9/11

If you were born prior to 1990, then you likely remember this date in history. You probably recall what you were doing that morning and throughout that day. At the time, I was in graduate school and woke up from my telephone ringing. My girlfriend (now wife) called and said a plane hit the World Trade Center. Groggy and slightly disoriented, I ambled out to the living room and turned on the television to see live footage of two smoking towers. We stayed on the phone because her father was flying into Washington, DC that morning, so she had no idea if he was safe (he landed safely in Detroit). The clearest memory I have from that morning is being on the phone with her and watching the first tower collapse and being dumbfounded as she gasped in an agonized and empathetic voice, “Oh my god – all those people!?”

This is called a flashbulb memory – “a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid ‘snapshot’ of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) news was heard.” In addition to 9/11, other commonly referenced flashbulb memories are events such as the JFK assassination, the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger and the night O.J. Simpson drove his white Bronco down the highway. These specific memories are reinforced and strengthened because they are based on a shared experience – and in the examples above, they are shared with an entire nation.  

Flashbulb memories are a type of autobiographical memory. For example, most people may not remember what they did on October 30, 2009. But I know I flew from across the country to visit family and attend a Pearl Jam concert. My friend and I went to Tony Luke’s before the show, ate in the parking lot, found a way to upgrade our tickets and watched Pearl Jam blow the roof of The Spectrum. It’s an experience that I can recall with accuracy and reinforced by the fact that I shared the experience with a friend. (Side note, they showed footage from this concert in PJ20, which blew my mind when I first saw the movie!)

On this smaller scale of autobiographical experiences, tabletop RPGs provide a unique environment for flashbulb memories for those in the gaming group. One of the first things I noticed when I joined a long-running gaming group was the sheer number of shared stories about prior adventures they celebrated. The level of detail in the stories was interesting because they were routinely talking about earlier editions of Dungeons & Dragons (that I never really experienced) and it was so nuanced. I cannot do the stories justice – perhaps one of my former gaming cohort will share a tale or two in the Comments below – but moments from gaming sessions taking place many years ago were recalled as vividly as if they just happened yesterday. And the memory was rehashed and enjoyed by others in the group who experienced the same unique event.

To put it another way, the players enjoyed telling their war stories. Below, I talk about a recent event in our Blade Raiders campaign that will live on for many years and how a DM can set the stage for flashbulb memories to “pop” for his or her gaming group.

The Wrendof Experience

Jognik’s Treasure is a great adventure that can be source material for any game system. And only $5.

A group of us have been playing the new game, Blade Raiders. The game features easy character creation and a flexible rule system that is easy to jump into – heck, even my wife has played twice and she is typically against playing tabletop games. Without spoiling the adventure module we were going through, The Hunt for Jognik’s Treasure, is populated by a NPC named Wrendof. Over the course of two sessions, Wrendof interacted with the party and the adventure culminated in one of the most absurdly ridiculous moments I’ve experienced while gaming.

To quote a genius by the name of Inigo Montoya, “Let me sum up.” A string of events transpired over two sessions that led to a pivotal moment in the adventure when our party was likely in for a world of hurt. Because of specific interactions with Wrendof and decisions made by the party, two consecutive improbable and perfect-for-the-situation rolls brought the house down, saved the day and immortalized Wrendof forever. Songs will be written about him – literally, one of the players has a band – and it’ll be one of those flashbulb memories I’ll relive with the group for years to come.

In many ways, this is the essence of playing tabletop roleplaying games. It’s about a group of people coming together to create a unique story with twists and turns with surprising and unexpected results. No one person could have planned the outcome of our adventure searching for Jognik’s Treasure; collectively, the group created a sense of drama that fostered a specific event in the game to be amazingly crafted. As a result, the group will carry this shared experience from the gaming session forward. Wrendof is now part of a shared lexicon that only those folks sitting at the table understand. Playing tabletop games is about exploring, meeting people, completing quests and killing monsters. But it’s these memories that keep players coming back. However, because they are unpredictable by nature, it may be a challenge to achieve them in all their glory (or infamy). The DM can set the stage for flashbulb memories with surprise, consequence, arousal and rehearsal.

Surprise

The first element of a flashbulb memory is the individual must be surprised – he or she cannot expect the event to take place. It must be unpredictable by nature to become ingrained in the memory system. As a DM, surprising players – especially those seasoned by many years of gaming – is a difficult task. Roleplaying game players have typically consumed a great deal of fiction (e.g., novels, comics, movies, television shows, and many RPG plots) to know all the usual tropes. In my 4th Edition D&D campaign, players were routinely guessing about the course of the plot and hypothesizing about what was to come. It is a form of metagaming and something I tried to steer away from as much as possible. So how does a DM surprise players who have seen it all?

Avoid relying on routine plot paths. Keep the party off-balance as much as possible. And allow the players to guide the story instead of scripting  too much of the adventure ahead of time. For players to form a special memory about a gaming session, an event must take place that was unexpected. The players have entered a cave to defeat a dragon and take his treasure plenty of times; take those expectations and twist them to engage the players in a new way. Create an environment in the adventure that forces players to break their routine. Guide them to surprise each other; reward players throughout the campaign who perform an action that is outside “the ordinary.” Zig instead of zag!

Consequence

The second element for flashbulb memories is for the stakes to be high. Events that have significant short- and long-term consequences will be remembered more often than events that do not change the course of a campaign.  The consequences must be related to something the players care about. When creating worlds and running games, DMs can fall into a trap of caring more about certain characters and plotlines that the players do not. Learn what the players invest their time and energy in during sessions. One does not need to wait until high-level play to set events in motion that are dramatic and far-reaching.

A direct consequence for players is character death. The death of Aeofel is probably a flashbulb memory for those who played that game. It was a surprise and resulted in major consequences for one of the players in the game. It does not mean that killing off a player will always result in a special flashbulb memory, but it demonstrates the weight of consequence. Players must believe their actions matter. Whether it is protecting a shipment of goods, defending a town from bandits or stopping the plans of Orcus, the decisions of the players must have consequences – all the time. The DM can turn up the volume on the consequences involved in the adventure at key moments to increase the likelihood that an adventure will be remembered for years to come.

Arousal 

The third element for a flashbulb memory is emotional involvement. The person remembering the event needs to have an associated emotion to enhance the memory. The emotion could be fear, sadness or joy. When a person has heightened arousal (not that kind, ladies and gentlemen), his or her memory system is more engaged. From an evolutionary standpoint, this can be understood through our “fight or flight” system – which my Intro to Psychology professor informed me regulates the Four F’s: fleeing, fighting, feeding and fornication (let’s keep this classy). For example, when you are young and you touch a hot stove – you learn the following lesson quickly, “Touch the hot stove and I get burnt. That hurts, so I’m not going to touch the stove again.”

The DM can model the expression of emotion through the actions of NPCs or through his or her own excitement. If a moment in a gaming session seems awesome, then really let the players know through the voice of a NPC or act like you just witnessed one of the greatest things ever. Go over the top. Ham it up. Learn what is driving the player and/or character and play on those emotions.

Repetition

The final element of flashbulb memories is repetition or rehearsal. A memory is strengthened when we do not allow it to be forgotten. One method for remembering an experience is to keep thinking about (or processing) the information. After the attacks on 9/11, most conversations revolved around the events of that day. “Where were you when you found out?” became a common question to answer, and that answer was repeated over and over again. Those memories were further crystallized during the first, fifth and tenth anniversaries of the events as the entire country rehearsed their involvement in the day’s events.

In a tabletop RPG, the DM can repeat the details of a significant event from a prior gaming session. The DM can strengthen an experience by rehashing a situation from an earlier adventure and talk about how special it was for him or her to experience. By displaying their emotional investment in the experience and rehearsing the events with the players, it encourages the players to do the same. Manipulative? Perhaps, but if it is genuine emotional investment, the players will likely reciprocate.

Blade Raiders – Where Epic Happens

In closing, the events of our Blade Raiders adventure certainly shared these characteristics of a flashbulb memory. Our adventure culminated in a surprising manner that none of the players – or the DM – could have predicted. The event held major consequence because it directly affected a NPC the party had gotten to know for two gaming sessions and a powerful villain was dramatically shut down. Our DM – the creator of Blade Raiders – went wild (along with yours truly) when the moment happened and continued to share his emotion throughout the rest of the session. Not only did he display emotion (more as a DM than a NPC), he repeated and rehashed the experience throughout the night and subsequent days. Wrendof will live in infamy; we shall talk of him for years to come.

Make it happen with your group, and share your flashbulb memories from gaming sessions below. I’d love to read them!

Readers of the blog will note that I have spent some time playtesting a new roleplaying game called Blade Raiders. The game is very different from 4th Edition D&D and it still feels great to play. During the start of a new campaign with the system, I found myself slipping into a “4e” mindset – for better and for worse. Below, I process a few observations about habits learned while playing (almost exclusively) 4th Edition over the past two-plus years and discuss our first session of a Blade Raiders campaign.

Building a Badass

When I created a character for our playtest earlier in the year, I experimented with the Blade Raiders system and chose a combination of non-magical and magical talents. I certainly wanted to create an effective character but I was more interested in learning the system and trying new approaches to character design. But for the campaign, the “4e switch” flipped in my head and I was dissecting the various talent options in a surgical fashion.

• How can I get the greatest bonus to hit? 
• How can I max out my damage per turn?
• What talents will be most useful to me in the most circumstances?

Character optimization is not unique to 4th Edition D&D, but it is where I learned that craft! The Character Builder was (and remains to be) a wonderful tool to experiment with character creation; with a few clicks, one can see just how effective his or her character will be in combat and non-combat situations. It teaches the player the importance of statistical bonuses from a combination of skills, feats, traits and powers. And perhaps more importantly, it encourages and rewards that type of optimizing behavior. After all, why wouldn’t a player choose the options that produce the most damaging effects in combat?

Bryce Brevard, The Brigand of Burnigon

So I examined he options in Blade Raiders and based my choices on the questions above. I chose talents that gave me bonuses to attack and damage rolls. I basically created a 4th Edition Striker in the Blade Raiders system. And my character, Bryce Brevard, was absolutely death on wheels. While I racked up kills and rejoiced in my ability to slay foes quickly, I experienced a creeping doubt that I was being “that guy.” You know, that guy on a basketball team that takes all the shots and celebrates the win by himself while his teammates look on in annoyance. It dawned on me that other people around the table were playing Blade Raiders – but in many ways, I was still playing 4th Edition D&D.

Dice Versa

One feature of 4th Edition D&D is a DM and player get to roll a lot of dice. Seriously, a sh*t-ton of dice. I love dice – even when I hate them – and it is great to roll them during a gaming session. Fourth Edition D&D gives players multiple dice to roll throughout the course of gameplay. A single round of actions from one low-level character in 4th Edition will likely require at least one d20 roll and multiple damage dice depending on the weapon and power used. By mid-paragon, my rogue was rolling a d20 followed by as much as six d8s for damage with one power against a single target. And more dice were added if the rogue used an Action Point or some type of magical item.

One die for my left-hand sword, one die for my right-hand sword and one die for damage. Give me a few sessions and the weapons/dice will have individual names!

The sheer number of die rolls in a session of 4th Edition is pretty staggering. I may not play 4th Edition again for a while, but if some of my fellow researchers out there are interested, I’d love to know just how many dice are rolled during a standard three-to-four hour session – how many d20s, d10s, d8s, etc. The die-happiness of 4th Edition is something I took for granted until I played Blade Raiders. The game mechanics are built on one type of die – a d10. That fancy new set of dice I have? Not needed. A lone d10 is rolled for an attack and a lone d10 is rolled for damage. Weapons have a modifier; a dagger is d10-4 (min 1) whereas a warhammer is d10+5. As a veteran of 4e, even the fact that I only had one d10 in front of me was too much to take during our playtest. I had to use one d10 for attacks and a different d10 for damage.

In building my character, one of the considerations was finding ways to roll more dice more often. Weird? Maybe, but this is how 4th Edition has shaped my approach to tabletop RPGs – more dice equals more fun! In looking through the talent options in Blade Raiders, Dual Wielding immediately leaped off the page. It allows the player to attack twice during each round. Perfect!

Role Clarity

In addition to Dual Wielding, my talent choices included Slayer (bonus to damage) and Fighter (bonus to hit). The three talents combined to make my character, Bryce Brevard, well-prepared to lay waste to the foul creatures of Aveggor! In my mind, Bryce filled the striker roll – hit quick, hit often and hit hard. What I found as the night progressed is that thinking in terms of 4th Edition roles for my character boxed me in to expect other players to approach the game – and their character – in the same manner.

One of the really interesting things about Blade Raiders is it purposely avoids standard frameworks of classes or roles. Yes, there are two different healing-related talents and an assortment of magical talents, but they can be combined in any number of ways. Instead of taking the Fighter talent for Bryce, I could have selected from magical talents such as Mender (healing), Firecaller, Portalist or Earth Mover. I would remain a fun “striker-like” character, but I would also be able to perform some magical spells.

Every other player in the group selected a combination of magical and non-magical talents, creating interesting hybrids along the way. Many of which I did not know how to conceptualize around the table, “Wait, one second you’re wielding a greatsword, the next you’re firing a bow and now you’re casting a spell to move rocks around to form a stairway for the party? What is happening?” In a long-running 4th Edition party, you get to learn each character’s powers intimately – sometimes better than the other player using the character! (but that is another discussion). And you know what the characters are meant to do.

Tank. Healer. The roles are clearly defined. Even those players who get fancy with multiclassing are still primarily serving in one role for the party. Blade Raiders allows for more flexible – perhaps not in the total of options available but in how they can be combined. It provides more cognitive flexibility to character creation and gameplay, which I learned I need more of after starting the campaign!

My Myopic Mindset

I truly love 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. It’s the edition that led me back into gaming after a long break and I enjoyed many a day and night playing it with various groups over the past three years; I hope to continue playing it from time to time. The design of the game very much shapes the way players and their characters can function. This was not entirely noticeable to me until after I started another campaign in a different system. Having not played much of other tabletop RPGs, my view of how to play a RPG is quite limited.

My tendency to think in 4th Edition terms will continue, and that is not a bad thing. Another fun feature in Blade Raiders is that players can create their own powers by spending Career Advancement Points (think of a combination of XP and Action Points) and discussing with the Storyteller (DM). For example, I could create “martial powers” that cause “status effects,” allow me to disarm a combatant or perhaps provide a bonus to an ally attacking the same target. I could do anything.

And that is at the same time wonderful, challenging and unsettling. I just hope the other adventurers will allow Bryce to get his bearings in the world before kicking him out of the party!

I wonder, how have others had their approach to RPGs shaped by their “primary” game of choice? How do you remain flexible when playing different systems?

I encourage you to read the first part of the review to learn more about the character creation process. Below, I turn my attention to the experience of playing the game and my thoughts on what it would be like to run a group of players through a brief adventure or long-standing campaign.

Gameplay & Game Management

While playing Blade Raiders, I had one eye on the experience as a player and another eye on the experience of what it would be like to run the session. I found the game to be extremely accessible and easy to learn. I believe it could be flexible enough to fit a variety of play styles. Combat-heavy groups can certainly enjoy a fast and streamlined system while story-oriented groups can really explore the talents and dynamic skill options to create a unique experience. Blade Raiders offers the storyteller a few wonderful tools to alter the style of play in the game, which can be used frequently or ignored entirely.

The white area means magic can be used. The blue areas grant +1 to every roll involving magic. All other space? Magic dead zones.

Magic. The world of Blade Raiders is influenced by a variety of runestones, which are “shards of rock (typically four to seven feet tall and half as wide) that are scattered across the continent of Aveggor.” Each runestone creates an aura of magical energy that can be harnessed by those who have a talent for such activity. As a character gets closer to a specific runestone, their talent for using magic increases. However, magic cannot be used if a character is too far away from a runestone. To put it another way, magic is not always available in the game.

This is another design feature that really breaks the typical mold of classes and specializations in roleplaying games. And it also allows the storyteller to modify the game experience as a campaign progresses. Perhaps one or two players use magic in incredibly effective ways to really make it challenging to provide a difficult combat situation for the party to overcome. Well, now the storyteller has the ability to focus an adventure away from a runestone for a bit – magic is no longer part of the equation. Problem cleanly solved!

The flip side is true, maybe the storyteller and players prefer a campaign that is more swords and less sorcery but would like just a taste of magic in their campaign. The storyteller can have most adventures take place outside the runestone areas with the option of dabbling near the runestones from time to time. It is not only the characters that have this restriction, but monsters as well. At this time, there are no “magic items” such as a wand, staff or rod that would store “charges” of magical energy. Magic is clearly only available when characters (and monsters) are near the runestones. As someone who played Dungeons and Dragons 4^th Edition for the past two-plus years, this idea is really shocking – but as a player and DM, I like the flexibility it offers.

Character Advancement Points. Blade Raiders does not feature a traditional Experience Point (XP) system, which is great because I completely ignored the suggested XP system in 4^th Edition anyway. Instead, the storyteller can grant players Character Advancement Points (CAPs) whenever they deem it warranted. CAPs combine good features of concepts such as XP and Action Points (D&D 4e) into one system. Players can earn CAPs during gameplay for such actions as killing a monster, completing a quest, performing a cool maneuver or engaging in a detailed roleplay encounter. CAPs can be used like action points for in-game effects like adding to a specific die roll or healing Body Resistance points. They can also be saved to spend on improving an existing skill or unlocking or creating powers within a talent.

Once again, this feature gives the storyteller control over the pace of advancement in the game. It also allows the storyteller to reinforce the type of behavior they wish to see at the table. I enjoy that XP – or in this case character advancement – is very immediate. There is not an artificial XP system to keep track of; the storyteller can pace the rewards to fit their and the players’ style of play. For example, the storyteller can hold CAPs close to the vest or dole them out consistently. Blade Raiders does not feature levels. Damage dice expressions do not change just because a character moves up a few levels. The game remains simple to run and to play.

CAST. Blade Raiders runs on the CAST system, which stands for Chance, Advantage, Skill and Talent. Chance is the roll of a d10. As mentioned previously, all rolls in the game are with a d10. There is no fumbling around for the proper-sided die for a specific roll; one could play through an entire campaign with a single d10. This idea relates to behavior I first noticed in DM Extraordinaire, Chris Perkins, who uses only two dice (d20, d6) while running games. The storyteller sets the bar for how high the roll needs to be – an easy task would require a low target number while a difficult task would require a high target number. Regardless of the modifier applied to the d10, a 1 is always a miss. So, even though a character may have amazing bonuses for a specific task, there is still a 10% chance of failure with each action. A critical miss on a d20 only occurs 5% of the time, so it does infuse more chance of immediate failure into the game.

“They have a Trollug.”

Advantage is any bonus or penalty the storyteller assigns to a specific task. In our session, a character effectively used a Sneak skill to hide from an oncoming monster in a dark, wooded area. Since the character was hidden from the monster, the storyteller gave him a +1 Advantage to his attack roll against the monster. Other bonuses and penalties were assigned in a similar manner throughout the night.

Once again, this gives the storyteller flexibility while running the game. A potential downside to this design is rules lawyers will likely hate this approach. Since most situations are left to the discretion of the storyteller and not on written rules, there could be disagreement about specific circumstances during combat or another situation where advantage may or may not come into play. It does make the game easier to pick up and play and keeps the game humming along. There was not one situation when either the storyteller or players were flipping through the rulebook to find a specific answer to a rule question, which is impressive given that it was the first time we were playing with a brand new game system.

Skill enters the equation when one of the character’s skills relates to a roll in the game. Each player starts the game with a bonus to one of five skills and players can earn new skills by interacting with the world. Any roll that involves a skill of the player will provide a bonus to the d10 roll; this includes the strength of the nearest runestone if the roll involves a magical talent.

The Talent portion of the system relates to the bonus a character receives from their selected talents.  If the character has a talent that is applicable to the current task requiring a roll, then the d10 can have a bonus of +3, +2 or +1 depending on the slot of the character’s talent.

Most of my poor dice were not able to stretch their legs. Only two d10s made the cut!

This system runs the entire game; there are no alterations to this system for other tasks in the game. Executing attacks, influencing people, picking locks, attempting to tackle an enemy and any other possible task in the game uses the CAST system to determine success or failure with a single roll of a d10 and some simple modifiers. Each weapon uses a single d10 for weapon expression. It was bizarre for me to only use one of my many dice – and to be honest I had to use two of my d10s, one for CAST rolls and one strictly for damage rolls! The use of one d10 for every action in the game certainly kept the game humming along throughout the night.

A Night Well Played

It was great to sit down and play a roleplaying game again after approximately a five-month long break. I’m sure I would have enjoyed playing 4^th Edition or the latest D&D Next playtest, but playing Blade Raiders was a breath of fresh air. The game is built with the above core concepts and each storyteller and gaming group can decide how complicated they want to take the game from there. Blade Raiders is extremely accessible for casual players and provides more room for character customization than any edition of D&D I have played.

Grant is continuing to refine Blade Raiders; during our session, he took about two pages of notes on different questions and concerns that came up during the night. I probably asked the most “meta game” questions of our group, and believe some aspects of the rulebook could be improved. Grant plans to incorporate feedback from the playtest sessions (numerous other people are testing the game as well) to make Blade Raiders as good as it can be before release. The game should be released in the coming weeks.

I am obviously biased, but I truly believe this game is worth your time – even if it’s just to get ideas for mechanics you can incorporate into an ongoing campaign of another system. Plus, Grant has spent the last year illustrating the rulebook so it’s filled with great art throughout the pages.

This week, I will post my thoughts on our playtest of Blade Raiders. Below, I share my initial impressions on the specific topic of character creation and the components that are involved in character progression throughout the course of a campaign. Later in the week, I will present information about a variety of interesting tidbits on gameplay and game management.

Character Creation

You too can soon play Blade Raiders and suffer near life-altering facial lacerations!

Grant walked our group of five through creating a character – a process that was slowed down as we waited for one of our players to get out of the emergency room. True story, he suffered facial wounds while buying a six-pack of beer en route to the game. The six-pack slipped from his hands, he failed a Dexterity check and the bottles crashed to the floor, exploded and a shard of glass still attached to a bottle cap cut him just below his eye. He was also gashed on his forehead and started bleeding like a UFC combatant after taking a hard elbow. At least the liquor store was kind enough to give him another six-pack free of charge. We later joked (when it was clear he was fine) that Blade Raiders claimed its first victim! Creating his character was thankfully much less painful.

Talents. Character creation can be logged on one side of one sheet of paper. The first order of the day is to select three talents. Talents are “areas of inborn strength that your character inherited from their parents.” A character will only ever have three talents and they cannot be changed. Talents are divided into Non-Magic (e.g., Explorer, Fighter, Thinker) and Magic (e.g., Earth Mover, Portalist, Manipulator) options. The player can assign these talents to one of three Talent slots on their character sheet – 1, 2 or 3. The Talent labeled 3 is your most powerful talent – anytime this talent comes into play, you get to add 3 to your roll. Likewise, the talent in Slot 2 grants +2 to any roll involving that talent and Slot 1 grants +1.

I chose Mender for my top Talent. It’s similar to a Cleric but also has other features like Sleep, which I would use later to great effect.

Although some of the talents may be reminders of typical classes found in games such as Dungeons & Dragons (Fighter, Sneak, Firecaller), many are focused on areas of gameplay other than combat such as Blacksmith and Entertainer. The opportunity to “multi-class” is certainly built into the game. Perhaps you want to be a warrior (Fighter) who happens to know how to command the weather (Stormcaller) and influence plants and animals (Druid). Or perhaps you want the ability to fly (Air Adept) and control portals (Portalist) to thieve your way (Sneak) to glory and riches. The talent slots allow each player to build the type of character he or she wants to play without any “class” restrictions. A character could ignore magic talents completely or select only magic talents. A catch in Blade Raiders is that magic can only be used in certain areas of the world (much more on this design feature later in the week).

Equipment. The next step to character creation is buying equipment; players start with 100 gold pieces each to purchase armor, weapons and equipment. Each piece of equipment has an associated weight value. Each player has a maximum carrying capacity, but none of the players in the game came close to the capacity limit. Players are able to buy armor for numerous areas of their body. For example, a player could have a leather cloak, metal-plate leggings, banded boots, metal bracers and leather gloves. The armor selection process is more interesting (and realistic) than buying a “set” of leather armor. My character ended up with a mishmash of leather and banded-leather equipment. In addition to a weight value each armor piece has a Resistance Point (RP) and Speed Adjustment (SA) rating. As expected, armor that offers more protection also slows a character down. Each player begins with a default speed of 10; this value is adjusted by the total of your armor’s Speed Adjustment. So leather gloves (RP = 2, SA = 0) offer two Resistance Points and do not affect a player’s speed. However, metal-plated gloves (RP = 6, SA = -3) offer three times the Resistance Points but drop the character’s speed to 7 (10-3 = 7).

Weapons are arranged from small, medium, large and ranged. Each weapon has an associated damage-die value. A mace does d10-2 damage while a two-handed battle axe does d10+6. Weapons also carry a weight rating; again, none of the players in our game came close to hitting the carrying capacity. But being over carrying capacity will negatively affect the character’s speed. All weapons (and all rolls in the game, for that matter) are based on a d10. A list of available equipment, tools and gear can also be purchased. Items like a lockpick, flint and steel, torch, rope metal lock box can be purchased. Jewelry and other treasures can be purchased along with potions and medicine.

Skills. The character sheet starts each player with five skills: language, brawl, physical feats, read/write and wilderness survival. Each character can start with adding a skill point to any two of these skills. If a character wants use his or her brute force to bust open a door, then they could add +1 to their d10 roll if they are skilled in physical feats. These are the only skills available in the rulebook. You might be saying to yourself, “What, where are all the skills?” Well, Blade Raiders gives the Storyteller (DM) and players a wonderful degree of flexibility.

In the early portion of our adventure, I stated that my character wanted to listen to different conversations in a bar to unearth any rumors. I rolled a d10 and was successful; Grant, who was acting as the storyteller, told me to write down Listen on my skill list. Players in our group added skills in this fashion throughout the session. Those that used the same weapon in combat later in the night gained a skill with that specific weapon, which adds a bonus to the d10 roll.

The system is extremely flexible; the storyteller and players can work together to make each character completely unique. So although there are only five skills listed on the character sheet as a starting point, the number of skills any character could have are literally infinite. And the more a character engages in a specific skill, the better they get at that skill. It is up to the storyteller when to allow a player to add a skill, although players were encouraged throughout the game to check in and ask, “I just did X, can I add that as a skill?” It’s an organic process; I really enjoyed the concept as it really fostered an atmosphere for players to try creative actions during the game.

Most equpiment options are illustrated by Grant Gould.

Resistance Points. Blade Raiders has a different approach to armor and health. Each player has two pools of “hit points” on her or his character sheet – Body Points and Armor Points. Body Points are more aligned with traditional hit points; starting body points are assigned for the character by rolling a d10 and adding 15 so the possible range of body points for all characters is 16-25. Armor Points are another form of damage resistance, which is calculated by the various pieces of armor a character has equipped. When a character suffers damage, he or she has the option to take those points from the Body, Armor or split the damage between the two in any way they choose.

The assignment of damage to either body or armor adds opportunities for flavorful combat experiences not to mention increased tactical consideration. Should a player allow a hard blow to inflict damage on the body, which could be healed but leaves the character vulnerable, or sacrifice some armor, which may not be able to be fixed until a trip back to town? An interesting design twist has the players facing off against different monsters – some of which only do damage to either the armor or the body. The system provides the storyteller and players with more options, and I find it more interesting than the nebulous “hit points” construct.

Race. Choosing a race in Blade Raiders is easy; the only option is Human. This was perhaps one of the most surprising things about creating a character because I have grown accustomed to the wide variety of racial options in 4^th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. I asked Grant about this and he wanted to create a game that was focused on human characters and not populated with other common races found in other systems. It is a bold choice!

Some may cry foul about the lack of racial options, but once again, Grant is focused on creating a game that is simple to learn and play by experienced and casual gamers alike. The process of choosing a race – and associated bonuses that might be granted by that race – slows down character creation and gameplay around the table. It is a factor that has been removed from the game; while playing through an adventure, it did not seem like anyone in our group minded the lack of racial diversity.

And Away They Go

The character creation process was enjoyable and allowed for a good deal of flexibility in terms of combining talents and breaking some of the strict “class” constructs I have experienced in other games. Grant stated that his goal is for anyone to be able to pick up the rulebook and quickly play the game. He wants the system to be easy enough for inexperienced players to quickly dive into an adventure instead of spending precise time figuring out complicated mechanics during character creation. I recall assisting my wife with character creation for a 4th edition D&D session and she had no idea why she had to make all of these decisions about feats and powers; she just wanted to play.

Blade Raiders will allow new gamers to play the game. And I think it does a good job of allowing experienced players to create deep and interesting character concepts. The unlimited options for skill development provides storytellers and players with a vast canvas to explore for character progression.

Return in a few days as I will move the discussion of Blade Raiders to the experience of playing the game and pondering what it would be like to run the game.

Recently, I learned that Gary Games – the company that launched Ascension and its numerous Expansion Sets – is now Stone Blade Entertainment. The company is in the process of releasing a new game, SolForge, and I was able to communicate with the CEO of Stone Blade Entertainment and creator of Ascension and SolForge, Justin Gary. In the interview below, I pry into the development of his self-contained deck-building game and how it is both similar and different to the Magic: The Gathering behemoth. I inquire about the mechanics of Ascension and how they have evolved throughout the expansion sets. He also discusses the collaboration with Dr. Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: The Gathering, on their new game, SolForge.

Thank you for agreeing to answer some questions. Diving right in, I became hooked on Ascension after playing it for the first time during Gen Con 2012. The game felt more alive and interactive than previous deck-building games I’ve played like Dominion or Thunderstone. How much of this was purposeful during your design process?
Certainly game variance and excitement were some of the key goals of designing Ascension. One of the problems I always had with games like Dominion, is that once the available cards are determined, there is very little excitement and drama left in the game. Every game of Ascension is different and card valuations change dramatically based on when they are revealed and what your opponents are playing.

I have been reluctant to engage in collectible card games because the process of learning the world and mechanics of a game like Magic: The Gathering is intimidating to me. Plus, I am not inclined to spend a great deal of money buying more powerful cards to improve the chances of winning a game. I do realize there are many play types in MtG that level the playing field so expensive and powerful decks do not win every contest, but it is wonderful to have a vibrant competitive card game that does not require me to shell out more money on a consistent basis for better cards.

As a person with extensive experience playing MtG competitively (including winning the 1997 U.S. National Championship), what lessons have you learned from your experience with MtG that has shaped Ascension?

Magic (along with Dominion) are the major inspirations for Ascension. The Ascension center row is inspired in part by the magic “Drafting” experience, where players select cards from packs and then pass those packs to other players in the draft. The interplay of making choices that influence the available choices for everyone else in the game has always fascinated me and is a big part of what I tried to create in Ascension. Magic also taught me the value of high level competitive play and introduced me to the many other talented designers and developers of ascension (including John Fiorillo, Patrick Sullivan and Hall of Famers Rob Dougherty and Brian Kibler). This has led to Ascension being one of the best developed deckbuilding games on the market.

You too can play Ascension against me on iOS. As you can see, I somehow fare better in 3P games. Can’t seem to consistently win 2P games! I’ve been around .500 for a while now.

One question I have asked myself is, “How can I become a better Ascension player?” I feel like a streaky baseball player when one week I’m “in a zone” and find ways to win games by the skin of my teeth and by 50-plus points with an eight-piece Mechana Construct monstrosity . . . and other weeks when I cannot earn a win to save my life! The game is maddening at times – in a good way. The feeling of stringing together a combination of cards that practically sings is wonderful, but there are games when it feels like there is no way I could have won regardless of the decisions I made. How much of Ascension is luck versus strategy? And – seriously – how can I improve my chances!?

Ascension is a great combination of both luck and strategy. Better players win far more often than inexperienced players, but it’s not impossible for a “noob” to grab wins here and there. This keeps the game interesting and makes it fun for everyone. As far as improving your chances, there are a lot of great strategy articles out there to help and a thriving community on the forums of ascensiongame.com. Some basic tips:

• Try to stay out of the same strategy as the player to your right in a multiplayer game as they will typically be taking the cards you want before you can get them
• In the early game, try to get banish effects and increase your resource generation as much as possible. In the mid-late game, your priority should change to higher point cards and plays.
• If your opponent is playing a dominant late game strategy (e.g. banishing a lot of cards in their deck, ramping up to buy big powerful heroes), try to end the game quickly by emptying the honor pool as fast as possible. If you are the better late game strategy, try to lengthen the game (e.g. by banishing monsters from the center without defeating them).

Ascension is played with cards comprising four factions: Enlightened, Mechana, Void and Lifebound. The factions have their own personality and can be quite powerful by combining cards from just one faction, and it is also fun to experiment with combining cards from the various factions to produce interesting results. How did the factions develop during the game design process? What gap could a fifth faction fill to the world of Ascension?
The factions were built around the core mechanics we wanted to develop. Void got power boost and banishing, Lifebound focussed on heroes, rune and honor generation, Mechana is all about constructs, and Enlightened draws cards and manipulates the board. We’ve talked about a 5th faction, but I’m not revealing anything about it now.

The expansions for Ascension have gradually increased the complexity of game play. Each expansion brings new cards and the addition of a new mechanic. Return of the Fallen introduced Fate, Storm of Souls brought on Events and Trophy Monsters and Immortal Heroes introduced Soul Gems. The added complexity seems to increase the amount of chance and skill involved in the game. What have been the goals of each expansion and the progression of the game mechanics?
Chronicle of the Godslayer was designed to introduce people to the basic game mechanics. Return of the Fallen implemented the remaining core design features that were cut from Chronicle, the most important of which is the Fate mechanic which allows cards to change the game as soon as they resolve.

Storm of Souls introduced trophy monsters, making the monster killing strategy a lot more decision-filled and strategic. It also introduced the Event Mechanic, which does a lot to change up gameplay as new global rules are introduced whenever an event comes up.

I unfortunately have not yet had the opportunity to play Immortal Heroes. Can you speak a bit about the latest features in the most recent expansion? 

Immortal Heroes finishes the year 2 story arch (started with Storm of Souls). Immortal Heroes expands on the mechanics of Storm of Souls by introducing Ongoing Trophies (monsters that once killed give you a benefit every turn) and an alternate rule to make events more prevalent. The main new mechanic in the set, however, is the introduction of Soul Gems. Soul Gems represent the trapped souls of the heroes from the first war. Certain cards allow you to draw and use a Soul Gem card, that can vary greatly in power level and effect. It’s a fun mechanic that adds a bit of uncertainty to your strategic decisions as you weigh the value of these cards.

The art for the cards in Ascension is terrific. Who is the artist and how did you decide on the design goals for each faction?

Eric Sabee is the artist. He is phenomenally talented and worked closely with myself and the rest of the team during the initial game design to flesh out each faction in detail. We will be doing an article later in the year outlining the visual world of Ascension on ascensiongame.com – I’m gonna leave more details for that article.
You have another game, SolForge, which you created with Dr. Richard Garfield. What updates with SolForge can you provide since your previous interview with Castles & Cooks? How would you describe the game play?

Solforge is a free to play digital only trading card game. We just released a Demo on iPad back in December and the response as been great. The gameplay rules are deceptively simple: Each turn you play 2 cards into any of the 5 lanes. Creatures fight whatever is across from them and if they are unopposed, do damage to your opponent. Reduce your opponent to 0 to win. The depth and strategy of Solforge comes from the fact that every card you play levels up and gets recycled back into your deck every 4 turns. This means that the plays you make now have a huge impact on your late game options.

We are very close to releasing an update to the app and will have our PC demo very soon. Check out solforgegame.com and like us on Facebook to stay up to date on SolForge happenings. If you are a fan of Ascension and/or Magic, I can pretty much guarantee you will like Solforge as it is a wonderful blend of those two games (which makes sense since Richard and my team co-designed it).

Bask in the laziness!

Writing this blog over the past two years has been a method of teaching myself to be a better DM. By organizing my thoughts on any given topic, it forces me to think about how and why I am doing any given thing while sitting at the table with the players. If my thoughts have helped someone else as they go along their journey as a DM, then that makes me happy. But I never set out to create a comprehensive tome to instruct DMs on how to run gaming sessions without investing tireless hours on preparation.

Mike Shea has done such a thing with Sly Flourish’s The Lazy Dungeon Master.

As the name implies, Mike instructs DMs on how to become lazier.   Below, I review his book and discuss why his strategies and guidelines for game preparation and management are worthy of your time. I end with a brief interview with Mike Shea and Jimi Bonogofsky, the talented artist who created the cover art and one of the winners of this year’s Iddy The Lich Art Contest.

The Lazy Dungeon Master

For those unfamiliar with Mike Shea (who are you people?), he has been posting tips for D&D 4th Edition through his blog, Sly Flourish, and publishing official articles for Wizards of the Coast. He is also hosting approximately 37 podcasts (rough estimate) including Critical Hits and The Tome Show. He has played, written and spoken about D&D a great deal. His book is not simply shaped by his personal opinions; it is informed by communication with game designers and other experienced DMs and something near and dear to my heart – data.

Layout. Mike Shea’s third book is 97 pages and composed of 23 chapters and three appendices. The book stems from a single hypothesis – less preparation by the DM may result in a more enjoyable D&D game for all players including the DM. The belief that DMs overwork, over prepare and stress out over details that may never enhance the quality of their game is presented to the reader in a conversational tone.

A criticism of Mike’s earlier books is that they were not formatted well enough. The Lazy Dungeon Master does not suffer this flaw. The book features terrific cover and a stylish blue font for chapter headings. The black text is easy to read and the page numbers are smartly displayed on one or two d10s in the bottom-right corner of the page. The spacing between chapters is not consistent as some chapters will start in the middle of a page and others begin at the top of a page; it can be a bit distracting if you have very strong beliefs about the uniformity of formatting. Outside of the cover art, the book is all text and devoid of graphics.

Content. The book begins by acknowledging the fact that many DMs may recoil at the idea of being lazy. We have all likely played in campaigns that were run by a DM who was not motivated to be in seat running the show – and those sessions are not ones we recall fondly. Mike describes why being lazy is hard and advocates for DMs to – as any fan of Duck Tales might remember - work smarter, not harder.

Mike walks the reader through his Five-Minute Adventure Preparation with specific nuts-and-bolts advice on developing plot seeds, branching adventure paths and character-driven stories. He encourages DMs to steal inspiration from everywhere and reskin rather than develop an original massive world. He provides specific strategies for world building through player-character relationships, delegation within the gaming group and improving improvisation.

I do not want to dive into the specifics of any one section – as Mike obviously spent a great deal of time working on the text - but I have included a brief excerpt from Chapter 6 to illustrate the style:

Of the three areas upon which to focus your energy, the first lies in understanding where your adventure begins. As with the rest of your preparation, you should focus on what matters most and eliminate the rest. This means keeping your beginning as small as it needs to be with only the details required to start things off and give your players enough to let the story unfold at the table.

The rest of the chapter offers an example of both a poor and a good beginning for an adventure. It focuses the DM on vital aspects of starting an adventure, which can be extrapolated to starting any session at any point during a campaign.

Tools. The book includes numerous tools to prepare for sessions but an additional feature is found in Appendix A. The appendix has 10 random tables to help inspire DMs; the tables are structured around the roll of a d20 and categories include Adventure Seeds, Movie-Inspired Quests, Encounter Terrain Effects, Combat Outs and Things That Never Should Have Been Found.  The Combat Outs Table is quite useful as one of the common issues with D&D 4th Edition is the length of combat encounters. The table gives the DM 20 ways to end combat encounters other than both sides fighting until one side is dead. At the very least, DMs should experiment with combat outs and the table provides inspiration for utilizing combats to serve the narrative of an adventure in addition to letting the players bash on some monsters.

Research. Appendix B of the book presents the data collected from Mike’s attempt to measure how DMs prepare for gaming sessions. His survey, which was completed by over 800 DMs during the spring and summer of 2012, asked DMs to describe how much time they spent on a variety of tasks such as world building, combat-encounter design and props/handouts. The data are presented in a clean table and merits and flaws of the data are discussed. The results demonstrate that DMs are routinely spending two or more hours preparing for each session. The data Mike collected sets a broad foundation for him to advocate for Five-Minute Adventure Preparation (Chapter 5). The book is not just a collection of opinions and beliefs, it is driven by data related to how DMs use their time.

Interviews. Readers of my site know that I enjoy a good interview, and Mike presents a formal Q&A with 10 DMs who are extremely active in the D&D community and many who have worked professional with Wizards of the Coast and other companies. First-hand tips on session preparation are offered by DMs such as Teos Abadia, Dave “The Game” Chalker, Tracy Hurley, Matt James and Steve Townshend. Mike was also kind enough to include me in his Q&A. While my responses may not be the best – they are the longest! The interviews alone are worth your time as Mike asks these prominent DMs how they go about the business of running games for their players.

References. Throughout the book, Mike refers to other resources that also feature wonderful advice for DMs. The resources are collected in four pages in alphabetical order and contain a wealth of useful information including official articles from Wizards of the Coast, podcast interviews with designers and selected posts from a variety of blogs.

Value. The Lazy Dungeon Master can be purchased for $5.99. Given all of the content I described above, I believe this is a fair cost for the book. Imagine all of the other nonsense you will spend five or six dollars are in the coming days – surely some of that will be better spent learning how to become a better and less stressed dungeon master!

Mike Shea on Combating the Junior Jinx

After reading through the final product, I communicated with Mike about his journey as an author and taking on his third book as a lone author.

You have now written three books filled with suggestions for dungeon masters. What have been some of the toughest lessons learned about the process of publishing a book since you first wrote Sly Flourish’s Dungeon Master Tips?

There have been a few. Dungeon Master Tips did very well for a self-published book. My costs were very low on that book and I had no idea how it would sell. Since July 2012 it sold 1,200 copies. That’s not a best seller but I’m pretty happy to have reached that many people.

Though it did well, I wanted something a bit more far-reaching into the community. I wanted the book to be more than one guy’s opinion of game preparation. A main difference between this book and the two previous was the attention I paid to be inclusive of the experiences of other dungeon masters. There are a ton of references, a survey of over 900 DMs, and interviews with twelve of the top DMs I know on the topic of game preparation.

Another thing I learned is the importance of a professional design. Knowing HTML means I can hack together the ebook versions of these books but I have little artistic talent and no experience with professional page design. Unlike my previous two books, I hired a freelance page designer, Erik Nowak, to do the internal design. He did a fantastic job and I think it makes it much more of a professional role-playing product. I also had a new artist for this one, Jimi Bonogofsky who you introduced me to. She did a fantastic job on the cover.

Ebook publishing is still a bit of alchemy. It gets better every year. Each time I do one of these I write up my experiences on my own personal blog. I plan to do so with this one in a week or so. The tools to build an ebook aren’t great. There are lots of little tweaky bits, lots of pit falls. I still don’t think I got the table of contents to ever work right on the Kindle version of Running Epic Games but it works on The Lazy Dungeon Master now! The techie in me loves to mess with that stuff, though.

I wouldn’t say there were any other tough lessons. It gets easier every time I do it and I absolutely love doing it. We’re living in an amazing time where some guy like me can write a book, publish it, and get it out to over a thousand people without some suit in an office somewhere deciding its ok. I love that.

How does The Lazy Dungeon Master compare to your earlier books?

There are a few big changes. First, as I mentioned, I wanted to include and reference the experiences of many DMs, not just me. The Lazy Dungeon Master focuses on a somewhat controversial idea – the idea that the less we prepare the better our game might be. I wanted to spend a fair bit of time researching that idea, running it on my own, and seeing what other experienced DMs have to say. More than once while I wrote this book I would stop and say “holy cow, this is a huge mistake. No one can run a game like this.” Then I’d read an article by Chris Perkins or Ed Greenwood that would describe the exact concept I was writing about as the way they run their games and I would realize that I wasn’t completely full of crap.

We’re between versions at the moment and that makes writing a D&D book difficult. This concept of simplified preparation, however, is system agnostic. This means I can write and publish a book between versions of D&D that is useful to anyone who plays D&D (or even any RPG I bet). I spent some time discussing these ideas with a friend of mine who plays Pathfinder just to make sure ideas like monster-reskinning works across versions. So the fact that this book is system agnostic is a big difference from previous books.

What has been the early response to the book?

So far so good! Right now I’ve mainly reached people who already know my work and, hopefully, already like the sorts of things I have to say. I haven’t read any real reviews yet. I’m pretty proud of the book, though. I use the techniques in it and I’m hoping that, even if people don’t throw all their preparation plans away, they will find something useful in it. I also kept the price low ($6), another great benefit of self-publishing, so people who didn’t agree with it wouldn’t feel like they lost a lot of money on it.

Now that you’ve accomplished a Hat Trick (hockey term) of books, what’s next for Number 4?

Good question! I’ve considered rewriting Dungeon Master Tips once D&D Next gets a little closer to completion. It’s still heavily 4e focused but about half of it stands up across editions. That might be a bit complicated. I’ve also toyed with the idea of writing an adventure the way I want them to be written: as a collection of components that a DM can use however they wish to tell the story they want to tell. Traditional sequential adventures really don’t help me a lot as a DM and, for a long time, I’ve wanted to try a different way. I don’t know if either of those two ideas will turn into something. It’s fun to dream, though. Right now, I plan on taking a bit of a break and talking to folks about The Lazy Dungeon Master.

Jimi Bonogofsky on Bringing The Lazy Dungeon Master to Life

Before closing the review, I caught up with Jimi, the illustrator for the cover art to learn about her design process and satisfaction with the book.

Could you describe the process of creating the cover for the book both in terms of content and design?

Often when I do freelance work, my clients have a vague idea in mind, but they generally know more of what they don’t want as opposed to what they do. So working with Mike Shea, who gave me a very specific vision of what he had in mind, was extremely helpful. I started with Google image searches, absorbing ways that others have interpreted the different creatures – Balor demons, succubi, and undead humanoids. I then began exploring the characters in my own way, filling about five pages in my sketchbook (love my moleskine!). That’s my favourite step.

The trickiest was the Lazy DM. An “undead fat guy” seemed at first to be irreconcilable differences. I decided to rely more on colour and a few facial features to get across that undead vibe. Once the concept sketches got approved, I started defining the linework a little more, putting everyone together in the right layout in Photoshop. I put a lot of thought into the colour study after that. I wanted to retain the warmth and darkness of the source image I had been given, focusing on reds and oranges. The trouble with using a lot of the same colours is that eventually no one aspect really stands out. I decided to use a pop of a cooler colour (purple; also complimentary to the gold of the throne) to contrast the warm tones and make the DM stand out more.

After I was happy with the colour study, I painted the final piece in watercolours (while watching season two of My Little Pony) and did some minor touch-ups in Photoshop. I showed Mike each step along the way, and I usually factor in two or three rounds of changes, but each step was approved without any edits! It was a lovely change of pace.

What was the most rewarding aspect of working on the project?

I don’t want to sound like a fan girl here, but honestly the most rewarding aspect of working on this project was getting a chance to work with Mike. It’s kinda fun to work with someone whose blog you follow and whose books you’ve bought. And I don’t mean that in a stalker-ish way! It was a great experience, and I’m glad I got the chance to be involved. Oh, and as a new DM myself (and one prone to over preparing), “The Lazy Dungeon Master” has already helped me at my table.

Michael Bruce

When I became interested in the strange new world of non-ownership and how it relates to tabletop roleplaying games, I spent some time researching what others have written or said about the topic. In my online travels, I came across a blog entry written by Michael Bruce who is an editor and previously taught philosophy and mathematics at University of Washington. I reached out and he was willing to talk about his column – and his background investigating the changing currents that influence the lives of young people including technology.

While Michael is not involved in the roleplaying game industry, I benefited from his perspective and hope you find the exchanges below thought provoking. And what better day than Black Friday to discuss to changing culture of ownership in our society!

Thank you for agreeing to communicate on the subject of ownership. When I first started to research a column on the subject, I discovered an article you wrote for Psychology Today last summer titled Netflix My Life: A Culture of Non-ownership. I immediately connected to the themes you discussed within the article. But before we dive into that specific topic, could you introduce yourself and let the readers know about your work?

I received my master’s degree in philosophy from San Diego State University where I concentrated on the history of philosophy, particularly on rationality and the philosophy of science. I have taught philosophy and mathematics at the Robinson Center for Young Scholars at the University of Washington, Seattle and publish in academic journals, books, and online.

You’ve co-edited two book, College Sex – Philosophy for Everyone: Philosophers With Benefits and Just the Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Arguments in Western Philosophy. Could you discuss the premise of each book and your motivations for creating them?

As an undergraduate, I took a philosophy of sex and love course from Robert Stewart (CSU, Chico) that was influential. Philosophy was in direct conversation with relevant and engaging issues for me and my fellow students. I was extremely excited when Dr. Stewart was able to edit the volume with me. The book looks specifically at philosophical issues pertaining to the sex and love lives of college aged people.  The essays include topics on technology, experimentation, monogamy, ethics, and student-teacher relationships to name a few.

The  Arguments collection was an idea I had while in graduate school trying to keep track of all my notes and references in the most efficient way. It has 100 influential arguments presented by researchers in their fields and acts as reference tool for students, teachers, and anyone who enjoys philosophy.

I developed both of these books with the idea of making materials that I wish I had or would enjoy reading both in an academic and in a “fan of philosophy” sense.

You have also written over 20 columns for the Angst! blog featured on Psychology Today. In the blog, you explore the assumptions, values and motivations in youth culture paying particular attention to the topics of sex, love and technology. It is here that I found your column on the changing “culture of non-ownership.” Could you explain that phrase and talk about what led you to tackle the subject?

I observed a minimalistic trend in myself and my friends over the last few years. I no longer bought DVD’s or CD’s. My interest in buying a house was deflated. I was saw the larger relationship dynamics in youth culture  like dating veered toward less formal, less committed arrangements (friends with benefits). Part of this is that technology and services like Netflix and Pandora allow us cheap access to material without having to actually own it—invest in it, shelter it, move it, resell it, etc. The fact that the housing bubble popped in the United States influences people’s opinion that renting might be better than owning a new house. These are just a couple of examples where I saw a shift in the social psyche from a mindset of individual consumerism—I want to by a new car, to go with my new house, for my wife—to a more calculated restraint with a suspicious eye toward previously held assumptions regarding what one needs and when one needs it.

The College Sex book you collaborated on dove into the “friends with benefits” relationships, which you equate with the new culture of non-ownership. What were some of the more eye-opening discoveries while working on the book?

“Back in my day, we had to write notes or make phone calls to start dating someone. And we had to walk uphill both ways back and forth to school!”

In terms of sex and love, there has never been a better time for college-aged youth to meet people. Social media has been a game changer along with the lessening taboo of formal online dating sites for young folks. The downside of this is that students are often isolated by their technology; I give an example in the book of students walking across campus who are habitually on their iPhones whenever there is a free moment. This cuts off the world around them, including meeting classmates and potential partners that are actually near them and not online.

You mentioned earlier that the entire mindset of the consumer has shifted and previously held assumptions about what one needs and when one needs have changed. Besides advancements in technology, what do you think is driving this change in cognition and behavior? And what do you see as positive and negative implications of the shift?

The changes have been influenced by witnessing the failures of modern relationships (divorce rates) and by experiencing the consequences of living beyond one’s means (foreclosures, debt). I would not underestimate the basic urge toward faster, cheaper, and easier ways of living. We have seen parts of our infrastructure crumble and it can feel overwhelming.  I think fear and uncertainty that the economic crisis isn’t over or could happen again is a strong motivation. In an analogous way, friends with benefits relationships flourish due to uncertainty—Do I really want a partner? Is this the right person for me? Should I just be dating right now?  This anxiety is the negative condition. Before there may have been clear social cues as to what we are supposed to want, with certain time lines, but now the clock has stopped, or has been broken. It is up to us.

The shift has positive aspects to it. The economic and housing crisis has created an opportunity for reflection and re-visioning commitments to “things” and values.  Awareness of one’s relationship to products, advertising, and the media has been expanded. But will it keep? I do not know. Is this a momentary refrain while culture is panic-ridden? Perhaps.  This might be the birth pangs of a new system of values and that is exciting.

What do you find exciting about a new system of values? Or put another way, what are some of the values in the old system that have outgrown their usefulness?

I could write on this topic for a long time, so I’ll try and keep short.  The shift in values from ownership  to access is fascinating. I don’t need to have something by my side all the time, but I want to be able to get it when I want. The move from concreteness to flux emphasizes freedom and flexibility. In general, it is exciting to be participating during a time of when there is the possibility for change.  Ruptures  from society’s entrenched values takes a great deal of time and momentum. I’m reminded of Nietzsche’s critique of morality and values:

Indeed, we philosophers and “free spirits” feel, when we hear the news that “the old god is dead,” as if a new dawn shone on us; our heart overflows with gratitude, amazement, premonitions, expectation. At long last the horizon appears free to us again, even if it should not be bright; at long last our ships may venture out again, venture out to face any danger; all the daring of the lover of knowledge is permitted again; the sea, our sea, lies open again; perhaps there has never yet been such an “open sea.”—

You touched on a key piece regarding the ease of use. When I was a teenager, the easiest ways to listen to new music was on the radio or listening to a cassette tape or compact disc, which I had to buy from a local store, borrow from a friend or order through a mail-order catalogue. If there were easier options, then I imagine I would have taken advantage of them!

Now we’ve reached a point where it’s so fast, cheap and easy to obtain music that artists’ rights are often overlooked or outright ignored. Not only does the consumer prefer not to own anything, but many consumers do not even believe the creator has a right to sell their goods in the first place. How can our selfish desire for faster, cheaper and easier sustain itself over time if artists are not rewarded for their efforts in creating media to consume in the first place?

This is a serious concern but one with many opportunities. I think music and other digital media will always have a black, Internet, market but that usage will continually drop as companies make it easier to access media cheaply. The “hackers” for lack of a better word will always outrun the huge corporations and security, but it may not be worth the effort for most people.

Part of the solution lies in indirect revenue. While it may be free or cheap for us to listen to music, we still listen to it on an app that generally has advertising, movies are streamed on demand, and the artists will need to tap into those sources. Another part of the solution is to sidestep the middlemen altogether. Look at the success Louis C. K. has had releasing his latest film (DRM free) for $5.

Tabletop roleplaying games have traditionally relied on tangible books to convey the rules and present the background information for gameplay. Other physical materials like dice and miniatures may be required, but “the game” is found in the books. Given your research and interest in the psychology of ownership and viewing other industries facing these challenges, how do you think the RPG industry can tap into those indirect revenues? What would you suggest to those who are designing and selling games to cope with the new sense of ownership?

The RPG industry can utilize the same approach as other media and games. As content moves from printed media to online and as ownership changes from buying a product to purchases access rights, the industry can evolve by focusing on access fees, advertising—which can offset user premiums—and by developing a superior product.  It can be hard to stomach a shift of selling a product to giving the product (game) for free and charging for the right to play the game but if you consider the larger picture of tapping into a continuously renewing revenue stream across product releases it makes a lot of sense.  They key is leveraging the change by utilizing technology, e.g., employing virtual applications of tabletop games may allow lower expenses and cheaper distribution to customers in the long run.  Incorporating social media into the service expands product visibility and customer interaction, which can translate into advertising revenue. If the product—which is now a service—is a better experience than the competition, success of the game and the industry has a great opportunity.

What is your experience with roleplaying games? As someone not closely linked to RPG universe, what is your opinion of the state of roleplaying games?

I do not have a lot of hands-on experience with roleplaying games. I think that the games will evolve and there isn’t much that can change that. As new generations of players grow up with online games and tabletop games will have less and less appeal. In general, consider how pinball games—if I can make an analogy to the advent of computer games–are now collected as fun antiques. The shift in gaming mutated from nuts-and-bolts games to computer games and consoles. The demand for a modern presentation of the games will occur by customer demand or by developers who can leverage the changes in their and the clients’ favor.

Thank you very much for your time! I think readers of my site will find your thoughts and background quite unique, and I appreciate the time you have shared for the interview. What current projects are you are working on and what might we see next from you?

I’m supporting my recent book Just the Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Arguments in Western Philosophy, which has translations coming out in German, Portuguese, and Korean.

The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.

When my generation has aged and expired, it seems the concept of ownership will come to pass. No one will recall a time when an individual sought out real-world products, purchased them and physically took those products home to display them on shelves, desks and other storage centers. Media cabinets full of books, music albums and movies have already been replaced by such things and services as Kindle, Nook, iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, Netflix and Hulu.

“For it shows things that were, and things that are, things that yet may be. But which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell. Do you wish to look?”

Over three years ago, the current Editor-in-Chief of The Scholarly Kitchen wrote about the Kindle and the freedom of not owning books:

Consider how many encyclopedias you’ve purchased in the past 20 years. Will you ever buy one again? Of course not. Wikipedia and Google have combined to make ownership of an encyclopedia irrelevant. The same thing is happening to atlases (Google Maps and GPS), and will soon start happening to cookbooks (Epicurious, anyone?) . . .

Ownership isn’t a panacea, especially in an age of information abundance. Will I be concerned if the Kindle dies and books I’ve read on it become inaccessible on that platform? Not really. If I want to read them again, there will be plenty of alternative ways in the future. And my bookshelves long ago stopped being my collection of known facts and resources . . .

Two of my favorite old Sherlock Holmes collections are on my Kindle — for free. A copy of “Moby Dick” typeset especially for the Kindle also held sway for a while. From classics to current bestsellers, I can wirelessly get books for free and for less.

And I don’t have to own them.

It is a common theme offered in support of the new concept of ownership – whether it be books, albums, movies or even video games. People are perfectly agreeable to not owning a product and are willing to enjoy the product for free or for less cost at their convenience. And how the new process of non-ownership will play out with tabletop roleplaying games is both unknown . . . and completely predictable.

When We Own

In discussing quirks of ownership, Jeremy Dean of PsyBlog summarized the work of Dr. Dan Areily’s book, Predictably Irrational. He summarized Dr. Areily’s list of the strange effects ownership has on individuals.

1. Ownership increases perceived value to us: As soon as we acquire something we start to develop an attachment to it. Just the sheer fact of ownership increases how much we value it – we seem to develop a relationship with objects.
2. We tend to focus on losses: When selling we tend to overlook the money we’ll be gaining and focus on the object we’ll be losing. Our natural aversion to feeling bad then motivates us to place a higher asking-price on the long-cherished house, car or record collection than the market will bear.
3. We assume others share our perspective: Surely potential buyers understand how strongly we feel about our dusty old vinyl records? No, they don’t care – in fact they’re far more likely to notice how badly we’ve stored them or what poor taste in music we have.
4. Effort increases perceived value: A table I have bought and struggled to build myself has more value to me than the same table I bought, for the same price, ready assembled. Expending our own effort means we’ve invested ourselves in an object, so it has more perceived value to us. Other people don’t recognise this (and there’s no reason why they should).
5. Virtual ownership: We can even start feeling we own something before we actually do. Dan Ariely argues that the prices people are prepared to pay on auction sites like Ebay are often inflated by people’s imagined ownership. Once we place our first bid we start to fantasize about ownership. Consequently when other bids come in we ignore our previously stated maximum because we’re now starting to value the item more, since we’ve been thinking about owning it.
6. Partial ownership: Marketing executives know the power of ownership so they use all kinds of tricks to encourage partial ownership because it often leads on to full ownership. We don’t usually return our furniture within the 30-day money-back guarantee period because we’ve grown attached to it – it’s ours.

Ownership changes the value we place on objects and things. It is one of the many reasons why the negativity involved in edition wars is so powerful – when a person buys a RPG system, the value attached to that game and system increases substantially. Plus, the following months and years of play – in which the players and DM create intricate plots and characters through the tools provided by the system - adds more perceived value to the RPG. It becomes like the custom-built table or old vinyl record collection referenced above; the RPG means so much to those who have decided to invest money and countless hours playing and making the game their own.

When new RPGs are introduced to the gaming community or a prominent game like Dungeons & Dragons prepares a new version of the game, players obviously feel the need to defend their product. What happens when a player uses the product but barely spent any money to acquire the product? Does this change the dynamics of ownership? It would seem for the player, the time and effort invested in the RPG is enough to manifest the soaring increase in perceived value even though he or she has not spent a great deal of money on the product.

What Is An Industry To Do?

The reason I am so fascinated by the subject of ownership at the moment is my recent subscriptions to Spotify and Netflix competing with my ongoing allegiance to intellectual property. The topic applies to this blog in two ways. First, as a psychologist, the changing nature of ownership is interesting in and of itself and I believe it is a fabulous topic to explore. Second, I enjoy playing tabletop RPGs and the growing trend of non-ownership certainly pertains to the hobby. The RPG industry primarily functions (I assume) on the sales of game manuals (e.g., books) and other materials (e.g., tokens, maps). The industry must confront the same question as other forms of entertainment, “Why should RPG players buy a physical book when they can purchase the same intellectual property online – or simply download it easily through illegal means?”

Michael Bruce, a philosopher who has written for Psychology Today, discussed a similar dilemma with his consumption of online forms of entertainment in the aptly titled column, Netflix My Life: A Culture of Non-ownership:

When watching a movie, I used to ask myself, “Do I like this enough to buy it?” Buying a movie meant I wanted to invest in it—maybe because I would spend the same amount over time renting it, or because I wanted to be able to watch it any time, or because I wanted its case decorating my room. The point was that I wanted to own it.

But a few years ago I stopped buying movies. My DVD library ends at the second season of Lost. I have seen many movies, including some fantastic flicks, but I haven’t purchased one . . . Back at home, as I scroll through the thousands of seemingly free movies to watch instantly, the idea that I would buy one of these movies seems absurd.

The article goes on to explore how this new culture of non-ownership relates to the housing bubble bursting, the proliferation of Facebook, the increase in friends-with-benefits’ relationships and how youth use language. Segments of the article spoke directly to my struggles with my old preference of buying media and the new realities of media distribution.

I reached out to Mr. Bruce and he kindly agreed to spend more time discussing the subject of non-ownership (the interview will be posted in the coming days). Michael and I are not alone; individuals who previously descended upon stores like Best Buy each week to buy new releases are now getting their media elsewhere. When is the last time you were in Best Buy? Can you even find the Music Section anymore? Music is simply too easy and convenient to purchase or consume online through iTunes, Pandora or Spotify. Not to mention how easy it is to steal music through any number of physical or digital means.

Take the article from Emily White at NPR who spoke about her relationship with music:

A few days before my internship at All Songs Considered started, Bob Boilen posted an article titled “I Just Deleted All My Music” on this blog. The post is about entrusting his huge personal music library to the cloud. Though this seemed like a bold step to many people who responded to the article, to me, it didn’t seem so bold at all.

I’m almost 21, and since I first began to love music I’ve been spoiled by the Internet. I am an avid music listener, concertgoer, and college radio DJ. My world is music-centric. I’ve only bought 15 CDs in my lifetime. Yet, my entire iTunes library exceeds 11,000 songs . . . As I’ve grown up, I’ve come to realize the gravity of what file-sharing means to the musicians I love. I can’t support them with concert tickets and T-shirts alone. But I honestly don’t think my peers and I will ever pay for albums.

This is the sea change in ownership that is already occurring. Younger generations view ownership completely differently; it’s a matter of convenience. I realize I’m nearing the “get off my lawn” stage of my life (and this article), but I place a great deal of value on intellectual property. As someone who has written professional journal articles in the past, I know the both the value of proper attribution of another’s work and the perils of plagiarism and outright intellectual theft. Whether or not I A) buy a physical CD, B) download an album from iTunes or C) give in to the temptation of “burning” a few songs from a friend – it’s a conversation that I have with myself and something I feel guilty about if I choose Option C. However, for many people the conversation never happens.

The artist’s rights are disregarded while the owner’s preferences for convenience dominant the transaction.

In replying to Emily White’s blog entry on NPR, the former lead singer of Cracker, David Lowery, wrote a mammoth post lacing into her description of choices surrounding buying (or not buying) music. Although not everything in Mr. Lowery’s post is accurate, it’s worth reading if you missed the controversy over the summer when the two posts first surfaced. I can see both sides of the issue because I love my recent subscription to Spotify but I have no idea if it’s a fair deal for the artists.

The music industry has not figured this out either. Spotify is a wonderful tool; for approximately $11 each month, I have access to an on-demand jukebox of almost every song I’d ever want to listen to (notable exceptions so far include Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and Def Leppard). It is a fantastic gateway to discovering new artists. For example, when I heard Weatherman by Dead Sara on the radio months ago, I thought, “Good god, who are they!?”

Within seconds, I was able to use Spotify to listen to the entire album. I have since purchased the album on iTunes because I felt compelled to do more to support the band – they are that damn good . . . and I am that damn conscientious! I asked Dead Sara what was more beneficial to them – listening on Spotify repeatedly or buying the album? Someone from the band was kind enough to respond below. I was happy to both consume their music through Spotify and buy the album on iTunes, but I imagine my double-purchasing of music is rare, and my thoughts on protecting the artist are equally antiquated.

@TheIdDM old skool CD's or itunes :) but either way thank you for checking us out & supporting!

—
dead sara (@deadsara) November 15, 2012

As a thought exercise, let’s imagine that I continue my subscription to Spotify for the next 40 years and while it will certainly increase in price per month, let’s also imagine the cost of a subscription remains around $11 each month:

40 years x 12 months x $11 = $5,280

I could realistically pay a bit over $5,000 to listen to as much music as possible for the next 40 years! That number seems like an absolute steal when you consider that albums on iTunes sell for approximately $9.99 each:

$5,280 / $9.99 = 528.5

While 529 (rounded up) albums seems like a lot of music, this is the number I could purchase over the next 40 years, which works out to just over 13 albums each year. Or to simplify it even further, just over one album each month.

When looking at the cost of physical CDs, the return on investment is even less as most new albums hover in the $11 range, which means that $5,280 would allow the purchase of 480 albums over 40 years – exactly one album per month. And I have not even factored in sales tax, which would further reduce the number of digital or physical albums I could buy.

So for $5,280, I can have unlimited access to almost ALL music for the next 40 years or use that money to buy/own approximately 500 albums in the same period of time. It doesn’t seem like much of a choice, does it? Which would you choose?

Roleplaying Game Ownership

The manner in which players own games is also changing, and there is the added dynamic of tabletop RPGs that the majority of players do not even need to buy most of the materials to play the game. A tabletop roleplaying game can function quite well with just one individual in a gaming group buying the relevant books and materials. A group does not need five copies of the Dungeon Master’s Guide – they only need one. And if that manual is easy to steal online, then the company may not even sell one copy to a particular gaming group.

I imagine these thoughts keep game designers and the like up at night.

Those who create gaming materials are artists, and if consumers are not paying to obtain the products, then those artists will be forced to do something else since they will not be financially rewarded for their efforts. Not all is hopeless, Monte Cook demonstrated that players will pay to support an intellectual property they believe will be good. The challenge is to find ways to ensure the process of purchaseing game manuals and other materials is streamlined and incredibly easy for the consumer – and the products have to be extremely well-designed. Other forms of media have relied on subscription services to fit the changing wants and needs of the new age of consumers.

I contacted staff at DriveThruRPG to interview them for the story but the logistics of setting up a time to discuss the topic fell through (I’d be happy to interview someone from DriveThruRPG or a similar site if they read this and are interested). Needless to say, there are existing models for digital distribution of tabletop roleplaying games.

Provided with permission by Rebekah Joy Plett

I am not an expert in marketing or overcoming the challenges posed by the new culture of non-ownership. However, the template has been set by other forms of media on how to possibly adapt to the next generation’s genuine indifference to owning products. It seems safe to say that exploring viable digital distribution systems is essential to the future growth - and survival - of tabletop roleplaying games. The old way of buying books, movies and music are fading away and being replaced with new means of product delivery. Without innovation to meet the demands of those who prefer non-ownership, RPGs will suffer a nasty fate for there will come a time when none now live who remember them.

“And maybe it’ll be enough if you know that in the few hours we had together we loved a lifetime’s worth.” ~Sarah Connor

Termination is the somewhat unfortunate psychological term for the final phase of treatment with a client. For example, when a counselor is preparing to end therapy with a client he or she might say, “I’m about to terminate with Mrs. Jones” or “Mr. Jones and I only have three more sessions before termination.” Applied to my situation, I terminated with approximately 100 clients during the past two to three months. Ending a relationship with a client is a crucial portion of therapy, and it presents unique challenges.

I certainly gained a great deal of practice in termination. I have been a terminating machine!

As I prepared to leave town, I also had to terminate an ongoing Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition campaign, which had been running for over two years. I relied on many of the principles underlying appropriate clinical termination in a therapeutic relationship. Below, I describe how the process of termination can be best utilized to ensure a gaming group can end on the best possible terms.

Closing Time

Followers of my campaign may recall that the party has been clanging around the Shadowfell in search of a doppelgänger who has been causing significant problems in the Kingdom of Cydonia for reasons unknown. When I learned I would be moving away from my gaming group, those reasons needed to be crystalized - rapidly. I took a step back and asked, “How can I conclude these storylines in a logical and fulfilling fashion?” I collapsed many sessions of content into two final sessions with an eye toward making sure the campaign ended on a meaningful note for three parties involved in the campaign:

1. Me
2. The players
3. The player characters

DMs should be aware that when ending a campaign, the campaign is ending for him or her, each individual player in the group and each player’s character in the adventure. Many of the important features of clinical termination with a client relate to ending a roleplaying game campaign.

Bring It Up Early. As soon I learned I would be moving away from the area, I informed the players in my gaming group. There are times when saying goodbye is difficult and there can be a tendency to avoid bringing up an upcoming parting of ways. Even before I knew for certain I would be moving, I prepared prior sessions with the knowledge that I might only have three or four sessions to tie up the campaign. The earlier you bring up the notion that a campaign will be ending, the better. It allows you - and the players in the group – to prepare.

Pick a Final Session Date. Communicate with the players to decide on a final session date. Ideally, there will be a date that everyone can agree upon. In our group, I knew I would not be able to logistically run a game the closer the calendar moved to the end of September, so we agreed to conclude the campaign in the middle of the month. I also wanted to ensure that all players could attend the final session; it would have been strange to end the campaign with one of the players missing from the game.

Anticipate a Wide Range of Emotions. Attending gaming sessions for an extended period of time is a major committment. It is understandable that the conclusion of a campaign will bring up a range of emotions for the DM, the players and the player characters. It is entirely possible one or two players will be anxious regarding the disbanding of the group; perhaps they really like their character and want the adventure to continue. Players may be angry or “bummed out” the DM is “giving up” or ending the campaign for what they deem unacceptable reasons. Be aware that their will be mixed emotions when a campaign winds down, including exuberance regarding a new adventure and an opportunity to create new characters. It can be a bit humbling when players are incredibly eager to discuss plans for the next campaign while you are working feverishly to create a compelling campaign conclusion.

Be Open to Feedback. Ask the players how they want to campaign to end. Review the primary goals of each player and his or her character. Who wants to gain power? Who wants to save the world? Who wants to amass a great deal of treasure? Who wants to avenge the death of a loved one? It may be impossible to satisfy every plot point that has been created during a long campaign, but focus efforts to capitalize on the NPCs and plots the players and their characters care about the most.

Offer Closure. Prepare to specially provide closure to each player and each player’s character story. Consider the tendencies of each player around the table and create situations where their character can shine. I was finally able to answer my Dwarf Fighter’s, “Can I roll Dungeoneering?” with an empathic, “Yes, that might just be the perfect thing to do here!” In addition to the mechanical tendencies of each player, spend time thinking how to provide each character with an epilogue during the final session. For example, I executed the following during our last session:

• Morin: Our Dwarven Fighter created an interesting backstory as a scholar/archaeologist. He very much emulated a character like Indiana Jones and was always interested in seeking new lore and artifacts. After the finale with the BBEG, Morin located several tomes that listed the resting place for an array of artifacts.
• SDF-1: The Warforged Barbarian was a relic of ancient wars, repurposed with a new mission – help the party rid the world of enemies of Pelor. During the campaign, his exploits were recognized by members of the Raven Queen. As the party was heading off to confront the BBEG, a prominent NPC, Olevex, who had previously filled in for our missing Cleric requested SDF-1 to return to the Shadowfell to work for the Raven Queen.
• Griffo: Our fun-loving Halfing Rogue was always quick with a joke and even quicker to gobble up gold. His backstory stated that he was once a member of a family trading guild. He moved on in search of greater riches and adventure. In the course of the final session, Griffo uncovered a journal of trade secrets that could be exploited to reap hoards of gold across the kingdom.
• Garrick: The Shifter Ranger remained a mystery to much of the party. His backstory was always vague, but one thing he voiced clearly was his distaste for a specific NPC who owned him as a slaver. The party had to work with the NPC to accomplish a larger goal, and he then slipped away into the kingdom. The doppelgänger villain throughout much of the campaign, Wiklund, offered the party a direct route to the BBEG in exchange for his own freedom. The party accepted and as the party departed the encounter, Wiklund deftly planted a note on Garrick (I slid a closed note to the player at the table) that offered Garrick the opportunity to find his former slaver and other work.
• Brother George: The Human Cleric was certainly a driving force for much of the campaign as the plot often revolved around his religious affiliation with the Chizoba Sect. He expressed a desire to travel the kingdom and teach the words of Pelor and bring peace to the world. He learned his (and the party’s) trusted mentor, Brother Laurence, was killed by the BBEG and set out to led the group on its final mission. After the BBEG was defeated, he found Brother Laurence killing to life and healed him. Laurence spoke with him and told him to take over the Chizoba Sect, “It’s your time now.”

Even though the campaign is now over, the players can imagine Morin traveling around Cydonia digging for lost treasures, SDF-1 obediently (and effectively) cleansing the Shadowfell of undead, Griffo utilizing newfound trade secrets to create a merchant empire, Garrick falling under the wing of Wiklund to settle old scores and engage in any number of questionable activities and Brother George taking over control of the Chizoba and spreading Pelor’s light across the kingdom.

Provide Referral Information. Whenever one campaign ends, it is an opportunity for another campaign to begin. Solicit from the group to learn if anyone else is ready to hop into the DM’s chair to run the campaign. Discuss with the group if they prefer to stay in the same world, use the same gaming system or move to a new setting and system. In my group, one player was already preparing to run a D&D Next campaign and another offered to run a sci-fi setting based off of two or three game systems. The players discussed their preferences for setting and system and were aware that they had more opportunities to play even though our campaign was ending. In reality, my seat was very much still warm while others were jumping in to it to take over. If no player is eager to take on the DM role, assist the group with finding other resources for continued gaming (e.g., online player databases, D&D Encounters, etc.).

Start Termination Early

The above tips can assist with preparing to terminate a campaign. One important point to consider is that termination has the best opportunity to be successful when it starts on Day 1. Termination ideally should be a conversation that is had when the group begins. Speak with the players about their expectations for the duration of the campaign. Do they want to play the same character(s) for six months? A year? Multiple years? Do you as the DM want to run a mega-campaign for a few years or go through a six-month adventure and re-evaluate? Consider these important questions when you’re starting a campaign.

The contest features three prizes – one decided by me, a second by the readers of the site and a third by the artists who submitted an entry. One artist swept all three categories!

Winner – Jimi Bonogofsky

Congratulations to Jimi Bonogofsky!

I found Jimi’s submission to be a fantastic mixed-media representation of Iddy the Lich. The text background was unique and the painting captured the original, slightly whimsical design for Iddy. The image also makes me wonder, “Who’s skeletal hand he is holding?” Perhaps Iddy has a long-lost love interest, which drove him to the dark arts to bring back his true love? Or perhaps it’s just the last person he melted with his vile magic in pursuit of unholy goals? What do you think?

It was a tough decision as each entry was wonderful, but she earned my vote. She was also voted as the readers’ choice and the favorite of the other participating artists. A clean sweep!

Visit Jimi’s website to learn more about her and view galleries of her work and offer your congratulations on Twitter. She provides the following description of herself:

I am an illustrator and animator, with a passion for storytelling. I am a proud geek, and spend much of my spare time playing video games or Dungeons and Dragons. I love to write fiction stories in the first person and nerdy or angsty folk songs.

I learned that these three key words describe me: Purple. Earth. Domestic cat.

Sounds like a wonderful person to game with; once again, congratulations!

Winner – Jesse Pyne

I previously considered that the same artist might win the votes of myself, the readers and the artist. To break the tie to award the other two Dragon Chow dice bags, I relied on the voting completed by the readers. The other winners – as voted by the readers – are Jesse Pyne and Melissa Johansson. Congratulations!

Jesse created an image that I immediately thought could be used as a wallpaper for my laptop computer. The design takes the cartoonish look of Iddy and morphs him into a realistic lich with a Spawn-like flowing cape. I have a soft spot in my heart for those early Image Comics and I always thought Spawn was an interesting character, although I lost track of the series around issue #50. It is a very cool side view of Iddy, and the purple background adds to his overall regalness.

Winner – Melissa Johansson

Meanwhile, Melissa remained close to the cartoonish Iddy design but created a slightly menacing look for him. His pose also suggests that he is beckoning the viewer to come closer if they dare. The expression on his face is rather taunting, and it adds up to a great image.

Each winner will receive a custom-made Iddy the Lich dice bag created by Dragon Chow. I wish I could give something to the other five entries in the contest. I enjoyed all of them and will certainly feature them in future articles throughout the year (if the artists find that acceptable).

Thank you one final time for each entry and for all of the voters who placed votes over the past week. Let me know if you’d like to see this as a yearly feature.