Black Dragon Incorporated (A Demon City playtest recap)

A week or two back one of my regular players had an evening conflict and had to skip our weekly campaign. In its place, I had the remaining 5 regulars roll up some Demon City characters. This was our third foray into Demon City, the prior two "episodes" claiming the lives and/or sanity of 3 characters. With a bit better handle on the rules and mechanical quirks of the game, this was probably the smoothest of our play sessions. It was also the luckiest, and the PCs dice rolls were on fire. Unlike our prior games where things went wrong fairly frequently, somehow they made everything here work almost flawlessly. Those who had to make new characters were able to do so quickly, and I was able to easily insert them into the ongoing narrative. I'll take this moment to be a bit of a shill and just say that this is one of the best new RPGs I've played in years. At least for me, it hits all the right notes in terms of tone, structure, and mechanics.

This "episode" takes place one year after several of the characters made it out of LA, having witnessed multiple homicides and becoming embroiled in a pseudo-religious conspiracy involving several Russian crime bosses. The remaining PCs moved to Philadelphia in an attempt to escape their past, but as they soon learned, the past always catches up...

What follows is a recap of our session in which the group witnessed a car chase, stole a motorcycle, investigated a shady and heavily-secured house, witnessed a bizarre summoning ritual, and blew things up with grenades on Christmas night.

Yes, I know this is South Street and not in the Italian Market, but it was the best dark South Philly photo I could dig up. 

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Episode 3

Black Dragon Incorporated

Cast

DJ appearing as Clarence the Shady Accountant (I)

Greer appearing as Rod Zaplenti the Trucker (F)

Chris returning as Greg 'Buq Wild' Buqowski the Stage Magician (P)

Laurel appearing as Trevor [RETRACTED] the Conspiracy Radio Host (C)

Joanie appearing as Glinda the Pawn Shop Owner/Fence (C)

Jonathan returning as Jimothy Steele the Ex-White Collar Crimes Cop (V)

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A light snow fell outside as Greg and Jimothy paced back and forth across the main room of the apartment they were squatting in the Italian Market section of South Philadelphia, muttering about one conspiracy or another. One block further down South 9th Street, Rod was making a late-night illicit delivery to Glinda's pawn shop. Clarence was on his way home while Trevor was on his way to the studio, hoods up so as to avoid the snow. Along the several blocks of the Italian Market, vendors were finishing the process of closing up shop, lowering the graffitied steel doors to seal off their storefronts from vandals. It was Christmas night, and most were trying to close early in order to spend some time with their families. White steam rose from steel grates in the sidewalk, obscuring the vision of any walking through.

As lights began to twinkle out along the street, tires squealed and a jet-black four-door with tinted windows whipped around the corner from Washington Ave and onto South 9th, barely avoiding several streetside market stalls. Two black motorcycles followed, their riders spraying bullets from semiautomatic pistols through the icy flurries. Sparks flew, the slugs bouncing away from the bullet resistant rear of the car as they sped north through the market. Barely poking out of the passenger side window, a man returned fire, one of his bullets striking a rider in the throat. The motorcycle pitched wildly as the man toppled off, pulling the kill-switch on the ignition. The other rider continued following the car north towards Center City and the gunfire faded into the night, as the man bled out in the street.

Rod and Clarence were first to the scene, having narrowly dodged a hail of gunfire. While they checked to see if the stranger was still alive, Jimothy and Greg descended from their squat, intrigued if also suffering flashbacks to their time in LA. Trevor hung back down the block to observe, trying to recall the license plate number of the car. Clarence, noticing a familiar tattoo on the face of the stranger through his cracked helmet visor, asked the gang to help him examine the body. Before the cops could arrive, they carted the body around to the back entrance of Glinda's shop along with the motorcycle which was still functional though beaten up.

After laying out the body, the group set about inspecting for any clues as to who the man might be. While Trevor recalled the license plate [DEEZNUTS], the rest of the group carefully removed the cracked helmet and the man's jacket. The gunman's face and throat were covered in strange, serpent-like black tattoos, as were his hands. The only identifying material in the dead man's possession was a matte-black card, about the size and thickness of a credit card but substantially more dense. Glinda got the idea to pass it under a blacklight, which revealed a single line of Chinese characters. Jimothy snapped a photo and sent it to a contact of his in Chinatown who sent back the translation.

Black Dragon Incorporated.

Clarence and Trevor were able to conduct a public records search online, and managed not to draw any attention to themselves (or so they think) in the process. The search revealed a South Philly address registered to BDI. Curious, the group made plans to scout out the building. Using the slightly battered but still functional motorcycle, Clarence rode out first while Jimothy set out on foot and the rest of the gang hopped into Rod's truck. 

Upon arrival, Clarence noted the presence of many concealed security cameras and relayed this information to the group on the way in the truck. When the PCs in the truck arrived, Glinda and Rod decided to fake making a delivery in order to do two things: 1) see who answered the door and if they could fake their way inside, and 2) provide a distraction for Clarence who wanted to find a security hardpoint to hack and shut down the camera feeds and/or power. Meanwhile, Greg and Trevor decided to sneak around the block and behind the house, attempting to find a way inside from the rear. 

Yes, I know this is the "Latimer House" at 12th and Latimer, but I couldn't find a photo of the actual house this is based on.

Somehow, this plan went off without too much trouble: Glinda and Rod carried a large crate of oranges (which concealed a smaller box of grenades, intended for sale to a local crime syndicate) up to the front door. A large, burly Chinese man in a black suit answered and Rod managed to stall him long enough for Clarence to find a hardwire into the camera system. Meanwhile, Greg and Trevor worked together to climb a drainpipe up to the second floor, stealthily open a window, and slide through into what looked like an office. A creeping sense of dread grew among the group as they pushed toward the focal point of their investigation.

Suddenly, Rod and Glinda dropped the crate, sending oranges flying into the house, surprising the suited man who though annoyed let them in to pick up the oranges. At the exact instant Clarence managed to loop the camera feeds, another suited guard opened the door to the office only to see Trevor near the desk. Right as he was about to radio for backup, Greg pulled out his automatic knife and pounced on the man and slit his throat. Back in the foyer, Glinda and Rod worked to distract the guard, giving Clarence enough time to slip through the front door unnoticed. Jimothy decided to hang near the truck and wait for any signs of struggle.

While Trevor and Greg decided what to do, Clarence found a door to a dark basement. Reaching it, he discovered a small black obelisk with a scroll placed on top, surrounded my life-like statues of elderly men frozen in horror. Dread consumed him as he read what appeared to be the instructions for some sort of occult summoning ritual. He was used to criminal activity sure, but not whatever it was that they had just walked into.

The following occurred simultaneously: 1) Rod and Glinda anger the guard by venturing further into the house and looking into a large central room two stories tall, 2) Clarence searches for and finds a computer in the basement, and is able to shut off all security measures, 3) Greg and Trevor exit the office only to be looking down on the same two-story room from a hallway with a half wall. A guard in the upper hallway spots the pair and radios in vain for backup to his location. At the same time, the guard downstairs rushes Rod and Glinda, who fend him off and knock him out before he can draw his gun. In the upper hall, Trevor and Greg take down the guard with a combination knife and bronze-sculpture attack.

It's only after the guards are dealt with that they pay attention long enough to see what they were guarding - the ritual detailed on the ancient scroll!

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Three elderly men who have never seen themselves in a mirror.

A perfect flower of life in salt upon which they stand equidistant.

A flawless 64 tetrahedron array in obsidian at the center.

The chant, repeated eight times in perfect unison. 

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Behold the sacred

These lines drawn by feel alone

Our voices summon you from stone

Arise Black Dragon, awakened!

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The elderly men stand, robes removed equidistant around the sacred geometry, chanting quickly in unison. Clarence, now on the main floor across the room from Glinda and Rod, screams that they have to disrupt the ritual and everyone makes their moves. Clarence rushes in to tackle one of the men, while Greg leaps over the half wall down to the first floor to do the same. Alas, the chant has finished its eighth incantation just as they tackle the elderly men in white robes.

Suddenly, the obsidian 64 tetrahedron begins to shift, its geometry flowing into impossible shapes, unnerving all of the PCs looking on. As it morphs it grows, its form beginning to take on the discernible shape of a dragon, stone wings growing and a stone maw protruding from the geometric void. Rod sprints back to the orange box and digs up the grenades, tossing a few to Glinda. He shouts for everyone to clear the room as the black dragon forms from the stone. Suddenly grenade explosions erupt around the ritual area, shrapnel blowing through the walls and weakening the structural stability of the house. Demonic cries can be heard from the still forming dragon. Somehow, nobody besides one of the old men is killed in the explosions. Jimothy, hearing and seeing the explosions, rushes in, his gun drawn, and fires several shots at the demon which ricochet off.

As the roof begins to collapse, everyone flees the house...except Greg. In a panic, he screams and leaps at the stone demon with his knife, and in that instant discovers the full extent of his psychic abilities.

Just as the stone demon impale's Greg's shoulder with two of its talons, Greg screams, "GO BACK!" hurling his knife a the creature. The knife crackles with blue psychic energy created by the full huse of Greg's new telekinetic powers and instantly attains super-sonic speed and the mass of a much larger object. A millisecond later, the knife impacts the stone dragon/demon, blowing a hole through its body and sending stone shrapnel hurtling through the far wall. The demon screams in agony as its newly summoned form is blown apart by the telekinetic blast wave.

Before collapsing from the psychic exertion, Greg flees the house, what remains of it imploding behind him. The group manages to grab him and haul him into the truck and speed off before the police arrive. In their downtime after the session, most PCs elected to try and recover mentally while Greg rested in the hospital, trying to come to grips with his newfound abilities.

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I hope you all enjoyed this recap of Episode 3 of our group's Demon City adventures! Stay tuned to see if our curious crew can uncover the deeper connections between all that they have witnessed. Will they stay sane in the face of occult horrors? Will they succumb to grievous injuries? Find out next time!

5e Blues (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the OSR)

Even though I dabbled in tabletop games during my high-school years, I didn't really get into the hobby until a few years ago when I finished up my undergraduate education. When I did, I jumped right into the newest iteration of The Game: 5th Edition D&D. While I still host two 5e games a week, over the last year and a half or so I've been steadily replacing my 5e leanings with a host of OSR systems. While others in the G+ blogosphere have written about this far better than I can ever hope to, I wanted to provide my perspective as a relatively new member of the community on the following question: why is the OSR (and old-school versions of the game in general) so much better than 5e?

To me it comes down to a few key approaches in mentality and mechanics:

1. Grounded vs. Fanciful
2. Player action vs. Character action
3. Creativity vs. More Skills

Grounded vs. Fanciful

The overall tone of 5e is probably one of my biggest ongoing problems with it. The closest comparison I can make is comparing Diablo II to Diablo III (action RPG computer games for those who don't know). Diablo II was released in 2000, and had the perfect blend of great art, action, and tonality that kept me hooked for years - playing at night with friends online through middle and early high-school. Diablo III by comparison, was released in 2013, and vast visual upgrades and gameplay changes did the game no favors. The new art style felt like a downgrade, and it changed the tone drastically. Diablo went from feeling like a fantasy-horror RPG splatterfest to a childrens' book version of the same thing.

Screenshot from Diablo II (2000)

Screenshot from Diablo III (2012)

This is one of the main reasons why I love OSR content and systems so much as compared to the 5e system and its content. When I started playing 5e, I was a bit put off by its overly-fanciful nature, but it seemed to be what all the cool people were playing so I stuck with it. As I discovered OSR content however, I realized that I much preferred the "grounded" feeling of its systems and settings. Even when OSR goes full gonzo (I'm looking at you Gathox Vertical Slum), there is still an overall essence to the game that keeps it from feeling whimsical. Things matter here, in a way that the more high-fantasy 5e content can't seem to match. In the same way that Diablo III turned the game from a tense, harsh, and dark affair into something more cartoon-like, 5e took D&D and make it overly whimsical and bland.

Player Initiative vs. Character Initiative / Creativity vs. Many Skills

The other key differentiator for me, and probably the most important, is the difference in how the player/character dichotomy is handled between the OSR systems and 5e.

5e seems to be much more centered around the idea of inhabiting your character's stat sheet, scrolling through a long list of skills and proficiencies, and deciding what to do in a given situation. Success in 5e is highly dependent on choosing the "right skill" for a given situation, rolling well on your dice, and moving forward. Roleplaying is important, but only insofar as "thinking like your character". This is highly limiting, as characters without the right skill makeup for an encounter, or high enough stats that give the player license to say "well my PC would think of this solution because she's smart", are totally left behind.

OSR games take the opposite approach: how situations are handled is determined by what the player can think of, not the character. Skills and abilities are still important, but they often don't determine the success of the party on a dungeon delve or adventure. Success is frequently determined by decisions players make, how they work together as a team, or roleplay effectively. This means finding creative and novel workarounds, planning ahead, and generally engaging more critically with the game or setting. Success means more than properly decoding your skills and their applied bonuses for maximum effect.

Bang vs. Whimper

Combined, the above leads to one major difference - the reason why I DM so much more OSR play now rather than 5e play. OSR play is punchy, in-your-face, and impactful. 5e play is abstracted and after a Warlock's 8-millionth eldritch blast, boring. Every situation overcome, enemy slain, or kingdom toppled in an OSR game means something. You get the rush of knowing that you earned it. When your magic-user casts that crazy spell and wipes out the gang of bloodthirsty mercenaries about to pounce, the whole party goes insane. OSR games, and by extension OSR DMing, has a visceral and evocative feeling that 5e just can't match. I've found that it takes special players to help overcome this feeling of rote-ness.

OSR characters accomplish the mundane with a bang, 5e characters accomplish the fantastic with a whimper.  

New Posts Coming Soon!

Hey all!

Just wanted to let everyone reading know that I'll have some new posts coming up soon. Between finalizing PhD applications and coordinating other things with my job(s), my creative output has certainly dipped.

Look forward to some posts within the next week.

OSR Class: Otterperson Swift Striker

My assortment of FLAILSNAILers who are inhabiting Vymrrys at the moment really took a liking to the otters and their orgiastic bacchanals and ongoing war with the elf gangs of the House of the Purple Sun. One of them wanted some otter hirelings, so here's the first of three disturbingly violent otter classes. 

Otterperson Swift Striker*

While it is not currently known from whence the Otterpeople originated, most of those living in Vymrrys currently occupy a hidden enclave South of the shipyards and docks on the west side of the city. Swift Strikers are the mercurial spies and assassins of the otter-world, conducting surveillance against the House of the Purple Sun throughout the city. They rarely engage in battle headlong, instead preferring to surprise their enemies unaware.

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Prime Attribute: Dexterity [13+]

HD: 1d6

AC (base): 9 [10]

Armor/Shield Permitted: Leather, no shield

Weapons Permitted: Any, but magical daggers and swords only

*For saving throws, hiding, moving silently, picking locks, and leveling use the standard Thief table from S&W Complete

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About The Class

Alignment: Any

Armor: Due to their supple skeletons and contortionist-like abilities, Otterfolk can only wear armor that can bend with them, limiting them to leather and cloth.  Armor purchased or requisitioned from a non-Otter leather-smith will cost double. 

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Class Abilities

Supple Skeleton: An Otterperson's supple bones and joints allow them to contort into a variety of shapes, allowing them to enter and crawl through any tunnel through which even a small humanoid could not fit. Their wriggly nature also makes them harder to hit with slow moving weapons, giving a +1 AC vs. two-handed weapons. 

Otter Lungs: All Otterpeople are able to hold their breath for up to five minutes, allowing them to swim underwater for great distances as well as give immunity against inhalation poison for that time. 

Rock Assassination: The Swift Striker is especially adept at using rock slings to kill its prey, never incurring a penalty when aiming at a specific body part with the sling. [1d4 dmg] 

Hide in Liquids (2nd): At 2nd Level, a Swift Striker learns to hide in any liquid as well as it can hide in shadows. 

Whisker Location (3rd): At 3rd Level, the Swift Striker has adapted its sensitive whiskers to note moving objects within 60 feet. And will only be surprised by unseen assailants 33% of the time. 

Leap from Water (5th): At 5th Level, a Swift Striker becomes capable making an especially deadly stealth attack from water, should it be hiding there. This quick and lethal attack gives an extra +2 bonus to attacks from hiding, and an extra 1d4 damage.  

Establish Shadow Enclave (9th): At 9th Level, a Swift Striker may establish their own Enclave along any available coastline. The new enclave start with 2d20 Otterperson civilians, 1d8 of which can be immediately trained in the ways of Swift Striking. Each level after 9th, roll 1d8 to see how many new clan members have been born. Of this new number, 1 in 3 will be a Swift Striker, rounded up. 

Every Other Level: Roll on the random advancement Thief table.

Reshaping Settings: Randomized Revolutionary Factions

Inspired by some events from one of my games (which I'll potentially detail later, but it involves a PC inspired laborer uprising an an Abhorrer) I decided to take a stab at making some random tables to determine some potential revolutionary factions to use in your game. Some of these might only work in certain settings, eras, or cultures, so feel free to pick and choose as you see fit for your own game! To determine the current size of the revolutionary faction, roll a d12, d8, or d4 and multiply by 100 for a large, medium, or small city or region respectively. Roll a d6: on a 1-2 the faction has been fomenting revolution only newly/recently, on a 3-4 the faction has been plotting revolution for several years, and on a 5-6 the revolutionary faction has been a constant presence in the area for most of recent history. 

Revolutionary Motivation
D10 Roll	Motivation
1	Poor laboring conditions
2	Fed up with vast wealth inequality
3	Smash patriarchal aristocrats
4	Smash matriarchal aristocrats
5	Wants repression of magic/mages
6	Wants to freely practice magic
7	Seeks abolition of town/city guard
8	Wants institution of official religion
9	Race/species nationalist group
10	Wants abolition of royal dynasty/court

Structure of Revolutionary Group
D10	Structure
1	Disorganized band of commoners
2	Coalition of street gangs
3	Well organized egalitarian cooperative
4	Triumvirate of aristocrat leaders with followers/family
5	Religious leader, clergy, and believers
6	Sleeper-cell cult leader instructing his loyal cultists
7	Dual city guard commanders and their soldiers
8	Temporary alliance between hired mercenary bands
9	Merchant union and laborers
10	Outsider culture/species inspiring a band of citizen followers

But the Twist Is...
D10	Twist
1	Group is being mind-controlled into revolution.
2	Group is being fed information by a mole in an opposing faction.
3	Group is backed by a deity of chaos.
4	Revolution being manufactured by elites in order to have populace consolidate their power.
5	Faction is host to a sleeper cell planted by an opposing group.
6	Group is terribly weak-willed and will disband without their figurehead/leader
7	Events in PCs' past sessions has inspired this revolution (and it's traced back to them).
8	Faction has secretly been spreading a deadly virus to achieve their goal.
9	Revolutionaries have turned to dark, evil magic to achieve their aims.
10	Heel turn! Re-roll on motivation table. This was secretly the group's motivation all along.

FLAILSNAILS Madness

Lately I've been FLAILSNAILing quite a bit, due to the sometimes sporadic nature of several of my "weekly" games and the time-consuming process of applying to PhD programs. Since I haven't had as much time or opportunity to play in or run my normal campaigns, I've been joining up in one-shots like today's Stonehell Dungeon game (run by Aleksandr Revzin), or the ongoing Vaults of Vyzor campaign, jumping from universe to universe as Lobat Greel, 4th level Fighter/Martial Master. 

Honestly, having never played like this before (before delving into the OSR, I was much more focused on 5e high-fantasy shenanigans, as that's where I began) it's been such a blast. I've really been digging the various styles of DMing, the weirdo mish-mash of characters from across editions and settings, and the overall strange fantasy vibes. 

But really I think the best part of joining in or making FLAILSNAILS games via the G+ ecosystem has just been meeting and engaging with new people. I feel like I've learned a lot about how to be a better and more creative PC as well as a more efficient and entertaining DM. It's not only made me more aware of the amazing communities we have, but also how lucky I've been to consistently play with awesome people both online and off. I have yet to encounter any of the shitty personalities we all hear about, and for that I'm grateful. 

Going forward, I'd love to run more one-offs or ongoing FLAILSNAILS games or campaigns. If you're interested, drop me a line on G+ whenever I put a game up! 

Ecology: Benevolent Monoclonal Humanoids a.k.a. Soup Ladies

What follows is a bit of a collaborative effort between one group of my players and I. During our osr-ish 5e Vymrrys campaign I've been running for a bit over 3 months now, I began introducing an NPC character(s) the group took to calling "Soup Ladies". In their starting neighborhood of the city, they stumbled upon an mute old woman who runs a soup and bread storefront in a quiet little alleyway. Throughout their first few in-game weeks in the city, they would frequently stop by the Soup Lady's store to purchase a few containers of soup (stored in small wooden flasks corked at the top) for both rations and healing (1d4-1) purposes. 

As it turns out, they've discovered two more Soup Ladies, who look identical. At first they were convinced that it was actually the same old woman who runs multiple stores. I originally had no plans for this throwaway NPC, but the group really latched onto this idea of the Soup Ladies being twins, clones, or something more weird and nefarious. So below I present our combined efforts: the Benevolent Monoclonal Humanoids (aka Soup Ladies). 


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Benevolent Monoclonal Humanoids (aka Soup Ladies)

Hidden somewhere among the Myrtacean Graves along the coastline North of the Pearlescent City sits a small but dense grove of trees not found elsewhere in the known (or unknown) world. These particular trees exhibit a high degree of canopy shyness, and are easily identifiable by their multi-braided trunks and gracefully drooping branch systems. Despite their seeming litheness and fragility, the trees are immensely strong, and should an adventurer climb one, they will find that even the thinnest branch can more than support their weight. 

The other key identifying feature of this grove of trees are the ovular golden pods that hang from many of the branches. Each pod is roughly 4 feet long and 3 feet wide, with a surface that shimmers brilliantly in the sunlight that filters down through the tree canopy. Like the leaves, the pod's otherwise smooth surface is interrupted by a network of slightly-darker veins that extend down from the pod's connection point with the branch. While each tree would seem to be a distinct organism, the few scholars that have visited the area have shown that they are all connected via a shared root system, making the grove a single, massive monoclonal being. 

What is not known by any scholar is what those shimmering, beautiful golden pods contain: despite several efforts, they can not be disconnected from their trees by force or magic, and all pods that have been found on the ground were split in two and empty when discovered. 

In fact, each pod contains a single clone of what would appear to be an old woman, silent and stoic, awakened when her pod detaches from the tree and falls gently to the forest floor. When the pod splits and the clone emerges, she quickly proceeds into the surrounding myrtle forest and using thousands of years of clonally-transferred knowledge, gathers materials with which she can craft a large urn. Once the urn is complete, the clone taps her tree of origin and fills the urn with its sap. The old woman, stronger than she appears, hoists the urn onto her back and chooses a direction in which to walk. 

When the clone finds an area of civilization she will attempt to set up shop and use the tree sap to make a delicate and delicious soup, each batch of which is identical to the last. It is not known why they do this, or what they do with the money they collect in the process. The soup itself is a gentle golden broth, always the perfect temperature for drinking slowly. When the stock of sap is finally depleted, the clone will make her way back to the grove, where she will burrow into the ground, her body joining with the root system and eventually sprouting a new tree. 

That Which Welcomes Dreams and Is Born From Sand

That Which Welcomes Dreams and Is Born From Sand (or Kurz'iin) is worshipped as the prime deity of the drugged mystics common to Vymrrysian alleyways and psychedelic desert witches of the Stone Crushed Sea. Representations of this deity are hard to come by, though if one looks carefully, occasionally crystal pendants bought from mystics will contain its runic markings. Kurz'iin is a figure that is said to control the state of our dream-lives, for better or worse, which then guides our waking actions. A part of them exists in each small crystalline mote of sand, and when summoned by a particularly fervent coven, their form becomes as an iridescent androgynous figure rising from the desert dunes, draped in a cloth of depthless moonlight. Kurz'iin does not speak, but instead refracts the images of answers to questions you did not ask upon the sand.   

Favor: Prayers and a blood sacrifice offered to Kurz'iin before sleep or as part of a witches' coven, provides at 10% chance of a prophesying dream the following night or a 30% chance of the answer to an important question, respectively. This prophecy may relate to a current quest, relationship, or some wider struggle, the answer may be in regards to any question. 

Disfavor: Earn the disfavor of Kurz'iin by killing one who is in their favor or by using magic to alter the dreams of another. Their disfavor confers 2d4 weeks of unceasing nightmares resulting in a 2-point penalty to WIS saves and WIS checks, and a 10% chance of a 1-point CON reduction. 

Examining a city mystic's crystal with several runes inscribed in psychedelic colors.

She Who Guards the Places We Walk

The places we walk. 
     The well-trod paths.
The deepest parts. 
     Shielded from cold hearts. 

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She Who Guards the Places We Walk (or Ya'rryn) is worshipped as the patron saint of merchant-traders, the homeless, and sometimes mercenaries and adventurers. Representations of her can be found carved into some of the many gates of the city, among the brick-work of old alleyways, and occasionally on standing stones throughout the wider world. She is an ephemeral protector of lonesome wanderers and those who venture to places unknown. Quiet and soft, her presence is known by fresh ivy growths along one's path, or in rare circumstances, a graceful hand protruding from the earth offering guidance in the form of a token symbol. 

Favor: Prayers offered to Ya'rryn before a long journey or when hopelessly lost, provide a 10% chance of the appearance of guidance in the forms listed above.

Disfavor: Misleading, killing, or needlessly harming travelers and lost souls will earn the disfavor of Ya'rryn. Disfavor results in a -2 penalty to CHA checks when talking to those in her favor, and a 5% chance of getting lost when making a turn on any trail, path, or road.  

She Who Guards the Places We Walk presenting a guiding token warning of hostile bowmen ahead.

How to Get More People Into Our Hobby: Look to Behavior Theory

In my field of academia, we rely a lot on a wide variety of behavior theories in both the construction and examination of programs and studies meant to help people (and communities) change their health for the better.** When we want to get people to quit smoking, use condoms, utilize syringe exchange programs, or change cycles of violence, many times we structure interventions around specific models of how we think human behavior works. These theories and models are all different, and approach behavior change dynamics from an array of viewpoints. Common to many of these theories are several pieces: 

• What are some barriers to changing a behavior? What are some benefits?
• How much control do we have over the behavior? What is our intent?
• What are some internalized and social norms surrounding the behavior?

Looking at these questions, and drawing on my academic background, I've formulated a model that we can go to in order to figure out ways to get more people into our hobby. We could also use a similar theory to help players and GMs with negative tendencies (i.e. trying to control players, severe railroading issues, sexism/racism at the table) change their behaviors as well, though I'll leave that for another time. 

Theory of Nerd Engagement (TNG)

My proposed model for the engagement of New Nerds draws on a few of the heavyweights in the real of behavior theory, namely the Theory of Planned Behavior and Reasoned Action, and the Health Belief Model. I won't go into detail on those two, but below I'll walk you through my thought process for the TNG. 

1. Any person who we want to engage with our hobby will ultimately be informed by their personal history with other nerd-ish hobbies, their own personality traits, and their socio-demographic characteristics. 
2. Those background characteristics may influence a few things: their Cues to Action, their Social Norms, and their Barriers and Benefits.
1. Cues to Action represent the various forces urging them to take part in our hobby. This could be a friend, family member, some YouTube videos, blogs, Reddit, etc.
2. Social Norms represent the broader views of society towards tabletop gaming and other nerd-ish things in general, as well as the person's internalized norms.
3. Barriers and Benefits represent those things that a person might feel would prevent them from engaging with the hobby. Barriers might include things like the potential for sexism and racism, or lack of access to supplies or a group. Benefits could include feelings of belonging, fun, and escapism. 
3. Cues to Action and Social Norms may influence a person's Social Motivation for engaging with the hobby. Here, I termed social motivation to mean a motivation (or lack thereof) that is derived from external forces. 
4. Barriers and Benefits may influence a person's Perceived Control, or how much power they feel they might have over whether or not to take part. 
5. Finally, the combined forces of Social Motivation and Perceived Control might directly affect a newcomer's Willingness to Engage. 

Due to the structure of my proposed framework, there are now a few clear ways that we, as a community and individuals can engage new people.

What We Can Do

Obviously the next step is to formulate "interventions" in order to draw in new people and keep them engaged. Below I'll provide some general thoughts, many of which are already being done by prominent members of the community:

• Address potential barriers
• Provide free or more affordable gaming materials across a wider array of platforms to reach people with low access.
• Weed out players and DMs who foster bigoted attitudes which will keep people away or force newcomers out. 
• Following the point above, broaden our range of cues to action at cons, across the web, or find ways to increase visibility in more mainstream ways. 
• The above may influence broader norms about tabletop roleplaying, and shift attitudes away from the negative. 

What else do you think we can do that would address various points within the framework?

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**NOTE: I'm not a behavioral psychologist and am most probably not employing these theories in this specific context in the way they were meant to be applied.