2011 Origins Awards Winners
The crew from Evil Hat Productions with their awards for the Dresden Files RPG. Photo by Jamie Chambers.
Here are the results of the 2011 Origins Awards, announced at the 37th annual ceremony.
Traditional Card Game
Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer
Back to the Future
Hecho
Hex Hex XL
Railways of the World the Card Game
WINNER: Back to the Future [Read the rest of this article]
Review: “Conquest of Nerath” D&D Boardgame
Today we see the release of Conquest of Nerath, the newest D&D board game from Wizards of the Coast. Unlike the last two D&D board games from WotC, Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon, which focused on heroes and dungeon crawling this new game is a take on large scale strategy board gaming along the lines of games like Risk or Axis & Allies. At the same time the game includes heroes that can fight alongside your larger armies and delve into dungeons to uncover powerful treasure that will help your armies attain victory over the other factions.
Conquest of Nerath is meant for play between 2, 3, or 4 players and can be played in a short game that will last around 2 hours or longer games that can go on for much longer (4+ hours). The game is quick to learn, plays well, and is incredibly fun. It appeals to fans of classic strategy board games while bringing familiar fantasy elements to the genre which is traditionally modern/historic.
Rules of the Game
The game Conquest of Nerath involves four factions battling over a map of two continents and one central island, including the Dark Empire of Karkoth (warlocks and undead), the Vailin Alliance (elves), the Iron Circle (goblins and orcs), and the Nerathan League (humans and dwarves). Every game starts with each faction having control of their assigned territories with a set number of starting units, so set up is quick and easy and doesn’t involve random region selection or placing of units from player to player. If you’re playing with four players then each player controls one faction, but if you’re playing with two or three players then each player will control an alliance of factions battling the other players. [Read the rest of this article]
Preview and Interview: “Guestbook” RPG
Taco Girl, one of the Guestbook characters. Art by Jenna Fowler.
Pre-generated characters are common in RPGs for one-shots, convention scenarios, and for playing main characters from movies, TV, and books. Generally, if you’re playing for any longer amount of time than that in an RPG, you’re making your own character.
Then there are tabletop games where you bring your own character to the table to play, which is designed in such a way to attempt to be balanced again other characters in the game. Some of my favorites in this genre include Brawl, Button Men, and even games like Descent where purchasing a new character means you bring him to the table to play.
Combining some of these ideas is the upcoming Guestbook RPG by Machine Age Productions. You bring your own pre-made character, and link up with someone else with a different character. There, the two of you generate flash fiction (i.e. very quick, created in about 5 minute) stories for the characters you both are playing based on how the two character sheets (more like brochures) interact, some direction provided by the character having the story, and the results of some Rock-Paper-Scissors. In the end, you’ll come out with a story starring the character. Then switch roles with the other person so that each character gets a story. Finally, the two of your switch ownership of the characters, so you’re off to play with someone else with a new character in hand.
Guestbook RPG sounds like one of those “so simple I can’t believe I haven’t thought of it” ideas that game designers get immediately jealous of. Combine that with another classic game design challenge- make something playable while waiting in a line- and toss in some great Twitter use for the game (and not just as a marketing afterthought), and you have the recipe for a very intriguing game.
Thus, I reached out to the game’s designers David A. Hill Jr. and Filamena Young to ask them a few more questions about the game, how it will work, and if it’s unique as it all sounds. In addition to the answers, I’ve gotten a great preview from them of one of the first Guestbook RPG characters: Taco Girl. [Read the rest of this article]
The Old School Job, Part 1: The Temple-Brothel of Monte-Cookus
In a recent post, I alluded to working on something really cool that I couldn’t really talk about yet. Well I now can… As long as I don’t go into details.
Earlier this year, Margaret Weis Production put a call out for submissions of hacks of the rules appearing in the Smallville and Leverage RPG. Called The Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide, it brings together many game designers contributing to the sheer fun of hacking a game engine that just begs for being tweaked with.
The Old School Job
As I mentioned on Twitter a few weeks ago, my submission for 2 such hacks were accepted. What started as a “Hey wouldn’t it be neat if…” comment dropped by Cam Banks (Leverage RPG co-designer) and Dave: The Game turned into a fully fledged obsession and 8 000 words of playtested material.
I wrote a series of Leverage variants aimed at recreating the classic feeling of dungeon crawling adventures. The first hack, dubbed “the Old School Job” introduces rules for creating fantasy characters and mechanics to recreate my favourite elements of old school gaming (ignoring what I never cared for). The second hack, provisionally called the Dungeon Fixer’s Guide, is basically a Gygaxian dungeon fantasy primer presented through the lens of the Cortex Plus system.
I also presented two more submissions. One is a combat system that embraces the “we each get to fight” aspect that Leverage didn’t do so well (or as entertainingly). Finally, taking a page from the excellent “job generator” from the Leverage book, I wrote a series of tables that generate, within minutes, a fully fledged dungeon quest. I’m VERY proud of that last one.
I won’t go into more details but I can tell you that everyone who played it so far liked it. My players want to start a campaign with the system, how’s that for feedback?
What I can do, is deliver an actual play report of last Sunday’s game, it will showcase what the hack can handle.
Dramatis Persona
Var: Outcast ranger-acrobat possessing the power of befriending beasts.
Legodrtz Lolthklorian: Lofty Neutral grey elf (i.e. 1/2 Dark + 1/2 High) Arcane Sniper-Archer
Elvis the Swift: Chaotic Goo swashbuckling revivalist of the Church of the Holy Tentacle
Tue: Chill Neutral Zen monk of the Boot to the Head school
Valoooovia: Chaotic Horny Amazon psychic sex-mage
(Yes, you read that right)
Establishment Flashbacks
The game started with establishing a bit of the PC’s past. Each player set a short scene that lead to a challenge. Players then attributed a distinction to the character based on what occured.
Tue: Under the tender heckling of a ranting Timothy Leary-like sensei, our Zen Warrior-Monk attempted his final challenge: walking on a tightrope over burning embers whose heat was blown up from below the firepit. While he did fall, he managed to walk the rest of the way on the coals, scarring his feet but leaving him otherwise unhurt. That earned him the “Cold Feet” distinction from the other players.
Valoooovia: At a yearly ceremony where the sex-sorceresses of the jungle temples choose mates from the surrounding tribes, Valoovia decided to take upon herself to console that one male who never, ever got picked, year in, year out. She was “successful” in that he volunteered to become one of the temple’s eunuch… if and only if Valoooovia did it. (Table cringe) That gave her the “Ball Breaker” distinction.
Legodrzt: Having once again angered his step-mom, the High-Queen-Spider-priestess of the Dark Elves, our trademark-dodging satire elf found himself fleeing the underworld. Chased by a bunch of really cool looking androgenic guards, he found himself at the edge of a narrow cliff. He failed jumping to the other side, falling to his apparent death. He awoke, unhurt, on a stone funeral bed, surrounded with valuable offerings. He grabbed some and went his way. That earned him the “Leap before you Look” distinction.
Var: Tracking a sleek, legendary panther, the ranger-acrobat found himself face-to-snout with it and only managed to trade blows (getting a bit bloodied) before it fled. While he lost it tracking it down a ravine, he found a funeral site, with a recently dead greyish elf, surrounded with valuables. He swiped some and went his way, quarry-less. That earned him the “Wounded Pride” distinction.
Elvis: Our neophyte priest summoned an aspect of the Great Old Tentacular One during a revival. As things went awry, and the enraptured cries of bliss of the newly converted turned to the screams and the sounds of crushed bones, he tried to slowly creep away. Stopped by a distracted guard, he used his silver tongue and a hefty serving of Chaotic Goo to slip out of that thorny situation, pocketing the guard’s pouch at the same time. That earned him the “Trust me, I know what I’m doing” distinction.
The Quest
The adventure started in the grand city of Monte-Cookus, a sprawling megapolis so large that it’s almanac is almost 3 inches thick and weighs 6 lbs. Our protagonists got summoned by an old adventuring friends, who, following an unfortunate treasure distribution session, found himself wearing a cursed ring of lust. Never one to shy away from an opportunity, he rented-out one of Monte-Cookus’ innumerable ”pay-by-the-month” temples and established “The Church of Ste-Luscious” (AKA the Holy House of Flesh).
He says it’s a tax write-off
He explained that he recently got chased out of the temple by some strange zombies whose skull and spine seemed to have been ripped out from the back. He escaped before getting hurt but he was ashamed to confess that he left a group of influent wives to fend for themselves within the confines of the temple. He asked the party to clear the temple of this threat.
Elvis: And what is to be our reward?
Pimp-Priest: Hmmmm, well there’s a sizable chunk of my monthly tithes in there, if you bring back my already late monthly rent you can keep the rest.
And so the adventure started…
In part 2: A Dark Heart, A sleazy real estate agent, spirit whores and tentacles with abandonment issues.
Chatty in Washington: Highlights of DC Gameday
I just got back from Washington DC where I spent a great weekend with a bunch of cool gamers where I attended a one day gaming mini-convention called DC Gameday.
Here’s a rundown of the cool bits of this weekend of fun and friends.
Dirty Spot it
On the evening before the con, Dave:The Game introduced us to a simple, quick game called Spot it one of those tin-can games you find in book and toy stores. The game is made of a pile of circular cards, each featuring a dozen or so different images. Each card has one, and only one, common image with any other given card.
There are 4 different mini-games that exploit this. The gist of them is that several cards are going to be seen by all players who must spot 2 identical images, call them and then perform an action depending on the mini-game being played (i.e. taking the spotted card or giving it away) until the game’s winning condition is met.
Now this is where things became more interesting. Spot it is a 100% family friendly where people shout “dragon”, “kitten”, “cactus” and what have you. Dave introduced us to the NC-17 version of the game, which is very simple: “You need to add a cuss or an insult whenever you call an image”.
Add beer and your favourite selection of words from Kevin Smith’s extensive thesaurus of sex and coprophilia and you’re in for a half-hour of uncontrolled laughter and groans.
Beavers and Bandits
On gameday, I ran a Mouse Guard session with a great group: my friend E (from Geeks’ Dream Girl), Sean (Your Sword is Mine on Enworld), Kirin (Creator of the Old School Hack) and his charming wife Sabrina. The adventure was my classic con adventure about beaver dams and mice mobsters.
The action revolved around the guard mice having to obtain specific chemicals on the black market of a city called Port Sumac. The chemicals were necessary to repair a “scent barrier” at the northern borders of the mice kingdom that keep predators out. Like all good “burning” games, the characters were put at odds with their beliefs when faced with the choices they had to make to achieve their objectives.
The game rapidly devolved into an argument conflict. On one side, the guards, led by ex-con-turned-patrol-leader Malcom and the other, Big Louis, the local crime lord that had originally ousted Malcom from Port Sumac.
During this argument, two of the guards managed to negotiate a side-deal with a weasely “merchant” to cough up some chemicals. They achieved it at the cost of revealing the paths taken by the guards around Port Sumac and the Scent Border.
This went much against the beliefs of Edgar, the honour-bound guard, forced to let pragmatism trump the guard’s ethos.
Sabrina: “I’m well aware that Edgar is betraying part of what he believes the guard stands for, but our ultimate mission is to save all mice and we can’t afford the delays to do it otherwise.”
Awesome roleplaying just there; this is what Mouse Guard is about.
At the same time Malcolm and his tenderpaw (read padawan) was going for something much more insidious: attempting to establish the presence of the Guard as much more than what it’s mission called, a civil police force. Kirin was playing Malcom and he was totally going for the “Ex-con forced into becoming a guard to avoid jail yet keeping a criminal agenda” Xanathos Gambit trope.
During his quips vs Big Louis, he brought his tenderpaw (Jasper) down a darker path of deceit and lies which yielded a perfect victory, putting the fear of the Guard in the crime lord’s heart when Malcolm and Jasper convinced him that the Guards could muster a punitive strike within weeks that would wipe out all criminal elements of Port Sumac.
Chatty: Throughout the town, you can hear mice whispering “Malcolm is back”
Kirin (with a huge grin): YES!
The rest of the mission was completed without issues and we started the “Player Turn” which is where players get to set their own scenes to catch up on unresolved goals or, had this been a campaign game, set the story for the next session.
E’s character, Jasper the tenderpaw, organized a beer making festival in the hopes of turning some of the criminal elements of Port Sumac toward other, more legitimate activities. While she failed her challenge, she managed to get one of the named thugs, “The Big Cheese”, to stop being a leg breaker and open up a brewery… at the cost of a bad hangover (i.e. Thirsty/Hungry in Mouse Guard terms).
The ultimate highlight of the session for me was when Kirin wanted to set a scene for Malcolm, who, having seen the heroics and selflessness of his fellow guards, felt torn between his felonious nature and his rising sense of worth and honour as a guard.
Chatty: That’s not really a challenge in itself, you totally are allowed to change outlooks and beliefs between games. What do you want?
Kirin: Hmmm, I don’t know… I’m torn.
Sabrina: He ALWAYS does that.
Chatty: Well, the designer in me would want to explore how we could let the dice decide…
Kirin: Yeah that’s cool, I totally want that!
Chatty: Okay, tell me, what side do you secretly hope will win?
Kirin: I kinda hope the Mouse Guard side to win.
Chatty (Taking a page straight out of Free Market) : All right so you’ll roleplay your case for honour and the pride of being a Guard; you’ll roll your Persuader skill for that. I will play your criminal mind and darker agenda; I’ll roll your Deceiver skill. Whomever wins, sets your outlook. You cool with that?
Kirin (eager): Totally!
Kirin (In character): So In the last few days I’ve seen my comrades stand for more than merely protecting the weak and following orders. They went beyond and even against their own beliefs to achieve their mission, yet they still trusted me though I had sinister, selfish plans.
Chatty (Same): Stop that drivel! You’ve worked that angle too long and played your cards too well to let a moment of weakness bring everything crashing down. You’re better than that, you’re better than them all!
Chatty (Out of character): Oh by the way, since you kinda want to have the honourable side of your internal conflict win, I’m going to use your own cunning trait against MY side of the inner monologue, awarding you an extra die.
(Clatter, clatter) He won… and he was very happy!
Sean’s moment came when he set the scene for a great challenge to prepare the redirection of scent chemicals to anther destination than Port Sumac, such to eventually cut off supply to criminals. The challenge involved blazing a new path while rushing to the Territories’ capital to send more chemicals to the jury-rigged border the patrol had just fixed.
When they failed that particular challenge, I made all mice tired and Malcolm (who led the challenge) injured. That’s where Sean, invoking his goal of preventing the death of any of his comrades, requested to take the injury intended for the patrol leader.
Great moment of roleplaying there too! I really love that scenario as it always plays out so differently.
Spies out of Gassy Waters
In the afternoon, I got to play a game of Blowback, a “spy out of the water” RPG inspired by the Burn Notice TV show. This is a small press RPG where players control two characters. One’s a recently “extracted from snafu” spook. The other is a civilian that’s related to all other spies through various relationship ties (spouses, siblings, children, friends, etc.).
In our case, our spies were shipped off to a Maryland mountain resort shortly after a major snafu where we thought we were invading Bin Laden’s house but instead busted a Pakistani intelligence command post, unannounced and guns blazing.
The adventure got our characters embroiled in a story about exploding trailers, fracking (the methane sort, not the euphemistic one), crooked natural resources bosses, a low level thug and corrupted cops.
I’m a bit conflicted about the game and I can’t spare the word count for a full analysis based on just one session. On one hand, I LOVE having to play civilian characters that interact with spy PCs and makes their lives more problematic. I also find it cool that you can ask for favours, lie or break promises and that such actions are backed by game mechanics to simulate the stress this puts on relationships.
What I liked a LOT less can be summarized in 2 words: Analysis Paralysis. The game has a whole phase called “analysis” where players try to piece together enough info on the bad guys’ scheme to move on to the next phase. I don’t think the game has a fundamental flaw about how it handles investigation and spook-like analysis, I just highly dislike investigation and the pitfalls they create with certain styles of play. Anything that makes the story grind to a halt as players get lost in conjectures and chasing chimeras grates on my impatience.
Fortunately, with the help of the GM who eventually morphed his original plan to allow for some plot holes, we ended up the session with a wonderful takedown of the boss and one main character suffering a pileup of trouble.
Bad Guy (Being turned by spooks) : Okay, I’ll squeal if you guys find a good foster home for my kid
Agent (Whose wife took the child temporarily as a favour): No way! No deal!
Wife (played by me, calling on cell phone): Honey, We have to talk now… I’m seeing someone else, I can’t deal with you being here now. This baby reminds me that I want another one, but not with you.
Agent: What?
Agent’s Son (Texting): Oh Dad, like your friend Alex (my character) told you (I hadn’t), I’m gay.
Agent: WHAT?!?
Great finish. It saved the aggravating middle part of the session for sure. Enough that I want to play it again, but mostly to explore, from a designer’s point of view, whether I want to “hack” it or “fix” it (as coined by Wil Hindmarch)
I want to go back
Suffice it to say that this trip, and all the social activities that occurred before and after made for a very cool, relaxed weekend. I got to play test my Leverage hack once more, finally getting the last bits of advice to cinch my draft. I may describe the game if I can secure permission. I also got to watch both “The Gamers” movies and play some Portal 2 coop with Dave.
I’m going to come back for sure. All this was well worth the lengthy train rides. Thanks to all the organizers and to my friends who lent me their guest bedrooms and provided car lifts at ungodly hours to get me from and to train stations.
I promise I’ll be more insulting and less Canadian next time.
P.S. I didn’t talk about the sights and sounds of Washington and the are surroundings. To quote my host Tom, it’s kinda weird to see all that neo-classical architecture without a bunch of alien ships trying to blow them up. I was glad to see them with my eyes. Washigton is a great city to see… when there’s no traffic and it’s not raining hard enough to drown in. 
P.P.S: I may have fallen in love with Alexandria, Virginia.
The Plastic Is Too Damn High: Miniatures Pricing Primer
Like many of you, I was dismayed at the cancellation of the D&D minis line. I had been collecting (and playing the miniatures game) since the very beginning. Even before that, I had seen some very early Mage Knight demos at conventions and loved the idea of plastic pre-painted miniatures, having previously burned out on painting Games Workshop minis for many years.
Anyway, I was sad for the D&D minis to go- I thought the last set had been a huge step up from the past few, and was hoping to see more minis to fill in all the new stuff coming from 4e, even if the release schedule had been cut back to something like once a year. Instead, the announcement was made that D&D minis was ended, citing rising costs and other factors.
Understandably, this raised some questions among the community. “Are minis really that expensive to make?” “Why can’t I just buy a box of assorted monsters?” “Isn’t it stupid to reuse sculpts?” I hope to be able to answer some of these questions, with what limited knowledge I have about the situation.
First a fairly strong disclaimer: I am not an expert. My experience comes from working with/for a few board game companies, most notably for Robot Martini who first put out my game Get Bit! which used plastic figures that were produced under similar circumstances to how a miniature would be made. Thus, my experience is slightly tangental, and many of the numbers I can provide for it are based on something different, and are 4-5 years old. And I absolutely have no insider knowledge into WotC’s business numbers whatsoever. Still, I hope that it can at least provide some context for the whole situation, and will help you understand some of the economic realities of miniature production.
Still with me? Let’s start off with one of the most important parts of the plastic figure-making process: the mold.
Molds, and I Don’t Mean the Kind That Cause Disease
Meet the Dismembermen
The process used to create the Get Bit! plastic “dismembermen” involved a factory in China injecting liquid plastic into the mold to give it its shape, after which it cools off, becomes solid, and you have your hunk of plastic in the shape of a dude ready to have his limbs torn off by a shark.
That mold isn’t a trivial cost, though. Each shape you want your minis to form requires a different one. So that D&D minis set with 80 different minis requires 80 different molds, and possibly even more depending on how fancy/multipart you get with the set. On Get Bit!, I was working with someone who had previous worked for a defunct toy company who already had this mold created for their product line. Thus, we didn’t have to pay to get the mold created, which was a huge savings. At one point, we priced it out (including for a shark figure to include) and some estimates came in the $5,000 to $10,000 range. The pieces aren’t very detailed, though they are articulated. For something more detailed, the cost might even be higher, or for something simple, might be cheaper. (I can’t discuss numbers on the new Get Bit! run with a new company, but I can say the goal was to make it cheaper.)
Another cost that is easy to overlook is that someone has to design that mold. Depending on the process, you might be paying someone to do it all in a 3D design program, or actually starting from a sculpted figure then translating it into whatever form the factory needs to actually make it.
More Filled Than a Gelatinous Cube
Of course, what you hope is that the cost of the mold will get spread out. Since you only have to pay that mold cost once, usually no matter how many figures you make with it. So if you have to make the mold for $5k, and you make 5k of that particular figure, you’re potentially adding $1 to the cost to make each individual mini. However, if you make another run, you already have the mold, and you’ve already paid to have it created. Thus, the more of the same exact mini you make, the more you’re spreading out that cost.
And speaking of spreading out the cost, plastics factories are classic economies of scale, just like printing. The more you make at once, the more of a discount there is. Our original run of Get Bit! was 500 copies- a very small run by the factory’s standards. For just solid colors of plastic, our cost for each piece in dismemberman ran around $0.60 each. We priced out paint jobs for the figures that would have added painted on eyes, clothes, etc. but it would have added further to the cost for each color of paint they would use on each figure. This could easily have added another $1 to the cost of each plastic guy we were making. So mold cost + plastics cost + paint cost, and you have a rough estimate of the minis cost.
Your Owlbear Cares About International Diplomacy
Now, let’s throw some curveballs in here. Remember how I mentioned that the factory we dealt with was in China? That’s because, by far, the world leader in mass manufacturing of cheap plastics like these is China. So taking your business anywhere else is likely to come with a hike in those raw costs I’ve already given you.
But, those low prices come with some setbacks. The factory in China has made them, but how do you get them back to the US in order to sell them in Friendly Local Game Stores? The cheapest way is to put them on, literally, the slow boat from China. Of course, you’re going to have to pay the transportation costs on those too, as well as any import costs once the ship hits shores… and account for the time that all is going to take. Now what if the US and China are having a spat over, say, a human rights violation or any number of other international issues? You might have all those costs and processes changed by foreign policy- something out of the control of a company like Wizards of the Coast (until they hire a LOT more Enchanters on staff.)
That’s one potential problem with keeping the costs manageable and predictable, but there’s one that we all deal with: the cost of oil. As Wikipedia says, “The raw materials needed to make most plastics come from petroleum and natural gas.” That’s right, the next time you’re cringing at how much it costs to fill up at the pump, realize that your plastic orcish hordes were affected by the same thing. That’s why the rising cost of oil was cited at DDXP for a reason to discontinue the minis line. So that $0.60 cents per model I quoted earlier has probably gone up quite a bit since I was involved in 2007- and much higher than the state of things when Harbinger was released in 2003.
That’s not the only things that can go wrong either. Just as an example, the factory with the original Get Bit! mold went out of business and, so I heard, burned down. The original mold is gone, gone, gone. So in order to make a new version of the game, a new mold has to be created. In the case of WotC’s miniatures, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the old molds were long gone, whether it was because they changed factories and couldn’t take the mold with them, the factories changed technologies and couldn’t use the old mold, or like my example, they were just plain lost.
Collectability and Extra Unicorns
So now that you have some idea of the costs involved in producing miniatures, and how much they can quickly go out of control, here’s some closing thoughts about how this relates to WotC’s business model.
Remember just in the past year or two when WotC released miniatures that weren’t blind and collectible, the PC heroes set and the monster sets with one visible? From what I’ve heard, those didn’t go over too well, and it’s where blind packs have the edge: gamers like you and me are more likely to buy multiple packs in the hopes that we get what we need, instead of buying multiple packs of something we don’t need.
Obviously, any unsold packs sit around on game shelves and don’t make money. That has to be factored into the cost too- if something doesn’t sell, you won’t recoup the costs put into making it in the first place, and orders for subsequent products go down, which is likely what happened in the last few sets. Couple that with there just plain being a lot of minis already out there from previous sets, with a strong secondary market, and you have a recipe for likely flagging sales and rising costs.
Now, one question that came up while thinking about their minis cost is why can’t they just use the molds they have, and produce some of the boxed sets filled with minis that many DMs have clamored for since the beginning? They’re doing it, just with a bunch of other stuff included: it’s called Castle Ravenloft (and Wrath of Ashardalon.) Those are all molds they had previously, but with solid color filling, and no extra money being spent on paints. They’re also producing them in enough quantities to manage the costs, and bundling them up with a fun board game and rolling the costs all into one package.
Yes, this isn’t the same as being able to buy a big bag of orcs or whatnot, but is a way around the “sit around unsold” problem, since you can buy it for the minis, or you want the game, or both (thus creating a more varied demand.)
Would I like to see something like the orc bag (that sounds dirty) or even better, more new miniatures? Yes, definitely. Unfortunately, with these economic realities I don’t see it significantly changing until technology changes. That’s one reason I’m following technologies like 3D printing: maybe someday, instead of needing to buy a box of minis, I’ll just be able to download a pattern from the internet, hit print, and wait for the resultant Dwarf with a santa hat wielding a double battleaxe with a fox on his shoulder. There’s some possibilities, I’d say.
Boardgaming Resurgence
Just over a year ago our group of friends was heavily into the deck building game Dominion. It was relatively new but had been out long enough to have three quick expansions and we really couldn’t get enough of it. Some days we would play game after game for hours on end. As should be expected, we eventually burned out from that pace. After that I found myself not playing tabletop board/card games much for the next several months with the exception of finally playing Race for the Galaxy for the first time and playing Castle Ravenloft many times after its release. Thankfully, over the last two months I have noticed an extreme increase in the amount of board games that my friends and I have been playing and I want to share a few of the stand out games we’ve been enjoying.
My Two Favorites
7 Wonders was a game that I fell in love with the very first time I set eyes on it. First off I’ve taken numerous ancient history classes related to architecture and so the flavor of the game including the Colossus of Rhodes and the Mausoleum of Halikarnassus immediately hooked me. Beyond that I really enjoy the game because it uses a card drafting mechanic but avoids many of the common deck building mechanics that have become incredibly popular since Dominion took off. Don’t take that to mean 7 Wonders is a deck building game, it is actually a game where you draft a collect cards in front of you around the wonder you’re playing as.
Depending on which structure/nation you’ve chosen you have different advancements you can choose from that allow you to excel at some of the specific focuses in the game. For instance, the Colossus of Rhodes can amass more military than other wonders and at a quicker pace, and as it was the first wonder I played the game with it was a tactic I could quickly latch on to and make good use of. If you haven’t tried this game yet and you enjoy tabletop card games (or board games with card-based mechanics) it is without a doubt my top recommendation. Another great advantage is that the game easily handles up to 7 players in one game and the play time is almost always between 30 and 45 minutes. [Read the rest of this article]
Review: Nightfall (Card Game)
Nightfall is a new deck-building card game from Alderac Entertainment Group that is set in a dark world of vampires and werewolves. The game supports between 2 and 5 players and takes roughly 45 minutes to an hour to play. The basic set for the game comes with over 300 cards that include minions you can recruit into your deck, actions that you can play during your turn and other player’s turn, several types of wound cards representing different types of damage taken (bite, burn, and bleed), and draft cards that are used during the game’s set up.
Gameplay
The game of Nightfall includes several interesting mechanics that create a different style of gameplay from other deck-building games I’ve played. During the set up of the game each player drafts cards (choosing one and passing the rest to the next player) to determine two unique cards that will be available only that player will be able to purchase through the course of the game, and the rest of the cards form common piles that every player can purchase from. In this way players are given a chance to set themselves up with specific advantages, define the style of deck they will build, and determine the cards that will be available to every player for the entire game. [Read the rest of this article]
Chatty’s Adventure Scaffold #1 : Words with Fiends
As some of you may know, I’ve spent the last few weeks working preparing my latest batch of seminars and writing freelance assignments. Last March, I sent off a 4e article for Kobold Quarterly (to be published in the Summer issue). I’ve since been working on two big projects for Margaret Weis Productions (publishers of the Leverage RPG among many other licensed RPGs).
One such project is the upcoming Dragon Brigade RPG, a Swashbuckling game in a world of airships, dragons, intrigue, and magic . The other project is a series of hacks destined to get people who already own the Leverage or Smallville RPG books, to play alternate themes or with new options.
Just like when Wil Wheaton works on a TV series and can’t talk about it, there’s a ton of things I’d like to share with you that I can’t right now (one of the infuriating aspects of freelance writing for a blogger). My need to blog is driving me nuts and I feel the strongest urge to blog about what I’ve been doing lately… and I know that very few people want to read about my “Writing effective Standard Operating Procedures” seminar.
So here’s a little something something related to my working in the freelance cave this last month or so.
In one such project, I came up with a few tools to help me playtest the material I wrote. I can’t share the tools outright but I can surely discuss the new form my prep session output has taken, which I dubbed “the adventure scaffold”.
What’s this you ask? Well have a look, it’s better than 500 words of explanation.
Words with Fiends
Quest Summary: One of the heroes’ older brother, a crippled ex-adventurer, obsessed with finding the one responsible for slaughtering his old adventuring party, comes up to the party with a solid lead to the killer who’s apparently working some sort of dark ritual hidden somewhere in a natural cave formation near a mining port city.
The crippled brother wants revenge and asks the party to exact it. However, the villain is not quite what the party expects. He’s a damned soul sent back from the infernal planes with an impossible diabolical mission. But the soul is quite the hustler and found a loophole to achieve its goals…
The Patron: Family/Ally
An older, handicapped brother comes to one of the heroes, convinced he’s finally tracked the man that killed most of his adventuring buddies 10 years ago. He implores his sibling’s help.
The Quest: Red Herring + Stop the Villain’s Plan
Exact vengeance on the villain. The Dark Lord is up to something involving dark elves and people from the city disappearing into the Mines. Find what he’s up to and stop it, making him aware who sent the heroes (a red herring, see The Dungeon’s Secret).
The Dungeon: A natural cave formation
The various mines surrounding the port city are connected to natural sea caves that pepper the rising cliffs forming the city’s natural harbour. The caves go deep, reaching the Underworld, where a dark elven outpost lies, guarding the way to one of their undercities.
The Dungeon’s Secret: I am NOT your Father!
The Hell-bred Dark Lord’s body is that of the sibling’s party killer… but it’s just the shell of a low-grade villain who signed away his soul and lost it while his body was still useful. The Dark Lord, a damned soul, got a reprieve to return from Hell in this body in exchange for turning in souls at an impossible rate… which the Dark Lord has managed to deliver so far.
The Lord has NO idea who was the person whose body he now occupies.
The Main Villain: Dark Lord
A reincarnated damned soul, living in the body of the ex-villain who killed the brother’s adventuring party. A very powerful infernal being, with one wing, horns, claws, Hellfire and all.
Features: Soulburning; Great sword; Soulforged armour; Hellfire blasts; “I’m smarter than everyone”; Greedy; Deadly afraid of getting caught
Agents: Devilish Thugs and Dark Elf Scoundrels (see below)
Minions: Imps and lot’s of them!
The Villain’s Plan: Harvest a Resource + Perform a Dark Ritual
The Dark Lord harvests souls from surrounding humanoids by having them mind-controlled and sign faustian deals with devils… a few hours before they die.
FACTIONS
Faction #1: Goblin Warren, Outlook/Plan: Seeking
Goblins are among those being “stolen” by the Mind Parasites the Dark Lord uses (see below). Goblin elders are aware of the Dark Lord’s presence and suspect he’s behind the disappearances, but are afraid of confronting him.
Goblin Hunters: Spears and Shortbows
Goblin Witch Mother Crone: “I Curse You”
Faction #2: Infernal Lawyers, Outlook/Plan: Trading
A Group of devils are present in the dungeon, happily drafting and signing up very lucrative faustian pacts with appallingly short lived humanoids. They are unaware (and uncaring) of the loophole the Dark Lord is using.
Infernal Lawyers: “What we do is legal”; “Is the Paperwork in order?”
Infernal Assistants: “This Book of Law is Heavy!” “Right away boss”
Faction #3: Psychic Worms, Outlook/Plan: Trading + Allied With Main Villain
A race of physically weak sentient parasitic worm-like creatures (2” in length, mouth like Carrion Crawler, very slow) that feed on brains. They’ve entered a bargain with the Dark Lord. The Lord provides relative safe transport to defenseless “hosts”, the Worms burrow in the hosts’s spines, take control of the bodies and return to the Cave where they sign away their hosts’ souls shortly before consuming their brains.
Dark Lord: It’s the perfect symbiotic deal!
Psychic Worms: Hidden; Psychic Blast; Psychic Explosion (kills the worm); physically weak
Faction #4 : Dark Elves
Outlook/Plan: Seeking
Dark Elven Scoundrel are paid by the Dark Lord to seek out and deliver canisters of mind worms into the vicinity of likely targets. They use the gold and gem to finance a future excursion/invasion on the surface.
Dark Elf Scoundrel: Sneaky; Poisoned Weapons; Infravision; “We Hate elves”
Faction #5: Battered Infernal Auditor
Outlook/Plan: Hiding
An infernal auditor and his retinue of agents were on the trail of the Dark Lord’s scheme, trying to catch him red handed. However, the auditors were bushwhacked by the Hunter Construct (See Wandering Threat below) and barely survived. They are hiding from it, trying to find a way to achieve their objective.
The Auditor: Red Pen of Doom; ” Just one more question”; Badly wounded
Repo Devils: Grabbing Claws; lack of imagination; Badly wounded
Wandering Threat:Crafty Beast
The Discordian Hunter Construct
Sensing a significant infernal disturbance affecting the multiverse’s balance, the Discordian Council has sent a Hunter Construct to seek and destroy it. So far the construct hit the auditors but has managed to miss of the faustian lawyers who are protected by the Dark Lord’s forces.
The Discordian Hunter Construct: relentless; Crushing claws; Single Minded; Inflexible programming
How to play this Adventure
As you can see, the “Scaffold” makes no mention of maps, scenes, encounters, treasures or anything. Yet, I find it easily adapted to any fantasy RPG. By adding stats for the Villain, its Agents and Minions; factions and the “Wandering Threat”, an enterprising GM could improvise scenes solely based on setting an initial scene and then running with it based on player choices. More classical GMs could draw (or borrow) a dungeon map and create areas with the various factions, traps and treasures in the purest Gygaxian form.
However, where the model really shines for me is that they are totally compatible with “Mouseburning” game play. Players miss a skill check? Something goes wrong? Your game of choice wants you to implement a complication? Just look at the Scaffold and pick what could happen… maybe the Hunter Construct shows up? Maybe PCs get caught in a Goblin Trap? The Auditor may send his Repo Devils to try to enlist the PCs…
The possibilities are there, ready to be exploited!
Chatty’s Playtest
For instance here’s how my game went:
Scene 1: Players inquired in town about the mine. They were told that mining stopped in the northern shaft because it was run over by goblins. They were also told that people rose up at night and could not be prevented from walking into the mines short of killing them, they never came back.
Scene 2: Heroes laid watch at the nearest exit of the mine and caught a pair of Dark Elves carrying 4 ivory tubes each. After overpowering them, they found the tubes to contain disgusting, hostile worms with psychic powers, which they dispatched. Nobody came form the city that night…
Scene 3: Using a map found on the dark elves, the heroes navigated the mines, caves and upper underworld to find the dark elf outpost. They ambushed and kidnapped a sentry and learned about the deal with the Dark Lord, the worms nursery and the gold and gems mined by the enslaved goblins.
Scene 4: Heroes found cave where Dark Lord was hidden, discovered he wasn’t who they thought he was, fought him until he surrendered, begging for mercy. Heroes exposed his soul-stealing con and refused to let it pass so they dispatched him.
(Fin)
Many elements of the Scaffold never came into play, but that’s all right, they could fuel a further quest…. or not. We had fun for a few hours and that’s what counts.
Do you find an adventure “crib sheet’ written in this format helpful? Would you want me to share another one soon?
Let me know!
Soon, I’ll reveal how I got that adventure plan made.
26 Years of Gaming Lessons
My wife’s birthday is coming up, which made me think of my birthday, which made me think of my age, and thus, the length of time I’ve been a gamer.
I’ve been a gamer for 26 years, and in that time:
- I’ve lost an arm and a leg in the same fight;
- witnessed the best ever one-shot with a thrown dagger;
- seen the Statue of Liberty fall into the ocean;
- watched my Lamborghini Transformer get blown to bits by a Glitter Boy;
- and made the most awesome character… ever.
I don’t know how many more years I have in my RPG life, but I hope that when I’m done I can look back and appreciate it all. I’m going to take this moment to reflect on a few epiphanies I’ve had over the years…
Experience Matters
My very first experience with RPGs involved a very inexperienced DM. As our characters stood before a door, the DM stated, “You come up to a door. Do you go in?” We said, “Sure,” and were thus maimed because we walked into a pool of acid. Now, I’ve thought about trying acid, but not that way. What I get from this is that experience matters, both for the DM and the players.
The Rule of Cool
Back in the early days of AD&D, our group was fighting some enemies at a house. When the fight started, we knew that in the back of the house was a kennel full of war dogs. At some point, a PC saw an enemy run to the back of the house. Figuring that the enemy was going to let the dogs loose (and since we were losing the fight), he asked the DM if he could throw a dagger at the guy (even though they were on opposite sides of the house). The DM said sure, but because he couldn’t actually see the enemy, he’d need to roll a natural 20.
Of course, the PC threw the dagger over the house and ,you guessed it, the player rolled that 20. After we picked ourselves up off of the floor, the player started figuring damage when the DM said, “No-no-no. You effing killed the guy.”
That, is the Rule of Cool.
There are Ways to Suppress One’s Fear of Flying
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a cool movie. Hey shut up! It had freakin Wayne Gretzky, on steroids! Anyway, if you have a fear of flying, a good way to suppress that fear is to play RPGs!
It was the 7th grade, I had a huge crush on Cara Bujica… and I didn’t really care for flying. However, most of our 7th grade class was flying from Reno, Nevada to Washington D.C. I’d flown before, and while I haven’t retained an irrational fear of flying, I still don’t like it.
So, what better way to get your mind off of your fears than by playing an RPG? There we were, playing TMNT on a 747 jet, 30,000 feet in the air. Fear of flying? Not so much anymore.
Sometimes, Social Contracts ARE Needed
Nuff said.
It’s OK to Run Away
Sometimes, you just shouldn’t stay in the fight. I was playing “The Paralyzer” in Chaosium’s Super World when I (alone) was confronted by two acidicly-blooded aliens. After three short rounds of getting sprayed by acid (there’s that acid again), I lost both an arm and a leg. Lesson learned: I am not always the ultimo bad ass – sometimes it’s ok to run away.
(Editor’s Note: How the HELL did you run away with just one leg? That’s a story I want to read! /Chatty)
Rifts is too Hard to Run Correctly
T’was my first ever experience with Rifts: I made a Head Hunter, because it looked cool and I had a cool concept for him.
In the first round of the first encounter of the first session, my character died, simply because Rifts is Rifts. A couple of years later, I made a much more powerful rifts character who operated a Lamborghini Transformer. It was destroyed in the first round of its first fight by an evil Glitter Boy. My character died in the next round as the Glitter Boy kicked me across the river.
Lesson Learned: I will never play Rifts again, unless it is run by Kevin Siembieda.
I Can Never be as Cool as Wesley Crusher
Star Trek: The Next Generation was a cool show. Sure, the sets were all kinds of cheese, and the fight scenes were full of lame, but that show just drew me in. I’m sure Wil Wheaton is a cool guy, but not as cool as Wesley Crusher.
(Editor’s Note: I beg to differ, he actually reads the site. Hey Wil! /Chatty)
I liked the character of Wesley, and tried to emulate that character in a variety of ways in a variety of RPGs. You know what? My characters were never that cool, and they always fell flat. I could never pull off a Wesley Crusher – type character the way Wil can.
Lesson Learned: Be original with your PC, since you’ll never pull off a copycat as well as the original.
I’d Rather Not Sit Through a Lost Turn
Sure, penalties for your character from time-to-time make a combat encounter dynamic. I can dig it. I do dig it. But if my character gets Stunned one more time and I have to lose my turn, I’m gonna leave the game and turn on the boob tube – because watching Oobi is a hell of a lot more fun than sitting at the table doing nothing.
Kenny Rogers had it Right
I’ve been in bad groups like bad relationships. You know what I mean… You spend time with this group of gamers, hoping that you get to enjoy your hobby as well as their company, but you end the night upset and sometimes demoralized. Whether you simply don’t mesh with the group, or you have a “problem player,” you have to know when to do something about it. My time is valuable, and I want to enjoy my time with a supposed-to-be-fun hobby, so if I don’t fit in with this group, I’m out. If you cause problems in my game, you’re out. I’m done with the unfun.
Lesson Learned: You have to know when to fold’em.
If You’re Going to Make a Character, Make it a Good One
The best gaming I’ve ever done as a player happened when I put the most effort into my character. That’s where I get my enjoyment from, playing the role. I’m talking about when you figure out where your character comes from, what his goals are, his outlook on life, his quirks, the things he’s good at, the things he’s bad at, the line he won’t ever cross under any circumstances, and the thing that he believes in so much that he’ll cross any line to get there.
I’m talking about diving into the role of someone that isn’t you. When I put little effort into my character, I get little in return. That’s how it works for me. I want to enjoy my time at the table. That’s why I play the game. I get to step out of my shoes and into those of another, to go on adventures, missions, and treks across the galaxy. I get to be someone else, instead of that dude who babysits a bunch of inmates in a jail, and then goes home to a bunch of bills.
These are the ten most significant events, or realizations, in my gaming career. I consider them lessons that I’ve learned, though I don’t declare that they apply to everyone. They mean something to me, have shaped the way I game today, and made me appreciate the hobby more than ever.
Thanks for reading.
Tourq Stevens runs the resource website, Stuffer Shack, because he loves the hobby of gaming, has learned so much from it, and hopes to help make it fun for others.
