Cogwheel Gaming

Hello and welcome to Crash’s Course, a short form podcast where I share my thoughts and advice on playing and running tabletop role playing games in roughly about 5 minutes.

Last time we talked about railroading, so in this episode I want to cover the other extreme: Sandboxing.

You’ve likely seen the old joke: a pet or child is given a new toy, but they find the box to be far more enjoyable. Such is the pain of many a DM or GM, where they worked really hard on a campaign only to have the players adopt the first monster they encounter, then – if you’re in my campaign – retire from adventuring and start a children’s theater.

My friends, I have a suggestion that I never would have made before I had 2 decades of teaching under my belt: What if you just … let them do that?

TTRPGs are collaborative, aren’t they? So why not let them have their fun? Sure, you still need to add things to the game as you’re controlling the whole world except for the players, but with them making all the big choices you’ll need a lot less time to prep things … with some caveats.

Sly Fourish (of slyflourish.com ) has some great ideas about this. I’ve borrowed some, changed others, and added some new things, but here’s the basics I follow:

Are the party seeking revenge for their home town being burned to the ground? Are they trainees in a Grand Company of adventurers? Are they shipwrecked and just trying to survive?

That story hook might be abandoned early on or continue to be the driving motivation for the characters, but its main usefulness is in its role as a catalyst.

I talk more about this in the last episode, so I’m just going to move on now.

Some of your secrets will carry over from one session to the next. Some will change or become irrelevant very quickly. Their usefulness is in the moment, where there’s a pause in the action. A plot point is getting resolved? Look over your “secrets” to see what you can toss their way.

As the campaign goes on, your “secrets” for each session should be direct or indirect results of player choices more and more often. If done right, it should be a mix of “you’re powerful enough to make a difference in the world” and “this is all your fault,” but how you mix those two moods is up to your group dynamic.

I like to keep all of my campaign secrets in a spreadsheet sorted by session date, but a notebook works just as well. If I’m ever hunting for inspiration, I think about what the party has done in previous sessions. We haven’t seen that NPC in months, what have they been up to? The party cleared out that haunted mansion last year. Has anyone or anything moved in since then? Is that better or worse?

That’s all for this episode, subscribe to just this podcast at is.aaronbsmith.com/@crashscourse or all my D&D podcasts at aaronbsmith.com/cogwheel for future episodes.

Music is Deadly Windmills by JAM from modarchive.org, used with permission, as it’s public domain.

This podcast is distributed under a CC-BY-NC-ND license.

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MP3 Download: Crash’s Course Ep 04: Sandboxing

The Kobold Union are literally dying of fright in their sleep. It’s Chadrick’s time to shine, and he hates this.

#DnD #Podcast #ActualPlay

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MP3 Download: Cause & Effect Ep 15: Kobold Sleepytime

Music Used: “Pandora’s Box (FB Mix)” by christofori is licensed as Public Domain and can be downloaded from http://modarchive.org

Hello and welcome to Crash’s Course, a short form podcast where I share my thoughts and advice on playing and running tabletop role playing games in roughly about 5 minutes.

This time I want to talk about the greatest of all DM or GM crimes: Railroading.

I get it, players. Railroading is evil. How dare the GM take away your agency? Your freedom of choice? Sure, they worked really hard on that battle map for Session 4, but retiring to run an in-game children’s theater is way more enjoyable!

I get it, GMs and DMs, how dare the players veer away from your cleverly and meticulously crafted plot line? Sure, they want to have some control over the destiny of their characters, but shouldn’t your hard work be able to be showcased?

As you might be able to tell, both sides have a point. The bigger point is that TTRPGs are COLLABORATIVE storytelling. There needs to be some level of cooperation between everyone involved for it to be FUN for everyone involved. Otherwise, you might as well just be writing a book or screenplay. Those are fun, too, but they aren’t TTRPGs.

In my own games I use a few strategies that for the sake of this recording I’ve named the following:

1. Backstories, Expanded

You all start off in a tavern. Wait, that’s cliché. You start off dead. How did you die? Well, that’s tragic, but there’s this deity willing to bring you back if you’re willing to help them with a quest. You in?

This example starts off with a scenario that the players agree to if they’re joining the campaign. Snippets like this are how I’ll introduce a possible campaign to my circle of friends, to see if enough are interested. With that done, railroading is less necessary because the buy-in happened BEFORE the campaign even started, and it’s built into the characters’ backstories.

I’ll also peruse the characters’ more detailed backstories for snippets I can work into the plot to keep them interested in the main story line. Is the trusted henchman of the BBEG someone from your past? An opponent? A friend? A parent? Well, you’re a lot more engaged with the story now, aren’t you?

To be honest, half of my favorite NPCs to RP come from those backstories.

2. Moving Rooms

The players went left when your quest giver was to the right. You had a great RP moment set up in a room that everyone just … walked past. The players latched onto the character you named after a letter of the alphabet in a moment of panic while they actively tried to kill the one with 4 pages of backstory.

No matter, just decide that the quest giver was on the left hand side all along. That room? Actually, all its contents are in this other room they’ve already decided to go to. Cee the Kobold? Their backstory is now 90% of what Cedrick Maximilian Flanderhoot IV’s backstory was, with just a little tweaking.

Is this a little underhanded? Yeah, but the players can’t see your notes. From their perspective, if you do this right, that was the plot thread all along. It’s amazing how they always make the best choices.

3. Burned Bridges

I’d love to say that the first two strategies are all you need, but we all know better. Sometimes missed opportunities are truly lost, but that doesn’t mean they were a waste.

The work you put into those bypassed branches might have been hard work, but it was good practice for next time and GMing really is one of those things that gets easier with practice. Snippets of inspiration might still be harvested from the metaphorically burned husk of that waterway crossing as well. A name here, a line of dialogue there, heck, I’ve reused whole dungeon maps turned sideways with the labels scratched off.

That’s all for this episode, subscribe to just this podcast at is.aaronbsmith.com/@crashscourse or all my D&D podcasts at aaronbsmith.com/cogwheel for future episodes.

Music is Deadly Windmills by JAM from modarchive.org, used with permission, as it’s public domain.

This podcast is distributed under a CC-BY-NC-ND license.

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MP3 Download: Crash’s Course Ep 03: Railroading

The party has found their ship’s crash site! Unfortunately, someone else found it first.

#DnD #Podcast #ActualPlay

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MP3 Download: Pack Tactics S4 Ep 11: Cleanup Crew

Music Used: “In heaven everything is fine” by JAM is licensed as Public Domain and can be downloaded from http://modarchive.org

Hello and welcome to Crash’s Course, a short form podcast where I share my thoughts and advice on playing and running tabletop role playing games.

This episode is for anyone out there who wants to start a D&D club. It’s something I’ve done, something I’m currently doing, and, oddly enough, something I’ve been asked about.

First things first:

If you’re a staff member at a school, you’re going to have a much easier time with this. It isn’t why I became a teacher, but being a teacher opens a lot of doors. If you AREN’T a school staff member, you’re going to have to find one willing to sponsor your club. All the advice I’m telling you to do here? They’re going to have to do most of it.

Second:

Get permission from your school administration. Most schools want a variety of after school activities, and considering the math, language arts, and storytelling skills inherent in any good D&D campaign, having a school club for it is usually a no-brainer.

Getting approval will usually include a lot of the planning. What age groups? What night will you meet? Will they have to bring anything? How much will it cost? How many can join?

Third:

Now that you have permission, ADVERTISE! I’ve found putting a bunch of permission slips in a manila folder and taping it to the wall in strategic locations is all I’ve ever needed to hit capacity for my clubs, but you might have to seek out those students who are a bit more excited for D&D and hand them a stack of slips to distribute among their friends.

Fourth:

Gather your resources. Have copies of the Basic Rules to hand out to each of the members if you don’t have the funding for Players’ Handbooks. I never have that much cash, so it’s great that I can legally distribute everything my students need to get started in a game. DnD Beyond is nice and all, but many schools block it and/or have rules against encouraging students to make accounts there to interact with staff. Mine does both, and no club is worth losing my job.

I also give each student their own set of dice. I buy a cheap bulk set of 6 dice sets with bags online and let the students pick which ones they want. I also have a pound of dice in a box that I keep at school in case they need more. This is my only out-of-pocket expense that is specific to my club.

Fifth: Have a Session 0. The first meeting shouldn’t have any actual game play beyond spontaneous in-character role playing, which I assure you does happen. In this session, go over what everyone wants out of this club. They might want traditional sword & sorcery, wacky adventures, or something in between. If you’re the DM, it’s your job to cater towards your club members. You’re here for them, NOT the other way around.

Sixth: After you know their expectations, you can help them make their characters. Some will need more help than others, especially if they’re new to the game. My own clubs have only ever had two students join who had played before, so character creation progress can be slow going.

To have it not be as much of a drag, I’ve spread out the steps in my own club. Once they had attributes and races selected, I tossed them into the start of the adventure to introduce them to the game mechanics. Other times I’ve handed out pre-made characters for that part before letting them make their own.

Seventh: Remember that DMing is like teaching – follow the process, not the plan, because the plan might well be shot after the first 5 minutes. If everyone’s having fun, you’re Playing D&D. It doesn’t matter if you’re only following half the rules for now – that still counts.

That’s all for this episode, subscribe to just this podcast at is.aaronbsmith.com/@crashscourse or all my D&D podcasts at aaronbsmith.com/cogwheel for future episodes.

Music is Deadly Windmills by JAM from modarchive.org, used with permission, as it’s public domain.

This podcast is distributed under a CC-BY-NC-ND license.

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MP3 Download: Crash’s Course Ep 02: D&D Club

Crash, Beth, Ellie, and Jen get together and play a rules-lite game about kobolds visiting a distant planet. #Podcast #ActualPlay

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MP3 Download: One-Shot: Kobolds In Space

Music Used: Bubble Machine by Drozerix

Original Rules: crashthedm.itch.io/kobolds-in-space

Ellie’s Kobolds in Space Adventure Generator: node.noelle.codes/kobold

Thank you, everyone, for taking part in this wonderful opportunity to own a small piece of land for a limited amount of time in Fantasy Florida!

… be warned, there still might be a plot.

#DnD #Podcast #ActualPlay

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MP3 Download: Cause & Effect Ep 14: Time Share

Music Used: “Pandora’s Box (FB Mix)” by christofori is licensed as Public Domain and can be downloaded from http://modarchive.org

Sooo … this is either a “between arcs” shopping session, we joke around for almost 2 hours, or both.

It can be both.

#DnD #Podcast #ActualPlay

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MP3 Download: Cause & Effect Ep 13: Intermission

Music Used: “Pandora’s Box (FB Mix)” by christofori is licensed as Public Domain and can be downloaded from http://modarchive.org

Sewer showdown! … Really, why is there always a sewer quest?

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MP3 Download: Cause & Effect Ep 12: Termination

Music Used: “Pandora’s Box (FB Mix)” by christofori is licensed as Public Domain and can be downloaded from http://modarchive.org

Time to enact the clever plan, just in time for other party members to drop in … literally.

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MP3 Download: Cause & Effect Ep 11: Bait

Music Used: “Pandora’s Box (FB Mix)” by christofori is licensed as Public Domain and can be downloaded from http://modarchive.org