Blue Moon Aurora

Michelle and the kids’ first party ended up being slaughtered as Anton’s elf demanded to keep moving into the dungeon despite injuries across the party and being cut off from the entrance by skeletons.  Eventually, even Anton realized they were in trouble and a desperate battle to fight their way out led to everyone’s demise.  So that was the end of the first party as they bled to death on the dungeon floor – this is the stuff that makes D&D, well, D&D. 

So everyone drew up new characters with the goal being to take up where the last party had left off.  Michelle created Zinnia a halfling fighter/rogue, Alina created Xanaphia Lilen a cleric of Mystra, and Anton drew up Quarigon Saltyweed the elven fighter/mage.  As can be seen, Alina and Anton stuck with the same races and classes as their last character though they did change names and Alina changed faiths to Mystra the Goddess of Magic.  Anton has also decided that Quarigon wants to restore the ancient elven kingdom of Earlann under his rule – that’s a campaign goal!  Alina couldn’t come up with any goals and Zinnia just wants to get lots of money so she can help support her large clan of halflings.  Clearly, it’s going to be Quarigon who drives this campaign. 

We started the adventure at the Smiling Satyr, an inn outside of Loudwater, where they were hired by Lily Morgan to figure out what happened to the last group and clear out the dungeon.  Quarigon decides to hold a banquet for the new party and Lily Morgan and spends his gold freely to make friends and put himself in charge.  After some banter the party is off to return to the dungeon!!! 

I’ll be honest; this is a pretty classic D&D scenario where a new party takes up where the dead old party died.  It’s hackneyed and a little freaky, usually, I avoid it but Anton was determined to succeed and beat this dungeon.  The problem is parsing out metagame knowledge.  They already know the layout of much of the dungeon, how many skeletons were left, and stuff like this – this is all metagame knowledge because they as players know this but their characters do not.  This is like the fact that you may know the formula for gunpowder or how to sail a boat but your character doesn’t and to bring in your metagame knowledge runs against the idea of roleplaying a different character.  Of course, usually your characters know a lot of stuff you don’t like how to cast spells so it all balances out, but the rule is that metagame knowledge is to be kept out of the game.  We explained this to the kids and they made a good faith effort – but sometimes it’s also good to toss in a wrench or two. 

Interestingly, last time Anton’s elf Elrune was in charge of mapping but he was very clearly that there was no ‘map’ as all the information was in Elrune’s head.  Needless to say when the party all died, Anton saw the error in his ways.  This time however, Alina is mapping and Xanaphia definitely has a physical map she is working on. 

So the party come in and starts fighting the skeletons and find they are facing three more than there should be and Anton says I made a mistake.  Never, ever, tell the DM he made a mistake.  A DM is effectively God, and I mean Old Testament God – so one should be very careful, you know avert your eyes, pay for their share of the pizza, and never, ever say they made a mistake unless you want to end up a pillar of salt or something.  However, I hadn’t made a mistake and actually anticipated his response, so I described the three skeletons in more details as two decomposing elves and a human and gave details on their clothing and weapons.  Then realization and horror hits the kids’ faces as they realize they are fighting their previous characters that had been animated by the evil of the tomb.  Of course, after defeating them they acted in traditional D&D form and looted the bodies of gear before burying them outside the dungeon.  The rule is D&D is pretty straightforward – you kill things and take their stuff. 

This time Anton was determined to not fight unless fully healed so Quarigon decides that the party will fight a battle and then retreat to the surface for food and rest.  They basically do an hour of work a day cleaning out this dungeon.  Inch by inch, day by day, the party sacks the dungeon.  A dungeon that was intended to take maybe 3 days to clear out has now taken nearly a month when you combine the time the two parties spend here.  Needless to say Lily Morgan’s field isn’t getting planted.  Quarigon also has a large iron mallet this time for knocking through doors and walls so the party may be moving slow but they are smashing their way through the dungeon.

Xanaphia is a dedicated cleric and starts grumbling about Quarigon’s lack of faith to Mystra, which is shown by the fact that she keeps rolling very low for healing spells on him.  He grumbles as well until after the third time he is knocked unconscious and needs healing, at this point he starts being a lot more positive towards Mystra.  Amazingly, he starts getting more hit points from healing as Xanaphia starts rolling better for healing him. 

As classic moment is when Zinnia starts panicking after failing to open a lock, citing what her master said ‘to always stay calm and be quiet’.  Zinnia starts repeating that mantra in a louder and more panicked voice till Xanaphia and Quarigon yell at her to be quiet and calm down.  Then Quarigon says his master always told him ‘to take your time to find the proper way to do things’.  Xanaphia then quips that her master told her ‘to never give up’.  Then they all start quarreling what to do about the door as apparently their master’s advice conflicted over whether to smash it down or find some way to pick to lock.   Zinnia hits upon a new strategy – she says what she wants to do (smash the door) and then sits down and doesn’t move until everyone agrees with her.  Amazingly it works, though not till after Quarigon has exhausted every option he can think of.

Eventually, they have cleared the dungeon and slain the entombed ghouls and seized the treasure!  Zinnia begins cataloguing the treasure with giddy excitement, but Quarigon just knows there is more to the dungeon and decides he will spend several days going over the whole thing again.  He keeps asking to check for secret doors and I keep rolling behind my screen and telling him he doesn’t find anything.  In truth there aren’t any secret doors but he assumes that if I roll then there has to be something.  See that’s metagame knowledge slipping in and Quarigon is determined to find another fight and more treasure – even if there isn’t any.   

Xanaphia decides to stay with him as Zinnia heads to town to sell the treasure for gold to make it easier to divide up.  Well Quarigon finds giant rat holes and digs it out looking for an encounter with something…so I decide they find caves.  They climb down and begin searching and then Quarigon separates from Xanaphia as they go two separate directions.  I was very disappointed – every six year old knows you don’t divide the party!

Soon they find giant rats…lots of giant rats.  Xanaphia fights off her group of rats but Quarigon is eaten alive by his rats and falls dead.  Xanaphia decides to flee and leaves Quarigon’s body to the rats as they are devouring him in front of her eyes.  She runs to town to tell Zinnia that Quarigon is dead and let’s slip, “and now we have more treasure for us!”  The whole incident traumatized Anton who couldn’t believe he had died and that Alina would gloat over his death.  The irony is that before the adventure Anton was asking if he could kill the rest of the party and take the treasure for himself.  What comes around goes around, especially, in D&D. 

Michelle though decided to play nice and Zinnia announces that she will look into raising him from the dead with his share of the treasure. 

The next adventure was short and just dealt with the resurrection of Quarigon.  Of course, things didn’t go as expected and Anton failed his resurrection check and the High Priestess of Chauntea had to go with Plan B: reincarnation.  On the table the odds of ending up with a playable race, like elf, instead of an unplayable race, like badgers, isn’t great but Anton got lucky and ended up human.  I mention he can come back as either male or female and I suspect he wanted to see if I would really let him get away with it he said female.  So we ended up with Quarigon reborn as Lillia Samvori the human mage.  She decided that for their next adventure the party would travel to a big city to sell off some of the treasure they couldn’t unload in Loudwater so it’s off to Waterdeep.

There is something about D&D - it is wickedly fun.  We did our first family D&D adventure.  It was 2nd Edition and set in the Forgotten Realms, which is how everyone should begin.  For the uninitiated, Dungeons & Dragons is pretty simply: you run a character through challenges in a fantasy world.  You fight monsters, you avoid traps, and use your imagination to succeed…or die horribly.  The basic point of D&D is to “kill things and take their stuff” – horrible, huh?

There were three members of the party.  Michelle was playing Lorena, a timid fighter.  Anton was playing Elrune, a confident and insightful elven fighter/mage. Alina was playing Arwena, a cleric of Chauntea (goddess of agriculture, plants, and animals).  For the most part the kids had created their characters themselves and before we started Michelle and I provided them a basic explanation with how things work in the game. Then we got into the adventure.  

 Character sheets, dice, miniatures, and a GM's screen - must be time to roleplay!

The set up was simple.  Lorena, Elrune, and Arwena had been hired by Lily Morgan, a farmer, to investigate the entrance to ruins discovered by her son when he was plowing a field.  The group asked Lily some questions and then it was off to the dungeon for daring adventure.  Here are some classic moments:

Arwena grilling Lily Morgan about whether she had any dreams about the ruins her son discovered.  Alina was obsessed about whether anyone had dreams about the dungeons.  

Elrune figuring out just from the description of a room that a depression on the ground was actually an ancient pit trap.  Anton was obsessed with finding secret doors and was in perfect form for a D&D adventure.  

Lorena being oblivious while the half-elf and elf discovered secret doors and the like.  Michelle just couldn’t make a perception check for the life of her.  

Elrune shattering his staff when trying to use it to pry open a door.  Anton was stunned and went into a mock tirade.

Arwena doing prayers to Chauntea before turning undead or casting a spell or clasping her hands in prayer to her goddess before making important dice rolls.  Alina was so nervous about saying the prayers ‘right’ but she gave a good effort – I think Chauntea is proud of her newest cleric. The one time she didn’t give her prayer was the one time she failed to turn the undead – very auspicious.  Also, when she was tasked with holding back some skeletons that she had turned so that the other 2 members of the group could go past, Alina sat at the table holding her hand in the air to mimic the action of her character. It was very cute.

Nothing is better than giant spiders, giant rats, and skeletons for combat at 1st level!  

Elrune obsessing over the ‘decoy’ sarcophagus.  Anton became certain he knew something and he was dogged in chasing down the red herring I tossed in the adventure.

Everyone was in classic D&D form: desperately looking for treasure and no one wanted to be in front – though Lorena kept timidly agreeing to lead the group in, being the token fighter and having all of 12 hit points (as compared to 8 and 7 hit points of the other 2; ah, first level!).  

The big battle at the end of the first session on Saturday was the three party members against five skeletons.  Lorena had advised the party to leave the dungeon and rest a day to recover spells and heal, but Elrune would not stop what he had begun.  So when Arwena failed to turn back the skeletons with her holy power it was the battle of a lifetime.  Arwena was knocked unconscious and then Elrune was too, leaving Lorena to narrowly defeat the last skeleton.  Two were down.  One was standing.  Escape from the dungeon was impossible as another group of skeletons stood between the party and the exit.  What was Lorena to do? Well you just have to wait till next week to find out.  

The kids had a blast and Michelle even admitted that it was the most fun she had gaming in a group for awhile.  The fact that Elrune was 117 years old, Arwena was the tallest, and Lorena was the youngest amused the kids.  For once they were the biggest and oldest in the room.

2010 will mark the beginning of a new era – roleplaying campaigns with the kids!  

I did run A Faery’s Tale adventure with Michelle and the kids over a year ago that went fine enough; however, it was simply too much work – mainly in herding the kids.  They loved it and have been clamoring for another session but Michelle and I have been dreading the prospect.  Fortunately, things have improved.  The kids are more together than ever and with our weekends mostly cleared things are more relaxed.  We have been doing a family game or movie every weekend and can shift this to a roleplaying campaign.  Anton will soon be 11 and Alina turns 9 this year and these are good ages to start the hobby.  

So this week will have a series of blogs as I prepare for our first family campaign that begins this Sunday.  Today's blog deals with picking an RPG and deciding upon a scope for the campaign.

There were really only five RPGs I seriously considered: A Faery’s Tale, D6 Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragons, Mouse Guard, and Robotech RPG.  

A Faery’s Tale has the players assume the role of fairies set in a world like the one where all fairy tales are set.  This is a very kid-friendly RPG.  I approached my consideration of what RPG to use on the assumption that A Faery's Tale was the default and standard.  

D6 Star Wars is one of my favorite RPGs to ease new players into roleplaying.  Michelle and I are experts with this RPG and the kids are fans of the Star Wars universe.  However, Michelle is worried about the violence levels in a typical Star Wars adventure and that Anton might just try to join the Dark Side right off the bat regardless of the story.  I don't know about those concerns, but the kids would definitely approach a Star Wars RPG with expectations and expectations are always dangerous.

When it comes to violence Dungeons & Dragons is king so Michelle would definitely nix this option, but there is something magical about D&D and its goofy genocidal violence.  D&D is all about good versus evil, killing things and taking their stuff, and gaining wealth and power.  There is no more American game than D&D.  However, I didn't mention I was considering D&D to Michelle as I knew she would nix it so we're going to put this to the side and revisit it after our first campaign ends. 

Mouse Guard won last year’s Origins Awards for Best RPG and I bought it and found it refreshing.  You basically play mice that have a medieval-style society beset by other savage animals.  There are no humans in the world just animals and the mice have to face off against weasels, snakes, and also fight treachery within their own kind.  It is based on a graphic novel series and is similar to the whole genre of intelligent speaking animal fiction.  The system is good, but it’s not one I have used before so I would need to reread the rules in detail.  That more than anything has compelled me to table this RPG till further down the road.  This will probably be our next campaign if the first one goes well.  

Robotech is an RPG I don’t have, but I know the rules as it uses a system from other RPGs I own.  It is based on the anime series Robotech, which the kids have seen and love.  It is about pilots of giant transformable robots who fight off alien invasions.  Violence aplenty, but the kids know the series, plus I could use a military hierarchy of the Robotech Defense Force.  Michelle would command their unit and would have Anton and Alina as her soldiers.  The big problem is the system – which is complicated and would probably confuse the kids.  I’m probably buying the RPG next month but it may be awhile till the kids can handle this RPG.  

Fairies!  Why did it have to be fairies!

So at the end of the day - I end where I began with A Faery's Tale.  That brings up the question of scope.  Well I think four-adventures is a good plan and with A Faery's Tale the style is to incorporate a fairy tale into the adventure with twists.  I did Little Red Riding Hood for our first adventure but this time I am going to move a little way out of fairy tales and use King Arthur.  So a four adventure campaign that weaves fairies into a King Arthur story that makes the fairies the heroes.  That's the idea and tomorrow I'll discuss how I develop this idea further and move closer to Sunday's first adventure. 

Michelle sent me an interesting little news clip about World of Warcraft and its scope, both as a company and as a mechanism for roleplaying.  It?s fascinating and shows the sheer immensity offered by MMORPGs and it raises the question: how can tabletop GMs compete with this?  Sure companies like WotC and Paizo can fight over the crumbs that constitute the tabletop RPG market, but World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs are the principle competitors for every GM out there who wants to run a campaign.  How can we hope to compete with 40,000 NPCs and over 7500 quests? 

Obviously we can?t beat MMORPGs in quantity; you don?t have 4000 people to help you design your adventures and campaigns.  We might or might not be able to beat them in quality, honestly, this isn?t a given and in a lot of cases our adventures and encounters aren?t as good as MMORPGs. Most of us can provide a visual aid in the form of cheap miniatures or a hand drawn map, but that is really rather pathetic compared to the competition.  This is a lopsided fight so we have to be innovative and here are five tips for us tabletop GMs to even the odds with MMORPGs:

#5. Provide food.  Video games might have virtual meals that restore hit points, but you can provide genuine sustenance to your players to keep them alive in the real world.  

#4. Get off the tracks.  Video games are tracked, even the most expansive ones, but a tabletop campaign is only limited by the imagination of the GM.  

#3. Read the audience.  Video games can be well scripted, brilliantly so, but the tabletop GM can counter this by reading his group and adjusting the game on the fly.  

#2. Fudge.  Video games are all about the numbers, but with tabletop the GM can ignore the damn numbers to change an outcome to improve the game.  

#1. Keep it unique.  Unlike MMORPGs your campaign is unique, well unless you run published adventures, but the uniqueness is what really separates tabletop from MMORPGs.  

This is the challenge of our generation of tabletop GMs ? how do we compete against MMORPGs?  Sure I?m being a little humorous about it, but this is a real issue.  I?ve lost players to MMORPGs and so has every GM.  So to fight this rising tide of digital competition to our campaigns and groups ? what other suggestions do you have?

As one would guess from the lack of activity – I’ve been busy. Partly the kids being back in school and partly a very aggressive roleplaying blitz. I’ve restarted my famous West Pacific Supers play-by-post campaign and have seven players living it up as celebrity superheroes. I’m also starting in October a weekly chat-based Pathfinder campaign on Wednesday nights from 8 to 10 pm, if interested post so here. I already have two players and a few tentative players so should have enough to make it work. Autumn is always a time of new beginnings, mainly due to how the US school year is organized, but it has rejuvenated me to launch these campaigns, which should go well into 2010. 2010…wow, time is flying.  

The website will be getting a few more adventure outlines from a competition wrapping up on the forums Monday and there are some new maps, with more on the way in coming weeks. From book to roleplaying the website is sort of in a standby mode, but the wiki is booming, mainly due to Michelle, though we may close some sections off to wiki members. Still debating that issue.  

Yes, lots in politics and movies to ramble about, but haven't had much time to focus on a specific issue.  Maybe next week, we'll see.  

Also still haven't run Faery's Tale adventure with kids, sort of dreading it a little, but will force myself to do it this weekend if we have time. 

I haven't played D&D in years, but I just got the Pathfinder RPG rules and it has put me in the mood to start up a new campaign.  However, before starting a campaign you need a campaign setting - which is the imaginary world where the campaign will take place.  Now Pathfinder has its Golarion setting and there are other published settings like the Forgotten Realms, but I have always been a fan of creating my own campaign settings.  I could use one of my old settings like Nor-Kaeda, but I think it is time to create an entirely new setting that incorporates some of the lessons I have learned over the years in designing settings.  Hopefully, I'll be blogging about this more as I progress, but before anyone tries designing a campaign setting they need to ask themselves the following questions:  

1. What is the flavor and style of your campaign? If you are trying for something akin to Arabian Nights then you need to avoid borrowing too heavily from Lord of the Rings.  Many published settings are 'kitchen sink' settings as they cover a lot of different flavors and styles, but for your own setting it is best to keep in mind what you want and try to hit that as closely as possible.  Related to this is the sophistication of the setting's societies from technology to gender/racial relations to forms of government.  For example, Conan the Barbarian has a very different feel than Harry Potter and a lot of it flows from the differences in the two respective societies.  
2. What is the scope of the campaign? Will your PCs be traversing the globe or will they be operating in a small geographic locations?  The common advice for beginning GMs is to begin local and slowly go global as the campaign progresses.  I think this is good advice, though my approach is pretty much the reverse, but that's because I have done this lots of times before. Scope also equal work.  The bigger the scope the more work you will have when you design the setting so be mindful of your time limits and don't bite off more than you can chew. 
3. What are the conflicts and challenges in the world? You need conflicts and you need challenges for the PCs to overcome.  An utopian world doesn't work - it's boring and dreary, but on the other hand a bleak world of constant terror and hopelessness is just as bad in the other direction.  You need a balance, but err on the side of more bad guys as you always want plenty of challening opposition for your PCs.  The heroism of your PCs is determined by the challenges they face, always keep that in mind.  Also note that conflict comes in many forms besides combat/war, religious tensions, economic disputes, scarcity of resources, racial emnity, and political struggles are all great conflicts - in many ways moral is always more engaging than martial.  
4. What are the stories and goals available to the PCs? Let me be blunt - can your PCs change the world? If the answer is yes then the next question is how much can they change the world? However, to answer this you need to know what place the PCs can hold in the world.  Can PCs be nobles? Must they be heroes or can they be villains? Are they supposed to serve the king or are they supposed to become the king? A setting only works if it can produce adventures, lots of adventures, so by this stage of the thought process you should be able to come up with a dozen adventures easily.  If you can't do that then there is a problem with the setting. 
5. What are your sources? Listen, there is little original work in the world, everything is a remake or inspired by something else.  Use the sources that are out there from published settings to books to history.  If you wan an exotic culture in your setting then pop open an anthropology book, because there is nothing weirder than reality.  Truth is indeed stranger than fiction and look to the real world for inspiration.  

That is enough for now, but I'll probably blog some more as I move through this process. 

The process of writing a novel has slowed down my play-by-post campaigns and updates to the website the last two months, but I did finally replace the old campaign wiki with a more usable version from wikispaces.  This should be infinitely more usable for the members of the community to record information for their campaigns and characters.  Beyond this I've only did some fiddling here and there on the website, but nothing too significant. 

So what's the plan for the rest of the year?

In September we will have another Adventure Synopsis competition on the forums and we'll also be rebooting the Directed Discussions, but extending them to three week discussions.  I'm also going to start really pushing to expand the membership of the forums to build up a little more mass for more roleplaying opportunities.

In October there will be the second annual Blue Moon Awards and also Aurora Con. 

In November I will probably be trying to move some campaigns to conclusion before the December/January hiatus.  I intend to wrap up most duets and West Pacific Supers, but will keep Rifts going into 2010.  We'll also have another Adventure Synopsis competition, the last for the year. 

As usual things will die down around December/January, but I'm already thinking about my campaigns for 2010.  Here is the list I am currently kicking around and as some of them will require a few months to set up I am tossing them out for feedback now:

Apotheosis

I have learned a lot with my divine duets.  I actually think this is a very cool idea, but I need to tweak the rules and the setting.  However, I do intend on running a revised version of the campaign in 2010. The PCs will be more powerful and things will be a lot clearer about the setting and the rules.  I might keep this in duet format as that has worked very well. 

Mouse Guard

This will be a one-shot campaign to run for a few months. The PCs will play mice with sword defending the Mouse Territories.  It's a fun RPG and actually a good fit for play-by-post.  If there isn't enough interest at Blue MoonAurora I will probably run it off-site. 

Nesyr Crusades

My big campaign next year will be the Nesyr Crusades, which will use the Pathfinder RPG rules. It will be my first real fantasy campaign by play-by-post and reallymy first real fantasy campaign in years. I can guarantee the awesome and there will probably be chat sessions forthis campaign to keep things moving. This will be my cornerstone campaign for 2010, well, if I have playersfor it.

Rifts

I intend to keep my current Rifts campaign running into 2010.  Have lots of ideas and it's a fun group of PCs, well, as long as they survive the Demon of Canal Town.   

Super League

I am working on the idea of running a campaign where players run the team presidentsand manage superhero teams.  They willrecruit their superheroes make their picks at the Super Draft and navigate a host of challenges during the Season on their way to dominating, or not, their Conference.  I have most of the mechanics already worked out and this will be my West Pacific Supers campaign for 2010.  It should be a lot of fun and anice twist on the setting. 

To Boldly Go...

I intend to keep running this ICON Star Trek campaign on Crazy Monkey's Asylum for acomplete run of six adventures (nearly finished with the first one), which willprobably take most of 2010 to complete. 

Thoughts and feedback are welcome, but that is the plan for fall and my 2010campaigns. 

There are two common pieces of advice for success with writing: write what you know and just write. Michelle and I have finished our first draft of a 99,000 word novel and we did it in about a month and a half. We split the writing and worked together on the story and that helped motivate us to keep pushing through. We plan on revising and improving it for the rest of August and then send it off to a few friends and family for feedback. Who knows what will come of it, but it was a lot of fun and we?ll give it a year or so to try to get it published before we publish it ourselves or something. We?ve already started mapping out a sequel as we enjoyed writing the first novel so much. I?m not going to give specific information about the novel, but will blog here as things progress.  

On another front, this Monday my first in a monthly series of columns will be popping up on RPGNet. The columns will be about duet roleplaying, one player and one GM, and I?ve even got a discussion forum over on RPGNet to support the columns when they go live. I have the first three columns written so am covered for August, September, and October. I?m planning on in September working on the next three columns. The first three deal with the basics of duet campaigns, how to balance things for only having a single PC, and how to create duet side adventures for a group campaign. Good stuff, but if you have any suggestions for future articles you say so in the comments.  

I?ve also ended my D6 Star Wars PBP campaign on the WotC forums to focus on my campaigns on Blue Moon Aurora and Crazy Monkey?s Asylum and after the craziness of August will kick those campaigns into gear in September. Added to this will be the family Faery?s Tale campaign which will start in earnest this Sunday, once again look to this blog for updates on that experiment in roleplaying. I may also be returning to fantasy in September maybe with a Pathfinder RPG PBP on the Blue Moon Aurora forums.  

Life is good and I?ve been feeling really productive and focused of late, and I intend to write, write, write for the rest of the year to end 2009 on a high note. 

Sunday night during dinner I drew up the kids and Michelle’s characters for our Faery’s Tale campaign by asking them questions. In the next few days they have to come up with a name and draw a picture of their fairy, but here is the mechanical information thus far: 

Alina is playing a pixie with the gifts of acrobat, agile, flying, musical, and pixie dust. Her attributes are Body 2, Mind 2, and Spirit 5.  

Anton is playing a brownie with the gifts of clever, hardy, household magic, invisibility, and seer. His attributes are Body 2, Mind 3, and Spirit 4. 

Michelle is playing a sprite with the gifts of alert, animal companion (dragonfly), champion, and whirlwind strike. Her attributes are Body 5, Mind 3, and Spirit 1.  

So the plan is for the kids and Michelle to come up with names and a picture and I will start off the campaign this Sunday with the first adventure. Thus I need to come up with a setting and probably draw up a map, both of which I’ll post here to show the process of running a campaign.  If I'm so inclined I may scan in the pictures everyone draws to put up in a blog.  

The stars are in alignment. Alina has not only turned 8, but she has gotten herself more under control in the last year. Anton at 10 has become quite insightful and is far less quarrelsome. In other words; the kids are growing up and now is a good time to introduce them to roleplaying. Even more importantly, Michelle and I are in a pretty good place with the kids, we have started family therapy, which has been working wonderfully and has helped get us all back on track in many ways. In other words, the stars are in alignment and it’s time for a roleplaying campaign. 

Last year we tried an adventure with Faery’s Tale, a family RPG where the players run faeries, and it went very well, but we felt the kids weren’t quite ready for roleplaying at that time. I recently bought the Mouse Guard RPG, which is mice with swords, and it is another option, but I am leaning towards Faery’s Tale as the rules are a little simpler. Both RPGs are very impressive and quite sophisticated in design and really fantastic introductions to roleplaying, because they are quite a bit better than most RPGs out there.  

My current play is to run the adventures either Saturday or Sunday afternoons and to run a 3-5 adventure campaign with Michelle and the kids all playing. That does make it challenging as the adventure has to be entertaining to both the kids and Michelle, which is pretty challenging. However, it is an interesting challenge, and it’s important for the kids to have Michelle to provide an example on how to both roleplay and to play in a group context. It is important to start the kids off right in how to approach roleplaying. I want them to learn how to roleplay, how to work as a team, and how to engage in critical thinking.  

It is very exciting. Roleplaying is awesome and it is our favorite activity and hobby.  I also feel this need to get back into the swing with more tabletop roleplayinig and less play-by-post. 

Almost all roleplaying games follow the structure that was set up by Dungeons & Dragons, and while some game designers have tried to move beyond this, the fact remains that we are still using a paradigm created 35 years ago.  I am still undecided if this is a good thing or not, but that is a topic for a much later blog.  

Tabletop roleplaying takes place on a…table!  The players gather around the table with dice, paper, and pen/pencil – this is also why tabletop roleplaying is often called pen & paper roleplaying as well. In all honesty, I have played about as many games on the floor as a table, but floor roleplaying doesn't have the same ring.  

There are two types of players in a RPG.  The first is the Narrator (also called Dungeon Master, Game Master, Storyteller, and so forth depending upon the specific RPG) who is responsible for creating the setting, story, challenges, and running all the characters and elements of the world.  The second are simply called players and they are the ones who run the heroes (typically called player characters or PCs in most RPGs).  

The relationship between Narrator and players is complicated, in fact, it can be very complicated depending upon the situation.  However, I believe that while the game ‘belongs’ to the Narrator it is best when the process is closer to cooperative storytelling than anything else.  This is hard to explain, but I will give it a shot a little bit further down.  

Now the Narrator often has a small screen in front of her so she can hide her notes and also hide her die rolls from the other players.  This allows the Narrator to ‘fudge’ die rolls if necessary.  This is all controversial to some roleplayers, but I think the need to ‘fudge’ is a necessity of the Narrator to keep things moving and engaging.  Once again complicated issue, but just know that the Narrator basically has the ability to do whatever is necessary in the interest of making the game more ‘fun’.  

Now every roleplaying game uses a rules set and a setting.  

The rules set is a collection of instructions on how to assign numbers and probabilities to actions as well as a system of dice rolls to determine the outcome of the action.  To give an example, the Narrator consults the rules and figures than to jump over a chasm the PCs will need to roll a 15 or else fall to their deaths.  One PC has a 2d10+4 jumping ability, which means an average roll of 15 so this PC has a 50/50 chance of succeeding.  Another PC has 2d10+10 jumping ability, which means an average of 21 so this PC has pretty decent odds of making the jump.  A third PC has 2d10-1 jumping ability, which means an average of 10 so this PC needs to be very lucky to make the jump.  

The rules are there for two purposes: 1) to add in the unexpected, 2) to allow PCs to be able to predict whether their actions will succeed or not.  So with our jumping example, we don’t know till the final roll if a PC succeeds or not – it is possible that the second PC with 2d10+10 could roll very poorly and fail and fall to her death!  However, just like in real life where we have an idea of our physical limits so do players know that the limits of their PCs.  I mean the third PC with the 2d10-1 jumping ability knows that it’s just not likely the PC can make the jump – so another option will have to be found to cross the chasm.  

The setting is where the story takes place.  Settings have rules of their own, but they are there to provide scope and context.  For example, a game taking place in ancient Rome isn’t going to involve giant robots and lasers…okay not usually, it can happen, but not likely.  The information on a setting helps the players roleplay their PCs.   Knowing whether there is magic, demons, strange cultural traditions, and so forth helps the players get into character and keep their PCs actions appropriate to the setting.  

Okay, I know this is a lot of information for the uninitiated and excruciatingly boring for those who actually roleplay, but let’s push on a little.  

Character creation is the process where a player draws up, creates, her PC.  Depending upon the RPG this could involve dice rolls or just decisions, but it is also possible the Narrator just hands the player a PC to run.  Personally, I think character creation, at least with a good system, should be fun and engaging, though most of the current generation of RPGs has lost its way with character creation putting numbers over flavor, but that is a discussion for later.

Now the Narrator has explained the rules set and setting, the players have gone through character creation and have their PCs, the Screen is up, everyone has their dice, paper, pen/pencils, and we are ready to rock and roll!  The Narrator has an adventure which he will run the players through.  The time you play is called a session, and an adventure may last one or multiple sessions, and a string of adventures is called a campaign.

Now the actual adventure can go in two broad ways: linear or nonlinear.  Linear adventures are fairly straightforward and are like most movies – you have a problem to solve it and there is a fairly clear path towards the solution.  Nonlinear adventures (also called open-ended or sandbox adventures) are far more organic and complex, actually, they can also be a lot simpler and it really depends upon the ability of the Narrator and players.   

An adventure, whether linear or nonlinear, begins with the Narrator describing the scene and then things unfold as the PCs act in the world.  However, this is not like movies or books, things go in unexpected ways, because the PCs control the story.  They might not want to save the princess instead they may want to get revenge on the guard captain who is giving them such grief in town.  This freedom is the powerful appeal of roleplaying and also brings home its cooperative storytelling elements.  The Narrator may control the world, but she doesn’t control the story – that is something that is controlled by both the Players and the Narrator.  

It is hard to explain and even examples don’t do the process justice.  Roleplaying is very different from reading a book or watching a movie, which are enjoyable pastimes, but are intellectually very passive.  It also isn’t like writing a book, because it is more fluid and dynamic in how it works and an adventure unfolds.  Sure there is acting, but really, the acting is second to problem solving, which is what really everyone enjoys most.

I haven’t done an epic roleplaying campaign in many years.  This is something I realized the other day; sure a lot of my campaigns are big in scope, but none have been truly epic for quite some time.  Now my epic I don’t mean high-level, no I mean that the stakes are tremendously high and that the story and action takes place at the edge of the player’s imagination.  I recently watched the Macross Saga of Robotech and it is a centered story about the crew and passengers of a warship, but the scale is epic.  It involves the fate of Earth, giant enemies, and fleets of millions of ships.  It has the ‘wow’ factor.  I really feel like this is something lacking from my campaigns.

Probably a major reason for a lack of ‘wow’ factor in my campaigns is that it is easy to overdo epic and get lost in the scope of a campaign.  You have to be able to keep the story around the PCs centered while putting that story in an epic context.  That is hard and I have messed up more often than not in that dynamic, in fact, I don’t know if I have ever seen an epic campaign truly done properly by myself or any other GM.  Sure some of us come close and some of us have epic moments, but the execution of an epic campaign is hard.  It’s not power, in fact, this is a common mistake of many GMs to think that epic equals power, most game designers fall into that same trap, but it is more than this.  Epic is simply being able to dance on the edge of the player’s imagination.  However, this is a dangerous place to dance, because it is easy to fall off.  Still epic moments are what define the best adventures and campaigns.  It is the moment when the players’ heart beat increase, their hand sweat, and when it is over a wave of euphoria sweeps them as the moment was simply beyond cool.  Anyone who has been gaming for awhile has had these moments – but they are few by far between and a campaign with several of them is mostly unheard of.  Now don’t get me wrong, most campaigns have lots of entertaining moments, but these are the same as epic moments.  

The problem is how to make something epic? I’m not sure.  It is scope.  It is impact.  It is also empowering the players to influence this epic story.  Many GMs railroad PCs to epic stories, which cheapen them, but truly letting your players try to find the way themselves makes it unlikely to ever happen.  It’s the Catch-22 of these sorts of campaigns.  

The truth is that for a truly epic campaign you need a GM who has the mind and imagination to create a world at the edge of the players’ imaginations.  You also need players who have the drive and ability to not only roleplay well, but to take the world by the horns and dance at the edge of their imagination.  That is an incredibly hard combination to hit.  I’m a good GM, but in many ways I am very limited as a GM.  Epic is one of those limitations.  One of my goals this year is to hit an epic moment or two in my campaigns, but logistics of that is tricky.  We’ll see, but I think it is the dream of every GM to have that perfect, epic moment in their campaigns and so few of use will ever have that happen.  

Then again, that is why epic is such a big deal, because it is such a hard thing to pull off.

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) was published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) and was created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, who have both passed away in the last year or so.  This was the first roleplaying game.  D&D thus spawned all other RPGs, both pen & paper as well as digital, including the insanely popular massive multi-player online roleplaying games (MMORPGs).  An estimated 20 million people have played D&D, including such celebrities as Stephen Colbert, Mike Myers, Robin Williams, and a lot of people who would probably be a little embarrassed to admit it.   

Gygax and Arneson were both war gamers, they used rules to conduct battles with large numbers of miniatures and Gygax developed rules for war gaming which he published through TSR, which he was one of the owners of.  Arneson had the idea to use these rules not for running battles, but to allow players to run a single, heroic, character through a campaign, or a series of adventures where as the character overcame challenges he would gain in power.  A novel idea that as Gygax and Arneson collaborated would become D&D.

I never played 1st edition, it was before my time.  Seriously, I wasn't even a year old when D&D was first published!

D&D established the framework used by almost all RPGs.  It used dice to determine outcomes against statistics that defined a player's character, or PC.  It focused on combat and the defeating of monsters and traps in the pursuit of wealth and power.  It was heavily inspired by mythology, from many traditions including Christian demonology, and classic fantasy, like the Lord of the Rings.  Much of the appeal of D&D stems from its rich use of these elements; this is similar to Harry Potter which used the same elements for its foundation to great effect.  D&D also used the medieval period as the historical reference point for its fantasy worlds.   The game was targeted towards college aged males, later editions targeted teenage males, but D&D has always been aimed at boys and groups of them.  This has been the framework of roleplaying games, with only a few exceptions, ever since.  

In 1977 D&D was divided into two lines: Advanced D&D and Basic D&D.  The former was headed up by Gygax who wanted comprehensive rules for everything, while the former was intended to be simpler and aimed for a broader audience.  This caused problems as the two systems didn't always mesh mechanically and caused some internal divisions in TSR.  However, this would be the strategy of the company for about two decades and is why even many experienced gamers get confused about which edition of D&D was which during this time period.  

Basic D&D was how I was introduced to the game.  There was Basic (Red), Expert (Blue), Companion (Green), Master (Black), and Immortal (Gold) ruleset.  I still have all the books, actually, the only RPG books I still don't have are ones I loaned to 'friends' who never returned them.  No, I'm not bitter.

In the late 70s and early 80s D&D was a cultural phenomenon, it was quite successful during this time, and it even was licensed out for an animated television series that ran from 1983 to 1985.  The Dragonlance Saga came out in 1984 and in short order TSR was the leading published of fantasy fiction in the nation.  With success there were also lawsuits, starting between TSR and Arneson who left in 1976 and struggled to get credit for his contributions to creating D&D.  Also during this period D&D come under attack from another direction.  Christian groups, such as Bothered about Dungeons & Dragons (BADD), begin attacking D&D on two fronts: first that it encouraged Satanism and second that it caused psychological problems, such as violent tendencies, suicide, and schizophrenia.  Patricia Pulling was the founder of BADD, which she formed after her son, an avid D&D player, committed suicide.  

Several books were written during this time as cautionary tales about D&D such as Mazes & Monsters, published in 1981, which was made into a TV movie in 1982 that depicted the tale of a kid losing his sense of reality as a result of playing D&D, or as renamed in the movie as Mazes & Monsters.  D&D did provide some big openings for these attacks as it had rules for playing evil characters (such as assassins), had fully incorporated demons into the game, embraced questionably moral assumptions in the game (the kills-things-and-take-their-stuff model of the game), and did have some provocative artwork in its books (i.e. exposed breasts and the like).  However, the moral panic over D&D was on the whole unfounded.  Thirty years later there have been lots of studies about roleplaying and its effects on people, and as you probably expected, it is all positive.  Roleplaying encourages critical thinking, social skills, and problem solving.  There is no correlation between any mental illness and roleplaying games.  In general, roleplaying games are actually a very positive pursuit for young people.  However, when I started playing D&D in the late 80s it wasn't something you publicly mentioned as there was a strong negative reaction to D&D by mainstream society.  

2nd edition is what I played in high school and college and the above book was from the Al-Qadim setting, which was my favorite 2nd edition setting.

In 1989, 2nd Edition D&D was released.  This edition removed playable evil characters, renamed demons, and was a direct response to the attacks on D&D by groups like BADD.  By this time, Gygax had left TSR in 1985 after his partners, who managed the business had been forced out for mismanagement of the company and then sold their shares (and a controlling interest) to Loraine Williams.  Gygax sold his shares to Williams after he was unable to gain control of the company.  TSR was a debt-ridden company at this point and was floundering from poor business practices.  Under Williams TSR changed from focusing primarily on D&D exclusively to expanding its fiction sales and developing new RPGs; Ms. Williams was apparently not a fan of roleplaying games, but she did see a broader marketability to D&D.  In fact, at the height of TSR under Williams, fiction sales were greater that RPG sales, but D&D had also branched out to include being licensed out for computer games.  However, TSR had a lot of sloppy business practices.  Williams forbid playing the games being produced by employees so there was never any playtesting done on products, which led to shoddy development which alienated customers.  The company also had little effective inventory control and excess inventory began to cripple its revenue stream.  In 1997 the company went bankrupt and D&D was on its last leg - once again. 

Another contributing external factor to the decline of TSR was increasing competition from other RPG companies, collectible card games, and, or course, digital RPG games.  In the 90s there emerged a number of new RPGs which challenged D&D for market share including GURPS, the Palladium System, D6 System, and Vampire: The Masquerade.  In many ways, the decline of TSR during the 90s allowed other companies to fill the void and to great effect, but around the turn of the century the entire tabletop roleplaying industry was struggling. 

In 1997 Wizards of the Coast (WotC), the creator of the insanely popular Magic the Gathering, purchased D&D and began developing 3rd edition and the d20 System to revitalize the brand.  In 2000 3e D&D game out and quickly dominated tabletop RPGs with the d20 System, which was intended to provided a set of rules that could be used by other publishers to make products compatible with other d20 games, including D&D.   This led to resurgence for D&D, which found a new generation of players.  Hasbro acquired WotC around the same time.  

3.5 edition D&D was an elegantly designed system, but the flavor and style of it was more aimed at younger players than 2nd edition. 

The rise of MMORPGs, like World of Warcraft, drastically expanded the profitability of digital RPGs, but traditional pen & paper RPGs continued their declined in significance.  WotC attempted a MMORPG, Dungeons & Dragons Online, but it never took off as least compared to the more established and successful ones, like World of Warcraft.  Lagging sales of the D&D line prompted the release in 2008 of 4th edition D&D which would have a heavy digital component, to attempt to bring the subscription model from MMORPGs to tabletop roleplaying.  This hasn't been a resounding success, though signs are that 4th edition is doing fine enough to continue on for the foreseeable future.   

D&D has in the last decade spawned two horrific movies, one which bombed at the box office and another which went straight to DVD.  D&D isn't so much attacked as belittled nowadays.  During the 2008 Election, a McCain staffer called Obama supporters as "asocial D&D players playing in their mother's basement", and you have some out-of-date comedians who make jokes about D&D players, but they all sort of fall flat.  The reason is that D&D has lost is cultural relevancy, it's still significant, but it's not topical.  

D&D began roleplaying and it still remains the most popular tabletop roleplaying game, which is something, but it's a 35-year-old game and it really hasn't changed much from its 1974 incarnation.  The mechanics may be different, but the heart of the game is basically the same and thus pretty dated.  It is a game for boys who like war gaming, but want a little something more.  It is a lot like Monopoly.  Everyone knows and plays Monopoly, but it's an old and antiquated board game which is played because of its cultural significance.  After you have played more modern and better designed board games, you move away from Monopoly.  However, because of its cultural significance you have to play Monopoly a few times, and it's the same with D&D.  If you are going to give roleplaying a try as a hobby then you have to play D&D, because it is still fun 35 years out in its own way, just like Monopoly, if you approach it the right way.

4th edition logo for D&D.  This is the present edition and possibly last, but since D&D keeps making its saving throws to avoid death it will probably remain around for a long time.  I mean if Monopoly can last 74 years then D&D should be able to do the same.

Roleplaying can mean a lot of things, but the word itself is pretty accurate; it really comes down to playing a role.  The breadth of this is significant and it is something that everyone has done at some point.   As children, we all regularly engaged in roleplaying with dolls or friends to create characters that we could run through stories of our own creation.  This is part of childhood and while some of us don’t remember doing this, we certainly did, and it was an important part of mentally exploring the world.  

Now true roleplaying games (RPGs) are a version of imaginative play for older children and adults, yes, adults like me do play RPGs.  RPGs range from tabletop games, like Dungeons & Dragons and its successors to computer games like massive multi-player online roleplaying games (MMORPGs), such World of Warcraft.  Roleplaying games represent a multi-billion dollar a year industry that is embraced by many millions of people across the world.  However before you think that roleplaying is just fun and games, it is used extensively in education, corporate training, psychological therapy, and also acting.  Roleplaying is a hobby for many, a profession for some, and an obsession for more of us than we care to admit.   

I have been playing tabletop roleplaying games for over twenty years.  Tabletop games are also called pen & paper games and both names pretty much describe the process: a group of people gather around a table and using various rules navigate their imaginary characters through an imaginary world.  It is actually a pretty simple concept, but it can get a little complicated for the uninitiated. It is though well worth the effort.  

The best way to explain roleplaying is to demonstrate it.   

Imagine you are a knight leading your horse through the market area of a tournament.  Your armor, which your squire spent last night polishing, is shining brightly on you and your horse.  You are heading to the parade grounds where you are soon to compete for fame and honor.  The grounds are crowded and the sights and smells quite overwhelming.  Merchants and food venders are desperately trying to separate your coins from you with all manner of products from knives to roasted pheasant.

You then hear four trumpet blasts from the parade grounds, which mean the fourth round is soon to begin – this is your round.  You also notice nearby a man dragging a young boy towards you forcefully. He throws the boy to the ground before you, “Knight, this boy is a thief I demand justice!” The boy, which you notice is actually a young girl doesn’t make eye contact with you, in fact, she seems to be glancing about for either someone else – or a route to flee. A crowd is gathering to watch you deal with the situation as an agent of the King's authority.

What do you do?