Road Trip

We got back a few days ago from our first official family road trip. We decided to go on short notice because Kate's mid-winter break, Dundracon, and Nicole's mom's surgery all coincided in a workable way. So we spent a couple of days in Portland, the weekend in San Ramon for Dundracon, and then the final few days in San Francisco. Overall, the trip worked out well and we had a good time.

The Portland leg was potentially dicey. We were there to support Nik's mom and if her surgery did not go well, there was a chance we'd have to stay longer than we planned. As it turned out, the surgery went surprisingly well, they did less than they thought they'd have to, and she was released a couple of days early. While there we had a chance to hang out with Nik's brother Chad and his girlfriend Megan and it's always nice to see them. Alas for Kate, no Voodoo Doughnuts this trip.

We made it down to San Ramon on Friday night, but not before a thoroughly unpleasant cop pulled us over and gave us a speeding ticket. Everyone else on the freeway was also speeding but we had out of state plates and that made us a target. Fucking cops. It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. We still don't know how much this is going to cost, but it's likely to be over $250 and we really can't afford that right now.

Dundracon was good fun though. We haven't been able to attend in something like 7 years, so it was nice to make it back. Dundracon is a convention that still puts roleplaying front and center and that's a rarity these days. The downside for me was that most RPG sessions were 6-8 hours long and I could not find a game I wanted to play that fit between the seminars I was doing. The only scheduled game I played was actually a minis game, a re-fight of Rorke's Drift using (heavily) modified Sword and the Flame rules. Also played four pick up games of Dominion with Bruce Harlick and a rotating cast of opponents. That is a damn fine game.

The seminars seemed to go well. Ken Hite was my co-panelist on many of them. Get Ken and I chatting about history and an hour goes by quickly. We got to be the youngsters on a seminar about the early days of gaming, but we had a support role there, as the focus was rightly on Steve Perrin and Ken St. Andre. I had never heard Steve talk about the creation and impact of the Perrin Conventions (an early set of house rules for OD&D popular on the West Coast), so that was quite interesting. We take the internet for granted now but it's fascinating how differently D&D was played in various regions back in the 70s.

One feature of Dundracon I have always loved is their flea market. Gamers can rent a table there by the hour and sell whatever they want. I've found some great deals there over the years and this year was exception. This year's score was two old Avalon Hill games. I got an unpunched copy of Napoleon at Bay and a beat up but complete copy of Midway. Total price: $5. Also found some interesting old stuff in the dealers room proper. I picked up Heart of Oak, the minis game companion to the Privateers and Gentlemen RPG. Also got an AD&D adventure that I totally missed when it came out: I8 Ravager of Time. It caught my eye because it came out of TSR UK and many of those guys went on to work on WFRP.

The rest of the con was spent catching up with old friends (some of whom, like Tim, came out because we were going to be there). Endgame was nice enough to sell our wares so we didn't have to man our own booth (which is really how I prefer to do smaller cons these days). Sunday night we went out for a nice steak dinner at Izzy's and then Bruce, Ken, Nicole, and I joined Chris and Brian to record the 50th episode of their 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction podcast. We recorded for nearly two hours but I imagine the final episode will edit out many of the boxed wine jokes and off color comments.

After DDC it was off to San Francisco proper. We had a chance to meet up with Derek Pearcy, who we hadn't seen in person in 10 years or so. It was great to catch up and meet his family. We had lunch in the Ferry Building and I got to make my pilgrimage to Boccalone. Then he showed us around North Beach/Russian Hill. Very nice. The next day Bruce picked us up and we jaunted off to Sonoma. We had a terrific lunch at Restaurant Charcuterie, did three wine tastings, and picked up a couple of bottles to take home. Kate enjoyed an old time candy store (Powells Sweet Shoppe), which had a cool collection of vintage candy boxes and boardgames on display. That night we went down to Fisherman's Wharf at Kate's request. It's normally the sort of tourist beacon I avoid, but it was much less crowded at night.

The drive back to Seattle was thankfully uneventful. We spent almost all of it listening to an audio book, Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. The book brilliantly evokes what it's like to live in a Stalinist state. The ending was a little too tidy but it's definitely worth a read (or a listen).

Now it's back to too much e-mail and work. Hooray?

Party Time in Oakland

EndGame Oakland is, simply put, one of the best game stores in the country. This isn't just a matter of product selection or location. No, what makes EndGame a great store is that it is a center of community. Through its game space, mini cons, and knowledgeable staff, EndGame became a true destination store and one that pulled gamers together. These days it's fashionable for many gamerati to scoff at retailers and ask what they can possibly provide that competes with discounts on the internet? EndGame and stores like it are an answer to that question. They promote the hobby, bring enthusiasts together, and put gaming out in front of people who have never heard of a 12-sided die or a zone of control. Doing this day after day, year after year is not an easy task so we must pause from time to time and recognize them for their good works.

August 1 is one of those times. EndGame is celebrating its 8th anniversary with a day long event. It's also a bit of a going away party for founder Aaron Lawn, who is leaving his baby for new endeavors. I will be flying down to the Bay Area for this event and I'm bringing some fun prizes from Green Ronin. Come join me and raise a glass to EndGame Oakland for 8 great years. Now more than ever, we need stores like it to show how gaming retail can be important and vibrant. See you there!

http://endgameoakland.com/

Make My Character!

When I first started going to GenCon, I got to play games wall to wall for four days and it was awesome. These days I spend most of my time working the Green Ronin booth or in meetings. I always try to get in at least one game though, because it wouldn't be GenCon without it. Oftentimes, it's a chance to get together with friends from my college game group. This year former Green Ronin developer Rob Schwalb is going to run a 4th edition D&D game and I need to bring my own character.

Rob is never a man to take the easy way out, so he's running the game for 21st level characters. One night I finally cracked open Player's Handbook II to check out the options there but looking through the powers of the different classes just made my eyes glaze over. I realized then that I did not have the time to dedicate to make a proper character of that level.

So I'm running a contest. Here's how it works:

* Make me a level 21 character you think will be fun to play.

* Magic items of level 22, level 21, level 20, and 225,000 gold pieces.

* Use the character builder or similar to make a character sheet. Pre-figured power cards are a big plus.

* Print the character and mail to the following address:
Green Ronin Publishing
Attn: Chris Pramas
3815 S. Othello St. Suite 100, #304
Seattle, WA 98108

* Characters must be received by August 1, 2009. I will then judge the entries and pick a winner.

* The winner will receive $35 worth of Green Ronin product. This can be print or PDF if you are in the USA, or PDF if you are in another country.

That's it. So what are you waiting for? Make my character!

Gaming Marathon

I spent an hour writing this, only to have Livejournal eat it. This version is going to be briefer.I spent the weekend in Olympia at Enfilade, a convention put on by the NHMGS (Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society). This has become a yearly event for Rick and I, and I enjoy the opportunity to go to a con just for fun. No business, no booth duty; just playing games. This year turned into something of a marathon because we added in a pickup game of 40K. Rick, Jefferson, Stephen, and I brought down armies and threw down on Friday night in an empty conference room we found in the hotel. We started at midnight and finished up around 4 am. Then I was up at 8 for the first session. By the end of day Saturday, I had played five full games in 28 hours and then did one more Sunday morning. I certainly got my fix for minis gaming. Here's what I played (and there are pics on my Facebook page).

Kashgar, October 1920: A four way battle in Central Asia between Red Russians, White Russians, warlord Chinese, and Afghan tribesmen. We were all fighting to seize the lost gold of Alexander the Great, recently unearthed by American archeologists. I played the Chinese and it was a vicious battle. My "Dare to Die" troops overran the American marines and seized the pack mules with the gold, but then fell before White Russian firepower in their exposed position. The battle used The Great War rules by Warhammer Historical and most of the minis were from Copplestone Castings' excellent "Back of Beyond" range.

Unlikely Allies: This is the aforementioned pickup game of 40K. Jefferson's Necrons and Stephen's Black Templars (I said they were unlikely allies) took on the Imperial Guard. I think this was the first time I fought Necrons and they were disconcertingly tough. The Imperial Guard battle line held but it was a close run thing.

King Philip's War: A skirmish scenario set in New England in 1675 during this little known conflict. I was part of a force of American colonists and their Native American allies assaulting a Wampanoag village. The first part of the scenario was the advance of the attack force through the woods. Then we recycled our figs for the attack on the village (sensible, since we only had 3-6 minis each). The game used the Black Powder Battles rules and they had some peculiarities. Had the hang of them by the end though and we took the village for the win.

Von Lettow-Vorbeck's Cross Border: I've recently been reading a book called Tip and Run about World War I in Africa, so I knew I had to play this game. I commanded a German force attempting to capture a British train in East Africa. I think the rules were the GM's homebrew and overall they played quickly and were fun. He didn't expect much hand to hand combat though, so those rules were slight. Naturally, our guys did a lot of charging into hand to hand! We blew the tracks, stopped the train, and then successfully assaulted it in the name of the Kaiser.

Venus gehoert Uns!: Last year I played in a Sword and the Flame game set on Mars. This year Chris Bauermeister (a college friend I see but rarely) was running a sequel, a big game with 12 players on a 5' x 16' table. This time the colonial powers of Victorian Earth were trying to impose their will on Venus. Having just played imperialists in the last session, I opted to join the native resistance this game. The first hour was slow, as I had only one unit to command. As the game went on, Chris would periodically hand us additional units as more and more Venusians emerged from the fog and mud to attack the Earthmen. It was like the Battle of Isandlwana with scaly Venusians instead of Zulus. We gave those imperialist Earthmen what for too.

Punic War: My last game was a classic matchup of Rome vs. Carthage using Warhammer Ancient Battles. This was four players and two GMs, and it was a nice change of pace after the mayhem of the previous night. I played Hannibal and had a ball. I thought we might have lost on turn 2 when my co-general's cavalry assault went disastrously wrong and our entire right flank broke and began fleeing. Most of them rallied though and we were able to turn the tide. Our elephants and veterans punched a hole in the Roman line that they could not recover from. No salting my fields this time, Rome.

I had planned to try out Grand Armee, a Napoleonic game, in the final slot but Rick was beat so we headed back north early in the afternoon. We talked about maybe running a game at next year's show, and that reminded me of when I started going to GenCon. I just went to play for the first few years but then I started running my own games. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense for me to do that Enfilade, as putting on a big convention minis game is a lot of work and it would make the weekend less relaxing. Still tempting though.

Spirit of the Ramones

As a gag I was going to design a short Ramones RPG, in which you'd make characters and then throw them away and shoot heroin. My thought was that you'd define your character with a series of I Wanna/I Don't Wanna statements in the spirit of many Ramones song. Then I thought those would make fun aspects in Spirit of the Century, so why not just go with that?

So if you want to play a Ramone in Spirit of the Century, it really couldn't be simpler. Try to make all your aspects sound like they could the names of Ramones songs. If they start with "I Wanna" or "I Don't Wanna", so much the better. If you know what you want to do and what you don't want to do, that's a good start on defining your character.

Here's an example using actual Ramones songs.

Dino Ramone (10 Aspects)

Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
I Just Want to Have Something to Do
Can't Control Myself
I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement
I Wanna Be Sedated
I Wanna Live
I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You
I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
I Won't Let It Happen
Beat on the Brat

How easy is that? I think it'd be pretty fun finding creative ways to use those aspects. Or make up your own Ramones-style aspects, like "I Wanna Win the Internet" and "I Don't Wanna Discuss Theory With You".

All the kids want something to do! All the kids wanna roleplay with you!

The Incredible Shrinking Weekend

I swear weekends are shorter and shorter. It's getting to the point where I feel the weekend is almost over by Saturday morning.

This past weekend I was a guest at local Seattle show Conquest Northwest, hosted by the always effusive Mondo Vega. I went the first year of this con and it was nearly its last. Monda has really turned it around though and Conquest is now a vibrant and fun con. A key, I think, was getting a lot of tournaments organized that would draw people to the show. There were Warhammer and 40K grand tournaments, a Flames of War tournament, and even an Advanced Squad Leader tournament. The Warhammer/40K room was hopping, with 30 odd battles going on at once.

Saturday afternoon I played in a Flames of War game put on by Chris Ewick from Tacoma store the Game Matrix. The scenario took place during the Battle of Kursk, the largest tank clash of WWII. Chris puts on a real spectacle, with over 100 tanks on the board. I ended up playing the Germans with a guy named Steve. Our objective was to take a Russian town. After several turns using long range fire to thin out the Russian ranks, I launched a classic blitz to try to seize it. The Russians blew away my Stug platoon but my Panzer IIIs got into town. The continued pounding of the Tigers, Panthers, and Elefants then caused the Red Army to break and flee. Victory was ours. Here's a picture of the blitz. There are more on the Facebook page.



After that I stopped by the Bucephalus Games demo table and chatted for awhile with Dan Tibbles, Anthony Gallela, and James Ernest. Then Chris Ewick appeared and offered to set us up with DBA armeis and ref a game for us. Well, how could we turn that down? So Anthony and I played Western Romans vs. Eastern Romans in a tense game. I thought I had him when I killed his general, but I could not finish them off before my mounting casualties spelled defeat. Next time, Gallela.

Today I felt like crap. Conquest is not a big show, so you'd think I wouldn't have to worry about con crud. By the afternoon though I was feeling really run down, had a headache, and was congested. I wanted to head home but I had a business dinner I could not miss. So I made it through that and then came home to chill out. On the upside the oyster po' boy was excellent.

Open Fire? Thanks, I Think I Will!

Last week Battlefront announced Open Fire, a starter set for their Flames of War miniatures game. It contains an introductory booklet, a mini-rulebook, 3 American tanks, 2 German assault guns, and dice; everything you need to get started. I thought this was a great idea. Flames of War is one of the few historical miniatures game with good penetration into game store stores, and Open Fire may help recruit a lot of new players into a part of the hobby that could really use some new blood. Really, who could complain about that? Historical miniatures fans, that's who! The bitching began immediately. Flames of War, they say, is already dumbed down, so what's the point of dumbing it down further? The (large and intimidating) hardback rulebook already is newbie friendly so what's the point? If your puny mind can't handle a game as simple as Flames of War, you should find a different hobby anyway. Etc,etc.

It is so short-sighted it makes me furious. Hobby gaming, and especially historical miniatures gaming, needs to bring in new players. It's that simple. Here we have a leading company in the field recognizing that and doing something about it, and all the trolls can do is fling crap at them. I guess that's fine if you want all historical miniatures conventions to be held in retirement homes in 20 years, but I'd prefer to keep the gaming hobby vibrant. I'd like to see us old hands passing down to the next generation the lore and the fun of tabletop gaming. OK, so you may not like Flames of War. You may prefer a game that better takes into account the sloped armor of the T-34 when calculating armor penetration. Great, there are plenty of games that do that. But at least try to recognize that when Battlefront recruits new historical minis fans, we all win. It means more people to play with, more attendees at cons, and more consumers to help keep all the game and minis companies in business in the years to come. Well done, Battlefront.

A Kingdom for Kelflings

Over the summertime I got to be a judge in the PAX 10 game design contest. I spent a day in a computer lab at DigiPen, trying out and rating about 10 of the 100 odd entries. One of my favorites was A Kingdom for Kelflings. In the game you play a giant helping the diminutive kelflings build their community. It has similar gameplay elements to other building games but the conceit of playing the giant is a nice twist. When you want to set a kelfling to a particular task, you pick up its kicking and screaming little body and then set it down where you want it to work. While I found the game charming and fun, it did not win the PAX 10 contest. That was the last I heard of it until last night.

So I was over at Rick's playing a game of 40K (aside: snake eyes on a plasma gun shot; really?) when I got a text from Kate. She said that she had found a new game and that Nicole was now bogarting the Xbox playing it. When I got home Nik was still going. When I took a look at what she was playing I said, "Hey, I know that game!" It was A Kingdom for Kelflings, released recently on XBox Live Arcade. The game looks the same as when I judged it with one key difference: the giant in the game is your new Xbox avatar. So if you made an avatar that looks like you, now you can help the kelflings build their kingdom in person. Nicole played the game for like six hours last night and told me she "loved loved loved it." It's like we're married or something.

Because It's Never Too Early to Start Speculating

I think we'll see 5th edition D&D in 2013, or 2012 if sales decline faster than expected. 5th edition will be the next iteration of 4th edition, as tightly related to it as 3.5 was to 3.0. This new edition will have no OGL or GSL.

When 6th edition rolls around (in, I dunno, 2016 or 2017), it will abandon the 4E structure entirely and go back to something closer to 1E. This will be accompanied by a huge nostalgia-based marketing campaign. Vancian magic, a PC assassin class, and half-orcs and gnomes as core races will return with great fanfare. The marketing message won't bag on the 4E/5E era specifically, but will use the phrase "returning D&D to its roots" so often that fans of the then current game will feel alienated. To further reinforce the message, there will be rewrites of classic modules like the GDQ series, Dragon Magazine will be relaunched in print form, and Skip Williams will return to write Sage Advice.

What happens after that? Answer hazy, try again later.

After Action Report

I revived my lunchtime game, which had faltered after Jess left Flying Lab a couple of months back, to test 4E D&D. It was going to be 8 players, then 10, and finally 13. Many folks were interested in trying the new edition. I split them into two groups and ran first sessions yesterday and today. Players had quite a range of age and experience. Results so far:

3 players really like it.
3 players really hate it.
7 players are baffled, indifferent, or slightly positive.

Some interest things emerge when we break this down. Of the three that really like it, one is a rules junky, one is primarily a minis gamer, and one is a MMO player who had roleplayed for the first time with 3.5.

Of the three that hated it, one is a 1E grognard, one is a 3E fan who just doesn't understand why so much had to change, and one is a hardcore roleplayer (though she does also like to kick some ass; see my previous post).

In the neutral group was one brand new roleplayer and two people who hadn't played in a decade or more. My GMing experience so far has done nothing to dispel my feeling that these rules are not friendly to casual gamers.

Interesting results. We'll see how it goes next when I do second sessions for each group.

It's New, Big Axe Barbie

When gamer dudes talk about gamer women, you hear the usual gender stereotyping. Women aren't interested in combat. They want storytelling, cooperation, and the dreaded shopping.

Uh huh.

Now maybe it's just the type of woman who are attracted to roleplaying, but in my experience the above is not at all the case. I have noticed that many roleplaying women LOVE to kick ass. In fact, they are often more bloodthirsty than the guys. They want a big axe and they want action.

Not that there aren't women who are into character development and storytelling. I just don't think that's the whole story.

A Question and a Comment

So hey, board gaming friends, I've got a question for you. When you play Descent, does your Overlord act like a GM in a roleplaying game or does he/she really try to beat the players? Last time we played to took a turn in the Overlord chair and I found my natural instinct was to act like a GM. For example, when I realized how tough the opening fight with a giant was going to be, I just used the basic giant stats instead of the buffed up ones the scenario specified. Is that common? When you play, is it more Overlord vs. players? And what do you think the game intends?

My comment is on the Lord of the Rings minis game, which I played again last night. I wish the game did a better job modeling the Riders of Rohan. In the books the Rohirrim are the premier heavy cavalry of Middle Earth. In the minis game they got owned in hand to hand combat by Uruk-hai missile troops. You'd think that when your cavalry breaks through and sets upon the unsupported enemy skirmishers, you'd roll right over them. Not so much. Also, it's weird that the Rohirrim cannot have lances or thrusting spears, only throwing spears. Gondorian cavalry gets lances but not the Rohirrim. I want more shock in my shock cavalry.

Fun Time Is Over

My getaway is over, sad to say. Tomorrow it's back to both jobs. The weekend was a blast though. I ended up playing 7 games in 48 hours at Enfilade, something I don't think I've pulled off since GenCon circa 1992. Here's a brief roundup.

I kicked things off on Friday night with a WWII Wings of War game that used model planes on flying stands and oversized maneuver cards. The scenario featured six B-17s with fighter escorts on a bombing run over Germany. I commanded the worst German planes on the table, ME-110s, but I enjoyed the challenge. There were about 20 planes on the table, which was a big chaotic but overall the game was fun. We shot down three B-17s and won the game.

Saturday morning I played "Last Train to Smolensk," a Russian Civil War game in which Reds, Whites, and partisans fought over statue reputed to contain the bones of the Tsar and his family. The game won for sheer spectacle, with hundreds of nicely painted 28mm minis and not one but two armored trains. The rules were a convention friendly version of Heroes of the Soviet Union. I wasn't familiar with them but the one page summary gave all the info needed to play and everyone picked them up quickly. We ultimately had 18 people playing this game, and considering that it went at a pretty good clip. I ended up commanding Red Cavalry in the spirit of Isaac Babel, but unfortunately the table was so crowded and our starting position so poor that I had a hard time getting them into action. We started playing at 9:30 and I didn't roll an attack until 11:20. I think it would have been better with maybe 12 people and 25% less figures but I still had a good time. I don't know anyone in Seattle who has any interest in Russian Civil War gaming, so I'm glad I had the chance to participate.

In the afternoon I played in "King Batuve's Mines", a Sword in Africa game run by ex-TSR designer Steve Winter. In 19th century Africa English colonialists open a diamond mine on the land of King Batuve without asking permission. Mistake! The wily king marshals his forces and tries to capture the mine before a relief column can arrive. I commanded one of the African contingents and attempted to kill whitey. It turned out I was in the right place twice to sacrifice troops to better my side's tactical situation. I lost almost all my troops but King Batuve took his mine back.

That night I played in a "The Sword and the Flame on Mars", a Victorian scifi game that married the Sword and the Flame ruleset with the Space: 1889 RPG setting. This game was great to look at, with spider walkers and other steam engines squaring off on the red planet. I was on the British side, commanding the sole airship in the battle. I evaded Martian rockets, while pounding the ground with cannons and dropping liquid fire from above. It was a close fought battle but we pulled it out. Rule Britannia! This was my favorite game of the weekend.

After that long ass day I should have gone right to bed, but did not. Rick and I hooked up after his Medieval game finished and we threw down with some Memoir '44. I tried and failed to stop an American assault after D-Day, then finally went to bed.

Sunday morning Rick and I got into a classic Battletech game. We hadn't played any con games together the whole weekend and I knew he'd be up for it. I've played Battletech once in the last 10 years, so I was rusty on the rules but the GM was very good and did an excellent job of controlling the pace and keeping the action going. All the mechs started with some damage to even things out a bit, so my 100 ton Atlas was badass but didn't dominate. We had 8 players with one mech each and our team won. I took out the enemy Atlas but then went down in flames. In honor of the biggest Battletech fan I know, Chris Hanrahan, I used the Endgame dice he gave me in Oakland back in February and they served me well.

After that we ended up playing a pickup game of Space Hulk with people we met in the Battletech game (three of whom were also named Rick!). This is another game I hadn't played in a long time. A couple of the guys hadn't played before and they made the mistake of thinking they could fight the genestealers in hand to hand combat. Their squad of terminators was wiped out in less than 15 minutes. Our squad kept fighting and made some good progress but eventually we were overwhelmed by the alien horde. After the game we took our leave of Enfilade and headed back to Seattle.

Today was a holiday of course, so what to do? Hey, how about playing a game? I had Ray and Jon over this afternoon and we played Descent. I was the Overlord and they each played two characters. This proved a good idea, as otherwise they would have been giant bait. The scenario was a bit repetitious but we had a good time.

I call that a successful gaming weekend.

Enfilade

It's Memorial Day weekend and I will be doing my part to honor all the lead, pewter, and plastic toy soldiers who have given their lives in the cause of good gaming. Rick and I are heading down to Olympia today for Enfilade, a historical miniatures convention. I have no business to do there. I'm just going to play games for three days. I haven't gotten to do something like this for a long time and I'm very much looking forward to it. I had planned to attend last year, but we ended up hosting the design summit for the Song of Ice and Fire RPG that weekend. No summits this year though, so I am free.

I am not sure exactly what I'll be playing. The con website put up a preliminary event list but never a final one so we'll be playing it by ear. Rick is throwing some boardgame favorites into his vehicle as a backup, so if we have downtime we can pull those out. I will not have e-mail or web access, so don't expect to hear from me until next week. Once again, let the fray begin!

Business and Pleasure

Nik and Kate are in NYC on a class trip, so I've been left to my own devices here in Seattle. This weekend was pretty much equal parts business and pleasure.

Yesterday I went down to Tim's place in Renton for a final game of Spirit of the Century before Tim, our most recent traitor, moves back to the Bay Area to take a job with Apple. It was a battle royale in Hong Kong, with our intrepid band of pulp heroes facing off against a horde of tong gangsters. We ended on a cliffhanger, with what seemed to be dragons heading to Hong Kong to eject the foreign devils, and we hope to be able to finish up the story when Tim is back visiting at some point. I spent my entire evening in the office, doing Green Ronin work of the most boring sort. Ah, the endless joy of contract writing and administration.

Today I woke up with a full blown cold that came out of nowhere, which was weird. Knowing I had people coming over at 1 pm, I just downed some medicine and went to work cleaning the downstairs. I got things in order and right on time Rick, Jimmer, Ray, Seth, and Wolfgang arrived. We were getting together for an afternoon of boardgaming, which I don't get to do as often as I'd like. Today's game: History of the World. This is the classic game of rising and falling empires. The game is exactly seven turns long, which each one representing an epoch of history. On each turn you play a different empire, while trying to hold together as much of your previous empires as possible. I had the good fortune to get the Romans (thanks, Rick!) and I was able to maintain a lead from that point forward. It came down to the wire, but I pull out a victory despite my various empires getting picked apart. We played a complete game and finished at 6:30. I really ought to try to organize days like this more often, though with convention season approaching I shouldn't kid myself.

Tonight it was back to work. I did not get as much accomplished as I wanted to because this cold is running me down, but I am continuing to check things off my to-do list. I am tempted to take a sick day from FLS tomorrow but I may hold out and take one Tuesday if need be.

Vancouver Report 1: Gaming

Nik and I spent the weekend in Vancouver and had a nice, relaxing time. I'll divide my report into two entries: gaming and eating. First, gaming.

I spent Saturday at Trumpeter Salute, a wargaming convention put on by Vancouver's venerable Trumpeter Tabletop Games Society (established in 1964). I've been meaning to go up for this con for many years and finally had the chance. It took place at a community center near the Metrotown mall and I'd guess there were 300 attendees or so. My goal was simple: play some damn games. I got there at 9 am and was able to get into a WAB game which pitted ancient Egyptians vs. Assyrians, with two players per side. I was on the Egyptian side, which was fine by me. The game started off badly when my co-general sent his chariot unit racing unsupported towards the enemy battle line. It was charged and broken by Assyrian cavalry, routed back to our lines and rallied, and then was charged and broken again. The ensuing panic caused half our infantry to panic and start to run. I used our chariot-mounted general to destroy the cavalry and then reform the battle line. Things went much better after that and the enemy generals capitulated at the end of the session. The game was fun, the other players and the GM were friendly, and the game was in the quietest room of the con. Good start.

In the second session I had to decide between playing Blitzkrieg Commander or a Legends of the Old West game set in the Firefly/Serenity setting. Since I've played BK many times but never got to try Legends of the Old West, I chose the latter. I also knew the GM, Lisa Smedman, who worked with Nicole on Adventures Unlimited Magazine back in the 90s. The rules worked well for Firefly, requiring only a few changes for some of the higher tech items. The basic scenario had six groups in a small town with individual goals, but on turn two a Reaver ship showed up and chaos ensued. I was playing the local sheriff and his posse of townsfolk. Other players controlled the various Firefly characters, a gang of outlaws led by Patience, an Alliance squad, and a loading crew of Rasta-looking dudes. Lisa had built out Serenity using downloadable scifi terrain packs and it looked pretty good. My crew's job was to maintain law and order but with multiple rivals and Reavers in the mix, that was not happening. The Reavers were insanely tough. On several turns I'd have 7 or 8 of my posse unload on one Reaver and if I did even a single wound it was a rousing success. The game was fun but the system strained a bit to handle six players and a GM faction. I have some Western figs I got ages ago from the Foundry; I should bust them out for a Legends game with Rick some time.

Those two sessions kept me busy from 9 am to 6 pm, so that's all the gaming I got to do. I did have a chance to look around at some of the other games being run and there was some beautiful stuff on display. The Pulp Figures people were there and they had a stunning table set up with gunboats, big Buddha statues, and even a waterfall if memory serves. The Blitzkrieg Commander game I did not play in had really well-painted 20mm Germans and French forces in a 1940 battle (it also won "best of session", so I guess it was pretty good). I was amused to note that every single Battletech game there was played on Heroscape terrain. Oh, and one guy was running a Warhammer 40K Apocalypse game of ludicrous proportions. There were a dozen Baneblade tanks on the board, along with 30 or more Leman Russ tanks, and a horde of Tyranids. It looked like tactics were non-existant, basically line up 18 inches away from each other and charge. Still, quite a spectatcle.

So that was the gaming. Food later.

4E Test Drive

I had a chance to actually play D&D 4th edition today. A friend of mine who still works at WotC got permission to run the demo adventure from the D&D Experience at her monthly game day. Since I'm still waiting for WotC to finalize the Game System License, this was the first opportunity I've had to see something of the rules and try them out.

Short Review
It's an interesting system that didn't so much feel like D&D in play; nonetheless, the brand power of D&D all but ensures this will be a success and it may even redefine what D&D means for the next generation.

Long Review
Since the announcement of 4E last Gen Con, a common critique of the emerging rules was that they looked more to MMOs than RPGs. My play experience suggests something else. The roots of the new rules are not in MMOs at all, but collectible card games. Building your character seems much like building a deck in Magic: the Gathering. You have a selection of powers and special abilities that are exceptions-based. Some powers you can only use once per encounter, like tapping a card in a CCG. Character turns have a very specific order, with beginning and end of turn actions used to handle bookkeeping issues. Part of character and party building revolves around power combos. In short, 4E seems to be what people feared was going to happen with 3E after WotC bought TSR, though thankfully without a collectible component.

Now one of my concerns had been that 4E would simply be a revised 3.5. I'm glad 4E is not that. I really felt that 3.5 was just more complicated than it needed to be and I hoped that 4E would simplify things. While it does fix many of the ongoing issues with 3.5, my feeling after today's session is that it's just complicated in a different way. It's not something I think experienced gamers will have a huge amount of trouble with, but it does seem that 4E may be even more unfriendly to new players than 3.5 was. It looks like 4E requires newbs to make too many choices and track too many things to make it truly accessible. Since D&D has always been the entry point for most RPG players, this is my most serious concern.

Of the current D&D players, I suspect most of them will switch over to the new edition, despite the unimpressive marketing campaign that we've seen to date. There are many options for character customization and players who like tactical combat will find a lot to work with. I understand there are some kind of social interaction rules, but I haven't seen them. The focus seems squarely on combat from what I could tell. There were interesting choices to make during fights and it wasn't just a matter of trotting out your best attack again and again. The CCG style of the rules and the changes to the IP did make the game feel a lot less like D&D though, at least to me. And since the rules seem to have been tailored to provide a very particular experience, I don't think they will make as good of a base for the variety of campaign settings D&D used to see. It's pretty clear that WotC realizes this, which explains why they felt the need to advance the timeline and have an apocalyptic event in the Forgotten Realms. I don't think many of the old campaign settings will transition over without a lot of cutting, spindling, and mutilating.

What I think WotC is going for here is what Marvel managed to pull off with their Ultimate line of comics: take the core of the IP and redefine it for a new generation. There will certainly be some longtime fans disenfranchised by this move, but I don't think there will be enough of those folks to hurt 4E. (I do think, however, that there will be enough of those for a third party company to carve out a good business for itself catering to them, but that's a topic for another day.)

All of this is, of course, based on what I've managed to glean so far from released info and today's play experience. I would naturally like to see the new rules in their entirety and doing so may change my opinion about some things. If the GSL gets sorted out this month, maybe I'll get the chance for a more in-depth read soon. If I feel like spending 5K to do so anyway.

From January 12, 2005

I found the following on my hard drive. It's funny looking back now. I do wish the idea of the inquisitor as presented here had been developed, but it was not approved.

In the 40K universe the part of the setting that works best for the purposes of an RPG is the Inquisition. This organization is divided into several sub-groups, some of which root out heresy while others combat the influence of Daemons and aliens. There is also a puritan/radical divide with the Inquisition as a whole, which means there's quite a bit of politics and backstabbing. As you can see, the Inquisition is rife with adventure possibilities.

Now each Inquisitor has a support group of specialists. A typical retinue might include a savant (sort of like a living computer), a hotshot pilot, an ex-Imperial Guard veteran, a techno-magos, and a black ops snoop. In short, a classic RPG-style party. The problem with doing a traditional RPG on this model is the Inquisitor himself. He's in charge, he's a complete badass, and he probably has powerful psychic abilities as well. It's basically the "Indiana Jones" RPG problem all over again.

I've been thinking about this today and I had an interesting idea. Let's say that all the PCs make up characters that are members of an Inquisitor's retinue. Before they make their own characters, they get together and create the Inquisitor they're going to work for. You can think of this sort of like making a covenant in Ars Magica. It's a hugely important part of the game, but everyone "owns" the Inquisitor. Once the details on the Inquisitor are ironed out, people make their individual characters, but again work together so they can create their own "A-Team".

When the game starts, the GM plays the Inquisitor and uses him to send the PCs on missions. The basic conceit is that his time is so important that the retinue is sent off on investigations while he works on a higher level. The goal of the PCs is, essentially, to make the case and rouse him from his other concerns to finish the job. An influence mechanic represents this. Throughout each adventure, there are spots where characters can win influence points by figuring things out, finding important clues, besting opponents, and so on. The players compete for these influence points, while working together towards the resolution of the adventure.

When it's time for the climax, the players compare their influence totals. Whoever has the highest total gets to play the Inquisitor in the final encounter, unleashing all the cool powers. At the conclusion of the adventure, the GM once again takes control of the Inquisitor.

The advantages to this system are:

1) It fits the existing 40K universe like a glove and is totally in line with the backstory.

2) It gives the GM an easy way to start adventures and the PCs the best of reasons to adventure together.

3) It has a fun built-in meta-game with the influence points.

4) It avoids the Indiana Jones problem by letting play of the super character change from adventure to adventure. Hopefully, everyone would get a turn to play the badass from time to time.

5) It provides a solid default adventure model for the newbie GM, with a beginning, middle, and end.

Back to It

I had really been looking forward to Thanksgiving Weekend. Now that it's over I feel vaguely dissatisfied and I'm not sure why. I did some fun stuff, spent time with good friends, and finished several nagging tasks. Maybe it just ended too quickly or maybe I just didn't reach that state of relaxation I was looking for. Hurm.

I did get a double dose of roleplaying over the weekend. Saturday we played Spirit of the Century at Tim's for the first time in over a month. We kicked off a new chapter of the story and it's going well so far. I learned that when you show up at the herbalist shop covered in blood, the most reassuring thing you can say is not, "Don't worry, it's not mine." I still need a tenth aspect but can't settle on one. We've now joked about calling it "The Tenth Aspect" and making it some mystical mojo, but that doesn't quite fit my character.

Sunday we play Ray's old school D&D game for the second time. This is Rules Cyclopedia D&D, where elves and dwarves are both races and classes and plusses on your magic shield subtract from your Armor Class. I must admit that this game is turning into a huge amount of fun. I am just embracing all the things that bugged me about those rules back in the day and going with it. Ray's idea was to run the sort of deluxe game he always wanted to when he was a teenage but couldn't afford. He printed out a huge map of the first dungeon scaled for minis for example. I brought along tac-tiles and two cases of miniatures. So far it's been a blast.

It wasn't all fun and games though. Nik and I watched No End in Sight, an excellent documentary about the quagmire in Iraq and how it got that way. This is a really important film and I think folks across the political spectrum need to watch it. This is not a polemic by a bunch of wild eyed leftists. The story of the war is told in large part by eye witnesses and participants. Soldiers, administrators, politicians, officers, and journalists talk about what they saw and what they did. The film lays out very clearly what was done and shows the consequences of those actions. I could go off on a huge political rant here but instead I'll just say that I highly recommend No End in Sight.

War at Sea

I’m still gluing together Easterlings for my Lord of the Rings warband, so Rick and I had to pick a different game last night. We decided to play Axis and Allies War at Sea instead. This was the second time we’ve played the game and we’ve had a good time with it. It’s a nice light wargame, something you can pick up and play easily in an evening. The miniatures are pre-painted and since they don’t have faces they look OK. The problem with the game is that it’s collectible. That means the boosters are random, so you get ships and planes from all the different nations and of course there’s no guarantee you’re going to get what you want. If I could buy a fleet off the shelf I would. As it stands I’ll probably just play with what Rick’s already got until the game dies and then I’ll pick up cheap boosters from dealers at Gen Con or on Ebay.

I’m not a big fan of collectibility to begin with, but it’s extra annoying with historical games. Unless you spend a lot of money, you won’t be able to field historically accurate forces. The Axis and Allies rules hand wave this, allowing you to field anything Allied or anything Axis in the same army or navy. So last night I had British, French, and American ships in my fleet, and two types of planes that America only used in the Pacific Theater. I fought a fleet based around a Japanese carrier, but it also included an Italian battleship and three squadrons of German Stukas. I will grant you that most folks don’t know as much about WWII as I do, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that part of the appeal of Axis and Allies is its historical background. In other words a World War II game is going to appeal to people with an interest in history. It would be nice if the game offered a way to field more realistic forces other than just buying more boosters. Now that WotC has developed the game and had the minis sculpted, it wouldn’t be that difficult to release, for example, a stand-alone Battle of Midway game that came with full American and Japanese fleets, rules, and a scenario book that let you play through different phases of the battle. I would buy something like that in a second. Lately Wizkids had been doing some fixed sets for its MechWarrior game. Perhaps WotC will follow suit.

Kicking It Old School at FLS

When I first got to Flying Lab, I talked about starting a lunchtime RPG group. Well, it's taken me a year but I'm finally doing it. With the game content complete we have a little time to breathe, so it seemed like a good time. It was no great surprise to find out that the game they were most familiar with was D&D, so I said the hell with it and decided to go with that. Call it a last hurrah for D&D3.

I invited all eleven members of my department, figuring I'd end up with one good sized group. Ten of the eleven said they wanted to play. Since that's way too big for a lunch game, I've split them into two groups and they'll be adventuring in the same locale. This will allow for some crossover and the possibility of joint sessions for big events.

Two of the players have never played a tabletop RPG before, so I've decided to give them a taste of classic D&D. For the first time in like twenty years I'm going to run a game set in Greyhawk. I'm adapting one of Paizo's new modules, Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale, and working in other material (most notable Green Ronin's Escape from Ceranir adventure). The adventure has a nice Keep on the Borderlands vibe and it'll be easy to have two adventuring groups in the environment. I'm setting the game in the From the Ashes period of Greyhawk (hey, I'm a WFRP fan, I like Carl Sargent). Here's the setup.
If this goes well, there's plenty of adventuring opportunity in the liberation of the Lost Lands and the giant-haunted Crystalmist Mountains.

Chronicles of the Lost Lands

It is the year 585 in the calendar of the Great Kingdom. It has been dubbed the Year of Peace because the Greyhawk Wars have drawn to a close—and there's a treaty to prove it. For three years war and chaos wracked all of Greyhawk. Nations fell, hundreds of thousands perished, and the forces have evil conquered vast swathes of new territory. In the Sheldomar Valley, the Kingdom of Keoland stands strong, but the nations of Geoff and Sterich were overrun by giants and savage humanoids. Now exiles from those lands and soldiers of Keoland have begun a campaign to reclaim these "Lost Lands." They know that this is the Year of Peace in name only. A treaty may have been signed, but the war goes on and will do so until Geoff and Sterich are liberated.

The city of Flen is the center of the new military campaign. The soldiers there need tons of food and supplies to keep on the march. The economy of Keoland is straining to keep up. No only did the kingdom lose two trading partners, but also the influx of refugees from Geoff and Sterich increased the demand for goods and foodstuffs. The Yeomanry, whose citizen-soldiers defeated the giant and humanoid attacks, now has become Keoland’s key trading partner. Traditionally, such commerce has focused on the Javan River route, but this is a roundabout way to get to the Yeomanry capital of Loftwick. Not enough goods are getting to Flen and those that come take too long to get there. A faster route is needed.

It was Flen's Merchant Guild that proposed the answer. Once there was a route through the mountains, they claimed, but it hadn’t been used for hundreds of years because it passed through the Bloodsworn Vale. A great battle was once fought there and it was said to be a place of ill omen. The guild masters convinced the military commanders that if the overland route could be reestablished, both Keoland and the Yeomanry would reap the benefits. The Freeholder of the Yeomanry agreed and so the plan was put in motion. Of course, with the military tied up in attacks against Sterich, few men could be spared to clear the vale of savage humanoids and other threats. So the call went out to mercenaries and adventurers to open the Bloodsworn Vale. They were promised gold, and the possibility of land and title. What adventuring party worth its ten foot poles could resist such an offer?

Lots o' Gaming

The stars have been right the last week and I’ve gotten in an unusual amount of gaming. Woot.

Spirit of the Century: Gaming fun started on Labor Day with a Spirit of the Century game. It was a bridge session as we left behind the first big adventure and transitioned into the next one, so not a whole lot to report. I still haven’t picked a tenth aspect for my character. After I said, “I knew I should have killed him when I had the chance,” the other players suggested that’d be a good one. I am considering it.

BattleLore: Thursday night Rick and I played BatteLore with the new Hundred Years War expansion. It’s got some nice new rules, troop types, and scenarios. We played the battle of Crecy and I was sure history was going to repeat itself when Rick drew Darken the Sky on turn 1 and bombarded my army with his longbowmen. It actually turned into a nailbiter though and with one lucky die roll I could have snatched victory from his grasp on the last turn. Much to Rick’s relief I did not pull off one of my patented last minute wins though and the British took the field.

Runebound: Saturday Rick and I went over to Jon’s new place and played Runebound with him, Seth, and Jason. I get together with this group irregularly for boardgames and after the end of the con season we finally had another chance to play. Runebound is like a more modern version of Talisman that learns some important lessons from its forbearer. We enjoyed it but also felt the game had a few issues. There’s a lot of downtime between your turns and the endgame takes too long. I do have some of the expansions and I wonder if those smooth out some of the rough edges.

Ticket to Ride: Yesterday I played Ticket to Ride Marklin at lunch at FLS. I had gotten the game for Jess for his birthday a couple of weeks ago and he was keen to try it. We drafted Cory and Raymond and taught them how to play. This was the first time I had tried the Marklin version and it had some additions I quite liked. The passengers made it more worthwhile to do shorter connections and gave a nice way to score some extra points. I also liked that you had two decks of tickets to choose from.

Tomorrow night it’s back to Rick’s, though I’m not sure what we’re going to play. Maybe more BattleLore. Maybe the Lord of the Rings minis game. Maybe something else. Damn, it’s good to be a gamer.