d12 Methods To Shock And Delight Your Gamers And Their Characters

Roleplaying Suggestions Publication #1221

d12 Methods To Shock And Delight Your Gamers And Their Characters

Completely satisfied New Yr!

I hope your holidays had been nice. I spent mine consuming approach an excessive amount of scrumptious baking. I want I’d requested Santa for a much bigger belt.

The New Yr all the time appears like a recent begin. So I’m curious what your gaming plans are.

In case you have a second, let me know through this fast ballot.

Me? I’m persevering with with my Outdated College Necessities Basilica marketing campaign. I’m additionally beginning a Pathfinder 2E marketing campaign. And I’m planning some one-shots primarily based on my lengthy bucket record of video games I need to attempt.

Right here’s to a enjoyable and game-full 12 months for us all!

Cheers,
Johnn

In This Problem…

Characteristic

• d12 Methods To Shock Your Gamers & Their Characters

Reader Suggestions of the Week

• d12 Methods of Delivering Potions
• Add Interactibles to Your Maps
• Use Maps Strategically
• Revealing Marketing campaign Spoilers is OK
• One-Hour Session Suggestions

d12 Methods To Shock Your Gamers & Their Characters

From Johnn 4

Taking time to collect surprises, craft delights, and have a good time your pals provides everybody the warm-and-fuzzies. Small items, no matter financial worth, make folks really feel seen and revered. This improves group morale, will increase engagement, and makes it straightforward to share how you are feeling about others with out the awkward dialog.

Listed here are d12 methods to shock and delight your gamers and their characters:

d12 Participant Surprises

1. Give out selfmade cookies, baking, or different deal with midway by means of the session to signify the treasure hoard simply earned. Bonus factors when you beautify your baking with in-game content material, like an enormous +1.
2. Use fidget toys to signify magic gadgets and different treasure. Gamers not solely get cool treasure, however you arm them with focus instruments as nicely. Right here’s the precise bundle I received from Amazon (affiliate hyperlink) and I’ve been having fun with the marble-in-mesh one finest thus far.
3. Create a scroll for each participant. Use them for precise scrolls in-game if desired. However the principle shock right here is you’ve written three issues they do nicely or the explanation why you might be grateful they’re your pal.
4. Use assigned seating and tape one thing beneath every chair to be revealed when discovered in-game. Examples: handouts, treasure, clues, puzzles.
5. Write out notable participant quotes you’ve recorded in the course of the marketing campaign in large crayon writing and mount them in image frames or hold the sheets across the play space.
6. Rent a neighborhood or on-line artist to attract every character. Bonus: in future have drawings for hirelings, companions, and familiars.
7. Get some outdated trophies and switch them into session rewards. Finest Roleplaying, Finest Ways, Finest Teammate could be good candidates to your group.
8. Document participant birthdays and group-join dates. Have fun every with a music, speech, one thing on this record, or only a easy acknowledgement and expression of gratitude.
9. Get outdated magazines or heat up your printer. Minimize out issues representing social gathering, character, and participant objectives and glue them to a big sheet of paper. Mount the paper within the recreation space to supply reminders and assist gamers focus.
10. Make or give every participant a cool or humorous hat or prop that in a roundabout way represents their character.
11. Write a brand new inspirational quote, RPG fashion, on a whiteboard or mirror earlier than every session.
12. Create a desktop wallpaper of the social gathering or different issues gamers would get pleasure from.

d12 Character Surprises

1. Free gold/credit/money. Ever discover cash on the bottom? It’s an important feeling. I discovered $20 in my winter coat final September when getting it out of storage. Whoop whoop!
2. Free treasure. By treasure I imply gadgets that aren’t cash. Allow them to discover potions, scrolls, weapons, an deserted ship, and so on. If doable, make the treasure a one-shot or restricted time merchandise (i.e. 3 fees left, low on gasoline, and so on.) to guard recreation steadiness.
3. Assist them make a brand new ally. Typically characters have to show the world the other way up to earn the respect of their friends. Allow them to make a brand new ally by means of a pleasant dialog or easy deed.
4. Maintain a “final dinner” feast within the social gathering’s honor earlier than they hit the dungeon. Have NPCs get up and inform every character one factor they respect about them.
5. Let characters discover or make a superb deal. Possibly a retailer has a wanted piece of apparatus and it’s half-price. Maybe a uncommon merchandise is found on the market. Mayhap a service provider provides them an excessive amount of in change. Or, gasp, the PCs pay for an merchandise and uncover it’s of upper than regular high quality.
6. A brand new member of the family, or a long-lost one, contacts a PC. Make this member of the family pleasant and helpful to the social gathering in a roundabout way.
7. Create a balloon avalanche to have a good time after a significant victory.
8. Give a PC a free, helpful, non-annoying companion. Everyone likes a servant, helper, and gopher.
9. In related vogue, let the social gathering earn a worthwhile agent who can deal with a number of the boring in-game duties like guarding residence base.
10. Have the BBEG make a mistake within the PCs’ favor. Or maybe an sudden boon provides the social gathering a bonus over their enemy.
11. I requested my spouse for concepts on shocking gamers. She doesn’t roleplay however amongst her ideas, a few of that are above, was to offer the characters pig snouts so they might snuff out truffles. Er, nicely, make of it what you’ll however I made a decision to incorporate it for completeness.
12. And right here’s the grand-daddy of all of the completely happy, sudden participant surprises: their plan works.

Reader Suggestions of the Week

Suggestions, concepts, and inspiration out of your fellow RPT GMs.

Have a roleplaying tip you’d wish to share? E-mail it to [email protected] – thanks!

d12 Methods of Delivering Potions

From Jesse Cohoon

It’s as much as you to determine when “imbibing” the potion whether or not the supply methodology is consumed or lowered, or if characters can quest to “refill” the merchandise for reuse.

1. Non permanent tattoo through a tattoo pen or quill
2. Cigarettes, pipe, vape
3.  Capsules
4. Sweet, gummies, gum
5. Important oil
6. Meals condiment or sauce
7. Ceramic runestones that break after use
8. Nanites – thank your native artificer
9. Mud that’s inhaled
10. Runes whittled into wooden, carved into stone, etched into steel
11. Dwelling crops, seeds, seedlings
12. Bandages, particular material, or clothes

Add Interactibles to Your Maps

From RPT GM Triston

I like so as to add interactive objects to my maps.

For instance, a chilling temple map with frozen ice crystals and a blizzard. A cool set piece to make sure! However contained in the crystals are looming and unusual shadows, distorted by refracted gentle….

Have some helpful or attention-grabbing gadgets contained contained in the crystals. Or much more devious, monsters. Have some empty crystals as nicely. You can even make a roll chart to find out what’s inside.

What actually sells it to me is when NPCs or monsters work together with the objects you’ve added to maps. Because the yeti defends its lair, it smashes a crystal, showering the gamers in shards of ice, and releasing the article inside.

Will the gamers obtain a useful merchandise? Or will an ice mephit be part of the battle as a substitute? Drama ensues!

Better of luck and good gaming!

Use Maps Strategically

From RPT GM Ben Lucas

I discover myself solely pulling out the maps when fight truly begins. I usually add an image of a focal point in some rooms or areas, however for essentially the most half I exploit descriptive textual content as my primary methodology of conveying data. It’s in all probability extra behavior from my early D&D days, however I discover that maps are finest used solely when you really want to know precisely the place the PCs are.

In fact, since most of the time when the map comes out one thing occurs, my gamers know to anticipate motion at the moment. I’ve used this just a few occasions out of fight as nicely simply to maintain the gamers on their toes. I created maps for dungeon (a cave system) solely to have zero fight or map-required encounters inside. The actual fight was as they left the cave, and by that stage they had been so used to the map popping out that the bugbear ambush caught them fully off guard.

My recommendation for different DMs who use maps on a regular basis and have gamers not investigating sufficient is identical for others who’ve that challenge even with out maps.

Have somebody or one thing undergo the place the PCs have completed with afterwards and uncover treasure or pleasure. Have a narrative on the town of one other group of adventurers that explored the identical ruins solely to seek out them empty (as a result of the gamers killed or chased every little thing off) however then uncover a secret treasure room or hidden enemy.

You’ll be able to even use this method to re-use a map set with new pleasure if the opposite social gathering uncovered a secret space and unleashed new enemies they needed to flee from. Now the PCs are more likely to return to complete what they began and thought they’d completed. Those self same maps will now be investigated a lot nearer.

One other methodology is having enemies come from a spot the PCs thought of secure, corresponding to by means of a secret door they didn’t seek for. Have this occur just a few occasions and they’ll spend extra time wanting round simply in case.

Revealing Marketing campaign Spoilers is OK

From Wizard of Journey Morgan Joeck

In keeping with this text, spoilers make you benefit from the story extra:

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/information/spoiler-alert-spoilers-make-you-enjoy-stories-more

Do you rewatch films or reread books? However you already know the ending! Do you want them much less the second time by means of? In all probability not or else why would you will have learn or watched them once more?

I don’t need my gamers spoiling issues for others who don’t need to know, and I don’t need my gamers metagaming the enjoyable out of it. (Although, what if the social gathering goes within the improper path or going to overlook out on a cool facet quest? If a metagaming participant provides somewhat unobtrusive nudge in that path, is it an inherently unhealthy factor?)

However I’m wonderful in the event that they’re going to get pleasure from it. My pleasure in working issues isn’t having the ability to shock all my gamers on a regular basis. That’s enjoyable typically, and I’ll nonetheless get that with a number of the gamers anyway. It’s actually attention-grabbing meals for thought.

[Comment from Johnn: Great tip, Morgan. If I had to choose, I’d rather players be armed with more information than less, as well. Gameplay means no one knows yet how things will turn out, and that’s where the majority of our fun exists – making choices and seeing what happens.]

One-Hour Session Suggestions

From RPT GM Paul Martz

I’ve been working an hour-session month-to-month marketing campaign for greater than a 12 months. It is vitally difficult since you need to give the gamers significant decisions, but in addition really feel like they’re getting someplace. Fortunately, my gamers are extra into having enjoyable than advancing.

If I had been to offer three items of recommendation:

• Let gamers know the place issues stand when the session begins. Allow them to know the place they left off, what their present purpose is, and the place that matches into any bigger purpose they’re pursuing.
• Make fight scary, fast, and significant. Don’t fill your valuable minutes preventing unimportant filler kobolds the way in which you would possibly in an extended recreation.
• Don’t use xp. Degree the gamers up after a significant achievement.

Not less than that’s my expertise.

That’s it for this week’s e-newsletter.

If you wish to chat with fellow RPT GMs about at this time’s ideas or ask me questions, be part of the dialog right here at my discussion board.

Cheers,

Johnn 4
Have extra enjoyable at each recreation!