The Value of Genuine Success

I'm going to say a whole bunch of extremely unpopular opinions here. Get ready to have your modern gaming sensibilities threatened.

The RPG Renaissance is Bullshit.

Since 2012 with the appearance of D&D Next, which progressed to 5th edition around the same time Critical Role found its audience, the RPG hobby has experienced a massive growth. Thousands upon thousands of new players of all ages are discovering D&D for the first time right now. In general, this is a good thing, I think. It means the RPG industry is getting a much needed influx of cash to perpetuate professional game design in a previously oversaturated and underfunded market. It also means gamers now have more options of where to play and who to play with than they ever did in the past. That's the good in the RPG renaissance. Full stop. There's some bad.

Oh god, what has my generation done?!

I'm a millennial. I was born in 1988. I remember a time when nobody I knew and no schools in town had computers. I remember when cell phones were weird things you only saw in movies about New York business people. I remember riding bikes, swimming in a lake, building tree forts, and actual chalk boards in class.

In a span of 30 years, we went from that to THIS. And this just keeps getting wilder. Every house has MULTIPLE computers of varying forms, all of which are interconnected by a variety of methods. We manage our lives with pocket computers with full touch screen interface. 3D graphics have reached a point of near-photo-realism. We now live in a time where a new born child will learn to type before they learn to ride a bike or swim.

That insane change of culture and technology had a pretty big impact on my generation. Mostly we just feel confused and overwhelmed, but also excited, but also worried about where the future might take us. This song adequately expresses my feeling of being left behind and lost in the tidal wave of technological progress.

...But people keep criticizing my generation, saying that technology has given us inappropriate expectations of life. That we seek instant gratification, that we believe we deserve good things by virtue of being alive. That kind of stuff. I used to scoff at those articles. I'm not like that. My friends aren't like that.

D&D has taught me that me and my friends are statistical outliers. We are the weirdos of my generation. Me and most of the other financially poor kids with conservative parents. For the majority of millennials, all of that criticism is 100% true. I have learned this through interacting with new players my age and younger and comparing their beliefs and attitudes to my own and those of older generations of gamers. The difference is striking, but it appears most clearly in how people expect a D&D game to be run today. To understand that, you need to understand Matt Mercer a little bit.

*swoon*

Now, I like Mercer. A lot. He is the best DM for that show, and he really makes it what it is. Hell, he's probably the most talented DM I've ever watched. He has had a profound impact on popularizing D&D, more so than any other celebrity DM at the moment. He is an incredible DM who has shown talent at running very large games efficiently, and even running satisfying solo-player games for newbies within 30 minutes. Every DM has something to learn from Mercer.

But more importantly, he is a professional voice actor. A performer. The games he runs are not really games, so much as they are shows. Thousands of people tuned in every week to watch him and his players (also professional actors) improvise an exciting narrative within the framework of a fairly heavily customized 5th edition D&D system. And these people take that experience away and want to become a part of something like that. So they go and play D&D for real. And while Mercer has been very vocal about the fact that most people's games won't (and shouldn't) look like his show, that message isn't getting out anywhere near on the same level as the influence of the show, and it fails to address the core problem of the expectations Critical Role has set for thousands of people.

The core problem? People are coming to the table expecting roleplay. When you present them with a game, they feel neglected and cheated. They want to tell stories, not overcome legitimate challenges. They want to experience an emergent narrative, not plan the logistics of a 10 day sea trip to the next city. They have mistaken the roleplay, the performance element of D&D as its core and primary purpose, its main function.

But that's not D&D. In fact, that's not even RPGs in general. There's a whole separate hobby community for that.

The kings of roleplay at work.

It's just called roleplay. There's whole forums and chat services dedicated to it.

There's also collaborative fiction communities as well.

But very few people know about that. And the folks on Critical Role are playing D&D, sort-of. And D&D is part of the cultural consciousness. So people gravitate to what they know, even if they don't really understand it.

If all you want to do is tell fun stories and improv act with your friends, I have to ask: why do you need a game system? Or character sheets? Or dice? What does that add aside from the chance of anticlimactic results and narrative breaking limitations?

Now, I love roleplay! I've spent countless hours participating in wiki, chat, and forum RPs, and even did a little live RP play when I got older. I still sometimes go back and dabble in it from time to time. And I've gotta say: that hobby needs a renaissance! They are really struggling to remain active and relevant, much the same as how RPGs were 10 years ago. And RP is still core to the RPG experience, it is in the name after all, but it's not the only or primary purpose of play. I've also gotta say, I think the RP hobby has a lot more of what the new D&D players are really looking for than D&D proper can deliver on.

Surprise! It's all crass entertainment! Hooray!

But, culture changes in stupid ways, and this is how the hobbies are evolving. Standard RP is dying out while RPGs abandon the G in their name.

Typical.

Kind of like how what was once country music would now be called folk, what was rock would now be called country, what was metal would now be called rock, and metal has become some ridiculous caricature of itself.

The ignorance of the masses defines the nature of the culture we live in.

Personally though, I believe this hobby is inherently about playing a Game with a capital G. I am a GM. I am not here to suck your dick or blow smoke up your ass, I'm here to present you with meaningful challenges that you can overcome using your own ingenuity, teamwork, and dedication. I am here to give you the experience of a well-earned meaningful success, an experience that you can learn from, grow from, and take with you into the rest of your life.

And hopefully, I'll learn something from you in the process as well.

Come with me, and you'll be, in a world of arbitrary dungeons!

STA Player Reference Sheet

MORE FREE STUFF

The above is a link to a player reference sheet. It uses the language from my notes, so unless you're familiar with that, it may seem a little confusing. It lists alll actions, all spends, the task resolution process, a guide to attributes and disciplines, and a reference fro challenge dice.

Also, in case you're interested, here's a blank version of it! Go ahead and make your own nice-looking things.

Star Trek Adventures Talent Cards

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So, I was browsing the Modiphius forums for the first time recently, and stumbled across this topic about cards made to represent talents. For those not in the know, talents are just STA's version of feats. The problem is that the official character sheet gives you only enough room to write the names of the talents, not what they do. This is problematic, because STA is finnicky and has arbitrarily convoluted rules. The talents are no less elaborate. As a consequence, pretty much everyone always forgets how their talents work all the time and have to look it up whenever they think they should use it. As such, giving players handy-dandy reference cards is the way to go!

Now, I'm a little more advanced than the folks who made that topic. I put out real money to have the best software for making digital and print products from my own home.

So I made my own.

They're PDF format, so they should be ready to print from any computer to any printer. No fiddling about with settings to get that one perfect print. Additionally, I included every talent, including species, career, etc. I divided the document into character talent cards and ship talent cards, just because you're likely to have to print multiple copies of character cards, but starship ones are less numerous in play.

I am currently planning on making cards for the other books that have talents as well; specifically for the new species available in the quadrant books, the new character talents in the division books, and the new starship talents in the command book. (People seem to be saying that there's more starship stuff in the other division books, but I can't see it?)

• STA Character Talent Cards
• STA Starship Talent Cards
• Blank Card RTF (In case you want to make your own.)
  

About making your own cards with the RTF. When you copy text into the image cells, the table will go wonky. You need to change the paste type to image, and then change the text wrapping to "above text". This allows you to move it around without affecting any formatting.

EDIT: Department Cards

The following link will take you to a post where I present my department book talent cards. The quadrant books are next on the chopping block.

LINK

Star Trek Adventures Rules Notes

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OK, so, I really love Star Trek Adventures. It's a pretty bangin' game for a franchise tie-in TTRPG. It is far from perfect,but certainly an enjoyable play, so it gets a pass.

And the book is of excellent quality too, with a woven spine separate from the cover spine and impressive production value on every page!

But you know what doesn't get a passing grade?

The writing.

Oh god, the writing. Flaws I have seen:

• Inconsistent language. Is task resolution called a "task" or a "check" people? Get your language straight.
• Muddled language. Tasks are a type of action on your turn, but are also the task resolution system. This means you can take a task that makes you make a task. Buhwhaa?!
• Redundant writing. Every rule in the book is copypasta'd somewhere else in the book at least once. Some rules are triple copied.
• Skatterbrained rules explanation. Every time they try to explain a rule, it gets interrupted by a half-explanation of a related rule, then the text moves on without finishing the explanation of the initial rule until much later on in the book!
• Flavorful but misleading headings. The headings are fun to read if you read this as a book. But if you're trying to find the rule about spending momentum for bonus damage, the table of contents might as well be someone's shopping list!
• Flavor text overload. They have sidebars all over the book. Half of them are pink, meaning they're fluff, the other half are purple, meaning they're actually more rules content. EXCEPT for some of the pink sidebars that contain rules, some of the purple sidebars that contain fluff, and some main text sections that are not rules content either. You basically have to read everything to make sure you didn't miss something.
• Disorganized information. Did you know half of the book's playable species are actually in the DM section at the back of the book?! Without any warning or indication of such earlier on?? How convenient and useful!!! The whole book is like that.

So anyways, they can't write to save their lives. So, here, my gift to you, and the fruit of two months of reading and rereading this thing until its pages are nearly falling out. My notes. The entire rule system, sorted, organized, and stripped of fluff and specific play content. Just the systems you need to know to run the game.

You're welcome.

Star Trek Adventure Zoning

Let's talk about zone based combat for a little bit. Zone combat is a theater-of-the-mind solution to spatial relationships in tabletop combat. The idea's been kicking around for some time, but more recently it has been used in some fairly big-name RPGs. One RPG that uses zone based combat is Star Trek Adventures.

The key thing to remember about zones, is that they have no set standardized dimensions. A zone is shaped more by the environment and its impact on the battlefield than by discrete numerical measures. For example, in an office building, each cubicle, office, and hallway might be distinct zones, even though they all have very different dimensions.

Let's take a look at how STA zoning of a scene affects combat. The image above is a general map of a hallway in a building. We're going to assume the doors to the side rooms are all locked, so we don't have to worry about them.

Example 1

In this example, we make the whole hallway 1 zone. What does this mean?

• Anyone can move to or from melee with the movement minor action. The movement minor action can also be used to completely exit this battlefield.
• Someone can whisper to a person on the other end of the hall and it will be heard just fine.
• All combat is in close range. That means, if someone drops prone to get better cover, attacks against them gain 2 bonus momentum.
• On a melee attack used to shove, a person can be removed from this battlefield.
• Area weapons could harm anyone in the zone on effects and complications rolled.

As you can see, this one seems a little... goofy. Especially with how sound works, and how lying down for better cover doesn't really work. Too few zones in a relatively large-ish area results in things just being a little wonky.

Example 2

In this version, we've split the hall into 2 zones, each representing opposite ends of the hallway. How does this affect combat?

• A person in one zone can use the move minor action to move to or from melee within their zone, or to move to the opposite end of the hall, or to leave the battlefield.
• People must shout to be heard at the other end of the hall.
• Ranged attacks from one end of the hall to the other are medium ranged. This means they nolonger gain bonus momentum when firing on a prone target
• If someone tries to hide behind the corner on the opposite end of the hall, the DC to spot them increases by 1.
• An area weapon fired to the opposite end of the hall poses no threat to anyone in the same zone as the shooter.

This one, to me, seems about perfect. You should have to raise your voice to be heard around the corner of a long-ish hallway. You can still move quickly in this relatively cramped area. Dropping prone is actually useful. But, just to be sure, let's take this one step farther.

Example 3

The final example has the hall broken down into 3 zones. One zone for each intersection, and a third one in the middle as a sort of no-man's-land. How have things changed?

• The movement minor action can only take you into no-man's land. To get to the other end of the hall, you'll need to spend momentum for extra steps, or use the sprint action losing your attack for this turn.
• People at one end of the hall cannot hear people at the other end, no matter how loud they scream. This means that if the players want to negotiate a peaceful result, they'll have to walk into no-man's-land and risk getting shot.
• Ranged attacks are now at long range, which surprisingly has no mechanical impact compared to medium range.
• Someone hiding at one end of the hall has +2 DC versus people trying to spot them from the opposite end.
• It is impossible to throw a grenade weapon to the opposite end of the hall.

OK, nope, that's not right. Suddenly, the atmosphere is molasses. Sound is muffled, movement is restricted, people are hard to see even though they aren't very far away. Too many zones in a small area warps reality too much.

Theorycrafting...

So, I did some research and discovered the average human voice can carry out to 180m in clear conditions. That's obviously a shout, since I can't even clearly hear my wife talking to me on the other side of the bedroom. 

So, let's say that, based on voice range, "close range" would be anyone within 90m of the speaker. That means each zone should not have any dimension exceeding 90m in any direction.

Additionally, since the longest range for communication is 180m, it would be a wise bet to say that one should not set up zones such that more than 2 occupy a 180m length in any direction.

This is, of course, assuming you're building a battlefield in an empty field with no meaningful terrain variation.

On another point....

The throw range of grenade quality weapons is medium, or a 1 zone difference from point of origin. It isn't hard, with a bit of practice, to be able to throw a ball sized object about 50m, or even 100m if you really go hard at it.

So, in other words, going by the acoustic measurements above, you should probably be able to throw such a weapon somewhere into medium range, but definitely not beyond it.

So, uh... yeah. A zone should be about 90m across. There you have it.