The Grizzly Rant

"Hey... Why are all the monsters suddenly targeting me? This is so unfair!" - Some angry player, who was "arbitrarily" attacked 3+ times in a single turn of combat. Sigh. Arbitration. Fairness. Making that call. And perhaps worst of all, who does the dragon decide to snatch in its razor-sharp jaws? Welcome to Part 2 of the Jar of Evil, Monster Protocols or How to Train your Monsters. Monster Protocol There was a magnificent video by Runehammer on Monster Mind, essentially a thesis on creating A.I. for monster behavior. I loved it. A lot. I use nearly each one of those methods (someday I hope to use the Player Controlled monster), but I noticed something specifically lacking in those methods: how the monster directs those abilities. Based on my observations of Runehammer, he tends to side more on targeting PCs with the dice than other methods. I can understand why, the dice are impartial. However, the dice have the same flaw in targeting PCs as they do

NPCs. Companions. The dreaded "GM-PC." We've all seen them. Most of us have been them. But no more! Rid thyself, O Game Master, of the shackles binding thee to eternal NPC bookkeeping! Fret not, O Player, of a new burden of which thou wilt never remember to do nor use! BEHOLD! Grizzly Encounter FORCES!  An ICRPG Supplement on Character Creation, NPCs, Companions, Villains, Kingly LOOT, and more! Estimated 2019. NOTE: TL;DR in CONCLUSION FORCES: Companions as LOOT "Companions" here mean NPCs (Non-Player Characters) that specifically follow the party for some reason. A Companion LOOT "Item" is more a conceptual thing than anything, for truly it stands for the NPC's Friendship. And Friendship is Earned, through hard work, Attempts at communication and interaction, and Effort.  In short, Companions are LOOT Chests, opened with CHA (or other STATs, depending on how they Attempt to win over the NPC). Once a PC has opened the proverbial

So many ideas, so little time. Seriously. I was hit with life like a truck hits a moose. Neither comes out too well, and everything grinds to a halt. There are a myriad of projects I have in the works here at The Grizzly Rant and the Grizzly Encounter series, but these will be postponed for a bit longer. For some bizarre reason I have yet to figure out, folks appear to enjoy my ideas and products. For that, I am blown away, humbled, and grateful. I fully intend to keep working on all of it for a simple reason: I love Game Mastering at my table. These ideas, projects and products are things I create for my players. And with a little cleanup, they enhance our hobby and my favorite game system, Index Card RPG. That being said, I know a scant few of y'all actually follow me (can't fathom why), so here are a few brief updates on what I am slowly  working on between moving and prepping for a new classroom: The Grizzly Rant: Idea Factory The blog will continue fas

I was drafting the "starter session" for a city quest the other day I call "The Whispers of Madness." It's a mystery adventure. ICRPG is an inherently fast-paced game, and mystery-type adventures are notorious for grinding parties to a halt for HOURS as they attempt to solve what the Game Master thought a relatively simple mystery, what is wrong  with you idiots, make a damn Perception check already! This is mostly because mysteries tend to rely on the wits of the players, and not the player characters. And GM's are not always flawless story or mystery writers. This was something I sought to remedy. BEHOLD: GM Grizzly's Story CHUNKS I love CHUNKS . They are so versatile, and I wonder just how much so Runehammer thought they might be when he first devised them. Initially, I applied a modified version to travel , then applied the concept to buildings and towns . Through the course of developing this adventure and its story , however, I realized s

Storage. The bane of craft GMs everywhere. I make 3D terrain for my table and all my kits are modular and reversible whenever possible to help alleviate this problem. ICRPG saved my proverbial bacon in a lot of ways when it came to miniatures, providing papercraft minis of heroes and monsters in a consistent style that can be fitted to removable bases. My storage problems for miniatures did not end quite here, however. In fact, I found myself with a new problem: I now had 100+ paper minis, each with a craft stick glued inside for stability and basing, and sorting and storing them was becoming a problem. I needed to come up with a system that was as simple as ICRPG itself and in the process, revolutionized the way I thought about monsters in game design entirely. Behold: GM Grizzly's Jars of EVIL. The Jars Of Evil What  is  a Jar of EVIL? Fundamentally, it is a jar, container, or in my case, an old Greek Yogurt or Cottage Cheese tub that keeps a specific "class

I have a mage at my table. Her name is Sabina, the Pyromage. She has a spell that can either: Clear a Room of up to three, small (2 Heart) Enemies in one hit, or; One-shot a non-fire-resistant boss monster.  Sabina is awesome. Provided the spell doesn't explode in her face, miss... or accidentally hit her sister. Because there is another adventurer in the party. Her name is Agnes, the Twin Blade. She's pretty cool too, and her regular attack can one-shot 1-2 Heart creatures. Add the Kettish Chains' ability to re-roll on high Attempts and she easily does similar damage at close range. I love both these characters. But sometimes Agnes feels like Sabina takes the spotlight a little too much. That's on me as the GM, because Sabina has almost zero ability in STR or DEX tasks, things Agnes excels in. I need to design more STR and DEX based Effort challenges to give Agnes more screentime. Sabina can lay down some heavy covering fire. On the subject of "

Wonder. That most illusive goal in any Game Master's heart. Might I suggest to you, dear reader, that an excellent start might be a solid soundtrack? I am a music junkie. I love listening to good music. It moves the heart, soothes the soul, and stirs passion. I'm also a classically trained vocalist, choir director, wedding music coordinator, guitarist and bassist, amateur composer and for five years I was the founder and head of a music program for an organization off my Alma mater. When it comes to music in games, I have a soft spot for classical. However, that can get boring when overused and takes work to find appropriate pieces for all instances in a game. It also has issues, namely the movements within the piece which, while moving in themselves, do not translate well to extended gameplay sessions where things progress at different paces. I have been experimenting with video game soundtracks. The first I tried was Dragon Age Origins because of the shared Fantasy t

Hearts. In the humble opinion of this GM, one of the more brilliant constructions of ICRPG. However, it can lead to some goofy situations and questions at the table. One for me is: how to use CHA outside of roleplay (as in Combat against a Foe)? The answer might be as simple as using it against the regular Hearts of an enemy with BASIC Effort. Another, more complicated way would be to track a separate Heart of "courage" on an enemy that can be worn down with CHA. Personally, while I find it silly, I think the former option is better than the latter. However, I have also been thinking of simplifying it down to a simple Attempt based on a "D4 tier" system. Behold: GM Grizzly's Relation Meter. The idea is simple: anything from Monsters to NPCs can react to you in one of four ways. To Intimidate, Persuade, Command, Barter, etc, you need to CHA Attempt a Success. The difficulty is based on their Reaction to you: Friendly - Demoralized  (No CHA Attempts neede

Hit Points, dying and death in table-top RPGs: it's an odd subject for a variety of reasons. The "Meta" nature of hit-points, or HP, and what it means; The sudden change from a god-like killing machine to a helpless pile of bleeding flesh; The anti-climatic moment of a player character's death; and much more. Honestly, we're not going to get into the whole subject of Death in RPGs here. I am going to talk a bit about how to make the process of a Hero's death, well, heroic, and therefore (hopefully) alleviate most of the issues presented above. Behold: GM Grizzly's Heroic Death!  The Heroic Death The Heroic Death is simple, yet (in this GM's humble opinion) beautiful. It is a House Rule on the ICRPG CORE Death Mechanics from RUNEHAMMER GAMES, LLC. The Rules there are something along the lines of "at zero HP, roll 1D20. On a 20, pop back up at 1 HP! Otherwise, roll 1D6, throwing out a 1. In this many rounds, you are dead! On yo

My sister-in-law came to visit us in March and the three of us conquered the Doomvault in a weekend. It ended with our adventuring duo bruised and broken on the shores of Norburg, ready to drag themselves into the city to claim their Kingly Rewards. She returns the end of May, which has given me plenty of time to think of how to design and run the city of Norburg and their next Adventure. My opinions on Towns hasn't changed since my last post . Norburg is a hub of activity and life, essential to their story and Journey. But the details on designing  the town have developed and matured since then and much like my Journey post, I've approached the creation of Norburg with the concepts and principles of ICRPG Room Design: the TTT's, L.O.G., and D.E.W.. There is intention and purpose to everything within the high walls of the city. There is danger. There is drama. There is Adventure. And there is the chance for Rest, re-supply and information gathering before setting ou

The purpose of this post is to make an argument, based on experience, for designing all Rooms (especially first session Rooms) with a Target 10, using the EASY/HARD rule on the fly to adjust difficulty as needed. Note: If you are reading this, I am assuming that you either A) play ICRPG or B) know the concept of a universal target DC for an encounter. Terminology used here will be from Index Card RPG by RUNEHAMMER GAMES, LLC. I have been playing, designing and GM'ing adventures in ICRPG for a little over a year now. During my brief attempt (and subsequent failure) at launching my own business making adventure supplements, I designed and playtested multiple adventures for entry level, 6 point builds to extreme, high-powered late-game characters with 8 point builds, extra milestones and Epic Loot to start. More recently I ran the Doomvault with for my wife and sister-in law. I also played in several different games with the Ultimate Effort group GM'ed by Mike, Matt and A

Have you ever accidentally destroyed the universe? My players might, should they mishandle their latest Kingly Gift from one of the Kings of Norburg, the Bloodstone. They just completed the Doomvault, a dungeon set under the city where the goal is to stop an ancient elder god from completing a ritual and one thing leads to another... a typical Friday night. The point is, they saved three kings and the city, so they'll get some awesome stuff, right? So I designed three amazing items of wonder that take days to recharge. One alters time. One is a powerful war totem providing armor and Hearts. And the third is the notorious Bloodstone, an item with the apparent potential to end all existence. The Bloodstone Item. EQUIPPED. Once every 3D12 days, all allies CLOSE may charge the Bloodstone with their HP up to a max one Heart of charges. Each charge used DOUBLES your Effort for one turn, 1D4 Room cooldown. The Death of Everything When first creating this item, I was thinking pla

Hey all. For those who may have noticed, Grizzly Encounter Tiles has been on a... hiatus since November 2017. I think my last real communication with folks on Patreon and G+ might have been December of 2017. And for that, I am truly sorry. I wish I could say that I have been busy, improving the product, cranking out tons of stuff, etc. The truth is, my health took a turn for a bit and I had to turn it off. I had too many other things to deal with and this just... faded away. To my Patrons, I can't apologize enough. I will be closing my Patreon soon until I can figure out what's going on. If it ever starts back up, it will be on an entirely different plan. While brief, it was a fun experience and I thank everyone who helped to make it possible. And The Rotting Wood will soon be available on a pay-what-you-want instead of $4.99 on DriveThruRPG.com. Announcement on G+ when that goes through. For now, I want to focus on what I love about the hobby: the crafting, the writing,

With the addition of WORLDS to the ever expanding library of ICRPG comes the notion of Travel, especially in the settings of Alfheim and Ghost Mountain. I find this topic fascinating, and while I was slightly disappointed to not receive an official rule on "how to travel" in WORLDS as I was expecting, I have an idea of my own that is about to be tested. I'll post an update once that happens, sometime in June. As always, ICRPG terminology from RUNEHAMMER GAMES, LLC to be used. The "Official" Rules The only real guidelines given on travel in CORE and WORLDS is that A) Supplies are consumed each day of travel (WORLDS gives more information on rate of consumption depending on location) and B) Travel between locations takes time. Based on this information, I see a couple different ways to handle travel: Destination and Journey Destination Travel This is a simple, literal interpretation of the above that is streamlined and concerned only with getting fro