Cake in the Background

I'd almost finished a blog post draft and then I realized I'm going be spending at least part of my birthday tomorrow cleaning up my dad's water-damaged basement and I'd really rather be playing Monster Hunter World and so here's a picture of me running D&D as a kid at one of my birthday parties using a homemade DM screen. 

Digging in the Attic: RPG Artifacts

Literally digging in the attic, actually. I spent a good chunk of this Labor Day weekend cleaning that up. After the fire the restoration company returned our stuff cleaned and boxed up. Much of it turned out to be damaged, stained, or even too painful to go through. So a massive number of boxes went up into the attic. Papers, notebooks, old PC games, forgotten Xmas stuff, homework from grade school, and so on. We'd moved out some of that over time via yard sales. But we'd dumped more up there over time. It became a mess that desperately needed cleaning. Roof leaks and a forthcoming estimator finally pushed me to go through it. So I jammed old boxes, VHS tapes, and dead bats into garbage bags in a part of the house at least 15 degrees hotter than downstairs.

We still havenotebooks to go through, now moved into a side room on the first floor. What do I do with the records of campaigns from High School and College? They're things I haven't looked at in years. Pitch? Keep? Can I bring myself to throw them away; I kind of hope so.

But I found a few treasures: pictures from old games. They're stained by water and smoke, but still relatively intact. So I scanned a few to post today.

My character Kilroy from a mid-90's Champions game called Aegis. It's actually a reduced photocopy of a larger image done by Gene Ha, lost in the fire I think. My late friend Barry colored it with markers one night at the table as we played.

Another character from the same game, Wraithwolf, a super dog with a southern accent. My friend Jim McClain paid Steve Lieber (Batman, Whiteout) to do this at a '93 comic convention. 

Finally a weird blast from the past: a photocopy of the original map I drew for a new fantasy campaign back in 1987. I only found the right half. This version is one I had photocopied onto heavier cardstock. I then colored it by hand. I drew and labeled the original map in an afternoon, intending to use it as the basis of a throwaway campaign. Years later we still play in the setting.

A Thousand Posts: Millennial RPG Lists & Beyond

This is my 1000^th post.

Sturgeon’s law suggests there’s 100 high quality posts hidden around here. I did a rough estimate based on sampling and came up with an average word count of about 1700. That means I’ve got roughly 1.7 million words here. Again, apply Sturgeon’s law as needed. 

I began with the brilliant idea of only titling my posts by date. I ditched that after the first year. When I reread I my first few years of posting I wince. In year two I got some nice attention from RPG Geek but also had some local gamers shit over everything I’d done. It took some time to get the wind back in my sails after that. Eventually I did; I blogged some over at RPG Geek and then stopped; I got on G+ and started online gaming; I helped start Play on Target; and I began to trace the roots of various rpg genres. Things rolled on from there. I've changed the page template just once and might do it again…maybe.

But that’s looking back, I’m going to look forward. Here’s what I’m doing, trying to do, and going to be doing for the foreseeable future:

1. I’m going to finish out the Post-Apocalyptic RPG Histories soon. Then I’ll put together an overview of 2014 releases for each of the previous genres. I want to take some time to edit and reformat the existing lists and figure out a way to release them as single electronic publications. I’d like to increase my Patreon program, but I’m not sure of the best approach.

2. I’m going to hit refresh repeatedly on Friday the 31st and not be too disappointed when I don’t win an ENnie.

3. I’m going to have Right of Succession ready to go for a Kickstarter late this year or early next. We may have Gen Con booth space, so I’d better be ready.

4. Related to that I’m going to get Action Cards into a solid beta state. I want to get it out there so other people can play around with it. That means making the cards and pdf available thru DriveThru and/or Game Crafter. I’m trying to boil down the essentials of the game for the beta doc. Also I got a this new logo done by the amazing Aaron Acevedo.

5. Again related, I’m planning to go to Metatopia once more this year. I’m thinking about driving since I hate airports so much. Plus it’d be significantly cheaper. I have some slices of Action Cards to test out as well as a couple of other things.

6. I'm going to finish this comic pitch with Art Lyon for this publisher's next open submission round. 

7. I want to get Play on Target back on to a regular release schedule. That might mean non-regular host episode series and/or increasing our GM Jam frequency.

8. I want to keep to a 1-2 posts per week schedule. As I mentioned in my interview with Dr. Tom the Frog (plug!), the blog’s a way for me to keep writing and generating content. It sometimes feels like it pulls away from other projects, but there’s a chunk of useful material here. I’ve dropped most of it into Scrivener- now I have to figure out how to cut, reduce and distill the best parts. Even after 1000 posts, I don’t know how to measure success so I don’t try to. Some focus on comments, but that creates worry when posts don’t spark responses. I’m afraid that a desire for argument and reaction might negatively shape my writing. OOH I want to get better at commenting on the other excellent blogs I read.

9. I'm going to do another clearing pass of books and games before the end of the year. I want to set some ground rules for myself about what stays and goes. I've seen others do it, surely it can't be that hard?

10. I’m going to do more and more varied online gaming. I’ve started work towards that. I want to plan and run an online campaign; something like my earlier Changeling Lost Vegas game. Aimed towards shorter arcs, and trying to see what I can learn from that.

I’m going to continue to be immensely grateful to Sherri Stewart the love of my life. I’m very lucky she’s the person she is. I’ll also be thankful for the amazing new gamers and new friends I’ve met online.

OK, so to round out the blogging about blogging, I give you TEN LISTS OF OTHER THINGS WHICH OCCURRED TO ME.

TEN RPGS I’VE RUN THE MOST (from high to low)

1. Action Cards
2. GURPS
3. Champions
4. Mutants & Masterminds
5. Classic World of Darkness/Storyteller Hacks
6. Rolemaster Classic
7. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1^st ed)
8. Rolemaster Standard System
9. James Bond 007
10. Exalted

TEN HABITS TO BREAK

1. Cake
2. Watching Reddit trainwrecks
3. Steam Sales
4. Creating a Vast Nest of Cups and Plates Around My Workspace
5. Always wearing dark colors on G+ because I heard they were slimming
6. Cake
7. Turtling Down When I Could Be Out Doing Something
8. Buying Figures Without Finishing at Least Some I Already Have
9. Visualizing my accidental death at the hands of every random new object or situation (Unwanted Final Destination Thoughts Syndrome)..
10. Cake

TEN MINIATURES I NEED TO PAINT NEXT

Pinterest Board here

1. Mice and Mystics base set
2. Silver Moon Starter Set for Bushido
3. Skorne Praetorians from Hordes
4. Infinity Japanese Sectorial Army
5. Crimson Skies planes repaints
6. Confrontation Ninja Gobins
7. Clan War Nagas
8. Orc Warriors of the Wind from Confrontation
9. Reaper Mouslings
10. Infinity Cyber-bikers

TEN GAMES I WANT TO RUN

1. The current zeitgeist has me thinking about a Post-Apocalyptic campaign. Some of that comes from working through the history of these rpgs. But Mad Max: Fury Road, Mutant: Year Zero, and Legacy: Life Among the Ruins have me seriously considering it. I don’t think I’ve ever run true PA and I’m not a Fallout fan, but I want to give it a try.
2. I really want a police procedural game, with relationships and mysteries. I don’t want the police to have powers, but I do want the world to have at least some strangeness. I love Gotham Central, so I want something like that. Maybe a modification of Mutant City Blues? I want the investigation to be important but not everything to the game; questions of corruption, morality, and drama should be there as well.
3. I dig what I’ve read of Blades in the Dark, though I have to wrap my head around the changes in the most recent version. I’ve only played a little of the key source material- Dishonored, Assassin’s Creed and Thief. I’d like to do BitD with a cosmetic shift, making it less Western-looking. A hodge-podge city with various cultures, and given my love for it, perhaps a little low-key wuxia. So something closer to Jadepunk but not quite that powered.
4. I have a new idea for how to do Magic, Inc.
5. In upcoming portals for Ocean City Interface, I’m going to get to do tangential versions of two things I’ve always wanted to run: Crimson Skies and Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade- the latter significantly more tangential than the first.
6. I’ve been working my way through Phil Lewis’ Wrath of the Autarch. I got just a taste of it at Origins. I want to try this out, though to do it justice seems to require a serious commitment of sessions.
7. Trying to figure out how to do Codici Malefactus. While cool, The Warren’s not a great fit. Cairn’s a little odd and not quite to my liking. Might be FAE.
8. I love, love Kingdom. But so far I’ve only played it in single session bites. I think we’ve only ever gotten through two Crossroads. I want to try and play out a story over several sessions.
9. I want full-on wuxia game of some kind. It doesn’t have to be classic "legendary times." But I want high punching action and weirdness. Feng Shui is cool, but having read through the 2e book, I’m more taken by the setting than the system. I’m thinking of how to handle this via some kind of Apocalypse World engine.
10. Eventually I want to do my galactic political drama set in Fading Suns. The tale of a family rising up and battling others for dominance. Maybe my version of Dramasytem with the procedural bits torn out and replaced with some Fate mechanics could work.

TEN BEST ONION AV CLUB COVERS

1. Screaming Females “Shake It Off”
2. Punch Brothers “Reptilia” 
3. GWAR “West End Girls”
4. OK Go “Tempted”
5. Trampled by Turtles “Owner of a Lonely Heart” 
6. Screaming Females “If it Makes You Happy”
7. The Polyphonic Spree “Heart of Gold”
8. Field Report “Chicago”
9. Trampled by Turtles “Rebellion (Lies)” 
10. The Swell Season “Two-Headed Boy”

TEN GAMING BOOKS I CONSISTENTLY RETURN TO

1. Things We Think About Games
2. Microscope
3. City of Lies (L5R)
4. Fate Core
5. GAZ3 The Principalities of Glantri (D&D)
6. Citybook: Nightside
7. Villainy Amok (Champions)
8. Kingdom
9. Creatures & Treasures (Rolemaster)       
10. Covenants/Order of Hermes  (Ars Magica)

TEN BEST ROCK BAND SONGS TO SING (imho)

1. “Dani California” Red Hot Chili Peppers
2. “PDA” Interpol
3. “Walking on the Sun” Smashmouth
4. “Abbey Road B-Side Medley” The Beatles
5. “Spaceman” The Killers
6. “Clocks” Coldplay
7. “Beethoven’s C***” Serj Tankian
8. “Ironic” Alanis Morissette
9. “Hey Bulldog” The Beatles
10. “Portions for Foxes” Rilo Kiley

TEN RPG MECHANICS I DIG

1. Aspects from Fate
2. Keys from Lady Blackbird
3. Icons from 13^th Age
4. Core/Secondary Clues from GUMSHOE
5. Dramatic Poles and Scene Power from DramaSystem
6. Teamwork from Blades in the Dark
7. Collaborative World Building from Microscope
8. That Thing Keith Stetson Did in His Prototype at Metatopia
9. Collective Places from Ars Magica
10. Zones and Relative Distance from Fate/13th Age

TEN RPG GENRES I MIGHT DO HISTORIES FOR

1. Generic RPG Systems
2. Cyberpunk
3. Western
4. Pulp
5. Mecha
6. Anthropomorphic
7. Espionage
8. Representation of Asian Cultures (a more analytical overview)
9. “Historical”
10. Swashbucklers & Pirates

TEN “GRAIL”/HUNT-DOWN RPGS

1. GURPS War Against the Chtorr
2. Planescape (most things to replace what was lost in the fire)
3. Birthright nation books
4. Nobilis 2nd Edition
5. Someone to fully explain Weapons of the Gods/Legends of Wulin to me
6. Exalted (filling in gaps in my 1st and 2nd edition collection)
7. Ars Magica (filling in gaps)
8. Statosphere for Unknown Armies
9. Way of Shadow/Book of the Shadowlands for Legend of the Five Rings
10. MERP region and location books

TEN BELOVED POSTS

1. The Wayward Notebook (and The Pinterest Board with the Full Notebook) A great prop for a game which had some problems. 
2. 13th Age: System Guide for New Players My favorite of these guides and one that helped me get a handle on the game. 
3. Creating Memorable NPCs Decent post which references some of my earliest and messiest posts. Has useful tools. 
4. The Place of Dead Games: GURPS Last of a series of three and a good conisderation of what I like and have liked. 
5. Cat Rambo Taught Me D&D My awesome sister. 
6. The Many Names of Gamemasters (Updated) More than you expect. 
7. History of Superhero RPGs (Part One: 1978-1982) I love superhero games and this series is where I began to really hit my stride with these.
8. Powers of the Titan’s Age: New Icons for the 13th Age Had fun coming up with this. 
9. Thanes of Whiterun: Skyrim via Hollowpoint A great session showing this game's strengths. 
10. History of Amphibian RPGs Because it is awesome 

10x10x10=1000. There you go. Hope you've gotten something out of the blog so far. Disagreements, refutations, and like-mindedness can be added to the comments below. 

Campaign States: Ten Years Out

Almost exactly ten years ago- June '05- I wrote a quick summary of the five campaigns I had going. Of those, three wrapped up with a full final session and two trailed off due to scheduling and player loss. Of those I ran for at the time, seven I don't play with these days: four because they fell out with the general gaming group, one because they moved away, one just due to timing, and one because they died. In fact, Steambuckler's the last full and finished campaign my friend Barry played in before we lost him. But in the ten years since this I've added seven new and continuing players to my regular gaming circles, plus another half-dozen who've played on and off. Loss and gain. 

It's also worth noting that I don't play any of these systems anymore. This ended up being the last great hurrah of GURPS before we grew tired of it. Storyteller ended up dropping off the map from WW, even as we saw the problems with it for our various hacks (wuxia, L5R). I still run Mutants & Masterminds, but the most recent edition which differs greatly from the 1st I ran here. 

What were you running/playing ten years ago? What systems have come and gone for your group?

Steambuckler (GURPS Steampunk/Swashbuckler/Fantasy)

The group makes their final preparations for the trip to Jubilee and the Grand Exhibition of Progress. They know that many of their enemies will be there, including some who have loved ones held hostage. Before departure Qynn learns of Dahlia vro-Haitus' role in the coming struggle for the Throne in Atlantae. Finally they set off, using the dangerous Glacial Air Stream to hurry their progress. Even so, they are set upon by Sky Pirates set to intercept them; the battle is fierce but ends with victory. At stops along the way they learn of the theft of the Dauntless (a grand Miremallian sky carrier) by the Captain's robot doppelganger created by Dr. Cross. Basho is also offered a position as an advisor to the Throne of Atlantae if he will kill his brother, Sheridan.

In Jubilee the group finds lodging with the Technocrat Fott Hobswain. Preparations are made for the great aero-race and old friends are met again. The group manages to free Sian Owen from one of their enemies but the villains escape. Sheridan, long lost, arrives with the mad naturalist Cynowae Autumn. Jacob encounters his mentor, long thought dead, who tries to kill him but fails and dies. In the aftermath, Jacob's secret marriage to Tara Stillwhisker is revealed. Even with all these troubles the group manages to find time to work on the great puzzles of the event, marked out in the stones and design of the city. When they succeed, they find themselves visited by the royalty of Math. Taking advantage of the situation they marry Sheridan off to the daughter of the Emperor and ask for a boon…the use of the Great Southern Dragon the largest airship ever built!!! The Emperor defers, but says he will think on this request.

The Captain and Qynn take to the skies for the aero-race, accompanied by Basho and Jacob who are last minute substitutes on a giant bug when the Orcish contingent is briefly jailed. Lady Galina goes to hand over the Perpetual Engine to Dr. Cross in exchange for the lives of her cousin and Julian's sister. At the same time, Julian heads down into the underground in a desperate bid to stop the plans of the Summoners from coming to fruition. Gallina spring's Braverman's trap on Dr. Cross, forcing him out of his robot shell and replacing him with the soul of Timeaus, long thought lost. Julian and his allies break a standoff between rival powerful villains, resulting in a massive melee of magic and death. Qynn and the Captain cross the finish line of the race, Dr. Cross' ship decloaks and his pirate allies arrive. A full scale air war breaks out over the city. Dozens of ships are destroyed in the ensuing battle. Basho takes advantage of the chaos to rescue the former Queen of Atlantae from the clutches of her son's allies. Though Cross does his level best to destroy it, the Great Southern Dragon survives.

In the aftermath, the group tells the Emperor of Math the full story of the impending invasion from the celestial sphere. News arrives of the destruction of the Drow Woods by the first wave of invaders, pressing the timetable further. The Emperor agrees and gives them the Great Southern Dragon. Knowing these "Spirit"-like invaders cannot bear the touch of Unlife, the group heads first to the Undead lands to bargain with Baron Dechenka who holds sway in the former Dwarven capital. He agrees to assist them, for a price, and the group begins their journey up out of the reach of the earth and to the sphere.

Searching for the final mechanism they will need to battle the comet-like vessel of the invaders, they head to the Moon. Jacob knows legends of ships left from an ancient tyrant who tried to invade the world but was stopped by heroes. Despite an overwhelming ambush by Jacob's enemies, the group manages to find the necessary equipment and set out, only to discover that the comet has picked up speed. The Captain realizes that the threat is larger than simply an invasion; they mean to strike the center of the continent and render it unfit for human life.

Desperately they strain the engines of the Great Southern Dragon, trying to catch up. Spirit Beasts peel off from the Comet and begin to assault the ship. All across the craft, the crew finds themselves under attack. On deck, Baron Dechenka tries to focus his magic to shield the ship but is only able to maintain the defenses when Jacob channels the power of the Shaddai through the Orb. Lady Gallina mercilessly channels her own archmagic through Jacob in a bid to protect everyone. Qynn leads the fighter assault, keeping back as many as they can, while the Captain desperately tries to plot and replot the intercept course for their one shot at the Comet. Below decks Basho readies the weapon with the aid of Simlain Braverman, the arch-villain. He's agreed to aid them in saving the world, but after that all bets are off. Basho has to swing over to repair the lines when they are cut by an attacker but manages to launch the weapon, loaded with the Deathstone they've prepared into the comet. At the same time Braverman let's go of Basho sending him plummeting to his Doom.

The explosion blinds everyone on deck and the magical channel protecting the ship is shattered. Explosions rock the ship as the engines overload and bombs planted by Braverman destroy the arcane engine providing life support. Basho desperately manages to catch the tailfin of the ship with his Dragon-arm, nearly tearing it from his body. As the ship plummets into the atmosphere, he hangs on for dear life. Inside Julian tries to rescue those injured and trapped by the internal explosions while at the same time trying to ready for impact. The Captain throws everything into steadying the craft as much as he can. Gallina draws down all of her mana pool and overcasts creating a current of air to slow the ship. The misfire from the spell creates hundreds of tornadoes across the landscape. As the ship tears into the Atlantaen countryside, Basho is peeled from the bottom of the ship and flung into the storms.

*whew*

HCI (Currently L5R Storyteller)

The characters, having gone through the strange sea-borne gate in the rogue Fading Suns portal, find themselves back in Rokugan, with apparently some time having passed since they participated in the Bronze Swan tournament. They find a strange disconnect between their real selves and their samurai selves; while together they find it easier to remember who they are in the real world, but when apart that starts to fade. The group takes up their duties as magistrates in the Scorpion city of Ryoko Owari, under the command of their Emerald Magistrate lord Ikoma Okataru.

After some rough starts meeting with the various major families the group learns a little about the strange happenings in the city some months ago that left hundreds dead. Whatever occurred had something tom do with the fall of the Usagi clan and the strange magistrate group who passed through earlier. The Daidoji member of that group warns them off, telling them that this matter has been closed at the highest levels, perhaps from the Hantei himself. In the midst of this the group is given their first case, the murder of a Crane merchant. At first it seems a simple strange ritual killing with the victim having been decapitated and displayed as bundori. However, the team quickly discovers that this was not the first such murder. Others have happened and have been quietly covered up by the Clan Magistrates.

Each victim bears descent from a group of legendarily abusive maho-hunters disbanded years ago for their wicked ways. After much leg work, it becomes clear that the killer has contacts among the city officials and access to a magical method of disguise. They intercept the fifth victim before the killer can strike and put him under their protection. They also learn the name of the sixth victim and that they've accelerated the killer's timetable. However, the killer strikes while the group decides to catch up on their sleep. They arrive too late on the scene. Shosoro Yori remains to speak with the local magistrates while the rest of the group heads out to warn others. But the killer is still there disguised! He attacks Yori while she is alone. Some blocks away from the scene the Isawa thinks to check the magical energies to see if the disguise magic is in operation. Realizing their mistake the group rushes back to aid Yori. They arrive just in time to see a wounded Yori make a brilliant slash and strike down the killer.

The aftermath of the investigation is unpleasant as various groups try to steer themselves clear from the deaths and the cover up. Lord Ikoma asks for discretion in the matter, but Yori has already sent the killers head to the governor as a warning. The group begins to settle in and look into other personal matters. Kenichi, the Monk, and Kuni Yusuke look into the matter of some wandering monks who used magic to get them drunk in public and cause them loss of face. They discover a larger plot of these monks who clearly believe that everyone would be better off drunk and have conspired to cause the effect on the Thunder Guard, the largest group of armed samurai in the city. The magistrates rush to the scene, uncertain of what awaits them.

Arkham Harbor (Mutants and Masterminds)

Having adopted the team name Vigil, the group continues to discard it in favor of the more catchy "FWAP!" (aka Fabulous Women with Amazing Powers)*. Investigating strange phenomena in south Arkham Harbor leads them to the land of the fae, where the Court of the Earth has been overtaken. They overcome obstacles, take photographs with a giant fish and rescue the queen of the court. She gives them the second key to the Watchman's house and tells them that the third key lies in the hands of the one who engineered his downfall.

On their return to the real world, the group is immediately called to two different crimes. They choose to follow up on a hostage situation at a movie theater rather than the robbery elsewhere for the sake of people's lives. At the theater they raid the unattended concession stand and then take on the bad guy, the Silver Scream. Apparently in town for the Horror film festival, she creates duplicates of the group to fight them. In the tussle, the two Vinca's fight and no one can tell one from the other. However in a splash of insight Sylph spots Jujubes stuck to the true Vinca and blasts the doppelganger. They finish the fight and then head to the robbery where Player Two has apparently gotten away with his theft of a collection of rare artworks. On the scene they meet city patron and millionaire philanthropist, Mr. Sterne. He hands them the third and final key to the Watchman's estate!!!

They make their way to the former HQ of the Watchman's super team. The untouched base is as it was on the day they left for the their last battle. Moving through they find a host of equipment and materials useful in crimefighting. In the base's lock up they find the body of an unfortunate villain lost and forgotten. In another cell they meet the diminutive Devil's Robot!!! They leave him there though begin formulating plans to have the arch-criminal reprogrammed to clean the base. In the basement, apparently abandoned by the most recent Watchman, they find an occult library. In a vision the group sees themselves holding some kind of orb.

In a flash they find themselves transported back in time where they meet the Watchman of the 1950's. Assuming them to be some kind of supernatural aid, he enlists them in his battle against Dr. Cross and his Ur-Beasts who have control of the city's underworld. They take of to the fight and interrupt the deadly masked Dr. Cross at the height of his rituals. Despite the group's never having fought Cross, he recognizes them and does his level best to destroy them. As the battle finishes up with their victory there is another flash of the same orb and the group finds themselves transported back in time yet again to pre-Revolutionary America and a meeting with the first Watchman!!!

*The group would later discard this name when they discovered the internet. 

City of Tiers (Exalted: Dragon Blooded)

The young Dragon Bloods of House Ledaal are drawn together by the weave of fate, somehow tied to their own impending and yet avoided death and to the actions of a strange anathema. The family, wanting their lingering fate wrecking auras far away sends them on to Crux where the family home has been lost. They find themselves in the Dusk Quarter, an unseemly underground where they are forced to fight for their lodgings. The group settles in and begins to investigated the city.

Soon they learn that two other groups of young Dragon Bloods from other families have also arrived in Crux, though in superior lodgings than their own. The five begin to consider how they might mark their mark here and demonstrate their worth to the family. Various street gangs are fought and rumors of a mysterious monk arise. Ledaal Mihir makes a man scream in terror for no reason. Ledaal Lupita falls off a massive staircase and introduces herself to the woman who usurped their family house here; Ledaal Zhu du Fan with a sudden and strange attraction to this woman.

As they settle into things in the city, other weirdness begins to arrive. A bizarre meeting with one of the other new Dragon Blooded; rumors of a mysterious dojo enforcer named Final Sky; the strange voice that came from Zhu du Fan that he doesn't remember; circumstances surrounding the dead exiled poet and why his body cannot be returned; the three brothers marked with mysterious birthmarks all intent on catching Lupita's attention; the Sorcerer Sharpened Thought's alliance with Mihir; Kiir's late night spotting of her beribboned colleague skulking about at night, and finally the bizarre attack by one of the gangs of Ledaal Illathin, convinced that he has affronted them.

As money grows tighter the group begins to look for opportunities….

City of Silence (Vampire the Masquerade)

News grows grimmer in the city and the Vampires decide to follow up on the Irish Travelers who attacked them some weeks before. They track them back to a trailer park and cross paths with a Garou who has also been watching them. The leader of the Travelers involved with the shooting seems to have been involved with some kind of occult workings, having killed the rest of his group in a ritual. At home, the four kindred wrestle with what to do with Circe, the Tzicmze whom they have not reported to the Prince of the City, Clocke. They decide to allow her to remain here and continue their silence on the matter.

While Michael works to get his bar set up, Magdalyn tries to figure out how to get out from the clutches of Queen Arcane, a Toreador who has become infatuated with her. Erika asks Joshua to help with her father's illness and then both Joshua and her father vanish. Michael tracks down his much hated foster brother only to find him married to one of his foster sisters. He begins to plot murder. Naomi continues her work to uncover more about the Kindred and develop a reasonable business for the group. She begins to here rumors that her kinship with the Brujah may put more responsibilities on her. Erika also hears word of a stranger in Chinatown looking for her. Magdalyn suspects Dr. Hollow the Malkavian of sinister motives. However when she tries to follow up she manages to summon an angry wraith.

A meeting by the Prince is called and it is revealed that a Kindred has been slain, though by whom is unclear. Trying to figure out the occult situation, the group follows up with the Orpheus Group. In a meeting they come to realize that these people are using ghosts to conduct business. Wrapped up in their own paradigm, the Orpheus agents believe the group not to be Vampires but simply people possessed by ghosts. With more questions than answers, the group leaves and meets the third herald. In an instant they find themselves back in Victorian London again.

There they meet more of the strange figures of that city and learn of Clocke and Palladino's blood marriage in the past. It becomes clear that something is not right about this "time travel" and the changes they have undergone. They meet Naomi's sire from the past and begin to piece together something about the incident that led to his downfall, including the strange presence of the Kuei-Jin embassy which has come to England. They meet Jin-Shan, one of the Kuei-Jin, her name is one that Naomi heard before her embrace. Heading back to their "home" in this London they are set upon by some kind of supernaturals who possess an understanding of the Beast. They defeat them but with major damage to themselves.

The next night Obano Savall comes to visit them. They discover that like they, he has come here from the future. He explains that it is a strange story that ends up repeating itself in time. He also tells them how to escape it, by causing a major disruption to the timeline. With that information in hand, they go to the London Elysium to try to learn more. Magdalyn makes a Bloodhunter nervous, Naomi learns much from the Prince Mithras, Erika begins to pick up on the hatred of the Kuei-Jin and Michael speaks with Clocke and Palladino.

What Planescape Means to Me

Last week Andy Kitkowski, translator for Tenra Bansho Zero and Ryuutama, posted a contest on G+. Since he's moving back to Japan he has been divesting himself of rpgs and other books. This time he would be giving away the prize of his collection, a diverse set of Planescape books. He invited anyone who wanted them to write why they wanted them and what they'd use them for. I love Planescape; it remains my favorite TSR setting and one of my favorite rpg settings. I quickly sat down and wrote out a rambling entry/response. I wasn't chosen, but I thought I'd share what I submitted. I've left it unedited so you can see how rough it is. 

I saw your post on the Planescape items. I'm interested and here's why and what I'd like to do...

To explain this I have to go back to Barry dying.

We’d finished a three GURPS fantasy campaign and had moved on to a superhero mini-campaign using Mutants & Masterminds. I’d intended that short series as a filler between stories in the shared world we’d been playing in since ’86. The superhero game went well and we ramped up to the final session. Kenny came by about three in the morning. Barry had been bouncing at a club; he’d taken on extra hours to buy Xmas gifts for his daughter. Normally he did freelance art- he’d done work for Hero and R Talsorian, but he wasn’t great at schedules and companies weren’t great at paying. Barry was a big guy who worked out, half-Thai and frequently mistaken for a Hispanic weight-lifter. He had a hereditary heart problem, as it turned out. He collapsed in the middle of breaking up a brawl.

We kept going, thrown by everything, but we kept playing. Which brought us to Planescape.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back to our shared campaign world. Barry had been with us since nearly the beginning of that. He’d been at the heart of multiple campaigns. So I decided to go with something else I loved- a game & setting Barry (and others) had wanted to play in. I would run a Planescape campaign, but one with a twist. The group would be cross-dimensional mercenaries. I would use The Black Company sourcebook from Green Ronin. Everyone would have two characters just in case. Life would be cheap. They would blaze a trail across worlds. It would be gritty and tough.

Tough I got.

I ran it using D&D 3.5, with just about everything available at the table. I hadn’t run 3.5 before. I’d been a GURPs, Storyteller, Rolemaster, Champions, and Homebrew guy. At first I considered using True20, but at that point only pre-core rules had come out for that. Plus I wanted to see what it was like. So much had been published for it, most of my players had tried some flavor of it, and I knew AD&D- how hard could it be? Hard, really hard. I have real admiration for those GMs who gained system mastery of D&D 3.5. The system seemed to fight me every step of the way. Every session required more prep, mapping, and stat calculation than anything I’d done in years.

Somehow it managed to be a delight. Planescape itself pulled us through. The players loved the setting and the chaos of it. They loved both their primary and secondary characters in the mercenary company- requiring me to switch back and forth between stories. They loved Sigil and the tensions between the factions. They loved the weird planar trips and over-the-top effects. I had all the books and a massive collection of Bloodwars cards to use for illustrations. Despite my terror at the mechanics, it somehow gelled- the wild combats to fight, mysteries to explore, and places to see.

More importantly, they saved Barry. Or rather they saved his character, Basho. See at the end of the fantasy campaign, Barry’s character had sacrificed himself. He leapt into a demon gate to shut it down and kept back the forces of darkness from the world. In the Planescape campaign they found him and brought him to safety. It felt good and something like closure.

You can see in-character write-ups for the first dozen or so episodes of that campaign here under Session Reports (“Sons of the Tower”). 

When I wrapped the campaign’s story after thirteen sessions, I felt pleased. I’d tried to extend my repertoire with 3.5, I’d run a mercenary game, and they’d brought a measure of satisfaction out of tragedy. It was all good, wasn’t it? Yes and no. I was happy with the campaign, but it wasn’t exactly the Planescape game I wanted. For one thing we only saw Sigil in bits and pieces. I love that city and wanted to really play around with the people and personalities there. For another it had been more high fantasy and less the noir tone I wanted- more Invincible Overlord than Lankhmar. Finally the game engine had fought against what I wanted rather than supporting it. That’s likely a matter of my inexperience with it, but it undercut what I wanted.

The strange bit is that we had a perfectly serviceable homebrew we’d begun using by that point. I was just too much of a coward to commit to that. I made a decision- we’d come back to Planescape at some point in the future. I would explore the city, I’d have the tools to make people and organizations come alive, I’d make the setting matter, and I’d show everyone what I loved about it. In the future I’d run the Planescape game in my head.

Then we had the fire.

It started in the basement from old-house wiring. That took out the game room first and then most of the first floor. We lost most of the game books, about half the campaign notes, all of the scenic, and a chunk of the miniatures. Smoke and water destroyed what the fire didn’t actually hit. We survived and thanks to insurance managed to get back into the house about six months later. Some things survived- stuff stored upstairs, minis which had to be cleaned using sonics, and soaked campaign journals that I managed to scan. Most of the next year I spent replacing what game books I could- things I knew we would play first and then other bits & bobs. But not Planescape. The prices were crazy. I tried the pdfs, but they weren’t a fair substitute for the actual products. I hunted for a time, but eventually put that aside in favor of other games.

So what do I want to do?

I want to run a game which explores Sigil, with occasional detours the the Outlands and mysterious trips to dangerous planes to uncover details, rescue lost souls, or loot a precious relic. I want the players tied to the pulse of the city- playing off the battles between factions and organizations. It should be part Fritz Leiber, part Leverage, part Thief, and part multiversal insanity…maybe something more like Grimjack’s Cynosure.

I want to do this using our homebrew this time. We’ve been playing and tinkering with it for the last decade and a half. Essentially it is a card-based rpg, with a strong dash of Fate powering it. A player’s deck acts more as a set of personalized dice more than anything else. When I ran before, big scale objects- like the company, neighborhoods, organizations- were static fixtures. I want to use the tools Fate and other newer rpgs offer to connect players to the setting and those groups. I want to monetize the background- allowing players to buy into plot hooks, political causes, and structures. I plan to use aspects and plot stress to model that. I also want to give the players useful character-facing material- like Robin Laws’ Kaiin Players Guide so that they can select rumors, stories, and places they want to explore.

What would that require? First, some thinking about specific adaptations of the system for the Planescape setting. We’ve done a couple of fantasy campaigns with it before, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Second, outlining how I want to handle interactions and descriptions of groups (i.e. sketched as characters with aspects, etc). Putting together a useful brief shopping list of interesting things players could connect to. In some ways this would echo the background mechanics from Weapons of the Gods. Third, figuring out some interesting ways for players to do some collaborative building. Obviously they can do that for character creation, but can I use the same tools to do a neighborhood or larger relationship network. Fourth, and probably most involved, creating an accessible, interactive, and light set of player-facing materials for the group. I think that can be done in the window given. I’d likely run that for the group I’m running the wuxia game for right now or else online. 

Anyway, I'd forgotten how much I dug that setting until I wrote that out. I'll continue looking around. Maybe if I get regular employment again I'll be able to start hunting things down. Perhaps in the future WotC will do Print on demand for the D&D Classics pdfs- that would be great. More than anything, writing this out reminded me of some good times we'd had- in the face of a tragedy. Last night when I was running M&M online, Carl reminded me that this year in December will be ten years since Barry died. 

The Fandom Stranger: What Are You a Fan For?

NEWER, BETTER CONTROLS

Assassin’s Creed betrayed my friend Kenny. When the series first came out, he loved it. He went for maximum completion, read through the lore, and picked up novels and secondary materials. He held onto the excitement of that fandom all the way up through Assassin’s Creed III. He threw that game across the room- hating the horrific changes made to core gameplay and controls. The series was dead to him. He skipped completely on IV, not wanting to waste more money.

This weekend when I asked him if he’d played Assassin’s Creed II: Liberation. That game had originally come out on the PS Vita and just been released on the bigger consoles. Kenny had- quickly buying playing through and finishing it. He enjoyed it and that was a mixed blessing. It reminded him what he liked about the series and at the same time what had been lost. It’s too bad. For a long time Kenny was the Assassin’s Creed guy in our group; like Steve’s our Star Trek & Godzilla guy; Dave’s our Fallout expert; Alan knows Lord of the Rings, and Scott’s does anime and Everquest. We some other shared fandoms—I’d consider Ward and Kenny our two Star Wars and Halo guys. I count my wife Sherri as one of the Morrowind obsessives.

In fact I can rely on every several sessions someone picking up Morrowind again and talking about what they’ve been doing…despite years since it came out. Then the table moves to several minutes discussing new quests or characters they’ve seen, glitches which caught them, or how a chunk of the world seems lifted from Glorantha. It doesn’t mean all that much to me- I didn’t care for any of the games in the series. I tried them, but didn’t enjoy them. I’m the Fandom Stranger there. On the other hand, I’m also at the margins when it comes to some other popular stuff. I like Star Trek and Star Wars, but I don’t love them. I don’t dig into them. But I admire the fascination others have for these settings- and I love the lore they bring to the table when discussing them.

So I’ve been trying to figure out what I’d actually call myself “fannish” for. My tastes have changed over the years- I've dropped some things I used to adore. For example, I once seriously followed DC Comics and knew the lore, but not so much anymore. Below is a short list of things I go fanboy for. The definition's loose. These are things I try to watch, read and/or own everything I can related to them. I’ve scoured online pages for additional info. I've hunted down secondary books and resources. I’m completionist about them and still invested. I forgive these things for their faults, make excuses when they’re weak, and stupidly feel slighted when others don’t like them.

TV SHOWS

Inspector Lewis: I love British Police procedurals, or actually any foreign police procedural. But this series hits on all the notes I enjoy- great character dynamics, good plots, the value of the hard-working copper over the inspired savant. Some of the seasons are weaker than others, but I love them and I’ve rewatched many.

Justice League/Justice League Unlimited: This is my favorite of the Bruce Timm helmed DC Animations. I love the characters, especially their take on Hawkwoman. I’ve always enjoyed superhero team books and JLU just confirms that. The tone’s great- a solid mix of serious and cartoony. The season arcs feel satisfying. You also feel the impact of the late, great Dwayne McDuffie’s work on the show. I’ve watched this series through several times. I also held on to the comic book adaptations- several of which were quite good. I will note that I didn’t buy the toys…

Adventure Time: Not having TV, I have to fall back to watching these on DVD as they come out. I’ve also bought the comic book collections, the Fiona and Cake book, the Scream Queens volume, and AT Encyclopedia. And I follow the sub-Reddit. I don’t quite know why I like it so much. Some people I respect for their opinions think it is stupid…but man it makes me happy every time I watch and rewatch it.

COMIC BOOKS

As I said, I used to be a bigger fan. I like a lot of Grant Morrison and bought many of his oddball series (like The Invisibles, Doom Patrol, Seven Soldiers, and Seaguy). But I never felt like I needed to buy everything he wrote. The same with Alan Moore- though when he was on Swamp Thing I religiously hunted down every issue. I went through phases with The Defenders, The Question, and a few others, but nothing that stuck.

Gotham Central: This is the exception. I bought the floppy back issues, the collected editions, and then the reprinted collected complete editions on nicer paper. I love the stories and the way they consider humanity in a world of super-beings. If I ever run a police game, it will be like this.

AUTHORS

I have some authors I follow pretty heavily- PD James, Steven Brust, Tanith Lee, and Dave Duncan. I like reading their stuff and when I want to buy a new book, I turn to them first. But then I have a set of authors I try to have everything by. Three of them have passed, so it isn’t as hard: Jo Clayton, Philip K. Dick, and Clark Ashton Smith. I’ve read biographies, done research, and bought special eidtions where I find them.

For living authors, I only have two. Howard Waldrop’s alt-history and spec-fic remains awesome. I love it even when it goes off in places outside my wheelhouse. Lindsey Davis’ mysteries and stories set in Ancient Rome engage me- and they’ve gotten better over time.

RPG LINES

I love many games, but like so many gamers only a fraction of what I buy actually gets played. And that’s before the relentless steamroller of the Bundle of Holding. I have two lines I own everything for but have never even done up characters: Castle Falkenstein and Mage: The Sorcerers’ Crusade. I might be able to get the first one to the table, but the second seems doubtful. I have three game lines that I’ve tried to buy everything for and have actually played: Mutants & Masterminds 2e; Legend of the Five Rings (across all editions); and Changeling the Lost. The latter two I’ve never done with the actual system- only with homebrews.

There used to be others- Rolemaster, Champions, and GURPS, but each fell out of favor with me over time and I stopped collecting. Many I didn’t replace when I lost copies

.

MOVIES/DIRECTORS

I don’t think I have any series I’m absolutely consistent with following. I have some I’ve bought or watch a bunch from, but few I can claim any fan-expertise for. Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki would be the closest. I’ve read some books about their work and have bought special editions of their films. The next closest might be Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I’m still not sure what I think of his work, but I feel compelled to watch everything by time.

VIDEO GAMES

On my wife’s list for would Elder Scrolls (mentioned above); Harvest Moon; the Atelier/Mana Khemia series, and Animal Crossing. Those we have to buy when they come out. 

I have three series of games I buy religiously so long as they’re not RTS, Shooter, or App-based. Even then, I’ll take a long hard look at them. I’ve read the background on these series and followed the fiction. Final Fantasy’s an obvious choice- though I came to it by way of Final Fantasy Tactics. I’ve played all the later games and enjoyed them…making me something of an apologist for many of them. I have fun playing even when I know they’re junk. I also buy anything for Shin Megami Tensei, sometimes when I know I won’t be any good at it. For example, I knew Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army would require twitch reflexes, but I still picked it up. I bought a PSP just to play some of the SMT games. Last but not least is the SSX snow-boarding and racing series. I’ve bought all of them, even the crappy Wii one with the worst controls ever. I played the new one and had some fun out of it. Yet even as I ran down the slope I knew it would bomb and we’d probably never see another game for this franchise again. The suffering of the fanboy...perhaps an online petition?

So what’s your fandom? What are you obsessional about? What are you obsessional about that others in your group aren't?

Cat Rambo Taught Me D&D

This week’s my sister Cat Rambo’s birthday.

Without her I probably wouldn’t be a gamer- I don’t know. I wouldn’t have seen someone fearlessly embrace what they enjoyed regardless of what other people said (relatives, peers, dumbasses). I might not have had that model to follow. She taught me how to play D&D in 1976, after she’d gotten the boxed set in Christmas of ‘75. I remember the first time we played. I wasn’t sure what we were doing, but a Giant Rat attacked. I fought and killed it and was pretty happy.

“Do you want to search the rat for treasure?” she asked. 

“How?”

“You cut it open.”

I cut open the rat and found silver pieces and a dagger. 

I WAS HOOKED. DONE AND DONE.

I remember her letting me tag along when she went down to the Griffon to play. I remember rolling up a butcher in Tekumel. I remember getting to sit in on a session of DUEL for V&V when the horrible seed invaders attacked and someone polymorphed a kid into clay to stop it. I remember her running The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor and the floating logs which turned out to be crocodiles.

She played in the early days of rpgs and gaming around here, often the lone female gamer in these groups. I saw the shit she went through. She would tell stories about the funny stuff, but I knew there was a lot more she didn’t talk about. I saw some of it. The misogyny, the jokes about characters getting raped, the fans of John Norman’s Gor, the condescension, and even divisiveness among the few female gamers. If I can claim any right to be called a Feminist, claim any enlightenment about women’s issues and especially their struggles in hobby circles- that comes from my sister. She enjoyed fantasy & sci-fi, loved games, and she kept going regardless of the asshatery around her.

One year for my birthday party she did a magic show that I stupidly ruined at the end. She put on a freaking magic show for her stupid little brother’s snot-nosed friends. She built a command console and flip-around transporter for my Mego Star Trek figures. She ran an amazing D&D game for another one of my birthday parties with a map she’d created and carefully revealed as we played. This was in the 70’s and she did all this by hand with scraps and markers. Honestly, that’s when I knew I wanted to GM- that session. She showed me that it could be a greater experience than just walking through a list and rolling dice.

She introduced me to the gaming group which would be the foundations of the people I play with today. I even play with one of those guys, Alan, to this day, 30some years later. She ran a Call of Cthulhu campaign that showed me what that was like- even though I was too young to get it. She let me sit in a couple of times with her Rolemaster group and see how elaborate a created game world could be. Most importantly she let me run things for her friends once I started to GM. She gave me the confidence to try and fail.

I followed her in fandom…

…she collected different comics- not just the Giant-Sized Batman and Superman books I bought. I read her issues of Miller’s run on Daredevil, Byrne & Claremont on X-Men, Moore’s original Marvelman in Warrior, Grell’s Warlord, The Defenders, and many more.

…I came to Dr. Who not through the TV series, but through the books. She had all of the Pinnacle edition American novelizations and I loved them. Only after reading those did I actually watch the show.

…I love board games and she showed me more existed beyond Clue. We played Cosmic Encounter, The Sorcerer’s Cave, Talisman, Darkover, Quirks, and others.

…I came to reading sci-fi and fantasy through her collection which I pilfered: Roger Zelazny, Andre Norton, Steven Brust, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Piers Anthony, Tanith Lee, Jo Clayton, and more.

Maybe I would have found my way there, but she guided me from the margins of same-old stuff to more wild and interesting stuff.

We fought, we argued, all of that stuff that brothers & sisters do.

Some of my proudest moments have been when she’s complimented me on my taste- when I found a book series that she hadn’t heard of or a comic book line she dug but hadn’t bought. I remember when she walked away from a session I’d run and talked about the things she wanted her character to do.

I love gaming and all of this stuff- all the fantasy, sci-fi, imaginative space, metafiction, thinking about stories, considering how to be inclusive, creating a great experience for players, all of that. Cat led me there. She showed me how cool it could be. And she showed me how to get past people who try to make it uncool in a thousand ways.

My sister's a fucking trailblazer. 

Make good art.

My sister writes and she was nominated for the Nebula. You should buy and read her books.

Near + Far

Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Midnight

Happy Birthday Cat.