Watch Well Games: Issue #37
Incoming: The *new* newsletter format
Welcome to our RPG community newsletter!
Hi, I’m K.J.
joins me today as a guest writer.Join the community in a more conversational way via Notes. I post a Note about every 3-4 days. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Here’s What We Bring to You Today:
The new newsletter format. Let’s try it out for a bit and see how it feels after awhile.
📖Read
Chaosium announced its community content program for Pendragon, the award-winning RPG created by Chaosium’s founder, the legendary Greg Stafford. Creators are already beginning to publish content on DriveThruRPG. I’m interested in knowing how many of you are King Arthur fans. Do you plan to play or create Pendragon community content? Let me know in the comments section.
As Schlau diligently finalizes plans for the Light in Darkness Gaming booth at a local game convention, we’re finding this article - “Lessons learned at the Indie Games Fair” - from the most recent Exeunt Omnes newsletter from Exeunt Press insightful.
I proofread the English version of Karkion #3 (a Dragonbane supplement) and will soon offer a game report once I run the adventure for my players. In the meantime, you can grab a copy here (Swedish) or here (English).
✏️Wrote: Record of Lodoss - Episode Analysis, Part 1
Special guest writer CJ Weigel
Record of Lodoss War is an anime released in 1990 that has an interesting history, with a foundation in classic D&D. The story began in 1986 as a D&D “replay” (essentially what we would call an “actual play” today) in Comptiq Magazine. If you can find copies online, it includes everything from character sheets to maps. Though they eventually had to abandon the D&D rule set, likely due to litigious action by TSR, the Dungeon Master went on to write a series of light novels, manga, and eventually the anime! What better place to look for advice and inspiration? Over the next few newsletters, I’ll be analyzing an episode of the anime, and trying to trace it back to its roots as an exercise to build up our Game Mastering skills. I’ll also adapt the story into a Shadowdark campaign as we go, which will be available on my Patreon for free.
Why Shadowdark? The original campaign was played in one of the earliest editions of D&D (the group of publications called BECMI, or the Mentzer edition), and Shadowdark manages to bridge the gap between the sensibilities of that 80s gaming style, and modern game design. If you haven’t played it already, the free quick-start rules include everything you need to start a game.
Episode 1: Prologue to the Legend
From Wikipedia:
“A group of adventurers, Parn the knight, Deedlit the elf, Ghim the dwarf, Woodchuck the thief, Slayn the wizard, and Etoh the cleric, enter the ruins of a great dwarven hall. After fending off an attack by gargoyles, they continue further into the hall, certain they are not alone. Deedlit is caught in a trap, and when Parn tries to rescue her, he is caught himself and they are separated from the others. In a flashback, we learn that Parn and his group have been tasked by King Fahn to find the sage, Wort, to see if he can provide them with information about Karla, the Grey Witch. Deedlit and Parn find a mural depicting an epic battle between the gods twenty years ago. As they continue through the catacombs, they awaken a green dragon. Unable to fight it, they attempt to run past it but are trapped when the rest of their group arrives. Together they can defeat the dragon, but his thrashing body causes the catacombs to collapse and force the group to flee the hall.”
The first episode gives us a brief introduction to the lore of the world, setting up the big picture, and then drops our heroes directly in the action. Before we even know their names, they’re already in front of the dungeon! Character introduction is tied directly to world-building here: Woodchuck talks about the markets, Slayne mourns the lost artisans, and Etoh plays peacekeeper between Ghim and Deedlit. Then, within five minutes of the episode starting, we’re into the action with a gargoyle ambush!
This is great pacing, at least for an action-adventure story; start with the action and adventure, and leave the rest for later. The same idea can be applied at the table. Provide a brief overview of the world to your players, then zoom in to the dungeon's entrance. Give a rough description, then ask them to provide additional details about what their character would notice or care about. Then hook them with the action!
Partway through the episode, we get a few cutscenes. We see the Grey Witch, our party’s antagonist, speaking with an elderly sage, who we learn later the party is trying to reach. We see the party receive their current quest, and in the process are introduced to several key NPCs. Then we cut back to the dungeon, and right back to the action!
Deedlit’s attention is drawn by treasure, and she’s captured by a trap, with Parn following right behind. This splits the party and leads to two of my favorite scenes in the episode. First, we have Deedlit and Parn; falling for a trap and getting separated would normally be a bad thing, but instead, they find an incredible treasure! In the depths of the dungeon, they discover a mural depicting a battle from the setting’s history as a bite-sized lore dump.
Second, Slayne casts light. If you’re accustomed to contemporary RPGs, this can seem like an insignificant detail, but here we see the party awe-struck by such simple magic. That kind of reaction mostly comes down to a choice of gaming system: in 5e, light is just a cantrip, something almost any character has access to. But in a system like Shadowdark, even that spell is rare and fallible (part of why I chose Shadowdark specifically). The added stakes add value to the spell, and the rarity gives the GM a chance to present magic with mystery and wonder.
Finally, the episode wraps up with an epic battle against a dragon. Based on a few hints throughout the series, I think the party would be around third level at this point (except for Slayne, who I suspect is at least 5th), so it throws me for a loop that they actually defeat the dragon. Watch carefully, and you’ll see they use clever tactics and manipulate their environment to emerge victorious. Players should always be rewarded for engaging with the setting and thinking creatively, so I could see myself as a GM running this as more of a cinematic skill challenge instead of a traditional combat encounter.
So, what lessons can we learn from just this first episode?
Action first, lore second. This is dependent on the style of campaign you’re running, but I believe that if the primary mechanic of your chosen system revolves around fighting monsters, your first scene should involve fighting monsters! Open fast and strong, to catch the player’s attention, and they’ll be much more interested in your awesome world.
Cutscenes away! Once in a while, it’s ok to cut away from the heroes of the story and show off something they don’t know, but that the players will enjoy. I like using this to introduce villains (for more mechanical ideas, check out Fabula Ultima) because it provides something for the players to look forward to.
Nonlinear storytelling keeps the pacing. If you open up the session already in the dungeon, eventually even the most murder-hobo players will ask ‘cool, but y tho?’ So give them a flashback! This is a great way to re-establish pacing after everyone gets back from grabbing snacks or using the restroom.
Reward curiosity and cleverness. If your players fall for a trap, there should be consequences. Even a major setback should progress the adventure in some way. Beyond that, you should encourage your players to engage with the narrative. Sometimes that means interpreting the rules in favorable ways.
Want more? Join CJ’s Patreon for only $1/month.
🎨Made
From Schlau: “This is from a camping map set for encounters or an adventurers' sites. The set comes with a variety of settings for meeting the diverse and sundry parties traipsing across the land. Get the entire map pack assortment on my Patreon. Leave a note and I can customize a purchased camp map for your individual needs.”
Schlau’s free map of the week is here (Dropbox link), along with all other free maps from past newsletters. Join his Patreon to get exclusive content like adventures or commission a custom-made map just for you!
🕹️Played
Abiotic Factor by developer Deep Field Games has been one of my favorite video games right since playtesting it last winter. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly encourage you to gather up some friends or family members and enjoy the exploring, surviving, crafting, cooking, and more.
The 🎃Halloween🎃 update dropped yesterday, and there’s a load of fresh content my co-op group has already been eagerly diving into during our game sessions.
Here is a just-for-fun video WWG intern and fellow Abiotic Factor fan EZgreen01 and I made. (Video doesn’t contain spoilers for the new content.)
🎓Tips & Tricks
Hero Forge just announced that it now offers Pro/Pro+ users the new kitbashing feature (currently in its alpha phase) - but I’ve yet to get a reply to my months-old request for mallards to be added as a Species. This leaves Runequest and Dragonbane fans perhaps feeling a bit left out. What to do, what to do?
Try Titancraft to make your mallard characters. Once you navigate to the website, select Character Creator, click on “Add a character” (middle of the screen) or the + sign (upper left of the screen). Duckfolk (female then male) are currently the second option on the humanoid menu (subject to change if Titancraft adds more species). Click on the “Add to scene” button (lower right of pop-up menu) and begin customizing.
You can easily and quickly change the background and even add a frame once you select the Token option so the VTT token matches the (probably physical) minifig you’ve created.
You can buy the stl files (to print using your own 3D printer), the resin minifigs, or even both for your creations.
Downside of Titancraft: Paints are not yet available, so users must make the most of their imaginations to visualize the coloring of the minifigs.
Have you used Titancraft to make anything?
💡Random Life Stuff
Kitty wants to remind you that black cats are considered good luck in many cultures.
That’s all for now, folks. Remember:
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 | A guest post by
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I have loved King Arthur, Camelot, the Knights of the Round Table, Merlin, Guinevere since I was a little kid. I’ve been eyeing Pendragon for awhile now. 😊😊
I've been looking at Pendragon longingly since the late 80's but I've never managed to bring it to the table. I really need to change that.
I've been inspired by the quick demo/play segments in the +1 Forward podcast's Forged in the Dark Summer Series from several years ago. I'd prep some scenes for different games that show off unique and interesting aspects of those games. Then, if we don't have enough players for a regular game, we could jump into one of these demos and try out a bite-sized chunk of a game that has caught our attention.