New System Thursday: All Flesh Must be Eaten

It’s New System Thursday! The day of the week where we add a new system to our list of over 145+ RPG systems and settings! Today’s new system is a cult classic. It’s….

All Flesh Must Be Eaten is a role-playing game set in a world of survival horror. A world where the dead have come back from their graves. You have no clue as to why they have returned… but one thing is certain…

They crave living flesh!

So what are you waiting for? Get some ammo, grab your gun, find some survivors, and make an All Flesh Must Be Eaten campaign now!

Videos in your campaign

We announced this in the newsletter, but in case you missed it you can now embed videos in your campaign!

You can embed any video hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, or a handful of other 3rd parties. Just look for the little film icon in the editor toolbar. Put in the URL to the video, and you’re good to go!

Please be judicious about your use of videos. A campaign trailer or intro video on your campaign homepage is a great idea. Cramming your favorite music videos onto every page? Not so much…

Free System Friday, Newsies & Pickpockets

Extra, Extra, Read all about it! It’s Free System Friday, and that means that we’re bringing you the best new thing in free to play RPG systems. Today’s offering is a limited time one my friends, as it is the Beta release of Newsies & Pickpockets!

Being a game of imagination, role-playing and wonder by Miguel de Luis, on the
adventures of a bunch of kids earning their pluck by their own in an Edwardian
world filled with crazed inventors, fagins, strange conspiracies and exotic
foreigners from countries you never heard about and an ounce of steampunk.
¦ Try by accident a flying machine and check if the moon is on fire!
¦ Dodge bullies and pickpockets.
¦ Expose corrupt politicians.
¦ Find the true story of your real family.
¦ Look for treasure in the sewers, mind the living statues.
¦ Live at the Newsboy Lodge.
¦ Travel to exotic locations.
¦ And more, much more.

So what are you waiting for kid? Get out there and Sell those papers!

P.S. Since this is a beta test, please send Miguel your feedback and thanks!

Welcome to the Real Time Web

Today Obsidian Portal joins the Real Time Web, with full support for PubSubHubub for the Adventure Log Atom feeds! We’re pushing the Adventure Log feeds to Superfeedr, which then relays them in (near) real-time to any interested subscribers.

What does that mean for you? Well…probably not all that much. If you subscribe to the Atom feed for your adventure log via Google Reader or another PubSubHubbub enabled reader, it will update much faster. Other than that, you probably won’t see any difference.

So if it doesn’t have a huge impact, why did we do it? Simple: We’re geeks and we like to do geeky stuff. I’m sure all of you understand 😉

Campaign Backups – A Happy Ending

This should be the final chapter of the campaign backups saga (see Part 1 and Part 2…or don’t, it doesn’t really matter).

After implementing the basic version, I posted a challenge to the community to come up with an XSLT for the backup to make it look like something other than computer vomit. I think it was well under 24 hours later that Kyle had a working stylesheet that did an awesome job of formatting the backup.

Now, when you download your backup, it comes as a .zip file that contains everything you need to view and navigate locally. Just unzip the file and load the .xml file from there in a browser. Voila! A totally slick local copy of your campaign.

This closes the book (for now) on the campaign backups, as they now cover the main functionality (ie. you get your data), with the added bonus that your data is actually in a usable format. In the future, we may revisit things to see about adding images and maps, but for now, I’m going to put a big check in the win column.

Thanks again to Kyle for all his hard work. If you download a backup and like the way it looks, drop by his blog and tell him thanks!

Matt James on Campaign Creation

 Creating a campaign can be one of the most enjoyable and rewarding events an avid gamer and storyteller can experience. At its core, you are performing the art of creation- taking something from nothing and breathing life into its delicate core. What you create will be harvested and digested by the players and readers that comb through your hard work and spark the neuropathways of their brains. How freaking cool is that?! I’m not trying to be poetic, just provide some perspective so the next time you run your own home campaign, you can see how your creativity may be affecting others.

I am convinced that humans naturally crave inspiration in life. We are creatures that are motivated in ways that no other animal can claim. The mere sound of a song can spring us to action while the most endearing words can bring us to tears. It is for these reasons that I believe roleplaying (and roleplaying games) are vital to a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Sound a bit cheesy? Well, it is. But you would have stopped reading long ago if you could not relate in some small fashion. People love to be inspired and your players are no different.

When creating your campaign, you want to first lay the groundwork that will spring your story into vibrant life. Take into account the type of players you will have and adjust to their needs accordingly.  Robin Laws, one of the greatest game designers in this writer’s humble opinion, states in one of the gaming industries greatest books Robin’s laws of Good Game Mastering that “what really makes the difference in the success or failure of a roleplaying session is you.” The same applies to the entirety of a campaign. It is up to you to design and write an efficient and effective story that will compel them to stick around for more.

This takes time. Very few people are gifted enough to sit down with little to no experience and generate extremely compelling stories that will make others yearn for more. Even the greatest of them all claim that it is a skill gained, not gifted. So while it may appear an impossible task, if you are willing and able to put in the time and effort- you too can be a great storyteller and campaign engineer.

When I create custom storylines and campaigns, I try to keep a few simple and easy to remember tips in the back of my mind. They are by no means all-inclusive- but you may find them to be of use in your own designs.

1. Aim small, miss small: Don’t try to build too much too soon. Start small and build up each subset until you have enough to work with. In example, I would start by creating a small hamlet or village; perhaps a building or structure that houses a specific type of person such as a royal guard keep, or a healer’s temple. I would focus a good amount of resources in developing these areas before moving on to the next building (and so on and so forth). Before you know it, you’ll have a short story that details only this small village- one that will easily draw in your players.

2. Grey on the Horizon:  Every good story needs some form of conflict. It does not necessarily have to involve bloodshed or combat (though that is often the most fun), but it needs to provoke your players into action. Here is where you start to create the external areas of your small village. You can now, in example, start to add a creepy forest or even a troll-infested swamp. Whatever you choose, you start to slowly paint the canvas of your overall world and in turn your campaign.

3. Keep it simple: Writing a complex story arch is difficult. I still struggle with this and I like to think I am somewhat experienced in both writing and game design. If you keep it simple, your players will easily grasp the ideas you are trying to present and will find it more enjoyable.

4. Take the ‘simple’ and build upon it: Complexity will come in time and you will be able to integrate more and more as your players experience your world. One day you will look back and realize you have created a deep and immersive setting. In most cases your players will write the story themselves with their exploits in your game. Keep them apart of it and your campaign will grow.

Above all, remember to have fun. If you are having difficulty in creating the fluff of your campaign, take a small break. Remember the goal is not to become a Pulitzer Prize winning writer. You do it for enjoyment and you do it to feed that primal desire for inspiration. There is so much more I could write on this topic, but I hope you have found your own inspiration in here somewhere. I would love to hear about your experiences and welcome you to share them with me on Loremaster.org. I highly encourage you link your Obsidian Portal campaign so that I can take a look- I love seeing what people come up with.

-Matt James
Freelance Writer & Game Designer
Loremaster.org