Solve the Mystery type plots

I have always liked plot lines that revolve around solving the mystery. The plots can be very intricate and details like in a solve the murder plot, or very simple like in a room puzzle.

The DM Design Kit, although very old and based on an older version of the Dungeons and Dragons rules is a fantastic resource for designing these types of adventures. It was the tool I used to define Mystanamyr's Cat. I think it is a great tool and at Only $4.95 USD (6.46 CAD) it is very affordable.

The product is made up of three books (all in the same PDF), the first book is the "Adventure Design Rulebook". This is the guts of the book, it steps through in detail the steps required to build a good adventure. Although this is based on the D&D ruleset, it is very easy to adjust the concepts to other rule sets. This is the place where you can read about how to build your plot, describe your featured villain, build traps, and my favorite a really neat way to define a chase scene. This is the valuable book for me, I learned a great deal about adventure hooks, planning, and plot layout. I also like some of the interesting documentation ideas presented.

The second book comprises a series of forms that you can use to construct your adventure. These are still based on D&D, and have a lot of info that other systems don't need. It is still pretty simple to adapt to other systems. There is a completed adventure used as a example through out the book.

Finally is the adventure cookbook. I have not really used this book that much, it is a create an adventure book for when you don't have a plot line in mind. By stepping through the process it will help you create a pretty cool adventure form nothing. I usually have too many plot ideas rather than too few so I don't get a lot of use out of it.

The only thing I really dislike about the product is the horrid scanning job. Every page has the text of the next page showing through the scan, and te pages are not scanned square.

Over all I really like the product and I am very glad I bought it. I would recommend picking it up (and I don't recieve any kick backs if you go and purchase it).

Game Dream #9

Mitch Evans has posted Game Dream #9

What is the most positive thing you have gained from your gaming experiences? How have games helped you with personal growth? How do you feel about your children (if any, now or in the future) eventually playing role playing games?

I think roleplaying has been a very beneficial activity in my life. I have met so many really cool people at the game table. The 'networking' that is available to me from that experience is invaluable. I can not think that I would be friends with many of the people I know if it were not for gaming. Gaming has been a largely a escapism activity but I honestly have learned some things from the process.

I think the 'deepest' thing that I associate with roleplaying is the benefit of objective self evaluation. As a player you can disassociate from the character and evaluate the characters personality, actions, etc. In the same way I have benefited from objectively looking at myself. It gives me the insight to make changes about myself (I am now a non-smoker for example). I have also witness that a radical change needs to be worked at. I am sure we have all witnessed a character switch personalities or moralities in mid game. What I have noticed though is that the player has to work at a new personality or the character or the old personality will creep back in. In the same way when you make a change in your life you need to work at it continuously.

I will most certainly introduce roleplaying to my daughter when she is older. I hope she enjoys gaming as much as I do.

Etger Finch

Etger was a sick a lot as a child. Growing up in the sprawl he never really got a chance to flourish. He spent a lot of time alone, looking at things, figuring out how they work.

Once he saved enough for a dermal jack, he started spending every available minute inside the net. This was home to him. He started designing components, then entire rigs. Soon he was getting offers from corps, to join the security teams.

Etger wanted no part of the Corps, he wanted the net all to himself. He started to build more and more sophisticated net constructs until he was ready. Then Feb 12, 2154 he did it. He permanently injected himself into the net. Etger wasn't as smart as he thought though, the transfer wasn't complete. Etger Finch, free roaming AI, lost his personal will. Now he exists only to help other hacks in the net.

When you encounter Etger he will initially appear to be a standard web construct but will have particularly avian features. Etger will not communicate, and will make no aggressive moves, simply attaching himself to the hack. Once attached he will follow the hack through the net until the hack gets into trouble, then he will attempt to help the hack out of any problems she might encounter. Etger might even wait around a entry point for the hack to return if they jack out.

Etger is in search of his lost bits of personality. As a construct he sees the missing parts as applications or programs and will not take it lightly if anyone points out that his personality dies with his meatspace body.

Etger was very good as a hack, he is even better as a construct. Etger has no physical stats in the real world (meatspace) but in the net (cyberspace) Etger is very formidable. He has Great body. Good Strength, and Legendary Agility. He has 4 basic intrusion programs: Great Stealth/Deceive, Great Block, Good Attack, and Great Repair. He has 6 utility programs: Legendary Crypt/Decrypt, Superb Evaluate, Great Search, Legendary Trace, Good Virii/Corrupt, and Good Deploy.

Once his chosen hack starts to attempt an action Etger will assist. Either by competing the action for the hack or assisting the hack, depending on the task and the hacks skills.

Usually Etger appears as an avian (finch) construct. He will take on the colors of his chosen hack also mimicking them in size. If Etger attached\s to a Corp security hack he will turn on the hack once he discovers that the hack is from a Corp security team.

Game Dream #6

Mitch Evans has posted Game Dream #6

Have you attended a game or media (i.e. comic book / SF) convention? If not, what's kept you from doing so? If so, how was your experience, and what can you share with others to nudge their decision one way or the other?

No.

I have one good excuse and one feeble excuse. The good excuse is location, location, location. I live in Leduc, Alberta, Canada. The nearest game convention seems to be on the other side of the sun. The cost would be prohibitive at this time. Now, onto the feeble excuse: location, location, location. I lived in Ottawa for three years and never attended Can Games in Ottawa or any of the Conventions in Toronto. Part of the feeble excuse is that I spend an horrid amount of time at work. This means my vacation time is pretty much tagged as family time, not that I would want to change that, it just means that it will be a while before I am going to attend a convention.

All that being said, both my wife and I miss Ottawa, so if I were ever to get a paying RPG job, even a small one we could visit Ottawa and write off the expenses. So anyone looking wanting to hire me to be a booth babe (for the record I am a 34 year old male and I am NOT in great shape) please contact me ;)

Game Dream #5

Mitch Evans has posted Game Dream #5

To what level (if any) do the groups you usually play with encourage communal creation of the game world? Are the players spectators, or do they actually have a say in the plot (moreso that just guiding it by the actions of their characters)?

I have tried to involve my players in the game world creation on several occasions with mixed results. I always start out by stating that I can not guarantee I will be able to incorporate everything that is brought forward, but I promise to do my best. After all if you bring forward a new variant of snakes I can't really introduce that into my game worlds (none of my home brew worlds have snakes, its a very unfair and biased rule, but its mine).

I have gotten three levels of response in the past: none, some, and too much. None is the standard response. Most of the time my players just want me to define the world and they are happy with that. It can be frustrating at times. Especially when I am trying to do some really sweeping story arcs that would require some really indepth investigation of character backgrounds. Unfortunately most of the backgrounds I received were "Bob was a large kid and grew up to be a warrior". None can also be a good response because it means that I have a blank canvas to colour in.

Some information is really the best response. In general it allows me the greatest freedom to plant my story hooks, while still allowing the players to assist in defining the flavour of the world. It is also the most work for both player and GM because a lot of extra communication is required outside of the game.

Too much information can be a killer. If you have to try to merge several seemingly incompatible world concepts it can become a real problem. If you have three players describing the same world, one as a frozen tundra, one as a planet wide desert, and a third as a global fain Forrest, no one is going to end up with the world they envisioned.

I have also tried (unsuccessfully) to set up a society game to be played concurrently with a character game. The idea being that each player would define a society and would play those societies shaping the history of the world. This game would be played as an offline exercise. At the end of each session the results from the previous moves would be revealed and discussed. The next set of moves would be due before the next session. This was planned to use the Fudgified Aria rules. Due to a lack of interest the idea never actually got going.

Game Dream #4

Mitch Evans has posted Game Dream #4

What is the role, if any, that movies and books play in your campaigns? When entering a new genre, how important do you feel seeing (or reading) a good genre example becomes? Have you ever been assigned a "mood" book to read by the GM, or gone to a group movie viewing? How do you feel about game-based fiction, whether "pulp" novels or movie attempts?

I have never assigned reading for a group. The only time I have recommended reading or movies is to people who are having difficulty with character concept. I always recommend they see THEIR favorite movie or read THEIR favorite book, then return with the character they want to play firmly defined for themselves. Once that is done we can make that character archtype work for the game we are playing.

Ever since reading the C.S. Freidman Cold Fire trilogy (Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, Crown of Shadows) I have wanted to play a campaign in that world. I loved the "involuntary" magic o the world. Similarly, I purchased Terra Incognita after seeing League of Extraordinary Gentleman. But have yet to play either.

Game based fiction is a mixed bag. Some I have really liked (The Horselords Trilogy), some I have really disliked (The D&D movie). I really enjoyed the shifting point of view in the horselords trilogy. The only praise I can give the D&D movie is that they did a good job of filming an actual game session, unfortunately only one player showed up so the DM had to supplement the cast with a lot of NPCs.

We went to see the D&D movie as a group. Our DM at the time got us all free passes. Most of the group was disappointed in the movie. Only one was pleased, but he went into the movie expecting it to be complete crap.

Game Dream #3

Mitch Evans has posted Game Dream #3

Some people play RPGs to enjoy a viewpoint or way of acting that they just couldn't do in real life. Others seem to play characters whose motivations are more their own. And some folks do all of the above and everything in between :) What character of yours was most like you "in real life"? Which of your characters is the least like you? Which did you find more fun to play, and why?

For some reason I find this question very difficult to answer. I can't recall a character that was "most like me" or "least like me".

As a player I usually have a very distinct character concept before I start development. I have stolen characters from movies, books, games, etc and tried to mold a character into that archtype.

I guess the best answer I can give is that I usually have a few of my personality traits (goofy sense of humour) in most characters. On the other hand I try to play character that are not just like me. I am fairly pedantic in real life and when I play a character with that trait I usually don't enjoy it at all.