Old Friends

Last night, I attended Josh's 50th birthday bash.

Damn. Who's Josh? some folks are asking. Well, waaaaay back at the start of last decade (i.e. 2010), Josh was one of my regular Thursday Night gaming group down at the Baranof in Greenwood. Even though it's been a decade plus since that group ended (I moved to Paraguay in 2014, remember?) I've kept in touch with Josh...even been out to see his bar band a couple times in the last year. Our family exchanges Christmas cards. He's good people.

ANYway...for his birthday he had an "adult pizza party" (i.e. they rented out a loft of a nearby pizza parlor and served a lot of beer...). Like Josh himself, the affair was low-key and causal: no cake, candles, or singing, and the invitees were an assortment of work buddies, band members, and old friends plus a few wives/girlfriends. A fairly small gathering all told...maybe a couple dozen people?

But several of those people were the old gaming crew: Matthew was there with his wife, and Matt, and also Randy (the youngest of our original group, now turned 40). Guys I haven't see in over a decade for the most part. 

And, man, it was good to see and talk to them. Yeah, we're all looking older now: fatter, grayer (or straight-up bald). But damn, at least everyone was positive. Stress levels seem fairly low, attitudes were pretty upbeat. Maybe it was the festive atmosphere, or the reason we'd gathered, or just that folks felt the same as me...just good to catch up with old friends in a casual environment. Or maybe, it's just that Josh attracts "good people" as friends. 

Or maybe it has something to do with us all leaving our kids at home. I do hang out with adults...often!...at various events, but they almost always involve a passel of kids (school, sports, a funeral I attended Friday, etc.) And around kids (our own or other folks) we always seem to be slightly on edge and/or uptight. We have to watch what we're saying; we have to model proper behavior, etc. It's not that Josh's party saw a lot of people cutting loose and getting crazy...as I said it was low-key and dignified. But still: that slight stress of little eyes watching and little ears listening and little minds learning...that stress was lifted. And that was nice.

SO, funny enough, there ended up being a LOT of D&D talk at the gathering. Not just with the old crew, but with new people I'd never met. Apparently, even though I don't hang with those guys anymore, they still talk about me. And about our old games. And so I got introduced around as the old Dungeon Master guy and they wanted to know what I was up to and yadda-yadda-yadda.  Spent quite a bit of time in four different conversations explaining 1st edition AD&D and how and why I run my games the way I do.

[just so folks know, I did spend time in OTHER conversations, too: about kids and school and weather and soccer and Paraguay and politics and earthquakes and bands and food and all that other 'casual party conversation' jazz...I'm not a TOTAL nerd, even if (these days) I am an unrepentant one]

One guy, slightly older than me, was talking about his newfound love of DMing (he boldly stated that when he retires, DMing is the main thing he plans on doing). He runs all sorts of games, but goes more for the "rules light" stuff these days (he talked about enjoying his Mothership game). Me being ntroduced to the guy as a "good DM" by Josh, he wanted to pick my brain for my thoughts on why people consider my games "good" or (I assume) enjoyable. I was not trying to convert the guy over to "my side" or anything (that kind of preachy-ness is something I reserve for the blog), but even so, I think I might have changed his perspective a little bit. Here's a guy who's been running regular games with regular (adult) people for the last four years, and all of a sudden I could see him opening his eyes (or, rather, his mind) to the possibility of running D&D as a true game, rather than as this role-playing thing (which he's not as big into anyway).

Randy and Matt and Matthew also, it turns out, are still gaming together, doing a regular Thursday night thing along with another old Baranof crony, Heron (aka the Iron Goat). They are running 5E these days, but I didn't give them a hard time about it...instead we talked about the various things they liked (playing D&D with good friends, generally) and the things they didn't (differences in play styles, min-maxing versus role-playing, lack of player agency because of story based rewards, length/complication of combat encounters, etc.). Again...and this is important!...I did NOT make any attempt to criticize or rain on their parade with eulogies about "what they're doing wrong" or anything like that; I save that kind of dickishness for Ye Old Blog. I just wanted to listen and explained my own, current, perspective on the D&D game (short version: I've found the robustness of 1E to be more conducive to long-term campaign play, and focus more on the world building than previously).  It would seem that currently their characters are around 9th level and they are getting ready to take on a god and so (perhaps) they're campaign is starting to wind down a bit(?). "Sounds like you're having a good time," is about all I said to that.

But I did offer some of my perspective on the "min-maxer" v. "role-player" thing. Matt was the one being offered up as the example of the former (he complained to me a bit...in a side conversation...about how his character, a rogue, has become an "advantage junkie," needing to gain his backstab bonus damage just to feel like he's contributing to the group; meanwhile, Matthew was the one being roasted for his penchant for "role-playing," making sub-optimal decisions or getting caught up in tangential ideas. Having DMed both these guys before, my labels for them would be a little different: Matt is more task focused and Matthew enjoys the escapism of a fantasy world. The fix for both players is pretty much the same...run a 1E game...but I didn't say that (well, not exactly or explicitly). But I did try to share how world building and offering players more agency in how they interact with the world  could assuage or mitigate these tendencies (currently viewed as idiosyncratic if not problematic). 

Or, at least, that's what I tried to do. It's fine; they're having fun. Matt said he even 'bit the bullet' and purchased/downloaded the new 2024 PHB (though I didn't hear a whole lot of enthusiasm for One D&D...). As I said, I really was NOT trying to convert anyone to anything.

There will come a time, in the not-so-distant future, when I will finally get off my ass and start running a regular game for adults again (I've even picked out the bar I want to run at and, no, it is NOT the Baranof). Even then, when that happens, I don't plan on being some sort of evangelist preaching the "Gospel of AD&D." I'm jut going to run the game. Having seen the power of 1E in action, I expect the players will end up converting themselves into "true believers" (as often happens).  To which I'll strive to give the proper response: I just run the game. I'm only using this ruleset because it works for the kind of game I want to run...The End. 

Anyhoo. It was nice seeing the boys again. It was nice talking D&D shop with nerds my age. It was nice that Randy expressed his appreciation for me introducing him to the game (a game he's now been DMing for 10 years). It was nice to be remembered fondly. Hell, it was nice Josh's drummer invited me to karaoke to show off my vocal chops (I politely declined). It was just a nice evening.

After a long Saturday of soccer games and running around with the family it was nice to have a break. I'm really glad I went.

Space Opera = Capes

My wife has a fairly awful flu bug at the moment, which caused me to be a bit late to my play-test last night (it also had me up till 1:30am with the boy, and then missing the first half of today’s work day in an “emergency child care” capacity…Friday is usually Mom’s day to watch the hijo). Fortunately (unfortunately), I only had one player show up for the evening session, so the total number of people I disappointed was minimal.

Of course, when it’s just Josh and me at the table, we often end up bullshitting for most of the session anyway. Don’t get me wrong...I love digressing off into tangential meanderings in person as much as I do on a blog post. But my normal disposition leads me to drunken rambling in buddy-buddy situations, and fun as that is, I do have some objectives regarding game design and whatnot.

Still, it WAS productive...Josh made a psychic (think “Jedi”) character at my request and just talking through the class abilities was useful, helping me articulate what and how the powers functioned. I was also able to bounce ideas off him regarding jettisoning the fringer/survivalist class which always seems to pop up during game sessions and which just doesn’t work for me in a non-one-off session. Oh, yeah…and we decided Beast Handler is just a stupid, stupid “special ability” (think “feat”) to have in a space game. Not sure what I’ll replace it with, but it’s just dumb for a game set (mostly) in space rather than planet-side. After all, beasts only really come in two shades in the space opera genre: trusty riding mounts and hungry antagonists. The idea behind the feat was the ability to turn the latter into the former…but that kind of defeats the point of the GM including them in a game session, doesn’t it?

Besides “lion taming” is better handled with the heart suit (think “charisma/Reaction”) anyway.

We also talked quite a bit about Star Wars in general, prompted by the recent news of Lucas-Disney and my recent reading of The Secret History of Star Wars. One of the (few) virtues Josh was willing to extol on the original films/Lucas productions was the art direction that (aside from haircuts) give the films an extremely timeless-classic visual quality. Although, he admits, the films might only appear timeless due them having such a dramatic impact on our psyches at a young age (in effect coloring “the look of Sci-Fi” for years to come thereafter), he can’t help but feel a lot of other sci-fi films over the years have appeared “dated” or poorly age compared to the old Star Wars trilogy. It doesn’t have the gaudy outfits and crazy headgear found in the old Flash Gordon space opera-types, for instance. To which I replied:

“What the hell is more Flash Gordon than dudes wearing capes in space?”

Capes abound throughout the Star Wars universe. With the exception (perhaps) of The Phantom Menace, there is a new caped individual to be found in each film of the series…whether you’re talking Vader or Lando or Luke (in Return of the Jedi) or Dooku or Grievous, I would say the presence of capes is a defining (if nonsensical) part of the art and visual style of Star Wars.

I mean, really…why does Grievous need a cape? Does his cyborg body get cold? His fleshy parts consist of a couple internal organs in a metal torso…all he needs is a hot plate or heating coil! Don’t tell me it’s to better carry his lightsabers: it’s called “wear a weapon harness,” dude. The cape is total show and visual space opera. It’s flourish.

Same with Count Dooku. All this crap I read in the D20 games or the wookiepedia about him wearing some sort of “armor-weave” cape…like it’s body armor? For what…back protection? It doesn’t cover his head or any of his 6’5” torso from the front. Is it supposed to guard against back-shooting? Isn’t Dooku a Jedi Master and thus presumably aware of such threats to his person?

Let’s just face facts…people wear capes in Star Wars because it’s space opera and opera of any stripe is fond of the cape. In Star Wars (and it’s equivalent) the cape signifies a badass, pure and simple.

What? You think Lando was chopped liver next to Han Solo? Need I remind you that he was the ruler of his own mining colony, not to mention the original owner of the Falcon, tough enough to fly it after years of “rust” and blow up the 2^nd Death Star? Did you forget he had the balls to talk his way onto Jabba’s payroll with little more than a snaggletooth mask and a force pike? Not to mention all Lando’s natural charm and swagger…there’s a guy who earns a cape.

Frankly, I’ve decided that capes are as deep a part of space opera (and Star Wars, and SW-knock-offs) as weird-ass headgear is to Old School D&D. After our (tipsy) conversation last night I’ve been spending the day considering ways to work capes (and the earning thereof) into my DMI space opera game…though only for the serious ass-kickers, of course.

[by the way…happy Dia de los Muertos!]

Thursday Night Recap

Just a few quick notes, as I've got a long and busy Saturday (still!) ahead of me.

Thursday night was a good one. Both Josh and Randy were able to come down to the Baranof and I was managed to play-test the most recent iteration of D&D Mine. We also played Dungeon! (1980 edition) which was pretty cool, and the closest contest I can remember having with that particular game.

Huh, might as well provide a little synopsis on it, since I bothered to mention it.

We each selected a different character: Randy took a wizard (with nearly a full spell roll: 11!); Josh selected a superhero, and I went with the True Blue hero. We could tell out of the gate that Josh was going to have a rough time of it when his superhero was roughed up by a giant rat in the first room. Meanwhile, Randy (in his first time playing Dungeon!) went balls-to-the wall, working his wizard like a champ and not being afraid to mix it up, mano-a-mano.

My hero picked up a magic sword in the 2nd level, and made his way downward with a good chunk of change in his pack. Unfortunately, he met his match in the form of an ogre who wounded him (“drop all treasure, place piece at start, lose next turn”), just as he’d crept over the 7500gp mark. This provided Josh with the incentive to give up his struggles in the 4th level and make a beeline for my abandoned hoard, hoping to put his total over the top.

Randy, on the other hand, had cleaned house, finding half his 30,000gp goal in the forms of a huge diamond (10k) and huge sapphire (6k). Counting his loot and realizing the wizard had enough to win, he set off for the entrance, only to get there the hard way by being wounded by a black pudding.

Realizing I had only a very brief reprieve, my hero hurried back towards the 3rd level, despairing a bit when I saw Josh’s superhero was going to get there first. Unfortunately, Josh’s anticipated triumph was short-lived as a chance encounter with a second ogre in the 3rd level storeroom (“just looking for a snack”) led to HIM being wounded as well, dropping his entire trove! Knowing I would have to fight an ogre (sans magic sword) either way, I changed my route to snatch the superhero’s bulging backpack, and finally was able to roll the 9 I needed to slay the beast.

It came down to a footrace: Randy fireballed the pudding and headed straight for the entrance. His route was more direct than mine, but he had to fight his way past a giant he’d left alive on his way down to the loot. Because of that extra stop, my hero was able to squeak out a victory (by one-turn!). Josh, did kill the ogre that had done for my hero (and thus earned himself a magic sword), but unlike Randy and I, his total treasure was far less than that which he needed for victory. As is usual in such cases, this allowed us to heap ridicule upon his head.

Yay!

After Dungeon! we drank and shot the breeze for awhile (talking mostly about fatherhood and our own childhood relationships with our parents) before figuring out it was after 10:30 and we still had some serious play-testing to get to! Loading up on another pitcher of beer, we managed to get through character generation and the first couple encounters of an adventure I’d whipped up earlier in the afternoon. And amazingly enough, I was able to get some good info/feedback despite the limited time spent on the game.

Chargen was surprisingly fast...like, I blinked with surprise when it was over. Having them add their bonuses for use with die rolls didn't take long (nor did encumbrance and armor calculations or equipment selections). Both players, I think, had fun with it, even alignment and motivation. Note to self: have to make alignment more mechanically relevant, as I've done with motive.

I was pleased one player (Randy) chose a magician subclass, as I was able to see how the retooled (i.e. "non-Vancian") magic system worked. Early verdict? Good (another happy surprise). Also, the spell choices made had a nice range of utility to them (mainly because they're all utility spells). How often do you see a 1st level wizard with read languages (or its equivalent)? Awesome. My nerfed sleep spell worked as intended: useful without being the uber-spell/monster nuke found in other editions...now it's an appropriate 1st level spell.

Rule Zero (MY "rule zero," not the rz found in other games) was in full effect tonight and worked great, though it did necessitate a couple "roll overs" during chargen. No one tried using the "push" mechanic, and I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that our only encounter was an easy one (see below) or that it wasn't well understood. The D6 mechanic worked fine, and the "high roll always = good roll" was much more intuitive than standard Old School D&D. I've got to tip my hat to WotC for that one folks, sorry.

We ran a single combat encounter: two PCs on three "quasi-goblins." The PCs achieved surprise and murdered the hell out of 'em. I wish we'd had a little more time to play as I would have liked to gotten to a larger or tougher (i.e. more complex) encounter. But the new "ironed-out" order of combat worked much better than the crocodile fight of the week before. I'm really liking it.

I also REALLY dig my new HP rules, though I actually screwed up when doing the players' HPs (fighters get bonuses and magicians get penalties and I awarded neither); ah, well...next time.

RE: monster cosmology...um, actually that's a little too much for right now. We'll blog about that later this week. Gotta' run now!

: )

Dungeon?! Oh, wait...

For a variety of reasons, I've decided to change my gaming night back to Thursday, i.e. tomorrow. Maybe no one will show up...but you've got to start somewhere, and Thursday is the night that works best for me. If I'm going to run a game dammit, it's got to be on a night I want to go out!

Here's a text I sent Josh (one of my regulars, and one who's no longer available on Tuesdays anyway) a couple days ago...or at least a rough approximation:

"I'm changing the game to Thursday night. And if it turns out no one's showing, I'm just going to go down to Prost! with my battered copy of Dungeon! and drink large amounts of beer."

[Prost! is a German semi-pub in the neighborhood that sells Hofbrauhaus beer by the liter]

But then I know Josh's weakness.

; )

Ugh...you know I did a lot of "research" last night (i.e. spent a couple hours surfing the internet) on Dungeon!, it's designer, rules variations, connections with TSR and Arneson and Blackmoor, etc. in anticipation of a big, cool blog post. And guess what? Turns out all my machinations and theories (conspiracy or otherwise) have already been plumbed...and in depth...by others. On forums (Old School and otherwise), with discussion with Arneson and members of his Blackmoor campaign, and on web sites completely devoted to Blackmoor, not to mention Havard's blog.

Reinventing the wheel...again. My usual M.O.

So right...I'm not going to blog about Dungeon! tonight. Instead, I'm going to hit the hay in anticipation (and in preparation) for tomorrow's game and potentially copious drinking. Did a bit of writing/work today on D&D Mine, so that's probably what I'll be running...but we'll see.

Later, gators.

Gross Typos, Mis-Calcs, and Errors

Finally had a chance to do some play-testing of CDF last night…first opportunity I’ve had since over-hauling the magic and initiative systems. The play group was limited to myself and one other player, but this is mainly my own fault: I was about 30 minutes late to the bar and I believe the other guy who intended to show probably left, thinking I wasn’t going to make it (I had no way to contact him when I was running behind). Apologies, Red.

Anyway, testing is testing and doing it with one player was a good enough start. I had Josh note down the character stats from the Urban Sorcerer archetype, and got ready to cue up the adventure…only to find that the character profile was all screwed up. WTF?!

Argh…turns out several of the archetypes, including two of the three magic ones, were a mess, and all needed re-examination and re-work. Again, this is all on me…I know the archetypes (slapped hastily into an appendix) were added fairly quickly, and several were borrowed from earlier iterations, conversions, and PC notes, but I thought I’d double and triple checked the priorities and ability scores. But there it was…sorcerers with cybernetic modifications, despite a complete lack of cybernetics, and priorities doubled up or noted wrong. Hell, all of the archetypes list Wisdom as ability (B/X base, remember?) despite this being swapped everywhere else in the rules for a new stat called Willpower. Ugh!

The sorcerer archetype was the worst of the screw-ups, which is especially disheartening as I know the other play-test group (who I’ve yet to debrief) was really looking forward to using the sorcerer in-play. Crap, crap, crap. Ah, well…maybe they fixed it on the fly, as I was forced to do last night.

So how did the play-test go? Well, let’s see…Josh’s sorcerer was driving escort on his scooter bike (a Honda Elite, says Josh) when some gangers on bikes show up and start chasing ‘em down. Initiative is rolled, gangers go first, Josh takes a bullet and dies.

Hmmm…that was quick.

Actually, it wasn’t much different from a 1st level character eating a spear from a goblin in the first round of combat…such does happen in a B/X game. In this case, the gangers did need a 19 to hit, so it was a lucky roll. And anyway, that’s part of why I included a “karma” mechanic, which Josh promptly used to save his bacon. ‘Course, he’s limited to only one such use, so this is kind of like an NFL coach using his challenge flag on the 1st play of the game…I might need to look at re-vamping that also (especially for short-handed game groups like we were).

Josh then blasted three of the guys with a fireball, pulled his handgun and blew away a fourth (over the course of two rounds), prompting the survivors to turn tail and flee after failing a morale check. That part worked well, as did the “snap shot” rules. I liked how it played out (and yes, it was nice and quick, over-all), but I completely ignored all the optional combat rules (I mean, that’s why they’re optional, right?) and I’m starting to think maybe I don’t even need them…maybe combat is just fine withOUT extra complications.

I might just re-vamp the whole combat system.

[while this might sound extreme, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and analyzing of combat systems the last week or so, especially in reconciling the (separate) issues of melee and modern weapon combat. For the most part, this has been done in aid of the new (war) game I’m working on, and I’m sure that some of the sensibilities from THAT are carrying over into my thoughts on CDF. I don’t think the games have to look alike…I don’t even think they SHOULD…but it definitely bears some extra scrutiny]

Let’s see, other things that came up: evasion rules. One thing I did NOT ‘port over from B/X were evasion rules because, well, in all honesty I don’t run away that much and the concept might be a blind-spot particular to me. However, the issue came up TWICE last night…once when trying to outrun the gangers, once when a platoon of cops showed up to disrupt the “buy” that was going down (and Josh decided…wisely…to cut and run rather than shoot it up).

And I’ve got nothing. Oh, I’d had something in an earlier iteration of the game that was subsequently removed…I just figured I’d compare foot speed or vehicle speed to see if one side was faster than the other. But what about people trying to escape/get lost in a junk yard labyrinth (as was the case here), where open ground and foot speed aren’t an issue of debate but rather quick wits and athleticism? I ended up making a couple house rulings that worked for us, but some guidelines in the scope of the rules would be useful. THAT needs to be updated, too.

Next week, I’ll be leaving town for a few days (heading to SoCal to see my father and put in some beach time with the fam), but I think I’m going to shoot for one more day of play-testing on Tuesday. I can see a lot of things that need “tightening up” but I want to put together some more notes from actual play before I start drastic purging of the rule book, and I think that one more session will give me enough data to do some good ruminating while on vacation.

I’ll keep you posted.
: )

Thought for the Day:

Twilight 2000 may be the most well-done modern combat game I’ve seen in RPGs; even if it’s not truly “realistic” it FEELS like it is. Assuming you’re willing to sacrifice “realism” for playability, T2K should be the absolute maximum amount of combat rules needed for your RPG.

The combat rules in T2K take up 8 pages, including about a page-worth of illustration, and includes such topics as indirect fire (like from howitzers and mortars, things not often encountered in a modern RPG). Take out that, the illos, and the vehicle hit diagram and you’ve got probably 6 (8.5” x 11”) pages of actual rules for handling personal combat. By contrast, my 64 page game has close to 7.5 pages of rules for combat, and it’s designed to be loose and cinematic (no hit locations, armor-penetration damage, etc.). Just what the hell am I trying to accomplish?

[actually, to be fair, there are an additional 5 pages of combat rules…not counting illustrations…in the referee’s manual. However, these cover things like chemical warfare and gas, land mines, vehicle combat, and animal attacks (dogs and bears). Altogether, 12 pages of combat rules form a substantial percentage of a game as small as Twilight 2000. On the other hand, we ARE talking about a WAR game. Is your RPG about soldiers at war? How much space do you need to devote to combat rules?]

Success

Some mornings you just can’t find the right pithy phrase to name a blog post. Today, I’m just going to go simple.

Last night was round 2 of play-testing for my space game. Again, I was limited to two players (of four) players due to prior commitments. Also again I was operating on very limited sleep…about two to three hours…and a loooong work day. And, yes, while I stayed away from the whiskey, I did quaff (most of) a pitcher of beer…

BUT, I am going to call the game session successful. Much more so than last week. In fact, I’d say it went better than any prior iteration of the card mechanic RPG (Out of Time, MDR) due to certain changes I instituted…namely, the need to spend cards to utilize ANY thing more than “average effort” in a success check.

This had all the desirable types of results I was looking for:

• Cards got spent and played, depending on the “stakes” necessary
• In turn, this led to decreased effectiveness over time as resources ran slim. This is the way I had originally envisioned the game being played, but previously the dice mechanic was too “easy” with players steering tests into areas of high suits and not needing to expend cards for extra success. NOW they do the same thing, but once the cards are spent, they have to switch to a different “arena” (where they still have cards).
• Players were forced to use different avenues to accomplish tasks (see the last note) because of running low on cards. This was also how I imagined the game being played, and forcing card expenditure accomplished this, causing players to take different tactics when one suit ran low.
• The use of cards provided the “game balance” I was looking for…as one player ran low on cards, the other player was forced to step in and step up. Perfect…everyone gets their turn in the spotlight.
• Doing the card play in this way made ALL the cards important. Whereas before players would short suit themselves during character creation to keep a bunch of Aces and faces, now having “depth” in a particular suit is just as important (if not moreso)…at least if you, as a player, are attached to a particular style of play. For example, if you want to solve problems with your fists, you better have a bunch of clubs. Heron had a single Ace of Spades and had to hold on to it until he REALLY needed it since it was his only spade. This was cool…though now I’m thinking a 7 card hand might be better than 6.
• Or Not: Drive points (given as a reward for role-playing certain aspects of your character) can be utilized much like cards. By limiting the cards in a player’s hand, it forces them to complicate themselves in order to “regain effectiveness.” This makes for interesting play, and I imagine it will come faster and easier as players get more comfortable with the concept (I hope).
• The complication die/card draw (what Josh calls “the calamity die”) worked well in practice, helping to add depth to a roughly sketched scenario…in addition to being fun.

Since the wholesale change of the system turned out to be so effective, it means I will need to rewrite much of what I’ve previously written (doh), AND I will also have to re-tool many of the character advantages (double-doh), and probably the entire credit/purchase system (triple-doh!). However, that’s a small price to pay for sporting a system that does what the game designer (me) wants it to do…pretty exciting stuff, in my opinion. It was a great session from my perspective and the only thing that kept me from being more giddy was my extreme fatigue and the knowledge that I would have another looong night with sick baby once I got home.

[and I did, too]

Some other random thoughts of things learned from last night’s playtest:

Classes work well with the system, even the new rules. Unfortunately, for long term play some of the classes seem mutually exclusive. For instance, Josh’s “mole man” (a fringer/survivor with a home environment advantage of “space station”) worked great for this session that happened to be ON a space station…but Heron’s spacer pilot didn’t get to do a whole helluva’ lot of flying. And if they HAD taken off in Heron’s ship, what would Josh have done? The key may be a lot of cut scenes and environmental (scene) changes…or possibly finding a way for PCs to operate towards the end of a single scenario objective even when separated. Think Return of the Jedi (Luke’s on the Death Star, Han and Leia are on Endor, Lando flying the space mission).

NPCs (named versus mook) worked well enough for me, but needs to be even MORE simplified. This may just be my own leftover baggage from wanting “major villains” to be as competent as PCs (think my favorite Star Wars baddie, Count Dooku, who kicks an incredible amount of ass). However, there are ways to do this withOUT assigning cards. I’m going to have to mull over this.

ALSO (regarding NPCs), I have a rule about bestowing names on NPCs automatically gives them significance and importance. This actually came into play during the session, when Heron christened some nameless mook “Butt-Boy” (or something equally descriptive). Under the terms of the rules I should have dealt him some cards and converted him to a “major NPC;” instead I skipped the step as it was too complicated for the quickfire action of the time. In retrospect, I think dealing a “named” mook a single card (and assigning hit points) would have been an easier, simpler way of accomplishing what I wanted. I’m going to have to mull over this as well.

Frenetic pace and lavish card spending was definitely the way to go. I think Josh had more fun doing this then he had in previous sessions (he tried both Out of Time and MDR). He definitely seemed more engaged in the action of the game…but then, he was also digging hard on his mole man character (“Jub-Jub”).

Finally, although it’s a space opera trope to have the occasional alien protagonist, I’m thinking of making non-human PCs a completely optional side rule, and getting rid of the Jokers all together (dammit! I forgot about the Jokers!...they need to be revamped for the rule changes, too!). It’s just more fun to do “humans in space” and keep the aliens as NPCs or sidekicks (sorry, Spock). Even a weird human (like Jub-Jub) is easier to grasp (as a concept) and relate to than a “mostly human” type o character. Dralasites and vrusk are cool and all, but…well, I don’t know. It’s another thing I’m going to have to think about.

All right, that’s enough debriefing for now. I’ll be working on the space game over the holidays (hopefully getting some writing done in Mexico)…at least when I’m not pestering my artists to get their submissions in for the new book. I don’t plan on doing another space opera play-test till 2011 (got to get back to Heron’s BX game and I understand the DCC experiment may be finally over as well…we’ll see what’s up next down at the Mox)…but you never know. It’s certainly possible that we’ll run another session before Christmas.

Cheers!
: )

Dinoriffic

Last night (Thursday) I was out gaming again, but I was back at the Baranof again, for the first time in many moons, and my usual table of players was nowhere to be found. That's because they're still back at Cafe Mox enjoying Dungeon Crawl Classics and I...well, I wanted to try something different.

Yes, I've made a split from my gaming group...an amicable split (I hope). But after doing DCC for a few (six) weeks, I've decided I've had enough and want to get back to something else; however, most of the other players are still greatly enjoying the game and I want them to keep playing/enjoying it if that floats their boat. I am about encouraging table-top role-playing and growing the hobby, after all.

: )

So, I've withdrawn from that group (for the time being anyway) and now find myself back where I initially started, more than a year ago: in a booth at the Baranof, sitting across from a single player with a pitcher of beer between the two of us.

[the bartender was so happy to have us back, SHE bought the pitcher...nice!]

There were a couple-three differences between that 1st session at Baranof's and this week. For one, the player at the table was Josh from the regular Thursday night group instead of my brother (who doesn't show up anymore). For another thing, I'm not feeling like "oh the group will never grow to be bigger than me and one dude." I've done the "build-from-scratch" thing once already and know it works (too well...the regular group has just gotten bigger and bigger over time!).

The main difference, though, is we were playing my new micro-game, Out of Time, instead of B/X. Really wanted to try out the dinosaur thing (in case you haven't gathered that from my recent posts).

All things considered, the game worked pretty good, even with only one person. Josh hadn't actually bothered to read the rules (one page, dude! C'mon!) but it took very little time to explain things and character creation was extremely quick (as designed). The most difficult part for me was the prep time involved in creating an "adventure;" however, even that yielded some good thoughts/fodder for game design theory, and I'll be posting a series here shortly about RPG objectives...or rather the lack thereof in many (most?) RPGs.

For this first session, I limited the character concept somewhat in that all PCs (in this case, just Josh) would have to be someone who'd be found in a Humvee driving around Afghanistan. This could be US army, UN peacekeepers, imbedded reporters or foreign correspondents, etc. Josh's character turned out to be an army engineer/demolitions guy and (as a sergeant) the highest ranking enlisted man in the Humvee.

There were three other army guys in the Humvee (NPCs): Sally the driver/greasemonkey, "Tex" (he had another name, but I can't remember now) manning the coaxial machine gun, and Bill who had some medical training (at least, he was the guy carrying the medkit). While in hot pursuit of some Afghani patriots...er, "insurgents"...the Humvee crew managed to drive through a dimensional warp and into the Land of the Lost, smashing their rig into a huge-ass, prehistoric tree.

Much hilarity ensued.

I like the system of the micro-game a lot, and I'm thinking of ways to incorporate it into other, non-dinosaur-themed games. Josh was rolling well all night, and never had to burn cards to get "extra effort," nor did he spend them to offset the damage he took in the single actual combat encounter (a fight with some dire wolves that killed good ol' Bill). Combat worked well, though I had to invent some spot morale rules (which were fine). It sure is tough to hit a pursuing t-rex with a vehicle-mounted machine gun while bouncing across a grassy savannah at 50 mph.

Anyway, that's enough for now...I need to catch up on some sleep. More later.

"Hey...Bon Jovi was a cleric, TOO!"

"Lay your hands on me...lay your hands on me...lay your hands on me..."

This from one of last night's players who reads my blog (yes, he was drinking).

Have a great Friday folks!

: )

Breaking on a High Note

[due to continuing internet woes, who knows when this will be posted? I’m typing it up while it’s fresh in my mind...***EDIT: found a coffee shop that serves beer...righteous***]

Welp, we gamed again at Café Mox (where the food, beer, and service were all exemplary…as usual) for what will be our last B/X game for the foreseeable future (we will be trying the Beta of DCC beginning next week). Fortunately, it was a pretty good session.

Pretty damn good, actually…I have few complaints this week, and the session featured some of my favorite things: player character death, energy drain, inter-party conflict (and combat!), adventurers running scared from encounters, negotiations with demons. I mean, really, what more can you ask for?

There was also a lot of laughter and smiles from the players, which is probably the thing I most enjoy hearing and seeing.

In fact there were so many highlights it’s tough to single out a person for the XP bonus. Andrew’s play of Normal Man-turned-Fighter would be pretty deserving for his fearless confrontation of the cambion-minotaur…if he hadn’t died (thus rendering his character ineligible). Stanley the thief would be a shoe-in for his attempted waylaying/sacrifice of Randy’s retainer, but unfortunately his grand scheme failed. Randy/Orestes’ misfiring sleep spell and the protectiveness he showed for his Halfling, um, “friend” was pretty good, but he got the bonus last week so he’s ineligible this week. Greg’s smuggled whisky flask puts him in the running, but for now I’m going to confine bonus considerations only to IN-game actions. Zeebd didn’t shoot any of his fellow party members in the back this week, though only because he didn’t take a single shot (the most near-sighted Halfling archer that ever was). And while Spunk showed his usual gumption, he continually gets himself in trouble due to that Charisma of 3…and I have to admit I found his whining about a “restoration” spell to be a bit unseemly.

SO…after careful thought and reflection, I’ve decided the bonus for last night’s session will go to the surly Elf, Ellephaino, for his constant swooping in and taking the glory from the other meat-and-potato characters (specifically his use of holy water to take down the demon…though too late to save poor Garrett). Good work, Josh!

Some highlights/thoughts from the evening:

• After tallying the evening’s take, I found several PCs leveled up: Orestes, Ellephaino (even without the bonus), Zeebd, and Spunk (yep, back up to “Escort” status). Even Randy’s retainer, Laurel the Halfling, leveled up. Kung did NOT level up, but he’s less than 900 away from “hero” status.
• Garrett the Normal Human adventurer was nearly the pawn that became a queen (or at least a knight). After surviving last week (and earning a couple hundred XP) he was allowed to choose a class and became a level 1 fighter; appropriate since he was already wearing plate and shield and armed with a +1 spear. If he had not been gored to death by the demon minotaur he would have earned enough XP to level up to 2 after last night. Quite an accomplishment!
• Garrett’s death speech (something about “you sons of bitches”) was entertaining, though fruitless, as was the party’s discussion/debate over whether or not to try giving him a healing potion. Since he had been reduced to 0 hit points exactly, I ruled he was mortally wounded but “had a little life left in him” (enough to make a farewell speech). If the party HAD given him the potion, would I have allowed him to live? Probably…but even Andre wanted a burlier character (I, on the other hand, kind of liked the “Garrett – Underdog” story).
• I did not use D20 for the session, and that’s probably a good thing.
• Wraiths are a tasty little undead, but I think I might actually prefer the D20 version of the monster: an incorporeal touch attack that bypasses armor and drains CON instead of levels makes it the equivalent of a souped-up shadow, which is pretty neat. On the other hand, a fast-flying level drainer is nothing to sniff at.
• Charisma 3 is turning out to suck for the PCs. Both the demon and the wraith were encounters that could have been negotiated withOUT combat, but the surly scout certainly jinxed up the latter encounter. Using reaction rolls for making contacts/searching out items in the city (like a restoration spell) is also a lot tougher when your charisma score is poor.
• You know what’s a useful spell? Knock. You know what else is a useful spell? Read magic. If either of these spells had been possessed by the party, the wraith would have been a NON-ISSUE…the wraith was a “bonus encounter,” unnecessary to the accomplishment of the adventure (though it had some extra treasure that was nice…as I said, a bonus). Unfortunately, despite having two magic-users and a 2nd level elf, none of these spells are in the PCs spellbooks. On the other hand, every single one of ‘em carries sleep.
• It was interesting to see the characters sweat and debate over whether or not to take the demon up on his offer (basically, the life of a party member for his promise of non-conflict). In the end, the majority of the party (with the exception of the Chaotic thief) decided NOT to give up any of their party, not even a henchman/retainer. It’s interesting because there’s no GAME reason not to give up a retainer for safe passage…what’s the retainer going to do anyway but eat into one’s share of the treasure/XP? It’s not like you can’t find a new retainer back in town. However, the idea was fairly repulsive to most of the party and Orestes was willing to use magic against a fellow PC to protect his henchperson (it didn’t work, but it was a valiant attempt).

As a DM, I have no problem with players fighting each other or stabbing one another in the back…this is the kind of thing that happened all the time back in the glory days of my youth. As players grow with their characters, there is a tendency for players to invest more interest in their characters and their characters’ motivations/desires. And sometimes those character desires come in conflict with each other.

Considering that these are scurrilous rogues and tomb raiders, it makes perfect sense for PCs to have falling outs with each other. Most often, these conflicts occur over particularly valuable treasure items (specifically magic gear…recall Blackrazor?). My current batch of players are so darn nice and consensus driven that there haven’t been any such “incidents” at the table…though I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.

Well, whatever…the players made it safely back to Markesh (their current base of operations) dragging five huge chests (200 pounds each!) all brimming with treasure. Even with the HEFTY cut the galley captain took for providing them safe passage, they’re still filthy rich, most having enough to buy a good-sized house (if not an actual leopard farm…sorry, Greg!). We still have to see whether or not Laurel will stay on as Randy’s retainer/bodyguard, and the spell-casters need to learn their new spells, but other than that there’s nothing for the PCs to do but take in some much deserved R&R while scheming their next adventure.

The DM is looking forward to the break as well.
; )

V is for Vow

[over the course of the month of April, I shall be posting a topic for each letter of the alphabet, sequentially, for every day of the week except Sunday. Our topic this month? Things necessary to take your D&D campaign from “eh, fantasy” to “kick ass.” And who doesn’t want that?]

V is for Vow; an oath or promise not taken lightly.

In our 21st century world, we sometimes forget the power of words. Or perhaps “forget” isn’t the right term; “respect” might be more apt. Part of this has to do with the sheer amount of information (words) with which we are constantly inundated. Look at blogger…the touch of a button and I can reach thousands of readers with my paltry words, scribbled thoughts that went straight from my brain to the keyboard. And I am just ONE blogger; there are hundreds more out there, just like me scribbling on the same topics and posting every day; personally I read many of ‘em…not to mention the regular news sources (newspapers, television, internet), books, etc. Information is available in the millions of pages and words per day. And when you’re constantly surrounded by words, they can lose some of their luster. When words are commonplace, how can they have special meaning?

The OTHER part of why words seem to have lost the mystic power over time is our general lack of veracity, accuracy, and integrity with what those words say.

For purposes of this post we’ll skip anything regarding veracity and accuracy (there’s a lot of misinformation and half-truths floating around) and concentrate solely on “integrity.” For MY purposes:

INTEGRITY is doing WHAT you say you’re going to do WHEN you’re going to do it.

If I tell my wife that I am going to “do the dishes before I go to bed” (or some other household chore) and then fail to follow through, that displays a lack of integrity on my part. If I blog here that I am absolutely, positively going to have my book published no later than February and don’t get out till September, that’s the same thing. And while I acknowledge that I am in fact a “big slacker” and that EVENTUALLY I get around to doing those dishes or finishing the book, it doesn’t change the fact that NOT doing what I said I was going to do when I said I was going to do it makes MY words a bit weaker than the person with more integrity. A LOT weaker than the person with absolute integrity…something we don’t see as much these days as we might like.

In the “olden days” people TALKED less and DID more. Being a “glib” talker was not a compliment; often it was considered a character flaw. One did not need to be wordy to be eloquent…people admired you more for saying what you meant and following through with what you said. These days…well, we live in a different world…communication and lingos are complex and we find various ways to say things hoping that SOMEthing we say will be understood by our target audience, and that what we say will register and resonate the way we want, which is to say “in such a way as to not give offense” (more often than not).

But worrying about the appearance of the word, the cloaking of it, doesn’t negate the need for integrity to strengthen the thing. If I say

“I am going to do my best to do X, Y, and Z (not necessarily in that order) providing it doesn’t interfere with the feelings of persons A or B and provided it doesn’t get reprioritized due to circumstances 1, 2, and 3…”

You’re giving yourself a ton of “outs” (i.e. excuses, justifications for failure) rather than just saying:

“I will do X,”

…and then following through, dealing with the consequences of X if and when they arise.

It’s tough. We are told often enough that our world isn’t “black and white” but it kinda’ is. I mean, Jesus didn’t say, “It’s okay to kill SOME people…you know, just the BAD GUYS, like people who might have an itch to hurt you and yours…and, yes, sometimes collateral damage happens…that’s OK, just long as you’re defending your homeland or Right of Life, Liberty, etc..”
Nope, he didn’t say that. He said, “If someone slaps you, give him the other cheek; if someone takes your coat, give him your shirt, too.” That’s pretty black and white.

But, these days, we’re all about the CAVEATS and the EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE and the JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE (well, maybe we’re not “all about” that last one…). It’s not often we Keep it Short and Simple. We have made our own society a complex one with complex rules and our communication reflects this complexity.

In the “simpler, primitive” fantasy world, such complexity need not exist. And in a GAME (of course) we are allowed to make our own rules.

The vow or oath is a formal pledge and declaration, a promise that one is going to DO SOMETHING come hell or high water. Basically, it’s a statement of integrity and commitment to that statement.

A vow is not something to be taken lightly (and even today, we have few “formal vows” and all are considered serious commitments) but in the fantasy literature that is the basis for Dungeons & Dragons, vows are fairly commonplace: a hero gets all worked up about something and swears an oath to do something or die trying…whether that’s to seek revenge or protect an individual or defend the Alamo it doesn’t matter.

I like vows in D&D…I think it adds something to the game for a player character to make this kind of formal declaration. For one thing, it is completely a product of role-playing…there is no mechanical pay-off to making a vow in the game. For another thing, it’s a commitment to action…a character that has taken a vow KNOWS what he has to do and ain’t going to be hemming and hawing and looking befuddled. That’s game motivation pure and simple.

In last Thursday’s game, Josh’s new character was another archer…the father of the archer that had died in the goblin caves the week before (yes, Josh reads my blog and was playing on last week’s offspring post). He decided that the father (whose name was also Fletcher) was determined to bring back his son’s remains, whatever the cost (in fact, Fletch Sr. was only 1st level compared to his adventuring 2nd level son, so this was a fairly bold promise). When a (negotiated) encounter the lizard man tribe led to some treasure being offered in exchange for aid, Fletch got the party to turn it down as he wasn’t interested in any action until he’d discovered the last resting place of his child. Although, no formal vow was made by Josh, his character acted as if one had been, forswearing rest until his child was avenged and laid to rest.

[Fletcher did not recover his son’s body, but did find his son’s gear in the treasure hoard of the goblin chief after the party had put an end to the monster. He took his son’s equipment back to the Keep and had the Curate burn it on a funeral pyre to lay his son to rest…also giving the church a share from his loot. Having done this, he accompanied the party back to the lizard man camp site to complete the mission offered by the scaly humanoids]

Vows like this…of vengeance, or protection, or commitment to a cause or quest (think the Fellowship of the Ring)…are cool and add an extra oomph to the role-playing experience. At least they do for me. While I don’t like and don’t hand out XP for “role-playing” (why not? Because it’s too arbitrary and subjective to be a behavior-shaping reward mechanism), I AM sorely tempted to give some sort of bonus for taking a vow and seeing it through to the end.

What kind of bonus? Well, that depends a bit on the vow and how much integrity one takes in acting on it. Vowing to loot a million gold pieces or vowing to level up are hardly what I’m talking about…vows should be things that are somewhat of an inconvenience or that side-track you from other adventuring goals (for example, Fletch Sr. may not have been quite so keen to go back to Goblin Town after the party had been over-run the last disaster…he could have opted for “easier pickings” – like Kobolds! – before trying the caves again). Even if the vow IS in line with your goals (Fletch would have gotten around to the goblin caves eventually) such an oath should curtail or restrict one’s action (one-track mind)…at least in order to maintain INTEGRITY with regard to the vow.

For those who can fulfill their vow immediately (and through normal adventuring hardship…I’m not talking about vowing to “build a house by next Tuesday” or something!), I’d recommend the character receives enough bonus XP (on top of the adventure XP) to advance to the next level. Note: this is only for MEANINGFUL, PERSONAL goals: avenging one’s kinfolk, rescuing one’s (captured) loved ones or family members, saving one’s home town or place of residence. The vow must have PERSONAL MEANING attached to it; otherwise, it’s just a promise of aid.

For vows that cannot be fulfilled immediately (for example, a marriage vow to protect one’s spouse, a vow to defend one’s lawful dominion against all invaders, etc.) I’d recommend an on-going +1 bonus to saves and attack rolls ONLY when acting towards the wording of the vow. If a fighter pledges his sword to do his liege’s bidding, he receives the bonus only when on actual missions of import for the lord, NOT when doing his own adventures (and NOT when side-tripping during the liege-lord’s adventure/mission!). If these vows are not taken seriously, the DM has the option of removing the bonus…for example, if two PCs marry each other and then go fight a dragon together, they shouldn’t receive attack bonuses; protecting one’s spouse means not taking him/her to the dragon’s den at all!

Anyway, just an idea to add a little integrity to your game.
: )

More Forum Sales...and Assorted Updates

Just waiting for my turn to feed the baby...thought I'd paste up a quick post.

Guy over at Dragonsfoot got a copy of my book in the mail and is enjoying it so far. Good thing he ordered it prior to the negative posters telling him it was a waste of money! Got a couple new orders today, so that's neat-o.

Work on the new book progresses. I've got several regular Baranof players working on interior artwork (yes, they are officially committed...sorry, guys). I told Josh that if he'll finish one of his pictures I'll throw it up on Ye Old Blog as a teaser. I think that probably made him MORE self-conscious.

The writing's going well, but it's looking a lot bigger than I'd originally hoped/planned. This one was supposed to be shorter and cheaper than the B/X Companion...it IS just a book of goodies after all. However, the spell lists are only half done...well, more like two-fifths...and just by themselves, they're nine pages so far. That's a crap-load of text...and that's with writing spells that say, "this is just like the 3rd level cleric spell of the same name." Filler, right? But there's a ton of new spells, too...really cool ones (in my opinion) and none of 'em can

[all right feeding begun...AND complete]

NONE of 'em can get left on the cutting room floor. "Numerical completeness" and all that.

I like symmetry...what can I say?

The issue might be...just might mind you...the whole "completeness" notion. After all, these are characters with their spell lists set from levels 1 to 36...or from 1 to 9 in the case of the single demihuman caster class. After all, I don't want to have to do a "companion" book for this supplement.

But it sure is a lot of spells.

In fact, I should try to knock out a few more tonight before I turn in (yeah, right). I'll check back with y'all later...like tomorrow.

Hasta manana!

; )

Making Characters

Ugh. That's about all we did last night.

I'll admit it...I'm disappointed in my own showing. I meant for this to be a "quick start, quick play" game, but I should have brought friggin' pre-gen characters...or pre-gen equipment/cyber- builds...or abbreviated gear lists.

Unfortunately, I didn't do ANY of this. I printed-out a couple of the equipment charts just before leaving the house, but these were meant for my own benefit. My (rather half-assed) intention/assumption was that I would simply outfit any created characters with equipment lists from the 1st or 3rd edition Shadowrun archetypes.

'Course, I'd forgotten my pet peeves regarding these games: 1st edition archetypes or miscalculated and 3rd edition archetypes have no equipment. Adding these together ended up meaning two and a half hours of chargen...and that's with me hurrying folks through the paces.

UGH!

It's a testament to my players' kindness/politeness that they didn't complain too much...in fact, a couple of 'em remarked afterwards, "I ENJOY making characters." Well, that's great and all, but I really wanted to play the game...that's kind of why we sit down to do it!

Well, anyway...NOW we have the characters (and I may just write up some "standard builds" over the weekend in case anyone wants to switch 'em out...the game is still mui young, since nothing much got a chance to happen!). Next week we should be able to get down to brass tacks...though two of my players will be MIA, and a couple-four new guys might be showing up.

*sigh*

Okay, pre-gen builds needed. Also, it becomes obvious that I may have too many choices of goody on the equipment list. The original edition had 24 pages of equipment (with illustration) and I only have 13 or so (including the rules for computer hacking), but parsing might still be necessary. Does one really need entries for radio, radio receiver, and sub-vox microphone? Can't these just be combined into one? Shouldn't vision upgrades simply ASSUME replacement with cybernetic eye?

Definitely need to manage and trim the contacts. Part of the problem here is I haven't completed the "monster" chapter (except for the few monsters I'd need for last night's adventures...security guards and gang members and such).

Hmmm...there's some good things to work on over the weekend for sure. We'll see how much time I have to do so. Man, I am hungry!

[one more thing - more than a couple of my players drew very cool pictures of their characters...Josh, especially, might need to be roped into some illustration work down the line. Check out his troll!]