Nuts & Bolts #169 - The Perfect Map for the End of the World Part 2- Puttin' My Money Where My Mouth Is

Last week, I wrote about finding some old road atlases and thinking they could be great for making maps for Post Apocalypse games. Well, this week I put my money where my mouth is and show off the results of the last week worth of efforts, including the techniques I used to get there!

The map above (which is nice and high resolution so feel free to use it if you want), depicts central Massachusetts. I tore it out of the atlas, grabbed a pen and got to work. As it had been quite some time since I last did this I documented my process and had to figure some stuff out the hard way. Example: the aging effects I used can cause ink pens to run if they are water soluble, and even some run will happen if they are not, I used a black pen and ended up with fairly blue lettering after multiple soaks. Know your materials and consider your order of operations. 

The first thing I did was put some notes onto the map. Again I used a black ball-point pen, but as you can see from above it ended up looking more blue. This is fine, but was a result of my doing the writing before the "aging" effects. Here's what the WIP (work in progress) looked like before I started aging.

You'll also note there's a lot more there than in the final. I decided early on to burn off the ripped dangly bits on the left side, and tore off a good chunk of the legend since that would make finding locations a little more difficult. That gave me the nearly final size and shape of the map.

The above picture is in a weak soak of tea. Weak because I tried to re-use a used teabag from my morning caffeine infusion. You can already see the lettering turning more blue in color. This may or may not suit you and your preference for pen style. I know I will probably do aging before writing on my next map. I ended up sacrificing a new tea bag to make a second soak because I wanted my result to be a bit darker. I also crumpled and un-crumpled the paper a few times before, between, and after each soak, I was looking for a final result that had that soft and more cloth-like feel at the end, which I think I managed really well. 

Between the first and 2nd soak I also tried to put some stains in using a little cooking oil and some soy sauce (it's what I had on hand!) followed by some hot sauce (Frank's Red Hot btw). While the oil worked the other two ended up being very minimal in the final product. 

After the second bath in tea I was happy with the state of the paper but it felt like it needed something. My focus group agreed, and suggested some blood spatter would look good. I wasn't willing to bleed for my art, so I tried red food coloring. It was way too bright.

It looked far to red for an old blood stain, blood usually dries to a darker brick red/rust color so I needed to add something to the dots to darken them. I did some experiments on the side and found that Dark Soy Sauce (a specialty product for most folks) worked well. I think that dark coffee might get a similar result. You want something that will only darken the red, not cover it. I'll try coffee the next time out. These were all applied using the end of a chopstick to dab the paper. I wanted to avoid a paint brush. A fingertip could also work, or the end of a fork. Test on a sheet of scrap so you don't ruin you badass map. 

In conclusion what I did was:

1. Write my on-map notes
2. Burn edges and/or tear pieces off as you like
3. Crumple liberally
4. Soak with tea then dry fully
5. Crumple liberally
6. Spot stained then dry
7. Second Soak and dry 
8. Crumple liberally
9. "Blood" dots 
10. Crumple liberally

Based on my learnings though I think I would consider moving my first step till after the soaking is done depending on how "new" you want said notes to seem on the paper. Generally I am pretty happy with how it looks, although even the hi-rez scan above doesn't quite get the colors right. WHat I am very happy with is the physical presentation. In person it looks and feels like a well worn wasteland map that the characters might be given or find. Sadly in person games are still some ways away, but just making this has been hugely fun and given me a real hankering to run some post apocalyptic fun. I hope it will for you too!

An aside: The aging techniques, use of tea soaks and crumpling of the paper, can work for old treasure maps and the like for any genre. Use the basic idea here for your fantasy RPG of choice.

Or don't, I ain't the boss of you.

Nuts & Bolts #168 - The Perfect Map for the End of the World

I'd wager, if you are of a certain age, you have memories of fighting with one of these dang things while trying to figure out where you are, where you need to be, and just how lost you really are. These days we all carry interconnected super computers in our pockets and take for granted that they know our location to within a handful of yards (or meters if you aren't in the US), but when I was younger, and especially when I was a kid, these were the closest thing we had to navigation aids. 

And damnit the post-apocalypse was better for it! 

Yes, the post-apocalypse. Back when I first started wandering the wastelands during my after-school hours the very idea of GPS and computer navigation was science fiction. The kind of science fiction that didn't belong in a good old fashioned post-apocalyptic wasteland! The idea of wandering the wastes with a tattered a stained fragment of an old paper map felt right at the time, and for me it still feels right. It has a low-tech tactile aspect that works in a ruined world where "treasure" was usually represented by physical goods and items, and where knowledge that wasn't part of a skill was often lost. The kind of wasteland where a waster stained encyclopedia was a tradable item. 

While cleaning my basement I found these three atlases, and was about to drop them in the recycle bin, after all, my phone does everything these do, but better. And then I got an idea. I'm prepping to run some post apocalyptic something later this year and ... why couldn't I use these for maps? I could tear the pages out, stain them with coffee or tea, mark them up with pen and marker, and then either hand them to players or take a picture for those internet games that most of us have found so much more convenient. 

Also, it was super timely as I didn't have a good topic for today. Ha!

I'm A Fan - Rifts Africa Style Necromancer

 

Been thinking about necromancers lately because of the Weird Frontiers game I'm running for some friends. Necromancers tend to be a "pet class" in my experience. They have skeletons and zombies and other undead "pets" that follow them around, follow their orders, and generally provide a lot of the substance of the class. Beyond the pets they also tend to have dark magic attacks, debuffs, and the like. So all of that said when I first got the 4th Rifts World Book, Africa, back in the mid 90s I was very pleasantly surprised by the very unique take on necromancers the book detailed. 

The rifts style necromancer could still animate the dead, and do all the usual necromancer standards, but in addition they could collect pieces of dead creatures and temporarily fuse them to their body with magic. These magical fusions would provide various special abilities and bonuses. A wolf's skull would give the necromancer a werewolf like visage complete with a powerful bite and wolf-like senses. The shell of a tortoise would act as a powerful armor, but slow the necromancer's speed and reactions. Tiger's claws would make for a deadly melee weapon. These ad hoc magical enchantments provided both a lot of interesting flavor for the necromancer, but turned a class that is often "rear guard" to a class that could be forefront. 

Now, I haven't played Rifts, or really anything using Palladium's system, in decades, nor do I want to, but I find myself thinking that the ideas and concepts that made this version of the necromancer interesting and fun to me, could work just as easily in any other system. For example, for an NPC necromancer in DCC or Weird Frontiers. Or potentially as a new focus for a Cypher System game. 

Rulings Not Rules #4 - Delayed Actions

Has this ever happened to you? You turn to a player and say, "It's your turn, what are you doing?" In return you get perhaps an uncertain look, maybe even a sheepish smile, and a request, "Can I delay my action?"

Listen folks, I don't if this happens to you a lot, and I don't know if it bothers you, but I have a low key hatred of delayed actions. Now, don't get me wrong, there are times and places where it makes sense. Ambushes are essentially all about delaying your action until the mark is in place, and I am fine with that, but when combat is rolling delayed actions bother me in a way I find difficult to articulate. Maybe it's the fact that combat in most RPGs is based on rounds that are around 10 seconds long (though obviously there is variation in both directions). Or maybe it's the indecision that seems to come with the request, when, in fact, the character and player both should be in action mode. 

Regardless as to why I dislike them I suspect that it will never be a problem that goes away. As such it's a problem I need to solve for myself for games I run. Specifically I mean for Dungeon Crawl Classics (and related games) which I tend to be running more often these days, and in DCC there is no specific rule for (or against) delaying actions. 

Rulings not rules, right?

So, then, how do I run delayed actions? 

1) Specify the action.

You can't just delay your turn without a plan, combat just is too fast and as we all know initiative is just a means for us to adjudicate things are are really happening basically simultaneously. So the first thing I need is a specific action. What is the thing that will happen? An attack, a move, a spell ... it must be specific with a target and...

2) What is the trigger for the delayed action?

I don't allow a delay without a clear trigger. Maybe you are delaying an attack on the big bad until the cleric blesses you. Or you are delaying a charge until the thief opens the door. Or delaying a fireball until the end of the round so the other players can get out of the blast area. 

3) (optional) A cost for the delay.

I have only just started thinking about this but I am leaning toward pushing the delaying character's initiative on future rounds to the step where they act with the delayed action. If you roll a new initiative every round you might penalize that character a die step if you wished. Alternately you could do nothing. Characters who delay tend to have higher initiative values and if they are quick to react in that combat maybe that's just fine. 

That's all. It's nothing complex but it prevents waffling, and it ensures that the action can move forward quickly. Combat is fun but it shouldn't take up the entire session and keeping it moving quickly is one of my biggest goals as a judge. 

Nuts & Bolts #167 - Multiple Action Dice (DCC& MCC)

 

Let's talk about multiple action dice, or multiple actions per turn. 

I've played a lot of games that dealt with this in many different ways. In games were its more common characters might act across multiple initiative passes, where each character acts once, then you roll through initiative a second time, and then a 3rd or even 4th until all characters have used all their actions. This can work well for those games where all characters have at least 2 actions as it spreads the in game action around the table more evenly, but might not work as well when some characters only have a single action and others have 2 or 3 or more. 

For DCC and MCC this could work well at higher levels once characters get second action dice. This would allow a cleric or wizard to buff a fighter and have that benefit be gained in the same round regardless of this initiative. It would also prevent a bad initiative roll for the bad guys to just result in an utter beatdown. There are other alternatives though...

Which is where a second option comes in. I use this for creatures in DCC and MCC as it works well at to spread a single creature or a group of creatures actions around those of the characters. In this case it comes up less often for players (though it can, especially lucky MCC mutants), and more often for monsters and other creatures. I'm of the mind that a good combat in these games should have at least 1 monster action for every 2 PC actions. That ratio has some flexibility but 6 players vs a monster with a single action is likely to be a very boring combat. In these such cases I roll an initiative die for each action die the monster has. So a creature with 3 actions will roll 3 initiatives and get an action at each point rather than 3 on a single initiative value. This does require slightly more bookkeeping, but it also ensures (usually) that the monster goes throughout a combat instead of multiple actions back to back. This makes the combat more dynamic, and can allow the creature to direct its attacks in such a way that clever players can react and potentially avoid getting repeatedly beat down. With groups I use a unique initiative for each member of the NPC/monster group in the same way. 

You might be thinking, that seems like a lot to keep track of at the table, and its true. If I were playing in person more often I doubt I would do so, but since I do most of my gaming online I can easily keep a roster of PCs and NPCs in an Excel (or other spreadsheet) file and then sort on their initiative values for an easy way to run through combats. 

It works for me, and I feel like it keeps the players on their toes a little more during combat. 

Rulings Not Rules #3 - Craft Everything!

 

I don't know if this is a "me thing" or an "old school" thing, or what but I notice that not everybody seems to look at every strange resource and every defeated creature, as a source for potential new gear. To me there is an almost instinctive process of evaluating materials in RPGs for future use in upgraded gear. New weapons, new armor, or new tools. 

Example from this past weekend's game:

My cleric of the mountain lord finds a vein of strange glowing rock deep within a cave. Looking at my gear I see that I have the right tools to extract a hunk of it and tell the Judge that I want to do so with the aim to be able to carve a new hammer head from the strange rock. If nothing else I figure its an opportunity for my character to upgrade his primary weapon and holy symbol to be a cool glow in the dark fashion accessory. 

Does this glowy rock have other strange properties? Will I end up with a one of a kind magic item for my efforts? I don't know, probably won't know for a few more sessions. For the moment though I can imagine it'll be something awesome until proven otherwise.

As a player that is my mentality: look at what the adventures give me, and find ways to use the materials and tools in new and creative ways. It's like a mini-game for me. When I run games I am very receptive to the same behavior from others. I see some players engage with the game at this level, building new items, or upgrading existing gear, and I think it makes for a better experience for all at the table.

As I also tend to play and run a lot of post-apocalyptic RPGs this both comes in very handy and feels very true to the genre. That said I see no reason why this cannot work in fantasy RPGs, or even some kinds of sci-fi. Advanced materials, rare minerals, and the like all fill this niche. Heck, much of the aesthetic of Dark Sun comes from the settings infamous scarcity of metal and the resulting propensity for weapons made of natural materials such as bone, chitin, and shell. 

These kinds of gear also allow players to exercise a level of aesthetic control over their characters that may not normally come up in games. Crafting all your gear from the chitinous hide of a certain species of giant insect will not only give your character a unique look but it will telegraph to the NPCs that the character is (presumably) skilled at dispatching said creature. Armor made from destroyed robots, a macuahuitl lined with teeth from slain dinosaurs, or a bow carved from the rib of a vanquished dragon! Keep your eyes out for opportunities to make your gear as cool and unique as you deserve then work with your GM to make it happen!

Still, I am curious if this is something fairly normal or something unique to certain kinds of gamers.

Remember When: The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.

 

The many versions of "weird western" out there all seem to have the same thing in common: small but dedicated fan bases, and an utter inability to catch on in the mainstream. Even Deadlands, the RPG heavyweight for the genre is a niche product in a niche industry. On the screens both large and small we have had a number of attempts, most of which never fully catch a wave. 

In 1993 we got the steampunk sci-fi "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr." on Fox. On Friday nights. Yeah, this show was all but destined to be a one and done series and, while history shows that the show managed a full season order, in the end that was not an inaccurate prognostication at the time, and yet for myself and man others this show remains a fond memory in TV history. Bruce Campbell had (and still has) more than enough charisma to lead a series, the writing was snappy and smart, and the weird season 1 meta-plot with a time traveling golden orb from the future that could empower people with incredible abilities remains a fun way to stitch together the shows few episodes and tell some really different western style stories. 

Maybe its the old nostalgia glasses painting a rosy view of a B-grade show, or maybe it was just as ahead of its time as another sci-fi western that Fox would kill in the Friday slot just a few years later. All I can say is that I have fond memories and that it has colored aspects of my gaming for nearly 30 years.

The primary antagonist was outlaw John Bly, played by the always excellent Billy Drago. Bly was trying to obtain the mysterious golden orb and had killed Brisco County Sr. setting off the events of the series. The orb, we would learn later, was sent from the future, and had numerous ill-defined powers: basically it was the perfect MacGuffin, it was powerful, cool looking, and the good guys really didn't want the bad guys to get it.

I've recently started playing the DCC inspired/adjacent Weird Frontiers RPG, and I think I am going to need to design an adventure, or adventure arc, around a mysterious orb, a time traveling villain, and the heroes who stand to prevent darkness falling upon the land. I wish we had more of this show, and more weird western genre mash ups in our lives. This, Firefly, Cowboys and Aliens, Wild Wild West (and its 1960s TV origin The Wild Wild West), give us fans brief and fleeting views of what could be and what could have been. I can't help but wish that we had more of all of it.

Nuts & Bolts #166 - Hacking the Cypher System: Predation

 

This past weekend I got the chance to play Predation again for the first time in a long time. The session was fun and I was reminded about how interesting the setting was. I was also reminded how the characters each have a dinosaur companion and how each player at the table role-plays the companion for another player. 

After the session I got to thinking about how the companion mechanics were fun, but...

That but really got me though. But, it was sometimes tough to juggle two character sheets. But, it was difficult to remember who was playing which character and which dino (this was exacerbated by using Zoom so it wasn't as easy as just looking to ones left or right). But, I was having a lot more fun with the dino companion than I was with my human character.

Lots of buts. That last one was the kicker tho. I really did have more fun playing a prehistoric chicken than I did playing my (checks papers) Creative Osteon who Crafts Unique Objects.

I wonder if there is any reason why one could not instead split your players roughly into two groups and have half of them play people, and half of them play dinosaurs. Give the dinosaurs actual types and foci to make them more fully realized characters. Problem solved?

Well, doing this would make play a little easier as you wouldn't have to try and play two characters at once. It would also mean less to track for the GM and other folks at the table. It would allow players to get more fully into character since they wouldn't have to worry about the companion dino for another player, or for their primary human. Best of all it would allow for a lot of role-play between players at the table. Imagine the player-player relationship between a "Disobedient t-rex" and an "Uptight scientist," or between a "stealthy warrior" and a "clumsy brontosaur"! By cutting the number of characters in half and allowing the dinosaurs to be more fully realized I think you could gain some really interesting role-play at the table that would otherwise often be minimized during play.

Of course, if you prefer Predation as it stands right now you should keep enjoying it, but I think if I run a game in the future I may consider this as an option to allow the players to choose before we start.

Rulings Not Rules #2 - Missed Opportunity: Fear of the Dark

 

I hate missed opportunities. You always feel a little bad, no matter how much confidence you have in your own abilities as a Game Master. One of my players pointed this one out to me after the session, for which I am very appreciative as otherwise I might have not noticed my error and would not know to fix it later. 

In this case it was, once again, a game of Weird Frontiers. During a combat in a dark cave against some undead, the lone character with a light source fell. The lantern hit the ground. A quick roll to see if it stayed lit came up as a fail. The characters and the undead were plunged into total darkness. 

Total darkness.

While fighting undead.

For level zero characters. 

Now, Weird Frontiers has a mechanic called "Grit" which measures a character's guts, gumption, bravery, sanity, etc, The mechanics are simple enough, a Will save vs the source of the fear or horror, and if you fail you lose some grit and suffer a fear effect based on how much you failed by. 

Easy right? And yet as the Judge I just never thought to call for a Grit Check as the combat plunged into darkness and flailing about blindly. That was my missed opportunity. 

I shouldn't berate myself too much, but as I am trying to evoke a mix of western, horror, and action ... I missed a beat that could really have tied those genres together nicely. 

The next time it happens I'll certainly be better prepared. I've learned from my mistake (such as it was), and I'll remember, hey the dark sucks, and when something is trying to kill you it sucks that much more.

Rulings Not Rules #1 - Dynamite

As this is my first post in a while, and intended as the first in a series, I'll offer some explanation:

Rulings Not Rules is going to be something similar to my Hacking the Cypher System series. Instead of focusing on system hacks however its going to be where I can take a moment to reflect on off the cuff Rulings I make at my table during play to keep things rolling forward. This is especially useful in the space of my games within the Dungeon Crawl Classics extended family, as there are often times that come up in session where a ruling is needed either to prevent having to check the book, or because the book lacks the required info. 

OK, that that out of the way...

Dynamite!

What weird western RPG is complete without some ill advised use of that most iconic of explosives? 

Here's the thing with dynamite though. It's tricky, dangerous, and just because its as easy to use as lighting a fuse, doesn't make it idiot proof. Especially when a character wants to use it in the heat of combat at the spur of the moment. 

The situation: 

A large ritual chamber, the BBEG is working a ritual to raise a spirit from the beyond. The party is also dealing with bone golems and their general ineptitude (this was a level Zero "funnel" adventure). A character decides to place dynamite on the ritual altar in hope of stopping the BBEG with a boom. The character is not a miner, or any other relevant occupation, and has not previously used dynamite. Not possessing a death wish, they desire to place a 10 second length fuse. 

Now, here's where the rulings come in. Perhaps obviously there are no rules for determining proper fuse length for dynamite whilst in combat. So I asked myself in the moment, "Would it be fun if there was a chance that the character got the length of fuse wrong?" The answer was, 100% Yes. 

100%.

Yes.

So, Weird Frontiers has a Luck stat, and I asked for a luck check (a d20 roll under or equal to ones Luck at my table). In my mind the accuracy of the fuse was going to be the intended duration (10 seconds) plus or minus a die roll of d5 seconds. A successful luck check would be PLUS the d5 (because hey, at least it didn't go off early before you could flee), and a failed luck check would be MINUS the d5 (oh no, I'm getting blown up!). 

Needless to say the dice said to heck with you! A natural 20, which is a fumble result on a luck check. Not just bad luck, but horrifically bad luck. So, what to do? Clearly 10 seconds minus d5 seconds was my intent for a simply failed Luck check, but now I was looking at a fumbled Luck check. If 10-d5 seconds was bad, what does worse look like?

I decided to buy myself a few moments to think while the other player at the same Initiative value acted. Their character shot the fuse to activate the dynamite. Now, I don't know if that would work in the real world, but rule of cool 100% applied here. I did remind that the players that dynamite is just nitroglycerine that has been stabilized and is still prone to explosions from high impact; so a miss would be very bad. I also declared that the fuse, being rather a small target would be AC 18 to hit. 

The character managed a 24 to hit. So there we were. I had to decide on the fuse.

A fumble, I decided, would mean that the initial fuse length was just wrong. That length of 10-d5 became 5-d5 seconds. 0-4 seconds to get out of the blast radius of 2 sticks of dynamite. 

I explained the situation to the very tense group. Given that combat rounds in Weird Frontiers (and similar DCC adjacent games) is 10 seconds the best case was about half a round and the worst case was instant detonation. It all came down to the roll of that d5. And of course I wasn't going to roll it! I informed the player of the not-remotely-an-explosives-expert to roll that d5. 

A good roll of 2 meant the fuse had 3 seconds till ka-boom! That allowed the combat round to finish before the dynamite went off. The remaining PCs could try and flee and the villains would get their turns (since they had low initiatives). 

Sadly most of the PCs had already acted, and the BBEG completed his ritual that very turn, but then again ...

In hindsight I'm pretty happy with how this all played out. Maybe not the ill timed explosion, but that's not on me, that's the consequences of the players' actions, and I am always ok with those. I think in a non-combat situation or with a character who could reasonably be assumed to be familiar with dynamite I would have used a skill mechanic instead of a luck check, but again, only if there was something fun to be had from the fuse being the wrong length. If they have enough time to plan, prepare, and execute safely I always want to allow that to happen.