Villains are the RPG Gift That Keeps on Giving
Greetings and salutations, Nerdarchy readers!
Jim Carrey as Count Olaf in the 2004 film, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.”(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I was watching a show on Netflix while I was deathly ill (or so it felt to me) and could not help but be inspired to write on a subject I seem to be gathering a reputation for. Namely, villains who inspire the protagonist to excel into feats of legend. You see, like the villainous Count Olaf, a good villain will be a thorn in the protagonist’s side for a long time and alter their lives on every level. The thing is, in gaming it is too easy to create a villain who is a one trick pony or is killed in a single fight. For this reason, I am going to list a few things to keep in mind and a few things to avoid all together. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
The Name Game, Part III: Last Names, Titles and Sobriquets
I’ve talked about naming characters before in a previous article (the second one was about places, in case you were wondering), but I neglected to cover last names, so that’s what we’re going to talk about right now. Mind you, my advice before regarding making up names still applies if you want something super fantasy sounding like “Arthainas” or “Cerdoth,” but this one is all for the more naturally occurring names.
The TitansGrave role-playing game show is a top-notch production
Returning readers might make me eat crow for the RPG encounter planned for this session. D&D is hiding in shadows and moving silently this week while the Fantasy Adventure Game Engine sets the stage for Geek & Sundry’s TitansGrave: The Ashes of Valkana. There is a huge variety of live streamed and recorded RPG play sessions out there. The merits, value and impact are debatable among many, but not me – I enjoy them as entertainment and believe they add value to the hobby. For those reasons, I’m taking a closer look at my favorite programs and sharing not only what makes each program fun to watch, but what gamers can take away and bring back to their gaming tables.
With tabletop RPGs, sometimes you just want to play the damn game
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="456" class="zemanta-img"] Role-playing gamers at the Burg-Con in Berlin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] Here at Nerdarchy, you could say our bread and butter is talking about tabletop role-playing games, most commonly Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. We have videos and articles and a forum...
Comics and RPGs: Voices in my head
Have you ever played a possessed character? How about a Malkavian from World of Darkness? I love the crazy character, the haunted ones; they have so much to offer.
Now I think most Vampire: The Masquerade players and GMs know that the Malkavians aren’t necessarily crazy, that in fact they are speaking to someone through a dimensional wormhole or some other such story, but to everyone else they seem perfectly mad. Imagine if you were warped from the ’80s into the future “McFly!” and you saw all these people walking down the street talking to themselves? You don’t know what Bluetooth is, so they all look crazy to you.
How to Keep Players Invested in Your Tabletop Game
Dungeons & Dragons game in IV Getxo Comic Con. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Most of us come to the game to play it. Your players want to get involved in your world and your story, Game Masters, or they wouldn’t have come in the first place. Even so, though, you know the difference between a game people come to play out of habit and one they spend time away from the table thinking about. And let’s be honest, you really want that latter one, don’t you?
Of course, it takes more than just a couple of tips and tricks to run a great game, but having some of the right tools can’t hurt you. So let’s talk about a few ways to keep your players wanting more.
Secrets From The Dungeon: Roll Playing The Ego With Dungeons & Dragons
My last week’s article covered a brief character creation ideal, which was to create your Dungeons & Dragons character based entirely off your own ego. I think for most people, most characters are made this way, or at least partly. You might add features or traits that you have, eg. your character suffers from an untamed shaking in one hand that won’t stop due to real life PTSD that you struggle with. Or perhaps your character wears a certain handkerchief in one pocket as a symbol of a past event that changed him, and he wears it to remember. While these small details are mostly forgotten along the character creation path, to really explore those details can add a lot of fun and/or humor to your game play style.
Avatars in your Game
I’m not a huge fan of the murder hobo; I don’t know too many people who are. Every so often you have the option to really stick it to the murder hobo by saying the peasant he just killed was the arch priest of the Beggar God. That’s one of my personal favorites. And the next peasant that’s killed is the arch priest of the rival church of the Beggar God. That’s my second favorite.
Friend time: Does your group get together outside of game night?
This is one of those topics most of us would like to claim we do and, while there are a majority of us who play with close friends/family members, there are still those of us who only participate in the game and not in the after-game relationships to the people we game with. There is a certain level of trust and mutual respect that arises when we play with someone. It’s very difficult to role play when we aren’t willing to bond somewhat with the players we spend those many hours of play with. On the contrary, when we do invest even a little bit of time, we find we have much more than just another acquaintance; we have a friend, which is awesome! Who doesn’t want awesome friends who are open to playing, getting real and having fun?
Five Questions for Your RPG Character: Secrets, Fears and Memories
It’s probably safe to say most of us have been in that moment where you go around the table at the beginning of the game and introduce your character. You talk about what they look like. Some people go into detail about what their character is wearing, their mannerisms, some might grab sensory details like how the smell of smoke clings to her when she passes by. Others leave it at “I’m an elven rogue”, and that’s okay, too. Regardless, the party still sees how they generally conduct themselves after a few hours of game time.
The art of gaming without gaming! Trials and triumphs of a full-time nerd in a part-time world
There is no disputing that tabletop role-playing games, and Dungeons & Dragons in particular, are more popular than ever before. While still a niche hobby, that niche has grown considerably large, and the perception of it has shifted as well.
The moment when I realized how great a step forward the role-playing game hobby has taken occurred not too long ago. My gaming group musters at a coffee shop, hauling our books, dice, pencils and accouterments to a private room in the back. From 4-10 p.m., our group of middle-aged nerds leave jobs, families and other responsibilities aside to step into a fantastical world of make-believe. During one of our gatherings, I went to get a cup of coffee and the teen-aged girl barista asked me if I was with the group in the back, and if we were playing Dungeons & Dragons. I said yep, I’m the Dungeon Master.
“Super cool,” she said.
Rogue: The Most Dangerous Person in the Room
Do you have a rogue in your ranks? Lots of players chose the rogue because they want that key moment, that time to shine.
The general combat classes always get that. The fighter with swinging swords and chopping battle axe, the monk hitting twenty times per round, the barbarian raging through a horde of orcs. Even many of the other classes get to shine in combat, like the wizard and his trusty fireball or the cleric with her flame strike. And do not get in the way of a druid in bear form.
Dungeons & Discourse: Digital Media
As Nerdarchist Dave has mentioned in the past, the staff writers here at Nerdarchy.com have really started to gel. We’re putting together a module for Geek & Sundry’s International Tabletop Day that I think is fantastic, and we have a lot of great discourse, a majority of which is just for us. We share our perspectives with each other, elicit help, or provide suggestions. Sometimes we just talk about whatever. I think what makes it the best is that, even if we vehemently disagree with each other, or it’s a couple of us railing against the world, there is a genuine respect that allows us to know everyone is actually trying to listen to and understand each other, even if all we did was take a merry-go-round.
Experience schmexperience! Trials and triumphs of a full-time nerd in a part-time world
A item on my list of potential topics, a comment from Nerdarchist Ryan on a recent Saturday live chat, and something one of my players said to me the other day have coalesced into this week’s examination of different ways to approach your tabletop gaming hobby. A core concept shared by roleplaying games is that characters progress through an advancement system based on experiences. Different systems have different terminology for the mechanics, but essentially it involves accumulating a resource used to reach thresholds of advancement. In Dungeons & Dragons – the game I’m most familiar with – this is represented by experience points.
Running a Successful DMPC
Running a DMPC (Dungeon Master's Player Character) is not an easy thing to balance, I will give you that. The DMPC is a tricky and unique animal. But it’s not fair to say "never do this, not ever." I’ve seen them done well, and as someone...
