Save Vs Rant

In our fourth episode, we get a little heavier and discuss the prospect of character death in RPGs.

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Some games aren’t meant to be played as long-term campaigns. In these games, character creation is usually quick and dirty, sessions and the game mechanics strongly support a rapid means of removing characters from the game.  Dread and Fiasco are examples of this, as are, to an extent, Microscope and Don’t Rest Your Head. With  the expectation that the game will only last a session or so, losing your character, at worst, means sitting out the remainder of the night’s session. In more involved games, losing a character means losing a significant investment.

In crunchier, rules-heavy games, it may mean giving up on a specific character build you were working towards. In D20 games such as Pathfinder RPG and Dungeons and Dragons, the player may have put significant planning into a build that works from 1st to 20th level, planning out what feats to take, skills to level up and prestige classes to join. In GURPS, a great deal of math and work may have gone into making the character in the first place.  In crunch-heavy games, losing a character means planning all over how to build the character.

In fluffier, plot-heavy games, there may be significant emotional and story investment in the character. World / Chronicles of Darkness characters often have significant histories, storylines, connections to NPCs and aspirations that maybe be lost or truncated if the character was removed from the game. In games like Song of Ice and Fire or FATE-based roleplaying games, losing your character (whether by death or some other factor) removes your tie to the other characters and setting.

Some groups use backup characters in games where death is more likely. This can be a satisfactory solution, and some game systems even support this directly. World / Chronicles of Darkness has suggested that a character’s Retainer or Mentor (be they mundane or supernatural) could provide a source for backup characters. The Leadership Feat in D&D provides a second character to the player, albeit one that is somewhat lower level than the original character, which could be used in a pinch. Other games may not have structured in-game rules for backup characters, but such characters could still be included as NPCs with as much or as little direct involvement on the game.

In some games, it may be suitable to institute a rule whereby characters are not killed “for-real” unless dramatically appropriate. Characters might be incapacitated or defeated, and (if the setting permits it) may die with the guarantee that they will return to life, but do not die permanently. For many groups the loss of character death may result in reduced interest in the game – after all, character death is a powerful motivator! For some groups, however, it frees the players to engage in riskier and, potentially, more interesting gameplay. Knowing that a simple misstep or failure won’t result in the loss of their character can leave them feeling liberated and able to play richer stories secure in the knowledge that at the end of combat, their characters will continue to play. A compromise – where the group loses if every character is defeated – is possible, and can be the de facto play style in more gamist RPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, where death is often little more than a minor setback.

Every game has default expectations for how deadly they will be. In games like Pathfinder RPG, a well-planned and cautious party can generally be expected to survive if their players are clever and competent, regardless of how strictly the rules are adhered to. In D&D 4th Edition, this is doubly true (although Fourthcore variants worked to counter that expectations). Vintage style RPGs tend to hearken back to the days when death in RPGs was arbitrary and sudden, while narrative RPGs are typically more survivable (though there are some notable deviations from this principle). Remember that unless you discuss the tone of your game with your players, they are going to come to the table with certain expectations for how “difficult” the game will be, survival-wise.

When running a game, it’s wise to set realistic expectations on how likely character death is. Talk to your players regarding whether they should avoid becoming attached to or working too hard on their characters. Let them know if you plan to run a game that is significantly more or less lethal than the game’s rulebook implies. Knowing what to expect from your game will, in nearly all cases, make the experience better for everyone involved.

In our third episode, we share our thoughts on crowdsourcing – where it goes right, where it goes wrong and what it means for gaming.

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One of the most disappointing things about gaming-related Kickstarter campaigns that fail to deliver is the damage they do to future campaigns. Every time a successfully funded Kickstarter can’t fulfill its promises, it casts doubt on future crowd-sourced projects. While Kickstarter proclaims quite openly they are not a marketplace, there is still an expectation that what is promised will be delivered, and sometimes that just doesn’t happen .

What stands in the way of funded Kickstarter campaigns being produced as promised? Apart from the less common malicious failures, there’s the fact that getting a project funded through Kickstarter is primarily an artistic exercise in marketing. You need some quality art, a good pitch and robust upselling in the form of rewards and stretch goals to expect to get a project funded through Kickstarter. While all of that is enticing, it doesn’t given any real indication of the ability of the creators to manage their workloads and finances.  Kickstarter first combated this by requiring projects to list the challenges the project might potentially face. Increasingly, Kickstarters are taking steps to show that their project isn’t going to fail due to inexperience, either by referencing their business credentials or referencing previous successful projects.

In a step that I feel runs counter to the spirit of Kickstarter, established companies have started to use Kickstarter as a way of gauging interest in the project. Since these companies are already solvent and capable of taking on the new project, the success of the Kickstarter campaign largely determines the magnitude of resources they put into the project. This can be good for backers, who are guaranteed that the project will deliver quality material, but bad for the Kickstarter ecosystem, reducing the accessibility to independent developers and, perhaps, overshadowing smaller productions. So, please, consider not only Kickstarters backed by major companies such as Onyx Path or CMON, but those by independent producers and up and comers.

The crowdfunding phenomenon has been the most liberating event in gaming since the d20 OGL. It has brought us games like Secret Hitler, Dungeon World, Scythe and many other projects that might have otherwise never gotten off the ground. It is my belief – and hope – that Kickstarter will continue to make amazing things possible, and that both the creators and backers become more savvy with regards to presentation and delivery.

With a wee few exceptions, every game features some sort of bookkeeping, be it tracking the position of the pieces on a board, recording important information about the player’s resources or simply recording the history of the game. In today’s edition of Save Vs Rant, we delve into this topic, discussing both front-end and back-end bookkeeping in games (especially RPGs).

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Because I know there are pendants in the audience (this is a gaming podcast, after all), I need to mention that I know the game of Baccarat isn’t “random,” save for how the cards are dealt. Ultimately, the outcome of any given round favors the banker slightly, and it is possible to count cards in Baccarat. The Wizard of Odds (an amazing site for researching casino games and learning about the math) has an excellent article about how it isn’t worth your time.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’d like to mention some resources that could help with bookkeeping in your games. I mentioned in the podcast that I use an initiative tracking pad. That can be found here in a Pathfinder branded version that is fundamentally identical to the one I use. It is not by any means the only solution. Using cards hung from a DM screen is another fantastic solution, and if you’re looking for something a little more professional than chicken scratches on cardstock, DM’s Guild has you covered.

Always try to keep your notes organized. I enjoy using 3-ring binders and notepads, but as time goes on, I become more comfortable using my laptop as my catchall solution for bookkeeping on the DM end. Beware of using electronics at your game table, however, because it’s easy to stop and peruse your favorite blog or get distracted by the siren song of the internet.

For player bookkeeping, I tend to use larger character sheets that allow me to cover more information. Compact sheets are great, but I prefer back-end bookkeeping to front-end, as I would rather spend a bit of time prepping for the game rather than slow down the game for everyone involved while I figure something out.

While not strictly bookkeeping, organization in board and card games can be incredibly useful in getting the most table time. Spending less time getting your little life tokens or meeple where they belong is spending more time playing games. The Broken Token is a great resource for game organizers (as well as metal coins and other game enhancements).

Bookkeeping in games can be one of the most daunting tasks for the inexperienced DM (or player even), and anything that takes some of that stress off you without compromising the integrity of the game is a good thing.

Power gaming has been a part of roleplaying games since the very first time rules were put to paper. It’s a natural part of the drive and motivation to “win” and an inevitable result of humanity’s will to compete.

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While we obviously can’t go into all the examples of powergaming in any given system – much less across all of gaming! – let’s take a moment to look at one example from my own experience that didn’t make it into today’s podcast.

One of my d20 players suggested using Shrink Item to shrink a boulder down to the size of a pebble. Then, the stone could be thrown and the command word spoken, causing it to crush the target with overwhelming force. The tempting physics answer to this is to state that the full size boulder only maintains the momentum energy of the pebble, causing it to immediately stop in flight as it lacks the energy to continue forward. He wanted to research/create a spell that would allow for enlarging items as well. This would allow for the counterpoint to take advantage of the ruling: take a tiny pebble and transform it into a fist-sized rock. Throw it, say the command word. The pebble is now a bullet firing as an insane speed, destroying anything in its path.

The obvious solution is to say that it’s magic, and magic works a certain way that doesn’t create such dilemmas, but a better answer is simply to say that the object flies with the same force as before, but to point out that in the first scenario, you’ve only increased the rock’s size category by 4 steps. So it deals damage from 1d4 to 3d6 – not bad, but definitely a sub-par use for a third level spell.

That’s a big part of the trick to dealing with power gaming – a lot of power game tricks request a strict interpretation of some of the rules, but a loose interpretation of others. Simply applying the same degree of importance to all the rules involved can clear up issues more or less automatically.

In narrative systems, powergaming is usually a bit of hammer-nail thinking. I’ve run World of Darkness games where players have tried to convince me of the totally legitimate combat use of Manipulation + Socialize rolls, or asked to roll Strength + Computers to punch a delicate piece of modern technology into submission. The big thing here is keeping your cool and encouraging player creativity without letting them run amok.

Powergaming will always be part of the gaming landscape. To some degree, it is a positive aspect, encouraging players to learn the rules and attempt creative solutions to problems. The issues lie in that it can cause a breakdown of the game, reducing the fun for everyone. Use your head, apply common sense, and remember that we’re all in this to have fun.