Oh the games we play

Many of the RPGs I currently play are chosen by my boys. This is not necessarily a bad thing; I only have a few more years in the house with them before they go off to adventure on their own, so I take every opportunity I can to play with them now. I've also been lucky of late to have plenty of gaming options.

The game of choice in our house is the Pathfinder RPG. I first played this version of d20 a year ago at BASHCON and the boys and I played three Pathfinder Society games at GenCon 2011. Since then we have invested in most of the Core and Ultimate books. It's a crunchy game and provides plenty of character customization. Learning the nuances of character creation is as enjoyable as the game play at the table.

My regular biweekly game, which includes my sons and three friends, is currently rotating three GMs: my older son and two original members of the group. My son is running a Pathfinder game set in Eberron (since he had most of the Eberron books it seemed like a good way to go). Our party is composed of several drow and a warforged exploring Xen'drik.

The other two GMs are alternating adventures in a home brewed world using D&D 3.5. The main group is a typical mid level party adventuring under the creator of this world. The other GM is overseeing a group of low level halflings trying to make a big name for themselves.

Not to be left out, my younger son has started running adventures for his brother and myself using Pathfinder for a home grown setting. We're two adventures in and having a great time. Our other home game is a longer running Eberron game that was started with 3.5 and published modules. We've now moved beyond the modules and are working to convert over to Pathfinder for more original adventures.

I'm also fortunate enough to play with some podcasting luminaries. A loca, face-to-face Pathfinder game in a home grown setting is being run by Ben of Games You Never... fame (part of All Games Considered podcast). Also in the group is Josh who has had work published by Hex Games and is a member of the Monkeys Took My Jetpack podcast. We're just getting started in a military campaign which promises to be exciting.

My final gaming group meets on-line to play. This group includes Rich of the Canon Puncture and RPG Crosstalk podcasts, as well as Ed & Alex from the Yellow Menace podcast. I'm running this group though a Dresden Files RPG game set in Minneapolis. We've also started working on an InSpectres game run by Rich, for those nights we don't have a quorum for DFRPG.

When I see all these games listed out I now realize why my wife gives me "the look" when I tell her I'm heading off to gaming. Honest, dear, I'm not trying to get out of doing the laundry and dishes.


Follow your bliss,
JJ


EDIT

I was reminded this morning that I left off one game: a play-by-post game set in the Tower of Druaga on Obsidian Portal utilizing the Adventure Game Engine from Dragon Age RPG. This game is the brainchild of Daniel of Highmoon Media and, most recently, This Just in...from GenCon! podcast. I'm joined in this adventure by fellow gamer and friend of the Canon Puncture show, Jarad.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

BASHCon XXVI - Day 2 Saturday Afternoon

Dogs in the Vineyard
Cover illustration by Drew Baker

After a great start to the day it was time to take a quick lunch break. I wandered over to The Phoenician (also the name of the hotel I checked out of is morning before sitting on the flight home to type this recounting of my convention experience), a Greek restaurant in the Univerity of Toledo's Student Union. I ordered coffee and a gyro sandwich and settled down to look through the convention catalogue to see if I could sneak in another game before my late afternoon session of Dogs in the Vineyard.

I may have mentioned before that the catalog was printed with morning events listed chronologically after the afternoon and evening events. Also many of the Pathfinder events were double-listed. This made it a little challenging to see what was available.

Originally I had signed up for an all-afternoon session of Gamma World (run by one of the players from my Friday night game of Zombies!!!! Small world). When I realized there was a game of Dogs being offered, I changed my plans since the time for the two games conflicted. Unfortunately there were no other games that would fit between lunch and my 4:00 PM game of Dogs, so I had some time to kill.

After finishing my meal with some rice pudding, I wandered over to the Gamma World game to watch for a bit. It was fun to watch, but as I feared it was a might bit too silly for me. I felt I made a wise choice in opting for Dogs, given I wanted some serious RP (I had my share of Gamma World silliness in college when I rolled up a hyper-intelligent cat with opposable thumbs that rode a motorcycle; I love the game, but was looking for a different flavor of play at that moment).

As time neared, I wandered over to the table for Dogs and waited. There was a sign on the table indicating that this was the right place, but no GM. Eventually the GM, Joshua LH Burnett sat down.

Joshua was concerned that I was the only player to show up so far. We waited a bit and then he checked in with registration to learn I was, in fact, the only player to purchase a ticket for the game. I guess games about teenage Mormons with guns in the Mythic Old West are not very popular in Toledo.

We made the best of it. We chatted for a while and I finally put 2 and 2 together. Joshua is part of Hex Games who produce QAGS; I was familiar with them from the All Games Considered podcast. I also learned that Joshua had run his game, Leopard Women of Venus, on Friday night. I was disappointed for having missed it. To make a small world even smaller, Joshua had been neighbor to and gamed with a former gaming friend of mine, Bradley McDevitt, long-time RPG artist and game designer. Small freakin' world indeed.

After chatting for a bit I asked if I could at least make a character for the game. Joshua enthusiastically led me through the organic process of creating my first Dog, Josiah . This was very exciting; I loved the way character generation flowed. To top it off, the process ended with a one-on-one RP that illustrated the resolution mechanics of the game (I had to perform a baby naming ceremony, and before you giggle at the notion, it was one of the coolest RP scenes in my recent history, very close to some recent play in an online Skype game of The Shadow of Yesterday).

While the initiation scene was fun it didn't really bring to light the escalation mechanics that I've heard so much about in Dogs. I asked Joshua if we could do one more scene to help me understand it better. He suggested that I had caught another Dog talking smack to a the mother of the baby I just named.

All I can say is WOW! Not only did the conflict escalate from words to fist to guns, but this scene brought so much into play and rooted Josiah firmly in the fiction being created. What a radical counter point to the morning's Pathfinder play. Note, I'm not saying one was better than the other; both were fun in their own way, but Dogs was certainly the more intense of the two. I can only imagine what a full game session would be like.

We ended the scene and I thanked Joshua for a great introduction to Dogs. I told him about the two games I was running on Sunday and he was very excited to play in the Dresden Files RPG. I looked forward to being able to run a game for him and headed home, giddy with a full day of gaming under my belt.

Follow your bliss,
JJ

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

BASHCon XXVI - Day 2 Saturday Morning

Pathfinder Oracle, Al-Haresh
Character sheet and mini

Saturday morning started bright and early. I grabbed a hot mocha at The Flying Joe and headed north to the University of Toledo's Student Union. There was very little traffic on the road and I made it to the convention hall with plenty of time to spare. My tickets already in hand, I waited patiently by the doors to the hall as the early morning registration dance got under way. Once the doors opened I looked up the table for my event and made way there to sit down for my first play of the day: Pathfinder Society Organized Play (PSOP).

I should take a moment to note that PSOP was the de facto game at BASHCon this year. Easily 60+% of all RPG events offered at the con were PSOP (this is my best estimate, I did not count all the events in the catalog, but I feel that I'm close). The strong showing was the result of a very well organized group out of Detroit, MI (about an hour north from Toledo).

Our GM was Douglas Miles, Venture-Captain for Detroit, MI, and he was running the introductory adventure Master of the Fallen Fortress. Before getting too deep into this, I am not reviewing the module, nor relating the specific aspects of the game. Rather, I'm focusing on my impressions, reactions and personal experiences of this event. This module was to serve as an entryway into PSOP.

I had no character to play as I do not own any of the Pathfinder books; I spoke with Doug about pregen options. He gave me several choices from all the different types of characters. Since no one else had checked in yet for me to see what roles were not covered I opted for the more support-oriented Oracle (I never mind playing Cleric-types, my first AD&D character was a Cleric).

Doug handed me the pre-printed character sheet and I looked it over. I immediately fell in love with the concept of the character: an Oracle of flame whose clouded vision only allowed her to see clearly up to 30 ft. I envisioned her staring into the flames to enter a trance-like state, hearing whispered wisdom in the crackle, hiss and pop of the fire; vibrant images dancing in the flames. I dubbed her Al-Haresh and was set to go.

The character sheet had almost everything I needed to play. I borrowed the core rule book to verify and note spell effect and ranges. I was pleased to see that there was not a lot a difference from the divine spells I was familiar with in D&D 3.5. What I did find surprising was that all 0 level spells were at-will; no limit on the number of times they could be cast. How sweet was that?

For those that may not know, the Oracle is to the Cleric what the Sorcerer is to the Wizard (can you tell I'm getting ready to take the GRE?). Meaning, I did not have to prepare my spells for the day, but instead chose what to cast dynamically during play from a short list of known spells. Sweet. Plus one of my patron deities of the flame was Asmodeus. Wicked!

The other players started showing up. There was a husband & wife, a mother & son, as well as another adult male besides myself. We had a nice mix of fighting, spell casting, support and specialty classes, in other words, a balanced party. The reason for our characters to be adventuring together? We all happened to show up at the base of the fallen fortress on the same day at the same time. That worked for this con game.

The fortress was a vertical dungeon that had to be navigated (what is it with me and vertical dungeons lately?). Tactically speaking, the party worked well together as they moved from room to room, floor to floor. Resources were used wisely to reach the final encounter at the top (the Master). Nothing was particularly surprising or terribly challenging. The group knew when to run and when to fight. Plans were made and executed as much as a little impromptu action/reaction. But the tactical stuff wasn't all that was going on.

Everybody at the table brought the role-play. While there was no rewards for RP, no real mechanical incentive for this to be anything more than a tactical exercise, everybody stepped it up. There was a chivalrous and chauvinistic male cavalier trying to impress and protect the female members of the party, most of whom were openly annoyed. Al-Haresh stayed closed to the rogue and let him lead her through the fortress. What it boils down to is that it was really fun.

The party survived the adventure and were able to free a Pathfinder Society member who sponsored each character's application to the society. This is where the organized play stuff kicked in. Each character had to choose a faction (I chose Osirian) and fill out the paperwork for the adventure. I've yet to go online and create my account, but I will probably do so soon. It'd be nice to take this character with me to GenCon.

I was once a member of the RPGA, but never played in tournaments or conventions; it always seemed like too much work. PSOP seems different, easier. My boys still like playing D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder and its organized play may give us access to a wider venue of play.

All in all, a great start to the day! Next time, I grab lunch and kill some time until Dogs in the Vineyard.


Follow your bliss,
JJ

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Master of the Fallen Fortress
Map by Doug Miles

PS. The homemade maps Doug used for this adventure were top notch and really added to the experience. See the included photo.

BASHCon XXVI - Day 1 Friday Night

Zombies!!! Board Game
(that's me in the red)

After registering for my badge and patiently waiting for the day to arrive, it was finally time to go to my first BASHCon! I was all set to go enjoy a night of gaming, but poor planning on my part reduced the amount of playable time I had available to me.

Lesson learned: next year take a half-day off work and don't plan a haircut for opening night so I can get there when the doors open. Because of my inept calendar skills I missed an opportunity to play in a short session of Spirit of the Century and a game of Leopard Women of Venus (the latter run, I later learned, by Joshua LH Burnett of Hex Games).

It was after 8 PM by the time I arrived on campus, parked and made my way to the Student Union. There I found the chaos that was convention registration. A confusing 20 minutes later I was inside the con. (No need to beat a dead horse here, suffice it to say that things could have run more smoothly.)

My first task was to walk the dealer's area which had a nice selection of gaming related and ancillary items for sale. Next I checked out Santa's Toy Box, which was a board game rental area. This held promise if I had some downtime.

Downtime? Heck, I planned to cram every moment of gaming I could into this weekend. As it was approaching 9 PM (what can I say, I take my time when checking things out) I had to decide what to do for the evening.

There was a game of Zombies!!! with an open seat so I got my ticket (free thanks to my Special badge) and sat down to play. I was joined by three college students who had played a marathon edition of the game once before using ALL THE EXPANSIONS (I later learned this was run by Joshua's wife, Ivy; Toledo is a small world). I was a newbie to the game and after a quick explanation of the rules we were off and running.

This game was as much fun as I heard it would be. The playful banter around the table certainly helped. Time flew by and the helipad finally made it's appearance. Since this was part of the competitive board game track, (zombie) bodies started piling up in order to determine a winner. And then the unexpected happened: the lights went out!

Talk about timing! We thought this was the school's way of saying,"Wrap up your games and go home, it's 11 PM!" but the truth of the matter was the power had really been cut to our building due to the weather; we were running on emergency power.

This didn't slow us down. We kept on playing by cellphone light. That is, until security came around to bodily escort us out of the building. Zombies were hurriedly counted, a winner determined (I think I came in last), and we quickly gathered the game pieces together before heading into the cold, dark night.

Best. First. BASHCon. Ever.


Follow your bliss,
JJ

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad (let's see if it can win its way back into the good graces of my heart)

BASHCon XXVI - Intro

Official BASHCon XXVI Logo

Well, I had spent most of my flight from Detroit to Phoenix working on a blog post to introduce the tales of my first BASHCon, but in uploading it from my iPad to the interwebs it evaporated into thin air. I'm a little bitter about this; it was fun and pithy and I don't know that I can recreate it (especially now that I've had a large Sake with dinner). This is the first time BlogPress has failed me and so, I'm a little down.

But my second part made it up to Blogger. So, instead of refining my first two parts and possibly starting a third, I'm forced to recreate my introduction to my weekend at BASHCon. During that weekend, I played a board game (Zombies!!!), an organized play event (Pathfinder Society), was introduced to a Story Game that should have been on my "Must Play" list (Dogs in the Vineyard), made a new acquaintance (Joshua Burnett from Hex Games), run my first convention game (Dresden Files RPG Casefile: Neutral Grounds) and caught up with podcasting acquaintance (Ben Balestra from All Games Considered). All in all a fun time was had.

But before I could get there, I had to register for my badge. I opted for the "Special Weekend Badge" which included a commemorative D6 (and what gamer wouldn't want that for swag?). Unfortunately the dice did not arrive in time so every Special Badge holder got instead an official BASHCon t-shirt (pictured). Not bad. It also got me $1 discount on all events. Since most events only cost $1, there was no additional charge to play, FTW!

In my original post I had digressed into the annoyances of the registration system used by UT-BASH for this event, but I'm too tired now to go into it. Maybe if you see me at GenCon and buy me a beer I'll relate the tale. Next time, BASHCon begins with opening night activities.

--

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

- Definitely NOT posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It's official

I'll be running my first two con games (ever) at BASHCon XXVI this year. My two events are on Sunday:

• Kingdom of Nothing: 9:00am - 1:00pm
• Dresden Files RPG: 1:00pm - 5:00pm

I'm very excited to be running these games locally and invite any readers attending BASHCon to stop by and say "hi" even if you are not planning on playing in either of these two events.

I'm still going over the list of other events but look forward to playing some Pathfinder and Dogs in the Vineyard as well as checking out some board games. I'll be sure to follow up the event with at least one post relating my exploits.

--

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

So many games

Last night as I got ready to watch The Cape, I was putting my books and games back on their shelves. A recent flood on New Years Day in my basement caused me to have to relocate my books into boxes and last night was the first chance to apply some order to the chaos. What I realized as I went through this process is that I have a ton of RPGs, most of which I have never played.

Role-playing games

Many of these books I purchased with the intention of playing, but some were purely for the curiosity of seeing how the game worked. Naturally this got me thinking about all the games I'd love to play if I had the time.

I decided the only way to find the time was to make the time. Daniel Perez's words about copping out on my New Year's resolutions are still ringing in my ears. First I'll list what I'm currently playing and then the games I'd like to play this year followed by my all-time wish list.

Playing now:

• D&D Essentials (GM) - This is the campaign that began as Back To D&D Basics using the classic Rules Cyclopedia. New rules, new characters (semi regular, weekly).
• Dresden Files RPG (GM) - This is a private game with me and my boys set in our hometown (irregular monthly).
• The Shadow of Yesterday (Player) - A game played over Skype, GMed by Rich Rogers of Cannon Puncture fame (weekly).

Want to play this year:

• Dragon Age RPG (Player/GM) - I've been bitten by the Dragon Age bug and am itching to try this one. I will get a chance to play with Daniel in a play-by-post game, but I'd love to play/GM this at the table.
• ICONS (GM) - I'm a fan of superhero RPGs. This one was recommended by Daniel and seems like it would be a good fit for what I like out of a game.
• Polaris - I've been wanting to play this game for at least two years now, so this is my year to make it happen.
• Kingdom of Nothing (GM) - I've committed to running this game at conventions this year and very excited about it.
• Mortal Coil (GM) - I love the system but have never seen it in action in a long running time frame. I'd love to see this happen this year.
• Burning Wheel (Player) - I've played Mouse Guard and that makes me want to explore the original.
• Mythender (Player) - I've been reading about Ryan's game for a while now, I'd love to give it a spin. Who knows, GenCon?
• A Penny For My Thoughts - I played an early play-test version, but have not played the final release. I think this would be a good game for my wife and I to play with another couple.
• Breaking the Ice - I've been wanting to play this game with my wife, so I will push to do it this year.

Dream List of games to play:

• AD&D T1-4, A1-4, GDQ (GM) - I have always wanted to run this classic series of modules using the Advanced Dungeon & Dragon 1st edition rules. Their called classics for a reason.
• AD&D DL1-12 (GM) - For similar reasons I have always wanted to run the original Dragonlance modules. I'd be tempted to run them using the 3.5 edition rules, but this is my Dream List of games to play so AD&D 1e it is.
• Thieves World, Lankhmar, Wild Cards (Player/GM) - These classic settings have been realized in various rule-sets. I'd love to have the time to explore them.
• Mage: The Ascension (GM/Player) - I've talked about why I love this game, I'd love to get back to it some day.
• Amber Diceless (Player) - I'm fascinated with the system, but have never read the original novels. I'd like to explore them someday.
• Call of Cthullu (Player/GM) - Do I need a reason?
• Mutant City Blues/Trail of Cthullu (Player/GM) - I've read, but never played, the games of the GUMSHOE system. I've love to explore them.

That should do it for now. Now I have a list to work off of when someone says, what do you want to play.

--

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

Future so bright: 2011

I've been avoiding this blog post. I'm not good at setting goals. That's not true; I'm great at setting goals. Following through? Not so much. So I did what I always do to when I want to avoid something: I read. I could call it "research" since I was reading many posts by other bloggers about New Year's resolutions and goals, but let's call it for what it is: avoiding a troublesome task.

I did enjoy the blogs I read; they were many and varied. Some tackled the New Year with the ferocity of a pit bull, others were calm and serene in their approach. And none helped me figure out what I wanted to do. (However, I did find a more convenient way to keep up on blogs using Twitter and Instapaper for the iPad.)

See, I've been struggling with what to do with this blog. I haven't really been posting lately which really makes me wonder why I'm doing it at all. At first I thought I had something to say, but my voice and focus was never very clear. I'm not an authority on gaming, I can only speak from experience.

Then I thought it was to stay in touch with the friends I met through podcasting. Well, Twitter seems better suited to that. The blog did start some dialogue with others on the interwebs, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for.

I generally have more ideas then I have the time to follow up on and discipline is not my strong suit; OCD is which makes writing a post take twice as long as it should. Family, work and other commitments are all making their demands known.

And then it hits me while I'm typing that last paragraph: this blog is my thing. It is more personal than almost anything else it do. I loves me some RPGs and gaming. I love talking about them, playing them, designing them and reading them. I'm not writing this for anybody but me.

So, no resolutions, no goals - it just is. Chaotic, eclectic and all over the place: that's me.

Follow your bliss,
JJ

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Looking Back 2010

It's that time of year where we take a page from Janus' book and look back at the year that has passed and forward to the next. So I'll cut to the chase and start with my resolutions for this last year and see how I did.

First under New Things:

• Run at least three different games at conventions - a big goose egg there. I only made it to one convention this past year (Origins for 1 day) and I was able to sit in on one game, but not run anything.
• Put together a free RPG to run in libraries - another 0. I had started work on Demigods but was not able to get it to a playable version for testing.
• Development on an Old School campaign - 25%. I started work on Icosa and managed to hammer out the basics, but ran out of steam.
• Run introductory RPG sessions at library - 0. Other than the initial session in 2009 I was not able to get this moving. This failed primarily to my dependance on the second point above.
• Run RPG for children under 10 - fail.
• Illustrating my games/play - nada.

Score: .25 out of 6

On to Improvements:

• Posting an average of 8x/month - 0. I managed to hit that mark 1 out of the last 12 months. I started out strong with 11 posts in January and spiked again in April with 7.
• Posting adventure logs - 0. Didn't happen.
• Games in Libraries Podcast - epic fail. I couldn't get my act together to make it happen.
• Participation in RPG conversations - 25%. I started off strong and once again lost steam.
• Logging my reading with GoodReads - 75%. I did very well with logging, I just had a tough time finishing books.

Score: 1 out of 5

Finally Continuing Items:

• Continued regular play - Yes. I managed to have probably my best gaming year to date (even if I didn't always blog about it).
• Continue exploring my passion - I would have to say Yes on this as well.
• Strive for a balance in my endeavors - Ha! Ok, that was a bit sarcastic. I did strive (begged, pleaded and even groveled at times), but was not always successful. I'll give this one a 50%.

Score: 2.5 out of 3

So looking back this may seem like an awful year. Really, it wasn't. Maybe I was a bit unrealistic on what I was aiming for, but I gave it a shot. I'm not mad, a little disappointed, maybe, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. So, taking what I've learned and looking ahead, I try to follow Casey Kasem's advice:

"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars."

So now with this review of the year under my belt (slightly smaller thanks to plus5cha.com & MyFitnessPal.com), I can ponder my course for the next year. For that, check back on the other side of midnight.

Follow your bliss,
JJ

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Time Will Tell

It's been over two months since I posted anything to this blog, and while I use this space to think through some of the gaming-related ideas going through my head, there are a few of you out there in inter-web land that visit this space and interact with me. To those that do, I apologize for my absence.

There has been a serious lack of regular gaming going on in my life, and that has a lot to do with my general mood and lack of posting. I'm getting back into the swing of things with an on-line game of Apocalypse World, my Dresden Files game is shrinking to just be me and my boys, I'm figuring out what to play with my regular face-to-face group, and I may be running some old school fantasy games at a recently opened FLGS. Things seem to be picking up just as we head into the holiday season, when life in the States seems to be at its most hectic.

So what have I been doing with my time? I've been looking inward, using the time for thought and introspection. Another birthday has come and gone, the boys are a year older and one more step closer to moving out of the house, and my wife grows more beautiful with each passing day. I'm looking to see where gaming fits into my life without taking it over completely. I'm looking at the purpose of this blog and whether it has any beneficial impact in the grand scheme of things.

Only time will tell. I promise to keep those of you that do stop by to read my meandering thoughts posted.

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Switching Gears: Dresden Files RPG

After a long absence at the Back to Basics gaming table, our crew gathered to discuss what to do next. I laid out some possibilities: finish Keep on the Borderlands, play Mouse Guard or Dresden Files, or have someone else step up and run something. My oldest son said he would run Eberron (3.5) and I offered to pick up Dark Sun if my youngest wanted to explore running 4th edition D&D.

After kicking this around for a bit, most of the table was ambivalent while my two sons were strongly promoting Dresden Files. Both had played in an awesome pick-up game at Origins (referred to in our house as 'Night of the Chupacabra') run by That Internet Guy, Ryan Macklin. My youngest was giving a pitch worthy of any used car salesman. The rest of the group agreed and the Dresden Files RPG we would play.

Before sitting in on the game at Origins this year I had not read any DF material. I was familiar with the FATE system from Spirit of the Century. After Origins I picked up the DFRPG PDF and started reading through it, hopping around to skim the topics that interested me. The game seemed very closely tied to the fiction, so I decided to give the books a try.

I burned through Storm Front and passed it off to one of the members of the B2B crew. He burned through it too and loved it as much as I did. I passed it onto my oldest son and he fell in love with it too. We got our hands on the second book and were not disappointed. I now turned back to the DFRPG to read it from the beginning.

After our group settled on DFRPG, I went to my friend's computer (we game at his house) and printed off the city creation worksheets. I had read the city creation chapter before we gathered so I felt pretty comfortable walking through this as our first session.

I've played games where setting creation is part of the process of play (Mortal Coil primarily) so I went into it with an open mind. I threw out several suggestions for a city to base the game in, including New York, Las Vegas and our hometown of Perrysburg. I thought that placing the game between the urban center of Toledo and the rural city of Bowling Green could be interesting. I was worried that we were straying too far from the urban setting of the novels. Thankfully the others thought it would be interesting as well. I like that our home was an island of safety between the encroaching urban center of Toledo and the dark and mysterious Black Swamp of Bowling Green (this gets fleshed out below).

We began to bang out ideas. We first came up with a Theme of urbanization and over-development. We didn't have to look very far and were able to name many real-world examples. We placed the (fictional) mayor of Toledo as the Face of this Theme.

Next we hammered out two Threats: the area known as the Black Swamp is the source of powerful black magic and that an outlaw biker gang is upsetting the delicate balance of organized crime. The Faces of the Black Swamp Threat are the opposing leaders of the White and Black Lodges, Native American circles of shaman. For the biker gang we chose the leader (a sorcerer to bring in another supernatural element) and his lieutenant. This will definitely be the primary Threat of the initial story arc.

Next we tackled The Balance of Power. This was probably the most confusing aspect of the the setting creation for the players to grasp. After a couple of attempts at explaining the idea behind it they finally latched on and we were off and running. We created, IMHO, a nice scattering of groups (I hope to soon post a JPEG of our graph or some other such document).

Finally we started filling in the Locations that we wanted to use. The gang really go into this. Some of the more interesting ones include Ft. Meigs, a historic fort from the War of 1812 that will be Accorded Neutral Grounds, and the Fifth Third Field, home of the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team under which is lair to the city's vampires. The most interesting face we put to these locations is the ghost of General 'Mad' Anthony Wayne who haunts Ft. Meigs and keeps the peace there.

The fun didn't end there. One of the players discovered a local ghost story about Anthony Wayne. Seems his remains were were exhumed and moved to a new burial place. Along the way, some of the bones went missing. Now the Mad General rises to look for his bones. You can bet that will come into play.

Everyone is excited to get to playing. Next time we meet we'll work on character creation. I'll post the results soon


Follow your bliss,
JJ

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Origins 2010 Recap

I'm going to ease back into writing by giving my recap of Origins 2010. I spent Sunday, the last day of the con, with my boys exploring the exhibition hall, chatting with various games designers and playing a game of Dresden Files RPG. The family pass was only $10 for all three of us to get into the exhibition hall; Origins knows how to treat families right.

First I had a chance to chat with some very friendly RPG game designers: Fred Hicks, Ryan Macklin, Rob Donoghue, Jason Morningstar, Paul Tevis, Luke Crane and Brennan Taylor. Most I had met before and I was please to meet for the first time Jason (who promptly recruited me for his One Cool Thing video I posted about last time) and was able to share my recent experience with his game Fiasco. Rob was kind enough to share with me his experience reading and working with gaming PDFs on his iPad (I'm a convert now and looking to get one ASAP). It was fun catching up and chatting with all these great folks, but my sons were soon bored with dad yacking away.

Thankfully the exhibition hall had distractions to occupy them while I was talking. Doubly lucky was the fact that Ryan was looking for players for a pick-up game of Dresden Files. I had found out about the pick-up game from his Tweet the evening before. As the time neared it turned out Ryan had 4 slots open but 5 players counting me. Since I wanted my sons to experience first-hand a con game I opted to sit back and provide support as needed.

First off let me say that Ryan is a great GM. I don't know where he found the energy to run a game at the end of a long con, but he did a fantastic job. As Lead Project Developer for Dresden Files RPG, Ryan really knew his stuff. He was able to pull together some very wild ideas (a were-goat, a myth-busting organization called PENGUIN) and make it work. Ryan would go on to say the session was very Saturday Morning Cartoon-ish, but it worked, which says a lot for his mad gaming skills and the versatile FATE system Dresden Files is based on.

Let me be clear before I go too much farther that this is not a review of Dresden Files. This session was an introduction to us, but I felt very comfortable playing because of past experience with Spirit of the Century, even though I've never read one of Jim Butcher's Dresden novels. I'm coming at this from our overall experience of the game. I'm indebted to Ryan for making this such a cool play session for my boys.

I was pleased to see that my boys picked up on the mechanics of play very quickly. Their primary gaming experience to date has been D&D (Basic, 3.5 and 4). They were really sailing with the ideas of Aspects and making a fun story. Both really got into the story and their characters. They were talking about the game the rest of the day (especially El Chupacabra). This was enough to prompt me to get the PDF of the game when I got home. I'm interested in digging into the details as soon as time permits.

Now, it's not a convention if you don't spend some money. We all purchased some Game Science Dice. I've been interested in them since I saw the YouTube interview. I was pleased to see the opaque dice with unpainted numbers which hit that Red-Box-nostalgia spot. I can't wait to add them to my Back to D&D Basics campaign.

Well, that was our Sunday at Origins 2010 in a nutshell. That will have to hold me over till 2011. Next year both of my boys will be old enough to join me at GenCon. W00t!

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

Digital Frontier - Part 3

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that Rob from Accidental Survivors invited me to play in an ongoing play-by-wiki game over at Obsidian Portal. This is a take on play-by-forum (which I did a little OWoD Vampire forum play back in the day of Prodigy) and was sparked by a post from Ken Newquist over at Nuketown.com. Rob is running the game using Mutants & Masterminds. So, as promised, here is the low down...

The Game

Mutants & Masterminds (M&M) has been around for a while now and has cemented it's position as the premier D20 supers game. The game is versatile and well supported in it's second edition. I've yet to come up with a super I couldn't stat out using this game system. I've game mastered and played both the 1st and 2nd edition IRL and had a great time doing so. I could go on and on about the game, but this post isn't so much a review of the game as it is of its application to the play-by-wiki (PBW) approach.

Let me make note before we go much further that Rob has stated that the current game is an experiment. Based on suggestions that Ken made in post at Nuketown, Rob is bringing the game to life over at Obsidian Portal. We all, players and GM alike, are feeling our way through play. Some elements are more collaborative storytelling and others more game-y.

First things first: the characters. We created Power Level 6 heroes. This sets the tone and feel for the game. PL 6 is below the typical starting level of 10. This fits in the range of street-level characters; these 'supers' will either be highly skilled/well-equipped 'normals' or possessing some small set of powers. This fits in nicely with the setting Rob chose - Freedom City.

Freedom City is normally home to some heavy hitters in the M&M world, but Rob has chosen to set the game during the setting's Iron Age. The year is 1985. In our world, comics were darker and populated with all manner of anti-heroes. This is the world into which The Raven was born.

Technical Aspects

I'm a self-acknowledged min/max-er when it comes to M&M. I like to feel that I get the most out of every power point. This leads to some intense character creation. In the past I've used a spreadsheet program for doing this. This time when I used it didn't seem to work very well when it came to the powers sheet. I may have too new a version of Microsoft Excel. I did not try the Open Office version.

Upon suggestion I tried Mutagen! a free Java applet for M&M character creation. The website that offered a download is now gone, the yahoo group is all but a ghost town, I don't believe the program is in active development, but I got my hands on a copy. It had a short learning curve and seemed to do the trick. The stat block in the character page (linked above) for The Raven was generated using this app.

Now the PBW is very similar to play-by-forum (PBF). You post something that relates to what your character is doing. The cool thing is that we're all editing the same wiki page of text. We build the story interactively. The down side is, like PBF, there can be down time between posts since not everyone has the same amount of free time. I have been guilty of that as I was away from my computer for a week, so The Raven didn't do much.

One of the things I had to get used to was how much I should write. I started off only writing a few lines, basically explaining one action. Rob pointed out that we had more authorial control and should expand. I loosened up and seemed to have found a nice rhythm.

Obsidian Portal also includes a die roller. We've used this in a couple of combat situations to relate the effectiveness of an attack or skill use. I'm interested to see how it gets used when more of the players are involved in the same scene.

I'm also able to create my own pages for things like my alter ego's apartment. and list off some supporting characters. The linking feature of wikis proves quite useful. For example, if Rob introduces an organization into the story, he create a page relating what is known about that organization without slowing down the narrative.

As a result of Rob posting about his experiment, Obsidian Portal upped his membership to the Ascendant level. This means the campaign gets forums, email notification and more maps. We're in the process of trying out all the fiddly bits. I recently posted the first two forum topics and we'll see where that goes.

After a little bit of back story development, Rob is kicking off Vol. 1, Issue 1 of Freedom City: Shades of Grey. Something very cool about this is that it looks like he is running two stories side-by-side. My thought is that the two groups of heroes will eventually meet up and interact together. But the possibility always remains to easily spin off a side jaunt or Shag & Scoob (spit up the party) if need be.

So far, smooth sailing. I'm in a mind to try running a PBW myself. If I do, I'll be sure to post it here.

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

Digital Frontier - Part 2

Well, I was able to join Rich, Arnold and Scott to play a game of Fiasco, by Jason Morningstar, (you can download a preview sample of the game here) as part of Rich's Monthly Pick-up Game. This was another on-line playing session. Fiasco has been described as 'Coen Bros. the RPG'. The tag like for the game says it all:

A game of powerful ambition & poor impulse control.

The Game
I think Fiasco was a great game. Technical difficulties aside (see below), I think it was easy to learn and fun to play. I had no problem picking up what to even though I did not have game book as a reference. I have listened to several podcasts that talked about the game prior to playing and was able to look over the setup 'oracle' before the session so that did help. It also builds on a skill-set common to many indie games (scene setting, pushing the plot to get a reward).

The game is best played with 4 players (which we had although others were slated to play but had to drop out due to technical or scheduling difficulties). Each player uses various tables in the setup to build and define relationships and aspects that will come into play in the upcoming game. The setup tables are referred to as Playsets. These Playsets are grouped by an overall description of where and/or when the story of the game takes place. Our group decided on using the McMURDO STATION, Antarctica setup (even though it was actually played like more of an Alaskan outpost by tacit agreement).

One of the neat aspects of the Playsets is the almost infinite flexibility and re-playability of the tables. I heard that players around the net started drifting the game by building their own Playsets. Bully Pulpit Games is showcasing a different Playset every month. (Interestingly enough, the oracle-like Playsets makes me want to play In a Wicked Age).

Play progresses around the table with each player taking a turn at setup but allocating values of randomly rolled dice to the various aspects of the Playset. Once that is done players take being the focus of a scene. The play can decide to start the scene and leave the outcome up to other players (which determines the color of die that will be awarded - White if the outcome is good for the focus player or Black if it is not) or letting someone else start a scene so the focus player can decide the outcome.

In the first two rounds around the table players give the die from the outcome to one of the other players at the table. Then the players take these dice and allocate them to the Tilt (much like they did in the Playset), which may dramatically change the direction of the story. This is followed by two more rounds for each player around the table before the outcome is decided each character at the end of the game.

Technically I got hosed with my final score of 0 (subtracting the totals of two sets of colored dice), but I really enjoyed the outcome. I wasn't so much into the game aspect of watching what color dice I collected and worrying about where to push my dice. It really was a fairly invisible mechanic. I was much more interested in the story that was being created.

I think the ease of play in learning the game speaks volumes about the strength of the game as well as the players facilitating this session. I believe I was the only one who had no prior experience with it. Even then, I was diving in very quickly in scene framing and lending to the madness of the story as it unfolded.

I love the gm-less aspect of the game. Minimal setup and shared world-building makes this a perfect pickup game. I could easily see it being a fall back for a regular group when some of the players can't make it. I think the freedom of minimal mechanics made the game sail. It is amazing what you can do with so little framework. It really pushes the paradigm and definition of 'rules light'.

On this one play of the game I can enthusiastically recommend it to any that have found enjoyment in creating rousing adventures when everything goes pear-shaped. I won't go into the specifics of the story (ask me some time you see me at a convention), but I will say there was much laughter generated throughout play.

Technical Aspects
Rich set up a Google drawing doc to track relationships and other aspects of play. Overall I think this approach worked well. I believe Rich did most of the editing during play, although the rest of the players did attempt to edit as well which led to some duplication of efforts. I think having everyone be responsible for a specific aspect of that doc, such as relations and objects added by that player, might have sped setup.

I like that there is now an artifact after the game to be able to look back on (published to the link above). It would be interesting to see if there would be an easy way to expand that document to include the changes that happened as play progressed, like adding in each of the NPCs and their relation to the main characters and eventual fates.

Again we used the dice roller at Catch Your Hare. This worked very well for tracking and allocating dice to the Playset, Tilt and Outcome. We also made good use of the chat feature within Google Docs so we didn't have to keep switching back to the Skype chat window post links and track events.

Technical difficulties were limited to some awkwardness in having all of working on the same document and Skype breaking down for some players. Apparently it's not a Skype game unless someone can't get tuned in. I had the same difficulty at the end of the session I mentioned last time regarding the Skype signal. The audio really went down hill after 12:00am. Thankfully we were wrapping up at that point.

I enjoyed gaming with this group of players. I'm sad that some of the players who wanted to play were not able to due to technical or scheduling difficulties, but there are hopefully more opportunities to game with everyone.

Next month we are talking about playing Polaris. I am very psyched to play this game (provided everyone else is on board as well). Another gm-less game, w00t!!

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

Digital Frontier - Part 1

When I was talking about my New Year's resolutions one of the things I wanted to do, but don't think that I mentioned it there, was to do some on-line role-play gaming. I've recently had the opportunity to do some of that thanks to Rich Rogers over at Canon Puncture. Rich invited me to play in a monthly pick-up game on-line. Last month we played a great game of Mouse Guard and this month we'll be trying Fiasco.

In addition, Rob from Accidental Survivors invited me to play in an ongoing play-by-wiki game over at Obsidian Portal. This is a take on play-by-forum and was sparked by a post from Ken Newquist over at Nuketown.com. This game is run using Mutants & Masterminds. (More about this soon)

The Mouse Guard game was played using Skype. This allowed us to join an on-line conference call so that we could all converse. This worked very well at first. I'm pretty sure that I didn't have the latest version of Skype since I use it so infrequently. I didn't want to chance running an update right before play for fear that it could make matters worse.

The call worked well and the three of us (myself, Rich and Arnold) were able to get up and running very quickly. As the game wore on, I noticed more of a breakdown in the connection. We were on-line for over two hours on the same call. It could have been my laptop, it could have been the software, but it was extremely noticeable by the end were I was missing about 30% of the dialog. I was able to keep up, but if we had gone on much longer I would have lost much of the dialog. Needless to say I will be updating before we next play.

Skype also let us text each other for out-of-character discussion. This was especially nice for posting links and other relevant information. This was not used very heavily but it did help as a way of keeping track of various conditions of play.

For Mouse Guard we also used a dice roller at the Catch Your Hare! website. This was a great tool. It allows multiple players to all log into the same dice rolling session. Each of us could also color our dice so that it was easy to tell whose dice they were (we chose our dice color based on each mouse's cloak color). It also allowed for multiple labels to be placed around the screen so that dice could be pulled aside and still be visible for reference. On occasion there was a little delay when someone would 'roll' before I saw the dice, but no real hang-ups; there was a 'set password' button that acted as a screen refresh.

An interesting aspect of this play was player discussion without the GM (Arnold) listening in. When it was time for Rich and I to plan our scripting for the various encounters, Arnold would remove his headphones and step away from his PC to plan his moves. This was, in a sense, stepping out of the room.

Overall it was great fun for a number of reasons. Rich and Arnold are great players. It was my first time gaming with them both and I had a blast. It was also my first play of Mouse Guard. I had read the book, but playing brings a deeper understanding to the game. The adventure Arnold wove was fun and challenging. I would not (and will not) hesitate to game with both Rich and Arnold again and I definitely want to play some more Mouse Guard too.

Tonight we gathered again in the digital world to play the GMless game Fiasco. Me, I love me some GMless games, so I'm excited beyond belief. I'll be sure to update here very soon. Look for a post about Rob's play-by-wiki game as well soon.

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

The a-ha moment

This past Monday my youngest son told me that the Back to D&D Basics campaign session from the previous night was his favorite to date. When asked why he responded that he had an a-ha and suddenly knew how to play his cleric.

Up to now, my 11 year-old has preferred fighter types when he played D&D he would charge into battle and hack and slash through the enemies. His favorite character to date is his Warforged fighter from my oldest son's Eberron campaign. But when we rolled up characters for Back to D&D Basics his stats seemed to lean toward being a cleric. So that's what he became.

During his rise through the first 4 levels he was lamenting various aspects of his character: no spells at first level, only healing and protective type spells, and (the most troublesome) no edged weapons. He frequently tried to push his way to the front of the battle, but was often relegated to the back because the dwarf and elf had the first rank covered. His sling stone attacked missed more often than it hit.

He had great difficulty in seeing what he was bringing to the party. He didn't see how his curative spells let the party adventure longer. He had picked up a magic mace from a Chaotic cleric that drained levels. I informed him that use of that ability would cause him to move away from Neutrality and toward the alignment of Chaotic. This frustrated him so much that last session I offered to let him roll up a fighter to swap out for the cleric.

But then they had an encounter with a captured hobgoblin. His cleric was the only one who spoke that language, but my son did not feel confident that he would ask the right questions, so the player of the dwarf offered to ask the questions to have my son's cleric repeat it in hobgoblin.

This could have been hand-waved and let the dwarf's player ask the hobgoblin (me) the questions and my son would not have had to do anything, but instead I said this (or something to this effect):

If you repeat the question exactly as the dwarf said then just nod your head, but if you want to ask anything different then ask your question. Once the hobgoblin answers, if you repeat it exactly as he says just nod your head, but if you want to say something different say what your character says.

The group suggested passing notes, but I didn't want to slow things down. I reminded the players to not let their knowledge of what was transpiring affect anything their characters did. So off we went.

The dwarf said:

If you answer our questions honestly we'll free you as long as you promise to never return here. If not, we will slay you as we did your chieftain.

The cleric said:

If you answer our questions honestly we'll free you as long as you promise to never return here. If not, we will slay you as we did your chieftain which will make my god cry.

Wow. I didn't want to disrupt the flow of play, but internally I was taken aback by his modification. Questioning continued and the cleric took charge of the hobgoblin prisoner. As the hobgoblin started leading the party through their cave complex they encountered more hobgoblin guards.

The cleric stepped up with his prisoner and told them that their chieftain was dead and the party was willing to let them leave peacefully if they promised never to return. I decided to let the hobgoblins' reaction be decided by a roll. The first roll indicated that the would not attack but that they would growl and wait one round to hear what the cleric had to say. Also the next reaction roll would be at -4.

The cleric spoke to try to discourage the hobgoblins from attacking. I changed the modifier to -2 to show that his talk had some effect and then I rolled the dice. With the modifier the result was a 2 which indicated the hobgoblins attack.The hobgoblins won initiative and opened fire on the party with crossbows. Two bolts found their home in the captured hobgoblin's chest. He fell dead to the floor and the cleric was crest fallen as the fighters of the group rushed past him.

This was his a-ha moment. He knew how to play his cleric now. I don't think we'll need to roll up a new character for him and I can't wait to see what he does next time we play. I'm so pleased I got to see this moment first-hand.

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

International Traditional Gaming Week

Well I'm almost too late for this event, but I'm getting it in under the wire. This week is International Traditional Gaming Week or ITGW. The idea is to get 'butts in seats' to play traditional or old school rpgs. This doesn't have to be D&D, but could be any of the retro clones or anything from the early days of gaming.

This week I ran my Back to D&D Basics campaign for my party and they are slowly making their way through the Keep on the Borderlands. So far they've run into kobolds, goblins and now are looking for hobgoblins. It's been a lot of fun and even my die-hard 3.5 players are really enjoying themselves.

So check with your Friendly Local Gaming Store and see if they're running and ITGW events. If not, maybe you can offer to run one. Download your favorite retro-clone and go to town. If anyone has any stories to share about their ITGW event, please post it into the comments of this post.

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

Character Death

A recent post by Orclord and the resulting comments following the post has me thinking about character death in RPGs. It's a touchy subject and reactions vary by individual. I'm not proposing that I have any of the answers to the question of how to handle character death, but rather just exploring some of my thoughts and feelings on the subject.

One of the things that may affect the way a player reacts to this situation is based on how they are approaching the game. Putting on our RPG theory glasses, lets look at those approaching a game using Step on up (Gamism). In this approach the player may see the character as a resource, something that is controled and changed over the course of play. Losing a resource can be a major set-back; all the time spent acquiring experience points, gold, equipment, magic items, or what have you is lost and you must start over again.

This often isn't too big of deal because it was (hopefully) a fun ride getting the character to this point. It may be no worse that landing on a chute and having to work your way back up the ladder (to use a board game analogy); whip up a new character and more fun is on its way. If, however, the individual happens to be a very competitive person, then this could be a hard hit; they may be feeling like they just 'lost' the game.

I've been there. I've had a couple of characters that I've spent a lot of time on and then lost them to in-game death. When they died it really was a lot like losing a hard-fought competition. The worst was an AD&D campaign run by my friend Hank. We had a definite win condition: free our tribe from the desert. We died in the battle of the gatehouse and our people would not be released. It was pretty crushing and was, in fact, the end of the campaign so it was doubly hard. I did have a great time playing and though we never got into the double-digit levels he was one of my favorite characters. Stepping back I can look at the whole campaign as a tragic story, which leads me to my next point of view.

From a Story Now (Narrativism) perspective a character death must be viewed from the larger vantage point of the story that is being created through play. If the death served a purpose to further the plot of the story then it would likely not be a big issue for the player; it may be view with great enthusiasm for being able to achieve a sense of pathos in the game. If, however, the death had no story tie-in, then it may seem like a senseless waste and be very difficult to rebound from.

A lot of this will depend upon the game system used. Many indie rpgs give players lots of Story Now opportunities and greater control over plot. Sandbox play leads to Story After (making a story out of the actions that the characters experienced), but there is some opportunity for Story Now based on those occasions when a player chooses to let their character die. I had a first level character who, with very few hit points left, willingly sacrificed himself in order to delay the villain so the party could escape (ask me over a drink sometime, I love to tell stories). This was a character death I did not lament and I think that shocked the DM that someone would do that willingly.

That brings me to The Right to Dream (Simulationism) in which players will deeply immerse themselves into the character they are portraying. This is potentially one of the most difficult player deaths to deal with. If the game system is one supporting Story Now and the player has some control over the plot then they may deem it best for the character to die to fit the needs of the story. Like the example above, this shouldn't be a problem.

The problem comes when the death is unexpected (as most character deaths in traditional RPGs tend to be). In this case, the character is not a resource or a tragic protagonist in a story; the character is a loved one, cherished and adored. This can result in very emotional outbursts and possible fits of depression. In John Coyne's book Hobgoblin, the book opens with the protagonist playing Hobgoblin, a D&D-esque game. His character, a 20th level paladin, is killed as a result of an unlucky roll (ain't that the way it always happens). This is mirrored against the sudden death of the protagonist's father - illustrating (in my mind, at least) the level of loss the protagonist was feeling over his most beloved character.

Now you may be saying, 'Alright already! It's a game, fer cryin' out loud! Get a life!' Yes, this may be true. A good separation of fantasy from reality goes a long way to lessening the sting of a character death. However, I offer you this position: creating a player character for an RPG is like any creative endeavor - you invest a piece of yourself into it. There is no greater form of sympathetic magic. Add to this the time an energy spent on a character that has been played for a very long time and it is exponentially more difficult to divest yourself from those feelings.

Now, how can the blow of a character death be lessened? The best thing in my bag o' tricks is to talk about the game before you sit down to play; some folks like to call this a Social Contract. Before play, talk about the game, talk about the setting, talk about the genre and talk about the characters. Let players know how death works in your game. Let them know if there are any safety nets for character death, such as resurrection spells or cloning. This will go a long way to helping players keep character death in perspective.

And even then, all the prep in the world may not be enough to alleviate the pain of a character death. If you are bothered by your character's death, talk about it as a group or talk to your game master. And as they say, time (and a good psychotherapist) does heal all wounds.

A day at the library

Ok, maybe not a whole day, but at least three hours. In my previous post I was talking about going to the Wood County District Public Library on Saturday, November 14th to take part in National Gaming Day @ your library. Now that I've had some time to process and get some feedback I'm ready to talk about it here.

I was running a demo of the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Starter Set. I was slated to 'work' from 2 - 4pm. I arrived early and check in with the librarian. She walked me over to the Teen Space. This was a very cool room a few steps away from the circulation desk. It has one entrance and the room is long and narrow.

The place was very inviting and looked like a cool place to hang out (which I'm sure was it's intent). It has several comfortable and stylish couches, three tables (one regular height, one about waist high, and a coffee table between the couches), a reception desk and small computer station. All the walls were lined with books. Like I said, a very cool place to hang out.

I chose to set up at the tall table because this would allow easy access to the game pieces while standing (I like to stand when I game master - I tend to get very animated and would fall out of my chair if I were sitting down). Without chairs, visitors could slide up to the table and see what was going on very easily.

I laid out all my 'stuff': dungeon tiles and counters, laminated character sheets, grease pencils, dice, quick-start rules and Dungeon Master guide. Everything mentioned came in the Starter Set except for the laminated character sheets - which I printed and laminated - and the grease pencils - for marking up said character sheets.

I had studied the short delve in the DM guide prior to arriving and was ready to go. All I needed was players. I didn't have to wait long and they started showing up. The event was advertised at the middle school, at the BG Teen Central after-school program (which I had stopped into on two occasions in the two weeks prior to the event), and on posters around the library.

Before long I had six players, most were teen males between the ages of 11 and 14, one teen female in the same age range and one adult female. I launched into my spiel about the game. I didn't spend a lot time on basics, only enough to set the stage. Then I launched into the requisite meeting in the tavern to get their first job.

Thankfully everyone played along and the party was soon delving the ruins under the village for the goblins that have been harassing the villagers. They soon came upon a group of goblins and quickly set to battle with great relish (and a little mustard and horseradish on the side).

I did most of the instructing as we played. I explained new phrases and key words that were common parlance to old hats like me (speaking of 'old', when I posted on Facebook that I had introduced teens to D&D, one friend commented, "You 'introduced them' - like a grampa would 'introduce' chess??? Old Man!!" to which I replied, "Old and proud of it!"). Everyone started picking up the game very quickly. Combat was moving along and soon the goblins were defeated.

At this point I took a short break to see if any new players would stop in. Since two of the players were sticking around for the whole session I didn't wait too long to gather the troops and start back up. The adult female and one male teen were back from the first session. We were joined by four more male teens in the same age range as the first group.

We were able to get the new players up to speed quickly. There was much more encouragement and suggestions from other players this time around and everyone was getting into the battle with a new set of goblins deeper in the ruins. Long story short, we went over our time allotment by thirty minutes because everyone seemed to be have a very good time.

Today, I received great news from the librarian who processed the surveys that were turned in by the participants for the event. Seven of the participants that took part in the demo filled out a survey and six of those stated they would be interested in a community role-playing game that met consistently. Everyone selected "good" or "excellent" when rating the program. Of the seven replies six stated they would be "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to come to another similar event at the library.

Needless to say, I am thrilled at these results. I hope to continue working with this library (and possibly others) to develop a library RPG program tailored to the needs of the participants and the library. I'll be sure to post more information as it becomes available.

Follow Your Bliss,

JJ

NPC scripted scene

In my last post I talked about doing an NPC scripted scene in an upcoming adventure. Well, last night I ran that scene. I'd been waiting until the party had finished their current adventure. The scene was meant to act as an interlude between the last adventure and the next. Up until this point the Patriarch of the church would call the PCs into a meeting and offer them a new chance to adventure. This time was a little different. I have used Google Docs to create the document and have shared it here: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgsd7pz_50d25n37gm

To give you a little background, the characters have just completed a successful mission to capture the chaotic cleric Elwyn who had made off with a holy artifact. The cleric and artifact were returned to threashold and the custody of the Baron Sherlane Halaran, who is also the Patriarch for the Church of Karameikos.

Normally the players would not find out what happens to Elwyn after they turn her over to the Baron nor would they see what leads up to the Baron calling on the PCs for assistance. This little scene does that and more.

In addition to the backdrop each of the characters in the scene with Elwyn have a tie to one of the characters. The Patriarch and Aleena are both members of the Church to which one character belongs. Lady Halia is mentor to the magic user in the party. Porthios is mentor to an elf in the party and Lady Halia's husband can act as a mentor to any fighters in the group.

With these mentors more formally introduced I inserted a role-play scene in which the PCs had an opportunity to interact with their mentors prior to meeting with the Baron. This was a fun scene with no real goal other than to give the players a chance to expand upon their characters. It also pointed out that the thief in the party had no such mentor; something that will be addressed in upcoming play.

The scripted interlude also allowed me to introduce an important NPC for the upcoming adventure: Commander Castellan. This helped to prepare the PCs with the eventual meeting with the commander.

All in all, the scripted scene was well received and I was very pleased with the results. The scene when a long way to making the PCs adventures set more firmly into a world deep and rich in detail. The scene went a long way to help ground the actions of the PCs into a larger framework, will still keeping the focus on them.

I highly recommend using this simple tool for adding more depth to your role-playing experience. I wish I had more time to devote to the scripting (I posted it with all the typos still in it), but I don't want to take too much away from the spontaneity of the game. Scripted scenes are great for fleshing out the story, foreshadowing and epilogue. I want to thank Rich and Ryan for talking about in an episode of the Canon Puncture podcast. I've mentioned this and other podcasts I listen to in a previous post. Ryan's excellent Master Plan podcast on game design can be found at masterplanpodcast.net.

I'll have more updates soon. Until then, follow your bliss.

JJ