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!

Mature RPGs for mature people: romances, marriages and sex on your sessions

Some time ago I have read an interesting thread on /tg/ on 4chan.org generally connected with sex in RPGs and I have decided to cover this topic in an article on this blog. Since my latest group of players consisted of only females and romances and sex was a big part of my campaign, I have few words to share about, especially that everything has gone smoothly and added only positive aspects to the game. There are several facets of the presence of this kind of relationships in RPGs and I will discuss them one after another. The whole purpose of this article is not to encourage GMs to introduce sex and everything connected into their game. I want to enlighten you on all advantages and disadvantages and what it can bring if you decide to let your players have opportunities to have sex with your NPCs or other player characters.

Maturity of players

First point to consider is the maturity of your players: are they mentally ready and prepared to approach the subject in the mature way? My advice for you is not to underestimate the importance of this question. If your players are immature childish people who laugh whenever they hear the word "bosom", after the introduction of sex your sessions will become some kind of pathetic meetings for guys pretending they are the biggest lady-killers in the world, and your great ideas and plot twists will be overwhelmed by piteous sex scenes which will kill the whole spirit of RPGs.

Pros & Cons

Before you decide to introduce one of your player to a sexy NPC and let him begin seducing her, make a simple list of pros and cons. You are the person who knows your players and your skill in GMing well, so such a list will be completely different from another GM's list, but I want to give you some clues. I am going to cover the most general pros and cons which comes to my mind.

First of all, romances can make your game more developed. Think about your favourite movies or books: in most of them, apart from epic plots, intrigues and stories, you can find romances. The greatest heroes always can find some free time between fighting and killing dragons/aliens/dark presence and spend it seducing farmers' daughters or visiting ladies of their heart. If you put such seducible NPCs into your story, make them a part of it, it will appear to your players as deeper and more complicated one, without too much afford which you would have had to put to achieve such an effect just by means of plot twists.
Secondly, by putting romances into your game you can easily get your players more engaged. When a player's character starts a serious relationship, a player has to develop character's personality and has another reason to care more. He starts treating the character as something more than a few numbers on a sheet.

As I have said in the beginning of this article, the biggest problem with romances in RPGs is maturity of your players. I do not want to repeat myself, but you should seriously think if introducing romances and, fist of all, sex will not make your sessions a disaster during which nobody will be able to have fun.
But if you decide to do so and everything will be O.K., everybody takes it seriously and so on, there is another thing which has to be said: Your players can start to like it too much. It is not necessarily a problem; a GM's role is to provide fun to his players at last, but it can become quite tiring when instead of Lord of the Rings you have to run Dirty Dancing. You have to either get used to it or clearly explain to your players how much time you want to spend on characters' relationships.

Conclusion

One thing at the end of this article. I have one rule about sex in RPGs: The whole role playing stops when all protagonists concerned head to bed and I am pretty strict about it. Every situation like that I end with words: "...and the rest is in your imagination." 

I am the game master, not a porn director!

(Art by Drathe: http://drathe.deviantart.com/)