The Idea

The idea for this wiki is to create a set of tools that will aid a DM for GammaWorld 4e by Wizards. I will not be posting any information that is from the books, but I will be referencing them. Please feel free to give feed back.

The idea is found on the DnD DMG pg 195, and that is playing DnD or any RPG without a DM. Well not so much. Because I do not think that playing a RPG can be done without a DM. This is a conversion that relieves the DM of his referee duties, thus making him able to actually play the game himself. There will be optional rules to give more of the DM'ing power to the players. Private Link to GoogleDocs

The questions
At what point does a Pen&Paper RPG become a Board Game? Can you call it DnD RPG if you have tiles/props you use for maps (dungeon & overland) used in random placement? What about when you have a random encounter generator (through pc, table, or even cards) and set encounters? You have charts and graphs showing you skill DCs that show the DM/Players results? DM creates a world (Homebrew), buys a module or just runs vanilla DnD and ALL have their places where you hope the players never go. The dreaded blank page.

I have been DM’ing and playing DnD for a long while now. I have accumulated a small horde of DM tools that when put together could POTENTIALLY remove the ‘referee’ portion of the DM.

EXCEPT one thing – the difference between a RPG and a BoardGame. But what is that?

Controlling the Monsters? In the 4e DMG (pg 195) it hints toward players controlling monsters (coupled by extensions to their stat blocks that include basic moves – like Wrath of Ashardalon).

Voicing the town drunk hinting toward a foreboding doom that the players must believe or the world will perish? This could easily be a plot card or on a table of random adventure elements that are related to the overall adventures (think rumor that PCs can learn from an adventure) and read by anyone who can read.

So what is it? Now, I know that as you roll your eyes from the above statements… My humble opinion is that the difference is almost solely the Story-Telling aspect of the game. From surprise around the corner that the players do not know to the fudging of dice roles so your re-occurring villain does not get killed in the first act (or kill too many PCs).

Why this question? Because I want to try something along the lines of a DM-Less (cringe) game… But not really – all the players know the rules enough to referee themselves. We could use the tactic of monster movement controlled by alternating players. Read charts or draw cards for adventure rumors/dialog based on successes. But the story-telling aspect, could it be feasible to make this round-robin style based on hints/advice from a pre-generated random (but relating to the story line) source that the players themselves do?

Example:
4 Story telling Players – No DM. Starts adventure – consult a random source for a pre-designed campaign. One player reads the intro. (My favorite thing to do is start newly created campaigns in combat) The random source reads: Players are guarding a priest travelling from a to b. Random source says that 4 goblins and 1 goblin wizards ambush. One player is chosen as storyteller this turn and controls his character and the goblins (hopefully with fairness). Get random rewards. Players then wish to question priest about what’s going on (look up rumor random source to get information based on campaign). Players then make it to town looking for next hook (all encounters are contained in some source that order of accomplishment can be random – or preset). Repeat…

Issues – a thief is in the party and wants to steal a couple of holy waters (success is easy to deal with, failure is not). The flip side – if a DM running a campaign, he could opt to have the player(s) arrested and thus alter the course of the adventure (suddenly not planned for). Or the DM can whimp out and just have the priest slap him on the wrist to continue with preset adventure path…

Issues – the priest dies in the ambush. Presents an issue if the priest was important to the story. Flip side – The DM just puts the priest in a heavily wounded state by fudging the roles. Or the DM can again alter the course of the campaign (even after the thief relieves the priest’s warm dead body of his tithing).

Goals:
Create at least 12 tiles

Create at least 25 areas

Create at least 25 * 7 encounters (38% done)

Create one quest

Create first level monsters (can use from book...)

Create rules for interaction challenges

Create junk table

Create Omega Tech Table

Create Alpha Mutation Table

The questions:

 * Players can create characters - Yes


 * Players can create destinies - Yes


 * Can create a suitable tile map - Yes


 * Can create inside and outside maps - Yes


 * Can players have an encounter on all tile locations - yes, kinda can fill out


 * Is there a Campaign - Yes


 * Is there Plot quests - Yes


 * Is there Monsters - Yes, can modifiy on the fly


 * Is there Loot - Yes, excel tables


 * Is there location enviroment cards - Yes


 * Is there NPCs - No


 * Is there Allies - No

Play Testing
Each player must write down notes to make the game better.