#RPGaDay2024 - 0 - It's back

This year's RPGaDay (full text list here)

Each time August approaches I start by thinking I'm not going to do RPGaDay, but I keep on coming back. There are some interesting questions this year so I'll dig in and give it a go, but I may not do them all. You can find a full text list of the questions here on Autocratik's blog entry announcing 2024.

31 August 2024

First Impressions - Broken Compass: Jolly Roger

A pirating we go!

My latest read is the second 'season' for Broken Compass, Jolly Roger, which is a supplement that explores the golden age of piracy in the Caribbean. The format is pretty much identical to Golden Age, which I covered earlier this month. I'll try and keep this overview top level.

Jolly Roger is a 224-page digest-sized hardcover full colour supplement, once again done in the style of a journal and with a bookmark ribbon. The cover shows a pretty spectacular confrontation at sea between two ships. A pirate ship with black sails with a Jolly Roger emblazoned at the front and a red pennant flying at height bears down on another vessel which is broadside on to it. Our perspective is from the deck of the ship that is broadside on. We see a figure at the side of the ship, dressed in a red coat and hat, holding to the rigging as they watch the pirate vessel. Beside them are two cannons, but no crews. The deck is tilted and there is sea spray, and the pirate vessel looks in motion. There's an ambiguity to whether the protagonist is the victim or the attacker. Once again, all the gorgeous art through this book is by Daniella Giubellini, and the writing team remain the same.

This manual is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules 

The book opens with a health warning that this isn't a history book, but rather an attempt to capture the golden age of piracy as seen in films, books and video games. It's more in the Jack Sparrow space than exploring murder, thievery and the history of the Caribbean in the 1700s (1716 to 1726 to be more precise). However, the book doesn't shy away from the realities of the slave trade.

The book describes Captain Emanuel Wynn's creation of the Jolly Roger, the start of three decades of pirate activity, before moving into game rules. The Fortune Master is pointed at Golden Age as a reference if elements of the supernatural are to be introduced. 

The character creation guidance opens with a new set of potential motivations for having gone to sea, and suggests that the 'workplace' selection moves from a country to using organisations. There's a short discussion of women on board ship which references Mary Read and Ann Bonny, but observes that in historical reality there were very few who chose this path. However, it then says to ignore that do and do what pleases you most, which I think most gaming groups would have done anyway if playing this game.

Six new tags are introduced:

• Pirate
• Merchant
• Sailor
• Old Salt
• Person of Faith
• Scum

These are accompanied by nine new expertises. It's recommended that if you use a tag from the core rules that you swap out any inappropriate expertises using either those in this book or alternatives in the Adventure Journal. The new expertises are appropriately thematic:

• Trade
• Foul Play
• Intimidation
• Sea
• Ships
• Religion
• Cannons
• Cartography
• Ropes

The common tropes of pirates with peg legs or hooks for hands is covered by allowing you to select a permanent scar and experience (for example 'I left my leg there' could have 'I'm not afraid of sharks' if that's why you lost your leg). You then get to select a prosthesis to add to your gear to help you get by. This will allow you to ignore the scar's disadvantage in many situations. There's also guidance on how to introduce permanent scars during play.

The second section of the book dives into the Caribbean, describing the key cities of Havana, Kingston, Nassau and Tortuga (a shadow of its former self). There's a map of the Caribbean Sea. The various organisations operating in the area which could provide opposition are described, especially those with Letters of Marque and the British East India Company, which takes a hard line on pirate activities which could impact trade. The British and Spanish Navies are mentioned in passing as potential threats. The slave trade is described, roundly condemned and the text then describes the Maroons who have escaped from captivity and who may well be part of the crew of a pirate vessel. 

Technology is covered in detail; in this setting, it's the skill that allows you do all manner of engineering, keep ships running and repair guns and other weapons. Rules are given for flintlock pistols and muskets. Single shot and fiddly, they are nowhere near as good as modern weapons but they can still be effective as a ranged attack. However, reloading will take longer, so you may want to fire off then draw your blade. There's also a list of other weapons and gear that should prove useful, ranging from a trusty tricorne hat (which will protect from the sun when at sea) to a spyglass (look far with advantage). 

Wealth is more restricted than the standard game, with the characters beginning a campaign just getting by, starting with four wealth points rather than the usual six. You still get eight wealth points if you have a character who has chosen the Rich tag, but they will have to be relied on to make all purchases. The discussion of wealth rounds out with a discussion of the different currencies in place, ranging form the Real, through the Escudo to the Doubloon. However, this is really background fluff as all the purchases and treasure are in effect abstracted. 

Naturally, once wealth is covered, the conversation moves onto the fabled treasures of the Caribbean. These include Captain Henry Morgan's lost tomb, a lost Spanish treasure ship, the spring of life (rumoured to give healing and immortality), the treasure of Sir Francis Drake, the Island of Devils, and even Poseidon's Trident. As done in previous volumes, the fables around these treasures are presented rather than anything in games mechanics terms. The treasure is the McGuffin and the Fortune Master needs to tailor it to their own campaign.

Seven new extras are represented including;

• The Witch (A Vodou priestess)
• The Merchant (A rich young lady who has taken over her family's trading business)
• The Sailor (a competent quartermaster who has been followed by bad luck)
• The Navy Official (A Royal Navy Commodore who acts against pirates)
• The Monkey (a small, insolent, thieving troublemaker)
• The Pirate (a feared Captain who everyone surrenders too rather than facing)
• The Bosun (Mr Smee, along with his cat Ginger, hard-working and cheerful)

Of course, you can tailor the stat blocks for any particular character of that nature, and also draw on the Extras published in other books. 

Section III of the book explores Piracy, starting by describing the different types of characters lumped under the term 'pirates'; Pirates, Privateers, Buccaneers, and Filibusters. There's a section that describes the life of a pirate in broad brush terms followed by the Republic of Pirates on Nassau. The Pirate's code (well, more of a guideline) is covered along with a random generator for a pirate's flag. After this, individual famous pirates are discussed. These include:

• Blackbeard
• Calico Jack
• Stede Bonnet
• Anne Bonny and Mary Read
• Black Bart
• Henry Avery

Each has a two page spread which gives some background to draw upon on and details of their flag. There's a section about the Capybara, with similar underlying elements to the other books which won't be mentioned here. 

The fourth section of the book covers 'adventures on the open sea', and begins with a tailored version of the Travel Diary, called the Logbook. A big part of this section is about 'ship challenges', events were the whole crew need to pull together to achieve something with their vessel. These only come into play when everyone needs to work together. One character will lead and take a Clutch Action or Daring Action, and the others will take supporting actions. Not everyone has to take part in the challenge, but a majority need to be involved. One major difference to the core rules is that if you spend a Luck Coin to get an automatic success, there is no chance to flip it and get it back immediately. It's gone straight away. You cannot use a Luck Coin for a Daring challenge.

The difference between a Clutch action and a Daring action is the number of successes needed. If you chose a Daring action, you can bring something to a head immediately, resolving what could be a more extended challenge (for example, a chase). However, it is risky, but it may pay-off in a more extended ship challenge (such as a chase with another ship or riding out a storm). Every Supporting Challenge that is passed a critical level gives the lead character an advantage dice. However, failure to get at least a basic success will result in a disadvantage. This is the reason that in some cases it may be wise for certain characters not to become involved. 

Ongoing (extended) ship challenges will typically have up three sets of ship challenges, or more rarely five. To win the extended challenge you need to win more times than your opposition. It is recommended that a five stage challenge is very rarely done. These are the cases when a daring action may be more attractive as it gives an opportunity to resolve things swiftly.

Ship Challenges are opposed by Ship Dangers; each time a Clutch action fails, the ship and all the Adventurers on board lose one Luck Point. However, ships only have three luck points, so a third being lost leaves them at risk of going out of commission, which means it is likely to sink. Of course, that does mean you get a chance to use the shipwreck random tables to discover where your scurvy sea dog has ended up. When they wake up, or pull themselves from the ocean, they'll have gained a bad feeling. 

Naval combat is similar to shoot-out, using Ship Challenges. When you reduce an enemy ship to 'out of commission', you can board without difficulty, but if you want to do this before then you'll need to forego your attack with cannons. Failing on the test may mean that you face disadvantage but it could just mean that things were completely botched. Daring Actions will allow you to completely board and defeat an enemy if you succeed. You can also use them to escape a Ship Danger; however, if you fail in this case then you'll end up taking double losses on luck. 

There are multiple examples covering Ship Challenges, Daring Actions and Ship Dangers.

Linking back to the Ship Challenges, the different roles on a shop are discussed, along with guidance of which skills are best for which tasks. However, you're encouraged to be creative in how you apply this.

Ships themselves get their own sheet, which is very much like a vehicle sheet. The best ships can be Fast, Sturdy or Powerful (and very rarely they may have two of these characteristics. If the characteristic is appropriate to the Ship Challenge, it reduces the number of Critical Successes that need to be achieved to succeed at the challenge. Advice is also given on how to do ship repairs, and how to manage a crew, including extras.

Sea Shanties are a different approach to things; by default, any ship voyage increments the doomsday clock in the game. If the party sings a sea shanty (and two examples are given), then the clock doesn't increment. But if someone doesn't join in, then the tension rises. I think that this is a clever way to try and get the players in the right space, but it will very much depend upon who you've got in your group as to how well it lands. 

Drowning is a perennial risk in Jolly Roger, so you'll need to learn to hold your breath when swimming or diving. Character sheets have air bubbles which will be used up each turn you're underwater or if you fail a challenge or lose luck points. If you run out of air, you'll soon face certain death. If you're facing an underwater danger, like a shark or a kraken, then you will be at disadvantage when in the water. 

Duelling rules are given. These are very formal combat engagements where the first to lose 3 hits loses. Each exchange is set by the person making the assault; often the fighting skill is appropriate, but you can choose to use another (for example dexterity for a feint) if it's appropriate. When it's your opponent's turn, the Fortune Master can suggest the skill you need to use (for example, alert to avoid a feint). Duels are centre-pieces for episodes; however, sometimes they may well be interrupted if an all out brawl develops. When duelling, you cannot use a Luck Coin to automatically succeed, you can only use it to repeat a roll you don't like. The duelling rules are also used for 'diss battles', where you insult and belittle an opponent, or for wrestling. 

Gambling is handled by using liar dice. You commit a stake, then roll your dice, concealing them from your opponent. You call the best result you have out, or you can lie about it. Your opponent can call 'deceit' and check your hand if they don't believe you. If they do this, and you have lied, you can make some crime related checks to escape being noticed. These get harder if you repeat them. Once you lose your stake, your opponent wins and vice versa. 

Finally, there's a new feeling; Drunk. This can end up as a bad feeling or a good feeling, dependent upon the luck of a coin flip.

The final section is 'The Forgotten Course', an extended on-demand season in a similar manner to that presented in Golden Age. There are four example pre-generated characters, all of which look fun to play. As previously done, there is the generic on-demand season, then an example of it fleshed out (a 'context') called The Curse of El Dorado. El Dorado is the treasure at the heart of the campaign which is presented as the context. There are six episodes, and each has a briefing, the context and then the generic on-demand description. Overall, I like this campaign as it leans well into pirate tropes; however, it does assume that your players will too! 

In conclusion, I found this a much stronger supplement than Golden Age; there is more focused information (albeit broad brush) and the rules tweaks feel really thematic without adding complexity. Definitely recommended; it's not essential, but there are some great ideas within Jolly Roger which will make running a pirate campaign a lot easier.

21 July 2024

Digging into Fading Suns 4

A Spread from the Universe Book

I managed to find a copy of the Fading Suns 4 core books and I’m starting to dig into the first volume, the Universe book. It has beautiful illustrations throughout, all full colour, some full-page and some inset. The trade dress is useful - you can see the chapter you’re in clearly.

The book is set in 10pt Baskerville, a serif font which is really easy to read, but it does feel information dense. There is less overall white space than, for example, The One Ring second edition which probably drives that feeling. There is a backprint behind the text but it doesn’t really interfere for me. The book itself isn’t huge – 120-pages – but it does contain a lot of information because of the typeface and font adopted. 

As I’m reading it, I’m getting little sparks from the descriptions of opportunities to put games in the spaces. I’m enjoying settling back into this setting.

I have skimmed the separate rules book (the Character Book), but decided I wanted to remind myself why I loved this game so much when I owned the first & second editions of it before I went into games mechanics.

Overall, this is very nicely presented and clear to read. I’d rather have a shorter, tightly written book than a huge monster. I’ve just seen the advert for the refreshed edition of Ars Magica which is coming later this year and that turned me off by boasting about being 600-pages long. Bizarrely, Fading Suns 4’s core books rock in at 548-pages, but by splitting them into three sensible volumes which break out naturally, it has avoided giving me that reaction. Perhaps it’s just that I don’t like huge telephone-book or old-school family bible sized tomes?

More as I explore this further, but so far I like what I see.

17 July 2024 

Just Deserts and Cities?

 

Khosura is coming...

I saw a post about Khosura: King of the Wastelands as a new hardcover released from EMDT, and it peaked my interest. I've enjoyed their previous work, especially Castle Xyntillan and Helvéczia. It's described as a city state on the shores of a salt lake, in a desert. The book covers the city, the undercity, the surrounding desert and seems to have a lot of other hooks and support material. Naturally, I'm picking up a copy.

I've found this kind of setting fascinating ever since I played B4 The Lost City back at school. It was the first D&D game I played (instead of running) and this style of adventure keeps on drawing me back. Looking at my RPG library, I have The Halls of Arden Vul (which I've so far only got in PDF - so far) and the Palace of Unquiet Repose. Plus B4 and the I series desert modules, and others including the delightful Undying Sands. I suspect that Pavis may also have been an inspiration, but less so these days. Then again, Khosura is a city state in a desert land, so maybe it is a D&D echo of Pavis for me? The first three references here are all lost cities in the desert.

I suspect that somewhere in my head is a huge desert in which all of these exist together. Somewhere offshore from that desert continent, there's an ocean of islands, with pirates and traders, and probably the city of Freeport and the Razor Coast. Then there's another darker, wetter island with a huge forest on, with the Dolmenwood and more, and it probably stretches to a coast with fjords and Norsemen.

All these worlds and places to explore but not enough time to do so. So many lovely settings. Good thing I get pleasure from reading them as well as playing them!

13 July 2024

Fading Suns… a siren call

Cover of the new Universe Book

Bundle of Holding has two Fading Suns offerings at the moment, which encouraged me to look again at a game I enjoyed greatly, but eventually sold off because I couldn’t see it getting to the table again. If you’ve not come across it before, Fading Suns is almost a science-fantasy setting. In my mind, it’s a bit like Dune crossed with dark cosmic horror. There are echoes of the same vibe found in the (later) Coriolis. The universe is connected by jump-gates established by an ancient and lost alien people. Humanity rose to an advanced technological republic, but has since regressed to technological state run by guilds and medieval houses, ruled by an Emperor. There are lost worlds, alien threats and more.

I played the first edition and ran the second edition, and loved the setting. The engine was always a little bit crunchy, but it never really got in the way. I did muse on converting it to the Story Engine and Wordplay on a number of occasions. Perhaps the biggest disappointment I had was when the second edition line came to an end and the final part of the ‘War in Heavens’ trilogy was never published. Then again, as that was supposed to be a big reveal on the background perhaps that was a good thing, as some things are better left unsaid.

Looking through the fourth edition, which for some reason or other I didn’t back on kickstarter, the rules have been simplified and made much cleaner with a meta-currency overlay. I’m still not sure if I’d used them as I think I could very quickly port into TRIPOD. The books look lovely; clean and well laid out with great illustrations. I’m riding a wave of nostalgia with this. 

The silly thing is, I have the 2d20 Dune roleplaying game which should hit all the same notes (and has a fantastic campaign in Fall of the Imperium), but somehow it’s cleaner, sharper and a bit less evocative. There’s something about Fading Suns that draws me back and makes me want to get it to the table. I’m kind of pleased that nowhere in the UK has the core rules in stock because I’d almost certainly have impulse bought them last night. Indeed, I discovered that First Age (who shares a similar passion for this game) and I were looking at the same eBay listings last night.

I may pick this up, but if I do then I need to commit myself to run it. Let’s see where this goes.

9 July 2024

Converting Stormbringer's 'Stealer of Souls' and 'Black Sword' - final thoughts

Flow mapping the Stealer of Souls

This is the follow on post I promised earlier on converting 'Stealer of Souls' and 'Black Sword' from Stormbringer to TRIPOD, a much more narrative system, so I could run the two campaigns back to back at Longcon.

Both scenarios printed out for mark-up and reference

As previously described, I ordered the spiral-bound print-out with the scenarios and supporting material in and then re-read both modules. After the first read through, I got my reMarkable out and started to map the flow of the scenario. This stage isn't always needed, but the age of these modules meant it was a necessity. There's a huge amount of information in them, well-written from the perspective of providing all the background and options you'd want. Unfortunately, the information isn't well structured for quick use at the table, with background, location information and plot all mixed up without any clear distinction to allow you to differentiate when glancing through the text at the table. It's enough to give Bryce palpitations. 

Flow map for Stealer of Souls (reMarkable sketch)

I mapped out the nodes in the structure of the scenario, with interlinks shown in a crude flowchart. Each node had the page references, and key locations and NPCs called out. This was a way of giving me a fast way to navigate the material. I ended up with each scenario outlined in a single page. It was immediately apparent that I was dealing with two very different beasts. 

Stealer of Souls is very much a sandbox where you have to handle reactions and deal with the outcomes on how they affect the plot. The players are very much in control and the narrator just gets to roll with it. The one linear section - the chase after Pilarmo - was cut short by very clever use of a Demon of Transport by the players. Interestingly, we spent a good hour's play on an interaction with the Immyrian Mercenaries which is really a throwaway single line rumour source in the module. However, the players wanted to explore this so I rolled with it. 

Flow map for Black Sword (reMarkable sketch)

Black Sword is a linear chase, with the players only really getting control of the plot when they start to explore the more detailed nodes; Org, the Bubble Maze and Karlaak. In our game, the player's short-circuited through the Bubble Maze. If you were playing the scenario with the original engine (the Stormbringer RPG, a Basic Roleplaying D100 engine) then Nadsakor would also have become more significant and would have felt more like a dungeon crawl with beggars. Karlaak has the most agency for the players; they completely control the narrative pace and locations. Certainly, there are ways for the Narrator to push things by using Zarozinia and Moonglum, but I found that our party was in the driving seat at that point.

The linear structure for the second half was a benefit for me. I knew I had around 20 hours of gaming to fill (with a bit of flex either way), so it was a relief to know that if we got bogged down then I could cut sections of the overland trek out without the players feeling cheated. I wanted to have started Black Sword by the evening session on the first day, and we did that ably. We could have finished Nadsakor, but everyone was getting tired, so I called it at a cliffhanger point.

Several of the locations had very assumed plots; in Bakshaan, it's assumed the party will parlay before they end up assassinating the merchants. However, I lost all control of that because Freyda was a player. Fortunately, they did do the parlay, but by the time that happened, one of the merchants was already dead from a duel. The subsequent ambush nearly killed Freyda, and definitely gave the feel of a real threat.

Nadsakor is complicated; it tries to get the feel of a huge shanty town populated with outcasts, cared for by a Chaos Lord. It does it very much in the form of a dungeon crawl with potential guides. Instead, I opted to use a montage of encounters to show it off. When they met Narajhan, I did paraphrase around the box text and it was surprisingly effective at getting a feel of being in the presence of a god. 

Org was the most problematic; it assumes that your players will get swept up in a revolution, but when they decide to go down the same demigod approach that Elric did, it becomes complicated. It was gloriously messy, and also the second time that one of them was at risk of dying. 

They short-circuited the Bubble Maze by stealing a demon of knowledge to guide them out the safe way. They were even nice enough to leave it with a servant of the aged sorcerer and to tell them to take it back.

Marking up in progress

Conversion was really simple, as TRIPOD uses a narrative trait based engine that generates a pool of dice into your hand for challenge resolution. However, I took a fair bit of time to get to this following the node-mapping because I went down the rabbit hole of completely converting my old conversion notes for character generation from the melange of Wordplay (TRIPOD 1e) and HeroQuest to be completely TRIPOD.

Once I did that, I had templates for all the Stormbringer demon and elemental types, and background traits for all types of characters.

I went through the scenarios looking at scenes, characters/monsters and narrative text with three different highlighters. This allowed me to pull a selection of traits from the text descriptions and character blocks. I then looked at the relative power and looked at the table for NPCs and made a note alongside the stat block of something like '4-5/3' which translates to 4d attribute plus 5d for primary skill or 3d for a secondary skill. Equipment could be added as a bonus on the fly (most gives 1-3d), and magic was applied using the same rules the players had. I wrote most demon details down on a post-it note, as it was more convenient. If you look at the mark up above, it gives a part completed example. Yellow are character traits, Pink scene traits.

Static traps and challenges were addressed by making them a set challenge rating - typically 3d, 6d or 9d.

Overall, it worked well in the game and it never felt like I was struggling to handle the situations that presented.

Plenty of D8s

The conversion introduces D8s as the base dice for demons. These give a different spread of success to the standard D6 in the game; 1-4 is a failure, 5-6 give 1 success, 7-8 give two successes and 8 also triggers an exploding re-roll. I also messed around with lawful items; the lawful contrivance - a sword - rolled a normal dice, but gave two successes if it rolled any level of successes (ie 4-6 all gave 2 successes). In play these worked well except the first time a handful of both dice went in the dice tower and jammed it.

A lovely map of the Young Kingdoms

I printed an A1 PVC poster of the Young Kingdoms from a lovely image by Axel Maps on Deviant Art. The PVC was a good call as two drinks went over close to it. During the game we used some meeples on it to show where we thought Elric was compared to the players.

I also printed many of the maps from the scenarios out as A4s. We only used one in play, for the ambush at the start, as this was the main combat the players had. It worked well enough with a combination of meeples and dry-wipe counters.

I did one character from scratch with the new conversion rules (Freyda) and converted the Wordplay conversions of my Stormbringer campaign's characters for the others. The players picked a good mix and they seemed to work well in play.

To summarise; converting the game was pretty simple and easy to use in play. Provided you have print-out to highlight it's a fast process*. TRIPOD gave a dramatic and dynamic system where players could have heroes in play, yet feel a little vulnerable, with game mechanics that supported their growth. In the end, we played through the whole campaign. The TRIPOD engine meant that even the most intense combat sequences only took 15 minutes at most.

I enjoyed running this; feel free to ask any questions if there's more you'd like to know.

7 July 2024

*Confession - I didn't quite finish the Black Sword conversion before the con, so did the later parts of the book on Sunday morning before we reached them. It took around forty-five minutes including re-reading notes.

First Impressions - Broken Compass: Golden Age

Welcome to the Golden Age of adventure

 I've just finished reading through Golden Age, the pulp era expansion for Broken Compass. This is presented as an attractive 206-page hardcover which looks like journal with a picture of a 1930s male hero walking towards a passage in Egypt between two temples, framed by large statues of gods. Ahead, a pyramid can be seem, with a stylised sun containing an eye of Horus. It's titled 'Season 1 - Golden Age', in a very pulp typeface. The artwork throughout is some of the best that I've seen. 

The book is aimed at tailoring Broken Compass to the Golden Age of pulp, in this case the 1930s. This is the period popularised by the Indiana Jones films and others like The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. The foreword addresses some of the insensitivities of the tropes originally found the genre, especially around the role of women and 'foreigners', and the authors have taken a stance to take a more modern perspective as an assumption, while trying not to lose the tone of the originals which excited everyone. There's some scene setting material, followed by some suggested motivations for Adventurers to be, well, adventuring. A short section discusses the potential of still unexplored locations, followed by famous women adventurers and the impact of the Great War.

There are six new tags with associated expertises. They are:

• The Arcanist (with Occult Expertise)
• The Detective (with Investigation Expertises)
• The Gentleman/Lady (with Etiquette)
• The Native (with Tradition)
• The Official (with Command)
• The Smuggler (with Contraband)

The Native entry is interesting as it is intended to represent someone with a strong tie to a local culture, and mentions that it would be appropriate for a Texan cowboy as much as an Inuit in Alaska. 

Of course, you can still use the original eighteen tags, although some expertises may no-longer be appropriate (eg IT or helicopters). 

The style of the era is discussed; using surnames and formal titles, along being aware of different cultural expectations as this isn't an era of globalisation where everyone has the same norms. The  impact of the Great Depression and social inequalities is also mentioned. However, this is very top level and superficially done; it's about giving the top level notes to riff on rather than anything substantial.

The Paradox of Tolerance - it's okay to punch Nazis.

The second section discusses the world, not shying away from addressing the rising of darker regimes, and the game doesn't shy away from saying it's okay to punch Nazis (along with forces of repression and darkness). Prohibition is mentioned, before a more detailed discussion of technology along with examples of more unique weapons. Wealth is adjusted; the overall group is poorer but the riches are richer. Fast travel by air is expensive. Luxury vehicles are an option, but so is horse or carriage.

Some examples of potential treasures to search for are given; El Dorado, The Book of Thoth, Aladdin's Lamp, King Solomon's Mines, The Holy Grail, and Shambhala all get two-page spreads of background as hooks for the Fortune Master to riff on. 

There's a new list of extras (fifteen in all) who can support or even thwart the characters. It's suggested that the 1999 versions could also be useful if reskinned. There's also mention of a secret society which could be a major opponent.

The third section covers the supernatural and how its introduction can move the goal posts (for example, your rival awakens something that threatens the world). Supernatural Rivals have Servants, not Cronies. The Servants cannot be fully defeated until the Rival is, as they are protected by the powers of their patron. Rivals are defined by Legends; the game gives an example but suggests that the players and Fortune Master could collaborate in preparing a Legend. 

Supernatural Powers will tend to escalate through a series, and don't need complicated mechanics to handle. They're just Dangers which could inflict Bad Feelings on characters. There are several new Bad Feelings shared; you can be Confused, Poisoned, Cursed or Terrified. Mind Powers are discussed; by default these will be successful, unless a player spends a Luck Coin. However, these only normally work one time, which makes their impact on player agency limited. 

Defeating a Supernatural Rival will be hard; they are often immune to bullets and are usually worth at least 3 Critical Enemies mid-Season, and an Extreme Enemy at the Finale. It's suggested that the season of games furnish the players with Clues on how to both find the Treasure and how to defeat the Supernatural Rival. The Treasure should be a key part of this. 

Supernatural enemies will usually call for a Cool task to avoid becoming Terrified when you first meet them. You may also have to find a way to stop such creatures rising again if you take them out. There are a number of two-page spreads discussion Mummies, Nagas, Specters, Warlocks, Vampires and Yetis. Like the Treasures, these are written in a very player-facing way, and it will up to the Fortune Master to decide how they work in player. 

There are two suggested extra tags that the Fortune Master can give to a player; the Chosen One and the Medium. The Chosen One has some kind of connection to a sacred weapon and the Supernatural Rival and must be the one to finally defeat them. The Medium has a connection to the Supernatural which means that the Rival doesn't want them to be harmed and will actually intervene to take them away from Certain Death. The exact powers will be defined by the Legend and Fortune Master. 

The final section provides pre-generated characters and 6 episodes for an On-Demand Season called 'The Awakening'. The episodes are written in a generic manner, allowing the Fortune Master to tailor them to their own preference. This means that the Location, Treasure, Rival and Supernatural Rival can all be swapped out. However, this is then fleshed out with 'The Serpent Throne', an example campaign season set in India. 'The Serpent Throne' is 'The Awakening' implemented with Indian legends and stories. The campaign takes up most of the second half of the book, and feels like it will be good fun. It's  written quite loosely, but that works well with game engine.

Overall, I like this book. It's not essential, but it's very useful as a reference, and the campaign would be great to slot in.

7 July 2024

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Longcon 2024 - After Action Report

Two Stormbringer campaigns run with Tripod.

Last weekend I ran for a longer time continuously than I have done in years. The reason? It was Longcon. Longcon is a roleplaying convention where long-form games are the order of the weekend, rather than shorter slots of 3-4 hours. You get to spend the weekend playing a single game, so it gets time to breathe like a fine wine. I've been to one previously, when we played through a shortened version of the Dracula Dossier run by Steve Ellis that was perhaps one of the best games I've ever played in.

Longcon used to be organised by John Dodd, but he passed the mantle over to Graham Spearing in 2023 and I offered to help. Unfortunately, we found that we couldn't get enough people to get it off the ground properly on 2023 (an aborted takeoff) so we focussed on this year.  We ended up with four games and an attendance list in the mid-twenties. That's really a little too low, but with figured we should just for it as hopefully people would enjoy themselves and the word would get out. 

Preparing for the convention required three different sets of forms to prepare; one to register for attending, one for GMs to submit game details, and a third to allow players to chose their game preferences.

The registration form was pretty similar to those from Furnace and the other Garricons, except it asked if we could take pictures and also if you'd already agreed with a GM to play in their game. This was one of the changes from the way we do the other conventions; GMs could take up to half the spaces in their game for people they'd pitched to themselves. The game details form covered this and after confirming tags, age ratings and safety tools, it asked for a short pitch. We also asked GMs to describe their style and mention anything that to would be useful for players to know. Once we completed game booking, we finalised the last form. That described the games being offered, how many spaces were available, and allowed players to express a preference. However, we did give the GM a final say on who was at their table.

This was the summary for my game: 

THE STEALER OF SOULS (Tripod) - 4 spaces available

This is a hack of the classic Stormbringer RPG campaign, the “Stealer of Souls” to run using Tripod (Wordplay2). The characters are hired in a quest for vengeance in Illmoria by Freida, the daughter of the merchant Nikorn of Bakshaan, who was slain by Elric of Melnibone having made the mistake of allying himself with the Pan Tangian sorceror Theleb K’aarna. Freyda wants revenge upon the merchants hired Elric to kill her father, before she plans to go after the White Wolf himself. Why Tripod? The system runs faster and is more narratively focused than the original game and I’ve successful used its predecessor Wordplay to run Stormbringer based adventures at Furnace on multiple occasions.

Guidance - 15 rating, Adult Themes, Dark Sorcery, Demons, It would be useful to know a little about the Young Kingdoms and Elric of Melnibone, but not essential. Safety Tools: X-Card, Lines & Veils, Open Table. GM Style: Player focussed, narrative-led, open.

I had one pre-signed player (Graham) and three more players from the open sign up.

Two example badges - GMs in purple, Players in Red - the final version had the game title on the bottom  as well.

The only other preparation I really did was impulsive. We'd agreed we weren't going to do badges, but then I saw some fun 'craft-your-own' ones so ended up ordering them and did them so attendees had a little memento. I suspect Graham thought I'd gone mad when he saw them. Certainly not an option for the other cons as they have too many people, but I felt they were kind of fun.

For a long time I'd wanted to revisit the two classic Stormbringer campaigns using the Tripod engine. I'd previously run both a single session adventure ('The Song of Loess' from Adventurer magazine) and a three-part set of linked scenarios ('The Madcap Laughs' from White Dwarf Magazine) at Furnace using Wordplay (the game which Tripod is the second edition of) and they'd worked really well. I had a block of rules to make this work which needed tweaking, but hoped that having a system and scenario that I was familiar with would make things easier.

I ended up doing some of the preparation late, and ended up away from home several days the week before with work, so had some late nights (or rather early mornings) but fortunately, I don't think the tiredness ever interfered. I did end up doing some final prep for the Black Sword on Sunday morning first thing.

The two campaign books take their plots by closely following on the events from originally recounted in the Bane of the Black Sword.  This is now collected in this Gateway eBook (Amazon UK link). If you prefer a hardcover version, then I recommend this glorious set of three books - Vol 1, Vol 2, & Vol 3 - which Blackwells have the first two in stock, and Amazon have the second two. The Bane of the Black Sword is in Volume 2 "Stormbringer". Whereas Michael Moorcock was a fantasy must-read when I was younger, it appears that it has subsequently become somewhat obscure, which disappoints me.

One of the players - Debbie - had taken the protagonist from the scenario, Freyda Nikon, the daughter of a merchant whose father had been killed by Elric of Melniboné at the behest of four rivals. I was glad that she had, because it meant that I wasn't having to focus on keeping credible and engaged NPC in action with the party the whole time. She embraced the challenge of seeking down her father's killers and having vengeance magnificently, and it was lovely to see the character growth over the two days. What was even more fascinating was that a driver for this was a failure on a roll that drew upon her goal of vengeance. This planted a seed of doubt (a game mechanic) and meant the story adjusted.

The other players had versions of characters that my old Stormbringer group had. Jon had a half-Melnibonéan scoundrel, Remi a fallen knight of the Church of Law, and Graham had a somewhat light-fingered sailor and bodyguard from the Purple Towns.

The first two sessions played out with a story of revenge, as Freyda parlayed with the people who commissioned her father's death, faced legal threats to take her inherited fortune off her, killed one in a duel, escaped an assassination attempt, and then stormed the houses of two of the merchants with murder in mind. Finally, they tracked down and slew the one of the quartet who had fled town. In the latter element, they used a bound Demon of Transport very creatively to catch up with and coldly kill the final victim in his sleep. Naturally, a small fortune was retrieved off most of their enemies.

The evening session took the source of a rumour at the Imyrrian camp and turned it into whole exposition of a dying culture, with associated debauchery and decadence. I didn't expect this to play out the way it but was just riffing on the way that the players responded. We were very careful; I made sure all the agency and suggestions came from the player group, not me, and naturally veils were drawn. I did love the way that Remi's knight simmered and didn't want to get drawn into this decadence. There was also a scenarie

The party pushed on into Nadsakor, the city of Beggars, and we ended the first day with Freyda offered the aid of a Chaos Lord and on a cliffhanger whether to accept.

We had a pint and a natter in the bar after, but I was tired so went to bed pretty early.

The final two session saw the offer negotiated, and then a visit through the Forest of Troos (beating off a beastman attack), followed by the party participating in the collapse of the Kingdom of Org in fire and plague. Although I do like this section, it was somewhat scripted, but naturally the players decided to bypass this. It almost became very messy when they reach the citadel of the Kingdom, but fortunately, the chaos around meant the murder of the guard was missed.

The party then entered the Weeping Wastes, befriended Nomads. At this point (around lunch) Remi had to go, so his character chose to stay with the Nomads to try and find some piece, perhaps to search for the City of Tanelorn afterwards. Going deeper into the wastes, the party were accosted by agents of an ancient sorcerer from an alien race who had ongoing enmity with the Melnibonéans, and taken to a refuge deep in the Badlands. Fortunately, they spotted to way to get out easily, stealing the Demon of Knowledge the sorcerer depended upon and using it to plot a swift escape.

They retrieved their horses and made it to the city of Karlaak, where Elric had settled down with his new love Zarozinia. Elric was out of town, but the party met Zarozinia and Moonglum, Elric's sidekick. Moonglum also gave them a stark warning about the dangers of fighting Elric and his hellsword Stormbringer. Finally, in a private room in the Inn, Freyda met Elric. I honestly didn't know if this would become a fight or not, but somehow things were settled honourably. They recognised that perhaps in other circumstances, they could have been friends.

We finished the scenario at 1630. I'd run from 10:30 to around 22:00 on Saturday and 10:00 to 16:30 on Sunday. We'd had decent meal breaks. 

What I loved about Longcon was the chance to let a scenario breathe. Although there is a timer for the convention (it finishes at 1800 on Sunday), it never felt as upfront as it does when you are running a 3-4 hour slot. Spotlight was shared and things from the earlier part of the game affected the decisions later on. Of course, I did have break points for the second day if we'd been running behind, but I didn't need to use them.

The players were fantastic, and I had a lot of fun. I was very tired the start of this week though; it's been a long time since I've done this kind of thing for such a sustained period; these days the closest I come to this is if I run a training course.

Tripod rose magnificently for the game; just enough crunch for fun, but light enough to fade to the background. The spread of the dice rolls meant even if you were a hero, you were never certain if you'd win out. Converting the scenario was simple; I'll cover that in another post though. 

Overall, a fantastic weekend and one that we will be repeating next year. But do I run or play?

4 July 2024

 

Games to June 2024

 

29 games this year

The last three months have been frustrating from the perspective of the two campaigns that I've been involved in, with less games than I expected. I added fourteen game sessions over the quarter, but ten of them were at face-to-face conventions (North Star and Longcon).

Eternal Lies for Trail of Cthulhu has been plagued with scheduling issues as real life(tm) has got in the way several times. I'd have hoped to have managed four or five sessions but we've had none for three months (such are the perils of playing fortnightly and having issues come up). I have a game scheduled for this evening so I'm hopeful that we'll get back into this again as it's been great fun.

Shadows of Atlantis for Achtung Cthulhu continues to tick along, but with a player change. Tom dropped out as he wasn't feeling the love, especially with the tentacles, and Duncan has joined up. We've maintained a stead drum-beat of adventures and have just concluded the third chapter. Overall, I'm enjoying running this but the layout and structure of the campaign leaves a lot to be desired. Our next session will be set in Persia, as the characters have just arrived there from Egypt.

North Star saw me run three and play two. It was fun, and I've covered it elsewhere on the blog. Longcon was this last weekend, and I'll be doing a short write up later in the week, so I shall confine this to saying I had five sessions of fun, running both Stealer of Swords and The Black Sword for Stormbringer using the Tripod rule set. It's a long time since I've run for such a sustained period and I do feel tired as I write this!

 I'll be reading through some more books in the perpetually regenerating reading pile now I'm clear of conventions until October, and hope to complete getting Castle Xyntillan onto Roll20 and perhaps even run a game of it. I'm hoping to make it a semi regular pick up and play game. I also would like to try that one of of Old Gods of Appalachia and also perhaps Outgunned. Realistically, succeeding with one will be a win!

Until the next update.

2 July 2024

Books in June 2024

The reading rate in June

June 2024 saw me read 7 books for a total of 2,333 pages, bringing me to a total of 49 books and 14,792 pages for the year so far. I'm 3 books off the target I set myself (which is 52 books, or a book per week).

Of the books read, two were non-fiction, four were fiction and was a role-playing book.

The non-fiction books were Ian Dunt's "How Westminster Works... and Why it Doesn't" and Cal Flynn's "Islands of Abandonment". The former is a very clearly written description and analysis of the UK political system, along with some modest suggestions of how to make a real difference in its effectiveness, suggestions which I doubt will be implemented even if the government changes this Thursday as the status quo of antagonistic winner-takes-it-all functionality favours any government's agenda. The latter is a beautiful set of visits to places across the globe that humanity has retreated from and nature has started to recover. Both of these were audiobooks, listened to when driving between sites.

The roleplaying book was "Broken Compass", which I have reviewed elsewhere on this blog. I'm over halfway through the first supplement for this as well, but stopped reading it to focus on Longcon. I read Broken Compass because I wanted to get a feel for the evolution into Outgunned and was wondering if it would work to hack some other more crunchy games into it (such as Space 1889). The short answer is yes, it would work very well.

The novels started with "Beyond the Light Horizon" by Ken MacLeod, the final part of the Lightspeed Trilogy. This brought the stories to a satisfying ending, and was very enjoyable. I do like the way that MacLeod continues to fly the flag for socialist utopias in science-fiction, even though it's probably a more lonely path since his friend Iain Banks died. I then moved onto Mick Herron's "This is What Happened", which I thought was going to be a spy drama echoing Slow Horses, but it was very much not that and went to unexpected places. Very well done and a little creepy.  After this, I dug into "Death in Blitz City" by David Young, a story set in the Second World War in Hull with a police team investigating a number of brutal murders. The author previously wrote the Stasi Child series of books and it was an enjoyable detective story. 

My highlight of the month (narrowly pipping Ken MacLeod's "Beyond the Light Horizon") was SA Chakraborty's "River of Silver", which is a collection of short stories set around, before and after the Daevabad trilogy. It was wonderful to dip back into this universe of Arabian Nights and Djinn and find a little more about the back story and what happened next. Definitely recommended but read the trilogy first, it's great fun.

I did also read two Stormbringer roleplaying game books fully, twice as part of Longcon preparation, but it seems a little churlish to include them (plus I didn't have time to add them to The StoryGraph!).

1 July 2024