Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #90

City Tips III

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SENT BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY With Compliments

From: Johnn Four, http://www.roleplayingtips.com
mailto:feedback@roleplayingtips.com

CONTENTS:
--> A Brief Word From Johnn

--> This Week's Tips Summarized:

1. 9 Basic Pointers
2. Avoid Bartering With Large Groups
3. A Neat Method For Planning Out A City
4. Another Good City Planning Method
5. Solutions To Several Problems With City Games
6. Describing Cities

--> Readers' Tips Of The Week:

1. Door Slamming Sound Effect
2. Sounds Effects Tips
3. A Neat Tarot Cheating Trick
4. Tarot Alternatives
5. A Survey of Tarot Decks for Roleplaying Purposes
6. What To Do When Your Players Aren't Taking It Seriously
7. Roleplaying NPCs Tips
8. Use Coloring Books For NPCs
9. Cheap Legos For Use As Miniatures
10. Make The Monsters MONSTERS!

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A BRIEF WORD FROM JOHNN

Milenix MyInfo 2.0 Update

-------------------------
MyInfo is a great GM utility (PCs only, I'm afraid) that I
reviewed in #79 [ http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue79.html ]
and also requested your feedback on.

I received an email from Milenix this week and they thank

you for your excellent ideas and suggestions. They have also
posted a features update for the upcoming new version, if
you're curious:
http://milenix.com/myinfo/ming/index.htm

Gaming Industry Disaster Fund Auction

-------------------------------------
Gary Thompson of Fiction-Fantasy.net is putting together a
Gaming Industry Disaster Fund Auction to help assist the US
in its relief efforts. Please check out http://www.game-
information.com for auction details and how you can help.
If you check out the sponsors list, you'll see an amazing
show of support from the RPG industry. That's awesome!

Longer Issue This Week

----------------------
Though I live in Canada and was geographically far away, I
too was greatly affected by the recent NY tragedy. The only
way I can think of fighting back currently is to carry on
with business as usual. To this end, this week's tips issue
is longer than normal with several additional Readers' Tips
of the Week. Thanks for your on-going tips submissions!

Yours truly,

Johnn Four
johnn@roleplayingtips.com

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MORE ROLEPLAYING ARTICLES & REVIEWS @ MY OTHER SITE

http://www.roleplaygames.about.com

New This Week:

* 7 Golden Rules Of Character Design:

http://www.roleplaygames.about.com/library/weekly/aa091301.htm

* D20 Game Review: Legions of Hell

http://www.roleplaygames.about.com/library/bllegions.htm

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CITY TIPS III

Here are links to parts I & II:

http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue82.html
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue81.html

1. 9 Basic Pointers
===================
From: Shane H.

1) Make it big. Describe how huge it is - how wide the

streets are, how high the buildings are. Describe the amount
of people on the streets, the traffic, the detritus.

2) It's a noisy place. Play some music or even a recording

of the correct time period/environment.

3) Bureaucracy is a killer. If the PCs want to do anything

by the book they have to follow a trail of paper and data to
do it.
4) Everybody has a life. Make sure to reflect that.

5) Crime. There's plenty of that too. Encourage an

underworld and organise it.

6) Factions. People fight and have conflicts - sometimes

without reason.

7) Urban decay. Some parts of the city are falling to bits,

and so are the citizens.

8) Urban legends. Every city has one or two that are unique
to the city. They don't even need to be adventure hooks.

9) Policing. Some police are good, some are bad, and some
are misunderstood.

2. Avoid Bartering With Large Groups

====================================
Django D. writes:

In our games there were certain players who enjoyed

bartering for goods in every village/town/city we passed
through. This was fine when there were only a few
characters, but with larger groups these bartering sessions
were taking an hour or more - people rolling bargaining
skill checks, shopping around, etc.

Our GM put an end to that for the larger groups. The players
would create a shopping list of the items they were looking
for and include the 'standard' prices alongside each. This
list was handed to the GM with the results of the bargaining
skill dice roll. The GM would then hand back the list with
adjusted costs based on the bargaining rolls. If you
couldn't afford everything then you knocked items off at the
list value until you were happy.

It wouldn't necessarily reflect the true "bargain finder's"

ability to get the lowest price but at least we could get
going once again.

[Johnn: I side with Django on this one when it looks like

bartering is going to bore players. In a similar vein, keep
in mind that bartering is not used and/or accepted in all
cultures. There might be some roleplaying opportunities for
you here when the PCs manage to offend local merchants with
their false assumptions and bartering tactics.]

3. A Neat Method For Planning Out A City

========================================
Here are some excellent advice and tips from Dave G.

One of the best things I learned about running characters in

a city is a synthesis of things I learned from your weekly
tips information and my own observations as a GM.

* Don't spend too much time working on all of the details

that the characters are going to encounter in the city.
There are some great tools already available to generate
things like inn names and NPC names. The critical things to
develop are the names and locations you plan for next
session's adventure.

* I take a map of my city and photocopy it down to a regular

size sheet of paper, then I divide the place into fourths
and decide certain things about each quadrant. I usually
name the quadrants 'wards' and their name is tied to
something specific about that area (i.e. Castle Ward, Dock
Ward, Slavers Ward, etc.) The name gives me a good idea
about the type of neighborhood that's going to generally be
in each area.

Example: The Castle Ward is higher class than the rest of

the city. Government offices (including the new Tax Bureau
that the characters must find) are located here. The homes
of much of the nobility and ruling class can be found here,
along with some temples of the popular deities in the
region.

* Then I put my smaller city map in a sheet protector and

use water based erasable markers to note down a code for my
location key (My code is simple, I number my quadrants and I
use a letter for each type of building I am detailing (i.e.
G is government, T is temple, and I is an inn, etc.). I
number each building in sequence. The Tax Bureau is in
Quadrant 1 and it is the first government building I detailed
so in the appropriate spot on the map I mark 1G1.

* At the end of each session, I update my larger map with

the code from my key. Depending upon how much time
characters spend in the city, more and more details are
fleshed out.

* For sites that don't get planned out in advance I use name
generators to come up with a store name or proprietor's name
and place that info on a card for entry into my map key
later. Then when the players want to go get a drink at that
place with the one-eyed dwarf, it's already got information.
I usually try to come up with a name for any colorful
characters, (alekeep, wenches, or bouncers in a tavern for
instance) so I don't have to do that work more than once.

Note: sometimes the supporting cast of NPCs bring adventure

hooks. One time I had the regular waitress at a tavern the
PCs frequented not be working one day. It affected the whole
atmosphere, because the alekeep and the bouncer had to help
serve patrons. It made for a funny role-playing opportunity,
and when one of the players asked about the waitress, it
unveiled a mystery the players decided to solve. (Some thugs
were starting a protection gambit and had kidnapped the
waitress to get the alekeep to pay up!)

4. Another Good City Planning Method

====================================
Victor F. has a different way of planning cities:
Running city campaigns aren't easy, but I break it down into
three basic sections:

1) The poor sector of the city

2) The middle class sectors with market places
3) The rich sector with large buildings and rich architecture

That's often the way they work anyway in both modern and
ancient cities. The poorest sectors are filled with dark
alleys, beggars pleading for money, and thieves looking to
make a quick buck. The middle sectors aren't as disgusting
but still filled with people trying to make a quick buck.
The richest sectors are filled with snotty rich folk that
look down upon the poor.

As for architecture, the poorest sectors are usually built

with cheaply manufactured materials (cardboard, sheet metal,
etc.), while the middle sectors are made with either brick,
stone, or shoddy masonry, and the richest sectors are
constructed of fine materials (ivory, marble, cobble stone,
etc.).

One thing that helps me with architecture and basic

layout of cities is to research the time period in which my
campaign is set in.

For basic layout, usually I separate it into a circle with

three smaller circles inside of it separating the three
basic classes. The inner smaller circle is the rich, seeing
as it is in the center of all the action, the 2nd circle is
the middle class sector, and the outer largest circle is
the poor sector. This is just a general rule of thumb and is
reflective of the way society is made in large cities. Small
cities can be divided however accordingly though.

5. Solutions To Several Problems With City Games

================================================
Here, Gareth H. gives us several city campaign problems and
some possible solutions:

1) Availability of services. One of the problems in a city-

based game is that, if the city is large enough, the PCs
should reasonably be able to acquire most of the things they
need. This can make a game that requires a lot of resources
possibly too easy, as the group can just visit their local
hardware store if they run out of rope, nail-guns, chains,
crowbars, etc. Place some other barrier in the way: lack of
finances, a time-limit, etc. to make them plan their
equipment more effectively.

2) Too many NPCs. In a city game, there are more potential

NPCs than any GM could easily describe. Groups have a habit
of saying "We go and visit the park/restaurant/mall/library",
and expect to interact with a range of NPCs you may not have
planned. It helps to have a list of NPC names and simple
personality traits ready, in this case, to support the
imagery of a bustling metropolis.
3) Ease of transport. Part of the fun of some games is just
in getting to the destination. In a city, however,
everything is relatively closely spaced, and for a few coins
you can get taken wherever you want to go by taxi, rickshaw,
carriage, walking, etc. This also applies to moving large
objects. If the group uncovers a gold statue they can just
hire a taxi-truck or ox-drawn wagon to get it home.

If you want to delay the group, use traffic jams, riots,

breakdowns, bad weather or inaccurate directions to keep
them from just arriving on the Villain's doorstep, or
escaping afterwards.

4) Location, Location, Location! In the wilds, one bit of

forest can look much like another for many days travel. In a
city, however, just turning a corner puts you in a different
world. Being prepared for the vast array of different 'sets'
the group may visit can be a challenge. The Abandoned
Warehouse is very different in atmosphere, content and
structure from City Hall just down the road. Have a few
short prepared descriptions ready for the sort of locations
your characters may visit in the city: Stables/Parking lot,
Market/Mall, Guardhouse/Police Station, Seaport/Starport,
Tavern/Nightclub, Dark Alleyway (common to any genre!) etc.

5) Getting there is half the fun. Outside of a city, the

build up can be the journey to a place. In a city, the
build up can be in *finding* the place.

6. Describing Cities
====================
Gareth also has some great tips about describing cities:

1) Give each city a theme. If your group is involved in a

lot of travel, and visits many different cities, then it
helps to focus on what makes each city different. For
example, focus on lighting and darkness in a city where you
want clear distinctions between two elements of the game.
Give another city a carnival feel by focusing on street
parades or parties, and in another highlight the vegetation
and parks to give it an organic feel. They could all be the
same city, but the theme provides a different flavour.

2) Relate the city to its purpose in the game. If the PCs

are visiting a city to trade, concentrate on the markets and
guilds and make them the most significant element. In a game
based on thieves and skullduggery, highlight the class
distinction and the differences between 'have' and 'have
not'. If the city is under siege, focus on the ways the
citizens are reacting in small ways: barricaded windows,
normally peaceful barkeeps with swords at their belt, etc.

3) Describe height differences. The major difference between

cities and the wilderness is its dimensions -- cities tend
to go *up*. Describe things above eye level such as
balconies, flags on rooftops, washing lines across alleys,
police and news helicopters, etc.
4) Limit line of sight. The difference between encounters in
cities and the country is in how far you can see. Ambushes
can be around every corner, and making a few quick turns can
lose the pursuing mob. It can also help to give a sense of
claustrophobia to encounters. Use words that give a sense of
closeness.

5) Use character perspective. If the PCs are from a rural

setting, play up the dirt, squalor, close-packed humanity
and lack of recognition from passers-by, homeless people,
etc. If they are city people born and bred, they may not
notice, so instead describe clean and shiny buildings
towering above the streets. If they are wealthy, they'll see
the wealth. If they are poor, they'll see the poverty.

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RPGShop.com -- The Dice and D20 Superstore

Hi, it's Johnn here. I encourage you to check out this site
if you're looking for mail-order RPG stuff. I know James,
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The site's got 7000+ products, ships fast, and prices are
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[P.S. This is not a paid advertisement. Though James put

some promo stuff about this ezine on his sites for me, I
personally vouch for him and for RPGShop.com.]

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READERS' TIPS OF THE WEEK

1. Door Slamming Sound Effect

From: ECCE
=============================
I have found that slamming one's open hand, palm down onto a
hardback rule book, makes a good simulation of sound for
something trying to break down a door. Especially if you
talk quietly about the party settling down to rest in a room
when they have spiked the doors..........everybody is
restful.......the halfling has just got a stew on the
boil.......the mage settles down with his spell
book......WHAMMMM! Something slams against the door from the
outside. It gets a good reaction, believe me.

2. Sounds Effects Tips

From: SEddy
======================
Johnn,
I'm a theatre teacher and we use sound effects in our plays,
and we even do an OTR unit (Old Time Radio). Here are a few
SFX ideas that can be used...

Rain - rice on paper or wax paper

Bubbling cauldron - blow through a straw into water
Fire - crumple paper or cellophane
Horse - coconut shells (of course)
Walking thru snow - well taped box of cornstarch
Falling/crashing - old empty carmel corn tin with glass,
wood, metal bits (just roll it around)

But for diversity and ease of use nothing beats SFX CDs. I
find them pretty cheap at HalfPrice Books. I don't know if
you have them where you live, but it's worth checking out.
Theatre supply catalogs and websites will have some, but
more expensive. Here are some websites...

http://home.sprynet.com/~palermo/mtr_rad4.htm
http://www.old-time.com/sfx.html
http://www.marblehead.net/foley/

Hope these ideas help.

3. A Neat Tarot Cheating Trick

From: John B.
==============================
Hi Johnn,

I'm new to your site and really enjoyed the article on using
Tarot cards in games.

This is something that I started doing a couple of years ago

and thought I'd drop you a line about how I've used the
cards.

It starts with cheating at cards. I select the cards that I

want in the fortune and separate them from the deck while
keeping them in the proper order.

Before telling the fortune, I usually kill the room lights

and light candles to create a proper atmosphere for fortune
telling. Then I hand the deck over to the PC and have them
shuffle the deck and hand it back to me.

At some point after this, I slip the prepped cards back on

top of the deck. Usually by finding some excuse to pull the
shuffled deck back behind my GM screen beforehand.

When the cards start to fall in the pre-selected pattern it

usually serves to weird out the PC who is pretty sure that
they mixed this deck thoroughly before the fortune started.

Thanks again for the great resource!

4. Tarot Alternatives
From: Scott S.
=====================
I just thought I would drop a note in response to your
recent newsletter with all the Tarot tips.

First off, I loved the tips. There are some excellent

suggestions in there for those of us with Tarot cards. The
problem is that there are a lot of people who don't have any
Tarot cards, and either don't have the money or simply don't
want to buy them. Some religions look on Tarot cards and
other divination tools (such as Ouija boards and rune
stones) as works of the devil. At the very least, they may
make people uncomfortable using them, even for something as
innocent as coming up with story ideas.

An alternative may be to use a collectible card game (CCG).

It seems to me that CCG's like Magic are fairly widespread
and the art and structure of the cards makes them a very
viable alternative when trying to come up with ideas. For
example, using a set of the new Warlord cards, I came up
with this:

1) Charge: An evil force is preparing to attack a local

city/town.

2) Follow Through: This force is just the leading edge of

a vast evil army.

3) Long Sword: They are attacking because they think a

legendary magical weapon is in this area, and they want it.

4) Rage: The locals (dwarves) are ready to die to defend

their town.

5) Claw: The local leader is a druid with the ability to

transform into a cave bear.

Warlord isn't even very well suited for this, but I was
still able to come up with several ideas using the graphics
and text on each card. It helps that each card includes a
sample bit of prose. For example, Charge has "'Onward! For
Hate, and for glory!' The Nothrog charged down the Four
Hills of Baraxton, and fire roared through the heavens from
their siege machines." They main thing is that I got my
Warlord starter set for free in an issue of Dragon magazine.

Of course, there are many different types of CCGs, just as

there are many different types of roleplaying games. Using
CCGs could be an interesting alternative to Tarot, or it
could be used as a supplement to it. Really, ideas can come
from anywhere.

5. A Survey of Tarot Decks for Roleplaying Purposes

From: Heather Grove
===================================================
Your readers might find this link interesting:

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/tarotsurvey.html
It's a survey of various popular and odd tarot decks that
discusses a bit of what makes a tarot deck useful for
different purposes, and the value of picking a deck that
suits your game.

6. What To Do When Your Players Aren't Taking It Seriously

From: Mirko B.
==========================================================
[Johnn: see the related issue here:
5 Things To Do When Your Players Aren't Taking It Seriously
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue48.html ]

I've found another way to "educate" players that are always

silly, joking around too much, and disturbing any atmosphere
you're just starting to create.

First, try to be patient - don't overreact. I think that

most of the problem-players are very young and/or
unexperienced. They may be very excited and express this
excitement by making jokes.

So the answer to this problem is to let them experience by

themselves what it means to be a gamemaster. I've had a
fabulous campaign running, but one player always acted like
a child, so I said to him that the next time he disturbed
the atmosphere or acted like a silly child, he would NOT be
punished, he would NOT be thrown out of the party, but
instead he would gain the HONOR of being the gamemaster for
the next adventure.

This prospect kept him at bay for the next 3 gaming

sessions, but then again he started to disturb. So, I told
him that I wouldn't start the next adventure until he was
gamemaster for at least one session. He had no other choice!
So, we started an adventure under his tutelage and it was a
disaster - for him! So we forgot the whole session and this
player was never again a problem.

7. Roleplaying NPCs Tips

From: Kelly P.
http://www.astrofantasy.com
====================================
I just started a new 3E campaign and after an initial
character creation session where we fleshed out backgrounds
and player relations, we waited another week to actually
begin play. During that week I tediously typed up all the
player character's histories and character sheets and put
them on my website [ http://www.astrofantasy.com ] under a
new link called the Hemlock Campaign (that's their base
city). In the histories there were many references to NPCs
that helped shape their backgrounds. A lot of them came
right off the tables in the new 3E Hero Builder's Guidebook.

Before our first session, I decided to have all the

characters at the Shimmering Moon Tavern (yes the Tavern
Scene!) but with a twist. It was the halfling sorcerer's
birthday and they were actually celebrating it on the same
night as the Midsummer Festival. A dwarf merchant who was
friends with the halfling's family (the halfling's father was
a merchant before he died in a freak warehouse accident)
came to the party to celebrate and also to ask the halfling
and all his first level companions if they would guard his
caravan going south for just two days because he'd heard
rumors of nightly attacks on what was normally the safest
road in all of Krindor. He was to meet the rest of his
caravan guard at a small village, and that village was where
I was trying to get my players to go for their real first
adventure.

The night before the session I sat down and wrote out the
whole tavern scene with a bard's storytelling, the birthday
cake (You ever get your group singing happy birthday?),
secret notes for each player with their presents for the
halfling, and the dwarf's request. I started writing it in
screenplay format and it just flowed from there with:

Interior--Shimmering Moon Tavern--Night

The players are all sitting around celebrating...blah, blah,

blah.

I even rehearsed the whole thing by myself the night before

and I was cracking up!

Well, the tavern scene got a group of newbies off to a

roaring start, roleplaying a very funny scene, and the dwarf
hired them. I took the time to write out some "gemfully"
funny lines and added bits of humour and all. And after
overeating as he was prone to do, the dwarf had major
diarrhea the first day out on caravan! The players loved his
"humaness". He was such a real character and totally 3D due
to the fact that he was well thought out, he meshed in with
a character's history, he was funny but without trying to
be, and can you imagine a greedy, boisterous caravan master
with the runs?!

Anyway, get into your NPCs and really be them before you
roleplay them. That first scene set the game and the
campaign in motion and we played from 7PM til 5 AM! Talk
about sensitive dependence on initial conditions! After that
the player's really got into some chaotic role-playing. So
NPCs, and immersing yourself in them, are the key to breaking
the ice and getting players' out of their heads!

And remember, if ain't any fun, why are we doing it?

8. Use Coloring Books For NPCs

From: Ben K.
==============================
I think a good way to look at giving your NPCs a fleshed out
personality is by looking at a children's coloring books. The
pictures are obvious and you can tell the story by looking
through it. With a box of crayons you can make a very
colorful and creative expression of yourself. You can color
the pictures any tones that you want. You can make others
want to look at your books.

[Johnn: using colouring books is a great tip as the pictures

in them are usually bold and full of character. Does anyone
have any additional colouring book tips? Seems like a neat
topic...]

9. Cheap Legos For Use As Miniatures

From: Jericho
====================================
Cheap Miniatures tip:

Another tip along the "old toy" line is to use Lego mini-
figs. I use them in my campaign, with great success. They
are about the same size as pewter minis, they are
customizable, there are LOTS of different weapons and
accessories, and with all the different sets available
(pirate, castle, ninja, space, rock raiders, town, etc.)
they can fit easily into any other campaign. Many people
have some old ones, and they are available cheaply on Ebay,
and also at http://www.brickbay.com . If you are careful on
Ebay, you can get them for less than the cost of a
comparable mini, and best of all - you don't have to paint
them! I also plan on using green plastic army men as
opponents!

[Johnn: here's a related tip from Daniel E:]

I am currently running D&D3E for a group of players where among

one is a hard core LEGO fanatic. Since she has tons of the
stuff, it seemed natural to start using it to run fights and
encounters, which has worked wonderfully. Most LEGO stuff
fits pretty well in the recommended 1x1 inch squares. You
should check out some of the pictures at her site:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=elinen

10. Make The Monsters MONSTERS!

From: Nahuris
===============================
How many times have you seen an encounter go like this:

"As you are walking through the woods you come across some
goblins. There are about a dozen of them and they are
charging you. What do you do?"

The players of course attack, and in a few rounds or less,

the goblins are gone. The players don't think twice about it
and the GM obviously planned the goblins as cannon fodder.
The question should be, why?

If the sole purpose of goblins is to provide cannon

fodder for the PCs, why does the species even exist?
Shouldn't they all be wiped out by now? Let's look at
skeletons. In most game systems that have them they are
considered weak easy kills for the PCs. The question again
is why? Too many GMs use helpless cannon fodder encounters
to liven up a dull or empty section of the session. Would it
not be better if we could give our players encounters that
challenged them to think about their options?

Let's look at that goblin encounter again. We have twelve

goblins. These goblins are survivors in a culture that eats
the weak among itself. Why would they just blindly line up
to be killed? They wouldn't of course. Let's try something a
little different........ Let's give about six of those
goblins spears. We will give four more short bows and short
swords as back-up weapons. And we will give the remaining
two a combination of a javelin and a battle axe.

Now we know that goblins have some superior senses compared

to humans. So, they should be able to stalk the players a
little. Now we look at tactics. Goblins are listed as
cunning, and they are not totally stupid. We have the
goblins with the bows open on the party first. As the party
is turning to deal with them, the javelin-armed goblins
launch next from a flank. Now confused and vulnerable, the
PCs are attacked from the rear with the spear-armed goblins.
As the players deal with them, the archers are off on a
flank continuing to shoot and the axe-armed ones are moving
up on a flank or rear of the party.

Yes, a well experienced party will still be able to deal

with it, but it is also an encounter that they will
remember.

The tricks to making encounters more dangerous are

as follows:

1) Keep the players guessing as to the number of opponents

they are facing ("sand people always travel single file to
hide their numbers" from Obi Wan Kenobi).

2) Try to keep the party guessing as to what they are

facing. The original archers in the above encounter could
have been dark elves for all the party knew.

3) Don't give away too much information. I know of few

people who, in the middle of being fired upon, will stand
there trying to count opponents and guess at what they are.

4) Have a backup plan. Have the above axe-armed goblins only

attack for one round and then start to run. If the spear-
armed ones are already in retreat, the party may divide to
chase them all. This is even better because then the PCs'
strength is divided. And no matter how strong, the
individual strength of the players is always less than the
combined whole.

The goblins could lead the party into pit traps and other
nasty surprises. This encounter could be used as the
foundation of a whole new campaign. Imagine the party having
to escape from a whole tribe of goblins, minus some of their
magical goodies. This encounter style also helps if your
group has managed to accumulate too much treasure and you
need to trim some of it away. Better yet, how did the
goblins learn these tactics anyway?

Now back to those skeletons. Let's look at what a skeleton

really is..... When you think of it, the undead are really
pretty nasty. They are a reminder of our own mortality and a
promise that even death won't always allow you to rest in
peace. It is a form of slavery that goes way beyond mere
physical freedom. To quote from Games Workshop's Vampire
Counts book, one vampire lord was listed as saying to a town
he was attacking, "You can serve me in life or you can serve
me in death. How you choose is immaterial to me." An undead
master doesn't care if you are unhappy as an undead, only
that you obey. The undead tend to attack in waves. Horrible
unending waves. It doesn't matter how many you kill, or how
badly you hurt them, they keep coming.

To simulate this to your players, try being more descriptive

when giving combat results. Shultz the Strong hits a zombie
with his sword, but it's not enough damage to drop it in one
round. Instead of giving him the "OK, you hurt it", try
"your blow opens a great gaping wound in its torso. This
would have dropped any mortal opponent, but obviously this
rotting corpse is possessed of supernatural stamina." The
player is now guessing if he can stop these things. And if
he does drop one in one hit, don't ignore it. Give your
players the following "Gorin's blow shears the rotting
carcass in half, but even down, the corpse still seems to
have unnatural vitality as it still twitches and thrashes
about." The players begin to panic, can we stop these
things? And suddenly the quest to go bash Kronk the evil
necromancer is a little less certain.

Another trick I once tried on a party was the second chance

skeletons. They were normal skeletons well within the norm
for the game I was running, except for one thing. If they
were killed, on the round following their first death, they
got back up at half their starting hit points. When killed
the second time, they were gone for good.

In the first round, my players dropped five of them.

Everyone was saying things like "ho hum, another batch of
skeletons, let's get this over with." Then at the beginning
of the second round, those five started to get back up. It
takes a full round for them to reform during which they
cannot attack and the players received a bonus to hit them.
My players never tried, they broke from the encounter
terrified that they had just stumbled onto some really
powerful necromancer's lair with regenerating skeletons.
They immediately reorganized their group, hired two
additional NPC warriors at an extravagant amount to assist
them and went back a lot more carefully. Of course, the
final encounter was a lot more fun for everyone as they were
expecting an all-powerful lich and got a wizard barely able
to cast a fireball, with a magic item that allowed him to
raise the skeletons at a rate of four per day.

However, because they had attacked the first time when he

only had about a dozen of them, and then left for ten days
to get help, he had had time to really get ready for the
PCs. And my players found out that an opponent doesn't have
to be really powerful to be a challenge.

I really hope that this helps those GMs out there that are
having trouble with their players getting bored. It is not
the power of the encounter but how it's played. And next
time the party sees what they think are only a couple of
minotaurs, they may think twice before rushing them. And
isn't that what all of us GM's hope for?

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That's it for this week's issue.

Have more fun at every game!

Johnn Four
mailto:johnn@roleplayingtips.com

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