Another new member

Kane · Post by **Kane** » Tue Apr 15, 2003 10:47 am

Hello. I've just now been able to sign on this site and thought it only proper to introduce myself.

I started gaming with the 1st ed. of D&D when it first came out. I am 40 now and have been gaming since those very early days of the hobby.
When I run a system I tend to alter the settings to reflect my own style and focus. So it is honest to say that I have never ran a game in the proper " in the box" setting.

Games that I am currently running include, A heavely modified version of Slaine,(more on it in another thread, later). A fantasy version of Mutants & Masterminds and, a dark version of Fading suns D20, all of which include material published by Goodman Games.

So I hope that you will enjoy my presence here and thank you for having me.

BenPowis · Post by **BenPowis** » Tue Apr 15, 2003 10:50 am

Hi there Kane,
Another Veteran

Its great to have access to gurus such as yourself to throw my gaming questions at as they arise

Welcome,
Ben

Kane · Post by **Kane** » Tue Apr 15, 2003 11:05 am

Do not know how well I will be able to answer questions, espeically about gaming systems. After more then 20 years of gaming alot of it now tends to run together. If you want to know how to add plot twists and surprise your players with the unexpected, I will do everything I can to help.

Post by **goodmangames** » Tue Apr 15, 2003 2:09 pm

Hi Kane! Welcome. Sounds like you've got a lot of great experience. I'm interested in hearing more on your advice for giving plot twists to players. Personally, I like adventures with twists, and it definitely helps the players get involved if they have to think about what's going on. What are some of your secret tricks?

Kane · Post by **Kane** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 11:19 pm

One of my favorite tricks is the "blatenly subtle". This normally takes the form of hiding little clues inside of large events that have little or nothing to do with the big plot.
Example: One time I started an adventure with the players finding a burned out village. The bodies of the villeragers were scattered about the ruins in a completely haphazard manor. While describing, in gorey detail, the mutliations done, I briefly mentioned a decapitation.
Later in the adventure, during a barroom brawl, the lamps were knocked over, when light was restored they found another decapitated body. This time it was a NPC who had just arranged to buy/fence the loot from a dungeon crawl they just returned from.
At this point the players were starting to make a connection. BTW, in neither case were the heads recovered.
It was not untill the fourth beheading that the players figured out that the victims were all NPC's from current and previous adventures.
The villain of the adventure was taking the heads to use, via necromancey, as a means of getting information on the PC's. Since this was a long standing campagin, the players wanted to protect their mentors, teachers, loved ones from whoever was doing this horrible thing.
In the end they did not manage to save everyone and in back tracking the additional clues they were able to figure out who the villain was.
It was the henchwoman of a previous villain. They had completely forgotten about her and never thought I would bring a previous, non character related NPC, back as the main villain.

Now, the short write up does not do justice to the planning and plotting that went into the game. But, the trick was to bring back past expereinces, tie the PC's lives into the adventure and have the main plot build slowly as part of several unrelated dungeon crawls.

A goog rule of thumb to remember when you want to fool players is a quote by John Lennon; " Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. "

BenPowis · Post by **BenPowis** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 5:18 am

Thats sounds very exciting. If you ever cared to write up one of your campaigns into an ongoing 'story hour' type thing id love to read it.

Post by **goodmangames** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 5:50 am

That is pretty cool. I'm doing something similar but it doesn't go so far as to include the PCs history or past villains. Among the treasure the PCs have been finding lately are carved, stylized dwarven heads. The first one they found was ignored as worthless (it's nonmagical and basically just a 2" carving). They're about to find another one. In fact, the heads are relics of the First Age of Walkers (BTW, my campaign involves fantasy mechs) when all mechs were designed to resemble dwarves. If the PCs put the clues together, the heads will lead them to the ruins of some ancient mechs. I figure if I throw enough of these seemingly mundane treasure items around, eventually they'll start putting the clues together. But the idea of incorporating past history and such would make it even better. They're only 2nd-3rd level, but maybe I can start laying the foundation now for something later... hmm....

Kane · Post by **Kane** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 8:24 am

I've been lucky, or blessed, with a group of players that are intrested in the ROLE-PLAYING side of RPG's. This allows me to add non adventuring nights to our regular games.
To my players, getting married, families, managing their business, etc. are just as intresting to them as going out and slaying hordes monsters.
This allows me to bring in elements that most players would roll their eyes at.
One thing I like to do is look at the adventures as only one small part of the character's lives. This gives me alot of material to add to my storytelling. And remember, the adventures the character's go on brings them in contact with lots of other people(NPC's), do not just throw them away. Those Npc's make great repeat cast members.
When ever I needed to build up a list of NPC's I would go down to the City Center Mall here in Columbus. I would take a notebook and start writing up the more unusual people I would see walking through the area.
Nothing is better for building up strange and intresting people then real life.

Post by **goodmangames** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 6:26 am

Kane wrote:Nothing is better for building up strange and intresting people then real life.

That's for sure! Another great inspiration is literature. I'm a fan of Dickens and some of his villains are too devious not to be adapted into an RPG...

Kane · Post by **Kane** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 4:49 am

goodmangames wrote:
Kane wrote:Nothing is better for building up strange and intresting people then real life.
That's for sure! Another great inspiration is literature. I'm a fan of Dickens and some of his villains are too devious not to be adapted into an RPG...

It's been so long since I read Dickens that I completely forgot how good his characters are. Thanks for reminding me!!!

Another method I use for creating NPC's. I take my trading card collections of various fantasy/sci-fi artists and select several cards at random. I take the time to study the image and then write up a character that fits both the setting and the painting.

Thorbrin · Post by **Thorbrin** » Thu Apr 24, 2003 1:08 pm

Hello Kane, welcome to the boards. I am new to these boards as well but hope to become more active once things settle down in real life.
Regretfully most of my group tend towards the "roll" part of RPG's but thats okay we have fun .
Happy gaming!

Kane · Post by **Kane** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 1:04 am

Thorbrin wrote:Hello Kane, welcome to the boards. I am new to these boards as well but hope to become more active once things settle down in real life.
Regretfully most of my group tend towards the "roll" part of RPG's but thats okay we have fun .
Happy gaming!

The most important part of any gamming session is that the players, and GM/DM, have fun. Otherwise somebody is just wasting their time and yours.
The only time I have a problem with "roll-players" is when they start acting like accountants and just hear the numbers, i.e. "Don't waste time on describing, just tell me how many HP's it has", or "if I take this feat and combine it with this skill I'll have a plus 6 to damage with this weapon and be half way to my requirements for that prestege class if I multi-class at third level and then double stack these five skills."
That's about the time I start the player as just waking up from a mugging and being completely naked.

Post by **goodmangames** » Tue Apr 29, 2003 7:03 am

Kane wrote:That's about the time I start the player as just waking up from a mugging and being completely naked.

Heh heh heh...

Kane · Post by **Kane** » Tue Apr 29, 2003 11:41 am

I do not mind a player who wants to create the best character possible. my problem has always been with munchkins and number crunchers. When ever a new person comes into my games I expect them to treat the setting and other players with a degree of respect.
When they fail to show that respect, well I do what I need to do to bring them in line and work with the party. Usually one of two things will happen. They either settle down and discover just how much more fun it is to play a character then chase numbers or, they leave the game after a few weeks.
I have never had a player leave a game that the rest of the players were sorry to see go.

Mr. Author · Post by **Mr. Author** » Mon Jun 16, 2003 11:54 pm

Hey, hey. More people, that's always good.

Heh. I always number crunch my characters, but I try to remain with my concept the whole way. It's mostly because I want my character to have a cool schtick, and I want him or her to be good at it. 'course, that usually means skimping on something, or making one stat really low, like this one character with a Strength of 5 and a Constitution of 7......

Golem2176 · Post by **Golem2176** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 12:32 pm

I've been gaming since I was a freshman in high school (back in 1991). I started with first edition since my GM had no idea about second, then started playing a plethora of RPGs. I've been gaming ever since '91, and I always will...

Goodman Games

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