I wish “Music for Roleplaying” had been one of the first sections I added to GameWyrd as perhaps it would have had a higher profile and been more successful. I still think the internet would benefit from a music database/recommendation service for gamers and scenes.

Lately sites like Last.fm and Spotify have helped though. Last.fm seems to be especially good at recommending appropriate music based on tags and there are gamer groups there.

If you’ve any music suggestions for scenes or types of games then please leave a note in the comments section below.

Oh my gwad. This is an original article from 2001 back when I was exploring the possibility of writing editorial dialog for web sites. I paid no attention to the writing. It was all about the HTML construct and whether the concept worked.

The Friendly Face of Fear

“The Friendly Face of Fear” comes in two parts. Advice and tips on how to scare your players can be found below and the user contributed “You Know Your GM’s Evil When…” can be found here.

People like to be scared. Roller coasters would be a multi-million dollar waste of engineering excellence if that weren’t true. People like to go watch horror movies and authors like Stephen King and Dean Koontz sell their books by hundreds of thousands.

The chances are that your players could do with a good scare to. It’s the exhalation of the unknown that inspires many players into action and it’s the satisfaction of coming out trumps despite the odds that energises many other players. Therein lies the rub; in comparison to making the audience jump when the digitally enhanced monster suddenly lurches into sight it can be frightfully hard to scare confidant players who know what they’re doing. In a horror novel and in many a slasher movie the tension is often built up by having the cast of heroes taken out one at a time by the villain. Unless you want to bring your scenario to a crashing halt then the chances are you don’t want to murder all your characters.
Horror has been an important driving force in the history of roleplaying games. The famous Call of Cthulhu could very well be described as the first of the second generation of RPGs. It was Call of Cthulhu that introduced the concept that the characters simply couldn’t rush in to solve every problem with swords, sorcery or big guns. The primary puzzle in a Call of Cthulhu game was never the matter of crossing the booby-trapped corridor or even finding a way to destroy the evil artefact but it was often the challenge of simply staying alive. The Big Scary Monsters actually forced roleplay over and above rollplay. Similarly it could be argued that Vampire: the Masquerade was one of the first games in the third generation of RPGs. Vampire: tM played on many different horrors – the personal horror of being an unnatural monster and the inevitable decline to the Beast, the dark apathy of the World of Darkness and, of course, the horrific actions that the inhumane vampires carried out. Vampire didn’t have to be played as a horror (cue tragically hip teenage angst, super powered beings, Machiavellian politics or occult mystery) but an element of fear was always present.

Horror doesn’t necessarily mean horrific and horror does not always inspire fear. The chances are that even detailed description of a slime drooling demon gobbling up unfortunate peasants will just bore your players – or, in the worst case, get drowned out by cries of “I attack it!”. It is entirely possible to run a horrific scenario without even making a player blink and it is also possible to instill a bit of fear into a high fantasy game.
The unknown
One of the biggest “fear reactions” I’ve seen in players was in a scene that saw the characters trying to wade through a dangerous swamp. Just as the heroes found themselves busy trying to pull themselves free of some particularly viscous mud I let one of the players know that their character had spotted a disturbance on the surface of the swamp beginning to swim its way towards him. The player I had picked on knew fine well that his character was going to be the last one pulled free of the mud and the first that the “disturbance” would reach. His frantic efforts to inspire the rest of the party to hurry helped greatly in spreading the unease to everyone present. When it was discovered that a giant and very dangerous snake was creating the “disturbance” – everyone was relieved. Why? Should the discovery have confirmed their fears and panicked the group further? Well, perhaps, but what actually happened was that all the other possibilities as to what the disturbance might be had been closed off. It also gave the player something concrete to focus on. The unknown had become known.
Friends and allies
A simple but effective trick a GM can deploy is to introduce friendly and useful NPCs for the players to interact with. These NPCs can then be killed off, driven insane, uncovered as dangerous foes, in suitable order to inspire greater and greater concern in the players. In online games such as MUSHes there is the added bonus that the players may not even be aware of which of the other characters in the game are PCs and which are NPCs. A danger is that an inexperienced GM creates a super powerful NPC that the players fail to relate too. If the players don’t care two jiffs about any given NPC they’re much less likely to care if the NPC is mysteriously or horribly slain – even if they should fear whatever power managed to defeat such a powerful NPC. Too many inexperienced GMs create super powered NPCs as surrogate characters for their own games. A more effective approach might be to create an NPC that has an important “Big Brother” effect on the game world rather than the characters. The players might get peeved when Super NPC #1 saves them yet again from Certain Doom but they might very well be thankful if the same NPC is deployed in keeping the kingdom stable while the heroes are given the chance of battle the very same Certain Doom. In the latter example, when you kill off the NPC, the characters have just lost someone they can admit was important.

Suspense… and failure
Movies often make use of suspense. Even if there are still thirty minutes of a movie to go most of the audience will be watching with baited breath to see whether the hero successfully crosses the rope bridge or not. In a good movie the audience should be relating to the hero by that point, in a roleplaying game the work has already been done because the players are almost certainly in touch with their own characters. In the rope bridge example it is easy enough to make the players roll on their character’s dexterity / balance / appropriate stat and for the players to understand how important the roll is. The tricky bit is being prepared for failure. If the players have settled into the mind set that there is no chance of their characters toppling head long off the rope bridge because it’ll screw up the game then you’re in trouble. The solution is to build failure into the game. Work out in advance what will happen should one of the characters slip and fall. You don’t have to kill the character off, you could have her splash down into the river below, have the hero mysteriously vanish into thin air even as she falls or even fake a death. You can make it appear that the fall’s been fatal but then introduce encounters later on that give the party a chance to make amends. If a fall means that the party fails to reach its destination in time then the players wont dismiss the challenge even if there is a handy river of deep water just below.

Collaborate with the players
A sneaky trick is to speak to a player in advance and let her know that you may run a scene in which it appears that something nasty happens to her character. Get her to play along. I’ve had a player start to roll up a replacement character as a bluff before and it was certainly effective. If this “bluff” character is seen to have failed and died in the game challenge any future attempts by the players that night to address the same challenge are likely to be more cautious. Collaborating with large number of players in advance can be even more effective. I’ve taken part in a game where the GM spoke to all but one of the players in advancem told them that the scenario that night would be something special and asked that they ham up and exaggerate their roleplaying. The one player who wasn’t included was in fact controlling the character having a very strange dream instead.

Outclass them
The idea of terrorising the players with Big Scary Monsters fits into the “Outclass Them” heading. It’s a concept that is surprising hard to do right. The danger is that the players will either give up, feel resentful or just frustrated. The trick is to keep the characters in the action. Having a insane red dragon sweep down from the sky to pluck at your group of Halflings will certainly put the group on the defensive but if there is nothing the Halflings can do about the problem then the players will just sit back and hope or wait for the inevitable. A better idea might be to have the Halflings try and sneak by the dragon without waking it. This example puts the focus very much back on the Halflings and the players. If you’ve been keeping the “Suspense… and failure” section in mind as you run the game then the players will know that bad things will happen if the Dragon wakes up.

Sometimes they come back
The re-occurring villain can be the life-blood of many campaigns. Near death encounters with the baddies can hard for the GM to run but they can also give the characters valid fears for any future encounters. Of course, it’s the nature of the game that the heroes will aspire for the re-match and seek to defeat the villain but they’ll only want that when they’re feeling ready.

The second half of this essay comes in the form of the user contributed humour of “You Know Your GM’s Evil When…”.

This article was submitted to GameWyrd by Wyrdling Fell Coldwyn. I was very happy to make a page just for it.

Practical Wisdom

I’ve played various RPG’s for six years now, which isn’t long by most standards. Still, it’s long enough to notice something: namely, that a character’s Wisdom score, in all its variations, has little to do with their actual wisdom. I’ve seen characters that worked part-time on mountain tops as all-knowing gurus say such damning things as, “What’s the worst that could happen?” or, “Hmm… Hunting an ancient dragon named Skrag the Destroyer? Count me in!” I have even seen one character, an assassin known for his extremely reckless behavior, say, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, fellas.”

There’s nothing wrong with having a normally wise character act stupid. Quite the opposite, in fact; having characters act in ways you never expected is part of the fun. Foolish clerics and overly cautious thieves make for interesting games.

Usually, there’s only a problem if your “foolish” cleric has a Wisdom higher than minor godlings. Why? Because having intellectual wisdom doesn’t mean you have practical wisdom, or vice versa. Put another way, oneness with the gods and/or universe has little to do with knowing whether or not you should enter the dark, creepy tunnel.

Practical wisdom is what those characters who act foolish lack, and what those rare characters who are prepared have. Practical wisdom is a trait very dear to me, as evidenced by my forum signature: “Wisdom only applies if you’re intelligent enough to use it.” It is also a very fun trait to play around with, since it isn’t measured in most games.

Characters in role-playing games are, typically, not very wise, at least not practically. It’s not very much fun to play with a character who refuses to enter ancient crypts or tempt the wrath of the gods. Still some characters are wiser than others, and should act accordingly.

How do characters with practical wisdom act? It depends on how much practical wisdom they have. Characters can be grouped into 5 categories, depending on how wise they are: The Horror Film Coeds, The Curious Kittens, The Boy (or Girl) Scouts, The Pessimists, and The DM’s Worst Fears.

The Horror Film Coeds are so called because they belong in a slasher flick. These are the characters that, stuck in a house with a ravenous monster, would doubtless open the dreaded door, even if there was sinister music playing in the background. When encountering something dangerous, they scream instead of running. Even if they did run, and even if they were world class athletes, they would still somehow manage to trip over their own feet every five yards.

If you are playing a Horror Film Coed, pretend that you don’t have to worry about anything, because nothing bad can possibly happen. When something bad happens, freak. Big time.

The Curious Kittens have almost as short an expected life span as the Coeds. These are the characters who wonder what happens when the big red button is pressed. They are called Kittens because of the well known saying, “Curiosity killed the cat,” which, sadly enough, is often the case. Like Coeds, they’ll open a door even if there is sinister background music, though it’s most often because they want to know what’s behind it, instead of their reason being they don’t know any better. Unlike Coeds, Kittens will not stand and scream when confronted with danger; most Kittens who survive their first bout of curiosity know to run like the wind. In many ways, Curious Kittens are the most fun to play; just pretend that there is a treasure chest filled with goodies behind every door, waiting to be revealed, if only you would pull that shiny lever.

The Boy (or Girl) Scouts get their name from always being prepared. They’re the characters who brought the wooden stakes, just in case, and have a Monster Manual tucked in their backpack. A Scout’s response to the discovery of a door, followed by sinister music, is to say, “A sinister door? I have just the thing for that!” They then rummage through their things for their Sinister Door Opener.

When meeting danger head on, Scouts can best be described as foolhardy. Unlike the Kittens or the Coeds, Scouts are certain they can face down any threat, because they started the adventure prepared for such things. The Scout is the character most likely to say things like, “Is that the best you’ve got?” If your character is a Boy or Girl Scout, pretend that nothing catches you off guard. If you run into an ogre, grab your ogre-bashing gear. If the ogre beats you senseless, moan painfully even as you pull out that bundle of bandages you brought (just in case).

The Pessimists are wiser than most in the world of role-play, because they expect the worst to happen. When encountering any door, their first instinct is to assume some ghastly monster is behind it, whether there is sinister music or not. They believe that the ice cream truck merrily chugging down the street will transform into a zombie dragon, explode, or both.

Pessimists themselves can be divided into two groups: runners and fighters. Both take it as a given that they will run into danger; their only difference is in how they react to it. Runners will take off at the first opportunity, occasionally sprinting for safety even before the adventure starts. Fighters arm themselves with the largest, deadliest weapons they can find, grimly determined to go down fighting. Being pessimists, they naturally assume that they will go down sooner or later. Playing a Pessimist is a bit like playing a Kitten, only backwards. Assume that every entryway, lever, floor and chest is a trap, and either run for it or blow the damn thing up before it can do the same to you.

The DM’s Worst Fears are by far the rarest of the characters, and the wisest. They are the ones who know exactly what to do in any situation, the survivors. They are neither pessimistic nor optimistic; rather, they are self-confident to a fault. They are certain that no matter what happens, they will be able to deal with it. The part that makes them so scary is that they are almost always right.

When encountering a door and hearing sinister music, the fearsome character will respond by kicking down the door and shooting the monster behind it in the eye. Then they’ll turn around and kick the monster- the one that was supposedly lurking behind them unseen- in the spot where it’ll do the most good. When facing danger, the DM’s Worst Fear will typically conquer it.

Playing a DM’s Worst Fear is definitely the hardest of the five. In order to do it, you will have to pretend you can read the DM’s mind, and pretend well enough that you actually succeed. Then you’ll have to skillfully counter whatever they are planning, and hope that your DM doesn’t respond by having a random hole in the space-time continuum tear your character to pieces.

Remember that these only refer to the character’s practical wisdom. A character can very well know better than to climb down into a hole, especially if they hear strange chittering noises coming from it, and still feel that Curious Kitten compulsion to drop in and look for treasure. Likewise, your character could be dumb as a rock and still pack enough equipment to stop an army, if only because he doesn’t know what he’ll need and decides to bring it all.

Don’t take the information presented here as rules or guidelines, people. It’s not intended as such. This essay is a suggestion: A low Wisdom score doesn’t have to mean your character acts like a fool, and a high Wisdom score shouldn’t mean that your character is all-knowing. That’s what a high Intelligence is for.

This index was submitted to GameWyrd by the writer Jason Tondro (aka 7th son). The original had a very flaky JavaScript search function written by yours truly. To search the index today; I recommend Ctrl+F.

Name: Last name is given first, even in the case of cultures which list a family name first and given name second. Titles are included, when known, before the first name.
AL: Alignment.
Sex: Generally male or female; note that for warforged this refers to personality only.
Race: Templates (saint, possessed, vampire) are included in race.
Class: For single class characters, only class is listed. In the case of multiclassed characters, all classes are listed with their levels. The character’s highest class is listed first. In the case of more than one class of equal level, PC classes are listed first. Prestige classes are always listed last.
Level: The total of all character levels.
Affiliation: Organizations or individuals to which the character has a tie. When clear, these have been listed in priority order (most important allegiance first).
Page: The primary listing for a character is in bold. Listings marked E (such as E142) are in the Eberron Campaign Setting.

This joke was always bad… and it’s even worse out of context. The whole point is that the Ranger class in one addition of D&D lacked focus – at least, some would argue it did. There’s no point in bringing this over from GameWyrd except to prove that I tried to save as much as possible in the migration!

Newbie: Ah, so you’re using two swords at once to attack people. You must be a Fighter.

Ranger: Nope. I’m a Ranger!

Newbie: Coo. What’s a Ranger?

Ranger: I live hundreds of miles away from the nearest city in a dense forest. A forest that’s also home to ferocious beasts and monsters! Most Fighters don’t live in the wild places.

Newbie: Er. Okay. So you’re kinda a fighter who lives away from civilization. Doesn’t that make you a barbarian?

Ranger: *spluttering* No, no. I’m not a barbarian! They’re more like wild-men or ferocious beasts themselves. I’m a skilled hunter. I can even cast special magic spells!

Newbie: But you’re not a wizard?

Ranger: Gee, no. I’m not a wizard either. Look, most wizards learn their spells from tomes and books. A ranger’s magical affinities are due to his close ties with nature and the land.

Newbie: But… I thought Druids…

Ranger: Look. No. I’m not a Druid or a Cleric either.

Newbie: Maybe you’re like a fighting druid, something like that?

Ranger: Hmm. That’s better than barbarian I suppose.

Newbie: Cool. So do you get special wilderness abilities or natural magic feats as you go up levels then?

Ranger: Not really. I do get access to more magic spells though.

Newbie: Do you earn any extra scouting or tracking or survival type feats at all? I thought that’s what you did.

Ranger: Um. Er. No.

Newbie: Okay. So what groovy Ranger type stuff do you get for going up levels?

Ranger: I get more enemies.

Newbie: That doesn’t sound very good at all!

Ranger: Ah, well, it means I get special bonuses for going up against these favourite enemies.

Newbie: You become more aware of these creatures, how they think and act, you know what hurts them mentally and physically and so your fighting and magic bonuses against them increase?

Ranger: Well. Um. No. Just bonuses for finding and fighting them.

Newbie: Really? That sounds a bit like the Fighter class again. Hey, maybe you’re a Fighter Prestige class!

Ranger: I’ve told you already. I’m not a Fighter. A Ranger is a class in its own right. It’s a damn good Class too!

Newbie: Okay. Okay. Don’t get so defensive. Geesh. So, just what are your preferred enemies anyway?

Ranger: *knocking an arrow* Newbies.

Are you stupid? Is your current PC stupid? No. Thought not.
Let’s have your expert advice on these then:

• Adventurer bait – often pinned to notice boards in taverns.
• Annoying spam – often arriving as unsolicited email.

Adventurer bait
Dear friend,

My name is LOI ESTRADA,The wife of Mr. JOSEPH ESTRADA, the former President of Philippines located in the South East Asia.

My husband was recently impeached from office by a backed uprising of mass demonstrators and the Senate.

My husband is presently in jail and facing trial on charges of corruption, embezzlement, and the mysterious charge of plunder which might lead to death sentence. The present government is forcing my husband out of Manila to avoid demonstration by his supporters.

During my husband’s regime as president of Philippine,

I realized some reasonable amount of money from various deals that I successfully executed. I have plans to invest this money for my children’s future on real estate and industrial production. My husband is not aware of this because I wish to do it secretly for now.

before my husband was impeached, I secretly siphoned the sum of $30,000,000 million USD (Thirty million United states dollars) out of Philippines and deposited the money with a security firm that transports valuable goods and consignments through diplomatic means.

I am contacting you because I want you to go to the security company and claim the money on my behalf since I have declared that the consignment belong to my foreign business partner. You shall also be required to assist me in investment in your country.

I hope to trust you as a God fearing person who will not sit on this money when you claim it, rather assist me properly, I expect you to declare what percentage of the total money you will take for your assistance.

When I receive your positive response I will let you know where the security company is and the payment pin code to claim the money which is very important.

For now, let all our communication is by e-mail because my line are right now connected to the Philippines Telecommunication Network services. Please also send me your telephone and fax number.

I will ask my son contact you to give you more details on after i have received a responce from you.

Thank you and God bless you and family.

MRS LOI ESTRADA

Annoying Spam
Adventurers wanted!

Elos Ilstrada, major of the town of Illipine, is seeking a group of experienced and educated adventurers.

The town’s annual tribute to Ythei the Goddess of Vengeance and Protection has been taken by force from the Temple. A cleric of Ythei was slain in the assault and several wounded. The assailants were clearly barbarian tribe folk from the Undying Plains.

The major and the town folk desperately seek goodly heroes who will be able to venture over the Broken Neck Mountains and to the Undying Plains. The assault on the Temple was keenly timed since a Paladin of Ythei passed through Illipine only a few months ago and left a significant booty of gold for the annual tribute to the Goddess. The town cannot afford to pay a finder’s fee for the returned tribute but divination has shown that anyone who collects and returns the standard tribute will be able to keep the Paladin’s extra for themselves and keep it with the Goddess’s blessings.

There are several smiths and equipment stores in Illipine who will be able to help equip adventures undergoing this mission at a cut prize. We do this out of goodness and to aid the adventurers who answer Ythei’s call. In order to ensure that the Goddess’ tribute is met we are looking for adventurers who can donate enough of their own funds to cover the tribute before departing but this sum will be refunded once the missing donation is returned.

In response to the Book of Erotic Fantasy Wizards of the Coast updated the rules and regulations around the use of the d20 logo.

Needless to say; GameWyrd set out to break them!

“At Sapphire College sexy elf maidens frequently engage in wanton bathroom activity! They do so twice a day!”

Apriale Raytho’lor: female elf; CR ½; Size M (humanoid); Exp1; HD 1d6; hp 3; Init +2 (+2 Dex); Spd 30ft; AC 12; Atk 0; AL LN; SV Fort +0, Ref +2, Will +2; Str 10, Dex 14, Con 8, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 12; Height 5’2″, weight 110lb.

A quote from WotC’s D20 System Guide.

Quality Standards

In determining whether a product complies with community standards of decency, Wizards of the Coast uses, but is not limited to the following. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Wizards of the Coast reserves the right to determine, in its sole discretion, whether a product complies with community standards of decency.

Violence and Gore – Descriptions of combat are acceptable in a Covered Product. However art or text depicting excessively graphic violence or gore is not acceptable.

Sexual Themes – Sexual situations—including abuse and pornography—may not appear graphically in art or text. When depicting the human form—or creatures possessing humaniform features—gratuitous nudity, the depiction of genitalia, bare female nipples, and sexual or bathroom activity is not acceptable. While sensuality and sexuality may appear in a Covered Product, it must not be the focus nor can it be salacious in nature.

Prejudice – Covered Products can not depict existing real-world minorities, nationalities, social castes, religious groups, genders, lifestyle preferences, or people with disabilities as a group inferior to any other group. Current, real-world religions and religious groups and/or practices will not be portrayed in any way that promotes disrespect for these religions or their participants. A Covered Product can not endorse or promote any specific religion or religious practice.

This is list from GameWyrd’s Lost Archives. It’s a user generated list of cool/not cool pairs from the world of gaming.

Cool: Sparkling dice.
Not Cool: Exploding dice.

Cool: Describing the spray of blood when your party’s fighter kills an orc.
Not Cool: Throwing a balloon filled with pigs blood at the player whose fighter just killed your favourite orc.

Cool: A well-drawn picture of your PC with his sword drawn.
Not Cool: A picture of you at a convention in an ill fitting costume with a cheap replica sword drawn.

Cool: A CD with sound effects to create atmosphere.
Not Cool: A CD with a laugh track that you play whenever something bad happens to the PCs.

Cool: When your Dwarf PC beats an Ogre in a bare-knuckles boxing match.
Not Cool: When an Ogre uses your Dwarf PC as a club in a wrestling match.

Cool: Loaning a newbie player some of your favourite dice.
Not Cool: Making players put the dice in their mouth and spit them out to roll it and calling it a “dice pool”.

Cool: Putting an inventive new game on the internet for free.
Not Cool: Making that game essentially 1ED D&D while just changing all the major terms into pig latin.

Cool: Designing adventures on-the-fly.
Not Cool: Having adventures with your fly open.

Cool: A good GM screen.
Not Cool: A ten foot high GM Screen with a tiny gate upon which the players must knock and say the secret password for you to open.

Cool: Cheapass Games.
Not Cool: Dumbass gamers.

Cool: A glowing review by Dragon magazine.
Not Cool: Your financial records under review in the dungeons of the IRS.

Cool: Having a spirit familiar.
Not Cool: Having your spirit familiar exorcised.

Cool: Having your house rules turned into an official supplement.
Not Cool: Having your house rules stolen by an official supplement.

Cool: Proudly lending your GM your prize pair of gold plate d100s.
Not Cool: Your GM using your gold plate 2d100 for a damage roll against you.

Cool: Valiantly slaying the dragon, saving the princess and earning 1000’s of XP.
Not Cool: Valiantly slaying the princess, saving the dragon and earning 1000’s of hate mails.

Cool: Introducing a new player by having the existing PC’s valiantly rescue the new character from the enemy.
Not Cool: Introducing a new player by having them sit on their hands while the existing PC’s discreetly avoid contact with the enemy.

Cool: Buying magic speed powder from the traveling gnome magician.
Not Nool: Buying magic speed

I wrote this back in 2001. Back then, nearly 10 years ago, I think it was helpful. The article really did serve as an introduction to PDFs and RPG ebooks for many Wyrdlings. It looks a little out of date now – for example, it suggests many gamers are using Internet Explorer. Heh! No. Not today…

Also, for today, I’ve enhanced all the RPGNow links with affiliate code. Why? Because you lot keep on clicking on the big pictures (money) without buying anything (no money!).

You might well have noticed a different sort of RPG web site or even a different sort of publication for roleplaying games that are becoming more and more common these days. Perhaps you clicked on an interesting look banner or a hyperlink reference to a game that sounded interesting and found yourself on a site that invited you to download the latest .pdf. I know I have. This short essay has been written the intention of explaining what is going on and then continues to take you through an example of a purchase at the e-mall RPGnow.com.

What started all this?
Would you believe that Dungeons and Dragons was involved at the beginning? The third edition of D&D was launched alongside the d20 system. The d20 system was a part of the Open Gaming Foundation. The Open Gaming Foundation (the OGF) works on the principle in which there is a collection of game mechanics that any author or publisher can use for their product providing they agree to certain rules and conditions of use. The OGF provide a system where you can share rules. The d20 system is the biggest and best known set of rules which are a part of the project. Although the particulars of the d20 system are not to everyone’s liking they have been successful enough to breath life into old worlds such as Ravenloft (now managed by White Wolf’s partner Arthaus), give well known words like the Wheel of Time life as a roleplaying game and to allow smaller firms and independent authors the chance to contribute any more. The need to create, prove and then market a dice system has gone. You can forget about all that and just concentrate on writing your world.

Why publish the games in an electronic format?
Publishing your game or adventure of the internet is cheap and safe. It is cheap for the authors since there is much less fuss involved in putting your product in “print” and there is no danger of printing off a thousand copies of a game that no one ends up buying. For players, for consumers, the electronic format keeps costs down too. You can buy an adventure, a world setting or an entire new game for less than the cost of a trip to a fast food restaurant and as long as you’re careful about where you enter your credit card details you risk only a mild disappointment of spending a couple of bucks on something that was not as good as you were hoping for.

Explain the techno-babble to me!
I shall try. I shall also admit that everything written from this point on assumes that you’re running a Window’s system (Microsoft) on your computer and that you are using Internet Explorer to view the internet. Most of you are. If you’re not then I’m sure you can translate as required but do remember that you can always contact the webmaster or the help contact email address of the website if you have any troubles or problems that need solved.

Term 1: “.pdf”. PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It is the cunning way in which the computer stores the text and the images in the electronic document. PDF is supposed to take up less room on your computer than many other formats. When you print off a copy of a PDF it is easy for your printer to produce a high quality copy. You can also zoom into a PDF document, if the text is too small then you can just pull the electronic page closer.

Term 2: “.zip”. Downloads that have been ‘zipped’ up have been compressed into the smallest space possible. You can also take a number of different files and zip them all together into just one. It is done to keep your download time to a minimum. Zipped files download faster than unzipped files. However, once you’ve down loaded your zipped file you will need to unzip them in order to use them. In the case of most electronic RPG supplements you will unzip the file to discover it is a PDF one underneath.

The chances are that your computer already has the programs you need to deal with ZIP files and to read PDF files. If not don’t worry, they’re both free.

The most common program used to read PDF is Adobe’s Acrobat Reader. If you don’t have it on your computer then you can download it from here. It is free but comes with conditions.

The most common program used to deal with ZIP files is WinZip. If you don’t have it on your computer then you can down it from here. This program is also free but also has conditions to ensure you don’t try and misuse the software.

Personally I just love the fact that you can make use of a whole collection of different free software, benefit from an open license on game mechanics and a blooming online RPG community to grab yourself a new game to play in a matter of minutes.

An example of downloading a game from RPGNow.com
RPGNow.com is the leading re-seller of online roleplaying games, adventures and supplements. GameWyrd has nothing at all to do with RPGNow and the inclusion of this example is purely academic and based on one person’s experience with the site.

Find your supplement
I tend to use the big and obvious list of best sellers on the right of screen. If the product you are after is not there then use the Quick Find box on the right or explore the categories below it. Click on what you want and you’ll be taken to a product page that gives you a lot more information and a “Buy” button at the bottom of the page. The “buy” button does not actually make you purchase the e-document, not yet. If you press the button the product will be added to your electronic shopping cart. You’ll be able to see it there when the screen reloads along with any other downloads you have placed in there during your trip through the site. Remember to delete anything you might have placed in there by mistake (or you’re simply not wanting to purchase any more) before moving on to the checkout.

Make your purchase
At RPGNow the default method of payment is with credit card. Unlike RPGShop you do not need to worry about taking pictures of your credit card and sending them to the webmaster if you live overseas. RPGShop needs to make sure that foreign (such as the Scottish Wyrdmaster of this site) are who they claim to be because of the sheer fuss of sending books overseas but the simplicity of an internet download at RPGNow removes all of that. The checkout procedure reminds you that foreign (not American) users of RPGShop need to photograph their credit card and so you just have to remind yourself that you’re a RPGNow user and continue. From there it is a matter of entering all your details on their secure server (check that the little padlock icon has appeared in the lower right of your window) and then waiting for the confirmation email to arrive. This method takes seconds. RPGNow also accepts transactions over PayPal. PayPal is an online money exchange program (GameWyrd uses it to sell advertising space) where you can save and collect money. Taking this option, though, means you have to wait while the RPGNow staff check the shop’s account and confirm that the money has been transferred.

Download
After you pay and when the confirmation email arrives you will find web-links that point back to products on RPGNow. Pick the one you want (and I always elect to download the zip copy), click on the link and wait for your download box to appear. Remember where in your computer you are downloading the new files to; I always create a new folder just for the purchase but some people find it easier downloading to their desktop.

Extract
The size of the file and the speed of your modem connection effects how long it will take to download your new purchase. If you have WinZip installed on your computer then unzipping the suppliment is as easy as right-clicking on it and electing to extract to folder (you pick) from the menu that appears. Double click on your newly unzipped file and if you a PDF reader installed on your machine you’ll find yourself looking at a brand new fix for your RPG addiction.

Finally
I hope this has helped ease any concerns you might have had about the growing trend of electronic RPG supplements and has answered any questions you might have had. If not, then email the Wyrdmaster here and he’ll try his best to answer your questions. If you want to share your own thoughts then consider a visit to the forums or email them as an essay submission for the Lost Archives.

This tosh was written for GameWyrd waaay back in 2001. There was some crud reason why the site needed something that looked like an academic essay on RPGs or something which explains the rush job in putting it live – nevertheless; I still maintain you can put all sorts of wonderful mythology/world goodies into a game’s calendar system!

Time can be an annoyance. In a tabletop game that runs once a week it can be difficult to keep track of the flow of game time. Was it three or four months ago since the heroes rescued the Princess? The progress of time can be even more troublesome in live action games (LARP) or multi-user rpgs that run for twenty-four hours a day on the internet (MUSH, MUD, etc). In a LARP campaign you can find that groups of players attempt all sorts of In Character communication intended to have happened before the next big event. On many MUSHes you’ll find that the ratio of game time to real time is not 1:1. A higher time ratio makes for faster game time. This gives, for examples, the people playing vampires the chance to roleplay without having to wait 12 hours between sessions. It also means that your Duel at Dawn can finish around lunch time – or if the mechanics in the game are complex and the time ratio very high then the sword fight which started at dawn can finish at dusk and yet only have lasted a few seconds of combat time.

Time does not always have to be the enemy.

By creating a calendar for a fantasy game you can create a powerful and easily available reference for the world’s mythology. It does not even have to be a fantasy game; your calendar could be an alternative one used by a secret cult or a brand new one for a post apocalypse world. How so? I’ll use the Western World calendar that, no doubt, you’re familiar with as an example.

The ancient Babylonians created a day for each of the planets they had discovered. They knew of seven planets (counting both the Sun and the Moon) and so we have seven days in a week.

The months have similar Roman origins as well. In fact, July was once Quintilis until Julius Caesar decided a month should be named after him. August was once Sextilis but now gets its name from Augustus Caesar. Quinitilis was once the 5th month and Sextilis the 6th. September the 7th, October the 8th, November the 9th and December the 10th. You might well have spotted the Roman numeric prefixes in there; quintem, sextem, septem, octo, nove and decem. The count does not match because they’re based on the original ten month Roman calendar. January is Janus’s month. Janus was the Roman god of doors and beginnings. February is named after the (Roman) festival of purification – Februra. March is Mars’ month. April comes from the Roman month of Aprilis and the Latin aperire which means to open. It marks the start of Spring. It’s a month that’s sacred to Venus. May is named after the goddess Maia and June after Juno.

See how much mythology can be crammed just into the names of days? If you were a cleric of Mars just how confidant would you feel on Mars’ Day (Tuesday) in Mars’ month (March)?

If you manage to keep time a factor in your game then you can come up with all sorts of interesting deadlines. Fulfilling quests before a religiously important day is always a good one.

Delegation is something to consider. One of the few duties a GM can hand over to their players is the responsibility of keeping track of the date. Almost any game genre will find a use for a chronicler – a player who ticks off the days as they pass. It’s a good way to get players involved in the game too. Try making the newest player the chronicler; it’ll give them something to focus on, something to call “theirs” while the rest of the group are flexing their game knowledge and plotting all sorts of cunning plans.

Whether the GM or a player has the task of keeping track of time its safe to say that a physical calendar will make it easier for them. The calendar simply needs to be a page of paper on which they can cross off boxes and scribble notes. To help you produce one quickly, GameWyrd presents the Calendar Maker 1.0.