Rogues and Scrolls

So why do rogues have the ability to cast spells of scrolls(and use magic devices)?

From their first appearance in D&D Sup-I Greyhawk, high-level thieves were given the opportunity to use magic scrolls, with some associated chance of the spell being reversed.

Thieves of the 10th level and above are able to understand magical writings, so any scroll that falls into their hands can be used by them - excluding spells which are clerical in nature. However, with spells of the 7th level and above there is a 10% chance that the effect will he the reverse of that intended (due to the fact that even Master Thieves do not fully comprehend such great magic). [OD&D Sup-I, p. 4]

As usual, some small modifications were made to this rule through AD&D 1E and 2E. In 3E this was transmogrified into a rogue-only skill called "Use Magic Device", which more generally gave that class some random chance to use any magic items which were otherwise reserved for other classes.

The origins of this skill are fairly well known, as similar scenes occur for both Fritz Leiber's the Gray Mouser, and Jack Vance's Cugel the Clever, each whom at some point use magical writings with highly unexpected results. However, I had trouble digging up the specific key passages online, so I figured I'd research, comment, and critique them in a scholarly way here on the blog.

The Gray Mouser's Spell

The following is from the novella The Lords of Quarmall, first published in 1964, later collected in the book Swords Against Wizardry. While Fritz Leiber wrote almost all of the Fafhrd & Gray Mouser stories, the characters were originally conceived by his friend Harry Otto Fischer, with this particular story being the one initiated by Fischer himself. He's reputed to have written the first "10,000 words" circa 1936, with the story being finished and published by Leiber in 1964 -- which by my counting would indicate that Fischer wrote the two setup pieces below, and Leiber the later culmination. (As an aside, the physical descriptions of the two characters were based on Leiber & Fischer themselves -- see more at Wikipedia.) Pages noted below are from the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks #18: The First Book of Lankhmar (2001).

To follow the action here [SPOILERS follow, of course], it's probably important to understand that the story revolves around two hostile, debauched, magic-using brothers, Gwaay and Hasjarl, each controlling part of an enormous labyrinthine fortress that extends into the bowels of the earth ("... certain passageways beneath it ran deep under the Sea and extended to certain caverns wherein might dwell some remnant of the Elder Ones", p. 681). Gwaay (who has hired the Mouser) has a group of 12 sorcerers of the First Rank serving to defend him from magical threats. Meanwhile, Hasjarl (who has coincidentally hired Fafhrd) has a group of 24 sorcerers of the Second Rank (i.e., lesser) constantly employed in trying to send magical diseases and plagues at Gwaay. And thus we have --

In the opening scene:

"If it's magical helpings you lack," the Mouser retorted boldly, "I have a spell or two that would frizzle your elder brother's witches and warlocks!" And truth to tell the Mouser had parchment-crackling in his pouch one spell -- though one spell only -- which he dearly wanted to test. It had been given him by his own wizardly mentor and master Sheelba of the Eyeless Face. [p. 672]

Later:

His tone was unmistakably rebuffing, nevertheless the Mouser, dreading a dull evening, persisted, "There is also the matter of that serious spell of mine which I told you, Prince -- a spell most effective against magi of the Second Rank and lower, such as a certain noxious brother employs. Now were a good time --" [p. 691]

Much later, as events rise to a climax -- in Gwaay's Hall of Sorcery, at the table with the dozen major magicians:

"... And by the blood of that one whom it is death to look upon..."

So sonorously invoked the Mouser, as with eyes closed and arms outstretched he cast the rune given him by Sheelba of the Eyeless Face which would destroy all sorcerers of less than First Rank of an undetermined distance around the casting point -- surely for a few miles, one might hope, so smiting Hasjarl's warlocks to dust.

Whether his Great Spell worked or not -- and in his inmost heart he strongly mistrusted that it would -- the Mouser was very pleased with the performance he was giving. He doubted Sheelba himself could have done better. What magnificent deep chest tones! -- even Fafhrd had never heard him declaim so.

He wished he could open his eyes for just a moment to note the effect his performance was having on Gwaay's magicians -- they'd be staring open-mouthed for all their supercilious boasting, he was sure -- but on this point Sheelba's instructions had been adamant: eyes tightly shut while the last sentences of the rune were being recited and the great forbidden words spoken; even the tiniest blink would nullify the Great Spell. Evidently magicians were supposed to be without vanity or curiosity -- what a bore!

Of a sudden in the dark of his head, he felt contact with another and a larger darkness, a malefic and puissant darkness, of which light itself is only the absence. He shivered. His hair stirred. Cold sweat prickled his face. He almost stuttered midway through the word "slewerisophnak". But concentrating his will, he finished without flaw.

When the last echoing notes of his voice had ceased to rebound between the domed ceiling and floor, the Mouser slit open one eye and glanced surreptitiously around him.

One glance and the other eye flew open to fullness. He was too surprised to speak.

And whom he would have spoken to, had he not been too surprised, was also a question.

The long table at the foot of which he stood was empty of occupants. Where but moments before had sat eleven of the very greatest magicians of Quarmall -- sorcerers of the First Rank, each had sworn on his black Grammarie -- was only space....

Very quietly he stood up and silently walked in his ratskin moccasins to the nearest archway, across which he had drawn thick curtains for the Great Spell. He was wondering just what the range of the spell had been, where it had stopped, if it had stopped at all. Suppose, for instance, that Sheelba had underestimated its power and it disintegrated not only sorcerers, but... [p. 728-730]

As it turns out, the Great Spell has in fact disintegrated all of Gwaay's sorcerers to a fine gray ash, and not touched any of Hasjarl's sorcerers (or anyone else). A few pages later:

His voice trailed off. It had occurred to him to wonder why he himself hadn't been blasted by his own spell. He had never suspected, until now, that he might be a sorcerer of the First Rank -- having despite a youthful training in country-sorceries only dabbled in magic since. Perhaps some metaphysical trick or logical fallacy was involved... If a sorcerer casts a rune that midway of the casting blasts all sorcerers, provided the casting be finished, then does he blast himself, or...? Or perhaps indeed, the Mouser began to think boastfully, he was unknown to himself a magus of the First Rank, or even higher, or -- [p. 732]

And a little bit later, as the Mouser and his companion speculate on their next move:

Ivivis frowned. "Gwaay used to say that just as sword-war is but another means of carrying out diplomacy, so sorcery is but another means of carrying out sword-war. Spell-war. So you could try your Great Spell again," she concluded without vast conviction.

"Not I!" the Mouser repudiated. "It never touched Hasjarl's twenty-four or it would have stopped their disease-spells against Gwaay. Either they are of the First Rank or else I'm doing the spell backwards -- in which case the tunnels would probably collapse on me if I tried it again." [p. 740]

Bad Habits

1) DM who puts the game on pause for 10+ minutes at a time to look through the rules instead of making a judgment call (my rule of thumb is if I can't find the rule in 1 minute I just call it, with all the player's agreement, and carry on the game, and I NEVER consult the rules during a dramatic moment).

2) Players/DM's who take FOREVER taking their turns. At our table you have 1 minute to determine what you do, if you can't then you skip your turn. If performing your action itself takes 10 minutes that's fine (AKA making 10 attacks, each with different/stacking modifiers to take into account, etc.).

3) Players/DM's who insist on always hogging the spotlight. Everyone needs their time in the spotlight, so when it's shining on you feel free to ham it up. However, when you feel the need to always be the one in the spotlight, we have a problem.

4) DM's who completely ignore some aspect of my character that I invested points into. Those same DM's then have a habit of getting annoyed that everyone only invests in things that make them better in combat.

5) High-CHA-PC-having players that never let any other PC talk to anyone else. You want to talk to your own mother? Better have Mr. High-CHA do it else you might mess it up!

6) Low-CHA-PC-having players that insist on impulsively trying to do delicate negotiations without consulting anyone in the party. Of course once they screw everything up, they look to Mr. High-CHA and say "you have all the charisma and social skills, why don't you talk to him?"

7) Chaotic Stupid (often directly related to #6) and Lawful Anal PC's/players.

8) People who are in general not team players. The game is all about them and they will walk all over everyone else to get what they want, but God forbid someone does it back to them (or even tries to stop them from doing it). This applies to players and DM's.

9) DM's who pull Diablos-Ex-Machina out of left field just because your plan is going too well. I don't mind complications to even almost perfect plans, except when it is obvious the DM threw them in there just specifically to not make it too easy for you. At least try to hide it!

10) Players who don't bother cracking open a rulebook outside of the game, and thus do all their shopping/lvling decisions during our bi-weekly session. Of course it takes up the whole session, doing nothing but wasting my time since I obviously need not have bothered showing up. This is especially infuriating when the DM specifically tells them to do this between sessions and they ignore him.

11) When the party splits and they take so long doing their individual things that I don't even get to play during the session and am nothing but a spectator. I could have surfed the web for 6 hours on my laptop at home without having to drive half an hour

12)At least one person ALWAYS shows up late. By the time we're done ordering food and eating its 2 hours past the time we were supposed to start playing. No joke. This happens like everytime.

13)A backseat DM. SOOOO freaking annoying. Always slowing the game down to look up rules and for some reason thinks he has a right to see your character sheet and judge it.

14)The "everyone is cheating but me" dude. He's paranoid. He thinks everyone is fudging dice rolls, doing illegal character builds, etc. Very similar to the one above. edit: BUT ironically he seems to roll the most nat 20s...

15)Player(s) who, in a group where everyone is at the same level of optimization/tier, do not play their character like they built it and then complain that your character is overpowered. Then when you point out that the only reason it appears this way is because they are using their magic/bow specialized character in melee all the time, they get mad because you are telling them how to play their character.

16)DM's that out of the blue say things like "you know, I thought we would do today (where is not necessarily even RP related) instead of play the game" at the beginning of the session. You couldn't have told us this BEFORE we showed up? I am all for hanging out with my friends, but quite often is something I do not enjoy in the slightest and would have appreciated the warning so I could do something fun at home instead.

17)DM's that put the session on hold for HALF AN HOUR or more to take a non-emergency phone call. Multiple times during the session... Next time the DM pauses the game to do phone tech support for one of his relatives as opposed to telling them he is busy I am just gonna up and leave for the night.

18) DM's that Stop the session ever 10 minutes because it's time for another smoke break. I get it, you smoke, you need your fix, but can you at least wait until between scenes? It's frustrating as all get-out trying to get anything accomplished like that.

19)The Dm has a DMPC. I know in theory it can work, but in actuality I've never seen it end up as anything more than "I love this character of mine I made in this old game, so I'm going to keep playing them in this one and you can be along for the ride.

20) When players can't make serious characters when you let them know in advance that you're planning on having this be a survival horror kind of game. Because an Aasimar Warlock named Edward with "sparkling, almost luminescent skin" is not the sort of thing I was looking for .

21)players that deliberately cause conflict in the first session when you're trying to get them together with other party members. I know nobody likes hearing the train whistle, but sometimes for conveniences sake, just assume that you'll be willing to work with other people to clear the rats out of the tavern basement.

22)Players who, RIGHT AFTER you tell them that you plan on your next campaign being serious, dark, and/or gritty, come to you with a joke character like a deaf/mute bard with ranks in Perform[interpretive dance] and Perform[mime]. When they notice you giving them the evil eye, they simply say "every dark story needs comic relief!" (Luckily, and hilariously, this one sorted itself out: One of the other PC's got fed up and killed the annoying character )

23)Players who deliberately provoke PvP (usually by means of stealing, backstabbing, insulting everything the character holds dear, etc., of course using the "but that's what my character would do!" excuse) in what is supposed to be a non-PvP, cooperative game. Then of course when you attack them for it, they cry foul because this is supposed to be a non-PvP game, and don't think it's funny when you say "that's what my character would do!".

24)The player of one of our paladins was playing Pokemon on her laptop throughout the entire session. This included her getting angry at the game, and disrupting other people's turns.The player of the other paladin was playing Flash games on his laptop for the first little bit of the session. This is more understandable, because he wasn't in combat with the rest of us. No idea if he continued to play after he was teleported to the battle.

25)Generally speaks excessively out of character. Pop culture references, idle conversation, whatever. It's been so bad some nights that we didn't even get to fight anything.

Let the Game Begin!: Tips for Getting the Session Started

How the beginning of a session goes will frequently set the tone for the entire session, so it’s important to get off on the right footing. Here are a few simple suggestions for things to do right before you really get down to play and right after everyone in your group is ready to go.

Before The Dice Start Rolling:

Chatter: Sometimes the hardest part of getting a session started is actually getting started. Most people play D&D with their friends and a certain amount of chatter time at the beginning of the session about the latest episode of Heroes, so and so’s new girlfriend/boyfriend or how drunk you were at Ted’s birthday party last Friday is natural and to be expected. The trick is to simply plan for this to occur. The simple way is to start the 'game' roughly an hour earlier then you had planed to originally. If your the kind of person that like to start the game at 6pm, then simply move it to 5pm.

The Game Day:A simple trick to avoid chatter is to make it a game day. A typical game will 'start' at 5pm, or more like 7pm once everyone is done chatting away and shows up. A game day can fix this. Simply start the game, as early as you can wake up. Have people come over at noon, or even 10am. Then it's simple, from noon to 5pm, let everyone just hang out.

The Meet Up:This is yet another simple trick. Typically the people that show up for the game are friends that have not seen each other in at least a week or more. Naturally, everyone has stories to tell about their time apart, current events and gossip. This is what friends do, after all. The simple way around this is: don't make the game the only chance all the people have to get together. Have at least one or two meetings during the week with the group. Anything will do, a night out to get pizza, for example. And they don't need to be too long, three hours is plenty of time. All you need to is get the whole group together for a bit so they can socialize. Then when the game day comes along, they have nothing left to say to each other.

Food: Let’s face it; everyone eats when they play D&D. Having a bag of Doritos is almost as important as having dice to many a player and that’s perfectly fine. However, sometimes this gets out of hand and can delay the start of a session significantly. I have seen more than one session delayed hours as people order Pizza or Chinese, wait for it to be delivered, and then eat it before starting. Ask your players either to have their food with them when they arrive or plan for breaks to eat. If you are ordering a Pizza, ask the delivery place to bring it an hour or two into the session so that it will arrive at when you would normally take a little break anyway. That way, you can have your pizza and adventure too.

When the Game Actually Starts:

The Recap/Intro: At the beginning of each session it’s generally a good idea for there to be a quick recap of what happened in the last session or even last few sessions. If it’s the very first session ever, instead of recapping what happened in the last session, give a little of the backstory of how the party formed or if it hasn’t yet, how each of the characters got to the inn or wherever the opening scene takes place. If it’s a later session you can do the recap yourself or if you have an enthusiastic player let them handle it. It’s important to give the players a sense of continuity from the last session, remind them of things they might have forgotten over the week/month between sessions, and for the sneaky DM it provides a way to subtly prod the party in particular directions. If you want the party to go after the Vampire Lord this session rather than the Beholder, mention a few more details about the Vampire Lord in your recap. The players will frequently take the bait, intentionally or unintentionally.

Roll Initiative: I’m not saying start every session with an encounter, although sometimes it is good to do so, but to have the players roll initiative for whenever the first encounter is going to be later in the session and jot it down. If you are using index cards or post-its to keep track of initiative order and you have prerolled your monsters you can even slide the PC’s cards into their proper place in the stack. This may seem a bit unorthodox, but it really does improve the flow of the game as you can now go directly into PC actions the moment combat starts rather than having to pause, roll dice, and set up the order. After the first combat, when people are scribbling down the loot they acquired, have them roll for initiative the next one. Looting the bodies does not have any dramatic tension to break, seeing if the orc that just leapt from the bushes gets to stab you in the face does.

Homework: Preparing for the Game

Yes, sadly the DMs lot in life involves homework. Although some DMs can fly by the seat of their pants session after session most of us need to prepare. There are a few aspects of the game that if you handle them ahead of time will keep the game moving at a good pace.

Get your junk in order:

Have Papers to Hand. Either bookmark (post-its are good for this), photocopy, or jot notes on whatever NPCs/Monsters you plan to have in combat with the players in the upcoming session and put them someplace you will have ready access to them. Do the same with any annoying or obscure rules you expect to come into play.

Go over the adventure. If you are running a published module, read it over a few times so you know the sequence of events pretty well. If it’s your own creation, try to think about how the players could possibly throw a wrench in the works.

Go over the encounters you expect to have. Just having the stats ready isn't always enough to have a challenging and interesting encounter. Think about how the NPC/Monster would act in combat. Some monsters have a high CR because of particular abilities and if you don't think to use those they will be much easier than they ought to be and consequentally will be a let down for the players.

Find any other stuff you need. If you use dice (I use a diceroller on my computer) then make sure you have all the dice you are going to need ready to hand. If the party has minis they leave in your care, be sure the cat hasn’t stolen them and set aside any other minis (or coins or army men or stuffed animals…) that you plan to have represent NPCs/Monsters.

Genesis of an Adventuring Party

So, you have a bunch of players and they all have the coolest concept ever for a character. What now?

First, sit everyone down before the first session and have a discussion and cover the following topics, not in any particular order:

Make everyone agree that whatever happens in the game, stays in the game. D&D is supposed to be fun for all involved and in character disputes or problems should never spill out and ruin real friendships. Whatever happens in game both you and the players should be having a good time and not getting angry with eachother. If you think your players can’t handle that, don’t play. There are more important things in life.

Have each player explain their character concept to the rest of the group. Seems like a waste of time but it’s not. First, it helps avoid later player conflict. If one player wants to be a dwarf whose family was slaughtered by drow and attacks them on sight and another wants to play a drow, you are going to have a problem. Having everyone discuss it off the bat lets you and the players come up with a way to work around it before the game gets rolling and there is bloodshed. Also, you would be surprised what sort of interesting shared backstory players will come up with in collaboration if you give them the chance.

Demand regular and updated copies of character sheets. Seem anal? Well it is, but for good reason. If you are going to craft interesting and challenging encounters then you will need to know each characters mechanical strengths and weaknesses. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to tell your players to keep an online ‘master’ copy of their sheet. This way, if their sheet ever gets lost you can just print it out again or if they forget to bring their sheet you can just print them out a new copy on the spot. Personally, I prefer http://pifro.com/pro/ for this but there is no lack of sites that provide a free place to store your sheets online.

Make a party contract. Just a little agreement between characters about basic ways the party is going to split treasure and generally behave. You’d be shocked how many problems this can avoid.

Explain any houserules you plan to employ. If you are banning Divine Metamagic, tell your players before they build a character around it.

Also, talk to each player individually before the first session.

Find out if there are any bits of backstory or other details your players don’t want to share with the rest of the party yet. You need to know about it, even if it’s going to be a surprise for the rest of the group. You don’t want this to happen.

Ask about their preferred playstyle. If you don't already know it, find out what makes them tick as a player. What are the apects of the game they really look forward to? Some players like hack and slash others like heavy RP. Getting a sense of what each player likes will give you a pretty good idea of how to balance adventures such that everyone, including you, has a good time.

Find out where they want to go with the character, RP wise. What are the character's overall goals in life? Do they have a backstory or any background characters they think are important (not everyone will, if they don't, don't press them)? Is there any particular bit of plot regarding the character that they would really like to see happen? This information will help you craft many a plothook.

Find out where they want to go with the character, mechanically.
Are they already thinking about PRC's? If so, find out which ones so that you can work the existence of the fluff aspects into the game world, so you can willfully ignore the fluff aspects or so that you can tweak them as you desire. Feel free to ask if there is some stinky stinky cheese they'd really like to be able to pull of, just make sure that they know that you are just asking about it, not promising to give it to them.

The three types of GMs

I see three types of GMs:

1.The Master This type of GM is in absolute unilateral control of the game. The players, by virtue of sitting down to play the game, are agreeing to the GM's control of the game. What the GM says is both law and reality of the game. Neither the players views nor the game rules matter, only what the GM says matters. The published game rules here are just a vague guideline to help the GM decide things. This type of game never has any type of 'power' problems. Should something happen, the Gm can simply say 'no' or 'this is what happens'. Should a player attempt to 'break' any rule, the GM can simply say that it does not happen.

2.The Buddy GM This type of GM is just one of the people playing the game. Everyone who sits down to play the game is equal. In this game, a player can pull out a book and say 'page 33 says this' and the GM will simply nod and say: "yup, that is what the page says''. This type of GM follows the rules as if they are required to play the game. Even to the point of typos, mistakes and just plain crazy stuff. In this game, should something happen to disrupt the game, the Gm just sits back and watches.

3.The Ego Fuel GM This type of GM is just there to make the players feel good. Even worse then the Buddy GM, this the Ego Fuel is just there to praise the players. This GM sits back while the players do whatever they want, and then they describe what happens in the game. Then the players just sit happily and let the GM tell them how great and cool their characters are in the game.



I've watched hundreds of games over the years, and GMs fall into these three types. Most GMs, if asked what type they are of the three would say 'none'. But if you watch them in the game, 'none' is type '2'. Type two is by far the most common type. The evidence of this easy to see. A good example is to simply look at any D&D boards. You will see post after post from GM's who have problems with their game, what to know how or why a rule works or post a 'fix' for broken things.

It's most striking to ask any Old School player(who has not been corrupted my modern gamers) about any of the GMs posts. The player will have the simple question: "Why does the GM not just say what is what?'' For example:You can easily find a ''Help My players are abusing Gate to get wishes'' post. The Old School gamer would just say ''that does not work''.


I'm a type 1 GM myself, and I never, ever, have any problems in my games. People agree to have fun together and play the game. It's much more fun to sit down and have a game where the GM is Master. Should a player even attempt to do anything to upset or disrupt the game, the GM can simply say it does not happen.

So for example, if in my game, a player said ''my character casts the spell gate and calls a Epic Elemental''; I simply say ''the gate fails to form'' and we just keep on playing and having fun.


It's important to be clear, the master is not a tyrant. The Master GM is not there to somehow make the players slaves to their wishes and go off on a power trip. It's just about control and fun for everyone.


The event that inspired this post happened last weekend. I watched a group of gamers playing 3E Oriental Adventures. In the first printing of that book, the ninja-to has a critical threat range of 19-29, an obvious typo. Yet I watched the GM look this up in the book and say 'Ok, then any hit of 19 to 29 is a critical threat for a ninja-to'. As you might have guessed, the players then scrambled to get and use ninja-tos. And this poor Gm just sat there as time after time when a player would roll a 22, 23, or 24 and do crit damage time after time after time. We wondered why he did not simply say 'that does not work, the crit range is 19-20'.

Dungeons and Logic

Dungeons are definitely the fun part of the game for everyone. The DM usually enjoys it because it makes prep work a cinch! Players love it because the action is more fluid and they make for lots of opportunities for decisions to be made.

With mapping software available for free all over the web, constructing maps is much easier today then it was back when I first started. We did have some tricks to doing it, besides the good ol’ fashioned graph paper. Namely this was stealing maps from published modules and re-keying the things. You could make them new or old, wealthy or deserted for eons, the possibilities are near infinite!

Today, people kind of tend to go crazy. You can, literally drive yourself cross-eyed considering all of the dungeon logic. Many Dungeon Masters keep a set pull-list of monsters for different areas, while others ponder the very deep workings of the dungeon world itself. Me personally could give a rats tail about it. The most important thing that I consider is always what works fast and easy. I do have my own tricks though.

DUNGEON LIFE

The first question that I ask myself when starting is what lives here? If I have an idea, or I already told the players what they are supposed to be looking for, then I don’t have a problem, but if I’m in a saucy mood and want to keep things random, then I’ll roll a monster at random from my notes. This is easier for me since I play in the World of Greyhawk, and the random encounter lists are complete. If this isn’t the case for you, the Monstrous Compendium Volume 2 has a complete listing of Random Encounters for a veriety of settings.

The monster that I roll is the dominate monster in this dungeon. It has conquered this place and lives in it, at least for the time being. Its laws are the way, naturally with wild animals also living in the place, some areas will be too dangerous for the humanoids to live (if it is a humanoid), these areas will probably be avoided, and may incorporate a trap of some kind as it is considered a natural hazard. A simple lure to trick others who aren’t so savvy as them, to wander into the hazard and get themselves killed.

DUNGEON SIZE

We also have to figure out how big we want the thing to be. Many random dungeon generators, such as the one which I sometimes use from the first edition DMG, will go on for days with no end in sight. We have to figure out how deep we want to go with this, and how big of an area that we want to take up. This is best figured out before we even put the digital pencil to paper. A large dungeon will support more life then a small one, and there may be more dominate creatures down there fighting it out about who is in control. If you want to make a rivalry, then simply roll another random encounter check and find out what the second most dangerous thing down there is.

FOOD & PROPERTY

Now we start moving into some headache area here. This is where some DMs like to give themselves trouble, but they are on the right track! Food is a basic need that our monsters can’t live without! Depending on the monster, and their ability to adapt their environments around them, offers us different questions and problems. The simplest answer is looking at the definition in the Monster Manual, the MM will tell you their basic life strategies. Most monsters steal for a living, they find weaker beings who are good at raising their own food, and they take it.

It is rare to find monsters who keep their own stock of underground meat, they just don’t know how to feed and maintain animals like that. Hell, they don’t wash themselves and rely on inhuman constitution to survive. The dungeon world is one filled with disease and rotten icky things because of our next consideration.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

What does the monster do with its waste? The answer is usually that this is somebody else’s problem. A monster will move in and use up every available resource that it can, and then it will move on to a new hovel. Of course, this sets the scene for a new monster to take over the dungeon, and brand new dangers. A fun dungeon can be one that has been abandoned. Not only will they leave their mess behind, which will cause the place to be a haven for new nastiness that lives off of stuff like that, but they will also leave their sick, injured, and weak behind as well. These things will be extremely dangerous, as they are starving and terrified, perhaps even mad from loneliness and confinement.

WATER

Part of my Quick & Easy mentality dictates that, for the most part, monsters are like pirates. They are typically as drunk and as lazy as possible, of course I mix it up so that nobody can tell what I’m doing. I’ll give some monsters a need or an industry of some kind, this way it is harder to tell what I’m doing behind the screen.

Water is a basic necessity for us, and for lots of creatures, however for the most part, a bunch of stinky monsters would turn their nose up at it. They would rather have booze and only bathe by happenstance. If there is a water supply, some monsters would love to just sit there and throw stuff in it for entertainment, same thing with really deep holes. If a monster is really destructive, such as the Troll, then after the creature leaves the water will be no good, and this could effect the upper world if we want it to.

A monster who depends on water would treat a water-source like gold, and defend it to the death unless another source was known. Water is a good place for natural hazards, the monsters who depend upon it will keep the ones who don’t out of that area, and use them to keep intruders out. Most humanoids will leave aquatic nightmares completely alone! This logic keeps our water supplies untainted unless it serves us to do otherwise.

WHY AIN’T THIS HOLE INFESTED WITH DWARFS?

Another thing to consider, before putting the pen to paper and drawing out your map, is to figure out what this hole is for. Who built it? Is it natural or was it constructed by someone or something?

The word Dungeon, as we use it, is a very confusing thing if you think about it. Rarely do we ever create dungeons that are really dungeons! For the most part, we could care less who made it, but sometimes it can be fun to figure it out. Was it an ancient culture? Even this question can bring some different answers, what with all of the demi-humans running around. Why did they move out, or abandon it? It could be a mystery as we all have similar problems here on this planet. This also can be used to figure out what the holes original purpose was. Was it a mine? A basement to some long forgotten and quite absent castle? Was it a secret church? A tomb? Perhaps remnants of ancient astronauts; with fantasy, anything is possible. A look into our own history gives us many of factual reasons why a large underground superstructure would be made.

While we must know who is the current holders of the dungeon, it can also be beneficial to know who, or what held it before they did; and how long ago had it been sitting. Has it been looted? If it’s got monsters, then the answer is probably yes. The questions are endless, but there is just something about building our own dungeon that lends to these creative decisions.

We can create mystery with open-ended scenarios and rooms which don’t belong, so just because something doesn’t make sense on the outside, we can hint at things which may or may not be. We must try to do our best NOT to over think the fun out of these things. We don’t want to know everything, but we should know just enough to make it look like we do.

A good game

What are the things every good game should have? My thoughts:

1.Interesting characters.
2.Events propelled by the characters' specific actions and reactions.
3.Multi-level conflicts(physical/emotional/mental/spiritual/symbolic, etc).
4.Character revealed by decisive actions and tough decisions.
5.Character development/growth/progression
6.Visual, action-oriented stories.
7.Sense of wonder
8.Resolutions with a sense of hope
9.Insight into some aspect of the human condition
10.Some unique element.

The Philosophy of Character Building

How can you use the Socratic Method to create a good character? let me explain how I use a series of questions to help myself and my players create dynamic personalities for their characters.

But wait, Everybody Knows how to make a character for an RPG right? Pick your race, assign your points, pick your special abilities and then come up with a backstory that will explain him/her being in the party. throughout my time as a DM I have heard people explain their characters like this:

“My character is a Brutal Warrior whose only desire is glory on the battlefield. He hates orcs and is chaotic neutral”

“My character is an outcast dwarf who seeks redemption and honor in helping others”

Both of these are excellent starts and are seeds that could grow into dynamic characters. However, these backstories are very broad and while they speak volumes about where the character has been and their large scale goals, they don’t really reveal much of a personality. I think often in games people are told to create a history for their character but not a persona. Where a character has been and what they have done informs their personality of course but it does not define it.

Due to the emphasis on a character’s history instead of personality many characters suffer from an inconsistency of behavior or what I call “situational personality disorder” (SPD). You have all seen this, a character has up until that point not engaged in X behavior or expressed any leanings towards X but since the campaign now requires it in order to overcome a challenge the character shifts his or her behavior to fit the situation. I believe that in many cases this occurs because the player never established what the character would do in morally ambiguous situations. The answers to the questions that follow form a frame of reference which can help the player react to situations in a manner consistent with a dynamic (realistic) personality.

These questions take the character from a collection of characteristics and abilities on a sheet to a unique individual that the players will feel more inclined to play with consistency of behavior, almost like they are doing the character wrong by not following what their personality would desire. These questions also create a framework in which they can think like their characters instead of thinking only in terms of game practicality.

Question Examples:

how does the character feel about killing? is it ever justified? does he feel that monsters can be killed with impunity but not humans? what about Dwarves, Elves, Aliens, etc?

What is the role of the law in the character’s mind? is it for the good of all? does it stifle freedom? is it the tyranny of government? does the character obey the law? what kind of situation does it take for the character to commit serious crimes?

does the character believe in higher powers? what does character believe he owes the gods?

how does the character think of those higher in society? Lower? what does the character think of his/her place?

what about the opposite sex? Strait, Gay/lesbian? are the opposite sex to be protected or to be manipulated?

how loyal is the character to his/her word?

how does the character feel about other adventurers? does he/she seek camaraderie or just the accomplishment of personal goals?

Does the character care about the opinions of others?

does the character want to find love?

does the character have a family? wife/husband/Lover? where are they? what are they doing?

why did the character join his profession? is his profession in line with his class or was he a farmer until he became a fighter to defend his home from bandits?

these questions are just a small sampling of the questions I ask my players to answer when making a character. I tailor them depending on the vague backstory they give me and the setting I plan to run.

I have met with a lot of success using this system. The players have often created memorable characters they love to play. Using this system I have actually seen long time dungeon crawlers try to skip through combat to get to character interactions.

Play a character you can role-play

What I find is that many players choose characters based on back story and combat but never think about whether or not they will be able to effectively roleplay or enjoy that character’s personality. That is not to say you should never role play a challenging character or try anything new but you should consider whether or not you want a challenge or something that comes naturally. In my own games I discourage shy players from playing the party leader until they get more comfortable roleplaying.

Another example of what I am talking about is a friend, she never plays characters that are overly flirtatious or manipulative in demeanor because she can’t keep a straight face and starts laughing. She doesn’t really enjoy tripping over her words and not being able to roleplay it well so she doesn’t play characters with that type of personality.

If you feel that you can't role play the character, you should not even make the character.

My recommendation is to take care when choosing characters for yourself and your players. Make sure to be supportive of players who want to try new things and grow in their roleplaying but also steer players towards personalities you know they will enjoy playing. This way even if the character is difficult for them to roleplay they will be more enthusiastic and likely to try their best.

The Lone Wolf

So you’ve made your character and your so excited for your new rebel without a cause, he’s inspired by Jayne from Firefly or your favorite badass from fiction and he doesn’t take sh*t from anybody. He wanders the world keeping an eye out for number one, he’s probably chaotic neutral and will never do anything without substantial personal gain involved. To put it simply hes a lone wolf, the down to earth self interested hero that we love so much in American pop culture. Well guess what, you just created one of the most notorious problem characters in roleplay, second only to the chaotic evil sociopath.

My judgement of these characters may seem harsh but I know from experience both playing and storytelling that there are fundamental flaws in the lone wolf / self interested character. First foremost the lone wolf does not get along well with others. The lone wolf archetype does not like taking orders and he doesn’t liking people depending on him making him a difficult character that usually throws a wrench in game flow. In many situations you will either have to sacrifice your roleplay to get along with the party OR you will extort the party for extra shares of treasure OR always suggest that whatever you are dealing with isn’t your problem. Many a game I have played where the party couldn’t roleplay to the fullest because they didn’t want to deal with the lone wolf telling them that he had no interest in saving the town from undead without coin.

Which brings me to my next point: even in games where the players aren’t intrinsically ”good” the party will usually get wrapped up in a quest or arc that involves sacrifice, selflessness, and periods without direct rewards for their actions. The lone wolf character is hesitant to trust in his allies and undertake dangerous quests that seem hopeless or overly risky compared to the rewards. Now most of my anger about this archetype is because players model these characters after their favorite anti heroes without watching the end of the movie. In westerns for example the lone wolf who never cared about anybody but himself has an epiphany. After which he decides to make a stand for the weak and the helpless even at great personal risk. It is this transformation from a very flawed and selfish character to a hero that makes the anti hero so attractive to the American psyche, the anti hero is accessible and human.

So my advice to you is that if you like to play lone wolves remember that there are other people at the table besides you. Remember that you chose to stay with the party so you should roleplay your character accordingly, don’t act like the party has to convince you to stay. Finally remember that the characters of any roleplay game are heroes and while they may be good, evil or neutral they are always doing great deeds. A character who walks through the campaign uttering the phrase “it’s not my problem” will rarely do great deeds.

6 Ways D&D is not Like Medival Times

One of the things I always enjoy thinking about are the subtle ways in which D&D worlds must be more like our modern one than like the medieval Europe they are frequently patterned after. Here are 6 ways D&D worlds are like our own.

1. Time
Historically knowing the hour of the day was being very accurate. In D&D there are many common magics with times measured in minutes or seconds. Adventures would have a sense of time that was absolutely unheard of historically.

2. Literacy
How often do you meet an illiterate person in a D&D world? Usually infrequently enough that it really stands out. Of course, in the real world outside of nobility and clergy being literate was uncommon.

3. Accuracy
One of the things that goes hand in hand with literacy is the demand for accuracy. In oral cultures it is expected that stories will change with each teller; the point of stories is not to give an exact retelling, but rather to evoke similar emotions. But in most D&D worlds there is a very modern notion of accuracy.

4. Freedom
Slavery in D&D worlds is usually a plot point that spells E-V-I-L, and serfdom is unheard of. Both were very common and not frowned upon historically.

5. Money
I know there are some DMs who do an awesome job at bring real barter into the game; most, including me, just let the coinage do all the work. Moreover, I frequently just tell player to pay the book price for items rather than try to role play each shop keeper. Obviously having store that deal only in money at standardized prices is not historical.

6. Racism
Though I won’t deny there are certain types of racism in D&D, in another way it is really limited. Basically, all the good races are incredibly chummy. Sure the dwarves and elves get on each others nerves, but you don’t see the elves wearing white sheets or the dwarves running death camps. Considering that historically people have started killing each other over the tiniest of differences, this niceness is unreal.

Player Responsibilities

I’ve known a fair number of gamers who believe that the DM is the person almost entirely responsible for a gaming group’s good time. If a group is faltering or not as fun as expected, fingers point toward the DM before anyone else. But what about the players and our responsibilities to the group?

Players outnumber the DM, and while the DM may set up the paths through the world, players decide where to go, what the tone of the game will be, and create the story being told through our actions. So in that vein, I’d like to present a list of my most important player responsibilities.

1) Be a team player. Gestalt has already written about the futility of lone wolves, and I couldn’t agree with him more. Those characters may seem really cool, but they just don’t work in a group setting. If your character’s opinions are constantly at odds with the rest of the party, every minor action becomes a struggle. You can have an independent spirit, but a true lone wolf wouldn’t ever join an adventuring party, so you will need to cooperate and work as a team. Digging in your figurative heels at every party decision, though, ends up being childish and can ruin a good campaign.

2) Don’t create a character that is more powerful than the others in the group. I realize that there is vast potential in the character creation systems (especially with loopholes) for becoming a mighty steamroller of enemy-smiting, and that some cannot resist that siren song. If all the others players in your campaign roll this way too, then more power to you. However, if your group’s other players prefer to roll characters with flaws, or simply don’t like to min-max, your steamroller character will now give your DM migraines. You create an impossible situation in which the DM can either make enemies challenging for you and risk killing the other players, or make the enemy difficulty balanced for the rest of the team and let you shred them like tissue. Either way, for the balancing difficulty, it’s a situation where you have ruined the fun for the other players, who now either die or don’t get to feel useful the party anymore.

3) Know yourself, and know the type of game you’re getting into. For instance, Pensive has extreme dislike for any and all White Wolf systems. Clearly, knowing this about himself, it would be a terrible idea to join a group playing any of those systems. Think about the tone of the game and the personalities of people involved. If you like a game that has more social and puzzle aspects than combat, talk to the members of your group to find out if their campaign fits with what you like about gaming. You don’t want to find out 10 sessions in that they prefer a straight dungeon-crawl and will never get around to your favorite bits. This doesn’t mean that anyone’s play style is superior or inferior, but if you aren’t a good fit for the game being run, it’s best for you and for everyone to know that ahead of time. And the most important part of knowing yourself is knowing when you’ve stopped enjoying an aspect of the game you’re in, and figuring out how to make it fun again. Often for me this is realizing that the new character class that looked intriguing is not my style. Talking to the DM is always the best course here. You can always just have the DM kill off you character with style as Pensive once mentioned, and start fresh with something more fun.

I could add more to this list, but these are my most important three. So how about the rest of you? Are there things that you would think are player responsibilities to make a campaign great for everyone?

Happy gaming,

3.5 Resurgent – The Icon

The 3.5 Resurgent Icon!

Which edition should I play?

Believe it or not, "Which edition of D&D should I play?" is probably the most common question I'm asked. In some cases it is because the person asking the question wants to argue with my choice, but most of the time the questioner seems to sincerely want my opinion. Unfortunately, I can't really answer the question -- because there is no "one true answer." The best edition of D&D is the edition that best fits your needs. The answer for me may not be the answer for you as what you and your group want out of your game may be much different from what I want out of my game.That said, I will list the various editions of D&D in the order I personally rank them based on how well they meet the needs of the types of games I like to play in and run. Your list may be much different than mine -- and that's as it should be. There really is no one best edition for everyone. Those who tell you there is are probably trying to sell you something.

1) Original Dungeons & Dragons with the Supplements: Fairly simple rules with a lot of room to make the campaign and the game your own with house rules. OD&D with the supplements is a lot like playing AD&D but without all the complex stuff AD&D added. Combat is fast and abstract -- just the way I like it.

2) BECMI Boxed Sets/Rules Cyclopedia: The Rules Cyclopedia (The BECM boxed sets in one hardback book) is probably the best version of D&D ever printed in hardback. It is a complete in one book, well-explained game that one can play for years without much modification, yet it is simple enough to easily house rule to fit your own group and campaign. Like OD&D, combat is fast and abstract.

3) Moldvay/Cook Basic/Expert Boxed Sets: Later expanded into BECMI, this earlier edition only takes characters through 14th level. That is its only major disadvantage compared to the BECMI rules, but it is a great set for those who prefer low level play.

4) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (First Edition without Unearthed Arcana): If you want more complete rules to reduce the amount of GM rules decisions, First Edition AD&D is the way to go. Compared to later editions, it is still rules lite, but it is much more rules dense than previous versions and has a number of rules designed to better balance character classes -- although not is the same way people seem to see "balance" today. Combat is more detailed but still abstract and fast.

5) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Second Edition -- Core Rules Only): This is a cleaned up and slightly simplified version of AD&D, it really isn't all that different from first edition, but it lacks the character of Gygax's writing (which is a bad thing in my eyes, but is a good thing to some).

6) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (First Edition with Unearthed Arcana): All the advantages of first edition with some extra classes and spells. Unfortunately, some of these extra classes turned out to somewhat overpowered.

7) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Second Edition -- Plus the Kit Books): The kit books basically add a large number of subclasses to each standard class. This provides a lot of mechanical variety in characters at the cost of extra complexity and having to buy a large number of rule books.

8) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Second Edition -- Plus the Kit Books and the Skills and Powers Books): The skills and powers books add a great deal of complexity to AD&D. They also start the trend of needing minis and battle mats to play out the complex and slow combats. As I like fast and abstract combat and am bored to tears at combats that take more than 10-20 minutes max to resolve, this is where D&D and I began to part company.

9) Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 This is the last edition of D&D that really feels like the D&D game I started playing in 1975 to me. While there were a lot of changes and additions, all the basics of D&D were still there and had not changed so much that they were something different with the same name. Combat is slow and tactical, it's hard to run without minis and battle mats. The designers tried hard to make a rule for everything and to reward players who mastered the manipulation of those rules. Not my cup of tea. GM prep time is unreal if the GM cannot or will not simply wing it. Houseruling can be hard as the game systems are tightly interrelated, changing something can have expected side effects in other areas of the game.

10) Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Lots of changes to spells and other areas: the names are often the same but the effects can be completely different. Minis and battle mats become almost required and combats are even slower. GM prep takes even more time, but there is a rule for almost everything any character to ever want to do scattered about the many, many volumes of rules.

11) Dungeons & Dragons 4e IMHO, this is a tactical minis skirmish game with roleplaying interludes between the battles given the D&D label. It has very little in common with any previous edition of D&D besides names. 4e character classes and monsters are extremely well-balanced for combat -- and if that is what is important to you, D&D 4e is probably the only edition you will want to play. However, it's not for me at all.