Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Dice in any game contribute suspense. Your strategy may appear flawless, but dice represent the fickle finger of Fate that tends to poke you in the eye just when victory is in sight. On the other hand, it can also point the way to safety just when you think all hope is lost. In a role-playing game, dice are the element of chance that is the great equalizer between the GM and the players. For the GM, dice are both a limitation and a liberation. The GM already bears the burden of describing a world and all the inhabitants the players encounter. When the dice are rolled, however, there is no such burden except to describe the results. Here is where the GM gets to participate like a player, where events in the world the GM created can be influenced by an external neutral force. For those GMs who rarely get the opportunity to be players, this is where they, too, can watch events unfold from a non-omniscient point of view.
In order for this dynamic to work, it is necessary for the dice to be rolled in the open. That is to say, the dice ought to be rolled in full view of the players and the GM. Certain kinds of rolls would still be made secretly by the GM, such as a percentage chance of a certain event or encounter happening or when a player character attempts a skill for which success is not readily discernible (e.g. searching for a secret door or detecting a trap), but rolls that represent a contest between characters or a character and the environment should be visible to all participants in the situation.
One problem this alleviates is distrust by the players. If a player can see the GM’s roll, he or she knows that the GM is not fudging rolls for the players’ benefit or detriment. Although some GMs are suspected of fudging rolls in favor of their NPCs or monsters, I suspect many more are actually guilty of fudging rolls in favor of the players because they do not wish to be too harsh. I suspect this because I was one of those GMs in my early days in the hobby. Mollycoddling players does them no good in the long run. You may think you are helping them, but in actuality you deprive them of the true taste of victory when they succeed if you withhold the bitterness of defeat when they fail. You are also obstructing their growth as gamers.
Any given dice-rolling tradition is probably as old as any other. Some GMs roll in the open; some roll in secret; some let the players roll, but never tell them the target number; some even roll for the players, too. Different groups have different needs. My needs, both as a GM and a player, require that I get to roll dice and let them fall where they may.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Thousand Suns Rulebook by James Maliszewski, a complete role-playing game in the tradition of “imperial science fiction,” is now available for sale in PDF, softcover, and hardcover formats. Read about it in Grognardia, the author’s gaming Web log. Buy it at RPGNow.com.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
The Links page at Fudgery.net proper has been ever-so-slightly altered to improve readability. Honestly, I ought to have done it years ago.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
In most adventure role-playing games, it is important for players to understand that death is a real possibility for characters. If the GM is constantly snatching player characters from the jaws of defeat with fudged dice rolls, an important aspect of the game is being sacrificed. Essentially, it encourages less intelligent decision-making on the part of the players, which usually results in a degradation of verisimilitude at the same time that it diminishes role-playing. Actions that have cushioned consequences (or none at all) lead to irrational and unrealistic character behavior. When the possibility of character death is eliminated, another thing is eliminated, too: risk. Risk is the very heart of game-playing itself. It is also the heart of what constitutes an adventure. So, what happens when you eliminate the element of risk from an adventure game? It makes the activity rather pointless, doesn’t it?
Character death is not equal in all role-playing games, however. In some games a new character can be generated in five minutes. In others the process may take hours. In either case, if a player has been using a character for many months (or years), the sudden death of that character can carry quite a sting. Without detracting from the significance of a character’s demise, it is possible to make the experience less painful for the player and perhaps even make it enjoyable.
When a character expires, it should almost be as much an occasion for celebration as for mourning, like a traditional New Orleans funeral procession. The character’s journey has ended, but that doesn’t preclude the player from role-playing the death scene to the hilt. If the scene is role-played well enough, whether seriously or comically, the player ought to be rewarded in some manner when they generate the next character. Depending upon the game, the GM might award the new character bonus experience points, a reroll of one attribute, an extra skill, a special ability, an increased chance for psionics, or anything else that appropriately encourages good role-playing and rewards good sportsmanship. And if any particular behavior should be encouraged above all others, for the health of the hobby and the enjoyment of all, it’s good sportsmanship.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Previously, I stated that any role-playing session based on movie serials or pulp fiction ought to conclude with a cliffhanger. After all, a cliffhanger adventure requires cliffhangers by definition. In addition to accurately capturing the style of the source material, the classic cliffhanger ending has the benefit of sharing the writer’s advantage with the players.
Anyone who has ever watched an adventure movie serial knows that whatever happened at the end of the last episode or chapter, there is more to it than meets the eye. The hero may appear to have plummeted off the cliff in his automobile, but next week we discover that he threw himself clear and rolled into the underbrush. The hero’s pal may appear to have been blown to bits in that shed where all the dynamite was stored, but next week we learn that he noticed the fire in the nick of time and leapt through the open window to safety. Writers, of course, have the luxury of writing the story, but player characters live it. In most cases, they must react to situations instantly or face dire consequences.* In a cliffhanger, however, situations that may seem hopeless become more manageable when players can weigh their options and fine-tune their strategies between sessions. Although player discussions may be limited to what is possible for their characters during the session (e.g. they must be within earshot of one another; they must be able to converse without being overheard by the enemy; they are limited to what their characters know), no such limitations exist between sessions. In fact, the crazier the scheme that results from such freedom the better! One could even argue that this is one instance where giving the player limited “narrative control” is acceptable even in an otherwise straightforward role-playing game. If the player offers a sufficiently entertaining and plausible resolution to the cliffhanging situation, the GM may rule in favor of it even if the player introduced certain elements that were not previously described by the GM. The GM may require the expenditure of Fudge points or Fortune points or Karma (or whatever the game provides for), or the player’s proposal may be granted for free. Skill rolls or attribute rolls, if they pertain, may be resolved normally or adjudicated by the GM.
In any event, the cliffhanger ending is one of the aspects of the genre that makes it special, so it deserves special attention in any role-playing game that attempts to emulate it.
* Some groups are more casual about in-character and out-of-character statements than others, just as some groups are less focused on in-game events than on socializing. If your group has no boundaries between player knowledge and character knowledge, no restrictions on discussion, or no time limits to player character reactions, then the benefits of the cliffhanger ending will be significantly lessened.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Families and Heirlooms, written by 1d30, solves the problem of how to pass on the possessions of a deceased character to his or her successor in a way that enriches the setting, invests new characters with a sense of continuity, and takes a bit of the sting out of character death. I particularly like how a character’s actions affect his or her family’s reputation, which in turn may affect the fortunes of any family member starting out as a new character. These rules are probably more suitable for some settings and cultures than others, just as they are more relevant to some role-playing games than others. The next time I start up a Dungeons & Dragons, Labyrinth Lord, or Tunnels & Trolls campaign, I will give them a try.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Mishaps with rubber band guns are not uncommon, and the frequent result is the inadvertent shooting of oneself, which rarely results in anything more serious than a brief stinging sensation. Our tenth table of tribulation is for use with rubber band guns:
| Critical Miss Table for Rubber Band Guns |
| 1d6 |
Result |
| 1 |
Drop weapon. |
| 2 |
Weapon misfires. |
| 3 |
Drop weapon; discharges in random direction. |
| 4 |
Shoot self. |
| 5 |
Shoot self. |
| 6 |
Shoot self in eye. |
Random directions for rubber band projectile weapons, whether caused by accidental discharge or ricochet, may be determined by the usual means (1d6 for hexes, 1d8 for squares, or a compass die) modified by a roll on the following table:
| 1dF |
Result |
| + |
Upward vertical |
| 0 |
Horizontal |
| - |
Downward vertical |
A d6 may be substituted if your Fudge dice have mysteriously (or not-so-mysteriously) disappeared.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Even the most fearsome weapons have disadvantages. Our ninth table of frustration is for use with machine guns (mounted or otherwise):
| Critical Miss Table for Machine Guns |
| 1d6 |
Result |
| 1 |
Weapon jams. |
| 2 |
Weapon jams. |
| 3 |
Ricochet in random direction. |
| 4 |
Ricochet in random direction. |
| 5 |
Trigger stuck. |
| 6 |
Mechanism breaks. |
Random directions for firearms, whether caused by accidental discharge or ricochet, may be determined by the usual means (1d6 for hexes, 1d8 for squares, or a compass die) modified by a roll on the following table:
| 1dF |
Result |
| + |
Upward vertical |
| 0 |
Horizontal |
| - |
Downward vertical |
A d6 may be substituted if your Fudge dice are missing in action.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Star Explorer, the “role-playing board game” inspired by Star Trek first published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1982, has been released as a PDF by Goblinoid Games and is now available for purchase at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow.
I’ve never seen the original game, but I’ll be certain to buy this electronic edition. It will be interesting to compare it to FASA’s Star Trek RPG and Amarillo Design Bureau’s Star Fleet Battles.
Read the product description here.
Incidentally, Goblinoid Games previously released a PDF edition of Starships & Spacemen, another Star Trek-inspired game first published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1978. Read its product description here.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The Lost Minis Wiki is an “open resource for identifying and cataloguing fantasy miniatures.” This is an excellent resource for collectors and admirers of miniature sculpture, but it could also be used as a practical resource for fantasy role-playing. Consider, if you will, a situation in which a GM is attempting to describe a monster or even a non-player character. A verbal description may or may not be enough, but if an illustration is unavailable, it will have to suffice unless there is or was a miniature created of the being in question. You needn’t own the miniature itself. All you need to do is print the image or, if you use a laptop computer at your gaming table, save the image or bookmark the page and display it during the encounter. It can also be used by players who like to inform others that “my character looks like this” when the actual miniature is lacking.
I learned of this site upon reading this entry of Jeff’s Gameblog.
The Lost Minis Wiki has been added to the Game Reference links page at Fudgery.net.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Even ray guns are not foolproof, and happenstance mistakes can wreak havoc with high technology. The eighth table in our escapade of errors is for use with ray guns, blasters, lasers, masers, phasers, and even Acme disintegrators:
| Critical Miss Table for Ray Guns |
| 1d6 |
Result |
| 1 |
Drop weapon. |
| 2 |
Drop weapon; discharges in random direction. |
| 3 |
Weapon drained of power. |
| 4 |
Weapon overheats and slips from grasp. |
| 5 |
Weapon melts. |
| 6 |
Weapon explodes. |
Random directions for ray guns may be determined by the usual means (1d6 for hexes, 1d8 for squares, or a compass die) modified by a roll on the following table:
| 1dF |
Result |
| + |
Upward vertical |
| 0 |
Horizontal |
| - |
Downward vertical |
A d6 may be substituted if Fudge dice are not in proximity.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
This is another late report, but Issue 9 of Minotaur (originally Minotaur Quarterly) is now available as a free download on the Minotaur Quarterly page. Minotaur is the official online publication of Mazes & Minotaurs, the free mythical role-playing game.