For the next campaign I am working on each PC will come in two flavors, full PC and Companion character. Each player will have two PCs, a prime and a back up. The backup will become the prime PC if the other character dies, but until then they will likely be run only as companion characters. If we know someone is missing we will fill in from the pool of each attending player’s backup PCs run as a companion character. This way every player is still playing ‘his’ characters, even if one is cut down to NPC stats. This can cause problems if they are in the middle of the lost caves of Aaaargh or some other situation where a swap is impossible, but I would rather have the immersion issues than someone’s pc dying the week they are gone.

Below is my monk as a companion character:

Yukitori

Level 5 Kenku Monk Companion

Medium Natural Humanoid

XP 0

Initiative +4 ♦ Senses Perception +10 Insight +5

HP 43; Bloodied 21

AC 20; Fortitude 18, Reflex 19, Will 18

Saves +0

Resists None

Speed 6

Action Points None

Basic Attack (Standard, At-Will) ♦ Melee

+9 vs AC, 1d8+3

Five Storms (Standard, At-Will) ♦ Full Discipline, Psychic, Implement

+8 vs Reflex, 1d8+4, another 5 damage to the target or any other target within 2. Movement: Can shift 2 as a move this turn.

Drunken Monkey (Standard, Encounter) ♦ Melee

+8 vs Will, 1d8+4 and the target can be slid one to do a basic attack on an ally at +3. another 5 damage to the target or any other target within 2. Movement: +2 to movement and no rough terrain penalty.

Alignment Unaligned ♦ Languages Common, Shou

Skills Perception +10, Bluff +9, Acrobatics +12, Stealth +13

Str 14 (+4)	Dex 19 (+6)	Wis 16 (+5)
Con 11 (+2)	Int 10 (+2)	Cha 10 (+2)

Equipment +1 anti aura spear, +1 final sleep ki focus, healing potion

Much easier to play than four pages of character sheets, he has a basic attack, an at will and an encounter. I will likely give them magic items if the effect is worth worrying about, but not bother listing items like his +2 Amulet of Protection, which only effects his stats.  Campaign is still months away I think, but I hope players will prefer this to the way running other’s full PC’s.

Other Resources:

Monster and PC sheet CSS forms can be found at Omnichron’s D&D Tools

Greg Bilsland on Ally Cards, another alternative to give the PCs some coverage.

Table top RPGs are all about having fun playing an RPG with some friends. Currently this is done mostly with pieces of paper, both by the DM whose notes, encounters and maps are all on paper and the player who’s character sheet is also paper. This is already starting to get chiseled away at however by laptops and smart phones. I expect to see this more and more, there are already fights at the local game days for who sits where so they can plug in, and this is at shops with no internet connections. So paper is the common delivery mechanism today, but lets jump up a couple of years.

The DM’s module is delivered to him as the game runs by the designer of a world wide event. Everywhere around the world parties are playing part of a massive campaign event with live connections to the designer who tracks the results and sends updates out based on how the parties are doing around the world. Minipaper versions of this occur today with battle interactives, they could easily be done globally as well. Everyone plays it today and your group can change the way the entire event comes out. Could be a lot of fun, one day of real hard core table top rpg energy that is entirely online dependent. Is it likely anytime real soon, probably not. WOTC is the big dog and I don’t think they could pull it off today, but could it happen? Certainly. Don’t get too hung up on the delivery mechanisms, online or paper don’t matter if the game is fun. That is the point I was trying and failing to get across in 140 characters. Hopefully 500 words will make the point better.

Background categories can’t be adventuring ones but must be more usual things (see samples below) someone might be involved in. I will be warning players that these will be integrated pretty closely to character background story.  I can see players wanting to stretch this pretty regularly if it isn’t clearly explained so here are some examples.

Sailing: would cover most basic ship activities, knowing where things are, how to set sails, climbing rigging but wouldn’t cover ship building, non-ship rope climbing, areas where air ships differ from sea ships.

Town Watch: should cover basic unit drill, military ranks, common civil punishments but not give combat bonuses or allow warlord type skill checks.

Apprentice: Where to find spell ingredients, history of local wizards group but not expanding burst range of spell, how to bind demons etc.

Weaponsmith: Basic forge work, metal working, creating basic weapons not applying arcane runes, working unobtanium, crafting vorpal weapons.

The group is made up of veteran players with a couple of newer players, all but one of the players are still getting their feet under them in fourth edition D&D so there was a lot of time spent early one just getting a better feel for the new version of the game. This isn’t really a DMing problem, but it is something I had to keep in mind as I designed encounters, these guys are not ruthless LFR players but they don’t want to be spoon fed either.

Pluses:

• The the players are  really starting to work together well, they knew their characters well and they knew how they could help their friends. This confidence really helped speed up the game and it made the fights in particular much more fun.

• The players surprised me several times with their actions both with roleplaying and in combat. This helped them tremendously at one point where by playing smart they skipped a series of dangerous encounters, I love this, it is a big part of what makes DMing fun for me, I have to think on my feet and they know they have done something cool.

• I got better at using initiative tents during the campaign, I find them very helpful in keeping combat flowing well.

The negatives:

• I focused too much on the combat. This one frustrates me, we tried using the character hooks from the campaign path but none of the hooks really bit in. I think this is my fault, I get overly focused on getting combat done correctly and the story slips my mind. I am getting better here, as I get more comfortable with combat more and more story is staying around and the big fight at the end of the game was a good mix of story and fight, but I still have a ways to go on this.

• I struggled with players who missed games. We started by having someone else play their PC, but they didn’t enjoy playing two. I switched them to semi-npcs, allowing them a single at-will power in combat and this worked better, but I kept finding them face down on the floor taking death checks. This is doubly bad, no ones PC should be killed off while they are not there and I had a hard time balancing the enemy challenge level with these put in. I have a cunning plan to fix this for the next game but I would happily hear what everyone else does with this.

• My home group only plays twice a month and this hurt the story. It is hard to keep track of who is who when you are playing every other week. I will be assigning a note taker in the next round and we will see if that works out better, but I will also have to work on making the NPCs more memorable as well. We also play on weeknights, so session are short and I will have to keep a better eye  on the clock.
• Treasure, I suck at giving it out. I think this is a bad habit I have picked up from running LFR, but I consistently forgot to hand out items and gold. I have started to pregenerate parcels for the next game already. I am not overly concerned with treasure myself, so I forget how big a part of the game finding gold and items is.

I find a major break like the end of a module or a major campaign change is a great place to reflect on my role as a DM and how I can improve. I have played with a ton of great DMs lately and I try to steal from all of them. I have a style, but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn from other DMs and it certainly doesn’t mean that I can’t make my game better.  My next game will be an Eberron variant and will start in a few months, hopefully I will be able to keep my pluses getting better, and fix my negatives.

1. Lady Karska is a wealthy widow who collects ‘magic scrolls’, she has dozens of them and almost all are complete fakes as the local con men have figured out that Lady Karska can’t tell a fake from a real scroll, however if needed one or more can be real scrolls to aid the group at the right moment. As for the Lady herself you can meet her at the inn where she will offer to buy scrolls from adventurers. She cannot use them, but that doesn’t stop her from trying and she will spend hours trying to get a scroll to work once she has purchased it, when she fails she puts them into a large chest in her home which is jammed with old scrolls.

2. Jerrik the Stout is fascinated with one of the PC races (Pick the PC with the race that is most exotic in the town and use that one.) and is regarded as the local expert on them. He has been regaling the town for years with stories of how the race eats their dead and can make gold by boiling roots and the like. All nonsense of course, but once he sees a real live member of the race he is obsessed with he will want to talk to them endlessly, even if treated rudely he will persist in trying to find out all he can, if he is told the truth he will mangle it when telling others, not maliciously, he is just really really dim.

3. Old Man Thandros is the town rat catcher and he hunts rats with glee. Have a paranoid group here something moving under the floor of their inn room, it will be Old Man Thandros crawling through the crawlspace hunting a rat, while they are sneaking through an alley have Old Man Thandros pop out of a hole in a wall displaying his latest trophy. If you want to make him useful, he knows every small passage way under the houses of the town and all the tunnels that lead to the basements etc, perhaps he will help the PCs if they help him bag “The King” a legendary rat the old man has been hunting for many years.

4. Keltis is blind, or at least functionally blind as she can’t see anything in this dimension, she sees into the feywild or the shadowfell at the location that matches where the town is. Some areas match up well for the terrain, but the plane she sees into is filled with terrible creatures so she keeps her eyes closed as much as she can. The beings in the other plane cannot see her, but the combination of their terrible nature and the differences between the other plane and the material one leave poor Keltis nearly helpless. Perhaps the PCs are looking for something in the other plane and hear of a woman who can see into it.

5. Delia is a spy, she spies on her neighbors, she spies on travelers who pass through town. As a young girl few pay her any mind, but she writes down all she sees into her journal and she has seen something the PCs need information about, the PCs need to find her and her journal before the bad guys do.

6. Basil is the head of town’s gang of tough kids. The gang consists of a dozen or so young boys, to young for hard work but old enough to make trouble. They are fearless, but not stupid, so they will taunt a PC or monster, but run away when chased. The kids will pelt anyone they dislike with dirt clods, road apples and trash if threatened. Basil fancies himself a giantslayer, he wants to drop something big, perhaps the PCs can point him in the right direction to a dragon or troll?

7. Mayor Rollo is very imaginative and energetic, he is filled with ideas to better the town. Currently he is working on manned kites that guards can be flown in above the town to drop rocks on criminals or attackers. Yes the accidents so far are unfortunate, but he is sure that with just a bit more tweeking this will work! Then he will proceed with his plan to mount the entire town on a platform that can be pulled up the hill when the spring floods come. The towns people all think he is a genius, but volunteers to try his new ideas are sometimes hard to come by, perhaps you daring adventurers would be willing to try?

8. Priestess Margol is the towns leading religious person, but remarkably ineffective. This is because she isn’t really a priestess, she is conwoman who has gotten stuck in the role and now doesn’t want to leave, but knows she will be exposed sooner or later. Do the PCs help her or expose her?

9. Giddral is the town hunter, but he has a dark secret, he sells information to the local orks, bandits, cultists, etc in return for freshly killed game. He tips them off when rich travelers are leaving or when good loot can be found in the town, but now the PCs have come to him looking for a guide to hunt his allies. He isn’t a good woodsman or hunter at all, but how can he slip away and tip off his allies with PCs watching him all the time?

10. Alain is rightfully paranoid, as a young boy he watched his family cut down in front of him for being related to the old King. When the new King took the throne he sent out people to kill anyone else who had a claim on throne, but his henchmen missed the boy somehow. Now as young adult Alain tries to keep a low profile, as he is the rightful claimant to the throne but he has no army or family to back him. The PCs need a book he has, but he doesn’t trust them and they don’t know who he really is. Won’t be easy to convince him that they can be trusted.

1. Bjorn Biskoff: Bjorn is the town bully. In a lonely town like this he is the big man, at least as far as strength goes. Unfortunately the strongest PC is stronger, Bjorn will try to prove he is stronger, but in an honest match of strength he will lose. He hates losing and will constantly bad mouth the PCs and the stronger PC in particular at every opportunity. Every time the PCs destroy something in town or miss a stealth roll he will be there and will be a constant thorn in the PCs side. He isn’t looking for a fight, but he is very bitter and can’t be bought off.

2. Little Stevos: Little Stevos is a small man and always looks nervous, he has reason to be nervous, he killed his elderly mother and is now being haunted by her ghost. A PC who can sense supernatural activity will notice Stevos has a dark aura about him. If the PCs ask about his nervousness he will break into a cold sweat and deny anything is wrong. If they follow him they will see many signs of haunting, things fall over near him, shadows seem to settle around him in the dark, etc. He is terrified, but can’t really ask for help as anyone trying to settle the spirit will have to find out why it is not resting.

3. Angry Milton: Angry Milton will never forget that (one of the PC races or nationalities) killed his brother in the last war. Angry Milton wasn’t there, but he is sure that ‘that kind’ is evil and filled with treachery. He will try to stop the PC from entering the town, but will be overridden if the PC pushes back at all. Once the PC is in they will find that they are not welcome at the Taverns or shops, the owners have been warned by Angry Milton, and when he is off duty Angry Milton and a small gaggle of his buddies will follow the PC around town and harass them. Angry Milton isn’t looking for a fight, but he will spy on, harass and generally make himself obnoxious for as long as he can to teach the ‘evil’ PC that he is on to their tricks.

4. Bryan the Book: Bryan is an unusually intelligent guardsman. He can read and write and is always dragging through any book he can lay his hands on. The PCs probably come across him supposedly on duty, but actually absorbed in a book. He reads anything and can be used to lead adventurers to local quests or to give the odd clue. The PCs can also buy him off with the occasional book or two or arrange a book as a distraction while they are sneaking past him, while he is very intelligent, he isn’t always very observant about people.

5. Sgt. Gelbert and Charnard: Sgt. Gelbert is as corrupt as a guardsman can be, he has no conscience at all and is up to his eyes with the local gangs. His whole squad is the same, except for one young guardsman, Chanard,  who has gone awol after finding out what was going on. Charnard is looking for help to get evidence on Sgt. Gelbert, but Gelbert and his bully boys are looking for them intensely. Sgt. Gelbert will stop at nothing to deal with Chanard, if he thinks the PCs have met with Chanard he can make it very hard on the adventurers.

6. Anthony: Anthony works as a guardsman, but his heart is with his cats. He knows every cat in town, has many in his home and is constantly followed by a small group of cats. He doesn’t hate people, he just likes cats more. He reacts well to PCs who have cats and poorly to anyone who threatens a cat. In a fight he will seek to get his cats out of harms way before joining the fight, this may not be possible as the cats return right after being shooed away.

7. Captain Fullum: Captain Fullum is the eight son of minor nobility, but he carries himself as extremely upper crust. He has converted his guardsmen into his personal servants, driving away anyone competent and leaving no one but toadies and sycophants. He will react to the PCs by their rank and by their deference to him, if the PCs suck up to him they will be given a pretty free hand, if they show him up or abuse him they will find all hassles he and his men can rain on them.

8. Old Beedle: Old Beedle is a veteran guardsman, he has seen it all and lived to tell about it. He is the man you want next to you in the foxhole. The bad news is he will see through any bluff or cover story or at least appear to. If he is on watch sneaking about will be tough and if there is trouble he will get to the bottom of it.  When I use Beedle I always add a twist, such as Beedle is a spy for the neighboring kingdom.

9. Therik: Therik is schemer, a wheeler dealer and a coward. His current mission in life is to get the Captain of the Guard removed so that he can make his illicit deals without interference. If the PCs need something he will try to get them to set the Captain up, but if they succeed he will want them gone as quickly as possible so they can’t rat him out. He will pay what he said he would, but he will then try to convince the PCs to leave town, if they don’t he will begin to plan something to discredit them as well.

10. Brazza: There is a conspiracy out there, Brazza just knows it. The missing wagon, the broken water clock, the old woman in red, and now adventurers just happen to show up? Coincidence? Of course not. Brazza isn’t sure what is up, but he will get to the bottom of it, no matter how convoluted the stories get.