Welcome back! We’ve got a lot of great shows coming down the pipeline and some ambitious plans for 2022. We can’t wait to share them with you, and this newsletter is where you’ll hear about them first. Stay tuned and remember: If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right.
—Brian Flaherty
This Week in The Fractured Realms…
The Monsters Know What They’re Doing - an interview excerpt with Keith Ammann
Tools of the Trade - Heighten suspense with the “Progressive d20 Countdown”
DM to DM - How to build a compelling rival (and why your players will love it)
Loot Box - Treblemaker: a sword to destroy your enemies in any key
Schedule - Upcoming releases in The Fractured Realms
The Monsters Know What They’re Doing
An interview with Keith Ammann
The full 45 minute interview with Keith premieres Wednesday 1/26 on My First Dungeon.
Brian: How do you prep for a session that is likely going to have a combat encounter?
Keith: Well first of all I always go back to my own material because one of the reasons why I write it is so that I don’t have to think about it from start to finish every single time. I’ve already done the work so I don’t have to remember it when I can go and look it up. Don’t reinvent the wheel over and over again.
B: Absolutely.
K: So much of DM prep for me is trying to reduce the cognitive load I’m going to have during the game session. To reduce the number of decisions I’m going to have to make on the fly. To make as many of these decisions in advance so that they are already made and I don’t have to carve off another portion of my mental processing power to resolve the question. The question is resolved going in. So I have a little round-by-round script or flowchart of how the monster is going to act and I stick to the script. And it’s got branching points based on what kinds of things happen, but basically it’s scripted and I follow the script. And it’s only if something completely unanticipated happens do I need to then actually start thinking about what might happen differently. And that’s the main thing I do.
B: And if anyone is reading this and starting to feel overwhelmed by thinking, “Oh no, I’ve got to plan out my combat session round by round,” keep in mind, an average combat lasts three to six rounds. So it’s not an insane amount of moves you’re planning out.
K: It’s not going to branch out like a whole chess game. You’ve got basically three to five moves and that’s as far as you need to think about it. And some monsters are simple enough that you’re not even going to have that much branching. Skeletons, zombies, they are not sophisticated A.I.s that you are trying to send out there. They are simple machines.
I also really like Mike Shea’s, Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. And the very specific reason I like that book so much is that it forces me to think about certain, very specific building blocks of my gaming session and make sure that I have covered all those most important bases and that I’ve not neglected them because I went down the rabbit hole on something else.
B: I always preach that the best way to level up an encounter is to think about the environment and make it more dynamic and allow the monsters to move and utilize that environment. How do you approach environments and battlegrounds when planning a combat encounter?
K: Well, a couple of things. The traits in particular in a stat block give you a sense of the flavor and the personality of a monster. Really use those. Let the names of the traits guide you. The goblin’s main trait is called “nimble escape.” That should be the theme of the combat. The goblins are nimble and they will escape. So that’s the kind of game that encounter turns into. But another one is sheer opportunism. If something interesting is laid in your lap, go for it.
(This excerpt has been edited for length and clarity.)
Check out Keith’s fantastic blog The Monsters Know What They’re Doing for detailed monster tactics.
And if you want to support Keith’s work you can buy one of this books: The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, Moar! Monsters Know What They’re Doing, and Live to Tell the Tale: Combat Tactics for Player Characters.
Tools of the Trade
Heighten suspense with the Progressive d20 Countdown
Looking to add a ticking clock to your session that isn’t just…well…a ticking clock? Look no further than your trusty d20.
First, put your characters in a situation where there is an impending catastrophe, but no fixed timeline for when that catastrophe will manifest—the ancient ropes of the bridge are fraying, the dam is about to give way, etc.
Every time your characters make a decision—or if they’re taking too long to make up their minds—have them roll a d20. On the first roll, if they roll a 1, time runs out and the catastrophe occurs. The bridge snaps, the river breaks the dam, etc. But if they roll anything else, the catastrophe is delayed and there is still time left.
However, next time they make a decision and roll a d20, a 1 OR a 2 causes the catastrophe. Then a 1, 2, or 3. Then a 1, 2, 3, or 4. And so on. The chance of success will continue to deteriorate until the characters take sufficient action to stop the catastrophe or simply get themselves in the best position to survive it.
(Note: For the mathematically inclined, it becomes statistically probable that your players will trigger the catastrophe by the fifth roll*. See below.)
Chance of Success After…
1 Roll - 95%
2 Rolls - 85.5%
3 Rolls - 72.7%
4 Rolls - 58.1%
5 Rolls - 43.6%*
6 Rolls - 30.5%
This is a more dynamic and player-focused solution to a ticking clock that keeps pressure on the players and often has them rolling the dice ( both literally and metaphorically) betting their lives that they have just a little more time.
You can see this tool in action in The Twenty Sided Podcast Episode 105 “Countdown to Chaos.”
Credit: This progressive timer system is based on the popular progressive wild magic surge counter for the Wild Magic Sorcerer subclass popularized by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Ally Beardsley on Dimension 20.
DM to DM
Building Rivals Players Will Love to Hate
Every great hero has a rival. Ali had Frazier. Seinfeld had Newman. Hell, even Tom had Jerry. Unlike a villain, defeating a rival is rarely just about killing them. It’s about becoming better than they are and being recognized as such. A rival is a catalyst that drives the party to be the best it can be.
If you’re looking for a template with which to design a great rival, look no further than the original Pokémon games. After getting your starter Pokémon from Professor Oak you meet his grandson, Blue–if you, like me, were a Pokémon: Red kid–who would immediately challenge you to a battle with the Pokémon yours was most vulnerable to, and almost invariably win. Throughout the game he would show up here and there and would always be doing just a little bit better than you. He got to town first. His Pokémon evolved before yours did. You’d arrive at a gym and he was always just leaving with a shiny new badge. Prick.
All these years later I still hate that guy. He was always one step ahead and would gladly remind me of it. No matter what I did he would stay just out of reach for most of the game. And that made finally beating him oh so sweet.
Give you players a rival with similar goals that is more capable or better equipped. For bonus points, give their rival an unfair advantage. Maybe they’re a trust fund kid with the best mercenaries money can buy, or they found a sentient magic weapon that does most of the work for them, or they’re trading on the name of a famous parent. Give your players a rival they hate. I promise you, they'll love you for it.
Loot Box: Treblemaker
Defeat your enemies in any key
Treblemaker is a broadsword that harnesses the power of sound and vibrations. It is capable of tuning up a monster with thunder and lighting magic while simultaneously tuning all the instruments of a nearby orchestra (should those two things happen to be adjacent to one another). It was originally designed by Mirin, the Maker for Bartle, the Scribbler before the battle with the Titans, and is one of the nine Divine Artifacts.
Treblemaker originally appeared in Canon Fodder Episode 11: The Devout Troubadours of Bartle, the Scribbler (with Lauren Moore).
Special thanks to Aripockily for the original artwork and item card design.
1/26 - My First Dungeon - “The Monsters Know What They’re Doing with Keith Ammann”
1/27 - Canon Fodder w/ Tim Platt (Rude Tales of Magic)
1/31- Twenty Sided Podcast Episode 209 (Prisoners of the Static arc)
2/3 - Canon Fodder w/ Tim Keck (Nerdy for Thirty)