How I prep and run my games: RPG a Day revisited

Last month, I participated in the RPG A Day 2017 series of Q&A on Google Plus, and I thought I'd throw together a bit of the "best of" posts on GM process, etc. This here is a modified version of what I posted the for...

Day 27: What are your essential tools for good gaming?

A: I'll break these into two categories: game prep (as a GM, mostly) and at the table (as GM and as a player).

GAME PREP TOOLS

EVERNOTE for note taking
There are a lot of these types of programs out there but I like Evernote since it has the same support for both mobile and desktop. Mostly, I'll just hit the text icon, then the microphone and speak my idea directly into the phone. Then, I add tags/labels

If I get an idea from an article I just hit the SHARE button on my phone, choose Evernote and it saves the article. then I can go back and pin a few tags on it so I can quickly find it later -- and more importantly -- recall the context of why I saved it.

For example, if I find an article online that has a great character I could use for an NPC, I'll share to Evernote, tag it as "NPC" maybe even "Villain" and the [campaign] name. Later, when I begin the writing process, and I need to call up my notes for that campaign I'll easily find it when I click search one of those tags.

PINTEREST for image aggregation and selection
Pinterest allows me to create Boards by virtually pinning images or links. I've several private boards that I use to collect art and photos to help me sketch out the look of my games. It's a fantastic way to quickly visualize your worldbuilding.

I can search easily by keyword, artist name, or whatever else you think will help me find the right picture. Or I can Google search an image and pin it from there. It's great for making a "look board" for my games.

TRELLO for organizing GM notes
I don't know how I ever lived without Trello. Seriously one of the best online tools out there for organizing your game. With it, I'm able to basically create digital notecards that I can organize by category and color. I usally do the prep part on a computer, to speed up data entry.

For a Rad Astra game I ran a while back, I made different categories (think of them as "stacks" of cards) for things like Weapons, Items, Vehicles, Monsters, Villains, Other NPCs, etc. Then with each category, I was able to color them according to which location they were found.

Color coding made it super easy to correlate where stuff belonged and voilà! An encounter takes shape. It's a more associative way of building your encounters and MUCH easier to mentally wrap your brain at the table.

I'll add a short description, maybe some bullet points with "rumors" or other clues. But at the very least, I'll enter all the stats I need so I don't need to look them up. I can even make a card with an empty stat block and copy/paste that as many times as I need -- filling in the blanks as I go.

Finally, I'll add in some images that I've now cherry-picked off Pinterest. Or maybe a map, that can be shown to players later.

Oh, and if there are any tables or charts you need for the game, I can just take a picture of that table, give it a title and then it's right there for me so I don't have to go searching for it in the book.

All the cards are searchable, FYI -- so if you've got a ton of them for your game, you can just search like you would any other website. 

AT THE TABLE TOOLS

TRELLO for Running Games
Here's where the mobile version of Trello comes in. I've got a tablet I use to run Trello which allows me to quickly access all of my game notes (just need to make sure it's got a wireless connection to grab all the updated cards -- something you can do before coming to the table if there's no wi-fi where you game).

I'll have the stats and descriptions at the ready. I might even have a clip of music linked. But the biggest/best part is being able to flip my tablet around for players to see an image or a map. It's right there! I can even pinch/stretch to zoom in on a map.

Image: TheNoteboard.com

NOTEBOARD for quick map sketch-ups or tracking initiative

One of the best accessories I've found to be really useful at the table was this folding white board that's made exclusively for RPGing. It's got both a grid and hexes on one side and is blank on the reverse. It comes with one dry erase, but it will take any, really. And the carrying pouch doubles as an eraser! Throw in a d20 (like I have) and you've literally got yourself everything you need for a game-on-the-spot RPG!

Other stuff

• Pencils? Check! 
• Paper notecards and Sharpie markers for tabletop name badges (we do a lot of public gaming) Check!
• Hand sanitizer? CHECK!

Yep. I'm a germaphobe. Well not really, but did you ever get sick after a convention? Congrats! You've had Con Crud, the staple cold bug that get passed around from gamer to gamer. I get it. Every. Time. At least I used to. With this stuff, you're warding off quite a bit.

Yes, yes DO tell me how I'm hurting my own immune system by not exposing myself to bugs. You'd be wrong, mostly because I have a preschooler and she's FAR more infectious than any gamers. This just reduces the amount of exposure and general grunge encountered at the game store. Also, I only use the alcohol-based stuff, so it actually KILLS germs. Don't get the triclosan stuff, it's proven to not work.

In any case, I throw a few bottles around the table so other folks can use it to. Or just make fun of me. I'm not afraid of a little ridicule. :-)

So there you have it, a few cool tools to help lighten the load when it comes to prepping and running games!

Space dungeon: Perry Rhodan spaceship cutaway

Found this one on Facebook. Looks like mini stunt double for the Death Star, but it's actually a cutaway image of a battleship--the Leif Eriksson--from a Perry Rhodan story. (Odd that it's not the sharp-nosed cruiser you usually find images of online.)

Though I'm not 100% confident in my Google-fu, I suspect this what the exterior looks like:

In any case, go ahead and embiggen that top image and you've got yerself a nifty space megadungeon map! 

Video and Renderings of Antarctica Sans Ice

All right GMs, here's a map of the best available rendering of Antartica, sans ice sheet. You can thank the British Antarctica Survey and NASA for these wonderful videos and images. Click pics below to enlarge.

Oblique rendering by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Top view/enhanced color imaging maps by BAS

So you no longer have an excuse not to run that Marvel Savage Land or ruined-Earth-of-the-distant-future campaign you've been secretly working on.

Yeah, that one.

Via Wired.

Saturday Star Control: Mail Call!

Okay, so technically it's Sunday, but it's been a busy week with the holiday and all--so just a quick post for this week's Saturday Star Control. I was able to snag the box and manual to Star Control I and II a few weeks back on eBay. Turns out that there's a trove of info in the guides that I'd totally forgotten about the game, not to mention a lot of cool art!

Probably the coolest find though is this giant star map, complete with coordinates and spheres-of-influence under the different empires!

Hoping to find a way to scan that bad boy at some point. Anyway, light on actual post material, but a helpful resource for future ones--fleshing out different races for X-plorers. ;)

Saturday Star Control: Map of the Galaxy!

Here, have a massive star map depicting the explored universe in Star Control II! Makes for handy game aid for your favorite space opera RPG, I'd imagine.

Click to embiggen.

Image via Star-Control.com

MAP: Our Moon as a Wilderness - your next campaign?

The geniuses at University College London have made available--for free--a glorious map of the moon, as illustrated by astronomer Walter Goodacre in 1920. Words cannot describe how incredible this map is, so I'll just show you (click to embiggen):

That's a resized version (by me, so I could fit it here, but also messed up the clarity) of one page of his original publication. Go now to the UCL site and feast your eyes on full-size scans of the pages! You can also peek at these on Flickr in a slightly more approachable format.

And that's not all! They've digitally stiched the entire map back together into a clean, line drawn version that you can download--in either 130mb and 300mb versions.

The thought of printing this out and spreading it onto a table to use as a wilderness adventure or a lunar wargaming map is almost geographically obscene. My GM-brain is salivating at the mere notion of a Victorian-age steampunk/dieselpunk campaign, tromping through the wilds of the moon!

Hey, here's a 3D image of a nebula

Here's a nice little "holographic" starmap for your next night at the gaming table (or hyperfuel for your next fan fiction). It's a an animated .gif in 3D of cosmic cloud Melotte 15 in the Heart Nebula, IC 1805 by astro photogropher J-P Metsävainio.

It's essentially a stereograph of an object in space. So I have to ask--why aren't we doing this for EVERYTHING IN SPACE? I'm thinking we need to tie two Hubbles together. Should be easy! #NASAMAKEITHAPPEN

Okay, maybe not. But it's pretty cool, huh?


Full article at Universe Today

Take a trip to SCIENCE FICTION LAND!

Have you seen Ben Affleck's film ARGO about how the CIA staged a filmmaking ruse for a nonexistent sci-fi film in order to rescue hostages from Iran? Well there's plenty about that story left to tell--but less than 2 days to raise the money to do it justice.

Filmmaker Judd Ehrlich is working on a documentary entitled "SCIENCE FICTION LAND" based on the real concept that inspired the CIA cover...a sci-fi theme park! The parks creators hired the King of Comics himself, Jack Kirby to design the look of the buildings. From the Kickstarter page:

In the mid-1970s, before STAR WARS, an enigmatic young inventor named Barry Ira Geller options the rights to Roger Zelazny’s award-winning novel Lord of Light, writes a screenplay and sets out to produce a sci-fi blockbuster and the world’s first science fiction theme park – Science Fiction Land. Geller dreams of inspiring the next generation of scientists and bringing the technology of the future to everyone.

A complete unknown, through his passion and determination Geller enlists an all-star team: "King of Comics" Jack Kirby; Hollywood makeup and special effects geniuses John Chambers & Maurice Stein; world-renowned architect Paolo Soleri, visionary author Ray Bradbury; and legendary futurist Buckminster Fuller.

On the verge of success, the project collapses amidst scandal, fraud, and mystery. Years later, Geller learns that his script and Kirby designs were used by CIA agent Tony Mendez as a cover during the Iran hostage crisis – his film's title changed from LORD OF LIGHT to ARGO. 

As of this writing, they're in the close-but-not-quite-there range of the $50k they need to finish the film. I pitch a little scratch their way because I'm dying to see what Kirby's designs would have looked like on a massive three-dimensional scale--and to hear one incredible real-life spy story. The CIA even went so far to create a phony production company and took out a full-page ad in Variety magazine to promote the film.

There's all kinds of great swag of course, but if you're a MEGA Kirby fan, you'll can fund the film AND get yourself a Kirby Museum membership, which includes MORE Kirby swag. (I asked and they confirmed.) I seriously considered ponying up on that one.

Alas, for a mere $5 you can help out, for $25 you get a download of the film (that's what I kicked in). Not a bad entry fee for the ultimate never-never-was-land!

Check out the Kickstarter page for yourself!

Official documentary movie site!

Wired's 2007 article about the CIA mission

Update: FUNDING SUCCESSFUL!

Images: Judd Ehrlich/Flatbush Pictures 

References for crafting your space fleet (inspiration)

Here's a few resources I've found over time (including a recently) that have been helpful in working up some believable spaceships. (If you're into that sorta thing). In no particular order....

1. NAME YOUR SHIP
Here's a page explaining how US naval craft are named, with each specific class of ship having its own nomenclature. For instance, subs are named for marine creatures, unless they're nuclear or ballistic missile platforms, in which case they can get presidential monikers.

The range of categories is surprising, with the usual states, cities, generals, presidents, and battles, to things like "stars", "calming words" and "comedians". The list covers both WWII and modern-era naming systems.

I like the idea of having a naming process behind the space fleet. I sort of had one going for the Omega Patrol Ship write-up I did for X-plorers, but it was more based on numbers within the series than different styles of ships.

Sometimes scale-creep can really ruin an encounter!

2. SIZE MATTERS

Making a believable ship depends heavily on scale. As with the chart from my previous post that's making its way around the interwebs comparing the Enterprise alongside several real-life spacecraft designs, it's good to have a general idea with real-world examples (if possible) on size. Well here's the ultimate sci-fi size-comparison site which allows you to view vessels from many different franchises side-by-side, plus some NASA ships and a few other examples. There's one recent omission, the Prometheus from the film's namesake. I'm still trying to figure out the scale on that baby.

Split detail image of the shuttle orbiter nose or a cutaway of a captured flying saucer? 

3. SCHEMATICS & DIAGRAMS
Looking for some quick, spaceship schematics? Done. Looking to make something original and random? Got it. Looking for the mother-of-all spaceship model sites? Uff da. There's also this awesome site by Winchell Chung that's got all sorts of calculations for building atomic-powered spacecraft.

That first link doesn't have Star Wars ships though, so try this one. It's an older site with some weird design going on, but it's got a ton of vessels.

Oh, and Gizmodo did an article a while back featuring some NICE high-res NASA schematics, like the one pictured above. These, of course, are just a few of the myriad links and sites out there. BTW, here's a previous post on the Prometheus' deck plans with a link back to a write-up I did for her.

Finally, here's a starship Pintrest board I created wherein I've pinned/repinned all manner of space craft art for your enjoyment or inspiration.

4. PAYLOAD & CARGO
Let's get one thing straight--I'm not a math guy. So stuff like this Wikipedia article on explaining payloads for air and space vehicles is helpful. Most helpful to me are the examples for actual craft (mainly because it's easier to just skip the charts and get to the real-world stuff). If nothing else it's a jumping off point because really, the words "spacecraft payload" are a rabbit hole in Google for which it seems there are an endless amount of results.

5. ASTROGATION 
Okay, so you're ship is built and you're ready to blast off from Earth some distant star, say Proxima Centauri. WOOOSH, you're there. Except now your Galactic Alert System has gone off and you need to rush off to Epsilon Eridani. How far is that? No, not from Earth, from Proxima Centauri. HERE. Try this calculator.

Stars in our neighborhood, click to enlarge

You can choose from the examples in the list or look up some star coordinates and plug them in. It should give you the distance between those two stars. Just remember, you need three numbers to do these calculations:

• RA (right ascension) 
• Dec (declination) 
• Distance in ly (light years from Earth) 

Most star charts will have these numbers. The first two, RA and Dec are called Equatorial Coordinates. Some charts also list Galactic Coordinates, but you won't need them for the calculator listed above. Our pal Mr. Chung comes to the rescue once again with some 3D star charts resources of his own compiling.

Sometimes knowing the distance between destinations is helpful for designing spacecraft--either in capabilities or limitations--such as making craft that have limited range that the PCs will need to supe-up to make the journey, etc.

So there ya go, some real-world help (take what works for ya) for embellishing your totally-not-real space gaming!

Prometheus deck plans and interior shots!

Go figure. Just ONE DAY after I did a write-up in an attempt to pin some stats to the Prometheus, and they go and release BLUEPRINTS!

When it rains it pours, I guess. The awesome part? They're practically game ready maps and handouts!

So here ya go, feast your eyes on the pics, most of which were first released on Collider.com (click to enlarge)...

Bridge

Crew Lounge

Vickers Personal Quarters/Lifeboat

Medical/Science Lab

Med Pod/Surgical Robot

Hypersleep/Cryo-chamber

Excursion Suit Room

Single Occupant Escape Pods

Hangar Bay

Prometheus swivels thrusters down into landing gear...

BONUS:
The filmmakers have also released a great image of the heavy ground vehicle carried by Prometheus, called the RT01 Transport. So it looks like I'll have to do stats that are more accurate for that. Heck, I'll have to re-do stats for the ship too!

Cool stuff!

UPDATE: Added a few new images of the lounge and hangar bay.

Moon Base Adventures: Cutaways and Illustrations

Here's a few illustrations of moon and star bases that would make for some great adventure art and maps!

EXPISCOR ETERNUS!