Dice and Dramatics

[Crothian]

If this book had a tag line, I’d suggest ”Putting the Role back in Role Playing”. Very simply this book is about role playing better. From the introduction to the final page before the Open Game License, this book offers advice and options to help role play and define a character. It has advice for the novice and the master, the player and the dungeon master. The advice is good, solid, and thorough

Dice and Dramatics is the first book by Ultramyth Design. The author, Ben Mowbray, shows a clear understanding of character design and how to get the most out of details. The pdf is 60 pages in length including the cover and OGL. The file comes as a zip file that is a bit over seven megs in size. After the file is unzipped the pdf is a little over eleven megs.

The pdf is laid out well. It is very easy to read from the computer screen and it is in typical dual columns. The border is a nice color fade that makes the pages look a bit aged. The art is light and does a nice job of breaking up the text. There are also a few tables and other means that make reading easy. The pdf is well book marked making it easy to find things quickly.

Dice and Dramatics starts with a nice introduction. It also has a neat section called “Who should read this book.” This section not only tells who should be reading this book but why they should. The book is for both PCs and DM but for different reasons. I like this little section because it shows the author was thinking how the audience can use his book. After that is a small summary of each chapter, and then a list of gaming terms with their definitions. It’s another small section, but again shows the author is thinking about his audience. Not all gamers will know what all the terms are, so including them just makes sure all the readers are on the same page. The last thing in the intro section is a little note from the author to the reader. It tells a little what the book started out as and how it evolved.

The first chapter is about getting to know your character. It includes ideas for detailing the characters appearance and personality. It also has a brilliant idea of basing weight off the physical scores. So, a stronger character weighs more then a weak one for instance. It’s a simple detail that is nicely done. The chapter describes the personality of all the classes from the PHB. The closer the character is to being typical of the class the more useful these will be. One area that I’ve seen even veterans miss is including skills and feats into ones background and personality. The character had to learn these things somewhere and it’s good to think about that with the character. The chapter will be very useful for a novice but also there are a few things that veteran role players will think is a good idea in here. It is very thorough.

The second chapter details role playing in game. It starts with some simple things that really need to be stated. The first is the importance to know the rules. The second is a good list of gaming etiquette. It’s good to see a product that has some focus on how to game and how to get the most out of a session by listing some things that involve common courtesy. The chapter goes on to suggest portraits, altering ones’ voice, thinking about motivation, and other options to enhance role playing. It also tackles the touchy issues of using diplomacy rolls and role playing in a simple way.

The third chapters deals with non human races and how to role play them. It includes all the races of the player’s handbook and some subraces. The book doesn’t define the sub races in game mechanics but does give advice for role playing them. The section gives good descriptions and has a nice tidpits of advice on how to role play the races. The chapter also covers some savage races like centaurs, minotaurs and kobolds. These races I feel the advice given will be more useful as people have a less defiant idea how to role play them. Finally, the chapter deals with templates as well. How does one portray a half celestial or half fiend? This section offers good advice on how to do just that.

The fourth chapter details new equipment and spells. It might seem rather odd that a book about role playing has a chapter like this, but the things described here are to further detail the character. Here one will find more mundane items to detail the equipment a character would have as well as magical items of a more practical nature. For instance there are ten different types of mundane hats. Each is briefly described insuring that if a character needs a hat, the right one can be found. Some of the magical items are a belt of dryness that keeps the wearer perfectly dry and the wig of style which can alter its color and design. Perhaps they are not the most powerful of items but the utility of them is what is important. The spells are the same way like Aura of Cleanliness and Buoyancy both which are simple and useful.

The last section is for the DM and how to role play as one. It covers the topics of using props and knowing your players. It has advice for role playing cohorts as well as commoners. It covers role playing the big bad guys as well. It has plenty of suggestions for creating and keeping atmosphere. The tips here I found to be useful and correct from my own experiences.

Dice and Dramatics is a rare product that takes an area of role playing that is inadequately covered and does a great job of covering it. I was constantly surprised by the level of detail and the thought put into this book. The author has a good idea of his audience. This book is written with fantasy D&D in mind, but the advice can be applied to any role playing game. Obviously, the section on role playing elves will be of little use in a Star Wars game, but the more abstract ideas can be applied to any character of any genre. This will be of more use to the novice then the experienced gamer. The chapter on races will be more useful if the campaign keeps the races as they are presented in the Player’s Handbook. However, even the veteran gamer who has changed most of the races will find good advice that is easily used on how to role play better and enjoy the game.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Dice and Dramatics is a general guide to improving your game through better role-playing. It is geared towards players and DMs of Fantasy d20 settings.

It discusses many issues, some simple, some obvious, while others obscure or easily overlooked. We've tried to make the guide as simple as possible without going overboard.

You won't find any complex new rules, feats or classes in this work, however, what you will find is a multitude of helpful hints and tips to help you develop your roleplaying. The guide covers such topics as avoiding meta-game thinking, thinking in your character's shoes, personality traits, creating a more detailed description of your character and background, and role-playing tips for non-human races.

There is also a section on equipment, magical items and spells that are designed to be interesting and practical more so than powerful.

Dice and Dramatics will help you improve your game; it has advice for everyone, no matter what they system you play.

 

[tauton_ikhnos]

Note for the GM: Unfortunately, much of the advice in this book appears to consist of what to do, rather than how to do it. The GM is told, for example, that archvillains should be intelligent.

Well yes. They should.

However, there is no practical advice on how to make your villains more intelligent. No tricks you can use to make them seem more intelligent to your players.

The player section, where you are given practical things to do, like asking yourself where each skill comes from in your character's bio, is much better.

IOW, I'd buy this book. My GM won't.

 

[GameWyrd]

There can be a lot of snobbery amongst gamers. There are some gamers who’d freely mock the "roleplaying" abilities of the average d20 gamer (or their perception of one) but they’re also the sort of gamer who wouldn’t be comfortable being called a gamer. I think, perhaps, we’re talking about Interactive Communal Story Tellers or something.

I don’t agree with them (there’s no such thing as an average gamer for one) but I see where they might get their misconceptions from. It just so happens that the most popular, most widely spread, most easy to find in the shops or be introduced to by a friend gaming system is also going to be the one which most newbies find. It’s also going to be the system with the widest spread of gaming styles. Dungeons and Dragons evolved from a war game and although the rules might still carry that conflict resolution bias it was the desire to roleplay /in addition/ to strategy and dice rolling which inspired the game in the first place. I don’t think that’s the problem. I do think, however, that many supplements are geared towards veteran gamers who don’t need to be talked to about characterisation or the difference between in game knowledge and out of character information. Supplements written with new players in mind also tend to concentrate on helping them into the game or helping them through the mechanics.

Now we have Dice and Dramatics.

Dice and Dramatics is written for newbies and experienced gamers. Dice and Dramatics is written with the d20 system, specifically Dungeons and Dragons, in mind. Dice and Dramatics is a guide to roleplaying. In its own words "A d20 Guide to Better Role-Playing For Beginners and Veterans Alike".

Okay, Make a Will saving throw. You failed? Your character is angry. You have to shout "Grr" as you attack Fiendish Dire Elemental Half Oil Beetle.

No. I’m joking.

The PDF takes it easy to begin with and starts slowly. Basic terms are defined, basic terms like meta gaming where, of course, a player gives his character some special insight due to game knowledge. Need we define this? I think so. I’ve met people who’ll claim they know the difference between OOC (out of character) and IC (in character) until they’re blue in the face and then who’ll roleplay a scene where their character battles a monster they’ve never seen before, avoiding all the ineffective weapons and sticking the Monster Manual prescribed weaknesses. In fact, some have argued that Challenge Ratings assume characters tackle the monsters with a meta-game knowledge of their weaknesses. A reminder of the basics, I think, is absolutely necessary.

The first "real chapter" in Dice and Dramatics is titled "Know Thyself" and continues in that almost Old Testament preaching style with the sections; Know You Race, Know Your Class, Know Your Skills, Know Your Feats and Know Your Alignment. Ah yes; the d20 / Dungeons and Dragons emphasis of the supplement becomes clear. These five core sets are important and as with the glossary definitions they seem too basic to bother mentioning but they need to be. If you discount the almost comic clichéd dwarf roleplaying style (now with Scots accent ™) how many dwarves are exactly the same as a human? It could be argued that playing a fantasy race – now so familiar and yet still alien – is the toughest roleplaying challenge in a Dungeons and Dragons based world. I don’t think so. I think roleplaying under the default alignment system is much harder and although Dice and Dramatics does well to remind us what the core precepts of each of the alignment nodes is – I don’t think it makes the roleplaying any easier.

The sister section in Know Thyself is Fleshing Out Your Character. We dabble into such influences as religion, vital statistics, looks, personality and background. Vital Statistics, thankfully, doesn’t mention cup sizes once and instead looks at body types; ectomorphs (tall and thin), endomorphs (evenly distributed weight) and mesomorphs (athletic and muscular). I don’t know if these are made up terms (but Word seems to recognise endomorph as a word) but I felt this relatively simple observation gave the whole supplement a welcomed touch of professional panache. Oh, okay, vital statistics does look at other issues to; hair style for example and there’s even a table to roll on if you can’t decide on a hair style for your character.

We move onto Role-Playing In-Game and once again run through fairly basic stuff. Know the rules, be aware of the game etiquette – don’t interrupt the DM – and roleplay hooks based on mechanics. How would it feel to come out from under the influence of a mind effecting spell to discover you’ve done something horrible? Roleplay it! Personally I really enjoy games where the other characters screw up their noises in disgust when the group’s wizard casts a simple Charm spell. As with the first chapter these points do seem obvious but after reading Dice and Dramatics I also feel that each benefits from being pointed out and discussed.

We’ve already had a quick look at the challenges of roleplaying a fantasy race. Dice and Dramatics revisits this in chapter three. Dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-elves, half-orcs and Halflings, the core races, have a section on their own. Space is limited in the supplement, in fact it feels very tight, so we only look at the most common perception of these races. I suppose it would be pointless to start to look at alternative, non vanilla D&D flavourings for these races since the possibilities are endless. Dice and Dramatics finds something better to do with their limited space. It looks at roleplaying some of the more common savage races. We have roleplaying tips for centaurs, gnolls, goblinoids, kobolds, lizardfolk, minotaurs, orcs and troglodytes. The poor Savage Species gives you the WotC mechanics for rollplaying these creatures but Dice and Dramatics actually helps you roleplay them. If you’re into the exotic then there is more good news as there’s also roleplaying tips for popular template races too. Asimar, half-celestials, half-dragons, half-fiends, lycanthropes, tieflings and the always popular vampires are all given the Dramatics treatment.

If you’re worried that Dice and Dramatics would only live up to half of its title then fear not. There are dice. Well. There is crunch. Dice and Dramatics’ fourth chapter is chock full of new magic items, armour and even spells. Eh? No. Really. These items look at the low power but extremely practical magics such as "Aura of Dryness". Good stuff. Surely there’s nothing magical about the sorcerer if he gets as wet as the warrior in the storm. I think Dice and Dramatics as veered a little off topic here, not fatally so and I doubt many people will find.

The supplement finishes with a chapter aimed at helping the DM. Role-Playing as DM whistles through a series of short tips and observations. Use voices, use cut scenes, think about props, consider cinematic play, and that sort of thing. Similarly there are discussions, sound bytes really given the size, on how to portray henchmen, cohorts, experts and those typical DM only challenges.

Dice and Dramatics isn’t quite one of a kind. The GM Mastery series from Roleplaying Tips and RPGObjects is very similar. As useful and as established as that series is I’m glad to see Dice and Dramatics on the scene too. Competition encourages innovation and subtle differences in style in this sort of supplement have a huge effect on whether the resource is useful or not to individual gaming groups.

Give it a go. Dice and Dramatics is one of those products. Its appeal might not be obvious at first and you may not think you need it but most people will find something worth reading.

This accessory speaks volumes for UltraMyth. I can’t be the only one looking forward to seeing what else this new publisher has to offer the community.

* This Dice and Dramatics review was first published at GameWyrd.

 

[Crothian]

I feekl the DM section is strong. Sure it doesn't specifically say how to make a character be played intelligent but ther are so many different NPC variations out there that would be impossible.