Skip to main content

Pink Dice Mechanics: Wisdom Check

As a father of 4 daughters, getting my daughters into gaming and ensuring they have a good experience has been a big part of my gaming life in the last few years.  This blog was really meant to capture my experiences along they way.  Without knowing it though, this blog wandered into a different idea completely.  The conclusion in gaming with my daughters is simple -- there is nothing special I need to do because I game with my daughters, because most all players want the same things in the game.

Players want a safe, comfortable environment to interact with other players and explore their own characters in an interesting story.  Of course, there are a lot of little details that make up a positive gaming environment, and that is a lot of what I have explored.  The bottom line though is that there is no unique reason to change gaming to help girls have a better experience; instead there are a lot of broad reasons to change gaming to make sure everyone has a better experience.

Over time, I have covered a lot of topics along these lines from different perspectives, both as a player and as a GM.  Being a good player and being a good GM take the same basic components at the table:
  • Value and respect the people taking time to game with you.
  • Dedicate yourself to making sure everyone at the table is having fun.
  • Communicate your views honestly and openly, and listen and care about other people's views.
  • Work to improve your skills and grow your experiences.
I know its somewhat underwhelming to read broad statements like those and have that somehow be the wisdom after years of gaming.  I guess its just like that Einstein quote says:  "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5E Starting Gold and Equipment for Higher Levels

The DMG has a rough recommendation for starting gold and equipment for higher levels, but with my groups running one-shots, we wanted to nail it down to level by level. Here's my DMG-inspired table. Generally I allow equipment to be traded in during character creation for half book value, where applicable. I also, as a GM, offer to make custom magic items for players who can't choose. A list of magical items by rarity can be found here  with stats available in the DMG. I also generally allow players to buy healing potions (2d4+2) for 50gp and greater healing potions for 250gp (4d4+4). PHB items are available at book cost at creation. I do not allow other equipment to be purchased except in game. This is generally based off the "high magic" campaign. Level Starting Gold Starting Equipment / Magic Items 1 - 160gp  OR Standard starting equipment 2 210gp Standard starting equipment 3 285gp Standard starting equipment 4 365gp Standard sta
2 comments
Read more

An Analysis of Tasha's Caldron of Everything: Spells

 I am going to be evaluating "Tasha's Cauldron of Everything" for incorporation into my own games. I figured I would go ahead and record this analysis on my blog here so other folks can follow along and glean some useful information from the time I spent. I tried to find an in-depth analysis elsewhere, but at this time none so detailed as this seems to be available. You will not find any of the text in its entirety in this blog. I will be referencing the first printing of the book, so please refer to that as you read along. There are no released errata for the book at the time of writing, although there are errata from other books that affect some of this content. There are 21 spells in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. This includes Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade, Lightning Lure, and Sword Burst cantrips that were originally published in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. There are 9 spells that allow you to summon creatures of various types. Three spells are notabl
Post a Comment
Read more

GM Tip: Changing the Effective Font Size in Roll20

I've seen this complaint a few times in roll 20:  can't adjust the font in the chat window.  Unfortunately, they haven't added controls for this yet, at least not at the level of account I have.  For me the font is just too big, but I know for a lot of people it is too small. I am using chrome to do this, but I am sure it will work in other browsers. The method basically allows to increase/decrease the size of the font/controls by about a factor of 2 easily. To increase the effective font size, zoom in with the browser (ctrl-plus), and reduce the zoom on the map, until it is back to the size you want. To decrease the effective font size, zoom out with the browser (ctrl-minus), and increase the zoom on the map until its back to the size you want. The main limit of this is the limited range of the map zoom, which really limited me to fonts doubling to halving in size. Default size with chat font Decrease browser zoom and increase map zoom to reduce font e
Post a Comment
Read more