Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #284

Blogging Your Game Sessions

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SENT BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY With Compliments

From: Johnn Four, http://www.roleplayingtips.com
[email protected]
Edited By: Scot Newbury
[email protected]

CONTENTS:
--> A Brief Word From Johnn

--> This Week's Tips:

1. Blog = Weblog
2. Session Blogging Best Practices
3. Choosing A Blog Service

--> Readers' Tips Of The Week:

1. Online Tabletop Gaming
From: Joel Fox
2. A Dungeon Aimed At Character Development
From: Ruben van der Leun
3. Pet NPCs as Monkey Wrenches
From: Melachiah Falkane
4. D&D Forum Game Seeks Players
From: Joe Jechenthal III
5. Comments On The Ogre Ambush Tip Correction
From: PJ

--> Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Submissions Information

Do you know a GM that doesn't subscribe? Please send them a

copy of the e-zine or suggest they drop by the site. Thanks!
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Monster Geographica: Forest now available!

Expeditious Retreat Press proudly presents Monster

Geographica: Forest, the third book in the Monster
Geographica Series. Packed with 200 monsters from the
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Forest is available in PDF and at your FLGS. Stop by
www.RPGnow.com or www.DriveThruRPG.com and pick up your
copy of the PDF along with the previous titles in the line.

http://www.exp.citymax.com

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A BRIEF WORD FROM JOHNN

The Ultimate Gaming Table?

--------------------------
I remember gaming sessions held on the floor of my apartment
during my "poor furnishings" years. Currently, we game at a
dining room table with a desk at one end. Do fancy gaming
tables add anything to gameplay? Do they make things easier,
faster, or better quality?

Check these tables out:

http://www.d20srd.org/extras/mapProjection.htm
http://engadget.com/entry/1234000237036122/
http://agyris.net/v3/ugt/default.asp
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=122099

I, for one, think a projector would solve a lot of mapping

issues for my current campaign. Anyway, do you have a cool
gaming table? If so, drop me a note. If you have pics, feel
free to send those too. I recently had a reader request
asking for gaming table designs, plans, and ideas, so any
info you have would be appreciated.

Cool Gaming Gadget?

-------------------
While we're on the topic of gadget enhanced gaming, check
this device out based on a link I spotted in ENWorld's
software forum:

http://www.acecad.com.tw/digimemo/dm-a501.htm

It's only about $60 and looks pretty neat.

Get some gaming done this week.

Cheers,

Johnn Four
[email protected]

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BLOGGING YOUR GAME SESSIONS

A guest article by Martin Ralya
Keeping a written record of what happens in your gaming
sessions is a good idea. Keeping that record in a place
where all of your players can interact with it is an even
better idea. For a long time, doing both meant creating your
own campaign website or using a messageboard--both good
solutions, but neither of them ideal. That's where blogging
comes in.

Although I've never blogged my game sessions, I have posted

70,000+ words of session summaries on my campaign website,
and I write a weblog for GMs. This article is a combination
of my knowledge of these two topics, and I wanted to mention
that up front so that you know where I'm coming from.

1. Blog = Weblog
============================================================
A weblog (blog, for short) is a website that presents
information in reverse chronological order (newest stuff at
the top), with built-in automation to handle things like
archiving your posts. Blogging is what you do when you post
something to your blog, and it's a pretty simple process.
We'll get into how you can start your own blog in a bit.
Right now, let's look at why you might want to blog your
game sessions.

Most games take place between 1 and 4 times a month, for at

least 4 hours per session, and a lot can happen in each
session, as you well know! If you're anything like me, even
with notes, you have trouble remembering details from week
to week. If you game infrequently, or take a break, even
keeping track of the big picture can be difficult.

By blogging your sessions you eliminate this problem. Here

are the 3 most important things to know about using a blog
to keep track of your game:

1) Write your blog posts within 24-48 hours after each

session.

2) Treat this as a first draft, with your goal being to get

down all the details before you forget them (you can always
revise it later).

3) Set a time limit for yourself: how long you want to

spending writing each post.

Typing up your post while everything is still fresh in your

mind is critical. After a day or two, it gets harder to
remember the things that made the session exciting and the
little details that brought things to life. This is why you
shouldn't worry too much about how well-written your post is
at first. Just get it all down, and then come back to it.
You can even save your post as a draft, and it won't appear
on your blog until you're ready.

The third tip might sound a little counterintuitive, but it

comes from experience: writing up your game sessions can
swallow up a lot of time, often more than you'd expect! If
you don't set a time limit, it can be easy to spend several
hours polishing your post, getting every last little detail
correct, and re-wording things until you're completely
satisfied. The problem is, after doing this a couple of
times, it'll start to feel too much like work and you might
lose interest. Keep it short!

2. Session Blogging Best Practices

============================================================
With the tip "keep it short" in mind, here are 6 things to
think about when writing a session blog post:

1) Write an entry for each session. If your sessions span

several days, weeks, or more, of game time, consider listing
the timespan at the top or bottom of the post, or break it
up internally by day.

2) Give each post a meaningful title (not just the session

date), so that it's easy to find it later.

3) Use the past tense. It's tempting to use the present

tense ("Frodo walks...") because it conveys a sense of
immediacy, but trust me, in the long run it also becomes
awkward to read. (If you don't believe me, write up a
paragraph about a recent session in the present tense, and
then again in the past tense, and compare them.)

4) Focus on the "limelight events"--the things that really

made the session pop: climactic battles, dialogue that had
the whole group rolling around in laughter, etc.

5) Skip the boring stuff. Would you want to read about how
much Neo paid for a cup of coffee? Probably not, so unless
it's important to the game to know how much Neo's coffee
cost, leave it out.

6) Mention every PC at least once. Even if someone had an

off night and their character didn't do much, find a way to
work them in. People like to read about themselves, and your
players are no exception.

There are also things you can do easily with a blog that are
hard to do elsewhere, so take advantage of the medium:

* The best thing about blogging your game sessions is that

you can get your players involved through comments. Each
post you put up has its own comments section, and this is a
great way to get feedback (if you left something out, your
players will tell you about it!), share mechanical details
that would spoil the flow of the main post ("Remember that
bomb you found in the warehouse? It was actually a dud.")
and recall the best moments of that session, among other
things.

* If you want to put the PCs online, create individual pages

for them. Link to these from your blog posts as needed, and
encourage players to keep them up to date between sessions.

* Create separate pages for your recurring NPCs as well.

Link to them from the main entries to refresh your players'
memories about who's who.

* When possible, link to things outside of your blog, such

as photos on Flickr [ http://www.flickr.com ] or other
gaming related sites.

* Include character sketches, digital photos of props, and

the like.

* If you've got a group that's into doing things online,

encourage your players to create their own blogs for their
PCs. These can serve as character journals or places for the
players to jot down their thoughts about clues.

This is also a good time to mention something that might or

might not sound intuitive: some players just aren't into
doing game-related things between sessions (like reading and
posting comments on your new blog). You should encourage
everyone to participate, perhaps by offering in-game rewards
such as bonus XP for doing so, but don't push it, and don't
take it personally if some of your players don't seem
interested. By the same token, some groups are really into
it, and everyone will participate without any prodding at
all; it just depends on the nature of your group.

3. Choosing A Blog Service

============================================================
Let's say this all sounds good to you, and you're ready to
give it a shot. How do you start your own blog? Which
service should you choose? How much programming do you need
to know? Let's tackle the first two questions at the same
time: how to get started, and where to go.

There is a variety of blogging services, and each does

basically the same things. The four best known
have two things in common: they try to make the process of
creating a blog as simple as possible, and they're free (or
have a free option). I'll cover those four here:

* Blogger - http://www.blogger.com
* LiveJournal - http://www.livejournal.com
* Movable Type - http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype
* WordPress - http://www.wordpress.org

Which one to go with depends on two factors: how many

features you need, and how much you're willing to tinker
with things.

Blogger and LiveJournal are the simplest: create an account,

make a few choices, and you're off. You don't need to know
any HTML to create your posts (Blogger has a WYSIWYG text
entry screen), and they're both easy to use. The downside
is, while they offer good features, such as different
templates to customize the look of your blog and ways to
turn comments on and off, they don't offer nearly as many
features as Movable Type and WordPress. For example, if you
want to create a static page--not a post--to describe an
NPC, you can't do that with LiveJournal or Blogger.

Movable Type offers three different options: a free

downloadable edition, a paid downloadable edition, and a
paid hosted version. For the first two options, you need
your own website; if you don't have a website, you can use
the third option and they'll host your blog for you. Movable
Type is powerful and versatile, and it gives you a lot of
control over how your blog looks and functions, but in turn,
that means you need to know some HTML to get the most out of
it.

WordPress is free, but requires you to have your own website

to use it. (At the time of this writing, WordPress is
working on a free hosted option, but it's not available
yet.) Like Movable Type, WordPress is feature-rich and gives
you complete control over your blog, but requires a
willingness to tinker to get the most out of it (much like
Movable Type).

I started my blog, Treasure Tables

[ http://www.treasuretables.org ], on Blogger because I
wasn't sure what I needed--it was pretty spur-of-the-moment.
After a couple of months, I transferred everything over to
WordPress because I found Blogger's lack of features
frustrating (I didn't like the comments interface and I
wanted to put my posts into categories, among other things).
I know HTML and I have a website, so those potential
barriers weren't an issue for me.

Listing all of the pros and cons of these 4 services is

outside the scope of this article, though, so here's my
recommendation: visit each of them, look around a bit, and
think about how you might want to set up your blog. If
you're not interested in getting a website, go with Blogger
or LiveJournal (I'd pick Blogger, as it has more features).
If you already have or want to get your own website, and you
want more features, go with Movable Type or WordPress.

Whichever option you choose, I want to emphasize again that

this is a pretty simple process. In most cases, you
can dive right in within a few minutes and worry about
tweaking things later. The important part is to give it a
shot. Choose one of the free options, and you can always
drop it later if you decide it's not your cup of tea.

Once you have your blog up and running, you should do these
3 things first:

1) Set permissions so that only your players can leave

comments, unless you want anyone who visits your blog to be
able to do so. (Each service handles this a different way,
but they all provide this option.)

2) Write your first post (or posts, if you're feeling

ambitious!).

3) Tell your players where to find your blog.

That's it! Once you get the ball rolling, you'll see that
blogging your game sessions can be a lot of fun. In addition
to the immediate benefit of having a record of your sessions
that your whole group can interact with, you'll also have
something to look back on a few months (or years!) down the
line.

* * *

Alongside his day job, Martin Ralya has been a freelance

writer for the RPG industry since 2004. Martin has had the
good fortune to work with a number of publishers, including
E.N. Publishing, Expeditious Retreat Press, and Tabletop
Adventures.

Martin has been GMing since 1989, and in July of this year
he started Treasure Tables, a weblog for GMs that offers
tips, ideas, and advice about roleplaying games
[ http://www.treasuretables.org ]. He lives in Utah with his
girlfriend, Alysia, and their neurotic beagle, Charlie, in a
house full of books.

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READERS' TIPS OF THE WEEK

1. Online Tabletop Gaming

From: Joel Fox
============================================================
As gamers go off to college or to new jobs, the issue arises
of how the gaming group will continue to play. Some people
simply find new groups to play with, some participate
in forums gaming, and some unfortunate people never find a
viable option and simply stop playing.

A resource not often considered, however, is that of online

tabletop gaming. There exists a number of programs that can
connect people over the Internet, provide a graphical
playing area, and allow people from all over the world to
come together and clobber orcs.

Covered in this article will be a few of the programs

available, tips for switching over to online tabletops, the
use and operation of various programs and online resources
at your disposal.

Programs
--------
There are quite a few programs circling the Internet that
allow for an online tabletop experience. Three of them are:

* OpenRPG is most prolific and easiest to use.

http://www.openrpg.com/

* Fantasy Grounds is another program, with a prettier

interface. http://www.fantasygrounds.com/

* WebRPG is one with interesting combat grid options.

http://www.webrpg.com/

Personally I prefer OpenRPG because it's the easiest to

install, easiest to operate, and easiest on the wallet (it's
free).

Switching Over
--------------
If you've played on a real tabletop your whole gaming
career, it will be harder to switch over than it will be if
you've played by mail, forum, or other online resource. If
this is the case, don't fret: while it may be more
difficult, it is by no means hard to learn to use these
programs.

The largest consideration is that most (if not all) tasks

are performed with the keyboard. Players type in their PCs'
actions and speeches, and the DM types in for NPCs and
storytelling. As such, an important requirement for players
is a decent typing speed.

Something that people worry about in this field is, on a 56k

modem, they won't be able to play. The simple nature of the
programs and their interfaces is no more complex than a
messaging program: as such, this is not a great hindrance.
DSL or dialup, anyone can play on a virtual tabletop.

When gaming in person, players and dungeon masters can

usually get across what they are trying to say using vocal
clues such as tone, inflection, pitch, and timbre. In online
tabletop gaming, however, these clues are gone in the
traditional sense: everyone just types.

A good way to add flair to your actions and speeches on an

online tabletop is to use formatting, such as bold, italics,
underlining, different fonts and typefaces, and colors.
While these may not be as effective as a spooky voice in
person, it will at least convey the idea behind the message,
which makes the online tabletop experience more like the
real thing.

One more thing regarding the switch over is that, since no

one will probably be in the same geographical locale,
questions of fairness come into play. Unless you are doing
all your dice rolling in the program itself (see below in
Use and Operation), you will have to work on an honor system
as to what people have rolled (and they for your rolls).

While groups of good friends probably won't have any trouble

with this, less chummy groups might have to institute an in-
program rolling policy, which means all your dice will just
sit in your box. Unused. Lonely. Gathering dust. *sniff*

Use and Operation

-----------------
These programs, no matter which you choose, contain a
variety of features that make playing easier. On the other
hand, some things that are easy when in person become
arduous and complicated when playing on a virtual tabletop.

Dice rolling is the first function available. While you

can't do more complicated rolls (such as dropping the lowest
die), you can include bonuses, unique die types, and adding
multiple dice types. Most have the standard dice (d4, d6,
d10, etc.) as buttons you can click on, and the program will
automatically insert the result into the chat window.

To establish your character's personality, you can change

the font to something more representative than Times New
Roman 12. Typefaces, formatting, colors, sizes--these and
more can make the difference between a streetwise ranger and
a joyous barbarian.

Differentiating between talking and emoting can help

establish mood as well. Look at the difference between these
two lines of text:

(1) Jet: I'll investigate the strange device

(1) Jet cautiously investigates the whirring device, keeping

one eye on the violent black gauge.

Filling the holes left by a DM's spartan typing can make all
the difference: since the DM will be inputting a lot of
information, you can help fill out the mood by adding minor
things yourself.

Whispering can be used to keep extraneous chatter outside of

the window, keeping other players focused on the game. From
a gaming perspective, it can be used to isolate information
and keep it to specific players. This can be useful for if
the party splits up, or if only one PC notices a flicker of
gold in the darkness.

You can upload images to a personal site (easiest is

GeoCities, [ http://www.geocities.com ] for use as your
figurines, or as any range of monsters or NPCs. Also, things
like buildings, campfires, trees, and other objects or
characters you would interact with can be put into the
program as image files. Use gifs and pngs with transparent
backgrounds for best effect. Background images for different
environments can also be used, but solid colors work just as
well.

Lastly, many programs can automate other functions, such as

storing your character sheet. Other tasks include storing
image locations in a customizable graphic interface, drawing
lines and shapes with a paintbrush, saving character
locations in long battles or dungeons for later, making
hotkeys for actions and phrases, and who knows what else. By
just fiddling around with these programs, you can best use
them to suit your needs.

Online Resources
----------------
For both DMs and PCs, there are lots of resources available
online. Some of these could be transferred over to a person-
to-person environment, but a majority of them function
specifically for online tabletops.

* Seventh Sanctum has a plethora of random generators:

nearly every aspect of a game can be made with the
generators found at this site. This is an especially
important resource in an online tabletop setting, because
when worrying about the interface, your ability to think up
stuff on the spot could be hindered.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

* RPGClassics, Video Game Sprites, and ShyGuy Kingdom hold a

variety of sprites from console RPGs and other video games.
These sprites can be downloaded, then uploaded to your own
web space. These sites are excellent resources, as sometimes
usable sprites are hard to come by: since these are console
sprites, they are probably going to be around the size of
the grid in the program.
http://www.rpgclassics.com/
http://www.videogamesprites.net/
http://tsgk.captainn.net/

* Other players who use virtual tabletops can be a great

resource. Online forums and websites contain many players
who can answer questions you have about the programs, or
ways to speed up play.

* Product websites can sometimes provide information about

the programs and other valuable resources.

2. A Dungeon Aimed At Character Development

From: Ruben van der Leun
============================================================
Recently, I had been thinking of using a character quiz in
my current NWN campaign. Basically, quizzes were always
meant to let the players think about their characters, but I
decided to do it somewhat differently than providing the
players with a simple sheet of paper with questions or a
thread in the forums. I decided to put it as an obstacle for
a small dungeon that hadn't received any treatment yet.

Dungeons often tend to have riddles and puzzles to get to

the next level or to remove an important obstacle. I usually
don't make use of them, but this time, I decided to go with
it. However, the riddles were pretty unexpected for the
group. Before each door leading to the next level, a single
question was aimed each character. Doors were protected by a
magic shield that weakened as each character answered.

Example questions asked were, "What was the saddest

experience in your life?", "What was the most joyful moment
in your life?" The roleplaying that followed between the
players was very good, with especially the first question
being the toughest of them all. I recommend keeping the
saddest moment question for last. It proved to be the most
difficult to answer, especially with the whole party there.

I was willing to let each player tell their personal secrets

alone before the door if the party was absent (a feat that's
not so difficult to do in NWN, although might be more
difficult for tabletop). Although, it did help that the other
characters did hear it and learned more about each other, I
meant for this experience to force the players to think more
about their character's dreams and goals.

At the end of the session, I received quite a bit of

positive feedback from the players. It made them think more
about their characters, it allowed them to learn more about
the other characters (which was especially good, because the
group had a new player), and overall, was a small step in
assisting them with developing their characters.

3. Pet NPCs as Monkey Wrenches

From: Melachiah Falkane
============================================================
An effective way of setting your PCs on their toes
is to take advantage of one simple fact: every GM has a pet
NPC, especially if you have been playing with your group for
many years and they understand how you GM.

Usually (from my experience) the pet NPC is the villain or

someone of high importance. I prefer to make him someone not
so important, someone who seems on par with the PCs.
However, in my last campaign the players caught on rather
quickly to who my "pet" was and used that information to
their advantage.

Learning from that I came up with an idea for my next

campaign. I, of course, still have my pet NPC. However, I
purposely don't overuse him or bring him out too often....
Instead, I replaced his significance in my last campaign
with a decoy.

By sprinkling a comment here and there in idle conversation

about so-and-so being one of your old characters from way
back when and bringing him out quite often, the players
instantly assumed this was my new pet.

Little did they know I created him specifically for dying.

Once the players had it in their heads this was my pet NPC
(about 10 sessions), I then let him die in a very graphic
and dramatic way and kept up the pace as if it didn't bother
me in the slightest.

The group had no idea what to think or how to react to the

NPC they thought was going to be prevalent through the whole
campaign, effectively throwing a monkey wrench in their
perception of the new campaign.

After that, I took it a step further and had a second decoy

(who also died) just in case they caught on to what I was
doing. The whole time they had already met the true pet NPC
who they have yet to suspect.

4. D&D Forum Game Seeks Players

From: Joe Jechenthal III
============================================================
I'm running a 3.5 D&D game set in 1st Ed. Greyhawk. The
party has begun in The City of Thieves with a modified "Mad
God's Key" from the Dungeon magazine. Heavily modified! lol!

http://s11.invisionfree.com/dnd_rpg_world/index.php?act=idx

5. Comments On The Ogre Ambush Tip Correction

From: PJ
============================================================
You may or may not want to print this next issue since I'm
sure you'd like to avoid an 'in newsletter' argument. So
feel free to mention it without giving any credit to me at
all.

But the person who wrote in about the Ogre Ambush problems
and ogres can't have this feat or that forgot two things.

1) As a DM, we are encouraged to "remake the wheel" when it

comes to monsters and constantly change things to keep our
players off guard and interested and keep our adventures
fresh. This is a good example of it and any player who
argued with me about this for a long amount of time would be
considered rules lawyering in my game.

2) Wolves have improved trip. Are they smarter than ogres?

Monsters very often have feats that they don't have prereqs
for. The feats for monsters usually describe a special
ability they have, whereas in humans they typically describe
training. A monster does not need prereqs the same way a
monk does not for his abilities.

Again, do what you will. I just thought that the Ogre Ambush
was a decent encounter and would hate for the guy who wrote
it to feel discouraged.
_______________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________
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That's it for this week's issue.

Have more fun at every game!

Johnn Four

_______________________________________________________
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