I've been running Starfinder recently, and with the final session coming up I needed to prepare the ship the party would be stealing from. However I knew I didn't need a highly detailed, highly time consuming map of the ship, but I also didn't want to run it entirely off the cuff. I was inspired by the idea of Point Crawls, so I ended up going with a flowchart map, as seen below:
I highly recommend this method, here's why:
Ease of Use: While not as rigid as a standard square grid map, it also isn't so loose that the players and the GM can still use it for reference.
Room to Expand: The areas and passages give an idea of how everything connects, but leaves room for improvisation at the table. How it connects can be left up to GM Fiat. For example the connection between the Living area and Maintenance might be an elevator, a staircase, or a series of floors that transition between the two depending on what the GM and Players need at the table.
Ease of Creation: I made this map in about an hour using app.diagrams.net. It's a free browser program than links right into Google Drive.
I know I'm not the first to use flow chart maps before, but I felt inspired to write up a quick blogpost about mine, after my friend told me to. If you end up feeling inspired an make a flow chart map, feel free to tag me @qw3rty_jp to show me!
Something I noticed a few days ago that has been bugging me to no end is how in Trad games, mainly D&D, there seems to be a problem with fights that are stagnant. The fighter rocks up to the opposing Orc and they stand there fighting until either one of them is dead or retreating. Compare this to all the best sword fights in movies you've seen. I'll link the famous Princess Bride duel, though doubtless you've seen it.
Look at the way they move around the battlefield, all while remaining engaged with each other. I want to replicate this in my combats. I have devised a system to solve my problems, inspired by Trespasser, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Mythras. While designing I had these design principles:
1. Can be bolted onto an existing system with little effort
2. Rewards the use of maneuvers
3. Encourages movement around the battlefield between those in melee
4. Does not significantly slow combat
Without further ado here are the rules, with design commentary at the bottom.
Strong Hits:
When you hit an enemies armor class or above and your die roll is even, you can confer extra benefits on top of your damage roll. Choose one:
Add +1 damage to the damage roll
Control the battle: Go on the offensive and move the battle somewhere else on the battlefield within reason.
Attempt a maneuver: name a maneuver you would like to attempt that your GM agrees to. Then roll the attack dice again, if you succeed, the maneuver works. Eg. Knock a sword out of someone's hand, kick them off a cliff, etc.
Disengage: Move away from the enemy combatant, this does not provoke an attack of opportunity.*
Designer Commentary
First, why the decision to make strong hits on a hit + even dice roll? For this I can thank Trespasser for the inspiration, where even dice rolls confer additional effects. I like this because it means these effects are going off 50% of the time an attacker succeeds, which means they happen often but cannot fully be relied upon.
The simple +1 damage is a back up plan, for when there is nowhere useful to move to and no maneuver an attack wants to use. It is only 1 damage because I want to encourage the use of the other options. It is also an easy option for most unintelligent monsters to pick.
This was the inspiration for the whole subsystem. By controlling the battle you can position yourself into an advantageous position or your enemy into a perilous one. For example jumping up onto a rock to gain the high ground, or inching an enemies back up against the edge of a cliff.
These are pretty standard maneuver rules. It is worth noting in these rules, you can still attempt to do maneuvers without getting a strong hit, only it takes your action. This may still be worth it in some cases, as you'd only need to succeed one roll, instead of succeeding an attack with an even number, then succeeding a second roll.
*While attacks of opportunity may seem counterproductive if my goal is to increase the amount of movement in combat, without it my system falls apart somewhat. Since in this system you can force movement on your opponent there needs to be an incentive not to immediately undo that movement. For example if you push back your foe to the edge of a cliff, without a reason to stay in that spot, your foe can simply move away from the cliffside. they may be more likely to stay there and fight if the threat of an attack of opportunity is eminent. Attacks of Opportunity do not activate Strong Hits.
Additional Considerations
Who can use Strong Hits?
If I were using this subsystem for a classic retroclone like Whitebox, I would probably give these options to Fighters and Dwarves. While writing this the system I had in mind was Knave. Since Knave is classless, I would give all PCs access to Strong Hits.
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So how did I do? I hope you found my idea interesting at the very least. This subsystem is still a work in progress, so if you have any suggestions or comments, please leave them below!
It's funny to see just how long its been since the last time I posted something. Time really flies by, huh. Since my last post I have a few updates to make.
Firstly: I released my first official ttrpg supplement! ACES is a hack of the game FIST by Claymore, which allows you to take on missions set in the wild west! Inside the 8 page zine includes new mechanics, character options, a mission generator, and a loose one-shot to get you started.
Second: I started a Call of Cthulhu public game at my college. I'm surprised just how popular it has become, especially since many of the members had no prior roleplaying experiences. One had never even heard of Cthulhu at all! I have a post coming soon detailing a one-shot I wrote for that public game, but for now I will just detail my experiences running. First it definitely made me a better Keeper and GM. With a constantly changing party the dynamic was always switching and I was always teaching new people how to play. Additionally it gave me a lot of experience running, which in all honestly I didn't have a ton of beforehand. And secondly, it felt very fulfilling to introduce people to the hobby that wouldn't have otherwise. The more people playing the better, especially if they go to my school.
Well that's all for this update. I have a few things in the works, but those will be for after finals are over. As always happy gaming and I look forward to the next time you stop by the Travelling Alchemist!
Today's Blogpost is about a simple dice game to throw into your games when the players are feeling lucky. It's quite simple, and is a good mix of luck and skill, in my opinion. It plays very similar to blackjack, only with d12s instead of cards. Here are the rules:
One person is the dealer, this is most likely the house, but a player with a particularly large sum could take this role as well.
First, the Players put in their bets. You can decide if the table will have a minimum or not.
The Dealer then rolls 4d12, dropping as many dice as it takes to get below 25. They then reveal one of the dice.
The Players now decide if they want to add more to their bet or fold. Again decide if there should be a minimum.
The players now choose how many d12s they would like to roll. There is no maximum, however if they roll above 24 they lose.
The goal of the game is to get above the dealer without going over 24.
Finally the Dealer reveals their whole dice pool. If the Dealer wins they take the bet, if the Player wins the dealer matches what they put in.
If anyone gets a perfect 24 that's called a BlackJackal, and they get the entire table's bets, on top of what the dealer owes them. If multiple people get a BlackJackal, then they split the pot evenly.
And that's it! This is a pretty popular game at the Travelling Alchemist, you can find many adventurers losing their hard-earned loot at our beer stained tables. Some shifty fellows even like to bet secrets and rumors in lieu of money.
If you want to have the players roll for a skill check on top of playing the game (for example Savage Worlds has a gambling skill), have them make the check. If they succeed let them add or subtract an extra die after their initial roll, to signify their character correctly calculating the odds. If a player wants to cheat let them make the skill check, then change the face of a die if they succeed.
However you play I hope you have fun, and Happy Gaming!
So today's blog post is about giving the PCs of your rpg campaign theme songs. Obviously, this isn't for every game but if your running a game where the PCs are supposed to be badasses, reminiscent of action hero movies and the like this may be the perfect fit. Especially if music is important at your table.
The setup would be quite simple. During your session zero have each of the players choose a song they think represents their character well. This might work better for a modern or cyberpunk setting so that the players can choose recognizable songs that wouldn't clash with your playlist. Add these songs to your playlist. Now you can decide how long you want your playlist to be. If you only play music during combat then you'll probably want it shorter, but if you play music the whole session you'll want it longer, maybe around 6 hours. When a PC's song comes up give that PC some sort of bonus.
A few ideas may be:
Give them a static bonus to their next turn (IE a +3 bonus to all rolls in D&D 5e)
Let them auto-succeed on their next action
My favorite, let them describe how the party gets some sort of edge in the scene they're in because of the PC's badassery (IE letting the PC describe how they use their stealthy skills to sneak past a security system, how they smooth talk with a crime boss, etc, etc)
Finally, my favorite use of this mechanic is what I call "The Blaze of Glory". At any time the player can either ask the GM to play their song or pull out their phone and begin playing their theme. When a player does this they take control of the scene and describe how they overcome the obstacles, defeat the villain, whatever. But at the end of the scene or song, that PC dies in a blaze or glory. This can create super impactful moments where a PC makes the ultimate sacrifice, all the while the song that highlighted so many of their achievements plays in the background.
Let me know if you use this in your own games or one-shots, and how you would modify it for your own use. Until next time, this is Drew of the Travelling Alchemist.
Recently I was back home for the holidays. While I was home I got my friends into Frostgrave and we had a bit of a mini narrative over 4 gaming sessions total. This all culminated in the 4 warbands finding the destroyed ruins of the legendary wizard Gorepin's manor. While his house was chock full of treasure, the ghost of Gorepin himself was there to protect it! Well at least he was supposed too... due to some unfortunate die rolls Gorepin only made himself known twice in our game. You may want to adjust the summoning target number if you run this scenario with your group. Below is the pdf scenario.
Here's some photos of some of the warbands I painted and the ruins of Gorepins manor!
The Final Battle
My Warband, led by Marieth the Ancient
A Friends Warband, led by Steve Craftmine
Another Friends Warband, led by Tombra
A final warband, pictured partially painted, led by Magus
Recently I've just had a session 0 for a campaign I am running in Savage Worlds where I decided to take inspiration from Cyberpunk RED, which I had ran the previous summer. In RED you go through what is called lifepath generation, where you roll for or choose various aspects of your character background, until you have a fleshed out Edgerunner of your own. My favorite part of the lifepath system is rolling for friends, enemies, and tragic love stories. With just these 3 things I was able to run my summer Cyberpunk campaign with little to no prep, and it was a blast. It also forced the players to work within limits, which as many of us know, limitation breeds creativity.
So while prepping this campaign I knew I wanted to do something similar. But, as I was now running a dark fantasy setting, not all the options would translate. So I took this as an opportunity to innovate on Cyberpunks lifepath system.
After a few hours I created the Your Storied Past table. with only 2d20 you can easily generate an invocative story from the past that frames your characters motivation. I have included this table below.
I tried to include vague but distinct prompts that would spark imagination when rolled together. For example, Signature Weapon could obviously mean your character has a cool axe, but it could also mean they've developed a technique as their signature weapon.
My table used this to great success, I'm happy to say. And all the player agreed afterward, most had never used random character generation, that it had led to very interesting characters which were slightly out of their comfort zone (in a good way of course).
In addition to this table we also used a slightly modified version of cyberpunks friends, enemies, and tragic love stories, as well as the relationships page from "This is Totally Not another D&D Fiasco" by Dyson Logos. Between the three resources, we are starting off our game with a lot of player cohesion and useful background details.
This table can be found here, on my google drive. It is Licensed under Creative a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 BY NC SA International License
