Be A Better Gamemaster - PCs are not the Players

 

Normally I stray away from giving advice for gamemasters. I did better at giving advice for the players. But every now and then I just feel the need to say something. So guess no better time than the present.

I'm going to start off this series with one of the things that really irks me. It's when the Gamemaster doesn't seem to understand that the Player Character and the Player are different. They are not the same and it's sort of supposed to be that way. So stop expecting the player to be the PC. 

What the hell am I talking about? Let me explain.

To many times I've been at the table and my uber charismatic character is going to try and schmooze his way past some guards. So I tell the GM that's what I'm going to do. Then the response I get is "Well what are you telling them, lets here it" or they want to roleplay the scene and let that determine success or failure. Well you know what? I'm not an uber charismatic mother fucker. Nor do I think of great thing to say right at the drop of a hat.

They don't let you make a die roll or test against your maxed charisma or social skills. You, the player, are suddenly supposed to have all those skills in real life. Then you get told "oh well to bad" when you don't. 

So, gamemasters, don't fucking do that. If you or them want to roleplay it a bit that's fine. But don't let that be the arbitrator of success or failure. There still needs to either be that die roll or you let them succeed. 

Just like don't expect the person playing a character with all sorts of mechanical skills do be able to tell you step by step on how to check through an engine for a problem. Or the player playing the law enforcement officer to suddenly know every little law and ordinance there is. 

This also goes for puzzles, riddles, and how the PC can solve them. Their super brainy magic user is smarter than the player. Let them roll to figure it out if they want.

The characters are different than the person sitting at the table. That's the entire idea of ROLE PLAYING. So let them play the role a bit and let those really good stats or skill help move the character along. Not just the wit of the player. 

That's what I got this time. Short, sweet and to the damn point. If you like it go over to my Ko-Fi page and show some support. 

WttC - The Immunity Stat

 

Immunity

The world of ‘Welcome to the City’ is one rife with pollution, toxins and other nasty stuff that’s all around. This can take a toll on a human body, and it does. Especially for the Work Crews who have to venture into some of the worst areas of the city to take of their jobs.

The Immunity stat is how we keep track of how well their body is holding up… or not holding up as the case may be. Whenever the character is exposed to something highly toxic, gets splattered with waste or goes to long without their filter mask then a roll could be called for.

Rolling for an Immunity check is done by rolling a number of dice equal to your Immunity stat. Normally only one success is necessary although if there exposure is something drastically bad then a higher number may be required. This roll cannot be pushed. Success means you are fine but a failure results in your Immunity stat being reduced by one.

Every PC starts out with a six rating.

Now let’s talk about what happens as that level drops. For every point below six it increases the necessary XP to increase a skill or buy a specialty by two points. Example: If you are at a three Immunity then it will cost four extra XP. At a four you are at one negative die for all physical activities. At a two you are at two negative die for all physical activities and one negative die for all mental activities. At a zero they fall into a toxic shock and are broken and will die if not treated at a medical facility within a day.

Recovering Immunity.

If you reach zero and are treated at a medical facility they can stabilize the PC. The character then wakes up with an Immunity level of one.

You can receive a cleansing treatment at a hospital. This requires a substantial amount of money and a week stay in that facility. When finished you will gain back one point of Immunity and will make an Immunity roll. If you fail, nothing happens this time, but for every success you will an additional point back as well.

Also spending XP is another way. For every ten XP spent you will gain back one point.

Like what you see here? Then check out my Ko-Fi page to show your support. 

WttC - Year Zero Engine starting point

 

Reworking the game to use the Year Zero Engine from Free League Publishing. I'm really liking my experiences with that system so far and it's available for free to use. Going to try and push this one to actually make it to the playtest level, unlike before. 

What I've decided on so far. 

The four stats and twelve skills. Some modifications here to fit the setting but not much. 

Force (Strength)

Close Combat (Strength)

Stamina (Strength)

Marksmanship (Agility)

Mobility (Agility)

Piloting (Agility)

Machinery (Wits)

Observation (Wits)

Survival (Wits)

Medical Aid (Empathy)

Manipulation (Empathy)

Persuasion (Empathy)

Stealth will be a specialization instead of a skill. Computer Operation will be a specialization that works with Machinery since people who actually know how to do anything beyond the very basics with a computer are not that common. 

Stress Dice will be used. 

A health bar, similar to the one in Alien, will also be used.

Need to add in some sort of Toxic measure in there. To show how badly the toxic environment has affect the well being of the characters. Thinking of something similar to the Immunity Check that was in the old game Kromosome from the Amazing Engine line. Not sure how I'm going to do that yet.

That and the basics of Psionic abilities as well. 

My PbtA dislike in one sentence

 

Somebody summed up what I don't like about Powered by the Apocalypse games in one sentence really well. 

"The thing that many people miss with that is that PbtA isn't really meant for freeform roleplaying; it's about telling specific kinds of stories."

Right there. I'm here to roleplay, hopefully a good fun story comes out of it, but not always. I sure as shit don't want to tell a specific kind of story. This why every time I've played a PbtA game it has been my definition of 'not fun'. As little fun as a player I have means I sure don't want to be the poor fool trying to run it either. 

But guess what? I'm free to not like something. If you like it, good on you. Just stop expecting everybody else to think your favorite thing should be their favorite thing as well. 

EDIT: I've decided to add more comments about PbtA that just make me shake my head and walk away.

"PbtA is not a system, it's a philosophy. Don't go into a PbtA expecting things to be exactly the same"

Neuromancer — In Production | Apple TV+

Vaesen acquired

 

Well after giving the game a try at DieCon I knew I was going to pick this one up. So using my gift card money at the shop I work at some purchases were made. So now I have acquired the Vaesen corebook, gm screen and dice. Not sure when I'll get around to running it. Hell I still have to read it. But I'm thinking this one will be a great addition to game night once folks get used to the more rules light nature and overall strangeness. 

DieCon 25 report

 

Just attended a gaming convention called DieCon, they are in their 25th year and, for me, the first time attending. Went with my step son Zack and my friend Larry. I have to say we had a great time.

A lot of tabletop wargaming going on. Some great set ups on the tables. Some really well done scenery and miniatures. Boardgaming was also there in quantity including a free library of games to chose from for those just wanting to set down and play.

For us three though, we were mainly there for the roleplaying. Which there was plenty of. The usual Living DnD, Pathfinder Adventure League stuff and then a lot of others. Surprisingly there was no Cyberpunk RED or Borg products being ran. Those two are runaway popular right now so not seeing them was surprising. 

The first game I got into was Vaesen from Free League Publishing. Nordic supernatural roleplaying, and it was great. The rules, art, lore, just everything impressed me enough that it's going to be the next game I purchase. Had a fun time tracking down a werewolf and learning the difference between our western version of them and the Nordic/Scandinavian version. The group was great to play with as well.

Second was a Call of Cthulhu 7th ed game from Chaosium. Last edition I actually played was probably 2nd ed so I was just curious about the changes. I don't remember there being hard and extreme success levels in the old one. But overall mostly the same. Wanted to strangle one 20 something idiot in our group who kept doing stupid shit over and over. But we still solved the mystery and successfully finished the session with minimal sanity loss.

Last I played a game of Morrow Project. I love Morrow Project, especially the older edition they were doing. Didn't have a full group but we played on anyways. While it was fun I wasn't overly impressed with the way the guy was running the adventure. That and in the end he leaned way into the scifi a bit more than I like. Ah well. 

There weren't many dealers offering up stuff that I wanted to buy. Several 3D print folks which I have zero interest in. Miniature Market put up the most pathetic booth I have ever seen for a company their size. The Troll and Toad folks also didn't do anything beyond just having some books on a table for sale. The artist Brent Chumley was probably the best one there. Ended up buying a new mousepad for me and a T-Shift for my wife from him.

We preregistered for next year. Got a better idea of how to plan our games out better and I may even run a game or two there if I get a chance to playtest out the adventure beforehand. A lot of fun was had buy our little trio and we hope to get a few more locals to show up next year.