Basic Gameplay “Loop”

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So, what do I have set up for my players? Having a world is fine and all, but what great challenge is going to face the players? Many Dungeons and Dragons campaigns have some epic story behind them. Perhaps a clue to a long lost Dwarven fortress has been discovered. The adventurers must race to find this fortress before another power claims them. Or perhaps a dragon cult is trying to resurrect their dragon god. The adventurers must foil these plans for the good of the world. Or perhaps the adventurers have been stranded in a dark realm ruled by a vampire king. They must unravel the mysteries of this place if they are to have any hope of survival. So what great story will my campaign entail?

The Basic Loop

At first there won’t be some epic quest. In essence they will be the fantasy version of contractors, exploring dungeons and returning with magic items. But, fairly quickly I will have the group come to the attention of those in charge of the settlement. This will get the group a bit more direction in what dungeons to explore, and possible side objectives.

The basic “gameplay loop” I am going for is this: players get assigned/chose a dungeon to explore. They travel to the dungeon and clear it. Upon returning to town the characters get a week “downtime” to have fun and get in trouble. Then repeat the loop.

But of course, nothing ever goes according to a smooth plan. Normally this would be where I would tell you what big twist awaits the players. But as of yet, no twist exists. Mostly this is because when I made this setting I was trying to make a giant “sandbox” for the players to play in. So how will I get my twist?

The Twist

If I have no twist planned, how will I get one? One of three ways. I will go in order of most preferred to least.

backstory

This one is fairly simple. Each player will make a backstory for their character, and I can draw on those backstories to create new points of tension or conflicts for them to deal with.

For instance, a player may be searching for parts of an ancient, broken, magic item. Maybe the pieces have been discovered by another group. How will the player go about getting them? Will they even involve the rest of the party? Or maybe another player’s past catches up to them in the form of a competing adventure’s party. Or even more complicated quests could arise.

it is a sandbox

This one is the most organic. Put simply, given enough rope an adventure’s party with either: 1 hang themselves 2 accidently kidnap someone they shouldn’t have or 3 recreate the Gordian Knot. Any of these can turn into an interesting adventure, and basically only relies on me to react to what the party does with either “Yes, and…” or “No, but…” aka, the two most useful phrases in improv.

Kick the nest

The final one is the one I least want to use. If the players refuse to create problems (or solve problems too quickly) I can have the island throw a problem at them. One idea I had to this is as follows.

During one of the party’s down days the alarms begin to sound. A giant lumbering beast has been spotted approaching the settlement. Too large and fast to face head on they wait at the barricades to face the beast and turn it back. But as it grows closer, it looks… strange, not quite right. Until it gets close enough to realize it is fake, a “trojan horse” monster. It heaves itself over the walls, ignoring the punishment it is taking from the defenders, before disgorging a horde of goblins into the settlement. These goblins are not here to fight, but to steal everything they can get there hands on before running away.

How will the party react to this? Will they get something of theirs stolen too? Who built the mechanical monster that breached the walls? All things to kick off an adventure. The only question now being: Which adventure will they find/create in this sandbox.

Populating My World

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Now, the setting for my campaign is a brand new island, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be people here. While it is true there won’t be any natives (at least as far as anyone is aware) plenty of people have an interest in this island. Some for a fresh start. Others to plunder the riches of the dungeons. Some for the mystery of this place. And a few have arrived to safeguard against the potential danger this place represents.

Primary Settlement

The first group my adventuring party is going to encounter is the primary settlement created by the adventures exploring this island. This settlement is split into two sections: the civilian flotilla and the adventure’s stronghold.

The Flotilla

The flotilla is a collection of ships and semi-permeant floating structures a few miles off shore. Viewed from the outside it looks like a small floating city, with almost all the accommodations you would expect from a well established settlement. Blacksmiths, eateries, tailor shops, housing, a town square, even a hospital all exist in this floating city. As for why the civilians live off the island, that’s simple. The Island is dangerous. Seemingly random beasts sometimes appear, and it is safer for the civilians to just not be in harm’s way. Not to mention easier for the adventures to drive off the beasts.

Adventure’s stronghold

The stronghold is the on land coastal settlement of the adventures. While it doesn’t have as many of the accommodations that the flotilla has, it is hardly bare bones. One giant bar services the adventures, with enough partitions that it functions as almost 5-7 bars. Several weapon and armor shops with gear from all over the multiverse. Many so called “general stores” with all the gear an adventure could want. And then you have the administration.

This is a stronghold after all, so those in charge had to fortify it. Several barracks line the impressive outer walls, with enough semi-retired adventures living in them to fight off several Dragons if it came to it. For those adventures not in the full time business of defending the settlement there are boarding houses randomly distributed throughout the settlement… At least they appear random, until you note the even distribution and a few other patterns that guarantee whatever threat the settlement faces: someone will be on scene quickly. Finally we have the administration of the entire settlement, flotilla and stronghold both.

Administration

The group primarily in charge of this settlement are “commonly” known as The Insatiable Scholars. This is a group I created for the backstory of an old character I once played. In short they believe Magic has no inherent morality, whether it be a firebolt, the magic to become an undead Lich that feeds on souls, or even healing magic. To them the magic itself is not good or evil, although the consequences of a given use may be. Along with this amoral stance is a generations long quest to learn all there is to know about magic. Understandably, an island connected to all the planes of existence, that seems to spontaneously create dungeons and magic items, presents an irresistible siren’s call to them. With their considerable resources, connections, and raw power they got themselves put in charge of the island’s exploration and investigation.

In game terms this means that the primary contact for my group is going to be a very powerful Wizard. This Wizard is going to be a bit absent minded and quirky, but have a bit more level headed wife to keep him on track. Both are very powerful, but so caught up in administrative work and keeping this place from falling apart that they can’t actually go and investigate as they wish. While they will provide the party with some support, they aren’t going to be able to wave their hands and make problems disappear for the party (the way a level 20 player might).

Everyone Else

This is getting a bit longer than I first thought, so I will give a quick round up of the other factions on the island at the start of the campaign. I may return to these and expand on them in a future post.

Goblins

Firstly there are at least 3 goblin tribes that disappeared into the Island’s interior and disappeared. Are they dead? Fractured into more tribes? Combined into one goblin empire? No one is quite sure. But it is known that at least some of them live on, as goblin raids and ambushes are not unheard of.

Creatures

Next up is the “local” fauna. Creatures from all over the multiverse appear to just… show up on the island. They struggle for dominance, some going extinct on the island before more creatures arrive to put everything into chaos again. Almost like the island itself is “borrowing” from other places to create a new ecosystem all its own.

Other Problems

It is speculated that some of the big boogeymen of the D&D world also have outposts on the island. Beings like the Mind Flayers, Cults dedicated to Dragons or Demons, covens of Necromancers or Vampires. Almost nothing is off the table. But by the same token almost nothing is yet written in stone.

Dragons (In my dungeons? more likely than you might think)

The last group I have decided will be part of the setting is a “lauth” of dragons. Long story short a “lauth” is a small group of dragons that have agreed to a common goal, becoming something close to a clan of dragons. These dragons need have nothing in common besides this singular goal, so traditionally good and evil dragons may align together.

In my case the lauth on this island will be comprised of several metallic, chromatic, and even gem dragons. No one is quite sure what their goal is, but tow things are certain. They seem to have the uncanny ability to know everything that is happening on the island at any given time. And they have made a habit of intercepting adventurers returning from a dungeon dive to take the magic item they retrieved. Curiously though, despite the dragon’s ability to simply overpower the adventurers and take what they want, they almost always offer a trade for the item in question.

Ideas for Settings

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When last I left off I promised some of the ideas I had for the setting I would be presenting my players. Unfortunately I got sick shortly after, but I am back now. I must admit, writing these out is only in part for the consumption of others. I also am doing this to force myself to actually write out my ideas rather than letting them fester in my mind. That way I might actually make progress.

Where to Begin?

First and foremost: What world are we playing in? Dungeons and Dragons has a large number of established worlds with their own societies, power structures, threats, etcetera. So which one am I using? None of them and all of them. And just to cut off the D&D experts in the crowd, no this is not a plane shift campaign (if you don’t know what that is, don’t worry about it). Let me explain.

Objectives and Solutions

I had a simple objective when creating this world: Give my players an excuse to go dungeon diving. Inspired by a couple of fantasy stories I have been following, I started with the idea of Dungeons that self generated. But why would that happen? Magic obviously, but the more specific the better. And so I created an “Island”, on this island dungeons spontaneously generate with magic items at their core. Retrieve the item and the dungeon begins to collapse. What is in the dungeon? Almost anything from a classic stone dungeon filled with skeletons, to a cave with goblins and wolves, all the way to a full on “who done it” murder mystery.

You might have noticed I put “island” in quotation marks, that is because this island is on the larger size of that description. Somewhere between the size of New Zealand and Madagascar. AKA more than enough space to have just about anything show up. But where would this “anything” come from? Anywhere.

A little more backstory. In the lore of D&D there are multiple worlds, literally different planets, that compose what is called the “mortal plane”. Surrounding that are the other planes of existence, ranging from the Feywilds, to the Shadowfell, to the Elemental Planes, all the way to the outer planes of Order-Chaos and Good-Evil. Why is this relevant? Well, the back story for my island goes something like this.

Discovery

One day, a new island was discovered. No island should have been there, and it was too large to have gone unnoticed until now. Upon landing and exploring the island, the first explores found others doing the same. These people were strange, just a bit “off” from what was expected. But the Wizards of the expeditions all came to the same conclusion: they had each come from another world. It turns out that this island was somehow connected to multiple worlds of the Mortal Plane. Further investigation proved that this island in fact was connected to ALL the planes of existence. Upon discovering the dungeon phenomenon a kind of “gold rush” began. Spearheaded by adventures this gold rush was targeting not gold, but the far more valuable magic items at the core of the dungeons.

Upshots

With this set up I establish a few things. First a “sandbox” environment where anything can happen and the players are free to do just about anything. Next is two clear objectives: get loot and learn the mysteries of the island. And finally it makes the only requirement for a character created for this campaign to be “a reason to come to this island” place of origin, backstory, species, almost nothing is off the table as long as they have a reason to come here.

First Time Dudgeon Master

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I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons for several years now, through multiple different worlds brought to life by our Dungeon Masters. Some basics of Table Top Role Playing Games (TTRPGs): most people playing TTRPG are simply referred to as “players”. They create and play as a single character in a party of such characters with the other players. One player is different however. This player does not have a specific character they play. Instead they are in charge of managing the world you are playing in.

What is a DM?

They play the shop keep you buy your gear from, the little girl looking for her cat, the wizened wizard that sends you on a quest, down to the goblin you are fighting. They describe the world, they track everything, and even control the rules of the world. In TTRPGs there are mortals, there are gods, and above them all is the Dungeon Master. Some people will tell you the Dungeon Master tells the story for the players. These people are very wrong.

While it is true that the Dungeon Master sets up the initial situations the players find themselves in, it is the Players that decide how to respond to those situations. And those responses are the story that is told for years to come. The DM sets the stage for the Players to improv around.

Why bring all this up?

Simple. Because I have decided its my turn. My turn to run the game, to set the stage, and let the players go crazy. But in order to do that, I need a world/setting/story for them to go crazy in. I have been making that behind the scenes as I am waiting for our current story to run its course. Over the next few weeks, I intend to go over some of the things I have made for this story.

When to Abandon Ship

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The Question

As I wrote about last time, Wizards of the Coast (Hasbro) has been causing a big stir in their community. Lots of talk is happening along the lines of “What could Wizards do to salvage this situation?” The second big point of discussion is “What can we (the players) do to force Wizards into a decision we want?” And the big take away from that second question is simple: stop giving them money. Cancel subscriptions, don’t buy books, and maybe even boycott the new movie coming out. But there is one final question that is floated around from time to time “Do we abandon Dungeons and Dragons in favor of another game?”

A Solution

There are plenty of other role playing table top games to try. And some of them look really fun. From the very familiar setting of pathfinder, itself being a spin off of the 3rd edition of D&D. To the dystopian future of one of several Cyberpunk systems. Even old western meets magic, were playing cards are an integral part of the game. Or more story based games where you don’t even roll dice. Or even cosmic horror with Call of Cthulhu. Point being, if you are interested in role playing games, there is a system and setting for you.

My Solution

But that doesn’t address the central question. Do we need to abandon D&D? As I see it, no. Even if you are 100% trying to “stick it to Wizards” you don’t need to abandon D&D to accomplish that. You just need to stop giving them money. Don’t pay for online services. Lots of players already have most of the books, in a group you likely have enough books to share. And if you need to buy a new book? Buy second hand, and as a bonus try to buy from a local used book store. There are ways to make the community’s dissatisfaction clear without burning down everything we have built.

That is not to say you have to stay with D&D. If you find another game you and your group will enjoy more, go for it. Just don’t bash those that stay with the old ship.

Breaking News

As I was writing this a new announcement was made by Wizards of the Coast. The old OGL will be left in place, and the SRD (System Reference document) for 5.1 will still be going into creative commons as they said previously. So looks like the ship is going to stop sinking… assuming they are being truthful.

Announcement: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1439-ogl-1-0a-creative-commons

Dungeons and Dragons OGL Situation

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Introduction

So, what is going on? And what even is an OGL? Lets start with that second one as everything builds off that. OGL stands for Open Game License, and is a license/agreement Wizards of the Coast had with their community. The OGL laid out what could and could not be used by 3rd party creators in making D&D supplemental material. And ever since 3rd party creators have been making a combination of amazing, weird, terrible, and fun content for D&D. And under the OGL they could even charge for this content.

What Happened?

Recently Wizards of the Coast (most likely at the behest of Hasbro) announced they were going to revamp the OGL. They laid out some broad goals that seemed reasonable if unpopular. With easily the least popular being that they would now expect royalties from 3rd party creators that made more than a certain amount per year. Well… least popular if you discount changing the OGL at all, but we will get to that.

This all caused the community to grumble but generally agree to wait and see what would happen. Until a leak of the contract. Multiple sources are claiming that this leak comes from creators sent both a copy of the “OGL 1.1” (as opposed to the original OGL1.0) and a contract to sign agreeing to the terms. The language in this leaked version lit the community on fire.

I am not a lawyer. I do not pretend to be an expert on legal matters. But my layman’s reading of parts of this OGL 1.1 felt disgusting and greedy. Or at least rife for abuse. Clauses that could mean “You own what you made… until we decide you don’t and we do.” Suggestions that they could change any part of the agreement at any time. Or simply eliminate the entire thing with a simple 30 day notice.

Reactions

At Large

As I said, the D&D community was outraged at the language in OGL1.1. So many video essays explaining the situation. People trying to figure out what to do, wondering if they will still have a livelihood if this came to pass. And Wizards of the Coast largely remaining silent. That is of course… until another leak.

Wizards Employees

Not sure if “leak” is the right term. What happened is that a Wizards employee reached out to a community content creator, under the condition of anonymity, to expose some insider information. So I guess “leak” is appropriate. In this there were 4 main takeaways. First, that Wizards was hoping the community had a short attention span and they could just let all this “blow over” before trying again. Second, the rank and file employee only knew marginally more than the community at large. Third, and I quote “…they see customers as obstacles between them and their money…” And finally, that the only thing they care about is the bottom line, using subscriptions to an online service as a barometer for how well they were doing. So a large movement of people started unsubscribing from that service.

Other Companies

If you thought the reaction to this was limited to the community and small creators you underestimate the scope of these changes. Several well known companies that make 3rd party D&D content have announced that in response to these proposed changes they are moving away from D&D content. One such company (Kobold Press) even announced they would make their own system. This all seems to have culminated in the company Paizo (the creators of Pathfinder) announcing their own take on an OGL style license.

This announcement had several components, but the first one I will be focusing on is the new license. This new license will be called the Open RPG Creative License or ORC for short. This license has several big points. First is that it is intended to be irrevocable, no one can change or resend it ever. They seek to accomplish this through a combination of legal language and transferring ownership of the license to a non-profit. Next up is that this is a generic license that any company can apply to their game, so any company can opt in to using this license. And finally, they weren’t alone in this effort, they had several big names in the community on board for this plan.

But what about OGL1.0a?

That term “irrevocable” was not used by accident. The thing is, it was a term that, once upon a time, Wizards of the Coast had used in reference to the first version of the OGL. That’s right, Wizards (read Hasbro) was trying to alter an agreement designed, agreed, and understood to be unchangeable. And the people pointing this out have more standing than just “guy on the internet”. The leaders of Paizo are pointing this out. And they should know, they were higher ups at Wizards when the OGL was made. So a very real question has arisen: Can Wizards legally do any of this? And several companies are willing to fight them in court over it.

Finally Wizards Speaks

About an hour before I sat down to write this, Wizards finally released an official statement. In it they paint themselves as “misunderstood” and “not trying to step on the little guy” but to “fight back against giant corporations” (completely missing that they are a giant corporation). And, if I assume they are speaking in good faith, they make a couple good points… If one assumes they are arguing in good faith. You see, there was one more leak I haven’t talked about. Partially because it is so recent, but mostly because of it’s contents. Because if this leak is true, and was actually intended to be released to the public… Oh boy. It would be some of the most “cartoonish evil corporation” nonsense in what lies they expected the public to swallow. I won’t get any further into it here, but just for context, most of the community is taking anything Wizards says with a handful of salt at minimum.

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The House Speaker Vote 2023

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Where do I even begin? Laying some ground work for people that are somehow unaware I guess. So, brass tacks: When a new House of Representatives is voted into office those delegates vote amongst themselves on who should run proceedings. Ordinarily this is pretty straightforward in the American 2 party system. The party with the majority picks who should lead them and they get the position, simple. But this year, for the first time in 100 years, it wasn’t simple.

The vote requires a majority of all present, not just a “simple majority”. What’s the difference? A simple majority is just “who got the most votes?” whereas what is needed in this vote is more than 50% of the possible votes. And no one has gotten that… for going on 12 votes at time of writing. With the current system these votes will continue until someone gets the required number of votes. And nothing else can be done until that is accomplished.

So why are we here? What happened that brought the Republican Party to grid lock? Two things. First, their majority is slim, only a handful of people. Second, the most extreme Right Wing members have realized that this gives them power. They refuse to allow anything to happen until they get “what they want”. So what is it they want?

If I had to sum it up I would say they want two things. First, unearned power. They, some of the most junior members of the House, want power handed to them on a silver platter. Power over the speaker, power over comities, power over their party. If it is a type of power they think they can get, they are demanding it like spoiled children screaming on the floor. Second, they want immunity from consequences. They want to be as vile as they want and for no one to be able to hold them accountable. So they demand the neutering of the agencies that would hold them accountable.

And the crazy part? The truly bat shit insane bit? The Republicans are giving in to these demands, slowly but surely. AND IT STILL ISN’T APPEASING THEIR TASTE FOR BLOOD! They still want more. And they are willing to hold the House of Representatives hostage until they get it. So, what should be done?

Well… in a rational society, with rational politicians, the Republicans would see if they could get the few votes they need from somewhere else. Say, the Democrats? Show an ability to reach across the aisle. Show some actual leadership ability. And probably not give up as much as the extremists are demanding. Or perhaps the Democrats try and break a few Republicans off to get a candidate enough votes themselves. Completely undercutting the Republican “leadership”.

But we do not live in a rational society, with rational politicians. And the Republicans have proven they are completely willing to damage the republic for a political stunt. So I expect this to go on for weeks… when do we start playing the Benny Hills theme and sending professional clowns to the House? As opposed to the unprofessional ones that were voted into office.

Returning to Old Problems

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As I started working on my game there were one or two things that I came across that I didn’t fully understand. Okay, there were a lot of those. But one or two I got to a “good enough” state and moved on. Well, that came to bite me in the ass recently. Specifically with the Canvas Scaler. Most of my game’s visual elements are UI objects, as such they scale to the camera to always be in a specified relative space on the screen. But how they scale is determined by a multitude of factors, starting with the Canvas Scaler.

I won’t get into the minutia of the Canvas Scaler here. But put simply you can choose to set a maximum size, minimum size, or a scaling style for the UI elements. Took me a while to decide what was best for my project, and I am liable to change it again. Before my recent dive into the Canvas Scaler, some objects would scale strangely and end up off screen. And then I figured out why… and it was dumb.

A common way to organize Unity project game assets is to group them under “empty game objects”. These objects are 1 dimensional points in space with no physics, but are useful for grouping objects to make the scene more manageable. They can also be used to apply a single transform (movement, scaling, rotation) to an entire group. I was using these empty game objects for both purposes. Making my scenes easier to manage and to move objects as a group. Unfortunately, UI elements and normal game objects don’t play nice together. And by grouping UI elements under an empty game object I disconnected their scaling from the Canvas Scaler. I needed a new solution.

Thankfully the solution was staring me in the face. I had already been moving UI elements independent of an empty game object, so I just needed to find a UI element that could stand in for one. And I did. It has a few kinks to work out (mostly from adopting it so late), but it shows promise.

Attending a Playtest Event

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There is a local event for developers to bring their games and get people to play test them. I have attended this event several times before, not as a developer but just to try and be part of the community. Just one problem, I am very introverted and not good at integrating into new groups.

As such when I went to these events I would do my best to try and play the games, socialize, and generally be present in the event. But I would often either stick to one place where I felt “safe” or just leave. I just felt awkward and out of place. After a few attempts I largely stopped attending these events. I wasn’t getting much out of them, and I don’t think the people who brought their games were getting much from me either.

Then COVID happened and the events understandably stopped. But just recently the events started back up again. And now I had something to show, something I needed playtested. So I resolved to attend, full of dread for my introverted self, 3 hours in a room full of strangers wanting to talk to me…

And then I was at the event. People were playing my game (and enjoying it more than I expected, even as they failed). I was taking some notes on things to change. And then I looked at the time. Two of the three hours had already passed… and I was having fun. A simple change in perspective/goal/role had turned something I dreaded into an enjoyable and useful experience.

This doesn’t mean I am suddenly an extrovert. Or that there is anything wrong about being an introvert. But it does mean I have discovered another part of my comfort zone. I may actually be looking forward to the next of these events.

Frustration with Conflicting Conversation Styles

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I am an introvert. Most of the time this means I am content to keep my own company. But it does not mean I am “allergic” to large gatherings or the such. Just that I can find them draining, if still fun. Why do I bring this up? In conversations I have two “modes”. The first the conversation centers on something I am passionate about and I can talk near endlessly. In my more common mode I will quietly listen and try to speak up when I have something to say. Key word: try.

At a family gathering over the Thanksgiving holiday, I got into a conversation with a relative. They were asking me about a topic relating to my game. And they would ask me a question, before going into details about the question with their own assumptions. I would try to answer the underlying question they at first asked… but whenever I did they would just talk over me as if I hadn’t said anything. Eventually, it felt like they were trying to tell me what they assumed the answer was and/or why my answer was stupid rather than have a conversation. Around the 4th time it happened I just got up and left the room. “Because apparently I’m not allowed to be part of the conversation.”

To be fair to my relative, other people had joined the conversation and I had been quiet for a while. But to be frank, I don’t care about being fair to them after the 4th time in less than an hour. In my opinion the problem seemed to arise from a severe difference in conversation style. Because I am content to listen to a conversation until I have something relevant to contribute he seemed to think I had nothing to say. So when I did have something to say, he just ran over me.

People say not to get angry. But what they usually mean is “don’t lash out”. Because after I got angry, and let everyone know I was upset (and why), I got an apology and he stopped talking over me. So it is okay to be quiet, just don’t be a door mat that everyone walks over.