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?

Rogue Trader - The Bull and the Wasp

Below is a little novelisation of an epic combat from Rogue Trader last night:

The Bull and the Wasp

The battle raged on and around the alien temple. On the top of the temple The Elder desperately tried to complete their eldritch ritual to shift the sacred structure to another plane, while the competing Rogue Traders below were equally determined to prevent this happening.

With his head still swimming from the strange xeno’s blast of psychic energy, Maarn leap to his feet and charged the Elder Warlock, who had descended to hold off the avaricious humans. Screaming his primitive cry of battle, Maarn unsheathed his great sword from over his shoulder and swung at his eldarian enemy.

The graceful alien psyker easily stepped aside the raging human’s clumsy strike. The runes on the Elder’s witchblade glowed with blue energy, and with preternatural grace and speed he struck a blow on Maarn’s head, slicing deep and opening a gushing scalp wound.

Maarn stumbled backwards with blood rushing down his face and into his eyes and mouth. Knowing he could not match the Elder in speed, he took advantage of a momentary lapse in concentration by his arcane foe as Andreas and Ezekiel joined the fray. Stepping forward, Maarn focused his rage and rammed his skull into the arcane and rune encrusted helmet of the xeno.

The Warlock was caught off guard and fell to the ground with his helmet cracking. Pushing his advantage, Maarn drove his sword into the Elder’s stomach, slicing through its exotic and forbidden armour. The Elder barely filched as the sword drove through it and into the ground below, though all those nearby felt the energy present.

Maarn, his head wound still gushing, and the Warlock stared at each other with icy hate, each tensing for their next move. As the Warlock prepared for its strike, a series of explosions from the top of the temple broke the tension of the moment. As the Elder started to teleport away, Maarn howled in outrage as his foe at his feet sneered at him and dematerialised before his eyes.

Retro-cover Wednesday: Twilight 2000 (Twilight 2000)

In a blaze of 1980's glory comes Twilight 2000! You better watch out Warsaw Pact loving Soviets.

Twilight 2000 was never a game I owned, or even played, but is one I have always found interesting. The game is set in the murky world of the aftermath of World War 3, in which the characters are members of military units who find themselves stranded in Central Europe. They must then decide what lives to make for themselves, whether that be trying to make the long journey home, keep fighting the war, becoming a mercenary or simply surviving.

The game took as its inspiration the cold war paranoia that dominated the 1970-80 which dominated much of the media of the time. The game paid close attention to detail, with limited supplies meaning that every bullet, litre of fuel or ration pack was important. Why this doesn't necessarily sound fun, it certainly makes player choice really important, and this finds expression in the modern day post-Apocalyptic vibe found in games like the Fallout series or TV shows like The Walking Dead.

Part of the interest for me in this game is that it really feels like a historical artefact, unlike many roleplaying games who are set in a less specific place in time. Only being nine or so when the Soviet Union split up, the world described in this game is very different to the one I grew up with in the 1990s. Although efforts were made to revise the game during its lifetime, these never quite compared to the original.

Ironically, an updated version of Twilight 2000 set in the hypothetical now makes a lot more sense. The Middle East after a limited nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran is a viable setting for a game with a similar aesthetic. Throw in the Caucuses and the Central Asian Republics, and combine it with Predator Drones and IEDs, and you could have a pretty compelling narrative.

The cover above comes from the second edition of the rule book from 1990. It betrays its vintage with the gratuitous use of headbands and some fierce mullets. It also reminds me a lot of a military colouring book I had when I was a kid, and those Osprey military books.

The original Twilight 2000 has been reprinted and is available in PDF. I haven't picked it up yet, but it's a game I would really like to play or run at least once is some form, if only to scratch a long held itch.

Back from a long weekend away

I am back in Wellington after a long weekend away up in Auckland with the in-laws. It was really nice, but I'm feeling pretty wiped. I feel like I may be coming down with a cold as well, so it will be an early night for me.

However a nice surprise was that my copy of the RPG Umläut: Game of Metal was in the letterbox waiting for me when I got home. Umläut was one of the games I spotted in the Games on Demand room at Kapcon earlier in the year. It is a GM-less game where each player creates and plays a heavy metal band seeking fame and fortune. Given the fondness I and my fellow ex-Hamiltonian friends have for heavy metal (being of good bogan stock), I knew this would be a good choice.

I can't say much yet, but I understand it operates in a similar style to Piledrivers and Powerbombs where there are set pre-gig, gig and post-gig scenes in which the different bands try and gain more points than each other. Conflict resolution is done using playing cards, which makes it quick and effective.

I'll read it through and round up the lads for a few games before I post on it next, but in the mean time I'll leave you with this handy metal chronology to prepare you.

Retro-cover Wednesday: Maximum Metal (Cyberpunk 2020)

It's time to introduce a new regular feature for the blog, called Retro-cover Wednesdays. Basically I plan to once a week post an old cover from my roleplaying past, along with a few musings that it inspires. Hopefully it'll be entertaining for all and keep my content at least a little more regular.

So the first cover I wanted to write about was from an old Cyberpunk 2020 supplement called Maximum Metal: High-Powered Ordinance for Cyberpunk 2020. As I've mentioned before, Cyberpunk 2020 was my first roleplaying game, so unlike many of you who were calculating THACO and figuring out the damage of a magic missle as a young kid, I was working out the SP of Kevlar skinweave against a Baretta 9mm. I need to write a longer post about this game that I love, but suffice to say these days it really hits those nostalgia buttons for me.

Maximum Metal dates from 1993 and has rules and stats for military vehicles and weapons. The material in this book runs the gambit from the realtively mundane (motorbikes, trucks and tanks) to the more exotic (battle zeppelins and powered armour). While the weapons and vehicles discussed are high powered, they are well supported with some pretty sound rules, and GMs are provided with a heavy caveat that this material is not to be used lightly. 

While Maximum Metal has attracted some criticism for going away from the gritty, urban setting of the source material, there was always a slight thrill if during a game our GM picked it up and started looking through it, as it was a signal to us that sh*t was about to get real. The powered armour seemed particularly cool to us as a bunch of 14 and 15 year olds, though in hindsight the cheese does seem pretty evident.

If I were ever to run a Cyberpunk game again (which is, sadly, highly unlikely), I would keep Maximum Metal in my GM's arsenal. Perhaps it would never seen the light of day in the game, but, like any other deterrent, it would be a good thing to have on hand for unwise player decisions.

Kapcon 2012 (Part One)

Another mad, enjoyable Kapcon weekend has been and, as usual, I had a great time. This year's Kapcon had both some high and low points for me, but plenty of kudos has to go to the organisers for what is most certainly one of the highlights of my gaming year.

What I love about Kapcon is that is a chance to catch up with other gamers from across Wellington and indeed New Zealand. The awesome games on offer are just the icing on the cake.

Below are some quick summaries of what I got up to:

Round one: Games on Demand - Fiasco

This year I opted for Games of Demand (GoD) in round one, as I was keen on a number of the games being offered by the talented pool of GMs. After my hopes of playing Microscope were dashed (for the first time) by a fan push for Monsterhearts, I joined Fiasco being facilitated Jenni Dowsett. I had been hanging out to play Fiasco for a long time, but despite even having a copy of the rules, I had never managed to play a game or 'get' the game conceptually, so this was a golden opportunity.

The six of us sat down and Jenni ran us through a few options for playsets. After tossing some ideas around, we settled on a Harry Potter themed playset. I was a little wary at first, as I have only seen a few of the movies and am by no means a Potterfile, but I needn't have worried as it turned out. I had a great time playing Fiasco and Jenni really facilitated the game well.

Running through the process of establishing connections between characters was painless and we quickly got the hang of building up our cast. I ended up playing Larry Potter, one of Harry Potter's and Hermione's identical triplets (along with Albus and Barry). Larry was the bookish and slightly awkward triplet, who was convinced Hogwart's houses were a bad idea. This resulted in his membership of a secret society (which of course everyone knew about) called the Hatless Few that was dedicated to ending the tyranny of the sorting hat.

Needless to say much laughter and drama ensued. All of the players brought plenty of inspiration and characterisation to the game, and I really liked the way the game supported a lot of improv style collaboration. Against my best expectations (and efforts) old Larry actually ended up as the most successful of the Potter twins, which goes to show that the bookish, misguided geek sometimes end up on top.

Round two: Sundown (Call of Cthulhu)

Despite regularly playing with Dale, I missed out on both his playtest of Sundown and his run through at Fright Night, so I was pleased to be able to give it a shot at Kapcon. Sundown is an old west themed scenario for Call of Cthulhu, and tells the story of a posse who go out to find justice, only to find they are the ones being hunted.

I played Hal Dascher, a dapper confidence man and thief who joined the posse to further ingratiate himself with the the good folks of Tombstone. Although scheduled to play with a full complement of eight characters, we only had seven players turn up. This meant my character's 'wife' was left behind, which was find as it allowed be to play Hal a bit faster and looser.

I won't ruin things by saying what happened in the story, but will instead urge you to go and download it, as Dale has kindly made it available for free download. Suffice to say, it was a really strong game, and one of the high points of the con for me.

The scenario did a great job of portraying an authentic western setting and providing a compelling and engaging plot. We also had a very strong cast of players who really brought their characters to life, all of which helped make it a thoroughly enjoyable session.

Round three: The Bloodstones of Dungeon World (Dungeon World)

After pizza it was time for some Dungeon World, an Apocalypse World hack that takes Vincent Baker's system and applies the tropes of D&D to it. I had been intrigued to try this for a while, and used this session for my GM pick, so I had some high expectations.

Our brave party, including my Paladin Regulus, were on a quest to stop the evil wizard Grundward from using the Blooodstone to summon and evil demon to destroy the world. Unfortunately this involved storming into the Bloodstone fortress and overcoming all manner of opponents, including lizardmen, goblins, ghosts as well as giant fireflies. There were some pretty cool scenes in the game, like our Fighter's stealth mission behind enemy lines with back up from Regulus, and our two thieves trying to escape from some angry fireflies.

In the end we came across Grundward himself (or perhaps it was the other way around) with the demon he had summoned. After a pretty epic battle, we managed to dispatch Grunward, but fell to the demon's whips, despite getting him down to only one hit point.

Although Russell ran a solid, enjoyable game, he seemed pretty tired, and I don't quite feel I got the full Dungeon World experience. The game certainly had a nice, retro feel to it, and a liked the way the different 'moves' have been created to give each class its own unique role. I plan to give it another go soon, as the buzz about it is pretty good, and I would like to see more of how the game plays. I'll probably pick up a copy to play with my regular Monday night group and see what they make of it.

By the time round three finished, I was feeling pretty wiped. I ended up hanging out with some of my regular Cthuhlu crew in GoD room, as most of us weren't involved with the LARP. After thinking about joining in the round 3.5 fun, we decided to call it a night and get some dinner and have a few drinks. A full belly of Japanese food and some beer and sake later, we headed home to get some sleep before day two.

Kapcon commeth. Am I ready?

Returing to the blog here after a long, relaxing summer makes me feel a little like a deadbeat dad who hasen't spent much time recently with their kid. There is no doubt I have been a little neglectful over summer and the end of 2011, though some of the reasons were outside of my control.

So the best way to get back into the habit of something is to start, so before I write up some retrospective/prospective posts about my gaming, I thought I would mention that it is Kapcon this coming weekend, the big Wellington roleplaying event that I have written about in the past.

While I'm looking forward to Kapcon, I have to admit this year I have really struggled to get excited about it or get motivated to run something. I'm not sure if the gloss of past years has worn off slightly, or if it is just an extended hangover from last year's busy year of work, but my buzz certainly hasn't come as easy as in the past.

In the end I've settled on running 'The Wishing Well', which is a heavily modified Advanced Fighting Fantasy (AFF) 2nd edition adventure. I picked up AFF 2nd ed. in December and have really enjoyed the simple ruleset and flexibility of the system, which sits in contrast to my recent experience of running D&D 4E.

There is also the very obvious nostalgia kick which is part of the game. Many roleplayers like myself first picked up their dice to play fantastic adventures in the world of Allansia. The game retains that old school feel and innocence, along with that slightly odd British sensibility that American fantasy games lack.

The adventure itself is simple but solid, and should provide some good fun in the Sunday morning hangover session. However, in deference to full transparency, it hasn't coalesced into a single organic whole yet, which is a fancy way of saying I haven't finished writing it. However since I am using pre-generated characters and modifying an existing story (albeit modifying it increasingly so the more I think about it), it shouldn't prove a problem.

I have become quietly excited about AFF 2nd ed. and while it is far from a perfect system, I think it has the potential as a 'go to game' for some light fantasy fun. I think it even has enough depth for a short campaign, though my kapcon experience will be enlightening about how much I enjoy running it.

Reading up on AFF 2nd ed. also lead me to Matthew Finch's 'A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming', which was an enjoyable short read on the mindset behing 'old school' gaming. While it's not about to make me run off and start playing original D&D and grow a beard, I did enjoy its thoughts on 'ruling not rules' for example. I would recommend it as a short read.

Stay tuned for more of my 2012 gaming plans and a review of my Kapcon 2012 experience.

Vomkrieg: The price ain't right - International comparative ...

My friend Vomkreig makes some very astute observasions about Games Workshop's business model. I'm totally with him.

Vomkrieg: The price ain't right - International comparative ...: I came to a realization today and have made a decision on something, I'm not going back into my local Games Workshop store. Not unless s...

D&D: The Slaying Stone - Session 2

As the late afternoon light started to fade, the group decided to take advantage of the chaos caused by their attack on the goblin patrol in the forest to sneak into down undetected. Most of the goblin forces were in the north of the town and a column of troops was preparing to head into the forest.

After navigating towards to the south of the city, the group crossed silently into the city and headed towards the remains of the library in search of the slaying stone. Sticking to the shadows and avoid goblin patrols, they happen across a lone kobold near column of troops was preparing to head into the forest.

After navigating towards to the south of the city, the group crossed silently into the city and headed towards the remains of the library in search of the slaying stone. Sticking to the shadows and avoid Goblin patrols, they happen across a lone Kobold near the library collecting junk with his mechanical hounds. Sensing a threat that could not be passed by, they attacked from the shadows quickly. As the party quickly overcame his hounds, the Kobold splashed a toxic oil over some of the party causing a Anhkeg to erupt from beneath the earth and attack. As the giant beetle grabbed Cage with its mandibles, the Kobold hoped to make his escape, but was quickly cut down. With assistance from the others, Cage summoned the full power of the dark demonic forces that torment him and killed the creature.

The party made their escape to an abandoned building to recover from their wounds and to remain hidden. While standing guard Zoltan spied a goblin on patrol being grabbed by an orc and carried away down a dark ally. It seems the Party weren't the only strangers in down.

Carrying on with their plan, they headed towards the library and, with a combination of magical cunning and ruthless steel, gained entry. One of the scrolls provided by Treona suggests that there was some trace of the Slaying Stone here. Further exploration of the library saw the party come across a makeshift alchemist laboratory hiding a group of goblins. The group burst into the room and quickly dispatched the goblin guards thanks to getting the jump of them. The goblin alchemist hardly had enough time to summon a gray ozoo like creature before suffering the same fate as his goblin guards. The ozoo fell quickly after, thanks in part to a well placed beaker from Thangobrind's sling.

Using the scroll to further explore the library, the party made their way to an abandoned wing of the library where they discovered the remains of a wall panel cast aside to reveal a hidden alcove. The panel and the alcove featured large claws marks and large, brassy scales littered the floor. Bookshelves were also pushed aside, consistent with a large beast having moved through the area.

After examining the scales and recalling his study, Gabriel revealed that they most likely belonged to a brass dragon. There creatures make their lairs in warn areas and prefer dry and arid environments, though sometimes make exceptions. They often have a merc the library collecting junk with his mechanical hounds. Sensing a threat that could not be passed by, they attacked from the shadows quickly. As the party quickly overcame his hounds, the Kobold splashed a toxic oil over some of the party causing an Anhkeg to erupt from beneath the earth and attack. As the giant beetle grabbed Cage with its mandibles, the kobold hoped to make his escape, but was quickly cut down. With assistance from the others, Cage summoned the full power of the dark demonic forces that torment him and killed the creature.

The party made their escape to an abandoned building to recover from their wounds and to remain hidden. While standing guard, Zoltan spied a goblin on patrol being grabbed by an orc and carried away down a dark ally. It seems the this group weren't the only strangers in down.

Carrying on with their plan, they headed towards the library and, with a combination of magical cunning and ruthless steel, gained entry. One of the scrolls provided by Treona suggests that there was some trace of the Slaying Stone here. Further exploration of the library saw the party come across a makeshift alchemist laboratory hiding a group of goblins. The group burst into the room and quickly dispatched the goblin guards thanks to getting the jump of them. The goblin alchemist hardly had enough time to summon a gray ozoo like creature before suffering the same fate as his goblin guards. The ozoo fell quickly after, thanks in part to a well placed beaker from Thangobrind's sling.

Using the scroll to further explore the library, the party made their way to an abandoned wing of the library where they discovered the remains of a wall panel cast aside to reveal a hidden alcove. The panel and the alcove featured large claws marks and large, brassy scales littered the floor. Bookshelves were also pushed aside, consistent with a large beast having moved through the area.

After examining the scales and recalling his study, Gabriel revealed that they most likely belonged to a brass dragon. There creatures make their lairs in warn areas and prefer dry and arid environments, though sometimes make exceptions. They often have a mercenary streaks and tend to be talkative, though always thinking about their own self-interest above anything else. He also noted that brass dragons also refuse to converse with anyone who exhibits rudeness or disrespect.

Armed with this new knowledge, the group decided to explore Kiris Dahn further and headed silently through the night to the Houses of Revel, the former city temples. Finding the temples abandoned but desecrated, Gabriel began reconsecrating the temple of Bahamut with help from Genevieve, while Cage, Zoltan, Lexonius and Thangobrind went off in search of the slaying stone and headed into the temple of Sehanine.

However the temple of Sehanine was not abandoned as the adventurers first thought. After their eyes adjusted to the light, they noticed a small figuring trying to hide from them. After reassuring him they meant no harm, he introduced himself as Kiris Hoyt, the rightful heir to the Kiris title whose family had abandoned him when they were fleeing the city. His fine clothes now covered in dirt and filth, he confessed to living alone in the temple keeping out of sight of the goblins. When asked about the dragon, he confirmed that he had seen signs of a brass dragon flying across the city at night and that he had overheard some goblins saying that the dragon had dug lair somewhere in the city.

The conversation then turned to the Slaying Stone. Before Hoyt could finish his story, a cry when up and a raiding party of goblins entered from both the north and south of the temple. Surrounded, the party turned to face their attackers with Zoltan using powerful magic to put a number of goblins to sleep while Cage and Thangobrind lined up ready to strike.

To the surprise of all concerned, Hoyt was struck by a crossbow bolt and began to transform into a fearsome half man, half rat creature who attacked those nearest to him in an uncontrollable rage. While Lexonius ran down the temple to take care of the goblins closing in from the south, Cage and Thangobrind traded blows back and forth with the wererat. Zoltan used his magic to keep the rest of the goblins at way. Gabriel and Genevieve ran to their friend's defence to join the fray and helped tipped the balance in favour of the party. After a brief but violent struggle, the battered body of Kiris Hoyt, human once more, and a dozen goblins lay dead around them.

Commonplace fears

Wired magazine have published a copy of Lovecraft's Commonplace Book. A commonplace book is a list of ideas and thoughts, and Lovecraft's provides some great insights into his thinking and writing process.

You can even see clear progression from concept to story, with entry forty two (Fear of mirrors—memory of dream in which scene is altered and climax is hideous surprise at seeing oneself in the water or a mirror. (Identity?) [Outsider?])being clear precursor to Lovecraft’s The Outsider.

From a gaming point of view it is simply an amazing resource full on scenario and scene ideas. I find simply casting my eye down the list the list sparks off story ideas with almost every entry.

The Nentir Vale reimaged

A little while ago I was casting around for a system to run a fantasy game and received some great suggestions. I checked a few out, but that itch to run a fantasy game never really got scratched, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and pick up some D&D 4E.


I have mentioned before playing D&D was a bit of geek blind spot for me, so I was a little unsure of what to expect. After getting familiar with the material and thinking about it some more, I came to conclusion that I could do what I wanted to do with the game, that being to run a character driven game with a strong story, that also had the essential flavour of D&D. The secret, I came to realise, would be a strong group of players.

Masks of Nyarlathotep: A Player's Perspective

If you pop over my friend Dale's blog, you will see he has written up his account of our recently finished Call of Cthulhu campaign 'Masks of Nyarlathotep' (Pulp Edition). Dale ran a great campaign and I had a heap of fun. The characters were fleshed out and interesting; the story equal parts hilarious and horrific. It is something I will remember fondly for a long time.

Seeing as Dale has provided the GM point of view, I thought I might give some thoughts from a player's perspective. Masks has a reputation as being one of the most popular Cthulhu campaigns, but also for being a bit of a 'meat grinder' in terms of characters. As a result, I was a little cautious going in as I didn't like the idea of blowing through a bunch of characters that were only tenuously connected.

However looking back, Dale's introduction of fate and fortune points was a great idea. It meant - in my case at least - that the tension was maintained through the points slowly building up and quickly dwindling down, while allowing for meaningful character development to occur (I think I burned through six of them in the end). I really enjoyed playing Armand Fazeal's descent from an eccentric orientalist to a mythos fighting, zealous Islamist. The major wound table also helped to add to the tension as it provided another decision about to use a fate point or not.

In terms of chapters, my favourite was Cairo. It combined the right amount of sandbox style choices and plot 'reveal', while having a really detailed and described setting. I think it also helped that there was a lot of investigative action, which was a niche Fazeal helped fill. In contrast I was less enamored by Kenya, mostly due to the linear plotting of the story, but as Dale explained it is important story wise, and really it was still really fun.

All in all it was a huge amount of fun and a big thanks goes out to Dale. It has certainly given me a whole bunch of idea for me to steal and use one day when I run it.

What's this? An update?

Yes it's true. No lie. It is indeed an update.

Sadly my grand intention to keep this blog updated regularly hasn't really come to much. True there has been some pretty big events in the past few months (wedding, honeymoon, huge work project) to keep me occupied, but I have also been lucky enough to have some gaming on the side as well.

Call of Cthulhu with Dale continues with the exciting 'Masks of Nyarlathotep: Pulp Edition', in which I play the Oriental occultist Armand Fazeal. It's a really fun game and Dale continues to impress me with his organisational ability to run the game week in - week out.

I have also got an In Nomine game run by my old mate Jarrod starting up in the near future, which will mark the belated kick back into Monday night roleplaying. I'm looking forward to starting back up with this group and have grand plans to run something Cthulhu related with them later in the year.

I have also got some other half formed plans for other games I would like to run, as well as some thoughts on Mansions of Madness, but that will have to wait until next time.

Cthulhu Dark

Things have been a bit mad lately with wedding and travel plans, so the old blog has been a little neglected, but I felt compelled to point out Cthulhu Dark, a rules light system that I stumbled across a couple of days ago. 

Written by Graham Walmsley - the author of a number of highly regarded scenarios for Trail of Cthulhu including 'The Dying of St Margret's' and the 'Dance in the Blood' - Cthulhu Dark is a minimal, two page rules system for Cthulhu roleplaying that focuses more on story and character than mechanics. Reading such a stripped down rules set is incredibly fulfilling. It presents a real common sense approach to gaming by providing the freedom to engage deeply and directly with the story without the rule set defining the game itself. I really like what I see.

Graham has also released some additional rules (well, rather rules in progress) that expand on the basic rule set and provide a little more 'depth' to the mechanics.

I have been kicking around the idea for a while of running a Cthulhu game via Skype with some mates from out of town (and country), and I can see this as being the perfect solution to finding an easy and quick system for that medium, though I might fiddle with things here and there. It also could be very useful in a convention setting as well.

I think there is a lot of potential in Cthulhu Dark for some quick and deadly fun, and I look forward to giving it a trial in the near future.