Shiny TTRPG links collection #15

More links for the link throne! Also, a site operating note that I have stepped down frequency of posting to this weekly round-up and two more a week while work has picked up tempo. Better in my eyes to post less but on schedule than to have surges and gaps. Anyway, previous list found here. Inspired by weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links.

Tips and tools for having the best impact in the social aspect of running a roleplaying game.

A good discussion on minimum necessary content to spin up a game.

Small Islands of Wonder - thoughts on the impact of magic within society.

Actual Play: Kobolds Art Exhibition part VII - The Delve

The kobolds of the Kobolds Art Exhibition zine by Evlyn Moreau return once more. Links to the review and part I of play using it, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V and Part VI.

The hour has passed midnight after another busy day spent trying to unpick a conspiracy against the realm. The howling winds outside have kept everyone indoors all day and blown the deep snows all over the city and palace. The party makes its way back down into the sub basement of the palace fully equipped for venturing into untouched sections, bringing along a younger cousin who has insisted she wants adventure and two of her entourage, the adept and the swordsman.

Down into the depths of the palace they go, past the old throne room to the gallery where the kobolds have been set up. A short discussion in pidgin draconic explains their intent to go find the second masterwork the kobolds say they had discovered and Curator Zosk assigns a troupe of junior volunteers to lead them - junior scout Zoogr, apprentice treasurer Vazrur, apprentice painters Ralral and Kedri and wax-collector Yeep with her two fire-beetles. Equipped with a map, packed snacks, spears and lantern-staffs the kobolds lead off into the depths.

Sketch of a junior kobold by the bard

d6 Schools of Draconic Art

1. Vaulting - massive and elaborate fortifications; the archetype of this is huge reinforced doors. The message of this is to imply the fabulous wealth of the dragons hoard when all this visible effort has been put into the barriers around it.

2. Relief-work - typically seen in the carving of scenes glorifying the dragon onto the sides of mountains or other suitable rock-surfaces in its territory. The symbolism here is that the dragons control of its territory is so unquestioned, it could take the time to carve all this undisturbed.

Shiny TTRPG links collection #14

Another bumper crop of interesting TTRPG links. Previous list found here. Inspired by weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links.

Great, meaty collection of advice on how to run games - if you read nothing else this week, read this.

Collaborative world building in its purest form.

A reminder on how Fighters used to have more attacks and thoughts on recreating Conan or Cu Chulainn style heroes.

A chunky heap of content from Lair Master on tumblr - link to his master index post.

Chekovs Things: managing adventure hooks in long-haul urban campaigns

One of the more useful phrases I heard in the last couple of years was 'catastrophic success' - where things go well beyond your wildest imaginings and suddenly you have a bunch of issues you had never anticipated. For context here, my issue is that my home game has put some serious hours in and chewed through a lot more events and plot than I might have initially imagined. Now the problem is remembering all the dangling plot hooks or fizzing fuses that are scattered around the setting.

This is doubly interesting because of two aspects:
First the party is cunning and ruthless and prefers to skip sword-swinging glory in place of having the palace guard crush their problems. XP gain is lower but it surely is efficient at moving things along.
Second is that we are running an urban game - except for one brief over-night trip most of the action has taken place with them operating out of their bedrooms at the palace. Were they doing the usual slay-loot-scoot dungeon-diving then their problems would be left behind them in the dust as they carted their loot away. By staying static, consequences have time to simmer and form a delicious stew of problems.

What are my odds? Description as DC

I had a recollection of seeing an exercise someone had done that assigned all our common words to state a likelihood of something happen to a percentage value - I did not find that but I did find a report with US/UK policies for communicating probability and I thought it might be useful to convert it to DCs.

Descriptor	% span	d20 span	DC
Almost no chance / remote	1 to 5	1	21
Very unlikely / highly improbable	5 to 20	4	18
Unlikely / improbable (improbably)	20 to 45	9	13
Roughly even chance / roughly even odds	45 to 55	11	11
Likely / probable (probably)	55 to 80	16	6
Very likely / highly probable	80 to 95	19	3
Almost certain(ly) / nearly certain	95 to 99	20	2

Setting this up so an average person of average stats in D&D succeeds an even chance thing 50% of the time, we anchor to DC11 for 'roughly even chance'. This makes "almost no chance" things impossible for an average person to achieve without help, tools, bless or something equivalent. Similarly, it is possible to fail an almost certain task 5% of the time. To my mind, if the dice is being rolled, there ought to be a chance of it failing - if it cannot fail, no dice should be rolled.

This also means that your average D&D character rapidly becomes a creature beyond the abilities of mere mortals in just a few levels. Given that the fraction of PC's among the populace is supposed to be small, this still makes some sense - but it gives a sense of how amazingly different a character dropping a +7 modifier onto a roll is - they will succeed at highly improbably things as often as the average person will make the even chance.

I am still seeking that original article I saw - I know I read it in 2008-2010 so it is out there somewhere. I will follow this up once I find it.

Source:

UK AND US POLICIES FOR COMMUNICATING PROBABILITY IN INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS: A REVIEW on ResearchGate - just click download to get the pdf.

Shiny TTRPG links collection #13

Another bumper crop of interesting TTRPG links. Previous list found here. Inspired by weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links.

Also this week from weaver.skepti.ch a good look at the Art of War in Dune.

Nice thoughts on improving lock-picking, hacking or other extended skill tests from Prismatic Wasteland

Thoughts on playing out the last day on earth - or other adventures with a definitive end point.

Super simple Referee reference list - encounters and attitudes - print it, stick it up.

Superlight game of being Red Shirts - some great ideas from Traveling Mailsman.