A nicer version of By Firelight

I completed this some time ago, but only today did I get around to uploading it somewhere to be seen. Here is a PDF version of By Firelight after an editing and layout pass.

You'll notice that the pages are quite small and this is because this PDF has been formatted to display on small screen, like on an iPad or Kindle. It isn't ideal for reading on a monitor, but you're like me and are sick of game PDFs being borderline unusable on hand-held devices then you will understand.


At this point I am pretty happy with the rules, but I don't consider the game complete. I would like to include:

• A walk through of a scene or two of play.

• 3 “adventures”. I imagine a By Firelight adventure to be a little different from what we typically call an adventure. It would consist of some ready to go characters, suggested words/phrases to put into the draw bag and several key scenes for the Guide. I would like to include one adventure set in a house, another at a campground and a third in a graveyard. I imagine that all of these places would be a good spot for a game of By Firelight.

• More advice for the Guide/Storyteller.

• A better layout and a PDF in 8.5×11 so that it views on a monitor and prints better.

Categories: By Firelight, RPG, Storytelling

Another review of In Between (Polish version)

Yet again, I was poking around over at RPG Kepos only to find that In Between has been reviewed again. It got a positively glowing review this time, no doubt thanks to the great layout and translation work done by the RPG Kepos team.

This time the review comes from Poltergeist, a Polish blog interested in all kinds of geeky things. The review scores were broken down into a number of different categories, but all of them came out as either 8 or 9 out of 10. I don’t have a lot to say about the review this time around. The reviewer didn’t really mention anything they didn’t like about the game for me to think about. Man, I hate it when they only have nice things to say!

It seems a common theme between this review and the last are that the mechanics for the game are really good. This is great news since back when I originally submitted In Between to Game Chef the main complaint was that the mechanics were weak. The game has come a long way since then and moved away from the Universalis-style bidding to something much different. The game still uses a power economy, but that economy is built within the confines of ritualized components and twisting narrative decisions. It is a much different beast from what it was two years ago.

Categories: In Between, Poland, Poltergeist, RPG Kepos

Beginners & Box Sets

In my ongoing quest to write a good beginner's guide to RPGs I have run into a few RPG box sets. It used to be that any game worth its salt would have a box set of the rules, but somewhere in the mists of time they died out altogether. I was pleasantly surprised to see box sets starting to appear a few years ago, culminating in the return of the D&D Red Box. How do these sets stand up as introductory products, though?

D&D Red Box

This one is the elephant in the room. Anyone with any familiarity with the RPG "scene" knows about The D&D Red Box. Wizards of the Coast brought the box back a couple of years ago to entice more new players to the hobby. I can't say if they were successful, but regardless of their success they still created a good entry-level product.

In case you are brand new to role playing,  D&D is a game of epic high fantasy where players take on the roles of mighty heroes as they crawl through dungeons, save the world and, yes, even slay dragons.

The fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons is the most recent version of the game available at the time of writing this and the D&D Red Box is an entry level D&D product which contains everything you need to start playing the latest iteration of the classic game. The rules are simplified and feature a step by step adventure to play through. While these simplified rules are great for beginners, at some point players will want to graduate to full-fledged game.

Pathfinder Beginner Box

Golarion is a high fantasy world filled with gnomes, elves, dwarves and all manner of other fantastic races. With the Pathfinder RPG a player can jump in ready to craft their own epic adventures or join the famed Pathfinder Society, a group of covert agents and adventurers, to further the goals of Inner Sea factions.

Pathfinder rivals D&D 4e in the number of players that enjoy it regularly. Its roots lie in the previous edition of D&D and it maintains a similar play style. Much like D&D, Pathfinder enjoys a lively and widespread community with plenty of organized events to attend.

The Beginner Box is a simplified rules set that, like The Red Box, provides an excellent introduction to the hobby. It contains everything that you need to play and a little bit more. You should be aware that The Beginner Box is an introductory product and does not contain the complete rules. Players that enjoy the game will need to upgrade to the core rulebook at some point. That aside, it is a much more friendly and affordable introduction than the core rulebook is.

Doctor Who: Adventure's in Time & Space Box

The beloved British television show, Doctor Who, has introduced multiple generations to science fiction. It is fitting that the latest incarnation will also introduce many to the fine hobby of role playing. Doctor Who:AiT&S has one of the best, if not the best, introductory box sets available in the hobby. While the game is named after the eponymous and titular hero, the rules do not require his presence. They are written and presented in such a way that any group of heroes can blunder their way through space or time, with or without The Doctor.

Doctor Who comes with the complete rulebook, which is written in a casual and concise way and features a simple, yet flexible, set of rules. While the box set contains everything that you will ever need to play the game, the crown jewel is a set of introductory adventures with step by step advice for first time Guides. Even better, the adventure booklet also contains numerous adventure “seeds” to get a fledgling Guide started on creating their own adventures.

A final thing worth mentioning about this Doctor Who RPG is that it takes an anti-violence stance. The game de-emphasizes violence as solution to problems and instead encourages negotiation and wits.

Warhammer Fantasy 3e

Warhammer Fantasy 3e is probably the most expensive entry point into RPGs. It's also the most comprehensive. The hundred dollar core set looks more like a complicated board game than an RPG. It has custom dice, decks of cards, stand up monsters, and four different rulebooks. There are cards for every class, item and monster in the game. This can be good thing. It means the rules you need are always in front of you and that things can be easily kept track of.

The actual game takes place in the fantasy universe popularized by Game Workshop's immensely successful line of fantasy miniatures. You would be hard pressed to find a more iconic art style in gaming. Fantasy Flight has obviously spent a lot of time making the game beginner-friendly, attractive and complete. Of course, they have also produced a lot of supplemental products and those are of the same calibur.

Having not played or spent much time reading the rules I can't say how well the game actually plays. Fantasy Flight is usually pretty reliable, though.

Mouse Guard Box

The Mouse Guard RPG is set in the world created by David Petersen in his Eisner Award-winning comic book series. It features a world inhabited by sentient mice. Players in the Mouse Guard RPG take on the role of mice that belong to the Mouse Guard, a group that helps other mice survive the wilderness and fend of predators.

Mouse Guard is suitable for all ages, although parents should be aware that the world of Mouse Guard is not as friendly and cuddly as the premise would lead you to believe. The game is easy to learn, clearly written, and has even won an award for its design. The art, taken from the comic series, is also splendid.

The box set comes with everything you need to play, including the rules, adventures, dice, cards and even a map.

Dragon Age Core Box

The popular Dragon Age video game franchise spun off a tabletop role playing game made by the formidable Green Ronin. Anyone familiar with the video games should consider the Dragon Age Boxed Set 1 for their introduction to the tabletop hobby.

The rules are solid, simple to use, and reminiscent of the video games. Players will also be familiar with the lore of the game world, which can be one of the denser aspects of getting started with any role playing game. All of this is wrapped up in a gorgeous looking product. Having flipped through the rulebook I can say that it is very nice to look at. While looks aren't everything, they sure do go a long way in convincing someone to try out the game.

The boxed set, by the way, comes with a player's guide, game master's guide, dice and a map. The game master's guide also includes an introductory adventure, something a consider a necessity in any beginner level product. If I have any complaints about Dragon Age it is that they have packaged the game in such a way that you have to buy a new set for every few character levels. Set 1 only covers levels 1-5 and players will need to purchase up to Set 3 if they want to get to level 20.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess Box Set

Until I began my search for box sets that are currently in print I had no idea that Lamentations of the Flame Princess had a box set, despite being well-versed in the game and supplementary products. (Not well-versed enough, apparently.) While I'm not familiar with this particular incarnation of the game, I can say that the core rulebook is a nice product, if a little spartan looking.

Lamentations takes the high fantasy experience popularized by D&D and games like it and throws it into a blender along with Conan and the Cthulhu Mythos. The resulting game is darker than anything else on this list, but is also a fresh departure from the standard fantasy fare.

Lamentations comes with all you could expect to find in a box set: dice, rule book, GM's guide (called a referee in LotFP), introductory adventure and character sheets. Of particular interest is the included 98 page tutorial book. That is something that sounds very promising from a beginner's perspective.

LotFP sets a high standard as far as retroclone products go and it does so while putting a weird twist on the formula. One thing to keep in mind with LotFP is that it is a game clearly targeted for adults, so if your interest in an introductory set leans towards introducing younger players then this probably isn't the game for you.

Final Thoughts

I am not sure that all of these games will make it into the guide. I worry that if I provide too many options it will become difficult for potential players to make a decision on what to try and, really, it doesn't matter which game they get started with. I also suspect that I have missed a few box sets. If you think of one that is currently in print that I missed, please let me know.

Categories: Beginner's Guide, Box Sets, DnD 4e, Doctor Who, Dragon Age, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Mouse Guard, Pathfinder, Warhammer Fantasy 3e

What are the best free RPGs for beginners?

I have been hard at work on writing a good, system-agnostic beginner's guide to tabletop role playing. I want a guide that any group of role players can point a prospective player at that will give them a good overview of the hobby along with some starting points. One of the sections in this guide recommends games for beginners and I really want a solid set of free games that I can recommend.

There are a lot of free games out there, many of which are for simple systems. A great example is Microlite20. It is a very simple system, it's 100% free and it's fun. Unfortunately, when I look at Microlite20 with a beginner's eye it is borderline incomprehensible. It is great for someone that knows what they are doing and just needs a few rules on a sheet of paper to keep them on track, but new players deserve something that will engage them as a reader and guide them through a good first experience.

I have found this same problem with a lot of the free games that I have looked at, so many of them assume that their audience knows how to role play already. I guess that is not much of a problem when the majority of the people reading and playing these free games are already familiar with the hobby. Still, I can't direct a prospective player to them if I want them to have a smooth and easy introduction to the hobby.

What a Beginner Friendly RPG Needs

• Straightforward, easy to explain and use rules.
• The basics of actually playing an RPG. It can't assume the players already know the basic structure and flow of play.
• Easily obtainable. There can't be any hoops to jump through to get the rules. The necessary gear should also be minimal.
• A starter adventure and examples of play. Ideally, the adventure would be written such a way as to teach the GM to GM and the players to play.

Finalists

After a lot of looking around and wading through forum posts I think I have found find the a good set of suggestions for my guide.

Open d6/ WEG d6

If you're well versed in RPG news then you already know that WEG's d6 was re-branded as Open d6 and opened up to the community to do with as they will. The great thing about this is all of the core d6 games became available to anyone with an Internet connection.

Open d6 is a universal system with a very simple and easy to understand set of rules. It has three independent and core rulebooks: d6 Adventure, d6 Fantasy and d6 Space. A new player can pick up whichever of the three setting books appeals to them and get started right away. The writing is great and each book comes with an introductory choose-your-own-adventure section which introduces the rules and concepts of role playing with Open d6. I can't think of a better game to direct a new player to.

 On top of all the great things you can find in just the core Open d6 books, a large number of supplements are also available for free. Since the system went open we have also seen a number of fan conversions and reinterpretations of the system. Cinema 6 is a great example of this in action.

Swords & Wizardry

Swords & Wizardry is what is known as a “retroclone” of the very first edition of Dungeons & Dragons. The original rules have been rewritten and re-published so that anyone can enjoy them even though the game went out of print many years ago. S&W isn't the only retroclone available, but of the free options I think it is the most beginner friendly.

S&W doesn't have as much information for a new player as Open d6, but the simplicity of the rules along with the friendly tone and some solid advice for beginners is more than enough to make it stand out among free games. I am also confident that if we could figure out D&D by ourselves all those years ago that a new player ought to be able to manage with S&W.

Warrior, Rogue, & Mage

In the game's own words, "Warrior, Rogue & Mage is a simple, lightweight roleplaying game that allows a group of players and a game master to experience epic adventures in a fantasy world filled with wondrous magic."

WR&M is a very easy game to learn and play and it features a starter adventure as well as great advice for first-time GMs. WR&M is also available as Resolute, Adventurer & Genius, a version of the game set in an Indiana Jones-esque world of pulp adventure. There's really not much else to say about the game. It looks nice, it is free and it provides a good, solid set of advice for new players and GMs alike.

Final Thoughts

Each of the above games could be improved so that they are a better introduction to role playing, but as far as free games that I've looked at go they are a cut above. I think a box set like the Pathfinder Beginner Box is a superior starting product, but I also think there is something to be said for being able to download a game right now to look at and play.  (Speaking of box sets, I will be going over the ones aimed at new players in a future blog post.)

Am I on the mark with my selections? Do you think there is a game better-suited to be on this list? Let me know in the comments.

Categories: Beginner's Guide, Free RPG, New Players, Open d6, Swords and Wizardry, Warrior Rogue and Mage, WEG d6

A review of In Between (Polish version)

I was browsing the posts over at RPG Kepos and discovered that their Polish translation of In Between has been reviewed, and positively at that.

The review was from a blog named K20 and got a score of 3 our 5 which, if I understand the comments, is a pretty good score coming from this particular reviewer. One of the issues that the reviewer had with In Between is that The Wasteland was too empty and with too little direction. I can’t say I can disagree with this, The Wasteland acts as a gateway in the game. The players meet each other there, learn about the afterlife and in some cases may become involved in a conflict with a demon. While I can’t see removing The Wasteland phase from the game as it is by far the most evocative aspect of the setting, I can certainly see putting a little more flesh on its bones.

The second issue that K20 brought up was that they felt that the demons are an unnecessary component of the game. I’m not sure I can agree with that one. The demons fill three roles in the game, the first is as a threat to the characters. The demons are there to add an element of danger and drama, something that can pose a threat in all of the phases of the game. The second role they fill is as a balancing mechanic. They exist to counter exorcists (and vice versa). Finally, they provide an alternate path for players to take in the game, they answer the question of “What happens when I do evil/selfish things in the mortal realm?” In fact, through playtesting I soon found that players wanted to be able to go down a darker road. A lot of the demon rules did not exist until version 2 of the game, prior that they had mostly acted as set dressing. So no, I don’t agree that they are unnecessary. Players want to have that darker option, even if they won’t use it. They want to know what happens if they don’t try and redeem themselves. If someone wants to play a game more centered around personal exploration, without the threat of demons (and possibly exorcists), then I think they should go right ahead and do it. It’s very easy to houserule out that portion of the game. Perhaps I should talk a little about that in an Optional Rules/Tweaks section. The Polish version of the game actually has a section like that where the translators added a few house rules that they like to use and I see no reason not to add it to the English version.

The final thing that K20 didn’t seem to enjoy was that the game is GMless. That’s far from surprising. Story games, especially GMless ones, are a very small niche of the RPG world. In this case the reviewer likes to have someone in the role of GM to guide the game, they aren’t interested in sharing that role. That’s fine, not everyone enjoys sharing that role and I can’t hold matters of personal taste against the reviewer.

Those things out of the way, it was still a positive review of the game. The reviewer thought that the mechanics were solid, the theme was interesting and the game was entertaining. Perhaps not to their personal tastes, but entertaining nonetheless. I’ll chew on their criticisms for a while and see if I can make the updated English version even better.

Speaking of the English version: yes, it is on the way. I haven’t forgotten about it, I’ve just been busy with other things. Tweet, the fellow that did the layout for the Polish version, supplied me with some layout and logo files that will make this the nicest version yet. I also have the revised set of rules that was hammered out in the back and forth during the translation. This means that the Polish version is actually more up to date than English version because they translated from my in progress new edition and not from the published second edition. Layout work is slow going, but I hope to have this finished up sometime in the summer.

Categories: In Between, K20, Poland, RPG Kepos

Vote For Adventure: Series 3 Retrospective

That's right, I'm back again with another Vote For Adventure retrospective. I've done them twice before, go take a look.

The Setting

This time around I mandated a generic fantasy setting. I needed something easily digestible after the difficulties with the last one (survival horror). That isn't to say that the voters weren't given input, they were. What I did was allow every voter to submit a word. This word could be whatever they wanted, although I warned against profanity. The idea was that I would compile all of the words and incorporate them into the game in some way. I wasn't able to use all of the words, but some of the themes and motifs of the game came straight out of these words. One of the most important, the color red, was because so many people submitted words that were related to that color.

Character Creation

In S2 we used a % skill system that, while working, turned out to be difficult to use. Players couldn't remember what their odds were and many didn't feel particularly attached to the character. For S3 I switched things up again. This time around I simply introduced the adventure and created the character based on the choices they made in the very first poll. In this case they entered the dungeon by solving a puzzle and were plagued by recurring dreams. I combined those choices with some of the words from the setting to create the character. I also asked some follow up questions as about the character as we progressed through the Series (Male/Female, for example).

The character we ended up with was Kamala, a Vivid/Vibrant human female. A Vivid/Vibrant is a type of spellcaster that uses drains color from the world in order to power their magic. Kamala drains the color red and this element of the world and story was strongly influenced by the word choices from earlier. We also learned a little bit about Kamala from the actions and votes throughout the series. She is a treasure hunter, and acquires of artifacts. She travels far and wide and frequently manipulates emotions with her magic. Kamala is curious and has a bad habit of getting into trouble by poking metaphorical bee's nests.

The character's name, incidentally, was also voted on and supplied by the voters.

I would say that Character Creation was a resounding success for S3. It worked smoothly and everyone became attached to the character. I got a great level of "buy in" and a sense of ownership from the voters. So much so that when it came time to vote on what S4 would be the voters chose to build on to Kamala's story.

Mechanics/Rules

This time around I tried GM fiat as the method of resolution. I responded based on the actions chosen by the voters and what I thought made sense. This turned out to be surprisingly popular and was voted in again for S4.

I did feel that I wasn't as cruel as I should have been with my responses as I was worried about truly hurting the character without a dice roll or something to buffer the blame. This is something I intend to improve on for S4. I need to be more impartial about what happens.

Overall

I think S3 did really well. Traffic-wise it was probably a little less than S2, but it had a much more regular voter base without the massive swings. I think Kamala attracted a bit of a core following. I also had a lot of fun with this one, even if it started as a rather formulaic dungeon crawl. It grew into so much more than that.

You can read from the beginning of Series 3 right here.

Categories: Kamala, retrospective, Storytelling, Vote For Adventure

Won't someone please think of the newbs?

One thing that I've noticed about the role playing hobby is that it isn't friendly to new players. I'm not talking about the community itself, most message boards I've seen are filled with people that are happy to lend their experience. No, I'm talking about the actual state of the hobby.

Despite role playing games being easier than ever to actually obtain thanks to the wonders of digital distribution, it seems like the hobby really caters to existing players. Where are the new player guides? Where are the introductory adventures? Wizards of the Coast and Paizo may have gotten their acts together and finally published some competent introductory products, but, judging from all of the forum threads featuring people looking for a product to start with, they haven't done a great job of advertising them outside of the people that already know how to play.

Not good enough.

WotC and Paizo aren't the only publishers to blame, though. Take a look at the introductory chapter of your favourite RPG. You know, that "What is an RPG" that you usually skip over. These chapters are almost uniformly terrible. They raise more questions than they answer, they assume the reader already knows what they are doing or they explain the wrong things. If you move on from there and into he actual "How to Play" chapters you will find that these are no better. They all assume the reader already understands the concept and structure of role playing games and from the viewpoint of a completely new player are mystifying and unhelpful.

Part of the problem is no doubt how difficult it is to actually explain in writing how role playing games work. Since the birth of the hobby this has always been something that was easier shown than told. Decades ago when TV and Film and Video Games were limited a prospective player would probably spend the time to puzzle things out for themselves, but these days? In the age of the Internet there is very little chance that someone is going to spend more than a little time trying to puzzle out your game. They're going to move on to some other form of entertainment or, if they are set on tabletop role playing, they will turn to the Internet to answer their questions. Why don't you go do an Internet search on how to play? I'll wait.

Back with me? Nothing particularly useful, was there? A few lazily written guides that cover the physical steps but don't really communicate the actual how of it. If you're lucky you will find that an out of date primer from WotC that tries to sell you products that are out of print. This is a problem. Our hobby can not grow if it has too large a barrier of entry. Programs like D&D Encounters and products like the Red Box and the Beginner Box are a good start, but they aren't enough. A new player needs to be able to type a few words into Google and get the answers they need.

What I said about the community earlier wasn't strictly true. Gamers might be willing to offer help in a friendly and welcoming manner, but that help is awful. Many of the threads devolve into experienced players arguing about which game or edition the new player should be playing. The advice is contradictory or just plain unhelpful. I'd be surprised if many prospective players leave such a thread any more enlightened than they were going in, some of them are probably more confused.

The Solution

The tabletop RPG community needs a definitive "Newbie Guide". A guide that the entire online community can get behind and point newcomers at. It should come up in web searches so that people curious in role playing can find it on their own. Ideally, the guide would have a nice CC license that would allow anyone to customize and update it. It could birth a hundred more new player's guides.

This guide needs to be something free of system bias and argument. It should explain all of the most basic elements of role playing and contain system-agnostic advice. The ideal guide will point potential players in the direction of clearly written, beginner-friendly and free RPGs. It should contain overviews of various beginner products, such as the Red Box, and links to quick-start rules for the more popular/well-known games. The very basic play structure should be explained along with advice on creating players and organizing games. All of the most frequently asked questions should be answered. Things like "How can I play online?" or "How do I find someone to play with?" need to be answered by the guide.

I'm probably not the guy to write this guide, but I'm going to do may best anyway. New players deserve something like this and the role playing hobby needs new players to thrive.

Categories: Beginner's Guide, New Players, RPG, RPG Community, WotC

Vote For Adventure: Series 2 Retrospective

I have just finished the second series of Vote For Adventure, the RPG that I run via Tumblr and form polls I create with Google Docs. When I finished the first series I talked about what worked, what didn't and what happened. I'm doing it again with series 2.

On Setting

This time around I did things differently. I presented the voters with a big list of different genres and setting elements and told them to choose 3. I then took the top 3 responses and mashed them up into the setting for series 2. The top three results were Weird, Survival and Post-Apocalyptic. To me, this meant a weird apocalypse and for that I had to turn to Lovecraft. I came up with a setting based roughly on The King in Yellow, but modernized. This turned out to be pretty successful. People liked the setting.

Despite the setting being popular, it was an absolute chore to write for. The big issue here was the survival aspect. In a world where there isn't really anywhere to go, no hope or way to save it, there just isn't much of an ongoing plot. I really struggled to keep the plot forward moving. I won't be doing a survival game in with Vote For Adventure again.

On Character Creation

I also did Character Creation differently this time. I presented the voters with a big list of skills and told them to select 4. At the end I was left with a % for each skill based on the number of people that selected them. I used this as the baseline success rate for those skills whenever the protagonist tried to use one. This worked out pretty well, but the reality of how the character was played (aggressively) did not match with the character that was created (an engineer with little physical prowess). This is what ultimately lead to the character's demise.

On Update Schedule

I slowed the update pace down to 3 days a week (Mon/Tues/Fri) and this seems to be the sweet spot. It doesn't absorb my life nearly as much and I get less complaints about people missing updates.

Overall

I enjoyed VFA 2, but I moving the narrative really was a chore this time around. I started rooting for the character's death after a while because I just wanted to move on to something new. It didn't take long for him to pick a fight with a shotgun-wielding maniac, however, and I got my wish.

If you would like to read through Series 2 then you can start at the first entry here.

Categories: retrospective, Survival Horror, Vote For Adventure

There is now a Polish version of In Between.

Just like the headline says, the folks over at RPG Kepos that reviewed In Between so long ago have actually gone and translated the game into Polish. This was the last thing I ever expected to come of a game I made in 10 days for Game Chef almost two years ago.

As if translating a game from English to Polish wasn’t enough work, the Polish version of the game is quite a bit nicer than mine. They secured the rights to some artwork, got a nice layout put together, and generally prettied things up in ways I couldn’t even begin to do on my own. I got in touch with their layout designer, Tweet, and he agreed to send me that files he used to gussy-up the game so hopefully I can make the English version look almost as nice some time in the near future.

I’ve actually been emailing back and forth with RPG Kepos while they worked on this project and between clarifications on rules and additional playtesting done by their team the rules were reworked and added to. There have been enough changes to the rules that it wouldn’t be remiss to call the Polish edition version 2.5 of In Between. One of the highlights of the new additions are rules for taking a more demonic path rather than the path to redemption. While I have a copy of these updated rules in borrowing old .doc format, there isn’t a nice PDF in English available. Those updated rules will make it into the version using Tweet’s layout which will probably show up whenever I have a free weekend to work on this stuff.

You can see the Polish version by visiting RPG Kepos, which I have handily provided as a translated google link. If you’d like to just go straight to the PDF then click here.

Categories: In Between, Poland, RPG Kepos, Translation