Drop Dice

Involving player backgrounds. This seems to be a big topic online. Pretty much everywhere you go for GMing advice, there is at least one article about the subject. So, I figured I would go over how I have done it in the past, and what I have learned since starting this blog.

Past

Currently

One of my favorite elements, from Savage Worlds, is the adventure generators that most every campaign setting comes with. One of my favorites happens to be Beast and Barbarians. Probably because that is the one I am most familiar with. I got to thinking about that, and thought how about a background generator with inspiration from that. Make it like a mini game for players and GM's alike. I hope to put a few options with this idea, kind of similar to the MACS stuff from Shaintar. And just like suggested in the rules for MACS, this can be used in conjunction with an adventure. Maybe a fortune teller tells the adventurers about a NPC they will meet, giving them clues to the greater plot involving said NPC. Can also be used to introduce new PCs on the fly.

Character Background Spread

Draw four cards from the deck. Place them one next to the other in the order they are drawn. The cards will help to shape your background and personality. The suits will give you a personality, while the values will determine the background events. This will provide a basic background frame work.

Personality

For anyone that has never taken a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, you should probably give it a go before continuing. Though most people probably have done one of these tests before. and may need a refresher so feel free to do a little reading and look at the 16 personality types (different site that presents the types in an easier to read format).

In the test, you are measured in four categories with two possible options, i.e. four card draw. Naturally no one is exclusively one of the two possible options, all the time, but this can be used as a guide to the general behavior and personality of your character.

The categories are abbreviated for ease of use:
Extraversion(E)/Introversion(I)
Sensing(S)/iNtuition(N)
Thinking (T)/Feeling(F)
Judging(J)/Perception(P)

First Card's Suit - Attitudes

Second Card's Suit - Judging Functions

Black Cards(Clubs/Spades) - iNtuition(N) "Evidence" and "hard" numbers can be shown in entirely factual ways, that may seem to prove one point, but in reality it is how those details are presented. You abstract information, to it's base level, and trust the theoretical more than the "factual." You are more interested in the possibilities from that data. Understanding how the data is formed will lead you to the truth.

Joker - Wild, character owners choice

Third Card's Suit - Percieving Functions

First Card's Value - Origins

Second Card's Value - Virtue/Vice

Third Card's Value - Major Event

Fourth Card's Value - Mystery

Meet Freefall (aka Trent Thompson)

Character backgrounds have always been in role-playing games, to some extent. For the most part, it is at the GM's discretion, as to how much background is needed.  The major difference between a video game character and a role-playing game character is most often the background. The background tells us who that person is, and why they act the way they do. In an open world setting, these are very important things to know, so that you can play toward your non-statistical strengths.

The start of this series is going to be short, mainly tools to help. With any luck you will find it as useful as the Character Creation Saga episodes. Aside from books, movies, and game setting books there are lot of online tools as well.

Some basic all around tools and articles:
Ash's Guide to RPG Personality and Background

• A bit longer one to use, but very inclusive, focused mainly on personality and how to then build a background from said personality. I think someone in the Google plus community, for savage worlds fans, is actually looking to create a click and generate version, of this for ease of use.

Meet Sundered Wind, Student of the Thirteen Storm's Way

So, for this weeks write up, I am going to be talking about mystic martial arts and over the top kung fu movie action. Now, with this said I have some experience in Taekwondo, but that is not what I am shooting for. I want something really fuax Kung Fu at best, so please don't get in to the nitty-gritty on this one. It's supposed to be fun mystical warrior stuff.

So, just like what I have talked about in the previous Savage Write-ups, about Character Creation, and trappings. It's all in how you present your concept. The rules can be used to match your concept. But for this one, I think Deadlands Reloaded actually does a great job, so that's where I would start talking to my GM about this concept. For the background edge, I would use Arcane Background (Chi Mastery) as the source of power. The guys on the Deadlands developing team did a great job, with this one, I think. Basically it is similar to a Superpowers background, but with some minor differences. Of course, this concept does not really fit Deadlands but it doesn't need to. Ideally, to match the crazy over the top action, I want maybe I would save this concept for a game with no power points (using the same backlash for superpowers). Say my GM bought off on it and said lets go for it. I would make up my powers, as if I came from a school of martial arts. Powers should be easy enough, by now, but even when you watch a martial arts movie you see them using fighting techniques, that would not qualify under the Chi Mastery background. So how do we accomplish this? Trappings used in a different way than normal. Now don't be cornered into think this will only work with a martial character, it can be done with any character really.

So, the first thing I do is break out my handy combat survival guide from Pinnacle (see the tools if you need a copy). The best part of bad kung fu movies is that the guys, in them, have ridiculous names for attacks, stances, techniques, and anything else you can think of. So, I want to kung fu up my survival guide. Here are some examples. The best part about this is it will encourage me to think about other tactics, as I have given them trappings and put thought in to that part of my character:

• Grim Tiger's Tornado(Gang up)
• Thirteen Storm's Lightning(Agility Trick)
• Thirteen Storm's Wind(Smarts Trick)
• Dance of Fallen Trees(Taunting)
• Fear Hold of the Tornado(Intimidate)
• Thirteen Storm's First Strike(Wild Attack)
• Eye of Hurricane(Aiming)
• Rain of Vengeance(Switching to Ranged Attack)
• Thirteen Storm's Rending Strike(Called Shot)
• Thirteen Storm's Second Strike(Wild Attack)

Have a purpose. This goes for every character and thing at the table. This can be looked at, in a couple major categories.

People

This is something that I know I have struggled with, in the past. Sometimes your cool NPC really doesn't work with the story, so you make the square NPC(or PC for that matter) fit in the round campaign whole. This only leads to a weird fit. If you have a more strict GM they will not let this fly, for their PC's at least, but then some will make the same error on their own with NPC's.

I find that the more memorable NPC's I make are ones that I have a plan for. Players remember and turn to them, when the time comes to get them involved, and even better they turn to the PC's. The biggest set back I have noticed, when running, is when I have to wing a NPC off the top of my head. My players know that if the NPC has a single syllable first name and no last name (usually a very plain name to top that) he is not of importance. Unfortunately, this has conditioned me that when my players start wandering off the rails and I need an NPC that person will more than likely be named Paul, or what ever first comes to mind. Even if I want the NPC to be important the players wont think of him as much, because I have conditioned them as well. This in turns waters down the story and causes players to step back from the story. People also go into society. Don't be arbitrary about the societies you build. Think about why they are the way they are, maybe a bit of local history in there. Your players will ask.

To help stop this I have a couple ideas for you guys. For NPC's get Masks: 1000 Memorable NPC's for any Roleplaying Game. Great tool, even if you don't find anyone you like. It will make you start thinking of ideas for NPC's that are different, than you would normally on your own. Something I learned from painting, is to be a thief. Always be on the lookout for ideas. Take them and change them to fit your needs if they need it, if not use them. The gaming community is big and has plenty of thinkers out there, doing things that will blow you away. The best thing I can say about societies is learn a bit about cartography if you can. Land can really drive how a society evolves.

Props

Settings

Meet Parker

Parker, Holy Man of Umnus

Umnus, God of Strength through Perseverance
Portfolio: Self-perfection, Knowledge, Community
Minor Sins:

• Willing giving up at a mundane task

• Taking short cuts

• Cheating in any form

• Not learning a lesson from a failed task

• Exposure of skin, this can lead to faith in the holy man rather than Umnus.

Major Sins:

• Weakness in adversity, cowardice 

• Receiving unnatural healing

• Failing to provide assistance to those in need

Mortal Sins:

• Giving up when death is the cost of failure

• Practicing healing magic

• Allowing those weaker to become dependent on you

Side Note: I am late

The camp site, just another place to get harassed by random Orcs. It might just be me, but I hate random encounters. I want a better reason than, "they attacked you because they are orcs, and I rolled it on the chart." Beyond that, I want the campsite to be a place where RP can actually happen, rather than a means to an end like refreshing spells. In the vain, started by Telecanter's Receding Rules and The Signe of the Frothing Mug, I give you some suggestions on how to make the campsite more important to the characters. I am not going to go into great detail about this stuff. I recommend reading Telecanter's blog for the longer version. Campsites can be used in many different settings, so don't feel restricted to fantasy adventure. It can just as easily function in post apocalypse, scifi, or even modern game.

Food & Drink

Music/Stories (Interludes)

The Hearth

Meet Clare

Clare is a lot of things, but mostly she is trappings. Savage Worlds is awesome for it's trappings. They allow you to make a very basic power, into something truly unique. So, here is some imaginative trappings we can add to good old Clare here. I purposely picked an ambiguous picture, for this one, While the first thing that comes to mind, for me, looking at it is this character image might belong in a tradition fantasy setting. Look at her further. She can fit into a hard sci-fi setting, a post apocalyptic setting, a dark world setting, or even in modern. This look is essential, because in Savage Worlds, Clare can be anything if you build her right. For more ideas, for trappings, download a copy of Savage Spellbook. It will help get the idea's flowing. Also look at the different setting books. They typically have some trapping suggestions for you. Deadlands Reloaded is my favorite example of this.

First example

Clara, the Fantasy Setting Wizard
We should start here, because this is where most people are the most familiar with, thanks to the big flag ships like D&D. Say you want to make a true(ish) cross over, for some reason. Please don't on your first try, you will only be hurting your Savage Worlds experience. I would give her Arcane Background(Magic) and talk to my GM, about her trappings for the background. I would add that she is a Vancian, meaning she is like a battery. She needs to sleep for 8 hours and study. She is dependent on her spell book for her spells. Then, because I don't like generic D&D fantasy background, I talk to the GM, I want to up the anti on my character. The backlash on the Background is cool and all, but I want her magic to be a little more dangerous, like she doesn't have the best control over it. So, after some discussion, we add the trapping "Dangerous" to the background, that says I will use a modified malfunction chart from weird science. Now when I roll a 1 I consult the table:

Suit - Affect	Effect
Clubs - Catastrophic Malfunction	The arcane energies expload for 2d6 damage in a Large Burst Template
Hearts - Major Malfunction	Forgot power, for some reason the correct words or movements to cast escape you. You cannot use this power until you study it for 2d6 hours.
Diamonds - Minor Malfunction	Too much power, for the rest of the scene all power checks will be made with a -2.
Spades - Glitch	The power works, but does the reverse of its intent. A firebolt heals instead of damages. If a reverse effect makes no sense, treat it as a Major Malfunction instead.

 So, this has got me excited to play a very unique caster, from what I set out to do, so I go and make the character, deciding to pick up the Soul Drain Edge as well. Now, Clare feels like she would fit well as a novice (or just plain unlucky) caster, in a setting like Dragonlance. In fact, I want to push it further and I add the Bad Luck Hindrance. Without going much further, I have a great start that evolved from talking with my GM about my idea. I wont go into numbers, but here is one of her powers:

Drain Power PointsRank: Heroic
Power Points: 3
Range: Smarts
Duration: Instant
This spell removes a spellcaster’s source of power, limiting his ability to cast magic.
The caster picks a single target within range and makes an opposed arcane skill roll. The caster suffers a –2 modifier if the target power is of another type (magic vs. miracles, superpowers vs. mad science, for example).
With a success, he drains 1d6+1 Power Points from the victim. On a raise, the victim loses 1d8+2 Power Points. These rolls don’t Ace. Targets with Arcane Background: Weird Science lose the Power Points from all “gizmos” on their person equally.
The victim cannot be reduced below zero Power Points. Drained Power Points are not taken by the caster — they are simply lost to the victim. Drained Power Points recharge as normal. The spell works only on creatures with an Arcane Background — it has no effect on magic items except those created through Arcane Background: Weird Science as noted above.

Pretty straight forward, but I want to make it unique. So, I look at the trappings in SWD, the power suggests prayer, whispered words, gestures. I do like gestures and whispered words, but not too keen on prayers, so for now I will keep those in mind. Then I will visit the trappings section of the book... I don't really see anything that I like a lot so I talk to my GM, and other players, using our game's Google Community. One of the guys, at the table, brings up threads of destiny, kind of like the game Kingdoms of Amalur. I really dig it, but since she is has bad luck, I want to make those threads something tangible rather than mystic wonder threads.  After discussing it, with the GM, my threads that I send out can be cut or broken by normal attack, by another character, but the have to beat a target number equal to my magic roll for that round. This will change the power to:

Aether Threads(Drain Power Points)
Rank: Heroic
Power Points: 3(2/round)
Range: Smarts
Duration: Instant
Trappings: Gestures (Clare must move her hands before casting and to direct the threads), Whispered words (Aetherium ligō), Tangible (While power is maintained threads can physically be cut by another character)This spell removes a spellcaster’s source of power, limiting his ability to cast magic.
The caster picks a single target within range and makes an opposed arcane skill roll. The caster suffers a –2 modifier if the target power is of another type (magic vs. miracles, superpowers vs. mad science, for example).
With a success, he drains 1d6+1 Power Points from the victim. On a raise, the victim loses 1d8+2 Power Points. These rolls don’t Ace. Targets with Arcane Background: Weird Science lose the Power Points from all “gizmos” on their person equally.
The victim cannot be reduced below zero Power Points. Drained Power Points are not taken by the caster — they are simply lost to the victim. Drained Power Points recharge as normal. The spell works only on creatures with an Arcane Background — it has no effect on magic items except those created through Arcane Background: Weird Science as noted above.

Second Example 

Clare, the Hard Scifi Setting Technomage
Basically, we could do the same thing, but flavor it for tech instead of magic. I like nanites, so that's how I would explain it, if the GM allowed them in the setting.  But, for the sake of this post, I will do something else. In this setting, the GM tells us he wants us to imagine something akin to Terminator. Basically, Google got way too big for their britches and started making AI, that evolved and grew at an alarming rate, and to top that Google has its software hands in everything. Everything that the Rebels haven't made themselves. Basically, the rebels are developing tech, on a much more limited scale to fight back. Get too fancy and Google can take over. Clare is a Rogue Technomage, from the bad lands. She discovered a military facility in the heart of Wisconsin. Here, they were working with nanorobotics, both as weapons and as support for soldiers in the fields. These isolated nanites could be programmed to do anything, so she spent the last five years of her life programming them with new software and making them into what she needs them to be. They self replicate at a pace, that can be programmed, to fit the casters needs. The GM is impressed this time with my pitch and let me run with it. I decide I want to be a healer/support this time, because when it comes down to it Clare wont kill. She has the hindrances of Pacifist Minor and Vow Major (Hippocratic Oath). The GM is open to us using stuff from settings, like Interface Zero, but after looking it over I talk to him about superpowers from SWD. Basically, I want them to be harder to learn and gain new powers but have the feeling, like when she gets it down she becomes an expert. Plus, the book entry for Super Powers talks about alien tech. This stuff might as well be, its alien to the rest of the world. The GM considers it and give the okay. So I go with it, and create a power strait forward this time but it this one doesn't need all that extra:

Nanograft(Healing)
Rank: Novice
Power Points: 3
Range: Touch
Duration: Instant
Trappings: Exposing wound to nanites, Touch
Healing repairs recent bodily damage. It must be used within the “Golden Hour,” though, for it has no effect on wounds more than one hour old.
For Wild Cards, each use of the healing spell removes a wound with a success, two with a raise. The roll suffers a penalty equal to the victim’s wounds (in addition to any the caster might be suffering himself).
For Extras, the GM must first determine if the ally is dead (see Aftermath on page 78). If so, no healing may be attempted. If not, a successful arcane skill roll returns the ally to the game Shaken.
Healing can also cure poison and disease if used within 10 minutes of the event.

The best part about the nanites is I did make them fool-proof. Remember when I said I could program their self replication process? Well the GM Ruled it could only be done, with the right type of equipment, which means I need to keep the facility I found safe. Plus, if I mess up reprogramming them I could do anything, from kill all of them, to letting them reproduce out of control, which will open that tech up to being discovered by Google and used against us. The GM can make a dramatic task, of on the fly modifications, if not using the benny to change a power rule. From here you should get the idea. With Savage Worlds, trappings are something that you, as a player, put together to make your character fit concept. Its that simple.

For most regular gaming groups, the social contract is an unspoken thing. You come to understand it through time and playing with the same people. Occasionally, doing a social contract can yield very beneficial results. Take for example my group. We've been playing together for 4 years, and I can't say that beyond the first times we played together, that we have actually sat down and discussed a social contract.  This unfortunately has led to misunderstandings in games, and misunderstanding from both the GM and the players. This week I did not run Star Wars. Instead I discussed a social contract, for the upcoming Savage Worlds game. This discussion actually helped our communication, through the other 3 games, that we play. Since we generally have the same expectations, it helped to reiterate this this, as we have had some problems with attendance. Or more importantly alerting the group, as to when you would be missing a game. This led me to the idea that, all social contracts, should have an underlying format, that is universally true.

• Attendance Policy - to include expectation by the GM, for when games will be held ,and players for how they will alert someone, that they will be missing. My group uses Google Hangouts, and a community for our games making it easier to keep everything together, plus with smart phones its easy to let people know if your going to be late to the game.
• Code of Conduct - This usually as simple as be respectful of the other people at the game, but what does that mean to each person? You may find out that what one person thinks of as fine is not with another.
• Expectations - This one breaks down a couple ways. Expectations of the GM for the GM, GM for the game, GM for the Players, Players for GM, Players for the game, and Players for Players. This is probably the best part about discussing the social contract and the very reason its good to revisit the contract with every new game. Another thing to talk about is the pre-game and post game expectations. For example in a game like Pathfinder with levels, we have the rule that if you gain a level you must apply it to the sheet before coming to the table and send a copy to the GM before the day of the next game or else your level gets held until next week.
• If its a different session from your Campaign Framework revisit - this is a great time to revisit it, like I said our social contract discussion kind of turned into a three campaign discuss and we revisited every game's Campaign Framework even if we were already well into the other games.

"As I have gotten older, I have realized that my learning style tends more toward the visual and experiential. With that, does anyone know of a good illustrated rules tutorial? I haven't seen any live action or actual play tutorials, but the ones that stand out for me in print are the Mentzer Basic D&D players guide, and more recently the upcoming Atomic Robo Fate RPG."F. Turfler from G+ Savage Worlds Community

Mr. Turfler color me intrigued, now I am admittedly an artist, but honestly I am not really much for illustration and comic books. They have always been a great source of inspiration and storytelling, for myself and so many fans of the tabletop genre. So, I am going to try to help fluff up the available education pieces for Savage Worlds out there. My first entry in the series, called Savage Write-ups, is on Character Generation, something that every player including the GM should know how to do. This one is a bit long, because I will detail the process kind of heavily. In reality this process should take less time than to read this entry.

Rules:

Meet Baeldre

Concept

Move on to Stats

Selected Skill	Points Used	Modified Skill	Gained points Used	Final Skill
Fighting(Agility)	3	d8
Stealth(Agility)	2	d6
Throwing(Agility)	1	d4
Notice(Smarts)	3	d6
Streetwise(Smarts)	3	d6
Tracking(Smarts)	3	d6

Back to Attributes: I have the basic 5 points to spend first, then I have to decide if I want to pay for two edges, or buy something else like an attribute bump.

Original Attribute	Points Used	Modified Attribute	Gained Points Used	Final Attribute
Agility d6	1	d8		Agility d8
Smarts d4		d4	1	Smarts d6
Spirit d4	1	d6		Spirit d6
Strength d4	2	d8		Strength d8
Vigor d4	1	d6		Vigor d6

Selected Skill	Points Used	Modified Skill	Gained Points Used	Final Skill
Fighting(Agility)	3	d8		Fighting(Agility) d8
Stealth(Agility)	2	d6		Stealth(Agility) d6
Throwing(Agility)	2	d6		Throwing(Agility) d6
Notice(Smarts)	2	d6		Notice(Smarts) d6
Streetwise(Smarts)	2	d6		Streetwise(Smarts) d6
Tracking(Smarts)	2	d6		Tracking(Smarts) d6
Taunt(Smarts)	2	d6		Taunt(Smarts) d6

Stat Block