RPG Blog Carnival: Encounters & Rewards

A few weeks ago I wrote an article for this month's Blog Carnival considering how encounters can be defined. Specifically, I discussed what an encounter is for me and why I categorize them in such away. Hint: it is all about rewards. You can find that article here, but the long and short of it is that I need three things to qualify an encounter: an event, an instigator, and effort. If all of these things exist then the scene, be it combat, social, or puzzle, is considered an encounter in my mind. That is the point where I judge the ease with which is was done, the intended difficulty, and the rewards. Sometimes encounters are planned, sometimes they pop up, and sometimes you don't even know about them until they are over. Today I want to talk about how I plan for encounters and how that effects rewards.

Planning Encounters

This is a fairly simple process. You have an idea of what you want to happen and you make sure you have the notes you need for it. Of course that oversimplifies the idea, as the more complex you make the encounter, the more complex the planning. Still, I'm just getting at the basic idea. There are certain things you plan out. Maybe its in judicious notes or just thoughts you had floating around in your head. Regardless, there is probably something that initiates an event. Those two parts of encounters are, in my opinion, the easiest to achieve and easiest to plan for.

Monsters and combat. Traps and puzzle solving. Guards and diplomacy. These happen all the time and they don't always need to be called encounters. Remember, for me, an encounter = a reward. Combat is the most easily recognizable as nearly always earning rewards. XP is built into combat in games like D&D. It costs nearly all the resources the mechanics of the game contain. But so can others. 

When I am planning out any type of encounter there has to be some cost. Puzzles may take time, cleverness, and good skill checks. Combat will take HP, arrows, and spells. Diplomacy may see a give and take of information or other resources like money. If an event or scene does not come at a cost to the players, even when they are taking agency in that scene, it may not be worth much or anything. A smooth persuasion check to get past the guard probably isn't worth XP, but a series of guards who are persuaded, bribed, and avoided may be worth a bit.

Encounter Compositions

There are tons of ways for a RPG to play out. Combat and intrigue abound. Crafting, planning, brute force, cleverness, spells, bribery. Things happen in limitless ways and that is what makes the games fun. Nevertheless each individual scene has a specific composition. The intended make-up may differ from the result, or the encounter could begin one way and end another. Mixing and matching different styles can increase the fun of the game and diversify rewards and how they are earned. The key is to make sure you players know that they are rewarded for things like NOT fighting or finding a way out of the situation you hadn't anticipated.

Here are some ways you can make encounters more interesting or more difficult:

• series/waves of enemies, traps, or puzzles
• terrain hazards
• traps hidden within a combat area
• unexpected social attempts
• skill requirements
• exploitation that require skill checks
• equipment
• a changing strategy

When planning things out you should have an idea of how difficult this should be for your group. This is part objective and part subjective. What do the numbers say? Figure out if it is too much damage or requires things that the players have limited access to. Is it a puzzle the players themselves are good at or one that notoriously stumps them? If you didn't plan the encounter out, look back and try to determine how hard it should of been for them. Did they create a difficult situation or an easy one?

Rewards!

When all is said and done, players expect to get something out of the events. What that is can vary greatly. Information, advancement, money, XP, status, equipment, or leverage. Perhaps they earn a companion or an insider to information for the future. Maybe it is an alliance between two groups or a keep to call their own. Regardless, it will be up to you to determine the reward. XP is always good but the other things make a great mix too. Sometimes the decision is easy though, dungeons will have treasure but don't have allegiances waiting for you at the end. Unless of course that's part of a larger story!

Be sure to consider the encounter as a whole when it is done. Determine what was involved, who was involved, and the things that got left out. From beginning to end what were all of the obstacles along the way? Figure out the base XP that those should reward. Books like the Dungeon Master's Guide will help out with this, but often it may be up to you to decide. Monsters have XP and often traps do too. For social encounters I generally use the standard encounter value of combat for the party level as a base. Such encounters tend to be of similar challenges throughout game play because much of it is based on the players and not the stats.

Once I have figured out the XP for all of that, I always adjust. Was the tactic super risky? Was it the least risky option? Perhaps the risk wasn't worth the outcome. Sometimes players are just really clever or come up with great ideas or tell great stories along the way. All of these can earn some extra XP. Taking the easy way out may earn them a little less. Personally I find that adjusting the base XP reward for how difficult the fight ended up being is the first step. Maybe they didn't catch a hint you thought was obvious or they thought of something super clever and round-about. I increase or decrease, respectively, the reward for those situations . Then I go back and start adding little bits for role-playing, cleverness, and other extras.

Of course this all comes into play for non-XP rewards, as well. Sometimes it may be a good idea to reduce the reward for an easy encounter some other way. Give them all the XP but have those the players wish to be impressed, less so. If they were really clever have the king give more money to balance a reduction in XP. You can add or take away different rewards in full or in part as the result of play. Most of all be sure to talk to your players if they question how they are being rewarded. Be up front and make adjustments to your practices when needed.

The thing about RPGs is that they are always flowing, always changing, and always developing. Stuff happens to the players and because of them. Events, obstacles, and rewards may all come naturally most of the time. An encounter is really just a fancy way of categorizing these things, often with the thought of combat = XP in mind, at least mechanically. For me an encounter is a category that helps determine when I need to reward my players. It helps me plan and helps me determine those rewards later. Most of the time I don't even use the word, and I am sure you don't either, but the concept of it is still there. Hopefully sharing how that works for me has given you some useful insight or ideas!

RPG Blog Carnival: What Is An Encounter?

The RPG Blog Carnival is being hosted by Tabletop Terrors this month and features the topic of encounters. This will probably be the first of two submissions to that effort I will take, because it is a topic I have been concerning myself a lot with lately. To begin I am going to look at how I define encounters and why. Next time I'll go into how to extrapolate a variety of encounters from this and how to reward those encounters.


Defining Encounters
OK, so most of us probably understand what an encounter is, at least at a certain level. The primary thing that comes to my mind when someone says encounter is that of a monster, or group of monsters, that must be fought to the death. Personally, I have put a lot of effort into redefining what encounter means in the context of a game in order to get away from treating all encounters as combat situations. There are all kinds of encounters that can happen when you utilize the term in its normal definition. You could encounter a monster, adversary, salesman, puzzle, obstacle, or trap. These could result in the use of combat abilities, socialization, role play, or skills.

Those two lists only begin to describe what can come from an encounter, so we should probably narrow it down a little better. After all, there is probably going to be some form of context in the game that relates to encounters and how many there should be. This is especially true in games like Dungeons & Dragons. Here is how I tend to define an encounter in RPGs: an event that takes place after something is happened upon which requires party resources to be utilized.

Let's break down my definition and go into why I do it that way. First of all it is purposefully vague to allow for all the variety of possibilities. However, it includes three specific things: an event, an instigator, and effort. Each of these things is key to creating a fully realized encounter. I set these requirements for encounters, because I feel that these are all necessary for advancement of some kind. That advancement could be story, XP, or loot and often all of the above. Encounters or events that don't have all three of these happen, of course they do, but even the simplest games are driven by complexity. Whether you are deciding to reward XP, give out loot, go to another scene, hand out cyphers, or provide time to rest, this definition works.


Requirement 1: The Event
The event is the whole process that takes place. It begins with the instigator (see below) and ends with some form of resolution. Actions must be taken by the players during the event. Witnessing something does not count. Being captured suddenly, and narratively, doesn't count. These things can drive the story forward but aren't something the players have any agency in per se. There is no restriction to the proceedings of the event. PCs might even end up not acting, the simple choice of being challenged but not responding or ignoring commands is itself an action (of choice) at the very least. Generally, the event requires that there are consequences to the PCs actions or inactions, that they have agency, and that that agency is rewarded and/or punished. Eventually a resolution will occur that ends the encounter, or perhaps even become the instigator to another.


Requirement 2: The Instigator
The instigator in my definition is what begins an encounter and it comes in many forms. This is the thing that the party happens upon in their journey. For a combat encounter this is when the PCs happen upon monsters, monsters happen upon the PCs, or they stumble into each other. Of course the instigator itself doesn't necessitate violence. It could end up as a social encounter with roleplaying involved and some trading of information. What evolves from it is varied but there has to be something that begins the process. Monsters and NPCs work well, but it could also be an object, a location, or a trap that the PCs discover. It could be a choice being made, like the fork in a road, or an event such as an avalanche coming down the mountain towards the party. Regardless, the instigator is something that requires the PCs to react in some way.

Requirement 3: Effort

This is the most important part of how I judge what qualifies as an encounter when I prep, as well as when I reward. To be a true encounter the players must put in some form of effort and this can come in two major forms: player effort and character effort. Often the two overlap, but they don't have to in my opinion. Player effort comes from personal decisions, roleplaying, or reacting in character. These are things that don't generate die rolls but do generate responses and results. It is OK to have a social encounter with no dice rolled and effort is certainly still involved. Character effort is much easier to track. This comes in the form of dice rolled and usually generates the use of special abilities. Getting hurt, needing to use Hit Dice, spending inspiration or benefits, and casting spells all qualify. These things may be restored at the end of the day for the character, but they limit what the characters can do in that day. Why have them if you don't use them? Both types of effort can easily cut into character supplies like food, water, gold, or even rope. This is important to consider as well.

Why Define The Encounter?

Personally, I mostly play Dungeons & Dragons, so it is important to define encounters. The game is designed around combat encounters, especially. A certain number of them at certain difficulty determines a good, hard day for the PCs. It is the basis for experience and treasure. My games, however, tend to involve less combat events in one day and focuses on a number of things. I have players who also like to go off on tangents when there are things like festivals around. I want to be able to plan for such events, give them complex and varied encounters, force them to make decisions on resources outside of combat, and reward them for all of it. Using this definition helps me plan an in-game day. I can plan for a social encounter, hazard encounter, and combat encounter. I can plan on them using resources and the rewards they earn from the effort I expect them to require. In the end, this definition is all about me planning a set of events that challenge the players in the short term and as a whole, as well as to maximize the spread of rewards to maintain play as varied as the challenges.

In the next entry for this topic, I am going to go into how I shape some different encounters. Some of that work comes in planning, but some of it comes after the fact. I will show how I reward encounters and give some examples on how I adjust that reward on the fly. There will also be some discussion on multi-aspected encounters and how that effects the challenge and the reward. I like a wide definition, but I don't want to level the party every 5 minutes!

RPG Blog Carnival: Prophecies & Omens

Here we are in 2017 and it is time for another month of RPG Blog Carnival entries! I have missed the past few months, but given the topic of January I thought it might be a auspicious time to rejoin. The topic is that of prophecy and omen, a great story telling device that can be a bit complex when you are not the only one telling the story. To aid in that endeavor, I want to share the ways in which I have learned to utilize prophecy.


The Future
Whenever you are playing a role-playing game, there is virtually no predictability in what is to come. Unless you are the worst kind of railroader or your players have no desire to propel the plot themselves, you will inevitably hit some sort of speed bump, turn in the road, or sudden cliff. That's OK and is one of the main reasons we play these games with each other. Anything can happen!

But some of the greatest tales include glimpses of the future and you may be driven to do the same. This may be through signs, omens, written prophecies, visions, or some other divination. Regardless of what form this insight comes in, you have a limited amount of control in whether or not it comes to fruition. There are a couple ways to make sure, however, that these premonitions of the future are not only true, but don't require you to take away player agency.


Setting It Up
The first thing you need to make sure occurs is that you have control over the point of prophecy. When it happens, how it happens, and what it pertains to. This is fairly simple, as most events come from your narration of the world or your control over discovered secrets and NPCs. Second, you must have the prophecy prepared ahead of time. Making it up on the fly could put you in a sticky situation later. "What about this part of the prophecy?" a player might say when you completely forgot that was a thing, or that it was completely avoided by the party. The less meaning a prophecy has as it comes to fruition, the less implication a party might put on future ones.


Be Late, Be Vague
The easiest way to have a prophecy be meaningful is to have whatever insight the PCs gain be incredibly vague. If you are too specific the prophecy might be too easily avoided or, if you force it to occur, the players may feel something has been taken away from them (agency). Use general phrases and words. Utilize things that have more than one meaning. Name things via description and not directly. Think of a misdirect to include that may be easy to latch onto so that the true meaning is ignored. Use titles, names, or descriptions that fit multiple things, people, places, or times.

Of course none of this will matter if the players forget or ignore the prophecy. That's where being late comes in. Do not give them a prophecy before anything happens. There is no sense of urgency then, and nothing to keep it in memory. Instead, include something that has already happened at the beginning of the premonition. Follow up with something that can happen at the time of the prophecy or immediately thereafter. This will make it real and give them a good starting point. From there they can realize that things are happening right now, figure out what has already happened, and have some clues or context for what might happen next.


Prophesize Guaranteed Events
OK, this might sound like railroading, but there's a distinction to be made. Instead of including parts of a vision that relate to a PC, relate the PC to parts of the vision later. That way they are taking on the prophecy themselves, rather than it being thrust upon them. In a way, parts of the prophecy might become self fulfilling or more simply, the PC takes up an important role in the prophecy without being the only one who could.

When you design the prophecy make sure the events that happen are things that cannot be avoided. An eclipse, the full moon, summer, fall. Times are always could indicators, as are unique events (a red full moon). The events that occur should be something that needs to be responded to rather than stopped from happening. Make the prophecy a race to mitigate evil / disaster. You may not be able to stop the waking of the tarrasque but you can be prepared to put it right back to sleep. This gives the players some agency in the story without a prophecy losing its meaning, and allows more parts of the prophecy to remain a danger. Of course providing context like "or else" gives two outcomes prophesized and may give you, the GM, more breathing room.


Using A Vision
This is my favorite form of omen or prophecy. A vision can be presented in numerous ways and can take numerous forms. I have used magic, dreams, oracles, and some good old fashioned seer reading to reveal visions to players. These allow me to prepare them ahead of time and narrate the experience. The vision can be written on paper and handed to the player so they may choose to keep its contents secret.

Visions are dream-like and mutable so they are automatically vague, even in their specifics. Something in the vision may be true, or it may be influenced by personal feelings. One thing may represent another. Nevertheless, you can include scenes related to that which has happened, that which the players hope to happen, and that which is guaranteed to happen. Every bit is left to be dissected by the person or people who receive it.


In The End
At the end of it all the vision serves three purposes: to inform, to drive, and to confuse. Prophecies always reveal information that is, more often than not, confusing right up until it occurs and then it becomes blatantly obvious. The information provided sits on a fulcrum of uselessness and imperativeness. This handful of information and not knowing what to do with it can be a drive in itself. When that isn't enough knowing you are caught up in prophesized events coming true and leading to disaster, well that is generally enough for heroes. The vagueness and confusion is also a drive and tool you can use. You can draw characters back into a storyline or introduce NPCs to help them as a result of the prophecy.

With a little thought, you should have no trouble using prophecy to help propel your game. Your players will get a glimpse of what is to come and have something to look back to when they are losing their way. You too will have a tool to draw on and drive the story as you see fit, letting the PCs know the world moves around without them. Maybe they should do something about it. Regardless, prophecies can be short term and long term fun for any campaign.

RPG Blog Carnival: Trinkets From Space!

The theme of this month's RPG Blog Carnival is super science and sorcery, a topic that hits home for what I try to work into a lot of my games.  The melding of science, technology, and magic can result in a lot of awesome things.  From clockwork and steam powered gnomish devices to spell slinging pistols, the possibilities are endless.  Daemons & Deathrays is hosting the Carnival this month and I cannot wait to get a moment to check out what others have shared.  You can click the link above to check out their post on this and find links from other participants!

For my part in this carnival I wanted to go with something fairly simple, but something that will hopefully have a lot of potential for fun at the table.  Below is a table of trinkets for your games that blend science and magic.  These trinkets are treated to be something like those found in the 5th Edition Player's Handbook.  Something that has little meaning, but could be a great talking piece and, who knows, something of great importance.

I have found these, and similar trinkets, to be awesome ideas and provide some levity, some curiosity, and some inspiration.  The list can be used for any system, since they are minor items free of mechanics.  How you use some of these is up to you, but consider dropping some of them in your next fantasy dungeon as an interesting twist!

D10	Science-Fantasy Trinket
1	This small book-like object, made of a light but sturdy material and metal, features the phrase "Don't Panic!" on the cover. When opened there are not pages, but if asked about a subject the "book" will provide a brief piece of knowledge. This information, however, tends to have not useful relation to situation at hand or reveals information you may already have learned the hard way.
2	This round glass vial appears to have been created without opening. Nevertheless, it is hollow and the contents visible. Within is some kind of sludge or growth that sits inert and unmoving. Shaking the container causes it to solidify temporarily. Staring at it long enough a single eye may appear to look back at you.
3	You have a multi-colored, light-weight cube of some unknown material. Each side appears to be made up of smaller squares, each small face is a different color. You count six colors and nine faces of each color. The device can be twisted to rearrange rows of the small squares. What happens when different colors align to each face is a mystery.
4	The small stone cube is inlaid with golden lines and runes of some kind creating an interesting, if odd, decoration. The barest of seams can be felt along the faces, calling you to attempt to manipulate the object into different forms, but none of the changes you makes seem to do anything. If left alone, the cube resets itself, but you eventually get the urge to try re-configuring the puzzle again.
5	Within this black metal box sits a single red gem that glows with inner intelligence. If addressed, the light pulses and a monotone voice will answer. The voice claims to know much and will refer to itself as Mal, if asked. No matter what else someone requests to know, however, the object will simply answer, "I cannot do that Dave."
6	This object is the size and shape of a human heart, and appears to be one for all intent and purpose. However, it is made cleverly overlapped metal plates that have begun to rust. If you listen closely you imagine you can here the slow, creaking beat of the metallic organ.
7	You have what appears to be a metal eye-patch with no loop to old it on your head, and nowhere to attach one. When pressed you your eye the patch will remain in place, and you can sense a slight buzz or tingle. You get used to the feeling after a couple hours and there are no apparent side effects to wearing it.
8	This glass tube is closed off on both ends by hefty metal caps that can be screwed on and off. Despite a pair of metal braces running from one end to the other on opposite sides of the cylinder, the glass cracked at some point making it useless as a container. A dull, glowing green film that dried on the inside of the container can be noticed in darkness.
9	Hanging from a length of leather this strange mummified worm-like creature sits as if it used its incredibly sharp teeth to burst from your chest.
10	The small hourglass is housed in a single piece of intricately carved crystal with three clawed toes holding it up from one side. The sand within it travels up into the empty portion above, rather than down, when tapped lightly. A small depression on the top can be pressed, causing the sand to disappear in a shimmer of light, reappearing back in the bottom.

RPG Blog Carnival: Archfey And Q...You...

This month the RPG Blog carnival is being hosted by Pitfalls & Pixies and is all about the Faerie Realm!  When I found out about the topic, I wasn't sure what I could write about.  I tossed around the idea of what Fae/Fey/Faerie realms are all about.  These were the places where the real and the unreal merged.  Places where nature and magic were one.  That theme holds over in things like D&D where the Feywild is at once both nature-incarnate and arcane power to the extreme.  But then I was watching TV the other day, and realized I knew exactly what to write about.

Star Trek.

Ok, it sounds odd at first, but follow me.  Running with my initial idea, the Fae represent something special to us humans in the real world.  It is the place where things are intimately connected with nature and things we know incredibly well.  However, they are creatures that are so alien to us in mindset it is dangerous to even talk to them.  Archfey, especially, are whimsical creatures.  Not just by the traditional definition, but because they literally will do things, anything, on a whim.

What makes Archfey dangerous is that the concepts of good and evil are virtually non-existent.  They are not concepts any type of fey can be grouped up in.  Even where they are classified into the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, there is ever-present danger.  The only thing you can say is that Seelie fey look more fondly upon mortals, while Unseelie fey are more malicious.  Sitting in the same room with either type still has a relatively high chance of death.

I was speaking on Twitter with some folks about Archfey and here's a free plot for you.  We talked about a bored evil Archfey.  Someone, or something, so ancient and strange that trying out being good sounds like a great change of pace.  Let's be honest though, this could be more dangerous than it is advantageous.  Or what about the Archfey who find the adventurers and turns them into cute puppies just to watch what they do.  Or the one who turns them into statues to decorate the night's dinner party?

These are Lovecraftian fears from before we worried about being important parts of the universe.  Things we don't understand.  Things beyond us and our capabilities.  They are utterly alien in thought process, but grounded in something we have always worshiped: nature.  And look back at that last sentence.  They are utterly ALIEN.  Here's where we can make the leap to Star Trek.

Today, many people have stopped believing in magic.  Faerie realms are the stuff of children's stories.  We are people of science, math, and observation.  Or maybe we have, subconsciously, realized that magic is just that which we cannot explain.  Frankly, despite all the math and predictions we can ascribe to physics (especially big physics), it feels like magic.  A chemist is like a magician who can create heat, light, poison gas, and healing potions.  Just think of A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court.  It proves this thought process.  To me the knowledge of math does not make it any less magical.

Enter science fiction.  When things are no longer magical (to society's mindset) they are "future science", theoretical possibilities that we haven't hit yet because we haven't figured it out yet.  But it does more than that and Star Trek is the ultimate example of it.  The whole setting is set up with ideas that (for their times) were anywhere from the near future to the distant, but still almost guaranteed, future.  Cell phones anyone?  Those were all set dressing.  The glory of Star Trek is what we do with it (explore) and what even greater things we could discover.

With Star Trek we come full circle back to our old faerie tales, we just use the word science instead of magic.  It is a franchise that proves the tales we tell, and can make at the table, are timeless.  No matter what we call it there is magic out there, all around us, waiting to be explored.  Some of the best of those stories involve Archfey or, in Star Trek's case, incredibly odd alien lifeforms.

One of the very first episodes I ever watched was "Rendezvous At Farpoint Station", not even knowing it was the first episode of Next Generation.  I always loved that episode, for everything it was and everything it represents in what Star Trek is at heart.  Most of all though, I love the interaction between the adventurers and the Archfey.  Yep that's right.  Did I mention they even visit a fae realm too?

Q is the epitome of science fiction Archfey.  He is an evil (only in the most mechanical and traditional sense) and very, very, very bored Archfey.  A member of the Q Continuum, he is literally a boarderline Unseelie lord within the Seelie Court.  While the Continuum does little to help Enterprise, they do punish Q.  Eventually.  In one episode he gives Riker his power as a test, experiment, and entertainment.  Sounds like something a Fae Lord would do to me.  The Star Trek universe is full of plot hooks and fae ... excuse me, alien....creatures.  Don't let that resource elude you!

So where am I going with this?  One: I wanted to mention what fae are, to u,s as people and how that can be important in game.  Two: I wanted to share my revelation that the classic version of fae isn't the only one and Q is the prime example.  Finally, I wanted to remind you all what this means.  It is proof that what make up our stories is timeless.  They are things we cannot simply describe, but also cannot live.  Only through the creation and telling of such tales can we explore the far limits and possibilities of life.  Look for the underlying pieces of things you watch or read.  Star Trek could easily have taken place in a fantasy world dominated by a vast ocean full of strange islands.  Your favorite fantasy stories could easily translate into science fiction games.  Keep this lesson with you and share the interesting connections you have seen!

RPG Blog Carnival: At World's End - Coming To A Close

Hello everyone!  Today I am putting in my two-cents for this months RPG Blog Carnival.  This month is being hosted over at Rising Phoenix Games and concerns the end of the world.  What happens at the end of a years long campaign?  What happens on the brink of apocalypse?  These are some of the questions that can be considered and answered for this month.  I, however, want to talk about the end of the campaign, rather than the end of the world.  It is not always that the world ends in-game or that the heroes have come to the ultimate moment of the campaign.  Sometimes, even after a few years, a campaign comes to an end.

If you are lucky the campaign you play in goes on for months and then years.  You establish yourselves in events within the world and become attached to your characters, NPCs, and locations.  Hours upon hours have been spent in the game, but eventually that ends.  If you are even luckier, when this happens it is because you have succeeded in your ultimate goals.  When that isn't the case though, you can still get lucky.  How?  By knowing that the end is going to come and when.

When this happens, your group has the ability to plan out how you end it.  When this is the case you can all go out with a bang, even if you don't get to kill that god you had hoped to.  Of course such events do not always come at the end of campaigns.  Sometimes a player must leave the campaign and you want to give them a send-off.  While not the end of the world, or the end of a campaign, it is an ending.  As such it is important to make it big, especially after over a year of playing.

We had such a player.  The same one I mentioned in my second-ever blog post.  The one who is a god now.  After 13-14 months of developing the character, creating part of the world mythos, and seeking godhood in baking the player was going to be moving away.  A lot had happened and the adventure was moving into a transition to exploring problems around the countryside to becoming leaders and heroes that would save the world.  Before that they would have to enter an old and desecrated ruin, the vision-appointed spot from which they would have some control over their situation.

That session was for the future of the campaign and the "boss" was more directed at another player, but here's the thing.  It was a boss because epic confrontation was where that player and his character excelled.  Not to mention he tended to be the tank.  In the end it was a great choice as he landed the killing blow and we were able to create a narrative event that gave the character power and sent him on the next leg of his journey to godhood.  We got to send the PC and the player off from the campaign in an amazing way.

If you ever find yourself presented with an ending, take hold of it as early as possible and make it the best ending you can.  Whether it is a character, a story arc, a whole campaign.  Whether it was supposed to end there or not.  Whether you meant to end things there or not.  Make every ending (or potential ending) yours.

In some cases ending are abrupt.  Suddenly something happens and the campaign can't be played anymore.  Or maybe it is slow and subtle.  The end of a campaign slowly taking old, session by session, until you just don't play anymore.  I have been a part of both endings.  Sometimes you start something and you have grand plans, but other games or other parts of life take precedent and that campaign disappears.  Other times one thing cancels a session.  Then another.  Then the first thing again.  Then someone has to move.  You all want to start back up as soon as everything settles, but that is always harder than you expect.  Often restarting regular games never happens and the campaign just trails away into the fog of the past.

When these things happen, you have little control and virtually no conscious knowledge of the ending.  You may look back and realize it was going to happen, but that doesn't help you create a send-off.  These are things we have to accept about gaming (life in general), but we may love the characters and world we played in a created.  So, just because a game ends does not mean it has to be over.

You can always revisit that world and reboot the campaign.  Not all endings need be permanent.  That campaign with our god-friend?  We haven't played that in many months now, for a great many reasons.  Including this blog and our podcast, but it is certainly not over forever.  We played for 2 years and there were many plans for that campaign.  From me as DM and from the players and their characters.  And those plans sit in my mind, a large folder, and some digital files.  Just waiting for a time to come back to.

So how do you bring back a campaign that ended?  Especially if you managed the epic send-off I talked about earlier?  First of all, do nothing to diminish that send-off.  Make sure it is a integral part of the start of this new campaign.  If the PCs died back then, make it important.  If they succeeded, make that victory important.  Second, set it in the future.  Whether its a couple months or a couple years, set it after the area / world has adjusted to whatever happened.  If there was no awesome send off, work with the players from that old game and decide what happened in the interim.

From here you can move forward again towards the end goals of the last campaign.  Or, maybe there are new ending on the horizon.  Either way you can move forward from a fresh start while still being based on years of role-playing.  I have said this a number of ways, but I think the best way to put it is a good way to end this article:

Just because there is an ending does not mean the story is over.

RPG Blog Carnival: What's The Use In Weather?

Today I have something new for all of you: my entrance into the RPG Blog Carnival.  As I have been working my way to this regular schedule I have, and maintaining it, the carnival is something I definitely wanted to begin to take part in.  A crowdsourced set of related RPG articles from a variety of blogs?  Yes please!  This month, the carnival is being hosted by Mortaine's Blog and features the topic of weather.  What I want to talk about is not weather mechanics for a certain game, but how weather can be utilized in an RPG.

First off, what is the point of weather?  Like spell components, food, and item maintenance, weather can be something that gets somewhat, if not completely, ignored.  Who really wants to track how warm your clothing is, how light it is, or how waterproof it is?  Not many people really want that, and most groups I have been in or seen only focus on addressing this in the most basic of ways.  They do this by making a purchase or getting help from an NPC to assure that they have the "necessary" equipment for wherever they are going and then use it.

Personally, this is my take for most situations with some minor exceptions.  I think covering those exceptions is a good place to start.  Weather is important in the real world.  It dictates what we wear each day, how we get from one place to another, and the timing of everything from getting up in the morning to shovel snow to when we plant certain crops.  But in games like D&D, the party tends to continuously wear the same stuff.  We assume it gets washed now and then and armor comes off for sleep usually, but for the most part you don't see a group deciding what boots and cloak to wear each morning while the wizard decides what spells to prepare for the day.  It's too much book keeping to tell a story.  But there are, or should be, exceptions.  Walking through the desert in plate mail?  Torrential downpours on nice, plush, absorbent robes?  These would cause problems beyond the regular.  That is but the tip of the weather iceberg, though.

You see, there is a reason things like plate mail through the desert is going to be questioned at the table by even the most weather-lax groups.  I mean, anyone who has gotten into a car parked in the sun with the windows up in summer knows why.  The warrior would cook himself to death.  This example shows how weather (and lets be honest we are poking into climate too) can help create the feeling of the world.  In fact the first thing one thinks about when you say desert is sand and hot, rainless weather.  I digress though, what does this have to do with weather being utilized in an RPG.

The answer is everything.  I am not saying to begin tracking weather types, patterns, clothing, etc.  No, I am saying think about how to use weather to develop the game.  Use it as part of the way you describe an area.  Travelling through a thick forest, the group may not be prepared for rain, not even realize its pouring out until they step into a clearing and get soaked.  As you use that moment for a bit of role-playing, consider making a bad situation worse with a combat (or better, it may be cathartic).  Similarly you can reiterate the feel of a place.  A gloomy, dark area that is always a little too quiet an cold is nice.  But if the players find that everything is damp in the morning.  Cold, wet, foggy.  They might get a bit more of the feeling of the place.  Be sure to remind them when they set camp on night two that everything is still wet too, we don't want them forgetting and getting happy here!

I joke about that, but needling a portion of emotion about the place using weather will help the players bring that into their character.  That isn't all though.  As you do things like that you can work in some more effects of weather.  Damp, foggy area.  Probably some steam coming off that fire, might be a bit noticeable.  Maybe the group should be more careful during watches here.

You should also consider using weather as an obstacle.  Not a "we need warm clothes for the northlands" kind.  Consider the desert.  Dust storms happen.  Randomly.  Unless you are the DM of course.  Perhaps the party find the remains of a caravan and have to fight the desiccated undead.  Perhaps the smell of blood and sound of battle draws some other desert monstrosity.  Now what if, after all of that a dust storm is coming?  What if they see it during the fight?  Consider allowing nature check to determine how quickly it will come.  Add tension to the fight by telling them how much closer it is getting each round.  Maybe it even gets there mid fight, and both sides have to figure out what to do or flee.  Weather just became another adversary, something for the PCs to fight, something to earn them some XP I think.

That example brings me to the other way/reason to utilize weather in an RPG.  Drama.  Weather creates really good drama.  We associate weather with emotions.  Torrential downpours are terrible, uncomfortable, and in the way.  But have you ever been out hiking, hot as anything, and have the sky open up.  You're mostly covered in sweat anyways and the cool water is absolutely refreshing.  You do not feel the same about rain as you do when trying to race from the grocery store, with a cart of food, towards your car.  Keeping with rain as an example, it is also a simple thing that can add heart and courage to a scene.  How?  Consider the battle of Helm's Deep.  A very clear night, battle at the doorstep.  Orcs marching forward, weapons being readied.  Then, rain.  The bowman and soldiers stand, unflinching and ready to fight.  Despite the rain, despite the new chill, in defiance of weather and in defiance of the orcs.

Adding rain to a sequence like that is perfect.  We had a large battle once.  It involved a boss monster type encounter, but my players though it might involve a lot more creatures.  They just knew something was coming and prepared for the worst.  They rallied the small town's militia and everyone who could hold a sword.  Some of my player's have been known to give speeches like (to stick with LotR) Theoden does before Pellinor.  This time however, the leader simply gave two or three sentences, well role-played to the nearest men and told them to pass it down the line.  He paused and decided he was going to sing a harvest song (it was a farming community in Fall conveniently enough).  It was then that someone said, "and this is where it begins to rain."  I took this opportunity and agreed.  The rain started slow, but has the circle around town picked up the song, moving like a wave and getting louder, so to did the rain pick up.  Enter dramatic fight sequence.  Needless to say, it was a very fun session.

That last paragraph is really the point of this article.  Weather is a great obstacle sometimes.  A great enemy even.  It can add flavor and emotion to an area.  It can give a player a tool to grasp as he role-plays that session.  More than that though weather can be a portion, however small, of something incredible.  In the story from our game, the whole session would have been great, thanks to that player, either way.  But the rain helped build the final rising action to the climax and set the tone for the falling action after the battle.  Was it necessary for that session or a great tale?  No.  But then again, I cannot imagine those two hours without the rain.