The Most Important Games of the Decade
As we roll over to ’09 to ’10, getting nostalgic for the advances and updates for the past 10 years is inevitable. 2000 to 2009 was an important decade for gaming, and the landscape for us gamers has changed dramatically. Here, on New Year’s Eve, we look back on our opinion of some of the most important games of the decade. While they are not all necessarily great games in and of themselves, they have made their impact on the gaming industry for many years to come.
Dungeons & Dragons (2000, 2003, 2008)
The flagship tabletop roleplaying game had faced an era of intense competition from the very industry it had helped spawned. Between mismanagement and subsequent buyouts, D&D was struggling to maintain its foothold. [Read the rest of this article]
Chatty's Year 2009 and the Importance of the Tribe
Yes, Yet another Year End Post. I’m sure the RPGbloggers network‘s first page must crumble under that Echo Chamber effect.
But I don’t quite care about that. 
The Year in Review
Oh man what a year. Last year you could taste the the first signs of the rapid unraveling of my mind in my Dec 31st post. To say that the first half of 2009 was anything less than hard and painful would be a lie. Not that my life or job were bad. My family was spared from all the unpleasantness of the financial crisis. As I’ve discussed before, like many creative minds out there, I found myself touched with Bipolar Disorder as I went through my 2nd severe depression in 6 years.
Instead of bearing this moniker as a mark of shame, I decided to openly profess what I suffered from and fully accept that I would likely take medication to treat this for the rest of my life (baring a scientific/spiritual breakthrough to explain it). Had I been a more famous person, I’d likely have written a book about it.
Maybe I will someday.
Fortunately, the medications not only left my creative mind intact (it’s not always the case), it has helped me lower the volume of noise in my overactive mind and helped me focus my ideas more. So much so that during the first half of 2009, while feeling miserable for myself and overly anxious all the time, I was able to actually start and complete multiple projects:
- I wrote a short D&D 4e adventure for Goodman Games entitled ‘When Madness Seeps through…‘ (yeah, how ’bout that, eh?) to appear in the From Here to There anthology to be published in February 2009.
- I met the inimitable Chgowiz, we ran the The One Page Dungeon contest and published the One Page Dungeon Codex
- I tackled an unfinished project and wrote a Primer for the Dungeon Reality Show.
- Following a positive response by Wizards of the Coast for a D&D for Kids adventure proposal made in late 2008, I wrote an extensive outline for a Feywild-based Goonies-like adventure. I’m still waiting for their official feedback (but it got me to learn how to write an official submission)
- I wrote a gaming article for a well-known gaming magazine. To be published in early 2010.
- I started creating my own D&D 4e adventures for our campaigns with the highly successful Primal/Within arc.
I went back to work in June of 2009 with The Plan (Get better, Get projects, Go part time, Freelancer) the hell out of it) and everything went up from there. Incredibly so!
At Gen Con, surrounded by friends I trusted, my impression that I could be a successful RPG writer was confirmed. Slapping hands and giving bro hugs to guys whose adventures/book I had purchased the year before (or whose websites were so much bigger than mine) gave me back the confidence that had eroded while my mind rotted in the grips of depression.
Getting invited by Chris Sims to have a few beers with him, a few other WotC freelancers (Hi Miranda!) and some WotC designers and mad geniuses was one of the high non-gaming points of the con.
After Gen Con, the focus was on stabilizing my full time job while I explored other possibilities. My anxieties slowly abated as did my depressive moods. I sent out resumes to colleges and universities (for continuing education job and training seminars).
I also sent a pitch for a Kobold Quarterly article that was accepted. In fact, I just finished writing it yesterday.
Then, by a near-freakish series of coincidences, I scored a dream part-time (about 12-20 days a year) training seminar gig that pay near 4 figures per day. I just happened to contact the center’s director the week before he completed his winter course catalog. I sent him pitches for 3 courses and he really wanted to add them to his list! Then, he lost a teacher one week before a course and I accepted to take over it and the students loved it, scoring me another new course in the aftermath.
At the same time, at the behest of Chris at WotC, I launched myself into a 6 week project of brainstorming for crazy cool adventure ideas for inclusion in Dungeon magazine. It culminated in what I hope are killer pitches sent in early December. Whatever comes out of this, I’ll have learned to write enticing RPG pitches this year. If it does works, it will be part of my 2010 portfolio of projects.
Right after that, I asked my day job if they’d consider dropping me to 3 days a week… and they said yes, with no conditions! Letting me understand they’d rather keep me part time than lose me outright.
Wha? Okay!
So starting next week, I’ll be working 3 days a week as a Quality Assurance Project Manager in my Pharmacogenomics Center and spend 2 working on my courses, blog and writing projects. This is so cool. And that’s not all, a local vocational college called me to schedule an interview in January to teach pharmaceutical manufacturing classes.
Wow! On January 1st of 2009, I would never have believed how my life would turn for the better in such a short time.
The dream is back and I have an ongoing plan for 2010!
The Tribe
Throughout this year, one element ties my recovery to the way things have been turning up lately. My Tribe.
I define the Tribe as the post-modern family. It combines the elements of those in your family you hold dear, your close friends and all those you’ve let into your circle of trust. In my case, that includes my wife and kids, my mother, my gaming group, some online friends, etc. People, I’d drop everything to help and those who have done the same for me this year.
People I care for and trust have told me to drop everything and write, others have helped me build The Plan, others did simple things like kicking me into gear and getting me to register for Gen Con when I was convinced I didn’t deserve it! The Tribe supported me in my doubts and nudged me to get better. People from my Tribe have called contacts to give me leads for teaching gigs.
But best of all, most of my Tribe has been repeating this near-Mantra to me on a nearly weekly basis
“Are you still taking your meds?”
They all know that my biggest threat now is myself. I’m better now, better than I have been in years! In such cases, people with my condition often stop taking medication, thinking they no longer are ‘in danger”. Few people understand that Mood Stabilizers act to prevent manic phases (the ‘fun’ part of bipolar disorder) and that depression are, in part, triggered by the biochemical ‘cost’ of such manic phases.
So yes Tribe, thank you for asking, I’m still taking them. I’ll take them as long as a better treatment isn’t discovered.
More specifically, I want to thank the following members of the Tribe for this year.
My wife Alex: She was under no obligation to stick around through a second depression, heaven knows she didn’t deserve this. Still she did and I am eternally grateful.
My children Nico and Rory: They are the light of my days. I spent hours with them during my at-home recovery and we forged strong bonds that I hope will long remain.
My mother: She believes in me and doesn’t care about money and status. She’d rather see me starved and happy than rich and miserable. She planted the seed of The Plan in my mind.
Mathieu: Long time friend, playing RPGs with me since we’ve been 13. He’s my reality check guy. Helped me write The Plan and checks on my mental health periodically. Thanks bro.
Dave the Game: Nudged me when I faltered and strong believer in my talents. Collaborator and partner in many of my upcoming projects. I think we teach each other stuff about being writers by working together. Expect to see both our names to appear near each other in coming months.
PM: Always ready to provide an oasis of Geek when things became too dark to face, PM has stoked the fires of my creativity and is everything an overlord would expect of a potentially backstabbing loyal lieutenant.
To those and many others, I thank you.
And to you dear readers. You stuck around when things were gloomier. Yet I see your numbers grow daily (near 2000 now) and am amazed that so many drop by to have a quick read or a quick chat. Stick around, the fun is only starting.
Tomorrow: Chatty’s RPG goals for 2010!
Nico’s Lego RPG: Assault on the Crystal King’s Cave, Part 2
Cave of the Crystal Kings
I set up the second and final encounter of our little game by piling books and boxes to create a ‘throne’ for the Crystal King.
Chatty: All right, the king awaits your arrival.
Nico: Oh Dad, wait, I’ve got these gems in the Rock Wrecker.
Chatty: You mean those Crystals Outgrowth you put on top of the machine?
Nico: No, there are nicely cut gems in this little box here, can I use those?
Chatty: Sure, what do you want them to do? Do you want them to allow you to ‘re-roll’ a contest?
Nico: No, Can they explode if we throw them?
Chatty: Sure!
Nico: And the Crystal Outgrowth can be used to re-do a contest okay?
Chatty: Great! Let’s see who starts (I win the contest). Okay, The Crystal King picks up the newly created Lil’Crys and throws it on top of your Rock Crusher. It will try to eat your Crystal Outgrowth to steal your ‘re-rolls’
Nico: No!
Chatty (Winning the contest): Okay it lands on your Wrecker. What do you do?
Nico: I shoot the Wreckers’ net at him! (Misses the contest).
Chatty: I eat a Crystal, Yum!
Nico: No!!! I shoot a gem at him! (Misses) Since he’s going to eat all the crystals, I’m, going to use them! (Misses another time before winning). Yay! He’s caught in the blast, falls off the Wrecker and the machine crushes him.
Chatty: Poor lil’Crys. Okay, the Crystal King gets real mad. He’s a large monster so he gets 2 actions okay?
Nico: Okay!
Chatty: He jumps from his throne and lands before the Crusher (Wins contest) and tries to rip out the Wrecker’s cab roof to try to eat the driver! (Wins contest)
Nico: I use another crystal (there were 2 left, he won the contest) so instead of ripping the cab’s top, I ram you with the Wrecker real hard.
Chatty: Okay, the King gets knocked back onto it’s throne. It screams in anger. What now?
Nico: I shoot a stick of Dynamite in its open mouth.
(Why does that sound familiar?)
Chatty: Huh Oh. Okay (Nico wins contest). The King closes is mouth on the dynamite, surprised and not too sure what just happened. Then he explodes. Good job Nico.
Nico: Yay! I take all the crystals!
And thus was the game concluded. It lasted about 20 minutes.
RPG with Nico post mortem
A battle game using Legos lacks the enchantment that many of the early story games Nico and I used to play when he was 5 and 6. It’s still highly enjoyable but not quite as magical.
Also, as he grows older and gets used to taking instruction from adults all around him, it gets easier for him take a more passive role in such games (and for a parent like me to stay the active voice).
Also, this is a combat encounter, my role becomes closer to the Game Master in insuring turns are taken and narrative control is shared according to the rules we made for ourselves. Regardless, I liked playing Legos like that. The uncertainty of success and possible complication coming from failure is a surefire way of having fun.
Maybe I should try to give Nico the role of the Game Master when next we play. See how that goes.
I will continue playing RPGs like that with Nico. Hey, Maybe we’ll start building Lego dungeons soon and make monsters in it…
YouTube Tuesday: Squiggle Piece Edition
How are the blocks chosen in Tetris? If you said some kind of random generation, you’re wrong. Next time you play, make sure you pray to the God of Tetris.
Nico's Lego RPG: Assault on the Crystal King's Cave, Part 1
I was thinking how long it had been since I played a post-worthy RPG session with my soon-to-be 8 years old son Nico. A few weeks ago, I made him a Swords and Wizardry PC and we started doing a random dungeon crawl but I made the bad decision of using the 1e DMG dungeon generator and he got bored of waiting for me to determine the angle and width of yet another corridor.
I’ve long been convinced that geeks waste countless occasion to show how awesome RPGs are by getting caught in useless systemic details while teaching them! I should have winged the dungeon as my 9 year old friend used to do when I was 8!
Anyway, a few days ago, Nico asked me to play with his recently built Lego Power Miners Rock Wrecker and Crystal King sets, his two favorite gifts for X-mas. Now I’m sure many geek dads and moms have had a semi-unpleasant playtime experience with boys. As soon as you sit down with them, they start dictating how the game will go and, more significantly, how invulnerable the figures they play always are.
(Hmmm, sounds like some GM’s I’ve played with too…)
I must confess, like many Game Masters dads, I absolutely hate that. In my mind, Role Playing games were, in part, created to stop the whole ‘Bang, you’re dead!’ ‘Am not!’” ‘Nuh huh, I just shot you!,” No you didn’t!” thing.
Anyway, as Nico was sitting, waiting expectantly with his completed Lego sets, we started another chapter of our gaming career.
Chatty: Okay let’s make a battle adventure game! Why are you trying to beat King Crystal?
Nico (Thinking): The humans need the Crystals found in the cave and knock out the bad guys.
Chatty: Okay, but why are the Crystal guys bad guys? (It’s not clear what the crystal monsters have done wrong in this Lego Collection).
Nico: That’s easy, while we need the little crystals the monster produce to power everything, they come out of the caves to eat Humans!
Chatty: That’s a good enough reason. Okay so you are going to use your team of three guys, a motorcycle and the Rock Wrecjer. Do the guys have names?
Nico: No, I don’t want to give them names
(But I will, to simplify the story)
Dramatis Persona, Good Guys
- Driller Jim: Lone mini, backpack with long-shafted triple-bladed drill
- Mortorcycle Willy: dude on a motocycle from a previous Power Miners set
- Rock Wrecker Joe: The guy who drives the Wrecker
Bad Guys:
- Little Crys: Little crystal monster (Quebec French bonus: Petit Crisse, my wife stifled a laugh)
- Crystal Ogre: Large sized rock elemental type of brute
- Crystal King: Huge, multi segmented rock monster
Chatty: All right lets make this adventure game into 2 scenes. In the first one, Little Crys and the Crystal Ogre are going to be waiting for your 3 guys in in a cave camping site while the Crystal King awaits in his throne room a bit further back.
Nico: Okay! (He sets up all 3 members of his team)
Crystal Thugs Campsite
Chatty (Setting up the area with books, boxes and lego figurines): Okay, let’s determine who can attack first.
Nico: Please daddy let me start! (He always does that).
Chatty: No, we’ll do Rock Paper Scissors to see who gets to attack first, then we’ll alternate sides until everyone had a turn, okay?
Nico: Okay. (He wins the contest) Yay!
Chatty: All right, you first.
Nico (Picking up a Driller Jim) : Driller Jim will move toward Little Crys to break him into pieces (He loses the contest).
Chatty: Awww, so sorry! Jim lunges with his driller but the little guy dodges. In fact I’ll use my turn to have Little Crys try to bite the drill shaft in half! (I lost the contest). Oh man… he bites the shaft (clamping the mini on it) but nothing happens…
Nico: Ha ha!
Chatty: Oh wait, I’ve got an idea. While Little Crys is latched on the shaft, Jim makes it turn faster and faster, with Crys doing the same thing until he flies away screeching into the darkness. Where did he fly to?
Nico (Laughing): We’ll say he got crushed on a wall somewhere but that Crystal King will make another one in the next room.
Chatty: Works for me. All right your turn, you have to beat the Crystal Ogre now.
Nico: The Rock Crusher has a net thrower (It really does), so I shoot it at the Ogre to capture him. (Missed)
Chatty (Mouseguarding it): The Ogre catches the net and throws it at Motorcycle Willy (Missed)… and the net is lost deeper in the caves.
(During a later turn)
Chatty: Okay, the Ogre gets real mad and grabs the Motorcycle (with Willy on it) and tries to crash it to the ground.(We mimed everything we attempted with the Legos, at that point, the Ogre was holding the motorcycle with both hands, with the cycle’s exhaust in its face). Okay, I just missed, what happens?
Nico (Thinking for a few seconds): Oh, I know, I start revving the bike’s engine really high, sending a cloud of toxic fumes in the Ogre’s face.
Chatty: It chokes and drops the bike, letting it roll to safety.
Eventually the ogre was defeated and Nico moved on to the Crystal King’s throne room. The action was too fast and furious for me to keep a play by play example in my mind like I did for previous Nico games. Suffice it to say that I got Nico use the play system I used with Mouseguard which is ‘Describe it until the point of uncertainty, “roll” and narrative control goes to the winner’.
When playing with an 8 year old boy like Nico, it works like a charm. Nico was enthralled and so was I.
And so the team of Power Miners explored deeper in the cave, in search for more fabled Power Crystals… and the evil King that guarded them.
Inq. of the Week: 4E D&D in 2010?
With the Holidays quickly approaching, two weeks ago Dave asked an actual “real world question” about which season of the year is your favorite. I’m the kind of person that finds little stuff like this interesting, then again Fall is my favorite season and it looks like I’m with the small majority of 33% of you on this one. Spring and Summer nearly tied with 23% and 24% respectively, and Winter came in last but very close with 20%. Also I’d like to extend my congratulations to Dave and Phil the Chatty DM for their excellent entries into the WotC Holiday Encounter Contest.
This week I’m taking a hard look at what has been announced for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition in the coming year (you can see them all at WotC’s catalog in wondrous chronological order) and wondering what’s in store, getting a taste of what I’m going to like and what I won’t in 2010. At the moment they have only really announced products up through the exciting Dark Sun Campaign Setting in August, but there’s still plenty in there already to get excited about or at least to keep us looking forward.
Loading ...I am most excited for Dark Sun, but since that is also the longest to wait for I am very much looking forward to the complete Psionics rules and the unannounced classes in the PHB3, as well as seeing what kinds of new monsters are in store for the third Monster Manual. I believe the product I’m most dubious about right now is Martial Power 2, as there have been no new Martial classes released since the first source book unlike the divine and arcane power sources. However, I am quite excited to see an official ranged Warlord build in the hopes that I can finally make a melee & ranged combat commander without multiclassing. How about you? Which products are you most looking forward to and why?
Critical Bits for the week ending 2009-12-26
- RT @InitiativeGames: LOTR done on Facebook. Hilarious! http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1796048 #
- Dungeon Master Monster Library/Encounter Builder http://bit.ly/8kXEfz #
- Review by @wotc_rodney of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3e, includes comparisons to D&D 4e http://tinyurl.com/ycucpoa #
- Dare you face: Savage Maul Santa, the Gingerdead men, and a Silent Wight? http://bit.ly/6DW017 (via @JaredvonHindman) #
- Review that matches my feelings perfectly: RT @ChuckWendig: "Dragon Age: Origins is like a drunken parent." http://tinyurl.com/yh4fzsv #
- What would Rabbi-Wan Kenobi have? http://bit.ly/7S4iAo (illustration by Corey Macourek, via Mike Selinker) #
- RT @newbiedm: New Contest: Win a copy of "The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos" #dnd book. http://tinyurl.com/ybpluga #
- RT @fredhicks: New on Deadly Fredly: PDF, Print, Pricing http://www.deadlyfredly.com/2009/12/pdf-print-pricing/ #
- Top Board and Card Game News Stories of 2009 http://bit.ly/63IDOf #
- RT @unclebear: 7 Evil Santas in TV and Film http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/43602 #
- RT @Squach: New Tome Show ep is OUT! Revenge of Giants review! http://tinyurl.com/yashxb7 #
- RT @4eBlogs: Dave Noonan's Blog – Getting "Better" at D&D: An Occasional Series, Part 1 http://bit.ly/4FyGfU #
- "FFG is now out of the CCG business as the category has declined beyond the point where we can make it work for us." http://bit.ly/6sZNTS #
- Owen KC Stephens is testing the waters for interest in a Pathfinder Modern: http://bit.ly/5HAQXl (via @rdonoghue) Prefer a 4e modern #
- Very cool idea for a Christmas gift for your players by @siliconwolf http://bit.ly/56wF0r #
- i4e for iPhone now can import characters from character builder and features interface improvements. http://bit.ly/6bG2rX #
- RT @revlazaro: Posted at The Chaos Grenade: [4E]End of the Year Personal House Rules http://chaosgrenade.crypticintent.com/?p=752 #
- RT @greywulf: The Evolution of Elves. http://bit.ly/4YUwJ0 Can't fault it. #
- Looks like the 4E Freeport Companion is up for sale. Merry Xmas, 4E Freeport fans! http://tinyurl.com/yfnju7b (via @Pramas) #
- New blog: Wizards community member, Mostro, created a system for random skill challenges! http://bit.ly/4ARh0J (via @Wizards_DnD) #
- RT @Wizards_DnD: New Blog: Wizards community member, wrecan, expands on his new cantrips concepts! http://bit.ly/5wZMOF #dnd #
- RT @monkeyking: WotC's Rich Baker talks about gaming in the Navy. http://www.koboldquarterly.com/k/article3426.php Please RT. #
- RT @ATerribleIdea: Need a last minute gift? I've put Shambles on sale for $5 for today only. Be a Zombie For Xmas- http://bit.ly/4x8bMB #
- Our Facebook fan page just passed 300 members. Hooray! http://bit.ly/4YcEkL #
Merry Chirstmas and Happy Holidays
It’s X-mas morning and my family is doing geeky things.
My daughter asked to play on the CBC kids website right after watching the Disney Parade.
My son and wife are playing Wii Sports Resort and I’m just checking a few things online before joining back the fun.
I just thought I’d take a few minutes and wish you all a Merry Christmas (if it means anything to you) and a happy holiday period.
Posting on Musings will be a little more scarce because I have a magazine article deadline looming (as well as a new 4e campaign to jump start).
I’ll be around, but not to write a 5 parts, 6000 words epic about the piece of lint I found under my game table.
In other news, I’ve obtained another official Game Design achievement! I was one of the winners of Wizards of the Coast’s Winter Holiday Encounter contest (along with my buddy Dave: the Game). You can see our entries here and we should see how each entry was played in the Staff blogs next week over at the Wizbook website.
(I’m real curious to see who at Wizards played our encounters)
Anyway, see you all after the break!
Image credit: Wizards of the Coast and Graham Poole
New York, New York, It's a Hell of a Town
Continuing with my recent Cthulhu/modern adventure kick, I decided to take an offer to look at a free review copy of the new Super Genius Games adventure, “Snows of an Early Winter” for Call of Cthulhu.
Adventure premise is simple: it’s New York, modern day. An election is coming up. Some bad guys are conducting dark rituals to try to steal said election by sacrificing creatures in Brooklyn. Those dark rituals, it turns out, were a favorite of Hitler’s. The King of the Homeless is trying to prevent his people from being sacrifices (and being all shook up in the process.) A typical day in the Big Apple, right? And in the process of investigating, the PCs get a tour around New York… but not the nice, tourist kind of tour. [Read the rest of this article]
Mouse Guard Diaries: Delivering the Mail, Part 4, Finale
Player Turn:
In the player turn, each player gets to spend a free ‘token’ called a ‘check’ to do one thing, of his own choosing, like recovering from a negative condition, playing a scene to achieve an unmet goal or interact with the story in some way. Players each get 1 free check. They can earn more by using their character traits against themselves during the GM turn.
For example, during the 1st round of the hollow tree conflict, the Raven and Quentin tied in an opposed check. Quentin used one of his traits to break the tie in the bird’s favour. That earned PM an extra check for the player turn.
(You see the number of new concept one has to digest to play this game? I’m saying it’s totally worth learning, but I’m putting a ‘Steep Learning Curve Ahead’ sign).
So the player turn started with Quentin succeeding a Resources check to obtain a map of the area around the weasel-held area for the next adventure. Daim skipped his to give it to Baron (injured in the raven conflict) should he fail his recovery check.
When Mike’s turn arrived, he looked uncertain. He asked me if his mission, something like ‘Prove to Quentin that I’m worthy”, had been addressed. If it had been he’d spend his check on his instinct ‘Create useful objects for the patrol’.
Chatty (Thinking): Hey PM, what does Quentin think?
PM (Looking up from his character sheet): Hmmm, no he didn’t notice anything that made Robin stand out during the mission.
Mike and PM then started discussing facts and events of the session… it dawned on me what this was.
Chatty: Guys, guys. Should we make a conflict instead of discussing this?
Mike (Backing down): Hmmm, I don’t know…
PM (Adjusting his “I haz Evil’ hat): I think we should.
So we set up an argument conflict. Robin’s goal was “Get Quentin to acknowledge that I’m a worthy addition to the Mouse Guard” whilst Quentin’s was “Teach the youngling that you must be ready to commit personal sacrifice”.
Argument conflicts are exquisite beasts. The ‘weapons and gear’ bonus you get in them is with actual Roleplaying, adjudicated by the GM, and you actually lose dice if you repeat arguments yourself.
To say that Mike was outside of his comfort zone is an understatement of epic proportion… but then again, so was PM. But true to his nature, Mike bit the bullet and launched into an attack argument vs Quentin’s dismissive Maneuver.
Robin: “Throughout our trials, I’ve made sure to be most helpful to my fellow Guards, always there, always ready”.
Quentin: “One needs to learn the meaning of personal sacrifice to learn what it means to be truly useful”
Robin: “huh?”
Other players have the option to jump in a conflict to help one side or another. Once they join a side, they are committed to it and share the results. Thus, Franky, playing Baron, joined the fray in Robin’s favour while Daim remained neutral. Baron didn’t hesitate to outright lie to support his friend in the face of an increasingly stubborn Quentin.
PM: Hey, I’ve Bonehead-wise, can I use it to help myself?
Chatty: Sure, since it’s getting obvious you’re doing this to teach him a lesson more than anything else.
At a certain point, table chatter took over the conflict as the more extroverted players kinda wanted in on the cool action and several argument suggestions were shared around before it was brought back under control. Which led to a great finish!
Robin (Agitated): How the hell can you know if I was useful or not, you ALWAYS had your damn snout in those map of yours!
Quentin: Why you…!
Winner Robin by a Knock Out.
At the end of the conflict, Robin had lost about half his disposition which meant that Quentin could negotiate a significant compromise.
PM: How about I grudgingly concede he was useful but he loses my cooperation from now on?
The table wasn’t satisfied with that compromise so we sent it back to PM, who was at a loss.
Chatty: How about we say that Quentin concedes to Robin that he is worthy but Robin ends up being Angry because he had to fight to get that recognition?
(Which in my mind, mirrored Mike’s chain of thought)
The compromise was accepted. God I hope to play a ton of other conflicts like that.
On Baron’s turn, he tried to heal his injury and he failed. Quentin skipped his second turn, getting ready to give it to Baron if Daim’s help failed. Daim made a Circles roll to find a Healer and located one. The healer made a heal check, succeeded and Baron was healed.
I had forgotten to make Baron Angry or at least Tired from the conflict as part of the compromise… immaterial in a one shot.
So we were back to Quentin’s last check. In which PM reveled in his Magnificent Bastardness.
PM: I write a letter to Lockhaven, recommending that Robin be granted full Guard status, but that his temper and attitude had to be watched closely.
Mike: Bastard…
End of Player Turn.
Conclusions
I love Mouse Guard. It’s such a consistent, enjoyable roleplaying game. It possesses all the elements I look for in a RPG to enjoy it. This game will likely become my system of choice to practice in-character role playing and storytelling. I want to play it again and I’ve actually convinced most of the group to start a 1 year “lets play once a season” campaign.
However, like all games, I have some reservations. First, the rules suffers from under-explaining of its core concepts. Coming from an academic background, I was taught to assume that readers were 10 year olds and that repeating concepts and definitions was ok. Part of the confusion while reading the book was that some mechanics were explained once, had a really generic name (ex: “help”) and were never re-explained once introduced.
Were I to sit down with Crane again, I’d try to convince to write his next game using Monte Cook’s approach in Ptolus, where key terms were always bolded and a page reference appeared in the sidebars. This would make referencing/learning during play so much easier. I know it would work because I’ve been doing a LOT or back and forth reading while working out the game.
Don’t get me wrong, everything to play the game is in there. Nothing needs to be pulled out of thin air. It’s just that finding and integrating everything is quite an effort.
My second concern about the game is a consequence of its mechanical simplicity. Since this is a dice pool game, all shenanigans players go through during skill checks only amount to gaining or loosing extra dice or successes. Thus, I feel that the game may sometime derail in a longish stories of little interest or significance just so a player can get an extra dice.
Then again, maybe I don’t get the math of what one more dice means… and frankly, I don’t wanna know.
As internally consistent as everything else is, I’d explore this aspect in a potential revamp of the Burning Wheel engine.
Bottom line, I will play this again. And if you ask nicely, I’ll GM it for you at a Con t.
So yeah, Chatty finally converted to Indie games.
