 October 12, 2010 - 2:15pm | Some questions to spark reply's. Referee's How do you prepare of a gaming session. What tools do you use at the table. ( maps, dice, cards, props, etc. ) How do you create a balanced encounter. If the PC's do not have spaceship skills, how do they get around the frontier. Do you use online tools to create or prep for a game. Player's What do you bring to the gaming table. Do you prep for an existing game. How do you help the Referee during a game. Yada yada.... |
 October 12, 2010 - 6:01pm | As a GM, I like to have the day off to game so that I can review the previous game night's notes, and look ahead to what I've planned for the current night. I use dice and my laptop, and maps as necessary. I like to use miniatures, both because they look good and they aid in everyone seeing what's where. The closer the miniatures are to what they actually represent, the better. As to a balanced encounter, since I use the d20 system, it makes things fairly easy to balance. In general, however, I try to use creatures and obstacles that the players have about a 25% to 75% chance of overcoming, depending on how challenging I want the encounter to be. For instance, if I want an average challenge, I'd expect the party to use up about 25% of their resources (energy, hit points, etc.), and be able to hit/overcome adversaries about 50+% of the time. As far as spaceship skills; again, using d20 this is rarely a problem. Using the SF rules, the non-spaceship skilled PCs would have to charter passage around the Frontier. I use little in the way of online tools to prep for a game, though I do write and edit everything on my laptop. As a player, I use my laptop, review the game notes from previous sessions, and review my character. I try to help the referee and other players in such review as well. I also watch all events, and try to plan my actions ahead of my turn, so as to not drag down play. I try to aid other players who may not understand the rules, or appear to need guidance in actions. I hope this helps. :) Long live the Frontier! |
 October 12, 2010 - 6:44pm | I'm big on spreadsheets to track time and setup table lookups for random encounters. I make a table of all the characters so that I can track stamina or hit points in AD&D. I also track the creatures and monsters the same way in other tables. I tally the equipment and items carried by everyone in the spreadsheet too so as to keep up on encumbrence and not overload the players. -iggy |
 October 13, 2010 - 3:06pm | Referee's How do you prepare of a gaming session. What tools do you use at the table. ( maps, dice, cards, props, etc. ) How do you create a balanced encounter. If the PC's do not have spaceship skills, how do they get around the frontier. Do you use online tools to create or prep for a game. 1> Review of the prior (if any) session notes I may have jotted down, character sheet copies I have, PC ship info, and any other relevant items (such as cargo on the ship etc). 2> Maps, chits (including any special chits that I may have made up), encounter keys, dice, & rulebooks (my rulebooks are in a 3 ring binder along with a slew of other house rule stuff such as expanded Frontier maps and KH encounter keys). 3> I tally up the party's total STA and try to create epic/key encounters based on that, taking into consideration skills as well. Typically I have the bad guys slightly underskilled compared to the party, as the party may have suffered injury by the time they get there and I don't necessarily want them to fail, but keep it challlenging at the same time. Filler encounters tend to run 25-50% of that pattern. 4> Lots of methods --- charter a liner or passage on an independant freighter, hire on as liner crews or cargo guards (work for passage), company that hires them transports them, etc 5> No. Player's What do you bring to the gaming table. Do you prep for an existing game. How do you help the Referee during a game. 1> player sheet(s), KH ship sheet(s), custom chits where applicapble, and my lucky d10s (you just have to appreciate the degree of work involved in loading a d10  )2> only with other PCs...discuss possible plot resolutions etc 3> Try to supply any & all pertinent info for an encounter (movement, actions, weapon and damage selections, ability scores & racial modifiers, etc). Also offering to loan him my lucky dice for deciding outcomes for troublesome players. |
 October 13, 2010 - 3:24pm | Copious amounts of the GM's favorite snack food. |
October 13, 2010 - 6:47pm | 3> I tally up the party's total STA and try to create epic/key encounters based on that, taking into consideration skills as well. Please elaborate. Do you try to make the opposition total to about the same STA for a fresh party? Less for a party with a little damage? I'm curious. -iggy |
October 13, 2010 - 8:36pm | Total STA eh? What if all PC's are not in the fight? (I'm curious as well) |
October 13, 2010 - 8:40pm | If anyone has anything else to add besides my questions that would be great. The questions were just to get the thread started. Where's the jedi?  and the Imperial? |
October 14, 2010 - 4:53pm | Total STA for the final encounter, then "underskill" the bad guys to compensate for various possibilities (injury, separation, etc). PCs, NPCs, and robots all taken into consideration. By underskill I mean combat & encounter skills (re: psycho-social or environmental), parties with second level pilots boarding a pirate frigate will surely encounter a LVL:3+ pilot along the way. |
 October 16, 2010 - 12:42pm | When I GM here is what I take: My IPAD with all relivent PDF vertions of the rulesets and a spreadsheet with the current state of the characters. A bag of dice A GM Screen...usualy home made. (If I am using d20 I have a card stock printing of SORD) A printed vertion of the adventure I am running(so I can scribble and take notes.) Thats all...I try to keep things simple. Although I have run 5 games using Fantasygrounds TM. There are lots of great tools in the program, but I only use it for the online gaming group. Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men. Edwin Louis Cole |
 October 27, 2010 - 8:11pm | When I Admin (which is almost always) I have all my rulebooks on my computer, and usually have the adventure already written out, with all the creatures nicely detailed in stat blocks, so I don't have look them up in the creature guides. I bring lots of dice (a large bag full since most of my players don't have dice unless I go out and buy them a set). I have a note pad handy with all the NPC stats, creature EP's (Endurance points) Defensive ratings, and combat bonuses, some mood music, and lots of snacks. Now If I'm a player (a rarity since I don't play well with others, or so I've been told (They never let me forget how my assassin stranded the party in the middle of tomb of horrors and reset all the traps on my way out with the two artifacts they were looking for.) I bring a copy of my rule books, a big bag of dice, a note pad, character sheet, and lots of snacks. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
