Mothership Debrief - Another Bug Hunt

This isn't a review. I'm simply reporting our group's experiences with Mothership and the first impressions I had while running it. My initial thoughts about Mothership are posted at the other end of this link.

We took on Mothership with character generation (session zero) and a session of Another Bug Hunt in August. Scheduling issues prevented us from meeting back up to complete Another Bug Hunt until November. This means that, once again, my attempt to run a horror scenario in October has failed. I'm beginning to think that Halloween really is cursed.

A caveat: It's entirely possible - likely, even - that some of our experiences were due to my misunderstanding aspects of Mothership or Another Bug Hunt. I also acknowledge that some of the things I criticize here may be addressed by Tuesday Night Games or the Mothership community on Discord or a social media post somewhere. This blog post describes our group's experiences using Mothership and Another Bug Hunt out of the box. Nothing less. Nothing more.

Spoiler warning: I'll be discussing Another Bug Hunt from the perspective of a gamemaster who has run it in its entirety. There will be spoilers.


Session Zero - Character Generation

The process is straightforward and is streamlined by being summarized on the character sheet. A flow builds as players follow each step on the sheet rather than having to bury themselves in the rules. We had to look up specifics like what a particular skill or piece of equipment does, but these were brief pauses rather than lengthy distractions.

A weakness in character generation is the scarcity of equipment. Characters are effectively locked into the gear they roll up randomly. Their starting funds are woefully inadequate for purchasing anything else at the inflated prices listed. This removes a player's ability to customize their character through equipment selection.

Limiting starting equipment also strains the gamemaster's ability to convey information to the players. This came up while running Another Bug Hunt. Nobody was lucky enough to start with something to analyze a body or scan an area for life signs. This meant that they had to hope for an intact surgical suite to do autopsies on the corpses they found. Given that important clues were hidden in those dead bodies, I ended up planting a medical scanner in the wreckage of a medical lab. It's an easy fix, but why am I taking on the role of designer while running a published adventure?


Session One - Starting Off

Another Bug Hunt was written to introduce Mothership. It includes plenty of advice for the gamemaster. There are opportunities to use just about all the rules. This gives a new group a taste of everything the game has to offer. It's a good introductory adventure, but I do have notes.

The derelict base that the player characters initially explored was challenging and the descriptions conveyed the intended mood. The risks were moderated by cautious play. Our group's experiences with Old School Essentials this year left a lasting impression on how to handle squishy characters in hostile environments.

We completed the initial location and ended the session as the player characters were preparing to leave the base. Planning their next move would have been aided by an overview map showing all the locations in the adventure in relation to each other. I found no such map in the book.

I ran into an issue during a specific encounter. The player characters can find the "Sansa VI Org Chart" in an office. This chart is printed on the inside front cover of the adventure. Foreseeing this, I printed out a copy as a handout. Unfortunately, the chart accurately lists the current status of various individuals as KIA (Killed In Action) or MIA (Missing In Action). Which strikes me as a bit of a spoiler. I asked our group to ignore that information.

Another presentation issue is that Another Bug Hunt looks great - on a backlit screen. Sections of the printed version as difficult for my aging eyes to read. Parts of it are white or orange text on a black background. Other parts are black text on a green background. I could have reprinted those sections in a way to make them easier to read, but I paid for the printed version in the boxed set.


Session Two - Wrapping Up

The player characters managed to escape the planet, but there were some close calls. They also went through most of the content in Another Bug Hunt. I wasn't expecting to be able to do that in a couple of sessions. The adventure hummed along a brisk pace.

As with the first session, the players were able to avoid the most deadly encounters by moderating risks and focusing on objectives. The overall risk level of the adventure was reduced by my die rolls. Random encounter rolls kept coming up empty. That's been true of other games, but it was particularly noticeable here. I considered fudging the results, but I dislike that option. More static encounters might have helped here.

The timeline running during adventure does a fine job of keeping up the pressure. Another Bug Hunt features a storm with winds strong enough to prevent evacuation and flood waters high enough to make certain areas inaccessible as the weather worsens. The chance of a random encounter also increases over time. This gradually closes off options while raising the stakes as the adventure moves forward.

The maps were good, but not perfect. The terraforming complex map could have used notations indicating the directions of the other locations. This would help to determine where the player characters are approaching from and going to. Again, there's no overview map that I could find to show the players and help them with planning.

Speaking of the terraforming complex - it incorporates a dam and generates power. However, it also has a reactor that produces radiation. So is it hydro-electric or a water cooled nuclear reactor? The adventure doesn't have an answer - the text calls it both things. I just asked our group to roll with it.

The central concept of Another Bug Hunt is an infestation transmitted by sound. Specifically, the shriek made by the titular bugs. Even hearing it over a radio transmission will do the trick. This was a difficult idea for our group to get our heads around. I ultimately got through by explaining that there's a psionic component to the shriek.

The end of the adventure presents a chance to use the spaceship combat rules. However, I couldn't find stats for the executive ship in Another Bug Hunt. A look at the Shipbreaker's Toolkit revealed that an "Executive Transport" is typically unarmed. If so, what's the space encounter supposed to teach? How to get shot at? I ended up skipping it entirely.


Overall Impressions

Mothership is the kind of rules light system that works best when run by a gamemaster willing to make things up on the spot. This is not a system for those who like everything locked down, meticulously defined, and with a rule for any situation. There's a strong OSR feel, although the rules are not descended from classic RPGs.

Another Bug Hunt is a good, but undercooked introductory adventure. The presentation is flawed. There are inconsistencies in the information provided. Perhaps another editing pass or a little more polish could've improved it. That said, it does its job. Our group came out of the experience with a good impression of the game, an understanding of the rules, and looking forward to playing more down the road.

Reaper Bones 77046 Bat Swarm

As far as I can recall, it's been a year since I last slapped paint on a miniature. There was a couple of terrain projects during that time, but that's not quite the same kind of painting. "Tabletop standard" has a different meaning when applied to miniatures versus terrain. People pick up miniatures, hold them up to their faces, scrutinize the things, and ask about the lack of painted on eyes. Terrain only needs to be painted well enough to get the point across.

It's been way too long.

What did I have to work with? Wiping the dust off my wet palette revealed it to be fine. Surveying my paints had mixed results. The dropper bottle stuff seemed fine, but all needed a through shaking. The sheer incompetence in plastic form that are Games Workshop paint pots was another story. About half of it dried up, leaving nothing but hard flakes and wasted potential. My brushes are all fine, being stored well out of reach of my daughter's cats.

I decided to start with something straightforward. Something that would look fine with a base coat, some shaky brushwork, whatever highlighting I could muster, and awash to cover up my mistakes. That all added up to a Reaper Bones miniature from my pile of shame.

This miniature depicts a swarm of bats flying around a grave marker. It fit the season and didn't seem too demanding of my rusty skills. A nighttime scene limited the colors I needed - it's all dim lighting and shadows.

I described my process for preparing and basing Reaper Bones miniatures in this linked post.

For my first attempt, I painted the whole thing black and went overboard with drybrushing it gray. Trying to recover with a black ink only made it worse. I covered it all up with a black base coat again to reset and start over.

Paints used:

• Reaper Master Series Pure Black 09037 - used because the last of my Citadel Colour Chaos Black died in the bottle.
• Citadel Colour Codex Grey - still clinging on to life.

Instead of jumping straight to a medium gray, I used a mix of black with a little gray for the first drybrush layer. I added more gray for each following layer, getting less aggressive with the drybrushing each time.

I highlighted certain areas with an even mix of black and gray. I paid particular attention to the edges of certain bat wings, the grave marker, and a skull on the ground.

The final touch was to reintroduce shadows. Some areas that didn't need it got hit with the previous drybrush layers. I watered down the black paint remaining on my palette and used it as a wash. The wash was applied selectively. Only the areas that would be in shadow and needed to be darker got hit with the wash.

The end result is a serviceable miniature. More importantly, it a start to get me back into miniature painting. I'll likely ease back into it with another Reaper Bones miniature or three before tackling something more exciting.

Suspension of Disbelief

There was a moment when suspension of disbelief failed for our group while running through D&D module B4 The Lost City. The party reached the level below the undead infested tombs and found some ogres milling around in a storage room. The players questioned how the ogres - as living creatures - came from and how they survived in a ziggurat in the middle of a desert.

It was a reasonable question.

"I don't know. I didn't write the module." I replied.

Maybe throwing Tom Moldvay under the bus wasn't the most gracious move, but he should have provided an answer in the module if he didn't want to catch the blame. D&D adventure design when B4 The Lost City came out was centered around the dungeon as a series of entertaining challenges for the players. Notions of how these spaces might exist as plausible environments within the game setting weren't a consideration.

Yet.

The pendulum swung the other way later. Games emphasized the unchallenged assumptions of their designers. The word "realism" got waved around like a banner. Things that made the artificial nature of games and their settings caught unkind criticisms.

But the truth of it is: Game mechanics are always as obvious as the books and dice sitting on the table. And fictional settings only hold up to so much scrutiny.

That said...

There really should be a reason why ogres are hanging around a storage room in a ziggurat in the middle of desert.

Countdown to Mothership

This isn't a review. It's more a collection of random thoughts.

I knew that I'd be running Mothership as soon as I finished reading it. The boxed set took the trip to Florida with me this summer. The Nostalgia Tour was on hiatus until schedules could come back into alignment. I should've used the time to prepare the next module, but I needed a change of pace. Alternating between fantasy and any other genre usually works for me. I intended to read and run FATE Core and Tachyon Squadron for our next game, but there's something about Mothership that appeals to me more.

Tuesday Night Games stuffed a decent amount of stuff in the Mothership boxed set. Photo doesn't include the patch, dice, and other doodads.

Opening Move

I'll be running Another Bug Hunt - the introductory adventure in the boxed set - as a one shot. It's written to present a taste of everything Mothership has to offer. I figure it's the best way to get a feel for the game.

Another Bug Hunt avoids most of my issues with published adventures. It gets high marks from me for organization, layout, and not wasting my time. I'll knock off a few points for the pages that use white or orange text on a dark background. Most of the book is fine, but those specific pages are hard on the eyes.

I am a little concerned with the bulletproof critters of this scenario. I know that Mothership isn't intended to be fair or balanced, but there's a gap between "life is tough, deal with it" and "dick move" which this might sail across. Then again, "bullets won't stop them" is a trope of sci-fi horror.


Down the Road

I've amassed a modest collection of Mothership adventures that we can play as one shots or as an episodic campaign of unconnected adventures. Once I feel I have a good grasp of the game, I'll try my hand at creating some adventures of my own. There's plenty of inspiration out there.


Launching a Campaign?

I have thoughts about a possible campaign. However, I have no plans to run one until that nebulous time known as later. Best to let my ideas cook while I get some experience with the game.

A Traveller-style, murder hobos for hire campaign can be run using Mothership with little or no modification. Just replace the nobles with corporate executives to make the setting more of a late stage capitalist interstellar hellscape. It would also be fairly straightforward to adapt Traveller adventures like Death Station to Mothership.

Other games that can be mined for inspiration include Star Frontiers and Ashen Stars. Something would need to be done with the playable aliens, but there are setting elements and adventures that could be adapted without too much effort.

That said, I'd likely go with a campaign of my own design. Salvagers who sometimes run cargo as space truckers to make ends meet sounds exciting. The Warden's Operation Manual discusses salvagers and space truckers as separate ideas for campaigns, but I have ideas for a mashup.

Screenshot from The Cycle Fronter by Yager Development. Image from The Cycle Frontier press kit.

Salvaging supposedly abandoned settlements might resemble the now dead Escape From Tarkov clone The Cycle Frontier. Going to distant worlds to explore overgrown structures hosting native critters while dealing with trigger happy competitors. Salvaging derelicts in space might look like Hardspace Shipbreaker. Cutting valuable bits out of obsolete ships while dealing with the dangers of depressurization, radiation, temperate extremes, substandard equipment, and the occasional ghost ship haunted by rogue AI. I'd add things like cultists who like privacy and a little cosmic horror for spice.

Cargo hauling would be blue collar space horror with a system that could fake a functioning economy so moving freight across interstellar distances makes some kind of sense. Of course, that cargo might not be what the manifest says it is. Or the temptation to increase profits by smuggling contraband might attract the wrong kind of attention.

Combining the two allows switching between the two modes of play. Salvaging doesn't always cover the bills, so the crew has to find some cargoes to haul. Which has its own challenges. At least, until rumors of more salvage reach their ears.

An economic system would be handy for finding markets to sell salvage or contraband. The Warden's Operation Manual has a basic economic system, but I'd to look to sources like Far Trader and Starports for GURPS Traveller for more details. Upward mobility is still impossible in Mothership, but the player characters might not live long enough to see their hopes for it crushed.

Fantasy Foods - Tacos Exist in the Forgotten Realms, Learn to Deal With It

This is an opinion piece. I have opinions. This should not come as a surprise.

I believe this is a cropped depiction of the spell "Hero's Feast" for the 2024 version of D&D 5e. I'm not sure because I couldn't care less about that game.

Last week, divorced dude @osgamer74 saw the image above and lost his damn mind. Unable to contain his boundless outrage, he took to X/Twitter and made it everybody else's problem.

This is not a cool, measured response.

Getting this worked up about a halfling eating a taco and sushi existing in a TTRPG fantasy setting is just sad. @osgamer74 wasn't alone in his sad outburst. He also wasn't alone in getting roasted on X/Twitter for it.

In the Bearded Halfling's defense, he wasn't the one who came out swinging.

I have mixed feelings about social media in general and X/Twitter specifically. Still, the post by @osgamer74 is like putting chum in the water. Somebody is gonna smell blood and show up looking to sink their teeth into something fishy. He could have been less emotional and typed out something like: "I don't feel that tacos and sushi fit the vibe in my game, but others are welcome to do whatever they want at their tables." Unfortunately, @osgamer74 posted what he posted and the result was something called engagement.

Many of first wave of responses pointed out that there were many foods and other items pictured along with the "nonsense" that @osgamer74 choose to rant about. Here's a partial list since I'm sure I missed something:

• A pumpkin
• Potatoes
• Peppers
• Tomatoes
• A tea pot
• Samosas
• A paper cocktail umbrella in a drinking glass

The pattern here is that none of these fit into a TTRPG campaign themed around medieval Europe. Most of the foods are native to the Americas. Tea was first recorded as existing in China. And the samosa originated from the Middle East and India. I don't know when paper cocktail umbrellas came into being, but I'm pretty sure they are a modern invention. So - the counterargument went - why single out tacos and sushi given all the things foreign to medieval Europe in the image?

Well...

Open mouth, insert foot.

@osgamer74 makes it clear that historical accuracy wasn't his issue. It's the presence of food that's not "normal" to him. Never mind that a hard shelled taco is about as gringo as a food can get. And that sushi is available in American supermarkets these days.

Having clarified his views, @osgamer74 employed tactics that never fail when one finds their mouth full of their own foot. Personal attacks. Doubling down. And playing the victim. Arguments that make it obvious who has the stronger position.

Playing the victim.

Note that he's gone from the food in question being not "normal" to what "you'd see in the local mall" and I'm sure it'll keep changing to whatever @osgamer74 thinks he needs to win. It also will be everybody else's fault for not understanding his poorly articulated position. And I'm certain that whatever engagement that @osgamer74 was looking for on X/Twitter was not what he ended up receiving.

This is not the first time that anachronisms and other out of place elements have appeared in Dungeons and Dragons. Weapons, armor, and gear from a vast geographic area and ranging from the Bronze Age to the Renaissance have been part of the game for decades. The Monk class was introduced in the 1975 Blackmoor supplement when somebody wanted to emulate martial arts action. More crossing genres date back to 1976, when Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was first played at Origins II. (It was published in 1980 as part of the "S" series of adventure modules.) And people complained back then as well. It's just that it used to be confined to the letters in Dragon Magazine's "Out on a Limb" feature, fanzines, and grumblings in the local hobby store. Frankly, it was narrow minded then and its no better now that it's amplified by social media and the internet.

On the other hand, social media and the internet can spread new ideas, even about established settings. No less than Ed Greenwood used Twitter to answer questions and offer up new lore about the Forgotten Realms. Back in 2020, he responded to an inquiry about the existence of tacos in the setting he created.

Here is a link to Ed Greenwood's post on X/Twitter.

For those unable to access X/Twitter or can't see the thread in its entirety because Elon Musk broke the thing he bought, the whole thing is archived here.

Finally, here is a copy/paste of the thread:

From @LeslieCourtne14:

Dear Ed, are there tacos in Faerun, or something like them at least? If so, where would someone find them and what culture would they be in? Asking for my taco loving players.

Reply from @TheEdVerse, edited for this format:

“Taco” is not a name known on Toril, but fried hardcrust roundbreads (what some real-worlders might call pitas, but fried crispy-hard) that have been stuffed with a hot cooked mix of minced-meat, spices, vegetables (diced and fried onions and/or potatoes, and/or Brussels sprouts, and/or asparagus, and/or leeks, and/or artichoke hearts, and/or radishes, and/or mushrooms) and sauces ARE known and devoured eagerly in many eateries, especially in the Vilhon, the lands south of there to the Shaar and beyond (so, places like Innarlith and south to include Luiren and Var the Golden), and are slowly spreading along the trade routes in all directions, to Chessenta and eastern Tethyr and Amn, to Calimshan and the Lake of Steam cities, and to Scornubel. You can even order them in some inns and taverns (yes, they’re becoming “the new thing” in tavern fare) in Secomber.

The meat tends to be whatever’s plentiful and cheap locally, from lamb to rabbit and all manner of small scurrying things, from “tree-cats” [squirrels] to rats, and the flavor profile varies from merely savory to hot-spiced; most establishments will ask “hot” or “warming” (= fiery or mild) when you order.

So, a folded-over, exposed-spilling-edge taco is a rare thing indeed, and cheese-drenched tacos are a special variant version anywhere they can be had, but the same sort of ingredients in essentially the same combination (so, a flat, closed taco, which varies from a “handpie” in that it was never full of gravy, and its outer pastry is thin and fried crispy-hard) can now be had in many places.

What it’s called varies from place to place; along the Sword Coast it tends to be called a “fryhard,” in the Vilhon, a “crunchtart,” in the South, a “hotbite,” and along the trade-routes, any of these three or even something else.

Elminster and the Seven all like “handfry pies” made with six or seven sorts of mushrooms, parsnips, leeks or spring onions (all diced), and strong cheeses (no meat).

The shell of a Torilian taco, whatever it’s called, is often rather like cornbread in its composition. Or a crisp naan (and is sometimes made by “gluing” two round-tortilla-like discs together with cheese).

- Ed Greenwood, November 13 2020

So what we have here is something not called a taco, but is totally a taco. And it exists in a published Dungeons and Dragons setting. Of course, all we have is Ed Greenwood's word for it, but that's good enough for me.

I've found these matters are ultimately a matter of taste. Take pizza toppings, for example. I enjoy certain ingredients and I don't enjoy others. There is a temptation to label disliked toppings as "bad" or "nonsense" or worse. And to take offense when others push back against those terms. Rather than escalate, it's best to use such misunderstandings as an opportunity for growth. Learn what others like and why they like those things. Even if it's not to my taste, there's no reason to waste time and energy fighting about it. If I'm sharing a pizza, I'm happy to order the toppings everybody can agree on. It might turn out to be a cheese pizza, but that tastes better than a bitter fight and a spoiled time with friends. If we're all ordering for ourselves, they can do whatever they want with their pizzas and I can get a proper pizza with the correct toppings.

And now I'm craving pizza, tacos, sushi, samosas, and a drink with a cocktail umbrella in it. Not all in one sitting, though. But certainly all in one setting.

#RPGaDay 2024, Week Five

The fifth and final week of RPGaDay 2024 posts is here! All of these were previously posted on Mastodon and the RPG.net forums. Additional commentary exclusive to this blog are in italics.

Day 25: "Desirable dice"

The ones I just saw. Online or at a FLGS - doesn't matter. The set that made my eyes widen in wonder and light up in joy. Just like the set I saw right before it. A shiny set of dice I don't own yet are the most desirable.

No, I'm not a dice goblin, you're a dice goblin!

I'm not a true dice goblin. I'm not even the biggest dice goblin in our group. But I understand the appeal.


Day 26: "Superb screen"

When I use one, I prefer half sized screens. The one in the Mothership boxed set is a good example. Doesn't get in the way as much. Still difficult to reach for minis and snacks, though.

I don't like the ones that feel like I'm erecting a wall between me and the rest of our group. The one for Star Trek Adventures 1e was terrible. I could've been napping behind the thing and nobody would've been the wiser.

The screens for some games feel like they were deliberately designed to completely isolate the GM from the players. Why go halfway? Throw in battlements, boiling oil, and a moat between me and the snacks! Oversized screens are a major factor in why gamemasters don't like using the things!


Day 27: "Marvelous miniature"

The one I saw on that one time. The one that costs an arm and a leg, plus international shipping. The one that doesn't fit into any game I have on the horizon, but just looks so gorgeous. The one that will sit, in its packaging, on my pile of shame for ages while I work up the nerve to prime it. Best miniature around.

I don't have a problem. You have a problem!

I may not be a true dice goblin, but the urge to add to my vast collection of unpainted miniatures is something I've learned to manage.

Day 28: "Mimic, Describe a Monster" (alternate prompt because I couldn't come up with a "Great gamer gadget")

A mimic that emulates the appearance of a quest giver.

BONUS: A mimic that emulates the appearance of a tavern, including a quest giver.

Gotta keep the players on their toes!

I feel that a GM putting a mimic into an adventure is already halfway to pure evil. Why not complete the journey?

Day 29: "Awesome app"

I've just started getting into Lancer and the more I learn about COMP/CON, the more I like what I see. Rules database. Character generation. Encounter building. It's an all in one package.

The executives at a certain other company would look at a free web app like COMP/CON and think "we're not monetizing things enough" to themselves.

It's Wizards. I'm referring to Wizards of the Coast.


Day 30: "Person you'd like to game with"

As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I'd go with Will Wheaton. Or Todd Stashwick as an alternative.

And, no, I wouldn't ask them to play Star Trek Adventures. That's a little too on the nose, I think!

I have no idea what I would do when confronted with Wheaton's infamous dice curse. Other than not letting him touch my dice collection, of course.


Day 31: "Gamer you miss"

I grew up a Navy brat. There are crowds of folks I moved away from and would like to see at the table again.

There are many things I regret about having to move every few years as a child. Not that I had a choice in the matter.


Final Thoughts

The prompts weren't quite up to the quality of previous years, but having Skala Wyzwania's alternates available more than made up for it. Prompts like these are a valuable exercise and I wish there were challenges like this out there. I hope that you had as much fun reading my responses as I had writing them!

#RPGaDay 2024, Week Four

Here are the posts for the fourth week of the RPGaDay 2024 challenge! All of these were previously posted on Mastodon and the RPG.net forums. Additional commentary exclusive to this blog are in italics.

The prompts by David F. Chapman from the AUTOCRATIK blog.

Day 18: "Memorable moment of play"

My most memorable TTRPG moments involve GM plans getting derailed, falling into the sea, and being nuked from orbit.

The PC who took down the big bad in exchange for their own life. During their first encounter.

The time the PCs completely ignored every faction squaring off during the climax of a campaign to go after the NPC who screwed them over that one time.

Good stuff. I learned a lot.

As a #ForeverGM, it's usually my plans that end up forlorn, wet, and radioactive. Here's some of what I learned from these two incidents:

Dead means dead. Don't expose the big bad to danger unless the campaign is set up for it. If the big bad ends up dead, don't just have the second in command slot into the empty position. Make it clear that the actions of the PCs changed the setting. Maybe the big bad didn't tell anybody the plan or there wasn't really a plan to begin with. Many organizations don't have a way to deal with the boss being taken out of the equation. The lack of a succession plan results in a period of chaos and infighting that could be more destructive than whatever the big bad had in mind. In a F20 game, the party may have to interrupt any effort to rez the big boss while the infighting is going on.

Players have three basic sources of motivation. The players themselves, their characters, and what the gamemaster provides. What the players are interested in overrides everything else. What makes their characters tick generally comes out ahead of what the GM presents to them unless they align. And players have to be reminded of things that come up during the campaign. In this case, it's easy to see why the players responded in the way they did. Getting a shot at revenge against the jerk NPC might have been better presented before the campaign climax.


Day 19: "Sensational session"

A GM can't make a sensational session happen, but can set the conditions for one.

Consider how things look to the players. The GM knows everything except what's going on in everybody else's heads.

Be prepared, but not over-prepared. Things will go sideways.

Be comfortable with improvising. Things will go sideways.

Don't get married to an idea. Killing your darlings isn't mandatory, but sometimes they need to go.

A GM has to work with the players to make sensational sessions possible. Sometimes that means letting things go.

Cover for Skala Wyzwania's alternate RPGaDay 2024 challenge.

Day 20: "Battle, Encounter" (alternate prompt, "Amazing Adventure" felt too close to previous prompts)

Representatives of two factions that the player's aren't fans of are engaged in a pitched battle. Do the PCs wade in, hold back, or avoid the whole mess?

This is when I started looking to the alternate prompts offered up by Skala Wyzwania, an option I mentioned when I announced I would be doing this challenge. With all the prompts about one-shots, environments, and sessions, I felt that I had said everything I had to say about adventures already.

An encounter with two enemies (or non-allies) going at each other presents the players with an interesting decision. Screw them over directly or screw them over indirectly?

Prompts for the alternate RPGaDay 2024 challenge.

Day 21: "Disaster, Quest" (alternate prompt)

WANTED: Enterprising salvage teams to penetrate debris fields and automated defenses at Tyron V. Navigation errors during Tyron fleet exercises resulted in multiple collisions, triggering Kessler syndrome. Generous contracts to recover classified military hardware on surface available.

My response to the previous prompt about "RPG with well supported campaigns" covered anything about a "classic campaign" that I had to offer.

Naval history buffs might spot what Tyron is a reference to.

If I were to run this scenario, I would include at least one competing salvage team as a complicating factor. Because these things never go smooth. If I were feeling particularly nasty, I would make some of the hardware a rogue AI commanding drone defenses.


Day 22: "Notable non-player character"

A couple of simple things to keep in mind when introducing an NPC.

First, make the NPC interesting to the players. Making them useful or an obstacle to at least one PC is the easiest way. Connecting to a PC is more complicated, but potentially more rewarding. Otherwise, the NPC is just there.

Second, an NPC can be cool to a point. An opponent should have flaws and vulnerabilities. An ally should never overshadow the PCs.

It doesn't matter how cool a NPC is to the GM. The players are the audience in this context and they have to be entertained by the NPCs.

We all remember the worst days of Elminster, don't we?


Day 23: "Ritual, Mechanic" (alternate prompt)

If there is a ritual the PCs must stop, give them a fair chance to make the appointment. Don't keep information gated behind die rolls or a skill none of the PCs have. Where, when, and how to stop the ritual should come up in the investigation. On the other hand, the ideal way of stopping the ritual or the defenses around it can be offered up as bonus information that takes more effort to find out.

I just didn't feel like singling out a single "peerless player" from all the folks how have been at my table over the decades.

And, yes, this is the GUMSHOE approach to investigations in a nutshell. I never figured out what the problem with it was supposed to be.

Day 24: "Acclaimed advice"

Paraphrased from multiple sources:

Most TTRPG issues can be solved with patience and open, mature communication.

As advice goes, it's both revelatory and obvious at the same time.

The question "I'm having a conflict with my GM and/or players" comes up a lot in TTRPG spaces. "Have you tried talking it out" is the response that seems to get to the bottom of things the fastest.

One more week to go. I've been enjoying this challenge. I wonder if there are others like it out there?

#RPGaDay 2024, Week Three

Here's another week of RPGaDay 2024 posts. All of these were previously posted on Mastodon and the RPG.net forums. Additional commentary exclusive to this blog are in italics.

Day 11: "RPG with well supported one-shots"

My mind went immediately to all the different flavors of D&D, but I don't like that answer. Although adapting classic modules bulks out the number of one shots available to Old School Essentials.

Mothership seems like a game made for one shots. There's an array of pamphlet adventures available. The vast majority written by third parties.

The sheer volume of adventures available for all the different versions of D&D, Pathfinder, et cetera offers the F20 community unmatched support for one shots. I acknowledge and accept that, but I don't have to like it.


Day 12: "RPG with well supported campaigns"

There's plenty of TTRPGs with iconic campaigns out there. "Masks of Nyarlathotep" for Call of Cthulhu. "The Pirates of Drinax" and "Deepnight Revelation" for Traveller. I hear any campaign touched by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan turns to gold. All kinds of stuff out there for OSR. I really only worry about the health of a game if it doesn't have at least one solid campaign published for it.

Having at least one well-regarded campaign available feels like a strong structural element for a TTRPG line. A good introductory adventure helps start groups off. A campaign sustains interest and builds up a gamemaster's confidence in creating their own campaigns.


Day 13: "Evocative environments"

Rain fits into most settings. Unless the game is set a desert. Or underwater.

Narratively, rain evokes mood. A light spring shower followed by a rainbow. Low, oppressive clouds making day into a wet, neon-lit night. A soaking storm casting lightning above a muddy battlefield.

Mechanically, rain effects tactics. Darkness and mists reduce visibility. Boots slip on slick ground. Mud imposes movement penalties.

I posted about rain awhile back. It's one of my favorite tools. Rain can make most existing environments more interesting without permanently altering them. Dark skies and rain can change the mood for a session. A storm can add drama and a little more tactical complexity to a climatic battle.


Day 14: "Compelling characters"

Having enough depth for contradictions. The brooding one who collects cute things. The cheerful one with a sense of humor that runs dark. No one note characters.

But contradictions don't equal depth. The overall type has to be established first. That takes a session or three. Or a character could appear to be a stereotype that is immediately contradicted. One takes work. The other subverts what already exists.

The underlying factor is complexity. A character that goes one way except for a few things sustains interest better than a character who just goes one way.


Day 15: "Great character gear"

As a #ForeverGM, I like gear that lets me feed information to the players. Could be a journal, a hard drive, or the Necronomicon. "Your character remembers a reference in the blog of that poor guy who disappeared a decade ago looking into the very thing y'all are investigating now."

Here's a response that I put aside in favor of the above:

There are players who scan through gear lists looking only at the damage numbers. If it can be purchased, let them buy Big Damage. If it needs to be found, put Big Damage in the game and let them seek it out. Sort out the balance issues later.


Day 16: "Quick to learn"

Most individual game mechanics are simple to grasp. It's when multiple mechanics run at the same time that games get labeled as hard to pick up. Combat rules often run into this problem. Many players want a tactical challenge, so factors like positioning and distance need to be modeled. Spaceship combat rules are particularly prone to being over-engineered to the point they become games in their own right.

Yes, I have beef with overly complicated spaceship combat rules. I can dig Star Fleet Battles out of storage if I want to spend hours crunching numbers and arguing about rules. Give me something that doesn't feel like a completely different game during spaceship fights.


Day 17: "An engaging RPG community"

I mourn the loss of Twitter's TTRPG community. "X" is a ruin lorded over by lunatics. Reddit is sliding towards the same fate. Discord is opaque to me.

Facebook groups manage to keep the flame going for their tribes. Mastodon has promise.

RPG.net is reliable. And it should be, if my "20 Year Hero!" badge has meaning. It survives due the mods enforcing the absence of conflict.

"Over the Hill Gaming" is a reference to my age. In case that wasn't clear before.

Online communities don't seem to last. Of course, I'm looking at the situation over a period of years and decades. Vibrancy fades, but those seeking fresh enthusiasm and bright ideas can find them. It does mean moving on, though.

Remodeling B4 The Lost City

In a previous post, I went over the preparations I made for running D&D module B4 The Lost City in Old School Essentials. In this post, I'm detailing the changes I made to the module during those preparations. My motivations behind those changes varied. Some things about The Lost City as written wouldn't land well with our group. Other don't fit with how I like to run things. Still others needed alteration to better suit the Nostalgia Tour campaign concept I was planning. So I had some work to do.

The Layout

Before getting into the meat of this topic, I'll provide some basic information about The Lost City. This is necessary to provide context for the changes I made. This information will spoil the module for anybody who has not played through it yet.

The dungeon in The Lost City is within a step-pyramid (although it could be called a ziggurat) at the center of a ruined city partly buried in the sands of the surrounding desert. The module presents each chunk of the dungeon in tiers. Tiers 1 and 2 are considered dungeon level 1. Tiers 3 and 4 are dungeon level 2. Tier 5 is dungeon level 3. Tiers 6 - 10 are optional areas that take the adventure beyond Basic D&D and serves as sort of an ad for Expert D&D. The optional areas are mapped, but only superficially presented. Work or skilled improvisation is needed to run them at the table. The Lost City's iconic monster - Zargon - is the last encounter of Tier 10, in room #100. Finally, an underground city in a vast cavern below the pyramid is presented with an isometric map and basic information covering critical areas.

The most significant change I made was opting not to run Tiers 6 - 10. As part of the Nostalgia Tour, The Lost City serves to kick things off and get the player characters to third level. Then the campaign could move to another classic D&D module like X1 The Isle of Dread or X2 Castle Amber. Tiers 1 - 5 would accomplish this nicely. The Lost City, as written, suggests collapsing the only set of stairs connecting Tier 5 to Tier 6 as a way of supporting this choice.


"Borrowing" Ideas

I'm not too proud to "borrow" other people's ideas, so I went looking for some. The Lost City is decades old. There are plenty of essays, blog posts, and YouTube videos out there about the module. Many of them describe the experiences of other gamemasters - how they ran it, the issues they had, and the solutions they implemented.

The B4 The Lost City Sourcebook

This is a collection of essays about the module. Much of it is from a real world perspective or expands the adventure's fictional background. The main value for me were the suggestions throughout for refining the adventure.

It was while reading through "Notes on the Underground City" by Jason Cone that I realized what was bothering me about Tier 5 of the dungeon. Tier 5 features a supernatural possession, Wererats, Doppelgangers, and mind controlling Werefoxes. That's three different kinds of shapechangers waiting in ambush and two examples of taking control of characters away from their players on the same dungeon level. I realize that OSR is supposed to be more challenging on players, but I also didn't want to go full Dark Souls on them. The possession stayed since it is linked to another encounter. The Werefoxes and Doppelgangers were changed to Wererats to tie things together more to my taste.

Dungeon Craft Ultimate D&D Adventures: The Lost City (Ep. #346)

Seeing how another gamemaster runs an adventure is always insightful. Even if the only insight is that different styles are different. This video's emphasis on OSR play was a needed reminder for me. The party's focus must be on finding food and water at the beginning of the adventure - they are lost in the desert and have been out of supplies for awhile. The players also have to keep in mind that encounters aren't balanced, most XP is earned from treasure recovered, and player characters start with hit points in the single digits.

I also "borrowed" the idea of setting up Zargon like a boss monster to wrap up the adventure. Zargon packed up his slime pool and relocated from room #100 to his temple in the underground city. The climax was an assault by every faction against Zargon's worshipers and their hobgoblin allies. The party's role was to kill off Zargon while his cult was dealt with off-screen.


Small Changes

A minor tweak I made was increasing the amount of support available in the dungeon. There is no town nearby as a place of rest and resupply. Allying with one of the three human factions in the dungeon provides a source of food, water, and rest. However, there is no equivalent of a shop for equipment. I ruled that any of the factions could provide standard adventuring gear at standard prices once friendly relations were established.

The final change was the result of a random encounter. The wandering encounter table for Tiers 1 - 2 features a group of gnomes exploring the dungeon. I expanded the encounter by providing the gnome leader with a name - Wigglewort. I also explained the presence of the gnomes to the party with a short speech by Wigglewort:

"We were sent out from our town on a simple mission: explore the underworld. To seek out new markets and trade partners. To boldly go where no gnome has gone before!"

Wigglewort and his gnomes stuck around for the rest of the adventure. They made contact with the three human factions and provided gear to the party at reasonable prices. In the aftermath of the adventure, they are setting up trade agreements with the underground city now that the cult of Zargon and the hobgoblins are no longer around.


Looking Back

I had a variety of reasons for the changes I made to The Lost City. The major one - cutting out Tiers 6 - 10 - was to fit the adventure into the campaign I'm running. Others - such as not having multiple similarly themed encounters on the same dungeon level - were a matter of taste. Still others - making sure that there was the equivalent of a "town" for the party and creating a "boss" fight as the climax - reflect a more modern approach to adventure design.

#RPGaDay 2024, Week Two

Here's the first full week of RPGaDay 2024 posts. All of these were previously posted on Mastodon and the RPG.net forums. Additional commentary exclusive to this blog are in italics.

Day 4: "RPG with great art"

A TTRPG art piece that stands out to me is in Mothership. It's a two page spread. One end illustrates "adjacent" range with a monstrosity grappling with some hapless figures. The other end is "extreme range" and can only be reached with an eagle eye, steady hands, and a smart rifle. All the ranges in between are detailed in similar fashion. It gets the range and distance rules across to players.

The piece I mention is not the greatest in execution, style, or similar terms describing the quality of the art itself. It stands out to me because it plays a part in explaining the range and distance rules in a way that can be immediately grasped by the viewer. Most TTRPG art exists to bring the setting to life. Which is a valid function. But this piece feels like part of the rules.


Day 5: "RPG with great writing"

Ideally, the narrative writing in TTRPGs shows what the player characters do in the game. The technical writing that goes into TTRPG rules explains what the players do with the game. The former generally gets the point across. The latter is where things often fall apart.

A recent game that both conveys the setting and clearly describes the rules is Mothership.

I go into narrative versus technical writing in TTRPG adventure modules here.

I almost went with how the writing in Old School Essentials is so clear and concise for this prompt. However, OSE does assume that the reader already knows what they are getting into.


Day 6: "RPG that is easy to use"

I have a hard time running many TTRPGs due to the number of wheels spinning at any given time. Most flavors of GUMSHOE are manageable. Old School Essentials is a breeze for me to run. Of course, OSE feels like cheating with the decades of D&D under my belt. I'm hoping to find other relatively easy to run games as I get more of my TTRPG collection to the table this year.

The difficulty I have with running complex systems with many things interacting with each other at the same time is exactly that - my issue. However, it does influence my buying decisions and I tend towards the more streamlined end of the TTRPG market.


Day 7: "RPG with good form"

Star Trek Adventures. I own most of the first edition line and there's not been a dud in the bunch. The original core book gets a rebuke for poor organization, but other than that, every book has added to the quality of the game.

I wasn't sure what "good form" was supposed to mean in the context of TTRPGs. From the responses I've seen, I wasn't alone.


Day 8: "An accessory you appreciate"

I'm not gonna name just one. Dice for when success and failure are both interesting outcomes. Fold up dice trays for when the little plastic bastards decide to go for a swan dive off the table. Miniatures for when relative positioning is relevant. Terrain, tiles, and sheets because they look cool on the table with the miniatures, but they aren't strictly necessary.

As much as I enjoy miniature wargames, my use of miniatures and terrain for TTRPGs varies. There are times when they help keep track of things in combat. There are other times when it just takes too much time and space to set up.


Day 9: "An accessory you'd like to see"

More sci-fi terrain NOT covered in skulls and two headed eagles would be great. And more generic sci-fi miniatures, terrain, and maps in general would be nice.

We all know what game setting I'm referencing here, right? Cool.

And - to be fair - I realize that it's hard to make miniatures, terrain, and battle maps that would work for Star Wars, cyberpunk, grimdark, and Star Trek equally well. But a man can dream.


Day 10: "RPG you'd like to see on TV"

RPG to TV adaptation? There's Star Trek, but that's cheating. Maybe Lancer? I'm reading through it and the setting is interesting. Plus there's mecha!

Let's play? Whatever TTRPG I'm trying to get my head around at the moment.

I always have time to watch more Star Trek. And I've long been a giant robot connoisseur.

I don't enjoy watching other people play a TTRPG. I realize this isn't universal. I do find value in let's play videos when learning a new TTRPG. Seeing a game in motion is more informative to me than reading an explanation of how a set of rules is supposed to work.