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Question: Hey Dungeon Monkey!  So I had a question for you, one of the greatest tricks I have is coming up with a reason on the fly for a random dungeon “adventure of the week” and also, more often, in finding time to design a dungeon that makes sense internally.  Any suggestions on how to come up with something in a few hours rather then several days that will grip my group’s interest?

Answer: Well the dungeon, such as it is, represents a particularly specific form of story-telling engine when running an adventure, usually a dungeon is either a linear path experience in which the players are forced to follow a specific course or something in which their choices are highly limited.  The problem, of course, is most players actually resist this sort of direction or require a lot of careful preparation to actually make a dungeon avoid appearing as just that, a random structure with no form or purpose that appears suddenly in front of the group to challenge them.  A few simple techniques though will help you create dungeons that are memorable, generally easy to construct, and also will allow you to generate a story line that links all these seemingly random encounters together.

First you need to put your dungeons in far-away locations, the key goal here is something remote, so remote in fact that no one visits it regularly.  The reason for this is quite often players are sent into a dungeon which is either in the middle of a high-traffic region (near a major settlement or, goodness help you, a major city is a particularly poor setting choice in most cases) can be the kiss of death for attempting to connect people to a dungeon.  Granted exploring the massive sewer system and catacombs under the city of Crystal Might can be fascinating but if it is taken over by some sort of rat-people working with giant spiders your players might start to rightly wonder why this sort of thing is not reported by the local sewer workers.  For that matter, if you mention that the sewer workers don’t live to tell the tale, that is another thing that might raise attention.  Finally city sewers should be avoided, along with other functional infrastructure, because failures in such systems are noticed by people and provoke reactions.  Trust me if you want simplicity then you should go for remote locations.  Generally research stations on remote islands, hermitages on remote mountain tops, wizards towers in the deep mountains are all excellent places for your adventure.

Second, contain the scope of your imagination by remembering that in any functional structure much of the space will be taken up with boring, functional utility spaces.  These do not really require much description on your part and in a good design should take up between thirty percent to sixty percent of the total structure.  A fortress in the remote frontier is going to have places for soldiers to sleep, storage for supplies, an armory, and support buildings.  A research station is going to have areas for storage of supplies, dormitories, and spaces for recreation as well as defense.  Even a wizards tower is going to have areas in which garbage is tossed, supplies are kept, and horses are stabled.  The point is for these spaces you need only include a line or two of description, unless there is a clue or something interesting in the location.  However utilitarian does not necessarily mean dull, if you have ever seen a horror movie then you know creatures hide or nest in such locations all the time.  Spring one or two nasty beasts on the group while they are checking out a store room or a dormitory to keep them on their toes.  Even if the creatures have nothing to do with what caused your dungeon to be abandoned or harmed (see below) creatures move into empty spaces.

Third, whatever your location is it has been lost/abandoned/contact has failed and the group is being sent in to figure out what happened.  You can have survivors in the location if you like but keep the number of non-player characters (NPCs) to a minimum.  Each NPC needs dialogue, a story, and a reason for being there, if you have to work fast keep the number to a minimum.  Usually someone in shock or hiding, only able to give a few key clues before fainting or dying, is a great if over-used means of conveying information without requiring a huge investment of planning time.

Fourth, have a smaller percentage of the structure be interesting, this is the part the group will find while exploring and will need to do more to figure it out.  A few rooms is usually enough, they should house something or someone interesting.  Make whatever it is mysterious and unexpected and your players will be drawn in to figure out what is going on.  Ideally make it only mildly threatening at first and then have its true danger revealed after some time has passed.

Finally, don’t let the players figure out the whole story in one dungeon.  Leave a mystery that comes back when they return and find something else in the same region has also gone off the beaten track.  Then your dungeon-of-the-week turns into a campaign arc of solving a problem.

- Dungeon Monkey

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!

Question: Dear Dungeon Monkey, I read last weeks column about super heroes and noticed the name you gave the super villain at the end of your column, it seemed, honestly, a bit lame but most super villain names seem to be either weak or pretty entertaining.  Can you give me any suggestions on good naming schemes/tricks to generate more memorable bad guy names for my campaigns.  I don’t need anything that specific but some general tips would be pretty useful.

Answer: Actually one of the most important uses of the name for any major Non-Player Character (NPC) villain is to make it memorable above all else, honestly there is nothing quite as frustrating for players as a named villain that either cannot be pronounced or actually is a name that they will have trouble remembering later on in the campaign.  Part of the reason comic books and cheesy movies go for such horrible names is it makes the villains more recognizable later on to the audience and, honestly, it fits certain genres better then others.  But in any case you wanted some generic naming tips and I will be happy to provide:

Distinctive short name – if you are going for something realistic in setting or something in which you want the players to have a feel it could be real, go with a short name that is easy to pronounce and sounds a bit malevolent in tone.  Hard sounds are your friend here, you want a name that has letters with a strong tone.  Be an adult and actually use a name in the primary language spoken by your group, foreign names sound good in theory but if one player speaks Spanish they might realize that El Sustantivo does not imply an NPC villain with great staying power but instead means “the diarrhea.”  More critically most foreign language names have meanings like those of any other names, they may sound sinister but they might mean something innocent or bland.  So accept this and simply pick a name that has a negative sound to it, if you have to, make something up.  If you do that though be sure it has vowels in it at roughly the proportion of real words – Xymjhkg’thlua does not make a name that roles of the tongue easily.

Give the NPC villain a title as a first name – a classic of comic books and poor fiction it is a trick that works wonders, a title provides players with an immediate shorthand clue as to what the villain does and what they are famous for.  Some classic good ones to consider, based on setting, are “Lord” or “Doctor” or “Professor” because they immediately imply a professional association.  For more fantastical settings something like “Magus” or “Wizard” could work well, for martial NPC villains something implying their ability in battle such as a rank or distinctive combat branch of service.  “Knight” or “General” or “Colonel” works well in this regard and also can often imply rank.  For a more advanced name you might want to use a term that does not imply their real trade but is a comment on their evil nature, “Butcher” or “Bloody” or “Fiend” works well in this regard.  You can also combine them in some cases, such as “Bloody General” or “Butcher King” but that is getting a bit complicated.

Give the NPC villain a distinctive nickname that is part of their name – it can also be something that replaces a last name in some cases, but make it something distinctive.  “Professor Doom” has a great ring to it and implies evil and a profession in one easy to remember package, “General Slaughter” makes a memorable name and implies what this person does and their abilities.  “Sparkles the Tea Master” on the other hand leaves players with a distinctive enough name but it does not really imply what the villain does per say, which may or may not be good.  Notice thought that it does follow the format, it provides a nickname and also provides a clue t the profession or area of expertise, somehow this villain is sparkly and also does something with tea.  To be sure the players realize in the latter case that it is really a villain you might want to throw the word “evil” in there.  That, by the way, should be taken as a general rule of thumb, if your players are not sure it is a villain they are dealing with, toss in the word “evil” somewhere in the name to make sure they get the feel.  If, on the other hand, you want the players to feel sorry for the individual use the word “cursed” instead, which implies they are suffering from something outside their own fate.  But in any case a nickname is a key attribute for a NPC villain name and it should be a nickname that does what a nickname does in real life, commemorates something distinctive about the person being so named.

- Dungeon Monkey

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!

Question: Hey Dungeon Monkey!  I’m currently trying my hand at running a superheroes game and I’m running into a bit of a problem, the players in my campaign are doing well and having fun, but I am running into problems making plots and villains that can challenge them without turning to “over-powered monster of the week” themed adventures.  Granted a lot can happen in a large city but it quickly begins to feel unrealistic when you have super-criminals appearing every week or their new and even more horrible creations.  Do you have any suggestions for ways to make a campaign that can challenge super-powered players without becoming a challenge of who can come up with a more horridly broken creation, the players or me?

Answer: Honestly from my own experience and from reading comic books I can safely say that as a Game Master (GM) you are facing probably one of the hardest challenges plot and story wise that you can face in running any role playing game.  If you actually take a page from comic book traditions you will notice that, in the interest of telling a compelling story, many comic books will modify the powers a superhero has, modify their background, create new villains that change the ground rules to force the superhero to confront new challenges never before seen, and sometimes even reboot their worlds to simply escape a point in a story when the superhero has become so powerful that it has become difficult for the writers to challenge the character.  As a GM you rarely have the luxury of being able to flip your player’s characters powers on and off at whim or modify them to allow you to run a compelling story, players are often highly territorial about their characters and will become quite unhappy if you begin to modify their creations on them.  However as a GM you should not despair because no matter how terribly overpowered your players superheroes are, no matter how badly they maul your super villains, no matter how challenging it is to make a plot they cannot simply overpower, you can create stories that challenge your players.  A few ideas that, although hackneyed, can get you through in a pinch:

Evil versions – a staple of comic books and movies throughout time, simply take your players superheroes and make evil versions of them, exactly the same in every respect except alignment. With this method you have two means of approach, first you can go with the classic “villain versions” in which the players doppelgangers politely wear differently hued, often contrasting, outfits to mark themselves out as the evil versions of your heroes.  This prevents mistaken identity and allows the players superheroes to maintain their good reputations in the public eye, except perhaps among the colorblind.  To offset this it is often recommended to make the doppelgangers slightly better then the player character versions of themselves and then allow the players to discover a weakness or disabling factor in their evil twins that allows them to level the playing field.  The other version of this standard troupe is to have the players evil twins actually appear identical to them, be sure to have many hijinks ensue as the evil versions are mistaken for the heroic versions.  Of course it should end with a classic unmasking/revealing of the situation.  Be sure to have a reason that these evil twins suddenly appeared, preferably a reason that can be instructed of the error of its ways in a future adventure through the fists of justice.

Insubstantial – hit the superheroes with some sort of amazing wonder weapon that immediately drops them to nearly dead, their physical forms are in a coma and the players must play themselves as insubstantial, with their powers temporarily limited to that realm, to find a way to get their bodies functional again and also deal with problems “on the other side.”  If you have a player who can already blink between the two states that is fine, allow him or her to do so and add an element of real world activities this player needs to complete.  If the player can bring others with them between the two states, flip that power off for the adventure.  If the player whines and points to the rules simply inform them that this is not “precisely the same as what the power outlines and is a unique situation.”  If the players still rebel allow them to reappear in physical form but now they have bodies in a coma and new identical bodies.  If the players refuse to deal with this, run the evil twins adventure outlined above.

Mundane Tasks – remember comic books are story driven and often skip vast chunks of regular time and duties for heroes, but ever superhero does “patrols” in which they look around for crime and bad things to thwart.  Your key goal as a GM is to occasionally run an entire adventure dealing with just mundane crime, the players will beat it up without trouble but you still get to make them jump through the hoops.  Add challenges that cannot be solved with “fists of justice” solutions to twist it up a bit on the players.  Imagine the players having to rescue a valuable lion that has escaped from the zoo, they can beat it up but if they harm it the zoo will be damaged because the lion is delicate.  Another classic is to have the lion play a “cat up a tree” scenario, with claws.  This will also prevent the “super villain of the week” feel because these occasional “days in the life of” moments will set a normal feel to the campaign and make the super criminals more apparent.  They also give you fodder for sources for future super villains, remember, a common criminal thwarted today and humiliated can tomorrow be the new Doctor Seltzer, sprayer of carbonation of doom!

- Dungeon Monkey

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!

Question: So I’m currently running a fantasy campaign as a regular DM and my group and I enjoy the challenge of regular contests in a “dungeon of the week” type of setting, I like to map them out and plan the challenges the group faces, they enjoy actually trying to work their way through the dungeon and break into new rooms, beat the monsters assigned to guard certain areas, collect treasure, and face fiendish traps of my own design.  It is that last part though that is becoming a bit of a challenge, I find myself often reusing traps from guides or other sources, or simply recycling traps that I’ve used before.  After you faced a hallway of swinging blades several times in a row it begins to feel kind of stale.  Any suggestions for how to put some extra vim in my traps?

Answer: One of the challenges of any campaign in which you feature a “dungeon of the week” sort of theme is keeping the dungeons fresh and interesting, I actually consider designing interesting dungeons to be one of the most challenging aspects of running a fantasy campaign.  Getting players interested in a hidden maze of twisty passages and secret rooms is never easy unless there is a gripping story behind the location and a series of interesting challenges to keep the players entertained.  Traps are actually one of the most interesting and powerful tools for a Game Master (GM) to actually spice up the experience for the group.  Unlike undead guardians or living creatures guarding a dungeon space traps require no motivation to stay in place, no support structures to keep the guards alive, and are not vulnerable to player tricks such as smoke, poison gas, or flooding.  Traps also provide an amoral force in a dungeon, they are mechanical or magical in nature and simply complete their function, regardless of the target.  But to make a trap truly memorable you have to twist peoples anticipations of how to actually solve the trap or beat it.

First off the trap should require an interesting or unique method to get through it, something that cannot simply be defeated by a roll of the dice by a skilled party member.  What I recommend is following a dual reward approach, allow the players the opportunity, if they wish to use it, to defeat a trap by whatever normal rules are actually in place in your game.  However let the players know that if they attempt to complete a puzzle or a task there is a larger reward for them, in other words if they interact with the trap they can defeat it and gain a larger benefit, if they just attempt to disarm it they will avoid injury but miss the larger reward.  Interesting traps are almost always magical in nature, magic is a lovely means of having a trap that can do anything and require any sort of interaction to defeat the trap.  Magical traps are also lovely because they open up other possibilities for the traps negative effects beyond just violent personal injury.  A trap that turns a player into a being a tiny fraction of their normal size is far more interesting then one that impales them with spikes coming up from the floor.

Second put traps only in locations where they stand out in memory, for example if you want to have a trap involving water spirits have them come out of a fireplace rather then out of well.  If you want to have a trap built around blades that explode out of walls mechanically or magically put them in a room filled with silk draperies and other fine delicate items, the blades follow paths that avoid the valuable items.  Designing traps with unique mechanical devices is another means of achieving the same end in a campaign with less magic, although mechanical traps often limit your capacity to provide rewards for further cooperation by the players.  If you are going with mechanical traps I recommend going with multiple layers for the traps and making them epically horrifying in their level of damage inflicted and mechanical design, a room filled with swinging blades on pendulums is boring, a room that turns into some sort of massive food processing unit of nothing but blades flying from everywhere is quite memorable.  If you go with mechanical traps I often recommend putting them on automatic timing mechanisms that require the players to dance around or through the trap to reach the means of deactivating it, if you follow this procedure add trigger effects as well that go off as the players attempt to work their way through the trap.

Finally if all else fails or you want traps that are single use, defeat after activation items, at least make the decorations interesting.  A falling rock crushing a player is conventional, a falling statue of a much hated and deposed Dwarf king know as The Hammer on the other hand mechanically achieves the same effect and is quite a bit more memorable.

- Dungeon Monkey

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!

Question: ‘Allo Dungeon Simian, I’m currently about to start playing in a steam-punk era campaign and I’m not sure what I should be considering as a career choice for my character.  Our GM says that we should each come up with something interesting that also fits the “feel” of the period but I’m not sure what sort of options might be reasonable in this case.  It is a Victorian-era setting but with the usual clockwork and steam powered wonders of steam punk, complete with regular lighter-than-air traffic between major cities but no space travel.  Any suggestions as to what might make for some interesting background career choices that helped pave the way towards a life of adventure?

Answer: Steam-punk is one of those settings that you either love or hate as a role-player, personally I have always had an incredible soft-spot for the genre and I am glad to see that it continues to survive even into the 21st century as a viable setting for players and Game Masters (GMs) to actually set up interesting and unique campaigns.  Sadly though it often requires knowing a bit of history to either properly enjoy it or to properly play it, but as your GM sounds like a rather flexible sort of person you are in luck, there are many options which are fitting in a near Victorian-era that might or might not allow you to have a dashing character background that will provide any number of skills necessary to provide the backbone for future adventures.

Military Background – probably one of the classic reasons to actually get into an adventuring lifestyle in the Victorian period, your character served in one of the branches of the armed forces of a major power and did a turn of service in some god-awful corner of the world fighting  a difficult war.  Your goal in this case is to have fought in a war in which you were able to stand out and undertake Great Deeds but also a war that carries minimal political or long-term ramifications.  Stay out of anything between rival Great Powers directly fighting, as this might build you future enemies you’ll actually meet, and instead focus on wars in far off corners of vast Imperial holdings.  Try to have served in a branch where you got to use a pistol or a sword or, even better, where you got to serve as an officer promoted from the ranks.  This will allow you the most flexibility in your background covering useful skills.  Be sure to have gotten talented in the use of small firearms, nothing is more irritating then to do all the work on a military background and find out your incredible talent with rifles is useless because you can’t carry one into the palace of the Duke of Fluffy Pants.

Reformed Sky Privateer – if you are more inclined to play a character with piloting skills and who has combat experience then you might want to seek out someone who has either fought on airships against the shipping of major powers in the world or who has attacked the shipping of evil powers at some point in their past career.  To avoid charges of illegality you, of course, had the proper letters of approval from some major government for your actions and only attacked targets allowed under the “Rules of War” that your GM might consider reasonable for the period.  Utterly un-historic, of course, but certainly a fun background and one that will allow you to play a ruffian type of figure, a rogue in society, with considerable knowledge of the lower parts of the world but also with a certain dark nobleness.  You most certainly will want to have given up such a lifestyle by the time the campaign has actually started and, instead, you are seeking out new challenges in whatever enterprise the GM has set up as the thrust of his/her campaign.  This sort of background though should leave you with the aviators skill set, piloting, navigating, as well as a good “dirty fighting” set of combat abilities.

Scientist/Inventor/Tinkerer Extraordinaire – If you are inclined towards building some of the great machines of the age or you just like the idea of a utility sort of character, then you want to play someone who is educated, with skills in the mechanical arts, who is capable of fixing or assembling anything from anything.  An utterly critical aspect of this character is your capacity to work with mechanical items, steam-punk is a genre of giant clanking mechanical wonders and you want to be part of that wonder.  Avoid the temptation of taking “conventional” scientific fields such as physics, chemistry, or biology unless they allow you to build vast hulking bits of machinery or equipment that can undertake horribly wonderful brain-twisting projects.  Ideally you want a character able to fix anything that breaks but also able to make a GM weep openly with frustration, or joy, as your character is able to concoct something amazing out of nothing but spare parts, a bit of iron, and some squeaky things you took from an overly friendly fellow at a carnival.

Rich Adventuring Lord or Lady – if you want social pull and money, this is the route to go, you are bored with conventional life and you want to seek out high adventure.  You are insulated though from social ramifications by a simple fact, money, lots and lots of money.  Focus on building up connections, social standing, raw charisma, and pools of money to play with.

- Dungeon Monkey

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!

Question: Dungeon Monkey!  I need some help, I’m a rotating DM for my regular gaming group and I’m expected to run in rotation when we get together.  I am feeling uninspired to write anything, I could do a string of crappy combats put together but I’d like to do something with at least a thread of a plot, I’ve got pretty much a clean slate to do what I want.  It’s a fantasy campaign, any ideas for how to get an interesting plot put together out of nothing when you are not feeling motivated?

Answer: Probably one of the most challenging things for a Game Master (GM) to have to do is to actually write material for an on-going group or campaign when they are not feeling particularly inspired.  Almost every role-playing game (RPG) has a section on “How To Be A Game Master” and they devote many pages to the subject of how to create a campaign world, how to run an adventure, and usually they offer some advice for finding inspiration.  I will help you though and boil that information down for you to the most commonly cited central point: “Hey you know a whole bunch of professional writers and creative types have already come up with ideas, why don’t you borrow some of theirs and, you know, mix and match?”  This actually is a formula I don’t personally recommend be used by anyone, ever, if done correctly it is useful but to be done correctly you need to take someone’s already completed idea and use it as a seed for creating your own idea.  More often a GM in your situation will take a movie or book and do a close to complete theft of the idea, tossing some new dressing onto the setting and plot, and then attempt to parade it as their own pony.  Unfortunately almost every movie, book, or video game you might borrow from one or more of your players is going to be familiar with it.  Gamers usually draw on a wide pool of information and nothing will ruin your attempt at “borrowing” some material to inspire you faster then a player saying “Hey I know this story, you just used vampires rather then zombies, cool concept but it was done better in Revenge of the Monkey Lords Part VII!”  Instead I suggest that if you need to use a preheated story treatment you dispense with using a movie or book as the central point and cut directly to the core, use the classic role-playing game formula for a fun adventure.

First, create a mental sandbox, the environment in which the group will be undertaking their adventure, it doesn’t really matter what the sandbox is, just make sure that it is a sandbox that does not have any complicated buildings, structures, or other locations in it.  Now many GMs are tempted to do some sort of dungeon themed adventure in your situation, avoid this temptation, although walls make for comforting barriers they also require that you, as a GM, plan out the walls in advance and think on the fly when dealing with what players choose to do.  Instead make your sandbox some sort of exterior location, a dark forest, a desert, a series of small villages, a generic city, something that will allow the players to move around but does not require you to describe a trap in painfully intricate detail.

Second, create a really funky bad-ass villain for the players to fight in the end, a villain you don’t mind them killing off horrifically but one that will be a challenge.  Don’t worry too much about the details of motivation or back-story for this villain, his/her role is to die horribly in the final reel.  Third, come up with a reason for the villain to either hate the group and/or some sort of motivating factor to make the group care to intervene in the nefarious plot by the villain.  Some simple tags to use are: freeing slaves, preventing innocents from being hurt, preventing some sort of evil ritual, thwarting the plans of an evil wizard, or overturning a local bad leader.  The group needs to learn about this wrong quickly and be able to grasp it utterly in a few moments, so make it really twisted, depraved, and with no redeeming qualities.  Redeeming qualities confuse players, we are talking a villain that plans to murder all the babies in an orphanage to then bath in their blood, collected in a vat, so they can open the Moon Gate and become a demon prince.  An important point about this villain, to defeat him or her the group, at the start, is not equipped properly to do the job.  I don’t mean they need motivation and good heart, I mean they need to assemble the Spear of Destiny from scattered parts in the sandbox or their weapons will prove useless against the villain and by useless I mean “Does not even annoy him or her.”

Finally the most critical element, the crisis has happened to just reach a time-limited crescendo when the group arrives, to use the above example, the time for the sacrifice is right in six hours or some other tight time-table.  This forces the players to interact with the plot quickly and trims down on their time to be clever, forcing them to improvise is an excellent plan.  If you have a group that is often less then inclined to get involved, force involvement, nothing like an evil villain needing the still beating heart of an elf and, low and behold, your party happens to have two of them with them in player characters to get a group moving in the right direction.  The last thing you need is filler, this takes the form of side people who need to be rescued, generic tough minions that the players need to beat to reach the main villain, normally a good handful of conflicts will do the trick for you in this case.  If your group is really building oriented give them a small dungeon or two to have to work their way through to find key items to halt the villain.  When the group finally manages to get everything they need together and face the villain, have the villain fight them and do considerable damage until they manage to hit him or her a few times with the item of power, at which point have the villain explode in a pyrotechnic burst of happiness.

Finally allow the players to depart the sandbox reassured by some trusted local Non-Player Characters that everything is right with the world and they can move on fearing that they leave nothing behind that could be a problem.  This is vital so they don’t stick around, hunting for new plot and meaning, and requiring you to actually come up with a more solid reason for what happened.

- Dungeon Monkey

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!

Question: Dungeon Monkey!  I’m working on building a character for a new science fiction campaign our local game master is putting together, but I’ve got a problem, most of the other players have taken the cool roles in a crew for a space ship and I feel left out.  I usually play characters who are pilots, or good at fighting, or technical people but we seem to have all of those roles filled, we even have a sexy alien to talk with other people.  I’d rather not be a fifth wheel in the campaign but I also want to be somebody who might actually appear on the bridge of a ship.  Do you have any suggestions for vital roles I could fill that aren’t already covered in our spaceship’s crew?

Answer: One of the major problems with any science-fiction campaign is that many science-fiction settings only seem to allow a limited number of interesting roles in a space opera or space exploration setting, if your Game Master (GM) is aiming for a small crew on a ship then often a crew seems to be focused on a few select roles that are quickly filled, larger groups then have the problem of what do the “extra” players do?  Honestly no player wants to be the person who makes a character who is “just like player A’s character only mine can shoot a bit better and run a bit slower!”  However there are a few things you can do to carve yourself an individual niche that will ensure you not only stand out as a unique individual on the ship but might also provide you with a character that is actually useful to the party.  At the very least these roles will provide you with some fun to play with troupes that your group might otherwise be missing.

Expendable Extra Crew Guy – a.k.a. “the Red Shirt” of Star Trek fame, only you want to find a way to ensure that your character is good at one thing and one thing only, surviving against the odds or catching a lucky break.  Ideally you want to make this character nearly immune to any sort of harm that might actually come his or her way but also make them so horribly poorly skilled that they inevitably fall into trouble.  The fun of this sort of role is that it will allow you to be in the heart of almost every adventure and you can actually ham your role up to the point that you, and other players, look forward to the sort of madness your GM can toss your character into in any one of several bizarre settings.  In fact if you play your cards right you might even end up with the GM offering you some adventures where your character gets to be a major figure and actually have a heroic moment or two, as a contrast to your normal role of buffoon and/or party whipping boy.  At the very least you should find an immeasurable number of ways to come within a hair’s breadth of death, space settings are wonderful for high death counts.

Historian or other Esoteric Knowledge Expert – most GMs when running through the bag of space themed plots will eventually dig up the old but fun standard of introducing some sort of ancient alien race into the game setting, either an alien race discovered through relics and long-lost remains or one quite powerful compared to your level of technology, and still active, but in diminished numbers or having accepted a “detached” view of the local scrap of space your characters are campaigning within.  This is a standard trick for the GM to avoid answering the question “If the aliens were so powerful why are they gone/vanished/failed/not conquering everything in sight?”  You, however, have anticipated this in advance and have tucked away vast amounts of skills and abilities in ancient languages, historic technologies, mysteries of the universe, and raw linguistic talent.  When this plot unleashes itself upon the group and the GM explains that “No one here, sadly, knows the ancient language or its text but if you undertake a trip to…” followed by some system name that rhymes with “hurt and mangle” you can pipe up “Or you can all give me a couple of days on the spa planet with this stuff and I think I can crack it.”  That is your moment, just let the GM know you are happy when your findings indicate the group will still need to go to the Planet of Painful Bowel Extraction by Pincer to actually use the technology in question.  Be sure to leave yourself flexible enough that if it turns out the aliens are not ancient you are able to understand the bizarre cultural experiences your group will encounter when you inevitably end up on Western Planet, Nazi Planet, and Space Nymphomaniac Planet.

Be The Backup – It seems to defeat your initial goal but actually being the backup in this case is not a bad thing, really it is not, because your group has all the main troupes covered but lacks an additional person who is less talented, but still good, in many areas.  Your goal in this case is to achieve two things, first you want to be able to give every other character a hand when they are attempting to do something.  Most games reward helping someone with a bonus to that players roll and you want to make it so that no matter what roll is needed, you can be there to give an edge.  Second, and more critically, eventually a GM realizes that skilled players and technology make many normal plots fail when set in space.  Inevitably this leads to a GM attempting some sort of “Oh no, your engineer/pilot/gun master is down for a while, what are you going to do to solve this engineering/piloting/shooting like crazy situation?”  At which point your character saunters up, makes a roll that is good enough but not spectacular, and your party is on their way.

If all else fails, be the annoying robot that understands millions of languages and whines all the time.  It worked for a famous science fiction franchise or two, so it should work for you as well.

- Dungeon Monkey

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!

Question: Hey Dungeon Monkey – I am a GM running a basic fantasy campaign, high magic, low technology, all the non-human races bouncing around in harmony, and things are going well so far.  I have a couple of players though who keep pushing to bring black powder weapon technology into the campaign world.  They mainly want to know why they cannot have black powder weapons, I’ve tried to come up with some rational reasons but so far using “it doesn’t work in this world” has brought back “what, physics don’t work here?” and “The Gods dislike it so it doesn’t work” has brought “So why don’t they dislike fireballs, it is the same concept?”  So Dungeon Monkey I wanted to know, any thoughts on how I can push players away from black powder in a new and interesting manner?

Answer: So the core problem here boils down to a difference in perception of what your players want from the campaign and what you, as the Game Master (GM), want from the same campaign.  I say that it is a matter of perceptions because you are visualizing an impact that black powder weapons and technology will have in your campaign that you find undesirable while your players are visualizing an impact from black powder weapons that they find irresistible.  So the key thing to tease out is what is the source of that difference in perception, I would stake a guess that the difference comes from how you both imagine black powder weapons killing non-player characters (NPCs) and monsters.  Because let us be brutally honest for a moment, most players are interested in solving problems, getting treasure, and killing obstacles that get in their way.  As usually those obstacles are fleshy and black powder weapons in history do a fair amount of damage to fleshy targets, players interested in black powder weapons seek them out to inflict massive wounds on NPCs and monsters.  You, in turn as a GM, have nightmares of important NPC figures being blown away by black powder weapons used casually, plots coming apart due to sudden unexpected death by players tossing around high speed lead balls willy-nilly, and massive charges of black powder being used to blow up doors and traps in dungeons.

Leaving aside issues of flavor and setting, my suggestion to you is that if you can stomach the change to the “feel” of a medieval fantasy campaign world, allow black powder weapons in your campaign but remove from them all the attributes that you find unpleasant.  In fact, with a little bit of work you can turn a black powder weapon into a source of high comedy and plot catches for your campaign and give your players a minimum payout for their efforts.  The first step you need to do is allow the players to develop black powder weapons and technology, toss in a few obstacles to make them work for it, but allow them to “discover” this amazing technology fairly quickly.  Inform the players you will design the range and power of black powder weapons, that is your key rule for allowing them in the game, and you will accept no debate on your determination.  Now, make them in almost every situation no more powerful then a crossbow or conventional bow, same range, same damage, same chance to hit, same rules to get to use them.  In fact allow a player who has skill in a crossbow to use black powder weapons.  Your players will complain about the impact of black powder weapons, be ready for this by trotting out your surprise, if the players score a critical or high-damage blow with a black powder weapon give them a phenomenal amount of bonus damage, two or three times what a bow will do.  Same rules as a critical for a bow but with far more damage, however also at the same probability on the other end of the scale, using modified rules, the gun will blow up in their face doing the same sort of damage to the player holding the gun.  The players will complain, ignore them, at this point they will either use the weapons and grumble or not use them and grumble.

If they decide not to use them, simply allow the idea to fade out and if it comes back up smile and whip out your finished rules for black powder weapons.  If the players want to use the weapons though, let them.  Remember that early black powder weapons are loud, flashy, and odd-looking to normal people, for example harass them with town militias asking to see these “strange weapons” in action or attempting to confiscate them from the players.  Black powder weapons are useless in any situation where stealth or concealment is necessary, so use that to your advantage and toss a few such situations at the players to remind them why black powder is not king of the battlefield at this time.  Make the players roll publicly for each shot they take and reward them with pain when they critically fail with the weapon, accept that occasionally they will critically succeed and an important NPC will eat a huge amount of damage.  If it is critical that NPC survive, give that NPC freakish amounts of vitality to cover that risk.  (But be sure the NPC retreats rather then fight to the death if you can.)

Finally if black powder weapons still prove too powerful, use the old standby, start to equip your NPCs with the same level of weapons.  Remember no idea remains solely in the hands of one person or group for long and if the weapons can be built by one, they can be built by another, or a platoon of others.  When all else fails remember the GM mantra: “I control how many dice the players roll to hit, and how many I roll to hit, when in doubt, add more to my side.”

- Dungeon Monkey

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!

Question: Dear Dungeon Monkey, so my character was walking through a dungeon, she is a fighter/cleric, and while searching through treasure she found a sword that my DM told me is “oddly compelling.”  Now my character won’t give it up, won’t sell it, and the other players are getting a bit concerned.  The DM won’t let me get it identified and says that it is “oddly glowing now” and the other players won’t trust me alone in the dungeon.  The DM won’t tell me if he is setting me up to betray the party or what he is planning but it is messing with my fun and breaking up our groups harmony.  Any suggestions for how to get the group to trust me again and get the DM off my characters back?

Answer: There is nothing quite as dangerous to the happiness of the world as a Game Master (GM) who has found some hook or running gag to entertain his players or make them into paranoid bundles of sweat and anxiety.  Most GMs work quite hard to achieve that effect and once they find something capable of making players get paranoid they are loath to give it up lightly, however there are ways to get around the situation quickly and efficiently.  The first, and most obvious, is to have a conversation outside of your regular gaming night with the GM and try to find out from them directly what is going on.  If your GM does not want to provide you with details you should explain that it is your character and you worry about changes to the character you don’t understand.  Emphasize what I am guessing is the underlying truth, that you might not want to keep playing your character if he/she was suddenly turned from the fighter/cleric you built into some sort of evil killing machine.  Find out what your GM has in mind and, if that does not work for your vision of the character, either find a way to modify the situation or consider retiring the character.

However sadly many GMs are secretly also thrilled by having power over another person’s character and those sort of GMs are less inclined to give out information in a situation like this.  In which case your best bet is to work with your fellow players and explain to them that you have no idea what is going on and want their help in ending it.  If they agree have all of you simply ignore what the sword is doing, whenever the GM hints about it changing colors or shifting moods, all of you simply nod and ignore it.  If the GM emphasizes it gives off “odd feelings” or makes people feel “strangely unsure” have the players respond about it being “nerves” or just “silliness” and continue on normally as if the sword was doing nothing.  This will either force the GM to up the stakes by having the sword do whatever evil it is going to do or the GM will drop the plot when he realizes that it is no longer working to scare the players.  Either way it will remove your character from its current limbo situation.

If that does not work I recommend forcing the boundaries of reality with your sword, since it is a device the GM wants you to have and keep attached to your character put your character in situations where the blade should be obviously lost or harmed.  Start taking regular walks through whatever local thieves quarters there are in the city, stake the sword in foolish games of chance, offer to let others try out its balance and heft, try to sell the thing.  If the GM keeps saying that you feel “compelled not to do so” then ask why it the sword is so compelling, if the GM won’t tell you then continue with your actions.  If the GM simply says “You don’t do that” and attempts to push the story forwards, don’t let him, stall the game.  Insist that your character is not going to proceed further until you are able to get rid of the sword or you are given a reason why your character cannot get rid of the sword.  Bring a book with you if you need to and drive y0ur point home, if the GM attempts to force your character to continue with the adventure, refuse to assist in this and state your character does not participate.

In the worst case scenario, where your GM simply forces the character along for “story sake” and the players go along with it, retire the character and build a new one as close to identical to the old one as possible.  If your GM asks why simply explain your character has become the definition of a non-player character (NPC) and that you are making a new replacement you can actually play.  Most GMs at that point will finally understand they have gone too far and back down, if they don’t, make it a personal point to kill off your old character with your new one.  At least then you can find out what that glowing sword actually did.

- Dungeon Monkey

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!

Question: Dear Dungeon Monkey, currently I’m playing a paladin in a fantasy campaign and I am beginning to find my current alignment a bit…restrictive.  I’ve reviewed the rules for my particular game and I understand how to change alignments, my DM is okay with the idea of changing alignments to something a bit more…evil…but she wants me to come up with a compelling story for why I’m changing my characters outlook on his alignment.  I’ve tried a few different approaches, like I’m questing for a new source of power or I desire something that will better allow me to shape my destiny, but my DM keeps pointing out that I can achieve all those goals in my current alignment.  What is something really compelling I can use to argue my case?

Answer: Well the first thing you need to really ask yourself, and your Game Master (GM), is is she really okay with your character changing alignment?  Some GMs will say that they feel comfortable with the idea of changing alignment but in reality they are just trying to avoid making you feel disappointed or defensive.  If your GM is dealing with her distaste for your plan in this matter, the best thing to do first is talk with her about it and find out if this is the case.  If it is either negotiate making a new character or simply buckle down to being a character with a positive alignment.  You should think about the necessity of changing alignments in any case, if you are looking for ways to unleash uncontrolled havoc upon the world with a bit of creative work a good alignment can open up more havoc doors then an evil one, as long as you follow some special guidelines.

But in general I understand the appeal, evil is a bit more sexy in some ways then good and definitely can offer more immediate perks in the physical pleasures department/wardrobe upgrades.  If your GM is okay with the alignment change and just wants a really compelling story you need to give her one, something truly over the top.  You should practice it first in front of a mirror, telling it with excitement in your voice and a gleam in your eye.  Be sure to work in at least two moments of horrible maniacal laughter, at appropriate points in the story, if you are unsure of how to do a proper maniacal laugh then check out a classic horror film with Vincent Price as the main character.  You want to do that voice and that laugh, anything less then that and you are missing the power of the evil laugh.  You might even want to invest in a bit of wardrobe, dark colors are usually good and a cape is quite stunning as a means of delivering an image of evil in a compact package.  Also be sure to practice rubbing your hands together in a smooth, grasping motion, you want people to believe that you are full of dark intent and cunning.

Your actual story should be one of personal fall to temptation, you did not start out seeking evil but instead it came knocking at your door, evil is always trying to tempt good.  You resisted the evil in many forms, perhaps it tempted you two or six times unsuccessfully but on the third or seventh time, it succeeded in drawing you towards it.  Focus on the weakness in your character that sparked his or her fall, the chain of events that lead to your character falling to the dark side.  Personally I like to use a weakness that taps into your own personal darkness but, if you are unable to channel that sort of thing, the classics work wonders.  Fear of pain, physical pleasure/sexual pleasure, drink or intoxicating drugs, or simply the raw lure of evil power drunk in off some inappropriate furry portion of your tempting local demon or demoness.  From there you should make up some sort of horrid ritual that you had to undertake to prove your loyalty to the dark forces, usually something involving personal humiliation or swearing some sort of scathing personal oaths.  If you are having trouble look up any sort of Navy hazing event or any fraternity initiation ceremony, really those are the best sources for this sort of thing.

Of course if all of this fails you simply have to tell your GM the honest truth, you want to join team evil for its excellent dental plan.  For those unsure take a look at demon’s sometime, tusks, fangs, and other bizarre dentition takes one heck of a good dental plan to maintain.

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!