How Prestigous?

It is not uncommon for me to launch contests, but I have never done so through the blog. This time, I'm shelling out for some really nice dice prizes! Interested? Keep reading...
I have been researching Prestige classes recently, and considering why players decide to take them. I am particularly fond of the niche they provide players. I am currently designing a 15-session campaign where players will not level, and must choose a prestige class. Curious about designing them myself, I feel the need to be inspired. So, that leads me to the contest.

The Rules:

Design a Prestige Class by March 1, 2015, and place it as a reply to this post.
It must include name and lore/ flavor text; pre-reqs; HD, BAB, Saves, proficiencies, etc.; leveling benefits (abilities, spell progression, etc.); and must be a 5-level progression [the Prestige class only lasts 5 levels]. Do not include art. The prestige class must be your own design. You will only get one post/ one entry. You may not edit your post. What I'm looking for is uniqueness and balance.

I will choose my three favorites. Everyone will receive a die from me for participating (haven't chosen one yet), but the top 3 will receive some specialty, 3-D printed metal dice. Here they are:

First Place: Steel Twisty Spindle Dice Set (includes 6 dice/ an $82 set)
http://www.shapeways.com/product/8URJ35P3U/twisty-spindle-dice-set?li=user-profile&optionId=43294194

Second Place: Steel Sputnik d20  (a $19 - $23 die)
http://www.shapeways.com/product/TKT36XXD4/sputnik-die20?li=user-profile&optionId=41593844

Third Place: Stainless Steel Jack d6 (design inspired by the children's game, a $13 die)

http://www.shapeways.com/product/MRJD9APE5/jack-d6?li=search-results-1&optionId=40950515

 

The Last Care Bender

It's been almost a year since my last post, but then again, I've only been back to DMing for about four months. Relocating to a new state and getting a new job is exciting, but it can display your tabletop flow. I'm back, and so I hope the blog will be, too.

Today, I'm discussing "bending" -- as in rules. The last post I made about a similar topic, entitled Breaking Bad, mainly focused on rules associated with gameplay and combat. So, by extension, it was a discussion on role it, you can roll it').  This topic focuses more on the character build and the individual player. Some things to consider in this discussion: What individual player requests should be granted, if any? What are you, as a DM, sacrificing/ gaining in honoring/ negotiating requests?
the "house rules for the betterment of all" (some I still use today, such as cantrips/ orisons are unlimited, and 'if you can

I'll start here: I like to make my players happy. No, I don't care about them "winning" all the time, or find it pertinent to praise every good decision; nor am I hung up on them leaving the table frustrated. I used to care, and perhaps too much (which isn't wise, because a lot of times, I have no control over those emotions). Still, I try to operate as a DM with a prime directive; and the first and foremost rule I abide by is 'let your players imagine and create, within reason'.

"Snow, I want to build a barbarian, whose tiny in size, who rides a were-bunny, and bears a lance that's actually a magical carrot!"

My response (assuming comedy, class, mounts, and flexibility are elements supported by my game [which, because I roll with the impromptu, they usually are]):
"Yes! Let's make it happen; but only is you name yourself 'Doc' so I can constantly have the party great you with 'What's up?!'"

My point it, when I think tabletop, I think imagination. If your creativity isn't supported in a realm of possibilities, then you might feel stifled. For my players, I customize classes altogether, merely to support what they desire to build. I invent feats. I grant abilities. I replace whole spell lists. I bend the game: to support, to care.

Some examples: I currently have a player who is a ratfolk ('rat-kin', upon her request) rouge, who wanted an animal companion. She now has a ridable rat. She was also granted an ability to (a limited number of times per day) summon rat swarms (as in the spell). She now has a dagger than can extend into a jousting lance, and gets a cavalier-like bonus to charges made while mounting. Yes, I have a rat player riding a rat, summoning rats, that is a rouge, but also a cavalier. At the end of the day, what have I sacrificed? Giving an edge, and choices, to my player. What have I gained? A happy player.

Mechanics wise, I try to accommodate with balance. Here's what that looks like. Could she have been accommodated with a full druid-progression animal companion if we had a druid on the team? No, perhaps not. I do not seek to step on the capabilities of other players in the party. Would I make the ability to use a swarm endless, or even wildly numerous? No, for respect to the party members, but also because an endless supply of rats crawling along her body don't make sense. Now, if they were constantly procreating and replenishing each night they spent on her, then that's both comically gross and balanced! I consider it equally a responsibility to have players play within balance as I do to have them feel supported.

Of course, I think players have an equal part responsibility in what I accommodate. They should:

• Know what they want, and commit to it (changing your mind back and forth is frustrating, to everyone around the table, but probably mostly for the player making the request, because they're constantly learning a new character); 
• Accept negotiation as a part of the deal, and not as an attack; and on that same note, know that 'no' is a possibility;
• Recognize that attempts to create accommodation should be reciprocated with appreciation (how ever you choose to fashion that; though, this DM likes food and drink);
• and lastly, speak up when you want something (closed mouths don't get fed). 

What other DMs out there are Care Benders, and how do you do it? What have been some of your modifications? What are your challenges, and what has been rewarding? 

Lone Wolf Secrets

Welcome back readers. In this post, I want to know your secrets; specifically, those you keep around the table. One thing I have yet to utilize as a Game Master is the impact of character secrets in a game. A character secret is a tool, created by either the character who has that secret or the GM, that is meant to enhance role playing, the plot, or the overall experience itself. For example, in a group of four, Player A is seeking revenge on the main villain because they are secretly their ex-wife; but no one else in the party know is, and Player A doesn’t want to reveal because of the possible adversity they might face from other players. This is a character secret. Sometimes, we GMs ask our players to write up a secret or something similar to work them into the story. Make it interesting for them ya know? Sometimes, players ask for their secrets to be worked in. 

In the recent installment of the FearTheBoot tabletop podcast, the gang discusses how character secrets would best be used, if used at all. One point they touch on is the disruptive nature secrets can have, either to plot progression or to the experience of the other players. Consider the above example used for Player A. If the GM knows, and the player knows, what would be the point of contention for you as one of those other players? As a GM, I can recognize the plot potential and really incredible game moments that can come out of a tactful revel of a character secret; still, there is something to be considered here in opposition. 

What if we took the same set up with Player A, but we added Player B to "the know". These two, and the GM know the secret, and now we have intra-party secrets and conversations around those secrets. Some players might feel differently about this set up. Here is a list of considerations (10 to be exact, because everyone loves 10-lists) GM’s should have concerning character secrets:

1. Is the player who is asking your permission to have a secret doing it to enhance their experience or the experience of the other party members? Can you convince them to tailor their secret so that it invites the other members to be interested in it? 
2. How might would players’ characters confront another character who has an obvious secret, and how long might they allow it to go on before taking them out of roleplay?
3. Does the secret of the player have them acting within a silo at several moments throughout the game? ie. sneaking off during sleep hours, side missions, cryptic dialogs.
4. How effective are secrets that the players all know, but their characters don’t? Are these secrets as effective, or do they lose their potential for great game moments?
5. Can every character have their own secret, or is that too much?
6. What if characters all had one piece of a larger secret, and what kind of a group would you need to have in order to make that work?
7. What is the responsibility of the GM when a player is being disruptive with their secret? Should the GM go ahead and reveal it as the player might have, thus “taking it away”?
8. Do secrets work better in shorter games with more momentum, or longer games with more buildup? 
9. How flexible should a GM be to honor a player request for a secret, even if it impedes on the storyline originally created for the game?
10. Finally, what fun could these secrets have that normal game play cannot provide?

I’d love to hear your secrets, or your thoughts on the considerations above. When I get to a game where either I encourage secrets or a player requests one, I think my go-to guide will be this question: is your secret intended to be used as a weapon to make you a better character than other players (more badass, more intriguing, simply more…)? If so, re-work your secret. I won’t know for sure until I play through the secrets unfolded. 

As a final tidbit,  I have learned of a tabletop game called Silent Memories that inherently works with player secrets. The premise, as I understand it, is that players’ character creation stories will form the persona and character of “The Mark”. Sounds like a great opportunity for the players to influence where the GM takes the game, instead of the natural occurrence of the reverse. Any reader play this? I will look more into it. 

The Second-coming of Snow: A Blog Resurrection, Part 2 - "Stop being Racist!"

I like to think of myself as a fairly social person, but nothing makes me feel more removed from the human race like when I try to explain to someone what I’m doing with my Thursday night. 


“I can’t meet up, sorry; I’m DM’ing a game tonight.”


*blank stare*


“I’m a dungeon master for a tabletop game.”


*confusion displayed in rapid blinking*


“Ok, hmm…you know 'Lord of the Rings’?"


“Like, with the elves and dwarves and the stuff? The hobbits?”


“Yep.”


“Oh…realllly?”


The conversation goes on from there to a familiar place most of you might have been. It is that exchange which got me thinking about my next topic: the races that define our world. Think about your favorite race in tabletop. What is it? Say it out loud…


You chose that over all. And if you muttered the words of a race outside of the core, you’re ballsy…or you know, just being you. You’re bound to get some stares, particularly from those eagerly ready to defend the Human race as perfection. 


In my most recent campaign, I introduced a new race called “The Goro”— a four-armed thuggish, mass of meat with servitude demeanors (and a direct homage to the Prince in Mortal Kombat). I needed to create a race that made up a reformed prison population, set forth into a city-kingdom to reshape their lives. Because of this specific purpose, I chose to go with something original/ made-up. My reservations were that existent races, as players might see it, pack too much history. Hmm, should I have defaulted to Orcs? Would it be expected? If I made them Gnomes, would it provide more shock value or evoke laughter? If I made them human, would I simply be stirring in the flavor story of the week into a big batch of vanilla? 


I would like to think that the blank slate of a race left open the door for what my players might think could happen with this race. Moreover, I love the idea that each of my players filled in what the Goro’s actually looked like for themselves. 


Using race with intentionality is a prospect I’m truly in support of. Yes, when I think about Dwarves and Elves, I feel a sense of nostalgia for a game I’m still participating in. They are hallmarks. They are older than I am in real life and have a legacy even outside the game. Take for example, the Ivy league colleges: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, etc. Did you know that when the Assistant and Associate Deans of the academic colleges get together, they actually refer to themselves as ‘The Gathering of the Dwarves and the Elves”? Seriously. When I was working at Princeton, I learned this and was simply giddy to know they used the jargon. Still, when I’m creating a story/ campaign, I feel ultimately stifled by the core line of races; and thus, I have a fond place in my heart for looking into unconventional races. 


There are people who actually get paid to invent races for the worlds we play in and create, and in honor of those lucky bastards with the best jobs on Earth, I decided to seek them out to share some of their race cases with my readers. I contacted the following game writers/ designers and asked them simply two questions: "What’s your favorite race that you’ve created?”, and “What’s you’re favorite race that someone else has created?"


James Wyatt, writer of Oriental Adventures, designer for Eberron Campaign Setting, and co-author of Book of Exalted Deeds, to name a few, had this to share with me:




"The vanara, from Oriental Adventures, are my favorite racial creation. I'm proud of the way I was able to integrate Indian and Southeast Asian history, folklore, and myth into that book, in addition to all the things from China and Japan that you'd expect to see.”

He continues, “It's hard to name a favorite [race created by someone else], but I have a soft spot for both changelings and warforged (both of which I *helped* create), because of my use of them in my Eberron novels. When it comes to making a character for a game, though, it's usually human, elf, or dwarf. Classics!”


I was certainly hoping one of the game designers would pick a race with an animalistic aesthetic. I feel like these are some of the most underutilized in the bunch. What are your thoughts on adventures of the monkey, toad, feline, and insect kind? No, I’m not talking about being in Wild Shape…


Ed Greenwood, the father of Forgotten Realms, may have not given me much in content; but he certainly surprised me. He couldn’t identify a favorite race of his own creation; though, his non-selfie selection is among one of the oldest races to exist and yet unknown to those unfamiliar with the Hollywood canon. 

"Beholders, I think...because there's still an aura of mystery about them, and the idea of so many supra-geniuses and what they might make of their lives intrigues me,”notes Greenwood.


Wow, an aberration race as a favorite! This side-line tackle makes me smile. A race more than ten years older than I am (I’m 27), having graced the pages of so much fantasy literature STILL intrigues a man that has long been cognitive of the game’s possibilities. 


Finally, Stephen Radney-Macfarland, a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Designer at Paizo Publishing and co-developer of 4e  D&D, shared this with me:


"My favorite race that I have created? That's a hard one. I've done a number of them somewhat recently, including all the sample races for the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide race builder (and those entry's races in Pathfinder's Bestiary 4). Of those races I think my favorite is the wyrwood--a race of living constructs, which are a basically wizard's experiment gone rogue--Pinocchio without the heart. I will admit they can be a challenge to play, both on the player's and the GM's side, but they have great story potential.”


If you haven’t read the Pathfinder’s Bestiary 4, stop reading this and go check it out. No, wait, finish this; then go read it. The homage to horror icons is brilliant. The wormwood is another example of the unconventional as favorable. When I’ve heard players wanting to be constructs as player characters, I’ve always heard them talk about the build in a bulky way. Seldom have I ever considered a Small construct to be the go-to thought, let alone an option. Perhaps I’ll play this race in a game soon and write a review of what I thought.


He continues, "As for my favorite race I have not created, 

that race is actually not in a game supplement at all (or at least not that I know of) but I would love to stat them up. That would be Jeff Vandermeer's gray caps. Fungus creatures that inhabit--or more like haunt--his novels. I talked to Jeff about writing them up when I worked on D&D, and he liked the idea, but I never got around to it. There are some IP hoops to jump through. But that is not the only problem. To be honest the race is so strange, I feel like I would have to spend weeks brainstorming and asking Jeff stupid questions before I could even approach a first draft of these critters. They are extremely cool and creepy, and advise anyone who loves weird races to check out Jeff's work. All that said, they have appeared in a number of my home games.”


Boom! Stephen drives home the validity I needed in this interviewing adventure. Sometimes, races so intriguing just need the breath of game incorporation. 
I’m going to drop the mic there and simply ask, what’s your go to race? Classic or avant garde? How would you/ have you incorporated them on the table?