Sunday, June 10, 2012

NTRPG Con 2012 - Day Three


Even more tired - if that is possible. :)

So, The Boy and I arrived back at the con in the morning to play in the finals of Circus Maximus.  Tim Kask refereed the game.  Regretfully, the rest of The Boy's team did not show up, so he was a solo player.  Everyone on the White Team showed up though.  However, it didn't help.  None of my team made it across the finish line.  it was brutal out there, I tell you - BRUTAL.  Great fun, all the same.

Afterwards, The Boy found a Battletech table.  That was lucky, as I'm sure he would have complained about going to do what I wanted to - which was to go sit in a room and listen to people talk. :)

The Artist Panel was great.  It consisted of Erol otus, Jennell Jaquays, Jeff Dee, Diesel LaForce, and Jason Braun.  During the panel, they drew monsters and answered our questions.  I really enjoyed listen to ALL of them complain about things in art that I have a hard time doing - it makes me feel better as an artist. :)

I was soooo happy that Stars Without Number won the Three Castles Award.  I'm a big fan of the role playing game, and I congratulate Kevin Crawford on his victory.

In the evening, we got to play Empire of the Petal Throne with Victor Raymond.  Jeff Dee also played, as well as John Eric  Holmes's son Chris.  I had read about Tekumel, and had wanted to play the game for decades.  I finally got my chance!

We decided to play a group of characters devoted to 'Change' - kind of like Chaotic in D&D.  We had one alien in the group.  I chose a female priestess named Merla, who was a devotee of Dlamelish.  She was sort of a religious courtesan, I think.  Odd for a courtesan to be dungeon delving, but I played her up as a spoiled rich girl who would throw away the lives of her slaves to ensure her own comfort.  She burned through two of her three slaves that way.

i had a blast playing in Tekumel, and Victor Raymond was great.  I know we frustrated him with out antics something fierce.  More the once he physically banged his head against the wall after we did or said something.  But somehow, we all survived.  Well, we did that buy sacrificing slaves to monsters and running.  Pretty effective, if you ask me.

After Tekumel, it was more Battletech for The Boy - whom I had to physically drag away from the table so we could get home.

One more day in the con left . . .


- Ark

Saturday, June 9, 2012

NTRPG Con 2012 - Day Two

Take my exhaustion from yesterday and multiply it a couple of times and you'll gt my exhaustion level right now.  But it was a great day all the way round.  I probably should go to sleep, but last year I tried to get a lot of rest before I wrote much about the con - and it backfired - becoming a jumbled mush in my head.  So I'm writing now.

Today was a bit lighter.  We hung out most of the day without actively gaming, just chatting with people, watching others game, and rooting loudly in other Circus Maximus contests.

I had a great talk with Diesel LaForce.  We discussed his time back at TSR and what he's been doing since - and he showed me his own project to recreate some of the lost works from the TSR years.  Wonderful stuff.  His work has just moved light years since Deities and Demigods.  We then went into his techniques with pen and the artists that he tries to emulate.  He's also doing sculpting these days, and The Boy fell in love with a dragon piece, so he not only bought one for himself, the Boy also bought one for a new found friend of his at the con.  My son amazes me often with his generosity.  Diesel seems like a great guy too. :)

The Boy and I sat down with Frank Menzter during dinner and we ate Schlotzsky's sandwiches together.  Frank regaled us with stories of his participation in the Gettysburg Centennial celebration - at Gettysburg.  He's been involved with some really cool stuff.  And, you know, talking to a guy who can describe what the downstairs and upstairs of Gary Gygax's house looked like - including what pictures hung on the walls - is just way cool anyway. I wasn't able to get into any of his games this time around, but it was a pleasure to get to sit down and talk to him.  Hopefully next year we'll get to play in something of his.

The evening was spend playing OD&D with Tim Kask.  Erol Otus was there too.  Tim ran us through Snakeriders of the Aradondo.  I was somewhat apprehensive about playing with Tim - as he always seem to to me as being a bit gruff and, well, a guy who didn't put up with shit from players.  And certainly The Boy and I can dish out big piles of shit.  But he was great.  I mean, still, he was a mean bastard of a DM who didn't take any shit from us, but a DM who can howl in laughter at the PCs antics certainly isn't too gruff.  We didn't complete our objective - midnight came around way too soon - so I guess the world ended (really) but officially, only two in the party died.  The first was eaten by monkeys and became monkey poo.  That will teach him to sleep in a tree during his watch, eh?  And the second death was when another player was bitten in half by a giant snake.  The Boy, Erol, I, and the rest of the team survived officially, I guess, so all was good.  I mean, as long as you don't count the whole end of the world thing. :)

So, I'm exhausted, and will crash after I strain my bleary eyes over this post to check for typos.  Goodnight.

- Ark

P.S. - Oh, and this guy here is a great dude.  We keep on crossing paths and it is always a blast.

P.S.S. - Oh oh oh.  And this guy here is great too.  He makes these great wooden dice at Artisan Dice - some of which the Boy now owns.  Very beautiful stuff.

Okay, really, time to sleep . . .

Friday, June 8, 2012

NTRPG Con 2012 - Day One

It's late and my head hurts, but that doesn't prevent me from smiling.  The Boy and I just got back from day one of NTRPG Con.

We got to the hotel earlier than I had hoped, so we were able to watch the charity game.  Well, I got to watch it.  The Boy was lucky enough to win a raffle allowing him to play in the game.  So, my son got to play first edition AD&D with Doug Rhea, Jim Ward, Steve Winter, Jennell Jaquays, Tim Kask, Sandy Petersen, and Frank Mentzer.

Jealous much?

I must say, I would have never guessed Sandy Peterson, the main author of the game Call of Cthullu, would be so hilarious playing a halfling.  All the players were great fun to watch.  Really.  Watching that game alone was worth the entire price of admission for the con.  Steve Winter as a druid cursed with pyromania against trees?  Jim Ward playing a . . . mage maybe . . . who was a habitual liar trying to get everyone killed?  Sandy the halfling and Tim Kask the gnome riding a horse in saddle bags.  Then Frank Metnzer filling the saddle bags with manure?  I mean - wow - my sides still hurt.

Regretfully, the Urutsk game did not happen.  I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I hope Timeshadows is okay.

Instead, the Boy and I played Circus Maximus.  I was kind of skeptical, since it was a chariot race rather than a role playing game - but now I know - if you ever have a chance to play that game - play it.  It's like the chariot races in Ben Hur - but nastier.  The first game was viscous, with many contestants getting splattered.  Near the end, the Boy destroyed my chariot, killing me, and winning a coveted spot on the Red Team for the Finals on Saturday morning.

Later, I fought in a match for a spot on the White Team.  I spent far too much time bashing people, and being bashed, and nearly too late realized that I would never win with speed in my crippled chariot.  So, I lurked around the track at slow speed, attacking charioteers as they raced by, hoping to win by attrition.  Oddly enough, I freaked so many people out, and they made enough fatal mistakes trying to avoid me, that I won a spot on the White Team.

So Saturday, the Boy and I will be battling each other on opposing teams in a Circus Maximus Death Match that will be remembered for all time.  Well, at least until the next con rolls around.

You might get the impression that I had a good time today - and you'd be right. :)

Now, I must get to sleep or my ears will start to bleed.  Good night.

- Ark

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Glacia Cover - Inks


Due to prepping for NTRPG Con, playtesting 5e, and generally not managing time well, tomorrow's Rather Gamey Comic will be pushed back till next time.  Instead, you'll be receiving sporadic, brain-fired con reports for a bit.

Until then, enjoy the faux comic cover I've been working on.  :)

- Ark

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

5e, Tinkering and Dragon Magazine


Well, D&D Next certainly has got people talking.  And hurling insults at one another.  So nothing really changes except the name of the game, eh?

I was sitting around thinking about earlier editions of D&D, trying to remember what it was like way back then, and comparing it to the advent of 4e, and now Next.  I think the big difference is Tinkering.

Let me give you some family history.  My father was born to an age where automobiles were still pretty simple things.  He spent most of his early years up under a hood, fiddling with engines, tweaking performance - heck - even rebuilding the body if need be to suit whatever wild hair was up his ass.  By the 70s, when I was growing up, he had the same love affair with computers, buying the home computer kits, tinkering, soldering, blowing out fuses, and spending thousands of dollars just to replicate PONG and Lunar Lander.  There was no off-the-shelf, pre-made computer that your average consumer could buy.  Even the most complete kits still had to be handcrafted with love, blood, sweat, and tons of cuss-words.

To me, D&D was the same thing.

When I was first exposed to D&D in 1981, it blew my mind.  A game of make-believe with a rules framework so people over eight could still play Bovine Tenders and Indigenous Peoples without stomping off in too much of a huff.  How awesome was that?

Actually playing D&D, well, that got me frustrated.  The rules, well, they frankly sucked.  After a few go-rounds, I found them limiting and not able to create the game I saw in my head.  Chalk most of that up to the limits of an 11 year old mind.   But luckily, there was Dragon magazine.

Every month, Dragon Magazine would come out and fill my brain full of gold.  There would be articles on game theory and design, new adventures, and new monsters.  But most importantly, there were the house rules.

It seems like in each issue, crammed somewhere, would be an article about how someone had tweaked or adjusted the rules of D&D to better fit their gaming style.  That's where I learned about concepts like Critical Hits and Misses, THAC0, Death and Dying Rules, Zero-level Characters, and god knows what else.  I internalized many of these ideas, and the amalgamation became my D&D.

It's funny that so many of those house rules from Dragon Magazine became so standard for so many people that they actually were codified into Second Edition AD&D.  If I had really understood that that's all 2e really was - AD&D + Dragon Magazine - then I would have never cursed Zeb Cook's name for two decades.

Another nifty feature of Dragon was that it would contain articles on games other than D&D, and often, games that were not even owned by TSR.  That exposed me to a lot of other game and their mechanics, without having to actually plunk down money that I did not have an a teen.

By the time I got back into D&D with 4e, Dragon Magazine was a paltry shadow of it's former self.  Sure, it had advice for DMs and such, but it wasn't chock-full of a wide variety of articles on subject ranging from game-design to how to fix a broken mechanic in your game.  Dragon had become just yet another corporate shill.

You had to look to blogs for advice on how to kit-bash 4e.

I tried - I really tried to take 4e, learn it, run it as intended, then go and house rule it until the damn game felt like D&D again.  But no, it never did.  Like Dragon, D&D was just a shadow of itself.  The remaining skeleton wouldn't even support changes I tried to make to it very well. D&D was no longer a KIT.  It was a highly tuned sports car, with a welded shut hood labeled 'no user serviceable parts,' driving in the wrong direction.  Sigh.

So that leads my thoughts to D&D Type V.  What is this monster?  Currently, from what I've been exposed to, it seems like a nice little rules light game.  It won't stay simple, I'm sure.  But the core appears to be a good one.  By good, I mean it will will stand up to a heavy amount of kit-bashing and not fly off the rails like 4e did.  They called it 'modularity,' which is kind of a pre-defined kit bashing.  I'm optimistic for D&D Next on this point.

The next step, in my mind, is let some really radical game designers in to write Dragon magazine articles that show how to take D&D Next, spin it on it's ear, and spit out marvelous home rules sets that could turn 5e into things completely different that were never intended.  Imagine letting good old Zak in and speak through the corporate-horse's mouth?  How cool would that be?  Imagine letting Monte Cook write an article on game design in Dragon.  Now.  After all that has gone on.  I mean, wow.

Okay, all of that is pie in the sky.  Bloggers serve the purpose that Dragon Magazine once did.  But imagine if it came from the horse's mouth?  Innovation and exploration and wild ass ideas.  Tinkering galore.  It would set an entirely new tone for D&D.  Well, a very old tone.

- Ark

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Dungeonspiration: NTRPGCON 2012

From 2011: A jovial Jim Ward planning to kill EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE. 
Next week, The Boy and I will be on Hajj to the North Texas Role Playing Game Convention.  Our long, arduous trek will involve us driving across the city.  Yes, indeed, it will be fraught with dangers - especially if the cherry Slurpee machine at the 7-11 on the way is busted.

Last year's Con was very inspiring.  I think the highlight for me was when Jim Ward offed my son's character in a game of Metamorphosis Alpha.  Eaten by a giant plant in one gulp.  I mean, can life get much better than that?

This year, a big bag of guests will be attending - Sandy Petersen, Tim Kask, Jennell Jaquays, Erol Otus, James M. Ward, Frank Mentzer, Jason Braun, Steve Marsh, Steve Winter, Dennis Sustare, Jeff Dee, Peter Kerestan, Zeb Cook, and Diesel Laforce.  Things might get a little awkward around Zeb Cook.  I mean, I did curse his name loudly for two decades because of second edition.  But now, I PLAY second edition, and am thoroughly enjoying it.  So I should probably just dine on a big plate of crow in front of him.

The Three Castles RPG Design Award is going to be judged by Dennis Sustare, Robert Kuntz, Sandy Petersen, Steve Marsh, and Zeb Cook this year.  Up for the award are Anomalous Subsurface EnvironmentRealms of Crawling ChaosStars Without Number, and the Tome of Adventure Design.  I think we all know I am rooting for Stars Without Number, so I'll shut up about it.

So, over the four days of the Con, I have some things scheduled:

  • Thursday: Urutsk with Kyrinn!  Yay!  Last year, The Boy faced Urutsk's strangeness head on - causing bouts of hysterical laughter.  I'm looking forward to another visit.
  • Friday: OD&D with Tim Kask!  I'm dead.  I'm sure he kills people who make bad puns.
  • Saturday Morning: Aliens?  Like in the Movie? With Alan Grohe?  I there!
  • Saturday Evening: Petal Throne with Victor Raymond.  Yes, time to introduce The Boy to the sweet smell of MUSTY CINNAMON.
  • Sunday: Quicksilver with Jeff Dee.  Did I mention Jeff Dee?  I've got, like, piles of his Kickstarter artwork on my desk.

That leaves lots of unscheduled time to shop, hob-nob, and crash other games.  The Boy and I are pumped, and I'm sure we will be very exhausted, and very inspired, at the end of it all.

If you are planning on attending, I hope to see you there!

- Ark

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Naming A Champions Superhero Character

Kaye has been working for, what, a week or two on his super hero.  Suddenly this moring we get an email from him.  This is the exchange:

Kaye: Quick! Give me some ideas for Superhero names!
Me: Putrid Pete. Engorged Man. Left Eyeball Lad. Lactating Larry.
Kaye: Yeah, I forgot to mention that he does not have the power to lactate. Good try though.
Me: Okay, well, what powers does he have?  Or should we just go with the obvious and call him MinMaxMan?
Kaye: Well his powers are super strength, flight and energy projection. And he is not totally min/max. He has one weakness.
Me: Well obviously, he should be called Superman.
Kaye: God damn I hate you. I was about to reply about how he is nothing like superman then I looked at his powers again..........now I have the urge to rework all his powers again. Are you happy now!
Me: One day I will be able to breath again.  Until them, I am laughing too hard to inhale.

Any email exchange with Kaye is normally a source of hours of amusement. :)

- Ark