RELEASE: The Delver's Expedition Handbook

In a stunning and uncharacteristic display of Project Finishing, I have released a book(let)! 

 It is a humble sub-40 page volume that discusses, at length, Expeditions; adventures for mid-level parties that entail long-term planning and preparation, hiring a large amount of experts and henchmen to bring along with you to an extremely remote location, and setting up a small base of operations in hostile lands as you try to dungeon crawl your way into great massive rewards. 

It's out now and it's free, so go check it out!

Pink Mirrorcoat: A Sliding Scale of Shadowrun

Three Shadowrunners walk into a bar.

The first Shadowrunner finds their target at the bar, sits down next to him, and buys him a drink, before informing him - through gritted teeth and with a voice that announces the culmination of a chilling vendetta - that Oracle sends her regards. The second Shadowrunner casually snaps their fingers to set the exit behind them ablaze, and after taking a second to adjust their wide neon-trimmed collar, dropkicks the big troll bouncer who was reaching for his gun. The third Shadowrunner has already scanned everyone else in the bar and begins eliminating them in descending order of threat level, cutting edge military cybernetics combined with top-of-the-line firearms dropping four goons before they even realize they're being fired at.  

While the above is a frankly terrible joke, it does vaguely imply the three common "Flavors" of Shadowrun. They're usually used as an either-or descriptor; however, I believe they're better suited to a three-way sliding scale, and I would like to tell you all about how that could help you describe your own game's vibe to your chummers. Let's jack in, shall we?

Orbital Crypt Halloween Special: Tarot Spreads for Fun and Writing

 

A wolf, a dog and a lobster walk into a bar...

Happy horror month, candy-corn readers! It's very festive up here at the apogee of sanity, and consequently I thought I'd get in the holiday spirit by sharing one of my favorite tools for on-the-spot narrative generation. Let's take a scry, shall we? 

Make War, Not Lore: Creating a War and Factions for your Adventures

It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of blogging about it.  -Sun Tzu, almost

In a recent world-famous blogpost, we concluded that mass bloodshed and strife is a lighthearted, pleasant pastime for all involved. And while any power metal album artist or teacher-cum-author can invent a cool battle, it takes a bit more work to create the whole war. Luckily for you, I happen to be an authority on seeming like an authority. 

PROTOCOL: Zones of Depth

ZoD is a wholly unoriginal lightweight system for running abstracted exploration of large, complex environments. The protocol can be given to players, for them to use as part of their gameplay; or it can be entirely GM-side, used to help the narrative along without involving players in the rules. 

Marching Back East: Lessons Learned from Running an Open Table Game

 

I was like you, once: naïve, directionless, wholly corporeal. Then, one fateful autumn evening, I dreamt of a towering white fortress.

The concept wasn't alien to me, "drop-in" and "rotating cast" being something that I've informally done in the past. Once I actually decided to do an intentional open table sandbox, however, and embrace it as a style rather than as a consequence of accursed schedules, my previous preconceptions of running a big game had been irreversibly shattered.
After getting some new, heavy-duty conceptions, I proceeded to have a pretty excellent time, lasting for well over a year of regular games, and the experience was as enlightening as it was entertaining. The game's tragic demise was caused by a combination of personal small-scale complications and impersonal global complications, but it was a rollercoaster ride throughout. 

With recent developments, I may have the chance to bring the game back to life (at a reduced, responsible, internet-reliant capacity). And since such a ritual requires the removal of significant refuse, both from my sanctorum and from my own mind, I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some of the lessons I've learned. 

It Builds Character: Character Creation as a Meaningful Part of Your Game

Most roleplaying games begin with character creation, because most of them are fairly difficult to play without a character. We break out our given system's character sheet, and we follow the book through the process of filling it in, and through this process we turn the sheet into a character. It's a familiar process, and one of the common threads throughout the hobby.

That familiarity has also bred a disdain towards the activity. For some, the process of character creation is treated as an unfortunate speedbump, something to be gotten out of the way as quickly as possible, a necessary evil on the path to the Actual Fun. 

I'm not here to tell people that they're playing wrong, but I do want to talk a little about why I think people feel this way, how embracing the activity can improve our experience, and how some games make it easier to accomplish that. 

Writing The Good Fight: Running Large Battle Scenarios in TTRPGs

Much of our favorite fantastical fiction features fierce fights, mammoth melees, and wall-to-wall warfare. We all know that large battles can serve various narrative purposes, from heroic last stands and dramatic climaxes to desperate retreats and crushing defeats. A battle might be raging around our heroes as they try to reach their target, right in front of them as they enter the fray themselves, or miles away as they use the chance to accomplish something. 

At their best, battles are a great tool to add to your storytelling and a powerful way to amp the drama. At their worst, they are a great tool to break the flow of your game, and a powerful way to start players thinking about homebrew versions of the system, ones that remove the suffering they just went through.

Resources (and other things you can lose)

While I couldn't possibly summon the audacity to give a single, universal definition of what a "game" is, I wouldn't really want to try. Why get your arm tired holding up a single conceptual umbrella, when you can sit cozy under an endless roof, made of countless different tiles? 

Here's a particular shingle that I've heard, while seated next to an ongoing argument: 

A game is a defined system of rules, under which players must accomplish a set of objectives before they run out of a critical resource. 

While the rest of the argument was fascinating (in its own braying way), this definition has stuck with me, specifically the last bit. The conversation was about board games, but it got me thinking about tabletop roleplaying games and the role resources play therein (sorry).