Keeping Track

So, an important tradition at the start of each game session for us usually involves the “In the previous episode of our story” bit where someone reminds everyone what happened the week before. It’s a great way to get everyone focused on the game and away from the snacks or the startup banter and remind everyone where the story is. Also, if anyone missed the previous session, they can catch themselves up.

But, we all know that the game isn’t always a weekly affair, and sometimes, with lots of conflicting events, it can sometimes be a month before the group reunites. Memories get hazy and details go foggy.

In the past, I would try to keep notes, but I just couldn’t keep up with it. I tried tempting my players with extra story points if they kept a log, but nobody ever took me up on it.

Well, part of the problem was that I never really had a cool system to do it, so I was never motivated to track elements of the story. I’ve seen various cool looking leatherbound emblazoned “adventure journals” for sale, but I never really found one that looked all that great.

Then, one day I was wandering through a Hobby Lobby and I saw the Happy Planners there. These were crafty and flowery and cutesy day planners being marketed to women and crafters. They had a series of loose rings as binders, and the pages and covers had these cool punched holes that held the pages in place, but also allowed for easy removal and replacement. 

That was the key that caught my eye. Removal and Replacement. That meant that the organization of the pages was flexible. Pages could shift around in the book based on temporary need, allowing accessibility without having to do a lot of searching in the moment. Very useful. 

A bit of research and I discovered that there are many brands and systems of planners and notebooks using the “Disc Bound” idea. I dove in.

In the process, I discovered that it was easy to get a hole punch made to create the special perforations necessary. Then, you could use any word processor to create your own forms and pages.

So, immediately I started creating them for The Hero’s Tale (It turns out that an 8.5x11 sheet cuts in half perfectly for an 8-ring binder). Right away, I discovered that the needs of a Narrator (Game Master) were different from the needs of the player, so I created separate forms.

The main ones that I use for Narration are the Session Notes/Planner pages and the NPC tracker pages. The session notes allows me to plan a basic overview of the likely scenes in the session, track the characters and their karmic actions as well as note the story points during the game, and then take notes on the actual story that they play. Finally, and the bottom of the flip side, I can jot down some notes for the next session. One sheet contains the whole session. 

Once I’ve got the basic plan, I create an NPC sheet for each of the primary NPCs they’ll encounter, and keep one or two blanks handy in case they run into someone I have to create on the fly. I can gather all of the recurring NPCs from deeper in the binder and move the sheets to the spot where I can access them easily. Now my NPCs are becoming real people, and have more in-depth roles, like a support or a nemesis. 

The players use the NPC sheets as well, but their session record sheets don’t require planning sections, so I’ve made those ones a little simpler. The players have their primary character sheets as well, of course.

I’m working on other page ideas, like locations and items. I also print them in a medium gray instead of dark black so that the user can write over things however they want, and they don’t have to use the “form”. 

Here are some pictures of my system in action.

I have all of my games in one binder, whether I’m the Narrator or the player. I can move them around depending on which campaigns are the most active and what world each one is in. I can pull forward the notes that are needed, and “archive” what’s not to the back of the binder.

It has had a HUGE impact on my storytelling, both as a Narrator and as a player. I no longer forget names, and personalities and locations are much more consistent and memorable. It’s becoming much more REAL. I’ll never go back!

How to Roll Dice With a Disability

Inclusion at the table is a big deal these days, and rightly so!

My son, and one of the dev team for The Hero's Tale RPG, Jacob, has Cerebral Palsy.  It basically means that his brain doesn't talk to his muscles very well. That effects those that have the condition in many different ways. Some have tense muscle tone, others are very lax. Some are cognitive and verbal, others are not. Some can learn to walk and function, others can't, and many are in-between.

Jacob has very high, tense muscle tone. It's virtually impossible for him to use his legs, and he's stuck in a wheelchair full time. He struggles to use his arms and fingers with any real control. He is, however, fully cognitive and verbal.

So, he has been playing RPGs with us ever since we first created The Hero's Tale, even before we called it "The Hero's Tale". And rolling dice has always been a struggle for him. Here's why.

Picking up one of the small d20s means he has to isolate his thumb and forefinger, reach out (a difficult move with high muscle tone), direct his fingers to open and pick up the die, raise it, and then drop it and hope it doesn't roll away, or fall down under his wheelchair.

We've experimented with larger dice, and those are much easier for him to wrap his palm around and pick up, but the large d20s have numbers aligned and arranged for MTG scorekeeping (called "countdown" or "spindown") rather than a random arrangement. It works, but it's not as random.

Now, we have found the solution! We put a small d20 in a larger plastic box. This one is a display box for an autographed baseball.

He can pick up the box easily, shake it, and set it down to see what number he rolled. Easy grip, easy roll, and it doesn't fall on the floor!

A bonus benefit for everyone: How many times has an over-eager player tossed a die and had it roll off the table, or, worse, tumble onto the battlefield, scattering walls and miniatures as it goes? There's no save vs the die itself!

But if everyone at the table uses this method, there are no scattered dice, no hunting under the chairs! Just shake the box and read the die!

Brilliant!

Shameless Plug #2

Hey, everyone!

Thanks so much for coming to our blog and reading about gaming! Thanks for following the story, and our characters, Granthurg, DeFrantis, Thissraelle, Antonerri, and Karendle. Just yesterday, my son, Jacob, and I worked out the basic plot outline for the next story arc, well into next May or June! I say, I'm very excited!

This weekend, if you're in Northern Utah, in Provo, please come see us at the Timpanogos Game Convention! We'll be demoing The Hero's Tale and Seeker's Quest both Friday and Saturday!

Also, if you believe in great games with your kids for amazing bonding and family learning, and if you've been enjoying the thread of our fantasy story, please consider supporting us with a Patreon pledge! Just a few dollars will help, and will allow you to read the story a week in advance of everyone else! You can spoil it for your friends!  :-)

Thanks so much for your visits, your comments and your support!

The Murder Hobo - How to Be a Great Narrator (Game Master), #3

Recently a friend of my son’s was over an they were playing Fallout. Actually, the friend was playing, and my son was mostly watching. I don’t know much about the game. I was sitting at the kitchen table writing scenes for “A Tale of Heroes” (the next few have been really cool for me to write!), but I was marginally paying attention. I’ve also watched them play it pretty extensively before. It seems to be mostly wandering around trying to not be killed by various mutant monsters. Yes, there are some other characters involved that you occasionally meet, but mostly, you’re running around trying not to be killed.

And, much of that “trying not to be killed” part involves killing everything else out there. There’s a kind of core assumption that anything that doesn’t look like (mostly) a human is dangerous and should be killed immediately. Then, when their bodies litter the ground, you can search them over for anything useful to your survival and move on.

Fallout 4 is rated “M” for “Mature”, and this description is from it’s ESRB page:

“Content Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Drugs

“Rating Summary: This is an action role-playing game in which players assume the role of a fallout shelter resident emerging from a post-apocalyptic world. As players traverse the open-world environment, they complete various mission objectives and use machine guns, machetes, lasers, and explosives to kill mutants and other human survivors. Battles are frenetic with realistic gunfire, explosions, and large blood-splatter effects; some attacks result in slow-motion dismemberment and decapitations. A handful of scenes depict chunks of flesh as well as severed heads and dismembered corpses. During the course of the game, players can consume a variety of fictional drugs (e.g., Buffout, Jet, Psycho) through the use of a menu; repeated use of these drugs leads to an addiction status and various negative effects for characters. The words “f**k,” “sh*t,” and “a*shole” are heard in the dialogue.”

Now, whether or not games are too violent is not my point, here. My frustration is that this text not only shows the more extreme moments of combat, it also pretty effectively describes the plot. By that, I mean the entire point of the game. There really doesn’t seem to be much deeper substance there beyond killing things and grabbing stuff.

Now, there’s more than just rated M games that seem to suffer from this malady. I love to play “Breath of The Wild”. This one is rated E10+ (meaning that it’s rated for all players, but recommended more for ages 10 and up). There’s a little more to the story line, and a few more options for actions, but mostly it involves wandering the open countryside killing bokoblins (or other denizens of evil) and taking what they have that’s of use.

There are thousands of other games with a similar, underlying concept. Even games as “child-friendly” as Adventure Quest and Wizard/Pirate 101 are still all about wandering around, defeating bad guys and taking their loot.

All of this comes, I believe, from the rich tradition of tabletop role-playing games. In the beginning, D&D began as primarily a dungeon crawl game. As a party of adventurers, you found a underground network of halls and chambers (no one is sure who built it), populated by horrific monsters (no one is sure where they came from), that got stronger and more terrible the deeper you went (no one knows why the structure was dug so deep). As the game moved into above-ground adventuring, it was easy enough to carry on the tradition of killing and looting. It’s easy to justify if you’re raiding orc and goblin encampments, but if your character is evil, it’s a lifestyle that’s easy to claim.

And thus, the murder hobo was born.

The murder hobo wanders from village to village, killing and looting. As an RPG lifestyle, it’s an easy way to live. You have a constant source of experience points and gold pieces to feed on, and before long, you’ve leveled up enough to be a feared local legend.

While the community may mock the playstyle, it seems most tabletop and electronic game systems still actively encourage this way of life. I’m kinda surprised that it’s not its own character class by now.

So, what can you do? Well as the GM (Narrator) of the story, you can do two things:

First, you can make a story line so exciting and compelling that the idea of just wandering the countryside making mayhem is downright boring. Give a focus, set up a quest. Give them some real, true villians to fight! Make it a real story!
Second, make consequences happen! If someone kills just out of spite, greed, or boredom, have the friends or family of the victim come after the character. Constables, guards, or local law can come down hard on the lawless as well. Finally, in The Hero’s Tale, use negative karma points to make life difficult for the offender.

Maybe there is a villian among the villagers! I think a cool 2-3 session adventure would be for a party to be hired by a local king or noble to go capture a local murder hobo who is causing panic amongst his peasants. Find him and bring him to justice!

Let’s make our games less rampage-ey, and more heroic!

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This continues the story of the heroes in Wynne, in Twynne Rivers, in the world of The Hero's Tale, Family Friendly RPGs. Here's more info on The Hero's Tale, and family friendly RPGing.If you like this story, support us at our Patron!

Diversity - How to Be a Great Narrator (Game Master), #2

I’d like to carry on with the theme that I started in my last HTBAGN (now pronounced “hit-boggan”) post. In that post, I talked about having an “open chair” policy for anyone that wants to come over and game. Our gaming group has seemed to become a magnet for people with disabilitities. 

I want to start off on this topic by telling you about one of our group members. I won’t use his name. One day, as we were gaming our usual friday night game, there was a knock on the door. I answered it, and saw a nervous, but pleasant-looking chap standing there. After I said hello, he said something like, “Hello. Is this where the game is going on?”

I was a little taken back, so I hesitated. It turns out that one of our group members had invited him to come play with us. But that member wasn’t there that night, and hadn’t mentioned to me that he’d be inviting anyone. 

I wasn’t sure what to do. But it only took me a moment of internal debate to swing the door open and let him in. He’s been coming pretty much every week since then.

We’ve gotten to know him. He’s told us that he’s on the Autism spectrum, and we can kinda tell that in some of his behaviors. He hesitates to make eye contact, and his characters are, well, unique, to say the least.

Nonetheless, he’s become a welcome member of our group, and we’ve come to enjoy his creativity.

Sometimes, though, I’ve thought back on that first night, and considered how difficult it must have been for him to reach out and find us, just on the recommendation of a friend. A friend, who, wasn’t even there at the time! The social struggles that many on the Autism spectrum can have must have made that a particularly difficult challenge. I sometimes think that it must have been quite a risk for him. I’m quite pleased that he took that risk. Our lives are richer for it.

Some practical thoughts, and some questions:

We’ve had several gamers at our table who are “on the spectrum” and have been diagnosed with some level of ASD. How does one integrate them into an adventure, and into a gaming group. Here are some thoughts (from someone who is definitely NOT an expert):

• Integrate them. Engage them in the game like any other player. Help them set up characters if they’ve never played RPGs or never played your system, and just get them into the game, just like any other person at your table.
• Give them plenty of space. That’s a tricky one, because I don’t mean to isolate or avoid them. I mean, when they do something that “doesn’t quite fit in”, either in game or in the room, let them. Have the game respond to them as they choose, kinda like the game is normally supposed to. There is always a lot of banter around the table about what should be done, and there is always a time when any player says, “I’m doing this or that thing.” As a GM, you respond to that. So, allow that same freedom of choice for all players. 
• Overall, I’m saying to just engage them as you would any other player, and it will all work out.

Now, if any of you reading this have personal or professional experience in this area, I would love to have a conversation (phone or social media) about additional ideas about gaming and ASD. Any thoughts?

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Here I'm just talking about my ideas for being a Narrator (a GM), in the world of The Hero's Tale, Family Friendly RPGs. Here's more info on The Hero's Tale, and family friendly RPGing.

How to Be a Great Narrator (Game Master), #1

Welcome to all!

As we created, tested, and adapted the rules to The Hero’s Tale over the years, we’ve had an unwritten rule at our table: Anyone is welcome.

I will say up front that this has been both good for us and bad for us. However, overall, this has been right for us, and has been very helpful for many of us at the table.

How this has been good:

I’m not inside the heads of those who sit at our table, laughing and throwing dice, but as I look around it, I see a core group of great friends who have been through a lot together. We’ve saved the world and the universe a time or two, and, in the process saved each other. We all have issues. We all have struggles. Over the years, our (mostly) consistent adventure night has given us a chance to bond with each other. We’ve become “our tribe”.

All of us, in some way or another, have at times felt like we were socially disconnected. We’ve felt “not cool” or on the fringes of the mainstream. There are some of us at our table that have actually been professionally diagnosed this way, with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, or even with physical disabilities. When we’re playing, the table evens everything out.

Through the years, various people have drifted in and out of our group. Some stay for a while, some stay only for a session or two. A few have moved away and come back. Life is kinda curious that way. I like to think that each one has brought something interesting and beneficial to the group, and I hope that the group has been beneficial to them.

There are a few in the group that I’ve essentially seen grow up here. When we started, Jacob, my youngest son, was 14 years old. He’s 18, now. There are two or three that came in from his social circle that are in the same age range. A lot changes in those four years of a kid’s life. I look at the process of their growth, and I’m certain that the gaming group had a big impact on that.

How this has been bad:

There are some practical considerations with having an “open chair” policy. One can be the physical lack of chairs. There have been nights where we actually run out of chairs and room around the table. We’ve gotten good at adapting things.

That indicates another “big” problem. The party gets to be too big. It takes some tricky Game Mastering to manage that many players. At a few points, we’ve tried to split the group into two tables, but for some reason, we always tend to drift back to one big one. I guess we like the camaraderie. And yet, in spite of the challenges big groups bring, our GMs have never insisted that anyone leave.

That many people also means a lot of character inconsistency. There are few weeks where everyone is here. How do you continue the story with missing characters? You just adapt. Our running joke is that this character or that character is “visiting his mother”. Or someone else can play the character of the missing player (as long as he/she stays true to that character’s character).

In spite of all of the challenges it brings, I’ve seen the impact our game group has had on the players themselves. I’m quite proud to be a part of it all. For all of the problems it brings to the story line, I would now always err on the side of inclusion.

Keep on rolling!

Happy Gygax Day!

Hey, folks -

At this rather undramatic juncture in the narrative, I have a few announcements!

First of all - Happy Gygax Day! Apparently, July 27th is Gary Gygax' birthday.  Who was he, you ask? Only the father of all role-playing games! So, everyone go out and roll a natural 20 today to celebrate!

Second of all, and as a fitting tribute, we now have our rule book available! A work spanning 4 years!  Here's the link to where you can purchase a hardback copy and/or a pdf download.  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/246599/The-Heros-Tale

We're very excited! Through the month of August, the PDF version will be only $10, and if you buy the hardbound version ($29.99), you'll also get the PDF free!

Third, we will be showing the game at the Eagle Mountain Street Fair, in our home town, on August 11th, and we'll also be demoing the game at the SaltCON End of Summer Event in Layton, UT on August 31 and Sept 1!

More to come!

Family-friendly Role Playing! Updates, Revisions, Preparations

We interrupt this thrilling narrative to bring you news of the game itself. You know, what all this is based on?

This friday will be interesting gaming session! We’re setting aside our regular characters and our ongoing epic story line to test a new combat system. We’re looking at a whole new way of dealing with initiative and ordering the actions in a fight. See, fight scenes are chaotic messes with lots of actions and reactions and general craziness. In order to play it at the tabletop, it has to have, well, ORDER. And a big part of that order is figuring out who’s first, and what happens next. This week, we’ll be testing a new system of doing that.

I’m very excited for this, but also very nervous. On the one hand, this new system is more fluid and more story-driven. It also will take into account some things I’ve observed as I’ve been watching fighters fight, both for real, and in simulations (like with foam swords and things) on youtube. It has the potential to make the game much more exciting, and much more like the game I want.

Or...

It could melt down into total chaos and completely break the game.

If that happens, that’s OK, really, because then I’ll know, as the “lead designer”, what went wrong and we’ll start to tweak it. That’s what playtesting is. But also, we’ll all know that if it really goes south, we can revert back to the system of initiative that we had, and it would all still function. I mean, we’ve been doing that for 3+ years, now, right?

This comes at a time when we’re seriously looking at a lot of aspects of the game, and doing some changes that I’m really happy about. We’re working on detailing the economy of the game, which we had always left to the abstract, before. We’ve recently made some excellent changes to the skills tree, and there are more changes on the way. This current adventure (Narrated by Tyler) has been the longest one we’ve done so far, and looks like it will yet continue for a very long time. That will give us the opportunity to see how the game plays with higher “level” characters.

So!

Stick around! We’ll keep you posted. It’s likely that we’ll be making the game available to the public sometime soon, possibly this summer.

In the meantime, enjoy the story!

PS Are there any artists among us?  Post in the comments!

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This continues the story of the heroes in Wynne, in Twynne Rivers, in the world of The Hero's Tale, Family Friendly RPGs. Here's more info on The Hero's Tale, and family friendly RPGing.



Start the whole story from the beginning. Start from where this current story arc begins.