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.

2011 in preview

Following on from my 2010 retrospective, I thought it would be good to briefly mention my roleplaying plans for 2011.

I am looking forward to my weekly Monday night game kicking off again. We still have more of Dan's Exalted Dragon Blooded game to run, which ended on a suitably dramatic cliffhanger, so I'm keen to see how things end up. I'm also amped to run some more Cthulhu for this group in the coming year. I'm not sure what form it will take yet, but it might be a follow up to last year's 'Empire State Secrets'. Thought I did read 'Tatters of the King' over the break and am very keen to run that as well, so I'll see how the group feels.

Dale's fortnightly 'Kingsport Tales' looks set to continue, with the odd game by Liam and hopefully myself thrown in as well. It seems like we'll be continuing our zany misadventures in Kingsport and possibly building up to 'Beyond the Mountains of Madness' later in the year. Dale has gone some university writing to do this year, so I'm keen to help out when needed running a game here and there to share the work load.

I've also got the hankering for another regular game - perhaps fortnightly for a slightly longer session on a Sunday afternoon or something. With some much Cthulhu on, I've kind of got the hankering for a fantasy game. What game and system, however, is a very complex question, which I'll have more to say on in the future.

I'm also hoping to do something with my Kapcon Cold City scenario this year, probably in the form of publication. It still needs some tidying up from from Kapcon and a little more tweaking, but it's not far off. I have given some half thought to entering it in next year's Scenario Design Contest, but I'll have to see how things pans out. I've also got another project that came to me just a couple of days ago. I don't want to say too much yet in case I jinx it, but if it forms up, I'll be sure to write about it here.

I also definitely want to run something for Fright Night this year as well and, if time allows, see if Marcus needs a hand organsing/running things. It would be very interesting to see how a con runs from the other side. And of course there is Kapcon 2012 to think about...

Finally I want to try and keep this blog updated more regularly. There will undoubtedly be gaps and breaks, but if I can get on a roll it will get easier.

Bring on gaming in 2011!

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... 

Dr Strangeplot: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love my Players

I have been thinking a little lately as Empire State Secrets progresses, and as I read more GUMESHOE related material, about how my approach to running games has changed over the years. The moment of 'self-awareness' really dawned on me last weekend when I was running a session for the Thursday night (soon to be the Monday night) group.

When I was younger and less experienced, I remember getting frustrated or disappointed if the game didn't proceed down the carefully crafted plot line that I or the published story author had devised. If my players wanted to do something outside what was anticipated, which happened quite often players being players, it would throw me a little. If scenes were jumped or missed out, I would feel a little like I had failed. I would have 'succeeded' if I had carried out the scenario successfully and my players would have a good time accordingly.

As I have run more games and written more stories, I have to come to redefine success in running a game. I am successful not if I tick off all the different parts of the story (like a compliance document), but if my players have a good time. If that means they decide to jump certain parts of the story or bulldoze through my plot, that's fine, as long as I can run it without missing a beat so they still enjoy themselves. This involves being way more relaxed about how the game goes and to stop worrying if things don't go as planned.

An example of this comes from Thursday's game where the characters were investigating the kidnapping of a child from a wealthy family. The story, as written, pretty much has the characters doing waiting around until the money drop before they follow the kidnappers back to the hideout at the docks. However, thanks to the proactive investigating of one character, I decided the location of the hideout would be found sooner, thereby jumping all the scene relating to the money dump.

Now I could have 'blocked' his progress in order to keep to the story as written, but that would have felt really artificial as part of the story. So I relaxed, rolled with it and let the story take its course. The result was a really good scene that felt organic, natural and something my players seemed to really enjoy.

Taking a more laid back approach to running game has been helped by using the GUMSHOE system, which is a style of play that I am coming more and more comfortable with and fond of. The focus is on giving the players clues for the story without getting bogged down in the mechanics of how they get them. This is articulated well by another blogger sharing his thoughts about Trail of Cthulhu: 

So now I don’t worry about whether a clue would be better found by Evidence Collection or by Forensics. I just see that a character is looking where they should to find a clue, and give it to them. I keep a list of what abilities the different characters have, and I phrase the evidence in keeping with whichever of the abilities makes the most sense given the information. If they’re looking for more, I’ll ask for a spend from a particular ability, or I’ll ask them what ability they’re using to get more information.

The two important things are that the clues get found and that the players enjoy themselves.

Once the characters have the clues, it then up to them to decide how they want to proceed with them. This take a lot of stress out of running a game, as I don't have to quickly shoe horn another scene in if the players miss their roll, since plot advancement isn't dependent on dice. It also means I can spend more time on the stuff I really enjoy, like setting the mood, building the back story or working on the plot.

The total result being that my perspective on running games has changed, in my opinion for the better, which has in turn enhanced my enjoy of the process and I think that of my players.

On an unrelated topic, this weekend I watched the recent Sherlock Holmes movie that came out here in New Zealand about 6 months ago. I really enjoyed it as a movie, but what struck me how very similar it was to a roleplaying game, from the plot to the pacing. It also re-sparked my interest in running a Gaslight Cthulhu game again, so watch this space.