Boardgame as RPG First Session

Paul Thornton over at Shortymonster put up a post talking about his love for boardgames and talked about Fantasy Flight Games and the use of a character sheets in many modern boardgames.

I’m a big fan of boardgames myself – in fact, my friends got me Arkham Horror for my birthday last year, and we got to play it again this summer.  Since I’ve done so much table-top gaming, it seems pretty natural to me to have character sheets along with a game, but I know that for the board game community, this is a relatively recent development.

From an RPG player’s perspective, it’s a GREAT THING!  It means that the barrier to entry for RPG’s is getting lower and lower.  Think about it – there are now a lot of people out there who, through boardgames, have experience using a character sheet and interacting with a rule-set through it!    Paul also correctly notes that playing with a character sheet gets the player much more involved with the game as a story or narrative, which is very good preparation for traditional RPG play as well.

My brainstorm here is that you can lower that bar even further by using a character-sheet boardgame as the first session of an RPG!  The obvious one that comes to mind is Call of Cthulhu with an Arkham Horror first session.  Keep the same characters, and allow things like equipment, spells and skills to continue over into the RPG game.

If you really want to do something interesting – carry over the events of the game into the start of the RPG.  Make notes of some of the major monsters that appeared and what happened to them when the game ended.  Use the Big Baddie as the ultimate antagonist in the RPG game, track the PC’s interactions with things like the Silver Lodge or the Police, and make quick notes about activities that the PC’s got up to in-game – you can carry stuff through to the table-top game very easily.

Using Arkham also gives you a ready-made base of operations, basic character backgrounds and a shared experience for all the players.  Heck, you could even give out XP based on the results of the boardgame.  Suddenly, you’ve gone from introducing a new way kind a game to an easy-to-grasp continuation of a game you already started.

I bet that both experienced and new table-top RPG players would enjoy starting a game this way.  In fact, you don’t have to constrain it to just games with stat sheets.  You could play a tactical game, like the Game of Thrones board game or Lords of Waterdeep, and start as agents/members of whatever group won the game – or the loser, if they lost in a spectacular and interesting way.  Just make sure to carry the events of the game over into the RPG sessions.

As I said, Arkham Horror is an obvious one, but here are some others that you could try:

Castle Ravenloft (for 4e D&D or a Ravenloft game)

Lords of Waterdeep (for any Forgotten Realms Campaign)

Descent (for any fantasy rpg, really)

Mansions of Madness (for more Cthulhu)

Shadows over Camelot (Pendragon or anything Arthurian)

Last Night on Earth or Zombicide (any horror or zombie rpg)

Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel (Mutants and Masterminds?)

Warhammer Quest (Warhammer Fantasy RPG)

Battlestations (Rogue Trader or Traveller)

Vampire: Prince of the City (Vampire the Masquerade)

This thread here has some other ideas, too.

Worst-case scenario – you’ll have a fun time playing the boardgame and have some neat plot/adventure hooks for when you RPG next.  Best-case?  Awesome board game that flows directly into awesome RPG, and you introduce some new players into RPG’s in a cool way.

Dungeon Mapp Review - Win a Free Copy!

This is a review of Dungeon Mapp, a mapping/gaming application designed to aid in playing tabletop RPG's using a tablet.

Full disclosure.  I'm not getting paid anything for this review.  In fact, I spent $10 to buy the app for my Android tablet.  Derek Proud, the creator, contacted me on Google+ and ask if I wanted to do a review, generously offering a full iPad version of the app, so read on for more information about the app and the giveaway.

I tested Dungeon Mapp Lite (the free trial version) on the iPad, and the full version on an Android tablet.  It can also run on some Android phones, but it's really a tablet app.

Before I go into too much about Dungeon Mapp IS, I think it's important to make it clear what Dungeon Mapp IS NOT.

Dungeon Mapp is NOT a VTT (Virtual Table-Top) like Maptools, which lets multiple people play tabletop RPG's via computer.

Dungeon Mapp is NOT a Cartography program, like Campaign Cartographer - it does allow you to map and save map files, but that it's really the primary purpose.

Dungeon Mapp is NOT edition or system-specific.  It makes a couple of 4e-related assumptions, but it really can be used with any dungeon-crawly RPG game.

That's what Dungeon Mapp isn't.  So what IS it?

Dungeon Mapp is an app that lets you quickly sketch out an encounter area, place tokens and run a combat.

Dungeon Mapp presents you with a gridded black background where you can use a variety of terrains to draw out encounter areas.  Its click and drag interface, with hold-to-edit options make good use of the touch screen of a table, letting you flesh out a room or area with just a few fast motions.  You can create tokens or use token files, setting some basic statistics (like HP and movement) if you want to.

Decals let you add some extra color and detail to your maps, and special tools let you add some nifty features.  One function lets you link multiple maps together - loading them automatically when you need them.  Another lets you automatically add all "party" tokens to a map with one click.  A third lets you hide parts of a map, revealing it with a single touch to the screen.

The interface is straightforward and easy to learn, and the tools work well, at least in the iPad version.  I was able to have basic maps sketched out after about 30 minutes of playing around.  I would have been faster, but I didn't look at the helpful tutorials right away.

An added bonus is that you can save map files, email them and even download some of the pre-built ones from the Dungeon Mapp site.  You can even download a version of the map I used for Totally Different Chapter 3 in my Blingdenstone Enhanced stuff.

I did have some issues with the software.  I found some things about the interface to be clunky - you can't scroll while laying down tiles, for example, and switching tiles requires going into a different selection window each time.  There also isn't an "undo" button - so if you mess up (and you will mess up), you have to manually fix it.

Still - these are the kinds of things that an interested developer - and Derek seems interested, can fix up.  They wouldn't get in the way of my buying this software.  Likewise, I had major issues with the app on my Android tablet.  I'm not sure if it's because my tablet (a Le Pan) is a POS - which it is, or if the recent release on Android hasn't had all the bugs worked out.  I suspect a little from both columns.  I also expect the issues will be resolved in the near future.

The big question is - should you buy this app?  It's $10, which puts it in the high range for app prices, but I could see it being worth the money if you fall into the one of these categories:

1) You currently use graph paper, chalkboards, dungeon tiles or other tabletop methods for gaming and you want to switch to a digital alternative.

2) You game in a place where space is limited, or you can't easily bring supplies.

3)  You play in your living room and don't have access to a gaming table.  For best results, hook a laptop up to your tv and screencast the tablet onto it.  Instant big and little gaming board!

4)  You want to play on vacations, car trips or trains.  This is really the perfect app for a kid like I was.  I had to drive 3 hrs each way to the dentist 1/month when I was a kid.  This would have been awesome for us to roleplay in the car.

If any of you have tried this app and can think of other scenarios where it would be useful, please put them in the comments.

If you would like to be entered to win the free full version of Dungeon Mapp, email me your name and email address at kootenaymurph at gmail dot com.  I'll announce the winner on Friday and send you a link to download the app.

If you DON'T want me to forward your email along to Derek so that you can find out news about Dungeon Mapp, put "keep this private" in the email, OK?

Have a great week and Happy Gaming!

Organizing Content: Google Drive

I see SO MUCH AWESOME STUFF on blogs around teh interwebz all the time.  

But I also have SO MANY BOOKMARKS ALREADY!  How do I keep this stuff organized and accessible so that I can actually use it in a game?

Have no fear!  For the answer – or at least one answer – is here!

The answer is called Google Drive.  It’s the new replacement application for Google Docs – think Google Docs had a love-child with Dropbox, and you have Google Drive.

I’ve been using Dropbox for quite a while now, and I personally love it.  So when I looked at how Drive is set up, I said “Fuck Yes!”  It’s basically Dropbox which links automatically to my existing Google Docs.  I can access it from the web, or install it on specific computers, where it functions like a standard folder – except that everything I put in the folder is automatically sync’ed to any other computer where I installed it, and sync’ed to my Google account as well.

That by itself is super-convenient, but today I found a couple of other features that make it even better for organizing content that I get from blogs or websites.

Feature #1:  Drive appears as a save option.  When I see a cool map on say, Cartographer’s Guild, I right-click on it and select “Save” – then, in my save dialogue box, I can just click on the Google Drive option on the left and save the file direct to the Drive folder – where it SYNCs to ALL MY OTHER COMPUTERS and DEVICES.  I can even save the file in a folder inside Drive, which is handy for keeping things organized.

Feature #2: Sharing via link:  If I want to share documents and files, all I need to do is upload them to Drive, click on the “Share” button, set the sharing parameters and copy the resulting link onto the blog.  This works the same way with Dropbox, and it’s how I posted all the recent Blingdenstone Stuff.

Feature #3:  The Recent List:  If other bloggers are good enough to share their content documents via a Google Drive link and I open them, the document is automatically added to the Recent List when I look at my Google Drive info on the Google website.  So as long as it’s up, I can find it again!  Excelcior!

Feature #4:  Dragging from the Recent List:  It gets even BETTER.  If I see a content file I want on the recent list, I just need to drag it from that list onto one of my folders on my Drive, and it will automatically download a copy and SYNC it to ALL MY DEVICES.

Feature #5:  ALL MY DEVICES:  This actually should have been first.  I have Drive installed on my desktop computers at work and home, my laptop, both my tablets and my smartphone.  Anything I put in drive is automatically accessible from any of those devices.

Feature #6:  Ask me about price:  How much does this godly application cost?  NOTHING!  Free and automatically linked to your Google account - with 2 GB of storage.  How can you not love this thing?

Tips and Tricks:

If you want to keep stuff organized in your Google Drive account, I’d recommend using several core folders.   Maps, Content (possibly organized by game system), Shared Docs (so you know what you’ve put out there), Campaign Info (for sharing with your players).

Oh, and Word Docs and other files can be edited by all people that you’ve specifically shared them with.  This is good for things like Campaign Journals and Character Sheets, but less optimal for your content – so post your content as PDF’s so they can’t be modified.

So other bloggers out there – if you want to make your content easy for people to access and use, post it on your blog, but include a pdf link to Google Drive.  I know many of us will thank you for it!

Dungeon Crawling for Fun and Non-Profit

I had a very interesting discussion over on Google+ today, based on some thoughts from Brendan from http://untimately.blogspot.ca put forth.

The initial discussion was about movement from this post: http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.ca/2012/09/on-movement.html

I thought I would have some interesting insights to share, because I've actually done a few things which are similar to dungeon-crawling. More similar than things most people have experienced, at least.

Sometimes, I gather a party, put on a suit of armor and a helmet, pick up a weapon and enter a dark, dangerous environment to search for treasure.

See, I'm a volunteer firefighter, which means that occasionally as part of training (not real so far, thank goodness) I do Search and Rescue practice.  The dark, dangerous place is a burning building filled with smoke and the party is my rescue crew.  The armor and helmet are my Bunker Gear, which is similar in weight to chain mail, and I carry a fire axe or a holligan tool.  The treasure is a person, or at least a dummy which weighs as much as an unconscious person.

I also carry a flashlight and wear an SCBA.  I usually look like this guy, although he's using a slightly different tool.


It's hot, confusing, exhausting and scary.  The weight of the gear limits how fast you can move, and you often have to work by feel in a limited-visibility environment.  If there were monsters in there, you probably wouldn't see them coming.

But then, if there was I chance I'd also find (and be able to keep) a huge bucket of gold, it might be worth it. Likewise pulling out a person would be very worth it - although they probably wouldn't let me keep the person either.

Of course, I've also held gold, when I worked up in the Yukon.  An Good Delivery-sized gold bar can be as much as 30 lbs, needs to be held with both hands, and you sure as hell wouldn't want to drop it on your toe.  It really makes you appreciate encumbrance rules when you do that - although I don't tend to be too sticky on encumbrance either.

But now I'm getting off-topic.  In my own game, I tend to rely largely on quick judgement made on-the-fly for rulings.  D&D Next's difficulty system seems to support that style well so far, but that style requires that you have a guy feeling for how hard things should be in order to set DC scores.

So let me tell you - crawling around in a dungeon, in armor, with all your gear... it's really hard.  There's a reason that professional firefighters make fitness a major priority.  Things like jumping, climbing and swimming are severely limited or nearly impossible, and fighting would be exhausting in short order.

Of course, it's a game, so do what's fun.  Game on!

D&D Next Playtest Session 2: More Lessons Learned

When 4e came out, my initial impressions were very positive. As a DM, I loved the streamlined and simplified encounter building system, standardized math and general ease-of-use.

As I played it, some of the shiny edges came off on my hands.  Dissociated mechanics made gameplay less immersive, there was limited scope for the kind of homebrewing I'd traditionally done, and the system really encouraged min/maxing and system mastery.  I still found it to be a marked improvement over 3e, the fiddliest system of D&D ever invented, but it didn't exactly do what I wanted.

What it did do, though, is spoil a lot of other RPG systems for me.  The level of pain in the ass involved in setting up encounters is very high.  So high that I don't have TIME for it, so I can't play it, even in an online format.

D&D Next still has a LOOONG way to go on this score.  Sure, building encounters is pretty easy. In fact, I'm finding my 2e and 1e skills coming back to me pretty quickly.  It's just that I can't seem to make them HARD.  Or even challenging....  I've mentioned before that the monsters need work in D&D Next, and the second session really confirmed this to be true.  Even the major threat of chapter 3, the wight, went down in 1 round.  He did get out in front of his zombie screen, so maybe that's my fault, but between high to-hit bonuses, relatively low AC and middling HP, everything in Next is glass cannon territory right now.

In the second session we had 3 players and 5 characters - 2 pre-gens, the cleric and the rogue and 3 player-made.  2 fighters, one dwarf, one human, and an elf wizard.  The party finished Chapter 3, clearing the Town Center (I still hate that map, but I started them on it before I redeveloped the chapter, so I was stuck) and retrieving the crown of Blingdenstone.

That basically made the whole 3-hour session a straight dungeon-crawl in the very old school. Well, it was almost old-school.  It had traps and secret doors and skeletons and stirges and a big fight at the end.   It just missed one thing.

It wasn't dangerous.

Most monsters went down in 1 round of combat - 2 at the most.  So that wasn't great.  It felt a bit like playing Skyrim on Easy difficulty.  You still DO everything... you just don't get nervous about it.  At least I didn't.  Maybe that just meant that the players did a good job.  They certainly fell back on old-school habits fast.  Listening at doors.  Checking dead-end hallways for secrets, careful advances with lots of scouting.  Light and line of fire maintenance.  It felt really good, and the standardized check and difficulty mechanics meant the thief was effective where he needed to be.

So - the GOOD:

Great old-school feel.  System was simple to learn and use - easy to make adjustments and rulings on-the-fly.  Felt like there was a lot more flexibility for me as the DM and for the players to improvise.

Thief was useful where you would expect him to be, fighters awesome in brawls, wizard reliable for simple stuff and occasionally throwing big game-changing stuff.  The characters felt pitch-perfect, actually, I really liked that side of things.

The BAD:

Too easy.  Need to raise monster AC by 1-2 across the board, hp by at least 50%.  And add more monsters to encounters.  But the combat is really swingy.  Characters don't have too many HP, so they can go down fast - the wizard got 1-hit to 0 HP by a skeleton archer, but maybe that isn't a flaw - he did charge ahead to burning hands the room, so....

It just feels like the difference between a challenge and a TPK is a few rolls or a couple of mooks.  Again, maybe it's always been that way and I just didn't notice.  It felt - precarious.  I like to have a bit more flexibility as a DM to lay on the baddies and feel like the party has the resources to pull it out.

PC bonuses are too high.  Many PC's get +6 or so to hit, which is too much when the big boss (the wight) has AC 14 or so.  The characters rarely missed, so things went down very fast.  I don't want PC's to need to roll 18's to hit things, but rolling a 3 should be a miss - and with zombies, for example - it isn't.

Next session will include more of the stuff I developed myself.  I'm using a number of maps from the extremely excellent Cartographer's Guild, along with Maptool as a VTT, and it's working a treat.  Hopefully by now some others will have also used my Blingdenstone Enhanced stuff, and can tell me a bit more about how that ran.

Hidden Enemies: The Cult of Urlden

I'm not happy Bob. Not... happy.  Ask me why.  Your enemy makes me unhappy, Bob!  This drow... she doesn't make any sense.  If she has a pathological hatred of deep gnomes, then I'm sure there are places she could have gone to mess with them, rather than skulking around a ruined city for several decades, grubbing for loot.  She's just another version of the wight that is presented in Chapter 3 - a weak excuse to have a drow show up.

There just isn't enough rationale for a drow to be obsessed with conquering Blingdenstone (in the case of the wight) or with fucking over the svirfneblin (in the case of Talabrina).  I mean - they're GNOMES!  Nobody really likes them or thinks they are cool, but by the same token, when have they ever pissed anybody off enough for a 40-year vendetta?  It's like an unprovoked nuclear strike against Sweden.

All this went through my mind while I was reading the adventure, but then I came upon Gak Fixen.  A "twisted and evil" surface gnome who worships Urlden and plays a mean flute!  Ahah, I thought!  The Cult of Urlden is just the sort of seriously evil and fucked-up bastards who would get a whole gnome city destroyed, then hang around and just enjoy the wreckage afterwards.  Serious Joker-style bastards.  Guys who just want to watch the world burn, then roll around in the ashes.

So that got me thinking.  If the Cult of Urlden is involved, how are they involved?  They've always been involved is the obvious answer.  The Cult has always had a presence in Blingdenstone, and now they want to reclaim the city, their ancient temple and maybe kill some folks while they are at it.  So for your enjoyment

Appendix 3 Revised - Claws in the Dark.

As presented here, it is fairly likely that the Cult will have a presence in Blingdenstone after the city has been reclaimed from the underdark.  I'll follow-up with more information about the Cult, as well as some adventure ideas for after the standard Blingdenstone adventure is finished.

Thoughts on Traps in DnD Next

I’ve been reworking Ch 2 of Reclaiming Blingdenstone, and since there are kobolds involved, there are obviously a lot of traps.

Actually (as my 3-year-old would say) there aren’t a lot of traps.  There are basically just nets that drop from the ceiling.  Over and over and over and C’MON PEOPLE.  TRY A BIT HARDER.  There is also a pit trap and some kobolds leaping out of holes in the walls!  Oh they are soooooo crafty.

But something is confusing me a bit with the checks involved in traps.  I also noticed this with the secret doors in Chapter 3. 

Let’s quote:

Falling Net Traps: Characters can attempt a DC 15 Wisdom check to spot either the net stretched above the passage or one of the tripwires near the floor. A character actively searching needs to make a DC 13 Intelligence check instead. If a character finds anything, the adventurers can search to find the three tripwires with three successful DC 13 Intelligence checks and avoid the trap entirely.

I’m sorta OK with the DC 15 Wisdom check.  It means that a rogue with find/remove traps will find it automatically (take 10 and +6 bonus from +3 default and +3 trained skill).  Is that good?  Less rolling means more streamlined play…  But that means that all these traps are basically no threat to a party that includes the pre-gens…  Which it’s assumed they will…  Sure a lot of text here for something that seems unlikely to ever threaten the party.  But anyways, forging on.

What I don’t get is "3 successful DC 13 Intelligence checks".  Why are we switching back and forth from Wis (useful for spotting things) to Int (useful for making you pretentious to talk to at parties)?    And why 3?  And why DC 13? 

If the party has a rogue, these are found automatically (Take 10 and +3 check default).  If they don’t have a rogue, they have to roll 3 times?  Why not just 1 roll with a DC of 15 to accommodate the fact that they have to find 3 tripwires?  More waste of rolling, and why would the mage (generally speaking) be theoretically better at finding tripwires than the rogue, who presumably does this in order to keep on living?  Makes no sense to me.

The whole thing is even worse in Chapter 3 with the secret doors and pit traps:

A successful DC 15 Intelligence is required to find this secret door. A successful DC 13 Intelligence check  made while searching the wall at the end of the long alcove to the north reveals a pressure plate. Pressing the plate causes the door to slide open. Otherwise, the door can be forced open with a DC 17 Strength check, which breaks its mechanism.

WHY INT?  Now the rogue doesn’t find it automatically at least, but Int?  I can see maybe the Int check to figure out how the door opens.  I like the idea of the wizard glancing over, then saying offhand “l expect that the pressure plate down at the end of the hall there opens the secret door.  That or the elvish word for ‘friend’”, then going back to doing whatever he was doing.   But spotting it using Int makes no sense to me. 

The pit traps are even WORSE:

Anyone searching for traps can find it with a DC 13 Intelligence check, and it can be jammed closed with two DC 15 Dexterity checks. Otherwise, the trap triggers when a character reaches the center of the hallway, dropping everyone in the hall into the pit. Those who are near the outer edge can attempt a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw to leap to safety.

More INT checks.  Was this written by a different person?  Are they paying attention to their own rules?  Who can say?  It’s like they don’t even know about the find/remove traps skill.  And now we have moved to Dex checks to jam it?  2 of them?  Adding to the fun, on the map their appears to be a 10-foot walkway on either side of the pit that isn’t included in the description…  If you’re going to recycle maps, at least try to pay attention to them.

It doesn’t do any good to bitch about this stuff if you don’t try to fix it, so here are my alternative takes on traps and secret doors:

Pit Traps: This hall contains a covered pit trap. The pit will be noticed with a DC 17 Wisdom (or find/remote traps check).  Anyone specifically searching for traps can find it with a DC 13 Wisdom (or Find/Remove Traps) check, and it can be jammed closed with a DC 15 Dexterity (or Find/Remove traps) check. Otherwise, the trap triggers if 2 or more characters are standing  on trapped squares, dropping everyone in the hall into the pit. Those who are near the outer edge and are wearing light or medium armor can attempt a Dexterity saving throw (Light armor DC 12, Medium DC 15) to leap to safety.

Secret Doors: A successful DC 17 Wisdom check is required to notice this secret door.  Anyone specifically searching the hallway will find it with a DC 13 Wisdom check.  A successful DC 13 Wisdom or Int check identifies a pressure plate at the end of the hallway that opens the door. Pressing the plate causes the door to slide open. Otherwise, the door can be forced open with a DC 17 Strength check, which breaks its mechanism.

Net Traps: Characters notice either the net stretched above the passage or one of the tripwires near the floor with a DC 17 Wisdom (or Find/remove traps) check.  A character actively searching needs to make a DC 13 check instead.  If the trap is noticed, a DC 15 Wisdom (or Find/remove traps) disarms the trap.

If a net falls, characters in the twenty-foot diameter area of the net must make edge can attempt a Dexterity saving throw (Light armor DC 8, Medium DC 10, Heavy DC 15) to avoid being restrained beneath the net.  A restrained character can cut the net with a slashing weapon (2 rounds) or escape with a DC 13 Strength or Dexterity check (1 round).