Skull RPG: Game Masters Tell Your Story

Hey Storytellers,

Sabotage is usually associated with planting explosives and blowing up a building. In a high fantasy or another genre that may not be an option. But that doesn't have to stop you from running a game of sabotage.

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How would it work? Well, think about sabotage being related to information or anything else that could hurt a rival faction or country. It doesn't have to be destructive in an overt way. Instead, it could be planting evidence on a top official, giving a known spy misinformation to then attack the enemy in a different spot, or it could be using some magical means to blow something up.

Hey Storytellers,

When most people think of a countdown they think of the classic sci-fi trope: the self destruct sequence. This is how that goes down. The captain is threatened and decides to start the self destruct sequence. Then the conflict is escalated and eventually, the clock is stopped with mere seconds to go. Everyone breathes deep and the credits roll - looking at you Star Trek.

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Ok, but how can you run something like this in your game that actually works?

The key is to NOT put down a stopwatch or other timekeeping device. Instead, figure out how many minutes you want to have in your countdown and translate that time into rounds in your RPG. So 3 minutes could be 30 rounds, and so I would use a 30 round counter (2d10 of different colors if you don't have a tens d10 die).

Or if you are running a battle and they have to hold out until reinforcements arrive in three days, then you figure out what waves of enemies are coming and when they will come.

Running a countdown can be fun as it adds suspense to the game session and gives the players an easy sense of purpose. Listen to the episode to hear even more ideas on how to run this in your game soon.

Hey Storytellers,

Battles can be a lot of work to plan, so here is how to think about them to make it easier.  Start with changing your square size from 5 foot to 20 - 50 foot squares. Then one figure represents multiple people (except for the players if they split up). Mages get their own square, trust me. Then infantry / cavalry / etc can each get their own to represent 100s - 1000s of troops.

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Then I would plan out the battle map and put in hills and flat places in a typographical fashion. Finally, you need to figure out what both sides are bringing to the table.

The last thing you need to think about is what spells your clerics / wizards are using. I suggest long-range spells and ones that change how the battlefield looks. Walls, stone to mud, grease, but fewer damage spells unless they are huge in size as a fireball could be only one square depending on the size of the squares. More tips and tricks in the episode so give it a listen.

Hello Storytellers,

War in RPG's can feel very much like a railroad, no options and one objective. One way to not do this is to give your players an objective, without telling them how to accomplish it. You could also add bonuses for doing more objectives - think like a video game where you have one goal to succeed in the mission, but there are three or for side goals that will make the war easier.

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War can also be boring as it might just be the same three or four things done repetitively. I would come up for your players to be able to stop the war, but with consequences. Listen to the episode for ideas on how that could work to end this campaign. Then you could move into the next campaign with different characters 20 - 100 years later showing what the player's last characters have done.

Hey Storytellers,

This is a favorite type of game and is used in many movies. This is basically where your players have to hold a location for either reinforcement to arrive or opening a door on the other side of the room while the rest of the party is fighting an unstoppable horde of enemies. The door opens and now you can escape.

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To do this correctly, you figure out how long do your players need to hold on. Then determine if there will be waves of issues / enemies coming at them or a constant stream of enemies and they need to escape in so many rounds or be overwhelmed.

Think Star Wars Episode 4 where the heroes go to rescue the Princess, but they botch the attempt. Then they are shot at and hid in a trash compactor to fight a monster and then finally escape only to face Darth Vadar and lose their mentor.

Or Lord of the Rings where they are being pursued by goblins until they get over the bridge with the Balrog, also losing their mentor.

There are many other ways to do this. You can bleed your players over time until they can fully escape, or have a fast action sequence for only 10 rounds or less until your players can close the big iron door and breath a sigh of relief.

Listen to the episode for ideas on how to incorporate this into your game.

Hey Storytellers,

Guard duty in most campaigns is just used at night while the players sleeping, but how else can you use this?

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You can use guard duty to escort a person or thing to a place. This could be a scientist, cure for a disease, secret plans, a little girl with new magic than many will want to kill.

In many ways, this is the Mandalorian. The child, "baby Yoda," is more of a liability than help because he slows down the Mandalorian and could be killed easily.

I would create a chart (gasp) to create the major obstacles to extract (think rescue or kidnapping episodes). Then list ways you can see your players overcoming each and what happens if they fail. I also like to have ways that my players can recover from a failure throughout the adventure. Different levels of failure is what I strive for so they can limit the damage coming to them, but maybe not always prevent it.

Hey Storytellers,

In this episode, we will discuss how to plan your players rescuing an NPC or maybe a captured player. This looks a little different from a kidnapping, which we covered in our last episode.

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Running a rescue mission requires finding out where they are being held and figuring out the security involved to keep them locked up. You can chart out each obstacle and what is needed to bypass each. I would also figure out what happens if they fail by less than 5 and 5 or more. Is there a recovery roll or do the alarms automatically go off?

I would tread lightly on doing any torture for information as many people (thankfully) find this to be a trigger. Instead, if playing with magic or technology that is greater than ours today, have the means to extract the information. Detect lies is a standard spell in D&D for example. You don't have to be that creative with it.

Hey Storytellers,

Sometimes your players will need to non-lethally subdue an opponent for a ransom or maybe just for a period of time. Your players may need to impersonate this character and it wouldn't make any sense if both your copy and the original person were seen near the same location.

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In this episode, we will talk about the mechanics around kidnapping a person and as the game master what you need to have prepared for this to occur.

You will need the person's schedule so that the players can figure out just the right time and place to swoop in and take the person hostage.

Of course, putting the players on a time limit to do the job means that they may not be truly able to know what the victim does on a Thursday afternoon. Is it like Tuesday afternoon since Monday and Wednesday were similar? Who really knows? This is where you as the game master can add in some excitement by having the victim's schedule be just a little different.

Hey Storytellers,

In this episode, we talk about how to bring in balanced items without breaking your RPG. Too many times game masters will want to do something cool and bring in a magical relic. The issue is the relic is too powerfully for just one member of the party to have it, but that is what happens. Now one person has a crazy sword that makes them a killing machine and everyone else has nothing.

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These items are known as a McGuffin - or an item that is used as a plot device to further your game. McGuffins can be a huge magical sword, powerful item of magic, the One Ring or other such artifacts. But there is a huge downside to using them improperly. 

They basically just break your RPG. Once the game is that unbalanced you only have two choices: 1) leave it alone, or 2) try to fix it.

But the level of thinking that got you into this problem may not be sufficient to get you out of it. So you either take away the legendary item (but it is probably your sole plot device) or you give others minor relics to help make it more balanced. Except now all of your monsters aren't powerful enough to stop the players and everyone is bored soon.

The solution to this dilemma is found in today's episode.

Hey Storytellers,

If you have read the Art of War by Sun Tzu he speaks about the 5 different types of spies. In this episode, we delve deep to show you how each of these spies can be worked into any of your RPG games, even if you aren't playing a spy game.

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The 5 types are:  (1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies; (4) doomed spies; and (5) surviving spies.

Local spies are those in a small area. If you are in another country and a local citizen is helping you out at peril to themselves then they are a local spy.

Inward spies are those that have some official standing with one of your enemies and they are willing to provide information to your side.

Converted spies are the typical double agent. You found a spy and converted them to give misinformation back to their side in exchange for safety, freedom and/or money.

Doomed spies are used by inward and converted spies to hand over to prevent their cover from being blown. Typically they are your spies that you are ok being killed to achieve your goals.

Surviving spies could be any of the first three types of spies that are kept alive or maybe even extracted if a situation calls for it.

See how each of these could be used in your RPG campaign in this episode.