This week, A quick roundup of some of the more interesting ideas I've seen to experiment with in your game. No matter what game system you're playing, there's any number of goofy ideas you might want to experiment with as you try to achieve some key improvements in your game.
View attachment 57419
The idea of improving our games is an interesting one -- in what way do you want to improve? For me, the primary focus of efforts to improve our game sessions center on trying to improve the player engagement in the story of the game, while speeding up the wargaming aspects -- I don't want to eliminate combat or make it less interesting, but I do want to try to speed it up, when that's reasonable.
Your values and tastes may be different than mine -- so these hacks may not be something you want to try -- be ready to share your own hacks in the comments, below.
1. Gumshoe Style Skills.
The Gumshoe system was released in 2007 by Robin Laws, and has been used in a handful of different games since. The version I have, Trail of Cthulhu by Ken Hite, is a good example of some of the strengths of the system.
As you'll see in many of the threads rehashing the idea on this and other forums, the game system does a lot to create the feel and texture of the game -- in many ways, the game mechanics are some of the most important setting and story decisions that can be made.
So the gumshoe system is all about detective work -- about investigations, mysteries, following clues and leads. And so the rule handle that very well.
The trick is that sometimes you might want some of that detective story feel in your other games. Borrowing some of the concepts and structures from Gumshoe can help you add some mystery to your stock D&D game.
Key Concepts:
- Skills expose clues automatically
- Investing a resource (in Gumshoe, it's a spend from an ability pool) may reveal additional information. This additional information is not a core clue -- they're not necessary to advance the story, but they may offer additional information.
The clues -- the "spine" of core clues -- are what drive the investigation forward. And these become the most important part of your adventure design work.
What was revolutionary about the Gumshoe system was that the game both focuses on investigation and automatically gives the PCs the clues if they use their skills to look for them. The same strategy can be very powerful in any game system. In 4e, for example, there's no reason why a character with training in Healing would not get specific information that will advance the story. Those with Religion skill would notice a few nearly-disguised remnants of some cult ritual. And so on. It's well worth picking up a copy of one of the Gumshoe-based games to look for ideas worth trying to import into your own games -- or even to try something a bit different for a change.
Why Try This? It can be difficult to shift the type of story you tell with your game. If you usually tell action stories that involve a lot of hacking and slashing, experimenting with this sort of investigative adventure building could add a new element to your game. There's no reason you can't have a investigative hack and slash adventure, after all.
2. Interludes (Savage Worlds Deluxe)
Savage Worlds has a lot of interesting features, but one nugget that could easily be pulled out and added to practically any other game system is the Interlude system. There's even an excerpt on their web site with those pages from the Savage Worlds Deluxe rules so you don't need to buy the whole game to give Interludes a try.
Basically, these are narrative moments for players. During an appropriate moment of down time -- a break in the action, a rest stop on a journey, etc -- one of the PCs is select to tell a story from his or her character's past. In Savage Worlds, the selected PC draws a card to determine the type of story they will tell -- either a story of Tragedy, Victory, Love, or Desire. Once the PCs is done telling the story, he or she is awarded a bennie (a key player currency in the game).
Depending upon the system you're playing, you might reward the storytelling PC with an action point, a reroll, or any number of other easy-to-provide boons.
Why Try This? There can be some fairly painful down time during a game session. Often the time between encounters is extended because the DM needs a few minutes to get his act together for the next scene -- new maps, new minis, find the notes he made last night, and so on. If nothing else, this can be a great way to keep players engaged in the game world (rather than talking about how bad Revolution is). But, even better, this draws those character backgrounds into the foreground of the game. WIthout devices like this, it's too easy to share backgrounds in the first session of a new campaign, then never return to them again until the end of the campaign. Interludes like this would keep the PCs in touch with those backgrounds, and as they improvise those old stories they may well come up with new background elements that the DM can weave into the ongoing story.
3. Zones (Multiple Sources)
This is something that Wil Wheaton mentioned in a recent post on his blog; something he's stealing from John Rodgers, who stole it from Fate (It's in the FATE core rules -- but if you're not in on the Kickstarter you may have to wait a few more weeks to get your hands on that).
The basic idea is that rather than use a very precise grid (or hex) based map to represent the tactical situation in an encounter, you define the encounter in terms of a handful of zones or areas that share some key attributes. So, imagine a typical D&D combat encounter in part of a ruined village. You might define a zone that is the burned out temple, one that is a vacant home, and one that is the road between the two. Each might have their own descriptors (aspects) that would apply to that area. The temple might contain a lot of shattered glass and splintered wood, making it dangerous to drop prone; the road might be muddy and difficult walking; and the farmhouse might be dark and shadowy. Character spend a move action to more from one zone to an adjacent zone, or move to engage a target in the same zone in melee.
Why Try This? The D&D Next playtest packet, at this point, still does not provide a complete set of tactical rules for combat -- theoretically, those of us play testing are playing in the "theater of the mind". Many of us, though, have gone back to our old habits from previous editions and are using maps and tactical combat the way we have for years. Zones gives us an interesting middle ground -- someplace a little more tactical that theater of the mind, and a little less precise and possibly slow than traditional combat maps.
What new ideas are you trying in YOUR games?
(image "Bad Idea" by Pasukaru76 on Flickr)
View attachment 57419
The idea of improving our games is an interesting one -- in what way do you want to improve? For me, the primary focus of efforts to improve our game sessions center on trying to improve the player engagement in the story of the game, while speeding up the wargaming aspects -- I don't want to eliminate combat or make it less interesting, but I do want to try to speed it up, when that's reasonable.
Your values and tastes may be different than mine -- so these hacks may not be something you want to try -- be ready to share your own hacks in the comments, below.
1. Gumshoe Style Skills.
The Gumshoe system was released in 2007 by Robin Laws, and has been used in a handful of different games since. The version I have, Trail of Cthulhu by Ken Hite, is a good example of some of the strengths of the system.
As you'll see in many of the threads rehashing the idea on this and other forums, the game system does a lot to create the feel and texture of the game -- in many ways, the game mechanics are some of the most important setting and story decisions that can be made.
So the gumshoe system is all about detective work -- about investigations, mysteries, following clues and leads. And so the rule handle that very well.
The trick is that sometimes you might want some of that detective story feel in your other games. Borrowing some of the concepts and structures from Gumshoe can help you add some mystery to your stock D&D game.
Key Concepts:
- Skills expose clues automatically
- Investing a resource (in Gumshoe, it's a spend from an ability pool) may reveal additional information. This additional information is not a core clue -- they're not necessary to advance the story, but they may offer additional information.
The clues -- the "spine" of core clues -- are what drive the investigation forward. And these become the most important part of your adventure design work.
What was revolutionary about the Gumshoe system was that the game both focuses on investigation and automatically gives the PCs the clues if they use their skills to look for them. The same strategy can be very powerful in any game system. In 4e, for example, there's no reason why a character with training in Healing would not get specific information that will advance the story. Those with Religion skill would notice a few nearly-disguised remnants of some cult ritual. And so on. It's well worth picking up a copy of one of the Gumshoe-based games to look for ideas worth trying to import into your own games -- or even to try something a bit different for a change.
Why Try This? It can be difficult to shift the type of story you tell with your game. If you usually tell action stories that involve a lot of hacking and slashing, experimenting with this sort of investigative adventure building could add a new element to your game. There's no reason you can't have a investigative hack and slash adventure, after all.
2. Interludes (Savage Worlds Deluxe)
Savage Worlds has a lot of interesting features, but one nugget that could easily be pulled out and added to practically any other game system is the Interlude system. There's even an excerpt on their web site with those pages from the Savage Worlds Deluxe rules so you don't need to buy the whole game to give Interludes a try.
Basically, these are narrative moments for players. During an appropriate moment of down time -- a break in the action, a rest stop on a journey, etc -- one of the PCs is select to tell a story from his or her character's past. In Savage Worlds, the selected PC draws a card to determine the type of story they will tell -- either a story of Tragedy, Victory, Love, or Desire. Once the PCs is done telling the story, he or she is awarded a bennie (a key player currency in the game).
Depending upon the system you're playing, you might reward the storytelling PC with an action point, a reroll, or any number of other easy-to-provide boons.
Why Try This? There can be some fairly painful down time during a game session. Often the time between encounters is extended because the DM needs a few minutes to get his act together for the next scene -- new maps, new minis, find the notes he made last night, and so on. If nothing else, this can be a great way to keep players engaged in the game world (rather than talking about how bad Revolution is). But, even better, this draws those character backgrounds into the foreground of the game. WIthout devices like this, it's too easy to share backgrounds in the first session of a new campaign, then never return to them again until the end of the campaign. Interludes like this would keep the PCs in touch with those backgrounds, and as they improvise those old stories they may well come up with new background elements that the DM can weave into the ongoing story.
3. Zones (Multiple Sources)
This is something that Wil Wheaton mentioned in a recent post on his blog; something he's stealing from John Rodgers, who stole it from Fate (It's in the FATE core rules -- but if you're not in on the Kickstarter you may have to wait a few more weeks to get your hands on that).
The basic idea is that rather than use a very precise grid (or hex) based map to represent the tactical situation in an encounter, you define the encounter in terms of a handful of zones or areas that share some key attributes. So, imagine a typical D&D combat encounter in part of a ruined village. You might define a zone that is the burned out temple, one that is a vacant home, and one that is the road between the two. Each might have their own descriptors (aspects) that would apply to that area. The temple might contain a lot of shattered glass and splintered wood, making it dangerous to drop prone; the road might be muddy and difficult walking; and the farmhouse might be dark and shadowy. Character spend a move action to more from one zone to an adjacent zone, or move to engage a target in the same zone in melee.
Why Try This? The D&D Next playtest packet, at this point, still does not provide a complete set of tactical rules for combat -- theoretically, those of us play testing are playing in the "theater of the mind". Many of us, though, have gone back to our old habits from previous editions and are using maps and tactical combat the way we have for years. Zones gives us an interesting middle ground -- someplace a little more tactical that theater of the mind, and a little less precise and possibly slow than traditional combat maps.
What new ideas are you trying in YOUR games?
(image "Bad Idea" by Pasukaru76 on Flickr)
