Go Play NW 2016: Saturday

A Post World Games Day

After a lovely breakfast at Seattle U dining hall (included with the dorm stay), it was off to see the Donut, that little circle of lovely people getting games going. This is something that happens regularly at Go Play NW, where a facilitator gets players and game masters together for gaming action.

A donut!

But as has happened in the past, Jerry and I were waylaid by one Jim Pinto, the designer behind Post World Games of various ilk, including some of my favorites: George's Children, Dying Memories, Carcass, and Forget-Me-Not. He also formalized a game system known as Protocol, a very rules-light / narrative-heavy system with dozens of thematic playbooks.

At GoPlayNW 2015, we played one of these Protocol games known as Ship Lanterns, "a story roleplaying game about wish-fulfillment gone awry and set in a Southeast Asian village". It was one of my most memorable games of that con.

I was not disappointed in what was to come...

Forget-Me-Not: Murder Hoboes

The original Forget-Me-Not is one of my favorite games. Easy to play, easy to run, easy to learn. You get a narrative not unlike Twin Peaks, and always riotous laughter. Jim recently Kickstarted Forget-Me-Not: Florida, a Florida-man-esque version. But he also had an untested play-test version of a fantasy skin: Murder Hoboes.

The premise is that we share playing a set of 8 fantasy (trope) heroes, having a difficult time getting any of our quests done, including the dastardly Dungeon of Doom.

It was so good. So many laughter tears were flowing. I've told him before, I think this system is so simple and elegant, and I think this is the skin that most RP gamers would just understand. It wasn't until Sunday night, though, that I'd see just how true that was.

Heaven's Collapse

Jim then brought out a game he designed that places the players as those in the royal court during an event not unlike the Rape of Nanking, a very unpleasant event (of many) in our human history.

We start by each drawing two character cards: a princess, a general, an arms dealer, captain of the city guard, a royal bodyguard, a doctor, a seer, and so on. Each has some simple arrows which you can align to create bonds with the neighboring characters and players. Simple and elegant character bond mechanic! There is one main character in the narrative which is not played by any player, and that is only the most powerful one: The Queen.

After some initial setup scenes, any further events that occur are drawn from a card deck randomly. As the active player, you frame the scene, and which characters play in it; this does not have to include oneself.

After each scene, there is a short interlude scene that involves two players, and which adds a really interesting flavor to the overall narrative.

And then more scenes and interludes, until certain events get triggered (the queen becomes ill, or someone is arrested, etc.). 

We were all a bit impressed with just how perfectly the events seemed to play out. It felt like there was nothing random about it, as if they were chosen to tell a very precise and meaningful narrative. I'd be very interested to hear if it was just luck, or amazing design on Jim's part (I'm sure he'd prefer it be the latter!)

Note that although the game is set in a fantasy world, with odd names to protect any particular real-world country or participants, the events that are used are all very real-world scenarios that have occurred during that tragic time in our history.

Dark? Yes, indeed. But not just a meaningful and excellent game; a very well-thought out system.

Interesting ways to create bonds... character cards in the foreground, and events just above.

Praxis: Black Monk

Jim, ever working on more, has created a new game system he currently calls Praxis. This game was a playtest for one Praxis scenario, known as Black Monk.

Jim made sure we were aware that this would be a bit of a strange narrative. Given that the world was in a place where time had little meaning, death almost none at all, and the sun hadn't set in who-knows-how-long, it already started to promise oddities. Characters included the Prisoner, the outsider, and what I played: The Mule Skinner. And each character sheet had strange, leading questions that you answered, which again played into the theme.

"Odd" is an understatement. The game was very, very weird, but again, interesting and simple narrative mechanics, and some "win" type mechanics that reminded me of playing George's Children and Dying Memories. 

Dinner

Dinner is not included except for Friday. Jim, Jerry, Derek and myself (who played all the prior listed games) went off to Barrio Mexican Kitchen and Bar, a short jaunt. So good. The Habanero salsa was killer. The variety of tacos grand. The drinks excellent.

All I'm going to say about this is that Jim was incredulously exclaiming about how ridiculous it was to schedule a few hours for dinner... "aren't we all here to game!?" But ours lasted about 3 hours and that was mostly his doing. No regrets, though. 

Myself, Jerry, and Derek. Jim is represented by his hand and spoon... I am sensitive to his irrational need to not be photographed. You're welcome, Jim.

Fall of Magic

Dinner over... the four of us start on a game of Fall of Magic. This may be one of the only times I've played a game with Jim that wasn't one of his! (OK, we did play half a game of Fiasco, once.)

I love this game. We did get some good fun in there, with Jim and Jerry playing the old guard, and Derek and I the young pups on the quest... but Derek had to bailed out about an hour in. Then Jerry and Jim were falling asleep at the wheel. We got a bit of fun, but then it was time to call it quits and let these two go find a bed.

Late night hangout

As folks were later retiring, I was still a-buzz, and ran into some friends in the lobby, including Dan, Andi, and some friends I was yet to make, like Gary and Nate. They invited me along, and we went to go grab some drinks, and wax nerdy.

It was cold, I was in a T-shirt, and Cafe Presse (where we ended up) had no indoor seating for us. But luckily I reduced my surface area, and was able to comfortably survive as we all rambled like excited school kids, with interspersed moments like pleasant sighs. As the bar was closing, we retired to one of the dorm community rooms, and there met a few more, and rambled further. This type of ad hoc chilling is one of my favorite things about the con.

And then off to sleep for 4 hours until the next round of gaming...

Go Play NW 2016: Friday

Go Play NW... What Is It?

Go Play is a relatively small game convention that has been occurring annually in Seattle for about a decade. I've only been once before, in 2015. The focus is primarily on role playing games, and specifically those that tend to be known either as "indie games" or "story games".

The games tend to have more of a narrative focus (as opposed to being mechanically complex or collaboratively weak), although that is my generalization, as there are some fairly complex and meaty games in that mix. What most participants share, from my perspective, is a wild love for RPGs, with a tendency to explore games that provides a heavy social element which requires strong player presence.

The convention also attempts to be very socially inclusive (gender, race, so forth), however the makeup of the Pacific North West is very white, so it on the surface actually looks less diverse than the cons I'm used to going to in Los Angeles. That said, everyone is extremely friendly and welcoming.

Leading Up To...

I got to Seattle a few days prior with the daughter. We visited with some close friends, had a blast, and I even got to introduce the two adults to RPGs via The Skeletons... details in prior post.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the night before, my friend Ryan took me to a local shop named Phoenix Comics and Games, where an active session of Story Games Seattle was in progress. I have heard of this story gaming meetup for years, and have met a few folks who regularly participate, but not being a local, it had a legendary air about it. And I got to stumble into it unawares! After my initial shock, I got to chat with a few folks, including a few who were heading to the convention the next day.

A picture of the Phoenix and Story Games Seattle that night, which I totally stole from Ben Robbins (I think?)

Friday meant it was time to ship the daughter to my parents' place, and then off to Seattle University, where Go Play NW is hosted. You can pay extra to get dorm rooms on campus, and some various meals included, mostly breakfasts and lunches. This worked great the prior year, except for the horrible heat and hotbox dorm rooms... but this year the weather was very pleasant, so you won't hear me complain about any of that any further.

Jerry... And Many More

My friend Jerry was taking the train up from Oregan, and as I was heading to the dorms to meet up with him, I ran into Dan, a fellow gamer who was also a Go Play first-timer the prior year. I grabbed Jerry and our empty bellies, and headed to meet Dan (a fellow Oreganite) at Juicebox. It's a vegetarian (vegan?) joint, and was perfect. We didn't order too much, since Go Play also has a welcome dinner scheduled for Friday evening at 6pm, for those that make it in time.

And this set the tone... 3 kids rambling about gaming, and occasionally other topics. Also catching up since the last time we all saw each other a year ago.

From there back to the dorm, running into more folks (many "famous" within the indie RPG circles, which is to say not famous at all), and then a nice yummy mini-buffet in the large ballroom which would be the location of most of the gaming during the weekend.

Friday night banquet!

Go Play NW 2015 was mostly played in a different campus building, with more smaller rooms, but 2016 was based in Campion, which is the same building as the dorm rooms themselves. This was conveniently close, and allowed most of the games to run in a very large room with about 20 large tables. The audio wasn't distracting (no horrible echoes) so that was good. Also, many times folks would just head upstairs to the little common rooms that were available on most dorm floors, which allowed for privacy if you needed it.

Friday 8pm - Midnight: Fallout Shelter RPG

I tend to like running my games at the starting line, and this con was no different. I grabbed my 4 players, including the aforementioned Jerry and Dan, and we grabbed one of those private common rooms. This game has audio, so that would be distracting and rude in the large ball room.

This was my first time running it with my cleaned up version, including Area Moves, which I discuss in more detail in this prior blog post. 

It ran fantastically. I loved my changes... just so much more of a smoother ride for me to run, and the players had a grand ol' time. It was excellent to see all that work organizing my game differently pay off so well.

I have to give mucho kudos to all 4 players, as we finished around 30 minutes past midnight, but they stuck around and really helped provide all sorts of great feedback (audio levels, audio quality, difficulty level, and so forth). I didn't know it at the time, but I was to run this again on Sunday morning, and all that talking helped make that a better game for me to run.

Fallout Shelter RPG: Round 1, Friday... from left to right: John, <damn, I forget>, Dan and Jerry

Off to bed. The dorm room bed was still shit, but with the lower temperatures, this year it was totally bearable.

The Skeletons in Space: A Very Short Playtest

The Scene

Being in Seattle early last week, in preparation for the Go Play NW 2016 game convention, my daughter and I were staying at my friends Ryan and Sarah's place.

The first few days involved our respective daughters getting to know each other, getting their daughter to bail on her previously scheduled summer camps, and me providing the kids only the best education that comes with summer break goodness.

Welcome to Capital Hill! Lyfting, Walking, and busing about the city.

Summer courses at Raygun Lounge University

The Premise

I discussed the premise on a prior blog post: Basically, run Jason Morningstar's The Skeletons story game, but in space, using space-inspired audio, and with a dash of Lego. I had already done a bit of work on the soundtrack, chose a small manicured set of Lego bricks in the appropriate old-school space blue, added a few dashes of color and various thematic computer screens, and a selection of miniatures (which is to say, Lego space mini-figures).

I brought it in case the opportunity presented itself at Go Play NW.

The victims

The prior year I had just introduced Sarah and Ryan to the modern world of board games, with a few small pieces such as Lost Cities, and some kid-friendly games such as Rat-A-Tat-Cat. 

I returned to find a whole shelf-full of all the craziness that the hobby encourages. Even more relevant, they contained all that enthusiasm that comes with this hobby.

We got around to the subject of role playing games (which is what Go Play NW is all about, and half the reason I was here). Although they have no experience with RPGs, Sarah remembers when we were neighbors growing up, and how we introduced her younger brother to Dungeons and Dragons and would play with him all the time. Unfortunately we never included Sarah, and in retrospect I'm not sure we aren't sure if it's due to the boy-girl rift, or some other reasons.

The daughters were tucked in, and the adults were free. Both Ryan and Sarah expressed an interest in playing, and I pitched them a number of options: A short Dungeon World session. A game of The Quiet Year. And the one we went with: The Skeletons.

The game

Setup was great.  We had a discussion of the scenario. I mentioned an example of "fungus creature taking over our brains", and Sarah was opposed to that due to: Triggers. 

I will stop here and say that I was remiss in mentioning triggers to the two of them prior to starting. There was no harm-no foul, since we were doing pre-game discussion, but how bad would that be if we were half-way through the game and I maneuvered the story to drop that bomb. Yikes! Extra reminder to self: X-cards and veils and lines-type discussion extra useful with any players you've never played with!

Sarah proposed a crystal-based alien that has somehow controlled us (details unnecessary at this point), and that was enough to start.

Using Lego bricks as lines, we sketched our spaceship: A larger central room, and two side alcove-rooms. We placed a few terminals. Our crystalline creature was prominent in the center. We all placed our space people in various locations. Ryan added a similar, but different, crystalline creation attached to the outside of the hull, which may be related, or opposed, to the main creature. Also undefined at this point.

At some point (possibly just a little later) we decided on artificial gravity due to this area being a tail end of a long, spinning, space station / ship.

We drew our skeletons, mostly with space suits being a thing, and were ready to start.

Sssspppaaaccceee.....

Audio engaged. Play unfolded. A few questions had to be tweaked (things that have an obvious old-fantasy feel that don't sound quite right in space), but those were few.

We got through the initial quiet period, then an intruder, and another quiet period, but not much more than that, as some of us adults were getting sleepy due to Adulting.

But damn, was that a blast. They both loved the experience, and were very engaged. I was very impressed with how quickly Sarah just dive bombed into the experience; you would never guess she isn't a regular RP gamer. Ryan had an initial trepidation with figuring out the parameters around this strange social hobby we have, but then started to jump into it. I can't help but think: Another 2 are born to the hobby.

Newborn RP gamers! Me in the reflection.

The Synopsis

All said and done, the experience was great. Here's my summary:

• I have confidence this could work to great effect, and am looking forward to more play!
• Mental note: Remember the "lines and veils" conversation with unfamiliar players.
• Gravity and air / vacuum should be part of the scene-setup conversation, if applicable (this could always be played out on a planet or other non-ship scenario).
• I had enough time to review the playbook / character sheets prior to the game, and after this first test, I don't think changing them is necessary (at least until after a full game test).
• Instead of literal skeletons (because we are going sci-fi), you could do more of a zombie-like scenario where the flesh is not fully decomposed. Especially because part of any mind- or body-control may include all sorts of strange preservatives or other mechanisms... robotic, biological, or otherwise. This means some questions need to be tweaked, possibly.
• Audio was good, but mostly untested. We didn't find it distracting and it seemed to enhance our experience.
• I think the title "The Space Skeletons" might be a better short-form. Maybe.

Thoughts?

Fallout Shelter RPG: Area Moves

Cleaning up Fallout Shelter RPG

I was working at cleaning up some of my Fallout Shelter RPG game. Something that has inspired me heavily is the Discern Realities podcast, as I'm hearing so much interesting things around area moves and environmental type moves.

First off, in regards to the results, remember that this hack doesn't use a 2d6 roll, but instead a simple d10 + Stat modifier + Outfit modifier. 

To that end, I decided to simplify some of the mechanics of the game, and specifically make it easier for someone else to possibly run the scenario. I got one request from my friend Andy, and I think what I sent back made a lot of sense to me, but would probably be a little less intuitive and friendly to others.

Also, I've been unendingly impressed with the Servants of the Cinder Queen module, and I find it's format just perfect as a GM, so planned to model my updates toward that look and feel.

Examples of an Area Move

So, one of the first things I did was reduce my list of generic moves, which included moves that could not be used at any time, but were specific to rooms. As an example, here is a move associated with the Power Plant room:

---

When rushing a power room, roll +Strength. On a 5-7 choose 1. On a 8-10 choose 2. On a 11+ choose 2 and gain lucky Caps.

• Gain 1 power
• Prevent someone else’s failure
• Gain lucky Caps

---

I purposefully leave open the 1-4 result (a failure), open to GM moves, which I've listed separately in that area (again, similar to Servants of the Cinder Queen). Also, because rushing a room can be performed as a group activity, I'm giving people the option of helping each other, in case failures result, however at the cost of additional resources or Caps, which adds some contention in the mechanics.

The Wasteland was part of my earlier game that sometimes became a bit long, as I liked to explore that aspect of the RPG, however constant feedback was that people preferred that shorter, in lieu of more vault activity. So, here's a new area move for The Wasteland:

---

When traversing the wasteland, roll +Luck. On a 5-7, choose 1. On an 8-10, choose 2. On an 11+, choose 2 and find a Lunchbox item.

• No need to consume water.
• No need to consume food.
• Avoid danger.
• Find Caps.

---

This is much simpler than my prior mechanics around this part of the game, and simplifies the struggle to balance encounters and resource management. I'm really excited to see how this plays out at GoPlayNW, when I'm first running it.

I also think reducing many of these moves to this simplified text and character choice allows me, as the GM, to provide more player agency, if desired... some of that "How does that look?" type questioning that the players then get to answer.

The New Look

So how does it all look now? I've used many of the same headings from Servants of the Cinder Queen, such as Connections, Impressions, Details, Discoveries, and GM Moves, when putting together my Fallout Shelter RPG scenario. There are also many bullet point lists for ease of use, and Area Moves, when appropriate. 

As an example, here's a spoiler-free view of one of the areas, when approaching Vault 321:

The new Servants of the Cinder Queen-style ripoff for my Fallout Shelter RPG game.

And all that just makes running the game that much easier, however it doesn't mean the game I'm running is static. All these put together creates one scenario (of many possible scenarios) for the game. You can also easily use PC generated content to have a significant impact on the scenario, if you so choose.

Testing time!

And in a few days, it's off to GoPlayNW 2016, where I'm running this at the con. I've got 4 players signed up, and we'll see how it all pans out.

The Skeletons... with Lego Creationary... in Space...

First, The Quiet Year

I had a brain fart a week back, when I was cleaning up my office (aka man cave). I have a box of Lego Creationary (the Lego version of Pictionary) that I picked up at a thrift store for $5. I'm not too excited about the game itself, but didn't just want to pour all those Legos into the great Lego pit that is my home.

So, I've taken it, and now I have a box of Lego for use in The Quiet Year. I bring a few base plates, although it can be more creative and fun to play without that, and just use the table! I mean, come on! Three dimension map! The pieces are very simple, but like The Quiet Year, the point is to draw simple and fast, and these Legos suits perfectly for that level of abstraction.

I think similar to The Quiet Year mandating pictures about the size of a quarter and taking less than 30 seconds, I would mandate each "drawing" creation take up to 6 pieces.

I haven't run it yet, but I have it packed for game cons a-coming and want to play test it with some folks.

Next, The Skeletons... with Music

Now it gets really exciting. I've been working on a series of soundtracks for The Skeletons role-playing game (discussed in blog post past). I've garnered about 20+ tracks, and categorized them into the game's four different phases.

Ambient tracks serve very well for the three different Time Passes phases, when you may be sitting in silence for 30 seconds to a few minutes. and also as Intruders.

More paced and flavored tracks work well for the Intruders phase, when action and disassociation occurs.

I have setup 5 separate curated tracklists, that I've named Classic Crypt, Desert Sands, Eternal Soldier, Moving Death, and Space Desolation. I very much want to test these out, as Harry and I both agreed that our session of The Skeletons with background music was very fulfilling.

I'll post the track titles at some point after I do a little testing and finalizing, in case people are interested.

And finally... mashup: The Skeletons + Music + Lego

The plan: To run The Skeletons. In a space scenario. With my Space Desolation tracks. And use the Creationary set as the means for the players to "draw" the ship. You can use pieces like lines to outline things. You can stack things on each other. And I'll even provide little minifigures in space suits, if that takes your fancy.

Now, I'm not saying I'm a genius... but who's kidding who here? 

Feel free to steal the idea! I'd love to hear how it goes if you do anything like this. If not, maybe I'll see you at a con coming soon (Strategicon, GoPlayNW, Big Bad Con...)

Dungeon World with kiddies

Not an ASTG meetup

I had an Indie RPG night planned, but due to various illness, busy-ness, and unresponsiveness (the horrible nesses), it had to be postponed. Kind of bummed because I was hoping to push that Dungeon World + Microscope madness, but now it'll just have to wait, and meanwhile the memories of all that fade.

Emerald Knights Comics and Games

I was already driving around the area, so went in to one of my larger, local gaming stores, Emerald Knights Comics and Games in Burbank. They have a huge collection of comics, and very nice collection of board games. The RPGs that are stocked are the main D&D and Pathfinder fare, with some sprinkling of other larger options, but no indie press stuff. They have a full wall of Reaper minis though, so you can shop and pick things that look fun.

I picked up a few comics, since my daughter is just now starting to get deep into graphic novels. Was looking for Ms. Marvel (heard good things) but it was sold out, and ended up with Captain Marvel for her (on good recommendations), and the first 3 volumes of Rat Queens (for me).

They have events various nights, and I've been here before to do some board game nights. The board game regulars are pretty much board game only. And Thursday night wasn't an RPG night (apparently that's Wednesday). The second floor sits in a circle above the store, so you can look down on the shop. It contains a set of tables used for various gaming, and tonight was wargame night. Lots of tables playing Inifinity (I'm not really familiar with it).

I tried to poach some people, and was looking successful in getting one or two, but in the end they got busy with other things. I did get to read a bunch of Rat Queens though, and that got my juices flowing for some gaming...

A group of kids

I ended up sitting next to a table with Richard (I'm guessing he's about 18) and his younger brothers and cousins (3 kids ranging in age from 8-10). They were all playing Magic, and it turned out older brother had played D&D before. Before I knew it, I had them create some Dungeon World characters (a Cleric, a Paladin, a Ranger, a Thief), and we had about 30 minutes to run through a quick adventure before the store closed.

I worked with each kid, during downtime in the Magic game, to create characters, since I knew we were running short on time. I was absolutely fascinated with how remarkably quick and easy it was for these youngsters to get a character in shape... all said about 5 minutes a piece (and of these youngsters had ever played and RPG; Magic being the closest they've gotten).

They had fun with the bonds, but we weren't really fleshing anything out in any deep way... it was more just to get the kids laughing, poking fun at each other, and having some silly ties. That sounded successful enough to me.

In the end I just did a little thing where they were assigned as a group to go relieve some soldiers from Keep Thornbrush. I figured they'd be on their way there, and possibly get there late, where creepy stuff could start happening. 

I stole an idea I heard Jason talk about on the Discern Realities podcast recently: When Undertaking a Perilous Jouney, question the various players... What is the Scout worried about encountering? What landmark is the Trailblazer looking for? etc. It worked out great having them narrate prior to rolling, and got them immediately in the frame of doing things, rolling dice, dealing with consequences. We started with some fog...  The Scout answered about watching for thieves in these lands, and of course, with the fog and limited visibility, they all got tense. They all loved it that the Quartermaster flubbed his roll, and therefore the ranger's bear got into the food supplies. The Trailblazer answered that he was looking for the mountain, the landmark which meant they were on their way up to the keep. Well, he also rolled poorly, and so they got lost in fog, and got there late, so had to use adventuring gear for torches.

And then zombies. And bites and debilities. And then a nervous transaction with the keep's guards when they got there. And the scared soldiers there ask, "Wait, aren't you the reinforcements that were sent to help us take care of the ghost?"

But 30 minutes rolls quick, and that was all we had time for... but the gold was the look in those kids eyes when they were playing, and the invariable question: "When are you coming back? When can we play again?" Awesome.

Their older brother said he could run it for them. I gave him the link to get Dungeon World for $10, and now it's in his hands. He's a bit heavy handed and seems a bit adversarial in style, but hey, weren't we all at one point?

At any rate, hoping the sparks will fan the flames for more gamers in future days.

ASTG: The Skeletons

I setup an Art of Story Through Gaming (ASTG) meetup this week for my Indie RPG Night series. Issues #2.

Lots of folks couldn't make it, so it was just Harry and I. And I've been trying to get a few 2-player RPGs in the back pocket for just such an encounter.

The Skeletons

This weeks adventure: The Skeletons, by Jason Morningstar (and Bully Pulpit Games). Described as such:

The Skeletons flips the script on the classic dungeon crawl— here you play not the intruders, but the guardians, cursed to spend all of eternity defending a tomb. As time passes, both the tomb and its guardians will change. Ferocious battles are fought and won, and the skeletons slowly remember who and what they once were.

I read through the rules a few weeks back, and one thing that impressed me was the concept of time passing. During many points of the game, time will pass, and that informs how long the players then sit, in the dark, in silence (or with appropriate ambient music playing).

I also liked the way the play seemed smooth and simple, with questions and cues. It has a feeling similar to The Quiet Year in how the way the game directs you towards a narrative, but with a scenario randomizer (in The Quiet Year it's a shuffled deck, The Skeletons it's more like multiple choice choose-your-own-adventure). After that, it's answering questions and creating scenarios in a narrative-driven fashion.

The Crypt of the Six Guardians

You start play by collaboratively drawing your crypt. We never had a name for our crypt, but I'll call it the Crypt of the Six Guardians because there were 6 alcoves total in this rectangular chamber. The "sarcophagus" wasn't a normal shape, but instead had the look of a large, circular, hinged, stone vault door on the floor of this chamber. There was one large archway which had been mostly blocked by a large boulder; this was the main passage in. And there was a set of stairs that went under the "sarcophagus"... to who knows where.

There are 7 skeletons (i.e. characters) you can choose from. Harry chose the skeleton Headless ("Your skull is long gone but it doesn’t matter. You carry an iron mace and a holy symbol."). I chose Outsider ("Your bones are unlike the others. You carry a weapon that suits your frame, and fearsome armor."). The skeleton sheets have a lightly drawn skeleton, which you then overlay details upon. That was a fun element that combines art skills (or lack thereof) with thought processes that start giving the skeleton the beginning of some personality.

Unlike many games, you don't create a backstory for your character, because your character has no memory of their past. Instead, this is something you fill in as you play the game, and begin to answer some of the questions on the sheet.

We went through all three phases of the game, from The Unsealed Tomb, to The Time of Dust, and through The Desecration. Those phases really lend an interesting mood, starting with strength and power, and time passing somewhat quickly... and then leading to long periods of darkness in between events, and the degradation of the crypt and the skeletons.

Slight confusion

The only hiccup was some confusion on the Skeleton sheets, where it says "Answer these as time passes:" for the list of questions. Because the game has a specific mechanical construct called "TIME PASSES", I though that was when the questions should be answered. However during a separate game construct known as "INTRUDERS", it says "Everyone answer one question if they wish", and I believe it's referring to these Skeleton sheet questions. I think the phrase "time passes" on the Skeleton sheets here is confusing. We settled on answering those questions during the INTRUDERS phase, which looks to be the intention.

If that's the case, a different phrase should be used on the sheets. (Although I haven't thought of a good suggestion!)

Props

I like that this game is played with only a sheet. The instructions say a d6 is needed, but we never saw its use. Maybe we didn't encounter a specific question that used it?

We decided to use skeleton minis to represent our characters, as Harry had a bunch lying around. I think it added some fun flavor to the experience, and would recommend it if you have them about.

Musical selections

We both though that the music enhanced the game. The key is obviously choosing the right set of tracks that support the experience. In this game I curated songs off the cuff from a large playlist of "RPG tracks" that I've created on my phone).

I ended up using the following:

• My loop of tracks from the official Full Metal Jacket soundtrack (tracks 9+11+12+13+15). In retrospect, Leonard (track 12) would be an excellent time passes track all on its own, which includes a subtle water dripping type sound that pervades the track for a good underground cave / crypt feel; it plays about 6 minutes long. Ruins and Attack (tracks 11 and 13) would loop well together for an encounter.
• Various tracks from Mark Morgan's Fallout 2 soundtrack (such as Underground Troubles, City of the Dead, Vats of Goo). These worked very well for time passing, and just in general. You could just use tracks like this for the entire game without issue.
• Hologrammic Dub by DJ Spooky, for one encounter
• Analog Wormz Seguel by Mr. Oizo, for one encounter (this one with tomb spiders)
• Sahra Saidi by Gamal Goma, for the final encounter (this was the one that led to our demise; a seasoned group of adventurers... or is just that we've weakened in our old age?)

I think the track Beyond the Last Parsec from Harry Mack's The Last Parsec soundtrack, would be a good one with a little more life (maybe an earlier time passes scene, or an encounter that's a little more "spiritual"). I was looking for it during game, but couldn't remember the name.

Bonus material

One: We took a quick look at the Echoes of War Variant by Sara Williamson, which is included in the game PDF, and it looks like a cool variant. You could just as easily play this instead, as it's simply different flavoring for the same basic game.

Two: I wanted to use this session to help with the world building we started in the prior ASTG meetup with Microscope. And this session with The Skeletons works perfectly. We just created the crypt and backstory for a main part of the Dungeon World session I plan to run for these players in a few weeks.

Running future sessions

I would definitely love playing this game more. Running it a con or game shop could be problematic, as I really think the darkness and a lack of distracting background noise would provide the best experience. However if you are going to someplace like Big Bad Con, with private rooms unlocked due to a successful Kickstarter, that could be a great place to run such a game.

Two guardians

Strategicon Gamex 2016

My 12th Strategicon in a row. There should be a badge reward or something...

New to this one, Jim (aka the head honcho for RPGs) changed the at-con signup process so that only the next 2-3 slots of games would be available at any given time. Friday at 2pm allowed you to signup for Friday 8pm and Saturday 2pm games, however you had to come back a few hours later for the Saturday 8pm game sheets to be available. There was still online registration ahead of the con, but Jim has ensured that only 1/2 the slots fill up with online registration for any given game. All in all, a reasonable accommodation, and I personally think it worked well during the weekend.

Friday 2-6pm: Fallout Shelter: Finding the Descenders

GM: Me.

This was my game for 2016 as mentioned on prior blog posts including Orccon 2016. Players included:

• Brian as Cass, the Food Engineer

• Dimitri as Dr. Maxwell Ricofermi, the Scientist

• Dorian as Fox, the Wasteland Explorer

• Nick and his son as the two-headed Bevis and Butthead the Ex-Overseer

My game is limited to 4 players. It's a hard limit because I have 4 character sheets made out of Lego, but also because I know it becomes too hard to manage after that number, and that degrades the experience. Although limited to 4 players, Nick and son wanted to play; Nick was going to sacrifice his spot for his son (this being his son's first Con as well), but we settled on this hack, where they helped play the same character. It worked well enough.

I wanted a different scenario than prior games, and settled on one that involved "Bob", a vault dweller that emigrated to the other vault. Everyone's questionnaire reflected this by filling in information about "Bob".

As in some prior games, I spent too much time in the wasteland. It's not really a problem, as there can be some fun flavor and role playing, but it does not use the vault itself as much, and if you have a 4 hour slot, I find the players in retrospect want more vault action.

That said, everyone had a great time, and I had a blast with this group, having played with almost all of them in the past. Everyone died due to deathclaw attack in the end. 

Friday 8pm-midnight:  The Extraordinarily Horrible Children of Raven's Hollow

From Jesse Burneko's blog on the subject, here is a description of the game:

The primary inspiration for this game is Edward Gory’s “The Gashlycrumb Tinies” with a dash of the comic “Lenore.” The game is intended to produce a quick grim fairy tale about horrible children who bully each other into dangerous acts that likely lead to their demise.

This blog may be a bit outdated, as it mentions dice, and apparently the mechanics were changed to cards at some point. The players are mischievous children, and play involves a competitive / cooperative card game against everyone else at the table, as well as various adults (NPCs) of the town. It's a GM-less game, and Gretchen Burneko played with us, and did most of the explaining.

I had a great time playing this game. I loved that you play a mechanical card game at the same time as needing to explain in the story how the move looked. The story begins to blossom as time goes on. Each individual event allows every player a chance to intercede for good or ill, but during your turn you normally only have the ability to change who is winning the combat. The card mechanics are at once simplistic, but also allow for some strategy and nuance.

Each card has some number values that are important in the way "combat" works between players, but also have a location listed on the card. Because those locations (e.g. The Graveyard, The Crossroads, etc.) repeat, and must be used in some of the story-driver elements, the cards begin to influence the narrative in interesting and random ways.

The downside was that we had a total of 9 players. Although the game handled it fairly well (it is supposed to support up to 10?), it led to a long session of about 4 hours. I think it would do better as a 5-6 player game (at maybe 3 hours), and look forward to giving that a try at some point. I think you could play this with inexperienced role players to great effect.

I've talked before about postworldgames' Forget-Me-Not game, and although many things including the mechanics were different, the overall feeling of playing a card game and coming away with an intricate story remain.

Saturday 9am-1pm: T.I.M.E. Stories: Pariah Missouri

I've been interested in playing T.I.M.E. Stories, a game put out by Space Cowboys, of Splendor fame. I'd heard something about it being role-playing-esque, and that there is a function of time travel and solving mysteries. But that's about all I knew.

Introducing Andy, who I have started gaming with regularly at this con. He's the author of the Pariah Missouri graphic novels, and after I introduced him to Dread a few cons back, he's been running it like mad.

Andy is a bit of a mad genius. First off, he's got a graphic novel that is a Deadlands-like setting with darkness and magic prior to the Civil War, in the South of the USA. He's taken it, and created a whole scenario for T.I.M.E. Stories. It includes his graphic novel's art as the setting pieces for the game (each distinct location includes a number of cards that create an actual picture of the location). The mystery is fully fleshed out, and the game plays out as a cooperative choose-your-own-adventure mystery, of sorts.

For those familiar with T.I.M.E. Stories, Andy's scenario has additional elements that the base game and expansions could, but don't, have. These include a mechanic for day and night time on the overall map, with locations that appear only during one of those phases. There are some additional cool elements that he's overlayed onto the game.

I won't be rushing to buy the actual game, because I see it a little limited in my groups, and I'm not as big a board gamer as much as RPGs at the moment. That said, I'd recommend this game for those that like collaborate mysteries, and I definitely recommend his version, and hope to see it published. (He's got meetings with Space Cowboys... crossing fingers!)

Saturday 2-6pm: A Time to Harvest: Episode Two Description (Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed)

This Call of Cthulhu scenario was run by Arthur Severance. Apparently it's part of Chaosium's attempt at organized play (similar to Pathfinder Society). From Chaosium's web site:

A Time to Harvest is a campaign unfolding over six months, which will be offered free to all members of The Cult of Chaos, Chaosium's Game Master and Organized Play Program.

The Pros: The GM had most of the scenario ready in his head. The props included many pictures that had a '20s feel on index cards that the GM had put together that helped us digest the overwhelming amount of information. The scenario is very fleshed out, so would do well (possibly) in a long-term campaign.

That said, this was outweighed by the Cons. I was not really a fan of this game. I play Call of Cthulhu for different reasons than organized play. I don't think organized play, in and of itself, would deter me from enjoying such a session, however the session ran information-heavy (tons of NPCs and material), and the GM had to pretty consistently refer to the module notes. Part of the problem stems from the scenario, as having the GM "wing it" can break the story and mystery. Now, as a player at a con game, I don't care too much about the consistency of the story arc, as much as I care about a loose consistency in my individual game. Also, being based on '20s America, it wasn't a very diverse set of characters (if that is an issue in your gaming).

But really it was the constant need of the GM to refer to notes, the mechanical nature of some of the investigation elements, and the occasional retcon the GM thought it necessary to have the story "make sense", broke more than a bit of the immersion for me. 

I'll be avoiding these games in the future. I think they can possibly be done well, and for some gamers they may be quite enjoyable as is, but they feel too much like organized D&D and Pathfinder to me. And that's not what I'm looking for in general, and especially with Call of Cthulhu and horror games.

Saturday 8pm-midnight: Grace Under Pressure (Call of Cthulhu)

On the other end of Cthulhu...

The door to the room were closed. Odd. I open the doors to find a table at the far end of the room with green and blue glow sticks. There are sounds of engine thrumming, mixed with the occasional bubble sounds; a submarine. A man with a fez, a large squid across one side of the hat, sits behind a screen, looking like a flight attendant. I look down and see schematics for a very future-looking submarine. It might as well be a spaceship.

Sitting down, I could feel the oppression of thousands of pound of ocean above me.

The game description gives a good feel for where this starts:

You are on the sea floor, 1500 feet below the surface. Around you is only cold and dark, the sun's rays bring nothing to this world. The pressure in this lethal place is over 600 pounds per square inch. You and your companions are aboard the RSV Wallaby, a prototype research vessel on its maiden voyage. You are not alone.

Ronjon, the GM, throws down a head of information: ship schematics, detailed list of equipment in each chamber, and article about this prototype research vessel that looks like it was printed from an internet article (with ominous advertisements peppered randomly around, if you cared to look). Overload, but in just the right way.

This was the maiden voyage, and none of us are particularly skilled marine biologists... we're mostly either the tech backbone of the ship, or those responsible for its funding. 

The players all got into it. The game had excellent pacing. People started dying around midnight. I jumped out around 12:30pm, since I had some folks ready to play some late night gaming, and my character goes down. I expected the rest to succumb shortly. I was wrong. My friend Howie continued playing, and they were able to pull together and somehow get out of the worst of the craziness.

I highly recommend this game. Absolutely brilliant.

Grace Under Pressure

Saturday Midnight - 3am: Dungeon World

I had a crew who'd mostly never seen much Dungeon World, and wanted to get the flavor; and a few who just wanted some late night gaming. I had 6 players total including Andy, Keith and Brandie, Bob Quinterro and a few others.

The first half of the session was a bunch of character and bond creation.

I had an idea for the second half, which involved a little girl adopted by monks at a monastery. Let's call her Annie. I was thinking maybe she's about 5 years old, but also is a bit of ... spirit? Baby doppelganger? And the holy church is sending their holy warriors out to get her, and she's appeared on their radar.

So instead of just giving the players the ability to make Bonds with each other, I also had them make Bonds with little Annie. And then I threw them into the shit, with a holy cleric threatening her life. Good times!

I have to admit that Brandie (one of the players) was a whisky and ginger ale having angel, and I'm a little fuzzy with the details of how it all played out. I distinctly remember that I was able to hold my alcohol enough to have a coherent story, and the players said they had a good time, so hey!

Sunday

Time to go pickup the daughter. We hit the pool, which was a bit frigid, but fortunately there was a hot tub as well. We ran into another father-daughter pair who incidently had come over from Boston... and it was their first con! We chatted them up and convinced them to join us for the miniature paint-and-take. 

The last time I painted miniatures with the kid, she didn't have the dexterity to do a very good job, but this one came out pretty impressive! I didn't help her at all.

After that, we grabbed a few bites from the Gamer Bytes booth in the main game room. They have hot dogs and chicken strips for exorbitant prices, but at least they aren't horrible. Found out that an apple costs $3. That's some fine bullshit right there.

Showed our new friends Marc and Ariella how to play a few games, including Towers of Conspiracy, and Condottiere, and they brought Lost Cities. 

Some Lost Cities; utterly pleasant being able to just sit back and watch the kids play, with NO interaction from the adults (except for some scoring help).

Sunday 8-10pm: No Thank You Evil

We convinced our new friends to join us for our scheduled 8pm game, No Thank You Evil run by GM Matt Chapman. The game is designed by Shanna Germain and Monte Cook, ran as a Kickstarter a year back, and is listed as "a Game of Make-believe for Creative Kids and Their Families". I funded it at the PDF level, but have otherwise not had time to look at it, so wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.  I was also surprised that the kid actually wanted to sign up for the game a few weeks back, as mostly she's only wanted to play in the few Lego RPGs I've run.

Ariella had never played an RPG, and so Marc and her joined us, along with a father-son pair (Jesse and Johnny) who I've seen around in the RPG area of Strategicons past.

Matt did a pretty great job corralling the kids (and adults) and giving us a good feel for the game. We did a module that comes with the base game. The pieces that come with the physical copy of the game are nice quality, and definitely add to the experience, but don't strictly look necessary.

It's definitely a system I'd be happy to run the next time around, so it's on my short list to prep and test run with the kid and some of her friends.

No Thank You, Evil!

What impressed me was that after 2 hours of gaming, with the game drawing to a close, the kid wanted more. She was disappointed that all the loose ends weren't answered, and actually complained that it felt like we "had only played for 5 minutes". I am proud, indeed.

After that it was time to say goodnight to all, and especially Marc and Ariella, who we wouldn't see as they were flying out the next morning.

The biggest bummer was seeing Andy and crew about to start a late night Dread game, which unfortunately I couldn't join.

Monday 9-11am: Beware the Boogeyman (GURPS)

I have always wanted to play in a Monday game by Mook (a Strategicon regular, and of How to Be a GURPS GM fame). He's always running a session to close out the con. I've played in a few games with him over the years, including his Dungeons and Dragons cartoon game (amazing!). And now I got to play not only in a Monday morning game, but also with my daughter! And with JiB, another regular, friend, and awesome gamer. 

The only bummer was that Gina was supposed to join us (JiB and Gina usually finish the con with Mook's Monday games), and unfortunately she was feeling sick.

But we did have a blast! The premise was:

When the sun sets and the children sleep, the Boogeyman tries to feed on their nightmares. Luckily, the children have you to protect them: a cat, a dog, an action figure, a toy dinosaur, and their imaginary friends (a furry monster and a unicorn). Can you successfully confront the Boogeyman and put an end to his reign of childhood terror? 

The kid played the toy dinosaur: Z-Rex. I played a hand-me down toy soldier. And JiB was the dog, Barkley. An attack by goblins, a dealing with Morpheus of the dream lands, and a confrontation with a dragon and then the Boogeyman.

Also, here's Mook's own blog post about this game, which he ran three times for various groups, at this convention.

And out...

I did have a few regrets: Didn't get to play with Stephanie who was running her ThreadbareRPG (I so wish she had it going on Sunday so the kid and I could play!), and many other awesome GMs and players out there (you know who you are, or not).

From there we grabbed some eats, and then went to the game auction, which was in full swing. We watched for a bit, and I bid and won a brand new, shrink-wrapped Machi Koro for $16. We sat down and had a few plays, but then decided to head on out.

The future looks promising. All I gotta do now is work on my gaming-with-youth skills, and then I can run and play with the kid at more of these things.

Machi Koro action!

World's Collide: Microscope with Dungeon World and a Cinder Queen

Microscope Explorer

Ben Robbins, the writer of Microscope, also came out with an add-on to that game through a Kickstarter (and now available product) called Microscope Explorer. I got the kickstarted deliverable in the mail just recently, and it couldn't have been at a better time.

OK, that's a lie. It could've been better if I had received it just a little earlier because the first part of the book contains some good tips for running Microscope in general which would've been useful when running the last session. Although maybe it's better to learn through trial and error and reading, so I'll just consider all that a learning experience.

The book has a few modifications to the base game, but I haven't really gotten to those sections yet.

The part which I did just finish is a section called "World Building: Games Collide", which describes tips for using Microscope in world building.

Servants of the Cinder Queen

So, I want to run Servants of the Cinder Queen, a little Dungeon World module I helped kickstart a while back. I love the design and flow of this adventure module. Each area is linked to the other just through hints in text (not some convoluted map), and there is the framework for the bad stuff that will happen if no one takes care of this evil (a "front" in DW parlance), with clear steps on how it will proceed ("grim portents").

The adventure's description is:

There once was a monastery perched high on a slope of the mountain called Hvitr’s Horn. The warrior-monks who dwelt within were dedicated to Hvitr—lawful god of storms and justice—and entrusted with the stewardship of holy artifacts and texts. But above all else they were gatekeepers; for Hvitr’s Horn was an active volcano, and thus (like all active volcanoes) a gateway to Ellorash, an elemental plane of fire.

Sample pages from Servants of the Cinder Queen; very Dungeon World specific, lots of bullet points making it easy to run with, as a DM.

Games Collide with Servants of the Cinder Queen

In Microscope Explorer,  the World Building: Games Collide section describes the process, pitfalls, and suggestions around using Microscope to create a playground that will then be used for another RPG.

Ben outlines six basic ways to adapt elements from the Microscope history for the game. I found no need to use CREATE (to create something new), REMOVE (to delete anything), or REVISE (to change something in the history). That is good; that means I can use the Microscope history we created almost "as is".

I decided to use EXPAND (to add more detail) in one case, and IGNORE many of the historical details (to possibly revisit in later adventures), and FOCUS (emphasize / make it central to the adventure) for many of our scenes for this particular quest.

Here's a summary of most events (and some scenes) from the Microscope history, and whether or not they will be used:

• IGNORE?: Foo the Lizard King dies (scene: Drudari summoned a demon by which Foo was stolen into the stargate portal)
• EXPAND: An innumerable hoard of gods and demons enter through the gate.
• IGNORE: The fall of the first empire
• FOCUS: The stargate collapses (caused by a great sasquach)
• FOCUS: Using an ancient artifact, Dromlus unifies the city-states and starts the second empire.
• IGNORE: Lumptorious Lumpround (the halfling bard) discovers giant Sasquatch footprints 
• IGNORE: Demand for Sasquatch hides spike
• FOCUS: Sasquatch hide, when touched, cures all illness.
• FOCUS: Scouts of the third empire discover a long abandoned cave of Foo the Lizard King. 
• FOCUS: Rebel forces of the third empire find artifacts from the homeworld (A diamond recorded shape)
• IGNORE: Amid earthquakes, three new islands appear in the steaming sea.

Applying these to the module

Now to adjust the Servants of the Cinder Queen adventure to make it fit roughly with our history:

• The Cinder Queen is a demon that can enter through the gate. I was playing with the idea that it would be Foo, the Lizard King, who was tossed into a stargate, and then is now coming back with horrible powers. Not sure that I'll go through with that. Might be cleaner to just have it be a creature similar to the "hoard of gods and demons" that had entered the game long ago, when it was open.
• I may have the Cinder Queen cult be led by a lizard man. I like the idea of the saurians and the Sasquatch as diametrically opposed in some fashion in this world. In this case the fire vs ice can be used effectively enough in mimicking the Cinder Queen subtexts. Or perhaps just a human rogue (maybe from the rebel forces?) who is possessed by some item he/she found in those catacombs?
• Instead of module's storm god, which helped seal the door to the cinder queen, I like the idea of a cold-based Sasquatch cult. They seemed to have a god-like reputation during our history, and I envision them sort of like the Yeti in The Last Parsec, but maybe with some mystical quality. It'll be nice to take the "Sasquatch", which started with a little bit of a silly feel in our Microscope session, and end up giving them some gravitas.
• I may have a Sasquatch hide or otherwise cure-all type item, if appropriate, to help heal some characters at the end of the journey. (A power hinted at in the history; maybe it'll be red herring?)
• The history's scouts and rebel forces will be the ones who discovered these caves at some point in the past. In some way they will be related to the PCs and their positions in the army of the third empire. Their legacy will be giving the PCs some rumors of what lies in the caves (skipping the rumors provided by the "old crone" character in the local town).
• I may use the history's "diamond recorded shape", whatever that means, as something big that was discovered and visible to the PCs prior to the adventure, or some kind of recurring symbolism.
• In the Microscope palette we said an enthusiastic "yes" to "artifacts from the homeworld", so I'm planning to make the magic items - even though they may have similar powers to those described in the module - reshaped to give this feel.

Most preparations done. Now to see how it all plays out...

ASTG Indie RPG night #1: DW character creation and Microscope

This was the first night for the Art of Story Through Gaming meetup (hopefully of more than one) in a series on Indie RPGs, that I was trying to get going. We had four takers: Harry, Wale, Phil, and Aaron showed. We first decided to play around with Dungeon World character creation.

Dungeon World

Dungeon World is a game using the Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) engine, which emulates classic Dungeons and Dragons in tropes and feel. Because the most of these folks hadn't played much of that system, and because I've had such a great experience with it in the last year, we created some characters: 

• Wale as Starry, the Druid of the Blasted Wasteland
• Phil as Searlock, the entitled Wizard
• Harry as Asp, the Thief, and spy
• Aaron as Sanguinius, the Paladin of somewhat feeble intelligence

We decided to go with a setting I've used before, which is simply: The characters have been conscripted (willingly or not) by the army of a large empire, for use in special missions, in a campaign on the border of a large military conflict.

It was especially fun seeing the players come up with Bonds, which is one of the best parts of the character creation of this system. Each character sheet comes with some sentences that you fill out, which creates relationships with the other characters. Some examples:

• Starry: "Searlock smells more like prey than a hunter", and "I have showed Asp a secret tire of the land".
• Searlock: "Asp is keeping an important secret from me."
• Asp: "Starry and I have a con running" and "I stole something from Sanguinus"

All good seeds for creating inter-party relationships, conflicts, and adventure goodness.

Before long, however, we decided to jump into Microscope, as some players had mentioned a strong interest in seeing how that system works. 

Microscope

Microscope is a system for history and world building. Because we just started to make Dungeon World characters in a setting as described above, we decided to play with Microscope in fleshing out that setting.

The first thing you do in Microscope is define some key setting pieces:

• Setting: The history of a world that was colonized 2000 years ago by humanoids through a "stargate". These humanoids include at least factions that can be called "human", "elf", "dwarf" and "halfling" (as per the Dungeon World character race choices).
• Bookends of history: Exploring the timeframe that starts with the "Pre-history" through "The Third empire", which comes just before the time we are playing in the above Dungeon World game.
• The Palette: YES to city-states, artifacts from the homeworld, sasquach, native sentient lifeforms, inhuman ancient gods, dashing swordplay, rebel forces, magical storms, plentiful ritual magic, and water is scarce. NO to dark elves, gnomes, god-caused apocalypses, and laser weapons (i.e. no laser guns and no light sabers).

We didn't get too far, going through only one full round of play (although with 5 players, I don't think Microscope would easily go through many rounds unless you have lots of times, or experienced players; in this case everyone was new to it). We had enough to define a few periods, and had two role playing sessions, and everyone got a good feel for how the system worked.

We ended up with the following periods, events, and scenes:

• Period: Pre-history [DARK]
  • Event: Foo the Lizard King dies, leaving no heirs behind. [LIGHT]
    • Played Scene: Q: How was the stargate involved in Foo's death? (at the Lizard King's Castle) A: Drudari summoned a demon to kill Foo, and Foo is killed sacrificing herself for husband Baf. [DARK]
• Period: The First Empire [LIGHT]
  • Event: An innumerable hoard of gods and demons enter through the gate. [DARK]
  • Event: The fall of the first empire [DARK]
• Period: The Arrival (of humanoids) [LIGHT]
  • Event: The stargate collapses [DARK]
    • Dictated Scene: Q: What caused the stargate to collapse? (refugees are rushing through the gate) A: A great sasquach broke the archway. [DARK]
  • Event: Using an ancient artifact, Dromlus unifies the city-states and starts the second empire. [LIGHT]
• Period: Search for the abominable Sasquatch [LIGHT]
  • Event: Lumptorious Lumpround (the halfling bard) discovers giant Sasquatch footprints glowing white. [LIGHT]
  • Event: Demand for Sasquatch hides spike as people believe it has magical powers related to stargates. [DARK]
    • Dictated Scene: Q: Why do people believe Sasquatch hide is magical? (In Mystik, a bar where criminals hang) A: Sasquatch is killed in a bar fight and its body, when touched, cures all illness. [?]
• Period: The Third Empire [DARK]
  • Event: Scouts of the third empire discover a long abandoned cave of Foo the Lizard King. [LIGHT]
  • Event: Rebel forces of the third empire find artifacts from the homeworld. [LIGHT]
    • Played Scene: Q: What is the artifact the rebel forces found? (Abandoned cave of Foo) A: A diamond recorded shape. [?]
  • Event: Amid earthquakes, three new islands appear in the steaming sea. [LIGHT]

The first "focus" was stargates. The first "legacy" was Sasquatches. The second "focus" was chosen as "artifacts from the homeworld", however we didn't get far enough to get much into that one.

Microscope session

Wrap-up

One thing I enjoy in retrospect is that I have a starting point for playing with this shared history and experience in creating a Dungeon World campaign or game. Playing with the same players would be that much more enjoyable because they now have a vested interest and attachment to the world, as I can pick and choose interesting bits to work into the fiction (assuming we get to play in this world again).

I've always heard and thought of using Microscope as a way to world build for a campaign or gaming session, but this is the closest I've come to actually doing so. We'll see what, if anything, becomes of it.

A Quiet Year for ASTG

ASTG

I joined the Art of Story Through Gaming meetup towards the end of 2015, in time for a general get together at a comic shop on Melrose that included an awesome game of Cthulhu Wars (a Risk, Diplomacy, and Cthulhu mashup).

Since then I ran my Lego Star Frontiers one-shot for a few members (Aaron and Wale), but have been too busy to get anything going with any regularity. Hopefully that's about to change. I just started, and plan to run an Indie RPG night once/month... hopefully with regularity.

What games? I've got a list that I want to play, but also leave it currently open to discussion or desires by the participants. Also, more than one has mentioned they'd be happy to run things, so we'll see how it all plays out.

A Quiet Year

Starting with something light and fun, I ran The Quiet Year for friends Harry and Lucas. We went with a dry, arid environment. The resources chosen? 1. Sunshine. 2. Cactus fields. 3. Shoes. Of course shoes ends up being in abundance, as there is a large cargo truck, overturned, full of shoes. 

During the game we had an abundance of Fuel, which helped us cause some various problems, more than anything. We had a sinkhole which turned into an fire ant hill. We had shoe armor. We had evil scholars from the local library. We had lots of man-eating coyotes.

All-in-all, we had a good time, but a full game of The Quiet Year does end up running around 4 hours, and by the end I think we were all a bit fried. 

We agreed that to play more regularly, you'd probably want to go with the "fleeting" version of the Quiet Year, which has you remove 3 cards from each suit. This would mix up things and prevent something which would start to feel repetitive with the game.

That, or it would be excellent to have alternate question cards. Anyone working on that? I've thought of doing something that would be more little kid-friendly (not necessarily in theme, more in the scope of the questions and wording). 

A full Quiet Year for ASTG

200 Words finalists

The Finalists were announced. Some of these are just superb. Here was the blog announcing the finalists. No, I didn't make it, but honestly, I don't think I should've. There was some really good gems in there.

Some of the ones I really like include “HEAVY METAL WIZARD SORCERORS” by Alessandro Dellamotta, “Drink Tea. Forget.” by M. Quintanilla (you could just as easily play it with booze and at night for a change of pace), “Stardust” by Daniel Adams, “Time Travel Thaw” by Armand Kossayan, and the supplement “A GM’s Guide to Session Prep and Play” by Ole Peder Giæver. 

Given the short form games, I didn't believe, going into this, that I would want to play that many of these games. I'm glad to see I'm wrong. I've got one or two on the short list for an upcoming Indie RPG night. I can already see a timely scenario for HEAVY METAL WIZARD SORCERORS where they have to defend themselves against the The Purple Prince of Pop.

200 Words

I heard from a few friends on my G+ feed about this 200 word RPG challenge. Looks like it was started last year in 2015, and in fact a local LA con-goer / friend won! (Stephanie of Mortaine fame.)

Having played many more small form RPGs this last year, I thought why not give it a go. I have submitted my game, which I originally called We Are Character (since the players all take turns playing the same character), but which I've renamed We Are Cadavre Exquis (due to playtesters observations that there is similarity to the Exquisite Character game of surrealistic artists). This makes it sound extra artsy-fartsy.

I first play-tested it with my daughter, who loved it. I think that's due to its very simple nature and the control she has during play (so far she hasn't gone too much for GM-run games). I think the simple story cues are just enough for her to handle.

I also play-tested it with 3 adult friends on a game night, and got some cool feedback that way, including a few of the modifications that I added at the bottom, including the ones I called "Poem" and "Synchronicity".

After reviewing many of the other submissions, up on the G+ community feed for the contest, I have to say I'm both impressed, and intimidated, by some of the awesomely cool ideas spewing forth. Impressed by the creativity and the way some of the concepts and ideas have been so concisely summarized and distilled; intimidated because my idea seems so simple and basic and almost lackluster. But don't get me wrong, I still like its simplicity... for no other reason than my daughter keeps asking me if we can play!

Here's my submission (at 195 words) for the 200 Word RPG Challenge, 2016:

“WE ARE CADAVRE EXQUIS
GM-less story game where we take turns playing the same character.

RULES
1. Separate card deck into Diamonds (RESULT) and Clubs (ACTION).
2. Shuffle decks separately. Place face down in two stacks.
3. Choose an adventure start:
“Opens the door into the depths…”
“Heads into enemy headquarters…”
“Enters the desolate space station…”
4. Go clockwise while cards remain:
a. Reveal Diamond card.
b. Look up RESULT cue.
c. Use cue to describe result of last action, in ONE sentence.
d. Reveal Club card.
e. Look up ACTION cue.
f. Use cue to describe next action, in ONE sentence.
5. When cards run out: next player describes the ending.

CARD CUES
# - RESULT - ACTION
A - Key - Fall
2 - Blue - Discover
3 - Cloud - Fear
4 - Rough - Break
5 - Portal - Hurt
6 - Root - Test
7 - Energy - Hear
8 - Pain - Fly
9 - Arms - Pound
10 - Dark - Fire
J - Light - Cut
Q - Hook - Run
K - Ground - Face

MODIFICATIONS
SYNCHRONICITY: Reveal both cards before describing results.
POEM: Rhyme as a couplet, sestina, or in style of haiku.
CUSTOMIZE: Create your own adventure start or cues.
WORLD-BUILDING: Change character to: city, culture, planet...
EPIC: Do not limit player sentences. ”

Girl Gamer Gathering 2016

About 6 months ago (or more?) I started hearing about another new con that was attempting to spring up here in the LA area: Girl Gamer Gathering.

Being the father of a 7 year old gamer, as well as someone who is a fan of inclusiveness, and wanting a more diverse hobby, I was drawn in. I knew that I would be bringing the kid for the full convention, so would be on "babysitting" duty pretty much the entire time. That's why I ended up volunteering to run at least my Fallout Shelter RPG... I knew she could play in it during that 4 hour slot. Other than that, we'd just be there for the ride, and scope out the scene.

Friday

Well, months later, it arrives. Unfortunately right after we return from a trip overseas, with the accompanying jet lag. And also unfortunately right at the end of a week where I was feeling like I had been either sick with a soar throat, or suffering from some severe hay fever. But onwards we go...

The con was held in Ontario (California, not Canada), which is about an hour East for us; although ended up about 1.5 hours on Friday afternoon.

Friday we just scoped out the scene. The kid wanted to hit the pool. First we hit the registration desk and got our badges. Then discovered the pool was frigid and the hot tub was out of order, but went in anyways.

We made it!

The con had a Con Suite, which was open over 12 hours a day (anywhere from about 10 or 11am in the morning, until 11pm to midnight, depending on the day). The Con Suite was a standard room configured for use as a hangout area. It had both generic snack food like chips, hummus, sandwich making gear (PB&J mainly), veggies, and candy, as well as appliances such as toasters, coffee maker, and electric tea kettle. It was such a refreshing thing to have. Although you could get better food in other places outside the con, everything was provided for free, and the space was excellent for relaxing and meeting people. We visited it constantly and consistently throughout the con.

Everything was on one floor, which was terribly convenient. They had an open gaming room, which is where most folks would swing by to play board games. There was a little library of sorts, and many folks brought a variety of games to play.

Saturday

We woke up before 8am to get breakfast. The hotel claimed that everyone, including kids, would have to pay the $13 all-you-could-eat buffet, or order off the menu, but when I went downstairs the nice staff let me feed the kid with my personal $13 buffet order. The kid and I played a little Towers of Conspiracy.

Breakfast

We were supposed to start around 9am, but being the first con, timings were a bit disorganized.

Ready to run!

Caoimhe was the RPG coordinator, and she told me that folks would probably be waking up a bit late and a 10am start time was more reasonable. All good... we wandered around, and even got a new kid, Liz, to join us for the game. All up, it was Noah, Alana, the kid, and Liz.

Character creation!

Four vault dwellers

From there the kid joined Alana's Short Order Heroes that she ran, in the same room. I was extremely impressed that this 10 year old managed the table the way she did, especially because it was laden with a kooky bunch of older teenagers that sometimes didn't let her or the kid get much of a word in edgewise. Kudos!

After lunch at the Con Suite, we spent various times going into Open Gaming.

Open gaming room

Looney Labs were special guests that were in town, which is to say Andy and Kristen Looney. They're probably best known for Fluxx, and I've played with them and in some of their games at Strategicon. We ended up playing a bit of Loonacy, which is a great alternative to Spot It, including classic Loonacy, retro Loonacy, and even Ugly Doll Lunacy!

Playing classic Loonacy.P

Playing Ugly Dolls Lunacy!

Looney Labs also showcased many of their pyramid-based games, partly due to the fact that they planned to kick off a Kickstarter on their Pyramid Arcade set in the next days (which, writing this now a few days later, they've already funded).

There was a room especially for console gaming, which looked interesting, but I have to admit the kid and I didn't spend any time in here the entire weekend.

This was the one tempting game, as it was something that supported up to, like, 8 players. Didn't really find out much more than that though. I feel like a Ludite.

 A little later in the day, Noah ran a game of Short Order Heroes, which this time was attended by the slightly younger youth, including all of my prior players. It gave me some time to wander around and chat with Aaron Vanek and Kirsten who were running the LARP room. At one moment I came back in the room to hear all the kids cackling like crazy. It was awesome to see a little of the next generation of gamers.

Love the Strategicon advertisement here.

Late night came about, and then it was games such as Werewolf. The circle is a lot smaller than the Strategicon circles of 30-50 or more... much more manageable here. It also allowed me to get out and about while the kid played with Alana and others.

And finally a little One Night Ultimate Werewolf, which I had brought a long. After that the older girls were talking about playing Cards Against Humanity, but made some joke about Apples to Apples. The kid and Alana heard it, and were very excited, and kudos again to the older girls for taking them under their wings, and playing a few rounds in the open gaming room.

I didn't play, but instead filled the role of the kid’s dictionary for any particular big words or weird concepts.

Sunday

Unfortunately Sunday started with the kid feeling a bit sick to her stomach, but after having a very light breakfast, she begged to stay longer. We ended up playing a game of Little Wizards with Alana and the GM (I forgot her name!) was pretty great for a kids table, although the kids ended up getting a bit distracted for this long-form game. I think Short Order Heroes was more up their alley.

A few more rounds of this or that in the open gaming room, and a round of goodbyes to all our new and old friends, and it was time to head out. The kid passed out in the car on the way home, and unfortunately ended up sick the next day, but we didn't regret this awesome adventure.

Very happy to hear that GGG was a success, and they plan to run it again next year... so until then!

Code of Conduct

Another thing that I think GGG does very well is their Code of Conduct. Their section "Privilege Awareness" is one of the best, most concise versions of that I've seen. I also love that they have an "Encouraged Behavior" section as a set of guidelines on how to participate given the code of conduct.

The whole environment was encouraging and calm and wonderful. I can't wait for the next one. There was some concern that the naming of the con might be seen as very youth focused, however most of the con felt like the standard adult fair, so I wouldn't judge it that way.

Can't wait to see how it grows and changes for next year, and hope to be a part of it.

Towers of Conspiracy in Lego

Gishinankinotou - Towers of Conspiracy in Lego

OK, so per my last blog post, we got to learn and play Towers of Conspiracy in Japan. Going to manufacturer's site, I couldn't really make too much of how to get a copy of it.

And of course that's when I thought: I'll just make it! Thank you Lego.

It took about 15 minutes to put together the basic Lego template, and then about 30 minutes to work out the sticker graphics and get it sized and stuck. Now all I gotta do is find an English version of the instructions (or get one made).

Here you go... Towers of Conspiracy. In Lego:

Towers of Conspiracy, Lego version!

Japan and Jelly Jelly Cafe

Japan - March 2016

Due to available funds, good exchange rate, cheap tickets, the kid’s spring break, J’s better knees, and our love for Japan, we decided it was time to go on an international trip with the kid.

We spent about 12 days over there, mostly in Tokyo. AirBnB worked out well, and we stayed in an apartment first in Shinagawa, then went to a ryokan in Hakone for 2 days, and then a few final days in an AirBnB apartment in Okubo. It's not easy travelling with a 7 year old, but it was definitely fun, and she impressed us with her resilience.

While in Tokyo, I found that Yelp worked decently as a way to find some local spots. It's not as popular for Japan as web sites like Tabelog, but felt more iPhone and English friendly. 

Jelly Jelly Cafe

Something I hadn't considered until I was there, was to look for a game cafe. And when I did think about it, one popped up in our vicinity: Jelly Jelly Cafe. We found a free time slot on the Monday before we left, and decided to try it out.

Took a little looking to find it, but there it was. A cute little crowded game cafe. For adults it was 1500 yen (~$15) for all-you-can-play entry free which includes 1 drink. They don't serve food, but you could either bring food, or leave to eat and come back. Additionally, drinks include not only juices and teas, but also beer and alcohol, and they have a stocked bar! Our daughter is 7, and she payed a child entry fee, which was 1000 yen (~$10), although that doesn't include a free drink.

The cafe itself was very tight. You actually have to squeeze and excuse yourself to get by other tables, if you had your eye on one of the games up on the shelves. That said, it worked, and had about 7 or so available tables. It was pretty full when we got there, which was just about 45 minutes after they opened (which most days is 1 pm in the afternoon).

The family played some Sushi Go (which the cafe didn't have, but we had brought along), and then some Takenoko. We also tried a game that Sugawara-san (the hostess on staff at that time) recommended, when I asked about Japanese games. It was called Gishinankinotou in Japanese, and although my Japanese is pretty rusty, I got the gist of it from Sugawara-san. The kid and I played a few rounds of that. I have since found it listed online on Board Game Geek under Towers of Conspiracy, so you can read more about it there. Unfortunately, they don't have English language instructions for it.

I got to talk to the owner of the shop as well, and I mentioned our local Game Haus Cafe back in Glendale, which we frequent, frequently. We talked a little about how business is going, the difference between both cafes, and about games in general. He pointed out three games they sell in the cafe, which are all locally produced. Two he co-designed, and one was by a different designer, but they put out on their label. You can read more about this on the Jelly Jelly Games website, which has an English page. 

I purchased the game called Jelly, after looking through some of the English rules on my phone. Haven't had a chance to play it yet though. I was very intrigued by the other game called Catty, but unfortunately all the rules are in Japanese only, currently.

Anyways, if you get a chance to go to Japan and are into gaming, check them out!

Jelly Jelly Cafe entrance

Most of the spot, including the bar in the back!

A view from the bar side. The owner is sitting in the bottom right.

Playing Gishinankinotou - Towers of Conspiracy

Workcon Raleigh 2016

Time for another work trip. The trips only come up about once or twice a year, but recently they’ve been above and beyond. Why? Well, both my boss, Robert, and coworker Joe, are gamers.

Workcons past

Because one of our offices and many coworkers are there, our recent trips have been to Roseville, Minnesota. Turns out our office is very close to the Fantasy Flight headquarters and flagship store, which is just an additional bonus. We normally work during the day, then dinner, and on to play for 4-5 hours each night at Fantasy Flight.

If you’ve never been to the Fantasy Flight game store in Roseville, I can’t really speak highly about it enough. They’ve got a huge number of large gaming tables. There are always many folks there playing all manner of board games, role playing games, and war / miniature games. They carry the huge selection of Fantasy Flight games as well as many other game vendors (including a decent shelf of role playing games!) They have a kitchen with hot foods including chicken wings and the like. And they have coffee, and beer on tap. The place is unreal.

Workcon Raleigh

This trip was a little different, in that we met up at Raleigh, North Carolina. It was my first time out there, and I’ve got to say, atmosphere was nice, very walkable downtown and surrounding area, and food and coffee was amazingly good. We don’t have a work office there, but a few of us gathered at a hotel with a conference room to work on an important work project.

But once work was done, and dinner was had, it was on to gaming! We ended up playing at the hotel lobby bar every night, just the three of us (my other coworkers are not gamers, so much).

Fall of Magic

A game that we played one of the last times we met was The Quiet Year, which my friends really enjoyed. Normally we stick with board games, but I’ve been able to inject some role playing games, especially in the realm of GM-less “hippie” games.

This time I brought Fall of Magic, by Heart of the Deernicorn (and specifically by Ross Cowman). It was recently released through a Kickstarter, and I was able to finally play a game at the last Strategicon (here’s my post on Orccon 2016 in February, where I did).

It was a game that both Robert and Joe were intrigued by and open to trying, and so we launched into it. We started with creating our three characters:

• Robert as Vago the Crag-Singer of Istallia
• Joe as Caspian The Ranger of Mistwood
• Tomer as Justice the Apprentice of Ravenhall

Such a thoroughly enjoyable session. We played for about 3 hours or so, and everyone was so present, and brought interesting personalities and perspectives to the game.

Almost from the start we had a Magus which was a very old, desiccated, and quite mute old woman in a large robe. In fact, we had a hard time knowing if it was actually an old women, except for what some guy told us, who dropped her off to us when we began our journey. Although this meant we didn’t get to explore the Magus much for most of this first session, it had the effect of really letting us have space to explore our characters and their interactions and growing relationships.

I loved how Robert and Joe played Vago and Caspian, respectively. Vago was a cutthroat merchant, who brought along Mallory, a little girl that appeared to be his pack mule (but was really a spice expert that gives Vago the fame he desires). Caspian was a confident Ranger, and played great. But what was also excellent was when we were called to play other roles. Joe as the Barley Lord was brilliant!

From the get-go, I decided that my “apprentice” was really a sort of sacrifice for the Magus. That I was from a village that used to struggle with war and conflict, but now lives in perfect peace. But that peace comes at a cost, and that is that we are asked to “randomly” sacrifice an individual in the village, once every while, to the Magus. This individual allows the Magus to continue doing its work. And that sacrifice, in this story, was me. Leaving behind a wife and young daughter, but knowing that my sacrifice would help them, and my people, live in peace, I reluctantly, but stoically, go to meet my fate. It was a fun role to play, because I also got to be naïve of the rest of the world. I got to approach and explored the world and the people I met, with trepidation and wonder.

I mention this because I’ve found that it is quite enjoyable for me to approach this game with an idea of my background (at a high level), and my goals or struggles. However what I also like to come in with is a complete ignorance of the Magus, who or what it is, and any of the other players in the game. It allows me to have a strong idea of how my character would react, but nothing about what he or she will have to react to. It also doesn’t decide any outcomes. Will my character allow himself to be “sacrificed” in the end? Maybe, maybe not. What is this sacrifice, anyways? Who knows.

We played up until Mistwood and the Hunt Lodge, and then decided to take a break. Just before we broke off, the Magus finally began to speak

The next day we decided to continue onwards, but didn’t have as much energy, and only made it to the Mouth of the Deep (after about an hour of play). And unfortunately that’s where the story ends.

I would love to play a game more thoroughly through. Both times I’ve played have been up until about the same area (the first time was up to Istallia). That said, I really enjoyed the pace we went at, and wouldn’t trade that or any of the excellent play, just to get further in the game.

Smash Up

We were low on brain juice the second-to-last night, and decided instead of continuing Fall of Magic, we’d go with a board / card game. Robert brought Smash Up, which I’ve seen but never played. It’s a game where you grab two random sets of cards that are associated with two different factions, and then duke it out over shared objectives. Each faction has its strengths, and because they represent things like Wizards and Robots, you get teams such as the Wizard Robots. This is where the game gets its name “Smash” and “Mash Up” for its own mash up of Smash Up.

So… I was the Ninja Zombies, vs. Robert’s Goblin-Fairy Dinosaurs, vs. Joe’s Pirate Aliens. All in all a fun little beer-and-pretzels game. Not one I’m itching to buy, but I could definitely play again.

Condottiere

I haven’t played this Fantasy Flight game in quite some time, and it was nice to bring it out again. It’s a effectively a game of War, but actually interesting and dynamic. It comes with a little map of provinces in Italy, and each battle (individual war game) allows you to claim one region on the map. The goal is grab enough of them, or perhaps fewer of them by making them adjacent.

One thing that makes the game dynamic, is that when a battle is over, that doesn’t necessary mean you draw new cards. If there are cards left, you continue with those cards to the next battle. But once everyone runs out of cards (or everyone but one individual), then everyone re-draws. It really adds a cool element of pushing-your-luck (or trying to push your opponent’s luck) in the game.

Unfortunately it’s really built to be a multi-player game that shines with 4-6 players. Robert was busy the final night, so it was just Joe and I, and although we had a good time and Joe got to learn the game, it doesn’t shine quite as much as a two player game.

We ended up playing an ad hoc 2-player hack, where we each controlled 2 different colors, and alternated between which color we played each round. This made the game last a little longer, and also had the effect of increasing the relevance of the spatial, map-grab part of the game.

And so ends Workcon Raleigh 2016. Can’t wait for the next one…

Downfall session: Luminaria

Game night comes, and due to sickness and such, there are 3 of us: myself, Jenny, and Sasha. We meet at Gamehaus, the local game cafe here in the Glendale area, and I am able to easily convince the crew to play Downfall (per previous blog post here).

The Haven: Luminaria

We decided on a Flaw of Confidence, and have a little discussion on this. Sasha has definitely been on a computer, and AI, and statistical kick, and part of the definition revolves around making binary decisions of Yes and No, with no middle ground or indecision. We discuss for a bit, and feel comfortable where we are at.

We decide on three Elements: Echo, Music, Light. Conversation flows...

• Light and Echo: Communities that communicate via light houses across distances. But no oceans. Maybe expanses of uninhabited terrain between settlements.
• Light: Our energy and food source. We are a race of creatures that sustain much of our needs through sunlight.
• Music and Lightness: We have an abundance of energy, and overconfidence in our resources. A carefree attitude towards sustenance.
• Music: The way we communicate emotions; variability; but not decisions. Decisions are confidently made and then followed. Music is the space in between.
• Music: The changes in our environment are constant and fluid (rivers and streams change direction and course, great winds come and go), but don't have huge, singular impacts on our day-to-day well being.
• Echo: Messages are repeated back to ensure correctness; confidence.
• Echo: Although many species end up diverging greatly over time, because of our quick and often communication between settlements, culture and thoughts are echoed between our cities.

We name our Haven: Luminaria.

Six traditions

BIRTH: When a choice is made to plant a new one (of us; a baby; a seed), no others will be planted until it is born, or dies. | Symbol: Seen on the door of the nursery, a branch with a single leaf signals a being has been planted and is growing

COMMUNICATION: Performed through certainty and dualism (yes and no), and not in degrees of certainty. | Symbol: High notes signify a "yes" or "affirmative", and low notes signify a "no" or "negative". Music is for emotional communication which is fluid, and not for decisions, which are binary.

FOOD: Light/energy (that is stored in battery-type technologies) is always freed at the beginning of a new day (light cycle) as it is wrong to store nature's gift. | Symbol: Elaborate clock towers that use this stored energy run in the morning based on this excess energy, and the people celebrate this each morning.

JUSTICE: When someone has committed a crime, they are judged before night fall, and proclaimed innocent (and live) or guilty (and die). | Symbol: "The culling" policy; a sun character with a spear pointing downwards.

EMPLOYMENT: Because light provides resources in abundance, most people spend their lives making music. They "talk" with music within the cities. However city-to-city light-beam communication is simpler and more terse, and binary. | Symbol: The towers use single, simple horns, but the music of cities is lively and light, made with woodwinds and string instruments.

HOSPITALITY: It is customary to offer a musical tune in return for a night's stay in a welcoming home. | Symbol: As a guest, you are welcome, if your tune is echoed back to you by the host.

The Luminaria in more detail

At some point during character creation, and defining the appearance of characters, we had to go back to define our creatures a bit better. So I'll start with that.

We decided on plant or tree like creatures, but that are able to move, albeit slowly. The feet have root-type systems that can be used to get nutrients from the soil. At night we are generally and traditionally stationary (as there is no light energy source), however our technologies include devices that store light energy during the day, for use at night. We have limbs with branching fingers, but also a top foliage layer, which may be different colors and styles depending on local adaptations.

Although the cities are oasis like in that they are sparse and distant from each other, there are travelers that go from city to city. Generally travelers follow the streams and rivers, that change often during different seasons.

They have orifices in their upper body through which they breath various gasses, but that they don't use for consumption of food (as they photosynthesize mostly). That said, they can "breath" air out of these "mouths", and therefore play wind instruments, as well as string instruments with their hands.

Also, during character creation, we fell into the traps of calling our Hero and Fallen "he" and the Pillar, who was the Hero's lover, a "she". We had a discussion on gender, and decided that there was no male and female gender for our race... but that reproduction can only happen by sharing cuttings (as in plant / succulent cuttings) between two different individuals, so that there is a mix of genes. That said, you could mix any two individuals to create a new being. We decided to make a strong effort to use the word "it" instead of "he" and "she", and see how that goes.

HERO: Parren

• Occupation: Energy storage overseer
• Rebellion: Upset that energy storage is released each morning. Doesn't believe that it should be a celebration, and finds it wasteful.
• Identity: Less foliage than the average Luminaria, and has a scar and is lopsided and asymmetric. Perhaps that reduced energy consuming ability has affected the thinking process. Is not from around here, and has yellow foliage and flowers (as opposed to the blue that is local)

FALLEN: Thrall

• Relationship to the hero: Adopted parent of Parren, when it first came to
• Occupation: The head judge, who is a tie breaker from the two lower judges, if they do not share the same judgement on matters of crime.
• Identity: Bark/skin is aged, and shows depth, wisdom, and experience. Full foliage, symmetric, and shows a display of virility.

PILLAR: Ray

• Relationship to the hero: Childhood friend turned lover, and life partner
• Occupation: "The Grower"; manages the nursery and new babies (called "branches")
• Identity: The epitomy of beauty. Long lasting, fragrant blossoms. A skilled musician which possesses the rare skill of "The Whistling Wind", making wind music without a wood wind tool.

A summary of scenes

We played out 3 scenes, so each player got a chance to play each roll at least the one time. Each time a tradition was corrupted, from the birthing restrictions, to an employment breakdown which prevents the training of new workers, and a final breakdown in the hospitality echo criteria.

Eventually the breakdown in hospitality towards visitors caused a shortage of various resources we needed, such as wall-making materials to protect our new buds from big winds, and then an army of foreign Luminaria who were coming to protest our (possibly inadvertent) aggressive positioning.

Summing it up

The role playing was in starts and spurts, and became confused at times due to our somewhat ambiguous understanding (by the players) of ourselves (the characters), especially as a species. In some scenarios this could work, as the play is exploring these characteristics, but in this case I think we went a little too abstract, and there were instances of obvious misunderstandings around things we had previously "agreed" upon. This caused some scenes to breakdown because we stopped to clarify things that maybe two of us had understood and a third might not have.

I attribute part of this to the fact that we were playing very non-human and unfamiliar creatures, but also that it was late on a weeknight, and at a certain point we became low on brain power. 

As a facilitator, I tried to help ensure shorter and more well-defined traditions, and ensuring that the corruptions of traditions indeed had to do with the flaw. That said, I could have definitely been a little more aggressive and done a better job in this regard. In retrospect, looking at the traditions we created, and the way they were corrupted, I think that also led to some confusion, and caused the role playing to spiral a bit away from the exploration of the flaw as a cornerstone for the society and as its downfall. I was worried that too much control on my part might hamstring the creative process and contributions by the other players, but perhaps better discussions and clarifications would have prevented some of this later-game confusion.

All in all though, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the world creation process, but agreed that we ended up having a rough time with some of the later game dynamics. I'm definitely interested in trying again and seeing how another session goes.

Downfall at Gamehaus

Downfall, an RPG by Caroline Hobbs

I've funded more than a few RPGs through Kickstarter in the prior years. However, I have played few of them, thus far.

One that I just received was Downfall, which was originally released here as a Kickstarter. It is described thusly:

Downfall is a tabletop role-playing game that explores the collapse of a society, a cataclysm brought about by a fatal Flaw at work within it. First you sit down and build your world, then you destroy it. You tell the story of a hero who tries to save their home. But in Downfall, the hero fails.

I got my copy in the mail just over a week ago, and got a chance to peruse the 70 page manual, and I really like what I've found.

I'm a big fan of a few of the narrative story (aka "hippy") games I've played, such as Microscope, The Quiet Year, various postworldgames, and The Fall of Magic. Most of these games don't even have a randomizer. They're basically story exercises that are fun to play with people who aren't assholes. 

Downfall is very similar. It's quite specifically a 3-player game, where the players equally help create the society, as well as the 3 main characters (a protagonist "Hero", an antagonist "Fallen", and a third character, the "Pillar". One aspect central to the game, and the very first thing you define, is The Flaw, around which the whole scenario rotates. Six Traditions will also be defined, which come up in various parts of the game.

The players will take turns playing these characters throughout the game, as the society slowly collapses. Play time is variable, but I suspect a 2-4 hour window would work.

Haven't played just yet, but it's on my short list. I hope to write again about it once I've played. Fortunately for me I've got a work gathering with some gamer friends in a few weeks, and it's magic number: THREE of us. This'll be on top of the pile.

Downfall can currently be purchased from <3 Games.

Fallout Shelter RPG: Creating Objective cards

Creating objectives for the Fallout Shelter RPG

One thing I wanted to mimic from the Fallout Shelter game, and inject into the corresponding RPG, was the concept of Objectives and rewards.

A common objective screen from the phone game.

Normally, these start out very simple, with objectives such as "Collect 50 water", or "Level up 1 dweller". These are very easy objectives that get you into the flow of the game, and are almost a training exercise the first few times you play. Additionally, they give you some needed, albeit random, bonuses.

I thought this would be a fun element to add to the RPG to give it the look and feel of the phone game. And so...

The first iteration: Random objectives

I started with a look at many of the generic objectives from the phone game. Things like:

• Stop # incidents
• Kill # <various creatures>
• Rush # rooms
• Collect # resources

As you notice, these are all fairly mechanical objectives. What's nice about these, even as they are just mechanical, is that they provide some impetus for the player to drive towards, even if they are fairly metagaming constructs. "Do this thing to gain a reward of money or items."

I took a screen capture, and then created a generically looking graphic that was blank, to use as a template. I also modified it slightly so that it fit on a 3x5" Word template, so that they could easily be printed on index cards. A la:

A blank Fallout Shelter objective 3x5"

I added text boxes around the objective areas, so that I could easily type and create my own. However, wanting to keep the same font style as the game, I needed to find what font was being used.

Introducing the What The Font analyzer. Simply plug in a picture with a font, and it will attempt to tell you what is used. In our case it was Dom Casual, for example downloadable here.

I made about 8 of these with the intention of using them in the game, but because there were so many things still in progress during the first playtest, I completely spaced out and forgot to use them!

Good thing I was having a good long conversation with Howie, one of my players, after the game. I showed him the cards, and he had some thoughts around these being used to inject a little more role-playing and such into the game.

And so...

The second iteration: Narrative objectives

I took Howie's feedback and played around with it, and came up with personality-based objective cards. As an example, here are two, for Ambitious and Brave:

What you'll notice is that the objectives themselves are themed. Those on the Ambitious card are all things having to do with being ambitious. This means that choosing this card, or set of objectives, gives the player a way to play the character in a manner that runs with that personality.

Additionally, not all objectives are purely mechanical. For example, on the Brave card we have the objective "Do something brave". That can be anything, and knowing that there is a mechanical bonus (in this case 30 Caps) the player has more drive to act according to that trait. Another example on that card is the "Take an injury for someone else". This is nothing like the objectives in the phone game, but provides a way in the RPG to play "brave" for mechanical bonuses, but with some risk.

The little circle bubbles are there to assist the player in tracking how many of these things they've done to complete the individual objective.

In total, I made 16 of these. Because this is a 4 player game, my intention was to give each player a random selection of 4 cards, and then have them choose the 1 or 2 that they fancy. This gives the player some choice into their characters personality and bonuses. This also provides me, as the GM, a wide variety of character combinations that I get to play with, as I run this game over the course of the year.

Leveling up

Now, I also planned to tweak the game, from the initial playtest, to provide a level-up functionality. Originally I planned to have this timed, so that 2 hours into the actual game (which should last 4 hours, at a con), all the players would level up. Then again at the 3 hour mark. The level up would have some bonuses to die rolls, hit points, and even a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat upgrade. 

After showing these new objective cards to Howie for feedback, he contributed another 2 excellent pieces I incorporated:

1. Call these "Narrative objective" cards (and maybe even label them as such on the back), since the personality trait is a narrative-based objective. I liked that.
2. Make the level up mechanic tied to these objectives. If the player completes all 3 objectives on an individual card, they level up! That was perfect, as I planned at this point for each player to have 2 level up possibilities, and 2 cards. Additionally, this makes them work that much harder at trying to complete the objectives given.

I got to test these new cards and mechanics at Orccon 2016 for 2 game sessions, one for adults, and one for kids. It worked brilliantly both times, and I'm really happy with how this all came out. I also love that if I get inspired, I can easily create more at a later point in time, which has no strict impact on the game, but could very much influence inter-party conflicts and narrative directions for the game.