Teach a GM to Fish

What type of game supplements do you want?  There’s an old saying:  Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.  A reviewer recently used that type of description when talking about our Small Bites supplements.  In his description, he said we were teaching GM’s to fish (I’m paraphrasing quite a bit, but this was his point).  On the other hand, the huge hard cover beautiful art supplements were giving you a fish.  But that is their point!  They cannot sell you more and more hard cover books if you actually understand how to find your own sparks of imagination and build the world and campaigns for yourself.

So what do you want?  Do you want to pay $50 and get ten character classes or one extended mission and then next month go back and get another for another $50?  Look - We get it!  That is the easier way to go.  Sometimes, it is even the more exciting way to go because your players have also read the same supplement, and they think it’s cool and want you to run it.  That still seems crazy to me as they cannot be surprised by anything then, but everybody has their own way of being in the world.

What’s our way?  Well, first off, you’re not paying for tons of art, because we use a bunch of clip art pieces we’ve managed to gather over the years.  We only use it to make the pages easier to read by breaking up the blocks of words.  So now, what you’re getting is content.  Real, actual advice from folks who have been doing this stuff for decades.  Doing it successfully, both on a tournament level, and on a commercial level.  (Meaning that we win tournaments at conventions, and we make money.)

Ah, that is the rub!  How much money?  Well, if you want the full editions of Small Bites, we’re asking for $5 a month.  What does $5 a month get you?  It gets you a 40 page book with all this stuff we’re talking about:  advice on how to world build, advice on how to GM, advice on how to play certain character archetypes and how to GM for them, cool new ideas about the various races - some monster, some character, some character ideas - some PC, some NPC, some new spells, some new magical items, a list of stuff for characters to buy, some great ideas for missions, including a campaign starter kit to either get your new campaign going or give you a story arc for a current campaign you’re running.

How do we fit all that in 40-pages?  Well, we told you - we took out all the fancy formatting and most of the useless art.  But do you know what else you get?  You get to decide!  Have you been dying to design a new castle for your world and make it as impenetrable against fantasy characters as you can?  Well, our patrons told us that was what they wanted, so we’re going to do an edition just on that - fantasy castles.  Because let’s face it - Earth’s castles are not built to withstand flying dragons, passwall spells, teleporting mages, or even invisible thieves.  But there are things that can be done to protect against all of these things.  We’ll give you our ideas in such a way that you’re going to either be led to your own, use ours as is, or hopefully, distill our ideas into working perfectly in your campaigns.

Hey, every GM should be comfortable with his or her world and run it accordingly.  That’s what we want for you:  a campaign world you know and understand but haven’t put ten years into before anyone plays in it.  You need practical ideas that will get your game up and going quickly and without huge wastes of time.  That’s what we’re offering - and we want you to be a part of it.  Not just buy it, though that’s OK.  We want you to join us.  Tell us what you like.  Tell us what to do next.  Tell us how to give you everything you really want in a gaming supplement.

aka All About April

As of April 22, our Patreon project has grown to being just shy of the mark for us to promise 7 posts to the wiki per month.  Despite slightly missing this mark, we are committed to always exceeding expectations, so we will promise to have seven monthly posts (of course at least).

But April is our “skip month” gearing up to our double sized May edition Paladin vs. Paladin aka All About Holy Wars.  So do we deliver 0 in April and 14 in May?  No!  We’re doing some Fletnern house cleaning and getting some wiki posts out there that probably should have been made through earlier Small Bites editions but weren’t.  So we expect that April will have the house cleaning and May will have the Holy War posts and both should far exceed 7.

We might settle down in June and only do 7+ - OK, who are we kidding?  The Patreon project has been showing considerable success lately and we easily get jazzed up by things like that.  As long as the project continues to grow, you’ll be seeing a ton more content!

Brief advertisement:  To join our Patreon project, click this link:  https://www.patreon.com/boardent

The wiki is of course free as is all of the World of Fletnern:  http://fletnern.wikia.com/wiki/World_of_Fletnern_Wiki

http://www.boardenterprises.com/fletnern.html

Mnemonics for characters

Just in case you don’t know, a mnemonic is not a new kind of demon, but instead a memory device to help you remember stuff.

We were criticized early on for using “SKEWAP” to help players remember the attributes in Legend Quest.  We still use that “word” around my gaming table, but we don’t publish it any more.  It’s pronounced like the sound a ski would make if it hit you in the head: Ski Whap.  As a GM, I quite often wish I could whap a couple of players with a ski!

So, OK, if SKEWAP doesn’t make sense to the game reviewing public, what else should we use?  Well, it’s been over 25 years, but I have come up with the perfect, self-serving answer:  Still Knowing Everything Works As Planned.  Yep!  After 25 years of Legend Quest, we are Still Knowing Everything Works As Planned!

Oh, what are those attributes?  Yes, there are six, but more importantly, there are three pairs:  Strength & Knowledge, Endurance & Willpower, and Agility & Psyche.  Why pairs?  Well, Strength is pretty self-explanatory, but what is Knowledge?  Well, it’s mental strength.  That’s different from Psyche which is the speed at which you think or mental Agility.  That means that in many ways, Knowledge is book smarts and Psyche is cleverness (which isn’t exactly street smarts, but that’s a part of it).  Willpower?  Well, that’s often self-explanatory too, but it is mental Endurance.  I always wanted to use “stamina” for endurance, but the more we thought it through, Stamina felt like it had mental components to it, whereas endurance felt more physical.

Does it matter at all?  Yes, it actually does!  In Legend Quest, everything is based on one formula for your chance of success:  Attribute x 10% + Skill Level x 5% = % chance of success.  Really, everything.  Attack in melee combat:  Strength x 10% + skill levels x 5%.  Attack with ranged combat:  Agility x 10% + skill levels x 5%.  Track an enemy through the woods:  Knowledge x 10% + Tracking skill x 5%.  Intimidate an enemy in battle:  Psyche x 10% + Intimidation levels x 5%.  It goes on basically to infinity.

Are we proud of Legend Quest?  You bet we are!  It worked when it came out (“a real gem of a game - one of the best systems I’ve ever seen” - Dragon Magazine); and it still holds up today, no matter what version of that other game they might be on.

Outdoor Dungeons

While we have not been criticized for our campaigns and missions, at least not directly, we know that they are not everyone’s cup of tea.  Why?  Because we want things to be easy on the GM.  How do we do that?  By making the enemies pretty similar.

How does this work?  Well, if you’re fighting 30 enemies over the course of six fights, we think it is easier to run 30 very similar bad guys, like 12 young soldiers with bows, 12 more experienced soldiers with spears, 4 veteran with lances and 2 officers with tridents.  So 30 guys, but they are all different stages of the same NPC.

So what would the opposite be?  Well, the opposite is what we think of when we think of teen-aged dungeon masters, and we do mean dungeon.  Do you remember those gaming sessions?  You open the door and there’s six orcs.  You open the next door and there’s a sentient ooze.  You open the next door and there’s trap that requires a very clever solution, far too clever for the orcs or ooze to handle.

So is it that much more difficult to handle these incredibly different creatures?  Yes.  Oh it can be done, but as a GM, you cannot best play these NPC enemies if they are all so incredibly different.  Strategically, it just isn’t possible to switch tactics in your head that way.  But let’s not set up a paper tiger here.  It doesn’t need to be one of these two extremes.

So what’s the choice here?  Well, there seem to be two ways of doing this.  The first is to continue to do our extreme, but in a limited fashion.  What!?!  Think of it this way:  While each individual mission has only the one type, each consecutive mission has a different archetype.  So if you’re fighting soldiers this week, next week can be a bandit group, and the week after can be an orcish tribe with shamans.  That makes sense, right?  Easy on the GM, but not monotonous.

The other alternative is to vary the enemies more.  This can be more difficult on the GM, but what it really means is that the GM is likely not going to be using the bad guys to the best of their ability.  This isn’t so bad, but you do need to recognize that this will not be the most efficient use of the NPCs.  But that’s OK.  Maybe the NPCs come up a little more generic, because they aren’t using any cool tactics or strategies, but their mere varied existence will make things seem that much “newer” or even original.

So what’s the point?  We always want to ask that question.  The point is this:  Game mastering is pretty hard.  Getting things lined up before game sessions takes work and herding cats - aka handling players - can be exhausting.  A GM needs to find efficient ways of handling that work.  We’re not necessarily calling them short cuts because of the assumptions that will lead to, but find some of those things and use them.  They really can make game sessions run more smoothly and therefore better.  Better is better!

This post was written as part of the soon to be released Paladin vs. Paladin aka All About Holy Wars, the latest in our Small Bites editions.  Each Small Bites book looks deeply at one subject, a character archetype, a race/monster, a style of questing, or some other role-playing/world building subject.  This one details everything having to do with paladins aka holy knights as well as the holy wars they fight in, even if those wars are against other paladins (which is when they are the most fun!).

To get the full Game Masters’ edition when it is published, you will need to be a part of our Patreon project.  There will be no free version of this edition.  Seeing as this is a double sized edition (at least over 80 pages) and the culmination of most of the last year (plus) of Small Bites editions, anyone who has been getting involved in our Small Bites project is going to want to have this edition.  Interested?  Click the link here.

Massive World Wars

One of the biggest issues with trying to execute a world war in your game world is keeping everything together and allowing as few plot holes as possible.  If you think you can avoid all plot holes I suggest you start reading some of the fan theories on Game of Thrones.  GRRM had years to write each book, and yet the plot holes are everywhere, as pointed out by his fans.

So what can you do?  Well, I think the most important thing to do is to try and reduce the plot holes by thinking about each corner of your world individually and role-playing out how they will react to the news of this massive war, even if you are only “role-playing” in your head.

Let me give you some examples of how I handled Fletnern during the Conquering War as examples.  I usually work through groups of power.  Most commonly I will think about every major city - at first seeing them as a cohesive group.  Once I know what the city in general is planning (typically the city’s government), then I can think about other factions within the city and whether or not they deserve to be treated differently or called out in any special fashion.  Here’s some of what I worked through:

Council of Baronies                                      Political

When the Conquering War erupted in 626P, the Council was not an economic power; that came later.  Garnock needed to move through the Council to get to Parnania, and likely to get to Nanerette, but they did not want to have to conquer 28 separate baronies, each with multiple castles, armies, and likely to have partisans once captured, etc.  So they bribed several of the Barons to let them march through.

 But what did the Council think?  Well, they were pissed.  They were racially and culturally related to the nobles of Parnania and their first reaction was to side with Parnania against the Lats from Garnock.  But that would have been suicide!  Cooler heads prevailed and they decided to sit tight, make some coins, and see how things turned out in the end.  If things turned against the Lats, they would claim that they were not bribed, but instead threatened with hostages.  End result - stay neutral.

Brinston                                    Political &Economic

Brinston hated the idea of Garnock taking over the center of the continent, especially Nanerette.  Not only was Nanerette a long ally of Brinston, but the city served as an important hub in getting trade goods to Brinston.  But Nanerette never asked Brinston for military help.  Granted, Brinston’s army has never been that impressive, but their fleet is vast.  Though these battles were decidedly land based.  Nanerette surrendered almost immediately, leaving Brinston with no hope of coming to their aid.

So as the war raged, Brinston led by its noble merchant families built more trade ships.  Why?  So they could send ships to various ports to collect the trade goods that might not be floating down river because of the loss of Nanerette.  In summary, the merchant houses looked out for their own profits instead of committing their military to the aid of their longtime ally.  End result - stay neutral.

Myork                                                             Military

Myork had been looking for an opportunity to attack Garnock for centuries.  They see their military rival as evil and would love to wipe them out.  But Garnock has a much larger infantry, and Myork did not have enough ships to transport their army across the sea quickly.

So they started staging troops in Scaret (their ally on the right continent).  These troops were there to bolster the defenses of Scaret should the war come to that.  As Garnock forces took Parnania and laid siege to Rhum, Myork began sending forces farther north to Helatia to bolster their defenses as well.  End result - prepare for battle.

Slyvanian Nation (elves)                              Political

The elves really did not believe the war was going to happen until there were troops parked in Nanerette.  Up to that point, they believed that the Lats were going to use their army to raid other cities, like they had done with Villai.  Too late they realized this was not the case.

But the elves have long tried to stay out of the affairs of humans and other races.  They saw no benefit in entering into a war with Garnock and had no treaties that might have forced their hands.  End result - hide behind trees.

An unnamed secret society                       Economic

War is good for the economy.  Nations buy up all sorts of military hardware and then go about burning stuff that other people are using, necessitating rebuilding and new purchases.  So in general, war is good.

But shortly after Parnania was taken, they realized that their longtime rivals were allied with the Lats of Garnock.  These may be wise businessmen, but there is a line they would not cross, and if their rivals were in this thing they were in on the other side.  As long as they could keep their involvement secret, they were going to help Rhum.  End result - secretly enter the war against Garnock.

We can’t go through every single group or even city-state.  Some remained neutral; some chose a side.  But in knowing which they were doing and some of the reasons why, the world was better managed.

If for example, some massively powerful organizations should have joined the fight on one side or the other but didn’t, you have a plot hole.  Now plot holes can be mended, sometimes with retcon, sometimes with see-through tape.  You don’t want to use see-through tape if you can avoid it, but it will happen.  Sometimes, you just forget about some group, and therefore don’t plan their involvement.  Most often you can later say, “Oh they were helping, you just didn’t notice.”  This can be difficult if you try to pretend this is true but the powerful group you forgot is the wheat growers of the world and their main customer city-state was starving to death.  Still, you can often rely on things happening in the world that your players / audience were unaware of.  After all, they can’t be everywhere and see everything.

This post was written as part of the soon to be released Paladin vs. Paladin aka All About Holy Wars, the latest in our Small Bites editions.  Each Small Bites book looks deeply at one subject, a character archetype, a race/monster, a style of questing, or some other role-playing/world building subject.  This one details everything having to do with paladins aka holy knights as well as the holy wars they fight in, even if those wars are against other paladins (which is when they are the most fun!).

To get the full Game Masters’ edition when it is published, you will need to be a part of our Patreon project.  There will be no free version of this edition.  Seeing as this is a double sized edition (80 pages +) and the culmination of most of the last year (plus), anyone who has been getting involved in our Small Bites project is going to want to have this edition.  Interested?  Click the link here.