Calender Makes a World Go Round

A calendar in a setting helps to establish a feel and pace of a game. A good means to time-keep a character's adventure as well as track the current season and weather.

But a more looked over thing that a calender provides is a time-table of special events and holidays. More common holidays are seasonal celebrations, like the spring and fall equinox, but all national holidays and celebrations. Besides adding spice to the setting, it also allows a GM to use special days into the campaign as well allows characters to interact with the world around them.

A calender is something I often keep in mind when it comes to planning a campaign, and often figuring what season to start the adventure is often the first question I ask myself.

Die Rolling Statistics

Being a fan of pen & paper RPGs and eventually plan to put together a system of my own, one thing I study often is probability. Figuring the probability of an event and measure the percentile of an success (or fail) of an die roll is important for mechanic design. However, don't knowing the exact math of the more complex die mechanics ('exploding' dice for example) I found my interest in programming to help figure the probabilities. Sometimes, I'll program a quick flash document to be a die roller or browse the internet for more indepth and customizable systems. Found Anydice.com to be a great program with programmable dice output to a simple graph display.

I've often filled pages in my notebook with mechanic concepts and examples. Most drawing on bits of experience with systems I've played or read about, from percentile systems to die-pools and common d20 to more obscured Fudge. Each time I look at systems, often pick out the concepts I enjoy and admire, and take notes on the flaws.

No matter the system basis, one have to understand the odds behind the rolls. Take a comparison between a 1d12 and 2d6. Both have a max of 12, however the two dice will always have a better chance to get a higher score. Add 3d4 to the mix, the 3d4 will always have a chance to roll greater than the 2d6. However, the more dice added, the less deviation in the results, and that too must take account when designing a system.

Game statistics have always been an interest for me, and always curious in learning new things that involve with it.

Prospecting - Traveller Style

Well... after playing Prospector for an hour and giving a good laugh, it occurs to me (and others) that this plays out more like our Traveller campaigns: no real success, and more space blundering while looting. And the whole mega-corporation that you work for in the game adds a neat touch.

So... the thought is that if I ever do a Traveller campaign, it'll will carry a more Prospector theme to it. Things that might help it:

• Mega-corporations: Create a variety of mega-corps for special industries and common facilities (Cyberdyne Tech Group, Big Bob's Bargain Barn, McCoy Medical, etc.) that players can get contracts from. Odds of a office existing on a planet/station depends on planet codes and roll out just like any other naval base or research facilities.
• Detailed random alien table: A random table to roll out indigious life and primitive natives, giving characters the chance to kill that 10 tentacled gastropod with thick fur.
• Other advance races: Provide a chance that a few random aliens are space-faring.
• Ancient societies: Like classic Traveller, but may add random cosmic deities as well.
• And much much more!

And if you haven't played Prospector, check it out and enjoy: Prospector