Way Off-Topic: Question for RPGamers

[honorentheos]

I think it can add to the story telling if I try to think like the monsters as opposed to some outside entity watching them, something I'm not sure I was really thinking about in my notes as well as I should have. I'm also excited to have strong resources for helping me to introduce enemies I might not normally have enough experience with to feel comfortable tracking.

Coming back to this, the last part is another way I've really found Ammann influences my game. I mentioned I have the two main books based on his blog in audiobook format and I'll listen to them sometimes while commuting just for inspiration. And there have been multiple times I've started with, "It would be nice to find a new undead to include in the crypt" and found a great idea from listening to his descriptions of undead abilities and tactics. The weakness in the audiobook format are the spell-centric monsters, though. I can't listen to the long discussions of how a lich would use their spell slots without skipping forward to the next monster.

Embedded in your first comment is a true gem, though, and why I came back to comment. Thinking about motivations for every encounter has proved so helpful in game I can't agree more with this. More than even tactics, just having a reason why something or someone is doing what they are doing can be the difference between flat encounters and memorable ones whether they are social, combat, or whathaveyou. I honestly think this was a DM level up realization for me. I think both Jason Alexander and Michael Shea include that step in their preparation recommendations, and likely contributed to my regard.

To use a recent example where I was very aware it affected my actions, when the work party was encountering the orcs in Lady Meissa's compound I discussed upthread, having Lady Meissa's motivations (short and long term) influenced how I roleplayed her interactions with the paladin who decided to use his high born status to gain audience with her. From my notes from the session preparation when they first met her, keying in on her ideals and flaws:

Lady Meissa – Female Lamia in human form most of the time (not just disguised but polymorphed).

1. Backstory: She was born into the oldest family in Orossads over two centuries ago. Being intelligent, beautiful, and born into power, she was both ambitious as well as lustful. She pursued her lusts from an early age, beginning an affair with a married senator from whom she learned the means of pulling the strings of power, then learning to avoid being directly in the public view while doing so after jealous men had him assassinated. Possessed of great appetites, she devoted herself to Graz’zt, helping him establish the cult of the Kyrenikoi in Ossamala through her own beauty and cleverness. After having proved herself, she was granted immortality as a lamia by Graz’zt in return for which she seeks to fullfil Graz’zt’s aim in the material plane.

2. Agenda: She knows Graz’zt plan includes using the copies of the Mallus Deus to interfere with the other demon lords’ attempts to emerge and take over the material plane at the time of the Abyssal convergence. She knows of the Butler and the Atakar, and specifically allowed the party to come to her estate to put them on the trail of the Atakar to interfere with their plans.

3. Ideals and flaws: She has sophisticated tastes that have become harder and harder to appease.
a. She’ll consume to appease her appetites but with little passion so much as out of habit if the thing is easily obtained.
b. Beautiful things that are difficult to obtain or that resist her become much more attractive, and she relishes the chase as the true object of her appetites these days.
c. She does not realize that she is too easily given to Graz’zt, making her victim to the very thing she herself does to others.
d. She pursues bringing Graz’zt into the material plane out of hope of becoming his consort in this world (she does not like the idea of dying to be in the abyss so his coming to the material plane would preserve her immortality while she can once again be his to partake in the unimaginable pleasure he is capable of giving.)

4. Appearance: Draped in robes of resplendent ivory and gold, each fold seems to shimmer with the iridescence of a thousand suns. Her ebony locks cascade in waves of silk, adorned with jewels that catch the light and cast kaleidoscopic reflections upon the walls. Her gaze, as piercing as the serpent's stare, commands attention, and you feel drawn to her as if her eyes see the true you, wanting you for who you truly are and able to satisfy all you truly desire. Each step she takes is graceful, her movements like a dance that exudes seduction and an invitation to join her in this dance.

When she speaks, her voice is a rich alto, flowing from her lips like honeyed nectar. The words themselves seeming to carry the weight of centuries of wisdom and intrigue.

With a subtle flick of her wrist, she gestures with regal authority, and her courtiers hasten to fulfill her every whim.

Having primed myself with her motives, when the paladin approached her and began discussing the qualities of various aspects of the party, I could see how she'd first be curious about his tastes and if they were sophisticated or merely for show, followed by appreciation for some of the more novel observations he made, so she found him intriguing enough to become the focus of her attention for the evening.

Somewhat like having items/rewards prepped that aren't keyed to a location but to the PC, I find identifying a quick motivation or purpose as more important than coming up with a name for an NPC when put on the spot, too.

Good thoughts.

[honorentheos]

The session resumed in the middle of combat, with the goblin shaman maintaining the darkness spell where the goblins and hobgoblin leader also remained. Therin found herself suddenly being dowsed in the face by water-quirting flowers though it had little effect as she was already blinded in the darkness. All of you heard what sounded like the hobgoblin leader moving in the darkness, cursing in goblin as it sounded like he, too, was being squirted, but then he begin to slash with his longsword at one of the captive Archivist Militant as the goblins rummaged in their belongings attempting to remove their weapons. Keno quickly dispatched one of the goblins who was not completely hidden then followed up with a blind swing at where he had last heard the goblin shaman and the giant frog he was riding, sinking his great axe into a large mass that dropped quivering to the ground. Therin leaped over the captives in the darkness, shoving the hobgoblin leader away as well as knocking him and one of the goblins prone , following which she turned the goblin into fresh pressed jam with her boot.* The goblin shaman dropped the darkness spell, revealing his giant frog had been cut in two by Keno, and he ran off into the woods but not before causing a large swirling storm cloud to build over the combat and strike down with lightning on everyone in the party. With the enemy fleeing, Keno ran down the goblin shaman and chose to cast “Smash” with his great axe pulverizing the goblin shaman. Therin ran down the hobgoblin leader after he had been belittled by Ellery and Therin beaned him in the back of the head with a rock that knocked him prone. His last thoughts as he was sent to meet Maglubiyet were how a day that had been going so well could end so wrong as Therin worked out some things she hadn’t shared with her therapist yet on him.

Rummaging through the goblins gear, Dimitri found a bag of five goodberries which Ellery decided were hers at which point she attempted to take them but failed. The Archivist Militant expressed varyingly begrudging degrees of appreciation for the rescue and then they fell in behind Fenrin who was eager to get the watch to the temple. The party eventually followed along, where you all were met by Lilriel the Deva of the god Helm. After hearing your reasons for coming to her, she sought Helm’s wisdom in prayer and received knowledge from him that she would be able to help you either by:

A) Forcing open the portal into the watch that you could then go through into the pocket dimension in an attempt to cleanse it of the corruption of Lolth who had possessed the Mallus Deus copy. This being very, very dangerous for those who enter while ensuring the danger remained in this dimension, limiting risk to the greater material plane. risk to the greater material plane. Or,

B) She could maintain meditative concentration in weakening the protections of the watch so that it could be destroyed, closing this gate as a connection through which Lolth could gain access to the material plane. The risk with this method being it would make it possible creatures would likely emerge out of the watch due to the energy being put into destroying it surging into the dimension. The result being the dangerous creatures that emerge would need to be destroyed before they could escape, defile the temple, or attack Lilriel while she was concentrating. She also said an attack on the watch that wasn’t powerful enough would not damage the watch but could still cause a creature to emerge. Or,

C) Well, she didn’t offer up another option. But that doesn’t mean they are the only ways to deal with this, per se. Not saying there are, just not wanting to force a false binary choice on you all here if you want to try something else.

Lilriel offered to stand vigil over the watch while the party went to rest…then immediately Dimitri and Ellery engaged in another scramble over the goodberries. As this was going on, you heard a strange groaning noise and turned to see the watch expanding as a large demonic spider creature emerged. Annallee took shots at it, followed by the demonic spider rushing past Lilriel and towards the closer members of the party where it attacked Dimitri but taking damage from Lilriel as it rushed past her. While being only one creature, it proved to be quite dangerous as it could poison with its bite and stinger, and its blood proved dangerous as well when it had been damaged to the point it began to bleed. After the party members had attacked it, Lilriel flew to it and brought it down with her divinely enchanted war hammer.

With the pent up energy in the watch having released, Liriel returned to guarding it in confidence she could now hold it back while the group recovered with a long rest.

* When asked his thoughts on the subject of goblin jam, Sir Rordon Gamsey of the Kitch Hellians opined: “Bloody ignorant, that. Any cook worth their hat knows a jam i‘New Testament jam without sugar and being cooked down ‘til it’s thick as minotaur snot. At best, with the large bits left mushed in there like that, you could get away with calling it more of a raw compote if you consider dirt and the filth on the hands of your average adventurer ‘spices’. But don’t expect me to put either in my mouth.”

[Xenophon]

Thanks for your thoughts, honor. Nice to know my developing process might actually be on the right track. Unfortunately we are at fiscal end at work here and the last 2 weeks I've been able to think of little but budgets and forecasts. Hoping to get back to it this weekend.

I'm always crazy impressed with your write-ups. Apologies if you've covered it and I've missed it, but I'm curious if you are using a recording device of some sort to help keep the meticulous record that you are then turning back into the narrative we see... or am I just a shite writer . Even as a player I feel I take great notes but they always read like meeting minutes and not a story.

* When asked his thoughts on the subject of goblin jam, Sir Rordon Gamsey of the Kitch Hellians opined: “Bloody ignorant, that. Any cook worth their hat knows a jam i‘New Testament jam without sugar and being cooked down ‘til it’s thick as minotaur snot. At best, with the large bits left mushed in there like that, you could get away with calling it more of a raw compote if you consider dirt and the filth on the hands of your average adventurer ‘spices’. But don’t expect me to put either in my mouth.”

Comedy gold here.

[Physics Guy]

"Goblin jam" may be my new term for any gruesome stuff that I find in old containers at the back of the fridge.

I will imagine it not as jam made from goblins but as the kind of jam that goblins would make, not so much because that implies superior jam as because it suggests a more peaceful coexistence between our household and the goblins, with them giving us jam. Ever since our children were old enough to be left alone at home for any length of time, I have often left them with instructions to defend the house against goblins. I think I may already have overdone this alluding to goblin hostility. I'll dial it back a bit now.

[Xenophon]

Not sure if this was the right place to put it, but didn't think it was worthy of its own thread. Despite the crazy hectic last few weeks of work for me I did have one small reprieve. Last weekend I got to play a couple rounds of Heroes of Barcadia. It is a cute "table-top lite" drinking game where your cup, and the liquid there in, represent your health bar. It is meant to be a replayable dungeon crawler where you and the others at the table are actually in competition against one another. The dungeon is crafted by the players taking turns laying hex tiles face-down in whatever pattern you choose so it is easy to keep the dungeon fresh-feeling at least through a few playthroughs.

Turns are fairly simple as you've got a pretty limited set of actions to take. Expose a tile, move your character and interact with that new tile, duel others, fight the boss. As such the pacing felt very nice, our games averaged about 50 minutes but the owner reported seeing some as short as 30 when the luck hits just right. That straight-forward gameplay likely won't make this a weekly recurring game or anything but there is likely enough variety to have you come back a few times.

Enjoyers of this thread will likely note that I didn't include an ounce of the game's narrative... and that is because there basically isn't one. If you're looking for an actual story-telling experience this isn't going to be it. If you're looking for a social game that has some RPG elements then this might be it. Possible with the right creative minds you could introduce elements of this on your own, but the game won't be giving it to you. There is very little strategic decision making, but still plenty of fun to be had. To the social element, I also don't imagine this game would be much fun for non-drinkers (although Rollacrit does have models to replace the cups if desired) as the connection to you becoming increasingly inebriated as your health dips is truly part of the experience.

It wasn't my game but I did think the art style was very nice and the pieces well crafted. The game designers very wisely chose to make the whole thing from waterproof PVC and the cups are plastic to prevent any mishaps.

All and all it made for a very enjoyable evening.

[honorentheos]

Not sure if this was the right place to put it, but didn't think it was worthy of its own thread. Despite the crazy hectic last few weeks of work for me I did have one small reprieve. Last weekend I got to play a couple rounds of Heroes of Barcadia. It is a cute "table-top lite" drinking game where your cup, and the liquid there in, represent your health bar. It is meant to be a replayable dungeon crawler where you and the others at the table are actually in competition against one another. The dungeon is crafted by the players taking turns laying hex tiles face-down in whatever pattern you choose so it is easy to keep the dungeon fresh-feeling at least through a few playthroughs.

Turns are fairly simple as you've got a pretty limited set of actions to take. Expose a tile, move your character and interact with that new tile, duel others, fight the boss. As such the pacing felt very nice, our games averaged about 50 minutes but the owner reported seeing some as short as 30 when the luck hits just right. That straight-forward gameplay likely won't make this a weekly recurring game or anything but there is likely enough variety to have you come back a few times.

Enjoyers of this thread will likely note that I didn't include an ounce of the game's narrative... and that is because there basically isn't one. If you're looking for an actual story-telling experience this isn't going to be it. If you're looking for a social game that has some RPG elements then this might be it. Possible with the right creative minds you could introduce elements of this on your own, but the game won't be giving it to you. There is very little strategic decision making, but still plenty of fun to be had. To the social element, I also don't imagine this game would be much fun for non-drinkers (although Rollacrit does have models to replace the cups if desired) as the connection to you becoming increasingly inebriated as your health dips is truly part of the experience.

It wasn't my game but I did think the art style was very nice and the pieces well crafted. The game designers very wisely chose to make the whole thing from waterproof PVC and the cups are plastic to prevent any mishaps.

All and all it made for a very enjoyable evening.

Hey Xeno, this sounds like a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing!

I can see where some folks I know would be a likely good fit for this and will need to check it out in more detail.

[honorentheos]

I'm always crazy impressed with your write-ups. Apologies if you've covered it and I've missed it, but I'm curious if you are using a recording device of some sort to help keep the meticulous record that you are then turning back into the narrative we see... or am I just a shite writer . Even as a player I feel I take great notes but they always read like meeting minutes and not a story.

I've thought about getting a recorder so I can have exact records of what was said and done. But my in game notes are a mix of short scribbles on paper or bullets I drop in the Word doc I have open for my session preparation. The write ups are something I do for the players, usually the next day after the session. Its funny how much the process actually helps me synthesize the session into a narrative in my own mind for prepping the next session. I'd honestly say that is the real value of writing it out. It helps organize the.session into a bigger whole.

My notes for accuracy are bullets and spreadsheets. I keep tables with timelines where I can add things like when an event will happen that gets mentioned or a spell wears off, NPCs with name and location I can add in session and fill after with more details, etc.

Given your writing here I'd expect your day after notes would put mine to shame.

* When asked his thoughts on the subject of goblin jam, Sir Rordon Gamsey of the Kitch Hellians opined: “Bloody ignorant, that. Any cook worth their hat knows a jam i‘New Testament jam without sugar and being cooked down ‘til it’s thick as minotaur snot. At best, with the large bits left mushed in there like that, you could get away with calling it more of a raw compote if you consider dirt and the filth on the hands of your average adventurer ‘spices’. But don’t expect me to put either in my mouth.”

We are up in Utah, driving back in the morning, and I'm sitting on my MILs back patio listening to the muted sounds of what could be a garage band somewhere in the neighborhood or someones attempt at mixing that started as Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit morphing into a synthy moody thing that then bounced to a fast dance double kick beat. It's not PGs take on goblin jam but I could get behind describing a genre of the stuff that way, too. Then I realized it's coming from BYU's stadium where I guess they are playing football given the crowd cheer I just heard. Forgot about that. Yep. Goblin jam could be a better way of describing the stuff.

[honorentheos]

"Goblin jam" may be my new term for any gruesome stuff that I find in old containers at the back of the fridge.

I will imagine it not as jam made from goblins but as the kind of jam that goblins would make, not so much because that implies superior jam as because it suggests a more peaceful coexistence between our household and the goblins, with them giving us jam. Ever since our children were old enough to be left alone at home for any length of time, I have often left them with instructions to defend the house against goblins. I think I may already have overdone this alluding to goblin hostility. I'll dial it back a bit now.

I'd be disappointed if the instructions did not include a sketch for a makeshift trebuchet to be inspected upon return of the parents.

[honorentheos]

Question: How do others here individualize their NPCs and make them interesting?

[Bret Ripley]

Question: How do others here individualize their NPCs and make them interesting?

One way I try to make NPCs interesting is to give them distinct voices, and to converse with the PCs using those voices -- though remembering them and keeping the accents straight is a challenge. Personality quirks can help individualize them as well: one may be unaccountably arrogant, one annoyingly fawning, one prone to malaprops, one may have a slight stutter, one may talk too much, one may be terse (etc. etc.). One shortcut I use is to model an NPC's personality after a character from TV or a film. For example, John Cleese's Robin Hood from 'Time Bandits' can make a decent town mayor: "And how long have you been an adventurer? Jolly good!")

Giving NPCs some simple purpose also helps keep them from being too obviously 2-dimensional. Why are they here? Do they want something in particular from the PCs? If so, how will they go about pursuing that goal?

What methods do you find effective?