X Rounds of Combat

DAY 31 - LAST In Doctor Who  there is a concept of the Klempari defence, the defence being "I'm the last of my species". Lamentations of the Flame Princess has no official bestiary or monster manual as the author believes all monsters should be unique. So, here are four ideas: 1) Creature Codex - for money Go green, or I'll smash yo face 2) Teratic Tome - Pay What You Want It's been working out... a lot. 3) Lusus Naturae - Pay What You Want An odd Christmas tree 4) Whatever Monster Manual you already have Think of the creatures of the book as unique. There is ONE manticore, that's it. There might be a few dragonborn but all white ones are descended from THE white dragon, there is one of each colour, no more. Older editions of D&D presented monster stat blocks with frequency and number appearing . You can use larger or non-humanoid creatures unique or at least make them very rare.

Day 30 - CONNECTION Two interesting types of connections: 1. The Team Why are you a team anyway?  Connecting the team at character creation is something I really like. To me it really brings out the collaborative element of adventure games. Games based on FATE Core ( Dresden Files , Mindjammer , Tachyon Squadron , War of Ashes: Fate of Agaptus , and dozens more) already do that as their zero session setup. Simon Burley's  Squadron UK (which totally is not a rewrite of Golden Heroes that the author did due to losing copyrights to his own creation - check out the amazing  Grognard Files for more) also makes players create characters together and work with each other to connect their stories. --- Assemble! 2. The villain A literal connection to the villain might be the them being always at the right place, one step ahead of the party because they either have spies following them or they are scrying on them. Obviously, things like that need to be hinted at in a

Day 29 - EVOLVE That new 'TOOL' album is really good. Just a few things to think about: Westeros is about eight thousand years old, but has not evolved beyond Middle Ages. Why? Did something prohibit it? Was there a more advanced civilisation that has collapsed and the events of A Song of Ice and Fire are the post-apocalyptic Dark Ages? Why are there elves, dwarfs and other species in your game? How did they evolve? Where are they going as civilisations? Does the world evolve with players' actions? Can their characters introduce permanent change? Or does the world "reset" to an some unspecified state as the Dark Souls games do after character death/resurrection How did magic come to be? What are it's sources and how does it work? - in world fiction, not mechanically Almost all fantasy games are post-apocalyptic - there are various ruins of previous civilisations, dungeons, abandoned cities, etc. Who were they? How did this previous civilisati

Day 28 - LOVE Back in my day we didn't think about love, we were kicking goblins open and killing doors. But seriously...  When we started as 15 year olds love wan not something we were looking for in a game. It could have featured as a theme - as someone's motivation for their actions - but I don't think it ever came up in regards to our characters. I believe that, quite traditionally, our characters were orphans or outcasts or both.  Thou art overly young, boy-knight. I shall marry your horse. He has better sense of style anyway A concept of characters falling in love has never occurred to us. It was Poland after all and we were all straight guys (although from perspective I'm thinking that one guy might have been asexual and another deeply repressed and closeted, heck if I know) The only advice about introducing any subject I can give is - have a look at free pdf on  Consent in Gaming , that you can get for free from Monte Cook Games website

Day 27 - SUSPENSE The simplest way of introducing some suspense into your game is foreshadowing. Everything is better with Tim Curry Foreshadowing is a writing technique where you introduce a "gun hanging on the wall" that will soon fire. You can introduce a plot point that will quite obviously develop into something that the players anticipate, they just don't know how and when it happens. Rocky Horror Picture Show is the best musical, fight me! The Pirate story in the Watchmen foreshadows the events of the main comic book. In Empire Strikes Back after Luke kills the phantom Vader he sees his own face. Boromir from his very introduction wants to use the One Ring. When you watch the Sixth Sense again you realise that there is not a single interaction between the main character and the living people. Telegraph things to your players, get them to speculate or even guess the development of events just don't tell them when the hammer falls.

Day 26 - IDEA Back when I was starting in the hobby (late 90s) most Polish players would promote the view that the Game Master is supposed to come up with original stuff on their own. Maybe it was because of lack of support - apart from D&D 3E we usually got the core book for a game and maybe, MAYBE, a supplement or two. What year is this?! When we recently went to Burnaby Village Museum I did not think I would have so much fun. The whole place is stylised for  1920s, and a lot of stuff surprised me. I don't think there was semi-reliable electricity in Poland at that time. My primary school classroom, grades 1-3, was not that much different than this. The whole experience was closer to the "Wild West" American frontier than I expected.  Inspiration? Yes.  Ideas...? Oh, yes! 1920s apparently Where to get ideas? other RPG products - they don't have to be for the same game or even genre that you're running, as long as they ge

Day 25 - CALAMITY It doesn't always have to be orcs. Natural disasters can redefine your setting completely, and part from initial chaos tend to have lasting consequences. Depending on the level of realism you want there will be destruction, dead and wounded as in a war-like situation, refugees and increased migration from the affected region. And all that leading to increased social tensions, racial prejudice and conflict at the worst possible time. Just shake things up. What happened? - a d10 list Earthquake Flooding Meteor  Draught Hurricane Wildfire Avalanche or landslide Volcano eruption Blizzard Hailstorm What was affected? - a d10 list Mostly uninhabited area A village A small town Major town A small city Major city  The capital  Majority of the county Majority of the kingdom The whole continent Why it happened? - a d4 list Natural occurrence Political plot  Divine intervention Planar invasion What are the consequences?

Day 24 - Triumph As I was sitting in the washroom, holding my thumb under running cold water to stop the bleeding from almost chopping it off, I started thinking about the concept of triumph in RPG.  Weird place, I know. Triumph as an act of destruction  If you're playing D&D or any of the mainstream games you are fighting bad guys and killing monsters. It's just the nature of the game. The party will consider it a triumph when they manage to slay the Big Bad Evil Guy or a dragon or some other dangerous creature. Bishop to E3! Check! Triumph as a positive act My little triumph was that I still have my thumb, although we'll see the exact extent of damage in a few days. Escaping a collapsing cavern seems like a triumph to me. O finding that lost child and returning it to the grieving parents.  Or preventing an armed conflict.  Or navigating the court intrigue in a way where everyone is equally unhappy but the long term consequences will ha

Day 23 - SURPRISE! At some point in fantasy RPGs many adventures and therefore parties move onto epic levels, more tactical combat, almost superhero gaming. There isn't much dungeoneering or dragoning going around. Those early levels especially (with their higher squishiness of characters) are fit for classic dungeon or cave crawls. There is a reason why the original way of playing (revived by OSR games) was such.  It's behind me, isn't it? Dungeons, caverns and crypts are hostile places where characters are vulnerable, and their survival requires smart thinking, tactical planning and resource management. Even characters with some degree of infra- or dark vision should have harder time exploring and noticing things around them.  Let the games begin! Creatures that have been born in darkness should have an advantage at surprising the party, hitting hard and disappearing into the darkness to strike again. The underworld is full of surprises, mostly bad,

Day 22 - LOST The opportunities of getting lost and learning from LOST (the TV show). In 5th edition a successful Wisdom / Survival check means that you cannot get lost and will always arrive to your destination. However party getting lost gives DM an opportunity to roll on those sweet sweet random encounter tables, and then anything can happen, and both the Players and DM can have more fun with something unpredictable happening. OK, my turn to stab you. DM advice from other media. LOST was a TV phenomenon for a while, did some controversial stuff, but also did some good things. What are THOSE?! The Good - dropping some plot-lines that lead nowhere and nobody cares about is fine The Bad - dropping plot-lines because you kind of forgot about them is not good, having no main antagonist or goal is just problematic The Ugly - a sort of mundane explanation for mysterious coincidences should be avoided - polar bear showing up when someone is reading a comic book where a

DAY 21 - VAST The original, old school way of playing D&D promises a vast, almost infinite world with infinite possibilities. The land that was promised But this is what you as a player might get. A lot of imagination required For many players, not always new ones, that is too much of a choice. "You can go anywhere, you can do anything". But where to go? What to do? Even with maps that present something it is usually abstracted to a degree that is difficult. Looks good to me when I analyse it a bit, but what does it tell you? This is mostly just colours ChicagoWiz's advice on both his blog and in his unfortunately defunct podcast The Dungeon Master's Handbook  was to create just three hexes . Start small, don't smother your players with choices, develop as you go depending on the events of the game, player expectations and your own ideas. The world does not need to be overly vast to feel alive.

Day 20 - NOBLE There are generally two types of being noble - being born into a aristocratic class, and acting honourably.  The "being born into it" reminds me of an old D&D setting Birthright   where you play rules given powers by gods. It has some focus on domain level play and sounds interesting. There even was a video game based off it.    Wow, such realism. Wow, much D&D Hey, you don't look the same in the game Of course all nobles are white, anything else would be unrealistic. Elves, dragons, magic? This is fine. The other nobility is having high morals and ideals, like Sturm Brightblade , a character from Dragonlance Chronicles, who embodied the ideals of the Knights of Solamnia despite not being one of them. Yeah, that guy with a moustache. Also, if you're located in North America there's an online store - Noble Knight Games - that has decent prices and a metric ton of stuff on sale. You can get s

Day 19 - SCARY The whole process started around Ann Rice and her vampires being seductive and closer to succubi. Then came the brooding sparkling vegetarians in Twilight. But fear not! (or rather do) because there are still vampires that resemble more their monstrous originals. In recent media there are: Netflix’s Castlevania  based off a series of video games – gothic monsters and magic. It's a really good show Guillermo del Toro's The Strain  where vampires are more of a disease, but monstrous nonetheless. That thing is disgusting and freaky AF. For your gaming needs there's Ravenloft an absolute DnD classic from 1st, 2nd and 5th edition, with legendary Strahd von Z as the master BBEG. Strahd von Z And a recently released campaign module Undying Orbs Omnibus for Swords and Wizardry, compatible with other retro-clones and easily converted to DnD 5e. Not the most informative cover

Day 18 - PLENTY Post-scarcity economy describes a hypothetical form of economy or society, often explored in science fiction, in which things such as goods, services and information are free, or practically free. Think Star Trek and it's Starfleet. Starfleet officers don't earn money because they have replicators for food and everything else is freely available to them. For all we know this might be the case with the rest of the Federation, but it has not been explored in the shows. We only have what Captain Picard has said in First Contact : The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force of our lives.   We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity. Star Trek Adventures from Modiphius In that case, playing Star Trek Adventures , what is your motivation? As a player you are here to have fun. What is the motivation of your character to do what they do? There is no gold or wealth to accrue, no monsters to kill. Here are my ideas: Curiosity - I

Day 17 - ONE One game to rule them all… The game that I'm really interested in playing is… The One Ring  Everything's fine. We've got this Set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, from Cubicle 7 . They have also created a 5e adaptation of it called Adventures in Middle-earth. The only MMORPG I played for longer and enjoyed it was The Lord of the Rings Online . There.

I'm falling behind by a day. I'll try to catch up. Day 16 - DREAM I have two favourite ways to utilise dreams in RPGs. I see you're busy fighting the monster. I'll call you back. Information Information dreams can be interactive or non-interactive. The non-interactive are just a “cinematic” that is meant to provide player(s) either with some backstory, show them something that is happening somewhere else and technically their characters wouldn’t normally know, or can be a foreshadowing of future events.  The interactive aim and use is similar. The character is provided with information they would not have access otherwise but this time they interact with someone (a deity, spirit, ancestor, djinn). In this case they get to ask some questions that they might even get some truthful answers. I love maps Traversal Faerie roads from Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell function as a parallel plane of existence through which one can travel between ph

Day 15 - DOOR Door is almost always a puzzle or at least a decision. If it is closed - how do we open it? Is it secured? Is it trapped?  If it is open - why? Is it a trap? If not - who opened it before us? Insert the above questions Also, have you noticed how common in movies, comic books and illustrations is to have a door with a face?  Labyrinth of lies and truth A few doors for your entertainment: (shamelessly stolen from reddit ) A dungeon door with a face carved on it, or maybe cast in metal. It asks questions like: What colour is the sky? What am I guarding? They are not riddles, the door is self aware and curious. You could dismount it from its frame, turn into a shield and let it travel the world with you. (shamelessly stolen from Wally DM ) The door is unlocked but when you open it there is a giant mage hand behind it blocking the passage. When you try to pass through it will gently push you back and close the door - it remains unlocked. Th

Day 14 - GUIDE I could write about the many Game Master's Guides but I will just tell you a story. In the early days we were playing something homebrewed loosely based on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Somehow, without internet, without contact with other groups, without even Dungeons and Dragons we were doing dungeon crawls, rolling for randomised encounters and such. We've been playing OSR / retro style because to us it was the intended way to do so. So, for one reason or another we are being recruited to help the local innkeeper. Something is in the wine cellars , he says. He saw a hole in the wall, something broke through. 1st edition D&D goblin. I love that image, I should get it tattooed or something I believe someone mentioned wine tasting at one point so the innkeeper wants to go as our " guide " and to watch the barrels. Passing through the basement and then the wine cellar is uneventful. We find a few emptied barrels but nothing more.

Day 13 - MYSTERY Mysteries are not that hard to create - just add more clues . As the Alexandrian jokingly says on his blog you need at least three clues for your Player Characters. Why? Because the PCs will probably miss the first; ignore the second; and misinterpret the third before making some incredible leap of logic that gets them where you wanted them to go all along. Frodo  :  What's your password? Gandalf  :  Password. Frodo  :  No, what is your password? Gandalf  :  Password. The word spelled out. Frodo  :  You're head of security  wizard council and your password is "password"? Gandalf  :  I don't feel good about it either. I clearly remember a situation where the party was searching for a murder weapon that was hidden in the field of carrots. GM: On your way from the village to the mansion you are passing by A FIELD OF CARROTS Our party: *all shrug and continue on to the mansion* GM: On your way back from the mansion to

Day 12 - FRIENDSHIP Most people you play games with will not be your lifetime friends but you will share something special with them.  DM rolling for damage - colourised When you move to a new place, start a new job and don't know anyone yet finding a group to play with might be a solution to finding like-minded people. 

Day 11 - Examine In early editions of Dungeons & Dragons , and therefore in most of the retro-clones like Swords & Wizardry , there was a concept of Player Skill. Your characters didn't have skills, proficiencies and whatnot. It was up to you, the player to come up with ideas and provide some descriptions.  To examine the room you did not roll for your room searching skill.  Ready to examine the environs How do you want to do this? You would then describe how you're checking all the chests, all the drawers, looking for secret compartments and such. In long hallways and corridors of a dungeon you would search for traps by checking if all the stones are the same level, if some stepping plates seem to be covered in dust as if no one walks on them, and then you would poke them anyway with a ten foot pole. Ten foot pole - an adventurer's necessity since the first D&D module B1 - In Search of the Unknown Your descriptions of examining obje

DAY 10 - FOCUS Focus feat for 5e. Possibly overpowered but it's meant to emulate epic situations where a character temporarily gains unnatural focus and proficiency. Inner peace Non-class specific, can be selected on any level Through your training or meditation you have achieved high level of inner peace that allows you to focus on the action you perform.  In time, you will be able to master that ability and do remarkable things. can be used X times per day (X being the tier level) roll with advantage with additional d20 per tier level Tier 1 Levels 1-5:  roll 3 d20 (advantage + 1), keep highest can be used 1 per day Tier 2 Levels 6-10:  roll 4 d20 (advantage + 2), keep highest can be used 2 per day Tier 3 Levels 11-15:  roll 5 d20 (advantage + 3), keep highest can be used 3 per day Tier 4 Levels 16-20:  roll 6 d20 (advantage + 4), keep highest can be used 4 per day