The Pink Dice Chronicles

I, personally, have had some bad experience as of late with online player etiquette when trying to start a couple new games, so I though it might be a good idea to share some advice with those players out there looking to get into an online game. Let's start off with things not to do: Don't sign up for an online game unless you can make a commitment to the game. Don't ask to join a game and then not respond quickly when you are asked to join. Don't join a game and then immediately quit. Don't ignore the parameters of the game.  Make sure you build an appropriate character. Don't argue with previous rulings.  If an established group has already agreed, you shouldn't be challenging a ruling after the fact. Here is a good list of things to do: Make sure you ask questions that influence you wanting to join before asking to join. Understand how you group and GM wish to communicate and adapt to that method. Be gracious and respectful. Adapt your c...

We brushed over an interesting code that can be used for playing a paladin in our " Paladinic Philosophy 101: Another Way to Play a Lawful Good Paladin Without Being Lawful Stupid " segment. This paladinic code-based paladin is interesting but still lacks some of the element of growth we might really want to explore with a paladin character.  In this segment we are going to consider "the struggling paladin". Paladins, like nuns and priests and other spiritual folks, are real people.  Real people have their faults and their struggles.  Priests and nuns and paladins can mess up with both their deity and the law just like anyone else.  They can pay the price like anyone else.  In the case of the struggling paladin, we pick a vice that becomes the paladin's daily struggle.  This struggle will sometimes force the paladin outside his normal bounds, and he will maintain some sort of daily atonement to try to keep himself forgiven for the mistakes he or she makes...

Charisma is a quality which allows the inspiration of devotion in other people.  In terms of game mechanics, charisma may drive the ability to influence others and may act as a source of power for magical abilities.  Charisma also influences how others may see us, such as through physical beauty or in terms of power of personality.  Because charisma has multiple aspects, role-playing a high or low charisma can take on a combination of options.  In this article, we're going to discuss those options and look at some examples. There are several aspects of Charisma.  Physical beauty describe how the character looks.  Familiarity describes how well the character reflects the expectations of normalness.  Communication reflects how good a person is in portraying a positive light when speaking.  Stature describes the nonverbal communication that the character portrays through their body.    Combinations of these can result in a high, l...

Ask a player to show you their character and they will hand you a character sheet.  Ask your player to describe their character, and they will tell you the same thing the character sheet says, perhaps in interpreted words, maybe with a picture or a small but of disjointed history.  This static view of the character is really contradictory in every sense of playing a character, since so much of the story in an RPG is the growth of a character. I've tried to do something like this before with Pathfinder.  The problem with Pathfinder is that there is a lot going on in the rules and it is hard to capture everything in a short form.  It could be done in software, but I've never found any software that did it.  Even working through a progression to meet the simple requirements for a prestige class can take a lot of work in Pathfinder.  Planning over levels is hard  Trying to capture the full progression of a character in both stats and personal growth is u...

Quite a few years ago I found an excellent reference for explaining paladinic philosophy based on the Path of Honor .  TL; DR on this is pretty simple.  Paladins have a set of privileges that can be earned or lost based on how an individual person acts.  A number of these privileges are default privileges that everyone gets by default and can only lose: Life -- Privilege to not die a meaningless death Well-Being -- One should not have their health intentionally compromised by another Procedure -- People should be allowed to do what they want by the paladin, so long as it doesn't infringe upon others' privileges Esteem -- One has the right to courtesy and respect Beyond these default privileges are additional ones that can be earned: Confidence -- trusted by the paladin Deference -- a person's word is trusted in a given area Command -- a person can direct the paladin Absolute Command -- a person can direct the paladin without question So when playing a la...

I t is interesting how one of the mundane mechanics of role playing games has, in fact, became one of the bigger obsessions and superstitions associated with RPGs.  Go to any game table, anywhere, and you will find people with way too many dice and way too many superstitions about dice rolling. Because of this, the rules of rolling are an important aspect of the game.  How does a player know when to roll?  How does that roll get counted when players are always rolling random dice at the table?  How does the GM prevent cheating?  How does the GM manage expectations to know if a roll is going to count? Since a roll of the dice can make all the difference between a TPK and a victory, it is important to consider the rules for rolling.  A good example of one set of rules is Ronald's Rules of Rolling .  Ronald's Rules are good -- clear, concise, and definitive. Ronald's Rules are just a bit strict for me.  In my typical Pathfinder games, I don't r...

I am going to state this one more time so everyone can get this. IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY WITH A GAME, COMMUNICATE YOUR PROBLEMS CLEARLY I am so tired of players getting pissed off and leaving without clearly communicating their issues with a game before they leave. GRRRRRR How can games get better if we have to read people's minds when there is a problem? I have left a game once as a player because of problems I had with the game.  At my last session I continually explained to the GM the bad things I saw coming and ended the session telling the GM that I didn't have fun and the rest of the players agreed.  When the GM did nothing AFTER communicating the problem clearly, then I left.  I gave the GM a chance to change things.

Apparently there is a lack of player advise in the realms .  It is one of those things as a GM that I hadn't really thought about.  It makes sense though.  Motivated people really into gaming, the kind that would maintain blogs, also would have a tendency to become GMs and so blogs are GM focused. Being a player is hard.  As a player you only control one small piece of a bigger picture, and it is very easy for someone else to come through and take your thunder.  In the past, I have posted some player tips ( look here ),  So to help the greater community, I will try to post more player tips. So here is my top ten players tips today: Make an Impression  -- Too many players don't ever get the point across in the game as to what their character is all about.  If you're in that mode, stop, pick a spot in the game, and start role playing with you other players to start building a view of your character in the other players' (and GM's) minds Talk...

I had a topic come up in the context of the Thursday night game that reinforced an element of character play that I had come across last time I played:  character narration.  To discuss this element I want to talk about the magic circle, framing and bleed.  If you're not familiar with these topics, EmergentPlay has excellent discussions of all three topics:   The Magic Circle , Frames , Bleed . Imagine when your gaming rituals start.  Maybe you start by reviewing your character sheet before leaving for the game.  Maybe you sit at the game table, trying to remember what happened last time.  When I prepped for playing Crayla, my crass irreverant ranger, I would play certain songs, and even watch scenes of certain movies (the Alien movie with Sigourney Weaver playing basketball). Entering the magic circle of gaming often involves transforming our behavior into that of the character, getting into their head, their senses, their feelings, and the situat...

After reading this article , I thought I'd take on the topic of backup characters.   Backup characters, I think, are a natural part of any gameplay where a character could die.   As I've stated before , I think character death is a positive influence on game play.  The interplay between backup characters, new players, and character death is an important dynamic.  New players rarely get exactly what they want in their first character.  A backup character gives them the opportunity to vent some of this different character energy without having them switch characters every few weeks. Asking players to maintain backup characters is also a good way to foreshadow to players that character death will occur.  It rarely happens when they expect it and often times I find it is an emotional time when a character dies.  Having a backup character allows them to move on during the game time without having to dwell on their character's death while watching everyone...

This advice also works for fixing "Paladin problems".

Today I've been thinking about the common elements that get used and reused in character backgrounds.  After playing roleplaying games, I've seen the following things way too many times: Character is orphaned or one parent is dead. Character doesn't know anything about one or both parents. Character was witness to or involved in a traumatic event, possible related to number 1. Character has a natural ability that resulted in her leaving home. Character is a loner, has poor social skills, is ugly, or has some other reason that they aren't good with people. Character has no family. Character has an enemy who is evil, or is trying to track down an evil enemy. Character was falsely accused, got in trouble with the authorities, and had to leave / escape. Character is all-powerful (all stats above average) or is average in all things and exceptional in one thing. Character is seeking out an amazing destiny that they believe is theirs or that was taken from them. ...

We got together today at our new location for the Port Wayne Shadowrun campaign.  The room was nice with good lighting, lots of space, tables, and chairs, and no distractions.  It is a bit annoying that they don't have snacks for sale, but we'll learn to bring our own.  We're all still getting to know the rules for Shadowrun 4, so today was spent on character creation.  It is a bit overwhelming with all the rule sets, so the guys mostly settled in on building their characters from similar pregens. The party so far (as I can remember it): Elven Gunslinger Adept Human Technomancer Pixie Infiltrator One thing I found today that was very annoying is that the Shadowrun Core Book is no longer in print and hardcover copies now run from $50 to $90.  This, of course, is just a ploy by Catalyst to push people to SR5 due to come out later this year.  Catalyst could learn a lot from Paizo on how to make money while not gouging their fans.  Paizo, for ex...

I ran across this this morning and thought I would share: http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/gaming/shadowrun/survival_tips.html I also ran across a SURGE quality for having wings that looks well thought out. http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=3297.0 Having flying seemed like a big hole in the books I have so far for SR4. Also, for reference, here are some cheat sheets for all the different aspects of combast: http://pavao.org/shadowrun/cheatsheets/SR4CheatSheets4up.pdf

I was reading this article today and noticed that GM's Day (March 4th) is coming up fast, and it got me thinking about GM appreciation.  The article talks about all the cool things players can do every day to help the GM -- typical things like not arguing with GM calls during the game, participating, helping to keep the game fun, and bringing snacks.  Thinking back over my most recent gaming experiences over the last year or so, I have to share that the groups I GM for have done a pretty darn good job at all these things.  We've all learned the rules together on new things and there is always good discussion and helping around the table.  All the players pretty much get in the game when its their turn.  I think everyone has had some fun.  And the snacks - well, the players shine every week at bringing way too much cool stuff to eat.  (I remember the week we had a crockpot beside the table!) I've tried to hold up my end of the bargain too.  I ...

Playing a fantasy character true to their nature is a difficult undertaking.  Living in modern times gives us a background that isn't well suited to playing an elf ranger or a dwarf miner or a great paladin.  We would be much better to suited to play some hero from our own type of world. Still we can rise to the occasion if we take just a few simple things into consideration. A character has limited experiences.   In our modern world of technology people are exposed through print, broadcast, and other types of media so we can have a general idea of life throughout the world.  We can define normal by the media, and a large number of people can have very similar ideas. In the fantasy worlds we play in, media is limited, and in some places, nonexistent.  The definition of normal is limited to what our characters know -- perhaps locally, perhaps only in their own household.  The only religion they may know and understand is that of the local temple. ...

Some things to look into, if you're playing a pathfinder cleric healer: Selective Channeling Feat to block enemies from getting healed. Contingent Channeling to heal your allies before they get injured, perhaps in advance of a fight. I have always thought clerics are awesome, and with these feats, doubly so.