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Dale A. Ward

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Posts posted by Dale A. Ward

  3. Traveller Hero Update

    in Star Hero

    Posted

    Re: Traveller Hero Update

     

    We had a house rule that you could die for real in the first 3 terms... not a hardship to start over from there.

     

    Thereafter, however, a death resulted in the character receiving a Purple Heart commendation and a single roll on the Barracks Life skill table (or its equivalent, depending on the service). Any other skills received during that term were negated. The Purple Hearts were included in the tally to calculate mustering out benefits, so it wasn't a total loss.

  7. Near-future space timeline

    in Star Hero

    Posted

    Re: Near-future space timeline

     

    The 21st century is quite a busy time. It's an impressive notion to try and combine Alien, Battlestar Galactica, Blade Runner, Predator, Robocop and Terminator into a single timeline. :cool:

     

    It might be a little too ambitious though, but that's just my two cents.

    You forgot Total Recall. :cool:

  8. Too much is still not enough?

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: Too much is still not enough?

     

    Part of the problem is that I have a definite vision for the campaign' date=' but if I just turn the players loose they'll create characters that are a poor fit.[/quote']

    I had to address this issue before proceeding with the questions, because I've found this to be a very common problem. There are a couple of different ways to handle the problem of non-viable characters.

     

    One is, of course, to make sure your players know enough about the setting to build characters that would thrive there. Give them a page or two of intimate knowledge that natives of the area would know... names and descriptions of PC races; known local enemies, friends, and neutrals; local leaders in various fields; etc. Johnn Four has some excellent articles on campaign creation on his Roleplaying Tips.com website, including several on what information to provide to your players.

     

    Another method that I've recently become rather fond of is to give your players an easy way to correct their "poor fit". This can be accomplished by either holding back a portion of the starting character points until they know what they're going to need, or (my favorite idea) allow a complete remake... a one-time-only, start-from-scratch, rebuild of their character. I usually restrict this option to "must be used before the character receives its first experience award"... which, in my games, usually happens about the third game session.

     

    Now, on to the questions.

     

    1. How much time do you put into prepping a campaign? Not a one-off adventure but a long-term open-ended campaign?

    This is a very subjective question, as you're not really concerned with the amount of time spent, but the quality of the results.

     

    One of my longest-running and most successful campaigns took me about two days of prep work, most of which was spent very carefully transferring a 6"x8" map onto two 3'x2' hex map sheets. The rest was deciding what tables to use for random encounter generation.

     

    On the other hand, I've had games that I carefully planned for months fall flat before the second session.

     

    I hate to say it, but the amount of time spent planning is not a major consideration. There are far too many variables.

     

    2. What aspects do you plan in advance, and what do you define as-needed during play? How has this worked, and has it come back and bit you later?

    After careful thought, I've decided that the only things that really have to be planned in advance are geography and history. Everything else can wait until, perhaps, a week or two before it's needed.

     

    Honestly, if you plan too far ahead, the odds become increasingly greater that your players are going to do something that will totally negate the whole thing.

     

    Now, this is not to say that the planning is wasted. You may have to make a few small changes... a new coat of paint, file off the serial numbers, that sort of thing, and you can use that stuff somewhere down the line. My #1 rule for planning is "never throw anything away".

     

    And, yes, overplanning has bitten me hard... several times and in some very awkward places.

     

    3. Do you extensively customize the game, or do you mostly just use the material from Fantasy Hero, Grimoire, etc (or maybe from someone's website) and go with it?

    I can honestly state that I have never used any prepackaged settings or modules in any of my own campaigns. On the few occasions when I've GMed tournaments at cons, I've used the material I was given... and, usually, hated every minute of it.

     

    I have, however, used a lot of such items as idea seeds.

     

    Basicly, my campaign setting exists as a fully actualized world and ecology only within the confines of my own mind. If the gods grant me immortality and an endless supply of paper and ink, I may... eventually... get it all down in a readable format.

     

    But, don't hold yer breath.

     

    4. Are you very careful about setting and genre fidelity, or do you pretty much allow players to design whatever characters they want?

    For the most part, yes... I try to keep everything running in one genre at a time.

     

    Although, I did have a silly period in my early gaming life. The look of wicked glee on the face of a dwarf as he peeks out of the turret of an M1 Abrams is priceless. Nuf sed! :eg:

  10. Gemini Ascendant Campaign

    in Star Hero

    Posted

    Re: Gemini Ascendant Campaign

     

    ACK!! :eek:

     

    Yeah, I completely forgot that... I'll bundle them up and get them right out.

     

    BTW, speaking of chat logs and forgetting things... did we skip a week between October 19th and November 2nd? I seem to be missing a log file for that period... did we not play on 10/26? :confused:

  17. Out of Print?

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: Out of Print?

     

    I keep hearing that it's being reformatted (or something like that) for the new printing company.

     

    I hope they don't go the PDF only route, too. When I buy a book, dammit, I want a BOOK!

  18. Gemini Ascendant Campaign

    in Star Hero

    Posted

    Re: Gemini Ascendant Campaign

     

    I just got reconnected about an hour ago... by accident, it appears, since the techie hasn't arrived yet.

     

    When I called tech support Saturday night, the guy looked at his readout for my system and didn't even bother trying to reset it... he just said he'd schedule a maintenance visit. So, either he was a newbie that didn't know what to do, or the situation was so bad that there was nothing he could do. Usually, they make me jump through a half dozen hoops before they give up.

     

    Anyway, it's almost 8:30 AM. The techie is supposed to be here between 8 and 11, so I'm waiting patiently. We'll see what happens later today.

     

    *************

     

    Okay, it's 11:26. The techie just left and I have a new curse word...

     

     

     

    SQUIRRELS!!

     

    The guy replaced a piece of cable that looked like our local rodentia had been snacking for quite a while. In some spots, it was chewed all the way down to the copper core.

     

    Anyway, he said to keep an eye on the connection for a couple of days and see if there are anymore outages. If there are, he said they'd send out a team to replace all of the cabling from pole to house. Hopefully, it won't come to that.

     

    In the mean time, I'm back online.

  19. Gemini Ascendant Campaign

    in Star Hero

    Posted

    Re: Gemini Ascendant Campaign

     

    My internet connection has been iffy all weekend, guys. Hopefully, the techie they send on Monday will be able to fix it. But, until then, I don't know how long I'll have to even finish this post.

     

    Point #1 - I'm cool with the pulp game. I'd have to say it's about three or four down on my list of favorite gaming genres, having tied with horror... but, it's tied with scifi at #1 on my list of favorite reading genres.

     

    Point #2 - I don't know if I'll be able with this connection problem, but I'd like to exchange some ideas with Nolgroth in email about what has been going on with Milo during his captivity.

     

    Point #3 - Depending on the results of #2 above, the rescue may take many more sessions to complete. At the very least, I wouldn't count on knocking it out next Thursday.

     

    Okay, that's all for now... the light is still flashing on my cable modem, so I'd better push the button now. Later, guys!

  24. Discourse on Fantasy Hero

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: Discourse on Fantasy Hero

     

    OOOOH NOOOOO!! :eek:

     

    I've actually been pwned in a trivia-related incident!!

     

    Will I ever live down the shame?!? :confused:

     

    Oh, how the mighty have fallen!!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    It's almost like watching Conan of Cimmeria getting his butt kicked by a street punk! :o

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