Puzzle Showcase: Caesar Cypher

I was first introduced to the Caeser Cypher from Sly Flourish's wonderful book, Dungeon Master Tips. It's definitely worth the price of a 6-pack so please check it out!

The Caesar cipher, or shift cipher, is one of the simplest encryption puzzles. It is a substitution cipher where each letter in the original message is replaced with a letter corresponding to a certain number of letters ahead or behind in the alphabet.

For example: "Go right" could be shifted up 1 letter to "Hp sjhiu".
Another: "The key can be found under the old oak tree" shifted 1 up would be "Uif lfz dbo cf gpvoe voefs uif pme pbl usff"

This easy Caesar Cypher tool by Robert Eisele is great to create your own puzzles.

Sometimes the players will have no idea what to do; here are a few tips to point them in the right direction without breaking immersion:

1. Don't make solving the puzzle critical to moving forward. It is crucial that they be allowed to fail if they can't figure it out
2. Can they find a half-finished solution somewhere? Maybe the cypher was decoded by the enemy they just killed and half of the note is burned or covered in blood making it only partially readable - prepare this as a prop beforehand to really impress your players
3. If they fail the first time, let it come up again later - this will build up the excitement for when they finally figure it out and make you look like a fuckin' genius rather than a failure

Have you ever used a cypher puzzle in your game? How did it turn out? Share your story in the comments below!

Things GMs should absolutely prepare: Dungeon Maps (Physical)

If you want a better RPG, spend less time on world-building  and more time on things your players will actually use.

Today's topic: Dungeon Maps! (Physical)
Please note that I do not discuss any digital map-making programs... it's a style that I respect but have very little experience with.

Level 1
At the very least you will seem prepared.

1. Google: Dungeon Map
2. Download your favorites
3. Copy to your wet-erase battle map when the encounters starts
4. Use your limited creative juices to embellish the dungeon loot and monsters 

Favorite Resource: Dyson's Cartography

Level 2

Good prep without too much effort.

1. Design and sketch out your dungeon on standard 1/4" grid paper
2. This is your GM copy - mark points of interest to reference on your plot keeper OR make notes on the sketch itself
3. Buy gaming paper
4. Copy your sketch to full-size map with permanent marker and bring to session
5. Tip: cut into sections for each closed room - your players will enjoy seeing the map grow larger as they progress

Resource for making your own: Matt Lowe's dungeons

Good resource for dungeon design: Melan's Megadungeon design

Level 3

To me, not worth the effort, but hey, whatever.

1. Design or download dungeon tiles for 2.5D maps
2. Print out and past to cardboard
3. Assemble and play like the badass nerd you always wanted to be

Resource: http://terrainwizard.com/one-must-have-2-5d-printable-plus-six/

Level 4

Rich people

1. Buy battle mats or grid tiles specific for each encounter

Best resource

Let's all be Heroes

For real. We all wanna be your hero baby.

But it takes both the players and the GM to make it happen. 

Tips for Players:

• Be interesting - dump stats in a skill that's different for fuck's sake
• Take risks - heroes don't shy away from a DC 25 acrobatics check to back-flip off of the ogre's forehead and stick the landing across the river of lava
• Look for opportunities, but don't force it. Just because you are a goddamned expert in climbing doesn't mean you can't just walk up the mountain path
• Talk to your GM (nicely), if you feel that opportunities aren't presenting themselves as much as other players. Ask how your character can be more useful in the future. Hopefully they will get the hint

Tips for GMs:

• Read players' character sheet and backstories it can be fucking painful, but will give you ideas
• Make it tough, and make it worth it. If they can never fail then success doesn't seem as sweet
• Remember, it's not about YOU. You're already a hero for putting up with all their whiny bullshit; they should give you an award just for showing up
• Plan ahead - I keep a section of notes dedicated to making sure I have planned opportunities for each character. Something like this:
• Thief: Traps @ entrance, sleeping guards, alarm can be disabled
• Wizard: ______??? (maybe add a monster vulnerable to cold dmg)
• Cleric: Can speak to the dead victims, religious puzzles to get loot

In the above example I would go back to my plot notes to see what I could do to give the wizard time to shine. Not all of the events will happen exactly as planned -- that's OK, you did your part. 

Politics and Gaming

Politics and Gaming....

As fucking hilarious as you think it will be to overthrow the level 20 evil sorcerer Bombald Frump who lives is a goddamned golden castle on James Comey Island, finger on the scroll of a Spell of Mass Destruction pointed right at the sandy shores of Osirion, behind a giant fucking wall, and guarded by a giant Covfefe...

We all came here to escape reality, not join sides with the benevolent wizard Barney Shanders who promises to defeat not only Bombald Frump himself, but also the Arch-Demon Shillary Cunton, Chaos Lord Gary Feelmyjohnson, and then social injustice itself. Free gold for all the peasants!

Don't mix politix and gaming... but if you run this campaign let me know how it goes.

Serious Wounds - Enhance your gaming!

Are your players always rushing in? Do they undervalue their cleric, or only care about healing when they are below 0 hp?

Fuck that. 

I have been wanting to share this for a while, it is definitely my favorite tool and set of house rules:

Serious Wounds Chart (SWC)

This was inspired by the serious wounds chart in the awesome 1995 tabletop game Necromunda (wiki, pdf rules)

After introducing the SWC, our games have been much more dramatic. Here's how it works:

• If a character falls below 0 hit points at any time, at the end of combat they must make a single d66 roll (two six-sided die, one designated as "10's place") on the serious wounds chart.
• GM may allow another character to improve the result by 1 (or worsen, in case of a critical failure) via a successful "Heal" check. (DC 20, per rulebook)

Simple! Elegant! Damn nerve-racking.

Honestly, it has completed changed the risk/reward psychology of the players. 

Feel free to download your own copy and add your own unique wounds! This could easily be expanded to include different wound categories. 

Tips:

1. House Rule: During character creation, your player must roll on the SWC. This is a great way to help them create some backstory or motivation to become an adventurer. Plus, rolling dice is fun.
2. They only have to roll once per encounter, in case they fall below 0 hp more than once after being healed a bit.
3. Be sure to make your players designate which d6 is the 10's place before rolling... those fuckers will cheat.

Quick and Dirty Stat Blocks

This is a follow-up to another great blog post out there. It's a great read honestly, check out the link at the bottom.

When running a gaming session, I don't need most of what is normally included in the stat block. It's just too much information when you need to quickly get your players into a batter, or when your players fuck over an NPC unexpectedly.

I wanted to share a tool to help you organize the most important information in one place:

Quick and Dirty Stat Block Template

These will fit rather nicely into the GM Plot-keeper tool and will hopefully speed up your game.

Also, a hardworking gamer, Ralph Judkins shared his abbreviated stat blocks for a shit-ton of D&D monsters: Ralph's abbreviated stat blocks. These stat blocks can be cut via snipping tool and direct pasted into your GM notes. Send thanks to ralph.judkins@gmail.com.

AngryGM - inspiration and additional reading

Tips:

1. Try to include a stat block for NPCs you plan on introducing. Trust me, if it has a name, your players will kill it.
2. Don't worry too much about including all the details - remember this tool is supposed to save you time! The original stat block will always be there if there is a rules question.

A good GM is an organized GM. Introducing the GM Plot-keeper!

For most Game Masters, there's nothing better than hand-written notes in a spiral notebook that you borrowed from the supply closet at work. 

For those few who want to be a bit more organized, I wanted to share one of my new favorite tools for be being a better GM:

GM Plot-keeper Example

This document is arranged so that you can easily organize key features to your plot with enough room for scratch and note-taking as the game progresses. 

Key features for me include:

Important Characters

Quick and Dirty Stat Blocks

Dialogue and Event timelines

I like being able to print out (sorry trees) the story and make notes as I go along. I can keep track of encounters, hit points, treasures, and most importantly, how the players fucked up my story.

Showing up with a plan is half the battle, but being able to stay organized when things go haywire keeps the game interesting and consistent between settings. 

Couple of tips when using the GM Plot-keeper:

1. I save a different file for each session. This helps prevent "over planning" as you will get a feel for how long certain plot lines will take. 
2. This tool works best when you have a structured dungeon or encounter that you want to run, but can be used to great effect with open-world situations
3. When playing a more flexible or open-world session (e.g. players are in the middle of a large city with plenty of destinations to choose from), try organizing it by location and writing detailed descriptions and opening lines for typical NPCs.
4. Having a separate page for Quick and Dirty Stat Blocks can be useful, but feel free to drop one in the body of your story as needed. 
5. Use your notes to prepare for the next session!