Apathy Games

Dear Apathy: Laptop Problems

Each week, we answer a question from our loyal audience.  This answer can by anything do do about gaming, and we’ll try to provide advice.  You may leave your question in the comments, or email us at devteam@apathygames.com.  Our question for this week is:

Dear Apathy,

We often use laptops at the gaming table for tracking information and secret communications. For a while it was working well, but now some of my players keep letting the laptops distract them. How do I remove the distraction without getting rid of the computers?

Thanks,

Ready to Drop Rocks, Bismarck, ND

Well, RDR, you’ve posed a tough question. As a rule, having laptops at the table seems like a terrible idea, but I have seen it used to good effect, so let’s try to solve the problem.

Obviously, the first thing to do is to ask your players to make a concerted effort not to get distracted. Have them turn off any programs with notifications like TweetDeck or Skype. These have a tendency to grab attention and distract you from —writing a post— the game. You could disconnect the Internet entirely, but that could seriously limit the effectiveness of having a computer at the table.

As a Game Master, do your best to keep each player engaged. Make sure the spotlight moves around. Have players consider and pre-roll their actions when it isn’t there turn, and don’t let them use electronic dice rollers so that they have to pull away from the laptop when rolling.

You could also try a punishment and reward system, such as giving bennies to players to don’t get distracted and reducing XP gained for those who do. Careful, though, as this can create sour feelings among your problem players, and exacerbate the problem.

Lastly, consider the placement of the laptops. Try to get the players to move them off to the side, with the screen tilted to where you can see it. Not only are you able to watch over people’s shoulders a bit, but it means that players have to turn their backs to you to use the laptop, making themselves more obvious.

If all else fails, require that the laptops be closed at the table, and only use them when sending messages.

Hopefully these tips help you. Thank you for asking Apathy, and don’t drop rocks on your players.

–Jeff Carlsen

Your Comments: Do you have any advice?  Please let our readers know.  If you have a question for Apathy, we’ll gladly answer them.  Leave your question in the comments, or email us at devteam@apathygames.com

What is your favorite game system?

Once per week we go behind the bar at Apathy Games and discuss gaming in more personal terms and ask you to respond. The best response will be featured the following week.

By the time you’ve started reading a blog about Savage Worlds, you’ve probably been around the roleplaying block and played your share of systems. I know I have. The truth is, there is no one ultimate system. We all know that. In the end, there is only the best system to suit your current needs.

But, even so, there are times when you see a core mechanic and something inside you screams, “Yes! That’s how it works!”. For me, that was Shadowrun Fourth Edition.

It’s a rather simple dice pool system. Attributes, Skills, Augmentations, and modifiers are all measured by the number of dice they add to your pool. You then roll them all, and every die that rolls five or higher is a hit. The difficulty of tasks is measured in the number of hits you need.

The reason I love it, other than the satisfaction of rolling a fistful of dice, is how every little edge your character has provides an additional opportunity for success. Like every skill you learn is a little soldier and the task is an enemy. The more soldiers you have, the more likely it is that one of them will kill the filthy bastard.

It’s a simple mechanic, but a complex system. Everything has a mechanical effect, however small. I love this, but it’s also why the system isn’t right for every game. Also, it’s very deadly. Shadowrun characters are often described as eggshells with hammers. It’s style of play I like, but not always.

Now Your Turn:  What is your favorite game system?

Leave your story in the comments, and next week we’ll post the best story. If you have any questions you’d like us to answer in a future Behind the Bar, let us know.

Last Weeks Winner is: Theron

The Questions was, “If you could game with any historical figure, who would it be?”, to which he wrote:

Gary Gygax and HG Welles, the father and grandfather of our noble hobby.

Theron makes a great point.  I would love to have had a chance to game with Gygax.  It’s still possible I suppose, and necromancy is fitting with the game.  Something to think on.

Dear Apathy, How Many Dice is Enough?

As a new feature on Apathy games, each week, we answer a question from our loyal audience.  This answer can by anything do do about gaming, and we’ll try to provide advice.  You may leave your question in the comments, or email us at devteam@apathygames.com.  Our question for this week is:

Dear Apathy,

How many dice is enough?

Al in Podunk, WA

Al,

The simple answer is, when your dice bag bursts, you may have too many. Or need to buy a new dice bag.

I try to keep three full sets of polyhedrals, one of one color and two of another. The first set is my primary set, used for all skill rolls, attacks, saves, or whatever. The other two sets are for damage. This works very well for Savage Worlds in particular, but you should find use for it in many a d20 game.

For savage worlds, I also have a special set of d6s to use as my wild die, and another, off color, for extra damage, so that I can roll everything at once. If I get a raise, I add in the extra d6. Otherwise, I just ignore it.

If you play a variety of games, you’ll want a brick of d6′s. Dice pool games, such as Shadowrun, use them, so you’ll want at least twenty. In addition, you’ll want a pack of ten d10′s for World of Darkness or Legend of the Five Rings.

This should cover everything you need, but it can be nice to have extra sets for new players to use.

Don’t buy all your dice all at once, unless you don’t like money. Picking out a set should be a special event, savored each time you get the opportunity. Start with a single set of what you need for the game you’re playing, and build upon that whenever you go to the game store. Soon enough, you’ll be asking us how to organize your massive collection. Until then, good gaming, and thank you for the question.

Your Comments: Do you have any advice?  Please let our readers know.  If you have a question for Apathy, we’ll gladly answer them.  Leave your question in the comments, or email us at devteam@apathygames.com

221 Posts Celebration! Top 5 Posts We Didn’t Write

Today is a great celebration here at Apathy, our 221st post!  It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come since our 73rd.  Instead of giving you great new content, we’ve decided to let you know what content we could have given you, but didn’t.  So, here are the top five posts we didn’t write:

My Pantheon could Beat Up Your Pantheon

Every rose has it’s thorns, and every fantasy setting has it’s pantheon.  In the war of the made up gods, who would win?  Tonight on Pay Per View, Hextor versus Thamar.

Top 10 Gaming Hats of All Time

Wherein we debate the virtues of the fedora and lement the state of current gaming fashion.  Also, we discover that the size of ones brain is proportionally to the height of his hat.

Two Adventurers Walk into A Bar

We tell jokes.  Since we’re not really very funny people, we’ve spared you this pain.  Though there is one about a Gazebo that’s pretty good.

Confessions of a Lazy Gamer

We place a spotlight on the advantages of not doing any game prep.  Particularly on the amount of extra time you can spend watching Star Trek reruns.

Oh Crap! The Post is Due in 10 Minutes

The real life telling of an emergency post.  Did we forget?  Were we busy fighting thirty-mouthed Chicago-spawn?  You’ll never know, of course, because we don’t make excuses for our failures.

We’d like to thank you for sticking with us this far, and we hope to still see you when we reach 316.  Now, I have to go.  Scotty is about to give the tribbles to the Klingons.

Your Comments: What other posts should we never write?  Let us know in the comments.

If you could game with any historical figure, who would it be?

Once per week we go behind the bar at Apathy Games and discuss gaming in more personal terms and ask you to respond. The best response will be featured the following week.

I pondered this question for several days before writing this post, and came up with a lot of examples of historical figures I’d never want to game with. Ganges Khan, for one. In the end, though, I’m forced to say that I would like to share my gaming table with The Bard. Yes, Shakespeare, though I don’t believe he gets any bardic music abilities, which is a real shame.

I choose him for his variety of characters and ability to understand them. Also, for his sense of drama and ability to tell stories using nothing but dialog. I wonder if he is as good at witty retorts as some of his characters? At least I know that he’ll speak proper Old English, or at least miss-speak it appropriately.

I’d only want to game with him if he’s a player, though. Never as a DM. Otherwise, every campaign would end with a TPK. Or a wedding.

Now Your Turn: If you could game with any historical figure, who would it be?

We’ll also consider answers to, “Who would be the worst historical figure to game with?”, since is sounds like fun.

Leave your story in the comments, and next week we’ll post the best story. If you have any questions you’d like us to answer in a future Behind the Bar, let us know.

Last Weeks Winner is: 77IM

The Questions was, “What RPG Would You Turn into a TV Show?”, to which he wrote:

Mutant City Blues: Police procedural in a world where 1% of the populace has spontaneously developed mutant super-powers. It would be like CSI meets Heroes. It seems like such a no-brainer I’d be surprised if an idea like this hadn’t already been pitched to some studio execs.

The Best Gaming Dice: GameScience Dice

We’ve all spent hours looking at dice in our local game store.  We’ve carefully chosen those that call to us, usually based on looks.  Eventually, long after we’ve paid for them and come home, we cast them back into the Bag of Shame because they fail us constantly with a slew of terrible rolls.  Or, perhaps we find that one d20 that never fails us, even though we hate the color.

Apparently, most of our dice are nowhere near as random as we imagine them to be, and it isn’t our imagination.   Mr. Zocchi, who created the original set of polyhedrals that have become iconic to our hobby, is currently the man behind GameScience, and his dice are intended to be precise pieces of engineering.    Let’s let the man make his point for himself, though:

I already intend to replace my dice with these.  You can buy them online from GameStation.net. I should also point out that Chessex does sell a small selection of the GameScience dice.  They’re the translucent jewel-colored dice with the sharp edges that don’t have their numbers painted.

Now, if only someone would start making machined casino quality polyhedrals.

What RPG Would You Turn into a TV Show?

Once a week we go behind the bar at Apathy Games and discuss gaming in more personal terms and ask you to respond. The best response will be featured the following week.

Bold and daring adventures every week are the heart of Roleplaying. They’re also the heart of Television. As such, it would seem a natural fit that an interesting roleplaying game would make a great show.

If I had the excess pocket change to realize my favorite setting, it would be Shadowrun. Truth be told, we really haven’t had a good Cyberpunk show as it is, let alone one with Trolls and Mages. But the plots are there. The characters are there. And there is a rich twenty-year history for them to draw off of.

I want to see street magic. I want to see the Halloweeners biker gang and the election of the Great Dragon Dunklezahn to president. And I want to see all the cool toys.

It would have to be an HBO show, though. It’s not exactly family friendly.  It’s full of dark themes, violence, racism, and criminal behavior.  Like the Sopranos with roto-drones.

Now Your Turn: What RPG Would You Turn into a TV Show?

Leave your story in the comments, and next week we’ll post the best story. If you have any questions you’d like us to answer in a future Behind the Bar, let us know.

Increase Your Players’ Immersion by Using a Home Base

When you run a game, you want your players drawn into the world you present. The literary term for this is _verisimilitude_, and it’s powerful when you pull it off. One powerful way to accomplish this is to establish a home base for the player characters.

I game mastered for a long time before I ran into this knowledge, due mostly to the style of games I play and my predilection for not running pre-built adventures. But, I went ahead and bought Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk for D&D 3.5. This was a modern revision of the original adventure by Gary Gygax. The adventured consisted of a major dungeon nearby the city of Greyhawk. Because the player characters weren’t traveling much, they always returned to their home base, the Green Dragon Inn.

The Green Dragon Inn was very well developed, with a large cast of characters, each with personalities and plot hooks. Near the Inn was a collection of shops where the players could get everything they needed, from weapons to magic items. These shop-keeps were also developed characters, with conflicts among themselves. The result being a very rich and dynamic environment that my players spent hours playing around it. They loved it.

How to Do It Yourself

The first thing you need to have is a place the character’s always return to. This means that the home base method doesn’t work as well with traveling adventures, unless it takes the form of a ship or caravan.

NPCs are the heart of a home base, so make the place itself a location with a lot of people passing through. An inn, dance club, mall, castle, keep, or trading post are all possibilities. All of these require NPCs to run their daily operations, such as barmaids, guards, owners, disk jockeys, and chefs, which is a valuable opportunity for your players to befriend them and get perks. In addition, all the visitors allow opportunities for adventure to come to your players.

In addition, you want NPCs nearby to provide for the character’s needs. Player characters need weapons, so make sure a weapon-smith is nearby. They may need elicit materials, so have a black market dealer hang around. Rumormongers and spies can provide information for a price, and nearby masters can provide training. Take some time to come up with NPCs that provide equipment, training, entertainment, information, and hirelings.

NPCs have Needs

You already know how to make a good and engaging NPC, but a home base gives you a few other things to consider. First, your NPCs have relationships with one another. Take some time to seed friendships and conflicts among them. All of these can be turned into adventure seeds at a future date.

Secondly, develop a plot seed for each significant NPC. These can be thought of as loyalty quests. At some point, each of these NPCs will need the player’s help, and accomplishing a goal for them should grant the players their favor, and possible some other benefit. Some of the NPCs might also be antagonists. For them, provide two possible quests, one for their loyalty, and one to bring them down. Each has it’s own rewards, and provides the players with support for whatever they decide to do.

Putting it all Together

Now you have a rich, deep environment, filled with an interesting cast of characters and plenty of adventure seeds. Let your players wander and engage in their home base, developing loyalties and believing that wherever they go, and whomever they talk to, it is a path to adventure.

Your Comments: Help our readers out.  Give them some various ideas for use in their own home base.  The more abnormal, the better.

What is the Worst Gaming Environment You’ve Every Played In?

Part of me feels like a jerk for even thinking about writing this post, for the story I’m about to tell involves a man who was really trying to make a gaming group work, despite shortcomings.  I don’t fault him, but the play area he was responsible for came out of a nerd horror show.

First, there was no table.  This is fine when everything is done in the theater of the mind, but for this session I needed a battlemap.  So, we had to roll it out on the floor and sit around it.  Now, I like roughing it as much as the next guy, but something about rug-burn doesn’t help me GM a game.

That was, of course, assuming we ever got started.

The second problem?  He had his sons over, one of which is a toddler.  Again, don’t get me wrong.  I love children  (especially with barbeque sauce).  But, a two-year-old isn’t known for being civil, and a Father has his duties, which kept him away from the gaming table and prevented us from starting.

Once he arrived, though, we had another problem.  Toddler on the battlemap.  This isn’t a problem so much if the PCs are fighting a Titan.  Well, except that miniatures are small and made of pewter, and toddlers are big and made of…  baby stuff.  Also, did you know that dice are a choking hazard?  Brings new meaning to 2d6 damage.

Now Your Turn:  What is the Worst Gaming Environment You’ve Every Played In?

Leave your story in the comments, and next week we’ll post the best story.  If you have any questions you’d like us to answer in a future Behind the Bar, let us know.

Last Weeks Winner is:  Andrew Linstrom

The Questions was, “What Was the Best House Rule You’ve Used?”, to which he wrote:

My favorite house rule is one that I devised for my own d20 games: No class skills. along with boosting any class that got 2 skill points per level to 4 skill points per level. Players of all classes can purchase ranks one-for-one in any skill, instead of paying twice the cost for half the maximum potential. Is your clever fighter really into clockwork gadgetry? Does your wizard secretly like doing cartwheels? Let them! Don’t worry too much about player roles and expectations. Let them do what the want to do.

Savage Worlds Chat Event

We will be holding a chat event tomorrow, 8/4/2010, over at the IRC channel.  It will begin at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST.  Please let interested people know.

The subjects will include:

• Converting a reluctant D&D player to Savage Worlds
• Designing an epic Boss Fight
• Anything else that comes up

You can find the channel on irc.slashnet.org in #savageworlds.

If you don’t have an IRC client, or you don’t even know what one is but want to chat, you can simply join the chat through this web client. Additionally, if you are running Firefox, you can install the Chatzilla extension, and then follow this link.