You Gotta Share The Love

I've been a role-player since starting college in UCC in 1998. Before then, I had vaguely heard of the concept, but wasn't all that familiar with how it worked. I got asked to join a once-off adventure with pregenerated player characters, run by one of the taller members of the Wargaming and Role Playing Society, or WARPS. If I recall correctly, it was a Lovecraftian horror, in which I played the wife of a crackpot inventor who ended up being revealed as a clockwork automaton, much to everyones surprise, including myself! At that point I killed my husband and everyone else and escaped into the wastelands with my son who had been locked away in the attic.

Basically, I was hooked.

It was like reading a book with friends and choosing the outcome. Brilliant! I found out much later that those kinds of books existed as well! Amazing!

I spent the next several years playing and running various games, learning various systems and introducing more people to the world of tabletop RPGs, as well as making new friends through it.

Then that tall man with the twisted and uncanny sense of storytelling, who had gone on to write RPG's professionally, told me about a new game on the market, one focused more on storytelling and description than rolling bigger numbers. Gar laid out all the reasons why I should get excited about Spirit of the Century, then hit me with the homerun. It was a pulp setting, based in the 1920's and 30's, styled after the adventures of the Shadow, Indiana Jones, Doc Savage and, of course, the Rocketeer!

Once he got hold of his own copy of the book, he ran a few games, and I jumped at the chance to be in it. Before we were even finished the character creation section, which was most of a session in itself, I knew that this was going to be my system. The system I used for every game I ran. The system I stole elements from even if I was playing with a different rules set. The system I would love and support from this moment on.

I got the beautiful and low print run hard cover edition, read it cover to cover and ran my first successful campaign, including twelve sessions, guest appearances by other players and many, many happy memories.

So when Evil Hat annouced in late 2012 that they were Kickstarting their new edition of Fate, the rules system used in Spirit of the Century, I was stuck to it like gum on a Cirrus X-3! I watched as the Fate Core stretch goals were destroyed as the amount pledged shot through the roof. My own pledge amount rose as more and more was made availalbe as print add-ons. I became involved in the swiftly growing community around it in ways I have never done for anything before. I loved seeing the love Fate Core was getting, and sharing that love with others online.

Jump to PAX Prime 2013.

I'm wandering the main exhibition floor early on Saturday morning. I've decided to cross to the other side of the hall to check out a particular booth when I stumble across a guy chilling out on one of the complimentary seats one of the big booths has lying about its area. His head is stuck in a copy of the recently released print version of Fate Core. I stop briefly to comment on the book.

It turns out he's not a role-player! He saw the book and thought it looked like an interesting read, and already he's about a third of the way through. We chat briefly about the hobby and the book, and I suggest a few places to start, as well as answering a few quick questions he has. Before I leave, I suggest that he takes a look at Fate Accelerated Edition, a companion pick-up-and-play version of the Fate Core book, then I wish him well in his new adventure and keep on wandering.

Saturday goes by and Sunday rolls about. It's late afternoon, and I'm in the convention hall again, but this time I'm looking for my wife. I check my email and discover that she's on the sixth floor, in the Console Freeplay Area. That means having to go up the back stairs, a route I don't usually cover at PAX, as that side of the sixth floor is mostly for various panels.

I reach the fifth floor and sitting on one of the comfy chairs by himself is the guy from yesterday, still reading Fate Core. He's noticably further along in it. I stop and say hi. He recognises me immediately and we both get a good laugh out of running into each other again in a convention of over 70,000 attendees, especially here, as he picked this place to stop and read expressly because it was so quiet and out of the way. I ask him how he's enjoying the book, and he tells me, with much excitement, that he's thinking of running his first game tonight!! I wish him the best of luck in tonights game and many more beyond before leaving to find my wife.

I sit down with Claire and realize my brain wants to tell me something, so I relax and listen. It tells me this:

You have never been monetarily wealthy. You went to college away from home and had to pay for rent and food. Even with a job, you had to borrow money from your parents at times. You finished college with a degree and got a job doing something you love, but for only four hours a day, and you still had to pay for food and rent, as well as now paying back borrowed money to the bank and your family. Any time you thought you had money, an unexpected expense came up to take it all away. And then, you decided to move to Vancouver, so you had less money than ever to spend freely.

In all that time, from your first day in college to today, tomorrow and beyond, you have had amazing friends. They have shared with you all kinds of things, from cards to make your L5R deck better, to board games and books, from video games to comics, to food and clothing. You have long thought about how you haven't often been able to return that kindness to them.

But karma is a universal thing. Others do good things to you, you do good things to others, others do good things to even others. It does not have to be a closed loop. They do not have to be the same people. And

Every.

Little.

Thing.

Counts.

It's not the value, it's the friendship behind it.

You know what to do.

And suddenly I do. I get up and tell Claire I'll be back soon.

I race down three flights of stairs to where I know it will be and I buy it.

Then, I go back up two flights of stairs and find that guy again, still in the same place, still reading the same book. I interrupt his reading one last time and hand him a fresh copy of Fate Accelerated Edition, because I can do that now for someone. It's nothing, I say. It only cost me five dollars. This is incredible, he replies. I've never had a stranger gift me something before. I really appreciate it.

Enjoy the game, I tell him as I head back to my wife. It's the best hobby in the world.

Tuesday Night Attempted Gaming

For the last few month I've been in a role-playing group every Tuesday evening after work. It started as my introduction to FATE 3.0 via Dreadnought and then on to my game based in the Dresden Files Universe version of Vancouver. Starting at seven players, my game swiftly dwindled to three regulars, then just those three, end of story.

I was kind of losing heart at this point, but one of our small number offered to run the FATE powered sci-fi game, Diaspora. I jumped at the chance to play rather than GM again, and we started character creation with five players. Before the first session, that dwindled to two players.

None-the-less, it has been an awesome amount of fun so far, but we've done nothing. We have brought a whole new meaning to the terms sidetracked, procrastinate and distractible. We only really get two hours on Tuesday evening to play, but that actually works out to less than an hour of playtime, with the remaining time made up of stories from our week, random stuff we read online, old TV shows, apt and hilarious quotations that then require explaining, discussions of what we're currently reading or playing and much, much more, all wrapped up in a tidy package of howling laughter.

We honestly get nothing done. In five weeks we've started one adventure, of which we have boarded a vessel, met the other passengers, found a ghost ship, went on board, investigated, had lunch, found something that shouldn't be. Only the last two points were performed yesterday.

I love it. I haven't had as much fun in a long time. Sometimes, gaming is just an excuse to meet up and hang out with people. Getting any progress in the story is secondary to the enjoyment of one anothers company.

Neutral Good Human Druid/Sorcerer

One of my friends in Vancouver emailed me this. Apparently it's been doing the rounds for some time now, so you might already have seen it. It's a script to work out what DnD character you are, and it's well done. There are 130 questions, and not a single "In a fight would you use a) a sword, b) an ax, c) magic" style obvious one among them! Nice.

What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?

Ability Scores:
Strength-12
Dexterity-11
Constitution-12
Intelligence-12
Wisdom-13
Charisma-14

Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Primary Class:
Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast.

Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.

Find out what kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character you are and feel free to share it in the comments. Just the title will be fine. Don't clog up my comments with the entire thing, please!!

Conflict And Consequences

Notice: As this is the final post in this series, why not catch up on the whole lot.
1 Writing The Dreadnought RPG
2 The Great And Terrible Engine
3 Mysteries And Machinations
4 Intrigue And Investigations

I arrived in the store at my usual early hour. In a break from tradition, I got food on the way as Claire went to a writing seminar on writing for video games in Downtown, so we didn't have dinner at home. I suppose we could have had an early dinner, but I was playing the Gears of War 3 Beta and food was not a priority.

For the final installment of the series we only had three available players. One of the missing was away on holidays and had informed me last week while the other was chipping away at a project he needed to finish. After the others arrived, there was a short discussion about the Gears of War series and Beta before we started into the big finale[1].

Skip to the end.

This week was almost entirely combat with roleplaying opportunities spread between bouts of conflict. I think I've mentioned before that combat is my weak point. I find it hard to make dice rolling exciting, which is why I tend to emphasize the roleplaying aspect of my games. But tonight worked out well. There was lots for people to do, and combat was brutal. I got to inflict a lot of damage on people, and cause quite a few Consequences.

By the end of the night the characters were all a little bloodied and beaten, the last secret of the Dreadnought remained a secret, and the various characters parted ways to continue their individual unwritten stories beyond the adventure.

One of the interesting features of this evenings game was that one of the players sent his character in a very different direction from the book, and almost got the character killed in the process. Last minute fortune kept peoples attention focused on bigger problems, but things could have been interesting. Afterwords, there was some discussion about Player versus Player conflict, and I was happy to find the while everyone was OK with the idea of it for a once-off, the upcoming campaign will not be suffering such difficulties[2].

I was glad to see that everyone enjoyed the extended combat. Next week we start the character generation for Dresden Files, and while I don't expect to be regularly dealing with combat scenarios involving the huge numbers of forces on both sides that tonight’s session included, it may well be something I might try as a "season finale", and I'm glad the players are comfortable with the idea.

After the game we all retired to a local bar that we've been enjoying after most of the sessions so far. I had to strongly resist the urge to head home and play the Beta, but I enjoy the conversations that we usually have when we're out, so I dropped my bags at home and headed out as well. This gave me an opportunity to inquire about what the players present liked and didn't like about the game. Thankfully, there was little to complain about, and the only major issue was  a lack of complete comfort with the character players were playing, something that I admitted I expected even before the game began. These were pre-generated characters, with little input for the players that were playing them. For my following campaign, the players will be creating their own characters and that shouldn't be an issue.

As combat dominated the session, there wasn't as many opportunities for favourite moments, thought we did end the session on a note of hope for the characters and their world. As the session ended, one of the Player Characters turned to one of the Non-Player Characters from an opposing faction and shook hands, commenting "I hope we don't meet again before this war is over", to which the NPC replied, with the help of one of the other players at the table "I agree, and hope to see you again, soon."

Next week we meet to create the city and characters for my upcoming Dresden Files RPG. I can't wait to see what the players create. The last four weeks have been a wonderful experience for me as their GM. I can only imagine the amazing characters and world they will create themselves.

[1] Thanks to the Gears Beta, I didn't really prepare a snappy "Previously in Dreadnought", or any kind of opening in fact. So I started the game with "You all know where we stand, let's do this" and I feel the session suffered for it. I think players got into the game a lot faster the previous week and I feel we had a lot more energy from the moment the first scene began. Lesson learned: Always have a snappy opening.
[2] I realize some games work with Player versus Player conflict, but there is a reason I don't play them. PvP is something I don't enjoy, both as a GM and player. I like my party to work together as a unit. I actively discourage players from creating characters that have strongly opposing views or goals that are exclusive of each other. PvP tension is enjoyable and can really add to a game, but not all out conflict in my opinion. 

Intrigue And Investigations

Notice: I've had an unexpected number of requests for more details on the events of the story itself, or the possibility of posting my notes somewhere[1]. As I've stated before, this is an RPG game for personal use based on the copyrighted works of Cherie Priest. In respect of her work, I am purposely avoiding revealing plot points from the story, instead focusing these Actual Play posts on the session gameplay itself. If you enjoy these posts, perhaps you should think of picking up Dreadnought or Boneshaker by Cherie Priest from your local book store, or at any number of locations online.

Once more I arrived at The Connection full on the fabulous foodening provided by my wonderful wife. I'm starting to see a trend in my meals before my GM sessions. Last week was pork mince with sloppy joe mix and salad on toasted buns, this week was the same mince mix and salad but in tacos. Next week I intend to try the same mix and salad combo in tortilla wraps! Nom-nom-nom.

One of the players actually beat me to the store this week, so we chatted and discussed our weekends as the rest of the gang arrived over the following 45 minutes. By 7pm we had the full table, the first game with five players present!

I opened the game a little differently this week, trying something humorous. I did a "Previously, in Dreadnought"[2] recap as if it was a TV show, throwing out a string of sound bites, dialogue from various characters, both PCs and NPCs, hitting all the major revelations and facts from the previous two sessions. I think it worked really well to focus the players on the game, and I loved doing it. Definitely something I'll use again.

The game opened with some opportunity for investigation, roleplay and interparty conversation that allowed the players figure out a little more of what was going on. It also was the first point in the story that I got to play with my train, losing some carriages and introducing one new piece, as in the original text. Great fun was had by all.

Then the train started out on the final leg of its journey.

Skip to the end.

Once again my players never cease to amaze me. There were many, many awesome moments, but if I had to pick just two, they would be as follows:

The first was right at the start, before they had even left the station, when one player decided to investigate one of the more interesting carriages of the train by approaching it in exactly the same manner as the same character in the novel. I awarded the player a FATE point for that, though I guess I should have awarded it to Cherie Priest for writing a character that follows her nature and acts exactly as she should in a given situation!

The other involved a great example of how Aspects can be used. The Aspect "I'm not here to fight you" was meant as a Trouble, allowing me to Compel him into not getting violent. Instead, the player suggested that he could use it to gain a bonus on his Gun skill as he was using it to disarm the opponent, not inflict damage. In other words, he was removing the opponent as a threat, thus not having to fight him. I totally loved this idea, and the player invoked the Aspect to get a +2 to a roll, giving him a success, shooting the gun from the NPCs hand, and removing him from combat without inflicting damage.

There was a brief moment where there was a very real threat that the party might get totally split up due to decisions made for the protection of the passengers. Luckily, it was decided at the eleventh hour to keep the civilians together and thus the party remained in the same general location. I'm not sure how I would have handled the endgame had the players actually decided to split themselves up, but thankfully it's not something I had to deal with tonight.

Suffice it to say, if the players had come up with a plausible explanation to split the party at this stage, I would be writing an angry letter to the author reclaiming my previously awarded FATE point and pointing out the massive plot hole in her story. However, the varied excuses of weather, raiders and a three-day delay for the passengers in getting to their connecting trains (a fate worse than the threat of death that accompanied remaining on board the Dreadnought, apparently) justified keeping everyone on the moving train.

While one of the trains two main secrets were revealed this week, the other remains under lock and key, mainly due to some fantastic gaming by the player in charge of said secret. We'll see if this comes to light before the end of our story next week, but I remain open to the possibility that it won't.

All in all, once again, a great game. My players are, each and every one of them, awesome. We have a great time, loads of laughs and some great gaming too. We're the only group in the store on a Tuesday evening, which is lucky. I think anyone else who could be there might get annoyed at the constant interruptions by howls of laughter every few minutes.

I thought two hours would be awfully short to play a story driven game, but at three sessions in, I'm noticing that we're all pretty focused on the game from the opening scenes. While there is still the usual tangential tales and side stories about the cute things we saw on YouTube this week, they take up less time than I've experienced with other groups. It seems to be working well so far. The only thing I can say is that it might end up making my upcoming Dresden Files games into a series of two-parters rather than the episodic style of one night, one story. That's not a problem, just an observation.

Next week, Dreadnought wraps up with a final massive combat session and then some! I aim to do some serious harm to my PCs. So far, these games have introduced the players to all the basics of FATE 3.0, from Fudge dice to FATE points, and Aspects to Stunts. Now it's time to teach them about pain and suffering, and the Consequences thereof!

[1] My notes were never meant to be read by anyone apart from myself anyway, so even if I did post them, they wouldn't be much use to anyone. Buy the book, bullet point the key events from the moment Mercy boards the Dreadnought to the moment she changes transport and you have what I wrote.
[2] I always loved hearing Goliath intone "Previous, in Gargoyles" at the start of an episode of the Disney cartoon from the 90's. Any time I hear or say "Previously, in..." I hear it in my head being said by Keith David. If I could get any celebrity to record my phone answering message, it would be him.

Mysteries And Machinations

Notice: This posting is about the second session of an RPG game for personal use based on the copyrighted works of Cherie Priest. The caveat from the first post continues to apply, namely that I will continue to avoid revealing plot points from the story, instead focusing this post on the gameplay itself. If you enjoy these Actual Play posts, perhaps you should think of picking up Dreadnought or Boneshaker by Cherie Priest from your local book store, or at any number of locations online.

I arrived at The Connection on Cambie nice and early to get set up. Thanks to my wonderful wife, I was full up on a delicious dinner and ready to game. Due to unavoidable circumstances, one of my players from last weeks game was absent. However, during the week, we picked up another player, so we had four regardless. Despite this, I played the missing players Player Character, and the new entry to our ranks was given a new PC.

The previous session had ended at the first station stop on the journey, and anyone who has read the books knows that a few new characters board the train at this point. So when another player told me he would be free and interested in joining, I honestly couldn't believe my luck. This was too perfect. He'd just play one of the new characters that would otherwise have been an Non-Player Character. Honestly, I couldn't have planned this if I had tried. That said, I would have preferred to not have one of the starting players miss the game, but nothing could be done, so we motored on regardless.

After our new player had a chance to read over his character, and some brief questions about FATE were asked, the game got going at around 7:15pm.

Where the first session opened with an opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves, this week opened with some conversations on the stations platform before the whistle blew and everyone boarded. After that, we had a long roleplaying session where mysteries were raised, everyone learned a little more about each others motivations, and uneasy allegiances were formed between Player Characters. This brought us right up to 8pm, and the next station.

A quick stop, some new passengers, a few more questions between players, and we had our combat of the evening. That ran up to and beyond 9pm, but the staff at the store are super awesome, and we were let run a little late to wrap things up. Combat over, one more revelation with an NPC, and I called it for the evening. My watch was just rolling on to 9:20pm.

So, how did the evening go? Pretty good, I think. Let's review.

It opened with some fantastic roleplaying from everyone. More silly accents, more hilarity, more intrigue. Facts were doled out in tiny bites, and players fished for clues in everything that was said. In fact, I was worried that it was too slow, and used my power lent to me as the controller of what had once been a PC to move things along once. I'm not sure if that was great idea, but I felt that we were tight on time, and some of the players had to spend more in the scene time listening than interacting due to the character, so I felt it was worth the risk. It's not something I wanted to do, as I love letting players converse back and forth with each other at leisure. Regardless, most of the facts were laid out by the end, which was the important thing.

Combat was once again the slow point for me. I think this is something I need to work on. For something that is supposed to represent a fast, frantic event, I find combat in most games to be slow and boring. I tried to liven it up with dramatic descriptions, but in the end, it's going to be "I rolled one Plus overall, giving me Great Guns", "They rolled only Fair on their Drive, so you do 2 Stress". Still, we had some fun moments, like one player spending a FATE Point to make a Declaration that the carriages were steam heated and so had bags of coal stored away somewhere, then using that coal to help take out an opponent! Or another player using Investigate to discover a weak point, making that a tagable Aspect.

The game ended with one last round of roleplay, and, just before everyone relaxed, the arrival of something far in the distance.

One of the things I'm enjoying from the game is watching how the players and dice cause the story to divert from the book. Upholding my self-imposed ban on spoilers, all I'll say is that, by now, in the book Mercy was aware of one of the major secrets the Dreadnought held. Try as I might, I could not force the events of the book to play out in the game. The dice constantly rolled against me. I love that! There is every chance this secret will never come to light, and if that is the resolution, then so be it. I'm not going to press the matter. It's my game, based on Cherie Priests work, but this version of it is the players story. Kind of like a Marvel "What If..." Except without the Watcher.

I still didn't really Compel any Aspects, unfortunately. That is really something I need to work on. It's a core mechanic of the system, and I'm pretty weak at it. Granted, combat didn't really need any, but there must have been a moment or two where I could have pressed the players one way or another during the earlier scenes.

So there we have it. More adventure, more mystery, and more interparty conflict! Next week may or may not wrap everything up. There is a chance that we'll run for a fourth week. Tune in again to find out!

The Great And Terrible Engine

Notice: This posting is about the first session of an RPG game for personal use based on the copyrighted works of Cherie Priest. The caveat from the previous post continues to apply, namely that I will continue to avoid revealing plot points from the story, instead focusing this post on the gameplay itself. If you enjoy these Actual Play posts, perhaps you should think of picking up Dreadnought or Boneshaker by Cherie Priest from your local book store, or at any number of locations online.

I arrived my local gaming store early to allow me to set out my bits and pieces, as well as giving me a few minutes to relax and center myself before the players showed up. I chose not to lay out the train in advance, as some of the characters would only just be arriving to the station. I left the character sheets face down in the center of the table, and placed the adventure notes to one side at the head of the table, where I would be sitting.

Once the players arrived, we chatted for a bit and I gave them my best "FATE 3.0 in a nutshell" speech. Of the four players, one has read Spirit of the Century, Starblazer Adventures and Diaspora, but has never played or GMed a game using the system, while the other three were completely new to Fudge and FATE. That took all of about fifteen to twenty minutes, questions included.

At this point it was just past 7pm. The store closes at 9pm, and one of the things I was interested in seeing was how much gaming we could get done within that given time. It's only two hours, and seems awfully short for a story driven game not based around one combat encounter after the next. Just like in the book, all the characters have their own motivations and stories, and they would need time to chat among themselves and get to know their travel companions. With time ticking by, I dived right in and sorted out the characters.

There are two male and two female Player Characters. One of the players requested a male, while the others didn't express a preference. With that sorted, I sat back for the next fifteen or so minutes as the players read over everything and asked questions about Aspects, Stunts or general descriptions. The Skill tree was only filled in from Great to Fair, giving everyone six Skills each. Everything else would be rolled at Mediocre, but the Average line was blank if players wanted to promote a Skill that they thought would be useful for the version of the character they were playing. Similarly, there was space in the Aspects for players to personalize the characters themselves.

With all that out of the way, the game began. By now it was 7:20pm. I had a little over 90 minutes.

As I described the station and the train, I laid out my little rectangles of acetate. The players were wonderful, jumping at the chance to talk about the unusual engine and the many cars it pulled, questioning station staff about some of the more unexpected elements, and finally boarding. Most of the players decided to all stay in one carriage (much to my relief), and the train chugged out of the station.

Skip to the end.

By nine o'clock we had gotten in a lot of revealing conversation, some clever and hilarious use of Aspects, aided by some equally hilarious roleplaying, an unending string of silly voices; started by me in the guise of the various NPCs, but picked up by all the players; and the first tentative spending of Fate Points. There was even a little hint of distrust among the PCs, something I didn't even have to encourage, but definitely hoped for! I never had the opportunity to invoke any obvious Compels, or I missed them if I did, but that's OK. It was only the first session, and I have a few bullet-points in my notes where some choice Compels will make things exciting later.

The game ended with everyone arriving at the first stop on the journey for an unexpected over-night stay and one of the characters uncovering yet another mystery.

All the players had a great time, and the feedback was jolly and positive. I had an absolute blast, and loved getting back into the GM seat after several months away. Everything ran smoothly, and the players claimed that they didn't feel too railroaded in their actions, pun entirely intended. While they were on board a train and reacting to outside forces on occasion, the freedom offered by the dependance on conversation and investigation offset any feelings that they didn't have control over where the story went to next.

I have two favorite moments from the first session.

The first happened shorty after boarding, one of the female PCs attempted to seduce one of the NPCs into revealing a little something about one of the mysteries on board. The player rolled well, but I miraculously rolled a full set of Pluses (I don't use GM screens, so the reaction from the players was immediate and comical)! The NPC coughed once, dragged his eyes from the heaving chest and returned to whatever he was doing at the time.

The second came later, just after a moment of excitement on board the train. Two of the Player Characters faced off against each other momentarily, each just making sure the other knew where they stood. As they relaxed, one turned to the other and said "I've got my eye on you, X", a line directly from the novel itself! And, while it was said in the novel by one of the other characters, in both cases it was said to the same character! I must have done something right in his description that the player played him just like the book writes him! I laughed out loud.

All in all, a great first session. We got a surprising amount done, and next week we'll have even longer, not losing out on the first half hour like we did this week due to reading over the characters. I can't think of anything that needs to be improved yet. This was was very much an introductory session, so things went smoothly. Maybe just keep a watchful eye out for those Compelling moments.

Writing The Dreadnought RPG

Notice: This posting is about the creation of an RPG game for personal use based on the copyrighted works of Cherie Priest. I do not have permission from the author, and as such I am taking some polite efforts to protect her works. I will avoid revealing actual details of the story, including most character names and specific outcomes of events portrayed in the novel Dreadnought. Most of what I do reveal is the stuff you could learn about by reading the blurb on the back of the book. Instead, this post is mainly concerned with the work I put into creating a game scenario based on a novel. If you are interested in learning the full story, I suggest asking your local book store to order it, or purchase it from any number of retailers online. I loved it. You probably will too.

Months ago I finally got my hands on Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest. A steampunk action adventure set in an alternate history Seattle I loved the setting and world created in the story, from the cool drilling machine of the title to the great walled city of Seattle. It was a world crying out to be expanded upon and realized through the joy of collaborative story-telling that is roleplaying games. More importantly, it was perfect for my favourite system, FATE 3.0. It had magnificent airships, heroic figures, dastardly villains and terrifying zombies. Awesome!

But building a whole game world is a daunting affair, especially when you're playing in another persons sandbox. Stay around Seattle and tell stories there? Explore further afield? Retell the adventure from the novel? The last option was favorable, if only because it was less work. But Boneshaker follows the adventures of Briar Wilkes and her son, mostly separated, and usually each alone. That does not a good RPG make.

And then along came Dreadnought. Also part of the Clockwork Century series, Dreadnought plays out most of its action on board a train pulled by the massive war-engine of the title. The start of the book follows the singular travels of the novels lead hero, Mrs. Mercy Lynch, as she travels to visit her sick father on the far side of the American continent. However, on reaching the Dreadnought, she is placed in an environment where she can repeatedly interact with a number of recurring characters, many of whom are fleshed out and developed over the course of the adventure[1].

My brain started firing on all cylinders! This was perfect. I could take Mercy and some of her traveling companions and make them the Player Characters. Some additional backgrounds might be needed for one or two, but most were well realized in the novel itself and needed very little additional work. In no time at all, I decided who would be good as PCs and who would work as important NPCs.

I laid out party of four Player Characters using the most recent iteration of the FATE 3.0 rules from The Dresden Files RPG. I had fun with the Aspects, taking quotes from the novel for some, and wording others in as humorous as manner as I could manage. Some examples include "Knowledge of the law... and lawless", "Blue or grey, they all bleed red", "I can be a hometown sweetheart... when it suits me" and "Competent officers are never given enough information to work with."[2]

As the train itself was an important character in the novel, I gave the Dreadnought her own set of Aspects, including my two favorite, "An armored tank, bound to the rails" and "Huge mass, unstoppable momentum".

Once I had the train speced up, I realized that she truly was important to the story. More than just a location for the action to happen on, she was even changing, and developed just like the named character aboard her. With this in mind I decided that I should have her represented on the game table. I drew each of the carriages on acetate, cutting them into separate cars so that over the course of the the game they can be removed, as in the story itself. The train ended up being huge, almost four feet in length! There are also a few mysteries on board, so I drew them onto separate acetates that I cut to allow me to drop onto the train as they become revealed[3].


Then I wrote up a total of five "At the mention of X, you recall the following" notes. These represent world knowledge that the characters have that the players themselves don't have. In particular, it is knowledge that would not make sense to have in the character descriptions without revealing a plot twist or interesting development. I also wrote a separate note for a telegraph one character accidentally reads.

With all that done, I then just needed to plot the adventure. Having read the book once, I went back and went through the story from the point that Mercy boards the Dreadnought pulled train. I made a bullet-point list of everything that happens, from subtle character development to the action set-pieces. NPCs were noted, and the important ones given a handful of Aspects and important Skills.

Finally, I printed out a map of the American States with their names, as well as a smaller map showing which states were with the Union and the Confederates during the Civil War. The latter may never be important, just adding knowledge and flavor but I used the labeled map to plot the journey of the characters, Indiana Jones style!

All the preparation was complete. The train was placed in one small envelope, while all the extra bits I didn't want the players to see right away were placed in the other. These two envelopes were then placed, along with the bullet-pointed adventure, the character sheets and backgrounds, the maps and any other bits I thought I might need, into a larger cardboard envelope for secure transport to my local gaming store.

And then I introduced Dreadnought to my players.

[1] Not that the supporting characters in Boneshaker weren't fleshed out, but few of them formed a party with either of the main characters for long enough that it was easy to decide who should be a Player Character.
[2] Pop quiz for those readers who have read Dreadnought: Which Aspect belongs to which character from the novel?
[3] My one mistake so far. I made the train out of acetate. It doesn't need to be transparent, in fact, it's harder to see because it is. The items to be placed on top later are perfect on an acetate, but the train should have been on white card. I think I'll get some modeling paint and paint the backs of the train acetates before next week.

Applied Correctly, It Could Move The World

A few months back I read this webcomic about an agency to assist the dearly departed who have left something unresolved in this life. I made an off-hand comment that I thought it would make for a great RPG concept: A party of supernaturally sensitive friends that have a Private Investigation firm that caters for the deceased, helping to complete whatever is making their eternal rest restless. The hook was that each week one party member would allow their body to be "rented" by the ghost, becoming a "ghost host" if you will. That player would get to put their normal character sheet to one side and play as someone completely different.

This off-hand comment planted itself in my mind and sprouted roots, slowly growing until I knew I had to do something with it. Originally, I had planned on using my system of choice, FATE 3.0 for the game, but on outlining my ideas to a friend, I was pointed towards something that might work better. The ghost would need some help to find who murdered him, or protect his family now that he's gone. Perhaps someone is messing with an artifact connected to the spirit, or one of his descendants has become a dick and needs to be taught a lesson. In short, the adventures were not going to be straight up hack'n'slash affairs. The ghost needed a team that could function without brute force. He needed someone that could provide Leverage.

The Client
Leverage The Roleplaying Game is based, unsurprisingly, on Leverage the hit series from TNT. I had been a fan of the show since the pilot, instantly hooked on the its unique blend of humour, heist and heat-pounding action. The series follows the adventures of a band of ex-criminals and their leader as they try to make the world a better place one problem at a time. The episodes usually open with a Client explaining why she needs their help, which the Crew succeed at through a heist or caper that inevitably requires last minute tweaking, adjusting or all out replanning to overcome unforeseen obstacles.

The roleplaying game follows this mechanic, allowing the players to put together a Crew of skilled experts to solve a myriad of problems that the GM, or Fixer, will throw at them over the course of a session.

The following review is based solely on the book itself and my impressions from reading it. I have yet to play it, so I'll try to avoid making judgements related to actual play here. It's also worth mentioning now that I have never actually played anything using the Cortex or Cortex Plus systems, the later of which is the system Leverage is built on. With that out of the way, on to the meat of our story.

The Caper
The Visuals: The first thing that is obvious about the Leverage RPG is how pretty it is. Everything is clean and bright and I was particularly taken with the choice of blue print on a white background as the primary colour scheme throughout. It's clean, effective and eye-catching. That's just a personal thing. Blue is my favourite colour, and I think plain white backgrounds work well enough that they should be left alone. Photos and screen shots from the series are used extensively throughout the book, breaking up long blocks of text and keeping things interesting.

The System: Prior to reading Leverage I was not familiar with the Cortex or Cortex Plus systems in any way. Years ago, a friend had bought me the Serenity RPG as a gift, but I never really read it or tried it out. I love the Firefly, the series it is based on, but had no real interest in reading the RPG. As it turns out, Cortex Plus is my kind of system!

Like FATE 3.0, Cortex Plus is, at it's core, a system for telling stories and having a good time. It is reasonably light on mechanics, instead allowing players and GMs to focus on the collaborative story-telling side of RPGs than the combat focused, hack'n'slash of other systems. There is no rule for moving 6 squares in order to flank an opponent, but there is nothing stopping you from describing how you managed to use the crates in the warehouse to sneak around him and FLANKED d6 him.

Characters are equally clean, maintaining the tight focus on story driven, rather than dice controlled, adventures. There are six Attributes, five Traits and a handful of Distinctions and Talents, giving you an absolute minimum of things to keep track of and allowing you to concentrate on the task at hand, ruining the baddies day. There are no lists of skills covering most of the page, no weapon bonus' or damage modifiers, there isn't even a health track!

The play mechanics are blissfully simple. Regardless of what you do, you always role at least two dice, one for the Attribute you're using, the other for the Trait. You can role more if the scene allows and players are encouraged to elaborate on the scene for additional dice,like in the FLANKED d6 example above. Regardless of how many dice you role, you only total the highest two in most cases.

Things get interesting, but not complicated, when you start including Assets and Complications and spending Plot Points to effect the scene, but basically the Cortex Plus system is designed to keep everything flowing along and the players having a good time.

So far so good. The system takes the gameplay I enjoy and runs with it. But there's one key element still to come, one unique feature that sets it apart from other games.

In any good caper, and all RPG adventures, nothing goes according to plan. The Crew must think on their feet to solve complications as they arise, avoiding the FBI that just appeared on the scene; dealing with the armed mercenaries that everyone had previously thought were just gym-enthusiast office workers or by-passing the biometric lock on the safe that they were told had been installed in the 1930's!

In great capers, like Leverage or Oceans 11, the seemingly unexpected situation was planned for all along. The Crew had called the FBI to arrest the bad-guys in the act; the lunch everyone saw the office workers enjoying had been laced with a sleep inducing (but not dangerous. We are good guys after all!) narcotic; and the Hacker had uncovered the invoice for the new safe while reading the bad guys private emails, equipping the Thief with the appropriate gear.[1] Events like this are usually explained in TV and cinema through the magic of the Flashback. Now, you can too!

The Hook: When the Crew is stuck in a difficult situation, with the enemy closing in all around, sometimes things just seem hopeless. That's exactly the moment when the Mastermind smiles, looks the baddie in the eye and throws in a new, unforeseen Plot Point. The baddie swings around and, expecting his own band of highly expensive thugs to be at his back, is dismayed to find himself looking down the barrel at a HIGHLY TRAINED d8 POLICE OFFICER d6. Turning back to the Crew, his jaw drops. Where the cornered heroes once sat is the supposedly disposed of crate of baby milk formula containing unlicensed cheap ingredients that have caused nothing but harm to hundreds of babies in the poorer district of the city. The Crew themselves are nowhere to be seen.

How did all this happen? That's what Flashbacks are for. Flashbacks are the Hook that Leverage uses to reel in its players. Linking in to events in the adventure, Flashbacks allow players to go back in time and alter or add to a scene that occurred previously. Remember when the Hitter took out those thugs in the garage earlier? They happened to be the ones tasked with disposing of the evidence. Or how about the start of the previous scene when the baddie walked in on the Grifter talking on the phone. Thought she was talking to the rest of the Crew, didn't you? Nope. Calling in a tip to the local authorities regarding some unscrupulous dealings.

Flashbacks give the players a level of control over the outcome of events that seemingly go against them. Leverage is an RPG where success is always the only option. The question is, how interesting and exciting can you make the journey toward that destination be for yourself and your Crew mates? As in the series, Flashbacks allow you to establish character traits from events that occurred at an earlier point, sometimes earlier that day, sometimes in your characters life before the game, or even as far back as her childhood! Similarly, they allow the players to wrap up loose ends after the Job is completed. How did the Thief know that the head body-guard was sleeping with the baddies wife? These things are story elements that make the game fun and exciting, and very similar to the show.

Again, so far so good. Everything about the game seems to be geared toward my preferred  play-style. The new elements that the game uses to distinguish itself against the competition read well and seem to be enjoyable Assets. But, in the world of Leverage, where there are Assets, there are Complications.

The Twist
Leverage The Roleplaying Game is based on the hit series from TNT. This is important, and bares repeating here upfront. Not only does it give the RPG an immediate audience of fans who enjoy the show and RPGs, but it also means that there are probably a few sales that will go to fans of the series that have never owned, seen or played in an RPG. This in turn lends itself to my first and biggest problem with the book.

As an experienced role-player, I am familiar with how to read RPG books and how such books are laid out. While I never hold issue with seeing "What is a Role-Playing Game" on one of the first pages in any RPG (in fact, I love reading how different authors try to explain the basics in a single paragraph to people who have possibly never heard of such a thing. Always amusing), I don't feel I need to be hand-held throughout the text. I'm an adult reader, and consider myself smart enough to figure some things out alone. There are several moments in the book where the author stops to explain who "you" is referring to in this section. Other times, I almost feel like I'm being talked down to, having basic concepts over explained, in overly simplified terms. The whole thing comes off rather amateurish feeling at times. It feels like this is written by a fan of the series as a home-brew game, rather than what it is; a thoroughly play-tested, proof-read, professionally designed, published document. There are moments when the author is chatting to the reader in an informal, friendly fashion that make those sections sound like a blog posting.

Should I blame the author for this? Or marketing? Actually, I've chosen neither. I don't particularly like it, but I have to look at it in the light of what this is. A licensed product that needs to appeal to everything from non-role-players, through first-time GMs, to experienced veterans (for the record, I fall somewhere between the latter two).

The other fault I have with the book is related to content, and, like the language used, is a by-product of something else. Leverage The Roleplaying Game is clean, clear and concise, thanks to it's use to the Cortex Plus system. It forgoes detailed charts and situation modifiers for story-telling and genuine thrills. The downside of all of this is that it's surprisingly easy to explain everything in a short amount of time, or in this case, ink.

The Leverage RPG book comes in at just over 200 pages thick. Less than Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide at 224 pages and half of either Spirit of the Century or the recently released Dresden Files RPG, both of which clock up over 400 pages! This is great, right? Yes, and no.

Even at a paltry 200 pages, Leverage has an unprecedented amount of filler. The whole last chapter, The Record, is a synopsis of every episode from the first two seasons in game terms. It is filler of the highest order. It still doesn't beat the Stargate SG-1 RPG level of filler where they produced game supplement books of the series episodes in seasons, but it's pretty close. Add to this seven pages of examples of locations that seem to be just stating the obvious, and you have over 30 pages of material that I don't need for any game I run myself. Not just don't need, I don't have to read over or even look at them!

The question then becomes, should they have printed a book of only 170 pages? The problem is that the less you print, the less you can justify charging, and the less buyers will be willing to pay. At some point you have to charge enough to cover the costs of printing, or cut the quality of printing to match the cut in price. Given the high quality of printing on show in the book, maybe having that filler is a necessary evil (there's a villain for a Leverage game: A company deforesting whole areas just to print books twice as big as they need to be so they can charge more and increase profits!).

The Mark[2]
Having read through the book, I find that Leverage The Roleplaying Game stands as a wonderful, beautiful introduction to the world of criminals, capers and roleplaying games. It has it's flaws, but nothing is ever perfect, and the flaws seem to be easily ignored, or simply don't do much to effect the overall quality of the product. The system is a joy to read and learn about, even if I haven't had the opportunity to actually playtest it myself yet. I look forward to using it either in a game based in the Leverage setting, or in my own world of body renting ghost detectives. If you like telling a great, fast paced, rules light, collaborative story where it can be more important to be cool and funny that effective, then Leverage The Roleplaying Game is for you. Like the show, the book is great fun to look at and belongs on any gamers shelf that enjoys story driven games like Spirit of the Century, Dresden Files and Doctor Who.

The Flashback
Over the course of this review I have mentioned things like FATE 3.0, Spirit of the Century and Dresden Files. FATE 3.0 is the system that runs Spirit of the Century (SotC), the only game I've ever successfully run a full campaign in. I have long been a fan of the system and associated games, owning the limited edition hardback print of SotC, as well as having preordered and purchased the enormous Starblazer Adventures, a book big and heavy enough to kill someone with, and most recently picking up the Dresden Files RPG (DFRPG), the most recent iteration of the FATE 3.0 rules system. FATE, SotC and DFRPG are all by Evil Hat Productions, and I had long been aware of the names associated with them. Fred Hicks, Rob Donoghue and Ryan Macklin are three of the very short list of games designers whose names I would recognise[3].

I purchased Leverage The Roleplaying Game, got home and started reading through it. As is usual, I skipped the credits page and skipped right to the good stuff. It was only after I was most of the way through the book before one of my friends pointed out the crossover in creative minds between Evil Hat and Leverage. I was stunned I had never heard about it before, but there you have it. Sometimes, it's not what you like, but who you like[4]!

[1] - In terrible capers, it is revealed that all the supposed complications and bad luck and events that went against the team were entirely planned and nothing was accidental and the Crew perfectly predicted exactly how the baddie would act, such as Ocean 12. Don't do this.
[2] - See what I did there? The final mark for the review. The Mark. Gettit? Yeah, it was a terrible pun, but I couldn't resist.
[3] - Before anyone says anything, yes, I know there are a lot more people involved in the making of an RPG, but they're just the names that stick out to me. Sorry if you feel left out. Console yourself in the knowledge that even if I didn't name you, I am eternally grateful for the amazing job you did on my favourite games.
[4] - Huge shoutout to the design lead and author of Leverage The Roleplaying Game, Cam Banks. Great job, man! Hope you're not too hurt by my negatives toward your work. Just remember, don't get mad, GET EVEN d10.

When Last We Left Our Heroes

After much soul searching and internal monologuing, with a heavy heart I have come to the decision to Fox my Monday Night RPG (To Fox: Verb, to bring to an abrupt stop usually without resolution). In all honesty, this has been coming a while now. I just haven't been feeling the love for the game that I want to as a GM. Where I used to look forward to Monday nights and gaming, it has been a chore for too long. This has nothing to do with my players. It's not you, it's me.

I've been reading a book from my hero, Sir Ken Robinson, called The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. In it, Sir Ken makes the point that when you are doing something you love, then there is no "work" involved, time passes at a different pace, you can adapt and manage change within whatever you are doing with ease and nothing seems impossible. You are in your Element.

All this made me realise that GMing is not fun for me right now. I am not in my Element. In my last Spirit of the Century game I looked forward to each game night. My brain was filled with ideas and I relished the opportunity to be actively creative and exercise my mind on the go as the players repeatedly screwed up my perfectly laid plans. I didn't know what was going to happen next week, but it didn't bother me. The players controlled the flow of the game to some extent, and I simply had to come up with the connecting pieces to join the end of one game to the start of the next.

With my current game, I just don't feel the same ability within myself. I find myself "sending in the ninjas" far too often just to stall things, or to drag out the evening until people go home. I've always enjoyed out-of-game conversations at the gaming table, as I feel that game night is as much a chance for people to get out and hang with friends as it is for them to solve the latest adventure. But when I'm looking forward to just hanging out with my players and having those out-of-game conversations over playing the actual game, I know that something is not right.

In my previous campaign I was happy with the twists and turns I had the story take. I never second guessed myself about how I did something in a game. In this game, I am constantly regretting how I played a scene. "Oh, I should have done this, I should have used him, I could have made them appear, I shouldn't have played it like that." I don't feel the same confidence in my own abilities.

Maybe I made my world too big? In my previous campaign it was just 1920's Earth. Here we have eight other planets and various hidden locations. I had this grand idea for each planet, a system for travelling between them (robbed wholesale from a sci-fi series), at least two important NPCs on each world, and even some threads of what each NPC might want. But it was too much. I didn't know how to handle it, or, maybe, I did, but I just lost interest. I hadn't enough of it written down, or solidly plotted out. But then, I had virtually nothing written down in my first campaign, just single word ideas, a sentence here or there and some stuff bookmarked in Firefox.

In the end, all that matters is that I'm not happy with the level of quality I'm bringing to the table as GM. I hereby hand off our own little Monday Night Gaming to anyone that wants it. We have a set of enthusiastic players who deserve a GM to match.

Right now, I need a cookie.

And so, we end tonights final episode of "Across The Stars" as our heroes dangle precariously from the edge of the asteroid with the villainous Dr. Apathy sneering overhead. From everyone here at KWRYN, we thank you for listening, and remember, always "Shoot for the stars!"

Insomnia Sucks

Yes, in a revelation that is sure to shock no-one, insomnia sucks. Not only am I wide awake at the ungodly hour of 4am, having had very little sleep since I went to bed a little before midnight, but I can't even muster enough enthusiasm or inspiration to come up with a witty title for this post. Instead, I'm just being blunt and to the point. Also, expect numerous grammatical errors and incorrect spelling.

I'm not usually the one to suffer from insomnia. As soon as I crawl into bed, I can be out like a light in minutes, especially if I attempt to read anything in bed. It's like a Pavlov's Dog effect at this point. Bed+reading=sleep, guaranteed. Usually. This is probably the first time in recent memory that I've been so bad I just had to get up and do something. Normally it's Claire that wakes me from my deep slumber to tell me she can't sleep and is going to get up, to which I do my best Frankensteins Monster impression, reply "mmmurrhhh" and roll over.

So, what's keeping me up this morning? I could easily blame poetic justice. Just a few hours ago, after finishing up playing DS at Robs place, I mocked Neill for his inability to sleep the night before. In response to "I got to sleep at 6am and was awake again at 9", I said "I got to sleep around 11pm and wandered out of bed just before 10 this morning. Hah!" So... yeah. I totally deserve this to be honest.

But based on my erratic, yet speedy, heart rate I'm going to go out on a limb here and blame the Mars bar and one-and-a-half liters of Lucozade I had while playing DS at Robs place for my currently alert but unstable status. Yup. Yeah. That'll do it all right.

On the upside, my sleep deprived state has driven me to insane, yet crystal-clear thoughts. I have decided to entirely kill my attempted Tuesday evening RPG for the time being. I shall have to wait until a far more sane hour to text my players regarding this fact. Chances are, a few of them will read this before they get that text anyway. On the other hand, I am now considering running not one, not two, but three RPGs over not four, not three, but two days!! Yes. That means running two games on one day. Insanity, I hear you cry!! Allow me to explain.

Previously to this early mornings events, I had offered to run an RPG on Monday evenings for Kris, Neill and Gar, though this has yet to be confirmed. Recent Mondays have found us sitting around, twiddling our thumbs, either playing Xbox out of boredom, or watching a movie, also out of boredom. The biggest issues with these are that Xbox ends up excluding some of the people present, and movies are a very passive activity, at a time that I would be much happier doing something with. So an RPG fits nicely. Also, the prospective players have been turning up when there has been nothing of interest on, so surely when there is an RPG on (which will hopefully be interesting), they will continue to be around.

A similar situation has grown around our Sunday afternoon group. Meeting for breakfast in town is great, and I do love getting together to catch up with the weeks news, but afterwords, we've been at a loss with what to do. As with the Monday group, the Xbox has been fired up out of boredom, but it doesn't last long. It seems that everyone apart from myself has grown tired of Rock Band already. Card games and board games got dragged out, but I'm fairly sick of replaying Battlestar Galactica and Fluxx (both awesome games, but I need an extended break for a while), and it's hard to get everyone to agree on a game with just a few minutes notice. So I got thinking, why not run an RPG? I usually think of RPGs as evening events, running after dinner, from seven until late, but that's not really necessary unless it's mid-week. On a weekend, why not start at, say, two, and finish at six. In fact, that would seem to suit my friends better. They still get home nice and early for work on Monday morning.

And that's where the third game comes in. Some of the players from my first Spirit of the Century campaign (have I mentioned before what a huge success that was?!? I have? Oh... well... it was. Huge!) can't really make it mid-week, due to a variety of commitments. But a Sunday evening game might suit them nicely. Say, from seven until half ten, eleven o'clock? That gives me an hour leeway between games, time to grab dinner and re-energise (without Luzoade from now on), and get the two player groups swapped around. Easy.

I think I could totally do it. Yes, it is now creeping towards 6am as I continue to write, so that may have more than a little to do with my hyperactive state, but my games are very much player driven, requiring very little work on my part. Events are moved forward by what they want, expect or make happen. Apart from a small number of special event sessions, my previous Spirit of the Century game (huge!) required almost no preparation between sessions, and I usually only worried about what I was going to do each evening an hour or two before everyone turned up. To quote Mythbusters, I think two games in one day, and three games a week is... "Plausible!" And we all know that it'll only be through scientific testing that we can learn if this myth is "Proven", or "Busted".

The next thing to decide is what game when. Currently, I'm happy to attempt a second run at my Spirit of the Century game, Mouse Guard and Dogs In The Vineyard, three dramatically differing games, but each based on the episodic style of play; adventures are usually wrapped up in a single evening rather than extending over several play sessions. I'd love to run a superhero game, but I find it unusually difficult to come up with an arc, which is usually where I start with my campaigns, breaking it down into sessions, or events. Whenever I try to think of an arc, I just end up with one I've read in comics already. Dammit! Why must I be such a comic nerd?!?

So there we have it. A kind of manifesto against boredom, and in support of creativity and hyperactiveness. Now all I have to do is gauge interest of everyone apart from myself. Unfortunately, I'm not actually around this weekend, which would be the perfect time to start asking, while my excitement towards such a big undertaking is at a high, and my brain has failed to truly realise how completely, utterly, stupidly insane it's being.

Insomnia sucks but it can be strangely productive.

Convention Scenario Writing

In my last post I mentioned the two adventure scenarios I had worked out on the journey home from Dublin. It seems that post caught the attention of a few people, and I've been requested, much to my surprise and joy, to write a Spirit of the Century scenario for LepreCon XXX. How could I say no?

I haven't really come up with a plot yet, but discovering that the coming LepreCon is their 30th anniversary, I was suddenly hit with a lot of inspiration. Thus, so far, while I know little about the guts of the scenario as yet, I now know that it will feature the XXX Investigations (Triple-X Investigations) private detective agency, Trinity College, possibly the Library, most likely hidden demonology within the Book of Kells (have a close look at the above image) and all sorts of wacky shenanigans in 1927 Dublin.

I think it's coming along nicely, don't you...?

As well as that, I've spent a little time on the other two scenarios, and have come up with the final blurb for each of them.

Murder On The Cambrian Coast Express
Welcome aboard the 10:00 train from Aberystwyth, stopping at Borth, Dovey Junction, Machynlleth, Welshpool, Wolverhampton Low Level using the Shrewsbury Abbey Foregate curve, then on to Birmingham Snow Hill, and finally Leamington Spa, arriving at Paddington at 15:50. Sit back, relax, enjoy the company of the other passengers and prepare for a peaceful trip through pleasant English country-side, stress-free and without any incidences of ritual murder... Oh, who are we kidding. The title is a dead give-away!

The Mechanauts
The battle cruiser Space Defence Force Omega is the last line of defence against a possible attack against the planet Earth. As crew members of the S.D.F. Ω, you are invaluable to its continued smooth operation. Unfortunately, not many people understand the importance of your work as a D.O.O.S.E.R. (Daily Ordinary Operational Service Equipment Repair). Thankfully, you have Hyper TONK Simulator eX 2, the latest installment in the TONK Simulator game series for ViaSofts home console, the Z-1080G to pass the boring hours between boring shifts, blasting enemy clans with your Friends List in Clan Mechanauts. And tonight, you have a grudge match scheduled. Bring it on!

Now all I have to do is create characters, add NPCs, draw up maps where appropriate, read up on key subjects, plot a bullet point, step-by-step list of the scenarios for ease of reference by willing GMs, and put everything about the actual plots that is in my head onto an easy-to-read PDF!

Simple.

Renewed Enthusiasm

Last year I mentioned how my trip to GaelCon XIX had greatly renewed my interest in gaming in general, but particularly in RPGs. Having just returned from GaelCon XX this evening, I find myself in a similar situation.

Since this time last year, I have ran a very successful campaign that lasted an astonishing 14 sessions, I've bought a lot more card games and board games, and I continue to look for ways to increase my time spent at this hobby, enjoying Monday Night Gaming, and trying to play board games with friends more often.

Now, I find myself contemplating the idea of maybe, possibly giving LARPing a chance, and stranger still, giving Vampire LARPing a chance!! That is not something I would have written, spoken or even thought three days ago, but GaelCon changes me, in ways that frighten and disgust me some times...

However, not everything is bad. On the drive home from Dublin to Cork, I wrote not one, but one-and-a-half once-off, convention-friendly RPG scenarios! How did I manage to write one-and-a-half? Simple. While the first one I came up with was entirely new, the second was a development on one of the sessions from my own Spirit of the Century campaign, so I already had that one worked out. I just spent some time tweaking it. Both are potentially for WarpCon 19, in January 2009. And both will be written using FATE 3.0, the Spirit of the Century system. Here are the blurbs, in reverse order, so the second one is my brand-new idea (subject to change):

Murder On The Orient Express
Welcome aboard the luxury trans-Europe train, the Orient Express. Sit back, relax, enjoy the company of the other passengers and prepare for a peaceful trip across Europe, stress-free and without any incidences of ritual murder... Oh, who are we kidding. The title is a dead give-away!

The Robo-Techs
✔ The Space Defence Force Omega is the last line of defence against a possible attack by the evil alien forces of the (Insert name here) on the planet Earth.
✔ As crew members of the S.D.F. Ω, you are invaluable to the continued defence of Earth.
✘ After all, without you, who would fix the 32 coffee machines in the canteen, or ensure hot showers for the 3,200 ship's company.
✘ Who would unblock any of the 237 toilets on board, or crawl through miles of air vents to find a loose wire?
✔ Yes, as S.D.F. Ω engineers, you're pretty important crew...
✔ Luckily, you and your friends have clocked up over 1,000 hours of combat apiece in TONKs, the 12 meter tall elite combat mechs of the S.D.F.
✘ But only through Hyper TONK Simulator eX 2, the latest installment in the TONK Simulator game series for ViaSofts home console, the Z-1080G.
✔ But your clan, The Robo-Techs, is one of the top 10 in the game. And you have a game scheduled against your biggest rivals, Xentraidee, tonight.
Five ✔'s against three ✘'s. Life isn't all bad, right?

The first blurb is a proper, convention brochure style blurb. The second is far too long, but I just started having too much fun writing it. Sorry. And I know it's full of terrible, terrible gags, but I'll probably change all of them before the final draft. Probably.

Gaming, Friends & Madness

I'm just back in Cork after a long and mostly enjoyable weekend in Dublin, at the 20th anniversary of GaelCon. Like last year, Claire and I decided to stay in Clontarf Castle for the weekend, saving us from nightly travel, and adding greatly to the sense of relaxation and time we could spend with friends. Also, we got to enjoy kick-ass all-you-can-eat breakfasts with everyone else that was staying.

As with last year, we played lots of card games and board games, but far less RPGs. I don't think any caught my attention, even enough to read beyond the title. Even Claire, who played in something for every slot last year, spent most of the Con just hanging out with friends, playing table-top, non-RPG games. That said, it was a heck of a lot of fun! Not only did we get to play games we know and love, but also lots that were new to us!

Both nights had us up late into the morning hours, chatting to the others that were staying in the castle. And there were a lot. About ten others from Cork alone, and then a bunch of gamers from all over that would be very good friends. Sunday night in particular found around 20 of us in the lobby until 3:30am, howling with laughter over some incredible stories and general shenanigans!

All in all, it was a good convention. Not as good as last year, possibly, but then, that was an extraordinarily good year! I'd say that while last year was my favourite convention so far, this year was my second favourite. We had to make our own fun a lot more this year, and that's a sentiment I've heard echoed quite a bit over the last hour before we left this afternoon. Everyone seemed to have fun, but only because they made their own.

There was one huge disappointment, though. Last year, I missed the table-quiz, which seemed like a blast, and this year, I was determined to stay for it and join in. Except this year, the GealCon Charity Table-Quiz was an unbelievable disgrace, with clear bias towards the Dublin crowd, an utterly unfair and non-sensical "bonus round" system, ridiculous rounds, an annoyingly ambivalent "odd-one-out round", and just a general lack of entertainment, apart from two, possibly three rounds.

But, you know what? We had fun. We bought some new stuff, played some new games, made some new friends, played some old games, hung out with some old friends and enjoyed every bit of that. We're definitely going next year, and definitely staying at the castle again. Far too much fun to miss!