Post date: Feb 09, 2012 10:48:37 PM
I recently went on a GM tool splurge and picked up from RPGNow some well spoken "books" from GnomeStew.com
The first is something called Eureka! 501 Adventure Plots.
The second is Masks, 1000 Memorable NPCs
I will start by reviewing Eureka! 501 Adventure Plots (4/5) (MSRP: $34.95). In summary it is 167/genre rules-system-free plots each for Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Horror, so 501 different plots. Each plot gives just enough "meat" to give you a night's adventure with only an hour or so of work on your part (putting in the Names of NPCs and villians), less if you use their other book Masks (more on this later) . It is designed for the busy GM or the one who has hit a wall and needs some inspiration.
The first chapter of Eureka! is GMing Advice, which covers the Anatomy of a Eureka Plot, how to turn a plot into an adventure, and adapting them to Your game. It covers the concepts of Genre and sub-genres. So even in the broad category of Sci-Fi they have subgenres of super heroes, post apoc, and so forth. Then it covers Tags - a term that I find more and more common in the world, but basically key words to help identify a plot's elements and how it make the job of indexing the plots so much easier, Tags can be genres, but also words like bearers (which indicate the PCs must transport something somewhere). Lastly it covers the 36 themes that the authors used to help them think up plots and is a good inspiration for a GM to consider. Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations is in the public domain; you can read it for free online (here’s one place to do so: archive.org/details/thirtysixdramati00polt)
Then its off to the Plots. Out of the 501 plots there were only a few "trope" adventures, most felt very original. Each giving enough information for a GM to make it their own but ease the pressure of coming up with the twists that often are the hardest part of the job.
The next piece of gold about this book is the Awesome Indexes at the back. They index the adventures by Genre. Then they index them by Tags. Then by Title. Then by Author (in case you find a favorite writing style).
In the end, I felt I got my money's worth and know that I will reference it in years to come. The nice thing about the electronic copy is not only does it come in PDF it also comes with a Text file for all the Plots, making it easy to copy one out and change what you want.
The second book I obtained was Masks, 1000 Memorable NPCs (4.5/5) (MSRP: $40) . In summary it is 333 rules-system-free NPCs per genre of Fantasy, Sci Fi, and Modern games. For each group of NPCs you get 25% Villians, 25% Allies, and 50% Neutrals, but you get more than that as it is easy enough to re-skin across genres. The book is designed to be used not only in advance, but also on the fly with really good indexes and the thing they call the Name Ribbon.
The first chapter is GMing Advice, which covers the basic Anatomy of an NPC (more on this later), how to Adapt an NPC to your Game, some advice on how to play NPCs, a brief dissertation of the Genres and sub-genres. Then we get into Traits (which is pretty much the same as the Tags they used in Eureka, but more personal so Warrior would be representing a fighter in Fantasy, a soldier in Modern, and a space marine in sci-fi), these are broken down into Descriptions, Organization and Skill set "traits/tags". And a short list of Invisible Keywords they used when building their NPCs.
The first real Gold in this book is in the section on how to play NPCs, they call it "Making Your Character's Memorable." The talk about how certain qualities make an NPC standout, and a standout NPC has one or more of these qualities - be Attitude, Style, Depth, a Visual queue, a Tagline, and/or something that makes them "unique." They then go into techniques to help with make the NPC stand out even more: From being the hook for your adventure, to having a trademark action that lets everyone know who is in the room, to taking shortcuts like describing them as a famous actor in a movie. Simple Names got a special mention. Do not be afraid to look like an idiot, as the players will remember the NPC and not you acting crazy, and many others.
After the GMing section are the NPCs. Each NPC is made up of a great block of information that is not tied to any one system, but its more than one sentence and give enough information to play the NPC.
They have a Name, a two word Capsule Description (usually [Adjective] [Noun]), a Quote, a Number (so you can easily find them again), Appearance, Roleplaying notes (stage direction), Personality, Motivation, Background, and finally Traits - which help with the indexes later on.
Here is an example of a Modern Neutral:
789
Gordon Hanning
Domineering Sheriff
“We’ll show those sons of bitches not to mess around in our town. Get me two...no, four flash bangs, and after they go off, you get in there. Anyone still standing, you take ‘em down.”
Appearance: Gordon is a thick-set man in his early fifties with a white buzz cut and a white beard. He has several old tattoos on his arms. His uniform is always crisply pressed.
Roleplaying: Always either holding or smoking one, Gordon proudly displays his love of cigars. He talks with a booming voice, pointing with his cigar.
Personality: He is a man who has subscribed to the doctrine of shock and awe. His personality and the way he administers law in his town are both based on spectacular displays of force.
Motivation: Gordon believes that he is all that is standing between the decent people and the complete erosion of society.
Background: As a schoolchild, on the football field, and as a deputy sheriff, Gordon has always been aggressive. He spent his years a deputy always believing that the sheriff was too soft. When the sheriff stepped down, he ran for the position under a banner of being tough on crime, and won by a landslide. Now Gordon runs the town with a superficial understanding of shock and awe, using excessive force, tactical weapons, and too many flash bangs to keep things in line. He has no tolerance for those who come into his town to make trouble.
Traits: (PV) Aggressive, leader, police
As you can see there is plenty of material there to work with.
But another absolutely great thing they did with this book, and why I ran out and bought a paper copy as well, is the name ribbon at the bottom of each page in chapters 2, 3, and 4. Just flip to any page in the chapter of the appropriate genre—fantasy for fantasy names, for example—and you’ll find given names and nicknames on the left-hand, even-numbered pages and surnames and titles on the right-hand, odd-numbered pages.
The names in each chapter are drawn from the NPCs found in Masks, and by combining a given name and a surname you can quickly generate a complete name on the spot. Naming conventions vary widely from game to game, so you may find names you like in chapters outside of your campaign’s genre, too—and with over 1,900 given names, surnames, and nicknames/titles in the name ribbon, there are a lot of names to choose from.
After these chapters of NPCs comes again a great set if indexes, one by Traits, by Name, and by Author. Then they created "groups" like Bandit Gang, Police Unit, Townsfolk where a grouping of NPCs can be found.
In the end I would say I would use Eurkea! once in a while, but I plan on putting Masks in my GM bag from here on, as I know my group likes to surprise me with random NPC meetings. Now to find a good way to use the book without being too obvious.