Apathy Games

Savage Mondays – March 1st, 2010

It’s a Savage World out there, and Apathy Games provides the tools to survive it. First, check out our Savage Worlds Primer. Then if Portuguese is your native language, check out Retropunk.net’s translation. If you’re looking for more up to date news, here’s what’s happening now:

Savage Worlds Licensees

New Savage Licensees

Two new companies have given themselves over to the savage side and become licensees.  Silver Gryphon Games is working on adventures for Wellstone City, a modern noir setting.  Nevermet Press is a little different, working on using crowd sourcing to build community driven content.

A New Adventure in HellFrost | Triple Ace Games

A centuries old crime comes to light to affect the present in Sins of the Father.

Adamant Entertainment looking for Freelancers | Adamant Entertainment

The company appears to be expanding and is looking for freelancers for writing, art, graphics, programming, and animation.

Do you like Savage News, but want it more than once a week? Subscribe to our Twitter. We won’t promise to drown you in a flood of news, but we won’t promise not to, either. As always, if we missed something, let our readers know in the comments.

Top Twenty Reasons Your Players Hate You

1. Rust monsters destroyed my epic magical items.
2. Rocks Fall [WARNING: TvTropes.org Link we are not responsible for the time suck that is about to occur].
3. Your NPC is more interesting then me.
4. NPC’s should not be able to out drink me.
5. Your dice don’t hate you / We can’t see what your rolling.
6. All your characters talk the same.
7. You’ve canceled the game.
8. Your wife/girlfriend is playing an albino vampire were-tiger, and I’m not.
9. You keep wanting to play an online game and can’t get the tools working (My GM has Gremlins).
10. My foot has been tied to a train.
11. Your toddler/cat keeps walking over the battle map.
12. You’ve turned this game into a drinking game and I can’t remember my character’s name.
13. Because I’m hungry, and you don’t live next to a Circle K.
14. The only beer you have in the fridge is Bud.
15. Hummus and Vegetables are no substitute for Cheetos and Mountain Dew, goddammit!
16. You made me sign a contract with the Infernals.
17. Uzi wielding Ninjas dropped from the ceiling.
18. Mirror of Opposition.  On the ceiling.
19. Zombies should not be your default.
20. Your idea of prep work is two hours of FreeCell.

What is your worst experience with a GM? Share it with us in the comments and continue our list!

Establishing Tone in Your Games

This is a subject I approach with trepidation. Tone is an important aspect to my games and my game mastering style, and I’ve been told that it’s something I do well. But I’ve never had a set of rules or guidelines that I use to create tone. Instead, it’s a natural inclination that paints everything I do.

But I will try to advise you anyway. Perhaps together, we can generate some habits that will help you see the way I do.

What is Tone?

In visual art, tone is a color. In music it’s a single note. In literature, it’s a particular mood of a piece. The similar theme to these is that tone is unifying and emotional. In the case of an RPG, the literature sense is the closest. The tone of your game is the pervasive emotional sense of the game. It comes through in the themes you choose, in the description you use, in the enemies, adventures, and plots. Imagine you’re looking through your game through colored sunglasses. Every aspect of your game would be painted with a particular tone.

Above All, Feel It

This is my secret, if I have one. I let myself feel whatever feelings I’m trying to convey when I’m designing an adventure or campaign. Then I try to make things match what I’m feeling.

I do this at the table too. When I’m playing an NPC, and especially when I’m describing things, I try to feel the tone I wish to convey.

I’m not going to call this a magic bullet though. There are many things I’ve done and learned over the years to help me hone this skill.

Consume Other Works

Read books. Watch movies. Listen to Music. Most importantly, consume these things at an emotional level. Let yourself feel whatever they’re trying to make you feel. This can be difficult sometimes. I tend to recoil from heavy-handed or obvious attempts to make me feel something, as if I’m being manipulated. Still, try it, and pay attention. If you’re going for a dark and gritty tone and a sense of loneliness, look for the details. A yellowing empty fridge. Clutter on the floor. Creaking wood floors. Large spaces full of things but no people.

Write Short Stories

This is where I learned to convey tone. I went to college for fiction writing. Yeah, I know. That’s cheating. There are many books on this subject that may be of value. Writer’s Digest has some very good ones written by accomplished authors. If you’re interested in more advice on writing books and resources, let me know.

But reading these isn’t good enough. You have to apply that knowledge. Write short stories. Longer works can be fun to write, but short stories (or even poetry, though I personally can’t stand the stuff) force you to be concise. Being able to convey something in a few sentences is a very handy skill at the gaming table. So write these, have people read them, ask for cruel levels of criticism, and edit until you learn what you’re doing. Sadly, this is an art. Doing it well can’t be picked up off a blog (though if you wish to try, check out this list of the top 100 writing blogs).

A Couple Quick Tips

There are a couple of handy tricks that can apply right away that will improve your games.

• Use Smell: Our sense of smell is the most directly linked with emotional states. If you want to convey tone, always consider what the character’s smell.
• Describe like you mean it: This might take some practice, but instead of describing things like an encyclopedia, talk like what you’re saying is important to you. If you want to convey a sense of jubilation, give descriptions like you’re experiencing it, and that everything you see is exciting and awesome! If you’re trying to say something of grave importance, speak like what you’re saying weights heavily on you. This is even more important for pre-written text. Also, don’t forget to look your players in the eye as you speak.
• Don’t break the tone: You don’t have to keep the same tone for a whole campaign, but when you’re in a part of an adventure that has a particular tone, don’t break that tone. Don’t throw in something off the wall. Don’t start cracking jokes. This will only pull your players out of the scene. They may do this on their own, and there isn’t much you can do about that, but don’t encourage them.

That’s about it, really. Most of the work is in your hands. But I hope that you’ve gleaned something useful. If you have any tips, or would like to share your experiences, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Savage Mondays – February 15th, 2010

It’s a Savage World out there, and Apathy Games provides the tools to survive it. First, check out our Savage Worlds Primer. Then if Portuguese is your native language check out Retropunk.net’s translation. If you’re looking for more up to date news, here’s what’s happening now:

Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Preorder Bundle for New Solomon Kane Book | Pinnacle Entertainment Group

The Savage Foes of Solomon Kane is full of enemies for your Solomon Kane game. The book is currently at the printers, but if you order the bundle, it will be shipped to you when it becomes available, and in the meantime you get a copy of the PDF at half price.

Savage Worlds Licensees

New Cyberpunk Adventure | Triple Ace Games

Getting the band back together is always an adventure, but in the dystopic near future, it can be deadly. Band on the Run is a new adventure for Daring Tales of the Sprawl.

Faster Monkey Games Becomes a Savage Licensee | Faster Monkey Games

I like monkeys, so this may be the best news ever to hit Savage Worlds. They’re just getting started with an introductory fantasy adventure, The Garden of Miracles. They’re also showing off their self calculating character sheet, so give them a look.

Savage Community

Arcane Background (Telepath) | PEGInc Forums

Over at the PEGInc Forums, user thwill is attempting to create a set of telepath rules that fits the type seen in shows like Babylon 5 and other sci-fi shows or books. So far, his work is interesting, and has sparked a lengthy debate.

Do you like Savage News, but want it more than once a week? Subscribe to our Twitter. We won’t promise to drown you in a flood of news, but we won’t promise not to, either. As always, if we missed something, let our readers know in the comments.

Enhance Your Games with Made-Up Words

As Tyson mentioned a couple days ago, we’ve been on sabbatical from all forms of strenuous work. This has given me time to get some reading done, and I’ve spent the past several days engulfed in Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Consumed may be an appropriate term.

Sometimes authors make up words. Shakespeare personally added 3000 words to the English language, and since we still use many of them, he’ll never be surpassed. But I still get the impression that Stephenson wrote his doctoral thesis on the subject. And it’s gotten me thinkin’.

Some of my favorite settings make up language, and use it to create a unique feel. For example:

“That razorgirl’s spurs were totally wiz, right chummer? Sure, she’s a vatjob, but I’d totally jack that node.” –Shadowrun

“You burks just popped in from the prime, and already you’ve offended a power. You look like some fair cutters, though, so let ol’ Gruff show you around the Cage.” –Planescape

Most of it’s slang, but it’s fun to say. And it’s not that tough to create, either. You just need to make up a list of common slang for you and your players to use, and start using it.

Introduce Slang Slowly

The difficult part of this is that if you simply present a long list of slang, it will never get used, because it’s too overwhelming, and because the players need to consult a list every time a new word is used. Instead, do it a little bit at a time, and start with words that will come up often.

Greetings and salutations are a great place to start, followed by honorifics like sir and madam. These words come up all the time, whenever an NPC starts talking to players. Along the same lines, words like riend come up a lot too, like the example of chummer above.

Lastly, introduce words for things that are integral to the setting. For example, Iron Kingdoms is a steampunk setting, so it has terms like mechstuff, and gearhead. Also, Arcano-Dynamic Accumulator, but you don’t need to go that far.

A last piece of advice. Try to make sure your slang is pronounceable. Words like kn’drken may look cool, but defeat the entire point. Instead, be clear, and perhaps twist real words so you can get some connotation added in there.

Until later, good blogrusing.

Take Frequent Sabbaticals

Bill Watterson is often referenced for taking frequent sabbaticals from Calvin and Hobbes. He’s cited for taking some long breaks during his cartooning years to rest and gather his creativity. Currently Apathy Games is on a one week hiatus from game development to unwind from an intense run of developing and it got me thinking about Sabbaticals.

I take sabbaticals from gaming. I love playing in games and running them but occasionally I need a break. I take a month or two off from gaming and come back ready to go at it again. For me it’s been quite a while since I took a sabbatical and since starting the blog gaming has been on my mind all day every day. While I’m passionate about my hobby and love talking about it I need to be careful not to burn myself out. Weariness is why we have multiple authors and only post four times a week (Savage Mondays writes itself, let’s be honest). Most weeks are split between Jeff and I, with the occasional post from Paul. Hillary will eventually break her vow of silence and pull herself away from her sketch pad long enough to dictate a post then disappear into the ether. We pass the podium around so none of us get weary. If you’re getting weary from GMing try a different game, pass the GM duties off to another person to run the game for a bit, or take a sabbatical. Games are supposed to be fun, right?

While I’ve been talking about endings and sabbaticals please rest assured that Apathy Games is not going anywhere. We’ll be running a guest post from Dave Martin from Tabletop Armory tomorrow but rest assured we’ll be back on Friday. We’ll have a fist of beer in one hand and dice in the other giving the one, two punch of apathetic goodness.

Your first Spin of the Character Wheel

While you don’t want to build your whole character at once, you should give the wheel a quick, cursory revolution before you start play. The reason to do this is in a cursory fashion is that none of the details should be set in stone. While the order of the wheel is designed so that early categories readily influence later ones, during the first pass the whole character in malleable. New ideas you come up with later in the wheel can contradict earlier choices, which you can change to match.

Significant Details

Every good author knows not to bombard a reader with large amounts of superfluous description. It puts the reader to sleep and detracts from the story. Instead, it is best to present only the significant details, and leave everything else out.

The same holds true for your character. Comming up with pages of information that will never have an effect on the game is a fruitless effort. It is better, particularly on your first pass, to concentrate on creating one or two details for each category that you want to effect the story. These will be your go-to details. You’ll use them to describe your character to other players, to directly influence the character’s actions, and to provide the game master with plot hooks for adventure building.

Example of Significant Details:

Concept: Korinthus Talwin is an adventuring noble who has sought a life in the wilds and dungeons of the world to escape his oppressive family who has members in every major city.

Description: Fair appearance and soft skin. Looks like he’s spent his whole life coddled.

Motivation: Afraid to go into any trade city for fear that he’ll run into family.

Motivation: Gambling Addiction

Background: Member of the noble Talwin family.

Background: Lost his ancestral home in a gambling binge.

Attitude: Sneers at the poor and destitute.

Attitude: Loves opulence. Only buys the highest quality gear.

Relationship: Geron Talwin, Father. Korinthus is hiding from his father, who would make an example of him to the rest of the family.

Relationship: Mak, Friend. The gnome who snuck him out of town in the first place. He said he was going to join Korinthus, but never appeared.

As you can see, these details are just small pieces of information, but they tell a lot about the character, and provide a number of hooks for the game master to use. And better yet, the whole process only took me a few minutes.

A Note on Secrets

It’s often tempting to make a character more interesting to yourself by giving him a secret, but many players then spend the entire game trying to keep the secret from the other players and feel violated if the game master exposes them.

This behavior is anathema to the entire nature of tabletop roleplaying and characterization. If a character is going to have a secret,is must affect the game in a positive way. In essence, your character’s secret is a significant detail that provides the game master an adventure hook, and is useless if it isn’t exposed at some point. You should work with your game master as to how you would like the secret to effect the story.

Write Down Your Details

In addition to filling out any relevant sections of your character sheet, make a list of significant details collected from all categories and give it to your game master so he can use them. If your sheet doesn’t provide space for these details, make sure you write them down for yourself as well.

Continue Indefinitely

Your character, like the campaign, is not complete until you stop playing. Keep moving around the wheel a little at a time. Character advancement is a great time to do a little more work. You’re already having to make mechanical choices, so you may as well take a spin around the wheel, adding to the character and considering how the character may have chanced.

Make sure you go over your significant details occasionally. If any of them have been used as hooks, and probably won’t be again, then it’s time to come up with new ones. You never want your character to run out of interesting ways of landing in trouble.

Introducing the Character Wheel

Character creation is an ongoing process that, like any art, resists too much structure. Nevertheless, it benefits from a guidelines and process. What follows is a development tool that will help you grow a character alongside your campaign. It’s called the Character Wheel.

The Basics

The Character Wheel is a simple metaphor. The wheel’s hub are both your character’s core concept and the image you hold of them in your head. All other aspects of the character are spokes that revolve around, and are informed by, the hub.

The wheel itself never stops turning, because character development never ends, but also to provide a convenient order of operations when considering aspects of your character. As you play the game, you just keep moving around the wheel, adding to your character.

Finally, the wheel is a reference. Every has aspects of their character that they develop more easily than the others, but this can make the character’s wheel unbalanced. This isn’t terrible, by any means, but it points out weaker aspects that deserve attention.

As the Wheel Turns

Alright, Mr. Carlsen. You’ve beaten me over the head with a metaphor, but how does it actually work?

Fair enough. As this is an introduction, I won’t dive deep into the details yet; the individual parts of the wheel will each get more dedicated development, but what follows is an overview.

First, you must establish goals. You need to consider what you wish to accomplish with the character prior to anything else. Establishing goals and guidelines prevents you from creating a character that doesn’t fit the campaign, or that doesn’t work with the party.

Second, come up with a character concept. Your concept is a short description of the character. Your elevator pitch, no longer than a few sentences.

Third, develop an image of the character in your mind. This includes tone, atmosphere, emotions, actions, sounds, smells, and anything that adds to that intangible feeling you have of a character. Everything that follows is an attempt to capture and define that image.

Finally, once you have a concept and image, you can start working your way around the wheel. You start with one category, develop some ideas within it, then move on to the next. The spokes, or categories, are arranged in an order so that what you develop in one will most readily influence what follows. But this order is what works best for me, so rearrange it at will.

• Description: This category includes physical description, interesting marks, accents, behaviors, and mannerisms. Essentially, all the things that someone might notice about the character.
• Motivations: Goals, fears, dreams. That which drives a character to act.
• Background: The events and places that have influenced the character, including history, education, and hometown.
• Attitudes: Characters have opinions on everything. Record them for posterity.
• Relationships: These are the people who have influence on the character.
• Mechanics: The game rules. These come last because they feel more natural if they are influenced by the other categories.

That’s it for the basic outline, and is probably enough that you’re already considering how to use it. Tomorrow I’ll start digging into the meat of the process, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I’m interested in what character creation systems you have most enjoyed. Let me know in the comments.

A little Love for Gaming Magazines

I never subscribed to the print version of Dragon Magazine, and didn’t start paying attention to it until it when digital for 4e (and subsequently stopped reading it when I stopped playing 4e). I suppose I was too much of a single setting type guy. I’m big on setting canon and that sort of thing, and themags were too random. Or maybe I just didn’t have an effective source for them. Or maybe I was too poor.

Whatever the reason, I regret it now.

Until the end of the month, Kobold Quarterly is giving away issue #10 [As the offer is over they've removed the link]. I decided to pick it up on a whim, and pawing through it, I’ve come to realize the kind of things I’ve been missing. In these magazines, there’s room for some real creativity to flourish, because a new setting, local, monster, or adventure seed only has to support itself.

And then there are the articles. The depth of focus that a magazine provides is refreshing. It’s something we can’t really get away with on this blog. We can’t easily post an article that would take up six or seven pages in a three column format. Nobody wants to read that much text off a screen. Let’s face it. The internet is A.D.D. incarnate.

So now I’m hooked. Also, I have a number of ideas that I’ve struggled to put into post format. Perhaps I should be looking into these magazines. Though this gives me some thoughts for .pdf articles meant for printing. If you’d be interested in such a thing, let me know.

Building your Campaign with a Television Structure

When I set out to build a campaign, I work in large story arcs first. I try to get a vague sense of what I want to happen, where it will begin and end, what tone and themes I’m going to explore, and throw in anything I think would be cool. What I don’t do is structure the whole thing.

Campaign as a Series

Instead, I work much like a television show would, particularly modern science fiction like Farscape, Battlestar Galactica, or one of the best examples, Babylon 5. In a show like this, while there is an overall story to the series, it’s clearly broken up into seasons. Each season has it’s own story arc.

Adventure Seasons

And so I break my overall campaign into several arcs, and then concentrate on each arc individually, giving it its own defining conflict, characters, and thematic elements. At this point, individual adventure ideas tend to form. I tend to let them bounce around in my head for a while, building connections with each other.

That’s one of my secrets to success. Don’t solidify things until you get to them. Allow them to grow and entwine with other ideas over time.

Episodic Adventures

It’s at this point that I start the campaign. When there’s enough content that I have a sense of the overall story, but it’s vague enough to still be malleable.

This is where we come back to the television structure. Now each adventure functions like an episode, again with it’s own beginning, middle, and end. So, at this point I have three story arcs going on. The series arc, the season arc, and the episode arc.

When designing the episode arc, the first thing I come up with is some new experience for the players. Maybe it’s a car chase. Maybe it’s an act of espionage. Whatever it is, I try to mix up the play experiences. Then I build the episode’s story. But whatever the story is, it must also establish an important element for the season arc. It could be a character, a conflict, and plot twist. Whatever that element is, it moves the story forward and ties each of the episodes together and establishes the world and story as contiguous.

My weakness

I do have one problem, a trap you should avoid falling into. I tend to make each episode feel complete at the end. It’s my tendency to like things feeling tied together and finished. But I know I could keep my campaign more exciting, and the players wanting more, if I always ended at a dramatic point, with the future more uncertain.

I’m thinking of looking to the same shows I mentioned above for inspiration on this, but since I have an abundant resource of readers at my disposal, I’m also asking you for ideas. Please give me your advice or experience in the comments.