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Track Initiative

How do you track player and NPC initiative in combat?  This is a question that I see asked often on various D&D and many other roleplaying boards across the blogosphere. The problem is there isn't really a good answer for it. Oh, answers there are, don't get me wrong. The problem is there aren't many good ones and alot of times they just boil down to however the person wants or an example of how the responder does it. That isn't to say that none of the answers aren't the right answer. Let's go over a few of the more common methods.

Pen & Paper

This is the old standby. When nothing else is at hand you will almost always have this at your gaming session. Whether you write it down in a simple list, keep everyones name written down and the monsters and just write their initiative numbers down, or create an XY Axis graph it is all the same.

Pros: Simple, Almost always available.

Cons: Wastes paper, can be very disorganized

Spreadsheet & Software

Now days almost every DM has a laptop, smartphone, or some sort of personal disorganizer at the gaming table with them. Adventures are easily attainable online, there is a ton of software available for various different systems, and with wifi the internet is never more than a foot away. There are a plethora of different systems out there.  Infact there are almost as many programs for RPG players as there are RPG's.  And if all else fails there is always a spreadsheet or the old faithful standby, Notepad.

Pros: Dynamic, Displays exactly what you want, Adaptable.

Cons: Can be time consuming, software can be hard to come by for the system you want or may not be intuitive, can be a substantial investment.

So there has to be some sort of middle ground.  Something that doesn't cost alot and at the same time is flexible. For the longest time I myself used an excel spreadsheet to track initiative in combat.  The only problem is once I got everyones names in there, I couldn't exactly drag and

 drop everyone into the correct order.  In the olden days (The Year 1990 BG, Before Google that is) I used the old pen and paper method.  Thing about this is it took time and your always loosing your paper or wasting a forest worth of scraps of paper.  

Then I found this little gem the other day at the hobby shop, the Game Mastery Combat Pad.  Now please do not get me wrong, I am not being paid to advertise nor have I been bought out by "The Man" (whichever one it is). This is a genuinely useful product. Sells for $10-$15 bucks, which is what I would pay for a pack of pencils and a couple of notebooks so the price is perfect fine. Available in most FLGS or online at places like this. It's wet and dry erase, and since I already use dry erase markers for my battle map that isn't a problem either.  Best of all, it's dynamic.  I write my players names on the green magnets and their AC at the start of the game. When it comes time for battle I quickly jot down the NPC abbreviations & maybe hit points on the black or blue magnets and then just drop them in order of initiative.  The space to the left is perfect for notes, tracking effects or hp, etc.

Now I know it doesn't seem like much, but this one little item alone has helped out my games tremendously. The players can all easily see it so they know who's turn it is, what round it is so they know how long their effects last, and it has speed up my combat preperation. Before even with using a spreadsheet it was taking me a minute to three to get fully prepped for each combat encounter.  Now it takes me no more than 30 seconds and that is if I don't have initiative for the monsters already rolled up and their names already on the magnets.

Hopefully this helps someone else out there.  If not, no one asked you anyway. Go back to using an abacus for all I care.

Character Switches Mid-Campaign

It can happen from time to time. No matter how hard you try to avoid it, the steps you take to prevent it, sometimes a character just has to be changed mid-campaign. Characters die despite the best efforts of the healer, people get captured and sold into forced slavery, dragon slaying gets outsourced to a firm from India, or players just change their mind. The reasons vary but the end result is always the same and now it's up to not just you to deal with it but the players as well. First though is how you are going to deal with it. Depending on how it is handled by you the DM can set the tone for how everyone else will cope with it. 

Assuming that the change is due to a player changing their mind or something similar the eaiest solution by far is to just adapt the character. Try to reason with (or threaten) the player to get them to give the character another chance.  Characters can grow and change. Try to help them see reason, or if that fails my personal favorite is help them to understand just how much you can make life suck for them if you really want to. Sometimes concessions will need to be made by you though. It could be something as simple as the player didn't quite understand the mechanics of the class or race they were playing and made some extremely critical mistakes in character creation that is ruining the game for them.  This can easily be fixed by just a few small changes to the character and a little bit of work to slowly mold and adapt them.  Never underestimate just what a little bit of roleplay can accomplish and some cooperation (or thinly veiled threats).


The next easiest to deal with by far is character death though. The character is dead, you obviously did your job quite well (Kudo's to you on a death), the survivors say a few words and loot the corpse. Time to move on and introduce the new character. At the opposite end of the spectrum though is when a player just plain changes his mind and insists on a new character. That can be a tricksy one to handle. Not only do you have to figure out how to bring the new character in and up to speed, you have to deal with how to get rid of the old one as well.

I recently ran into this myself with one of the players in my D&D group. They realized that not speaking Common and being a bigot as well made the game not only hard to roleplay but a bit boring to boot. So now they want a new character. Problems with group balance aside I am left to decide how to handle the switch as well as trying to be as fair as possible for what to allow with the new characters creation. Obviously the players aren't first level anymore and they have one or two nice little magical baubles they are lugging around. So do I give let the player recreate at the same experience as his current character. And what about the gear on his character? Obviously the player is going to want it to move over to his new character but is that exactly fair?

Thankfully there are rules for creating a character at higher than first level so at least that part is taken care of. As far as gear goes on the current character it is quite obvious it would be lost to him. It's not like the new character is going to walk into the dungeon mid run, the old one will hand everything over, fill him in on the situation and go home for the day like it was a shift changeover. So that problem taken care of. But still it leaves the question of how to do the transition of the actual characters themselves.

Remember, be creative! You are telling a story here above all else. There is no unwritten rule that states that all characters must take up where the old one left off. This development actually opened my mind up to a ton of possibilities.

• Death - Easiest and quickest would be for the character to die. It's simple, it's efficient, and every DM deep down wants to kill their players. With a little bit of work you can even get the players to assist you in killing their compatriot. Maybe there is a cleric of Kelemvor in the group. Easy as pie to give them a vision showing that it is time for the doomed person to move onto the next plane.
  
• Capture - Monsters take prisoners all the time. Hobgoblins need slaves, Dragons need food, Beholders need new statues, Drow need sacrifices. The possibilities are endless here quite honestly.
• Betrayal - Maybe that evil god was right after all and killing your companions is the way to go to get that power they offered you. Perhaps they were a plant all along just waiting for the right moment to spring into action.
• Parting of Ways - People move on. Plain and simple. The groups paths aren't always going to lead them down the same road. Heroes get recalled back to their hometowns, military service calls upon them, any number of things.

Don't be to quick to kill off a character though. It could be beneficial to find another way to get rid of the character and use it at a later date. Even if you do kill it off though nothing is to say that death has to be permanent or even real. Former characters can sometimes make the best NPC's at a later time whether they still be for the forces of good or now serving the forces of darkness is up to you.

Now that you have managed to get rid of a character the question remains how do you bring in the new character. There are several options for this at your disposal for bringing it in.

• Hired Gun - Sometimes you just need someone with a specific skillset to take care of a problem. Mercenary doesn't always need to just be a hired sword.
  
• Ambassador - Someone who is sent along with the group to help create a peaceful resolution to a system.
• Captive - Being captured doesn't always have to end with being eaten by the dragon. PC's can show up just in the nick of time and save the captured character from certain doom.
• Fellow Adventurer - Who is to say that the PC's have to always be the only ones in the dungeon. It only makes sense that there is a chance someone else is poking around trying to destroy that goblin warchief.

No matter which way you go there are a ton of options for dealing with this kind of situation. Hopefully this will give someone some ideas. If anyone has any suggestions for how else to deal with this feel or found this helpful free to drop a comment.

Rules Lawyers - The Ultimate Objection

Rules lawyers. We have all ran into them at one time or another. They can be the bane of many a gaming group. So how does one deal with a rule book toting, combat interrupting rules hound? While the DM Guide for 4th Edition is great and offers ideas for dealing with many other types of gamers it is obviously lacking in this particular areas. So what is to be done about them?

While the DM guide might not be a direct help in this regard it does actually give some good insights. The thing about a rules lawyer is they generally fall into one of the other "categories" that the DMG lists. In my experience they are usually power gamers or slayer with a hint of the explorer types who feel that in order to help themselves accomplish their goals they have to attempt to force every encounter to abide by the rules at all times. The reason for this is that usually when they interupt combat or an encounter to tout some archaic rule it is because it is beneficial to them in some way. And trust me, these people know the rules even better than you do and have memorized every bit of errata to be released.

Take for instance one of the players in my group. We will call him McLawyerPants the Fighter for the purposes of this post. Generally while engaging in a frantic battle it can be expected that at any given moment McLawyerPants is going to interupt the flow of battle because he feels that he should have received an opportunity attack when the kobold Dragonshield shifted out of melee range. Once this happens you can be assured that a lengthy and detailed argument will take place about what the rules say, how they should be read, and how it applies to this situation.

"Rule-lawyering is a tricky problem. To the player, in their mind, they are only doing the game a service by trying to encourage "consistency". Unfortunately, if the act of rules-lawyering is overpowering the GM's ability to maintain the pace of the game and interest of the group, it can be a distraction at best and a fun-wrecker at worst. The player is not the one given the role of adjudicator for the game. That is the responsibility of the GM. It is the GM's duty to decide which rules to follow strictly, which to overlook and which to make up when needed."

That quote sums up the entire situation quite nicely. Ultimately it is up to you to make the final ruling on anything. If a player does not like it or feels that you are being arbitrary they should bring it up before or after the game, NOT DURING.

Myself, I have a hard time with these type of people. I am not the most patient person usually so my knee jerk reaction is somewhat Capt Kirk like in I just want to shoot them and move on. But with time and some help from the wonderful people over at penandpapergames.com I have gained alot of valuable insight into how to better deal with them. The most important thing is to talk to them. Start with the simple explanation of how they may infact know this information but their character would not. Allow them to make Knowledge checks though. If they suceed then let him fill in the details. If he does not then ask him to kindly keep the knowledge to himself.

If this still does not work then try simply talking to him. Advise them that while you understand that they do know a good amount about the game and you appreciate their desire to share that knowledge with others it is disruptive and not appreciated. You will be surprised at how often the other players in your group will share your sentiments. If this still doesn't work apply penalties to combat situations or other situations in which the ill gotten information was shared.
While it can be frustrating to deal with these type of people and their stoic adherance to the rules, you must keep in mind that it can be equally as frustrating for them to deal with what they feel is a blatant disregard for the rules. The trick here is learning to make use of what they feel is a vast knowledge and understanding of the game without letting them take over the entire thing. Communication is the key though. Calmly make them understand that while you appreciate their desire to help and their advise that there is a time and a place for it. From time to time even ask them about a rule or situation and get their advise in regards to it. This can take some of the stress away from you and make them feel like they are contributing to the overall game.

Above all though you have to stay calm, firm, but above all fair. Offer to let the person take their turn running the game from time to time. It can give you a much needed break and give the memorizing pain in the ass a chance to see what it is like to deal with someone who knows the rules and interupts constantly to tell you how you screwed up and you fail at life. See how the little twat likes it then.

Critical Failure!

With the recent release of 4th Edition D&D my poor heart as a Dm has suffered a bit of a break. While reading over the rules of combat I came upon the critical hits section. With much anticipation I scanned through the rest of the rules only to be heartbroken. The critical miss rule is no longer there! What madman would go and remove the critical miss I ask myself. Surely there must be some mistake. Yet no matter how many times I read through the result was the same, my beloved critical miss was now gone. Brutally yanked from the pages by some mean spirited bastard. This would never do.

So I ask all of you, is this a good or a bad thing? I myself am a fan of the critical miss. I am sure my players would say otherwise. They have come to fear and dread seeing that mystical "1" appear on their dice. At this point they don't even have to say it when they roll a one. The look of dread that quickly spreads around the table is more than enough for me to begin my evil mastermind laugh. (I'm sure all of you know the laugh) Though they have also learned that when dice go flying out from behind the DM screen that it means one of the bugbears they are currently facing just critically missed and shot the dragon in the face or something else quite catastrophic.

Has anyone else House Ruled the critical miss back into the game or is everyone being softhearted about it and giving the players a break for once and just going with what it says in the rules, rolling a one is just a simple automatic miss. Was the critical miss such a meanspirited rule that it warranted being removed from the rules? Or was this yet another concession to try to make things "easier" and bring more players to the game?

T-Mobile G1 Review

Overall Rating: 4/5 Claws.

So to commemorate my purchase of a T-Mobile G1 phone and my return to the world of the blogosphere I thought I would throw on the red cape and goggles and write a review of the new Android phone.

Before purchasing it I read alot of so called "professional" reviews of this phone and all I can say about them and their opinions is that they must be scrawny little toothpicks and have the mental capacity of a slightly soft rock. Upon opening the box and pulling out all of the contents I was presented with this phone about the width of a pack of smokes and a bit longer. In it's pristine state it truly was a marvel to look upon. The first problem I had with it though was removing the backplate to get to the battery. It is a bit of a convoluted process and is fraught with difficulties but once you get the back off the battery if fairly easy to insert and the rest of the setup is a breeze. The longest part was waiting for T-Mobile to activate the 3G service on my account which took them roughly six hours to do. So halfway through my shift at work I was finally able to setup and get to playing with the phone.

I was presented with a fairly bland looking home screen with a few icons already present for common things such as the browser, phone items such as contacts and the dialer, and a few other mundane things. After a bit of fiddling with it and downloading a few applications I now had myself a nice cluttered home screen as can be seen here. All of the basic things that I needed where

within easy reach so to speak now.

My next step of course was to begin fiddling with the settings on the phone. Upon going into the menu I quickly found the settings area and started looking over it. The various menu's are all extremely intuitive and well grouped. I was pleased to see that it did of course have an airplane mode on it so that when I am travelling I can still at least use it to play games or listen to music. And if an eBook reader is ever developed for it I can further ruin my eyesight by attempting to read To Kill A Mockingbird on a 3.2" screen. (I would read Plato but he would scoff at my attempts to do so at only a 320x480 resolution)

My next step after this was to begin exploring the App Market. After spending about an hour browsing around and downloading all of the goodies I could my menu was soon begining to become quite clogged. Pleased that I now had enough apps to spend the next several months reviewing them I moved on to other things.

Next on my list, the keyboard. I had read many reviews that the keyboard on the new G1 was not the easiest piece of equipment to use. Sliding open the screen I was presented with a full QWERTY keyboard full of small fiddley little buttons. Okay, so this might be a problem for me as my finger covers half the keyboard at a time. (Okay, not that much but still 4-6 buttons at once) After a few minutes and several dozen text and IM's though I was further convinced that all of these "professional" critics must have tiny little child hands and lack opposable thumbs. Their big complaint that the bottom bar of the phone complicated and got in the way of the keyboard was so much crap. For all of you reviewers let me offer you a tip. First, evolve thumbs. Second, lay the phone so that the bottom menu bar of the phone lays along your finger and viola! not a freaking problem.

Several things I did notice while attempting to get the phone all setup for work related tasks and other things where as follows. There is no Android XMPP client as of yet. There is an XMPP API Demo but that is all. No video recording capabilities. I mean for fucks sake, I can't record video with this but I can take pictures? Speaking of the camera, there is no flash on it. While this is not a problem on most cell phones and many do not have flashes this is because the camera on most phones isn't so dark that you have to stand on the sun to be able to get proper lighting. With the G1 if it's not bright enough around you to blind someone your not gonna get a decent picture.

Also, Google themselves seem to be very lacking as far as applications that they have released to help tie the phone in with all of their services. The few apps they have released are things that give us sports score updates. Wait, sports scores you might ask. Yes, sports score you moron I would reply. Did you not hear me the first time? Google, while I am loathe to criticize our great overlords I hardly think that Sports Scores are more of a priority than basic things like video capture or taking screenshots. At least give us comparable applications to the iPhone & BlackBerry before you roll out such idiotic apps as Scoreboard.

Regardless this post begins to bore me so let me wrap it up here. Overall this is a great phone. It's no Blackberry so as far as work things go it does lack a bit for Enterprise functionality. Gadget hounds and lower end business is the bread and butter of this phone's client list. On top of this it is one more way for the great Google Overlords to make themselves even more a part of our everyday life.