ftp.ee.pdx.edu/2014.02.ftp.ee.pdx.edu.tar/ftp.ee.pdx.edu/pub/frp/general/dm-tricks2

Internet Message Format | 1992-01-30 | 101KB

From cbishop@zeus Wed Jan 29 18:55:58 1992
From: cbishop@zeus
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Tricks of the DM Trade 2
Date: 28 Jan 92 07:46:57 GMT
Organization: GE Aerospace, Burlington, Mass
Nntp-Posting-Host: zeus

X-NEWS: zeus rec.games.frp: 41632
Path: ge-dab!crdgw1!cs.albany.edu!sarah!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!johnf
From: [e-mail] (john feldmeier)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Tricks of the Trade, Part 1 (of 2)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 31 Jul 91 18:38:32 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail] (john feldmeier)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 591
Originator: [e-mail]

Here is the first listing of the 'Tricks of the trade'
series. My apologies to anybody whom I've left out and
please, keep posting on this subject! The articles are
more or less in chronological order, and are seperated
by a line of '======='
John

>From [e-mail] Fri Jul 19 16:42:41 1991
Subject: Re: GM's Tricks of the Trade
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
In-Reply-To: <[e-mail]>
John,
I am a 'rusty' (or crusty? ;-)) DM, and have a
few tricks to share.  Unfortunately, I have not
yet figgered out how to post to the net -- just
reply.
I use voices, not so much trick/unusual voices
as simply different for NPCs, so they don't all
sound the same (and they don't sound like me!).
Not much of a trick, I'm afraid, and it takes
time, but I write scrolls on parchment, in runes.
The parchment is that found in stationery stores/depts
for calligraphy.
If the content is supposed to be 'Common', I write
in plain English (or Spanish, depending on where in
my world the scroll originated).  If it is supposed
to be magical, I write in the unique runic script
of the creating mage (and if the reader has the appropriate
ability/spell to read it, an interpretation is provided,
accuracy commensurate with the ability/spell ;-)).
Scrolls can be wrapped around small-diameter dowels
(cheap in the hardware store of your local Earth-like
milieu), and hobby shops have these neat ceramic
beads for the ends, also inexpensive.
Players get to keep scrolls discovered, or sell, or
trade -- unless stolen (pocket-picked or otherwise)
by an NPC.  Everyone seemed (it has been a while since
I have run an adventure/campaign) to enjoy this aspect
of my gaming.

Ken
=============================================================================
Subject: Re: GM's Tricks of the Trade
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 21 Jul 91 04:09:01 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>

>There are quite a few GM's in this newsgroup and I think
>it's fair to say that at least some of us are pretty
>good :) (certainly not me :)  ) I would like to start a discussion of GM's
>"tricks of the trade", that is ideas or methods that
>have helped you become a better GM. That way, we can learn
>from others experience and become better Gm's in the process.

[stuff deleted]

In the campaigns I ran (past tense, I haven't played in a long time), I
would prepare all kinds of written material beforehand like maps,
letters, scrolls, etc., to be given to the players at the right time.
Now, this is pretty common, but there are a few things I did to that
material to add to the "ambiance" of the game.

1)  Calligraphy.  It's amazing how well calligraphy can improve the
looks of a scroll or map.  You should be able to find a good book on
calligraphy in a hobby or art supply shop, and you will also need a
calligraphy pen set (these pens have wide, chisel like tips).  Those
pens are good for making large and fancy letters (userful for titles,
signatures, names, small amounts of text, etc.), but I found it
difficult to write large documents, such as long letters or pages from
books, with those pens.  I just used a regular pen for those documents;
it's not the same, but the effect is still good.

2)  Making the paper look old.  It's a simple trick to turn  paper
brownish and brittle.  Turn the oven range on to about 8 or 9 (hot, but
you don't want it too hot).  Then just hold the paper an inch or two
over the range until it turns yellow-brown.  Turn the paper over several
times to keep one side and one area from burning too much.  Be careful:
the paper will become brittle and may fall apart if you try to fold or
bend it.  If you want a wrinkled and crinkily effect, wet the paper
before you heat it.

This procedure makes the paper hard (but not impossible) to write on, so
you may want to write on the paper before you burn it.  (the more you
burn it, the harder it is to write on)

Needless to say, be very careful with the paper while burning it.  If it
touches to burner, there is a good chance that it will catch on fire.
(Dangerous if you don't expect it, but it can make a good "paper
salvaged from a burning house" effect.)

As I said before, the paper becomes very brittle, so don't fold it

3)  The official seal.  A friend told me about this, and I've never
tried it, so I don't know how well it works.  He used to make those wax
"official" seals on letters that came from kings, princes, etc.  Here's
how to do it.

Light a large candle to get the melted wax.
Carve the seal design into a potato.
Drip the melted wax over the folded letter.
When the wax begins to solidify, stamp it with the potato.

Obviously, you don't have to use a potato, just something that you can
carve a design into and won't stick to the wax too much.  Like I said,
I've never tried this, so don't flame me if it doesn't work.

As far as other props go, my philosophy is: don't overdo it.  The props
I used always had some significant role in the game.  For example:

I made an amulet out of modeling clay.  I carved some designs on the
front, and a riddle on the back.  The players found the amulet and took
it from person to person trying to finger out what the riddle meant.
The answer to the riddle was the name of a mountain where the "climatic
battle with the evil forces" would occur.

That's about all I can think of right now; I hope some of you find it useful.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
       Tim Nali        | We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of
  Internet address:    | the dreams.
  [e-mail]  |              -Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

==============================================================================
In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (john feldmeier) writes:
>
>I would like to start a discussion of GM's
>"tricks of the trade", that is ideas or methods that
>have helped you become a better GM. That way, we can learn
>from others experience and become better Gm's in the process.

One thing that I find very helpful in running games is to have a stack
of little squares of paper at hand, upon which I write, from time to
time, things that one or more characters see and/or hear and/or sense,
etc.  For example, one player may receive a slip of paper that reads
"The scratches around the lock were clearly made by a blade of The'uemr
manufacture."  Another in the same party may get one that reads "There
are minute scratches around the lock."  And perhaps no one else notices
these virtually indescernable scratches.  Messages from gods or other
transcendental beings are a real good candidate for this system.

That way, only the character involved knows the potentially important
information and can individually decide what to do about/with the
information.  To prevent other characters from gleaning some sense of
what is going on, I will also distribute pieces of paper with some
worthless piece of information on it; such as "You weight is up 1 pound."
If you do this reguarly, the players will soon become tired of trying to
figure out whether or not a particular piece of paper means anything and
will thereby remove that problem of "knowing that 'something is up'" just
because a piece of paper has been given out.

Of course, this increases the work load but, I believe that, properly
used, this kind of selective information serving can enhance the reality
of the game.  It helps to have some prepared slips of paper in order to
speed up the game unless you can write as quickly as you can think!
Whether to recycle the slips is up the GM.
--
Derek "Tigger" Terveer    [e-mail] -- U of MN Women's Lax
I am the way and the truth and the light, I know all the answers; don't need
your advice.  -- "I am the way and the truth and the light" -- The Legendary Pink Dots

==============================================================================
> Excerpts From:   GM's Tricks of the Trade
>
>>There are quite a few GM's in this newsgroup and I think
>>it's fair to say that at least some of us are pretty
>>good :) (certainly not me :)  ) I would like to start a discussion of GM's
>>"tricks of the trade", that is ideas or methods that
>>have helped you become a better GM. That way, we can learn
>>from others experience and become better GM's in the process.

Don't Panic

To be more specific, when faced with a situation in which the players want an
answer to a question you don't have to hand, and are going to base thier
actions on what you say, don't invent off the top of your
head (unless you're very good at rationalising things afterwards). Solutions to
this problem include:
    1) Plead thirst. Raid the fridge. Knock off the can of Coke slowly and
        relax and think calmly. Alternatively, every house comes with
        at least one room where you can lock yourself away and think
        for a moment B-)
       I'm not being facetious - taking a short break when you're being
        pushed for an answer clears the mind wonderfully. Frequently
        I do this and come back with an answer and several new plot
        twists based on it.
        2) (If your players don't mind and you can do so) say "I'll give you
        an answer next session , and I promise it won't matter before
        then" - of course, frequently it will....!

Corollary - if you do have to make something up in a hurry, then for heaven's
sake write it down for later reference. I'm blessed with one of my partys, in
that of the three players, one is a compulsive keeper of timelines and another
is a compulsive note-taker - if I invent names for NPCs I can guarantee that at
least SOMEONE will remember who is who!

Name those NPCS

If like me, you can't think of names on the fly for NPC's you randomly
introduce (Players "hah - can't be important, doesn't have a name!") then make
up a few beforehand (or get one of the name-generating programs or the
Net.Names.List)

Know the World

Again, I'm lucky. I DM in a world I created (along with one of the players) and
I know it backwards (and what I get wrong, Anne corrects!). if not, you really
need to do enough preparation beforehand that you can answer, or know where to
find an answer to, any reasonable question on the area the players are in. It
may seem obvious, but...

Know the Players and their Characters

There's no point in running a scenario that relies heavily on role-playing for
a bunch of hack-n-slay merchants, Equally the converse is true. As regards the
characters, I'm all for a long-running campaign so that characters have
backgrounds, and so you have strings on the characters that you can pull to get
them into scenarios.

Frightening the Characters

If you're tring to scare the party, then at least worrying the players well
help them to role-play. My favourite example of this is the first time any of
my players met a Lifestealer (they're based on GW's Genestealers) - I'd not let
on I'd been acquiring some genestealer miniatures, so the response to two of
these being placed on the batleboard (they dwarf your average lead miniature by
over 50%, and have four limbs and HUGE claws) was a slightly worried "what
the ****'s that?". I ignored the question and proceeded with the combat round -
by the time it had become apparent that each of the things' two big claws was
handing out more damage than a two-hand sword, they were tough, and they were
faster than the party, the players were *worried* - the characters were on the
edge of panic. I guess the maxim here is don't tell them what they ought to
find out the hard way.
--
[e-mail]            \ "...there are some sincere people out there
Mike Whitaker, Shape Data Ltd,   \ who just happen to worship a different
Cambridge, ENGLAND [phone] \ god.." Gael Baudino/Gossamer Axe

==============================================================================
>From: [e-mail] (William Henry Timmins)

>sake write it down for later reference. I'm blessed with one of my partys, in
>that of the three players, one is a compulsive keeper of timelines and another
>is a compulsive note-taker - if I invent names for NPCs I can guarantee
that at
>least SOMEONE will remember who is who!

:) I'm VERY blessed in that one of my players is willing to spend alot
of time writing a VERY comprehensive game log... which is great to read
over when I don't remember just what the hell HAPPENED last session...

She also takes care of minor things, like, what DAY it is, who did what
and when. Also, most of the players submit material to her to be added
in, so that I get a good look at various characters' thoughts and
feelings.

It's great.

(Faye- THANKS THANKS THANKS! In case I don't thank you enough...)

-Me
[Pooh Bear incarnate.]
================================================================================

>From: [e-mail] (David Lamb)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mike Whitaker) writes:
>... write it down for later reference. I'm blessed with one of my partys, in
>that of the three players, one is a compulsive keeper of timelines and another
>is a compulsive note-taker - if I invent names for NPCs I can guarantee that at
>least SOMEONE will remember who is who!
>

I recall a friend's character, whose standard introductory spiel was
"I am Umiadi, son of Soloth of Toloth in the Forest of Gouldon.  And
 how do you spell *your* name?"

Keeping notes for yourself is a very good idea.  But remember to
translate them into a more readable form for posterity, unless your
rushed handwriting is a lot better than most people's - a week later
you'll never figure out what nzlek fandu means.
==============================================================================

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (john feldmeier) writes:
>
>There are quite a few GM's in this newsgroup and I think
>it's fair to say that at least some of us are pretty
>good :) (certainly not me :)  ) I would like to start a discussion of GM's
>"tricks of the trade", that is ideas or methods that
>have helped you become a better GM. That way, we can learn
>from others experience and become better Gm's in the process.
>
>For example:
>
>Funny Voices: One thing I have learned is that most players
>respond better to NPC's that have a different voice than the
>GM.

This is an important point, it gives the NPC's more character than their
stats, attitude, and usefullness.

>I tend to use it only for major NPC's or characters that will only
>be seen once. This also keeps my sanity, so that I do not
>have to remember what approximately 100 or so Npc's distinct voice.

I tend to use it for all NPC's, and if the NPC ends up hanging around for a
while then I drop the voice -- because it gets irritating after a while.

>Other sorts of tricks I have run into:
>
>The use of props

Never used this, sounds kind of difficult.

>The use of pictures

Good for emphasizing the terror or magnificance of a creature/place/etc.
But its not too often that pictures are avaliable for a specific situation.
Sometimes I see a picture and develop a senario around the picture.

>The use of unique methods of communication (like the phone trick)

This sounds neat, I'm assuming this is for a home with two phones -- one for
the GM the other for the character.  Please elaborate, because I have two
phones.

>Complete role-playing (everything the player says, the character
>says also)

Difficult to enforce during long playing sessions (ie., >8 hours), which I
typically play.

>Well? Comments? Please put in your "tricks of the trade" so that
>I can become a GM worthy of the name :)

I have found -- others have also agreed -- that a good DM must be able to
play all alignments very well (I realize this is restricted to AD&D games
that use alignments).  It is an excellent vehicle for instant development of
NPC personality and beliefs.  It will help your NPC's have distinct
personalities (note; all lawful neutrals don't have the same personality,
but their alignment is an excellent basis for development).  I have found
that DM's that don't have a good grasp of alignments tend to have NPC's that
react somewhat the same -- although they can have different beliefs.

Another important point is not to get involved in inter-character arguments,
it weakens the DM's neutral position, and some players will interpret this
involvment as favouritism -- whether it's true or not.

Above all, know what the players think is fun and what is boring.  Not
matter how good you play, if its boring, nobody will want to play.  There
are no real guidlines for this because every group is slightly different.

c-------------------------------------------------------------------------c
Allan Longley, University of Waterloo, Department of Chemical Engineering
e-mail: [e-mail]
voice: [phone] x3816            Yes, I should be working !
home: [phone]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
==========================================================================

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (john
feldmeier) writes:

(Apologies if this is all couched in AD&D terms...)

>The use of props

Sure! One of my favorite all time props is "hats". Get a bunch of hats
of any kind (buy them second hand). I wear the hats to help me take on
NPC personas. So, that baseball cap (turned around) is great for a
stable hand, and the straw hat for a farmer. I've even played in
situations with more than one NPC and traded hats back and forth. The
players had no problem following what was going on and afterward said
that it worked very well for them.

Anotehr easy trick is to use some jewelry from a second hand store.
All that gaudy stuff that no one (?) would wear makes for perfect
props, particularly if the items are key to the game.

>Complete role-playing (everything the player says, the character
>says also)

I usually set up situations of complete role playing. For instance, a
common interaction is when players are entering an inn. I throw an
apron over myself and wipe my hands on it and assume the character;
saying everything that the innkeeper would say. At this point,
my players have come to recognize that they are expected to respond,
in character, and really play out their role. When accomodations have
been arranged, I switch back to my normal voice, and continue play.

This can also be used for non-trivial encounters. Being menaced by a
mage/DM and forced to play in character is scary, but it's fun, too.

Me (in voice of Mage NPC): Little man, you have offended me.
Player : (turns to the other party members) Oh no, this guy is
    annoyed...
Me (interrupting, as Mage): I am speaking to you, little man!

Player suddenly realises that he had better reply, and in character,
fast.

I find that all of this serves to liven up gaming and makes it seem
more realistic. It does mean more work for me, though. I usually
record some basic characteristics of NPCs that I know the characters
will encounter (fussy, distracted, nosy, whining, etc.) and try to
pick some outstanding mannerism that the players can remember (wiping
hands on apron, runs fingers through hair, glances around, etc.). At
first you feel kind of silly doing it, but after a while the players
look for it for cues and information and for fun!

HagaN HelleR                                   [e-mail]
=============================================================================

[e-mail] (john feldmeier) writes:

> There are quite a few GM's in this newsgroup and I think it's fair
> to say that at least some of us are pretty good :) (certainly not me :) )
> I would like to start a discussion of GM's "tricks of the trade",
> that is ideas or methods that have helped you become a better GM.

Which I think is a good idea.

Kieran Mullen ([e-mail]) writes:

> [...], the above are all *tricks* -- icing if you will.  You
> have to have a good storyline which will interest the players,
> one in which they have a personal stake.  It also helps to have
> lots of subplots, which call on the different strengths of each
> party member.  You have to make the players feel that they are
> important enough to make a difference, but not so great that they
> never feel nervous at times.  And it helps to have good players too!

These are all true.

Some of the things I do:

* give extra details.  Some of these are never used; some of them turn out
  to be relevant later.  I don't always know at the time myself, of course.
  For example, if I mention that there's perhaps a building on th hill over
  there, well, maybe the PCs don't go there, but if they later get attacked
  by a group of bandits, they have an idea where the bandits might live, and
  all I have to do is decide what the building was :-)
  If I describe a door, it isn't just a door, it's a wooden door with
  scratch-marks down the side.  Perhaps a dog lived there.  Maybe it's an old
  door.  Or are they secret thieve's guild markings?

* try to involve the senses -- It smells musty in here, and the stone floor
  feels warm under the monk's bare feet.  There's still a sound of water
  falling, but it doesn't sound any nearer.

* describe things in immediate, concrete terms.
  `It's two or three times as tall as you are,, not `It's 15 feet high.'

  `It towers over you', not `It's 12 feet high'.

* try to keep things moving.  If you think a player isn't involved, or is
  looking bored, let him notice something.  You can't do this too often, of
  course, but it turns out not to be as transparent as it sounds.  This
  is especially important in larger parties, say, with more than four or
  five players.

* distinguish between people from different areas.  This often sounds strange
  to people from North America, but in Europe you often have to go only a few
  miles to be able to hear a different accent a choice of idiom.
  As the players move from village to village, the greetings might become
  terser as they get closer to enemy lands, as the people are less trusting
  of strangers.
  Perhaps in a fruit-growing area visitors are offered cider.
  A few idioms and suitable similes can help a lot --
  `She's no stronger than a Wisp, but as stubborn as a Galab-Dhur'
  `It's as dark as evershadow in here'
  `Ahh... a little boy... and he has Artlan eyes, too'

I generally make up the small details as I go along, but I do have a
background of people, a few important places, and the overall theme.

Perhaps someone should collect all these articles and make a big pile of
paper and throw it aw--, er, make them available somewhere, or a digest, or
something.

Lee


--
Liam Quin, [e-mail], SoftQuad, Toronto, 416 239-4801; the barefoot programmer
    If had Unix used a Chinese character set, think of how many one-letter
    options Eric Allman could have given sendmail!  :-)
==============================================================================

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Liam R. E. Quin) writes:
>[e-mail] (john feldmeier) writes:
>
>> There are quite a few GM's in this newsgroup and I think it's fair
>
>Kieran Mullen ([e-mail]) writes:
>
>> [...], the above are all *tricks* -- icing if you will.  You
>> have to have a good storyline which will interest the players,
>
>These are all true.
>
>Some of the things I do:
>
>* give extra details.  Some of these are never used; some of them turn out
>  to be relevant later.  I don't always know at the time myself, of course.
>
>* try to involve the senses -- It smells musty in here, and the stone floor
>  feels warm under the monk's bare feet.  There's still a sound of water
>
>* describe things in immediate, concrete terms.
>  `It towers over you', not `It's 12 feet high'.
>
>* try to keep things moving.  If you think a player isn't involved, or is
>  looking bored, let him notice something.  You can't do this too often, of
>
>* distinguish between people from different areas.  This often sounds strange
>  to people from North America, but in Europe you often have to go only a few
>  Perhaps in a fruit-growing area visitors are offered cider.
>  A few idioms and suitable similes can help a lot --
>  `It's as dark as evershadow in here'
>  `Ahh... a little boy... and he has Artlan eyes, too'
>
>I generally make up the small details as I go along, but I do have a
>background of people, a few important places, and the overall theme.
>
>Lee
>
All of the above are excellent enhancements to running a campaign.
Three that I use, in additon to those, and in all likelihood
disgusting of "by-the-book" GM's, are:

* Don't by ruled by dice.  If the party has been inactive a while,
  or they are bored, it's time for a chance encounter (not necessarily
  a wandering monster -- it may be an NPC encounter, or something
  unusual they 'discover'.

* Keep melee moving, too.  I roll a handfull of dice at once.  It may
  be a combination of to-hit dice, critical hit, saving throw, dodging,
  spell-casting, etc.; or it may be the next three to-hit dice of the
  monster/NPC I am rolling for.

* Use a combination of judgement/creativity in those occasional 'fatal'
  situations.  Players need to learn, and hazards must seem real -- it's
  no good to always allow the characters to 'win' or 'break even' (i.e.,
  no-one ever dies, even if they take on a red-dragon single-handedly
  with a dagger) -- sometimes PCs die.  BUT ---- there are alternatives.
  Example:
    The party was searching for the famed Hand of Veckna, an ancient
    and powerful relic.  When they discovered a medium-sized
    cave, filled with webs and arachnids, the mage cast a fireball
    into the cave (too large ;-)).  He was encased in petrified
    web/rock (they thought he was burned to a cinder).  His lover
    brought him home to remember him (now that he was a statue).
    Her tears of love dissolved enough of the casing for her to
    realize he appeared alive, but in some sort of sleep/trance
    spell.  A local gnome was able to give them the information
    they needed to go on a different adventure and find a way to
    rescue him and restore him to normal.

Ken

Ken Coomes            "Jesus wept."
[e-mail]             John 11:15
============================================================================

>John Feldmeier, University of Texas at Austin writes:
>I agree with the above sentiments. I guess the word 'trick' was not
>a good one. A better phrase would be: Given your experience as GM,
>what have you learned that has improved your game? Any ideas about
>plots, picking players, props, role playing ideas or ANYTHING that
>has made your game better I'm interested in.

Here's something else that's so simple, it's probably not obvious.

          Ask the player's what they think.

I haven't tried this out formally in games yet, but plan to in my next
session (starting next week). I want to regularly take 10 minutes at
the end of a session to request feedback from the players about how
the session was done. What did they like, what didn't they like, what
would they have done differently, etc. A goal would be to do this in a
nonthreatening manner where people feel comfortable being critical of
the GM. (And remember, when they're done, always say "Thank you").

HagaN HelleR                                   [e-mail]

--
John Feldmeier, University of Texas at Austin
Internet [e-mail]
Snail: 221 Simkins Hall, Austin Tx 78705
Meaning of life:None, you create it or take 42

X-NEWS: zeus rec.games.frp: 41633
Path: ge-dab!crdgw1!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!johnf
From: [e-mail] (john feldmeier)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Tricks of the Trade (part 2 of 2)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 31 Jul 91 18:40:56 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail] (john feldmeier)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 318
Originator: [e-mail]

This is the second part of the tricks of the trade series.
All the same stuff applies, and please keep posting!

John


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (john feldmeier) writes:
>
>There are quite a few GM's in this newsgroup and I think
>it's fair to say that at least some of us are pretty
>good :) (certainly not me :)  ) I would like to start a discussion of GM's
>"tricks of the trade", that is ideas or methods that
>have helped you become a better GM. That way, we can learn
>from others experience and become better Gm's in the process.

    I'm not sure if I count as a good GM or not.  You'd have to
ask my players!  :-)  Remember that a good GM to one person may be
a bad one to another.

>
>For example:
>
>Funny Voices: One thing I have learned is that most players
>respond better to NPC's that have a different voice than the
>GM. For example, I tend to play halflings in D&D with
>a pipsqueak, know it all type voice. Orcs and assorted nasties
>speak in a growling throaty voice and so on. The trick is to
>keep this balanced and not overdo this. If every NPC speaks
>in a funny voice, this technique loses its impact. I tend
>to use it only for major NPC's or characters that will only
>be seen once. This also keeps my sanity, so that I do not
>have to remember what approximately 100 or so Npc's distinct
>voice.

    In non-fantasy games it helps to be able to do a few good
accents (french, german, irish) and a few stereotypes (New Yawker,
mellowspeak etc.)  I find that the most successful characters
were either strongly stereotyped or strongly anti-stereotyped.
Picking characters from movies or books is helpful too, since
you will have a strong mental image of the NPC to fall back on.
Voices are very good for roleplaying but you have to keep them
distinct enough that they don't blur together when there are
several NPC's around.

>
>Other sorts of tricks I have run into:
>
>The use of props

    One of my favorite incidents was when the players found a
scroll tube in the game and I handed them a real cardboard tube.
One looked at me and said "I check to for traps."

    I told him to go right ahead!  :-)

    The tube was a narrow cardboard one from a spool of printer
paper.  I had covered it with runes and stuck a staple near one
end and trimmed the staple off to a point with nail clippers. A
marker pen made it harder to see.

    One player was playing with it and said "Ouch!".  On his palm
was a streak of ink from the ink-stained staple.  Time for a poison
saving throw...

    Props seem only to be useful if they *do* something or have some
secret message inside.  Unless of course you count figurines as props.
I have always used figurines for combat.

>The use of pictures

    I find this very useful in my Champions game.  I can xerox
pictures out of comic books or the Official History of the Marvel
Universe.  It really helps the game if the players have a concrete
image of what they are facing.

    I imagine it is hard to get good CoC pictures.  (Accurate ones
might have a detrimental effect on the viewers :-)  )  You might
check out some of the glossy illustration books like Barlow's Guide
to Extraterrestrials, and the like.  In horror games a good vocabulary
and a feel for the genre is important.  Read Lovecraft and friends.
One evening we played by candlelight since one of the players was being
sacrificed in an arboretum at midnight.  It put a nice edge on things.

>The use of unique methods of communication (like the phone trick)
>Complete role-playing (everything the player says, the character
>says also)
>and so on...
>
>Well? Comments? Please put in your "tricks of the trade" so that
>I can become a GM worthy of the name :)

    I write a game newpaper for my Champions game also.  It is
published weekly.  It serves many purposes:  it can give careful
players important clues, it can provide new storylines, and all
the players like reading about their exploits in the paper!

    I have given messages in hieroglyphics to players using those
in the DDG.  The player got parts of the dictionary based on his
skill rolls.

   However, the above are all *tricks* - icing if you will.  You
have to have a good storyline which will interest the players,
one in which they have a personal stake.  It also helps to have
lots of subplots, which call on the different strengths of each
party member.  You have to make the players feel that they are
important enough to make a difference, but not so great that they
never feel nervous at times.  And it helps to have good players too!

              Kieran Mullen:  [e-mail]
=============================================================================

=============================================================================
In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
(Ken Coomes) writes:
> * Don't by ruled by dice.  If the party has been inactive a while,
>   or they are bored, it's time for a chance encounter (not necessarily
>   a wandering monster -- it may be an NPC encounter, or something
>   unusual they 'discover'.
> * Keep melee moving, too.  I roll a handfull of dice at once.  It may
>   be a combination of to-hit dice, critical hit, saving throw, dodging,
>   spell-casting, etc.; or it may be the next three to-hit dice of the
>   monster/NPC I am rolling for.

Both of the above are the reason that I used to use the following system.

[this was done on a computer, but could have been done with regular roles of
the dice :-)]

I pre-rolled 200 times on each of the dice and had these numbers on a piece of
paper. As the DM, I just went down the piece of paper crossing off a die roll
as I used it. This meant that I wasn't "rolling" dice, I was able to DM. As an
alternative, if you are playing with a "secondary DM" (or even a person just
watching to "get the feel") let them roll the dice.

This is not a "dice" game, but a roll-playing adventure. Dice are used to
randomize events. Sometimes, as G_D, you don't want to have random events, but
events that have known and specific outcomes. It is not required that the DM
"roll". One of my favorite ways of teaching that to a player (not the PC, but
the person playing who thinks that the DM is "just another player") is to have
the PC face a monster I call MIRROWERN. It is a duplicate of the PC that
inflicts as many points damage to PC as the PC does it. After three strikes
most PCs stop and figure out that they are doing the damage to themselves
(expecially when they see me lean back with my eyes closed and detail back to
them what they just did). :-)

> * Use a combination of judgement/creativity in those occasional 'fatal'
>   situations.  Players need to learn, and hazards must seem real -- it's
>   no good to always allow the characters to 'win' or 'break even' (i.e.,
>   no-one ever dies, even if they take on a red-dragon single-handedly
>   with a dagger) -- sometimes PCs die.  BUT ---- there are alternatives.

Sorry, I believe that PCs die only due to their stupidity. A "smart" player
should have no reason to lose a PC. This doesn't mean that they don't die, just
that a player has to be awful stupid to let his PC die. Your example above is a
good way to die. But if a player, in melee retreats and tries to avoid "death",
I don't go out of my way to kill him. If a theif jumps into the middle of a
fight with 3 orcs, well, he get's what is coming to him. If he hides in the
shadows, and knifes the orcs from behind... he lives! The objective is to have
the PCs and the players use their brains (as well as their brawn, when
necessary) to stay alive.

BTW: As stupid play should be punished, so should good decisions be rewarded.
This idea opens up the subject of "experience points". What is rewarded, and
why.

o If a player has "stayed in character" (a theif who is interested in theiving,
  not killing Orcs) throughout the game gets points...

o If a PC has done something that he has "learned" from (a mage learns a new
  spell) - that earns points

o If a PC has made a mistake, but when confronted by a similar sitaution
  doesn't repeat the error - that earns points

o If a player uses "knowledge" that the PC doesn't have - that loses points

I don't base points on "things slaughtered" or even "stuff got" as I don't
think that these things lead to much "experience" for the player or the PC.

Any other ideas on "reward and punnishment?"

jmi
[e-mail]
my opinions only - definatly not my employers

=============================================================================
>From: [e-mail] (The Dreamer)

     Try making a newspaper.  I have one that comes out every two weeks
in all of the major cities (although I only write the one for the city
that the party is in at the time).  It keeps them involved in politics,
keeps them up on current events, and gives a variety of avenues to
explore.  Keep it humorous...For the main city, the title of the paper
is:

                       HARBORTOWN NEWS

            'All the news you're allowed to know"

     Love and Peace and Newspapers,
            -The Dreaamer-
=============================================================================
In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (J.M. Ivler    [e-mail]) writes:
>
>> * Use a combination of judgement/creativity in those occasional 'fatal'
>>   situations.  Players need to learn, and hazards must seem real -- it's
>>   no good to always allow the characters to 'win' or 'break even' (i.e.,
>>   no-one ever dies, even if they take on a red-dragon single-handedly
>>   with a dagger) -- sometimes PCs die.  BUT ---- there are alternatives.
>
>Sorry, I believe that PCs die only due to their stupidity. A "smart" player
>should have no reason to lose a PC. This doesn't mean that they don't die, just
>that a player has to be awful stupid to let his PC die. Your example above is a
>good way to die. But if a player, in melee retreats and tries to avoid "death",
>I don't go out of my way to kill him. If a theif jumps into the middle of a
>fight with 3 orcs, well, he get's what is coming to him. If he hides in the
>shadows, and knifes the orcs from behind... he lives! The objective is to have
>the PCs and the players use their brains (as well as their brawn, when
>necessary) to stay alive.

I think a real interesting way to shake up a party is to put them in an
encounter that they will "lose".  In my campaign, I had them sailing back
home, and had them attacked by pirates.  I set up the pirate ship up
specifically to offset their usual (i.e. constant) modes of attack, to see
if they will be spontaneous in their thinking when they find out that their
attacks don't go as planned.  The two main "fighters" of the party were an
7th level fighter, and a 6/6 fighter/magic-user.  The fighter decided to
leap onto the pirate ship when it got right near them, even though I kept
warning him that there were four pirates waiting there.  He jumped, and
almost immediately (with a fumble) got taken down.  The fighter/magic-user
had initially used a ring of invisibility to fly over and try to wreak some
havoc.  He was really surprised when the second-in-command was able to see
invisible, and was directing a bunch of crossbowmen to shoot at him.  The
combat went downhill after that, because the players then resorted to
straight combat.  The other characters of the party were virtually
ineffective, having been occupied with the lesser pirates that boarded their
ship.

Basically I used the combat for two purposes.  First, I wanted to see how
their thinking went when things didn't go exactly as planned.  I also used
it as a plot point.  They eventually got captured.  When the fighters got
down to zero, I just knocked them out.  The other characters surrendered.
They were then taken with the pirates, and when the convenient time came, I
helped them to escape with a properly placed NPC.  Sometimes making the
players lose can be an interesting twist to the game.  You don't have to
make the characters die, just get captured.  Then, while they are
unconscious, you can move them to a different setting.

One last thing-if you use this, you should have an alternative ending if
they manage to survive a "no-win" scenario (through extreme cleverness or
whatever). I think that this encourages thinking, but doesn't punish the
player if they don't manage to get out of it.  It just serves as a "warning"
that perhaps the next difficult combat will be a little more deadly.

        - Dan Solomon
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [e-mail]    |    [e-mail]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
===========================================================================
>From: [e-mail] (Jeff Humphrey (Jeffus))

    Once, just for variety, we were playing and the party got tangled
  up with a small group of female magic-users (witches).  They got
  themselves into a _really_ bad situation and ended up being
  prisoners.  It wasn't my fault that they were incredibly stupid so
  I decided that I would shake them up.  I'm not real big on killing
  PCs because in our campaign it's hard to rise to higher levels.  I
  don't give out lots of money to train with which leaves the players
  spending lots of time being creative in their search for teachers.
  Anyway ... they were in this bind with the witches and at the start
  of one of our longer sessions, they were tied to these posts in the
  ground and the witches were starting a ritual.  The player's were
  sure that I was going to give them some easy out, but they had been
  really ignorant for two other sessions in a row.  I told one of them
  that a witch was coming over to him with a sacrificial dagger and
  one of the other players recognized that she and the other witches
  were indeed going to sacrifice the party.  The party members tried
  vainly to roll bend-bars and all of the other easy-out ways they
  thought I'd give them but nobody made it.  The witch slowly
  approached, the players looked at me wide eyed trying to think of
  a quick way out, and sure enough the witch thrust the dagger into
  the first player's heart.  When they realized they were _REALLY_
  in trouble they frantically tried everything.  Not much you can
  do tied to a post though.  As the last character was about to be
  killed the witch mumbled a riddle (she had to as part of the
  ritual).  The last one was killed and I turned down the lights
  for atmosphere.  They woke up on a sandy beach ... part of an
  island.  They gathered themselves and found things like cloths
  trying the whole time to figure out what was going on.  They had
  a pretty good idea, though nobody said it out loud, till finally
  overhead, a flying demonic looking creature confirmed it ... I
  had put their characters in _hell_.
    Turned out to be one of the better games we ever had.  The goal was
  to solve the riddle (had to give them an out after all), and gather
  up some materials that they needed to get back.  Nothing as fun as
  having higher level characters fight for their lives against
  creatures they normally wouldn't have any problem with.  They were
  most inventive when they didn't have the magic swords, magic armor,
  and the spell books with gobs of overkill spells.  Turned into a
  sort of quest plot ... a quest for their very lives.  Of course
  you can't have a quest without a very good ending and theirs was
  when they finally got back to the 'real' world.  Spirits were high
  as they got revenge on the witches who had scared them so much.
    This was about as extreme as I've ever had to be (or hopefully
  ever will) with a group of players who were being _really_ stupid.
  They probably deserved to die but when you're GMing you have more
  investment in the campaign than the characters do, and you don't
  normally have the heart to flush it all.

    Okay all you people who think D+D is evil .. now's your chance.
  all flames to me via e-mail please ... my address is your soapbox.


--
John Feldmeier, University of Texas at Austin
Internet [e-mail]
Snail: 221 Simkins Hall, Austin Tx 78705
Meaning of life:None, you create it or take 42

X-NEWS: zeus rec.games.frp: 41635
Path: ge-dab!crdgw1!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!fuug!nntp.hut.fi!nntp!Petri.Wessman
From: [e-mail] (Petri Wessman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Tricks of the Trade (part 2 of 2)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 1 Aug 91 08:53:37 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
    <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (Usenet pseudouser id)
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: La Gata Encantada
Lines: 65
In-Reply-To: [e-mail]'s message of 1 Aug 91 02:22:09 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host: wonderwoman.hut.fi

On 1 Aug 91 02:22:09 GMT, [e-mail] (David Mar) said:

David> This reminds me of a game I ran a few weeks ago. I decided that
David> the characters had no experience with gargoyles before. When a
David> small band of them attacked, I merely described them in terms
David> of their physical appearance and what they did.

Yup, I've done this too... I never tell my players the name of the
creature they're fighting unless they've bumped into it before (and
even then not always --- bad lighting situations, panic, and
individual differences in monsters can do wonders to cloud your
perception :-). Another thing about "monsters": why does everyone
always use the stats given for a monster in the C&T/Monster
Manual/whatever? You can get wonderful effects by using your
imagination on the monsters, and letting the players' preconceptions
about the creature in question get them into trouble:

PC: "What, a tiny green humanoid perched on a rock... aha, a goblin,
     I've heard that they have a stringhold out here. Only one of them?"

Me: "Looks that way. It's just sitting there."

PC: "Hamburger time! Goblins are a piece of cake, I've made mush
     out of tons of them... I charge the little creep!".

Me: "Ok, you let out a battle cry and run at the creature. It sees you
     coming, grins in a definitely unpleasant way, and closes its eyes."

PC: "Closes its eyes? Huh? Well, what do I care... kill kill kill!"

Me: "You've gotten something like 4 meters away from him and are
     looking forward to smashing his face into pulp when suddenly the
     creature's body pulses with orange light and you are plunged into
     deep fog... and not ordinary fog, either, this seems to cling to
     your skin, and wherever it touches you it feels like acid... you
     can't help shouting out in pain." [ roll for damage & criticals ]

PC: "What the hell, goblins can't cast spells, the books says so!
     There must be a human Magician hiding somewhere... I run out of
     the fog as fast as possible and try to get my bearings."

Me: "Running out of the fog is no problem, it seems to be clearing up
     as fast as it appeared. That's the good news. The bad news is
     that the way back out of here seems to be blocked by five goblins
     with strange-looking long knives, and the goblin you first saw is
     blocking the other direction. Only this time, there seems to be
     some kind of purple mist about his body, and there is a blinding
     ball of brilliant light forming between his outstretched hands...


There is no reason why a race should be intrinsically evil/stupid or
both. There should *always* be exceptions to the rule, just because
the book says that creature X is level 6 doesn't mean that it always
has to be.

P.S. RoleMaster is especially suited for this sort of "munging", since
     RM professions impose no real restrictions on the skills,
     equipment or spells the a character/creature can have. Makes for
     interesting NPCs, too, since there is *no* way of telling the
     profession of a character just by looking at him/her. In AD&D, if
     a character is wearing armour he can't be a mage, if he's
     carrying an edged weapon he can't be a cleric, etc. Makes it a
     bit harder to make unpredictable NPCs.

//Petri


X-NEWS: zeus rec.games.frp: 41633
Path: ge-dab!crdgw1!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!johnf
From: [e-mail] (john feldmeier)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Tricks of the Trade (part 2 of 2)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 31 Jul 91 18:40:56 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail] (john feldmeier)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 318
Originator: [e-mail]

This is the second part of the tricks of the trade series.
All the same stuff applies, and please keep posting!

John


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (john feldmeier) writes:
>
>There are quite a few GM's in this newsgroup and I think
>it's fair to say that at least some of us are pretty
>good :) (certainly not me :)  ) I would like to start a discussion of GM's
>"tricks of the trade", that is ideas or methods that
>have helped you become a better GM. That way, we can learn
>from others experience and become better Gm's in the process.

    I'm not sure if I count as a good GM or not.  You'd have to
ask my players!  :-)  Remember that a good GM to one person may be
a bad one to another.

>
>For example:
>
>Funny Voices: One thing I have learned is that most players
>respond better to NPC's that have a different voice than the
>GM. For example, I tend to play halflings in D&D with
>a pipsqueak, know it all type voice. Orcs and assorted nasties
>speak in a growling throaty voice and so on. The trick is to
>keep this balanced and not overdo this. If every NPC speaks
>in a funny voice, this technique loses its impact. I tend
>to use it only for major NPC's or characters that will only
>be seen once. This also keeps my sanity, so that I do not
>have to remember what approximately 100 or so Npc's distinct
>voice.

    In non-fantasy games it helps to be able to do a few good
accents (french, german, irish) and a few stereotypes (New Yawker,
mellowspeak etc.)  I find that the most successful characters
were either strongly stereotyped or strongly anti-stereotyped.
Picking characters from movies or books is helpful too, since
you will have a strong mental image of the NPC to fall back on.
Voices are very good for roleplaying but you have to keep them
distinct enough that they don't blur together when there are
several NPC's around.

>
>Other sorts of tricks I have run into:
>
>The use of props

    One of my favorite incidents was when the players found a
scroll tube in the game and I handed them a real cardboard tube.
One looked at me and said "I check to for traps."

    I told him to go right ahead!  :-)

    The tube was a narrow cardboard one from a spool of printer
paper.  I had covered it with runes and stuck a staple near one
end and trimmed the staple off to a point with nail clippers. A
marker pen made it harder to see.

    One player was playing with it and said "Ouch!".  On his palm
was a streak of ink from the ink-stained staple.  Time for a poison
saving throw...

    Props seem only to be useful if they *do* something or have some
secret message inside.  Unless of course you count figurines as props.
I have always used figurines for combat.

>The use of pictures

    I find this very useful in my Champions game.  I can xerox
pictures out of comic books or the Official History of the Marvel
Universe.  It really helps the game if the players have a concrete
image of what they are facing.

    I imagine it is hard to get good CoC pictures.  (Accurate ones
might have a detrimental effect on the viewers :-)  )  You might
check out some of the glossy illustration books like Barlow's Guide
to Extraterrestrials, and the like.  In horror games a good vocabulary
and a feel for the genre is important.  Read Lovecraft and friends.
One evening we played by candlelight since one of the players was being
sacrificed in an arboretum at midnight.  It put a nice edge on things.

>The use of unique methods of communication (like the phone trick)
>Complete role-playing (everything the player says, the character
>says also)
>and so on...
>
>Well? Comments? Please put in your "tricks of the trade" so that
>I can become a GM worthy of the name :)

    I write a game newpaper for my Champions game also.  It is
published weekly.  It serves many purposes:  it can give careful
players important clues, it can provide new storylines, and all
the players like reading about their exploits in the paper!

    I have given messages in hieroglyphics to players using those
in the DDG.  The player got parts of the dictionary based on his
skill rolls.

   However, the above are all *tricks* - icing if you will.  You
have to have a good storyline which will interest the players,
one in which they have a personal stake.  It also helps to have
lots of subplots, which call on the different strengths of each
party member.  You have to make the players feel that they are
important enough to make a difference, but not so great that they
never feel nervous at times.  And it helps to have good players too!

              Kieran Mullen:  [e-mail]
=============================================================================

=============================================================================
In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
(Ken Coomes) writes:
> * Don't by ruled by dice.  If the party has been inactive a while,
>   or they are bored, it's time for a chance encounter (not necessarily
>   a wandering monster -- it may be an NPC encounter, or something
>   unusual they 'discover'.
> * Keep melee moving, too.  I roll a handfull of dice at once.  It may
>   be a combination of to-hit dice, critical hit, saving throw, dodging,
>   spell-casting, etc.; or it may be the next three to-hit dice of the
>   monster/NPC I am rolling for.

Both of the above are the reason that I used to use the following system.

[this was done on a computer, but could have been done with regular roles of
the dice :-)]

I pre-rolled 200 times on each of the dice and had these numbers on a piece of
paper. As the DM, I just went down the piece of paper crossing off a die roll
as I used it. This meant that I wasn't "rolling" dice, I was able to DM. As an
alternative, if you are playing with a "secondary DM" (or even a person just
watching to "get the feel") let them roll the dice.

This is not a "dice" game, but a roll-playing adventure. Dice are used to
randomize events. Sometimes, as G_D, you don't want to have random events, but
events that have known and specific outcomes. It is not required that the DM
"roll". One of my favorite ways of teaching that to a player (not the PC, but
the person playing who thinks that the DM is "just another player") is to have
the PC face a monster I call MIRROWERN. It is a duplicate of the PC that
inflicts as many points damage to PC as the PC does it. After three strikes
most PCs stop and figure out that they are doing the damage to themselves
(expecially when they see me lean back with my eyes closed and detail back to
them what they just did). :-)

> * Use a combination of judgement/creativity in those occasional 'fatal'
>   situations.  Players need to learn, and hazards must seem real -- it's
>   no good to always allow the characters to 'win' or 'break even' (i.e.,
>   no-one ever dies, even if they take on a red-dragon single-handedly
>   with a dagger) -- sometimes PCs die.  BUT ---- there are alternatives.

Sorry, I believe that PCs die only due to their stupidity. A "smart" player
should have no reason to lose a PC. This doesn't mean that they don't die, just
that a player has to be awful stupid to let his PC die. Your example above is a
good way to die. But if a player, in melee retreats and tries to avoid "death",
I don't go out of my way to kill him. If a theif jumps into the middle of a
fight with 3 orcs, well, he get's what is coming to him. If he hides in the
shadows, and knifes the orcs from behind... he lives! The objective is to have
the PCs and the players use their brains (as well as their brawn, when
necessary) to stay alive.

BTW: As stupid play should be punished, so should good decisions be rewarded.
This idea opens up the subject of "experience points". What is rewarded, and
why.

o If a player has "stayed in character" (a theif who is interested in theiving,
  not killing Orcs) throughout the game gets points...

o If a PC has done something that he has "learned" from (a mage learns a new
  spell) - that earns points

o If a PC has made a mistake, but when confronted by a similar sitaution
  doesn't repeat the error - that earns points

o If a player uses "knowledge" that the PC doesn't have - that loses points

I don't base points on "things slaughtered" or even "stuff got" as I don't
think that these things lead to much "experience" for the player or the PC.

Any other ideas on "reward and punnishment?"

jmi
[e-mail]
my opinions only - definatly not my employers

=============================================================================
>From: [e-mail] (The Dreamer)

     Try making a newspaper.  I have one that comes out every two weeks
in all of the major cities (although I only write the one for the city
that the party is in at the time).  It keeps them involved in politics,
keeps them up on current events, and gives a variety of avenues to
explore.  Keep it humorous...For the main city, the title of the paper
is:

                       HARBORTOWN NEWS

            'All the news you're allowed to know"

     Love and Peace and Newspapers,
            -The Dreaamer-
=============================================================================
In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (J.M. Ivler    [e-mail]) writes:
>
>> * Use a combination of judgement/creativity in those occasional 'fatal'
>>   situations.  Players need to learn, and hazards must seem real -- it's
>>   no good to always allow the characters to 'win' or 'break even' (i.e.,
>>   no-one ever dies, even if they take on a red-dragon single-handedly
>>   with a dagger) -- sometimes PCs die.  BUT ---- there are alternatives.
>
>Sorry, I believe that PCs die only due to their stupidity. A "smart" player
>should have no reason to lose a PC. This doesn't mean that they don't die, just
>that a player has to be awful stupid to let his PC die. Your example above is a
>good way to die. But if a player, in melee retreats and tries to avoid "death",
>I don't go out of my way to kill him. If a theif jumps into the middle of a
>fight with 3 orcs, well, he get's what is coming to him. If he hides in the
>shadows, and knifes the orcs from behind... he lives! The objective is to have
>the PCs and the players use their brains (as well as their brawn, when
>necessary) to stay alive.

I think a real interesting way to shake up a party is to put them in an
encounter that they will "lose".  In my campaign, I had them sailing back
home, and had them attacked by pirates.  I set up the pirate ship up
specifically to offset their usual (i.e. constant) modes of attack, to see
if they will be spontaneous in their thinking when they find out that their
attacks don't go as planned.  The two main "fighters" of the party were an
7th level fighter, and a 6/6 fighter/magic-user.  The fighter decided to
leap onto the pirate ship when it got right near them, even though I kept
warning him that there were four pirates waiting there.  He jumped, and
almost immediately (with a fumble) got taken down.  The fighter/magic-user
had initially used a ring of invisibility to fly over and try to wreak some
havoc.  He was really surprised when the second-in-command was able to see
invisible, and was directing a bunch of crossbowmen to shoot at him.  The
combat went downhill after that, because the players then resorted to
straight combat.  The other characters of the party were virtually
ineffective, having been occupied with the lesser pirates that boarded their
ship.

Basically I used the combat for two purposes.  First, I wanted to see how
their thinking went when things didn't go exactly as planned.  I also used
it as a plot point.  They eventually got captured.  When the fighters got
down to zero, I just knocked them out.  The other characters surrendered.
They were then taken with the pirates, and when the convenient time came, I
helped them to escape with a properly placed NPC.  Sometimes making the
players lose can be an interesting twist to the game.  You don't have to
make the characters die, just get captured.  Then, while they are
unconscious, you can move them to a different setting.

One last thing-if you use this, you should have an alternative ending if
they manage to survive a "no-win" scenario (through extreme cleverness or
whatever). I think that this encourages thinking, but doesn't punish the
player if they don't manage to get out of it.  It just serves as a "warning"
that perhaps the next difficult combat will be a little more deadly.

        - Dan Solomon
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [e-mail]    |    [e-mail]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
===========================================================================
>From: [e-mail] (Jeff Humphrey (Jeffus))

    Once, just for variety, we were playing and the party got tangled
  up with a small group of female magic-users (witches).  They got
  themselves into a _really_ bad situation and ended up being
  prisoners.  It wasn't my fault that they were incredibly stupid so
  I decided that I would shake them up.  I'm not real big on killing
  PCs because in our campaign it's hard to rise to higher levels.  I
  don't give out lots of money to train with which leaves the players
  spending lots of time being creative in their search for teachers.
  Anyway ... they were in this bind with the witches and at the start
  of one of our longer sessions, they were tied to these posts in the
  ground and the witches were starting a ritual.  The player's were
  sure that I was going to give them some easy out, but they had been
  really ignorant for two other sessions in a row.  I told one of them
  that a witch was coming over to him with a sacrificial dagger and
  one of the other players recognized that she and the other witches
  were indeed going to sacrifice the party.  The party members tried
  vainly to roll bend-bars and all of the other easy-out ways they
  thought I'd give them but nobody made it.  The witch slowly
  approached, the players looked at me wide eyed trying to think of
  a quick way out, and sure enough the witch thrust the dagger into
  the first player's heart.  When they realized they were _REALLY_
  in trouble they frantically tried everything.  Not much you can
  do tied to a post though.  As the last character was about to be
  killed the witch mumbled a riddle (she had to as part of the
  ritual).  The last one was killed and I turned down the lights
  for atmosphere.  They woke up on a sandy beach ... part of an
  island.  They gathered themselves and found things like cloths
  trying the whole time to figure out what was going on.  They had
  a pretty good idea, though nobody said it out loud, till finally
  overhead, a flying demonic looking creature confirmed it ... I
  had put their characters in _hell_.
    Turned out to be one of the better games we ever had.  The goal was
  to solve the riddle (had to give them an out after all), and gather
  up some materials that they needed to get back.  Nothing as fun as
  having higher level characters fight for their lives against
  creatures they normally wouldn't have any problem with.  They were
  most inventive when they didn't have the magic swords, magic armor,
  and the spell books with gobs of overkill spells.  Turned into a
  sort of quest plot ... a quest for their very lives.  Of course
  you can't have a quest without a very good ending and theirs was
  when they finally got back to the 'real' world.  Spirits were high
  as they got revenge on the witches who had scared them so much.
    This was about as extreme as I've ever had to be (or hopefully
  ever will) with a group of players who were being _really_ stupid.
  They probably deserved to die but when you're GMing you have more
  investment in the campaign than the characters do, and you don't
  normally have the heart to flush it all.

    Okay all you people who think D+D is evil .. now's your chance.
  all flames to me via e-mail please ... my address is your soapbox.


--
John Feldmeier, University of Texas at Austin
Internet [e-mail]
Snail: 221 Simkins Hall, Austin Tx 78705
Meaning of life:None, you create it or take 42

X-NEWS: zeus rec.games.frp: 41635
Path: ge-dab!crdgw1!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!fuug!nntp.hut.fi!nntp!Petri.Wessman
From: [e-mail] (Petri Wessman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Tricks of the Trade (part 2 of 2)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 1 Aug 91 08:53:37 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
    <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (Usenet pseudouser id)
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: La Gata Encantada
Lines: 65
In-Reply-To: [e-mail]'s message of 1 Aug 91 02:22:09 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host: wonderwoman.hut.fi

On 1 Aug 91 02:22:09 GMT, [e-mail] (David Mar) said:

David> This reminds me of a game I ran a few weeks ago. I decided that
David> the characters had no experience with gargoyles before. When a
David> small band of them attacked, I merely described them in terms
David> of their physical appearance and what they did.

Yup, I've done this too... I never tell my players the name of the
creature they're fighting unless they've bumped into it before (and
even then not always --- bad lighting situations, panic, and
individual differences in monsters can do wonders to cloud your
perception :-). Another thing about "monsters": why does everyone
always use the stats given for a monster in the C&T/Monster
Manual/whatever? You can get wonderful effects by using your
imagination on the monsters, and letting the players' preconceptions
about the creature in question get them into trouble:

PC: "What, a tiny green humanoid perched on a rock... aha, a goblin,
     I've heard that they have a stringhold out here. Only one of them?"

Me: "Looks that way. It's just sitting there."

PC: "Hamburger time! Goblins are a piece of cake, I've made mush
     out of tons of them... I charge the little creep!".

Me: "Ok, you let out a battle cry and run at the creature. It sees you
     coming, grins in a definitely unpleasant way, and closes its eyes."

PC: "Closes its eyes? Huh? Well, what do I care... kill kill kill!"

Me: "You've gotten something like 4 meters away from him and are
     looking forward to smashing his face into pulp when suddenly the
     creature's body pulses with orange light and you are plunged into
     deep fog... and not ordinary fog, either, this seems to cling to
     your skin, and wherever it touches you it feels like acid... you
     can't help shouting out in pain." [ roll for damage & criticals ]

PC: "What the hell, goblins can't cast spells, the books says so!
     There must be a human Magician hiding somewhere... I run out of
     the fog as fast as possible and try to get my bearings."

Me: "Running out of the fog is no problem, it seems to be clearing up
     as fast as it appeared. That's the good news. The bad news is
     that the way back out of here seems to be blocked by five goblins
     with strange-looking long knives, and the goblin you first saw is
     blocking the other direction. Only this time, there seems to be
     some kind of purple mist about his body, and there is a blinding
     ball of brilliant light forming between his outstretched hands...


There is no reason why a race should be intrinsically evil/stupid or
both. There should *always* be exceptions to the rule, just because
the book says that creature X is level 6 doesn't mean that it always
has to be.

P.S. RoleMaster is especially suited for this sort of "munging", since
     RM professions impose no real restrictions on the skills,
     equipment or spells the a character/creature can have. Makes for
     interesting NPCs, too, since there is *no* way of telling the
     profession of a character just by looking at him/her. In AD&D, if
     a character is wearing armour he can't be a mage, if he's
     carrying an edged weapon he can't be a cleric, etc. Makes it a
     bit harder to make unpredictable NPCs.

//Petri



X-NEWS: zeus rec.games.frp: 42162
Path: ge-dab!crdgw1!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!johnf
From: [e-mail] (john feldmeier)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: GM's Tricks of the Trade (part 3 of 4)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 12 Aug 91 15:19:47 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail] (john feldmeier)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 244
Originator: [e-mail]

This is the the third posting of the "GM's tricks of the trade."
It's the set of posts that ocurred after I posted the first
2 sets. As usual, I stripped headers and sigs, and divided the
articles by equal signs. My apologies to anyone I missed.
Cheers!
==========================================================================
From: "Timothy L. Nali" <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Tricks of the Trade
Cc:
Status: R

In response to your post, I posted those tips on calligraphy and making
the paper look old.  After I posted that, someone emailed me about ways
to make paper look old without making it so brittle.  The email he sent
me is copied below.  You might want to include it in future Tricks of
The Trade postings.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 91 22:21:50 EDT
From: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: GM's Tricks of the Trade
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
In-Reply-To: <[e-mail]>
Cc:

In reference to adding color to paper for scrolls.  Cider vinegar works as well
but doesn't make the paper brittle.  FOr those who want/have more time to
spend, steeping the skins of yellow onions with the vinegar has been known to
make an 'old gold' sort of color rather than the parchment shade of the plain
vinegar.  I've also known some who heat the paper after soaking it to give it a
used look.  Stinks but supposedly works.
_____________________________________________________________________________

 Tim Nali            \  "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of
 [e-mail]  \   the dreams" -Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
=============================================================================
>From: [e-mail] (patrick  palmer)

I like to intimidate my players.  A player is more likely to be intimidated
by, "A hideous creature, towering above your head, with green, scabby skin
and large, bloodshot eyes.  Its knife-sized teeth drip with blood.  It
raises above its head the trunk of a great tree and bellows, "Hungry!","
than by, "An ogre armed with a giant-sized club."
    Also, I don't treat battle as hit rolls and damage rolls and crits,
etc.  I make all the monster's rolls behind a screen, and only tell the
players of their current hit point status after the battle.  This is how a
battle might go:

    "The bloodthirsty swordsman swings his sabre at Fred.  Fred..."
    "Fred! Fred!"
    "Fred recieves immense slashes in his chest.  He falls to his knees
in agony, but continues fighting..."
    (Fred's player) "Take this, you bloody ... ! You'll soon learn not
to mess with Fred the Great!" (makes roll) "A 19!"
    (I secretly roll for a critical hit, and there is one indeed: the
crit table says left arm removed at elbow) "Fred blindly chops at the
swordsman.  The swordsman cries out in pain as his arm is reduced to a
stub ... Priestess Clarissa, what do you do?"
    (Clarissa's player) "I throw my warhammer at the swordsman and
kneel down to heal Fred!" (rolls) "Uh oh, an 8."
    (I rolls for a critical fumble, but nothing happens) "Clarissa's
hammer flys towards the swordsman at great speed ..."
    (everyone else) "All right!"
    "... and crashes harmlessly into the dungeon wall. ..."
==============================================================================
>From: [e-mail] (David Mar)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (patrick  palmer) writes:
>I like to intimidate my players.  A player is more likely to be intimidated
>by, "A hideous creature, towering above your head, with green, scabby skin
>and large, bloodshot eyes.  Its knife-sized teeth drip with blood.  It
>raises above its head the trunk of a great tree and bellows, "Hungry!","
>than by, "An ogre armed with a giant-sized club."

This reminds me of a game I ran a few weeks ago. I decided that the
characters had no experience with gargoyles before. When a small band of them
attacked, I merely described them in terms of their physical appearance
and what they did.

"A group of four bizarre looking things are attacking you in the dim light.
They are about six feet tall, but with large bat-like wings extending from
their backs, as well as viciously clawed hands at the end of short, stubby
arms, and gnarled legs ending in clawed feet. Their skin appears dark grey,
with a texture much like that of rough stone. They screech and dance around
as they fight."

Of course, all of the non-magical weapons did no damage.

"Eight points of damage from a sword blow? Okay, the creature appears to
shrug it off. The gash in its side doesn't seem to be hampering its motion
or viciousness at all. It attacks...."

Ho boy. Not one of the players recognised the creatures as gargoyles (which
did surprise me!); they thought they were fighting something decidedly
nastier! And were they ever scared.

David Mar.                              [e-mail]
Astrophysics Department, University of Sydney  NSW  2006, Australia.
=============================================================================

>From: [e-mail] (Petri Wessman)

On 1 Aug 91 02:22:09 GMT, [e-mail] (David Mar) said:

David> This reminds me of a game I ran a few weeks ago. I decided that
David> the characters had no experience with gargoyles before. When a
David> small band of them attacked, I merely described them in terms
David> of their physical appearance and what they did.

Yup, I've done this too... I never tell my players the name of the
creature they're fighting unless they've bumped into it before (and
even then not always --- bad lighting situations, panic, and
individual differences in monsters can do wonders to cloud your
perception :-). Another thing about "monsters": why does everyone
always use the stats given for a monster in the C&T/Monster
Manual/whatever? You can get wonderful effects by using your
imagination on the monsters, and letting the players' preconceptions
about the creature in question get them into trouble:

PC: "What, a tiny green humanoid perched on a rock... aha, a goblin,
     I've heard that they have a stringhold out here. Only one of them?"

Me: "Looks that way. It's just sitting there."

PC: "Hamburger time! Goblins are a piece of cake, I've made mush
     out of tons of them... I charge the little creep!".

Me: "Ok, you let out a battle cry and run at the creature. It sees you
     coming, grins in a definitely unpleasant way, and closes its eyes."

PC: "Closes its eyes? Huh? Well, what do I care... kill kill kill!"

Me: "You've gotten something like 4 meters away from him and are
     looking forward to smashing his face into pulp when suddenly the
     creature's body pulses with orange light and you are plunged into
     deep fog... and not ordinary fog, either, this seems to cling to
     your skin, and wherever it touches you it feels like acid... you
     can't help shouting out in pain." [ roll for damage & criticals ]

PC: "What the hell, goblins can't cast spells, the books says so!
     There must be a human Magician hiding somewhere... I run out of
     the fog as fast as possible and try to get my bearings."

Me: "Running out of the fog is no problem, it seems to be clearing up
     as fast as it appeared. That's the good news. The bad news is
     that the way back out of here seems to be blocked by five goblins
     with strange-looking long knives, and the goblin you first saw is
     blocking the other direction. Only this time, there seems to be
     some kind of purple mist about his body, and there is a blinding
     ball of brilliant light forming between his outstretched hands...


There is no reason why a race should be intrinsically evil/stupid or
both. There should *always* be exceptions to the rule, just because
the book says that creature X is level 6 doesn't mean that it always
has to be.

P.S. RoleMaster is especially suited for this sort of "munging", since
     RM professions impose no real restrictions on the skills,
     equipment or spells the a character/creature can have. Makes for
     interesting NPCs, too, since there is *no* way of telling the
     profession of a character just by looking at him/her. In AD&D, if
     a character is wearing armour he can't be a mage, if he's
     carrying an edged weapon he can't be a cleric, etc. Makes it a
     bit harder to make unpredictable NPCs.

//Petri
=============================================================================

>From: [e-mail] (Jeff Humphrey (Jeffus))

    There are a _lot_ of good discussions that could go on about
  GMing but one I'd like to talk about is money.  I've always
  found (and so have many others) that some games give out _way_
  to much money to players.  When playing AD+D we have always
  changed the monetary system presented in the player's
  handbook as it is given.  If you want to use their system it's
  a good idea to go through and change the base currency that they
  have you use.  We simply change every occurence of gold to silver,
  silver to copper, and copper to bronze or tin.  This is still
  really unrealistic but it's sure a step in the right direction.
    The reason for the change is two-fold.  To start with it just
  makes good since to reduce the inflation that exists in to many
  games these days.  A players shouldn't be walking around with
  a pouch of gold unless he's getting ready to buy a small castle
  or estate with it.  Gold is worth something only if you make it
  worth something.  A few silver coins should easily buy a player
  most of the equipment he would need.  Copper might be a good
  thing to use to buy a lot of your equipment and should easily pay
  for a good bed and breakfast at the local inn.  We mostly deal
  in bronze and tin.  These would be what most of the local coinage
  would be.  Seems to me that if you walk into the local stop and
  slap a couple bits on the bar for a beer that they should be made
  out of something _really_ cheap.  We _are_ just talking about
  a beer here.  The day I would pay a gold piece for a drink ...
  well, I'll leave it at that.
    The second and most important reason for raising the value of
  gold and silver is simply for the spirit of the game.  When your
  players have defeated the evil nasties and climbed up a tiny
  spiral staircase in the dim light ... slowly push open the great
  iron doors and see the wonderous treasure beyond ... you want it
  to be wonderous.  If they already have 20000 gold and they need
  more to train (using the training costs in DMG) what good is
  another pile of gold if it's _only_ five hundred or so.  When my
  players defeat a pair of hill giants and they go to search their
  cave, they sure do enjoy finding a nice sturdy longsword.  If
  they find some cash, it's usually not much compared to what's
  written into the rules ... but you'd better bet it's a lot for
  them.  Finally after much adventuring when you _do_ decide to
  put in a small golden statuette, that's going to probably be the
  whole reason for going on the adventure.  It's _not_ going to be
  something they find with the guard to the hidden city.

    A quick note off the subject of money (kinda) and that's training
  costs.  Someone else was asking about training the other day and
  I wrote to him saying that I'd rip that page out of my rulebook.
  Since when did Mickey Mouse _pay_ the wizard for lessons.  When we
  play, you usually get your training from a close associate whom
  you've gotten to know throughout the course of the campaign.  What
  goes around comes around and the training you get _will_ be paid
  for somehow ... usually with immediate work, but sometimes with
  a small quest or something.  At higher levels I allow the players
  to train themselves.  They normally get lots of equipment together
  and workout (fighters and the like), study (magic users etc ...).
  When your ninth level it's really kinda hard to find someone who
  can actually stop and train you for any length of time.  I don't
  picture fantasy heros needing someone else to help them train
  after reaching a certain level anyway.  Besides ... how many tenth
  level people do you find around town ?  In my campaign levels stay
  pretty low.  If you want help from a great wizard and you travel
  far to find him ... he's probably about level 10-13.  He's also
  probably the _only_ one you'll ever see around too.  Something to
  tell the grand-kids about.

    What do other people do with money and training ?  Flames via
  e-mail please ... [e-mail]

--
John Feldmeier, University of Texas at Austin
Internet [e-mail]
Snail: 221 Simkins Hall, Austin Tx 78705
Meaning of life:None, you create it or take 42

X-NEWS: zeus rec.games.frp: 42163
Path: ge-dab!crdgw1!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!johnf
From: [e-mail] (john feldmeier)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: GM's tricks of the Trade (part 4 of 4)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 12 Aug 91 15:23:27 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail] (john feldmeier)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 357
Originator: [e-mail]

This is the 4th tricks of the trade set of postings. As usual,
I have stripped the headers and signature files. This should
be all of the GM's files up to today.
====================================================================
>From: [e-mail] (Jeff Humphrey (Jeffus))

> for the following things (list not all-inclusive).

    I've also found that it's a good idea to _really_ listen
  to what the gamers are in the mood for.  If you have some
  intense session all lined up and they just got back from
  seeing Terminator II ... you'd better change your plans
  quick are nobody will have any fun (or they'll be having
  fun destroying your work of art).  Sometimes you just have
  to put yourself into their mindset and not try to bring them
  into yours.

> I. In a game I'm running , a boyfriend/girlfriend couple often
> has fights before my game. Unfortunately, the boyfriend is ...

    I thought I was the only GM/psych in the area ... I have
  the same problem.

    I would also like to see the Tricks of the Trade tradition
  continue ... who's next ...
==========================================================================
>From: [e-mail] (Mike Whitaker)

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (john feldmeier) writes:
>
> I've gotten a lot out of the "tricks of the trade" series and
> I would like it to continue. So in the spirit of the thing,
> I'll write another article about a tough topic, getting
> good players.

> Picking your Players:
> One of the hardest things to get is good players.
    Um - yeah - you bet!

> I. People who fit your campaign idea/milleu
    This is a particular problem for me, becuase I run my own world in a
highly story-telling style (under AD&D). It's a world my girlfriend and I have
built up over 6 or 7 years, and we're a bit twitchy about who we'd want to play
in it cause we're attatched to it - obviously power-gamers and rules-lawyers
would spoil things for us.

> II. Conflict:
> In most role playing games I have been in, conflict between
> the players has been crucial to sucsess.
    The art here is to strike a balance - as a GM you shouldn't put a
damper on such conflict, because you'll spoil the enjoyment of the players (in
a campaign I play in for instance, a friend and I have characters who REALLY do
hate each other's guts - his elf got changed from male to female and given
nymphomania and a broad chaotic streak[!] and decided that my female ranger's
husband was fair game...). Equally, you've got to watch that you don't spoil
other players' enjoyment ("can't we get on with something - I don't want to
listen to those two bickering all night"). The other problem you get is when
people let role-playing win over letting people into the the scenario - I have
suffered the "I'm sorry, you can't play in this scenario, your character isn't
suitable" followed by a list of in-character reasons - it hurts and it spoils
what is, after all, only a game.

> III. Inside/Outside Player Relations
> In theory, RPG are about people shucking their real personalities
> and becoming a different person. In reality, a lot of people do
> not completely leave their selves. Most of my characters do have
> some element of me in it, and I can't see how I can roleplay
> any other way.
    When this "Tricks of the Trade" thread's done, let's start another one
on PLAYER'S tricks of the trade.

> I. In a game I'm running , a boyfriend/girlfriend couple often
> has fights before my game...
> ...the only solution I have found is to talk to them about it
> seperately, and ask them to forget their outside realtionship
> in the game.
    Well done. I must admit this has only happened to me as a GM once, and
I had serious trouble coping with it - since it appeared to be a continuing
problem, in the end I junked the campaign (which was only the two players
anyway). My regular players are very good at dropping external arguments when
playing - in fact I suspect that the gaming is good therapy!

> II. The"abused player" syndrome: Many times, a paticular
> character will get abused in adventure, by the party or
> the GM as a plot device. This must be played carefully,
> Too much abuse makes the person behind the charcter feel
> abused, no matter how 'impartial' you are about your
> abuse.
    To be fair. there are some really good players (I've played with a
couple) who can handle abuse (in whatever form) of their character and use it
to enhance the character and as a handle for better role-playing.
=============================================================================
>From: [e-mail] (Daniel Solomon)

>> II. The"abused player" syndrome: Many times, a paticular
>> character will get abused in adventure, by the party or
>> the GM as a plot device. This must be played carefully,
>> Too much abuse makes the person behind the charcter feel
>> abused, no matter how 'impartial' you are about your
>> abuse.
>    To be fair. there are some really good players (I've played with a
>couple) who can handle abuse (in whatever form) of their character and use it
>to enhance the character and as a handle for better role-playing.

I had to play a character that was "abused."  It was to be expected, since he was a gnome thief that was caught trailing the party.  I played with it all right.  When the character got killed, and I then tried to play a Druid that was to serve as a guide
to the party.  The problem was that the rest of the players couldn't get out of the "abusing" mode that they associated with my previous character.  I left the game at that point, because I wouldn't put up with the abuse when it was not at all applic


o the character.  The DM was upset, because he considered my role-playing to be some of the best in the party.

        - Dan Solomon
==============================================================================
From: [e-mail] (J.M. Ivler    [e-mail])

Tricks of the Trade V9999.999A :-).

            NPCs - Who are they?

As a DM, one of the easiest things to run is a dungeon, but as times change, so
do PCs, and they want to explore the outside world (would you really like to
spend the rest of your live exploring caves, tunnels and caverns? :-) )

So, the DM moves them out of the hills, and through undeserted graveyards
(damn, give me 6 undead please, fast!) and into deserted castles. Great, now we
have rooms with all the doors closed :-) [let's be honest, in your first DMing
of a building, how many of you had open doors, or doors "blown off their
hindges"? In fact, how many of you had castles that looked like they had been
visited before? - I hope that your smiling now, remembering those nice days of
virgin castles, wasn't it so easy then :-)]

After a few of those, you may start them on some small "overland" journeys.
Great, now we have to deal with populating the countryside :-). Well, not
really, you see, they walk on empty trails between alehouses, so... we only
have to populate the pubs. Now, no "goodman" goes out wenching in the pubs, se
we just throw in the types of characters we are used to, more fighters,
theives, mages, an assasin or two, and a cleric or bard for a change of pace.
Get the feeling that the DM just wants to play too? :-)

For ease of use I created the system below for NPC population:

Small village
    Farmers
    Smiths
    Housewives [no wenches - or very few]
    Town sheriff [just 1]
    General store owners

Then mattering on the town, I would determine the "key" items of manufacture or
industry annd develop that. There may be a local pup, but in a village of this
size the local pup was a B&B that served ale...

Village
    Tradesmen
    Store owners
    Some wenches
    Local guard [sheriff and 3-4 locals who know how to use weapons]
    Storehouse owners
    Money transaction
    Newspaper (weekly postings of notices)
    Possible: some "passer-thrus" (parties like the gamers)
    Possible: a "retired" character or two
    Smiths

A village is filled with activity throught the day, but as night falls, most
of the people go home. There may be a "pub" all it's own, and then some B&Bs
and maybe even a nice "hotel" of sorts, if the village is large enough. Most of
the "girls" in town are "good" girls and there is usually a central church (of
sorts) or two, that try to make sure that people like you don't hang around for
too long :-).

Small town
    Tradesmen
    Store owners
    Wenches
    Landholders
    Police/Garrison
    Wherehousing
    Banks
    Guild halls
    Smiths
    Peasents
    Retired "Adventurers"

A small town has some commerce. It tends to interact more with the "outside"
world and has various sorts of accomodations for travelers. In many cases,
these towns are on well traveled roads and river/waterways. A small town
usually has a number of churches, but they are not as "powerful" as those in
the villages. Landowners in small towns tend to own the farms around the town
and have help that is hired in. In some cases the "help" live in the city, but
most of the help is kept on the property of the landholders. a small town also
has some organized "police" force that attempts to keep order.

Town
    Tradesmen
    Store owners
    Wenches
    Landholders
    Police/Garrison
    Wherehousing
    Banks
    Guild halls
    Smiths
    Peasents
    Retired "Adventurers"

While most of the characters are the same, these tend to be "bigger". The
concept is "more of the same". Where you have 2 silversmiths in a small town,
in a town there may be 5 or 6. Ther may be one armorer in a small town who also
made all the weapons, in a town there would be a swordsmith, and armorer, a
bowsman, etc. There is also a major increase in the number of pubs and evening
entertainment establshments. One key sign that you are in a Town is that the
landholders no longer keep the workers on the land, but the workers are living
"in town" and come to work and go back to town at the end of the day. Towns
have a number of travelers as they are situated on main crossroads and
throughfares.

City
    Tradesmen
    Store owners
    Wenches
    Landholders
    Police/Garrison
    Wherehousing
    Banks
    Guild halls
    Smiths
    Peasents
    Retired "Adventurers"
    Political Structure
    Other "Adventurers"

A city is a city, at this point, most of the players have been defined. Cities
just take the town concept and expand upon it. Cities are usually well defined.
They have classes of "housing" and most have gettos of sorts. Costs for being
in the city are much higher than anywhere else, the police are ineffective in
the poorer neighborhoods. Landowners here generally own buildings, not
farmland, and most farming is done well away from the city. In fact, many
cities reley almost completly on farm imports (which is one of the reasons that
the expenses soar, and explains the poverty too).

Now, we have defined quite a few NPC types. These are the type of people that
you run into every day. When you go to a store, and deal with a clerk, that is
your NPC. The cklerk didn't carry a weapon, and most of the NPCs don't either
(well, in many cases, a knife is carried, it is more of a "tool" than a
weapon).

Running into other adventuring parties is infrequent in small places, but more
frequent in larger places. Smaller plaaces have a sense of community, people
are on a first name basis, everyone knows one another. Larger places have none
of that. Neighborhoods generally exist in small towns, but as the town goes, it
loses touch with its people (or they lose touch with each other) and by the
time they become a city, most people don't even know their neighbors.

One key difference is the fact that in a small village, the landowners are the
farmers, but as the size of the town increases, they become landowners and have
staff hired to do the farming.

Castles and such are generally not build remotly, but are built to overlook
properties, or land holdings. These generally have a "small town" atmosphere
about them that deals with the "staff" and the workers of the property.




If you want to provide realistic settings, think about "early america" or early
fuduel systems where towns and properties were sparse. Think about "middle
america" now, where you can go for miles seeing rows of wheat before you see a
single house (or a small cluster of buildings). The idea that a party could
spend days of boring time tramping through cultivated pastures, seeing only
cattle and an odd herdsman is not unrealistic. They may wander into a man
bringing hsi goods to the "town" to market on day early in the morning (and buy
some of the goods he has to sell) and then see him coming back in the late
evening with an empty cart.

Try to play the NPCs as if they were "everyman". People are wary of strangers
carrying swords across thier backs ( in general :-) ), but the kids may came
running up wanting to hear exciting tales of danger. Create a feel for the
people in the town before the party gets there. This can be done by having them
enter the in, and already have the local "priest" and "police" there to check
them out and make sure that they are not going to stay.

A parent comming in to pick up his wayward daughter is always fun to have in a
small town. There is always one girl that has "gone bad" :-).

Remember, in a small town, where a magician is not normally found, it would
interest people to see one (cripes, they might not even believe in magic as
most have never seen it). In another town, the loacl priest may try to whip up
the people against "the devil who makes fire from his hands". They may be a
superstisious lot, or they may be well aware of mages, since a 15th level one
owns the esablishment in which your drinking.

One key thing to do in developing any town is establish "people" that will deal
with the adventurers. This includes the following (small town):

Sheriff        Bost Marham    (equiv: Fighter - 4th lev - 32hp ac/2)
Pub owner    Patrosua Sekelli
Barman        Bentol Marr
Waitress    Dejuana Tok
Priest        Magasa Gurtoka    (worships - Kamaer - god of bountiful harvests)
Farmer1        Tet Tola
Farmer2        Sjak
Farmer3        Ponkat loakar
Smith        Gin Marteen

This of couse get's filled out with descriptions like:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Farmer1        Tet Tola
    height 6ft
    weight 210
    hair black, with grey streaks. bushy beard (full)
    clothing woolen coat and pants over cloth shirt. open shoes and leather
         belt. SMall knife in belt.
    smell like ox manuer
    apperance disheveled, mud covering his feet and lower parts of his
          pants. caloused hands, with lots of fresh cuts.

Story: Farmer: Just finished planting new crop of quintups (like turnups). Has
a wife and six kids, five of them girls, and he is very disapointed. Any man
who even looks like a match for one of his duaghters, he tries to rope into
comming to meet the faimly. the girls go from ugly to "gawd, I'm gonna puke".
The boy, is about 15 and has the look of a young fighter. He doesn't want to be
a farmer, but knows that that is his lot in life. He like to hear stories of
adventure...
wife: Zapas   Daughters: Zilind/18, Asa/16, Telen/14, Wren/12, Tine/7
          Son: Potere
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, the above can be used in this town, and with soem minor changes, could
also be used in another town, where he has only three daughters, all beautiful,
and his name is now Tenkw Chaaq, a widower with... you get the basic idea.

These "people" add life to the role-playing, and do it without costing the DM
lot's of time. In fact, they sometimes can make useful comments that allow a
player to know a bit of the "play" without being fed it by "omens". Like...

[sample only, not for resale :-)]

Zed, the barbarian, moved closer to hear what the two farmers were talking
about. Tash, the first was complaining about the screeching noises that he had
heard all night, when Bokas, the other spoke of Camto's cattle being found
killed, and claw and beek maks on them, but it was too big to be any bird they
knew...

Now the adventurer (Zed) is aware of information that he didn't know before,
just by listening to a simple conversation...

anyway... this is long enough... enjoy... aloha

jmi
[e-mail]


--
John Feldmeier, University of Texas at Austin
Internet [e-mail]
Snail: 221 Simkins Hall, Austin Tx 78705
Meaning of life:None, you create it or take 42