Giving Places Character

Posted on August 17, 2010 | 14 comments

I read a really great article called “Schrödinger, Chekhov, Samus” by the Angry DM that is really good and describes his “Slaughterhouse” system for defining zones in dungeons/ruins/whatever.

It reminded me of a brilliant thing that Sword & Sorcery Studios (the White Wolf d20 imprint) did with their Scarred Lands stuff, which was to have ELs for various wilderness areas representing the average EL of the kind of encounter you might have.  Lovely civilized farmlands, you come across a bunch of CR1 kind of folks.  The Dark Woods of Dark Death, on the other hand, are maybe EL7.  It provides a nice mechanical backup to how dangerous that place over there is – you as the GM know what to expect immediately, what kind of encounter charts to use, what kinds of stories to tell – “Twenty lumberjacks from our village went in there and a hydra attacked and half of them were killed and the other half is missing random limbs.”

It’s also an expansion of the 3e concept of city stat blocks (which I don’t really use all that much – it’s good to know the population and $ limit of goods but the rest of it isn’t all that actionable).  Here’s an example if you’re not familiar with it:

Magnimar

Large City conventional (mayor); AL N
GP Limit 40,000 gp; Assets 32,856,000 gp
Demographics
Population 16,428
Type mixed (81% human, 5% halfling, 4% dwarf, 4% elf, 3% gnome, 2%
half-elf, 1% half-orc)
Authority Figures
Haldmeer Grobaras, lord-mayor (N male human aristocrat 9); Verrine
Caiteil, spokeswoman of the Council of Ushers (NG female elf
aristocrat 5/bard 2); Lord Justice Bayl Argentine, leader of the Justice
Court (LN male human aristocrat 6/fighter 3); Remeria Callinova,
leader of the Varisian Council (CG female human expert 4/rogue 2);
Lady Vammiera Symirkova, mistress of the Gargoyles (NE female
human aristocrat 2/rogue 6/sorcerer 4); Princess Sabriyya Kalmeralm,
de facto ruler of the Bazaar of Sails (CN female human rogue 12)

And they use a much simpler country stat block –

Andoran, Birthplace of Freedom

Alignment: NG
Capital: Almas (76,600)
Notable Settlements: Augustana (54,200), Bellis (4,800), Carpenden (10,600), Falcon’s Hollow (1,400), Oregent (22,700)
Ruler: His Excellency Codwin I of Augustana, Supreme Elect of the Free Peoples of Andoran
Government: Fledgling democracy
Languages: Common
Religion: Abadar, Erastil, Iomedae, Aroden, Shelyn, Cayden Cailean

Bat in the Attic has a cool “Traveller-like” village stat block random generation system.

Angry DM’s scheme is good but is pretty 4e-ey and also is good mainly for very enclosed locations – “that tower,” “that part of the dungeon” – not really useful for a wilderness kind of area.

So what would a more 3e/Pathfinder-type of stat block for a wilderness area look like?  Let’s see.  You want to know the CR.  You want to know what kind of major inhabitants there are, both friendly/intelligent and major critters, while not becoming as complex as a full encounter table…  And keeping the granularity large enough to not be fiddly but small enough to be a discrete adventuring area.

Well, let me take a shot at it.  I did up an area called South Argavist Island where I knew my pirate PCs were going to venture.  It’s forested, has some small friendly settlements, a ruined shrine, and a bad goblin problem. It’s really not worth doing a huge amount of work on – mapping it and placing locations and all that, because the PCs are *probably* just going to shoot through it to the  ruins.  But you want a little meat to expand on if necessary.

South Argavist Island

CR3 Temperate forested island
Zones: Coast, Low Forest, High Forest (on the slopes of the mountain)
Inhabitants: Junk Kicker goblin tribe (moderate population density), local human tribe (light population density; human 50%, half-elf 50%)
Notable Inhabitants: Chief Chop-Man of the Junk Kickers (goblin warrior 4, goblin village), Vixyondriax (Very young green dragon, Low Forest), Bobobobobobobo (ettin, High Forest)
Notable Locations: Greenglade (human thorp in the High Forest), goblin village (Low Forest), ruined shrine (CR 6 dungeon, Low Forest), hidden cove used by pirates (Coast), ancient circle of trees inhabited by dryads (Low Forest)
Random Encounter Tables: Temperate forest CR3 (Low and High Forest), Beach CR2 (Coast)

Hmm, what do you think?  Concise but meaty?  Is it missing anything?

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Jim Shipman Of Outlaw Press Still Actively Committing Evil Acts

Posted on August 13, 2010 | 4 comments

I tell you what, he’s like a cockroach – you can’t kill him, he just pops back up somewhere else.  Jim Shipman of Outlaw Press is just not giving up on his multipronged attack to steal intellectual property associated with the Tunnels & Trolls game.  For those not keeping track in all these previous articles:

The summary is that first, Shipman stole art from over fifty artists and put it in his publications, often as the cover picture, without permission, recompense, or credit.  It was art theft on a huge scale. Of course, the legal system works great to protect the IP rights of a big company, but for a bunch of solo artists spread across the world, it does both jack and shit.

That would be bad enough, but from there he branched out – ripping people off with eBay fraud as “hobbit_king,” “selling 4u_2,” “jimship1,” “actionseller99” and other aliases, publishing books he doesn’t have the right to (including a 6th edition of Tunnels & Trolls he claims is authorized but the actual owners of T&T say is not), and even trying to impersonate Ken St. Andre on this blog and other locations to slander some of the artists involved in the initial art theft case.

And now where does he show up?  Vandalizing the Tunnels & Trolls Wikipedia article.  Here’s an email from a sharp eyed informant of the Geek’s:

Greetings,

Just thought I’d drop you a line and let you know that the IP address you mentioned back in January as possibly belonging to Jim Shipman has cropped up again on Wikipedia, where an anonymous poster has been repeatedly vandalizing the Tunnels and Trolls article.  (Would it surprise you terribly much to learn that the vandalism has taken the form of ad hominem attacks against Ken St. Andre and inserting multiple references concerning Jim Shipman’s great contributions to the game?)

Your article was referenced on the discussion page, so I thought you might like to know.

Sure enough, the Wikipedia editors were concerned about some edits to the T&T page there.  Someone seemed to be putting “Outlaw Press” in everywhere, breaking links to other legitimate T&T sites, and other such things as described on the Wikipedia discussion page.

Luckily, someone must have done some Googling – because they came across my article about Shipman posing as Ken St. Andre along with the IP address range he was using – 4.59.106.X – and discovered that the odd editor was coming from the same address range!  The obvious conclusion is that Shipman is now into Wikipedia defacement in his bizarrely never-ending quest to rip off everything and everyone even vaguely connected with Tunnels & Trolls.

It makes me happy that the work I’ve done to catalog this wretch’s misdeeds is helping other people identify who’s behind each next scam.

So to sum up your action items:

  • Avoid Outlaw Press like the plague
  • Avoid Jim Shipman like the plague
  • Be careful buying T&T stuff (especially “collector’s items”) on eBay/the Internet, make sure it’s not a scam
  • Keep an eye out for IP address range 4.59.106.0-255 in forums, blogs, and what have you because it’s Shipman acting up
  • Try to change the laws of your city and/or country to actually protect people being victimized in this way without them needing thousands of dollars for lawyers
  • Violate Jim Shipman with a plunger (obvious exception to the second bullet above).

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A RPG Stack Exchange?

Posted on August 10, 2010 | 5 comments

There’s a proposal up to start a RPG site using Stack Exchange.  Stack Exchange powers the excellent technical advice sites Stack Overflow and Server Fault.

I think this will be a great format.  Frankly I’m sick of all the forums – rpg.net, enworld – with their ubiquitous moderators with an axe to grind and demented clique politics, and full of nimrods making self-congratulatory off topic posts.  With Stack Exchange, everyone gets to vote on questions and answers so the good discussions and ideas float to the top.  And it’s focused on the question/answer format, which is very useful for, you know, questions and answers – in forums those often get mixed in with other stuff.

So go vote for it!

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Ten Interesting Facts About The Reavers

Posted on August 10, 2010 | 3 comments

Our year-long Pathfinder campaign, Reavers on the Seas of Fate, has seen some extremely good and entertaining character development on the part of the PCs.  Here’s ten facts you may not have gleaned about our “heroes” from the session summaries!  (Check the Characters page for pics, character sheets, and background writeups on the Reavers if you need a refresher).

1.  Sindawe is continually referred to as “Sindawe Woman-killer” by the rest of the group because of his penchant for viciously taking out female opponents.

2.  Everyone’s a little uncomfortable around Tommy since he enthusiastically tortured Jesswin the assassin in “Holiday In The Sun.”  “Watch your nipples, boys!” they say when they see him coming.

3.  Saul Vancaskerkin always slaps Sindawe on the cheek in a “Goodfellas”-esque gesture of fondness.  He hates that.

4.  Serpent has a crazy awesome animal companion, Saluthra the Large constrictor.  But he’s been a good sport about me balancing it by requiring him to take the time to command it – it doesn’t just leap into combat and kill opponents like it’s a mini-PC.  Plus, it has such a low INT, sometimes when it gets something tasty in its coils it just can’t resist eating it rather than participating further in the fight.

5.  They really hate the Splithog Pauper more than anyone (even the villains) and really love Thalios Dondrel more than anyone (even their girlfriends).

6.  Wogan has no skill in Knowledge: Religion, but since he’s the cleric they are continuously looking to him to explain the religious significance of random stuff they come across, with hilarious results.

7.  Pretty much every time they talk to Samaritha now, they just ask her “So when are you going to betray us?  Just get it over with!”  Her semi-boyfriend, Serpent, doesn’t even stick up for her.  It’s sad really.

8.  The rest of the party often does “Wogan impressions” that involve stamping around, kicking up their heels, and firing guns into the air like Yosemite Sam.

9.  Ever since Sindawe slept with cadaverous Amalinda Staufen in “Mansion of Shadows,” whenever they come across skeletons or whatnot Serpent asks him if he’s “feeling horny.”

10.  For some reason, one of the items the PCs always want to loot is inn signs.  They’re heavy and not worth anything, but they just WANT THEM for some undefined reason.

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Reavers on the Seas of Fate – Session Summary 22 Posted

Posted on August 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

Twenty-second Session (11 page pdf) – “A Dreadful Dawn” – After a daring and violent escape from Magnimar and the Hellknights, the party goes to find the cursed son of a dead pirate to get the secret to entering the smuggler’s caves under the Riddleport Light.  When they find him running an inn near Korvosa, however, they have to contend with a squad of cultists conducting a nighttime slaughter off the staff and patrons!  If only they weren’t all so drunk…

The first part of the session was inspired by Chris (Sindawe) telling me how much he enjoyed the pirate movie “Nate and Hayes” and described a running land/sea fight with the heroes running around under bombardment.  So I set out to reproduce that feel with the send-off the Wandering Dagger got in Magnimar from the Hellknights!

I was half afraid that the PCs would go after the Paralictor himself, but they correctly divined that a Hellknight in bizarre armor with an enchanted adamantine halberd is probably more than, say, twice their level.  Plus, that pier was being bombarded with cannon fire, which helped them make their minds up.  They avoided that and headed down the next pier to try to catch up with the Dagger – at first, they planned to commandeer a fishing boat but after a bit they saw there was no way they’d get it out into open water in time so they fought their way onto a parked Magnimarian Navy ship that was firing on the Dagger and then boarded the Dagger from there.  Very awesome!

The funniest part was when Tommy first leapt into the fishing boat and asked me, “Is there anyone in it?”  As a DM, that is a cue to toss a random encounter into the mix, and I rolled a fierce guard dog.  This took Tommy aback, but Serpent jumped aboard and murdered the dog with a single shot.  After that, the cries of “And they EVEN killed the DOG!!!” were incessant.  Everyone got a gold coin (which I use to represent Infamy Points) for that one.

So then they wanted to go back to the Riddleport Light to stop the evil deeds happening there, which I’m mixing together from Madness in Freeport, the third installment in Green Ronin’s Freeport trilogy, and Shadow In The Sky, the first chapter in Paizo’s Second Darkness Adventure Path.  But I wanted them to have to work for it (and I needed more time to work up the grand finale) so Captain Clap sent them on the track of the man who could get them into the smuggler’s caves under the Light – Jaren the Jinx.

There’s all kinds of weird synergies in RPG products that make them entertaining to remix.  In Freeport, the sea caves are Black Dog’s Caves, named after a dead pirate.  In the Pathfinder NPC Guide, there’s a cursed pirate named Jaren the Jinx whose father is a dead pirate named Black Dog.  Cha-ching!  I decided he was trying to retire from pirating and was running an inn.  I wanted to walk a narrow line with him – a bit of a sad sack that does have bad luck and some bad judgment (hence Thalios Dondrel’s explanation of “Because he’s a dumb asshole, that’s why!” to all queries about Jaren) but is also a, say, sixth level pirate who’s the son of a really famous pirate.  I think it came off OK.  Also, I made it where Jaren was missing his arm, not only because it adds to the pathetic aspect but also because I’m using him as a hook to run the Wicked Fantasy Factory adventure “Throwdown with the Arm-Ripper” next time!

The whole serial killer thing in the inn is from the Atlas Games module A Dreadful Dawn (on sale for $2 on paizo.com!).  They were basically there at the behest of a minion of the Shark God – something I’m using to bridge Jaren’s backstory (a pirate called the Shark Lord was Black Dog’s nemesis) and the upcoming Sinister Games release Razor Coast (if it ever actually releases).    It wasn’t intended to be too difficult, which is good because the PCs decided to drink themselves into abject stupors beforehand.

That whole thing was really entertaining.  It wasn’t a surprise – the bartender said “sip it!” and they quickly realized that drinking Grandma’s Secret Recipe required continually escalating Fort saves with decent INT damage and being sickened for each one you miss – but they didn’t care.  Sindawe and Thalios quit and staggered away, INT-drained and vomiting, but Serpent and Wogan were determined to get to the bottom of the jar of moonshine or die trying, and they both drank themselves to 0 INT and fell into comas.  This caused quite a stir at the bar, since basically four guys walked up to the bar, grabbed big jars of turpentine, and just slammed them and were vomiting and/or unconscious in less than a minute.  And then, rather than be concerned about the pretty good likelihood that they’d die of alcohol poisoning, Thalios and Sindawe haul the two upstairs, strip them, put them in bed together, and scrawl things like “I Like Cock” on their faces.  Pirates really are the medieval equivalent of frat boys.  Luckily that was early afternoon, so by 2 AM when the killing started they were up to 2 INT and could stagger around and try to fight people.

In the end, Jaren’s girlfriend, staff, and some of his patrons were killed.  Ah well, all’s well that ends well!  Next time, and old school dungeon crawl extraordinaire!

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Gen Con Memories

Posted on August 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

I gamed some as a kid, but never got to the level where I went to Gen Con.  I broached the subject with my dad once when I was in high school, IIRC, and he was not at all about that, so pretty much it faded from mind, along with all gaming, in college.

But later on, when I had picked up gaming again, I decided to go.  I went to four in Milwaukee (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001), and then once for just a couple days to one in Indy  in 2003.  Since then none; being a single dad has crimped my “wander off for a week” opportunities.  I tried to get some guys here interested in 2008 for the D&D 4e launch; in retrospect I guess it’s good it didn’t happen as I would have been really pissed at paying about $1k to travel to a location to have WotC take a dump on my head.

Let’s see, checking my infinite email archives, here’s all my old Gen Con trip reports, if you care!  They’re in reverse chronological order.

Gen Con 2003 – First Time In Indy

This is the last year I went to Gen Con; it wasn’t as fun as the previous  years and I wasn’t there with any close buddies, which contributed.  And I had quit Living Greyhawk in disgust at how badly the RPGA runs things, so didn’t have duties to perform there.  But it was still decent.  Surprisingly, even with it being the most recent, I don’t remember a lot of it.

Had a lot of fun at the con.  Was only there for two days, so I didn’t get everything in I wanted to…

Game Highlights

  • Novus Ordo Saeclorum Cthulhu tournament, well staged and run, equivalent to the Cthulhu Masters tourneys I’ve played in the past.  The PCs were college kids on a “summer at sea” on a sailing vessel; we got shipwrecked on a tropical island, but it went from Castaway to Robinson Crusoe fast when the cannibals came – and got worse, Cthulhu style…
  • I played both Spycraft and d20 Modern…  I have both games, but actually getting to play them gives me a better ideas of their relative merits and flaws for a modern action game.  And taught me that if you play d20 Modern and don’t take the Improved Damage Threshold feat you’re an idiot.  (In d20 Modern, if you take damage equal or greater to your CON, you have to save or go to -1 hp immediately).  The Spycraft game flowed better and was more flavorful.  d20 Modern was OK but seemed to promote min-maxed specialization in a character rather than promoting a broader, more diverse character than Spycraft did.
  • Buffy!  I was in a very enjoyable Buffy game with a good GM and really good role-players.  The guy playing Xander had it down pat and the GM had written a perfectly Buffy-esque adventure.  This game is one of the few that truly generates a game session that emulates its source material well.
  • RPGA game mustering was even worse and more confusing that usual.  But that’s what I’ve come to expect from the RPGA.

Dealer Room Highlights

There wasn’t any single thing that was just huge this year.  Places with buzz were:
  • The Valar booth – makers of the “Book of Erotic Fantasy”, a sex supplement for D&D (coming in October). They had chainmail-clad babes out pulling in the masses…  They got a lot of press including spots on local TV out of the gig.  They had a 10-page preview of what will be a 192-page hardback.  The art was bondagey and naked, but other than that the contents weren’t as titillating as one might suspect – the sex part was prestige-class heavy (how many classes that use sex to power their abilities do you really need?) and segued quickly into childbirth issues and stuff like that.
  • Guardians of Order was selling their “dX” rulebook for $1 (normally $10); it describes their generic “dX system” based on Big Eyes, Small Mount and Silver Age Sentinels, and their licensing agreement (it’s not OGL…)  I got it and read it over, it’s fairly solid with only a couple questionable design decisions.
  • Mongoose Games had their new Babylon 5 RPG out, and had a large booth showing off their Judge Dredd, Slaine, and generic D&D lines…  They have gotten the Conan license and are coming out with that soon.  I bought and read their Slaine RPG (Celtic, based on a comic) and I was very impressed by its quality – most of their D&D stuff is shovelware.
Other than that, there weren’t many big releases.  Companies that were notable for having large Gen Con presences and big releases in previous years (PEG, Holistic) had calm booths with not much new.  No big release from White Wolf, either.  Wizards had D&D 3.5 but weren’t pushing it; it looked like they were getting ready to push D&D Miniatures but weren’t quite ready with them yet.  So they just pushed their standard assortment of card games.  Steve Jackson and Atlas had a combo booth, larger than usual, and though there wasn’t much fanfare they had a lot of small new products I hadn’t heard about, including a lot of new “Coriolis” entries (adventures dual-statted for d20 and Atlas games like Ars Magica, Unknown Armies, Rune, and Feng Shui).

City Highlights

Indianapolis was definitely an upgrade from Milwaukee for the con.  Huge convention center, with plenty of room.  The RPGA table area was never anywhere near full.  5 large hotels connected by skywalk to the convention center and a nearby mall.  Lots of nearby dining.  Hotels and parking weren’t all full up like they were in Milwaukee – and since it’s 15 minutes from the airport to the convention you could easily stay in the $40/night Motel 6 and commute rather than pay con hotel prices.
Overall, it was a fun Gen Con.  I have been to 3-4 before in Milwaukee, and usually get to stay all 4 days.  This was a quick stay, but it was definitely worth it.
Ah, my last Gen Con.  Hopefully not my last ever, but you never know.

Gen Con 2001 – Last Gasp In Milwaukee

This year, I was still working on Living Greyhawk so did a lot of RPGA/D&D 3e stuff; besides that, random games!  One of the best things about Gen Con, IMO, is the opportunity to play a bunch of games that you might not get to otherwise – even ones you have, but that you just can never get a group together, especially without you GMing.

I just got back from the con.  The things I saw and bought were:
  • Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine.  From Pinnacle of Deadlands fame, this d20 game is like Deadlands but WWII – were-Nazis, etc.  d20 writeups for a bunch of WWII equipment etc.  Very nice.  New classes etc.  As a Deadlands fan and Nazi smasher I like it.
  • Little Fears by Key 20 Publishing.  A horror game where you play little children, who are beset by horrific happenings and indifferent adults.  I love RP challenges and trying to really play a small child as a character is a cool thing.
  • Rune hardback by Atlas Games.  Designed by Robin Laws of Feng Shui fame, this game is all about being a screaming Viking warrior hacking at things and dying as bloodily as you lived.  I also got the first adventure, “Crouching Wizard, Smashing Hammer.”  The system was a little more complicated than I’d anticipated but it’s fun and tongue-in-cheek look at Viking life is worthwhile.
  • In Your Face Again,  an adventure collection for Feng Shui also by Atlas Games.  10 scenarios – haven’t read them yet but FS adventures are always the greatest.
  • Maiden Voyage, an Atlas d20 adventure for characters L1-3.  Ship-based!  We’re running a piratical D&D game at home so I couldn’t resist.  The interior is very pretty, largely by addition of another color (blue) to many of the illustrations.  And I’ve liked all the Atlas d20 scenarios so far.
  • Hell in Freeport, a d20 adventure by Green Ronin Publishing – the Freeport series is one of the best d20 adventure series to date, and the fourth in the series is a big 88-pager for characters L10-12!  And it is HARD core.  Terrify your players with this series.
  • Denizens of Vecheron, by Mayfair Games – this addition to the old Demons series of products has too many demon princes and not enough creatures, as the rest do, but I love the Demons series and am completing it out.  Your PCs have never been properly faced by the demonic legions unless you use these supplements.
That’s it.  Usually I get more.  I looked at a number of things I decided not to pick up.  There were some interesting d20 supplements, like the AEG “Evil” book, but they failed the content-to-price ratio.  As did the Vorox supplement for Fading Suns – I love the Vorox, but a quick flip through the book pretty much gave me all I’ll get out of the supplement, so why blow another $20?
Exalted is a big new launch by White Wolf; it’s about the time of the Nephilim (see Genesis) pretty much and seems very different from their WoD games and interesting and anime-inspired – but I looked through it and saw another turgidly huge WW world in there, and decided to pass.
The Living Greyhawk – Yeomanry meeting at Gen Con was well received, with about 30 attendees from our and other interested regions.  We fielded questions and did a “state of the Union” Yeomanry address summing up what we’ve done and where we’re going in the next year.

Gen Con 2000 – Living Greyhawk All The Way

This was my biggest Gen Con.  As a Regional Triad for the Yeomanry region of Living Greyhawk, I had a galley of 3e and was prepared to run new Greyhawk adventures with its launch at the con.  And our Memphis gaming group, the FORGE, turned out in force and we joined the actual D&D tournament and came in third!

My FORGE Trip Report

Gen Con was a lot of fun.  I ran 4 slots worth of the new 3rd Edition D&D, and one of Feng Shui (a Hong Kong action game).  I am happy to announce that the FORGE won 3rd place in the RPGA D&D Team event!  Myself, Mike Seagrave, Collin Davenport, Alan Black, Angie Overstreet, and Mike O’Keefe entered and kicked ass…  We advanced to the finals and beat out a lot of other teams.
The 3e and Living Greyhawk launch went great.  I hope all of you have your D&D 3e Player’s Handbook already (it’s in stores).  We’ll be running LG events at FORGE functions.
A more detailed report will be given at the FORGE meeting – but the con was good, and we saw a lot of people from Memphis there.  Tip & Debbie Vaught, who some of you may remember from the FORGE’s early days, were there.

My Living Greyhawk Trip Report

The con went great.  I had the honor of meeting both August and Denis face to face, as well as a bunch of other Southern Realms people.I ran a bunch of slots of the Living Greyhawk Special “The Reckoning.”  It’s good, consider running it in your areas.

All the players I had were jazzed about 3e and Living Greyhawk.  I only had one table that didn’t have a good time, and that was because they just *so* did not click as players…  But the e-famous Stephane Tanguay was there, so all wasn’t lost…

I also ran a fun game of Feng Shui, and my team got 3rd place in the D&D Team event – beaten out by Clan Yeoman, from up in Kentucky!  Congrats to those folks.  It doesn’t make me feel too bad to be beaten by fellow Yeomen!  I did get first in a Living Verge event though.  So my first all-RPGA con went well.

On the drive home to Memphis, our gaming group argued out a number of 3e house rules (yes, already)…

So the launch went great, all the LG events were super-overstuffed, and now there’s a herd of 2nd level Greyhawkers out there…  So be careful!

Gen Con 1999 – Alternity

I was a big Alternity fan back then, so I played a lot of that.  And other stuff, but that’s all I had notes on.  If my memory serves, I did some Living City (RPGA 2e D&D) and then as much “other” – Fading Suns, Call of Cthulhu Master’s Tournament, etc. – as I could.

Well, I just got back from Gen Con where I played in three of the four Alternity Living Verge events (missed the last one, darn it).  Some random observations:
  • The first adventure, Whirlwind Tour, was average.  Some crashing in a ship, some combat, some problem-solving – OK, not inspiring.  The second, You Can Pick Your Friends, sucked soooo hard.  The party is accosted by killer robots that look like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.  It was really violent and deadly and was silly and pointless.  The third, whose name I forget (Busy Night?), was a very engaging murder mystery where the party had to solve a businessman’s demise – there was a very complex web of activities surrounding it.  It was cool and very realistic, the plot didn’t come by with laser pistols to urge you towards the pre-set resolution…
  • There were not enough Combat Specs.  I was one of two in most parties, and except for that third adventure they felt obligated to put in lots of shooting.  (Way too much in the Pac-Man adventure).
  • The people playing Werens were always real quiet for some reason.  And nonviolent.  Strange. There were lots of Mechalus.
  • It was pretty disorganized for a Living campaign – no certing or anything, and lots of people didn’t have characters ready.  I don’t mind that per se, but I worry that when they decide it’s needed those of us with experienced characters will get screwed (sorry, no documentation on those advancement points, you lose ’em).
  • It was fun though!  My Thuldan Warlion got to pound down a weren in a single combat round, one of his goals… ;-)
  • Fighting robots sucks.  We were attacked by these (ridiculous) combat robots that weren’t stunnable.  Lots of people choose stutter weapons etc. and basically we all nearly died.  Need to find a good anti-robot weapon.
  • The one time I was really worried was in the Busy Night when two of the characters were “Boss H’ass” and “Bar Bar Jinks”, both T’sa… Fortunately they were good roleplayers and tempered their antics very well.
I was in the Cthulhu Masters Tournament a couple years, so I’m not sure if it was this year – but I think it was, that there was an awesome postapocalyptic scenario.  CMT always got a room of its own and used props and semi-LARP techniques.  New York was half under water, and we went through its ruins into a computer room and used a decryption disk taken from a cultist who was telling us the stars were coming right… When the projected computer screen went from random encrypted Matrix-style gibberish to the bold, blinking words “UPLOAD SACRIFICE” I about shit myself.  The CMT always delivered, boy.

Gen Con 1998 – HK Action and Horror and Religion

My first Gen Con!  And I really enjoyed it.  Mainly I wanted to play Call of Cthulhu/Deadlands and Feng Shui/Hong Kong Action Theater types of games.  Also, I was publications director for the Christian Gamer’s Guild, so the trip report I found in my email focused on religious elements in gaming.  Avert your eyes if you’re one of those tarot-licking types that finds that scary or offensive.

Well, I just got back from Gen Con, and thought I’d give a report. The con was very enjoyable, and I was scheduled for an aggressive set of events.  I noticed that religious characters are becoming a standard set of people to include in any tournament scenario, which gives Christians a chance to show people a more realistic depiction of faith.  For example, here’s a list of some of the games I was in and religious characters included:
  1. Call of Cthulhu “Travelers in the Hebrides” – had one Dominican Inquisitor and one nun, was set in late 1500s.  I played a Dutch boat pilot who had been converted from Protestantism by threat of torture by the Spaniards.
  2. Feng Shui “The New Twilight Sanction” – was a kinda Ghostbusters-meets-HK action event.  It had a Catholic street preacher who works in the projects, played by yours truly.  He busted demons, preached Scripture, and teased the Indian character (“Did one of your six-armed gods tell you that?”).
  3. Deadlands “Everyone Loves Zombies” – had a pair of crazy nuns.  Nuns are great characters in Deadlands!  One was a lush though.
  4. Call of Cthulhu “Sandstorm at Rail’s End” – had a Baptist preacher, played a little tongue-in-cheek (“Sorry lord, I didn’t know she was a Presbyterian!”).
  5. Fading Suns “Demo” – had an Urth Orthodox (futuristic universalist Catholicism) priest.  And lots of Avestite (Inquisitor) NPCs.
  6. And of course all AD&D scenarios have a cleric in them.
Except for the Marvel Super Heroes game and the Hong Kong Action Theater games, everything I played in had some kind of religious figure, usually real-world Christianity-based.  That is an excellent opportunity for Christians playing in these games to demonstrate something besides being a “holy ass-kicker” (though that’s good too, don’t get me wrong).  Many people always play these characters as hypocritical or just silly, and it can be nice to show an alternative to that.
I got a couple religiously-oriented RPG supplements I hope to review for the e-zine: Fire & Brimstone for Deadlands, and Priests of the Celestial Sun for Fading Suns.  I won a supplement for “Providence” for my RPing in the Feng Shui game, not sure yet exactly what that game’s deal is.
The con was great, for those who are going next year I definitely recommend preregistering to the hilt to ensure everything goes according to plan.
Some other notes in retrospect-  the HKAT! “Burning City” game was just awesome.  We were all OCTB agents trying to stop Cthulhu cultists, and there was a great scene where we were taking Zodiac boats out to an island and everyone had geared up, and we went around to have everyone describe themselves.  They were all set up to be badass to the hilt – there was the guy in full riot gear with huge heavy weapons, the guy in the thousand dollar suit and sunglasses with all the automatics, the chick in a catsuit with two MP5s and throwing knives, etc; all totally uber.  My turn was last.  I was the lieutenant, so my description was, “He’s wearing tan Chinos and an OCTB windbreaker, and waves his snubnosed .38 with a pensive but determined look on his face.”  I got high fives.

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Pathfinder Sweeps the ENnies!

Posted on August 6, 2010 | 2 comments

Well, it’s gratifying to see most of you voted like you were told.    Paizo is liveblogging the awards and they are winning and winning and winning.

  • d20pfsrd – silver for Best Website.
  • Kobold Quarterly – gold for Best Blog.  (They’re half Pathfinder!)
  • Pathfinder Bestiary – gold for Best Cover Art.
  • Pathfinder Core Rulebook – gold for Best Interior Art.
  • Pathfinder Chronicles City Map Folio – gold for Best Cartography.
  • Pathfinder Core Rulebook – gold for Best Production Values.
  • Pathfinder APG Playtest – gold for Best Free Product.
  • Great City Players Guide – gold for Best Electronic Book, it’s for Pathfinder by 0one Games.
  • PFS #29, The Devil We Know – silver for Best Electronic Book.
  • Pathfinder GM Screen – gold for Best Aid or Accessory.
  • Pathfinder 31 – gold for Best Adventure.
  • Pathfinder Bestiary – gold for Best Monster/Adversary.
  • Classic Monsters Revisited – silver for Best Monster/Adversary!
  • Pathfinder RPG – gold for Best Game!
  • Pathfinder RPG – gold for Product of the Year!
  • Paizo – gold for Best Publisher!

For those keeping track, they won gold or silver (or both) every category they were nominated in.

And it’s well deserved.  I do kinda hate to see anyone win it all, but if there’s a single game company that deserves it, both in a cosmic sense and because of the unflagging high quality and volume of product, and customer support – it’s Paizo and Pathfinder.  It really is great, among the very top handful of RPGs ever.  D&D 3.0 itself was the only previous game that hit my gaming groups with anything near this amount of excitement.  It’s a game meant to be played, supported by the best adventures since 1e AD&D.

And it’s great that other companies publishing for Pathfinder won too; yay third party ecosystem!

If you haven’t tried Pathfinder yet, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.  It really is great.

Here’s the full list of winners, now that it’s available!  Congrats to all of them.

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Google Wave Dead

Posted on August 5, 2010 | 6 comments

Worth of mention here since I know a lot of RPG folks use it – but Google Wave has been end-of-lifed.  Read about it here.  Sorry guys.  You have through the end of the year.

That’s pretty hardcore – Google lets a lot of marginal junk twiddle around out there, they seldom actually kill something off, but there you go.  They talk about the decision on the official Google blog.

How many of you were using Wave?  What made it better than a Google group, blog, or something like Obsidian Portal?  Will you miss it?

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Adventure Time!

Posted on August 5, 2010 | 1 comment

For those of you with kids or who are young at heart…  There’s a new cartoon on Cartoon Network called “Adventure Time” that is a kinda young, demented version of D&D.

It stars a kid named Finn who is a self-described “adventurer” always on a quest, and his intelligent transforming animal companion Jake, a dog who can grow big and stretch, who often serves as a mount.  Finn calls himself a “paladin” in one episode, and when asked to kill a “Neutral ant” without provocation, responds “No way man, that’s against my alignment.” They are fighting a Wall of Flesh in a dark, evil forest even as I write.  If you want to get your kid interested in D&D, there are worse places to start!

Forget misguided attempts to get kids into gaming with dumbed-down-but-still-complex-D&D-variants – this is custom made.  An “Adventure Time Adventure Game” with simple rules would be a huge win for kiddos RP’ing.

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Destroy All Monsters

Posted on August 1, 2010 | 3 comments

Some of you may already have read it, but I came across a pretty interesting magazine article on D&D called Destroy All Monsters by Paul La Farge from the September 2006 Believer magazine.  It’s a pretty good “real journalist” look at D&D from someone who had played it as a kid.  As part of the article, they travel to Lake Geneva and play D&D with Gary Gygax!

Especially interesting is their look into Gygax – if you remove the blind hero worship that most D&D-types apply to him, you get a pretty interesting and complex character.  He delves into the sordid history of the rise and fall of TSR as part of the article, and gets quotes from the Blumes and Lorraine Williams too, and he’s pretty good about pointing out things he thinks are more self-serving than true coming from all involved.  You don’ t usually get things on D&D from an informed but professional point of view, so I found the article a really good read.

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Alternity “The Lighthouse” Session Summary 25 Posted

Posted on July 29, 2010 | Leave a comment

Twenty-fifth Session – The klick keep on coming with bigger and bigger ships; also kroath in the refugee ships board and smack around power armored marines pretty easily.  The session summary is short because blow by blow descriptions of combat aren’t all that entertaining, and because I wasn’t there to spice up the conversation.

Whew!  Our Lighthouse campaign is up to 25 sessions.  And these are long sessions; 6 hours on average.  On the main campaign page I have all the back session summaries if you’re not caught up; also up to date character sheets from whichever players bother to send them to me.

We’ve gotten the hang of space battles.  So has Paul our GM; he wrote a program to do it all to avoid the “roll 100 times” syndrome of Alternity “Warships” style ship combat.  Anyway, here’s the secret.  Fire all your missiles immediately.  All of them, as many as you can get into the air.  That’s it.  Beam weapons and other stuff are for feebs (well, ours are, the enemies’ are all more powerful).  More wimpier missiles are better than fewer bigger missiles – we had this big deal with getting “zero point” hellacious missiles but they’re worthless, you just wing as many little plasma missiles as you can and get lucky with crits and take out systems.  It’s effective, if not really very entertaining.  I don’t like the Warships rules; we basically end up never using any of our ship skills!  “Oh, you can only use Space Tactics to roll initiative.”  “Can I use Defenses or Sensors to do something useful?”  “Not really.”  I want to like space combat, but Alternity makes it hard to.

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Reavers on the Seas of Fate – Session Summary 21 Posted

Posted on July 26, 2010 | 2 comments

Twenty-first Session (9 page pdf) – “Voodoo Man” – As the party departs the ruins of Viperwall, the voodoo bokor Glapion catches up with them.  He summons forces from the spirit world to destroy them; in an epic battle they defeat him by main force and a little voodoo of their own.  Then it’s back to Magnimar where they meet up with some old friends!

The fight with Glapion took about three hours.  He kept summoning shadows and shadow creatures, and the players fought and fought.  It was an excellent endurance fight.  I did some voodoo research to prepare for the big event; he invoked various Petro loas during the battle (like Kalfou, Samedi, and various Simbi loa) to trigger appropriate powers.

Here’s Glapion’s character sheet.  I wanted him to be able to summon shadow spirits, as that’s one of the themes of the campaign, so I made him an Oracle of Bones (from the Paizo Advanced Player’s Guide preview)  with levels in the 3.5e prestige class “Master of Shrouds.”

I think he came off very well.  Even though the spark of inspiration, I will admit, was from seeing Disney’s “Princess and the Frog” with my daughter, this is how he appeared (the art is from a comic called Doctor Voodoo).  Reskinning foes is so easy, you can find the core of an idea and then hang whatever visuals you want on it.  I made him very exotic, from his hunga munga to his gunpowder-infused bottle of rum.

Once he reached the end of his powers and the shadow demon came into play, things got hairy.  It magic jarred Tommy and started to telekinetically toss around other PCs. That was entertaining.

Then the rest of the session was travel and roleplay.  They went back to the interracial-friendly town of Nybor and interacted with their semi-insane gnomish swamp guide, then went back to Magnimar where they met their good old buddy, Thalios Dondrel, son of Mordekai!

There was also an important development with Sindawe.  He had an Angel Heart-esque sexual encounter (walls bleeding, snakes writhing, etc.) with a kava store clerk who turned out to be Mama Watanna, the “old voodoo mambo” from the ship in the tree at the beginning of their foray into Viperwall.  This is also courtesy of my research; Mama Watanna is effectively a Golarion-ized aspect of Mami Wata, well-known African water deity.  Mami Wata is known to take lovers, and give them good luck in exchange for their fidelity; that’s basically what happened to Sindawe.

Sindawe is Mwangi (Golarion’s Africa) and venerates Shimye-Magalla, a janiform deity that is also partially goddess of the water, but he hasn’t put 2 and 2 together on that yet.

You know, there’s a lot of people out there apparently, grown adults, that don’t do any kind of adult themes or “icky sex” in their games.  And that’s their huge loss.  The vast majority of real world myth, fiction, etc. strongly incorporates sex/love/romance, human frailties, the horrors that men do, etc. – that’s what gives them their impact.  I mean, if you just want to “play casual” and kick down doors and kill orcs, fine, but I got over that after my first ten years of playing RPGs…

Anyway, the session went really well – hardcore combat, hardcore roleplay.  Can you believe it’s 21 sessions?  We’re nearly at a year.  As I keep telling them, “you’ll be done with the first chapter of Second Darkness any session now…”

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