2006 on Treasure Tables: Thank You!

On New Year’s Eve, I always like to look back over what the previous year has been like here on TT (here’s the 2005 edition).

“Big” is the short version. For the longer version, read on.

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The New Plot Pledge

For your consideration as we close the book on 2006, a possible new year’s resolution for GMs:

In your next campaign, don’t use any plotlines or major encounters that you’ve used before.

With the New Plot Pledge, I’m riffing off of yesterday’s post about overused and clichéd plots in RPGs. There seems to be a consensus that clichéd plots are OK in RPGs (I’m in agreement) — but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea to get out of your GMing comfort zone.

As a GMing goal, it’s similar to the haiku approach and its spiritual predecessor, the 20% rule. If you’re not in the mood for something as potentially work-intensive as the New Plot Pledge, one of those might be more your cup of tea.

How does the New Plot Pledge sound to you?

Overused Plots in RPGs

Strange Horizons, an online magazine of sci-fi stories (alongside other genres), has an entertainingly dry list of Stories We’ve Seen Too Often in their submission guidelines.

There’s plenty of overlap with RPGs in this rundown of tired sci-fi plots — for example: “Visitor to alien planet ignores information about local rules, inadvertantly violates them, is punished.” (See: many, many Star Trek episodes.) Or the equally common “An A.I. gets loose on the Net despite the computer it was on not being connected to the Net.”

There’s even a direct D&D reference (”Story is based in whole or part on a D&D game or world.“), which — although it’s not directly relevant — leads into a GMing question: Given that no plot survives contact with the PCs, and taking the nature of gaming (especially the random element) into account, is there more tolerance for clichéd plots in RPGs than in fiction?

FASERIP Pulp, and the TT Forums Turn One

The TT forums turned one today — happy birthday, forums! This past year has gone by so quickly that it really doesn’t feel like that long since the forums went live. In that time, we’ve gone from one board (GMing Q&A) and one member (me) to seven forums and 371 members.

For today’s post, I’d like to spotlight a fan project that was just mentioned on the forums: FASERIP Pulp, by The Evil DM.

FASERIP is the system that drove the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG — it stands for Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, Psyche, the game’s seven attributes. The Evil DM has adapted that system to the pulp genre, and his free FASERIP Pulp PDF is the first draft of that adaptation.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the first year on the TT forums a great one — and here’s to next year!

Need an NPC? How About 19?

TT’s Bulk Up the GMing Wiki project is going on right now, and it’s already generating some good results. Today I’d like to highlight the Instant NPCs section, which has been seeing a lot of activity.

The current crop of 19 grab-and-go NPCs include Khuzad Reinheits, dwarf bartender (fantasy), Kip and Bel Wymorrow, halfling bakers (ditto), Dr. Gavin Larson, Ph.D (a horror extra), former cop James Gristle (modern) and cargo handler Ke’rikku (sci-fi).

Props to Kestral, ScottM, Shawnhcorey, Telas and Xcorvis, who’ve been working on this section — thank you!

1950 Calling: The GM Knows Best

I couldn’t let this comment pass without making it a topic of discussion here on TT. It’s from Topher on the HackMaster forums:

There are two types of GMs: Those who believe their players really know what they want and those who run a good game.

Topher was responding to an article by Jeff Rients entitled How to Awesome-Up Your Players, which I linked to on TT.

This comment comes from a thread on the HM forums called How NOT to run a game. Jeff is (no surprise) taking the criticism very well, and since I couldn’t disagree more with Greylond’s sentiment in the opening post (”Should have been titled, “How to Wuss-Up your campaign”.“) it’s interesting to see an alternate perspective.

“The GM knows best” smacks of “Daddy knows best” to me, hence the title of this post. There are cases when the GM does know best, but there are plenty of times when that’s just true at all — partly because players get a flashlight while the GM gets a 150 watt bulb.

What do you think?

A Little Christmas Action Scene

Merry Christmas from Treasure Tables!

Last year’s Christmas post was about the worst Dungeon Master ever; this year, it’s about action scenes. Over on ars ludi, Ben Robbins (of Lame Mage Productions) lays out the anatomy of an action scene.

His approach involves a simple seven-part framework for designing an action scene, built with supers in mind but useful in other genres as well. Ben also offers a free adventure that makes use of his approach, Dr. Null: Battle on the Bay Bridge.

Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, I hope your day is a fabulous one. Eat well, spend time with friends and family, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Holidays for Your Fantasy Campaign

Holidays can be a fun addition to fantasy RPGs, and if your campaign spans several game-years, recurring holidays help to give the world a feeling of continuity — of existing around the heroes.

If you’re in the market for some new holidays for your game, here are three four PDF options that look interesting:

• A Dozen Festivals and Holidays (Ronin Arts), which includes Coronation Day and Spring Races.
• Athenaeum Arcane: Festivals, Fairs, and Holy Days (Ronin Arts), including Razorback festival — which involves gladiatorial combat with a dire boar.
• TFG Fantasy Holidays Bundle 1 (Top Fashion Games), which covers general holidays, holidays for the common folk and — a neat idea — holidays for monsters.
• Adventure Essentials: Holidays (RPGObjects), a toolbox for designing holidays and using them in your campaign (not sure how I missed this the first time around — thanks, Johnn!).

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