#RPGaDay2024 - Day 31 - Games I Miss

The final day of #RPGaDay2024 allows me to the be the over-nostalgic middle-aged dude that I am.  "Games I Miss...."

Variations on this prompt have been asked before in the last ten full years of #RPGaDay.   I'll consider my choice under three criteria (1) I've previously played it, and  (2) I don't currently own a copy.  

I'm going to need to go with Palladium's Recon, specifically the Revised Recon (with Advanced Recon tacked on for fun).  

I know there's a small and fervent following that dislike the the 80's sensibilities for a fictional Vietnam timeline, but at the heart of it is an imperfect but clean (non-Palladium) combat system that always got the job done.  Casualties were expected, things were bound to go wrong, and you remembered last names of most, nicknames of your buds, and nobody's name if you just arrived in-country.  

In all instances of playing, I always had a 50/50 mix of prior/active service and non-military.  

Somewhere around '94, I actually ran a Recon game based on the African Bush Wars.  It wasn't long (there were always three more people with three of their own games they wanted to run in the queue), but it was the first attempt at true campaign play and it was surprisingly working well.  

Palladium still has copies of the recollected Deluxe Revised Recon in digital and hardcopy form.  The Deluxe edition combines both books and has some new artwork but is pretty much the same.  I, for one, love the smaller book (especially considering Palladium's history with their softcover books). 

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 30 - Person You'd Like to Game With...

 LThe last days of #RPGaDay tend to have some doozies in them, so when Day 30 of #RPGaDay2024 has "Person You'd Like to Game With..." the wheels started spinning on this date the second the list was first posted.  

Is this the vague version of "What Historical Figure, Alive or Dead, Do You Want to Play an RPG With?"  If so, then Teddy Roosevelt.

If it's just someone from your gaming past you'd like to reconnect with while chucking dice, then it's my friend Eric, better known as EricFromNJ writing into the Happy Jacks RPG Podcast.   I managed to catch up with him in person quickly at a recent Mepacon (with his youngest son too!), but it's been too long since the Power of the Eric’s combined forces for sheer awesomeness.  

Is it the heartfelt post, where I wished I played a game with my Dad, so he not only tolerated the hobby, but fully accepted it?  God knows I ran one session with my Mom that was semi-disastrous.  My Dad would have gravitated towards historical wargaming anyway.  

So for my short answer, I'll dig deep and go with a common theme over the years of #RPGaDay:  I'd like to game with the Burning Trogs again, one last series of sessions, to correct some wrongs.

The Long Answer

The Year is 1150. It has been fourteen years since the War with the Master ended.  

The life of a halfling sailor is a peculiar one.  The towns and shires within Stronghome do fund a merchant marine and a traditional navy to protect shipping interests sailing on the Mer Kasp, but it is not the preferred career.  

Halfling sailors are not in high demand, either.  With the exception of searching in small crawl spaces, or getting a responsible person to man the crow's nest, sailors of at least moderate stature are preferred.  When eccentric gnome titan was setting up a personal privateer navy over a decade ago to settle some old grudges, he showed no bias to any race, and the pay was quite attractive.   This personal armada has gone through a number of ships, and hundreds of sailors, most outright leaving, others succumbing to illness, pirate attacks, or general incompetence.  

There was a fascinating evolution of the crews over the past decade, that, for the two ships remaining, the entire crews are halfling.  It could be that the short folk tolerated some pay cuts over the years, or that the new recruits did not know what the older members had started out at.  It could be that this eccentric Gnome Titan burned too many bridges with too many folk, but so long as enough food was coming out of the galley, no halfling would complain too much, much less leave. 

Or it could be that the Halflings left, young and old, believe in Zorin Redrock's personal vendetta against the Slavers of Roark.  The Slavers had terrorized all the races and nations of the Mer Kasp for generations, enslaving whole villages, sending them to their secret cities and outposts to be sold to distant countries for unspeakable sums.  

Over the years, nations, nay alliances of nations had conducted sweeping searches for the Slavers and their key port of Roark, yet the Slaver's ships proved to powerful and elusive, most were so fanatical that they would rather kill themselves than spill their secrets, and even in death, clerics were unable to pry the secrets out while contacting the spirit world. 

It seemed unimaginable that some wackjob could succeed where massive undertakings had failed miserably, but the remaining crews, many green around the gills, felt a sense of loyalty to their employer.   Redrock rarely participated in patrols anymore, preferring to work on logistics and other behind-the-scene operations, but the crew couldn't feel anything but motivation while working alongside him.  

A recent attack on a regular pirate cutter by your ship, the Vengeance may have netted the first significant leads in years.  After a vicious boarding action, where all the pirates were killed, a map was discovered revealing a secret pirate cove.  It would not the first time such a map, or a cove were uncovered, but this one had a symbol of a speared fish marking the location, the symbol of the Slavers of Roark.

Now, the cove was much too small to be the actual city of Roark, but it's an incredible discovery, and if your planned raid nets any further goals, perhaps your team could report this directly the "Savage Admiral" himself and hopefully get personally rewarded before going on the next step of this crazy crusae.

After we wrapped up the Burning Trogs Rule! Hackmaster campaign, circa 2004, most players have been happy tying up loose ends and moving on from their adventuring careers.   For General Zorin Redrock, Plenitatory Ambassador for the Barthey Empire, Revenger of Frandor's Keep, he focused on the one failure he was not around for.   

During the last days of the Siege of Frandor's Keep, Zorin, his trusted pal Whitey, and the party's torchbearer, Coreena, left the Trogs to join the Gnome Titan Legions marching to relieve the keep.

While they were gone, the remaining party members at the time were kidnapped and almost enslaved by the Slavers of Roark.   The four members, Cecelia Darkspruce (half-elf warrior priestess of Sif), Gwendalyn Lorax, half-elf druid, Brother Thomas, a human monk, and Marek the Learned, a double invoker, all managed to escape the ship and into the City of Roark itself.    The group broke out of the city under heavy pursuit,  but with the deaths of Marek and Brother Thomas (allegedly by fire-breathing velociraptors), the other two separated, and it was months before everyone was finally reunited.  

Despite fantastic success, fame, and fortune at Frandor's Keep, Zorin has not been able to live down that he was not around to save, or possible fight with, his friends.  He's made it his mission to destroy the Slavers by any means necessary.    

Of course, finding an elusive slaving ring that's been hiding under plain sight for hundreds of years is one thing.  Trying to do it without sailing experience was problematic.  He's lost most of his fortune, most of his ships, hundreds of men, and possibly the years of respect his previous career had garnered him. 

But those slavers will pay. 

The true GM pitch:  Players will start as halfling sailors on Zorin's ship, Vengeance, prepping for the biggest raid of their career.  If successful, they just might find out some information on the Slavers of Roark, and with that Zorin may have to get the band back together to completely level Roark, and any other outpost they discover.   

This is my dream campaign, that allows the crunchiness of Hackmaster and a chance to get everyone together (probably online), recruit my other players who hadn't participated in the Burning Trogs to fill out the ranks, and finish A1-4 with righteous vengeance and furious anger.

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 29 - Awesome Podcasts

Day 29 of #RPGaDay2024, and we continue to deviate a bit.  What started as "Awesome Apps" needed to change, if for no other reason than I don't even eat appetizers at the gaming table!  

All kidding aside, there are few programs I use for gaming, other than the Voice Recorder and ChatGPT.

From "Awesome Apps" we move to "Awesome Podcasts."

I recently purged by Podcasts list of dozens of episodes I just will never around to listening.  

But what do I listen to?  

In reverse order.

Happy Jack's RPG Podcast:   One of the grand-daddy's of RPG podcasts, there's been a steady decline in quality over the years.  (And no, it started occurring before Kimi's ascension to the throne).  I think its a combination of the inevitable content over the years, and a letter and listener dominated discussion, which has made me turn episodes off halfway.  If not for occasional letters from my friends, the wisely named EricFromNJ, I would have deleted the subscription months ago.

Miskatonic University Podcast:  I started in the teens with this one, and through many changes of hosts and content, they recently reached episode 300.  Keeper Bridgett and Keeper Dave are top-notch, but sometimes there's been a stretch of episode that have content, but just feel empty to me.  

Nerd's RPG Variety Cast:   Jason's and a lot of his guest are very quirky, and some of his listeners that call in are quirkier, but I enjoy the RPG discussion.  

The Vintage RPG Podcast: I love Stu Horvath and John McGuire's review of items not only vintage, but recent Indy games and Kickstarters.  

Lair of Secrets:  I started following because Host Ken is part of the same Mepcon-related gaming circles.  Along with co-host Dave, it's simply a fun discussion of each others gaming and geek-related personal lives.  I've enjoyed the Actual Plays immensly.  

Fear the Boot:  The true grand-daddy of RPG Podcasts, I'm just disappointed  (and fully understand) in the sporadic episodes. I'm really grooving on the Tungsten GM episodes, where the panel riffs on different ideas for a topic. 

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff:  The true Gold Standard of RPG podcast.  It may be formulaic, some weeks are total "house organ" episodes for all the games they've designed/written, and Catstronauts ad is getting to me, but a so-called "bad" episode of KARTAS is above average compared to most other podcasts' great episodes.  My Friday mornings can not start with an hour of Robin Laws and Kenneth Hite.

And it's NOT #1 !   That goes to:  

Pink Fohawk:   This Shadowrun Actual Play is exactly what I want from my Actual Plays.  To be honest, it's what Neoscum could have been if they took their meds... but not all of them.   I actively root for John and Tina, be it crazy cults, improv nights, or even actual runs, and I may have stolen some plot elements for my own games.

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 28 - Great Repurposed Gamer Items

Day 28 of #RPGaDay2024 and I continue to deviate from the prompts intent... at least I think I am. 

"Great Game Gadget"

I am not one for the RPG version of the SlapChop.   The last two great gamer gadgets I looked into were the Hackmaster Combat Wheel (which I used once) and the Gamescience Dragonbones Electronic Dice Roller, which I didn't buy, but were always in the ads for Dragon Magazine in the early 90s.  

Rather, let's look at my two biggest repurposed items for gaming.

Of course, the greatest repurposed item in all of gamerdom is the Crown Royal bag.  Just about everyone of a certain age quested to obtain one of the bags for their oversized travelling collection of dice.  Nowadays, with the wide arrangement of colors... you kids don't know how good you have it nowadays. 

For me, the next greatest item repurposed for gaming are empty cigar boxes. 

For years, my dice collection resided in a early 20th century cigar box my Great Aunt.  Delicate hinges and a simple clasp did not make it the best thing to transport to games, and it was only my last move in 2022 that the box finally took enough wear and tear, and I had to replace it.  

My mother is one of two people I know that still smoke, and at 75 everything but her heart and lungs seem to be giving out first .  But that does mean she ventures into the local tobacco shop every week or so.  When she saw the empty boxes for sales for a dollar or two, it wasn't a call to see if I could use them, it was "Hey I already grabbed three, how many more do you want me to grab.

I give my mom a hard time about things, but she's always trying, and these particular boxes fit my needs perfectly. 

Promoting my preferred box, not the vice.

It's pretty decent pressboard.  The top slides forward, and upon researching this post, I realized the lid isn't as useless when opened, as a I thought. For display purposes in the store, there are notches to insert it almost vertical into the box.   It's a place to stow your lid, tape some reference material to, or just a backboard for tossing your dice back into the box.  

I've got three of these in use (one for dice, one for Pulp Alley, and one for Fistful of Lead) and two more in reserve.  They were great for packing up things for Historicon.  

(Gamma World) This is Not a Test #47 - The Onyxhoof Homestead

 Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers,  have arrived at the KIA Academy, looking for information regarding the great Stone Horse of Destruction...

================= 

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable,  but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades.

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.  Previously "gave birth" to a litter of sentient earthworm babies, but recently has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair.

Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend.  He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters.  Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does.  No Name has recently been fitted for a artillery device of the Ancients that chucks spears further than any human.  Looking for trouble in all the right places.  Former jousting champion of Fair-Town and has been awarded... a peacock he has named Chambray.

RHA-9: A lab assistant piece of "Living Metal" that seems to have befriended the group... for now!  Currently getting repairs done by the Restorationists.

================= 

As the explorers travelled through KIA Academy territory in their rented e-cart, everyone was amazed that even footpaths were either blackrock or stone of the ancients.  They even discovered that there was a section of road made from Stone of the Ancients just meant for people walking when some form of constable yelled at them as they used one with the e-cart.  

Ultimately they followed the directions and came upon a larger plot of land.  A large box on a post sat at the intersection of the blackrock road and an actual dirt road leading on the  property.  Along the side of the box was painted "ONYXHOOF."

The dirt road was flank by two old, heavily peeling white fence, leading up to a large, three-story barn.  Two full-sized horses were running freely on the property.  

The Onyxhoof Homestead

Sonny led the group through the fence gates toward the giant barn doors.  The doors opened on their own, with a horse, seven-foot tall at the shoulder peering out.  

"Greetings!" Sonny exclaimed raising his fronds in peace,  "Is this where Charlie lives?"

"Hello, it is," the female horse spoke,  "Do you have information on him?"

"Um, I was hoping you had some for use,"  Sonny said apologetically.  

"Great, another set of investigators."  the horse sighed.  

"We aren't the first, I assume?"  Sonny asked. 

"Of course not, the department has sent many groups to talk to us, but I haven't seen any progress at all."

"Of course, and you know the next question is, what is your name?"

"Stormdancer Onyxhoof,  Charlie's wife."

Stormdancer was happy to regurgitate the same info she provided the other folk.  No one had provided any proof that her husband had turned to stone and was the one responsible for all the property damage throughout the KIA Academy.  In fact, she exclaimed, Charlie was missing all this time, yet he never made an appearance at home.  

With storm clouds approaching, Stormdancer offered shelter inside their home.  

Sonny was straight with Charlie's wife, "We've been given approval to stop things by any means necessary, so the more we know about Charlie, the more likely we can solve things without mortal violence."

Pete was more interested in the higher ups at the Academy, and speaking with them.  Stormdancer provided the names of the eight commissioners: 

1. Commissioner Octavia Steelheart
2. Commissioner Magnus Thunderstrider 
3. Commissioner Seraphina Blaze
4. Commissioner Victor Frostborn
5. Commissioner Isolde Shadowshaper
6. Commissioner Galen Stormweaver
7. Commissioner Lysandra Ironsoul
8. Commissioner Orion Nightshade

"And which one do you talk to?"  Pete asked. 

"None of them, we get most data from the screens,"  Stormdancer clarified.  

With a click of a button, a giant computer screen dropped from the ceiling.  It lit up to a video with a giant mutant praying mantis provided a report about 300 miles of roads being fixed this year.

"These reports from the Academy haven't caught him on camera.  The security network haven't caught him, and those cameras are everywhere."

Pete tried to get more personal information from Stormdancer, and her two children.    Charlie had spent years working construction for the Academy, working up to the prestigious job of just holding flags and controlling the population around site work.  A home-body with no enemies, nothing about his disappearance made sense.

While Sonny and Pete alternated between details about Charlie, and more info about the Academy commissioners, Lathar was back outside, disassembling the spear hurler.  The sky had somewhat miraculously cleared up without a drop of rain.  

The party bid Charlie's wife adieu and headed towards the main rectangular building for KIA Academy. 

Their journey towards the central headquarters deviated them from the roads they were familiar with, much heavier travelled, and possibly faster traffic.  Pete performed well, but became stuck in a heavily travelled roundabout.  With the e-cart and No Name following clogging up traffic, the authorities were called to clear up traffic.  Two flying devices of Living Metal arrived and made an announcement.  

"HALT!  Non-Citizen, you are in violation of the KIA vehicular code.  Please stop your conveyances immediately within traffic, then move them into the center of roundabout, in order to not be in any further violations of the KIA vehicular code." 

No one had notice a strange winged figure appeared in the sky, unbeknownst to everyone.

GM Notes:  Luckily no one has been fine one credit for a violation of the Verbal Morality Code....

Next: #48 - Zephyr Stormcaller

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 27 - Marvelous Miniature

Day 27 of #RPGaDay2024 and we're back in my territory:  "Marvelous Miniature" 

I saw "Veteran with Pick-Axe and Pistol" in a promo from Brigade Games, and it was one of the few "must-have" items when I went to Historicon last year.  Completely missing the context for this figure’s creation, I painted him up as an old Soviet, possibly a Commissar that's avoided the Purges through pluck, ruthless guile, and a penchant for saving everyone from Secrets the Committee Was Not Meant to Know, Comrade.

I did do some basic stats for him in Savage Worlds for the #CharacterCreationChallenge last January, and painted up some enemies for him, as well as an ally....

Adrik the Rusalki (RAFM)

Die, capitalist Deep Ones!  Share your gold with the State!

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 26 - Superb Screen

Day 26 of #RPGaDay2024 brings us a relic of the pre-online era, "Superb Screen".   Game Master Screens used to be chock full of charts and data, nowadays they're more fancy barriers to hide notes, maybe minis, but certainly not dice before "everything is out in the open."

Let's talk three screens that light my fire, and one that may be totally useless.  

Gamma World 1st (2nd?) Edition Referee's Screen:  I've lost the adventure that was inside it, it's holding together for dear life, but for roughly 35 years, this has been my go-to screen for everything NOT D&D.

Part of the great TSR inventory dump that arrived at Kay-Bee Toys in the 90s, I picked up this bad boy for no more than 99-cents.  The best thing about a sturdy shield?  A few print-outs, some paper clips (or binder clips later on), and this screen can be used for ANYTHING.  In the current Gamma World game, I have pulled this out for random mutations, weapons, and other miscellany, just to keeps things on thier toes.

Call of Cthulhu 6th Edition Keeper's Screen: The last screen I purchased and used pre-pandemic.  It has the classic charts that 1st-6th Edition Cthulhu players would enjoy:  The resistance table, random insanity table, plus a few, often forgotten combat barriers.  Plus it's half the height double the heft and has a great full-screen picture of investigators just waiting to get into trouble. 

Hackmaster 4th Editon GameMaster's Shield:  One of the finest products in human civilization, the Hackmaster GM Screen isn't just a QUAD-fold screen,  not only the inside pages flip up and over to reveal combat charts, the critical hit table, and alternate art for the front, but four bi-fold pages along the inside "spine" covering everything from xp, saving throws, random NPC generation, alignment graphs, honor calculations, and dungeon dressing.  This could find a use in any game that's fine with a GM screen.  

Finally the most recent screen I purchased is also my biggest regret.  Anyone who visits a well-stocked FLGS know that Wizards has licensed a ton of products, and today they have a series of Dungeon Master Screens for most, if not all of the D&D Campaign books.  As I happen to have an interest in the 5e Saltmarsh campaign, and money burning a hole in my pocket, I regretfully purchased a copy.  

I don't know anyone who’s used Gale Force Nine's  Dungeons & Dragons of Ships and The Sea DM Screen.  But I don't know who actually got value out of the product.  For a physical barrier it works as a but there's zero additional useful data included. 

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 25 - Desirable Dice

It shouldn't be an #RPGaDay list of prompts without one of them covering dice, and for Day 25 of #RPGaDay2024, the creators do not disappoint, "Desirable Dice" 

I've written in previous years about my favorite dice, dice concepts, and even a few rants.   

My most desirable dice after 35 years of playing, and middle-aged dad preferences?  Coordinated by color and die-type. 

I've been wargaming just as long, if not longer than role-playing.  I'll always support the  Gnome Wars game, like I have for the last 15 years,  but my recent focus has been Fistful of Lead by Wiley Games.  It's skirmish level play allows for storytelling, and we've had whole weekends at Historicon and Fall-In! unveiling detailed storylines after multiple sessions.  

The FoL Wasteland Warriors game, by friend of the blog, Mike Lung.

Most figures tend to use D8-D10-D12, and the practical wargamer in me spent money of basic loose polyhedrals, yellow for D8s, purple for D10s, and red for D12s.  With eight players, connecting color with die-type makes new players at ease and speeds up gameplay.  

Attack of the Inflatable Zombie Pirates

I'm not saying the Grognards, fervent newbies, and everyone in between should eschew their latest set of custom polyhedrals, but as I delve into introduction to RPG games, giving each new player identical color-coordinated set of dice  is that positive reinforcement that's lacking.  

More Wasteland Warriors

Gnomish Space Marines in Galactic Heroes

Gnome Wars, using Fistful of Lead, April 2023

The Scots control the beer truck....  Cold Wars 2023

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 24 - Acclaimed Advice

 Day 24 of #RPGaDay2024 and we're asking for famous advice? 

"Acclaimed Advice" 

Call me a stubborn old man, but I've got years of bad decisions, poor choices, and odd rashes to develop my own brand of gaming wisdom.  Unless your Ken or Robin and you host a podcast with a different Ken or Robin, I tend to take things with a grain of salt.  

So if we look at acclaimed advice, I need to go back thirty years and talk about hot dogs.

1995 July - My buddy Wooly and I were very tired, but thought we were hot shit.  We had been allowed to be official demonstrators for Legions of Steel by Global Games.  We had done some local cons in Pennsylvania and New York, but had just returned from Origins when it was in Philly.   We had been bookended by official 40k terrain sets on the left, and Uncle Duke's Northwest Frontier Wargaming "Extravaganza" and managed to maintain a large and captive audience for all of our games.  

Wooly (left) and some jerk name ViscountEric, in the wee hours of the morning, before an epic drive to Toronto.

A few weeks later, and his Jeep, "Old Blue" was packed up for a shorter trip to DexCon, in Edison, New Jersey.   I daresay that DexCon was more diverse than Origins.  More Indy press games, more board games before board games were cool, even Nexus, which I will erroneously call a long-running meta-LARP campaign, that still happens to this day.  

The miniatures room was even more awesome than Origins, because of the MACROTURES.  

There was a Star Wars space game... in 1995.  There was largely nothing produced at the time, yet, on a 30-foot black cloth, X-Wings, Y-Wings, and Corvettes fought against various TIE Fighters, all on a 3-foot tall flight stands... WITH A SIX-FOOT LONG STAR DESTROYER LOOMING IN THE BACKGROUND, on a base with wheels on it.  

When that wasn't running, it was OGRE Macrotures.  OGRE was original a hexbased game where you moved chits around representing infantry, tanks, artillery, and GEVs against a single OGRE, a gargantuan cybernetic tank.  This has been been made into miniatures at an "Epic" scale, that's either 1/285th scale (Battletech), or even smaller than 6mm.  

Macrotures?  Let's bump the vehicles up to 25-30mm you'd expect for 40k (and Legions of Steel).  Never got to play, but oh boy was it fun to watch.  

From @sjgames Twitter account, circa 2013.  Everything was painted up in the mid-90s. 

As GMs we got some of the limited perks from the con, most notably lunch and dinner, if we liked hot dogs and got to the staff room within 15 minutes of a posted time.  

Saturday afternoon, the con staff came to us with food!  It just happened the fellow behind us in hot dog charity was Steve Jackson himself... the American one.    He was there as a Guest of Honor, and was usually giddy either participating in, or simply watching the OGRE games.  

Steve knew about Global Games (and they were an advertiser in Pyramid, I believe,) so we talked for a bit.  

Wooly, who had already met one of his heroes from FASA, "Who knew before this weekend, that I'd be standing around, eating hot dogs with Steve Jackson? Life can’t get better than this…"

Steve casually quipped back, "You need to get out more often." 

Call it what you will, but we oddly took his self-depreciating advice seriously.  We didn't need two GMs running each demo, so for  the rest of Saturday and Sunday, we took turns exploring the con more.  

While I won't declare that "You need to get out more often" became my mantra and changed my life, it is something you need to do, at a con, as well as regular gaming.  

Get out of the D&D room

Get out of the Pathfinder room

Leave the Indy Designer's suite and try trad games.

Find a Historical RPG or Historical Wargame.

Leave your 12-your Napoleonic Wargame and play ANYTHING else.  

Try the "NEW HOTNESS" just once, before it's a flash in the pan and disappears.  

And CCG players?  *Insert the worst hygiene jokes here.  Seriously, it applies to all other gamers as well, deodorant is a supplement to showering, not a replacement*    It was bad -pre-CCG 35 years ago, I think it's the same % of attendees, just with larger numbers of gamers.   /Rant.

Seriously, go out there and see all the hobby has to offer, and if a famous game designer/author/game company owner shares your space over boiled hot dogs in New Jersey, be cool... say you love INWO, say fnord if and when it's appropriate, and set up your next game of Legions of Steel, man....

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 23 - Peerless Player

Day 23 of #RPGaDay2024 is a version of a prompt/question that comes up every other year: "Peerless Player."  If you peruse the last ten years of the my #RPGaDay posts, you'll see a number of accolades from some of the great players I've had the pleasure of running games for. 

This year, I'm shifting gears a bit, to talk about one of my least experienced players.  

Let me tell a story about a man named Jim....

Jim is an educator in Connecticut, and a historical and sci-fi wargamer for many years before I met met him circa 2009.  

Oh yeah, he also wrote a fun set of miniatures rules called Gnome Wars.  You know the main reason my blog is called Gaming with the Gnomies.  

The dude has his own game, his own line of miniatures, and his own mini:

The Gnome King, from Gnome Wars,

So for ten years, I was (and still am) a stalwart member of the Stout Gnomes, part of team that helps Jim plan, set-up, and run Gnome games, primarily at HMGS conventions like Historicon.  Then fate hit a fair wind...

Saturdays might be for the boys and Sundays might be Girls' brunch, but since 2015, Monday nights have been ViscountEric's gaming night.  I originally bullied myself onto an online 5e game with my college buddies, Steve and Nate.  I acclimated well to the crew and over little more than two years, we got over 60 sessions it.  

Our GM, unfortunately, married with twins, and saddled with job woes, cancelled a number of times until he admitted he couldn't go on.   The put the game on hiatus, and a few of the players, who were actually relatives of his, disappeared as well.  

Enter ViscountEric.  

I took over GMing duties, set up the Star Wars games I keep mentioning this month, and invited Jim and fellow Stout Gnome (and friend of the blog) "Award Winning GM" Mike to the game.  Jim  grabbed bonus points by recruiting his nephew to the chaos later. 

One thing I didn't realize when I recruited him: for a man with so many years of gaming experience, and witty and seat-of-your pants decision making running a 30-player wargame, he had never played a role-playing game.  

I'm used to teaching D&D to a younger 20-something and younger demographic and watching their reactions and development through multiple sessions.  Having a guy a decade of so older than me, with a full-time job, other hobbies, and... a wife, has made me appreciate the disposable time and money we have in our youth, and and love his somewhat conniving nature that he had as a mega-game wargame GM translate to roleplaying on Roll20.  

The fun thing is that, 100 sessions of Star Wars, and the over 70 sessions of Gamma World in, he still doesn't want to step on any toes with a group he's a now a rock holding them together.  It might be that he's always going to be the most junior player in our group, he also may recognize where I got my narrative GMing style for wargames.  

He is a consensus builder, even in situation where speed needs to be the order of the day.  In the Star Wars game, he was the pilot, Tarrie Prolek.  He would make some rash character decisions, but many times his excuse for action/inaction was that he was "Under Contract" with another PC to justify things.  

Gamma World's been a bit tougher.  He's let the phrase, "Under Contract" come out as a joke, but some of his calls for consensus have resulted in other players and the game in general passing him by in time-sensitive situations.  

A young, spry Jim, running games at Historicon, circa 2012.

That being said, he's a great, loyal player who properly communicates absences, tries to do research, and helps add to the storyline, in multiple directions.   Peacocks?  Check.  Selling Mead produced by mutant plants?  Check?  Doing his best James T Kirk Original Series with the ladies?  Allll-riiiiight!!!! 

I'll gladly have him in any game I run, God help me.

School is Upon Us Again!

 

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 22 - Notable Non-Player Character

Day 22 of #RPGaDay2024 and we're finishing up a week of "Let Me Tell You About My Character" -styled prompts:  "Notable Non-Player Characters"

There have been a lot of memorable characters the PCs have interacted with, and the votes from my players came in.  

Whitey got all the love...

Twenty years later, Whitey holds a prominent space on my project board.

Whitey Smallfoot - Halfling Cleric of Yondalla
Whitey was the first and only Hackmaster character I forbid at the table.  Created by my friend Hoyce, Whitey was such a sad combination of physical flaws and societal miscues that he would probably only make a session or two in the campaign.

A one-eyed, lispy, truthful, accident prone, narcoleptic/sound sleeper, sleep chattering, trick knee, migraine suffering, albino, stuttering halfling with male pattern baldness (and facial scars from probably falling asleep next to the fire and not waking up a few times too many), Whitey was not hero material.

But when Hoyce's next character concept, Gnome Titan fighter Zorin Redrock, hit a certain level, his ability to gain a sidekick was immediately filled with Brendlar "Whitey" Smallfoot.

Whitey, before the facial scars and male pattern baldness.... using some old Fraim Brothers art

Whitey was a beloved sidekick.  Besides being some comic relief, and the party literally pulling his ass out the fire time and time again (narcoleptic, sound sleeper, and he was cooking meals, a "recipe" for disaster.  He proved to be a very effective cleric and healer (although the verbal component of the spells took fore-ever to complete.) 

How beloved was Whitey?  One of the players saw the "Whitey" pin at a flea market and immediately bought it for me.  When a player tried to put together a burned CD (a playlist for you younger kids), we all discovered that Whitey had a theme song, and it oddly fit the character:

That group, The Burning Trogs,.... did, in fact, rule!

Whitey somehow survived the entire campaign, mixing some actual battle campaigns with some well-earned respites, and at last glance, runs Zorin's Demurli estate in Trebeizond while the gnome titan finances a revenge-fueled hunt for the Slavers of Roark... but that last part is for another #RPGaDay post.

My original listing for Whitey, which was Day 5 of #RPGaDay2018, also covered two other Hackmaster NPCs, and the bad boy of my Call of Cthulhu NYC games, Ambrose Mogens.

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 21 - Classic Campaign

As this third week of #RPGaDay2024 wraps up, we move from moments to sessions to adventure arcs, to today: Day 21 - "Classic Campaign"  

They're all already on the blog, but I will post my Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, and current Gamma Worlds campaigns that I love very, very much at the end of this post, but in reality, it's my campaign world, Georic, and every glorious success or misstep along the way.  

Some of the 3rd generation maps of Crosedes, circa AD1999

Months after I willingly became the DM of my high school gaming group, my friend George and I were trying to put together our World of Georic, in an attempt to codify that wild assortment of adventures (from different campaign settings) into one campaign world.  There was a lot of dice rolling on the random wilderness charts, an attempt to fit things in like the Known World from Mystara, and a lot of crayons.  

We may have also transitioned from T1-4: Temple of Elemental Evil immediately into FRE1 Shadowdale, hence the problem with, what the kids nowadays call, a "multiversal mash-up"

That was an ongoing struggle for almost a decade, when I evolved the game map again, and ran my college campaign.  Finally, in 2001, using the Epic of Aerth from Mythus/Dangerous Journeys, Georic morphed into Fantasy Europe, with some.  Nowadays I focus on a small remote Barony called Gulluvia, and my friend Hoyce runs a game which I describe as in a parallel universe in the future.   

For reference you can use the incomplete but growing Georic Gazetteer 

The Lost Dispatches of Feraso (AD&D) - These "Actual Plays" are, in reality, a series of letters, written by lowly scribe Elsderth Millbottom, to the Viscount of Verbobonc.  In his correspondence, he is always getting caught in the aftermath of one Talanth Blackash and his band of ne'er do well adventurers.    I jump from my high school days (1989-1992), my gaming in Basic Training and AIT, my campaign with my Army Reserve buddies, and I even shadow most of the next game.  This was written last, so it's manufactured prose, with snippets of reality in it.  I did purchase a number of PDFs just so I could recall the adventures they went on, and attempted to recreate level and magic items.  

The first adventure I put the high school group through....

Ballad of the Pigeon God (AD&D) - My college game from 1998-2000.  We didn't have notes on a few parts, but with a name like Ballad of the Pigeon God, things like a mass invasion of doppelgangers, telepathic wolves, legless mentors, and a kobold mariachi band should not be too surprising. 

By the end, they stopped seeking out prophecies, and just started drinking at the Chateau.

The Journey of Mutumbo  (Hackmaster 2001)  - A short lived campaign resulting in a near TPK but it did introduce Mutumbo the Nubian and Holy Party Girl of Sif, Cecelia Darkspruce

Mutumbo, Realized the Deities Were Most Certainly Insane

The Burning Trogs Rule! - (Hackmaster 2001-2004)  Started in the "Leave the Tags On" Kingdom of Marakeikos, Mutumbo and Cecelia traveled across the continent to join this crew and it end with a major war and frustrating diplomatic missions.

Adventures in Gulluvia  (Basic D&D 2019-24)  An on-again-off-again Basic D&D game set in a remote Barony.  There is a tie in to the main campaign world.  Somebody may survive long enough to uncover that connection. 

The Burning Trogs Redux  (Hackmaster 2007-09)  A mixture of new characters and some "Where are they now" After a TPK during B10, we switched to our long running Call of Cthulhu campaign.

Emeron Unleaseshed (D&D/Pathfinder 1999-Present)  Guys in college like to use my setting to run games, and possibly allow the rare crossover characters.  Emeron Unleashed is a third generation Georic campaign, with a lot of changes, but still the flavor I love.  

Call of Cthullhu: My classic 1920s campaign, which includes a full run of Masks of Nylarathotep (save Australia). 

Star Wars d6:  Our campaign devolved into a morally grey mercantile campaign, as the crew worked for/with a Galactic Animal Broker.  Lots of Star Frontiers and Traveller material to liven things up. 

Gamma World:  Our ongoing game, using the 4th Edition of the rules.  Giant sentient sunflowers, giant furry white worms, sneaky weasels, and one helluva sexy pure-strain human with few boundaries.  

(Gamma World) This is Not a Test #46 - Station Petro

 Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers,  have arrived at the KIA Academy, looking for information regarding the great Stone Horse of Destruction...

================= 

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable,  but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades.

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.  Previously "gave birth" to a litter of sentient earthworm babies, but recently has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair.

Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend.  He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters.  Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does.  No Name has recently been fitted for a artillery device of the Ancients that chucks spears further than any human.  Looking for trouble in all the right places.  Former jousting champion of Fair-Town and has been awarded... a peacock he has named Chambray.

RHA-9: A lab assistant piece of "Living Metal" that seems to have befriended the group... for now!  Currently getting repairs done by the Restorationists.

================= 

The party left the sunny confines of the Great Overpass and drove their rental e-cart into the heart of KIA Academy itself, following the living-metal sounding directions coming from the cart.    Lathar followed behind on No-Name, and only lost a few spears for the spear hurler on No-Name's back in the brisk gallop.  

The road beneath KIA Academy remained four lanes, going each way, traffic going both ways.  Pedestrian bridges crossed overhead.  Most of the citizens appeared human, and dressed in kimonos.  Many stared at the shirtless man riding a six-legged reindeer on the road.  

There were numerous blue signs everywhere, and a number of small ramps leading up to the living district.  Finally the e-cart alerted Pete, "STAY LEFT FOR STATION PETRO."

Turning to the left, they left the main road and the canyon of buildings and back out into the open air,  Another half mile, and they arrived what the cart called "Station Petro"

Station Petro

Entering the cavernous door, the building was filled with different types of wheeled equipment of the ancient, and a few large piles of different substances, like rock or soil.  

There was an area along the near wall, with a number of human-types milling about some tables, playing cards.  Many wore jumpsuits and ridiculous helmets in bright colors that didn't not seem very useful.  

One of the card players looked up and saw them, "Yo, welcome to Station Petro.  Whadya need?"

Sonny inquired about the rumors of the Stone Horse.  

"Before I can talk about the issue your inquiring about, I will need all the literate non-citizens to fill out this paperwork.  You only need to enter name, race, and hometown, although any other information provided will help with our demographic data collection efforts here at KIA Academy."

Thankfully, none of the writing implements pinched them like the stylus did Pete at the e-cart rental.

"Alright, who leads your bunch?"

"It depends on the situation." Sonny replied.

"Well, who would be the leader when dealing with a large stone horse man that has destroyed many buildings and taken many lives."

"Yo" was all Lathar said.

"Okay, long-hair, we need you to take care of our friend Charlie."

"Who's Charlie"

"Charlie was one of the employees here at Station Petro before he turned to stone and started going crazy."

"Was he always a horse?"  Sonny inquired. 

"Yeah, and a strong one too, sometimes he'd take care of a task all by himself before the equipment arrived.  Good guy.  We don't know what necessarily happened.  One day he was a regular talking horse, the next he was a silent stone horse."

"Like real stone?"  Pete questioned.  

"Yeah, you know the guys protecting the granaries with the boom sticks?  Those won't even touch him.  He was working with the crew, doing  a good job keeping the travelers from interrupting our construction.  We thought he had went off to the little horse's room, but he vanished.  He went from brown horse one day to grey stone pissed-off horse the next."

"And he stared rampaging and leaves?"

"Yeah, we've encountered him a few times, nothing but destruction, not like he's stealing stuff or looking for stuff.  And by the time the militia and police show up, he's long gone.  Our manpower is meant to for maintenance and repair, we care getting behind on our regular projects trying to fix things."

"And do we have to bring him back alive?" Pete asked.  

"A couple of the guys say he owes them money, but I don't care... Find me some proof that he's healed or destroyed, and I'll pay 5,000 domars or some equipment.  I don't know the domar conversion  rate right now."

Sonny inquired about talking to the scientists.   The foreman agreed to put in a good word to get him some access.  

"Where should we start?"  

"You might want to talk to the family, Charlie Onyxhoof had a nice family. I'll give you directions to their place."

Vinn, the foreman of Station Petro provided directions to Charlie Onyxhoof's family as well as the Festival Hotel to stay the night, 

"Not everybody takes your domars,  any of you get chipped?"

"Yes," a disgruntled weasel answered. 

"Good, we can convert and upload some money onto that chip.  Just make sure you cash out before seven days."   

Next: #47 - The Onyxhoof Homestead

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 20 - Amazing Adventure

Day 20 of #RPGaDay2024 continues a week of stores:  "Amazing Adventure"

As today is the meat to the "cool story" sandwich of Sensational Session and Classic Campaign, an Amazing Adventure should be a multi-session story arc within the larger campaign.  

I had a pile of adventures to consider for this post, but one savvy suggestion from my player survey made me realize just how much mileage I got out of the material I used.

From Star Wars d6 Campaign  "The Trapper Safari"  Episodes 27-41.

Timeframe: Roughly 5 or 4 BBY. 

Our "Heroes":  The crew of the Pretio, a Ghtroc 720 freighter.  

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.

Evus - Twi'lek free mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a keen eye and a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio.  Brother of potential terrorist and rebel  Latorna Savvn.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

The initial premise:  The crew is hired by Kafla Thingvellir, a stupid-rich technocrat, for a near impossible task:  take him to a particular world and obtain a specific species of "Translucent Chromium Trapper" (spider) so he can present it to the Imperial Zoological Symposium and Exhibition on Alderaan and possibly get it named for him... all of this in a mere two months.  

For the amount he was willing to pay, Ne'vets was willing try... really hard.

With limited data, they arrived on the unsettled word, and began searching haphazardly, landing the Pretio, and doing more intimate travel with their speeder transport, the Piscopo. They were accumulating extra animal samples, over time, but no sign of the Trapper.   They had some unfortunate encounters with some of the native sentient lifeforms, and as players are want to do, saw the big island in the big sea and decided to investigate that. 

(This front end was Traveller adventure Simba Safari by Judges Guild.  It's very sandboxy, and I think everyone enjoyed that portion).  

The island had a system of caves, an odd assortment of cultists and pirates, and a strange complex to investigate.  They got involved in the politics of the complex, and , eventually, got double crossed.  In the process they escaped and managed to free a new alien:

Duk'k: The Bounty Hunter

Together, they escaped the complex, complete with a new, one-man fighter that was unknown to everyone.   

After spending about half their time exploring the planet, collecting some of the local flora and fauna, other times shooting at it if was too intelligent. 

Finally, they found a canyon, cornered this elusive Trapper, and in a series of heroic and foolhardy acts, successfully captured the 400kg spider.

Again, a great sandbox experience, a little space dungeoneering side-quest, which allowed me to bring in a new character/player (Duk'k/Hoyce)

The second part of the adventure is where things go sideways.  The ship arrives on Alderaan, and Kafla disassociates himself from the crew the moment his precious cargo was offloaded the ship.  Ne'vets admits that their setting up a table at the Imperial Zoological Symposium and Exhibition to display "Unknown Lizards of Uninhabited Worlds" to put to use all the other samples they collected and Kafla didn't want.  Hopefully they would make academic, and hopefully some professional leads in need of their services. 

Our tough guy trackers, pilots, and mercs were forced to sit behind a display in a convention center and talk about their finds... and possibly the big reveal for "Thingvellir's Translucent Chromatic Trapper," held at the local sports arena.  Even worse, Ne'vets admitted late that their they also had a formal presentation in front of academics due.  

There was awkward role-playing, legal troubles, and even Tarrie (the pilot's) complete disappearance seemed tiny compared to the presentation.  Evus and Frokazza panicked, sending the A/V equipment into a nosedive and threatening any chance of a competent presentation.  Right when they were at their lowest, Tarrie returned, dressed like a Zygerian, and made.... an impromptu musical number about the Lizards of Planet 576-908.

Zygerian, or "Space Cat"

It would come to be known that Tarrie went on another one of his epic benders, and ended up spending time with the Alderaan Little Theatre, realizing his dreams of drama on the stage.   After celebrating (responsibly) they headed over to the arena for the Trapper presentation.  

For those of you hearing large beast, large crowd, and presentation and immediately went to King Kong, you would not be disappointed.  Kafla's hires for his presentation were incompetent, the Trapper escaped.  Half the crowd panicked, the other have were mesmerized by its powers.... the trapper mesmerized food before encasing it with the beast's webbing.  

There was crowd control, Tarrie running around, a la Shirtless Kirk to save the day, and defeat the monster.  All the while the Wookie maned the sound boards and dropped some dope tracks to highlight the battle.  

The Trapper re-captured.  Kafla was forced to be friendly to the crew again, covering the legal expenses they had that weren't covered by Ne'vets immaculate and comprehensive paperwork when they arrived on planet.  

Thingvellir's Transluscent Chromatic Trapper:  The Musical!

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 19 - Sensational Session

 Day 19 of  #RPGaDay2024 and we move from a Memorable Moment to "Sensational Session"

I know if I dig through 35 years of gaming, I'll find that one perfect four hour timeslot, but why do that when I've already mentioned my favorite two-hour time slot... and a convention. 

I know I've repeatedly sung the praises of River Horse Press' licensed My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytelling game. It's beautiful in it's simplicity and is far superior to the overproduced and overpriced Renegade Studios attempt.  For years I actively ran multiple sessions of Tails of Equestria at a local convention, MEPACON.  

I would run games in two hour time slots.  I always placed the games in children's track, although everyone was welcome to play.  Better yet, I allowed the kids to keep the pony they made at the table, and "level them up" each time they played at my table, be it that con, or a future one.  

While most of my players were kids, their parents, and the occasional tolerable Brony, things didn't escalate into awesomeness until the BRO-nies showed up.  

Brandon and Anthony were two college-age guys who had two open hours and signed up for the game, partly for fun, partly for a challenge.  

Everyone was having a good time, but as the game progressed, it was obvious the young girl playing the pony Harmony was heading for direct show-down with the captain of the gnome legion threatening Ponyville.   When that showdown took place, I expected her father on his feet, cheering his own ,  I expected the other kids hopping up and down, but the Bros were the first ones on their feet, standing on chairs, tossing Tokens of Friendship (think Savage World super-bennies) to improve her rolls every time she faltered, cheering raucously with each success until the gnome legion was vanquished.

It was like Barstool: The RPG.

Kids get excited when they can play a game with their parents.  

Parents are excited to play with their kids.  

These two guys took that energy, and the developing drama,  and ran with it.  

It also helps that gnomes were involved in my favorite convention game, even if they were the bad guys. 

That is the reason I run kids events as RPG and wargaming conventions.... and sometimes, if you lucky, and big kids show up in the right way.