A Gundam is a gigantic, human controlled, fighting robot and the stuff dreams are made of for many Japanese men. I teach Japanese high school boys, and they can’t get enough Gundam. You can’t say Gundam’s are big in Japan. They’re huge! A recent ad on Japanese television (YouTube Link) shows just how big they are, literally and figuratively.

Gundams have been around since 1979 and are still going strong. Apart from animated stories on television and as movies, they have appeared as toys, collectable figures, model figures, card games, TV games and what ever else the marketing guru’s can throw into the mix (I am the proud owner of a Gundam head towel).

Okay, so why talk about Gundams on a role-playing blog? Well, Gundams are awesome of course, and we’re all about the awesome. I once ran a campaign featuring a giant moving statue of dwarven construction; not a stone golem, a stone Gundam. Besides, a Gundam by any other name is just a Mech, and Battle Tech has its own role-playing game.

I wanted to know how to include Gundams into a campaign, particularly a fantasy one, and my search brought me to DragonMech, a D20 treatment of Mech mayhem from Goodman Games, specifically for fantasy. You can read more about the book on the publisher’s home page: www.goodman-games.com.

You see, there are many reasons why guys enjoy machines battling it out; the same reason guys love fast cars: technology and power. Try adding a Gundam to your campaign and see what kind of reaction you get.

So, for a parting shot, more Gundam goodness from YouTube:

So that’s why Gundam’s are cool…lightsabers.

By the way, I don’t own any of these video’s or claim any type of ownership. They’re all hosted by third party sites, thanks YouTube! If you have more to add on just how cool Gundams are, leave a comment below… or I’ll send a machine after you!

In virtually every pen and paper RPG, you will find a box or skill labelled “languages” somewhere on the character sheet. In most cases, the only time you would be requested to consult this box, is when your GM confronts you with the question, “do you speak west cobarian under-orc?” The answer is usually a simple yes or no, and in many games the issue of language becomes moot as soon as the negotiator in the party gains the ability to cast “comprehend languages”, or the equivalent thereof. Recently, however, I based an entire game session on learning a new language.

Do You Speak Alien?

I run a home-brew Sci-Fi campaign once a month or so for a group of friends. All PCs are human, as there is very little to no communication with intelligent alien species in the Kulindar galaxy. The day before our last game was to commence, I was struggling to come up with innovative ideas for the crashed space ship which I wanted the party to explore. Then came the news that the leader of the party would not be able to make the game. In order to preserve the plot as I had planned it, I needed him to be with the party when they explored the crashed ship. So, I had to occupy the rest of the party for a session, and I was suffering from terrible GM block. I had originally planned a simple confrontation with a human survivor of the crash. She was a fairly powerful psionic, and the encounter would have involved her and a number of local primitive monkey-like creatures she had under her control. I remembered a comment my very first GM made once about a campaign he had played in where the party had to learn a new language in a foreign land. I decided to use this concept to expand the encounter with the NPC crash survivor into a full game session.

I made the tribe of sufeebok (as I had named the monkey creatures) semi-intelligent. Under the guidance of the NPC psionic, they had developed a language of their own. I scribbled down a brief vocabulary on a blank sheet, and made up a three basic syntactic rules:
1. Sentences would take on the basic form of subject-verb-object.
2. Words could be combined to form new concepts, such as “pezhopat” (territory) being constructed from “pez” (very/big/good) and “hopat” (house).
3. Rules 1 and 2 could be disregarded at any time in the name of fun.

I mentioned none of this to the party. They had previously encountered a wild sufeebok tribe that attacked them on sight when the party entered their territory. They were perplexed when they met the first civilised sufeebok dressed in a plain tunic, and the frowns around the table deepend further when the creature greeted them with “pez pezhua bok!” (good day friend!) It took a few minutes of slow talking and gesturing for the party to establish that “ra hopat” meant “walk home” and that the creatures wanted the party to accompany them to their home.

Once the party had met the NPC at the home of the tribe, I stopped play and laid down a couple of rules the players could use to learn the new language. Each player could roll a number of language checks each day equal to their language bonus. A check of 15 would result in a success, and the player could ask for the meaning of any word they had heard before. Any player rolling a 17 or higher could make up a new word which I would add to my dictionary. I would also explain the meaning for a word if the players had picked it up in conversation with the sufeedak, and were using it correctly.

The players were so taken with the idea of learning this new language, that I had to remind them at one point of their main quest. They spent almost two days in game time talking to the sufeedak, learning words and making up new ones. As conversations progressed, I had to make up new words to convey concepts that could not be explained with the existing dictionary. My basic vocabulary of 25 words grew to over fifty in less than an hour of play, and soon included a counting system up to ten thousand. The players loved the intellectual challenge, and the fact that they could contribute to the language stimulated them creatively. Soon the players were even including sufeedak words in their conversations with one another.

Here are some of the words the players figured out:
amo = I
amosa = we
as- = opposite/not (prefix)
aso = no
bam = how/in what manner
bok = friend
gam = food
ort = fire
pez- = very/big/good (prefix)
pezo = yes
ra = walk/go
-sa = [plural] (suffix)
sota = find/fetch
sub = you (singular)
subsa = you (plural)
sufee = plant
takla = fight
ume = help
Unfortunately I can’t post the entire vocabulary here at this point – our next game session is this coming Sunday, and I have to preserve the mystery and challenge for my players!

The session concluded with a heartfelt farewell (pez ra) from the sufeedak, and the party headed off to the crashed space ship. I concluded the session without a single weapon being drawn. I got a lot of positive feedback from the players, and they greeted one another in sufeedak before going home.

If you find the idea of playing with a limited vocabulary entertaining, have a look at Og, an RPG with a vocabulary of only 18 words! I also designed a semi-homebrew system based on Og, which I might tell you about another time. Have you ever learned to speak a new language by playing an RPG? Please share your experience with us, or feel free to comment on the article.

Pez ra!
Mushroom Alien

Image by Arne Nordmann, modified by Rodney Sloan and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Choosing A System

The system you choose should reflect the type of game and genre you want to play. It’s no use starting out with the Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game if you want to play something set in the future, but it is a great system if that future involves mice who fight with swords and shields to save themselves from snakes and foxes. A great tip that also makes a load of sense is “play what you know.” It’s no fun if you get bogged down trying to find rules the whole time. That said, solo play is a great method for learning a game, which is one reason why I’m going with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, particularly the rules from the Beginner Box. I recently bought the set and I love that it’s a lighter version of the game but still works with the Core Book. I don’t have a load of time and so the games need to be quick and action packed. Also, I love fantasy so Pathfinder fills all of my requirements.

Settings

There are a bunch of great settings available for Pathfinder, such as Paizo’s expansive Golarion setting. I’m going to use my own Avernos setting, partly because I want to show you just how great this world is and because there are some parts of the land I want to flesh out. My character will be heading into the Desert of Scales, a land known to be home of the mysterious serpent folk.

Equipment

Apart from the box set I’ll use a few extra miniatures, particularly the Wulfgar figure from the D&D Miniatures: Legend of Drizzt Scenario Pack. Why leave your best miniatures on the shelf if you can get some play from them, right? That old white dragon might even see some action. I’ll also use the Pathfinder Barbarian Rules and the Desert of Athas – Dungeon Tiles, which coincidently have plenty of sea printed on them. Read  here for a review on this map pack.

Get A Dose of Character

Now you need your character concept and to fill in that character sheet. Thanamos, my character, is a barbarian prince, much like Conan the Barbarian, except that he has been exiled from his village in the Free Lands and driven into the desert with nothing but his trusty hammer, Glory’s Fist. Knowing that he needs an army to reclaim his lands, Thanamos decides to make his way to Cowards Cove in the hope of recruiting followers to his banner.

Thanamos is tough and pig headed, with a strong arm but little wisdom, a trait that has led to a fair bit of trouble for him. If he’s going to recruit his army he’ll have to do it through a show of strength and determination, not wit. However, Thanamos realises that the right allies could make up for his own failings and will do his best to make friends out of even the toughest foes.

Thanamos

Human Male Barbarian
Alignment: Chaotic Good
STR: 17
DEX: 13
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 12
CHA: 13

Skills: Acrobatics +5, Bluff +1, Climb +7, Diplomacy +1, Heal +1, Knowledge Nature +4, Perception +5, Ride +5, Sense Motive +1, Stealth +1, Swim +3.
Feats: Power Attack and Weapon Focus (Warhammer)
Equipment: Warhammer (Glory’s Fist), Hide Armour, 4x Throwing Axe, 2x Dagger, Backpack, Bedroll, Belt pouch, sack, clothes, 10x torches, 5x trail rations and a water skin.

Thanamos has no money to his name, he’ll have to earn his way onwards.

Into The Fray

Well, Thanamos is ready for action. Why not set up your own little campaign and let me know what you have planned.

Your favourite Phoenix took part in the competition and was up against some big names in RPG blogging. Unfortunately we didn’t make it into the finals, but I feel proud just having been a part of the fun. We’re putting together a bigger team and looking forward to competing again in 2013.

You can read our interview with the creator of Stuffer Shack, Tourq Stevens, right here on this blog.

Choosing A System

The first thing you need to decide is what you’ll be playing. Will you create your own adventure arc or use something pre-made? What system will you use? Often the best system to use is the one you’re most comfortable with. What are you currently playing? There sure are loads of systems to choose from. I recommend heading over to Drive Thru RPG to see what they have available. There’s also some great free stuff up for grabs, like Pokethulhu or Heroes Against Darkness.

Choosing An Adventure

There are plenty of solo adventures out there, not least of all our own solo adventure: Sentinels Watching. Of course, each solo adventure will usually be tailored to a specific system, but with some work you can fit most adventures to any system you want. Here is a list of some solo adventures worth checking out:

• Both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box and the Dungeons & Dragons Red Box have solo adventures. They’re worth playing if you’re new to the game.
• Ghost of Lion Castle (Dungeons and Dragons)
• Lathan’s Gold (Dungeons and Dragons)
• TrollsZine (Tunnels and Trolls) : The first issue of this magazine includes a solo adventure.
• Heroes Against Darkness: This looks like a pretty exciting game, and you can grab an introductory solo adventure with the rules, all for free.
• The Fighting Fantasy game book series (known as FF, to fans), which includes the Advanced Fighting Fantasy rule set. In my eyes these guys pioneered solo play.
• The Lone Wolf series, which you can play free here: Project Aon .

I’ve played through a few scenes from one of the Fighting Fantasy game books using D&D 4th Ed. It was a good game and something I’ll likely try again, probably with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game system.

Creating Your Own

The easiest way to play is to just lay down some maps, some monsters and then duke it out, making up the story as you go. A good idea is to keep some type of Quest Log, either in a notebook or on your favourite word processor. It helps to have reminders of what you’ve done and where you were going. I like to draw out my maps and annotate directly on the GameMastery Flip-Mat: Basic. When I’m done I just take a picture with my cellphone and I’m all set to remember things next time, even if the map gets used in another game in the mean time.

Abstraction Beats Distraction

Simply put, you have to make the game as fun and exciting for yourself as you can. Play the encounters you want to play, skip the humdrum details of travel and anything that brings a yawn. Some players love to micro manage their games, and then do that, but really, you just want to make it an awesome game. You’re the GM now, so you have all the power to do that.

Also, step away from Facebook and e-mail. You know you want to play with dice more than pixels.

Learning From Board Games

Look at the average board game today. Everything has a visual representation. So use loads of maps, miniatures, counters and terrain. Everything and anything you can use to map out the action will help you stay involved.

Like board games, role-playing games don’t have to take heaps of time. Sit down and play out a scene, a battle or one session, with a clear start and end. That way you leave the table having completed a nice chunk that’s well defined. You’ll feel more rewarded for the effort.

Advice From The Pro’s

Head on over to SoloNexus for the mother load of tips. The site covers a wide range of table top games, not just role-playing.

Have any ideas on Starting Out? Please share them with us. Also, don’t forget the Twitter account @RisingPhoenixGM where I share all kinds of geeking.

Please note, some of these products have affiliate links so that I can make some money, which helps me keep this site going. However, I’ve only reviewed stuff I actually thought was worth recommending.

"Arrr, there be loot in that there crate!"

Battle Maps

What are pirates without their maps? And what’s a game session without a good battle map? A decent ship map has to be the first port of call for any piratical GM.

I went onto Amazon and bought the GameMastery Flip-Mat: Pirate Ship. It’s super useful, but there were aspects I didn’t like. One side has a top down view of two ships with gang planks between them while the other side has the lower levels of the primary ship, with parts repeated and parts missing (such as the ship’s wheel). I would have liked to be able to fold the map to reveal only one top view of a ship at a time. A nice aspect is that you can fold the map to show just one level of the ship, however, it is at the cost of multiple views of the action. Also, while masts are represented, there’s not much indication of where all the rigging is. There are some cheaper print and play maps out there that have done a nice job with rigging, so I really would have liked to see that here. My last gripe is about the ship’s texturing. I really like how they did the water, but the deck of the actual ship is a little too fake, in my opinion. That said, the map is fully compatible with the GameMastery Map Pack: Ship’s Cabins and makes it that little bit more useful. Unlike anything print and play, this is dry erase, which means you can write on it with markers – a huge plus.

For a cheaper option try out the Battlemap – Pirate & Ghost Ship, which looks really pretty. It’s print and play.

Music

I’ve been listening to the Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack as inspiration for my pirate adventure, which I actually got onto because our GM uses it in our current campaign. It creates the perfect mood whether your adventure’s nautical or other.

Also, because I’m a big fan, check out Blackmore’s Night’s – Loreley, which works nicely when timed right. They have a bunch more stuff that I’ve played at LARP’s, so I generally punt Blackmore’s Night whenever I can. I mean it’s Richie Blackmore for crying out loud. Deep Purple… you know. Smoke on the Water. Okay, okay, I’ve had my say.

Another band worth checking out, if only for inspiration, is Turisas, and their song Hunting Pirates.

Miniatures

I really like proper miniatures, in metal or plastic, but recently I’ve found paper miniatures to be super useful, especially when travelling to the next game session on a crowded train. I’ve looked at a number of printable miniatures and nothing “pirate” really appeals to me, whereas I really like the Militia Men available from onemonk.com. I think real pirates probably looked more like these guys than the popularised image of pirates. Then again, I was raised on Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play, so I may be biased.

As for metal and plastic figures, there are plenty out there, so I won’t review anything now. I just wish Wizards had released a few more pirate figures with their Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures; I think they only ever did one. Luckily though, there are also hundreds of pirate toys out there, like these, which may fit into your game, even if they’re a little cheesy. My advice: shop around.

Props

Pretty much any toy store will carry loads of pirate props – typically hats, eye-patches, pistols and swords. Look around a bit and you might even find pirate loot. Making a map is a pretty neat touch to any campaign and you can do that in a number of ways, from dipping paper in tea to stain it and burning the edges to designing something in Photoshop. Check out this tutorial on Wired.

Well, that should be enough to keep you, *ahem*, afloat. Got any other neat ideas? Please share, I’d love to hear from you.

I’m very excited about the upcoming Marvel Avengers movie, not because I particularly like the Avengers, but I just generally love Marvel. While I’m not the biggest collector out there, I’ve been a Spider-Man, X-Men and X-Force fan since I was a little kid.

I also love that Marvel HeroClix has a Marvel HeroClix Avengers set, which I think forms part of the restarting of the HeroClix line in general. South Africa even has a HeroClix site of our own and I’m really wishing I was there for some of the events. HeroClix, if you have not played it, is a neat skirmish tabletop war game that does a really good job of recreating the comics. In fact, in July last year I had a chance to play with some veterans and came to see just how meaty this game is, and I’d be the last to pass it off as a second rate game compared to something like Warhammer 40K.

Avengers Facebook Fail

I have a love hate relationship with Farcebook, I mean Facebook, but this time the blame falls squarely on the crooked shoulders of Playdom, a game company that produced Marvel Avengers Alliance.

On the surface the game is great: you get to play a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who coordinates the Avengers against some of the greatest Marvel villains of all time. Sure, you get more out of the game if you have gold, which you pay for with real money, but that’s okay, we as gamers are used to that. The problem is that you can loose gold through glitches and server disconnections. If people pay money and loose it due to a glitch, you can bet they will be angry. I’ve lost gold myself, along with a number of buffs I’d picked up through playing, which annoyed me more than a string of bad dice rolls. What I really didn’t like was that I had recommended the game early on to other Marvel fans. What do I look like now, I wonder?

Update

Almost a month on and I’m still getting thrown out, even with the latest version of Flash. It seems like only us PC users are suffering, from those I’ve asked. It’s surprising that I’ve stayed around so long.

An all too familiar sight on Avengers Alliance.

It seems, according to Playdom.com’s forum, that the issue with disconnects has been fixed. I have not been able to confirm this yet, but I’ll update you if I hear more. Of course, this is a popular game so there will be a heavy load on the server. Just be warned, is all I’m saying. You might be a lot safer playing HeroClix Online.

Fake doors, quicksand, slow sand and skeletons with bad aim... oh the horror!

Paranoia Pyramid

Somewhere is the Desert of Scales lies the pyramid of Tutmosiss (said with a snake like lisp), said to contain not only the entombed body of the snake-man pharaoh but also his valuable treasures, ripe for the picking. Of course, the legends say nothing of the undead legion protecting his sandy crypt, or the fact that the architect of the pyramid had a particularly dry sense of humour for someone born and raised in a waterless desert. Pardon the pun.

Download it here: Paranoia Pyramid (PDF, 1.92 MB)

The Science

First off, while I like science and have started enjoying maths since Varsity, I don’t consider myself to be science or maths brained much, even with my IT degree, but check this: draw a big square on an A4 page, then draw a big square in the rectangular space left over. You’re now messing with something called the Golden Ratio and might create, gasp, a Golden Spiral, with those squares getting smaller and smaller as you dice up those ever present rectangles.

Now, what do you get if you stack squares, starting with the largest at the bottom and ending with the smallest on top? A step pyramid!

So, you see, there is at least some method in my madness. While I didn’t divide up the entire A4 sheet using the golden ratio, it does, I think, provide Game Masters with a nice way to spread out the action over multiple levels on a single map.

For the Future

I’m seriously considering doing a mini solo adventure with this dungeon map, something like I did with Sentinels Watching. If you’d like to play this as a solo adventure or would rather I released something for a group why not let me know by leaving a comment. Of course, if you’re also in the running for the 1PDC why don’t you tell me where I can put in some work to beat your submission. May the most fearsome vault of fellowship fouling using a forlorn folio win the day.

Memorial Panel by Labattblueboy.

The History / Attribute Method of Name Creation

Places:
Many places get their names from either a prominent feature of the area or from the area’s history. New York was the “new” York and Cape Town was the “town in the Cape”. I like to name my towns in the same way, hence Willowton would be a town with many willow trees, South Fort would be a fort in the south and so on. You might feel that names are too basic when created like this, but you effectively achieve two things: you have an easy to remember name and it’s linked to a fact that adds colour to the location. Hobbiton, from JRR Tolkiens Lord of the Rings, is a good example of this type of name.

In a recent session, my players were passing an area of unmapped land so I had to create something on the fly. I came up with “Gold Bridge”, a pirate port city ruled by the pirate king Duke One Eye. The players never actually entered the town but later I went to my notes and added in some details, including how it got its name. This is an easy way to flesh out your own world one step at a time.

People:
The same can be applied to people, and old Duke One Eye is a good example. Do yourself a favour and watch Hot Fuzz and take note of some of the villagers’ surnames. Names like Thatcher, Cartwright, Cooper and Skinner are all occupations, but can be great links to what the NPC is all about too. Why not have a villain called John Butcher, or an NPC called Mr Slain? This kind of name can say something about the NPC or about the history of the character’s family.

Things:
A magical item can always be named after what it is. The Ring of Speed, the Bow of Death, the Sword of Flame and so on. If we get a little more creative we can take it a step further and call the same items The Quicksilver, The Widowmaker and The Inferno. Add in a little history about the item and we get Quicksilver of the Ancients, The Fallen Widowmaker and Inferno of the Spitting Sands.

The Fermented Method of Name Creation

This method uses several steps. First, take something from your surroundings as inspiration. I have the air conditioning remote near me so I’ll start with Air Con Remote. Now I want to change that to come up with a person’s name, so I’ll change it slightly to become Aaircon Renmot. It’s still too similar, so my next iteration is Aair Renton. Voilà, a person’s name is synthesised from the humble air conditioning remote. This method does take more time and I’d advise  letting your list of names sit for a day or two, just so you can have another go at them when you are in a different frame of mind.

Places:
Try and use changes that will in some way reflect the place you are naming. You might, for example, want something that sounds dwarvish for your dwarven city.

People:
Like in the example of the air conditioning remote, you’ll probably want two parts to the name. You can use different sources of inspiration to create the name. Keep at it until you find a name that fits nicely with the NPC, as it will inspire good role play and help players remember the character. You don’t want “Captain Bunny Slippers” to be the name of your big bad NPC at the end of the quest.

Things:
Things should be pretty easy to name, we could have the Ring of Asusuma (Asthma Inhaler), Sanshasses’ Bow (Sun Glasses) and the Blade of Cruthix (Chopsticks). The point is that you can use anything to create anything, just go with something you feel works for you and your players.

Foreign Languages

Having foreign sounding names may seem important to you, but if you need a name quickly then remember that you could always say something like: “Her name means ‘Silverleaf’ in the elven tongue”. If you have more time to devote to creating names I suggest drawing up a list of names to have handy for when you need them. Don’t forget Google too, there are loads of lists out there for you to scavenge from. Google Translate is particularly helpful for getting names from other languages such as Latin.

Have any great names to share? Leave a comment and let us know.

It’s voting time for Stuffer Shack’s Site of the Year. Don’t vote for us here. We don’t want to win, especially because we like all the attention we’re getting from just being in this competition.