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Tag: role-playing games

“What Just Happened” — DnD5e Campaign Summary

Published by MichelV69 on November 30, 2017

Post Views: 1,725 Last Sunday was Session 15 in our Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition campaign. I’m the “Dungeon Master”, and the players are my 20-year-old son and his chums. They were looking for an immersive “old school” campaign experience, so that’s what I am trying to deliver for them. I started out playing D&D in 1982, in heady, role-play rich games that were infused with the influences of Tolkien, Moorcock and Zelazny. Saving the world in these games happened in dark crypts, storm-shattered battlefields, and crystal-lit ballrooms. Characters had to be able to “do battle” both physically, mentally and politically, lest opposing forces of Evil undo their Good works. Evil Tyrants and their Dark Masters mercilessly tried to exploit the weaknesses and Achilles’ Heels of the characters;…

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D&D5e – Thoughts On Balancing Encounters

Published by MichelV69 on August 24, 2017

Post Views: 836 In a recent video, prominent YouTuber and Dungeon Mastering evangelist Matt Colville (Twitter: @mattcolville) suggested that new Dungeon Masters should likely not use the DnD5e “Challenge Rating”, or CR, system as it was designed. The video is here: https://youtu.be/xANZTijbrw8 I like Matt Colville’s video series, titled “Running the Game“, an awful lot. He has some smart insights. In many cases, he is articulating stuff I have always done, or have had tumbling in the back of my head but do not have words for. In some other cases, though, he says something I Spock-Eye at him about. My take-away from this particular video was that he suggested Dungeon Masters use the “Challenge Rating”, or CR, system as a guideline to find a group of likely monsters to…

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Table Top Character Gaming – IRPG, or Slasher Movie?

Published by MichelV69 on April 3, 2017

Post Views: 600 When you are setting up a table-top game of any kind, as the Referee and /or Story Teller, you have a lot of design decisions to make. Tone, of course, is also important. So are setting and plot. These all define the very experience that the players are going to have. However, one of those qualities that tend to get missed is the level of emotional investment that the players should have in their characters. Some Table Top Character Gaming systems (TTCGs) are incredibly casual about character death. RECON, I’m looking at you. Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0, don’t think I can’t see you over there, either. When the guns start firing, characters start dying. Some will kill your character in the process of -making- your character; Traveller “Black Book”,…

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Thoughts on RP – The “Numerology” of Role-Play

Published by MichelV69 on January 23, 2015

Post Views: 1,112 Thoughts on RP Over a few(!) years of role-playing in World of Warcraft, plus a slew of other games both massively multi-player online and table-top, I’ve seen a lot of examples of “done well” and “could have done better”. I’ve certainly developed preferences for things that make for what I consider “good RP”, and I’ve been told a few times that I’m fun to RP with. So, I thought I’d share some of those thoughts with you on the odd chance you find them useful. In my previous post on this subject, I talked about “RP Dice Battles” in MMO gaming with a focus on World Of Warcraft. In this post, I’m going to talk about one possible reason why some people find their RP…

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Thoughts on Role-Play: RP Dice Battles

Published by MichelV69 on January 16, 2015

Post Views: 483 Thoughts on RP Over a few(!) years of RP in World of Warcraft, plus other games both MMO and table-top, I’ve seen a lot of examples of “done well” and “could have done better”. I’ve certainly developed preferences for things that make for what I consider “good RP”, and I’ve been told a few times that I’m fun to RP with. So, I thought I’d share some of those thoughts with you on the odd chance you find them useful. RP Dice Battles Conflict is the core of exciting RP. At some point, when the happy tank runs dry and a table gets flipped, things get interesting for everyone present. One of the easiest ways to resolve conflict of any kind — be it physical,…

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Game System Review – Storium

Published by MichelV69 on September 9, 2014

Post Views: 744 What’s This About Storium? Good question, and I’m afraid the answer isn’t too terribly short. If you are used to “play by email” (PBEM) role-playing games (RPGs), or are used to doing collaborative writing with one or two other authors, then Storium will be very familiar. On the other hand, if you are used to Collectable Card Game systems (CCGs) where you have cards with abilities that you play to defeat and / or neutralize an opponent, then Storium will also feel a bit familiar. The problem is that’s its sort of both of those things at once, but not really either of them. There is a Narrator, who is sort of — but not really — the “Game Master” for those familiar with RPGs.…

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The value of taking tea in story writing and RPGs

Published by MichelV69 on August 1, 2012

Post Views: 388 A reader emailed me after the initial release of “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name” and commented that one of the things she enjoyed so much about the book was that “the camera” followed the characters even into their “quiet time”. Little amusing jabbs between the characters about how they took their coffee, how they conducted their private lives and implied whistfulness at “roads not taken”. This style of exposition was inspired by two individuals I respect in their given fields, Scott Westerfeld and Nicholas Jequier. At a meet-the-author evening in Vancouver, BC,  with Scott Westerfeld of “Uglies” and “Leviathan” fame, he commented that most of the fan art he received for either set of characters had nothing to do with scenes in the books…

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