FFG: Mansions of Madness

Fantasy Flight Game's latest Cthulhu themed offer looks to be a  stunner, with a follow up to Arkham Horror called Mansions of Madness. 


It looks awesome and has the high production value associated with their games. What I am particularly excited about is the range of plastic miniatures that come with it, which look perfect for tabletop Cthulhu. Aren't they awesome?


It is also interesting to see FFG further blurring the lines between 'board games' and 'RPGS, as Mansions of Madness seems to stray into that territory, at least from my cursory inspection. I certainly enjoy Arkham Horror, but have heard some very mixed reviews about their take on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. This, however, will certainly be on the top of my Christmas list. 

Fright Night 2010

On Saturday night I was treated to a wonderful evening of horror themed role playing at the fourth annual Fright Night, held at the suitably atmospheric Turnbull House here in Wellington. It consisted on two session of fine gaming that ran the gambit from spooky to strange to horrific.

It was also a good chance to catch up with the various Wellington role playing locals and game with some new people. I had a great time and the whole night seemed to go very smoothly (at least from my end).

Below are more detailed reviews of the games I played in. There not too spoilerific, but probably best to avert your eyes if you're keen to play them in the future.

After a brief welcome and pre-amble, it was off to the first round game, which for me was 'Splinter of Corruption' run by Doug. I signed up for this one because I was keen to see how Dark Heresy plays as I've always thought that the Warhammer 40,000 universe would be a great backdrop for a role playing game. Doug didn't disappoint and ran an atmospheric and richly textured game, in which our novice inquisitor team sought information on the dark fate of Commissar Nihilius and his squad. It had a nice '80's sci-fi movie feel to it and I could feel the spirit of Aliens coursing through it.

I played a Novice Cleric called Castus who did his best to support his brothers and encourage them to follow the one truth path of the Emperor (he also proved more than a little handy with a hammer). I think our team was a little out of its depth in terms of leadership and adopted a very direct approach to the investigation, but this only added to the game's dramatic finale. We were a little pushed for time, though I understand that Doug intends to run this at Kapcon, so with a few minor tweaks this game will really do the business.

As we finished the first round game a little behind schedule, there was only time for a very brief break before I was into round two. In this round played 'Rivers of Gold', a Trail of Cthulhu based scenario run by Mike. I was really interested to be a player in a Trail game again as it has been a while since I had been in that position thanks to my GMing duties. The game was set in the Otago gold fields during the gold rush, with my fellow players and I taking on the role of a group of gold prospectors, who uncovered more than they expected in a previously uncharted part of the country.

I played Alex Masters, a young half-Maori, half-Scot who, against his better judgement, loyally followed his mate Bill into an increasingly bizarre world. I gather there may have been some mix-up with the character allocation as Alex was a quite a different man to the answers I provided to Mike's pre-game questionnaire. Nevertheless he was a lot of fun to play and for a while there I hoped he might make it through 'unchanged'.

Mike ran a very tight and polished game, which achieved its aim of producing more chills than frights, while teasing out the final mystery to the very end. Indeed it is a sign of the scenario's strength that despite being quite a linear and constrained scenario, those features didn't distract from the overall experience. For me it channelled the better aspects of Lovecraft's more science fiction orientated works, and some elements wouldn't have seemed out of place in The Colour out of Space. The other players too all really worked their characters well and proceed some genuinely creepy moments. We perhaps could have used a little more time to round things off at the end as it felt a little rushed, but that is only a very minor blemish.

So overall Fright Night more than delivered. A big thanks to Dale and co. for organising the event, and both Doug and Mike for running excellent scenarios. This has certainly set the bar for Kapcon and the mind is whirring already on what I can organise for Fright Night 2011. Hopefully I'll see some more of you there as it really was a great night.

Towards the Mountains of Madness

I am rubbing my hands together in glee at the moment and Dale is busily preparing to start running 'Beyond the Mountains of Madness' for our Call of Cthulhu group.

Based on the Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness, this is widely regarded as one of the best RPG campaigns ever published for any system. A long and hard journey to a forbidden Antarctic world await the characters, who face not only the environmental challenges, but also the mythos horrors that reside in that frozen wasteland. In other words, a hell of a lot of fun!

I am looking forward to taking my New England author Michael St Croix and matching him against this challenge. It should prove some great opportunities for role playing and character development, as well as some nice dramatic parts as well. I've also got some nice ideas for a back up character - an obsessed astronomer - if things get really bad.

I am also going to encourage Dale to take advantage of the amazing props available for this campaign at the Propnomicon site, which I have mentioned previously, as they are simply amazing (such as this photo I have included shows).

Who would have thought I would be so keen to experiences those lurking terrors hidden beyond the ice!

D&D and a geek confession

Last week while browsing through Wargames Supply here in Wellington, I picked up a copy of Wizards of the Coast's (WOTC) new starter box for Dungeons & Dragons. This is designed as an introduction to the game for new players and is modelled specifically on the famous 'red box'(right down to the design) of earlier fame. I grabbed a copy due to the fact it is disgustingly cheap and because I am it's target market.

That's right, I have a geek confession to make. I have never really played D&D (or any derivative) before, or had much interest in doing so. Although this means I cannot make a fully informed review of the product, I can add a few thoughts from that fresh perspective.

But first a little background on the lack of D&D in my gaming life. I entered the hobby in the early 1990s through a gateway drug called Warhammer 40,000 and, unlike a lot of other gamers, my first RPG love was not D&D but R. Talsorian Game's Cyberpunk 2020 (which deserves it own write up). I was of course aware of D&D being around (how could I not as it dominated our local comic store), but to be honest it didn't really grab me, in part due to the seemingly impenetrable rules and the overwhelming number of products required ("so wait, I need to buy how many rulebooks?"). The nineties was also the time when that behemoth of the RPG world TSR was going through the doldrums creatively and was taking a huge hit financially trying to compete with WOTC in the collectible card game market (anyone remember Spellfire?)

D&D took a further hit in my development with the emergence of White Wolf's 'World of Darkness' series of games. White Wolf set itself up in opposition to TSR in many ways with its dark focus on edgy, mature themes and preference (at least in theory) for story and narrative over mechanics (this also deserves a post of its own). It seemed far more interesting, vivid and exciting than what I perceived as the formulaic, overly mechanistic and predictable features of D&D.

My friends and I consumed veraciously everything put out by White Wold in the mid-to-late nineties as TSR stumbled and fell, although it is interesting to note how many of the accusations brought against TSR started to become 'business as usual' for White Wolf as its market share grew (more on this another day). 

In hindsight, it is interesting how this experience has shaped me as a gamer. I still prefer strong narrative based games that are character driven, and always put a great deal of stock in the 'mood'(including ambiance and scene painting) of a game. I am also pretty awful at learning new systems and, to be honest, to this day I still have a slight suspicion of anything involving a D20. So as a result of all this, I have tended to avoid D&D as a game. The few experiences I have had have been either unsatisfying or confusing (or both). 

However, the buzz about D&D fourth edition has been positive in some quarters and I have been encouraged to try it, even though I am suspicious of its 'wargamey' feel. But I'm not one to hold a grudge, so I thought I would have a crack in this instance.

So enough history and on to the product itself. The starter box is part of WOTC's D&D 'Essentials' line which is designed to hark back to a simpler, arguably purer form of the game. I can't make a full judgement about product (or the line) given I haven't read it all, but from the little I have looked over, it's good. 

Character creation is pitched like a 'choose your own adventure' game, so it doesn't get bogged town in technical terminology, and it also takes the reader through a basic combat to familiarise him or her (most likely him) with that side of the rules. It also comes with some quite neat extras, like maps, tokens, dice and cards. Although, as one would expect, it focuses heavily on combat, it also provides some options for non-combat related actions during the game and even a little roleplaying.

I plan to keep posting some thoughts here as I (slowly) work my way through it, but I think there is enough here to inflict a night's entertainment on my friends. It may even be enough for me to give D&D a second chance, though I still have my suspicions. 

Any of you out there have any thoughts on the 'red box' or D&D in general? What about formative roleplaying experiences? This is something I think I could write a lot more about...

Still here...

Wow it has been over a month since the last post. It has been a pretty flat out September for me with work, study and wedding planning occupying a lot of my energy. However, I'm back now, so on with the roleplaying update.


Due largely to the overseas excursion of one of our players, we have yet to kick off Dan's Exalted game with the Trail of Cthulhu group, but I have a neat character and am looking forward to getting into it in the next couple of weeks.


I have been largely keeping up with Dale's Cthulhu game and we have just finished the most epic and enjoyable 'Escape from Innsmouth'/'Raid on Innsmouth' campaign. The Shadow Over Innsmouth is one of my favourite Lovecraft stories and so I have always been keen to play (and one day run) this scenario. It was a lot of fun and Dale more than did it justice in his GMing, as well as showing me the skills needed to pull it all off.


I have also been doing some more thinking about next year's Kapcon. I have decided to go ahead with running the Cold City adventure I mentioned back in August, as I had some inspiration on how to bring it all together. It's now titled 'The Lesser Evil or the Greater Good' and I hope it will succeed in its aim of forcing the players to make some hard decisions. You can check out the blurb on the Kapcon website. I'll be calling for playtest victims volunteers in the next couple of months in order to get it nice and tight to fit into the three hour slot.


Speaking of that, I'm still tossing up whether to run another game (probably Trail) at Kapcon. I was looking at running Graham Walmsley's 'The Dance in the Blood' which has now been released and I have downloaded, though I'm little uncertain if it will fit into the three hour Kapcon slot. It's a very atmospheric adventure, so may require longer than the three hours provided at Kapcon, though the premise and 'twist' is very satisfying. I'll keep you all posted on how that one goes.


Other than that, things are looking good for the next while with Fright Night coming up later in the month and my regular groups kicking on. Now to start writing that scenario...

The Wreck (finale)

Monday saw the suitably epic finale of this current 'season' of Empire State Secrets, where our brave band of NYPD's finest fought back against the accursed and eldritch secrets of Innsmouth and saved the city of New York.


The last game went well and the players really gave it their all, which was really appreciated. Even the miserable Wellington weather came to the party. As we started a little late, I felt a little like I had to 'push' the story along in parts more than I would have preferred. I also wasn't able to draw out the tension as much in the final scenes as planned, but these are only very minor quibbles in what has been a very enjoyable series. I've really had a great time.


Although things started a little hesitantly, we all fell into a really nice groove with the game and hit that gaming 'sweet spot', where it all just seemed to work. This was really gratifying for me as a GM as this was something I really wanted to work and for which I put a lot of effort into. It was also a couple of players first real Cthulhu experience, so I wanted to share what I love about the game and mythos and give them an authentic experience (contrary to the popular opinion of some, this does not mean going mad and dynamiting a Shoggoth, but taking part in a really creepy mystery where you have no idea where it will lead).


I'm taking a break from the GMing duties of the group for a few weeks as Dan is running an Exalted game, which I'm looking forward to as I have never played it before. However, I will confess I'm feeling ambivalent about wrapping up my game (even if only for a couple of months). 


While I'm looking forward to the break, as I have some more mundane tasks to concentrate on, I'm also a little concerned about loosing the momentum and great vibe that has been developed so far. My players assure me I have nothing to fear, but what if a younger, more attractive GM comes along!


Jokes aside, the mature and solid relationship my players have means it won't be a problem. And I've already got some suitably grim ideas for next season... 

From my Fevered Imagination: the Chuck Norris Memorial Hard Man RPG Challenge

I should preface this by saying that I love the concept of stupid challenges undertaken by a group of mates. I think it's to do with the (generally) male bonding involved or something. 

Anyway, my fevered brain last night channeled whatever sick muse it was listening to create in my mind's eye the Chuck Norris Memorial Hard Man (or Woman) RPG Challenge.

What this clash of the titans involves is five (lets say five) GM who all agree to run a three to four hour session over the course of a weekend away somewhere. The kicker is that these GMs will only know what games they are running two (lets say two)days before where they are randomly provided with a system and a time slot over the weekend. The GMs would then have a couple of days to digest the rules, write a short adventure(or if they are lucky adapt one from the game they are given) and create pre-gens (if need be).

And these just wouldn't be any old games. This would be five games covering different genres and different systems, usually obscure and well out of date. No Storyteller System or GUMSHOE here. It would then be a challenge of the GMs skill and ability to create and convincing and enjoyable game out of a foreign system with a short time to prepare (for the record, my nomination would be Star Frontiers).

If the GM really hated their randomly selected game, then they could swap it for the MYSTERY GAME which they would have to keep, which could be either completely awesome or completely arse.

I was also thinking (yes I've given this quite some thought over the day) that scoring would be done by the four players in each game and the GM with the highest score would win an AMAZING prize*.

I've still a little undecided on how long the GMs should have between receiving their system and running their game. Two nights (if they are on the first day of the weekend) doesn't seem like much, but then again a week sounds like too long. But I guess it's meant to be a challenge. Also those going in the latter session would have a slight time advantage in preparing, but would probably be more fatigued, so it might balance up in the end.

I think a lot of fun would be finding the games, as there are some classics floating around out there. Of course, all this would be accompanied by beers and ideally a nice out-of-town location.

Sadly I don't think it is something that would see the light of day easily, but what do you guys think? Any thoughts to add?

* Warning: prize may not actually be amazing.