Archive for the 'Creative Gamemaster’s Workshop' Category

A New Savage Worlds Edge

In many episodic television shows, one of the characters has a convenient plot device to bring in just the right bit of expertise. Rick Castle (Castle) has friends from researching previous books. Sam Axe (Burn Notice) has friends from his many years in the military. It is a standard trope and useful in role-playing games as well. This Edge is very similar to the “Connections” Edge in the Savage Worlds Deluxe rules although since the buddies can be from a broad range of places, it has a more stringent requirement. I think it is a nice variant to capture a cool trope.

I Got a Buddy… (Social Edge)
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+
Your hero has always been a social guy. He’s made friends in countless places, so many he can never really remember them all. But sometimes all you just need is a little help… from a buddy (once per game session). To use a character’s Buddy requires that he first get in touch with him. This requires a streetwise roll. Failure means the particular Buddy wasn’t available.

Once in contact, the hero must make a Persuasion roll. The GM should feel free to modify both the Persuasion roll and any results based on the circumstances. A failure indicates the hero’s buddy couldn’t come through this time.

On a success, the contact will provide some help, but nothing too risky. On a raise, the buddy will stick his neck out though he won’t outright betray others. Two or more raises and the buddy really comes through and provides substantial, tangible aid.

Dragonlaird Gaming gearing up for Origins 2012!

Apologies for the several month quiet period here at the sprawling campus of Dragonlaird Gaming but things have not been at a stand-still. I’ve got two major pushes coming to fruition and a third just (re-)beginning.

1) I’ve been working with Josh Minto of Minto Illustrations and Savage Worlds veteran Simon Lucas (Board Game Geek Page) who has worked on almost every Savage Worlds product out there, on a new Savage Worlds product. We’re in the stage of getting licensing approval, but I hope to have a sample version of the product with me when I go to…

2) Origins 2012! Once again, one of the top gaming conventions in the U.S. is being held in my current home town, Columbus, Ohio. I’ve gone steadily since 2005 when I was on the Serenity RPG development team and always have a great time. This year I’ll be running a Savage Worlds Serenity adventure called “The Price of Success” in four time slots including Savage Saturday Night. I’ve run the scenario twice with local gamers and I think players will have a lot of fun with it. Stop by one of my games or catch me at Savage Saturday Night.

3) Gaming the Movies. This well-received series of columns in Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine has reached 34 entries. After a semi-hiatus over the last year, I’ll be renewing my activities with KODT either with a continuation of the GtM series or with direct Gamemastering articles of general interest. Drop a comment if you’d like to see one more than the other, or if there is a favorite movie/TV show you have in mind that I haven’t covered in the column to date.

Cheers!

Jim

Savaged Serenity Characters! Simon and River Tam

Characters #8 and #9 of my Savage World takes on the Serenity crew. It’s a two-fer, the brother and sister on the lam, the tongue-tied doctor and tetchy savant.

(These are free of charge (M*tant En*my please don’t sue) and using the Fan version of the Savage Worlds license. You will need the Savage Worlds rule book to use the characters (and hey, they have an awesome new deluxe edition out new this summer!))

Simon Tam
River Tam

Savaged Serenity Characters! Inara Serra

Character #7 of my Savage World takes on the Serenity crew. A beautiful Companion and faithful crew member.

(These are free of charge (M*tant En*my please don’t sue) and using the Fan version of the Savage Worlds license. You will need the Savage Worlds rule book to use the characters (and hey, they have an awesome new deluxe edition out new this summer!))

Here she is: Inara Serra

New Freebie: Targu’s Spit and Flagon – a D&D 3x Tavern

While cleaning up the vaults here at Dragonlaird Gaming I came across a tavern that I’d documented with completed Dungeons & Dragons 3x stats, plot hooks, and more. Why not share it with my fans?

Download for Free

Cheers!
Jim

Hooking New Players

An embarrassingly long time ago, one of my fans asked me to chime in on the topic of how to introduce new people to gaming. Two weekends ago I had the opportunity to run the first game for my nephews with my brother (an accomplished gamer) along for the ride. So how did I set it up to try to encourage a good time?

1. Don’t raise the bar too high: We can all remember a magical gaming session when we were learning and everything was just amazing. Too much pressure. Just have fun with it.

2. Set them up for Success: Create player characters who have strong capabilities or allow them to start character generation with enough experience that they’re good at what they can do and they don’t easily run out of options in combat.

3. Use Your Second String Monsters: Don’t expect newbies to bring an “A” game to your table. Err on the side of weaker, more numerous monsters that they can mow through without a high chance of getting killed themselves. Don’t make it a complete cake walk, but you want them to feel successful.

4. Game What They Know: Not many kids these days have read Lord of the Rings. Sure they may have seen the movie versions but the point is that their literary references aren’t the same as when we were starting out. Find out what genres they do enjoy, what movies they think were great adventures. For my nephews, they were most enthused about a pirates game akin to Pirates of the Caribbean. I picked up a one-sheet adventure from Pinnacle’s Savage Worlds website and went from there.

5. Use Your Bag of Tricks: Every GM has areas of their game that they do very well in and other areas that aren’t quite as strong. I like to make hand-drawn maps, use evocative music at the gaming table, paint miniatures, and bring extra effort to the description of things. So I drew out the haunted island and painted up pirates and skeleton figurines the week before the game. (Both got compliments from the boys). Queuing up the soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean on my laptop was a no-brainer. Finally, I spent time with the one-sheet adventure that I ran (Dead Men Tell No Tales) to add some extra details.

6. Keep Things Rules Lite: Even the most eager newbie can get rules-overload. Focus on the basics: combat resolution (How do I kill things?), skill resolution (How do I do things?), characteristics (What kind of person am I?), and equipment/weapons/riches (What do I have?).

7. Use a Simpler Game: I’m a convert to Savage Worlds for about the past three years. It really is Fast, Fun, and Furious as a game. I felt it was a decent system to start with. If you use an overly complex system, players can get overwhelmed before they get to have fun.

That’s about it. Not everyone who plays will stick with it, but even if you just have fun for one night, hey, that’s a night of fun, right?

Savaged Serenity Characters! Shepherd Derrial Book

Character #5 of my Savage World takes on the Serenity crew. The man with the book and the past of secrets.

(These are free of charge (M*tant En*my please don’t sue) and using the Fan version of the Savage Worlds license. You will need the Savage Worlds rule book to use the characters (and hey, they have an awesome new deluxe edition out new this summer!))

Here’s Book: Shepherd Book

Savaged Serenity Characters! Hoban “Wash” Washburne

Character #4 of my Savage World takes on the Serenity crew. Say hello to the leaf on the wind!

(These are free of charge (M*tant En*my please don’t sue) and using the Fan version of the Savage Worlds license. You will need the Savage Worlds rule book to use the characters (and hey, they have an awesome new deluxe edition out new this summer!))

Here’s Wash: Hoban Washburne

Savaged Serenity Characters! Jayne Cobb

Character #3 of my Savage World takes on the Serenity crew. Say hello to the Hero of Canton!

(These are free of charge (M*tant En*my please don’t sue) and using the Fan version of the Savage Worlds license. You will need the Savage Worlds rule book to use the characters (and hey, they have an awesome new deluxe edition out new this summer!))

Here’s Jayne! Jayne Cobb

Savaged Serenity Characters! Zoe Washburne

Here’s the next Savaged Serenity Character, our favorite first mate: Zoe Washburne.

(These are free of charge (M*tant En*my please don’t sue) and using the Fan version of the Savage Worlds license. You will need the Savage Worlds rule book to use the characters (and hey, they have an awesome new deluxe edition out new this summer!))

So here’s Zoe: Zoe Washburne.