Preperation, Preperation, Prep... well shit!

The one problem with being a GM is players. Not that they exist, but that they have wills of their own, and tend to use them. The bastards.

'But surely that creates a better gaming experience?' I hear you cry. Well yes it does, however it makes the GM's life a great deal harder than it already is. They do this by generally taking your finely sculpted, lovingly crafted plot, and then driving a truck over it. Possibly followed by a combine harvester.

This leads many GM's to the conclusion that preparing ahead of time for a game is a waste of effort.
They are wrong.

Preparing properly can make life a great deal easier. Instead of arbitrarily deciding what the players will do (a fools errand if ever there was one), decide what the villain's/monsters motivations are. What are they trying to achieve, what back up plans do they have for when things go wrong. Another thing to consider is location. What is it for? What was it originally for? When was it built and who built it? Has it been upgraded to its current state or is it as it was originally constructed? Going into detailed historical notes isn't necessary here, just a rough idea.

For example:
The cult's base of operations is in an old meat processing plant. They've converted some of the machines there into defensive mechanisms (ie traps), and the vast majority of armed cultists are using the old meat cutting equipment as improvised weapons, hence the disturbingly large number of meat hooks.

Simple, creates a running theme, and a little back ground information for the scenario. Doing this kind of thing can help with map design (if you do that kind of thing) since its easier to make up reasons for the rooms as you go along. 

All this means that when your players inevitably go off track you have things prepared in such a way that improvising on the fly is a little more consistent.

I am currently suffering through such a situation in my current Eberron game, with the players going in a direction I never even thought of. When I said this they started trying to guess what I thought they'd do. No-one got close. Eventually I will tell them (as I'm sure they'll get around to it) but for now I have to run with their rescue mission idea.

Felina

Felina passed away last night.

I'd like to say in her sleep but I suspect she was awake. She'd been very ill lately because of an ear infection that kept becoming more and more complicated, until she simply gave up.

She will be missed.

The con

I spent last weekend at Gaelcon, which was being run by Andrew, a friend of mine. It was the first con he'd ever run and I have to say he did a fantastic job on it. This one went up to 11!  I didn't actually play that many games, only three if I include the left for dead tournament, but those I did play were a great deal of fun.

I did run a game written by Ian, which I had helped play test for him, set in the discworld. Its worth pointing out that it's the first game he's ever written, and it came together brilliantly. So brilliantly in fact that he won the best game award (You should have seen his face). 

I won something as well :)

Apparently being a paranoid devious bastard helps you roleplay better when anyone could be your enemy.

The auction was good fun, especially the start when they surprise awarded a charity with €10,000. The representative was nearly in tears, heart strings were being tugged. We bought a nintendo 64 and some D&D stuff by Keith Baker, all told €200. Played the 64 last night. God those graphics are awful. I think I'll go play it again now though :) .

Exam madness

Well I've had an interesting day today. It was my end of year exam this morning, 10:o'clock to be exact, so I headed off to the Marino institute (The one that isn't actually in Marino) as usual to take the exam. I started to get suspicious when no other students, or even exam officials were there by 9:30, so I double checked at the desk. 

Long story short, I was in the wrong place, I should have be in UCD sports hall, which is very far away from the Marino institute. The opposite side of the city actually. So I sprinted out of there and grabbed the first cab I saw and got to UCD sports center.

Fun fact: there are two UCD sports centers, one of which is in Blackrock. Can you guess which one I went too and which one I should have gone too. Back into a taxi I go. At this point I'm already 20 minutes late for the exam, so I'm worried about not being let in. Eventually I get to the second sports center, half an hour late now, and have to spend a further 10 minutes looking for the exam hall, which turns out to be cunningly hidden behind the cafeteria.

Thankfully they let me in to the exam hall without any trouble what so ever, and the exam went reasonably well so all in all the insanity turned out okay. Looking for the Blackrock dart station was fun too. For such a big building its damn hard to find.

City chase

Well I just finished taking part one of the events ever. Me and Les spent about 5 hours running around Dublin solving clues and completing challenges (although they weren't all that challenging!). Strangely the two most fun ones involved large inflatable balls, strangeness.

The (new) World of Dorkness

I like this system/setting compared to the previous one. One of the best (in my opinion) changes is the removal of absolute truths from the mythologies in general. In previous books any mythology presented was treated as absolute truth, and therefore most players took it at face value. Now its presented as it should be, as an actual mythology, not belived by all, containing some symbolism, and even a contradiction or two.

The alternative mythos for each group (werewolf, vampire or whatever) don't even make a pretense of meshing together.

Another issue that was present in the previous WoD was balance between the different creatures/factions you could play. Werewoves ruled close combat utterly at lower xp levels, capable of obliterating entire parties of vampires alone, however once a vampire was around for a while the tables were turned, and don't even get me started on mages. Now, with the changes to mythology and mechanics, a cross over game would be fairly easy to run, since there are no 'built in' reason for any one creature/faction to leave the others alone, And while world spanning quasi societies exist for all the different beings the players can play, they are under no obligation to join any of them.

At leat thats my theory. I'll let you know more when I get around to actually running a cross over campaign.

Bored

I've been working on my project for college for most of today, and now I'm a little burned out, so I've decided to share one of my strange and wonderful pictures with you all.

On a side note I just remembered that I hate putting pictures up on this damn thing, user friendly it is not.

Apartment hunting

Its that time again. Shiv and me have been viewing apartments for the last few days. We have a few criteria beyond the usual roof walls doors and (intact) windows, and many places are meeting almost all of them. None have actually managed to jump that last final hurdle and meet all the requirements, which is weird considering most of them are pretty sensible. So far the worst offender is the lack of a dryer for clothes. In a flat. Seriously how would that work.

One place didn't have a balcony, dryer or hotpress!!! WTF!

We've also decided we hate tiny fridges, and shiv wants somewhere south facing so we have natural light for her plants. Strangely the south facing isn't that hard to come across. We'll be going for a two bedroom place since we have so much stuff, and might convert one of the rooms into a games room, or not, who knows. The two main contenders also have nice big tables for gaming nights, in huge open plan rooms.

We'll be moving in a few weeks. Requests for help may be made, or partys may be planed, so keep your weeksends free. 

Velocity versus (effective)Volume

I'm just wondering if anyone else has noticed this, but it seems to me as if the slower the person in front of you walks, the more space they seem to take up. Seriously, just try overtaking some snail impersonating moron when walking down the street, it's nearly impossible. They just seem to somehow be in the way, regardless of their actual size.

Of course I have a theory about it but no real supporting evidence. I belive that a human beings velocity is inversly proportional to their effecive volume. Strangly however a stationary human being is not infinite in volume and is, infact, very easy to get past. Other factors seem to alter this as well. The presence of tracksuits upon a person seems to greatly increase their effective volume, as does the presence of a baby, wether walking or within a conveyance of some kind. 

Certain environments also seem to alter situation, with the greatest alteration being in shopping markets where the presence of a trolley or basket some how enables the bearer to fill all available space in an isle even when stationary.

This study is an ongoing process and your input on personal observation is greatly appreciated. Especially with a view to creating an equation to express this phenomenon.

Mages and master minds II

Its been a long time coming but I've finally got a little time for it.

Mutants and masterminds

Mutants and masterminds is in my opinion one of the best game systems out there. Primarily designed as a superhero game the system is incredibly versatile, allowing players to create virtually any power they can think of and maintain game balance. How do they maintain game balance with such incredible variety you ask, simple, everyone is a superhuman and therefore rediculousely powerful, thus making small differences in power level almost meaningless. 

Speaking of power level the game has that as a built in limiting factor. A character cannot possess more ranks in a power than his/her power level thus stopping players from overdoing one aspect of their character and then bitching about it when a mildly intelligent opponent exploits one of their many weaknesses.

Mutants and masterminds is based very loosely on the d20 system (that's d&d folks) but only requires one actual d20 to run. Its got a few contreversial changes from regular gaming, such as the removal of hit points from the game. The character now has a save against damage (which is now a static value) instead of hit points and depending on how well or badly the victim of an attack rolls their save decides the result of an attack. this can actually add a level of realism to the game, with truely pathetic attacks rarely managing to so much as annoy a heavy hitter, while allowing a lucky (or unlucky save) shot to do some damage.

There is very little in the way of roleplay rules in the game however, no morality compas, no mechanics for social situations beyond a few skill checks. I consider this a boon and a hinderance depending on the player. On one hand role play runs little to no risk of becoming 'roll play' by being over burdened by rules and mechanics. Some players, however, do need a little push to get them actually role playing rather than playing a character sheet, and morality rules tend to help these players along. 

All in all I enjoy Mutants and masterminds as a game system, but the more serious a game becomes the less appropriate this system seems to become. In my opinion it seems better suited to more light hearted or over the top games, rather than a hard RP sessions with little action and more interaction.

Organisation and aftermath

Something I never really thought about before is how much stuff needs to be put on hold while you organise a big event. One of the things I had to put off recently was my college course, which requires several papers to be written, all of which are a kind of mini exam, with an essay at the end. I just finished my most recent one, which required a weeks extension, and I still wasn't happy with the finished product. It has also caused me a great deal of stress, something I once thought myself immune to.

I've also had to quit a game I was enjoying because of college, I've a project to do as well as all the normal stuff so I won't have as much free time as I used to. All in all my organisational skills (such as they are) are being put to the test this month and I'm not enjoying it. Of course I have my new PSP to keep me company :) .

Honeymoon madness

The fligh to Istanbul was too early. I mean seriously what madman decided anything should happen at 7am on a monday morning? Seriously though the first flight was great, especially the food. It was cooked for a start. And there were choices. The layover was just a tad to long (see 13 hours). Fortunatley the second flight was much shorter.





The first day was spent mostly sleeping with a short break for dinner before more sleeping. Day two was pretty relaxed but we had to go to bed early so we could be up for our baloon flight at 4:40 in the morninig. Typically the flight was then cancled due to bad weather. We went to the open air museum instead. That was pretty cool but I'm not entirely sure how many churches one place needs.



On the fourth day we went on a historical tour around the local area and then on a 45min hike over some hills and through a valley. It rained during the hike and during a tour trough a cave complex but it was otherwise sunny. We had lunch in a mountain. Seriously, IN a mountain. The food here is awesome, except for the bread, cause I can't eat it.



Day five. We went on a real hike, through the rose valley (didn't notice any roses though). It was great. Two hours of scrambleing over, and under, rocks. We lost some of the group because they couldn't keep up :) . Lunch was had by a river, food was great, stupid bread.



Day six. Finally went Balloning today. I highly recomend the experience to anyone not absolutley terrified of heights. We flew into a tree. Then we went shopping... not much to say there really. We did find a silver smiths that makes jewlery based on designs you supply, and he does it over night.

Day seven. More shopping. Also a great deal of being lazy.

Day eight. We shall rise at 4:15 (and I thought coming here was bad). Not much else to say as I'm pre-empting this day in the post.

Kippure

This is a link for a map to Kippure. Just to familiarise yourselves with it.
Actual directions will be made available on the day. Possibly with maps.

Wedding stuff.

The wedding ceremony will be held at the

Civil Registration Service,
Sir Patrick Duns Hospital,
Lower Grand Canal Street,
Dublin 2

On friday the 15th at 2:30pm.

Location A (bottom right corner)

After that we will be going for a few drinks with those of you not accompanying us to Kippure. Drinks will be in the nearest pub we can find (organised aren't we) for about an hour (thats 3:00 - 4:00). 

At four we will be heading on to Kippure estate. I think a few people are a little confused about the weekend as we are having the party on the Sunday in Siobhán's parents house, which everyone is invited to. Shiv's parents live at

77 limekiln rd,Walkinstown. Two doors down from Andrews.

and the festivities start around 2ish.

Location A (Bottom centre, R112 is lthe walkinstown roundabout)

About twenty or so of us are going away for the weekend, we'd have liked to invite more(ie. everyone) but money restrictions kept the numbers down. If you haven't been explicitly told your coming to Kippure the chances are your not. Those of you who are unsure feel free to give me a call.

Swords vs guns.

In a high realism game I'd normally never let a player parry/block a gun with a sword, mainly due to the unlikely hood of intercepting the bullet but also because of the forces involved. I'm going to reconsider this for characters with preturnatural awarness and/or speed. The reason is explained in the following links.

Sword vs handgun

Sword vs machinegun

Coolest thing I've seen in a while.

My weekend.

Weekend was fun, Starting on friday evening went to tai-chi, dragged Shiv along for this one, which was a little annoying as it seems like she has more talent for it than I do. After that we all went back to appartement and got a little drunk.

Saturday. Shiv had friends over to sort her half of the wedding. I had to cook. That afternoon we went out to celebrate warpspeed's birthday, starting with a surprise party in his place and then progressing on to the pub. (Frank Ryan and Son's, awesome pub).

Sunday. Went to Kipure to check out stuff for no apparent reason. was fun, went on a hike, found a dead body(dundun dunnnn)....

... it was only a sheeps body though, but it had been dead for a while. Only bones left. Was also amused at watching Shiv's parents climb over a fence.

Nothing else of interest has happened.

April fools

I know its not the 1st any more but I have something very important I'd like to rant about.

Its called April fools day. Emphasise the last word. It is NOT April fools morning and therefore does NOT end at noon. Why this is so widely belived is beyond me.

As for Gaelcon. First and foremost, before anything else, Andrew is the one who said it. That alone is reason for suspicion. Secondly you shouldn't belive everything you read on the internet. People are wrong here all the time. Just check the comments on any You-tube video and you'll see what I mean. People also lie here. Check out the scientology website for further information.

For those of you who actually fell for it and got annoyed about it, or suggested that it could have gone horribly wrong with big buissness making new plans after hearing the news, I ask you to please check the fuel tank on your brain as it may be nearing empty. Buisnessess don't move that fast and you can be gauranteed that they know what the date is every freakin day of the week.

And finally to the perpatrator of the event. Andrew, I salute you, and I'm not cold. Cynical yes, cold.... not so much. Maybe your shame is keeping me warm!

Kung fu for heck

I feel very un-coordinated.

Last Friday night I took up tai-chi with afriend of mine. Now while I enjoyed it imensly and got a nice work out from it (sore legs), I have discovered that my coordination seems to have atrophied over the last few years of inactivitey (I sit at my desk and study, alot). I have, of course, forgotten most of the class already, but I'm looking forward to the next one. You wanna come along let me know.

Mage's and Masterminds

Well since I said I would, I'm gonna talk a little about some different game sytems. I decided I'd start with one of the games I'm currently running. Mage the Awakening (I don't know why there's a second capital!!). I've always enjoyed the white wolf system, Just d10's no other dice required. Nice and easy. Well now they've gone and made it even wimpler with the nWoD system (n stands for new!!), roll all the dice, 8's or better and you succed, other wise get onboard the failboat. at first this seems kinda harsh, 30% chance of success per die (singular of dice, look your learning), seems very unlikely that anyone will ever get anything done.

Wrong!

Characters are only supposed to roll when the task is difficult or contested. Dice pool's are usually around 7 or 8 for mortals using the right equipment and only one success is required to get anything done. If your playing a supernatural your dice pool usually hit double digets for your niche roll, ie Uratha (thats werewolves) usually roll about 10 - 11 dice in combat, in human form.

And this brings me to the major improvment in the current mage compared with its predecessor. Dice pools. Origionally a mage player was doing well if his/her standard dice pool was 3 dice.

3!! 

I mean seriously what was the point of playing a supposedly all powerful magi, if it never actually worked? The new mage system uses rotes radically differently to the previous. They expand your dice pool, dramatically. Most rotes will have between 6 - 8 dice while those that are really specialised in can go up to about 10 - 11 (seeing a patern here?). Of course if you don't know the rote your still stuck with a crap dice pool, but always at least 2 even for your worst arcana. Of course not using a rote also increases your chances of suffering from...

!!!Paradox!!!

I hated the old systems paradox rules. It was so all over the place that unless you were fighting another supernatural creature using magic was more likely to kill you than the them. Now the number of sleeper witnesses to a spell is meaningless, be it 1 or 100 it increases the paradox dice pool by 2. However succesive vulgar magic increses the likelyhood of paradox, which I like. Best of all though is the effects of paradox. Much more nailed down far less random. Usually the spell just retargets itself or reverses its purpose. Both of which can be fun even when its a non-killy spell.

Well I'm done for now. Next time will be Mutants and masterminds (does the title make sense now?)

I'm gonna go make lunch now or Shiv will kill me.

Bu-bye.

Feel the power!

College paper due on Friday, brain melting. Aghhhhh.

Right for those o you who don't know (as if anyone actually reads this) I am currently studying engineering with the open university (look it up). As such I have papers to right and at the moment I'm writing one about the conversion of natural gas and coal into liquid fuel. Amazingly blenders haven't come up yet, go figure.

Is it jus me or are these blog things addictive.

The stuff of madness....

...or the contents of my mind. I'll be posting jokes I find here along with my obsercations about the world's in which I/we live, these many worlds may occasionally coincide. For those of you still confused this means I'll be talking about gaming, both those I currently play in or run as well as games past(as I remember them). Well thats all I could be arsed saying for now. bu-bye!