Roleplay-Geek Gets a New Robot

Well payday came and went and not long after a new tool arrived in my workshop.

A Cheap Laser Cutter / Engraver

There are just some jobs when you need a tool like this (or have lots of skill and patience).  That one job was making a custom enclosure for a secret project I have yet to reveal out of acrylic sheet.  

I'm reasonably handy, but when it comes to transparent sheet materials, you have to be super careful otherwise you will end up scratching or gouging the delicate finish.

I bought this one off ebay and it needed to be able to do a few things

• Cut A4 sheets - my stock is A4 (210 x 297 mm) so having a largish envelope was key.
• Cut Plexiglass - a little bit of research showed that a 5W Laser should be capable of this
  

The one I ended up buying from eBay was the:

5.5W Actual Output Laser Engraver Machine For DIY Engraving Cutting 40x40cm   

Assembly

This was my first experience assembling Aluminium extrusion and frankly I am gobsmacked at the ingenuity of this stuff.  It seriously is the Lego of mechanical engineering.  The instructions were pretty clear although they could have done with a bit better photos showing the orientation of the relevant parts.  

As long as you are pretty good with IKEA furniture this will be a relatively stress-free exercise and the total build time was less than one hour.

My only issue came with the routing of the cables and the complete lack of instructions regarding zip ties and cable management.  They have pretty much thought of everything though and as long as you follow the labels on each connector it is pretty logical where everything goes.  After all, we aren't wiring a 1974 RA 21 Toyota Celica with a 2005 2UZ V8 from a Tundra (Seriously if you aren't watching Sarah-n-Tuned what are you doing with your life). 

Software Installation

The nice eBay seller sent me a message with a QR code for the software download.  Installation was a breeze and after a little bit of reading of the help pages I was connected and ready to go.

Lots of Problems

I ran the cutter power test which seemed to go okay although there was a lot of burning around the edges.  After loading up a picture, I went through the basic interface and set the printer going.  Immediately I had an alarm and couldn't work out what had stopped the printer.  

After another set of tries and different images and more alarms I gave up.

2 Weeks Later...

Sometimes it is better to sleep on a thing and after 2 weeks of sleeping on it I summed up the courage to have another go.  

The first thing I wanted to do was build a baseboard to keep the cutter square and in place on my workbench.  This was quickly fashioned from a piece of white laminate hardboard.  I made little cutouts for the 4 printer feet to lock into.  

I then homed the cutter and using the "flash" button I marked the home position I then manually moved the head to the furthest X position and flashed the laser again marking this position.  Homing the printer made all sorts of noise, I guess that it doesn't like its stepper motors being back driven but unlike my 3D Printer there is no option to disable the steppers.  

I decided to use the Jog feature to send the head North along the Y axis but after about 5 or 6 Jogs it threw another alarm.  I flashed the laser and marked this point.  Connecting all the dots gave me a rudimentary XY scale and origin point about which I can set some guides snd be a little bit more confident in where my images are going to appear.

X Y Offset

It seemed like when the image uploaded into the cutter workspace it was centered on the origin and the first thing the cutter wanted to do was travel West and South beyong the cutter's Home position.

Eventually I discovered that in the import / resize dialogue there are some offset commands.  These were bizarrely set to -43 in both axis.  Resetting these to +20 in each axis and hey presto my laser moved and burned my first image... Tony Stark!

Next Projects

I really want to be able to quickly locate stock at the origin and be able to judge the offset when importing my art, so making an L-shaped scale is high on the agenda.

I also want to create a detachable shelf for the workbench as this particular model requires a laptop to be connected at all times. amd I just dont have anywhere nice to put the laptop at the moment.

Watch this space.

Is Obsidian Portal Any Good?

I am a big fan of session blogging and I try my best to log each of the games I run here on my blog or if i am a player over at the Dragons Keep Roleplay Club website.  I stumbled across Obsidian Portal as an alternative to creating my own wiki/campaign website and thought I'd check it out. 

What is Obsidian Portal?

It's essentially a campaign logging tool which allows you to keep track and share your adventures, characters and NPCs, locations and maps.

What I like 

It's Free - anything which requires a subscription has really got to provide me with something special which I can't easily get elsewhere.

It's Easy - If you can use a webpage and are familiar with how hyperlinks work, then you can create your own campaign wiki.   

Google Maps Integration - The ability to quickly and easily generate your own campaign maps and populate them with markers which link to wiki entries is fantastic.  The interface is a little clunky but it works.  I can see this coming in very useful as my players explore their surroundings.

Campaign of the month - The Obsidian Portal official blog Words in the Dark regularly awards creators and it's a great way to showcase some of the excellent work which people are doing for their players.

What I Don't Like

Limited Functionality -  Many of the advanced features are understandably kept behind a paywall.  I understand that this is part of their business model and if you gave away the crown jewels for free you would limit your ability to generate revenue. 

Limited Formatting - I am not a fan of the markdown engine it uses which has difficulty with basic items such as italics and there is no ability to add tables.

Summary

This is a very early review of this tool as I am still getting to grips with it and populating my own campaigns for Judge Dredd.  It's value will only become apparent for me when I begin to use it in anger as a wiki during play.

Check out my Obsidian Portal Campaign page for Meanwhile in Mega City One and follow, favourite or just give it a thumbs up.

Secret Damage, Wound States and Initiative Cards

This post might be controversial but when I am running my games I don't like my players knowing how many hitpoints they have left.  I know, crazy right... 

(shuts curtains and ignores baying horde of players brandishing pitch forks and flaming torches)

The Initiative Card

The core concept behind this is my use of 5x3 Record Cards as a sort of mini character sheet to record each character's current Initiative, Hit Points and any interesting side effects they may experience in combat.  Each character has one, but so do each of the monsters or NPCs that are engaged in the combat.

A used Initiative card will look something like this

Roll for Initiative

When the combat ensues the players write their initiative in the corner of their Initiative card and hand it to me.  I roll for the monsters and do the same.  These cards are then sorted into descending numerical order and the combat begins.  My role as DM is then to tell each player when their characters card comes up and they can resolve their action.  when they take damage I roll and record the result and then tell them how wounded they are.

In the Real World there are no Health Bars

In real life, if you become injured you don't know how close to death you might actually be.  Beyond the sensation of pain or a physical cut, stab wound or a broken leg you really have no idea if you are about to shuffle off this mortal coil or bleed out in 10 hours.  Cut to the RPG and we've all had the experience of taking the fight to the enemy even when we are on our last hit point.  Does that seem like the action of a hero to you?  It's the not knowing if you are going to make it which makes the self sacrifice heroic.

Enter the concept of Wound States these are simple subdivisions of your characters hit points into one of 4 wound states:

• Bruised - less than 75% (3 quarters) of your Hit Points left.
  
• Bloodied - less than 50% (half) of your Hit Points left. 
  
• Battered - less than 25% (1 quarter) of your Hit Points left.
  
• Unconcious - 0 Hit Points left.
  

When you get damaged by an opponents attack that moves your character into a new wound state then I will update you.  Armed with this knowledge It is your decision to push your luck and to continue to fight or not.

The inspiration for this push your luck mechanism was in the video game Driver 2 (correct me if I am wrong) in which you had to hazard a guess at how physically injured you were by the increasingly laboured way the character walked.

Passing Other Secret Info

I don't know about your players but some of mine are want to loot bodies and stash those special items before announcing that they didn't find anything.  Sometimes I want to drop a hint that they might have discovered something during combat that they don't realise is important until after the fight is done. The initiative card system allows me to do this effortlessley without breaking out of combat unnecessarily or telling the world and their wife what only the character should know.   

Am I still Crazy?

Now that you've heard about it, what do you think?  Am I still a madman or is this a technique you'd like to inject into your games?  Answers in the comments below.

Zone Maps - Map Making for the Lazy Games Master

I am a big fan of any technique which can minimize the amount of time I spend prepping a game and maximise the utility during play.

What is a Zone Map?

Put simply these are maps which don't try to show things like distance or scale in favour of the relationships that the different elements have with one another.  This is a concept popularized in the game fate and its descendants.  

My own exposure came in the form of Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7) which is a monstrous tome but my go to Space Opera systemand I have even adapted it for a Fate Judge Dredd Campaign.

The beauty of a Zone Map is that you don't need any kind of cartographic skills in order to produce them.  You just need to know what the relationships are between the zones.  They also don't pay any particular respect to scale or distance and so they can be used to represent anything from a building to a galaxy.

Show and Tell

Its easier to show rather than to tell so here are a couple of maps from one of my Judge Dredd games to illustrate a few of the different styles I use.

The examples above are sketched onto 5"x 3" Index Cards which is incidentally my favourite method for initiative tracking in RPGs but I will talk about that in another post.

Zone Map Resources

• Show Me Your Fate Style Zone Maps - A great Reddit thread with a lot of inspiration  
• Fate Zone Map Pack - If you prefer a flowchart design try these from DriveThruRPG
• Fate Zone Maps Tumbler - A bunch of different maps including a jungle map I might steal... 
• Using Abstract Maps in D&D - A look at how you can use the zone map in your D&D game

Show Me Yours

Have You used zone maps in your games? Share your experience in the comments section below.

The Perfect Gamer Notebook?

I have recently taken up the mantle as session reporter in the Savage Worlds Hellfrost game which is run every Friday night at my game group Dragons Keep Roleplay Club, in Chislehurst, South East London.

I've been using a less than practical A6 sized filofax style notebook that I bought as part of my Random Wish Roleplay Stuff challenge.  This got me thinking about...

What Should the Perfect Gamer Notebook Look Like?

The criteria are simple.  It needs to be:

• Sturdy and Secure - Your notebook will get tossed into a bag and rattle around with all of your other Roleplay gear so a sturdy cover is essential.  An elastic ribbon or similar to keep it all closed up would be double handy too.
  
  
• Good for Mapping - Having squared paper is essential when you get tasked with being the map scribe for the night.
  
  
• Lined for Legibility - My penmanship is not great at the best of times so having lined paper is an essential to keep your notes in check
  
  
• Good for Sketches - Sometimes you just need a space to sketch.  Maybe it's a character portrait, maybe an object or a symbol.  Having an unlined plain white background is useful if you want to digitise the image
  
  
• Session Info - A space where you can write that all important session info like date or session number.  Very helpful when you are playing multiple different games.
  
  
• Loose Pages - Having ring bound pages is a great way to keep your campaign notes organised.
  
  
• Compact and Bijoux - Let's face it by the time you have your rulebooks, character sheet, pencils, dice and tray, snacks and a drink on the table there's not much room left.  Having a large A4 sized notebook is probably a step too far, A5 is about the maximum size for the cramped playspace and still be a useable size.

Have you seen a great notebook.  If so pop a comment in the box below.

How Do I Start Playing Dungeons and Dragons

We've all had to begin somewhere and when I started playing nearly 40 years ago the internet didn't exist to help.

Find a Local Dungeons & Dragons Group

When you first start playing roleplaying games you need to learn from other players.  Critical Role and other streamed "Live" games are fine, but they are edited professional voice actors and that's going to give you an unrealistic expectation of what the game is like to play with normal people.  

Learning to play from experienced players is the best way

Joining a local group is the best way for you to learn the basics before you begin investing time and money into the hobby.  You will meet people who have been playing for years and can help you get up to speed straight away.

At my Friday night Tabletop Roleplay Group, Dragons Keep Roleplay Club, we are always welcoming to players new to the hobby and will help you to create a character and learn the basic rules.  We have experienced Games Masters who have been running Dungeons & Dragons for many years 

Google search terms like:

• Roleplaying Games Clubs near me
• Dungeons & Dragons Groups near me 
• Tabletop RPG Clubs near me

Roleplayers are everywhere and anyone

Even if you live in the back of beyond you will find that there are small groups of players in your town who have been quietly playing their games for years.  They will be from all walks of life and all kinds of people.  Roleplayers are some of the most diverse hobby groups I've ever come across.

 

They will advertise spaces on some of the many Roleplaying Forums like

• ENWorld - Gamers Seeking Gamers
  
• RPG.net - Ye Olde Tavern: Looking for Group
  
• BoardGameGeek - Game Groups Forum
  
• RPGGeek - Conventions and Meetups
  

Buy a starter set

Dungeons and Dragons has a long history of producing starter boxes which give you a simplified cut down version of the game, a starter adventure and even teach you how to play the game.  In fact they contain pretty much everything you need to get yourself up and running with the game.

Most game systems will have multiple starter set entry points.  Dungeons and Dragons has at least 3

• Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set -  
• Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit
• D&D Stranger Things / Rick & Morty cross over starter sets 

For younger players there is even a boardgame version of D&D called Adventure Begins which will get you started.

 

Judge Dredd Random Crime Drop Table

I wouldn't be much of a fan of the Old School Rennaisance (OSR) of Roleplaying if I didn't love making a drop table every now and then.

How To Use the Judge Dredd Random Crime Drop Table

• Download it and print it out.  
  
• Grab some dice 
• Roll up some Crimes
  

SAMPLE CRIMES & SENTENCES

Armed Robbery - As the Judges pass by the Bank / Shop / Truck an alarm sounds and a group of balaclava wearing perps start blazing away with their spit guns.  SENTENCE: 18 to 30 years.

Arson - An eagle eyed judge spots a perp running away from a smoking building / vehicle / vending machine - SENTENCE: Life

Assault - A fight breaks out between some citizens and the PCs need to break it up.  SENTENCE: 1 to 5 years for brawling,  3 to 10 years if anyone is seriously injured.  10 years if someone injurs a Judge or a public figure.

Boinging in Public - The tranquility is broken by screams as a giant bouncing ball careens through the crowd.  SENTENCE: 20 years.

Coercion to Suicide - A Judge spots a citizen about to take a dive and a crowd is urging them to jump.  SENTENCE: 10 to 15 years.

Comic Book Smuggling - A comic book smuggler is peddling his filth to you impressionable juves.  SENTENCE: 6 months for possession, 5 to 18 years for trading.  10 to 25 years for manufacture or smuggling.

Criminal Damage - Venting your spleen against a Building / Car / Vending Machine / Robot / Street Furniture is no way for a citizen to behave.  SENTENCE: 2 to 6 years.

Disorderly Conduct - Covers a wide range of minor public order crimes including queue jumping, being drunk or homeless, begging.  SENTENCE: 1 to 5 years.

Dunking - An alert Judge spots a dunker with their hand in someone else's pocket.  SENTENCE: 2 to 7 years.    

Forgery - Despite advances in modern crypto technology there is still a brisk trade in illegal documents and counterfeit cred sticks.  Your Judges might stop someone for a minor traffic violation and their Drivers License doesn't pass the sniff test.  SENTENCE: Posession 2 to 8 years, Forgery 8 to 15 years.  

Illegal Gambling - There are plenty of sanctioned venues such as Robo-Fighting, Slot Parlours and Bingo Halls but that doesn't stop citizens from indulging in this most destructive of vices. 
Be it a pedwalk game of 3 Shells or a friendly side bet at the Shuggy table your average citizen will bet on just about anything, anywhere, anywhen.  SENTENCE: Attendance at an illegal event 2 to 6 years, organising 10 to 15 years.

Illegal Trading - Many citizens turn entrepreneur to make a few extra credits on top of their welfare checks.  Trading without a license or trading in a proscribed location is illegal.  SENTENCE: 2 to 5 years.  

Jay Walking - Walking on a highway (or in a designated running zone, or running in a walking zone) is an offence.  Better to nip it in the bud Judge.  SENTENCE: 3 to 12 months.

Jimping - There's something funny about those Judges over there.  Their uniforms aren't regulation spec.  Judge Impersonation (or known perp impersonation) is no joke, especially at halloween, comic-cons (because comics are illegal remember) and dinner parties.  SENTENCE: 1-5 years for defamation.  10 years if committing another crime.

Littering (and Spitting) - Statistically speaking one of the most common gateway crimes.  Despite a zero tolerance policy and stiff sentencing millions of citizens every year start out on the long downward slope into progressively more serious criminality.  Criminologists have suggested that once a perp enters into the Justice System that it is the system itself which brutalises and criminalises citizens.  Needless to say those criminologists are behind bars.  SENTENCE: 3 to 6 months.

Parking Violation - There's no excuse for bad parking especially when the cars can do it for you.  SENTENCE: 1000 C Fine or 1 Year.

Rioting - Mega City One is a powderkeg and it doesn't take much disruption to a citizen's life for them to go nuts and start rioting.  Thankfully the Justice Department has an arsenal full of non-lethal weaponry to quell even the most peacefull protests including stumm gas, riot foam and sonic cannon.  SENTENCE: 2 to 10 years

Robot Tampering - Robots are an everyday thing in Mega City One.  They serve you breakfast, clean your apartment, vend your food and many other mundane every day tasks leaving you plenty of time to enjoy your unemployment.  Some Citizens however take to robot tampering either as some form of political statement or as a means to make money.  Sometimes this tampering can have deadly consequences.  SENTENCE: 10 years to Life depending on the severity. 

Robbery - Be it burglary or theft from a vehicle or person, robbery is one crime which never goes out of style.  Usually the preserve of street punks or gentlemen thieves its all the same to the Law.  SENTENCE: 5 to 12 years.

Scrawling - The modern form of grafitti, it is usually the preserve of the young bored juve, scrawling offers a degree of notoriety or infamy for those who can get their tag in the most outrageous or prominent location.  However, it is also a popular way for gangs to mark their territory.  Judges should always be vigilant for gang signs whenever they encounter the work of scrawlers.  SENTENCE: 3 months to 3 years.   

Shoplifting - Low level criminality needs to be treated with a short sharp shock or a day stick to the face.  SENTENCE: 2 to 7 years.

Smoking in Public - Despite tobbacco being a heavily regulated substance and nicotine having long been removed from cigars and cigarettes smoking or vaping is a popular passtime among citizens.  The Justice Department outlawed public smoking many years ago and regulated smokatoriums sprang up in every sector.  SENTENCE: 10 minutes in a smokatorium without a helmet.

Sponting - Spontaneous Confessors aren't really criminals they just like to waste Judges time and resources by confessing to crimes they haven't committed.  The Justice Department being the caring and considerate organisation that it is made Sponting a crime.  Now everyone is happy.  SENTENCE: 3 to 6 months

Tapping - Street mugging or tapping is an all two common crime of violence.  SENTENCE: 5 to 15 years.

Unlicensed Miming - Whilst clowning around is perfectly legal miming is not.  Unless of course you are carrying a permit and operating with the designated miming zone outside Mitterand Maisons in Sector 55.  SENTENCE: 5 years.

Judge Dredd Random Crime Drop Table - Click to Download

How Do I Find a Tabletop RPG Group Near Me?

Finding a tabletop RPG group near me has always been a challenge and I've ended up creating more than one club to satisfy my passion.  

I know others out there find it very difficult to find clubs or groups to play their favourite roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons near where they live too. 

Are you looking for a group of friends like this?

Local Tabletop RPG Groups Need Committed Members Like You

My club is on a recruitment drive at the moment and we are looking forward to resuming our normal Friday night sessions in our community hall in Chislehurst, South East London.

We try to host 3 games each week and to ensure lots of variety and prevent Games Master burnout we like to rotate the GMs in and out of GMing and playing 3 times a year.  Our typical game rotation is about 17 weeks long so we are actively looking for members who are going to turn up every week and take an active role in an entire campaign session.  We do string sessions back to back and I for one have run at least one campaign which ran for 60+ consecutive sessions.

That's a heck of a committment from GMs and so we try to recruit members from towns within easy reach of our venue such as Bexley, Bromley, Eltham, Lewisham, Orpington and Sidcup.  This makes travel to club easy on public transport especially when our games finish at 11pm and it's a cold dark wet October night.  This is the UK after all.

How Do I Find a Roleplay Club Near Me?

Obviously our club is just not going to be a viable option if you are living in North London, but the internet has a bunch of resources to help you find the right club for you.

1. Google - I know it sounds obvious but many Tabletop RPG clubs have websites which they use as their primary advertising mechanism when they are looking for players.  The most popular search terms are "Tabletop RPG near me", "DnD near me" and "Dungeons and Dragons near me" but also consider using terms which include "in (your town name)" for a more local search result. Avoid the term "Roleplay" as this tends to throw up adult orientated or early years educational resources.
   
   
2. Meetup - Is a useful listing service which many clubs (my own included) pay to use.  However, remember that RPGs are typically are a long term time commitment so if you are looking for more casual drop-in play or if your other real-life commitments such as work or home take precedent then consider looking for the boardgame or online game groups.
   
   
3. Reddit - The homepage of the internet has a thriving roleplaying community and many subreddits dedicated to specific systems or genres of tabletop RPGs.  Three places I would look are:
• r/rpg (1.3M members) - a sub for Tabletop RPGs of all flavours
  
• r/DnD (2.3M members) - a dedicated sub for fans of Dungeons and Dragons
• r/lfg (155K players) - a sub for those people looking for a group.  Post a message and see who replies.
  
  
4. Your Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) - Will usually have a clubs register or a notice board where people can advertise their clubs or groups.  Talk to the staff as well as they may know of some themselves.  Check their website too as they may offer free advertising for clubs.  My FLGS is Orcs Nest in Central London and my club is on its listings page.
   
   
   • Orcsnest - list of UK gaming clubs
   • Gamessesh - list of affiliated gaming groups
     
   
   
5. Register with Tabletop Wizard's Tabletop Finder - This is a relatively new worldwide personals ad space dedicated to the needs of Roleplayers, Boardgamers and Wargames looking for a game either face to face or online.  It's got a growing community with just under 40,000 members.
   
   
6. Check with Forums - There are a few big tabletop game forums out there and meny have dedicated threads for players seeking games and game group announcements.
   
   
   • RPG.net -
     
   • Board Game Geek Guilds - List of UK Guilds 
   • ENWorld - RPG Clubs in the UK    

Be Patient, but Be You

Roleplaying is a social contract between people and you might not fit in with the first group you appraoach.  Many things can influence a game; GM play style, age, experience and exposure to pop-culture tropes.  

Don't get disheartened if you don't gel with the first group you try.  In my experience new groups tend to be a bit reserved with new players and likewise people new to a group.  Everyone is on their on their best behaviour until they work out exactly who you are.  

My advice is to be you and engage with everyone.  This gives the group the best opportunity to get to know you and work out if you are going to be a good fit for their group.

More Advice for Players Looking for a Tabletop RPG Group

If you have any useful advice, tips or tricks which have worked for you then please share in the comments below.

Newsround - Feb 7th to Feb 13th 2021

In the best tradition of John Craven's Newsround here's my rundown of "What I Learned" on the Internet this week.

New Easy to Use VTT - Owlbear Rodeo

If you are ovewhelmed by the likes of Fantasy Grounds or Roll20 then this relative newcomer in the Virtual Table Top (VTT) space might be more your kind of thing.

Owlbear Rodeo is entirely free to use (although Patreon funding is welcome) and browser based promising all the usual map sharing functionality that GMs demand of their online game experiences.

I was very impressed with the feature set as reviewed by WASD Roleplay so if you have tried it out let me know in the comments below what you thought of it.

Alan Tudyk Stars in New Alien Doctor Murder Mystery Comedy - Resident Alien

Resident Alien - Alan Tudyk

Yes, you read it right the inimitable Alan Tudyk (Firefly / Doom Patrol / Dale & Tucker vs Evil / Rogue One) stars in this new SYFY original and they have covered all the genre bases and then some.  Set in a small ex-mining town in the Colorado mountains this show has all the vibes of Due South but instead of a mountie, it's an alien.  

Tudyk of course is a joy to watch and his comedic character acting chops are in full view as the alien on a mission to destroy humanity but having to masquerade as the towns new doctor.  His arch nemesis and the only resident who can see his true form is a 10 year old boy.

Throw in some mysterious paranormal researchers and you've got a recipe for some serious shenanigans.

This is not a laugh out loud (there is no laughter track) joke-a-minute show, more a gentle comedy about messed up people with messed up lives.  Resident Alien is full of pathos interspersed with some fish-out-of water and cultural confusion moments keeps you engaged throughout.

Avatar Gets a New Roleplaying Game

Viacom CBS Consumer Products and Magpie Games have signed a deal for a new roleplaying game based on the popular noughties Nickolodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and the sequel series The Legend of Korra.

Now I for one think this is long overdue and am looking forward to seeing what results.  Magpie are already slated to release a ROOT RPG based on the art of Kyle Ferrin’s in LEDER Games very popular ROOT Boardgame.

No scheduled release date yet but fingers crossed it will happen and happen soon.

Avatar The Last Airbender - Ang

Blacklist Miniatures - Fantasy Series 1 Unboxing & Fantasy Series 2

Those lucky backers who managed to get in on the Fantasy Series 1 Kickstarter way back in May 2020 are about to receive their rewards.  

Flush with success the Kickstarter for Series 2 is expected to launch on 30th March so put that date in your diary and get your wallets ready people.

In the meantime here's an unboxing video from Guerilla Miniature Games to whet your appetite

2000AD Playing Cards - What Better Way to Play Savage Dredd

6 months ago I thought I would be back in the community hall with my friends at my Roleplay Club in South East London, Dragons Keep running my Judge Dredd Savage Worlds campaign in the flesh.  

Savage Worlds uses a playing card deck to determine initiative order and so I turned to eBay to see if I could buy a Judge Dredd themed deck.  Strangely all I could find was the 2000AD Playing Cards given away as a promotional item in an issue of SFX Magazine.  

2000AD Playing Cards - SFX Magazine Promotional Item

I'm now running my game online so I still get to use them by showing them to players via webcam but I would be cool to be able to add them to Roll20 as a custom deck of cards. 

I'd also love to know if anyone knows of any other Judge Dredd decks.  If you do leave a comment in the box below.

A Gift from the Gods

Gifts of the Gods is the theme for this month's RPG Blog Carnival kindly hosted by the Sea of Stars RPG Design Journal.

A Clash of Titans

Whenever I think about divine artifacts I am reminded of Clash of the Titans (1981) where Perseus is gifted:

• A helmet of invisibility - given to him by his father Zeus
• A magic sword - gifted by Aphrodite
  
• A magic shield - given by Hera

This trio of powerful magic items would make most PCs wet themselves, particularly if given to a relatively low level character as in Perseus case.  However, what we must also recognise is that Perseus is a demi-god.  I very much doubt that this sort of largess would be shown to a mere mortal so why should you do the same for your PCs?

Clash of the Titans (1981) - Release The Kraken

A Pawn of the Gods

The Gods play games from their lofty home of Olympus.  In the movie Zeus is bound to honour the laws of Olympus which means he must allow Andromeda to be sacrificed to the Kraken but he does not have to play the game fairly.  We mere mortals cannot fathom the machinations of Gods, but we do know that Perseus is his pawn in that game.

When contemplating granting a PCs a gift of the Gods, it should definitely come with strings attached.  A great evil must be defeated, a quest achieved which benefits the Gods in some way.  It could even be a wager between two Gods.  Whose champion will be first to succeed the trials and rescue the maiden?

Have a warlock in your party?  Well in order to receive their power they need to have made a compact with an eldritch power.  The PC is a manifestation of that power and must obey the whims of their master.  Power does not come without consequence so exercise some consequence now and then.  

These could all be great epic story arcs in themselves and would certainly add flavour to any mythical campaign.

Single use Deus Ex Machina

Another way to resolve the dilemma of giving PCs uber powerful magic items and turning them into OP Murder Hobos is to make them single use.  It is not unusual for an item to be crafted with a sole purpose in mind and once that purpose is achieved it is destroyed or loses its magical properties.    

The Gift of Information

Information can often be the most powerful weapon of all and having a God visit you in your dreams or answer your prayers with knowledge can be a blessing.  When faced with insurmountable odds or an impenetrable fortress, the knowledge of a secret entrance to the big bad guy's inner sanctum would be just as effective as hiding inside a wooden horse.

Blessings and Curses

Having a God backing your cause can be a real boost.  In fact why not give your PCs temporary stat increases or something visible to others like a glowing aura, a halo or give them perfect hair.  If your game is set in a quasi medieval world where everything is caked in a layer of grime, make your blessed PCs stand out from the crowd by mud literally not sticking to them.

"By The Gods..." is a popular invocation among PCs.  How about you actually give PCs the power of minor curse.  Alternatively, you could bestow the power of curse reflection upon your characters which could lead to some interesting interactions with local NPCs.   

By the Power of the Pantheon

Of course playing with Divine Items requires you to have at least one God or better still a Pantheon as part of your setting.  If your games are set in one of the many published settings like Forgotten Realms you have a cavalcade of Gods to choose from.

Otherwise treat this as an opportunity for some world building with your pious PCs.  If like me you are a fan of Terry Pratchett, you may have read Small Gods, a satire upon religion and politics.  The power of the Gods is directly related to the size of their congregation. In the book Om is a once powerful God stuck in the body of a small turtle and the novice acolyte Brutha is his one and only true believer.  What better personal mission for the party's Cleric than to spread the word of their God and convert believers as they move from town to town.

Plot and Personal Quests Breeds Engagement

I have always been a firm believer in incorporating elements of PC backgrounds into my plots to give every player around the table a real tangible reason to be engaged in the story.  If players include a deity in that background then why not use it.  Your players will feel rewarded when part of the background that they have created becomes a central motif to the weeks play. 

How Do you Deal with Divine Gifts in your Game?  

I don't have all the answers (that would be omniscience) and to the point of writing these blogs is to share ideas.  If you have any cool examples of how you gifted a player a divine artifact then please leave a comment in the box below.

Pacing and Player Decision Making

When you are beginning your journey as a GM you have a lot to juggle.  

You have to keep track of your NPCs, deliver descriptions of the world, drop hints and rumours, bookeep, keep one step ahead of the players... Frankly it can be exhausting at times and it is easy to forget about pacing.

Pacing and Prioritisation in Player Decision Making

In real life we have to make decisions in real time and often those decisions are made under time pressure with imperfect information.  Naturally we prioritise those decisions to select the most urgent tasks first and this should be no different for players in your RPG.

Ask yourself how many times your party has meticulously planned a combat encounter.  The planning (or more likely the arguing) can often take longer than the combat itself and this can suck the life out of the game.

Putting your players under time pressure when planning will result in them throwing out many of their wilder options and selecting between two or three based on what they know.  I've seen many parties get bogged down in analysis paralysis because they just have too many options on the table or too many voices.

How you pace a game also affects the engagement levels of players.  If there are too many long discussions it can sap the will to live from some players particularly if there character's share of the decision making is uneven.  You only have to look at the Avengers to see how disengaged Hulk can be when the others strategise about attack plans.  Hulk just wants to smash like your typical tank PC.

Pacing also raises the stakes for players.  Rushed decision making increases the risk of failure and the players feel that there are consequences to that failure.  The tension rises, the action becomes more visceral.  Success following a tense battle is always sweeter and mixed with relief.

I said make the action "Intense" - Image credit Diary of a Croation Larper

Encounter by Encounter - A Nodal Design View of a Campaign

Nodal Design suits my way of scenario writing and I have explained the concept in articles before but maybe what I have left on the table is a real world example.  

In 2019 I ran a Judge Dredd campaign "Tales from Mega City" for a small group of 4 Street Judges using the Starblazer Adventures game system.  The campaign spanned 11 sessions and whilst everyone had a passing familiarity with the two Judge Dredd movies that was about all they knew about Mega City 1.  In this example each encounter is a node with multiple paths or options to their next encounter. 

Session 1 - Encounter 1 - Sector House Briefing

The first encounter does a number of things.  It establishes some characters (namely Judge Belloch) some world lore (weather control, sector 55) a location (Loop Plaza) and two future events (the super duper loop unveiling, the fidget spinner race) which the PCs should be aware of.

The players get to choose which of these events they want to pursue.  Which one they decide to follow is immaterial as whilst they are on their way there they will experience the next encounter.  Whilst some might misconstrue this forced encounter as a form of Railroading, when done in a sidetrek style, the GM has not removed any player agency just introduced another immediate encounter.  In D&D this would probably take the form of a wandering monster encounter or a sidequest.  

Session 1 - Encounter 2 - Roadblock

Whilst heading towards their chosen destination via Megway 5535 (location) they observe 2 Judges who have set up a temporary roadblock.  The PCs decide to stop and chat with them but could easily have passed them by.  The PCs all make observation checks but fail and get back on their bikes and continue on to loop plaza.  This was an opportunity for players to make their first skill check and learn a little bit about the game system.  In my experience if you let players go too long without rolling some dice they become disengaged. 

Further down the road they players all get to make another skill check, this time it a Law check.  Judge Holmes passes and gets rewarded with the info that Judge White's left knee pad was on upside down.  Once again it is up to the players what they do with that information.  Holmes decides it warrants further investigation and they return to the scene of the roadblock.  

Session 1 - Encounter 3 - The Security Guards

When they arrive at the scene the Judges are gone but their Lawmasters remain. Two security guards flag the Judges down and tell them that the Judges White and Greene requisitioned their van and sped away up the off-ramp to Meg 5527.  The guards also mention that they forgot to tell the Judges that they were carrying an explosive cargo which is sensitive to shocks.  This introduces a sense of urgency to the proceedings.   

The players also make a successful Law roll which gets them the hint that this feels like a case of Judge Impersonation and Road Piracy, both serious crimes.  However, the Judges bikes are the real deal which means that there are two Judges to be found and that could be the far more serious crime of Judge Homicide.

This is a lot of exposition but it is vital information which might influence the choices that players make now the are faced with multiple options.  Do they protect the public and chase down the van?  Do they try to find the real White and Greene? Or do they take the bold step of splitting up and doing both at the same time?  

One player asks if they can put out an All Points Bulletin (APB) on the van and is rewarded with a solid YES.  They can now focus on the immediate task of finding White and Greene.

Session 1 - Encounter 4 - The Tyre Tracks

A cursory search of the nearby roadside shows a set of tyre tracks leaving the road and entering an overgrown patch of vegetation.  Buried in the undergrowth, out of sight, is a small town car.  Muffled cries can be heard from inside the trunk.  Opening the trunk reveals Judges White and Green bound, gagged and stripped down to their regulation underwear.  The Judges reveal that they were taken by suprise by 2 assailants and knocked unconcious.  

Meanwhile one of the PCs investigating the undergrowth spots a rustling in the bushes and goes to investigate.  Parting the branches of a shrub they briefly spot a flash of yellow but the area behind the bush is empty.  This mini event is a piece of foreshadowing and introduces a potential sidetrek involving Pokemon which that PC might choose to investigate at a later date.  Giving individual players their own sidetreks is a useful way of keeping them engaged in the game especially in a "Detective" style scenario where one or two players may be actively questioning Non Player Characters and others are just standing around.

The encounter ends with a call from Sector HQ informing the players that the van has been spotted entering a Through-Way near Thatcher Towers.  With Judges White and Greene found the GMs job is now to get the players back into urgency mode and on the trail of the Jimps and the explosives.  Keeping the players "on plot" by using things such as radio comms or telephone calls is a perfectly legitimate way of reminding them that events they had the choice of following up are still unfolding and now need their attention.

Session 1 - Encounter 5 - The Throughway and Thatcher Towers

When the players arrive they find the van parked awkwardly on the roadside.  The cargo hold is empty apart from 2 Judge uniforms.  Successful observation checks from the players (it's been a while since they rolled some dice) reveals 4 CCTV cams belonging to Thatcher Towers block with good views of the van.  This naturally leads them to make their way to the block security station and the CCTV recordings. 

When they enter the block at level 250 (GM: establishing the scale of Mega City buildings) they encounter the BREXIT political rally and that there is someone called Nigel.  This is another piece of foreshadowing of the real plot to the scenario but it is intentionally glossed over as just a bit of scene setting.  If the players get involved and try to break up the rally then I would have let them do so. 

When the players get to the security station and demand the tapes, the security guard tells them that they weren't covering the through-way because they were focusing on the BREXIT rally.  Whilst this is the GM effectively saying "No" to the players, it is the first time and it is backed up with a solid reason.  This is also an example of an event which Must Happen.  The trail of the missing explosives must go cold at Thatcher Towers because their recovery and the possible arrest of the Jimps might lead to future events in the plot timeline not happening. 

Before any of the players can react to this Judge Belloch's voice shouts at them through their radios demanding that they get to Loop Plaza pronto.  This ends the session nicely but also reinforces the idea that events are going on around them which don't stop happening because of the choices that they make.  These Timeline Events are always going to be experienced from the perspective of the PCs so you will need to be either flexible about when they happen or the way in which the PCs experience them.  This might in real time, via a news report or in third hand witness statements.  The event still happens irrespective of the players actions.  Similarly if the players had chosen to patrol the Fidget Spinner Race then the message from Sector HQ would have been to attend the race.    

When all put together the nodemap for this session looks a bit like this:

When designing the scenario from scratch you may go through this process multiple times as you focus in on what is important for each session. In fact having a node map at the macro level is useful.  What I like about this particular style of scenario design is that you only need to do the detail work for the encounters that are highly likely to happen.

For example, I knew that there could be a potential shoot out if the PCs chose to "chase the van" and so would need a stretch of Megway battlemap and a few vehicles.  However, this didn't take place so there wasn't much effort wasted and I could always reuse that battlemap another time in another session.  

Why Saying Yes is the Secret to Great Games Mastery

Possibly the hardest lesson for a new Games Master to learn is how to say Yes.

The temptation to keep your players on the path of destiny you have spent many hours writing for them is very strong but belies a fundamental failing in your thinking.  RPGs are not books, they are not linear plotlines where you control every aspect of the story.  

Remember that RPGs are collaborative stories where the agency and actions of players help to create the storyline.  Once you say No to a player, once you remove player choice you remove player engagement and the fun goes out of the window.  This is commonly referred to as Railroading and will lead to far bigger problems further down the track.

The GM must always consider what the essential elements of your overarching plot are and ensure that you spend all your energy preparing multiple ways that the players might achieve them.

Essential elements of plots

I have written previously that my favourite way of writing plots is by using Nodal Design.  This approach is most commonly found in the Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks such as Fighting Fantasy or the Tunnels & Trolls solo games made popular in the 80s.

My approach is to break a plot line down into a series of encounters.  The most important of these are going to be the Must Happen encounters.  These are the events that have to happen to further the plot and the ones which you should spend the most time considering all the possible eventualities.  

You should always consider that: 

• the players might fight their way in and out of an encounter even against impossible odds.
• the players may run away
• the players may never find this encounter in the first place.

The rule of three

When considering these Must Happen encounters you should always have at least 3 ways that players can find or enter the encounter and 3 ways that they can exit it whilst furthering the plot.

Finding the encounter in Nodal Design is easy.  You just have to make sure that there are 3 connections to the encounter from three other encounters.  

Exiting the encounter is a little bit harder but not impossible.  In a typical conflict encounter there are the usual outcomes:

1. PCs win the fight - this is your everything goes according to plan exit
   
2. PCs lose and get captured 
3. PCs lose and escape or run away 
4. PCs stealthily go around or avoid the encounter

However, if the PCs need to acquire some object or information then outcomes 2,3 and 4 are going to pose you with a problem.  Careful consideration of the potential outcomes of your Must Happen encounter will lead you to preparing plausible solutions.

PCs lose and get captured

Getting captured can often be a blessing in disguise as the PCs might be taken inside the enemy stronghold.  Here they will learn much more about their enemies strengths and weaknesses, the location of the big bad guy, location of an uber artifact or they might meet other prisoners who can join them in their quest or help them escape.

You also get the additional free bonus breakout encounter which are always fun and stressfull for PCs.

PCs lose and escape or run away 

This outcome presents the greatest challenge in that they may not learn or aquire what they need to progress.  This is where the rule of 3 comes in.  For something to be an essential Must Happen there must be at least 3 ways of achieving it.  If it's information the players are after then this can be heard during scouting or in combat.  If it's an object then it might get lost by the enemy or found by the players during the confusion of melee.  Perhaps it gets dropped into the river and the players find it later whilst licking their wounds.

PCs stealthily go around or avoid the encounter 

Whilst this sounds like a worse case scenario from an encounter preparation perspective, it is often the easiest to compensate for in the planning stage.  Whilst going around the encounter they might overhear the vital piece of info they need, they might see or find the item they need unguarded.  

Evil minions tend to be left out out of the loop on the overarching plot, they get told the bare minimum to get by.  Guard that door, go get that box rather than what's behind the door or what's in the box.  Use this to your advantage and convey some info which is meaningless to minions but useful to your PCs.

Insurmountable odds and revealling the big bad guy too early

One of the fatal mistakes I have seen new GMs make is to introduce an encounter with the Big Bad Guy too early.  Big Bad Guys are usually way too powerful for the PCs to handle early on in the game and a critical element of RPGs is that PCs need to gain experience and become more powerful in order to defeat the Big Bad Guy.  

Pitching your heroes into a battle with the Big Bad Guy too early risks them getting killed or worse that they might damage your Big Bad Guy.  The temptation to say "No you can't do that" is great and leaves you needing to construct a plausible explanation as to why the PCs wouldn't be slaughtered in an instant.  This is just poor storytelling from an RPG standpoint and means you have unnecessarily backed yourself into a corner.  Time to look at other ways to let your players know about the Big Bad without them confronting him early on.

The third party reveal

In other types of fiction the power of the Big Bad Guy is often witnessed by third parties who get killed early on and their only role in life is to illustrate that power.  For example a Big Bad Guy might attack a village or sack a town and in a film or a book you might witness this encounter from the eyes of an NPC.  

The fate of the NPC is irrelevant as the object of the scene is to convey this information to you the viewer.  However, in RPGs it is more than acceptable for that NPC to live just long enough to share what they saw to the players before they die.  

Rumours are another great way to seed knowledge of some power sweeping across the land.  The PCs may encounter refugees fleeing a besieged city, a trader who just got through a checkpoint or left a neighbouring town before the horde arrived.

How you achieve the reveal is entirely down to you but my advice is to dribble the information out a little bit at a time.  Give your PCs enough time to grow as a party and as individual characters so that they are ready to face off against the big bad guy in the finale.   

Don't forget the backstory

The PCs might also have acquired first hand knowledge of the Big Bad Guy through their backstory.  For example in the classic fantasy movie Conan The Barbarian (1982), the young Conan witnesses his tribe slaughtered and he is enslaved by the forces of Thulsa Doom.  It is only many years later once he has gained his freedom and become a mighty warrior that he faces off against the evil sorceror and avenges his family.

PCs need time to become a thorn in the big bad guy's side

A common trope among big bad guys is that they often overestimate their own power and underestimate their foe.  Many of the best fictional showdowns come after a long protracted series of small skirmishes and defeats for the big bad guy until he really does have to deal with the threat personally.  How many times have you heard them say...

"Do I have to do everything myself?"

Take Darth Vader for example, in Star Wars.  He takes charge and jumps in his TIE Fighter to personally see off the threat of the X-Wing attack on the Death Star.  Perhaps he senses the presence of Luke or perhaps he recognises that although the chance of success is remote in the face of overwhelming odds, the chance still exists.

Flipping this encounter on its head, the Death Star exploding is a Must Happen event and only a bad storyteller would have the bad guy he has spent the last hour and a half setting up die.  That happens to Snoke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi and we all know what we think of that movie.

Embrace Player Agency

One of the most frustrating but fun things in RPGs is that players often come up with creative solutions to the problems that you set them.  This is a fundamental aspect of RPGs and will necessitate that you change and modify your story to accomodate the players.  

Embrace this.  Learn to be fluid and to react to your players.  Be the Leaf on the Wind.  Let go and enjoy the unbridled chaos...

The Encounter Ramp Goes Both Ways

The Encounter Ramp is a concept from scenario design which tries to match your parties experience with the strength of the monsters they are facing.  In D&D this is often referred to as the Challenge Rating.  As PCs gain more experience and become more powerful the strength of their opponents must increase to maintain the feeling of challenge.

Sometimes the stars align but more often than not they are never in the right bloody place at the right bloody time.  As a GM it is your job to make the adventure a heroic challenge.

I thought I had unwittingly led my players into an encounter that was going to result in a Total Party Kill (TPK) and an early bath for the GM. In my current campaign the party is relatively low level comprising of  

• 3 x Level 1, 
• 1 x Level 2, 
• 1 x Level 3 and 
• 1 x Level 4 PC

That's a total of 12 levels of experience between them but the scenario is designed for 5 to 8 Characters of Levels 7 to 9 (between 45 and 56 Levels). 

OK, I admit it, I fell in love with the scenario and didn't really worry too much about how the PCs were going to fare. I mean it's never supposed to be easy right?

To cut a long story short, their first big battle finds them fighting some pretty big guys, a Troll and 3 Bugbears, with a second wave in the room above being 1 Ogre and 5 Gnolls. As individual encounters these would be manageable, difficult but manageable. However, as a second wave these are not one hit minions, they are going to descend on the PCs like a hammer.

Oh and did I forget to mention that this is just the start. If I were playing this by the book they will still have to fight their way past 12 bugbears, 1 giant 2 headed troll, 2 hill giants, 2 giant trolls, 4 trolls, 8 ogres, 11 gnolls. That's a lot of hit dice they have to overcome.

The Solution?

Ramp it down a little. I always knew I was going to have to reduce the number of monsters to make it manageable for them.

Hit Point Reduction - make a few of them one hit wonders.  Give your PCs a free perception check to spot the ones that are limping or carrying a few fresh wounds from some recent war band pissing match.

The Call of Nature - There's always one bad guy who is in the middle of something else when they hear the battle cry or the bugle.  Having a Bugbear otherwise detained sitting on the khazi, asleep or drunk is perfectly legitimate and offers that added advantage of potential information gathering once the battle has ended.

Morale Fail - Often overlooked, but a perfectly legitimate excuse for a GM is to make the monsters flee rather than fight it out to the death. 

Take Two Bites - PCs often overlook the adage "Run away and live to fight another day" or in otherwords run away and have a short rest, drink some healing potions and try again.  Dead bad guys are still going to be dead whereas PCs often have heroic recoveries.  Tactics can be re-evaluated, strategies can be re-examined and knowledge gained during the fight can be exploited.

Zach Kanin (The New Yorker)

 

5 Essential Tools if You Own an FDM 3D Printer

I've owned an FDM 3D Printer for over two years and, as a mad keen tabletop gamer, I think that they are an absolute necessity particularly if you are like me and also love making scenery to go along with your game.

My Printer is a cheap as chips Geetech CTC i3 Pro B (Prusa i3 clone) Buy one from Amazon

I've compiled this list of 5 items I have purchased during the last 2 years which I wish I had purchased along with my printer.

Side Cutters An absolute essential if you are printing models with support structures. A pair of side cutters makes the onerous task of support removal a doddle. They also come in extremely handy when you are changing the filament in your printer snipping off any bent sections so you know you are inserting a clean straight length of PLA or ABS into your hot end.  I recommend a pair as you will always need one by your printer and one at your craft station when you are assembling your models. You don't need to spend a lot of money on side cutters but believe you me your world will change when you have them.
Electric Nail File In addition to ensuring that you and your significant other have a great manicure and pedicure, the electric nail fire is an awesome way to sand those pesky printing ridges away from your models. You can use a portable rotary tool like a dremel, but the advantages of the electric nail file are that the business end is very light, it only contains the motor, and the power supply end is mains powered so no charging neccessary. The power supply also contains a speed control giving you far more control than the limited speeds offered by the alternatives.  PLA has a tendency to melt rather than sand particularly if you are going full bore.  Having access to slower speeds is essential.
Nozzle Cleaning Kit Absolutely essential for cleaning out those inevitable nozzle jams and useful when changing filament.  Most come with a selection of replacement nozzles because they don't last for ever, am I right? My kit also came with a pair of non-magnetic tweezers which are incredibly useful if you ever need to do any maintenance on your printer as you will most definitely be handling some pretty small metal parts like screws and washers which can be tricky to get into small tight spaces. A spanner comes in handy for swapping those nozzles when they finally wear out.
Modelling Filler Putty Even the best sander will never truly get rid of those printing ridges and having a good sandable modelling filler is a must if you want really smooth PLA models. I use this PLASMO putty from Revell as it is designed for use with plastic model kits so has excellent adhesion to plastic.  It is exceptionally fine and has a super smooth surface when sanded. The only quibble I have is that it is a bit smelly as it contains a fast drying alcohol based medium.  The upside is that it's super fast drying unlike Milliput which can take 24 hrs to really set properly.  It has a creamy consistency so goes on nice and smooth getting into all those valleys between the ridge lines when smeared using a tongue depressor dipped in water.  Frankly, I wish I had had this on some of my earlier prints which look pretty ropey compared to my post putty prints.
More Filament Of course once you get a 3D Printer you can guarantee that you will be creating models left, right and center.  Nobody wants to be running out of filament so make sure you have a good stock in. I always recommend going with a vibrant colour if you are printing for modelling purposes for two main reasons. The filament tends to be cheaper the more lurid the colour.  Prices for White, Black, Grey and Transparent filament are off the charts lately thanks to the worldwide PLA shortage. The vibrant colour makes the proces of post processing and painting much easier.  You can see much more clearly where you need to apply more putty or where you need to do a bit more sanding to get a flat surface. There are plenty of manufacturers out there but I have personally had great results with Verbatim.

Disclaimer

Clicking on the Amazon affiliate links to the products above, and making a purchase, directly helps supports this channel and helps me to keep up with the running costs of my hobby and producing content for my readers.

Happy printing.