Hello again. This time I will talk about keeping scores. What ever kind of scores you have to keep, grudges, money, items, favours, expenses, etc., it is important to do it as you go.
The best tool for keeping scores are a pencil and a notebook. I like to make a new page for each type of thing to keep score of. This is something I learned after playing with Mmimas Nasnan (my druid) for a few years. I have, right now, about 8 or 9 years worth of notes on her, most of which is not sorted (from the early days), so now and then I come across some loot that we have found and later forgotten. This is especially true with potions and scrolls. So now I have a notebook that have a page for each type of item/loot/score-keeping-worthy-happening and write down the scores as we go.
On really busy nights when I don't feel like flipping through the pages to write down things (or the DM is telling everything we found quickly, or I have forgotten the notebook somewhere) I write everything down on a single piece of paper, making notes for references, values, who got the item etc., behind every item. Then, later when I have a moment to myself, I take out the notebook and transfer the notes to the correct pages.
You can also do this on a computer, using a spreadsheet or something similar. I have actually been working on a document that I can share with Mrs. C, whom plays Cordelia Bukkenback, so she too can have easy access to the records and can add to them as she pleases. For this I am actually using OpenOffice Base to make a database that I can later search, edit and display at my leasure. I will, when i finish it, share it with you here.
Mrs. K
Thursday 27 December 2012
Sunday 16 December 2012
How to Start Dungeon Mastering
Introduction
So, you’’ve got your group of friends gathered, you’’ve got the books, dice and paraphernalia gathered, and you’’’re set to start playing, but someone’’’s got to master the game, and you’’’ve been given the honour of having the group entitling you Dungeon Master. Congratulations! Now what do you do?
Comment: For sake of ease, I will throughout this article use the term “dungeon master”, as I’’m a Dungeons & Dragons-player and have been for years. Read this synonymously with all other titles used, such as game master, storyteller, rolemaster et cetera.
The Planning Step
The more experienced you are, the less planning you’’’ll probably feel the need to do. When running your first adventure, it is always a good idea to start by deciding what your setting is going to be. Do you want your players to play an urban, rural or wilderness adventure? Should it be focused on the roleplaying bit, or should they explore the lands (over and/or below ground); should they be investigators or mercenaries; is the world high or low tech and high or low magic; do the characters know each other, some of each other or none of each other? All these are important questions you need to find the answer to. Let’’’s start by exploring them one by one:
Wednesday 6 June 2012
So you wanna roleplay? The beginnings.
Here. Grab a slice of cake and a cup of something to drink and I'll tell you what you should know about your first adventure.
So, you have made you character. You have found a group, and you have gotten a hold of the basics. Now you are ready to begin the first adventure. Your GM will most often give you a basic start. Most of the time my characters have found them selves at a packed in, finding one of only a couple of seats left, next to some more or less dubious characters. These more or less dubious characters are often the other PCs and you will end up in some way together, dealing with some quest or other. This is a GM's "go-to" start and you should either come to peace with it or suggest to your GM that he/she give a more detailed start. Just remember to do it politely and respectfully, and preferably before the first session commences. The GM do after all have the power over the life or death of your character (and it is no fun if you piss of the GM... believe me!)
Before you get together with the group you should be certain that you have a few notes scribbled down about your character's personality and look.
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| Tea Party the wonderful *AngelNess at DeviantArt.com |
So, you have made you character. You have found a group, and you have gotten a hold of the basics. Now you are ready to begin the first adventure. Your GM will most often give you a basic start. Most of the time my characters have found them selves at a packed in, finding one of only a couple of seats left, next to some more or less dubious characters. These more or less dubious characters are often the other PCs and you will end up in some way together, dealing with some quest or other. This is a GM's "go-to" start and you should either come to peace with it or suggest to your GM that he/she give a more detailed start. Just remember to do it politely and respectfully, and preferably before the first session commences. The GM do after all have the power over the life or death of your character (and it is no fun if you piss of the GM... believe me!)
Before you get together with the group you should be certain that you have a few notes scribbled down about your character's personality and look.
Sunday 6 May 2012
Alternative Rules - Wounds and Vitality
This article was first published at the Canned Blog titled D&D: Fordeler med Vitality and Wounds-systemet.
I haven’t written everything that’s relevant for introducing the system in this post, only the most important points. If you’d like to read the whole ruleset, I recommend you drop by The d20 System Resource Document and read through its contents.
I haven’t written everything that’s relevant for introducing the system in this post, only the most important points. If you’d like to read the whole ruleset, I recommend you drop by The d20 System Resource Document and read through its contents.
Health Points
Background and Advantages
Nothing makes a player more scared when playing role playing games than the idea of the character’s death. In many games there are ways of reawakening the character to life, but it commonly is very expensive, and unless the caster has access to the strongest magics, the character is punished with a lower level, less experience points and in general will have to struggle to get back to the level one was at before the accident happened.But all these are good things! It keeps the player sharp and not to power hungry, overeager or intrepid. There are as many systems for representing health as there are role playing systems – maybe even more – and in D&D the
“It is quite unreasonable to assume that as a character gains levels of ability in his or her class that a corresponding gain in actual ability to sustain physical damage takes place… Why then the increase in hit points? Because these reflect both the actual physical ability of the character to withstand damage—as indicated by constitution bonuses—and a commensurate increase in such areas as skill in combat and similar life-or-death situations… Each hit scored upon the character does only a small amount of actual physical harm—the sword thrust that would have run a 1st level fighter through the heart merely grazes the character due to the fighter’s exceptional skill, luck, and sixth sense ability which caused movement to avoid the attack at just the right moment.”
Disadvantages with Health Points
Wednesday 18 April 2012
Roleplaying as therapy.
One of the reasons I love role playing so much is that it takes my mind of all the worries of the day-to-day grind. It lets you escape into a world where everything is possible and let you act out fears, wants, dreams, fantasies, worries and all that jazz in an environment where you don't have to be afraid of stigmas, taboos and retributions that will affect you as a person.
When you play for long enough your character takes on a life of its own and you end up role playing situations that you would not ever put yourself into. One session we had, one of the characters snapped crazy and killed one of her own children. It was heart wrecking and disturbing and we fought with emotions on many levels, but as the player said: It was what the character did. It was not a choice the player did, the character went bat crazy. I was really impressed with Mr. K for putting us in that situation and sticking to it. An I was immensely impressed with the player that also stuck to it and played out something that was so difficult and disturbing.
I have been through many emotions with my characters. The strongest always come when playing with the characters I have had the longest and invested the most in. There have been times when my pulse have been raising when my character have been hit and her life seemed to be forfeit. I have been sitting with tears in my eyes as a dear friend of my character passed or left. Been flustered in outrage at a betrayal or in awe and puzzlement when something I totally did not expect happened. The measure of emotions pored into the game always correspond to the mood I'm in and how invested I am in the character.
When a character is new there is always the period of awkwardness when you get to know the group and the characters personality. The challenge is when you have learned to know your character and end up in a position where you as a person would do one thing, but the personality of your character tells you that he or she would do something different. This is especially difficult if the situation is morally questionably. This is especially something to remember when you choose alignment. If you choose to play an evil character how far are you willing to take it? Would you be willing to have your character do things that you would not even think of in your nightmares? Would you let your character do something so evil that it would make your hair curl and your milk curdle?
Examples of episodes that have made me extremely emotional in one way or another are:
When the pregnant-with-twins Mmimas, meaning well and trying to save the harbor from a storm, were out using all her magical powers to still the wind and waves around the harbor enough to let people save lives and equipment and was struck by lightning on her way home almost killing her and her children.
Or when Mmimas's new animal companion, the black panther "Pusi" was killed when attacked by jungle savages. I had tears running down my cheeks when she buried her.
Or the anger and sense of injustice i felt when we were at the hands of a tyrant who killed and resurrected one of our group just to torture her.
Or the joy and pride when our characters were given their titles and the huge statue from the king.
Or the gloating and feeling of triumph when I the big boss (a 7 headed hydra) that Mr. K had planned for us was transformed into a harmless goat, that we soon after killed with no problems, all within the first 6 seconds of combat. All because of a well placed "Balefull Polymorph" by the lovely wizard Cordelia.
There are mostly fun and hysterical episodes though. Like the episode where one character was trying to explain the birds and the bees to another character and used sticks and seeds as and analogy.
Or when the druid went totally berserk on the barbarian because he was chopping wood.
Or last session with the girl group when Mmimas was in labor and the wizard Cordelia had to teleport to the middle of the ocean to get a hold of the poor sod that is the father of the child.
Or when the artificer in another group walked straight into the wall because she was too busy thinking of how many limbs she wanted to give her next construct and ended up tipping a whole plate of beer cans onto a very grumpy dwarf and started a bar fight.
Or when the warrior and professional temptress, Vanyelee, lured a guard from the gate with the promise of a lust-full thrust in the shadows and chopped his head of while he was trying to untie his pants, and then repeated the whole process with the guard at the next gate.
Or when a very irritated and annoyed half-orc used an equally angry and frustrated dwarf as a battering ram!
As you can probably tell... anything can happen when you role play.
When I have a really bad day, if I have the energy, I long to immerse myself in a session of Dungeons and Dragons. To grab my character sheet and embark on an adventure.
Mrs. K.
When you play for long enough your character takes on a life of its own and you end up role playing situations that you would not ever put yourself into. One session we had, one of the characters snapped crazy and killed one of her own children. It was heart wrecking and disturbing and we fought with emotions on many levels, but as the player said: It was what the character did. It was not a choice the player did, the character went bat crazy. I was really impressed with Mr. K for putting us in that situation and sticking to it. An I was immensely impressed with the player that also stuck to it and played out something that was so difficult and disturbing.
I have been through many emotions with my characters. The strongest always come when playing with the characters I have had the longest and invested the most in. There have been times when my pulse have been raising when my character have been hit and her life seemed to be forfeit. I have been sitting with tears in my eyes as a dear friend of my character passed or left. Been flustered in outrage at a betrayal or in awe and puzzlement when something I totally did not expect happened. The measure of emotions pored into the game always correspond to the mood I'm in and how invested I am in the character.
When a character is new there is always the period of awkwardness when you get to know the group and the characters personality. The challenge is when you have learned to know your character and end up in a position where you as a person would do one thing, but the personality of your character tells you that he or she would do something different. This is especially difficult if the situation is morally questionably. This is especially something to remember when you choose alignment. If you choose to play an evil character how far are you willing to take it? Would you be willing to have your character do things that you would not even think of in your nightmares? Would you let your character do something so evil that it would make your hair curl and your milk curdle?
Examples of episodes that have made me extremely emotional in one way or another are:
When the pregnant-with-twins Mmimas, meaning well and trying to save the harbor from a storm, were out using all her magical powers to still the wind and waves around the harbor enough to let people save lives and equipment and was struck by lightning on her way home almost killing her and her children.
Or when Mmimas's new animal companion, the black panther "Pusi" was killed when attacked by jungle savages. I had tears running down my cheeks when she buried her.
Or the anger and sense of injustice i felt when we were at the hands of a tyrant who killed and resurrected one of our group just to torture her.
Or the joy and pride when our characters were given their titles and the huge statue from the king.
Or the gloating and feeling of triumph when I the big boss (a 7 headed hydra) that Mr. K had planned for us was transformed into a harmless goat, that we soon after killed with no problems, all within the first 6 seconds of combat. All because of a well placed "Balefull Polymorph" by the lovely wizard Cordelia.
There are mostly fun and hysterical episodes though. Like the episode where one character was trying to explain the birds and the bees to another character and used sticks and seeds as and analogy.
Or when the druid went totally berserk on the barbarian because he was chopping wood.
Or last session with the girl group when Mmimas was in labor and the wizard Cordelia had to teleport to the middle of the ocean to get a hold of the poor sod that is the father of the child.
Or when the artificer in another group walked straight into the wall because she was too busy thinking of how many limbs she wanted to give her next construct and ended up tipping a whole plate of beer cans onto a very grumpy dwarf and started a bar fight.
Or when the warrior and professional temptress, Vanyelee, lured a guard from the gate with the promise of a lust-full thrust in the shadows and chopped his head of while he was trying to untie his pants, and then repeated the whole process with the guard at the next gate.
Or when a very irritated and annoyed half-orc used an equally angry and frustrated dwarf as a battering ram!
As you can probably tell... anything can happen when you role play.
When I have a really bad day, if I have the energy, I long to immerse myself in a session of Dungeons and Dragons. To grab my character sheet and embark on an adventure.
Mrs. K.
Wednesday 4 April 2012
Happy Easter
Happy easter and Blessed Ostara for all you adventurers out there!
Things have been so busy here that I have been unable to set time to finish the post about creating your first character... or any other posts for that matter. I am currently working on the "PC sheet" for my main char Mmimas Nasnan Liljason, and some other projects, and will publish some more posts over the easter. But for now: Enjoy the hollidays.
Mrs. K
Things have been so busy here that I have been unable to set time to finish the post about creating your first character... or any other posts for that matter. I am currently working on the "PC sheet" for my main char Mmimas Nasnan Liljason, and some other projects, and will publish some more posts over the easter. But for now: Enjoy the hollidays.
Mrs. K
Saturday 17 March 2012
Character Development - Your First Character
Welcome again.
Have a seat and take out you dice, for today we will discuss the creation of your first D&D 3.5 character.
Here I will go quickly through the steps of creating your very first character, so I will not go into detail about races, classes, feats and skills etc. That is something I have planned for later.
So now you have gotten the first preparations out of the way. You have found a group and talked to the DM to check if he or she has any house rules that you need to consider. The thing you need to do now is to create you character. Mr. K usually does this at the very first session so that he can answer any questions that the player has. Ask your DM if he/she has any preferences one way or the other to if you should make your character at home or at the first session.
Here I will go quickly through the steps of creating your very first character, so I will not go into detail about races, classes, feats and skills etc. That is something I have planned for later.
So now you have gotten the first preparations out of the way. You have found a group and talked to the DM to check if he or she has any house rules that you need to consider. The thing you need to do now is to create you character. Mr. K usually does this at the very first session so that he can answer any questions that the player has. Ask your DM if he/she has any preferences one way or the other to if you should make your character at home or at the first session.
Tuesday 28 February 2012
Roleplaying for the absolute beginner - D&D 3.5
Welcome to "Roleplaying for the absolute beginner" an introduction to everything you ever would need to know when you are new to roleplaying.
Let us start with the bare minimums that you will need to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 since this is the game I play the most.
The very first thing you will need is someone to play with:
Let us start with the bare minimums that you will need to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 since this is the game I play the most.
The very first thing you will need is someone to play with:
Thursday 23 February 2012
Problems with the Economic System in D&D
This post was previously posted in Norwegian at the Canned Blog.
Background for the Problem
I have previously written a bit about the monetary system in D&D (i.e. D&D: penger); what works well and what could have been corrected and improved. According to the books, amongst others the beginning of chapter seven in the PHB, one can read that the monetary system is based on the silver coin as the base unit, and that an unskilled labourer can expect to earn roughly 1 SP a day. At first glance this seems to be “right on the money” with what the reality of Mediaevil Europe was, but try scrutinizing it, and problems shine through.
First of all: The adventurers hardly lay eyes on a silver coin at all. The monetary system in D&D is in other words a twofold system; there’s one for Joe Commoner, based on silver-coins, and one for the adventurer, gold-coin-based. Secondly: The enormous amounts of money the adventurers get their hands on, is beyond all sensibility; an average hero should during first level earn a couple of thousand GP, in other words 10,000 SP, which equals around 27 yearly wages for an unskilled labourer; this during just a few weeks. How can this make sense?
Wednesday 15 February 2012
Gadgets for the gamer - The Smartpen
The first thing I am going to tell you about is the smartpen. More specificly the Echo 8 GB Smartpen from Livescribe.
Welcome!
Please enter. Grab a chair and sit down and the table and I'll take you along into the wonderful world of roleplay and fantasy gaming.
I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I was 17 when my boyfriend, now husband, introduced it to me, and I have been hooked since. The thrill of adventuring and living out my characters gives me an escape from my otherwise sometimes dreary life and gives me a spark to carry on. ;p
I created this blog to have somewhere to share my ideas, creations and progress in the roleplaying world. I got inspired by my husbands blog posts on his DM-ing and decided that since I'm soon stepping into the world of DM-ing myself, I'd like to blog about it too. I'll also use tell about my characters that I have played with and their progress. I'll also try and share all the little nifty things I come over when researching and stuff.
I'll also share my experiences as a female gamer and I have asked my best friend and fellow adventurer Mrs. L, or Cordelia as her character is called, to author on this blog too.
So enjoy and check in from time to time.
I'll be here
Mrs. K
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