#RPGaDay 2017 Day 10: Where Do You Go for RPG Reviews?

Day 10: Where Do You Go for RPG Reviews? 

Short Answer:  I don't, at least not in the traditional sense. 

Long Answer: We're no longer in the provincial days when the news of games were only available in the back of gaming magazines. 

With so many forums, blogs, etc at our disposal, the information is out there. 

The only thing to remember when reading reviews, message threads, etc, is that most people review something because they either (a) love it or (b) despise it.  Truly unbiased reviews are hard to come by.  Heck, even I have trouble with bias on the few products I review for those very same reasons, and I try to mitigate that bias. 

I've discovered that I've gotten far better overviews of RPGs from actual play episodes of podcasts than anything written.
 I dove into Spirit of '77 thanks to the Happy Jacks RPG Podcast.

I learned to accept the wacky dice of Fantasy Flight's Star Wars RPG from the Campaign Podcast

Fan art for the Campaign Podcast posted on WaveYourGeekFlag

And I am ashamed that I forgot which podcast introduced me to Rockerboys and Vending Machines.

Day 10: Where Do You Go for RPG Reviews? 

Short Answer:  I don't, at least not in the traditional sense. 

Long Answer: We're no longer in the provincial days when the news of games were only available in the back of gaming magazines. 

With so many forums, blogs, etc at our disposal, the information is out there. 

The only thing to remember when reading reviews, message threads, etc, is that most people review something because they either (a) love it or (b) despise it.  Truly unbiased reviews are hard to come by.  Heck, even I have trouble with bias on the few products I review for those very same reasons, and I try to mitigate that bias. 

I've discovered that I've gotten far better overviews of RPGs from actual play episodes of podcasts than anything written.
 I dove into Spirit of '77 thanks to the Happy Jacks RPG Podcast.

I learned to accept the wacky dice of Fantasy Flight's Star Wars RPG from the Campaign Podcast

Fan art for the Campaign Podcast posted on WaveYourGeekFlag

And I am ashamed that I forgot which podcast introduced me to Rockerboys and Vending Machines.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

#RPGaDay 2017 Day 9: What is a Good RPG to Play For About 10 Sessions?

Day 9 of #RPGaDay covers a question I don't fully understand the justification for.

"What is a Good RPG to Play For About 10 Sessions?"

Is ten sessions the benchmark for successful campaign play?  The completion of an over-arcing storyline?  The goal to reach for long-term play? 

Let's look at my actual plays that are posted on the blog:

• My Call of Cthulhu Campaign hit some major changes at session nine, with the characters moving from Coal Country to New York City.  There's at least 31 more entries after that.
• My College 2nd Edition AD&D Campaign Ballad of the Pigeon God had a dramatic climax to the storyline in its tenth session.  I'm still compiling the later episodes, but we've got at least fifty more sessions after that. 
• And as a sub-directory from that, the special visit/conversion to Talislanta during that campaign last ten true sessions (#16-26, with the last episode to tie up the loose ends). 
• My first Hackmaster campaign had most important storylines resolved (or outright ignored) by session ten, before getting wiped out in a TPK on session 12.
• My second Hackmaster campaign had a more sandbox feel to it... so session ten didn't seem to reach any important point in the campaign.  On the other hand, no TPKs either.
• The Savage Worlds/Showdown Pulp campaign with the kids is set up by twelve episode "Seasons" that run overlapping storylines.  I can see significant but definitely not epic character growth

So, the classic old-school (and old school derived) RPGs seem fit this benchmark storywise, while the newer concept was more mechanic-driven.  You mileage may vary greatly.   To be honest, I remember two attempts at CoC (one Delta Green, one 1920s) that fell apart halfway to ten sessions, so there's no guarantee you'll always reach ten).

And reviewing the list of RPGs on Wikipedia, outside of AD&D 2nd Edition, CoC, Hackmaster, and Savage Worlds, none of the metric crapload of RPGs I've played over the years have reached past four or five sessions in a campaign.

Day 9 of #RPGaDay covers a question I don't fully understand the justification for.

"What is a Good RPG to Play For About 10 Sessions?"

Is ten sessions the benchmark for successful campaign play?  The completion of an over-arcing storyline?  The goal to reach for long-term play? 

Let's look at my actual plays that are posted on the blog:

• My Call of Cthulhu Campaign hit some major changes at session nine, with the characters moving from Coal Country to New York City.  There's at least 31 more entries after that.
• My College 2nd Edition AD&D Campaign Ballad of the Pigeon God had a dramatic climax to the storyline in its tenth session.  I'm still compiling the later episodes, but we've got at least fifty more sessions after that. 
• And as a sub-directory from that, the special visit/conversion to Talislanta during that campaign last ten true sessions (#16-26, with the last episode to tie up the loose ends). 
• My first Hackmaster campaign had most important storylines resolved (or outright ignored) by session ten, before getting wiped out in a TPK on session 12.
• My second Hackmaster campaign had a more sandbox feel to it... so session ten didn't seem to reach any important point in the campaign.  On the other hand, no TPKs either.
• The Savage Worlds/Showdown Pulp campaign with the kids is set up by twelve episode "Seasons" that run overlapping storylines.  I can see significant but definitely not epic character growth

So, the classic old-school (and old school derived) RPGs seem fit this benchmark storywise, while the newer concept was more mechanic-driven.  You mileage may vary greatly.   To be honest, I remember two attempts at CoC (one Delta Green, one 1920s) that fell apart halfway to ten sessions, so there's no guarantee you'll always reach ten).

And reviewing the list of RPGs on Wikipedia, outside of AD&D 2nd Edition, CoC, Hackmaster, and Savage Worlds, none of the metric crapload of RPGs I've played over the years have reached past four or five sessions in a campaign.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Ballad of the Pigeon God #18: (Talislanta) Scent of the Beast Part Two

11th of Phandir 150 N.A. - Tordan, Sindar, The Seven Kingdoms
The land ark Ardan arrived at the base of Tordan, which was atop a sixty-foot mesa.
Rolf Wolfsblood:  Bald-headed barbarian from the Plains of Galmar.
Ashe - highly skilled elven ranger, enjoying the fact that hated elves in Crosedes have pointed ears, just like all the races of men in Talislanta.
Kane - monk of eastern mysticism with an odd elemental control of water.
Babette - urban street thief swept up with the party when they teleported to Talislanta.

After waiting for the pulley system to lift them into town, they met a Sarista gypsy named Alexi who claimed to be an associate of Abn Qua. He called them out by name and inquired as to the fate of the missing Maloran.

Alexi!

Aware of the missing medallions arriving back in the Seven Kingdoms, they immediately attempted a full press investigation.  Alexi and Babette got details filled in regarding the black market trade on the borders of the Seven Kingdoms (which they are scant miles from), while the rest got a chance to crash.

Rolf ultimately got lured into an alley and attacked by a number of  dirty assassins, assisted by an Earth Wizard.  The other four arrived just in time to save Rolf, and together they slew all of the attackers, save one filthy assassin from Arim.

They took the Arimite through the back streets to their inn and snuck him up to one of their rooms. Alexi robbed him of his belongings (and pants!) and let Babbette interrogate him.  After Kane healed his wounds, Rolf came in from the other room and was even more violent towards the Arimite.  He broke the assassin's arm in two places, and shattered his collarbone before their captor passed out.  Alexi and Kane dumped the body directly out their second story window into the back alley, but by a streak of horrible luck, caught the attention of a Sindarin patrol.  They probably would not have immediately connected the group had the monk not stared at them directly before diving out of sight.  His silhouette (complete with giant Chinese straw hat) in the window attracted the patrol more the crash in the alley.

The party quickly vacated the inn before the patrol even had a chance to get inside.  They hid out overnight and the following morning, got brand new clothing for the peculiar Kane.

Who knew Kane liked the shirtless vest look... when not wearing plate mail?

12th of Phandir 150 N.A. - Tordan, Sindar, The Seven Kingdoms
Following up their leads and the interrogation of the Arimite Assassin, they sought out a merchant from the distant desert kingdoms named Bey Alera.   Bey told them the Arimites worked with some mysterious figure to move weapons out into the Wilderlands in return for any treasure the Beast-Man can accumulate.  Some sort of action was going on in the Dragon's Head, an ancient ruin some ways outside the cliff-town.

13th of Phandir 150 N.A. - Tordan, Sindar, The Seven Kingdoms
The group staked out the ruins and interupted a exchange by a Tanasian (like Kannex!) and his bodyguards withsome sub-men: a wrinkled and contorted Za Bandit, and a number of beastmen.

Wagons of goods were about to be exchanged.  The party swooped down and ended the meeting with maximum casualties to the enemy.  It appeared that the Tanasian was trading swords and armor to the Za for an assortment of trade goods, spoils of war, and some coins.

The group hid the wagons within the ruins, cut off the heads of the Tanasian and Za and returned to Tordan.

23rd of Phandir 150 N.A. - City-State of Cymril, Seven Kingdoms
The Ardan returned to Cymril.  The party delivered a few particular trinkets as evidence, and the heads of the collaborators.  Abn Qua was please, shocked, and greatly amused by their effectiveness. He handed them a few hundred gold lumens and instructed them to sit tight while he found the items that Kannex requested.

7th of Talisandre 150 N.A. - The Pleasure House of Duane Alberhold, Cymril, Seven Kingdoms

An agent of Abn Qua finally came by the brothel.  He was quite please with the location of the stash they left outside of Tordan and eliminating such a threat courted much favor for the merchant.   Components of Kannex's ritual to send them home had been discovered in the Kingdom of Durne, home of the gnome-kin.

"Gnome-Kin.  Sounds cute." - Kane

DM Notes:  Scent of the Beast was supposed to be the first module of the over-arcing Sub-Men Uprising storyline for Talislanta 3rd Edition.  Unfortunately, some game called Magic: The Gathering distracted Wizard of the Coast from publishing much else in the storyline.  It was a solid module to test the ability of the group, and allowed me to better adjust future encounters.

Alexi is the replacement character for Maloran's player.  Half-gypsy, half-greek, wholly high-energy annoying, the group found him more personable than their fallen friend.    Plus he had the social skills the rest of the group were lacking, particularly in this strange world.

NEXT #19 - The Underground Highway

11th of Phandir 150 N.A. - Tordan, Sindar, The Seven Kingdoms
The land ark Ardan arrived at the base of Tordan, which was atop a sixty-foot mesa.
Rolf Wolfsblood:  Bald-headed barbarian from the Plains of Galmar.
Ashe - highly skilled elven ranger, enjoying the fact that hated elves in Crosedes have pointed ears, just like all the races of men in Talislanta.
Kane - monk of eastern mysticism with an odd elemental control of water.
Babette - urban street thief swept up with the party when they teleported to Talislanta.

After waiting for the pulley system to lift them into town, they met a Sarista gypsy named Alexi who claimed to be an associate of Abn Qua. He called them out by name and inquired as to the fate of the missing Maloran.

Alexi!

Aware of the missing medallions arriving back in the Seven Kingdoms, they immediately attempted a full press investigation.  Alexi and Babette got details filled in regarding the black market trade on the borders of the Seven Kingdoms (which they are scant miles from), while the rest got a chance to crash.

Rolf ultimately got lured into an alley and attacked by a number of  dirty assassins, assisted by an Earth Wizard.  The other four arrived just in time to save Rolf, and together they slew all of the attackers, save one filthy assassin from Arim.

They took the Arimite through the back streets to their inn and snuck him up to one of their rooms. Alexi robbed him of his belongings (and pants!) and let Babbette interrogate him.  After Kane healed his wounds, Rolf came in from the other room and was even more violent towards the Arimite.  He broke the assassin's arm in two places, and shattered his collarbone before their captor passed out.  Alexi and Kane dumped the body directly out their second story window into the back alley, but by a streak of horrible luck, caught the attention of a Sindarin patrol.  They probably would not have immediately connected the group had the monk not stared at them directly before diving out of sight.  His silhouette (complete with giant Chinese straw hat) in the window attracted the patrol more the crash in the alley.

The party quickly vacated the inn before the patrol even had a chance to get inside.  They hid out overnight and the following morning, got brand new clothing for the peculiar Kane.

Who knew Kane liked the shirtless vest look... when not wearing plate mail?

12th of Phandir 150 N.A. - Tordan, Sindar, The Seven Kingdoms
Following up their leads and the interrogation of the Arimite Assassin, they sought out a merchant from the distant desert kingdoms named Bey Alera.   Bey told them the Arimites worked with some mysterious figure to move weapons out into the Wilderlands in return for any treasure the Beast-Man can accumulate.  Some sort of action was going on in the Dragon's Head, an ancient ruin some ways outside the cliff-town.

13th of Phandir 150 N.A. - Tordan, Sindar, The Seven Kingdoms
The group staked out the ruins and interupted a exchange by a Tanasian (like Kannex!) and his bodyguards withsome sub-men: a wrinkled and contorted Za Bandit, and a number of beastmen.

Wagons of goods were about to be exchanged.  The party swooped down and ended the meeting with maximum casualties to the enemy.  It appeared that the Tanasian was trading swords and armor to the Za for an assortment of trade goods, spoils of war, and some coins.

The group hid the wagons within the ruins, cut off the heads of the Tanasian and Za and returned to Tordan.

23rd of Phandir 150 N.A. - City-State of Cymril, Seven Kingdoms
The Ardan returned to Cymril.  The party delivered a few particular trinkets as evidence, and the heads of the collaborators.  Abn Qua was please, shocked, and greatly amused by their effectiveness. He handed them a few hundred gold lumens and instructed them to sit tight while he found the items that Kannex requested.

7th of Talisandre 150 N.A. - The Pleasure House of Duane Alberhold, Cymril, Seven Kingdoms

An agent of Abn Qua finally came by the brothel.  He was quite please with the location of the stash they left outside of Tordan and eliminating such a threat courted much favor for the merchant.   Components of Kannex's ritual to send them home had been discovered in the Kingdom of Durne, home of the gnome-kin.

"Gnome-Kin.  Sounds cute." - Kane

DM Notes:  Scent of the Beast was supposed to be the first module of the over-arcing Sub-Men Uprising storyline for Talislanta 3rd Edition.  Unfortunately, some game called Magic: The Gathering distracted Wizard of the Coast from publishing much else in the storyline.  It was a solid module to test the ability of the group, and allowed me to better adjust future encounters.

Alexi is the replacement character for Maloran's player.  Half-gypsy, half-greek, wholly high-energy annoying, the group found him more personable than their fallen friend.    Plus he had the social skills the rest of the group were lacking, particularly in this strange world.

NEXT #19 - The Underground Highway

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

#RPGaDay 2017 Day 8: What is a Good RPG to Play for Session 2 Hours or Less.

Huzzah!   Day 8: "What is a Good RPG to Play for Sessions 2 Hours or Less."

We are blessed nowadays with a plethora of small press games that seem perfect for two hour sessions. Truth be told, perhaps it's the magic of audio editing in podcasts making games appear to fit the ninety minute or two hour slot.

One thing I've learned from the +1 Forward Podcast is a healthy reminder that a game session is broken down into individual segments, scenes, and resolutions. The podcast takes only a few minutes to tinker with the themes and special mechanics for the particular Powered by the Apocalypse hack in an actual play covered in the episode, but it's normally a perfect length introduction to a scenario that can easily run two hours (or longer if so inclined).

That all being said, my default 2-hour RPG, has been, and might always be Risus: The Anything RPG.

Risus was always perfect to close out our annual "Day of Sloth" Labor Day Picnic, which was two hours. It can get slightly complicated if you want it to, but at its essence, I need a stack of index cards, writing implements, six-sided dice and two hours for my ongoing Illuminati University campaign.

After a short hiatus, we hope to have start the picnic up this Labor Day, and I hope to keep the game moving.  Time to start hacking away at the backlog of gaming ideas for the campaign, two hours at a time. 

Huzzah!   Day 8: "What is a Good RPG to Play for Sessions 2 Hours or Less."

We are blessed nowadays with a plethora of small press games that seem perfect for two hour sessions. Truth be told, perhaps it's the magic of audio editing in podcasts making games appear to fit the ninety minute or two hour slot.

One thing I've learned from the +1 Forward Podcast is a healthy reminder that a game session is broken down into individual segments, scenes, and resolutions. The podcast takes only a few minutes to tinker with the themes and special mechanics for the particular Powered by the Apocalypse hack in an actual play covered in the episode, but it's normally a perfect length introduction to a scenario that can easily run two hours (or longer if so inclined).

That all being said, my default 2-hour RPG, has been, and might always be Risus: The Anything RPG.

Risus was always perfect to close out our annual "Day of Sloth" Labor Day Picnic, which was two hours. It can get slightly complicated if you want it to, but at its essence, I need a stack of index cards, writing implements, six-sided dice and two hours for my ongoing Illuminati University campaign.

After a short hiatus, we hope to have start the picnic up this Labor Day, and I hope to keep the game moving.  Time to start hacking away at the backlog of gaming ideas for the campaign, two hours at a time. 

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

(Kickstarter) Ogrezine- The OGRE Magazine by Steve Jackson Games

In this day and age of established game companies rattling off monster Kickstarter campaigns, Ogrezine- The OGRE Magazine by Steve Jackson Games is the antithesis of those. 

A $3 pledge nets you some publicly available OGRE articles in a combined PDF format.   Nothing crazy, stretch goals are simply more articles or more regular cycle on the PDFs. 

If you do want to spend more money, you're welcome to add on OGRE Reinforcements, OGRE Sixth Edition, and/or the plastic minis, if you missed out on anything previously

In this day and age of established game companies rattling off monster Kickstarter campaigns, Ogrezine- The OGRE Magazine by Steve Jackson Games is the antithesis of those. 

A $3 pledge nets you some publicly available OGRE articles in a combined PDF format.   Nothing crazy, stretch goals are simply more articles or more regular cycle on the PDFs. 

If you do want to spend more money, you're welcome to add on OGRE Reinforcements, OGRE Sixth Edition, and/or the plastic minis, if you missed out on anything previously

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

#RPGaDay 2017 Day 7: What Was Your Most Impactful RPG Session

It's no secret that I squeal with delight once the #RPGaDay questions are posted a week or two before the start of August, and it should also be no surprise that most of the questions are answered and ready to go before August 1st.

Day 7: "What Was Your Most Impactful RPG Session?"  has taunted me up until the wee hours of this morning.  Day 13's question "Describe a Game Experience That Changed How You Play" could be construed as similar in many opinions, so I had to look harder and complicate things.

So I went to some of my current and former players and threw this question at them.  For them, the biggest impact wasn't a session, but fell into three categories:

• My ability as a GM to run a living campaign, where NPCs mattered and previous actions could visibly affect their world aided into their immersion in a game.  If things went good or bad for these characters, the players had emotional attachment to them.   Thank God I didn't kill them all off.
• When my college AD&D game, The Ballad of the Pigeon God , reached the end of the its first semester, everyone expected a lull over the Summer, but I managed to keep the available players active for those three months, while keeping the other players active and invested in their own right.   Episodes #15-30 will cover that Summer and what I did to get everyone back together on college move-in day in September, both players and PCs.  That seemed to affect players on both sides of the schedules and show them that everyone mattered.
• I did get some responses that effectively were, "Things for shitty for me at the time, but the game was the one thing I looked forward to every week."    Right back at you guys....

I typed up something, but something was still stewing inside me.  What type of impact qualify?  Campaign implications (I've dropped some decent bombshells)?   Economic (Running/Playing a demo)? Or is it a session that personally impacted myself or my players?

I tried to go into the context of personal impact, but I really couldn't find anything.  No one has ever told me that if they hadn't shown up for the game, they were going to kill themselves.  No one has ever discovered the courage to express their true sexuality after a session.  No event had players going down the road to... waitaminute

He figured something out!

In my college AD&D 2nd Edition "College" game I managed to combine the sheer insanity of my old group with fresh meat, errr.. my new college gaming friends.  I'm in the midst of posting  the 19-year old actual plays on this blog with new episodes on Tuesdays under "The Ballad of the Pigeon God."

Tiny spoiler, but somewhere around Halloween, episode #30 will drop that will have Rolf Wolfsblood, Barbarian Warlord and his first encounter the naive young magic-user Mellandria.

And absolutely nothing romantically happens.

However, for their players, Phil and Jess, it was the largest impetus to eventually get them together and ultimately married.

It certainly wasn't the first meeting of the pair, as we made cross-chapter visits for the greatest Albanian fraternity of all, the Society of Neffs, but regular Saturday night game sessions helped the friendship grow, survive a series of bad decisions, and turn into wedding bells.
Session #30 was already an influential session and player favorite.  with this, it becomes legendary.

It's no secret that I squeal with delight once the #RPGaDay questions are posted a week or two before the start of August, and it should also be no surprise that most of the questions are answered and ready to go before August 1st.

Day 7: "What Was Your Most Impactful RPG Session?"  has taunted me up until the wee hours of this morning.  Day 13's question "Describe a Game Experience That Changed How You Play" could be construed as similar in many opinions, so I had to look harder and complicate things.

So I went to some of my current and former players and threw this question at them.  For them, the biggest impact wasn't a session, but fell into three categories:

• My ability as a GM to run a living campaign, where NPCs mattered and previous actions could visibly affect their world aided into their immersion in a game.  If things went good or bad for these characters, the players had emotional attachment to them.   Thank God I didn't kill them all off.
• When my college AD&D game, The Ballad of the Pigeon God , reached the end of the its first semester, everyone expected a lull over the Summer, but I managed to keep the available players active for those three months, while keeping the other players active and invested in their own right.   Episodes #15-30 will cover that Summer and what I did to get everyone back together on college move-in day in September, both players and PCs.  That seemed to affect players on both sides of the schedules and show them that everyone mattered.
• I did get some responses that effectively were, "Things for shitty for me at the time, but the game was the one thing I looked forward to every week."    Right back at you guys....

I typed up something, but something was still stewing inside me.  What type of impact qualify?  Campaign implications (I've dropped some decent bombshells)?   Economic (Running/Playing a demo)? Or is it a session that personally impacted myself or my players?

I tried to go into the context of personal impact, but I really couldn't find anything.  No one has ever told me that if they hadn't shown up for the game, they were going to kill themselves.  No one has ever discovered the courage to express their true sexuality after a session.  No event had players going down the road to... waitaminute

He figured something out!

In my college AD&D 2nd Edition "College" game I managed to combine the sheer insanity of my old group with fresh meat, errr.. my new college gaming friends.  I'm in the midst of posting  the 19-year old actual plays on this blog with new episodes on Tuesdays under "The Ballad of the Pigeon God."

Tiny spoiler, but somewhere around Halloween, episode #30 will drop that will have Rolf Wolfsblood, Barbarian Warlord and his first encounter the naive young magic-user Mellandria.

And absolutely nothing romantically happens.

However, for their players, Phil and Jess, it was the largest impetus to eventually get them together and ultimately married.

It certainly wasn't the first meeting of the pair, as we made cross-chapter visits for the greatest Albanian fraternity of all, the Society of Neffs, but regular Saturday night game sessions helped the friendship grow, survive a series of bad decisions, and turn into wedding bells.
Session #30 was already an influential session and player favorite.  with this, it becomes legendary.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

(Kickstarter) Bruegelburg - A Day at the Fair Minis

Lead Adventure Miniatures is at it again, this time launching Bruegelburg - A Day at the Fair on Kickstarter.

This adds to the existing range of 28mm metal minis perfect for fantasy, Renaissance/Medieval with liberties, or an awesome Ren Faire zombie game.

There is an option for one of the 2-packs (each "set" is 2-3 figures), but shipping to the States is the same for two as it is the whole set.... so it makes sense to grab everything.  

Lead Adventure Miniatures is at it again, this time launching Bruegelburg - A Day at the Fair on Kickstarter.

This adds to the existing range of 28mm metal minis perfect for fantasy, Renaissance/Medieval with liberties, or an awesome Ren Faire zombie game.

There is an option for one of the 2-packs (each "set" is 2-3 figures), but shipping to the States is the same for two as it is the whole set.... so it makes sense to grab everything.  

reade more... Résuméabuiyad