It is done

A task only marginally less arduous than delivering a ring to a volcano has now been fulfilled - we have our upcoming games, both scribing and subscribing has commenced. Thanks to one of the many Daves for levelling up last week and herding the roleplaying cats into ther respective litter trays.

There was the sense that there was some burnout with regard to all the recent SciFi being played so GM Elena has transitioned from Cyberpuk 2020 to D&D to scratch all the dungeon crawling itching at the moment. D&D is always popular of course and the game did get oversubscribed within about seven seconds but at the end of the day there are enough good souls  among us to spread themselves out accross all of the games so we can cover enough bases if people are away of an evening. The three winners are The Spire, D&D and Scum and Villainy. 

GM Alex is running S&V in a Star Wars context from which it draws its title of course but it's not specifically designed for that universe. Its interesting to what extent a game can remain generic and yet still fill the boots of subgenres that are full of lore. Star Wars, Star Trek and Stargate - just to take a few of the stars as examples - all have a deply rooted culture, are quite distinct and fans if not players will be looking for an authentic experience. This does necessitate the use of very specific equipment and interaction with iconic cultures - The Borg, The Empire and the Goa'Uld respectively for example. I guess whether you go for a more custom system or not depends on the work you are prepared to put in as a GM tho if you are a fan you could do a lot off the cuff provided you are consistent for those persistent geeky questions.

More Roleplaying ?

As always when we rotate games there is the persistent issue of what players want to play and what GMs want to run. Now its a given that it's not possible to keep everyone happy all the time I have suggested that we have some sort of last man standing knife fight or perhaps a mud wrestling contest in bikinis. Whilst I am prepared to drop the bikinis, neither option seems to have taken traction but I do feel that people have become too spoilt with on demand TV and doorstep delivery services these days. When I was fighting in the Napoleonic wars our deliveries were done by cannon and we used stale loaves of bread as D6s.

Nevertheless it seems that some of our players have overdosed themselves on some of the recent sci-fi games and now fancy switching channel to a good old hack and slay. The games on offer however are Scum and Villany, Spire and Cyberpunk 2020 - not D&D. S+V is a game based around the Sci Fi opera and is designed to be run with archetypes and episodically along the lines of Beebop Cowboy and Firefly. It's based on the Blades in the Dark system which despite being wonderfully narrative has attraced criticism for it's mechanics and over specialisation, not that I found this an issue and I do like the ability to develop ones cirminal faction which I presume translates to developing ones ship in the sci fi realm. 

Cyberpuk is what is says on the tin, the tin in question being a cost effective and illeagal AI implant that glitches on its owner resulting in a backup intelligence occasionally taking over and wreaking havoc. It's the cookie cutter for futuristic noodle bars, off world colonies, and dodgy augmentations.

The Spire is not one I know but seems to revolve around a secret war between Elven castes - the High Elves living in the Spire and the Dark Elves tying to overthrown them. I do like the artwork as well as the take on the classes and it's an interesting perspective on Elves for sure but it does punk up a bit - I believe fantasy-punk is the correct phrase. I have managed to find an excellent review from Andrew Logan, another of our kin in the blogsphere.

http://andrewloganmontgomery.blogspot.com/2018/03/spire-rpg-review.html

So what do we do when the games dont quite fit the player base at any given time ? Well if the mud wrestling is out then there is only evolution by natural selection. Players do what players do but I wonder if we should go back to four games and encourage the GMs to post a couple of spare places on meetups ? It would beat driving around town and pickup people off the street like the Jesus Army. 

Fellowship of Something

I was sad to miss GM Dave's one shot over Christmas, 'A glitch in the Christmas Matrix' but was lucky enough to catch GM Pietro's one shot last week based on the wonderfully narrative game of Fellowship by Jacob Rundolph. Initially I presumed it was a parady on the Lord Of the Rings and I may well be partly correct but on the playthrough it was readily apparent that the system could be played quite properly.

For my part I took on the Gandalf equvalent of "Harbinger" to 'remove evil from this world at all costs' and whilst the system never makes direct reference to Tolkien, all of the key narrative aspects of the characters have been distilled into specific abilities. So for example one of the harbinger traits is "Angelic Remenants" - Your people are what remains of the diving beings who created this world, and your extraordinary powers are what lingers of their gifts." This trait then allows the use of  "Speak Softly" (sort of telekenesis) with someone whos name is known. Basically its like the scene from the film when Galadriel speaks into the minds of the other characters.

Whilst there are other traits that diverge from the Tolkien context they are all faithfully narrated and offer very general abilities that can be tailored to any specific situation. Its hard to put a finiger on it but it works very well - its easy to pick up, narratively descriptive making it very immersive, flexible for experienced roleplayers and integrates roleplaying by design. I do believe it may be a work of art.

Anyways there are also additional modules and expansions still in waiting at the kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1552912590/fellowship-2nd-edition

Resoultions

The new year is supposed to start with some resolutions I gather. Whilst I have not been a huge fan of gym membership, being tidy and generally being polite (though it's not that I haven't tried)  it's just that I don't have the stats. Basically whomever rolled me up before I was born put the highest numbers into mouse clicking and science fiction. Dex and charisma was a long way down the list and I'm not sure I have ever faced a will check... except perhaps for someone's bad jokes.

However another advantage of our hobby is that we can always delegate off our existential crises to our in game characters to get that feeling of satifaction, pride and completion, so for the new year may I suggest a selection of resolves:

How about a new combat skill for January ? 4e Resolute Shield - As you slash into your foe, you pull your shield into a defensive position between the two of you, guaranteeing that it absorbs at least some of your enemey's attack.

Perhaps join the Hellriders in the Forgotten Realms.. The Creed Resolute was a set of oathes and maxims sworn by the Paladins of the Order of Elturgard and the Hellriders of Elturel and eventually all the citizens in the late 15th centuary

You could do worse that pick up the Resolute supershero game for $3  - somewhat modelled on the X Men universe its is a little incomplete regarding combat mechanics and indeed there is no formal character sheet, but its cheaper than a kebab.

Perhaps sharpen your dark side skills with the Star Wars Sage edition talent Weaken Resolve - you fill the target with terror, causing it to flee from you at top speed for 1 minute.

Or if, like me, you are not yet back on speaking terms with your large intestine after Christmas then you can just buy resolve in a box.

Happy Cyberpunk

Not sure if it was the future you were expecting but its here anyway and as the turkey and stuffing are finally recycled into nutrient cubes we can look forward to a fun packed year of  gaming and generally sarcastic social interaction.

Our new year is always slightly delayed as a club - whilst there is the natural instinct to fire off new games at the beginning of January, the Christmas period is always fairly volatile with respect to routine and GMs don't really have a good opportunity to round off their narratives. So we sort of aim for new games at the end of January and we already have several ideas on the table and we will ruminate over the next few weeks. 

In retrospect, last year has been a very respectable round up with D&D, Nameless land, Warhammer, Sentinels, Walking Dead Thing, Star Trek, 13th Age and Torg. We have travelled to many places so far but our journey is far from complete. 

Santa the Sleigher

In the Grim Darkness

It was a pleasure to sit in on the Dark Heresay last week and GM Alex's vision of the crushing life led by the dregs of humanity choking in the underworld factories of the great Hive Cities delivered a very authentic experience. Whilst we are on mission from the Inquisition there are, as always, politics in place alongside the truth and I sense there are corporate factions that have had a hand in our murder investigations. Nevertheless, whilst the Imperium's thirst for resources will determine how tolerant it is on a planetary basis it is of course the little man that ends up being pulped in the cogs of the Imperial Bureaucracy.

Despite our sacred duty, I couldn't help but feel the gulf of empathy between me and my character. Whilst on the trail of what appears to be a ritualistic murder, albeit a likely distraction, we had the unenviable task of interrogating the victim's partner. Confirming all the baseline facts, habits and last whereabouts of her husband, the sheer oppressiveness of leaning on a desperate widow and her now fatherless child clinging to a dilapidated one room bloc habitat was harrowing. Yet still the Emperors will prevails.

Whilst dehumanisation in Sci-fi realms cuts a little too close to the mark, we have all been warned. Somewhere in a role playing game the future has already happened.

Priests of Pain

It was a while ago I had the pleasure of diving into the Nameless Land game but at the time I did have the opportunity to stand in for Andras and his post apocalyptic pain priest. There is actually a sort of library of faith based archetypes where the collapse of civilisation is concerned. This is not surprising as armageddon aside one generaly speaking associates religion with poverty and a lack of resources - after all what use is a God when you already have everything you value ? Nevetheless there is always a great opportunity for character development and I am reminded of Denzel Washington's character from The book of Eli wandering the nuclear wastes beng the last curator of the Bible.

More in context there are the Priests from the film of the same name curating the devastated planet folowing a war between vampires and humans. The human cities are ruled by The Church but in the wastelands people fight for liberation against their theocracy. There are the Grammaton Clerics from Equilibrium who enforce the Big Brother opression across all of society but of course the danger of such highly trained and trusted clerical power means that any that turn aganst their masters can be devestating.

There is the aptly named priest "Shepherd Book" aboard Serenity as part of a wonderfully balanced group of characters bringing a moral and pacifist dimension to the Firefly series in the post reaver devestated universe and I am also reminded of the Long Walk of the retired Judges from the Dredd series who take the book of law and a gun out into the cursed lands when their time in Megacity is done. Arguably there are the devout from the post apocalyptic Matrix believing in The One and the constantly challenged priest from The Walking Dead. There are the Inquisitors from Warhammer and one can even go back as far as the War of the Worlds and poor broken Nathaniel whose faith becomes delusion and denial.

I've always got the impressoin that the cleric is the last character to be chosen in a D&D game just because it has a well trodden utility but there is a huge lineage and always an off beat option somewhere between fanatically devout to insane.

Oil and Water

Scenariowise over the years I have generally preferred to roleplay the fantasy enviromnets which as I write strikes me as a little odd as I am a hard core science fiction fanatic at heart. Bar Tolkien the rest of the fantasy landscape seems derivative to me but I am also aware that this is a somewhat disparaging view where art is concerned as there are always avenues to express ideas, beauty and truth within any medium. But my Kindle would stress my former point as its laden with SciFi classics and completly void of anything with orcs in it. Void however does remain an interesting point.

There have been a significant number of classic sci fi authors who have transited into fantasy writing and there are more than a few RPG systems that combine both fantasy and scifi mechanics into the player experience but I have never felt it has worked very well really. More to the point, historically, one tends to discplace the other - where civilasation rises, science and critical thinking secularises culture. Where civilisation collapses people often only have their religion and superstitions to turn to and power structures quiclky rise based on ceremony and magic. The two facets of philosophy have always seemed mutually exclusive to me.

However talking to Jack last week regarding the Dark Heresy game, he was recounting a rather ugly fumble on his psych skills after which he detonated a void bomb damaging players and foes around him. As far as I can tell a psycher has to open and control aceess to the void in order then to focus its power with ethereal effects; though the system emphasises psychic skills over magical effects, I actually think its quite well done. Despite the void being the home of Demons it is also the medium of travel for starships so whilst this is a good example of a clash of genres it always offers the description of horrific and powerful entities living in a seperate part of the universe rather than expicity magical and supernatural realms inhabited with Gods. Conversely for the Imperium of Man, the Emperor is often revered as a God but his existence necessitates the use if technology so his rule always has a cultural context, not a divine one. Far be it for me to sound heretical but before the inquisition arrives for my latest mind wipe I'd just like to say I have made my peace with the Demons in this system.

The Statistics of Dominoes

Now its not the first time I have had dominoes at a roleplaying game. In fact Pizza is somewhat of an optimum choice in my opinion as it can be wielded one handed, shared with friends and can also be thrown. As a projectile weapon it does do extra damage if it impacts your foe cheese side first as the adhesion of liquid mozzarella has a severe burning effect akin to napalm along with a slight savory aftertaste.

Having said all this, I was genuinely surprised and intrigued as GM Dave's continued theory crafting introduced a resolution system using actual dominoes. Not only had I never seen this before, it would never even have occurred to me. Players draw a number of dominoes from a pool and play continues clockwise. As in the original game, players must place their domino corresponding to the numbers already in play but of course there are choices in doing so that will affect the next players. After having being placed, damage totals are counted back along the line and summed to get a total to resolve action.

I'm not sure I can think of the all the bizarre things I have seen in life that have sort of worked but this qualifies really although akin to all mad geniuses in their basements experimenting well in to the night with dead bodies, one can go too far I suppose. I mean I wouldn't want to be ducking for apples that have numbers on them or utilising any variant of Russian roulette. Perhaps I'll just stick to dice and Thunderball for now.

One Shot

Unbelievable. Look, I know that in the great genre of scifi horror its really only the cat that survives but honestly, two characters in two sessions! The familiar call of "Hand me Brian" went up in the previous Walking Dead Thing last Thursday as I had to play our stand in Dog once more due to a sudden increase in my characters lead content.

To be fair to GM Dave, my last character was a deliberately infected bit part so I was on the clock anyways but just like some sort of rollover Karma from a previous life Nick's character only went and bloody shot me. Well, I say me, I do actually mean Pietro's character but its one of those awkward moments as we'll see the expression on his face this week when he finds out.. perhaps he can jut carry on with a zombie instead and with a little luck he wont notice but really, this isn't going to do my reputation any good. And its not like we had plenty of bullets to spare either, any old blunt instrument  would have been fine to get a zombie dog off of me, even a doggy biscuit or did anyone think of throwing a ball, but no, Nick pulls out a gun and then pulls out a fumble. Well, woof.

I think we need some sort of green cross code for the club when it comes to shooting at other party members; it was the same in the last D&D I ran.. Remember kids, look both ways before closing your eyes and firing in random directions. Think that's going on Nick's next T-shirt.

Techno Tables

Does Baldurs Gate have an Ikea ? I wouldn't be surprised. Perhaps flat pack furniture would be considered as some sort of  arcane magic and I am already imagining a scenario where the Wizards of Ikea residing in the Tower of Laminated Chipboard, command a party to seek out the long fabled Alan Key of turning. The point is that the increasing popularity of RPGs have given birth to a whole range of role playing specific furniture and whilst the mansions of the rich and criminal would sport a billiards room or perhaps a poker lounge, its fashionable now to add a role playing table to the west wing.

I have spoken about tools of the trade before and barring a pencil and rubber there is, in principal, not much else needed. In fact I still don't understand that long standing players still tun up to Thursdays and have to borrow graphite. I wonder if it stems from trauma related to old arguments with GMs, after all, pencils can get very sharp indeed and I can imagine that after community service, a reforming role player would not be permitted to carry anything pointed for a number of years. However if you are going to splash out then do it in style.

Technology now seems to be a regular player for some GMs and  DM screens have given way to lcd screens on occasion. I don't mind it so much but as technology dominates our lives I enjoy a break from it for the most part but I wouldn't judge others. Neverthless, as the latest technology can be artistically crafted into the most traditional of designs, why not enjoy the perfect fusion of woodtech for the perfect atmosphere; woodpunk by any other name.

Remember

 

One persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter. Its also true to say that there is more plot in that one sentence that many of the less reputable games I have played in. That's not not to criticize GMs out of hand as parties will immediately go off road given the chance but its easy to unwittingly sabotage ones own plot by gleefully following off characters into the distance.

But as we are already speaking of plots, treachery and sabotage, today's celebrations  remind me more of Blades in the Dark than knives in the back and you could do a lot worse than blowing up the government and starting a revolution provided you make sure you are on the winning side.

Everything is political on some level where intentions are concerned but whilst politics is a rather dry subject natively there is plenty of scope for intrigue and adventure for GMs. The best native political system I have played is probably Song of Ice and Fire as Game of Thrones just says it all. Starting your characters as part of a house vying for power you also maintain a homestead and power base as experience and wealth are gained - all the character objectives and scenarios are framed with this in mind. Blades in the Dark comes a close second I think as the entire city world is carved up into little power bases and your overarching aim is to establish and grow your faction which, like GoT, has its own stats. Political failure in either system is paid for in blood.

Strangely enough I was pleasantly surprised with the D&D Planescape political structures as Sigil has a deep history of ancient factions along with a revolution and then another layer of factions arising on top of that. More interestingly they are not all orientated towards power as some are just plain nihilistic, some are charitable and some are existential - this really opens up the plot landscape and I will go back to it. Only thing is, if you have a revolution in a floating city, just be very careful about blowing things up...