Soliciting ideas

[The.Maze.Controller]

Well,

After a fruitful discussion tonight with a shop owner in Brooklyn, there is a new development. They want me to run a mini program similar to my plan for Bad Wrong Fun to intro the players at the shop to RQ and I get exposure to a whole crew of potential players for my campaign. They are going to advertise it to their players as a package and host it as a play event for them. (This particular shop does quite well charging players for time at tables with hand picked premium GMs / Dms - $5 per player.) Place is always packed when they hold these events. Anything the shop owners say is good the players play like the gospel. Apparently she has been very smart in hand selecting the DM /GMs for her games. She wants me to demo a session for her early next week.

So after thinking about it some on the train tonight I realized quickly I am going to need to make things easy for new players. Especially since they are all used to Baby's first RPG (I think you know which product I mean.)

When that particular game system came out a lot of players made thier own tools to help new folks learn the system. One that I think might be a good idea to ease less skilled players into RuneQuest is a player mat.(See pic)

While I can handle the art angle - I was wondering what do you think would be the best layout for something like this to introduce new players to RQ? I am going to solicit ideas and input my own then produce a product that will be a free download on the BWF site.

Not to mention I am sure that shop owner will appreciate me putting together a package for her players. She has already mentioned some form of compensation to me but I am doing it for the fun of it honestly - I have a real job and it pays far better than GMing for hire.

 

[sdavies2720]

One thing that I've been doing recently is creating cards for my players. These are the same size as Magic cards, so they fit in sleeves & boxes. So far, I've created ones for:
* Combat Maneuvres
* Spell descriptions
* Skill descriptions
* Movement (no one can ever remember how it works)
* Key NPCs, with pictures (we play infrequently & often they forget who's who)
* Effect of Wound levels
* Key facts & discoveries (ditto)

What they do is give the player something tangible to look at (e.g. look through the pile of Combat Maneuvres to decide which one they want), and keep the rulebook from being a bottleneck ("Pass the rules, I need to look up what 'Wrack' does.")

Steve

 

[Dan True]

Remember to include some tokens for CAs, including some differently coloured ones for off-hand, if you're using the ordinary house rule that bonus CAs can only be used with that particular weapon.

I personally use roulette tokens, as they fit the bil nicely and cost like $2.5 for a whole package (in DK at least). But in your case they could easily be printed cardboard.

- Dan

 

[Mixster]

One thing that I've been doing recently is creating cards for my players. These are the same size as Magic cards, so they fit in sleeves & boxes. So far, I've created ones for:
* Combat Maneuvres
* Spell descriptions
* Skill descriptions
* Movement (no one can ever remember how it works)
* Key NPCs, with pictures (we play infrequently & often they forget who's who)
* Effect of Wound levels
* Key facts & discoveries (ditto)

What they do is give the player something tangible to look at (e.g. look through the pile of Combat Maneuvres to decide which one they want), and keep the rulebook from being a bottleneck ("Pass the rules, I need to look up what 'Wrack' does.")

Steve

This is a great idea.
---
The important things to have on a battle-mat is in legend luckily on your character sheet. But a reference sheet with key skills, weapon groups and preferred combat maneuvers isn't out of the question.
---
You also have to figure out whether you'll be using a battle-map or not. Battle-maps can help establish positions within a group and of the opposition.
Perhaps a strike rank wheel would also be a good idea.

 

[The.Maze.Controller]

A strike rank wheel sounds interesting indeed. I may make one out of cardboard. If I do I will put the template for it on the Bad Wrong Fun site and link it here. Unless you guys already know of one or examples of them elsewhere then all I have to do is modify perhaps...

I am talking to folks about merging and improving some ideas they have had and adding my twist to it. When I am all done I hope to produce a community made "Starter kit".

Would be great to help add exposure to the game.

 

[taxboy]

One thing that I've been doing recently is creating cards for my players. These are the same size as Magic cards, so they fit in sleeves & boxes. So far, I've created ones for:
* Combat Maneuvres
* Spell descriptions
* Skill descriptions
* Movement (no one can ever remember how it works)
* Key NPCs, with pictures (we play infrequently & often they forget who's who)
* Effect of Wound levels
* Key facts & discoveries (ditto)

What they do is give the player something tangible to look at (e.g. look through the pile of Combat Maneuvres to decide which one they want), and keep the rulebook from being a bottleneck ("Pass the rules, I need to look up what 'Wrack' does.")

Steve

This sounds really good,cod you have as PDF, willing to share?

 

[sdavies2720]

This sounds really good,cod you have as PDF, willing to share?

I've put pictures up on Flickr (and I think I've posted them here before):

CC Card purple Reginald Perkinson by sdavies2720, on Flickr

IMG_1560 by sdavies2720, on Flickr

I'm a little leary of posting the pdf 'cause it's MRQII stuff and therefore copyrighted...hang on. Legend is open source! Once I get my copy and can look it over (and correct a couple of known errors), I'll find somewhere to put them.

Steve

 

[taxboy]

Wow, good production quality!

 

[Deleriad]

Those are really nice.

As in really, really nice.

 

[Dan True]

Those are really nice.

As in really, really nice.

+1 !!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mixster]

Those are really nice.

As in really, really nice.

+1 !!!!!!!!!!

Once he gets these ported over I'm willing to supply a few old MtG cards + sleeves if you print 'em out.

 

[sdavies2720]

Thanks guys -- the real credit though should go to WorldWorksGames -- they produce paper terrain and other goodies for games. They made a rolling enclosure this fall and it included the cards as blanks. When I first saw them, I thought, "who would ever use those?" Well, about 3 days later I realized just how handy they would be for little snippets of rules and information.

I'm not affiliated with WWG, just a somewhat rabid fan. They suffer from privacy, so I do want to take a minute to check that they're ok with me sharing the cards. If Denny gives the "ok" I'll make them available for everyone.

Steve

oh, WorldWorks is over at http://www.worldworksgames.com. They're good guys.

 

[RangerDan]

Those are really nice.

As in really, really nice.

+1 !!!!!!!!!!

Makes my cheat-sheets look like the amateur-crap they really are...
Colour me green with envy

 

[sdavies2720]

Makes my cheat-sheets look like the amateur-crap they really are...
Colour me green with envy

I'm finding that each of the tools has its place -- I've been using someone's cheat sheet for years, and it's been a godsend for lists of combat maneuvres, stuff like that. A big shout-out to everyone who creates tools!

The one place that the cards are really working is "key information" Since we play infrequently, we're getting on in years, and play on a Friday night when everyone is brain-dead from a week of work, everyone forgets key parts of the game. E.g. "Why are we here again?" "What was it we were looking for?" "Wasn't there supposed to be a guardian of some sort?" "Didn't the witch warn us about something before we used this thing?" "Oh yeah, I did hear something about a pit, now that you mention it." .... I could go on and on.

With the cards, there is a tangible thing that we can pick up, and pass around. When someone needs to check something, they can just take a look. Even if I do a writeup, the important information gets buried.

The other place that's working well is for spells: A player can have the cards in front of him for the spells he knows. We do still occasionally have to go to the book for a full description, but the basics are there (and often the whole spell description).

What I'm hoping the cards will start to do is open up the Combat Maneuvre choices & tactics: My guys tend to pick the same ones over and over, in part because they don't want to think too hard (see notes above: it's Friday, etc.). I'm hoping that if they can rifled through the deck during their idle minutes, they might start seeing more possibilities.

Steve