Sorry, Leopold, Plots are for Players!

Well, I had intended to write a serious post in the New Player Orientation series, but instead, all I could think about was Leopold the Dancing Plot Point. So, here's a little story I think we can all enjoy.

While gathered at the local tavern, four adventurers began sharing their aspirations to save the world and make a name for themselves. They were all from small towns in the area, each drawn to this tavern in this town because that's where all adventurers got their start. All of the sudden, they here a commotion out in the street. They rush out of the tavern to see... a messenger.

Leopold: Hail, Adventurers! I bring news. Great catastrophe has struck the town of Shady Hollow.

Kaley: That's my home town! I have to find out what's going on...... wait.... aren't you Leopold, the Dancing Plot Point?

Leopold: Uh, no. I'm Leonard, the Dancing Messenger Point.

Drek: No, no... You're Leopold! Look, gang, it's the Dancing Plot Point.

Kaley: I don't know, Drek. He says his name is Leonard.

Leopold: Yes. Leonard. That's me. Not the Dancing Plot Point.

Kaley: See, not the Dancing Plot Point. C'mon gang, let's go save Shady Hollow.

Off the group tromps to Shady Hollow, where they began their journey to save the world.

The moral of my story: DMs, try as you might, you can't always disguise the dancing plots points, but that doesn't mean we won't figure out a way to follow them.

Regarding Magic Item Creation...

I have long wanted to make a sorcerer or mage dedicated to the art of magic item creation. I mean, who wouldn't want to be the D&D equivalent of Santa Claus that comes rolling into town with a new complement of toys and cool magical devices? I know I would. The trouble with such a character under the normal D&D 3.5 rules is that magic item creation requires two things: a lot of dedicated time and experience loss.

Both of these things are counterintuitive to the whole notion of an adventuring party, so I never really got to execute my vision of a traveling mage that specialized in the art of magic item creation.

Learning lessons from Technology Past

For several years, I was a huge fan of the Gemstone IV multi-user dungeon (or MUD, for you acronym lovers). They handled magic item creation in a much different way than D&D... in their system they had an Enchant spell that could be used to raise the enchantment level of a particular magic item effectively raising its to hit and damage.

The trick to this system is that it required incremental casting, meaning you had to prep the item with a special (somewhat expensive) potion and cast at the item multiple times in order for the final enchantment to take. The item was extremely brittle and unusable for the multiple days (sometimes weeks) that the item was being cast upon, but it could easily be stored in a pack or something while you were working on it.

Also, the Enchant spell was very much a black box process and there was a distinct risk of failure... there was conjecture that things like time of day, amount of weight that the caster was carrying, time period between casts, and whether or not any other protective spells were active all affected the success of the cast. If the cast failed, you ran the risk of being forced to start the time intensive process over, unenchanting the item, or blowing up the item causing severe bodily damage to yourself and anyone nearby.

I found this system remarkably interesting, and it had the notable bonus of being do-able while "on the road". The mystery surrounding the proper method for enchanting led to some very interesting rituals by those that chose to specialize in this spell, and personally I believe that all magic in roleplaying should have the same air of mystery.

Translating to D&D

I've seen several attempts to replace the current item creation system in D&D. I've seen point-buy systems, material based systems, and many other combinations therein. One system, that was created by our buddy Sir Geekelot (currently a player in our campaign, then DM of his own campaign) actually went as far as to create an entire player class encompassing this topic.

There was nothing wrong with any of these approaches, but most (if not all) were logistical nightmares, causing the player to keep track of a lot of materials, points, combinations of items, and the like. That, or the systems would be out of balance in some other way such as enabling the creation of low point cost and high power items.

None of them seemed to match the general elegance of the Gemstone style Enchant spell, and this is something that I hope D&D 4.0 addresses. If nothing comes of the 4.0 edition, I may try my hand at translating the elements of Gemstone's enchant system myself, but I'm always concerned about game balance when introducing major new systems like that.

Has anyone else had success with an elegant enchantment or item creation system? Please share, because I sure would love to get this character out of my head!

A Post About Nothing

I've been suffering from a bit of writer's block lately. Tonight I decided just to sit down, turn my random idea generator on, and see what happened. I was not quite expecting what came out.

I don't see how I possibly could have -- because what came out was "the Gauntlets of Seinfeld". I wasn't even really crazy about that show when it was on! Regardless, I started to chuckle at a few of the ideas that started trickling out so I decided to share. I didn't quite get to the descriptions of a lot of these, so if you want to add something, please feel free.

• Gauntlets of Seinfeld
  
  Ordinary gauntlets that do absolutely nothing. However, everyone loves them and they were highly sought after until 10 years ago when the maker just got bored and decided to quit making them.
  
  The right gauntlet has strange frizzy hair covering the opening where the arm goes in. And has racial epithets about dwarves written on it. These were intended to be funny due to their shock value, but everyone near the wearer simply thinks they hate dwarves.
  
  Both gauntlets have special attachments for removing the tops from muffins.
  
  You cannot figure out why the left gauntlet continues to hang out with the right gauntlet.
  


• Girdle of Soup Nazi Strength


• The Eye and Hand of Seinfeld


• Festivus Pole of Many Parts


• Loincloth of Protection vs. Shrinkage

I believe the line of good taste has been sufficiently identified, crossed, and stomped on at this point. And no, Stupid Ranger, no E.L. Fudge cookies were harmed in the making of this post.

More "serious" D&D stuff in the near future, I promise!

When All Else Fails, Make It Up!

Over at the Chatty DM's site, Phil & Yan posted a couple of posts recently about tweaking a class to create a cooler character. If you haven't read about the Shaper class, I suggest you check it out, both Part 1 and Part 2.

Here's What I Like About It
D&D should always be about having fun. And if it's not fun, you need to take whatever actions are necessary to make it fun again. In this case, Yan & Phil developed a class that suited Yan's character concept, making the game more fun... as it should be.

Here's What I Love About It

Developing your character to the level that inspires you to create a class that meets your character's roleplay needs is an exceptional concept. I have usually developed a character concept to fit a class, never the other way around. I think it's a great idea, and I'm really excited about the possibilities this opens up for my own future characters.

So the Moral of Today's Story Is...

If it's broke and it's not contributing to your roleplaying experience, fix it! Work with your DM and tweak something to make things better for you. That doesn't mean you have to develop a whole new class... maybe you just need to adjust your spell selection, or work on a prestige class. Take control of your character's destiny, even if that means you have to build that destiny yourself.

P.S. Phil recently moved to his new site, so if you haven't already, be sure to update your bookmark!

Friends know when to say when...

This weekend I did something that I have only done a few times in my DMing career: called a session off. I have halted sessions early due to exhausting the source material and my tolerance for shooting off the hip for the evening, but rarely have I preemptively canceled a session ahead of time.

Energy: Your best friend and worst enemy

There are many times when the positive energy that exists between the members of your gaming group is an excellent and powerful tool. Now, IANAH (I Am Not A Hippy), but I do know that when these energies are collecting a certain special way it can equate to MAJOR distractions and lack of player engagement.

In our case, this usually takes the form of off-topic discussion, jokes/puns, sarcasm, or other non-value added discussion. For this particular session, we began with an excellent meal prepared by two of our players. Conversation around the dinner table was lively, and as the plates were being cleared I started in a bit on my pre-game check in: was everyone leveled up, what did they think of last session, etc.

It took three times to get three separate players to even acknowledge that I was talking, let alone give me some answers to these questions. This is not a problem, it happens commonly with our group, but then something else hit me.

The Partial Prep Blues

One of the perils of running a co-DM campaign is that it is fraught with dependencies. Recently, my co-DM Kanati sustained an injury while casting levitate on an automobile and had to undergo some surgery. As a result, his involvement in our sessions has become digital-only and we do our prep and in-game discussion via chat. Our arrangement is that he writes the plot and I run the incidentals of the gaming sessions.

We had done some pre-prep during the week and we had an excellent set piece for our plot all worked out. We even had a convenient hook, however in this case I was going to thrust heavily into "wing it" mode after this plot piece resolved and I knew that it would resolve early in the night. Normally Kanati would feed me some additional plot as the session went on, however this time he was away from the computer for the night convalescing and unavailable to steer the plot.

Instead of subject my group to a potential "big bang but end with a whimper" session, I explained this problem to the group and we all elected to forgo gaming for another week and enjoy pleasant conversation instead of playing.

Net results?

Opting to electively forgo a session once in a blue moon can work out well... our entire group had a good time just getting to hang out and catch up without the roleplaying involved.

I'm a major proponent of shooting off the hip, however the co-DM situation where one person writes and the other runs can hinder shooting off the hip for fear of fouling up the prepared plot. Kanati and I are working through our skills in this space still, I imagine we've got some room to improve.

Has anyone else out there electively canceled a gaming session, and did it positively impact your future gaming? I found that I got some out of game feedback that was helpful in aiding me to prepare the next session, so for me it was worth it for that alone.

Critical Failure #4: Finger Lickin' Damage