Roleplaying Character Journals
By Ravenhawk | March 9, 2008
One of the tabletop games I’m currently involved in is an air pirate campaign that has us sailing about, pillaging what we like, and generally being good little privateers. The GM knows a good bit about actual pirate history, so he likes to keep us acting a (relatively) realistic fashion. As such, being captain, I keep a log book in which I keep track of our food stock and other supplies as well as what we take from our various plunders.
Awhile after each session the GM posts a session review on the google group which he made for the group. He asked that the captain and one other person post character journals of what went down. While they are occassionally a bit of a hassle since I’m not always in the writing mood, I do think that, as a whole, the character journals are a good thing.
Not only do they serve as a useful reminder for what has happened in the past, but they help players to get to know their characters. They also serve as a good place for between play character development. Having your character reflect on the exploits that they have so far endured is a good way to figure out exact how your character thinks or to alter that thinking. Especially when you have longer term character development plans for a character that would take them a good way from their starting mental state.
As a whole, I thought that the character journals were a good idea. Even though I was the only one who didn’t have them as “optional” I’ve still enjoyed writing them. I’d be somewhat curious to find out if other people have used similar tools for development of their characters. So, drop a comment or email if you feel like telling a story.
Tags: Tabletop Games, Games, Character Development, Rixses, Role Playing Games, RPG
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The Answer to Life, The Universe, and Tabletop Dice Luck
By Ravenhawk | October 3, 2007
I was doing the ol’ “Read random old blog posts in cool sounding blogs” thing today and came upon this post titled, Blessing of the Dice Gods. In it, the author notes the effects upon players when cool dice rolls happen at cool times.
In the tabletop game I’m currently involved in, the GM made an interesting house rule. I’d thought it was a normal house rule for him, but apparrently he just made it up for our campaign. His system is a D100 based system. Obviously, therefore extreme action comes down upon a roll of 1 or 100.
Added to this is the random factor of the 42 roll. When one rolls a 42, crazy stuff happens. What exactly the 42 means can vary greatly. A minor roll ending in a 42 could make the players run across a random villager, running as though for his life, screaming, who suddenly stops and calmly walks away, ignoring the existance of the party.
A dodge roll on the 42 can make you get hit in a dramatic, hardcore fashion, or perhaps the arrow flying at you suddenly turns into a bowl of petunias. (That one actually happened.)
The edition of the random 42 has added a good emotion wrench to our tabletop games. When someone rolls a 42, generally there are groans all around the table, looks of horror on the faces of the players and a grin of sadistic glee spreading across the face of our game master. 42’s aren’t always bad, but they’re not always good either, sometimes they can spell player death or a random large baddie encounter.
When the dice luck happens at good times, it can really bring good emotional effects to your players. By having another number which entails extremes of dice luck, you add one more point which can bring that rush of exhillaration/horror to the group.
If you’re not a Douglas Adams fan, you could substitute 42 for another number. Having it be somewhere in the middle is probably best as it creates a polarized effect for the dice luck. If you like having random effects in your system, it’s a fun rule to add.
Tags: Tabletop Games, Game Design, 42, D038D, D100, Dice Luck, Dungeons and Dragons, Games, House Rules, Role Playing Games, RPG
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What Game Masters and Managers have in common
By Ravenhawk | August 28, 2007
So, I just read this post over at Coderific about What Game Masters and Managers have in common. It seemed an awesomely insightful and wonderful post… for someone who isn’t a normal Tabletop gamer. Obviously the post is aimed at those who don’t game much (or at all) for to those of us who have (and have a GM who doesn’t suck.) it’s pretty obvious.
If a Game Master doesn’t have good people management skills, they can quickly find their campaign falling apart as arguments break out between their characters. (Due to everything from PVP to who gets the last Dew) They also need to figure out how to take a group of people with diverse skills and get them to work together to complete a common goal.
As painfully obvious it all seemed to me, I guess if you haven’t had experience with a good GM, (or good management) it is quite the interesting point to think about. All things considered, the world would definitely be a better place if all our managers were required to run a campaign or two before actually being put in charge of people. And the higher in management you go, the more epic of a campaign you’re required to run.
The day gets slow, you can ask your supervisor to give you a retelling of his mighty campaign and the glorious deeds he set forth for his players. If nothing else, it would at least make the job more interesting, don’t you think?
Tags: Tabletop Games, Game Design, Games, Coderific, Game Masters, Management, PVP
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