This is my return to the helm, after nearly a decade after moving out from college, where I introduced a group of friends to tabletop roleplaying through HARP. Here I hope to journal my return to HARP as a GM. I can ramble, so while the core element of this thread is simply this group and their adventure, the accompanying musings will focus on the following goals:
- As a HARPer, utilizing HARP's flexibility and player-focused control over character potential to its greatest capacity
- As a Game Master, revealing what real-world things I might research, as well as shed insight as to what skills I might practice to improve my skill behind the screen
- As a Host, understanding the best ways to use the game space and minimize distraction
- As a Roleplayer, understanding the best way to address and include the different interests that are brought to the table
For the sake of digestion, I have confined extensive rambling into "Spoiler" Tags. These are largely to separate musings within the larger posts. If the formatting is bothersome I'll amend it. Ultimately, feedback is going to be my greatest benefit from making this public.
My backgroundTabletop gaming was influential in my youth, and so it's something I've grown passionate about, for better or worse.
I was introduced to Tabletop roleplaying at the turn of the millenium, in my childhood. My best friend's father was our Game Master, and he had been using some of the earliest iterations of Rolemaster in a homebrew game that fit in a massive, leather tome he made himself, which had two 2" rings full of pages, which he had been working on since before I was born.
As a player, I learned to appreciate the delight of choosing how to develop my character, and how over levels, characters become *mine*. Their skills are a collection of the player's ideas and reactions and needs and goals. That relationship between the character sheet and the player was something special, and it became sacred once the sheet got its first drink stain.
The GM was excellent at reading player moods and understanding player interests, and keeping the game engaging and fun whether we were in an 'adventure', or jerking around town. It became clear after many games that the fun was found not in the writing of the adventure but in the interactions the players get to participate in. More often than not, improvised BS with townspeople was more fun than hacking through kobolds near the Keep on the Borderlands.
After some time, friend's dad gave us the reigns and let us take a go at GMing. I had us in a port town, and while I've forgotten everything that happened, I'll never forget the aside conversation, wherein he explained to me how a combination of forces such as the sun heating the land and water creates breezes at different times of day, creating favorable times for ships to come into and leave port. While the specifics are lost on me to time, there are two key messages:
- As a GM, you have a big responsibility to represent the world around the players
- It doesn't have to be realistic, but it has to maintain the suspension of disbelief
Fast forward a few years to college, I met some fellows who had interest, and ended up assembling, with the caveat that one player was so adamant about it being World of Warcraft, that he insisted it be the official World of Warcraft tabletop game. I refused to run it, so he decided to take the helm with zero experience tabletop gaming. So after that half a session, we turned to my proposal of running HARP.
It was rough, as I was transitioning from Rolemaster to HARP, and the players were learning what the different shaped dice were and how to read the percentiles. But I had the fortune of the power of improvising, and made my decisions quickly to keep the flow of the game.
One of the party's very first encounters: They knew a group of kobolds were in a cavern, and they had the surprise on them. Party had this brilliant idea to set up two people on each end with a rope between them, have someone call out, and the two would pull the rope at the same time to trip the rushing kobolds. "I signal to him," the ranger said. I grinned as I responded, "What's your Signaling skill?" That moment triggered something for the party. The ranger pulled the unsuspecting halfling into the middle of the entryway, so the kobolds tripped over the poor little guy. Plan half-worked, at least, and the players enjoyed having consequence to their actions and mistakes. The campaign was a little flimsy, and a bit rushed with limiting our gaming to school, but we had fun. After graduating college, it would be years before I could find or assemble a stable group...
And onto now...
The Players- The Partner: My boyfriend and GM of a separate 5e game, often a collaborator of ideas, and constant support to manage my depression and get my ass in gear to actually DO any of this
- The Idealist: His characters become him
- The Tinkerer: I know he'll find a way to break anything I construct for the group, and it's kind of exciting
- The Loyalist: His devotion to the group's fun is surpassed only by his devotion to his friends
- And Introducing The Explorer: Boyfriend to The Loyalist, he is completely new to Tabletop roleplaying, and I'm excited for what he finds.
The SettingThe MapThe entire party originally consisted of the above, without The Explorer. I was itching for fantasy, and my initial thought was to run HARP core as-is, for the benefit of rules-reference for players being confined to one book. However, it quickly became apparent that players were interested in non-standard characters right from the start. So we used a collaborative world-building tool designed as a light game, called
Dawn of Worlds.
Gist is, someone draws a big continent-shape on a grid. Each participant rolls a handful of points, and take turns taking pencils to the map and adding terrain, landmarks, bodies of water, as well as populating it with races of peoples, cities, and leaders to affect the peoples to interact with one another. Over several turns, the map gets filled out, and there is a continent full of a diversity of races and beings and motives, which the players themselves got to have a hand in creating. The best part, is that as a GM, I don't have to explain the world: Everyone at the table has so much history to work with, and as a GM I can fill in details.
+ Players know the general history and lore of the world
+ Players get to add what they want, giving them something they can work with at character gen
+ GM can participate, adding hooks for down the road
- GM is responsible for providing mechanics
- The rules don't give much impetus for factions to interact or war on their own, relying on participant impetus to come up with reasons for different peoples to bump shoulders
- Some players decided that not only are airships cool, but let's have gnolls that have hover crafts for traversing the desert and they fight like Mad Max
So I had to get HARP Sci-Fi and will be working on coming up with the hovercar mechanics. Harumph.
The players have defined a number of races and locations. This meant I had to nix most of the Core races and cultures. The result I have come to is to have character races be generally a little better, upping the initial power level of the game. I admit, there's some imbalance, and I made some adjustments to the player-imagined races to keep from anything game-breaking.
Additional ToolsThe Partner pointed me to a website with a whole bunch of nifty tools. My favorite and one I hadn't seen before, the
Fantasy Calendar Generator. I now have a printout of the world's calendar, complete with lunar phases of the three moons I arbitrarily settled on.
The RacesI intend to come back and put more information in here. There's only so much I can do in one sitting!The Elem
Ancient Elementals trapped in our plane. They built a magnificent city hidden away in the mountains at the center of the continent. They have since vanished, but have left behind a legacy spoken through the mouths of their servants, the Constructs.
The Constructs
Inanimate matter assembled and given sapience by the Elem in days forgotten, they are now the sentinels of the Elem's abandoned city.
The Dragons
They feed on magical energy, and have found a curious relationship between the sapient entities of the world and the developments of Ley Lines. They have begun meddling silently in the affairs of the world, in order to preserve the flow of the Ley Lines for their own sustenance.
The Were-sharks
Vicious pirates of the north coasts.
The Were-lions
Vicious predators of the desert. Sunlight turns them into lions, and under night they can take the guise of humans. They have natural charisma and charm, and are somewhat like classical vampires, luring victims into the desert to be devoured by their den.
The Freya
Cousins of the Kumori, the Freya have acquired knowledge from the Un pertaining to harnessing life essence. Unfortunately, the Freyan translation is to feed on the blood of their victims. More just vampire bats.
The Haruru
Shapeshifting wolves, who may take humanoid form at will. It is said that they are werewolves who have mastered their forms. They follow druidic paths, keeping to themselves in the forests of the North.
The Un
An ancient race of hominins, the Un have managed to sustain their own life indefinitely. They have constructed the city of Hollow's End where they have somewhat cloistered themselves, preferring ritual and status quo over else.
The UnDead
Some rather brash Un have applied their knowledge and wisdom to giving life to that which has lost it, and have thus strayed from the teachings and have outcast themselves from the Un. The UnDead occupy territory in proximity to the Haruru, and are seen as a threat to the order of life.
The HunUn
A later offspring of Un that have embraced the cycle of life, quickly spreading through the lands, adapting the territory to their needs and carving their homes across the land.
The Kumori
A race of bat-people, wings protruding from their shoulders give them the power of flight. The Kumori dwell in deep, underground caverns, flying out to hunt for food. In the early days, an unusual dragon named Aros brought music, and the Kumori have become the heavy metal bards of the world.
The Dwarves
In ancient days, a giant of massive scale collapsed onto the continent, stabbing his giant blade into the mountain at the center of the continent, his bones all that's left of his body, seemingly emerging from the western coast. The Dwarves inhabit the bones, and their capitol at the skull. They have found a magical property of the giant bones that give the power to build airships. The dwarves rule the skies.
The Gnolls
In the Canyons and deserts of the upper lands, the Gnolls have found a substance similar to the Dwarve's titan-bone. Instead of full-flight, the best they can make is hover crafts called Sandskaters. But violent as they are, the Gnolls are the Mad Max people of the land.
The Lutrae
Anthropomorphic otters, the Lutrae have a keen appreciation for the power of value, and are expert negotiators. They have made fast friends with the HunUns and have built a trade empire.
The Meerka
Cousins of the Lutrae, the Meerka are anthropomorphic meerkats.
The Orks
Big, mean, and hold conquest as the greatest virtue.
The Gnomes
Swamp-dwellers, the gnomes use alchemy to keep themselves protected and hidden.
The Rechin
Cousins of the vicious were-sharks that torment the northern coasts, the Rechin have settled into a rather peaceful community on an island to the northwest.
The MechanicsBooks and MaterialsI had some old PDFs from 2009, but I also purchased updated PDFs of HARP, College of Magic, Martial Law, and even Sci-Fi and Xtreme since I knew vehicles were going to come up.
Additionally, I have some Guild Companion articles saved for reference and ideas.
Combat ChangesFirst and foremost, I intend to implement
Robin Johnson's SPAR, using index cards to declare actions.
It has solid ideas, and I'm hoping to see how well it plays out. One thing I have mulled over is the good of verbally declaring actions 'simultaneously,' and how to cut player tactic discussions during declarations.
To solve this, I have designed single-sided index cards. bound by a ring in the corner. These cards are actions a player character can perform, and each character gets their own ring of cards. Included is a supplemental list of reactions and unique actions for specific situations.
+ Declaring actions goes rather quickly, since they don't have to worry about what others *are* doing, and can focus on their character and his situation. Additionally, this allows an actual simultaneous reveal of actions.
- There are a lot of actions, and cycling through them looking for "the one you want" can be tedious, when you don't know your options.
I currently have actions separated as "Basic Actions", which include "use skill" as a general Maneuver action during combat. Anything that might be unique, such as Hold against Charge and Weapon Bind I will introduce to the player as they ask.
This poses the problem that players may not know something is an option until they try it. I'm verbally encouraging them, but I also want them to choose these things on their own, getting into the character's heads. As they use these actions, I'll give them the card that they can keep for the future.
Hit resolution was hard to settle on. I've decided to utilize the vast array of options by having two different methods, depending on the context.
For most encounters, I will run Hack 'n Slash Extended tables found in the now unavailable HARPer's Bazaar October '09.
For more encounters that require more dramatic tension, especially with a perception of characters on somewhat equal footing, I will utilize Bruce's
Alternate Combat. For the purposes of this thread, I will abstain from commenting on this aspect of my games, and will use the appropriate forum for thoughts and feedback on the combat system. I mention it in this post primarily as record.
EQUIPMENT!One of my biggest changes is to the equipment and inventory system. This is something I'd been mulling over since college, and I'd finally hammered out a prototype system.
Essentially, inventory is laid out in a series of index cards. There's a larger card in the center showing the character's herbal bandoleer slots, and a few pouches and a couple pockets, with some lines to describe the clothes if the player so chooses. Individual weapons each take up a card, a full suit of armor is one card which can track individual pieces, and packs are a single card with slots to pencil in items.
Instead of measuring weight, I have the following guidelines: If an object can be comfortably used with one hand, it takes one spot. If it requires two hands, it takes two spots. This means that a potion, handful of coins, small dagger, and flint and steel (I know it takes two hands to use but they're small and you gotta fudge things here and there) take one spot. 50' of rope will take two spots, so would a larger melee weapon. The packs hold a small number of items which the character has organized for quick access. However there are extra slots on the card, representing a character wishing to stuff additional items. This incurs a small Maneuver Penalty, as well as requiring a Perception Maneuver to find the item and withdraw it in one round, or take an extra round to rummage and find it.
When a character equips a weapon, they tuck it under their main card, signifying taking a scabbard slot. There are 1-handed slots on the left and right, and 2-handed slots on the upper left and right corners.
Armor tucks under the bottom, and provides a Maneuver Penalty as per the rules. Backpacks tuck under that, showing the tallied up Maneuver Penalty for any 'stuffed' items. Once the player has all their cards, they count up how many Burden points are on the cards shown. Their main card is one, a backpack is another. Held objects count as additional burdens. A standard character is unburdened at 2. Each +5 Strength allows an additional burden without penalty. The pack can be dropped to alleviate a burden, and the player will not have access to the objects on that card.
If my design works out well, then the way this plays out is characters take care to manage how many things they put into their pack, and choose to drop backpacks, at the sign of combat, to free themselves up for movement.
If my design works out poorly, then players will break it so someone can hold a number of overstuffed backpacks, armor and weapons with minimal penalty. Time will tell.
I had a run of prototypes printed. If it works as intended, I might try to design a system-neutral version, as well as HARP-specific.
By moving equipment to cards, I'm hoping it will give a sense of supply management, as well as create an opening: as party members drop their bags to fight, goblins can run by and take 'em.
And then came The Explorer from The UndergroundWhile I was working on this game, The Explorer's work schedule kept him away. He did not get to interact at all with the world-building process. As we started finishing up designing the world, The Explorer was introduced to
Dan Harmon's HarmonQuest, in which the creator of
Community and
Rick and Morty plays a tabletop game in front of a studio audience in Hollywood with guests each episode.
I bring it up because it's a great introduction to the kind of fun you can have at a roleplaying game. It's light-hearted, and it uses animated segments to portray the in-game action, which allows the audience to actually enjoy the same game the players are. The GM rolls all the dice, so it shows these actors--most of whom have never rolled The Dice--play these goofy games with the other players, and everyone has fun. I cannot recommend it enough for converting a buddy to just giving it a try. Sure it's not the type of game that we would likely run, but I think we've all had that kind of fun at the table, and that's why we're really there!
And then the stars aligned, and The Explorer's schedule shifted. Suddenly, he could be a player. I was still making the Races, Cultures, and tailoring the mechanics, so I allowed him to make his own race. On his own whim, and an homage to a Dexter's Laboratory episode, "D & DD," he created a subterranean race. Additionally, the entirety of the world-building process had been on the surface map. So it was decided, while the rest of the players can lay claim to designing the surface, he has been the creative force behind the Underground.
The Igbaos
Short for Dreog-Igbaos, the Igbaosians are easiest visualized as four-armed gorons. They inhabit the Underground, where bioluminescent flora and fungi provide light, and giant bugs of every sort crawl from the deepest depths, both a source of sustenance, and a nuisance that is getting worse. Contact with the surface is rather recent, and as a people they're largely distrusted.
The CharactersAlexei, the Un Magician who seeks knowledge and understanding, played by The Partner
Atticus, the Rechin Fighter who yearns to join the righteous Order of Eternity, played by The Idealist
Chrrowf, offspring of a Lutrae/Meerka mix, and a hybrid of the two gnoll types. An ambitious Rogue who has history as a Skyskater, played by The Tinkerer
Moi, a dog that was granted the power to shapeshift into a dwarf. Haruru druids had taken him in, and taught him to defend himself as a Ranger, and enough basic social skills to pass as a sapient dwarf. The Loyalist has a challenge with this character.
Grendonis, the Igbaos Monk. A foreigner to the world, he had only turned away for a moment before the freyans took his younger brother. Afraid to face his father, he abandoned his family, and was led to train as a monk with the elves. The Explorer got to start out with a wealth of story and background to start from, and as Grendonis explores the worlds, The Explorer may explore the hobby.
I think I'll stop here for now. My next posts will contain summaries of games with reflections on my experience, what worked what didn't, et cetera. I also want to go back in another post and talk more about my prep, my custom GM screen and my table rules. At the time of this writing I've only had a few rocky sessions, but I'm learning my lessons.
And so, the stage is set...