Hi all,

This is my first post here, so apologies in advance if I break any rules, written or otherwise.  Just let me know.

A couple of weeks ago (yes, I’m just now getting around to writing this), one of my regular D&D buddies, Nik, and I got the chance to try out a few new ideas.  Well, ideas that were new to us, anyway.  It’s all old hat to you guys.

Some quick notes about the differences between that session and typical, by-the-book D&D 3.5:

• Kickers.  I had Nik come up with something that had just happened to his character, something he couldn’t ignore.  Something to start the action off.  This would form the foundation of the adventure.

• Flags.  He also gave me a list of his character’s more interesting and important (both to the player and, as it so happens, the character) traits; I would do my best to push these buttons he laid out for me.
• No death.  Since it was a one-on-one game, character death would mean the end of the game, and that’s no fun.  So I took death off the table—for the PC, anyway.  He was still free to kill whoever he wanted.  But the worst that could happen to him would be that he get knocked unconscious…or that he fail in his quest.
• Free nonlethal damage.  The core D&D rules dictate that a character take a -4 penalty to his attack rolls when attacking nonlethally with a lethal weapon.  Nik and I have both played in a couple of D&D games in which such nonlethal attack penalties were house-ruled away, and it really changes the flavor of the game…I’ll write up a blog post on it one of these days.
• Low-prep.  One thing I really hate about DMing is the amount of preparation that I’m expected (or that I feel that I need) to do.  The players just have to show up, but I have to spend all week to come up with an adventure?  Screw that.  ;)

To give credit where credit is due, most of these ideas—nonlethality, conflict webs (see below), and flags and low-prep—came from Deep in the Game, although the implementation may differ somewhat from what he had in mind.  So, special thanks to Chris for the fantastic ideas.

With that said, on to the game!

I told Nik to create a character, using whatever means he wanted, at 6th level.  (Next time I do this, I’ll just have him [or the players in general] pick the starting level.)  He went with good ol’ 4d6-drop-lowest and came up with a lawful neutral monk 4/wizard 2 named Jouric.

The Kicker

Jouric’s master, Yavin, is on his death bed and wants to make amends with his estranged brother before he dies.  Jouric has left the monastery to find the brother and convince him to go to his brothers side before it is too late.  Yavin thinks his brother is still living in the town of Ampliss, but it’s been over 30 years since his master last spoke to him.  Jouric can only hope that Yavin’s brother still lives in Ampliss and that he will be willing to honor his dieing brothers request.

• Jouric is a half elf and he never knew his parents.  Life at the monastery is all his ever known and he thinks of his master Yavin, as his father.
• Jouric feels that only law and order can bring sustainable peace to the land.
• Jouric believes that a life of discipline and honorable behavior is the path to deeper spiritual growth and true enlightenment.
• Jouric believes that magic a very pure and raw form of the life energies hold existence together and that thru it’s study he can gleam the secrets of all things.
• Jouric believes that knowledge is power.
• Jouric looks down on those that act without honor and discipline.
• Jouric isn’t always honorable or disciplined.
• Jouric hates those that actively seek to bring instability to the land.
• Jouric doesn’t always quite live up to his own standards and feels shame when his temptations get the best of him.

Hey, Will.

Sounds really cool!  I'm really interesting in the house-rules that people use for D&D, so it's a great read for me.  And, most important, it sounds like you had a good time.

What kind of feedback would you like from this post?  Would you like us to acknowledge your awesomeness, reassure you about the stuff you're worried about, try to figure out strategies to hit the flags better, brainstorm about future situations, or something else?  All of these are totally fine and legitimate goals for an Actual Play post (and I'm sure Ron will correct me if they aren't) but I just want to know before we move on.

yrs--
--Ben

Hi Ben,

I guess I had a few goals here. 

First, I wanted to share the experience with other gamers, in case they find it useful.  I suppose there isn't much in my post that hasn't been said elsewhere, but good ideas are worth repeating, and there aren't actually all that many recountings of the application of these techniques to D&D.

Second, I wanted to see if anyone else has had similar experiences, or overcome problems similar to the ones I encountered, or even just has ideas about how to fix said problems.

Third, my awesomeness is always prepared to be acknowledged.  ;)

So, yeah, in other words, primarily the flag-hitting and brainstorming stuff, although I'm up for any kind of discussion.  I've lurked for a while and you guys are generally pretty smart and experienced; I thought I'd take advantage of that.  :)

Thanks!

-Will

Hey Will!  Welcome, welcome!

Sounds like you had an awesome game, and most important of all (to my way of thinking) you had fun preparing it and playing it yourself.  That's a big deal.

In terms of different viewpoints (and maybe helpful tips ... who knows) I will say this:  When I read your conflict web I found myself thinking "Huh ... none of these people have opinions or strong feelings toward Jouric ... that seems odd."  And then I read ...

Will wrote:

• Nik didn’t have much chance to affect the flow of events. I didn’t railroad, of course, but the situation was almost doomed to end in one way: with Kither, Kessa, and Relkan, one way or another, all at each other’s throats. Nik felt like things happened too quickly, and that they happened around him, and that there wasn’t much he could do. I think he’s right, and I’m not sure how to improve on this…maybe just keep it in mind next time.

Thanks for the welcome, Tony!

TonyLB wrote:
In terms of different viewpoints (and maybe helpful tips ... who knows) I will say this:  When I read your conflict web I found myself thinking "Huh ... none of these people have opinions or strong feelings toward Jouric ... that seems odd."  And then I read ...

Will wrote:

• Nik didn’t have much chance to affect the flow of events. I didn’t railroad, of course, but the situation was almost doomed to end in one way: with Kither, Kessa, and Relkan, one way or another, all at each other’s throats. Nik felt like things happened too quickly, and that they happened around him, and that there wasn’t much he could do. I think he’s right, and I’m not sure how to improve on this…maybe just keep it in mind next time.

... and I thought to myself "Those look connected, to my eye at least."  Does that make sense?

Hi Will,

Glad things worked well for you!  In line with Tony's comment, did any of the NPCs actively try to get Jouric to help them, trick him into helping them, try to keep him out of the way, or get rid of him from the picture completely?  The Conflict Web builds a humming little problem, but you also need to make it "sticky" for the PCs- you don't want the problems to resolve themselves while the PCs stand and watch- think instead of it being a game of volleyball between the NPCs- and they're using any PCs as volleyballs to achieve their goals...

Chris

Well, the way I would tie Jouric in is simply because he is Yavin's student ... and Kither, at the very least, could have strong opinions about anyone who fits that description.  He doesn't need justification, it's unreasoning prejudice!  Yay!

Hi Chris,

Bankuei wrote:
Hi Will,

Glad things worked well for you!  In line with Tony's comment, did any of the NPCs actively try to get Jouric to help them, trick him into helping them, try to keep him out of the way, or get rid of him from the picture completely?

Bankuei wrote: The Conflict Web builds a humming little problem, but you also need to make it "sticky" for the PCs- you don't want the problems to resolve themselves while the PCs stand and watch- think instead of it being a game of volleyball between the NPCs- and they're using any PCs as volleyballs to achieve their goals...

Hi Tony,

TonyLB wrote:
Well, the way I would tie Jouric in is simply because he is Yavin's student ... and Kither, at the very least, could have strong opinions about anyone who fits that description.  He doesn't need justification, it's unreasoning prejudice!  Yay!

Hi Will,

A key point to keep in mind is that if one person wants to avoid the PCs, that has to be the person(s) to whom the PCs -need- to see.  Given the smallness of your web there, you don't want more than 1 "avoider" and you want the other NPCs aiming the PCs towards that character.

Chris

Hi Will.  Your subject heading naturally roped me in as I'm old D&Der who's trying to branch out into some of these new areas and its been hard.  I'm especially interested in one aspect of your post as its been a huge sticking point for me as well.

Will wrote: I suck at improvising.  Several times, I had to stop, excuse myself, and think about what a given NPC would do or say in response to the PC’s actions or words.  Getting up to go to the bathroom, or make a cup of tea, or any excuse to get a break to think things through.  This wasn’t too big a deal, but it kind of broke the flow of the game, and I’d like to do better.  I think part of the problem was not knowing my NPCs well enough, and thus I had a hard time switching between them as Nik interacted with them.

donbaloo wrote:
That's led me to wonder for some time now if this improv ability is something that just comes naturally to folks or if it is a skill that builds with time.

Hi Chris,

donbaloo wrote:
I share your pain here.  Even when trying these new games with just my wife and a very close friend I admit that I come to the table with a good deal of anxiety.  I'm accustomed to a lot of organization and prep beforehand so when I come to the table with only a list of NPCs and their motivations its frightening...even in a comfortable social circle (or triangle as it was).

donbaloo wrote: That's led me to wonder for some time now if this improv ability is something that just comes naturally to folks or if it is a skill that builds with time.  From my point of view right now, most of the indie games I'm experimenting with have a baseline expectation of improv that is higher than we're accustomed.  Its logical though that "low prep" would necessarily equate to "high improv".

Anyway, that's just one point of your post that really interested me and I'd like to hear more about your feelings concerning "I suck at improv."  At this point do you have any personal thoughts towards how much that effected your game and what you plan to do to maybe improve that skill (if indeed it is a skill)?

Hi Will,

I just started a very similar game last week - D&D 3.0, using kickers and a relationship map to drive the plot. I ran into some of the same problems, too - mainly that I spent a lot of time hesitating and it slowed the game WAY down. In my post-game analysis, I realized that a lot of my problem was that my map didn't extend quite far enough (there were NPCs that became important that I hadn't expected to come into it at all) and that the major NPCs in the map weren't fleshed out as far as they should have been.

I'd say you're right, that coming up with at least decent "sketch" of personality for major NPCs would go a long way toward making the game run more smoothly.

Good luck.

Will wrote:
Knowing the various characters well would probably help.  Perhaps sticking with simple, strong personalities to begin with?  It may mean lots of stereotypes at first, but if it helps build the creative muscle, it might be worth it.

Thanks, Warren -- I get the feeling you're right on the money.

-Will

Hey Will,

First, cool game! I love to see people trying this kind of thing.

Imrpov can be learned, yes. It takes practice, but you'll get better the more you do it. Plus, first sessions are extra hard since you don't have any momentum. Now that you've put a bunch of stuff in play, it should be a little easier to move things around on the fly.

I think Matt Snyder's recordings of his Nine Worlds game are pretty instructive, actually. Matt does this great thing where he talks to the players about what he's doing, all the time. Like, "Okay, since you went there, I'm going to make up this NPC who will be trying to lure you into a trap. I'm going to call him Bob, and give him these traits. Let's start the scene just as Bob confronts you and tries to talk you into going back into the alley with him..." Instead of pausing the game and going away from the table to work on stuff in secret, Matt puts his "prep" out in the open so it remains part of play with everyone else.

This technique may or may not work for you, but it might be worth a try. You can listen to Matt's game recordings here:
http://www.chimera.info/blog/2006/04/light-years.html

One thing I learned writing fiction: making lively characters doesn't depend on lots of background, just on a goal or two.  The moment a character has a goal (especially one that ropes in the main character) they have fictional life.  I find it works the same way with roleplaying.

I think the Dog suggestion has it spot on.

Something I've found to work really well is to get the players involved in creating the universe on the fly. When they meet a new NPC or go to a new planet I quite often go round the table and ask them to come up with a name and some characterful abilities - it takes some of the burden off you, gets them involved more in creating the game world, and gives them a real investment in the character.

A case in point is the underworld contact one of my players developed in my Star Wars / HeroQuest game. I'd intended him to be just a throw-away character but the group came up with such cool abilities (Midget Drug Dealer, Blink And You'll Miss Him, Holographic Size Improvers) that he will definitely be making a few more guest appearances later in the game!

soviet

soviet wrote:
Something I've found to work really well is to get the players involved in creating the universe on the fly. When they meet a new NPC or go to a new planet I quite often go round the table and ask them to come up with a name and some characterful abilities - it takes some of the burden off you, gets them involved more in creating the game world, and gives them a real investment in the character.