20 Opinions

LIVING THE EVERYDAY ADVENTURE The Mini Manipulator Crafting the Better Story No Guts, No Glory

Which sounds like more fun?

Smiting evil with your friends? Or playing World of Warcraft in your Mother’s basement pretending you have friends?

Get together.

Roll some dice.

Have fun.

The Mini Manipulator Understanding which minis work best for the occasion.

No Guts, No Glory Looking at those that go beyond the tabletop.

Crafting the Better Story A guide to creating interesting story hooks for every campaign.

Map of the Month A spotlight on those that are creating new worlds.

The Mini Manipulator Most of the fun of tabletop

gaming comes in the form of gathering friends together on a Saturday night, knowing that tomorrow nobody has to go anywhere important, staying up as late as the caffeine will allow and rolling the dice into a story the group will talk about for months to come. Most of it, but not all. Part of the fun is collecting minis for the encounters, and for the Game Master, part of the fun is pulling out that dragon you’ve been holding onto for weeks. Sure the players knew you had it in your collection, but they weren’t prepared for you to place it on the map directly between them and the humongous pile of treasure they were already making plans for. As somebody that has been collecting minis for years, it is important to know when to use each and every one of them.

There are certain situations that call for Azewrath to fly down, making its presence known, then there are times that you should know that part of the prepping takes away from the encounter.

Take, for example, the town grave digger. You have just given your party of adventurers a task to visit the grave digger to gather information about bodies that have recently been going missing. All he has is a small bit of info to give the party before they go on their way to the next point in the story. If you as a GM feel it is needed to place a map of the area and make certain that the gravedigger mini you have makes an appearance on the board, you break apart the story you are crafting and waste potential play time for your group. It’s understandable that you want to put a visual representation of the person they are going to meet because it gives an immediate connection to the players. They have something physical to address, but that can be handled with random face flashcards.

Now if said gravedigger is secretly part of a shadow organization that has been set into a key place to lure the adventuring party to the outskirts of town where he can dispatch them with haste and then hide the bodies in the conveniently empty graves, perhaps then it would be important for that mini to make the appearance. It’s all about gaging what’s needed at certain points in the story you as a GM are trying to present.

So, when the time comes, what will you choose, the shadow assassin or the play by the box facecard?

Knowing the situation, you should be prepared for either outcome.

When the time comes, what will you choose?

There

are those that let the dice fall

where they will, leaving their imagination behind when they walk away from the table, then there is the Society for Creative Anachronism. They aren’t a group of zealot L.A.R.Pers by any means. Their goal is to reenact battles, crafts, and clothing to the closest historical detail creating a link to a bygone era that few are even concerned with anymore.

When I heard about them, I brushed it off. Constant persistence and pleading didn’t turn an ear, but when a friend sent me a link to their website, www.sca.org, and I came upon images of intense battles, I was immediately drawn in.

no

GUTS

I was shocked on arrival at the attention to detail the armor and other costumes had. I had attended while a huge tourney was supposed to take place and I could feel the excitement circulating in the air like a charge of electricity. The day was growing longer and I hadn’t seen any action by lunch, though. They were supposed to hold the event outside, but a heavy rain had been going all day and didn’t appear to be slackening. I looked around at people in full armor, waiting for any word that the event was still going to happen. The master of house finally bellowed forth his decision to the eager crowd, “Tourney in the gymnasium in fifteen! Those participating

need to register!” and with that the participants raced towards the sign up table.

The first contestants finally stood in the hastily crafted ring staring each other down with an intensity I had only seen in movies. The referee had them register the proper formalities and then shouted at arms and the two fighters barreled at each other with reckless abandon.

Loud cracking echoed as wooden shields beat against armor, and in a flash the battle was over. I don’t think I even had time to blink. I had never seen anything like this in real life and I am certain I shall not soon forget it.

There were several players participating in the event that afternoon climbing their way up through the battles to see who would come out on top. As I watched, I wondered what could cause a man or woman to fight so fervently, so I asked. “Look at our King,” I was told. “He did not get there through votes. We are led by the strong. He earned his right to wear that crown in these very games.” The way Elizabeth fought in the ring, I feel the crown on his head isn’t as steady as he would hope.

no

Glory

Creating a story can be the hardest thing the

Game Master has

to do for their group.

Time to make it look easier than it actually is.

David

Barrentine by

A well-

“It’s not about the uniqueness of the story, it’s the overall impression of the game”

crafted game

can be a thing of beauty, every detail in its place, every story point created specifically to lead the players on an epic quest to the final conclusion solidifying its place in the history of great games, but unless you have no job, no social life, and no distractions, you may find it’s harder to get something like that together on a whim. The players aren’t going to notice every minute detail, and most aren’t going to critique what has been put together. They are there to play and have a good time. It’s not about the uniqueness of the story but the overall impression of the game that brings people to the table.

Most of the best stories can come from well-worn tropes.

They may be cliché to the writer, but you can leave the conclusion

“What would you like to see as a player? Maybe it’s a mysterious stranger.”

to the players to figure out and it can become a whole new take on a classic, or even overused, story idea.

Maybe, at a moment’s notice, coming up with a good trope is even a complicated thing to ask for. It’s not always the easiest being put on the spot trying to figure out what is going on in the moment while simultaneously mapping out what is going to happen, but a choice has to be made if you are going to be the GM. The best choice isn’t always that easy to see. Sometimes you have to stumble around in the dark making mistakes until you figure out what works best for you.

I’ve found that thinking less like the GM and more like the players can create some of the most entertaining, on the spot games.

Perhaps you have your players starting out in a local tavern. What would you like to see as a player?

Maybe it’s a mysterious stranger. Have rumors be

The best choice isn’t always that easy to see. Sometimes you have to stumble around in the dark. overheard in the bar of a group of thieves that have terrorizing the town and you can tell them by their dark cloaks that they always have pulled tight around their face. As luck would have it, when they look out the window, they see somebody that matches that description with only the light of a cigarette illuminating the features of his face.

The players are going to follow him out. It’s a hook that could potentially lead to fame or, more importantly, treasure. If those are the things that you would be interested in seeing as a player, make it seem like they have a chance of attaining something like that. They leave the tavern trailing the stranger down the alley as it winds ever darker into the night. They finally come to a place that seems secluded and they watch as he pulls a secret lever and enters a hidden passage. They are probably going to follow him at this

“...Trailing the stranger down the alley as it winds ever darker into the night.”

point, but again, now is a time to think about what you would like to find as a player when you enter. Would you like everything to be easy or do you want a little intrigue and complication? Something to overcome and figure out to deepen the game. That’s what I thought.

When they enter you can have them search the area and come across a dark altar. Perhaps it is dedicated to a God in the pantheon that the players are aware of.

Maybe it heralds back to something they have encountered in a previous game. This altar could even have a

map on it with dates and times. You don’t have to think of everything. Leave some for next game and maybe give yourself some more time to work on the finer things with the story.

When searching for the thief they followed, you can have them run into a whole group of people, or you can have them find that nobody is there. There is only one exit and nobody saw him leave. They can search the rest of the den, but they will be looking over their shoulder, staying on edge. The thief may already have disappeared into the night, but that only means there is a set of eyes that are now pointed at the players and the complications are only starting to build

ormally we would only take maps for dungeon layouts for all of our readers to use when they are putting together their next meet, but the editing staff was blown away by the amount of work that is going into this world map. It’s a whole new world being established here. To those that are in the tabletop scene, that isn’t really a new thing. World crafting is one of the more enjoyable parts of being a GM. Having the players tromp about in a sandbox world of your own creation has a level of depth to it that a lot of other bought campaigns don’t have. Still, the amount of detail that is being put into the map we are seeing here today astounds even us. Martin Bellium assured us there was more to come as he is crafting not

only this entire new world but several dungeons and cities. There is lore being built here and we cannot wait to see what comes of it.

Martin we hope to see much more from you in the coming months and we can’t wait to give your world a try.

For all those that are looking to submit their own creations, please send an email with an attached file to david.barrentine@yahoo. com. If you have anything important that goes along with the map in question, particularly who resides in your dungeon or world and what story points are important to the area that you created, please attach that in the email body. You can also send it via snail mail to P.O. Box 232 Seatle, WA 03341. And remember, readers, keep crafting.

20 Opinions magazine is the product of class work. All articles in this are not supposed to be taken as any form of fact.

If there is anything taken from this that seems misconstrued, it’s not a product of actual research.

This magazine was meant as a way to teach graphic layout of images and copy. Hopefully it was enjoyable none the less and any reading on the part of the of the viewer is much appreciated.