Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #283

Rebooting Your Campaign - 7 Tips

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SENT BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY With Compliments

From: Johnn Four, [Link]
johnn@[Link]
Edited By: Scot Newbury
editor@[Link]

CONTENTS:
--> A Brief Word From Johnn

--> This Week's Tips:

1. Write A Summary
2. Get Player Feedback
3. Resolve Threads
4. Kill Off NPCs
5. Revitalize Your Villain
6. Adjust Treasure
7. Fire With All Canons

--> Readers' Tips Of The Week:

1. Do It Yourself Cavern
From: Francois Beausoleil
2. Cool GM Tool: PocketMod
From: Rich Taylor
3. Another Forum Gaming Site
From: Mormire
4. Pre-Combat Terrain Considerations
From: The Riftalope
5. Correction: Ogre Ambush (D&D 3.5)
From: Arne Schmidt

--> Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Submissions Information

Do you know a GM that doesn't subscribe? Please send them a

copy of the e-zine or suggest they drop by the site. Thanks!
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New Official D&D Module: Fane of the Drow

Fantastic Locations: Fane of the Drow features two double-

sided poster maps and a 16-page adventure that can be
dropped into any campaign. The two poster maps can be put
together to form the temple of the drow, while the reverse
sides feature other fantastic dungeon locations players can
explore.

[Link]

(Special: Free priority mail shipping for October.)

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A BRIEF WORD FROM JOHNN

Gobble Gobble
-------------
Happy Thanksgiving Canada. We had our turkey dinner last
night, amidst lots of comments directed at me about
cannibalism. :)

BioWare Announces New Sci-Fi Action RPG - Mass Effect

-----------------------------------------------------
At work, we've announced a new RPG coming to the Xbox 360:
Mass Effect. We've been feverishly working on a website for
the last few weeks and we launched it last Tuesday. If you
like sci-fi console RPGs, check out:
[Link]

Cheers,

Johnn Four
johnn@[Link]

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Iron Crypt of the Heretics

Crafted for D&D PCs levels 11-13, this sequel to The

Blackguard's Revenge is designed to be played on its own or
as a direct follow-up adventure. Centuries ago, a treasonous
order of paladins was defeated. Its followers were
imprisoned in the Iron Crypt of the Heretics. But now
someone has broken into the crypt! The heroes must enter
this ancient site of blasphemy and defeat the horrors that
lie within.

[Link]

(Special: Free priority mail shipping for October.)

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REBOOTING YOUR CAMPAIGN - 7 TIPS

By Johnn Four

Campaigns can suffer from a number of ailments that prevent

them from finishing. This is a tragedy because you and your
players likely intend to finish the campaigns you start.
Each campaign that dies young can eat away at a GM's
confidence or desire to begin anew. Each campaign that
fizzles because the GM or the players become bored,
uninspired, or burnt out represents a loss in terms of
planning, preparation, and unrealized hopes.

One possible solution is to reboot your campaign. Rebooting

involves taking a step back, making big changes, and then
resuming. This is a disruptive process, but it can save a
campaign and gaming groups. Rebooting is a way to get and
feel creative once more without having to start over again.
I call it rebooting because it's somewhat like restarting
your computer after a crash, application freeze, or bug.
You're not really restarting though. You're reassessing,
fixing what's not working, and injecting new life into the
campaign to renew interest and revitalize the fun.

The key benefit of rebooting versus crumpling it all up into

a paper ball and making a shot at the garbage can is you
increase your chances of bringing the campaign to a
satisfying conclusion. It's important to finish as many of
the campaigns you start as possible. This increases
confidence, provides a sense of closure to the players and
their characters, takes stories to their important
conclusion, and adds value and specialness to campaign
beginnings.

Some GMs hit a mental block once a campaign advances to a

certain stage. Others have short attention spans and get new
ideas that sabotage existing ones in play. Sometimes poor
planning (or lack of planning) creates a nest of logic
problems and flailing loose ends too difficult to resolve
in-game. This drains the desire to play and to GM. Reboot to
save your campaign and, possibly, your group.

1. Write A Summary
============================================================
What is the current state of affairs in your campaign?
Often, a campaign becomes unruly because you lose grasp on
what's going on with too many threads, NPCs, and background
considerations in play. You might have too many ideas
circulating in your game or in your head, or too many books
with pages marked for use.

Another pitfall is losing track of the details.

Inconsistency kills campaigns. Players get frustrated when
the information they rely upon shifts beneath their feet
because the GM forgot, mis-remembered, or didn't take proper
notes.

During a reboot, one part of the solution is to write out

the current state of your campaign. Craft a brain dump of
what's happening, what has happened, and what you have
planned to happen. Take out paper and pen, or monitor and
keyboard, and document what the heck is going on with the
PCs, villains, other NPCs, plot arcs and threads, world
events, locations, pending treasure, and anything else you
think of that's important.

I recommend focusing on plot threads and story notes. You

don't need to write or re-write NPC backstories, for
example, unless you feel unclear about them (though, be sure
to note plot threads that they have impacted during past
gameplay). You can also avoid documenting encounters, in
most cases. If you're in a rush, keep it simple.
Tip: if you have a lot of ideas and things planned for your
campaign, consider restricting your summary to facts and
info *known* by your players and their PCs. This will shrink
the size of the document and make the task possible for busy
GMs. In addition, a primary objective for the reboot might
be bringing threads and details back under control, so
documenting what information is currently in play will help
you re-establish consistency and coherency.

No summary document format is perfect, so pick one that best

suits your style. For some, writing is a pain, for others,
it's hard to stop!

* Campaign log. I've done this with success many times and
highly recommend this approach. Starting with session one,
log out everything that's happened in game sessions to date.
This not only creates a permanent story for your group to
enjoy for years to come, it also creates a record of what
the players and PCs know, helps remind you what the heck has
happened, and often inspires you with ideas for tying things
together and corralling runaway plot threads.

In addition, logging also reveals what you don't know. If

you discover gaps in your memory, then poll your players to
help flesh out the log. You might consider sending your
finished log to each player anyway, because they might have
more details you didn't know you had forgotten and will
bring new perspectives to events.

* Technical document. From the GM's perspective, you note

the 5 w's and 1 h: who, what, where, when, why, and how.
This factual format is good for left-brainers, helps keep
things succinct, and establishes the foundation for a good,
on-going reference tool.

* Bullets. This is another format I frequently use. I write

whatever comes to mind, with each new subject or idea being
a new bullet. Once finished, group similar bullets together.
If you're on a computer, you can use copy & paste. If you're
using paper, come up with a labelling system, such as
numbers, letters, or highlighter colours, and tag each
bullet.

Iterate, if you have the time, to refine your organization.

For example, you might go through your bullets and group all
NPC info together. In the next pass-through, you sort all
NPC bullets by individual NPC. Next pass-through, you sort
each NPC's info according to timeline.

* Index cards. Theme each card and make notes as needed. For
example, you might have a card for every NPC, or a card for
all NPCs. Use the front and back, and staple cards together
if your notes overflow. Use colours for high-level themes,
such as NPC info vs. game world info vs. plot info.

Index cards are sortable, making them a flexible tool. You

can also append notes and cards to cards easily, as well as
have several laid out at once for asynchronous notation.
* Post-It Notes. Ditto with Post-Its. If you can find a
smooth, portable surface, such as a chunk of cardboard with
strips of packing tape covering it, you can lay out all your
Post-Its for easy grouping and reorganization.

Once done, you'll have a document to check your facts as you

make changes to ensure you preserve consistency. After time
passes, feel free to re-read your document with fresh eyes.
If unconfident, you might learn your plots and ideas are
better than you thought, or you might get new ideas.

The point of this exercise is to document the current state

of your campaign before you change things up. It also gets
your undocumented thoughts and ideas out and fixed "on
paper" so they stop circling in your head and stressing you.
You'll find that doing this might also help you unknot areas
that are giving you problems, resolve unruly plot threads,
and start the process of cleaning things up.

2. Get Player Feedback

============================================================
Ask your players what they think about your campaign before
you make changes. You might be surprised to find that what
you think are campaign problems are not problems at all. You
also want to avoid changing what your players are enjoying
about your game.

Approach each player privately by phone, IM, e-mail, or in-

person so you can get honest feedback. Players in group
feedback sessions might hold back or be influenced by the
others. Feel free to try both - start with group feedback
and then get one-on-one feedback.

When asking for feedback, be armed with specific questions.

A general request for feedback will get you non-specific
comments that won't help. If you could get any kind of
feedback about your campaign, what would it be? Use this
blue-sky thinking to create a list of specific questions.

For example:
* What do you think about your character?
* What do you think about [NPC]?
* What do you plan to do next? What future plans and ideas
does your character have?
* What are your thoughts on the last couple of game
sessions?
* If you could change anything about the campaign, what
would it be?
* If you could tweak anything about the GMing, what would
it be?

Be objective and don't react to feedback as you receive it

(which could be delivered bluntly or might ruffle your
feathers). You're just gathering information at this point.

After the feedback stage is done, take a step back and

assess. Decide what things, if any, you want to act on
during the reboot.

3. Resolve Threads
============================================================
Resolving unruly, runaway, or complicated plot threads is a
great way to reboot. If you have too many plot threads
going, you might want to trim a few as well.

* Unruly plot threads. Consider resolving threads that are

giving you headaches:
- Require huge amounts of planning
- Lead the PCs too far away from other threads
- Have too many dependencies that have yet to trigger
- Aren't fun for you or the players
- Break the atmosphere or theme you're aiming for

For example, early on in the campaign you might have hinted

about a long-buried villain coming back to life. Then the
game took an unexpected direction and the old thread doesn't
fit any more. It's time to close that off if you feel that
keeping it simmering is detrimental or if it's causing
stress.

* Runaway threads. Similar to unruly threads, this type

gives you problems because the scope just keeps getting
bigger and bigger to the point where it's become unwieldy,
or because it's stomping over all your other plans.

For example, what began as a quest for the pieces of an

artifact in exchange for a sage's advice has become a cosmic
conflict between law and chaos--in your notes, at least.
Before all your other threads succumb to this one, you
decide to axe it during your reboot.

* Complicated threads. If you wrote out a campaign summary,

you might have spotted a thread or two that seemed overly
complex. Often, the problem lies in the backstory where A
caused B, causing C, which caused D and E, of which E
modified A causing F.... Tracking all the events, NPCs, and
details has become a major chore. Even worse, you've become
paralyzed at the game table a few times because one mis-
step, one mis-play could result in the thread unravelling.
It's time to resolve this thread!

* Too many threads. It's fun thinking about upcoming games

and pondering how things could turn out. However, the mental
gymnastics required to track and interweave a bunch of
threads can give you a headache and burn you out. For
example, in a fit of inspiration at the start, you decided
to make this the best campaign ever by running an overall
plot arc that consisted of three independent plot threads.
Plus, you vowed to give each PC two personal threads to make
the campaign highly individualized. Gulp.

Methods For Resolving Threads

-----------------------------
Moving forward, you have a few choices on how to resolve
threads you've decided to axe. These can be grouped into two
main approaches: in-game and background. In-game resolutions
are handled with player and character involvement, though
that involvement can range from primary to minor. Background
resolutions take place outside the group's control and are
easier to execute.

* In-Game Resolutions
o Single encounter. With a little planning, you attempt to
present a situation where a thread ends in a single
encounter. This type of encounter is often climactic in
nature, such as a huge battle or a special gathering of
numerous NPCs. For example, an evil church has been
plotting against the King, and the PCs unexpectedly
stumble onto their secret altar room for a boss battle.

o Side plot. You introduce a side plot that has a high

potential for ending the thread. For example, you create
a cult of assassins who target the villain of an unruly
plot for murder. You have them contact the PCs to get
their help, perhaps as a distraction or diversion.

o Dilemma. You present the PCs a difficult choice where

each option is likely to resolve a thread. They decide
which one they'd prefer to tackle. While this takes away
the resolution opportunity for one thread, it gives them
the choice of preference, maintaining a sense of
fairness and control. For example, the PCs are summoned
by their patron who tells them he has hired a veteran
mercenary company, and they must choose where the
company gets deployed.

o Ease up. Fast-track a plot thread by reducing its

difficulty. Players enjoy success, and GMs have a
tendency to over-challenge their groups anyway, so a
thorough routing and quick win changes things up
enjoyably. For example, the dungeon concept you had
planned just doesn't fit, so you switch it from a multi-
level crawl to a dozen room location.

o Reveal more. You can also fast-track a plot to end it

quickly by revealing more story in every encounter.
Provide more clues or resolve more issues in each
encounter.

* Background Resolutions
o Unexpected consequences. You extrapolate one or more PC
actions and derive a plot-ending set of circumstances.
This is effective because it will remind PCs they can
impact the game world in small and large ways and should
encourage them to consider their actions carefully.

For example, the PCs sell off their latest treasure haul
that included a cursed sword -1. That sword ends up in
the hands of an ally who unwittingly uses it in battle
and dies. Whether the sword was the cause of death or
not, it gives you a good crutch to end the thread with
and makes the PCs wonder if they architected their
friend's demise.
 o Out of the blue. Without warning, an event occurs that
ends the thread. This might be the least satisfying
option, but sometimes it's the best--or only--way. For
example, in a violent storm, the villain's army-bearing
fleet foundered, resulting in the villain fleeing and
becoming a plot non-entity.

o Villain intervention. Big fish eat little fish. Villains

are fair game to other villains. Being evil is not
automatically a membership to a fraternity, so it makes
sense villains would fight each other as well as the
heroes.

For example, the minotaur wizard learns the necromancer

is buying up all the valuable gems in the area. Gems are
essential components for powerful spells, so it makes
sense one force would try to establish a monopoly to
prevent rivals from casting. The minotaur hires a party
of NPC adventurers who succeed at capturing the
necromancer.

Tip: Resolve threads as soon as you can before additional

complications can arise. If you choose the in-game approach,
try to end the thread at the start of the session.

Tip: Think in straight lines. Part of the challenge of

ending threads abruptly is resolving the contingencies and
dependencies. You likely have a lot of steps and paths in
mind between the current state and the end of the plot--that
could be part of the problem. Regardless, take a step back,
put yourself in the shoes of the villain, NPC(s), or monster
that's driving the plot, and think about what the most basic
action would be for them to take to achieve their goals. Try
to make this an A to B straight line plan, which will make
it easier to resolve quickly and cleanly.

Another way to categorize plot resolution methods is

combine, kill, and convert.

* Combine. You join two or more threads together. Perhaps

villains team up. Allies spawning threads work together or
defect to the side of evil. Maybe a tougher villain appears
and puts weaker forces under his control. Guilds might
merge, nobles could marry, and countries might sign
treaties.

* Kill. You eliminate the driving force behind the thread

and remnant threats, complications, and conditions
dissipate. For example, a villain flees to a weaker region,
an ally defeats him, minions rebel, or he incapacitates
himself in an accident.

* Convert (to PCs' side). Threats against the PCs decide to

work with them instead.

Tip: Look for the story. Try to turn events that end a
thread into interesting narrative. If you have enough
details established, you can provide the PCs news over time,
create a storytelling encounter with an NPC, such as a bard,
or create clues so that the PCs can piece together what
happened for themselves. Do this rather than letting the
players know out of character.

Tip: Avoid ending threads that players or characters are

enjoying. If you're struggling with the thread, ask your
group for help: ideas, advice, and cooperation.

4. Kill Off NPCs

============================================================
Consider killing off troublesome NPCs. These folks have
conflicting backstories, problematic threads, irritating
personalities, or difficult rules implications.

Benefits to knocking off NPCs causing campaign problems are

surprised players and refreshed gameplay. Players might
meta-game your NPCs, noting which ones are the cruxes of
plots (and so have immunity for the time being) and which
ones are your favourites (GM pets often get better chances
:). A sudden demise or departure can catch your group off-
guard. In addition, removal of NPCs thought to have immunity
or have the party relying on them shakes the ground a bit,
making players excited and interested.

Example methods of NPC removal:

* Death. Try to make it a plot-related event, such as death

by villain, death by plot hook, or death by story
development. Some genres allow interaction after death
(raise dead, undead, channelling with spirits) so the NPC
can make a reappearance if needed.

* Journey. The NPC leaves the region. Perhaps he's fleeing,

chasing something, or just moving away.

* Hiding. The NPC has an excellent hiding spot in or outside

of the campaign region.

* Promotion. The NPC moves up in his organization's

hierarchy, prompting a relocation or making him inaccessible
to the PCs and the campaign.

* Trick. If it's the NPC's eleventy eleventh birthday....

If required after campaign reboot, NPCs not killed can

return or be discovered. Consider carefully the details of
the NPC's departure so that inquisitive PCs investigating
will be treated fairly. It's bad form if it appears you're
denying PC actions just because you don't want the NPC
found.

Before removal, first check to see if the NPC has any

dependencies, such as plot threads or PC needs. If so, you
can transfer these to another NPC, often retroactively. For
example, if the PCs are relying too heavily on an NPC, but
the NPC is the only one with knowledge of a future dungeon
location, you can have him unknowingly leave a clue behind
or inform another NPC during a night of drunken revelry.

5. Revitalize Your Villain

============================================================
Villains are critical campaign elements. Plots, character
actions, and fun depend on the quality of your villains.
It's wise to check up on them regularly because campaign
development and party decisions influence all aspects of the
bad guys.

For example, the group has twice been foiled by the villain,
but the PCs are more focused on gathering treasure than
thinking about who is blocking them and why. During reboot,
it's time to consider what you can design and implement so
the party will develop a good hate for your NPC.

Some things to consider when revitalizing your villain(s):

* Goals. Are the villain's objectives still relevant?

Perhaps the PCs have wandered too far away to interact with
them? Reassess your evildoer's aims and change them
accordingly as best you can without ruining continuity or
consistency.

* Diabolical plans. Hopefully, your criminal mastermind has

some upcoming actions, manipulations, and machinations
planned. First check to see if any unassessed plans have
triggered and what the results are. For example, you had
planned for the villain's experiment to take three weeks to
execute. However, the PCs have taken four weeks to get
through a dungeon and the three week mark slipped by. Now is
your chance to figure out what happened. Did the experiment
succeed, fail, or get delayed?

Next, determine if the villain needs to react to any

character actions or campaign developments.

Third, assess the plans for fun factor. For example, the PCs
might have advanced further along than anticipated and have
been fighting weak humanoids for some time. The villain has
been raising a goblin army in secret, but you decide to
switch that up to an elemental army to keep challenges fresh
and interesting in sessions to come.

* Power. Have the PCs become too powerful, making the

villain an easy target? Perhaps the villain has been
weakened due to other developments? Though you don't want to
penalize players for good gameplay by arbitrarily buffing
your villain mid-campaign, if unrelated circumstances have
weakened him, consider giving him more power in one form or
another.

* Compelling. To date, you might have been too busy to give

the villain much thought, and have been content with GMing
his minions with plans to flesh him out when the PCs are
strong enough. A reboot is a good time to examine your
villain, fill in detail gaps, and make him compelling. It's
also a good time to consider more ways for your bad guy to
have an impact on the campaign in the near future. To bring
excitement levels back up, you want the PCs to take notice,
take offence, and take action.

6. Adjust Treasure
============================================================
Treasure imbalance kills campaign enthusiasm. Characters
with long-term reward deprivation grow sullen, players with
too much reward grow bored. GMs who have overly powerful PCs
on their hands get stressed, bored, or frustrated.

Most of the time, the problem is too much loot. Before

planning how you'll re-balance current treasure levels,
consider first how the situation got to the point where it
is now:

* Published sources. Using published modules is great, but

they haven't been designed with knowledge about your
campaign, so the designers might have exceeded the optimum
treasure threshold for your unique group of PCs.

* Too generous. You want the players to have fun, so you

lavish them with rewards. This might have backfired, though,
if things are too easy now for the PCs or if the players
have become inured to good treasure. Alternatively, your
prices might be too low or item availability too common.

* Greedy. Perhaps the PCs are at fault by nickel and diming

you? Every last rusty sword, monster body part, and piece of
information gets sold and it's unexpectedly all added up to
large sums. Greedy might be the wrong word, as this can be
smart play in some campaigns, but the result is the same--an
imbalance.

* Too easy. If foes are easy to beat, the PCs aren't

motivated to use all the resources at their disposal.
Consequently, potion inventories build, item charges go
unused, and bank account balances rise. Be careful about
this analysis, you don't want to overcompensate and make the
campaign after reboot frustratingly difficult.

* Awareness. Another reason might be forgetful players.

During big battles and challenging roleplay encounters, the
group makes things far more difficult for themselves by not
utilizing their treasure-based options. For example, the PCs
often end up fighting NPCs they could have tricked with
their hat of disguise or potions of charm person.

As for solutions, the best is to game it out. Use encounters

and NPCs to deplete characters of their items and wealth. If
performed with fairness, consistency, and style, this
approach can be its own reward.

For example:

Maggs: Look at the way those "adventurers" swagger around

the village. It ain't right, you know.

Barm: They act like they own the place! Someone ought to
take 'em down a peg.

Maggs: That tall, skinny one is loaded with stuff that would
bring a pretty penny at Boris's by the river.

Barm: The one in the armour too. Someone ought to steal that
stuff--they ain't usin' it.

Maggs: Hee hee. That would serve 'em right. Their nose are
so high in the air it would be easy too!

[Maggs and Barm look at each other and start to grin, which
soon turns into backslapping laughter. Rubbing their hands
gleefully, they gather their tools and head over to stakeout
the PCs' room at inn....]

* Planning. Read the module or your notes ahead of time.

Consider making a spreadsheet or list of loot as you read
(which can be re-used as your group treasure key for future
identifications and appraisals). Calculate totals at the
end, and examine the total haul. Trim as you see fit.

* If in doubt, hold it back. There's almost always

opportunity to give PCs more treasure in the future. You can
often lump it into a stage boss's horde. If you're not sure
whether your campaign is ready for 10,000 gold pieces or
that helm of telepathy, hold it back until you have time to
consider the consequences. The players won't know the
difference, and a few stingy encounters in a row will build
up the anticipation for a good reward--hopefully at a time
when you're prepared and comfortable with doling it out.

* Use it or lose it. If foes don't use the resources at

their disposal, they'll have no use for them when they're
dead (in most cases :). Be sure your NPCs use those potions,
wands, and ammunition. Also, consider trapping treasure
locations so that incautious PCs are denied their reward.
For example, an evil NPC can't stand the thought of his
horde falling into the hands of his enemies, so he's
trapped his vault with a self-destruct device.

* Use it or lose it II. If the PCs don't use it, try to

motivate them use it or try to take it away using in-game
elements such as thieves, jealous rivals, grudge matches,
challenges and duels, NPC cons and tricks.

Avoid monsters or NPCs with abilities to arbitrarily destroy

items, such as rust monsters or magic sucking critters. If
you must use this method, try to give the party ample
warning, clues, and choice. For example, you might decide to
substitute a rust monster for the giant lizard that's
guarding the upcoming dungeon entrance, and then have
rumours and stories come in about a metal eating creature,
or have local animals and villagers fall mysteriously sick
(due to poisoning from rust seeping into the water supply).
* Home base. Encourage the PCs to have a home base that they
are motivated to build, improve, fix, upgrade, or fortify.
Grant them a piece of land, have them inherit an old mansion
or tower, or hint that the dungeon they just cleaned out
could be made quite cozy.

* Cursed items. Consider adding cursed items to treasure

hauls. This makes PCs more cautious about wielding treasure
without investigation, and can help deplete treasure stores,
offset treasure-based abilities, and generate new
challenges.

Rebooting gives you a chance to assess the party's current

magic items, monetary levels, and reward enhanced
capabilities. If there's an opportunity to learn from past
mistakes, now is a good time to figure out what they were
and implement changes. If you need to re-balance the party,
try to make a game of it, and don't worry about restoring
things all at once--you have unlimited encounters and plots
to try and reset treasure levels again.

7. Fire With All Canons

============================================================
This tip comes from Martin Ralya's Treasure Tables blog for GMs:
[Link]

We all have good ideas that bring evil chuckles and steepled
fingers, but we also have a tendency to save them for some
indeterminate time in the future.

Martin sums it up nicely in his blog:

"If you leave your cool ideas sitting on the shelf, so to

speak, one of two things is going to happen: you'll slowly
lose interest in whatever you first found so inspiring about
them; or you'll simply never reach the 'right time' to use
them at all."

Your reboot is the perfect time to pull out your best ideas
and fire with all canons.

_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************

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[Link]

_______________________________________________________
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READERS' TIPS OF THE WEEK

1. Do It Yourself Cavern
From: Francois Beausoleil
============================================================
Hello Johnn,

In response to Dr. Nik's tips from Issue #282, I'd like to

add the following. I DM a D&D 3.5e game, and I wanted to
have a climactic battle in full 3D. I started with a 4x4 ft.
plank of plywood and glued pieces of cardboard to it. My
overall plan was for a cavern with a central pillar. I
carved into boxes to make special places where the PCs could
be ambushed and for other situations.

Then, it was back to kindergarten--I took flour and water,

mixed it up, and started applying newspaper to make real
terrain--instant Papier-mache. I ended up with a strange
cavern, at scale, where my players would have a great time.

When we did play the game, I can tell you my players were
very impressed. As Dr. Nik said, a tape measure and some
lengths of strings were all that we needed. We used the
strings to delimit areas of effects.

Pictures available in this Flickr photo set:

[Link]

2. Cool GM Tool: PocketMod

From: Rich Taylor
============================================================
Here's something I recently found that I think would be
really useful for a GM of any system.

I don't have a laptop, and I run my games away from my

computer. But I have learned the importance of taking notes
when I run games. I also tend to misplace my notebooks
because I am constantly trying to use them "efficiently."

A PocketMod [ [Link] ] is a single piece

of paper, printed on and folded to become a small eight page
booklet.

I can do some pre-game setup by putting up a pre-game

checklist, track days on the calendar, have a few pages for
taking notes, and make the back cover another checklist that
I can use the next day to make a list of things I have to
remember to do for the next game session.

I've only been using these for a week, but I've already
found it to be very, very useful.
3. Another Forum Gaming Site
From: Mormire
============================================================
Hey Johnn! I'm the co-admin of Lacerta role playing, a
rapidly growing forum RP site with a lot of single-thread
RPGs and the freedom for members to post more. We have two
URLs: [Link] and
[Link]

Thanks!

4. Pre-Combat Terrain Considerations

From: The Riftalope
============================================================
Paying attention to terrain is important not only in combat
but in regular travel play. The influence of Carl in our
early game club days has affected all the GMs that have come
from those days. They paint bigger pictures when we talk as
characters. We don't just banter, clearly hearing each other
from horseback. The dice are constantly rolled by the GM and
high winds or passing around a tree can throw off what was
said into misheard jumbles. Hearing wrong can make for fun
roleplay or give clues.

Moods can also be told in setting, such as an NPC squire

tracking along on the bottom of hill while everyone else is
in line tells you just how hard he's taking a romantic
rejection.

Consider the PCs reaction after smelling good food in the

distance or catching the smell of a fire before coming to a
burnt out farm. The lay of the land may only let a few of
the players be affected by scent at a time. When you camp on
a hillside with woods at your back and a field before you,
the air at sunset usually comes from the forest. Cooking now
won't draw animals from a direction you can't see. Spotting
wolves on a field gives you time to raise the fire and
gather horses.

This kind of non-combat scene can paint the mood and the
breaking of it into pre-combat positioning. You can spring a
pre-made camp combat map or diorama on your troupe. If
terrain is used often, you'll have players thinking where
they bed down for camp.

5. Correction: Ogre Ambush (D&D 3.5)

From: Arne Schmidt
============================================================
Sorry to be a nitpicker, but the Ogre Ambush tip in issue
#282 is problematic from a rules standpoint:

1) Ogres can't have Improved Trip and Weapon Focus (Flail)

because Improved Trip has a prerequisite of Int 13 and ogres
have an Int of 6. Also, Improved Trip has a prerequisite of
Combat Expertise that would have to be the ogre's other feat
since they only get two. So, no Improved Trip and Weapon
Focus (flail) unless these are advanced, super-intelligent
ogres who also have Combat Expertise.

2) You can't trip on the Attack of Opportunity provoked by

standing up. The target is prone when the Attack of
Opportunity takes place and so tripping them has no effect
and does not prevent them from standing up. This is
specifically stated in the D&D 3.5 FAQ.

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That's it for this week's issue.

Have more fun at every game!

Johnn Four

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