The Dragon’s Breath #14
14 May 2003
How to Survive Real Life
By Claudio Pozas
Job. Marriage. Kids.
Meet RPGs’ greatest foes.
Just kidding. :) Yet when real life demands so much of your time, how to get together and game?
The answer: whenever you can. I am running a group that has three players: my wife, a long-time friend, and his wife. If we get together once every other month to game for five hours or so, we’re lucky! Yet running such a sporadic game helped me develop some techniques to get the most from such a small amount of airtime.
• Have the PCs ready: If you can get together only once in six months to game, don’t waste two hours rolling up the characters. They should be ready before the game begins. If you know the players well enough, you can just ask them what type of characters they want to play and generate the characters for them. Once you manage to game once with those characters, try and keep them for later games. For a moment it will seem like you just gamed last week.
• Keep it simple: Twisting plots that span several adventures are fine if you game often. If you’ll have to spend one hour every session recapping what happened one year ago, however, it’s best to tone things down a bit.
• Cut to the chase: If the game is slowing to a halt because the PCs are overplanning or talking to a barmaid (who has nothing to do with the adventure), let them know the adventure is elsewhere. A fine way to start an adventure is to say, "Roll initiative." That’s a sure way to get everyone’s attention.
• Keep it short: Make sure you can finish the adventure in one session, or at least prepare a good stopping point (clearing out the upper temple before heading down to the catacombs, for instance).
• Avoid frustrating the players: Is the wizard constantly fizzling his spells against an enemy’s Spell Resistance? Secretly remove the SR from the remaining enemies. Since you’re all gaming so rarely, everyone has to enjoy it.
• Try something new: Look at your gaming books. See that monster you never used? That spell no NPC ever cast? That class you never put in your game? Dust ’em off and let them shine, baby! You might just find your new favorite monster.
• Be prepared: Are you putting a ghost in your adventure? Then go over its powers and make sure you understand how to use them. Prepare strategies, complete with save DCs and effects. For my latest game, I had an evil 8th-level cleric face the party. His round-by-round strategy was something like this:
Preparation before combat (by round): 1 — magic vestment (AC 19); 2 — guidance (+1 attack); 3 — entropic shield (20% miss chance); 4 — divine favor (Str 18, attack +12/+7, damage 1d10+5+1d6, hp 60), when divine favor ends, bull’s strength (Str 17, attack +11, damage 1d10+4+1d6); 5 — summon monster II (fiendish wolf); 6 — spiritual weapon (+6 attack, damage 1d8).
Combat Round by Round: 1 — Direct spiritual weapon and cast command ("flee", DC 14); 2 and 3 — melee (Sunder at +16); 4 — hold person (DC 15); 5 — melee; 6 — contagion (DC 16); 7 — divine favor (+2 attack and damage) and direct SW; 8 — shatter; 9 — air walk and climb up 20 ft. to window, SW attacks and ends; 10 — walk away, then drink fly potion and fly faster. Substitute for healing whenever needed.
• Let everyone shine: You have a ranger PC? Note down Track DCs for several parts of the adventure. Got an elf in the group? Have a wizard minion cast sleep on the party so that the elf shows off by being immune. Got a cleric? Set up at least one occasion in which she can turn undead. A PC got Cleave last level? Have six goblins surround the PC on purpose and watch the player cackle with glee as the goblins go down one by one.
• Be generous with XP: If you can game only once every two months, try and have the PCs gain a level at every other session. That way, the characters won’t seem stagnant, and the players will have a feeling of accomplishment.
• Have fun: Don’t argue over small things. Don’t face the PCs with the "prisoner dilemma." Let them run with the ball. Let the players be empowered by the adventure. Throw a squad of 1st-level orcs against your 7th-level party so the PCs can see how powerful they are (perhaps the elf archer and the dwarf warrior can start a competition of sorts).
These tips helped my game a lot. Hopefully, they’ll help yours, too.
Game on!
Next Week: In The Dragon’s Breath #15, we await with bated breath to see what is to be written and by whom. Oh, the mystery!
To discuss this and other articles, come to the Dragon's Breath forum on our message board!
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