DM Tips: Fun and Balanced Encounters

Introduction! I've seriously tried writing the intro to this eight times and hate every version, so let's jump right in. Balancing encounters (for challenge and fun) really falls into three parts: Planning, on-the-fly, when the dice misbehave.

Planning Encounters:
1. Don't use one big monster. It never works well. Single monsters go down too quickly or not at all. In the latter, you're asking for a party wipe. Bosses can have minions to run interference, just give the party more than one target to give them something to do.
2. The books have a fair number of tools for planning balanced encounters. Use them.
3. Try to have enemies that mirror the party's abilities. The rogue wants to flank and sneak attack. The warriors want to crush skulls in melee and fell foes en masse. The ranger wants to take out key targets with precise attacks from afar. Clerics heal, mages incinerate things.
4. Error on the side of too many too weak enemies rather than too few stronger enemies. It feels more heroic to charge in and cut down five goblins rather than spend the entire battle dealing blows to a single ogre.
5. Plan varied encounters. Something tense to glue everyone to the edge of their seats followed by a much easier encounter to build confidence is rather effective.   Look up the Star Wars tension graph for how you should plan encounter challenge levels. (Moderate, easy, moderate, slightly challenging,  easy, slightly challenging,  tough, moderate, and so on).
6. Keep notes to avoid cross-referencing to a minimum.  You're driving the game, try to keep from pulling over to check a monster's AC or attack bonus.
7. Plan for variations. This ties into the next part - you want to be prepared with a slightly different encounter if things start going poorly for the party.

On-the-fly counterbalancing:
1. If a monster goes down too quickly,  give it an extra 50% to its hit points to make the fight last longer. If the party is struggling, go the other way. The players don't know the monster's HP, so this is one of the best tricks. If the party knows this type of monster's HP (roughly) then give an in game reason for the difference (e.g. it has deep cuts from a previous battle).
2. When setting up a battle, decide how many enemies to send at the party then.  This shoild vary from your original plan to balance for the party's current state. If the last battle was tougher than expected, take an enemy or two out of the picture to give the players a breather.  Again,  this works great because the party doesn't know what you planned,  so they won't notice the difference.
3. Battle is too easy?  Additional enemies are easy to write in (they heard the battle and came to help their friends).
4. Battle too hard? If you fudge numbers, don't give any indication that you did so.  Better yet, don't fudge numbers (maybe ignore a poorly timed critical hit).  If you suddenly start rolling poorly every time the party is in dire straits, they'll know. Players don't like this. It removes all tension from encounters. Let bad things happen - just don't go for the kill out of spite.  Remember, they can always run away... if they're not trapped.

Bad dice:
1. When a player consistently rolls crap, give them another roll every once in a while.  "Your deity smalls on you, granting you another chance. Roll again." Or maybe, "You strike hard against the bugbear's shield, throwing off his guard. You may take an attack of opportunity." This seems to contradict my advice, on dice fudgery, but players appreciate when you throw them a bone from crap dice.  The dice can ruin their plans - and their fun. Just don't do it all the time.
2. When you consistently roll crap, suck it up. You're not the hero here. Unless it's a battle between NPCs that should be awesome at what they do. In that case, why the hell are you wasting the players' time by rolling?
3. If you consistently roll well, let the players hurt. If it will be a wipe, start plotting how they survive that doesn't involve fudging the dice. They were captured, rescued by NPC, saved by divine intervention, whatever. If all else fails, give them a one-time do-over of the battle (divine intervention?). My point is there are better ways to avoid a party wipe than removing all sense of danger by clearly fudging rolls.

See you next week.

DnD 3.5e House Rule: Fate Points for d20 - The End of Natural 1?

I've recently been playing in a Pathfinder game.  During this last session, nearly half of my rolls were natural 1.  As a player, this was awful.  As a player, poor rolls are just awful.  You're running along, acting the hero, then the dice turn against you.  Suddenly, you're a bad parody, slipping and tripping and throwing your weapon across the room.  From hero to jester in the roll of a die!  I've never seen rolls this bad, but it really drives the point home.

It just seems wrong.

Also recently, my friend has been discussing the Fate system with me.  Fate points are particularly intriguing, allowing a player to take control of the situation and more directly influence the narrative.  By spending a fate point the player calls upon some aspect of their character to act without rolls (or with high bonuses to rolls) to drive the story momentarily.  This is a really great concept, and one I'd like to adapt for d20.

Wait, doesn't d20 have something like this called action points?  These are similar ideas, but action points rely on further randomness.  They're also overly complicated, honestly.  They have several uses, roll some number of dice that depend on your level, and your pool doesn't regenerate in any way between leveling.  Usage is confusing, so action points go unused.

Since I don't think my gaming group would enjoy taking direct control of the narrative, I'm going to use fate points in the following ways, blending them with the use of action points:

• You may spend a fate point to gain a +10 on any d20 roll.  With this usage, you may spend multiple fate points to increase the bonus.
• You may spend a fate point to use an ability that is out of daily uses.  This includes class features (such as Rage, Bardic Music, Wild Shape, Turn Undead, Smite, etc.), feats, and spells (you may "recall" any one spell that had been prepared that day per fate point spent).

That's it - a simple usage to allow the players some control over what happens to their characters when the dice go bad, but how does this relate to natural 1?  When a player rolls a natural 1, they are awarded a fate point.  Whatever happens, at least there's some solace that their luck will even out a bit, but is it enough?

Should natural 1 be automatic failure?  Should natural 1 result in spectacular failure?  These are deeper questions that have long-reaching effects.  One of the primary responsibilities of a DM is fair and consistent ruling.  Ruling that natural 1 may not result in the occasional spectacular failure could prevent some amazing stories coming from the table.  Ruling that natural 1 always results in failure guarantees groans when the dice go south.  This is certainly a table-by-table basis, but the introduction of fate point should lessen the blow for poor rolls.

This is something I'll be trying out starting tonight, so we'll see how it goes.  I'll have to update this post once I have some evidence of how well this works out and what needs to be tweaked (such as how large should a fate pool be).

See you next week.

Hatsune Miku Project Diva F

There were very few games at PAX my wife was intending to play at PAX.  Hatsune Miku Project Diva F was one of them, but the line was consistently long enough to deter us.  However, since the game launched before PAX, there was a demo waiting on the PlayStation Store.  We played late into the night - hours consumed by this distinctly Japanese rhythm game, or rather, it's demo consisting of three songs.

Project Diva is one of those games you just don't expect to see released outside of Japan.  The entire game centers on J-Pop vocaloids.  However, this niche focus is largely what makes the game stand out.  All the aethetics are built to that cute/anime theme.  The visuals are vivid and alive, and a lot of work has been poured into giving the vocaloids personality.  The soundscape is fully complemented by the music videos and menus.  In short, it all looks and sounds right.

It feels right, too.  The gameplay is challenging and deeper than the Dance Dance Revolution predecessors - or it just feels that way because the designers clearly built the interactions specifically for the PS3 controller. Aside from the usual push/hold <button> at the right time, flicking a control stick acts as a fifth button. Then there are the strong notes.  These require pressing a button and matching directional button at the same time.  This seems like nothing special,  but its usage is reserved (in most cases) for when the vocaloids hit those notes they need to belt out or when you hit the emotional high of the song.  It really pulls you into the song, and there's just nothing quite like landing a series of notes with a strong note finisher.

On top of an excellent rhythm game, there's plentiful customization.  While playing, you unlock further songs and earn Diva Points to buy new outfits and accessories for your vocaloids.  Each song allows you to choose and customize your performer, which adds a nice personal touch to every video.  There's a fair assortment of these outfits and items, ranging from cute to sexy to kind-of-slutty to goofy.  Accessorize however you want, the game won't judge.

There's also a feature where you can visit the vocaloids in their room to give them gifts and play games with them (rock-paper-scissors), but it feels creeper-y.  It's like the voyeuristic version of The Sims.  However, certain items are unlocked by leveling up your affinity with each vocaloid, requiring you to play this part of the game for 100% completion.

Finally,  we get to the editing tools. The toolset is extremely powerful and more than a little overwhelming.   You have an incredible amount of control, and I'm sure there will be some amazing music videos from die-hard fans.  However, anyone with a passing interest will likely be too intimidated to try their hand.

What Project Diva amounts to is an excellent rhythm game with several features built purely as fan service.  The controls are slick, intuitive, and approachable for newcomers, yet the incredible challenge of higher difficulties will keep advanced players more than entertained for hours on end.  There's absolutely no reason not to try the demo, so give it a go and find out if this game is for you.  Even if it sounds like something you wouldn't like, take the time to try it.  At the very least, you'll have a unique gaming experience, and at best you'll discover a new game you love and some excellent earworms.

TL;DR: Try the demo now to find out if you'll love it.  Buy it if you do.
Most Like: Final Fantasy Theatrhythm

See you next week.

Re: PAX 2013

This marks my second year of PAX.  While I certainly enjoyed it more this year (having not just been laid off), it really felt like there was a lack of excitement.  There were no "must play" titles.  Not even the new consoles drew my interest:  The Xbox One is a system without a soul (due to the great redaction of features/requirements), and the PS4 is only a marginal improvement for the end user (developers on the other hand...).  So what was worth checking out?

Crypt of the Necrodancer
The Indie Megabooth is the shining jewel of PAX.  It's the home of games you didn't know existed - the type that are truly exciting and interesting.  Topping that list for me is Crypt of the Necrodancer, a rhythm-based dungeon crawler with an excellent retro aesthetic and astounding sound to back it up.  It's beat-based turn system drives the player to constant action, demanding "flow" level concentration, instantly putting the player "in the zone."  I wholeheartedly recommend this one, so go preorder it now.

Tengami
This zen point-and-click (touch?) adventure is a wondrous work of beauty.  The game plays like a pop-up book (such that any scene could be made into a physical, functioning page).  This is one of those games that sells you on the visual style, and it's just a fantastic world to explore.  Absolutely worth a look, and I'll definitely be getting it on Wii U early next year.  However, you could get it for iOS later this fall.

Neverending Nightmares
Horror is my thing.  I haven't tried the demo yet, but the looping trailer was enough to make my skin crawl.  This is the game about the developer's own struggles with mental illness, which promises a unique experience.  If that's the sort of thing you're into, go back this one.  If not, try the demo, available on their Kickstarter page.

Honorable Mentions
Armello - Turn-based strategy with for iOS with awesome antrhopomorphic animal characters.  Too bad I don't have an iPad.
Repopulation - An MMO that structures what quests you get based on your actions.  Certainly intriguing.
Legend of Dungeon - Think New Super Mario Bros as a procedurally-generated dungeon-crawling beat-em-up.  With hats.  Keep an eye on this one (or maybe buy it while it's in beta).

Paint and Take
Aside from the excellence of indies, my favorite part of PAX was Reaper Miniatures' free paint-and-take: Pick a model, paint it, and take it home.  Simple, fun, and a great marketing idea.  It's the equivalent of getting the free Magic the Gathering deck in your PAX swag bag.  You get to try it for free, and they might earn a new loyal customer.  I'm totally sold on their paints now; they dry fast and mix well.  The bottles utilize spouts (similar to a super glue bottle), which works much better than a simple paint well.  They'll be doing a Kickstarter later this year, so watch out for that if you like giant bone creature minis.

Sorry for the late post yet again, but I forgot that PAX was coming up.  I'll get back on schedule this week.

See you Friday.