Dread session in a Dungeon World campaign

Prior Dungeon World + Dread session

So, a few months ago were about to continue our Dungeon World campaign with a session where the PCs are just crawling out of a long underground tunnel, low on food and water, struggling after a hard trek.

I wanted a session that would feel sort of like an interlude. The PCs being allowed to breath, and possibly learning new skills (they all passed levels, in some cases 2), but I wanted that leveling to also feel like a tough transition. Growth through pain.

I pulled out the Jenga tower. 

The intention wasn't to make this a session with too much constant tension, but instead to make it feel like transition was difficult, and fraught with some peril. They all sweated a bit. There were times when they wanted to use even simple powers... but just like adventurers that had scraped through, and were barely making it, even the simplest of spells or actions required block pulls, prior to rolling dice (which would then determine success or failure). It made everything that much more difficult, and you could feel the characters struggling. It worked so well, and they enjoyed that session from the feedback I gathered.

Second Dungeon World + Dread session

That previous example was a few sessions back, and we hadn't played in a while. Everyone was chomping at the bit to continue the story. But I warned them: Tonight was going to be a Jenga night. Come prepared, accordingly.

We started with a long campaign recap, hitting the highlights, and everyone enjoyed that since they all remembered different interesting aspects, and had forgotten many of the events from sessions long past.

For this session I wanted a chase. I wanted them to feel the constant movement and the imminent threats. And in some ways it worked well. 

I setup the music (per the previous post), and I started by having them each make an NPC. I didn't tell them what it was for, just yet. I gave them each three Short Order Heroes cards (again per a different previous post), as well as one set for myself. That means each PC would get three adjective, of which they'd only need to keep two, and define the PC with a name and a short description. For example, I got Stormy, Old, and another adjective I can't remember. I kept the first two, and made Bubba, a very stocky, heavy set, human woman blacksmith, that at first looks like a dude, and definitely looks like a dwarf. In my case I knew that Bubba was my NPC, as the GM, and her life would be on the line immediately (since I wouldn't be pulling on that tower).

Dread session panoramic, with players H, a sibling, player J, player S, and player A.

Before long into the session, the party was on a boat and ran into a raft on the lake, which was inhabited by these same very 5 NPCs, refugees from the war. What the PCs didn't know is that I had tied their NPC's fate with their own. Even though I was asking for pulls quickly, which made all of them nervous, I knew that when the tower fell for a PC, the first time, it'd kill off the linked NPC. If the tower fell a second time, then the PC's life was at risk.

I was debating telling them something to that effect prior, but thought it'd make it too easy for them to pull. In retrospect: I should've done so. Let them kill off those NPCs more quickly and take more risks... it would've furthered the game faster, and eventually they would've been at risk anyways.

On the flip side, it was great when the Elf Ranger shot an arrow to get one of the big bad guys, and when the tower fell, it informed the story as such: The arrow missed the Orc and flew past, to that place the Elf wasn't watching, and landed straight in the chest of the NPC that the player had created. Now the Elf was blaming herself for that death.

The tower fell twice, and two NPCs died. Tension was had. The story progressed. A good session was played.

Player feedback

I made sure to ask the players for feedback here, especially because I could sense some things could have been done better. I ended up emailing them each separately the next day; this way there'd be time for the session to sink in, and also each of them could report in separately.

Some feedback was useful, some less so, but all players responded, which was great. I'll let their words speak for themselves, before I weigh in...

Player S wrote: "More dice!"

Player J wrote: "I really enjoyed the music and the free form mechanics.  The dread system is a lot of fun really.  Honestly this session worked really well for me, the review at the beginning was important because of the time lapse.  And the structure and forward plot was a lot of fun.  It was different playing with no character sheets but still kept to the characters.  I just want my experience points!!"

Player A wrote: "I enjoyed the game night. The music didn't come through as well as before, not sure if it was an acoustic factor (or not loud enough) or something else. The Jenga does add a different element but not sure if best for all situations. I felt that we were aware of the likely period when the jenga would fall and we would take our actions to suit that. Maybe combination of dice/jenga? Dont know, playtest."

Now, player H is a bit of a rambler. Which is to say great for feedback... I'll leave it all here, with a few typos fixed, and let you try to decipher it, if interested:
"been thinkn bout this one last few while shitting, showering, drivn, jerkn and what not: i'm in the idealogical camp of, "the medium is the massage" 
-or- 
in other words,
how jenga blocks make really good anxiety inducing, heart pumping incrementally risk building that inevitably
leads to ruin, narratives and game play in a controlled timescape but,
your shit outa luck if you are a godam invested  and i mean mulitple session character building max.min designs
wrapped around a commited narrative killer hobbo vaneer type of game play.

now, i don't mean theyre mutally exclusive mind you, just like the title says "the medium is the massage" dynamics are at work:

say, narratively a frikn deathwish long sequence "car chase-crash" is in full effect well, i'd pick jenga.
or, your in a mindblock psy battle, i'd pick jenga
or your doing a bank heist and gotta sneak then pick locks disarm traps n shit or things go boomboom i'd pick jenga,
or you doing some fast talkin' disguise wearing rip off artist trickery, i'd use jenga.

but!, if say i'm leveling up my character, and gettin' loot, entering a dungeon crawl or pitched battle
i'd pick savage worlds.

or, conversely - i was world building i'd use blah blah blah
or a pitched competitive world building (ending) i mix blah blah and jenga.

anyways- also consider the audience, if your w/ sophisticates you know hardcore multiple professional RPG orgiasts
you have the luxury of candy flippin' systems per session or during sessions, probably with just a few quick blinks or none at all after they get in the flow of things between all the stuff going ons,

but you got your fucken hymen intact frigid as nonfuck RPGer group and probably you gotta ease that shit in now-

other thing with the NPC group as a moderating force for the kill mechanic of jenga was effective

although i would have liked to know that before hand but-balance that meta-knowledge with an incentive rule where we would want to keep that NPC alive/group members alive as much as possible- and interweave it into narrative form.  like the more that die, the harder shit gets and or we lose some sort of advantage or gain some sorta disadvantage, plus it seemed like psychologically we were attached to certain NPCs too."

Lessons learned

I summarize what I've gotten from the feedback as:

• They missed the dice (and the more predictable mechanics) of Dungeon World. Although Dungeon World is so narratively driven (compared to something like D&D, or Savage Worlds), it is probably a little more structured than a Dread game. 
• Although there was a system change for the session, they'd feel like they missed out on XP if I didn't let that carry through, especially some of them that risked more by pulling more blocks. In retrospect it would've been nice to have some sort of translation of # block pulls * formula = XP, so there would be another form of incentive, and for consistency (especially since this wasn't technically a Dread game, just a Dread-based session in a DW campaign). I'm going to assign some XP, but it'll probably a bit ad hoc, since I didn't keep track of pulls and such; but I will reward the biggest block pullers a little more, I reckon.
• I feel like I should've been transparent about the NPC - PC link ahead of time. Maybe after they created the NPC, but before we started getting into the pulls. It would've made for a little metagaming, but hey, RPGs are games, and I think they would've had some fun with it. It would also have worked well if I had made the NPCs effective, so that they were actually useful and causing enemy deaths, or other good travel benefits, so that their deaths would be felt greater. Maybe have each NPC give a distinct advantage... YES, maybe even a Dungeon World advantage such as bonuses to travel moves, like Quartermastering, Scouting, etc. (since this session was about journeying quickly).
• I definitely would use this type of session sparingly, as I know some players may feel cheated at death in Jenga, given that we started the campaign with the tacit agreement this was Dungeon World... it'd feel a little weak to die by blocks, when none of the DW character stats or mechanics gets any play, when you've worked so hard at getting a PC to level 6 or whatever.

So there you go. Lessons learned. 

RPG music: No Escape soundtrack

Music in RPGs

I'm a huge fan of music in RPGs. Meaning, I love curating the right background / mood tracks for general scenes of games I'm running. Can music suck in an RPG? Surely yes, but I think you can avoid this by navigating correctly.

And speaking of which, I recently watched the movie No Escape, and was impressed but how well the music complemented the action and pace. It's like a lesser version of Mad Max: Fury Road, in that regard.

Many movie tracks have too many peaks and valleys, and highs and lows, within the same track. This makes them difficult to work with for gaming, because timing a climax with an actual game moment requires some serious DJ skillz, of which I have little.

But the correct tracks just set a pace and mood. Listen to any of the tracks from the game Fallout 2, and you'll see exactly what I mean.

Appending complementary tracks

Now, many great tracks are unfortunately somewhat short. This can become a real problem because if you put it on a loop, you've got something which easily becomes repetitive. You really don't want your players distracted by the music, but even more so, you don't want them downright annoyed by it. That's serious bad news for the game.

What I've been playing with recently is appending complementary audio tracks so that I get a longer loop, for audio that similarly sets a mood.

This is exactly what I did in preparing for tonight's game, which will be a continuation of a Dungeon World campaign that has been on a 3-month hiatus. I will be using Dread for this session, and want action and movement. And I want the music to reflect this.

I bought the No Escape soundtrack, and made the following tracks by appending songs together (might be listenable on SoundCloud for a time by clicking those links):

1. Market Research + The President's Toast + Jack Wakes (5:30)
2. Rooftop Refuge + Roof Toss + Map Quest + Atavistic Jack (8:05)
3. Bike Thief (1:38)
4. Coup Coup Roux + Jack Be Nimble + Pool Que + No Escape + Embassy Issues (8:50)
5. Fighting For Annie + 007812 + Need a New Roof (7:08)

Track 1 works for them running into a band of refugees that may or may not be friendly.  Track 2 is a general background for interludes and travel. Track 3 starts to ratch up the tension. It works well on its own and can repeat pretty well, but I also know that this would likely be used for a scene that won't go on for very long. Track 4 is the meat; this is when the chase is on. And track 5 is battle.

Although some of those tracks work together, they aren't necessarily adjacent or sequential on the soundtrack, so appending them one after the other gives me a longer track I can loop, and also means there is variety in the music so players don't have a chance to get annoyed by any specific track before forgetting about it in lieu of the next time it plays.

As far as the game... What's actually going to happen? Not sure, as I don't really have that much narratively planned. But just like the Dread Mad Max: Fury Road game, I'm hoping the music does the work with my brain juices, and gets it going to the right place. 

I'll let you know.

Jackercon Interlude: Microscope

Last night I ran a session of Microscope RPG for Jackercon (an online convention I've previously talked about here). This was an experiment in a number of ways.

Running table top RPGs online

Online is definitely not my first choice of venue for gaming. I'm very lucky to have a gaming group I run things for regularly, all of which I love to play with. And I'm very lucky to be able to regularly attend Strategicon, which runs 3x a year in LA, with some fantastic GMs, games, and players.

But occasionally you want to play with someone who is far away, or can't get a local game going. Or maybe you just want to play something someone else is offering and you can't get where you're at. So I get those reasons why you'd play.

But I don't want online gaming to be a lesser thing. I want it to be almost the same as playing with people at a table. Which is to say: interactive, fun, and without the distractions that the computer, in front of your face, provides. This is difficult. When I've been a player in online games I've found myself to easily distracted by the call of the web browser (similar to that modern complaint of players getting distracted by their phones at the table).

I've been an instructor, and I've had to teach online. And it's hard. You have to try to be as interactive as possible. You need to maintain a connection with the audience using all sorts of tools, be they Q&A, getting the audience to help you finish your statements and thoughts even if they are obvious, use a cadence in your voice, constantly get feedback to ensure the audience hasn't died, whatever.

So, on to the second online game I've run...

A request for Microscope

I played Microscope for the first time at GoPlayNW 2015 (as mentioned here). Much like The Quiet Year, Microscope is a GM-less story-based game that involves lots of world building. Unlike The Quiet Year, however, Microscope actually contains more than a bit of role-playing, which is one of its big draws.

The premise is that you (as a group) create the big picture for the game, the bookends which frame the history you will explore, and the palette which narrows the types of things we agree can and can't happen within that exploration. And then we make history. All of these are game terms, as defined by Microscope.

This is a game that can work well with a table full of non-gamers who are interested in playing something new, or a table full of GMs or thespian / creative type players. But it probably won't work well if you have folks who just want to sit back and be entertained, because everyone has to do the "heavy lifting" in this game (which is to say: create).

But specifically, I had some very motivated Jackers who were interested in playing...

History of the Zorthons

Players: Curt, Harry, Ronnie, Tomer

We started with the initial game setup. For those not familiar with the game, these steps are performed with some group discussion, as well as taking turns adding things to the palette. I ensured that the players understood that we want to play with any detailed ideas or planned concepts close to the chest, and this was really setting up the broad strokes and framework for the game. We ended up with:

• Big Picture: The prehistoric pre-humans create a civilization on Earth.
• Bookends: The Zorthon civilization begins to grow [Light] <-> Modern Humans open a Zorthon crypt in the 21st centry [Dark]
• Palette (YES): Saurian / lizardmen, science-based rational world, different species of Zorthon, massive underdark cave system
• Palette (NO): Time travel, global-spanning empires (nations OK)

A screenshot that shows some of the game setup, rules, and palette (as well as information about the 2 rounds of play, which came later)

After this, we each have a first pass, where we get to each create a Period or Event. In Microscope Periods are long swaths of time, Events are noticeable events that occur within a specific Period, and Scenes (used later) are individual moments within an Event.

We created a few of these, and already we started with interesting periods such as "Zorthons optimize crystal-based energy source", and events such as "The first of many terrible meteor showers brought the crystals to the earth". Within a few minutes, you start having meat to work with.

We played a round with me as the Lens (the controlling player, of sorts, for this set of creations). As the Lens I get to create the Focus for this round, that we all have to play off of. Although I had nothing to do with the idea of adding the crystals to the game, my focus was "Crystal-based energy source", because I found that intriguing. 

^ This, by the way, is one of the charming things about the game. Someone will add an ingredient or component, and others will just grab it and run in all sorts of interesting directions. All this compounds and makes a beautiful tapestry of a story that everyone is responsible for, and yet no one specifically.

We continued playing the round through, and then most of another, before Curt's internet connection - out in the remote tundra of Alaska - caught up with him. Or maybe it was Wendigo, or whatever they have up there.

Regardless, we got play a few Scenes, which are little role playing encounters where everyone is involved, and everyone agreed that these were probably the highlight of the session.

The four scenes we played out, including characters (players) and various notes

In the end, we ended up with a history that looks something like this (where yellow sticky notes have a "light" theme, and purple sticky notes are "dark", as defined by the players during the game):

What worked well.

Excellent players with great motivation to make a great story. Everyone was collaborative in the right ways, but kept ideas (if they had any) close to heart, so surprises were had by all. 

We used NoteApp as the tool to keep track of sticky notes, and although there were definitely problems (more below), it was great that it provided different colored notes. I used one color for the rules, one for light and one for dark period/event/scenes, and another for scene information that we wanted to track separately.

Hangouts was decent. I still wish I could use my video camera and screen share simultaneously, but hey, those are just limitations (apparently).

What didn't.

Being an online game, sometimes the connections aren't perfect, and so that is annoying. The inherent delay in voice communication over the internet is always an issue in a game where people are excited and want to chime in, which many RPGs fall prey to. However, I think everyone here was versed in online play, so we didn't run into too many problems there with people stomping on each others words and such.

Although NoteApp had its advantages, it only allows up to one other collaborator without paying for a license. To work around this, I maintained the entire cork board, and used screen sharing in Hangouts to show everyone what was what. 

Managing the "index" cards by yourself can be OK, in that everyone gets a consistent view of what they look like. In my game I did all the typing and organizing. That can be good if the person is organized, and horrible if they aren't. However I do like sharing that work, and in person, on a table with index cards that seems to be the de facto way it's done. That wasn't an option here.

When running a Hangout, you sometimes also have to be a DJ. For instance, if you watch the video you'll notice that the first minutes of play the video focus is on Harry (and his son Charlie). Why wasn't it going to the other speakers? How can you get it to focus on the NoteApp board regardless of who's speaking? Ah, you have to click on that player, as the one sharing NoteApp, and that probably is what gets recorded in the Hangout on Air, right? Maybe? And what if during a scene you want the video cameras on, and want the recording to go back and forth to whomever is speaking? Oh, you either have to click on whomever is speaking, or you have to "unclick" on the focused screenshare / camera and let Hangouts takeover with it's automatic audio focusing. OK, so that's a bit of work.

The Microscope RPG community

Before I run off, I would love to say that the Microscope RPG community on G+ has been excellent. If you have already purchased this and plan to run a game, but haven't done so already, get your questions answered there. Ben Robbins, the designer, is often found responding, and always appears genuinely interested in how people are playing the game.

When playing in person, people use index cards. However on the forums, I found a number of other suggestions for how to run this online. Suggestions included using Google docs, but also Google Drawings, where you can collaborate for free. Setup a few template objects for Periods, Events, and Scenes, and everyone can just copy and paste them and place them where needed.

What next?

Well, Microscope is a game where you aren't supposed to (for good reason) bring players in and out of the story in later sessions. But, if these players are down, I'm open to exploring this some more. It's always great when a game session leaves you feeling like you want more! (Even if we never play it again.)

Hangout on Air

Fallout Shelter: Vault 12

Fallout Shelter: What is it?

Currently out as iPhone app game (and Android now, so I hear) is Fallout Shelter. The website is here: http://www.falloutshelter.com/, and it comes with its own Fallout-flavored introduction video:

It's been my little game obsession for the past number of weeks, and although I'm not a big phone-game guy, man has it been enjoyable.

Vault 12

You start with choosing a vault number (from 000-999), and although I first went with 666 (a pretty popular option, I'd imagine), I gave up on that one and started anew with Vault 12.

The game basically leads you easily through the first set of actions: recruiting lost humans into productive dwellers, creating rooms to farm the various resources (power, food, water), sending dwellers out to loot the wastelands, and otherwise just making a comfortable  home. The intro lead-in is very intuitive, and makes it a real pleasure to learn the basic moves. I'm not sure if there is a way to avoid it, however. I've started 3 vaults in total, and each time I had to go through the various tutorial moves, which might be annoying if you want to just go at it on your own.

The early game

Learning to play is trivial, as the game leads you through the process of acquiring your first dozen dwellers, and your first few rooms. The game sets goals for you which lead you through the main elements of the game (resource management, weapon and clothes acquisition, game mechanics such as Rushing a room). Most of those goals reward you with Caps (i.e. bottle caps, the game's money economy). And occasionally, completing those goals wins you a lunchbox. A lunchbox with 4 random cards that give you things like food, power, and the occasional weapons, and dwellers.

But beware! There are hazards. In the first release of the game, these come in the form of large radioactive cockroaches (rad roaches), random fires, and raiders from the wasteland. That, and other concerns, such as running out of resources. Not enough water? Expect the dwellers to get radioactive poisoning which reduces their overall hit points.

One nice part of the game is the variations in scale. Zoom out and your playing vault management. But zoom in and you get lots of cute details, and get privy to the conversations of your various dwellers. Although the game starts with resources management, there is much more that starts making itself known. For example, each dweller has the 7 SPECIAL stats (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck). Each one plays its role in the dwellers effectiveness either in managing the various rooms, or in different aspects in surviving the Wasteland when scrounging for supplies. And you can build rooms to train these stats. Dwellers also have other motivations, such as happiness. 

Soon, you start to realize that there is definitely a bit of min-maxing that can be performed by training your dwellers, as well as outfitting them with specific uniforms that improve specific stats. Before long you notice that all your power plant workers are wearing military uniforms (that improve Strength, the relevant stat), and your med bay and science lab workers are wearing lab coats that improve their Intelligence. It starts to look like a little city. Jillian Werner writes a very good article called How To Improve Your Fallout Shelter SPECIAL Stats that goes into this in good detail.

As far as tips and such, not much needs to be said about the early part of the game... just follow the instructions and read the little tips and hints they provide when the game is loading, and you will get the gist of it.

The mid-game

Once you get thriving and start to crawl up towards 60 vault dwellers, you will have a full fledged complex. Soon, you'll be unlocking the larger (and much more expensive) rooms, such as Gardens, Water Treatment Plants, and Nuclear Reactors. And the glorious Nuka Cola plants, which provide both water and food resources in one!

My first Nuka Cola Bottlery!

There are already a few folks out in internet land have written about this part of the game, and provide excellent tips. I know because I also incorporated similar methods prior to finding the articles, and can vouch for their usefulness. Examples include:

• 11 TIPS FOR A THRIVING FALLOUT SHELTER by Will Fulton
• 15 Fallout Shelter Tips, Tricks, Cheats & Strategies by Josh Smith
• Fallout Shelter Tips & Tricks by Cammy Harbison

One thing to note is that the raiders and other annoyances get tougher as time goes on. They start carrying bigger weapons, and the radroaches and fires that break out in your complex become harder to fight.

These are some laser-toting punks! They start getting tough later in the game...

Once you start min-maxing the roles of dwellers so that your rooms run more efficiently, you will have additional dwellers that you can use for other tasks... exploring the wastelands.

It's important send out wasteland explorers more and more often, as they will start coming back with better weapons and suits. The initial set of suits are of the +3 variety, sometimes referred to as common uniforms. The total bonus is 3 points to your stats, whether that's to one stat (+3 Strength for Military Fatigues) or something with 2 stats (+2 Strength and +1 Agility for Combat Armor). You will immediately start hoarding the +3 suits and provide them to the workers for those particular rooms (+3 Strength for power workers, +3 Agility for food workers, +3 Perception for water workers, +3 Intelligence for medical and science workers).

Advanced suits provide 5 points of bonus, and can be referred to as rare. Examples include the Officer Fatigues with +5 Strength, the Ninja Outfit with +4 Agility and +1 Luck, and the Greaser Outfit with +2 Charisma, +2 Agility, and +1 Luck. Needless to say, these advanced suits are somewhat hard to find. I recommend outfitting your explorers with these suits (especially the +2/+2/+1 variety), and outfitting the worker bees with the +3, +4/+1, and +5 variety (which give you just the stat you need to run your job in your Vault room).

A line of colorful explorers coming home to roost.

Another min-maxing strategy is to start training in Luck as much as you can. It takes a while before you can build the Game Room (50+ dwellers). But once you have one, cycle various dwellers in there from all walks of life. The more luck you have, the more lucky bonus Caps you get when collecting resources from a room. The only stat these busy bee dwellers need is the one for their room, and Luck.

In my next Fallout Shelter post I'll write more about The Late Game strategies that I've found work, for larger vaults. And an amazingly detailed document on Fallout Shelter efficiency.

Triple Feature: No Escape, The Visit, Dope

Time for another edition of Tomes at the movies.

No Escape

No Escape is the story of an American family going to work overseas, and almost immediately getting caught in a coup. I knew it would be a bit of drama, but what was such a treat was all the attention to details. So much story is contained in there. Even in the beginning scenes, there is so much attention given to minor characters who set the theme, tone, and mood. The music is so good. I mean like Mad Max: Fury Road good. The slow motion scenes, which are peppered throughout, as well as those really tense moments where the sound just fades into the background, are so well done.

I had the exact same feeling as in Mad Max: Fury Road of suddenly realizing that all my muscles were tense and my hands clenched.

The story would make an excellent little RPG scenario twist, which is to say that a character, as a relatively innocent contractor, is a face for the "evil corporation" as seen by the revolution.

This also inspired me to add more social unrest in my RPGs. It would be great to have the PCs in a scenario wandering into a city, only to find their in the middle of a civil war they knew nothing about. Even better is throwing them hints and clues as they proceed which hints at the mounting tension and unrest.

The Visit

The Visit is a little horror movie, with that whole video cam thing. The cute twist here is that pretty much the main character is the girl who is into cinematography, so there are some double entendres of that nature during the movie. This is a great exploration of some of the natural oddities of getting old, combined with that creepy madness that is so effective in freaking you out ("sundowning"; so good). The grandma and grandpa (pop-pop) are so unbelievably good at glowing with crazy. And the movie has an excellent little twist at the end.

I think this could totally work as a Dread game where the characters are the children (you can play various siblings, different ages). I think the grandparents, combined with a few additional characters (like the movie, various visitors from town), are enough to flesh out the scenario. The incidental old-person maladies are enough to start creeping out the PCs without giving away anything about the end. Love the limited communication, such as no wifi, one dial-up plug that gets occasionally used, a remote farmstead, the parent estranged from the grandparents, and also off on a cruise with boyfriend. It all sets a great sense of disconnection from help.

Dope

Dope was dope. Seriously. Great soundtrack, old hip hop references abound, and a dramatic story with excellent humor. Characters were super relate-able. Best part was having 3 main characters, none of which you'd consider to have a "super star" look. Go geek!

Did inspire me to think of a PC party that are "geeks". I.e. no one is physically strong, with everyone playing "weak", skill-heavy roles. Could be modern (such as the movie) or just convert it into some other scenario.

Gateway 2015: Sunday and Monday

Sunday; a late start

After the late night, a nice late start. Got up, wandered, ate, and then family time! Met up J (my partner) and the kid. Swam at the pool, grubbed, and then headed for games.

Started with the obligatory family shot:

The family selfie tradition

Sunday 3pm: Battle Sheep 101

The Kid and I signed up to teach people Battle Sheep. It's an extremely simple which you can teach in a few minutes, similar to checkers. However it had more replayability (in my mind) that's more similar to Go (but not that much!) What's nice is that the board is different each game, since the pasture has a placement phase, where every player takes turn putting down one of their 4 boards. The game is fairly simple and is just a territory claiming and blocking game. We had a decent turn-out, and probably had about 10 different people play through.

Always great to meet more parent + small child travelers at the con!

Sunday 5pm: What the Food!? 101

I first played What the food!? a few cons back when the designers were demoing it (just after the kickstarter). It wasn't too meaty, but a fun little party game, and I bought it in anticipation of family game days. It has sat on the shelf until a few months ago when the kid played a few games. Great for that age when they're starting to read, because you can force them to read the food combos as part of the game ("Slimy Pigs in a Blanket covered in Boysenberry Jam").

Got a decent turnout of motivated food fighters, but damn, that first game went on forever. 

Sunday 7pm: King of Tokyo tournament

This was the kid’s second time playing in the King of Tokyo tournament. It's a really fun party game for all ages, and is basically a Godzilla and King Kong-themed push-your-luck dice game. Skill isn't all that important, but man is it thematically designed. 

Unlike the last time the kid played, when she almost got to the final game and got "most kills" in the first game, this time she was eliminated quickly (but it was so close; a brutal fight to the death between her and one other guy). Although disappointed, she handled it very well.

We did get to meet and re-familiarize ourselves with all the kids that were there the last time (pretty much all of which joined again), so it's nice to feel that community. And also: all the kids died off early, which is unusual for this game, but ended up causing a bunch of commiseration.

Monday and goodbyes

We played a few games in the morning. J and the kid played a round of battleship, and we learned some Dice Masters, a super-hero type dice pool-building game. It's kind of like Magic and Dominion, but instead of building a deck, you are building a pool of dice. Not my cup of tea (too much comparing numbers and such), but I can see the attraction from those who like Magic-type games.

The first ship sunk was the kid’s battleship.

This was also the first time we've stayed long enough to go and check out the Auction. We ran into Craig / whodo, and hung out with him a bit while they sold things. I highly recommend it. Craig came away with a copy of Apocalypse World and Dungeon World for the high price of $1 total.

And with that... back home. But not before another visit to Endorffeine.

Gateway 2015: Saturday

Saturday 9am-1:45pm: Happy Jacks Presents: Journey of the Savage Six

GM: Bill Roper
System: Legend of the Five Rings
Players included me, Howie, Bruce, Kris, Kurt, Michael H...

First off, some pretty mean presentation. The table was organized with mat, nice character sheets, the Code of the Bushido, a Japanese-style coin necklace and fan (both symbolic, and necessary in our horribly inconsistently air conditioned con).

Never played L5R, so really wanted to check it out. And besides which I've only played with Bill once, and it was ridiculously amusing. L5R is a setting that emulates a psuedo Japan culture, but with magic and "taint" (i.e. evil stuff). Bill described the setting as like a Japan with a Wall of Westeros in the south, beyond which is horribly bad Japan-demon stuff.

We were the Savage Six, an eclectic mix of bad asses that work for our daimyo. Oh ya, and Bill's setting had all of us be Orcs. Japanese fantasy Orcs. 

All said, it was a fun game, with a great mix of interesting personalities, and I got to see how the mechanics flowed. Probably not a go-to system for me, but I liked certain elements. Still don't know too much about how honor works and such, but it was a teaser.

The game ran a little late, and so 45 minutes past the hour gave us enough time to order a pizza for mid-game scarfing in the next session...

Friday 2pm-6:30pm: The Stellar Eagle

GM: Scott Martin
System: Kingdom
Players: me, Howie, Sinh, James (and Scott) 

This is my second time playing a game designed by Ben Robbins (the other being Microscope). I was very much looking forward to it, and was not disappointed. Scott was a great GM. He would refer to the book here and there, but it was mostly to ensure we were hitting everything in the correct order, and didn't detract from the pace. Additionally I'd highly recommend the system; it's of the GM-less variety (such as Microscope, The Quiet Year, and those by postworldgames).

Kingdom is played as an exploration of a large group of people. In our case we would explore The Stellar Eagle, Earth's first colonizing vessel. The year is 2032, resources are getting scarce, and we have just enough Rhenium (fuel) to make 3 jumps. There is one world we've sent probes to (but never living organisms), and one that we haven't (but it looks promising), and then maybe a last jump to make it back home. That sounds like a good, desperate start.

We start by defining our characters, their roles, wishes, fears, and issues. And also whether they are Power (deciding what the kingdom does), Perspective (foresee consequences), or Touchstone (reflects how the people feel). We get:

• James as Liam Thomas, the de facto spiritual leader [Touchstone]

• Sinh as Pablo Reynholme, the Chief Agriculturalist [Power]

• Howie as S.E.R.A., the only Genetically Modified Being (GMB) aboard. [Perspective]

• Tomer (me) as Nova Arenas, the Chief Psychology Officer, one of the only who can supersede the captain. [Perspective]

• Scott as Captain Bryce Miller, the captain of the ship. [Power]

Howie, Sinh, Scott, and James. Conflicts abound!

We then define places on the ship where scenes will occur:

• The Scout Bay (a crowded space with our only two scout ships)
  

• S.A.N.E. (the psychology bay)
  

• The Garden (higher level food production)
  

• The Food Vats (fecal recycling)
  

• The Spiritual Center (ad hoc space with an ad hoc minister)
  

• The Crypt (friendly nickname for the small capsule like beds)

The next hours was a great session that consisted of two Crossroads (dilemmas):

• There is an epidemic of what we refer to as Mindbreak, a series of psychological issues that appear to get even worse when quarantined. Should we quarantine the sick?

• There are production problems induced by bugs in the ship's code that threaten the amounts of food and radioactive meds. Fixing the problem may correlate with higher incidents of Mindbreak. Should we fix the bugs?

All in all, an excellent little game, with lots of intrigue and politics. I just love how everyone had all sorts of directions to take it, and the end results is just a fracturing of anything resembling order and sanity, but definitely resembling society and pressure. We didn't even get to the outside of the solar system to take our first jump, but there was already great mayhem, as Mindbreak started showing some violent side effects. Or maybe it was just the Twankie bars. Our archaeologist died, but a vote was taken, and player majority ruled that the ship would survive the riots. Oh, did I forget to mention that our GMB started reproducing with the human crew? I did remove Directive 12, which allowed it to interact with the crew, so I guess it was only a matter of time.

Some other players echoed the sentiment that I also feel: this is a game you'd like to play over a number of sessions, as there is just so much meat in it.

There are a number of big differences from Microscope, for those that have played. In this one you actually play a specific character. Also, the story is pretty much told sequentially, so everyone is somewhat on the same page, as far as the story line.

I don't know that I'd play it in a con again (except to teach it as a GM, which I would enjoy!). I just think it would work better if there was 10 hours to play. Not that there is anything wrong with starting a story that just has to end.

Friday 8pm-11:30pm: Saving Throw Presents The Death of Sally Strike

GM: Wes Otis
System: Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed.
Players:

• Denys Mordred as Dr. James Foxworth (my love interest)

• Howie as Harold Dean (FBI Specialist; the "Mulder" character), or as kpop33 on the paranormal forums

• me as Jordana Klein (FBI; the "Scully" character)

• Dimitri as Dallas Gasnet (P.I. and porn enthusiast)

• drop-in (forgot her name, but she was great) as Samantha See (Paranormal expert; or is that charlatan?)

• (damn, name?) as Jonny Davidson (NYPD)

Wes always runs a fun game. Everyone had a blast running around, getting on each others nerves (player or character, sometimes it's hard to tell!), and mismanaging the situation in such a great manner. We probably annoyed the shit out of the neighboring table (sometimes you are on the receiving end, sometimes you dish it out). Drinks were had, and in the end, the Mi-gos won and took over the world in one long blast of grey, oozy pudding.

"Ashley Jackson has shit on me. Literally." - Dimitri as Dallas Garnett (P.I.)

Saturday midnight - 3am: Dread: Mad Max Fury Road (the circus)

So, what's to do on Saturday night, when you know you won't make your Sunday morning game? PLAY MORE!

GM: me
System: Dread
Players: Man, there were so many! 8 players: Howie, Sinh, Dak, Sean, Mario, Dimitri, dude and girlfriend (crap, names!?)

• Howie as ? and ?

• Sinh as Pickel Bob and Bay Boy

• Dak as Jumbo and ?

• Sean as Tannish and Lango

• Mario as ? and ?

• Dimitri as I.R. (Irritated Rectum, aka Errr)

• Dude as Jonny and Galla

• Dudette as Gabriel and ?

8 is a lot of players. If you had asked me ahead of time if I'd imagine that, I'd have said there was no way. But it worked so well. I gave them each 2 characters, and we had a tribe of 16.

They decided to be nomads, who travel the wastes for spoils. But they do have hidden caches where they store gear. And oh shit, they have a huge circus carnival truck! I'm guessing it's something like this, but who knows what was in their heads:

They want a gun turret up on top, and some sort of mortar / grenade launcher. Well, pulls start happening all over the place... this stuff doesn't come cheap. And a few have their own little vehicles. A car here, a pair of bikes there. Well, the tower already falls early, and one of Dimitri's characters is on the chopping block. I don't take him just yet. What are the names of these lovely individuals? Something like Tomer's Travelling Circus. Thanks, you lovely bastards.

They have two unfriendly neighbors. One is the Skull Shiners, which are cannibals and to be avoided. The others wear masks and are called the Wheelers. 

And guess what? They just got back to one of their caches and someone ran off with their shit! They find a cracked mask, and also a cigarette butt (I guess there are still a few?) on the floor, and it's still smoking. And it was their old tribemate, Leroy, who betrayed them.

Looking out the cave they can see the culprits driving off in the distance. The tribe gets halfway down the hill, on the chase, when they hear an explosion behind them. Dimitri's character on the bike explodes. It was time to cash in that check.

They are consumed by the chase, take down some of the masked folk, but these are the stragglers on bikes. Far ahead they see the car with Leroy. They strap their one surviving prisoner to the top of the circus truck, and one of Howie's characters crawls up and starts torturing her for information. Turns out there is a trap ahead. A canyon with rocks up above to drop on pursuers.

They are starting to catch the car, but it's reached a huge peninsula that stretches for miles, and it's started climbing up the road that heads up the peninsula. That's mask territory. They book it, and start catching the car, but guns are blazing, and friends and foes fall. They can't catch it before they start into a canyon, and KABOOM, it's raining boulders. More fall, but it's all happy endings, as they catch Leroy and smash his car to bits.

What? 3am already? Damn.

Gateway 2015: Friday

The journey there

A long bus ride on a Thursday. The first bus, to my friend Jack's new cafe, Endorffeine in Chinatown (plug!). So, so good.

Then a second bus. A ride down Santa Monica for 1.5 hours that involved a good, long listen to the Mad Max soundtrack. This inspired me with a realization about being ready to run the late night game, that comes later.

One of my favorite parts coming into the con, is the Thursday night... off to have dinner with friends, and a very late night game of Splendor (in preparation for the tournament), with my friends Howie and Lisa.

Friday pre-games

Howie and I take off, and pick up some nutrients in the form of cold press green juice (because god knows there will be nothing green to eat during the weekend). And then off to the con for an early start... gotta sign up for them games!

We get there around 10:30am, and get in touch with Craig (aka whodo on the Happy Jacks forums), who is visiting from the UK. Just for the con... amazing. Chat around, eat at the Habit Burger (now a tradition pre-con), and then back for the sheets.

By then there is a crowd getting ready to riot. Fortunately, Jim Sandoval (the Generalissimo de RPG) steps up and cracks the whip! Three people can sign up at a time, when one is done, next in line can step up. Slow, but very effective, and fair. And we got our own taste of some Gencon line waiting!

Friday 1pm-7pm: Distress of Life Liner 928

GM: me. This is my Star Frontiers / Savage Worlds / Lego game, which I've talked about in a previous post. 

Players:

• Kurt (Lauer) as Cutter Parsons, Human Pilot
• Kody as Galius Sturk, Dralasite Engineer
• Brian as Verm, the Sathar Medic
• Bill from Arizona as Sarkin Rah, the Vrusk Captain

Character generation

Character generation always takes about 30 minutes, but it definitely works faster now. Instead of having them make the basic character, then starting the game, and then stopping to do equipment (which, really, made sense in my head when first making the game)... now we just do it all up at the front and get into it (thank you player feedback!). Per always, they come up with all sorts of fun, interesting combinations that I haven't seen before.

I can't state enough how much fun the players bring into this. But needless to say, I had a grand ol' time running it.

A picture of people taking pictures.

Friday 7pm-10pm: Splendor tournament

I was supposed to be in an RPG, but about 2 weeks back I found out they are running a Splendor tournament. The first, at Strategicon. I got in touch with Asmodee, the US distributor, and was able to secure 3 more sets of the game to the Game Library. Thanks Asmodee and Space Cowboys! Unfortunately the "prizes" that they sent wouldn't reach us in time. But hey, next con.

As it was, had a great time, and even got 3rd place. Was in the final game with my friend Howie, and it was brutal. It was what I term a "fast" game, with lots of high-value cards in the center and top rows. And everyone knew it. And it was cock-block city, with everyone hoarding gold coins, and other people's colors, and pointing of fingers. So, so good. Truly a cut-throat game, and I'm honored to have been a part of it.

My semi-final win. Killed it with 17 points.

After that we wandered about a bit, and I ran into Bob Quinterro's Xcom game, which included these cats (including Dimitri / radzap and Craig / whodo):

Not finding anything to play, it was time to pull out the big guns in my back pocket...

Friday 11pm-2am: Dread Mad Max Fury Road

GM: Me.

Players:

• Howie as Bwarez, Howard, and Russians
• Albert as Grog, Alice Spiderhands, and Mike the Midget Master
• Sinh as Shaggy Pig, Charlie Brown, and Cupcake Daisy
• Andy as Honkey, Vladimir (damn, I forget the rest! He took the scraps of paper!)

I stole this game. The idea. It was Andy M from Seattle: He ran this at GoPlayNW 2015, which I attended. Although he played in my game during that con, I didn't get to play in his, but heard the players talk about how amazing it was. Fortunately, conversations with both Andy himself, and another amazing fellow named Stras, illuminated much of what seemed to make it so cool.

And so I've planned to hijack the game for some time, but just really wasn't sure if it'd just implode in my face, since it's very ad hoc, and all improv. But on the bus ride to the con, I was listening to the Mad Max soundtrack, and was touched by the great arm of the RPG god herself... it was all so clear: Just follow where the music takes you.

And so with that, I took my three friends, and then poached a Werewolf GM (who also RPGs heavily; but I did steal him from his Werewolf duties!) We find a spot, setup a Jenga tower, and I start playing the soundtrack, and then:

I start by asking them what kind of game they want to play. It's what Andy M does, supposedly. And within the first few minutes, Sinh says "thunderdome". There is a groan or two, but wait, I exclaim. We are not playing thunderdome from back in the day... this will be thunderdome as re-imagined in Fury Road.

And hence we have The Pig Hunters. They are gladiators that have risen through the ranks, but are now hunters for new players in the gladiator pits. Which they poach from the wastelands. And have them fight. The losers become "pigs" and are eaten by the community. The winners keep playing. Until they lose. Or until they come up in the ranks, and join the tribe.

Now, sterility is a thing. And they need women. Or children. And there are some, but they are beyond the radioactive wastes. Good thing they have a plan. There was an old man who came from the wastes in a biohazard suit, not too long ago. He had a Geiger counter, and when he reached our land, he said it was clean. Before we tortured him and ate him. His helmet and the tatters of his suit still hang in the town square. But he did reveal one other thing: There is a facility out in the wastes with more suits, where he came from, and "please don't kill me. I'll show you where it is." Blah blah blah.

And if they get these suits, perhaps they can find a new place to live, and start their own thunderdome. The big men in charge are not fun to work for, keeping all the best spoils for themselves.

Now, they need vehicles. And gear. And that doesn't come cheap in this world. And blocks start getting pulled immediately. Howie wants a motorcycle with a side gattling gun, and an AK-47 and a mortar, and some more miscellaneous stuff. No worries! "Just pull 8 blocks. What was that? Just a harpoon and some barbed wire? OK, two blocks it is." And so it goes...

Everyone is armed, and out. It's 2 days to the great river that'll need to be crossed. First they have to get by the Amazons who live up in the hills. Men go there to die, but it is said that the Amazons let them die in a pleasant way. Before they are eaten. However, the Amazons live in a fortress of rocks and caves, and noone has ever been able to infiltrate their home turf.

They scrape by, but then find they are chased. Battle ensues. The tower grows, and falls, and grows again. The Amazons are defeated, and they capture a new bike.

And now it is time to camp. In the red rock wastelands. Where the large Ligerbeasts live. Supposedly they hunt in packs of 10 or 20, and drag off travelers at night, silently. They set up camp, and blocks are pulled. And a tower falls, and someone is dragged into the night. The party gives chase and is finally able to surround the beasts with a crazy maneuver, (and a tower falls) and another member is decapitated by a fleeing Ligerbeast. But the sun then rises.

They continue on to the river, and find a huge croc sun bathing at the sandbar. The one used for crossing. And one of Andy's characters runs down to sacrifice himself (tower pushed) by holding the croc's jaws open while his mates scurry across... and as the last car passes, the croc's jaws come snapping down.

And it's 2:30am and we decide it's time to call it a night. But shit was that an amazing ride.

And where did the story come from? The music, man. Just follow the music.

A tower, a speaker, and a dose of crazy.

Quest accepted: Strategicon Gateway 2015

A history with cons

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

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

But that's all ancient history now.

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

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

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

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

Gateway 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wish me luck and fun. Stories when I return.