"Few days earlier..."

Few days ago I read a great article on slyflourish.com about strong starts of RPG sessions. Since this is merely a comment and one additional trick I came up with, I strongly recommend you to read the original article before reading this post. I am not going to retype anything what is in the article by SlyFlourish for two reasons: Firstly, the guy did a very good job and, secondly, that would be copyright violation in my personal view. So, read the article and come back to my comment.

I really wanted to introduce this pattern to my game, but the problem was I had the scenario ready and I did not want to change the beginning. I could have done that, but one of the main assumptions of the campaign is that the characters always start sitting in the kitchen of their house. Maybe it seems stupid but I have my reasons.

I came up with a nice trick how to bring these two goals together. Sly Flourish in his article gave examples of movies which have a cold open - the action starts in the first seconds. However, some other type of introductions in movies came to my mind. The movies I am talking about also start with a fight or other kind of a strong scene that attracts the audience's attention and gives no explanation what has happened before, but after this punch-in-a-face intro, the screen fades to black and we can see white letters: "Few days earlier...".

How to bring this idea to RPGs? Pretty simple: Describe the scene, the enemies, ask the players to roll the initiative and that is it! Let the fight go on for a few turns - I think playing the whole of it is not a very good idea since stopping it in the middle creates even more suspense.

The important part of the trick is to note all information about the fight, so, when the main story will get to the point before the few-days-earlier intro, you and your players will be able to start from the moment where you have stopped. I have even tried to remember the way in which I described the scene and the enemies just before the fight - I repeated myself to clearly state that this is the moment. After that I have summarised these few turns we had already finished and the fight could be continued.

the final word from me: I believe that the fight picked up for this kind of intro should not be the main fight of a scenario. The players will know the setting of the fight, so they will be able to prepare themselves in any way possible, and the point of this trick is not to make a boss easier to deal with, but to help them dive into the story from the very beginning of a scenario.

Few words about D&D Next and choosing the first system to play

Some may say that I overgeneralise, but for me RPGs can be devided into two groups: those focused on story, plot, intrigues and actual role playing, and those which are filled with much more numbers and statistics, what basically means that fights are on the spot, but, certainly, all RPGs are the mixture of that all. Generally speaking, I prefer the first group from the aforementioned two and that is why I consider Call of Cthulhu my favourite RPG, in which numbers on a character sheet are rarely needed and I have run a lot of sessions when my players did not even touch their dice.

The reason why I am typing all of this is that I played my first session in D&D Next yesterday and I want to share my feelings and remarks about this system and say few words about the first step which everyone has to take before entering the magical world of role-playing games, namely, choosing a system.

The first glimpse of D&D Next

Let us start with a small review of D&D Next. Since all my experience with this system was gained with the third edition, I cannot evaluate the new product of WotC without comparisons to this release. I had never asked myself a question 'what would I change or remove if I wanted to improve the third edition?', but after the first encounter with D&D Next I did and my list of  changes and removals consists of everything what Wizards have done.
The major change is the introduction of the proficiency bonus, what basically replaces the attack bonus, skill points, basic saving throw bonuses and the weapons and armour trained/untrained status. The rule is simple: a character class (and a background) determines in which weapons, armours, saving throws and skills your character is proficient, and, when you use them, you add, apart from other pluses, the proficiency bonus (which value depends on the level of your character) to the test result; if you lack proficiency when, for example, you attack with certain weapon, you just simply rely only on your ability modifier. That makes the play and leveling extremely easy and more enjoyable.
When my players were gaining a level in third edition, the biggest problem for them was to spend skill points and choose a new feat. As I have already mentioned above, skill points were replaced by the proficiency bonus, what gets rid of ridiculous situations when I as a DM had to rise the difficulty level to infinity to create a proper challenge. As for the feats, they are optional: when leveling you can choose between rising your abilities or taking a feat (if your DM permits them in his or her campaign). They are also more significant and give you really cool features.
The last thing I want to mention are Advantages and Disadvantages. Some tests in D&D 3.0 got really terrible when you had to add all the pluses and minuses from countless sources. In fifth edition, when something makes your test easier, you get advantage, roll two D20 instead of one and choose the higher result. The same thing is when something makes the condition worse, but in this case you roll two dice and you have to accept the lower one. For example, the elven resistance to enchantment effects which in 3.0 gave you +2 to the corresponding saving throw, now is replaced by an advantage. Simple, is it not?

Few words about criticising a system

When I read forum threads about various systems, their bright and dark sides, when it comes to D&D, people tend to criticise the fact that the system is focused mainly on fights, the most extensive chapters in the rulebooks are about battles and the 'role-playing' and investigating skills are underestimated. That is definitely true and it is hard to argue with that, but I cannot understand this critique. It is like criticising a screwdriver because it is hard to hammer a nail with it. This system was designed to provide this type of entertainment and if you fancy a complex role playing or unsolved mysteries, you should probably choose a different system. I do not want to say that any critique is wrong, for all systems have a certain purpose and they can serve it or not, but criticising the purpose itself is somehow pointless.

Choose your system

At first I was about to type here something like: 'before you start playing, choose a system that suits your needs.' That sounds like an advice from a rag and I am glad that I did not do that. First of all, it is rarely a case when someone starts playing RPGs on his own. I myself was introduced by a friend and the last thing I wanted to do during my first session was to dictate the rules. That is why I have two advices: one is for people who want to start playing, despite the fact that they probably are not here, and the second one is for people who want to introduce new players to RPGs.

If you have gathered a group of people and you want to start playing, in my opinion, the best thing you can do is to choose three or four different systems, and I am not talking about settings, like fantasy or SF. Some game mechanics are perfect for fights and others for solving complex crimes. If you get to know three or four different systems, you will have a choice.

If you are an experienced player or game master and you want to show someone what your hobby is about, you should make this guy aware that RPGs differ among themselves and each of them offers different emotions and experiences. Prepare for him several sessions, with several game masters, if possible. Do not assume that the thing you love the most, battles in D&D for example, is the best and everyone likes it - maybe this guy will feel better trying to survive in a haunted house playing Call of Cthulhu. To sum up: Give this new guy a choice!

Four words - an exercise for Game Masters

If you want to become a good game master, nothing is a better than practise. Recently, however, I came up with an exercise which, first of all, trains your imagination, teaches you how to respond quickly on unpredicted events on sessions, and leaves you with ready-to-use ideas or story hooks.

The whole idea of this exercise is to take four random words, ignore one of them, and by connecting the remaining three formulate a story hook.

Where I can get random words from?

The easiest way is to use random word generator, however, in that case I recommend to take six words and ignore three of them. Those generators draw, apart from nouns and adjectives, prepositions for instance, and even if you get none of them, it is hard to make a good story hook from three adverbs. By generating six words and picking three of them you get rid of this problem.

Another source of random words are people around you. This is much better than generators because people hardly ever choose prepositions or pronouns and tend to stick to nouns, adjectives and verbs. In that case there is no modification to this exercise needed. You can ask your friend for those four words, or, to include a little more randomness, ask several people for less words which, in the result, will give you four.

One more source: lately, when I have to attend a very boring lecture, I pick four words from the surroundings, for example from lecturer's speech, or random things which other students write in their notebooks around me. This way I can do something useful instead of wasting my precious time!

Is it all what can I use it for?

No! If you have more friends who are game masters you can organise some kind of training session for all of you. On a piece of paper each one of you write down four words, and put them into a bag, jar or something alike. Later on, you draw four cards from the container and you have to run a short session prepared from three of those words. The rest of your friends do not know what words you have drawn until the end of your story. After you finish, you show your friends the words out of which you have made your story and their task is to rate you and tell you which elements you should improve. When your turn is over, the next of your friend repeats the whole procedure. In this way, you not only train your imagination, but also practice your game-mastering skill in the same time.

What is more, you can prepare a deck of cards with spare words on them. In case of emergency, when you are short on ideas during the session and you have to run something, you just simply draw four cards out of your deck, discard one, and you can help your improvisation skill.

I will gladly read your story hooks created that way. If you have anything interesting, put a comment with that story hook and the set of your four random words. I am waiting for your feedback!

Controlling player characters' senses

Today just a short tip for GMs. As you run RPG games, you probably know awkward moments like that:

GM: "Make a spot check."

Player: "I failed."

GM: "Oh... So, never mind."

I think I do not have to explain in details why it is so pathetic, but let me tell you just a few words. After this dialogue players perfectly realise that they have missed something. In D&D and other RPGs where action is on the first place, it does not matter so much, but in Call of Cthulhu, where atmosphere is everything in fact, it destroys all the GM's work. Imagine a situation when characters enter a new room and there are some evidences of the crime or a presence of a daemon which they failed to notice. After the "...never mind" presented above they know that something important has been in that room and instead of moving forward, they are going to try to re-enter the room again and try to examine it once more. How to improve it?

Be prepared to make all the checks connected with characters' senses by yourself. Note somewhere what bonuses your player characters have to spot, listen and so on. If you do, that situation is going to look completely different. Next time, when your players enter a new room, you will check their senses by yourself, and your job will be just tell them what they have noticed, and if they fail, you will just remain silent. No more awkward text during your sessions.

One important thing is not to exaggerate. I am not telling you to ban your players from making those checks at all. If you just want to check whether characters noticed a hidden enemy or not, let players do that - characters will meet the consequences two minutes after that so it does not matter, but if it is something which is to make their task easier (especially in detective stories), do not hesitate to use my tip.