On the Creation of Murder Hobos: A treatise on balancing backstory elements with forward moving content in Role Playing Games

 

Today we’re going to discuss the ideation of Murder Hobos (and their creation). These are a bizarre phenomenon in the role playing game hobby but they come from an easily understandable place. We’ll look at the root causes of their existence and how to manage them during the game (and between sessions). Let’s start with the first question that comes to mind. What precisely is a Murder Hobo?

Ideas and Thoughts about making your game yours

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with another little chat about games and the way we screw ourselves up over them. We’re going to talk about one of my least favorite words, (Canon) and just how much fun you can have by turning it on its side and doing what precisely you want to do. This is a problematic topic for a lot of different reasons, and we’ll try and give you a couple of ways to interact with it. Buckle up, we’re hopping in the Rambler.

Advice and Communication

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with what I hope is an article that you can all find something useful in.  Today we’re going to talk a little bit about advice and communication and how they come flying across the internet at breakneck speeds.  Sometimes this awesome, as you can get direct feedback about a problem you are having.  Sometimes it can suck, because you can get direct feedback about all the problems you’re not having.  Let’s dig in a little bit, and today I’m going to talk about a couple of things that I hope makes your gaming experience better for everyone involved.

Why do we play games?

Oh, my friends there are as many answers to this question as there are people to answer it.  Some of us just want to win, and that’s okay.  Some of us want an activity to spend time with our friends and that’s okay.  Some of us want to build worlds to share with people and that’s okay.  Some of have our very own, very personal reasons for playing games, and that’s okay too.

Gatekeeping in our Community

So we talk about Gatekeeping a lot as it relates to a lot of communities and fandoms in the world we live in, but i want to talk a little bit about how it affects our gaming communities and the very easy way it can become a solution instead of a problem. First off, I am an absolutely filthy casual of a player and as long as you are polite and friendly, i will try to help you with anything i can, IF I HAVE A FREE MOMENT TO DO SO. I am totally happy helping new folks find their jam in a game so long as i am not trying to do a bunch of other things.

Absolute Insanity (Miniature Wargaming)

So we’re at the point of my hobbying where i want to try something new and add something different to my miniatures collection. First off, i have too many miniatures that i will probably never use and am unlikely to finish painting. Some of them will end up getting cycled into other projects and will see double duty. These are things like my chaos cultists from Warhammer 40K getting painted up and used for a variety of Post Apocalyptic games where i can use some rad scarred human survivors. A lot of my space marines are getting sold because i just don’t need that many any more. Some small bits and bobs will get saved, and i will likely end up with a rule of three approach.

Fun in Gaming? We still do fun, right?

The internet gaming community is a lot of fun to experience. There are creators constantly rolling out new ideas and thoughts and gaming. You also have a host of Actual Play Podcasts to experience, if you have the free time. You can also find a host of players on both sides of the screen who are sharing their ideas and stories from past experiences. Some of these are good stories that make you happy about the hobby, where others are more cautionary tales about things that could happen. 

 

Behind the Curtain (RPG advice)

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with a bit of a peek behind the curtain, and this is for you new folks mostly (though i see some of you grumblers in the back). It’s been a banner year for D & D and we’re seeing a massive influx into our community and that’s absolutely fantastic. Welcome to the community and we hope you can find a group of people that you enjoy playing the game with. You may not click with your first group, but you will find some folks that get out of the hobby what you enjoy eventually, and that opens up a lot of really fun options and chances to collaboratively tell amazing stories with your friends while playing a game that is inherently social and encourages group activity.

Dressing for Success (The Details make the encounter area)

Hey Game Fans, we’re being a little too clever for our own good today, and we’re going to talk a little about how you describe your adventure locations and what you can do with some clever words and descriptive details. This is also a bit of advice for reskinning adventure locations and how to turn things on their head to modify an existing dungeon/encounter location/region to meet your needs. Buckle in, we’re going for a ride in the Rambler.

Money (and Treasure!) in RPGs

Hey Game Fans, we’re looking at an interesting aspect of the RPG trope today and i am going to share a couple of ideas that i think will help you all have some more fun with your characters. Today we’re talking about Treasure, and what it means to your character in a game of D & D (though there are a lot of games where treasure is a driving focus for story progression, character development, and a meter for who’s winning).

Good Vibrations

This is a little different from our normal fare, but i see things on twitter, or in facebook groups that look like “OMG, i suck at this, why did i ever think i could do this, wtf is wrong with me?” and it cuts through our (the gaming community) population with a regularity that i find concerning. So, here are two truths that i think will help us all out.

Intelligence and Behavior (Monsters)

Hey game fans, we’re going to briefly discuss something that cropped up on the twitters today (again, i blame TerminallyNerdy.com) We’ve got a DM Tip that Intelligent monsters should be played intelligently, and if they are, then they are way more dangerous than the sum of their stats and abilities. This is very true, but Intelligence is a spectrum, and creatures at the other end of the spectrum are equally interesting tactical challenges for players and DMs alike. Let’s take a look at one of the key things to remember when deciding how a less than intelligent monster is going to potentially behave.

Experiments in Cartographic Doom

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with an idea article about a part of the world building process. This article is the intellectual descendant of my good friend Clay, over at Terminally Nerdy (Here). The genesis of this idea starts with a simple DM Tip on Twitter that basically says “When you are building your own world, don’t forget to leave blank spaces so you can fill in with new things or ideas as they come up.” And this is absolutely perfect advice. It does lead into a deeper thought of mine that comes up every once in a while.

Styles in Dungeons & Dragons

Hey Game Fans, today i’m going to talk a little bit about something i find interesting in the RPG community (the title says Dungeons and Dragons, but it can be splashed around a little harder than that). Dungeons and Dragons has a lot of characteristics that define its style, and you can mix and match them if you want to get creative. Let’s talk about those styles and how you can stretch them to fit your needs for your games at home or the adventures you may be writing or stories you’re trying to tell.

Welcome to the Show

So you want to be a blogger, or a streamer, or a podcaster? Cool, welcome to the ever growing community of game enthusiasts, publishers, and thinkers that make up our diverse gaming community. There’s a ton of us, but there’s always room for more voices in our community. I’m going to try and help you get started with some of the questions that have helped me figure out what exactly I’m trying to do with my blog/podcast/production company amalgamation thingamajig.

5 Story/Adventure Seeds for the Star Wars Universe

With the current release window for the new Star Wars movie, the discussion about the kinds of stories you can tell in the Star Wars universe ramped up again, and this list was sparked by a discussion between Cameron Rice, Adam Hlavac, and Emma Fyffe on Hyper RPG’s Youtube channel.  If you want to check out that video, or follow those awesome people, I’ll provide some links at the bottom of this article.  Now buckle in, we’ve got some stories to tell in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.

What is the Point of Gaming?

Hey Game Fans we’re back with another deep dive on the topic of gaming and today I’m going to take a swing at a big point that everyone has an opinion on. This is an underlying principle that i try to keep in mind with everything that i do that relates to gaming. There’s a question that comes up all the time with people who aren’t gamers (and they are wonderful people, just not one of us yet). The question usually takes the form of “Why do you do this?” Most of us have a quick answer that could be part of a funny line or a bit, but it’s a real, honest question that can be tricky to answer for other folks. “What is the point of all of these things that we do as gamers?”

Monday Morning Prime Time thoughts (How do you make a character?)

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with another article on one of our favorite topics in the multiverse, Role-Playing Games. This is always an interesting topic that sparks debates, arguments, hate mail, death threats, and the occasional civil discourse. Today’s aspect is an essential one for the hobby, and it’s as individual a process as anything else in the universe. How do you create your characters for your next RPG? I asked this question last week on twitter and i got a ton of answers (don’t worry, I’ll be linking this article to that question so you can pop back and check out the answers from the rest of the twitter-verse).


Today i’m going to sort of walk you through my process for creating characters for most role-playing games. Now some games have an entire process of their own that lets you start at point A, follow the dots and bing bang boom you have a character that’s ready to play. Those are their own sort of animal, and they have a very strong internal consistency for their character creation process. (We’ll talk about one of those later on once we’ve gotten through this process).

Thursday Discussions (Complexity can be the Enemy of Fun)

Hey Game Fans, It’s ostensibly Thursday and that means it’s probably an opportunity to talk about Game Theory and systems design and how that works for Players, Game Masters, and Designers. One of the continual discussions (some would say arguments, but i like to think we’re a mostly civil bunch in the game hobby) is how complex is the right level of complexity for a game. This should come as no surprise to any of you who follow my blog on a regular basis, but my answer is “It depends on a couple of key factors.” What are those factors? Well, let’s hop into the Discussion Machine 40,000 and see if we can’t understand each other a little bit better.

Monday Morning Thoughts (Game Mastering stuff)

Good Morning Game Fans, it’s a bright, shiny morning around the office and we’re settling in for a nice long week of winter (We just had our first patch of ice). Today’s thoughts from the Interweb revolve around something near and dear to my heart, Game Mastering. There are a TON of articles, videos, streams and other consumable forms of media that go into great detail about the nuts and bolts of Game Mastering and we’re not going to necessarily dive into any of those specifically, we’re going to talk about the underlying framework of what a Game Master does for the game, and the role they play in the group dynamic. Buckle in Game Fans, it’s going to be mild ride.