Disciplined Gaming

Discipline breeds freedom. The philosophers among you can yap about where that phrase comes from and what it means, but in the context of gaming, it's pretty simple. If you're disciplined in how you approach the game, you'll afford yourself more freedom to act. That's applicable to DMs as well as players in every phase and style of the game. Let's examine what discipline looks like at the various levels of play.

The Disciplined Player

The disciplined player knows the rules. Not all the rules, you understand, but the rules that are relevant to his character. He knows what types of things he can do during a session because he has read the relevant rules. He knows how his spells work and how his attack rolls work. He knows the fighting capabilities of his forces and when called upon by the DM can deliver actions efficiently.

The disciplined player keeps sufficient records. He can answer questions regarding the logistics of his forces without bogging the session down by "uh um hang on, what page?" It is the bare minimum to know the logistical capabilities of your forces and that includes how long they can remain in the field, how much treasure they can carry, and their rate of travel over the terrain that they expect to encounter.

The disciplined player exercises a little forethought. His actions and orders are cohesive to his faction's goals, which he has considered within the broader context of the campaign. He collaborates with other players within the campaign, even as an antagonist, based on his faction's objectives. He considers the state of the campaign, the setting, the milieu, when issuing orders and avoids friction by communicating effectively with the DM. While he has a plan, he remains flexible to adjustments required by the nature of the campaign. He is responsible enough to consider the bigger picture while still pursuing his own faction's goals.

The disciplined player is freed from burdening his friends with his own failure and can make an impact on the game efficiently and memorably.

The Disciplined DM

The disciplined DM knows the rules. Not every rule on command, you understand, but the rules most likely to be relevant to his type of session. He has at least a passing familiarity with the rules of the chosen system and has enough book control to find edge cases and uncommonly encountered rules efficiently. For example, he knows that if his players have flying resources, he'll need to at least generally grok the flying movement rate and combat rules. #PegasusCorpsofMachodor #ThankYouMandalf

The disciplined DM maintains consistency. He is available and responsive to his campaign's participants based on a previously established schedule. He is consistent with rulings regarding his campaign's setting. He maintains a reliable schedule for sessions. He communicates his expectations for the campaign and remains consistent with them. He tracks the developing milieu, keeping the touchstones of the campaign constant and available.

The disciplined DM is efficient. Whether by prep or practice, book control or winging it well-established improvisational skills, the DM has a responsibility to respect the nature of Real D&D™ in that time is a resource. Players must come prepared to the table and so too must the DM. He avoids unnecessarily lengthy exposition or excessive chatter, brushes up on the monsters likely to be encountered by the players, and sets the example for his table to have a solid session for the allotted length of time.

The disciplined DM is free to arbitrate the game's action and act as custodian of the game's milieu without compromising the integrity of the campaign with knee jerk rulings and memed-in buffoonery because he wasn't ready.

So what do you do?

Take the game seriously and respect your friends' time. 

If you play a single PC of low to mid level you likely don't even have the resources to require any great amount of preparation. This is the perfect time to practice your organizational skills so you can scale them as you acquire henchmen, armies, and domains. 

Establish and use a method of organization. Paper, spreadsheets, fillable PDFs you bought from a peddler, it doesn't matter. 

Thumb through the rules and spells that matter for your PC. 

If the campaign doesn't already have deadlines for downtime or collaboration, then establish them yourself. Lead by example.

Do not pester your DM with unnecessary questions. You are one of many players. Use downtime responsibly.

If you're a DM, set a schedule. Procrastination is as detrimental as perfection to the "good" of the campaign. Set a deadline for downtime orders, a deadline for resolution, and a consistent time for sessions to be played.

This can all sound overwhelming, but it really isn't because you aren't scrambling to do any of this stuff right before session. You aren't doing it all at once. You're eating the elephant, one bite at a time. None of it takes so long as to be more than a lunch break activity unless you let it pile up. Then it's a mess.

Why does this matter?

When a group sits down to play a session of D&D, there is an expectation that something will happen. If it's an 8 hour dinner party Stein event for a birthday party or it's the resolution of a wargame scenario on the club's docket, everyone involved expects to make something happen. It's incumbent on the players of the game to play the game efficiently.

Listen, man. It's a game. It's supposed to be fun. Not every session is a SEAL Team Six tactical exercise. But if you put in a little effort to be disciplined about how you approach the game, you'll have the freedom to play D&D, and enable your friends to play D&D, instead of whack-a-mole come session.

Something to consider the next time you feel like wingin' it. 

Therewolves of Allegany

The Assemblage ship that ICE captured was much like the previous one, an independent operation with a captain that was bewitched by some heinous warlock. We cured him of his affliction and recruited him to aid us against his offenders in... uh... some way as yet to be determined.

What now? The pirate island stronghold was attracting hooks left and right. Slaid believed he could just waltz in there and convince everyone to love him. I was skeptical. We figured it'd take a while to scout out the pirate town anyway so we'd take a shot at that in downtime. Meanwhile, there were local hooks to look into, the winner of the lottery being the werewolf farm that had gone rogue from the Assemblage. Maybe there were allies there against them?

Wagons loaded and horses mounted and dogs leashed and snakes in baskets and all the other ridiculous things we do as adventurers done, we showed up to the farm ready for action. I held the reserve while the bulk of the party advanced on the dilapidated property. Slaid knocked and attempted to serve the occupants a completely fictitious warrant but was met only with an ominous warning growl. Guygiss snuck around back and discovered a busted open rear entry. He waited for some action to start to cover his approach.

The reserve spotted some wolves prowling from a nearby field to the rear of the building and warned the group, who mostly ignored it. See, we travel in a party of like 20+, but it does no good to stack 20 on the single entry of a building, which we were about to demonstrate in live time.

Slaid and Sloane busted the door open and came face to face with a clutch of werewolves, massive canines with sinister intelligence and brutal slavering maws ready to chomp chomp chomp their faces off. That contact made some racket so Guygiss approached the rear door. Unfortunately, he also ran into some waiting werewolves and he was once again all by his lonesome and outnumbered.

The reserve cast some buff spells and mounted up, intent on cutting off the enemy reinforcements, while the crew at the front door tried to fight their way in and Guygiss tried to survive. Through magic, poison, and luck, the little not-elf kept it going long enough to get relieved. The battle in the front was like a clown car of werewolves, more showing up from the interior of the building every time one was killed.

I was able to lockdown a few of them on a flank and after a while we chewed through their surprisingly dense ranks. Most of the leveled party was in the danger zone for lycanthropy and Sloane had had her arm broken by one of the massive jaws. Unfortunately we captured no prisoners nor rescued any hostages. These guys were just lean, mean killing machines. We did get a heap of treasure for our trouble.

Next up? Pirate island.

Musings:

We concentrated most of our force on the front door of the building, but with the place locked up tight and the only ingress on that side blocked by werewolves, we were unable to force an entry to put figurative spears on target. It took some time and effort to reposition for effect. We discovered later that we could breach the relatively flimsy planking of the structure's walls. We could have also probably used the window on that side. We'll want to consider things like this for the future as that could have really changed what turned out to be our toughest battle yet.

This is the second time recently that Guygiss has found himself isolated and outnumbered. He came out better this time, but he's going to want to hone his flanking tactics before he bites off more than he can chew. Part of that is luck, part of it the superior senses of the creatures we've been fighting.

I play an awful lot of Theatre of the Mind gaming, where the DM holds the objective truth of the scenario and the other participants have a kind of shared imagining of positioning and such. This works out fine with simple scenarios, small parties, online gaming, etc. At our live table, we've got a big grid and it can be fun to lay out a battle and get tactical. We did so this time and were able to illuminate some of the quirks of the battle map.

Of particular note was the zone of control around a figure, that is to say the space that a combatant threatens that restricts enemy movement. ACKS is designed with this style of fight in mind, pages written with specifics about tactical combat that are fun, if time consuming compared to AD&D, to apply. We carefully exploited and also botched this specific rule throughout the fight in tight doorways, hallways, and other chokepoints, but still had a lot of fun. 

Enter the Nobiran (AFN 2)

Our world is set on its proper course by the Empyrean gods of Law and Light. The winds of Chaos and tides of human failings struggle to divert us, but we will persevere. My name is Mikel and it is my calling to maintain this path and inspire others to do the same.

I joined the Sundowners at the Sisters' Gate after they'd suffered yet another casualty in the war against darkness and poverty. There was a nearby lair filled with goblins and undead that the group was insistent would prove filled with riches if they could only crack the nut.

We delved and swatted away some flies with torches, only to be ambushed by goblins across the rancid stream of filth that ran down the center of the place. I do not quail in the face of evil, but courage alone doesn't leap a wide gap and I fell in. After a brief fight with a handful of the monsters, we were victorious, if a little smelly. Unfortunately one of our robed men had taken a goblin arrow to the hand and we had to retreat.

I learned soon after that the gods had had a direct hand in our party's future by way of a Quest put upon the fighting man Julius, a crude, albeit tough, thug that wielded a wicked morning star in the party's name. Apparently while under care of the Sisters, he had assaulted a healer over some perceived slight to his pride. The Abbess Quested him to retrieve relics of holy significance from an abandoned monastery instead of taking a hand. She is merciful. They also lashed him. She is just.

I sought out Sir Cedric and prayed a vigil before we set out towards this new goal, something actually worthy of our efforts. I hope Julius will come to appreciate the mercy he'd been shown but I suspect he will continue to rant, rave, and cuss at the world for being... the world. 

Shortly after we were waylaid by highwaymen. Severely outnumbered and outmatched, Arnth nevertheless convinced one of them to duel him in exchange for letting us pass. Unfortunately the brigand just rode him down with his lance which reminded me to harden my heart against scoundrels and bandits and only offer chivalry to the chivalrous. Arnth was taken as a slave, they took what loot they could carry from our pack animal, and we went on our way. If our paths cross in the future, I intend righteous vengeance, but the reality is that I'm not likely to see the bold Arnth again.

We found a train of wagons abandoned and filled with the dead and dying being feasted on by monstrous spiders and dispatched them, recovering the caravan leader named Angelus. Maria stabilized him but he needed rest. We gathered what we could while Flavius led a group to hunt down the missing horses. 

While they searched I led Etienne in a burial detail for the remaining bodies after giant ants carried a few off. Unfortunately, dire wolves showed up and interrupted us. I showed them no fear and they respected our boundary, but they also ate the rest of the unburied. We did what we could.

When the away team returned with the draft horses, we were able to get a few wagons going, but one required a man in a yoke to help pull. To the shock of many, I volunteered for the first duty. There were some assumptions made because of my bloodline that I was above common work, but that's no example to set, and we shared the task among the stronger men until we made contact with another caravan a few days later.

They were concerned about carrying on into bandit country and one of the merchants offered to loan us a horse if we'd escort him back to town. We happily agreed and for once caught a break, limping into Trenova with Angelus as an ally to grease any diplomatic concerns.

From here we intend to carry on our righteous quest, but I would not be surprised if we were interrupted early and often. I only pray for the strength to overcome the trials ahead.

Mikel the Nobrian
25th of Riddens, 28th Year of King Decius' Reign - Town of Trenova

Musings:

I've run and played a lot of ACKS, but my personal style has historically been one of Lazy DMing. In this instance, my habit of ignoring things that I find boring. I am thankful that Arb is an expert in the system and our caller North has the motivation to engage in the market simulation portion of the game. My chops in that area are limited because I've usually made someone else deal with it. I intend to continue that habit. I quite like that there is so much meat on the bone with ACKS but I also recognize that not every subsystem of the game is fun for everyone. It really does take all kinds to run an ACKS party.

I'm on my 4th? 5th? PC so far. The hex crawl at 1st level hasn't been kind, but neither has that lair/dungeon outside the Sisters' Gate or really anything else in this bloody campaign. We've laughed about how unlucky this party is. I hope that turns around sometime soon. We need a little momentum. Maybe this Nobiran will signal a change.

We're settling into a good pattern with Arb, an easy exchange of abstracted input and output that gives way to detailed interactions when folks have the energy to engage more fully. I'm interested in exploring the knightly orders we keep running up against, so far Rora of the Merciful Bear and Therin of the Honorable Eagle. We need to be able to hang a little reputation on our shoulders to make any of that mean anything though.

Maybe I'll even get to write a session report from the same character's perspective.