Dungeon Master Alchemy: Turning Stats Into Story

Numbers are the basis of most roleplaying games. In the World of Darkness you have dots, in Pathfinder you have skill ranks and ability scores, and in Deadlands you have traits and backgrounds, but at the end of the day they're all different names to describe what player characters can and can't do in the game world. These statistics are meant to help participants get a proper image of what's happening when they start rolling dice, and in order to build an effective character it's important for players and storytellers both to understand how these mechanics work together. That said though, there's something important to keep in mind.

Statistics, by themselves, are boring as hell.

My stats have bigger dicks than your stats.

If you want to make your game sessions interesting, push the story forward, and keep everyone's collective heads in the game, here are some rules you might want to institute when it's time to rattle the bones.

Rule #1: Visualize the Violence

Every roleplaying game on the market has violence in it. In some games, like Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons, that violence takes center stage. In other games, such as Vampire: the Requiem or Grimm, it's often a little more low key. Game designers know that sooner or later (probably sooner) a character is going to try and solve the plot by kicking it in the crotch. So when that violence happens you need to ask yourself one question; what the hell does it look like?

Make us feel this. I dare you.

Combat is very easy to muddle. Between attack rolls, damage rolls, skill checks, the number of actions a player can take, and which special abilities are being used it's easy to lose track of what's going on. Combat is supposed to be fast-paced and tense though, and numbers tend to put a blockage between the player and the action. As such, it's a good idea to encourage more description and roleplaying to keep everyone involved.

Players can go big or small with their narrations, depending on their comfort levels. For instance, if players don't want to take a lot of time they might add a little flair to their combat round with something like, "Arturo springs forward, rapier darting for the zombie's face." That's easy, it's serviceable, and it's worlds better than "I attack." If a player is feeling more verbose though, there's no reason to hold back. "Fangor crashes his hilt against his shield, charging forward and bellowing 'death to the unbelievers!', laying about him with reckless abandon," is a little more descriptive. Every player gets a moment in the spotlight, and they should feel free to make the most of it to add their own narration to the scene.

Once attacks have been made though, it's the storyteller's turn to pick up the thread. Say that Arturo the dashing swordsman rolled a 2 on his attack, which is a solid miss. That doesn't necessarily mean that the fighter who's trained his entire life in the martial arts suddenly becomes a fumble-fingered fool. Perhaps his sword glanced off the zombie's skull rather than piercing through its eye. Perhaps the corpse wheeled right unexpectedly, and the sword sailed past. If the creature has a weapon or a shield, maybe it parried. Showing the enemy's competence keeps the fight tense, and all participants stay riveted on the action.

Let's flip back over to Fangor the barbarian. Maybe his player's on fire, and she rolled a natural 20 on the attack. She confirms the critical hit, and deals some significant damage. The entire table heard how much damage she dealt; it's the storyteller's job to tell the players what that damage looks like. So, does Fangor's broadsword cleave up through a bandit's skull in a spurt of blood and brains? Does the warrior instead slam the sword up under his enemy's armpit, ramming it in through the heart? Or does he simply cut deeply across the other man's guts, doing him great harm without killing him outright? That's the sort of thing the storyteller should be doing. By giving players a real sense of what effect they're having, and allowing a moment to shine, the battle goes from an exchange of die rolling and number writing to real, visceral storytelling.

Also, don't forget that this can work the other way when the monsters attack the players. If they hit, let players be dramatic. If the monsters miss, let players explain how and why. Back and forth is great for scene building.

Rule #2: Selling Your Spells

Whether you're playing a high fantasy sorceress, a modern-day magus, or you've slipped on the skin of a vampire, characters with supernatural abilities need to work a little bit harder to do their part when it comes time to step into the spotlight.

Otherwise this is what you'll look like. Seriously.

Just as fighters have to describe swinging swords and combat styles, magic-workers need to take the rules and claim them as their own. For instance, practically every game with magic has a spell that lashes out at enemies from a distance with a wave of energy. What does it look like when your character uses it? Some players might choose to use hand movements, doing some semi-arcane gesticulating before rolling a die. Others might speak a short series of Google translated words in Latin, German, or Japanese. Players who are less hands-on might describe a nimbus of blue light, or a shout that travels like a wave before smashing into the target. Spells that open pits in the ground could be accompanied by stomping a foot in the dirt, and those which grant flight might come with an avian howl or a halo of celestial light.

Magic and the supernatural is a prime example of "show, don't tell" (more on that here). For instance, if players are going up against a necromancer who summons a stream of black tendrils that sap away a fighter's strength, don't just tell the players what spell was cast unless they know what it is in-character. Describe the bells and whistles that go with the magic to keep the mood going. This happens with creatures that have some ability to shrug off damage, or who can regenerate health quickly. Whether players are fighting werewolves or dragons though, don't just say "not all of your damage went through." How? Why? Did the bullet wound close back up, pushing the slug back out? Did a thick hide prevent the knife from cutting deep enough? Does the crossbow bolt simply sit there, with no blood oozing out of the cold, dead flesh?

Rule #3: No Out of Character Numbers

It's easy for statistics on the character sheet to be used as short hand for in-character description. We talk about strength scores, hit points, dots of presence, etc., when what we need to be doing is taking a moment to discuss what other players are seeing.

You see a man with bronze skin, and an 18 strength.

In the aftermath of a battle, players should never say how many health levels they've lost. Instead, they should describe the sort of damage they've taken. Is the party leader limping because she took a stab wound in her calf? Does the cop who went toe-to-toe with the hungry dead have cuts on his arms and cheeks, or is there a seeping wound in his side just beneath his flak jacket? Is the knight simply singed, or has his skin been blackened by the dragon fire he walked through? These are things you need to know.

The same is true when it comes to first meetings or in-character description. A player shouldn't say "a bard walks up, flashing a smile that lets you know he has an 18 charisma or better." Sure, players at the table know what that means in game terms. Talking like that takes players out of their in-character head space though, and it doesn't really do much to explain what people are looking at. A better way to handle this might be to say something like, "a man strolls up to the party, his thumbs hooked behind his belt. He's brightly dressed, but chain armor glints beneath his shirt, and the short sword at his side looks very well-used. He grins, and when he tosses his hair back you can see his ears narrow to a point. His voice is pleasant, and it catches the ear of passerby." This is a pretty simple explanation of what a half-elf bard looks like, but at no point in time was he described using the words "half-elf" or "bard".

This goes for monsters and NPCs as well as PCs. Storytellers shouldn't use the names of creatures characters wouldn't know, even if the players do. Those who live in the mountains and have fought goblins their whole lives will recognize goblins when they come boiling out of caves to spring a trap. However, the exact nature of a spell-stitched ghoul might elude characters who are not experts in the arts of necromancy, or who have not made extensive studies of the undead. Storytellers can keep a lot of drama in a scene by keeping the players guessing about what is happening. Giving the players too much information calms their nerves and leaves them confident about their chances. Don't tell them. If they want to know the details, then players need to make in-character observations about the world in which they live.


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In Their Own Words: Finding Your Character's Voice

Creating a character you can get into isn't an easy process. You need to know who this character is, where he or she came from, as well as facts like age, gender, ethnicity, race, religious views, fighting style, education, family life, and a hundred other things that aren't listed here. When you've finally figured all of that out, and you have a fully-fleshed concept in your head, you still have the biggest hurdle of all left to jump; finding that character's voice.

Some masks are harder to put on, than to take off.

Giving a character the right voice is perhaps one of the most important things a player can do, especially in the absence of costuming and virtual avatars. Everything from timbre to word choice plays into it, and everything has to fit together to create a unique, complete whole. It can be a little intimidating at first, so we here at Improved Initiative have put together a list to help you express your characters in their own words.

Tip #1: Accent

An accent is one of the first things you notice when talking to someone. If someone is British, German, Russian, Indian, etc. you notice. Accents are indicative of a geographic upbringing, and that can be used to intimate things about a character. This is especially true if the common language of the land was not the language your character was born speaking.

Ask yourself where your character was born, where she grew up, and what languages she speaks. Also ask if your character has an ear for languages, and can speak them fluidly and flawlessly. Lastly, ask if your character's biology would lead to any kind of linguistic quirks. If your character is a half-orc chieftan who is more comfortable with orc, gnoll, and giant, then his common might be guttural. It might also be hard to understand him if he has tusks, which could lead to him speaking in short, terse sentences even if he knows the language well. If your character is a human learned in esoteric lore, then she might be able to read and comprehend the language of inhuman Outer Gods and other ancient beings. She might have difficulty speaking that language with only a single tongue, though.

Another handy thing about accents is they can make it very clear when you're in character, and when your character is speaking a different language. That lack of confusion is appreciated by storytellers and by fellow players both. For those who need examples of accents, this video by the very talented Amy Walker goes through 21 accents seamlessly in less than 3 minutes.

Tip #2: Word Choices

What words a person chooses to use says a lot about them. If a person was raised in a folksy environment, then backwoods slang will always be part of that individual's vernacular. If someone was raised to the priesthood, or spent a life as an academic, then that person might use precise words with a lot of syllables, or make references to books and learning other characters wouldn't know about. Career soldiers may speak in clipped sentences full of slang picked up during training, and performers may use sensational word choices that draw the ear and intrigue the listener out of habit.

Which words a person chooses to use is a reflection of what they know, and who they are. It might also be a projection the character uses to create a certain impression. If a canny barbarian knows people will underestimate him if they think he's stupid, he might deliberately use simple words, or even the wrong words, despite knowing better.

Tip #3: Linguistic Tics

Every person has his or her own, unique way of speaking. These idiosyncrasies go beyond an accent or a culture, and they make a person's speech pattern unmistakable. The often used trope of "hulk speak", where a character speaks largely in third person and uses simple or childish terms for more complex concepts, is a common one among characters who are not very smart.

These tics can be big things or little things. Does your character have good diction? Does the character have a catch-phrase, like "trust me" or "the gods will as the gods wish"? Does the character speak one way when in the public eye, and another way in private? How does your character's speech change with emotion? Is a character terse or verbose? Does the character swear a lot, and are the curse words real-world swears or are they curses used in the game world? Does the character use derogatory phrases for members of a certain profession, race, sex, etc.? All of these things can speak volumes about the character in question.

Tip #4: Pitching It

Perhaps the easiest trick in the book for making a character's voice sound different from your normal speaking voice is to pitch it. If a character is small or slight, then a higher-pitched voice would help create that visual. If a character is barrel-chested, or of a large stature, then making your voice deeper will help reinforce that image.

Adding qualities to your voice can take practice, but it can be very useful as audio shorthand. A rasping voice might represent a life of hard use, or an injury/scar on the throat that never healed right. Speak in a monotone if a character feels little emotion, or to show someone constantly distracted by interior thoughts. Put a growl in your tone for someone that's aggressive. Movies, plays, and audio dramas are great places for even more examples.

Tip #5: What Isn't Being Said

Quit looking, it's not on your sheet.

Language is how ideas and culture are expressed. Sometimes what people don't say can be just as important as what actually passes their lips.

What does that even mean? Well, it means that if a culture doesn't understand an idea, then there won't be a word for it. For instance, if someone was raised speaking infernal would there be a word for "apology", or would the nearest translation be, "I acknowledge your suffering"? Would abyssal have a word for "friend"? Does orc have a word for "love"? The languages characters speak, and the cultures they come from, influence how they act and what ideas make sense to them.

Wait, one more! Is there a goblin word for "self-preservation"?


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There is No "I" in "Party"

While it might be a stereotype that gamers don't play sports, like it or not a roleplaying game is a team-oriented activity. Every player has his or her character, and that character possesses certain strengths and weaknesses. In order to become more than the sum of its parts a party has to be willing to work together, to strategize, and to know what will and won't work.

It's pretty simple, when you get down to it. However there are certain things that can make this process harder, less fun, or both. If you want to make sure that your group survives and does so in the spirit of the game then you need to keep an eye out for some of the folks below.

The Backseat General

If you all just do what I tell you, then this will work out perfectly.

Anyone who's gamed more than once or twice has met this person. Chances are good you probably started coming up with entirely justified ways to kill off this player's character. The backseat general is the player who wants to hash everything out to the smallest detail, usually out of character, and typically right after initiative has been rolled. While this player may have a good grasp of the rules it often feels as if he or she would much rather be playing Warhammer or Axis and Allies than a roleplaying game. The solution to this situation is fairly simple, and it can both save time and help build the party up. Make a table rule that all discussions of strategy must happen in character, and in combat order if initiative has already been rolled.

This accomplishes multiple goals at the same time. On the one hand it lets everyone know that all interactions must be done strictly in character. On the other hand the role play can lead to back and forth between characters, and get everyone involved in the game. Ideally what it will do is allow the party to develop a battle rapport, with allies calling out to one another in the thick of it and adapting on the fly to the changing scenario. If everyone knows that's the goal it's much easier to get to.

The Showboater

Art thou upset, brother?

The bane of parties everywhere, the showboater is always ready, willing, and more than able to show off his or her combat prowess with little to no provocation. These players will typically ignore any sort of group strategy, simply going in face first with spells or steel bared and slugging it out as if it is truly they who is the main character of this story. Often they'll set off multiple encounters at the same time, or refuse to let allies into the fight in order to help. Variations of this include stealing everything that isn't nailed down simply because the character can, or using powerful abilities for purely cosmetic reasons. Whether the characters are heavily armored knights, loner rogues with a chip on their shoulders, or just really powerful evokers with a scorched-earth policy, they're sometimes more of a hindrance than a help.

The easiest way to teach this kind of player a lesson is to give that person exactly what he or she asked for; let them take on the bad guys alone. A truly well-built character can often stand up to a lot of abuse from enemies, but sooner or later it's going to become very, very clear that these players are in over their heads. If an entire party is made up of showboaters then chances are it will take a near total party kill to make the players understand that they have to work together to survive.

The One-Trick Pony

Well I haven't done any damage the past four times... I hit it again!

Generally speaking it's a good plan to gear your character toward accomplishing a certain goal. Whether it's dealing the most damage, being completely silent and sneaky, or acting as the party's alarm bell because no one can sneak up on you, a defining trick is often the mark of a character with a purpose. The problem is that sometimes that trick just isn't going to get the job done. Ideally if a party is well-balanced and made up of competent players and well-built characters, everyone should be able to participate in a meaningful way. The problem arises when a one-trick pony is so invested in his or her trick that the player just keeps on doing it even when it's been shown to be ineffective in a certain situation. If a player has chosen to use fire-based magic for instance, and the enemy is highly resistant to fire, the player will just keep casting spells and hoping they hurt enough to overcome the threshold. If the enemy requires a certain type of weapon or special material to hurt, the player will keep battering at the bad guy with the wrong kind of weapon, hoping for that natural 20.

If a character's signature trick has been rendered useless then the player needs to adjust his or her thinking for the fight rather than bitching and moaning that they can't do what they want to do. That doesn't help end the combat, and it can in fact poison the table's atmosphere. What will end the combat, though, is keeping a certain number of aces in one's hole.

To fix a one-trick pony the player needs to ask if my ability to do this is rendered moot, then what? A sorcerer fighting a golem, or a creature with extremely high spell resistance will find magic nearly useless. A fighter or a barbarian trying to take on an incorporeal enemy, or an invisible rogue, will have the same problem. To that end players simply need to plan ahead and have a backup plan for when that happens. For instance, a well placed alchemical item like a tanglefoot bag (to entangle enemies and lower their attack and defense), a smog pellet (which renders invisible enemies visible for several rounds), or holy water (which affects evil, undead, and even incorporeal enemies) should be kept in reserve. Magical ammunition can help archers and crossbowmen overcome situational problems, and spell casters focused on one element should always prepare a few spells, or carry a few scrolls, outside of their typical armaments. Lastly, don't forget the aid-another action (examined in depth in Aid Another is More Powerful Than You Think) and combat maneuvers (which can take away your enemy's advantages if done just right).

Tips and Tricks

I've been involved in a lot of games, both as a player and as a storyteller. From my experience there are certain things I highly recommend that players do in order to create cohesion as a party, and to get their strategy in order.

#1: Read the rules. This sounds simple and straightforward, but I don't mean to just read the rules about how your class abilities work. I mean read all the rules. Understand how combat maneuver checks work, even if you don't use them. Read about terrain modifiers and mounted combat, even if they haven't come into play yet. Knowing the rules will make it easier for you to adapt mentally to a situation, and you will be less frustrated because you didn't understand the ramifications of what's happening to you.

#2: Come together as a party. All too often players build characters who are so disparate, and so different, that they remain a group of individuals rather than a cohesive unit. While you don't have to make all of your party members bosom companions since childhood, attempt to bring them together through roleplaying. If someone was saved from bleeding out by the cleric, play up that reaction afterward. If a fighter got between the sorcerer and a monster, maybe that would play down the animosity of the academic toward the brawler. Have the monk discuss brewing strategies with the alchemist. Whatever it is, take the opportunity to let your characters mingle, and give them appropriate reactions to one another.

#3: Roleplay your combat. It's all too easy to just let combat devolve into a big pile of numbers; don't let that happen. If your ranger knows about a troll's weakness for instance, then he might shout "acid or fire, it can heal aught else!" on his turn. If the paladin's mount is pawing the ground and it's obvious she's going to charge have her call out, "clear a path, this demon is mine!" Keep in mind that a round happens more or less simultaneously, and it's happening fast. Make your words fit the danger or tone of the scene, and convey what you want in character. Lastly, know what you're doing and do it fast so that you don't slow combat down and lose the thread of the scene because you had to look something up for ten minutes.

#4: Remember your options. I mentioned alchemical items earlier (a great list is right here, by the by), along with the aid another action. Remember too that you can ready an action (essentially declaring a trigger for a single, standard action that reads if X happens, then I do Y) as well as delay. Delaying allows you to re-insert yourself elsewhere in the combat order, which can be a highly advantageous option if you want your actions to happen at a certain time. You know, something like I delay until after the wizard casts this huge, area-of-effect spell.

#5: Know your role, but don't be controlled by it. If you are a sneaky rogue who specializes in back-stabbing your enemies, it's very easy to get stuck in that role. If you're a cleric who casts only healing magic, then that too is very easy to fall into. Always look at what actions will be most in-character, and what will have the biggest effect. The fighter could stab the ogre, sure; it's probably what the fighter's built for, and it would do some damage. But giving a +2 to the nearby rogue with the aid another action could ensure a much bigger damage output and possibly end the fight earlier due to sneak attack, poison, etc. Is that the sort of thing the fighter would bank on, or would the martial professional insist on doing things mano a mano with the monster? If he helps the rogue then that could also be turned into a roleplay point. A fighting style where these two fall into a battlefield form regardless of how they feel about one another outside of the initiative order.

#6: Remember what languages you speak. Shouting out your plans right where your enemies can hear isn't always a great idea, but if you all speak a language that your enemy doesn't then you can converse openly without giving away what you're doing. Failing a common language your enemy doesn't know however, it's a good idea to come up with some party-only slang for who's taking what actions.


That's all for this week's installment of Improved Initiative. It was brought to you via the request of Kat Cichocki, and I wanted to thank her for being a loyal reader. As always I hope you find this useful in your games, and if you have a subject you'd like to see covered feel free to send it in. Also feel free to follow me on Facebook and Tumblr if you want to stay properly updated. For those more interested in my writing endeavors and who would like to see more fiction, check out my other blog The Literary Mercenary, and see what I have available on Goodreads. Lastly please remember this service is powered by Google AdSense. If you want to see more updates, then please support us and help keep the blog going!