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Untitled Document
Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #71
5 Ways You Can Make Travel Interesting Or Important
Contents:
This Week's Tips Summarized
5 Ways You Can Make Travel Interesting Or Important
- Provide A Background For The Encounter
- Get Into The Nitty Gritty Details Of Travel
- Consider Adding New Environmental Challenges
- Pre-Plan Some Basic Encounters For Use At Any Time
- Reveal Important Information
- Get Into The Travel Spirit
Readers' Tips Summarized
- Build Your Maps In Lego
- Use Prophecy For Tension Creation
- Find New Roleplayers By Hosting A Murder Mystery Party
- Multi-Tasking Testimonial
- 5 Campaign Tips
Return to Contents
A Brief Word From Johnn
My group had a great 10 hour roleplaying extravaganza yesterday. I felt that we
actually got three sessions of stuff done in one day because of the extended time
and the continuous play--we avoided two extra session set-ups and clean-ups (and
only had to deal with ordering pizza twice-- lunch and dinner, lol).
Another bonus was that all the players showed up. This meant I had a full group
for three sessions worth of play.
If you can swing it with your group, extended sessions once in awhile can definitely
give your campaign a jolt or keep it steaming ahead.
Have a great gaming week!
Johnn Four johnn@roleplayingtips.com
Return to Contents
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Return to Contents
5 Ways You Can Make Travel Interesting Or Important
- Provide A Background For The Encounter
Try to create a brief background for each travel encounter you design. How
did the current situation develop and why? Is there anyone or anything with
ulterior motives involved?
A little bit of background material, even if it's just a sentence or two,
will greatly improve the encounter:
- Fun to GM because it is more than just a few statistics now.
- Helps you develop the campaign area in bite-sized pieces.
- Gives you information for inspiration during or after the encounter.
- Makes it easier to GM the encounter during the game.
For example, you have a bandit encounter planned. But, bandits don't usually
just wait on the road for unlucky adventurers. So, what is the background
for the encounter?
The how: perhaps they have an informant tipping them off when suitable targets
will be leaving the city and taking a route ripe for ambush?
The why: maybe the bandit leader is the bastard of a local noble and has resorted
to banditry to try to raise funds for a small army?
It's difficult to keep on top of all the events of your campaign area and
to make it seem alive and dynamic. Often we have our hands full just dealing
with the PCs, and soon it seems as if the world starts to revolve around the
party.
However, outdoor encounters are a perfect opportunity to make your world change
and move on regardless of the PCs' presence. Adding a little background to
each encounter is a great way to help you do this, as demonstrated with the
bandit example.
Another enhancement to the background idea is to link some of your encounters
to the PCs or story in some way. However, if you're struggling with a static
game world, then be careful not to make the encounters start to revolve around
the PCs again. Just look for some small way to make it personal for the PCs.
In our bandit example, we haven't asked the who? question yet. One possibility
could be, who is the informant?
For a minor link, you could make the informant be the innkeeper where the
PCs stayed. The innkeeper runs to a bandit scout in town who then rides off
ahead of the victims to alert the bandit leader. This would definitely make
your game more interesting if the PCs were to learn about the connection.
For a major link, perhaps the bandit leader is being influenced by the story's
villain? The bandits don't normally attack well armed travellers, but the
villain exerts his influence over the bastard noble and the bandits mobilise
for an ambush. Perhaps the bandit leader then, has a juicy bit of knowledge
about the villain? Suddenly this formerly standard travel event becomes much
more interesting and valuable to the PCs....
Return to Contents
- Get Into The Nitty Gritty Details Of Travel
Without slowing play to a halt and turning a short travel stretch into a three
session long snore-fest, try to challenge the PCs with the discomfort, hazards
and challenges of traveling. An easy way to do this is to think about the
details of travel:
- Severe weather (it's effects on equipment, supplies and henchmen)
- Food and water
- Navigation, directions, route
- Travel equipment (broken-in boots, vehicle maintenance, can-opener)
- Bug repellent
For example, the party is delivering a message to the archbishop of a neighboring
city. Two of the characters have social aspirations and would like to turn
the archbishop into a powerful acquaintance, or even an ally. However, during
the trip, the PCs stumble into huge clouds of ravenous mosquitoes. Instead
of a professional and composed meeting with the archbishop, the characters
show up with scabby red welts all over their faces and arms, and often scratch
at things unknown beneath their clothing. To add insult to injury, the message
scroll is covered with bloody mosquito kills because it made a better swatter
than a sword.
Another example would be to quickly gather the party's character sheets and/or
equipment supply and check to see if they brought enough food with them. If
not, then let this journey become known as "the squirrel soup" adventure.
:)
Return to Contents
- Consider Adding New Environmental Challenges
One thing I'm guilty of in my games is to assume that, except for terrain
and weather, the environment pretty much stays the same during trips. Thanks
to a subscriber tip submission from Stanton, I've learned about all the things
I've been missing! Here are Stanton's tips:
- Customs
A long list of unspoken taboos and unique criminal offenses should keep
the PCs on their toes. Something mundane - eating in public, talking to
a person outside one's caste, accidentally wearing the "royal" color -
can quickly put the party in trouble with the conservative and unforgiving
locals.
- Disease and toxins
From minor allergies to killer viruses, travelers have to be careful of
invisible hazards that the locals built up immunity to long ago. The issue
cuts both ways - the cliche of a traveler's "common cold" triggering a
global plague is always a real fear to port authority officials. Note
that in "reality", radiation is lethal to everything and no normal being
builds up "resistance".
- Animals
Locals know that the Great Ravinoxarus comes out of hibernation to mate
at this time each decade. Too bad nobody mentioned the Great Ravinoxarus
to the visiting off-worlders who just left camp for some sightseeing.
- Language
Imagine the problems which arise when an off-world trader's phrase "Please
adopt our Imperial standards" gets mistranslated to the locals as "Please
become the parental guardian of our Imperial representatives" - and what
happens when the kind-hearted locals agree?
- Gravity
Off-worlders in a heavier gravity find themselves awkward, tired and distracted
while their bodies adjust to the higher-G. Likewise, a weaker gravity
world seems "bouncy" and can cause light-headedness until acclimated.
- Climate
An exceptionally cold, hot, dry or humid world may seem "comfortable"
to the locals, while off-worlders shiver, cough or sweat their way across
the landscape.
- Taxes
Entry tax, exit tax, road tax, guild fees, ministry dues, carrier service
fees, national tariffs, holiday tax, baronial duties... Regional rulers
may have redundant taxes on top of local rulers, and then the "shadow"
rulers, criminal gangs, and merchant guilds all seek their due. Some could
be bribed or ignored, while others might be fanatical misers willing to
pursue tax dodgers to the realm's farthest borders. PCs might find smuggling
an easy way to go, though such a tact has its risks.
- Government Surveillance & Intervention
What if a planet's medical records system is watched carefully by the
government, which holds the rights to specific genetic mutations. One
character trips one of these tests, and government agents insist on detaining
the character indefinitely as cellular property of the state. ("Our study
only takes a few years until a stable clone is made.")
Return to Contents
- Pre-Plan Some Basic Encounters For Use At Any Time
Step 1:
Make a list of typical and not so typical travel encounters that could happen.
Step 2:
Think of one idea for each list item on how you could make that encounter
different or unique through a plot twist, complication or location twist.
Step 3:
Using tip #1, add a one to two sentence background to each encounter.
You now have a list of encounters that, depending on the background detail
you gave them, you can drop in any time travel gets boring or taken for granted
by the players.
Here's a brief list of travel encounter ideas to get you started:
- Ye old inn encounter
- Meet a traveller on the road
- Bandits
- Wild animal or monster
- Small village in need of heroes
- Vehicle breakdown
- Scene of a recent battle
- Sink hole or dangerous terrain
- Ruins or old buildings spotted
Now, just add a twist, a background and stir!
Perhaps you could create six encounters and replenish them between sessions
as they get used. That way, you'll never be caught without something to make
a trip interesting.
Return to Contents
- Reveal Important Information
Travel is a great time to introduce new information for future use or to help
the PCs during their current adventure. Depending on how much game time you
want to spend on the trip, you could give a short description/monologue of
the information discovered, let the PCs investigate briefly and then move
on.
For example, you could introduce a new villain by having the party discover
the smoking ruins of a village that has just been raided and razed. Or, perhaps
the villain's carriage runs the PCs off the road.
Maybe you could have a traveler provide some interesting news about things
that are happening in other lands, to help the PCs learn more about your game
world. (As a related tip, information tends to get more accurate as you get
closer to the source, so feel free to spread those wild rumours.)
Or, you could simply introduce a new type of flower that could become important
later on.
One subscriber wrote in with this great example of slowly revealing information
about an upcoming travel encounter: "my party was hearing rumors of bandits
on the Mithril Way (a caravan trail) and that there was a huge reward. As
they slowly got closer to that area they learned that the bandits were lead
by Ogres... Twin Ogres... The Twin Ogre Heroes, Og and M'og... who wear the
hides of dragons... one wields an orc double-axe, the other a dire-flail..."
That's building pretty good anticipation and would make travel much more interesting
than just ambushing the party with Og and M'og.
Return to Contents
- Get Into The Travel Spirit
If you want to make travel more interesting than just saying "ok, you leave
on day one and get to your destination on day 3", try celebrating a couple
of small events that take place during the trip.
For example:
- Snowball fights
- Rainbow spotted
- Beautiful scene (such as waterfall or breathtaking view)
- Wild, non-dangerous animal approaches closer for an inspection
- Beautiful beach and a warm swim
- Comical incident with an NPC traveling with the party
Return to Contents
Tips Request For Issue #72: "Using Names In Your
Games"
I'm on a quest for names tips. What can you do with names in your campaign? How
can they add flavour to your game world? How can you use names to enhance your
campaign in some way?
For example, a friend of mine, David M., uses a special naming convention in one
area of his world to indicate whether someone is of noble birth. I found that
added a lot of atmosphere to the sessions (especially when I learned my character
had a special name too :).
Do you have any naming tips? If so, please send them on in to: johnn@roleplayingtips.com
Thank you very much. :)
Return to Contents
Readers' Tips Of The Week:
- Build Your Maps In Lego
From: Transbot9
While reading your site, an idea hit me...use Legos for maps & Miniatures.
Some people (like me) have large collections left over from their childhood.
Here are some good points about it:
- Lego guys have so much stuff that they are easy to customise for figures.
Pick up a set or 2 & you have enough for a variety of Custom Miniatures
every time.
- Making the maps as you go. This was a tip I've heard several times on
the site, and with Legos, you can build an outline of dungeon or map areas
on large Lego platform/plastic sheets. I have a ton of these, and the
Lego company still sells them.
- Pre-building sets. GMs can relax beforehand by building entire sets
for the characters to use.
- Built in grid. Because it uses block, the grid the pegs provide gives
an easy way to tell distance.
- Involving the players: Get them building as they play!
- Use Prophecy For Tension Creation
From: Sean A.
I (accidentally) discovered this tip during a short encounter between the
PC's and a traveling gypsy fortune teller. The gypsy read the group's fortunes,
describing what the future held for each member of the group in a very cryptic
manner and without revealing which fortune belonged to which PC. Included
in the prophecy was that one member would betray the group. I never said then,
(and still haven't said) whether the prophecy was real or simply a red herring.
The group, however, took it to heart, especially when (a dozen sessions later)
one of the prophecies seemed to come true. Since that time, I have talked
to each of the players, who have confided in me why they think they
might be the one to betray the group, or else who they suspect of being the
traitor.
Now every time the group gets into a tight spot, everyone gets uneasy, looking
over at each other to see if one will betray them. Every note passed from
the DM to a player is seen as possible evidence of eventual betrayal. I have
received more info on character backgrounds, future story hooks, and better
roleplaying than I ever could have expected from this, and all because of
one tiny encounter that planted the seeds of suspicion between the characters.
Return to Contents
- Find New Roleplayers By Hosting A Murder Mystery Party
From: Miguel
I know you just covered this, but its a subject that keeps coming up: How
to get new people interested in roleplaying?
Have a murder mystery party. I just had one of my non- gaming friends throw
a "How to Host a Murder" party. It was quite fun, but afterwards several people
had problems with the format. This party gave each person a short synopsis
of a character, then it had four rounds. In each round you had information
you were supposed to reveal and information you want to conceal, but cannot
lie about if directly confronted. Sometimes people asked questions that went
beyond the information you had and you had to break character and say you
don't know. Several of these questions were answered in later rounds.
The people who were complaining said that it would be better if you knew all
the information ahead of time. These people are probably good for recruiting
into roleplaying. Perhaps a second murder night that is more like a LARP,
where everybody has a more detailed character history and knows everything
ahead of time. After observing that, you can probably tell people who have
the roleplaying bug.
Return to Contents
- Multi-Tasking Testimonial
From: Derrick S.
Johnn,
I wanted to respond to your uncertainty about GM's rushing themselves and
keeping busy in order to multi-task (and stay on task) better. I think you
nailed it right on the head. I am an experienced "wing-it" GM (I'm winging
an entire campaign and my players love it) and I find keeping myself busy
during the session is critical to keeping my creative juices going. It allows
me to respond to the players (and the crazy things they do) quickly and intelligently.
Even if I have nothing to look-up, research, or write down, I'll get up and
pace or even just stand on a different side of the table (nice change of perspective
for myself and the players). However, when there is some really good role-
playing going on I pull my nose out of whatever book it's in and just sit
back and savor it, how could I not? I have found, in my own group, that the
players really pick up on the vigour and impetus I put into my side of the
performance.
Return to Contents
- 5 Campaign Tips
From: Steve G.
Johnn, I've been receiving your weekly roleplaying tips for a few months now
and really enjoy all the advice and ideas. They're extremely helpful!
Here's some tips of my own for keeping your players interested in your game.
- Keep An Open-ended Campaign World
It's all right not to have an elaborate scenario prepared to drop your
characters into. In fact, I've found that a majority of players would
rather play in a campaign where anything goes rather than be stuck in
a storyline that may be exciting to the GM, but not so much for the players.
This brings me to my next pointer.
- Have Several Different Adventure Hooks Ready At All Times
Your players can build your campaign for you and help you gauge what types
of adventures they're interested in for future gaming. Prepare several
simple adventures (your own, a module, or one from a magazine) that involve
your PCs' backgrounds and goals and subtlety work them into the game (a
rumor heard, an encounter with an NPC, etc.). It helps if you can unite
the party with a simple common goal while keeping their individual goals
separate.
My current campaign started with the characters all traveling to the capital
city. One of them wanted to learn to be a wizard, another was looking
for clues to locate a group of thugs, the next was a gambler hoping to
make his fortune in the city, and so on. They each had different individual
goals, but one simple one that brought them together as traveling companions.
Along the way, I tossed in a few different adventure hooks that brought
them together as a group and eventually as a well-known adventuring party.
- Challenge Your Players
Keep your players a little off balance and don't be afraid to give them
a butt-kicking once in a while. You want to avoid becoming predictable.
Maybe that weak looking goblin up the road is actually a high-level human
warrior that got polymorphed by a wizard and is now deranged and out for
blood.
- Challenge Yourself
To keep the game fresh for myself, I try to tackle gaming situations that
I think might be difficult to pull off. One time I decided to role-play
the negotiations of a wedding between two noble houses (the groom-to-be
was the paladin in our group). I had to come up with a bunch of different
medieval type tournament games and rules for each (the horsemanship/trickriding
contest was a blast!) to commemorate the wedding negotiations, interesting
NPCs, and a few little twists to keep everyone involved (the drunken noble
that kept hitting on the half-elf thief played by one of the girls in
the group was really fun!).
- Join Other Groups
Every once in a while I get the urge to be a player, too. I like to find
a group I've never met before and join for a while as a player. From watching
other GMs, I've learned a lot of new techniques, game styles, and got
a lot of new ideas, some of which I ended up incorporating into my own
campaign. It's also a good way to find more players. A lot of other GMs
get the urge to be a player for a while, too.
That's about it. Hope these tips help other GMs the way other contributors
have helped me.
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