Dungeon Chatter

A Party Comes Together: A Modal Approach to Group Dynamics Travis Joseph Rodgers Ars Arcana Blog Volume III, Number 1 Two of the central struggles associated with an RPG party - as opposed to the players or the game itself - are how to bring a diverse group of characters together in the first place and how to keep them sufficiently together in the long run to keep them a party. I draw out two distinct polaristic approaches that are especially difficult to make work for most groups: hard railroad and utter chaos. I draw out a third possibility, based on modal operators (what is possible, what is necessary, what is impossible). Hard Railroad Whatever railroading is in an RPG, there is a bad version of it. Eliminating player agency altogether seems also to eliminate the role of the player. This seems antithetical to the nature of an RPG (it's a ROLE PLAYING game, after all). At the same time, what amounts to railroading will depend upon what an agent wants to do. If an agent w...

After podcasting about the character SPARK in episdoe O is for Origins, we decided to put together a document that could be downloaded for free to demonstrate the concept. In this document, you'll find quick selection (choose) or generation (roll) tables to help you create a character concept. If you're feeling stumped or looking to play a different sort of character, give it a shot. There are literally millions of possible combinations of characteristics. This link SHOULD work... RPG Character Concept: SPARK

Ars Arcana Blog: Bringing Your Character to Life with SPARK Travis J. Rodgers The Challenge(s) For the grizzled vet of RPGs, creating a character is often a struggle of too many options rather than not knowing where to start. The character concept comes easily to mind, either because there is a character the vet has been wanting to play or because vets often have served as GM as well as player for so long, character concepts seem to spring from an endless font. The challenge becomes determining which of the system options is the best way to make use of your character concept. Let’s call this the “How? Question” of character design. On the other hand, for the relative novice to Roleplaying, the challenge is two-fold. In addition, to the struggles of navigating a system’s options, the novice may not have, and may struggle to create, the character concept. Let’s call this new question the “What? Question” of character design. The SPARK In an episode of the Dungeon Chat...

Dungeon Chatter Podcast Episode 3: C is for Character Creation In this episode, Travis and Victoria discuss character creation methods, including how the system functions in Blood of Heroes. We create Han Solo using our heroic creation method. Soundcloud Link https://soundcloud.com/dungeonchatter/003-character-creation Works Discussed TTRPGs AD&D, Middle Earth Role Playing (MERP), Rolemaster (RM), Generic Universal Role Playing System (GURPS) Video Games I don’t think we touched on any specific ones here. Literature Star Wars Concepts PBTRPG (Play by Tweet/Text RPG), PBM (Play by Mail), PBEM (Play by Email). We also discuss charisma and interactions, specifically regarding a party member (my son) who is on the autism spectrum but plays a character with a high charisma. Probably worth an entire show on its own. Show Notes I think this was our best sounding podcast, from a technical point of view. Realizing we need to reduce our mic pops...

Left to Right Marcus the Tamer of Horses (Erika) Ghislain the Magebane (Victoria) Dahlia the Apothecary (Lisa) Landolo the Smuggler (Haris) Ambrosio the Tinker (Jeremy) This is the party that is tackling the Philosopher King campaign set for Blood of Heroes. We'll be discussing the group occasionally on the Dungeon Chatter Podcast and here on the blog.

We've done it! The podcast is now alive on Soundcloud, and we'll post it to iTunes and a few other places this weekend. Please head over to https://soundcloud.com/dungeonchatter to listen to A is for Armor, B is for Blood of Heroes, and C is for Character Creation. Dungeon Chatter Podcast Episode 1: A is for Armor In this episode, Travis and Victoria discuss armor systems in RPGs. TTRPGs discussed: AD&D, Middle Earth Role Playing (MERP), Rolemaster (RM), Marvel Superheroes, StarWars the RPG, Fading Suns, Rifts, Generic Universal Role Playing System (GURPS), Video Games discussed: Knights of the Old Republic, Shadow Run Concepts Discussed: thac0, Armor Class, Double 20s, Decapitations Show Notes: around 17 minutes, the audio becomes a bit fainter briefly; we’re still working out our audio. ARMOR PITCH The armor pitch is based on armor types and two characteristics:              ...