"On The Beach" blacksmith survival game.

[Frosty]

It's even more fun when the game master has his act in order. One of the things I did wrong was to just drop a bunch of guys in a location and situation without clear goals, challenges, resources, etc. It can make for a good game but the players need to have some experience. Roll Playing Games take practice to learn to Play your character.

Thomas is obviously an experienced RPG gamer as seen in how he played the failing health card so to speak. Just because it's in part his daily life doesn't make it any less good game play.

Playing Dungeons and Dragons players roll up a character, strengths and weaknesses according to dice rolls. Then they come up with a personal history depending on results of various rolls. Once a person has his character say "Chet" the Athapaski used umiat salesman who is aligned Lawful Evil.

The DM who has spent maybe weeks developing the game module. A Dungeons and Dragons game module is a set piece usually in a Dungeon. with detailed maps that not only contain rooms, corridors, floors, tunnels, doors, etc. etc. but traps, monsters, bad guys, good guys, treasure, challenges, etc. Like I say it can take weeks do roll up and plan a good module.

When the guys sit down to play the DM determines the results of player actions according to die rolls and (if they're like me) sometimes arbitrary decisions based on how the players are behaving. For instance when I worked in the soils lab we lab rats would get together about once a month for a game. One of the lab rats had a reputation for goofing off till the DM asked him what he was going to do and the rat would ask what was happening. When he showed for a game I was DMing, we took turns, I told him up front to pay attention or I'd kill him off. After the first time he asked what was happening I told him again and 5 minutes later I said a BAD thing to the gamers. I said, "You hear a twang." Normally I said things like that pretty quietly but I gave the Rattly one a bit more break than he deserved. He must've sat there a good 5 minutes with the rest of us silently staring at him before he noticed anything. He of course asked what was happening, the group just looked at his figurine. I'd squirted a packet of ketchup over it after knocking it over and propping a tooth pick so it stuck up like a spear.

Sorry, long ago DM memory that sort of thing can only really happen in person and I was actually a pretty easy going DM. Tournament DMs could be as hard line sticklers for the rules as imaginable.

Okay, there's another type of RPG where the group is given a location, challenges, dangers, opportunities and an ultimate goal. It's a much freer game but with good structure to it.

The third basic type is what I did this time, I just dropped a bunch of guys in a location without much for challenges, dangers or rewards. This isn't a beginner's game, it's really chaotic no matter what and my brain doesn't do chaos so well anymore.

If say 4-6 guys want to give it another shot I'll have a more structured scenario and basic rules laid out.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[Rashelle]

I'd go for the live action reality show version, heehee. I enjoyed reading this, got me thinking.

[Daswulf]

Makes me realize I need to study more on wild edibles and a few other things more. Boyscouts and other study's did prepare me for some parts of survival. Honestly that's out of my area in the world of knowledge. Wonder if I could have figured the food part out? 

[Charles R. Stevens]

Would eating your competitors disqualify you?!

Playing RPG's also teach some valuable skills. Communication chief among them. 

[Daswulf]

4 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

Would eating your competitors disqualify you?!

Haha, if it were me it would be too late for me to care. If it were someone else I'd hope so. 

[Charles R. Stevens]

You youngins are so Jucie and tender (-D

us grey beards are tough and stringy

[MrDarkNebulah]

Im a little worried now... Unfortunately (or is it fortunately in this case) I'm real skinny so not much meat for you all.

[Daswulf]

Lol. I'll have to keep an eye on you Charles. Tho I feel tough and stringy. I'd find you Anything poisonous or not if that's the way it would be. Haha

[Charles R. Stevens]

Heck, least I'm honest...

[ThomasPowers]

Not me, I'm *sweet*!        We had a guy in one gaming group that was annoying---a thief that would steal from the party, fudge his rolls, etc. So finally we planted a cursed straight razor where he would find it and at some random interval the blade would flip round severing the fingers of the hand holding it.  I handed thieves and that being the off hand don't do well.  So he said his character was going to commit suicide as we had a rule that you had to play your character till it croaked.  Well I had a very old and powerful magic user and so asked the DM to roll against me taking his character over by a spell.  No problem; then we stuck him in the middle of the party and loaded him up with every piece of magical armour or amulet he could carry and gave him explicit instructions to save his life if we were attacked.  I think it took about 6 weeks of rolling a will save against my spell before he finally got to do anything at gaming night again---and that was because of a TPK!  I never asked the DM if he was shading his rolls cause he was annoyed by this guy too....then there was the time we put invisible explosive runes on a character's face...

Didn't y'all look up my reference to Alferd Packer and his cookbook?

[Charles R. Stevens]

Yea, all that high blood sugar....

[Daswulf]

You guys. Got me thinking of Canibal the musical lol. 

[Frosty]

Of course not, cannibalism is perfectly acceptable but how soon you resort to it will effect experience points. Skinny guys stew nicely.

I need to see about coming up with simple maps so you can describe where you're going. I'd hoped you'd Google Earth Samwmill & Crab bays last time but that's okay.

So, shall I start working up a game? It'll be more structured and more dangerous with clear goals, survival and escape. Successful challenges for "treasure" like a piece of spring steel or maybe a packet of swivels. It won't be so full of gimme loot I guarantee.

Oh and one turn a day I was trying to GM it live and that's just too chaotic to be playable.

Shall we hold signups? Auditions?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Additions? How about death matches?

[Frosty]

6 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

Additions? How about death matches?

Additions or Auditions? Death matches for auditions or as part of the game? Now we're talking!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Daswulf]

Think you'd have to be pretty specific in the start and story. I realized this started out pretty generally. Honestly I'm more of a visual person anymore so I don't know how well I'd do. In RL survival situation I think I'd be better off then being told what's around in a game type. If I See a problem I'm more able to come up with the solution with seeing my surroundings then from a description if you know what I mean. 

It was still fun to read along. And I would have fun reading along with another. If not horribly trying to play along. 

[Frosty]

Das: YOU hit the learning to RPG curve on the head. It's not easy to roll play for a lot of people, I've always been able to immerse myself in the worlds of what I'm reading, I visualize everything.

As Charles said earlier learning to communicate is a big part of RPG, not talking communicating. If it turns out an online RGP group develops you'll find the better players hang on every word the GM says. Were that a game of experienced players I would've killed most of the group off by day two for disregarding some darned strong clues.

When there's group play you want to form teams, talk to each other back channel, there's no rule about transparency with the GM. Well not in my worlds.

The game problem I generated by just dropping you on an island without any clear goals sent everybody wandering off on their own. A couple of you sort of hooked up but not how you would if you were really on an island wet with what you had in your pockets. In real survival situations a clear leader emerges almost at once.

Oh and as a little taste as to what MIGHT be in the offing. A week or so ago two women were rescued. They'd taken a helicopter ride onto a glacier for an afternoon worth of taking pictures and a picnic. A storm blew in and they were stranded on a glacier for 4 1/2 days before rescuers could get to them. 30-60mph winds and snowing something like 4-6" an hour. Two women in a snow cave 6' long 4' wide and 3' high, 4 1/2 days getting darker and darker as the snow got deeper and deeper.

Visualize that bit of reality. Kind of dull for RPG though.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Daswulf]

If only I could really visualize what I don't know of in person. I have seen some stuff about all the junk that washes up on shores up there. At least where they are showing it. I have experience at beaches in Virginia and North Carolina and even some of the Great Lakes. Again, I continue to research wild edible and poisonous plants. Funny enough A lot of people don't know them in their local areas. Once I identified poison hemlock it was amazing how I found it growing all over the place. I had already been able to identify yarrow and queen Ann's lace "wild carrot" it's look alike. But now I can point out the bad one easily. Most people don't even know that dandelion is edible. 

I still research and study and even go out to make positive identifictions. Just like researching blacksmithing methods and skills then taking it to the forge to practice it. 

In a game outside of my normal knowledge I have to research while it's going on and go from there without the positive Id. But if it's said then it's true. Rp is far from RL but it's entertaining. Perhaps that's where problems arise in people believing in whatever they read on the Internet and spout it out as fact elsewhere without the RL experience to actually identify it as fact or junk. 

I digress.   I roll played many years ago but I feel better learning in the physical world. Tho I can't say I don't enjoy fantasy in my life. I'd be willing to give it a shot. Might actually learn something. 

[odblacksmith]

Im up for anything although as has been mentioned the rules and perimeters need to be set up,and as you said one "Roll" per day,And if i understand correctly a "roll" is announcing an attempt at something and the DM informing you if or how successful you were...If you could set us up with some place "neutral" to start off (i just mean not too wet not too dry)and then the desert,rain forest,tundra etc; We would be cookin' with GAS.

[Frosty]

Yeah, there are a lot of people who have trouble separating reality from fantasy. Here's a GM tip. Rather than trying to learn all the safe vs poisonous vs irritant plants in a place you don't live. Learn how to ID them in strange places. That way you can examine one of more plants in an area. I'll describe them to you, you go through the procedures and I tell you the results. Done correctly you'd have to be severely allergic to die or even get very ill.

Playing DnD nobody was familiar with the flora and fauna and we gamed on.

OD: I'll get basic rules worked out, I have an experienced advisor to help. A turn can have a number of rolls in it. By the terms I'm familiar with a "roll" is an action that involves the the GM and a die for a decision. For example, "I spend the day looking for deer up the creek." The GM replies, "You are caught by nightfall 2 miles from camp." Why? Because you didn't specify you hunted till noon and hunted back towards camp so I as GM decide you got enthused and forgot to turn around. I also get to decide if you carried survival supplies. Then a weather roll would decide if you have to roll against hypothermia.

And so the game goes. So a turn involves you telling me what action you performed including what you use, carry, etc. and I sit up here in the GM clouds and decide how your day went, careless and oops. cover your butt and your chances of success are better up to good.

In my worlds we call them "Turns" and rolls are used to determine individual actions and results in a turn. Does that make sense? One "Turn" a day and who knows how many rolls per turn.

The game starts when it starts. What kind of survival situation doesn't start out in hardship? It could start with a fishing boat capsizing and the characters clinging to the hull while it drifts on the tide. There will always be a way out, it's up to the players to find it. One of the really fun things about RPG is when the players do things the DM didn't think of and they're better than what he did.

There was  more than once the players completely changed the direction of the module or threw it out entirely by doing something unpredictable. Outdoor games are always more unpredictable. One of my favorites was an outdoor module that Steve had us "fighting" our way up a narrow valley through orcs, wolves, goblins, etc. to finally take the keep from dark elves. What did we do? We crossed the ridge and took the keep and dark elves from behind. It was GLORIOUS!

I'll start working out a module. I'll run the rules and basics past the group and we can talk about them.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Charles R. Stevens]

with "gamers" (yes you youngins stole our title and miss applied it) you will find an unnatural fluency with our chosen language. Look at the way Frosty, Thommas, Steve and I post. Each word has a specific meaning, and the way they are strung together implies more than the simple sum of their meanings. As you gain experience the GM and other players words begin to paint detailed "scenes" yo learn to fill in the blanks with the appropriate "scene dressing".

playing an RPG is like righting a book in witch your main characters collaborate. So the GM rights the background, you and he colaberate on the characters backstory, he directs the antagonists and minor characters and scrambles around trying to keep a coherent story as the main characters interact (often in unprodictable ways) with the world.  

Now, as I said, communication skills are sharpended, but one also gaines insight in to how other folks think. Imagine walking into an interviw, you size up the interviewer (and do to a bit of research you have sized up the company culture), now instead of being nervous you put on your mask and show a "character" of your self. Not a lie, just the you they want or need to see.  

[ThomasPowers]

I really don't have the time to do it right; which made it easy to "slide into a coma"; though I was expecting to be eaten by bears for sassing the DM---a tradition that goes back to Biblical times!  My job lets me do a bunch of hit and run posts but without needing a lot of thinking---(when I start posting book excerpts I'm definitely at home!)

[Charles R. Stevens]

Your "hit and run" is pretty xxxx good

[Darious]

wish id have seen this one from the start. Was an amazing read and enjoyed it quite a bit. After 15 years of D&D AD&D and 3.5) there are definitely some RP skills you have to pick up. first and foremost don't screw with the DM. Dragons are not fun at low levels!

 

Count me in for the next one!

[Charles R. Stevens]

Terasks arn't any fun at high levels! Lol. 

Then again I have been known to swarm parties with kobalds when they got to big for their britches. Have any idea how many small hunk kids with spears can poke at you? Some one is bound to role a 20, and forget about casting spells...