Flowchart for Espionage Games

Courtesy of Jeff’s Gameblog, a flowchart for espionage missions from Top Secret designer Merle Rasmussen.

This chart originally appeared in Dragon #40, and while (as Jeff points out) it does lack Bond girls, it more than makes up for that omission in cleverness. (Via RPG Blog.)

OneBookShelf Rates and PDF Prices

I usually steer clear of reporting gaming news here on TT (there are other sites that are much better for news, like Gaming Report and EN World), but this item has the potential to have an impact on the GMing community.

As you may have heard RPGNow and DriveThruRPG, the two largest PDF retailers on the web, have merged to form OneBookShelf. How will this impact GMs?

One byproduct of this merger is that the new commission rate (the slice OneBookShelf takes out of every sale) is, for many publishers, higher than it was before. At the time of this writing, at least one major PDF publisher, Expeditious Retreat Press, has raised the issue that OneBookShelf doesn’t seem to be offering anything new in exchange for taking a bigger piece of the pie.

On the flipside, PDF buyers may benefit from having one large catalog (as the old sites merged their product catalogs) in one place, rather than having to sign up at two sites. And, of course, it remains to be seen what will actually happen — will OBS create additional sales for publishers? Will the majority of PDF publisher raise their prices (low prices being one of the principle benefits of PDFs for many gamers) to compensate for the higher commissions? (RPG Blog just posted about a petition to OBS to reduce their commission, which currently has 212 signatures.)

What I’m curious about is how you think this merger will affect you as a GM. Do you buy a lot of PDFs? Are you dead set against the merger, or do you like the prospect of having one uber-retailer for PDFs? I welcome your thoughts, opinions and feedback.

E.N. Publishing’s Fantasy Money

Fantasy Money is a PDF product from E.N. Publishing, and it sounds pretty nifty. The idea is that instead of tracking your gold in fantasy games, the GM just prints out a pile of fantasy bills and you spend them at the table — just like in a game of Monopoly.

So when you loot the kobold caves and find 50 gp, 25 sp, the GM gives you bills in that amount. And when you want to buy a new sword, you just hand the GM enough money to pay for it.

The link above includes pictures of the cash, and offers up a good idea: print the bills in black and white on colored cardstock (or paper) to get the feel of colored money without actually printing in color.

Campaign Settings: Expansive and Focused

I haven’t nailed down the terminology, but this is an idea I’ve had on the back burner for years. I can’t imagine a better community to try and articulate it to than this one!

In sci-fi and fantasy novels, I find that my favorite books tend to follow one of two models. The expansive ones are so rich in details, both explicit and implied, that nearly every detail could be turned into the centerpiece of a novel of its own. (Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds, is an example of this.)

Focused novels, on the other hand, take one or two elements and fully explore how those elements would interact with (and change) the world. George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series is an example of this — there’s very little magic, but what magic there is has a tremendous, fully-realized impact on the story.

The reason I’m bringing this up here — apart from wanting some feedback on the basic concept (which, again, may be poorly articulated) — is that I think this has value as a model for worldbuilding. The Forgotten Realms setting for D&D, for instance, is very much an expansive setting, while Vampire (considered without the other WoD books) is focused on one element, the existence of vampires, and on exploring that fully.

Does this make sense? Am I onto something? Is it useful?

Party Leaders and Player Leaders

Having one PC act as party leader is pretty common practice, and on the whole it tends to be a good idea. In many groups, one player will also act as leader — sometimes the same player, sometimes not.

Let’s look at both approaches — player leader and PC leader — as well as the areas where they intersect.

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How to Be a Bad GM: A Primer

Before the game begins, help the players out by telling them how to create the party you need for the game. Include a more powerful NPC in the party so that you can enjoy being a player as well.

Create an adventure that involves as few choices as possible. The closer you can get to reading the scenario to your players, the better (you don’t want them mucking up your story). And don’t worry if the PCs don’t have the skills or talents that they need to enjoy the scenario. That’s what your powerful NPC is for, after all.

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How to End a Campaign: Fast Forward

With this post, our sporadically-updated How to End a Campaign series enters the home stretch. Each post in this series covers one approach to ending a long-running game, including pros and cons.

As Identifying the Tough Stuff discussed, “end a campaign” was one of the most common answers to the question “What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do as a GM?,” which I posed in TT’s GMing profiles thread.

Today’s approach is a good one: Jumping ahead in your game’s timeline, and fast forwarding to a logical climax.

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On-the-Go RPGs: Hike, Ramble, Game

In the comments to Have You Ever Run a Game Outdoors, Frank Filz and Scott M. linked up two RPGs with a twist.

Sherpa (by Stephan O’Sullivan, creator of Bunnies & Burrows) is designed to be played while hiking. In Stephan’s words, it “uses a digital watch with a stopwatch feature as a randomizer and a character sheet fits on the back of a business card.” Cooool.

The Nighttime Animals Save the World, created by Vincent Baker (Dogs in the Vineyard), is meant to be played while taking a walk with your kids. It even incorporates stuff you see, like fences, bushes and other features, into the story.

This is a fascinating niche, and one that it’s nice to know clever folks like Stpehan and Vincent have filled. Are there other RPGs out there that are specifically designed to be played outside?

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