Good Session on Saturday

Saturday's session was pretty good all things considered. I was an evil DM and took away all their posessions... then was nice and gave them a TON of good stuff to have. I also gave them a world map sorta and have to start researching stuff as a result. It was definitely a fun session to play.

Started out with the players talking to the elderly couple they found last time... unfortunately, while up there, their stuff was stolen (the car was broken into and taken with 90% of their belongings). After that, they basically high tailed it away from that place and found a fortified house to stay at. After breaking in, they found some important stuff to take with them but my character (Obadiah) told them that they essentially gotta go. Since there was signs that people were living there, it was definitely not a safe place to be. However, just as they were leaving, they were ambushed by the houses occupiers. After driving away and getting in a gunfight on the roads, they managed to DESTROY their old vehicle and kill 2 of their pursuers.

After all this, they went to a safe location to spend the night and recoup... with that they got some information on places to go and now they're aimed at Lorain Ohio... Hear there's a city built out of the tall buildings in town that is all connected by rope bridges. Should be a good time. Now, should I be nice and have the place be there? friendly? anything? I'm not sure. Gonna do some background research on the city though and see if it was a good selection :-\. I'll let you know what i find tomorrow!

Comment if you'd like!

Post-sickness

Man Oh Man did i get sick!

Anywhoo, sorry for the lack of posts again, i was hit by a TERRIBLE fever for the past two days, I'm telling ya, I am having no luck with this blog thing these days!!! and soon I'll be swamped with work. Eep!

I'm really excited about tomorrow's session. I got a few dastardly plans that I intend to utilize and I'm sure the players will have a good time. Hell, maybe they'll learn that lesson i talked about the other day! I started writing my own rules for stuff, I find it lets me get exactly what I want out of the game and there are distinct nuances to what can be done. It's a lot of fun too! So far I've written the rules for a few cars and because of this, I have a plan of action for whats going down in the future of this game. It should be an absolute blast.

One thing I do wish however, is that we had more time to play. Since the first semester of this year is coming to an end, I'm not nearly where I hoped to be and I don't think we'll even reach a distinct finishing point by the end of next semester. It's scary to think about the future like that... but hopefully, I'll manage to get it to work out (and find a good crew after I graduate... that'd be very beneficial too...). Ah well, I'm sure it will all work out. Anyways, I'll update tomorrow so that I can try to make up for these few days of illness, and maybe (if you're lucky) you'll get another post tonight even! Who knows?

Anyone got any topics they want me to discuss? anything at all...

It really is amazing how you can get very sick at the most inopportune times. Right as I was getting back into the routine of writing for this (had a few ideas I wanted to talk about) I get very ill. Seriously, that's just annoying. So today's post should be fairly short and I'm going to be talking about my take on adapting characters from other sources (life, movies, books, etc) and putting them into d20.

A lot of the characters my players are going to meet are going to be either direct copies of other characters, taken and put into this game... or based very heavily on outside sources. With this in mind, I feel that it should make an interesting twist for the game and will be something that amuses me to think about. Heck, the story is going to be taken largely from another source and I am hoping that the players figure it out as i think that would be a funny little joke. Anyways... for all my players reading this: start guessing where all the source material is coming from! should be fun :-D.

Like I said, sorry for the short post. Really am feeling terrible today :(. Feel free to leave comments as usual!

The Apocalypse

We've finally reached it!

Sorry about the hiatus for the past week (or two, i'm not really sure how long it was, it's been a long day). We finally got into the post apocalypse and the transition has gone suprisingly well. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that I'm going about this the right way, but i threw them straight into it with a lack of fuel and a hostile environment. It seems to be working out though, and I have the counting their fuel consumption and all of that. On the other hand, I haven't had them shoot any weapons yet... I plan to make them very aware of their limited ammunition resources... in fact, I probably gave them too many bullets to start with! Oh well... things will work out.

Anyways, so far, they have waited 22 years and finally exited the bunker they lived (and then were cryogenically frozen in) in, only to find a desolate waste land. They followed a light for over 240 miles to get to a small makeshift town and finally started scavenging in a former city. I actually forgot the name of it.... it's been a long day as i said. Anyways, they scavenged and when we stopped playing, it was right after they met a person (and his wife) who had lived in their house for this whole time. Unfortunately, the party members trust everyone to tell them the truth, which may, or may not be what the NPCs are telling them... We shall see however. Anyways, that is about it... I'm very excited to continue playing this upcoming weekend. Should be a blast!

Post Apocalyptic Mayhem

Ok, since there are so many post apocalypse scenarios (aliens, nukes, robots, disease, zombies, etc.) How many are too many? I am almost afraid that I'm combining too many right now with the zombies and the post apocalypse but I still feel they go hand in hand. Only problem is I want to add some other elements too, but doing so might make it excessive and limit the story that exists. So today's (short) post is to ask people what they think. Is it bad to combine 3 of these? I think it could be done but I want to know what you readers think. Leave me a comment!

I am excited because people are finally reading the darned book! It's about time! They think I'm gonna be upset by all the stuff they can do but PLAYERS: I WANT YOU TO DO THAT COOL STUFF! I'm just not gonna spoon feed it to you guys! I'm all for you reading the book or looking at the SRDs online because of how there is you can do! Combat could be a lot more fun (given i'm not doing everything i could myself).

On another note, I am trying to think of ways to make the game a bit more challenging. I think I'm going to have to increase the difficulties of certain tasks so it doesn't become overly simple and no longer fun. Guns are going to limit the combat excitement (especially against zombies) but I hope to make up for it with other tasks/skill checks/ inventive ways to make zombies more fun to kill. Then again, everyone loves killing zombies :-P

Leave comments!

Week of no posts

Hey everyone, sorry about posting nothing last week, I had a hectic two weeks there and blew off some steam by not doing anything (and i mean ANYTHING). So anyways, playing time this weekend was really short as we basically just had one small encounter, killed off a character and then got everyone leveled twice. Yep, boring weekend :-P. Unfortunately, I ruined the surprise of killing the character (basically so he could make a new personalized character) so nobody was shocked or awed.. Oh well, worse things have happened.

So now the party is two people larger. I made their boss join the game (so i can deus ex machina if need be) and another player returned. It should be fun now, I like the group and feel they should be ok with it. Gotta say though, the apocalypse (which we are just getting to now) is not comfortable, sorry girls (all players except one are female). Ultimately though, this poses problems as I need to come up with a way to keep adventures going. So far, I have basic scavenging and going to certain locations that require intense amounts of travel. I want to keep things rolling and have it be a bit scary (so scavenging a grocery store doesn't become boring but more a scary scary thing to do).

Any one got ideas for where to take the campaign? Anyone got ideas of what to do for adventures or rewards? Leave me a comment!

Zombies This Weekend!

We're finally at zombie point! I'm very excited for this as it will be an absolute blast to play. I've opted to use a combination of the traditional zombie with the zombie from 28 Days Later. Here, the zombies will have the increased life expectancy while they will be able to run full speed (but not climb ladders and such) and attack their prey quickly. It should be very scary facing them especially as their interests lie solely in eating the players (and NPCs) leading to a continued spread of zombie mayhem. It should be an absolute blast.

Unfortunately, this leaves me with a bit of a challenge as I've got adventure laid out for one (maybe two at tops) session more and then I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with everything, from here I suppose I'll have to wing it much more. But should be very exciting to play, I can't wait!

Anyways, I've got a few suprises for the players so I can't go into detail over the campaign that happened this weekend. I'm very excited about how things are working out and the details are awesome (I feel). As always give me some comments and feedback! Also, I'm thinking of changing the layout of this page, anyone got suggestions on what to change it to be?

Single Player Games

While RPGs are good for single players when on the computer, I have discovered this weekend that it is rather difficult to run a campaign for a single player. With that being said, I ran a mini-campaign for one character this weekend and it felt rather dry. One thing I think is necessary for the game is the gathering of players and the random insanity that ensues. I believe that it is clear after this weekend that while a single player can play with only the GM, it is a lot more fun to have that joking nature. A gathering of two people (player and GM) doesn't allow for the goofing off and fun that D20 provides.

So yep, short message today. Unfortunately I wrote a 7 page paper today because I have a ton of work to do this week. Unfortunately, that means my writing skills are rather fried right now and I'm not in the mood for a long post. If I have the energy tomorrow, I'll be sure to write about all that happened this weekend. That's all for now though.

As always: COMMENT!

Trade Values

It's time to start making the transition, and I am trying to stay quiet about how it happens on this blog so that when it occurs, the players will at least be surprised when it happens. Other than that, I attempt to focus on the rules and hopefully make things clearer. Today, I will focus on the Trade Value system. It's a fairly basic system where every item has a Trade Value and the only way you can attempt to get other items is by bartering what you have for it. From the apocalypse book, we'll use the example of a round of ammunition. One round of ammunition for a gun equals a single Trade Value. This means that using a few bullets, it is possible to trade for a gun.

The idea behind the trade system is that there is no currency after the apocalypse (and printed currency is as useful as toilet paper with no government to back it up. Unfortunately, it becomes incredibly difficult based on the values that certain items have. The developers gave the various items a trade value between 1 and 40 (primarily) but this means that 30 bullets can be spent to trade for a car. I believe in the coming days I will have to rewrite these rules to have certain classes of Trade Value, so that a handful of bullets can't be traded for a car (except in extreme circumstances).

Stay tuned and include your thoughts (aka COMMENT!) so I can make a better change!

Mini Campaign

I have decided to run a mini campaign for one of the characters so that the player can catch up a bit on experience. Everyone except he is going to be home for the weekend so it gives me a perfect opportunity to run one. Unfortunately, I have never run a single player campaign so it might be a touch difficult to figure out how best to do this. Right now, I'm mildly afraid I made it way too tough for him to complete, but hopefully things work out. Heck, I might have to make it be a Deus Ex Machina experience if things get too hairy. We'll see how it goes though.

Other than that, nothing much has happened in the campaign or planning. Like I said on Monday, we're moving to ZOMBIES. I'm excited. And I managed to change the story a bit so that I like it better. It should be a blast when we get the opportunity to play. I'll keep my secrets but I hope everything works out well. We'll see when the time comes.

Sorry for the lack of anything said here, but unfortunately, I got a midterm tomorrow I really gotta study for. Catch you guys later and feel free to comment as always!

Another weekend, another session

The game session went pretty well this weekend... a minor hickup came when everyone was passed out and napping at the time of the game but we ended up playing later on saturday. Lots of fun, involved one person being a sniper while the rest of the group stormed a factory. One last session before the APOCALYPSE!!! i'm really excited. Unfortunately, I had to make them fail only to push the game along (actually a mistake made by the party to do research before leaving was used as an excuse for the failure :D). So yep, essentially the zombie virus was made, and before the party got to the room where all the ingredients were being mixed, the final ingredient was put in.

In a last minute effort, the party burst through the doors, gunning anyone down they could as the sniper made an amazing shot at the cult leader killing him. Unfortunately, as he fell, the ingredient (a magical flower) fell into the mixing vat and they were unable to prevent it. It was a good time though. Especially with a sniper watching over them. That was unexpected, but a bit more manageable.

One thing I'm discovering is it's much easier to just have both teams go one by one... best way to ensure everyone gets to do something and no creature/player gets skipped. Now the party has to head back to the shop to rescue their boss. I'm very excited about this as I'm going to make an NPC where I can remind them of bad ideas... and he'll be powerful :D. Always fun. anyways, i'll talk about him tomorrow I'm sure. Night all!

Feel free to comment as always!

Supplementary Books

Today I figured I would talk briefly about the supplementary books that are available (as a whole, not going into details on them as I simply don't know about them all). I am of two minds for them, for I've read reviews and seen layouts or chapter lists for some of them and honestly, the d20 system seems to be tightly packed into the original rule book. From the sounds of it, the supplementary books are nice in certain aspects, but are not really necessary on all accounts. That being said, I do own d20 apocalypse, and from the looks of it, it has an excellent modification of the rules system.

Future seems the be the primary addition to the d20 Core Rulebook, and I believe this has a lot to do with the mysteries of advanced technologies in the future. Ultimately, the rules don't seem excellent to me what with the mecha ideas as well as the advanced technologies. While some of it would be fun I am sure, there are aspects I have heard about that would just create problems. Maybe one of these days I will be able to take a look and see if this is true.

I am very excited to use the d20 Apocalypse books that I have. I like the switch to bartering it provides, but that will be intriguing to work out in game. I also am especially wary of the Mutation Points system that is provided... Mutations could add interesting elements, but I feel they might be quickly distorted to make ridiculously overpowered creatures/players. That will require looking at as well.

Next time I might give a brief analysis of D20 Past or Urban Arcana, not really sure what I can say about them as I haven't really used or read them yet, but we'll see what I can figure out!

Writers Block

Sorry about no post yesterday! I might make this blog a 4 days a week thing... that way i can save topics to write about later!

But seriously (I feel like I say that a lot) today's topic is good old fashioned writers block. What do you do when you can't come up with material? Right now, I'm trying to come up with something of a map for the next campaign meeting (in two days) and I just can't get myself to focus enough to get it written down. I'm feeling lethargic and every time I look at graph paper, I have no motivation to do anything. Heck, I sometimes have that problem with this here blog! But due to commitments, the person running the campaign has to press on and get the work done. I have learned that winging it generally doesn't work and that a basic idea is necessary. With this, a general picture of the terrain is needed before anything such as objects in the map or anything more specific can be created. As a result, I'm about to scour the internet to try to get some inspiration. Have a good night all! And if anyone knows any good d20 map sources (free of course!) feel free to send them along!

Plot Hooks/Twists

One thing that always seems to add a bit to a campaign (at least to me) is the good ol' plot twist. For some reason, I like doing them, unfortunately, they're usually cliche and because of this, they really aren't entertaining. Suddenly saying "you're working for the bad guys" doesn't ring as close as it should I feel. As such, I am trying to think how to twist the story in an interesting way that doesn't become generic and boring for everyone involved. Ultimately though, I want to think of something. Betrayal always adds a bit of intrigue I feel. The double agent or some higher up screwing around and messing things up always adds that bit of fun (think The Third Man with the American screwing around). Lots of fun.

Suggestions on how to make this work? Any tips? ideas at all? Comment!

Second Session

So, Saturday was a busy day! Managed to play for (I think) about 7 hours! It was a lot of fun and lets just say, a lot of stuff died :-D.

Started out by having the players be told they were going to Argentina to protect a certain plant from becoming an ingredient in the Zombie Virus creation process (story has it that it was planted in the Andes as that was the best place for it to grow). Ultimately though, as they flew down there, their plane got shot down (egads!) and they had to foot it all the way to the location. On the way, they ran into a couple of drug runners, an ambush and (what I thought would be a challenge) they crossed a rather large river. I really didn't consider how much they would tear up their plane for goods! It was a lot of fun though.

In the end, the players managed to get to the site and defend it using home made explosives. That was a TON of fun. Effectively making landmines, they held off waves and waves of the enemies, and even took down a minotaur at level 2!! Good times all around, and a few unlucky rolls made them all come out with (practically) full health. Finally, I had a chopper come in to rescue them, and right as it got there, waves upon waves of enemies marched in. Chainguns blazing, the party was saved because of the helicopter. So much fun. Next week is (I think) the last session before zombies start popping up! that should be a really good time. I'm not sure how i'm going to deal with them honestly... I haven't picked a main type of zombie, but might just take the zombies from the D20 Apocalypse book. Anyways, that's it for today, tomorrow I might discuss more rules...

Wealth (continued) and Requisition

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday about wealth was that your wealth bonus may never decrease below 0. However, at this point, characters cannot attempt to buy anything that has a Purchase DC of 10 or higher. Pretty clear I feel.

On to the next subject: Requisition. I am not sure how I feel about this in the game, and unless the characters try to requisition goods tomorrow, I doubt I will make up my mind on the matter. I feel that at times it might be beneficial to get goods that might help through this process (such as if they could not normally get it) but I so far have been giving players the things they need from their contact. One thing that intrigues me is that they haven't tried to figure out any more information on their overarching organization (not that I'm complaining, I haven't really created that story yet). I should probably work on that tomorrow, but I figure I might just do it as some sort of large non-profit organization... or maybe the government... or maybe the characters think they're working for the good guys when in fact they are not. Either way, gotta figure it out soon. Game tomorrow at 4!

Wealth

One thing that people have struggled with over the two semesters in my campaign is the Wealth system. It is rather confusing to a lot of the players and so I hope to clarify a bit here.

After playing in the D&D system, a lot of people get used to the gold coins and how those work, unfortunately, switching to a new system (or having never played before) the idea of a "wealth bonus" is quite abstract (as the rules introduce it as). With this, the idea of a fluctuating wealth bonus is confusing. Basically, wealth bonuses vary based on the purchases you make. When you want to buy something, you roll a D20 and add the value of the wealth bonus you have to the number that you roll on the die. If you purchase something which is worth more (by the purchase DC it has) than 15... you decrease your characters wealth bonus by 1.

EXAMPLE: Your character, Johnny, has a wealth bonus of 17. He is looking at buying a PDA (from the consumer electronics section) with a Purchase DC of 16. With this, he must roll a d20 (which he rolls a 7 on) and adds his wealth bonus to the result. With this he gets a 7(d20)+17(wealth bonus)= 24. He can successfully buy the PDA. As the PDA was worth more than a Purchase DC of 15, he reduces his wealth bonus to a 16.

Not so hard is it? Next, if an item is worth more than the wealth bonus you have, you subtract a value from your Wealth Bonus based on how different the two numbers are. If it is an item that has a Purchase DC of 1-10 points higher than your Wealth Bonus, you decrease your wealth bonus by 1. If it is an item that has a Purchase DC 11-15 points higher than your Wealth Bonus, you reduce your wealth by 1d6 (roll a 6 sided die and subtract the number shown from your wealth bonus). if it is an item that has a Purchase DC 16 or higher than your Wealth Bonus, you reduce your wealth by 2d6.

EXAMPLE: Your character, Johnny, has a wealth bonus of 2. He is looking at buying a Gas Mask (from the survival equipment section) with a Purchase DC of 13. With this, he must roll a d20 (which he rolls a 14 on) and adds his wealth bonus to the result. With this he gets a 14(d20)+2(wealth bonus)= 16. He can successfully buy the PDA. As the Gas Mask was worth 11 points more than his wealth bonus, he rolls a six sided die (result was a 1) and subtracts that value from his wealth bonus. He keeps a wealth bonus of 1.

Not too difficult is it?

Guns and Damage

Ok, as I said yesterday, everyone in the party got a gun to use in the campaign and with that, they're now forced to be concerned with bullets flying at them. With that, guns do a lot of damage and they are definitely something to be afraid of. So far, they flipped a table to get 3/4 cover (kept them from getting hurt badly) and avoided getting shot.

Next session, they're likely to get damaged however, as they'll be running into a jungle not sure where shots are potentially coming from. I understand how concealment works and imagine i'll be using that as underbrush does not provide much protection but still, I remain concerned about them actually getting hit. I only hope nothing too serious happens and that they all live to get away. I figure this might be an opportunity to teach them a few things about retreating tactically and surprising their enemies. Last time I was particularly impressed as they made Molotov Cocktails to throw at their enemies. I figure, that they might not be a great idea in a Jungle in the Andes, but we'll see what happens. Any one have any ideas to mitigate damage from guns? I look forward to any ideas!

First Session

Hey all, sorry about not posting yesterday, unfortunately some personal life issues came up yesterday and i was not in a psychologically strong point to write anything. But I'm "better" now, at least enough to write about the first session we had this semester.

Anyways! Yes, we played on Saturday and there was much joy to be had. The group size has shrunk considerably (and beneficially) from last year and because of that, we can get things done much faster. We played for darn near 4 hours and managed to get two of the characters leveled up (the other two just need to do my EXP earning background story), and they got the prized possession of the d20 modern system: GUNS. Man they're deadly... I mean seriously, they REALLY dangerous. One person got "hit" accidentally once (i screwed up and rolled for an extra enemy, turns out that enemy had died the last round and the damage wasn't done to him) and lost i think it was 8/10 hit points. Bang!

Beneficially, the players took my warning of "GET IN COVER OR MAKE IT" and flipped a pool table... i gave them a pretty hefty bonus to defense, but I figure it will in the future determine concealment or cover depending on the stopping power of the materials they're behind. Other than that, it was a great session, and we're on step closer to ZOMBIES!

A quick summary of what happened: They spied on a meeting in the subway maintenance tunnels and learned of the zombie virus. Following this they investigated the chief thug's home (a Goblin named Vehec), got in a fire fight and then are being sent to Argentina next to stop the harvesting of a Zombie virus ingredient. Should be a blast!

Player Character Backrounds

Hello again everyone, new topic today (I hope... I may have mentioned this earlier) about Player Characters (PCs) and the backgrounds that I like people to choose.

Personally, I love roleplaying. I feel that when playing an RPG, the RP part of it is one of the most important (right up there with "fun"). With that being said, I've noticed that a lot of the people I play with don't actually go out of their way to roleplay and generally make characters like themself.

While this can be ok, it doesn't provide for them to think as someone else, one of the joys of the game I feel. As a result, I have required all the players to choose something they don't fit into on a daily basis, after all, we interact with each other every day, why not make a new interaction possible? Just cause we're friends in real life, doesn't mean our characters will be friends or as close. As a result, I required the players to make unique characters for them to play as and so far I feel it's been fairly successful. Another thing i've chosen to do is to give exp rewards for when people really show their roleplaying (and lack of metagaming [thinking outside the game, knowing things they otherwise wouldn't]).

And on that note, let me know what you think!

Party NPCs

I had a brilliant topic to talk about!

Then I forgot.

Anyways, I'll talk about the role of NPC party members. I am going to be facing a few character swap in and outs because of schedule conflicts and such so I'm not sure how to face the situation. Possible options are to just *blip* the characters out... or to start playing for them. The thing with this is I fear that it will seem I just am trying to play my own game. Perhaps a hybrid will be best with those characters becoming a "deus ex machina" tactic. When things are getting bad, they can make the "sudden and brilliant" counter move to win a battle, or beat someone at a logic game.

What are your thoughts on doing this? Is a party NPC just the GM trying to have a character too? or are they a good thing just in case the worst possible things happen? Let me know what you think!

Tact-tiles (or other such boards)

So as I started yesterday, I like having things as easy as possible, and with that being said, I like a game mat. It's easy to draw the map, show where people are, and with counters, layout a full scene. It's a blast. The one downside comes from my lack of funds (as I am a poor college student). With this, I wondered for a long time how to make a battle mat for use. After a long enough period of time, and enough searching online, I found the solution:

Sheet Vinyl.

Sounds silly right? Well apparently not. I bought some clear sheet vinyl, and on one side drew the grid with a sharpie, and as it's clear I use the other side as the mat. nice and simple. Unfortunately, dry erase markers are best for htis, and if you ever use rubbing alcohol to clean the board, you're going to be wiping off the sharpie marker as well. So remember to use the opposite side for games!

The other solution is one I have yet to try, but found online. It's an attempt to create a modern representation of the Tact-tile boards that were once common. Unfortunately, they're hard to find now a days (or are just downright expensive) so someone figured out a way to do them on the cheap and easy. Take foamboard, cover it in sheet laminate (you can buy rolls of it from staples and such), use dry erase markers! It is that simple. I plan on making a bunch of tiles in the near future, and will let everyone know how they work (trusting my game gets started again of course!). Got the idea from: http://gmfoundation.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/how-to-make-your-own-tact-tiles/

Other thoughts? suggestions? ideas? just general comments? Feel free to leave them!

Second weekend has passed...

Ok, sorry for the delay folks! I got a little bummed when we didn't play for the second weekend back on campus but I am currently in the process of getting a game set for Sunday! Other that that little bit of excitement, I am currently thinking of markers for my campaign and a new battle mat. I am excited at the prospect of continuing the game and should it get started again I'm looking at how to represent the endless zombie hordes (once we get to the apocalypse).

I am all about visual representation, i think that it adds a lot to the game to see where you are and to also see where the enemy is. And since I'm all about visual representation, I try to do my best to get characters figurines as close to the character as possible. I also work hard to get models that visually represent the enemy. With that being said, I was very excited to hear about the Wargames Factory: Zombie Horde. A box at a cheap rate (about 1/2 the price of Warhammer zombies) with a more modern feel! I'm looking into getting one of these boxes, maybe two. Here's the companies page on them: http://www.wargamesfactory.com/_product_16676/Zombie_Horde

I think they're pretty cool. I also made a few small purchases this summer. I found that the old Star Wars miniatures line from Wizards of the Coast had some good female characters that could be painted to look like modern individuals. I got two of them, and am looking at purchasing a few more to round out the group. Should be exciting. Next time I'll talk about the battle mat I have, and what I plan to do to add to the mapping ability.

ALSO!!!! If anyone has any ideas about topics i should discuss, OR just have an idea of something for the campaign, ADD A COMMENT AND TELL ME! I am all for new ideas, or ideas about something I said or anything! Look forward to hearing from you readers!

It's late, I'm tired

Short post tonight:

www.everydaydecay.com

www.thezombiehunters.com

Two webcomics I found today, add a bit of a interesting take on the zombie thing... I'm partial towards Everyday Decay so far but both are fun reads. If players are reading this, take a look, you might enjoy them and if not, well... that's your thing :-D.

hope to have more for tomorrow, sorry it's so short. Basically just more ideas about the zombie uprising (yeah, there're a buncha us nuts out there preparing, thinking, planning, waiting, watching etc.... but we're more likely just bored than being actually crazy ;-) ).

Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day everyone. Unfortunately, since I did not post on Friday, I am now posting today. Anyways, today's topic will revolve around idea of City creation. Currently on the d20 official boards, some members (including myself) are attempting to build a "city" for use in a zombie apocalypse scenario. After working on a defensive strong hold (and yes, in my campaign i might use both the city and The Tower), we turned to the city to try and keep the creative juices flowing.

What this has in turn caused me to think about is the dynamics of a city, how it works, who lives there, what they do, etc. With an influx of fantasy type creatures in my campaign, I have not focused enough on the more mundane life in the city I created. I didn't put much thought into things like ethnicities, or religions, or other defining characteristics of a city. I didn't focus on population levels or industry types. Unfortunately, I'm rather busy this week but before the zombies arise, I will definitely be interested in bulking up the story of my city. When I get the chance, I might even have the players do a few missions for ordinary people before all hell breaks loose.

Gaming Committee

Weeeeeell. Today I got tasked with leading the Anime Club's gaming committee... That'll be interesting as I am not entirely sure what it means. Problem is, I have ideas but unfortunately, lack the funding to actually make things happen so far. What I am hoping to do is set up a list of different d&d and d20 modern campaigns and participants so we can keep an order going of who's doing what and possibly let others get an idea of who to speak to about playing if they wish. So yeah, I'm gonna start working on that and who knows, i might incorporate that into this blog a bit. Other than that, nothing new has really come up today so have a good evening all!

Game Sessions and Reliability

Sorry for not posting yesterday, unfortunately, I was unable to come up with a topic for discussion. Anyways, today I will be touching on the idea of game preparation. From the various groups I have played with, I have seen a few different approaches to starting games and running game sessions.

With my first group, we generally played on weekends and for the better part of two years, were dependent completely on the DM and when he wished to play. If he was too busy playing World of Warcraft, we skipped that week (usually to my and the other players disappointment). When someone else from the group started a campaign, the same thing happened but amazingly enough, school work was almost never the reason for not playing. With this being said, the players often are at a disadvantage due to being dependent on the DM/GM to continue play.

With the second group I have played with, the DM largely was more reliable. Unfortunately, the campaign fell apart after he was unreasonably strict and seemed to target specific players to unfairly punish. With this, the test did not arise when he was unwilling to run a session.

Finally, I picked up the torch and am leading a campaign now. I honestly want to be as reliable as possible but remain uncertain as to how to "punish" myself for missing sessions or having to postpone. Ultimately, I like running the games and hanging out with people so I hope nothing comes up, but if it does, I am trying to come up with something I could do to make it up to people. Maybe a free round at the bar on me would be fair.

I welcome any suggestions from players and other GMs over how to not miss sessions.

Scheduling

I am back on campus! This means that I am one step closer to starting up the campaign (obviously). So far I have heard support but One thing that everyone seems to be concerned with is getting it started once more. With that being said, I feel that talking about timing and scheduling is important. So far, everyone I have heard from has been able to set aside saturdays for game days. This I feel is crucial as the afternoon of Saturday generally is the most free for anyone.

One thing I am concerned with is the obligations people may have once classes start up once more. With that being said, it's easy to plan ahead and say "yes, saturdays are taken" but once group meetings and other such things must be scheduled, it is likely that D20 time will be one of the first planned events to be dropped. Not that I highly expect the group to be fluxuating in who attends but rather how the deal with these issues. As a past DM/GM, I have always been uncertain as to how to advance a game when someone is not there.

At times, I feel that it is prudent to not give the player the experience they would have earned, other times, that same EXP is crucial for what I have planned. Ultimately, the group I run for probably won't have to worry about missing out on EXP. I hope to provide enough chances to gain small amounts of EXP here and there to keep the game running smoothly. If anything, I want to avoid having players fall behind. This just makes one person feel singled out in the group and holds it back.

So when a player can't make a few meetings in a row and the game must go on, what's a GM to do? Anyone have any thoughts to share? I am all ears!

D20 modern boards

Well, the offical D20 Modern boards are back up today and in a new format. So far I do not like them but i guess they'll get the job done. Unfortunately by upgrading them, they did away with some of the nice features and layout so it's annoying to deal with. I suggest people check them out: http://community.wizards.com/go/forum/view/75882/136050/d20_Modern

Other than that, not much should be said, we're getting closer to starting the campaign and that means I am onto the point of character creation. One thing I definitely plan on working on is creating a better set of characters/npcs for use in the campaign. As the campaign started, I unfortunately did not have everything set up so some characters had no idea how to answer questions asked by the players. I plan to spend some of my free time working on developing the background for the world a bit more which is no small task. That will most likely start tomorrow as soon as I have free time by myself.

zombies

ZOMBIES ARE GONNA BE SO MUCH FUN!!

that is all. sorry it's not substancial, but if players are reading this, they should be prepared for the zombie horde. Also, if anyone wants to borrow my copy of the Zombie Survival guide, they can. Additionally, for post apocalypse scenarios, I would recommend people watch "The Colony" (discovery channel or HULU). It's a decent show for ideas and just general basic learning but I wouldn't put 100% stock in what they show. Seriously though, I'd take a look players!

Diseases

I said on Sunday that I intended to talk about diseases in game on monday as a discussion topic. Unfortunately, life and tiredness got the better of me and that didn't exactly play out. Instead, I am talking about it 4 days late. Sorry everyone.

Anyways, I am not sure how i feel about diseases in the modern context. In Dungeons and Dragons, they can sometimes be a good thing to increase the excitement of the game but if anything, they feel more like a plot device in D20 modern. I feel that the diseases in this game have far too powerful a chance to ruin characters by decreasing core attributes. In D&D it is possible to use cure disease to prevent this from happening but with D20 modern, unless spells are used, that nolonger is possible. Yes you could carry around antidotes, but that seems to be against the idea of the game.

Another possibility is to get the Players to realize something is up and get the infected person to a doctor. I feel this is the best bet but unfortunately am not entirely sure how to implement it. The other flaw here is that the characters might not realize it fast enough. For instance, if you have a smart hero contract a disease that drains strength, (s)he may not realize it until it's too late to do anything about it.

I think that disease may come up at some point when the game continues, but it will be with trepedation and caution that i go down that path. Another thing that could happen is that you spook the players into being paranoid about disease. Also not a good idea.

As usual, thoughts? comments?

Illness

Sorry about the lack of posts. I must've caught a stomach bug this weekend as my stomach's been feeling awful for the entire weekend and today. I thought it was because I went out with my brother on Friday night, but now I have concluded I'm sick. Maybe tomorrow (if I feel better) I'll write about disease in d20 modern... that could be interesting.

Short break

Heading off to visit my brother for the weekend. You'll get all your D20 modern commentary starting again on SUNDAY! August 17, 2009. Enjoy the weekend folks!

Toxyderms

One of my favorite boss monsters is the Toxyderm found in the Urban Arcana book. for some reason, the idea of some gigantic nuclear sludge being fought by several PCs seems like such a cool fight. It isn't fun that it's so huge and utterly destructive/strong but I hope that by the time I can actually use it as a fair challenge, that will just add to the contest. One of these days, I would love to pit the players against one of these Toxyderms in a post Apocalypse setting. I would probably make them the beings found in the center of a destroyed city or something like that (ground zero from the nuclear blast) or roving across the planet and threatening the PCs after some time. Sounds like a good time to me, hopefully my Players agree that it'd be a good time...

Teaching the basics

One of the largest problems I've seen with playing D20 modern is teaching the basics to people. Almost everyone in the party has had no experience playing D&D let alone D20 modern, and I am the only person who has a detailed understanding of it. With that being said, I'm effectively teaching 5 people the basics of the game. So far I have tried to explain the wealth system but it's not exactly easy as it's an arbitrary system. I'm hoping to counter that by forcing the players to actually purchase things required for the game that they'll become more comfortable with the system.

The other thing I've been nervous about is the use of weapons. I'm very afraid that the players will not utilize cover and as a result will be gunned down in their first firefight. I have come to the realization that the only way to actually cover this is to get over my concerns and just throw them into it. Soon in the campaign, the players will have to defend themselves from a few armed thugs...

Basic information

Ok, I figure it would be helpful to provide some minor information on the campaign so far. I figure I should also name a few things just to get an idea going for myself.

So far the game takes place in a modern world, in a city much like New York. The campaign is centered around the Players learning that there is a rift between Planes. Through this rift, new species and creatures have been coming through and appearing randomly in this world. They are originally coming from a world called Piari (thus, the new comers are Piarians). With this, most species that could be found in the traditional Dungeons and Dragons world can be found here.

So far, the party has started asking questions about 3 individuals that have gone missing from their own organization. This group of 3 (1 dwarf, a human, and a bugbear) was investigating an issue at the local dockyards and vanished mysteriously. From here, the shopkeeper at Swords and Sorcery sent the party to find what happened to them. Once at the Dockyard, the party learned of Vehec, an individual from a competing organization to deal with the arrival of Piarians.

Digital Gaming

One thing I want to do is to transition to fully paper gaming. I feel that having a physical notebook and texts will be much easier to use than an array of digital options. Every DM has his own preferences on this but I feel being able to just scan down the page or flipping over tw would be much simpler than looking over a multipage Word document. I only run into one problem with this idea. I have no desire to hand write anything.

While having paper documents would make everything much simpler, that would require handwriting everything and for time taken to do that, the difficulty with editing, and my complete dislike of handwriting, I simply cannot will myself to write all the documents by hand. This leaves the option of printing documents which would require large amounts of paper/printing to complete. This may not be a large problem for some, but I have a limited budget for printing and therefore find it difficult to do so.

What can people suggest to overcome this?

Dice

I don't know about many other people, but I like to roll my own dice. I have a strange dislike for digital dice rollers and I do not like using other people's dice. Note that I do not have a problem lending my own dice to others, but for some reason, I don't like using other people's. Strange, and I don't believe it's superstition or anything like that, but for some reason I am paranoid about my rolls. To some extent, I believe in the Dice Gods and to some other extent I believe that Dice are random.

Last night however, I read an article on determining if dice are weighted or not. Now, I should've started by saying that this all came about because of my interest at rolling through a dice tower I just constructed of plexiglass. For some reason, my big bag o' dice ( d6's from a game called "Stack") has not rolled under average once when doing large amounts of rolling (roll 10 dice, nothing below a 32 total result). I found this peculiar so I scowered the web trying to find out how to determine if these are weighted or not. Turns out, you can use Epsom Salts in water to see how they float, after trying to combine the two (and failing) I was able to test some of my dice and determine that they are weighted towards certain numbers, but after test rolling them after they dry, they usually fall towards the opposite (and never spot on either of the two poles). Very Peculiar I find, if anything, my little test with epsom salts has shown that regardless of a weight going towards a certain number, the dice do generally come up random...

So perhaps the Dice Gods do exist after all?

Shotgun Rules.

So after looking through the rules on longarms and such, I realized something that I see as flawed. The problem I find is that Shotguns deal so little damage and have shorter range increment than other rifles. After looking through the D20 modern boards, I found someone else had already made an attempt to fix this and I will provide the general gist of it here. I am making some minor modifications (simplifications) on top of it but the general gist of the amended rules comes from board member BackStabbist. What he originally proposed was to provide shotguns with d8(d4) damage. This means, a shotgun shell would contain pellets (d8 of which could hit the target) each dealing d4 damage. This would allow a maximum of 32 damage per shot. He also added a few rules about range increments but I feel this is over kill.

I further modify BackStabbist's rules to have shotguns shoot d6 pellets dealing d4 damage. This would allow a maximum of 24 damage (or the same maximum damage of a Barrett .50 Caliber sniper rifle).

An example of this would be: Jacob shoots at the bugbear opposing him with a shotgun. he rolls 4 for the d6 shots that hit the bugbear signifying that 4 pellets hit him. he then takes 4 d4 and rolls to see how much damage they do. of that, he does 1, 2, 1, and 4 damage. The bugbear takes 8 damage.

If anyone from my campaign is reading this feel free to let me know what you think!

First Post: Preparing for school again

WELL.

I started the campaign that I'm writing about last semester and, with a few less people, will be continuing in about 3 weeks. For now the basics are that it will be a d20 modern campaign set in a world where a rift between the traditional D&D world and the current world has formed with creatures and people coming through. In the campaign, the creatures coming through the rift that are sentient are largely on one side of a war over how to interact in this world.

The first side (the "good" side): This is the side that has hired the players. It is the side that is attempting to help the people adapt and join society in this world.

The second side (the "bad" side): This side is run by those who have come through the rift and do not want to join society. If anything, they want to see it burn. The player characters (PCs) are fighting against them, trying to preserve society as it is.

I have a few ideas where this is gonna go, but I don't want to spoil it until it is time to implement everything... Thats all for now.