Creating Unforgettable NPCs a Video

So I wanted to do a short, audio presentation on creating unforgettable npcs. I didn't want to go to in depth because I'm still fiddling around with programs and how I want to present my ideas. I have trouble accepting my voice, so hearing my voice on recording is a bit daunting to me and drags me back a lot. Video of myself? I'm definitely not their yet. Let me know if this is something you'd be interested in seeing more of. The link below will take you to the video. Hopefully...

Developing Unforgettable NPC

Incase the link doesn't work, the address is below to copy and paste:

https://prezi.com/v/93tpx1zo7nlt/

Among us RPG idea

Okay, I know, kind of weird.

Here, let me explain.

The GM knows who the Imposter is. The Imposter knows who they are (hopefully). The Crewmates know they are crewmates and that’s it. I’m thinking an entire roleplay scenario where tasks are divided out to all players and are completed however the player deems fit.  Whether that’s together or by themselves is up to them. The GMs duty is to manage tasks, orchestrate events (like normal encounters in any RPG), control NPCs and write in the Impostures actions. So here's what I am thinking…

Everyone has to converse with the GM secretly. Think group chats but only the GM can see. The players can either announce what they are doing to others or keep it to themselves, or lie. Depending on the actions they want to take, the GM can ask for an ability roll check, just like any ol RPG to see if they succeeded or failed. 

I have NO idea if something like this would even work in an RPG setting but I am so down to try it and flesh it out. I am curious if anyone else has any ideas how to make this a reality or if it's even interesting enough to pursue. Let me know in the comments!

Big Friendly Giant and RPG

Alright, hear me out here, BFG was one of my favorite childhood movies. When the live-action remake came out in 2016, I HAD to watch it. I was not disappointed. 5 years later, and I’m wondering what kind of world that would be, more importantly, how could I make that world into a RPG reality. 

OKay, here's what I am thinking. Stop me now if you think it’s a dumb idea…. Oh right, you can’t. Well stop reading if you must but I highly recommend you continue. 

What if adventurers were inside those dreams. Fighting the nightmares so kids can sleep soundly at night. Think about it. BFG’s home could be a hub for adventures to start and stop. So a rotating cast of players can participate and each session is a one shot quest into a dream that needs cleansing of the nightmare running rampant. BFG is grateful and wholesome as always and the reward of the day is good vibes. I don’t know about you, but I feel like that would be an epic adventure. Plus it can be as fantastical and wonderful as your imagination. Sign me up. (serious though... someone do this, then sign me up for it....)

RPG Thoughts #1

One of the biggest challenges for a Game Master is coming up with fun and engaging campaigns for players to venture into and explore. So I thought it would be fun to post some of my thoughts on that. 

 

Rescuing the Princess, damsel in distress, is such an old trope. Nowadays it’s the princesses rescuing themselves and being more 3D characters instead of always needing rescuing. But there is something satisfying about helping others and being larger than life that makes it appealing to go on quests looking for those damsels to rescue and maybe woo. However, what if those damsels weren’t exactly… damsels. What if they were hags and witches in distress from meddling adventurers looking for easy targets. Maybe the local mortuary necromancer is kidnapped by a knight claiming the black craft as blasphemous, which I guess he has a point depending on your perspective. The town’s resident Drugar smithy is locked up in a tall tower owned by a wacky wizard because their hair color is orange. A nobleman's poet son was captured by a dragon who fell in love with his poems and scribbles. I’m just saying, maybe we can all be a damsel in distress sometimes and it’s okay if an adventurer can come to our rescue. 

I know I get lazy sometimes and would not mind if some adventurer were to swoop in and save me from my constant voluntary slavery at this gold mine. (save me, I'm begging you...)

The Taskmaster Video

 So I decided I would give myself a challenge. A week to create a video of a character I came up with a while ago. This introduction video took me about a week, 30 minutes a day or so. So about 3 and a half hours give or take. I really was rushing it too because I was working on it during my lunch times. I would have worked on it between shifts but with only 4 hours of downtime, you feel obligated to prioritize self care. 

Anywho, I’ve linked the video and the making of video in this post. 

The Task Master

https://youtu.be/I6P_KD-36v8

The Making of the Task Master 

https://youtu.be/MkTV2QRM-Zw

Board Game Thoughts

 As much as I like board games, I almost never find a time that works with others that are willing to play. I work remotely, so my schedule revolves around when I am off and home while others’ work can be more temperamental. This leaves either single player board games or online board games as options to get my game fix. Though it is debatable if you want to call online board games still board games, but I digress. So I was thinking about it. Single player is nice, except one of the main appeals of other players is the social aspect and collaboration of it. However, online is still isolating and the immersion is limited. So what to do?

Then it hit me, what about VR board games? Just imagine “sitting” at a table with a board game sprawled out in front of you. Because it’s a video game, in a sense, pieces can move and interact with avatars (the players). Think the wizarding chess game in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It’s still a simulation, but you could be playing with friends and family that are miles away and still have a sort of visual connection with them that screen and keyboard just can’t quite obtain. 

Anyways, these are my Board Game Thoughts. Ciao for now.

The Task Master

The Task Master is an Anti-Game Master character I had tossed around for a bit a ways back. He is a creature that only appears to groups currently having a game night on stormy nights. If you let him inside, he will kidnap you and your company and transport you to a fantastical world of his imagination, much like a Game Master would, except literally. There you must complete all the tasks the Task Master gives you for his own entertainment. If you survive, you'll be transported safely back to your own world. Or at least that is what he will tell you, none have reported being successful. He is a sadist individual that tries to hide his true nature but not without rules. He follows a set of rules himself that are not exactly clear. In either case, it is wise not to accept the Task Master’s invitation for adventure for you may not make it out alive.

Story Time: Feth the Cannibal Assassin

(*Warning* there are themes of cannibalism below. It's not graphic, but if that sort of thing upsets you, I would skip this post.)

One of my favorite characters to this day is my good friend’s Human Rogue Assassin PC, Feth. For simplicity and anonymity, we will call this good friend “X”. X is an odd sort of person already. He goes by his nickname (which starts with an X) and even though I’ve known him for 5+ years, I still don’t know his real name. I have a few ideas, but I’m not 100%. When we met, I was a little bit of a prick and just called him a new male name every campaign, going down the list in alphabetical order. It was a jest and in all good fun and he didn’t take offense to it. I’ve since dropped that charade and call him by his preferred nickname. 

Regardless, it was X, my bestfriends who were also a couple, my brother, and myself getting ready to start our first Fantasy AGE campaign. I was the GM. I was also a green GM, fresh and sparkling in the lamplight. So of course, being new, I gave my characters a pretty long leash when it came to creating their characters. This was also before I understood how point buy and standard array for ability stats can be a GM’s best friend. 

Long story short, we had girl from couple create a ratfolk character penname “Luc”; her boyfriend created a fairly dim feral man, penname “Az,” that shapeshifted into a polar bear; my brother came for a few sessions, and I can’t for the life of me remember his edgelord cringe character’s race, he named his PC “Meta”; and X’s character Feth, a human assassin that enjoyed to cook and consumed his targets. 

I know I already said Feth is one of my favorite characters, and indeed this entire post is about his character. However, I want to emphasize that all these characters, save my brothers, were very memorable and loved characters. Our campaign managed to span a good four years before we ended it. Some players joined and left in that time, but the main three I mentioned stayed. One of the players, the woman who created the ratfolk character, still uses her old character as her online persona. Her now husband, who created the man/bear, also still talks about his adventures as the dim witted polar bear-man and his best friend the assassin cannibal, who would share some delectable meals. 

I’m getting off track. Let me introduce you to Feth. We met our assassin friend for the first time enjoying a meal provided by his most recent contract, though not by choice mind you. He was a very well dressed gentleman and you would not pin him for a rouge, or an assassin, for that matter. He always kept up his appearances and spoke in a very noble like manner, without sounding snobbish or condensing. 

Feth had a taste for anything unusual. While human was by far his favorite, he was drawn to anything that he hadn’t tried before. Calling him an opportunist was an understatement. Any chance he was given to try or cook different meats he took. It was almost a given that as soon as a defeated monster fell, Feth would roll to dress down the beast. The party never grew hungry with Feth around. 

His cooking skills improved while on their adventures and he would often seek out exotic spices to add to his growing supply. Besides that, he grew very attached to one of his companions, Az. They had had a sort of appreciation for each other and their shared interests in human flesh. While Feth was exceedingly smart, Az had little brains to be desired. They were a perfect duo. Each rubbing off on each other, making bad decisions and executing clever combative plays. It is well known by the two, if one should fall, the other will honor them by consuming their flesh.

One of my favorite scenes was when Luc, Az, Feth, and Benji (a picked up NPC), were traveling in a deserted desert. Az was complaining about the lack of water and how thirsty he had become when the four of them stumbled upon a very odd looking cacti patch. Feth had mentioned there could be water stored in the cacti and that cacti, after being properly prepared, can be delicious. He wished to try it. Luc, being the youngest of the group, was quick to pipe up that it may not be safe to try unknown plants. Despite the warnings, Az hacked open the cacti and they both drank from the flesh. 

It was a hallucinogenic cacti, much like our real world Peyote. The effects lasted quite a while. I added this cacti into the campaign because I had just watched Avatar the Last Airbender and I adored the scene where Sokka had cactus water and started hallucinating. Once the effects wore off, the two, Az and Feth, named the water, unimaginatively, “cactus juice”. They also filled up the remaining of their empty water barrel with as much of the “juice” they could find. 

Much, much later, they ended up meeting a Beer Craftsman in a dwarven city. They had a pitch for the Beer Craftsman, and they wanted to start a new line of beer using the cactus juice. Feth’s communication and persuasion skills were so high, the beer maker was won over easily. Thus started a years journey of finding various unusual ingredients for their growing beer line and sending any spare coin to the brewery. 

If you were to ask Feth what he hasn’t tried, and what he would like to try, he would say “wizard, I want to know if the meat is zingy or perhaps has an electric charge to it.” He would do a little dance with his shoulders when he pronounced the word “zingy,” in an endearing, almost schoolgirl like way. 

With his hands clasped together, he would bow his head in respect with a, “How do you do?” and you would never know those hands had prepared many meals from unusual, controversial sources. Nor would you think, if he was given the opportunity, those hands would be preparing you for a dinner table.   

So, if you meet a well dressed individual, with slicked back black hair, a thin mustache and a rather dry sense of humor. Be weary. If he offers you a meal he prepared expertly with passion and gusto, seasoned with his many spices he tirelessly gathered over his travels. Be cautious, for he may be Feth and he may be offering you a meal you don’t want to know where it came from, or who it came from. 

Streamline Homebrew Campaigns: To Prep or not to Prep

I just want to start off to say, I am very partial to homebrew campaigns. Pretty much every campaign I’ve run, whether it was DND or Fantasy AGE or otherwise, was homebrew. I love the freedom of creating my own little world tailored around my characters. However, as many DMs and GMs know, homebrews take a lot of time to prepare. With that in mind, I want to go over how I get away with doing as little work as possible for a homebrew campaign. 

I am busy. No, really. I am very busy. My plate is always full. I work a job that requires at least 12 hours a day for 14 days straight (pre-COVID schedule, now it's more like 21 days, I digress), I attend online classes (sometimes multiple), and when I am home, I spend most of the time working on physical projects, catching up on home responsibilities, and practicing my hobbies (novel writing and digital art at the moment). That doesn't leave a whole lot of time for self care as it is, and even less time for building an entire world for a twice a month campaign (again, pre-covid. The last year has been once every other month campaign). 

So I needed to streamline how I create homebrew campaigns that were engaging and fun, while also saving time for myself to relax. I suppose the obvious solution is to buy mods and run my campaigns from those, or even look up free to use ones. But I really enjoy homebrew more. Plus, reading that material still takes time and I wanted to streamline the process for homebrew to take even less time than that. 

Alright. Obviously this isn’t a perfect system. It works for me and I constantly improve upon it, that's all I need. Here it goes. 

 

Part 1: The Prep

• Pick one interesting encounter topic/subject, like a monster, character, or event to base the entire campaign around. For example, a Spirit Naga, the mayor of a fishing town, or a flesh-decaying plague listed respectively. 

• Pick a settling that somewhat resembles your chosen encounter. Using the above examples; A temple monastery, a coastal town/river town, condensed bigger cities. 

• Pick a problem and a solution befitting of the setting and subject. Again using the above; Spirit Naga has fallen ill (problem) and needs adventuring party to gather medicinal herbs only found in goblin infested caves (solution), Mayor of Fishing Village has been integrating criminal folk (mobs, bandits, thieves, etc) into political positions to muscle good folk out of their land and retain office (problem) and adventuring party is asked to weed out and expose the mayor through infiltration and investigation (solution), and lastly several cities are experiencing plague running rampant in higher class societies but not lower class (problem) adventuring party needs to solve the puzzle that higher class citizens are being poisoned by mistreated lower class groups (solution).  

• Choose characteristics from the player's characters. This could be simple, like “afraid of water” or more complex like “lost both parents that were killed by a bandit named Drugal that was also the PC’s fiance but turned out to later be their long lost cousin, son of Uncle Randy who owns a candy store. Now if the PC sees chocolate they get sick.” It doesn't have to be negative either. It could be “father was a famous war hero.” Pick something you feel like you can work with. 

Now we have something going here. I’m going to use the first example set. Encounter: Spirit Naga, Setting: Temple Monastery, Problem/Solution: Naga fell ill and needs herbs from goblin caves; PC’s (#1-3) in the game have the following characteristics: PC1 is afraid of water, PC2 can’t stand the sight of chocolate, and PC3’s father was a war hero. 

Now we could run with this, but let's take it a bit further. We want this to be engaging after all. Let's think of a secondary problem/solution. So for example, the monks in the monastery believe the Spirit Naga has become ill because of the unrest in the surrounding area. However what really happened, and what the PC’s may or may not find out, is the Naga is being poisoned by the head monk for personal reasons. The PCs need to uncover the head monk’s secret stash of tombs detailing poisonous plants and concoctions, find remains of dried up powder in a pestle and mortar discarded outside, and/or hear rumors of the head monk taking exceedingly longer walks for the past few weeks and he has been late getting to his daily group meditations as of late. 

Now here's the kicker, I mentioned the PC’s may or may not find out. One of the main things DMs/GMs will complain about is their campaign being derailed in some way. Not I. I almost encourage it. Because it gives you an opportunity to evolve the campaign in more ways than you could have on your own. PC’s go into the cave, find the herbs, treat the Naga but ignore the nervous head monk or the concerns of the others or even didn’t realize that while the herbs may temporarily relieve the symptoms, the Naga is still being poisoned and now the Head Monk knows he needs to change his tactics to get the job done. This could have drastic effects for the PC’s later. 

Alright, I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s easy to see with just a little bit of information, the imagination can fill in the blanks rather quickly. That’s perfect. 

Challenges

Alright. Now we have a good base. Time for some XP challenges. The objectives themselves make two challenge opportunities, solving both problems in creative ways could score your players massive points, that will be decided by the DM’s/GM’s discretion. (I’m just going to use GM for now, since it is more widely used in all RPGs).  So let’s talk monsters. 

Now I personally like awarding XP for roleplay and outside-of-the-box thinking. It gives positive reinforcement for players to do more than ‘roll-hit-damage, roll-miss-play on phone.’ So I tend to keep battle encounters few. However, that’s my preference. How I choose my monsters/encounters is below. 

• Think of setting (monastery/goblin cave), encounter objective (naga) and your characters characteristics. What kind of interesting characters/monsters would be in this area and come in contact with the players. 

• Obviously there would be goblins in the goblin cave. Or it could have slimes. Take your PC’s level into consideration and keep the CR at the desired level. Just choose one or two possible encounters and keep those stats on the back burner for when you get to the cave. 

• Encounter objective (naga)

• Have snakes or even an opposing (evil) naga reside in the cave for an epic BBEG (Again… Keep PC’s level in mind)

• Now remember your PC’s characteristics 

• The herbs are on the other side of an underground lake in the cave (remember not all encounters have to be monster battles), and PC1 is afraid of water. Time to think outside-the-box

• A traveling bard wants to tag along in the PC3’s quest because he wants to witness the child of the great warrior of stories past.  

• A chocolatier’s wagon got ransacked by the goblins and took his cook wear, and product into the caves. He pleads to the adventurers for them to retrieve his belongings. 

Those are some solid encounters and you don’t have to flesh them all out. Just use the ones you don’t use as backup if the campaign is going slowly or you want to have more things happening. The point is to just have a few possibilities written down and move away from it. 

Names

If you have a computer or tablet the next part is easy. Keep tabs open on your favorite NPC generators or name generators. If you don’t have those assets. Then I would write down a few names, personality traits and possible occupations. This will just be for quick reference if you need a name for someone who pops up. 

Hook

Lastly, you’ll need your hook and you're golden. I usually write my hooks on the PC’s characteristics. Let's use PC3's famous father. 

• A monk stops the party traveling through. He points at the sigil on PC3’s chest. He exclaims, “PC3’s Fathers Name, it’s you! Please sir, we need your help. A terrible calamity has befallen the monastery.”

I’ll be honest, this is about as much as i’ll prepare for. You can prepare more or less. I will stop here. Sometimes my prep is even less than the above and I just go over what I think may happen in my mind, and possible scenarios that could happen while I am doing other busy work. The rest I improvise. The better your improv skills, the less you need to prepare. I might find a few images to keep up on my computer screen of certain things to describe the scene more accurately, but the rest comes from my players. Let me explain. 

Part 2: The Game

Here we are, game night. I’ve barely prepared and my players are ready for an adventure. I’ll set the scene first then come in with the hook. Now the players are headed towards the objective and I’ll ask. “So, what is the (enter building/place/thing here) called?” Yes, that's right. I just asked the players to name a feature in my world. This can get ridiculous, so use this wisely. If your players are more on the crude side, and that's not what you are going for, don't ask. Unless you like stuff like that, then go for it! Or just make something up ahead of time when you have a moment for it. But if you know your players well, it's a good practice to invite your players to create the world they are adventuring with you. It also helps them be more invested in the story, setting, or person. 

I had my players name a side character that was only merely meant to deliver a message. However, none of the players would ever let harm come to Little Jeremy. They would find odd jobs for him and only allow him to stable their horses when they were in town. When the town was attacked by a band of Kobolds, they were worried about Little Jeremy and made sure he was safe, so much so they ignored the glaringly obvious direction of the campaign. Which isn’t a bad thing either. It was important to them and, in a way, important to me too. 

 

Connections are wonderful in any roleplaying game. They can really make a game special and memorable. Allowing players to take part in the creation of the world and its inhabitants can also help establish connections between player and game. So when your party seems particularly interested in a certain NPC, positive or negative, play it up. Keep building on that character and integrating them into the weave of your story. 

I could honestly go on and on about letting players name things, determine direction and what to focus on. However, how much wiggle room you give your players also corresponds with how good you are at adapting and improvising. I feel I am fairly good at it enough where I can get away with having a vague outline of the game, a few characters pre-thought up and some descriptive text here and there for me to read out. Also, if i'm feeling adventurous, i’ll do a little physical assets for the group to use. 

Now I haven’t gone over ability checks at all. That is because I wanted this to be adaptable to any RPG. Honestly, a good understanding of the rules of the RPG of your choice does help so you don’t have to refer to them constantly when you are doing your quick set up campaign. I mostly use the easy-impossible ability check chart that’s in most games for situations when they pop up or I have a feeling like I should do a check for whatever reason. Very rarely will I pre-plan a check unless it's an obstacle I want to plan out. Like a trap or a tricky encounter where a lot of ability checks may be needed to determine the outcome. For example, crossing a body of water would be exceptionally difficult for PC1 since they are afraid of water. 

Part 3: Enjoy yourself

It’s alright if you prepped for a campaign and it didn’t do as you planned, and it's alright if you didn't prep at all and now suddenly you need to produce something. Just be honest and work through it. Sometimes you need to just call it and play a board game. Sushi Go, Fluxx, and Cards Against Humanity are our go-tos when a game gets frustrating or the players/myself are tired and cranky from the long day/night.  Maybe you tried my streamline and it turns out it wasn’t enough and you found yourself stumbling and your players bored. That's okay! You won’t know where you are till you try it. You won't know where you need to improve if you don’t ask either. Maybe you didn’t realize it but your players might feel like they can’t do anything that isn’t in your mind and it's not fun for them, or maybe they feel like the fights drag on too long and there are too many. Keep an open communication and don’t get too upset if they have negative criticisms, it's meant to help you be better and grow. 

I said I don’t mind if my players go against the grain. That’s because I want them to have as much fun as I am having. The game is meant to be played and shared and I don't want to bog it down by denying everything or hindering them by making challenges too hard or trying to kill their PCs. So whether you detail out the entire campaign, outline the basic points, or have a happy medium of the two, the takeaway is to have fun and enjoy the game. 

The Art of Roleplay: Titan's Grave with Wil Wheaton (posted 2015)

 

2015 seems like forever ago now after our recent tangle with the 2020 pandemic. However, I still find myself going back and rewatching these beutes for ideas and inspiration. Wil Wheaton is a cosmic mastermind when it comes to engaging his players and audience in this remarkable, shared experience adventure. I absolutely love the characters and their respective players. They do so well together, it's easy to forget the entire show was tailed towards entertainment for the viewer. Regardless, this series is what converted me to the world of RPG in the first place and in my opinion a must watch for anyone curious about starting a Titan's Grave or Fantasy AGE campaign. 

I only hosted one Titan's Grave campaign before starting an epic 4 year Fantasy AGE campaign that took over my life at the time. Though it didn't last long, that Titan's Grave campaign was the hook for me that started a very long career of GMing (or DM for DnD5e). Though I'm not sure if its really a career has much as it as an extensive hobby. 

This video is the introduction to Titan's Grave and Character Introductions along with some compelling backstories. I personally love the whole half elf/ half dwarf race, I was floored at that possibility; and Jeremy the robot is just too adorable not to love. 

Interesting Characters and Even More Interesting Villains for RPGs

 So you want advice creating engaging, interesting characters and villains for your RPG campaign from a RPG expert. Well! You've come to the wrong place. Wait, don't go yet. I know what you are thinking. If it's the wrong place why am I still reading this? Hear me out. I may not be an expert, but I have some tid bits that may come in handy for you. 

RPGS are amazing. I mean really, an entire world to delve and explore with nothing more but some paper and dice. It can be a bit daunting starting out. Especially for new DMs (Dungeon Masters) or GMs (Game Masters). If you are reading this, I am assuming you know those terms. 

The most compelling characters in a rpg game have got to be the characters that stick in your player's mind, well after the actual session. There's been a few times where one or more of my players (independent from each other) have contacted me to express their thoughts on a character, or feelings. One player literally sent me a drunk video where they cussed out a villain. It was one of my shining moments. I knew he must have been stewing on that for a while. 

So how do we make compelling characters? I'm going to break down my process for you in a round about way. It is definitely not extensive. You can pick and chose what works for you and roll with it. 

I am going to interject real quick before I get into this, some NPCs become important to players that you hadn't originally planned for. That's okay. Roll with it. Make that NPC even better by brining them back into the campaign, even if you only planned for them to be brief or even minor you didn't give them a name. 

Okay back on point. 

So here's my process. If I want to have an NPC, or more accurately possible villain, be important to my PC's, I try to identify any possible ties first. Before I even pick a gender or race or background, I look solely at ties. What are my players? What are their goals? Likes? Dislikes? Phobias? For example, one of my player's decided he wanted his character to be low-key raciest towards Orcs because of past run ins. So I created Flynnigan Stormraider, a half orc enlisted solider with a stoic personality and a give no-fecks attitude. He was not the villain. You better believe he made an impression on that player nonetheless. So much so there was an obsession, which is exactly what I wanted. 

Now, for the villain. So here's where things get a little tricky. I don't create villains. I create characters. Hear me out. Villainy is all about perspective. Stormraider may be a good guy at the end of the campaign, who fights for his kingdom, pays his taxes, and upholds the law. However, to someone else he could be more of a villain in their story. It's less likely, except when you think about it like this. You're a hand picked soldier by your commanding officer to infiltrate the enemies' camp and bring back information about their next move. This information could have the potential to save many lives and stop a potential ambush. So you infiltrate, doing your duty for your kingdom, when you are found out by a meddling, stone-faced half orc who starts following you everywhere you go and not letting you slip away with the crucial information. To make things worse, a group of traveling adventurers have now been poking their noses in your business. Now who is the villain in this scenario?

It's questions like these I feel we need to ask about our character's motives and background to truly bring them to life. It's easy to create a NPC that's all about valor and good or a villain that continuously tries to kidnap players and put them in ridiculous traps in attempt to "kill" them and request 1 million dollars in exchange for not blowing up the very planet they live on. Which, don't get me wrong, can be super funny. However, there's a time and place to be funny and sometimes you gotta lay on the feels to make a truly unique and memorable experience. 

Also this brings another dimension to the character and can invoke sympathy and conflicting emotions from the players. Now imagine you are the player, you just finished an epic adventure capturing a spy amongst a group of soldiers and now you are traveling to the next kingdom for your next adventure. While traveling a thunderstorm hits, you stumble upon a nice family that takes you in and feeds you generously. The children recount tales from their father, who isn't present at the moment, and all his good deeds for the Kingdom and how when they grow up, they want to be just like him. It isn't too long for you to piece together this family is the family of the spy you just defeated and he isn't going to be home any time soon. 

Kind of pulls at your heart strings doesn't it?

This is how I make compelling characters. I try my best to give them reason for doing what they are doing besides the "evil for evil's sake". What about obvious evil monsters? Same thing. Evil monsters like devils and demons aren't waiting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for an adventurer to meddle with. There has to be a reason. Even if that reason is simply presented opportunity to gain something.

Well I feel like I have gone over this process quite a bit. It's not everything by far, but hopefully these little tids have jump started some creative juices. 

Chao for now.  

Welcome to the World...of Beebs

I love games. No, really. I really love games. Video games, Board games, Tabletop games; It’s been a growing passion of mine for many years and hasn’t slowed in the slightest. This passion is what I really want to write about in this blog. Anecdotes, a review sprinkled in here and there, and quite possibly the budding of a game of my own creation. 

To me, there is nothing better than a well illustrated game sprawled out on a run down table that's seen far too many years, yet here it is still doing it’s sole duty. Cards, pencils, paper, tokens are being passed from person to person. Game days are always an unexpected series of pleasant happenings: one person brought way too many energy drinks and passed them around; another took on the role of mother to make sure everyone is fed; and there’s always one person that the group is waiting for and messaging for constant updates on their ETA. 

I will always be enjoying a cup of tea poured from a kettle that is completely out of place among the rest of the décor. Leaned back in a broken chair, held together by the man-made miracle Duck Tape, I’ll gather around my players to the table and with one look they know: we are about to begin another adventure.  

It’s satisfying to entrap others into a tapestry of stories from the mind. Though that’s the main goal of Role Playing Games. When the mood isn’t in for crawling dungeons and slaying goblins with paper and dice, we turn to cardboard and plastics. Something about working towards the games goals, sometimes in direct competition and sometimes cooperatively, makes those memories all the more memorable. 

Those memories I hold dear. I would like to share some of them in this blog. I can’t pretend to know how I will progress from here, but it is a start, and starting is the first step in just about everything amazing.