RPG: Depth of Character, Developing Character Arc at the Table

The best characters in literature go through change. They start a story in one emotional or mental state and end someplace very different. They may want something, or believe they want something, at the start of a story, then by the end want something very different. In writing, we call it character growth, or a character's arc.

When you are developing a character for any roleplaying game, keep in mind what emotional state they are starting in and how they may change by the time the campaign or story is over. You don't have to know exactly what that change will be, but giving a character the opportunity to grow adds depth and freshness to Player Characters (PCs), particularly in long campaigns. The change may be purely roleplaying, like hating a particular race, culture or non-player character (NPC), then learning to trust them, or it may manifest itself as a game-related change, like adding levels in a new class. Or it could be both.

Gateway Strategy: Smallworld (2-5+ players)

Small World Rules PDF

"It doesn't matter how many players or how old they are, Small World delivers a fun, fast-paced game every time and is a cornerstone of our collection."

Small World is a tile-based strategy game for 2-5 players ages 8 and up. Rules are simple, play is fast and it is as fun for two players as it is for five. When combined with the Small World: Underground stand-alone expansion and the Tunnels expansion (found in Small World: Realms) you can play with up to 6 players. Small World is also available on iPad (2-player only).

What is a Gateway Game?

Gateway games are ideal for introducing non-gamers to the hobby. Gateway games help retrain player's minds away from roll-the-dice-move-the-piece classics like Sorry and Monopoly and opens them to new possibilities. They're also perfect for introducing gaming to kids.

RPG: Who's Laughing Now?

Yet another example of why Paizo publishing is the best in the business is a fun little campaign book called Misfit Monsters Redeemed. At least, I thought it was a fun little book.

The aptly named flail snail.
It's as threatening as it sounds.

Misfit Monsters is a re-imagining of some of the weirdest, most inane critters from decades of Dungeons & Dragons. Ten classic creatures were pulled from the Fiend Folio, Monster Manual II, Monster Manual v3.0 and the fan-favorite module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. They were then handed to Paizo writers with the challenge of making them awesome. I picked up MMR when I was converting Expedition to the Pathfinder d20 system and had been hoping for a stat update or a few interesting ideas to keep my old-school friends off-balance. Instead this "fun little book" wrote a chill down my spine.

RPG: In Defense of Skill Challenges

SPOILER ALERT: If you plan on running/playing Red Hand of Doom, by Rich Baker and James Jacobs, this blog makes reference to an event that occurs at the end of Part 1 (5 Parts total). Red Hand of Doom is one of the best written sandbox-style modules for DnD v3.5. If you haven't run it, you should.

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A common complaint about 4th edition DnD is that it reduced all roleplaying opportunities to skill checks via the Skill Challenge mechanic. You should never let a game tell you that you can't roleplay, but I understand where the concern comes from because I felt the same way. Then I started playing with the mechanic.

What I discovered was that when properly used, skill challenges enhanced roleplaying while keeping high stress situations, like sneaking into a dragon's lair, stressful. I never used them for important social interactions, like swaying a council to heed a warning about an oncoming horde, in the same way I'd never have let a single Diplomacy check persuade them, but physical challenges like chase scenes and social interactions with less important PCs became much more interesting.

Below is an example of a skill challenge I constructed for the 3rd edition module, "Red Hand of Doom", which I converted to 4th edition. In this scene, the players are escaping the burning town of Drellin's Ferry as its being overrun by a horde they could not stop. In the module, the scene is vaguely described (something like, 'as the PCs escape from the burning town, they must evade patrols'), but this skill challenge allowed the stress of the chase to build and gave the players multiple options if they succeeded.

House Rules: Small World Underground

One of the new elements in Small World: Underground are monsters that protect Popular Places and Righteous Relics. In the original Small World, a number of starting spaces contained a single tile of an ancient fallen race (known as Smurfs in our home games). In SWU, these starting spaces instead contain a pair of monster tiles. When the monsters are defeated, the player reveals a random token from a stack of Righteous Relics and Popular Places. These new monster tiles have one of seven images on them, but all monster tiles are mechanically identical, counting as two extra tiles you must defeat to take the space.

Why waste fun art?! It only took us one game to set up house rules for our critters and now it's time to share. It's a small world, after all.

Retro Review: 4th Edition DnD

It's important for any reviewer to do the following:

1) Get the game on the table and play

2) Remember that any game, no matter the system, is only as good as its players and DM

3) Speaking to D&D specifically: Remember that 1st edition players hated 2nd edition and 2nd edition players thought 3rd edition's skill system killed roleplaying.

I'm an old school, Fighting Man, white box gamer from 1978 and have seen the industry wax and wane over the decades. In many ways, I felt the same way about v3.0 back in 2000 as I did about my first look at 4th. A friend brought a copy of the 3rd ed Player's Handbook to a LARP I was running back in the day. I took one flip through and handed it back scoffing, "This isn't D&D."

Partial Co-Op Horror: Betrayal at House on the Hill (3-6 players)

Betrayal at House on the Hill Rules + Revised Tomes PDF

"Betrayal is an innovative, unpredictable and fun game, especially if you are a horror buff."

Betrayal at the House on the Hill is a partial co-op board game for 3-6 players, ages 12+, that draws its inspiration from classic horror stories; we've recently started calling it "Cabin in the Woods" The Boardgame.