Random created adventures seem to solve many of the problems people have with GMing. They are created superfast and instead of preparing stuff that maybe never come up for hours you can fill in the details really needed during the session.
With the only versions you don't even need to roll on a lot of tables.
I found this nifty adventure generators recently. Give them a try!
Random dark future adventures.
Random fantasy adventures.
Bonus: a random Viking generator.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Luftenwelter - A look back
I used to have the following text in my signature on tanelorn.net
Luftenwelter - Savage Worlds Luftpiraten-Fantasy ohne Gebrochene Himmel, aber mit fakedeutschem Namen...
Last Tuesday we finally finished the campaign with its 40th session. While we were playing weekly the first year, the second year we had lost some steam.
Still it was the longest campaign that I participated from the beginning to the end and actually my character Brulus, an alchemist hunchback, was the only one who made it through all 40 sessions.
I have to add though that most sessions were "only" 3 to 4 hours long, while the 50 Fathoms campaign had often 7 hour sessions.
We only used battlemaps and miniatures in the beginning and very end. One player said she could not imagine the scenes in her head, when she was seeing stuff on the table. I luckily don't have that problem so much, but I guess a little bit of it is still there - subconsciously.
What was a little bit annoying was that the GM did not real know the rules and showed no intention in learning them. Therefore he obviously was not able to balance encounters properly or look out for interesting special abilities for the foes. In my opionion D&D4 would have helped him with that.
Nevertheless I had much fun with us being able to mess with the setting. There were many opportunities for character play, the GM was very flexible and I never had the feeling of any railroading going on. Some of the sessions I enjoyed most actually developed seemingly out of the blue. For example a stay in a dwarven city. That actally was very sandboxy and where we only had the one line mission statement to get a certain hammer. It proved that no plot is necessary as long as the GM is fast enough to make stuff up in realtime. :) This kind of sessions seem to give even more space for character based developement of the story.
What was kind of a pity was that many of the strong or important NPCs did not reappear until the 10 minutes epilogue. So it felt there were still some lose ends.
Luftenwelter - Savage Worlds Luftpiraten-Fantasy ohne Gebrochene Himmel, aber mit fakedeutschem Namen...
Last Tuesday we finally finished the campaign with its 40th session. While we were playing weekly the first year, the second year we had lost some steam.
Still it was the longest campaign that I participated from the beginning to the end and actually my character Brulus, an alchemist hunchback, was the only one who made it through all 40 sessions.
I have to add though that most sessions were "only" 3 to 4 hours long, while the 50 Fathoms campaign had often 7 hour sessions.
We only used battlemaps and miniatures in the beginning and very end. One player said she could not imagine the scenes in her head, when she was seeing stuff on the table. I luckily don't have that problem so much, but I guess a little bit of it is still there - subconsciously.
What was a little bit annoying was that the GM did not real know the rules and showed no intention in learning them. Therefore he obviously was not able to balance encounters properly or look out for interesting special abilities for the foes. In my opionion D&D4 would have helped him with that.
Nevertheless I had much fun with us being able to mess with the setting. There were many opportunities for character play, the GM was very flexible and I never had the feeling of any railroading going on. Some of the sessions I enjoyed most actually developed seemingly out of the blue. For example a stay in a dwarven city. That actally was very sandboxy and where we only had the one line mission statement to get a certain hammer. It proved that no plot is necessary as long as the GM is fast enough to make stuff up in realtime. :) This kind of sessions seem to give even more space for character based developement of the story.
What was kind of a pity was that many of the strong or important NPCs did not reappear until the 10 minutes epilogue. So it felt there were still some lose ends.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Doctor Who Online Character Generator (and Messageboard)
I just found this amazing Flash online character generator for the Doctor Who RPG AITAS.
I got the link from the as amazing Doctor Who RPG Messageboard.
I also found a handy player handout pdf online.
Time travel galore!
I got the link from the as amazing Doctor Who RPG Messageboard.
I also found a handy player handout pdf online.
Time travel galore!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Doctor Who Character: Alternative Time Lord, First Draft
So we created the Time Lord of the coming Doctor Who campaign.
Everything noted down here could change, but we could a good first concept. That pretty much started with the Gadget Card: Sonic Lipstick. That way we started discussing a Robert Smith (Cure singer) like Time Lord.
Here are the stats:
Awareness: 3
Coordination: 3
Ingenuity: 6 (incl. +2 from being a Time Lord)
Presence: 4
Resolve: 4
Strength: 2
[=20 Character Points overall]
Good Traits:
Time Lord (2) includes: Feel the Turn of the Universe, Vortex
Boffin (2)
Photographic Memory (2)
Screamer (1)
Bad Traits:
Code of Conduct (1)
Distinctive (1)
Eccentric (1) (manic-depressive)
[=4 Character Points overall]
Skills:
Fighting: 1
Convince: 3
Subterfudge: 4
Technology: 4
Science: 3
Athletics: 2
[=17 Skill Points; 1 STILL MISSING!]
Gadget: Sonic Lipstick
He was stuck for 20 years in the 1980ies in a time loop.
Personal Goal: Explore and find other Time Lords
We wanted him to have the TARDIS, so we decided to have him swap time machine with the Doctor, as the Doctor needed to have one with working Chameleon Circuits for some time.
(We discussed, but forgot to add Owes Favour and Tecnically Adept as Traits)
Everything noted down here could change, but we could a good first concept. That pretty much started with the Gadget Card: Sonic Lipstick. That way we started discussing a Robert Smith (Cure singer) like Time Lord.
Here are the stats:
Awareness: 3
Coordination: 3
Ingenuity: 6 (incl. +2 from being a Time Lord)
Presence: 4
Resolve: 4
Strength: 2
[=20 Character Points overall]
Good Traits:
Time Lord (2) includes: Feel the Turn of the Universe, Vortex
Boffin (2)
Photographic Memory (2)
Screamer (1)
Bad Traits:
Code of Conduct (1)
Distinctive (1)
Eccentric (1) (manic-depressive)
[=4 Character Points overall]
Skills:
Fighting: 1
Convince: 3
Subterfudge: 4
Technology: 4
Science: 3
Athletics: 2
[=17 Skill Points; 1 STILL MISSING!]
Gadget: Sonic Lipstick
He was stuck for 20 years in the 1980ies in a time loop.
Personal Goal: Explore and find other Time Lords
We wanted him to have the TARDIS, so we decided to have him swap time machine with the Doctor, as the Doctor needed to have one with working Chameleon Circuits for some time.
(We discussed, but forgot to add Owes Favour and Tecnically Adept as Traits)
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Doctor Who Adventure: Using Mythic for adventure creation - an example
I just created another adventure. It involves the PCs coming to a primitive world, where the PCs find a mind controling device that they can use freely. But the device turns those who where mindcontrolled mad after some time...)
Q: Scifi World?
A: Primitive Insanity, You
Q: You=PCs?
A: An Incorrect Assumption about Authority
Q: PCs think they are mind controled?
A: The Exact Opposite of Violence, A Random Passerby
Q: So PC find mind control device?
A: Horrifying Hilarity
Q: The PCs discover a mind control device that turns the victims batshit insane after use for some time.
A: NO
Q: The PCs discover a mind control device that mutates the victims. Maybe mind control only side effect?
A: YES
Q: WHo is the PCs opponent?
A: A Rough Likeness of Grotesqueness, Finding something to do
Q: The villain is a mutated PC?
A: YES
Q: Does the tech look like magic? YES
E: Progress on 'Finding something to do': the Movement of the Physical
Q: The villains looks for a mission? YES
Q: He asks the PCs for a mission? NO
Q: Someone tells him to move huge objects? YES
Q: Does the villains mission giver have bad intentions? YES
Q: Does he want to harm the PCs? EXCEPTIONAL YES
Q: Does he hate them? YES
Q: Does he know them from before? EXCEPTIONAL NO
Q: Has he lost his memory? YES
Q: Is he also time traveller? NO
Q: Is he an important political figure? YES
E: Positive for You: the Oppression of Elements
Q: Are the huge objects ancient pillars of tech? NO
Q: Living pillars? YES
Q: Are the pillars intelligent? NO
Q: Are the pillars intelligent? NO
Q: Does the task giver/ the villain's boss dream of the PCs? NO
Q: Did someone else tell him about them? EXCEPTIONAL NO
Q: So he just hates them when he sees them the first time? YES
Q: Does he show his hate? EXCEPTIONAL NO
Q: Is he a women? NO
Q: Scifi World?
A: Primitive Insanity, You
Q: You=PCs?
A: An Incorrect Assumption about Authority
Q: PCs think they are mind controled?
A: The Exact Opposite of Violence, A Random Passerby
Q: So PC find mind control device?
A: Horrifying Hilarity
Q: The PCs discover a mind control device that turns the victims batshit insane after use for some time.
A: NO
Q: The PCs discover a mind control device that mutates the victims. Maybe mind control only side effect?
A: YES
Q: WHo is the PCs opponent?
A: A Rough Likeness of Grotesqueness, Finding something to do
Q: The villain is a mutated PC?
A: YES
Q: Does the tech look like magic? YES
E: Progress on 'Finding something to do': the Movement of the Physical
Q: The villains looks for a mission? YES
Q: He asks the PCs for a mission? NO
Q: Someone tells him to move huge objects? YES
Q: Does the villains mission giver have bad intentions? YES
Q: Does he want to harm the PCs? EXCEPTIONAL YES
Q: Does he hate them? YES
Q: Does he know them from before? EXCEPTIONAL NO
Q: Has he lost his memory? YES
Q: Is he also time traveller? NO
Q: Is he an important political figure? YES
E: Positive for You: the Oppression of Elements
Q: Are the huge objects ancient pillars of tech? NO
Q: Living pillars? YES
Q: Are the pillars intelligent? NO
Q: Are the pillars intelligent? NO
Q: Does the task giver/ the villain's boss dream of the PCs? NO
Q: Did someone else tell him about them? EXCEPTIONAL NO
Q: So he just hates them when he sees them the first time? YES
Q: Does he show his hate? EXCEPTIONAL NO
Q: Is he a women? NO
The Mythic Gamemaster Emulator
I own the Mythic RPG already for a few years. It is a great way to play solo without a GM. The Gamemaster Emulator takes over the decisions. Most of the time you get a Yes/No answer, but every few rolls, a random event happens, that gives much more detail and new inspiration.
Originally this was a table in a pdf, but recently I found a flash version of the GM Emulator online.
An amazing thread at rpg.net details how to use the GM emulator for world building.
It's especially cool for settings, where you regularly need new worlds - like the Doctor Who RPG.
I just tested it and we created a world, where less than 10 gods exist, but those are banned into weapons and heavily interfere with the life of all mortals. Those gods are now weapons of mass destruction and seemingly can be used by a few chosen (but generally by everyone). These godweapons seem to be missilelike. I imagine them as talking weapon silos. Seems to be a great start!
Originally this was a table in a pdf, but recently I found a flash version of the GM Emulator online.
An amazing thread at rpg.net details how to use the GM emulator for world building.
It's especially cool for settings, where you regularly need new worlds - like the Doctor Who RPG.
I just tested it and we created a world, where less than 10 gods exist, but those are banned into weapons and heavily interfere with the life of all mortals. Those gods are now weapons of mass destruction and seemingly can be used by a few chosen (but generally by everyone). These godweapons seem to be missilelike. I imagine them as talking weapon silos. Seems to be a great start!
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