tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34201953154431365832024-03-13T05:13:22.902-07:00Culture LootWorking to expand beyond standard, core fantasy with fluffy, crunchy posts.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07088749487571630225noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-66467055075781216842013-06-18T12:03:00.006-07:002013-06-18T12:03:53.782-07:00Evolving Encounter Design<h4>
</h4>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1qQGrSyKBZ__ik-oHAF7QMOYS8lXxWris-za7BGoh0pwtTFSL_S1W-aIbCDWofbgjc-ePZaMIaKyvZ0tTqCa_dNtwMe-cs_HK5y9cf85nf9CwkY4M7xSPkx6msf1wdf_N6MyZsLe_9Y/s1600/sea+beast+fight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1qQGrSyKBZ__ik-oHAF7QMOYS8lXxWris-za7BGoh0pwtTFSL_S1W-aIbCDWofbgjc-ePZaMIaKyvZ0tTqCa_dNtwMe-cs_HK5y9cf85nf9CwkY4M7xSPkx6msf1wdf_N6MyZsLe_9Y/s200/sea+beast+fight.jpg" width="200"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Almost took out two <br>
players with this one.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A while back one of my friends asked if I could make a post about encounter design. Riding high on a couple views here and there, I guaranteed that would be the next post though I wasn't entirely certain what exactly I would be describing. Five posts and several months later, I'm finally getting around to it. Trying to put together my planning method into a coherent design post, I've discovered something interesting. I've been making some pretty awful encounters. <br>
<br>
Now this doesn't mean that I think of myself as bad at DMing. Indeed, this exercise will hopefully make me a better one. Having had time recently to play on a regular basis has, of course, done some of the same. What I intend to do (and what I will describe) is how I plan to change how I make encounters and my reasons behind that.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/2013/06/evolving-encounter-design.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07088749487571630225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-7513927972583125762013-03-30T16:51:00.002-07:002013-03-30T16:51:39.076-07:00Crit-Failed Craft (Blogposts)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijBEmqegxKYZPDVy0mhPJPjIzN1xfJHKSxYDrA21gvRp1dNpyHjxjpfIPRP5QXfGhifXHf1SlpXMpxrFOHGUUou8sJ_f0CWNQKu8uOlaanI6X7zw_C2rc1PFjeSHsTsf-QIeop3fxTpPo/s1600/TableTopDay_logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijBEmqegxKYZPDVy0mhPJPjIzN1xfJHKSxYDrA21gvRp1dNpyHjxjpfIPRP5QXfGhifXHf1SlpXMpxrFOHGUUou8sJ_f0CWNQKu8uOlaanI6X7zw_C2rc1PFjeSHsTsf-QIeop3fxTpPo/s200/TableTopDay_logo.png" width="185" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apparently this is a thing! Who knew?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My last post was way back in February and I'm rather embarrassed about that. I'd like to pin it on the demon of not getting enough time to game, but I've actually had the chance to play pretty consistently since then and am on my way to a <a href="http://www.tabletopday.com/">TableTopDay</a> game with my old home crew. My plan is to begin posting again in a more focused way as I've now got several things I'd really like to talk about. For now though, I just want to make a quick recap of recent gaming to kind of center my thoughts.<br />
<br />
The game I've been playing the most has been using Pathfinder rules with the game world of Ecletia that I've partially described. It's been fantastically steampunk-y and quite a lot of fun so far. I'm still working out a couple of kinks (such as deciding whether having a player Skype in is useful or distracting) and getting a good working schedule. The main structure I've been using is a plot-line (which unfortunately has been a little railroady to start) which culminates each session in an interesting battle of some kind. I'm really not sure how this hasn't been something that I've done from the beginning. There's really no excuse for the Boss Encounter at the end not to have something cool or interesting to change the flow of combat. The first session of Ecletia I put the battle on two airships careening down out of the sky which worked very well, but I think I dropped the ball on the second. I simplified an element at the last minute to being just a boon for the players instead of the threat/boon I'd originally planned.<br />
<br />
I'm now about to head over to a friend's to play a one shot of some kind. We're looking to use the <a href="http://danielbayn.com/wushu/">Wushu</a> rules to keep things simple but haven't actually decided upon a genre to play in. In all honesty, this plan came together approximately two hours ago total so not a whole has been discussed at all. I'm realizing that although I spend quite a bit of time and effort planning plots and ideas for my ongoing campaign, I'm just about never totally ready if something unexpected comes up as a chance to play something. It won't do any good for today, but I'm thinking it could be worthwhile to write up some interesting genre-generic plots that I think I can cover in a single session for times when I don't get the chance to plan things.<br />
<br />
In any case, happy Easter and wishes of good gaming from Culture Loot!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07088749487571630225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-21228789976794510772013-02-09T22:59:00.002-08:002013-02-09T22:59:55.542-08:00The World of EcletiaWhen we sat down to play <a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/2013/01/dawn-of-worlds-dear-game-makers-make.html">Dawn of Worlds</a> the intention wasn't just to play the game for the fun of playing, but to make a world we would actually want to make. A couple of things were decided ahead of time. We were going to make a world with all new non-human races, at least a hint of Steampunk, and a focus that isn't on humans. I am currently in the process of using Eclipse to make the races to be used with Pathfinder rules which actually doesn't seem like it will need a lot of houserules beyond the races themselves. This post is just attempting to describe the world as a whole and give a listing of the races. I'm going to order this in the order that the races came to be so as to follow the narrative as it was written. Some things remain unnamed as we are still working out details.<br>
<a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-world-of-ecletia.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07088749487571630225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-76307360415873964912013-01-29T17:14:00.003-08:002013-01-29T17:14:42.713-08:00Undiscovered Loot Info<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">I often bounce between quite a few different computers when I'm working on things and oftentimes am not especially well organized. I've decided instead of keeping it all packed away behind private Google documents that I'll toss some of my in-progress blogging and worldbuilding into a link here on the blog. The content there will likely be even more loose and disorganized than normal posts with little in the way of formatting. The good thing about this is that it will allow me to post things without needing to spam any RSSers (beyond this initial post. Sorry). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">If you are interested in the undiscovered loot check it out <a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html">here</a> or follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/CultureLoot">twitter </a>where I will be posting when there are updates. Thanks for reading and good gaming out there!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07088749487571630225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-76051037659000689892013-01-28T15:07:00.001-08:002013-01-28T15:07:32.926-08:00The Relative Evil Scale<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigPSp7Dbq7jCDM5hDVixDJaQVLLRhyphenhyphenFqFt4p4SXJwtgmQTxHWdRRf9IhfOepOSQMmAjAVoO3wf7IFW6oNwr9IM9Gv8TvXnucq7YtA6XhrVMWYaqZnFTXyxDXqwcGUZnD52_2utuR9HpC8/s1600/samspade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigPSp7Dbq7jCDM5hDVixDJaQVLLRhyphenhyphenFqFt4p4SXJwtgmQTxHWdRRf9IhfOepOSQMmAjAVoO3wf7IFW6oNwr9IM9Gv8TvXnucq7YtA6XhrVMWYaqZnFTXyxDXqwcGUZnD52_2utuR9HpC8/s320/samspade.jpg" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This guy didn't multiclass paladin.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
During my undergraduate years I wrote for a detective radio drama that aired once a week with a brand new mystery. When it started out things were pretty simple; bad guy shows up, detective figures him out, bad guy goes to jail. As this started to slowly begin to feel stale the other writers and I played around with adding longer lasting characters and plot lines without a whole lot of concern for tone. Then we realized that we had made a terrible mistake. As the episodes went by our villains kept getting meaner and meaner as our main character started getting more and more humanitarian. We can't have a sparkly clean hero! This is a 1930's noir for crying out loud!<br>
<br>
We sat down one day to discuss this weird change in tone and to try to
figure out how to fix it. What we came up with then is something I now
do every time I am running a campaign. It does an excellent job
preventing alignment creep and can even be used to avoid stereotyping a
specific class of character as being always good or always bad. I have
come to call it the Relative Evil Scale. <br>
<br>
<a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-relative-evil-scale.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07088749487571630225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-10180497092715117562013-01-26T23:59:00.000-08:002013-01-26T23:59:13.456-08:00Dawn of Worlds: Dear Game Makers, Make This<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSrMg44m3RrVBmvVt9Sza8QoKEuwgP8a986P4Pun6qXuQmS1zMDngUlQYFhQOsS5W5xxdQhBigqHyXtAMnaKTKAECM85A1-eGvjH4PSt1ndaY-xEqiubh1j1lPlBeY3y63Ykp0BjeI8mY/s320/ecletia.jpg" width="320"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our Rough-Draft In-Game Map.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I mentioned in my <a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/2013/01/d-4e-play-report-lots-of-fun-not-lots.html#more">previous post on 4e</a> that I also got a chance this week to play the free world-building game <a href="http://www.clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf">Dawn of Worlds</a> from the apparently long defunct Legends Games. I mentioned as well a decided contrast between the two games that I think goes beyond the different group composition or the method in which we played. While I enjoyed both of them immensely, I think that where we got lucky with Dawn of Worlds is that we played it with a nearly perfect setup: playing through Google Hangouts using Tabletop Forge with a group that hadn't discussed too many world specifics ahead of time. I'm going to likely be making more posts soon regarding what we actually created, but for now I want to look more at the process and why you should already be getting a group of people together to make your very own world.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/2013/01/dawn-of-worlds-dear-game-makers-make.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07088749487571630225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-67106403865242159002013-01-25T12:41:00.000-08:002013-01-25T12:41:13.807-08:00D&D 4e Play Report: Lots of Fun, Not Lots of RPThis past week (while I was fastidiously failing to post anything here) I had the opportunity for the first time ever to break out my gaming stuff twice in one week. Well, to break out my gaming stuff twice in one week with other people. I'm going to be giving each of these an article separately (as I can't manage a short post to save my life) but I think that it bears mentioning the second game simply because it will contrast so much with the first. I played a mostly core-fantasy D&D 4e game in person with my hometown group and then a couple days later played made a steampunk kind of world using Dawn of Worlds through G-hangout with some members of the new group.<br>
<br>
<h3>
Character Generation and Setup</h3>
<h3>
<br></h3>
My first gaming experience
was with the 3.5 rules of Dungeons and Dragons and from the beginning I
found most of that pretty intuitive. Sure, there can be some weird
things with grappling and character building can be something of an
enjoyable challenge, but it more or less makes sense the majority of the
time. If there's a build that doesn't work out well I feel like I can
look at the sheet and quickly know where the problem is. When 4e came
out I assumed that my previous experience would carry over in a
meaningful way. Unfortunately, it really hasn't. <br>
<br>
<a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/2013/01/d-4e-play-report-lots-of-fun-not-lots.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07088749487571630225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-15005205137819135852013-01-14T18:20:00.002-08:002013-01-14T18:20:53.670-08:00Half Cooked Race: The CragbornNext week I'm going to be running a world building game (likely <a href="http://www.clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf">Dawn of Worlds</a>) that I've been tweeting, G+ing, chatting, and basically doing everything but blogging about. The original stated goal had been to sit down and create a whole new fantasy world right then when we get together. Unfortunately, just knowing that this was coming up got some creative juices flowing and (gamers being gamers) I've had a couple of discussions with people in the game and (worst of all) I've already come up with a race that I intend to put into the game. Hopefully history and other players will leave their mark on the beasts as well, but this should serve as a kind of proto-race going in.<br>
<br>
In an effort to bring about a world that has bits of fun and whimsy in it, I've created the cragborn. The name is pending on that because I kind of hate it, but haven't come up with anything better yet. This race will likely be the tribal-not-fully-understood hairy things off away from civilization that everybody is somewhat concerned will take over the world. However, instead of the world having something to hold them back, their own ineptitude is enough to prevent a hostile takeover. You see, these monstrous furry beasts make all of their buildings, armor, and weapons out of ice.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/2013/01/half-cooked-race-cragborn.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07088749487571630225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-65953338579734117402013-01-04T09:27:00.000-08:002013-01-04T09:27:28.137-08:00New Gaming Group, Old Content<div style="text-align: left;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.rpgba.org/images/RPGBlogCarnivalLogoSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.rpgba.org/images/RPGBlogCarnivalLogoSmall.jpg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">January 2013: New Beginnings</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>I'm very excited to be posting in my first RPG Blog Carnival which is generously being hosted by <a href="http://www.koboldenterprise.com/january-rpg-blog-carnival-new-beginnings/#/vanilla/discussion/embed/?vanilla_discussion_id=0">Kobold Enterprise</a>.</i> <i>Thank you for reading!</i><br>
<br>
Apart from a very short stint playing a couple of one shots in college, I've played pretty much exclusively with one group for the past twelve or so years. We all pretty much got into gaming at the same time from a mutual love of fantasy books and our explorations into tabletop gaming more or less happened simultaneously. There were occasional times when someone would bring a game over from another group, but I at least didn't really experience that. We played on and off through the years in a variety of systems and settings, but the core group of about five guys was pretty much unchanged.<br>
<br>
I've now moved to a new city and although I absolutely intend to keep playing with the old group (Hi guys!) I'm also getting very involved with a new group of players (Hi guys!). This new group has only been playing for about a year and is HUGE (sixteen players mixed about evenly by gender). The first game I played with them was a 4e game with eight players not including the DM. I don't think I've ever played a game with so many people in it simultaneously and this is apparently the normal amount of people to show up at a game. The culture of the group is also very different as they accept that the players from one session to another could be pretty much entirely different. I've just started to try to get involved DMing with that and it leaves open one important question. How freaking cool is this?!<br>
<br>
</div><a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-gaming-group-old-content.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07088749487571630225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-53134655592179503932013-01-02T13:52:00.000-08:002013-01-02T13:53:43.617-08:00Faerie Elves: Elven Subraces SimplifiedWhen I first played D&D 3.5, it was very exciting to me that not only could I be a charming, fleet-footed elf, but that I had dozens of choices for what kind of elf I could be. After quite a bit of waffling between the dozens of possibilities, I ended up backing down and going with a half-elf despite the low-crunch benefits of it. I just couldn't get enough meaningful background on any one elven race that separated it from every other one. Wood elves make sense, but what separates them thematically from wild elves? Aquatic elves sound awesome, but I will likely be on land most of the time anyway. What on earth is a grey elf? At least as a half-elf the confusion about the finer points of elven life could be in character.<br>
<br>
This original battle with elven culture grew into a distinct dislike of the knife-earred archer-mages that until very recently has endured. I've now decided that in my games I will do away with the multitude of elven subraces and cut things down to three types of elves with a single stat block. If a player wishes to change the stat block I tend to be fairly flexible, but these are the three core variants that I allow. The elves are no longer just vaguely connected to the faerie, but thematically partially fae creatures. In a sense, the elven races are the continued lines of half-faerie.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/2013/01/faerie-elves-elven-subraces-simplified.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07088749487571630225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-70178311650947893512012-12-26T16:49:00.001-08:002012-12-26T16:49:13.200-08:00Ancient Dwarven Spirits<div style="text-align: center;">
"<i>As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves."</i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><br></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Dwarves are one of my favorite fantasy races. There's just something utterly fascinating about miniature warriors that think they are just as big and strong as anyone else. Their hubris and often sour attitudes only makes them even more charming from an outside point of view. The biggest trouble with dwarves is that despite the rapidly expanding face of fantasy dwarves have stayed pretty much homogeneous as little angry, bearded Scotsmen wielding axes who are unified against everyone else in the world. The duergar offer a variation on this but still pretty much fit under that umbrella. What I think the dwarven world needs is something to break up the unity that makes them all kind of seem the same.<br>
<br>
The path that I'm taking on this is to separate the dwarves religiously. The older, more conservative dwarven tradition will be one focused upon ancestor worship while younger, less traditional dwarves will begin to take up the common gods of the world.<br>
<br>
<br>
</div><a href="http://cultureloot.blogspot.com/2012/12/ancient-dwarven-spirits.html#more">Read more »</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420195315443136583.post-78952458183385255402012-12-25T22:50:00.003-08:002012-12-25T22:50:38.224-08:00Beginning BloggingI feel like on a certain level it doesn't make sense to put too much time or effort into an introduction post, but after years of schooling and writing I'd feel terribly improper to just dive into content. Unfortunately, I've never been exceptionally good at the whole introduction part as I tend to either get ahead of myself or babble on without any truly useful information as seems to be the case now. To try to prevent this from getting too much worse, I'll just hit the big main points and allow other posts to speak for themselves.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>What Is This Blog?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Culture Loot is a blog dedicated to the hobby of tabletop role-playing gaming. Specifically my intention is to post (likely on a weekly basis) a good chunk of rpg content that is a healthy mix of fluff and crunch. The idea is that these chunks will have a general thematic discussion (for example my upcoming Dwarven Traditions post) complete with direct application to character building ideas, some relevant feat/spell/item, and an encounter description. I'm not entirely certain I'll be able to live up to this promise, but that's the goal at least. <br />
<br />
<b>Who Are You?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
I am a graduate psychology student that has been playing pen and paper games for a bit over a decade. I started out on Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 as a DM and have since had the chance to play on both sides of the screen. DMing is what I enjoy most, but I unfortunately don't have the time to run every game or idea that I would like to. In a sense, that is part of the motivation for this blog. This way I can build on ideas that I've got in my head without needing to work them directly into one more game in an already hectic schedule.<br />
<br />
<b>What Do You Play?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
At the moment, I am playing in two games and DMing another. There are also quite a few intended one-shots and another campaign that may be starting up with the new year. These games don't meet often, unfortunately, but it is what we as a group have time for. The current games that I am playing are a 4e fantasy romp, a Dice Chuckers pop-culture filled world-hopping game, and my own 1930's Noir/Fantasy game using a modified version of Dogs In The Vineyard. I've also played primarily one-shot games of GURPs, Mutants and Masterminds, Wushu, FATE, Serenity, Kobolds Ate My Baby, and many others.<br />
<br />
I hope that this blog can provide you with some ideas, hooks, and toys to add to your enjoyment of gaming! I'll be posting my first real article tomorrow which hopefully will help to set the tone for what I'm going for.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0