Showing posts with label Gaming Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaming Life. Show all posts

Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Road Less Exploded

Note the carefully placed snipers behind the
bottle of soap bubbles and the Wii Zumba box!
I've been a long time fan of Savage Worlds.  Back last year, I ran some one-shot games and was preparing to run a campaign, but it fell through.  The Boy even GMed a short game with some friends, which was very fun.  I'd love to do some more Savage Worlds, but with the amount of other games going - it just hasn't been feasible.

Enter Savage Worlds Showdown.  Showdown is a skirmish version of Savage Worlds.  The rules are basically the same as Savage Worlds, with a bit of streamlining to take it out of the realm of RPG and into the wargaming world. You build your units with points, agree upon a scenario with your opponent, and have at it.  It's kind of like GURPS Warhammer, I guess, in that you can build just about whatever you want.  It's easy to min/max and make unfun - if that's what you like - but if the players agree upon some guidelines and look at the process of creating a scenario as game design, rather than competition, it can be loads of fun.

We started out using LEGO Star Wars figures, and as the Boy and I were playing, I came to the realization that we really didn't have to play on a game board or map.  We could use the entire frikkin living room as our battlefield.

Today, we graduated to our old WOTC Star Wars minis.  This was mainly because The Boy didn't want to go through the effort of digging through his vats of LEGOs to find the battle droid pieces.  The minis were fun.  I must say - Savage Star Wars is much more fun than the old Star Wars skirmish game.  

The Boy had a troops of clones - some regular clones, a troop commander (kind of a vanilla Rex) and some snipers.  I had some Super and non-Super Battle Droids.  Oh, and some snipers as well.  The two sides were fighting over a set of strange LEGO buildings that The Boy had crafted.  They were important to the war effort, I'm sure.

Like our old Soviet nemesis, I decided to go with sheer numbers.  The Boy went with grenades.  Frikkin grenades.  That punk commander had a thermal detonator.  It didn't take long for my poor troops to become scrap.

The boy took the Road Less Exploded, and that has made all the difference.  ;)

Savage Worlds Showdown is FREE, btw.  You can get it at the company website on the downloads page.  Don't forget to snag the excel worksheet that has all the troop building formulas built in.

Enjoy!

- Ark

Monday, September 12, 2011

And I Thought Holes Were For Throwing People Down

After some intense carousing, the party found themselves wandering the Wilds again. They were somewhat grumpy, owing vast sums to the City of Fultum, the Thieves' Guild, and the Assassin's Guild in long night of debauchery.  Oh - and there were the accusations of horse molestation, too.

They don't take roads anymore, so they didn't catch the attention of yet another green dragon in the sky.  This one was patrolling the skies over Barton Hill.  Yes, that Barton Hill, the site of the infamous Cube of Force attack.  They carefully hid while The Boy's halfling thief - Ferrit - shimmied up a tree.

With the aide of Ferrit's magical glasses, they saw the dragon light inside the walls of Barton Hill - half a mile away.  They also saw that the human guards on the wall had been replaced with orc guards.

Tim was livid.  The last time they attacked the city, Sai-Lin - Ron's cleric/Magic-user - had talked everyone into not burning the whole place down - just the city hall.  Think of the children, was the cleric's plea.  But this time it was unanimous - burn the mother to the ground.

Around four months ago - real time - the party found a set of wands that acted almost exactly like the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device in the Portal video game, the Wands of Doors.  Suddenly, the entire party remembers that they have the wands (gotta love gamer's selective memories,) and begin to try to figure out how they might work outside of the dungeon in which they were found.

After some Q&A, Sai-Lin determines/remembers that the Wands only work on granite.  They have Ferrit eyeball the walls of Barton Hill.  Are they granite?  I make a roll and give it a one in three chance.  Crap.  Yes, the walls of Barton Hill are granite.

After looking at the town, they only place they can place a portal hole so it gives a view inside of Barton Hill is on one of the two towers.  They can do that, alright, but they need to have portal near to them - and they are not willing to go closer than half a mile near the town.

"Are there any pieces of granite around?" they ask.  Some pebbles, yes.  But they need a space six feet in radius to get a portal to appear.  I let them know there is nothing like that around.

"What about those city walls?" Mervyn's cleric dwarf suddenly pipes up.  "There had to be a quarry somewhere around to get that much stone.  A granite quarry."

Greeeeat.  The frikkin dwarf has turned into frikkin Columbo.

"Okay okay, you find the quarry.  It's got all the slabs you'd ever need."

They drag a slab to half-mile mark from the town and place a portal hole on it, then have Ferrit place the other side of the hole on the granite tower.  The party then peers down the hole in the slab and sees the city square below.

Thirty orc stand in formation in the square.  One one side of the square, the Church of the Lawgiver sits, looking worse for wear.  It appears as though the front face of the church has been ripped off.  Rubble is on the ground around it, but they can't see directly into the hole in the church from the angle of thier portal.

"Is that hole about the size of a dragon?" one of the players asks.

Crap.

The characters readied flasks of oil, bows, slings, and torches - grinning with delight - all aiming downward.

(This, dear friends, is what we call a CLIFFHANGER.)

- Ark

Friday, August 26, 2011

Meet the Victims

It has come to my attention that some of you actually read this blog for my re-canting of the tales of joy and woe at the gaming table.  That's sort of odd to me, as one of the first things I learned about the cultural aspects of D&D Club was not to talk about D&D Club.  No no one really wants to hear about your 47th level Ranger.

However, it appears perfectly acceptable to talk about other people's 47th level Rangers. :)

So here is to the guys who actually write the stories I tell - the guys who put up with my blood rage, funny voices, innappropritae role play, and fuzzy rule recalling.  Come, meet the victims.

(Names have been changed to protect the guilty.)

The Boy - my tween son, who's been playing role playing games for four years now. He's a very crafty player, with a recent penchant for playing halflings - though he loves to make fighters named Regdar too.  The Boy achieved Manhood on Jun 8th, 2011, when his character was eaten by a giant carnivorous plant in a game of Metamorphosis Alpha run by JIM FRIKKIN' WARD.  I've never had such a proud or emotional moment in my life. I tear up just thinking about it.

Mervyn - a neighbor in his very early twenties.  Mervyn is an 'in your face' player - the kind of guy who looks for the largest monster in the batch and charges full steam into it.  His naturally high Charisma stat tends to convince others to do the same thing.  He's been playing war games, card games, board games, video games, and role playing games since he was an embryo, and enjoys pushing a game to it's limits.  I played D&D with Mervyn's father for a good long while, until he passed away last year.

Kaye - the new kid on the block.  He's a good friend of Mervyn's and around the same age.  He seems to like to play big, buff fighter types who do a lot of damage.  I'd guess that it might be more of a self-defense mechanism developed while playing with gung-ho Mervyn. :) Kaye watched us play, then wanted to play 4e with us. After that, he wanted to join my Labyrinth Lord game, so either he is mentally unbalanced, or he actually likes Old School Play. Or both, perhaps.

Ron - an old-ass gamer who is almost as old as me.  He always seems to have a game going somewhere.  He drives quite a way to get to the games, so I try to be mindful of that and present something interesting to him during games.  Ron is a thoughtful player, who likes to plan for contingencies and have all of his ducks in a row.  Regretfully, the universe hates Ron, and will fuck him over on just about any dice roll.  He once had three characters die - in a row.  He's a trooper, though, and slogs through whatever the universe hands him.

Tim - Stark . . . Raving . . . Mad. Tim is a Maelstrom of Chaos in a World Gone Wrong. The only predictable thing about him is that he is unpredictable.  In one game, he played a dragonborn who 'wore' a kobold in order to help convert it.  In that same game, he decided to play that very same kobold - as a converted monk.  This game, he is playing an elf who worships a god that doesn't exist.  To be honest, earlier in my career, I would have kicked Tim out of the group for his disruptive ways, but these days - I say screw it and let the chips fall where they may. :)

So that's the gang!  They are going to kill me for the pictures I drew of them - especially poor Tim - but oh well - it was worth it.

- Ark

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Bloodspurt

image by Nathan M. Rosario 
I am working on my character for the Pathfinder game I'm going to be playing with the Boy, who is playing a Goth halfling sorcerer with a tiny dragon familiar.

My character is, well, just check him out -

Name: Bloodspurt

Race: Half-orc
Class: Paladin
Alignment: Lawful Good

STR: 15
DEX: 13
CON: 14
INT: 8
WIS: 16
CHR: 19

I am seriously considering making him blond with an appearance identical to Fabio. I don't think I am going to be able to stop laughing throughout the entire campaign.  Dear god I'm going to be annoying.  The other players are going to kill me while I'm sleeping.

- Ark

Friday, August 19, 2011

The Six Million Dollar GM: Faster, Stronger, Now With More Funions

Honestly, I don't remember it being so PINK.
I triple dog dared ckutalik over in one of beedo's post to do what beedo mentioned, which was "something I'd like to see more bloggers discuss is their successful table techniques that translate into good games."  ckutalik is still writing, I guess, so I'll go first. ;)  He did post up some rules for the challenge, which I probably have not followed at all, but here we go . . .

Everything important that I've learned about running a role playing game I discovered in the first few years of playing.  The remaining decades are just filled with me having to relearn these basic tenants because I've read gaming advice that sounds good, but ultimately falls short.

Now when I say YOU in the points below, I mean ME.  I'm talking to myself here, and the games that I play.  What works for other people is different that what works for me.  You probably shouldn't even be reading this because it will screw up your game.

1. Stop fucking planning.

Really dude, just stop it.  Being prepared is one thing, but sitting around, imagining what the players are going to do and coming up with some sort of tree branch decision matrix outcome generation system is futile.  It's not going to be exciting.

Let the players do whatever the hell they want and react to it on the fly.  Build the world each step of the way as the players put their foot down on that particular patch of grass.  Sure, sketch out a map, imagine some dungeon ideas, flesh out an npc - but never expect that the players will go to those lands, explore those dungeons, or meet those characters.  The players can't screw up your plans if you don't have any, and it's kind of rude to expect the very free-thinking players that you want to be playing with to hop aboard your choo-choo train of railroadiness, no matter how grand it might play out in your head.

The best 'planning' for a game is to read lots of adventure fiction, ancient history books, geology texts, and Shakespeare.  Go watch Mythbusters and play with LEGOs.  Devour information and play games.  Feed your mind the building blocks of world making so you can have the tools to build on the fly.

2.  Don't you dare open that rulebook.

Looking up monsters stat, equipment lists, or random tables is okay.  But don't waste anyone's time digging for rules DURING A GAME.  If you can't remember it - it was obviously too complicated anyway.

Recently, one of my newer players had a character in the water, fighting a sewer kraken in 4e.  I told him that he was at a negative two to hit.

"Is that in addition to the underwater combat modifications listed in the rules?"

I chuckled.  "I don't remember what the 4e rules for underwater combat are, and I don't care.  You are at a negative 2.  Go."

He looked like I was speaking Martian to him, but he continued.  Later he joined my Labyrinth Lord game as well, so evidently the way I was running things wasn't too repulsive to him.

3. Leave the damn dice alone.

If you roll the dice, accept the result.  You asked the universe a question.  The universe gave you an answer.  Deal or don't roll the dice in the first place.  The universe typically makes better decisions that you anyway, since, you know, it can't be WRONG, so you might as well go with it.  And it works because I never feel guilty about cheating or short-changing the players from the full 'gaming experience.' :)


So, there you have it, ckutalik, my recipe for LEET G4MERZ SKILLZ   You are now 'it.'

:)

- Ark

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Halfling Battering Ram

When I was 10, I build Grond out of LEGOs.
A lot of things happened in our last Labyrinth Lord session,  but I would be remiss if I neglected to mention this odd little incident.

In the Invisible Mountain dungeon, The Boy found a little bone Cube of Force.  This was completely random.  I read the item description and thought 'Oh crap, I've just ruined the game with stupid randomity.'  The original AD&D Cube of Force had some drawbacks - which the LL Cube nullifies.   It basically creates a movable 10' foot cube of nigh-invulnerability for 60 minutes each day.

I shrugged and let it be.  The Percentile Oracle had spoken.

So, they left the dungeon, conquered a dragon (completely forgetting they had any magic items at all,) and made their way to the town of Barton Hill.  They were hoping that Barton Hill had not pledged allegiance to the growing army of dragons infesting the Wild Lands.

"Halt, in the name of the Great Dragon King Abaraxis.  State your names and your business!" was the guards' answer to their unspoken question as they stood outside the town gate.

"I am Imbroglio, and we have just slain a dragon.  We are your liberators.  Let us in!" the little elf with the high charisma said.  Regretfully, Imbroglio was well known throughout the Wild Lands as being the worshipper of a god that doesn't actually exists, and being one of the most prolific and unabashed liars on the entire continent.

"We have heard of you, Imbroglio.  Archers . . . kill them," the captain said.  Twenty-nine archers appeared on the town wall.

"Dammit!  Run!" yelled Imbroglio.

"Wait!  Get close to me!" said The Boy's halfing thief, Ferrit.  He took out the cube of force and activated it.

Arrows rained down on them, bouncing off the invisible cube of force.  The party cheered.

"We just came out of the woods.  Can we make a battering ram?" Imbroglio player asked.

"Well . . ." I chewed my lip.  "I think that armies make battering rams before they lay siege to a city.  You can start chopping down a tree, I guess."

"Wait," Imbroglio's player said, "I have a better idea.  Let's all go up to the gate.  The force walls center on the cube in Ferrit's hand, right?"

I nodded.

"Okay, so when we get up to the gate, we pick Ferrit up and use him as a battering ram and smash down the door."

"No!" The Boy howled.  "You'll crush my head and kill me!"

I tried not to laugh as I looked at my son.  "Ferrit will be alright.  The cube of force will act like a shield."

"Oh.  I still don't like it," the boy huffed.

So, my friends used my son as a battering ram.

The guards on the wall were having none of this, and began throwing whatever they had down on the party.  Dirt, rocks, and hot tar created a layer of floating asphalt above the PCs heads.  But finally, they smashed the door down.

"What a minute," the cleric said.  "Why are we invading this town?"

This began a heated argument about burning down the town, or just a part of it.  In the end, the party ran the guards off the battlements and set fire to the town hall.  They booked it out of the place just before the charges ran out on the cube.

There was still the asphalt roof to deal with.  The party helped Ferrit chunk the cube, and it's strange roof, as far away as they could.  With a smash, the asphalt collapsed onto the little bone cube.

I picked up a die and rolled a saving throw.

"Oops," I smiled. "The asphalt shatters the cube."

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

The dice giveth, and the dice taketh away.

- Ark

Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Right Tool For the Right Job

I did everything to warn the guys that the Invisible Mountain dungeon was out of their league.  They pressed on, not believing me, so I did my darnest to kill them with strength stat sucking shadows and worse horrors.  After having their asses handed to them over and over again, they finally decided that the '30 seconds of combat, a day of rest, 30 seconds of combat, a day of rest' pattern wasn't working well, so they went off to greener pastures.

Greener pastures are perfect places for random wilderness encounter rolls.

The party was travelling through a meadowed area within a forest when they heard a thump-thump-thump in the sky.  This has happened before.  They knew it was a dragon - most likely a green dragon.  They ran for the bushes.

Well, except for Thrug.  Out of the entire party, the half-orc fighter wasn't fast enough.  He sighed, drew his sword, and faced the green dragon bearing down on him.

"Let's do this!' Mervyn, the player, said.

The green dragon snatched at Thrug as he flew by, an easy snack to bring back to his lair.  I rolled and . . . missed.

"Can I jump on the dragon's leg as he goes by?"

"Um. I guess. Yeah.  You and the dragon jet up 80 yards as it continues its arc." I nodded.

The rest of the party hopped out of the bushes.

"Guys, I got this!" Mervyn said.

We are an Order of the d30 group, meaning that they get to replace one normal dice roll with a d30 each game session.  A barrage of arrows, sling bolts, and magic missles flew upwards. The d30 flew from hand to hand as they ripped the dragon to shreds.

"Guys," Mervyn muttered nervously.

The Boy got the killing blow.  The party watched the slow plummet of several tons of lizard meat as it fell from the sky, crashing to the ground on top of the hapless half-orc.

"Uh . . oops?"

Some time later, the PCs had dug a tunnel beneath the dragon's corpse to reach Thrug's body, which they began looting.

"Okay, so what do you got?" Ron asked Mervyn, pencil in hand.

Marvyn sighed, looking at his character sheet.  "That +1 sword, a shield, a potion of flying, a suit of plate armor . . ."

Mervyn was interrupted by Ron's laughter.

"What?"

I smiled, "Oh, that potion of flying of yours was smashed to bits on impact"

The cog wheels slowly turned in Mervyns head, then it hit him.  "Dammit!  Dammit!  Dammit!  I forgot I had that!"  He facepalmed, then looked at me.  "That was so stupid.  You have to put that in that blog of yours."

I chuckled, "Oh, it'll be there alright - you don't have to ask."

I'm begining to wonder why I bother trying to kill them.  They do so well all by themselves. :)

- Ark

Saturday, August 13, 2011

It's Labyrinth Lord Game Day - Finally!


Old School D&D puts me in a good mood.  
I plan on slaughtering all the PCs ruthlessly. :)

Ark



Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Something's Rotten In the State of Vornheim

BRIEF VORNHEIM SPOILERS - STAY AWAY IF YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY.

In our Vayniris campaign last week, I heard the players grumbling about lack of character options.  At the campaign start, I had limited the characters to just using 4e Essentials character classes and options.  I listened and thought about it.  Expanding the options and classes didn't really make my life any more difficult - just theirs - so I opened the floodgates.  The players could use any race, class, or option available in the character builder.

Everyone rebuilt their character for tonight's game.

Tim made a warforged.  For those in the know, that is basically a magic metal robot.  His class was a mentalist (or something like that,)  which basically meant that he was a psychic magic metal robot.  Tim played him very much like C3-PO, but not meaning to.  I had to point it out to him - though I still dont' think he believed me - even though he had named the character THREE.

So the guys were in a bad guy's house in Vayniris - straight outta Vornheim.  They were in the middle of a fight in the entryway.  It was a big room, and the PCs were nicely spread out - all far away from each other.  One was even running into the next room - the kitchen - chasing a minion.  You know - perfect 4e split the party set-up.  It was so perfect that Wil Wheaton's ghost almost materialized.

Well, I took that moment to have a nasty creature of Zak's pop out of a doorway and go for the closest character - which was the Cleric of Pelor - Sunny.  The creature's attack ignored her armor and dissolved Sunny's scale mail into goo with one strike.  I was happy with myself.  Rarely does anything like that happen in 4e.  A player's possessions are pretty sacrosanct.  Only a real bastard would melt someone's armor.

Heh Heh Heh.

Tim's eyes bugged out.  His turn was next.  His magic robot took one look at the metal dissolving beast and ran out of the room.  He ran out into the road and continued running down the road.

Everyone else busted out laughing uncontrollably.  I started laughing so hard . . . I laughed so hard . . . well . . . I laughed so hard that I farted.

I think no one heard because of the laughter.  I said sorry, but no one responded - I think because of all the noise form laughing.  I hope it was because no one heard any of it.

Oh well.  They all know now - or soon will.  But dammit - it was worth a fart.  It was damn funny.

This is why I role play.

Well, not to have an excuse to fart in public - but - well . . . I should probably just shut up now.

- Ark

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Finding a Path

I picked this up today.  I'm not sure what that means.  Been debating it for a couple of years.

But, you know what curiosity killed, don't you?

My wallet!

<tin hat>

- Ark

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

If Everyone Rolled Their Dice Off A Cliff . . .

Yes, apparently I would too. :)

These are most of my dice - except the ones sitting in game boxes, lost under couch cushions, or still stabbing painfully into the bottoms of my feet.

Whheeeeeee!

- Ark

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Heroica

The Boy and I are sitting around the computer right now, listening to Spotify, singing "Tonight Tonight" along with Hot Chelle Rae as we look up pictures of Zak Galifinakis. We just got back from a three day weekend at the lake. I didn't catch a single fish, but the boy caught quite a few perch. That was okay, as I was feeling particularly Buddhistic and wasn't in the mood to jam a hook through a fish's jaw. I did breifly wonder if my poor little skewered worms were broken though.

The Boy picked up Heroica, which was the perfect alternative to sitting outside in the 110 degree weather. I have two words for you:

ENTRY DRUG.

Here in ten years we are going to see a lot of kids coming out of high school, rubbing the LEGO track marks on their arms, looking for a fix. If we in the OSR are prepared, all we need to do is wave a bag of dice and some minis at them - and they'll be hooked just like those perch the Boy was catching. Tru dat.

Heroica is a pretty fun game. I don't know why I didn't think of it when I was ten. You pick a character, you track your hit points, you get gold and can buy equipment, and you can slay the beasties. WoTC may not sue them, but TSR certainly would have. I like it a lot.

It got me thinking though. Why not just use LEGOs to map your D&D dungeons, rather than graph paper? Hmm. Perfect for fidgeting players. Might even be good for DMs. I think I'll try that.

:)

- Ark

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Erotic Fantasy

During our game tonight, one of my players piped up that he had recently come into a batch of old D&D books that he really wasn't interested in, and asked if we wanted any.  He mention that one was an erotic D&D book - and I said "Sure, I'll take a look at it, at least."

He said that if his girlfriend saw it, she would probably freak big time.  What he brought back from the car was a rather beat up copy The Book of Erotic Fantasy.  "Oh, that thing," I laughed.  "Sure, I'll take it."

Having done a brief perusal through the book tonight, and I'm just amazed at the controversy.  It's been a while, but I seem to remember some people were quite upset about this book.

It's got some boobs in it, there are dildos too.  And there is a brothel.  And it talks about sex and BDSM and magical ruffies and pregnancy times for elves.  Perhaps I am too jaded - but so what?

There was a lot of sex in our D&D games when I was a teenager.  We weren't hot chatting across the table or anything, but everyone needed to know the charisma of the tavern wench, the big bad vampire lady had to be wearing a leather bustier, and all of the princesses wore magical chastity belts with 'automatic blade de-incentives' for protection.  Some characters would get married to NPCs and have lots of children. The hormones raging in our pimply bodies ensured that something regarding sex was uttered at least once in ever five minute time span.

I'm not exactly sure what the problem was when The Book of Erotic Fantasy was released.  Was it the kid issues - and the assumption that only kids played D&D?  Well, I think you fix that by just not selling it to kids.  Other titles get sold to only adults, right?  I know that at 14, I sure as heck couldn't go into the 7-11 and by a Playboy.  There is some kind of system, right?  I had to find my porn out in the woods behind a dumpster like all the other kids.  I never could figure why people were THROWING AWAY PORN, but hey, their loss.

Well, anyway, this book seems to have a lot of neat things to spice up an adult RPG game - even if you go nowhere near any brownchickenbrowncow moments.  I mean, what campaign couldn't be improved with a Crop of the Mistress or the Gnomish Kama Sutra?  Okay, yeah, I'm far from vanilla. :)

I told the Boy he could see it when he was 18.  He was okay with that.  Girls have cooties, doncha yanno?

- Ark

Monday, July 4, 2011

Vornheim Type IV

With apologies to Zak
"Dad?" the Boy asked me as we were driving to Sonic.  "Remember when you said Labyrinth Lord was like going home for you?  You wanted to go back home, and you did?"

"Yes," I nodded, remembering that and several blog entries that I had written revolving around the concept.

"I've been thinking," the Boy started.

Uh oh.

"You know, I started with Fourth Edition, and that's my home," he looked at me.  "I want to go home."

Oh crap.  Done in by my own figure of speech. 

Busted.

The Boy has put up with my OSR shenanigans for half a year now.  He followed me down Nostalgia Lane and even gave Jim Ward and Frank Mentzer a run for their money.  He has more than earned the right to play what he wants.

"Okay, okay, I get it," I chuckled.  "Let's play some 4e."

But how?  I thought about the various RPGA and Encounters stuff from WOTC - but that style of play epitomizes the worst of what 4e has to offer.  I looked at several gaming groups - but so many of them are switching to Pathfinder these days.  I thought I had someone to DM - but come to find out he'd much rather play.  So looks like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and RUN 4E AGAIN.

After meditating on the subject for some time, I think I can deal with it.  But this time it's going to be different.  I'm going Old School.  Screw balanced encounters.  To hell with the fully portioned level appropriate treasure parcels.  And skill challenges?  Those were lame anyway.  They get tossed out on the side of the road.  I'll keep the mechanics that the boy likes, but I'm not doing boring or stupid crap to 'complete the harmonic 4E balance in flux.' 

And I'm going to run Vornheim.

I read Vornheim during my vacation and was amazed.  Zak's really got something great here.  I'd say award-winning.  My initial thought was to use it verbatim - but I'm rethinking that.  I think  I'll teleport Vornheim to a post-apocalyptic Earth half a million years in the future - Dying Earth-ish.  I don't like cold, so rather than frigid, I'll put it on the the Texas Coast.  That ought to do the trick.  A few tweaks here and there and I'll be done.

That still leaves all of the battle mats and minis.  I got a box load of little monster pogs with the Monster Vault.  I'd like to use them, but I guess that the players are going to want to use their minis.  The Boy certainly will.  And fighting a cardboard pog with a gloriously painted metal mini might seem a bit lame.  Oh well, something to think about.

If anyone has any thoughts on making 4e palatable - without changing the basic mechanics - let me know.  The Boy's birthday is coming up, and I'd like to have it all ironed out before then. :)

- Ark

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Monday, June 13, 2011

Dead Simple Lock & Trap Mini-game Report

Back in April I posted rules for a Dead Simple Lock & Trap Mini-game.  This was created with help from - oh - just about everybody in the community.  I must say, it's working great.  The Boy is loving it.  Whenever there is a lock or trap, I start shuffling the deck of cards and he runs around the table and stands next to me, making his guesses and wanting to see the cards first hand as I reveal them.

The other players seem to enjoy watching - but I was surprised that one player reported using the mini-game in the rpgs he runs as well.  He said he used it for Pathfinder and it was a hit.  But even more surprising, he started using it in his Shadowrun flavored Savage Worlds games as well, to handle cyber-intrusion.  Seems like it works good for any time you need to create a little more tension than just a flat die-roll, but not take too long.

One little problem I have is that the Boy tends to do a bit better than he should statistically.  Whether he is psychic or not is up in the air, but I'd say that the chance that he is reading his old man's unconscious cues is much more likely. :)

I'm impressed how fun the simple little thing is.  Go ahead - give it a whirl.  It won't bite. 

Much.

- Ark

Friday, June 10, 2011

That'll Do, Pig. That'll Do.

I was in the car with my son, driving to Rosa's Cafe for some Tex-Mex.  I like the beef fajitas, while the boy is a fan huge fan of cheese enchiladas - or as he likes to call them, inch-a-ma-la-kas. 

Suddenly the boy looked at me from the passenger seat and said, 'Can we go to the convention again next year?" 

"Of course," I smiled.  A couple of day's before, we had been knee-deep in the North Texas Role Playing Convention, strutting our nerd-boy gaming selves around a hotel in Irving and wallowing in the old school.

"You know those old guys you liked when you were a kid?" he grinned.  "I liked playing with them." 

I chuckled and changed lanes.  Luck and persistence had allowed us to play with the likes of Frank Mentzer, Jim Ward, Erol Otus and Dennis Sustare - names that were as unto RPG gods to me when I was my son's age.  "Me too."

"And you remember when you were talking to Harley before the game," he said, suddenly looking at is hands.  I got the feeling he was leading the witness.  "And you said that you had played a lot of 4e, but after a while, you decided you didn't like it and you just wanted to go back home?"

With a nod, I wondered what he was getting at.

"I . . ." he fidgeted, "I kind of understand what you meant by 'home' now."

I gulped and kept on driving.

- Ark

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Why I Am Broke


I had intended to regale you with more exploits at NTRPGCON, but I've found that my brain is fractured.  Instead, I offer you the contents of The Boy's and my swag bags:

  • Lamentations of the Flame Princess: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing: Grindhouse Edition
  • Vornheim: The Complete City Kit
  • Sword & Wizardry: Complete Rulebook X2
  • Advanced Fantasy Miniatures - Lord of the Great Plains (NTRPGCON Exclusive)
  • Tourist Traps: A Swords and Wizardry Adventure by Dennis Sustare
  • The Dwarven Glory
  • Two sets of URUTSK: World of Mystery Player's Dice
  • B3: Palace of the Silver Princess
  • C2: The Ghost Tower of Inverness
  • I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City
  • I3: Pharoh
  • L1: The Secret of Bone Hill
  • S1: Tomb of Horrors
  • X1: The Isle of Dread
  • X2: Castle Amber
  • Legend of the Five Rings GM's Screen
  • Pathfinder Bonus Bestiary

The Boy does have other things, scattered around the house - dice and doodads and whatnot that I'm sure I'll never see again.  And the last two were raffle prizes, so they didn't make me broke. :)

I'd like to thank Timeshadows, Frog God, and Mythmere (and other people I don't know of yet) who showered The Boy with generous gifts and priceless good times.  We may be broke in cash, but we are certainly rich in warm feelings.

- Ark

Monday, June 6, 2011

Gaming on a Harley - The DCC RPG Experience

Harley Stroh is a modest man who apologized profusely for us having to sit through a playtest of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, instead of getting some 'real' gaming in at the North Texas Role Playing Game Convention.

"Are you kidding?" I said, "Do you know the kind of buzz DCC RPG is getting out there?  Get on with it, man!"

I chose a fourth level pregen Wizard and named him Urlik the Blemished.  The big thing that intrigued me about DCC RPG was the variable nature of spells, in order to emulate 'true' Vancian mechanics - so I had to had to play a wizard.  Had to. 

The Boy picked a Dwarf fighter and, of course, named him Regdar.  One thing I've noticed about my son, he either wants a character who is exceedingly tall, or exceedingly short.  There are no inbetweens with him.  The rest of the party was comprised of another fighter, a cleric, and a thief.

I won't get much into the mechanics of the game, as they are discussed elsewhere - and the beta should be available for download on Wednesday from the Goodman site.  Interesting features include:

  1. A wizard can 'burn' her stats to increase the power of spells and also to invoke the power of her patron,
  2. Thieves appear to be able to burn luck points in order to improve the chance of pulling something off (although I think anyone can burn luck points - it's just more likely that thieves have more,)
  3. And the warrior has a special 'Mighty Deed of Arms,' kind of a carte blance combat maneuver where the player can describe some combat feat of awesomeness and roll a d5 to pull it off.

That reminds me.  ZOCCHI DICE!  DCC RPG uses zocchi dice.  I love those dice and try to invent ways to use them in my Labyrinth Lord campaign.  DCC RPG uses them inherently.  Of course, you can emulate a d5 easily enough - but it's much cooler just to have and roll one.

The set-up for the game was that I, Urlik the Blemished, hired the rest of the party to go and beat up some baddies, basically.  However, Harley took me aside and gave me the skinny on just what was going down.  While it wasn't horribly nefarious, that fact that I refused to give the party specifics of what was going on, and that I played Urlik the Blemished like a very creepy Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, made them very untrusting.

The game culminated in a scene to stop the big bad.  The fight was going poorly and Urlik called upon his patron.  An amazingly lucky roll allowed Urlik the Blemished to suck the souls out of the big bad and the henchmen, gaining their power.  This completely freaked out the other players, who decided to kill poor - and somewhat evil - Urlik. The fighter began to smack Urlik with a grate, to little effect. The thief gained part of Urlik's true name (long story,) and tried to turn his spells back on the wizard.  That didn't work too well, and Urlik charred the thief into dust.  Then the cleric popped off a super-charged banish spell and blew Urlik to kingdom come.

The rest of the day, people came up and asked me why our table was cheering and whooping so loudly near the end of our session.  I had to tell them, "Well, they were cheering so loudly because they killed me."

I've heard some moaning on blogs and forums about the complexity of the spell-casting charts.  Yes, They are more complex than OD&D or AD&D.  They require spell casters to have a copy of the book, or at least a print out of each spell.   If you are wanting dead simple - this isn't it.  But you know, compare DCC spell-casting to the obnoxious spew of powers in 4e, and you still have something incredibly simple - and what that small amount of complexity buys you is an awesome spell system that feels like a book, not video game.

It was an great session and Harley Stroh is an awesome DM.  This is the first new system in quite a while that I've wanted to play.  Let me be clear about this.  I DM.  Ninety-nine percent of the time, I'm the DM.  I look at games as a DM - think about them, analyze them, digest them - as a DM.  But I want to play this.  I want to roll up another wizard, hunt down a  DM, and be a player in a Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG game.  I haven't had that strong a feeling for a new system since - oh - 1981, I think it was.

Well done, Goodman dudes, well done.  Thanks, Harley

- Ark

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Get Thee To A Convention

As I sit here, winding down from three days of convention going and getting ready for a fourth, my mind keeps on going back to the huge joy it has been, meeting people like Jim Ward, Tim Kask, Erol Otus, Frank Mentzer, Jeff Dee, Paul Jaquays, and Dennis Sustare.  These were people I knew as a child - I knew them from their words and art and designs.  I knew them, but I never really met them.

With the smiles also comes the sighs that this is my first RPG convention.  I am kicking myself that I never went out to meet Gary Gygax or Dave Arneson or Eric Holmes or Jim Roslof or the many others who contributed to the early days of rpgs and have passed on.

Go to a convention - these smaller conventions especially.  Meet these people.  Meet the other game designers and publishers who are following in their footsteps.  Go meet an ocean of people who love rpgs as much as you do.  It's well worth it.

- Ark