of Dice and Dragons

About a month ago the folks at Gnome Stew had an interesting post entitled I Love My Tiny Notebook which talked about the fact that as a gamer (particular those of us that GM) we frequently have ideas pop into our heads and by having a notebook with us we can write them down for future use.

Now there were quite a few comments to the post and a fairly good rundown of the different moleskin notebooks out there as they seem to be the tool of choice. Personally I’ve never owned one and don’t plan to buy one as I prefer to use index cards.

I know, I know, I’ve mentioned a number of uses for index cards before but let’s face it they’re cheap (I can get 250 for $1US), fit in your pocket (I typically carry a couple of dozen held by a binder clip) and come in a variety of colors if you choose to color code your notes. For me when I use them, I write down my note and when I transcribe it into my campaign or session planning notes I toss the card out - one less piece of paper and since I’m moving towards an all electronic gaming setup I only have one central repository of information to glean from.

So you have the pen to write with, the paper or index card to write on, so what’s up with the cell phone?

Recently I’ve started using an online service called Jott which allows me to dictate and send myself an email for reminders of action items that I need to accomplish at work, or when I log back online when I get home but then it dawned on me (cue the climatic music) why not use it for gaming notes?

Jott isn’t really intended for long notes but for a short, couple sentence in length, note about a new campaign idea, character personality to play, location to develop, or anything else it’s great. I dial up the service, tell it who I want to Jott, dictate and the email arrives shortly after. Quick, easy, safe for use while driving and best of all it’s already on the computer where I’m going to end up putting it anyway.

You can use the service to send emails to other members of your group, individually or as a group (you can post to your Yahoo group if you use that service as well) which makes it easy to get the word out to everyone of changes of venue or cancellations.

On the whole it’s a pretty useful tool that’s available for free (yes, you read that right, free) and may just get you to “jott” down those notes that you say you’ll remember later but then never do.

Take Jott for a test drive, I’d be interested to know what you think.

May your dice roll well.

Comments(2)

The folks over at Gnome Stew posted today about using a Wiki for your gaming group in their post: Group Lovin’ For Your Wiki. After covering the basics of what a wiki is they dive into the uses for your campaign and start by addressing one of the main strengths of a wiki, documentation.

As they point out items such as background information, house rules, stats, sessions notes and character journals are all excellent uses for a wiki but the real power is when the group collaborates on these items.

Getting a group to work together on session notes would allow them to have greater depth and detail as well as allow all the players’ viewpoints be expressed. I used a newsletter for my last campaign but it contained only my viewpoint (from the GM chair) which while good could have been better with others contributing to it.

The other major boon to collaborative work for a gaming group, which is also covered, is world building.

During the initial stages of The Realms of Rylon, my home grown campaign I asked my players to come up with background information and I did receive it to varying degrees but one of my players came up with a whole culture and history for his particular clan of kobolds. It was great, NPCs, maps, and interactions with other nearby locations were outlined and while I had it all in front of me the others at the table weren’t able to readily access it. I can only imagine what other ideas could have been spawned from those pages if I had used a wiki at that stage - it did come later but it would have been much more useful at the beginning.

Be sure to take a moment and give their post a read - it’s well worth it.

May your dice roll well.

Comments(0)

In case you missed it, be sure to check out Part 1 of Establish a Rules Policy.

In part 1 of **Establish a Rules Policy we looked at the printed materials and determined versions, supplements and the need to set an order of precedence - the only problem is, not everything is covered by the rules.

When you get into a situation where you didn’t plan for something or not everyone at the table agrees on a rule, you need to have a plan on how to handle it. My suggestions follow for inclusion in a Rules Policy.

1. Get the Players’ input.

This may not work for every group but if the situation warrants it and you can keep the discussion period short (remember your timer?) getting everyone to weigh in will help the dynamic as everyone can be involved. Be sure to listen and ask questions if you need something clarified. Maybe there’s a new version of the FAQ or Errata you weren’t aware of and it now covers the situation you’re ruling on or maybe there’s a different way of interpreting the rule you hadn’t considered.

2. The GM always has the final say.

When it comes down to it someone has to make the final call on a rule and that falls on whomever is behind the screen. It’s important not to let that power go to your head though as that can tear apart a group just as fast as a rules argument but you, as the GM have the final say. Take into account the players’ input (point number 1) and make your ruling. If there is still concern over it, table the discussion but stating that the ruling will stand for the session and you’ll consider appeals afterwards.

3. Allow the players to appeal.

So what happens if a player wants to appeal an in game ruling? First off don’t allow it during the session as it will detract from everyone enjoying the game. Second, my suggestion is if you can, handle the appeal by email.

Why by email? The primary reason is that it takes most of the confrontational emotion of out the equation. I can’t speak for everyone but I’ve frequently seen folks get more upset the longer they “discuss” something in person which is what we’re trying to avoid. Second, it gives your players extra time to consider the appeal, quote sources and give a more thought out argument. Third, and probably most important, it gives you time to look everything over and decide if you want to change your stance going forward. Remember, you want to make sure everyone is aware you’re not going to change what happened in the session but you will consider handling things differently going forward.

4. Create a House Rule.

After coming to a final ruling you should create a house rule so you don’t have to go through the same process again. When you do this be sure that you communicate this to your players so everyone is aware of it. I would suggest having a separate “house rules” document that you can update and pass out to the players (or point them to if you keep your campaign information online). After publishing it be sure to spend a couple of minutes reviewing it at your next session - don’t assume that everyone will read it!

A final item that I want to include here (which I should have mentioned in my last post on this topic) is that as a group you should determine the scope of the rules policy. Are you going to have one policy for all your related campaigns or is each GM responsible for creating one for the campaign they’re going to run? Take a few minutes to determine this up front to save on confusion later.

Have you played in a group with a rules policy? Wish you had one in the past? Please post away as I’m sure everyone would benefit from the sharing of your experiences.

May your dice roll well.

Comments(4)

There are few things that can destroy an evening of role-playing as quickly as a rules argument and while your group may not have encountered this particular beast at the gaming table it’s worth looking at. Every group will be different but you should lay some ground rules on the gaming rules you’ll play by so everyone is aware.

So what should go into a rules policy? While I can’t cover every group and every situation I can share what I feel should go into one. Keep in mind that the following is merely suggestion and may not work for every group.

1. Determine the rules version

I’ve lost track of the number of game systems I’ve played over the years and most have been released, updated or expanded many times so to set the playing field choose the system and the version. As an example the group I play in prefers D&D which makes the system choice is easy - D&D. As to the version we’ve decided to stick with 3.5 and will continue with that version even after the 4th edition is released - a matter of personal choice and familiarity. With both those decided we all have a common ground to work from.

2. Determine which supplements are allowed

For some systems this is easy - there are none! Unfortunately for others there are more supplements than there are days in the year, so what to do? Make a list of those supplements that will be allowed, again this puts everyone on the same page which should save headaches down the road. For my last campaign (D&D based, version 3.5) I stated that just the core books (Players’ Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual) could be used. After the campaign had been going for a while I relaxed the restriction some so that I could allow in rules that I felt would enhance the game (in some cases it was to allow additional character classes for the players).

3. Establish an “order of precedence”

At this point you’ve got your system decided on, the version and what supplements you’re going to allow, so what do you do if there are two sources which contradict themselves? You set an order of precedence.

In his comments concerning my post on the 18th of April, Do You Use a Computer at the Gaming Table, user ooklamok mentioned this very issue and why you need it. I think I’ll let his comments speak for themselves:

One thing I do recommend is that if you do use some kind of online reference (in game or not), the GM should set an “order of precedence”.If there is ever a discrepancy between an online rule and a rule printed in a book, we ruled that the book takes precedence. This seems obvious, but by laying this rule down you can avoid alot of possible arguments

Keep in mind that you should include all the references you’ve agreed to in your rankings. So if you play D&D that could include the core books, supplimentals, the FAQs, the Errata, the SRD and of course any house rules that may be in effect in your gaming group.

At this point you may be inclined to believe you’re done and in some cases you are but in part two of Establishing a Rules Policy I’m going to cover those items that lay outside of the rulebooks themselves, things like appeals and spot decisions.

May your dice roll well.

Be sure to check out Part 2 of Establish a Rules Policy

Comments(2)

This was topic was originally published in Roleplaying-Tips as a Reader Tip (Use FreeMind For SRD Import) but I thought it was worth walking through it one more time, with a few more screen captures to help show the whole process.

Please be aware that while the “official” release of Freemind is at 0.8.0 I’m using the 0.9.0 beta 13 version and the screens do look a little different depending on the version so keep that in mind as you follow along.

First, download a copy of the SRD - I prefer the one located at DM Reference. For importing you’ll want to download the HTML Zip file. After downloading unzip it and note where you placed the files (in my case it is Q:\Gaming\Dungeons&Dragons\SRD)

Now, open up Freemind and create a new mind map.
	Next we’ll import the SRD. To do this we’re going to import the folder structure by clicking File -> Import -> Folder Structure.
What you should see at this point is the standard file selection dialog box. You’ll want to navigate to where you unzipped the SRD but don’t select that directory - open it and select the SRD directory you’ll see at that point.
The reason for selecting the second SRD directory is because we don’t need all the “extra baggage” that comes with this version of the SRD, we only need the HTML files - everything else is used if you want to view the SRD in your browser. Once you’ve selected the directory and hit the OK button Freemind will display a mind map of the SRD which should look similar to this:

For those that do import and use the SRD from Freemind I’d love to hear back from you on your experience.

May your dice roll well.

———-
I know it’s been quite awhile since my last posting, sorry about that. I went through a job change in the offline world over the last month (has it been that long?) which unfortunately resulted in shorter deadlines for my former position and a stack of catch-up work to do at my new employer.

~Scot
———-

Comments(2)