Reskinning II

As far as urban areas are concerned I've have never found simple encounters tables to be satisfying so as part of this reskinning column I figured I'd create "What's happening?" tables. These tables are what folks are talking about, or what is actually happening at the moment, or possibly even story hooks. The idea is they provide a bit of the 'vibe' of the  moment.

Also I came across a box of digital Marvel No-prizes and I'll award one to the first comment that figures out the source that I reskinned the entries from.

Basic Reskinning

A GM's life is tough. Coming up with new, interesting, content on a consistent basis can tax even the most creative person. Most GMs eventually turn to borrowing bits and pieces from books and movies and comics and whatever and adding them to their campaign. I'm not certain what folks actually call this but I call it re-skinning.

I'm convinced that nearly everyone eventually reskin content it but most don't really talk about it either for fear of giving up the game to players or for some mistaken thoughts of plagiarism.  I'll start with the second issue first. If you don't publish the reskinned content then you don't have to worry about plagiarism. As for giving up the game for players, that is what this column is about: how to create reskinned content that is mostly unrecognizable.

The elements of nearly everything worth reskinning boil down to: plots, characters, & scenes. There is also theme but we're not sure that can really be reskinned. Some thoughts on effective reskinning:

• Jump genres. Reskinning the Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones will be obvious. Reskin Star Wars into a medieval setting less so.
• Change character names. Conan can be just as big a bad-arse if his name is Tyrion.
• Blend characters from different sources. Its the interplay between groups of characters that make them so memorable, split up the group and the source of the parts are less obvious.
• Television and series books make better sources than movies. There is more to work with and the list of plots among a series are far less memorable than from a handful of movies.
• Even mediocre sources occasionally have amazing scenes that can be used.
• Some elements for a series aren't enough for a plot. Sometimes you just have to admit some things don't work and let it go.

An example of a reskinned scene
The movie Phantom Menace was not our favorite but the pod race scene was a lot of fun. It appears to be a reskinned sci-fi version of the chariot race from Ben Hur. So how can we re-use it.

First why the chase?

1. Race for a cash prize (Phantom Menace)
2. Race because one is forced to on pain of death (Death Race, Ben Hur)
3. Race to get through enemy territory or escape (Road Warrior, Thunderdome, Fury Road)

What is our vehicle since cars and pod racers just won't do?

1. Horses with horse archery, lances, and hacking melee weapons (straight medieval)
2. Chariots or wagons (protect the wheels, protect the wheels). Similar to  horses except the terrain needs to be smoother lest the wheels get shattered.
3. Magical flying ships (like in the world of Slain) or flying mounts (I guess, not our style)  Terrain would mostly be about the wind, possibly rivers of wind cutting through mountain passes.
4. Racing on dinosaurs or such (heroes could be on a sauropod while the villains could be on sauropods or smaller two legged fast beasts (making this a truly wild Sword & Sorcery deal). Imagine villains dropping down onto the heroes sauropod on those long arm-like levers from Mad Max Fury Road.
5. Race using Carvels or other ships. The race could go through narrow spots between rock, over shallow shoals, or even into floating seaweed that slows and clogs up the oars.

By the time you've changed things, even a little bit, you'll have amped up the excitement and hidden where the original skin came from.

Blog Policies: A Word From Stan Lee

Haters. The words racism/sexism/homophobic/transphobic come up a lot lately. I have no tolerance for haters.

Politics. Pretty much nobody has changed their politics because of an argument online and I have the right to maintain civil discourse on my blog. So leave politics at the door. There are many places on the internet to go if you want to debate politics, this isn't one of them.

Spam. Spam will be deleted.

Trolls. I've never understood trolls. If you come here to be nasty you'll be warned. If you continue you'll probably be banned. I don't feel people should be telling others what is good fun and what is bad fun and I don't think anyone should have to tolerate outright attacks. It is my blog so I'll judge what is offensive and what is not and I'll delete anything I feel crosses the line (or create a hall of shame or something for these toxic sort of things).

Its about games. Even if you really, really love a game and dedicate your life to that game it is still a game and games are meant to be fun.

Best of the Web

Some time ago the Wall Street Journal Online came up with a daily post called Best of the Web. They culled interesting stories from everywhere and posted with snarky comments. It grew stale after awhile but I always liked the idea. The concept is similar to blog aggregators but guided in a more useful way. So that's is what this Label will try to be, except weekly or monthly. We'll see.

Some folks are so creative they make you try even harder as not to look like a hack by comparison.

• Doomslakers! - The Blog of James V West. Art, Adventure, Games, Whimsies Galore. Somewhere along the line I ran across Black Pudding Magazine by James V West and loved it. The magazine was dedicated to D&D but was easily adaptable. The thing was packed with bits & pieces that lit up my creativity. I ended up buying every issue and tracked down his website. 
• Dungeon Dozen - The Blog of Jason Sholtis. The author packs more creativity into a 12 item table than most blogs in their entirety. When I first found the blog I spent hours going through the various sections. When I found out the author created an underground environment called Operation Unfathomable I bought a copy and loved every word of it. Sad he hasn't posted since September, hopefully that means another product is in the works.
• Tony Dowler - He's mostly on Google Plus (which is dying) and Pintrest (which I have no Interest). I absolutely love the way he draws his microdungeons (but the normal link is 404). Still his Salamander Mines and his How to Host a Dungeon are both brilliant.

Initial Post

I'm calling the site Grindstonë because I intend to dig up a lot of public domain stuff (mostly maps) that are buried out there on the web and clean them up and make them useful for GMs that never have time or enough maps. I think of this is sharpening the GMs tools for them, much as using a grindstone to sharpen a sword or hoe.

I'm a one person operation based out of the West Coast of North America. San Diego to be exact. I expect eventually to bundle different bits and sell them. Hopefully publishing them online first won't cut into the sales too badly, that doesn't seem to be the case with other blogs so I'm willing to take the risk to build name recognition.

Long ago Colombia games stated that it as easier to add fantastic elements to a rather non-fantastic world than the reverse (or something similar, I'm paraphrasing). I think that's basically true since my own version of Harn replaced the Gargun (Harn Orcs) with the Greenskins from Warhammer among other things. To that end most of the stuff on this blog will probably be less than fantastic. I sharpen the blade, the GM will have to actually wield it in battle (simulated of course).

Having said that the word Grindstonë in the title contains an umlaut over the 'e'. This umlaut is silent, it is the Heavy Metal umlaut, a stylistic reminder to keep things fun, loud, and a bit over the top.

The little image comes from the utrecht-psalter, a Carolingian book of psalms from the 9th century, back when they were hopping with excitement to sharpen their swords.