The Final Fantasy XIII experience and a lesson for a GM

Unless you are living under a rock, you know what FF is, for those new to videogames its the single most successful line of Japanese console Role-playing games ever created, and last a couple of weeks ago it found its way to over a million users once again as the highly anticipated next generation game was released, Final Fantasy XIII, the game has been a bag of mixed reviews, and you can find several pictures on the net of dozens of copies for sale in used bin.

Without getting into specifics one of the main criticism about the game, is the hell we call “railroading” literally, the world is beautiful but we only get one predestined path thats leads to next plot point, thing is all Final fantasy games are like that… scratch that all J-rpg are like that (well, not all of course, but let me ramble for a little bit ok?), so if other games like the very loved VII are linear… what´s the problem with this one?, its a little something sociologists call agency, and this game lacks it in numbers.

Agency is a concept used in philosophy and sociology to refer to the capacity of an agent to act in a world. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(philosophy))

What agency refers to is the capacity in which an indiviual can impact its surroundings and cause changes, like say, right now I have agency inside the very room where I´m typing this, I can go and drink a coke, or make a phone call, while on the opposite, I couldn´t just go to the white house and have a chat with president Obama, my agency is limited there.

I propose that when people speak of railroading, they are not talking about linearity but rather the amount of agency found withing a game… think about it, even “the sandbox” experience of building a huge country full of dungeons for the players to explore is linear, as there are probably higher level dungeons that are insta-kill for any party of low level risk takers, of course a linear game experience implies someone is going somewhere, and that destination can be anything, from a plot point  to the 20th level.

So Gamemaster, be very careful and very aware of your player´s agency, ask yourself “what options am I giving my players here?”, if you can´t come up with at leas three different things they could do in a situation, then you are limiting their agency and that can get pretty frustrating, also avoid:

- Cutscenes involving players

- Unavoidable encounters

- Unstoppable events

- Unkillable NPCs

- Any other Un you can think off, Un means taking away possibilities, limiting the agency.

But do keep in mind that you should also shun away from absolute freedom, I could kill a person in this room right now, but societies laws will punish me for doing so, in other words, actions and decisions, have consequences, take that in mind, if a players kills the oh so important NPC without remorse… then just think of the consequences.

So here is my advice to you dear game master, seek the player´s agency at all times, without letting go of your own.

I´m back: Organic Systems Part 1

Getting back online took a lot longer than expected, but the important thing is that Im finally back, with a bang!.

The other day was table games night here in my house, a friend of mine brought over a game called “Quest for Middle Earth”, quite an engaging game if a little robust (as I have come to expect from Fantasy Flight Games), 3 players take the roll of Middle Earth Heroes and a fourth one takes the mantle of Sauron, at this point it’s important to  mention that there were 8 of us that night, so while 5 people were playing the game (2 of them running Sauron), the rest of us just watched –for a while at least, after that I popped Batman Arkham Asylum and we spent the next 30 minutes drooling at the sheer awesomeness that is kicking the crap out of criminals with the Dark Knight-.

So they finally put an end to the game (I think Sauron won), and another friend of mine takes out a game called apples to apples, in a nutshell the game is about a bunch of cards with names written on them, each players takes a turn being the judge and picks a card at random from a face down deck, the others have to match the words that appears in that card with the most related thing in their hand, when everyone plays their card the judge decides which one is closest to the card he picked and the player who played it scores a point (people can try and persuade the judge, but he can’t never know how played which card until the point is scored), compared to the awesomeness of QfME´s  figurines, cards and board, Apples to Apples looks like a company´s first attempt at a board game, and yet I can’t begin to describe how much more involved everyone was in Apples to Apples than QfME.

And it got me thinking… a very complex and tactical game versus a free for all extravaganza, out of the two A2A felt better, people HAD MORE fun… even with the lack of concise rules there were no “I kill you” “nah ah, I dodge” arguments (opposing what so many introductions to roleplaying books have told us over the years)… and you know what… it doesn’t happen either in munchkin (another card game lacking heavily in the rules department).

And so the concept of organic gaming was born in my head.

There is nothing new in this, I swear everything I’m about to say someone has already said it before, It takes a while to sink in though.

Both board games are equally complex, but on different levels, while QfME focuses on calculating the pre-established consequences of a finite number of decisions established by the game rules, A2A instead takes the complexity away from the rules and puts it in the player´s head, allow me to demonstrate with an RPG example:

Consider for example a grapple check in D&D 3^rd edition, first you roll to hit, If you score then you check againt an opposed roll with your opponent (to see if he escapes), and then you may pin, deal damage, or whatever, it’s a very complete sequence of consequences, now if everything goes according to plan you can do a pre-defined number of things,  each with a rule of its own.

Now, consider the same check in a game like FATE, after declaring the maneuver and adequately beating the opponent you tag the opponent with an aspect (word), like “pinned” or “armlocked”, or grappled, or obstructed, or whatever the players comes up with, mechanically it resolves in the same manner regardless of the word tagged, but the circumstances under which said aspect may be used depends on the word itself (and as such on players creativity).

In the first example everything has been pre-planned, and regardless if you are grappling Hulk Hogan or Winnie the Pooh, the rules functions in the same manner, the numbers change, but the rule is the same, it’s consistent.

In Fate, Hulk Hogan could invoke the armlocked aspect to kick the crap out of the grabber, simply because he has the aspect “Awesome Wrestler”, so depending on who you grapple, the aspect works differently (in favor or against the grabber).

Organic means mutable, ever changing, adaptable and evolving, something organic is something that changes and adapts, with D&D or QfME rules have already been established, players may be Russians, Chinese, Venezuelan, American or European, the grapple is handled the same way, its static, OTOH In FATE and A2A a grapple aspect or a card could be used in a million different ways depending on who plays it, the game mechanics adapt to the imagination of the player.

Without disrespecting D&D or static resolution mechanics (I have played them for a decade and had tons of fun with them, I still play them), but I belief that a person will be more prone to giving RPGs a try if they don’t have to memorize a page of modifiers (you and I know that they don’t have to, but that newbie that just grabbed the D&D book off the shelf doesn’t), or maybe you are like me, and we play late at night and we don’t have the time nor the energy to check that rule… again… or maybe you just want to try something different, so lets try to convert that game of your into an organic system.

Stay tuned, coming up next the basic of the metamorphosis!.

In stasis till June 15

Ok guys, sorry that I havent been around but things have been a little hectic on this side of the fence, I have some thesis work to do and I wont be able to post till June 15 (I may do so if I find the time).

Until then, wish me luck and happy gaming!

Feedback, the other other white meat

Its amazing really, how we indulge ourselves in our civilization, our music, Ipods, we are on the information age, exchanging information left and right, meeting people from all over the world, I mean… you guys are reading a blog from a Venezuelan and I dont even know where my readers are from…

Why is it then, that in this day and age its so hard to communicate asertively and efectively with others?.

I wish I had the answer, but seeing as that´s not coming anytime soon, lets talk about the solution!…

Have you ever fought with a player or a GM?, come ooooon, be honest… there must have been a few times when you felt that heavy feeling in the stomach of being upset, differences and fights are part of our daily life, remember as a kid when they taught you something in school and then when you got home your parents told you that it wasn’t like that at all?, ah I knew you would…

So how do we deal with the differences?, we could kill everyone that doesnt think like us, but it seems like some people wrote something pretty cool called the human rights, so thats not an option anymore… so instead, lets try and understand each other´s points of view…

Feedback is the act of giving back, returning, and in doing so producing a change, when you say something to someone and that persons just stands stills, doesnt look at you, or keeps doing whatever he or she was doing… do you feel like you conveyed your message?, no, why?, because there is no feedback, in stopping the activiy, looking at you or just nodding the person has just given a feedback, letting you know that he payed attention to what you have to say.

Is every feedback good feedback?… nope… just like not every cheeseburger is a good cheeseburger.

For example, before starting a game I like to write a social contract, a common set of rules we as players should abide to, one of the rules is that if you are playing (that means, your character is actively involved in a scene) no distractions are allowed (Handheld consoles, internet browsing, etc, etc, etc) otherwise if you are not involved its fair game, this one time one of my players was playing with a handheld console, I call for him becuase its his turn, the guy sits down the handheld in hand, one of my players raises up and says “No handhelds on the table, its a social contract” the other one replies “so what?!”, it wasn’t until we pressured him further that he put down the bloody thing… the next day he comes right of the blue and tells me that he found the last session boring, after talking to him for a while I realized that we had a difference in opinion, as far as he was concerned, GM should provide entertainment for the group, my perception is that the group provides entertainment for itself, that I as a GM am a facilitator whose job is to makes thing go smoothly.

So we talked for a while, ironed things out and I invited him to be proactive, if a scene was boring for him it was his job to change it (the others players were really enjoying the drama by the way), I would help in any way I could but in the end it was his responsibility, no more problems like that have aroused, and it could all have been solved that same night if he would have told the group how he felt in the first place.

Guidelines for a good feedback:

- Never use “but” as a word it invalidates what it came before.

Wrong: I liked the session but the combat was too long.

Right: I like the session, the combat was too long, I would like to speed things up next time.

- Always speak in singular, about yourself, your position, your thoughts and your feelings.

Wrong: We wanted to kill the governor and you didn’t let us!.

Right: I really wanted to kill the governor.

- Never insult.

Wrong: of course you dont get it, you are an idiot.

Right: Ok, what is it exactly that you did not understand so I can explain it with other words.

- Dont interpret or presuppose, speak only of behaviors and observations.

Wrong: Of course you are not gonna let the governor die, hes your pet npc…

Right: When the governor escaped throught the tunnels when we had them riggeds with traps I felt really upset, it didnt seem a fair call to me.

On that same token, GM you have to be crystal clear with your players, you are sitting on the other side of the screen because people trust you with their time, if you did handwave the escape of the governor dont be afraid to admit it “I handweaved the escape because I wanted to use him for another plot” and also be ready to offer a solution “how about I give you guys and extra reward for it and the promise that you´ll eventually get to kick the crap out of the guy?” (even better: if you tell them right on the spot that you would like to use the governor for another story and that  you would like some help in thinking another way around it, they can come up with something you didn’t thought of) I assure you that your players will respect a thousand times more if you are honest with them.

Anatomy of a good feedback

social engineers have come with this formula:

Name of target + Witnessed behavior + state of mind and emotion of speaker when behavior occurs + alternative/future pacing.

“Adam, when you let the governor escape throught the tunnels after we had rigged them with traps I felt like it was an unfair call for me and it made me feel upset, in the future I would like you to let us take him down”

“Sarah, when you killed the town guard without provocation it made me feel very unconfortable as a GM, in the future could you be a little less agressive?”

In both cases you are speaking from youself, about what you feel and how you perceive the world, no sane person would argue against a subjective experience like that, Adam and Sarah may take the advice or they may not, but at least you are giving them something to think about “oh this person feels this way when I do this… I get it” social awareness

Words to erase from your dictionary

I dont want to finish my thoughts on feedback without telling you first that there are two word you have to get rid of right now!… put one of this little fuckers and your whole communication system goes down the drain, “right” and “wrong”.

Let me start by saying that Im a catholic born turned atheist, I beleive in god as an inner force, and I make this notation because right and wrong are terms directly tied to morality which is in itself part political awarenes, part religion.

Right and Wrong are subjective terms, just like good or bad, they are  dependent on culture, religion, upbringing and innate characteristics, something which might seem wrong to me is perfectly fine to my brother, by calling something right or wrong you are judging it under your own system of beliefs, you are imposing your own view of the world on another person, that is the closest thing to an agression without getting physical, so always keep in mind that when you say “this is wrong” always add “to me” at the end, Im not asking you to accep it and embrace it, just understand that if you dislike something its your choice and your opinion.

Observation and body language: The other speech

Being a psychologist is no easy task let me tell you, when you sit in front of a person for an interview you are expected to take notes not only on what the person says but the way he says it and what he does when he says it, my notebooks are listed on Chaosium´s Call of Cthulhu as mythos book that takes 1d10 sanity points on a fast read… but in the end its well worth it.

The most basic premise of observation is to observe without judging, the best way I can find to explain it is with a short story:

Two psychologists once boarded a train in london to go sighseeing around Britain, one of them spots an animal herd on a field and calls his colleage “hey, I didnt knew they had goats in England”, the other sees throught the window, turns to his friend and apprentice and says “Well… to you its a goat, but Im only seeing half side of an animal with horns a goatee and white thick fur, I´m really curious to see the other side, I wonder if its the same”.

See the difference there?, the first one made a presupposition, based on his sensory input he interpreted what he was seeing as a goat, the other one just described what he perceived with the language he knows… a small difference but a vital one in the technique I´m about to explain.

First lets define a behavior as: the measurable changes (active or reactive) we perceive in others with our senses.

There are two kinds of body language, the first one refers to physiological reactions to outside stimuli.

For example, dilated pupils are related to states of excitement, yawns are related to tiredness and lack of activity, flushed cheeks point to exercise and socially tense situations, the body changes and adapts according to the circunstances in a  biological sense.

The second relates to actions linked to a certain emotion or state of mind, this are subjective, and even if there is a social tendency, its almost impossible to speak about universal body signs, crossing your arms could mean that you are cold, that your back hurts, that you are thinking, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are on the defensive…

How is this useful to us?, by doing a little thing NLPers* call “calibration”, in plain english it means “learning the association between a behavior and an individuals state of mind and thoughts”.

I have a player, lets call him Albert, cool guy, really smart… but Albert is really shy, he hates being in the spotlight because he beleives that everyone is judging him, everytime Albert interacts in the game and hes not sure of what he is doing he gets a really bad cough, it takes him several minutes to  recompose and afterwards he just does the first thing that comes to mind (usually something very passive like just sitting around, no action no judgment)

*NLP stands for neuro-linguistic programming, a higly controversial theory of communication that have been misused and bastardized in the form of workshops for self-discovery and self-growth by scam artists, I use it regalurary and for me it works wonderfully, but I´ve been very careful in only reading the most prominent literature and learning for credible sources

So how does this little piece of knowledge helps me?, whenever albert starts to cough I know that I have to break his moment, I either introduce and NPC or quickly send him into action, I take away that what worries him and let him get back into the game… but I will only do so with the cough that begins when he is faced with a decision.

A long time ago I had a lady player, lets call her pickle, she always sought romance in the game, but she felt a little ashamed of liking her characters being romantically involved, I observed that whenever pickle was getting into the game she would flush and her pupils dilate (both common signs of arousal), incidentally the scenes she liked the most were those where I could observe this reaction, so I knew that when I observed those behaviors she was having a good time.

There is nothing magical about this, I laugh when something makes me nervous, I crack my knucles when I get into something I find interesting, I stare with a small smile when I see someone I like, (remember, brain-rituals?), we have little quirks and a trained eye can catch them, ask a professional poker player.

So here is an excersice for you, next time you GM something pick a player, and observe, dont interpret, just observe, what are his or her behaviors, whats the reaction when you ambush the character, when the player rolls a crit, write it down, try to find a pattern, with their actions the players are telling you how they feel about your game, the amount of feedback you can get out of this is huge.

Remember:

- Observe behaviors, dont interpret them, and inference says more about you than about the person you are observing.

- Watch for behavior patterns, things that are repeated many times.

- Dont be afraid to ask “hey joe, why do you laugh when the orc dies?”

- Practice Practice Practice.

Why is observation useful?:

In my experience I have been able to:

- Determine when a decision has made  a player upset.

- Figure out when the group needs a break or I need to wrap up the session.

- A conflict between characters turns personal.

- A player is bored.

- A player is interested.

- A particular scene is emotionally touching.

- Also observation leads to a good feedback (an issue I have never seen treated in RPGs and that I want to talk about).

There is so much I would like to say about observation, but I have to go to bed, and rather than being a cathedratic I want you people to go out into the world and try this out, if it doesnt work I´ll personally go to your place and teach you

Till next time

Sterotypes, tropes, baits and switch

For those who have enjoyed the blog so far sorry that I haven´t been around, between college classes and thesis my RPG time gets thinner by the minute, for the new guys, welcome, be sure to check out the other articles!…  lets get our hands dirty right away:

Last time I talked about templates (and  if you haven’t read it, GO, NOW!!, its quite good modesty aside), I briefly mentioned that the mind is a ritualistic little machine, today I want to expand on that notion and talk about the GM using this little knowledge to blow the players out of their seats:

The brain is not only a CPU and a hard drive for the human experience, but also a regulator, see, if we were able to memorize every single piece of data input that comes from our senses you would have used all of your brains capacity in less than a month , so, we can say that the brain is selective, it chooses what it considers important and discards the details (like time or place) -no wonder zombies love it-, that´s why you get into fights with friends every time they tell a story about a party but you remember that it happened someplace else.

Stereotypes (you know, the kind of though that’s gonna get you stereotyped as a racist -lol-) are by default another way the brain economizes, its a process that allows to make judgmental decisions in situations where no other information is available, for example, being South American you might imagine me as  brown skinned, short curly haired with a small mustache and talking like that guy from “that 70s show”…

Hello!

If you did, I don’t blame you, you didn’t know better, so your brain is gonna grab what it knows about South American culture and build an approximation, its natural and necessary, of course, some people will stick to those believe beyond any demonstrable truth -I don’t care if this guy is the next pope, he is a Latino, ergo, he must be a gang member- that’s when things start going downhill.. but I digress and this is not a political blog.

So… how does this ritualistic and economic body organ is gonna play in our favor?…

1. Stereotyping the GM style: you as a GM might be the alpha of the pact, but it does not make exempt of being just as ritualistic as everyone else, players understand this consciously or unconciously, for example: everyone who plays on my table knows that the bad guy is not really the bad guy, there is always someone else pulling the strings, I always have a mastermind hidden amonsgt a bigger conspiracy… knowledge is power my fellow GM and knowing youself is absolute power… so, stop reading now, grab a piece of paper (get away from the computer and grab a pen) and for the next ten minutes just focus on your last three or four adventures and look for patterns, things you do over and over again…

GO!… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2…1

If you came up with anything at all chances are players already have done so as well, so this is what we are gonna do, on whatever game you are playing right now build an encounter, adventure or whatever involving this pattern, make it pretty obvious, dont hide it, let the players be on the safe zone, but as draw to the climax, bait and swithc it, do something so unexpected with the plot, something so crazy, that completly breaks that pattern, I promess you a WTF face from at least one of your players or your money back.

-Using my own example, I’m gonna work  with the save the town from the orcs encounter from the last column, instead of killing the orc chief, he drops his satchel and runs away leaving the players with the note that reads “I will provide more alchemist fire once the village has been burned down”, as the players follow the trail of the note they find a retired magician living by himself on a cliff, as the players approach a voice projects from the house “I WILL NO LONGER BE THREATENED BY YOUR KIND ORC!” and with that a golem appears to protect the magicians house, it turns out the orc chief was the bad guy after all, he wasn’t burning down the village to get more magic fire, the magician sent the note to let them know that he couldn’t make anymore until after the attack, as they face the wizard smoke rises once again from the village´s direction-.

2. The neo effect: Ah movies… the proof that mankind has reached the end of the barrel… I havent seen terminator yet, but I believe that is gonna be something like this:

Pretty boys is leader of rebellion, some action happens, pretty boys loves pretty headstrong rebelious girl, more things get killed, something happens that goes against pretty boy agenda, he realizes that he must fight on and makes a harsh but heroic choice, the humans win with a sweet-sour victory.

Good guys win, bad guys loose, the chosen one saves the day, the nerdy girl becomes popular with a makeover, Hollywood is the master and lord of everything Trope, they will exploit the same thing over and over and over and over again with a new paint job each time.

So, lets use the tropes to destroy players just like we did with your style, when you present a villain in your game use every single trope to make him look “weeevil”, he kicks puppies, dresses in black, has a curly mustache, wields huge amount of resources in mysterious ways, his enemies dissapear, call him rotten pete, whatever… just be sure that by the end of the night, players brains have proccesed this guy as the little devil on hitler´s shoulder that told him to start the holocaust…

Then make something happen around the guy, a big crime, just what the players need to make them bring rotten pete to justice, they find evidence, non-conclusive, but enough to make them even more suspicious… and when the showdown comes… BAM… the guy surrenders unconditionally, he is a little corrupt, mean spirited and frankly not the best neighbor in the neighborhood, but he is also a guy that would never kill, he is by no means a good guy, just a folk with “soft” ethics, and not the guy the players were looking for, meanwhile the real rotten apple has a drop on those pesky adventures that have been making questions…

- Using the orc town attack again, the orcs fall upon the village, the players fight to the best of their will, and in the end, during the showdown against the Chief, the only greenskin that speaks common, he curses the human for kidnapping the orcs children and selling them as slaves… WAIT WHAT?!, yeah, the town captain has been raiding the orcs village for months with mercenaries and selling their children to random evil empire, the greenskins just came to save their own, orcs just did what they know best, fight… serves them right for assuming this was just another trope… and the little orc babies in the town hall jail cells, just where the villagers took refuge-.

And yes wiseass this bait and switch is in and itself a trope, har har har, you though I wasnt aware.

For common tropes go to: tvtropes

3.  The “that´s how its supposed to work” maxim: I have found that there are two types of munchkin, the “I hit and decimate” kind which build powerhouses that deal obcenes amounts of damage, and the “I never get hit” pansies, that take every single advantage to avoid getting hit, the first I can live with, the second I hate to my guts, because there nothing more obnoxious than rolling three hundred dices that wont do squat unless you top your roll…

So wimpy´mc´dodgie picks an attribute that avoids surprises, the next time you ambush the group trap them, inmobilize em, of what have you, just make sure that with that first attack you got them out of the way but unharmed, except of course wimpy´mc´dodgie, sudlendly his amazing advantage has him surrounded by a dozen mooks with weapons in hand, the others might have been surprised, but at least they are safe!… roll for initiative punk.

John Wick talks about this in a column at gaming outpost  “Hit em where it hursts” where he creates a virus that specifically targets people with inmunity to diseases.

Not only with advantages, skills, combat stats, bend the rules and break them, there is always an exception its just a matter of knowing where to find them.

Be adviced, this is something to pull off once every few times, players buy advantages becauses they are bonuses, and using them against them is something fun and unexpected, but also disheartening in the long run.

4. If I have´em you have´em: Oh yeah, the sweetspot of ritualistic behavior… if you have stereotypical actions, so does the players…. figure them out and you are in for one of the best rides in your gamemastering experience…

Last saturday on my weekly game I made a scene for one of my characters, he is a dragon god reborn as a human psychic, the character has a huge heart but he is whimsical, moody and stuborn, in this particular scene the other players controlled the characteristics mentioned above, they started demeaning and insulting and degrading the character, the player kept rationalizing that he had more power than those sides of his character personality (and by doing so feeding the shadows of his real self), and it wasnt untill finally he asked for mercy and forgiveness that he found a new side of himself and awakened to a higher power.

See, I knew the player wouldnt ask for mercy, that he would try and get his powers back by force, that if I showed his character his moody side he would try to put himself above it instead of below, so I pressed him into a corner and made him change his pattern.

If a player always fight with two handed weapons shove him in tight corridors, if a players only relies to much in magic, curse his powers, the idea here is not to penalize the player, but to make him think outside his normal patterns, to break the ritual, to be creative, and reward them for it, he will be back to normal eventually, but in the meantime hes gonna have to find new ways to approach the problems sorrounding him, doing so helps the person grow as a roleplayer and as a human being.

Remember in the end you dont want to screw your players, you want them to break away from common rituals, and think outside the box.

Template: The GM´s best friend

I´m a highly improvisational GM, I´m always thinking on my feet and barely keep notes or prepare for a game session, I´ve always found that being able to respond to any situation in a matter of seconds is one of my strengths as a Game Master, but lately it came to my attention that some of my scenes were really good, while others I had much more trouble dealing with and came off as “lacking”-aha! Though the experimental GM a chance to try something new-, this semester I’m taking a course in oratory, I needed the extra credits and it sounded like a fun way to spend time, one of the first things the professor told us during the first class was that whenever you were going to make an oratory prepare a meta-template to structure the information, the idea is that no matter what theme you are working, an orator should always keep notes structured in an universal template, cool I though, I couldn´t quite understand why, but hey, that’s why I took the class right?.

So, we´ve been preparing notes in a certain way for the last two months, something like this:

Theme

General Objective: What point am I trying to get across?

Specific Objectives: What points do I need to make to build the message for the General Objective?

Details: things to keep in mind, key words to punctuate about the theme (if I’m talking about abortion details would be pro-against choices, sensible subject, religion)

Strategies: tried and true phrases the orator uses (kind of like his signature phrases jokes, ad hominems, etc)

So last week we arrive at the classroom and the professor announces a pop quiz, an improvisational speech, I had done pretty well last time he did it (second class) but I stumbled a little because I wasn’t prepared on the subject (which at this time I can’t recall).

I stood in front of the class, he chooses the theme –Oil production- and BAM!, suddenly all on its own my brain started arranging the information in my head just as if I had been reading my notebook with the meta-template notes… GOLD MINE!

How didn’t I figure this out sooner I don´t know, the brain is the most ritualistic thing in this universe, it favors repetition, by repeating over and over again the same problem solving algorithm the brains assumes it as default and goes to it when a similar situation arises, that was what had just happened,   upon receiving the instruction my brain understood that I had to give a speech, and seeing as it has been working with the same procedure for the last two months, it applied it to my knowledge bank on oil and production..

So being the psyche tinkerer that I am, I started taking role-playing notes once again, structuring all the Encounters – Scenes in a Meta-template as to train my brain for those moments when I have to improvise; instead of my chaotic common strategy “grab a couple of ideas and wing it” I´m trying to form an organized algorithm, the cool thing is that science supports me.

My template is looking something like this at the moment

Scene No – Name

General Objective: The main objective the players want to achieve in this scene.

Specific Objective: Broad conditions that must be met in order to achieve the G.O.

Details: Key words to keep in mind while describing the scene.

Entrance: the key moment when I know the Scene is starting

Complications: Difficulties and problem that prevent the players from achieving the Specific Objective (every S.O should at least have one complication).

Climax: A moment during the scene that is meant to be the top emotional point, or that represents tremendous emotional or physical danger.

Side-Quests: other Scenes that can open up when playing the encounter

Closure: The key moment when I know the scene is ending.

Notes and encounter: stats and miscellaneous info.

Let’s put this template into action with a Scene for a common fantasy troupe, saving the village from the orc attack:

Scene 1 – The greenskins warcry

General Objective: Defend the villagers from the incoming attack of the Orc chief Guk´Thor

Specific Objectives:

-          Put out the fires, or save the villagers inside burning houses caused by the orcs flaming arrows.

-          Help defend the Town Hall where the villagers have taken refuge (help from the town guard)

-          Slay Irkas, the troll rampaging the town square (lowers the Orcs morality and provokes a retreat order).

-          Take down Guk´Thor to prevent further attacks

Details: Fire, Barnyard, Screams, Cries for help, Rain, Sound of metal clashing, Orc Warcries, Bloostained streets.

Entrance: The first drops of rain start hitting the stone streets of Hallet, in the distance from the watchtowers smalls points of light appear in the distance, instants later to take off into the air and drawing closer, finally, one of the flaming arrows hits the hay of a barnyard, the guard captain shouts “For the gods, they orcs must be using alchemist fire!”.

Complications:

-           The building is burning down at amazing speed, the mother is on the ground floor, almost unconscious , the heroes will have to carry her outside while at the same time dodging the burning woods falling from the ceiling, upon exiting the woman takes a deep breath and lets out a scream only to be suffocated in coughs, another scream can be heard from the inside “mommy!”, roll to dodge fires, the players only have 5 turn before the building collapses.

-          The orcs are attacking the Town hall from three different flanks, but the town guard ared under geared and at a disadvantage they  can only cover one of the flanks, the players must choose to either help the guards, or take the flanks and in doing so leaving the wounded soldiers to their demise, a few hobgoblins have made their way through the second floor windows and are making their down to the villagers, players only have a few turns before they reach the refugees.

-          The heavy rain and the blood has made the square´s stone very slippery, a solid hit or fast movements may cause the combatants to fall prone, incidentally goblins are throwing rocks from the sides, distracting the players.

-          Guk´Thor will not let itself get caught, if at any time he loses 50% of his troops he´s gonna sacrifice the others while he tries to run away, if players catch up to him he will use the last of the alchemist fire to create a fire between him and the players.

Side-Quests:

The corpse of Guk´Thor has a note about the orcs getting more Alchemist fire once the burn down Hallet.

The child in the burning building carries a locket bearing the royal seal, he is the illegitimate son of a baron.

Guk´Thor axe is magical, but its true power can only be awakened by a shamanistic ritual.

Closure: The heavy breathing sheriff approaches the players, hes missing one eye “the creatures have called a retreat, lay down your arms and ask the clerics for healing, I don’t know how we could have done this without you”.

Notes and encounters: orcs system for system of choice.

Hopefully in no time my brain is going to be able to work like that

10 quick plots based on a children´s show Part 2

Welcome back! If you haven’t read part one you might want to check it out: 10 quick plots based on a children´s show Part 1

Now that that’s out of the way remember that I’m gonna be spoiling some really good sci-fi shows, you have been warned:

Ad-Vent!

Ryuki: My personal favorite, 12 years ago two young brothers were playing and drawing “the monsters from the mirrors” they always used to talk about, suddlendly the smaller of the two drops dead, the older brother witness in horror as the reflection of his little sister in the mirror tells him that she´s going to let her live forn another 12 years, but after that her new life is gonna burn out. What does the older brother do?, he becomes obssesed with the mirror world, a parallel universe where the monsters they drew as children exists and hunt unsuspecting humans,  he creates thirteen suits of armor that give their owners the power to cross the border to the mirror world and face the monsters, the rule of the game, make a pact with a monster, kill the other warriors and if you are the last one standing, you will gain the power to fulfill one wish,  the plan, to use the life force of those thirteen to gain the power to save his little sister… but there are only a few months left.

Faiz: Humanity has evolved, faster, smarter, stronger, but such a transformation is unstable, neo-humans die in a year or so due to their fast metabolism, but one of them has the power to stabilize the others, he is called “The King”, but as of yet he is unborn, resting in a cocoon, the neo-humans use their powers to create a mega-corporation bar none, owners of the world economics, they just need to assure that their savior will be safe till his birth, so they use their vast resources to come up with suits of armor (or weapons or what have you) to guard their king, unfortunaly the armor falls in the hands of humans, who, ignorant to what these creatures really are, fear them as some form of invaders seeking to destroy humankind (in truth, neo-humans have the ability to force others to evolve, but most people cant handle the process and die right away).

Blade: When god created life he made a battle royale, the winning beast would have the honor of having his race rule the earth, the victor was humankind with its wits and willpower, today a group of archeologists found the tablets where the creatures where sealed, and by setting them loose a new Batte Royale has begun, but this time, humans use the sealed power of these creatures to boost themselves and once again return the beasts to their resting ground, the problem?, by using boosting himself the wielder will eventually become the beast he is taking the power from… but hey, he doesnt have to know!.

Hibiki: a young boy discovers a man with the incredible ability of using a sacred device to become an oni, a demon of legend, but this gentle man is no monster, he is a savior, protecting human kind from a family of demons that is awakening, without realizing it the young boy becomes the disciple of this Oni, and together with the rest of the Clan they prepare for the day when the seal that protects this world is finally broken and the Demon rise once again.

Kabuto: A race of aliens has hidden among mankind for the last centry, but 10 years ago their enemies decended from the skies to rage on their war on earth, those hidden among us create a series of devices (once again armor, weapons and what have you) to defend themselves from these invaders -while at the same time strenghtening  their reign over humanity from the shadows-  the problem is that the weapons will only choose certain individuals who embody particular personality traits to wield them, will the heroes figure out who the puppeteers are and use the weapons against them?.

Den-O: Humans from a destroyed timeline arrive at our time as spirits, they posses individuals and satisfy their greatest desire, but in return, said person must pay with their memories, by satysfing the contract the disembodied beings are able to travel to that person´s most significant moment and  take physical form, the have but one mission, to cause havoc in the past so that they can revive their own timeline, the Denliner is a train that travels through time -think Back to the Future  3 meets a tokyo bullet train- and its tripulation has taken unto itself to save the current time.

Kiva: Vampires rule over humans from the shadows, they´ve sistematically eliminated every supernatural race, and now they reign supreme, but some survivors from the other races still exist, and they have sworn to destroy the Vampires, doing a favor to humankind while accomplishing their own goals (Think of a WoD party where you are the last survivor of your race and you have to face the Camarilla with the help of other survivors)

Decade: the gloves are off with this one, take every single game you have ever played, CoC, WoD, D&D, and any other acronyms you have used as an excuse to throw dice, grab a generic system (I recommend PDQ), all those stories are pararell worlds, and they are coming together and collapsing upon one another, your players are Dimension Travelers, destined to destroy or to save all realities, every time they travel to one of this dimension they have to save a  characters from that game, and in doing so understanding them, once they come to terms with each hero in each world they earn their abilities (so if I save an archer elf I become a master marksman as well).

There you have it, some fantasy/sci-fi plots to start a campaign, play a one-shot or add to your existing campaign (god knows after writing this Im doing Ryuki with my Anima Campaign).

Till another Time!

10 quick plots based on a children´s show Part 1

I love Kamen Rider… the engaging storylines, the bad action, the cheap SFX, I don’t know why, but the combination just seems to work for me, for years I have followed the Heisei Riders (AKA the last decade) and it suddenly hit me, how the stories were practically written to be played at the table, but first, what is Kamen Rider?.

Henshin!

Father of the atrocious butchery created by Haim Saban (using footage from Kamen Rider Black RX) back in the 90s, Kamen Rider is one of the most popular “Tokusatsu” shows in Japan, the series are usually about a lone hero fending (most of them either naive of with emotional issues) the enemies of mankind at the risk of losing their life and humanity, compared to Super Sentai (Power Rangers) the series tend to deal with mature subjects watered down for young audiences.

For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamen_Rider_Series

One last warning before we begin, even if I´m changing the stories slightly this is a SPOILER post, I WILL SPOIL the series, so if there is the slightest chance you might be motivated to watch these series I advise you to do so before reading further,  if you just want a quick plot for your game tonight, please read on.

Kuuga: An ancient evil has awakened, a tribe of powerful creatures are killing humans in a ritualistic fashion –for instance one might choose to kill female police officers, another one people with names starting with J- in an attempt to awaken the Day of Great Darkness, the day when all humans will become voracious creatures just like this tribe, several weapons are found among the remains of ancient civilizations, weapon used by warriors of the past to fend off this abominations of darkness.

Agito: Light and Darkness fought for the longest of times but in the end Darkness prevailed, as the debilitated Light disappeared he dispersed his seed among mankind “I have taken that what you value most –he said-… your precious creations, someday they will awaken to my power”, fast forward to present day, people with supernatural abilities are being targeted by Angels –they are banned from attacking normal people-, often killing them in impossible ways, the police are baffled as they are unable to find the connection between the victims –supernatural abilities are unknown to the world at large-, the victims carry the seed of Agito, their supernatural abilities are but the first stage of their awakening, if they continue to grow they will develop the ability to become Agito, powerful creatures with enough power to destroy the world… or to protect it, the angels are only protecting people from those who will develop a power they were not meant to have… talk about morally gray storylines.

To Anima or not to Anima?

I want to kick off with a review of one of my favorite games, Anima Beyond Fantasy, a roleplaying game of high powered heroes, anime and dark fantasy.

Advertised as a joint effort between European Authors and Asian artists, the game boasts a hefty 315 pages of excellent quality paper and beautiful illustrations that would make any Anime Otaku go out of its way to buy it and gleefully stare at the pretty pictures regardless of the arcane symbols that surround them (also known as Romaji to some cultures and the alphabet to others).

But we are not here to talk about the art, right?… no… we are here to get our hands dirty, how does this baby handle roleplaying?.

Let me start the review by stating that I own a copy of the book in spanish and a couple of books in english, the Spanish version desperately need an Editor outside the authors of the game, I’m pretty sure that to them it makes perfect sense, but the way they explain the rules is a convulted mess that only makes sense once you are familiar with the system -yeah you understand the book that’s supposed to teach the rules by knowing the rules… how self-gloating is that?)… up until that moment when I failed my sanity check and my mind snapped in two -AKA the game clicked- I felt like a retard reading a book on astrophysics. the English translation reads as if it was done by a German whose proficiency in Spanish comes from a vacation he spent in Madrid (In all fairness the original material is hard to understand for even a natural speaker as myself and as to my knowledge the English translator was going through some difficult issues at the time).

The basic system of the game reminds a lot of D20, 1d100 + attribute bonus + skill > difficulty, thats it, certain actions require an attribute check (the attributes go from 1 to infiny being the suggested starting limit a fancy 10), in those cases the player rolls a d10 aiming to roll LOWER than the attribute in questions (BTW there are eight of them, strength, dexterity, agility, constitution, power, willpower, intelligence and perception), yes kids, we are back to the roll high/roll low diatribe of AD&D, fortunately, its simple enough as to never get confusing (DAMN YOU THACO).

But wait, if I roll a 90 what happens? -you may ask if you have nothing better to do- in that case you get to reroll and add that roll to the total (much like Rolemaster and HARP), if you roll high again you get to reroll, but at each step the minimum number required to reroll goes up by one, so the first time the dice “explode” with a 90 or better, the second time with a 91 or better, the third time a 92 or better, and  so on, and so on, freshly rolled characters have a cap of 319 on checks, but as they grow in power their maximum potential grows as well.

Botches?, yeah, we have those to, if you roll a 1-2-3 you may have botch, roll again and add a modifier depending on what your rolled the first time (1=+25, 2=+0, 3=-25) if you roll less then 50 then its just a normal failure, over 50 is an spectacular failure and over a 100… you might want to print a new character sheet.

If you are getting the vibe that the game is a nitpicker and takes into account every little detail… then Im doing my job right, because the game focus way too much on those little bastards… take for example active actions, you can only take as many actions as the sum of two of your attributes allows (usually that means two) and I get a -25 to all my actions for each action beyond the first, BUT attacks (never mind how many you make) are considered only one active action, you can make an extra attack for every 100 you have in your attack skill (-25 per extra attack), so a warrior with a 120 attack can make 2 attacks (one active action) and use his intimidate skill (another active action), so in the end he has -25 to his intimidate and -50 to both his attacks (-25 for each active action, and another -25 to the attacks because hes doing 2).

Wait Hortum… you said that this was one of you favorite games… why are you selling people off it?… because I´m an honest guy, and I know that the system is far from perfect… but if you put up with terrible editing and an obssesive rule system (which by the way compared to D&D 3.5 its the equivalent of RISUS) you get this in return (and I´m not talking about the horrible dub):

Not something kind of similar, no, exactly this, and how does Anima accomplish such a feat?
-  The formless class system, classes are not a set of abilities, its a cost list that tells how you can spend your points to build you character, you want your warrior to cast spells, sure!, go ahead, its a expensive, but entirely possible.

- The game offers over 500 spells, a system for summoning and controlling creatures (or invoking stuff ala final fantasy), Ki Dominion (think of Exalted charm you build on your own), and psychic powers, all the systems seem pretty balanced against each other and offer the character and amplitude of choices tactical and role playing-wise. (I´ve been playing a game for the last six months and no one in the groups shows a clear advantage against any other for the first few levels).

In a nuthsell, with magic and ki you accumulate a certain amount of “energy” (zeon if its magic, ki if its… well, ki), and once you have enough, bam, off goes the ability, Psychic dont have energy pools, but if they fail their checks they get fatigued, Summoners can either summon, banish, control or bind a creature (bind means locking it inside a fetish and completly bending it to your will) all those actions cost zeon (and to bind something you have to pay a zeon upkeep cost daily), invocations are spells that use the summon skill insteas of the magic projection skill.

Each subsystem has its own set of rules, I know that’s a bother for some, but for me is a giant plus, I like the feeling of  different game styles depending the class you pick (like older editions of D&D).

- Players begin as D&D characters but quickly grow in power, by level 5* they already have spells that allows to control emotions in several miles around them… the power level is very VERY high.

* Yes, its a class-level system, but instead of getting flat bonuses when you level, you get more points to spend according to the costs given by your class (plus a few extra bonuses depending on the class to favor your main strengths)

There is a setting built in the game… to be honest I only skimmed through it and found it pretty boring, the only interesting fact about it is that they based their fantasy world around christian myths and that players don’t get to play as original races but rather humans who have inherited a small part of another race´s soul.

If you are into Anime or just love over the top flashy powers, flying warriors kicking the living hell out of each other while canalizing their energies through their weapons, if you want a system where mages and psychics are as versatile and audacious in combat as your warrior, this is the system I would recommend, its very front loaded and its hard to get into it, but once you play it a couple of times the game flows beautifully.

P. D: People say that the game uses way too many tables, in truth you only need one (and that is if you are lazy like me and don’t want to memorize the formula), a calculator is highly recommended to speed things up.

P. D2: Here is the opening video for my current campaign with anima:

Hortum