chicago is slowly sinking -4 inches or so a century- and already has a network of tunnels under it, and LA is one or two big earthquakes from sinking. Both have an existing river next to them and adjacent highways. LA's is leading in my mind, because it's right next to Dodger's Stadium and Elysian Park, so there is the added crazy of irradiated Dodgers fans or LAPD Cadets. Maybe a cargo cult type group that treats the area as paradise.

---

To save for posterity, I'm including my post from the DCC Community on G+, about running some DCC for my twin sons and sister over the 2018 Thanksgiving holiday. They had fun, I learned abit about running for kids, and I'm still looking to get them another adventure done before the school year is over. Though they prefer Minecraft most days.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Ran my twin boys and sister (5e gamer normally) through Purple Sorcerer’s Nebin Pendlebrooks Perilous Pantry. Kinda to give the rest of the family a break from them playing Smash Brothers on my sisters Wii she brought with her.

They (twins) had a good time and consistently volunteered to open doors and run into rooms. One of the boys took his whole group of peasants in the room with grub, and promptly ran them all back out when it burst up and tried to swallow one of them. The rest of the peasants got to see an epic turn undead moment (the other twin had found the fountain the holy symbol) with critical turn roll, then a max roll on the table. Most of the undead dwarves and Nebin scattered to the corners and left them easy pickings (from an almost max turn time roll).

The fight with the rock behemoth was a series of flubs by the behemoth and good rolls (and burned luck) for the peasants. The wizard was useless and just peaced out after being freed.

Still working

So, I haven't really gotten more done with my Kowloon City. I did print out the lined map and I started sketching areas on it. I've laid out the above-ground and subterranean topography on this as well.

This next one shows all the odd paths from the map I found earlier. Donno what the green dots are originally, but I'm going to use them as a reminder for where to put the lizard man nests.

Last one is just a rough side view to help me mesh everything when stacking it.

Work continues on the Slivers.

Between slogging through Composition in Everyday Life, my lovely require English class for college, and job hunting after getting out of the Army, I have been working on the following list. It isolates between rules lite to rules heavy, and I'm trying to keep the flavor of the card over the actual rules in some cases. I can say that I'll trim down the list because some of these do replicate others in terms of abilities.  And the list is friggin' huge too!

As always, lemme know what you think.

---

Here are what the colors mean:

• Orange is one I have skipped. They either don’t translate well or they duplicate an ability with another Sliver.
• Green is my place holder. Everything up to this point is on pass two for rules and what not. Anything afterwards is only on a first pass.
• Yellow is a legendary. I’m leaning towards pulling them and writing them as separate creatures.
• Tan are constructs.

Mapping with cashews and fried rice.

Starting out with this meant getting a bit of background and perspective.

“Kowloon Walled City was a densely populated, largely ungoverned settlement in Kowloon City, Hong Kong. Originally a Chinese military fort, the Walled City became an enclave after the New Territories were leased to Britain in 1898. Its population increased dramatically following the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. By 1987, the Walled City contained 33,000 residents within its 2.6-hectare (6.4-acre) borders. From the 1950s to the 1970s, it was controlled by Triads and had high rates of prostitution, gambling, and drug use. In January 1987, the Hong Kong government announced plans to demolish the Walled City. After an arduous eviction process, demolition began in March 1993 and was completed in April 1994. Kowloon Walled City Park opened in December 1995 and occupies the area of the former Walled City. Some historical artifacts from the Walled City, including its yamen building and remnants of its South Gate, have been preserved there.”  – Wikipedia

In addition to this I dug into the history and stories surrounding this place. Definitely going to be fun! Well, for whoever is running it...

---

Anyway, as I mention in my first post, this is going to be subsurface, with a cenote for the large court yard. It'll be 11 "stories" high, with a "ground"level, a couple of worn down buildings up top and three "subsurface" levels. I'll leave it up to other GMs to sub levels if they want. 


So I started with this map:

After cleaning up the edges in GIMP, I then started looking at the current site, I twisted what I had to match. Matching it topographically will only come into play for the surface location and environs, and how the underground rivers flow. After that I slapped another layer over it and pencil lined all the building. After wards I capped the streets and filled them in. And that leaves us here:

I'm going to print this out with out the filled in roads and start tracing it. I think I know where to find a light box that'll make tracing go alot faster. If so, I'll scan it in and let ya'll see.

Right now, my hands a bit cramped, so I'm calling it a night.

Sliver doesn't rhyme well.

So here is what I got after digging through the DCC monsters. Started with a Hobgoblin, added a dash of Elder Brain, and tweaked a bit.

Sliver: Init +3; Atk Talon +2 melee (1d8+2); AC 12; HD 1d10; MV 30’; Act 1d20; SP blindsense (perfect perception of all things, including invisible targets, within 250’); SV Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +6; AL C

Of course it didn’t feel right so I went looking for a method to making DCC creatures. I found a few different ways to do it, but everything boils down to eyeballing it. A friend loaned me a copy of Critters, Creatures, andDenizens by Cognition Press. And while not very straight forward, I was able to get around a bit and get a usable bit of information out of it. So here is the mark two sliver:

Sliver: Init +4; Atk Talon +3 melee (1d10+1); AC 14; HD 3d10; MV 40’; Act 1d20; SP blindsense (perfect perception of all things within 120’); SV For +2, Ref +4, Will +2

And the juvenile (token analogue) and alpha (legendary analogue):

Sliver Juvenile: Init +2; Atk Talon +1 melee (1d8); AC 12; HD 1d10; MV 30’; Act 1d16; SP blindsense (perfect perception of all things within 120’); SV For +1, Ref +4, Will +1

Sliver Alpha: Init +8; Atk Talon +7 melee (1d12+3) AC 18; HD 5d10; MV50ft’; Act 1d24; SP blindsense (perfect perception of all things within 120’); SV For +3, Ref +6; Will +6

Normal ones will be found anywhere, either singly or a small group. Juveniles will be found in and around a nest with an Alpha, and depending on the size and age of the nest, from a dozen to several dozen. Alphas will be found near a nest most of the time, with or without a few normal slivers.

---

I think this does well enough. Individually, a party should be able to kill all three with ease, but they are a strength in numbers kinda of creature. I’ll continue to tweak the abilities chart and see how it looks. I’m thinking of putting a one or two racial rules with them, but might leave them as a personal rule. Anyway, if anyone ends up using these, please let me know how they do.