Creating Goals for our Party

In this post we're going to revisit things you can do when you have more time to prep. In this article we'll dive into the next idea: integrating characters into the story through party & individual character goals. I found this to be an excellent way to mesh character backstory & goals with the overarching campaign plot.

My Process:

1. Write 2 goals for each character. Think about the characters and their backstory: what do they hope to accomplish that they haven't yet? These should be things the players would be excited to pursue but haven't yet for whatever reason. Often times the Main Plot™️ is endlessly urgent, so the players need reassurance that they can pursue personal character goals as well.
2. Tie those character goals to fun rewards. Based on their play style and commonly used abilities, what magic items or artifacts would they really like? Get creative here! You can also reward titles, deeds, information, membership into certain groups, etc.
3. Create plot-related goals with fun rewards. This helps provide additional motivation beyond "we have to do the right thing for the sake of it." For some goals, I required the party to visit many different cities and complete various tasks.
4. Tie leveling-up to the completion of plot goals and/or a certain number of personal goals. This is probably the most controversial step– further down I'll discuss the potential downsides of doing things this way.
5. Create a display board for the goals (optional, but fun!). Thinking up and creating these sorts of props is why I love GMing. It doesn't have to be fancy, but having physical props definitely helps with engagement. For a free / online version, you can use something like Google Sheets / Google Docs. Final result below:

What went well:

• The players all seemed to like the goals! They tied in well to the characters as I had a good idea of who they were by then. This may work best if you introduce the goals partway through a campaign once you understand the characters well.
• The rewards were enticing but not game-breakingly powerful. It helps that the goals were already things the party was pursuing.
• It's good to have a mix of goals the party can actively pursue (i.e. complete tasks at these locations) as well as goals that we have more control over (when certain enemies are encountered / defeated). This helps us to adjust the pacing of the campaign on the fly.

What can be improved:

• Leveling up after completing certain goals seemed like an interesting idea at the time, but it's hard to balance and sync up well with story beats. In my case, the goals are taking longer than I anticipated, so it's been a while since the party has been able to level up.
• Having to travel to lots of different areas takes a while.
• Be careful that the rewards don't become obsolete by the time they are earned.

Next Project: 5e Travel Sim Mobile App

 

Hello everyone! I'm very excited to announce my next project: a mobile app that helps you run travel and exploration adventures. Be sure to follow the project on Kickstarter to be notified when it goes live!

Here's how the app works:

• Each day of travel, the app generates a mixture of various events and encounters. These can include environmental challenges, monsters, interesting discoveries, role play encounters, helpful boons, and even entire dungeons.
• Each encounter uses straightforward 5e mechanics to provide a framework while leaving room for creative solutions.
• At the end of each travel day, the app generates a campfire question to spark role-play and character development.
• The app supports various travel modes such as exploration, race against the clock, tracking, and survival.
• Encounters can be customized through homebrew secrets & clues, landmarks, and quests.

If you are interested in learning more or following the project, be sure to check out the Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dmmicycle/5e-travel-simulator-ios-and-android-app?ref=4cz926

Resource: Black Market Stalls

Since my party was in a sketchy town, I decided to include some interesting black market stalls for them to explore. Here's a list of the stalls I included:

• Shady amulet dealer: Magic amulets for sale, but each also carries a minor curse. They are suspiciously cheap.
• Mystery meat skewers
• Witch selling hexes, jinxes, curses, etc
• 2 Hex spell scrolls – 20 gp each
• 2 Bestow Curse spell scrolls – 100 gp each
• Remove Curse spell scroll – 150 gp
• Forger: fake identity documents
• Potions and poisons
• Arrow poisons – 10 uses, arrows must be coated ahead of time. +1d6 poison damage. 100 gp
• 2 Potions of healing – 100 gp each
• Stolen goods: jewelry, art, coin purses
• Seer selling blessings: player rolls 1d6
• 1: Curse. -1 to all d20 rolls until next dawn.
• 2-3: Nothing happens
• 4-6: Blessing. +1 to all d20 rolls until next dawn.
• Random magic item auction
• Gambling games
• Snail racing track

Let us know if you have suggestions for more black market stalls!

Fortune Teller Mechanics

In this post we're going to revisit things you can do when you have more time to prep. Specifically we'll dive into the first idea: using a fortune teller to develop the larger story. I found this to be a fun way to provide hints / secret information, foreshadow events, and create some intrigue / mystery.

Here was my process:

1. Think about the next mini-arc of the campaign. Which quests are the party likely to tackle? Which locations / NPCs / enemies might they encounter? what unresolved character backstory elements can I work in?
2. What useful / fun information can I provide that relates to these elements?
3. Create fortunes out of that information. They should ideally be enigmatic in the moment but provide that "Ohhhh" moment once the situation is encountered.

These are the fortunes I came up with:

1. Your hearts are held by the one of fire (a wizard was the one who kidnapped a character's children– foreshadowed by a flaming statue)
2. A chained animal is always most dangerous (during a prison break, some of the other prisoners may betray the party)
3. The stick of change lies deep underground (hint for a wand of true polymorph)
4. Those who are fiery may be tempered by cold (BBEG & lieutenants are vulnerable to cold damage)
5. As you search for knowledge keep your nose to the ground (useful book may be found on the lower shelves of the library)
6. Beware the one-eyed head (mayor with an eyepatch may betray them)

Fortune teller mechanics: 

The players can choose to receive 3 random fortunes or roll to see how many they'll get. If they choose to roll, they will roll a d6, with the number corresponding to the fortune they'll get. They can keep rolling until they repeat a number.

Feel free to share your thoughts / ideas on these mechanics!

Leaning into “Yes, but…”

While prepping for my latest session, I thought about a situation that perfectly encapsulated the concept of “Yes, but.” This is just one example, but the idea can be applied to many situations.

The encounter: The party is trying to retrieve a set of keys from a guard house. I know they can cast Mage Hand, and from experience they'd probably want to try and use it here.

The "No." approach: We may be tempted to find a reason why they couldn’t use Mage Hand. After all, a single cantrip circumventing the whole challenge feels anticlimactic. But doing so negates the choices our players made during character creation. It’s fine to challenge our party’s weaknesses sometimes, but we should balance that with opportunities for them to showcase their strengths, as well.

The "Yes, but" approach: We can anticipate what our party might do and account for them in the encounter. In our example, we can allow them to use Mage Hand to retrieve the keys, but they must make a Sleight of Hand check to avoid being noticed. Although we're still requiring a check, it may be easier than not using Mage Hand at all. We should think of our party's abilities not as instant solutions, but as ways to attempt to solve a problem (which may or may not work– it's up to the dice).

Are there any other approaches you would take?

Simple Auction Mechanics

In a recent session, I had an auction of magic items and other artifacts and wanted to share the simple mechanics that I used. The goal was to have a more random and interesting way to acquire items.

The setup:

1. Make a list of 3-5 items for bid. Most should be randomly generated to model the feel of a random auction. For added intrigue, you can reveal only some info about an item (for example, a "magic ring" could be up for auction but they don't know what it does).
2. Decide on a starting bid for each item, perhaps 60-70% of what a shopkeeper would charge.
3. Decide on a bid increment for each item. If the starting bid is 150 gp, a good bid increment is 10 gp. (This doesn't have to be exactly balanced. Prefer easily countable increments.)
4. Decide how many other "bidders" are interested in the item to start. A useful magic item may attract 10 bidders, while something less popular may only have 5 or 6.

The auction:

1. Start by allowing the party to bid the starting amount if they are interested in the item.
2. Roll a d20 for each NPC bidder. If the result is a 10 or higher, that NPC is willing make the next bid. Remove any dice that are 9 or lower. If no NPC rolls a 10 or above, the PCs win the auction.
3. If there are still NPC bidders, allow the party to bid higher if they are still interested. If they decline, an NPC wins the lot.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 until a winner has been decided.

Example:

Item: Winged Boots

Starting bid: 100 gp

Bid increment: 10 gp

Bidders: 7

1. Party makes a starting bid of 100 gp.
2. NPCs roll: 18, 13, 14, 4, 5, 18, 7. Four bidders are still interested and bid 110 gp.
3. Party bids 120 gp.
4. NPCs roll: 16, 4, 7, 12. Two bidders are still interested and bid 130 gp.
5. Party bids 140 gp.
6. NPCs roll: 4, 9. No bidders are interested, party wins item for 140 gp.

Have you ever used an auction in your game? Let me know what mechanics worked well.

Free app to help players engage with their character

I've just released a new free mobile app, Dnd Character Journal, designed to help players engage with their characters and larger campaign world. There are downtime activities, backstory prompts, fun role play questions, and journal areas for organized note taking. The app is free to download:

• iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/dnd-character-journal/id6469010732
• Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.michaelwu.dndcharacterjournal

There's also a video if you want to see a preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWSY4c5gZPo

If this seems useful I hope you will share it with your players! Happy gaming.

When you have more time to prep

As my current game has been on break for several weeks, I've found myself with the luxury of prepping beyond the next immediate session. I wanted to share what I’ve been working on as inspiration for others who also have some time to prep. I'll expand on some of these points in future articles; I'm trying a lot of new things and I'm eager to see what works and share the results.

1. Develop the larger story

Since my game is mostly homebrew, I don't have a pre-written plot arc I can rely on. I would have to come up with my own, which can be tough if I only have enough time to plan the next session. It's hard to know where the entire game will end up, but outlining a mini-arc (4-5 sessions of content) is a good balance between being prepared and forcing the plot in a certain direction to conform to our preconceived notions.

Armed with this information, we can seed our sessions with hints and clues about what's to come. We can develop transitions between sessions to make them feel seamlessly connected. I even wrote some enigmatic fortunes for the party to receive, providing hints and advice on obstacles they may face. Most importantly, however, we can...

2. Integrate the characters into the story

Now that we have an idea of the overarching plot, we can work to integrate the party into that plot. What hooks can we use to draw the characters in? How will advancing the plot enable the players to explore and develop their characters? What rewards might they be motivated by?

One way I addressed these questions is by creating individual and party goals. By making the character goals compatible with plot-related goals, we can ensure that our players are excited to engage with the content.

3. Develop the local area

Like all published materials, city and campaign sourcebooks are not 100% perfect for our needs. But they often have great ideas we can steal for our games. Taking some time to read other sources and become inspired is a great way to breathe life into our world.

4. Write cutscenes for the players

I plan to begin the next session with the party talking to a quest NPC to learn about the next mini-arc of the campaign. To help set up that interaction, I wrote a short cutscene involving that NPC and sent it to my group. Even if I was only writing it for myself, I believe it to have been a useful exercise. 

Writing a cutscene allowed me to develop that character (and even think up a new one!), all the while integrating lore and developments within the world. With such a long gap between sessions, I hope this will help keep my players engaged and eager to dive in next session.

Let me know your thoughts or if you have other things you like to do with your extra prep time!

Flavoring Puzzles for Better Realism

A common criticism of puzzles is that they don't feel natural or realistic for the situation. For example, why would a wealthy noble protect their vaults with simple math or tile puzzles that anyone could solve? Surely they would have access to more secure methods of safeguarding their treasures.

To address these issues, we should lean on the location’s flavor– inhabitants, history, environmental factors, etc. These elements can be used as hooks that allow us to creatively integrate puzzles into the location. By doing so, our puzzles feel much more natural and realistic for the situation.

For example, imagine the party is exploring an old magic workshop and they find a deactivated construct that shows signs of malevolent tampering. There are hints (perhaps the original creator’s notes) explaining that the construct could be willing to fight alongside the party if they were able to restore it to its original configuration. 

In this situation, a math or tile puzzle doesn’t feel so far-fetched. The puzzle can abstractly represent the construct’s configuration, which is scrambled due to tampering. Notes from the creator act as a realistic way to convey hints or other useful information. 

Integrating puzzles in this fashion takes some time and creativity, but I believe the results are well worth it. By using this technique, our puzzles feel like they have a good reason for being there, leading to a much more engaging and immersive encounter.

Challenges as opportunities for clever play

I’ve written a lot about different ways to place traps and challenges in front of the party. But I think the advice can be distilled into a single mantra: we shouldn’t place obstacles just to wear down the characters or their resources. Instead, we should see them as an opportunity to encourage clever play.

Over the decades and editions, Dnd has shifted from a gritty, deadly dungeon-delving game to character-driven heroic fantasy. In light of this shift, it makes sense to reexamine how we think about challenges within our dungeons:

• Are we excited when players find clever solutions, or are we disappointed when the characters emerge unscathed?
• Are we predetermining what the solution must be, or are we allowing players a fair chance to come up with their own ideas? (Not to say we have to allow every crazy idea to work.)
• Are we including objects to interact with and environmental factors that enable players to come up with these clever solutions?
• Are we providing visual clues for traps to encourage and enable clever play?
• Are we incorporating environmental challenges that allow for clever solutions?

Thinking about obstacles this way helps reinforce a cooperate play style: it’s the characters vs. the environment, not the characters vs. the DM. As DMs, we should be fans of the characters give them the opportunity to be heroes (if the dice allow!)