The Rachni Queen.

For those who haven't played the first Mass Effect game, there's an encounter on the planet Noveria with a species called the Rachni. The creatures were a menace to civilization and thought to have been wiped out. but the corporation Binary Helix found a surviving Rachni queen and attempted to raise their own Rachni army. In typical sci-fi fashion, this proved to be a Bad Idea, with the Rachni young going feral and attacking people at the research station. The protagonist of Mass Effect, Commander Shepard runs into this situation, and after learning about what Binary Helix is up to, is eventually presented with a choice. Either use the facilities containment system to destroy the Rachni Queen, or let the Queen go free.

Now, the Queen at this point converses with Shepard through a proxy, and explains that it was a misunderstanding between the species, and claims that the Rachni can learn to live in peace with other races.

So Shepard is faced with two choices here. Destroy the Queen and exterminate a race of intelligent creatures, or free the Queen and possibly unleash a threat upon the galactic community. There is no real right choice, simply the choice the player thinks is the right one. It's a great scenario, and possibly the best in the original Mass Effect game. "Did you kill the Rachni Queen or let her go?"

There's a lesson in there for GMs on interesting choices that don't have a clear correct choice.

Eight kinds of fun.

Have I mentioned that I love the Angry DM? In a totally hetero GM way.

http://angrydm.com/2014/01/gaming-for-fun-part-1-eight-kinds-of-fun/

Random musings.

Imagine a party of characters made up of a Ferengi, a Klingon, a Romulan and a Vulcan.

Imagine how each character would approach a problem. Imagine what would motivate each character. Imagine how the party would resolve any interpersonal conflicts during an adventure.

A harmonious group is a boring group.

Adventure Design I: A basic lair.

First of a series on adventure design. I'm going to start with a very basic lair. Experienced GMs may wish to skip this one, but I do plan to build up concepts gradually.

First, I decide on the system, I'll use Basic D&D. I then come up with a concept. In this case, a small band of orcs. Their lair is in a cave. I'll arbitrarily decide on how many adventurers, and of what level. If I were going to make this lair for an existing campaign, I'd instead use the number of characters and their levels of the current players.
4 characters of level 1.

Next, I come up with a map. There's lots of mapping software on the web, and many maps from existing modules or geomorph resources could be used. In this case, I'll simply freehand a map on plain paper.

Map layout is pretty important. For example, a string of linear encounter areas is dirt simple, and very boring.

Instead, I'll break up the encounters by including branching paths.

I also added a sixth enounter area to break up the symmetry of the map.

I tend to number areas as close to how I think they'll be encountered by the party. Of course, since I've got branching paths, I can't do it perfectly. But I try to get it as close as possible, since it will make finding encounters in my notes a little easier.

I'm now ready to make a key. I'm going to put in some orcs, and keep the level range and number of characters in mind. Considering the low level, I'm going to use 50% of the total party level for an easy encounter, 100% of the party level for an average encounter, and 150% of the total party level for a hard encounter.

1. 2 Orc lookouts are guarding the entrance to the caves.

AC: 6, HD: 1, HP: 3 ea, Attacks: 1 weapon, Damage: 1d6, Save as: Fighter 1, Morale: 8, AL: C.

I tend to use just the relevant stats. I don't necessarily need the Treasure Type or Number Appearing for a key. I also like to decide by die roll or fiat how many HP the monsters have.

2. Central cave. There are 4 orcs here, roasting a giant lizard on a spit.

See encounter 1 for stats on the orcs.

A little flavor text, and I don't need to retype the stats for the orcs in this part of the cave.

3. Storeroom. There are sacks of mouldy grain, and dirty pelts here.

Not every location must have a combat encounter. 

4. Hoard. This cave holds the spoils that the orc raiders have taken. There is 500 gp worth of trade goods stolen from the nearby town here. 3 orcs guard the hoard.

5. Guard room. There are 2 orc guardians here, they are particularly tough, and have 6 HP each.

6. Chief's lair. The orc chief and some of his minions are here. The orc chief has 3 HD, and 9 HP, his minions are standard orcs, use the stats from encounter 1 for them.

The orc chief has a magical axe +1 to hit and damage. In his personal stash of loot is a potion of healing (which he may try to use during a fight), 36 gp in coins, and an ivory tusk worth 50 gp.

Done. A simple lair that should provide about 30-45 minutes worth of gaming, and only took about 15 minutes to write up. It's very simple though. In further entries, I'll punch the lair up a little.

Murder Hobos

I read an essay by Tracy Hickman that really struck me regarding D&D play styles.

I often think about an experience I shared with the players in one of my own games. I was the 'dungeonmaster' for a D&D game. We were playing 'Ravenloft', an adventure written by my wife and I about a vampire.
On the surface, this seemed like a typical old movie plot; Eerie eastern European location with lots of fog and fallen leaves. There was the obligatory castle high on the craggy cliff with the wolves howling in the woods. Sure enough, the vampire was up there in the castle.
To most of the players it seemed like a straight forward task: find the vampire and kill him.
However, Ravenloft had more to it than that. The plot of the story behind the game dealt with why Strahd von Zarovich, the Count of Barovia had fallen from grace to become the first vampire. As the game progressed, one of the players began discovering this background.
The vampire had once been a great and noble warrior. When he conquered Barovia and established the castle there he sent for his family to join him. There was a particular girl in the town that he wished to marry. In the end, however, the girl fell in love with the Count's younger brother. Strahd blamed his age for the girls rejection and vowed to live forever through the dark arts. He believed if he could rid himself of death that the girl would somehow find him attractive.
Of course, the brother was killed by Strahd. The girl threw herself from the cliffs of the castle but her body was never found. Strahd found that his pact with darkness had caused that he should not die but that he should not live either. Thus did he become a vampire.
At the end of the game, my friend held the sword which could destroy Strahd. As his companions fell upon the vampire, my friend found that he couldn't kill the monster. He saw all the sadness and tragedy which the mans life had once been. Ultimately his companions in the game were forced to finish the job.
After the game, we spoke. "He deserved to die better than that," my friend said.
"Yes," I replied, "But that is how it is with people who fall from greatness. He chose his end when he first chose to kill his brother. How could it be any different?"

http://web.archive.org/web/20110722122149/http://www.trhickman.com/Intel/Essays/Ethic3.html

How indeed. In my opinion, this was a rather poor way for Hickman to address the player's decision. The strength of this hobby is that players can explore for themselves what is good and what is bad. That player was justified in showing mercy to Strahd. Just as another player would be justified in striking Strahd down right away. Both would have a point, and the GM, favoring one interpretation or the other is, again IMO, bad form. This is a great oppportunity to examine morals and ethics within an RPG framework. Having the GM come down with a moral proclimation of what is good and what is bad robs the player characters of their agency. Why bulid up an interesting and potentially sympathetic villain if the GM is only going to expect a certain outcome? I will say that at least Hickman brought it up post-game with the player, instead of forcing a certain moral choice on the character in the moment.

The Orc Redeemed

Tolkien orcs are often brought up as the example of irredeemable orcs. Cannon fodder mooks for the big bad guy to fling at the heroes to die in droves.

Tolkien himself was never clear on just how evil the orcs were, or even gave a clear story on their origins.

But there are moments in the books when orcs and trolls show some amount of compassion and at least a notion of morality:

"Poor little blighter," said William. He had already had as much supper as he could hold; also he had had lots of beer. "Poor little blighter! Let him go!"
"Not till he says what he means by lots and none at all," said Bert. "I don't want to have me throat cut in me sleep. Hold his toes in the fire, till he talks!"
"I won't have it," said William. "I caught him anyway."

"It's my guess you won't find much in that little fellow,' said Gorbag. 'He may have had nothing to do with the real mischief. The big fellow with the sharp sword doesn't seem to have thought him worth much anyhow – just left him lying: regular elvish trick."

Maybe the orcs (and trolls) of Middle-earth aren't irredeemably evil. Maybe the influence of Morgoth, and then Sauron, and to a lesser extent, Saurman, reinforce their evil tendencies. They've been so long under the control of the bad guys, that they simply haven't had the chance for anything else.

"I'd like to try somewhere where there's none of 'em. But the war's on now, and when that's over things may be easier."
"It's going well, they say."
"They would.  We'll see.  But anyway, if it does go well, there should be a lot more room.  What d'you say? -- if we get a chance, you and me'll slip off and set up somewhere on our own with a few trusty lads, somewhere where there's good loot nice and handy, and no big bosses."
"Ah!  Like old times."
"Yes.  But don't count on it.  I'm not easy in my mind. As I said, the Big Bosses, ay, ay, even the Biggest, can make mistakes.  Something nearly slipped, you say.  I say, something has slipped.  And we've got to look out.  Always the poor Uruks to put slips right, and small thanks.  But don't forget: the enemies don't love us any more than they love Him, and if they get topsides on Him, we're done too."

Note that when Sauron is absent, the orcs and trolls tend to become 'mere' bandits and raiders, and show little ambition past that. The Goblin King was willing to parley with Thorin's company. Maybe just to find out more about their doings, but it does set the precedent that orcs can be parleyed with, even if they're not likely to show much mercy. Perhaps after Sauron's demise, if the orcs were left alone, they just might move on from the raiding lifestyle and adopt more 'good' habits and relations. Personally, I think it would take a long, long time, and one could hardly be faulted for being wary of orcs until they had proven themselves out from the long influnce of the evil powers of Middle-earth.

Leveling Items

An excellent idea that I first encountered in 1st edition Earthdawn, and have used in other systems, is the idea of leveling items. Magic items whose bonuses scale to the level of the owner. For example, a 2nd edition D&D character gains the Blacksteel Sword. This sword has a bonus to hit and damage based on it's owners level:

Level          Bonus to hit and damage
1-4            +1
5-8            +2
9-12          +3
13-16        +4
17-20        +5

Or, in Dungeon Crawl Classics:

Level          Bonus to hit and damage
1-2             +1
3-4             +2
5-6             +3
7-8             +4
9-10           +5

At certain levels, a specific power could be unlocked, that gives flavor and theme to the item.

Blacksteel Sword special powers
Level 3          +1 to saves versus magic spells
Level 6          Spellcasters struck with the Blacksteel Sword must save vs Will (spells) at DC 10+CL, or forget one randomly determined spell.
Level 9          Once per day, the Blacksteel Sword can cast an anti-magic shell, that lasts for 1d6 turns.
And so on...

This gives characters a reason to hold onto an item instead of trading up, and allows the game master to have much less items floating around in the campaign world.