Saturday rolled on with more gaming, and a topic I love even more than board games, role playing games.
You Can Start GMing Now: Tips for First-Time Gms
If you want to play RPGs and you don’t have a GM, you should consider stepping up. You don’t have to be an expert on fantasy lore or a master rules lawyer; anyone can be a GM. We’ll talk about common struggles like setting expectations, keeping everyone at the table engaged, finding and playing to your own unique strengths and style, and the hardest part of it all, battling the demons of three to five other people’s schedules.
My personal house Rule #1: It’s just a game.
We’re here to have fun, and if we’re not having fun, then why are we doing it?
Find inspiration (in art, in books, in movies, in conversation with others). I’ve talked about this in other places before – Attacks Of Opportunity being one example.
Prepare to the amount you feel comfortable with, over or under prepared is relative to how you play.
Roll with choices your players make – be flexible – because they WILL change it all. Constantly.
Adapt encounters that were ‘missed’ into something else later in the campaign (save your work).
Keep a list of names (like sounding names from a similar area – on hand just in case random NPC).
Keep notes – particularly of who all those random NPCs are, b/c they might stick and come back (melon guy from Avatar the Last Airbender anyone?)
Feel free to watch shows like critical role – but understand what they’ve got going on behind the scenes (and if you don’t have that, how can your game match that?).
Those were my notes, and many of the other panelists / game masters seemed to share some if not all of those sentiments. There was a lot to pack in during our hour, so I think we did well, but it’s always a challenge. Gaming is such a wide ranging topic it’s tough to squeeze all that in during an hour.
I’ve been running various D&D games for years so there are a lot of things I’ve internalized. Have you run a game? Do you have any thoughts for first timers?
After a couple of solid panels on Friday I was ready for the Saturday schedule and really wanted to dig in. There was a lot of great stuff lined up, starting with games.
Help Me Find a Game I Will Enjoy
Are you new to playing board games, card games, or party games? How can you tell if any particular game will be fun for you? Come to this panel to ask experienced gamers what you should try next based on your own likes and dislikes.
Finding a board game you like is partially about the game itself and partially about the people you’re playing with. Both parts matter.
Board games are by their very nature social. The single biggest challenge is finding a group, or a series of groups of people that you really, truly enjoy gaming with. The people are the key to it all.
As for the games themselves, part of that is learning the language of games. What IS a worker placement game vs. a party game vs. a resource management game? What kinds of those things do you enjoy?
How many people do you want the game to handle?
Do friends recommend the game?
Can you find a YouTube video on it (and do you trust that person’s opinion)?
The best part of this panel for me was the crowd participation. That normally isn’t true for me, but having my dear friend and serious game fan John right up front was really special for this one. Myself and the other panelists enjoyed a good discussion about all the things I listed above in my notes and then some. It was a really great start to the day.
Side note – I highly recommend digging up a board game and finding some folks to play.
I’m wondering about the scale of my lack of focus. I don’t think it’s ADD or ADHD or whatever initials that particular diagnosis have been changed to lately. I am looking at the pattern of my postings here and seeing that they tend to cluster when I have certain things going on and thin way out when I have other things going on. There is nothing consistent about what I’m doing.
Having said that, I realize that there IS consistency, just at a larger scale. The general things I am interested in, and the things I work on are in certain channels, but those channels tend to cycle. There will be times when I am working on art pieces, times when I am crafting, times when I’m writing and struggling along with that and times when I’m reaching out with other creative endeavors.
Lately my energy is being spent on one of those ‘other’ creative endeavors. Gaming. I have posted before about being a player in a role playing game that was streaming on Twitch and YouTube. That game hit a snag ~ the snag of course being that we are adults with lives and responsibilities. Schedule has killed yet another game… OR has it?
I asked my friend if he minded that I step in and take over running a game. He was agreeable and so were the folks playing the game. Since then I’ve shifted gears and dropped back into my Dungeon Master ways. I’m producing art, but it’s generally for the game or the video channel. I’m writing, but it’s centered around the next adventure. I’ve dropped off the crafting and painting a bit simply because we’re running this game virtually across 2 time zones.
In the end, playing Dungeons & Dragons has resurfaced as my hobby of choice. I’m having a great time creating the world and working with the players as they move through various parts of their adventures. We’re still on the Ether Network channel, just under a different “show” title. IF you’re into the story, you should check it out over on Twitch or YouTube:
It’s a sportsball sounding kind of title, but it doesn’t make it less true. Sometimes when you’re in a slump or you can’t seem to shake out of a rut the thing you need is an easy win. Take on something that’s not part of your regular list, your massive project or the thing you’re blocked on and just do something smaller and less stressful. Take the easy win.
That worked for me. I went out and watched the **ULTIMATE** newbie crash course. I don’t know that I’m a total newbie, but I’m always happy to look at videos talking about basics. The foundation or fundamental pieces that crafters start from are often very different from each other. I don’t necessarily follow all the terrain advice shown in Wyloch’s Armory, but there was a bit in that video that reached me. Quick and easy doors.
I hadn’t thought about doors in dungeon terrain specifically. I’ve got grand visions of foam mountains and elaborate set pieces with months of build time involved and it all just seemed to be a bit overwhelming. I needed to step back and take on something smaller and easier in order to get into the work. Doors. The video series creator has a really great take on using a flat washer and some smaller craft supplies to create these doors. I stopped by the hardware store on the way back to the house one day and dug in.
I did not stick to the pure basics as shown in the video, but used the simplicity of the design concept to push forward a series of doors that I could use to advance a story. I was really happy with the result and at the end of the afternoon I had nine pieces I could add to my terrain library for future use. I didn’t grab pictures of all individually, but here are a couple of my favorites:
The Collection
Rusty Cell
Rotten Core
If you’re stuck or have writers block or can’t figure out what to paint or build or whatever your hobby is – sometimes it can really help if you take the ‘easy win’! What sort of things fit this description for you?
We cruised into a second episode for our Beyond The Supernatural role playing game. It was a fun week, even if I struggled with move forward with my character. I made one spectacularly bad roll and earned a new nickname behind the scenes. I am now Mr. 114, however briefly.
If you’re into checking out the game, we’re live on Twitch when we play and then the videos get posted up to the YouTube channel. You can check out the latest episode here:
A few days ago I posted about how great it felt to be gearing up to be a player in a Dungeons and Dragons game again. It was a really cool feeling I haven’t had for quite some time.
About that game… turns out that less than half of us really *know* 5th Edition rules. I was digging into the PHB and working hard at catching up when there was a choice made. That choice was to switch to a different game that others had a level of comfort with. We were assured this was not a bait and switch, but a temporary move to avoid losing the momentum our game had picked up.
Suddenly I spun about and landed in a supernatural horror game set in the modern day, albeit and alternate (darker if you can believe that) version of today’s world. The twist on this game for me? We live streamed the game while we were playing. We’re on a Twitch channel. When the games are finished, they live on Twitch for a while and then are moved over to a YouTube channel. It was a new and fun thing. IF you’re at all interested, hop on over and check out the video:
I feel like I’m taking a small cue from Jack Skellington. My jaded and tired self is getting a fresh look. I’m doing something I haven’t done in a very long time, and I’m excited about it. Probably sounds odd given how much I talk about my hobbies here, but stick with me on this.
I’m going to play Dungeons & Dragons.
Yes, you read that correctly, but perhaps you didn’t understand. I’m playing Dungeons & Dragons. I’m not talking about it, writing about it, world building or lining up NPCs and monsters for the grinder. I’m not plotting, planning or otherwise looking at the machinations of evildoers in the game world at large. I’m going to be a player. I’m actually excited about it ~ and that’s refreshing! I haven’t been an active player in a campaign for probably 20 years. I’ve spent the vast majority of that time running games and teaching new players.
I was invited (totally weaseled my way in) to join a private and exclusive game. It consists of seasoned, experienced gamers (old guys). It may shock you to know that I’m not even the person that’s been playing D&D for the longest among the group. I may be like 3rd in line (holy shit are we old). I’m not sure about that as I don’t know a couple of the players yet – but there’s a LOT of years gathering around this virtual table. The person running the game is a story teller that consistently makes me think while hitting me with turns of phrase that just lodge in my lexicon and don’t leave. I’ve gotten some details on the game world and it looks like this is going to be crazy good.
Here’s the other really fun thing about this. The game is going to be 5e. That’s right, I’m going to have to up my game and move into 5th edition.
I haven’t had the disposable income to spend on D&D the way I might have wanted to over the past couple of years (crap, I guess I mean decades). I have enough source books here to continue to play any version up to D&D 3.5. I skipped 4th because it was an unholy abomination and then when 5th came out I just couldn’t give up the time and treasure to dig in the way I would have once upon a time.
I popped over to a local shop (support your local game store!) and picked up a 5e players handbook.
Yeah, the part about the treasure? Not kidding. The freaking thing cost $50. ONE BOOK! There’s a commentary to be made here about the amount of pure privilege that is expressed in the cost of picking up the materials to play this game. I would not have seen that in days gone by (clearly didn’t slow me down as I have dozens of these books from past editions – I can reach more than 40 game manuals from this seat). I am going to have to pick apart the costs, diversity and other related issues at another time. There’s a list of things to unpack and give some real thought to in there.
Now that I have said book in hand, I’m doing another thing I haven’t done since ages long gone – I’m sitting and reading the Players Handbook. From the start. I read the intro material and the basic explanations. It seemed fitting since this is a system that is close to what I have known for many years, but is changed in subtle and distracting ways. Different methods for generating ability scores. Touching on Advantage / Disadvantage rolls (something I’ve not seen or heard of before). Specific notes about rounding down, even if the resulting fraction is more than .5 (it’s a game that’s defying math, not glorifying it with the THACO! What is this world coming to?).
I’m sure that as I go I’ll have more to say about my adventure of digging into 5th edition. Now, off to create my character!
Art and it’s influence on Dungeons & Dragons for me – It’s fantastic to sit and talk about all the parts that have kept me on board with this hobby for all these years. You can check out the video here:
My notes on it all ~
Art has always been an important part of the D&D experience. Even from the earliest days when some of the production was created (clearly) using a typewriter and blurry copies there were sketches. I am a super visual person. In fact, the entirety of my day job right now is creating three dimensional representations of building designs. Design, drawing, art, aesthetic considerations are the core of what I do.
I have always been drawn to, and absolutely love the visuals of this amazing and wide ranging fantasy game. It is a constant source of inspiration to me, even now, in my current game and world building. I back very, very few Kickstarter campaigns, but when I saw that there was one about the art of D&D I went as high as I could afford on it right away. It matters that much to me. IF you have the chance, go out and grab a copy or watch via your streaming service the film “Eye of the Beholder – The Art of Dungeons & Dragons”. I Highly recommend this film.
What are my top ten art pieces from D&D? That was both a simple and a massively complex question all in the same breath. I can see them in my head. I remember the feeling when I first saw them. I have many of them collected up in their original book covers, box art, and magazines. I have a handful of prints from conventions that are from product production runs showing the art without the text added in. I’m not a hardcore collector, but I can say without question this art surrounds me almost every day in my home.
The real question is where to start?
Love that the plans actually say, “Blue Print”
#1 – Sketchy Art. I do not in any way want this to sound like I’m trying to be down on these pictures at all. Quite the opposite. I found them inspirational simply because they looked like they could be achieved to me. One example (there are many) is this cartoon from Dragon Magazine. It’s funny and it’s clearly hand drawn. I looked at pictures like that in my gaming materials and thought, “I can do this too”. So I started drawing and creating trying to match the cool, funny, fantastic pictures I saw in the gaming materials – and even got some published!
I still cringe when I see this
This piece was part of an actual book of cartoons published by my middle school. I think I was 11 at the time it was published. Little did I know how hooked I’d be on that feeling.
Note how they don’t care about the other characters behind them.
#2 – Cartoons. Particularly in the AD&D 1st edition books. Black and white single line drawings with text below. They were fantasy art AND they cracked me up. Anyone that played then will know them. I can say, “… or it’s a +2 back scratcher” and you’ll know exactly what cartoon I mean.
Artist – David A. Trampier
#3 – Emirikol the Chaotic. Staying in 1st edition, in the DMG there were full and half page art pieces that were just fantastic. One of my favorites was this crazy wizard riding through town just blasting people. It was a snapshot of action. It was proof positive that not everyone was a good guy. It was how you set up an adventure with a single idea and give it location. It’s right there! Start at the Green Griffon and go from there! Love it.
Artist – David A. Trampier
#4 – The cover art for the AD&D 1st Ed. PHB. It told a story. It didn’t stop with a single image, it wrapped around to the back of the book too. There were monsters and maps and gems. There was a ton of ways you could dig into this picture and see what was going on here. An absolute classic.
Artist – Rubin
#5 – The Wizard’s Room. Cover art for the Grenadier miniatures. Wizard’s room I think was the very first set of miniatures I ever got… although it might have been the hirelings box… hazy memory right now. I still have them all. It was art that went beyond the cover. There was actual sculpture in the box that YOU could paint. I wanted any and all that I could get from that series. If I saw the yellow edge of that box in any hobby shop I was going to see what it was and most likely try to buy it.
Artist – Larry Elmore
#6 – Draonlance Art. I could totally put any in here, but I’m going to pick just one. “The Death of Sturm” stunned me. It was character death in a novel. It was art that showed characters took damange and there were consequences to choices made. This is my favorite, but Dragonlance is a total “pick ’em” set. Larry Elmore’s art is amazing. Go look up any of it. Full stop.
Artist – Denis Beauvais
#7 – Dragon Magazine issue #92. Dragon, maiden, wizard. Spells, danger and the knight wasn’t just any knight, he was a centaur. I was all over this. It was such a popular cover that Ral Partha made a miniature of that cover. I still don’t have the nerve to paint it because I’m afraid I can’t live up to that cover.
Artist – Denis Beauvais
#8 – Dragon Magazine issue #86 “Stalemate”. Glowing multi-level chess warriors with some crazy lich in the background? Any cover from the “chess” series was amazing, but this one really worked for me. I tried to emulate that glowing effect in my own art (unsuccessfully) for a really long time. (I didn’t realize how many amazing covers this artist did, nor how much I really admire his art. Check out this stuff here: Dragon Covers )
Still looking for where the promotional art came from…
#9 – Al Quadim (I can’t figure out the name of the painting). I’m picking this piece as a representative of the whole line. This was a limited run, not an ongoing set of world building pieces. It had an exotic look and the bonus of laying out (via the Secretes of the Lamp supplement) the fabled City of Brass as shown on the 1st ed. DMG. There was so much to love here. I wish I could remember how I came to lay hands on a packet of promotional art – but these pieces have been in my collection since the very early 90s and they are fantastic.
The book and packaging are art too!
#10 – Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History. I suspect that some people will consider this “cheating” as many consider two dimensional paintings to be “art” but I disagree. This magnificent book is over four hundred pages of glory. My lovely wife got me the special edition box set with extra art included. It covers everything I’ve talked about here and so much more. There are pictures showing the entire line of handbooks from the earliest all the way up to 5th edition. There are old print ads, module maps and photos from the earliest days. I am happy this was made and delighted that I was able to get my hands on one.
There is so much art that ten pieces really can’t cover it all. Art and D&D are intertwined at the very core of what the game is. Imagination with a little something to spark it. Nudge your brain with a bit of a sketch or blow it away with some of the masterful works of these dedicated artists. I’m amazed at the variety of art that exists out there now and I intend to keep looking for it for the foreseeable future.
I am delighted to share another video where I get to chat with Jon about D&D. This time we’re covering the top 5 novels that are fuel for your imagination – inspiring to your game. It was a fun conversation. I really look forward to our next chance to chat.
IF you don’t have the 50 minutes or so to watch, or if you’re at all interested I have put the notes I made up before we shot the video below here:
Top 5 fantasy books to read for inspiration (and why…)
I thought this was a great subject for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, reading anything is important. The further you reach, the greater the inspiration you’ll achieve. Reading a fantasy novel is what got me started along the path toward playing D&D.
Reading fantasy is a great way to pick up ideas, stretch your characters, expand your game world, learn new things about the real world AND sharing what you’ve read with others is a great way to connect with friends. There’s a lot of good that comes from digging into a book.
Why five? Because if we didn’t put a limit on this, the list would be boundless. There are hundreds of fantasy titles out there. You absolutely can find something you want to read. It will definitely help your game, but we don’t want to turn this into a book-cast.
This was not an easy list to compile. Not for lack of choices, but the shear number of things to pick through!
I’m going to eliminate 2 series right off the bat.
First – The Hobbit (and by association the LOTR trilogy). This is a tried and true “go to” for fantasy. It’s the starting point for so much that I don’t know how to take a fresh look at it. IF by some chance you’ve never read any Tolkien, it’s the basis for a huge amount of what we’re talking about.
Second – I’m not going to pander here. Any novel by our esteemed host is great inspiration for fantasy AND I absolutely recommend Blood and Iron for a setting that is not a traditional pseudo medieval fantasy look. I just think that “advertising” wasn’t necessarily the right way to go.
So – top 5 to read for inspiration – and why!
#1 – Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed. (DAW books, 2012)
This is a great book. Above and beyond that, the inspiration part is in the use of a non-traditional hero character, a middle-eastern background, a murder mystery AND considerations of religion (like we talked about in our last visit).
If you’re doing an adventure involving genies, shifting sands, flying carpets, anything along those lines this is a book you need to get!
#2 – The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt Evans (DEL REY 1985)
Empires at war. Wizards, warriors, miscast spells and curses. IF you want to see the sort of variety you can have with some of the traditional characters in a D&D setting this is a great one. This is great if you want to teach your players to be careful what they ask for!
#3 – Thieves World edited by Robert Asprin (ACE 1978)
Adventures featuring a party of sneaks, rouges, assassins and other double dealing sorts can be a huge amount of fun. The thieves’ world series is shared world. It’s the same setting with shared characters over a series of short stories. There is a lot to be gleaned from these pages AND there are stories by some of the fantasy greats in there (Poul Anderson, Joe Haldeman, Robert Asprin…)
#4 – His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik (DEL REY 2006)
Dragons as weapons. Aerial combat. Navy ships. Kingdoms at war. This series really gives a lot of reasons to love it. Yes, it is outside the “traditional” swords and horses time frame. I don’t like to have pistols or cannons or modern weaponry mixed with my D&D campaign, but this book has a lot to get the creative juices flowing. Absolutely worth the read, even if you’re not using it for D&D.
#5 – The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (TOR 2010)
Massive, immersive, epic fantasy. Knights, wars, magic and myths all mixed together in a fat, meaty book. Ballpark 1200 pages. This has rich, detailed views into a fantasy world that any gamer or game master should be reading (and there’s a lot to read!) Sanderson’s style is easy to read and the pages really melt away – do not let the size of the book intimidate you!
