What Can Be Better Than A Man In A Cowl?

Behind the scenes photo dump of Bat-man 1966.  Who would not have loved to work on this production?

Adam West's and Burt Ward's stunt doubles.

I couldn't resist!

The Screen Pass

I've been becoming quite annoyed using a DM screen for my S&W game. Though I've created a custom screen with the charts I need and a space to clip a map I haven't been using it much. In a rules-lite game such as we are playing (using ascending AC), I rarely have to look anything up on the charts and when I do, it's usually something that I don't have charted anyways and have to flip through the rules or my collection of random charts. Plus, a good full character sheet gives the players everything they need for play.

The other thing is that the screen separates the DM from the players to much. I like to be part of the table more which helps me, as DM, participate more in the game.

Plus with beer, snacks, dice, character sheets, and minis a screen just takes up too much room.

The last number of sessions I haven't had a screen set up. The maps and keys I just keep folded on my lap. But I would still like some quick access to some of my charts.

I made this little micro folded booklet with some of my current charts. It won't take up much room and it has just what I currently need. I'll be testing this out on Monday and see how it works. But however it works out, I'm taking a permanent pass on the screen.



Feel free to print this out (at 100%) and follow the instructions below for folding the booklet and give it a try. Oh, the Crit hit and miss charts were lifted from Gothridge Manor.

Instructions

1. Fold A over to B.

2. Fold C down to D.

3. Fold E over to F.

4. Unfold twice (it will look like step 2). Cut on red line.

5. Open paper all the way. Fold G to H.

6. Push from ends so I meets J. Press down on folds to smooth out rough edges.

7. Now self-publish a collection of favorite jokes, illustrate a short story, or just doodle to your heart's content.

Behind the Screen Part 4: Miniatures

Continuing my behind the screen series on what I use for gaming at my table. The first 3 parts are linked at the bottom of this post.

I've talked about the pros and cons of using minis in your game session here and here. In a classic style game they're not really needed as the combats tend to be loose and fast. In fact, in our sessions we've gotten through some pretty mass combats without the aid of miniatures.

Still, there's something alluring about having minis a part of your play. Even if you don't actually use them, to have a tiny representation of your character that you spent time painting is part of the pleasure of the game.

I've tried to bring minis into the game off and on but they just haven't stuck. As a DM though, using minis on the tabletop does help when there is a lot of players (in our case 8) and folks are exploring rooms, heading off into different directions and battling hoards of grim crypt crawlers.

So I've come up with a couple of solutions.

So to save time on painting some minis such as hirelings, I go with a dry brushed silver over black. It gives the details some definition as well as makes the fully painted PC minis stand out more. Plus I think these look classy like chess pieces ("Mongo only pawn in game of life").

I picked up these guys with about 50 other minis for $5 at a yard sale!

Another problem with minis is that, as a DM, you usually have to supply all the monsters. That means there could be hundreds of possible creatures to choose from with multiple instances of these creatures; 20 orcs, 50 goblins, etc. I like to keep the game as inexpensive as possible and it occurred to me that minis are just simple representations of what is happening on the table top in just a brief moment of game time so why 'invest' a lot of time and money into buying and painting monster minis?

Moving on to the hoards of monsters and other creepy crawlies, I tried to use paper minis and you can find a bunch online but the issue with those is storage and durability. They tend to get...crushed.

I like the concept of tokens. They're compact and durable. You can place them on the table quickly and they're still abstract enough to not distract from the role-playing at the table. But I wanted to spice up my tokens a bit with an old school feel.

So I picked up some 1 inch wooden discs online, bought a 1 inch hold punch at a craft store, pulled out a bunch of my classic books (Monster Manual, modules, etc) and began scanning. And this is what I ended up with.

I like using the black and white images as I feel that it doesn't distract at the table. The black and white stands out enough for one to see what it is without having to focus on it. Black and white, IMO, lends itself open to one's imagination.

Now, since I used copyrighted images for my tokens, I can't give you the finished sheets but I can give you the photoshop / GIMP template file (see below) for you to make your own tokens.

1. Just scan your artwork at 300 dpi greyscale
2. Drag them into the template
3. Size them to fit within the mask.

Make as many copies of the monsters as you need to. A sample of one of my sheets is below.


Once you fill your sheet, print them without any scaling.

Pop the paper tokens out with a 1" hole-punch then glue them to the wooden discs.

Your hordes of the Underworld will be ready to wreck havoc on your unsuspecting party.

To go along with the tokens and the minis I've made some custom dungeon tiles. Again, they are very simple, nothing too distracting from the focus of the game, the role-playing. The grid on the tiles are 1 1/4 inch squares (five feet game scale) which will work great with your based minis and tokens.

I bet these guys are thinking they should have stayed in the tavern!

To cap this all off, I picked up an unfinished wooden box and with a little work created a storage for the minis and the tiles.

Cheap hoards
Free tiles
Hours of gaming fun!

Resources

1" Wooden Discs
1" Paper Hole Punch
The Warlock's Dungeon Tiles
Token Template TIF File (about 9mb) Right click and save as onto your desktop. It's a layered TIFF file so it should open up in both Photoshop and GIMP.


Behind the Screen Part 1: Rules and Supplements
Behind the Screen Part 2: The Screen
Behind the Screen Part 3: Random Charts

Behind the Screen Part 3: Random Charts

It's always great to read how other DMs run their sessions and the tools that they use. In my previous posts I've touched on the rules and supplements that I use in our campaign and then I talked about the custom DM screen that I created.

Today I'm going to touch on one of the biggest aids in our sessions and those would be the random charts.

Randomness is almost the heart and soul of any good RPG and in a sandbox campaign I let the dice fall where they may. If I roll too tough of a monster for an encounter, the PCs better be smart enough to high-tail it out of there. Roll a hefty hoard of treasure guarded by a not so hefty monster, so be it - stranger things can happen.

In a sandbox campaign random charts can be a godsend as they can help flesh out, on the fly if needed, encounters, personalities, situations, reactions, cities, dungeons, treasures, names, magic items - almost anything that one might need.

If you've been reading this blog then you may know that I have given the campaign world just a broad-stroke and tend to fill things in little by little as needed in our adventures - NPC, situations, events, shops etc. Also, my prep time for sessions has diminished to almost nothing (though I do spend some time during the week fleshing things out in the back of my mind if need be but it's pretty minimal). So I've come to rely on the randomness of charts. It makes the game fun and surprising for the DM and the players. It can change the course of a dull session or open up new vistas of plot points that can be quite troublesome to the PC involved. A splendid time indeed!

With the interwebs and the fantastic community of bloggers, finding useful random charts are as easy as rolling for wandering monsters. There are soooo many great and creative charts out there that it's almost impossible to keep track of them all. Whenever I find a great random chart on someone's blog, I'll copy that material and paste it into a document (reformatting if necessary) so I can print it out and add it to my collection.

So here are a number of charts that I've found to be most useful in our table-top campaign. I've bound these all into a binder and pull certain charts out as needed.

Old School Encounters Reference - a must download!!

City Encounters for Swords & Wizardry (Matt Finch)

Tome of Minor Items (dragonsfoot)

Quick NPC Traits Checklist (DnDBorderlands Blog)

Adventurer's Ordinance: 110 Magical Items Part One by Jesse Muir

Adventurer's Ordinance: 110 Magical Items Part Two by Jesse Muir

How to make a fantasy Sandbox (bat in the attic)

Entering the City Taxes (Dungeons and Digressions)

Wilderness Encounters

100 Book titles Dungeoneering.net

Caster prices (OD&D boards)

Resurrection (Dragonsfoot - though I think I got this from somewhere else)

Guards at the Gate (Gothridge Manor)

Carousing Mishaps (Jeff Rients - a must have)

NPC Personalities (Black Gate)

Weird Room Stuff (Black Gate)

Quick Hex Contents Generator (Black Gate)

Slum Encounters (Black Gate)

Beyond the Black Gate Compendium 2009 (Black Gate)

And the new "What In The Hole" (Black Gate)

Unique Treasure Generation (Hack & Slash)

If you haven't noticed yet, Al over at Beyond the Black Gate has some fantastic resources and creates some of the best charts. A huge thank you to Al! In fact, I nominate him for a Master of Dungeons Award for 2010! (we really should create that)

Great Online random generators

Fantasy Name Generator
Meatshield: Henchmen & Hireling Generator
Dungeon Generator
Check out donjon; RPG Tools

I also use the treasure charts in the Labryinth Lord rule book, some charts from Basic Fantasy RPG and, of course, the trusty AD&D 1st ed. DMG.

This is by no means an exhausted list but these are some of the charts that I've found to be useful. If anyone else has some useful charts that they've created or run across, let me know and I'll add them to this list.

When next we chat I'll talk about the use of miniatures on our table-top.

Behind The Screen Part 2: The Screen

Part 1 can be found here: The Rules.

So after talking about what rules I use in part 1, today I'm going to look at every DM's crutch, the DM screen.

In the early days of my playing the hobby, I recall using the monochrome adventure module covers to separate my duties from the rest of the players. Mostly used to hide the dungeon map and the map key from the players, this separation has somehow evolved with Role-playing games and appears in some form in almost every genre of the hobby and in some cases a bit overkill.

I'm not quite sure where the Game Master screen came from, I don't recall reading about it in the Holmes blue rule-book or in the Dungeon Master's Guide but somehow, in the early days of the game, it became part of standard table-top paraphernalia. The earliest version I came across put out by TSR was around 1979 and came with 2 durable screens. This was for the Advanced version of the game. With the release of 1st edition D&D, the many complicated charts within the DMG and the Player's Handbook made it almost a necessity to have quick access to these finer points of the rules to keep the game flowing.

When I was a young 1st level DM at the ripe age of 10, I enjoyed that separation from the players. That barrier was something that I was able to hide my lack of knowledge of the game and my insecurities behind. Now days, I find that separation an annoyance. I like to be as much a part of the table as my group of players are. The separation now feels too distant.

Having said that, I do still have a screen handy. Again, it's only used to separate the map and the key from the players (only when I have to) but also house a few quick reference charts and rules. And like many things in my current campaign, I've created a custom screen.

Since my reliance on the screen is quite minimal I tried to make the screen as small as possible yet still 'hide' the map key and additional notes from the players. What I ended up with was an 17"X 11" screen. The main portion is a full 8.5" X 11" and it is here that I attach my dungeon map with tape or a clip. Since this portion changes often, it is not a permanent element of the screen, just a blank slate to be filled as needed.


On either side of this I have a 4 1/4" X 11" flap where I attach my game charts. These narrow portions have two functions, the first is to make the screen stable, the second is to have a quick reference to some of the rules and charts that I tend to use often within the game. I kept them narrow to keep the screen fold-able and compact as well as less of a barrier between me and the players.

I created the chart itself with two pieces of 8 1/2" by 11" black foam-core with one adhesive side. I cut one of those sheets vertically in half and attached it all together with black tape. The outside of the screen being the adhesive side, I attach various dungeon artwork taken from various rulebooks. I like the black and white as I find it less distracting that anything in color. It's just there for ascetic decoration at this point and I don't think any of the players even notice it anymore.



With our use of a rules-light game system (Swords & Wizardry) and using an ascending armor class combat system, the charts that I use on my screen are more for little rule tweaks or game additions that I've only placed there to keep the flow of the game going. Things like movement and encumbrance rates (always bog me down) and wilderness encounters and custom moral rolls. See the images below for what I've added to my screen.


Again, I tend not to use the screen unless I really need to, usually when the PCs are delving into some doom filled dungeon. Beyond that I like to join the festivities at the table and have a good time.

Now, all this doesn't mean that I don't have a full reference of charts compiled within a notebook to access at all times, 'cause I do. When running a sandbox campaign, all those charts are your best friends and I'll touch on those in our next installment.

Behind The Screen Part 1: Rules and Supplements

I always love to see how other DMs operate; what charts they use?, do they use minis? what kind of houserules are being used? It's always insightful to see someone else's tools and techniques. The one great thing about blogging and the 'OSR' is that many people share their experiences, sessions, methods, etc. with ideas and creativity running rampant!

So I thought I'd share some of my methods and tools in running my sandbox campaign that we've been running for a year now.

So I'll start at the beginning with the foundation of any game, the rules.

I chose to go with Swords & Wizardry core rules as my foundation. I could've gone with Holmes' Blue Book or Moldvay's Red but I went with S&W because I liked the openness of the rules as well as the 'newness' and availability of the rules/product (a plus to using the retro-clones). I felt that, right or wrong, I might be able to find players to join in a session or two if the game wasn't grounded in the past; if it seemed like something new. As it turned out I had no problem finding players, in fact, the group has kept growing until there are now nine of us.

Let's face it, the rules for all 3 versions that I mentioned are pretty much the same with only minor variations between them. Subtle variations yet enough to give the games a different feel from each other. Moldvay has a clear and unambiguous description of the rules but, IMO, leaves the PCs stronger than I was looking for. Holmes and S&W, on the other hand, are a bit more rough on the PCs and pulpy in terms of that subtle nature called atmosphere. A pretty good match to 'cut and paste'.

Swords & Wizardry is quite open in it's rules, very much a broad-stroke that begs for the DM and the players to fill in some of the blanks. Not as much as OD&D mind you but, nonetheless, some thought needs to be put into it. Since I've been a huge fan of Holmes' version of the game, I used that as a starting point to help fill in the blanks, so to speak.

From there I sprinkled in some Labyrinth Lord & LL Advanced Edition, a little Basic Fantasy RPG plus a number of ideas from the Swords & Wizardry site itself and other blogs and forums. I put all these additions together into a type of Player's Handbook of the House-Rules.

Along with the Player's Handbook for the House-Rules, I also put together two reference spell books, one for Magic-users and the other for Clerics and Druids. These are quick reference guide for various spells that the players use as well as I. These are available as a free pdf download from Lulu or a pay for print version from Lulu as well and are digest sized. A perfect fit for the already cluttered table.

To round things out, I use the S&W Monster Compendium.

So on any given night, I have out on the table, the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules, the Player's House-rule Handbook, The Book of Wizardry and the Book of the Divine, as well as the Monster Compendium. I also keep a version of Labyrinth Lord around just for quick reference on some odd rule that may need a quick judgment on.

And speaking of rule judgments, I don't hesitate to discuss tweaking rules with the players if it comes up. Usually we get to a pretty good consensus quickly without any delays in gameplay or arguments. After all, S&W is a rules-lite system and we mostly just want to have a good time having adventures and killing things. As you can see from our recaps, I think we have succeeded pretty well.

Next, I'll chat about every DM's crutch, the DM Screen.