Grumbling Dwarf

I bought the basic and expert sets, but we really only played 1st ed Advanced Dungeons and Dragons when I was growing up. Noticed how I didn’t say that I have been playing D&D since I was 13?  Our DM, as well as some of our players, acquired many of the popular modules of the 80′s to include Pharaoh, Keep on the Borderlands, Ravenloft, Tomb of Horrors, Vault of the Drow and many more. We’d just play them over and over hoping to forget enough of the details over time so that we could re-play them without it us experiencing the adventure as just another rerun months later. They were good times. Sneak around, find a monster, maybe attempt to kill it, and take it’s loot. Rinse repeat.

Since then our same group has turned to d20, 3.0, 3.5 and now Pathfinder. We don’t change much. We’re not adverse to change, but d20/3.0 just made sense to us and Pathfinder was more ‘business as usual’ than the alternative – 4th Ed D&D.

This is not a post on which edition is best or what game is best. I’ll be getting to my point here in a second.

I stop at my friendly local game store on occasion and pick up the hardback of choice. I pay by credit card and get a receipt. The receipt gets stuck in the pages of the book because I forego a plastic bag. I get home, head to my office,  the one with a lot of porcelain in it, and dive into the newly purchased tome. I then use the receipt for bookmarking my progress.

Why doesn’t the FLGS make up some cheap bookmarks to stick into the the book? Before someone tells me that it costs money I want to say that the bookmark doesn’t have to be anything fancy. I’m using a registered receipt for Iomedae’s sake! You can do it up in some program, get some card stock, print, cut, and serve. To save even more money, just do it in black and white. For lack of art, just use stick figures.

The next time someone buys a book from your store, throw one these in it. Now you can put your logo, address, website, twitter, facebook, cell phone number, web address, first born, and maybe even a discount on a random one or tell the person to gift it to someone as a more social perspective.  If you do use a discount method, to prevent getting taken to the cleaners you may want to number it and then check off the numbers as it gets used.

Move over World of Warcraft their is a new MMO on the block, and that is Rift.

Rift will release in early March, however I was able to get into the beta for it and while my time was short with the game I came away very satisfied. There were only four classes available to play (Warrior, Cleric, Mage, and Rogue), but for each of those classes there are eight specializations to choose from. While you level up you are allowed to choose three of the specializations and level them via Diablo style talent trees. The more points that you put into a tree, the more spells you unlock from it which are called roots. Certain specializations meld better than others, making for a better play style.

The questing system in Rift is very similar to other MMO’s. Kill X number of this enemy, collect X number of this item, go from point A to point B, etc. While the questing is repetitive, the story behind the game is very intriguing. I won’t spoil any of it here because I’d like for each of you to experience it for yourselves.

If you are an MMO fan, I highly recommend giving this game a try!

Hi Folks-

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Stay tuned and happy 2011!

Sean

There are tons of blogs out there for role playing games. Add on the podcasts and you have even more sources that give you advice on how to make your game better. Now, I do appreciate the articles, even the ones that seem to be the same from one publisher to the next. I don’t mind hearing the guys on FearTheBoot.com talk about how to manage trouble players and then hear the same thing on the DM Guys podcast. Note: I don’t think the DM Guys have actually covered the topic, I just use these two sources for example purposes.

Take notes. Use music. Create a list of names. Get the right miniatures. Use handouts. Think of ways to set the tone by not only describing what the player characters see, but also what they smell or hear. With all these bits and pieces, and there are tons more,  I’d wonder if it’s possible to keep them all in your pocket and remember to pull them all out when game mastering your game. Holy cow, never mind the 300+ pages of rules that we should have a grasp of.

Maybe I’m being a bit cynical, but it just seems that these pieces of advice can surely add to a game. No question about that. I just wonder if the perfect game is just not possible to achieve.

I think the advice may pertain to those that have little to no experience. Perhaps that they’re most helpful to those audiences. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t say my GM style is the be all end all, but experience does help. I also think we GM the way we do because it’s habit or we have our own preprogrammed way of doing things. Sure, we can try something new, but don’t we all revert to our own ways?

I think I need to play with other groups to really see how different approaches to game mastering can really appeal to me.

Thoughts?