For player characters, now they have to deal with a prisoner: disarming and restraining them, transporting and feeding them. If the table’s lucky, there’s somewhere nearby to drop off their extra NPC — a guard station or town constable, that sort of thing. But just as often, an adventuring party is out in the middle of nowhere and will be stuck with a prisoner for days, weeks or even months.

This isn’t always a bad thing! In a recent game, we took a crashed ornithopter pilot prisoner because we thought he had plot information that we might need later. He wasn’t a plot hook, but rather than us now being shackled to a problem NPC, Aron made this pilot so fun and charismatic that by the end of the game, we adopted him into the team.

But NPCs are Aron’s specialty. He makes them easily, plays them well, and generally has the mental bandwidth to manage a few of them. Not everyone has that skill, and adding another character to the Storyteller’s plate might not benefit the game.

And then, of course, there’s deciding the prisoner’s ultimate fate. Unless the player characters either drop them in some kind of confinement, release them or keep them on the team as we did, it generally leaves only one option — execution. Understandably, most players aren’t eager to make that decision! Even in fiction, killing an unarmed and pacified foe is pretty universally awful. That’s some BBEG shit, not the actions of a party of heroes!

So for players, be careful how often you take prisoners in game. I’m not saying never to do it! If you’re playing a pacifist who doesn’t kill even in battle, that’s fine — as long as you talk to your table ahead of time. Give the other players and your Storyteller the chance to let you know if that’s not going to work for the group or the story, or for them to be ready for prisoners. As long as everyone’s on the same page about what’s going to be fun, then you’re good to go.

For Storytellers, the prisoner dilemma (not to be confused with the prisoner’s dilemma game theory) is a little different. If you don’t want your player characters taking prisoners, make it easy on them.

It’s wonderfully nuanced Storytelling to show the enemies’ humanity, and it can bring true pathos and depth to a table-top game. But it can also make it hard for characters to actually kill their enemies. Great ethics, difficult mechanics! If you don’t want the party taking prisoners, then don’t put them in a position of guilt or moral quandary when battling them.

This is where truly evil BBEGs are incredibly helpful. There’s a deep and meaningful tale to be told between enemies across a border or social divide, but it’s usually a lot more fun to launch the biggest up-cast fireball into a horde of baddies. In Dungeons & Dragons and many, many other role-playing games, the greatest portion of rules are dedicated to combat. So let your players fight an army of imps and cheer for each other when they take down the biggest monster of the land. Real life is full of gray areas, difficult moral calls, and nuance, and many of us game to escape all of that and fix some nice, solvable problem.

Of course, if those gray area, moral quandary, and ethically nuanced games are your thing, great! If there’s much combat, just consider that you might also end up with a lot of prisoners.

Taking prisoners was originally published in RPGuide on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dungeons & Dragons: How To Run Theater Of The Mind Combat

Link: Theater of the mind for D&D was originally published in RPGuide on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Just to give us something to do during what was otherwise going to be a largely segued journey south, Aron gave us some rolls to see a downed ornithopter in the mountains. Cool! We went to investigate, of course, and found the wreckage — along with tracks where the pilot had staggered away.

Interesting. We follow, finding cast-off potions and packs. Finally, we found him. The man was injured and trying to move on only one working leg. He was a scout from the next nation over; not an enemy, exactly, but definitely not a friend.

The whole premise of the campaign was the player characters being sent to keep a border dispute from erupting between our nation and this other guy’s. So naturally, he had some information for us about the commander of his border fort — specifically that he was a hopped up little lord eager to prove his worth.

Great! But now I was convinced that this guy was an important part of the story. After all, he knew something about the plot! So we patched — and tied — the guy up and brought him with us.

With that, he was our NPC companion. Each character quickly developed a unique relationship with him. I particularly enjoyed mine, which was an absolute over-the-top loathing that let Aron and I engage in the most ridiculous, petty fights.

With our new buddy in tow, we continued on. Aron makes very charismatic NPCs (and plays them well), so within a single session, this man went from mistrusted and bound prisoner to an almost-friend who we actively protected from our own people. We bought him armor and tools! If you want to keep an artificer on his back foot, you do not give him tools. But we were sure he was important to the plot, and we liked him so much.

At the end of the session, we all thanked Aron for an awesome time — and for creating such an engaging plot hook!

Except Aron told us that he wasn’t a plot hook. He was just some guy with nothing more than a name and a single tidbit of information. He was just a scout, after all. We were supposed to meet him, get that info, and leave. Maybe leave him for dead or even kill him. But instead, we practically adopted the guy.

Whoops.

So what’s the moral of this story? Nothing, really. It was just fun and funny and I thought I would share.

But if you want a takeaway, then maybe it’s this: Watch out for how likable and interesting you make your NPCs. You might be stuck with them longer than you expect.

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Whoops, I thought that was a plot hook was originally published in RPGuide on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It’s (a little) embarrassing for me, and doesn’t give my Storytellers a lot to work with. So Aron — who is my most frequent GM — has started asking me a new question: Do you want me to describe this, or do you?

Perfect. It works for when I want to describe spells or killing blows, pretty clothes in a party scene, or even just where my character lives. If I have an idea, great! I go wild on it to give him the gory or beautiful details. But when I don’t have any ideas (which is often), then Aron jumps in with his lavish and cinematic descriptions. For me, it’s been the best of both worlds.

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How do you want to do this? was originally published in RPGuide on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ahem, anyway. The point is that some role-players need a little extra help, whether playing or Storytelling. (Or Storyelling, as the case may be sometimes.) The good news is that there are some basic tools to help.

• Bad at NPC descriptions? Show your players a picture. Pull it up onto the screen of your VTT, or pass around a phone with it on display. It takes just a moment, and then everyone knows what your NPC looks like.
• Bad at setting the mood? Throw on a piece of music. You don’t need to manage an entire playlist and keep it running the whole session, but within moments a single piece of music can set a light, triumphant, somber, or happy mood. It’s a trick that movies and shows use all the time, so why not steal it for ourselves?
• Bad at voices and accents? Describe them. Just tell your table that the NPC speaks with a Blegorth accent, or that their voice is gravely. If it’s your thing, you can even get just a little poetic about it. Maybe this Blegorthian’s voice sounds like stones grinding together in an avalanche, and you wouldn’t want to get caught under it if this guy gets angry.

Almost anyone can Storytell a game. If you have a weak area, there’s probably another way to do it. Don’t tie yourself in knots trying to be the same kind of Storyteller as the ones you see online. You have your own stories to tell, and your own way to tell them.

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Tips & tricks for the non-professional GM was originally published in RPGuide on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Despite it being one of the most difficult things that I’ve ever seen them do at the table, the players had an amazing time. I’ve rarely seen them so animated, but why? It wasn’t the most exciting part of the story, not by a long shot. It was just a puzzle, which is even a classic point of frustration for players and Storytellers alike.

Puzzles can be frustrating because the players have no idea how to approach it. There are… let’s see, four stone cubes. One of them has a smiley face and the others look like dice. Solve the puzzle! Everybody stares around the table, hoping and praying that someone has the slightest idea what to do. The solution likely makes easy sense to the Storyteller, who gets annoyed either at the players for not seeing this simple solution, or with themselves for making it too confusing.

But for this blindfolded maze scene, the Storyteller was clear and up front about what to do: guide your friend through the maze with spoken instructions alone. There was nothing confusing about the puzzle, everyone knew what to do. So even if it was a challenge — and it was — it wasn’t confusing. And better yet, though it was difficult, they all had fun and felt accomplished when they succeeded.

Most players are willing and even eager to do the hard work; just look at the effort that goes into character creation, playing, keeping track of 5-page character sheets with a gazillion spells and pieces of equipment. But no one likes to be confused, so if your table doesn’t seem to be enjoying the traditional puzzles and riddles, consider giving them a challenge like this instead, some mini-game that requires effort and teamwork, but not confusion.

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Difficult doesn’t have to mean confusing was originally published in RPGuide on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Why? Why does a man in his forties with a decidedly grown-up job and an over-full basket of adult worries turn into a giggling child once he breaks out the dice? (The man in question is Aron, and it’s adorable.)

Aron and I have talked about this at length, and all we can figure is that it’s inherent to the nature of the game. We’re all playing pretend. With rules and dice and maps, sure, but it’s still playing pretend.

Remember the time we all used to play pretend? When we were children. We pretended to be superheroes and brave knights, aliens and monsters, kings and queens. Playing pretend is a kid thing — in all the best ways possible. So we all become kids when we play, and get to recapture some of that shine of childhood.

So if your table is getting too wild and silly and rambunctious, definitely talk to them about focusing up so you can all game together. But remember that it’s a good sign when they’re being little kids. It means that you’ve given them that beautiful piece of childhood, and it’s a gift.

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Role-playing makes us all children was originally published in RPGuide on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Visit the RPGuide was originally published in Loose Leaf Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Link: Make your Big Bad a lich was originally published in RPGuide on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

400 Horsepower of the Apocalypse

A full-tilt road trip. The end of days. Can they escape the highway to hell?

Jasmine “Jaz” O’Neil wants out of Kansas fast. But escaping her dead-end mechanic job seems just as outlandish as her haunting apocalyptic visions. So when a hunky biker named Leo with a misbehaving machine offers her an out, she ignores her fears and takes it. But they’ve barely begun their trip when they find Leo’s gang supernaturally slaughtered.

Reeling from the bloody sight, Jaz discovers she and her sexy companion share the same prophetic nightmares. On the run from forces they don’t understand, the mechanic makes a startling revelation: meeting Leo has brought the world one step closer to annihilation.

On opposite sides of an inevitable battle for humanity, can Jaz and Leo defeat their inner demons before their road trip becomes a highway to hell?

Whisperworld

Their voices are all that remain.

Julia has never seen what lies beyond Angel City. And why would she? The Wrath of God destroyed the old world, leaving only endless deserts and terrible sandstorms that can flay the skin from any human caught outside the city walls. Only the Tear, a vast, strange black sphere at the heart of her home, protects the people of Angel City. No one knows what it is or how it works, but if Julia listens closely enough, she can hear the Tear whispering…

But now the sphere is failing, falling silent, and not even the Gardeners who care for it know why. And when one of those Gardeners is murdered, Julia and her partner, Zach, are summoned to investigate why.

Their search for a killer will take them from Angel City’s crumbling skyscrapers to the salt flats of the Pacific Desert. But what they find goes far beyond the murder of one man and threatens to wipe out the last remnants of civilization. Perhaps Zach and Julia can save their city — but first, they have to save themselves.

In the House of Five Dragons

Thirty years have passed since the bloody battle of Njorn Pass, since Rikard Mazrem traded his life away to the Alterra to save his dying men. Defeat became victory and an empire was born. For decades, the people of Carce have revered Rikard as a hero.

But now Rikard has returned to find the world changed. Or perhaps he is the one who has changed…

Crucible of Stars (The Reforged Trilogy #1)

A chance for escape becomes a chance for redemption.

Maeve Cavainna is running and her wings won’t save her. The infamous bounty hunter, Logan Coldhand, chases close behind her and intends to drag Maeve back to the planet of Axis to collect the high price on her head. When he finally corners her, the long chase seems to be over… until a frightened alien girl stumbles into their fight and begs for their protection. Maeve and Logan call a reluctant end to their battle and promise to help the girl, but they have agreed to far more than they know.

Can the fragile peace between hunter and mark hold long enough to save the lives that depend on them?

Sword of Dreams (The Reforged Trilogy #2)

Death isn’t done with them.

For a church dedicated to the worship of death, the Cult of Nihil stubbornly refuses to die. When word reaches the bounty hunter who calls himself Logan Coldhand that the Central World Alliance is willing to pay for members of the congregation, he takes the job. Perhaps chasing death will help him recapture the thrill of the hunt, lost ever since the mark that got away.

Halfway across the galaxy, Maeve and the rest of the Blue Phoenix crew are still struggling to rebuild their lives after a devastating encounter with the Nihilists. But when Captain Myles agrees to take on what should be a simple job — flying a team of archaeologists to the remote planet of Prianus — they find themselves pitted against old enemies and ancient terrors.

Forged (4 Reforged short stories)

Before Maeve and the crew of the Blue Phoenix make their desperate bid to reforge the galaxy, each of them were first forged themselves in the crucible of galactic events.

• Purity: Maeve Cavainna was once a knight of Arcadia. How did she fall so far?
• Little Hawk: A story of honor and childhood on Prianus.
• Beauty By Night: An art thief seeks to recapture his humanity.
• Songs and Sigils in Space: Tiberius hires a destitute fairy and the crew of the Blue Phoenix has a deadly — but profitable — encounter with the Nnyth.

Hammer of Time (The Reforged Trilogy #3)

Time heals all wounds. And brings new ones.

Duaal Sinnay may have banished Xartasia and the Devourers from Prianus, but they’re not gone. Maeve has gone to warn the Central World Alliance, but they have no interest in fairy tales and stories of monsters. So when rumors start of a mysterious White Queen promising the return of Arcadia, the Alliance takes no notice.

Now it falls to the crew of the Blue Phoenix to discover what is happening. Maeve has little doubt that Xartasia is this White Queen, but if that’s true, then how can Devourers help her to bring back the kingdom that they themselves destroyed a century ago? Whatever the answer, it promises nothing good for the rest of the galaxy…

Bookshelf was originally published in Loose Leaf Stories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.