Great Moments in Roleplaying part 4

(by Keith Done)
At a recent meeting I decided to start running a role playing group, made up primarily of some of our
younger members with a couple of adults acting as mentors. During the day quite a few very funny situations arose and it reminded me of all those great moments that have occurred over the past 30 years when running various RPG campaigns. I thought I would share one each week on the site.

Triggering Emotion: When RPGs Become Dramatic
On the whole RPG’s I have run are pretty light-hearted affair; players fight the baddies, grab loot and pursue their goals in the game. However sometimes, under the right circumstances, genuine emotion creeps into the game, usually as a combination of the players immersion in their characters and the NPCs portrayed by the DM and the circumstances that the DM puts the players in. Emotions can run from something like elation at completing a really difficult scenario to that quiet sad moment when a player of much-loved NPC bites the dust. Let me share a few examples from campaigns I have run over the past 30 years.

Terror
Players encounter monsters on a regular basis in an RPG. Should they be scared? If I was confronting some of the things out of the Monster Manual, in reality, I’d need a change of underwear. But players usually quietly analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the terrifying beast that the DM has unleashed on them; they prepare correct spells and send in the tanks to do a lot of hacking and slashing. They rarely display any trepidation or fear in engaging these creatures.

But not all the time….

I recall one game where the players were hunting down a werewolf. The foul creature had attacked some local villagers and escaped into the countryside. The players were tracking it down and I decided to add some circumstances gleaned from Hollywood movies to the mix. I introduced a fog that arose as the sun slowly sunk into the west. This limited their vision and I began to describe strange snuffling sounds out there in the fog and the occasional sound of something big moving past relatively close by. Players told me they were peering into the darkness and fog to see if they could see anything. When they turned back to their companions to discuss matters at hand, I’d say, “They are not there, you lost them in the fog while you were intently looking for the werewolf”.

As players became isolated from each other, in the dark, with a monster out there somewhere, a general nervousness began to be shared around the gaming table. Players began to become very quiet and start expressing their plight with various expletives. I then told them of a baleful howling nearby and introduced a looming farmhouse and barn, with the bodies of slaughtered farm-hands scattered about the area that one player virtually tripped over. Affected by the discomfort of imaging their situation in the game, the players were reunited by retreating to the barn. Here they would be safe. They all made it there and, together they slammed shut the big barn doors and bolted them.

As they all came down from a real adrenalin rush after being creeped out by being lost in the fog, their fear was replaced by that particular kind of laughter that only comes from release after an emotional rush. I then quietly informed them that they heard the sound of claws being slowly dragged along the length of the barn, the sound moving relentlessly toward the rear of the structure. The players, as one, turned from the main doors and took in the rest of the barn.

To this day, I clearly remember everyone’s face as I said, “You can see the rest of the barn in the dim light and the scratching sound continues down the far wall. At the opposite end of the barn you see a small back entry. It’s open, the door gently creaking in the wind. A set of long fingers with three inch
long razored claws, curl around the door-frame as you watch….”

I looked up from my DM notes to see five people with their mouth hanging open. There was a moment of absolute silence before everyone completely panicked, shouting out what they were doing. The battle was on and they soon slipped into that old familiar combat routine, but the journey getting to that moment was what made the game that night.

While discussing how players usually react to nasty creatures, I must mention my son Alex. He has only recently been introduced to role-playing games and, while all the seasoned adult players engage in combat easily and expect Alex to be a co-operative member of the fighting team, Alex experiences the game in a more realistic manner. A few months ago he was playing a Ranger and the party he was with encountered a huge rabid grizzly bear, charging through the woods at them.

The Fighter prepared his trusty great club; the Wizard unleashed a Magic Missile spell, the Cleric took up a supportive position with the Fighter. And Alex? He rapidly climbed a tree, crying out to the others, “What the hell are you guys dong, it’s a huge freakin’ bear!”

Although Alex statistically was one of the party’s better fighting assets, the players were unable to convince him to come down and help, as the bear began to beat the snot out of them. Many combat rounds later, the others had joined Alex up his tree! He continues to have a reputation of being reluctant to fight big nasty things with lots of teeth, although he doesn’t mind taking on the odd goblin or two.

Sadness (and Anger)
In a game I have been running this year, the group ‘adopted’ a young 12 year old girl called Kaeleen who they discovered was the daughter of a thuggish man who would beat her. One member of the party, a thief named Sky, secretly worships an evil Goddess and took particular interest in the girl, only from the point of view that he could eventually hand her over to his temple for induction into the cult. Kaeleen interacted with the group for a number of sessions and they were wary of the influence of Sky over the child, resulting in a few angry exchanges and warnings to the hedonistic thief. They had begun to form an attachment to the NPC.

The party were navigating a remote river system in canoes and they became the prey of a rather wily Wyvern whose hunting grounds encompassed the river, happy to find a larger meal than fish. It descended upon the players, targeting morsels it could easily carry off to its lair and eat at its leisure.

On the menu were Kaeleen and Sencheena (a belligerent Halfling Wizard). The Wyvern dive-bombed the canoe and missed its target on its first run. One of the players put up a fog cloud around the canoes to hide them from the Wyvern. The creature continued to attack but with reduced hits, while the players fired arrows back and Sencheena fired off Magic Missiles (which always hit and really started to hurt the Wyvern!

I had decided that the Wyvern would withdraw to lick its wounds as the Halfling’s spells were taking their toll on the beast. I did a last strafing run and, because of the fog, determined a random character. Unfortunately, little Kaeleen got hit by its tail and, although the damage was slight, she failed a DEX Check and was hurled out of the boat. At that moment in time, the only player who was aware Kaeleen was in the water was Sky – and Sky does not lift a finger to help anyone, if it puts him in possible danger. He didn’t say a word as Kaeleen floated away downstream. The others were alerted to her plight by her cries of, “Help me Uncle Sky…please help me!”

The emotional stress (and anger) in the party at that time was palatable. A much loved NPC was in peril and the players knew Sky had cut her loose (but their characters didn’t know that!) The Wyvern dived in to grab up the struggling Kaeleen in its claws and as it tried to make good its escape, a player spent some Hero Points to lasso the beast. Hooray! The heroes were going to save the child; a wave of triumph swept across the table. Then I had them make a DC check on the rope and, to their horror, it snapped! The Wyvern was free and, despite a few final volleys from Sancheena, it escaped with the girl in its claws.

There was a sense of loss at the table that evening and you could feel the sadness for the loss of (a non-existent) child. However there was also the anger that continued to brim over at the actions of Sky. Quite a few questions were levelled at him to try and bring out what had happened, so players could take action against him. But Sky skilfully dodged them and they still continue to be unaware of the true circumstances surrounding Kaeleens’s death.

Now reading the Pathfinder Bestiary, I noted that Wyverns are quite intelligent and that nasty Halfling Sencheena had done a fair bit of damage on him. The next morning, as the players rested from the fight at a little beach and had a service for Kaeleen, I had the Wyvern pay a visit. From the cliffs above the beach, it observed the players gathering and dropped a present for them. As Sencheena led the others in a lament to honour Kaeleen, the torn and bloodied dress of the child landed on the ground in front of them. With a shriek, the Wyvern flapped its wings and took to the air, heading south. Sencheena was fuming and her hatred for the Wyvern was visible in the player’s gaze. She had made an enemy!

Next time: An Amusing Problem with Scale

See other great moments in roleplaying

2013 Pathfinder Tournament

In 2013, Keith Done will be running a Pathfinder RPG Tournament for LXG club members. The game requires four players and Keith will run this for each group outside club dates. Groups simply call him and he will run the game at a location they nominate (within reason!) The scenario will take about one or two 8 hour sessions to complete.

Once all groups have completed the tournament game, there will be a presentation of wards at the next club meeting. Awards will be for, best role playing award for each character class in the game and best team.

The game introduction is detailed below. Players can register and receive a full player pack, including characters and regional maps, at the LXG meeting on 16 December.

PURSUIT
(A Pathfinder Tournament for 4 Players, Level 3)

PLAYERS’ BACKGROUND

Lord Morden
For the past ten years Lord Idriss Morden has fought an on-going guerrilla war in the western Midlands of Llan with the objective of stirring up local support to oppose the merchant guilds who rule Llan from the capitol in Quorull, far to the east. He is a monarchist and ultimately seeks to usurp the power of the guilds and have the King of Llan’s power restored.

A charismatic young man, Morden had great initial success in getting the local commoners in the Midlands to provide food and shelter to his small retinue of fighting men. Some even actively joined his cause. Morden and his men captured Fort Tellig last year and declared it the new capital of Llan, sending a rallying call to all monarchists. The Guilds of Qurull were forced to respond and they responded quickly, sending a force of 500 mercenaries to deal with Morden. Morden had managed to recruit over 2,000 men to his cause but most of these were untrained idealistic young men, from local farmsteads.

Morden chose to meet the mercenary force in open battle at Miller’s Ford. Despite a heroic fight, Morden’s men were routed by the better-trained mercenaries and Morden and a small band of followers escaped into the wilderness.

The mercenaries restored order in the Midlands and hunted Morden for several Marches. Morden and his men were more familiar with the land and still had supporters throughout the Midlands. He and his men managed to avoid capture until winter and the majority of the mercenaries were recalled to the Lowlands in the following spring. Morden continued his campaign, ambushing small patrols of Llanish troops and stealing gold and goods from Guild Houses.

Recent Events

In the first weeks of winter, this year, a badly injured man was brought to Fort Wintergate by four huntsmen. An Esmian healer, named Janeen Thrune is based at Wintergate and she tended the injured man. A sergeant stationed at the fort identified the injured man as Lord Idriss Morden. The ‘huntsmen’ were knight loyal to the Lord. There has a brief skirmish with men of the Wintergate garrison and two of the knights were slain; the other two managing to flee into the wilderness.

Janeen continued the care of Lord Morden. The surviving knight was locked away in a cell at the Fort. After his recovery, Morden joined him. The captain of the garrison wanted to hang Morden as a traitor but Janeen insisted that, as a noble, Morden must be tried by an Audit of the Ormocean Church. When the winter snows began to recede, she sent a messenger to Jurgenstown (the largest town in the region) requesting the services of an Ormocean Justicator to claim Morden and escort him to Jurgenstown for trial.

Two weeks ago, Morden’s men attempted to free their Lord by sneaking into the Fort at night. They were discovered and were forced to flee after the garrison was alerted. Two more of Morden’s men died.

Yesterday, a sudden snowstorm struck the area and Fort Wintergate was battened down. When the storm ended, the next morning, it was discovered that Lord Morden had escaped his prison cell and that his prison-mate had been killed; his throat being cut. The captain of Wintergate ordered patrols to search for the escapee but they have so far reported that there is no sign of him and that he will be difficult to track due to the snowstorm.

A few hours ago, Talbiss, the Justicator from Jurgenstown, arrived at Fort Wintergate with a bodyguard, a paladin named Baraden. They had sheltered from the snowstorm during the night at a nearby farm. The Justicator and his companion had a hot bath and took breakfast before meeting the garrison captain. The captain regretfully told of the escape of Lord Morden and explained that he was calling off the search. He had been given orders from the regional commander that he was to march to Fort Blackwood, to the east, at all speed, as that Fort was under attack by Bloodmane tribes.

A token force would be left to protect Wintergate. However, the captain has asked the Justicator to lead a search for the escaped rebel. In the meantime, to assist Talbiss and Baraden, two other residents of Wintergate have been seconded to the search:

- A Wizard named Pelliri who was forced to shelter at the Fort during the winter
- A Bloodmane barbarian named Muhrag-Tuk, who serves as a scout for the garrison (it was considered prudent not to send Muhrag to Fort Blackwood).

The heroes have assembled, the plot has been laid out and adventure awaits….

The Story Behind Pathfinder

Penny-Arcade report has an interesting interview with the creator of the Pathfinder RPG.

Jason Bulman has turned an alternate version of D&D 3.5 into what is currently the top-selling roleplaying game of today. The interview is detailed and touches on some of the story behind the decision to come out with Pathfinder, and some indications of the future directions Pathfinder may take.

“I can’t imagine what kind of person I’d be had I not learned how to play roleplaying games. It taught me how to interact with people better, it taught me how to cooperate better, it taught me how to do math better, it made me interested in math, science, and strange words I didn’t understand. For me, it really helped me develop in my early teen years into a better person.”

LXG is currently running a Pathfinder RPG campaign.

Great Moments in Role Playing 1

(by Keith Done)
At the October Club meeting I decided to start running a role playing group, made up primarily of some of our younger members with a couple of adults acting as mentors. During the day quite a few very funny situations arose and it reminded me of all those great moments that have occurred over the past 30 years when running various RPG campaigns. I thought I would share one each week on the site.

The Dog and the Stick
In the 80’s and early 90’s I ran quite a few RPG tournament games at conventions in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra. One of these was titled “Tharlen Manor”, which was later published as an Auran d20 game as “Sanctuary”. The premise of this tournament is that the player characters find themselves knocked out by a sleeping gas and locked up in the tower of a derelict castle once owned by the noble family, Tharlen.

Tharlen Manor stands on a rocky outcrop in a fjord, connected to the mainland cliffs by a drawbridge. The drawbridge is up and the portcullis is down and the gatehouse is near impossible to break into. The players awake to find themselves chained to the castle walls and all their possessions have been removed. Most groups manage to free themselves by various means. Some of the circumstances surrounding that part of the game have had very funny outcomes (and I’ll feature some of those stories in another article).

Once the players are free, they stealthily check out the castle and usually are confronted by six big guard dogs that are running free. Now most players think, “Dogs. How tough can they be” and rush to attack them. However, try taking on 6x War-Dogs when you are 3rd Level and have no armour and your weapons consist of a few pieces of wood and a dagger! In many cases, the players engaged the dogs for a few rounds and then beat a hasty retreat to the manor house.

In one memorable game, the cleric in the party ran for the steps that led to the battlements to escape combat with the dogs. From his initial viewpoint, he couldn’t see where the battlements went to; they seemed to lead to the rear of the manor complex and the good cleric figured that he could probably find a way into the safety of the manor house by following the battlements. While his comrades battled the dogs the cleric sped up the stairs and along the front battlements. One of the dogs pursued him. He made it to the battlements that ran along the right hand side of the castle, the ravenous dog gaining ground. Half-way along this part of the walls, he was confronted by the fact that the walls on this side of the castle had collapsed into the fjord long ago and the battlement ended abruptly with a 100’ drop into the sea and rocks.

Skidding to a stop, our hero peered into the fjord. He briefly thought about jumping into the courtyard but noticed his friends had beat a hasty retreat into the manor, leaving the dogs there barking at the doors to the great hall. Turning, he saw the dog that had followed him bounding along the battlements to attack. He had seconds to act! Without hesitation, he asked me (as GM) if there were any sticks or stones on the battlement close by. Thinking he was looking for some kind of makeshift weapon, I said that there were some pieces of broken masonry and some small branches that were deadfalls from a tree in the courtyard; but nothing that would make a serviceable club.

Not to be deterred, the cleric picked up a stick and, as the dog prepared to leap at him, he threw the stick out into the air, above the sea and cast a Command Spell, crying out “Fetch!” As GM, I had to convince myself would this work. A Command Spell assumes that the target understands the Command and most creatures would be unaffected….however, a trained war-dog. Now that was a bit different, so I assigned a DC 15 score for the cleric to roll, to see if the dog did understand the concept of ‘Fetch”. The cleric was successful with the roll, the stick sailed seaward and the dog leapt past the cleric, falling to its death on the rocks below. A great Hollywood moment!

For those of you worried about the fate of our hero, the cleric later escaped into the manor via a side door, having jumped into the courtyard while his comrades distracted the dogs with meat they had found in the kitchens of the manor.

Next week: The Tale of the Paladin Saviour (or how to stage mange a hero)

One Gamer’s Diary part 5.3

And finally…

back to part 5.2, or 5.1 or all the way back to part 1.

The “Encyclopedia Eldoria” was launched in October 2005. It received good reviews and made moderate sales over its first year (after all it was being promoted by a small company). It’s never made anything that would allow me to quit work at the University but it’s out there and has its own small fan-base. The problem I have had since then is finding time to work on supportive material.

I have nearly finished “The Reliquary”, a book that fully details the religions and religious artifacts of Eldoria. In addition, I was able to track down the company that now owns Auran’s IP and secured the rights to the d20 modules that I wrote when working at Auran. This year a group of friends got together with me to form ‘FOE’ (friends of Eldoria). The plan is for them to work with me to re-work my existing material for re-release as ‘Pathfinder” and also work on new projects based in Eldoria. If you are interested in being a FOE, contact me – we’re always eager to share the work around.

You will see from the previous paragraph that I have gone over to the “Pathfinder” rules system. I have always written and played campaigns using the DnD rule system and believe DnD reached its optimum set of rules with 3.5; just the right balance of realism vs playability.

In 2007 WOTC released the 4th edition of the DnD rules system which varied greatly from 3.5. In my opinion, it dumbed down the game and included new things like ‘healing surges’ that were just totally unrealistic. There was a reaction against 4th Ed from the existing fan-base that resulted in the creation of “Pathfinder”, a system that came out of the Paizo stable. “Pathfinder” was published under the d20 licence and was basically DnD 3.5 with add-ons. It included some modifications to 3.5 rules that had always been clunky (e.g. hand-to-hand combat) and added new character classes and traits that allowed you to make you character different to other characters of the same class.

I bought into DnD 4th Ed and subsequently never used the books, continuing to run campaign games in DnD 3.5. “Pathfinder” was released in 2009 and I managed to resist it until 2011, until Ian Houlihan convinced me to give it a go.

Speaking of Ian, I must turn again to the convention scene in Brisbane. Auran had stopped sponsoring the BIG Weekend around 2003 and, although the Queensland Gamer’s Guild kept it running, it had faded into obscurity by 2006. Ian Houlihan came to the rescue with a bold vision and managed to acquire the rights to host Gencon in Australia.

Gencon Oz was a huge affair, bigger than any games convention I had attended in Australia. It ran in the grand halls of the Brisbane Convention Centre over 4 days and hosted trade stalls, international guests and tournaments. LXG supported the convention with its newly acquired games library; making it available for people to play social games and using multiple copies to run tournaments.

Gencon Oz took the gaming convention to a new level in Australia and had great reviews. It ran in 2008 and 2009 but had to fold due to a lack of international sponsorship for 2010. That was not to say that traders did not value the convention; the global financial crisis was hitting hard and few companies had the budgets to travel to Australia. Ian Houlihan had put a lot of his time and personal money into Gencon Oz and would have finally broken even by 2010 but circumstances caused the event to come to an abrupt end. I will always remember Gencon Oz and thank Ian for making it a reality.

Auscon became the default replacement for Gencon. It was nowhere near the grand scale of the Gencon Oz endeavour but catered more for core miniatures and board game tournaments. The brainchild of Allan Carey and Mark Edwards, Auscon was first held in 2010 at the Royal National Association showgrounds and is still continuing, with the next event planned for May 2013. LXG supported the 2010 and 2011 events in a similar way that the club had assisted with Gencon.

So it’s now 2012 and LXG is growing every month. The club has recently featured as part of an ABC radio national broadcast about a world renaissance in tabletop games. Members enjoy social gaming at our meetings and playing in our new creation “A Game of Games,” as well as organised events. These events have included “Puerto Rico”, “Thunderstone”, “Viewpoint” and (of course) David Kay’s “Magic: the Gathering” grand melee league.

The grand melee has been a permanent fixture of the club since 2007 and continues to be the highlight of the afternoon at every club meeting. If you are a “Magic” player and haven’t tried this format, rock along to LXG and give it a go – it’s really worth it!

After playing games for so long and having a real passion for all things game-like, you attract attention (good or bad) and I have had the privilege of meeting up with a few new people (external to LXG) over the past year who share a similar passion to promote games.

John Farrell and Kevin O’Brien come to mind. Both are involved with Critical Mass, a series of groups who meet regularly at Brisbane libraries to play board games. Several Critical Mass members are also members of LXG. Instead of being ‘rivals’, LXG and Critical Mass have enjoyed a good relationship for many years, often combining people-power and game knowledge to help out at conventions and to assist newbies to get into the hobby of gaming.

This year, I have also been active promoting games at interstate expos. Sean Carroll, the designer of the Australian card game “Viewpoint” flew me down to the Melbourne Toy Expo in May to demo their game on a trade stand. In June I was a volunteer at the Sydney Toy and Game Expo and ran introductory games of “Memoir 44” and “Viewpoint”. I will definitely be back there in 2013.

On reflection, for nearly forty years I have played all kinds of tabletop games and have never lost the devotion that I have for them. I love to open the boxes, pour through the rules, lay out the board and punch out the pieces. If you are a true-gamer you know what I’m talking about! But gaming would not have any attraction without the countless wonderful (and sometimes weird) people that I have played games with.

I can only say that the hobby attracts an audience that I have been proud to associate with; many have become my very good friends, one has become my wife and my children can also be awarded the honourific of ‘gaming-nerd’.

So this brings to a conclusion my little rant about how gaming has affected my life. I hope to spend the rest of this decade writing RPG’s, constructing “Magic” decks and pushing little blocks of wood around boards. High on my agenda is attending an overseas games convention – probably in the USA. Also up there, is releasing some new modules for “Eldoria”. In particular I want to bring out a 30th anniversary version of my first published game, “Mindbane” (yes, folks, it’s been 30 years).

Ultimately, I would like to have a go having a board game published and, if am still here in 2020, I’ll draft a new chapter to the diary and let you know how I got on.

See you at a tabletop someday. I hope you draw the cards you want, roll the dice you need and make all your saving throws!

New Edition of Dungeons and Dragons

It’s been a busy January for gaming, and not just at LXG! Wizards of the Coast recently announced a new edition of their flagship roleplaying product, Dungeons and Dragons.

The current fourth edition, released in 2008 has had a ‘mixed reception’ in the market. New players seem to like it, most existing role players didn’t care for it. With popular new product being released, D&D found itself facing declining sales in a rising market. Never good.

Paizo’s Pathfinder RPG system, built by gamers who preferred the older style of play, now outsells fourth edition. Five years ago, Pathfinder didn’t exist, because it didn’t need to. Also Fantasy Flight Games’ Dark Heresy roleplay system is selling well, based around the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

On the face of it, this is a good year to release a quality RPG system. The market is increasing, even while computer games sales decrease. It seems that people are coming back to the face-to-face interaction offered by RPGs. As the oldest RPG D&D has failed to take advantage of this trend as much as it could have. The fifth edition may well change that. Certainly Wizards of the Coast have committed themselve to extensive playtesting and feedback.

LXG meetings don’t typically involve RPG sessions, even though we have many role players in our membership. The reason is mainly logistical – our current meeting place is one big open hall, a space not conduce to role playing sessions. However December’s trivia contest worked very nicely on the stage area, so it remains a possibility, if any members want to try that out…