13th Age: 13 Thoughts for Friday the 13th

This week saw us hit session 17 for our online 13th Age campaign. They finally made it to fifth level, giving them access to Champion tier stuff. That's further than we made it in the 13th Age game I played f2f. For this 13th Age celebratory day, I I've assembled some thoughts and impression from running and playing it for a while.

1. I’ve pretty closely followed the book for Icon interactions. Our sessions average somewhere between 2-3 hours, leaning towards the lower end of that. So I don’t do Icon rolls every session. Instead I spread them out and roll them at significant breaks.The players roll at the end of a session so I have time to think about how I might bring those results to the table. That takes some pressure off and gives me fodder for planning.
2. Because the players roll and know their Icon checks, I try to point at those when they happen at the table. I make it clear a particular encounter, piece of information, or gifted item, is tied to that roll. Usually I sketch out one or two incidents or bits tied to rolls of 5 or 6. But I also allow the players to call on those established results. For example, when the group desperately needed a particular magical protection, one of the players burned his “5” roll to establish a contact quickly. Of course the merchant overcharged them heavily. Players can still call for an Icon roll, but if can use established ones definitively. If they do so, I pocket the ideas I’ve come up with for a later time.
3. Besides items, contacts, information, assistance, chance meetings, and revealed plans, I’ve also used Session Icon rolls as boosts. This is mentioned in a couple of places in the books. For example, after making their Icon rolls the players detoured into a multi-session dungeon crawl. The Cleric had a couple of 5 rolls with their positive relation Icon, so I shifted things such that the treasures involved were artifacts related that figure (The Surgeon Penitent). But I had trouble working in some of the others. I ended up giving players rerolls for Skill checks connected to their Icon. They received a flash or inspiration or a reminder of what they fought against. If they burned a 5 result, they got a reroll at the cost of a recovery. I’m keeping that use exclusively non-combat.
4. There’s a kind of split within 13th Age. On the one hand for GMs like me it offers a cool, robust d20 fantasy system. I like how it puts the crunch of choices in the players' hands and keeps combat streamlined. On the other hand, the built-in world of the Dragon Empire’s awesome. And all of the Pelgrane material builds on that setting- down to what might be generic in another game, the Bestiary and the Book of Loot. Sometimes I feel like I’m caught in between. Since my campaign’s using other Icons, I often have to retool items and concepts or hunt around to find the closest analogue. At times I feel I’m wasting some of the game’s potential. But that’s usually during prep- when we get to the table that all fades away.
5. We built our world using Microscope and the players came up with several of the Icons. We made that a phase in the process. Others popped up naturally in the history building and I made up the remaining ones. That’s been cool and the players have forged strong connections in play. I’ve seen other settings put forward alt Icons (like Midgard). You should hunt around and check those out. If you’re doing a fresh setting or a player-built world, consider giving the players an opportunity to build these figures for the campaign. It’ll tell you what kinds of stories they want. The scene several sessions ago where the players arrived at the island-sized figure of Grandfather Turtle, the animal who teaches Wizardry, remains one of my favs.
6. Quirks. I love these conceptually. When Aaron ran the demo session I played in, they offered a great hook. But juggling multiple quirks can be a problem. Usually they’re just tugs, but where you have short sessions that can get dropped to the side. Definitely focus on a single quirk and track that. In my case, the players built an interesting logic into the world. Magic items are powered by a person’s spirit, the secondary animus in their body (think of it like a spirit or totem animal or force everyone has). You have to strengthen that spirit to use more items (i.e. level up). In this case the quirk for having a full load doesn’t come from the item, but from the person’s animus. So if a person has a Fire aspect, they might become hot-headed or if they have a Crow spirit, they might turn to scavenging at any instance. I haven’t put this into play yet, but I plan to give the players some choice in this.
7. Hydras are awesome, but man did mine go down fast. In what was supposed to be an epic fight, the players dispatched two of them with relative ease. Don’t forget some monsters can do miss damage. I forgot that for the first round, so I didn’t hit as hard as I should have.
8. If you can bear it, don’t learn the player characters' powers. I know and trust most of my players. I let them figure out how things work. If something seems too potent, I’ll check it after a session. I’ll also hunt it down if they have a question. If you remain blind, you free up more mental space to worry about the monsters. Plus you will be continually surprised at what they can pull out. I love it when they turn the tide with something awesome. Our cleric dropped his crit-negating talent on me a session ago. Of course I rolled three of them during the fight and lost that extra damage. It was dynamite. This is general advice- sometimes you’ll have players who need to be helped through the rules. I have one often has questions, so I’ve boned up on his class rules.
9. Speaking of the Cleric…they’re wicked. If you have a Cleric in the party, then hit hard. Push the players to use their resources. Smack them around until you have the measure of them. Each time I think I’m about to drop someone, the Cleric steps in and “saves” them. Bah.
10. It may take you time to learn how hard the fights should be. I keep underestimating the players. I need to step up my game. As the book says, if the players have a chunk of magic items, dial up the opposition. Use the movement and intercept rules to your advantage as well. I missed how that worked for the first couple of fights. Attackers with multi-target effects and/or status inflicts really boost the opposition (especially a Confusion effect like the Harpy’s). After a few sessions you’ll begin to see the synergies between the players’ abilities (often before they do). Players will forget that they have one-shot items, so feel free to distribute those.
11. Why is Turn Undead a daily? It should at least be a recharge or per battle. Why do some online people say the Druid is underpowered? We had a Shifter Adept Warrior Druid and he tanked with high defenses and HP as well as dishing out tremendous damage. Maybe it becomes less potent as the players level up?
12. Recoveries are a great resource to pinch. The game talks about four fights before a full rest. Try that, even if you're used to more downtime. To my mind a full rest is at least a day or two in luxury with the attention of a physiker and strong wine. I mentioned powering Icon boosts with recoveries above. I also make that the cost for environmental problems. Failed survival checks cost a recovery or even two with a fumble. I'm sure you can come up with some other devilish options. 
13. I love running 13th Age with Roll20. The abstract nature of the movement in the system means I can use all kinds of maps and not worry about scale. I’ve laid out overhead dungeons, 3d rooms, flow charts, and strange tourist-style layouts. The Roll20 character sheet for 13th Age is great, and you can link that to tokens. Plus you get easy hidden areas via the Fog of War, a quick roller and initiative tracker, plus great drawing tools. You don’t have to learn much to robustly use Roll20 with 13th Age.

Finally, if you're interested in 13th Age, but wonder what's out for it check out my post: 13th Age: System Guide for New Players

Old Pitches Revisted: Gods, Guns, and Crows

Blogging about Blogging Sins: So I'm about 90-95% recovered from the fall. I still get some twinges in the arm from the torn muscle, but I'm able to work consistently now. I lost several productive weeks in Feb/March, putting me behind schedule on several projects; a couple of board games and some rpg work. So I expect I'll be putting up posts only once or twice a week through mid-April. New week I'll have one of the two Post-Apocalyptic lists for the month. 

I wanted to make sure I posted something this week, so I thought I'd go back to some more of my earlier game/book.comic pitches. This one's literally called Age of Ravens, and comes from- I think- '99. I wrote about a third of a novel based on this. The idea centers on a modern, fairly grounded setting, but where a pantheon of active, interventionist gods holds sway. There's a little bit of 20th Century meets Glorantha, Conan noir, Harn crossed with Tinker, Tailor. There's some influence of Lord of Light here.  At least that's what I had in my head. I've worked on and off on a rpg take on this, but I keep hitting the double mumbo-jumbo problem (at least for myself). This doc's about 10+ years old. I present it unvarnished; I'd restructure this significantly it I came at this again today.

AGE OF RAVENS
Guns and gods collide as two heroes driven by a dead deity try to find their destiny and stop a conspiracy to corrupt the heavens.

IN BRIEF
The world of Age of Ravens contains a host of gods—most present, known and accepted by the populace. Faiths struggle in an alternate Twentieth Century where worship defines life. Baltimore cop Harvard Dain delves into a murder leading to a world of divine espionage and assassins. Marisol Kasser, rejected by her deity, searches for her place only to be dragged into the conspiracy. Joining forces they discover they pursue the last follower of the dead god, Crow. Their path draws them across the country, encountering avatars and lost pantheons. In the end Harvard and Marisol must choose who they will follow and who will control the new age.

THE PLOT
Paul Evenson, an American intelligence agent investigates research at a strange anomaly known as the Hole. He uncovers the scholar-god scientists’ plan to resurrect and control a destroyed god. Evenson’s sabotage releases the undead god and demolishes the facility. Pursued by rival government agent Hiram Zurhammer, Evenson vanishes into the Hole, apparently protected by his patron, the trickster god Crow.

Thirteen years later, Crow is dead.

Baltimore PD Detective Harvard Dain investigates a murder with supernatural elements. Sent by his community to protect their interests as a cop, he finds himself isolated from his fellow officers. Despite powers granted him by his deity, Manoc, Harvard remains marked as a follower of the god of the lost and marginal, smallest among the lesser gods of the Eighty-One.

Marisol Kasser has lost her community as well. Rejected by Rhamas, the All-Father, on the eve of her appointment as one his paladins, her wealthy family has turned her away. When she sees news of the murder, she suspects a free-lance job tracing the victim put him in harm’s way.

Stuck for answers, Harvard turns to followers of Chaikaj, the thief god, who point him towards Marisol and the victim’s service as an American spy. Marisol’s investigation leads to an ambush where she barely escapes a demonic attack. Evidence Marisol uncovers there points to a conspiracy involving demons, the government and old spies.

Harvard escapes an attack that kills a fellow officer as he digs deeper. Senior Intelligence Agent Zurhammer appears to warn him away—the attack had been intended to kill Harvard. Pressing on, he tracks down Marisol, but a police raid intervenes. Escaping, they discover Harvard has been framed for murder. They flee Baltimore tracing the few clues they have.
In Ohio, they find the last followers of Simeaus, the god of bindings and connections. Marisol investigates records on-site, finding a trail to Paul Evenson. Demons, unlike any seen before, assault the home and slaughter the Simeaus worshippers. Touched by powers, Marisol finds herself chosen by Crow.

In the battle’s aftermath strange allies appear in the form of Sheridan Kerr and Dahlia Wane, servants of Ghadravagra, the demon-wrestler deity. Driven by the call of their god, Sheridan and Dahlia have no choice but to hunt demons in the world. A shaken Marisol rejects Crow who stands for the disorder her upbringing condemned. But to continue she must accept the intuition granted her by the god. Harvard reluctantly accepts this path and the aid Sheridan and Dahlia; he finds himself unsure of the changes in Marisol.

The group moves westward—following a darkness in the divine landscape of America. Demons—the fear and chaos outside of the gods’ control—prowl and corrupt the land. Evidence points to an organized attempt to cover up these stories.

Spotted by authorities, a chase down on the back roads leads to a desperate firefight that destroys their vehicle. Their pursuers take Marisol and leave the others dead or dying. Taken to Roswell and the Hole—a rift in the sky dragging everything to it—Marisol meets Zurhammer. Obsessed with Crow as an enemy of the state, Zurhammer has allied himself with overseas powers representing a new fascist tide in Europe. Zurhammer leaves Marisol to be interrogated by two agents she recognizes as demons in human flesh.

Harvard and Dahlia survive only through a desperate invocation to Harvard’s god Manoc. They follow a flight of crows to the Hole. Marisol suffers at the hands of the demonic agents while Zurhammer rants against Crow. Harvard and Dahlia break into the facility and reveal the demons. In a desperate move, Dahlia summons her full aspect-- pulling the creatures to her as she flings herself into the Hole. The desperate grip of a demon drags Marisol into the void as well.

In the Hole Marisol sees the origin of the rising evil. From stolen documents detailing the creation of The Hole, European scientists found a way to destroy a god. Marisol witnesses the forced summoning which mortally wounds Simeaus, setting off the global plagues of ten years before. From the ashes arise a corrupt Twelve, dark avatars who echo highest gods. She sees their plan to destroy the gods and the world, a plan that even now has begun to take shape in Europe as old governments fall.

Marisol and a dark avatar of Crow fall back into the real world and the Hole closes. The demon escapes, but Marisol knows where he will go. At a commune in Southern California, Harvard and Marisol finally find Paul Evenson. Like Marisol he took the mantle of Crow unwillingly. The trail Evenson left for her came out of his own inability to complete the necessary task.

Marisol and Harvard find the last Simeaus worshipper-- Evenson’s wife who lies dying from cancer. Her murder will create a sympathetic corruption crippling America’s contact with the gods. Though he knows the danger, Evenson cannot bring himself to help her die.

They prepare for the final battle against the Crow Demon and his legion of the corrupted. Harvard must come to terms with his heritage and call his fellow brother in Manoc to him. Marisol must choose her path—can she accept the trickery of Crow or will she find a new path that can defeat her shadowy enemy and save the gods themselves?

Looking Forward: Play on Target Ep. 38

This episode Play on Target looks forward to 2015. After some technical difficulties delayed it, we finally present our predictions and resolutions for the year. Originally we’d intended this as a companion to our "Year in Review" Episode. So you'll hear a couple of out of date references. Still I think it came out decently. While we have a few obvious picks for the year, I think we go off the beaten path in a couple of places. Take a listen and see what you think.

PLOT: Looking Forward

Play on Target Episode Round Up

FEEDBACK LOOPS

As we say in the episode, we want to get more listener feedback this year. We record each episode in pairs, coming up with ideas in the week or two ahead of the recording. We try to keep a list of old ideas that didn’t make it on a master sheet, but often we drop some out of the cycle. Some of these are our personal hobby horses (hence the Supers episode!). This year we want to draw more on listener concerns and questions. What do you want to hear?

Sidebar: I had an interesting experience a few months ago. I saw someone complaining on G+ that the various RPG Podcasts he’d listened to didn’t cover topics he wanted. I asked what he’d like to hear. He responded that he didn’t have time to detail the kinds of material he wanted. I know I’ve done that in the past- been dissatisfied with something, but unable or unwilling to articulate what I desired.

If you have topics you think we need to talk about, questions you want answered, issues we ought to return to, or things we should examine, please tell us. That’s especially true for the GM Jam series. Are there distinct settings or systems you’d like to hear about? Games you’re curious or hesitant about that GM insight might help you with? We’d love any and all of that. You can leave comments, pm us, geekmail us, etc.

On the flip side- tell us about things you think we need to improve. Like Lowell talks too much (which he does). Or we don’t hit on some concerns or we should structure things differently. We’ve had some advice and we’re working to improve. We nicely got a nomination for the Golden Geeks this year, and that’s cool. But what I’d really like to see is people saying they listened to the show and got something out of it. (I recognize the irony given that this episode’s more internally focused.)

THE ART OF NOISE

Speaking of quality, you may notice a drop in it this time. I hope not. I edited the episode this week, my first time working with Audacity. I did video editing a long, long, long time ago (on big machines with 3/4” tape). Various blog posts and online videos made the process incredibly easy. I remain continually shocked by how simple it is to learn how to handle simple (and not so simple) tasks, tools, and repairs. I hope that the sound quality’s decent! Having listened to the episode several times now, I’m acutely conscious of my quirks, volume, and vocal tics…for better or worse.

I’d like to figure out how to do some modern video editing. It would be cool to reshape some of my RPG History Lists into video presentations. Plus I often see employers hunting for those skills. But I’m unsure what’s the best tool for handling that. If you have suggestions, please give me a heads up. 

PLOT: Looking Forward

Play on Target Episode Round Up

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.

GM Prep Survey Results

Earlier this month I put together two surveys intended to gather self-assessments of the level & kind of prep work GMs did. Originally I focused on sessions, but many commented that campaign prep fed into their session prep style. So I created the latter survey with aid from several people. Yesterday I closed out the surveys and downloaded the info. I haven’t had a chance to seriously dig through it yet, but I wanted to put the raw data and a “graphic” version out for anyone to look at. I’d thought about this project for some time, but RPG Blog Carnival topic, "How and Where I Write and/or Game Prep.", created by Leicester's Ramble pushed me to put it out there.  

Keep in mind this survey’s rough and unscientific. It has no controls, the question wording hasn’t been checked, and there’s some serious limitations to the format. So why do it? Because I’d seen many threads about prep online. Often they escalated into a game of one-upmanship. If someone talked about having done a ton of work for a session, commenters would pop on to say they’d done more. Threads about “prep light” approaches had wildly differing definitions. Sometimes participants engaged in a race to the bottom to declare no or negative prep. I understand those kinds of comments. We feel strongly about the process we’ve invested in. I wanted to see, removed from comparison signposts, how GM’s self-assessed what they did.

We ended up with 313 responses for the Session survey and 106 responses for the Campaign survey. I have three documents for those interested in the details. Survey Monkey generated two compiled pdfs of the data. You can get the Session Prep material here via Dropbox. You can get the Campaign Prep pdf here. I should note that weirdly the former includes the “Other, Please Specify” details, but the latter does not. I’m not sure why it generated it that way, I suspect there’s a space question (I wouldn’t let me output whole indivual response material as a pdf due to those limits). I’ve also put together the individual responses and details in a Google Calc table. If you’re looking for the crunchy bits and associative data, check that out. I’ve stripped out IP identifiers, but left the comments intact.

Feel free to check out and play around with this data. Consider it released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. If you post something about it, a link back to the blog and a heads up would be appreciated. I hope to offer up my own thoughts on this in the next week or two.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to fill out these surveys. I know they weren’t quick, especially the Campaign Prep one. I might try something like this again the future. If I do I’ll definitely crowd-source the questions to get a tighter approach. 

Codici Malefactus: Rats of NIMH Meets Evil Hogwarts

I'm still recovering, but the arm's letting me work a little longer at the computer. I wanted to put something up, so I thought I'd post a project from 2010 that ended up not going anywhere. Gene did some pages for it, so I've posted a couple of cutaways from that. Right now, I'm thinking I'm thinking about how I might rework some of this into a gaming set up. Maybe for an rpg or a board game....I've sketched out a couple of things. In any case, this is the two page pitch I put together for this fantasy animal-based story.  

CODICI MALEFACTUS

Summary

Awakened to awareness and intelligence, the squirrel Kinder escapes from death into a new world. He gains sanctuary among a band of animals-- also transformed by accidents of human magic-- living in the walls of a sorcerous workshop called the Codici Malefactus. But these mages are not benevolent and discovery of the escaped animals means destruction. Kinder finds himself isolated from human and animal alike, trying to survive and avert disaster spawned from the very magic which created him.

Tag-Line

The Rats of NIMH in a maleficent Hogwarts.

Story

A fantastic half-workshop, half-laboratory, we see a boy, dressed in worn robes and the scraps of an archaic school uniform. He pulls out a small brown squirrel from a cage. Clutching it tightly, he consults from a battered tome. Then he speaks strange words that hang like ideograms in the air. The squirrel shivers and transforms as a force of magic coalesces in the air and enters it. The squirrel size doubles, forcing the boy to shift his grip. While still vaguely a squirrel, it seems unnatural with strange eyes, thorny horns and a bushy tail dotted with thorns. The squirrel cries out in the same hanging runes. Without a backward glance the boy drops the new beast over a half-wall into a makeshift pen.

But even as the squirrel lands, we see it change back-- though not completely. The glow has vanished, but it leaves behind traces of the horns and tail. Now it is simply Kinder, a squirrel forever altered by this magic and suddenly filled with intelligence and awareness. Wrestling with this new state Kinder stares at his own paws. Then his eyes track upwards into the maw of another enormous transformed beast. Kinder understands one thing: he is dinner.

But this monstrous beast rears back, crying out. Then, like Kinder, it reverts back to its original form, Leather, the slightly dopey boar. Multiple changes have made him slightly ape-like and marked with eyes gone burning yellow, armored scales, and metallic bristles. Still terrified, Kinder comes forward, trying to come to terms with his state. Leather looks at him with a mix of fear and wonder-- the squirrel having somehow driven out the alien spirit within him. The boar calms Kinder, and explains that the changes will take time to get used to. The sudden return of the student feeder interrupts their bonding.

The boy realizes something has gone terribly wrong and grabs up Kinder-- deftly avoiding the barbs and binding him in his pocket. He hunts about for a scapegoat, settling on Nevral, the least talented of the apprentices. Kinder hears and comprehends the shouting of an outraged master and fleeing apprentices. The squirrel tears free from the student's pocket, racing across the workshop, but finds himself trapped in a corner. The unjustly punished student spots him, but hesitates. He stares at Kinder but leaves him be, alone in this new and strange world.

Wandering through the dangerous world of this sorcerous workshop, Kinder escapes death with the intervention of another transformed animal, The Indomitable Lady Rekhavyk (“my full name, thank you very much...”). This heroic and self-styled Puss-in-Boots savior to the lab animals drags him along. Disoriented, Kinder finds himself led into the walls of the workshop-- only then realizing the scale of this new place. Once a palace, it now hosts this strange faction of laboring mages and their apprentices. Rekhavyk incompletely explains the new art of the human wizards, one which summons otherworldly forces to transform animals temporarily into powerful magical servants. The real secret hidden from the humans is that over time this transforms the animals not only physically but mentally.

Kinder stares in wonder as Rekhavyk leads him into the refuge of those awakened animals who have escaped-- a sanctum built into the walls and abandoned areas of the workshop itself. Over years they have built themselves a labyrinthine sanctuary out of the cast-offs from the workshop itself. Kinder and Rekhavyk scurry through abandoned rooms with cleverly concealed makeshift bridges and moving platforms. They rise higher, to the ruined towers of the lab. Kinder looks out to see a city below; for a brief moment he has a flash of a glorious mecca. Then he sees the real city broken and black, huddling under dark clouds and half buried by gray snow. Rekhavyk draws him away into the sanctum of the animals.

Here Kinder sees a host of animals, all showing signs of the transformation-- a bizarre menagerie of woodland creatures partially overlaid with the bits and pieces of nightmarish monsters. Brought before the leader of the group, Wrethe, the squirrel learns of the animal's origin and of the magic which created them. However his own revelation startles the assembled group. Each gained knowledge and weird changes over time, but Kinder awoke in a single transformation. A greater shock greets the accidental revelation that he understands the humans' speech. While some look on Kinder with wonder, others fear his difference. In the days to follow he begins to understand that even here he remains an outsider. But news of Leather's impending destruction shocks him out of his self-pity and into action.

Desperate to save the first animal who aided him, Kinder begs the other animals for aid. After much argument the elders deny his petition, to the satisfaction of Rekhavyk who has come to begrudge the squirrel's quick knowledge and adventuresome spirit. Leather would be too difficult to spirit away and his size would make him nearly impossible to conceal. Despite the prohibition, Kinder decides to strike forward anyway. He closely observes the dynamics of the masters and students-- aided and hindered by the conflicting voices in his head. Slowly a plan forms, one lying outside the scope of what the other animals can muster.

Now Kinder must execute his operation alone. Can he free Leather without revealing the animals? Can he find refuge for his friend? Will Nevral turn out to be an ally or enemy in his quest? Kinder must put his own safety and that of his new home at risk to act on loyalty and friendship. This rebellious first step may lead him against all of the powers of destruction the mages have unwittingly tapped.

Setting and Background

The Codici itself takes up only a small portion of a grand palace that has fallen into ruins. There's a strong visual parallel between the scrabbled-together nests and warrens of the animals and the shabby disrepair the mages live in. The humans cram themselves into a fraction of the available space. Around them lie the scattered detritus of failed magics and broken projects. There's a generally renaissance atmosphere, but one that blends with classic magical elements and Clockpunk-style devices and machines. The palace's size means coming across art, decorations and designs from history and the world.

In the far background, outside the walls of the Codici, hangs the conflict just past-- a battle between practitioners of this new summoning magic and the old ways. On one side stood a magic capable of permanence requiring study, cost and intense labor; on the other stood the new magic quickly learned, free to use but remaining temporary.

The victory of the new magic destroyed most of those who knew the old ways. Codici Malefactus serves as one of the few places where that knowledge remains...at least partially. The Overlord who swept the land with the new magic keeps this place to repair the remaining old devices and useful engines. The staff survive at his behest. While they would rather be pursuing more fully their own experiments with the new ways, they must work with what little they can glean to keep things running. If they fail, they know the Overlord will have little pity for them.

Characters

The setting presents opportunities for a host of rich characters. The other transformed animals run the gamut of birds, beasts and even insects. They must each deal with their new intelligence and personality as well as their Pokemon-like physical changes and existence. Kinder will meet many struggling with this and the urges of their natural instincts. Some, like Rekhayvk, create new roles and identities for themselves. But the hero-cat holds a difficult position; she must rescue lab animals but also choose who will be worthy of rescue. These clashing personalities create internal battles over how best to survive. Kinder can see how much the animal society echoes the humans they fear.

The humans of the Codici Malefactus present another rich set of characters, as potential allies, adversaries and background color. The “Students” serve more as servants and apprentices, forced to learn bits and pieces of what they consider a failed art. They seethe with resentment and youthful power politics. They know they have a gift for magic, but find themselves stymied in their quest for greater power. Most dance between undercutting their masters and trying to curry favor. The master resent their place here-- dealing with unruly apprentices and eking out time for their own pursuit of power. Only the mysterious guild mistress, Sulhara, holds them in line. Even she serves still another master, the Overlord, who far away carries out his own plans to bring all of the world under his thumb.

Perhaps the most ambiguous human character will be the boy who aids Kinder in the beginning, Nevral. He possesses less of the magical gift than the other apprentices present. This makes him a ready scapegoat. His concealed strength lies in his ability to focus and to study. Where others glide through on sheer native talent, he works for his victories. As a result, he may understand more fully the very magic the others wield so easily. The developing relationship between Nevral and Kinder will be an important one to the course of the story.

Future

Short-term Stories: Kinder joins the Civilization's fight for survival, but soon learns how precarious their way of life is. Constantly hunted as vermin, the animals scavenge homes, food and new escapees. They must pick their battles carefully. Upsetting the mages' plans could bring discovery. At the same time Kinder must learn about his fellow animals. To fit in he must understand their stories and quirks.

Medium-term Stories: Kinder learns more about the infernal nature of the summoned spirits, the history of the last Mages' War, and his own unique enchantment. Kinder rebels against the cautious animal Elders and risks an alliance with Nerval. It is a friendship that will spark a new war, but might save the world.

Long-term Story: Kinder must uncover a way to stop to the spirits' plan for the destruction of everything.

Slow Posting Week or I Was Out of Stress Boxes So I Took a Consequence

So I had several things in the pipeline for this week: the next History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs list, an update on samurai games I'd missed, and some discussion of how I've been using the Icons in our 13th Age game. Then I hit an icy patch on Friday and went down hard on the sidewalk. Had to bump the whole weekend's worth of games. Today's the first day I've been able to work at the computer for any significant time without effing agony in my left arm. I'm hoping to rope a guest post, but otherwise expect it to be light. Not that anyone checks these things, but posts like these are good for my ego. 

GM Campaign Prep Survey

I've put together an online survey examining how much time gamemasters spend getting ready for a campaign.

I got some feedback on my earlier (and still ongoing) GM Session Prep Survey. Many respondents talked about having done much more with campaign prep. It allowed them to support the level of work they did for sessions. That pushed me to put together this second survey. It’s also inspired by this month's RPG Blog Carnival hosted by Leicester's Ramble, "How and Where I Write and/or Game Prep."

This survey will be active through Feb. 25^th or so. Please feel free to post and reshare this in any gaming circles. Like the previous one, this survey is much more narrative and descriptive. The limitations of the format and selection pool mean that we’re getting is more food for thought than anything else. I’ll make all the data available at the end of the month.

So you can check it out before you go over to Survey Monkey, here’s the text of the questions I used. Thanks to everyone who gave be feedback on putting this together. Some of the answers are multiple choice drop-downs while others are text/number fill. If you want to answer these, head over the the link at the top.

SURVEY TEXT AND QUESTIONS

After I put together my GM Session Prep Survey, I got some solid feedback. In particular several GMs commented on the vast difference between their prep before the campaign vs. between sessions. Just looking at session prep didn't take into account that earlier work. I had enough responses to the earlier survey that I had to drop some money on Survey Monkey to have access to all that data. Since I've already paid for the month, I thought I should go ahead and do a complementary assessment.

For this survey, we're going to look at the two most recent campaigns you've run. I'll ask the same set of questions about each, on two blocks one after the other. If you've only run one campaign or only want to discuss one campaign, Page Seven has instructions on how to enter that.

This Survey will be active through February 25th. 

A couple of definitions:

• Please examine your two most recently run campaigns, including any campaigns which might still be in progress.
• For the purposes of this survey I'm defining a campaign as a linked set of at least four sessions. If that seems too small, feel free to raise that bar for yourself.
• For campaign prep, consider all the work you did on the campaign before the first session. Some GMs do a character creation session and some don't. If you did a CC session, decide whether you think that's when the campaign started or if it began with the first play session.
• If you're running in campaign in a homebrew world you've run in before, just focus on the prep for this particular campaign.
• This is all rough, rough, rough, and arbitrary. I understand that everything presented here will be an estimation. We're just looking for ballpark guesses.

1. What system did you use for the campaign?

2. Had you run this system before?

3. What kind of setting did you use?

4. Had you run this setting before?

5. Where did you run?

6. How often did your group meet?

7. How long was your average session?

8. How many players did you have on average?

9. About how many sessions did you run for? (Say "ongoing" for present campaigns)

10. Did you have an expectation about how long the campaign would last when you planned it?

11. If yes to Question 10, about how long did you expect the campaign to last? Was that more or less than it did run?

12. Did you have what you'd consider a "finale"?

13. What caused the campaign to end?

14. How did you think about the ending of the campaign?

This next part focuses on the actual time you spent prepping for the game. This is all estimates and self-assessment. I'm going to ask you to come up with some rough percentages in categories. But how you define prep is up to you. If you think early brainstorming, watching genre-movies, or musing on things while riding the train counts as your prep, then count it.

This is pretty blurry, so just go with your gut on these answers.

15. Roughly how many hours did you spend preparing for this campaign? (Please answer in numerals: 2, 6, 18...)

16. Give a rough percentage of time you spent on each of these activities in preparing for this campaign. Though I've set this to add up to 100, I understand there will some blurry lines.

• Learning or Relearning Rules    
• Developing or Homebrewing Mechanics              
• Drawing Maps, Sketching Illustrations, or Crafting Props               
• Coming Up with NPCs   
• Plotting Incidents, Arcs, or Stories           
• Writing Up World/Setting Backstory       
• General Research           
• Player Character Work  
• Other

GM Campaign Prep Survey

GM Session Prep Survey