Spes Magna Games

I recently entered the One-Page Dungeon contest. It’s my first time. I’d read about One-Page Dungeons here and there over the past year or so. I’d checked out a few examples, including those found in the this free download. The idea fascinated me, but left me with two questions: Stick an entire dungeon on one page? Why?

Well, the answer is rather simple. It’s not too different from the Five-Room Dungeon format. The goal is to provide a usable framework for an entire game session that is generic enough to let the GM customize it to fit the needs of his particular gaming group. A One-Page Dungeon is the opposite of hyper-detailed adventure paths that not only offers an adventure scenario, but also strive to plot out an entire campaign, if not an entire campaign world.

Since I gave up Facebook for Lent, I found myself with much more time on my hands. I decided to give the One-Page Dungeon Contest a try. I came up with a hook quick enough. The hard part came with the actual writing and layout. I’d chosen to outline a five-story, magical pagoda full of ninjas suitable for a site-based adventure. I had to include maps, background text, area descriptions, et cetera. All of this had to fit on a single side of a single page of paper in a format and font-size that would be legible. I went through three different maps. I wrote and rewrote and re-rewrote. I ended up beating the deadline for contest submissions by under 24 hours.

While I doubt I’m going to win anything in the contest, I do think that The Lure of the Jade Throne is a fine first try at a one-page dungeon. You want to take a look at it? Well, click here, and you can download your very own copy. Neat, huh?

Tags: One-Page Dungeon

One of my current projects is Heroes & Monsters, which I hope to have done in time to playtest in May. This roleplaying game hopes to provide a suitable introduction to gaming for people who’ve never to hardly ever played an RPG before. My design goals for H&M encompass four areas:

1. Flexible & Easy to Learn
I want a game that can be adapted to a wide variety of situations and scenarios within the fantasy genre. The rules of an RPG should serve the players and the kind of game they want to play rather than unnecessarily limit choices.

Many RPGs are quite complicated, presenting players with dozens to hundreds of different options, and that’s just looking at character creation. The rules that govern the use of skills, magic, and combat then contain oodles of variations, situational modifiers, and exceptions to the norms. As a result, these sorts of RPGs include hundreds of pages of rules that are not only not easy to learn, they’re down right unfriendly to new players.

H&M takes the core mechanic of the d20 System and adds to it tools to increase flexibility and flatten the learning curve. The result is an RPG that you can start playing almost right away.

2. Shared Narrative Control
Narrative control in game terms refers to the ability that players have to shape the direction of the story they are playing. In many games, the bulk of narrative control rests in the hands of the Game Master. The GM makes up the adventure, sets the challenges, determines what happens next, et cetera. More or less, the other players react to the situations set forth by the GM.

There are two unintended consequences of investing so much narrative control in the GM. First, the GM ends up doing much more work before, during, and after the game session that the other players do. Often, the GM does more work than all the other players combined. This can result in the GM getting tired of GMing, and a tired GM makes for a poorer RPG experience. Second, the other players get little training in the skills needed to be a GM. With the GM calling so many of the shots, players have less incentive to immerse themselves in the game in meaningful ways.

H&M strives to spread narrative control more evenly among all the players. The GM ends up with less work, the players with more options, and everyone with more fun.

3. Heroic
It seems like the recent trend in RPGs is toward what’s referred to as edgier or darker elements. Fans of these games claim they explore adult themes, and often toss out examples such as drug abuse or exploitation of one group by another. Drawing distinctions between right and wrong gives way to shades of moral gray that end up robbing characters’ actions of meaning. After all, if all choices are equally right, then all choices are also equally wrong.

This recent trend smacks right into one of my abiding prejudices in RPGs. I don’t like things to be edgy and dark except in contrast to the heroism of the characters. Things like drug abuse and exploitation are not entertaining, and they’re not really suitable for the good guys. I like for player characters to be genuine heroes, fighting against the forces of evil. I like for there to be a definite right and wrong, and for heroes to do their best to end up on the side of right.

I’ve written H&M so that your PC isn’t just an adventurer. Your PC isn’t a mercenary hopping from one paid mission to another. Instead, your PC is a hero. A hero might get paid for being heroic, but the money isn’t the primary motivation.

4. Cooperative
RPGs should be played cooperatively. There is no way to win an RPG. You aren’t competing against the other players, and that includes the GM. Since no one gets to win, you can instead focus on having fun and on helping ensure the other players have fun as well.

After all, what’s the sense in playing any game if you’re not having fun? H&M doesn’t really have rules for cooperation (although there are a few). Instead, the cooperative stance of an RPG deals more with the attitude of the players than the rules. Throughout the H&M PDFs, I offer suggestions about how to increase the fun. Use those that you feel work best for you, and ignore those that don’t. Best of all, invent your own suggestions. Make the game yours.

Tags: Heroes&Monsters

Since A Medieval Holiday is done and selling well at Paizo.com and at DriveThruRPG, I’ve been working my next PDF: Masters of Disguise. This new PDF’s main feature is the masque, a base class focused on deceit and disguise with four levels of spells. I’ve sent version 2 to my playtesters and received even more insightful feedback. I’m certain the masque is going to be an excellent base class once all the fine-tuning is completed.

But the masque isn’t all there will be. Masters of Disguise will also include useful crunch such as:

* Expanded uses for Diplomacy, Disguise, Linguistics, and Use Magic Device.
* More feats.
* More rogue talents.
* Equipment, both mundane and magic.
* A shapechanger bloodline for sorcerers.
* A disguise subdomain for clerics.
* And more!

Here’s an excerpt of the expanded rules for Diplomacy:

Diplomacy
Diplomacy serves many functions. A diplomatic character can help disarm conflicts and schmooze his way through potentially tricky situations. He can also keep abreast of the what’s going, using his gift of gab to gather useful information. But what if the character wants to put out bogus intelligence in order to mislead others?

Check: If you want to mislead those who trying to gather information about you, your Diplomacy check is opposed by your foe’s Diplomacy check. If you succeed, you misdirect your foe’s inquiries. This is typically an ongoing process with new opposed checks required each day.

You can also use Diplomacy for rumor-mongering in order to spread false information. This can make it more difficult for someone to interact favorably with other NPCs, applying penalties to their Charisma checks or other social skills. In order to rumor-monger, make a Diplomacy check opposed by the NPC’s Sense Motive check. If you succeed, the target of your rumor-mongering suffers a -2 penalty on interaction checks with that NPC for the next week.

Action: Using Diplomacy to mislead an information gatherer requires 1d4 hours of work, sowing bogus intelligence to informers. Rumor-mongering requires 1 minute of continuous interaction.

Try Again: You can retry Diplomacy checks made to spread false information and rumor-monger.

Special: Feats, spells, et cetera that modify Diplomacy apply to misleading and rumor-mongering attempts.

Masters of Disguise should be available in January 2011.

My newest PDF, A Medieval Holiday, is available at both DriveThruRPG and at Paizo.com for a mere $1.02 US. This 17-page, printer-friendly PDF offers party etiquette advice, decorating tips, menu suggestions, and recipes geared toward a pseudo-medieval banquet held in your very own home. It also contains the Pathfinder-compatible trencherman prestige class, featuring awesome class features such as Chug! Chug! and Gourmand.

I’ve also been bitten by the spell creation bug. Symptoms include a desire to create one new spell per level for each casting class. So far I’ve completed levels 0 through 4 for bards and level 1 for rangers. Here’s a sample:

Accelerando
School transmutation; Level bard 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart
Duration Concentration (up to 2 rounds + 1 round/level)
Saving Throw Fortitude negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)

Targets affected by accelerando enjoy a gradual increase in base land speed. On your turn each round the spell is in effect, affected creatures have their base land speed increased by 10 feet, to a maximum increase of 30 feet. This adjustment is treated as an enhancement bonus. There is no effect on other modes of movement, such as burrow, climb, fly, or swim. As with any effect that increases your speed, this spell affects your jumping distance (see the Acrobatics skill).

Tags: Holidays, recipes

I’m still working on A Medieval Holiday, a PDF that includes party hosting advice, decorating tips, recipes, and a Pathfinder prestige class. Here’s an excerpt from the Instructions for the Cooke section to further whet the appetite:

Pears in Wine & Spices

Category: Dessert.

Ingredients
4 pears, sliced
3 cups sweet red wine*
1 tbs. cinnamon
1 tbs. sugar
1 tsp. ginger
2 tbs. vinegar
few threads saffron

Instructions
1. Boil pears until they just become tender. Drain well.

2. In a separate pot, bring wine and cinnamon to a boil. Stir well throughout.

3. Let the wine-and-cinnamon mixture cool, and then strain to remove any grit, sediment, and clumps.

4. Return wine-and-cinnamon mixture to pot and bring back to a boil. Add sugar, ginger, saffron, and vinegar. Stir until spices are dissolved.

5. Add pears to wine-and-spices mixture. Cook for several minutes until the pears soften slightly and change color.

6. Serve hot or cold. I think they’re better hot, but that’s just me.

* For information about sweet red wines, visit this site. Do not use cooking wine for any recipe. Cooking wines are abominations. Wine left over in the bottle should be consumed by the chef and/or served with dinner.

Tags: Food, Holidays