High Lethality in RPGs (And What Kind of Stories It Tells Best)

A while back I offered a popular piece of advice in Dungeon Design Tips: Find A Reason For PCs To Survive (And Try Again). The purpose behind the post was to remind Game Masters that in a lot of RPGs, death is a particularly boring fail state. After all, you want your players to keep playing, to overcome challenges, and to keep striving... but if they feel like they're going to have to roll up a new character every time they fail a saving throw, or choose the wrong door to walk through, that can get discouraging.

While I stand by that advice, I feel it is important to mention that it is advice given mainly for games where the entire goal is to follow the saga and growth of a single party of characters throughout their adventures. Whether it's one of the later editions of Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, most of the Chronicles of Darkness, Exalted, or any of three dozen other games I could mention, they are structured so that player characters can survive trials and tribulations to persevere. Many of these games even have resurrection spells that allow players past a certain point of growth and resource acquisition to return to the world to continue their quests.

But that is not some universal truth of RPGs. There are games that are intended to be highly lethal. Games for which that is not a flaw, but a feature of the challenge. It's part of the tension that keeps them running, and it's part of the appeal of that kind of play... but if you're going to run a game with high lethality, then you need to make sure you're telling the kind of story that benefits from that kind of Sword of Damocles hanging over the table.

I feel we might be in danger, my friends...

As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

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Fragile Characters, More Contained Stories

Whether you're running something like the doom metal game Mork Borg or one of its imprints, something like OSRIC, or something a little more mechanically complicated like the latest edition of Warhammer Fantasy, there are a lot of RPGs out there where the world is supposed to be lethally dangerous. Games where even experienced characters can die due to a lucky shot from an enemy archer, a missed save against a spell, or just being surprised by an enemy at the wrong time.

However, when that is part and parcel of your game, it's important to recognize that you need to change your storytelling style, stakes, or both to reflect this sharp curve up in lethality. And there are a couple of games I would recommend GMs examine, as well as an entire genre that a lot of people have forgotten about in the dusty tomes of the pulp era.

Namely the Sword and Sorcery genre, which had a much greater impact on the early days of gaming before high fantasy rose to eclipse it.

Things are terrible, and they're only going to get worse.

The first game I would recommend is Darkest Dungeon, a dungeon-crawling RPG where your "heroes" delve deeper and deeper into dark dungeons in search of treasure and answers, surviving battle with horrible foes and fighting off madness. The second game I would recommend is Fear and Hunger, where players must survive the terrors that lurk in the forgotten depths of an ancient dungeon, and where the simple, initial motivation of freeing a prisoner becomes far more convoluted by the game's end.

Content warning for both of these video games if you've never come across them. We're talking some Lamentations of The Flame Princess level stuff, so proceed with caution.

However, while both of these video games are survival horror wearing the skin of sword and sorcery, they illustrate in both tone and mechanics what I'm talking about in this week's post. Because in both games there is a high amount of lethality, and even if characters survive they may be crippled in mind, body, or both. Every encounter poses a serious risk, and every step further into the darkness comes with the potential for risk and reward alike. Additionally, both games are built on a basis of players feeling like they're gambling with their character's lives with every decision they make.

This speaks to the kinds of stories high lethality games tend to tell. Because if player characters could die on any given roll of the dice, then grand, sweeping epics where we follow their entire journey aren't really a good fit for those mechanics. Rather it's a good idea to focus on something smaller, tighter, and more serialized. Also, it's a good idea to not put combat as the central focus of the games, or the sole method for achieving goals.

For those who haven't seen this video, I talked about this diversity of solutions regarding the World/Chronicles of Darkness a while back.

Consider, as an example, the humble dungeon crawl. Yes, these adventures are inherently dangerous, and there is at least the opportunity for combat to occur, but these locations are also filled with traps, puzzles, and natural disasters. And while we often focus on the dungeon part of things, the crawl is there because they're meant to be tense. Players are meant to move quietly, carefully, and to make sure they don't step on a concealed switch, rest their weight on the wrong board, or rush headlong into an ambush. While the foolhardy might charge forward shouting a battle cry and banging their ax on their shield, that's a good way to die a quick, pointless death.

But high-lethality games are good for more than just dungeon crawls. They're great for high-stakes heists, for mysteries (particularly murder mysteries), and for games that tend to focus on a single, relatively contained story. Rather than using the Lord of The Rings as the framework, where we follow the fellowship across their massive walk across the continent, consider something more akin to Conan, Solomon Kane, or even the James Bond stories where we follow the characters through adventures that each stand alone as their own chapter but could be connected into a series if you wanted them to be.

Build The Story As It Goes

Another contention I have seen from the old guard who grew up playing high lethality games is the aggression toward the idea of working out a character's story before the game even starts. As the argument goes, "Your character should be a blank slate, and they should be shaped by the adventures they have!"

I disagree with this on a fundamental level, however, I feel like this comes from a lesson learned in high lethality games. Namely that you need to come to terms with the fact that your character is likely going to die long before they get within bow shot of old age, unless they're starting the game as a senior looking to go out in a blaze of glory. If you're going into a meat grinder, don't get attached to an endgame you're probably never going to reach.

This goes for players and Game Masters alike, though, so perk up your ears for this one!

Because there's a LOT of stuff to take in here.

Just as players should probably have backup characters and concepts for when their current character dies a horrible death (it's statistically likely, after all), Game Masters shouldn't count on the characters making specific decisions, acquiring particular items, or even surviving in order to create a single, unbroken plot.

 

Now, those who've played adventure paths or pre-written campaigns have likely noticed that they read like long novels. You can switch characters in and out as it goes, but they're meant to act as supporting stories for the same characters from beginning to end. High lethality games, though, work better as a series of modules, each of which might be a chapter of an unfolding campaign. Because characters might die, but it's far easier to come up with some kind of way to continue on (and to introduce replacements) if you're just flipping back to the start of last session.

 

Think of it like how a video game might start you back at the current level when your character dies, instead of sending you back to the start screen to do it ALL over again.

But this is where building the story as it goes comes in, as well as collaborative efforts between the GM and the players. Do the players just want to put together a whole new party, and start a whole different adventure? Do they want to put together a new party that all have reasons to seek out their previous characters? Do they want to put together a new party to complete the adventure that killed them, but they want these new characters to be utterly unconnected to their previous characters and whatever stories they had going on?

If you've been planning specific arcs and long-term goals, then as a GM this will be intensely frustrating for you, because now all the things you'd planned as character moments or opportunities for the first band is going to waste because they're dead. So the Game Master also benefits from not planning too far beyond the current chapter, because they don't know if the characters are even going to be around when it wraps. So plotting for a high lethality campaign is basically akin to prepping a series of modules... you can't go too far down the line, because if you do there's a good chance the characters in question will all be dead, replaced by fresher faces.

Why You Can't Just Bring Them Back

Have you ever seen a parent that counts down from 3 when a child is misbehaving? The child knows that if the parent counts down to 0 then something is going to happen... but if the parent gets to 0 and they don't do anything, now the kid knows it's a bluff. From that point onward, there's always a chance that nothing is going to happen.

This is also what happens if you have a high-lethality game, but you look for reasons to resurrect/save characters who should be dead. Much as with several of the games mentioned above, once resurrection makes an appearance (or once death stays its hand), it takes away the tension and the bite. So while I will absolutely advocate for chases, and the lesser fail states like being taken prisoner or having to face some kind of additional challenge, games that are supposed to be lethal are the ones that don't benefit from allowing characters to just come back from the dead... not unless there's something going on beneath the surface, at least.

After all... coming back wrong can be useful for Game Masters. Especially if it means there's a ticking clock over the character's head that might lead them to taking a few more risks than they normally would to try and escape their dark fate.

On the subject of resurrection, though, I would check out the sourcebook for The Black Ballad (which is all about campaigns set in the underworld once a party dies), the supplement I'm Back: 25 Reasons For A Villain's Survival, as well as my older post Villains Can Cheat Death (Without Taking Away Your Players' Victory).

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That's all for this week's Crunch post! To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or the dark sci fi channel I contribute stories to, The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Legacy Campaigns: A Fresh Chapter To Continue Your Story

For a lot of us, the idea of completing a full campaign with a single party of characters is the height of gaming accomplishment. And if you've managed to do that, then you might very well want to play a different system or setting entirely as a kind of palate cleanser. But if you're the sort of player (or the sort of Game Master) who enjoys continuity and sequels, then I would recommend considering the idea of a legacy campaign... because they can take a variety of forms, and you can usually tailor them to fit your game, and your players.

As we turn the page, another set of heroes are enmeshed in our tale...

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

A New Chapter In Your Quest

There are a couple of different ways a legacy campaign can go. First and foremost, it can be the literal legacy of the former PCs, whether it's their children, students they've trained, squires they've knighted, etc. The idea is that the PCs of the last campaign are passing the torch to the new party, providing some kind of continuity between the characters, if not the actual story of the campaign. Alternatively, the legacy might be a continuation of the events and story from the first campaign, but in a different location with different characters who aren't necessarily connected to the characters of the previous campaign. For a quick reference, the connectivity between the Pathfinder adventure paths Shattered Star, Rise of The Runelords, and Return of The Runelords follows this path.

However, it's also possible to combine the two into a single campaign, if that's what you and your players want to do!

I am here to earn my spurs, and to make my father proud.

As I said in The Key To A Sandbox Is To Make Sure It's Populated, And Stuff Is Happening, though, a legacy campaign requires a bit of setup to really sell it!

Now, that doesn't mean the Game Master has to plan a three-campaign series right from the jump. But you do have to have the first campaign planned, plotted, and completed so that you have all the information about what happened during the first story that you can use as a springboard for the second one (and from the second to the third, if you want to be industrious). You need to know which characters completed what deeds, which NPCs lived and died, and which of the villains were sentenced, which ones were slain, and which ones returned to the outer darkness to join their alien masters. And once you have all of that information, you can then properly plan the sequel to that game!

If you're the Game Master, picture yourself as the head of a successful TV series. You received enough of a budget to shoot the first season, so you made something relatively self-contained, but which has the potential for spin-offs and sequels. You finished it, and it was popular enough that your audience wants more. Maybe you had some ideas in mind for where it could go next. Maybe you were just hoping the first season did well enough you could scoot across the line. Either way, with this format, and your very narrow audience, it's a good idea to make sure the first season is as polished and enjoyable as possible before you spend too much time working on the second or third season that you might not even get.

The most important thing, though, is that you need to be sure you have player enthusiasm to see more. Because while the idea of following up a campaign with a legacy sequel might be intriguing (especially if the players get to see the results of the previous game, and hear the tales of their old characters' adventures), it's equally possible that your audience might have been just fine with a one-and-done for that game, that story, or that system. Don't over-invest in making a multi-part story told over several campaigns if you know your players don't have that kind of stamina.

With that said, however, keep in mind that a "campaign" doesn't have to be a years-long, level 1 to level 20 endeavor. A campaign could just as easily be a story that takes characters through a 5 level progression, or even a 10 level progression. As long as the story is complete, the GM reaches the end point, and the plot is solved, that's a full campaign... just make sure you let your players know how long the story will last before you get started so they can plan accordingly!

Game Master Resources

If you're planning on running a legacy campaign, whether it's for a passing of the torch, or you want players to have to deal with further permutations of the threats that were seen and opposed in the first story, I would recommend getting your hands on some of the following supplements:

- I'm Back! 25 Reasons For A Villain's Survival: Whether it's the big bad they thought was defeated, a hated henchman, or even an ally they thought was dead, this book can be fun for more continuity.

- 100 Character Goals and Motivations: Good for your players to take a flip through, but very important for understanding the motivations and machinations of your game's villains.

- 100 Dark Secrets: Something that can put allied NPCs into a different context, and which could provide something deeper to find for your villains, can also be good for giving your PCs something to keep under wraps.

- 100 Tips & Tricks For Being A Better Dungeon Master: A supplement that collects a majority of the good advice I've covered here on this blog to help make your games the best they can be.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

The Difficulty of Destined Heroes and Fail States

We have all been in those games where destiny takes a hand in the plot. Perhaps our heroes are chosen by the gods to act as their direct representatives in a spiritual proxy war (a similar setup to what I called The Cold War of The Gods). Maybe there was a prophecy that foretold them rising up to challenge a great power. Or this just happens to be the trope the GM is leaning on because it was difficult to find an organic way to get such a disparate group of killers, thieves, and liars to all come together to accomplish a shared goal.

However, there is nothing more likely to result in a clash between rules and plot than something going wrong in a destined hero game. Which is why, before you gear up to run one, you need to think through how you plan on dealing with a fail state.

The dragon warriors were supposed to free us all... but then they died. To one lucky goblin.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

How Does Destiny Manage To Weave Through Failure?

We've all read a story where a hero or heroes were destined to do something, and while things might have seemed bleak or hopeless at times in that story, the characters always seemed to make it through in an interesting way. Which is why if you're playing a game where the plot device is that your party have been chosen by fate, the gods, or some other higher force, you need to take a moment to ask how you're going to keep the game going if bad luck stalls out the story's progress.

The gods are not so easily denied, small one...

Let's start with the obvious... what happens if one or more of the characters get killed? They've been chosen for this great destiny, and they're on their way to fulfill it, when an orc ambush goes a little too well, and the party goes down. Now you've lost the champions of the plot... what is destiny going to do now?

Well, I have a few recommendations for how to handle this.

Firstly, if you're going to run a chosen one plot, wait until the PCs have gained a few levels before you start throwing around that kind of language and making them officially chosen ones. The major advantage of this is that it gives your players a couple of levels to get into the groove of their characters, and to get past the point where one good critical hit can spell an unlucky game over. The secondary advantage is that it gives the party time to become cohesive, and for players to get really attached to their characters. After all, a player wanting to bring in a completely different PC can screw with the whole destined heroes plot just as much as a character death.

However, even waiting until the PCs are a little beefier doesn't guarantee they won't meet with an ignoble end. That's why it's a good idea to have some kind of force in place to give the characters a way to survive at least 1 death. However, as I mentioned recently in both Undercutting Death Can Undercut Your Story, as well as Villains Can Cheat Death (Without Taking Away Your Players' Victory), it's important that this doesn't feel like you're just throwing your players a bone. Overcoming death should come with some kind of cost or hardship, or it should be uncertain in some important way. Perhaps a divine being must stand in the place of a PC in the Underworld until they complete their quest, or they have to make some kind of bargain with a powerful outsider.

You can even have a whole separate part of the campaign happen in the land of the dead if you want to bring in a game resource like The Black Ballad, which is all about running campaigns that take place partially (or even entirely) in the hereafter. Alternatively, you might find some inspiration in I'm Back! - 25 Reasons For A Villain's Survival.

Resurrection can be a finnicky thing.

Lastly, and this might sound counterintuitive at first, you should try to come up with fail states beyond death for the PCs.

I've talked about this before, but when it comes to a destiny-style game, consider the implications of death in the ongoing power struggle. Will killing the heroes of the prophecy actually stop the prophecy from coming true? Or will this just allow the divine essence to slip away, where it will empower a different, unknown hero that the villains will have to find and track down all over again? Do the villains want to steal the PCs destiny, but they can't do that if they're dead, so they have to be kept alive and captured? Are the PCs themselves a necessity for the villain to win, whether it's by turning them away from their current path, making allies of them, or getting them to somehow renounce the quest laid before them?

It's your game, so you're the one who gets to decide how the prophecy, destiny, or driving plot force behaves. However, providing multiple fail states, or a way for players to fail-forward is a good idea. For example, have the villains been given explicit instructions by their master to take the PCs alive at all costs? If so, then they should find themselves held prisoner in the enemy's fortress when that was where they were going anyway... the difference is that now they have to engineer a jailbreak instead of just sneaking in. Alternatively, perhaps they're in a race to acquire magical artifacts, and the fail state for that arc of the quest is not being killed, but rather the enemy acquiring the items first, which puts the PCs at a disadvantage they need to recover from in the next arc.

And so on, and so forth.

To wrap things up, I'm not saying that games where PCs are the chosen ones, or where they're fulfilling some grand destiny, are bad. Far from it. After all, everyone likes to be special from time to time. However, if that is the trope you're using as the main thrust of your campaign, it's important for you to have off-ramps and work arounds in the event things don't go according to plan.

Which every Game Master will tell you is basically guaranteed to happen as soon as you hand the reins over to the players, and the dice start hitting the table.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Character Secrets Don't Matter If No One Finds Out About Them

Everyone loves a good plot twist, or a fun character reveal. The problem arises, though, when players (or even the GM) squeeze the story so tight to their chest that they end up smothering the secrets they were holding. Because while having a big reveal in your back pocket can be fun, if no one else is ever going to find out about it then it may as well not exist.

Which is why you shouldn't just know what your character's secrets are, as I mentioned in What Secrets Does Your Character Hide?, and elaborated on in the character concept The Onion of Secrets. You should also know how that secret is going to matter to the story you're all telling, and have some idea of how you're going to start revealing it to the people sitting around the table with you.

If they never dive down, how would they know?

As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

The Spice Needs To Go Into The Soup

Once you know what your character's secrets are (whether they're a secret vigilante, they were born to a noble family, they were a bandit in a former life, etc.) you can think of them as a little dash of spice. However, if you never actually add that spice into the dish, then it won't make any difference to the overall experience. However, adding in the spice at the wrong time, or in the wrong amount, can also ruin the presentation and flavor when all is said and done.

And this is why it's important for you to consult with the head chef (the Game Master) to make things come out just right!

Mmm... this one might be too salty. Let's do a half dose of this, how's that sound?

First things first, character secrets should be a collaborative effort between you and your Game Master. The reason for that is because the GM is the one who needs to facilitate a good reveal, and to help you set the stage so you can stand in the spotlight for a moment when it comes time to let everyone else in on the secret.

Secondly, once the Game Master agrees your secret will become part of the story, try to work with them to come to that appropriate place so that the collaboration stays strong. As an example, if your character used to be an infamous assassin before they joined the church and took the vows of a cleric, work with the GM to figure out when (and how) you want that information to come out. For example, do they have secretive tattoos or brands they keep hidden until they're revealed when the party is taken prisoner? Do they speak a particular language only known by members of this secretive order, and they have to reveal that to translate critical intelligence? Or do they find people who recognize them from their old life for one reason or another? Because sprinkling in these clues, or just adding in the big reveal at a dramatic moment, can really make the story sing.

Where a lot of players mess this up, though, is they will either keep their secrets extremely close to their vests to the point that they never come up in the game at all, or they will try to spring this surprise on their fellow players and on the Game Master, which is a terrible plan because it can create unnecessary confusion that will undercut the reveal.

Timing and placement is extremely important for maximum story impact. Because say that your character was actually a princess, but she ran away from her royal responsibilities to become an adventurer. Classic twist, very fun. However, if you aren't coordinating this with your Game Master then you don't have any in-world structural support for this character's entire secret backstory... and even if it is allowed to stand, there won't be anything in-place for the plot that this reveal will actually affect. But consider what might happen if you were in communication with your Game Master. Because if you wanted a secret princess reveal, and the Game Master agreed, then at the very least there's likely to be people looking for the missing princess. But it's also possible that the villain for the campaign will be a family member of hers, and that she has a legitimate claim to the throne that could lead the party to commit a coup rather than leaving her evil uncle or sadistic brother sitting on the throne.

Long story short, if you want your character reveal to have a real impact then it's going to require scaffolding and set dressing to really facilitate it. And if you don't work with your Game Master to set the stage, then the reveal is going to fizzle out... so make sure all the setup is in place before you step onto your mark!

Lastly, if you found this week's post of-interest, then take a moment or three to check out my supplements 100 Dark Secrets as well as 100 Questions To Ask About Your Characters.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Fluff post. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or the dark sci fi saga of The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Compersion Is An Important Aspect of Being a Game Master

Compersion is a term that a lot of gamers are familiar with, because a polyamorous lifestyle is the easiest way to ensure that you have enough people for a regular RPG or board game night. However, if you've never heard the term before, the most general definition is that it is when a person feels a sense of happiness cause by seeing someone else's happiness; particularly someone important to that person.

And generally speaking, I think this is something a lot of Game Masters should take to heart, because the idea is one that can make game night a lot more enjoyable for everyone involved.

Lastly, before we get started this week, you should check out my older article Partners and Polycules: Polyamorous Designations Based Off Dungeons and Dragons Dice in the event you need a chuckle today.

It can really help to have your head, and heart, in the right place.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Making It About Your Players (Instead of Yourself)

Since I can hear the clearing of some throats out there, I wanted to give the more in-depth definition of this term as it applies to polyamorous people. Mostly because I feel that will give the following topic a little additional weight. Now, for those who don't know, polyamory is a relationship style where people have multiple romantic and/or sexual partners at a time, and there is open communication and knowledge among everyone involved. Now, in this case, compersion is often about seeing one of your partners being happy with another partner, and feeling happy that they're happy.

And I bring this up because for a lot of people seeing their partner go out on dates with another person (or knowing they were up to something more intimate) would give them very negative feelings like jealousy, sadness, or anger. And while those things can still happen, for a lot of folks the idea that you would see your partner in this situation, and be happy that they're having fun and excited, can be a lot to wrap their heads around.

But I would posit that there's a parallel here for a lot of Game Masters. Because it feels like a lot of folks who run games can sometimes put their players' happiness and excitement last, which leads to problems.

I hope they're having a good time right now. I really do.

Now, to start us off on the right foot, I agree with the sentiment that the Game Master is also a player at the table. They have a very different role, but they should absolutely be enjoying themselves as much as anyone else. However, with that said, it's important for a Game Master to ask themselves if they're excited when their players are excited, or if seeing their players having fun gives them a rush of positive feelings. Even if the players are doing something unconventional.

Because there are a lot of Game Masters out there who get frustrated or upset with players when they use an ability in an unexpected way, when they try out a strategy the GM didn't see coming, or just when the dice gods smile upon the players and things really go their way with a natural 20 or critical success at a clinch moment. And sure, maybe you were hoping that your villain would make more of an impression on the players, or you're frustrated their figured out a plot twist sooner than you wanted them to, or a fight they were supposed to lose is one they actually walked away from victorious... and it's all right to feel those things. But ask yourself if your players are having fun, and if that shouldn't be more important in this moment?

The ability to take your ego out of things, and to bask in your players' enjoyment, is really important for having a good experience as a GM. Because even if your players ignored a dungeon you'd hoped they would go down, or they solved a mystery two sessions early, or a twist of fate allowed them to absolutely wreck a villain you'd hoped would have been more of a challenge, if your players are having fun, ask yourself if those other things are more important at the end of the day?

That perspective, and that shift in mind set, can make a lot of difference. It can also allow you to shrug off things that would otherwise bother you. If you develop the ability to say, "Well, as long as everyone is having fun," and to really mean it, that will make your life a great deal easier.

And if you haven't picked up my 100 Tips and Tricks For Being A Better Game Master, as well as the companion piece 100 Tips and Tricks For Being A Better RPG Player, I'd highly recommend grabbing some copies for yourself!

As A Final Note: Compersion and Bad Behavior

I heard a few folks cracking their knuckles for comments, so I wanted to tack a section onto the end of this week's post. It's important for you, as a Game Master, to tell the difference between harmless behaviors from your players, or your own hang ups as a GM, and problem behavior. As I mentioned, the goal here is for everyone at the table to be having fun, the GM included. And there is a world of difference between allowing your players to go off-script, or allowing an unexpected but earned victory to stand, and putting up with bad behavior from your players.

However, in another polyamory comparison, the best course of action is to talk about things. Whether you feel your players aren't being appreciative of the effort you're putting into the game because they keep ignoring what you're telling them, or you feel that they're deliberately undermining the tone you all agreed to at the outset, or you feel that tea-bagging your minis is disrespectful, and they're going to hurt themselves when they eventually fall off the table, have a conversation about it.

And don't wait until there's months (or years) of pent up negativity and bad blood about something that can come boiling out. Just talk to your players, open up a dialogue, and tell them, "Hey, I'm having some thoughts/feelings about this. I don't want it to become an issue, but I'd appreciate if we could talk this out."

It really does solve problems.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Game Masters Aren't Gods... They're Genies

The common refrain we've seen about Game Masters is that they are the god of the game. This is both in the sense that they are the arbiters of the rules, but they are also the force that animates the game world the players are having their adventure in. However, there are a lot of us who allow this turn of phrase to go to our heads, and it often makes our games worse. Which is why this week I wanted to suggest a pivot, and an alternative way of thinking about things.

Because we aren't gods... we are genies. And at the end of the day, the players are the ones we're here to serve.

Phenomenal cosmic power... itty bitty gaming space...

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Our Purpose Is To Facilitate

Another phrase that's come into circulation over the past several years is, "The Game Master is a player at the table, too." And I agree with this. However, we have a very different role when it comes to our purpose in the game and story. Our job is to create challenges, and to facilitate our players doing cool things. This doesn't mean that we handle them with kid gloves, or that we refuse to let consequences happen in the game. At the same time, we shouldn't be trying to "win" the game by making sure the players fail in their goals.

In short, we need to be genies.

Because it's true that the Game Master has a great deal of power at the table. They aren't bound to the rules of character generation; they have access to armies. They are the ones who decide what treasure the players find, what allies they make, and what their enemies are doing. They are the ones who puppet the gods, and who set the gears in motion... but a Game Master should do all these things in service to the players.

Entire worlds move at their behest... worlds for the players to explore.

Consider for a moment what happens if the enemy wins. The player characters are dead, and the villains continue on with their villainy... what now? Because unless you're using a supplement like The Black Ballad that gives players a way to side-quest their way out of the underworld, then that's typically where things end. All those notes you took for the story going forward, all the encounters you had prepared, and all the monologues from the villains... all of those things fall into darkness.

That shouldn't be your goal. Because even if you find a way to bring the player characters back, or you convince your players to bring in their back-up characters, losing on that scale tends to be a serious blow to morale, and it can leave the game feeling fragile even if it doesn't break completely.

Instead, your goal should be to endeavor on behalf of your players... not their characters, but your players. You want them to have fun, to explore the world, tell their stories, and to want to come back. Like a favored book they want to consume just another chapter of, you are the one making their enjoyment possible in the first place. And that requires taking your ego out of things as a Game Master. To be able to listen to what your players want, to talk things out with them, and to understand their wants and expectations... and then to deliver on them.

Put another way, imagine you were being served by a world-class chef. But when you ordered what you wanted he just snorted, shook his head, and brought you a completely different dish. Perhaps it's something you don't actually like, or worse, something that you have allergies to. All the skill and experience in the world does you no good if you aren't bending it to the goal of giving your players what they're actually asking you for... because if you deliver what's asked for with skill and style, then you are going to wind up with an extremely loyal table who will talk about your games for years.

Also, for more useful tips on being a Game Master, make sure you grab a copy of my supplement 100 Tips And Tricks For Being A Better Game Master, which has some of the best strategies I've shared on this very blog. Additionally, consider picking up the sequel 100 Tips And Tricks For Being A Better RPG Player as well!

A Note On Tricksy Genies

Because I'm sure some folks thought of this as soon as they saw the title, I want to address the idea of the "tricksy" genie. You know the ones I mean. The genies who pervert the intention of someone's wish, or who play word games with the meaning. Like if someone said they wanted a lifetime supply of raspberry crowns, which is a well-known dessert, but it also happens to be a slang term for a particularly deadly hornet, so the genie has them attacked by swarms of dangerous insects instead of granting them a sweet treat.

Don't be that kind of genie. I touched on this in Nobody Likes A "Gotcha" Game Master a while ago, but it's worth reiterating. Because if you are constantly trying to toe the line, act against the spirit of what your players have expressed while sticking to the letter of an agreement, all it's going to do is undermine trust, and make people less likely to want to play with you.

Again, for clarity. NPCs like fey lords, devils, and even genies and djinn, can (and in some cases should) act in just this way... but you as the Game Master should be open, up-front, and honest with your players when you are trying to run a game for them. You may not want them to trust the characters they meet in the game, but they should always be able to trust you. Because if they can't, then the ship is sinking... it's just a matter of when.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Dungeon Design Tips: You Need To Make Social Skills Viable If You Want Players To Use Them

(Apologies on the formatting, but I originally wrote this in my word processor, as my Internet service was down for a week. I don't know why it has chosen to appear this way, and I'm trying to fix it.)

One of the biggest complaints a lot of Game Masters have is that players will always try to solve problems with spells or steel, rather than using their wits or their words. However, while that is a valid complaint to have, it is important to first look in the mirror before assigning all the blame to the players sitting around the table.

In short, did you give them a reason to believe that rolling for diplomacy or persuasion would actually work? Or has that always led to the enemy getting the first shot in, putting the party at a disadvantage for the coming combat?

Now, stick with me here, I want you to NOT roll initiative just yet...

As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

If Words Don’t Work, Players Won’t Use Them

Generally speaking, players understand there are non-combat options to solve issues… but that understanding seems to only exist when their characters are in locations where combat is frowned upon. If they’re in a town, for example, they’ll try to barter for goods, sweet talk their way out of trouble, or threaten their way past a couple of street toughs… but as soon as the PCs step outside of the designated “friendly” zone, it’s like all their non-combat options get grayed out.

Your job, as the Game Master, is to show that just because the party is venturing through the depths of a forest, or they’re entering a dungeon, that doesn’t mean their social skills are no longer viable. And to do that, it pays to sprinkle in some encounters where players can see this in action.

Let's have a conversation, shall we sweet ones?

For example, say your players encounter a flitting fey creature (like one of the ones you might find in 100 Encounters in a Fey Forest, for instance) while they’re moving through the woods. They could attack it and drive it off, yes, but does doing so mean they find the forest ahead of them is now filled with traps? If they speak cordially with the creature, will it offer them guidance through the woods? Or perhaps tell them the location of a buried treasure, in exchange for a promise to take on a small task for it? If they’re merely pleasant, and offer it some of their rations, will the creature watch over them while they’re in its part of the forest, looking for some way to pay back the “gift” it was given?

Expand this idea out in other ways. Do the ogres guarding the wicked sorcerer’s fortress actually dislike the role they’ve been forced into, and they would love to see the spellcaster killed, as long as they get the gold they were promised? Do the rank-and-file members of the Mistwood Raiders think their war leader has gone too far in kidnapping people for ransom, and killing people who weren’t even resisting? If so, could they be persuaded to offer the party information, or even help, if they promise to end the bandit king who wears the bone crown taken from the forgotten tomb of the Mad King? Could they go so far as to open talks with a vampire who seems to be attacking a nearby town, or to engage with a dragon to establish an agreement between it and the terrified people who have lived in its shadow?

Parley? Well, I suppose...

Now, obviously, social skills won’t solve every situation. Clockwork automatons, mindless undead, and territorial magical beasts don’t respond to social overtures, and they will do what their programming, orders, or instincts urge them to do. There will always be antagonists whose goals are directly counter to what the PCs want, and so reaching any kind of agreement will be impossible. And there will always be enemies who think themselves too powerful to bend even an inch to the demands of others, no matter how soft the silk those demands are wrapped in. However, if you want your players to embrace a variety of tactics to solve problems, then it’s important to show them that there are reasonable creatures in the setting who will at least hear them out when they try to be diplomatic.

Lastly, it’s important to consider how this can affect the reputation of the party. If the sorcerer is known for an uncanny ability to bargain with fey creatures, does he earn the name Silvertongue among them (or Ironjaw for those who end up on the worse end of the agreements)? If the dwarven fighter sealed a pact with an orc clan, and upheld his end of that bargain, does that earn him respect among other members of that clan or nation? Perhaps opening doors that would have remained shut to him if he and his allies had merely slaughtered those who got in their way? And if the party takes prisoners, accepts surrender, and treats those who opposed them with honor, that’s something that should also be known to others after a time. On the other hand, if the party breaks promises, lies, cheats, and steals, then they’re going to find those bad decisions catching up with them, and their reputations are more of a weight around their necks than anything else.

For more on this, check out the article Character Reputation in Fantasy RPGs: The Small Legend.

And if you’re looking for more ways to incorporate social encounters into your next campaign, consider checking out some of the following supplements:

- 100 Random Encounters For On The Road Or In The Wilderness (general fantasy RPG)

- Social Encounters For Old School Revival (OSR system)

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Crunch post! To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Campaign Building - A Single Novel, Or An Episodic Story?

Campaigns are how we describe our stories in RPGs. And while it's true that not every game you play is going to follow the level 1 to level 20 format, the idea of a story where characters gain resources, skills, abilities, and experience to become more formidable than they were until they hit the final confrontation and the story gets a crescendo is the basis of how most games work. However, there is a question that you, as a GM, should answer when you start putting the next game together.

Do you intend to run a game with a single throughline the way you'd read a novel, or are you going to run a segmented storyline that's more episodic in nature?

It's all connected!

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

The Structure of Your Story

Whether you're writing your own adventure, or you're using a pre-written campaign like Storm King's Thunder or Kingmaker, the structure of the story you're telling still boils down to one of these two major styles. So I wanted to talk about them, and about the pros and cons, to try to get some of my fellow Game Masters actually thinking about these campaign styles, and why they use one or the other for a given campaign.

The Novel

From page 1, all the way to the end.

The novel is, essentially, when you have a long-running campaign that will have the same characters all the way through from the beginning to the end. However, the trademark of the novel is that characters are also involved in a single, cohesive story for the entire campaign. This is a lot harder to do than it sounds, particularly in games where you want your players to grind up their levels before you throw heavy stuff at them. However, there's two ways to maintain this single story cohesion all the way through.

1. Write a complex storyline that, from level 1, has your players hooked into the ongoing narrative and setting up the final endgame. For example, they act as a squad of mercenaries sent to deal with orcs attacking a borderland town. They defend the town, discovering members of a cult who were backing the orcs in their attacks. Through this, they find the town is actually safeguarding an ancient relic that had been forgotten. The party escorts the relic to the regional governor, and end up having to uncover a conspiracy where several nobles were members of the cult. This failure of the minions draws the eyes of the cult's leaders, who then begin attempting to take this item. The party has to find the rest of the relics in the set so they can finally end the undying lord of the Unseeing Eye for once and all.

The idea is that each segment of the campaign feeds into the next, with the plot growing in stakes and danger, and all of them are connected. Every aspect matters, and it is all part of the same story.

2. Start the game off at the power level you want for the "interesting" part of things. This is a far easier approach, and it often means you dispense with any filler or level-grinding parts of the game to get the PCs up to snuff for when the main plot starts really rolling. So there's no low-level quests like clearing out goblin caves, or dealing with bandits on the highway just to solidify the party and get some XP on their sheets... you just start at level 5, because that's when the main plot of an undead army attempting to claim the nation would have started to unfold.

This does, of course, mean that your game isn't going to run as long as it otherwise might. That is either a feature or a flaw, depending on your outlook, as some GMs (and players, too) might want a tighter game where they play for 6 months to a year and focus on the "good part" of the game, without all the faff and chaff of the unconnected side quests, monster hunting, and grind that can often show up in a game.

The Episodic Story

As we rejoin our adventurers...

An episodic story is, well, episodic. There are smaller stories that each have their own arcs, and these stories are added to over the length of a campaign to create a complete chronicle of the characters' adventures. While some of them might be connected, many of them won't be.

Perhaps the best comparison for this kind of campaign is reading a collection of short stories about classic sword and sorcery heroes like Conan or Solomon Kane. Because while the stories feature the same character, and there might even be a loose kind of timeline involved, the events of one story aren't necessarily going to impact the next except in references made, or perhaps in a call back somewhere in the text.

An episodic campaign might have an eventual end goal, but not all the parts of the campaign will be bent toward that singular goal. For example, level 1-3 might deal with the PCs routing out a bandit encampment, and bringing down their leader Three-Fingered Galt. Then level 4-7 might involve trying to find a buried relic in a recently-uncovered castle in the deep desert. Level 8-10 might involve them challenging the Warlock of Black Mountain, and ending the threat he poses. And then, once they've really hit their stride, they spend until level 17 getting involved in the struggle over the Aqualine Throne... will they choose a successor, topple the kingdom entirely, or will they become the rulers of the nation's next age?

Episodic stories give you a lot of freedom, but more importantly they offer you off-ramps. So if someone wants to switch characters to try something new for the next arc, or your table is getting kind of bored, you can end the game at the end of a given episode, and try something else. However, there is that question of whether or not you want to stick with the same characters for their entire journey, and just how interconnected that journey really was.

Consider Your Structure

There's no objectively superior campaign version. You can do a full 1-20 campaign with a single, interconnected plot. You could do short arcs put together. Hell, if you really want to you could run a bunch of individual one-shots and just have a game that feels almost like a TV show (which is, incidentally, sort of how pick up games of my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic would run). But it's important that you ask what kind of story you're looking to tell, and what your players are interested in experiencing, before you start putting together the blueprint for your next campaign.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!