#RPGaDay2021 - 24 - Translate

 

I wonder how I’ll translate this into an entry?

There are plenty of decent options for translated games (I’d go with much of the Fria Ligan material that started in Swedish and the Space 1889 reboot with Ubiquity that was originally German) but rather than go there, I’d rather talk a little about translations between game editions.

The D&D OSR has become a lingua-franca between editions; by using the core elements of the game engine which haven’t really changed (AC, HD, HP, Spell names etc) it’s possible to quickly jump between versions. Of course, this has been there from the start. We played a melange of Holmes Basic, B/X and AD&D 1e (and later 2e) with minimal effort on the part of the DM. D&D 5e can draw on the same source but needs a little more work (but I’m not sure about 3/3.5e and 4e). It’s good because you can skim through an adventure and easily get a feel for how it will work out.

Chaosium BRP based d100 games were similar; I’ve used Call of Cthulhu Dreamlands material in Stormbringer/Elric! without bothering with any conversion except in my head. I suspect that you could also easily cut across into Mythras or OpenQuest as well. 

BITS did this for Traveller, with the BITS task system. We equated the difficulty levels in task rolls across multiple editions (including T20 and GURPS Traveller), which allowed us to create scenarios with could be used across the different takes on the game. We did remain resolutely with the UPP statistics and skills for characters, as they’re close enough to compare across editions. Of course, Traveller is two things; a sprawling space opera setting with a hard SF veneer and also a 2D6 based game engine which has influenced other designed. With one simple table, we allowed quicker translation between game engines.

The longevity of the hobby means that backward compatibility is important, and translation tools help that, no matter how crude they are.

24 August 2021

#RPGaDay2021 - 23 - Memory

 

Memory. It’s amazing how fuzzy the details of the games I’ve played are, but there are some strong memories that endure. The one-and-only time my dad joined in and resolved the classic haunting scenario for Call of Cthulhu by dynamiting it. Playing Ravenloft into the early hours in an empty house when my  parents were away and the whole group of us not wanting to leave the gaming room on our own to visit the facilities as the atmosphere had landed. Shear terror in a game when the werewolf came through the wall. The weekend long hunt for Dracula at Longcon. The epic extended Darkening of Mirkwood game where we grew into movers and shakers. Every Esoterrorists campaign (we’ve played them all). The sprawling Traveller game which was mean to be Twilight’s Peak but morphed into a game of restaurants and trade deals while the threat of war brewed. The joy of running the Madcap Laughs for Stormbringer with Wordplay across three slots and with Graham co-GMing.

The more I think if, the more that pop out from memory. It’s been a great gaming life so far.

23 August 2021 (belatedly)

First Impressions - Tombpunk

Tombpunk... ready for action.

'Tombpunk' is a quick and dirty RPG developed by Alan Bahr, the author of 'Cold Shadows' and more. He wrote this as a challenge to himself and also to get it out of his mind. When I saw the original Kickstarter I ignored it on the grounds that I didn't need yet another fantasy heartbreaker.

More recently, Alan ran another campaign for an expansion called 'Rogues', which looks at criminals and gave me a very Llankmar vibe. it wasn't especially expensive, so I picked it up and got a copy of the Tombpunk core rules at what looks like cost price from DTRPG.

The game is strikingly presented in a short 102-page hardback, with black and white interiors. It is written very conversationally, reminding me a little of the style that Graham Spearing used for 'Wordplay'. The tone is very approachable.

This does reflect one of the design challenges that the author set himself, which included:

a) Having a straightforward and conversational tone.

b) Having just enough rules for play

c) Being 'quick and dirty' and to the point, and perhaps incomplete.

d) Avoiding power-creep.

Overall, Bahr has met these admirably.

The core mechanics are based around two types of tests - Attribute tests and Resources Tests. They both use a roll-under or equal-to mechanic, with advantage/disadvantage available. Attribute Tests use a d 12, and are rolled against one of your three core attributes: Might, Grit or Deftness. The test can be made with advantage or disadvantage, and there is no automatic success or failure.

If the narrator needs to make an attribute test against you, then they have to roll above your attribute to succeed, the mirror of a player's roll. As a result, NPCs and enemies have minimal statistics, with a key element being whether they are rolling with advantage or disadvantage.

Resource checks are made against a character's Courage, Coin or Will scores. These are lower than the attributes and the check is made on a d6. If you roll above, the resource is typically reduced by one. You may well succeed, but your ability to do so again has atrophied.

I did initially think that the Coin valve could be abused, especially if you convert treasure to Coin (one point of treasure yields d3 points of Coin), but then realised that although you can get your Coin score at a level it can't be reduced on a d6 roll, taxes will constantly eat at it.

Taxes? Yes, you can't escape them in this game. You need to spend a point of coin to cover your tax duties each month to the local lord. You also need to pay a further coin to be licensed as an adventurer. Oh, and it costs you another coin per week to feed yourself and cover living costs. So all of a sudden, you're paying 6 coin a month to live. Best raid that dungeon. Or rob someone.

Returning to the other resources, Courage is used mainly to resist in terrifying situations.

Will serves two reasons; a way to resist the supernatural, dark magics and the occult, and a measure for how much Lifeblood you can recover. Once per day you can restore Lifeblood equal to your will.

Lifeblood is the equivalent of hit points. Once you hit zero on this, then you're making a Grit save every action to avoid dying until you get healed. Combat starts with initiative, using a Deftness test to see if you go before or after the opposition.

Melee attacks use Might, missile attacks use Deftness. If an attack hits, damage is rolled (in the main based on class), and a reduction can be applied based on amour. Weapons (and other equipment) can have qualities - tags which indicate weapon behaviours - which can modify how an attack goes.

For example, a versatile weapon can be used one or two handed, and steps the damage dice up one level (eg d6 to d8) when used in both hands. A light weapon can be used with Deftness or Might as the relevant attribute. Brutal weapons give an effect similar to advantage (but not limited to two dice) for damage rolls.

There are only three character classes: Warriors (which would cover D&D fighter and Rogue classes), Shepherds (spiritual guides similar to Clercs) and Ritualists (magic-users).

There's no restriction on which class you can be based on the attributes you initially roll. Resources and lifeblood values are derived from the class you choose. Damage is rolled based on class - weapons only affect damage through their qualities.

Warriors do more damage and have weapon training that lets them add a quality to a weapon temporarily for each strike.

Shepherds have the power of prayer. If they worship at sunset or sunrise they can restore Courage or Will to themselves or their fellows. They can also heal others. Their religious status allows them to draw on hospitality from the faithful. Finally, in times of dire need, they can spend will to gain advantage by drawing upon the guidance of their dirty.

Ritualists can perform alchemy. By purchasing the right ingredients, they can make smoke bombs, firebombs, healing salves and more. They can also cast spells. This is completely freeform with a grit check being needed to determine success or failure. The Narrator sets difficultly (advantage, standard, disadvantage) and agrees the effects. Obviously, you can codify the 'spell' afterwards if you want to use it again.

One thing that's worth noting is that there's no levelling up or experience mechanic in the game.This goes back to one of the core principles that the author set out with: "no power creep". You can spend a point of treasure with an appropriate crafter to add a quality to weapons or equipment but your base attributes don't change.

You can also use Coin to recruit hirelings. They aren't incredibly effectively, but they may provide some ablative protection for your character.

The game is meant to feel a bit brutal, which is consistent with delivering an old-school feel with a coherent, modem engine. There's a cute example at the start of the book where a comic is used to illustrate the flavour of the game. A group of bold adventurers head into a dungeon with their leader monologuing about the opportunity while the rest of the party slowly get picked off, one-by-one, until they reach the treasure and the leader realises no-one else is talking back to her. It cuts with her standing with a guttering torch beside the treasure, with the darkness around full of eyes watching her hungrily.

The other adventurers would have failed attribute tests, which are used as a type of saving throw against traps and other dangers. Every dungeon has a darkness rating. This is an abstract way to decide when to let the party find the treasure. A party has a light rating; when they clear a room, or defeat a monster, they can make a check. On a success, the darkness rating is reduced. When it hits zero, the party gets their treasure points. Dungeons slowly recover over time.

There are some optional rules for ancestries and cultures. The ancestries give a way to differentiate elves, dwarves and halflings. The culture rules give some background advantages - the rules say to let the human characters use these as well if the non-humans have them. Cultures include mercantile (allows one Coin test re-roll/day), religious (re-roll Will in a similar way) and more unique ones such as magical (which allows you to gain ritualist benefits).

The Enemies section has some unique monsters and some classics. By classics, I mean creatures like a Hydra or skeletons. Enemies are defined by their Lifeblood, the attack (standard) advantage (disadvantage) and damage type and dice. They may have some other abilities. It's a simple system.

Finally, there are two "micro-settings". Both start with some micro-fiction that helps to set the flavour that they want to achieve.

'The Jerk in the Castle' riffs on Robin Hood and is full of cheese jokes. It's a fun setting, and you could step back the humour if it's not your thing.

'Dirty-Hand Haven' is a setting all about grave robbing the cemeteries of a large city, whilst trying to avoid the wrath of the Gravediggers who protect the necropolis.

To sum up: I'm impressed by this game. There's an energy to it that combines well with a simple and coherent engine. Having recently played OSE, it does nail the same vibe, with dungeons being scary unknowns. Mechanically, the game reminds me of the simplicity of The Black Hack, Troika! and Advanced Fighting Fantasy. A fun little game.

22 August 2021

PS. The only thing I can't find for this is an official character sheet.

Update: You can find my review of the supplement 'Rogues' here.

On the Promise of Maps

Treasure?

We're away for a holiday, staying at a cottage on the banks of the River Dee. It's an opportunity to catch up with family and friends and have some downtime.

As well as the usual manual about the house, the local services and community, there is a rather intriguing map.

I love the way that the cottage owners have taken the time to annotate this with suggestions and routes to explore. It almost feels like a treasure map.

There's a wonder to exploration, the chance to find out what's over the hill. It's a key component in roleplaying games, often stifled by splat-books that don't leave spaces to make the setting unique. The best supplements leave spaces and put hooks in your mind.

21 August 2021

Long hand writing

(Handwritten on my reMarkable, as my Chromebook is serving as a Disney+ server for the kids!)

#RPGaDay2021 - 16 - Move

 

Move

One of the interesting aspects that the Powered by the Apocalypse engined games brought to tabletop roleplaying was the concept of a 'move'. Moves split into two types; basic moves that everyone can do, and specialist moves that a specific Playbook (character type) can do.

The danger with moves is taking them too prescriptively. They're meant to be tools to interpret the fiction story that you're creating at the table rather than a straight-jacket. Do what you need to do and you'll find a move that covers it. Specialist moves are pointers that let you lean into what makes your character shine; they show how the playbook works. Once you get this concept, the system will usually sing.

That doesn't avoid issues with poor design, such as over-reliance on one stat for each move (l'm looking at you, Tremulus) but that's a different thing altogether.

16th August 2021 (belatedly)

First Impressions - Svalbard

 

Svalbard - system agnostic modern horror

The PDF and print codes for Svalbard dropped over the weekend, and I ended up reading through the whole scenario as it's on the shortlist I have as potentials for Furnace.

This is a 96-page scenario with a different and clever feel to it. Set in the modern-day, the characters are members of a small strike team who have been sent to investigate a Russian owned mine complex on the island of Svalbard. The complex has potential links to super-weapon development and a warning has been received that something dangerous has happened.

The character's job is to infiltrate the complex, find out what is going on and stop it. There's more, but I'll put it below a spoiler break below.

The game is written with a very lightweight game engine included but has guidance on converting to other systems, with Call of Cthulhu being the most notable. I think it would work well for Delta Green, but I think that I'd prefer to use the game engine as presented as it would focus on the story.

I like the way that this is set up; the locations within the complex seem well structured and it looks like it could be quite good fun to play. The artwork is good and the layout clear. The supporting GM screen is really useful as a reference. Svalbard is certainly on my list to try.

Spoilers follow the break...

Back down the Hole in the Oak (OSE)

Back down the Hole in the Oak.

Last week we had our second taster session for Old-School Essentials, with the characters returning back into the dungeon which had claimed the lives of two of their retainers and nearly killed two more. We agreed that they'd managed to escape the hole and make it back to town overnight, where they'd had a slap-up meal and recovered. They decided to head back into the Hole to 'deal with the Ogre'. Obviously, the snoring offended them. This time they added some useful items like iron spikes and a crowbar to their equipment.

Blurring the edges between fog of war and VTT mapping

Role worked well, once again, and the only thing that I was really missing was 'fog of war' for the map. I know that this is coming, but it's important for games like this, where exploration is an important part of the experience. I created a copy of the map and painted a white layer over what they hadn't seen last time, then we blended on-screen mapping with the main map, as shown above. It seemed to work, but would have been better if I'd had a graphics tablet or stylus to draw better. However, I'd happily use this again.

The characters made a good haul this time, with plenty of gold and treasures. Having been drugged and subsequently defeating the enemy who knocked them out, they then cleverly used the spare herbs to do the same to the 'ogre', having dropped off the remains of a previous victim which they'd found in the pantry and laced with the sleeping draught. It all worked swimmingly.

They were lucky at points; the thief backstabbed one of the enemy leaders, which took magic out of the battle, but overall they worked together much better. I do think that First Age's character was a little out of it, but that's what a single spell and huge vulnerability do to you. It pays off once you hit higher levels, but the life of a low-level magic-user is a life of fear until then. 

In honesty, I'd forgotten how fun it is to run a game like this. As a DM, you don't have to worry about complex plots and moving parts, nor manage how you respond to avoid killing the characters in quite the same way you do in more modern games. There's a different feel; this is the world of bumbling novices, trying to make a living and become heroes. Most modern games - including D&D5e - start with characters who are competent and well on that path. OSE captures that feel from the early days that RuneQuest and other games shared, a feeling of vulnerability and danger, a feeling of the unknown and a chance to explore and the ever-present likelihood of dying in some dark hole you're trying to pillage for loot.

This was the last of the taster sessions; we only played for around 2 hours because we'd had two significant encounters and the next likely one would easily have taken us past the 10:30pm cut off that had been requested by the players. I'll admit that I'll happily run this again if they want to do another session, but the rest of August is out as it gets complicated with holidays.

Running 'The Hole in the Oak' definitely made me want to run more of this style of game, some kind of less serious drop-in session with a large dungeon. In my mind, there'd be a way for players to leave messages or reports on what they found so future adventurers had hints and tips beyond the basic rumour table. I'm torn between continuing to build 'Castle Xyntillan' on Roll20 or waiting until Role gets fog of war.

OSE nails its objective of emulating B/X level D&D near perfectly. It's not a style of play that I want to dip into often, but it was more fun than I had hoped.

16 August 2021

#RPGaDay2021 - 14 - Safety

 

Safety

I used to be skeptical about safety tools, but then I became responsible for running a convention and dealing with the fallout of interactions between people whose expectations, needs and comfort zones weren't aligned.

When we proposed and implemented tags for scenarios, we got attacked and accused of taking the fun out of games and ruining it for GMs. Yet we'd seen players in tears from the fallout of games that were completely different from what they'd expected from the blurb.

When we started to recommend tools like the X-card, we were once again told we were over-reacting.

The Harassment and Inappropriate Behavior Policy had a similar response.

And now all of these are norms, ways that we give a consensual space to play fun games with people who often become friends.

I'm not skeptical anymore

14th August 2021 (belatedly)

#RPGaDay2021 - 13 - Flood

 

Flood...

Best RPG involving a flood?
Fria Ligan's 'Things from the Flood', which unfortunately has a bad reputation for UK cons after a certain incident at Expo. A great game none-the-less.

Best scenario with a flood?
‘Deep Carbon Observatory’, especially in the revised edition. I do note that the alternatives for today - improvise, doom and pool - do describe that adventure in some ways! 

Worst flood in gaming?
The d20 flood that consumed everything. it made the magic CCG impact on gaming look tame, and tried to turn everything into D&D. Now, I love D&D, but there are things that it excels at and things that it doesn't. I fear the current se compatible wave is a similar, albeit smaller, bubble. I do recognise that TTRPGs have D&D and everything else, but there's such a thing as too much of a good thing.

13th August 2021 (belatedly)

#RPGaDay2021 - 11 - Wilderness

 

Into the Wilderness

Wildernesses have been part of my roleplaying experience from the start. The first gaming module I used was 'B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands' where the characters are located at the furthest edge of civilisation, the last bastion of authority before the wilderness.

I never much found wilderness treks in D&D that interesting - they seemed an exercise in rolling dice for rolling dice's sake. I was ambiguous about hex crawls; although my favourite game of all time - Traveller - is arguably built around a SF hex-crawl map!

I was impressed with the way that the Dungeon World supplement 'The Perilous Wilds' treated wildernesses, but the game that finally gave me an experience that made wildernesses unique, expansive, and terrifying was 'The One Ring'.

Between the characters, roles were shared out as to who led what activity as we crossed the wide open spaces of Middle Earth. All of a sudden, journeys became epic and challenging. The first time we crossed Mirkwood was terrifying, but that fell into insignificance compared to the journey across the wastes of Angmar where we were pursued by the enemy, and started to drop equipment as fatigue bit into our capabilities. We all began to expect the worst, but somehow pulled through with a story to tell.

I love the way montages are used to pull together aspects of journeys in modern games, something 13th Age also embraced. It no longer feels like an exercise in random numbers, but something that the party pulls together to get done.

These days journeys out into the wilderness are something unique & different. And I love it.

11th August 2021 (belatedly)

#RPGaDay2021 - 10 - Trust

 

Trust no-one, keep your laser handy?

Trust sits at the heart of what we do as tabletop role players. There's an implicit social contract between the am and the players, and also between the planes themselves. When it is built on shaky foundations, games go bad.

Ironically, PVP games often need a higher level of trust around the table than normal games. The conflict needs to be between characters, not between players.

Games that address sensitive topics also need trust. When playing with strangers, the ability to use safety tools such as 'lines and veils' helps to give a foundation to that trust. At Furnace, we've adopted the use of tags because it avoids nasty surprises for players. When you don't take a sensitive approach, you run the risk of a 'Things from the Flood' UK Games Expo style incident. And no-one wants that.

You could make an argument that the older style of gaming requires less trust, especially as early dungeons could put the GM in an antagonistic mode. However, I don't believe that this is the case. You still need to believe that the GM is impartial in such a situation. If you felt the GM will cheat, why bother playing?

Trust is a fundamental part of tabletop roleplaying, and always has been.

10 August 2021 (belatedly).

#RPGaDay2021 - 9 - Medium

 

Medium?

Let's start by noting that the first association I have with the word "medium" comes from World of Tanks Blitz, where it refers to the kind of tank that developed into today's main battle tanks. Vehicles like the T-62A, the Centurion and the Pershing. That said, what does it evoke from a roleplaying perspective?

There's two areas that spring to mind. The first is the medium by which I consume RPGs. The second is the way that I play them.

I adopted the use of PDFs quite early, especially once I got my first iPad back in 2010 (64GB first generation iPad with WiFi only). Although I continued to buy dead tree versions of games, most of my reading was done using the iPad (and the still excellent Goodreader app?).

However, I started to travel with work, and ended up switching to an iPad mini. Even when the retina version of the iPad became available, I never found the mini, a satisfying reading experience. It was just too small for my eyes. These days, I'm tending to use Xodo (an Android app) on my Chromebook, which gives a decent view of two-page spreads. As I have a 2-in-1 Chromebook that flips to a tablet this works well.

However, I find it harder to learn a game system via reading PDFs. Books stick in my mind better as a medium but, even so, I usually have to couple that with writing notes to summarise what I've seen.

The other medium is the medium I use to play. Originally, this was always face-to-face, but these days most of my gaming is by VTT. This isn't a pandemic thing - it was already happening before. COVID-19 just added gaming conventions into the mix.

I do enjoy playing online; it gives me a chance to game with people I'd only see a couple of times a year otherwise.

The play style is a little different, but it's still fun. I find that 2.5 hours is optimal rather than the 3 to 4 I'd usually do face-to-face. All changes to match the medium.

9 August 2021 (belatedly)

#RPGaDay2021 - 8 - Stream

 

Day 8 - Stream

Today we have 'Stream'.

I can't get streaming actual plays. I know that it's done wonders for the hobby through channels like 'Critical Role' but it leaves me cold. I guess that it fits with the part of me that prefers blogs and podcasts to vlogs. 

I guess I'm a dinosaur in some respects. Give an enchanted stream like the one in 'The Hobbit' over an actual play any day. I'd rather be 'actually playing'. 

That said, if you don't have an active gaming scene, or conventions to go to, streaming does give you an idea of how a game actually works. I have deliberately selected games at conventions to see how they run before now, and I suspect that streaming gives a different route for people to do the same.

8 August 2021 (belatedly)

Books in July 2021

 

Closing on 52

July saw large gaps in reading fiction, as I was either working through RPGs or running RPGs and then a burst of reading at the end of the month. My fiction reading had a very East German feel as I ploughed through David Young's Stasi series.

Stasi State aka A Darker State

Stasi State (Karin Müller #3) (David Young)

The third Karin Müller book dives even darker as Karin and her team investigate a teenage book who is found dead in a river on the border with Poland. The Stasi are more obstructive than ever (and seem to be in conflict internally) and the investigation ends progressing unofficially. This didn't make pleasant reading as it brought out prejudices against LGBTQ people within the state despite their official acceptance.

I was initially confused as I bought this as 'A Darker State' and it was renamed 'Stasi State' subsequently to align with the rest of the series.

Stasi 77 (Karin Müller #4)

The fourth of the Karin Müller series, this story finds her team investigating murders that tie back to the end of the Second World War. It fills in the backstory of several of the supporting characters. Overall I enjoyed this; the tension between the Stasi and the Kripo has a different motivation to usual, and I enjoyed the story much more as it explored how people left behind their past in the Nazi regime.

Marvel 1602 (Neil Gaiman)

An impulse purchase after hearing it being discussed on the Fictoplasm podcast. Although I've enjoyed the MCU, I've never been a massive comics fan(*), so I suspect that there may be Easter eggs in this that I'm missing.

Neil Gaiman tells an interesting tale of a multiverse where heroes manifest 300 years earlier than they do in the main Marvel timeline, and they become embroiled in the conflict between Elizabethan England and the Catholic European mainland. Under all this turmoil, a threat has emerged that threatens reality. I enjoyed this and would happily read more in this setting.

Stasi Winter (David Young)

The fifth of the Karin Müller books sees her team put into an impossible situation when they are sent to investigate a murder during a brutal winter on the Baltic coast of East Germany. The situation accelerates rapidly out of her control, and the inherent tensions in her team come to the surface after the revelations of previous novels.

Hansel & Gretel (Neil Gaiman)

A starkly but evocatively illustrated take on the Hansel and Gretel story penned by Neil Gaiman. I enjoyed this.

The Stasi Game (David Young)

The final (for now) Karin Müller story sees her drawn into a murder investigation in Dresden which uncovers links back to the firebombing of the city during the Second World War. Demoted after the outcome previous story, she is increasingly disillusioned with the way that the DDR is being run. Tensions raise between the Stasi and MI6 as Müller's team become pawns between the intelligence agencies. I enjoyed this but there are elements in the final denouement that didn't seem to make any sense. Fortunately, they don't undermine the story and could be written off to someone taking an irrational emotional judgement at the last moment.

A Study in Emerald (Neil Gaiman)

A clever twist on Sherlock Holmes combined with Lovecraftian mythos.

8 August 2021

#RPGaDay2021 - 7 - Small

 

Day 7 - Small

Today's word is 'small'. 

I'm increasingly attracted by smaller format games, especially self-contained ones. I love the 6x9 / digest format, especially in hardcover. It's portable and convenient, and also works brilliantly when transferred to PDF for an e-Reader. I find that full-size books tend to get read more slowly, as they're less convenient. They're also much more space-efficient; I have too many RPG books and adding smaller ones causes less shelf stress. And certainly less stress with the better-half about the shelves.

A significant turn-off for me is when a publisher makes a big thing about how huge their book is. I'm more interested in the quality of the writing, the hooks and how well it's laid out. Size doesn't reflect useability. 

When City of Mist arrived in its original format, it was a massive turn off for me. I had a glorious looking volume the size of the old Yellow Pages and Phone Directories combined, too heavy to read easily and with aspects of the layout that were out of scale with the book. I'd been expecting 6x9 from the mock-up. They've subsequently fixed this with the new edition, but the hugeness meant it took me more than a year to get the game to the table properly.

I have the trilogy of core books for D&D5e, but two of them are rarely used. The Player's Handbook is referenced most often, with the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide only coming out occasionally. Perhaps part of that is because I'm running a pre-made campaign using a VTT with the Player's Handbook and Monster Manual integrated into it, so I don't need to reference books. The focus on having most of what you need in the Player's Handbook makes sense; this is the heart of the game. It may not be 6x9, and it could do with some taughtening, but it's clear, well presented and focused.

Size matters, but perhaps not in the way tradition suggests.

'Small'. Concise, clear, focused. These are winners for me. 

7 August 2021 (belatedly)

#RPGaDay2021 - 6 - Flavour

 

Day 6 - Flavor. I'm predisposed to dislike the flavour of today's entry due to the use of the American-English spelling of the word in the graphic.

There are certain flavours of roleplaying games that draw me in. Science-fiction (of the harder variety), conspiracy, espionage, noir and modern-day horror tend to attract me. Fantasy less so, although I can't seem to resist reading OSR campaigns and scenarios and even some of the D&D5e ones. However, I suspect that Curse of Strahd and Ghosts of Saltmarsh are somewhat atypical for D&D. I do so want to get into Eberron as the idea of noir D&D floats my boat.

When I talk about hard-SF, I'm not always meaning that it's mostly technology that we could envisage, more that it is internally consistent and doesn't stretch credulity too much. Some degree of magitech is fine, as it follows Clarke's law. 

I don't like horror games for shock and gore; I prefer the revealing of secrets, dark plans and fear. I don't mind the odds being stacked against the characters, but I do mind some of the tropes from Call of Cthulhu, especially convention Call of Cthulhu. There should always be a way - at some level - to solve the mystery or at least have some choices that seem meaningful. I do enjoy aspects where reality is no longer solid; the Yellow King, the Esoterrorists and Delta Green all lean into this. I quite like the idea of fairy tales, and dream-reality but I've never found a game that nails that genre for me.

I'm still searching for that perfect espionage game; Cold Shadows is close, but the system sucks and the rulebook suffered from needed a proper edit to make it tight. I keep on meaning to hack it with Wordplay/Tripod, although I have a sneaky feeling that there could be a deeply satisfying campaign game out there if you used the Forged in the Dark engine.

Then again, I loved running Old-School Essentials recently, so there's always space for a decent vanilla flavour too.

6 August 2021 (Belatedly)

#RPGaDay2021 - 5 - Throne

 

Throne?

I can't believe I'm already playing catch-up on #RPGaDay this year. 

Throne is intriguing. Do you know who the rulers are in your game, or is it something that you plan to explore? If I think back to my earliest gaming days using B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands with Basic D&D, it didn't really matter who was the monarch for the setting. The reality was the local power brokers were much more important to you and your characters. The rest of the setting felt distant. 

It's a similar thing for Traveller. You lived in the Third Imperium, but it was distant and day-to-day life was rarely affected by Imperial forces or the machinations of the Emperor. It was a backdrop and the local realities of the tension with the Zhodani and the fight to make a profit on your starship to keep it running were the dominant aspects of your character’s lives. This perfectly mirrored the source fiction like Azimov's Foundation and Andre Norton's Solar Queen books.

If you fast forward to today, who rules is more important and much more in your face. The frontier feel has gone, and there are less spaces to explore as a GM and player. The D&D Starter and Essentials books are set in a very defined setting. The published Traveller material has long since abandoned points of light and adopted splatbooks for sectors that leave very little space to explore truly. The Throne has come closer and - in doing so - the feeling has changed.

Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. I loved the chance to influence King Dain with my dwarf character in The One Ring. The Duchess of Daggerford just gave me a chance to link the characters together before they entered Barovia and the Curse of Strahd. The opportunity to meet the Emperor Strephon in the MegaTraveller campaign Arrival Vengeance was an emotional experience. It's just a change of focus. In the early days of gaming - and I'm thinking RuneQuest, Traveller and D&D here - you often started as inexperienced and developed to become heroes. These days, most games see your character further down that development curve. There is clear water between the B/X D&D presented in Old-School Essentials and the meta since third edition D&D. The difference can be delicious.

5 August 2021 (belatedly)

Running the Hole in the Oak (OSE)

All that prep...

I ran The Hole in the Oak for Old-School Essentials tonight, with a group of players from the Gaming Tavern (Forum and Discord) using the Role VTT. I had fun. I don't know if we will do a second session but whatever happens, it was fun. It's been a long time since I ran BX D&D.

OSE is really well put together, but I did have some flicking around as the DM, and a couple of times I struggled to find a reference. However, the players were very forgiving. 

I'd forgotten how ineffective characters can be - thieves with a 15% chance to pick a lock, characters missing a mid-range target 75% of the time and more. All things that D&D3e and onwards addressed through increased competency, raised hit points and mechanical developments like feats. However, there's a certain charm to the desperation.

The players successfully bypassed three traps (two of which they either triggered or identified and the third they just walked away from). They managed to pick a path through the dungeon that avoided most of the creature encounters. They discovered one of the boss monsters but escaped by locking it in its own room. The ingenious use of a light spell saved them from a shadow monster.

It was going really well, right up to the point they found the wight. Two retainers had their life force drained (including poor Bob, who everyone liked) completely. One of the PCs and another retainer are now Level 0 and fighting for life. They managed to lock the wight back in its chamber, but will stay there now they've defiled its rest and stolen its magic sword?

25% of the party are dead, and another 25% are reduced to normal human level. One magic-user has cast his spell. One of the two lanterns is in the chamber with the wight. But they have gold, and treasure and are mostly healthy.

Role worked flawlessly for AV, and the only mapping issues came from me (forgetting to add tokens for the retainers, fortunately, resolved for by First Age loading them from his account). It would have been nicer to have had fog of war effects as well.

I used the standing desk and the honest truth was that it gave me a much better experience of GMing than sitting at a computer desk. I forgot how much I like to stand when running.

This does make me want to set up the drop-in game I've been considering for Castle Xyntillan using OSE. I think it would be fun for the occasional raid. I've been building it with dynamic lighting using Roll20, but part of me wonders about use Role if the fog of war is implemented.

The Tally

16 locations visited.

2 dead retainers

1 drained retainer

1 drained PC

1 Shadow killed - 35xp - via a devious use of the light spell

1 Wight defeated - 25xp

1 angry Ogre

2 traps disabled

1 secret door discovered

45gp

42sp

15gp brass skull necklace

50gp silver box with dust

20 strange black tomato-like fruits

A magic sword

They've not made a huge haul yet, but they've more than covered their expenses.

It's not something I'd want to do regularly, but it was fun and I'd happily do the occasional drop-in session. I wonder how the players feel!

4 August 2021

#RPGaDay2021 - 4 - Weapon

 

Day 4 - what's your weapon?

I used to get all excited about weapons in games, pouring over stats and trying to get the best load out. However, as the combat elements become less and less important to me as a player and a GM, I've lost interest in this side of the gaming experience. An assault rifle is an assault rifle to me; I'm not bothered about the nuances. Sure, cover adding a scope or a grenade launcher, but I don't have interest in more granularity than that. It was really interesting to watch the contact between the very old school simulationist Twilight 2000 gamers with the much more modern and narrative broad brush approach of Fria Ligan in the new fourth edition of the game. There was a huge cultural gulf.

However, if you're talking about an interesting weapon, like a sentient sword, or the guns and equipment with AI recordings of former brothers-in-arms like those that Rogue Trooper is carrying, then I'm definitely up for that.

Sitting in my PDF files I've a copy of Artefact, which is a zine based solo RPG where the focus is a magical weapon or artefact and whose hands it has passed through. I'll probably explore this once the print copy arrives as it looks like an interesting way to generate a backstory. The author has also produced Bucket of Bolts, which does similar things for a starship. 

4 August 2021 (retrospectively)

#RPGaDay2021 - 3 - Tactic

 

Day 3 in the #RPGaDay2021 House

TACTIC. Something that can be very important in some games, less so in overs. Generally, the more rolls that you need to resolve it, the more important your tactic or approach is. With a narrative engine, you'll build an overall approach, and usually resolve it in one (or at least a few rolls). The minutiae of the approach matters more when you've more crunch in the game (or at least when that crunch gives you options beyond grinding out a result). 

Take D&D for example. In my Curse of Strahd game, we had the encounter with the Hags where the players had their characters charge straight in, despite knowing that this was an incredibly dangerous encounter. They nearly got wiped out; no one actually got to death saves but they ended up retreating. The next time, they used tactics, dividing the opposition and being much more clever about their approach.

Sometimes the players get the tactics spot on. I ran a heist game in Traveller one convention and they managed to very cleverly line everything up, and when it came to the dice rolls we ended up with the characters pretty much pulling it off perfectly. An anti-climax for me, but a fun win with one over the referee(*) for the players.

I like it when the players are clever and use tactics, even when it goes wrong. It shows that they're engaging with the game engine as well as the story.

3 August 2021

#RPGaDay2021 - 2 - Map

 

Day 3

The MAP is really important to me in roleplaying games because I find it really hard to grok a setting without it. A decent map has me thinking about how things link and what I can do. 

And yet, I can handle abstractness for a MegaCity. The relative positions don't matter that much in a faceless sprawl. However, when you get out into the Cursed Earth and find a small town with a scenario in it, then the map is important. 

The style is key too. That Mongoose Traveller Judge Dredd town map in the Cursed Earth was drawn like a fantasy map, and it instantly killed the book for me as it felt so out of place. There's part of me that would like every wilderness map to look like an OS Landranger, because I love the clarity of the presentation, but the reality is that it isn't the right style.

Maps are a language to communicate facts swiftly and clearly. Good keying can make the world of difference. Old-School Essentials nails this with maps that show locations and creatures so you have an instant overview. The local area of the map is then repeated next to the descriptions. It's a style I first saw in Maze of the Blue Medusa, but that's one of those books people don't like to talk about because of one of the authors.

Map styles can define a game; blue-lined dungeons are early D&D for me. Hex starmaps are Traveller. 

VTTs have me thinking differently. Do I have the map there for the players and if I do, will it lose some of the feel of discovery? In the OSE game, I'm running this week, I'm letting the players map so they can get the feel of the game as it was. It'll be interesting if it works.

Lack of a map can make a game unusable for me. Cold City had this issue. The map of Berlin was dire and I didn't know enough to do it myself. My mind just couldn't work it. I've subsequently found a decent Allied map of the city from the occupation after the war, which all of a sudden makes the game approachable.

I really love maps. Perhaps it's the Geography A-Level coming out.

2nd August 2021

Games in July 2021

 

The July Update

July saw pretty much the same pattern as the rest of the year; Gumshoe (The Yellow King & Trail of Cthulhu) and D&D5e (Curse of Strahd) are dominant game systems. It's possible that Gumshoe may take the lead by the end of August as the Strahd game is on a month's break. If this happens, it'll be the first time in the last two years that something other than D&D5e will be my most played game.

That said, I've one or two sessions of Old-School Essentials (the B/X retroclone) planned so D&D as a whole will probably hold its position static.

I'm hoping to run a Troika! game in September, and it's also fair to say that my mind is starting to look towards Furnace. I've offered 'Through Sunken Lands' but part of me is wondering if I went too quickly with that as I have a whole bunch of systems I'd like to run. I'm also starting to feel a yearning for some Sci-Fi, so we'll need to see where that gets too.

2 August 2021

#RPGaDay2021 - 1 - Scenario

Here we go again.

So RPGaDay is back and for a moment I considered being curmudgeonly about it, but then discounted it.

Today's word is SCENARIO. It's funny how we aren't consistent in the terms that we use; modules, scenarios, adventures, campaign books, adventure paths. I guess a scenario is meant to be a shorter, perhaps two to four hour session length challenge for your players. My approach to them differs depending on what I'm running and who I'm running it for. For convention games, I usually focus on making sure the characters have hooks to each other and to the plot (if there is one) or alternatively, I'll make sure that there are some beats that drive choices if I'm running a more sandbox based game.

For the Curse of Strahd campaign, I tend to think in terms of sessions or episodes. It's a sandbox, but the way that the plot is constructed, there are usually one or two routes forward. When we complete a section I'll usually ask to miss an evening and also ask for a steer from the players where they may want to go and what they may want to do. It's starting to be a challenge to keep the threads together; for the session last week I ended up re-reading all 28 write-ups that I'd done to try and draw some hooks back and forward and also to make sure I hadn't misremembered something. I'm using the 5e book, with three other takes on the campaign as references and sometimes it means I think that the players have done something when the may not have.

Anyway, scenarios. They're the heart of what a GM presents to the players, but they're only a framework. They rarely survive contact with the players to remain in the state and path that you had expected. And that is a good thing, because it's how the GM gets to explore the setting they present.

1 August 2021

PS - Roll a D8 and halve it? Come on Autocratik, have you never heard of the Caltrop Pyramid of Doom, aka the D4? What kind of heresy is this?