Building My Middle Earth: A Project List

This post may be a little "inside baseball." I want to be better at tracking the steps of my gaming projects so I can accurately assess time budgets later. This details everything I did to prepare for our new campaign, an adaptation of our existing homebrew Action Cards. I've written this for myself, but I hope others find it interesting and/or useful. 

FROM ROKUGAN TO ENDOR

Back in December we wrapped our Legend of the Five Rings campaign. It ran for almost three years and could have continued, but we’d hit a good stopping point. That particular group’s played together for twenty years now on alternate Sundays. Several times Middle Earth came up as a campaign option. We have at least one player who loves the books and really wanted to play there. But it’s been outvoted or veto’d each time. I decided for 2016 I would run a Middle Earth campaign, lasting the full year.

I’m not a huge Lord of the Rings fan. As a kid I read The Hobbit and made it partway through The Fellowship of the Ring. But it bored me. I didn’t read the full trilogy and Simarillion until after college. I never got everything about the setting. Most of my actual understanding came from reading Middle Earth Roleplaying supplements. That offered a format I could understand, though I still had to flip back and forth between books to get a decent picture. I knew I couldn’t do an accurate Middle Earth game, but I could do one that felt like the setting.

The players agreed to the campaign and I offered them two choices. Either set between The Hobbit and LotR or the much earlier period covered by MERP. They surprised me by picking the latter. I figured they’d go for the one closer to the movies. In that case I’d have used The One Ring pretty much as is. Setting the game in the past meant figuring out another system. TOR’s cool, but incredibly connected to the period it covers and a narrow geographic range. Some players suggested MERP or Rolemaster, but I didn’t want to go down that road. MERP 2e is solid, but hard to find at a reasonable price. It’s also a little crunchy. GURPS and 13th Age also came up, but they have problems. I said I’d figure something out.

SHERRI INTERVENES

I fiddled around with ideas for many days. I knew I wanted to set it in Arthedain, but that was about it. I had four weeks over the Xmas/New Year holidays to put everything together. A few generic systems occurred to me: Savage Worlds (I’m not a fan), Fate (players hate the dice), and Cortex (would require more work figuring out). I decided I would go with Pugbuttah and started planning. I sketched out playbook ideas, tried to figure out if Dungeon World could easily be adapted, and generally mucked around.

Eventually Sherri made me sit down and explain my thinking. She listened to me spin around with my plans. As she always does, she patiently asked "why aren’t we doing it with Action Cards?” I didn’t have a great answer. I’d gotten it into my head we needed to do something other than the homebrew we’ve been playing. She grilled me about my goals for the game. Slowly she demonstrated I’d be better off and happier working with our homebrew. On these things she sees more clearly than I...

At that point we talked about the changes we’d want to make. For one, I wanted a class/ playbook approach. The players should be able to jump into a character mold and get running easily. I also wanted to try a simplified skill system. Skills had changed over the years in Action Cards. They always offered a redraw, but some versions skipped a skill list and let players simply make them up. Others had larger suggested skill rosters. In recent years we’d moved to Skills and Specialties. A skill gives you a redraw, and having an appropriate sub-specialty, nets you a second one. It added color and differentiated the PCs. But it also meant players ate up time hunting through specialties on a check. I wanted to see if the gain in simplicity matched the loss of color. With all of that in mind, Sherri and I built a seven “callings” and divided the skill list among them. Each would get three skills only they could buy the second rank of. The callings would also get unique stunts, a distinct profession skill, and a particular talent.

REWORKING THE CARDS

Each version of Action Cards forces me to think about how players assemble their decks. We’ve had two standard approaches. For longer campaigns we use “Fill In.” Players have a certain number of standard cards they write results in for, plus four blank unique cards they come up with. For shorter things we’ve done “Draft.” Players collectively draft prepared standard result cards and unique cards to fit their character conception. The former allows more tailoring and ownership, while the latter’s faster and takes pressure off the players.

I wanted to try a hybrid with our Middle Earth. On the one had, players would fill in their standard result cards. I retuned those player decks to create symmetry. Each now had eight cards to fill in, rather than 6. That means I created an equal distribution on the fixed cards. This is all foggledy-fook, I know. On the other hand, I had players draft their unique cards. Each would draft an extra good & bad unique, so they could pick which ones they wanted for each session. With that in mind I revised the set of unique cards, removing any that didn’t fit with the setting and tone. I redid card titles, so “Head in the Stars” became “Second Breakfast,” a card representing distraction. I used titles from the Lord of the Rings Trading Card game as inspiration. I also changed the fonts on the cards, which meant playing with the layout for a while. I found several Tolkien-esque fonts online.

I also reconsidered Wound cards. Currently they operate like Fate consequences, with two levels of them. That's had problems. It requires bookkeeping and PC could move them out of the deck quickly. This time each wound card reduces damage by two; players could take as many as they liked against a hit. All wound cards would be the same. But they wouldn’t clear from the deck when activated/drawn. Instead they’d require first aid, rest, or other healing to remove. I decided to make a broader category of “condition cards” with wounds as one type. Players could take up to six of these cards, but having 5 or 6 in their deck opened them up to harder GM hits/moves. Other condition cards would be Weary (from travel) and Shadow (from corruption). I made up special cards for the latter.

BUILDING THE STUNT LIST

Next I went through the Stunt list. I used the lists I created for Masks of the Empire (a fantasy game) and Sky Racers Unlimited (a dieselpunk game) as the basis. They represent my most recent thinking. I’ve been changing and cutting stunts based on their use at the table. After integrating and trimming the MotE and SRU lists I had a decent assortment and only had to revise a few names to make them fit. Since I had some new skills (Travel) I developed several new ones. I also tried to rebalance some skills. In the past Athletics had a lot of the cool stunts, while Physique seemed limited. I shifted strength/endurance stunts from the former to the latter

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BUILDING THE CALLINGS

In parallel with creating the stunts I built the callings. We’d settled on seven:

• Animist: Either a druid/nature type or a crafter. Focused on using rituals to create things ahead of time. I took some inspiration from DFAE’s approach.
• Bard: A specialist in travel and entertainment. Doesn’t have magic, but instead access to songs with some abilities.
• Envoy: Diplomat, merchant, and spy. Knows people everywhere and has insight into political alliances and group dynamics.
• Fighter: Warrior, soldier, guardian.
• Hunter: Scout, woodsman, tracker.
• Mage: I thought hard about this. MERP gets flak for its relatively high level of magic. I think that’s reasonably true; mage-types feel more like D&D wizards there. But I wanted to have magic, and there’s reason to think magic hasn’t yet been lost in this time period. I ended up with a flexible approach: on-the-fly casting with a cost. I also established that the standard hard bargain for success with magic would be a Shadow card.
• Thief: Burglar, Con Artist, Rogue.

Each calling has a Profession Skill. Usually they will use these with their talents and common actions (Performance for Bard, Wizardry for Mage, Theft for Thief). In two cases, it didn’t make sense to have a distinct skill, so instead those ranks allow picking additional bonuses (Fighter, Hunter). I gave each calling an individual talent (like casting magic for the Mage). Next I went through the stunt list and lifted four unique stunts for each calling. Other callings could take these but at a higher cost. I tried to distribute the “always taken” stunts among those. Then I went back and made sure each base skill had at least five associated stunts. Finally I added a checklist for character creation at the end of each calling playbook as well as an example image.

ADAPTING JOURNEYS

The One Ring has a cool and detailed system for resolving Middle Earth travels. It isn’t exactly crunchy, but does has several steps and stages. It also makes a point about play in that setting: journeys offer important challenge. I’m a GM who has usually handwaved those moments in recent years. In the past I’ve relied on simple survival rolls. But I’ve rarely measured hard distance or ever done a hexcrawl. This time I wanted to give this a try.

I have the TOR pdf, so I copied the text into a document. I went through and considered how to simplify this and make the mechanics fit. Most of it came easily. I shifted some of the numbers to reduce the overall number of checks. I have failures on travel tests generating Weary cards. I think I’ve got the number and frequency right, but we’ll see in play. The One Ring uses a 1 in 12 result on a die to trigger hazard episodes. I opted to set one of the players’ unique cards (“Play the Draw”) as the trigger. That’s 1 in 24, but redraws raise that chance. Finally with the mechanics done I crafted new stunts related to the system.

ASPECTS AND KEYS

In previous Action Cards versions, I’ve stuck with the standard Fate approach: High Concept, Trouble, plus 2-3 additional aspects. Players generate those additional ones either in a phase trio or on the fly. I’ve found players either hit their high concept all the time or not at all. I’m not sure why that is. For this version I decided to have just two aspects players could build or pick during a Q&A relationship (or Fellowship) phase towards the end of character creation. They could also come up with those and even their trouble aspect on the fly if they wished. We’ll see what effect that has.

I also wanted to try out something Rich Rogers suggested. He mentioned adding Keys (from Shadow of Yesterday and Lady Blackbird) to campaigns. I decided to try that. I assembled and revised a list of Keys from those games, as well as other LB hacks I found online. In my version, you hit a standard key for 1XP or hit a major key for 3XP. Players can also buyoff a key and gain 10XP, but then have to wait a couple of sessions to take a new one. I’m starting them with a single key for the moment. That’s another factor I’ll have to track; should they have more?

FINISHING TECHNICAL DETAILS

After that I dealt with the final mechanical details. I opted to stay with diced damage in this game, given the players' familiarity with it. I tweaked the numbers, in particular increasing the spread of armor success numbers to make damage a hair more common. I also approached shields differently (just damage reduction now). I wrote up the rules for damage and condition cards, including how healing worked. Deciding on experience point costs took some time and I went back and forth on numbers. Ultimately I opted for simplicity over detail. I made stunts and skills cost the same and eliminated any X for Y cost structures. Since Action Cards decouples stunts and refresh (as opposed to Fate), I decided to try some limits. I capped Refresh at 4 and raised the cost to increase it. Players can still trade out refresh for more initial stuff. I also set the rule that players couldn’t buy a new stunt without a significant failure (i.e. “Learning Experience”) to trade in. Finally I wrote a quick reference sheet for skills and a worksheet for assigning results to cards.

SUMMING THE SETTING

I made a list of all the details I thought players would need to know at the start of the campaign. You can see that full write-up here. I tried to keep things short and tight. Ideally I don’t want to bog down in minutiae. When we play I won't to assume players have read this, but I'll direct them back to this doc for further info when I explain something. Tolkien’s trickier than something like Star Wars, especially set as far back as this game is. I needed to establish a canon baseline. I hope to have players establish facts in play and not feel constrained by the world.

With this in hand on Saturday evening, I sent everything off to be printed for Sunday’s game. Binding cost too much, so I had them three-hole punch everything.

CHARACTER SHEET

Almost done. I finally sat down to do the character sheet Sunday morning. I changed formatting a little, running the complete skill list down the right hand side of the page. I played around with the page elements, trying to give priority to those things referenced most often. In the end I opted to put weapon and armor stats at the bottom. I’m hoping that by putting it in a significant place (“check the bottom of your sheet”), players will learn to move their eye there instinctively when they look for that info.

MAPS & LIST

These last things I did on Sunday afternoon. I sketched a quick list of the character creation process and what we would do at the table. I sorted my Backstory Cards for use in the phase trio. I pulled out my big map of Middle Earth as well as some from The Lord of the Rings RPG. Finally I printed, cut, and assembled maps from some of the MERP supplements.

Actual Writing of Project Begun 12/26/15. First session 1/10/16

Your Middle Earth May Vary: 23 Campaign Notes

23 THINGS ABOUT THIS MIDDLE EARTH

(your Middle Earth may vary)

We've just started a new Middle Earth campaign using Action Cards. I've put together some design/project notes I'll post Friday. I've talked about how to convey setting before, especially with established worlds. This is my attempt to boil down what the players need to know, outside of their movie-based experience. Note that I use "Man" and "Men" just to stick with the Tolkienism (see note #23). I went back and forth on that several times.
  

1. Tenor of the Times

This game takes place in Third Age 1643. This era still has greatness remaining within it, but the Shadow’s corruption and decay has begun to rise. While some kingdoms have fallen, their adversaries appear to simply be potent evil-doers, like The Witch King and The Necromancer. Tolkien’s world mixes sweeping events and great periods of decline. This is one of those volatile times. A few years ago a great plague swept across Northwestern Middle Earth. Many places died out or fell from contact. Now simmering wars and internal divisions reduce the strength of Man. But the White Council, arrived a handful of centuries ago, works to bolster the skills and spirit of Middle Earth’s peoples.

2. When We Are

For reference, The Hobbit takes place in 2941 and the War of the Ring in 3019. Development and change happen very slooooowly in Middle Earth. Our time period is the default era for ICE’s MERP. I’m using their notes and history by default (note that these differ from those of The One Ring RPG and The Lord of the Rings RPG). Everything here applies to this world and isn’t necessarily accurate to Tolkien. We’re aiming for the spirit over precision. Sometimes I’ll ask you for historical details in play, and we’ll add that to the world. Also, my spelling is off in many places and I don’t bother with accent marks.

3. Arnor

Arnor was once the great kingdom of the North, a sister state to Gondor in the South. They shared royal lines and nobility, descended from the High Men (Dunedain) who fled from Numenor when it sank into the sea. Those peoples installed themselves as lords over Men in this large region. That lasted for many generations until there arose a division over leadership and succession. This split Arnor into three new and often rival kingdoms: Cardolan, Rhuadur, and Arthedain.

4. Cardolan

Some say dying and some say dead. This kingdom is splintered and divided. Siege, civil strife, and warfare destroyed Cardolan. While Angmar dealt the death blow, Cardolan had already torn itself apart. The last Prince of the ruling line died at Amon Sul in 1634. The plague soon after destroyed any hope of recovery. Now Cardolan consists of a half a dozen petty principalities and baronies. While they may claim nobility, they rule by might. These Barons scheme with politics and soldiers, shifting allegiances constantly. Most have limited reach, leaving great areas land untended and unprotected. In these wilds Orcs and bandits prowl. The Free City of Tharbad, overseen by guilds, remains the largest settlement. It is a teeming crossroads city, though it too shows signs of decay and lawlessness. Cardolan is dominated by the rivers flowing through it. It retains some wilderness despite Man's devastation over the centuries. Also notable is The Warlord’s Realm a small mountain area controlled by a Half-Troll who raids, pillages, and claims to be a lord in his own right.

5. Rhuadur

The Dunedain never won the hearts and loyalty of the peoples of Rhuadur. Being a poor land, fewer colonists arrived here to take leadership. The native folk remained restless and resentful of outsider control. In particular the Hillman continued their raiding and clan warfare. Few wept for the splitting of Arnor and persons of avarice took advantage. When the Witch King arose in Angmar he played on old resentments from local Dundedain, Dunman, and Hillman alike. He focuses energies to infiltrate and control of the land, as scattered and poor as it is. Now King Ermegil Storarm rules loosely and only at the Witch King’s whim. The countryside is lawless and the constables corrupt. Today Rhuadur is a model for what the Witch King plans for the North and all of Middle Earth. It is a puppet state, full of darkness and crime. Those Men who rule Rhuadar do so in his name and bend the region towards his dark purposes.

6. Arthedain

This is the last remaining free kingdom of Arnor. It is sheltered by rivers, mountains, and frozen wastes. It has weaknesses, specifically a small population of Dunedain with a distinctly unmartial tradition. Were it not for outside aid, the kingdom would have fallen to Angmar in 1409. The people are not without defenses and spirit. In particular they possess Palantiri. The Seers of Fornost use these to communicate with Gondor and keep track of Angmar’s movements. The Arthedan have good relations with the Elves and have permitted the settlement of Hobbits in the region. Arthedain is a beacon of hope for the old ways and civilization of Man. In time, it will fall.

7. King Argeleb II

The ruler of Arthedain. He recognizes Arthedain’s precarious position, but aims for balance over aggressive action. Argeleb rules with the support of a King’s Council, made up of the heads of the seven great families of the North. The King and Council have clashed recently, and tensions among the Houses has risen. The coming of the Hobbits exacerbated this. Argeleb’s gifting of the Shire served a political purpose, weakening one of the more potent families, the Tarmas. The King remains in communication with Tarondor, the new and untested King of Gondor. But Argeleb, like many of the Dunedain of Arthedain have a more contemplative and mystical approach to threats and problems. This vexes the practical folk of Gondor.

8. Places of Arthedain

The capitol of Arthedain is at Fornost Erain. This fortress city contains a great palace in which the King’s business is carried out. The Barrowlands or Tyrn Gorthad are a dangerous and haunted region, close by Arthedain but situated in Cardolan. Subsidies from King Argeleb to the local rulers are intended to support their care of the place. However Dark Priests of Angmar have been seen there, disturbing and corrupting spirits. Bree is the main settlement of Bree-land. It lies adjacent to the Shire. The Hobbits who once dwelt here moved into Siragale, which became the Shire. The loss of life in the plague tightened bonds between the two communities. The King’s Rest Inn is a notable tavern in Bree. Emyn Uial or the Hills of Twilight is a calm and peaceful region. It is the jewel of the farmland, with abundant water and wood. Nenuial is a spectacular lake in the region, close by the chalk hills of Emeth Gelin. The North Downs or Tyrn Forman is a rugged land, well suited to hunters and trappers. Weathertop or Amon Sul is a destroyed fortress. It once house a Palantir. The Witch King destroyed the fortress in 1409, before being pushed back by the last alliance. It remains barren.

9. Angmar

To the East lies Angmar, a rocky and dangerous land overseen by the Witch King. Corrupted Men, warrens of Orcs, and other fell beasts live there. The mountains are dangerous, the weather cold and uncertain. The old glacial rifts and melt waters have created dangerous tunnels and caverns Orcs use to their advantage. Angmar has never had great settlements, though it is said that more than one Dwarven mine once existed there. The Witch King is the lord of Angmar. He plots against the west and awaits new generations among his Orcs to swell his numbers.

10. The Witch King

This force of evil arose perhaps 300 years ago. Rumors came from desolate Angmar that a new threat had arisen, but none took it seriously. Then his force of Orcs, corrupted Men, and others began to strike at the Dunedain. The Witch King has won and lost repeatedly over the centuries. In 1409 he destroyed Amon Sul aka Weathertop and destroyed Cardolan as a nation. Only an alliance of the Dunedain with the Elves of the Grey Havens, Rivendell, and Lorien managed to turn him back. Though we know that The Witch King is a Nazgul, it is not known in this time. It is also not known that The Witch King of Angmar and the Necromancer of Mirkwood are one and the same.

11. The Plague

The sickness that ripped across Middle Earth struck Mankind alone. It devastated many areas. All lines of Man suffered, from the Dunedain to the few Woses who had contact with the outside world. It hit particularly hard in Gondor and what was Arnor. Some suspect it was a plot by the Witch King. If so, he has not yet fully capitalized on the gambit. Perhaps his own losses make that difficult. In any case, the Plague travelled everywhere equally: city, village, and wilds. Many steads, villages, and even castles now remain empty. This makes travel difficult and banditry more a problem. Just as quickly as the Plague appeared, it vanished and has not been seen in three years.

12. Dunedain or High Men

There’s a complex lineage to the Numenoreans. For our purposes, the most important point is that this line of Man is old, distinct, and learned much from the Elves. They live several hundred years. I’ll be using the term Dunedain and High-Man interchangeably. The Dunedain are taller than most men, with dark hair. Some have distinctive grey eyes. A full blooded Dunedain will stand out in most places outside their cities. While they intermarry with the other lines of Man, there’s a strong sense of tradition and bloodlines. Particularly in Arthedain, the Dunedian carry on traditions derived from the Elves: clothing, art, and crafts. They focus on scholarship, learning, and creative pursuits. While they are strong in war, that’s not their cultural inclination.

13. Other Men

The vast population of Man is not Dunedain. These lines and divisions can be ethnic, cultural, and/or of blood (see note 23 below). Eriedain (Northrons or Northmen) are the fair-haired common majority of the populace in Arthedain and Cardolan. They’re tall by Mannish standards and have an individualistic society centered around family freeholds. Northmen who ply the rivers are called Rivermen and have a distinct culture. Commoners (Common Men) are shorter with ruddier complexions. They’re made up of several different ethnic groupings and so vary in appearance and culture. Hillmen are primarily found in Rhudaur, where they dwell on the slopes of the northern Misty Mountains. They’re a clannish folk, fighting against authority and each other. They’re outsiders in their own lands and dwindling in numbers. They’re short, strong, and stocky with a Dark complexion, hair and eyes. Rhudaurim descend mostly from what Dunmen or Dunnish tribesmen. They’re closest to Common Men, with brown hair. They’re the dominant human people in Rhudaur. Breefolk are also Dunnish, having fled the Witch King’s incursions. Befraen and Woses are a strange, squat tribal folk found in scattered places. They’re primitive hunter-gatherers and usually bear a top-knot and copious body painting. The Lossoth are the rarely seen hunters of the northern wastes. The Angmarim are a wild and diverse people, drawn from many different stocks. Because it is Tolkien, they’re usually darker skinned. The Estaravi are another smaller Angmaran group conquered when the Witch King arose; they’re closest to Northmen. Easterlings are dark-skinned folk from the distant and unknown East. Many have come into the service of Angmar. They’re generally nomadic horsemen (think Mongols).

14. Dwarves

Dwarves usually keep to themselves. They’re fine folk once they know someone, but it takes time. Various Dwarvish mines and settlements are scattered all across the map. Some have been lost, but notably Moria and Erebor (Lonely Mountain) still exist and are active at this point, though the former has had to fight off a rising tide of Orcs. The Dwarves are keepers of the oldest making techniques, some of which have fallen out of fashion with the Elves. Tensions over old slights and ancient rivalries remain between Elves and Dwarves. Like the other races, the Dwarves received Rings of Power. However, they proved resistant to their influence. Instead it instilled in the people a kind of gold-fever often driving them to reckless actions. That remains a problem to this day. Dwarves who feel the touch of the Shadow often have that greed and avarice deepen. They’re also called Khazad or Longbeards.

15. Elves

There are several kinds of Elves and, to be frank, their lineage is complicated. Some of the Elves went to the far West and saw the light. Others, called the Dark Elves, either opted not to go or went partway and turned back. The “Dark” here refers to their contact with the divine light of the west. Silvan Elves are those who turned back to stay in the Vales of Anduin (Wood Elves). The Sindar are the rest of the Elves who stayed (Grey Elves, Legolas). The Elves who went and then returned are called the Noldor (High Elves, Gladriel). Silvan Elves are slightly smaller, while Noldor are taller. Most Elves dwell in Rivendell, Lindon, and Lorien. There are other, wandering companies of Elves and a few solitary ones within Arnor. Still an elf is a rare sight among the common folk.

16. Humans & Elves

For generations the Elves and humans have been allies and friends, but that relationship has a strange dynamic. The Elves worked alongside, fought shoulder to shoulder with, and taught the Numenorians and their descendants. In some ways they see the line of Isildur and the Dundedain as the men worth speaking with. They deal with the other humans as affairs arise, but actually interact with the High Men. That relationship is one of respect, rather than the suspicion and fear which will characterize things centuries later. So while the Elves often keep to themselves, they lack the haughtiness that appears in other settings and eras. The loss of Elves in the wars of Men has made them hesitant about further significant aid, a rift which will only widen in the future.

17. Hobbits and the Shire

Hobbit lands have not existed for long as things go. The original Hobbit settlers came from the East. They provided service and entertainment to the current King of Arthedain. In return he granted them lands adjoining what was Cardolan. At this point, there’s one major Hobbit settlement which we’ll call the Shire for ease of reference. These folk have only just begun to expand and gain influence. Thus the Hobbits are still something of an oddity to many folk. As well, some in Arthedain resent the rich lands granted these newcomers.

18. Orcs

These are descendants of the twisted workings of The Great Enemy. He changed Elves into the first of the Orcs. They have strongholds in Angmar, at the base of the Misty Mountains, and elsewhere. Perhaps the most feared fortress of the Orcs is Mount Gundabad in Angmar. Orc raiders have appeared more and more often in the north with the fall of Cardolan. Their incursions reach as far as Tharbad. Independent warbands of Orcs make their homes in many places. Some Orcs are smaller and more wiry, and are often called Goblins. They’re effectively the same thing.

19. The Rangers

Ranger is an honorific title among the Arthedain. They’re an order of scouts, trackers, and warriors who help patrol the borders and deal with small threats. The current state of the region has overwhelmed them. The King has begun to accept other peoples among the Rangers, offering them the symbolic cloak of the order. In the future, the name of the Rangers will be taken up by the surviving line of Isildur and become Dunedain only and quite a different institution.

20. Gondor

Gondor is the sister kingdom of Arthedain in the south. Among the Dunedain there’s a sense of kinship, but little else these days. Gondor is weary from the plague and the predations of the Cosairs of Umbar and the Easterlings. They’ve aided Arnor in the past, but have not the strength or will to do that these days. Gondorians are more martial and rough & tumble than the Arthedan. Gondor’s Dunedain dedication to the arts and scholarship has fallen away.

21. Wizardry

Magic and power, though diminished, still exists in this era. There are many who have trained with these arts, encouraged by the Council of the Wise. The Istari (Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast, and the Two Who Went East) arrived several centuries ago to try to bolster man with magical teachings. They’ve had some success, but magic remains rare. The most well-known mages are Seers, whose skills have often protected lands from invasion and disaster. Other mages know more forceful arts, calling upon the elements and fate itself to aid them. All of this comes at a cost. The Shadow actively seeks to undermine, corrupt, and destroy those who possess these talents. Over time that will lead to the passing of magic.

22. Travel

All of the Tolkien novels involve travel, lots of it. It’s a key element of the setting and game play. Usually we handwave these element. They will be important in this campaign. We’ll plot routes on maps and make tests for travel across the land, taking into account weather and terrain. I’ve adapted mechanics from The One Ring rpg. It’s more mechanical, but will add depth to this part of the game. The three most important skills for this are Travel, Outdoors, and Awareness.

23. Determinism

Some of Tolkien’s stuff has problems. There’s an Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism running through it. As well, race seems often equals destiny, i.e. all people of a particular ethnicity are X or Y. In particular, darker skin = more evil. I’m going to try to avoid some of that. On the other hand, Orcs and Uruk-Hai are bad news. They’re created and corrupted from birth. Other creatures likewise may have the Shadow compelling them. Some, like Trolls or Ogres, may just be assholes. Just keep in mind that there’s problematic stuff in the books. You are welcome to X-Card things as they come up. I will do so as well. 

Old Dog, New RPG Tricks

I keep changing as a gamemaster and that's great. I watch new GMs, run for new players, read online advice, and grow. I'm a long, long way from my early style. This week the Play on Target podcast looks at that with our "Old Dogs, New Tricks" episode. Every year I have another "jeez, why haven't I been doing that forever?" moment. You can hear some of those from all of us in the show. We're especially lucky in that we're joined by Rich Rogers for this one. He graciously came in at the last minute. You can check out his work with the Indie+ network as well as on The Gauntlet podcast. He also works for Dr. Tom the Frog. 

Play on Target: Old Dogs, New Tricks 

Play on Target Episode Roundup

Here are thoughts, changes, and new tricks I didn’t get to in the episode:

1. One Question: I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. I’ve always been a responsive gamer: asking questions of players. But I considered that interaction conditional; if I could work it in, I did. Once I saw the power of the phrase, “And what does that look like?” I changed my approach. That question has opened up new, interesting, and different avenues at the table. Sessions are stronger for it.
2. Lumpy: More and more I collapse conflicts and challenges. Several RPGs do this explicitly: Belly of the Beast, MHR, 13th Age, and Wushu I think. I’ve used to break up tasks into discrete sections (with rolls for each). You worked through your section of the task linearly. Now challenge contains rolls from each member woven into the tale of their journey or caper. For big single player tasks, we do a single roll and offer options for levels of success (costs, hard bargains, consequences, etc). For example, last Sky Racers Unlimited, Kenny and Scott fought a Death Bot disguised as a Ring Girl at a major boxing match. I realized the stakes weren’t beating the Bot. That wasn't a question given their skills. And having two characters fights while others did non-com actions would have bogged things down. Instead I identified the stakes involved: protecting the crowd, keeping from injury, guarding the champ, and looking awesome for the audience. So we went with checks containing hard bargains and choices.
3. Clarity: I've rethought how I handle one-shots. I often do investigations or “drop in” caper-planning sessions. But both Monster of the Week and the “Games on Demand How-To Run” guidelines made me reexamine my approach. MotW encourages “get to the fight." There’s a mystery, but that’s thin cover for the players moving to engage the bad guy. The challenge shifts from “who is the bad guy?” to “have we found out enough to be able to take them on?” OOH the GoD notes has great advice (besides the X-Card). At the start be super clear about player objectives/ purposes. Explicitly state remaining time and alerting players that you'll condense at the end. You set expectations.
4. Wrapped in an Enigma: Related, I’ve discovered some players dislike mysteries. So I’ve thought about how to shift from clue-capture investigation to establishing “culprit” early and then figuring out how to deal with that person, place or thing. Leverage capers work like that. That’s influenced a little by MotW as well.
5. Detective Work: When I do have investigations, I take a Gumshoe approach. Players have competency and obtain basic info from a scene or research. They can then roll. This determines a) potential costs in time, complications, and resources and b) number of additional questions they get to ask. I use PbtA style questions for this process. Sometimes players don’t want to risk it and they move on.
6. Picture This: As I say in the podcast, I have a few old tricks I’ve set aside. In particular wikis and table pictures. The former ended up being too much work compared to the output. Some players used it, but only sparingly. If I only ran a single campaign, it might be more worth it. But having to check and update several wikis didn’t work, even with Sherri doing the heavy lifting. I also used printed pictures, which we then placed in albums. That was pricey and it created an artifact that had to be passed around. There has to be a better way. Recently I’ve begun using Pinterest. I’m not sure it solves the problem, but having a shared board and a tablet to display images works OK. 
7. In the Cards: Players have loved my move to card-based summaries at the beginning of sessions. I write down names and one sentence descriptions for key characters and dangling plots. In one game I use different color index cards for each character’s personal plots. I bundle some together when they make connections between them. If they clear a mystery or problem, I make a show of tearing that card up so they know they’ve finished it off. It gets everyone on the same page right away, allows them to point out missing bits, and offers a tactile and visual reminder during play.
8. Payoff: If players take the time to do “set up” or “prep” actions, I make sure there’s a payoff. Perhaps it doesn’t help with the situation they intended, but offers additional information or opportunities. Or if they fail, it adds an interesting complication. At the very least, successful set ups should generate some mechanical benefit later.
9. What Next?: If you’re playing around with a group you trust, you can play with emergent rules. You establish a basic framework and then start playing. As you roll along you add mechanisms, rules, and character options. It's more work, but it’s also a pleasure to play. You can get to playing an interesting and complicated new setting without having to hack the hell out of another game. 

Play on Target: Old Dogs, New Tricks 

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. 

Alien of the Week: MotW Meets XCom Meets...?

Welcome to Year Eight of the Blog. If this were Supernatural, my niece would have told you to stop watching several seasons ago.

RESTLESS GM SYNDROME
Like most GMs (I assume) I enjoy coming up with campaign & rules hacks I'll never get to the table. You can find traces scattered across Age of Ravens. I have hope, though. In 2015 I managed to get my Crimson Skies/X-Wing/Action Cards hybrid to the table and it worked. Right now I have several ideas on my Kanban board. This one's perhaps the most ambitious. 

Steve Sigety and I have talked about an X-Com RPG. We've seen iterations of this including a Savage Worlds version. The video game itself has you switching between turn-based firefight missions and organizational management. I wanted a way to approximate that feeling and transition. 

Alien of the Week aims to create an X-Com-like episodic game with an overall campaign structure. I’m building on Monster of the Week, but adding elements of the Pandemic board game along with seasonal and development structures I've seen most recently in Wrath of the Autarch. I have only sketches, just enough for you to see the shape. There's potential but it would require a serious investment of time. 

What it isn't: AotW doesn’t simulate the tactical nature of missions play in X-Com. You could probably do that by dropping in a crunchy system for MotW. You’d probably have a miniatures game at that point. I'm interested in the big picture. That's hypocritical because I didn't dig the recent X-Com board game because it handwaved the missions. We'll see how far that hypocrisy carries me. 

M-COM

At heart we use Monster of the Week 2e. The players start as members of the X-Com Authority. The game sets some basic structures for that group: national/international; high tech; government funded; operating behind the scenes; access to resources; military backing. But the group should discuss what that looks like on the ground. They can shape the tone from that. Importantly the PC's aren't soldiers, they’re the investigators, researchers, scientists, and agents sent into the field to figure out weirdness. The agency actively recruited some characters while others just fell into it.

Each Monster of the Week episode/session revolves around an alien plot: mind-controlling, pod-people, kidnapping subjects, infiltrators, etc. In the mission, players want to uncover the Big bad and stop it. But they also want to acquire intelligence, find salvage, and figure out precisely who their enemy truly is.

Alien of the Week assumes no magic. Instead psychics, psionics, and mentalists fill that gap. Some Playbooks won’t work without heavy modification, like The Chosen and The Monstrous. Maybe you could transform those into someone who discovers they have alien DNA, an experimented-on abduction escapee, or even a failed super solider made by grafting ET tech. On the other hand, The Initiate might work if you assume an ancient group dedicated to fighting aliens. It could be modern, formed after Roswell. The Spell-Slinger would be a potent psychic, but might be over the top.  I haven’t figured out how you’d do The Divine.

Many others work straight or with minor changes:

• The Crooked
• The Expert
• The Flake
• The Mundane
• The Professional
• The Spooky (done as a slight psychic)
• The Wronged

Off the top of my head I imagine two more playbooks done independently or as mods of existing ones: The Soldier and The Tech. I haven't looked at the extended set of playbooks. I imagine I'd find some more there. 

YOUR MISSION, COMMANDER

For each session, players get a choice of two missions. Present some of the operations scope in the briefing: Investigation of Strange Phenomena, Possible Alien Salvage, Rescue of Citizens, Dealing with Weird Killings. The choice of locale can affect the Panic levels and possibly offer bonuses. These should be clear to players. Otherwise you build missions and operations as usual, just with aliens behind the scenes. X-Files, Conspiracy X, Dark Skies, or the like can serve as useful plot sources. Retool classic Supernatural episodes with an extraterrestrial monster.

Sidebar: You'll need to decide if you want to run International Missions or focus on North America. International stays closer to the original X-Com. It opens up questions of language, sovereignty, translation, and culture. You could handwave a chunk of that. Or ask each player to come from a different region. They can then take point based on the mission location. Cultural difficulties shouldn’t get in the way too much- this is cinematic not realistic and MotW wants you to get to the mystery. On the other hand, a North American, US, or specific national focus avoids those questions. Players can more easily blend into the situation and remain secret. That loses some X-Com flavor so I’m not sure which approach is better. Discussing it with the players.

After a successful mission, players pick some “meta-rewards” in additional to character advances. Some come baked into a particular scenario (like discovering an intact base or finding a downed saucer). These could be extra X-Com "experience" to buy organizational advances in different areas. It might also be access to new moves or extra reduction in the panic level somewhere.  You might have the group negotiate or develop fiction for these rewards. I imagine later players could develop new move allowing the group more salvage or intelligence from operations.

SETTING THE BUDGET

At end, beginning, or between sessions, players choose advances for the X-Com organization. Player budget for the three tracks: Research & Development, Defense, and Field Operations. This comes from a general experience pool the GM offers. 

• Research & Development: Learning what the aliens want, who they are, and what they can do. Repurposing captured materials, coming up with new advanced equipment, and accelerating tech discovery. This is probably the broadest track.
• Defense: Military and other defenses around the world. Putting new technologies into production. Increasing the capabilities of military teams. Better interception and detection of alien incursions.
• Field Operations: Safety and security. Increasing the network of personnel around the globe. Developing a better system for uncovering signs of alien operations. Reducing global panic.

Some missions add bonuses to an area. If the group captures an intact alien weapon, that might give an R&D bonus. Rescuing the son of politician could incline that official to offer military assistance. Making contact with a team of underground amateur observers should deliver significant info.

These advances would be organized on a tech tree. players have to make hard choices about what they invest in. I mentioned Wrath of the Autarch above. It has some great examples of how to set up these kinds of tree for a community or group. I'd use that as a model. This would probably take the most work for this hack. Picks should give different kinds of bennies, some ongoing, some one time. The best would have prerequisite advances or fiction (i.e. we need a live captured alien for this).  These picks would create new fiction, would answer questions, add team resources, and most importantly affect the Big Board.

THE BIG BOARD

Here’s the most board gamey part of the whole venture. You would use a Pandemic board (or even better a Pandemic Legacy board if you’ve finished with it). Altenrately you could maybe rework X-Com BG board or come up with your own. Pandemic uses different colored cubes to track different diseases. These can increase and spread. Alien influence and terror way, tracking Panic. The game begins with a seeded board places already hit by alien operations. Player operations clear panic nearby locations (and it should be clear to players what area will be cleared when they pick). Then, depending on their X-Com Initiative resources and picks, they can clear some more areas. This should happen after buying organizational advances.

Then the GM uses their moves.  First the draw cards to see where Panic increases or explodes. As in Pandemic, more than three cubes on spot can either expode panic into neighboring areas or trigger a GM move. GMs use moves to determine new events based on a suggestion list. Sometimes events will pop up and change things or create hard choices. This large scale moves trigger based on Panic explosions, board state, failed organizational checks, or even player actions during a mission. You'd need loose tools for generating that. 

The GM should still has some leeway on picks, but they can let players make hard choices (something like The Quiet Year). As the game progresses, Panic increases in different cultural zones , using use different color cubes. Alternately the color of the cubes might represent different kinds of aliens or alien operations. “Discovering a Cure” and “Eradication” of a disease there would represent figuring out effective counter measures. As the game progresses on the GMs move set may change. The board alters, a new ambiguous force arrives, or places convert to the aliens’ side. 

The End Game would come from a triggered move leading to a final showdown mission. Choices the players have made throughout set the stakes, determine their level of opposition, and decide what happens afterwards. I’m not sure how you would kick that off: a particular Panic level, eradication of some alien forces, reaching certain tech tree levels, or X number of sessions.

LAST THOUGHTS

One theme running through this campaign should be the discovery of the nature, agenda, and weaknesses of their alien enemies. There may be several of them. Night’s Black Agents offers a good model for this in play. Figuring out your enemy is as important as stopping their operations. Knowledge pays forward.

That can be complicated. Aliens should have quislings and they could be a faction unto themselves. There should be several forms of the aliens, with different qualities. The players need to puzzle out how these groups fit together.

I should note that Wrath of the Autarch offers a competitive model for this kind of play. I don’t think that works as well here. Or rather I doing that justice would require an massive tuning and balancing. I think that structuring changes as GM Moves would work .

I think it’s a cool idea. It would take a cool of weeks of work probably to bang out a full, playable version of this. If I get ambitious later in the year I might try it. 

What do you think? Too goofy? Not crunchy enough? Too vague?

Fall Down, Go Boom: The Year in Gaming 2015

I’m giving myself exactly an hour to sum up the year.

With this, Age of Ravens hits 102 post for the year, a hair under twice a week. That’s a little off because we had some gaps (explained below). I did few reviews this year, but I managed to finally finish of my History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs. Finally. There were a lot of them. What really killed my speed and productivity was a game-related injury.

In mid-February while prepping our Guards of Abashan session I suddenly had a great idea for a set-piece. It would require some new, cheap figures. On a deadline, I rushed out to the local shop. Just as I stepped from the pavement to the street, I hit a patch of ice. I went down, blacked out from the pain, dragged myself back to the house, blacked out again, called Sherri, and blacked out a little more as I went into shock. When I woke I pretty much shivered there until she got home. I’d sprained my shoulder, twisted my neck, and generally given myself a host of delightful pains. I couldn’t get in to a doctor until the following Monday. In the end took a long time recovering, sleeping sitting up on the couch to keep the pain down. I still have a muscle tear in my left arm that hasn’t fully healed. It twinges when I go to lift anything serious.

And then a couple of weeks ago I got a sinus infection that’s played havoc with my equilibrium. But let’s leave that delight off the table.

NEW RPGS AND BEYOND

The last couple of years I’ve managed stats for plays and sessions. The fall put me off track and I never caught up. But here are the new rpgs I remember playing or running:

• Ashen Stars*
• Atelier Auzumel
• Atomic Robo Samurai
• Belly of the Beast
• Dresden Files Accelerated
• Dungeon Crawl Classics
• Edge of the Empire
• Fate Dr. Who
• Ghost Lines*
• InSpectres
• Into the Odd*
• Itras By
• Lady Blackbird
• Monster of the Week 2e
• Questlandia
• Shadows of Esteren
• The Clay That Woke*
• The Goblin Game*
• The Spy Game
• The Warren
• Torchbearer Aliens
• Worlds in Peril
• Wrath of the Autarch*

There may be others, but that’s off the top of my head. Games marked with an * were short or small demo sessions.

What game most excited me? That’s a hard call, I want to say Lady Blackbird, The Warren, or MoTW 2e. But I actually think it is Ghostlines. I keep going back and imagining stories in that setting.

I also played a lot of boardgames, but again I didn’t track anything. Nothing grabbed me like Imperial Settlers did in 2014. Pandemic Legacy comes close and it’s probably my fav for the year. But I also dug Blood Rage, Libertalia, and Panamax.

No new video game grabbed my attention. Instead I went back to oldies: Suikoden, SSX, Persona, and the remarkably excellent and problematic Dragon Quest series.

WHAT I RAN

I’d meant to run more one-shots, especially teaching sessions for games. But injuries and illness put a kibosh on that. I ended up bumping 2-3 events because of that. That makes me feel particularly shitty because it gives me a rep as an unreliable GM. Who wants to sign up for a VoiP that might flake out?

But I did run one or two-shots of Action Cards, FAE Shadowrun, Itras By, The Warren, Kingdom, Monster of the Week 2e, 13th Age, Atelier Auzumel, Microscope, and Dungeon Crawl Classics.

For campaigns (let’s read that as 4+ sessions) I managed a few

• Ocean City Interface continued on strongly. They opened the year coming out of the Neo Shonobi Vendetta portal and back to the real world. After some investigation they flipped into the Masks of the Empire portal for eight sessions. Then back in Ocean City they uncovered a great deal about the larger plot. Finally they jumped into Sky Racers Unlimited, where we are now. Saturday we’ll have the last (probably) session of that arc. (Action Cards)
• Guards of Abashan rolled along. They fought some significant foes and dug deeper into the threat facing the city. They had several major successes. Last session they defeated one of the three “evil” sorcerers threating reality. (Action Cards)
• Legend of the Five Rings continued and we got through a couple of seasons. But scheduling conflicts hit it hard. Last session we reached a solid stopping point. I wrapped some major plot threads and we made hard choices for the characters. We’ll return to that campaign in 2017 to figure out what happens a few years down the road. (Action Cards)
• Shadow of the Titan wrapped up just after mid-year. I got them up to level 8 which is where things get crazy. I ended up really happy with the complete arc of this thing. I also had a better handle on final sessions, so I took my time getting the players to talk about their characters' goals. The players loved building the world with Microscope and they want to do that again with our next campaign. (13th Age)
• I also ran a short arc of our Dresden Files Accelerated playtest. I wasn’t happy with it overall, but I enjoyed the story I put together and loved the characters. In particular I was bummed Thanksgiving scheduling meant we didn’t get a final session to wrap things up. (DFAE)
• I began an online 13th Age mini-campaign which I’m enjoying hugely. It’s set in the Dragon Empire from the core book. We’ve only gotten in three sessions of the eight or so I plan.
• I played in a Worlds in Peril campaign, but only got to participate in three sessions. That ended early which was too bad.
• The Rolemaster campaign on Monday evenings continued on. We hit level 4 (I think) and we finally got out of the Coral Road. Of course now we have to invade a pseudo-Aztec city, so we’re probably going to die.

WHAT COMES THIS YEAR

With L5R finished, I’m going to run a long-promised Middle Earth campaign for the Sunday group. We’re going to play exactly one year real time. My niece will be joining us. Originally I planned to use Pugbuttah for this, but that’s better fit for settings with looser canon. So I’ve been working on an Action Cards Accelerated version. We should begin that in a few weeks.

In OCI we’ll be moving on to the last of the four portals, Assassins of the Golden Age. I need to work on the new card mock-ups and rules for that. Once we get through that one, we can begin to cycle through all four (plus the “rw”) at a more rapid pace.

Guards of Abashan could wrap this year. If it does, I need to think about what comes next. I have some ideas, but I’ll want to check with the group about that.

I anticipate I’ll run Mutants & Masterminds online again. The group wants to return to the same world, but we’re going to use Microscope to figure out what’s happened in the time between campaigns. The first game focused on “Year One” type characters. This one will be about “Legacy” characters (ala sidekicks, New Mutants, Teen Titans, or Young Avengers).

I hope to run a longer-term campaign for our alternate Monday group. I don’t know what yet.

THINGS I’M GOING TO DO

• Launch the Kickstarter for Right of Succession
• Get a playable beta of Action Cards together
• Put one or more of the RPG Genre Histories together in a book format.
• Run games at Games on Demand for Origins and Gen Con
• Switch my Patreon over to Monthly rather than by post.
• Record more Play on Target episodes
• Record a podcast with Sherri
• Finish outstanding reviews
• Run Atelier Auzumel more

THINGS I WANT/SHOULD DO

• Look at Teachable and YouTube for alternate ways to monetize both the blog and RPG history lists
• Keep myself to a twice a week schedule for Age of Ravens
• Fix the lighting in the Game Room
• Be more conservative about my Kickstarter backing
• Run more online one-shots and teaching sessions
• Go to Metatopia
• Go to another Midwest con
• Run another online mini-campaign
• Run a f2f mini-campaign for the Elkhart/Goshen folks
• Prepare to move if Trump gets elected
• Get more freelance work
• Make more time for painting figures

LOWLIGHTS

• All the injuries. Combined with up and down weight control.
• My inability to get a handle on Itras By when I ran it. I like the concept, but it didn’t work when I tried to execute it.
• Lack of progress on the job hunt front
• The weakness of my work for the ThreeForged RPG competition
• Several long promised Kickstarters still not coming through.
• The G+ changes and the general decline in hits (which may be a fallout from the decline of RSS).

HIGHLIGHTS

• I GOT NOMINATED FOR AN ENNIE. wtf? How did that happen? That was pretty awesome. Even if I didn’t win, it was cool to get recognition.
• I finally signed a contract for a project I wrote nine years ago. I hope that will see the light of day in this coming year.
• I hit 1000 posts for Age of Ravens
• I figured out a lot of things about Action Cards.
• Discovered Pinterest (might also be a lowlight...)
• Spending time with Sherri.

And then there was Origins. It was amazing. The Euro-RPGGeek crew arrived several days before the convention. I got to interact with the amazing, amazing Jules, Jan, and Jonna in person. We got to play games and listen to Jonna order her fellow criminals around in Payday 2. I had a dynamite time and loved being able to host them. Then we went to Origins. Unfortunately Sherri couldn’t go because of work projects. If she’d gone it would have been even more amazing.

As it was, it pretty much rocked for me. I met and played with a ton of amazing folks, some from RPG Geek and some not. I mean seriously amazing. I can’t even begin to describe it. Plus I went to a Mongolian BBQ and, despite it being the TGIFridays of these places, it remained delicious. Most of all I got to meet and hang out with Rich Rogers in person. I don’t say this as an exaggeration: I think I learned more about RPGs and GMing from him that weekend than anywhere else. Even his casual throwaway comments have stuck with me. I’m still chewing on how to best eliminate filler words from my descriptions.

Awesomesauce.

A great year.

Time’s up.