Author Archives: Jade

Change Your Hat, Change Your Character

Posted on 19 March 2010 | Leave a comment
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hatsI myself have 12 hats, and each one represents a different personality.  Why just be yourself?
–Margaret Atwood

I love props. I’m constantly making props for my games, from fake newspaper articles to treasure maps. Sure, you can tell your players what their characters fine, but then they’re seeing the prop through your eyes. You can’t help but put a spin on their findings as you describe them. Having an actual prop the players can handle allows them to form their own opinions without any “coloration” by the GM.

(Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/dspender/ / CC BY 2.0)

Why use props?

Props can also help you get into character. This is what I love most about them. Each of my characters has (PCs and important NPCs) has something that identifies them.  Not only does this prop help distinguish one character from another, the type of prop chosen says something about the character who uses it.

The  main props I use with my PCs are costumes. Every one of the characters I play has a “costume” that comes straight out of my wardrobe. Now, that doesn’t mean I come to the gaming table looking like a refugee from the local Renaissance Faire (though that can certainly be a lot of fun once in a while). Instead, I find something in my wardrobe that reminds me of my character.

For Galen, my 14th level human bard/sorcerer, it’s a purple tank top with a green shirt over it, his patron’s colors. On the other hand, Feynan, my half-elven rogue/sorcerer with a penchant for lightening, requires an orange tank-top. Rafe, a classic WoD mage, wears a black leather motorcycle jacket, while Naiya, a Tremere vampire always sports an antique rhinestone necklace. The one thing all these costumes have in common is that none of them cause anyone to look oddly at me when I stop at the grocery store for some snacks. Having a prop (or clothing article) helps me get into character before the game even starts.

Props as a GM tool

I find props immensely valuable as a GM tool, as well. Now, I don’t worry about a prop for every Tom, Dick an Haley in my game; only the major NPCs get props. But having a prop for each character allows for two things: 1) my players know immediately who they’re talking to and 2) it helps me keep my NPCs straight and helps keep me from getting sidetracked. Having something in my hand or on me reminds me to stay focused on that one character.

Types of good props

Hats make great props for NPCs because they’re generally quick and easy to put on and take off. Small trinkets, particularly if they inspire a physical mannerism, also work really well. Perhaps your NPC likes to stack coins, play with Chinese harmony balls, or roll dice. Maybe he always has a toothpick in his mouth. Or maybe she carries a walking stick or cane and uses it to punctuate her speech. Or perhaps he doodles while he talks or creates origami animals.

Using props

The main point when using props is to avoid overusing them or making them so obvious they upstage the what you’re saying. Usually, a prop in use should be subtle, something the character does absent-mindedly. You want to use the prop in such a way that it helps the players remember who they’re talking to, but without causing the prop to take center stage.

Notice, though, that I said usually. Sometimes a prop is absolutely crucial to the story. If your players know that any prop you pick up when you’re speaking in character actually exists in the game, you can have an NPC play with it to bring it to the PCs attention. Or you can place it on the table in front of you and wait until someone asks about it.

Any of the techniques above can help your players (and you) feel more immersed in the game. Props are great tools for both players and GM. You can start small — pick one prop for you PC or for a major NPC. Think of a way that character would use that prop. You know you’ve really got it down when your players can tell who they’re speaking to without you having to say a single name.

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From the Basement: Tales from the Floating Vagabond

Posted on 5 March 2010 | Leave a comment
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floating-vagabond-coverSam the Bartender: Okay, you’re facing a small horde of Disgustingly Cute Furry Things and behind them are a handful of space NAZIs who seem to be driving the DCFT directly at you.
Rufus: Hey Guys! I’m not really seeing a choice here: I think we’re going to have to get through the DCFTs to get to the space NAZIs.
Callista: [Draws a sword]. Right!
Hairy: Aw, but they’re so cute…
Callista: Exactly. Sam, I’m going to cut my way through these critters to get at the space NAZIs.
Bartender: Give me Swing Nasty Pointy Thing roll. They’re all in one big pack, so make it a d6–you can’t swing without hitting at least one.
Callista: Actually, I’ve got Swing Nasty Pointy Thing With Panache. [Rolls d6] 3.
Bartender: You take down several of them with one swipe of your sword.
Callista: Did it do it With Panache?
Bartender: Give me a Look Good At All Times roll, d10.

Tales from the Floating Vagabond is an out-of-print Avalon Hill game that bills itself as a “Ludicrous Adventure in a Universe Whose Natural Laws Are Out To Lunch.” It’s also a pretty good description of the game. In what other game can your character have skills like Mess With Dangerous Goop, Chase Cars, or Make Wiseass Remark? Where else can you fire a Don’t Point That Thing At My Planet-sized gun or use a Guttern Exten-Do-Spear or a Weedeater (yes, the stats for it are in the book. It’s a classified as a Long Nasty Pointy Thing weapon).

In addition to the usual skills and stats, every character  in Floating Vagabond has the chance to get a Schtick. The rules describe a Schtick as “something a character does or causes to happen around him that is designed to add to the comedic content of the game.” Each Schtick has a major effect and may have a minor effect. The major effect is something that can actually help a player, while the minor effect is primarily for comedic purposes. Schticks range from the Schwarzenegger Effect that allows the PC to ignore wound penalties and effects (as long as no one sees him get any kind of first aid) to the John Doe Effect that causes people to mistake the character for someone else they know.

The mechanics of Floating Vagabond are simple: the GM (called the “Bartender”) assigns a difficulty to the task at hand and tells the character to roll a die that corresponds to that difficulty level. The higher the difficulty, the more sides the die has. For example: a Pitifully Easy task requires a d4, while a Nigh Impossible task requires a d100. The player (called a “Patron”) then compares the resulting number to his skill level. If the number is lower than the skill level, he succeeds. Otherwise, he fails. Combat works different from skill mechanics, but is equally easy.

Tales from the Floating Vagabond is a great game for those nights when you don’t have enough players for your usual game. Characters can be created very quickly, or players (excuse me: Patrons) can use one of the sample characters given in the book. The book also contains a short adventure: “Excedrin Headache #186,000.” Avalon Hill also published a supplement (Bar Wars) and a couple of modules for the game.

Heck, the Patrons could even translate their regular characters into Floating Vagabond characters. This game takes the “You’re sitting in a bar” cliched adventure start and makes it the basis for the game. The Floating Vagabond itself is trans-dimensional bar and most adventures in this game start from there. The Floating Vagabond’s owner installed a Random Dimensional Portal Generator on the door of the establishment. Which  means people can go through the door of a bar or tavern in their own dimension and end up in the The Floating Vagabond.

As I mentioned above, TF2V has been out of print for many years now, but it’s currently available from DriveThruRPG.com, as are the supplement Bar Wars and two modules: The Reich Stuff and Hypercad 54, Where Are You? If you act really quickly (before 8 March 2010), you can get all the TF2V items they carry at a substantial discount in honor of GMs Day.

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Evil Does Not Equal Stupid: 8 Tips for Playing Evil Characters

Posted on 26 February 2010 | Leave a comment
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evil-vs-goodWhether as a PCs or an NPCs, evil characters tend to get the short end of the stick. All too often, they’re portrayed as short-sighted, reactionary, shallow, and … well, stupid. Frequently, all evil characters look and act the same, like they are clones of one another. Which is a real shame; after all, what’s more engaging to your players than defeating a worthy opponent? Here are eight tips for making your evil characters more in-depth and engaging.

(Image courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/helico/ / CC BY 2.0)

  1. Evil is not a personality trait. It’s too broad a term to be a personality trait; it’s like saying that “human” is a personality trait. If you ask someone to define evil, they’ll give you a laundry list of actions, beliefs, and attitudes. It’s these things that can be called “evil”. An evil person is someone who performs these actions, just as a good person is someone who performs actions we identify as “good”.
  2. Evil is culturally determined. While there are some broad generalities—most (if not all) cultures in our world view intentional murder as evil, for example—what actions and beliefs are classified as “evil” or “good” vary from culture to culture. A classic example is slavery: most modern cultures would classify slavery as evil, but most ancient cultures viewed slavery as a part of everyday life.
  3. Evil characters don’t necessarily view themselves as evil. Usually, evil characters believe their actions were necessary and justified. A Lawful Evil ruler would view himself as a law-giver, someone who brings order out of chaos. A Neutral Evil character could see himself as a survivor, someone who’s forced to take the actions he does because of how the world treats him. A Chaotic Evil character might seem himself as a revolutionary, breaking down or circumventing unfair rules.
  4. Evil characters have relationships with other people. Every character has relationships. Even if they’re dedicated loners, they still know people and at least some people know them. Evil characters have (or had) families,  playmates, fellow church members, fellow students, bosses, underlings … all the relationships other characters have.
  5. Evil characters have many emotions. Too many evil characters (in film, novels, and TV, as well as RPGs) seem to be little more than cardboard cutouts. Their only emotions seem to be selfishness, hatred and revenge. The best evil characters are those that have the full variety of emotions—love, hate, revenge, happiness, sorrow—the same emotions good and neutral characters have. They can even fall in love. The main difference between evil characters and other characters is that they express those feelings in very selfish ways.
  6. Evil characters have back-stories. Evil characters don’t (usually) spring full-grown out of thin air. They have histories: they were born/created somewhere, grew up somewhere, learned their skills somewhere. Generally, there are people somewhere who knew them before the present moment. And those histories and past experiences helped to shape them into the people they are now.
  7. Evil characters have values and goals. Evil characters do the things they do for a reason. Only in parodies or broad comedies can they take actions for no other reason than “to be evil.” An evil character can seek to bring order, remove a threat, increase their wealth. Generally, they won’t view their goals as evil: instead they’ll see them as justified or necessary. These values and goals (rather than evilness itself)  should motivate your evil characters. A big difference between evil and good characters is that an evil person will take whatever action she deems necessary, regardless of its impact on other people.
  8. Evil characters can do good works. They can act law-abiding (usually out of fear, rather then a desire to do what’s right), generous, gracious, concerned, affectionate, if that’s what needs to be done to accomplish their goals.

Playing evil characters

Generally, you’ll play an evil character just as you would play a good one. The main difference is that the evil character will pursue his own agenda, no matter the cost to other people. But that doesn’t mean she’ll do the most rash and immediate thing, nor does it mean that when faced with a moral question, she’ll always take the opposite action of a good character.

Make sure your evil character has a reason for taking the actions beyond “it’s the evil thing to do.” That one thing alone will make your evil character stand out in a good way ;) .

Playing evil characters can be a lot of fun. Just remember that they take as much (or more) work than a good character of similar importance to the game. Look at your character as a whole person, figure out his goals and what he’s willing to do achieve them. You’ll get more enjoyment out of your game and so will your players.

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Beyond ‘Fred’: Italian Names for Characters

Posted on 12 February 2010 | 2 Comments
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Italian names

Image by cloudsoup via Flickr

Tired of games where all the characters are named Ariel or Thorin? What a character name that sounds distinctive but not too far out? What about using a real-world name? Perhaps something historical or from another culture. In earlier editions of Beyond Fred, I covered Roman and Russian names. But what if you want something more fluid or lyrical sounding? Perhaps an Italian name will fit the bill.

Italian Name Structure

Like most Western names, Italian names are comprised of a first name followed by a last name, usually the father’s name. According to Wikipedia, occasionally in official documents the last name will be listed first.

Pronouncing Italian names can be a little tricky. Pronunciation of Italian names has a search box where you can enter a name and listen to the correct pronunciation. You can also find detailed information on pronouncing Italian names at Roma Interactive.

These are by no means historically accurate. These lists are intended to be used for gaming where historical accuracy isn’t as important as how a name sounds.

Italian Names

Male Names

  • Abaco
  • Acario
  • Addo
  • Agosto
  • Arrone
  • Balderico
  • Beltramo
  • Casimiro
  • Clodoveo
  • Dalmazio
  • Ercole
  • Fedele
  • Giacomo
  • Lorenzo
  • Lothario
  • Marcello
  • Massimo
  • Orazio
  • Pino
  • Raffaele
  • Raul
  • Rinaldo
  • Rodolfo
  • Salvetore
  • Serafino
  • Serge
  • Severino
  • Tancredo
  • Vencentio
  • Vittore
  • Zanipolo

Female Names

  • Acilia
  • Altea
  • Aniela
  • Assunta
  • Benigna
  • Bibiana
  • Casilda
  • Chiara
  • Damiana
  • Donata
  • Esta
  • Fiammetta
  • Fiorella
  • Ghita
  • Giacinta
  • Isabella
  • Jolanda
  • Lucia
  • Marsala
  • Mia
  • Perla
  • Rosabla
  • Sidonia
  • Sienna
  • Tessa
  • Vani
  • Varanese
  • Venitia
  • Vittoria
  • Zita
  • Zola

Surnames

  • Bianchi
  • Cavallo
  • Contadino
  • de Luca
  • di Genova
  • Esposito
  • Forni
  • La Porta
  • Martelli
  • Montagna
  • Mosca
  • Rossi
  • Selvaggio
  • Tenagila
  • Trovato
  • Volpe

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X Marks the Spot: 11 Map Making Tutorials

Posted on 2 February 2010 | 2 Comments
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Anonymous nautical chart in portolan style pro...
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You’ve spend weeks, months…maybe even years creating your world. You’ve detailed new races, have exciting new character classes, have worked out your worlds ecology, history, monetary system etc. Now it’s time to present it to the players. But wait! There’s something else you need before you can begin using your world. That’s right: you need a map!
Below is a list of map making tutorials freely available on the web:
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Image via Wikipedia Once a month, I publish a newsletter of quick tips for busy GMs called Beg, Borrow & Steal. Some require advanced preparation to use, but most are designed to be last-minute tips you can add to your … Continue reading →

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Posted on 27 January 2010

Please Answer Survey

Posted on 18 January 2010 | 2 Comments
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Over at the Guang Keshar website, I’ve created a survey. Okay, the survey’s really at SurveyMonkey, but there’s a link to it from rpgGM.com. Even if you don’t plan on using a new campaign setting anytime soon, please stop by and let me know what you look for in a game setting.

It’s short. Only these five questions. That’s all — and I promise it won’t hurt ;)

I’ll be posting the outcome of the survey on the Guang Keshar website.

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What’s in a Name?: Alphabet

Posted on 15 January 2010 | Leave a comment
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Here it is — the final post of our What’s in a Name? series. Today we’re talking about alphabets.

alphabet spiralWell, actually not about alphabets. While you can create a whole new alphabet for your language, it’s a lot of work to do just to create names. Especially since unless you’re writing out all of your game materials by hand, you’ve got to create either a true font or a set of dingbats to represent your new alphabet.

You can actually create something unique by using Roman letters. After all, most languages in Europe and the Americas all use some variation of Roman letters and they all manage to look different.

(Photo courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fdecomite/ / CC BY 2.0)

Go Back to Your Sounds

Remember the list of sounds we made back on the Day 2? It’s time to pull that out. What you want to do is assign one letter or letter combination to every sound you have. What you’re creating here is actually called an orthography.

Now, you can mix up the letters and sounds — but I wouldn’t recommend it. What I mean by that is, you can assign the “sh” sound to the letter “a”. I wouldn’t recommend it because it’ll be a constant headache for you and your players. You’ll constantly have to look back and forth between your  names and your “alphabet” and I’d be very surprised if your players didn’t revolt by the second game session as they try to remember that “Shewsberry” is actually pronounced “thantcamms”.

What you do want to do though, is settle on one way of writing each phoneme you have. Even though in English (for example) “c” can make an “s” or a “k” sound and more than one letter in the alphabet can make the same sound, for simplicity’s sake, I’d recommend one sound, one letter combinations.  That way, you know that “Cebunclane” is always pronounced “ke-bunk-la-ne” and not “see-boon-clain”.

A Note About Diacritics

One obvious way to make your language look different is by using a lot of diacritics. But this can also create a huge headache as you have to remember how to type them or pause frequently while writing to use the “insert special character” (or equivalent) function of your computer. And if you ever want to post your names online, keep in mind that HTML has a very limited set of special characters it supports.

You can actually get a very different look to your names just by using combinations of letters not normally found in English and peppered with a few very common diacritics. Here’s some examples:

  • Nord-Pas-de-Calais (French)
  • Lübeck (German)
  • Zaragoza (Spanish)
  • Algyógy (Hungarian)
  • Bizusa-Bâi (Romanian)

Have fun with this. It can be some work, initially, but once you’ve created it, it really does help give your world a unique flavor. Then, if you decide you do want to create a full language for your world at a later date, you’ve already laid some of the foundation work.

This article series was inspired by Mark Rosenfelder’s Language Construction Kit and I’ve drawn on it heavily as a resource. If you’re interested in a creating a language of your own, his site is a great place to start.

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End of Year Round-Up: The Top 10 Posts of 2009

Posted on 8 January 2010 | Leave a comment
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Here’s a countdown of the 10 most popular posts on Evil Machinations in 2009:

10. An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games, pt. 4: A survey of roleplaying games whose titles begin with the letters Q-U.

9. Building Better NPCs II: 8 Steps to Memorable NPCs: Eight steps for bringing your important NPCs to life and making them unique.

8. How Do You Describe Combat?: A question I posed to my readers. They came up with some great ideas — make sure to read the responses.

7.  An A-to-Z List of Lesser-Known Roleplaying Games, pt. 1: The first post in the survey of roleplaying games. Covers letters A-F.

6. Character Questionnaire: A list of questions to flesh out your character and bring those sets of numbers to life.

5. Handling Problem Players: A list of online resources for dealing with those players who make your gaming life hell.

4. What’s Good About 4th Edition?: Another question for my readers. Creating a wonderful discussion that came up with some great points in favor of 4the D&D. And without becoming an edition/flame war :) .

3. What GMs Really Want (Poll): A survey where I asked readers what kinds of articles they’d like to see. It’s still active, if you’d like to leave your ideas.

2. “Where are we again?”: Creating Unique Fantasy Cities and Towns: A list of Internet resources for creating cities and towns.

And finally, the most popular post of 2009 …

1. Your Teacher Was Right … Creating Adventures with the Six Ws: How to create an adventure by answer six basic questions — who, what, when, where, why, and how. Featured in Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #469.

Thank you to all my readers. Without you, I’d have no popular posts to share. Keep reading here — I’ve got lots more ideas I can’t wait to share with you in 2010 ;) .

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What’s in a Name? Tone and Sound Constraints

Posted on 7 January 2010 | Leave a comment
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Small latin A with acute (á)
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Here’s part 4 of our series on creating a naming language. Today we’re talking about tone and sound constraints.

Tone

Tone in language is the way you inflect a word or phrase. We don’t use tone on word basis in English, but several Asian languages (and there may be others) use it. The best known of these is Mandarin Chinese, where a change of inflection can change the meaning of a word. As an example, let’s look at the Mandarin word ma:

  • ma (flat, no intonation) means ‘mother’. There should be a bar over the ‘a’, but I’m limited by HTML’s available diacritics.
  • má (rising intonation) means ‘hemp’
  • mâ (falling then rising intonation) means ‘horse’. Actually, the circumflex on this ‘a’ should be inverted, but HTML doesn’t seem to support that.
  • mà (falling intonation) means ‘curse’

As you might suspect, this does make the language more complex — probably too complex for a simple naming language, but it can be a lot of fun to play with.

A simpler way of adding tone to your words is to use a pitch accent. Here you denote that the stressed syllable of a word has either a high pitch or a low pitch. Some languages that use a pitch accent are Japanese, Norwegian, as well as Latin and Ancient Greek. While there’s no reason you couldn’t use a rising then falling pitch or visa versa, it might make the language more complex than you actually want to use.

Of course you don’t have to use a pitch system. Many, many languages (including most  of the European ones) get by just fine without it.

Sound Constraints

Sound constraints can go a long way to making a language sound not only internally consistent, but also distinctive. Sound constraints help determine what can and cannot be a particular word in a specific language. For example, English speakers know that coss and trannel could possible be English words, while ctain and mtour couldn’t.

Developing sound constraints for your language is easy. Simply develop a syllable pattern. For example, my language of Keshari uses a

  • (C)V(C) constraint. Every syllable must have a vowel and there may or may not be a consonant at the beginning and/or end of the word. It cannot have two consonants or two vowels next to each other.

Make up any syllable pattern you like. Some languages even include a restricted set of letter options. For example, Mandarin Chinese has a syllable structure of

  • (C)(i,u)V(w, y, n, ng). Every syllable must have a vowel and may end with one of four sounds — w, y, n, or ng. Also, a syllable can begin with a consonant, possibly followed by an i or u.

For sake of ease, I’d suggest using a simple and very general pattern. Even something as easy as requiring a structure of CV(C) can really make your language sound unique, particularly when you pair it with and unusual phoneme frequency. These two things alone may be all you need to create your new language.

Next time we’ll cover creating an “alphabet” and a pronunciation guide.

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