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Showing posts from June, 2015

Playing the Flexible Character

I used to always play the lawful good / chaotic good character.  I was the paladin with an inner struggle and a drinking problem.  I was the hero that wanted to always save the day and didn't need to get paid.  Then something changed.  After reading again and again about the dangers of lawful stupid and rogue vs paladin, I decided not to be limited.  I decided to play the chaotic neutral character, a person motivated differently that didn't really care about ideas like good and law. In the beginning, it was just a way for me to avoid entanglements with alignment.  With a chaotic neutral alignment, no one could argue alignment over my actions. It was the ultimate flexibility.  My character was batman without all of the hand-wringing over innocent people. Then, as a GM, it started to sink in.  I played this way because I hated alignment.  I hated playing with people that broke the social contract and fought against other PCs.  I hated playing rogue vs paladin in the party.  A

A GM Tool I Need

My Wednesday Drednaught game has arrived in a large city, Athkatla, the City of Coin, a city of politics and intrigue.  In such scenarios, as well as many others, the depth of the worlds is reflected in the numerous NPCs and their relationships, organizations, and goals.  Capturing, organizing, and defining a large number of related NPCs can be a real challenge, Unfortunately the tool I need for this job does not exist. What I need is a social network tool that allows me to manually add nodes, define their relationships to other nodes, and allows me to capture pertinent information and their image as part of their node.  The whole interface needs to allow me to change focus of the central node for when they pop up in game.  As an added feature, it would allow me to display a full size version of their portrait on a second screen.  Displaying NPC stats in a secondary screen would also be a nice feature.  An XML template for defining stats would provide game-to-game flexibility.  Compa

The Adventures of Tarrak

Tarrak is a dark gnome that grew up on the streets of Skullport.  He scratched by with what he could beg for food and eventually graduated up to minor thievery and pickpocketing for more organized factions within the Dredge.  He came to know people and even like some of them.  One of these people was the local trade negotiator, a halfling named Maybach. Maybach, as often happens with negotiators in Skullport, turned up missing, and Tarrak saw his opportunity.  He found a loak that looked just like Maybach's and started negotiating trades under his name.  The money was better than Tarrak ever imagined, but the good times didn't last.  Maybach's body turned up and Tarrak was soon under suspicion of murder.  He fled to the surface in hopes of finding a safer way. Somehow he ended up in a temple of Savras, half dead from wounds sustained during his escape.  The local temple cleric tended his woulds and fed him to get him back to good health.  Tarrak's curiosity soon dre

A Code of Ettiquette for Online TTRPGs

This Code of Etiquette will become a standard part of all games I host online henceforth, subject to further refinement. Etiquette of the GM The GM will maintain Rule Zero: Everyone has fun. The GM will not make changes to character rules (i.e. class, race, feat, or trait specific rules) after character creation without agreement of all players unless it conflicts with Rule Zero. The GM will attempt to maintain a clear set of rules, ensure that players are following them, and not change them arbitrarily during the campaign. The GM will make rule-consistent judgement calls to keep the game going, but may research controversial calls out of session and report back to the players. The GM will make every effort to keep session going on schedule, and will notify players as soon as possible if a session will be cancelled.  Rescheduled games will include all players. The GM will use player feedback, character backgrounds, other player-generated content to influence the game. The GM