Magic Magic Items

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GMing, Theory

Magic item creation rules are a pain. Except for Shadowrun. Although most runners will probably just buy their magic items. Why do they work in SR? Because they are just another kind of equipment. And making them yourself is basically just negotiating a discount using the Enchantment skill instead of whatever social skill would be relevant otherwise. They also do just three things:

• Add bonuses to magic rolls
• Add bonus to melee weapon attack rolls (only relevant for ki-Adepts, who can’t use cyberware)
• Keep up one of your spells without concentration

In short they are just specialized equipment for certain kinds of characters. Magic items in games like D&D are different. They are meant to be interesting loot. You can have one or the other, but not both at the same time. So great loot should be like:

• It’s unexpected. Whereas skill and powers are something players actively choose, this is usually not the case the with loot.
• It’s tied to the shared fiction. The thing came from somewhere, even if it’s only “found in that dragon hoard back then”.
• Looted magic items can have character. Not necessarily in that they are intelligent, although that is common too, but a certain idiosyncratic behavior.
• They can be gamechangers under the right conditions.

As a GM you can put loot in your adventure and have it do whatever. There is little reason to limit them or make them balanced in terms of the rules, as long as the GM is handing them out one by one.

If you want to be extra careful, make sure loot never flat out increases your game’s attributes or whatever you call the most basic stats. Bonuses tend to be comparably boring in general, and bonuses to base stats even more so. Instead you can have it do interesting things in absolute terms. It let’s you can fly. It lets you see in the dark. Ever comfortable shoes. A bag which is bigger on the inside. A sword that stops the beating heart of any creature it cuts. Effects can be big, as long as they are clearly delineated. That sword does not do anything against plant monsters, undead and robots for example.

If you need some additional limits for individual items, here are some ideas:

• It can only be used x times.
• It can only be used once a day / week / month / year / decade.
• It’s unwieldy. You need a bag / suit case / carriage to move it.
• It consumes some kind of fuel, which is expensive / rare / grisly.
• It has some side effects on the environment.
• Is has some side effects on the user.
• It requires certain skills or knowledge to use correctly.
• It only works on certain targets / under certain conditions.
• It is overkill for most use cases.
• Using the thing is blatant in terms of sound, light or more metaphysical qualities.

You can also combine different effects and add different limits. Like a base effect the is free, and some extra sweet stuff is limited. Here is an example from my last campaign:

Driver Puppets
These straw puppets are about 50cm in height and can expertly steer any cart or coach, when given the reins. They can find their way to any place they’ve been before. They were invented by the among the mainly goblin tribes of the Dry Lands, and appear to have some ritual value. As such they are usally not for sale. In one instance a puppet was overheard speaking with a creepy whispered voice, in what likely was some goblin dialect.

Content types

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Game Design

Game design is making others play in ways they wouldn’t play on their own, without being present. The game then is your means of making others play in a certain way.

This concept is important for understanding the various types of content in an RPG book and their use. Those include:

• Procedural rules: Do this…, then do that.
• Advice, guidelines.
• Choices for character traits, equipment, spells…
• Character sheets and other fill in forms.
• Tables, maps, flow charts and similar visualistion methods.
• Pictures of characters and locations.
• Maps of the game world / setting.
• Tokens and other playing materials.
• Ready made PCs, NPCs, monsters, locations, treasures, adventures.
• Signature characters. Named and archetypal example characters, that may be used in…
• Short stories, at the beginning of the book or chapters.
• Quotes from other media, often at the beginning of chapters / paragraphs.
• Lists of other works that inspired this game.
• Fictional table dialogues: A written interaction that might happen at the gaming table.
• Actual play videos.

Not all games use each method and there are probably some I forgot. The important thing is that each can contribute to have the players play in certain ways and you can use several of them in concert. For example if you want to make a game of hunting monsters, you will probably include some advice on making the monsters and some ready made monsters. But there are other still some other aspects. Is it a comedy something more gritty? What’s the tone? You can throw in some lists of inspirational works, pick proper pictures and throw in some media quotes. What is the typical structure of a monster hunt? You can use some procedural rules and a flow chart to symbolize it. Or rely on advice and an example scenario. Or you do both.

One very powerful tool is relying on other games your players have played. There are some very short RPGs, a page or two. Those cannot possibly work on their own. They work for people who have played other RPGs in the past and can provide all the missing pieces themselves. The more you deviate from what people likely know, the more work you have to put in to make that game work. And the more of the channels from the list above you likely want to use.

Genre, in general

Tags

Literature, Theory

Last week I talked about setting. Let’s talk genre. The curious thing about the term in RPGs is that it is not actually used for RPGs. That’s actually weird. We would readily agree that Slasher Movies constitute a movie genre. But in RPGs we do not use the term for types RPGs but for types of settings which are part RPGs and the categories we use mimic what is used for genres in literature. Like Fantasy and Superheroes, instead of Adventuring Party RPGs something.

So let’s have a look at that. What is genre? How do we know whether a particular work belongs to a genre? How many genres are there? So, first of all, genre is part of the reception of creative works. People will find similarities between works and apply a label to it, when they talk about it. Once a genre is recognized, creators might actively try to put their works into a genre. Perhaps there will be even guides on how to that. In a next step, other creators might try to subvert the genre, playing with the elements. Then the cycle starts anew. That pattern is older than dirt, in TVTropes speak. Ovidius is already a master of subverting the classical genres of hellenistic literature, writing epics that are not epic in their subject matter and didactic poetry that give up on their own lessons. Genre therefore has a time and place in history. No one writes Augustean epics nowadays. Genres come and go.

Because genres are part of the reception, they do not have analytic definitions, but work on prototypes. A prototypical fantsy novel nowadays is quite long. They often come in trilogies. The often feature a hero’s journey. There are often takes on creatures from fairy tails or myths. There is usually some kind of magic. The setting is a not our world. Note that none of those rules is absolute. There can be a Fantasy Novel that is standalone, does not have fantastic creatures etc. As long as some points are met it can be sorted under Fantasy Novel. Of course an individual work can therefore show traits of various kinds of genre at the same time. Some of which might be child genres of one another.

Because genres are prototypcial they are multi-dimensional. They can be about typical plot, characters, location, but also length, format, medium, publication, style. Some genres that are currently active. Manga, fanfic, dark fantasy, progression fantasy, LitRPG. A creative work might theoretically belong to all of these at the same time. So genre and perception of genre is an interesting subject, but it is not a very good analytical tool.

Setting rules

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Theory

In an earlier post I called setting a kind of rule, as it informs on what we should say or not say during play. That is basically what rules in RPGs are about: How to develop a shared fiction through talking to another. There are a few different ways how setting information might do that. Let’s have a look.

Conventions are information that everyone should respect. While playing the game you should not say anything that contradicts these conventions. For example, if elves have pointed ears, you should not describe elves as not having pointed ears. Rule. Conventions help set the tone for a game. Since people have to know them without looking them up during play, you cannot have too many of those. A good example I found is the in Masks: A New Generation. A single page describing the four generations of super heroes. You can read it out aloud.

Canons are type of rule that you should pick one from a list, when introducing an item. For example the sentient creatures in the world are humans, dragons, gorgons and sphinxes. Obviously, you should make each character a human, dragon, gorgon or sphinx. Rule. You can use this type of rule for anything that might be created by the group. These rules are less upfront than conventions. You can consult a specific canon, when you actually need such a thing.

Random tables are much like canons except that you can roll for the specific expression. They can be therefore longer, as they don’t have to be perused on short notice.

Regions are a special type of canon. When you make an adventure, choose a region where it takes place. Rule. The region colors how things might look and feel, even if the adventure structure is otherwise the same. A whodunnit in the Widowlands will feel different than in Wild Reaches (two regions from Agone).

Patterns are about what a certain thing typically includes or has. For example a vampire city typically has Prince. When you make a new city, invent a Prince for it or some alternate type of government. Rule. A pattern is not a convention as it may be broken, but it still sets a baseline. Vampire cities without a Prince are atypcial. It is also less upfront than conventions. You can play without knowing the pattern, if you are not required to fill it in, even though it might lessen your enjoyment.

Examples are the loosest form of setting. You might put them wholesale into your game or make something like it. They can be very useful though, especially if they are easy to plug in.

The important thing is that good setting information should have a notion on how to incorporate it into the game. Who shall know this information? Who shall use it? How? Setting details without such a use become useless and people will likely complain about it. Histories and calendars are typical candidates.

This is also how designing an RPG is different from world building. It is one level higher. When you design a game, you give the playing group tools to build their own world.