Cyberpunk, Gauntlet 100, and JRPGs

CYBERPUNK ON TARGET

On Tuesday I forgot to mention the latest Play on Target podcast episode, this time covering cyberpunk. I should've paired it with my History of Cyberpunk RPGs. We recorded before I’d had a chance to play Shadowrun Anarchy, Kuro, or The Veil. Playing those and digging through the genre's history has given me new perspective and enthusiasm for it. It has even more potential than we conclude.

Play on Target’s been a little infrequent because of schedule changes. I’m happy with the recent episodes because we now have Sherri Stewart on board for additional commentary. She brings a different perspective to the table. If you haven’t had a chance, check out our most recent shows: GM Best Practices, Character Creation, and Endings.

100 GAUNTLETS

The other show I’m part of, The Gauntlet Podcast, just hit its 100th episode. I joined that a little over halfway along. The 100 number’s misleading since the Gauntlet had been operating as a gamers network for some time before that. Jason also mentioned some “lost” episodes exist. 

For this “anniversary” show we crowd-sourced a random table of questions ahead of time. We rolled to generate q's for our hosts, as well as members of the Gauntlet community. It’s a confessional episode that ends with a kobold. We also now co-release those shows on YouTube for those who prefer that for their playback.

GAMING JAPAN

A couple weeks before that I interviewed Andy Kitkowski for the Gauntlet. He’s worked on Heroine of Heiankyo, Tenra Bansho Zero, and the forthcoming Shinobigami. We talked about his translation work, the challenges of bringing a game over from Japan, and history of rpgs there. It’s a great conversation which touched on a ton of things I hadn’t known about. In particular it’s worth listening to the end to hear about Japansese “Replays” and their importance in that community. I’m only disappointed that we didn’t get to talk about Persona 5.

ABANDONED JAPANESE RPGS (TANGENT WARNING)

Finally on a related note, I’ve been thinking about JRPG video games since I’m almost done with Persona 5 (at least my first playthrough). In particular I’m focused on the cost/awesome ratio from these games. Sherri and I buy a lot of tabletop rpgs, many more than we’ll ever get to the table. Some we use as sourcebooks; others e just enjoyed reading. Taken that way, they don’t offer a great cost/awesome ratio.

Yet I’ve always thought of video games as a more expensive hobby. But I’m not sure about that. We have a lot of console games; many we haven’t finished and some we haven’t played. But we’ve still managed to invest a lot of time into many of those unfinished games. I started to sketch out a list of those: video games we’ve sunk at least 40 hours into but didn’t complete. It’s a longer list than I’d like, and many of these games sucked away significantly more than 40 hours of play.

Sherri had a good analysis of this. On the one hand, rpgs run directly at the table or used to inform play end up involving more players. That multiples their utility. On the other hand, while they’re both rpgs, video games offer abnegation, something you really can’t get from a tabletop game. Unless it’s a terrible game…

Anyway here’s my list of shame…

GAMES WE STOPPED BECAUSE OF DISTRACTION

Things happen. New shiny things appear. Then the gravity of the game’s overcome by the pull of other experiences. It’s hard to point to a concrete reason why, with some exceptions. Several of these we set-aside in mid-grind, thinking we’d just take a break. But of course, once you’ve done that you have to relearn the gameplay when you come back, Easier to just start over or give up.

• Ar Tonelico
• Dark Cloud 2
• Digimon Cyber Sleuth
• Disgaea
• Dragon Quest Heroes
• Dragon Quest VII
• Fantasy Life
• Infinite Space
• Kingdom Hearts
• La Pucelle Tactics
• Nomad Soul
• Persona
• Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (twice)
• Persona 2 Innocent Sin
• Persona Q
• Radiant Historia
• Shadow Hearts
• Shadow Hearts Covenant
• Skies of Arcadia
• SMT: Strange Journey
• Tales of Symphonia
• World of Final Fantasy

GAMES WE STOPPED BECAUSE OF BUGS

These really hurt. The first three all fell on Sherri’s watch. In the case of the first two, the bug occurred right at the end. You couldn’t patch PS2 games, making it a lost cause.

• Atelier Iris 2
• Atelier Iris 3
• Mana Khemia
• Suikoden Tactics (if being too hard is a bug)

GAMES WE STOPPED BECAUSE WE WENT “WHY-TF AM I PLAYING THIS?”

For each of these I can remember exactly where I went “nope.” In some cases, like the most recent Star Ocean, we kept playing, figuring there would be an interesting plot turn. The signs points to it, but alas no. Lost Odyssey stopped me from sheer combination of massively long badly written texts and gross character models. Chaos Wars made me stop and consider what I was doing with my life.

• Blue Dragon
• Chaos Wars
• Cross Edge
• Final Fantasy 9
• Lost Odyssey
• Star Ocean 3
• Star Ocean 5
• Wild Arms 4

GAMES WE STOPPED “THIS CLOSE’ TO THE END

Our most guilty secrets. Sherri and I enjoyed, even loved, all of these games. So why did we run all the way up to the finish line and stop? In some cases we saw we’d have to grind, in others that we still had sidequests to finish. But many of these represented no wanting to leave that world, as stupid as that sounds.

• Azure Dreams
• Bravely Default
• Digital Devil Saga 2
• Final Fantasy X-2
• Final Fantasy XII
• Grandia 2
• Mana Khemia
• Rune Factory Frontier
• Star Ocean 2
• Suikoden V
• Valkyrie Profile 2
• White Knight Chronicles 2
• Xenoblade Chronicles

Character Creation: The Great Roleplay Melting Pot

Some people roll up characters for fun. In fact, I’ve heard lots of gamers say they take serious joy from this. It’s never been my bag. I’ve always dug writing up lists & details of NPCs, but there’s something about creating PCs. Maybe it’s that I can’t bear the thought of creating a character and not actually running them? Maybe it’s that character creation has the highest rules density and I’m kind of a wimp? 

In any case, we recently talked about Character Creation on the Play on Target podcast: favorite systems, best practices, player exploits. It’s a solid discussion and Sherri once again joins us.  I’m way behind on cataloging those episodes. You’ll find the show link below and I’ve written up nine additional things that occurred to me.

Play on Target Ep. 65: Character Creation

NINE RAMBLINGS ON CHARACTER CREATION

The Greatest Random Generation: I appreciate elements of random character generation. Rolemaster was a fav because it had built in safety nets. First, you could drop any rolls into your Primary Profession stats and make those a 90s. Second, stats had “Potential,” meaning how high they could go over time. Each level players rolled for stat gain. It usually meant a poor stat could eventually become average. But RM had a problem that became clear over multiple levels. Since stats heavily influenced skill ratings and determined how many points you got to spend on skills, characters with good stats pulled away. The rich got richer. These days if I’m going to have random generation, I want it for secondary elements: like the drawing of mutations for Mutant: Year Zero.

Homeworkers: Group character creation sessions give solid benefits, but have a couple of potential problems. Make sure you have enough reference material: sheets, playbooks, rules, etc. Print out or copy relevant sections. You may also have to deal with players at different points in the process. Some players like to plan ahead; some come with a finished character. I try to dissuade people from that. On the one hand, it means they’re less likely to have a conversation with others players. They’re less flexible. On the other hand, it means that some players may already be done by the time others are rolling up stats or choosing a class. Be prepared for that.

R-E-S-P-E-C: In the episode we mention letting players change character details and abilities after a few sessions. 13TH Age has this baked it. Leveling up’s an opportunity to change things around, to find a configuration you enjoy. I like doing that. Sherri paraphrased to me something S. John Ross said about the problem of player-written “Jack of All Trades” abilities in Risus. He said to not worry about them; they reduce that pressure of creation. It avoids players tangling themselves up creating the perfect, useful skill to make their character what they want. The same with respecs. Plus letting players know they’ll have the opportunity to make changes potentially means they’ll experiment more.

Need to Know Basis: As a GM you should figure out what the players need to know before creating characters: set up and mechanics. Give them a sense of the setting, but don’t overwhelm. Can you reduce it to key points? You don’t have to consolidate everything, but give them a guide to the heavier material. I’ve tried to cut any backstory down to a list—longer if I know the players, shorter if I don’t. Especially online I don’t expect players to have read this stuff. Often they haven’t. But I can direct them back to it if they have questions. I also give them sample character sheets and a rules cheat sheet. The former helps them to see what the game’s like. The latter’s useful to me; it makes me go back and figure out the key rules. In play I can direct questions back to that sheet as well.

Know Your Limits: Flaws and Disads can be awesome for the GM—depending on what tradition your player comes from. More recent games use these primarily to flesh out characters or generate resources in play. Older games use flaws to give characters stuff at the start and then expect them to pay that back with harsh interest. The latter means you’ve got a sharp division between cost and reward. All of this can confuse players who move from one approach to the other. Or if they’ve played disad-based games, but their GM hasn’t done much with those (something I’ve seen and been guilty of). These days I echo Fate’s advice: it you take a problem, trouble, disad, complication or whatever, it should be something you actually want to play out at the table.

Spend to Buy Divinity: One of my favorite character creation devices is “Buying into the Setting.” I haven’t yet adapted it to other games but I want to. Weapons of the Gods provides all kinds of backstories—on factions, on religions, on legends, on sex, and so many other things. It usually includes a story/anecdote and then some game info. But most importantly, you can buy a connection to these elements during character creation. Want to be tied to the Heavenly Circular Fists Gang? Make a small spend to be affiliated, make a large spend to be the son of the Leader. Like that cool legend about that dragon? Spend points to have your destiny tied in with that. It’s a cool idea and lets the players engage with a relatively deep setting.

Elect Your Representative: 13th Age has related mechanics with the Icons, Backgrounds, and “One True Thing.” The Icons distill the major actors in the setting. Players know they’ll be connected to these, so they learn a little more about the world. The choices they make tell you what kinds of stories they want. Backgrounds and OTT let the players tell you more about the world and about how they see their place. They’re super-useful. Plus the looseness of the Backgrounds reduces anxiety, as I mentioned above.

Weight Training: That approach does have some pitfalls. If you leave too much open and undefined, you put most of the heavy-lifting on the players. They may become overwhelmed or lost. You need to give some structure or direction. For example in Before the Storm, players build their characters with only the loosest sense of the world. But the game provides structures for those choices. They have to spend cards to make certain picks. The cheat is that it’s pretty easy to get a card allowing you to take something not on the list, so players still have lots of freedom. Directed questions in playbooks serve the same role. My Crowsmantle game failed in part because I put so much of the work on the player’s shoulders- from character idea, to world, to kinds of moves.

Overwhelming: How many choices are necessary in character creation? How many can overwhelm I like class and playbook approaches because they offer an answer. They present players a tight set of choices. It does put weight on that initial pick, but players can tune that archetype to their wishes. Confronting players, especially new ones, with pages & pages of stunts, powers, and advantages can put them off. That’s even worse if they have veteran players making suggestions at the table. I dig games that open up over time. In Mutant Year Zero don’t really make contact with the secondary talents as an option until after character creation. Perhaps that’s a way to handle Fate? Archetype playbooks, with the ability to add stunts outside of it once we actually get to playing. Now that I think about it, that’s sort of how Dresden File Accelerated handles it… 

Play on Target Ep. 65: Character Creation

RPG Endings: Crossing the Finish Line

Endings. Not just campaign endings, but endings for scenes, for sessions, for arcs. When I see them coming and can steer into them- as a player or GM- a good ending crystallizes everything. But sometimes I over-correct and go off the road; sometimes I miss my turn and suddenly we're miles past my exit and the passengers have fallen asleep. 

This week Play on Target talks about RPG endings. Once more we're joined by Sherri Stewart in my not so subtle plan to get her on every episode. We talk about endings that have gone askew, techniques for making finishers satisfying, and advice for reading the road map of your campaign. As always, I have a few scattered thoughts I've added below. 

RPG Endings

Play on Target Episode Roundup

1. FILE AWAY ANOTHER CS: Barry ran many games for our group. Many, many games. But I don’t remember him ever actually finishing one. We played several Cyberpunk 2020 campaigns, a Night’s Edge CP game, a Mars-based CP game, Cybergeneration, Fading Suns, Champions in space, street-level Champions, Kult, a gnostic supers game, and probably more I've forgotten. We all knew it would happen, that the campaign would most likely die. But we’d press on to see just how far we could get. You could spot the death spiral: cancellations, absolute lack of prep, shutting down plots, talking about other games. Barry closed down based on player reactions. It all came from his own fragmented focus and artistic dissatisfaction. Still I love and miss him. I'd play in another incomplete campaign of his again any day. 

2. HYPOCRISY: I point fingers, I did the same thing for a long, long time; especially in high school/college/early twenties, I left many campaigns unfinished. But in my mid to late twenties I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore. I can't point to a catalyst. I made it a goal: finish each campaign. Bring some kind of resolution to the story. But even after deciding that I had plenty die on the vine. More often that came from player changes rather than my own dissatisfaction, but that’s no real comfort.

3. SALVAGE RITES: What can we do with that material? If you’re running online and changing groups, it can still be useful. Steal and reuse those concepts. If you have a steady f2f group (as I have) it’s harder. Mostly likely you’ll have someone who played in the original game. However there’s another factor. I’ve never really reused old, dead campaign material for two reasons. Campaigns come from players and often what I've done in one game won’t work with another. The tone, backdrop, goals, or a hundred other details interferes. More importantly once I’ve had a campaign die, I tend not to revisit. It hurts to see that material and the “might have been.” Instead I move on.

4. UNFAIR: Endings make or break a game. No pressure. I hate to say that. But this realization comes from the player side of things. I’ve had mediocre games become last-minute-awesome through a solid ending: spectacle, choice, a chance to wrap our characters. That stays with me and I mostly forget the other part. But I’ve also had games futz out. The last session just…ends. Or the GM undercuts my character at the last minute. Goodwill vanishes. Ironically games which die early don’t usually have this problem. I look back at those untold stories through rose-colored glasses. (There are exceptions, games where it’s a relief to have it finally die off.)

5. REPORTING LINE: Check in with your players. Take their temperature. Give them a sense of your expectations for length (set number of sessions, rw time frame, open-ended). I’ve been in games that dragged on past their expiration date. And it’s hard to ask the GM “when’s this going to end?” That sounds like a judgement rather than a query. You have to be politic about that. But this burden of information should rest on the GM’s side. You’re the project manager for the table. Keep your eyes and ears open.

6. LIKE TEARS IN THE SHOWER: Let’s put aside the question of RPGs as art. I believe they are a media. They’re an entertainment form like a symphony, TV show, video game, etc. They’re an experience. But because of their interactivity and play they’re incredibly ephemeral. That final session will never be  replicated. It has to live on in your players’ minds. It’s like an improv show, not to be repeated.

7. EXCEPTION: MODULES: Modules offer a script. You could compare those the performance of an opera or a theatrical production. Each night’s performance will have its own quality and difference. But even with modules the interpretations can be so wild and different. Your Death on the Reik may end with a pulp action showdown in the castle while others might make a slow slog through horror corruption. "That's what happened? Then you weren't really playing Masks of Nyarlathotep..."

8. MOTIVES: Why did I avoid player “epilogues” for so long? Many reasons, all of them BS. A sense that ending episodes capped things completely and perfectly. Not wanting the players to notice and point out unresolved threads. Keeping players from imposing on the future of setting and cutting off my options if I decided to run there again. The idea that players might use it as a wedge to keep playing things out. Fear that we’d have to resolve conflicts between different players’ visions of the future. Bottom line: mostly really about control and authorship for me. Dumb.

9. FAT LADDIE SINGS: In the episode we ask, how do you know when to end a game? We talk about some signs and tools, but sometimes you flail about. You try to find a good hook. I have a concrete example. I ran a series of three M&M 2e campaigns for my Wednesday online group. Each came in at about 15-16 sessions, with a beginning, middle, and an end. I’m running M&M 3e for the same group- a sequel campaign with new characters. We just did session eleven this week. And I’m not sure where we are in the campaign: still early days? somewhere in the middle? cresting toward the end? In this case I can point to at least one specific issue: the PCs. We have a weird mix of levels and emphasis: cosmic, global, mystical, supernatural street level, and just street level. I want to give each of them something to fit their interests and somehow manage to tie that together. Who knows how long that will take. 

What's your campaign ending story? What's worked for you? Have you tried something that really wrapped up the game with a bow?

RPG Endings

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If you like RPG Gaming podcasts, I hope you'll check it out. We take a focused approach- tackling a single topic each episode. You can subscribe to the show on iTunes or follow the podcast's page at www.playontarget.com.

Dukes of the Gameosphere: RPGs Ahead of Their Time (Maybe?)

I’m a behind on updates for Play on Target, the rpg podcast I co-host. That’s OK since we’re a little behind on episode releases. Or maybe OK isn’t the word (maybe par for the course…). Anyway in this July episode we considered games “Ahead of their Time.” In some cases they struck out so far ahead they died off. Yet later games would take up their trailblazing approaches. In the show each of us offers several games we’d put in these categories. We also talk about the challenges new systems pose to existing groups. If something’s radically different it can be hard to wrap your own head around, let alone sell to the table. Your perception may be colored by bad experiences, leading you to dismiss a game. I felt that way about PbtA until I played with GMs who actually showed off the cool parts of the system.

Below I’ve cobbled together a few additional thoughts on the topic.

Games Ahead of their Time

Play on Target Episode Roundup

1. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS BEHIND THE VEIL: I’ve seen it mentioned a couple of places, but it’s worth mentioning again. We’re 25 years out from the original release of Vampire the Masquerade. It showed up on the shelf just as I finished college. I worked at a game store at the time and it drew a little attention. A year later I returned from grad school to manage the store, and it had become the hot new thing. Over time Vampire and its sundry associated games changed the composition of local game groups and increased the number of customers. Over time our gaming population grew and splintered into several groups. I could usually tell when they came in the door if they were “Just Looking at Whatever,” D&D, WH40K/Battletech, World of Darkness, or Magic the Gathering customers.

2. YOUR TEAM SUCKS: In the ep we don’t talk about the backlash to new approaches. It parallels the edition wars which have plagued gaming. Enthusiasts for a particular game of style of game dismiss others. They take any form of criticism as an attack. Even advocacy for alternatives becomes an implicit condemnation. I saw this happen repeatedly in the store…and I joined in the absurd dogpiling: Champions players dismissing anyone who played baby Marvel Superheroes; old school rpg grognards versus the rising tide of World of Darkness; Cyberpunk 2020 versus Shadowrun; Anything else versus d20; tabletop gamers versus LARPers. I’ve been part of that, part of the group that said there’s no BadWrongFun, yet still shat in other people’s cornflakes. I tell myself I’ve gotten better, but I can still get snarky about games I don’t even play with 3+ page character sheets DESPITE THEIR EXISTENCE HAVING NO IMPACT ON MY ENJOYMENT OF MY GAMING.

3. MY TEAM RULEZ: On the other hand, I also remember the lone activists of the shop. Individuals who bought everything for a line and talked endlessly about how it was the end all of gaming. These weren’t D&D fans, but those pushing games that maybe sold a copy or two of anything each year. Over my lifetime, I have lost weeks to these advocates: pinning me behind the counter in conversation. They needed to convince me of the merits of their revolutionary game: Streetfighter, Dark Conspiracy, TORG, SLA Industries, Immortal the Invisible War. Some of them knew when the store would be slowest, so they could share their stories uninterrupted.

4. IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPY: I mention this because I’m sure our selection of games on the podcast sent many eyes rolling: about half the time I discuss Fate or PbtA I get at least one person telling me how it didn’t work for them (best case) or it sucks & any games that sells out by using that system needs to be burned with fire (most other cases). I understand. I can think of several revolutionary and striking games which I don’t dig. Games doing immensely cool stuff, but not in my wheelhouse or just not clicking for me: Reign, Burning Wheel, Star Wars d6, Warhammer 3e, Houses of the Blooded. They’re good games and some people get awesome fun from them. The aforementioned pooping in someone’s cereal about something they dig doesn’t make sense.

5. HOW ABOUT SOMETHING CONCRETE: I have three game innovations I’d like to see again: mechanics reworked and used in new contexts. First, mini-games for things like Sorcery or Psionics. That’s one of my favorite Castle Falkenstein elements. To cast magic you have to have certain types of energy. Draws from a deck represent that via suit and rank. Characters have a limit on how much they can draw to build that up. There’s a push-your-luck aspect there. Do you use more actions to draw? Do you risk bad interactions via unattuned energies? Do you spend your own soul to supplement this? Second, flow-chart mini-games. Mutant City Blues does this a little with the Quade Diagram. I haven’t yet figured out how to bring that over to another game and make it useful. But more I’d like mechanics like the tech deciphering flowcharts from Gamma World. You’d need more active choices, but it could work. Third, institutional lifepaths for character creation. That’s one of my favorite elements from Cyberpunk, FASA’s Star Trek and especially classic Traveller. Uncharted Worlds feels a little like a PbtA love-letter to Traveller, but it backs away from a lifepath approach. That’s too bad. I like the randomness and, again, the push-your-luck element.

6. HOW ABOUT SOMETHING VAPORWARE: I also have a couple advancements I hope we’ll see in the future. First, a cool Legacy-style boardgame-rpg hybrid. We’ve seen more and more rpgs trying to cross into board game territory: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, Mice & Mystics, Agents of SMERSH, Star Wars: Imperial Assault, Mansions of Madness, and others. Some have a GM role and others automate that process. I’d like to see more of that, leaning towards the rpg side of things. But add to that an element of Legacy games. In those player choices and in-game events change the game itself. That happens in a tabletop rpg, and a bg/rpg could easily offer cool physical objects to track that. But it’d be awesome if things changed at the meta-level, with the rules expanding or changing as play evolved. I don’t know exactly what that’s mean; I’m spitballing. I’d also like to see more interest uses for rpg apps. The new edition of Mansions of Madness subs in the app for the Keeper role and Alchemists uses it to track hidden information. Imagine an app that generates tons of random and cascading details for a city. Or one that generates and manages puzzles for a dungeon. Or something that simulates hacking, giving that player a special mini-game with choices and immersion.

Games Ahead of Their Time

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Loot! Loot! Loot!

I love loot. Despite that I’ve been accused of being stingy with it. But that comes from the same whiners who say “ooh I don’t have enough points,” “wait I lost how much sanity?,” or “we’re only first level why is there a dragon?” You can get by without much loot. We’re been playing Rolemaster for close to two years in the same dungeon and I think we’ve gotten a handful of gems, a potentially cursed religious chalice, various nuts & bolts, and three actual magic items. Of course, I ended up with the +15 laen sword, so I may be a little biased.

Anyway, on a recent Play on Target episode we discussed loot, treasure, money, items, etc. We were lucky enough to have Sherri on as a guest. She added her player-perspective to our GM focused interests. Below I offer nine additional thoughts on filthy lucre and ancient relics in rpgs.

Loot!

Play on Target Episode Roundup

1. The Pudding Blade: I like weird items with strange powers players have to find a use for. They make my job easier. It means I don’t have to think about the group, their roles, and what they already have. If you’re not using a random chart to generate treasure, then any decisions about drops have the PC group as a context. If you keep dropping flails but no one uses them, and in fact everyone’s invested in everything but flails, that’s a problem. Or if it’s all swords, all the time, and the group ends up with a golf bag worth. I try to skate the line between suspension of coincidence (“look everyone got a magic weapon of the kind they use”) and punishment (“six new helms everybody!”). Bizarre things make it easy. I don’t know where they’ll end up or how they’ll be used.

2. How Much for the Eye of Vecna? Tangential to the concept of Loot as Stuff, there’s the question of the economy in games. How do we handle money and purchasing power? Better minds than I have written about the economic impact of wealth on fantasy civilizations. Money loot becomes more important when the backdrop has scarcity. As I say in the episode less scarcity means you have to shift your picture. If you want players to spend what they want has to be scarce. Night’s Black Agents makes that vital to the set up. It’s costly to run a rogue intelligence operation. You want weapons or cool Q-tech stuff, you need money. And that means doing off-the-books jobs to get that money.

3. Glorious Doom Hammer of Doom: What can we learn from Diablo’s drop system? A. Having cool names makes everything better, but be careful not to repeat. B. An easy means to dispose of items seems awesome but generally devalues them. C. Stuff should have a look, something players can integrate into their self-description. D. Giving sweet equipment to beloved NPCs can be satisfying.

4. I'll Just Pay Then Off: Some games have capital “W” Wealth. These games allow players to roll or spend points to make themselves rich (GURPS, M&M). It’s a thorny question. Obviously the GM can still make that interesting: some choices come with costs or they’re in locations where their wealth isn’t recognized. Call of Cthulhu, Fate, and a few other games have wealth as a skill. I like systems where you can throw your money around but it reduces your skill or effectiveness for future attempts. Taken to its logical extreme, wealth becomes a hit point pool or damage track. You could use that to absorb social attacks or have it assaulted by thieves. But that might be more tracking and recording than I’m good with.

5. You Don't Know, Why Don't You Drink It? Rolemaster has some interesting treasure mechanics::delving and attunement. There’s a whole set of spells (usually for Bards) to figure out what an item does. They can also uncover history and other information, but really it’s about this challenge to the PCs and the mechanics to overcome that. This means you need to be clear to the party how you’re going to handle items. If you tell players what X does, then you potentially negate the need for some spells (and therefore part of a character’s build options). Of course, since its Rolemaster, they add another shade of difficulty. In order to use staves & wands, you have to make a skill check with “Staves & Wands,” aka Attunement. I’ve seen many GMs use this skill as necessary to using any item that doesn’t offer a flat bonus. I’ve done it myself…

6. Torc Grenades: Of course my favorite mechanic for this kind of figuring out is early Gamma World’s flowchart. There you flat roll until you figure it out, break it, or kill yourself. A more interactive approach with some bonuses and skill interaction might be fun. Artifacts of a bygone age are a staple of post-apocalyptic gaming, and figuring them out is important. It’s why I’ve been curious about the long-mentioned Gumshoe PA game. What will discovery there focus on: other groups, lost lore, or how relics work?

7. Wastelands:  Mutant: Year Zero takes a middle path on this kind of loot and I dig it. MYZ has artifact cards, ranging from the obviously useful (rifle) to the oddball (air mattress). Each card has a description of the effects and even the most mundane has some bonus. The air mattress helps with recovering fatigue. Artifacts often contribute dice to checks. When they do so, players add black dice to their pool. If these dice roll 1’s they can wear out. Gearhead characters can then repair them. It’s an easy mechanic and creates opportunity and value for tech characters. The cards help too. As well, some of the more obscure pre-made relate to a meta-plot operating at the back of MYZ. That’s a nice touch and the GM can seed those as they see fit.

8. Power Up: Other genres require a different take on loot. You can still have equipment finds in a sci-fi game, but more often you’re getting money to convert into stuff. Superhero games don’t have loot per se. But we could make some rewards more concrete so they feel more like loot. Accumulating NPCs and contacts is one obvious choice. Worlds in Peril has a bonds system and that offers a mechanical benefit. Bases are another great reward for group long-term play. That’s especially true if players can invest points, effort, or “loot” into making the base better. Never underestimate the power of that kind of shared resource. Particular kinds of reputation can be a reward. It would be interesting to offer loot in the form of rep levels with different segments of the population. That could be a popularity number along with a phrase describing the kind of rep. Finally loot and stuff found in villain lairs, labs, and on downed foes can be “excuse” loot. If someone has cool stuff or strange chemicals, that’s an excuse to buy new powers or enhance existing ones. That’s the whole basis of Base Raiders.

9. Wear & Tear: Finally, I’m torn on something I mention in the episode. Ashen Stars has an interesting system covering cyberware and viroware, both cool things with special abilities. You can pick up more of these in play. Obviously there’s a limit to how much you can have (ala Humanity from Cyberpunk 2020 or the item chakras from 13th Age). In Ashen Stars there’s an upkeep cost to these items. If you don’t pay that, you lose their powers and suffer additional problems as they break down. That’s a cool mechanic for balancing items and giving players something to spend money on. BUT I know that I loathe video games with weapon breakage and item degradation. Would I hate it as much at the tabletop? I don’t know. I suspect it would be an occasional road bump rather than a runaway treadmill. So maybe there’s something worth pursing in the idea of adapting that kind of upkeep (and maybe upgrade) mechanism to a fantasy game.

Loot!

Play on Target Episode Roundup

If you like RPG Gaming podcasts, I hope you'll check it out. We take a focused approach- tackling a single topic each episode. You can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Google Play, or follow the podcast's page at www.playontarget.com. 

Rookie GM Mistakes

I have run some dire, dreadful sessions over the years. I suspect many didn’t crash & burn as badly as I remember. Others…well others I know did. I have been a Rookie GM and have made those classic mistakes. And when I’ve hit a system I didn’t quite grok, I’ve fallen back to being a newb even after years of play. That’s the undertow when you desperately swim in new rules. In this episode of Play on Target we talk about those classic mistakes- things we soon picked up on the fly. They’re 101 problems, but you have to learn somewhere and in some cases, like mine, relearn from time to time. I’ve made all of these mistakes…hopefully not in the same session.

Play on Target: Rookie Mistakes

Play on Target Episode Roundup

A Few More Ideas We Didn’t Hit Directly. Assume that where I say “GMs have…” I’m also saying “I have…”

1. Ask Players. I started out thinking that any screw up undercut my authority. Some of that came from early years running for players several years my senior. I dug myself deep holes. I had to contort desperately to make up for my contradictions. If you’ve forgotten a detail at the table, check with the players. You can avoid coming up with something you’ll have retcon it when it turns out you were wildly off-base.

2. Chill about Unearned Triumphs. If the players can’t figure out your clever plot, the bad guy miraculously escapes, or they get defeated by an overly potent villain, don’t gloat. Tease in situations where the players had choice and control, but came up short. Use those moment to generate excitement for the next scene/confrontation. I’ve seen new GMs arrive assuming the players are their adversaries. They hit them hard to prove who runs the show. Those unearned victories make the GM smug. Often they think their crowing pushes the players to hate the villain, when it instead encourages frustration with the GM.

3. Nod and Keep Going. The flip side is that players will gloat. Let them. Express a little regret and “I’ll get you next time” but don’t immediately hammer them down. When the players win, give them a chance to revel in that. Don’t always shatter their triumph as they relish it. Yes, you can turn the tables, but if you continually ignore or denigrate victories, you devalue them. This can be as simple as glossing past their success. I’ve also seen GMs have NPCs express disdain: treating them still like lowly folk despite their good work, refusing to acknowledge their victories, critiquing their methods. Make those moves for character reasons, rather than from frustration.

4. Bringing the Funny. I’ve seen GMs bomb running comedy games (Paranoia, Toon, etc). They try too hard. They go straight to 11. Put absurdity out there with a stony face. Play the straight person. Take it seriously. Let the players find the comedy.

5. Telegraph Success. Sometimes player actions will upset nefarious plan and operations. But that’s behind the scenes so logically they might never see the outcome. They’ve won, but don’t know it. This usually happens when you’ve got complicated plots, mysteries, and many stories juggling at once. I’ve run and played in these campaigns. The players work and work but feel like they aren’t getting anywhere. They are, but the GM isn’t telling them. Think about alternate ways to get this info to them: second-party analysts, telltale signs from abandoned locations, turncoats telling them the inside story. I really wish I’d done this many times. Instead I kept my silence when the players got angry at the table: “Little do they know they’re succeeding…” I thought. Little do they know being the operative phrase.

6. It Was Really… Here’s a related point Sam made to me: don't brag about the clues players missed, or tell them what they didn't find that would have sent the game in a different direction. Yes you’re clever, but at the table that comes off as annoying. Save that stuff for later, you may be able to reuse it.

7. Here’s Another Shopkeeper. It’s easy to get rolling and drop in NPCs just to fill a role. When you do that, there’s a risk of making your NPCs monotone. I’ve played in games where everyone had the same sneer: regarding the PCs as scum or marks to be taken advantage of. You might be selling a tone, but at the same time it isn’t interesting. Vary the color palette to make it more striking.

8. Deal With It. Sometimes things don’t go well. A session trips up, moments fall flat, the group doesn’t have it together. Don’t just go home and beat yourself up about it, don’t blame the system, don’t post angry rants about your players on Reddit. Talk to them about problems. Start with questions and get their reactions and impressions. Don’t call people out, instead try to find common ground. And if a person does turn out to be a source of friction and tension, be ready to ask them to leave. Don’t keep them around to avoid conflict if their presence makes things worse. (And it will…Christ it will…)

9. Kill Your Darlings. Sometimes the game doesn’t work. Have a conversation about it. Then, if you’re certain, put the game to bed. Don’t just stop running: BOOM. That’s hugely frustrating for players. And it’s something that will stick with you: an unfulfilled promise. If you’re unhappy, tell the players you’re going to move to a good stopping point the next session. If the players aren’t happy, ask them to give you one more session to wrap things up. Ghosting or perpetually putting off a campaign does no one good. It clogs schedules, makes people not want to trust you again, and leaves you with regrets. I have several campaigns where I wish I’d gotten one more session to finish the story (my Wuxia game, our Crux Exalted campaign, M&M Arkham Harbour, Changeling Lost Vegas). Their dangling storylines still bug me.

Play on Target: Rookie Mistakes

Play on Target Episode Roundup

If you like RPG Gaming podcasts, I hope you'll check it out. We take a focused approach- tackling a single topic each episode. You can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Google Play, or follow the podcast's page at www.playontarget.com.

Riding Out Armageddon: Post-Apocalyptic RPGs

I’m pretty sure Gamma World introduced me to post-apocalyptic stories. I loved the gonzo of it and how it sort-of used the same system as D&D. Post-apocalyptic games generally revel in a brutality, a lesson I learned from Gamma World. It was the first game I ever got bullied in by other players. When I got to the table at the game store with my new character the other players told me I had to play an unpowered human. I thought they were kidding; I’d rolled up a cool raccoon mutant. They weren’t. They blasted me the moment the GM introduced my character. I had to walk a half-hour home and explain to my mom why I was back early.

That was a weird conversation.

This week Play on Target looks at Post-Apocalyptic games. It’s a richer genre than I expected. It’s also a risky one. The breakdown of society implies a breakdown in laws, encouraging a kind of sociopathy which might not work for some groups. It’s a genre where you can showcase hopelessness. Or you can demonstrate real hope and change in the face of inhumanity. Anyway, check out the episode if the topic appeals to you.

Play on Target: Post-Apocalypse RPGs

Play on Target Episode Roundup

Below are a few things we didn’t get to in the episode or came to me afterwards.

1. Forgotten Devastations: In the show we inventory Post-Apocalyptic games we’ve played. I managed to forget a couple. In high school our group tried out Paranoia a few times, but never well. Each session started with laughter and ended up with furious players furious. That then bled into the next several non-Paranoia games. So despite cool stuff, Paranoia dropped out of the rotation. I also forgot a more important and recent one. That’s the Fallout campaign Dave ran using our Action Cards homebrew. He knew the setting back and forth. I didn’t, but I still enjoyed playing. His enthusiasm for the background details and general vibe carried me through. It was a rough game, with horrible mutations, addiction, and casual violence. Even when we won at the end, our success only protected a threadbare existence. I’m still not a fan of the Fallout video game, but I’d play a tabletop campaign of it again.

2. Flow Charting: Early Gamma World had a flow-chart mechanic for figuring out how to use ancient relics and technologies. You rolled and moved through the chart until you figured it out, broke it, or blew yourself up. I don’t remember what impact your character’s abilities or choices had. It’s a cool mechanic I’ve only rarely seen duplicated. More games could use that-especially where there’s some control mixed with randomness. (note: there’s a Space Medicine rpg that uses this, but I can’t find the name of it right now. Anyone know?).

3. My Wastelands: As I work post-apocalyptic rpg lists, I found a few I dug and think I could actually run. Rotted Capes offers supers vs. zombies ala the Ex-Heroes series of novels. I like the premise and how it undercuts the heroes’ powers. Those abilities allow them to protect their fragmentary community. At the same time some of their powers work against them in the face of a zombie uprising (like increased metabolism from super-speed). I’d have to use another system to run this. I’m not taken with the Arcanis mechanics. That, however, would require significant retooling, especially if I used something more abstract. Rotted Capes has crunchy mechanics for equipment, rations, breakdown, and survival. They support the tone, so I’d want to adapt those. I also think you could do some interesting stuff with Midnight’s “Sauron Won” premise. I’d want it to feel like a Black Company novel. Midnight’s problem is too much backstory and history. I’d need to craft a consolidated version. Motobushido swings the other direction, with a deliberately open world. I like the idea of samurai-style biker gangs in the wasteland, but I don’t know how that’d go over with my group. It might be fun to run online. Finally Summerland has one of my favorite tropes: an unfathomable event warps the world with strangeness and fantasy. I’m not sure I’d take anything from Summerland beyond the pitch line. Because I’ve avoided reading deeper, I have a bunch of scenarios in my head about how that happened and what that means.

4. CHTORR: But the post-apocalyptic setting I love but couldn’t actually run is War Against the Chtorr. That’s based on an unfinished sci-fi series by Star Trek novelist David Gerrold. I read the series in high school and college. War Against the Chtorr describe an alien invasion terraforming Earth. And we’re clearly losing. It’s a place that feels terrifying and dangerous. Just simple travel across the US becomes a perilouos undertaking. I love the ideas there, though I don’t know how well the novels would stand up to re-reading. Part of the problem lies in having waited twenty years for Gerrold to release the next book. We heard last year volume 5(?) would finally come out, but now it’s been withdrawn. The setting’s stark and deadly and I don’t know if I could pull that off at the table. I’m not sure I could sustain it.

5. Hope. Hope. Hope: You’ll probably have a conversation about tone before beginning a Post-Apocalyptic game. You may even decide On “grimdark.” But even if my group made that pick, I’d have to have some hope front & center. We need some possibility for success or improvement, if only to make failures more bitter. It shouldn’t be false hope; that’s a good way to burn out PCs. The worst games I’ve played in have been built on quicksand, where everything we construct isn’t just vulnerable, it’s inevitable it will be brought down. What’s the point of trying then? I’m not looking for the negadungeon version of a post-apocalyptic game, though I’m sure some would dig that..

6. Behold My Final Form: Some of these post-apocalyptic rpgs have a crazy number of edition and reframings. For example Paranoia has a convoluted publication and it has one editions struck from the rolls for being truly terrible. We’re supposed to see a new edition of Paranoia taken in a radically new direction soon. Mutant’s another rpg which has shift from goofy-gonzo to cyberpunk PA to war-torn worlds to a harder-edge survival. Metamorphosis Alpha, Twilight 2000, the Morrow Project also spring to mind. But the grand-daddy off edition explosion is Gamma World, with (I think) seven editions. They swing wildly from backstory to backstory, system to system, premise to premise. More than any other rpg with multiple editions, Gamma World mutates into a completely new version each time.

7. Take Your Stinking Paws Off Me You Damn Dirty Banana: I mentioned Adventure Time as a not so hidden Post-Apocalyptic setting. I’m a fan of that kind of slow-burn reveal. I still remember losing my mind the first time I saw the ending of Planet of the Apes. Because of that I subscribe to the post-apocalyptic interpretation of Pokémon. I also strongly believe another theory I just heard on the How Did This Get Made podcast. Pixar’s Cars is a sequel to the seminal Steven King horror classic Maximum Overdrive. In the latter, machines come to life. So the former presents the world generations after that. There’s also a more all-encompassing apocalypse theory for Pixar.

8. Days After Tomorrow: You may have seen these before, you may have not. Here are my Histories of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs:

• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part One: 1976-1984)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Two: 1985-1987)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Three: 1988-1990)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Four: 1991-1993)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Five: 1994-1996)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Six: 1997-1999)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Seven: 2002-2002)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Eight: 2003)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Nine: 2004-2005)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Ten: 2006)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Eleven: 2007)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Twelve: 2008)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 13: 2009)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 14: 2010)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 15: 2011)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 16: 2012)
• History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 17: 2013)
• The Year in Post-Apocalyptic RPGs 2014 

9. PvP: Post-apocalyptic stories often involve unity and betrayal. People become terrible. It makes sense for players to distrust anyone and everyone they meet. But these stories often include inter-party betrayal, breakdown of trust, and abandonment. That’s harder to do at the table without generating non-game tension (see my comments about Paranoia above). On the other hand Apocalypse World wrestles with those issues. We don’t actually get PvP but we do get systems for bonds, debts, and obligations. I’d be curious about how strong that inter-group tension tends to be in AW actual play.

10. I Found a Bullet: Theoretically I like the idea of tracking resources: people, ammo, food, water, etc. Mutant: Year Zero builds that in. But I know in practice I burn out on those systems. Does that mean I need to focus & make those systems better for myself or just give up on them?One approach I’ve used has been a revolving emphasis. I ran a VtM campaign where a niche apocalypse had happened, killing off most of the supernatural factions. The players existed in a dangerous world with all old rules gone. When I wanted to stress resource scarcity, instead of tracking tics I’d bring it up as an issue for a few sessions until they dealt with it. That these issues didn’t wear the players down and they remained an arrow in my quiver for later use. It reminds me of players’ excitement for the settlement system in Fallout 4. While they liked it at first, it became drudgery for many in my group.

11. Kaiju World: I don’t think we’ve seen a post-Kaiju apocalypse setting, but I may be wrong. In this world giant monsters roam the land and humanity desperately hides. As in Cloverfield there’s a whole associated ecosystem of smaller creatures to fear. PCs would undertake the usual scouting and resources hunting. It’s a little like Attack on Titan, but less organized. Actually it might be close to Reign of Fire. You’d have to have some interesting scale mechanics in case players want to bring down a behemoth. Something like Mouse Guard, with the mice trying to fell a bear.

Play on Target: Post-Apocalypse RPGs

Play on Target Episode Roundup

If you like RPG Gaming podcasts, I hope you'll check it out. We take a focused approach- tackling a single topic each episode. You can subscribe to the show on iTunes or follow the podcast's page at www.playontarget.com.