Logan Bonner at NorWesCon 35!
Stan! having a drink at NorWesCon 34. This isn't me, but if you find him I'll probably be nearby.
Hey, folks. Here’s a quick update to let you know I’ll be a guest at NorWesCon 35 in Seatac, WA this weekend. Here’s my schedule.
Friday 11 am in Evergreen 1&2
The Influence of Tabletop Games on Video Games, with Eric Cagle, Dustin J. Gross, and Joshua Howard
Friday 6 pm in Evergreen 3&4
Have Licenses Taken Over the Creativity in Gaming? with Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, and Erik Mona
Saturday 3 pm Evergreen 3&4
Building a Better Campaign Setting with Wolfgang Baur, Bruce Cordell, and Jonathan Tweet
Special Event! This isn’t an official NorWesCon event, but I’ll be playing or helping facilitate a game of Fiasco with The Doubleclicks, Geeky Hostess, Lillian Cohen-Moore, and/or Ryan Macklin. We’ll be using an unreleased playset written by Lillian and myself. Most likely, we’ll be playing in the bar area, but we’ll snag a room if possible. Follow us on Twitter for updates on how you can come watch the fun and learn how to play Fiasco! Warning: Expect an R-rated experience.
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.
A Very Gamma Christmas
We were spending the night in
an old, ruined school
after looting the place
seeking ammo and tools
A cardboard box we found today
marked “XMAS” then two thousand one
just what that meant no one could say
my hope was food or maybe guns
Inside was lots of sparkly stuff
a string of tiny colored lights
a fake tree, which bewildered us
one book of tales to read that night
“‘Twas the night before Christmas”
(or so the book said)
not an Ancient was stirring
(because they’re long dead)
The story inside was a tale borne of fear
of a telekinetic and eight mutant deer
who breaks into houses and steals people’s food
and mind-controls children to make them be “good”.
A red coat he wore, and with ludicrous speed
he travelled the whole world to do his heinous deeds.
A sack did he carry, with a rip in space-time
to store all his “presents” that controlled children’s minds.
The party was nestled all snug on the floor
and I took first watch, and I guarded the door.
Then what should I echolocate with my big dolphin head
but that evil red bastard, in a big flying sled!
Each of the party I screamed for by name,
pulled out my rifle, and took careful aim.
Suddenly then did the man disappear!
I ordered the android to cover the rear.
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
the pawing of tentacles, talons, or (I suppose) hooves.
As we readied ourselves for a massive attack,
he fell through the roof, and lay flat on his back.
He clawed at his face as he shrieked in the night
and we smiled as we knew there would be no fight
It seemed fate had dealt us incredible luck-
the Red Bandit’s plan foiled by an Alpha Flux.
What used to be man, now made awful sounds
was now something hideous (yet jolly and round).
And then where there used to be torso and face
grew ten tiny reindeer, all vying for space.
And down in his pants was a terrible fight
(more reindeer, we hoped, or we’d shoot it on sight).
It all looked so joyous and furry and warm
the giant, fur-coat-wearing caribou swarm.
At last the mass rose and invaded our minds
and spoke to our brains in a voice strangely kind:
“We came here to give presents to everyone,
so would it be OK to lower your guns?”
We laughed at the deer-mass’s loaded request
and continued pointing our guns at its “chest”.
Though it was transformed and no longer a man,
it seemed that the Flux had not altered its plan.
My cohorts and I then considered his fate
(a fortnight of venison gracing our plates!)
but somehow his reindeery hive-mind did know
of the threat, and their noses then started to glow!
We dashed out the door as the building went boom
(barely escaping our fiery doom)
and what from the blazing school should appear
but a sled full of pants-wearing swarming reindeer!
And then over us he made one final run
and tossed out enough “presents” for everyone.
We realized our error as we watched them fall-
Genuine Red Ryder Fusion rifles for all!
We thanked the kind deer-swarm as it streaked away,
finally understanding the spirit of the day.
Then he spoke in our heads as he flew out of sight,
“Gamma Christmas to all, and we hope we’re all right!”
Just A Geek (And Forty Thousand Other Geeks)
I just spent the last five days in Indianapolis, as I do every year, among my people. This year, one of our high priests was in attendance, disseminating the gospel of gaming to the masses. I like putting it like that, because it makes it sound like the person in question is an elitist, pretentious ass. Any of you who have had the pleasure to meet Wil Wheaton understand he’s the antithesis of a pompous ass. In fact, I’m pretty sure trying to prevent himself from getting con crud wasn’t the reason Wil didn’t want anybody to touch him this year. I think he got word that the biggest jerk in the world was going to be at Gen Con. If they’d touched, it would be like matter touching antimatter, and the entire Midwest would have been wiped off the globe. He has saved us all.
I’m sure many of you out there have stories about meeting Wil this year. This is mine.
I originally had plans Friday morning to go to a World of Warcraft TCG tournament. When I found out Wil would be speaking, I decided my Orgrimmar shaman rush deck could get completely torn apart another time. I made the right choice. I was pretty astounded at the size of the line to get in. I got there about 45 minutes early, and before long the line extended all the way out of the Westin grand ballroom, around the upstairs lobby, and out into the skywalk leading to the convention hall. The part of me that used to get upset when people would hate on Wesley Crusher was doing a merry jig.
Wil’s talk was amazing. He talked about how gaming helped him through the gauntlet of his school years. He talked about how gaming was the mortar that held the most important relationships of his life together. He talked about teaching values to his children through gaming. He encouraged us all to keep doing what we all love most, to dispel the negative stereotypes and welcome others into our world, and to make the world a better place 1d20 at a time.
I’m not going to lie, I left that room feeling pretty damn good about being a gaming blogger. Additionally, I’ve also been struggling recently with writer’s block, and Wil made me realize something important: it doesn’t matter as much what I write about so much as why. I felt renewed purpose and fire in my belly again, and I wanted to thank him.
Fortunately, I would have the opportunity to do so in the exhibit hall at the end of a giant, slow-moving line. I would later discover why that line was moving slowly – the man takes the time to talk to everyone. Even me. When it was my turn, I told him I wrote for Critical Hits (since he mentioned this one time that he reads us), and he said he loved the site and that it helped his game mastering skills and thanked me. Sorry, Wil. I may have been somewhat disingenuous. My official role here at Critical Hits is to do the potty humor and Mega Man game reviews. Despite this, I did still have the writer’s block, and so I thanked him for getting me on my feet again. He gave me some advice a friend gave him when he had the same trouble: to give yourself permission to keep going, and to write for your audience even if you don’t feel like writing for yourself. At least, that’s what I got out of it. Every neuron was fried with too much awesome. I’m sure he said more. I’m sure his friend had a name. All I knew is that one of my childhood (and later adulthood) heroes just took the time to personally help me out. I felt like I was talking to a kindred spirit. A friend.
Naturally, I had to take one of the most excellent experiences of my adult life and blow it at some point.
As you may have heard, Wil had asked that everyone give him one of their gaming dice. In his talk, he mentioned that he wanted to know if there was a story behind these dice. I had such a die. I had a ridiculous story to tell. And I remembered that I had both of these about two seconds after the guy running the line at the autograph table asked me to move on.
In retrospect, the smart thing to do would have been to drop the die in the cup, tell Wil thanks, and walk off feeling good about the universe. But no, I just had to tell my story. It’s a very good story. It’s the tale of my heavy metal bard and how he did the deed on top of the legendary Tarrasque, eventually conceiving a child. Told right, it moves people to tears and inspires works of art. I had visions of Wil snort-laughing and Felicia Day high-fiving me for being super rad. However, given that I only had three seconds, I blurted out something along the lines of “OKAY I WILL MAKE THIS QUICK THIS DIE HAS A STORY AND THAT STORY IS THAT I CONCEIVED A CHILD ON TOP OF THE TARRASQUE”.
Wil looks at me and says, “uh huh…” in a very polite way, as I am shuffled away to let the next person through. Well, of course he did. I turned into that guy. And I realized something very important. Just as Gamera is the Friend to All Children, Wil Wheaton is the Friend to All Gamers. I genuinely believe the guy would hang out with every last one of us if he could, but he’s loved by so many that it’s just not possible. Also, there is that problem with his nuclear fire and impenetrable carapace.
So, anyway. Wil, if you’re reading this….. well, sorry about being a toolbox there at the end. And really, thanks for the advice, and for dispelling my writer’s block. Even my rolling a 1 in your presence made me want to write.
Friday Chat: Are You Trying Too Hard?
Friday Chats are end-of-week posts intended to foster discussion on various RPG topics that bounce around in my noggin’.
This week, with my post on prepping for my game,cramming it with all the awesome Magitek I can think of and applying lessons from last week’s posts, I caught myself asking, yet again, “Dude, aren’t you just trying too hard here?” Chances are I’ll spend 4-6 hours of preparation for a 3-4 hour game. While I’ll likely be setting a solid foundation for the next 2-3 session… one is left to wonder: is it worth it?
If you were to ask that question to my players, most would roll their eyes so far up they would likely pop right out. My friend Yan, Myers-Briggs Mastermind that he is, rarely misses a chance to remind me how much less time he invests in his games that are, overall, pretty similar to mine in scope and play experience, although I suspect he daydreams about it a lot. Our other group GM, Franky, seems daunted by my dedication to put so much effort in the art of DMing. I sometime worried if he isn’t half-scared that I’ll call the GMing S.W.A.T on him during our monthly Star Wars game.
Nevertheless, when I say ‘trying too hard’, I means prepping so much game material that an unhealthy chunk of your free time is sucked out of your life. It also means cramming so many ideas in so few scenes that they become too tangled to play out as cool as they appear individually on paper.
Therefore, I think the question is not if I try too hard as a DM, I totally do, but why I keep doing it after having realized it? While I almost always overprep games, I often fail to pull off all the potential awesomeness I hope for once at the gaming table. The ideas end up being too complex, I’m more tired than expected or find myself reacting poorly to an unexpected turn of event.
Let’s not deny that prepping is fun. If it wasn’t, there would a lot less homebrewed or adapted published adventures. Heck, even running published ones straight need prep. I would however say that should prepping become more fun than actually gaming, chances are there’s a fundamental flaw in your gaming experience that should be explored and addressed before your campaign collapses. I would, however, be curious to see if some GMs would rather prep a game for a friend than run it).
The thing is, I realize as I write these lines that I mainly keep doing it because I’m wired like that and have not reached a point where the disadvantages of doing this outweigh the gains… but I must say that at times, It does. And when I reach that point, I need to look at my way of preparing adventures and give it a good healthy kick to see what falls off and I don’t really need.
For D&D 4e I realize that weren’t for the fact that I always keep the door open for publication and appreciate having everything (stats, outcomes, descriptions, etc) in one document, I could afford to drop things like templating and as- written mechanics and just page 42 (see Dungeon Master Guide) the hell out of it all.
So what about you? Do you try too hard and produce prepping works of art that you don’t necessary need? Do you feel that the work you do is unappreciated by your players (see my posts about giving and receiving feedback)? How do you deal with that?
And for those who don’t, I have another Friday Chat brewing for you…
I've Had Enough
I can no longer stand idly by, party to a fraud perpetrated on our readers. Taking advantage of the fact that I’m the only writer on duty right now, hoping that my treason goes undetected long enough for word to spread, I make my stand. It is with a heavy heart that I admit my role in the greatest gaming scheme since card counting at Blackjack. I, for one, will come clean. Long ago, TheGame and Bartoneus entrusted me with administrative capabilities during times in which they were away. I mean to use that now, in an attempt to wipe the slate clean. [Read the rest of this article]
Chatty's Out of the Box #006: Gummy Dragons
Here’s another comic with some new characters, once again done with the creative support of my good friend PM.
It was about time that I put my gargantuan and Colossal dragons to use, it’s not like I ever needed them in my actual games.
I owe the original idea of this comic to Scotticus, thanks man!
I’m really enjoying doing those, and I’m perfectly aware that it’s not everybody’s thing here. I do it because I get to learn a lot on so many things: digital photography, comic book writing and comedy (which ain’t easy).
I still need to make myself a pair of light diffuser and I should experiment taking pictures from different angles to show different parts of my gaming room (although, the way I currently do it allows me to snap pictures without actually cleaning up my work/play space…)
If you want to see a bit more of my play room, have a look here.
I’m actually thinking of putting the comics on it’s own series of webpage and implement some sort of archive… but I’ve only done 6 so far… so no hurry.
Thanks for humoring me and thanks for the feedback both positive and constructive.
Chatty's Out of the Box #005: Right Said Slaad!
Here’s a new comic with my favorite Green Spawn of Chaos!
As usual, click thumbnail.
This time I’ve officially teamed up with PM who contributed to the writing and the Photoshoping. He deserves his share of the credit and here it is. I think we’re on to something here and we already have brainstormed a few gags, so chances are, this comic thing will become a team effort.
I ‘m really growing fond of Kermit here and this, as any Troper will tell you, is a sign that I need to step away from it before I Flanderize it. I don’t want to burn the potential for that character just yet.
As always, thanks for reading!
Pathfinder #6 preview and conclusion: The Lost City of Adventure's End
I just got the notification that issue #7 was shipped this week. That made me realize that I had to write a short blurb on the final issue of Paizo’s Rise of Runelords Adventure Path.
Issue #6: Spires of Xin-Shalast brings the stories of ancient, evil Sin-magic and the old empires based on them to a conclusion. One such Runelord will awaken from a thousand year old sleep and is ready to resume his conquering of all of Varisia (the country where the adventures were set).
This adventure tries to capture the feel of discovering a long-lost city and the ancient, lovecraftian horror that slumbers underneath it (and we’re not talking about the Runelord here). [Read the rest of this article]
Chatty's Out of the Box #004: Memories…
Here’s my Webcomic tribute to a great man. As usual, click on the thumbnail (and possibly once again on the picture) to get the sharpest image.
It’s funny how many memories one can keep of this game.
All stories you see in the comic truly happened and featured, my friends Nicolas (panel 1, gone to Sweden), JeeEff (panel 3 gone to Quebec City) and Math (panel 4, still around for more than 20 years). Thanks for the memories guys.
Also, note that all these monsters featured in the AD&D Monster Manual.
For the photo geeks out there, I use a Sony Cybershot 7.2 MegaPixel digital camera (it’s basically the family’s camera). PM made me discover the Macro photography setting on it so focusing is now easier. Also, until I get some descent lighting, I use the Camera’s low light, no flash ISO setting.
Have a nice weekend.
