One thing I've done in most of my games is use what I call Drama Cards. Originally the idea came from a buddy who used Torg Cards but I simplified it because at the time I couldn't get my hands on any Torg Cards.

Here's the gist of it.

I use a standard deck of playing cards. Remove all the cards I don't need. Usually this is the 6-10 cards but this could vary to your tastes and the game system used with.

That leaves the face cards (I pull half of those too), the jokers and the 1-5 cards. At the beginning of a game session, I shuffle and the Players draw three cards. Cards are useful of that game session only, no hold overs to a later game, use em or lose em.

Basic Rules.
Rule #1: The cards can never be used for your own character. They HAVE to be used for another PC OR NPC. Yes, you can help an NPC if you like, even an antagonist.

RED Cards are for NON-COMBAT conflicts.
BLACK cards are for COMBAT conflicts.

1-5 Cards are a bonus to a roll. Any roll.
Face cards are an auto-success.
Joker is wild. not only an auto-success, but a spectacular auto-success. This is how you cheat death and survive the vorpal blade somehow.

It's also important to narrate out the use of the cards/ successes for dramatic effect.

*Note: with the Drama cards in use I tend to be much more strict in my die-rolling, even rolling in front of people. They now have the tools to save themselves. I don't need to shelter them from a death by bad dice.

When I run a game, I admit, I am hesitant to kill PCs.

Usually part of this is due to the fact that I want the players to really dig their characters, put a lot of effort in to them, love playing them. They're NOT just a piece of paper or a pawn on a chessboard.

That said, I want their experience to be fun, scary, with a constant threat of danger and possibly even mortality. ( Read more... )

So how do you guys do it? What are your thoughts on killing PCs and fudging die rolls?

This was originally sparked by the Carcosa discussion going on.
Please see the following blog threads for reference:
http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2008/10/cowardice-of-modern-grognard-or.html   Gamer's opinion.
http://carcosa-geoffrey.blogspot.com/   The original author's blog/ rebuttal.
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/11/carcosa-responses.html  James has a multi-part review of the product.
http://emperyan.blogspot.com/2008/11/regarding-carcosa.html   My own review.


From Carcosa:
Here are sample rituals from the 1st Edition:
"Chaining of the Empty Maze: Once every 56 years in the night skies of the planet of Carcosa is a certain triple planetary conjunction. During this night this six-hour ritual can be performed. Sixty *Blue Men must be shackled in iron chains and burned alive on a huge pyre. Amidst their screams the sorcerer shouts the final phrases of the chant into the night sky. The Squamous Worm of the Pit will then be imprisoned, doomed to wander ceaselessly through the Empty Maze far to the north."
*there are lots of races of men in varieties of color, white, black, blue, red, etc. This is a racial distinction.

"Summon the Amphibious Ones: This eleven-hour ritual can be completed only on a fog-shrouded night. The sorcerer must obtain the root of potency found only in ruined apothecaries of the Snake-Men. The sacrifice is a virgin White girl eleven years old with long hair. The sorcerer, after partaking of the root, must engage in sexual congress with the sacrifice eleven times, afterwards strangling her with her own hair. As her life leaves her body, 10-100 of the Amphibious Ones will coalesce out of the mists." - Carcosa, page 31

At what point does something become inappropriate for entertainment?
Specifically, in an RPG, at what point does something (graphic violence) become unnecessary to detail out?

Answering my own question, off the top of my head I'd have to say it's a personal preference.

Some folks enjoy watching films that detail graphic violence. Rape, incest, murder of white/black/ orc/kobold children, women, men, elderly, burning people alive, strangling them with their own intestines...etc.

They aren't advocating it, right?
That makes it okay doesn't it?
(Some folks will agree with this line of thought)
[Note: this is the original author's position]

For MY part...I think it's bordering snuff films.

"So what do you think the Melneboneans do in their sorcerous rituals?"
I'm certain it's fair to assume that wicked evil men (or women) in any fantasy setting do horrific things, not limited to the above.

The difference is that the details aren't narrated out. They are alluded to, inferred, assumptions are made, and some mild gore on the periphery is present...but you never see a protagonist (especially) or antagonist ritually kill children, women, elderly, white/ black/ orc, on certain days, after raping them 120 times and strangling them with their own intestines.

Sure...we several instances where the first born children of entire cities are killed. Yes. Horrific. Certainly so. But we don't have the gory details.

Joel Rosenberg in the Guardians of the Flame series had a protagonist raped. It's an important part of the scene. No details beyond screams in the background (and also plenty of slant in perspective to make that an evil act).

Terry Goodkind's Mord Sith are heinous torturers and Richard Rahl (Cypher) is functionally raped as is Kahlan later in the series... It's not glorified, it's a clearly heinous act.

Conan, The Grey Mouser, The Tarnsman of Gor...the boundaries are pushed, but we don't really have the gory details of not just combat (which is questionably okay) but also rape, and downright murder of children, specific races, elderly, women, etc...for ritualized purposes...for a protagonist.

(Note, the Carcosa book that started this discussion has 96 rituals in detail about ritual sorcery (as shown above) for a PC Class called a Sorcerer. An important note on this is while every ritual requires human sacrifice, little more than a handful have rape involved (still heinous in my book). Final note on this, the Carcosa supplement removes Alignment from the game entirely. So there is no moral judgement whatsoever of the "good" or "evil" of The Sorcerer.)

So again, here's the question:

In light of all of this...where is the line where it crosses from being tasteful violence and evil acts done for essential "flavor" to color the antagonist(s) in an evil light...and a literary equivalent of a snuff film?

So last night I realized I was triple booked. Ended up getting started on some playtesting for something. Can't really talk about it, but the pucker-factor is pretty high. Missed the Misty Mountain Paint Group and the IGDA Meeting.

darkshiver  squared me away this morning: she found I hadn't tagged up my website at all, so I wasn't really found on websearches. Not good for name-branding, so I spent this morning digging up my login info (I've changed computers and I keep a paper copy of every webpage I log in to, just so I can always log in when I forget shit...or people can access my stuff once I'm dead). I updated my domain/ pages with tags so it's a little easier to search now.

katie_preston  's monitor (an old CRT) is dying the slow death. Goind to need to replace that soon. Crap!
Hopefully be receiving a check soon for art done months ago. I need some Taco Bell!

I'm going to hammer out an illy today that I've been holding out for. Kinda stoked.
I try and always do the hardest illustrations first and save the easiest ones for last.
Hardest= I don't necissarily know how I'm gonna do this one.
Easiest= Oh man, this is my bread and butter!

It's nice and chilly out. I have the house wide open (yet still dark, blinds drawn so I can see without glare from the monitor). I'm back in my favorite uniform: sweat pants, slippers, t-shirt and black hoodie (my favorite hoodie/ jacket) and my knit cap (which is ever-present as I'm trying to grow my hair out (again). I love working from home!

Tonight we're watching more Supernatural. Thursday and Friday as well most likely.
Saturday we've been anxiously awaiting because matt_m_mcelroy  is running something we're playing in.
Sunday is the campaign closer for WFRP.

Friday was D&D 4E with downwood and sabine791110 .
The game was interesting. The combats were frequent...well...pretty much constant. Actually...everything was either an encounter or a lull between encounters (like camping).

D&D 4E makes the combatants all pretty powerful. The PCs were all solid.
It takes a little getting used to how some of the powers and all that work...but it all seems to flow together pretty nicely.

What does D&D 4E do well?
Combats. Gamist play. PCs versus other combatants: stack them up and knock them down.

The Feel?
A cross between a miniatures game and WOW. Neverwinter Nights. Very gamey.


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Saturday was All Flesh Must Be Eaten with matt_m_mcelroy and darkshiver .
The game was awesome. We wandered in like lambs to the slaughter. Once we figured out what was happening...we were on the run. I got bitten first and fought the change for a long time. In the end Katie's character chews on a 12 gauge and my character turned.

AFMBE (well...the Unisystem in general) is awesome.

What does Unisystem do well?
Super simple, easy to keep the action flowing without getting bogged down in metagame tactics.

The Feel?
It felt like a Zombie RPG. The system is simple enough to be largely transparent. Not very gamey so it doesn't seem so much like you're playing a system. It's like you're just acting...then rolling dice afterward as kind of an afterthought.


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Overall...both game systems have merit, and do what they are designed to do well.


My own personal preference to be honest most certainly is not D&D 4E. It's about 180' from where I like to go in my games. Unisystem is growing on me and I'm really digging it. It's on my Top Shelf of games along with Dark Heresy/ WFRP, WoD and Savage Worlds.

Pretty stoked about this weekend and the coming week.

Gaming galore!

D&D 4E tonight with downwood  and sabine791110  (yes 4E. I really want to like it and am giving it another shot)

All Flesh Must Be Eaten or something else Horror-like with matt_m_mcelroy ,  darkshiver  and envertigo  ! (very stoked about this!)

Sunday is home-time, free of any interaction with humans.

Tuesdays are SR4 with aaron_pike ,  billzilla  and some other cool peeps.

Next weekend I intend to wrap up the WFRP Campaign on Sunday.