Cortex+ Dragon Brigade

By | 8 January 2012 | Role-Playing Games | No comments

Yesterday was my first foray into the Cortex+ system. It was a bit of a hot mess, but that is too be expected given that I chose to run Dragon Brigade Opening Salvo. The problem with Dragon Brigade was that it took a lot for granted, and I think having finished reading Leverage, or reading Smallville would have helped immensely. The game includes the basics of Cortex+, which I was somewhat familiar with. But, as we got into things it became painfully clear that I had no idea how to run the game.

My biggest issue was trying to determine what the correct scale for actions was, and whether or not people were supposed to be acting independently or as teams. The biggest issue for the group was catching the exceptions to the rules, the fiddly bits proved to be a little too fiddly, for example that d4 complications are rolled by the player, but d6 complications are rolled by the GM.

After the game we came to a consensus that the game may be worth revisiting once the full version comes out, but we are going to avoid it in the mean time.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #1

By | 2 January 2012 | Role-Playing Games | No comments

Atlas Games has published a list of 31 writing prompts that relate to an individual’s experiences with role-playing games. I believe the idea is that you post an answer to each one throughout the month of the January. I however will not be doing so because I do not want to flood my blog with that content for the month. Therefore, I will sprinkle my answers throughout the year.

P.S. Since Atlas is a table top role-playing company so the answers to the questions will be related to that, not video games.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #1: What was your first roleplaying experience? Who introduced you to it? How did that introduction shape the gamer you’ve become? 

My first role-playing experience was with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition in the spring of 1999. A couple of my friends strong armed me into it due to our shared interest in role-playing video games, and fantasy novels. I was reticent to play due to my mothers initial, misplaced, believe that D&D was associated with devil worship. However, after reviewing the material I was prepared for the following social complications that arrose.

We each had purchased a copy of the Player’s Handbook, and one of us had purchased the DM’s Guide. The initial plan was to rotate as DM. I am not exactly sure where the initial monsters came from because I do not recall getting the monster manual until later.

The first session we all took brief turns behind the DM screen, and brutally slaughtered each other because we had no sence of balance and difficulty in encounter design. As I recall my wizard did not fair well, as he fell before acting, and ending up drowning in a pool of filth. It did not take very many attempts before I realized that I enjoyed being the DM much more than playing, so I bought the DM Guide from my friend, and proceeded to write up our first adventure.

Our initial experience had a single profound effect: the desire to teach others. When we were first getting started we had to piece together what to do out of the core rule books, no one would help us. We were able to find other groups in the area, but they had no interest in assisting a group of high school kids get started. As a result, we mostly got the core of the game running but hand waved a lot of it. In fact, in recent months reading through Dungeon World has codified many of the aspects of the way we used to play. I did not want anyone else to experience the same thing. So, I couple years later I started running games at a local FLGS to help connected experienced players with new players. Unfortunately, this was not quite as successful as I would have liked due to my time constraints.

I took some time off gaming for graduate school, and when I returned I decided to take the reigns and start organized sanctioned RPGA play at another FLGS. This program was considerably more successful, and I’m pleased to see the amount of youth getting into the hobby now. But, I do have to say that 10 year old DM’s have NO mercy.

Mac Mini Ugh

By | 11 December 2011 | General | 4 Comments

After spending years without a proper mac I decided to spring for a “cheap” one. This did not go well. I booted it up, and it died within 10 minutes. Now I don’t know if I should exchange it, or just get my money back. Bah.

UPDATE: Wow, I have missed OS X. I think was finally started to get used to all the headaches that Windows and Ubuntu cause me, and now running with OS X is like coming home again. Sadly, this is only going to make me want to replace my defunct MacBook Pro all the more.

End of an Era: Google Reader

By | 1 November 2011 | General | 1 Comment

I was not planning on posting about this, but since I still catch myself going to google reader to see social shares I figured I might as well memorialize it on my blog.

On October 31, 2011 Google Reader effectively died. By stripping away the social features, google reader is little more than an average RSS feed aggregation. To read the full blasphemous press release check out the following:

http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-in-reader-fresh-design-and-google.html

Play a New RPG Month – October 2011

By | 2 October 2011 | General | 2 Comments

October 2011 is Play a New RPG month. A vast majority of the recommendations I have been seeing are focusing primarily on traditional RPGs. So, I ask the question: “are games such as World of Darkness, Eclipse Phase, and Mutants & Masterminds really different from D&D? And, if not are there any alternatives worth considering?”

My argument is that traditional roleplaying games all offer a very similar experience, at least in the rules as written. So, regardless of whether you are playing D&D, Pathfinder, Star Wars Saga Edition, it will have the same general feel. It is certainly true that the games are different, and there are differences of abstraction, and genre. But they tend to have a heavy crunch factor focusing on combat, and task resolution. I am an advocate of “play everything,” so if you haven’t played these games you certainly should. Ultimately, my perspective is that while these games are different they not different enough to get the best bang for your buck.

Rather than switching to another traditional roleplaying game (which would represent a significant time investment for learning an extensive rule system, and the financial cost of purchasing all the required texts) it may be better to look into an story game that offers a novel play experience at a reasonable cost. For the sake of discussion I am going to break these experiences into six categories: transitioning from traditional games, resolution scales, mixed success, alternative perspectives, GMless play, and alternatives to dice. There are a number of different aspects and minutiae, but I feel these are the larger categories.

Transitioning from traditional games is an exercise in trying to find a middle ground between traditional games, and story games. The two primary systems I recommend here are FATE and Solar System. But, since SS features conflict resolution I am going to recommend FATE for this category. There are a number of fantastic fate games available, for venues demoing this month I am recommending Bulldogs! or Diaspora as they both represent good, concise FATE implementations. Many people still recommend Spirit of the Century, but I think it is starting to show its age as FATE 3 has developed significantly since that initial release. For home groups willing to spend several sessions can definitely take a look at the large works, Dresden Files is a particularly good game.

Resolution scales demonstrate alternatives to traditional task resolution systems used in most roleplaying games. For venues running one shots I strongly recommend Lady Blackbird. Its free, light, and always a good time. The only drawback is that the GM should be familiar with the source games: The Shadow of Yesterday, and Mouse Guard. For home groups, the later two options are excellent. The Shadow of Yesterday runs on the Solar System, which features a conflict resolution scale with a special task resolution scale called “bringing down the pain.” Mouse Guard is basically Burning Wheel light bringing in character motivations GM vs. Player turns, and all kinds of good stuff beyond conflict resolution scale and definitely worth the effort.

Mixed success is a novel design feature made popular by Vincent Baker. Focusing on achieving a gray area between success and failure, yes you succeed, but with consequences. The Otherkind dice are great for demonstrating this, but I have found that Otherkind doesn’t always click with people. As a venue, if you have a good GM you might want to look at Ghost/ECHO, which uses Otherkind dice in a cool setting. Otherwise I would look at running Apocalypse World, or Dungeon World (a drift of Apocalypse World and original D&D). Mouse Guard could also be used here, as failure is what makes the game interesting, because it introduces conflicts into the game.

Alternative perspectives is about playing from a uniquely different perspective. Most games traditionally portray the players as paragons of heroism to varying degrees. While it is true that numerous games offer other options, I am recommending My Life with Master for play this month. There is just something that seems to resonate with people playing henchmen for an evil master. This game also demonstrates concepts like predetermined outcomes, shared collaboration, etc…

GMless play holds a special place in my heart. I believe there is something fundamentally dysfunctional about the traditional GM v. Players relationship. There is something about playing gang up no one person, and in exchange you grant them what amounts to Godlike power in the game. Hurray for mechanically enforced artificial social structures! But, I digress. For venues focusing on one shots I strongly recommend Fiasco. Fiasco is dramatically different than traditional roleplaying games, as are many GMless games to varying degrees. Fiasco is a great game though, and can easily be a blast, even with people that have never roleplayed before. For groups, I would recommend something that will last longer, such as Love in the Time of Seid. There are so many good games in this category it shouldn’t be to difficult to find a topic local players are interested in.

Dice are used in nearly all tabletop roleplaying games; they are a bit of a fixture. That does not mean that dice are needed for a game to be good. In fact, the lack of dice is what makes some games great. My pick for the one shot in this category is a no brainer: Dread. Dread is a roleplaying game where the players act out horror films. Each player is given a questionnaire that they fill out, and the GM leads them through the story. Whenever there is a question as to the success of an action in the game players resolve that task by pulling from a Jenga tower. Its a horror game with a built-in tension mechanism, brilliant. Knock over the tower and you’re out. This is one of my first recommendations for people looking to get into roleplaying games, because the rules are simple and accessible for almost everyone. There are many other diceless games out there (many of which use playing cards or a sort of karma system) feel free to dig around and explore new options.

In conclusion, I am advocating that you not only play a new RPG this month, but you play a game that offers a novel play experience for your group. So get out there, grab some texts and learn some rules, its gaming time!

Here is a small list of games I usually recommend grouped in the above categories:

Transitioning

  • Bulldogs!
  • Diaspora
  • Dresden Files
  • Strands of Fate
  • Starblazer Adventures
  • Spirit of the Century

Resolution Scale

  • Lady Blackbird
  • The Shadow of Yesterday / World of Near + Solar System
  • Mouse Guard
  • Trollbabe

Mixed Success

  • Otherkind
  • Ghost/ECHO
  • Apocalypse World
  • Dungeon World
  • Mouse Guard / Burning Wheel / Burning Empries

Alternative Perspectives / Player Agency

  • My Life with Master
  • Montsegur 1244
  • Dogs in the Vineyard
  • Breaking the Ice

GMless

  • Fiasco
  • Love in the Time of Seid
  • Polaris
  • Shock: Social Science Fiction
  • A Penny for My Thoughts

Diceless

  • Dread
  • Mortal Coil
  • Amber Diceless

Other Great Games I Didn’t Spotlight

  • Primetime Adventures
  • In a Wicked Age
  • Lacuna
  • Annalaise
  • Dust Devils Revised
  • InSpectres
  • The Mountain Witch
  • Don’t Rest Your Head
  • 3:16
  • Zombie Cinema
  • Kagematsu
  • Freemarket
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