Quest accepted: Strategicon Gateway 2015

A history with cons

Oh, the slowly mounting excitement of another game con. And this one will mark my 10th of the Strategicon family.

As mentioned in the past, I took a hiatus from gaming for over 15 years. And even back in those days of my youth, I only went to one convention, back in high school. It might have been a forerunner of Strategicon itself, in some fashion, since it was an LA convention. I can't even remember the name. My only memory is a horrible Axis and Allies game I jumped into with my friend Howie, with a bunch of old war gamers. We gave them a gamer horror story to tell, about the kids who pretended to know how to play, but didn't know a single rule, and just kept trying to fake it throughout the game.

But that's all ancient history now.

Strategicon Gateway 2012 opened my eyes to another facet of gaming I have enjoyed thoroughly. Sharing the sport with strangers. Finding new systems to play. Playing in board game tournaments. Late night Cthulhu games in hotel rooms. Even LARPs!

We are blessed here in the LA area, in that Strategicon itself runs not once, not twice, but THREE times a year, as Orccon in February, as Gamex in May, and Gateway in August/September. These magically always fall on the 3-day weekends enabled by President's Day, Veteran's Day, and Labor Day.

I ran my first game as a GM, after encouragement from my virtual friends at Happy Jacks RPG podcast and forums, at Orccon 2014, and have been GMing there since. My absolute favorite part is that contribution, back and forth, of getting to run something different for people, and getting to play in some many lovely, creative, interesting games (and the few horror stories in between).

I haven't missed one Strategicon yet (since that fateful Gateway 2012). I take those days off in my work's HR system 8 months in advance. I actually plan with my wife, mother-in-law, and various possible babysitters months ahead of time. And I have the most fortunate luck of having a wife that doesn't really put much stock into Valentine's Day, or at least not caring about the Feb 14 date itself, which often conflicts with the Orccons.

Gateway 2015

And so now, another con rears its beautifully draconic head.

I'll be running my Distress on Life Liner 928 game, Friday at 2pm, so looking forward to what the players bring to that game (it's always a very different experience!)

I was able to get in touch with the folks at Asmodee / Space Cowboys and secure 3 more sets of Splendor (my favorite board game) for the Strategicon game library, all for the Splendor tournament that is running on Friday evening. Although I have to drop out of one of my precious RPG slots, I must make the sacrifice. It's the first Splendor tournament at this convention, and hopefully one of many to come. 

Have some fun games lined up for Saturday, but I'll write more on the return.

Looking forward to playing in another game by JiB (a Happy Jacks RPG host) on Sunday morning. All Happy Jacks games are exceedingly difficult to get into, and after playing my first JiB game last con, I'm definitely down for more of that action.

And then J and the kid (the wife and daughter) show up on Sunday. The kid asked to do more of the game 101's, so we'll be teaching Battle Sheep and What the Food!? on Sunday afternoon. And then she'll play in her second King of Tokyo tournament. She didn't pretty great last time, and being the youngest in the tourney (at age 6), I was duly impressed as well. J and I will be cheering her on from the cheap seats.

Wish me luck and fun. Stories when I return.

RPGaDAY 2015: Days 29-31 / Wrap-up

Day 29: Favorite RPG website / blog

The Happy Jacks RPG forums. I spend a disturbing amount of time there.

But other than there, I recently been loving to read the AndryGM rants. They are wonderfully ranty, and a very excellent mixture of both frustrating and hilarious. And more importantly, contain a surprising amount of insight.

I want to be good about reading Gnome Stew, it looks awesome, but it's just my inherent laziness. Everything else is touch and go, and I haven't gone far down any path.

Day 30: Favorite RPG playing celebrity

I'm really liking Chris Hardwick. It's just that way he unapologeticly uses D&D references whenever. Also the TV show: At Midnight. Pretty fucken funny. It's a little pseudo game show with comedians on, where all the questions are riffs or comments on internet meme type stuff.

Day 31: Favorite non-RPG thing to come out of RPGing

I've heard great answers on this one... things like world building, and cartography, and research.

But mine's pretty shallow: T-shirts. I love my tees. It's your little advertisement to try and capture relevant parties during daily transit. A little opener. An invitation for conversation. And ever since I got back into gaming, I've added the relevant RPGness to my collection.

There are classic examples out there, such as the Choose Your Weapon shirt. There are also more esoteric designs, such as this lovely GoPlayNW con shirt (which also serves as such a great Seattle souvenir shirt).

However, in the end I've had to make some of my own. I would love to pay the artists for their designs, but unfortunately Larry Elmore or Erol Otus just aren't in the business of printing out shirts, and thus I've had to buy my own iron on transfers (specifically those ones that print on dark shirts such as this), and my own shirts from American Apparel (or wherever), and DIY. But man am I happy with my shirts.

Wrap up

And with that, the month ends. I did all these as a little test for myself, to see if I could journal through it all, and get in the habit of writing all this junk (for myself if nothing else). 

But I also started posting this on the Happy Jacks forums, and have found many cool responses from others. So, thank you, #RPGaDAY2015. Perhaps we'll see you next year.

RPGaDAY 2015: Days 25-28

Day 25: Favorite Revolutionary Game Mechanic

Gaining experience when failing a move (skill roll) in Dungeon World. 

Dungeon World and Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) games already want rolls to only be made when they mean something, but this mechanic gives a little more drive to the GM to make that happen. Otherwise players can abuse the situation by rolling for anything, and getting more failures = more xp. I'm serious. I've got a min-maxer who was ready to roll all the time, because he knew that for the most part he couldn't "lose". He knew SUCCESS = win and FAILURE = xp.

For me as GM it was another impetus to learn to only ask for the rolls when they mattered. And it helped me drive up my game with roll failures which were more than just "oh, you missed. take 5 damage."

A disadvantage of failing rolls in some games is, such as some traditional D&D, is that just means you "missed" and now have to wait for the table to cycle before you can do anything else. One of the great advantages to this PbtA mechanic, however, is that there is always a silver lining when you fail, as a player... you get an XP! And it's only like 8 or more xp to level. So that's big too.

Day 26: Favorite inspiration for your game

Music. The track Hyperspace by Faust and Shortee, which inspired me with the Star Frontiers game.

Actually, there are more than a few tracks on that album I like for gaming. I love looking for good tracks that work in the backgrounds, especially if they have a certain beat or cadence which inspires the mood for the scene (but without distracting from the conversations in the foreground).

Day 27: Favorite idea for merging two games into one

Some good choices here. 

It's been said before in some of the other RPGaDAY posts, but shit: Dread. Jenga + RPG = excellence.

In recent times, one of my favorites is the Star Frontiers conversion for Savage Worlds, just because it's taken a setting I wanted to use, and converted it into gaming "Esperanto" so that everyone can play it. It isn't really a merging of two games, but more of a conversion of one into the system of another, however check out the amazing job they've done with these:

• Player's manual: www.savageheroes.com/conversions/sfplayers.pdf
• Referee's manual: www.savageheroes.com/conversions/SFreferee.pdf

If you remember, or have, the original Star Frontiers rules, you'll see they basically took the book and layout, as is, and scraped out the text, and just replaced it with Savage Worlds-related text and mechanics. It's artfully done.

Day 28: Favorite game you no longer play

Probably Battletech, purely for the memories. I loved walking into a pond and having the heat sinks in my legs cool me down, and jump up in the air and shout "death from above!" But alas, no one I know really plays it. I did get to play a short skirmish at the local con last year, when someone helped my friend Howie and I run through a quick combat (I think they were trying to promote the re-released box set. Howie then went on to buy it, but we haven't played since. And to be honest, I want to play a mech pilot, but I don't really like war gaming in general (too crunchy).

And that's why I'm sort of excited for this game: ATLAS RECKONING by Stras Acimovic. I got chat with him up at GoPlayNW, and he showed me some tidbits... a character sheet / playbook here and there. And it looks awesome, like a little bundle of Robotech and Pacific Rim and G-Force and whatnot all rolled into one. Not sure if the link'll work, but here's what I got re details: plus.google.com/+StrasAcimovic/posts/dp26DHBzxFL.

So hopefully this will go from a favorite game I no longer play, converted into a newer game I do.

#RPGaDAY2015

RPGaDAY 2015: Day 24: Favorite House Rule

Day 24: Favorite House Rule

My house rule was in Savage Worlds, where I like to use bennies - in addition to the generic re-rolls and damage soaks - as a pseudo fate chip. You can use them to change the course of events in some (relatively minor, but possibly important) way.

In by Distress on Life Liner 928 (Star Frontiers / Savage Worlds) game, because the game often has to end due to time constraints, I have the players spend bennies, back and forth, to get their agendas met (or not met, depending on who's got more bennies). This allows the game to be tied up in minutes, since it becomes all narrative at that point, and has led to some fun player vs. player moments. It also means that players get to spend all their bennies by the time the game ends, so it never feels like you wasted them, which is an additional bonus.

End game: You can see Kurt (the Vrusk next to the right escape pod) has run out of bennies, but Julia (the Sathar next to the left escape pod) has 3 left. Guess who lands on the planet surrounded by Slither beasts? And guess who floats in orbit and is saved by her Sathar brethren?

RPGaDAY: Day 23: Perfect game for you

Whew... getting RPGaDAY fatigue at this point. Gotta... power... through...

Day 23: Perfect game for me

It starts at 8am. I wake up from a restful sleep. I walk from the hotel room down to the meal area, where they serve fluffy eggs, perfectly cooked thick smoked bacon slices, grill roasted tomato, and those farmer market fresh fruits that take me back 35 years.

I get a call from my wife telling me what a great time she's having with our daughter, and how I should have a great time.

After a pleasant breakfast with gamer buddies, bantering about things that only we would find interesting, I head to the convention game rooms. (Yes, a convention, because that means I'm not at home dealing with home shit.)

Some of us get together and play a fun GM-less game we've never played before, run by a the game designer, who's motivated, fun, and plays right along with us. No one outshines anyone else, laughs are had, and a great story is told.

Lunch time, as good as breakfast.

Afternoon game is a LARP, but one in which the planned session is half the fun, and what all of us players bring to the table is the other half, and makes it all worthwhile.

A nice break for dinner with good friends, drinks, and a pleasant walk in the cool air.

And then the night game. Something horror. With investigation. And competing character agendas. And madness. And more than a little drinking.

And then back to bed for a great nights sleep.

RPGaDAY: Day 22: Perfect gaming environment

Simple, the right set of people for the game in question.

RPGaDAY: Day 21: Favorite RPG Setting

Reading this heading, I'm somewhat at a loss. Most of the games I've run are for systems that are setting-less, for the most part. I'm more used to world building around the stories that we're going to tell. I also haven't read too much into existing settings, and again maybe that's because I traditionally created them myself. The biggest exception would probably be Star Frontiers, but even that we just sort of made up as we went. The recent game I've set based on this isn't very setting-dependent.

As far as favorite games, I've been leaning towards the GM-less and world building type games, recently, and those sometimes have a guiding concept (and sometimes not), however don't really have a setting.

So, with that said, I wouldn't say any of these are my favorite per se, just that I've enjoyed playing or exploring them, in the limited fashion I've done:

Paranoia

I've only played one game of Paranoia, at a local con (run by Ed Murphy at Strategicon), and it was excellent fun. It feels a little dated at times, and mostly that's a good thing as far as flavor. 

Want to feel the love? Watch some excellent Paranoia mission briefings on youtube. One of my favorites is Mister Bubbles Mission Briefing:

Another great is Paranoia DRK-DNG-NSS Sector (Jack-I-CHK-3 Wants You To Kill Commies!), created by Kurt of Jackercon fame for a game he ran online:

Dark Sun

The Dark Sun D&D setting is set on the world of Athas. The basic concept is that magic takes a toll on the surrounding environment (especially if you want to do it the easy way), and hence mages have ruined the world. The setting is dark, with various wastelands, the rule of sorcerer kings, and cannibal halflings (can't get darker than that, right?) I got to play a few games in a friends campaign, and absolutely love the concept, especially in the context of D&D, which traditionally had a very high fantasy feel for me. If I had to play D&D (which of course, I don't), I'd prefer playing in this world.

Shadowrun

Again, dark and gritty, but this time with a little magic and technology crossover, spiced with hackers and corporations. Never played, but recently have loved listening to the Neo-Anarchist Podcast, which takes you through a bit of history in the Shadowrun universe, in the local dialect

RPGaDAY 2015: Days 17-20

Day 17: Favorite Fantasy RPG

Dungeon World. This is the D&D-style adaptation of the Apocalypse World engine. Just so accessible and easy to run.

Day 18: Favorite SF RPG

Star Frontiers. Only cause it's the only one I've ever really run or played back in the day. I haven't played Traveller, or The Last Parsec, or others, so can't compare. I know that Star Frontiers as an original system sucks, but I just loved the setting (in all its somewhat pulpy glory). And because of the Savage Worlds conversion, you don't have to worry about fiddly early 80's d% mechanics and tables.

Day 19: Favorite Supers RPG

No opinion. I just haven't played much or any supers. Big gap in my gaming background. Fate is the closest I've come to this, and specifically a game of Atomic Robo, and it seems to work pretty great for it.

Day 20: Favorite Horror RPG

Dread. I love me some Cthulhu, but have just played so many good Dread games, and it really lends itself to some awesome PvP action in a way that works really well, since really, someone's gonna have to drop.

RPGaDAY 2015: Days 14-16

Day 14: Favorite RPG Accessory

Oh please... you know.

Day 15: Longest campaign played

Played? I don't think I've ever played in a campaign. Maybe 2 games in  a row, once or twice?

Shit, that's something I gotta fix.

Day 16: Longest game session played

It was Gateway 2012, my first game convention in roughly 20 years. We played 2 games on Friday, and we were on our third game on Saturday. My mind was beginning to be mush.

We were about to start an 8pm Cthulhu game. We get to the table. There are 7 of us playing. The GM was Robert Curtis. He starts with "So, the game is scheduled to run for 4 hours. However. I'm happy to go all night until we get it done." That sounds like a good start!

7 hours later, 3 am, we finally wrap up a very long and beautiful Cthulhu game. Longest game I've ever played.

RPGaDAY 2015: Day 13: Favorite RPG Podcast

Winner!

No doubt, by a parsec: Happy Jacks RPG Podcast, for which, not 2 weeks ago, I dedicated a happy birthday message (they turned 6!).

If I only had one RPG podcast to listen to for the rest of my days, this would be the one. Many compare it to hanging out (or more appropriately, drinking) with friends.

However, sometimes you just need something else... maybe for variety. Or more than likely because you've caught up on the voluminous backlog of HJRPG episodes.

Honorable mentions

So, let me give some honorable mentions:

• Savage Worlds GM Hangouts Podcast: Jerrod ‘Savage Daddy’ Gunning and crew meet weekly Wednesdays to discuss Savage Worlds specifically, but GM-ing issues generically as well. Mix of hosts, great mix of topics (and they stay very on-topic for most shows). Much more consistent length-wise, around 45 min to an hour, as opposed to the rambling size of the HJRPG 'casts.
• Fear The Boot:  Not too dissimilar to HJRPG, listening to these guys is listening to a bunch of people hanging out. The GM knowledge is vast, and the advice is often solid, and comes from a good mix of rotating hosts, so you get good variety as well.

I've listened to others, but they've have either fallen by the wayside, or are just occasionally used.

RPGaDAY 2015: Days 10-12

Day 10: Favorite RPG Publisher

I had a hard time with this one, cause I don't really have a favorite publisher. I feel like I'm a little too new on the scene, and also that the publishers that I do know, I don't really know. But then I have been starting to meet a few designers at a very few cons, and although exciting to see the different work that's coming out, I still have no favorites.

So with that, I went googling. And I like Stephanie's answer (which was Evil Hat Productions), so I'll leave it here for people to read.

Cause I got nothing right now.

Day 11: Favorite RPG Writer

Jim Pinto (just so I can sound even more like a fanboy). I like his writing style. It's a little abrasive, and has a little attitude. And he uses stellar fonts.

Day 12: Favorite RPG Illustration

Wow, this one is so very hard. I started with the Basic D&D red box that was graced by Erol Otus, and loved many of his other works:

How much time did I spend staring at this image?

And then of course I loved Larry Elmore's stuff, including this lovely Star Frontiers cover from it's box set:

I really wish he'd done a few with Vrusks and Dralasites, but they only got the black-and-white cheesy shit, in the manuals.

But if I had to choose one piece of art, it'd be the WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING (from the 1E MM):

That's some scary shit when you're 9 years old!

Jackercon VII: Distress on Life Liner 928

Jackercon

What is it? Jackercon is the free, online role-playing game convention that rears its beautiful head every couple of months, when a certain D.T. Pints (an active member of the Happy Jacks RPG forum community) gets motivated enough to whip it into shape. It's an extension of the rabid fan base of the Happy Jacks RPG podcast. 

To date, Jackercon usually appears about once every 3 months or so (sometimes with longer gaps). It is scheduled for roughly a week, and relies on the HJRPG forum members to just up and volunteer to schedule and run games using G+ and Google Hangouts.

The best place to get current information about Jackercon? Probably the G+ Jackercon community.

Attendance

Current attendance is not particularly high, and suffers from the usual problems whenever anything is both online and free. It is all too easy to "commit" to a game and then flake out (mostly as a player, but every so often as a GM). This happens with some amount of regularity, unfortunately.

But there have been Jackercons where the attendance was higher, and D.T. Pints has made it known that his mission is to get more participating (which is surely a simple task, as he works on an Alaskan fishing boat, and recently became a new father).

Themes

Each Jackercon has had a theme associated with it. Sometimes the theme is conspiracies, or TPKs, or space madness. For instance, some previous thematic titles include:

• JACKERCON VI: AND SO THIS IS DRIZZTMAS!

• JACKERCON V: "In Space No One Can Hear You..."

• JACKERCON 2013 PART DEUX: "WRATH OF THE PANTSLESS"

  ...and so forth. That said, adhering to the theme is hardly mandatory.

Jackercon VII

The 7th Jackercon in the series occurred the July 18-25 week of 2015. Although I've gotten to play in 3 Jackercon games in prior years, this was my first time running a game.

As far as con games go, the games I've run thus far are my Lego-driven Savage Worlds games, and I didn't really plan on going any different this time around. But how to run a game with lots of physical props using an online medium?

Running Distress on LL928, online

Distress on Life Liner 928 is a Star Frontiers / Savage Worlds / Lego mashup, which up until now I've run a half dozen times (at cons and for friends). This was the game I wanted to run for my fellows in the HJRPG community. 

Originally I was considering using tools like Roll20 (which plugs in very nicely into Google Hangouts) to create a space ship for my game, with suitable PC and NPC tokens.

I knew Roll20 allowed the use of audio tracks (which is also a big part of my game). Roll20's plug-in for music is connected to Soundcloud, which initially I thought might be a stumbling block, but I was able to work around it for the most part. (Although I couldn't upload all the tracks I wanted, and unfortunately it doesn't come out at all in the Google Hangouts On Air recordings, so you don't get that flavor in the actual play recording).

However Roll20 did have its downsides. I couldn't quickly figure out how to use the "fog of war" components to hide and reveal rooms, and I just didn't have the time prior to Jackercon to up-skill in the technical know-how.

So, I resigned to what I initially thought was a second-best course of action... and which turned out to be the best course of action: Use a web-cam to give the players almost the exact same view they would have in a physical game.

And so, for your viewing pleasure, here is the Hangouts on Air recording for Distress on LL928. I will warn that if you plan on ever playing this, don't view the whole thing, as there are spoilers. The first hour or so is character generation (which is definitely a little slower online than in person), and spoilers aren't really an issue. You can also skip around just to get the flavor of the game.

Special thanks goes out to Kurt (D.T.Pints) and Jules (kaitoujuliet) who played in the game, and definitely Kurt for making Jackercon happen, over and over again. I definitely hope to play in the next one, and maybe run some more goodness.

RPGaDAY 2015: Days 7-9

Day 7: Favorite Free RPG

Lasers and Feelings: onesevendesign.com/lasers_and_feelings_rpg.pdf

OK, I haven't actually played it yet, but I did listen to one actual play, and I've read the one page worth of rules.

It's not often you find a game with just one stat. And I love the scenario generation.

Day 8: Favorite appearance of RPGs in the Media

Whenever Chris Hardwick makes off-hand D&D comments in shows that aren't about RPGs. Like when he's talking about the Walking Dead to just normal people and mentions things like "alignment" or mentioning characters in the show as "The Paladin, The Fighter, and then here comes back the Ranger", as if everyone should just understand what those words mean.

Day 9: Favorite media you wish was an RPG

To be honest, kinda had a hard time with this one. Ghost Writer. From where this gem comes:

Seriously though, it's a bunch of young teenagers solving crime Scooby Doo style, but with a ghost that must be communicated with through writing, and which can help them. My daughters been watching it ad naseum, and it'd make a great kids RPG.

RPGaDAY 2015: Days 4-6

4. Most Surprising Game

I'll say a game I played at GoPlayNW: Forget Me Not by jim pinto. (No, I don't know why his name is always lowercase, but he's a level 20 Font Master, so maybe that has something to do with it.) It was the most surprising because I thought I wouldn't enjoy it, and it ended up being one of the most entertaining games I had played that weekend. So lovely I bought the card deck and plan to run it with friends, and maybe at the local con here.

5. Most recent RPG purchase

Got to be The Warren, as the Kickstarter just finished successfully a few days ago.

6. Most recent RPG played

I'm going to assume the word "played" is important here (as opposed to GM'd). For me, that'd be The Carcass, also by jim pinto. 

I was playing this with my usual gaming group, which includes my friend Howie, and we have a tendency to try and break jim's games, so we decided instead of running the game as intended (as members of a post-apocalyptic tribe where the leader has died), we'd run it right as the apocalypse was occurring. 

The premise: We are all members of the Caltech Spelunking Club, currently in some tunnels under Los Angeles, as the city is succumbing to some unknown apocalyptic situation after a large explosion. The neutral tribe: Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The hostile tribe: The Mexican Cartel that has been using these tunnels to transport drugs and guns around the city. Started well enough, but collapsed under some player confusion and fatigue.

RPGaDAY 2015: Days 1-3

RPGaDAY

Per Dave Chapman of the Autocratik blog, which I heard about through Stephanie Bryant (fellow gamer from Strategicons) of the Mortaine blog, #RPGaDAY is a RPG hash tag-o-thing.

It's supposedly to celebrate GenCon and August, but for moi, it's more appropriate for Strategicon here in LA. Especially because by early-August GenCon is done and dusted, but this builds beautifully to Strategicon which is just after the end of this month (and which I am keenly looking forward to).

The idea is that you blog or write or twitter some RPG related Q&A thing every day, and here's the graphic that describes these questions:

The blogging thing is fairly new to me, and a little goal of mine (for now), so why not...

1. Forthcoming game you're most looking forward to

It's funny, but for some reason, The Warren, described as a game where "players take on the roles of intelligent rabbits trying to make the best of a world filled with hazards, predators and, worst of all, other rabbits". It just sounds like a game that could either be so very kid friendly, and yet also so viciously dark and grim.

2. Kickstarted game most pleased you backed

As far as card / board / party games, I really love the Worst Game Ever by Jeff Siadek. But if I have to stick to RPGs (which is, I guess, the point of this exercise), I'd go with Jim Pinto's Protocol games. I missed his GMZero kickstarter (although I've purchased most separately), and still like those games more, but regardless I just love supporting his particular brand of RPG design.

3. Favorite New Game of the last 12 months

Been playing Dungeon World for probably just over 12 months, so that can't count, by a hair. I'll go with Microscope, because it's just something I'd like to try and run for others, and I think it might be more generally accessible to casual role players (of which I interact with more than a few) than some other GM-less games.

...and what about you?

A dedication to the Happy Jacks RPG podcast

Back into the table top RPG hobby

When I started getting back into role playing games (RPGs), about 5 years ago, it was because some old college friends were talking about how they always had heard of Dungeons and Dragons when they were young, but had never played. "Interesting!", I thought, and before I knew what I was doing, I was giving them an offer to run them through a game. Of course I hadn't played in over 15 years, so actually delivering on that would take over a year of research, not to mention the day-to-day distractions of work, and new fatherhood.

Happy Jacks RPG podcast

A big part of that year-long journey was the discovery of the Happy Jacks RPG podcast (also found on iTunes here). It's a podcast created by Stu Venable, when he started getting back into gaming. The content is very game master (GM) centric, so it was exactly what I was looking for when getting back in the hobby. 

They have 20 episodes per season, and I think they were just starting season 3 at the time I started listening. Now, some 5 years later, they are on season 15 (which is over 250 episodes, which can each be up to 3 hours in length). Along the way I've become somewhat of a fanboy.

It was one of the first RPG podcasts I tried to listen to, and one of the few I could bare. (Honorable mention goes to Fear the Boot, a distant second.) Many have compared the vibe to hanging out with friends, and shooting the shit about games, beer, and other random, related topics. I relate to that completely. 

There are now more than a few consistent hosts, however Stork is longest running since he was there on the very first episode (and almost all of them since then). But there are other consistent folks, such as Kimi, JiB (who also regularly appears on the Savage Worlds Game Master Hangout), Gina, and more. Special guests occasionally grace the 'cast, including The Angry GM, and the LARP ladies (Aya, Twin and Mowi), which mixes up the fun.

The forum

Somewhere along the way I joined the Happy Jacks RPG forums (participating regularly as user "tomes"), and joining their dedicated chatroom during their live podcasts (which occurs almost weekly). It's about the only forum of any type I regularly visit, except for probably a few at work. Even the work forums get replaced every few years, so I think Happy Jacks is probably the most consist forum I use.

The quantity of douchebags is high, but only in the best way possible. There's been very little in the way of flame wars, and it's mostly just a great GM sounding board.

Strategicon

 And so somewhere along the way, my friend Howie (one of my oldest friends, and also my main gamer buddy) joined me in exploring the world of game conventions. Living in L.A. we checked out Strategicon, at the behest of the Happy Jacks podcast. After all, they live in various parts of the greater L.A. area, and talked about the con frequently. And so we went, Howie and I, in August of 2012, to Strategicon Gateway.

And what do you know, I actually got to play with these cats. But even more importantly, without them as an inspiration I don't know if I would've adventured as far as I have now,  playing in so many other games, in so many other systems, and with so many other people. And only a little later, I would run my own games at Strategicon, and then elsewhere.

Gaming

The truth is, the game I ran for that first group of college friends petered out after a short bit, with us running 3 sessions over the course of 1.5 years (yes, really). However, they can now all say that they have played D&D! And occasionally they do ask when we'll be playing again.

Separate from that, however, I have now run two additional campaigns, one in Savage Worlds, and one in Dungeon World, with the latter spanning over a dozen sessions. I've never run or played in anything that long in all my life, even in my gaming youth, so it's been pleasant getting back into this thing.

Experience Points

All this rambling is just my way of saying, "Thank you, Happy Jackers". Thanks for putting me back on this excellent road. And given that the Happy Jacks RPG episode 000 was recorded six years ago today, Happy Birthday to Stu and crew!

And if you see me at a game convention or otherwise, just remember: Please stop talking to my experience points. But do say 'hi'.

The Happy Jacks RPG T-shirt design. Go and collect them all! (all one, that is)

GoPlayNW 2015 - Sunday and Monday

Breakfast the second

Another breakfast. Can't remember much as this was three nights of 5-hour sleep in a row, so it was starting to drag on me. 

First game: Carcass

Straight into it... ran into Jim again in the morning, and Jerry and I got co-opted (willingly, of course!) into one of his games. His friends Ian and Sarah joined us, and the five of us launched into The Carcass. In Jim's own words: 

The Carcass is a roleplaying story game where players take on the roles of the last members of a dying post-apocolyptic tribe. The leader is dead and the members are now on their last legs through the broken wasteland.

I played it once before, when Jim was down for a Strategicon in L.A., but it was a relatively large table (7 of us?), and I remember enjoying his other games more (at that time it was George's Children and Dying Memories, two very excellent games).

But I gotta say this was a great little ride. I felt like my character was more of a supporting roll, more so than a center-stage character, but I really just loved the whole table dynamic and the resulting story. Despite the relatively bleak topic, and immediate rivalries, I just remember being extremely entertained and laughing considerably. And of course it's always fun being the direct antagonist to Jim's character.

The story itself was interesting, with our prior leader dying in child birth. We were tree dwellers, known as The Hunters, living in a symbiotic relationship with The Growers. What do we hunt? Well that brings up the other tribe: The Breeders. As giving birth to healthy children is a scarcity, we hunt men from that tribe to use for breeding purposes. A fun exploration, with very memorable characters (including the sarcastic Leaf, and burly Smabb).

Edit: In the prior post I mentioned drama points when describing Ship Lanterns. As Jim has pointed out, my memory is shoddy, as this was really a mechanic of Carcass. So here it is: I really liked how drama points were spent not into the middle bank, but instead paid from one player to another (to their "foil", the player who later narrates how things work out for them). It definitely makes you consider how you want to spend those narrative points; advantages and disadvantages. And it bit me in the ass. At the very end of the game I was about to grab control, when Smabb (Jerry) bought out  a disadvantage, and passed a handful of tokens over to my rival, Mercury (Jim). And I ended up murdered to preserve their agenda. Fun!

A game of Carcass

Second game: Numenera

After a quick lunch, we returned, and Jerry ran some of us through a Numenera one-shot, including Soren (from my Friday night game) and another random traveler. Numenera is a Monte Cook designed game, and has a combination Scifi + Fantasy setting. The "numenera" is effectively "technology", although technology that is beyond our comprehension, bordering on the fantastic and magic.

I was curious about the system since I had heard conflicting things: both positive and negative. After discussing with Jerry a concept for a game I want to run for some friends, he mentioned that Numenera might be a good system for it. That piqued my interest further, and so here we were.

We had a relatively short slot (3 hours), so used the straight pre-gens that came with a pre-made adventure. The adventure, despite being pre-canned, was actually interesting and had a good twist. I played a nano, which is effectively a wizard / engineer who works well with the numenera (i.e. technology), and I specifically chose that class so I could get a feel for (what I think is) the essence of the setting. 

Although Jerry claims the mechanics of the game are relatively simple (and I can't argue too strongly against that, compared to games like D&D and GURPs), it's definitely not as simple as something like Apocalypse World. I do love how the character sheet evoked some weird-o sci-fi feel.

Jerry ran a fun game, and gave us a really good taste for the setting and system. 

Third game: Forget-Me-Not

Another Jim Pinto game. It was Jim, Jerry, Soren, and myself.

I have to admit, I was not excited going into this game, really due to my own shortcoming: I have never watched Twin Peaks. "What!?" you exclaim? Or maybe, "So what?" you ask.

OK, so what is Forget-Me-Not? It's one of Jim's original GM Zero games; a bit of a narrative card game. The background (perhaps not too dissimilar to one of your favorite David Lynch creations):

“In the remote town of Northern Falls, Rebecca Ashwick has been murdered. But no one seems too keen on solving the murder, not even the residents…”

And a little more:

Set in the fictional town of Northern Falls, [it] allows players to take on the roles of various key figures in town — the Sheriff, the Town Drunk, the Heiress, the Reporter, etc. — but no one owns any of the characters. Each scene is played different from the last, as we explore the confusing and weird behaviors of the people unaffected by Rebecca Ashwick’s death.

This game was absolutely fantastic. My initial concern was that I wouldn't be able to bring much to the table without that background. But the fact is, almost anyone can do justice to the story, because the game guides you in crafty ways. I won't go on about details, but I will say that I probably laughed hardest all weekend at this game, and that says a lot.

Splendor

The con was winding down. And that's when a random passerby started chatting with us, interested in gaming. Before I knew it, we were playing another game of Splendor. I was pretty exhausted, so didn't really have patience to teach the game, but kudos to me for being patient and introducing someone into the hobby. Seriously, it was hard. 

Con Wrap-Up and Drinking

From here there were a few groups that were getting together to share in chit-chatting. Jim took off, and Jerry, Soren and I ran into Andy (from Friday's game, and of GeekGirlCon fame), Chris (also from Friday's game), Max, and various others.  We ended up at 8 oz burger., and despite the wait, that was some excellent grub. Beer selection superb, and lots of great "what was your favorite game?" and "what did you play?" type conversations, which would only interest the folks there.  Extra props to Chris, from which an unreal milkshake came about, and to the staff, that allowed us to stay until way past when we should've been out the door. 

But alas, it was time to go. The con was over. Or was it?

Monday

Actually, yes. The con was over. However Monday was just a super relaxing day, involving numerous walks and conversations with Jerry, and visits to Stumptown, game stores, and more. Although we had to check-out at the dorm around noon, they allowed everyone to store their stuff behind the front desk, just like a hotel. We eventually found ourselves in the dorm lobby, waiting for Jerry's final moments before he had to go to his train.

That's when we ran into Morgan Ellis (of Fate fame, who I had played with once down at a Strategicon, and seen there many times) and Stras. Jerry left, and then Morgan, and then Stras and I just had one of those amazing conversations that lasted about 4 hours. So many conversations, such an interesting dude, and again just inspiring as far as the folks behind the scenes in this wonderful RPG world we live in. I got to hear amazing stories of Andy's Mad Max: Fury Road Dread game from Saturday, and  Logan Bonner's Refuge in Audacity, both of which I am sorry I missed.

Just goes to show, you think you've had a great convention, and played so many great games, and yet there is always more excellent creativity and fun to be had. Inspiring.

The rest of my trip involved visiting a long-time friend in Seattle and hanging out with her family, and even a trip to Ray Gun Games. But it all had to come to an end, and eventually I had to head back to San Jose. 

Thank you GoPlayNW. You will always have a special place in my heart, and I will strive to make it again, one day.

Raygun games, with my friend Ryan and his daughter Ella in the background.

GoPlayNW 2015 - Saturday

Breakfast and con meals

Glorious breakfast. I have to say the dorm cafeteria food at the con was pretty nice. As part of the convention cost you get tickets for breakfast and lunch. The tickets are a little restrictive sounding, in that they say you are only allowed to have 1 hot item, and 1 salad bar, and 1 fountain drink, etc. So no, it's not all you can eat. But the food amount that you get is still plenty (more than I could eat at times). And the cafeteria had at least a few stations, so there was always a bit of variety, and the simple standards (like burgers and sandwiches and a pretty decent salad bar).

First game: Ship Lanterns

Ran into Jim Pinto (of postworldgames fame), who I've played with a few times at Strategicon, and I kept in touch with when coming up to the con. He coerced me (without too much resistance) into playing with him, and I likewise coerced Jerry into joining us. We got a few more players. And then we launched into Ship Lanterns, a protocol game.

Now, as far as a description of the protocol system, here is the one from drivethrurpg: The Protocol game series uses vignettes, interrogations, interludes, and ensembles to tell a story. Each story explores disparate characters dealing with adversity and isolation in a dramatic fashion.  There are a few mechanical devices, including a deck of cards (as the randomizer which provides story framing and other input), as well as tokens that represent drama points (that are spent by the players).

Ship Lanterns specifically deals with "wish-fulfillment gone awry and set in a Southeast Asian village. Children gather on a bridge to throw cherry blossoms into the water, asking the river spirit (Thuy-Tinh) to grant their wishes. Characters take on the roles of children, dealing with the results of their wishes."

The Protocol system immediately allowed us to define all sorts of relationships between the characters, including lust (which sounds like it could be dangerous when playing children) however all the players really played the shit out of this game and it never got weird (without us wanting it to be weird). Of course it was a Jim game, so it did get dark... one NPC had a coma, and was later murdered by one of us as a sacrifice, a wayward soldier gave a kid his gun, all but one character had sad endings, and the one happy ending involved a kid stepping on a land mine.

This was my second (or third?) time playing a protocol game, and I definitely have a better handle on how the system works. The part which initially confused me (and takes a little time to sink into my skull) is the difference between the different scene types (vignettes, and the others that come in this game). But once you have that down, it rolls well.

If you like narrative driven games, and you haven't gotten to play with Jim, I highly recommend doing so.

Lunch

Again, food was good. Great salad bar, and I think I had the black bean veggie burger, but with bacon. Delicious. Also, we had a nice big group of folks, and again everyone was easy to mix and talk to. Great crowd.

The Lottery

For the second game on the Saturday they have a special version of The Donut (introduced earlier), called The Lottery. Instead of calling for games, they let all participants place their name tags into a "hat", and then draw them in groups of 4 (or roughly four, depending on the total number of participants).  These groups then find a table, and play. What do they play? Well, obviously that's up to the table. You can see how this might go awry, however it seemed to work pretty well.

Not interested in this level of randomness? No problem, there are still sign-up games, and of course you can just grab people you like and go gaming, separately.

But I wanted to give this a try, and ended up with a group that consisted of Lucien (one of the same players from the morning Ship Lanterns game), and two others. One guy mentioned he could run Microscope, and I expressed interest, since I'd never done so.

Second game: Microscope

Have heard about this for a while, but all I knew was that it was a collaborate exercise in world building. Check the Microscope website at Lame Mage Productions for details, but here are a few summarizing statements: 

• Mock chronological order.
• Defy time and space.
• Build worlds and destroy them.

That pretty accurately sums up most of the feel of the game. I've played The Quiet Year before, and found this game equally accessible and well structured. There are definitely specific mechanics and rules in place that  restrict the way narration and collaboration occur, but specifically to benefit the ability for everyone to share narrative control. You can see how it's been playtested many times by many people to produce a fairly simple structure that yields beautiful exposition.

I won't go into the details of our game, but we decided to explore a sci-fi setting, where magic is introduced and begins to gain in power (however, is incompatible with technology). One "bookend" - the frames between which the game is explored - is the discover of magic, and the other is the "Magical Singularity" where humanity ends, which wasn't defined any further than that, at the outset. In the end we had an eons-long history of empires coming and going, struggles between magic and sci-fi factions, and eventually the discovery of a an alien plant race (that provided the magic through its seed pods). The Magic Singularity? That moment when the alien species combines itself with humanity (hence now they are "singular"), which ends both individual races to produce a galaxy spanning, magic wielding, super-race. Fun!

Microscope crew

Dinner

Dinner was included the first night, on Friday, but the after that it is only breakfast and lunch. So Jerry and I ran into Soren, and took him along with us. The streets were a bit mad, since just north of the University is the local gay district, and what do you know... the Supreme Court made a pleasant ruling that just happened to coincide with the Pride festival! So the streets were busy. We scoped out a local gastro-pub called Quinn's (thanks, Yelp). The beer was very good. And as always love eating with Jerry, because almost every meal is family style.

Sunset from the 8th floor of the dorms.

Third game: One Night Ultimate Werewolf

We returned back for the last official game of the night. Jerry had brought One Night Ultimate Werewolf, a party game not dissimilar to Werewolf (which itself is similar to Mafia, if you know it). A bit of a deductive party game where players take on the side of the villagers, or of the few werewolves who are trying to eat them up. Except instead of taking exponentially long (based on number of players), One Night Ultimate Werewolf can actually be played in a fairly short round.

As opposed to being played over many "nights" (rounds), this version is played in one quick session, and involves everyone (you don't need a dedicated narrator). After 2 or 3 rounds you quickly get it, and yep, I definitely like it much more than the traditional version.

It was definitely what I needed at about this time as well, as my mind and body were a bit fried, and I don't think I could've done an RPG justice.

Saturday wrap-up

We didn't play for too long, with many players about in the same shape as us: exhausted. Jerry headed back to sleep, but I stuck around for a little bit. Many folks were either wrapping up games, or playing other small ones. I taught some folks how to play Lost Cities. I ran into Jim, who's game didn't go quite as well as he would've like (read: got to hear him rant for a bit, always fun!), and finally went back to the dorms. It was hot, so shower and sleep, then woke up around 3am to take another shower, and then back to sleep.

GoPlayNW 2015 - Friday

The short story: I was taking my daughter up to San Jose to visit my parents for 2 weeks, and discovered that GoPlayNW, a table top RPG-based game convention based in Seattle, was going to happen during that middle weekend.

• Free babysitting = GO.
• Friend Jerry from Oregan can make it = GO.
• People on the GoPlayNW forum seem cool = GO.
• Friends to stay with after convention = GO.

All systems launch!

Going to Seattle

Up and at 'em. A 6:30am flight from San Jose to Seattle for the min-max win (minimum price, maximum time at Seattle). Travelling with lots of gear is a pet peeve, but I was planning on running my Lego-based Star Frontiers game, which has lots of moving parts. It was worth it in the end, but meant I had to lug my stuff around for a bit.

It's been 11 years or so since I've been to Seattle. The most obvious difference was the Link light rail. Just $3 for a straight shot into the city during rush hour? A godsend. Doesn't get you to Seattle University (the location of GoPlayNW), but that's only about a mile away from the downtown light rail stations… I mean, you can walk that in like 20 minutes right? Do not be deceived! Seattle, much like SF, has a well deserved reputation for being hilly. If you have luggage, make it easy on yourself. In my case I used a Lyft (aka a smaller Uber), for the first time in my life; my brother works for them and was trying to convince me to take them.

Lyft PROTIP: If you sign up for it, wait until you get to the city of choice, since – as of this writing – you get 3 free $15 rides, however only in the location where you initially sign up. I signed up in San Jose, so couldn't use my freebees here. I had my friend Jerry sign up in Seattle when he got here, and that worked out quite well for us late in the weekend, when we actually needed rids. (You likely won't need any while at the con itself.)

Getting to GoPlayNW

Fortunately, unlike hotel-based cons with hotel check-ins, at GoPlayNW you can "rent" a dorm room for the weekend, and they care very little about check-in times. I was able to get in my room when I arrived there around 11am, and that meant time for a cat nap. Yes, I'm that old.

Jerry took the train up from Oregon, and landed around noon time. He unfortunately didn't heed my advice (which I hadn't quite formulated yet) and walked the mile to the school with his heavy luggage. After a sweaty hug, we settled for a bit, and then headed down to the dorm building lobby, where we slowly started to meet folks that were here for the con.

We immediately were approached by friendlies! This is a theme that would be pretty consistent throughout the weekend: Don't know that person? Say 'hi'. Someone doesn't look included? Include them. It was so unbelievably refreshing and pleasant. And the caliber of gamers was just very high. Lots of people with interesting perspective, experiences, and motivations, all with a heavy love of gaming.

I brought a little collection of board games in case we had downtimes that needed to be managed, and it immediately came in handy with some 2-player Lost Cities, and a few sessions of Splendor.

Initial meetings and friendlies in the lobby of the dorm. A game of Lost Cities in the fore.

Because the con was relatively small in scale (about 120 people), it had a very intimate and relaxed feel. There was a "formal" dinner on Friday evening, although there was really not that much "formal" about it, just some yummy eats, and more friendly conversations. Other than how friendly folks were, something that impressed me was that after these great little conversation, I'd then find out that the person was actually someone I was familiar with, or have designed a game I had heard of. This was like a little hippie game nexus! (to borrow the "hippie" game parlance from the Happy Jacks RPG crew and forums).

I'll give a special shout-out to Max (who has posted his write up of GoPlayNW 2015 here), who had a specific goal of welcoming folks who looked new / lost / alone, and have since found inspiration from that for future con attendance.

The Donut

Dinner over, and time for the first game, in this case one I was running. I had 2 pre-registered players, Jerry and Chris. And that's when I was introduce to The Donut.

Now, some games are setup ahead of time and have a sign-in sheet, similar to other conventions I've been to. However, there were about 20-30 people standing around with no game to play. Interesting. So, The Donut is a little thing they do before a gaming slot runs to solve this problem. Any GM with a sign-up game and missing players comes up, and then they ask for volunteers who want to run games. Effectively it's a "games on demand" type setup, but the GM pitches the game real quick and says how many players, and the organizers try to ensure it looks like there are enough games for the number of lost souls. Then they just let all the folks find their games in a mad-dash of chaos. And it works, beautifully.

The Donut

Distress on LL928

So, after all that I got Soren and Andy, 2 more players, and we were off to play. This was my first time running my game with some new tweaks (from my initial game build), and I think they definitely worked out to smooth some kinks that I found in prior runs:

• Character creation was all handled in one phase, instead of an initial race/stats/skills phase and then later an equipment phase (which ate some time).
• The story complications (i.e. hidden backgrounds and motivations for each character) were tweaked to be easier to read and use.
• Story complication for Dralasite character was made more palatable.
• All the players are "new" members to the Scrap and Salvage vessel, meaning they are all coming in with little experience in this line of employment, which works better in evoking the theme and feelings that everything is a little out of their depth.

All in all the game went well, and finished about 30 minutes after midnight. That's probably the shortest run of the game I've handled thus far (a total of 4.5 hours). The players seemed happy, and in the end that's all that mattered.

The crew of the Life Liner 928.

Off to the dorm room, and to find that it was really a hot box, and the windows were completely misleading since they did nothing to bring the slightly cooler air from the outside, in. In the end we probably got about 5 hours of sweaty sleep. It was an unusual warm Seattle week, so if you come on a future GoPlayNW, you probably (maybe) won't have the same issue… at least I hope not. 

Triple feature (part 2): Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max (2 of 3)

Excellent treatise on feminism. Just kidding. Great movie.

[SPOILERS AHEAD] Would you want to run this scenario as an RPG? Probably not as is, I mean that's so hard to live up to. And yet, again, it is so suited for it. You have such a great mix of characters: the captured loner, the fleeing rebel, the war boy who wants to prove himself, the breeding stock. And also such a great premise... I mean, the movie is one long chase scene, but that means it's also like an inverted dungeon crawl: the goal is to "escape", but going through various obstacles (or rooms): first the neighbors in the eastern dessert, then the storm, then the mountain pass, and then the swamp, and finally reaching the green place. The green place can be the ending, or of course you can twist things, similar to the movie, and go from there.

I was thinking along two lines:

1. Playing a pseudo mad max scenario, like lets say all the PCs are "law abiding" citizens in a local town earlier in this timeline, and the neighboring villains are out to get you. But then there are others who have done this sort of thing well, such as Jim Pinto with the Protocol game Carcass.
2. You could run a scenario where the PCs are originally at odds, like these ones in this movie. When they succeed, it doesn't end up with them killing each other, but slowing each other down in different ways. If you look at that initial chase scene with Nux driving Max as the blood bag, and following Imperator Furiousa with the breeding stock, they aren't all on the same page. Could you start a scenario where you have the PCs as adversaries for the initial scene, and get them to play against each other for some time before being confronted with a shared goal and direction? Each time they screw each other, it just makes their real opponents (such as the chasing army, the other villains in the wastes, environmental hazards) catch up?

That's about as far as I thought about it... but as you'll see in a post later about GoPlayNW (in June), someone has taken this and really ran with it, and to awesome effect.

Tomorrowland (3 of 3)

Not too much here, but I'll say this. I had very low expectations around this movie, and was pleasantly surprised.

The movie plays with time travel-type concepts, and I remember thinking something interesting about that, but you know what? It was the third movie of the night and by then I was a bit fried. 

I did meet a friendly homeless guy named Martin on the way home though, and had a nice half hour conversation about life and travel and places around the world, and that was pleasant.