tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10507213573006308232024-03-05T11:50:42.582-08:00Graph Paper GamesA place where I write about my hobbiesWQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.comBlogger568125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-37165674515984887122021-02-17T14:56:00.001-08:002021-02-17T14:56:10.444-08:00I moved ages ago, but forgot to tell anyone<p> I decided to get my own domain name: strangevistas.org and have been posting there for over a year. When Adam at Barking Alien mentioned that he wanted me to start blogging again, I realized that he might not know, and that likely others didn't as well.</p><p>So, now you do. See you soon!</p>WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-57866677959615005562019-09-27T12:26:00.000-07:002019-09-27T12:26:59.809-07:00Mine Playset Finished<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAvNaIdkKsi0EH7XyltjxzO4nxcES9vlmNfbdhyVdJfBg7FgxQPvYD1xPc_z4ncF6FcDbAjt0hVJFyQAJH0nhro9MyXOq9dArhp8dA0qezfCeZ04e0bYG1IJ6ZvSSnm0RqMteinJlmQPA/s1600/IMG_1876.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="969" data-original-width="727" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAvNaIdkKsi0EH7XyltjxzO4nxcES9vlmNfbdhyVdJfBg7FgxQPvYD1xPc_z4ncF6FcDbAjt0hVJFyQAJH0nhro9MyXOq9dArhp8dA0qezfCeZ04e0bYG1IJ6ZvSSnm0RqMteinJlmQPA/s320/IMG_1876.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfVBaJw9H0amyXSOCUthkYYKRKm2i3nDjiIICA2s_aWSwfcZqCcBE3dQkgkWuxwxTaASNZPJ279l_680YuHnLwDwPkjOjGdWf98lB7NrLNnKGJJoTbIPvwHZBcFgH00FIxuRAXKD-fjU/s1600/IMG_1875.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="920" data-original-width="1334" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfVBaJw9H0amyXSOCUthkYYKRKm2i3nDjiIICA2s_aWSwfcZqCcBE3dQkgkWuxwxTaASNZPJ279l_680YuHnLwDwPkjOjGdWf98lB7NrLNnKGJJoTbIPvwHZBcFgH00FIxuRAXKD-fjU/s320/IMG_1875.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Boy, it feels good to see a project through to completion. The color scheme looks really good. It was a good first run, especially in getting an idea about much terrain a single box can hold.</div>
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So what's next? A dungeon? A crypt? Science fiction?</div>
<br />WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-40172805651215572512019-09-21T13:09:00.001-07:002019-09-21T13:09:37.251-07:00PlaysetsFor all you 80's kids out there, do you remember the idea of "playsets," like Castle Grayskull or the GI Joe Command Center or the Death Star where you could set it up like a action-move dollhouse and create story after story?<br />
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So here's what I am doing:<br />
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Creating kits using the boxes that PLA filament comes in to hold thematic terrain for roleplaying games.<br />
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For those of you who do not know, PLA filament is the plastic thread a lot of 3D printers use to make stuff. The box is roughly 8" by 8" by 3". Half of the box can hold about 48 floor tiles that are 2" square while the other half can hold walls, corners, and other assorted pieces. Fully assembled, the kit would hold enough terrain to cover a square roughly 16" to 18" on a side, which for a small table is a pretty good layout. It can also handle three or four small rooms easily. By re-configuring the kit once or twice, you could theoretically handle eight to twelve encounters, depending on the size of the rooms involved. For my own group's speed and gaming session length, that represents easily a month's worth of gaming.<br />
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Right now I've started on the first playset/kit, one depicting a mine. My plans are to create another for a crypt, a generic dungeon, a cave, and a building (like an inn). The crypt and dungeon could share components easily, as could the mine and cave.<br />
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Here's a quick WIP shot of my mine playset. I may not have enough space for walls, and may need to re-evaluate the plan, but it gives you an idea of what can fit in a single box. I have about half the tiles painted (they are underneath the unpainted tiles). More pics as I continue work on the project.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLnycaU3Osnw-eNDB20aGCoOAHTx4KAYzsltqoTTmaOvHkkYYwkOXt4T4wpl8OSvniZac3_WMGSnorgZvLaG_SE0OnLm5JbAD28BtTOwEqcAHMP9J_rjyvdZgaS478IXeVkecekDbpZWI/s1600/IMG_1866.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="969" data-original-width="727" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLnycaU3Osnw-eNDB20aGCoOAHTx4KAYzsltqoTTmaOvHkkYYwkOXt4T4wpl8OSvniZac3_WMGSnorgZvLaG_SE0OnLm5JbAD28BtTOwEqcAHMP9J_rjyvdZgaS478IXeVkecekDbpZWI/s320/IMG_1866.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-10093756445190478552019-08-28T10:45:00.000-07:002019-08-28T10:45:50.623-07:00Patreons and PartiesFor a while I was really getting into Kickstarter for various 3D printing options, and while there are still some out there, I found myself often getting more than I could ever reasonably print, but still paying for the files.<br />
To compromise between being practical and still enjoying the thrill of finding new things to do with my printer to support my hobbies, I decided to explore Patreon instead, finding a couple of artists who do work I like who could then keep me in a steady flow of new material for a reasonable rate.<br />
Four artists I support are <a href="https://www.patreon.com/dungeonprint/posts" target="_blank">Aaron Mulder</a>, <a href="https://www.patreon.com/rocketpiggames/posts" target="_blank">Rocket Pig Games</a>, <a href="https://www.patreon.com/darkrealms/posts" target="_blank">Pinyo</a>, and <a href="https://www.patreon.com/PrintYourMonsters/posts" target="_blank">PrintYourMonsters</a>. Of those four, Aaron Mulder tends to make items to use with Fat Dragon Games' modular dungeons and Pinyo tends to make buildings (incredible ones). It's Rocket Pig and PYM that ship out monthly designs of miniatures, which I want to incorporate into my games somehow.<br />
In August, Rocket Pig released a ton of undersea creatures. I'm not entirely sure how those get used in a typical fantasy campaign, but I suspect it has something to do with WotC releasing their <i>Saltmarsh</i> campaign. PYM has recently released a bunch of carnivorous plants, which work really nicely with Rocket Pig's July release of corrupted forest creatures. Both of them have given teaser images of their next month's projects, shown below.<br />
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So checking in with myself and my own head, what am I feeling about all this?<br />
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<li>I'm getting tired of the <i>Dungeon of the Mad Mage</i>. I spent a chunk of time on an airplane over the weekend, and read through about six of the chapters of the book. It's well written, clever, and I'm surprised at how many of the levels of the dungeon a party could theoretically roleplay their way through, rather than hack and slash. But it isn't mine. There's parts that seem silly, or pointless, or just don't strike the right tone with me. Visualizing running this for another year isn't appealing, and it might be time to pull the plug.</li>
<li>I'd like to combine the "universe" of both D&D groups, for lots of reasons. But that means finding a way to retcon a lot of the canonical underpinnings of one or the other campaign.</li>
<li>I really wouldn't mind exploring some new rulesets. <i>Ruin Masters</i> is due out in October or November. There's <i>Shadow of the Demon Lord</i>, which has a darker horror tone. Or there are scores of OGL-empowered clones out there to be explored. Changing games would be another way to shake the figurative Etch-a-Sketch of my gaming groups.</li>
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More to come soon, including finding a way to fold my Patreons' product into my gaming groups.</div>
WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-46736005399275856082019-08-21T09:36:00.002-07:002019-08-21T09:36:57.184-07:00Dungeon overcrowdingI'm continuing to run my two separate D&D games, but yesterday's session (my original home game) surprised me what I thought was going to be a sparse player group (four) turned out to be a larger than normal-sized group (seven). Because I'm using a pre-gen adventure and wasn't really expecting a group that big, that meant that the group tended to blast through more challenging encounters and got bogged down in long initiative orders. I think the only time the group felt really concerned was the one time the zombie beholder managed to get his turn on the initiative order, and ended up NOT rolling the disintegration ray. One shot, didn't kill anybody, and that was it for him.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAOcangJXInASwZ47-Pi7_n9kr5XiN0gjWVTJhDIUtoVqnUc0HA94x7GuZVkdWlrwzNNCEpb0DoMwYWlB_SYEfqZ2-iza-yf-IwiZKUxAETjQPd13nuSvw7-5lZIQm9-0K7BIOEKL1-_w/s1600/IMG_1667.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="493" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAOcangJXInASwZ47-Pi7_n9kr5XiN0gjWVTJhDIUtoVqnUc0HA94x7GuZVkdWlrwzNNCEpb0DoMwYWlB_SYEfqZ2-iza-yf-IwiZKUxAETjQPd13nuSvw7-5lZIQm9-0K7BIOEKL1-_w/s320/IMG_1667.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The group plows their way through two (owl)bears</td></tr>
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<br />In the past when the players have begun drifting back into the group because of lighter schedules, babies growing up, etc. I have opted to split the group or restrict the number of times per month they can play to keep the table size down. But now I've got a whole second group of players already on the schedule, so now I have to think about adding more gaming sessions, or gaming with the larger group. Decisions...<div>
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There has been some other winds blowing through the group(s) as well. One of which is a desire to have both gaming groups set in the same "universe" so that they can in some way interact with one another. One group is at 6th level and exists in the Forgotten Realms universe, specifically Waterdeep. The other is in Raging Swan's "home universe" of the Duchy of Ashlar. One is 6th level, the other 2nd. I'm trying to figure out if it makes sense to merge the two universes together or just reset both at some point into a third, shared universe of its own.</div>
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Which leads me to another thing I'm hearing from the group--the odd rumble about trying out a different system. In the college-age group, one of the players has already discovered the RPG <i>Comrade</i> and wants to try his hand at running that. Members of both groups have mentioned the new edition of <i>Pathfinder</i>, and yesterday I was even hearing about Fourth Edition D&D.</div>
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So we will see. It's not broken, so I'm loathe to try to "fix" it, but at some point it may change.</div>
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Comments welcome! Thanks for reading!<br /><div>
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WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-11594159551474910722019-08-08T18:55:00.000-07:002019-08-08T18:55:12.383-07:00Bears, Flameskulls, and more D&DI've managed to get some painting time in, and it's going pretty well.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgh1bhEshpJDMiehW4BrCxu0yJd7TOGfVWtGB-G1_7BXjkj5D0_T6OyhaT17JMJNF4eSxNr0_cvFAMWquMyznXdt6NOx6jIjvMLyxZjJ2uWjibCUfTbiLoouXCFsbusZDrP6PqoumONQ/s1600/IMG_1626.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="920" data-original-width="674" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgh1bhEshpJDMiehW4BrCxu0yJd7TOGfVWtGB-G1_7BXjkj5D0_T6OyhaT17JMJNF4eSxNr0_cvFAMWquMyznXdt6NOx6jIjvMLyxZjJ2uWjibCUfTbiLoouXCFsbusZDrP6PqoumONQ/s320/IMG_1626.jpg" width="234" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Designed by Brayan Nafarrate</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOB542mbaXXSZALYKA67oRc9E9HBq0fBPhzZZBfhRqsENC8JP1SKI4dpYFTw3ObuxScAM_uH5PrdoEyzGtzYnMPwCng205IM770JHYMFJ6_CYHvg9F1kmdb6sUVTamSKZxqmS-zWTeeMs/s1600/IMG_1630.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="921" data-original-width="1227" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOB542mbaXXSZALYKA67oRc9E9HBq0fBPhzZZBfhRqsENC8JP1SKI4dpYFTw3ObuxScAM_uH5PrdoEyzGtzYnMPwCng205IM770JHYMFJ6_CYHvg9F1kmdb6sUVTamSKZxqmS-zWTeeMs/s320/IMG_1630.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Designed by Pinyo</td></tr>
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All of these were 3D printed on my Ender 3. The "flameskull" was painted using the new GW contrast paints, literally only two of them, in about twenty minutes. More on those paints later.<br />
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In addition, I'm still running a game weekly: every other Tuesday for my "house group" and every other Monday for my campus ministry group. Here's a shot from the latest session of my house group.<br />
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Thanks for reading. Comments always welcome.WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-62534152704969296152019-07-30T15:11:00.001-07:002019-07-30T15:11:21.458-07:00July RecapIt's been a bit, but I've been keeping busy.<br />
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The new D&D campaign has been going very well. It's been nice being able to work with a different group with new personalities and styles.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJNLvyjjwPSaQm6SNmtwwcfU3UP_ZjXNx62LPQu09Cv_nzqL7O9L9aGa4sCzG8vAxa7bV3YZl3ZUwhlGc2rPgCHY-g_12itWj05FyVW3vlEtCS6BWA8_ITaf8v1WlCWxdbDu6DmJjWM_k/s1600/IMG_1531.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJNLvyjjwPSaQm6SNmtwwcfU3UP_ZjXNx62LPQu09Cv_nzqL7O9L9aGa4sCzG8vAxa7bV3YZl3ZUwhlGc2rPgCHY-g_12itWj05FyVW3vlEtCS6BWA8_ITaf8v1WlCWxdbDu6DmJjWM_k/s320/IMG_1531.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div>
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That's in addition to the regular campaign, which has been getting back into the swing of things with some solid gameplay. They managed to clear most of the first level of the <i>Dungeon of the Mad Mage</i>, and are now making serious headway into the second.<br />
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Finally, I've been printing and painting a bit. Here are some examples:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHpzmdkKhM9fN-ew3wice1aFhu1G6jBuilrph0FaIOvS_zfuxomgqZs6BjPmz9E6vBMB3uDvZc-tW6Vwe0G_-v5VA7-S3GlShVfxvH0RxW3vGwULTytjb2XziOV48DIfBnCbMLIH-CJrE/s1600/IMG_1564.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1132" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHpzmdkKhM9fN-ew3wice1aFhu1G6jBuilrph0FaIOvS_zfuxomgqZs6BjPmz9E6vBMB3uDvZc-tW6Vwe0G_-v5VA7-S3GlShVfxvH0RxW3vGwULTytjb2XziOV48DIfBnCbMLIH-CJrE/s320/IMG_1564.HEIC" width="226" /></a></div>
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So lots of good gaming and more stuff than I have time to paint. Thanks for reading!WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-64568383577211864612019-07-02T09:33:00.000-07:002019-07-02T09:33:08.468-07:00A new party, a new campaign<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqsPn_CUS0ALQuTBP0mFP5DCpWM0Ev2N8MR5ZUC8CcNFNL8naYy7IqGULWMpgz6lPsNMB3EcdY-ungYpwKuNkFnTlnXxH42lHNI8KnR1bKEdCMqdAgPMVAMee3iPXfXO1GSfm1vNk_B7g/s1600/Owlbear-760x682.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="760" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqsPn_CUS0ALQuTBP0mFP5DCpWM0Ev2N8MR5ZUC8CcNFNL8naYy7IqGULWMpgz6lPsNMB3EcdY-ungYpwKuNkFnTlnXxH42lHNI8KnR1bKEdCMqdAgPMVAMee3iPXfXO1GSfm1vNk_B7g/s320/Owlbear-760x682.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The boss monster...or is he?</td></tr>
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Back in May a local denominational-affiliated campus ministry group asked me, a pastor, if I would be willing to run a Dungeons & Dragons game for their members. I'll admit I was flattered, intrigued, and most importantly excited because of the entire group, only one person (my son, Mac) had played D&D before. Many of them had heard about the game, researched it online and watched videos and listened to podcasts, and a couple had even gone so far as to buy the <i>Player's Guide</i>, but that was it.<br />
So I began to put together a campaign with the intent of "converting" people to becoming gamers. My goal? In one or two sessions to get them hooked, not to mention up to speed on the game's rules. In addition, I wanted to try to instill my own ethos about what good roleplaying and group culture looked like.<br />
And that was why I was excited. And last night, we finally had our first session, and it was a blast.<br />
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I used "The Shunned Valley of the Three Tombs" by Raging Swan Press as the backbone of the first adventure. The mini-module comes with a completely built village and small adventure area (the eponymous valley) with contains several clearly-defined areas each of which highlights a particular aspect of gameplay: roleplaying, exploration, trap detection, the undead, and "boss monster" fighting. The valley and nearby village are also located on a larger region, a duchy, with several other communities and adventure locales, some of which are fleshed out by Raging Swan Press, so the campaign has the basic infrastructure for a hex-crawl/sandbox style of play.<br />
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What I realized about this group immediately was that I had no less than three "class clowns" in the mix (one of which was Mac, who I already knew about). It made me reflect on gamers as a whole, and I've often found that the constantly joking, loud bon vivant is a frequent social "mask" gamers put on, especially when confronted with strangers in the nerd/geek tribe. At first as a GM I was a little peeved as the constant raucousness, but then realized that not only was this group (who had one outsider in the mix, a college-aged player who was not in the campus ministry community and one of the three clowns) trying to get to know each other, but they were having fun. And ultimately that's what they, and I, were all here for.<br />
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So we will see how it goes. Stay tuned.WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-91356781729168094782019-06-25T07:45:00.002-07:002019-06-25T07:45:43.860-07:00My Two Printed DungeonsLast Christmas, I was given a 3D printer as a present and began immediately building the type of gaming items I used to use Hirst Arts molds to create: terrain for wargaming and modular dungeons for roleplaying games. When I researched the topic, going online and talking to friends, I found first one company, then a second who provided the "patterns" for making modular dungeons.<div>
The first was <a href="http://www.fatdragongames.com/fdgfiles/" target="_blank">Fat Dragon Games</a>, which makes not only files for modular dungeons but also fantasy buildings, the odd sci-fi terrain pieces, and most recently a huge batch of fantasy monsters to be printed out on your printer. In addition, the owner of the company, Tom Tullis, created a huge support network through social media and YouTube on maintaining and getting the most out of your printer, tips and tricks, painting guides, etc. Recently FDG participated in a great Humble Bundle charity program where you could buy a significant amount of their product for a ridiculously low price, of all of which went to support US veterans.</div>
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In addition to what the company provides, there is an entire ancillary group of fans who are modifying FDG's material to make additional files, and <a href="https://studio.dungeonprint.com/" target="_blank">DungeonPrint Studio</a>, which is a design software program free online that you can use to plot out your dungeons and figure out how many tiles you need.</div>
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If I had one critique, and this is a small one, it is that Fat Dragon Games' tiles have the walls attached to the top of the floors, making a half-inch boundary around rooms, as you can see in the picture above. Honestly not that big a deal unless you are playing with a ruleset that is particularly picky about grids, like <i>Pathfinder</i>.</div>
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After I had build a couple of hundred tiles from FDG, I discovered a second company, <a href="https://gamedecor.com/dungeonworks/classic-encounters/classic-dungeon.html" target="_blank">DungeonWorks</a>, which is run by John Klingbeil, whom I knew from the old halcyon days of the Hirst Arts Forums. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMnzxmia3DKXWqPN7HTGwisMcJbUH2P0QUrzHDGBydafpLbr2a0iY4Ve9rCaBn8hpU3GRNf1qLgNdkfCmZWnosAXemqj_IyErAyUhjwyDDfCUnhyphenhyphenRSsPPQJpL2PPd4xUq0u2WcaeYxGs8/s1600/classic_dungeon_starter_sales_page.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="308" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMnzxmia3DKXWqPN7HTGwisMcJbUH2P0QUrzHDGBydafpLbr2a0iY4Ve9rCaBn8hpU3GRNf1qLgNdkfCmZWnosAXemqj_IyErAyUhjwyDDfCUnhyphenhyphenRSsPPQJpL2PPd4xUq0u2WcaeYxGs8/s320/classic_dungeon_starter_sales_page.png" width="266" /></a></div>
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DungeonWorks also does modular dungeons and miniatures, has a robust online presence and social media-based support, but in addition their modular dungeons have separate walls and floors, and also has (in one of their expansion packs) half-high walls, which I think make for better tabletop gaming visibility. Unlike FDG, which uses their own clips, DungeonWorks uses the OpenLock system, a generic uniform clip used by other companies and some contributors to Thingiverse.</div>
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Both companies are great and I'm not suggesting one over the other, but rather to say that for people who are looking to get into this aspect of the hobby, we are spoiled for choices of companies with great people who love the hobby and do great customer service. And there's nothing wrong in my mind with spending the time to make enough tiles to cover four square feet with one company, then do it all over again with another. </div>
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Here's a photo of some early work I've done, specifically from FDG:</div>
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Thanks for reading! Comments welcome!</div>
WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-76158824502485015082019-06-24T07:35:00.001-07:002019-06-24T07:35:31.841-07:00Back againSo, as you may know if you look at the last post, I moved over to my old Wordpress blog for several months. The thing is, it felt like nobody moved with me. In addition, for whatever reason I found the Wordpress blog interface to be full of bells and whistles that not only did I not want, but also made it harder to write.<br />
So I blogged less. And nobody read it. Around the same time I stopped reading blogs, which meant I was losing a lot of inspiration as well. So this part of my hobby life basically dried up and died.<br />
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But, I am gaming, probably more than I have in a while. So what have I been up to?<br />
<b>Roleplaying Games</b><br />
My regular gaming group has been slogging slowly through the <i>Dungeon of the Mad Mage</i>, and honestly it has really not hit its stride. We are only on the second level, and the odd bits of randomness is getting to be a bit much sometimes. For example one room is full of water, which rushes down upon the players when the door opens. The book texts says it is the result of a miscast spell in the past, but why would that be something the players could ascertain. They have begun just shrugging stuff off and soldiering on. I'm not sure how long I can keep this going if it doesn't start to feel interesting to me.<br />
In the last couple of months a group of college students from the local campus ministry house associated with my denomination approached me asking if I would be willing to run a D&D game for them. Most of the players are novices except for my son, who grew up playing in my house game before going off to college. Putting a campaign together from scratch for a mostly new group of players starting off at level one has done more to get my creative energies up than a lot of things lately. It's still D&D, but I like fantasy well enough to find it interesting. I'm putting together a sandbox-style campaign with lots of small adventure venues rather than one huge mega-dungeon, just to try out that style instead.<br />
<b>Wargaming</b><br />
This is another area where I've seen a surprising amount of enthusiasm. What every wargamer needs is a steady, regular opponent, and I was approached by a father and his son about playing them in the most recent edition of Warhammer 40K. And I just want to say that while I have had a lot of problems with 40K in the past, the new edition is significantly simpler and more user-friendly than in the past (you own opinions may differ). You can play a decent game of one or two hours with a small army and have fun, which is exactly what we are doing. I painted up an Ork army to go up against their Space Marine and Death Guard armies that came with the starter set. Now my daughter is showing interest, so who knows where that will end up...<br />
Speaking of Macy, this morning she stated she was thinking of starting up her own D&D group. She has a new friend, really the first real friend she's had in a while, and I think Macy is looking for things to do with her. Apparently her friend finds Macy's stories about D&D interesting, so we will see what happens there too.<br />
<b>Real Life</b><br />
Over the last year I started to put on a lot of weight. I had stopped participating in my sport because of repeated head injuries, and the lack of regular exercise combined with no change in my diet was beginning to show. It had gotten so bad that I was starting to show early signs of serious medical problems. So last February I started to do real work about exploring my relationship with food and its connection to my emotional health and well-being, made some real changes, and dropped thirty five pounds in the process. Presently I weigh less than I did ten or fifteen years ago and am eating better than I ever have. I don't get to brag often, but this is something I'm pretty proud of.<br />
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Anyways, I'm back here (for the time being) and thanks for reading! As always, comments welcome.WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-23542109219317694002019-02-19T11:30:00.001-08:002019-02-19T11:30:03.788-08:00Over at Strange VistasI checked the stats, and my last post telling people I moved has gotten over 120 views, while at the <a href="http://strangevistas.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">new blog</a> I'm lucky to get single digits. So what have you missed over there?<br />
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<li>Over 20 new posts.</li>
<li>Descriptions of the D&D campaign I've been running since 3Q2018.</li>
<li>Several painted miniatures</li>
<li>A whole bunch of things I have done on my new 3D printer, including a modular dungeon and a cosplay Star Wars blaster.</li>
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So go check out <a href="http://strangevistas.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Strange Vistas</a>, unless you're a Russian gambling robot, whom I am suspecting made up more of my readership that I had feared.</div>
WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-88672336412035981852018-11-02T08:52:00.001-07:002018-11-02T08:52:01.741-07:00MovingFor the time being, I've moved my blogging here: https://strangevistas.wordpress.com/WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-84609766456981482932018-10-24T07:00:00.001-07:002018-10-24T07:00:25.906-07:00Managing timeSo far, my decision to use <i>Waterdeep: Dragon Heist</i> appears to be a wise one. The group is enjoying the rich tapestry of personages the book has to offer, and I find myself freed up from stressing about what to do next. Without getting into any spoilers, the group is in the second chapter of the adventure, a curiously low-key exploration phase before beginning ratcheted back up in chapter three to a pace that will continue for the rest of the book. The long-time GM in me is mildly disappointed that I'm not creating my own material, but this has given me the time to focus on a lot of other projects, including renovating the game room. I will have to see if I transition from <i>Dragon Heist</i> to <i>Dungeon of the Mad Mage</i>. In November two of my players will have a baby, while after Christmas break another player's schedule changes so he is no longer available on my game night. That leaves me with three players, all youth rather than adults. At that point I either run with the three I have, try to recruit new players, or switch games. The game night will likely stay the same--it is too convenient for me not to.<div>
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Oddly enough, I'm not sure how hard recruiting new players will be. Dungeons & Dragons appears to be everywhere in this town right now. A week or so ago I was at the grocery store and ran into a college student I know from church, a young woman who I knew to be a gamer, and I mentioned that I might have an opening in the gaming group soon. The young man at the register immediately said, "you're running a game? Do you have more than one spot open?"</div>
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In another incident I was taking my wife's piccolo to be repaired at a small shop and I happened to notice that on her desk were a couple of D&D miniatures. This prompted a conversation about the game and what her group was doing. Even at my son's small university he reported the D&D club has "thirty to forty members" and the biggest issue is finding people to run games so they can break the club up into smaller groups. For a game that doesn't release all that much in the way of new material every year, they seem to be doing okay.</div>
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Finally, I read a good blog post over at <a href="https://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2018/10/productivity-rules.html" target="_blank">Monsters and Manuals</a> about his decision to abandon smart phones and limit time spent in front of screens. I spend most of my day in front of a computer, not always because I must but because it is there. When I got home, I would succumb frequently to the temptation of checking Facebook, or email, or whatever. Even trying to put it away at the dining room table was sort of a trial.</div>
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So, taking a page from Noism's book, I decided that at 7:00 PM the phone goes away. I can't switch to a "dumb phone": there's a couple of apps that I have on there that help me manage my daughter's health. But I can put the phone in my bedroom with the ringer on in case people have to call me (I'm on call almost all the time) but otherwise it's gone. It is already making an impact, although I'm acutely aware now, as he is, of how much the people around me are on their phones, even in the comfort of their own homes. We will see if my productivity picks up.</div>
WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-88101009122240980862018-10-15T09:51:00.001-07:002018-10-15T09:51:23.259-07:00The Heist Begins<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786966254/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0786966254&linkCode=as2&tag=thearmcol-20&linkId=e2a6702a8a2dcfc9638f3734badb2ada" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0786966254&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thearmcol-20" /></a><br />
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<i>This post may contain spoilers to the D&D Adventure "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist"</i><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thearmcol-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0786966254" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />I think the last time I used a pre-generated adventure was the prior time I ran D&D a couple of years ago, and that was an old Goodman Games module for 3E that I updated for 5E (which wasn't without its challenges). But with several of our regular GM's in my gaming group unavailable, but my still having a lot on my own plate, I thought I would consider doing it again, only this time trying out one of WotC's up-to-date publications.<br />
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After doing some research, I decided on their most recent product, <i>Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist</i>. I'm a big fan of "caper" movies and the whole premise seemed to be a nice change from your typical murder-hoboing. The whole adventure takes place in a city, there's a ton of investigation and roleplaying, and it serves as the prequel to their release of the latest iteration of the Undermountain megadungeon, which is being released in November.<br />
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We will be playing our third session tonight, having gotten our way through the first chapter of five in two sessions. Each chapter is supposed to roughly correspond to a level advancement, so the PC's are supposed to be second level at the start of chapter two, etc. The first chapter introduces the PC's to some major characters, introduces the main plot, and gives the PC's a chance to both do some investigating and dungeon crawling, albeit in a lead-you-by-the-nose sort of way. One of the dungeon encounter areas, for example, has one clearly identifiable entrance (the others are much harder to locate) and doesn't truly fork, leading the PC's eventually to the boss fight of the level. For an old school guy like me, that seems heavy-handed, but I'm not sure the players even noticed.<br />
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The second chapter is the most unusual for me, because it actually lacks any kind of crawling, dungeon or otherwise. The entire chapter covers the PC's wandering around a neighborhood in Waterdeep, meeting people on the street, and being elicited to complete certain quests. The quests themselves are not combat related, but based on skills, e.g. "Make three DC 12 Intimidation checks to succeed." Many of these are roleplaying-related, making me once again question the relationship between players acting out what is happening versus just rolling dice. Almost all the combat encounters are strictly the consequence of players actively seeking them, and are rarely advantageous given that they are basically living in a fantasy suburb at the time (the law is nothing to mess around with in Waterdeep). For some players this will be a welcome change of pace to a D&D game, but others may find this to be a weird slow-down in the pace of the game, especially given that chapter two is supposed to cover over a month of time in the campaign world.<br />
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I'll keep you updated on how the campaign progresses without giving away too much of the plot. Thanks for reading, and comments always welcome!<br />
<br />WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-11189156012973271362018-10-15T08:36:00.002-07:002018-10-15T08:36:55.594-07:00The End of the World 2018It has been years since I joined my Ohio friends for their annual three-day RPG micro-con called "End of the World" or EOW. They have literally been doing this event for 29 years, and have it down to a science. This past weekend was EOW, and I was able to make it out to Ohio to join them for three days of gaming one-shots all featuring their homegrown (and somewhat suspect) system.<br />
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One of the cool things about EOW is that you can end up with a pretty wide variety of scenarios, each run by a different member of the group. The first one was a post-apocalyptic adventure where a group of villagers have to travel beyond the valley into the greater, scarier world to try to find a cure for a plague killing off their tribe. The second was set in 1959, with the PC's being a combination of FBI and CIA agents and the staff of a powerful congressman trying to prevent an attack by satanic Nazis on Nikita Kruschev's visit to Disneyland in California (a visit which nearly happened, but was called off for security reasons back then--Google it). The third was a more wargame-ish scenario where the PC's played a team of Morrow Project agents sent back in time to prevent another faction from changing the history of Europe's colonization of the Americas (we can debate the ethics of this story later, but I found it a little troubling given that we were doing it on Columbus/Indigenous People's Day).<br />
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A few things of real note about this group. As I mentioned before, this group has been gathering once a year for the past 29 years, which is remarkable in my mind. They also have always been a much larger group than normal: each of the sessions at EOW had nine or ten players. Keeping a group together that long and with those kinds of numbers is a testimony to both commitment and intention when it comes to maintaining a gaming group.WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-79639908118128650852018-10-03T08:26:00.003-07:002018-10-03T08:26:44.141-07:00Dark Matter, by Phil ChoI've featured Phil Cho's work on my blog before. I'm a big fan, and frequently am inspired by his work to create superheroes or villains for my own campaigns. I thought it was only right, and a great way to make a present for my daughter, to commission him to draw her character in our Champions Now campaign. <br />
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So, presenting, Dark Matter!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizM-W8IAgAG4GcjxFdZYqBgs6B-bZ4esGaLdrqV8BzaH9s1FdA3sV3qc1sLxPIV15G5wgNQqjKntstZSsJ9O4Pv8RCvvo8-vCARjCklocBniXrVbP90ndSfbEObc0JjPXNjwKlahp_PMY/s1600/dark_matter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1036" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizM-W8IAgAG4GcjxFdZYqBgs6B-bZ4esGaLdrqV8BzaH9s1FdA3sV3qc1sLxPIV15G5wgNQqjKntstZSsJ9O4Pv8RCvvo8-vCARjCklocBniXrVbP90ndSfbEObc0JjPXNjwKlahp_PMY/s320/dark_matter.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<br />WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-6504129835350558452018-09-18T08:21:00.000-07:002018-09-18T08:21:39.936-07:00Champions Now Ep. 5: Villain Team Up!As the days pass at Waterford College, Jackie begins to develop the idea of her heroic identity, "Ultraviolet" and how she might use it to further her own agenda. But before that can get too far, Professor Richter introduces a guest to the Guided Studies class: a supervillain named the White Flame. The White Flame is part of Raven, an elitist group of European nobility committed to reestablishing monarchies throughout the continent "since it appears democratic rule as failed." Richter explains that while most of the students already are affiliated with supervillain organizations, part of the what the Guided Studies program does is help young supervillains build networks with other factions. As such, the students will be proving themselves to the While Flame by stealing the most impressive object they can find within 24 hours.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatRvIfUO-KYZx86D8hWsaEEatu_c10C4j3xec4f-dfrOo1NtyT17eG0W2-cYL8qSXHtx74CaZnldFhgEgfDtDTW9jihiTm7b_ShE5QmUPnYmpYZTWdrXQesqLdALfm11rg3ZxVMmp3ag/s1600/derek_powers__earth_27__commission_by_phil_cho-dbe355c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1224" data-original-width="792" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatRvIfUO-KYZx86D8hWsaEEatu_c10C4j3xec4f-dfrOo1NtyT17eG0W2-cYL8qSXHtx74CaZnldFhgEgfDtDTW9jihiTm7b_ShE5QmUPnYmpYZTWdrXQesqLdALfm11rg3ZxVMmp3ag/s320/derek_powers__earth_27__commission_by_phil_cho-dbe355c.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The White Flame, art by Phil Cho</td></tr>
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Jackie is surprised when she is approached after class by her old classmate/rival Bronze Behemoth, who suggests that they team up and do something truly reckless: steal from the White Flame himself!<br />
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Their plan is simple: follow the White Flame to wherever he is staying in the area. Bronze Behemoth will engage the flame in some fanboy/networking conversation while Dark Matter tries to get into his room to steal something of worth. The next day, they give it back.</div>
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It's a good plan, until an UNTIL strike team surreptitiously approaching the hotel where the White Flame is staying. Bronze Behemoth hustles the White Flame out of the hotel bar, then holds off the UNTIL agents until he can get away. Dark Matter, on the other hand, is confronted in the White Flame's hotel room by Starburst, an UNTIL-linked superhero.</div>
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Bronze Behemoth is able to handle the UNTIL agents, but Dark Matter finds herself in a desperate flight across the city, finally shaking Starburst and making her escape.</div>
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The next day, the students present their "homework." Dark Elf has managed to steal some precious gems from a local jeweler. The Face used his emotion control abilities to easily steal some priceless artwork. Bedlam turns over a bizarre collection of toenail clippings she stole from someone she found on the internet. Bronze Behemoth and Dark Matter give the White Flame back his briefcase, but the White Flame's admiration is largely given to Behemoth for rescuing him from capture.<br />
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The big surprise comes from Ronin, however. He turns over the electro-shock gun of Captain Hollywood, whom Ronin says was defeated by him in single combat. The superhero, Ronin smugly states, has been beaten soundly and left to die in a car destined for the crusher in a junkyard. Jackie is left pondering if she should intervene on behalf of the luckless superhero.</div>
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<i>GM's notes:</i></div>
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<i>First, I was interviewed by Ron Edwards, the creator of Champions Now, about the Dark Matter campaign I'm doing with my daughter. You can see the interview <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGZ4qU-hS6Y" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></div>
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<i>Second, this session has a special "guest star." My son was visiting from college and sat in on the session, playing the character Bronze Behemoth. My children have gamed together a lot over the years, and my daughter misses having him around, so this was a real treat. My son played the normally oafish Bronze Behemoth with a little more savvy than is typical for the character, making him a more complex and sinister figure as a result. Behemoth is one of the few characters that transferred from my daughter's "canon" of previous Dark Matter stories, mostly to serve as a familiar and annoying foil.</i></div>
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<i>Finally, since I may be getting more than the typical trickle of traffic here, I should given credit to the artist Phil Cho, whose deviantart page can be found <a href="https://www.deviantart.com/phil-cho/gallery/" target="_blank">here</a>. I found him looking for pictures I could use for my various superhero games and really liked his colorful, clean, youthful style. I've shamelessly printed off pictures to show my daughter of various NPC's, even cribbed the interesting name now and then, strictly for personal use. He does a lot of commission work, and I finally decided to ask him to do a commission of Dark Matter for me as a gift for my daughter. Once it is done, I'll post it here.</i></div>
WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-4188724544208102552018-08-11T20:25:00.000-07:002018-08-11T20:25:03.218-07:00Champions Now Ep. 4: Enter UltravioletMy daughter and I played our fourth session of the solo Champions Now campaign set in my daughter's "Dark Matter Universe" featuring the novice super-villain/unwilling superhero Dark Matter. In the last session Dark Matter had ended up fighting alongside local superhero to fight a monster threatening her college campus. In the process, she's being touted as a new superhero in the community.<div>
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In this session, Jackie (Dark Matter's secret identity) finds herself being asked out on a date by fellow supervillain-in-training Joseph Kane, aka Ronin. Later Kane calls to say he hasn't seen his roommate, another supervillain called The Face. Jackie, who has always had a bit of a soft spot for The Face, scours the campus, eventually finding him in conversation with two mysterious figures who are clearly bullying him into being part of a job.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8devsT3jhjg1MpvvS9ZjpsvTRXzfUkHtEGt3zvFER0SUweCaJKjz8ad3c-ArFvhtYNg2IcR1W0XN7oIvKkuYs9NQiwQPeRuzcV0iAXssu564Gm-E7wRWoxCS3FSYumVL79RR8aJ19Rzc/s1600/ronin_v_2_commission_by_phil_cho-dafivzy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1111" data-original-width="719" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8devsT3jhjg1MpvvS9ZjpsvTRXzfUkHtEGt3zvFER0SUweCaJKjz8ad3c-ArFvhtYNg2IcR1W0XN7oIvKkuYs9NQiwQPeRuzcV0iAXssu564Gm-E7wRWoxCS3FSYumVL79RR8aJ19Rzc/s320/ronin_v_2_commission_by_phil_cho-dafivzy.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ronin, by Phil Cho</td></tr>
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After doing some research and talking to some other people, Jackie finds out that The Face is part of a Mexican gang of assassins called the Asesinos, who are led by a vampire called Stalker. She talks The Face and discovers he is supposed to be part of an assassination attempt on a visiting dignitary from the Middle East, along with two members of the Asesinos, Tombstone Kid and The Maine. The Face, however, has been forced into a life of crime since his childhood, and worries for his life should the job go badly.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlHToliXfM-G5QkRXUT4n8y5N6S44_mlm_4MGXlAi0eC8HQotLJrSVPddXZ-hVKhbf4uIwchjxu4Sm304rCnurhfX2FXDX_gbVBSxKtza8J2hWzZuXEfPLyVFR0FhDPektpmCckBU0FqU/s1600/face_oc_commission_by_phil_cho-d9tlm89.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1111" data-original-width="719" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlHToliXfM-G5QkRXUT4n8y5N6S44_mlm_4MGXlAi0eC8HQotLJrSVPddXZ-hVKhbf4uIwchjxu4Sm304rCnurhfX2FXDX_gbVBSxKtza8J2hWzZuXEfPLyVFR0FhDPektpmCckBU0FqU/s320/face_oc_commission_by_phil_cho-d9tlm89.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Face, by Phil Cho</td></tr>
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Jackie decides to formalize her "fake" superhero identity, calling herself "Ultraviolet" and getting a new costume. She surveys the public arrival of the dignitary, drawing the attention of Captain Hollywood, who welcome the new "hero." The two of them spot Tombstone Kid and the Maine, and leap into action to foil the plan. Both heroes take a lot of damage from the Tombstone Kid (while The Maine turns out to be a complete failure).</div>
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In the end, Captain Hollywood suggests that Ultraviolet make herself scarce while he handles the authorities. Back at Waterford College The Face thanks Jackie for helping him out of a bad situation.</div>
WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-58477935734356096192018-08-02T07:21:00.001-07:002018-08-02T07:21:10.301-07:00Champions Now Ep. 3: PlagueBetween the last gaming session of Champions Now with my daughter and this one, she hatched a pretty inventive plan to help Dark Matter out of her mistaken identity problem. Because the mysterious attacker on Waterford College's campus had similar powers to a character from her graphic novel, a young man named Plague, she decided to ask that character (as basically an NPC) to help her out.<br />
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The plan was this: Plague would show up, shoot a video claiming that the attacks on the campus were the work of a rival, and that <i>he </i>had attacked Captain Hollywood in an attempt to hunt down the monster. Furthermore, he would state he was giving up on the chase and leaving town (hopefully getting Hollywood to stop looking for Dark Matter). In turn, Dark Matter would continue looking for the monster.<br />
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Things, however, did not go as planned. Plague was captured by Captain Hollywood leaving town. And when Dark Matter freed Plague from UNTIL custody, Captain Hollywood managed to find the monster but ultimately lost to him, getting most of his strength drained away. Now the monster was on a rampage against the police, and Dark Matter and Plague teamed up to stop him (mostly from wrecking the college and ultimately exposing the Guided Studies program). They were able to defeat him, and he was revealed to be a transformed Professor Throckmorton, Dark Matter's mythology professor.<br />
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In the epilogue, Plague thanked Dark Matter for helping build his reputation, and alluded to a big plan in the future being hatched by his brothers. Dark Elf bragged at the next class session that she was responsible for transforming Throckmorton as punishment for embarrassing her in class, and in the closing scene Dark Matter was surprised to see a news report about a new superhero in the city, namely herself...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://pre00.deviantart.net/8672/th/pre/f/2017/289/8/3/rachael_moira_elizabeth_thane__earth_27__oc_by_phil_cho-dbqsjdt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="518" height="320" src="https://pre00.deviantart.net/8672/th/pre/f/2017/289/8/3/rachael_moira_elizabeth_thane__earth_27__oc_by_phil_cho-dbqsjdt.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ashley Mason, aka Dark Elf, in her human form. Art by Phil Cho</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://pre00.deviantart.net/4d2b/th/pre/f/2016/336/e/c/panthra_commission_by_phil_cho-daqc37e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="518" height="320" src="https://pre00.deviantart.net/4d2b/th/pre/f/2016/336/e/c/panthra_commission_by_phil_cho-daqc37e.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dark Elf in her supernatural form. Art by Phil Cho</td></tr>
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<br />WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-27362457055873119172018-07-20T13:15:00.002-07:002018-07-20T13:15:57.004-07:00Champions Now Ep. 2: Mistaken IdentityMy one-on-one Champions Now campaign with my daughter had its second adventure. It began with her PC, Jackie "Dark Matter" Lee having the usual college experience: suffering through boring classes with her frenemy Ashley "Dark Elf" Mason, awkwardly talking to a boy she likes (Ben "the Face" Rodriguez), and fending off the unwanted advances of another supervillain classmate (Joseph "Ronin" Kane).<br />
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But all the teen drama is interrupted when several students at Waterford College are found suffering from a mysterious malady that leaves them weak and sickly. Jackie suspects her friend Plaque from her old school, but discovers a strange, tentacled monster is stalking the campus instead. Unfortunately Jackie, in her Dark Matter costume, is spotted near one of the victims by Captain Hollywood, a minor local superhero. Now she is a prime suspect in the attacks and dangerously close to having the Guided Studies program exposed.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://pre00.deviantart.net/bad3/th/pre/f/2016/327/6/4/captain_hollywood_commission_by_phil_cho-dapel3u.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="518" height="320" src="https://pre00.deviantart.net/bad3/th/pre/f/2016/327/6/4/captain_hollywood_commission_by_phil_cho-dapel3u.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captain Hollywood, by Phil Cho</td></tr>
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I'm still enjoying the rules-light approach. A handful of skills manage to cover most of what you come across in a superhero campaign. There are still a few things about the rules that I am getting used to, like only have one kind of Multipower slot (for those who know the game--it's the flexible kind) and not being able to adjust Endurance or Stun with points, just the base characteristics.<div>
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Anyways, this game is picking up steam. <br /><br /></div>
WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-90355549147871008262018-07-13T15:15:00.002-07:002018-07-13T15:15:41.566-07:00Champions Now: Ep. 1 Welcome to WaterfordMacy and I had our first <i>Champions Now</i> session, featuring her supervillain/heroine Dark Matter.<br />
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The story was that Jackie Lee, scion of an Asian supervillain crime cartel, has been forced by her parents to miss a summer vacation and instead spend the semester at Waterford College where she will take several classes including her "Guided Studies" program in villainy. Waterford is a small, liberal arts college in New England, a long way from her home in California.<br />
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Jackie is introduced to many new people, including her dorm resident assistant Kirk and one of her roommates Indu. Her villainy class is taught by the strict but helpful Professor Monique Richter. Her fellow students are<br />
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<li>Bedlam, a female telekinetic who appears unstable</li>
<li>Dark Elf, a feral supernatural creature and snobby girl who hates that she and Jackie have similar names</li>
<li>Bronze Behemoth, another student from her old university and obnoxious frat bro</li>
<li>Ronin, a handsome martial artist and gadgeteer, but also an unwelcome flirt</li>
<li>Face, a shy empath and frequent victim of bullying by Bronze Behemoth</li>
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The intro session had the students working their way through an obstacle course (to teach Macy how skills and attribute checks work), tearing through barriers (to teach the damage rules), and sparring against each other (to teach combat).</div>
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By the end of the first session, Dark Matter was feeling a long way from home. It didn't help that she discovered that she'd be sharing a quad dorm room with Bedlam, as well as Indu. Professor Richter had warned her that if Indu or any other student found out about the secret behind the "Guided Studies" program, they would be killed. But Bedlam doesn't seem to share Jackie's concerns for her roommate's well being. Add to that antagonistic rivals, irritating suitors, and mysterious acquaintances, and Dark Matter is in for a very long summer...</div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://pre00.deviantart.net/c5c2/th/pre/f/2018/100/6/8/raquel_ervin__earth_27__commission_by_phil_cho-dc8fhwc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="518" height="320" src="https://pre00.deviantart.net/c5c2/th/pre/f/2018/100/6/8/raquel_ervin__earth_27__commission_by_phil_cho-dc8fhwc.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Jackie's roommate Indu, illustration by Phil Cho on Deviantart</td></tr>
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WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-31223438870307687262018-07-13T08:21:00.002-07:002018-07-13T08:21:31.928-07:00In which I run a teen superhero soap operaMy daughter Macy agreed to help me playtest the new <i>Champions Now</i> rules. We decided to set the campaign in the fictional superhero universe of the graphic novel she's writing, an untitled work featuring the main character, Dark Matter (I may end up calling the setting "the Dark Matter Universe" or DMU).<br />
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The premise of Macy's graphic novel is that powerful and wealthy supervillains have arranged with universities and college across the country to educate their offspring in the ways of supervillainy secretly in concealed elective classes. Thus Dark Matter, in her secret identity of Jackie Lee, is a regular Asian-American college student with a dorm room, roommates, dating drama, etc. but on the side is trained to be a supervillain along with several other students including Bronze Behemoth, Plague, and several others.<br />
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So my campaign doesn't interfere with her graphic novel in terms of continuity, we decided to set the Champions Now game during a "semester abroad" where Jackie leaves Golden Bay University (a large West Coast state university) and attends Waterford College, a small New England liberal arts school. She will still be in the "Guided Studies" program, but now will have new teachers, new roommates, and new fellow supervillains-in-training.<br />
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I have to say, I don't know if it is because the material is so close to my heart, both in terms of being a superhero fan and gaming with my daughter, but the whole campaign has coalesced quickly and beautifully. I already have nine NPC's worked out, multiple sub-plots in the making, and am really jazzed about making this happen.<br />
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To help me out, I once again skimmed the great DeviantArt gallery of artist <a href="https://www.deviantart.com/phil-cho/gallery/" target="_blank">Phil Cho</a>, whose clean and youth-centric superhero art was perfect for this campaign. He has a whole section called "Supporting characters" in his "Earth 27" art gallery that could easily populate Waterford College for years. That's not even including his original concept work.<br />
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Based on the original style of the Dark Matter graphic novel, this will be a pretty light-hearted affair with plenty of action, comedy, and teen drama (will Jackie's new roommate Indu discover her secret identity? Who is Professor Monique Richter actually working for?) The DMU is definitely a "CW" kind of place.<br />
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So the first session will introduce the main characters and give Jackie a "danger room" scenario where she can learn the rules. I'll post a after-action report to let you all know how it went.WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-56621613062606763932018-07-11T20:59:00.002-07:002018-07-11T20:59:21.070-07:00Champions Now: a first look and the first PCWhile the final product is theoretically about five months away, those of us who Kickstarted the quasi-retro-clone of <i>Champions</i> 3rd Edition called <i>Champions Now</i> got the files of the old editions of the game plus the playtesting document. Champions 3rd Edition was the first edition of Champions I owned and had a major impact on my high school gaming until I went to college and discovered the famous 4th Edition/Hero Games "Big Blue Book," which became the core of my roleplaying experiences for years.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-SwciZMsl7L9r2sXI6oGkKQ6FzCM_CvDFio5W935KZ2yLoSQf8-B04QDft3Wf8ZKfXAH_G4t38r__SEtIrZRXAiRjicwR56LZfczTQ7yBLd9Nib7sfqkdZRDu1LrLQg_QOjx4rA9Z84Y/s1600/champions3ecover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="787" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-SwciZMsl7L9r2sXI6oGkKQ6FzCM_CvDFio5W935KZ2yLoSQf8-B04QDft3Wf8ZKfXAH_G4t38r__SEtIrZRXAiRjicwR56LZfczTQ7yBLd9Nib7sfqkdZRDu1LrLQg_QOjx4rA9Z84Y/s320/champions3ecover.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
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Taking another look at the third edition, I was filled with a huge sense of sentimentality, as well as a bit of appreciation for the much more simplistic rules in comparison to 4th Edition. Gone are all the perks, talents, contacts, etc. that allowed Hero Games to be used for non-supers games (or detail supers ones). Back was the steep Endurance cost that could leave a hero gasping for air after going full-bore for a couple of actions.<br />
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But this is a time for playtesting, so I recruited by daughter, who has been writing her own superhero graphic novel/ongoing series to stat up her main character, Dark Matter. Dark Matter is actually a villain who finds herself constantly being compelled to do the right thing. She's got several villain acquaintances, including the supervillain frat bro named Bronze Behemoth, whom I went ahead and built on a slim and tiny 250 points.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0-KeY44jHijchGE1u3vQpzsunhmG8fcSz9M5kZmdos8Q8TjKw_d07JfQLHQPbDp1MJG7ezYzwKvbuOXZUaxyPUqoGY5iOtsbq882UWEiwdJy6O9m4hXKcaXc0yiHe6bT2HIJzrMZoAjg/s1600/Bronze+Behemoth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0-KeY44jHijchGE1u3vQpzsunhmG8fcSz9M5kZmdos8Q8TjKw_d07JfQLHQPbDp1MJG7ezYzwKvbuOXZUaxyPUqoGY5iOtsbq882UWEiwdJy6O9m4hXKcaXc0yiHe6bT2HIJzrMZoAjg/s1600/Bronze+Behemoth.jpg" /></a></div>
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Both character creation exercises were fun and easy, and I'm thinking this will be both a great way to do a little side-campaigning and also spend some quality time with my daughter. More on Dark Matter (including some of my daughter's illustrations) hopefully to come.WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-2434500672062777212018-07-09T11:53:00.002-07:002018-07-09T11:53:38.357-07:00Blades in the Dark: A Piece of the ActionAs I become more familiar with the rules for <i>Blades in the Dark</i>, a gloompunk fantasy RPG where the PC's play a starting gang of scoundrels, I have begun to really appreciate how much gameplay is taken up with more than just immediate actions.<br />
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Basically, in addition to just doing the heists, capers, assassinations, or other immediate criminal activities, the PC group also has to target other groups to increase their reputation, manage a cohort of NPC's lackeys, maintain and expand a hideout, and move into neighboring territories to increase opportunities. This is on top of doing some abstract bookkeeping of resources, including deciding what you want to keep in liquid assets and what you want to sock away for your PC's eventual retirement. Oh, and while you're at it, make sure that each PC spends some time engaging in whatever their vice-like activity might be in order to help relieve stress.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq_oRXxCfUCemwaK8ijWs0Ibla3RGQwWIoaqSc47QM2z_O590RHQAl4YiceGfpEuzf86xlB6n85llinIVAnJAFAQXzTrznJK73i__dHSSNa71LgzldmABmsShlTJAIDdiEfnDB44FHCq8/s1600/steampunk+accountant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq_oRXxCfUCemwaK8ijWs0Ibla3RGQwWIoaqSc47QM2z_O590RHQAl4YiceGfpEuzf86xlB6n85llinIVAnJAFAQXzTrznJK73i__dHSSNa71LgzldmABmsShlTJAIDdiEfnDB44FHCq8/s320/steampunk+accountant.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A typical BitD character managing their gang. Also what you get when you Google "steampunk accountant"</td></tr>
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That's a lot of non-combat, non-roleplaying activity, representing a kind of world-building gameplay the group is unaccustomed to. It will be interesting to see how they react, and who in the group will find that portion of the gaming as interesting as scaling wall or punching it out with the police.WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1050721357300630823.post-42429513737019848682018-07-08T14:44:00.001-07:002018-07-08T14:44:50.347-07:00Blades in the Dark: Someone Else's OpusMy gaming group decided to give Evil Hat's <i>Blades in the Dark</i> a quick try. The first session was last Friday, mostly spent introducing the group to the rules and the PC and gang creation system. The initial PC's include<br />
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<li>A Leech specializing in pseudo-science technology</li>
<li>A Whisper who can influence the weather</li>
<li>A Cutter who is a former merchant marine</li>
<li>A Lurk who can briefly enter the ghost realm</li>
<li>And a Slide who is a professional con artist</li>
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For a gang, they decided to be Smugglers, which I thought of as being a fairly "safe" choice and easiest to stay on the morally unobjectionable side (versus say, a Cult or Hawkers, who are vice peddlers). Some of the younger players also picked fairly "soft" vices, like being obligated to their family instead of gamblers or drug addicts.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://img00.deviantart.net/72a3/i/2010/221/b/3/steampunk_group_by_0rla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" height="240" src="https://img00.deviantart.net/72a3/i/2010/221/b/3/steampunk_group_by_0rla.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photograph by Orla on Deviant Art. There is no shortage of possible group photos online for this game.</td></tr>
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I suspect that the game will likely be more of a "Han Solo" kind of campaign versus a more gritty, ethically murky affair, but that's okay given the disposition of my group. What's interesting for me is that it is the first game I'm tried in a while where most of the campaign background, NPC's, etc. are already made up. There's a huge trove of detailed information in the book that it in and of itself an incredibly impressive corpus of work, but I'm been more likely in the past to do most of the creative work myself on top of a skeleton of rules.</div>
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I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I suspect I'll be able to do this game with less prep, which means it will be likely to run longer than some other campaigns have. On the other hand, it'll never feel like my game. It's someone else's opus, and I'll just be massaging it into something that looks more like me. Plus I like to engage in the creative process, so it will be interesting to see how much room I have within the construct of the RPG.</div>
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How do you feel about super-detailed RPG's? Love 'em or hate 'em?</div>
WQRobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17436898737750581192noreply@blogger.com3