tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83486626456100363672024-03-13T10:06:58.821-04:00The Felling BladeGaming CommentaryArashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-6432159178756784112016-04-30T14:03:00.000-04:002016-04-30T14:03:28.546-04:007th Sea 2nd Edition Kickstarter ReviewWell sure this is a few weeks late, but welcome to my life, nigh impossible to schedule in the short term. So if you were looking to wait for this review as to whether to back the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnwickpresents/7th-sea-second-edition" target="_blank">Kickstarter for 7th Sea</a>, well, too bad. Of course there's now a pre-order button, so I guess all is not lost.<br />
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<b>Overall</b><br />
While the system has its rough spots that I will hope to get worked out in time, I enjoyed the mechanics of the system and it maintain the same feel of what the original edition tried to reach for, and frequently failed to do.<br />
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In the original system, it promised swashbuckling, over-the-top action in a <a href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/114550.html" target="_blank">dog's breakfast</a> of faux-European countries. And while we got that, the Roll and Keep system, combined by the penalties of diversification of skills, as well as the heavy character point buy-in necessary for either playing with the main two systems (sword schools or sorcery), may entry level character rather ... challenging to get that feel that I, at least always wanted.<br />
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This edition seems to have stepped away from that - it ["steals"/is informed by/adapts] a lot of the meta-RPG stuff that has happened in the last 10 years - moving towards a more narrative feel in what is able to be accomplished by a character. Characters feel competent right out of the box, and while there may be some penalties for success, the potential for success is more likely.<br />
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<b>Mechanics</b><br />
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The mechanics are fairly simple. Roll a bunch of d10s, group them so they add up to 10, each one is a success or raise, that may be spent for succeeding, buying an opportunity, or preventing a consequence. You can spend hero points to get more dice or activate certain advantages, as well as gain them for either voluntarily failing, or the GM taking advantage of your poor rolling.<br />
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While the system has its faults - over 10 dice and it starts being complicated and slows down dice arrangement, I like it in that it allows me to see a non-binary set of results potentially - opportunities allow me to say "yes, and", consequences allow me "yes, but" as my favorite two results (I suppose the player could also choose "I don't succeed, but I get these other opportunities" as well.<br />
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The warts were when trying to maximize the number of success with large dice pools. Dice pool games, in my experience, really shine at about the 6-8 dice range, too much more and you've got problems tracking all the dice in your hands. Too few and the results get really swingy.<br />
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However, the opportunities and consequences are what will really make the system sing in my opinion. Otherwise, there's no benefit to just not rolling versus a target number and getting a yes/no answer. I suppose I could do the same in a TN system, where I set a fairly low TN, and every 5/10 above is another success. But even then you get problems trying to add up many dice. I don't know if there is a good solution. Perhaps it'll be harder to get above 6-7 dice in a pool, or there will be other suggested speed bumps in the system.<br />
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<b>Subsystems - Combat & Dueling</b><br />
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I figure I should call this out specifically. The quickstart game ran through all of the various systems in a fairly straightforward manner. The mass combat versus Brutes (i.e., mooks, unnamed NPCs) went fairly well. Large groups of mooks still have the ability to be a threat; however, we were discussing something like 30 Brutes against 3 players, and the players barely took any wounds. I almost want to think about some sort of Elite Brute so I could have only twice the number of NPCs as I do PCs and have it still be a good challenge versus needing a 10x the number of PCs.<br />
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The dueling system sufferings from the decker problem of role playing games. When we had our duel everything came to a hard stop. No one else could participate, no one else could really role play, and everything had to wait for the duelist to finish their duel. And the dueling rules were obtuse, not very intuitive, and frustrating to use. Now some of that is our newness to the system. Some of that is the fact that the quickstart rules really didn't explain dueling well, something I expect to be rectified.<br />
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However, as far as the duel itself goes - I don't see there a way around it being a dead stop. That's okay, we just need them to be quick, perhaps no more than 4-6 exchanges and move on. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen due to how the game presents Villains (named antagonists to the PCs). Any decent challenge to the PCs is going to be an ugly grind because of how they simplified the system.<br /><br />Villains are rated from a rating from 1-Infinite, based on a number of two factors - their own personal ability and their influence. So you could have a badass with no influence being rated at a 8 (7/1), and a weak but influential manipulator also being an 8 (1/7). Both of these guys are the same danger in a duel, and also the same difficult to defeat - they both roll 8 dice in all challenges, and they can both take 8 hits before taking a dramatic wound and can take 8 dramatic wounds before being defeated.<br />
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And it is really this last part that is the killer - the difference between a Level 6 villain and a Level 8 Villain is minimal damage/success output change (6 dice versus 8 dice), but a difference between taking 36 hits versus 64 hits. Early 4th Edition D&D had this problem as well, where Solos would be able to take large amounts of damage, but not dish out a lot, turning fights into grind fests; however, it was fixed later as fights where you had 3-5 rounds, so large amounts of damage and more moderate HPs were found to be more fun.<br /><br />I'm not sure how to modify. As one of my players noted, the system is designed well for a single bad guy and some Brutes taking on the PC group as a whole. However, when it is 1 on 1 in a duel, the warts definitely show. Hopefully the full version of the rules will take this into account, and I won't have to come up with something on my own.<br />
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<b>Other Notable Subsystems - Villains and Intrigue</b><br />
<br />I wanted to note that there is a subsystem for "downtime" villain actions which can drive plot in and of itself. Villains will risk their intrigue to accomplish goals, which if the players react, they can reduce the villain's influence, and if they don't the Villain will get more powerful. The quickstart system doesn't play with that; however, so I'll just leave that here.<br />
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<br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-17067968761474794192016-03-24T14:18:00.000-04:002016-03-24T14:18:12.180-04:00What Makes A Good PlayerBecause I certainly don't seem to have it. Reading my friend/sister-in-law/occasional player at my table Morgan's post on being an <a href="http://morganhazelwood.com/2016/03/24/i-am-become-death/" target="_blank">ender of worlds</a> in light of what happened in the disaster of the Vampire: The Masquerade game I'm a player in makes me wonder.<br /><br />I have a habit of destroying games as a player. I killed off a Deadlands game by thwarting the Devil by shooting another PC. I killed off the Changeling game by shooting a child (whose dreams were manifesting in reality), the problem being that several of the other PCs were in the child's mind trying to find a more humane solution.<br />
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And then on Monday, I accidentally destroyed the Anarch population of the DC. I didn't think my willingness to go along (OOC) with the plot of another PC would kill them all off, I figured it would be a portion, but not enough. Of course, this combined with an Angel visitation, the release of a Mummy dead set (get it?) on destroying Vampires basically made DC untenable for unliving habitation.<br />
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Oops.<br />
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Discussing aftermath, a couple characters, including my current one, are being retired. Perhaps killed off, but definitely not participating in the next arc. Discussing what to do next, the ST mentioned, "I thought your characters would be great NPCs, but not PCs."<br /><br />And I'm wondering if that's because I've done most of my gaming as GM since 2001, or if I'm just bad at being a good PC, i.e., one that fits in well with the table dynamic and increases the amount of fun at the table. I've certainly tried to do so - but apparently I'm falling flat.<br />
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Some of this may just be the game - for me Vampire is a game about stasis and stability, and trying to either maintain it or disrupt it. Unfortunately, maintaining it is generally reactive and not much fun for me as a player; and disrupting it is challenging in Vampire because so many parts of the game are gated off due to how the power level works. If you are 13th Gen, you are 13th Gen - and your only hope is that you are recently enough 13th Gen that you have a technological advantage, because you are going to be at every other disadvantage at disrupting the power system.<br />
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Yes, there's a reason why I'm continually tempted by Diablerie (i.e., sucking the soul from a more powerful vampire to gain more power) in Vampire games. Unfortunately, in the sort of game where there's minimal down time, the social downside (having your soul stained with your sin) makes that a non-viable option.<br />
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I have my suspicions of where I went wrong with the characters, with Oz, he didn't have any distinctive skills as I tried to make him competent at everything, as I'd forgotten how harshly cWOD treats bare competence most of the time. Better to be very good at a few things, and figure out how to use those skills elsewhere. But otherwise, mostly his great sin was going to ground after being attacked randomly, kidnapped as bait, and rescued. The rest of the party went off to Fredericksburg, my character wanted to know what the fuck had happened, who the attackers were, and what he could do to get revenge on them.<br />
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The other character was an isolated anti-social Tremere who was good at what he was supposed to be good at - figuring out stuff, and horrible at anything social. I figured it would make for a good play - too useful to ditch, but enough of a hindrance trying to be social to make things interesting. And I think he worked fairly well within the confines of the arc, but perhaps too many hindrances.<br />
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I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the next arc - I'm waiting to see what comes out from the ST and I'll probably stick with a more physical, dynamic character. May even play someone who isn't a blood drinking fiend of the night as that's been an option - but that makes it even harder to figure out how to mix well at the table.<br /><br />I'll figure out something, I usually do.<br />
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<br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-12218867410843740432015-09-04T20:24:00.001-04:002015-09-04T20:24:04.463-04:00Changing What I Skim To Review LaterI realized borrowing a copy of <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/star-wars-edge-of-the-empire/" target="_blank">Edge of the Empire</a> to take a look at, I realized that I've apparently gotten old - I would have used to read through the book cover to cover to get an idea of how the game ran, what it included and what it didn't include.<br />
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Not this time. This time? I quickly flipped to the skills section to read over the few skills I actually care about the resolution system resolves, then quickly checked the basics of the rules overview to confirm what I assumed the symbols meant. Then to combat, particularly vehicle combat to see how a Star Wars game handled that particular quirk.<br /><br />And really? That's about it. The rest, I don't really care about. I mean if I was prepping for a game, sure I'd read everything and do the prep work, but my assumption is that the system is fairly solid as I haven't heard too much grumbling about it (other than the joys of reading a different set of coded dice) so I'll presume the system works, by and large, for what it needs to do.<br />
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So what's left? What's left is what I actually care about. How does it handle social interaction? How does it handle investigation? How does it handle shooting and getting shot?<br /><br />One of my <a href="http://wildeschilde.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">favorite players</a> to game with is an amazing table top thespian. She handles just about any system or role, so I look for "how does it support her play style?" not because I always want her at my table gaming (though I do), but I want a system that supports that sort of character and does so in a way that I think she'd enjoy, plus most of the problems that the players will face at my table are generally social or intellectual, so I want the game to have the tools to help mechanically solve that.<br />
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Investigation is much the same - my games tend to a lot of "find some facts, figure out what to do about it," and I just want to know what I'm in for.<br />
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Finally combat - I like my combats to be no more than about 20 minutes, and everyone gets a few turns, so how does it flow, what sort of paralysis of choice sets in. I like there be at least a few <a href="http://thefellingblade.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-makes-tactical-combat-well.html" target="_blank">interesting choices</a>.<br />
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How did the game do?<br />
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The game as regards social resolution is does its job, it depends on the dice to provide the non-binary solution sets; however, I feel like I'd want to have the book open continually (or create a cheat sheet) for what you can spend the different results of the dice. But that may just be the price of one pays for having the dice provide complicated answers. There are a variety of social skills, so I can have characters who are variably good at a variety of skills, rather than having one member just be the face and be able to run off one or two skills.<br />
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The game as it handles investigation is funny - it has no investigation skill, which leads to some interesting choices - rather than defaulting to "Investigation", there are skills like "computer", "streetwise" as well as "perception" and "vigilance" for your more immediate needs. I could see this getting to be a headache if I wanted someone to do actual forensics, where we start defaulting to something else. I'd want to make a decision about what that something else was early, so people knew ahead of time.<br />
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Finally combat - combat seemed to be smooth enough. Initiative is a big quirky, but easy enough to handle. Limited number of actions, and taking unusual actions seems to be handled in a practical way of, "Well it isn't this, and it isn't that, so we'll call it this catch all." And reading the vehicular rules had me thinking of ways I could be starfighter pilot, so I'll call that a win.<br /><br />So all in all the system looks like it does what I like - mechanically diverse and defined character creation, the oddball dice give me all of the "yes/no/sort of" results I'm looking for in my games these days, and it isn't modern horror or high fantasy so it would be a nice change of pace.<br /><br /><br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-22353052796522656262015-03-15T20:20:00.001-04:002015-03-17T14:04:53.017-04:00Night's Black Agents: A Ticking Bomb in the Ukraine (with mini review)This past weekend I ran <a href="http://www.pelgranepress.com/?cat=153" target="_blank">Night's Black Agents</a> (NBA) for some friends at a <a href="http://madicon.org/" target="_blank">small gaming convention</a>. Now I've been interested in NBA for some time because it uses the Gumshoe system, and I have a thing for playing or running games involving characters that are assumed to be competent. While I want to play character that still can become more competent/skilled, I have grown to dislike the zero-to-hero model. From my experiences with NBA this past weekend, while I would have some learning pains with the game, I would definitely be willing to suffer through them while running or playing in a game. It runs fast, we rarely had any moments where someone couldn't do something, and even towards the end, when the chips were down, there were always options. And that's without using all of the options (it was a convention game, none of us had played the game before, so I wanted to cut down the number of the options we had to deal with).<br />
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Rather than running the short introductory scenario in the back of the book, I decided I would just run my own small creation because I wanted to see how much of a pain it was to create a scenario for the players, and deal with the power of the Investigative abilities. It isn't so much that I don't know how to handle basic clues, but a constant fear of mine would be coming up with useful information when a player spends a point to get enhanced information.<br />
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The scenario I presented was simple - a group of concerned actors had hired the fixer to provide a group of deniable assets to enter into the Separatist region of Ukraine, and intercept a suspected bio-weapon that had been obtain within the boundaries of Russia from a Romanian arms dealer. While it probably wasn't a Soviet era weapon (the lack of markings was a clear give-away) it was a too serious a threat to go away. So the group needed to get in, retrieve the weapon, the scientist traveling with the weapon, and get out. Preferably without getting on the evening news.<br />
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I had planned basically three basic stages - the meeting and getting into the region, finding the safe house and the assault, and the vampiric twist. After that I figured everything would have gone to hell, and why bother planning.<br />
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As it turned out, I was totally accurate in my assessment.<br />
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The PCs took the job, did some preliminary research and set-up, obtaining a TV van for a cover ID, and headed off across Ukraine. Being super spies, there was a montage of the group traveling and bribing various guards of the government and separatist factions. <br />
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Once arriving in Luhansk, they triangulated the cell signal to find where the hot headed rebel was hiding, and retasked a satellite to provide updated intel. Note: As the GM, I had absolutely no clue how they were going to find the safe house, I just trusted that they were going to find a way to do it.<br />
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And hey, that worked.<br />
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They assaulted the dacha, and that's when things started to go bad. Combat is rough, and I think I may have overly estimated their competence with killing things - I had expected the players to go combat heavy because it was a convention game, and well I think I had one universally deadly character, and one fairly deadly character, and everyone else apparently took the "if the guns come out, we've already fucked up, route." And I forgot to calibrate till halfway through the assault and turn the soldiers into mooks. <br />
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Though with how poorly the PCs rolled, there may have been no saving them ultimately. One of my players managed to roll something a "1" on a d6 five or six times in a row. "Anything but a one," got to be a curse at the table.<br />
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The PCs started in a rough spot and slowly started to pull forward, and then a third group entered the scene, but the PCs stayed upstairs, and eventually they went away.<br />
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The PCs captured the scientist, captured the hot headed rebel, made it downstairs and discovered that the third group had been apparently after the bioweapon, which the scientist admitted wasn't a traditional weapon, but something far weirder, a "Dracul."<br />
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"A Dracul? I'm not familiar with that organization," the team face said in a perfect response.<br />
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And the chase was on, they cornered the leader, his five zombie assistants, and one still sedated ghoul strapped into the passenger seat of a pick-up truck in an alley and the fight went .... poorly. The previous fight in the dacha took most of the points they had to spend for reliability, so when the shooting started here, success was at the mercy of the dice's grace.<br />
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And see the previous statement about their luck.<br />
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The fight was brutal, and I'm sure if we all had more familiarity, they could have gotten at least partial refreshes back, but the fight was suitably climatic which ended with a dead Renfield, five dead zombies, an escaping, but re-sedated, ghoul, and of the five agents? Only one was in positive health, the rest, were various levels of hurt, included two within a stiff breeze's worth of death.<br />
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I call that a win. They all, barely lived, and if this was the start of an actual campaign, they all would have been introduced to the realities of vampires in the world, and have a place to start dealing with the conspiracy.<br />
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As I've mentioned, the game runs quick, and like other single die systems, is fairly brutal. By default the chance of most actions is either 3+ or 4+ on a d6, which makes it fairly likely the players will succeed. I definitely will be looking at using the Gumshoe system, at least as an inspiration, as it removes a lot of the "Gee, the game stops if the player's fail their investigation roll." There are definitely lots of bits and pieces (Heat, Mental Health) that we never engaged in, but for a 4ish hour session, including character creation, I will probably be adding this to my "to buy" pile.<br />
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<br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-46531210690251471662015-01-18T09:27:00.000-05:002015-01-18T09:29:27.941-05:00Advancement Schemes (Brainstorming)When it comes to character advancement, I'm mixed. I love getting new doodads and "stuff" for my character to do; but I've always wanted something that made sense. However, most games are absolutely horrible at incentivizing downtime for advancement - there's always one more emergency to deal with, you never get downtime to heal and recover. There's also the idea of just creating the character you want to play, and then minimal character advancement after that point - however, those games don't ever seem to grip what a lot of players want.<br />
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Somewhere in the back of my head, there's a game brewing about playing mercenaries and troubleshooters, people who solve problems for people at the edges of society, probably using Cortex Plus (which powers Smallville, Firefly, Marvel Heroic). So I'll be using Cortex Plus lingo here.</div>
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I picture the game having three phases - planning for the mission, the mission, and civilian life. </div>
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Planning for the mission is where the players generate the game session, preferably through email, where being given a premise by the GM, they set the obstacles and challenges. The better they know the problem, the less challenge it is worth. In short the players create the payoff for their characters. This is done preferably during email so the GM has time to prep some related materials, though I'm sure some GMs could just improv a session from spending 10-15 minutes.</div>
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The mission itself is your standard play session full of hijinks and chaos. </div>
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Civilian life can be less stressful - this is where you spend those dice that the group generated during the mission phase, as well as any bonus dice generated during the mission per the GM's choice (or perhaps some sort of in-game action). Spend dice to advance your character, or spend dice to reduce stress/wounds taken. Each spend of dice is a scene where a character is highlight, and other characters can join in to assist.</div>
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Generating the payoff would look like the following, lifted liberally from Smallville:</div>
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<li>2d6 - baseline difficulty, can be raised to any combination up to 2d12 (the hardest of all missions). </li>
<li>1d6 - an obstacle that is known and with an in place countermeasure, "We don't need to worry about the access control system, I have a skeleton key card."</li>
<li>1d8 - an obstacle that is known, but will need to be worked around on the mission, "There's an access control system, but we're going to need to get a passcard from somewhere."</li>
<li>1d10 - an obstacle that is only vaguely known, "They have to have some sort of system in place to control what the access system is, but I don't know what it is."</li>
<li>1d12 - There's something unplanned that is going to happen. It is going to suck.</li>
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Once the mission succeeds - during the civilian downtime you get to work on your character, healing wounds, learning to skills, recovering your spirit. Mechanically, these involve dice rolls of the PC vs the GM.</div>
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The GM's dice pool is generated from the following:</div>
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<li>Stress: d4 + Stress Eliminated </li>
<li>Asset: d6+Asset Created/Modified</li>
<li>Skill: d8+New Skill Rating</li>
<li>Distinction: d10+New Distinction Rating</li>
<li>Attributes: d12 + New Attribute Rating</li>
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The Player rolls a dice pool equal to the existing rating, or related skill and a number of dice from the payoff - note there is only one payoff pool for the party, so any dice spent are spent entirely. </div>
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Advantages: The players will be in a better place to set the stakes of the challenges they'll face, and be in a position to screw themselves over. </div>
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Disadvantages: Very easy to generate stress during a mission, could pose some some challenges if the characters aren't significantly advanced. </div>
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I know I personally hate playing the character that will eventually someday if the game progresses far enough will be the character that I want them to be. So maybe a game where it is very much a case of "design the character who you want to play at the start of the story, and we will see where things go from there." Maybe something to work when generating the characters - Marvel Heroic had the problem of not having enough structure to hang character creation off of for a great number of people, "design the character that feels right to you and your table and here are some guidelines" apparently wasn't enough for a number of people.</div>
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Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-90637895281965414612014-10-15T19:37:00.004-04:002014-10-15T19:39:01.306-04:00When Will My Daughter Receive Her First Rape Or Death Threat?My wife says before she's a teen, I fear she's right. Even if I keep her off social media, someone might find a way to threaten her because of something I've said. There's enough of that going on.<br />
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And while the catalyst for my thoughts is GamersGate, this isn't about the primary first causes of debacle, per se.<br />
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Instead, it is about the ugly side, the trolling, doxxing (posting personal information, such as address/location), death and rape threats that seem to be present any time a woman posts anything that is remotely controversial.<br />
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In the past, I've passively supported some horrible people who have done some horrible things by not speaking out clearly enough. By not calling them on their shit. And that is done, I regret, on some level, it took looking at my daughter to motivate to change my stance, but so be it. So if you are a troll, whether for the lulz or great justice, I'm done with you in my social circles.<br />
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If you support the people who do these sorts of things, expect me to call you out, I'll do it privately because no one reacts well to being publicly called out.<br />
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If you associate with various forums online that generally promote/generate/originate these behaviors, I'm going to be wary of you.<br />
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The only way to eliminate activities is to make it socially unacceptable to engage in them.<br />
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That is my goal - to make this behavior online as socially unacceptable as casual racism - I don't believe I can stamp it out, but I can eliminate it from my social circles. And that will have to be enough.<br />
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I need to apologize for my part in assisting in that culture - and it is thanks to a post by <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/10/trolls-will-always-win/" target="_blank">Kathy Sierra</a> who was apparently a target of Weev's tender ministrations. Yes, that Weev. Internet folk hero for his time in jail, and general internet asshole. I knew him before he was an internet darling, he went to the same college I once attended, and we were at the same gatherings. I socialized with him, not closely, but enough I knew what he was like online.<br />
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"Eh, he's just an asshole online," I used that to shrug off comments, plus I wasn't close to him.<br />
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And that enabled him to some degree. No, there's nothing I could have done to restrict him or stop him. My friends speak admirably of him in someways, but always with the caveats "well he is an asshole and a troll online." And you know what? While I am content that justice was done in case, in my opinion, but I'm done lauding him in whatever small fashion I did. No more posting articles where he shows up. No more commenting on other people doing the same. This may be a bit of closing the barn door after all the animals have fled, but it is what I can do at this time.<br />
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If someone is an asshole and troll online? They are an asshole and jerk. The extra caveats aren't needed. We spend enough of our time interacting online that there should be no difference in our expectations of our behaviors online and on the street.<br />
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Some of this is fighting rape culture. Some of this is fighting the culture of online anonymity. No, this won't come easily, it won't come quickly. <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/05/fighting-online-harassment/" target="_blank">But it can be done</a>. It will take a lot of effort. It will take community action.<br />
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So this is my start. Keep me honest.<br />
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<br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-30097060325130074912014-08-04T13:06:00.000-04:002014-08-04T13:06:39.603-04:00Zeppelin Attack! ReviewI actually had a <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evilhat/zeppelin-attack" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a> arrive on time, so I got to play <a href="http://www.evilhat.com/home/zeppelin-attack/" target="_blank">Zeppelin Attack!</a> over the weekend<br />
<br />
We had a lot of fun, and aren't sure whether the few snags we hit were intentional or whether we just had poor strategies. Reactions around the table went from "When can we buy this?" to "I probably won't ask to play it, but I will happily play it again." So I will call this a win for my need to pick up more games that are lighter in mental load than what I generally enjoy playing.<br />
<br />
My wife and I played with another couple, and all of us are regular board gamers, and we get together regularly to play games - everything from Firefly to a bunch of smaller games. Being the new game in the house, I explained the rules (as best I understood) and we were off.<br />
<br />
The first few rounds were frustrating - none of us could reliably attack (<em>Snag #1</em>), and the mercenaries for purchase were relatively expensive - I think the cheapest was a 7 or 8 (<em>Snag #2</em>). This meant that we had several rounds of desperately trying to find the two Fate Point cards that would allow us to buy stuff (<em>Snag #3</em>).<br />
<br />
As noted, there were a few snags, and whether these are issues baked into the design or just us playing the game for the first time, I'm unsure - we'll be playing again, so I'm sure we'll figure it out.<br />
<br />
Snag #1: None of us could reliably attack. I went into the game expecting to land hits reliably, and discovered that it was going to be rare for me to do so. It seemed like unless we ganged up on one player, there were enough spread defense to ensure that attacks just didn't land often. Or we just had bad luck in picking who to attack. <br />
<br />
Snag #2 and 3: Probably could be the same snag - we start off with one 3-point and one 4-point Fate card, the currency that allows us to buy cards. Unfortunately, unless you manage to pull them both together, you'll have one sitting in your hand taking up space while you wait for another card - and the two operative cards that allow you to generate more cards were relatively slow to fill.<br />
<br />
I think this is where our inexperience with the system bit us - even if you want to play a more aggressive deck, you need to buy a fair number of operative cards to generate sufficient Fate points to purchase - and being as the Fate cards range 2-5 points, and the cards generally run 4 (rare) to 6-8 (normal) to as much as 9 or 10 (rare). So you need to have a good engine for obtaining those cards. <br />
<br />
Like you do in any deck building game - it is just that the variance obtaining the points is a bit higher in Zeppelin Attack!<br />
<br />
My only other critique of the game is the rule book - it is generally fine; however, the back page is an ad, while the "Summary of turns" is inside the front cover - this meant that at the table I had to constantly open the book to reference the book. Big deal in the end? Nope. Annoying? Yup. I'll probably be printing out, or modifying the summary page from the online book for this purpose.<br />
<br />
While the game ran long, everyone had fun. My wife wasn't having as much fun, and then she had a single turn where her massive 4-zeppelin armada wrecked destruction across the table and her sounds of delight could only be heard by bats and other small animals.Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-62455693286394458882014-06-29T21:12:00.001-04:002014-06-29T21:12:18.274-04:00Reactions to Firefly the RPGI ran Firefly today for the first time and had a blast - I just ran a one shot from the Echoes of War series (Bucking The Tiger) - and despite none of us knowing the rules, and me being the only one who had read the rules, everything went smoothly. We modified some of the archetypes (we had a Law Dog, Former Companion, Natural Reader, Dishonored Politician, and a mechanic/doctor "parts is parts, fluids are fluids,") and played through the adventure is about four and a half hours.<br />
<br />
Mechanically, the system did everything I wanted the system to do. Generating the dice pools went fairly smoothly; though using the distinctions was a bit rough for the first hour or two, and didn't smooth down right away - the various abilities that the distinctions gave were used frequently, remembering that those distinctions also could give you a d8/d4 to your pool didn't go so well.<br />
<br />
Complications flowed like water on both sides of the "screen", and in time I think we'd all become far more comfortable creating and using them. I probably thought of something interesting to do for 75% of them, and we still had them flowing back and forth.<br />
<br />
Asset creation wasn't really touched - not sure if it wasn't understood as well, or if with how the players were rolling, they were just rolling hot. The doctor definitely kept trying to create advantages with stimulants and sedatives that I needed a better grasp of the rules to take advantage of.<br />
<br />
When I think about what I loved so much about the game, I keep coming back to the flow of the game, there were points that things did stutter - basically anything that had to roll against the group, I want to take a look at the rules and see if I "should" have done a single base roll and then let everyone roll against it; or whether just going around in order was what I needed to do; but I have yet to see a game that handles that perfectly.<br />
<br />
And everyone at the table had their share of failures, but even with those failures no one got discouraged - the complication mechanic - receiving a reward when your dice hate you took the sting out of "I wanted to do this action, but I failed miserably," as it became, "I wanted to do this action, I failed miserably, but I got a plot point for it AND this nifty complication."<br />
<br />
The system favors short quick engagements, whether it was a knife fight or a game of cards - I think I at most had two or three rounds of going around the table and getting actions; otherwise, everything moved smoothly and quickly getting back to the players making more interesting choices and causing more problems.<br />
<br />
Having sung the praises of the system, the adventure itself was amazingly well written. Being a one shot, I skipped how to integrate into the original series as well as any need to tie the triggering NPC's history too closely with the players - they were good sports and rolled with "yes you know her and she was a nice person." Each of the five acts were well written and for me, sufficient information to run the scene, and while not requiring a certain outcome, the adventure covered all the traditional bases of solution sets, so that even if my players pulled something out of left field, I felt I had enough structure to know how things would work given those actions.<br />
<br />
There was at no point I felt like the plot had to ramrodded down the players' throats, each step felt fairly natural from the step before, and I did keep it fairly linear in nature because it was a one-shot, we did have a time limit, and I didn't have a lot of external hooks to tie things to; whereas I could see a game definitely spacing it out to where the adventure plots would have taken 2 sessions to complete from just all the subplots abounding.<br />
<br />
In conclusion, I'm thrilled with my purchase. I always thought that I would enjoy how the Cortex Plus system would play, and this game said "Yes, this was the game I want to run." Now to just fold time and space to create the necessary time in my schedule so I can do it all.<br />
<br />
<br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-32949241721978176342014-05-14T14:04:00.000-04:002014-05-14T14:08:49.775-04:00Why I Game Versus Doing Anything ElseSo Kjatar on Twitter asked "Why DO you guys game? What is it you look for that makes a game memorable?" And I realized that there are three primary reasons why I game: Iconic moments, wish/power fulfillment fantasies, and hard choices.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Iconic Moments</h3>
Iconic moments are those moments in the game that just stand out months or years later. They are the ones that we tells stories about. Frequently, they are when things went wrong for the PCs and yet they pulled out a victory, and other times they are just high drama. But these moments are what I crave, I'm not huge on slice of life gaming, I want to be out interacting actively in the world.<br />
<br />
My favorite moment is from my Exalted game, where one of the players set up a long game over several months, and until the last moment I wasn't sure whether his character was going to betray the party for his former incarnation's now-undead lover plans of world domination. He sold it so well, because apparently the player didn't know whether he was going to betray the party or not until his character couldn't convince the BBEG (Big Bad Evil Gal) to give up her vengeance and run away together.<br />
<br />
And it was just beautifully sold, with the dramatic stabbing through the back in front of the rest of the party who had arrived to confront them, in what would probably have been a doomed attempt. The collective silence was amazing to behold.<br />
<br />
There were a few moments like that as well in my Adventure! game, generally involving the same player, which probably means I should invite him more often.<br />
<br />
<div>
Iconic moments can't be created intentionally, but I believe the circumstances can be set-up so that they are more often, the players have to have agency, they have to be allowed to try things. Limiting their options, limits their sense of agency and how badass and dramatic they are feeling. Yes, there's something to be said for accomplishing over adversity, but if every victory feels by the skin of their teeth, you get a different game where seeing the sun rise is the victory.<br />
</div>
<h3>
Power & Wish Fulfillment</h3>
I've said it before, I'm a systems guy. I like playing with the toys within a gaming system, and generally those "toys" are the cool gadgets and gewgaws that the game gives the players. I want to feel powerful and competent, not goofy and barely functional in the world.<br />
<br />
And some of this is shallow. Plots plots that leave me stripped of my abilities, or don't give me shiny new toys, well, eventually leave me with a "grass is greener". I occasionally wonder if this is a result of playing something close to "Zero to Hero" even in point buy games, I'd love to play a thought experiment of "Create the character you want to play" with no real guidelines on "balancing". No clue how that would affect my play style because so far I've generally only seen a single game that really allows for it, and that was Cortex Plus Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. I occasionally get tired of not playing the character that I want to play, but the character that might grow into the character I want to play.<br />
<br />
Perhaps a touch shallow and not proper form for someone who loves telling the story, perhaps, but hey, I didn't ever say I was all about the story.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Hard Choices</h3>
I love the idea of having decisions to make - whether or not it is between two good things or two bad things. I love exploring what these ideas say about the characters we are playing at the table. I see that there are 3 general choices:<br />
<ol>
<li>Good vs. Good - Good vs. Good is all about opportunity costs. You can't have both good things, so which one does your character (and you in that role) feel is the best good. A great way to cause drama and decisions that don't leave the table hating the GM.</li>
<li>Good vs. Bad - This set is generally harder to make interesting. Generally, it has to take the flavor of "Good For Others and Bad For Me" vs. "Bad for Others and Good for Me"; otherwise, the decision isn't hard to make. And even then, most players will optimize for the "Good for others", because I feel choosing the latter will get them unduly punished for selfishness.</li>
<li>Bad vs. Bad - The classic "Do you rescue your girlfriend or the school bus full of children?" And this choice is the easiest to create in the game, but over done it creates the greatest irritation because it is such an obvious heartstring ploy. </li>
</ol>
<br />
<h3>
Secondary Reasons</h3>
In the same conversation, a friend raised two more points - being with friends, and having a good time.<br />
<br />
For me, being with friends is secondary only because there are so many other ways that I can have fun and be with friends. Gaming with friends is definitely an enhancement for my gaming, and can generally make up for the some of the major reasons why I game not happening. However, ultimately, gaming is an easily substituted activity for being with friends - I can have dinner, gatherings, board gaming, play cards, bowl, shared chores/work, and have a great time with them.<br />
<br />
As far as having a good time, this is a catch-all - that sort of falls into the other categories. There are so many different ways that I can have a good time, and that hitting my big three are why I have a good time with gaming. Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-42089758906939303622013-11-23T16:37:00.000-05:002013-11-23T16:48:59.348-05:0013th Age: Conclusion of the Case of the Missing Grimoires<b>Session 2, Mission 1: Case of the Missing Grimoires</b><br />
<br />
When last we left our heroes, they had more suspects than they had facts on the ground, and they were going nowhere fast. Aurora had an in with Sarvag, seeing every book he chose, and what sections he needed copied down for his notes. Mairenne and Antis were getting along swimmingly. Annel and and Mercillina had decent successes connecting with their targets of inquiry, but nothing too insightful had come forth. Let alone the possibility of it being the cleaning staff.<br />
<br />
The next day arrived and various groups met up. Aurora and Merci were the first of the PCs to arrive, while Sarvag was waiting till dawn's light touched the door, that being the signal that they were open for business. Everyone else rolled in slowly through the morning. Nadezhda started to make friends with Sarvag's soldier's who had set themselves up in the tavern across the way from the library.<br />
<br />
Little directly occurred in the morning; however, Sarvag, Crito and Kinarao Epukena all managed to present compelling letters to force Antis to open the vault (i.e., they had sufficiently powerful patrons where it would be unwise to anger) - where the most sensitive of histories and stories, as well as the most powerful of grimoires.<br />
<br />
You know, the type that were stolen and recovered well on their way to the Diabolist? Yeah those.<br />
<br />
Antis, realizing that he had been outmaneuvered, agreed to open up the vault to all. However, as it would take time to unlock the ensorcelled locks and restrictions on the vault, it would be this afternoon. Antis draws Mairenne aside and asks her for a favor - could she ensure that her vouched for persons (i.e., the party) annoy and disrupt the studying of the other three individuals.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, soldiers are soldiers, and Nadezhda quickly ingrates herself with them. What can we say? Even the Crusader's troops like to bitch and moan. They are here on a detached detail because there are various regulations that state that commanders are not allowed to travel alone. Apparently, all of these rules are in the little black books that every Crusader's soldier carries with them and is expected to have memorized and be able to recite at all times.<br />
<br />
Mairrenne spreads the word to the rest of the cadre, and Nadezhda convinces a local stray cat to act as a look out in case action is required on her part on the large meat shield.<br />
<br />
Once the vault is opened, sigils pulsing through the green and gold spectrum, the true research for Sarvag, Kinarao and Crito begins. Sarvag and Kinarao make a beeline for the grimoires of summoning, and thus banishing, the demons; while Crito heads to the histories. The Cadre sits and watches while making pretenses to be loud, annoying, and intrusive.<br />
<br />
The afternoon passes, and Annel sees Crito, the young priest of the Gods of Light attempt to hide a book on his person. She forthrightly confronts him, and he panics, driving a knee into her abdomen knocking her to ground gasping for breath and he begins to make a break for the exit.<br />
<br />
And it is here that I ask for a initiative roll as the Cadre starts unleashing hell upon the poor priest. Aurora zaps him with a massive lightning bolt, and Merci hits him with blast of sound and with the two blast combined, they send books, pages, and paper everywhere, some a bit toasty with the side effects of throwing lightning in a library.<br />
<br />
Wielding primal forces of the universe is like that.<br />
<br />
Crito, deafened and staggered, continues his mad chase; the party, barring Aurora, pursues at a high rate. She suspects that Crito is a distraction and stays behind to watch Sarvag and Kinarao.<br />
<br />
Outside Nadezhda gets involved; while the Crusader's forces in 'hostile' territory and not sure what's going on, are content to watch from the sidelines. Crito is hammered by a holy blast from Mairenne, and Nadezhda finishing him with a massive swing of her axe, though turning it to Crito with the flat of his blade. The poor priest flies about 10' landing in a crumple of flesh on the ground in front of a man dressed in dark leathers, flanked by a massive hulk of a man as well as several other thugs in the crowd.<br />
<br />
"Well, I guess I didn't need to come looking for him after all," says Marcus, taking the book from Crito's satchel.<br />
<br />
And the cadre, minus Aurora who is still inside, takes the fight to Marcus. And it is a bloodbath, but mostly on the thieves' side as party members drop as not only does Marcus' crew have thugs, they also have archers.<br />
<br />
Combined forces? So not fair. Speaking of not fair, let's return inside where Aurora is alone with Sarvag and Kinarao and all the rare and powerful books. Nothing could go wrong, right?<br />
<br />
Exactly. Aurora quickly notices that Kinarao is pocketing grimoires and challenges her, praying to the gods that Sarvag isn't in on it with her. There's a brief exchange, and Kinarao calls out "Uzbek, come to my side" and dark flames erupt around her as a demon begins to emerge from another world.<br />
<br />
This is so not a good time to be outnumbered and outgunned.<br />
<br />
Switching back to the to street fight, Marcus does eventually fall, and the big lunk is on his last legs, but the party is gravely injured (Merci had to make death saves) and the archers are by and large untouched and with better positioning, so it doesn't look good for the home team.<br />
<br />
So I, in my benevolence, offer the players a choice, we can continue the double battles, or they can accept a campaign loss to be left alive, but the bad guys get away to fight another day. The players, after a short deliberation accept the loss....<br />
<br />
And Sarvag, a massive sword materializing out of one arm and shield from the other arm, charges in, sending Aurora flying out of the way to impact with the wall and lose consciousness as the demon, summoner and forgeborn do battle.<br />
<br />
Outside, the lunk grabs Marcus and the book and make a fighting retreat down the street, and plunk a few arrows into Crito to ensure that his story is never told.<br />
<br />
The cadre recombines and it has been a war zone - the vault is scorched and damages, the smell of sulfur and brimstone are heavy and rank in the air. The city's militia arrive and begin to assess damage, and Mairenne begins to try and find a story that is something close to the truth, but keeps the party's unacknowledged status of Sigil Bearers intact for a bit longer.<br />
<br />
Because as Sigil Bearers, they can just materialize the sigil and all this goes away for the good of the empire. Antis, understanding what happened pulled the young captain to the side and explained the facts of life to him, utilizing his long history and experience with the city to great advantage. (Hey, Mairrenne's schmoozing had to pay off....)<br />
<br />
The case was closed, the noblewoman demon summoner escaped, the thieves got the book of demonic history for whatever purpose they wanted it for, and now the cadre has to write an after action report to explain this all to Vasorious Sicam.<br />
<br />
Good ole Uncle Vaz.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
The session went fairly well except for two things - the PCs split the party AND kicked off the two toughest planned encounters simultaneously. The two fights - between the thugs and the PCs and the summoner and the PCs were both designed to be Level +1 or Level +2 fights, because as a rule I run fewer fights and make them more critical and tougher. The loss of the sorceress's artillery really hampered the PCs, because it turned the archers into a massive force multiplier because while they were mooks, they were mooks who weren't being effectively attacked.<br />
<br />
And I think with this fight I'm done with rolling for initiative unless it adds something to the game, I think I'll be switching to "popcorn initiative" as used in other systems, where whoever just went picks the next character to go (NPC or PC) and the round ends once everyone has a turn.Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-50241455660846056032013-11-07T21:06:00.001-05:002013-11-23T15:51:33.912-05:00Inaugural Mission: Case of the Missing GrimoiresOur first session was last Friday - and I'm going to try and be good to write a short summary of each game here and on the wiki just as a system of record.<br />
<br />
<b>Session 1, Mission 1: Case of the Missing Grimoires</b><br />
<br />
Our session opens in Santa Cora, the city of churches. The newly minted cadre of <a href="https://emperorssigil.obsidianportal.com/wikis/sigil-bearers" target="_blank">Sigil Bearers</a> have finished their orientation training (that involved infiltrating the restricted area of the Elf Queen's palace, numerous bar brawls, some of which had their origins in fights over the origin myths of the world, stopping thieves who were too foolish to keep their voices down, and numerous other hijinks and shenanigans). They have been set up in various cover jobs - well Mairenne, the High Elf Cleric is back to her old job as curator of the Cathedral's archives, Annel, Elven Paladin is there as a researcher, but the rest have been set up in roles that suit them - Aurora, half-elven sorceress as bar wrench, Mercillina, the <a href="https://emperorssigil.obsidianportal.com/wikis/races" target="_blank">Trueblooded</a> human bar as the inn's resident bard, and Nadezhda, the Dragonspawn Warrior, is the inn's biggest stable boy.<br />
<br />
No one fucks with the horses anymore.<br />
<br />
No one.<br />
<br />
It isn't long before they receive their first summons, and make their way to the safehouse that has been established for them. There they wait in an inner room with no windows and only a single obvious door until Vasorious Sicam makes his appearance - the acknowledged leader of the Sigil Bearers, he has the Emperor's ear. He's a severe, stern, rigid man with the weight<br />
<br />
And Aurora knows him as Uncle Vaz.<br />
<br />
The mission is simple infiltrate a location and eliminate a thief. The Empire found a merchant smuggling tomes to the Diabolist, and it was obviously not the first set of tomes that the bitch in the north had received. The tomes were all related to Demons, and some of the most sensitive of the tomes contain actual rituals for summon specific demons.<br />
<br />
With some preliminary legwork, they were able to trace access to the tomes to four individuals:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Antis Dias - High Elf Head Librarian - With his access he'd have no problem pilfering.</li>
<li>Crito Valunus - a young human priest</li>
<li>Sarvag Steelheart - A Forgeborn soldier of the Crusader.</li>
<li>Kinarao Epukena - Highblooded Human who's family is a minor nobility in the northern regions of the Empire.</li>
</ol>
<div>
With that Vasorious disappeared as quickly as he appeared, with nary a sound nor shadow flickering. Plumbing the depths of her memory, Mairenne recalls that Antis had, once upon a time, an issue with the rar purple Ryllae blossom, an Elven drug - which got him into a bad place, taking bribes to sell books. But he cleaned himself up, and the Priestess forgave him and gave him a second chance.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The cadre quickly divided up the targets - Mairenne would go in her official capacity, and focus on Antis, while getting the others the necessary credentials and access privileges (what happens when you game with a bunch of gov't contractors, it is ALL about the indoctrination briefings) Nijadja will be working oversight outside of the library, mostly because there's little for a 6'+ Dragonspawn who has little interest in studies. Annel will pursue Crito, Merci will speak to Sarvag, soldier to soldier, and that leaves Aurora with Kinarao.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The group quickly and easily infiltrates the library. And pursues their targets. Contact is easily made - Antis seems happy to have company, albeit a bit beleaguered with the larger than normal crowd; Crito is obviously stressed about something, Sarvag is very angry about not being allowed to take books out of the library and nearly knocks over a shelf (apparently nearly knocks over a shelf again) and Kinarao is mysterious and coy about her reasons for researching the demons.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Yup, all suspicious.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Time passes somewhat uneventfully, Nija explores the outside with the help of small critters. And takes note of the heavily armed soldiers of the Crusader occupying a restaurant within eye shot of the front doors of the library.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There's one small crisis point where Sarvag rants at Antis again, and Merci offers up Aurora's use as a scribe for 11 shillings a day. A bargain is struck, and Aurora is somewhat intimidated by <a href="http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/263/8/e/alphonse_elric__fullmetal_alchemist__by_allanslc-d5feel7.jpg" target="_blank">7' of hulking metal with a soul but no face</a>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Merci quickly moves to establish the friendship with Kinarao, who is definitely eager to get into the most restricted area of the vault where the grimoires of true power lay.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Crito hearing the clock ring out races out of the library and Nija pursues him; however, she eventually loses him in an alleyway.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
At the same time, the cleaning staff comes in as dusk falls and the library begins to close. One of the cleaning staff is a halfling who stumbles and knocks over the pile of books that Aurora has been carefully taking notes from, knocking lose Sarvag's book marks and ruining her work.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sarvag is very much. Not pleased. Not pleased at all. Ulan, the halfing janitor quickly learns that being small and quick is little help when you are in the monster's grip and several feet off the ground. After a brief confrontation with Antis, Ulan is hurled into the ground by Sarvag who takes one look at Aurora's work, tosses her a silver and commands her to attend at dawn the next day. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ulan picks himself up as Antis berates him soundly for his clumsiness. The party is almost instantaneously suspicious of Ulan and whether he is a plant for Sarvag or another player in this little game.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The session draws to a close with the group meeting back up to work over the first day of case notes.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>GM Notes:</b> For a first session things moved quickly. People eventually fell into their roles and seemed to have a lot of fun with what went on. Game sessions are only about 2-2.5 hours long, so they'll be short and hopefully information dense - I expect several chickens to come home to roost quickly next session.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
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<br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-58760461196662465942013-10-13T20:48:00.000-04:002013-10-13T21:01:44.442-04:0013th Age: Character Creation and Initial ThoughtsI am GMing again, and yesterday evening was character creation for 13th Age. I'm excited about the potential, and I'm thrilled that my players, as they look at the system and the world are getting excited as well.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It is going to be an interesting game - variety of skill and "intensity" levels at the table, but I billed it as a "beer and pretzels" level of gaming for a reason - I just want to sit down, have some fun, and roll some dice and engage in hijinks. Not to say that I'm not going to interject drama and the occasional hard decision - but I'm trying something different than my usual style. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It was fun watching one of the players go through the book, laughing at the personal moments in the book, "At the GM’s option, the drama requirement can be waived if
the table joins in a group hug," or, much as I did realizing, "I believe you've picked a perfect game for the way you run,
and this group."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My wife is working through the setting material and loved the bit about the Koru Behemeth migration pattern and how it trails across the entire map and then some.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Right now the character list stands at the following:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Aurora, a half-elf born of human parents (it can happen on occasion), who is a Sorceress without any heritage that anyone can determine.</li>
<li>Mairenne, a High Elf cleric, who bears a tear of her goddess around her neck as her symbol to fight against the injustices of the world.</li>
<li>Mercillina, a Trueblooded Human (cause why should Elves be the only one to get fancy bloodlines) Bard, who has stood and looked across the demon-wracked Red Wastes and warded humanity against the inhabitants.</li>
<li>A Dragonspawned fighter who can speak to the animals as if they were people and has learned in her years that the animals are far kinder and more reasonable than people.</li>
<li>A Wood Elf Paladin/Courtier/Scholar who fights the good fight.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
As a GM, I am loving how easy the system is to adapt and change. I've created a new talent for the Sorceress as she was struggling to find ones that worked for how she envisioned the character. I created races that give some different flavor to the past age.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Heck, I'm tempted to write up a psionic class, just to see if I can as I was inspired responding to <a href="https://plus.google.com/109722840612149651401/posts/GdFdQTptcmz" target="_blank">something on Google+</a> about how psionics is different than sorcery, wizardry, or divine magic.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I am using Obsidian Portal again to host the <a href="http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/emperorssigil" target="_blank">game information</a>, and the world is slowly being fleshed out.</div>
Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-58278336785950354642013-05-30T07:00:00.000-04:002013-05-30T07:00:11.517-04:00Cultures In Review: Goblins, Hobgoblins, and OgresHandling classically "evil" races that have generally existed to be slaughtered by valiant PCs is always difficult. However, as I'm trying to make them viable PC races and cultures, which means that they can't just be classically evil and malevolent marauding bands of miscreants (yes, occasionally I write simply to amuse myself).<br />
<br />
However, I do want them to fulfill their more traditional roles, which leaves me with having them been cast-out, exiled, and without a homeland, they are functionally refugees, filling in the gaps of other nations, living in ghettos and their own small clusters.<br />
<br />
The fallen of Krenn wandering the Empire and surrounding nations, some looking to find a new homeland, others looking to just survive. While they all share similar personality traits being of the same culture, they are expressed differently.<br />
<br />
<b>Hobgoblins</b><br />
<br />
<b>Behaviors</b> (5)<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Every year we remember what we have lost with those closest to us, Krenn and non-Krenn alike.</li>
<li>We celebrate the victories that our people have wrought in these dark times.</li>
<li>All debts and charities shall be remembered and repaid in kind.</li>
<li>We are the Chosen to leads the Kren into the brighter future.</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Archetypes </b>(3)</div>
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Mercenary Captain</li>
<li>Destitute entrepreneur</li>
<li>Political Mover and Shaker</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Johari Traits</b> (10)<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Able</li>
<li>Assertive</li>
<li>Clever</li>
<li>Energetic</li>
<li>Observant</li>
<li>Organized</li>
<li>Proud</li>
<li>Sensible</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Goblins</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<b>Behaviors</b> (5)<br />
<div>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Every year we remember what we have lost with those closest to us, Krenn and non-Krenn alike.</li>
<li>We celebrate the victories that our people have wrought in these dark times.</li>
<li>A Pyrrhic victory is no victory at all, survival of the Krenn is the only true moral truth.</li>
<li>We must live in the world that is, not what could be, or what was.</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Archetypes </b>(3)</div>
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Shadowstalker</li>
<li>Priest of the Old Gods</li>
<li>Craven Lickspittle </li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Johari Traits</b> (10)<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Accepting</li>
<li>Adaptable</li>
<li>Clever</li>
<li>Observant</li>
<li>Patient</li>
<li>Quiet</li>
<li>Searching</li>
<li>Sensible</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
</div>
<br />
<div>
<b>Ogres</b></div>
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Behaviors</b> (5)<br />
<div>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Every year we remember what we have lost with those closest to us, Krenn and non-Krenn alike.</li>
<li>We celebrate the victories that our people have wrought in these dark times.</li>
<li>If we sacrifice what we were, what will we become?</li>
<li>Not confronting problems allows them to fester, and infect the community.</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Archetypes </b>(3)</div>
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Linebreaker</li>
<li>Neighborhood Mother</li>
<li>Mason</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Johari Traits</b> (10)<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Bold</li>
<li>Clever</li>
<li>Dependable</li>
<li>Energetic</li>
<li>Giving</li>
<li>Patient</li>
<li>Powerful</li>
<li>Sensible</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
<div>
Okay this I think is a workable solution for the goblin races of the Krenn. I'll probably sketch out history later at some point, but really, the point of this is for my players to go "Ooo, I want to play this, what do I need to do?" and not hand them 10 pages of notes regarding the history and interactions.</div>
</div>
Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-75134170636327791592013-05-29T07:00:00.000-04:002013-05-29T07:00:13.427-04:00Cultures in Review: ElvesWhere once there were three distinct races of elves, only one remains a viable population today, that's not to say there may not be a remote pocket of High Elves or Dark Elves, only the Wood Elves remain a viable force in the Eastern Nations, and even there, they are diffused over a wide territory and prone to infighting.<br />
<br />
The Osani as they call themselves are a conglomerate of several different tribes of Wood Elves loosely bound together by family ties and agreements. There are five distinct major tribes of Wood Elves: Ashur, Hanisi, Kiya, Missun, and the Zan<br />
<br />
The Osani, or Wood Elves,<br />
<br />
<b>Behaviors</b> (5)<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Are honest to fault, preferring a direct conflict to deferential politeness.</li>
<li>Honor the gods openly in public, and adorn with jewelry in their honor.</li>
<li>Warriors earn their place only after leaving the tribes for a year and a day and returning to the tribe.</li>
<li>"Me against my brother, me and my brother against my cousins, me and my cousins against the enemy."</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Archetypes (3)</b></div>
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The Unnamed</li>
<li>Hedonistic Shaman</li>
<li>Thief of the Flames</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Johari Traits (10)</b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Athletic</li>
<li>Extroverted</li>
<li>Confident</li>
<li>Loving</li>
<li>Religious</li>
<li>Spiritual</li>
<li>Idealistic</li>
<li>Complex</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
</div>
Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-67405772901012526162013-05-28T11:38:00.000-04:002013-05-28T11:38:37.379-04:00Culture in Review: DwarvesThere are two distinct cultural grouping of dwarves current in existence. For sake of analysis we will call them "Northern" and "Southern" dwarves. The northern dwarven kingdom, Thale, has been assimilated by the Empire approximately 100 years ago, so the stories of what was still ring strong. The southern dwarven kingdom, Garne, stands free, but eyes the Empire of Dragons warily.<br />
<br />
I've set up the following using Quinn's <a href="http://www.thoughtcrimegames.net/gameable-cultur/" target="_blank">gameable culture</a> idea, doing about 80% of the outlining, while leaving some space for the players, when I finally do run this game, to add flavor of their own to the cultures.<br />
<br />
<b>Thaleans</b>, or the northern dwarves:<br />
<br />
<b>Behaviors</b> (5)<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Maintain the Old Ways in the face of a changing world.</li>
<li>Understand that personal relationships and favors are how the world truly works, no matter what the laws say on paper.</li>
<li>Act in ways to maintain the dignity of the clan.</li>
<li>Honor those who came before and lifted us to where we are today and lift those who follow us.</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Archetypes</b> (3)<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Soldier of the Line</li>
<li>Apprentice Ritualist</li>
<li>Traveling Merchant</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Johari Traits </b>(10)<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Spiritual</li>
<li>Dignified</li>
<li>Persistent</li>
<li>Humble</li>
<li>Helpful</li>
<li>Insightful</li>
<li>Caring</li>
<li>Clever</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Garnessians</b>, or the southern dwarves,</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Behaviors</b> (5)</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Set aside personal need in order to follow the law.</li>
<li>Know that how an object looks is of equal weight to how it performs.</li>
<li>Prepare for the unexpected, else to invite misfortune into one's home.</li>
<li>Worship the gods on their day, but no other.</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b>Archetypes</b> (3)</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Noble Guardian</li>
<li>Manipulative Courtier</li>
<li>Failed Craftsman</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b>Johari Traits</b> (10)</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Adaptable</li>
<li>Able</li>
<li>Energetic</li>
<li>Observant</li>
<li>Sensible</li>
<li>Precise</li>
<li>Assertive</li>
<li>Proud</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
<li>[Player Chosen]</li>
</ul>
</div>
Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-89837649298721752612013-05-22T12:59:00.001-04:002013-05-22T12:59:46.278-04:00I hate naming things.So I suck at naming places, people, things. Absolutely horrible at it. Linguistics was never my strong point, and while <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomastics" target="_blank">onomastics</a> was always a good way to write a quick five or ten page paper in undergrad, I think it may have broken my ability to come up with syllables that sound "acceptable" to each other.<br />
<br />
So I'm never sure what to do - I can go with nearly purely descriptors for names, and keep everything fairly fairly straight forward, or if I want alien, I can open up a translator with a particular language and start translating terms until I find one I like. As long as I avoid common languages, I will probably be okay with anyone at my table saying, "Um, that's totally the wrong variant/intent behind that word," because my only defense is "It may be, but it is the one that I can pronounce the easiest!"<br />
<br />
So folks who name characters, places, things something other than good English names, how do you go about doing it?Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-18082898778091040752013-05-21T13:39:00.000-04:002013-05-21T13:39:15.046-04:00What Creatures Populate the WorldWhat sentient beings populate the world? One of the joys of fantasy is the ability to pretend you are a pointy haired being who dances with trees; a stout dour earth worker, or any number of other possibilities.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
One of the curses is that all the nations feel about the same - there's one elf nation, one dwarf nation, etc., - humans of course have a multitude of nations. As I said before, I'm going to try and limit the variety of the "monsters" in play, however, I'm also going to try and widen what's a permitted "player race" - 13th Age makes this easy by limiting what benefits races get inherent to the game. I may widen and tweak that as appropriate as the game continues onward.</div>
<div>
<a name='more'></a><br /></div>
<div>
<b>Old World Races</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Generally all the races are fairly similar - +2 to an attribute, and then a racial power that can happen once per battle.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Humans</b> - +2 any attribute; starts with two feats; <i>Quick to Fight</i> Roll initiative twice, choose either.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I like have the flexible humans, especially with the idea that they are quick, violent, and adaptable.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Dwarves </b>- +2 Con OR Wis; <i>Is That Your Best Shot? </i>Use a Recovery to heal as a free action after getting hit</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'm actually on the fence, for as much as I love the idea of dwarves in my world, I'm having trouble finding a place for them to fit in. But that's why this is a draft and not a final decision. I want them to serve as an older, more methodical viewpoint.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Elves</b> - +2 Dex OR +2 Wis; <i>Elven Grace</i> Possibility of extra standard actions. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Elves I can find an easier spot to fit them into the world, probably because the only ones I want to use from the core rules are the Wood Elves, I want to throw an almost Dark Sun like feel to them, turning them into wild hunters in tune with deeper harmonies of how the world works.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Goblins</b> - +2 Dex OR +2 Cha; <i>Tricksy</i> Daze on a 16+ attack roll.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Goblins are smaller creatures, cousins to the hobgoblins, but they are plentiful, skulking creatures who hunt, scout, and are somewhat looser organized than Hobgoblins.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Hobgoblins</b> - +2 Str OR +2 Cha; <i>Battleline</i> When a nearby ally rolls a 16+, the die roll becomes a natural 20</div>
<div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
Hobgoblins are brutal warriors, who have organized together and work efficiently in groups. They are big, burly warriors. They are the ones where every army wants to hire them, and few want to face them.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Ogres</b> - +2 Str OR +2 Con; <i>Destructive </i>Reroll a damage roll, and take the better roll.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ogres are large burly machines of destruction, perhaps not the most brilliant tacticians, but simple destruction has its place. They frequently serve as linebreakers or as the center of a line that must hold.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Steelborn</b> - +2 Strength OR +2 Con; <i>Never Say Die</i> When dropped to 0, chance to use a recovery to stay conscious.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Like the Dwarves, I waver on whether I will have the Steelborn in my game. I have loved the Warforged since Eberron introduced them. With there having been a great war in the recent past, there is at least a reason why they would exist, but they introduce a lot of other conundrums into what having this level of ability means.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Demonspawn</b> - +2 Intelligence OR +2 Charisma; <i>Curse of Chaos </i>Turn an enemy's 1-5 roll into a natural one and enhance with a nasty curse.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What can I say, I love Tieflings, and I want the aspects of the demonic to play a large roll in the game.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>New World Races</b></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
Assuming the game goes on, and players either retire their characters or have characters die off, I wouldn't oppose starting off with new races.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Yuan Ti </b>- +2 Intelligence or +2 Wisdom; <i>Cruel </i>Deal ongoing damage to a target you hit.</div>
<div>
I see these as the ruling castes in the jungles of the new world, sitting on stone thrones as they manipulate their kingdoms against the threat the invaders bring.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Lizardfolk</b> - +2 Dex or +2 Con; <i>Poisonous Maw</i> Against a staggered enemy on a successful hit may weaken them.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Lizardfolk are the footsoldier and warriors of the Serpent Queen and associated kingdoms. Large, scaly and mean, they feast upon the weakened enemies.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Kobolds</b> - +2 Dex OR +2 Int; <i>Evasive </i>Force an opponent to reroll a successful attack with a penalty.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I love my nasty little kobolds, making traps, having to outthink and outmaneuver bigger races. I see them as frequently disregarded, but simultaneously valued when needed.</div>
Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-41604024116485783232013-05-17T15:54:00.000-04:002013-05-17T15:54:00.111-04:00TMC: Developing Icons for The Malcontent's Cause<a href="http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=7790" target="_blank">Icons</a> are a neat bit from 13th Age - they are major larger-than-life NPCs who your character has a relationship with in some way, it can be positive, negative, or "complicated". What I like about this set-up is that these are powers with whom the characters interact, either directly, or with some part of their regime. They aren't gods, they aren't distant, they are right here, in this world, making decisions.<br />
<br />
While the 13 icons they provide are good, they don't completely work with what I'm envisioning. Here's my first draft at developing Icons for the game.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b>The Emperor</b> rules the single most powerful nation, subsuming three other nations. He is also a man scrambling to find purchase for his empire for he knows the other nations are waiting to feed on his carcass. However, those nations should be concerned for a desperate man can do desperate things and the Dragon Empire is still quite mighty.<br />
<br />
<b>The Merchant Lord</b> is a deal maker, and generally gets the best of any bargain. He can buy armies and rule nations, but seems satisfied as the leader of the Principalities and his one own nation-state. But he was central to funding those behind the Fivefold War.<br />
<br />
<b>The High Priestess</b> guides the young ruler who sits upon the Shining Throne. When the Fivefold War ended so disastrously, she was the one who sacrificed the former king to the gods as penance for the nation's failing. Now guided by visions she guides the next king into the future, trying to stave off the apocalypse foretold in their holy books.<br />
<br />
<b>The Shaman</b> bound the wild tribes and chose the war leader, and brought them down and through the Dragon's Teeth onto the Empire's flanks. The Shaman is reaching the end of his life span and looks at the combined might of the tribes and what his tutelage has wrought. It is almost time for him to pick his successor.<br />
<br />
<b>The Warlord </b>is mighty and commands a legion of elite soldiers and can summon more with the merest whisper. While his loyalty to his soldiers is legendary, his services are for sale, though he plays a game of his own and as the years wear on, he may choose this time to call all the soldier who have served him and forge himself a new destiny.<br />
<br />
<b>The Iconoclast</b> is the rebel against the Empire. Hidden behind masks and intermediaries, the Iconoclast works against the Empire for some ancient grudge, some say it was the Iconoclast alone who moved the other nations against the Empire and started the conflict.<br />
<br />
<b>The Explorer </b>takes pride in her ability to lead teams into the undiscovered bush, deal with the troubles there, and bring back discoveries and new resources for the Empire. And as long as the Empire continues to fund her adventures, she'll take no problem in this exchange.<br />
<br />
<b>The Serpent Queen</b> has begun to notice the new colonies on her western and southern borders. From her throne she ponders what she will do with these odd strangers. Bind them to her cause against a common foe? Betray them? Or destroy them before they have a chance to find the things that should remain hidden? It may be time to send an emissary to the largest of these colonies.<br />
<br />
<b>The Pirate King </b>is the fiercest of the pirates that sail amongst the Shatered Isles and the Gods' Teeth that surround the Godspire. While the merchants may try to sale the Teeth to cut short the route, they risk falling into the hands of his band, and the Pirate King is always willing to sell the goods, ships and men back to one of the nation's.<br />
<br />
<b>The Intercessor</b> is a strange man, he makes little strife with the idea that he cavorts with demons and other unsavory sorts, providing connections, boons and favors for people both mighty and low. He is most definitely search for a lost book, which most presume contains more forbidden lore.<br />
<br />
<b>The Bard</b> is older than her years belie. Somewhere in telling the stories and traveling across the land and across the wasteland she discovered a secret to staying young. And she has discovered many secrets in her years, some say if you listen to her stories you can find those secrets hidden away as parables and riddles, but she says that really, she's just a singer and storyteller and looking towards the new land for new stories to tell.<br />
<br />
<b>The Beast </b>appeared and ended the Fivefold War. No one claims to have summoned this monstrous demon; however, everyone "knows" who summoned the Beast. While everyone turned to face the Beast and defeated it, few think that the beast is dead, and how long the Fivefold Concordance will hold in face of the underlying pressures if the Beast doesn't reappear soon.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-2377042553488949852013-05-15T13:37:00.001-04:002013-05-15T13:37:46.109-04:00Campaign Idea: Banished!"For exile hath more terror in his look, Much more than death." ~Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 3<br />
<br />
I think my next campaign pitch, when I'm ready, will be about playing exiles. Inspired by colonial era, and in particular, at least the mythos of Australia as a land where Britain dumped its malcontents and criminals to get them out of the country causing problems. The land was brutal and nasty and actively vicious to the settlers, with flora, fauna, and natives all hostile to the incoming settlers.<br />
<br />
Yes, this is hyperbolic exaggeration, but it is at least a nugget of the inspiration.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
So what do we need for this?<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>We need an empire just arcing into its declining years. Still great, still powerful, but looking at the downward slope. There can't be a current war, or else you'd just draft the malcontents into the armed forces and let them sink or swim, but it is an uneasy peace, else society could just absorb the malcontents' woes in stride and ignore them.</li>
<li>We need opposition to the Empire, probably a bunch of smaller nations nipping at its borders, the grand war is over; however, the conflicts are still there, brewing. And unless the Empire controls all access to the oceans, they'll have colonies as well.</li>
<li>We need malcontents. The players would all create characters who bore a grudge against the Empire deep enough that they would at least attend meeting of dissidents, even if they aren't actively working to strike back.</li>
<li>We need a distant land for the exiles to be banished to, which is inhospitable and dangerous. There also needs to be a reason why the Empire is sending them here, so it'll either need to be on a trade route, of military importance, or have desperately needed resources. I'm thinking the latter might be the easiest for my to deal with - rich in raw goods - ores, lumber, and minerals.</li>
</ul>
<br />
I think I'd kick off the game with the introductory scene of the shackled players being brought off the ship, and then do a flashback to the meeting where things went wrong and the players ended up captured, thrown through a justice system, and banished to the far-away land.<br />
<br />
I'd see the game starting with exploration and expansion of the colonies - fight or negotiate with the natives, obtain resources, discover other cultures, and then eventually it would come down to choices for the players - do they flip the Empire the bird and form their own nation, do they take the fight back to the Empire and try to reclaim it for greater glory, or do they make the best of a bad situation and seek to redeem themselves in the eyes of their nation? Or some other option that I don't see.<br />
<br />
What else do I want?<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I want pirates. Which means I need trade routes that can be pilfered, and the pilfered goods sold to the other nations. </li>
<li>I want to limit the races, once upon a time, I read about how limiting a setting to only 10 "monsters" changes the mood. And while I'm not quite that disciplined - I can see myself trying to do the same. Common species are things everyone of a reasonable education and age would know about. Uncommon are ones that much is discussed, but little is known. Rare creatures are the stuff of legends and myths.</li>
<ul>
<li>Old Land - Common: [PC Races], Ogres, Sprites, Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Zombies are all common.</li>
<li>Old Land - Uncommon: Ghoul, Wrath, Griffon, Dopplegangers</li>
<li>Old Land - Rare: Dragon, Demon, Nightshades</li>
<li>New Land - Common: Gnoll, Kobold, Lizard Folk, Sprites, Zombies, Sahuagin, Basilisk, Grimlock</li>
<li>New Land - Uncommon: Ghoul, Wrath, Yuan Ti, Trolls, Chuul, Destrachan (I loved these guys from 3rd Edition)</li>
<li>New Land - Rare: Dragon, Demon, Nightshades</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br />
I can even see a mythology by picking what I want from here - improper buried dead (perhaps all dead must be burned?) rise back up, most rise up as zombies, some rise as ghouls, and a very few rise up as a wrath. We won't speak of what generates a Nightshade. Griffons exist because I want air cavalry, and dopplegangers because shapechanging spies aid in the paranoia. The old land is tamed and less wild, so the creatures represent that, ogres are something more than orcs, less than giants, large machines of destruction, while goblins and hobgoblins are most definitely natural allies.<br />
<br />
The new land seems almost a jungle - kobolds, lizard folk, and the yuan ti give a strong lizard theme, while the Sahuagin and Chuul are more aquatic focused; while I see basilisks, grimlocks and the destrachan living in the same ecosystem where two have adapted by having no sight. Trolls replace ogres as the engines of destruction, while Gnolls are my go to for "more savage, but still reasonable" race.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-35916535051195260092013-05-03T08:00:00.000-04:002013-05-03T08:12:04.469-04:00Domain Management: Buildings and Other StructuresTo have a proper domain you need <a href="http://thefellingblade.blogspot.com/2013/04/domain-management-land.html" target="_blank">land</a>. Once you have land, you need to build structures on that land.<br />
<br />
Now in my idea regarding scope the rules wouldn't cover every structure, just the ones with narrative weight. Therefore, it would be assumed that there are small farms, timber yards, mills, and other small structures dotting the landscape.<br />
<br />
Why? Cause frankly, I do NOT want to have to deal with that level of book keeping. I'm following a couple of Adventure, Conqueror, King System (ACKS) games, and one in particular (<a href="http://www.autarch.co/forums/actual-play/chronicles-grim-fist-part-iii" target="_blank">Chronicles of the Grim Fist</a>) looks amazing, but the system is a bit too book keeping intensive for its domain management. So we aren't going to manage that degree.<br />
<br />
So the buildings and structure we have are structures that will have narrative weight, they are important structures in the domain.<br />
<br />
I've discussed before that I want three types of buildings - Production (Raw Goods, Trade Goods) and free standing buildings, as well as specific city/village buildings, however, I realized that I wanted another set of miscellaneous structures - for roads for the most part, but I'm sure I'll come up with (or have it strongly recommended to me) other items that should fall in there.<br />
<br />
Production is split into two categories - raw goods and trade goods.<br />
<br />
<b>Production Buildings - Raw Goods</b><br />
Raw goods production doesn't require an infrastructure. Originally, I had envision five types of goods - wealth; wood; stone; ore; and food, now I'm thinking I need to move "wealth" to its own category, and add another one for animal products (fur?), though I suppose I could always just turn food into cloth, like I initially thought about doing, i.e., the return of fish head pants.<br />
<br />
I thought about what I wanted production buildings to do - whether they should produce a flat increase, or some sort of multiplier. And for right now I'm envisioning the grander answer of "both". Two levels of production building a regular one, which just adds a flat bonus to production, and a greater building which would not only add a flat bonus, but then multiple the total amount. So production buildings we have would be:<br />
<br />
Wood - Timber Yard<br />
Stone - Quarry<br />
Ore - Mine<br />
Food - Farm<br />
<br />
<b>Production Buildings - Trade Goods</b><br />
Trade goods, to be built, would require infrastructure to be built to support them, I'll probably allow them to be built without a village or city to support them; however, there'll just be an additional cost included. I'm not sure what I'd want people to be able to produce right now. Cloth and iron come to mind as the two big ones right now.<br />
<br />
Iron Works (Turns Ore into Metal)<br />
Smithy (Turns Metal into stuff)<br />
Weaver (Turns Food into Cloth)<br />
Seamstress (Turns Cloth into stuff)<br />
<br />
What's stuff? I don't know yet.<br />
<br />
Other buildings I'd want to have producing stuff:<br />
<br />
Marketplace (Enhances trade)<br />
Academy (Turns People into professions)<br />
Theater (Create Art)<br />
Library (Store Knowledge)<br />
Inns & Taverns (Create Trade, Secrets)<br />
Warehouse (Store stuff)<br />
<br />
<b>Free Standing Buildings</b><br />
Village - small gathering of families and people.<br />
City - As a village grows it eventually becomes a city.<br />
Outpost - Small garrison of troops<br />
Fort - military base, some trade<br />
Manor House - Administrative center<br />
Castle - big fort, a really, really big fort.<br />
<br />
<b>Other Structures</b><br />
Dams - Enhances quality of an area<br />
Roads - trade multiplier<br />
Walls - Costs money, but adds to a defense, greater walls, multiplies defense.<br />
<br />
Once again, these are just rough draft notes, I'll happily take advice and add stuff in when I come back to actually crunch some numbers.Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-77475450033273032502013-04-11T09:43:00.001-04:002013-04-11T09:43:31.475-04:00So What's Next?So I think I figured out what I'm going to try and run next, and I think it'll be Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, at least for a short term deal, though my definition of short term is probably off.<br />
<br />
Why? Cause I want to run some non-apologetic heroics, after running "shades of grey" games for the last decade (Exalted, Changeling, Dresden), I want some "Big Damn Heroes" at my screen.<br />
<br />
Plus, I've never run straight out super heroes before, capes, costumes, the whole bit.<br />
<br />
It won't be this month and it probably won't be next month.<br />
<br />
But time for something different.<br /><br /><br />
<br />
<br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-4605435762658779182013-04-08T14:51:00.000-04:002013-04-08T14:51:13.667-04:00Domain Management: LandMy biggest problem with dealing with land is coming up with a notion of scale. How much land should we account for in the system. Some part of me wants to just hand wave, but I know that'll eventually come back to bite me at some later date.<br />
<br />
I think as a rule of thumb, I'll use "a day's travel across" as the maximum for a single spot of terrain. We'll assume that an easy day's travel involves a horse, or roughly 20 miles, or given a perfect square 400 sq. miles, or 400,000 acres. Immense, yes, but reasonable. Sure, some places might be a bit bigger, some a bit smaller, but that seems reasonable enough to use as a rule of thumb. This puts it on the small side of an <a href="http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_of_the_United_Kingdom" target="_blank">U.K. county</a>, which I'm okay with as that allows us some room to play with additional terrains to make a bigger county.<br />
<br />
So using that, let's pull some land types, stealing mostly from a <a href="http://www.birthright.net/" target="_blank">Birthright</a> adaptation for 3.5:<br />
<ul>
<li>Wasteland - Desolate, can't support any real existence. You might be able to find a few people who eke out an existence here, but you wouldn't want to be one of them.</li>
<li>Desert/Tundra - Little rain, little to subsist on, no real ability to build cities, or even villages, without the addition of some feature that allows for it (River/Oasis/Lake/Coast).</li>
<li>Mountains - The land of windswept peaks and cliffsides. Ore and stone are most prevalent here.</li>
<li>Forests - Deep heavily wooded forests stretching for miles, and places the light never touches the ground.</li>
<li>Hills - Little mountains, rolling hills, stone and ore can be found here, as well as the ability to raise some crops.</li>
<li>Plains - Flat open land without anything to break the wind, perfect for raising crops, raising animals, building cities, and thus very much desired and fought over.</li>
</ul>
Are there any that I'm forgetting? Things such as coast, rivers, I'll save for features and do that up later this week.<br />
<br />
Right now I'm trying to avoid numbers till I figure out what I need to figure into my needs and wants. Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-70968118402900214992013-04-04T08:00:00.000-04:002013-04-04T08:00:03.760-04:00Domain Management: Overview and Sketching Some Thoughts OutSo as I sit in-between games, my mind turns to domain management. Why? Because in about half my games, I seem to have players that would love to spend their time engaging in bureaucratic exercises of running an organization/city-state/nation, and most systems just wing it.<br />
<br />
And I hate winging it. System bits that are winged never seems to have the emphasis/importance that they should have when improvised. Improvision is for things not critical/crucial to the plot or the players happiness.<br />
<br />
So there are two basic types of management: Domain Management and Organizational Management; while broadly these items could be done in the same system, I think it is wiser to spread them out to emphasize different things.<br />
<br />
There are three reasons I see to have domain management, the first is that your players enjoy it; the second is to generate resources, the last is to generate plots and challenges for the players to engage with. I want to keep these in mind when I'm looking at what I'm trying to accomplish. <br />
<br />
Broadly speaking Domain Management is about obtaining and usage of land. In my mind, this involves four key components:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>The land itself - where is it, what features are on it, what can it produce are all key questions that need to be answered.</li>
<li>The structures built - what buildings are there on that land.</li>
<li>The key people - the who's who running the domain, other than the PCs.</li>
<li>Resources - something to manage and spend </li>
</ol>
<div>
Those four items make up the key components of domain management. I want the feeling to allow for the building up from a small manor house to a large county seat of governance. After that point, I think things get a bit too large for what I'd want to have my games to be about. So let us look at each of the areas in some form of depth:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Land</b></div>
<div>
<br />
Land can be broken down into two subcategories - major terrain and features. Terrain is fairly obvious, mountainous, hilly, forest, plains, farmland, wasteland, desert, etc. Features would make parts of the land particularly appealing, challenging, or rewarding (or some combination of all three). Features would be things like coast line, major rivers (think like the Nile or Mississippi), major lakes (Great Lakes), ancient ruins, volcanoes or other terrain that doesn't really fit as a major terrain piece.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My biggest conundrum with land is whether a county has one terrain type or a collection of terrain types. Or perhaps that's how one delineates the size of the domain - the number of terrain types, and just allow for repeated terrain types to be used. Thus the mountainous duchy could have Mountains, Mountains, Mountains, and one of farmland to indicate the grotto that exists.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Features are easily for me to conceptualize - they are one off bits that make that terrain different then the other terrain around it. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Structures</b></div>
<div>
<br />
Now the idea behind this is to assume that there are small villages/hamlets scattered across the terrain, just to ease up on the book keeping. Buildings are something more than that, they are things that generate plots or additional resources. I envision one type of structures being freestanding, not requiring anything other than the base resources to build; and another requiring a more civilized infrastructure.<br />
<br />
Anyone who has played any sort of building game, especially board games understand the production aspect of free standing buildings - Sawmill, Quarries, Mines, Plantations and the like. They should add (through either doubling, or just a flat addition) to the efficiency of the the land itself.<br />
<br />
The second type of free standing structures would be Villages and Cities, with Cities being an upgrade of the Villages. These would be built to generate income as well, the centers of trade that they are, as allow for the building of more advanced buildings.<br />
<br />
The last type of free standing structures would be a series of military - outpost, small fort/manor house, fort, and castle. Storage capacity, military forces, and protection.<br />
<br />
So what gets built inside villages and cities? Industry that produces finish goods - textiles, iron works; universities and other places of learning, theater and libraries. Most of the goals of these would be to generate income for the city/players to do things with in the game. Of course, it does mean that money.<br />
<br />
<b>People</b><br />
<br />
People are simply that - the faces of the people working in the structures. More importantly, as the game progresses they should help provide plots that entertain the group, as well as providing potential bonuses and penalties.<br />
<br />
<b>Resources</b><br />
<br />
Resources are things you either build with, sell, or purchase. I'd want to keep it relatively simple and limit the resources to the following five items: Wealth; Wood; Stone; Ore; and Food. More than five and it gets too complicated; too few and you have quirkier things, and I already can see the game of turning food (nominally sheep/goats) into cloth, and the jokes about my fish head pants.<br />
<br />
Villages and Cities would nominally require Food to maintain, with each additional infrastructure item requiring more food. All structures would require some amount of Wealth/Wood/Stone/Ore to be built. <br />
<br />
So there's the backbones of what I want to accomplish with domain management, give my players some systematic tools to manage resources, generate revenue and items for themselves, and generate plots for the campaign.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-10423385097045411552013-04-02T10:58:00.000-04:002013-04-02T10:58:14.431-04:00Complilation of Short ThoughtsThis is me trying to purge my file of "Oh, THIS is interesting, but I don't know that I have enough to write about on it." A lot of these thoughts are around getting closer to what I want out of a game, and cutting out a lot of the fluff.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://critical-hits.com/2010/01/04/gears-of-ruin-party-creation-session-template/" target="_blank">Party Creation Session Template</a> - I like having groups of adventurers linked by shared experiences at my table - it makes it easier to integrate the group. While the first attempt at Dresden Files didn't go perfectly smoothly, it did make for a convenient backdrop to how the PCs met and interacted. As I get older and my time becomes more valuable, I'd like to get to a lot of the meat of group interaction versus having to waste a session or two on "why am I here with these insane people again?"<br />
<br />
<a href="http://unpossiblelabs.tumblr.com/post/42770842702/on-balancing-drama-and-levity-at-the-game-table" target="_blank">Table Balance of Drama and Levity</a> and <a href="http://corruptionpoints.tumblr.com/post/42582632508/break-it-down" target="_blank">Playing Cards to Play Cards, or to Socialize</a>; the latter is actually more interesting for me, because of a constant conflict I have with my wife. We both love to play games, table-top, board games, or your standard card games like hearts or spades. However, we frustrate each other because our intent is different - when I play hearts, for example, I want to play hearts; I'm not there to socialize while occasionally dropping cards on the table. Socializing/talking is fine, but it is secondary to the enjoyment of the game, for her, she generally would rather socialize than play cards, so we have an inherent conflict. And that gets at the heart of these two posts - finding the right balance of gaming as a social activity because we are all friends, and getting into the meat of the subject.<br />
<br />
Frankly, for my next game, I'm seriously contemplating trying just a beer and pretzels social event because I'm frustrated with the distractions of life.<br />
<br />
Which probably just means I'll get one of my more serious games.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://ryanmacklin.com/2013/03/the-currency-of-time/" target="_blank">The Currency of Time</a> - I've often said that time is the most valuable resource, because it is the only one that you cannot make more of. I'd love the idea of making informational checks (knowledge/perception) cost something so that they are valuable. But the question is how to do that - one of those is to assume some form of "fail forward" where your failures are successes, but with complications.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/100095837672466068888/posts/bPGDy7XJMQB" target="_blank">Quest Generation</a> - A very rough draft of a question generation for a hip hop RPG system that I'm following for stealing for my own purposes. This gets back to the core of "not wasting time" of "okay let's jointly, PCs and GM, set out a framework of how we want the story to go" and then let the GM, i.e., me, throw in a few twists and challenges. How does this stop wasting time, because the players won't bobble around trying to figure out what the next, we all know and can move forward without wasting time at the table wandering aimlessly with either the players trying to figure out what the GM wants them to, or the GM trying to figure out how the hell he's supposed to work this line of reasoning into storyline.<br />
<br />
Stealing <a href="http://community.wizards.com/wotc_peters/blog/2009/10/07/borrow_and_steal_burning_wheel__beliefs" target="_blank">Beliefs</a> and <a href="http://community.wizards.com/wotc_peters/blog/2009/10/09/borrow_and_steal_burning_wheel__instincts" target="_blank">Instincts</a> for D&D, while I'm not a huge fan of the Burning Wheel system as a whole, I do love stealing bits and pieces from it. In particular, with the idea of creating three driving beliefs for the character, one for what drove them to hit the road of adventure; the second for what ties them to the overarching campaign thread; and finally, a belief about the larger goal that they want. I could see tying them to some sort of XP system ala the Keys from <a href="http://files.crngames.com/cc/tsoy/book1--rulebook.html" target="_blank">Shadows of Yesterday</a>, or milestones from <a href="http://www.margaretweis.com/shop?view=ecwid#ecwid:category=2262007&mode=product&product=9555027" target="_blank">Marvel Heroic Roleplaying</a>. Once again, the goal is to make it easy on everyone to get invested with what is going on at the table.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348662645610036367.post-85412329029893456762013-03-18T10:09:00.002-04:002013-03-18T10:09:56.789-04:00Why I Don't [Want To] Play BSG Much AnymoreSo there was a game of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111/battlestar-galactica" target="_blank">Battlestar Galactica</a> at <a href="http://madicon.org/" target="_blank">Madicon</a> a couple weekends ago, and I realized, after a few moments, that I had no regrets that I missed it as I swooped by the game and chatted with the folks there. <br />
<br />
Part of the reason was that it was Madicon, and I'm all about the shortish games (generally) and socializing and talking with my old friends and meeting a few new people.<br />
<br />
But really, as I thought about it, it was the fact that while I love the concepts of the game and how it plays out for the early and mid-game, the end-game is just frustrating and drawn out, especially if the cylons are winning.<br />
<br />
Admittedly, the Exodus expansion fixes some of this, and is why I won't generally play a BSG game without it; however, it is a band-aid to the core the problem that the cylon's best play is to drag out the game as long as possible, turning it into a grueling 3 hour+ game. And occasionally that's fun, but regularly? Not anymore, I don't have the time for not knowing how long the game is going to go.<br />
<br />
What does the the fact that hidden cylon's win by "drawing the game out", it means that there is almost always an optimal solution, and that anyone who doesn't choose it is at risk of being a cylon, and especially if they are president (or admiral), should be removed from that role because it is a larger than average risk. For example, if your admiral does a short jump or two, then remove them, it could be that they got bad draws, but really, it is more likely that they want the group to take more jumps to suffer more crises and suffer that slow trickle. If they turn out to be human? Ah well, sorry the percentages weren't in your favor.<br />
<br />
Except. And there's always an exception, and the one exception is that when you are playing with players relatively new to the game. They add a random variability of chance and unknown factors, because you can't assume that everyone at the table, human and cylon, are playing the optimal strategies for victory.<br />
<br />
And playing in that grey zone of wondering whether someone's an ally or enemy, and/or just really bad at determining what the best play is? That's what makes the game fun for me, and I just can't get that when everyone knows what the best play is for their role.<br />
<br />
<br />Arashihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13536961829640913987noreply@blogger.com0