TEXT:  
  
  THE RPG 
  HANDBOOK 
   
  
  The RPG Handbook v1.5 
  Published by Thistle Games 
  Copyright (c) 2012-2020 David Morrison 
  Published: March 2020 
  Website: http://thistlegames.com/ 
  ISBN: 978-1-908798-07-7 
   
  David Morrison has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and 
  Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. 
   
  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade 
  or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the 
  publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in 
  which it is published and without a similar condition including this 
  condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher. 
   
  This is largely a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, 
  organizations, places, events, items and incidents within the text are either 
  the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any 
  resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is 
  completely coincidental. 
   
  The RPG Handbook contains a variety of links to external websites. While 
  these have been visited prior to publication, Thistle Games and the author 
  cannot take responsibility for the content or nature of the material found 
  on the linked sites. 
   
  
  Contents 
   
  THE RPG HANDBOOK .......................................................................................... 2 
  INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 7 
  PART 1: ROLEPLAYING GAMES ................................................................................. 9 
  What are Tabletop Roleplaying Games? ...................................................... 9 
  Playing Tabletop RPGs .................................................................................. 9 
  The Basics ...................................................................................................... 9 
  Dice .............................................................................................................. 10 
  Adventurers aka Player Characters aka PCs ............................................ 10 
  Styles of Play ............................................................................................... 11 
  Options and Opportunities for Kids .......................................................... 12 
  Roleplaying Game Fun: Kids...................................................................... 14 
  Roleplaying Game Fun: Older Kids ........................................................... 18 
  Roleplaying Game Fun: Young Adults ...................................................... 21 
  RPGs for Kids and Big Kids ....................................................................... 24 
  The 5e Core ................................................................................................. 29 
  Adventures .................................................................................................. 30 
  PART 2: GETTING STARTED ................................................................................... 34 
  Roleplaying Games ..................................................................................... 34 
  Roleplaying Game Genres ......................................................................... 36 
  Roleplaying Game Props ............................................................................ 36 
  Finding a Game .......................................................................................... 40 
  Actual Plays ................................................................................................. 42 
  Seven Times the Color of Fire ................................................................... 42 
  Frankincense ............................................................................................... 47 
  Organizing a Game ..................................................................................... 54 
  Setting Up a Game...................................................................................... 55 
  Supporting New Players ............................................................................. 57 
  Settling Outcomes ...................................................................................... 58 
  PART 3: COLORFUL CHARACTERS ........................................................................... 60 
  Fleshing Out a Player Character ................................................................ 60 
  Prior Experience ......................................................................................... 60 
  Skills ............................................................................................................ 65 
  Playing To Win? ........................................................................................... 71 
  Pets and Animal Companions ................................................................... 72 
  PART 4: RUNNING PLAY ......................................................................................... 77 
  Ready-To-Run Adventures .......................................................................... 77 
  Gamesmaster (GM) Skills ........................................................................... 78 
  Mapping and Cartography ......................................................................... 85 
  Prompts and Interrupts .............................................................................. 87 
  Hack and Slay or Remix and Play .............................................................. 89 
  Mixed Messages .......................................................................................... 91 
  Making Monsters ......................................................................................... 92 
  Killer Traps .................................................................................................. 94 
  What Kind of Player or GM am I? .............................................................. 97 
  
  Player/ GM Profiles ..................................................................................... 98 
  PART 5: CAMPAIGN PLANNING ..............................................................................103 
  Signature Events ....................................................................................... 103 
  Player Choice, Campaign Challenges and Campaign Planning ........... 106 
  Campaign Challenges and Adventure Playparks ................................... 107 
  Campaign Challenges and Adventure Holidays: Part 1 ......................... 111 
  Campaign Challenges and Adventure Holidays: Part 2 ......................... 114 
  Exploring Campaign Challenges ............................................................. 117 
  PART 6: ADVENTURE BUILDER..............................................................................124 
  Designing Adventures .............................................................................. 125 
  Missions ..................................................................................................... 125 
  Plots ........................................................................................................... 126 
  Locations ................................................................................................... 129 
  Rooms, Caverns, Furnishings and Accessories ...................................... 132 
  Tricks and Traps ....................................................................................... 141 
  Non-Player Characters aka Monsters and Aliens .................................... 146 
  Traits .......................................................................................................... 147 
  Preferred Actions ...................................................................................... 151 
  Solo and Team Play .................................................................................. 152 
  Creatures ................................................................................................... 155 
  Dangerous Creatures ............................................................................... 155 
  Very Dangerous Creatures ....................................................................... 156 
  Extremely Dangerous Creatures .............................................................. 157 
  Lethal Creatures ....................................................................................... 158 
  Tricks ......................................................................................................... 159 
  Out and About ........................................................................................... 162 
  PART 7: WORLD BUILDER ....................................................................................167 
  Landscapes ............................................................................................... 168 
  Gazetteers ................................................................................................. 170 
  The Eaglesridge Gazetteer ....................................................................... 170 
  The Build ................................................................................................... 173 
  Exotic and Alien Worlds ........................................................................... 173 
  Using Signature Events ............................................................................ 176 
  Climate and Terrain .................................................................................. 180 
  Characters and Creatures ........................................................................ 182 
  Worship ...................................................................................................... 183 
  Era/ Technologies ..................................................................................... 184 
  Territories .................................................................................................. 184 
  Boundaries ................................................................................................ 185 
  Governance ............................................................................................... 186 
  States and Nations .................................................................................... 187 
  History ....................................................................................................... 188 
  Currencies ................................................................................................. 188 
  Festivals ..................................................................................................... 189 
  Weather and Sky Events ........................................................................... 190 
  Transport and Communications .............................................................. 192 
  Weaponry ................................................................................................... 193 
  
  Commerce and Major Industries ............................................................. 194 
  Entertainments ......................................................................................... 195 
  Landmarks, Buildings and Premises ....................................................... 196 
  Conditions of Structures .......................................................................... 204 
  Alien, Exotic or Enchanted Structures .................................................... 205 
  Events ........................................................................................................ 205 
  GLOSSARY .........................................................................................................208 
  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .........................................................................................215 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 7 
  Introduction 
   
  Roleplaying games (RPGs) have been around for 50 years. During that time 
  they’ve fueled the development of the entire videogame industry, played a 
  key role in the use of gaming within businesses and become a part of 
  countless training schemes. 
   
  It’s not surprising that ideas based largely on tabletop RPGs have been so 
  widely used, as these open-ended, imaginative games ask players to think 
  for themselves and to improvise as they play.  
   
  This handbook sets out to provide a basic guide to what these games are 
  about, to describe the benefits offered by such games and to suggest ways 
  for new players to get started. 
   
  There is no correct or one true way to play RPGs, but it is possible to draw 
  on the experience of many games designers, players or GMs aka 
  Gamesmasters/ Referees to explore what works well for many groups. 
   
  
   
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  Part 1: Roleplaying Games 
   
  What are Tabletop Roleplaying Games? 
   
  Roleplaying games (RPGs) are open-ended adventure games based on 
  shared storytelling and imaginary adventures. Some videogames borrow 
  features from tabletop RPGs - but open-ended, player-lead games usually 
  involve playing tabletop RPGs. 
   
  There are RPGs for almost every genre or setting imaginable. For example, 
  in a fantasy RPG an adventurer might be a powerful wizard or a hard-as-
  nails warrior. In a Sci-Fi RPG a player’s adventurer or player character (PC) 
  could be a merchant, a space marine or a pilot. 
   
  Playing Tabletop RPGs 
   
  1. Players take the part or role of an adventurer or player character (PC) 
  and usually roll or create an adventurer. They might, for example, 
  play the part of a spy, a starship officer or a survivor in a post-
  apocalyptic world. 
  2. Players then choose and describe their adventurers’ actions during 
  play. 
  3. One player often becomes the Gamesmaster (GM) or Referee, who 
  designs adventures, describes what the adventurers see and 
  interprets outcomes. That includes rolling dice for the non-player 
  characters (NPCs) such as monsters or aliens. 
  4. Players' adventurers explore imaginary worlds, meeting many 
  different situations in imaginary settings. For example, medieval 
  castles and dungeons or spaceships and unexplored planets. 
  5. Adventurers gain more skills and experience as they explore, allowing 
  them to meet increasingly difficult challenges in return for greater 
  prizes. 
  6. The challenges found in adventures can be about exploration, 
  discovery, investigation, crisis management and combat - amongst 
  other options. 
  7. Over time adventurers' imaginary lives become an interwoven part of 
  the many events that make up their game-world or campaign. 
   
  The Basics 
   
  1. Select a system with straightforward rules and a genre or backdrop 
  that appeals, e.g. fantasy, SciFi or Western. 
  2. If you are the GM you will usually find it much easier to sketch-out the 
  adventure first. You can either prepare your own adventures or start 
  out using – and adapting - ready-made adventures. 
  
   
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  3. Find some tokens or figures to help to place or locate your 
  adventurers in the game. Extra tokens, chips or figures for the 
  characters and creatures you encounter can also be helpful. Some 
  groups may wish to use floor plans with measured grids; others may 
  prefer to sit round the table and talk through the action. 
  4. Complete adventurer sheets displaying adventurers' skills, abilities 
  and equipment. 
  5. Sit down around a table with some dice and start playing. The 
  Internet has plenty of free RPG dice rollers if you don’t have any 
  gaming dice. 
  6. Try not to take the rules too seriously – it’s a roleplaying game and 
  the only way to ‘win’ is for the group to have fun. 
   
  Dice 
   
  The wide variety of dice used to settle outcomes in RPGs is all about 
  varying the odds and outcomes to fit the circumstances. For example, 
  twenty-sided dice/ D20s make bonuses for rolling a natural 20 occur fairly 
  infrequently; while rolling a D4 for the injuries caused by a dagger fits with 
  rolling a D8 for the injuries caused by a sword. 
   
  Common dice shapes include D4s, D6s, D8s, D10s, D12s and D20s. D100s 
  are also fairly common, as an alternative to using two differently colored 
  D10s to roll for percentages. These options are easily covered by cheap 
  packs of plastic dice or free dice apps available for Android devices, 
  iPhones and even Wordpress sites. 
   
  A minority of RPGs use uncommon dice such as a D30 or dice showing 
  symbols from the game. These are not as likely to appear in free apps and 
  are usually a bit of a gimmick. 
   
  The RPG Handbook’s tables stick to the standard dice, e.g. 1-50 is shown as 
  a D100. 
   
  Adventurers aka Player Characters aka PCs 
   
  Adventurer or character sheets are used to keep records of adventurers’ 
  skills and abilities. That includes skills, abilities and possessions made 
  available when an adventurer starts out, as well as those gained during 
  play. 
   
  It is usual for common features often shared by all adventurers/ PCs to be 
  grouped first. This is then followed by items and skills that are used 
  frequently during play. Other specialist skills and possessions often come 
  last. That said there is no need for a fixed arrangement and players can 
  easily vary or decorate character sheets. 
   
  
   
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  There are countless variations on character sheets out there and some 
  games, e.g. Treasure, differ in offering options such as character 
  visualization through images or icon sets. Across most of the variants the 
  underlying spine of a character is generally a consistent blend of natural 
  abilities, learned skills and current possessions. Character histories may 
  also be added to some sheets. 
   
  Styles of Play 
   
  There are so many different styles of play and genres that it’s quite hard to 
  categorize RPGs consistently. Broadly speaking RPGs do tend to fall into 
  groupings according to complexity. The complete length of a set of core 
  rules can be a general guide to the likely level of complexity, but this is not 
  always the case as some contain lots more support aka fluff than others: 
   
  Lite 
  These are cut-down or very short RPGs, which are often quick to set-up, but 
  short on support and lifespan. They may be promotional demos of larger 
  systems or quick start gems like Risus. Another familiar approach is the 
  ransom rule set, where a basic or level-limited game is offered in the hope 
  that you will upgrade. These can be fun starter kits, but it’s worth keeping 
  an eye on how costs might add up. 
   
  Rules Light 
  Rules light (to medium) RPGs are typically games based around easy-to-
  learn straightforward rule sets and a variable amount of supporting content 
  or fluff, e.g. tips on running the game, lots of items and examples of play. 
   
  This kind of system may lack the tactical nuances of more elaborate 
  systems. However, they often leave room within the rules to be filled by 
  players’ imaginations and usually support improvisational play. Rules light 
  RPGs are, essentially, about offering open-ended gameplay and player 
  choice. Traveler and Treasure are examples of RPGs with rules light 
  mechanics allied to rules medium support. 
   
  Storytelling Games 
  Within storytelling games building shared stories takes precedence over 
  the cut and thrust of resolving challenges mechanically - and players may 
  be rewarded by the system for characterization and dramatic roleplaying. 
  This approach encourages players to build stories, but tends to induce the 
  process instead of allowing it to arise, which can be frustrating for players 
  looking for a more self-mediated improvisation. 
   
  Goliaths 
  A rule for everything tends to place simulation over a sense of authenticity, 
  which is probably not helpful in encouraging new players to play RPGs and 
  in helping players to stay in the moment. That said some massive, multi-
  
   
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  volume Goliaths are so extensive that everything can’t really join up. These 
  arguably leave the same kind of gaps in the fabric of the game as found in 
  rules light systems, but place them in a rich layer of overlapping rules and 
  sub-systems that can support highly improvisational play through inducing 
  house-ruling/ remixing. 
   
  Options and Opportunities for Kids 
   
  The ways in which tabletop RPGs can open up opportunities for kids and 
  learners is not going to be of immediate concern to many players – so 
  please feel free to skip this section. That said anyone planning to run a 
  group for kids or to use RPGs in education may find it helpful to have a 
  short outline of the benefits likely to result from playing tabletop RPGs. 
   
  The following selection of RPG gameplay options or opportunities is not 
  exhaustive but does sketch out some of the approaches to fun and learning 
  accessible to kids, (and adult learners), through tabletop RPG gameplay: 
   
  Fish Tank Gameplay 
  RPGs make ideal ‘fish tanks’, where players can try out a limited version of 
  a full game. This allows players to learn the structure of the rules or 
  guidelines using a simplified, and largely consequence free, approach to 
  exploring the gameplay 
   
  Sandbox Gameplay 
  Sandbox games present players with realistic situations and set out to 
  deliver open-ended gameplay, (where players are encouraged to shape their 
  own challenges and make their own choices). Tabletop RPGs are well-suited 
  to sandbox play, because many are designed to allow and encourage open-
  ended gameplay. 
   
  Self-Regulation 
  Unlike most boardgames, wargames and videogames, tabletop RPGs let 
  players define their own roles and targets instead of setting a fixed 
  finishing line or requiring a ‘win-mentality’. Some RPG players do adopt a 
  win-mentality over gaining possessions or defeating enemies in combat. 
  This is sometimes encouraged by games that reward player characters 
  (PCs) largely for collecting loot and slaying opponents. 
   
  Fortunately, many RPG players, (and their groups), are much more 
  interested in setting their own goals and prefer self-competition in terms of 
  playing as well as they can. These goals are more likely to concern how 
  players tackle novel situations and in-game challenges than simply 
  acquiring trinkets and power-ups. 
   
  
   
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  Improvisation 
  Improvising solutions to deal with difficult or complex situations isn’t an 
  option within most videogames, as any options the programmers leave out 
  simply aren’t available. Well-designed tabletop RPGs invite and foster 
  improvisation, as players can interpret and, even adapt, the rules as players 
  are devising solutions to dealing with difficult circumstances. 
   
  Flexible Challenges 
  By leaving GMs and players to select their own goals RPGs make it easy to 
  set flexible challenges, which can be quite demanding without ever having 
  to be impossible to solve. In other words, if players are increasingly 
  frustrated by a problem, the problem can be revised or set aside to allow 
  play to progress. Equally, if play isn’t challenging enough a GM can 
  introduce a few ad hoc adjustments to make life a little harder for the 
  players and/ or their characters. 
   
  Systemic Thinking 
  Gameplay and learning take place more effectively when players can see 
  how skills and options combine to form a coherent system. Tabletop RPGs 
  are usually intended to let players, and their PCs, progress and advance in 
  a series of stages – allowing players to develop an understanding of how 
  everything fits together. 
   
  Meaning 
  We tend to draw meaning from personal experiences rather than from 
  shared definitions or scientific principles. The many varied situations 
  encountered during RPG play may assist learning by allowing players to 
  carry out a wide range of actions that contribute to their personal 
  understanding of comparable experiences. For example, PCs might find 
  themselves in charge of evacuating a city or in a rush to repair a sinking 
  ship under very difficult circumstances. 
   
  Personalization 
  Tabletop RPGs are able to open up opportunities to customize and 
  personalize gameplay when making PCs, interpreting rule sets/ guidelines, 
  designing adventures and constructing campaign settings. Consequently, 
  players who may be used to having little or no input into how they play or 
  learn can suddenly find themselves able to take part in deciding how they 
  play and learn. 
   
  Design Gaming 
  The most valued learning skills, (involved in developing the most elusive 
  skills), allow learners/ players to become actively involved in shaping, 
  adapting and re-designing a system/ gameplay. There are widely-used 
  design games, (most obviously Lego), which allow players to set their own 
  goals, design their own solutions and fine-tune gameplay. 
   
  
   
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  Tabletop RPGs make especially good design games, because they’re suited 
  to co-design on several levels. Players start design gaming when they 
  customize their PCs, but rapidly move on to co-designing solutions to 
  encounters, roleplaying their characters and negotiating play with GMs and 
  other players. 
   
  From there RPG players may also help to script narratives, interpret rules, 
  form story arcs and define long-term goals. (Some RPGs even present 
  options involving complete freedom to edit rule sets, encouragement to 
  design gameplay props and ideas for introducing your own art or media 
  into the gameplay). 
   
  Players who become GMs aim to cover all the same ground as players. They 
  also interpret, design and patch the rules, try to promote player choice and, 
  in many cases, construct settings and scenarios which set out to keep 
  players thoroughly entertained for anything from an afternoon to a few 
  decades. 
   
  Fun 
  Everything above is rendered largely worthless if players aren’t enjoying the 
  game they’re playing. Getting involved in open-ended, improvisational 
  storybuilding can be driven by either immediate or deep motivations. In 
  either case, having fun remains central to staying motivated. If RPG 
  gameplay heads off down a route towards grandstanding, win-mentality 
  gameplay the fun is going to die, as that is not what genuine RPGs are 
  designed to deliver. 
   
  Roleplaying Game Fun: Kids 
   
  Kids are natural roleplayers and ‘let’s pretend’ is central to early learning 
  games and activities. It’s not difficult to tap into their enthusiasm for 
  imaginative play by offering access to a variety of imaginative media and by 
  adapting RPGs to offer the kinds of entertainment that can keep kids 
  interested. For example, while some kids may want nothing to do with 
  rules-based RPGs well after the age of 7, others may well start to ask about 
  adding a few rules to Lego Heroica or trying out a fantasy card game at an 
  earlier stage.  
   
  Whatever the exact timing, these novice RPG players are likely to have clear 
  preferences. Young players often prefer broad, (but limited), choices, with 
  enough prompting to help them build up their roleplaying skills. Many may 
  also make a surprisingly strong ‘investment’ in their player characters 
  (PCs), which can be encouraged through giving PCs a backstory, a few 
  personal traits and some player-determined goals. As a result, the golden 
  rule with young kids and new players is to avoid killing their PCs or their 
  pets. (There may be exceptions for new players as making it tougher to 
  survive is often part of gritty play and injuries are lethal in some hard 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 15 
  science or historical RPGs. In the case of a horror game like Cthulhu half 
  the fun is seeing who can run fastest). 
   
  There are plenty of imaginative alternatives, including equipping players 
  with extra protection, supplying convenient lucky-bags, using stunt point 
  systems, (which can include a ‘miraculous escape’ option), giving players’ 
  some ‘spider sense’ abilities and/ or selling a beaten, but live, PC into 
  slavery. If a player has such options, (working alongside suitable prompts), 
  and then chooses to ignore all ‘warnings’ in a way that gets the player’s PC 
  killed – so be it. 
   
  Magical Creatures and Companions 
  Young players tend to enjoy open-ended games where they can explore 
  fairly standard fantasy and historical or TV tie-in settings. Discovery and 
  novelty are usually valued over combat and solutions can often be 
  negotiated by talking to monsters and working together to solve basic 
  challenges or to escape danger. 
   
  Giving PCs some pets, rides or other companions to accompany them on 
  their adventures adds a lot to play for many kids. Pets are particularly 
  helpful, as players are often quite protective of them and they offer a useful 
  way to prompt new players from within the game. (It can simply be taken as 
  said that kids’ PCs can talk to pets, rides and monsters without learning a 
  language, but other types of communication, including sign languages and 
  training work well). 
   
  Overall, it’s important to recognize that young kids, particularly those 
  under 7, will have a very different understanding of many types of 
  gameplay from older players. For example, a 3 or 4-year-old will rarely have 
  an appreciation of good and bad that goes much beyond a distinction 
  between the two. 
   
  Consequently, it’s worth considering the messages and lessons young kids 
  may take away from games. Avoiding overly scary monsters is a genuine 
  concern while children are too young to make adult distinctions between 
  fantasy and reality. Along similar lines, if kids are encouraged to solve 
  problems with combat and to adopt a standard win-mentality, it’s probably 
  more likely they’ll look to these kinds of play as they grow older and, 
  possibly, carry such thinking over into other forms of real world problem-
  solving. 
   
  Magical Rewards 
  Tabletop RPGs differ from most other types of game by leaving the rules 
  wide open to interpretation. However, if a game rewards slaying monsters 
  and collecting gold above other options, (such as rewards for completing 
  challenges or entertaining roleplaying), it’s not uncommon for play to focus 
  
   
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  on collecting loot and seizing magic items or technologies that help with 
  collecting loot. 
   
  Young players may well be unaware of the emphasis placed on combat by 
  some RPG systems. This presents an opportunity to encourage player 
  choice and challenge-focused play right at the start of youngsters’ RPG 
  gaming. Doing so involves issuing rewards in the form of surprising or 
  fantastic discoveries, bonuses for players’ pets, new equipment for the local 
  Dragonriders’ school and, perhaps, the grateful thanks of those the players 
  have saved. 
   
  Treasures and player advancement can be part of a wider approach, but 
  young players with no goals other than killing the next monster will either 
  get bored, or adapt to and join, the ‘hack and slay’ brigade. 
   
  Live Action 
  When playing with youngsters it’s not unusual for a certain amount of live 
  action or Live Action Roleplaying (LARP) to start up entirely spontaneously. 
  Plastic figures are easily lifted from the table and brought into play, 
  landscapes built from Lego don’t take long to make and NERF darts are as 
  good a way as any to battle with the Big, Bad Guy (BBG). Safety first please 
  on the equipment if mock combat is part of the fun. 
   
  Exploration 
  Young players are busy spending their time exploring novel situations and 
  working out solutions to new problems in real life. It is, therefore, far from 
  surprising to find that they usually enjoy a fair amount of novelty and 
  exploration during gameplay. Fantastic locations, unrelenting villains, bold 
  maps, mystical creatures and other staples which may seem too familiar to 
  older players all work well with youngsters, because kids can often be quite 
  happy spending half-an-hour talking with the first imaginary unicorn they’ve 
  ever come across. 
   
  Discovery 
  Uncovering a straightforward mystery, finding out how dragons are raised, 
  learning how to mix a potion in a magic laboratory or traveling to an exotic 
  land where the plants communicate are examples of discoveries likely to 
  appeal to young players. Under such circumstances, working out how to 
  make an antidote to a poison that’s harming a friendly PC is usually going 
  to be more meaningful and relevant than getting paid 500 gold pieces to 
  kill a monster. 
   
  Caricatures 
  As players get older standard issue PCs and NPCs lack the depth of 
  character and character background required to sustain players’ interest. 
  However, for young players a world bristling with pirate captains, brawling 
  fighters and grumpy old sorcerers makes for a welcome start. Apart from 
  
   
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  anything else, these caricatures tie-in with similar caricatures found in 
  other media for children, allowing players to take cues from interacting 
  through familiar roles. 
   
  Making Player Characters 
  Experienced RPG players will start a game with a character sheet full of 
  skills, abilities and equipment. The design of a new PC may even be quite a 
  mechanical business involving combat optimization. Kids who don’t know 
  or care much about elaborate rules are unlikely to take much from this 
  kind of PC design. 
   
  A group of young players is highly likely to be open to making much more 
  of the character-building process. Many can find hours of play in simply 
  exploring their characters’ background. 
   
  As soon as the parents have been killed off or side-lined, (which seems to 
  be about establishing that a child’s PC is independent and free of parental 
  control), young players’ PCs will often happily explore their local village, 
  chase-off the school bullies, fix an invitation to wizards’ school and/ or set 
  up a home or base. Rules are barely necessary at this stage and the 
  resulting ‘adventure ready’ PC already has a place in the game when it 
  comes to setting out on further adventures. 
   
  Tricks or Traps 
  The types of subtle tricks and deadly traps set in the way of older, 
  experienced players are, for the most part, fairly unwelcome in games 
  aimed at young players. What appears to be fair play and/ or a tough 
  encounter to an experienced player can easily be interpreted as an unfair 
  bolt from the blue by a novice. GMs can get round this by clearly flagging 
  what players should expect from a trick or trap - and by offering multiple 
  solutions to the problems presented by tricks and traps. 
   
  Powers 
  Powers, skills, abilities and technologies stand in direct opposition to 
  authentic, gritty play if players’ PCs are able to wield major or even 
  unlimited powers on a regular basis. Youngsters can usually see the sense 
  in retaining a challenge within a game, but they are likely to be looking to 
  collect rewards involving a combination of frequent minor bonuses/ power-
  ups and some persistent - and genuinely useful - powers or skills. An 
  occasional touch of the spectacular doesn’t do any harm either. 
   
  The starting point here can be to make available magic items that give a 
  modest regular bonus, which becomes much more effective when a ‘critical 
  hit’ is rolled. 
   
  
   
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  Design Gaming, Shared Gaming and Gameplay Design 
  Co-design and game-related play, such as making-up stories using plastic 
  figures, creating models out of boxes, putting together game-related 
  collages, gaming with Lego, drawing PC sketches and similar activities 
  prime kids for imaginative games and sharing in the design of their own 
  play and learning. 
   
  Roleplaying Game Fun: Older Kids 
   
  For kids of 7-11 the wafer-thin plots and cardboard cut-out characters that 
  once helped to keep RPG life simple soon start to look increasingly tired. 
  Many such players are already likely to be watching TV shows like Merlin 
  and Primeval, which offer moderately complex characters and plots. At the 
  same time their play and games will be going through a process of social 
  shaping at school, involving a shift from imaginative learning through play 
  towards more structured and procedural activities. As a result, GMs and 
  players who wish to keep kids of 7-13 playing, (or to recruit new players), 
  appear to face a difficult task. 
   
  Tabletop games do, however, have a couple of aces up their sleeve. Firstly, 
  a console or a DVD doesn’t offer the same social fun as a light-hearted 
  boardgame or RPG session. Secondly, whenever older GMs and other 
  players step in to help to bridge young players’ skills gaps, (through 
  encouragement and prompting), the resulting gameplay puts players back 
  in charge of shaping their own gameplay. 
   
  The following options suggest a few approaches to adapting play to suit 
  older kids. The style of play offered to older kids, (in terms of not taking the 
  rules too seriously and offering challenges that prompt players to shape 
  play), seems as likely to recruit more players as any number of electric 
  plots or epic characters. 
   
  Characters 
  The trusty steed, the oily thief, the brash warrior and similar PC and NPC 
  staples that often serve well when playing with younger players become 
  ever more worn and clichéd as players get older. Players and GMs generally 
  look to escape such basic PC and NPC stereotypes at a fairly early stage to 
  lend their gameplay greater authenticity. 
   
  Rule sets may attempt to cover the whole of PC characterization in a single 
  sweep during PC design/ generation. Unfortunately, this method can rely 
  on characterization through exhaustive PC builds, character optimization 
  and the straitjacket of myriad character classes. For a kid without an 
  understanding of the subtle nuances of characterization resulting from 
  rolling an extra 5% bonus in Truffle Detection this largely mechanical 
  approach is a pretty soulless business. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 19 
  Introducing simple mechanics that take account of a wider range of skill 
  sets can help to breathe life into PCs and NPCs, as selecting personality 
  traits, customizing PC’s clothing and discovering, or uncovering, some kind 
  of past all go some way towards fleshing out a unique character. 
   
  Introducing backstories to character design is an even better way to build 
  more compelling characters, because talking or playing through PC and 
  NPC characterization allows players and GMs to shape characters as they’re 
  formed. The results are PCs or NPCs which have been self-negotiated to 
  arrive at a good fit between a player’s expectations and the types of 
  gameplay that are going to occupy everyone at the table. 
   
  Once play has begun characterization can be firmed up and freshened up 
  by keeping accounts of PCs’ and NPCs’ actions and deeds. Adding visual 
  elements to PC records, keeping logs of adventure maps and diagrams, and 
  recording brief details of PCs’ adventures all help to put flesh on the bones. 
   
  Players continuously develop a PC’s characterization though play, but NPCs 
  don’t receive the same attention and can appear static unless GMs form a 
  pool of recurring NPCs who move with the times. For some, such as an old 
  friend who never left the village the PCs grew up in, change may be 
  infrequent and the occasional birth and marriage is enough to keep events 
  in motion. However, for other familiar and favorite NPCs it may be worth 
  keeping a basic timeline of events and updating it whenever players come 
  into contact with the same NPC. 
   
  Tricks and Traps 
  Few players of any age seem to enjoy having deadly traps sprung on them. 
  Older kids are open to adding extra risk to play, but not in ways they 
  consider unfair or completely unexpected. Traps should, ideally, be well 
  signposted, have multiple solutions and only get lethal if players are 
  disregarding the signposting. 
   
  Basic tricks can be introduced on a number of levels, including 
  straightforward distractions, delays, bad deals and switching or concealing 
  items. More elaborate tricks, such as pyramid schemes, are not something 
  older kids are likely to be familiar with. In addition, young players may not 
  recognize more complex ploys or schemes as a part of gameplay they are 
  comfortable with until they’re used to more basic tricks. 
   
  Storymaking 
  Rounded characters, campaign backdrops, (with geographies, histories and 
  cultures), calendars of events, recurring enemies and plenty of events 
  players can participate in, (e.g. an annual jousting tournament or a Griffin 
  race), are among the elements a GM can layer, mix and weave together to 
  form an immersive game that captures players’ imaginations. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 20 
  It may seem impossible to keep track of all the details thrown up by so 
  many options, but there’s no need to try. A GM can start play with a 
  framework or blueprint and only drill-down into finer detail where and when 
  the plots and challenges chosen by players call for further thought. 
   
  GMs may find it helpful to work from feature and event rich outlines that 
  prime a setting with plenty of challenges and shared expectations. This 
  approach makes it quicker and simpler to fill the gaps when zooming in on 
  the gameplay of most interest to your players. 
   
  Immersion 
  Older kids are interested in more immersive games with imaginative 
  settings, but few are looking for this to go down the route of simulation 
  gaming. Making play more authentic, more connected and generally 
  grittier, therefore, has to avoid taking away the ‘magic dust’ or pure 
  imagination offered by RPGs. For example, playing high fantasy with 
  powerful wizards and mighty heroes works well with older kids, but 
  complete flights of fantasy, (where the highly unlikely or inconsistent 
  impacts on play), become increasingly unwelcome. 
   
  The Unexpected 
  A much wider range of encounter settings, plots and challenges, NPCs, 
  tricks and monsters is needed to keep older kids entertained. Bolts from 
  the blue may not be entirely welcome, but thrills and spills, the shock of the 
  new, elements of mystery and investigation, minor conspiracies, a deeper 
  or darker atmosphere, more territory and options to explore different 
  habitats are all likely to be appreciated. 
   
  The more subtle the introduction and use of novel and unexpected 
  elements, the greater the chances of them becoming a preferred option 
  within a gaming group. For example, allowing players to research and 
  develop a form of Greek Fire within a fantasy setting is probably going to 
  work well enough, providing the cost of the ingredients balances alongside 
  the destruction caused by the Greek Fire. (It might also be helpful to limit 
  the substance’s use as a result of it being very hazardous to transport). 
   
  The alternative approach of simply suddenly introducing gunpowder, with 
  all that follows, is less likely to seem novel and unlikely to add anything 
  meaningful to a group’s gameplay. Instead play risks being drawn into a 
  technological arms race, which tears away at the expectations and 
  challenges offered by mid to high fantasy. 
   
  Design Gaming, Shared Game and Gameplay Design 
  The design game options available to older kids include many suited to 
  younger kids. However, there’s a clear difference in terms of the variety of 
  co-design activities that are both practical to run and also likely to appeal 
  to players. Illustrating PC sheets, drawing detailed maps and building more 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 21 
  complete models can progress to a new level with older kids. New activities 
  might incorporate activities like painting gaming figures, planning and 
  making a fantasy banquet, designing giant PC sheets or using markers to 
  draw A3 dungeon layouts. 
   
  Starting out as a GM may also become an option for some kids aged 7 or 
  over. Ideally, players who show an interest will get the chance to help out a 
  GM at a few games, before putting together a small adventure and running 
  a short game. Those who have the opportunity to develop in this way are 
  likely to pick up a wide range of valuable gaming skills without becoming 
  overwhelmed by the work involved. 
   
  Roleplaying Game Fun: Young Adults 
   
  By the time a player is about to become a teenager some of the more 
  magical or fantastic roleplaying enjoyed by younger RPG players has 
  completely lost its appeal. So much so that such gameplay can be 
  considered deeply embarrassing. As a result, there’s a strong incentive for 
  teenagers to move away from story-building gameplay towards supposedly 
  more adult rules systems and/ or games mastery. 
   
  This drift towards win-mentality gameplay and wargaming can be tempered 
  by making RPG gameplay genuinely more adult; which frequently involves 
  offering increasingly authentic settings and plenty of realistic in-game 
  challenges. 
   
  Adding greater authenticity is about adjusting the balance between the real 
  and the imaginary – rather than getting bogged-down in simulation and re-
  enactment. Consequently, presenting teenage players with open-ended ‘real 
  world’ challenges is a very straightforward way to set about introducing 
  more authenticity without abandoning imaginative gameplay. 
   
  The options set out below can, hopefully, combine to help Gamesmasters 
  to present campaigns and adventures that balance authentic, gritty RPG 
  play alongside the slightly edgy imaginative story-building suited to the 
  preferences of many young adults. 
   
  Personalities 
  Young adults are ready to move on from standalone characters to 
  characters that operate within networks of relationships. Under these 
  conditions a PC or a NPC might act quite differently when influenced by 
  certain individuals, groups and/ or circumstances. 
   
  For example, a NPC might develop from the ever-amiable bard to the 
  companionable bard who is completely hostile and unapproachable once a 
  year. Along the same lines, an employee might behave quite differently 
  when the boss isn’t around, while a temperamental wizard could turn out to 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 22 
  be unusually fond of apricot pastries – and very appreciative of someone 
  who went to the trouble to find this out and bring a few round. 
   
  Group dynamics allow GMs to go a step further and introduced effects 
  based on the behaviors of groups and communities. For example, the 
  collective mindsets of crowds, fans, rioters, celebrants, zealots, families and 
  organizations are more than capable of influencing, and dramatically 
  shifting, the views and actions of individuals caught-up in group 
  interactions. 
   
  Tricks and Traps 
  Mechanical traps and deadly traps are not of a lot more interest to young 
  adults than other age groups. Tricks offer far more options and solutions to 
  explore. That is not to say that traps serve no purpose, as finding a solution 
  to an elaborate and dangerous trap can prove entertaining if players have 
  to think on their feet. Nevertheless, most young adult players and groups 
  are likely to be more intrigued by tricks, which offer a much wider range of 
  challenges and plot hooks than most traps. 
   
  The combination of a trick and a trap also becomes an option with young 
  adults. It is probably worth bearing in mind that even adult players need a 
  gentle introduction to double-edged traps and trickery. Otherwise, they may 
  feel the challenges they’re facing aren’t sufficiently ‘upfront’ or fair to give 
  them a chance to come up with solutions. 
   
  Creep 
  It’s quite straightforward to make RPG sessions for teenagers a shade 
  darker than games for kids without frightening or offending anyone. 
  Hauntings, ill omens, dark prophecies, seemingly bizarre events, local 
  superstitions, cries in the night, curious rituals and secret ceremonies are 
  all able to lend play a touch of extra suspense. These kinds of events or 
  interactions can also back-up any dark undercurrents waiting to be exposed 
  within ongoing plots. 
   
  In contrast, within RPG sessions excessive violence and reveling in gore 
  rapidly loses all impact. A threat to PCs only holds any real suspense while 
  it’s a veiled threat and the guiding principle with creep is that less is more. 
   
  For instance, a few drops of blood spattered over some leaves, a bloody 
  hand print missing the impression of a ring finger and the discovery of a 
  bloodstained dagger clearly brings more to the table than a gruesome 
  description about a NPC losing a finger. 
   
  Appealing to as many of the players’ and PCs’ senses as possible is very 
  helpful here and the options go far beyond the standard definition of five 
  senses. Intuition, color, texture, physiology, (e.g. tears, torn muscles and 
  perspiration), personal likes and dislikes, emotional reactions, and formal 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 23 
  and informal language may all combine and interact to create tension and 
  play, or prey, upon players’ imaginations. 
   
  For example, amidst the battle cries and lamentations of a desperate last 
  stand, PCs and players might, respectively, have positive in-game and out-
  game reactions to the welcome sound of the marching song of a long 
  overdue relief column. 
   
  In addition, when games may well involve all manner of wildlife, fantasy 
  creatures and/ or alien species the sensory options get much wider. The 
  electronic detection systems of a Hammerhead Shark may not be 
  something we can easily relate to, but a PC experiencing a shark’s senses 
  while underwater might, for example, have access to radar-like images kept 
  unavailable to those without sharks’ senses. 
   
  Further options include some snakes’ heat-seeking vision, dolphins’ 
  ultrasound capabilities, certain dungeon-dwellers’ night vision and 
  comparable sensory systems, which are in plentiful supply both in the 
  natural world and inside most monster catalogues. 
   
  Crisis Management 
  At times a GM can really pile on the pressure when playing with older 
  players. Crisis management is discussed in more detail when looking at 
  challenges elsewhere in the RPG Handbook. However, the basic principles 
  are straightforward and highly likely to help older players get caught up in 
  RPG gameplay. 
   
  In the middle of dealing with difficult opponents, surprises, ambushes and/ 
  or any number of other plot hooks and challenges, there’s nothing like the 
  sudden arrival of an all-consuming crisis to shake everything up. 
   
  A meteor strike, a massive earthquake, a volcanic eruption or any similar 
  physical or political cataclysm can act as a trigger and players, and their 
  PCs, are suddenly dealing with whatever was going on already amidst a 
  major crisis. Under such circumstances players clearly have to adjust 
  priorities, adapt to new conditions and remain mindful of the world as it 
  was. 
   
  Survival 
  Survival gameplay is also discussed elsewhere in the RPG Handbook, but 
  remains worth mentioning here because older players can become more 
  motivated and more involved in play through the extra demands placed on 
  players and PCs by survival scenarios. Adding a layer of survival gameplay 
  to a game can add authenticity, encourage players to resolve to overcome 
  the conditions, and present a series of dilemmas concerning who survives 
  and how they continue to survive. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 24 
  It’s usually helpful to avoid using either crisis management or gameplay as 
  a simple means to lay PCs low. So, rather than drop the players’ favorite 
  bank straight into a caldera full of lava and burying an entire city in ash, it 
  might be more interesting to present players with the realization that they 
  don’t have much time to act if they wish to protect their wealth and their 
  health. 
   
  Of course, it can still be helpful to use catastrophes as a device to remove 
  the unplayable, unpopular or simply played-out. For example, that much 
  visited kingdom where the PCs are always hailed as heroes may become 
  less hospitable after permanent flooding turns much of the formerly 
  prosperous farmland into a massive swamp. 
   
  Design Gaming and Games Design 
  Safety concerns, mess, costs and commitment can all limit the range of 
  enterprise activities, spin-off hobbies, arts and crafts, gatherings and 
  projects that are easily linked to playing RPGs with younger players. 
  Teenagers still need safe, inexpensive and motivating games and activities, 
  but the gloves are finally off when it comes to design gaming options. 
   
  By 11 or 12 many kids are able to begin to make their own games, 
  scenarios, presentations, sketches and modest enterprises. RPGs provide 
  an ideal backdrop for developing such activities and the motivation to 
  sketch a PC or run a gaming group may be just the encouragement a RPG 
  player needs to develop as a graphic designer or as a conference organizer. 
   
  RPGs for Kids and Big Kids 
   
  This is a selection of RPGs aimed at kids and young people. It's not at all 
  clear if a rule set adds much to roleplaying for younger kids, as they tend to 
  need little more than a few plastic figures and their imaginations to get 
  started. However, for some children a particular genre or style of play can 
  do a lot to encourage an interest in story-building and RPGs. 
   
  The appeal of certain genres and styles of play also applies to older kids 
  and young adults who are likely to enjoy learning a basic rule set or 
  beginning to get the hang of a more complex rule set. 
   
  That said by 7+ there are many kids who could play perfectly well with a 
  standard or mainstream RPG providing the GM shows a bit of flexibility. 
  Consequently, the list is not intended to suggest that a RPG needs to be 
  tagged as a 'Kids' RPG' to play well with kids. Instead, such games may be 
  of value - to read or to play - simply in terms of helping adults to get inside 
  kids' perspectives on RPG gameplay. 
   
  In addition, while genre and multimedia tie-ins, (such as books and TV 
  series), may help to encourage new or young players to pick-up a RPG, 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 25 
  most of these games also help out once players start using the rule set. For 
  example, they often have more straightforward language than full-blown 
  RPG titles; they usually keep character generation short and to the point; 
  and they typically offer accessible page layouts. 
   
  Advanced Fighting Fantasy 
  This title is a shade more advanced than the solo game-books of the same 
  name, but far from complicated. Advanced Fighting Fantasy is available as 
  a glossy book and offers a complete fantasy RPG. The popularity of the 
  game-books seems likely to make it all the easier to encourage young 
  players to try out Advanced Fighting Fantasy. 
   
  Adventures in Oz 
  Time to set off along the Yellow Brick Road for RPG gameplay set in Oz. 
  The book and the film have stood the test of time and it won't be a surprise 
  when movie producers decide to give Oz another try at the box office. Until 
  then Adventures in Oz offers child-friendly gameplay with enough 
  roleplaying options to keep adults at the table. 
   
  BASH aka Basic Action Games 
  What no superheroes? Not a problem as BASH aka Basic Action Super 
  Heroes Ultimate Edition covers all the essentials in a compact rule set 
  that's straightforward and accessible to younger players. The game also 
  looks the part and headlines an extended range of RPG offerings based 
  around the same rules-light - but not sparse - framework. 
   
  Buffy 
  Buffy is a full RPG, which is suited to teenagers rather than kids. It has 
  gone in and out of publication at various stages, but is well worth tracking 
  down. The mechanics aren't particularly complex and the game is well-
  known for recreating the style and atmosphere of the TV series. There is 
  also a similar RPG from Eden Studios for Angel. 
   
  Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple 
  This storytelling game started-out with a very successful Kickstarter 
  scheme. It's a collaborative storytelling game where the players' characters 
  set-out on a fantasy adventure. Strategy and imagination combine to build 
  the story of the PC's journey, but things don't go quite to plan and the 
  adventurers frequently run into trouble. The game's sense of humor is a 
  plus, as is the very appealing artwork. The game plays in a roughly similar 
  manner to Happy Birthday Robot, (shown below), so there's no need for a 
  GM. Kids of 7+, and possibly younger, should have no problem learning the 
  game quickly. An expansion pack called Do: The Book of Letters extends 
  the gameplay. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 26 
  Faery's Tale Deluxe 
  Faery's tale is aimed at players of 6+. Players take on the role of fairies, 
  such as a pixie, a brownie or a sprite, and explore Brightwood. The game 
  includes three ready-to-run adventures. 
   
  Harvesters 
  Animals, such as badgers and squirrels, become the heroic characters at 
  the heart of adventures which are otherwise similar to typical fantasy RPG 
  gameplay. In other words, you have character classes like knights, wizards 
  and druids, but they take the form of a variety of wildlife. 
   
  Happy Birthday Robot 
  Young players enjoy shared storytelling as they take it in turns to write the 
  tale of Robot’s birthday. While the players decide the what, where, when 
  and how of the Robot's day, they never know how much they'll be able to 
  add during one turn, as the game's key mechanic gives a limited number of 
  words to be used each turn. No GM required, but you do need a bundle of 
  d6s on hand. 
   
  Hero Kids 
  The Hero Kids RPG is a D6 system aimed at kids from 4-10. It combines a 
  very colorful presentation with a child-friendly, class-based fantasy RPG. 
  The game is 37 pages long and arrives with a choice of 10 heroes and 8 
  monsters. More monsters are included in a series of separate adventures. 
  Both the heroes and the monsters have matching printable stand-up minis 
  to help kids to keep track of what’s going on as the action unfolds at the 
  table. Modular map tiles are a worthwhile feature included in, for example, 
  the Maze of the Minotaur Premium Adventure add-on pack. 
   
  Kids Dungeon Adventure 
  Pre-school RPG rules may not be necessary, but Kids Dungeon Adventure 
  goes a long way towards suggesting they can offer plenty of fun. The game 
  offers a very easy, flexible system that works alongside kids' other toys to 
  build adventures. The site is particularly good at showing what the game 
  has to offer, so a visit is highly recommended. 
   
  Kids and Critters 
  This 3 in 1 pack includes a woodland/ wildlife RPG called Tales from the 
  Wood; a jolly kids in ideal England RPG called Lashings of Ginger Beer; and 
  a . . . Prairie Dog RPG. The first is all rabbits and badgers gameplay 
  comparable in some ways to Warrior Cats; the second is all about mysteries 
  and adventures in Scooby Doo takes itself too seriously mode; while the 
  last is . . . unique? 
   
  Lego Heroica 
  The Lego brand and a simple rule set make the Heroica range very 
  appealing to kids of 5+. However, the built-in adventures are a bit 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 27 
  railroading and focused on beating-up on monsters. The game really comes 
  into its own when you start to patch the rules and mix-up the gameplay to 
  build on the basic framework. In other words, it may start out as a dungeon 
  crawl, but there's nothing to stop anyone from turning it into a mix of 
  exploration, roleplaying and some beating-up on monsters. 
   
  Lone Wolf Multiplayer Game 
  Joe Dever's Lone Wolf books are probably the best known solo game-books 
  after the Fighting Fantasy series. The RPG uses the same simple mechanics 
  to encourage players of the books to step up to a RPG. As a result of the 
  success of the books, the game has the added advantage of a fully fleshed-
  out game-world and plenty of add-ons. 
   
  Meddling Kids 
  There's not a lot of guesswork required to work out the game's theme. 
  Players set off on comic adventures and investigations much along the 
  lines of the TV format. Solving mysteries in spooky locations is central to 
  the gameplay, as is having a laugh about the characters and tropes from 
  the TV series. The game has a lot to offer through its almost universally 
  familiar backdrop - and the expectations that come out of that in terms of 
  suggesting actions and options for players to try out on the basis of their 
  knowledge of the TV shows. 
   
  Mermaid Adventures 
  Mermaid Adventures describes itself as a “RPG of Undersea Fun!” Players 
  take the part of a mermaid and go about forming friendships while taking 
  on sea monsters and solving mysteries. The game is suitable for kids of 4+ 
  and full of very colorful line art. The core book has sample adventures and 
  there’s a matching coloring book. 
   
  Mouse Guard 
  Mouse Guard is a beautifully presented storytelling RPG. It has, perhaps, 
  the most complicated rules system among the games shown here. However, 
  the strong support for story-building, the series of popular Mouse Guard 
  books and the setting built around the books make for an excellent game. 
  It's possibly more a game to be run by adults or teenagers - but younger 
  players with a basic idea of how RPGs are played are likely to enjoy the 
  game. 
   
  The Princess Game 
  The players roleplay different parts of the thoughts of a young girl, e.g. her 
  love, her curiosity, her fear and her imagination. They players then set off 
  to see what they can find and imagine in the world. It plays a bit like other 
  easy story-builders such as Happy Birthday Robot and is available under a 
  Creative Commons, non-commercial, attribution license. It would not be 
  hard to also play it as 'The Prince Game'. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 28 
  Rory’s Story Cubes 
  Roll the dice and tell a story based on the images that turn-up. Rory’s Story 
  Cubes are fun, inexpensive, open to all ages, no set-up required and easy to 
  use in schools and libraries. There are now extra packs including Action/ 
  'verb' cubes for describing actions, the standalone Voyages for epic 
  adventure stories and an iPhone option. 
   
  Toon 
  Toon brings cartoon characters into a RPG which is all about recreating the 
  comic mayhem of classic cartoon heroes. You can make any cartoon 
  character you like and then play through adventures in cartoon worlds 
  where the special powers are those of cartoon comedy, which means 
  characters need never die - because they can always pop back into shape. 
   
  The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men 
  Players create gingerbread cookies to act as their character sheets and play 
  the part of gingerbread men in this Christmas-themed title. The sprinkles 
  and toppings on your cookie give special powers to play in game and you 
  simply eat the powers as you use them. Injuries are treated in the same 
  manner - just tear a chunk off your cookie and eat it. The game is highly 
  recommended across a wide age range for use in the weeks leading up to 
  Christmas. 
   
  Warrior Cats 
  This one's a beautifully produced, short, free RPG based on Erin Hunter's 
  books of the same name. It's suitable for players perhaps as young as 5 
  and the fiction titles add new, ready-to-run adventures as more books are 
  released. It's also easily adaptable to playing with all manner of animals, 
  including our personal variant Sabretooth. 
   
  Witch Girls Adventure 
  Witch Girls Adventure is a fantasy game about the lives of young mistresses 
  of magic. The Witch Girl books and cartoons provide plenty of support to 
  help to encourage kids to give the game a try. The rules aren't complicated 
  and suit the age range of the popular books, i.e. 7+. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 29 
  The 5e Core 
   
  Basic Rules 
  The basic rules for D&D 5e are free to download and cover the essentials of 
  character classes, a selection of races, standard equipment and rules for 
  running combat and roleplaying. As a try before you buy option the 
  download is sufficient to help with making a choice on whether or not to 
  find out more. 
   
  The Starter Set 
  This set offers a practical way to progress from the basic rules as it adds a 
  short adventure and conveniences like character sheets and a set of dice. If 
  you like the look of the basic rules, but aren’t sure if you want to commit to 
  buying the full books, there is a lot to be said for making the Starter Set 
  your next step into the game. However, if you have already been grabbed by 
  the whole idea of playing D&D 5e the same money could go towards 
  purchasing the three main D&D titles. 
   
  Player’s Handbook 
  The Player’s Handbook is an essential for all players including DMs, as it 
  contains the core mechanics for running play and coverage of all the main 
  character classes and spells. It’s also a pleasure to view in terms of the art 
  and design, which helps to express the nature of the game. If you are a 
  player you can and should stop there with the books - apart from 
  considering Xanathar’s Guide to Everything as an option once you’ve been 
  playing for a while. 
   
  Dungeon Master’s Guide 
  It is possible for a DM to get along without the Dungeon Master’s Guide, 
  but the book is packed with further mechanics, lots of guidance to help 
  with building your own adventures and full details on numerous magic 
  items. If you’re going to DM you’ll want a copy sooner rather than later. 
    
  Monster Manual 
  Playing any adventure calls for access to monsters’ stats and ideally some 
  description and lore concerning the monsters. As with the other core titles 
  the illustrations are entirely complementary and if you wish can be revealed 
  to players at the right points in play to let their characters clearly see what 
  they’re dealing with. 
   
  Volo’s Guide to Monsters 
  The second collection of monsters for 5e offers a worthwhile collection of 
  background material and lore on some of the signature monsters and races 
  from D&D’s past and present. The title also contains lots of additional 
  creatures to fill-out the selection in the Monster Manual and full details of a 
  great many pre-cut 5e NPCs currently peppering most games and 
  scenarios. These ready-builds include several higher level NPCs, which are 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 30 
  very convenient/ largely preparation free for the DM to use. At the same 
  time they can be quickly tweaked through spell choices and/ or magic 
  items and treasure. Volo’s is clearly intended for DMs, but has information 
  for the player’s side, including some monster classes that some DMs may 
  agree to players using. 
   
  Xanathar’s Guide to Everything 
  Extra class options, more spells and suggestions for DMs make for a fun 
  collection of non-essential extras. Xanathar’s Guide is suited to experienced 
  DMs and players who have tried many of the existing options within the 
  game and are looking to inject some novelty into their use of 5e. 
   
  Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes 
  Even more monsters may seem overkill, but this collection of over 400 is 
  ideally suited for filling gaps in the options available for higher level 
  characters to take on. It probably adds more to the game than Xanathar’s 
  Guide and is the fifth fairly essential title for a long-term DM. 
   
  Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide 
  For those wishing to adventure within the Forgotten Realms setting the 
  Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide digs down into lots of flavour and role 
  concerning one region of the Forgotten Realms. As a result the title can 
  add depth to a campaign focused on embedding itself in the Forgotten 
  Realms setting, but is fairly specific to that particular task. There are some 
  extras in terms of spells and class options, but nothing major. 
   
  Summary 
  The essentials boil down to the Player’s Handbook for non-DMs and the 
  Player’s Handbook, the Monster Manual and the Dungeon Master’s Guide 
  for DMs. Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Book of Foes 
  become increasingly relevant as a DM runs and/ or designs more 
  adventures. 
  Adventures 
   
  Bought-in adventures are a necessity for many groups, because they reduce 
  the preparation time for DMs and so allow regular games to happen. 
  Official adventures may be shaped by the imaginations of the designers, 
  but you can change whatever you like to suit your game and designing your 
  own 5e adventures straight away is quite a heavy lift if you’re a new DM. 
  The range of full-blown adventure campaigns released with 5e are 
  consistently based on revisiting opponents and situations drawn from 
  distinctive campaigns that appeared in earlier versions of D&D. However, 
  the new titles generally go quite some distance beyond the originals in 
  terms of scale and plotting, which ensures there is plenty that is fresh in all 
  of them. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 31 
  Tales from the Yawning Portal is something of an exception, as the title 
  provides a compilation of 5e re-runs of classic adventures, such as Against 
  the Giants, the Tomb of Horrors and White Plume Mountain. These classic 
  adventures work in 5e but, if you’ve played a 5e Against the Giants and 
  then go to Storm King’s Thunder, there’s going to be a certain amount of 
  overlap. 
   
  The titles mentioned below have all been well-received and are proven in 
  terms of plenty of groups of players having tried-out what the campaigns 
  have to offer. 
   
  The Hoard of the Dragon Queen 
  This early in-house 5e adventure delivers familiar D&D gameplay with the 
  players’ characters pitched against a dragon cult intent on releasing the 
  fearsome, five-headed dragon goddess Tiamat into the world. Play runs 
  from 1-15th level and it’s an enjoyable outing with plenty of touchstones 
  connecting to D&D tropes. 
   
  Curse of Strahd 
  The pocket world of Barovia hosts longstanding D&D super villain and 
  vampire Strahd, who runs a kingdom suffused with dreadful curses, 
  ceaseless lamentations and more than a few gory deaths. The horror isn’t 
  really very full on, but the environment as a whole has its own set of sub-
  rules, which go a long way towards putting across the impression PCs are 
  genuinely dislocated from their usual reality and under threat from the 
  supernatural. 
   
  Princes of the Apocalypse 
  Princes of the Apocalypse is another early 5e outing and an extended 
  excursion into the classic Underdark environment where alien landscapes 
  operate alongside an evil worldview. The adventure is both challenging and 
  packed with incident. Of the earlier official offerings this is possibly the top 
  pick in terms of taking you into a classic D&D environment that has been 
  built upon under 5e to become engaging and quite fresh - despite such 
  extensive use of the drow in every version since they first appeared. 
   
  Storm King’s Thunder 
  Dungeons, formidable opponents and giants on the rampage. There’s both 
  consistent plot development and increasing challenge in what can safely be 
  said to be one of the most widely appreciated official campaigns. It’s 
  definitely a good candidate for a first campaign for a new or relatively new 
  group of players and/ or DM. 
   
  Tomb of Annihilation 
  The updated Tomb of Horrors redone as a full 5e campaign offers a 
  particularly enjoyable overland adventure with lots of factions to encounter 
  and some emphasis on survival. This is followed by a quite relentless 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 32 
  journey into the trap-laden tomb, which is often deadly unless PCs are both 
  quite well-equipped and cautious. 
   
  Waterdeep: Dragon Heist 
  An urban adventure where a hoard of 500,000 gold pieces, here ‘dragons’, 
  is missing and the PCs have to investigate where it’s gone to and get there 
  before the villain. Though structured the adventure still operates as 
  something of a sandbox and a city-based adventure set-up for 1st-5th level 
  is a worthwhile addition to the official titles. 
   
  Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage 
  The Undermountain dungeon lies beneath the Yawning Portal tavern in the 
  city of Waterdeep and contains 23 levels of the dungeon lair of the Mad 
  Mage, Halaster Blackcloak. Traps, monsters and treasures set-up fairly 
  traditional style dungeon exploration peppered with a few underlying 
  mysteries. The adventure offers a straightforward progression from 
  Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and caters for 5th-20th level PCs. 
   
  
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012 - Page 33 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 34 
  Part 2: Getting Started 
   
  Roleplaying Games 
   
  Dungeons and Dragons 
  The first and, by some distance, the most popular RPG was put together by 
  Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. It now exists in many forms, including the 
  official D&D brand owned by Wizards of the Coast, which is currently 
  preparing to move to a new edition. The branded rules have become 
  progressively longer and more detailed up to and including the 4th Edition. 
   
  However, the latest version appears to be taking a step back towards a 
  more straightforward core game – allied to optional add-ons that offer 
  more tactical complexity. Variants include clones based around every 
  official edition released to date, including ideas drawn from the 4th Edition. 
   
  Call of Cthulhu 
  The game is largely based on the works of 1920s fantastic horror author 
  H.P. Lovecraft and focuses on dealing with the minions and manifestations 
  of hideous, over the top evil deities. Play is not about collecting treasure or 
  slaying monsters. Instead Call of Cthulhu emphasizes atmosphere and 
  build-up. It’s fairly typical to adopt an investigation and revelation 
  approach, where characters are, for the most part, concentrating on 
  surviving against the odds. 
   
  GURPS aka General, Universal Roleplaying System 
  Multi-systems aim to allow players to use the same skeleton key core rules 
  across multiple RPG genres. GURPS allows play across dozens of genres 
  and is also known for emphasizing realism. As a result combat is often 
  deadly and quite authentic. 
   
  Pathfinder 
  This Open Gaming License based clone of Edition 3.5 of Dungeons and 
  Dragons has made a major success of embedding the game in a rich 
  campaign world and now rivals and at times outstrips the official Dungeons 
  and Dragons brand. 
   
  Swords & Wizardry 
  Among the many clones of earlier versions of Dungeons and Dragons, 
  Swords 
  & 
  Wizardry 
  re-captures 
  much 
  of 
  the 
  essence 
  of 
  early, 
  improvisational gameplay. It is also a well-supported game with whole 
  books of extra creatures and numerous scenarios available to players. 
  Thistle Games’ clones Corruption and Renegade use similar mechanics and 
  are part of a much wider pool of readily or immediately compatible rules-
  light games. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 35 
  Traveler 
  The cut-down booklet form of the original Traveler SciFi RPG made for a 
  dramatic change from the spells and heroics of Dungeons and Dragons. 
  Before starting play characters went through a careers millstone, which 
  gave them skills at the expense of numerous risks and considerable aging. 
  Combat was also deadly and, while recent versions tend to be more 
  forgiving, the game remains popular for most styles of SciFi RPG gameplay, 
  e.g. Space Opera and hard SciFi. 
   
  World of Darkness 
  The supernatural World of Darkness titles concern vampires, werewolves 
  and such like. Vampire: the Requiem and Mage: the Ascension are the two 
  best known titles released under the system. The games are not everyone’s 
  idea of fun and can be unsettling for some players. Nevertheless, WoD 
  proved popular for a time and placed horror RPGs into a more gritty, 
  (marginally), less over the top backdrop than Call of Cthulhu. 
   
  Rogue Trader 
  Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, Only War and Rogue Trader are all part of a 
  series of related ‘space marine’ RPGs. They have a very detailed, dark, 
  dystopian backdrop and more rules than you can shake a stick at. However, 
  they are examples of rules-heavy RPGs that can be played in a flexible, 
  quite improvisational manner once players have invested time in reading 
  and playing through the rules. This is particularly true of Rogue Trader, 
  which is all about massive, interstellar starships trading over vast stretches 
  of extremely hazardous space. The trading angle within Rogue Trader 
  encourages gameplay that opens up into a wide range of roleplaying 
  options, so espionage, trade and diplomacy get a chance to shine. 
   
  Flashing Blades 
  This is a fairly rules-light, historical RPG with a Three Musketeers meets the 
  dastardly Cardinal Richelieu theme, which extends into areas covering the 
  Duelists and Napoleonic adventures. The rules invite some patching, but 
  there’s a lot of fun in a system where characters are mortal, yet able to pull 
  off plenty of swashbuckling heroic stunts. 
   
  Corruption 
  Corruption is an example of an Old School take on the original RPG rules 
  by Dave Arneson and Gary E. Gygax. The idea of most clones is to revisit 
  the rules light, improvisational gameplay found in early RPGs. For some 
  this means re-shaping the rules; while for others – including Corruption - 
  it’s about introducing a new emphasis, e.g. theming games and campaign 
  design. Clones are generally an inexpensive way to play RPGs and systems 
  such as Swords & Wizardry, Renegade and Corruption are easy to translate 
  in and out of the Original Game. 
   
  Wikipedia keeps a very long list of tabletop RPGs. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 36 
   
  Roleplaying Game Genres 
   
  There are thousands of RPGs to choose from and at least one or two for 
  almost any genre imaginable. The genres and games listed here are just a 
  short selection of the available options: 
   
  RPG Genres Table 
  No. Genre 
  Examples 
  1 
  Cyberpunk 
  Shadowrun 
  2 
  Espionage 
  Blowback or Spycraft 
  3 
  Fantasy 
  Dungeons and Dragons, Corruption or Swords & 
  Wizardry 
  4 
  Historical 
  Flashing Blades 
  5 
  Horror 
  All Flesh is Eaten or Call of Cthulhu 
  6 
  Modern 
  Spycraft, Blowback or D20 Modern 
  7 
  Multisystem 
  Savage Worlds and GURPs 
  8 
  Post-
  Apocalypse 
  Gamma World 
  9 
  Sci-Fi 
  Traveler, Rogue Trader, Dark Heresy or Deathwatch 
  10 
  Space Opera 
  Traveler or Star Wars RPG 
  11 
  Steampunk 
  Space: 1889 
  12 
  Superhero 
  Marvel Roleplaying Game 
  13 
  Supernatural 
  Buffy RPG or Dresden Files 
  14 
  Western 
  Aces and Eights or Deadlands 
   
  Wikipedia has an extensive list of RPGs arranged by genre. 
   
  Roleplaying Game Props 
   
  Adding a few props to a tabletop RPG game can be a lot of fun. Most are 
  best used fairly sparingly, as props tend to lose their effect if the GM turns 
  up looking like an extra from yet another Harry Potter movie. 
   
  Boardgames 
  Boardgame accessories, counters and pieces are an excellent source of 
  props. Dice, wooden counters, plastic counters, casino chips, coins and 
  plastic tokens are just some of the inexpensive extras available from 
  specialist suppliers. Some boardgames that you already have in your 
  games collection may even lend themselves to this, e.g. Dread Pirate is a 
  simple introductory boardgame, which trades almost entirely on its 
  piratical look and feel. 
   
  Bricks 
  Jenga and Lego are the top picks here for fairly obvious reasons, i.e. very 
  flexible, unbreakable and both are probably sitting around the house 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 37 
  anyway. By far the cheapest way to buy lots of Lego is on eBay by the kilo 
  or pound. It’s even cheaper still to ask around and see if anyone has a box 
  or two stuck in the attic. In either case there’s a fair chance the whole lot 
  will need a good clean in soapy water. 
   
  Candy 
  There’s candy and there’s serious candy. A few skull-shaped milk gums are 
  OK but there’s a lot more on offer out there if you look around. Bleeding 
  hearts, exploding jelly skulls and large edible spiders are all highly 
  recommended. We wouldn’t advise too much at one go and it takes a bit of 
  searching to get more interesting or unique items. Candy Warehouse, home 
  to Candy Blood Cherry Liquid Bags and the classic Apple Flavored Green 
  Candy Warts, is a good place to start, (with a categories search), but don’t 
  show the kids - this is extreme candy! 
   
  Counters 
  It’s possible to play RPGs without maps, figures or counters. However, 
  many players find it easier to get involved and to know what’s going on if 
  there’s a rough ‘floor plan’ map on the table.  
   
  Spending a little extra cash to get some painted fantasy figures to show 
  where PCs are on the map is money well spent. Some players also pay for 
  and paint metal figures to represent NPCs, monsters and items like 
  treasure chests. This looks great, but figure painting is a hobby in itself, 
  and new players can be left wondering how they’ll ever get their game to 
  look as good. 
   
  Counters, (such as colored stones, glass beads, casino chips, boardgame 
  counters and plastic RPG counters), provide a very easy, and inexpensive, 
  way to show what’s going on and to make the table look good. 
   
  Alea Tools magnetic counters arrive in various packs and can be placed on 
  the table as monster, treasure and condition markers when there aren’t 
  enough figures to go round. The markers can also be placed beneath 
  figures to indicate their current status, e.g. stunned, confused, or 
  fireballed! Combining Alea’s counters with magnetic boards is a further 
  option that lets mapping move on to the wall. 
   
  Inexpensive counters such as Tracker Tokens are good for keeping track of 
  what’s going on at the table and making the tabletop a rich source of 
  information during play, i.e. attention grabbing. 
   
  The tokens, counters and other gadgetry made by Dapper Devil help out in 
  much the same way as other counter collections, but they offer some 
  unusual/ extra options. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 38 
  Dice 
  There are many different types of colored, shaped game dice available to 
  buy. Have fun choosing. 
   
  False Documents 
  Making realistic, but not too realistic, blueprints, passports, currencies and 
  coded messages is more about being able to access a computer and printer 
  than needing to buy props. Homemade documents made by yourself can be 
  specific to your campaign and offer players a hands-on slice of authenticity. 
  Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons can be particularly helpful as sources 
  of raw materials, as many out-of-date official documents, stamps and 
  images are available for download. 
   
  Fantasy Maps 
  Get the colored markers and a few large sheets of paper out and ask the 
  kids to design parts of the RPG setting and adventures. As kids get older 
  they may want cleaner/ more polished maps, so sketch, review, copy and 
  link as required. The place names don’t need to be particularly clever and 
  the drawing can be pretty ragged, so long as there’s plenty of color 
  involved. 
   
  Adding glitter and stickers isn’t going to suit every young player, but a lot 
  of that depends on the decoration on offer. If the glitter comes out of a gel 
  pen and the stickers feature a bunch of monsters, chances are the kids will 
  enjoy slowly turning a basic map into a collage. 
   
  Adults may prefer to skip on the glitter and choose from a wide selection of 
  ready-made maps that can be bought online. 
   
  Figures and Scenery 
  Counters add visual clarity, typography and status updates at the table, but 
  they aren’t nearly as rich a visual medium as miniature figures. It is, 
  therefore, quite helpful to have figures to represent player characters. I.e. it 
  doesn’t matter whether you’re positioning a character on a battle grid or 
  simply lining-up a party of characters in marching order; figures 
  immediately add to a tabletop game’s sense of authenticity. 
   
  Painted, metal miniatures are the standard option for most players, but 
  younger players may enjoy playing with larger plastic figures. For example, 
  widely available Papo, Safari and Schleich figures are not cheap, but the 
  size, weight, sculpture and painting all add up to an eye-catching line-up for 
  younger players. Collecting enough of these figures to line up a party of 
  adventurers is not that expensive and counters can then help to show 
  monsters and what’s happening on the tabletop: 
   
  Cardboard figures are an inexpensive option, which work well if you look 
  around for high quality artwork and durable card. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 39 
   
  Scenery depends on what you can make and/ or afford. Dwarven Forge 
  have produced remarkable dungeon and outdoor scenery for years, but 
  everything from chopping-up cardboard to 3D printers gets used and many 
  games never use scenery.   
   
  Floor Plans and Card Scenery 
  The paper-cut scenery offered by Fat Dragon Games is known for offering 
  good quality and decent value. For those who prefer floor plans the sets 
  from Inked Adventures are good examples of what’s available. 
   
  Horrible Food 
  Serving up some ‘horrible’ or at least questionable looking food during 
  breaks goes down a treat - so long as the food actually tastes good. The 
  Celebrity in the Jungle Bushtucker Trial approach is not good, because 
  making players eat mustard and chili powder isn’t really that funny. Leave 
  the poisoning up to the celebrities and serve up a tasty Orcs’ Stew or a 
  Devil’s Cheesecake as a mystery meal. 
   
  Markers 
  Floor plans and scenery are great if you can afford them and like that style 
  of play. However, large sheets of paper and some decent marker pens can 
  be very effective for presenting basic layouts/ building maps and then 
  zooming in as adventurers explore by annotating and doodling on the map. 
  Let the group jot damage taken, opponents met and similar details on the 
  sheet and the maps will end-up like a sketch report of the session. 
   
  Puzzles 
  The Happy Puzzle Company is an excellent source of learning games for UK 
  players. There are some gameplay gems among the candy-coated learning. 
  For example, the Scrambled Egg Silhouette Puzzle could be used to give 
  players who construct certain shapes a selection of optional extra powers. 
  Perhaps not something you’d want in every session but potentially amusing 
  if your players like occasional puzzles. 
   
  The Happy Puzzle Company also has books which specialize in particular 
  types of puzzles. It’s generally not a good idea to make completing puzzles 
  either central to play or ‘mission critical’, but ‘Brain Boosting Lateral 
  Thinking Puzzles’ and ‘Brain Boosting Sequence Puzzles’ can add a bit of 
  variety to general gameplay. 
   
  Swords and Shields 
  Making your own armor and weaponry is going a bit far for most adult 
  players. However, cardboard shields, carton roll swords, adhesive darts, 
  web sprayers, foam string blasters and a few Halloween masks can make 
  for a pretty overexcited outdoors game session. Add a few Treasure Hunt 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 40 
  and basic wide-game or Alternate Reality Game (ARG) elements and, so 
  long as you keep it safe, there’s an inexpensive party or two in there. 
   
  Temporary Tattoos 
  Most players can put on temporary water-based tattoos without any 
  problems. Sharks, serpents, pirates, monsters and legendary creatures are 
  among the options. Kids love them and they can last a few days if you put 
  them in the right places, e.g. the inside of a forearm. Rather obviously, any 
  instructions need to be followed and it’s best not to stick six on one child 
  until you’ve checked that the first one doesn’t cause a rash. Beyond two or 
  three days it’s generally advisable to wash them off. 
   
  Touch Tablets 
  The iPad, recent Android phones and a swathe of touch tablets on the way 
  from Amazon, Google and others are starting to show their worth. GM 
  utilities and character-building apps are beginning to appear; rule sets are 
  getting passed around the table in PDF and web browser formats; and 
  many mobile phones already have dice apps built in. 
   
  The range of dedicated RPG apps is mixed at this stage, but access to 
  browser features, PDFs and online services like Dropbox are already 
  demonstrating that tablets can be more of a help than a hindrance around 
  the table. 
   
  Treasure 
  Handing out ‘real’ loot to players as they adventure adds an amusing touch 
  to the entertainment. Inexpensive plastic coins, gems and ingots are 
  available in many toy and novelty stores. For those with lots of cash there 
  are also specialist suppliers of metal coins of various weights and 
  emblems. 
   
  Wands 
  Buying an expensive remote-control device to run presentations on 
  projectors is hardy necessary for a typical group of players. However, 
  Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) owners, clubs looking to recruit or those 
  running games for kids’ parties and such like could use one of these wands 
  to run gaming events, including orchestrating entire events from the 
  comfort of the GM’s chair. 
   
  Finding a Game 
   
  Family and Friends 
  Friends and family may not rush to sign up for a full-blown RPG to start 
  with, but they may be up for it if the options start out with a boardgame 
  like Talisman or a very ‘quick start’ RPG like Risus. Special occasions can 
  be a good time to try this, e.g. we’ve played Monopoly every year - let’s give 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 41 
  something else a try’. It may help to go in steps, e.g. from Monopoly to 
  Zooloretto - and then on to Dread Pirate and Dominion. 
   
  Friends and family are also sources of plenty of friends of friends. You’re 
  going to have some background information on players from this group, so 
  it’s well worth asking around. Online friends and online games are an 
  option, but your local network of clubs, friends and potential friends offer a 
  clear route to playing face-to-face on a regular basis with people you 
  already know about. 
   
  Clubs and Societies 
  Established clubs and societies are a good option and UK college and 
  university campuses in particular have a longstanding record of running 
  active RPG clubs. It is, however, a club, so testing the water and mapping 
  out the inevitable clan factions calls for a certain amount of caution. 
   
  Forums 
  As with any other remote media it’s not easy to be sure who you’re really 
  dealing with in a RPG forum. It follows that meeting someone face-to-face 
  for a game through an online forum carries the same concerns as any 
  random gathering. Over time it may be possible to track signature links to 
  RPG companies or blogs and find out more about a poster. However, that 
  only becomes more certain if there’s a named owner and it’s a company 
  site rather than a personal site.  Forums are of more use when arranging to 
  meet in public as part of a group of players or when looking for online 
  games. 
   
  FLGS 
  Friendly Local Game Stores are comparable to clubs and societies. They 
  can provide a safe place to try out a good variety of games. Shops with 
  enough room to run a few games at the same time, (which also run starter 
  games and events for beginners), are likely candidates. 
   
  Groups 
  Traditional online RPG forums are hidden away in quiet corners of the 
  Internet 
  and 
  this 
  lack 
  of 
  visibility 
  tends 
  to 
  encourage 
  trolling, 
  grandstanding and the formation of in-crowds. Larger social platforms, 
  such as Facebook and Twitter, certainly seem to present fewer concerns, as 
  social connections linked to gaming tend to bleed over into other topics 
  and the scale of these global platforms appears to make visitors much less 
  likely to troll or grandstand. In addition, the transparency of social 
  connections and the wider sharing of personal information on a platform 
  like Facebook makes it easier to find out a bit more about other players’ 
  backgrounds and gaming interests before any face-to-face meetings. There 
  is still a need to be careful, as deception and identity theft can occur on 
  any platform. That said by connecting, (and possibly playing), online before 
  meeting up players can build up a good impression of whoever they’re 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 42 
  planning to meet. This is not about screening or profiling other players; but 
  is about sharing the same safe social space and forming the basis of 
  friendships. 
   
  Meet-Ups 
  Using social networking sites specifically aimed at connecting people on a 
  face-to-face level, including Meetup itself, has brought together lots of 
  players. A large group set-up on a high profile site can be similar to a club 
  or society, often running events that are large enough and sufficiently 
  public to make it safe to go along. 
   
  Actual Plays 
   
  The following Actual Plays are typical of rules light fantasy gameplay where 
  the rules are kept in the background, i.e. the engine’s running but you can 
  barely hear it. 
   
  They demonstrate games played with relatively low numbers, as these tend 
  to offer the most rewarding and compelling approaches to play. It’s also 
  significantly easier to design, to recruit and to keep the attention of players 
  who are frequently taking an active part in the gameplay instead of waiting 
  for their next turn to come round. 
   
  Working with groups of 8 or 10 players at the table can be fun, but is 
  clearly harder to set up and sustain over weeks and months. It’s also 
  difficult to run such games as anything more than straightforward, often 
  linear, adventures - because zooming in on a particular character’s role 
  keeps other players waiting in a queue. This effect is reinforced by the 
  focus on an individual character’s turn resulting from the ‘social distance’ 
  between characters and players that is created by slicing each character’s 
  involvement into an isolated slot in a queue. 
   
  The Actual Plays shown are both quite combative and use fairly breathless 
  pacing, but this is easily mediated by the Old School style of play used in 
  both examples. The adventurers’ lives are in constant peril and the players 
  have to think on their feet. However, there are solutions to the genuine 
  threats to PCs’ lives to be found in both their skills and in the situations 
  they encounter. Players who try to grind out ‘results’ under such 
  circumstances will be killed more often than not, until they realize that 
  there are times when it’s better to take to their heels and to live to fight 
  another day. 
   
  Seven Times the Color of Fire 
   
  This is an Actual Play from a 1:1 freeform game of RPG Treasure. The game 
  could as easily have been run with a rules-light version of Dungeons and 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 43 
  Dragons or as a SciFi or fantasy scenario using the free version of the rules 
  for Traveler. 
   
  The section shown below includes the rolls made during play to illustrate 
  where the game's mechanics are stepping in and out of the gameplay: 
   
  Lead-In 
  Coco has already knocked-out a couple of goblins; then wounded, healed 
  and befriended a timber wolf; before dueling with a goblin shaman. During 
  interrogation one of the goblins has told her it's safe to drink from a 
  fountain, but Coco refused the invitation and evaporated some of the water 
  from the poisoned fountain to form a blade venom. 
   
  #1 
  After tipping her arrows with poison Coco checks out three frayed 
  tapestries with large white skull logos painted over them. She tears one 
  down, revealing a doorway, and decides to wash the cloth in the poisoned 
  water. The paint fades and a fleur-de-lis crest emerges. The second tapestry 
  hides another doorway and a tapestry with twin fleur-de-lis crests. 
   
  Two goblins enter through the first doorway. They try to rush Coco as she 
  lifts her bow. 2D6, 12, multipliers kick in, the arrow tears through the first 
  goblin's armor and stops him dead. The second raises his mace but the 
  (goblin-hating) wolf behind him has first roll. 2D6, 7, the wolf's fangs catch 
  the goblin on his trailing leg. The goblin strikes at the wolf. 2D6, 7 but he's 
  off balance. He catches the wolf a glancing blow. The wolf pins the goblin 
  to the ground. 
   
  Coco binds and gags the surviving goblin and searches both goblins. She 
  keeps a gem, a mace and a spare dagger. The new dagger gets a layer of 
  poison on the blade. There's a stop to heal the wolf's bruises and teach it 
  basic commands. It learns to follow simple gestures for sit, wait and go 
  forward, back, left or right and attack before there's a shout from the hall 
  beyond the first doorway. 
   
  The shout isn't in a language Coco understands. As she advances down the 
  hall a large, heavily-armored ogre steps out of a doorway. He turns, sees 
  her and runs towards her. Coco moves away, turns and fires her bow. 2D6, 
  4, the arrow only hits the familiar flaming skull design on the ogre's shield. 
  The wolf, now known as Flame, 2D6, 6, chews on the ogre's chainmail 
  without causing any damage. 
   
  The ogre strikes at Coco. 2D6, 11, bruises her ribs and knocks the wind out 
  of her. Sore one! Coco lets the wolf go first and, 2D6, 8, it catches the ogre, 
  which twists round. Coco goes for a quick backstab, 2D6, 9, the damage 
  multiplier helps out and the ogre is badly wounded. Then the poison on the 
  dagger kicks in. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 44 
   
  Despite the cost Coco has to heal herself properly, as another similar injury 
  would kill her. Poor rolls see four of the five gems carried by the ogre used 
  up right away. 
   
  The doorway the ogre emerged from leads to a cell block with signs of just 
  one recent prisoner. A further door leads to a large, dimly lit chamber. A 
  fire in a grand hearth provides most of the light, but there's a musty, 
  moldering smell in the air. Flame is reluctant to go in. The furnishings 
  include a very long oak table cluttered with cartons, boxes, bunches of 
  dried herbs and flowers, potion bottles, crucibles, and pestles and mortars. 
   
  When Coco moves forward the only occupants come into view at the far end 
  of the chamber. Two figures 'stand' before a granite throne. One is hooded, 
  cloaked, crowned and using one arm to lift the other from the ground by 
  the throat. The second is a young, raven-haired man gasping for breath as 
  the skeletal hand jutting from the cloak chokes him. 
   
  The hooded figure hears Coco enter and turns to investigate, without 
  releasing the youth. Light falls across the figure's star-spangled cloak and 
  its skeletal, hollowed-out husk of a face. Coco recognizes her enemy and 
  fires her only enchanted arrow. 2D6, 10, the arrow catches the Lich at the 
  wrist, sending up a shower of fragmented bone. Poison has no effect but 
  the creature casts the youth aside. 
   
  2D6, 8, and a bolt of lightning screams through the air, catching Coco at 
  the shoulder. The shock burns deep into her flesh and she cries out in pain. 
  A single spell has brought her near to death. 
   
  Coco runs out of the chamber and back towards the long stairway that led 
  to this level. She can't see the Lich when she pauses for breath. Flame tries 
  to stop its progress. A wave of a hand and the wolf lies whimpering in a 
  corner. Coco keeps running and gets to the stairs. The Lich can move faster 
  than her and is gaining ground. By the time she gets close to the top of the 
  stairs it's near to catching her. 
   
  Out of breath, Coco turns to face her attacker. He advances to within a few 
  yards, leaving Coco with only enough time for a single action. The girl 
  draws two daggers but doesn't strike out. Instead she throws herself 
  straight at the Lich. 
   
  2D6, 9, she hits the Lich, knocking it and herself over and down the stone 
  steps. Coco tries to catch both daggers between the lattice of bones and 
  bandages forming the Lich's chest. 2D6, 11 and 3. One catches and Coco is 
  able to use the Lich as a sledge while they both glide down the steps. The 
  bone-jangling ride rattles the Lich's spine over half the distance of the 
  steps. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 45 
   
  Both Coco and the Lich roll to see if they can stop their fall. 2D6 for the 
  Lich, 5 and Coco, 8. Coco can let go of the dagger and fall off but opts to 
  stay on and continue the ride. The pair sledge on down the rest of the 
  stairs, with the Lich's bones cracking and crunching all the way. There's a 
  wretched, snapping sound just before they both tumble out into the room 
  below. 
   
  Coco is still smoldering, badly wounded and stunned. She seems to slip in 
  and out of consciousness. Until a warm, rasping tongue licks her full in the 
  face. Flame's alive! 
   
  . . . and the Lich? Its broken body is twisted back on itself at the snap in its 
  spine. Eyes that burnt like white hot coals are now cold and dim. Coco has 
  broken Seven Times the Color of Fire. 
   
  Sure, she knows he isn't gone for good, but his soul has to seek out a new 
  host and that buys her time. As for the beast's crown, dared she even touch 
  it? 
   
  #2 
  Coco picks herself up and listens for sounds of trouble. Everything is quiet, 
  apart from the occasional muffled complaint from the captured goblin. She 
  places the Lich's bones in the poisoned water in the fountain. The water 
  fizzles and froths around the bones; then churns until the bones dissolve 
  away. A sweet, sickly odor fills the air. 
   
  The Lich's star-sprayed robe and the jeweled crown feel unnaturally cold to 
  the touch. Coco puts the crown in her backpack. Coco's wolf Flame, and 
  Coco herself, need healing but the raven-haired youth stumbles through the 
  first doorway before she gets started. He looks washed out and still blue in 
  the face. He sees the robe on the floor and says, 'Impossible!' 
   
  [No one has triggered an alarm but there's an opportunity to turn up the 
  heat/ roleplaying] 
   
  The second doorway opens almost immediately and a tall man with the 
  facial tattoos of a Lich's disciple looks into the chamber. He gazes at Coco, 
  the youth and the robes lying on the flagstones and says, “Impossible!” 
   
  Coco turns to the sorcerer and calmly states, “I came here to be your 
  minion.” 
   
  The puzzled sorcerer replies, “My minion. Like a henchman?” 
   
  “More a henchgirl,” answers Coco. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 46 
  The youth says, “You can't do that!” 
   
  The sorcerer asks, “What do we do with him?” 
   
  “Lock him up. We can find something to do with him later,” replies Coco. 
   
  2D6, 8. The sorcerer fires a successful Web spell at the young man and 
  shouts for two goblins to take him away. The sorcerer also asks about the 
  crown and Coco explains that it went into the water with the bones; and 
  how everything turned frothy until the bones and the crown dissolved. She's 
  shown to the 'apprentice's' chambers and told she'll be invited to visit the 
  sorcerer in the throne room later. 
   
  The room is a lantern-lit, cluttered mess of scrolls, papers, books and filthy 
  plates. One wall is completely covered with shelves containing a strange 
  collection of dried rodents, foul-scented plants and jars full of insects. 
  Flame goes to rest in the cot set in an alcove at the far end of the chamber 
  but soon thinks better of the idea. 
   
  Coco checks outside and smiles briefly at two goblins guarding the 
  entrance, before going back in. Despite the shambles she searches the 
  room thoroughly. 2D6, 3. She finds nothing. 2D6, 2. She finds nothing and 
  knocks over a jar of dried frogs, which smashes on the floor. The goblins 
  look in and Coco gestures for a brush and shovel. They don't want to come 
  in and go back to guarding the doorway. 
   
  Coco has another try. 2D6, 8. She finds a secret compartment hidden 
  behind a stack of rotten books. 2D6, 9, there's a poisoned needle trap. 
  Coco tries to disarm the trap, 2D6, 11, then unlock it, 2D6, 4. She can't get 
  in. 
   
  A Shatter spell, 2D6, 8, takes the hatch off and Coco final gets her hands 
  on two scrolls and a bag of, 2D6, ten gems. The gems fuel her spellcasting 
  and each successive, successful casting increases her chances. 2D6, 5, 7, 
  10, 6. Three of the spells work and she's about to heal the wolf when the 
  door opens. 
   
  The two goblins flank the sorcerer, who's wearing the Lich's robe and 
  holding an ornate sacred dagger. “I'll need the crown now. I've checked the 
  Lich's papers and it can't be dissolved!” 
   
  After casting three successful spells in a row, Coco is charged with magic 
  (+3). She targets her only ritual at the corridor and rolls, 2D6, 7. Just 
  enough, a Fire Storm explodes in the corridor, consuming her opponents in 
  sheets of flame. The two goblins are toppled in the blast and the sorcerer 
  stands smoldering. The Lich's robe is untouched but the rest of his clothes 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 47 
  and his hair are largely gone. Flame leaps forward, 2D6, 12, the sorcerer 
  takes a savage wound - but it's his turn now. 
   
  2D6, 7, not quite enough to get Coco! Coco is now on a +4 bonus to cast a 
  spell or ritual and sends a Snowball shooting at the Lich. 2D6, 6, enough 
  with her bonuses. The 2D6 damage doesn't finish him off but he's 
  committed to a hand-to-hand attack next turn. Flame attacks, 2D6, 4, and 
  misses. 
   
  The furious sorcerer advances with his dagger in hand and rolls 2D6, 9. The 
  dagger tears at Coco's arm, though it's less damaging than the Meteor she 
  might have expected. Coco considers holding off for a backstab but she's 
  now on a +5 spellcasting bonus and still has some gems left. A second 
  Snowball, 2D6, 8 – and the sorcerer lies unconscious . . . 
   
  Frankincense 
   
  This is an actual play run with clone Corruption. It would have played out in 
  the much the same way using early Dungeons and Dragons, Labyrinth Lord 
  or Swords & Wizardry: 
   
  The Party 
  Frankincense - 7th Level Paladin played by Mandy 
  Thunderstruck - 8th Level Cleric played by Al 
  Kiss - 9th Level Elf Magic-User played by Jenny 
  Stick - 6th Level Drow Renegade aka Thief played by Rob 
   
  Actual Play 
  The player characters (PCs) agreed to be hired as neutrals to carry-out a 
  hostage exchange in return for a generous payment of 500 gold pieces/ 
  head. Unfortunately when they arrived at the rendezvous the emissaries 
  acting for the neighboring nation were found lying dead on the ground. The 
  hostage the PCs were supposed to collect has vanished and they now seem 
  to be stuck with the prisoner they were meant to hand over. 
   
  The wounds on the bodies of the six dead escorts are identifiable as spear 
  injuries and they appear to have been struck at high impact. Quite messy! 
  There are no obvious signs or tracks from any kind of cavalry. 
   
  The players were instructed to keep a sack over the prisoner’s head 
  throughout the journey, but a muffled voice wants to know what’s 
  happening. 
   
  Frankincense: I reach over and untie the sack to see what he has to say. 
   
  Stick: Hold on. Could be a reason why the bag’s on the head. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 48 
  Kiss: Yeah, like a Medusa. 
   
  Frankincense: I look away, tear the sack off and look at her reflection using 
  the polished inside of my shield. 
   
  Kiss: I wasn’t serious. 
   
  Thunderstruck: I’m praying and looking at the sky. 
   
  GM: A young woman with red hair and a coronet of all things looks at the 
  corpses strewn on the ground and screams. 
   
  Thunderstruck: Pop the sack back on? 
   
  Frankincense: Certainly not. I tell her she’s safe. 
   
  GM: Her expression is one of horror. But she calms down and composes 
  herself. 
   
  Stick: I ask her what she knows about the escort - and the other prisoner. 
  Who did this? 
   
  GM: Despite being bound she jumps from the horse and then looks around. 
  After 10 or 15 seconds she says, ‘Here!’ and uses a foot to tease a 
  glistening strand of spider silk out of the long grass. 
   
  Kiss: I get my wand ready. This time I’m almost serious. 
   
  Frankincense: I ask what kind of spider uses a spear and doesn’t wrap its 
  prey. 
   
  Thunderstruck: Spiders with saddles. 
   
  Stick: The other prisoner? 
   
  GM: She spits and says, ‘He’s a war criminal called Adrack Helm.’ You know 
  him by reputation. In the nation you are working for he’s a famed and 
  much decorated war hero. 
   
  Frankincense: We can’t work for war criminals. 
   
  Kiss: Don’t start. She’s probably making it up and we won’t get paid – 
  again! 
   
  Frankincense: I try to detect good in her. 
   
  GM: Good – with a twist of chaos. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 49 
   
  Frankincense: We must find and expose the war criminal. 
   
  Stick: Is there a bounty? 
   
  Thunderstruck: How about we find out what’s going on? I pray to my god to 
  allow me to speak with one of the dead - the one with the best armor. 
   
  GM: The leader’s body opens its eyes. She looks a mess - deep wounds to 
  the neck and chest. There’s no spark of life in the bleak stare that comes 
  out of her eyes. 
   
  Thunderstruck: OK – I’m sorry for waking you but I could do with help 
  catching your killers . . . I ask if her attackers were her employers. 
   
  GM: The corpse shakes her head – a few teeth fall out. 
   
  Thunderstruck: . . . or their allies? 
   
  GM: The corpse nods its head. 
   
  Thunderstruck: . . . were there more than ten attackers? 
   
  GM: The corpse nods her head and blood starts to trickle from the mouth. 
   
  Thunderstruck: . . . did they go north? 
   
  GM: The head remains still. 
   
  Thunderstruck: Thank goodness for that. Did they arrive from the north? 
   
  GM: The head shakes. Not a lot of teeth left and the wound on her neck 
  opens wide. 
   
  Thunderstruck: Did they arrive from the south? 
   
  GM: The head nods a bit too hard, there’s a short tearing sound and the 
  head rolls off into his lap. The hostage shrieks! 
   
  Thunderstruck: Eh, I cover the body with my cloak. I get my spade. We’ll 
  bury her. 
   
  GM: The hostage is not used to seeing battlefield wounds. But she’s not 
  spineless and quickly settles down. 
   
  Kiss: If we take her to her home we might get a reward. If we take her back 
  we still get paid. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 50 
   
  GM: The prisoner says, ‘That thing with the guard – gross. We won’t make it 
  halfway in either direction. The exchange may have been in the name of 
  peace, but it’s a set-up.’ 
   
  Stick: Chances are we’re being framed. That leaves ditch the girl and go 
  northwest or head south and catch up with Adrack Whatshisname? 
   
  Frankincense: South! 
   
  Thunderstruck: Why not – south it is! 
   
  Kiss: Oh go on then. 
   
  About an Hour Later 
  GM: Your caution is well-advised. You find plenty of cover in the shadows all 
  the way until you’re almost at the entrance. This gives you a clear view of 
  the large cavern. It’s dimly lit by half-a-dozen large oil lanterns set into 
  raised alcoves and there’s a lit brazier in the center of the chamber. The 
  place is obviously the holding area for the giant spiders. 
   
  Two spiders and their goblin guards are mounted up in the middle of the 
  floor space, with an ogre barking out instructions they’ve to follow on 
  patrol. There are also eight iron portcullises set into alcoves at regular 
  intervals around the walls. Four of the large niches contain giant spiders 
  held behind these gates. 
   
  A stock of a dozen spider wraps - silk-wrapped humanoid spider victims - 
  lies in the far corner on the left. The casings look full and you think you can 
  see the odd motion as living victims writhe inside the deadly cocoons. It’s 
  hard to tell for sure as the cave is quite gloomy in the corners. 
   
  Stick: Are there enough shadows for me to hide in if I go in? 
   
  GM: The shadows aren’t as deep as in the tunnel, so you have your normal 
  chance of hiding in the shadows. 
   
  Stick: I tug twice on the string to signal for the others to follow and try to 
  creep into the cave. 
   
  GM: Roll under your target score. 
   
  GM: Good roll. You make it into the shadows without being detected by the 
  goblins or the ogre. However, the spiders are sensitive to vibrations in the 
  ground and do start to become agitated. What’s everyone else up to? 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 51 
  Frankincense: I make sure the armor’s locked-down, draw my sword and go 
  to find Stick. 
   
  Thunderstruck: Shield, flail – me too. 
   
  Kiss: I give Azinth a dagger, tell her to stay on look out and advance 
  cautiously. I stick 30’ back from the others and begin to prepare a spell. 
   
  GM: OK – the spiders’ attention turns to the bold advance of the two 
  warriors. This gets the ogre and the goblins interested and the ogre directs 
  them to attack the party. The ogre then turns and starts to head for an exit 
  at the back of the cavern. 
   
  Frankincense: We’d better charge, before they get up enough speed to run 
  us through. 
   
  Thunderstruck: Charge! 
   
  Stick: The spiders are after them and the ogre’s back’s turned to me? 
   
  GM: Good opportunity – I’ll roll for surprise on the ogre. Result - you can try 
  a backstab in a moment. The rest of you should roll for initiative. 
   
  GM: Not so great for the guys. The spiders and riders get initiative and – 
  ouch – Thunderstruck takes 9 damage from a spear. The other one misses 
  Frankincense, by a mile. Stick, go ahead and roll to hit – and anyone else 
  who’s up for it. 
   
  Stick: Yes! 
   
  GM: Roll damage and multiply. 
   
  GM: Wow! – the ogre crumples to his knees beneath the unexpected blow. 
  He won’t be getting up again. He was running for a lever on the far wall. 
   
  Frankincense: I’m going for the spider. Hah! And . . . 9 and the sword and 
  the strength. 
   
  GM: You’ve wrecked the spider and the goblin on it can’t unsaddle and gets 
  his legs caught under the body. 
   
  Thunderstruck: 2 – uh! Have I got to change dice already? 
   
  Kiss: Magic and missile should fix it. I target the surviving spider. D4s 
  please. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 52 
  GM: It’s still alive and all but on top of Thunderstruck. Someone want to roll 
  initiative? 
   
  GM: The spider attempts to sink its fangs into Thunderstruck. I’m afraid it 
  nicks you - only does 3 damage, but one of the fangs has injected poison. 
  Roll a saving throw. 
   
  Thunderstruck: 15 – no problem. 
   
  GM: The prisoner appears for a moment at the entrance you used to come 
  in. Only to be snatched from behind by a pack of six ogres. They grab her 
  and haul her off into the darkened tunnel. 
   
  Kiss: I knew it the minute I left her. We can’t let them get away – they’ll 
  bring the whole place down on us. 
   
  GM: The hostage is fighting back with the dagger you gave her, but they’ll 
  be gone in a moment. 
   
  Kiss: Can I see past them? 
   
  GM: Not really. 
   
  Stick: I light a fire arrow and send it in there. 
   
  GM: Mmm . . . it’s a bit of a rush. Roll a d20 to see if you light the arrow and 
  a d20 for firing it. 
   
  Stick: I get more than one missile a round, so I’m fast. 
   
  GM: But your bow wasn’t ready. Let’s see what happens? 
   
  GM: That’s plenty. Arrow’s all fired up, take aim. 
   
  GM: There’s such a bundle of them that you hit. One of the ogres now has a 
  flaming arrow stuck in his leg and Azinth is struggling to get free. 
   
  Kiss: I plant a wall of ice just behind the Ogres. 
   
  GM: Now you’re all locked in together . . . 
   
  Thunderstruck [to Frankincense]: Shall we? 
   
  GM: As you advance it’s plain to see that one of the ogres is some kind of 
  sorceress. She’s all cloak of furs and white on black war-paint. There’s also 
  a necklace with an elf’s bleached skull hanging from it. A couple of chunky 
  sapphires are jammed in the skull’s eyesockets. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 53 
   
  Where is everyone? . . . Initiative . . . You’re in luck. 
   
  Kiss: I cast Haste on Frankincense and Thunderstruck. 
   
  GM: OK – assuming they’re attacking you have just enough time to target 
  them. 
   
  Frankincense and Thunderstruck: We’re attacking! 
   
  Stick: I go and look at the exit. What’s there? 
   
  GM: The entrance is about 25’ high. It’s not well lit, but you see a portcullis 
  in the shadows and a metal lever. 
   
  Frankincense: I roll to hit the first ogre – 4 . . . 20 . . . I must’ve killed it! 
   
  GM: Unconscious on the floor and bleeding out. 
   
  Thunderstruck: Next . . . 16? 
   
  GM: Yes . . . damage noted and again . . . no chance. 
   
  Stick: Is the lever connected to the spiders’ cages? 
   
  GM: It’s a mechanical device. Roll for it . . . Right, the lever connects to a 
  heavy, rusty chain inside a hollow running up the wall. You’d need all your 
  strength to pull it. The spiders’ cages are more basic devices. Chains 
  hanging on either side of each cage lift the portcullises by brute force. 
   
  Pull it right now or wait till next round. It’s getting into the ogres’ turn. 
   
  Stick: Why not? I pull the lever as hard as I can. 
   
  GM: Your muscles are about to give in when the lever clicks and the chain 
  triggers a weighted mechanism that starts to raise the large portcullis. 
   
  At the other end of the cavern one of the ogres punches Azinth - knocking 
  her out. The sorceress is muttering a spell and the remainder try to strike 
  Thunderstruck and Frankincense with iron-banded clubs. 
   
  At which point it becomes completely dark around the entrance to a 
  distance of 15’. Only Stick and Kiss can see what happens next, but they 
  might want to warn the other two. A large, huge, massive spider emerges 
  from the tunnel behind the large portcullis. You probably killed some of its 
  young a few minutes ago. The fangs are so full with a greenish venom that 
  it’s dripping on to the stone floor - where it kind of fizzles for a while. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 54 
   
  Roll initiative . . . not so good . . . the immense spider gets through the gate 
  and there’s a rising scuttling sound as thousands of younger spiders 
  stream down the walls. The vents or tunnels they are using to get in are 
  hidden in shadow. 
   
  The ogres sound as if they’re battering at the wall of ice, but can’t be seen. 
  The immense spider needs to manoeuvre into the room to corner Stick, so 
  it doesn’t get an attack, but has placed itself between you and the rest of 
  the party. 
   
  Thunderstruck: How many thousands? And how young? 
   
  GM: Roll a d4 each and we’ll find out? 
   
  Stick: No! 
   
  GM: You can only guess at the full numbers but there must be the best part 
  of 10,000 spiders pouring down the walls. On average their bodies are a 
  couple of feet long. 
   
  The adventurers are clearly in big trouble and the approach of battling with 
  the enemy until they buckle - common in more rules-heavy gameplay - isn’t 
  an option. If the players try to slug it out with these opponents their 
  characters have no chance. The easy way out is to go back through the 
  sheet of ice made by the party’s sorcerer and to head for the nearest stairs. 
   
  Organizing a Game 
   
  The practicalities of organizing a regular RPG session are easy to arrange 
  with a few texts and/ or a chat. 
   
  Costs can be an important consideration for some players - for many 
  reasons. Tabletop RPGs offer remarkable value when compared to, for 
  example, a trip to the cinema that is over and done with inside a couple of 
  hours. 
   
  Obviously premium RPGs with subscription fees and/ or ‘massively multi-
  volume’ rule sets can be expensive – especially with costs across a group. 
  However there are many mainstream options that cost significantly less. 
   
  It’s certainly well worth comparing features and prices, e.g. at the time of 
  writing a standard PDF of one clone system costs $24.99, while other full 
  clones are priced as low as $3.99. On a feature for feature basis it’s not 
  entirely clear what is gained from spending the extra £21. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 55 
  Organizing Games Table 
  No. Options 
  Details 
  1 
  Breaks and food/ snacks 
   
  2 
  Costs 
   
  3 
  Dice rollers/ dice 
   
  4 
  GM/ s: designated or hot-seat 
   
  5 
  Limiting distractions and interruptions 
   
  6 
  Location 
   
  7 
  Maps or grids 
   
  8 
  Numbers 
   
  9 
  Rule sets 
   
  10 
  Ruler, paper and pencils 
   
  11 
  Setting and/ or scenarios/ adventures 
   
  12 
  Sufficient space 
   
  13 
  Tables 
   
  14 
  Tablets, phones and netbooks 
   
  15 
  Timing 
   
  16 
  Transport 
   
   
  Setting Up a Game 
   
  Tabletop 
  RPGs 
  involve 
  more 
  effort 
  and 
  collaboration 
  than 
  most 
  videogames, as players have to get to the game in the first place and then 
  get along face-to-face. In addition, while a videogame usually has fixed 
  rules, tabletop RPG players are constantly involved in interpreting rules and 
  novel situations. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that disagreements can 
  interrupt play and slow down the game. 
   
  Fortunately, there are a number of approaches to setting up play which can 
  head off or resolve most disagreements. 
   
  Permissions 
  It’s essential to check that any regulations and agreements that need to be 
  sorted out are dealt with as early as possible. Parents and carers are likely 
  to want to be told about the arrangements for games involving kids. 
  (Transport arrangements for kids require particular care). Anyone running 
  a youth club type game might also have to go through police checks. At the 
  same time, players may wish to negotiate for a better playing area or peace 
  from younger siblings. 
   
  Boundaries 
  Concerns 
  about 
  behavior 
  at 
  the 
  gaming 
  table 
  can 
  cause 
  extra 
  complications if players don’t raise any likely difficulties early on. For 
  example, if some players aren’t happy about the choice of rules it’s simpler 
  to discuss that before playing rather than struggle on with disgruntled 
  players during games. Agreements about using mobile phones/ Internet at 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 56 
  the table, the length of games, shared goals for the party and what 
  happens when someone can’t turn up may be helpful. 
   
  Interruptions 
  The fewer the distractions the better the gameplay, as players can stay ‘in-
  game’ without having to refocus repeatedly. Permissions and boundaries 
  help to limit some interruptions, but games are often slowed down by 
  players during the game. For instance, if players are using mobile phones 
  at the table it may be because they’re waiting for something to happen. 
  Other players may be rolling-up new PCs or discussing the rules in lengthy 
  detail. Preparation before play, (such as having some ready-rolled PCs 
  handy and clearing up interpretations of the rules between games), should 
  keep gameplay at the heart of each session. 
   
  Peace Talks 
  Agreeing how to resolve simple disputes during play often cuts out 
  tiresome disagreements. Occasional time-outs allow players to pop out of 
  actual play to consult the GM about the options open to them. These can be 
  replaced or complemented by an agreed and limited number of rules 
  challenges where the PC asks the GM to consider a particular interpretation 
  of the rules. 
   
  Conversation 
  Shared planning of a group’s gameplay is increasingly common, as a 
  straightforward discussion of what players would like to get out of a series 
  of adventures or a campaign setting helps GMs to deliver enjoyable play. 
  For many groups this simply involves a chat about the types of 
  environments, opponents and situations players are likely to find 
  interesting. 
   
  Campaign Sketching or Outlining 
  If players are planning a long campaign they may wish to use profiles of 
  players’ gameplay preferences and/ or short campaign planning sessions 
  to ensure the action centers on the types of gameplay that the players are 
  interested in pursuing. Options for player profiles and campaign planning 
  are detailed later. 
   
  Questionnaires asking players to set out a wide range of campaign and 
  gameplay preferences can go too far in terms of defining play to a point 
  where it loses some of its capacity to surprise. On the other hand, if players 
  aren’t really sure about the types of options open to them, (or one or two 
  players are controlling a discussion), questionnaires offer a good way to 
  give everyone a chance to have their voices heard and to contribute. A six 
  page hand-out is, perhaps, taking player choice too far; but a page covering 
  the setting as a whole and the types of challenges players wish to meet 
  may be quite useful. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 57 
  The same applies to meetings or chats aimed at campaign planning, where 
  a sketch or framework can be helpful providing it doesn’t drill down into 
  too much detail. 
   
  Feedback 
  Feedback, 
  either 
  between 
  game 
  sessions 
  or 
  during 
  play, 
  offers 
  opportunities to fine-tune play. Highlighting and rewarding good play, 
  commenting on ideas that made a game run well or letting the GM know 
  that you want more of the same can all contribute to future sessions. 
  Negative feedback, including comments which don’t propose any 
  alternatives, is likely to be less helpful and quite disruptive when used in-
  game. 
   
  Player Choice 
  Most of the points raised above concern various approaches to increasing 
  player choice. This isn’t about letting players do entirely what they like, 
  when they like. The GM is there to interpret the rules and to make play 
  entertaining for players, so it’s pretty essential to negotiate with, rather 
  than against, the GM. 
   
  When players communicate with the GM it becomes much easier for the GM 
  to design settings and scenarios to suit everyone at the table. Put another 
  way, giving players more choice at the planning stage works well providing 
  players’ choices are more about adding options rather than excluding 
  them. 
   
  Supporting New Players 
   
  Regular RPG players will arrive at games with much of the following already 
  in mind or easily put in place. However, new players may well have a very 
  limited awareness of what they are actually going to get up to during play: 
   
  1. Players typically find it helpful to be clear of their roles in all 
  activities. Class-based games help with this through outlining a 
  primary role, e.g. in terms of a cluster of related combat or stealth 
  capabilities. This can result in cardboard cut-out stereotypes, so new 
  players may also benefit from a few words on filling out and 
  individualizing characters on character sheets and at the table. 
  Ambiguity of roles is often best avoided. 
  2. Players will find it easier to concentrate on play if they have been 
  assigned their roles, and given relevant ‘scripts’ or ‘models’, (e.g. 
  actual plays), well in advance of the game. 
  3. A player’s background or prior experience should really be 
  considered in role assignments to ensure they will be comfortable 
  with their role/ s. 
  4. Players are likely to appreciate being given enough time for 
  preparation. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 58 
  5. Players should have some basic familiarity before roles are decided to 
  allow players to be able to recognize the player behind the character 
  – and as common courtesy. 
  6. Short, constructive feedback presented by the GM and players 
  immediately after play is likely to be welcomed providing it sticks to a 
  ‘two stars and a wish’ approach, i.e. two definite positives and one 
  area that could have gone better/ be developed. 
  7. The roleplaying activity needs be organized around players’ interests 
  and readiness. 
  8. The number of players should be reasonably manageable. 
  9. Players tend to appreciate having a clear understanding of the 
  criteria or rubrics for advancement and effective play in the context 
  of the game they are playing, i.e. if the game rewards storytelling the 
  players are going to want to know that. 
   
  Settling Outcomes 
   
  Younger players are sometimes unsure about using dice to settle 
  outcomes. They may see ‘taking chances’ as getting in the way of 
  imaginative play and also as surrendering player choice. It is possible to 
  make them more familiar with taking calculated risks by introducing a 
  range of random factors through a selection of quick games. 
   
  These options can easily be introduced to and become part of play through 
  in-game encounters. For example, an opponent may offer a PC the chance 
  to resolve a disagreement or impasse by offering to settle the matter with a 
  quick game of Jacks or Stone, Paper, Scissors. 
   
  Settling Outcomes Table 
  No. Outcome 
  Variants 
  1 
  Cards or coins for best of three 
   
  2 
  Connect 4 
   
  3 
  Roll 2d6 for the first double 
   
  4 
  Indoor skittles 
   
  5 
  Nerf guns 
   
  6 
  Jacks 
   
  7 
  Jenga 
   
  8 
  Stone, Paper, Scissors 
   
  9 
  Top Trumps 
   
  10 
  Water guns 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 59 
  
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012 - Page 60 
  Part 3: Colorful Characters 
   
  Fleshing Out a Player Character 
   
  An adventurer or PC can be a casual, sometimes short-lived, acquaintance 
  – defined mainly by the skills set built-up during character generation and 
  the default style of play for such a character within a rule set. 
   
  Alternatively a PC can have or build up a past; develop a place and a 
  dynamic within the game-world; and form future prospects and shifting 
  expectations. Many RPGs tend to try to deliver the impression of an 
  authentic character background either with a fairly broad brush or by 
  drilling down into sets and subsets of increasingly specific skills. 
   
  RPG Traveler is well-known for quickly stepping new characters through an 
  eventful pre-game career. So a fairly streamlined, event-driven character 
  generation can go a long way towards sketching out an individual, if not 
  unique, character.  
   
  Nevertheless, there is nothing quite as authentic or unique as a character 
  background built-up during gameplay. Whether or not a player wishes to 
  start with a clean slate, a mere handful of adventures are usually sufficient 
  to flesh-out a character’s place in events and how the character fits into the 
  game-world as a whole. For many players this can rapidly deliver a sense of 
  ownership and investment in an adventurer’s lifestream - aka the 
  combination of actions, events, in-game relationships and campaign ties 
  that snowball during play. 
   
  The content that follows does not attempt to replace a particular system’s 
  built-in character generation; but does suggest a range of informal options 
  for varying, developing and/ or self-selecting character traits and 
  backgrounds. 
   
  Prior Experience 
   
  Making compelling PCs and NPCs is an essential RPG ingredient, as much 
  of a game’s action and intrigue is centered round PCs’ interactions with 
  NPCs. 
   
  There are a number of common ways of going about character generation: 
   
  1. Using a character class which outlines a profile of skills and abilities. 
  2. Spending an allocation of points on building a PC based on skills and 
  abilities. 
  3. Guiding a character through a prior career or life story that 
  accumulates skills and abilities. 
  4. Devising a background story/ character history. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 61 
   
  Some or all of these elements may be combined and players sometimes 
  have quite firm preferences, e.g. players who enjoy writing up a character 
  history as compared to players who would rather start with a blank canvas 
  and use the game and the PC’s gameplay to form a compelling character 
  during play. 
   
  There is no need for rules and/ or GMs to define which steps are involved, 
  as it’s really quite easy to accommodate character customization and 
  personalization in many ways - providing the standard approach of not 
  seeking to gain an unfair advantage is accepted round the table. 
   
  It’s certainly well worth taking a little time to offer options, because players 
  will be more engaged with their characters and, therefore, the game as a 
  whole if they are able to feel that they have a sense of ownership over the 
  characters they play. 
   
  So, if a player wants a background story or a slightly quirky character class 
  – why not. The story behind, for example, the scar on a character’s 
  forehead, an embarrassing tattoo or a childhood spent on the run can only 
  help to give characters and campaigns more texture and purchase. 
   
  Equally, GMs may wish to take a look at how practical it is to build-up 
  information on NPCs. For example, recurring enemies, old comrades at 
  arms and opponents with an eye for an escape route are worth developing 
  as they can be used, and evolve, time and again. 
   
  It may seem time-consuming to expand on a game’s character generation 
  rules or to roll a PC through career history tables. Nevertheless, doing so 
  turns cardboard-cutout stereotypes into authentic characters. These PCs 
  are likely to have networks of relationships that can dovetail with events 
  and campaign-wide challenges to constantly refuel RPG campaigns. 
   
  Some of the options available for adding detail to characters’ backgrounds 
  are set out below. The list is not exhaustive, but players and GMs may wish 
  to identify and outline those that appeal to them before starting character 
  generation. 
   
  The list is presented through three tables to make it easy to incorporate the 
  basic ideas straight into play with balanced outcomes, i.e. a roll for Good 
  Times is balanced out by a roll for Bad Times. This approach can be 
  adjusted to allow players to choose their own level of risk by ordering 
  outcomes by severity and allowing players to select how many dice to roll 
  and then applying the same number to each table. 
   
  This should result in a sketchy, relatively uneventful background for those 
  rolling fewer/ lower dice and a more dramatic story for those rolling across 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 62 
  a range that can reach the highest scores, i.e. the most severe outcomes on 
  each table. 
   
  Hard Times Table 
  D20 Background 
  Details 
  1 
  Battle Fatigue 
   
  2 
  Battlefield Injury 
   
  3 
  Betrayed 
   
  4 
  Demoted 
   
  5 
  Disease 
   
  6 
  Embarrassing Tattoo 
   
  7 
  Enslaved 
   
  8 
  Exiled 
   
  9 
  Gambling Debt 
   
  10 
  Imprisoned 
   
  11 
  Indebted 
   
  12 
  Injury 
   
  13 
  Life Force/ Energy 
  Drain 
   
  14 
  Marooned 
   
  15 
  Outlawed 
   
  16 
  Press-Ganged 
   
  17 
  Recurring Enemy 
   
  18 
  Scar 
   
  19 
  Vendetta 
   
  20 
  Wanted 
   
   
  Lifestreams Table 
  D20 Background 
  Details 
  1 
  Accident 
   
  2 
  Betrothed 
   
  3 
  Bolt Hole 
   
  4 
  Business Opportunity 
   
  5 
  Expulsion 
   
  6 
  Graduation 
   
  7 
  Headquarters 
   
  8 
  Inheritance 
   
  9 
  Invasion 
   
  10 
  Killing Time 
   
  11 
  Laid-Off 
   
  12 
  Lease 
   
  13 
  Legacy 
   
  14 
  Narrow Escape 
   
  15 
  Natural Disaster 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 63 
  D20 Background 
  Details 
  16 
  Practice 
   
  17 
  Promoted 
   
  18 
  Property 
   
  19 
  Sanctuary 
   
  20 
  Voyage 
   
   
  Good Times Table 
  D20 Background 
  Details 
  1 
  Battlefield Promotion 
   
  2 
  Battlemaster 
   
  3 
  Benefactor 
   
  4 
  Comrade-at-Arms 
   
  5 
  Epic Party 
   
  6 
  Hallowed Ground 
   
  7 
  Heroism 
   
  8 
  Last Stand 
   
  9 
  Lucky Win 
   
  10 
  Magical/ Digital Tattoo 
   
  11 
  Magical/ Technology Item 
   
  12 
  Mentored 
   
  13 
  Minor Magical/ Technology Item 
   
  14 
  Miraculous Event 
   
  15 
  Sponsor 
   
  16 
  Sporting Triumph 
   
  17 
  Tournament Win 
   
  18 
  Tutored 
   
  19 
  Valuable Item 
   
  20 
  Victorious 
   
   
  Of course, there is nothing to stop players from adding a further layer of 
  detail/ personalization with sub-options under each heading. However, the 
  tables shown above offer plenty to work with while leaving lots of room to 
  float a story on top of any specific bonuses, or penalties, attached to each 
  option. 
   
  Making a mini-game out of rolling on custom tables can appeal to players 
  all the more if they’re involved in customizing the tables’ options and 
  outcomes/ effects.  
   
  Using tables quickly puts more flesh on the bones of raw characters. 
  However, for those who wish to go further or take a less random approach 
  there are lots of factors that could contribute to a backstory. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 64 
  Character Backgrounds Table 
  Background 
  Details 
  Celebrations 
   
  Childhood Experiences 
   
  Childhood Memories 
   
  Costume 
   
  Dark Secrets 
   
  Deeds 
   
  Enemies 
   
  Equipment 
   
  Favorite Locations 
   
  Flaws 
   
  Friends and Enemies 
   
  Holidays 
   
  Locations 
   
  Military Service 
   
  Passions 
   
  Pastimes 
   
  Personality  
   
  Pets and Companions 
   
  Preferences and Pet 
  Hates 
   
  Physical Features 
   
  Relationships 
   
  Secret Missions 
   
  Sidelines and Secrets 
   
  Superstitions 
   
  Traditions 
   
   
  If GMs and players wish to turn this into a largely mechanical process it can 
  be helpful to allow a certain number of ‘nudges’ where the player can select 
  an option one place higher or lower on a table. Occasional ‘tilts’ where the 
  player is allowed a re-roll may also help to arrive at a balance between 
  random elements and a PC with characteristics a player is interested in 
  play. The following table expands one type of background. 
   
  Sidelines and Secrets 
  These kinds of detail are likely to be hidden or sleeper talents that may 
  come to light during the course of play. 
   
  Sidelines and Secrets Table 
  D20 Sideline or Secret 
  Details 
  1 
  Assassin 
   
  2 
  Collector 
   
  3 
  Conspirator 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 65 
  D20 Sideline or Secret 
  Details 
  4 
  Cultist 
   
  5 
  Embedded Reporter 
   
  6 
  Forger 
   
  7 
  Gambler 
   
  8 
  Gardener 
   
  9 
  Hunter 
   
  10 
  Murderer 
   
  11 
  Pickpocket 
   
  12 
  Revolutionary 
   
  13 
  Secret Agent 
   
  14 
  Secret Police 
   
  15 
  Secret Society 
   
  16 
  Serial Killer 
   
  17 
  Sleeper 
   
  18 
  Veteran 
   
  19 
  Warlock 
   
  20 
  Witch 
   
   
  Some players will want none of this, but for others it helps to make 
  characters and gameplay more fully-realized. Whether or not the story or 
  lifestream is randomized to various degrees through rules sets and/ or 
  emphasizes a personal or group story is up for negotiation. 
   
  Skills 
   
  Negotiations and diplomacy are typical of areas of RPG gameplay where 
  rushing to apply a dice roll to arrive at a fixed outcome can undermine the 
  gameplay. It is, therefore, often best to hold back - and sometimes blur the 
  line between players’ skills and the skills or attributes their adventurers 
  possess - until an event or situation invites a decisive dice roll. 
   
  Checks for success and failure may take account of a mix of characters’ 
  natural attributes, their learned skills and players’ skills. The type of basic 
  skills system outlined below demonstrates a flexible approach that allows 
  both PCs and NPCs to gain and use a wide variety of specializations. 
   
  The system shown is very straightforward and based on adding a skills 
  system to Old School takes on Dungeons and Dragons. It serves to outline 
  an approach to offering players the option of highly customized characters 
  without applying skill checks to the point where the rules exclude the use 
  of players’ own skills. 
   
  For straightforward and obvious tasks no check is needed, e.g. chopping 
  firewood or climbing a ladder. However, more difficult tasks, (including the 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 66 
  specialist skills of some followers), may suit a skills check involving a quick 
  chat over which modifiers might apply – followed by a GM’s ruling. 
   
  When a roll is used success results from gaining a total of 20 or more on a 
  d20 roll – and any additional modifiers the GM considers relevant. 
   
  A natural roll of 20 usually allows a successful attempt at using the skill at 
  the baseline level required to succeed in tasks requiring professional or 
  specialist expertise. Rolling a natural 1 usually results in an automatic fail. 
   
  The standard of work is expected to be professional in the same manner as 
  a Ranger or a Fighter is a professional warrior. Skills can be tested close to 
  the limit in attempts to achieve spectacular results – and there is no reason 
  why skills could not be tested for miraculous results. 
   
  Specialist Skills Table 
  Skill 
  Professional 
  Spectacular 
  Guide Price 
  Alchemist 
  Prepare acids and 
  alkalis, or ready a 
  potion for 
  enchantment 
  Prepare a magic 
  item for permanent 
  enchantment or a 
  material, such as 
  glass 
  1,200gp/ 
  month and a 
  1,000gp 
  laboratory 
  Animal 
  Trainer 
  Train pets or animal 
  companions 
  Train monsters such 
  as war elephants 
  and Worgs 
  400gp/ 
  month and 
  cages 
  Archer 
  Fires bows quickly 
  and accurately at 
  short or medium 
  range 
  Fires bows quickly 
  and very accurately 
  at short to long 
  range 
  75gp/ month 
  Armorer 
  Produce good quality 
  weapons and arm 
  Produce weapons 
  suitable for 
  enchantment 
  200gp/ 
  month and a 
  200gp forge 
  Artisan 
  Produce saleable 
  soft goods and 
  furnishings 
  Produce luxury 
  goods 
  75gp/ month 
  and materials 
  Battle Triage 
  Stop an 
  unconscious, 
  wounded humanoid 
  from losing blood 
  while unconscious 
  Stop an 
  unconscious, 
  wounded monster 
  from losing blood 
  while unconscious 
  25gp/ month 
  Blacksmith 
  Produce good quality 
  metalwork 
  Produce high quality 
  metalwork 
  20gp/ month 
  and a 200gp 
  forge 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 67 
  Skill 
  Professional 
  Spectacular 
  Guide Price 
  Brigadier (1 
  for every 600) 
  Capable of 
  conducting 
  battlefield 
  operations with 
  command of up to 
  600 
  Capable of 
  conducting 
  battlefield 
  operations with 
  command of up to 
  6,000 
  Twenty times 
  the cost for a 
  soldier* 
  Captain (1 for 
  every 60) 
  Command five 
  squads of 10 
  soldiers and 2 
  sergeants in combat 
  operations 
  Rally your troops 
  and take temporary 
  command of up to 
  600 troops 
  Six times the 
  cost for a 
  soldier* 
  Charioteer 
  Race chariots - and 
  fire from chariots 
  and wagons in battle 
  Control and fire from 
  war elephants and 
  similar moving 
  platforms 
  120gp/ 
  month and 
  chariot with 
  horses 
  Cook 
  Cook a fine meal for 
  twenty guests 
  Prepare a lavish 
  feast for up to 50 
  guests 
  30gp/ month 
  or higher 
  Diplomat 
  Negotiate a regional 
  political stalemate 
  Negotiate a 
  compromise in a 
  regional political 
  crisis 
  1,500gp/ 
  month and a 
  5,000gp 
  entourage/ 
  mission 
  Escapologist 
  Slowly untie a single 
  knot or binding 
  Escape a single set 
  of chains 
  Its own 
  reward 
  Explorer 
  Outdoor navigation, 
  survival, hunting, 
  shelter and tracking 
  Outdoor navigation, 
  survival, hunting, 
  shelter and tracking 
  in extreme 
  conditions 
  60gp/ month 
  or higher 
  Herald 
  Signal using flags, 
  banners, beacons 
  and smoke signals 
  Signal using codes, 
  tattoos, wildlife and 
  sign language 
  40gp/ month 
  or higher 
  Interrogator 
  Use leverage to gain 
  a confession or 
  admission 
  Use persuasion to 
  extract useful 
  information/ secrets 
  150gp/ 
  month or 
  higher 
  Jeweler 
  Cut and set gems 
  and jewels to +10% 
  value 
  Cut and set gems 
  and  jewels to +20% 
  value 
  400gp/ 
  month or 
  more 
  Lieutenant (1 
  for every 20) 
  Command two 
  squads of 10 
  soldiers and 2 
  sergeants in combat 
  operations 
  Rally your troops 
  and take temporary 
  command of up to 
  60 troops 
  Three times 
  the cost for a 
  soldier* 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 68 
  Skill 
  Professional 
  Spectacular 
  Guide Price 
  Merchant 
  Trade or value at a 
  fair and accurate 
  price over a local 
  area 
  Trade in luxury 
  goods across 
  borders, using 
  caravans, shipping 
  or other forms of 
  transport 
  500gp/ 
  month or 
  more – and 
  transport 
  Miner 
  Dig and maintain 
  safe mines and 
  tunnels 
  Dig and maintain 
  safe underground 
  rooms and chambers 
  25gp/ month 
  or higher 
  Pioneer 
  Improvise basic 
  defensive devices, 
  traps and barricades 
  Construct 
  substantial defensive 
  positions and 
  prepare 
  battlegrounds 
  60gp/ month 
  or higher 
  Sage 
  Able to interpret 
  sections of ancient 
  texts and familiar 
  with most magic 
  items  
  Able to interpret 
  ancient texts with 
  some accuracy, 
  advise on the 
  construction of rare 
  magic items and 
  comment on most 
  unique magic items 
  2,500gp/ 
  month and a 
  2,000gp 
  library  
  Sailor 
   
  Operate the sails 
  and steerage of a 
  boat or galley 
  Operate the sails 
  and steerage of an 
  ocean going ship 
  12gp/ month 
  Sergeant (1 
  for every 10) 
  Organize a squad of 
  soldiers and fight 
  with a variety of 
  weapons 
  Raise squad  morale 
  and fight with any 
  weapon 
  Three times 
  the cost for a 
  soldier* 
  Servant 
  (Domestic) 
   
  Carry-out duties 
  effectively and 
  gossip 
  Carry out duties 
  effectively and avoid 
  gossip or scandal  
  2gp/ month 
  Ship’s 
  Captain 
  Maritime command, 
  navigation and 
  sailing 
  Maritime command, 
  navigation and 
  sailing in stormy 
  weather  
  350gp/ 
  month and a 
  ship 
  Siege 
  Engineer 
  Design and build a 
  siege catapult or 
  short bridge 
  Design and build a 
  trebuchet or similar 
  device, organize 
  mining operations or 
  prepare a battlefield 
  1,200gp/ 
  month and 
  siege engine 
  repairs and 
  upgrades 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 69 
  Skill 
  Professional 
  Spectacular 
  Guide Price 
  Soldier 
  March and fight 
  according to orders 
  and with good 
  morale. Use a 
  limited range of 
  weapons 
  Fight in formation, 
  with solid morale 
  and using a variety 
  of weapons 
  2gp/ month 
  in camp or 
  castle* 
  Spy 
  Gather information 
  about troop 
  positions and meet 
  contacts with local 
  information 
  Intercept messages 
  and extract reliable 
  information. Create 
  a convincing 
  disguise 
  25gp/ month 
  and 500gp or 
  more/ 
  mission 
  Steward 
  Oversee the 
  operation of a castle 
  or a similar 
  stronghold 
  Oversee the 
  operation of a royal 
  court, a region or a 
  city 
  400gp/ 
  month 
  Torchbearer 
  Underworld 
  navigation, open 
  doors and entrances, 
  and identify common 
  and uncommon 
  monsters 
  Underworld 
  cartography, 
  dismantle doors and 
  entrances, and 
  identify rare 
  monsters 
  2gp/ day and 
  basic 
  equipment 
  Treasurer 
  Interpret local 
  trading, currency 
  and property rights 
  and customs 
  Understand and 
  negotiate local 
  trading, currency 
  and property rights 
  700gp/ 
  month 
  * - Soldiers based in a secure castle or fortification cost 1gp/ month. On the 
  march or at war the costs increase to 6gp/ month for infantry, 10gp/ month 
  for archers and 20gp/ month for cavalry. Mercenaries cost twice as much 
  and may cost significantly more if they are to stay loyal under difficult 
  circumstances. 
   
  The cost of training from 1st level is twice as many XP for each extra level or 
  + gained, i.e. 250XP, 500XP, 1,000XP, 2,000XP, 4,000XP, 8,000XP, 
  16,000XP, 32,000XP and 64,000XP to 10th Level. There is no fixed limit to 
  skill levels, but a roll of 1 typically remains an automatic fail when using a 
  D20. 
   
  Players can gain skill levels using combinations of cash and XP. This can be 
  done through building on their existing skills and by taking opportunities 
  to practice their new skills. For example, a Fighter that regularly works at 
  fixing armor or a Magic-User who cooks the party’s meals every night.  
   
  These skills may be assumed to be present for characters working in/ with 
  experience in practicing a skill as their ‘day job’ at +10, i.e. 10th Level. 
  Players can seek XP through working on skills as their ‘day job’, but the 
  pay/ XP will be low until they reach roughly 10th Level. At that stage a 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 70 
  craftsperson or professional has a high basic chance of success - but this 
  can be modified by a number of factors: 
   
  Skills roll calculations include: 
   
  1. Skill modifiers for levels gained in a skill. 
  2. Below 5th Level instructions can add +2 to rolls. 
  3. Below 5th Level help from a more skilled instructor adds +5 to rolls. 
  4. A match between the skill and an adventurer’s class gives a +2 class 
  bonus. 
  5. A matching ability score of 15+ gives a +2 ability bonus. 
   
  Deductions may also include: 
   
  6. Rushed work on tasks that take time and care alters rolls by -5. 
  7. Substandard materials or equipment reduces rolls by -5. 
  8. Trying for spectacular results alters rolls by -5. 
   
  This basic system uses what’s known as an unopposed roll, which means 
  there are no fixed factors such as an opponent’s armor to check. Instead 
  modifiers are applied on an ad hoc basis, i.e. striking a heavily armored, 
  lethal opponent starts out as a spectacular task. 
   
  Skills Table 
  Skill 
  Level 
  Bonus 
  Class Bonus 
  +2 
  Ability Bonus 
  +2 
  Rushed 
  Work 
  Alchemist 
   
  Magic-User 
  Intelligence 
  -5 
  Animal 
  Trainer 
   
  Ranger 
  Wisdom 
  -5 
  Archer 
   
  Thief 
  Dexterity 
   
  Armorer 
   
  Fighters 
  Strength 
  -5 
  Artisan 
   
  Bard 
  Intelligence 
  -5 
  Battle Triage 
   
  Cleric 
  Wisdom 
   
  Blacksmith 
   
  Fighters 
  Strength 
  -5 
  Brigadier 
   
  Fighters 
  Intelligence 
   
  Captain 
   
  Fighters 
  Wisdom 
   
  Charioteer 
   
  Thief 
  Dexterity 
   
  Cook 
   
   
  Wisdom 
  -5 
  Diplomat 
   
  Bard 
  Charisma 
  -5 
  Escapologist 
   
  Thief 
  Dexterity 
  -5 
  Explorer 
   
  Ranger 
  Constitution 
   
  Herald 
   
  Ranger 
  Intelligence 
   
  Interrogator 
   
   
  Charisma 
  -5 
  Jeweler 
   
   
  Dexterity 
  -5 
  Lieutenant 
   
  Fighters 
  Charisma 
  -5 
  Merchant 
   
   
  Charisma 
  -5 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 71 
  Skill 
  Level 
  Bonus 
  Class Bonus 
  +2 
  Ability Bonus 
  +2 
  Rushed 
  Work 
  Miner 
   
   
  Constitution 
  -5 
  Pioneer 
   
  Thief 
  Dexterity 
  -5 
  Sage 
   
  Magic-User 
  Intelligence 
  -5 
  Sailor 
   
   
  Constitution 
  -5 
  Sergeant 
   
  Fighters 
  Constitution 
   
  Servant 
   
   
  Charisma 
  -5 
  Ship’s Captain  
   
  Wisdom 
   
  Siege 
  Engineer 
   
  Fighters 
  Intelligence 
  -5 
  Soldier 
   
  Fighters 
  Strength 
   
  Spy 
   
  Monk 
  Intelligence 
  -5 
  Steward 
   
  Bard 
  Wisdom 
   
  Torchbearer 
   
  Fighter 
  Strength 
   
  Treasurer 
   
   
  Intelligence 
  -5 
   
  Clearly, the class-based elements can be adapted or stripped away to 
  provide the basic game engine required to run most RPGs. 
   
  Nominate a Skill 
  There is no reason why a player can’t nominate other specializations - so 
  long as these don’t eclipse any overlapping skills or abilities. For example, 
  if a player wished to learn to prospect for gold and gems the GM and the 
  other players could discuss the types of ‘professional’ and ‘spectacular’ 
  outcomes that might be linked to the new skill. 
   
  Playing To Win? 
   
  In many videogames, most wargames and the majority of boardgames 
  playing successfully is defined by the rules as playing to become the sole 
  winner or king of the castle. That’s a fairly narrow definition of success, 
  which breaks down if a player uses rules knowledge to win, e.g. the adult 
  who bludgeons a kid at the Monopoly table, because the kid doesn’t know 
  the most effective tactics. 
   
  RPGs simply don’t work like that and gameplay that claims to be RPG-
  based while promoting a simplistic win-mentality disconnects players from 
  long term motivations, fully-developed characters and becoming caught up 
  in storybuilding. 
   
  RPGs work more like free running, where ‘winning’ is about pushing your 
  own limits, sharing ideas and having a laugh. In other words, open-ended 
  RPG gameplay focused on player choice is not so much about winning, as 
  about winning in style. 
   
  
   
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  There are plenty of suggestions on running gameplay spread through the 
  text, but these key points may be helpful for new players: 
   
  1. If your character isn’t in the same place as the action you’re not able 
  to pitch in – unless magic or technology helps out. 
  2. Equip your characters with the attributes to operate as an adventurer, 
  i.e. give them enough intelligence to be able to survive as an 
  adventurer. 
  3. Trust your GM to balance play. A few bad calls by the GM are not a 
  deal-breaker and a poor GM can show you what to look for in other 
  GMs and/ or what to avoid as a GM. 
  4. Play off the other players, i.e. if someone comes up with an 
  interesting idea help them to run with it. 
  5. Build your own story and feed the events in that story into your 
  character. 
  6. Don’t be too quick to kill off a worthy opponent. The next one may 
  not be quite so interesting. 
  7. Connect to the people, places and events your PCs encounter. Have 
  them buy a property, go home for Midwinter every year, bump into an 
  old flame at an awkward moment, . . . 
  8. The GM is a player too and the easiest way to avoid a railroad is to set 
  out options and boundaries before a campaign starts. 
  9. You’re a 14th level Paladin/ Assassin multi-class Half-Orc with a +3 
  Frostbrand – it might be hard, but you can still try to share the 
  limelight. 
   
  Pets and Animal Companions 
   
  Pets and animal companions play a part in many tabletop RPGs. The most 
  common animal companion has probably always been the trusty mule, 
  which serves as an inexpensive option for transporting large amounts of 
  gold out of dungeons. War hounds are another familiar choice, as they can 
  do a lot to increase the chances of survival for a party of new PCs. 
   
  Clearly these very practical pets or companions can be of considerable 
  immediate value to players. Otherwise, interest often ends as players find 
  more convenient ways to move goods around or stay alive. This seems an 
  inevitable process, because players prefer to concentrate on roleplaying 
  their character and any hirelings rather than paying attention to animals 
  which can't progress in the game. 
   
  The generally low use or lowly status of pets at mid- to high levels of RPG 
  play is hardly a problem, as there's more than enough going on to keep 
  players busy. In addition, it's also often simpler all round to lend a party a 
  flight of griffins to take them on a journey instead of presenting them with 
  a litter to stable, raise and train. 
   
  
   
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  At the same time it seems worth keeping pets and companions around as 
  an option, because they can become as central to a character as a 
  character class or a comrade-in-arms. For example, pets can be very helpful 
  when it comes to encouraging kids to take part in basic, story-focused RPG 
  play. This is in part because kids generally like pets, but also because GMs 
  can use a pet to prompt younger players without repeated direct 
  interventions from the GM. 
   
  Pets or companions can have even more to offer if kids or young adults are 
  playing in any kind of school, apprenticeship or college type scenarios. For 
  instance, the competitions, rivalries, wizardry and aerial combat training 
  that might be found in a school for PCs learning to ride dragons is one 
  obvious way to upstage Harry Potter's broomsticks and griffins. 
   
  There's no need to introduce a raft of new rules to start making more use of 
  pets, as most RPGs have basic rules for the speed and range of a wide 
  variety of creatures. If a particular player's preferred pet or companion isn't 
  among them, just look for the nearest equivalent and base your version on 
  that. 
   
  Special powers, such as a chameleon's tongue or a dragon's breath needn't 
  be problematic, as few players can argue for a companion that gives an 
  overwhelming advantage compared to other characters' options. Equally, if 
  everyone wants a powerful dragon it's going to be pretty obvious that it's 
  necessary to either limit the dragons' power or scale-up the opposition. Pets 
  which can easily be given abilities and/ or training include: 
   
  Pets and Companions Table 
  No. Pet or Companion Details 
  1 
  Birds of Prey 
   
  2 
  Chameleons 
   
  3 
  Dolphins 
   
  4 
  Dragonflies 
   
  5 
  Giant Spiders 
   
  6 
  Hunting Dogs 
   
  7 
  Magpies 
   
  8 
  Timber Wolves 
   
  9 
  War Hounds 
   
  10 
  Watch Dragons 
   
  11 
  Wildcats 
   
  12 
  Wolves 
   
   
  Advancement is the commonest way to turn PCs' abilities into a series of 
  steps and the same technique works well with most pets and companions. 
  A chameleon might be particularly good at concealment and collecting 
  items, but only able to learn a few simple commands. Alternatively, a 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 74 
  wildcat might be trained to follow several commands, while remaining 
  prone to cutting loose and savaging other peoples' pets or livestock. Key 
  commands which players might try to teach to most pets probably include 
  the following: 
   
  Training Pets and Companions Table 
  No. Command 
  Details 
  1 
  Attack 
   
  2 
  Call 
   
  3 
  Fetch 
   
  4 
  Follow 
   
  5 
  Hide 
   
  6 
  Hunt 
   
  7 
  Leap 
   
  8 
  Search 
   
  9 
  Stay Away 
   
  10 
  Stay Put 
   
   
  More complex creatures like a dragon or an intelligent familiar are harder 
  to limit. Equally, a pinch of magic dust might be needed to explain how a 
  dragonfly could manage to learn commands. Nevertheless, with a bit of 
  negotiation players can usually end up with an amusing and, at times, 
  useful companion; without GMs having to reshape the overall balance of 
  play. 
   
  For younger players it's quite easy to trade durability for special powers. 
  This suits everyone, as neither the GM nor the players want the pets to 
  come to any harm. Older, more cynical players can be more pragmatic and 
  it's probably necessary to offer a relatively useful and bright companion if 
  you want to avoid watching a succession of pets being fed into traps. 
   
  Niche pets can be particularly useful if players are seeking a reasonable 
  advantage, as a hawk capable of mapping out wildlife across a wilderness 
  through the prey it returns is spider bait in an underground tomb. A mighty 
  war elephant stacked with war drums and archers offers a similar option. 
  The expense could be justified by the animal's value when exploring jungle 
  or scrub land wildernesses, but you're not going to want to march it across 
  a swamp. 
   
  Pets are no more a requirement than any other RPG option. However, they 
  can be especially useful for young players and groups of players without 
  enough numbers. They also lend adventures and campaigns an extra layer 
  of familiarity and authenticity. With that in mind the following selection of 
  rare transport options might be found in any major fantasy city's animal 
  bazaar. Clearly, rare creatures with valuable skills would be expensive to 
  buy and keep, so rental might often be the best option: 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 75 
   
  Rare Creatures Table 
  No. Creature 
  Details 
  1 
  Chariot Horses 
  Chariots for 2 or 4, with optional scything blades 
  2 
  Dragons 
  Legal restrictions on using breath weapons 
  3 
  Griffins 
  Fast, fierce and hard to tame 
  4 
  Hippogriff 
  Fast but limited to carrying a single passenger 
  5 
  Mammoths 
  Slow, steady and able to carry large weights 
  6 
  Nightmares 
  Fast and impressive, but very demanding 
  7 
  Pegasi 
  Offer speed and maneuverability 
  8 
  Spiders, Giant 
  Brave, agile and temperamental 
  9 
  Unicorns 
  Offer speed, loyalty and, possibly, magical powers 
  10 
  War Elephants 
  Slow but almost unstoppable with armor on 
  11 
  War Horses 
  Fast, resilient and capable of trampling opponents 
   
   
   
  
   
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  Part 4: Running Play 
   
  Ready-To-Run Adventures 
   
  The RPG Handbook goes on to look in detail at the steps involved in 
  designing your own adventures and campaigns. This homebrew approach 
  can, however, seem a daunting task for a new GM and it’s helpful to have a 
  few ready-made examples to look over before getting started. 
   
  In addition, it is often useful for any GM to have some decent, good-to-go 
  adventures on hand when simply too busy to prepare anything and too 
  tired to run a largely improvisational game. 
   
  After half-a-dozen attempts at setting-up their own adventures few GMs will 
  look back as – unsurprisingly - the fun and freedom involved in shaping 
  your own worlds is generally more rewarding than acting as a milk monitor 
  overseeing someone else’s rules and plot lines. 
   
  This is in part because designing and co-designing adventures and 
  campaigns can shift RPG gameplay away from sticking to the largely fixed 
  narratives involved in passively playing through others’ imaginative 
  content. 
   
  Without this shift player-focused, imaginative storybuilding remains 
  shackled to the original designers’ landscapes, societies, characters and 
  stories. 
   
  Does that suggest almost all shrink-wrapped scenarios and campaigns 
  should be set aside? Not really as GMs and players’ imaginative input needs 
  to be fuelled by new ideas and inspiration. As a result, most homebrew GMs 
  become magpies – frequently looking for new angles and variants to 
  breathe life into their homebrew worlds. 
   
  Players may also be more than happy to take on board a brand, theme or 
  narrative that appeals to them as a platform on which to build the rest of 
  play. This can save time and helps to lead to the conclusion that less good 
  quality, ready-made adventures and campaigns doesn’t necessarily lead to 
  more homebrewed gameplay. 
   
  Instead a steady shift in emphasis or balance is more likely to encourage 
  GMs to homebrew. For example, a GM could start by changing a few items 
  and monsters inside a shrink-wrapped adventure. The same GM might then 
  take a basic dungeon adventure that’s easy to beef-up and try adding a 
  couple of extra plot hooks, some new traps and a handful of dynamic 
  events, e.g. another party of adventurers in the same dungeon or 
  deforming the dungeon when, for instance, a large explosion brings the 
  levels above down into the gap formed by the blast. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 78 
   
  The following short selection of scenarios present examples of some of the 
  options players may wish to check out if they’re thinking of trying out as a 
  GM: 
   
  1. Dyson's Delve is a well-presented, free dungeon-crawl that could 
  easily be developed to include NPC details and basic plotting. 
  2. The Classic Dungeons and Dragons page at Dragonsfoot has a 
  selection of free D&D scenarios available as PDFs. 
  3. The selection of generic Dungeons and Dragons adventures on 
  Wizard of the Coast's Original Adventures page includes over 50 titles 
  by established authors such as Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell and Gary 
  Gygax. The available downloads include two classic dungeon 
  adventures, (The Tomb of Horrors and White Plume Mountain), which 
  are good examples of traditional dungeon crawls. Other later titles on 
  the same page offer adventures that present a wider range of 
  challenges. 
  4. Mongoose Publishing make available two free Traveler campaigns – 
  Secrets of the Ancients and The Pirates of Drinax. 
   
  There are many other free scenarios available on the Net, but the style and 
  quality of them can vary greatly. Those shown present basic examples of 
  some of the types of adventures players can easily build for themselves as 
  starting points for their own designs. 
   
  More recent adventures and campaigns are much more likely to involve 
  societies with an ecology and a pattern of ongoing events. I.e. the 
  characters are embedded within a culture that probably includes earning a 
  living, getting caught-up in the events around them and having birthday 
  parties. 
   
  It is well worth trying to run some straightforward, standalone dungeon and 
  village adventures before trying to scale up to cities and nations. 
  Approaches to designing and co-designing living dungeons/ worlds are 
  discussed again later in the text. 
   
  Gamesmaster (GM) Skills 
   
  There is no one way to GM and no right way to GM. There are, however, 
  some helpful approaches to running games which crop up time and again 
  in RPG blogs, forums and magazines. Experienced GMs may well find 
  nothing new in this section, but new GMs will come across options that 
  have been tried and tested by many GMs over many campaigns. 
   
  Pacing 
  Pacing is one of the first areas a new GM may wish to look at, because 
  adjusting the pace of events in a game can build tension, make play less 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 79 
  predictable, allow rest and recuperation, open-up sub-plots and side-quests, 
  and/ or up the tempo both 'in-game' and 'out-game'. 
   
  One of the easiest ways to adjust pacing is through encounter selection. 
  The type of encounters players are presented with, and the order in which 
  they come across them, operate much like a throttle. Combat encounters, 
  NPC encounters and PC conflicts tend to open the 'throttle', as player 
  interactions come thick and fast because PCs are dealing with what's in 
  front of them at the time. 
   
  Challenge-focused encounters, PC meetings, tricks and traps, urban 
  encounters, and more, can be delivered at pace, but players are often being 
  asked to take a step back from the 'here and now' to consider solutions and 
  future options. Under these circumstances players deserve time to weigh 
  up and co-ordinate their options. 
   
  Offering a good selection of different types of encounters and challenges 
  within an adventure or a campaign setting can build pacing into settings 
  and scenarios at the design stage. This is easily done without 
  compromising player choice by signposting challenges and plots that 
  players have previously identified, (by word or action), as contributing to 
  enjoyable gameplay. 
   
  In other words, if players enjoy exploration and discovery point them in the 
  direction of a ship and give them a map to ‘the Wilderness’, ‘The Savage 
  Lands’ or the ‘Endless Ocean’. Then encourage them to head straight off 
  into the unknown. The game’s pace will then be dictated by and open to 
  manipulation through exploration, hazards, discovery, encounters and 
  combat; rather than the relentless grind of the combat encounter. 
   
  Alternatively, re-mixing combat encounters to streamline cumbersome 
  rules, allow a greater degree of combat choreography, including pacing, 
  and a greater range of hazards can make combat-focused play more 
  variable. 
   
  Change 
  Authentic gameplay involves game-worlds that change over time and react 
  to events. This is most obvious when PCs return to an area months or years 
  after their last visit. There will probably be new seasons, and a seasonal 
  climate, NPCs that have aged and ‘moved on’, projects that were underway 
  which have now reached completion and such like. In addition, a new 
  regime may be in place, the area might have undergone sweeping change 
  and attitudes towards the PCs may have altered while they’ve been away. 
   
  The manner in which events seem to progress or move forward is part of 
  recognizing change. However, stagnation and deterioration are just as 
  much a part of taking account of ongoing events. The collapse of buildings 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 80 
  over time, a failure to patrol border lands adequately or the destruction of 
  a city’s water supply can all suggest different types of deformation within a 
  game-world. 
   
  Substantial or global changes tend to overshadow and impact on local 
  conditions and events. Nevertheless, the smallest event can trigger all sorts 
  of different outcomes and it is just as valuable to incorporate change on a 
  local level as across a whole campaign setting. A fort which the players left 
  ruined just days before may have been reinforced, reconstructed and set on 
  alert when players want to take the same route home. Along similar, but 
  more destructive, lines the effects of using high impact magical forces 
  within a dungeon are likely to become significant. Shattered glass or 
  broken doors might be all that needs to be recalled. On the other hand, 
  tunnels may start to collapse, rocks may become dislodged and crumbling 
  walls could turn single chambers into a huge gallery. Burst containers and 
  industrial processes may then present as particular threats or unleash and/ 
  or re-define threats which were previously of little concern. 
   
  Easy Come, Easy Go 
  Many new players will set off with the intention/ belief that their PC will 
  somehow become better/ more interesting/ capable of bossing the game 
  by pursuing every magical or advanced technological device out there. 
  However, simply possessing an item or a device can easily unbalance a 
  character, because the characters’ material possessions start to eclipse the 
  character’s other attributes, including the lifestream of adventures, events, 
  contacts and highlights that fuel the development of fully-realized player 
  characters. 
   
  At the same time there’s a lot to be said for giving PCs access to wealth 
  and devices that can help them to meet and develop the challenges they 
  encounter. In addition, when linked to challenges, rather than individual 
  PCs, such devices can drive plots, offer tempting prizes and engage players 
  in moments of discovery. 
   
  The most straightforward approaches to achieving a balance involve 
  devices that are limited or expended in some way, i.e. they only operate 
  under certain conditions, they have charges or doses and/ or they become 
  obsolete after serving a purpose. 
   
  These methods work well, as the availability of devices can be linked to the 
  needs of the PCs within an adventure or a campaign instead of the 
  imagined need to have an all-powerful PC. 
   
  Dealing with cash calls for slightly different methods, as PCs can 
  accumulate great wealth, which may then be used to help PCs to become 
  what appears on the surface to be better/ more interesting/ capable of 
  bossing the game. Some players and groups may not follow this line, but 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 81 
  it’s best to be prepared with a few options. For example, offer to sell PCs 
  expensive items that help with challenges, charge taxes and tolls, and 
  provide access to luxury goods that are only likely to be used occasionally/ 
  kept at home. Taking account of wear and tear, accidents and mishaps or 
  damage to items during combat are other options which soon part a PC 
  from her/ his gold. 
   
  If all else fails, it’s possible to use events within the gameplay to remove 
  cash from a game’s economy, e.g. warfare might involve devaluations, 
  revolution and even currency consuming magical or engineered viruses. 
   
  As in the real world, faster transport, luxury entertainment, elaborate 
  protection and collecting information about your adversaries are areas 
  where PCs, if not players, often pay out. Simply ask the PCs whether they 
  wish to travel by cart or speed along in a designer chariot – then show 
  them some of the optional extras that come with the better chariot. Will 
  they care that much of the adventure that follows takes place in a swamp 
  requiring them to park any chariots? Probably not, as the chariot waits 
  ready to take them to other locations. (Unless, of course, they left a chariot 
  with wooden parts next to an uninvestigated termite mound – which might 
  call for new wheels if nothing else). 
   
  Listen Up 
  It takes time and encouragement for new RPG players to ‘find their voice’. 
  GMs can help such players to start taking more of a lead, to begin 
  suggesting gameplay options and to think in terms of working as a team by 
  making space for new players’ voices. Straightforward approaches to this 
  include: 
   
  Giving players time to outline their experience of events as they happen, 
  (e.g. a player describing what the player’s PC buys in a clothes or weapons 
  store). 
   
  Supporting the challenges your players and you prefer, (e.g. players 
  interested in investigation and deduction during play will find it hard to 
  develop ‘a voice’ within combative adventures which aren’t in tune with 
  their gameplay expectations). 
   
  Loosen Up 
  Even the most skilled GM can’t keep an eye on all of the possible actions 
  and interactions likely to occur in any given adventure. About the best 
  anyone can hope for is to stick to the key strengths that are known to work 
  within a particular group. Help is available through scenario and settings 
  design geared towards supporting players’ imaginative thinking - and 
  freeing-up GMs to focus on the game as a whole.  
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 82 
  However, the easiest ways to take a lot of the pressure off are to negotiate 
  a few compromises at the table, build as close a match as possible between 
  player choice and the features of your game; and, effectively, allow yourself 
  some basic errors. 
   
  Forced-Feeding 
  If there’s a mismatch between the challenges a GM presents, (and all the 
  locations, plots, subplots, NPCs, items and more which follow from there), 
  and the challenges players regard as building enjoyable gameplay, there’s 
  little to be gained from force-feeding players your own preferences/ 
  whatever comes to hand.  
   
  You may be able to cobble together a game without agreeing shared 
  approaches to your game’s challenges, but the gameplay will rattle along 
  like a wagon with a broken axle. Each ‘wheel’ will end up pulling away in 
  different directions as each player forms a different take on the game. 
   
  GMs can drag everything forward through sheer willpower and enthusiasm, 
  but the game is unlikely to gel.  Under these conditions the GM may be 
  tempted to fall back on cheap thrills, aka the lowest common combat 
  denominator, to try to compel players to persist. At its worst this involves 
  sending players into encounters which they can’t avoid, despite them 
  previously making it fairly obvious those particular types of encounters 
  don’t offer the challenges the players want to take on.  
   
  No Post-Mortems 
  Feedback from comments made at the table, noticing when players are 
  enjoying particular types of play and reflecting after the game are all likely 
  to help to get a better match between the gameplay and players’ hopes for 
  the gameplay. However, that does not extend to recriminations over details, 
  showdowns over inconsistencies in the rules and extensive post-mortems 
  about what went wrong. 
   
  Player Dynamics 
  Some players get on, others don’t. It’s not up to a GM to mediate between 
  warring parties, but there’s a lot to be said for taking opportunities to 
  blend contrasting or opposing styles during play. On an obvious level, a 
  player’s knight may show contempt for another player’s thief - right up to 
  the point when the thief steps out of the shadows and saves the fighter. 
   
  Straitjacketing 
  Roughing out a PC for a new player to get play started quickly is often a 
  major timesaver if everyone else is good to go. The tricky part is 
  remembering to make the ready-rolled PC appeal to most new players 
  without coming across as a cardboard cut-out. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 83 
  It’s important to give players the chance to invest in their PCs by 
  personalizing and customizing them, which means taking the time to either 
  offer a selection of start-up characters or to return to the PC design stage 
  with the new player at the earliest opportunity. 
   
  If a GM starts handing down PCs and defining PCs for their players on a 
  regular basis, a significant part of the players’ investment in their PCs is 
  gone. This loss of engagement can be worsened by systems which already 
  pre-define PCs through strict character classes and exclusive skill paths, as 
  there’s not a lot left for a player to construct when the rules, the GM, the 
  setting and the challenges a particular class can deal with are all in place. 
   
  In addition, the player can hardly go on to shape the destiny of a PC 
  towards their own model or characterization if the ‘die have been cast’ 
  before the player even picked up the character sheet. 
   
  Metagaming 
  Striking a balance between allowing players to apply their own skills to play 
  and maintaining both characterization and authenticity during play is 
  easier to handle in-game if a few basic agreements have been reached 
  beforehand. 
   
  Clearly, if a PC is held in a distant location and sealed off from 
  communicating with other PCs there’s going to be a breakdown in shared 
  expectations and any sense of authenticity if the imprisoned character 
  starts suggesting how other characters might act. 
   
  On the other hand, presenting PCs with a puzzle the players could solve, 
  only to declare that none of the characters is sufficiently intelligent to 
  understand the puzzle, dispenses with a gameplay option that some players 
  may enjoy and might have requested. 
   
  More often than not grumbling on this point is down to players looking to 
  optimize by neglecting soft skills like intelligence when making a PC and 
  then assuming, or expecting, the player’s skills/ intelligence to fill any 
  gaps. Many new players won’t even realize that this falls into the category 
  of seeking an unfair advantage. So, unless a player actually wishes to play a 
  character that is going to struggle to plan or puzzle, the simple solution is 
  for PCs to pay up enough for an at least average intelligence. 
   
  Skills checks are already used to define characters’ class and combat skills 
  and they can be extended to mechanize countless other areas of gameplay. 
  However, it doesn’t take long to reach a point where skills creep becomes 
  counterproductive. Players need room to maneuver in terms of look for 
  novel solutions in situations as they unfold. Without engaging player skill 
  in this way the distance between the player and the character gets in the 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 84 
  way of the sense of ownership and individuality that becomes attached to a 
  much-loved character. 
   
  Instead, a randomly generated character playing with options and solutions 
  defined by the rules becomes a representative of the game rather than an 
  avatar focused on the player’s interest and RPG gameplay. 
   
  If it player doesn’t feel able to trust a GM to exercise the required balance 
  there probably isn’t much of a basis for an enjoyable game anyway, which it 
  is probably better to know at the outset. 
   
  Monsters Have Brains 
  Monsters and other NPCs who follow entirely predictable routines don’t 
  present much of a threat and usually require some sort of added 
  ingredient, such as a trap or difficult terrain, to make them more 
  interesting to play against. Allowing monsters to use their instincts and 
  intelligence to vary their actions makes play more authentic and gritty.  
   
  Contrary to some popular belief, it is possible for monsters to run away, 
  plan an escape route or fall upon their knees begging for mercy instead of 
  always fighting to the death. 
   
  Setting Events in Motion 
  Providing a living, breathing game-world which feels both fantastic and 
  credible is hard work. Building from scratch is particularly time-consuming, 
  while adapting shrink-wrapped game content invites a certain amount of 
  compromise. 
   
  Using real world events to add detail, atmosphere and a sense of setting a 
  campaign in motion cut back on the time required to prepare well and the 
  compromises involved in working from one size fits all materials. 
  Landscapes, architectures, legends, maps and calendars are easily 
  borrowed and adapted from readily available Internet sources. These can 
  be combined and re-mixed to sketch out settings and scenarios at speed 
  and with authenticity. 
   
  With limited Internet research a wide selection of recurring events, larger 
  than life characters, epic landscapes and awesome architecture can be 
  mapped out in minutes or hours rather than weeks or months. 
   
  Sidelining 
  From the point of view of players they are only fully ‘in play’ when sharing 
  in the action and decisions at the table. Every time there’s a pause to check 
  a player’s rules query the rest of the players are sidelined. The same 
  applies when one PC regularly grabs the narrative limelight, when a PC is 
  significantly more powerful than the rest of the party, when props hinder 
  rather than help, and when solutions to challenges have to be rules-based. 
  
   
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  Some sidelining can be useful, e.g. when a quick rules query helps out or 
  someone goes to fetch the snacks. However, it will be harder for PCs to act 
  as a team and some players are going to feel sidelined unless the GM is 
  aware of sidelining and, where necessary, ready to use prompts to balance 
  players’ access to the gameplay. 
   
  Mapping and Cartography 
   
  RPGs don’t always need maps, as there are RPGs which use very straight-
  forward zonal movement and storytelling games that make no use at all of 
  tabletop layouts. Nevertheless, a majority of games will benefit from 
  mapping 
   
  Four options for carrying out mapping are: 
   
  1. Leave mapping to the players and let the PCs get lost if the maps 
  aren’t accurate. This is well-suited to dungeon adventures, where a 
  certain amount of disorientation may add to the fun - now and again. 
  2. The GM presents players with maps to save time and speed play 
  along. These maps can be left largely free of features, which will be 
  added as adventurers explore. They are well-suited for showing 
  overviews of regions, cities and landscapes – but may well give 
  players information ahead of time when used in dungeons. 
  3. GMs can use treasure maps and access to architectural blueprints to 
  form a mixed approach, i.e. the GM maps some areas and then 
  switches mapping back to the PCs for other areas. 
  4. Shared mapmaking combines GM and player-led approaches and 
  doesn’t have to involve switching methods constantly. By working on 
  large sheets of paper, (or a digital equivalent), GMs and players can 
  use marker pens/ colored pencils, (or a digital equivalent), to build a 
  map as play unfolds. When players enter a room the GM adds obvious 
  features, but further contributions only get added, by the GM or the 
  players, when play zoom-ins on particular areas in more detail, e.g. a 
  table with plates spread over it can be seen from the entrance to a 
  room, but the food on the plates and the silver cutlery only get added 
  if PCs explore in greater detail. 
   
  A mix of these approaches can help to vary the presentation of a game. For 
  example, colorful, professionally made regional maps might be used along 
  with encouraging players to participate in marking local maps and/ or 
  ongoing situations. 
   
  Getting players involved in marking or doodling on to a shared map is an 
  excellent way: 
   
  1. To keep players occupied while others are taking their turn. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 86 
  2. To keep players’ attention focused on the action. 
  3. To offer a ‘control panel’ that tracks the situations players are dealing 
  with. 
  4. To review what has already happened and what is going on 
  elsewhere. 
   
  Another advantage of getting everyone round the table used to mapping 
  features and some details of ongoing gameplay are the records/ memento/ 
  artwork left at the end. A mix of cavern or room outlines, physical features, 
  monsters’ positions, hit points lost, actions and doodles or sketches makes 
  for an entertaining summary. This adventure or campaign record can then 
  be used to review how a campaign went or to quickly give new players a 
  clear idea of the kind of gameplay to expect within your group. 
   
  For rooms and caverns it’s already very easy to use a cheap 10” tablet, a 
  free copy of touch Autosketch on Android and a standard PC monitor to 
  pass floor plans round, annotate or sketch on them and then rapidly send 
  the results to the monitor via social media. 
   
  Amongst other positive effects the results of this approach include more 
  multi-sensory gameplay, more participative gameplay and blending in-game 
  fun alongside meta-game fun, e.g. having a laugh at everyone’s first 
  attempts at touch sketching. 
   
  The types of mapping available to players fall into a number of categories. 
  When deciding which type/s of mapping to use it’s often worth considering 
  how much variety to trade off against consistent styling. Options include: 
   
  1. Sketching maps quickly with little concern for how things look. This 
  works extremely well, as quick, dynamic maps will end up 
  representing events as they happen. 
  2. Using topographical maps to save time and put ideas across quickly, 
  i.e. they’re good for instant dungeon layouts, communications 
  networks and rough cross-sections. 
  3. Making hand-drawn maps, which means taking a little time and care 
  with the line-work. With practice these will often start to appear in 
  place of early doodles and sketches. 
  4. Digital mapping that involves turning drawings into digital images or 
  designing maps entirely on computers. There’s a lot to be said for a 
  digital workflow, as it makes it much easier to clone and vary work 
  you’ve already done. For some cartographers further options open 
  up, such as wrapping a map round a globe. Specialist software such 
  as Campaign Cartographer can be used for those who want a 
  dedicated solution. Painting software like Photoshop or GIMP; 
  drawing software like Illustrator, Inkscape or CorelDraw; and 3D 
  software - including SketchUp - tend to reward time spent learning to 
  use the software/ building-up libraries of re-useable objects. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 87 
  5. Using infographics to present information to players might involve 
  anything from a fancy menu to charts and logs found in a starship. 
  There are countless data visualization sites on the Net to help out, 
  but pen and paper can produce quick and effective results on the 
  spot. 
   
  Prompts and Interrupts 
   
  Much of a GM’s contribution to RPGs involves serving-up short descriptions 
  and narrative options that spur players’ imaginations and present choices. 
  As part of that process most GMs offer a certain amount of prompting to 
  help players to explore the options open to their PCs. 
   
  For experienced players prompting may be limited to a few subtle clues 
  and hints offered up through the characters and situations presented by 
  the GM. That’s ideal for experienced players who will easily, and almost 
  automatically, consider all of the information and options available to their 
  own PC and the party as a whole. However, new and/ or younger players 
  are often going to be unaware of the full range of choices open to them 
  and how to go about selecting the best options. 
   
  Gamesmasters can help players to gain experience and to enjoy play by 
  offering a wide variety of prompts either directly to players or through their 
  PCs. The idea is not to advise or instruct players in how to run their 
  characters, but to present information in ways that help new players to get 
  as much out of the game as experienced players. 
   
  Prompts can also be used to interrupt play. For example, if a player is 
  hogging the limelight - or going for an Oscar - it can be helpful to prompt 
  them to move along. Equally, a player that’s lurking on the edge of the 
  game can be encouraged to participate with as little as a reference to the 
  character class or skills their character is using. 
   
  Experienced GMs will already be experts at calling upon many of the 
  possible prompts shown below. However, some GMs may find it helpful to 
  become more familiar with a wide range of prompts. Most of the options 
  under discussion are about either re-framing or varying the presentation of 
  the information to help players to coming up with their own ideas and 
  solutions. 
   
  Player Choice 
  One of the most helpful ways to prompt players is to discuss and negotiate 
  how the GM and players wish to play the game before a campaign or 
  adventure starts. This doesn’t need to involve specific or detailed planning, 
  but it does allow players to feed into the prompts served-up by the GM 
  during play. 
   
  
   
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  Rephrasing 
  It’s quite easy for an experienced GM or player to explain play or the rules 
  in terms which are quite hard to understand. For example, ‘roll 2D4’ means 
  little to most of the general population. 
   
  Revised Presentation 
  If the information presented to players results in blank expressions and 
  requests for a better explanation it is often useful to either simplify or re-
  frame the way the information is being put across. For example, breaking 
  information down into key steps or using a diagram instead of the spoken 
  word generally helps. 
   
  Reviewing Skills 
  Reminding a player about a PC’s abilities and skills can encourage players 
  to reconsider the options open to them in terms of making best use of what 
  a PC has to offer. 
   
  Reviewing PCs’ Motives 
  GMs can help players and their PCs to focus by asking them to consider 
  how a situation contributes to the characterization and long-term goals 
  players have set their PCs. Placing a character’s current situation in the 
  wider context of a campaign, quest or lifetime may also motivate players to 
  persist. 
   
  Snapshots 
  Reviewing ongoing events within an encounter by listing what PCs are 
  dealing with is a quick way of encouraging players to consider their 
  characters’ options. 
   
  Reminders 
  Simply reminding players of a clue, event or insight learned earlier in a 
  series of adventures or encounters may shine a light on information that 
  players already have, but aren’t considering while caught up in current 
  actions and events. 
   
  Reviewing Options 
  For new players it’s often quite important to prompt them by running 
  through choices that offer solutions. For example, a new player may not 
  realize that using a magical missile to release a catch or lever, which drops 
  or pours a liquid over opponents, is a good alternative to simply firing a 
  missile at a single opponent. 
   
  Exploring Options 
  Experienced players may not need or appreciate prompting under most 
  circumstances. However, it’s usually possible to encourage them to look 
  around or zoom in by hinting at alternatives. For instance, a GM might 
  simply say, ’that’s an option but there are others’. The player is thereby 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 89 
  given a ‘stick or twist’ choice, but not aided in identifying or selecting the 
  best options. 
   
  Reconnecting 
  Taking players back to a situation which sheds some light on a current 
  predicament or challenge offers an unobtrusive approach to prompting. 
  This might involve suggesting that player characters have faced similar 
  problems before and managed to find a way out on those occasions. This 
  type of prompt is similar to a reminder, but players are being left to make 
  their own connection to past encounters and events. 
   
  Overall, prompting is about building an awareness of options and moving 
  away from leaving fixed rules and GMs’ personal expectations to shape 
  play. With prompting less is definitely more in terms of stepping away from 
  directing players and encouraging them to improvise. However, without 
  prompting new and novice players are going to find it hard to bridge a 
  skills gap that limits their gameplay by restricting the range of options 
  open to them during play. 
   
  Hack and Slay or Remix and Play 
   
  A full range of RPG gameplay options can include stealth, investigation, 
  mystery, construction, characterization, planning, intrigue and all manner 
  of ongoing challenges, missions and quests. These options, (and the list is 
  far from exhaustive), open up opportunities for a wide variety of open-
  ended tabletop roleplaying and design gaming. At the same time, sooner or 
  later, even the most plot or challenge-focused adventures are likely to 
  involve direct confrontation. 
   
  There are plenty of ways to roleplay conflict, but players and/ or plot will 
  often call for raised shields and a handy Longsword. The standard 
  approach to varying RPG combat is through the many abilities of monsters, 
  aliens and other lifeforms. However, the novelty wears off as soon as 
  players become familiar with their own and most of the monsters’ abilities. 
   
  From there on combat can become predictable as the gameplay 
  concentrates on matching players’ abilities to each monster’s weaknesses. 
  Some RPGs end up trying to introduce greater excitement, if not variety, by 
  making the player/ s and their opponents as closely matched as possible. 
  This adds risk, but can make players feel they’re under the cosh. This can 
  bring with it the danger of being sucked into heated debates about the 
  rules, as outcomes, (on many levels), may hang on interpreting a clause 
  within the rule set. 
   
  Adding a dramatic backdrop in terms of a combat’s place in the plot or 
  some novel circumstances offers a partial solution, as player characters’ 
  
   
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  motivations, (and meaningful ‘in-game’ consequences), can add tension 
  and give a combat a wider resonance across the rest of the gameplay. 
   
  Fighting over different prizes, possessions and passions may vary the 
  meaning of a combat within the game as a whole, but it seems necessary to 
  go further to make the most of what combat can contribute to play. In 
  particular, it seems worthwhile to go beyond the limits of static rules sets. 
   
  Rule sets usually take account of a selection of basic options, including 
  fighting while wading, on horseback or in the dark. This can be extended in 
  countless directions. 
   
  Combat Options Table 
  No. Fighting . . . 
  Details 
  1 
  Amidst lava streams 
   
  2 
  At sea 
   
  3 
  In a swamp 
   
  4 
  In a tar pit 
   
  5 
  In battle 
   
  6 
  In explosive/ destructive locations  
  7 
  In labyrinths 
   
  8 
  In quicksand 
   
  9 
  On ice 
   
  10 
  Over bridges and chasms 
   
  11 
  Underwater 
   
  12 
  While becoming ill or poisoned 
   
   
  These, and many more choices, can be varied again by deformation of the 
  terrain and/ or events, i.e. conditions may deteriorate, (or emerge), as 
  things ‘fall apart’. Modern and SciFi settings are all the better, with an 
  endless array of readily available environmental hazards to choose from, 
  ranging from planetary conditions to invasive nano-bots. 
   
  The choice of combat variants available to players is clearly far beyond 
  knowing the difference between a Storm Giant and a Stone Giant. Except 
  there’s a problem: how can even the largest rule sets provide combat 
  mechanics for handling each and every possible situation? Fortunately, 
  there appear to be a few possible approaches which might help: 
   
  1. Consider what the existing rules have to offer and what might be 
  added in terms of simple combat modifiers that don’t unbalance play. 
  2. Extend the rules to provide fuller consideration of the situation and 
  add tables to vary possible effects. Modifying magical or physical 
  effects to suit the environment might well add authenticity. 
  3. Take account of knock-on effects and ongoing events, including 
  deformation and the emergent properties of the situation. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 91 
  4. Populate the ‘combat zone’ with environmental combat options, e.g. 
  items, physical features and other ‘solutions’, available to the 
  observant and opportunist without highly specialized skills. 
  5. Use story-focused fighting and freeform GMing to take account of new 
  conditions as they emerge during play. This is a tiring option, but it 
  does allow the rules to move with the territory and seamlessly fade 
  into the background. That can, in turn, bring the plot and players’ 
  characterization into the foreground. 
   
  Overall, combat can deliver some of the most exciting gameplay available 
  in videogame RPGs, tabletop RPGs and design games. There’s not that 
  much a player can do about videogame combat. You get the combat and 
  combat settings which come in the box. More opened-ended, imaginative 
  tabletop games can do better, as GMs and players are able to vary, shape 
  and remix the design and play of combat encounters to much greater 
  imaginative effect. 
   
  Mixed Messages 
   
  There are a great variety of codes, messages, secret codes, warning signs 
  and similar communications which can be used to make information 
  available to players in varied and original ways. These are some of the 
  options open to GMs and players during play: 
   
  D100 Medium 
  Variants 
  1 
  Alchemical Transformations  
  2 
  Architecture 
   
  3 
  Astrolabs and Astroclocks 
   
  4 
  Beacons 
   
  5 
  Candles 
   
  6 
  Color 
   
  7 
  Cosmetics 
   
  8 
  Costumes 
   
  9 
  Expressions 
   
  10 
  Fireworks 
   
  11 
  Flags and Banners 
   
  12 
  Flowers 
   
  13 
  Gestures 
   
  14 
  Hairstyles 
   
  15 
  Hand Signals 
   
  16 
  Headwear 
   
  17 
  Inks 
   
  18 
  Invisible Ink 
   
  19 
  Jewelry and Accessories 
   
  20 
  Kites 
   
  
   
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  D100 Medium 
  Variants 
  21 
  Knots 
   
  22 
  Labyrinths 
   
  23 
  Lanterns and Lenses 
   
  24 
  Lighthouses 
   
  25 
  Maps 
   
  26 
  Masks 
   
  27 
  Mazes 
   
  28 
  Missiles 
   
  29 
  Mosaics 
   
  30 
  Playing Cards 
   
  31 
  Prows 
   
  32 
  Reliefs 
   
  33 
  Reliquaries 
   
  34 
  Rockets 
   
  35 
  Sacred Architecture 
   
  36 
  Scents and Perfumes 
   
  37 
  Sculptures 
   
  38 
  Sign Languages 
   
  39 
  Signposts and Signage 
   
  40 
  Sky Discs 
   
  41 
  Smoke Signals 
   
  42 
  Stained Glass 
   
  43 
  Sundials 
   
  44 
  Tapestries 
   
  45 
  Tattoos 
   
  46 
  Trophies 
   
  47 
  Typography 
   
  48 
  Uniforms 
   
  49 
  Vanitas 
   
  50 
  Wildlife 
   
   
  Making Monsters 
   
  Designing intriguing or fearsome monsters for PCs to take on isn’t 
  straightforward. Many options are already covered by existing categories 
  found in plenty of tabletop RPGs and it takes a bit of thought to come up 
  with something novel. 
   
  New monsters, tribes and races can’t rely on physical appearances to 
  entertain players. They have to present a genuine threat and require 
  players to use some thinking to escape from, win over or defeat the new 
  adversary. 
   
  
   
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  Many monsters, tribes and races are based around countless variations on 
  mythological creatures, which have all been used time and again. Adding 
  bizarre or highly exotic creatures often doesn’t fit either, as players are 
  often unfamiliar with the concept or mythology and may, therefore, find it 
  difficult to find the monster or the threat it presents anything other than a 
  ‘bolt-on’. 
   
  So where can GMs find some credible, fearsome monsters that players can 
  easily identify as both threatening and intriguing? As it happens, real world 
  wildlife provides a good source of plenty of dangerous creatures, which are 
  easily adapted to present particular difficulties for players to overcome: 
   
  Asian Ants include a species which can explode their abdomens and 
  release toxins over their enemies. The odd group could add danger to an 
  encounter where PCs meet them for the first time, while large numbers of 
  these walking bombs would be a major problem if controlled by 
  pheromones/ scents held in the hands of a sinister opponent. 
   
  Basilisk Lizards are well-known for feet that move so fast that they can run 
  on water at up to 3.3 mph (5.4 km/h). Walking on water, (and the other 
  attributes of lizards), make these reptiles a stand-out as a humanoid race 
  or tribe, because of the combination of maneuverability, toughness and 
  speed they offer. Players might find them very difficult opponents unless 
  they can find ways to cool down the overall environment, or the lizards, 
  until the lizards become lethargic. 
   
  Bees are always a good option for sending players into a panic as they 
  search for water, or other escapes, from swarming attacks along the lines 
  of African Killer bee attacks. A less predictable, but potentially very 
  damaging, approach is to take account of the figure of 300 stings, which is 
  usually enough to kill a human. Intermittent encounters with bees across a 
  setting could lead to a tally of bee stings, which kicks-in with a number of 
  side effects as players accumulate more stings over weeks and months. 
  Some of the effects might offer temporary benefits. PCs can be drawn in by 
  optional, incidental contact encounters, e.g. help a NPC to remove a hive, 
  follow a Honey Badger to a hive or rescue a kid standing dangerously near 
  to a swarm. 
   
  Hummingbirds need to eat every ten minutes and consume as much as 2/3 
  of their body weight in a single day. A flight of beautiful, but deadly, 
  hummingbirds could present a real barrier to PCs, until the players realize 
  they have to disrupt the hummingbirds’ food supply to disable them. 
   
  Mimic 
  Octopuses 
  can 
  change 
  color, 
  shape 
  and 
  texture 
  almost 
  instantaneously. This allows them to mimic a Flounder, a Sea Snake or a 
  Lionfish. A natural mimic, capable of disguising itself as something 
  harmless, something to be avoided and something to fear, (without even 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 94 
  revealing its true form), lets players unwrap the challenges the monster 
  presents as an increasing threat. Which works particularly well when the 
  forms taken are broadly similar and players aren’t observing the dramatic 
  shifts of form involved in polymorphing magic. 
   
  Tomato Frogs are able to secrete glue as a defense. A wide range of 
  disruption and danger could easily result from encountering such 
  creatures. Pools of glue left in their trail could get on the PCs, weapons 
  might stick to the frogs, (or a comparable ’glue monster’), and PCs could 
  try to collect and use the glue. 
   
  These options demonstrate a few of the choices available for varying 
  monsters and races. Exploding ants add a new, unusual weapon; Basilisk 
  Lizards are highly adaptable; bee stings can wear PCs down; Hummingbirds 
  can encourage players to be less direct; Mimic Octopuses are heavily 
  disguised; and Tomato Frogs offer options for a bit of chaos and confusion. 
   
  There are lots more real world creatures that serve-up ideas for novel 
  monsters, races and tribes. By considering them in terms of weaponry, 
  adaptability, impact, challenges, subterfuges and novelty it’s easier to bring 
  together a combination of features that intrigues and/ or unsettles PCs and 
  their players. 
   
  There may be other criteria to add to the list presented here, but relatively 
  few creatures seem likely to add much to play unless they can tick a few of 
  these boxes. 
   
  Killer Traps 
   
  Out of the Blue 
  Traps are part and parcel of many tabletop RPG adventures and have been 
  for a very long time. Certain types of scenarios and encounters might 
  reasonably be expected to contain dangerous traps, (e.g. an ancient tomb 
  or an Assassin’s den). The traps placed in such locations can present 
  threats, offer challenges and put the PCs through the mill. 
   
  Where there’s an expectation of damaging traps players can think through 
  possible precautions and counter-measures they might wish to take with 
  them. Players are then aware of the risks, to some extent prepared and 
  clearly making a choice to participate in an adventure where the stakes 
  may well be high. 
   
  Traps that appear completely out of nowhere and undermine players’ 
  imaginative expectations or simply slaughter much-loved PCs ‘for a laugh’ 
  are a different matter. This seems particularly clear when a GM makes a 
  trap that’s consistently deadly. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 95 
  The disadvantages of using lethal traps in tabletop RPGs often outweigh 
  the benefits traps can offer: 
   
  1. Players may feel cheated if traps arrive completely out of the blue. 
  2. If there is too much warning most players will keep PCs well clear. 
  3. Players may spend the next game year checking round every corner. 
  4. Players’ nerves can get stuck on edge; making it hard to lower and 
  raise tension. 
  5. The party of PCs may become unable to continue a long-running 
  adventure or quest. 
  6. Players could feel cheated if the lethality relies on limiting possible 
  solutions. 
  7. Traps that aren’t authentic or able to fit the context may be seen as 
  contrived. 
  8. Outright kills can seem unreasonable if capture or confinement 
  would be more effective. 
   
  Having one or two of these factors eating into the entertainment is 
  problematic. Taking all of them on at the same time is, perhaps, a bit of a 
  recipe for demoralizing players. Nevertheless, while alternatives to outright 
  kills are available, on occasions when a lethal or potentially lethal trap is 
  called for it’s a compromise to remove much or all of the risk. 
   
  One way of sidestepping potential difficulties is to make it relatively easy 
  for survivors to raise or resurrect fallen comrades. This approach works up 
  to a point, but falls flat when conveniently restoring PCs to life becomes 
  either straightforward or routine. 
   
  Traps as Encounters 
  It seems more eventful and demanding to keep the risks high, while 
  presenting lethal traps more as open-ended encounters than as random 
  outcomes. In other words, instead of triggering traps and rolling a saving 
  throw to survive, players will, ideally, ‘unpack’ a trap which evolves as PCs 
  make choices and take actions that determine whether or not the trap 
  proves lethal. 
   
  The original version of the notorious classic D&D adventure, The Tomb of 
  Horrors, presents good examples of traps which demonstrate the 
  distinction between the random and the resolved. On a number of 
  occasions a PC, or even the whole party of PCs, is told that a deadly trap 
  has been triggered and a quick saving throw roll soon decides the fate of a 
  PC or PCs. On other occasions the traps are open to solutions, which may 
  not save the PCs but do turn each trap into an encounter involving choices 
  and actions. 
   
  In the original Tomb of Horrors adventure there’s a particularly good 
  ‘choker’ trap which contains all the elements of a classic trap, (i.e. it’s 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 96 
  basically a flooding pit), and an encounter. Players are handed a 
  deteriorating situation and have to uncover a series of choices that make 
  sense in terms of saving the party there and then. However, it’s hard for 
  players to do so, as the solutions are made counter-intuitive by obviously 
  endangering the party at a later stage. 
   
  Players are put under plenty of pressure by the flooding element of the 
  trap, while having to find unappealing solutions and, very rapidly, select 
  the best of a bad lot. Those who react quickly and thoughtfully probably 
  survive; those who dither or opt for the more costly solutions either die 
  there and then or continue much weakened. 
   
  The key elements of such a trap are the deteriorating situation, the risks, 
  the need to investigate, the choices open to players and the actions their 
  PCs carry out, which decide and feed into the encounter’s various 
  outcomes. These should leave room for creative players to offer solutions 
  from outside the box. 
   
  Outcomes 
  Here are a couple of lethal traps aimed at pulling together the components 
  of a trap which functions as or within an encounter. Solutions open to 
  players may include disarming, containing, re-purposing or running away 
  from the trap: 
   
  The PCs are involved in the construction of a large ship set in blocks near 
  to the shoreline. Shortly before the vessel is complete the lashings holding 
  it in place fail and the whole ship begins lurching towards the water. The 
  PCs, some small children and/ or a visiting ambassador find themselves in 
  the path of the ship; and all but the players either don’t notice or are 
  rooted to the spot. 
   
  The PCs could lose their lives, the ship, the goodwill of the locals or even 
  witness the start of a war if they don’t come up with some decent solutions, 
  and fast. The time available to players is easily adjusted to allow players a 
  few opportunities to intervene by following a sequence from the snapping 
  sounds of the lashings as they break, to the slow lurch forward as the ship 
  starts off and, finally, the blur of motion as the ship gains speed and 
  approaches the water. During that time PCs’ actions may slow or accelerate 
  the process, as players consider their priorities, select actions and react to 
  ongoing outcomes. 
   
  Moving indoors, it’s not difficult to find a similar combination of open-
  ended gameplay using everyday occurrences. For example, dense clouds of 
  grain dust are usually released from rice, corn and wheat crops when 
  they’re winnowed, threshed, decanted, elevated or spilt. In an enclosed 
  space it takes no more than a spark for these clouds to explode in highly 
  incendiary air-bursts, which are often fatal. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 97 
   
  By introducing crop dust to an enclosed area, (whether through breaking a 
  container, harvesting or deliberate spillage), the use of metal weapons, 
  torches and fireballs all become potentially lethal. The risks may vary, but 
  fighting, spellcasting or closing a door might all contribute to increasingly 
  dense concentrations of dust in the air. 
   
  Those who avoid activity and don’t send out any sparks may hardly notice 
  the dust. However, those who stir up the dust are going to feel a bit choked 
  up, start to see ‘Will-o-the-Wisp’ like bursts of flame near torches and 
  lanterns, and, if they keep going, trigger a full-blown explosion. 
   
  There are any number of potential triggers and solutions which, critically, 
  come down to players making choices. For example, water will quickly 
  prevent the dust from rising but may leave the PCs and the chamber coated 
  in a layer of porridge, which might, through the players’ actions alone, 
  result in a more deadly trap than that presented by the original threat. For 
  instance, any snap frost effect directed at a porridge-coated PC is likely to 
  result in a serious loss of mobility as the PC is, at least temporarily, 
  converted into a stumbling cereal bar. 
   
  Lethal traps that simply deliver random outcomes, therefore, appear to 
  take choices away from players and to serve only to deplete PCs’ resources. 
  Potentially lethal traps, which offer players a range of options and actions, 
  (linked to variable outcomes), seem to be able to turn traps into complete 
  encounters, with all the gameplay options associated with an encounter 
  rather than a mere mechanical trap. 
   
  In addition, traps with solutions are, perhaps, more authentic. It might 
  seem to make sense, or seem consistent, to put largely unavoidable traps 
  in a secret tomb. However, when such traps are mixed with more complete 
  traps that are open to being solved, the ‘deadly’ tomb model loses its 
  internal logic, i.e. why would there be any chance of surviving if the sole 
  purpose of the exercise was to seal the tomb absolutely and forever. 
   
  Perhaps it’s more entertaining, and forgiving, to design a tomb containing 
  knowledge or wealth only available to ‘the worthy’, i.e. those capable of 
  navigating and negotiating the dangers, rather than those fortunate 
  enough to roll their saving throws. 
   
  What Kind of Player or GM am I? 
   
  There are a few ‘what kind of player or character class are you?’ quizzes 
  available to players. These are typically part magazine quiz, part guidance 
  and part nonsense. Sure it’s amusing to match your style of play into 
  categories such as a Fighter or an Assassin. However, in doing so a quiz is 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 98 
  starting to define your character through the available classes within a 
  game. 
   
  For example, if you select b) three times you might be advised to play, for 
  example, full-on fighters. The fact that you also ticked d) twice for wanting 
  to be stealthy generally doesn’t come into it. 
   
  In other words, such quizzes are usually trying to run a pop quiz for a 
  laugh, while pouring players’ characters into a genre and/ or game specific 
  mold. Considering what is actually most likely to appeal to an individual is 
  a slightly different exercise, which involves taking a quick look at what we, 
  as individuals, wish to put into and get out of RPG gameplay. 
   
  Player/ GM Profiles 
   
  Add your own options to build up a larger list and compare players’ records 
  to identify common ground for campaigns and areas to avoid or research 
  more. 
   
  Broad campaign-wide challenges are outlined in more detail elsewhere, but 
  it is helpful for players to use rough headings at the planning stage. This 
  leaves room for the GM to offer plenty of surprises and to discuss options 
  in general terms without play becoming predictable as a result of players 
  going into a lot of detail. 
   
  Genres You Might Like 
  Grade 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5 - 5 is the highest score 
   
  No. Genre 
   
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  1 
  Cartoon 
   
   
   
   
   
  2 
  Comedy 
   
   
   
   
   
  3 
  Cyberpunk 
   
   
   
   
   
  4 
  Dark Fantasy 
   
   
   
   
   
  5 
  Detective 
   
   
   
   
   
  6 
  Espionage 
   
   
   
   
   
  7 
  Fantasy 
   
   
   
   
   
  8 
  Historical 
   
   
   
   
   
  9 
  Horror 
   
   
   
   
   
  10 
  Modern 
   
   
   
   
   
  11 
  Multi-Genre 
   
   
   
   
   
  12 
  Sci-Fi 
   
   
   
   
   
  13 
  Science Fantasy  
   
   
   
   
  14 
  Steampunk 
   
   
   
   
   
  15 
  Urban Fantasy 
   
   
   
   
   
  16 
  Western 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 99 
  Preferences 
  Grade 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5 - 5 is the highest score 
   
  No. Preference 
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  1 
  Bought-In Adventures  
   
   
   
   
  2 
  Difficulty: PCs 
   
   
   
   
   
  3 
  Difficulty: Players 
   
   
   
   
   
  4 
  Fast Turns 
   
   
   
   
   
  5 
  Fine-Grained Detail 
   
   
   
   
   
  6 
  Freeform 
   
   
   
   
   
  7 
  Guidelines 
   
   
   
   
   
  8 
  Homebrew Scenarios 
   
   
   
   
   
  9 
  Improvisational 
   
   
   
   
   
  10 
  PC Death 
   
   
   
   
   
  11 
  RPG Sandbox 
   
   
   
   
   
  12 
  Rules 
   
   
   
   
   
  13 
  Rules Heavy 
   
   
   
   
   
  14 
  Rules Light 
   
   
   
   
   
  15 
  TPKs 
   
   
   
   
   
  16 
  Under Pressure 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  At the Table 
  Grade 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5 - 5 is the highest score 
   
  No. Item 
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  1 
  Battle Grid 
   
   
   
   
   
  2 
  Counters 
   
   
   
   
   
  3 
  Dice: Digital 
   
   
   
   
   
  4 
  Dice: Precision 
   
   
   
   
   
  5 
  Dice: Real 
   
   
   
   
   
  6 
  Drawn Maps 
   
   
   
   
   
  7 
  Dungeon Tiles 
   
   
   
   
   
  8 
  Feedback 
   
   
   
   
   
  9 
  Figures 
   
   
   
   
   
  10 
  Laptops 
   
   
   
   
   
  11 
  No Tabletop 
   
   
   
   
   
  12 
  Online Chat 
   
   
   
   
   
  13 
  Online Tabletop 
   
   
   
   
   
  14 
  Phones 
   
   
   
   
   
  15 
  Projector 
   
   
   
   
   
  16 
  Props: Novelty 
   
   
   
   
   
  17 
  Sticky Notes 
   
   
   
   
   
  18 
  Tablets 
   
   
   
   
   
  19 
  Terrain 
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 100 
  Enjoyable parts of the gameplay? 
  Grade 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5 - 5 is the highest score 
   
  No. Gameplay 
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  1 
  Action 
   
   
   
   
   
  2 
  Authenticity 
   
   
   
   
   
  3 
  Combat 
   
   
   
   
   
  4 
  Comedy 
   
   
   
   
   
  5 
  Cut Scenes 
   
   
   
   
   
  6 
  Deceptions 
   
   
   
   
   
  7 
  Discovery 
   
   
   
   
   
  8 
  Enterprise 
   
   
   
   
   
  9 
  Escapes 
   
   
   
   
   
  10 
  Exploration 
   
   
   
   
   
  11 
  Grime 
   
   
   
   
   
  12 
  Grit 
   
   
   
   
   
  13 
  Improvising 
   
   
   
   
   
  14 
  Investigation 
   
   
   
   
   
  15 
  Mysteries 
   
   
   
   
   
  16 
  Negotiations 
   
   
   
   
   
  17 
  Quick Turns 
   
   
   
   
   
  18 
  Pursuits 
   
   
   
   
   
  19 
  Roll With The Punches 
   
   
   
   
   
  20 
  Setbacks 
   
   
   
   
   
  21 
  Simulation 
   
   
   
   
   
  22 
  Spinechillers 
   
   
   
   
   
  23 
  Story 
   
   
   
   
   
  24 
  Surprises 
   
   
   
   
   
  25 
  Suspense 
   
   
   
   
   
  26 
  Tactical Combat 
   
   
   
   
   
  27 
  Thinking On Your Feet 
   
   
   
   
   
  28 
  Traps 
   
   
   
   
   
  29 
  Tricks 
   
   
   
   
   
  30 
  Troubleshooting 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  As a whole, the text of this guide favors authenticity over simulation. 
  However, there are games, often played by practiced players, which, for 
  example, combine very authentic SciFi simulation alongside imaginative 
  gameplay. 
   
  Which of these campaign/ campaign-wide challenges appeal to you most? 
  Suggestions on what each of the campaign challenges listed here might 
  involve are set-out later. However, there’s no need to look at those at this 
  stage, as it can be more helpful to think in terms of how you might define 
  these challenges for yourself – if only in general terms. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 101 
   
  Grade 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5 - 5 is the highest score 
   
  No. Challenge 
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  1 
  Conquest and Colonization 
   
   
   
   
   
  2 
  Counter Insurgency 
   
   
   
   
   
  3 
  Crime Fighting 
   
   
   
   
   
  4 
  Disasters/ Crisis Management 
   
   
   
   
   
  6 
  Dawn of the Undead 
   
   
   
   
   
  7 
  Enterprise and Commerce 
   
   
   
   
   
  8 
  Espionage and Infiltration 
   
   
   
   
   
  9 
  Internecine Warfare 
   
   
   
   
   
  10 
  Marine Life 
   
   
   
   
   
  11 
  Massive Meteor Strikes 
   
   
   
   
   
  12 
  Mysteries and Investigations 
   
   
   
   
   
  13 
  Research and Experimentation 
   
   
   
   
   
  14 
  Revolution 
   
   
   
   
   
  15 
  Survival Scenarios 
   
   
   
   
   
  16 
  Warfare and Sieges 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Interested in any of these RPGs Extras 
  Grade 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5 - 5 is the highest score 
   
  No. Extra 
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  1 
  Campaign Blog 
   
   
   
   
   
  2 
  Campaign Wiki 
   
   
   
   
   
  3 
  Chat Meetings 
   
   
   
   
   
  4 
  Coloring Sheets  
   
   
   
   
  5 
  Figure Painting 
   
   
   
   
   
  6 
  Online Sessions  
   
   
   
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 102 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 103 
  Part 5: Campaign Planning 
   
  Signature Events 
   
  Designing scenarios and campaign settings for tabletop RPGs puts GMs in 
  the tricky position of trying to balance players’ existing expectations 
  alongside the degree of novelty required to make each adventure or 
  campaign seem fresh. 
   
  For many GMs the starting point for a necessary compromise between the 
  familiar and the novel is the standard RPG or fantasy trope. These trusty 
  staples may include anything from rescuing princesses from castles 
  through to battling legions of the undead. 
   
  While rescuing princesses is so tired and overused that it’s only likely to 
  appear, (with remarkable regularity), in videogame titles; many RPG tropes 
  are not necessarily bad. Used with care and a twist or two, they often serve 
  as the very bedrock of a fantasy setting. For example, a Dark Age setting 
  without evil warlords, miserable peasants and violent conflict isn’t going to 
  be very dark or aged. 
   
  Nevertheless, there’s a danger that, over time, a reliance on too many 
  staples becomes tired, as yet another Orc war-band runs off with a few 
  more captured Halflings. This can get to the point where players shrug their 
  shoulders and abandon the plot, along with any Halflings, in the hope of 
  finding more novel gameplay. 
   
  One partial solution that helps to prevent campaigns growing stale is to 
  mix and re-mix the tropes. Under this arrangement ‘the evil warlord’ 
  becomes ‘the evil witch’; the ‘miserable peasants’ become ‘mesmerized 
  peasants’; and the violent conflict focuses on a different form of violence or 
  assault. 
   
  In the hands of an inventive GM this retouching of tropes may work well 
  and can both mask the underlying tropes and extend the viable life of a 
  campaign. If a GM then blends in different styles of play, (such as 
  exploration, discovery, mystery and investigation), a game can be based 
  around a wide ‘repertoire’ without straying far from the basic fantasy 
  model. 
   
  At the same time, both GMs and players become, and remain, aware that 
  they’re working within a series of compromises. For the most part these 
  involve overlooking a certain amount of repetition in return for accessing 
  the gameplay as a whole. This is not an ideal situation, but sufficient to 
  sustain many a campaign where radical alternatives would clash awkwardly 
  with the tropes that form the foundations of a setting. For instance, a wide 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 104 
  range of expectations can change by simply making gunpowder available 
  within a swords and sorcery campaign. 
   
  Fortunately, there’s an alternative option when designing scenarios and 
  settings, which effectively negotiates between the familiar and the novel. 
  The basic notion is for GMs and groups to strike a balance by developing 
  your own ‘signature’ tropes. 
   
  These signature events consolidate some of the tropes that appeal to 
  particular groups of players and provide a platform for delivering the 
  familiar look and feel suited to a game’s genre and players’ preferred styles 
  of play. At the same time they can also introduce novelty and engage 
  players’ interest by making the revised trope ‘belong’ to the players’ game. 
   
  For example, most campaigns have a few Big Bad Guys, (BBGs), working 
  both upfront and behind the scenes. Rolling out a succession of demon 
  princes or a few vampires with a bit of extra grind, aka ‘PC wear and tear’, 
  is a fairly standard approach to varying BBG scenes. This places the 
  resource management of successive combats to the fore and gives players 
  a rather one-dimensional role in BBG encounters. 
   
  If we not only modify but revisit the basic BBG trope a lot more options 
  open up. For instance, taking a classic Lich as our leading BBG brings 
  useful expectations in terms of a powerful, undead creature with the 
  appearance of physical fragility and a reputation for manipulation and dark 
  magic. The Lich could simply operate tactically, and typically, as a 
  devastating form of ‘close air support’ available to its minions. 
   
  Alternatively, the Lich might be reclusive, with a seemingly legal body parts 
  business and few clues to anything more. Over time, and possibly more 
  than one campaign, players could, perhaps, come upon the young people 
  with white hair and money who’ve worked for the Lich. They might also 
  stumble upon what happens to some of the swapped organs and, 
  eventually, close in on the Lich’s secrets. 
   
  Our BBG can, therefore, move in and out of events on many levels, while 
  always mindful of keeping an escape route open - until the gameplay 
  becomes more about discovering what the Lich is up to and its motives 
  rather than another kill. 
   
  Other tropes which easily ‘evolve’, and/ or ‘explode’, when used as 
  signature events can include old comrades, significant landmarks, secret 
  organizations and the most prized of magical items. A certain Crown of 
  Corruption, once worn by the aforementioned Lich, has been snapped from 
  the bony fingers of an ancient king, been found rusting in a bazaar and, 
  most recently, been dredged up in fishing nets – over three campaigns. 
  This is not because of a shortage of ideas for magic items, but at the 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 105 
  request of players who find the insidious crown very tempting, despite the 
  dreadful consequences. 
   
  Further signature events in use within the Treasure and Corruption 
  campaigns that are going on just now include: 
   
  Sieges 
  Over a few years there have been infiltration sieges, ‘going over the top’ 
  sieges, maritime sieges, mining sieges and war machine sieges. Players 
  seem to enjoy coming up with the ingenuity required to arrive at new ways 
  to either assault or defend sites.   
   
  Day, Night and Twilight 
  Different phases of the day favor different activities and factions. Day 
  enhances the magic weapons and strength of those born above ground. 
  Night improves the speed and intelligence of nocturnal creatures. While 
  during twilight the world is oxygen rich – a time for over-sized insects and 
  reptiles to feed. Dragons are ‘frenzied’ at this time and hunt without loyalty 
  or favor. 
   
  Roses 
  A black rose signifies base matter, a white rose indicates whitening, a red 
  rose signifies reddening, a white rose and a red rose denote perfection; and 
  a blue rose reveals the impossible. The roses relate to ‘phases’ comparable 
  to the alchemical phases the symbolism is based on. 
   
  Brecbennach 
  A Brecbennach is a Scottish reliquary once carried into battle by Scottish 
  kings. The imaginary reliquary takes saints’ bones just like the original. 
  Unlike the original, the RPG version also enchants just about any set of 
  bones thrown into it, so long as it’s being carried into battle by a king at 
  the time. 
   
  There are other signature events in use, including birds of good- and ill-
  omen, an NPC who casts no shadow, a blade which cuts stone and an angel 
  with a broken wing. 
   
  Clearly, many potential signature events may already crop-up during play, 
  either as tropes or as isolated incidents. This kind of adaptable gameplay is 
  often treated as throwaway, i.e. there usually won’t be another siege or a 
  Crown of Corruption in play until the same options are re-used, (often in 
  much the same way), much further down the line. This seems a bit of a 
  waste, as signature events that are developed and catch on can help to turn 
  a game from ‘a fantasy story’ to ‘our group’s fantasy story’. 
   
  A good share of any credit for this approach goes to the Final Fantasy 
  videogames. They’ve been known for using a form of signature events to 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 106 
  ‘texture’ in-game roleplaying, (and distinguish their RPGs from the 
  competition), for many years. 
   
  Die-hard tabletop RPG players may question the contribution of 
  videogames – and they’d be right up to a point. Dave Arneson and Gary 
  Gygax built a number of signature event options into early D&D. Spells and 
  magic items bearing the name of the PC that researched or enchanted 
  them are one example. Signature D&D monsters that now receive IP 
  protection have proved equally persistent, while the Greyhawk setting is, in 
  itself, a signature event. 
   
  Signature events do not, of themselves, make a campaign, but one of those 
  mentioned – sieges – easily crosses over from acting as a signature event 
  to outlining a much broader challenge that is open to providing a cluster of 
  related events and situations that can form the basis of campaigns. 
   
  Player Choice, Campaign Challenges and Campaign Planning 
   
  Delivering player choice and shared ownership of the gameplay in a RPG 
  session is influenced by several factors that have already been mentioned, 
  e.g. styles of play, genres and characterization. By shifting from particular 
  events like signature events to broader campaign challenges GMs are often 
  able to open-up choices/ horizons for players by matching players’ 
  gameplay preferences to the world/ s the players explore. 
   
  These campaign challenges influence gameplay by outlining campaign 
  worlds that offer shared expectations without zooming in on every detail. 
  For instance, a major event like the colonization of a continent carries a 
  shared but unstated set of expectations as soon as such an event is 
  brought into play. 
   
  Many experienced players are well aware of this and continually exchange 
  and sample new ideas that feed into new campaigns and new games. For 
  those who make a point of planning campaigns quite thoroughly, a 
  discussion or campaign planning session along the following lines is easily 
  done and may well happen spontaneously: 
   
  Player's Choice 
  Rob: "I want to get out of Medieval Europe." 
  GM: "Anywhere special?" 
  Rob: "New weapons, meaner monsters, explore new territory . . . stuff." 
   
  Campaign Challenge: Conquest and Colonization 
  ‘Frontier life’ encourages plenty of novelty and exploration during play. 
  Mapping territories, encountering exotic creatures, (unique to an island or 
  continent), making contact with dramatically different cultures and coping 
  with unusual environmental hazards are all part of the fun. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 107 
   
  Player's Choice 
  Mark: "Surprise me!" 
  GM: "Do my best." 
  Mark: "My PC eats nothing made by anyone else - whole campaign!" 
   
  Campaign Challenge: Massive Meteor Strikes 
  Modest meteor strikes and similar impacts make a good basis for a series 
  of scenarios. Apart from play concerning the actual strike event they can 
  offer survival gameplay and other situations linked to knock-on effects such 
  as civil disorder and long term boundary changes. 
   
  Player's Choice 
  Jenny: "I've just got my wizard's lab going." 
  GM: "How about rare, exotic ingredients from abroad? Kind of stuff the 
  finest magic items are made from?" 
  Jenny: "When do we leave?" 
   
  Campaign Challenge: Research and Experimentation 
  Magical 
  research, 
  terraformation, 
  climate 
  change, 
  hybrid 
  diseases, 
  brainwashing, mass manipulation, finding a cure, inventing a new 
  technology or starting a research division takes adventures into a further 
  area of novelty and player choice. 
   
  In other words, a short discussion between players can act as a platform for 
  a whole campaign providing players and GMs are open about their 
  expectations. 
   
  Clearly, an obvious pre-requisite for a successful planning meeting is to 
  have a good understanding of each other’s expectations as you go into 
  planning a campaign and putting the GM to work on designing a setting. If 
  players aren’t clear about what they hope their characters will get up to it is 
  likely to be a good idea to prepare player profiles in advance. 
   
  Campaign Challenges and Adventure Playparks 
   
  Ask any tabletop RPG Gamesmaster (GM) what kind of game they’d like to 
  run and the answers that come back are likely to include some or all of the 
  following: 
   
  1. A game with a rich, authentic and immersive game-world. 
  2. Gameplay focused on a variety of challenges and compelling plots. 
  3. A sense of emotional and creative involvement. 
  4. An atmosphere of collaboration and an appreciation of the 
  spontaneous and intuitive. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 108 
  Unsurprisingly, while all of the above sounds great, it’s quite a tall order for 
  any GM to design and deliver on most of these desirable options. To do so, 
  a GM somehow has to: 
   
  1. Invent a jaw-droppingly good campaign packed with exciting 
  adventures. 
  2. Present a variety of open-ended challenges in evolving contexts. 
  3. Appeal to the range of gameplay enjoyed by all the players in the 
  group. 
  4. Bring everything together at the table on-the-fly. 
   
  The list of skills the GM has to learn and then marshal grows with each 
  condition. Consequently, it’s hardly surprising when GMs reach for off-the-
  shelf solutions instead of designing their own gaming materials. 
   
  Regrettably, someone else’s design can’t feed off your imagination, (or your 
  players’ imaginations), as readily as custom campaign settings and 
  scenarios. Other GMs’ materials may be of mixed quality, ill-suited to the 
  preferences of your group and, altogether, quite cumbersome to adapt. 
  Nevertheless, at the end of the working week, and as the next game 
  approaches, it can seem essential to fall back on shrink-wrapped products. 
   
  Options 
  The alternative is to find a way to support your own design and gameplay 
  on a number of levels. These include help with: 
   
  1. Devising settings. 
  2. Constructing challenges. 
  3. Supporting player choice. 
  4. Improvisation. 
   
  There are, no doubt, some GMs who can come up with snappy, off-the-cuff 
  descriptions and narratives almost at will. However, even they are likely to 
  become caught between the contrasting limitations of improvisation and 
  elaboration when their game departs from fixed narratives and GM-directed 
  play. 
   
  Approaches to making GMs’ lives easier often offered as design solutions in 
  the past include random encounter tables, all-encompassing campaign 
  packs and the purchase of endless volumes of material in the hope of 
  unearthing a few half-decent ideas. 
   
  These ‘options’ do little to help a GM develop a living, dynamic world of 
  her/ his own and/ or the gameplay offered by richer, authentic settings. As 
  a result, it’s very easy for games to be hemmed in and limited by 
  convenience. 
   
  
   
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  Adventure Playgrounds 
  So what are we looking for here? Basically, a means of making it easier for 
  GMs and groups to rapidly construct and easily run action-packed settings 
  and adventures. Not any old settings and adventures, but adaptable, 
  dynamic games capable of allowing players to play in their element. 
   
  We could use any number of analogies to explore these goals, but it may 
  help to frame RPGs in terms of open-ended imaginative ‘adventure 
  playgrounds’. Much like any playground, the features of the playground as 
  a whole dictate many of the behaviors within the playground. 
   
  A concrete playground with no supervision or ‘boundaries’, few play 
  facilities and lots of litter everywhere is likely to lead to repetition, boredom 
  and bullying. While an attractive, soft-surfaced play area; offering suitable 
  oversight and equipped with playground games and challenges, is likely to 
  lead to shared play and co-operative relationships. 
   
  Consequently, RPG GMs are, perhaps, looking for ways to design 
  ‘playgrounds’ with key features that are going to act as triggers for and 
  support to enjoyable, improvisational gameplay. These features are, ideally, 
  thrown into the mix at the outset and, generally, present players with 
  access to campaign challenges, i.e. the adventures players wish to access 
  and enjoy. 
   
  In-game features or events that deliver campaign challenges lend 
  themselves to presenting opportunities for plenty of task or mission-
  orientated challenges, lots of credible adventure hooks, consistently strong 
  characterization and spontaneous narration. 
   
  These elements can, perhaps, be found in campaign-defining features and/ 
  or events, which amount to campaign challenges. Such features are not 
  simply a blank continent waiting to be colonized or a generic fantasy city; 
  but rather a platform for supporting dynamic, improvisational gameplay. 
   
  Siege Warfare 
  By way of an example, we can look at a city under siege and identify several 
  features of a siege which can help gameplay to go beyond the standard 
  fantasy city model. The type of features or framework underlying these 
  elements of a campaign challenge can be set out through the aims already 
  put forward: 
   
  • 
  a game with a rich, authentic and immersive game-world 
   
  For example, dramatic architecture and fortifications, the battlefield, the 
  battlements, beneath the city, deformed and re-constructed landscapes, 
  oceans of troops, invading armadas and a sense of grand affairs played out 
  on a grand scale. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 110 
   
  • 
  gameplay focused on a variety of challenges and compelling plots 
   
  For example, armed assaults, defending battlements and salients, 
  convoying, delivering regime change, arms trading, breakouts, arms races, 
  rationing, smuggling, internal and external plotting, betrayals, mining, 
  spying, sabotage, and battles or skirmishes conducted on, above or below 
  ground. 
   
  The framework set out by these components makes for a very flexible range 
  of gameplay options. Despite that, there’s still a great deal left for the GM 
  to prepare and improvise before it’s easier to go it alone and target a fully-
  realized, dynamic game. 
   
  Fortunately, sieges excel as an example of how a carefully selected 
  campaign challenge can go beyond outlining a structure and, hopefully, 
  bridge the creative gap between a fairly typical genre-based event and an 
  imaginative RPG adventure playground. 
   
  Returning to our original aims: 
   
  • 
  a sense of emotional and creative involvement 
   
  Sieges are ideally suited to emotional engagement on any number of levels. 
  They can easily involve playing for high stakes, moral or ethical dilemmas, 
  bouts of cabin fever or mutiny, cause for despair, perilous cliffhangers, 
  devastation and ruin, victory and triumph, or simply grinding attrition. 
   
  Players have plenty of options to get involved in high fantasy or intrigue 
  involving the siege itself or may prefer to focus on the daily life of a 
  besieged city or a besieging army. 
   
  At the same time, our familiarity with battles and sieges provides more 
  than enough opportunities to call upon players’ creativity by presenting a 
  rich improvisational environment that brings together the gameplay 
  framework, or architecture, and the ‘decorative’ gameplay texture or fabric. 
   
  A city under siege is seething with sights, sounds, tastes, textures, odors, 
  colors, diseases, heraldry, fears and ambitions, status, commerce, the ‘fog 
  of war’, battle fatigue, plans, escape plans, scoundrels, and all the social 
  and economic effects of war. Consequently, there’s a detail or an easily 
  constructed improvisation at GMs’ fingertips almost all of the time, e.g. the 
  GM doesn’t have to invent costumes from scratch, as the conditions of a 
  siege immediately suggest uniforms and ration clothing. 
   
  • 
  an atmosphere of collaboration and an appreciation of the 
  spontaneous and intuitive 
  
   
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  Highly 
  adaptable 
  campaign 
  challenges, 
  which 
  support 
  the 
  rapid 
  frameworking and texturing of dynamic campaign settings or scenarios, 
  appear to engage and foster improvisation and creativity; making them 
  likely to deliver RPG adventure playgrounds. From there, collaboration and 
  appreciation of the spontaneous hopefully follow. 
   
  Of course, sieges alone aren’t sufficient. Over enough games even the most 
  epic siege is going to grow tiresome. Especially if there’s a siege in every 
  campaign or game you sit down to. With that in mind, the next step would 
  seem to be to isolate the elements that combine to construct campaign 
  challenges/ form RPG adventure playgrounds. 
   
  If we then try to apply those criteria to more mundane basic game features 
  or events, with a bit of luck, the end result might offer a formula for rapidly 
  constructing immersive, improvisational RPG settings, scenarios and 
  gameplay. 
   
  Campaign Challenges and Adventure Holidays: Part 1 
   
  Adventure Playparks 
  Populating RPG games and campaign settings with key in-game RPG 
  challenges, or campaign challenges, (which form easily unpacked RPG 
  adventure playgrounds), aims to make it easier to: 
   
  1. Design authentic settings 
  2. Construct enjoyable challenges for players 
  3. Support player choice 
  4. Improvise 
   
  These benefits appear to result from playing within game-worlds where 
  feature rich combinations of familiar genre locations, events, challenges 
  and personalities combine to prompt more flexible gameplay opportunities. 
  This involves building on a game’s basic structure or framework, (as 
  defined by the rules and genre), through designing evocative adventure 
  playgrounds, which place a rich set of psychological and cultural 
  expectations at GMs’ and players’ imaginative fingertips. 
   
  The types of expectations and prompts campaign challenges are looking to 
  present as a coherent whole seem likely to include numerous elements. 
  These will, ideally, be consistent with a game’s rules system and genre, 
  while leaving plenty of room for GMs and players to easily add to, and vary, 
  not simply a blank canvas, but a prepared canvas which has already been 
  primed and toned. 
   
  Campaign challenges should, therefore, include a wide variety of distinctive 
  features, challenges and personalities that evoke both a shared authenticity 
  
   
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  and the freedom to revise and re-shape the backdrop and the gameplay 
  based upon the backdrop. Typical elements which could be largely pre-
  defined by a campaign challenge might be expected to include: 
   
  • Architecture 
  • Art, decoration and design 
  • Costumes, uniforms and body decorations 
  • Crafts and industries 
  • Customs, calendars and traditions 
  • Daily life and nightlife 
  • Flora and fauna 
  • Governance 
  • Individuals 
  • Landscapes and scenery 
  • Organizations 
  • Seasons 
  • Sights, sounds, tastes and smells 
  • Textures 
  • Transport systems 
   
  This list is far from exhaustive. However, it seems to demonstrate just how 
  much is involved in trying to create a campaign completely from scratch 
  and, hopefully, how a cluster of gameplay features working together can 
  help players to arrive at a shared connection to both the familiar and the 
  resulting opportunities to explore the unfamiliar. 
   
  Floating Cities 
  The following ‘floating cities’ options appear to offer examples of campaign 
  challenges that can easily be applied to many games: 
   
  A city with canals has different hazards, transport, trade and combat 
  options from a landlocked city. Amsterdam and Venice are good models, 
  but the ‘sights and sounds’ of the Mexica, aka Aztec, capital Tenochtitlan 
  suggests a sun-drenched, tropical RPG playground. I.e. from the outset 
  gameplay adapted from this example is going to be influenced by brightly 
  painted buildings, feathered costumes, exotic foods and intense flavors. 
   
  A persistent, swarming armada that pulls together tightly or disperses 
  under seemingly vague conditions or circumstances presents a very wide 
  range of challenges and lots of options for intrigue or treachery. The 
  Barbary Pirates offer a good example of what might be involved, as their 
  slave trade brought together fleets large enough for vast stretches of the 
  Italian and Spanish coastlines to be almost entirely abandoned by their 
  inhabitants. 
   
  
   
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  Adventure Holidays 
  It’s at this stage that it becomes increasingly apparent that the qualities 
  we’re looking to introduce through campaign challenges are, ideally, 
  already set in motion, i.e. a campaign challenge should allow a setting to 
  take on a life of its own. Doing so involves drawing on sequences of events, 
  and sparking ideas and improvisation through helping players to set events 
  in motion. 
   
  Our playpark analogy describes a fairly static setting, which is set in motion 
  by the action of the kids and the availability of basic equipment. However, 
  when in use real playparks often have a life of their own, as shown by the 
  behaviors 
  resulting 
  from 
  seasons, 
  calendars, 
  traditions, 
  rituals, 
  personalities, development or deterioration, and many other factors. It may, 
  therefore, be worth revising the analogy from RPG adventure playparks to 
  RPG ‘adventure holidays’, as these consistently deliver a series of events, 
  entertainment and novelty. 
   
  Many types of festivals make good campaign challenges, so an example 
  based around such an event can, perhaps, describe an adventure holiday. 
  For example, the Mardi Gras seasons in New Orleans and Rio offer 
  sequences of events and expectations involving astonishing riots of color 
  with plenty of other clear-cut expectations. However, a GM running a gritty 
  Dark Ages fantasy campaign may be looking for something more down to 
  earth – but far from mundane. 
   
  A game session including a bunch of PCs wandering into a tumbled down 
  village looking for clues during a pursuit, or just for re-supply, could simply 
  mean a quick visit to the local store. Introducing some sort of seasonal or 
  harvest festival, (that players may choose to skip or pursue), offers a fast 
  way to open up lots of options. There are numerous approaches to this, but 
  our example is an annual Jam Festival. 
   
  For a few days a year the village bursts into life, as the inhabitants and 
  hundreds of visitors collect ripe cloudberries from the forest and preserve 
  them before they over-ripen. The jam has to be made quickly, as the fresher 
  the fruit the greater the value of the exquisitely tasty and highly-prized 
  preserves. 
   
  Players immediately have opportunities to harvest jam, start a jam factory, 
  trade in jam or find out what’s going on in the dark underside of the jam 
  trade. At the same time a whole network of expectations are already set in 
  place. Village life suddenly has color, aromas, flavors, bustling industries, 
  interested parties, social networks, a nightlife and, when the jam muggers 
  and wasps arrive, danger. The GM is then free to concentrate on developing 
  the gameplay, perhaps through a trade in illicit jams or by introducing 
  competing factions. For example, the forest might contain ferocious 
  hornets, human-sized Tarantula hawk wasps, equally large parasitic 
  
   
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  Ichneumon wasps, local eco-warriors or Treants, (that get riled on a rising 
  scale when fireballs are used to take-out the wasps’ wings). 
   
  Following the switch in our definition of RPG campaign challenges from 
  adventure playgrounds to adventure holidays, the next step involves 
  considering how GMs and players can rapidly shape expectations and 
  gameplay on a national, continental or global scale. The task of inventing 
  entire worlds and cultures, which aim to fit together seamlessly, is usually 
  limited to skilled fantasy and Sci-Fi authors. 
   
  Campaign Challenges and Adventure Holidays: Part 2 
   
  Cutting the Cloth 
  While every Gamesmaster (GM) might be tempted to plan, prepare and 
  deliver roleplaying adventures by sitting down and cutting the cloth for 
  their own campaign settings and scenarios, in practice this doesn’t always 
  work for two reasons. 
   
  Many GMs don’t have the time and/ or energy to design everything from 
  scratch. In addition, GMs’ designs are typically based on the mix of rule 
  sets, prior experience, cultures and player choices that feed into any 
  design, so a GM is really aiming to get players involved in cutting the cloth. 
   
  It, therefore, seems necessary for GMs who wish to rapidly construct and 
  run their own adventures and campaigns to find ways to streamline and 
  structure their designing to lighten the workload - and to take account of 
  player choice. (This is especially true if GMs wish to spend less time re-
  inventing the wheel and more time shaping their gameplay). 
   
  Notably, bringing a campaign or adventure to life is often more about re-
  designing familiar situations than trying to completely depart from the key 
  elements of particular genres and different styles of play. 
   
  Compromises 
  GMs can simply fall back on shrink-wrapped scenarios and settings, but 
  doing so involves a great many compromises. These constraints include 
  cultural preconceptions and gameplay models imported through any rules 
  system attached to shrink-wrapped settings and adventures. 
   
  Further limitations associated with many off-the-shelf products include the 
  boundaries imposed by the sparse backdrop provided by most settings and 
  a tendency to expect players to pick up on, and enjoy, gameplay challenges 
  described more by a system-driven design team than by the players. 
   
  Consequently, a setting will often arrive with maps, adventure locations, an 
  ill-defined genre-based culture, (such as a ‘medieval’ city), and lots of ready-
  rolled opponents. It will not, however, pitch players into the midst of a 
  
   
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  living, breathing game-world where ongoing events, local customs, sensory 
  experiences and other immediate references to the fabric of a city’s life are 
  on tap to trigger and support more imaginative gameplay. 
   
  Sure, a pre-packed setting may cover a few ill-defined local gods and the 
  layout of their temples, but that gives little sense of ‘the fear of god’ 
  familiar to the occupants of many real medieval cities - or the ceremonies 
  and rites carried-out in the names of such gods over a full year. Equally, 
  there may be some references to local heraldry in terms of displaying 
  banners or using flags to identify NPCs, but, (even as full time developers), 
  few shrink-wrapped scenario designers have time to explore the social 
  status, historical records and personal attributes recorded in medieval 
  heraldry. 
   
  Adventure Playgrounds and Adventure Holidays 
  Possible approaches to faster, more authentic and distinctly open-ended 
  design have been suggested in terms of basing settings and scenarios 
  around campaign challenges. These feature-rich bundles of gameplay 
  options immediately set in place a whole series of familiar expectations 
  and natural progressions, while also offering opportunities for players to 
  select from a wide range of gameplay challenges. 
   
  Campaign challenges can be discussed in terms of equipping an adventure 
  playground with a combination of exciting apparatus, suitable playing 
  surfaces and level-headed supervision. On that level a campaign challenge, 
  such as a city at war or the colonization of a new continent, goes a fair way 
  towards putting in place a framework upon which GMs and players can 
  construct their own gameplay. 
   
  Extending the same analogy from adventure playgrounds to adventure 
  holidays suggests that it’s also relatively straightforward to set in motion, 
  or animate, a campaign setting or an adventure. This can be done through 
  selecting campaign challenges which incorporate persistent and recurring 
  features, (such as records of past events, seasons, calendars, local and 
  regional customs, costumes, legends and similar living and breathing 
  elements). 
   
  This overall approach is not so much about taking short cuts, as making 
  more time available for developing gameplay, adding your own twists to 
  the familiar and carefully selecting settings that open up gameplay 
  opportunities. 
   
  Many of the features of a fully-developed RPG adventure holiday can be 
  ‘imported’ then grafted together to form a coherent whole by drawing on 
  historical, legendary and current events, which feed on and extend players’ 
  expectations. For example, the early colonization of the Americas presents 
  a particularly rich campaign challenge, which can predefine many of the 
  
   
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  features likely to be encountered in a colonization, e.g. limited resources, 
  disease and starvation, the need for certain types of shelters and 
  settlements, clashes between two or more cultures, and extreme climates 
  with extreme bugs. 
   
  The Hidden Shrine 
  Of course, borrowing from history, legends or current events is hardly new 
  to RPGs. Not least, because the most common genres, (i.e. fantasy and 
  SciFi), are largely based on vague definitions of, respectively, medieval 
  Europe and Star Wars movies. The effect of this kind of model on RPG 
  gameplay can be illustrated with reference to an old AD&D scenario called 
  The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. 
   
  The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan was billed as an adventure with a Mexican 
  or Mesoamerican flavor and there were a number of short references to 
  Mesoamerican deities, (plus a handful of monsters roughly based on 
  creatures from Mesoamerican mythology), alongside the monster stats and 
  traps. 
   
  As a result, players largely bypassed Mesoamerican history and culture, 
  which served as a sugar-coating set on top of a dungeon adventure. (A 
  decent enough dungeon adventure as it happens). Between the rules set 
  and the design there wasn’t a great deal to lend a more authentic feel to 
  the gameplay; or to open up access to the pleasures and misfortunes of a 
  fantasy world based around a vast and enduring set of ancient cultures. 
   
  Checking out a few pages on whatever served as the Wikipedia of the day 
  might have allowed the same Mesoamerican theme to touch on the 
  dazzling pageantry and underlying horror at the heart of the Aztec/ Mexica 
  and Mayan cultures. 
   
  Constructing Campaign Challenges 
  Constructing campaign challenges from flexible components is not, 
  therefore, about wrapping existing approaches to play in shiny, new paper 
  or locking play into a particular time or place and trying to model every 
  aspect of the same culture or history. Instead, campaign challenges are 
  about planning and integrating combinations of features that support 
  imaginative, open-ended gameplay. 
   
  For example, there are plenty of gameplay options to explore in the 
  European medieval tournaments where knights regularly bludgeoned each 
  other in the interests of improving their social standing. These events make 
  for a good starting point, but most players already know what to expect in 
  a purely medieval context. 
   
  The Mayan principalities extraordinary system of internecine warfare 
  concentrated on an elite responsible for conducting raids and skirmishes in 
  
   
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  accordance with the supposed actions of the gods, (i.e. constellations), 
  seen warring across the night skies. These original ‘star wars’ centered on 
  taking high prestige captives, who were treated much as knights or bishops 
  within a deadly serious game of celestial chess, which was believed to exist 
  both on the ground and in the skies. Consequently, a captive would be held 
  for sacrifice at auspicious moments in the celestial calendar. These events 
  often called for sporting competitions and elaborate rituals. 
   
  By drawing on just a few of the Mayan options it’s not hard to see how a 
  blend of the medieval and the Mayan could combine to offer a more novel 
  approach to tournaments. For example, it would be quite straightforward to 
  revise and extend the traditional medieval tourney by tying the conduct of 
  tournaments to religious rituals, sacrifices and a stellar calendar. 
   
  So, using plenty of sources, re-mixing the key elements within those 
  sources and devising campaign challenges should introduce greater 
  originality and player choice within any setting or adventure. In so doing, 
  such challenges should prime a setting with plenty of shared expectations, 
  which encourage players to explore, adapt and extend their own 
  expectations. 
   
  It’s entirely possible to move towards thoroughly authentic campaign 
  settings and adventures, which track the exact course of events within 
  historical or current affairs. For some groups of players this is an excellent 
  way to add authenticity and save time, but it can be limiting to force the 
  gameplay to follow a predictable pattern of events. Not least because this 
  may dilute the very player choice that campaign challenges set out to 
  deliver. 
   
  Any such difficulties can usually be countered by being quite selective 
  about what to include and what to skip over whenever a campaign 
  challenge is put in place. For instance, simply borrowing a framework from 
  accounts of a historic city under siege might be all that’s needed to help 
  out with a medieval city; which a GM goes on to develop in terms of events 
  and encounters. However, throwing in a different, difficult climate and/ or a 
  short sequence of events from an intriguing episode in history, or legend, 
  might well reduce a GM’s workload and set up further ready-made layers of 
  expectations and knock-on effects. 
   
   
  Exploring Campaign Challenges 
   
  The examples of possible campaign challenges presented here are likely to 
  support an extended series of adventures. New characters can start out 
  with a relatively lowly role in greater events and, in time, become caught up 
  in shaping major events within the game-world. 
   
  
   
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  There are a lot of instantly available shared expectations on tap for GMs to 
  reference within each of these campaign challenges. These expectations 
  can build authenticity, while leaving plenty of room to serve as a platform 
  for unique adventures and campaigns. Spreading a few such campaign 
  challenges across a game-world, (or combining different campaign 
  challenges), rapidly speeds up the process of adding terrain, settlements 
  and landmarks. This is because campaign challenges will often suggest or 
  ‘paint-in’ many features suited to the types of campaign challenges the 
  adventurers are tackling. 
   
  GMs may wish to limit the number of campaign challenges encountered by 
  adventurers to leave space for adding further campaign and gameplay 
  options as play progresses. 
   
  Conquest and Colonization 
  Frontier life encourages plenty of novelty and exploration during play. 
  Mapping territories, encountering exotic creatures, (unique to an island or 
  continent), making contact with dramatically different cultures and coping 
  with unusual environmental hazards are all part of the fun. 
   
  Forging a new nation, clearing major threats, establishing bases and forts, 
  seeking out resources and surviving hardships are typical examples of 
  elements of conquest and colonization suited to underpinning or refreshing 
  a campaign setting. 
   
  Counter Insurgency 
  Counter insurgency presents a theme that’s ready-made for adding in 
  betrayals, intrigue and mystery. Adventurers can undertake ‘chasing their 
  tail’ missions as they try to deal with threats from outside and within; 
  before trying to seize the initiative. Obvious scenarios include trying to 
  prevent an assassination, trying to contain a rebellion, investigating the 
  causes of an insurgency and trying to reveal the culprits. 
   
  Campaigns based on counter insurgency benefit from a claustrophobic 
  atmosphere fostered by surprises, reverses, mild horror and red herrings. 
  Adventurers might, for example, get involved in setting up a network of 
  informants, distributing propaganda, running covert operations and being 
  framed. 
   
  Crime Fighting 
  Crime fighting, getting caught up in crime, fighting crime with crime and 
  bounty hunting are sources of adventure hooks that can easily cast 
  adventurers in the role of righteous heroes and/ or start asking questions 
  about complicity and compromise. Investigating art thefts, uncovering 
  insider trading, going undercover inside a criminal organization, staging a 
  jailbreak and countless other crimes are easy ways to encourage players to 
  make choices that have consequences for themselves and others. 
  
   
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  Campaign settings benefit from taking account of crime, as there are few 
  cultures which don’t have both crime and specialized codes for 
  categorizing, investigating and dealing with crime. Consequently, the 
  crimes and punishments of a tribe of primitive barbarians are likely to vary 
  considerably from the crimes and punishments of a sophisticated race such 
  as Elves or Dark Elves. This variety creates lots of opportunities to let 
  players 
  get 
  drawn 
  into 
  difficult 
  situations 
  where 
  there 
  are 
  no 
  straightforward answers. 
   
  Disasters and Crisis Management 
  Introducing dramatic events and unexpected emergencies during play can 
  form the basis of standalone adventures or add an extra level of challenge 
  to a campaign. Players suddenly find themselves having to find solutions to 
  the dangers and complications delivered by the adventure they set out on, 
  while also dealing with underlying, ongoing events such as a volcanic 
  eruption, an army of zombie creatures, a flood or a revolution. 
   
  At the scenario level the immediate effects of disasters and efforts to 
  regain control let GMs add surprises and novelty, while asking players to 
  improvise. Within campaigns ongoing or unfolding disasters and necessary 
  crisis management may change both the situations players encounter and 
  how adventurers react to them. For example, a major flood can immediately 
  set players a series of mission options such as feeding refugees, building a 
  dam in dangerous territory, coping with invasion from the sea or saving 
  sunken treasures. 
   
  Dawn of the Undead 
  Campaigns where the personalities within the culture think entirely 
  differently from standard behaviors or ‘mind-sets’ are something GMs often 
  consider in terms of how an alien race or a monster might think. A variant 
  along such lines can be illustrated by reviewing what could be involved in a 
  fantasy campaign where adventurers all become undead of some kind. The 
  motives assigned to these undead needn’t be vile. Instead they might seek 
  to right an ancient wrong or wish to complete a ceremony that lets them 
  change form. 
   
  However, their perceptions, how they approach problems, the value or lack 
  of value they attach to other undead, (and the corporeal), their ‘powers’ and 
  the way they go about shaping the game-world is open to a wide range of 
  interpretations. 
   
  Enterprise 
  No need to reach for the calculators and spreadsheets. Adventurers can get 
  involved in any number of missions based around business interests and 
  trading. Escorting convoys, making trade deals, smuggling, wrecking and 
  claiming rights to new territory are just a few of the options for scenarios. 
  
   
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  Creating a business or an invention, running a profitable Thieves’ Guild, 
  operating a fleet of ships for exploration or hire, taking control of or 
  disrupting an economy, funding major constructions and similar projects 
  all offer approaches to placing adventurers in immersive campaigns. 
   
  Espionage and Infiltration 
  It’s possible to run games which draw on source material from genuine 
  spies involved in deep cover operations, civil and military sabotage, 
  resistance operations and assassinations. Adventurers might have to 
  demonstrate their loyalty to the group they’re trying to infiltrate, make and 
  pass on equipment to contacts, gather information about enemy agents or 
  installations, flush out a double agent or recruit new operatives. 
   
  Campaigns that play on the uncertainties and fears inherent in spying and 
  deep cover operations don’t have to set player against player or adventurer 
  against adventurer, as fellow adventurers may be among the most reliable 
  allies available in a campaign involving spies and saboteurs. 
   
  Internecine Warfare 
  Internal conflict which sets brother against brother, involves trading off 
  rival camps and means never being able to sleep in the same place from 
  one night to the next keeps adventurers under pressure. As events escalate 
  players might get involved in missions linked to such conflict. These could 
  involve trying to defuse the situation, fanning the flames, coming under 
  pressure to take sides and/ or looking to protect others from the conflict. 
   
  A campaign centered on warring factions might see a party having to 
  switch sides, getting caught by their former allies, possibly deciding to set 
  up their own faction or even seeking a peace settlement. 
   
  Marine Life 
  It’s not unusual to come across underwater, marine or maritime adventures 
  where players try out a couple of scenarios in underwater settings or hop in 
  and out of an ocean broken up by a few small archipelagos. Doing so can 
  be amusing, as spells and weapons may work differently, physical features 
  like tides and currents can influence events, and adventurers will encounter 
  new races. 
   
  The same process can be taken a lot further by, for example, getting rid of 
  the land altogether or making any land difficult to survive on. At that point, 
  play goes ‘aquatic’ on several levels and GMs are asked to think about 
  events, adventures, commerce and encounters conducted well below the 
  waves. For instance, many festivals and celebrations are likely to concern 
  events such as fishing, periodic tides, algae blooms and deep sea currents; 
  rather than land-based ceremonies about seasons or harvesting. 
   
  
   
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  Threats and hazards are also likely to become focused on adapting to an 
  aquatic world. For instance, an undersea volcanic eruption is hugely 
  different from a volcanic eruption on land. 
   
  Massive Meteor Strikes 
  Modest meteor strikes and similar impacts make a good basis for a series 
  of scenarios. Apart from play concerning the actual strike event they can 
  offer survival gameplay and other situations linked to knock-on effects such 
  as civil disorder and long term boundary changes. 
   
  A fairly modest lump of rock is enough to have a regional impact, but it’s 
  possible to go a whole lot further by scaling the meteor and, possibly, 
  giving the meteor a ‘payload’. For example, a planetary fracture that 
  removes perhaps a fifth of the planet and creates a moon is going to 
  change local gravity, oceans and weather systems for good. Throw in a race 
  of invaders, a parasitic virus or a powerful, corrupting lodestone embedded 
  within the meteor and players have a lot of new options to play out. 
   
  Mysteries and Investigations 
  Disappearances, unsolved crimes and murder mysteries can add an extra 
  dimension to play. Perhaps the most important element of asking 
  adventurers to solve mysteries is to provide sufficient clues, as players and 
  adventurers don’t have the GM’s inside knowledge of the situation. It can 
  be helpful to present clues more than once, to present a clue in a different 
  way, to offer clues which refer to other clues and to ‘let it go’ if players 
  really aren’t catching-on. 
   
  Research and Experimentation 
  Magical 
  research, 
  terraformation, 
  climate 
  change, 
  hybrid 
  diseases, 
  brainwashing, mass manipulation, finding a cure, inventing a new 
  technology or starting a research division takes adventures into a further 
  area of novelty and player choice. 
   
  Tracking down rare or repugnant ingredients, scouring ancient libraries for 
  details of lost technologies and researching new forms of magic all provide 
  self-contained adventure hooks. These can be brought together to sketch 
  out an open-ended campaign. Alternatively, research and experimentation 
  can be placed at the center of campaign events by making the outcomes of 
  research critical to major events across much of a setting. 
   
  Revolution 
  Freedom fighting, raising a rebellion, releasing enslaved tribes and turning 
  the tables on oppressive regimes are all good options for a campaign. 
  Elements of spying and infiltration, containing counter insurgency, major 
  disasters and corruption are easily brought into revolutionary gameplay. 
   
  
   
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  In addition, players will be faced with plenty of difficult decisions about 
  whom to trust, where their loyalties should lie and, possibly, what happens 
  after a revolution or regime change. Scenarios can give adventurers a role 
  in making a revolution happen, while a campaign arc focused on a 
  revolution lets adventurers cover a wide selection of gameplay and plotting. 
   
  Supervolcanoes 
  It’s almost always worth considering players’ views before making massive 
  changes to the cornerstones of a campaign. However, if, or once, everyone 
  is good with a particular plan there are many global or world changing 
  options out there. Supervolcanoes are involved in reshaping continents and 
  a campaign set through the lead up to a supervolcanic event, the first 
  eruptions, the wider eruption pattern and the aftermath of a supervolcanic 
  event should be enough to keep most groups on edge. 
   
  Some obvious options include flaming rocks falling from the sky, rivers and 
  lakes of lava, desperate survivors and survivalists, broken and emerging 
  political structures, and breakouts from underground races driven to the 
  surface. 
   
  Survival Scenarios 
  Survival scenarios can act as an aside to a campaign in need of a break or 
  trigger expeditions into exotic lands populated by alien cultures. The fish 
  out of water situations involved in day-to-day survival may be central to a 
  series of survival scenarios before adventurers escape back to the 
  campaign as a whole. Otherwise, survival events may lead to discoveries 
  mapping out a campaign defined by clear differences from standard 
  medieval and Dark Age settings. 
   
  Introducing new races, different customs, new spells and new technologies 
  through a complete culture/ s should vary play and help players to make 
  their own choices about adapting to the differences during gameplay. 
   
  Of course, it wouldn’t be survival without going gritty, so there's no harm in 
  calling up a tropical storm, leaving carnivorous plants all over the place, 
  starving the adventurers until they learn to hunt the local way - or having 
  them prepared as ingredients for a cannibal tribe’s next recipe. 
   
  Warfare and Sieges 
  Battles, raiding, invasions and siege warfare are solid bets for most fantasy 
  games. The options for both open conflict and less direct approaches are 
  numerous. Preparing for war, controlling the arms trade, military policing, 
  besieging a fortress, defending a fortress under siege, patrolling hostile 
  territory, fighting battles and holding-the-line all fit straight into campaigns 
  either as optional scenarios or as part of the fabric of a setting. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 123 
  Warfare can be characterized by victories, defeats, attrition, shock, terrain, 
  theatres, collateral damage and personal injury amongst many options. 
  Mixing these elements effectively makes it possible to get involved in 
  combative campaigns without resorting to repetitive skirmishing. Realistic 
  massed combat games call for specialized rules, but a focus on character 
  involvement, outcomes linked to the existing rules and roleplaying can 
  make for immersive play. 
   
  A couple of campaign challenges can generate enough ideas and options 
  to rapidly map out the basis of a campaign. For example: 
   
  Sieges 
  Aerial Assaults 
  Battlements 
  Deformation 
  Mining 
  Night Attacks 
  Rationing 
  Relief Columns 
  Siege Engines 
  Skirmishes 
   
  Internecine Warfare 
  Assassinations 
  Covert Operations 
  Feudal Factions 
  Flare-Ups 
  Sabotage 
  Sleepers 
  Sleeping Partners 
  Torn Loyalties 
   
  Many GMs will be happy to develop a campaign using just a few campaign 
  challenges and the adventure builder that follows. For those who prefer to 
  prepare games in plenty of detail, to run setting-wide solo or team games 
  or to design campaigns during play - the world builder that follows the 
  adventure builder presents a ready-reference and the means to quickly 
  design your own completely custom campaigns. 
   
   
  
   
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  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 125 
  Part 6: Adventure Builder 
   
  Campaign challenges can be used to quickly style a setting, to shape 
  gameplay and to outline a game-world. However, much of the actual play 
  focuses on what’s directly in front of the players as they explore. 
   
  As a result, it helps to have access to quick step-by-steps for constructing 
  and detailing the adventures that build campaigns. This saves time and can 
  help the GM to match the more predictable encounters and situations 
  within RPG gameplay to the challenges and expectations preferred by the 
  GM and players. 
   
  The following adventure builder doesn’t cover every possible option. 
  Instead it is intended, (like the campaign challenges outlined above), to 
  make it quick and easy to bring together, remix and put an original spin on 
  the core components of rules-light RPG gameplay. 
   
  Designing Adventures 
   
  The typical starting place for playing the Original Game is an underground 
  dungeon with levels that get harder and harder as players descend. The 
  classic dungeon adventure makes for a good start, because it rapidly 
  introduces many of the key features of RPG gameplay, e.g. encounters, 
  monsters and advancement. It also presents some obvious opportunities 
  for players to start making their own choices. For example, a party of 
  adventurers can either take it easy exploring the upper levels of a dungeon 
  or go deeper in search of higher rewards - that carry greater risks. 
   
  Designing an Adventure 
  Putting together a basic adventure is quite straightforward. Firstly, consider 
  what is going to happening in terms of the types of locations, NPCs and 
  monsters adventurers will meet. These may be drawn from a campaign 
  world and/ or campaign challenges. Alternatively, they can amount to no 
  more than a general idea of the type of adventure you’re looking to build. 
   
  Missions 
   
  Choosing Missions 
  With a rough idea of the allies and opponents adventurers will encounter 
  during the adventure GMs can move on to considering the type/ s of 
  actions and missions, (possibly linked into quests), that players want their 
  adventurers to play through. 
   
  Starter Missions 
  The missions outlined here make a good starting point for straightforward 
  adventures, which can be linked directly to awarding experience points/ XP. 
  GMs may wish to offer more missions and linked XP awards of their own. 
  
   
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  These should, ideally, be one-off awards for challenges that a PC has not 
  carried out before. 
   
  Starter Missions Table 
  D12 Mission 
  Details 
  1 
  Bounty hunting 
   
  2 
  Capture a fort or dungeon stronghold 
   
  3 
  Capture an enemy leader  
   
  4 
  Complete negotiations 
   
  5 
  Escort a convoy through danger 
   
  6 
  Establish a fortified base 
   
  7 
  Explore and secure part of a wilderness 
   
  8 
  Make a cross-country escape 
   
  9 
  Recover a specific enchanted item 
   
  10 
  Rescue prisoner/ s from a dungeon 
   
  11 
  Scout and spy on enemy positions 
   
  12 
  Transport fragile goods 
   
   
  Plots 
   
  Plots 
  Plots provide the circumstances, motivations and backdrops for missions, 
  quests and campaign challenges. There is no need to have a particular plot 
  set in place, as ongoing events may allow plots to develop during play. 
  However, they can help to drive players’ involvement in missions, quests 
  and campaign challenges. 
   
  The options set out below can form the basis of many plots, which are easy 
  to slot into adventures and larger, campaign-wide challenges. 
   
  Plots Table 
  2D12 Plot 
  Details 
  2 
  Adventure Holidays 
   
  3 
  Ancient Prophecies 
   
  4 
  Bitter Rivalries 
   
  5 
  Blackmail Scenarios 
   
  6 
  Burning Ambition 
   
  7 
  Convoy Duty 
   
  8 
  Crimes of Passion 
   
  9 
  Defending the Innocent 
   
  10 
  Diplomatic Missions 
   
  11 
  Downfall of a Dynasty 
   
  12 
  Forgery and Counterfeiting 
   
  13 
  Involuntary Crime 
   
  14 
  Jailbreaks 
   
  
   
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  2D12 Plot 
  Details 
  15 
  Kidnappings 
   
  16 
  Last Stands 
   
  17 
  Messiah 
   
  18 
  Psychological Manipulations 
   
  19 
  Religious Schisms 
   
  20 
  Renaissances 
   
  21 
  Rescues 
   
  22 
  Reverse Dungeon 
   
  23 
  Revolts and Revolutions 
   
  24 
  Tournaments 
   
   
  Sub-Plots 
  Sub-plots may present unnecessary complications for new players and their 
  characters. However, as players become more experienced sub-plots can be 
  used to vary play or as counterpoints to major plot lines. A sub-plot is 
  generally thought of as a fixed subordinate to a major plot. However, the 
  sub-plots shown below could as easily serve as full-blown plots and there is 
  no reason why a sub-plot cannot swap places with a major plotline. 
   
  Sub-Plots Table 
  2D12 Sub-Plot 
  Details 
  2 
  Accident 
   
  3 
  Blight 
   
  4 
  Carnival 
   
  5 
  Extreme Weather 
   
  6 
  Fair 
   
  7 
  Festival 
   
  8 
  Forgeries 
   
  9 
  Hauntings 
   
  10 
  Holiday 
   
  11 
  Industrial Accident 
   
  12 
  Jailbreak 
   
  13 
  Marketplace 
   
  14 
  Monster Market 
   
  15 
  Pickpocket 
   
  16 
  Pitfight 
   
  17 
  Public Execution 
   
  18 
  Riot 
   
  19 
  Robbery 
   
  20 
  Sporting Event 
   
  21 
  Street Artist 
   
  22 
  Theatre Company 
   
  23 
  Traitor 
   
  24 
  Triumph 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 128 
   
  Meetings 
  How do adventurers get together in the first place? Here are a few of the 
  many options: 
   
  Meetings Table 
  D12 Meet Over 
  Details 
  1 
  Common Enemy 
   
  2 
  Conscripted/ Press-
  Ganged 
   
  3 
  Debt 
   
  4 
  Hand-Picked by Employer 
   
  5 
  Matching Invitations 
   
  6 
  Relatives 
   
  7 
  Righteous Oath 
   
  8 
  Rivalry 
   
  9 
  Shared Upbringing 
   
  10 
  Shared Work Background 
   
  11 
  Survivors 
   
  12 
  Thrown Together 
   
   
  Triggers 
  How do characters get drawn into events? Adventurers’ involvement in 
  plots, missions, quests and campaign challenges can be triggered in many 
  ways. These starting points for getting adventurers caught-up in events may 
  arise through the players’ ongoing activities and affiliations, or completely 
  out-of-the blue. 
   
  Triggers Table 
  2D12 Trigger 
  Details 
  2 
  Accident or Circumstance 
   
  3 
  Betting 
   
  4 
  Blackmail 
   
  5 
  Confrontation 
   
  6 
  Desire 
   
  7 
  Duty 
   
  8 
  Eavesdropping 
   
  9 
  Envy 
   
  10 
  Fame and Fortune 
   
  11 
  Friends or Family 
   
  12 
  Hiring and Firing 
   
  13 
  Idleness 
   
  14 
  Matter of Honor 
   
  15 
  Moral Dilemma 
   
  16 
  Promise of Rich Pickings 
   
  
   
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  2D12 Trigger 
  Details 
  17 
  Revenge 
   
  18 
  Righteous Anger 
   
  19 
  Rumors 
   
  20 
  Sense of Adventure 
   
  21 
  Shared Threats 
   
  22 
  Spirit of Competition 
   
  23 
  Test or Trial 
   
  24 
  Treasure Map 
   
   
  Locations 
   
  Mapping Out an Adventure 
  So far, planning an adventure has included: 
   
  1. Considering possible locations, NPCs and monsters. 
  2. Evaluating and selecting missions/ quests. 
  3. Selecting a suitable plot and any sub-plots. 
  4. Working-out how the party meets-up and how they might get drawn 
  into an adventure. 
   
  The next step is usually to select a specific location and to prepare a rough 
  map with a legend and/ or a few details describing each area on the map. 
  This involves: 
   
  1. Selecting a suitable adventure location for a dungeon adventure. 
  2. Identify key NPCs and monsters that fit your choice of campaign 
  challenges, missions and locations. 
  3. Laying-out the rooms and caverns where the characters and monsters 
  live. 
  4. Adding relevant furnishings to the rooms and caverns. 
  5. Adding a range of tricks and traps which will vary play. 
  6. Placing extra details aka dungeon accessories. 
   
  Adventure Locations 
  There are many possible sites for dungeon adventures of one kind or 
  another. The classic dungeon isn’t too concerned with a place in wider 
  events or with thinking in terms of dungeons as societies or ecologies. 
   
  GMs may choose to begin to add greater variety, different hazards and a 
  place in the world through changing the types of dungeons adventurers will 
  explore. 
   
  Locations Table 
  D100 Location 
  Condition and/ or Contents 
  1 
  Armory 
   
  
   
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  D100 Location 
  Condition and/ or Contents 
  2 
  Castle or Citadel 
   
  3 
  Catacombs 
   
  4 
  Crypt or Tomb 
   
  5 
  Dungeon 
   
  7 
  Encampment 
   
  8 
  Factory or Workshop 
   
  9 
  Grotto 
   
  10 
  Haunted House 
   
  11 
  Hill Fort 
   
  12 
  Laboratory 
   
  13 
  Labyrinth 
   
  14 
  Military HQ 
   
  15 
  Mine 
   
  16 
  Monastery 
   
  17 
  Outpost 
   
  18 
  Palace 
   
  19 
  Pavilion 
   
  20 
  Pyramid 
   
  21 
  Ship or Aircraft 
   
  22 
  Shrine 
   
  23 
  Stronghold 
   
  24 
  Tower 
   
  25 
  Town 
   
   
  Local Conditions 
  Locations, chambers and various items may default to a reasonable state of 
  repair or reflect local conditions. The range of conditions available will 
  depend on the circumstances, so the following list is better suited to 
  selecting options than rolling. Where rolls are used the condition of larger 
  structures such as a city or a castle will tend to cascade down on to lesser 
  structures, e.g. a rundown city is likely to have few gleaming new structures 
  within the city walls or boundaries. 
   
  Many structures will present more than one condition at a time and GMs 
  can select combinations that might be expected to go together and/ or 
  highlight unusual options. 
   
  Conditions Table 
  D100 Condition 
  Details 
  1 
  Alien 
   
  2 
  Brickwork 
   
  3 
  Buried 
   
  4 
  Busy 
   
  5 
  Buttressed 
   
  
   
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  D100 Condition 
  Details 
  6 
  Camouflaged 
   
  7 
  Cobbled 
   
  8 
  Collapsing 
   
  9 
  Corroded 
   
  10 
  Decorative 
   
  11 
  Demolished 
   
  12 
  Derelict 
   
  13 
  Domed 
   
  14 
  Dusty 
   
  15 
  Earthwork 
   
  16 
  Enchanted 
   
  17 
  Exclusive 
   
  18 
  Exotic 
   
  19 
  Expensive 
   
  20 
  Frosted 
   
  21 
  Gilded 
   
  22 
  Glass 
   
  23 
  Guarded 
   
  24 
  Haunted 
   
  25 
  Inexpensive 
   
  26 
  Ironwork 
   
  27 
  Irradiated 
   
  28 
  Laidback 
   
  29 
  Luxurious 
   
  30 
  Mosaic 
   
  31 
  Neglected 
   
  32 
  New 
   
  33 
  Opulent 
   
  34 
  Organic 
   
  35 
  Painted 
   
  36 
  Petrified 
   
  37 
  Plasterwork 
   
  38 
  Plated 
   
  39 
  Prosperous 
   
  40 
  Quiet 
   
  41 
  Renovated 
   
  42 
  Roofed 
   
  43 
  Royal Warrant  
  44 
  Ruined 
   
  45 
  Rundown 
   
  46 
  Stonework 
   
  47 
  Thatched 
   
  48 
  Tiled 
   
  
   
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  D100 Condition 
  Details 
  49 
  Waterlogged 
   
  50 
  Weathered 
   
   
  Rooms, Caverns, Furnishings and Accessories 
   
  Combining a room or cavern with a selection of furnishings and accessories 
  is a very quick way to sketch out a location. There may be other grander or 
  more magical features and furnishings in a room or cavern, but these will 
  usually be accompanied by some standard items. A selection can be chosen 
  from below. 
   
  The items shown are those that might offer a quick description to 
  accompany whatever the GM choses to place within an encounter. Clearly, 
  contents such as lamps, towels and knives may occur in many locations, so 
  particular items of this type are only included where they might well serve 
  as a feature. 
   
  Using the table that follows gives a GM a head start with setting up many 
  encounters, but the examples given are based on human societies where 
  design is a mix of utility, prestige and invention. Other societies are likely 
  to have different takes on those priorities and to have alternatives of their 
  own. As a result, GMs can do a lot to make their own worlds more fully-
  realized by looking at a culture’s likely priorities and adapting locations, 
  chambers and encounters to reflect the circumstances, e.g. a tribe of tree-
  dwellers might make rope bridges or treetop walkways using hollowed 
  bone - for the advantages of weight, strength and durability. 
   
  Catering for different genres is quite straightforward, as these are some of 
  the more predictable variants, e.g. a fantasy tavern and a Wild West saloon 
  are likely to serve similar functions. Equally, the medieval, bioluminescent 
  or magical light sources in a dungeon setting are easily revised for 
  Cyberpunk or SciFi gameplay with modern, designer lighting systems and/ 
  or more futuristic options. 
   
  Further considerations when quickly sketching chambers include varying 
  players’ and characters’ opportunities to interact with the contents of each 
  chamber; while zooming the action in and out of focus – as mentioned in 
  the section on mapping.  
   
  For example, an encounter in a kitchen might switch from, ‘it’s the kitchen 
  and the chef is advancing with a meat cleaver at the ready,’ to ,’you smell 
  fried food as you enter and see a couple of ovens with hotplates set near 
  the door. At the other end of the room a young chef is standing at a sink 
  scrubbing filthy pans. As you go in she steps away from the sink and eyes a 
  half-filled knife rack set on the workbench behind her. The rest of the 
  
   
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  knives are stuck dead center in a poster glued to the back of the door 
  you’ve just used to enter. ’ 
   
  The second version of the encounter invites players to take the chef 
  seriously, to ask what’s on the poster and to consider using the knives 
  pinned to the door. It would be hard work to build that into a description 
  without keyword lists to help – and easy to consider writing elaborate 
  descriptions that are more forced narratives than playmakers. 
   
  Rooms and Caverns Table 
  D100  Rooms  
  Typical Contents 
  1 
  Apartment 
  Lockers, pill boxes, hourglasses, calendars, 
  lamps, candles, coat racks, chests and trunks, 
  clocks, clothing, baskets, jugs, chairs, tables, 
  cabinets, bookshelves, sofas, art, trophies and 
  medals, rugs and carpets, vases, collections, 
  snacks and luxury foods, goblets, pets and 
  familiars, books and games 
  2 
  Aquarium 
  Tanks, pipes, filters, rare and exotic species, 
  nets and netting, feed and chemical treatments, 
  heating and fuel 
  3 
  Arcade  
  Corridor, archways, vendors or exhibits, stalls, 
  decorative features, fountains and pools, 
  performance and display 
  4 
  Arena  
  Triumphal arches, podium, balcony or verandah, 
  lectern, heraldry, flags and banners, pits and 
  traps, braziers, branding irons, chains and 
  manacles, sand and blood, bandages, trophies 
  and body parts 
  5 
  Armory  
  Forge, furnace, fuel, weapon racks, armor and 
  shields, shelving, lockers, secure doors, 
  communications and briefing rooms, drill 
  grounds and weapon ranges, hammers and 
  tongs, anvils and matting 
  6 
  Assembly Room 
  Benches, tables, goblets, jugs, trays and platters, 
  weapons and armor, heraldic banners and 
  wineskins 
  7 
  Aviary  
  Caged or glass enclosures, feed, paths, trees and 
  exotic plants, walkways, benches, statues, 
  fountains and gloves or gauntlets 
  8 
  Barracks  
  Beds, linen, blankets, clothing, personal 
  possessions, lockers, chests, trunks and bunks 
  9 
  Bathroom 
  Toilet, basins, bath, shower, soaps, perfumes, 
  make-up, hairbrushes and combs, oils and 
  lotions, personal jewelry, mirrors and leaves or 
  paper 
  
   
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  D100  Rooms  
  Typical Contents 
  10 
  Chapel or 
  Chantry 
  Altars, archways, columns, pillars, domes, 
  frescoes, statues, curtains, gilding, enamel 
  inlays, stained glass, carvings, icons, paintings, 
  benches, pews, screens, vestries, confessionals, 
  lamps, lanterns, censers, incense, tapestries, 
  offerings, reliquaries, fonts, pedestals, pulpits, 
  podiums, idols, oils, perfumes, cushions, 
  thrones, books, scrolls, and holy or unholy 
  symbols 
  11 
  Court Room 
  Judges’ bench, screens, iron bars and cages, 
  heraldry, dock, witness stand, gavel, robes and 
  hats or wigs 
  12 
  Courtyard or 
  Foyer 
  Tiling, walkways, arches, clocks or sundials, 
  bystanders and statues, stocks and pillories, 
  gibbets, executioners’ blocks and reliefs or 
  tapestries 
  13 
  Crypt, Vault, 
  Tomb or Ossuary 
  Coffins, urns, caskets, skull racks, body parts, 
  skeletons, dust, cobwebs, grime, personal 
  possessions, sacrificial victims, petrified food 
  and drink, mummified remains, altars, treasures 
  and slain adventurers 
  14 
  Dining Room 
  Tables, comfortable chairs, napkins, goblets, 
  plates, serving dishes, food and drink, 
  candelabra and chandeliers, decanters and jugs, 
  tablecloths, portraits, statues and trophies 
  15 
  Dressing Room 
  or Wardrobe 
  Mirrors, clothes, footwear, screens and curtains, 
  cupboards and closets, chests of drawers, coat 
  and clothes racks, shoe racks, hats and costume 
  accessories, sewing equipment, perfumes and 
  creams 
  16 
  Dungeon or Cell 
  Straw and pallets, stool, manacle, torture 
  instruments, writing or recording materials, 
  skeletons and body parts, chains and manacles, 
  prayer book and beads, bloodstains and rope 
  17 
  Forge  
  Fuel, ore, forge, furnace, anvils, hammers and 
  tongs, fonts or troughs 
  18 
  Gallery  
  Art, pedestals, framed pictures, niches and 
  alcoves, lighting effects, balconies, mezzanines, 
  catwalks, columns and screens. 
  19 
  Games Room  
  Games, dice, miniatures and models, masks, 
  costumes, cases, boxes, baskets, chests, screens, 
  curtains, art, artists’ materials, benches, 
  bookshelves, chair, cupboard, cushions, tables, 
  desks, lamp, books, carpets and rugs 
  
   
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  D100  Rooms  
  Typical Contents 
  20 
  Garden 
  Plants, fungi, insects, earth, gardening tools, 
  fertilizer, flowers, walkways, bandstands, 
  ladders, saws, statues, podiums, lakes, islands, 
  fountains and waterfalls 
  21 
  Great Hall  
  Hearth, hounds, goblets, flags and banners, 
  trophies, braziers, smoke, food and drink, spits 
  and tongs, tapestries, statues, paneling, frescoes 
  plates and cutlery, pans and jars, and singing 
  22 
  Guard Post or 
  Guardhouse 
  Brazier, weapons, chairs or stools, cards, dice, 
  chains, lanterns, beer and spirits. 
  23 
  Gym 
  Benches, ropes, weights, boxing rings, mats, 
  apparatus, bars, balls, towels, footwear, strips 
  and cubicles or lockers 
  24 
  Hall or Foyer 
  Benches, hearth, chairs, tables, flags, banners, 
  heraldic carvings and armorials, trophies, 
  musical instruments and rolls of honor 
  25 
  Harem  
  Beds, couches, alcoves, garments and footwear, 
  jewelry, pools, fountains, curtains and screens, 
  pedestals, jewelry boxes, musical instruments, 
  art, furs and skins, candles, chandeliers, books, 
  lanterns, pets and familiars, perfumes, carpets, 
  covers, rugs and throws. 
  26 
  Kitchen or Galley 
  Ovens, grills, spits, stoves, cookers, tables, 
  towels, pots, pans, cutlery, utensils, chillers, 
  knives, plates and cutlery, serving dishes, urns, 
  vases, jugs, brushes and brooms, mops, jars, 
  food and drink, herbs and spices, kitchen gloves, 
  dressers and cabinets 
  27 
  Laboratory  
  Workbenches, cauldrons, beakers, crucibles, 
  flasks, pliers, wire, scientific apparatus, vials, 
  spills, dishes, decanters, fountains, scales and 
  weights, lenses or microscopes, astrolabes, 
  lanterns, fuel and tinderboxes 
  28 
  Library  
  Shelving, chairs, desks, tables, books, 
  manuscripts, lanterns, magazines, catalogues, 
  directories, atlases, lenses, bookmarks and 
  paperweights 
  29 
  Map Room  
  Large table and chairs, wall charts, knife, quills, 
  ink pots, parchment, maps, map case and seals 
  30 
  Maze  
  String, skeletons, ritual walkways, weapons, 
  hazards and traps 
  31 
  Museum or 
  Trophy Room  
  Displays, trophies, medals, cups, portraits, 
  weaponry, armor, stuffed and mounted wildlife, 
  collections, treasures, traps, secure locks and 
  doors, secure containers or alarms 
  
   
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  D100  Rooms  
  Typical Contents 
  32 
  Observatory 
  Magnetic, astronomical, zodiacal, alchemical/ 
  chemical or meteorological apparatus, charts, 
  records and archives, scrolls, writing materials, 
  flasks, fonts, psychoducts, astrolabes and 
  skydisks, statues, magnets, mercury, vials and 
  decanters, candles, lamps and lanterns, tinder 
  boxes, torches, dishes, trays, scales and 
  balances, instruments, maps and star-charts 
  33 
  Office 
  Seals, papers, writing materials, records and 
  archives, desks, tables, chairs, bins, trays and 
  screens 
  34 
  Outhouse or Barn Hay, straw, buckets, hammers, saws, axes and 
  hand-axes, timbers, feed, straw, hay, grain bins, 
  buckets and spades, pickaxes or drills 
  35 
  Pool  
  Swimming pool, sauna, spa, waterslides, towels, 
  filters, diving boards, steam chambers and 
  cubicles 
  36 
  Refectory or Mess 
  Hall 
  Tables, benches, goblets, plates, serving dishes, 
  food and drink, lanterns, braziers, decanters and 
  jugs, tablecloths, portraits, statues and trophies 
  37 
  Reservoir or 
  Cistern 
  Water, chemical treatments, salts, sand, 
  overflow, mud, leaks and spills, slurry piping and 
  waste 
  38 
  Safe Room 
  Secure doors, portcullis, weapons, traps, decoys, 
  body doubles, escape pods, solid structure, 
  fireproofed and alarmed 
  39 
  Scullery 
  Pots, pans, basins, rags, towels, sinks and basins 
  40 
  Shrine 
  Altars, columns, pillars, frescoes, statues, 
  curtains, gilding, enamel inlays, stained glass, 
  carvings, icons, portraits, benches, screens, 
  vestries, lamps, lanterns, censers, incense, 
  offerings, reliquaries, fonts, pedestals, pulpits, 
  podiums, idols, oils, perfumes, thrones, books, 
  scrolls, and holy or unholy symbols 
  41 
  Stables or 
  Bestiary 
  Cages, enclosures, stalls, hay, straw, harnesses, 
  bridles, feed, weaponry, traces, combs and 
  brushes, footwear, manure and clothes 
  42 
  Star Chamber  
  Tables, chairs, charts, maps, stained glass, 
  ornaments, expensive art, statuettes and 
  figurines, counters and tokens, heraldic 
  emblems and ritual or cult items 
  43 
  Storeroom or 
  Warehouse 
  Crates, boxes, cartons, crowbars, buckets and 
  water, fire alarms, goods and commodities, 
  stores and caches, archives  and apparatus or 
  equipment 
  
   
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  D100  Rooms  
  Typical Contents 
  44 
  Tannery 
  Pools, chemicals, leather, human and animal 
  waste, lime or woodash, rawhide, hide, skins, 
  needles and cord, stretching frames, buckles, 
  hammers and saws, planes and chisels, timber, 
  glues, oils and resins, rivets and nails 
  45 
  Temple 
  Colossus, gargoyles, idols, holy or unholy 
  symbols, offerings tables, censers and incense, 
  smoke, braziers, gongs, drums, fire pits, relics 
  and reliquaries, human remains, skull racks, 
  fonts, pedestals, pulpits, podiums, oils, 
  perfumes, cushions, thrones, books, scrolls and 
  holy or unholy symbols 
  46 
  Throne Room  
  Throne, pedestal, pillars, columns, domes, 
  scepter and crown, lanterns and chandeliers, 
  tapestries, statues and statuettes, friezes and 
  reliefs, gilding, heraldry and reliquaries 
  47 
  Treasury 
  Traps, secure doors, secure locks and bolts, 
  decoys, chests, treasure, coinage, ingots, false 
  treasure, false treasury 
  48 
  Well Room 
  Well, rope, buckets, ladder, trolley, basins and 
  churns 
  49 
  Workshop 
  Workbenches, tools, apparatus, raw materials, 
  fuel, safety equipment, lenses, overalls, dust and 
  shavings, nails and screws, pile-drivers and 
  mallets, drills and anvils, cauldrons or boilers, 
  ovens, hotplates, rags, glues and resins, dust 
  and oils 
  50 
  Zoo 
  Large enclosures, cages, wildlife, rare and exotic 
  species, nets and netting, feed, stabling, 
  pasture, stalls and exhibitions, displays and 
  booths, fountains and waterfalls, pools and 
  outdoor aquariums 
   
  Furnishings Table 
  D100  Furnishings 
  Details 
  1 
  Altar 
   
  2 
  Aquarium 
   
  3 
  Bas Relief 
   
  4 
  Basin 
   
  5 
  Bath 
   
  6 
  Bed  
   
  7 
  Bench 
   
  8 
  Cabinet 
   
  9 
  Canopy 
   
  10 
  Carpet  
   
  
   
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  D100  Furnishings 
  Details 
  11 
  Casket  
   
  12 
  Chairs  
   
  13 
  Chest or Trunk 
   
  14 
  Closet 
   
  15 
  Couch 
   
  16 
  Columns 
   
  17 
  Cupboard  
   
  18 
  Curtain 
   
  19 
  Desk  
   
  20 
  Easel 
   
  21 
  Fountain 
   
  22 
  Lamp 
   
  23 
  Lantern 
   
  24 
  Idol 
   
  25 
  Manger  
   
  26 
  Meal, Fresh 
   
  27 
  Meal, Half-Eaten 
   
  28 
  Meal, Rotting 
   
  29 
  Mirror  
   
  30 
  Mosaic  
   
  31 
  Murder Hole 
   
  32 
  Painting  
   
  33 
  Pond 
   
  34 
  Rugs  
   
  35 
  Screen  
   
  37 
  Shelving  
   
  38 
  Shrine  
   
  39 
  Sink  
   
  40 
  Stained Glass  
   
  41 
  Statue or Statuette 
   
  42 
  Stocks  
   
  43 
  Table  
   
  44 
  Tapestry  
   
  45 
  Toilet  
   
  46 
  Toys 
   
  47 
  Tray 
   
  48 
  Wardrobe  
   
  49 
  Wine Rack 
   
  50 
  Workbench 
   
   
  Accessories Table 
  D100  Accessories 
  Details 
  1 
  Bandages (Bloody) 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 139 
  D100  Accessories 
  Details 
  2 
  Bones (Bleached) 
   
  3 
  Bones, Fresh Tribal 
   
  4 
  Bones, Monster's 
   
  5 
  Clothing 
   
  6 
  Cobwebs  
   
  7 
  Corpse (Humanoid) 
   
  8 
  Corpse (Monster) 
   
  9 
  Coins  
   
  10 
  Dirty Dishes  
   
  11 
  Dust  
   
  12 
  Game 
   
  13 
  Grime 
   
  14 
  Firewood  
   
  15 
  Flints 
   
  16 
  Kindling 
   
  17 
  Firewood 
   
  18 
  Leftover Food 
   
  19 
  Mildew  
   
  20 
  Mirror 
   
  21 
  Mirror, Broken 
   
  22 
  Musical Instrument 
   
  23 
  Mushrooms 
   
  24 
  Parchment, Torn 
   
  25 
  Pet/ s 
   
  26 
  Rags 
   
  27 
  Rats  
   
  28 
  Robes 
   
  29 
  Rubble 
   
  30 
  Sawdust  
   
  31 
  Scorch Marks  
   
  32 
  Scum  
   
  33 
  Slain Monster (Fresh)   
  34 
  Slain Monster 
  (Rotting)  
   
  35 
  Slime 
   
  36 
  Skeleton, Humanoid 
   
  37 
  Skeleton, Monster’s 
   
  38 
  Skeletons, Monsters’ 
   
  39 
  Skull, Humanoid 
   
  40 
  Skull, Monster's 
   
  41 
  Tinderbox 
   
  42 
  Tools (Butchery) 
   
  43 
  Tools (Carpentry)  
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 140 
  D100  Accessories 
  Details 
  44 
  Tools (Jewelry) 
   
  45 
  Tools (Metalwork) 
   
  46 
  Tools (Weaponry) 
   
  47 
  Uniform 
   
  48 
  Vase 
   
  49 
  Veil 
   
  50 
  Weaponry 
   
   
  Treasures Table 
  3D20  Treasure 
  Details 
  3 
  Animals, Pets and Familiars  
  4 
  Ankle Chain 
   
  5 
  Anklet 
   
  6 
  Armband 
   
  7 
  Armor 
   
  8 
  Bangle 
   
  9 
  Belt 
   
  10 
  Bracelet 
   
  11 
  Bracelets 
   
  12 
  Buckle 
   
  13 
  Carving 
   
  14 
  Chain 
   
  15 
  Chalice 
   
  16 
  Chatelaine 
   
  17 
  Choker 
   
  18 
  Circlet 
   
  19 
  Clasp 
   
  20 
  Coffer 
   
  21 
  Coins 
   
  22 
  Collar 
   
  23 
  Comb 
   
  24 
  Coronet 
   
  25 
  Decanter 
   
  26 
  Diadem 
   
  27 
  Earrings 
   
  28 
  Fabric 
   
  29 
  Figurine 
   
  30 
  Flowers and Foodstuffs 
   
  31 
  Furnishings, e.g. Throne 
   
  32 
  Gauntlets 
   
  33 
  Goblet 
   
  34 
  Manuscripts 
   
  35 
  Mask 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 141 
  3D20  Treasure 
  Details 
  36 
  Medal 
   
  37 
  Medallion 
   
  38 
  Necklace 
   
  39 
  Orb 
   
  40 
  Painting 
   
  41 
  Pearls 
   
  42 
  Pectoral 
   
  43 
  Piercing 
   
  44 
  Pin 
   
  45 
  Pottery 
   
  46 
  Reliquary 
   
  47 
  Scepter 
   
  48 
  Sculpture 
   
  49 
  Seals 
   
  50 
  Stamps 
   
  51 
  Statuette 
   
  52 
  Tapestry 
   
  53 
  Tiara 
   
  54 
  Torc 
   
  56 
  Transport 
   
  57 
  Trophy or Award 
   
  58 
  Utensil 
   
  59 
  Weapon 
   
  60 
  Wristband 
   
   
  Tricks and Traps 
   
  Basic Tricks and Traps 
  As adventurers move on to deeper dungeons, underground cities, outdoor 
  wildernesses and other options the novelty value of common monsters or 
  simple chutes will wear-off to be replaced by smarter opponents and 
  greater challenges. Nevertheless, it’s worth keeping the following elements 
  in the mix at all times, as a collapsing floor or a standard guardhouse can 
  still prove entertaining when used infrequently. 
   
  Including tricks and traps in an adventure adds extra hazards, unexpected 
  surprises and a touch of the magical to any adventure. As discussed earlier, 
  non-lethal traps, (which delay adventurers, encourage players to find novel 
  solutions or snatch something from adventurers’ grasp), usually offer more 
  entertaining gameplay than complex puzzles or traps that deliver an instant 
  kill. Where traps cause damage it is helpful to scale the damage to the level 
  of the adventure; unless characters insist on entering areas where they are 
  inviting extra risk. Where there are specific suggested outcomes these aim 
  to indicate that most tricks and traps needn’t cause serious harm. For 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 142 
  horror-based games and games which use realistic damage systems more 
  serious outcomes might be expected than suggested by typical D&D-type 
  values. 
   
  All of the basic tricks and traps listed are easily adapted to different 
  circumstances and to result in slightly different effects. Most present some 
  kind of hazard or obstacle that characters can avoid or escape through 
  inventive solutions. These tricks and traps are also suited to being placed 
  fairly logically, i.e. while choices can be made by rolling on the table, the 
  most effective options are those selected to fit the circumstances. For 
  example, the heart of an ancient tomb or a treasury might reasonably be 
  expected to have some heavy-duty defenses; while a trap located near a 
  mess hall where drunken soldiers stagger back and forth is less likely, 
  because the trap would do the soldiers as much harm as any intruders. 
   
  Without placing tricks and traps where they are flagged by the level of 
  security likely to be found in particular areas, there’s a risk that players will 
  decide to inch their way round every corner and/ or tire of the use of basic 
  tricks and traps. 
   
  Tricks and Traps Table 
  D100 Title  
  Effects  
  1 
  Aerial Runway 
  An aerial runway can place adventures in a line 
  of fire, drop them into a slide or come to an end 
  over a hazard. If the end of the runway or 
  runways is out of sight players are more likely to 
  be tempted 
  2 
  Altars 
  Altars are suited to delivering a range of magical 
  effects. Some may heal or offer a blessing, while 
  others may threaten to explode or crumble - 
  releasing deadly occupants 
  3 
  Arrow Trap  
  Triggering such a trap causes a basic 2D6. Save 
  for half damage 
  4 
  Brain Drain 
  Activating a device or accessing an area calls for 
  a sacrifice in experience, skill and/ or ability 
  5 
  Breath Activated 
  The only way in is through a breath activated 
  door –dragon or gorgon breath would present a 
  few problems 
  6 
  Chasms 
  Crumbling bridges and rope bridges risk major 
  damage or delay 
  7 
  Chutes 
  A chute usually leads adventurers into more 
  dangerous areas, but might also serve as an 
  escape route 
  8 
  Collapsing 
  Ceiling  
  The area's occupants all take 4D6. Save for half 
  damage 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 143 
  D100 Title  
  Effects  
  9 
  Corrosive Pool 
  This pool, large puddle or stream of muddy water 
  stings flesh very slightly, but also slowly corrodes 
  metals. A saving throw at -1/ round allows most 
  adventurers some chance of realizing what’s 
  happening. Rust shows on the surface of 
  damaged metals and will start to color the water 
  10 
  Crimson Glow 
  This lightly fragranced cloud of mist is absorbed 
  by contact and is known to deplete magic or 
  psychic powers. Individuals will lose D4 spells of 
  choice/ round spent in the mist; while enchanted 
  or psychically charged items lose their powers 
  while inside the mist and for five minutes after it 
  clears 
  11 
  Dart Trap  
  Triggering the trap causes D4 x D4. Save for half 
  damage 
  12 
  Decoy 
  A convincing straw man, scene or diorama can 
  offer guards a good opportunity to stage an 
  ambush 
  13 
  Deformation 
  The consequences of damage caused by 
  characters and their opponents can set-up a wide 
  range of traps, such as collapsing roofs, 
  crumbling bridges and chemical or molten metal 
  spills. These can be devised to tempt characters 
  to trigger outcomes and become all the more 
  effective when used as chain reactions  
  14 
  Drums 
  Drums can carry sound over a wide area if there’s 
  nothing in the way, so they make for dangerous 
  alarms 
  15 
  Falling Blade  
  Triggering the trap causes 4D6. Save for half 
  damage 
  16 
  Falling Cage 
  Trap  
  Anyone caught by a falling cage trap is confined 
  by the cage until someone unlocks the cage or 
  the cage takes 40 damage 
  17 
  Fountains 
  The waters in fountains often have a magical 
  effect. This effect may be curative, magical, 
  energizing or otherwise helpful. There is 
  something to be said for giving PCs one place of 
  sanctuary and safety – not to make life easy, but 
  to contrast with the uncertain world they will 
  soon return to 
  18 
  Gaze Activated 
  The only way in is through a gaze activated door 
  – a Medusa’s gaze 
  19 
  Glue 
  Have fun  
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 144 
  D100 Title  
  Effects  
  20 
  Gong, Temple 
  These may be heard over a considerable distance 
  and are likely to act as an alarm if out of 
  sequence with any regular/ ceremonial use 
  21 
  Hand Bell 
  Hand bells make very useful short range alarms 
  22 
  Ice Bridge 
  A large, possibly towered, bridge or crossing is 
  covered in a thick coating of ice that makes it 
  very difficult to make progress, e.g. iced 
  portcullises at each end and glassy surfaces 
  throughout. Fire and lightning can make dents in 
  the ice and allow incredibly slow and expensive 
  progress – at some risk of blasts causing much 
  of their effect in the area directly in front of the 
  ice. The ice can be melted slowly by lighting fires, 
  ovens and lamps within the same overall area or 
  structure. Once started, any melting can be 
  speeded up by making large bonfires and/ or 
  sending fire and lightning into fissures that 
  begin to appear in the ice 
  23 
  Iceberg 
  A painting of a frozen waterfall or an icy ocean 
  scene starts to melt as a result of exposure to 
  heat and/ or light. Unless stopped/ refrozen the 
  water stars to overflow and then flood out – 
  eventually carrying any boats, fish or the like out 
  of the picture 
  24 
  Jaw Trap  
  An affected creature takes 3D6 and is unable to 
  move until released; unless it has a Strength of 
  15 or higher  
  25 
  Magnets 
  Metal weapons become strong magnets, which 
  attract metal items of up to the same weight 
  from up to 10’ away 
  26 
  Melting Pool 
  This pool, fountain, large puddle or stream 
  releases odorless fumes when leather enters the 
  water. There is no other obvious effect apart 
  from all leather melting after two rounds in the 
  water 
  27 
  Mercy Stones 
  These large blocks or tablets of stone show one 
  or more items such as wands, rings and/ or 
  weapons. An item of the general type shown, 
  possibly including magic items, has to be placed 
  on the rock – and stay there – to access another 
  area 
  28 
  Net Trap  
  A weighted net falls over an area of 20’ x 20’. The 
  net can take 30 from sharp weapons or magical 
  attacks before breaking 
  
   
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  D100 Title  
  Effects  
  29 
  Oracles 
  An oracle give good predictions on certain 
  topics, but not on others 
  30 
  Pit (Flooded)  
  Any creature falling into a flooded pit has to 
  swim to escape. Those that are burdened must 
  shed items or take 2D6/ round as they drown 
  31 
  Pit (Trapdoor)  
  Any creature falling into a concealed pit takes 
  2d6 from the fall and has to climb back out of 
  the pit 
  32 
  Poison Gas 
  Natural gases and vapors can be explosive, 
  corrosive or highly flammable 
  33 
  Pools 
  Pools may hide monsters or contain liquids with 
  magical effects. A series of pools presents 
  opportunities to coat adventurers, and others, in 
  successive ‘washes’ 
  34 
  Pressure Plates 
  Multiple pressure plates that need to stay down 
  to prevent a harmful effect and/ or to access an 
  item or entrance 
  35 
  Red Mist 
  This slightly acrid cloud of mist is absorbed by 
  breathing the vapor. Those unable to make a 
  saving throw successfully become more 
  aggressive and hostile each round. The effects 
  are to temporarily lower any charisma, 
  persuasion or negotiation based skills by -1, (or 
  equivalent), every round. Physical attacks and 
  damage done increase by +1, (or equivalent), 
  each round, but defenses/ armor class decrease 
  by the same amount. The effects continue for five 
  minutes after leaving or clearing the mist 
  36 
  Scything Blade  
  Any creature triggering the trap must make a 
  successful saving throw or take 4D6 
  37 
  Secret Doors 
  Secret doors are often used to conceal treasure, 
  for staging ambushes and as escape routes 
  38 
  Sensitivity 
  Condition sensitive materials may include 
  explosives formed by soaking up water, food or 
  drink that becomes highly acidic after heating 
  above a certain temperature and/ or skeletons 
  exposed to sunlight 
  39 
  Shifting Walls 
  Moving walls can be used to baffle adventurers or 
  as barriers 
  40 
  Sliding Stairs 
  These chutes often have an unpleasant surprise 
  at the bottom 
  41 
  Stairs 
  Stairs often indicate a change in level or risk 
  42 
  Statues  
  Statues may animate and attack or reward 
  certain actions 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 146 
  D100 Title  
  Effects  
  43 
  Tar Pit  
  Those caught in such a pit need to spend D4 
  rounds pulling themselves out 
  44 
  Teleport 
  There are many possible teleport traps, but a 
  teleport into confinement and/ or observation 
  can be unsettling for players 
  45 
  Transplant 
  A body part, such as the heart or eye is swapped 
  with those of another creature. This lends both 
  recipients some of the physical and/ or skills and 
  abilities usually possessed by the other. This may 
  or may not extent to the recipients’ personalities 
  46 
  Tripwire  
  Tripwires may trigger a trap and/ or an alarm 
  47 
  Troll Bait 
  Crush the statue of a troll to stop the creatures 
  in the chamber from regenerating 
  48 
  Welded 
  Metallic items come into contact with a surface 
  and bond with it on a molecular level. The items 
  have to be coaxed off, torn off or abandoned 
  49 
  Whistles 
  Whistles can be useful for summoning more 
  guards – especially animals like dogs and wolves 
  50 
  Zombie Wash 
  The water in this pool, fountain or spring heals 
  wounds up to a point, but makes flesh look 
  increasingly zombified. After a couple of uses a 
  character still looks familiar, but with the flesh, 
  flesh wounds and facial expressions of a zombie 
   
  Non-Player Characters aka Monsters and Aliens 
   
  Deciding which NPCs, (including monsters and aliens), go where is often an 
  ongoing process. Players and GMs may decide they are keen on including 
  particular creatures at the adventure or campaign planning stage - and 
  those selected can then play a central role during play. At the other end of 
  the scale, solo or team players usually prefer to flesh out locations and to 
  sketch out chambers before finally revealing any monsters at the point 
  when an encounter happens. 
   
  The lists of traits and of general fantasy creatures shown below provide a 
  general guide to the types of creatures found in most fantasy RPGs. GMs 
  and players can revise and split these tables to suit their preferences and 
  to re-mix the creatures their characters encounter. 
   
  Many creatures can cut across or be adapted to different RPG genres. 
  However, the key ingredient with many NPCs is to give them a place in the 
  world, including a past, a network of relationships and a personality. As a 
  result, GMs may wish to develop major and/ or recurring NPCs along the 
  lines of the options suggested for PCs in the section on colorful characters. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 147 
  Traits 
   
  Players can lose much of the freedom to decide how characters’ 
  personalities develop during play if too many details are filled in 
  beforehand. This is not such a concern with NPCs run by the GM during 
  play, because the majority of NPCs – including monsters - are likely to call 
  for no more than quick character sketches and few details - unless players 
  choose to zoom in. 
   
  All of the background details set out earlier for PCs can, therefore, apply to 
  a NPC. However, in many cases the most immediate or helpful details to 
  have to hand will be those that put across traits, attitudes and some idea of 
  how the NPC fits into the gameplay. The following tables set out to help 
  GMs or solo players to identify the types of traits or personal qualities a 
  NPC might present during first or early encounters with PCs. 
   
  Character Positive Physical Traits Table 
  4D10 Trait 
  Details 
  4 
  Active 
   
  5 
  Adept 
   
  6 
  Adroit 
   
  7 
  Agile 
   
  8 
  Attractive 
   
  9 
  Beautiful 
   
  10 
  Brawny 
   
  11 
  Charming 
   
  12 
  Dainty 
   
  13 
  Dapper 
   
  14 
  Delicate 
   
  15 
  Dexterous 
   
  16 
  Elegant 
   
  17 
  Exquisite 
   
  18 
  Fair 
   
  19 
  Fascinating 
   
  20 
  Good-Looking 
   
  21 
  Graceful 
   
  22 
  Handsome 
   
  23 
  Hardy 
   
  24 
  Immaculate 
   
  25 
  Lively 
   
  26 
  Lovely 
   
  27 
  Muscular 
   
  28 
  Neat 
   
  29 
  Nimble 
   
  30 
  Pretty 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 148 
  4D10 Trait 
  Details 
  31 
  Ravishing 
   
  32 
  Robust 
   
  33 
  Shapely 
   
  34 
  Skillful 
   
  35 
  Spirited 
   
  36 
  Stalwart 
   
  37 
  Strong 
   
  38 
  Sturdy 
   
  39 
  Vivacious 
   
  40 
  Winsome 
   
   
  Character Negative Physical Traits Table 
  2D12 Trait 
  Details 
  2 
  Awkward 
   
  3 
  Clumsy 
   
  4 
  Decrepit 
   
  5 
  Emaciated 
   
  6 
  Feeble 
   
  7 
  Frail 
   
  8 
  Ghastly 
   
  9 
  Graceless 
   
  10 
  Grotesque 
   
  11 
  Hideous 
   
  12 
  Homely 
   
  13 
  Horrible 
   
  14 
  Loathsome 
   
  15 
  Odious 
   
  16 
  Repellent 
   
  17 
  Repugnant 
   
  18 
  Repulsive 
   
  19 
  Sickly 
   
  20 
  Slovenly 
   
  21 
  Thin 
   
  22 
  Unkempt 
   
  23 
  Weak 
   
  24 
  Ugly 
   
   
  General Character Traits Table 
  D100 Trait 
  Trait 
  Trait 
  Trait 
  1 
  Able  
  Doubtful  
  Intolerant 
  Resolute 
  2 
  Active  
  Dull  
  Intrepid 
  Resourceful 
  3 
  Admirable 
  Dutiful  
  Irresolute 
  Responsible  
  4 
  Adventurous  
  Eager  
  Irresponsible 
  Responsive 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 149 
  D100 Trait 
  Trait 
  Trait 
  Trait 
  5 
  Affectionate  
  Earnest 
  Jealous  
  Restless  
  6 
  Afraid 
  Easy Going  
  Kindly 
  Reticent 
  7 
  Aggressive 
  Eccentric 
  Lackadaisical 
  Rich  
  8 
  Alert  
  Efficient  
  Laconic 
  Rough  
  9 
  Altruistic 
  Egotistical 
  Lazy  
  Rowdy  
  10 
  Ambitious  
  Eloquent 
  Leader  
  Rude  
  11 
  Angry  
  Embarrassed  
  Lethargic 
  Ruthless 
  12 
  Annoyed  
  Eminent 
  Liberal 
  Sad  
  13 
  Anxious  
  Encouraging  
  Listless 
  Safe  
  14 
  Apathetic 
  Energetic  
  Lively  
  Sanctimonious 
  15 
  Apologetic  
  Enthusiastic 
  Lonely  
  Satisfied  
  16 
  Aristocratic 
  Envious 
  Long-Suffering 
  Saturnine 
  17 
  Arrogant  
  Erratic 
  Loving  
  Saucy 
  18 
  Artificial 
  Evil  
  Loyal  
  Scared  
  19 
  Artless 
  Excited  
  Lucky  
  Scrupulous 
  20 
  Assiduous 
  Excruciating 
  Magnanimous 
  Scurrilous 
  21 
  Attentive  
  Expert  
  Malicious 
  Secretive  
  22 
  Audacious 
  Fair  
  Malignant 
  Sedate 
  23 
  Avaricious 
  Faithful  
  Mature  
  Self-Centered 
  24 
  Average  
  Fastidious 
  Mean  
  Self-Impassive 
  25 
  Awkward 
  Fearless  
  Mediocre 
  Self-Indulgent 
  26 
  Bad  
  Fickle 
  Meek 
  Selfish  
  27 
  Benevolent 
  Fierce  
  Melancholic 
  Self-Reliant 
  28 
  Blue  
  Flippant 
  Mercenary 
  Sensitive 
  29 
  Boastful 
  Foolish  
  Merciful 
  Serious 
  30 
  Bold  
  Forbearing 
  Messy  
  Sharp  
  31 
  Bored  
  Fortunate  
  Mischievous 
  Short  
  32 
  Bossy  
  Foul  
  Miserable  
  Shy  
  33 
  Brave  
  Fresh  
  Monstrous 
  Silly  
  34 
  Bright  
  Friendly  
  Moody 
  Skillful  
  35 
  Brilliant  
  Frivolous 
  Mulish 
  Slothful 
  36 
  Brutish 
  Frugal 
  Munificent 
  Sly  
  38 
  Bumptious 
  Frustrated  
  Mysterious  
  Smart  
  37 
  Bungling 
  Funny  
  Mystical 
  Smug 
  39 
  Busy  
  Garrulous 
  Naïve 
  Sneaky  
  40 
  Callous 
  Generous 
  Natural 
  Sober 
  41 
  Calm  
  Gentle 
  Naughty  
  Solemn 
  42 
  Candid 
  Ghastly 
  Neglectful 
  Sorry  
  43 
  Capricious 
  Giving 
  Nervous  
  Spoiled  
  44 
  Careful  
  Glamorous  
  Nice  
  Squeamish 
  45 
  Careless  
  Gloomy  
  Niggardly 
  Staid 
  46 
  Cautious 
  Gluttonous 
  Noble 
  Steadfast 
  47 
  Chaotic 
  Good  
  Noisy  
  Stingy 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 150 
  D100 Trait 
  Trait 
  Trait 
  Trait 
  48 
  Charitable 
  Graceful  
  Nonchalant 
  Stoical 
  49 
  Charming  
  Greedy  
  Obdurate 
  Strange 
  50 
  Cheerful  
  Grouchy  
  Obedient  
  Strict 
  51 
  Childish  
  Grumpy  
  Obnoxious 
  Strong-Willed 
  52 
  Circumspect 
  Guilty  
  Obstinate 
  Stubborn  
  53 
  Clever  
  Gullible 
  Odd 
  Sweet  
  54 
  Clumsy  
  Happy  
  Old  
  Sympathetic 
  55 
  Coarse  
  Harsh  
  Oppressive 
  Taciturn 
  56 
  Compassionate Hateful  
  Ordinary 
  Talented  
  57 
  Complacent 
  Haughty 
  Overconfident 
  Tall  
  58 
  Conceited 
  Headstrong 
  Parasitic 
  Thankful  
  59 
  Concerned  
  Healthy  
  Parsimonious 
  Thoughtful  
  60 
  Confident 
  Helpful  
  Patient 
  Thoughtless  
  61 
  Confused  
  Heroic 
  Peaceful  
  Thrifty 
  62 
  Conniving 
  Hilarious 
  Pensive 
  Timid 
  63 
  Conscientious 
  Honest  
  Perfidious 
  Timorous 
  64 
  Conservative 
  Hopeful  
  Persevering 
  Tired  
  65 
  Considerate  
  Hopeless  
  Persistent 
  Tolerant  
  66 
  Conspiratorial 
  Humane 
  Persuasive 
  Touchy  
  67 
  Contemptible 
  Humble 
  Pert 
  Traitorous 
  68 
  Contemptuous 
  Humorous  
  Petty 
  Treacherous 
  69 
  Cooperative  
  Hypocritical 
  Philanthropic 
  Truculent 
  70 
  Courageous 
  Ignorant  
  Philosophical 
  Trusting  
  71 
  Cowardly  
  Illustrious 
  Picky  
  Trustworthy  
  72 
  Coy 
  Imaginative 
  Pleasant  
  Unaffected 
  73 
  Craven 
  Imaginative  
  Plucky 
  Unambitious 
  74 
  Creative 
  Impatient  
  Polite  
  Uncompromising 
  75 
  Critical 
  Imperious 
  Pompous 
  Unfriendly  
  76 
  Cross  
  Imperturbable 
  Poor  
  Unhappy  
  77 
  Cruel  
  Impetuous 
  Popular  
  Unreliable 
  78 
  Cultured 
  Impolite  
  Positive  
  Unruly 
  79 
  Cunning 
  Imposing 
  Precise  
  Unstable 
  80 
  Curious  
  Impressive 
  Prejudiced 
  Upset  
  81 
  Dangerous  
  Imprudent 
  Proper  
  Useful 
  82 
  Daring  
  Impulsive 
  Proud 
  Vain 
  83 
  Dark  
  Incoherent 
  Punctual 
  Valorous 
  84 
  Decisive  
  Incompetent 
  Quick  
  Venal 
  85 
  Demanding  
  Inconsiderate  
  Quiet  
  Vindictive 
  86 
  Demure 
  Inconsolable 
  Quixotic 
  Violent 
  87 
  Dependable  
  Independent  
  Radical 
  Voracious 
  88 
  Depressed  
  Indifferent 
  Rash 
  Warm  
  89 
  Determined  
  Indiscreet 
  Rational  
  Wary 
  90 
  Diffident 
  Indomitable 
  Reactionary 
  Weak  
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 151 
  D100 Trait 
  Trait 
  Trait 
  Trait 
  91 
  Dilatory 
  Indulgent 
  Rebellious 
  Wearisome 
  92 
  Diligent 
  Industrious  
  Recalcitrant 
  Well-Bred 
  93 
  Discouraged  
  Inefficient 
  Reckless 
  Whimsical 
  94 
  Discreet 
  Influential 
  Refined 
  Wicked  
  95 
  Disdainful 
  Ingenious 
  Refractory 
  Willful 
  96 
  Dishonest  
  Innocent  
  Reliable  
  Wise  
  97 
  Disrespectful  
  Insensitive 
  Religious  
  Witty 
  98 
  Distinguished 
  Insidious 
  Remiss 
  Worried 
  99 
  Dogmatic 
  Insignificant 
  Reprehensible 
  Worthless 
  100 
  Domineering 
  Intelligent  
  Reserved 
  Zealous 
   
  Preferred Actions 
   
  Preferred actions offer a very straightforward way of varying the reactions 
  of NPCs and other creatures encounter during adventures. 
   
  This approach allows for the use of a range of modifiers, which can include 
  taking account of factors like a mild-mannered character having a bad day. 
  Along the same lines, more deadly and naturally hostile creatures on the 
  lists of fantasy creatures that follow may appear charming at times, but 
  that doesn’t set aside the underlying reality. 
   
  The intention is not to give creatures without the capacity to express 
  themselves in certain ways the ability to act beyond their skills, nature or 
  intelligence. Instead the terms chosen are open to different interpretations 
  in different contexts. So, for example, a pack of wolves might behave 
  coercively by trying to herd adventurers into an area better suited to 
  attacking as a pack. 
   
  The same wolves might attempt to be persuasive by howling, snapping and 
  snarling to encourage adventurers to stay out of their territory. Equally, 
  they might be more ‘diplomatic’ in terms of allowing entry to their territory, 
  but shadowing the adventurers’ progress. 
   
  Obviously, alien, supernatural or undead creatures may not have a typical 
  ‘vocabulary’ of reactions - and a single factor may be enough to turn an 
  otherwise calm individual into a seething pool of rage. This can be 
  accommodated by extending, adjusting or replacing options within the 
  table, while adding any necessary modifiers. For example, hunger will affect 
  most hunting animals’ behaviors and a hostile, hungry wolf that is given 
  food by a party of adventurers may well start acting differently. 
   
  Using preferred actions with a GM running play offers a quick range of 
  options to help the GM to map the types of reactions players may meet in 
  slightly more detail than the common fight or talk options. The basic 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 152 
  approach shown here could be used quite mechanically, but it is only 
  intended as a guide unless there is no GM. In the absence of a GM players 
  can use solo mechanics, including preferred actions, to introduce a greater 
  variety of gameplay options and/ or to make play less completely random. 
   
  Preferred Actions Table 
  2D6 Creature 
  1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  6 
  2 
  Deadly 
  Demand 
  Demand 
  Attacks 
  Attacks 
  Attacks 
  Tricks 
  3 
  Devious 
  Demand 
  Attacks 
  Attacks 
  Attacks 
  Tricks 
  Insults 
  4 
  Furious 
  Attacks 
  Attacks 
  Attacks 
  Tricks 
  Insults 
  Warns 
  5 
  Combative 
  Attacks 
  Attacks 
  Tricks 
  Insults 
  Warns 
  Quizzes 
  6 
  Hostile 
  Attacks 
  Tricks 
  Insults 
  Warns 
  Quizzes 
  Recruits 
  7 
  Coercive 
  Tricks 
  Insults 
  Warns 
  Quizzes 
  Recruits Parleys 
  8 
  Difficult 
  Insults 
  Warns 
  Quizzes 
  Recruits 
  Parleys 
  Parleys 
  9 
  Diplomatic 
  Warns 
  Quizzes 
  Recruits 
  Parleys 
  Parleys 
  Parleys 
  10 
  Welcoming Quizzes 
  Recruits 
  Parleys 
  Parleys 
  Parleys 
  Gifts 
  11 
  Friendly 
  Recruits 
  Parleys 
  Parleys 
  Parleys 
  Gifts 
  Gifts 
  12 
  Samaritan 
  Parleys 
  Parleys 
  Parleys 
  Gifts 
  Gifts 
  Blesses 
   
  Obvious modifiers to such tables might include taking account of how 
  threatening monsters or aliens are within a game. For instance, an 
  extremely dangerous creature could role at -2 in the vertical column, while 
  a lethal creature might roll at -3. 
   
  Solo and Team Play 
   
  The steps involved in building a solo or team adventure/ campaign using 
  the adventure builder and/ or the world builder are often about working 
  through each builder from top to bottom using the dice indicated. The 
  results will inevitably be top-down and fairly random, but there are ways to 
  make play more varied and less completely random: 
   
  Customization 
  Players can adjust the contents of the tables to suit the genre and types of 
  encounters they want to use to populate the game. Start by trimming the 
  tables to take out things you don’t want. Then replace or add any features 
  that you would like to include as part of a still random selection by dice 
  rolls, e.g. if you want a Lost World adventure full of dinosaurs pack the 
  monster tables with dinosaurs. 
   
  Nudges and Tilts 
  When making selections based on a dice roll it’s easy to hand back some 
  player choice by allowing yourself the option of spending a supply of luck/ 
  fate/ fortune points - perhaps collected during play - on nudges. A nudge is 
  a single move up or down one row from the result shown on the dice. A 
  character’s roll might also allow a tilt – i.e. a complete re-roll to get a 
  different result. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 153 
   
  How characters gain these luck points and how much they cost in one form 
  or another is more involving if they’re available through some kind of 
  challenge or long-term goal. 
   
  Preferred Actions  
  There is a tendency for solo play to boil down to a lot of random combat 
  encounters. This can be offset by alternative checks against other kinds of 
  skills or abilities. In addition, it is possible to look at presenting a short 
  convincing narrative – either to modify a skill/ ability check or to deliver an 
  outcome. 
   
  Preferred actions are one way of setting up a variety of gameplay options, 
  while keeping play fairly random and, therefore, less predictable. 
   
  Laying Out Solo and Team Adventures 
  The tables that follow allow the rapid outlining of team or solo adventures. 
   
  Solo or team play can be run by working from top to bottom through the 
  adventure builder tables. These are arranged to start with a mission and a 
  location - and to leave the NPCs/ monsters as one of the last features to be 
  unwrapped during play. This usually suits solo and team play, because it 
  keeps what is often the riskiest part of an encounter until the end. 
   
  The steps involved in preparing an adventure are affected by the way in 
  which the encounters areas/ rooms are laid out and revealed to players. 
  Options include: 
   
  1. Setting out the encounter areas/ rooms by rolling them as they’re 
  encountered. 
  2. Setting out the general types of encounter areas in advance, e.g. 
  tunnel, room or cavern. 
  3. Setting out the types of encounter areas in advance, e.g. kitchen or 
  crypt. 
   
  Some players will prefer to discover everything as they explore, while others 
  may prefer to concentrate on what’s inside the encounter areas during play. 
  Clearly, the more a layout is prepared in advance the quicker it will be to 
  play through. 
   
  Random Layouts Table 
  D6 Type of Chamber  
  Entrances 
  Entrance 
  1  
  Passageway  
  1 
  Closed Door 
  2  
  Empty Room or Cave 
  1 
  Locked Door 
  3  
  Occupied Room  
  2  
  Open Door 
  4  
  Occupied Room  
  2 
  Cave Mouth 
  5  
  Occupied Cave 
  3 
  Portcullis 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 154 
  D6 Type of Chamber  
  Entrances 
  Entrance 
  6  
  Roll Again  
  D6 
  Concealed or Secret Door 
   
  To end up with a useable layout the players need to spread areas out when 
  more than one or two chambers are connected to a single chamber. This 
  can be done by lengthening, re-orientating or reshaping connecting 
  tunnels. 
   
  With a layout in place or emerging during play the tables for furnishings 
  and accessories, tricks and traps, encounters and treasure can be added. 
  These may be drawn from the tables, but the stats and outcomes are going 
  to be those of your RPG of choice. 
   
  These solo options typically involve the following steps: 
   
  • Make a PC for the RPG of your choice and add any details from the 
  colorful characters’ section that suit the game-world/ are of interest. 
  • Decide how many nudges and tilts a PC is allowed and how/ where 
  they can get more from.  
   
  Campaign Level 
   
  • Decide how many nudges and/ or tilts can be spent at each level, i.e. 
  while campaign building, while adventure building and when 
  adventuring. A D6+6 might be a good starting point for nudges/ tilts 
  at each level. 
  • Select the level you want to start at in the world builder, e.g. 
  campaign challenges, terrain or locations - and work down. 
   
  Adventure Level 
   
  • If you have used the world builder to identify adventure locations use 
  those locations as you transfer to the adventure builder. 
  • Select the level you want to start at in the adventure builder, e.g. 
  missions or those for filling out the contents of dungeon - and work 
  down. 
  • Use a Random Layouts Table like the one above to map the dungeon 
  before rolling the contents on the tables in the adventure builder. 
  • Reach for your rules system or use a Preferred Actions Table to judge 
  the likely actions of the occupants of the location you are exploring. 
  • Use your rules system or even the basic lists of fantasy monsters and 
  our skills checks to arrive at clear outcomes. 
  • Grab any loot, experience or extra nudges/ tilts your PC has earned. 
   
  Solo and team play will run faster if a Random Layout Table and a Preferred 
  Actions Table are set aside beforehand. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 155 
   
  Creatures 
   
  The fairly typical set of fantasy creatures that follows offers a ready-
  reference for GMs to select and keep track of various monsters and NPCs. 
  They may also be used to randomly select creatures of various levels of 
  difficult for solo or team gameplay. Having rolled or selected a creature the 
  specific stats from players’ RPG system of choice can be dropped in. 
   
  Alien species and races are less clearly familiar to most players with the 
  exception of a few obvious movie-stars. Races from a series like Star Trek 
  are probably not going to slot into SciFi campaigns that don’t use Star Trek 
  staples, so it is generally easier to take fantasy creatures - such as Orcs or 
  Dark Elves - and to translate them across. Porting creatures in this way 
  works well on worlds comparable to the worlds described in human 
  mythologies, but a lot can be done to make alien species more unique and 
  varied by taking account of the physical and psychological impact of the 
  conditions and situations that define their lives. 
   
  Where a role or rank is described GMs or players may wish to roll the dice 
  more than once to establish the type of creature or race serving as, for 
  example, soldiers. It might also be useful to add classes for PCs and NPCs 
  for games that use character classes. 
   
  Dangerous Creatures 
   
  Dangerous Creatures Table 
  2D20 Creature 
  Details 
  2 
  Ants, Giant 
   
  3 
  Badgers, Giant 
   
  4 
  Bats, Giant 
   
  5 
  Beetles, Giant 
   
  6 
  Bears 
   
  7 
  Centipedes, Giant 
   
  8 
  Crocodiles, Normal 
   
  9 
  Dark Elves 
   
  10 
  Demons, Base 
   
  11 
  Devils, Base 
   
  12 
  Dwarves 
   
  13 
  Elves 
   
  14 
  Ghouls 
   
  15 
  Gnolls 
   
  16 
  Goblins 
   
  17 
  Hobgoblins 
   
  18 
  Human, Berserkers 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 156 
  2D20 Creature 
  Details 
  19 
  Human, Outlaws 
   
  20 
  Human, Sergeants 
   
  21 
  Human, Soldiers 
   
  22 
  Human, Workers 
   
  23 
  Kobolds 
   
  24 
  Lizardmen 
   
  25 
  Mermen 
   
  26 
  Nixies 
   
  27 
  Orc, Sergeants 
   
  28 
  Orc, Soldiers 
   
  29 
  Rats, Giant 
   
  30 
  Rays, Giant 
   
  31 
  Skeletons, Animal 
   
  32 
  Skeletons, Humanoid 
   
  33 
  Skeletons, Monster 
   
  34 
  Wasps, Giant 
   
  35 
  Wolves 
   
  36 
  Wolves, Timber 
   
  37 
  Zombies 
   
  38 
  Roll Twice 
   
  39 
  Roll Twice 
   
  40 
  Roll Thrice 
   
   
  Very Dangerous Creatures 
   
  Very Dangerous Creatures Table 
  2D20 Creature 
  Details 
  2 
  Ants, Giant (Warriors) 
   
  3 
  Badgers, Honey 
   
  4 
  Bats, Giant 
   
  5 
  Bears, Giant 
   
  6 
  Boars, Wild 
   
  7 
  Carrion Creatures 
   
  8 
  Centaurs 
   
  9 
  Centipedes, Giant 
   
  10 
  Crabs, Giant 
   
  11 
  Crocodiles, Giant 
   
  12 
  Demons, Minor 
   
  13 
  Devils, Minor 
   
  14 
  Dogs, Phantom 
   
  15 
  Dryads 
   
  16 
  Gargoyles 
   
  17 
  Harpies 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 157 
  2D20 Creature 
  Details 
  18 
  Hippogriffs 
   
  19 
  Hornets, Giant 
   
  20 
  Hounds of Hell 
   
  21 
  Hounds, Hunting 
   
  22 
  Lions 
   
  23 
  Lycanthrope, Wereboars 
   
  24 
  Lycanthrope, Wererats 
   
  25 
  Lycanthrope, 
  Werewolves 
   
  26 
  Minotaurs 
   
  27 
  Ogres 
   
  28 
  Ogres, Mountain 
   
  29 
  Pegasi 
   
  30 
  Rats, Giant 
   
  31 
  Shadows 
   
  32 
  Spiders, Giant 
   
  33 
  Spiders, Giant Wolf 
   
  34 
  Squids, Giant 
   
  35 
  Unicorns 
   
  36 
  Wights, Burial 
   
  37 
  Wraiths 
   
  38 
  Roll Twice 
   
  39 
  Roll Twice 
   
  40 
  Roll Thrice 
   
   
  Extremely Dangerous Creatures 
   
  Extremely Dangerous Creatures Table 
  2D20 Creature 
  Details 
  1 
  Ants, Giant (Queen) 
   
  2 
  Banshees 
   
  3 
  Basilisks 
   
  4 
  Cockatrices 
   
  5 
  Demons, Minor 
   
  6 
  Devils, Major 
   
  7 
  Devils, Minor 
   
  8 
  Dragons, Yellow 
   
  9 
  Dragons, Black  
   
  10 
  Dragons, Green 
   
  11 
  Dragons, Red 
   
  12 
  Dragons, White 
   
  13 
  Elementals 
   
  14 
  Treants 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 158 
  2D20 Creature 
  Details 
  15 
  Erinyes 
   
  16 
  Fish, Giant 
   
  17 
  Ghosts 
   
  18 
  Giants, Mountain 
   
  19 
  Giants, Rock 
   
  20 
  Griffins 
   
  21 
  Hounds of Hell 
   
  22 
  Hydrae 
   
  23 
  Lich 
   
  24 
  Lycanthrope, Werebears 
   
  25 
  Manticores 
   
  26 
  Medusae 
   
  27 
  Mummies 
   
  28 
  Ogres, Storm 
   
  29 
  Pools, Deadly 
   
  30 
  Salamanders 
   
  31 
  Scorpions, Giant 
   
  32 
  Specters 
   
  33 
  Squids, Giant 
   
  34 
  Succubi 
   
  35 
  Trolls 
   
  36 
  Vampires 
   
  37 
  Wyverns 
   
  38 
  Roll Twice 
   
  39 
  Roll Twice 
   
  40 
  Roll Thrice 
   
   
  Lethal Creatures 
   
  Lethal Creatures Table 
  2D20 Creature 
  Details 
  2 
  Banshees 
   
  3 
  Chimeras 
   
  4 
  Demon Prince or Lord 
   
  5 
  Demons (2nd) 
   
  6 
  Demons (3rd) 
   
  7 
  Demons (4th) 
   
  8 
  Demons (5th) 
   
  9 
  Devils, Noble 
   
  10 
  Dragon Turtles 
   
  11 
  Dragons, Black 
   
  12 
  Dragons, Blue 
   
  13 
  Dragons, Gold 
   
  
   
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  2D20 Creature 
  Details 
  14 
  Dragons, Green 
   
  15 
  Dragons, Red 
   
  16 
  Elementals 
   
  17 
  Treants 
   
  18 
  Genies 
   
  19 
  Giants, Air 
   
  20 
  Giants, Flame 
   
  21 
  Giants, Ice 
   
  22 
  Giants, Thunder 
   
  23 
  Golems, Battle 
   
  24 
  Golems, Metallic 
   
  25 
  Gorgons 
   
  26 
  Hydrae 
   
  27 
  Liches 
   
  28 
  Nagas 
   
  29 
  Rakshasas 
   
  30 
  Rocs 
   
  31 
  Sea Monsters 
   
  32 
  Sea Serpents 
   
  33 
  Snare Beasts 
   
  34 
  Titans 
   
  35 
  Vampires 
   
  36 
  Will-o-the-Wisps 
   
  37 
  Worms, Giant  
   
  38 
  Roll Thrice 
   
  39 
  Roll Twice 
   
  40 
  Roll Twice 
   
   
  Tricks 
   
  While traps can become more elaborate and damaging at higher levels, it’s 
  often trickery involving NPCs that contributes more towards providing a 
  darker setting and greater entertainment. 
   
  Ciphers 
  Code-breaking falls into the area of puzzles rather than trickery. However, 
  the means by which codes are carried, the value of the information they 
  carry and the possibly multi-layered meaning of a coded message is open 
  to plenty of tricks and deceptions. For instance, a part of a map drawn with 
  hidden ink on torn canvas could present adventurers with a lot of possible 
  places to search for more pieces. Ships’ sails, artists’ canvases and knights’ 
  pavilions might all get checked; but will the players notice the sails on the 
  large model in a shop window. 
   
  
   
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  Daylight Robbery 
  Allowing players to notice something unusual about the otherwise usual 
  can reveal a wide range of seemingly innocent activities, which may be 
  trying to look almost too ordinary. Coin-clipping, false repairs, weighed-
  down wagons or pack animals, short measures and similar discrepancies 
  allow players to either investigate or collaborate with criminals, law 
  enforcement agencies, victims and politicians. 
   
  Feigning Injury 
  Faking injury or presenting yourself as being weaker than an opponent 
  might expect is a common trickery. For example, a tented field hospital full 
  of bandaged and bloodied warriors could easily serve as a trap, which 
  might be foreshadowed by a bucket of pigs’ blood sitting outside the back 
  of the tent. Equally, a young dragon may be acting as bait for a trap set by 
  and watched over by its parents. Perhaps the players’ will show enough 
  compassion to encourage the dragons to let them pass; perhaps not. 
   
  Forgeries 
  Forgeries are a favorite for many GMs, as just about anything from a stamp 
  to a costume can be forged. Gold coated in copper paint, valuable coins 
  and stamps, works of art of all descriptions, metals which have been 
  melted down and reshaped, counterfeit goods, genuine and not so genuine 
  holy relics, food containing fake saffron or truffles, drinks made from 
  revolting ingredients and similar deceptions usually work well. 
   
  Glue 
  Bark resins, tomato frogs, honeycomb, melted rubber, melted glass, tars, 
  treacle, syrups, conserves and boiled bones are among the sticky options 
  available for tricks. Gluey tricks can, for example, be used to introduce 
  some sticky slapstick, to delay adventurers and to act as extra hazards. 
   
  Goo 
  Ooze, gel, slime, mud, grease, lard, fungi and several other kinds of 
  generally disgusting goo all have properties which can be used along the 
  lines of glue tricks. Ooze and gel-based monsters have been around in 
  RPGs for a long time, but there are plenty of variants that easily fit into 
  most games either as dungeon cleaners or through having an effect which 
  slots them into ongoing events. For instance, if only three-quarters of the 
  specially imported healthy mud going into Spa treatments is there when 
  clients leave, where is the other quarter going; and what is it getting up to? 
   
  Gremlins 
  Gremlins and gargoyles are the commonplace mischief makers known for 
  triggering 
  mechanical 
  failures 
  and 
  mishaps. 
  These 
  supernatural 
  troublemakers are suited to their role, but there are lots of natural or 
  mechanical ‘gremlins’ that can be brought into play. 
   
  
   
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  Magpies snatching items, squirrels chewing through cables, termites 
  destroying wood and wasps chewing leaves or paper, all offer entirely 
  natural ‘gremlins’ that are good at destroying evidence. 
   
  Wear and tear caused by weight, friction or corrosion may also cause 
  problems, which can be compounded by various accidents and knock-on 
  effects involving spills, sparks and similar dangers. 
   
  Industrial Processes and Espionage 
  Laboratories, production lines, shipyards, distilleries, building sites, 
  smelting works, kilns, chemical stores, mines, tanneries, (and most other 
  industrial processes), are open to introducing more trickery. Adventurers 
  can deal with others’ industrial tricks, (or get involved in the trickery for 
  themselves), 
  by 
  playing 
  through 
  the 
  changing 
  conditions 
  and 
  circumstances involve in industry, industrial processes and industrial 
  mishaps. Sabotage, ‘data’ theft, insider trading, the theft of commercial 
  rights, counterfeiting operations, fraud, substandard processes and the 
  events surrounding industrial accidents are among the choices available to 
  GMs and players. 
   
  Loaded Dice 
  Cold readings, spiritualist hoaxes, fixed races and fights, an expensive set 
  of loaded dice, and maps or messages, (which have been opened, read, 
  possibly revised and probably resealed), are among the slightly infuriating 
  cheats that can be used to leave adventurers looking for the culprits and/ 
  or stuck in the lurch. 
   
  Mix-Ups and Muddles 
  Other confusions involving mixed or confused messages offer plenty of 
  ways to keep players on their toes. A missing word or undelivered dispatch 
  that alters battle plans could be the starting point for a series of knock–on 
  effects and confusions. For example, an order to retreat might arrive in the 
  hands of a single courageous adventurer who feels motivated to fight on. 
  Does the adventurer choose to trick the rest of the party by keeping the 
  news private - or come clean but insist they stay? Equally, a verbal message 
  between two kings might be misheard and carry an unintended insult; 
  leaving the adventurers to either insist it’s a mistake or to fan the flames. 
   
  Moonshine 
  Illicit commodities of all sorts are open to tricks involving every stage of 
  the 
  production, 
  treatment, 
  storage, 
  distribution, 
  marketing 
  and 
  criminalization of such goods. Moonshine and the Prohibition Era offer an 
  example of the type of atmosphere of double-dealing and bribery that can 
  help to shape a setting where players keep an eye on their wallets and their 
  backs. 
   
  
   
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  Obvious narcotics and intoxicants are far from the only options. If the 
  goods are low volume and high value then stamp collecting or rare flowers 
  can stir up just as much backbiting and volatility as a more predictable 
  drugs laboratory. A player who took her/ his adventurer into trading in 
  exotic creatures or monsters is an example where the adventurer might 
  expect to end-up handling some particularly unpredictable goods. 
   
  Pyramid Schemes 
  Commercial scams and stings of all kinds are available as tricks. 
  Unfinished building work and shoddy repairs to weapons or chariots might 
  present short sub-plots or a single adventure. However, it’s easy to take 
  opportunistic frauds much further. 
   
  One of the most common, but successful, major scams is the pyramid 
  scheme. Adventurers may get invited into a scheme, set up a scheme or 
  lend money to someone joining a scheme. Any way round, everyone will be 
  smiling and credible until the bubble bursts and lots of investors lose loads 
  of money. 
   
  Out and About 
   
  After exploring a few dungeons many adventurers will be ready to step 
  outside and try their luck in wildernesses, enchanted forests, haunted 
  castles and, eventually, whole nations or worlds. This can be done through 
  drawing together a series of dungeons and using a few wilderness 
  encounters to liven up the journeys between dungeons. For example, 
  adventurers are likely to come across various outdoor hazards on their 
  travels. These can be rolled or selected, but may have to be adapted to the 
  terrain and any ongoing events, including selecting or adapting hazards to 
  suit journeys through underworld regions. 
   
  Wilderness Encounters Table 
  3D12 
  Encounter 
  Encountered 
  3 
  Ambush 
  Ambushes usually take advantage of the 
  local terrain. It is reasonable to allow 
  adventurers some warning, such as birds 
  taking flight from woods, though this may 
  arrive late in the day unless adventurers 
  have been scouting 
  4 
  Bounty Hunters 
  Adventurers who are avoiding arrest, 
  hiding in political exile or caught-up in a 
  feud can expect to run into problems now 
  and again 
  5 
  Convoy 
  Escorting, defending and looting convoys 
  are all seemingly straightforward options, 
  which are likely to have knock-on effects 
  
   
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  3D12 
  Encounter 
  Encountered 
  6 
  Dead End 
  Dead ends are either frustrating delays or 
  not what they claim to be. It is relatively 
  easy to encourage a party to take risks if 
  the only alternative is a 50 mile delay  
  7 
  Equipment Failure 
  A wagon’s axle breaks, the horses’ saddles 
  snap or any similar minor mishaps may 
  delay and endanger parties 
  8 
  False Trail 
  Misleading signposts, false tracks and 
  other misdirections easily add delays or 
  draw adventurers into traps 
  9 
  Flash Flood 
  The force of sudden flooding is sufficient 
  to sweep away camps, break up 
  formations and serve up a local emergency 
  10 
  Flocking 
  Aerial creatures may gather in unusually 
  high numbers and start hunting in flocks 
  of 5D10 or more 
  11 
  Marsh 
  Marshlands have their own subset of 
  monsters and plenty of obvious hazards 
  for unwary adventurers. Making them 
  more dangerous at night or during high 
  tides can introduce changes of pace 
  12 
  Mercenaries 
  Bands of 2D8 troops are what they claim 
  to be. Pay them more than the opposition, 
  (allowing for their risk), and they will 
  follow orders – while it pays 
  13 
  Merchants 
  Merchants may range from rag traders 
  through to hugely wealthy caravan owners 
  protected by plenty of bodyguards 
  14 
  Military Patrol 
  The size and approach of the force will 
  reflect the circumstances. In peace time 
  2D6 troops might be usual. During a war 
  numbers are likely to be closer to 4D6. 
  Adventurers caught in hostile territory can 
  expect to be questioned or interrogated 
  15 
  Militia 
  Militia units of 4D4 troops can either 
  become valuable allies with local 
  knowledge to share or particularly 
  dangerous opponents 
  16 
  Monsters 
  Monsters of all kinds work just as well out-
  of-doors. They can be introduced 
  separately from or alongside other hazards 
  17 
  Nemesis 
  An old enemy, now in a position of power, 
  comes across the group in circumstances 
  where the enemy at least appears to have 
  an major advantage 
  
   
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  3D12 
  Encounter 
  Encountered 
  18 
  Obstacle 
  Chasms, ravines, steep slopes, rivers and 
  crags are among the delays and ambush 
  opportunities available to GMs 
  19 
  Old Friend 
  Someone at least one of the players knows 
  turns up. This may be to a weakened 
  party’s advantage or place a burden on an 
  adventurer or party 
  20 
  Outlaws 
  Outlaw bands of 4D8 may seek to find out 
  if they share any common cause with a 
  party. Otherwise they are likely to assault 
  and / or kidnap adventurers 
  21 
  Poacher 
  Poachers have inside knowledge of the 
  landscape, local folklore, rumors and 
  wildlife. If threatened in any way they have 
  a Renegade’s ability to Hide in Shadows 
  and Move Silently while escaping 
  22 
  Poisoned Wells 
  Poisoning wells is an easy way to slow an 
  enemy’s advance. Animal carcasses and 
  barrels of salt can poison wells 
  23 
  Pranks 
  Kids, drunks and mischievous creatures 
  may revel in playing seemingly harmless 
  jokes on travelers. Glue on a rope bridge, 
  sparks in a crop dust cloud or a stone 
  hurled through a clue embedded in a 
  stained-glass window can all present 
  complications 
  24 
  Prospectors 
  Most prospectors are going to welcome 
  company, but they may be paranoid about 
  their claims 
  25 
  Rivals 
  Rivals in most forms of conflict are likely 
  to travel along major thoroughfares. 
  Anything from a scouting party to an 
  entire army may appear on the horizon 
  26 
  Rock Falls 
  Tumbling boulders, collapsing 
  embankments, avalanches of all types and 
  crumbling masonry can provide plenty of 
  danger and anxious moments 
  27 
  Ruins 
  These may be re-occupied or simply 
  provide a place of shelter where there 
  might be some extra equipment lying 
  around. Alternatively, the ancient ruins of 
  an entire civilization may lie buried just 
  below the ground 
  
   
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  3D12 
  Encounter 
  Encountered 
  28 
  Scorched Earth 
  Destroying orchards, crops, settlements, 
  livestock and bridges are among the steps 
  available to retreating armies and vandals. 
  Magical traps, poisoning, curses and mass 
  destruction are more likely if there is no 
  intention of reclaiming the damaged land 
  29 
  Shortcut 
  Shortcuts usually involve taking risks to 
  move faster. However, they can also be 
  introduced to speed a journey along.  
  30 
  Swarm 
  Swarms of flying insects and crawling bugs 
  may be mere distractions or prove as 
  deadly as mosquitos. Swarms of 
  monstrous insects may sometimes gather 
  in groups of 4D4 or above 
  31 
  Tolls and Taxes 
  Taxes on goods, individuals and even 
  groups are likely to crop up fairly 
  frequently. Especially where any level of 
  protection is offered or where money has 
  been spend to provide a service, e.g. a 
  bridge 
  32 
  Tourists 
  Tourists might be out enjoying themselves 
  or find themselves completely out of their 
  depth in a wilderness area 
  33 
  Vapor 
  Fumes, mists, dews, vapors, gases and 
  exhalations can be weakening, corrosive, 
  curative or magical. Ideally, adventurers 
  will have the opportunity to limit or reduce 
  the effects 
  34 
  War Party 
  As many as 5D10 humanoids form a band 
  of warriors with D4 Fighters of 2D4 levels. 
  A Cleric, Ranger or Paladin of 2D4 levels 
  will usually accompany the group 
  35 
  Water Hazards 
  A lot of transportation takes place along 
  or across waterways, which opens up the 
  use of aquatic monsters and maritime 
  threats. Water hazards can occur inland, 
  as a deep puddle is enough to break a 
  chariot wheel or conceal a creature 
  36 
  Wreckage 
  Shipwrecks, smoldering villages and 
  abandoned cargoes can be used as plot 
  devices or dungeon sites 
  
   
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  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 167 
  Part 7: World Builder 
   
  With a handful of campaign challenges in place it becomes very easy to 
  rapidly build campaigns and adventures that fit into your group’s plans as 
  outlined during campaign planning/ by player profiles. 
   
  World building can start at any level within the tables that follow. So a 
  dungeon can be made and the world may develop from bottom to top. 
  Alternatively, cosmology, physics and metaphysics can deliver a top down 
  approach, which shapes a physical world that is then detailed through 
  further levels including people, places and the events they generate. 
   
  The earlier step-by-step on building adventures is laid out with a top down 
  approach, but any of the tables can be taken as a starting point. The GM 
  can then build in any direction and still connect-up different levels within a 
  logical hierarchy. 
   
  The same applies to campaign building and designing a campaign could 
  start with anything from an interstellar effect like low gravity that has 
  massively widespread effects to starting with a piece of bloodstained cloth 
  and building upwards from there. 
   
  Creating worlds that are reasonably authentic tends to be easier using a 
  top-down approach. However, it’s a lot quicker to try out a regional map 
  and then use what comes out of that to consider global effects as a region 
  turns into a world. 
   
  Players/ GMs can take any starting point, but the approach and order 
  suggested here is to place campaign challenges at the heart of campaign 
  designs, before adding other more global and more detailed levels of 
  description. 
   
  This method places players’ preferences - in terms of what they wish their 
  players to do or get involved in - as a spine running through the design of 
  the campaign. This is not intended to be a rigid arrangement, as apart from 
  anything else players’ preference may stray across any boundaries a GM 
  tries to set, e.g. we’d like to play through a war on an ice world. 
   
  Nevertheless, by placing campaign challenges - and the events and 
  expectations they generate - ahead of physical environments or economic 
  conditions the game-world is fitting the players’ plans rather than vice-
  versa.  
   
  Instead of trying to construct a campaign or adventure from the ground-up 
  or top-down, GMs can take the group’s overall plans and easily select 
  cosmologies, climates, cultures, places, events and characters that are 
  consistent with the campaign challenges selected by players. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 168 
   
  In addition, having selected a campaign challenge, such as warfare, a lot of 
  what follows at other levels or layers becomes largely self-selecting. For 
  instance, wars typically involve defensive structures, widespread hardship 
  and desperate measures. 
   
  With much of a setting or campaign outlined in this way a GM is free to 
  concentrate on adding her/ his own unique, challenge-focused gameplay to 
  the challenge-based framework. 
   
  There are whole books of world building lists available, so the following 
  tables are not exhaustive. These lists do, however, offer plenty of choices 
  without becoming overwhelming. 
   
  Campaign Challenges Table 
  No. Campaign Challenges  
  Details 
  1 
  Conquest and Colonization 
   
  2 
  Counter Insurgency 
   
  3 
  Crime Fighting 
   
  4 
  Disasters/ Crisis Management 
   
  5 
  Dawn of the Undead 
   
  6 
  Enterprise and Commerce 
   
  7 
  Espionage and Infiltration 
   
  8 
  Internecine Warfare 
   
  9 
  Marine Life 
   
  10 
  Massive Meteor Strikes 
   
  11 
  Mysteries and Investigations 
   
  12 
  Research and Experimentation 
   
  13 
  Revolution 
   
  14 
  Survival Scenarios 
   
  15 
  Warfare and Sieges 
   
   
  Landscapes 
   
  The dramatic physical locations chosen as backdrops for RPG campaigns 
  and adventures are frequently based on real world landscapes and 
  landmarks. For example, spectacular mountain ranges, huge underworld 
  grottos, temperamental volcanoes and treacherous swamps seem to be 
  particular favorites among GMs. 
   
  GMs will often try to vary physical locations by presenting an exaggerated 
  version of a familiar terrain, by adding complications such as extreme 
  weather and/ or by overlaying magical effects. These approaches can be 
  very helpful, as they take play beyond the limits of real world locations 
  without requiring everyone to learn how to operate in and identify with a 
  completely alien environment. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 169 
   
  The range of options opened up by a certain amount of remixing can be 
  considerable. For example, unusual but fairly authentic outcomes can 
  result from placing a city on a ship, situating a volcano on the shores of an 
  ocean or simply filling a swamp with enchanted gel. 
   
  Players generally find it easy to adapt their PCs’ play to take account of an 
  unusual twist on familiar landscapes and terrains. More complete or 
  outlandish locations are, perhaps, better used sparingly, as clashes 
  between the underlying physical laws of the game-world and players’ 
  understanding of those laws may undermine a game’s sense of authenticity 
  or internal consistency. 
   
  GMs can easily introduce further variety by linking gameplay to dynamic 
  features of the physical landscape. This already happens quite frequently 
  when, for example, the gameplay assumes that night follows day or that the 
  seasons match those in the real world.  
   
  There’s really a very wide range of climate variations, infrequent events and 
  deforming landscapes for GMs and players to explore. Shifting glaciers, 
  avalanches, seasonal tides, flash floods, lahars, monsoon conditions or 
  mudflats aren’t going to feature constantly, but they are typical of the kinds 
  of physical features and events that can halt an advancing army or sweep a 
  convoy off a mountain trail. 
   
  When it comes to putting a GM’s own spin on cosmologies physics/ 
  metaphysics, climates and landscapes it is usually much simpler to add 
  specific effects instead of trying to map out or calculate a wholly accurate 
  simulation. For example, the following ‘Night and Day’ environment offers 
  up opportunities to explore contrasting worldviews. 
   
  The planet or world is split between permanent night and day. This alone 
  sets up two sets of social, political, economic and ritual worlds, which offer 
  plenty of dramatic contrasts on land, in the air or beneath any waves. The 
  resulting climate and terrain, social structures, vegetation and wildlife – 
  along with a good many other conditions - are going to be focused on or 
  specialized around contrasts between diurnal, nocturnal and, possibly, 
  crepuscular or magical lifestyles. Anyone looking for extra options can 
  easily throw in a twilight region. 
   
  Given the extent of the influence the landscape can have on play, it is 
  clearly possible for GMs to get a tighter match between physical locations 
  and ongoing quests or plots by linking quest and plot development to the 
  changing features of the landscape. 
   
  Different RPG genres and settings are suited to different physical 
  environments, so the landscapes that fit with fantasy games are likely to be 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 170 
  quite distinct from, for example, those that fit into Sci-Fi games. Whatever 
  the genre, the same principles apply in terms of trying to latch on to the 
  familiar, while introducing novelty and variety. 
   
  For instance, a GM designing a Sci-Fi setting is probably going to deliver a 
  fairly compelling setting simply by reading a few pages on the incredible 
  environments of the solar system and exo-planets. 
   
  A GM who prefers to try to come up with something entirely out of the blue 
  every time out is, perhaps, going to find that the effects of the physical 
  conditions are difficult to apply consistently. 
   
  Gazetteers 
   
  Before continuing on to step-by-step campaign design it is worth 
  mentioning that compiling a basic gazetteer is a helpful way to set out 
  some of the more obvious and widely known features of a setting or 
  campaign. The example presented here tries to illustrate how quite a short 
  summary of local conditions can quickly sketch out the basic landscape 
  and politics of a region. 
   
  There are many possible ways to enhance a gazetteer very quickly. These 
  might include adding images showing similar terrain, adding campaign 
  notes or including tables such as the Wilderness Encounters Table shown 
  earlier. 
   
  There is no need to present players with information in advance or to 
  spend time on a detailed gazetteer. However, it doesn’t take long to 
  prepare one using a template such as the Eaglesridge Gazetteer and they 
  can be useful for GMs interested in having a core document that pulls 
  together the key features and events of a campaign as play progresses. 
  Clearly, including rough maps and images of the landscape and/ or 
  locations will make for a more complete presentation. 
   
  The Eaglesridge Gazetteer 
   
  The Eaglesridge region is secure territory equipped with good quality 
  roads. Four bridges span the two major rivers that cut down through the 
  center of the countryside. These bridges shorten journeys between the 
  settlements to regular distances of roughly 20 miles. 
   
  The Countryside 
  Those exploring throughout much of the Eaglesridge region can expect to 
  encounter travelers near the major crossroads marked on the map as 
  jewels. Some caution is urged when journeying further from Eaglesridge, as 
  this is frontier territory and a variety of monsters can be encountered in 
  overgrown or wilderness areas. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 171 
  The Territory 
   
  Chapter 
  Chapter is an area of woods and grasslands gifted to an order of knights 
  for their part in the capture and defense of Eaglesridge and Ravenswharf at 
  the point when the region was first torn from the wilderness. 
   
  The land produces grain and orchard fruits through the efforts of monks 
  and householders attached to the knights' holy order. 
   
  At present relations between the Overlord of Eaglesridge and the knights 
  are strained to such an extent that the order will not fight in defense of the 
  Overlord's territory. 
   
  Eaglesridge 
  The prosperous merchant city of Eaglesridge holds some or all territorial 
  rights over most of the surrounding region. Almost 20,000 humans live 
  inside the city walls. 
   
  The city rests on the top of a long line of hills, which form a continuous 
  ridge from north to south. The site enjoys panoramic views over the local 
  landscape, but few eagles soar over the crags and outcrops, as they were 
  considered a nuisance and fed poisoned bait until most died. 
   
  A hereditary Overlord, Ascaric, owns the surrounding region by right of 
  arms. He wrested the holding from the wilderness 27 years ago. His grip 
  over the region is secured by a force of 1,500 mercenaries. The Chapter 
  Knights, who were instrumental in the capture of the once dragon infested 
  land, have become a much weakened force in recent times. 
   
  Foundry 
  Local iron deposits and silver from the Sapphire area are melted-down and 
  forged in the Overlord's foundry. The workshops produce a wide range of 
  goods, including weapons, armor, farming equipment, mining equipment 
  and many household and luxury goods. 
   
  Orchid 
  Orchid is an area of grasslands and orchards. The orchards produce pears, 
  apples and peaches, which sell for good prices throughout the region and 
  beyond. 
   
  The territory gained its name from the varieties of orchids which once 
  thrived there. The orchids were prized by the dragons and the land was 
  cleared of orchids to discourage their visits. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 172 
  The current landholder is the sister of the Overlord of Eaglesridge. 
  Ironically, the self-styled 'Lady Orchid' personally supervises the removal 
  and destruction of any orchid stems starting to grow within the area. 
   
  Ravenswharf 
  Ravenswharf is a frontier port packed full of explorers, merchants and 
  pioneering families seeking freeholds. The current population ranges from 
  15,000 in winter to 25,000 in high summer. 
   
  Sapphires, silver, fruits, wheat and timber are exported through a busy 
  harbor, which imports gold, spices and alchemical supplies. 
   
  The city has grown rapidly in recent years. This is largely the result of rich 
  merchants supporting a burgeoning middle class, which provides services 
  and luxury goods for the wealthy few. 
   
  The city and its surroundings are controlled from Eaglesridge, with a 
  Harbor Master looking after much of the day-to-day running of the city and 
  its harbor. 
   
  Royal Lodge 
  The Royal Lodge area is a wooded, craggy estate used for hunting deer and 
  wilder animals. That includes monsters hiding in lairs to the southwest. The 
  territory gets its name from a complex of hunting lodges and cabins known 
  as The Royal Lodge, which belongs to the Overlord of Eaglesridge. He uses 
  the complex to impress important visitors and to charge the wealthy for 
  expensive hunting holidays. 
   
  The 'royal' tag is not sanctioned by any recognized kingdom, but serves to 
  emphasize the luxury accommodation and, perhaps, the Overlord of 
  Eaglesridge's wish that he should be declared king – turning the region 
  from a territorial confederacy into a fully-fledged nation state. 
   
  Sapphire 
  Much of the wealth used to build Eaglesridge and Ravenswharf came from 
  the region's sapphire mines. These are deep mines, which require a lot of 
  investment to access the rich veins of sapphire and silver buried far below 
  ground. 
   
  Tunneling operations have created countless abandoned mineshafts and 
  pitheads, which are quickly occupied by creatures suited to the 
  underground conditions. It would be expensive to protect the whole area 
  against bandits and monsters, so defensive fortifications are built around 
  working pitheads. 
   
  
   
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  Shadowcaster 
  Shadow caster is a remote area and for the most part the domain of a 
  magician who somehow came to hold rights over this section of the 
  Eaglesridge region. Small villages and cottages are dotted over the more 
  southern parts of the area; and these are administered by Eaglesridge. 
  However, the more mountainous north is largely deserted and home to a 
  sorcerer's tower. 
   
  Travelers have encountered monsters within the Shadowcaster area – but 
  few, if any, seem to break out into areas inhabited by humans. Travelers' 
  rumors and speculation also talks of some kind of ruins or ancient relics 
  located to the north, but the rumors are unconfirmed. Most talk on the 
  subject simply warns against wandering into the area. 
   
  Thornwood 
  Thornwood is a dense forest, which supplies much of the timber for 
  building in Ravenswharf and Eaglesridge. There is also a high demand for 
  timber to support the mining activities in the Sapphire area. 
   
  Several small settlements on the edge of the forest house woodcutters and 
  wagon teams. These are all positioned on the northern edge of the forest 
  and no one enters the forest unnecessarily. It is widely believed that 
  Thornwood is haunted and those who venture in only do so in groups of a 
  dozen or more. 
   
  The workers' fear is, perhaps, part superstition, part self-fulfilling prophecy - 
  as any accidents, mishaps or animal attacks are invariably blamed on or 
  linked to 'ghosts' and 'monsters'. However, there is much talk of a cursed 
  field of barrows hidden deep inside the forest. Others claim to have come 
  upon friends left dying from terrible claw and pincer wounds inflicted by 
  creatures of the forest. 
   
  The Build 
   
  A few campaign challenges and a rough idea of the nature of the physical 
  world is enough to start to build a campaign by selecting or rolling options 
  that set out more detail. There is no need to use the tables in a particular 
  order and GMs may well get used to moving around and between different 
  layers or levels of description. 
   
  Exotic and Alien Worlds 
   
  The easiest default world is an earth-like planet in a solar system with 
  oceans, continents and relatively mild weather systems. However, effects 
  can be applied that are unlikely to accurately simulate exotic or alien 
  environments, but which can shape play through fairly obvious and 
  recurring physical and psychological outcomes. 
  
   
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  Less is often more with these widespread effects, as anything unusual that 
  gets included typically has to be applied consistently - without surrendering 
  the player choice derived from players’ gameplay preferences/campaign 
  challenges or interrupting the flow of play. 
   
  New or relatively new GMs may be making running play significantly harder 
  for themselves if they rush to move away from quite standard/ Earth-like 
  worlds. 
   
  Exotic and Alien Worlds Table 
  D12 
  Landscape 
  Possible Effects 
  1 
  Atmospherics 
  An adjustment such as an oxygen-enriched 
  atmosphere can be applied at a planetary - or more 
  local - level without getting into any further 
  complications. Its influence within the game might 
  be as limited as greater strength or stamina and 
  significantly larger birds and insects. Alternatively, 
  the widespread effects could be extended to 
  consider the effects of all that extra oxygen on fires, 
  explosions and other chemical reactions. Other 
  obvious options include widespread or planetary 
  weather systems 
  2 
  Continental 
  Continents are going to appear in many campaigns 
  and are included later as part of detailing physical 
  landscapes. They can, however, also serve as cut-
  down versions of exotic or alien worlds. They are 
  typically boundaries for plagues, crops, wildlife/ 
  creatures, weather systems, catastrophes, 
  migrations and terrain. It is relatively 
  straightforward to try to use quite authentic science 
  to describe continents, but for fantasy worlds it’s 
  quicker to apply uniform effects across a continent, 
  such as a Snowball or Volcano World approach 
  3 
  Exo-Planetary 
  Less is known about planets located around distant 
  planetary systems. However, data has started to 
  pour in and could help to suggest new kinds of 
  planetary systems and/ or imaginative options 
  4 
  Galactic 
  At this level effects are still spread across vast areas 
  and large, but local, conditions might be open to 
  unusual forms of radiation that mutate or water with 
  strange properties 
  
   
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  D12 
  Landscape 
  Possible Effects 
  5 
  Ice World 
  Covering everything with ice, snow and blizzards 
  works in much the same way as a volcanic setting. 
  The physical environment has a strong influence 
  across the setting and, in the case of an Ice World, 
  the conditions are well-suited to gritty, survival 
  scenarios 
  7 
  Intergalactic 
  An entire region of space and everything in it can 
  form a pocket environment within a universe where 
  further adjustments to conditions operate. 
  Alternatively, large regions may be effected by 
  different conditions, e.g. regions with amplified 
  solar winds that disrupt communications 
  8 
  Metaphysics 
  Completely magical worlds are an easy way to 
  simplify campaign building. If castles sit happily on 
  clouds or you want to turn PCs into cartoons a 
  magical solution is the quick option. Some players 
  may question the internal consistency of such 
  settings, but a little negotiation can usually offset 
  that 
  9 
  Night and Day As mentioned above, the planet, solar system or 
  even galaxy is split between permanent night and 
  day. This alone sets up two sets of social, political, 
  economic and ritual landscapes, which offer plenty 
  of dramatic contrasts. For example, worship of the 
  stars might predominate in the dark zone, while 
  solar religions operate in the daylight zone 
  10 
  Planetary 
  Working on a planetary basis sticks with the familiar 
  solar system model, while inviting the use of effects 
  based on activity on the planet. Distorted global 
  weather systems, seas that act as chemical lakes 
  and life-forms adapted to such environments are 
  obvious options. Conditions on planets and moons 
  across the solar system can contribute to campaigns 
  – along with theories on how these conditions might 
  work in-game 
  11 
  Universal 
  Effects that act across an entire universe are good 
  for adjusting physics and/ or metaphysics, e.g. 
  unusual gravity or alternative magnetism. This 
  usually forks from known physics 
  
   
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  D12 
  Landscape 
  Possible Effects 
  12 
  Volcano World Whether imagined or based on scientific principle a 
  highly volcanic world offers a great variety of local 
  and global adjustments to the physical environment. 
  Lahars, pyroclastic clouds, dust, blasts, seismic 
  disturbances and lava lakes become the order of the 
  day.  This can be is applied to a planet, a continent 
  or a world sat on a coin that gets flipped by a giant 
  every now and again. The volcanic conditions 
  effectively zoom-in on gameplay that involves 
  dealing with a hazardous environment, which can in 
  itself be enough to flavor a campaign with cultures 
  highly adapted to dealing with the conditions 
   
  Using Signature Events 
   
  We can add similarly large-scale/ regional/ global customizations with 
  genre specific effects in the form of magical or high technology landmarks 
  and locations. These can be seen as a form of signature events, i.e. possibly 
  recurring, probably significant plot elements and/ or campaign themes. 
  These are seeded within a campaign at the upper levels or layers of design 
  – either before or after deciding on terrain and landscapes. 
   
  The exotic and alien worlds in the table above are in effect a type of 
  signature event and players of Corruption will be familiar with signature 
  events in the form of Seeds of Corruption and Seeds of Wonder; which 
  rapidly drop thematic landmarks, events, items and monsters into 
  campaigns. 
   
  Ultimately it’s how a signature event is used – to add continuity and 
  customization – that defines the term rather than the particular form of the 
  event. They are worth emphasizing at an early stage in campaign planning 
  and design, because they form part of the fabric of a campaign/ s and are 
  much easier to integrate and work with when introduced at roughly the 
  same time as campaign challenges. 
   
  Put another way, the various tables can be arranged into a consistent order 
  – which may mean putting what players want to spend time on and 
  recurring favorites at the very top of the system or stacking climate and 
  terrain above them and working down. 
   
  Alternatively, as a GM becomes more familiar with moving around and 
  between levels it gets easier to treat the tables not as a hierarchy, but as a 
  system where adventures and settings can be constructed by moving freely 
  between the different levels. 
   
  
   
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  Signature Events Table 
  D6 Landscape 
  Possible Effects 
  1 
  Armada 
  For most of the year the slave and pirate ships that 
  form the Armada are scattered along the trade routes 
  they prey upon. They far-flung fleet gathers in full 
  strength twice/ year. In late summer they form a 
  massive raiding fleet to plunder harvests and in winter 
  the ships are lashed together in for a winter tryst. 
  Several hundred full-ships, of galley or larger size, act 
  as a loose confederation and differences between 
  factions are settled at the winter trysts – as part of the 
  entertainment. The mix of criminals, pressed-men, 
  slaves and servants makes life very cheap during trysts 
  and the Armada as a whole uses a dragon standard to 
  warn those they order to surrender that no quarter will 
  be given to those who refuse 
  2 
  Blackwash 
  The world, continent or region under exploration is a 
  massive subterranean swamp where life is lived in 
  tunnels and fortified crannogs. These offer some 
  protection against huge creatures lurking within the 
  swamp 
  3 
  Night and Day This option appears again to emphasize that the same 
  effects can be applied on different levels/ scales. One 
  half of the territory is always in night, the other always 
  in day. The night side is highly adapted to very low 
  light in the manner of creatures living in the absolute 
  darkness of deep oceans and/ or bioluminescent life. 
  The other side is adapted to constant daylight, e.g. 
  plant life may produce less CO2 and oxygen levels 
  could be raised as a result  
  4 
  Passion 
  Flowers 
  The region has seasonal displays of colorful blossoms 
  which litter the ground and make their way into the 
  water supply soon after flowering. The petals dissolve 
  in rivers, streams and uncovered wells. Those drinking 
  the water across the whole region become unusually 
  emotional. The type of emotion affected seems linked 
  to the color of the flowers that have bloomed most 
  recently. Red blossom makes creatures fearless, while 
  yellow blossom makes them cowardly. Green blossom 
  brings on jealousy, while purple blossom leads to 
  extremes of passion. Other colors may have 
  unrecorded effects as a consequence of those effects 
  
   
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  D6 Landscape 
  Possible Effects 
  5 
  Secret Garden These labyrinthine gardens have magical fountains, 
  orchards bearing restorative fruits and enchanted 
  sundials - among other features. The standard benefits 
  are mild, but those who bury treasure in the garden 
  soon find they gain greater benefits from the 
  enchanted items. If enough treasure is buried magical 
  effects may become persistent or permanent. The 
  garden’s roots consume treasure as soon as it’s buried 
  6 
  Treetops 
  The trees in these forests are tall enough to offer 
  different environments at different altitudes. The 
  forest floor might be a largely gloomy level where 
  fallen branches and foliage form a landscape of dried 
  and twisted sticks and leaves. Above that tree-houses - 
  linked by walkways and chariot paths - may support 
  large communities that harvest nuts and fruit from the 
  trees. The currency here might be some form of ivory 
  or tusk large enough to use to make incredibly light 
  chariots with enchanted carvings 
   
  The following examples are more complete options which suggest ways to 
  design your own selection of signature events to build continuity, i.e. 
  ensuring players’ preferences and characters’ histories are carried forward 
  on a regular, if sometimes infrequent, basis. 
   
  Eldritch Battlefields 
  Ancient battlefields where colossal armies have met in vast conflicts that 
  raged over many miles and many years sometimes etch themselves into the 
  landscape. The remains of such a battle that were not plundered at the 
  time lie fairly close to the surface and present a series of hazards: 
   
  Slaughter pits that seep blood on to the surface can form ghoulish 
  quicksand traps where victims will flow down into the ghastly residue of 
  torn bone and partly petrified flesh lying below. 
   
  Bridges within such regions may be built or formed largely of flesh and 
  bone, which can react to the presence of the living by animating as swarms 
  of skeletons, ghouls and zombies. 
   
  Plants growing over the battlefield are likely to be affected; yielding an 
  acidic, black sap which makes them inedible. Boiling the plants down 
  eventually yields a concentrated sticky residue that is able to rapidly 
  corrode wood and non-magical metals in the manner of an acid – providing 
  it’s fresh. 
   
  Wells may appear to have clear water at the surface, but buckets lowered 
  deeper into a well are likely to become tangled in the honeycombed 
  
   
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  latticework formed by the many skeletons of those packed into the bottom 
  of the well. Drawing water from these wells appears to have no unusual 
  effects unless the water is allowed to form a standing pool or puddle of 
  twice the width of the top of the container used to draw the water. At that 
  point the water will turn red then blacken, as a creature of the night 
  emerges from the surface and attacks those nearby. 
   
  Getting rid of such a beast is fairly routine, but one will appear each round 
  until the water is mopped-up or broken-up to form a smaller surface area. 
  Unfortunately, trying to freeze the water forms an icy version of the 
  creature, which has its defense improved by D6 as a result of the layer of 
  ice that forms over it. Adding fire to try to burn off the water is as bad, 
  because the creatures become immolated in flames and cause an extra 
  2D6 when inflicting wounds. Even those making hand-to-hand attacks take 
  a D6 extra damage from an immolated creature of the night. 
   
  Paradise 
  These coral reefs are thought to form in locations where an evil being or 
  item, such as a devil or a forbidden libram, has been buried in an ocean in 
  the belief that doing so will permanently banish the evil. Regrettably, over 
  many years the living coral formed around such sources of intense evil start 
  to act as a conduit for the essence of the despicable creature or reliquary 
  imprisoned beneath the waves. 
   
  During daylight hours the water and the reef will typically be astonishingly 
  beautiful with corals displaying rich colors and supporting a wide variety of 
  marine wildlife. Those diving or fishing during daylight hours can take their 
  pick from a bountiful harvest of rare fish and rich oyster beds. Natural 
  predators, including sharks and barracuda may appear, but they are 
  consistently docile during daylight hours. 
   
  Unfortunately, as soon as it gets dark the reef’s colors darken and black, 
  dark green and purple veins start to appear within the coral - where they 
  seem to connect and pulsate. This brings out the savage nocturnal 
  inhabitants of the reef, which have the features, including in some cases 
  the bioluminescent trickery, of marine life usually found in much deeper 
  waters. Whether these vile creatures have lain hidden during the daylight, 
  are only made manifest at night or are altered forms of the daytime 
  creatures is not known for certain. 
   
  The creatures may well include species of Devil Fish, Angler Fish and 
  similarly otherworldly predators. These appear alongside more familiar 
  dangers such as Lionfish, sharks and octopuses, which are likely to have 
  senses adapted to hunting at night. 
   
  It is easy enough to steer clear of immediate dangers simply by staying out 
  of the water, but the coral won’t stop growing if left unattended. Beneath 
  
   
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  the surface the reef will increase its radius by as much as 10’ per week. 
  Once it hits land the pace slows to 5’/ week, but the effects become 
  deadlier. When rain or flowing water meets the coral on land it liquidizes 
  patches of the dry coral. This releases clusters of marine predators capable 
  of living on land or in the sea, e.g. octopuses and giant crabs. 
   
  Attacking the coral itself can slow the advance, but an established colony 
  will usually grow faster than it gets worn down. The only firm solution is to 
  locate the item or creature petrified within the reef and to remove it. This 
  then presents the problem of dealing with the source of evil once it has 
  been released, as it will usually only have been lying dormant. Once 
  released such creatures are likely to be aggressive. 
   
  Climate and Terrain 
   
  Coastlines, river systems, forestation and other features of the landscape 
  are suggested by choices of climate and terrain. Certain types of 
  landscapes easily fit particular campaign challenges. For example, trenches 
  are most easily dug in farmland. Alternatively, a GM may wish to select a 
  combination of climate and terrain which is then adapted to the campaign. 
  For instance, trenches might be carved into a glacier. 
   
  Climate and Terrain Table 
  D100 Landscape 
  Variants 
  1 
  Archipelago 
   
  2 
  Arête 
   
  3 
  Atoll 
   
  4 
  Beach 
   
  5 
  Bog 
   
  6 
  Bridges 
   
  7 
  Brush 
   
  8 
  Caldera 
   
  9 
  Cape 
   
  10 
  Causeway 
   
  11 
  Cave 
   
  12 
  Caverns 
   
  13 
  Chemical Lake 
   
  14 
  Chemical Lake 
   
  15 
  Chemical Pools 
   
  16 
  Chemical Streams 
   
  17 
  Cliffs 
   
  18 
  Cloudforest 
   
  19 
  Coastline 
   
  20 
  Continent 
   
  21 
  Corrie 
   
  
   
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  D100 Landscape 
  Variants 
  22 
  Couloir 
   
  23 
  Cove 
   
  24 
  Crater Lake 
   
  25 
  Currents 
   
  26 
  Delta 
   
  27 
  Desert 
   
  28 
  Drumlins 
   
  29 
  Dunes 
   
  30 
  Dustbowl 
   
  31 
  Escarpment 
   
  32 
  Estuary 
   
  33 
  Fields 
   
  34 
  Fjord 
   
  35 
  Flatlands 
   
  36 
  Flood Plain 
   
  37 
  Forest 
   
  38 
  Geyser 
   
  39 
  Glacier 
   
  40 
  Glade 
   
  45 
  Grotto 
   
  46 
  Hills 
   
  47 
  Island 
   
  48 
  Isle 
   
  49 
  Isthmus 
   
  50 
  Jungle 
   
  51 
  Lagoon 
   
  52 
  Lake or Loch 
   
  53 
  Lava Field 
   
  54 
  Levee 
   
  55 
  Magical Landscape 
   
  56 
  Maritime 
   
  57 
  Marsh 
   
  60 
  Mountains 
   
  61 
  Mudflats 
   
  62 
  Oasis 
   
  63 
  Ocean 
   
  64 
  Orchard 
   
  65 
  Pasture 
   
  66 
  Peninsular 
   
  67 
  Polder 
   
  68 
  Polluted Land 
   
  69 
  Pool 
   
  70 
  Prairie 
   
  
   
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  D100 Landscape 
  Variants 
  71 
  Quarry 
   
  72 
  Rainforest 
   
  73 
  Rapids 
   
  74 
  Reef 
   
  75 
  Reservoir 
   
  76 
  Ridge 
   
  77 
  Rock Pavement 
   
  78 
  Salt Flats 
   
  79 
  Salt Lake 
   
  80 
  Sand Bar 
   
  81 
  Savanna 
   
  82 
  Sea 
   
  83 
  Seamount 
   
  84 
  Shore 
   
  85 
  Sinkhole 
   
  86 
  Stream or Burn 
   
  87 
  Swamp 
   
  88 
  Table Mountain 
   
  89 
  Taiga 
   
  90 
  Terrace 
   
  91 
  Terraces 
   
  92 
  Tides 
   
  93 
  Trench 
   
  94 
  Tundra 
   
  95 
  Volcano 
   
  96 
  Volcanoes 
   
  97 
  Waterfall 
   
  98 
  Weather System 
   
  99 
  Whirlpool 
   
  100 
  Woodland 
   
   
  Characters and Creatures 
   
  Deciding who to use to populate a game-world is discussed in more detail 
  when looking at NPCs. The same topic comes up while commenting on 
  colorful characters and in the tables at the end of the adventure builder, 
  which cover a range of fantasy monsters. Selecting and detailing specific 
  NPCs can happen at any stage in the design process, so the table here is 
  simply for adding a general indication of the type of creatures that might 
  be encountered in a region. 
   
  It is not really intended for rolling outcomes, as there may be more than 
  one type of creature in an area and some creatures aren’t going to fit into 
  all worlds, e.g. there’s nothing wrong with monsters and aliens, but most 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 183 
  players keep SciFi and fantasy separate, as you typically end up with two 
  sets of physics/ metaphysics. 
   
  In most cases this is one area where the world builder hands-off to a 
  particular rule set with a wide range of monsters and the stats to 
  accompany them. 
   
  Characters and Creatures Table 
  2D6 
  Type 
  Details 
  2 
  Aerial 
   
  3 
  Aliens 
   
  4 
  Aquatic 
   
  5 
  Deities 
   
  6 
  Humanoids 
   
  7 
  Humans 
   
  8 
  Monsters 
   
  9 
  Races 
   
  10 
  Tribes 
   
  11 
  Vegetation 
   
  12 
  Wildlife 
   
   
  Worship 
   
  The influence of campaign challenges and hazardous climates and 
  landscapes may be key factors in shaping the myths and realities of a 
  culture or a world’s creation. It’s often hard to say which among many 
  factors, (including forms of worship/ philosophies, physics/ metaphysics, 
  territorial boundaries and governance), drives the others. 
   
  Consequently, the tables looking at these factors can be approached in any 
  order and matched to fit both campaign challenges and the physical 
  landscape. It may also be helpful to combine a number of effects or 
  outcomes, e.g. to arrive at a culture which sees their salvation in 
  worshiping war and death. 
   
  Forms of Worship Table 
  2D12 Worship 
  Details 
  2 
  Agnostic 
   
  3 
  Atheistic 
   
  4 
  Chaos 
   
  5 
  Death 
   
  6 
  Elements/ Elemental  
  7 
  Ennead 
   
  8 
  Evil 
   
  9 
  Good 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 184 
  2D12 Worship 
  Details 
  10 
  Harvests 
   
  11 
  Heretical 
   
  12 
  Heroes/ Celebrity 
   
  13 
  Law 
   
  14 
  Life 
   
  15 
  Messianic 
   
  16 
  Nature 
   
  17 
  Pantheon 
   
  18 
  Sabianism 
   
  19 
  Salvational 
   
  20 
  Shamanic 
   
  21 
  Triad 
   
  22 
  Villains 
   
  23 
  Warfare 
   
  24 
  Weather 
   
   
   
  Era/ Technologies 
   
  Eras and Technologies Table (Chronological) 
  2D10 Eras 
  Details 
  2 
  Savage Age 
   
  3 
  Hunter Gatherer or Nomadic 
   
  4 
  Stone Age aka Neolithic 
   
  5 
  Tribal Age 
   
  6 
  Bronze Age 
   
  7 
  Iron Age 
   
  8 
  Supernatural or Magical Age 
   
  9 
  Dark Age 
   
  10 
  Feudal or Medieval Age 
   
  11 
  Alchemical Age 
   
  12 
  Renaissance 
   
  13 
  Industrial Age 
   
  14 
  Steam Age 
   
  15 
  Digital Age 
   
  16 
  Nuclear Age 
   
  17 
  Ion Age 
   
  18 
  Fusion Age 
   
  19 
  Plasma Age 
   
  20 
  Telepathic Age 
   
   
  Territories 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 185 
  Territories Table 
  2D12 Territory 
  Details 
  2 
  Annexation 
   
  3 
  Barony 
   
  4 
  City State 
   
  5 
  Colony 
   
  6 
  Confederation or Federation 
   
  7 
  De-militarized Zone 
   
  8 
  District 
   
  9 
  Duchy 
   
  10 
  Empire 
   
  11 
  Frontier 
   
  12 
  Hunting Grounds 
   
  13 
  Landscape 
   
  14 
  Nation 
   
  15 
  National Park 
   
  16 
  Pasture 
   
  17 
  Principality 
   
  18 
  Republic 
   
  19 
  Royal Forest 
   
  20 
  Sacred Ground 
   
  21 
  Secure Zone 
   
  22 
  Sheikhdom 
   
  23 
  Tribal or Clan 
   
  24 
  Wilderness 
   
   
  Boundaries 
   
  Boundaries Table 
  2D10 Boundary 
  Details 
  2 
  Canyon 
   
  3 
  Desert 
   
  4 
  Dhrystone Dykes 
   
  5 
  Fencing 
   
  6 
  Fields 
   
  7 
  Forest 
   
  8 
  Fortifications 
   
  9 
  Glacier 
   
  10 
  Kill Zone 
   
  11 
  Mountain Range 
   
  12 
  No Man’s Land 
   
  13 
  River 
   
  14 
  Secure Zone 
   
  15 
  Sheikhdom 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 186 
  2D10 Boundary 
  Details 
  16 
  Stockade 
   
  17 
  Tribal or Clan 
   
  18 
  Trophies 
   
  19 
  Walls 
   
  20 
  Wilderness 
   
   
  Governance 
   
  Systems of government can shape many of the features of a culture. As a 
  result they make a good starting point for fitting together campaign 
  challenges and nation states, city states or empires. A city ruled by a 
  military junta might, for example, make a good fit with a campaign 
  challenge involving adventurers in an ongoing revolution. 
   
  Governance Table 
  D100 Governance 
  Details 
  1 
  Aliens 
   
  2 
  Anarchy 
   
  3 
  Angels 
   
  4 
  Aristocracy 
   
  5 
  Barbarians 
   
  6 
  Children 
   
  7 
  Civil Servants 
   
  8 
  Clerics 
   
  9 
  Conquerors 
   
  10 
  Corporations 
   
  11 
  Demons 
   
  12 
  Devils 
   
  13 
  Elders 
   
  14 
  Ethnic Group or Race 
   
  15 
  Fallen Angels 
   
  16 
  Foreign Ruler 
   
  17 
  Foreigners 
   
  18 
  Guilds 
   
  19 
  Heroes 
   
  20 
  Holy Men 
   
  21 
  Inexperienced Rulers 
   
  22 
  Infant Ruler 
   
  23 
  Judges 
   
  24 
  Junta 
   
  25 
  Magicians 
   
  26 
  Men 
   
  27 
  Merchants 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 187 
  D100 Governance 
  Details 
  28 
  Merit 
   
  29 
  Military 
   
  30 
  Mobs or Crowds 
   
  31 
  Money 
   
  32 
  Monsters 
   
  33 
  Nobility 
   
  34 
  Paramours 
   
  35 
  Plantation Owners 
   
  36 
  Prophet 
   
  37 
  Religious Law 
   
  38 
  Revolutionary Committee  
  39 
  Secret Police 
   
  40 
  Secret Ruler 
   
  41 
  Slave-Owners 
   
  42 
  Slaves 
   
  43 
  Specific Class or Race 
   
  44 
  Thieves 
   
  45 
  Tyrants 
   
  46 
  Wealth 
   
  47 
  Whim 
   
  48 
  Women 
   
  49 
  Words 
   
  50 
  Workers 
   
   
  States and Nations 
   
  With campaign challenges; the physical environment; and a cultural 
  framework in place it is up to a GM to decide how much further to drill 
  down in advance. Trying to cover all of the possible features of even a small 
  state is quite a task. However, the levels or layers that are already put in 
  place can provide expectations or knock-on effects that are open to self-
  completion. 
   
  For example, staging a war involving the dark side of a planet half 
  shrouded in perpetual darkness alongside a broadly European Iron Age 
  culture, is going to call for agriculture, commerce, events, customs and 
  much more - all adapted to fit the campaign challenges, landscape and 
  cultural outline already set in place. 
   
  As a result of cascading effects a quite general take on the major forms of 
  agriculture, finance and commerce are all that’s called for unless a player’s 
  character chooses to zoom-in. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 188 
  History 
   
  History Table 
  2D12 Episodes 
  Details 
  2 
  Apocalyptic 
   
  3 
  Bohemian 
   
  4 
  Cataclysmic 
   
  5 
  Civilized 
   
  6 
  Colonial 
   
  7 
  Cosmopolitan 
   
  8 
  Creative 
   
  9 
  Dynastic 
   
  10 
  Enslaved 
   
  11 
  Frontier 
   
  12 
  Imperial 
   
  13 
  Impoverished 
   
  14 
  Inventive 
   
  15 
  Magical 
   
  16 
  Mercantile 
   
  17 
  Militaristic 
   
  18 
  Monarchist 
   
  19 
  Parliamentary 
   
  20 
  Religious 
   
  21 
  Revolutionary 
   
  22 
  Scandal Ridden 
   
  23 
  Tyrannical 
   
  24 
  War-Torn 
   
   
  Currencies 
   
  Currencies Table 
  2D12 Currency 
  Details 
  2 
  Barter 
   
  3 
  Bird Eggs 
   
  4 
  Blood Money 
   
  5 
  Bloodletting 
   
  6 
  Coinage 
   
  7 
  Digital Currencies 
   
  8 
  DNA 
   
  9 
  Gems 
   
  10 
  Gold Coin 
   
  11 
  Gold Dust 
   
  12 
  Gold Standard 
   
  13 
  Grain 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 189 
  2D12 Currency 
  Details 
  14 
  Ivory 
   
  15 
  Jade 
   
  16 
  Jewelry 
   
  17 
  Kills 
   
  18 
  Meat 
   
  19 
  Paper Money 
   
  20 
  Pearls 
   
  21 
  Property 
   
  22 
  Secrets 
   
  23 
  Slaves 
   
  24 
  Virtual Currencies 
   
   
  Festivals 
   
  Customs, Festivals, Rituals and Superstitions Table 
  2D20 Event 
  Details 
  2 
  Alien Languages 
   
  3 
  Beer Festival 
   
  4 
  Bland Food 
   
  5 
  Bloodletting 
   
  6 
  Carnival 
   
  7 
  Chanting 
   
  8 
  Cheese Chase 
   
  9 
  Competition 
   
  10 
  Country Fair 
   
  11 
  Draconian Laws 
   
  12 
  Dueling 
   
  13 
  Feast Day 
   
  14 
  Foreign Languages 
   
  15 
  Harvest 
   
  16 
  Jam Festival 
   
  17 
  Labyrinth Walking 
   
  18 
  Lottery 
   
  19 
  Midsummer 
   
  20 
  Midwinter 
   
  21 
  Military Law 
   
  22 
  New Fire 
   
  23 
  New Year 
   
  24 
  Night of the Dead 
   
  25 
  Pitfighting 
   
  26 
  Polluting 
   
  27 
  Procession 
   
  28 
  Public Executions 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 190 
  2D20 Event 
  Details 
  29 
  Religious Law 
   
  30 
  Sacred Dance 
   
  31 
  Sacrifice 
   
  32 
  Sacrifices 
   
  33 
  Spartan Existence 
   
  34 
  Spicy Food 
   
  35 
  Sporting Championship 
   
  36 
  Springtide 
   
  37 
  Stocks 
   
  38 
  Tombola 
   
  39 
  Wicker Man 
   
  40 
  Witchhunting 
   
   
  Weather and Sky Events 
   
  Weather and Sky Events Table 
  D100  Event 
  Details 
  1 
  Afterglow 
  An afterglow is a high, wide arch of whitish 
  or rosy light appearing in the sky due to fine 
  particles of dust suspended in the high 
  regions of the atmosphere. They can appear 
  above the highest clouds as twilight 
  deepens or be reflected from mountain  
  snowfields well after sunset 
  2 
  Airglow/ Nightglow 
  This is a weak light emitted by a planetary 
  atmosphere 
  3 
  Alexander’s Band 
  There is a dark region between the two bows 
  of a double rainbow. Light which is reflected 
  by raindrops in this region of the sky cannot 
  reach the observer 
  4 
  Auroral Light 
   
  5 
  Blizzard 
   
  6 
  Cloudseeding 
  Chemical, magical or nano-cloudseeding 
  7 
  Cold Snap 
   
  8 
  Comet 
   
  9 
  Constellation 
   
  10 
  Crepuscular Rays 
   
  11 
  Cyclone 
   
  12 
  Dew 
   
  13 
  Diamond Dust 
  Diamond dust is a ground-level cloud or 
  mist made of minute ice crystals. It forms 
  under clear or nearly clear skies and can 
  occur anywhere with a temperature well 
  below freezing 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 191 
  D100  Event 
  Details 
  14 
  Double Rainbow 
   
  15 
  Downpour 
   
  16 
  Dust Whirls 
   
  17 
  Earthquake Lights 
  Such lights have shapes like the auroras, 
  with a white to bluish hue, but can have a 
  wider color spectrum. The light is seen for 
  several seconds, but may last for tens of 
  minutes 
  18 
  Eclipse 
   
  19 
  Enchantment 
   
  20 
  Fire Whirls 
   
  21 
  Fog 
   
  22 
  Frost 
   
  23 
  Gales 
   
  24 
  Glories 
  This effect forms a spectral figure in mist or 
  cloud 
  25 
  Hail 
   
  26 
  Halo or Nimbus 
  Halos are colored or white arcs and spots in 
  the sky made of ice crystals. They are 
  usually near the sun or moon but can 
  appear elsewhere, including the opposite 
  part of the sky. They can form around 
  artificial lights in cold weather when 
  diamond dust is floating in the air 
  27 
  Hurricane 
   
  28 
  Intergalactic Collision  
  29 
  Lightning Storm 
   
  30 
  Meteor Shower 
   
  31 
  Meteorite 
   
  32 
  Mirage 
   
  33 
  Mist 
   
  34 
  Moon Pillars  
  These light pillars are formed by reflection 
  from ice crystals with roughly horizontal 
  faces. The light pillar is most visible when 
  the Moon is low or lies below the horizon. 
  35 
  Planetary Conjunction  
  36 
  Planetary Shadow 
  The shadow that a planet may cast on its 
  atmosphere. This shadow is often visible 
  from the surface as a dark band in the sky - 
  near the horizon around the times of sunset 
  and sunrise 
  37 
  Rain 
   
  38 
  Rainbow 
   
  39 
  Sandstorm 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 192 
  D100  Event 
  Details 
  40 
  Shower 
   
  41 
  Sleet 
   
  42 
  Smog 
   
  43 
  Snow 
   
  44 
  Snowstorm 
   
  45 
  Storm 
   
  46 
  Sun Pillars  
  These light pillars are formed by reflection 
  from small ice crystals with roughly 
  horizontal faces. The light pillar is most 
  visible when the Sun is low or below the 
  horizon 
  47 
  Supernova 
   
  48 
  Thunderstorm 
   
  49 
  Tornado 
   
  50 
  Whirlwind 
   
   
  Transport and Communications 
   
  Transport and Communications Table 
  2D10 Type 
  Details 
  2 
  Aerial Runways 
   
  3 
  Aerial Walkways 
   
  4 
  Aircraft 
   
  5 
  Border Post 
   
  6 
  Canal 
   
  7 
  Canal Boat 
   
  8 
  Chariots 
   
  9 
  Coaches and Carriages 
   
  10 
  Highways 
   
  11 
  Lanes 
   
  12 
  Mines, Tunnels and Sewers 
   
  13 
  Roads 
   
  14 
  Spaceships 
   
  15 
  Starships 
   
  16 
  Tolls 
   
  17 
  Trains 
   
  18 
  Underground 
   
  19 
  Wagons 
   
  20 
  Yacht 
   
   
   
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 193 
  Weaponry 
   
  Weaponry Table (Chronological) 
  2D20 Conditions 
  Details 
  2 
  Bones 
   
  3 
  Stones 
   
  4 
  Daggers 
   
  5 
  Catapults 
   
  6 
  Bows and Arrows 
   
  7 
  Axes 
   
  8 
  Swords 
   
  9 
  Cavalry Lances 
   
  10 
  Gunpowder 
   
  11 
  Musketry 
   
  12 
  Pistols 
   
  13 
  Guns 
   
  14 
  Pikes 
   
  15 
  Cannon 
   
  16 
  Poison Gas 
   
  17 
  Machine Guns 
   
  18 
  Armored Vehicles 
   
  19 
  Military Aircraft 
   
  20 
  Aircraft Carriers 
   
  21 
  Rockets 
   
  22 
  Nuclear Devices 
   
  23 
  Helicopters 
   
  24 
  Tactical Nuclear Devices 
   
  25 
  Golem Dust 
   
  26 
  Robots 
   
  27 
  Drones 
   
  28 
  Designer Viruses 
   
  29 
  Nano-Bots 
   
  30 
  Ion Devices 
   
  31 
  Fusion Devices 
   
  32 
  Plasma Devices 
   
  33 
  Cloaking 
   
  34 
  Light Sabre 
   
  35 
  Jump Ships 
   
  36 
  Tactical Spacestations 
   
  37 
  Strategic Spacestations 
   
  38 
  Interstellar Ships 
   
  39 
  Mass Gravity Technologies  
  40 
  Interstellar Spacestations 
   
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 194 
  Commerce and Major Industries 
   
  Commerce and Major Industries Table 
  4D10 Conditions 
  Details 
  4 
  Aggregates 
   
  5 
  Arms Trading 
   
  6 
  Colonization 
   
  7 
  Conquest 
   
  8 
  Construction 
   
  9 
  Education 
   
  10 
  Entertainment 
   
  11 
  Espionage 
   
  12 
  Farming 
   
  13 
  Fishing 
   
  14 
  Forestry 
   
  15 
  Gambling 
   
  16 
  Gathering 
   
  17 
  Hemp 
   
  18 
  Herding 
   
  19 
  Hunting 
   
  20 
  Magic 
   
  21 
  Metallurgy 
   
  22 
  Military 
   
  23 
  Minerals 
   
  24 
  Mining 
   
  25 
  Orchards 
   
  26 
  Prospecting 
   
  27 
  Racketeering 
   
  28 
  Raiding 
   
  29 
  Salt Harvesting 
   
  30 
  Shellfish 
   
  31 
  Shipbuilding 
   
  32 
  Slavery 
   
  33 
  Sport 
   
  34 
  Strip Mining 
   
  35 
  Technology 
   
  36 
  Textiles 
   
  37 
  Tourism 
   
  38 
  Transport 
   
  39 
  Warfare 
   
  40 
  Whaling 
   
   
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 195 
  Entertainments 
   
  Entertainments Table 
  D100 Conditions 
  Details 
  1 
  Amusement Parks 
   
  2 
  Archaeology 
   
  3 
  Art Exhibits 
   
  4 
  Boardgames 
   
  5 
  Bookkeepers 
   
  6 
  Busking 
   
  7 
  Casinos 
   
  8 
  Circuses 
   
  9 
  Comedy Clubs 
   
  10 
  Concerts 
   
  11 
  Dancing 
   
  12 
  Drama 
   
  13 
  Dueling 
   
  14 
  Exhibitions 
   
  15 
  Extreme Sports 
   
  16 
  Fairs 
   
  17 
  Fight Clubs 
   
  18 
  Films and Cinema 
   
  19 
  Fireworks 
   
  20 
  Hunting 
   
  21 
  Jousting 
   
  22 
  Magazines 
   
  23 
  Magic 
   
  24 
  Museums 
   
  25 
  Music 
   
  26 
  Newspapers 
   
  27 
  Nightclubs 
   
  28 
  Operas 
   
  29 
  Parades 
   
  30 
  Performance Art 
   
  31 
  Pit Fights 
   
  32 
  Plays 
   
  33 
  Promenading 
   
  34 
  Puppet Shows 
   
  35 
  Radio 
   
  36 
  Recordings 
   
  37 
  Roleplaying Games 
   
  38 
  Sailing 
   
  39 
  Snow Sports 
   
  40 
  Spectator Sports 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 196 
  D100 Conditions 
  Details 
  41 
  Sports 
   
  42 
  Stand-Up Comedy 
   
  43 
  Street Theatre 
   
  44 
  Stunts and Escapology 
   
  45 
  Television 
   
  46 
  Theatre 
   
  45 
  Theme Parks 
   
  46 
  Trade Shows 
   
  47 
  Travelling Exhibitions 
   
  48 
  Variety Show 
   
  49 
  Video Games 
   
  50 
  Wax Museums 
   
   
  Landmarks, Buildings and Premises 
   
  Adding specific locations and local detail to a campaign now breaks down 
  into identifying and populating suitable locations. 
   
  Unlike the earlier Locations Table for dungeon adventures the range of 
  options is more extensive. By this stage in a campaign design it becomes 
  clear that adventure design within a campaign setting can loop back into 
  the basic adventure design step-by-step set out earlier. The range of 
  locations, landmarks, events and missions found there is more than 
  sufficient to outline countless scenarios. However, campaigns often thrive 
  on variety and experienced players need novelty to help to keep the 
  gameplay fresh. 
   
  By noting down details of various landmarks, buildings and premises 
  consistent with your campaign challenges it is easy to quickly sketch-out 
  large fortified or urban settlements, which combine to map-out whole 
  nations in sufficient detail to support open-ended play and lots of player 
  choice. 
   
  As in other areas, options that fit a typical fantasy setting or a space opera 
  SciFi campaign may need to be adapted slightly to suit different genres. 
  The largely generic options presented below can, therefore, be adapted 
  slightly, e.g. a port or harbor can become an orbital spacestation, while a 
  shipwright may act as an expert in designing and repairing starships. 
   
  Alternatively, take the next option down on the list until you get a suitable 
  result. If that takes you over the end of a table just go back to the start. 
   
  Landmarks, Buildings and Premises Table 
  3D100 Structure 
  Conditions 
  3 
  Amphitheatre 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 197 
  3D100 Structure 
  Conditions 
  4 
  Apartment 
   
  5 
  Apothecary’s 
   
  6 
  Aquarium 
   
  7 
  Aqueduct 
   
  8 
  Arcade 
   
  9 
  Arch  
   
  10 
  Architect’s 
   
  11 
  Archway 
   
  12 
  Arena 
   
  13 
  Armorer’s 
   
  14 
  Armory 
   
  15 
  Arsenal 
   
  16 
  Art Gallery 
   
  17 
  Asylum 
   
  18 
  Aviary 
   
  19 
  Bakery 
   
  20 
  Balcony 
   
  21 
  Bank 
   
  22 
  Bar 
   
  23 
  Barbican 
   
  24 
  Barge 
   
  25 
  Barn 
   
  26 
  Barracks 
   
  27 
  Barrow 
   
  28 
  Barrow 
   
  29 
  Basilica 
   
  30 
  Bathhouse 
   
  31 
  Baths 
   
  32 
  Bazaar 
   
  33 
  Bell Tower 
   
  34 
  Bivouac 
   
  35 
  Blacksmith’s 
   
  36 
  Brewery 
   
  38 
  Brick House 
   
  37 
  Bridge 
   
  39 
  Broch 
   
  40 
  Bunker 
   
  41 
  Butcher’s 
   
  42 
  Cabin 
   
  43 
  Cafe 
   
  44 
  Cages 
   
  45 
  Cairn 
   
  46 
  Campus 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 198 
  3D100 Structure 
  Conditions 
  47 
  Canal 
   
  48 
  Candlestick Maker’s 
   
  49 
  Caravan 
   
  50 
  Carpenter’s 
   
  51 
  Cartwright 
   
  52 
  Casino 
   
  53 
  Castle 
   
  54 
  Catacomb 
   
  55 
  Cathedral 
   
  56 
  Causeway 
   
  57 
  Cave 
   
  58 
  Cavern 
   
  59 
  Cellar 
   
  60 
  Cellar, Root 
   
  61 
  Cellar, Storm 
   
  62 
  Cemetery 
   
  63 
  Cenotaph 
   
  64 
  Chandler’s 
   
  65 
  Chantry 
   
  66 
  Chapel 
   
  67 
  Chapter House 
   
  68 
  Church 
   
  69 
  Circus 
   
  70 
  Citadel 
   
  71 
  City 
   
  72 
  City Gate 
   
  73 
  City Hall 
   
  74 
  Clubhouse 
   
  75 
  Coliseum 
   
  76 
  College 
   
  77 
  Colossus 
   
  78 
  Column 
   
  79 
  Combat Arena 
   
  80 
  Concert Hall 
   
  81 
  Confectioner’s 
   
  82 
  Conservatory 
   
  83 
  Consulate 
   
  84 
  Convent 
   
  85 
  Cooper’s 
   
  86 
  Coppersmith’s 
   
  87 
  Cottage 
   
  88 
  Courthouse 
   
  89 
  Crannog 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 199 
  3D100 Structure 
  Conditions 
  90 
  Croft 
   
  91 
  Crypt 
   
  92 
  Dairy 
   
  93 
  Dam 
   
  94 
  Debt Collector’s 
   
  95 
  Decorator’s 
   
  96 
  Depot 
   
  97 
  Derelict Building 
   
  98 
  Distillery 
   
  99 
  Docks 
   
  100 
  Dormitory 
   
  101 
  Dressmaker’s 
   
  102 
  Dry Docks 
   
  103 
  Dungeon 
   
  104 
  Embassy 
   
  105 
  Encampment 
   
  107 
  Execution Chamber 
   
  106 
  Exhibition 
   
  108 
  Factory 
   
  109 
  Falconer's 
   
  110 
  Farm 
   
  111 
  Farmhouse 
   
  112 
  Farrier’s 
   
  113 
  Field Hospital 
   
  114 
  Fish Market 
   
  115 
  Fletcher’s 
   
  116 
  Flotilla 
   
  117 
  Forge 
   
  118 
  Fort 
   
  119 
  Fortress 
   
  120 
  Forum 
   
  121 
  Foundry 
   
  122 
  Fruit Market 
   
  123 
  Funerary Temple 
   
  124 
  Galley 
   
  125 
  Garden 
   
  126 
  General Store 
   
  127 
  Goldsmith's 
   
  128 
  Granary 
   
  129 
  Grand Pavilion 
   
  130 
  Graveyard 
   
  131 
  Greenhouse 
   
  132 
  Grotto 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 200 
  3D100 Structure 
  Conditions 
  133 
  Guard House 
   
  134 
  Guard Tower 
   
  135 
  Guildry 
   
  136 
  Gymnasium 
   
  137 
  Hamlet 
   
  138 
  Harbor 
   
  139 
  Harem 
   
  140 
  Hay Loft 
   
  141 
  Haymarket 
   
  142 
  Headquarters 
   
  143 
  Henge 
   
  144 
  Herald’s 
   
  145 
  Hide 
   
  146 
  High Temple 
   
  147 
  Hill Fort 
   
  148 
  Horse Inn 
   
  149 
  Hospice 
   
  150 
  Hospital 
   
  151 
  Hostel 
   
  152 
  Hotel 
   
  153 
  House 
   
  154 
  Houseboat 
   
  155 
  Hut 
   
  156 
  Ice Ring 
   
  157 
  Igloo 
   
  158 
  Inn 
   
  159 
  Ironmonger’s 
   
  160 
  Jail 
   
  161 
  Jeweler’s 
   
  162 
  Keep 
   
  163 
  Kiln 
   
  164 
  Laboratory 
   
  165 
  Labyrinth 
   
  166 
  Library 
   
  167 
  Lichway 
   
  168 
  Lighthouse 
   
  169 
  Livery 
   
  170 
  Livestock Market 
   
  171 
  Lumber Yard 
   
  172 
  Magazine 
   
  173 
  Magic/ Technology 
  Shop 
   
  174 
  Manor 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 201 
  3D100 Structure 
  Conditions 
  175 
  Mansion 
   
  176 
  Marina 
   
  177 
  Market 
   
  178 
  Mausoleum 
   
  179 
  Memorial 
   
  180 
  Memorial Chapel 
   
  181 
  Mezzanine 
   
  182 
  Military Headquarters 
   
  183 
  Mill 
   
  184 
  Millwright’s 
   
  185 
  Milner’s 
   
  186 
  Mines 
   
  187 
  Mint 
   
  188 
  Monastery 
   
  189 
  Monumental Statue 
   
  190 
  Mortuary 
   
  191 
  Mortuary Temple 
   
  192 
  Mud Baths 
   
  193 
  Museum 
   
  194 
  Nave 
   
  195 
  Nightclub 
   
  196 
  Observation Tower 
   
  197 
  Observatory 
   
  198 
  Office 
   
  199 
  Opera House 
   
  200 
  Opium Den 
   
  201 
  Oratory 
   
  202 
  Orphanage 
   
  203 
  Ossuary 
   
  204 
  Oubliette 
   
  205 
  Outpost 
   
  206 
  Pagoda 
   
  207 
  Palace 
   
  208 
  Parade Ground 
   
  209 
  Parliament 
   
  210 
  Pavilion 
   
  211 
  Pet Shop 
   
  212 
  Pillar 
   
  213 
  Pithead 
   
  214 
  Plantation 
   
  215 
  Plaza 
   
  216 
  Plumber’s 
   
  217 
  Pool 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 202 
  3D100 Structure 
  Conditions 
  218 
  Port 
   
  219 
  Power Station 
   
  220 
  Priory 
   
  221 
  Prison 
   
  222 
  Prison Camp 
   
  223 
  Pueblo 
   
  224 
  Pyramid 
   
  225 
  Pyramid, Conical 
   
  226 
  Pyramid, Platform 
   
  227 
  Refinery 
   
  228 
  Reliquary 
   
  229 
  Resort 
   
  230 
  Restaurant 
   
  231 
  Rookery 
   
  232 
  Rosarium 
   
  233 
  Roundhouse 
   
  234 
  Ruins 
   
  235 
  Sanctuary 
   
  236 
  Sauna 
   
  237 
  Sawmill 
   
  238 
  School 
   
  239 
  Secret Garden 
   
  240 
  Sentry Post 
   
  241 
  Sepulcher 
   
  242 
  Sewer 
   
  243 
  Shack 
   
  244 
  Shed 
   
  245 
  Ship 
   
  246 
  Shipwright's 
   
  247 
  Shipyard 
   
  248 
  Shop 
   
  249 
  Shrine 
   
  250 
  Silversmith’s 
   
  251 
  Slaughterhouse 
   
  252 
  Slave Market 
   
  253 
  Slave Pits 
   
  254 
  Snow Cave 
   
  255 
  Soothsayer’s 
   
  256 
  Spa 
   
  257 
  Spice Market 
   
  258 
  Sports Arena 
   
  259 
  Stables 
   
  260 
  Stadium 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 203 
  3D100 Structure 
  Conditions 
  261 
  Stage 
   
  262 
  Staging Post 
   
  263 
  Storm Cellar 
   
  264 
  Studio 
   
  265 
  Sty 
   
  266 
  Summer Palace 
   
  267 
  Swimming Pool 
   
  268 
  Tannery 
   
  269 
  Tattoo Shop 
   
  270 
  Tavern 
   
  271 
  Tax Collector’s 
   
  272 
  Tearoom 
   
  273 
  Temple 
   
  274 
  Tenement 
   
  275 
  Tent 
   
  276 
  Terminus 
   
  277 
  Theatre 
   
  278 
  Tide Mill 
   
  279 
  Tomb 
   
  280 
  Tower 
   
  281 
  Town 
   
  282 
  Townhouse 
   
  283 
  Trading Post 
   
  284 
  Tree House 
   
  285 
  Triumphal Arch 
   
  286 
  University 
   
  287 
  Verandah 
   
  288 
  Villa 
   
  289 
  Village 
   
  290 
  Wainwright’s 
   
  291 
  Warehouse 
   
  292 
  Watchtower 
   
  293 
  Watermill 
   
  294 
  Well House 
   
  295 
  Wheelwright’s 
   
  296 
  Windmill 
   
  297 
  Winery 
   
  298 
  Winter Palace 
   
  299 
  Ziggurat 
   
  300 
  Zoo 
   
   
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 204 
  Conditions of Structures 
   
  The contents of the Conditions Table shown earlier are repeated here for 
  ease-of-use. 
   
  Conditions of Structures Table 
  D100 Condition 
  Details 
  1 
  Alien 
   
  2 
  Brickwork 
   
  3 
  Buried 
   
  4 
  Busy 
   
  5 
  Buttressed 
   
  6 
  Camouflaged 
   
  7 
  Cobbled 
   
  8 
  Collapsing 
   
  9 
  Corroded 
   
  10 
  Decorative 
   
  11 
  Demolished 
   
  12 
  Derelict 
   
  13 
  Domed 
   
  14 
  Dusty 
   
  15 
  Earthwork 
   
  16 
  Enchanted 
   
  17 
  Exclusive 
   
  18 
  Exotic 
   
  19 
  Expensive 
   
  20 
  Flooded 
   
  21 
  Frosted 
   
  22 
  Gilded 
   
  23 
  Glass 
   
  24 
  Guarded 
   
  25 
  Haunted 
   
  26 
  Inexpensive 
   
  27 
  Ironwork 
   
  28 
  Irradiated 
   
  29 
  Laidback 
   
  30 
  Luxurious 
   
  31 
  Mosaic 
   
  32 
  Neglected 
   
  33 
  New 
   
  34 
  Opulent 
   
  35 
  Organic 
   
  36 
  Painted 
   
  37 
  Petrified 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 205 
  D100 Condition 
  Details 
  38 
  Plasterwork 
   
  39 
  Plated 
   
  40 
  Prosperous 
   
  41 
  Quiet 
   
  42 
  Renovated 
   
  43 
  Roofed 
   
  44 
  Royal Warrant 
   
  45 
  Ruined 
   
  46 
  Rundown 
   
  47 
  Stonework 
   
  48 
  Thatched 
   
  49 
  Tiled 
   
  50 
  Weathered 
   
   
  Alien, Exotic or Enchanted Structures 
   
  Alien, Exotic or Enchanted Structures Table 
  D20 Structural Feature 
  Details 
  1 
  Adaptive Camouflage 
   
  2 
  Corrosive 
   
  3 
  Enchanted Hearth 
   
  4 
  False Deformation 
   
  5 
  Foliage 
   
  6 
  Invisible Servants 
   
  7 
  Magic Fountain 
   
  8 
  Magnetic 
   
  9 
  Parasitic 
   
  10 
  Self-Destructive 
   
  11 
  Self-Repairing 
   
  12 
  Self-Replicating 
   
  13 
  Sentient 
   
  14 
  Stained Glass Structure 
   
  15 
  Standing Stones 
   
  16 
  Stealth Facility 
   
  17 
  Symbiotic 
   
  18 
  Unicorn Stables 
   
  19 
  Witches’ Cauldron 
   
  20 
  Zero-Gravity 
   
   
  Events 
   
  With 
  campaign 
  challenges, 
  climates 
  and 
  landscapes, 
  systems 
  of 
  government, political boundaries and settlements linked-up it is likely 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 206 
  many plots and events will arise naturally during the course of play. At this 
  stage it is possible to simply return to the pages on designing a basic 
  adventure to sketch-out adventures, which fit alongside the framework of 
  the campaign. 
   
  Some GMs may prefer to allow events to unfold, but others can find it 
  useful to introduce specific events prompted by campaign challenges. 
  Equally, they may wish to present background events and random 
  encounters to keep adventurers guessing. 
   
  A few of the many possible events are set out below and it’s straightforward 
  to loop back into the step-by-step for building adventures and to fold 
  together campaign challenges, the events shown here and various plots, 
  missions and locations. 
   
  Events Table 
  D100 Event 
  Details 
  1 
  Arms Deal 
   
  2 
  Avalanche 
   
  3 
  Birthday Party 
   
  4 
  Cannibalism 
   
  5 
  Cold Snap 
   
  6 
  Comrade-At-Arms 
   
  7 
  Crime Wave 
   
  8 
  Cult 
   
  9 
  Drought 
   
  10 
  Earthquake 
   
  11 
  Economic Boom 
   
  12 
  Extreme Weather 
   
  13 
  Famine 
   
  14 
  Festival 
   
  15 
  Fire 
   
  16 
  Flooding 
   
  17 
  Gems 
   
  18 
  Gold Nugget 
   
  19 
  Guests 
   
  20 
  Heat Wave 
   
  21 
  Holiday 
   
  22 
  Holy War 
   
  23 
  Hurricane 
   
  24 
  Jailbreak 
   
  25 
  Jewels 
   
  26 
  Magic Mist 
   
  27 
  Mercenary 
   
  28 
  Merchant 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 207 
  D100 Event 
  Details 
  29 
  Meteor Strikes 
   
  30 
  Mist 
   
  31 
  Monsters 
   
  32 
  Murder 
   
  33 
  Plague 
   
  34 
  Prisoner 
   
  35 
  Raiding 
   
  36 
  Rationing 
   
  37 
  Rebellion 
   
  38 
  Recurring Enemy 
   
  39 
  Riots 
   
  40 
  Rival Mages 
   
  41 
  Smuggling 
   
  42 
  Spying 
   
  43 
  Tornado 
   
  44 
  Trade War 
   
  45 
  Trader 
   
  46 
  Treasure Trove 
   
  47 
  Uprising 
   
  48 
  Vigilantes 
   
  49 
  Volcanic Eruption 
   
  50 
  Wedding 
   
   
   
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 208 
  Glossary 
   
  Adventure 
  A typical RPG adventure is a fairly self-contained mission or scenario played 
  over one or more sessions. 
   
  Attributes 
  These often describe natural abilities shared by all characters, such as 
  physical strength or wisdom. 
   
  Blue Booking 
  This involves players who log their characters’ activities after the actual 
  gameplay to record a continuous character history. The records are then 
  available to support play involving actions separate from those of the rest 
  of the group. 
   
  Build 
  A build usually refers to rules-heavy RPGs where hours may be spent 
  preparing players’ characters to customize and optimize the resulting 
  character through the rule set. 
   
  Campaign 
  A campaign involves a whole series of inter-related adventures within a 
  consistent game-world. 
   
  Character Creation 
  This is the method used to create a character. For example, points may be 
  spent across a range of skills or a character may have a well-defined class/ 
  set of complementary, specialist skills. 
   
  Character or PC sheet 
  Player characters’ specializations, game statistics, and background 
  information are summarized and brought together on a PC Sheet for easy 
  access during play. 
   
  Character 
  A character or adventurer is an avatar or fictional character representing a 
  role or characterization within a RPG. 
   
  Class 
  A character is typically sketched out with a cluster of related abilities and 
  skills. One quick way to help players to adopt a basic role is to group these 
  skills and/ or abilities into a character class. E.g. a Fighter that is strong, 
  familiar with a wide range of weaponry and skilled in battle. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 209 
  Clones or Retro-Clones 
  These are remakes or remixes of early RPGs made under a range of 
  permissive license conditions. The great majority of these are revised 
  versions of D&D, but there are clones of some other RPG systems. They fall 
  into a number of categories including: retro-clones that emulate an earlier 
  rules set; ‘pseudo-clones’ that make significant changes to the earlier rules; 
  and, more recently, clones that emulate a rules system - but then add new 
  content to set the gameplay of the earlier version alongside a range of 
  extra options. 
   
  Critical (Hit) 
  The highest natural die rolls available within a RPG often indicate a strong 
  outcome, which may be amplified through knock-on bonuses, e.g. a natural 
  20 on a D20 guarantees success or damage multiplier. 
   
  Crunch 
  Crunch is the mechanical side of the rules, which measure actions and 
  outcomes during play. 
   
  Dungeon-Crawl 
  The classic dungeon-crawl is mainly about taking a party of ‘good’ 
  adventurers into dungeons and caverns where they encounter a mix of 
  basic traps, slay as many ‘evil’ monsters as possible and recover any 
  treasure. Typical options include raiding tombs and clearing out evil 
  temples. 
   
  Freeform 
  Freeform gameplay is typically a rules-light style of play that invites players 
  to lead the narrative. This often places mechanical rules in the background 
  and relies on players developing gameplay more through the contexts and 
  situations they encounter than the rules set. 
   
  Fluff 
  Content that doesn’t contribute directly to the mechanics of a system, 
  (including descriptions, hints and tips and support for building adventures), 
  is known as fluff. 
   
  Fumble 
  A fumble is usually a major error committed while trying to carry out a 
  difficult task, e.g. a natural 1 on a D20 may be an automatic fail, regardless 
  of the circumstances. 
   
  Game-World 
  The game-world is the imaginary world and the activities within that 
  imaginary world that players explore through their characters. Some game-
  worlds thrive on the expectations and verisimilitude offered by a particular 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 210 
  genre, e.g. Western RPGs. Others may be quite alien and unfamiliar, e.g. 
  alien Sci-Fi cultures. 
   
  GM or Gamesmaster 
  The GM is the player who often designs adventures, runs play role-playing 
  and settles outcomes. Some games have their own specialized term, such 
  as Dungeon Master. 
   
  Genre 
  A game may stick to a single genre or look to support a number of genres. 
  These are the core tropes – and associated expectations – underlying 
  imaginative gameplay. Obvious examples include fantasy, science fiction 
  and cyberpunk. 
   
  Grimy 
  Grimy gameplay is run along similar lines to the gritty gameplay mentioned 
  below, i.e. a dose of ‘real world’ options running through the overall RPG 
  gameplay mix. However, rather than relying on typical ‘grit’ the game uses 
  mess, deformation, disgusting local food and maybe the odd intestinal 
  parasite to make play slightly more slapstick, earthy and/ or comic. This 
  taps into the very realistic, and typically unapproved, history found in 
  books or shows like CBBC’s Horrible Histories. 
   
  Gritty 
  Play that aims to include greater ‘real world’ authenticity involves adding 
  ‘grit’. This can be intended to make play more realistic, e.g. wounds take a 
  long time to heal. However, it may also be aimed at delivering 
  improvisation 
  and 
  authenticity, 
  through 
  borrowing 
  from 
  real-world 
  circumstances and situations. This may involve realism, e.g. a realistic, but 
  flexible, consideration of the effects and knock-on effects resulting from a 
  meteor strike and/ or adding familiar themes and expectations into play. 
   
  Hex–Crawl 
  A Hex-crawl offers one of the simplest approaches to forming open-ended 
  campaign worlds. A blank or barely marked map of hexes is uncovered as 
  players proceed from one territorial zone to the next. The crawl can be kept 
  entirely random with players and/ or the GM rolling to find out what 
  appears as each hex is encountered. Terrain and core political boundaries/ 
  capital cities may be put in place to allow links and knock-on effects 
  between hexes to present opportunities for plot or character development. 
   
  In-Character 
  Playing in-character is often taken as sticking to the role defined by the 
  rules such as consistently behaving chaotically if defined as chaotic by the 
  rules - or adopting the combative role of a fighter class at every 
  opportunity. The idea of a consistent chaos hints at some of the problems 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 211 
  with RPGs that try to separate out player skill and character skill to keep 
  players in character. 
   
  To start with, few creatures are absolutely consistent; and those that are 
  tend to be short on individuality and novelty. In addition, if a PC is to shape 
  a character they have to have more say in the make-up of the character 
  than simply rolling the dice. The alternative is a contrived distinction 
  between players and characters, which becomes obvious the moment a 
  player gets involved in creating an individual player character. 
   
  Initiative 
  Initiative is often a dice roll, with modifiers, that decides who gets to go 
  first when groups of characters first encounter one another. 
   
  Level 
  Level can refer to the floor levels of dungeons or complexes that characters 
  are exploring. However, it is also commonly used to indicate the experience 
  or advancement a player has accumulated, which then matches some of the 
  characters’ capabilities to those available to everyone of that level.  
   
  Live-Action (Roleplaying) 
  LARPs are a type of role-playing game delivered as a physical performance 
  in the manner of a group of improvisational actors. 
   
  Megadungeon 
  These are massive, multi-leveled dungeons, which vary greatly in that some 
  are simply sprawling traditional dungeons, while others are subterranean 
  settings for more deeply plotted and/ or imagined worlds. 
   
  Meta-Gaming 
  The use of out-of-character knowledge or understandings to solve in-
  character problems is known as meta-gaming. Such knowledge or 
  understanding may also be used to explain or justify actions carried out in-
  character. 
   
  Min-Maxer 
  Players 
  who 
  make 
  characters 
  based 
  on 
  optimization 
  instead 
  of 
  characterization may be known as Min-Maxers for disregarding attributes 
  and skills which they consider non-essential in exchange for boosting 
  attributes and skills that gain an advantage. This often involves enhancing 
  combat skills at the expense of areas like intelligence and diplomacy. 
   
  Munchkin 
  Munchkin is a term used to describe self-orientated players who like to 
  grandstand and keep the spotlight on themselves. They are often willing to 
  find ways of adapting, or twisting, rules to get round the limitations placed 
  on other characters. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 212 
   
  Natural (Roll) 
  The number actually on a die, such as a natural 1 or a natural 20, 
  indicating the die's face shows a 1 or a 20. 
   
  New School 
  The now rather dated New School refers largely to more recent versions of 
  Dungeons and Dragons, 3.0E – 4.0E, which generally involve multi-volume 
  rule sets with rules-heavy combat options. 
   
  NPC (Non-Player Character) 
  These characters are the people and personalities that player characters 
  (PCs) encounter during their adventures. Some are likely to be hostile; but 
  many are likely to be open to some form of negotiation or trade-off. 
   
  Old School 
  The OSR, (Old School Revival/ Old School Renaissance), refers to games 
  similar to the early versions of Dungeons and Dragons, OE to 2E, which 
  tend to offer rules-light, improvisational play based around relatively short 
  rule sets. The appearance of clones/ re-mixed copies of older titles has 
  made many Old School games widely available after a lengthy break. 
   
  PC (Player Character) 
  A player’s avatar or character in a game is usually known as a PC. 
   
  Point Buy 
  This usually refers to making characters using a wide choice of skill and or 
  ability options selected by the player. All players’ PCs will have the same 
  number of points to spend on skills or abilities, which they may choose to 
  group to make a more specialist character – or to spread around to gain a 
  wider range of skills. 
   
  Powergamer 
  Powergamers are focused on gaining maximum advantage from mastering 
  the rules in great detail. Most players will make some effort to optimize a 
  PC, but a powergamer takes this to the extent of seeking an unfair 
  advantage or badgering the GM. 
   
  Powers 
  This is a term often used to describe exceptional abilities which make a 
  character extraordinary, e.g. flight or telepathy. Powers are commonly used 
  in superhero games. 
   
  Race 
  A character's genetic and cultural heritage can include anything from the 
  standard human races through to fantasy races, mutants, robots and 
  aliens. 
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 213 
  Railroading 
  This involves the GM, the rules or the shrink-wrapped setting limiting player 
  choice by requiring players to take certain actions and/ or channeling 
  players towards particular choices. Railroading is often associated with 
  GMs spelling out elaborate plots with fixed outcomes. While some measure 
  of plot direction or railroading can be helpful in terms of providing an 
  immersive setting, beyond a certain point railroading undermines player 
  choice. 
   
  Reverse Dungeon 
  A reverse dungeon or scenario flips the standard model of adventurers 
  ‘conquering’ a dungeon by placing the party in the position of defending a 
  dungeon against intruders. 
   
  Roll-Playing 
  Rules-heavy RPGs that rely largely on mechanical rules typically involve lots 
  of dice rolling. This approach tends to set aside areas like characterization, 
  storybuilding, discovery and exploration – so the term roll-playing simply 
  recognizes that play is focusing on game mechanics at the expense of 
  roleplaying. 
   
  Rules Lawyer 
  These players try to use knowledge of a RPG’s rules set to press for an 
  unfair advantage by calling for interpretations of the rules to consistently 
  fall in their favor. They may also be keen to insist that particular rules 
  which are widely known for unbalancing a game have to be adhered to. 
   
  Rules-Heavy 
  The multi-volume hardback set is a staple for games that tend to have a 
  mechanical rule to cover most actions and situations within the game. Such 
  rules tend to favor simulation over verisimilitude. 
   
  Rules-Lite 
  These are cut-down or level limited games that are often given out as 
  demonstrations. The term may also be applied to particularly short rule 
  sets, such as Risus, but such games, perhaps, belong in the rules-light 
  category, as they are able to support a series of adventures. 
   
  Rules-Light (to Medium) 
  Games with limited mechanics that rely on players to fill in the gaps using 
  negotiation and their imaginations are probably the largest RPG category. 
  They may be quite short with simplistic mechanics that leave a lot for 
  players to fill out. Alternatively, a rules light system may contain a solid 
  rules framework and lots of fluff aimed at helping GMs to design and 
  deliver adventures and settings.  
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 214 
  Sandbox 
  There’s a certain amount of confusion over the use of the term sandbox, as 
  the RPG definition tends vary from more general use of the term. In a RPG, 
  placing an adventure in a sandbox often means the opposite of railroading, 
  as adventures are driven by players’ choices, which the GM reacts to on the 
  basis of expanding upon a basic framework through improvisation. 
   
  Saving Throw 
  A ‘save’ or saving throw is a very common game mechanic in which dice are 
  used to try to avoid some kind of negative outcome. 
    
  Scenario 
  The term scenario is interchangeable with the term adventure. 
   
  Session 
  A game session is a single meeting of a role-playing group.  
   
  Settings 
  These are the fictional worlds in which gameplay takes place. The term is 
  comparable to a campaign, but a campaign is, possibly, a combination of a 
  setting and the actions and event going on within a setting. 
    
  Skills 
  The results of training and learning are often described as skills, e.g. 
  fencing or navigation skills. 
   
  Team Play 
  These systems allow the game to be run without a Referee/ GM by either 
  distributing the GM’s tasks or by offering options similar to solo RPGs. 
   
  TPK (Total Party Kill) 
  There are some games, such as horror titles, where it’s part of the 
  entertainment to kill off the players – eventually, However, in most cases 
  killing a PC, (without some magical or technological means of recovery), 
  isn’t such a good idea, as a player may have made put time and effort into 
  the character. A full-blown, no way back TPK against experienced 
  characters often collapses the gameplay/ a campaign. 
   
  
   
  The RPG Handbook - Thistle Games (c) 2012-2020 - Page 215 
  Acknowledgements 
   
  Many thanks to: Al, Alec, ATM, Cathy, Chloe, Davy, Ian, Iona, Jam, Jenny, 
  Ken, Mandy, Mark, Rob C and Rob T. 
   
  Respect to Dave Arneson, E. Gary Gygax and every other GM out there. 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/System neutral/System Neutral Adventure Design, Dungeoncraft/GM Advice & Writing/The RPG Handbook/The RPG Handbook [v151s].pdf