Parting Ways and Brand New Days

I feel as though I have no true followers, and for this I have no one to blame but myself.

• I didn't post that often
• I had a very strange blog, and an oddly specific blog theme
• I pretended to be a raccoon
• I didn't even give the best advice (meaning that I've found better advice on other websites)

So it's for these reasons that I'm closing Nook's Knack, and switching over to Path of Balance. There you can meet the real me, the man behind the raccoon. The good news in all of this is that I probably still will write about games, but they will no longer be the focus of any of my posts.

Good gaming, and happy days my friends,

From : Stewart

Super Powered Men

Schools In

Well to anyone keeping up with my blog entries, I am sorry that I haven't written in two months! I know... I'm a horrible raccoon. However, not much has actually taken place since my last post. The steam bike game sort of fell apart after the first session. A mix of me getting sick with some stomach illness, and players forgetting what day we played. We got two additional sessions in before the interruption that inevitably stopped the game, and that interruption would be moving away and going to school. All my players where back in the hometown for the summer, but we're all going our separate ways for school again. Now here I sit in my brand new apartment, with brand new roommates, looking out at a vast sunset/thunderstorm.

Sad as it is that the game fell apart, I won't roll over and take it lying down. I'm well on my way to preparing another game and finding some new players...
"New players"... now there's a thought I wasn't prepared for.

How do I go about discovering brand new players under the rocks of this brand new city? I have yet to meet anyone in any of my classes that looks interesting. Although I do suppose my roommates could work, maybe I'll try for them.

The First Session

Last night I held the first session of my Steambike game! (Finally)
The session went amazingly well! I called all the players at 11am and told them the time (5pm) and place (my apartment... I mean tree), shockingly they all said they could make it. Amazing given their less than 12 hour notice! When organizing a game make sure to find your players early on so you don't wind up with players who you've never met before, and definitely warn them about the session about a week ahead of time. If a week is too long to wait before releasing your master piece, then at least have to common decency to allow for 24 hours before the session. Obviously though, I did not do this and I still got away with it! ^^

I allowed an hour for players to arrive, and in this case introduce themselves to each other. I've been practicing this sort of patience for quite some time now, given my players lack of ability to be on time to any event. But when six o' clock rolled around, I waited no more. I turned to the most humble of my players (a choice I did not make by coincidence) and began to roll a character up with him. Apollo is the name of this character (and the nickname I'll be using for his player). Immediately after learning his character's name, I told him what peril danger his character was in.
"You're running for your life Apollo. You're being chased by a zombie-like creature with blood dripping from his jowls. He is gaining on you, and very quickly." Then without giving the player any time to take an in-game action I returned to character creation by asking him for his sex.
"Male," he quickly said.
"You rack yourself on a little lower than waist high brick wall, you fall to the ground from the pain. And how old are you Apollo?"
"I want to be wise, and since you're game is set in a confusing world, I want to know as much as I can... I'll be 65."
"Oh yes..." I said, "You're definitely in pain from that groin hit."
I proceeded to let him know about how the zombie lunges forward and is about to land on top of him, unfortunately he was unable to stop the zombie from grappling him and was thus pinned to the ground in pain of plenty, and struggling against the bloodthirsty undead for his frail but still semi-important life.

This process shattered the gray noise from step one. "Gray noise" is anything that takes up the sound waves and isn't the center of attention.. I use it as a term for other players who talk during someone's turn. When they heard what was happening, they drew their conversations to a quick end, and cheered for a new member of the gaming group. I also started throwing the other players into their own stories, leaving the old man on a cliff hanger. When I started there where only four players, so I had two in one area and another two somewhere else. One of which died almost instantly, which scared the rest of the room, making the danger seem more real. That same player (who has before been known to be one of my best players) was more careful about his decisions after that. Ok, well actually he let himself get beat up pretty bad as a distraction for a fellow PC to steal a steam bike and get away. But I don't take heroism for granted in my games, so I gave Price (formally #54) the credit he deserved. (And yes, the fact that he named his first character after a number might have had a little to do with my killing him off, but it wasn't like I didn't give him a chance to run)

Between story shifts, since there where players just listening and not particularly doing anything, I would give them NPCs to play as and told them their role as this person. They where very good at staying fair to their fellows, and so I kept doing this throughout the night. By staying fair I just mean that they didn't try to help them, and they didn't try to ruin their experience either. It's fellowship at it's best I think. This is a daring move for most GM's though. Players tend to play in a manner that will only help them, so it's a lot more common that you won't be able to let your players take control of NPCs for you, I'm just saying you shouldn't rely on it all the time.

Ironically, after just about everyone had their first turn, we started rolling for character stats. The setup was a bit odd, but I think it's going to be perfect for this game. Everyone was allowed to re-roll for only one stat. The stats are Speed: which is your ability to out-run something while your on foot, Mental: which is your general knowledge of the world and book smarts, and Physical: which is you're general strength and physical health. Depending on their size (child, regular, and husky + small, medium, or large) they got a speed roll and a physical modifier. The highest possible speed is 20 and the speed rolls my players got are as follow:
12 16 13 10 13 and 11 so they're all pretty average runners.
When a player chose they're age they got a Mental roll (max 25) and a physical roll which with the addition of their modifier is max 25 as well. The mental and physical rolls of my players are as follow:
Mental: 13 5 8 5 8 and 6 so only the old man has any common sense in this game.
Physical: 2 5 19 9 4 and 15 giving the group a balance of two tough guys, and one seriously frail old man.

Everyone was given 1 liter of water to start with since the game is pretty much about how hard it is to find water. And as always they where each allowed three basic items in their inventory. A basic item is considered roughly speaking to be anything that isn't a weapon. Only every so often do I have to turn down a player for asking for something a little too useful, like say a GPS, or 3 main ingredients to a home-made bomb. Some players started off better than others, but I threw story line at them to make things even, for instance: I gave Jackson a very nice bike to start with, but after saving an old man from near death by zombie he continued rolling on and eventually parked his bike outside a house to raid the inside. However when he returned he found his bike missing, and later the old man saw a gang of female bikers with the same stolen bike.

Only one player (Virgil) made out like a bandit on his first turn, after stealing a steam bike to make a get away from a slave trade situation, he was chased relentlessly by the Mexican slave traders. He did his best to shake them and when he took a sharp turn down a clover-shaped off ramp, three out of four of his chasers crashed into the walls due to their high speeds. He made quick work of the fourth Mexican biker, and then stole all their stuff getting a total of 15 liters o' water, a new steambike, some drugs (for trade in the game system), spare parts, and a wrench. He also obtained one my very interesting guns, and has 10 bullets each varying degrees of ways to stop someone or slow them down (ie. nets, spikes, etc.)

The session ended in a wonderful array of battles and cliff hangers, and my players left with smiles on their faces and laughter still thick in the air. They complimented me on my new game and all said they couldn't wait for the next week, when they will hopefully learn the main plot arch from me. Now the only thing left for me to do...
come up with a main plot arch.

Diligently Working

Since the return of my internet I have gone full out discovering things I'm surprised to say I didn't actually think existed. These two websites however are geared towards Game Masters, so feel free to check 'em out and maybe sign up for them... unless you're a player of mine. Sorry boys, the Gnome Stew is fine for you guys, but the forum is going to give too much away in future games.

http://www.gnomestew.com/
This is a blog called Gnome Stew created by Game Master's for Game Masters. In one day it gave me about 50 great tips that I assure you I will be using in my future games.

And the Forum,
http://www.youmeetinatavern.com/index.php
This forum is apparently run by many of the same people who write Gnome Stew. It's a Forum where Game Master's can go and feel safe to talk about what's going on in their games (which is why my players can't go there, sorry again guys). A place where one GM can ask a question and get answers from thousands of other GM's. I highly encourage any GM whether brand spankin' new or old as the forest I live in to at least visit this forum, and hopefully join.

Both sites are totally free and very helpful. They give tips on almost any traditional campaign and you can ask for help in any personal campaigns.

On another note, aiming more towards why I titled this post "Diligently Working", I've been hard at work on my games lately. Re-visited a bunch of my older games and started up the long laborious (but still fun) process of fixing all the bugs in them. For instance, since we're still not playing the Steambike game I've been trying hard to make a new map for it. The Arizona map is fine and all, but I just don't like the idea that all the players grew up in AZ. I just know that one of them will try to correct me on where a city is located or when exactly the sun rises. So seeing as how I just signed up for that Forum I thought I'd give 'em a shot and see what advice they have for me when it comes to this map problem I now have. You see (as I just posted in the Forum) I keep trying to draw my own, but I don't like how they come out looking.








I can draw, but you might be surprised to find that drawing a freeway system for a state the size of AZ is harder than it sounds. I even tried writing city names on posted notes which I posted on the floor in the order I liked, and then laid down tape for roads between the cities. This is a great way to make a map by the way. However, the outcome looked like a normal map, not a freeway system. Freeways are a bit more unpredictable than normal streets, they have to be carefully planned around pre-existing buildings and roads while still being the most straight shot way to get to anywhere in the general area. Freeways have curves but less than the average street, and they have plenty of loops like clovers,but these clovers aren't necessary unless they lead to another road.










Like I said, we'll find out what the forum members have in store for me, but in the meantime I'm still thinking hard. Never let others solve your problem for you, you can ask for advice or a little help from someone who may have already had the problem before, but it's your game and that makes it your problem. For instance since posting on the forum I've started to think that maybe I'll just start my players in one city on foot or something, and when they get to their bikes and then to the open road, I'll sorta make up a map as we go. This of course requires them to be in a party, which isn't my normal style of game play. I also posted this earlier on Gnome Stew but I'm the kind of Game Master who starts all his players off waking up in completely different spots than the other players. So party games aren't my specialty.I'm also thinking of maybe looking for another map on Google maps. Not that I haven't tried this already, but I definitely haven't looked at them all yet.

By the way! I was just thinking about this old trick I used to pull when I still wasn't very confident about my map drawing skills. Just start the players without the map and with very little geographic common knowledge. By the time you figure out a map, you can let them find one in game. It works great because most game creators use fake worlds and made up places, so the characters know just as much as the players do.

The Great Return

Yes! Internet my sweet... how I've missed you so.

Oh my! Excuse me reader, I didn't see you there! *blush*

I was just showing the internet how much I have missed it while I was away. I'm sure you can understand that, or have you yourself had the internet for far too long to remember just how boring life can be without it. Well just in case you find yourself spending all your time on the internet and cant remember how else to cure your boredom I've now returned from that great beyond known as reality and can guide you through it.



I'm not sure why my players and I still haven't started playing the steambike game, but I know it must have something to do with how little I've tried to bring them together. So for you GM's out there... don't do what I've done and let you're players slip through your fingers. Players can be very slippery, either they have work in the morning, or a paper to write, maybe a baby to feed, or some sleep to catch up on. But it's all just an excuse to get away from the routine your game brings to their lives. So don't let your games become a routine! I mean don't get me wrong, its wonderful to have a schedule for them to follow so they can plan on being at the next game, but you cant let the game turn into mundane mojo! It's gotta be something more like Magnificent Masterful Melodic Mojo... at the least!

A good way to shake up the game and keep the players on the edge of their seat is to throw in special events. Don't, however, get these special events confused with storyline markers. I mean have a random meteor shower or earthquake, and the story can have been effected by it, but the story is still about getting to grandma's house before the wolf eats her. Special events are a common tactic of MMORPG's. (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game's such as World of Warcraft or Runescape for those of you who are still learning terms) In MMORPG's there isn't really an end to the story. While there are many side quests, bosses that take 100 players to kill, and rare items to collect, the best you can really achieve is a level cap. The level cap is the highest level available to all characters in the MMO. It's put there partially as a way to keep balance in the game and a way for players to finally reach a conclusion. This conclusion however is fairly pointless as there is never an end to the game itself. The game is given the appearance of being different and growing and changing by the special events that the GM's sprinkle into them.



In the MMO world a GM doesn't run the game the same way a GM would run a paper game. In the MMO world a GM is more like a peace keeper and a mechanic then a story teller, or a dark and evil mysterious force. Because, truth be told, the game has already been created. The game was thought out ahead of time and all the monsters have timers and random spawn points where they eventually come back to life with brand new items on them. The random events however, those are usually the GM's doing. Which is very good I think, because if I was getting paid a small salary to keep the peace and repair the glitches in a game where someone from Australia can teabag someone from Alaska, I would want the freedom of artistic expression too! Most MMO GM's come up with special events like "ALL THE MONSTERS ATTACK THE CITY" or "TWO CITIES CLASH OVER WHICH CLAN WILL RULE THE AREA" but these are classic cases of a condition called Pitiful and Lazy Event Design.

I'm not a MMO GM myself, and I hear it's actually work (sometimes). So I'm not bashing the job, but I do find it very boring when the same events just repeat themselves time and time again. The events that people like are the kind of events where the sky is falling, the dragon is out of the dungeon, the NPC that always sells them their favorite potion just cracked and is on a murdering streak. Events where GM's open up the Player Killing fields and allow PK everywhere not a town. Sure, players like events where EXP is tripled with monster kills, and where item drops are more rare and more frequent, this is no doubt true. However, they also like it when portals appear out of nowhere that can take them to a yet undiscovered realm where they can meet new people and fight different monsters without the hours of field travel required normally. They appreciate the chance to become famous by getting their name on a list of recent and most worthy victories! Or there's always the ever enticing Guild Wars, where two or more factions of actual players get rough and start some shit in the town square!

So when you're making your own paper game keep these thoughts in mind. The players want reality to be thrown to the wind. That's why they came to you, and it's why they play. Take what they know about your game and make it new again with a special event every now and then. Keep these events original and tasteful. I say tasteful because as Special of an Event as it is to kill your best player forcing them to start over, if it's a rude or humiliating death then it has the opposite effect your looking for. Then again... Killing players does make for one hell of a Special Event. I mean there's almost always an epic final battle or something, and the players all feel the danger become real. It makes players want to come back for more and its fun to watch them cry^^
Eh, who am I to say anything. I love killing players. . .


*Bum Buum Buuuuuuuuuuum!!!*

Catching up on lost time

I havn't had any internet, so posting has become a bit complicated.

A lot has happened since my last post. The steambike game is complete and ready to run, but for some reason we havn't started playing. I finished the finer points of the game creation process with something I like to call "Mad Skill". I was feeling fairly lazy and my players have been hard to keep in contact with, so I cheated a little bit.

All I needed to finish before we could start playing was the weapons and armor charts. The weapons are pretty simple. The players can use melee (with just about anything) and the damage is purely GM disaggregation. Which just means that instead of an exact number of damage points every time the weapon is used, I (as the game master) will decide what damage and how much of it was taken. There could also be dice used here, but nothing too special.

The Guns though!! That's where the actions at. I created a list of 6 different types of guns. And each type of gun shoots a different class of bullet. These are no ordinary bullets (well except for the regular bullet kind), they each have properties that allow the user to shoot a large variety of different attacks. Here's a list for all the guns and what bullets they can shoot.

Apprentice 1 Non-Lethal damage (rubber bullets, nets, etc.)
Alchemist 2 Traps (oil slicks, spikes, EMP, etc.)
Magician 3 Semi-Lethal/Wound damage (ordinary bullets, glass bullets, etc.)
Wizard 4 Lethal Damage (spread shot, split-shot, sniper shot, etc.)
Mage 5 Traps that can get lethal (electric blast, flame, vaporizer, etc.)
Sage 6 Bio-Warfare (Diseases)

The spread shot is like a shotgun blast while the split shot breaks up after hitting the target. The vaporizer turns all water within a small range into steam. This is particularly useful because the game is based in a world where water is hard to come by, and even your vehicle needs it to keep running.
There are also more guns that are more or less combination of those basic 6.

Druid 1-2
Warlock 3-4
Arcmage 5-6
Shaman 1-3
Guru 4-6
Cleric 2-5
Oracle 1-6

The armor is also 1-6 levels of protection (each for its corresponding damage) and available for the head, torso, arms, legs, hands and feet.

Anyway, that's all I'm posting for now, but I still have a lot to tell you. So until next time, keep doing what you're doing and I promise you'll enjoy the results.

Steambikes

That's correct. Steambikes.
As in: Steam powered motorcycles!

I decided to start an RPG because of all this role playing talk. I figure if you’re actually reading my entries you should have enough information on role playing by now that you can enjoy what a game looks and feels like. The first thing I did to get started was let my players decide basically the whole thing for me, which is something I don't normally do. I'm a little picky that way, as my players could attest to, but I think it’s working out great so far. For instance: When I asked Marby (one of my players, and from here on out I will refer to people I know by either character/user names or just made up ones if they aren’t nerdy enough)… When I asked Marby what he wanted to play a game about, he didn’t miss a beat.
“Motorcycles,” he says. “and the Desert, man!”
“Alright,” I said. “but they gotta be Steam Powered, and I’m gonna throw in some Zombies just for the thrill of it all."
He didn’t seem to mind these additions and we started making a game. Marias, another player, helped me come up with the Base System. The kind of stuff you want to know ahead of time to save yourself and your players the mental strain of figuring it out mid-game.


BUT before I go into what the Game system looks like, I would simply like to say that the date on these blog entries serve as proof that we knew about this System before anyone else (in case someone likes it so much they want to try to steal it AND SELL IT without permission). Also, we have handwritten notes, to prove that we wasted many days of our lives on these simple charts, AND I know Ninjutsu. So feel free to run this game for free, but I swear upon my bushy black-ringed tail, that if you try to make money off of it without my permission, I will eat your face off through your eye holes and then spend a night inside your chest cavity, Luke Skywalker Style!



Alright, alright, you won’t steal my idea’s for money… we get it. So here you are:

Bikes
Sport, Cruiser, Standard, Touring, Quad, Moped, Bike, and Scooter
Sport= fastest bike at 160 mph, 8 gal tank, 280 mpt, 16 min start-up time, best handling, low protection
Cruiser= 140 mph, 10 gal tank, 450 mpt, 20 min start
Standard= 120 mph, 12 gal tank, 660 mpt, 24 min start
Touring= 100 mph, 15 gal tank, 975 mpt, longest start-up time at 30 min, best protection, hardest to repair, most storage, most rare
Quad= 80 mph, 10 gal tank, 400 mpt, 20 min start, most comfortable, best stability, heaviest
Moped= 60 mph, 5 gal tank, 450 mpt, 10 min start, no protection, fairly common
Bike= 40 mph, 2 gal tank, 400 mpt, 4 min start, no protection, easy to repair, very common
Scooter= 20 mph, 1 gal tank, 100 mpt, 2 min start, worst: handling, comfort, stability, no protection, no repair necessary, very common

Alright, well that's really all I could do without throwing my tea cup at my computer screen. So I expect there will be more to come when I next return, and I apologize for the suspense building threat, without the solid delivery. But in my defense I just spent 2 hours trying to get you even more information and slowly lost my sanity only to discover that it required good old type it up yourself, no nicely organized columns and rows possible. However I am also working on the weapons chart for the time being (something slightly harder than I thought I was signing up for, but no problem.) So when I sign in next there will be a fully functioning role playing game for me to present to you!

The whole game takes place on the Arizona Highway Map (the players have a very simple and boring map, while the GM has a highly detailed map that even includes common tourist attractions!) The players start by filling out a basic character sheet. They fill in things like:Character Name, sex, age, body build, and pick from a long list of pre-decided skills for which ones they like the most. Also in all of my games I allow players to start their inventory off with 3 basic items. No weapons usually (this game included), and clothes are usually a given (as in this game) so they don’t need to pick those. Most players pick things that have one purpose but could also be used to defend themselves in a tight spot. Like a wrench, or a torch, or a walking staff. I let them do this, because it shows that they are creative thinkers and I want to reward this. Other items often chosen are: sleeping mat, tent, lantern, food, water pouch or bottle, blankets, satchels or backpacks (this can even increase their inventory a little more), and specialized clothing like boots or sunglasses.

After filling out the character sheet the players are dropped into my game world. And little do they know (if you’re a player you best stop reading before you ruin the surprise, there isn’t anything left for you to read anyway…)
Little do they know that I will be dropping them in the middle of the Zombie infested territory first! It’s a fun way to start the game because I can kill off characters and not feel bad. This makes the danger seem real for everyone and the excitement rains down with icy tension mixed in. By the time everyone else makes it out alive the players who lost a character can have a new one made up in time to join what is now a group of savage, bloody, chewed on, spit out bikers as they ride the hot desert highways of Post Apocalyptic Arizona.

How To Begin Your Game

The Topic today is how to start your own Paper Game. Lets begin by covering the kind of materials you'll need. The essentials of course will always be:

• Paper (a spiral notebook will do)
• Writing utensil (I usually create the character sheet with Pen and fill in the player's information with Pencil so i can erase it later)
• And an Imagination (I cannot stress how seriously valuable this is to paper gaming. If you cant imagine whats going on, you'll always be lost or confused, and it probably wont be fun)

Other things you might want to include could be: dice, or counters (calculators work for this), a playing board, maybe even figurines. But all these materials depend on the kind of game you want to run. For instance: if you're the sort of weirdo that likes handing out experience Frilly-Willy at absolutely inconvenient times so that the players have trouble keeping track, you might need some counters.

The next step is getting some players. Not everyone has players lined up, and most people find it embarrassing to look for them. Finding players is about as hard as finding someone who will share your peanut-butter and pickle sandwich with you. Mostly they look like normal people, sometimes they even are normal people. But I have a method of finding potentials that will help you avoid making a fool out of yourself. The people you're looking for all have one very simple thing in common: they are either a pirate, or a ninja. All you have to do is ask them which one. If they respond with a real answer then they're a candidate for your game. This is a proven flawless method. I promise.

When looking for players keep in mind the size of the game your interested in. One player games are by far the easiest to run, and the story always comes out great. Two players is kind of a toss-up. If they travel and work together its not much harder than any one player games. However, if they fight and bicker then you could have two separate games on your hand. Anything with three or more players and now you're looking at the standard backstabbing, bloody mess of a role playing game. This isn't a problem by any means, its just different from single player games. Personally, I stop enjoying the game if I have to run it for any more than nine players. So there is definitely a personal limit to how much you can remember and make up within a short period of time.

Now that you've found a player or two, you can get your game on. I usually start by drawing up the map. Here's a tip for that: Draw a small map like a city, ship, or island. The players will roam around this small area for awhile getting themselves used to the game play. Once they're ready all you have to do is zoom out, and draw a bigger map for them to roam around in and discover new things. You can keep doing this over and over tacking on map wherever you need it, and eventually you'll have a whole world laying out in front of you.

The map doesn't have to be first, you could start with the character sheets if you'd like. Ill warn you though, this is a process! Allow for roughly 5 minutes per player per sheet, even if everyone's filling theirs out at the same time. Also, you'll want to catch some little facts about their character. Things like if they have a big nose, white hair, extraordinary sense of smell, or if they're really tall. Not too many, just one or two. These little tidbits will come in handy when you're describing things.
(ie. "The man at the table across the room gives your white hair a look of interest. Its possible he recognizes you from somewhere."

Ok. Lets go over what you need:

• A place to play
• The materials (Paper, Pen, & Imagination)
• Players
• A Spot to start (like a map, and/or some sort of story prepared ahead of time)

Now go out there and make a nerd out of a close friend (so you two can play embarrassing games together in semi-secret)!

Why Should I Even Bother Playing?

Welcome Back Blogger,

That is the question isn't it- why would one even want to play a Paper Game? Paper Games have been around as long as paper itself and the act of pretending to be someone else has been a common trait in everyone since the dawn of man's time on earth. Even these days you can see it plain as day in children; they bark like dogs and meow like cats, wear their parents clothing, or pretend to be their favorite super hero. Whoosh! They fly by and in their world the sheet is a cape and the box is a fantastic futuristic helmet with the power to shoot laser beams. You tell them to sit down and eat dinner, but they don’t have time for dinner yet, they still have to save the world!

Playing a paper game is one way to release your inner creativity. You’re simply giving that inner creativity a subtle form, a molded shape you feel free to use however suits you. Playing a game is a lot simpler in many ways than creating one because the boundaries are already set up, but those boundaries can be SO very different from the boundaries you know in your everyday life that you, as a player, can feel so free. Free to ignore annoying people, drink too much, spend all your money, travel the world, belch, sing, dance, and narrowly escape death time and time again.

The simple things in life suddenly become the little treasures of your Paper Game experience. For instance, when you're a pirate on the high seas, all you're thinking about is crew politics and the next port of harbor where you might be stealing, pillaging, and plundering.Or, you might rest and get your wits before spending your earnings on useful items for the next big adventure. What you're not thinking about is the wind on your face, or the taste of salt in your mouth, or that apple you'll eat before falling asleep in your swaying hammock below deck. So you see, it’s the mundane things that make the game the most interesting, and that make for some great life lessons.

Truly though, I've always found that being the Game Master is just as thrilling as being a player. Sure, there's more work involved, and you don't get a break as often as the players do, but that's kinda the fun part. Sometimes my players end up just sitting around listening to each other’s turns (if they aren't in one big group), but I'm always playing. Always imagining and describing, always setting up those boundaries for them to play in, and describing the mundane things they might otherwise not notice about the world we're creating together. A Paper Game is comparable to a work of art, and the Game Master isn't the only artist. The Game master paints the background and molds the base of the sculpture, but the players fill in the action packed foreground. Together they write a story worth remembering and in doing so create bonds between everyone in the room. A great game isn’t just a story that can be recounted days later, but years later. The kind of story you never completely forget. And that is why you might want to play: for the freedom of imagination, the fun of the social activity, and the memories you'll be able to look back on with a smile.

Or if all that memoir crap isn't your cup of tea, maybe you just want to play to break down boundaries. There are a surprising number of players in the world that love to destroy, ruin, disrupt, and generally antagonize my games. I don't mind so much because it strengthens me as a Game Master. I mean, just as long as all their disruption goes on "in game", then I could hardly care less. It creates a challenge for my ability to adapt to the player’s wants and makes for a fun session for everyone in the room to see just how far they might be able to make it before getting locked up or killed. But even then the story doesn't have to end with them being chained in a dungeon or beaten in battle. I have witnessed players escape the most inescapable situations and overcome the most impossible challenges. Some people are just downright unstoppable, and if that's what feeds you, what inspires you to play; then do it. It’s totally worth the extra effort on the Game Masters part, and after all, it’s all just fun and games.

What A Paper Game Is

Hello Bloggers!

This is my fist blog, and I intend on using it to get one thing across:

What's a Paper Game you ask?

Solid question, I retort, and since I make and run them in my free time, I will be happy to tell you. But the answer is not quite as simple as one would expect. First I must also explain what a Role Playing Game is. A Role Playing Game is any game where the player takes on the role of a character, most often fictitious, and usually human. That was actually pretty simple, eh?

Role Playing Games (or RPG's) could be anything from the Dress up & Doctor games our children play together behind the shed, to the Halo and Final Fantasy games we play on our game counsels. Paper Games (or Pen & Paper Games as some would call them) are another form of Role Playing Games. They require only a few things: Paper, Some sort of writing utensil, and an Imagination. Most Paper Games also incorporate dice or maybe even little figurines if the players are SUPER-Nerdy.

The most famous of these Paper Games is probably Dungeons & Dragons. Ah yes, D&D… the game that makes us all look so bad. You’ve got that visual of acne faced cloaked figures hiding in the darkest shadows that are the back of your high school cafeteria. They’re speaking in non-sense language and screaming at the dice on the table! All of a sudden two of them stand up and pull wooden swords out of apparently thin air! The other players root them on until the tall one with braces slays the short one with big ears. Blood, no. Ketchup everywhere, they return to their seats and the fat one starts singing for no reason at all. “Freaks.” You say to yourself >.<

NO! Bad judgmental blogger person, jumping to stereotypical conclusions like that! Live Action Role Playing (LARPing) is a whole other monster! LARPers, as they're called, dress up as their characters and act out what their character is doing in the game, but they act it out in reality. Some RPG's exist entirely based on the LARPing way. Not mine though. Maybe someday I’ll give it a try, maybe. But until then I remain a Nerd with my dignity and I play games wearing my hoody on my back and my converse on my feet.

Ok, so let’s recap what we’ve just learned:
I make Paper Games in my free time.
Paper Games require only Pen, Paper, and an Imagination to play.
I don’t wear ridiculous outfits and learn fake languages to get better at my hobby.

Well done Blogger. You’re one entry closer to filling out your own character sheet and joining in the phenomenon sweeping the nerds of the nation.