Martin over at Treasure Tables announced the likely end to the TT blog. This marks the end of an era, and I wanted to pause for a moment of silence at this passing.

Treasure Tables was one of the inspirations behind stupidranger.com. Dante, Vanir and I all enjoyed reading TT, and we learned that we had stories and advice of our own to share. Without Martin, we likely wouldn’t be here today.

Treasure Tables offered a wealth of knowledge and advise for the DMs of the world. And even as a player, I enjoyed reading Martin’s articles and the comments from the great community of readers.

Martin, if you’re reading this, thank you for the hours of work you put into TT. I can only imagine how difficult it was to maintain daily posts for so long, and I commend you for sticking with it as long as you did. Thanks for all your support in our early days, and I wish you the best of luck!

Due to the (somewhat surprising) success of the investigation series, I’m decided to give it a holdover for a few more posts as I discuss a few items of interest. Today, we’ll be discussing how to drop a clue in an enthralling way.

Make it obvious

As I mentioned last week, the key to getting characters to really pick up on your clues is to make them obvious. Allow them to overhear a conversation describing the exact location of Leopold the Dancing Plot Point, and let them know when he’s showing up. Allow your roleplay and the interactions that take place to be where you choose to give them information or let them fumble around, but don’t make the information drop itself obscured.

The characters don’t know your plan, neither do most of the players. Make clues and plot points easy to come by while you gauge your players ability to decipher what you’re laying down.

Make the obvious clues tantalizing

A murder was committed. Now, it could’ve been done at the coaching of some big bad, or at the command of a guild of evildoers… it doesn’t much matter. At lower levels (and with certain players), you need to make the clue a little more tangible or at very least motivate them to follow your trail.

The best way to do that is to commit the murder with a +5 vorpal longsword. Maybe the cleanly severed heads everywhere is a clue! I guarantee you that it will take only nanoseconds before the fighter of the group mentally says “if I find the killer, that weapon can be mine!”

Once engagement is achieved, then you can get a little more mundane and subtle with the clues as you unravel the tale of how the murderer came to his vocation, and for what greater nefarious plot. They’ll follow the trail until the fighter gets a chance to lay hands around that sweet, sweet blade.

Pre-load your clues

If you have the breadth to assist your players with their character creation, you have the opportunity to pre-load the clues with your player. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve used the fact that a player didn’t want to write a backstory to my favor… I simply would weave a part of their past for them that would give them Something Important, be that a direct clue to the investigation or a means of deriving the clues a bit easier.

If your players are agreeable to this type of interaction it can serve you as a DM for a very long time in these types of campaigns.

It seems we really struck a chord with discussion on this topic last week. As always, please feel free to request further topics of discussion like our good buddy Phil did last week! I really enjoy the discourse that comes from covering topics of specific interest, so keep ’em coming!

As requested by our good buddy Phil, The Chatty DM today I will be examining the most grand puzzle of them all: the investigation campaign. To me, the investigation campaign is probably the most difficult to pull off successfully and requires patience, finesse, and a whole lot of contingency planning on the part of the DM.

To me, an investigation campaign is one that focuses on the party unraveling some sort of intrigue, cracking some mysterious code, or gathering clues to thwart their enemies. Or all of the above.

Patience

One of the most important elements of a good investigation campaign is patience. As a DM, you know the full picture. You know the fact that the players missed a clue that was lodged in that tree stump over there, they didn’t ask an important question of the NPC they just encountered, and it DRIVES YOU CRAZY.

It is paramount that as a DM you do not get mad at your players for not taking the appropriate steps. I have only experienced an investigation campaign as a player, so I have some unique perspective here: it is very easy to run down false leads, not see or understand an important clue, or generally just not pick up on the right things.

Finesse and Planning

As the DM, it takes a certain level of finesse to find the right mix of overt clues, leads, and events that take the characters down the right path. It also takes A LOT of contingency planning to ensure you can handle – in an interesting way – the different (mostly false) paths that your players will travel down.

A general rule of thumb to go by is assume that you will have to really set your clue off. I mean, to the point it is so obvious that you perceive NO WAY that it can be missed. Then, your players may have a chance at actually picking up on it. Often, I have found that DMs that really think they are smart guys will spread out latent clues in the setting, background, in reference materials sprinkled throughout the campaign. In reality, most players that I have been around usually don’t remember intricate details, or don’t think to “connect the dots” between the obtuse pieces of data. Often, it needs to restort to tactics that will seem heavy handed to you as DM, however remember… you already KNOW why the things you are putting forth are significant. They do not.

When the players start to pick up on the correct line of information, you might be able to scale back the “obvious factor” and let them fish for details a little more, but be careful not to let them linger in a state of confusion too long. If left to confusion, your players may elect to just throw up their hands and walk away, usually becoming resistant to returning to a “failed” line of information.

The Inspector Gadget Factor

To give a unique spin on the notion of investigation campaigns, I would like to invoke the name of my favorite detective of all time: Inspector Gadget. We can look to the common storyline of the Inspector Gadget cartoons to find an interesting approach on a investigation scenario: Dr. Claw (or one of his cronies) does something evil. Gadget goes to investigate and find some clues. He either completely misses the clue or takes a false clue and continues to examine it as if it was the proper lead, which places him in danger. It usually takes some heavy handed actions by his niece, Penny, to bring Gadget to the appropriate conclusion.

If you remove the comedic elements to this story, you find a microcosm of what a investigation campaign can look like. The moral to the story is simple: players see things differently and will often need help to find the appropriate answer.

Also, I can’t stand M.A.D Cat, even 20 years later.

As with everything during the holidays, time for blogging has been in short supply. So I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I don’t have a brilliant thought to share with you today. Instead, I’m going to share a little bit of randomness with you.

Hey, I Know That Place!

We tend to be a Forgotten Realms setting group. Since I’ve been reading R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt novels, I’ve found that besides being able to enjoy the story (which is awesome), I love reading about Drizzt’s adventures, especially when they occur in the same general places where my characters have adventured. There’s something exciting about my characters sharing a geographic connection with the well-known Drow Ranger.

Here, Take My Ring of Invisibility

Dante found the Intimagik booth at Gencon this past year, and he purchased a DM/GM ring. Every once in awhile, I think I should have gotten my own ring because they are pretty neat. Of course, I have to wonder which ring I would get (a dilemma that plagued me at Gencon and lead to me not buying any of then). And this leads me to wonder how cool it would be if we could actually have Rings of Intelligence +4 or Rings of Regeneration. This usually leads to me making a list of all the magical stuff I personally wish I could have. Around this time of year, I would love to have a bag of holding; shopping would be a LOT easier!

So, there’s my little bit of randomness for today. Not that I really had anything important to share, but it’s nice to know that some of you out there can sympathize with my random thoughts. 🙂

On Monday, I discussed an exceedingly good puzzle experience but I feel it is important to examine how most puzzle scenarios go horribly wrong.

Lack of context

If you are like me, either you don’t have time or impetus to spend hours coming up with a good puzzle to put your players through. In the cases where I want a puzzle, I usually turn to a set of riddle books, or online puzzle resources.

The trouble with riddles from books or ones gleaned from other sources is that they often have a different context. For example, if your setting is a dungeon-crawl, you will have outdoor puzzles or riddles at your disposal. This causes you to either hack the puzzle to change the context, or use something that really doesn’t fit in your scenario… neither option I would recommend.

This thing’s too hard…I’m taking my longsword and going home.

I hate being presented with a puzzle that is too hard, or one that has obtuse literary references that I won’t understand. That leads to about 10 minutes of interaction, engagement, and roleplay followed by 50 minutes of frustration while someone smarter than me figures it out.

For that matter, if you are constructing a puzzle that has a certain context, riddle, or reference that might not be generally known you should arrange for clues or hints to nudge your players onto the right path, or give them a hint so they can progress. Some DMs tend to make some sort of a penalty, be it the denial of a reward or a reduction in the experience for the puzzle, for taking the hint but I tend to use my discretion. There’s no need to rub salt in the wounds of your players just because you selected a puzzle that was too hard for them.

I’m just a nice guy that way.

Make a way out

To augment that last point, unless you want to have a severely annoyed party you should give them a way out. You can handle this in a variety of ways, I quite enjoy the way they handle this type of thing at True Dungeon. If you can’t get the puzzle in a certain amount of time, you take damage or have to fight your way out in order to progress. By having an out, you can guarantee your players will not spend any more time being annoyed than they choose to.

If you can work to select puzzles that fit with the context of your campaign, have attainable solutions, and ways out should they prove too difficult you have a good chance of having a satisfactory experience.

If you have any further tips on how to select and apply puzzles to your campaign please leave a comment, its good to have fresh ideas!

I have realized, over the past month or so, that I’m a little bit fluffy and a little bit crunchy. I think it all depends on my mood on any given day.

Fluff-O-Meter

I enjoy the fluff of the game… without the fluff, I get bored. And when I get bored, I go a little crazy. I crave a storyline that really draws me and my character into the action. I love to create back stories and expand on them throughout the campaign. Any story that inspires me to create my character as a literary figure in my own mind is a good story in my book, pun definitely intended. I need to feel as if my character has a positive impact on the world around her, that who she is and what she’s doing is important.

Mmmm… Crunchy…

I love the rules! Game mechanics are always fun for me, especially when they get me out of trouble. I plan out my character development several levels in advance, so I always know what feats and spells I’m taking. I love a good crunchy dungeon every once in awhile, to prove that my character development has been successful in providing the skills necessary to defeat the evils. And, of course, rolling dice is always fun!

So, I’m not too fluffy or too crunchy. I like to think I’m the prefect blend of fluffy-to-crunch. And I’ve noticed I tend to have the most fun when a session provides me with both crunchy and fluffy fodder.

On a related note, Yax posted the Top 10 Signs Your DM is Fluffy and Crunchy. Besides identifying your DM’s modis operandi, it’s also great for helping you identify your level of Fluff-to-Crunch as a player… just pick the list that includes the elements you prefer in your game session.

P.S. Thanks to Yax for the #7 spot on his Top 50 RPG sites! It’s definitely an honor to be included among those many great sites! 🙂

While doing some Christmas shopping today, I was playing around with some ideas for puzzles for our next few campaign sessions. This led me to start thinking about the more satisfying puzzle scenarios that I have beheld and what it was that made them great, and I arrived at one very great example to share with you all today courtesy of a campaign built by my buddy, Sir Geekelot.

Relevance

One of the most frustrating puzzles is one that feels arbitrarily dropped in front of the adventuring group. In the case of Sir Geekelot’s campaign, he structured something that essentially equated to a puzzle arc: three puzzles that could be worked in parrallel for the party to proceed. This puzzle arc was tied in directly to the plot, using some key touchpoints that he had established early and often enough to make them immediately recognizable to the group.

The puzzles themselves were pattern or logic puzzles that required some trial and error. They were challenging and the extra plot tie-ins made them even more engaging but not too difficult as to lead to frustration.

Focus

Another great element of this puzzle arc was the way it was structured: teams of two paired up and were presented with the task at hand and only they could work that particular puzzle. The neat thing about this setup was that each person had someone to talk the problem out with, but there were enough puzzles at hand for everyone to focus. This led to a real beehive of activity around the table and no one was left out sitting on their hands. If I walked in cold on the session at that point, it would be enough to tell that however this particular puzzle scenario was done it was done correctly. My teammate and I had a pretty easy time with our puzzle, others took a little longer, but in the end everyone walked out successful.

Fun

This is one of those untenable attributes that is very hard to describe, but the encounter was generally fun. The presence of danger (but not explicit death), the fact that because of the clamor of activity around the table you never really knew how the rest of the group was doing, and the ability to share your success directly with the person that you were partnered with really made the experience satisfying.

I think that structuring puzzles in this intimate and relevant way was really the best. I hope the next time I bring puzzles into the mix I’m half as successful as this particular instance, Sir Geekelot really knew how to do this up right.

Earlier this week, I discussed the concept of the visual polish – the fit and finish – of gaming resources, books, and other miscellanea. Today I’m going to explore a different kind of fit and finish… the kind that makes your gaming sessions appealing.

Flesh out ideas

As you may know, I am an “off the cuff” style DM in many ways. I take pride in letting my storyline and interactions flex to suit the decisions of my characters and I don’t like spending a lot of time planning for elements that could get ignored.

I will, however, spend some time fleshing out major plot points, key player characters, and magic items of interest. By taking some time to complete a brief backstory or character motivation for your intermediate non-player characters you gain the ability to let the storyline diverge if the players decide to engage that NPC more fully.

A good example of how this works out played out when Vanir’s womanizing bard came across a barmaid that I decided to give a little personality to. He had really connected with that barmaid in a meaningful way, and eventually returned to marry her when he decided he wanted to settle down. If I had not taken the time to give the barmaid a little personality, or if I had decided to handwave the encounter, this nice piece of character development might not have happened.

Be Colorful

One of the best tools a DM can have is a strong vocabulary. One excellent tip that I learned from our college DM is keeping a “resource pool” of key descriptive words, names, and phrases that I can draw upon to illustrate a common element in a more interesting way.

He had been known to create his own charts of descriptive words and phrases and use them on occasion when some additional detail was required. I thought this was a very excellent idea, and I tend to enjoy augmenting this by using a Word-A-Day calendar or some other means of sharpening and expanding my vocabulary. A little tip – Shakespeare had a lot of quality insults that sound great within the context of a D&D game.

Be Creative

Nobody likes a rut. If I am doing my pre-game prep and I feel like I’ve done this plot point before, I usually end up severely altering it or trashing it all together. Especially in campaigns where you have used the same characters for awhile it is very important to be diligent about introducing new encounters and new activities.

Roleplaying is appealing because it gets you out of the normalcy of life, and if your characters experience the same repeating trends that you wrestle with in everyday life eventually they (and their players) will get tired of the grind.

During holiday season, we have some difficulty finding game time when everyone can get together to game. These delays can making staying tuned-in to the storyline very difficult. In the past, we haven’t done much to keep in touch with the story outside of game nights, but there are a few things I think might help us this time around. Of course, implementation may not happen right away, but that doesn’t mean I can’t dream!

1. Plot In Review – We have a bulletin board already established for the game. As one of the note-takers in the group, I could post recaps of the plot thus far on the board: one to help me remember, and two to share with everyone else.

2. Character Development – Instead of ignoring my alter-ego until the next game night, I could be working on character development between sessions. I have created a fairly good backstory for my character, but I could take some time to flesh it out, giving her more personality and keeping me in-tune with her.

3. Career Planning – I could take some time to consider my character’s career. I can review supplements to explore prestige class options or other feat ladders I haven’t had time to pursue. This will give me some direction as my character gains experience, as well as some opportunities for in-game roleplaying as I “develop” these new abilities.

Do you have any tricks to share for staying tuned-in to the game during hiatus?

It’s been awhile since we peered into the abyss to see what horrors lurked within, and I’m in an absolutely foul mood so this seemed like a great time!

I saw Beowulf over the weekend. While it diverged somewhat from the myth, it was still a good story. With good villains!

Let’s examine these villains, shall we? (* WARNING LOTS AND LOTS OF SPOILERS AHEAD MATEY, YARR *)

• Grendel

  Poor Grendel. Born with exposed eardrums, the voice of Crispin Glover, and a bunch of loud drunken Scandinavian assholes nearby. It’s not his fault the noise of their partying drives him insane. Maybe killing and eating half of them is a little overboard, but can you honestly say you haven’t wanted to do that? I blame bad parenting.

  Grendel is a great example of a “villain” who doesn’t want to be eeeeevil. He just has monstrous strength and no social skills whatsoever. His way of dealing with adversity is to tear it into tiny pieces, occasionally putting them in his mouth. It’s hard not to feel bad for the guy even as he murders a room full of unsuspecting partiers.

  Although I was glad when he died because HOLY CRAP HIS VOICE WAS ANNOYING. Who says “heeearmed”?

  VILLAIN RATING: I HATE CRISPIN GLOVER’S VOICE

• Grendel’s Mom

  Grendel’s Mom has got it goin’ on
  Grendel’s Mom has got it goin’ on

  OK, that had to be said.

  Anyway, Grendel’s mom is another great example of a well-developed (no pun intended!) villain, but unlike Grendel she’s got some good healthy evil going on. She doesn’t like being bad for the sake of it, mind you. She just knows what she wants (demon babies of kings, apparently) and she’ll do whatever she has to in order to get it.

  The part I didn’t quite get is that she really didn’t have to work very hard to get what she wanted.

  King (various): ZOMG! A water demon! With goldboobs!
  Grendel’s Mom: Hi! Let’s have sex and you give me a demon baby.
  King (various): OKAY!

  I mean, this worked for Hrothgar, Beowulf, and I assume Beowulf’s buddy (and new king) at the end. And she didn’t ask for anything else and even (for awhile) granted her baby daddy power and riches until demon baby grows up and goes all dragon on the kingdom. Maybe she’s just bored. And I didn’t get why it was always a king’s demon baby. Maybe she’s just got a royalty fetish.

  REGARDLESS! She’s still a good example of a character doing bad things for their own purposes but not working for the Forces of Blackest Evil

  P.S. how in the HELL did this movie get a PG-13 rating????

  VILLAIN RATING: DD with gold sprinkles

• Beowulf’s Demon/Dragon Baby

  The Darth Maul of the movie. AWESOME fight scenes, but he doesn’t do anything else but speak some one-liner crap. I didn’t understand why he was terrorizing everyone and demanding vengeance on dear old Dad. I hope my son doesn’t do that when he grows up. Eeeeee.

  VILLAIN RATING: ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

• Beowulf and Hrothgar

  What’s that? I’m listing the good guys as villains? “What the hell”, you ask?

  They’re the heroes, but they’re doing stuff almost as bad as the “bad guys”! Cheating on your wife with a hot water demon, fathering demon babies who end up killing your countrymen, LYING ABOUT IT when you know damn good and well what the deal is?

  It’s no gory mass murder, but it’s certainly not Good behavior.

  And while they might not be completely Bad or Good, I say they’re great characters.

  VILLAIN RATING: IDSPISPOPD

Until next time!

<evil laughter>