Asylum Escape! Custom horror one-shot using a new RPG system!

“Every cell in my body was telling me to run. Maybe I should have. The girl… Melissa…. just stood there, quivering slightly, her blind eyes seeming to focus on something beyond the walls of the room. She began to murmur to herself, and it was then I started to feel like something was pushing itself into my mind, slowly… steadily. I could hear the nurses arguing at the bottom of the stairs, and I knew it was now or never. I knew she couldn’t hear me, so I touched Melissa’s arm and that was when everything went wrong.”

A new tabletop RPG has come out that uses playing cards instead of dice called Hands of Destiny. The best part? Completely Open Source, free to download legally! Seriously, check it out. I did an asylum escape one-shot using a modified version of this system, and it was amazing. Sanity was represented with candles, and each time they lost sanity the whole room got darker. The tension was high and the game was a blast.

If you want to see the material I created to use for your own RPG, download it in docx format here: asylum-one-shot

I would recommend reading the Hands of Destiny core first.

If you do want to play it,  here is the map to be printed out with creepy things written on it:

It might be helpful to inverse the colors to save on ink.

Let me know if you get inspired by any of this material!

Enjoy!

Roll for a unique fantasy monster with this random table!

First, roll for A-the creature’s unique trait. Then roll for B-the ‘base’ monster. Then roll for C-the situation in which the players encounter it. Some rolls will result in further rolls, so the dice in parenthesis are what you roll next.

Note: WordPress doesn’t like my numbering, so just count to determine which each roll is.

Table for random monster:

1. Unique Trait: (D10)
   1. Invisible
   2. Teleporting
   3. Semi-liquid, bubbling, oozing
   4. Cackling
   5. Hyper-intelligent
   6. Immortal
   7. Ancient
   8. Flickering, not always in this reality
   9. Endlessly consuming
   10. Cursed
2. Monster ‘core’ (D12)
   1. Severed head
   2. Giant creature (D8)
      1. Human
      2. Wolf
      3. Bear
      4. Eyeball
      5. Bat/bird
      6. Snake
      7. Horse
      8. Parasitic worm/leech/lamprey
   3. Nature Spirit
   4. Human/humanoid (male odds, female even) (D8)
      1. Priest
      2. Warlord
      3. Sorcerer/wizard
      4. Druid
      5. Thief
      6. Slave
      7. Peasant
      8. Extremely old person
   5. Undead (roll core again for type of undead)
   6. Elemental (cannot be undead) (D10)
      1. Earth
      2. Fire
      3. Air
      4. Water
      5. Lightning
      6. Lava
      7. Shadow
      8. Light
      9. Plant
      10. All elements
   7. Demon
   8. Angel
   9. Minor God (roll any dice, odds male even female) (D8)
      1. God of Darkness
      2. God of Anger
      3. God of Hatred
      4. God of Fear
      5. God of Blood
      6. God of Disease
      7. God of Voices
      8. God of Pain
   10. Group/mob of people (D6)
       1. Soldiers/guards
       2. Townsfolk
       3. Witches
       4. Cultists
       5. All same gender who look and act exactly the same (roll any dice, odds-male, even-female)
       6. Mob of various people, all with seemingly fatal injuries
   11. Mutated creature, impossible to tell what it used to be
   12. Two things combined in a horrible way, roll twice again to see what
3. Situation the party encounters it/situation that the NPC who encountered the creature saw it: (D10)
   1. Out in the wild while looking for something else
   2. Pretending to act normal, walking around the city as if nothing was wrong (roll again if creature is not intelligent or out of the ordinary)
   3. Attacking a… (D10)
      1. Church
      2. Local town
      3. Helpless person (odds male, even female)
      4. Local creature/powerful animal
      5. Dragon
      6. Wizard/sorcerer
      7. Abandoned shrine
      8. Tree
      9. Gate to another realm
      10. Magic item (D4)
          1. Mirror
          2. Weapon
          3. Gem
          4. Magically protected building
   4. Screaming so loud it could be heard for miles
   5. Suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the city
   6. Crawling its way out of the Earth itself
   7. Building a shrine/magic circle/ritualistic altar
   8. Has been sighted all around the region for years doing mysterious things, no one knows what it’s purpose is
   9. Was found floating in midair, comatose
   10. Summoned by a mysterious ancient ritual

Don’t be lame. Make your PCs Unique and Memorable

Many people have a hard time giving their character unique flavor, from lack of inspiration or being new to Role Playing Games. The following list is here to help those who want to make sure that 10 years from now, both you and all your tabletop buddies can remember fondly all the details of Moritha-The-Flirtatious and all the trouble she caused.

It is no fun playing a boring character. Whatever the RPG, make them stand out and be memorable for one reason or another. Even if you have already created your character, you can always add more flavor if you feel they are a little bland. DMs and players alike can use this guide to make your characters deeper and intriguing.

 

There are many ways to make characters unique, sometimes the best characters don’t just have one ‘thing’ but instead have multiple different ‘quirks’. Included are what I call ‘seeds’ which you may use or adapt, and are intended to inspire interesting and complex characters. Enjoy.

1. Attitude/personality

A PC with the personality of a plank of wood is not fun to play as, nor play with, nor GM for. What do they like? Dislike? When confronted, how do they react? What do they think of themselves? Here are some character personality ‘seeds’ to get you started.

Incredibly arrogant. Xenophobic. Poly-sexual (attracted to all races and all genders). Likes to live like a rock-star, with sex and drugs and rock-n-roll. Terrified of goblins. Someday wants to fly in the sky like a bird. Addicted to the feeling of magic, loves the way it makes them feel and always wants to cast a more powerful spell. Purely chaotic, completely insane mind that cannot function on one thing for long. Buys shoes constantly. Gambling addiction. Wants every single person they ever meet to like them, and feels bad for a long time when someone doesn’t. Lovesick for a NPC.

2. Backstory

Your past defines who you have come to be. Without a personal history or context to put a campaign in, your PC is just floating about, with no real reason to be in that place at that time. Give your DM material to make a personalized campaign or adventure with! You can also use your backstory to figure out how your PC would react in different situations (whether they are likely to obey a a rude city guard when he says that you can’t go out after dark under penalty of the law, for example). Seeds for character backstory:

Classic tragic hero: once noble, rich and respected, when arrogance and hubris hit and took everything from them, now searching for new meaning in life. PC’s entire family slaughtered by [insert creature or race], now seeks to find the things that did this and get revenge. Five years ago, you woke up with no idea who you were or where you had come from, your past was entirely a mystery (this would be particularly potent for a character with awakened powers like psions or sorcerers). Trained by a mysterious skilled wizard/cleric/swordsman/rogue whose name you don’t even know, they just call him/her “The One”. Experimented with magic until it blew up in your face, literally. Challenged the toughest person in your village to a arm wrestling contest and won,  that person is now extremely bitter and actively works to sabotage you and/or get stronger than you in all ways. Brother/sister with another PC.

3.Physical markings/traits

It always helps visualize the scene when the DM can say something like “As Moyra casts the spell, you all can see her tattoos begin to glow with a dark purple light as she turns to the party and says ‘It is coming. Run. Now.'” Giving PCs something that would be able to be seen easily makes for memorable characters. Physical marking seeds:

PC is of a rare race (Samsarans with white eyes and blue skin for example) or a unique member of their race with a visible change from the normal (a half orc whose body is literally half human and half orc, divided up the middle perhaps). Both eyes destroyed in tragic fire, sees through a little-understood ‘second sight’. Strikingly beautiful elf, with hip length golden hair and a face that could launch a thousand ships, causing all men to suffer a -2 penalty to all checks that deal with Charisma (make sure this is okay with the DM first). A monk so physically fit that instead of a 6-pack or an 8-pack, he has 10-pack or 13-pack abs.

What is unique about your RPG character? Tell me in the comments, I want to hear what you all have come up with!

Playing with FATE: Trying out a new SciFi RPG

Fantasy is great. It is a ton of fun to play a adventure that sounds like it is straight out of Tolkien. Just make sure your RPG experiences aren’t limited solely inside the “It’s got elves, dragons and magic” category. Step out of your comfort zone. You’ve killed enough trolls, beholders and carrion crawlers. Try something new. Like building a mother-f***ing spaceship with dark-matter plasma cannons.

Yeah. Can’t do that in your average D&D quest, now can you?

I just picked up the RPG Diaspora, because I was in the mood to try something new.

First thing that struck me, it is cheap. I think this was $25 new, compared to $60 for many other games.

Second, it is a game that uses the FATE system, which I had never played before. I was intrigued.

Third, I love Sci-Fi. Seriously, I love any movie, book or game that has interstellar travel, alien worlds, or space-worthy ships that are as large as continents on Earth.

Never heard of the FATE system or Diaspora? Here is a quick overview of Diaspora. Please note that this information may not be accurate for all FATE games, because this is the first one that I played. If anyone has played other FATE games or this one, please comment and let me know what is different about them, what you liked, disliked, what worked and didn’t work!

1.

The game uses Fate or Fudge Dice (but I really dislike calling them Fudge Dice, so I will be referring to them by the former name instead of the latter). These are Fate Dice:

 

Funky, huh? I picked some up at my local comic book store. Every dice roll made in Diaspora is done by rolling 4dF (four of the Fate Dice). You add up all +’s, -‘s, blanks don’t change anything, and you will get a number between +4 and -4. Note that the chances of either a +4 or a -4 are very low, with zero being the most likely outcome (that’s just how the statistics works). Then, similar to d20 games, you may have a modifier which you add to your roll, and to succeed in an action you must have rolled higher than a set number which corresponds to how difficult the task is.

On a side note, I was having some fun and designed some 3D Printable Fate Dice, which look like this and are available to download for free here and here.

2.

The game doesn’t have a dungeon master or game master.

This game is much more collaborative than other games you may have played. When creating your world, all players get to create a chunk of the universe, which the players will be going to at some point. Each person can make a lonely prison colony on a rocky hunk of asteroid, or a thriving world that has been transformed into one continuous giant city.

Yes, there is still someone who creates bad guys describes the scene, but all major decisions are up to the ‘table consensus’ meaning that everyone playing must come to an agreement about many things that in typical RPGs the GM would figure out. I would like to point out that the ‘leader’ or whoever sets the scene also creates a character during the first session along with everyone else, to allow for other people to jump in and play as the narrator for an adventure of theirs, meaning that you can have multiple ‘leaders’ with the same universe and the same characters.

3. 

Fate points change everything.

As far as I understand it, each player starts each session with 5 fate points, which they can use to change the events around them. For example, a player could make a deal with the narrator that the banged up ladder that the crooks are climbing down is “weak and rusty”. The narrator has two options: take one of the player’s fate points and let the described event happen, or give the player a fate point and say no, the ladder does not fall. This gives the players an immense amount of power in their world, making games less static than in traditional RPGs.

4. 

Character creation is focused on deep character development.

Seriously, there is very little math, if any, when creating a character in Diaspora. The main part of the time is used to create wonderful backstories which intertwine with other players’ backstories and make for a truly richly developed character. Instead of calculating Reflex saving throws, you write a short paragraph about events that happened in your character’s life that led the to be who they are today. Yes, rolling dice plays a part, but the backstory (and what develops from that) is what is really important.

SPACE! THE FINAL FRONTIER! GOOD LUCK OUT THERE, THE GALAXY IS A TERRIFYING AND WONDERFUL PLACE!

I am so excited for this game. I haven’t gotten to play it much yet, but I will post an update once I get it all figured out! I plan on using some material from the free RPG Stars Without Number, which has an amazing random galaxy generator with tons of unique traits to each planet.

Players: Keep your games amazing! Don’t let the GM do all the work.

Dungeon Masters create the world, but the responsibility of making the game fun and exciting doesn’t rest solely on  their shoulders. Players should step up and make the game as exciting as you want it to be.

Don’t be one of the players who is looking at their phones, and when something important happens doesn’t know what is going on and must have the party explain to them, interrupting the flow of the game. Be exciting. Fresh. Unexpected. That is what keeps games alive.

Here are some tips for Players (not the Game Masters) for keeping games fun.

1. Come up with a character flaw. If you are creating a new character, make them a severe (but loveable) alcoholic. If you have had the character for a while, have them discover that they are terrified of spiders. Make them irrationally hate gnomes, or have a superiority complex. Flaws are fun to role-play, and give your character a lot more depth. Raunchy puns flowing from your halfling’s lips will keep everyone laughing throughout a campaign (as long as you aren’t playing a horror RPG) and ensure that everyone has a good time.
2. Never be doing nothing. You should never be bored while playing D&D. Sure, you may be a fighter in during the diplomacy checks, but that doesn’t mean you need to just stand around while the sorcerer debates with the guard. Ask the Dungeon master if there are any cute elves around, or decide to whittle a stick into the form of a dragon (most likely a craft check DC 20). That carved dragon may be the final thing you need to throw in to the mountain of items that you are trading that burly, obstinate man so that you can have his amulet of destruction.
3. Come up with unique solutions to problems. It may be ridiculous, dangerous and foolish, but any good GM will try to play along, see how far you get. Yeah, casting a blinding spell on a dragon while the party sneaks under its nose may not be a great idea, but you will get a great story out of it if it works (and even if it doesn’t!)
4. Come up with your own descriptions when you attack. Instead of saying “I missed”, the player can say “I guessed I tripped over my own big dwarf feet, but I am coming for that damn orc next turn!”. Charge hill giants with your spear held high while snarling that you will rip his eyes out and feed them to your direwolf may even give you a bonus for epic description or intimidation (depending on your GM).
5. Come up with your own quests. Let your GM know when you have ideas for something super cool that the party could go do. Maybe you want to forge a ring of power, or meet the king of the entire realm. When you show interest in something, good GMs will create entire storylines around your ideas. This way, you can do exactly what you wanted to do, and the GM gets to use your ideas and weave them into the master story of your party’s adventures.

Even though I typically am Game Master, one of my gaming group has shown interest in learning how to be a Dungeon Master. I was very excited about the idea of being able to play a character instead of DMing, so he will be taking over for me in DMing our large scale D&D group. To give him some practice, me and a girl from the group had a small two person session where we created new characters and then began a quest.

I was feeling exuberant that day, so I wanted to go all out. Our group has never had a bard, a cavalier, a alchemist, or a berserker before, so I decided to be a halfling bard with a banjo. I informed the GM that I was planning on increasing my craft so that I could create a bladed-banjo for my battle-bard and use my instrument as a weapon as well as a tool of soothing musical melodies. He said this was a definite possibility.

I then began to delve into bardic spells, and saw the spell Poisoned Egg. I knew this had to be one of my first level bard spells. I asked my DM if I could pay extra for a sack that was designed to hold multitudes of eggs. He said yes. I paid 5 gold for one. I then bought 3 dozen eggs. Throughout the quest, I was egging all the foes and villains, hitting them with normal eggs and saving my poisoned egg for big baddies. Once I covered all the folks in yolks and got them all nice and angry, I would flee behind the fighter who was adventuring with me so that she could deal with them. I began to light my banjo on fire and throw it at the beasties, and then use a spell to summon up another banjo.

We all had a great time. So remember, make your games exciting! Don’t rely on the GM to do it for you! Be unexpected, be glorious!

And throwing eggs at everything is always a good idea too.

Superhero RPG in honor of new Avengers movie!

In honor of the new Avengers movie being today, my D&D group and I had a special Superhero RPG day.

I was the game master as usual, but I outdid myself with this one. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I had 8 separate playable heroes with distinct powers, stats and personality traits. The rules were a custom adaptation of simplified D&D 3.5 rules, with some taken out and some added. No saving throws, no base attack bonuses, no Str, Cha, Int etc. No initiative modifiers. No levels, no exp. Lowered armor classes due to the lack of attack bonuses. Villains were interesting and memorable. Best of all, the heroes saved the day in the end.

If any of you are thinking about doing a Superhero one shot RPG, I would recommend it. I had them draw their power from a hat, flip a coin for gender of the character, then they had to come up with a cool Superhero name, an alter ego name, a costume and a backstory of how they got their powers. I made a rule that each player’s catchphrase had to be said in character at least once during the duration of the adventure.

Gazer Beam 100HP Movement 6 AC 10 Personality trait: seriously addicted to drugs Catchphrase: “it’s laser-time, baby!”	Gold and Red spandex with an X over his eyes (see new age cyclops) Normal eye blast: Damage 2d8 Powerful eye blast: -4 to hit and 2d6 damage to himself, but can do 5d6 damage to enemies
Hulklike strength 200HP Movement 10 (leaps) AC 14 Catchphrase: “GRRRRAAAAAHHHHHHHH”	Purple skin and green pants Four levels of hulking out which each last for 1 round: 2d6, 10% chance of losing control 4d6, 30% 6d6, 50% 5d12, 70% Can smash through walls Heals 10HP every round when transformed
Mind blast 50HP with DR20 from mental shield Movement 5 Flight AC 15 Personality trait: thinks of themselves as the greatest thing the world has ever seen. Also a germaphobe Catchphrase: “some people say I’ve got a SHARP MIND! Hahahahahaha!”	Purple and Red leotard Mind blast which sends out purple ‘swords’ of light 2d6 (gets through shields) Stun successful attack roll will result in stunning a human for 1d4 rounds Heal other players as a full round action, can heal 4d6 HP
Electrical blasts 80HP with DR5 Movement 7 AC12 Personality trait: Hits on every one of the opposite gender constantly, even in battle Catchphrase: “How shocking!”	Blue and white Zap 1d12 to humans, 5d12 to robots Can interface with robots and attempt to take them over
Rocky Horror (Thing-esque) 150HP Movement 3 AC 18 Personality trait: ashamed of their reflection in the mirror Catchphrase: [sobbing] “I’m a monster!”	Entirely Black Clobber 2d8 Ground Pound 1d8 to all units within 2 hex radius Can smash through walls Can grab and hold enemies
Banshee-esque 80Hp Movement 10 Flight AC 13 Personality trait: constantly swirls medicine balls Catchphrase: “Why can’t we be friends?”	Tye Dye Scream Blast 2d10 to humans 1d6 to robots (roll d20 to hit as usual) Scream Radius does 1d6 damage to all humans in 3hex radius 1d3 to robots (do not need to roll d20) Screeching Effect: all humans in 6 hex radius are at -2 to hit during a round where banshee-esque flew
Axe man 110HP Movement 4 AC 13 Personality trait: can only talk in sentences like “me see blue man fly and smash bank” Catchphrase: “me [insert name here], me hurt you!”	Loincloth Axe Bash 2d8 Rage Effect: when Axe man kills a enemy, he gains a +2 to hit and +4 damage for 3 rounds (this does not stack with each additional enemy, but the 3 rounds is reset with a new kill)
The Brown Recluse (Black Widow and Spider-Man-esque) 120HP Movement 8 Web-Slinging AC 15 Personality trait: makes puns and jokes all the time Catchphrase: “My what a tangled web we weave”	Brown Webs with a successful attack roll, traps victim for 1d6 rounds unless they can break out Punch 1d8 Spider-Speed Effect: Gets 2 attacks per round Spider-Strength Effect: When at or below 60HP, +4 to hit and +4 damage but -2AC

Using Technology to Enhance RPGs

Many things have changed since the invention of D&D in 1974. In the current age, there are so many ways to incorporate technology seamlessly into RPGs. Here are five ways to enhance your tabletop games.

1. Google images

This one may seem fairly obvious, but it should definitely be mentioned. You want to have a pawn of a female werewolf? Search it on google images, and print and cut it out as shown, some tape or a staple and you have a miniature for any monster you can google search. Or, instead, you could bring up a beautiful fantasy wallpaper on the big screen to set the tone for the campaign, or show them a really detailed and horrific monster. Google it.

2. Official RPG websites

These sites are there for a reason. My personal favorite is d20pfsrd.com, which has all of the Pathfinder content available and searchable online. Make use of them. Not sure what the rules say about something obscure? Search it. It is far easier than looking page by page in a big ol’ rulebook.

3. Google Sketchup

What can I say? Google is freakin awesome. This is a free program to download and use, which can be used to create your own RPG maps or to download totally awesome ones that other people have made by simply searching “Dungeons and Dragons”. You can look at the models from different camera angles, and then you can change to a ‘top’ view and everything is laid out in a grid system perfectly. You can physically print these on paper as well, or you can hook your laptop up to a TV to show the group where they are, (I have even seen videos of someone who turned a flat screen TV so the screen was parallel to the ground and loaded a D&D map on there and put all the minifigs on the glass of the screen, creating the coolest and most versatile RPG table ever).

3. Pandora

If you haven’t heard of Pandora, get out from under that rock you been hiding under. Endless music (sometimes with ads, but if you care that much just purchase the commercial free service) and you can create your own radio stations. For RPGs, I would recommend the Skyrm Soundtrack station, or Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack station. Nothing sets the mood more than an epic high energy song that plays right as your party charges into battle with an army of orcs.

4. 3D-Printing

This one, I realize isn’t available to everybody. I happen to be fortunate due to the fact that I work at a 3D-Printing lab. If you have a 3D-Printer, have access to one, have access to a library that has one, or even knows a friend with access to one, MAKE USE OF IT. It is amazingly helpful for tabletop RPGs. The above picture shows all the things I have printed for my Call of Cthulhu d20 campaign that I will be starting soon. I have made monsters, aliens, player miniatures, cultist tokens, gas mask soldiers, cultists themselves and even some fungus. All of these things are available from the website www.thingiverse.com for free to download and print. There are literally hundreds of miniatures you can download and other props as well (if anyone is interested, I have also created some RPG content, my username is south2012). Just for fun, I printed the gas mask soldiers, a cthulhu cultist token, and an alien in glow in the dark filament. Below are pictures of them in the light and then in the darkness.

Seriously, I cannot recommend using 3D-Printing for RPGs highly enough. You can create your own pieces with Blender, a free to download program with thousands of tutorials online. If you don’t have a 3D-Printer, maybe this is a good time to look into buying one, they can get pretty cheap and their uses are myriad.

5. YouTube

While this is another great source for inspiring music, I tend to use it on conjunction with Pandora. You want the party to hear a loud, terrifying roar? Don’t just describe it, look it up on YouTube as “Roar sound effect” and play it at max volume while the party discusses their next move, startling them and building the atmosphere. Once, I played a simple wood scratching sound and all four of the players thought the sound was something different. One guessed it was chanting in the background, one thought it was bones rattling together, another thought it was something being dragged and one predicted it was a trapdoor sliding open. They all began to panic and had their characters flee for their lives. It was hard to stifle my laughter.

There are more ways to incorporate technology into RPGs, but these are the main ones I use virtually every session. If there are any uses for technology you would like to add, please comment! And remember: you aren’t in the 1970s anymore. Make use of all your resources.