Places to Go, People to Be has translated the Three Clue Rule into French as La Règle des Trois Indices!

I can’t read a word of it, but it does remind me that in French the word for “clue” is the same word as “indication” — i.e., it is something which indicates something else. (I think I first encountered this when reading essays about the Arsène Lupin stories.) That seems like a particularly useful bit of alternative etymology in the particular context of the Three Clue Rule (or Three Indication Rule), since the rule can actually be applied widely beyond the format of a mystery.

(For those curious, the English word “clue” derives from “clew”, which originally referred to a ball of thread: Just as Ariadne’s thread led Theseus to the entrance of the labyrinth, so clues will lead you to the solution of the mystery. The example of the labyrinth, I suppose, just indicates another way in which the provenance of the Three Clue Rule can be extended.)

Ash’s Guide to RPG Personality and Background is a fabulous template supported with rich random generators for creating rich RPG characters.

You start by defining Personality in four-ish steps:

• Primary Motivators
• Emotional Disposition
• Core Traits
• Secondary Traits (Sense or Humor, Favorite Conversation Topics, Group Affiliations, Religion/Spirituality, Quirks, Hobbies, Mental Disorders)

Then you get the Background generator:

• Birthplace
• Family
• Professions
• Significant Past Events
• Mysteries
• Existing Conflicts
• Adventuring Trigger
• Quests

Although some of the entries (particularly the Professions) are slanted towards a fantasy setting, most of the material is pretty universal in its applicability. And although the depth of detail created by the template is obviously most useful for player characters, it’s pretty easy to raid it selectively as a GM to fill out elements of your NPC roleplaying templates.

Tomorrow I’ll be wrapping up my series on Thinking About Urbancrawls, so it feels appropriate to be thinking about other resources for city creation. I recommend checking out Michael Curtis’ Alphabet of the City’s Shadows. It’s an incredibly rich treatment of thematic elements that can be found in the best fantasy megalopolises. For example:

A is for Alleyways

Like the strands of a spider’s web, the alleyways of the city radiate out from the urban heart to ensnare the unwary. Stinking, trash-strewn, and labyrinthine, alleyways serve as the highways for the denizens of the city’s shadows and the homes for the truly downtrodden and lost. It is within these narrow channels that thieves, whores, madmen, and the wretched reside, far away from the opulent chambers and homes of the rich and powerful.

To step into the alleys is to leave the brightly lit world of the honest man behind, even if you can still glimpse those clean, bright streets at the alley’s filthy mouth. The world of the alleyways have rules of their own and those who do not take the effort to learn the rules of that world soon find themselves devoured by it. The alleys are gateways into places never seen by the honest and righteous, who shun such places with good reason. Adventurers, however, often must tread these paths as part of their sojourns into the city. The cramped shops and hovels off of the alleyways are the domiciles and places of business for Hedge Wizards, sages, the Thieves Guild, and other quasi-legal operations. Many alleyways contain the rusted, offal-choked grates that lead into the city’s Sewers, making them the only place to enter that subterranean world unobserved. The alleyways are also the last resort for desperate men when the Watch is hard upon their heels and they need a place to vanish from the law.

 ALPHABET OF THE CITY’S SHADOWS

Since we’re talking about urbancrawls lately, my attention was immediately arrested when I saw a couple of pretty amazing city generators over at Last Gasp.

Both of them are dice-drop generators, which reminds me of the fun you can have with Vornheim, but they’re integrated with prodigious random tables. The first is a generator for small, Lovecraftian-style fantasy towns: The dice drop generates a layout for the buildings and the faces of the dice are used iteratively to form factions, feuds, leadership… It’s fantastic. Check it out here.

The other generator creates a particular iteration of the ever-shifting magical city of Cörpathium, which draws its inspiration from M. John Harrison’s Viriconium. The dice drop in this generator determines the relative locations of city districts and then (this is the cool part) generates a whole bunch of conditionals based on which districts are present and how they relate to each other. You can find it here.

A great post over at the Reef: The Surest Way to Become a Better Game Master.

Spoilers:

STFU AND LISTEN TO THE PLAYERS

She approaches the issue with a slew of anecdotes about games gone wrong (and also games gone right). I’ll back it up with a bit of theorycraft that I’ve mentioned here before: Your players have a pretty good idea of what they’ll find interesting and entertaining. Let them pursue the goals and plans they want to pursue and you’re far more likely to meet with success than if you try to second guess what they “really” want.

You don’t need to take on total responsibility for the game. In fact, you shouldn’t.

Also of value are the follow-ups she and her husband wrote:

How to Do This (in Practical Terms)
Why It’s Generally a Bad Idea to Say No
Answering Other Objections

As I mentioned recently in The Principles of RPG Villainy, it’s amazing how often saying “don’t railroad your players” results in people agreeing that it’s a bad idea while simultaneously trying to justify why they do it all the time.