DM Babble: When players surprise you as people.

An update on things regarding my epic journey in my first homebrew campaign(s).

I've been playing my homebrew campaign for a couple of weeks now with the two groups - the South Africans, and the British. Things have been interesting. Both groups took to the concept of the campaign vastly differently. The Saffas took the epic hero route. They took the NPCs at their word and was determined to make everything right again. I got backstory and so many lore questions and just a enormous platform to work from.

The British, on the other hand, not only questioned everything, including the sanity of the NPCs, they also just... didn't play ball. When told not to do something, they'd do it - repeatedly. When asked 'how are you going to save us?' they basically shrugged and said 'sorry, you went through all this trouble for nothing'.

I found myself challenged, certainly, but also frustrated. Not angry but confused... flabbergasted. The campaign hinges on the premise that the players want to be the heroes in the tale. They don't necessarily have to be completely proactive, but they need to at least try and that was just not happening in the latter case. So, after 6 sessions... 18 hours... of trying (and I don't know how many hours of prep), I decided that perhaps I should just admit to myself and the group that maybe this campaign just doesn't fit. It would not be a defeat for me or an insult to them. It's just a matter of oil and water. For a first homebrew campaign, I'm quite satisfied with what I've created for them in those 6 sessions. Like, I felt somewhat disappointed, but I didn't feel like it was a waste as it's material I can reuse in future, after all. 

So I slept on it and decided to go ahead and throw in the towel. 

The response I got from the group, or at least two of the group, was... surprising. They were bemused, not understanding where this was coming from and not wanting to end the campaign at all. I had to emphasise and explain that this wasn't a "You're shit and I don't want to play with you anymore" type  of situation. It was just that I honestly don't know how to progress the story in a way that would fit this group's dynamic. Reassured that I'm not thinking poorly of them, they again reiterated that they want the campaign to continue. And the suggestions they made were definitely helpful, but I found them surprising. Suddenly they were completely willing to play ball. They would change their character's attitudes, they would take action, they would become heroes. They even reshaped the Discord server that we use so that they could take action - creating multiple channels for discussion and character notes galore.

It's left me a little stunned and a little unsure. Unsure because I don't understand... but I'm happy to see them trying.

I've heard many times that you need to touch base with your table and let them also know where you're at. This was my first opportunity to do that and it's been confusing but good. I mean, I can totally work with people who want to do stuff. I still have a lot of thinking and a lot of preparation I need to do to get everything going, but if they really do shift their approach, I might be able to take them for several sessions more.

DM Babble: Outright death in the second session, whoops?

As life would have it, I would end up running the homebrew with two different groups at around the same time. Session 1 was fascinating to experience in both how both groups responded to the game as well as their general disposition. With the Brits, there was a surprising amount of suspicion of their benefactors and daring when it came to interacting with people they should have been careful with. With the South Africans, there was wholehearted belief in their benefactors and firm resolve not to get themselves killed within the first session.

Then came the second session which I've just run with the Brits. (South Africans are only playing again next week). I managed to get them to where I wanted to go - with some paddling and bullshitting and they entered an extensive cave system... and one of them died. The creatures they fought weren't exactly scary. Maybe the problem was just that they didn't play it cautiously enough. Or maybe it was just bad luck. 

The lad got struck with a spell, got rot grubs thrown on him and hit zero hit points before anyone could get to him, which with the rot grubs means that he became dinner.

While the party took it in stride and started speculating one what character he should draw up next, I did come to the sinking realisation that I had not planned for character death and don't know how I will be introducing this new character to the group. 

I had figured there would be some time before I would have to worry about it. Silly me.

DM Babble: Session zero of my first homebrew. Oh boy.

So in D&D, session zero is where you reveal as much as you can / dare without spoiling the game to your players. It's where boundaries are set, questions are answered, and confidence is earned.

Unless you're me.

Usually, I'm okay with session zeros because I've been running Waterdeep Dragon Heist so many times that I'm not fussed or overwhelmed with fear. But recently I did a session zero for my homebrew campaign - the one I've been rambling about here for a couple of posts. And, I got to tell you, confidence was not earned (or shouldn't have been) as I uhmed, ahed, fidgeted, and paddled my way through a mostly disturbingly quiet session zero. I eventually revealed the world map to the group and continent they'll start in. Which could or could not be considered spoilery, but mostly was my attempt to show that 'Hey, look, I actually did do stuff for this campaign and I'm just having a stressful moment, k?'

I know why I'm freaking out though. 

Quite a few years ago, a misguided friend of mine decided that I should write a murder mystery party thinger and she'd host it. I spent three agonising months on it, pouring what little I knew and could into it. Come the night of the murder mystery dinner party and it flopped spectacularly. Some of the people at the party didn't know it was a home creation and tore it to pieces. I was... distressed for quite a few months afterwards and wasn't keen on sharing any of my creations to anyone (even the things I thought I had more confidence in).

So do I believe that my friends are going to trash my first ever homebrew? No. But I'm still afraid it's going to flop. I'm still worried that they're going to be too polite to suggest someone else run something that's more decent. Are these fears valid? Yes and no. A lot of it is just lack of confidence, I know that. But you know, with the exception of alcohol, I've yet to find confidence bottled and accessible to me at any particular point in time. Also, alcohol makes me sleepy, not confident. So there's that.

In my defense, though, the reason the session was mostly quiet was because I had written a primer to the campaign which I handed the players beforehand. So they were told everything I felt was needed prior to session zero so they could make a character at session zero. But I still worried about everything. Because I do that.

As my luck would have it, my Monday group is also going to be running this homebrew soon and I have another session zero to prepare for. I guess the good thing about this is that I get more practice in paddling like a duck.

Also, I'm a sucker for punishment.

DM Babble: Pantheon

I've begun creating a pantheon for my world. This might be a good idea or a bad idea, but it was a fun exercise, so I figure that all is not lost even if there are probably too many gods listed.

I watched a number of videos on Youtube and read some articles on the subject. One can really go pretty epic with gods and their histories and whatnot. Some good material to be found by watching Anto from Icarus Games.

Here's how I created mine: 

1. I listed a bunch of domains that these gods would reside over.
2. I wrote down names of gods and allocated them to the domains, preferably more than one domain at a time.
3. I decided to pay homage to some people/characters by making them gods. Because, of course Mercer would be the god of magic? How could he not?
4. Added a column for descriptions and interactions the gods have with each other and the world.
5. Had fun fun fun!

My list is by no means done, I still need to work out more of the inter-workings of the gods, but here are some of my favourites:

• Deduinne - god of Revelry and Strength, worshipped most often by Goliaths and Dwarves. Named after Grog Strongjaw, Critical Role (Dedoink... get it?)
• Anri - god of Deception and Trickery, at odds with his twin brother Dolos, called The Prankster.
• Dolos - god of Deception and Trickery, at odds with his twin brother Anri, called The Liar.
• Kawi - god of Dreams, Knowledge and Secrets, believes knowledge should be gained with hard work and experience. Secrets are treasures waiting to be revealed.
• Vimpe - god of Nightmares and Pain. Takes the form of a firey black Nightmare (horse). Named after my friend's horse Wimpie who threw her off.

So not much of a long post, but just thought I'd pop in an update here.

DM-babble: Creating the world with maps

Starting location map zoomed in. (Inkarnate)

These past couple of weeks I've been working, on-again off-again, on maps for my homebrew. Why maps? Because I'm hoping it's going to supply me with answers to the story as opposed to creating a map to fit the story I've pre-written. A bit arse about face, but I console myself with the knowledge that I will be using these maps and thus it isn't time wasted.

So what I've been doing is randomly generating maps on Medieval Fantasy City Generator and Village Generator, then going to Inkarnate and reworking them either to fit my 'vision' better or just to make it look prettier. I'm also by no means a map maker. I didn't take geography at school and have no notion of how things should be on a map. But I don't think it came out all that bad. And hell, it's a fantasy land with dragons and whatnot. Sense is not something it needs to absolutely make.

Here are some examples of what I've been up to:

The city of Alsheim doesn't have a governmental structure yet, but I know that it has a river that flows through it. Yay! With the help of mapping, I've gotten some ideas on the wards of the city, if not the actual contents.

Alsheim (Inkarnate)

But! Before my victims... I mean the party... reaches Alsheim (if they decide to go to the city at all), they have a starter village to investigate called Cara's Pasture. This village was randomly generated with the Village Generator and then I decided that it needed the river to flow past the village and lead down into another bigger town of Spelar. I nabbed some concepts for Cara's Pasture from The Lost Mines of Phandelver as the frontier town of Phandalin had a range of handy dandy shops and places that I wanted to see in this village. Plus in terms of location, the two settlements have similar resources at their disposal (or so I tell myself).

Cara's Pasture (Inkarnate)

I do have the village inhabited by a couple of plain characters and one or two more colourful ones. I have the beginnings of tension in the authorities at play, which I think there should be for it to seem a bit more real. And, I have a couple of quests (though not nearly enough) to start the players off. Hopefully the events will transpire the way I want them to and not have the players killing off my innocent little monsters before they can do what I would like them to do. I probably need more quests and thoughts on this, but so far the whole thing is a little daunting.

Spelar is one of the two places that the party may decide to go to on their way to the city of Alsheim. Much like the city, I basically only have the map for it. No NPCs or quests yet.

Spelar (Inkarnate)

Despite this, I still feel like I've been doing quite a bit. My mind has been working in the background thinking of ways to use and populate these spaces that I've created. So I wouldn't consider any of this a distraction though it does sometimes feel like it. I think I'm avoiding the 'big work' of bringing these places to life. I fear that, like my limitations with geography, my knowledge of political/governing systems is going to put a spanner in the works. But I guess that also depends on the type of players I get. Those who are interested in stabby-stabby would not care for who rules in the random port town that they are passing through where as the more role-playing party just might. It's difficult to tell.

Tell me what you think? 

DM-ing babble: My first homebrew setting... oh dear.

I've been playing D&D for close to seven years and DM-ed for maybe three years(?), but they've been pre-written campaigns or one-shots (usually crappy ones with little decent motivations in them). Homebrew in any form has always been a bit of a mountain I haven't dared climb. Well, sort of. I did try a homebrew setting once. It didn't work out well. It was an email campaign... which is mostly why it failed because time zones suck.

Anyhoo, I admire those who do have homebrew settings because I struggle with proper motivations for characters and getting a story that pops. I have similar challenges with writing stories, so it doesn't quite surprise me that this would be a hurdle I face in the TTRPG sphere. 

But... I've found a story... Uhm, no. Let's call it an fledgling idea. So I've found a fledgling idea that I like. I have victims to try it on. And I have ample enough time to plan the crap out of it. 

This is already sufficient motivation to try it out.

And then, the key ingredient, I have committed myself publicly to try. Guilting me into action is always key. Sadly. Damn.

Future post will probably include more detail as I figure it out and ramble about it. 

What I can say now is that I have a starting world map thanks to Inkarnate, Roll20, and Mythic Portal Games' Cartographers Guild tokens. I have both a city and a town that's slowly taking shape, and I have maps for them thanks to Medieval Fantasy City Generator by watabou.

So the resources are in place. Now to populate the world and make it interesting. That's the next challenge.

I don't know how much I will share of the world here. Perhaps a bit, depending on interest. Perhaps only vaguely in case the only interested parties are my players. Tricksy players.

So here's my question for those game masters out there. How would you start off a level 1 party? How does one work towards levelling them up and making those experiences meaningful without it just being a goblin slog? That seems to be something that's done to death. 

Podcasting babble: Guesting for Dragons & Flagons

So I did it. 

I shifted my mic boom arm closer, kept a close eye on my notes, and participated in a podcast. The subject matter was something everyone who has had experience with playing roleplaying games could add their input on:

'What makes for a bad player?'

The previous podcasts the team of Dragons & Flagons did had to do with what makes for good players and good DMs. This conversation was the inverse of that and had us listing some pet peeves that you can get from players. It was an interesting conversation. 

At some point, I had forgotten that I was supposed to be adding to the discussion and listened mostly because I was reminded how, several years ago before I stumbled over D&D, I barely found people whom I resonated with. And while the countries, cultures and even language are different, I still felt that sense of resonance during the conversation. Which was kinda cool. Not necessarily a thought to occupy one's time while recording but still cool.

I've been invited to record the next podcast with them as well. This will be about what makes for a bad DM. My notes are ready and I'm eager to be a part of the discussion.

Hopefully this time I won't get too distracted!

DaF: Holiday special

 This post is a little later than desired. I was invited to join the Dragons and Flagons peeps in a D&D oneshot late last year to save Christmas from an evil Santa.

Link to the first episode here on Spotify. 

I was a little more reserved than everyone else, but it was a lot of fun. The game is probably NSFW, just so you know. I think we did good. :)

Let me know what you think.

From Text to Speech: On (possible) new adventures

First a bit of a reflection on this year. I'm in a very fortunate, even privileged position, where I wasn't in danger of losing my job like so many other people were. I had some stress as my contract was in need of renewal, but in comparison to the devastation 2020 has sowed on many people, I really can't complain. I was also able to work from home and, as an introvert, found the distance from people quite delightful.

That being said, I did take some strain and found myself in need of escape. And in that, I clearly wasn't the only one. For one thing, the online D&D community skyrocketed as more people were forced to find alternative means of playing the game. What was a fun little hobby became an absolutely necessary escape as the year continued to spiral out of control.

In my case, my gaming days increased dramatically. Pre-Covid, I was already playing two sessions a week. Then I got invited to play with a group of North Americans over the weekends, increasing my sessions to four a week and probably damaging my sleep schedule irreparably. Time zones suck, but technology closes distances dramatically. People I mostly spoke to over text for years have now become almost household acquaintances. Programmes like Zoom and Marco Polo has really helped cross boundaries that previously seemed impenetrable. 

And then a new opportunity arose. One I hadn't previously considered. I was invited by the North Americans to join a recorded D&D game which is to be released via podcast in the very near future. I was nervous, naturally, but delighted. As a Christmas gift, I received the means to make it an actual option: a podcasting microphone kit. And so, I stepped over from text to speech.

This leap is mildly terrifying. English is not my first language, and I've always been more of a writer than a speaker. Also, it brings forth the question: what does my voice add to the conversation? Which is something I never really considered. While I like babbling about the things I love, I never really successfully imparted the aspects of myself that I thought worth considering to a 'community', as it were. There is a certain confidence you need to have which I'm still developing.

That being said, this might be the start of a very interesting, fulfilling journey as those crazy people across the ocean have taken further steps by inviting me to actually guest in their podcast. I'm humbled by this and by their apparent certainty that I will be able to add something constructive and edifying.

When all of this will happen, I'm not sure, but I will definitely keep this blog updated on events as they transpire.

For now, I'm going to plug the podcast, namely Dragons & Flagons and invite you to listen to these four crazy people discuss things D&D. 

Gaming Babble: Lock down list

 I did this a while back and kind of liked it. Instead of focusing the post on a single game, I'll instead mention a couple of games I've been playing this past couple of months. I can (hopefully) always expand on an individual ramble at a later time. The majority of the games I'm going to talk about are still in Early Access, so they're not the finished product, but still enjoyable. 

Grounded

So I've talked about it before, but I've been playing Grounded quite a bit. I'm now at the stage where I need to wait for the next update to see what they bring in next, but I'm patient. The game is worth it. For those who don't know, Grounded is essentially Honey I Shrunk the Kids meets a survival game. You run around in the back yard, the size of an ant. The game is fun in single player, but I have no doubt multiplayer could also be a blast with the right person(s).

Subnautica Below Zero

I have a deep love for the original Subnautica and the sequel looks very promising. Set a year after the events of the first game, you play a new character who is out to follow her sister's trail through a frozen, aquatic world. Survive, build, but most importantly, explore. Where the first Subnautica kept you mostly in the water, Below Zero encourages you to explore the surface as well. In moderation... you might otherwise freeze to death.

Eco

The premise of Eco is interesting. A meteor is about to strike the world, build from scratch and develop the technology to avert the disaster, but be aware that the world you're trying to save has its own balance. It's very easy to wipe out the very thing you're trying to save. The game is designed for multiple people to work together - each going into a different specialisation. You can play single player and you can play without the meteor - which is what I've been doing. Eco is relaxing in a strange way, but very very grindy. 

Satisfactory

Satisfactory is in some ways the exact opposite of Eco. Here it's about using everything the world has to offer, build factories, automate and ship off planet. I've only spent a few hours stripping a particularly lush world bare so I can't say much yet, but I'm enjoying it. It runs the risk of going over my head, but so far so good.

No Man's Sky

I've only recently purchased No Man's Sky and I've already invested 40 hours into the game. That said, I feel as if I'm still only busy figuring it out. The story is interesting: You crash into an unknown planet with no memory of who you are. Following a bread-crumb trail, you learn about the mysteries of the universe you're in and make some pretty big decisions while you're at it. Or maybe you don't. Maybe you just go in whatever direction you please. No Man's Sky leaves it up to you to decide how involved you want to be. The only gripe I have with this game is its waiting/loading times. I've taken to reading a book while playing the game and I'm surprised at how far I got in the book!