I found out there's a full-blown e-zine out there called Save or Die, and all-crunch/low-fluff to boot. It doesn't seem like anyone out there is reading this yet, anyways, so this is for history's sake.
Tonight, this blog has been renamed "The Dungeon Blogger's Guide."
28 May 2008
26 May 2008
A little idea about enjoying your role
This is probably most true with DMs who use campaign guides and buy adventure modules, but even homebrew settings probably end up with lots of these: NPCs the players keep trying to interact with, that you absolutely hate, perhaps to the point where you want to just kill off the NPC.
You really shouldn't let yourself end up in that position. Don't let any NPC exist in your world that you would not enjoy portraying (but don't get too attached if the NPC also has to die for plot reasons). Even with NPCs that you know will die three or four sessions from now, feel invested in the character. If you're worried that your interests are too narrow and your world will be populated by clones, try finding an NPC's archetype on TV Tropes, and looks around at related tropes and find subversion examples. Chances are you'll find something that can make this character more fun, without applying your typical preferences to it.
The TV Tropes trick is especially helpful when dealing with other peoples' canon NPCs. It's your game table, so even when using someone elses' work, make it feel like your own. If you're not having fun, you've got to ask yourself why you're playing a game in the first place.
You really shouldn't let yourself end up in that position. Don't let any NPC exist in your world that you would not enjoy portraying (but don't get too attached if the NPC also has to die for plot reasons). Even with NPCs that you know will die three or four sessions from now, feel invested in the character. If you're worried that your interests are too narrow and your world will be populated by clones, try finding an NPC's archetype on TV Tropes, and looks around at related tropes and find subversion examples. Chances are you'll find something that can make this character more fun, without applying your typical preferences to it.
The TV Tropes trick is especially helpful when dealing with other peoples' canon NPCs. It's your game table, so even when using someone elses' work, make it feel like your own. If you're not having fun, you've got to ask yourself why you're playing a game in the first place.
24 May 2008
Anything more than none...
A seasonal (or perhaps year-round) forum debate has started up out there on the Internets about hit points, damage, hits and misses, and I'm going to tell you about the Dramatic Hit Point (which really has more to do with damage).
But the keyword is dramatic. Not simulationism. Not complex. Not even abstract (although it's pretty close). This is about hit points in relation to story telling, and there's a very important separation of system and narrative that needs to be established first: hit or miss is a mechanical word used to inform players/the DM whether or not damage was applied to hit points. A giant, 20 ft high, perhaps 10ft wide, is wearing full plate, and it subject to a Hold spell. The fighter attacks this living barn, and misses the broadside. That's just lame from a narrative perspective. What really (should have) happened? The fighter's sword clinks against the giant's armor, causing no damage.
In a reverse situation, a really nasty weapon or spell is used against a character; it should kill a common person, but the adventurer survives. Clearly it's a grazing wound, or it was just "too close for comfort," or maybe the enemy is taking their time, torturing the player's character instead of making full-on lethal blows. The distance and damage scales to plot. A mechanical hit might be a narrative miss. (And in the previous paragraph, a mechanical miss was a narrative hit.) There is no absoulte, "it must always be handled such-and-such a way." The narrative can be flexible; the mechanics, obviously, are only as flexible as the DM.
I found this post over on the Wizard of the Coast forum, and I quite like the take. It even calls hit points a dramatic device! <3
I've edited some of the choice sections to post here; these quotes were original written by Iorwerth, but they have been edited.
When talking about heroes what is really being talked about is the fact that the characters are the leads in the story being told. As in all good stories, a lead character does not die without having some dramatic incident. In D&D, hit points are the mechanic that makes sure this happens when the time comes. The lower a character's hit points, the nearer they come to death/defeat and, in story terms, the closer they come to that story-point where their death/defeat has dramatic impact.
When a character loses hit points it does not mean that they have a wound of a certain type, or that they have suffered no wound and are just suffering fatigue. Instead, it is a mixture of the two. It is the numerical description of how near, in story terms, the character is to death/defeat. In a novel this would be accomplished by the writer describing the situation. In RPG terms there is no "writer," so hit points are used to cue the players in the writer's place.
A wound, no matter how it is described, is only dramaticially crucial if it is the one that causes the character's death/defeat. There's no getting around that description, but the final blow is only successfully because the lead character has been weakend by previous events, whether by wounds, by exhaustion or by being distracted by something at a crucial point.
Ah! It's almost 11:59. Mmgh, deadlines.
But the keyword is dramatic. Not simulationism. Not complex. Not even abstract (although it's pretty close). This is about hit points in relation to story telling, and there's a very important separation of system and narrative that needs to be established first: hit or miss is a mechanical word used to inform players/the DM whether or not damage was applied to hit points. A giant, 20 ft high, perhaps 10ft wide, is wearing full plate, and it subject to a Hold spell. The fighter attacks this living barn, and misses the broadside. That's just lame from a narrative perspective. What really (should have) happened? The fighter's sword clinks against the giant's armor, causing no damage.
In a reverse situation, a really nasty weapon or spell is used against a character; it should kill a common person, but the adventurer survives. Clearly it's a grazing wound, or it was just "too close for comfort," or maybe the enemy is taking their time, torturing the player's character instead of making full-on lethal blows. The distance and damage scales to plot. A mechanical hit might be a narrative miss. (And in the previous paragraph, a mechanical miss was a narrative hit.) There is no absoulte, "it must always be handled such-and-such a way." The narrative can be flexible; the mechanics, obviously, are only as flexible as the DM.
I found this post over on the Wizard of the Coast forum, and I quite like the take. It even calls hit points a dramatic device! <3
I've edited some of the choice sections to post here; these quotes were original written by Iorwerth, but they have been edited.
When talking about heroes what is really being talked about is the fact that the characters are the leads in the story being told. As in all good stories, a lead character does not die without having some dramatic incident. In D&D, hit points are the mechanic that makes sure this happens when the time comes. The lower a character's hit points, the nearer they come to death/defeat and, in story terms, the closer they come to that story-point where their death/defeat has dramatic impact.
When a character loses hit points it does not mean that they have a wound of a certain type, or that they have suffered no wound and are just suffering fatigue. Instead, it is a mixture of the two. It is the numerical description of how near, in story terms, the character is to death/defeat. In a novel this would be accomplished by the writer describing the situation. In RPG terms there is no "writer," so hit points are used to cue the players in the writer's place.
A wound, no matter how it is described, is only dramaticially crucial if it is the one that causes the character's death/defeat. There's no getting around that description, but the final blow is only successfully because the lead character has been weakend by previous events, whether by wounds, by exhaustion or by being distracted by something at a crucial point.
Ah! It's almost 11:59. Mmgh, deadlines.
21 May 2008
Way Off-topic: TV Tropes and Appleseed
Yesterday I found out I spent four hours reading TV Tropes, the wiki with explanations of every stock device, character archetype, and genre/subgenre/subsubgenre composition. It's worse than Wikipedia. But, for my purposes, it helps me use a bunch of obscure references to things which some people consider Serious Business, which will make my blog seem like Serious Business. I don't remember what article it was under, but there was this thing about tarot cards being used for random story telling. My not-so-useful advice for the day: just follow the links around TV Tropes, write the article names on slips of paper, stick them in a hat, and pull plots out of your ass. Of course, read my blog to see me polish off the ideas this generates. You'll have a plausible excuse for Ninja Pirate Zombie Robots in no time.
On a completely unrelated note, I also saw Appleseed for the first time today. It was neat. You're expected to just accept what the state of the world is (much like Deunan), ask few questions, and buckle up. It's got an R rating for violence, but it's almost a Disney film when compared to something like The Animatrix (and, a spoiler!? is: Deunan's mother dies, just like in a Disney film!) Perhaps that's because Appleseed is less of a mind rape than Animatrix (there's actually nothing freakishly disturbing at all, just gorey), and it's "symbology" seems superficial at best. Still, if you haven't seen it, give it a whirl. The plot is fun, at least once.
I've got more than a couple CCD/DDP drafts (by which I mean exactly three) half-finished and just waiting for me to sit down and seriously complete. One of them should be ready by Saturday at 11:59 PM.
On a completely unrelated note, I also saw Appleseed for the first time today. It was neat. You're expected to just accept what the state of the world is (much like Deunan), ask few questions, and buckle up. It's got an R rating for violence, but it's almost a Disney film when compared to something like The Animatrix (and, a spoiler!? is: Deunan's mother dies, just like in a Disney film!) Perhaps that's because Appleseed is less of a mind rape than Animatrix (there's actually nothing freakishly disturbing at all, just gorey), and it's "symbology" seems superficial at best. Still, if you haven't seen it, give it a whirl. The plot is fun, at least once.
I've got more than a couple CCD/DDP drafts (by which I mean exactly three) half-finished and just waiting for me to sit down and seriously complete. One of them should be ready by Saturday at 11:59 PM.
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