Kickstarter (et. al.) projects I am backing

There are some great products out there at the moment which are looking for some financial love.  Here is what I have recently backed/supported:

Timewatch by Kevin Kulp

Pelgrane Press has come out swinging with another major kickstarter.  This time its is Timewatch, the investigative GUMESHOE game of time travelling agents sent into the chronsphere to put right the time-stream and face off against giant, radioactive cockroaches called Ezeru.  What's not to love?

I'm a big GUMESHOE and Pelgrane Press fan, so there was never any question about whether or not I would back this. However I'm particularly keen on what seemed to be the slightly simplified approach to the game, which I believe will work really well at cons and the like.  I'm already seriously thinking about pitching some for Kapcon in 2015.

You can immediately get access to the Jurassic (playtest) edition of the rules once you pledge, so take a look for yourself.  I must confess I have only skimmed through them it to date, but from what I seen, I like it very much.

Tales of the Crescent City by Oscar Rios

Tales of the Crescent City promises dark things with a set of scenarios for Call of Cthulhu set in New Orleans, which I have also backed.  

Playing or running a Call of Cthulhu campaign in New Orleans is something I have always had a hankering to do. With it's strong French and Caribbean influence, fascinating hsitory and unique musical sound, it is in many ways the perfect foil to Lovecraft's WASPish New England. 

I'm particularly pleased to see a follow-up the The Great Old Ones's 'Tell Me, Have You Seen The Yellow Sign?' which is one of my favourite scenarios from that collection.

I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what kinds of awful adventures I can wreck on my players with this set of scenarios.

Angels and Automatons: a shared-world steampunk anthology edited by Stephen Minchin

Closer to home, I have also backed this collection of steam-punk tales, intriguingly set in the fictionalised town of Angelston on New Zealand’s rugged and remote West Coast.

Featuring writers from both New Zealand and abroad, including some locals connected to the Wellington gaming scene, I'm very interested to see how the standard steam-punk tropes will be applied in a historical New Zealand context.  It's also a chance to support local creative talent, which I always try to do.

This project out of all the ones I am backing looks in most danger of failing to meet its target, so get behind it if you can to make this project a reality

Five Fires by Quinn Murphy

I'm using the slightly different Patreon service to provide on-going support to Quinn Murphy's quest to bring interesting RPGs with a strong African-American voice to life.

In Five Fires, the players take on the role of members of a hip-hop crew dealing with the problems of life while trying to make it big. I love the pitch of this game (in the same way I love Umlaut), so I'm very keen to read the play-test document and see what interesting things Quinn has come up with.

I also like the idea of broadening the diversity within our hobby and finding ways to help empower that process.

By using Patreon, I'm also supporting future work by Quinn, which sounds equally exciting:

"Five Fires is in my sites now, but it won't be long before I'm working on an Afrocentric fantasy game, or building a game about Double Dragon."

It's very exciting to see so many interesting products being developed. As always, the problem will be trying to find time to play them all.

Gaming goals for 2014

Kapcon always nicely book-ends the gaming year for me, so it's generally about this time I start thinking about what I would like to accomplish gaming-wise in the upcoming year.

Goals

Run an RPG campaign for my Monday night group

Last year was pretty crazy for me work-wise, which meant my plans to run a campaign didn't get off the ground.  I am hopeful that this year will be different, especially as this week I start running a D&D 4E Dark Sun campaign for my Monday night group.  

The boys have created a bunch of interesting characters, so I think this will be a really fun campaign, and I feel I can apply much of what I learnt from running 4E in 2012.  I did give serious thought to running one of the epic Call of Cthulhu campaigns for the group instead, but I thought this would be a better match with my busy work schedule.

Likely completion: Q2 2014.

Play in 'Horror on the Orient Express'

Dale is planning to run the recently re-released 'Horror on the Orient Express', so I'm keen to get my ticket and hop on board.  These epic Call of Cthulhu campaigns are always great fun and, depending on how it goes, it could also be a trial for me running it for the Monday group in the future.

Likely completion: Q4 2014.

Paint my Chinese Federation Dystopian Wars force

I am a slow painter.  A really slow painter.  I have started playing Dystopian Wars with Dale and some others from my Thursday night group, and have really been enjoying it.  I have made a good start with painting my Chinese Federation fleet but, while I enjoy painting, it just takes me so long.  I'm hopeful that by giving myself the year in which to do it, I can have it completed. Hopefully I'll least get a portion of it done soon so I can get it on the table and start playing with them.

Likely completion: Q4 2014.

Write another EPOCH scenario

2013 was a great year for me from a writing point of view, as it saw my first RPG writing published in the form of two scenarios for EPOCH.  I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get another one of these turned out this year, even though I know writing one of them is a pretty large commitment.

It's unlikely I'll get it done in time for the EPOCH companion, but I have some interesting ideas rattling around involving either vikings and a plague pit, or a tropical island holiday resort on the cusp of a violent storm.

Likely completion: Q3-4 2014.

Help organise Fright Night 8

I have volunteered to help organise Fright Night 8 for October 2014, which is a one night, two session convention that focuses on horror gaming.  I'll also probably end up writing and running a game for it as well. 

It's a pretty competitive RPG convention scene out there, but I'm convinced that the people involved with Fright Night 8 have the ability to pull off something pretty special, so it's exciting to be part of it.

We're in the early stages of planning for the con at the moment, but keep an eye on the website, facebook page and twitter account for more information and regular updates.

Likely completion: Q3 2014.

Start developing my own RPG product

I would like 2014 to be the year where I start working towards my own independent RPG release.  I don't think I'll get it released this year, but I would like to be in a position by the end of the year where I have a game that's ready for play-testing and release in 2014.

I'm not quite sure what yet this product will yet be, but I have a couple of ideas in mind and, with rise of print-on-demand printing and e-publishing, I really have no excuse not too.  More information about this project will come in future blog entries.

Likely completion: Q4 2014.

So these are my goals.  I've tried to keep them as manageable and realistic as possible, but I'll have to wait and see what 2014 brings me to see if I can get across the line on all of them.  

I'll be providing regular updates on these projects here (if I keep to blogging regularly), so keep an eye out on my progress.

Kapcon 2014 - Part 2

After my late evening session of EPOCH in round four on day one of Kapcon, it took me a long time to get to sleep.  So I woke up on Sunday morning for day two feeling slightly less refreshed than I had hoped.

However after a swift and copious application of coffee to my system, I was ready to go.

Round Five - Edge of Empire I: Escape from Mos Shuuta (Star Wars: Edge of Empire)

I saw Conan was offering the relatively new Star Wars system Edge of Empire from Fantasy Flight game, and I was keen to give it a try.  The original West End Games system was one of my early RPG loves, so I have always had a soft spot for Star Wars role-playing.

Not only did Conan have one of the longest titles in the con, he also ran a great game which hit all the right Star Wars notes as promised.  I played 41-Vex a slightly psychopathic medical droid who had gone for far too long without a memory wipe.  I got the impression Vex wasn't quite meant to be as scenery-chewing as I went for, but I just went for it and had a great time playing a deranged C3PO with needles for hands.

Do not trust this droid with your life!

The game took us through a number of scenes where the different characters had sufficient spotlight time to shine.  I thought the system worked well, and liked the 'stunting' mechanic for bonus dice, though I wonder if the die resolution system could have been made a tad less mechanical and bit more narrative.

All in all I had a good fun in this session and will give some serious thought to picking up Edge or Empire or another in the series for my Monday night group.

Round Six - Quintessence (EPOCH - Games on Demand)

I had offered to run Home Front again in round six but didn't get the numbers to run (despite having four or five sign-ups at one point).  I was a little bit disappointing and heading off to lunch, but in my absence Dale and organisers had manged to wrangle my way into Game of Demand (thanks all).

I knew both Dale and Sophie were keen to play, so I decided to pitch both Home Front and my earlier scenario Quintessence (from the Frontier of Fear collection).  I had only pretty minimally prepped Quintessence, but felt I could wing most of it if need be.

Thankfully I got five players and the group opted for Quintessence, as only Dale had played that scenario before.  Quintessence is my love-letter to horror sci-fi, in which the characters play corporation marines sent to investigated a long-vanished scientific ship.  The scenario plays on some pretty common tropes, but does some mechanically interesting things with EPOCH system, so I was looking forward to running it again.

My players quickly got themselves together and formed the sorriest group of recruits to sully the ranks of the Ascend Marine Corp.  Actually they all made quite interesting and well-rounded characters and the voting throughout the scenario was very tight.

The interplay between Dale's creepy marine (Private Neal) and Sophie's reluctant medic (Captain Maddison) was great, as was the detailed characterisation of Private Johnson (whose player I sadly can't remember -  she was very good), the general badassary of Thom's Sergeant Carpenter and the weaselly deductions of  Sam's Specialist Stephens.

The game was good fun, though my only regret was that with the delayed start I lost about thirty minutes game time, which meant I had to cut the game a little short and compress the final scenes.  I certainly felt we could have easily gone for another hour, such was the strength of the characters and their interactions.

Round Seven - Couch

After my poor sleep, I opted to skip round seven and to head home after the prize-giving.  I fully intended to return to town for the post-con drinks, but by the time I sat on the couch, it was all over.  A shame, as I heard they went really well.

Final Thoughts

Overall I had a great time at Kapcon, especially considering my lack of enthusiasm heading in. I didn't have a single dud game and got to hangout with a bunch of interesting people.  However this wasn't the first time I have had a game fail to get the numbers in round six, so I'll need to re-evaluate offering in that round in the future.  

I also wonder if the separate streams in the con (LARPing, tabletop, Games on Demand) is having a slightly negative effect on the scheduled tabletop offerings.  To be honest, in the future I would be tempted to spend most of my time in the GOD room in future, as that's where lots of interesting stuff is happening, but I feel I would be adding to a potential problem.  Perhaps in many ways Kapcon is becoming a victim of its own success? 

Regardless of that, I am now looking forward to next's year Kapcon, and the gaming year ahead, with renewed energy.

Kapcon 2014 - Part 1

So what better way to re-start some (semi) regular blogging than to put down some thoughts about this year's Kapcon. Kapcon is Wellington's premier role-playing convention and features two days of table-top roleplaying, LARPing, board-games and more than runs over Wellington Anniversary weekend.

I should come right out and say at the start that my enthusiasm leading into this year's Kapcon was pretty low.  I don't really know why, especially after missing Kapcon 2013 for family reasons, but to be honest I gave some hard thought to passing on the whole thing.

However I had promised Dale I would help with EPOCH duties, and I knew I wold enjoy myself once I was there, so I signed up and offered to run EPOCH, specifically my scenario 'Home Front' in a couple of sessions.

However I am glad I did go because I had a really fun time.  The con ran very smoothly and it was nice to see a bunch of people and play in (and run) some interesting games.  While perhaps it did not hit the highs of previous years, I really think this has more to do with me than anything else.

Below is a quick round-by-round overview of my first day at Kapcon:

Round One: Sleep In!

I offered to run an EPOCH session in the late night Saturday slot (round four), so decided to take the first session off in order to have a sleep in and a late start.  This turned out to be a good idea as I was still pretty wiped by the end of the day.  After a hearty breakfast and a coffee in the city,  I headed along after lunch to join in on the gaming in round two.

Round Two: Black Stars Rise (Game of Demand) 

I opted for Games on Demand (GOD) in Round Two because I knew there would be some interesting games on offer.  If I'm honest, I was a little surprised by the lack of offering of more recent releases in the scheduled sessions, so I was hoping GOD could provide the opportunity some of those game which I had been reading about.

I shouldn't have worried as there were plenty of interesting games put out on offer by a bunch of talented GMs.  Out of the six or seven games offered, there was nothing there I wasn't interested in playing (with the possible exception of Monsterhearts). 

In the end, I opted for Black Stars Rise, offered by Mike Sands, which I had been keen to play for a while.  Black Stars Rise takes the Apocalypse World approach to player oriented narrative and combines it was the tropes and themes of modern conspiracy horror (imagine the X-Files without Mulder and Scully coming to save the day).  I had the read the rules, but like most RPGs, needed to see it played to really 'get it'.

Steve ran a great game about a hidden evil in modern, small town America.  I played Pastor Steve, the tattooed, ex-junkie pastor of a inner city evangelical church, who, with his friends (a well-meaning GP, a selfish anthropology professor and a bookish librarian), had to deal with the growing threat of a great evil located in their apartment building. 

Pastor Steve?

I think my favourite moments in the game were those with the GP, who had gone pretty crazy and kept trying to set fire to the apartment building, where I was attempting to keep both him and myself stable, while trying to ignore that sinister banging from above us.

The game was great fun and, although the rules need a little more cooking, I look forward to the next release.  

Round Three: Goddess of the Dark Tower (Tenera Bansho Zero)

A Japanese role-playing game based on a Kabuki play that features a demon haunted castle you say?  Sign me up!

Goddess of the Dark Tower was one of my GM picks and, as Luke Walker had kindly expressed interest in running a Tenera Bansho Zero scenario for Fright Night this year, I was curious to see how it would play out.

Turns out it was very good.  Although I was initially thrown-by the detailed looking character sheets and supporting material, I needn't have worried as the game was far more narrative and dramatic that they suggested. 

The game had an interesting dynamic with the relationship between two characters (Fraser doing his finest to play a creepy flesh eating, demon Japanese princess and Nick playing a noble and upright samurai lord) providing the central dramatic tension of the story.  I don't think this detracted from the other characters (including my ex-ninja warrior monk in search of redemption), but  was cleverly designed that the story was bound to produce a conflict and resolution by the end of the time available.

Overall it was a very satisfying experience and I can certainly see why it was heavily oversubscribed.  I look forward to talking to Luke further about Fright Night.

Round Four: Home Front (EPOCH)

This was my first round running a game and although I had five players signed-up, only four showed.  This had me a little concerned, as I find EPOCH really hums with five or six players. 

However my four players more than made up for the missing one as they got right into the EPOCH experience (despite none having played it before) created brave members of the Blakely Home Guard.  

EPOCH put quite a lot on first time players due to it's innovative resolution mechanic and voting system, with one player genuinely asking whether it was a role-playing game or a card game before we started.  However they all picked it up very quickly and things were well underway by the second tension phase.

All the characters did a great job of capturing the essence of the scenario, and I regret not keeping the run sheet so I could remember all their names.  There were a number of great scenes in this game, with only one one brave Home Guard member (young Bertie Coventry) surviving the epic final scenes of the game, though I am pleased to say Paddington the Welsh corgi also made it through in one piece.

As always with EPOCH, I found it a struggle to keep within the three hour limit due to the great character interactions, however we handily finished just slightly after the scheduled time and I was able to head home with my head full of thoughts for day two of Kapcon.

Work in progress

So it has been a long time since a post, though much has still been happening in my gaming life.

Stand by for some further comment and potentially a site redesign. There is more to come.

I...still...function....

I sure know the feeling Megatron

It has been a long time since I have dusted off the blog. It has been missing my love, and while I hope to post more regularly (as I always say), I won't make any bold statements for the moment.

However I am still here and playing games. Here is a quick snapshot. 

I am playing:

• Mountains of Madness with Dale and our regular Thursday night Cthulhu group. It's going really well, and I am enjoying playing the supercilluous, creepy, seed-eating Professor Hoyle. We've game has just stepped up with our first big discovery, so we'll see how long he lasts in his quest for academic glory. Mountains is one of those legendary Cthulhu campaigns, so I'm very stoked to be finally playing it.
• Descent with Vom-Krieg and the Monday guys is about to reach the climax of the Road to Legend campaign. It has been a long and epic 6 months so far, with lots of ups and downs along the way. I'm looking forward to the final battle in what is sure to be a titanic clash. You can read more about our exploits here.
• Warmachine! Not strictly an RPG (though I could argue the point), but it has certainly captured my attention of late, mostly due to Vom-Krieg laying his mind eggs in my skull. I'm actually really enjoying both playing and painting in a way I didn't expect to, and while I plan to try and keep this blog focused on RPGs, it may feature from time to time.

I am running:

• My 4E D&D campaign is still going slowly but strongly, despite our cleric skipping town for a while. I am enjoying running it, especially when we can get a bit of momentum behind it. I will admit it has suffered a bit from irregular play and scheduling problems, but that is mainly on me. Tomorrow night will feature a big boss fight, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they respond when I throw something a little more at them.

That's all for now. I hope to start running some more games in the future, and perhaps I can convince the Monday night guys to playing something once the dust around Descent has settled.

Retro-cover Wednesday: Clanbook: Tremere (Vampire: The Masquerade)

Just a quick update today thanks to a busy week at work, but given these posts are all about retro-covers, I thought that it was about time to break out some Vampire: The Masquerade.

As I've mentioned previously, White Wolf's Storyteller series was the big game in the mid and late nineties, which coincided with my roleplaying youth. Although Vampire wasn't my favourite of the series, it was the most popular and the one which defines the series from the very start. That's not to say I didn't like it, as I certainly did, and played it a lot in both the tabletop and live action form.

The clanbook series established the format of producing a splatbook for the different factions in the various different games. They were short (about 30-40 pages) and comparatively cheap, but as they were written by different authors, the quality was variable.

Clanbook: Tremere is an interesting example, as it was one of the better ones in my opinion. I mean, who wouldn't want to play a blood magic wielding vampire warlock? I haven't read it in years, but I remember it containing good information on Thaumaturgy and the byzantine organisation of the Tremere clan. It was certainly one of the best clanbook to build of cohesive vision of a clan, as opposed to a collection of stereotypes (looking at you, Clanbook: Brujah)

Part of its quality is due to the fact it was written by Keith 'Doc' Herber of Call of Cthulhu fame. Herber makes some less than subtle nods to this, including the Servants of the Worm, who own the Necronomicon and worship Cthulhu. In fact, it is Herber who does much in this work to build the tightly woven conspiracy that lies at the heart of clan Tremere.

Do the rest of you remember the original clanbooks? Do you have a favourite?