Three Posts in One

I've had three sessions of Deadlands since I posted last, so I'll be writing about all of them.

The posse had a severed finger that had given them directions that pointed them in a south easterly direction. I had no plans for what would occur between their current location and the location the finger was leading them toward. I decided to try out the tables in the book designed for creating adventures on the fly.

I have to admit that it was very fun rolling that big, over-sized, D20 over and over again—while my players watched on in horror. I didn't tell them what I was up to and they seemed to grow more nervous each time the die rolled.

What's fun about tables, is that they give you very basic and specific information, but really it's not enough to go on. I ended up having them rowing their canoes, running into a Tugboat (that may or may not be haunted—which was fun to run). They then spent some time lost in the maze, following a mystical compass and then had to travel across land to get to their location.

The next session was a fairly straight forward following of the information in the book. By straightforward, I mean that they solve all the problems in completely different ways than what the writers of the book seem to intend. They broke into the facility in a round about way, they took out a number of guards in an unintentional way, using something that was intended to be an obstacle to the players, but ended up not being an obstacle to them. (Thank You Bad GM Die Roll—I chose to roll the dice to determine that outcome, so I had to go with it.)

Then the next gaming session was the reverse trip through the maze, to complete the mission that they were running. This time, I did all the dice rolling ahead of time. (During a break at a 4E Dungeons and Dragons game earlier that day) They were to encounter a Mexican Ship that was sinking, being fought over by two other Mexican Ships (the reason this was happening was there for back-story but it never came up in game)—there was to be a Giant Octopus, and a Whirlpool.

P's character ended up jumping in the water to take on the cephalopod (No Swimming skill, but he aced the roll) and ended up taking it out almost singlehandedly. I'm sure there were some rules about running that particular encounter, that I missed, but it sure made for an exciting time had by all so it doesn't matter—I'm the sheriff and that's how I run my game.

There was a lot of box text that I just read straight out of the book at the end of the session, it made for a rather dramatic end to the evening, and I think a good time was had by all.

Savage Cake

The Cub Scouts have a Cake Auction/Pot Luck Soup Dinner every year as a Fund Raiser. This year, I had an Idea for a cake.

My wife covered the cake with orange (because that's what we had on hand), then I put on a one inch grid. Dropped some Dice and figures on and viola. The Zombie vs Robot vs Pirate vs Ninja Cake was born.

I had the Zombie and the Pirate and the Ninja on Hand, but I had to be a little creative for the Robot; I had a generic cake topper Soccer guy and spray painted him silver.

We included with the cake a copy of the Savage Worlds Test Drive Rules, and Character Sheets for a Zombie, Robot, Pirate, and Ninja.

Thrift Store Score

My second daughter had a birthday recently. We had looked for a cheap Ken Doll at the Walmart, but the only cheap one they had was Identical to the one that my four year old has—since we were trying to remedy a source of argument between them, my Wife wanted it to be different.

My Mom mentioned the Thrift Store at the Birthday party and frankly, I don't know why I didn't think of that—I love buying toys at the Thrift Store. So, we planned a trip to the store of thrift.

Now, I have my particular brand of Thrift Store Shopping down to a science. First, go straight to the Toys. What I look for is small scale plastic figurines, not necessarily articulated. When I was a Kid (and to this day) my favorite toys are the ones that are small, make no noise, and inspire imagination. Examples: Action Figures in General, Fisher Price Action People, Muscle Men, Fisher Price Little People (I don't like the new ones as much as the ones they made in the 70's–80's), Playmobil, Little Green Army guys (anything made in the manner of Green Army men), but my favorites are the small PVC plastic figures like the ones featured on my Savage Worlds Character Blog.

After I dig through the Toys, I check the Games (looking for games with interesting dice or components), I  give the electronics a cursory glance, I check the CD's and Vinyl Albums (generally finding some really good stuff in vinyl), the books, the Good Stuff (a.k.a. the things kept locked behind glass), and finally the Ties (it has become increasingly difficult to find the good ties [I like ties that are stiff, thick, made in the 70's, polyester, with outlandish non-repeating patterns])

I started rambling didn't I?

My find this week? An Almost Complete, Dungeons and Dragons—Dragons Quest "Board" Game. The only thing missing was The Cover to the Rule Book (a.k.a. the Dungeon Masters Screen, of  which I found a scan online), and the Adventure Book—which is kind of a bummer; but for two dollars I got six metal fantasy figurines and six polyhedral dice (1d10 was missing), 14 paper doors, and 48 varieties of paper monsters (only 2 missing).

Notice there are three Zombies...any day you can get Zombies and Dice at the Thrift store is a Good Day.

Being Off the Rails is Hard

We met for another exciting adventure in California. This marked the first session of Deadlands that was truly off the rails. Back when we started, I began in Colorado and used the adventure module Coffin Rock as an introduction to Deadlands. I did this because I was still reading The Flood, and I wasn’t ready to start. In hindsight, that was probably backwards. It would have made more sense to start The Flood and Throw in Coffin Rock as a Savage Tale (Savage Tales are Smaller Stories that happen between the main plot points).

So, the beginning of this evening was to finish off the plot point that was started last time. In prepping for the game, I really didn’t know what to prepare ahead of time. The Posse had a number of ways they could possibly go—they could choose to go to Virginia City, the destination they were headed toward when they were literally railroaded to California; or they could follow the plot point and head to Shan Fan; or they could decide to do something completely different.

I read half of the Shan Fan plot point. I had decided what to do if they went to Virginia City and read that Savage Tale (but apparently I skimmed a little too much—more on that later.) When the game started, I felt half prepared—which is more than I can usually expect for an off the rails session.

When the Posse was deciding what to do, I looked at the Map and realized that Virginia City was a lot further north than I thought it was.  Which kind of messed with the way I connected Coffin Rock and The Flood. . . but I didn’t mention that to my players. However, it did solve their question of where to go due to the fact that Shan Fan was closer than Virginia City, and they could take a train from Shan Fan to Virginia City.

Looking at the Distance between where they were, and where they were headed made me think about the way that other people must run these games. There were charts and tables in Zombie Run for traveling, and the book assumed that you would make the use of a map, choose the way to go, roll to determine what happens every ten mile stretch of road, or some nonsense like that. Old D&D has similar charts and tables for wilderness travel. Similarly, The Flood also has rules for traveling in California, which differ a bit from the charts in the base Deadlands book. I simplified a bit and tried the random encounter table.

Due to the Great Quake that occurred in the canon of Deadlands, California is an even harsher wilderness to travel than in other parts of Deadlands America. It’s supposed to take longer to get from point A to point B. The tables indicated that the Posse should encounter nothing—I ascribe to right of Game Master Fiat and moved the encounter planned for Virginia City to middle of nowhere California. I grabbed Saddle Sore and I was running one of the Savage Tales found in that Volume, but I definitely didn’t read it thoroughly enough. I had to retcon several times throughout the evening, and when I got lost, I found myself sitting there a little confounded—just reading. I feel bad about that, because it just leaves my players in limbo, so the conversation wanders to extra-game topics.

I have to apologize to P the most, since he had to leave before there were any mini-fig-on-battle-mat encounters. A creature did attack, during the day this time, in broad daylight, in the travelling show. I’ll have to think about how I’m going to use the outcome to my advantage.

Speaking of the encounter, I pulled the low card, and Brandon’s character is overpowered (for this part of the Plot Point) I don’t know what to do about that.  It’s not that my creatures keep feeling the wrath of his “razor sharp cloud of card shuriken” (Bolt), it’s that I had to finagle things just to give the group the clue that the encounter was to provide. How many power points do you have Brandon?—I think I need to look at your character sheet again.

All in all, it wasn't a bad session—but it wasn’t the greatest either. I think the person that gets the most impatient with me when I’m trying to figure out what’s going on, is my wife. . . that’s stressful to me.

I have to admit though, that the actions of certain Posse members have set in motion some very interesting possibilities. Mwa–ha–ha–ha–ha.

I think I Handled the New Player a Little Better This Time. . . Maybe

It's been a month and I finally got to play Savage Worlds again.

We have a neighbor who expressed curiosity in playing with us some time ago, so I've been inviting him since then and Saturday he was able to come to the game. Brandon helped him to create a character (So I could read a One Sheet that he has written to give him some feedback), but I handle character creation differently—so I'm kind of regretting that (just a little bit).

It took longer than anticipated, but I finally got the game going. This was a high box-text part of the adventure, and rather than paraphrase like I normally do, I decided to just read the text, as is, from the book. We're still in the highly railroady part of The Flood. My wife constantly mocked me during the reading portions.

Then Finally, they got to the encounter. The whole thing felt forced and inorganic. When they started fighting the bad guys, I finally remembered something that I've been wanting to do for a long time. The technique is called: yes...but...

I think I heard about this Technique from Sean Patrick Fannon on one or more of the Gaming Podcasts to which I subscribe. I believe he stated that it is an old improvisation exercise. It works like this: If someone asks a question, the answer is yes...but there is some caveat .

I.e.—"Is there a Garbage Can I can Hide Behind?"

—Absolutely, but it's across the street, you could probably make it past the crossfire to take cover. . .

This, added to the fact that this game marked the first use of a Battle Mat owned by myself, made for an interesting encounter. My wife was holding the Wet Erase Marker, and was using the Yes...But... technique to her advantage, drawing in all the fiddly bits.

What I thought would turn into a shootout in the street, ended up with the Posse holing up inside: throwing tables in front of the windows, locking the proprietor of the establishment in a closet, Molotov cocktails. The most creative maneuver by a Player Character of the night, happened because of the Yes...But... technique. He asked if there was a Sign hanging from the Balcony above, that he could shoot the supporting ropes of, and have it fall on the guys below. The answer of course was yes...but it's going to be a difficult shot to do so. Essentially, he had to roll a six on a six sided die to be successful. He rolled, and because of the exploding dice mechanic he got a fifteen on his six sided die, that's a very solid hit, which means that he gets to roll an extra six sided dice for damage.

In this case that meant 3d6 for damage—He rolled a one a one and a two for a grand total of four. Which was the lowest number he could get and be successful in breaking the rope. Then the damage the sign caused didn't even phase one of the guys, but the other guy was out of the fight because of it.

At this point it was late and all they had to do was get out of Lost Angels. I threw one more group of bad guys on the table, just for some dramatic flair—make them feel like they were being chased and there was danger around every corner. They were on the opposite side of the Map, all they had to do was run around a corner and make a stealth check and they were safe—so of course they took cover and proceeded to take them all out.

My conclusions for the evening:
Players never do what you think or hope they will—luckily that's a big part of the fun. I'm starting to enjoy the Behind the Screen part of the game a little better. Molotov cocktails need to be less easy to create. I love it when players are more creative about the encounters, now if I could get them to be more creative with the use of the game mechanics (Taunts, and Ganging Up, and getting the Drop...that sort of thing). I need to use the awesome weapons that my wild cards have, instead of forgetting that they have them until after they are incapacitated—this game was not the first (and probably not the last) example of this happening.

As for the new player thing. I ruined someones enjoyment of RPGs during one of the first sessions I ran. I feel bad, because they still won't play with us and have no desire to do so at all. I completely recognize that I ruined their enjoyment of the game, and their view of role playing games in general. I also recognize that I was so new to the Game Mastering side of the hobby that I had no way of recognizing that I was creating a negative experience.

This time went much better, he had played D&D once before, but I think allowing him to come up with this plan concerning the hanging sign really added to his enjoyment of the game. (I overheard him telling his Dad about it in Church between meetings the following day) Yes...But... is a tool that every Game Master Should be using. It allows people to come up with crazy things, and go away with an amazing cinematic experience.

Free RPG Day 2010—Oddly Successful

In a strange sort of way, Free RPG Day was a weird success.

As I Chronicled Previously. I found that I was going to be in Boise on Free RPG Day 2010. I had found the closest participating store to be in Mountain Home (A smallish city [population aprox. 13,000] about an hour drive from Boise). The store seemed odd on the internet—and it was odd when I got there.

Picture a normal hobby game store. Then Randomly pick a place in the middle and put a shelf up that has collectible statues on it—not the kind of collectible statues that you normally find at a game store like superheroes and nerdy movie properties. No, there were no Star Trek Crew Members, No Star Wars Heroes, no Marvel or DC properties, not even a Cthulhu Idol. There were tiger busts, fairy figurines, cowboys and indians, Precious Moments, and Hallmark type stuff. Then another wall and two random aisles get stocked with Model Airplanes and Model Airplane Parts (The Kinds of Models that you actually fly). Add 2 Cats and one Rather Large Dog into the Mix; put Grandma and Grandpa (who know nothing about hobby gaming) behind the counter to run the cash register.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself. If you recall, I had called around to all the game stores that I could find in Boise, and none were participating. When we got to Boise, I spent some time going to different game stores when I had nothing else to do—it filled the time nicely and I enjoyed it, but I still was unable to find a store participating in Boise Proper.

I had planned to run down to Mountain Home on Saturday morning, and one of my Wife's cousins (Jacob, Age 14) opted to tag along—I thought it would be a good opportunity to introduce him to the role playing scene; unfortunately it turned out badly.

We couldn't communicate very well due to the road noise while driving there. I arrived a few minutes early and we waited for the store to open. We were the first non-employees in the store, and when asked if they could help me find anything particular, I indicated that we were there for Free RPG Day. The woman behind the counter told me that the person in charge of that would arrive soon ("the boys" had gone for a food run to the McDonalds down the street). So I browsed the merchandise, and took in the sights.

Fist thing I noticed was the complete and utter lack of cool dice—all they really had were the opaque flat colors from Koplow. With the board games, they had a lot of expansions for games that I want, but not the base games (Cut Throat Caverns for instance, three expansions but not the base game). They had a lots of figures to paint, for every table top war game I've ever heard of, and more variety than my game store has in many cases (Malifaux had not only starter sets and cards, but single figures as well). I looked for Savage Worlds product and only found one, it was an Adventure for Savage Worlds, published by one of Pinnacle's Licencee's, which is a really strange thing to have in your store if  you don't carry the core product.

So a few minutes later someone came in and the woman told him what we were there for, so I walked over to talk to him and he informed me that they were starting Free RPG day at Noon. I plead may case...that I was from Utah, that I drove an hour from where I was staying just to get Free RPG day stuff, that we were in town for family and we had things going on to which we needed to return. My pleas fell upon deaf ears, he just reiterated that they would be starting at noon.(He was the epitome of the Role Player Stereotype: awkward, quiet, could use a little more attention to personal hygiene) So I browsed the store, my compatriot was less than thrilled (read: bored) but there was enough there to keep me busy for an hour, but not two.

After about half an hour the guy running free RPG day told me they would be starting soon, this excited me because soon in my mind was early.

Their prices really were good, so I picked up some new things for myself: Zombie Dice Game, Cthulhu Dice Game, Warhammer Fantasy Role Play Dice (I'll probably never play this RPG—but it has cool dice). I wanted to get a Chessex Battle Mat (I noticed that they had a good price online), but they only had the ones with 1½ inch squares, and I wanted the one with 1 inch squares. At this point Jacob borrowed 4¢  and went down the street to the McDonald's, and I entered the Gaming Table Section of the Store to open my new stuff.

When Jake got back we played Zombie Dice, no they had not started and it was about a 11:30. Shortly thereafter, they got a box out from under the counter and laid out the Six free adventures, did they tell me it was okay to pick up the free stuff? No. It's not like I had been there since they opened, waiting specifically to pick that stuff up. I thought to myself that perhaps they would make some announcement to the store that the festivities would begin. (And I guess when he told me they would be starting soon, he meant on time. . . weird.)

Then this other guy walked in ans asked about Free RPG Day and they let him take some adventures. So I got up and took the two I knew I wanted, Jake picked up two that were a maybe (He didn't want any so he was just going to give them to me anyway). I didn't want to be greedy, and my game store puts up signs that says two only please.

We left immediately. I think the reason they were waiting, was that they had people scheduled to run the adventures that were available. There were supposed to be some Dice and a Dice Tower as part of the give away; I didn't see the Dice, and it looked like they only had one dice tower, and it looked like they were going to raffle it off. Perhaps they were saving the dice for people who played, but I didn't have time for that.

On the way back I ran into one of the game stores I had been to earlier in the week and grabbed a Formula D dice set (I wanted a set of these a long time ago and when I went to get them the store no longer had them and the game was out of print), I quickly checked if they had Battle Mats and I was glad that I did, it was even cheaper than the Mountain Home Store (and a dollar less than it would have been to buy a factory second directly from the manufacturer).

Our story doesn't quite end there however. I was in the neighborhood of my Local Gaming Store this week and I stopped in and found they still had copies of the two adventures I had not picked up (and of the four adventures I had picked up, they only had copies of one), so I got all six adventures, and a bunch of stuff I've wanted at discounted prices.

I would call Free RPG Day 2010 a Success.

Free RPG Day 2010—The Pre-game

I was planning to hit my Local Game Store first thing in the morning, so I could pick up some goodies on Free RPG Day (June 19).

I know I want to pick up the D&D Dark Sun 4th Edition Adventure. There's supposed to be some cool Dice Paraphernalia, and Some other  Free Adventure things.

I got the Eberron Adventure, and the Hollow Earth Expedition  Adventure last year—and recently I scrounged around the internet and managed to get my hands on the Paranoia Quick Start Rules for a price that was just a little bit more than free.

When I got to the Game Store last Year there was a sign that said please only take two, and it was all Adventures. I'm guessing all the cool dice stuff was gone, I didn't even know there was Dice Stuff until I looked up everything that was available at a later time.

It seems we're going to be in Boise, ID on the 19th. So I called a bunch of game stores in Boise—no one seems to be participating in Free RPG Game Day 2010.  I checked the web site and there appears to be a game store in Mountain Home, ID—about an hour away from Boise, that is participating in the event, so I guess I'm going to try and make the trip.

I suppose, I could have someone who isn't into gaming here at home go to the Local Gaming Store for me and pick some things up. Any Volunteers? You have to go when they open—the good stuff goes fast.

Dicecreator's Dice

Anyone that follows my ramblings should know I have a wee obsession with Dice.

Which leads me to looking for unique dice once in a while. A while ago, I stumbled across someone that manufactures unique and custom dice—and sells them on e-Bay, through his store: Unconventional Dice.

Shortly thereafter, I learned about his blog: Dicecreator's Blog, and I've been following it ever since. I have planned to purchase some of his carbon fiber and unusually numbered dice when I get the chance.

Then there was a contest in which I participated—and won. So here we are. I won the opportunity to review some of the dice created by the Dicecreator. FULL DISCLOSURE: I was sent a pair of dice free, for review purposes. 

Let's start with a picture of the dice.

We have here a Halo Die and a Steam-punk Die.

The Symbols are inlaid brass, and they look very nice. I thought I read somewhere care instructions for the dice so that the patina they develop is nice and even, but I can't seem to locate that. With brass in there you would wonder about the fairness. I know that is a real concern of the Dicecreator and he has made a commitment to never sell an unfair dice.

I'm no statistician, but they do seem to roll just like every other d6 I own—they roll all over the place: high, low, and medium. They roll low when I want them to roll high and high when I want them to roll low.

Now here's the funny thing, I just described the way they roll as fair, just like all the other dice I own—and now I'm going to describe the way they roll as just like the loaded dice that I own. What could I possibly mean by that? It's because of the brass. The added weight makes them skittle across the table low, i.e. they don't bounce as high as standard dice, but they do roll as far.

It was kind of weird to see at first, and I couldn't quite figure it out until I watched it a few times.

Let's talk quality. These dice have been in my pocket since I received them. Here is a picture of the contents of said pocket.

You may not think a pocket is a rough place to travel, but look at the phone and the pen. All that damage happened in my pocket. The dice are durable enough to take the abuse. In fact, I found myself rather clumsy the week I received them and dropped them from about four feet on multiple occasions.

I must say, I really enjoy these dice. They look great, they're easy to read, they're fun to use at the game table, they're durable, high quality.

I give them A+, 4 Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and every other Appropriate Superlative Available.

The Junk In My Trunk

We've been trying to sell our house. The house we wanted has gone under contract, we cannot find anything comparable. Ours is no longer on the market as a result.

Now when your house is for sale, people come to see it. In an effort to make the house more presentable, I moved some things to the trunk of my car.

I know I have a tendency to hoard things, and I find it necessary to occasionally take a moment to laugh at myself.

Visible in this picture: (Click for Full Size)

RPG Books

Replica of the Original Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) White Box
D&D Basic Rules (Red Box Rulebook)
D&D Expert Rules (Blue Box Rulebooks)
D&D Rules Cyclopedia
D&D Immortal Rules (Gold Box Rulebooks)
D&D Wrath of the Immortals
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) Player's Handbook
AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide
AD&D Monster Manual
AD&D Monster Manual II
AD&D Fiend Folio
AD&D Unearthed Arcana
AD&D Oriental Adventures
AD&D Dieties and Demigods
AD&D Dungeoneers Survival Guide
AD&D Wilderness Survival Guide
AD&D Manual of the Planes
AD&D 2nd Edition (2E) Player's Handbook
AD&D 2E Dungeon Master's Guide
AD&D 2E Monstrous Compendium Vol 1
AD&D 2E Monstrous Compendium Vol 2
AD&D 2E Monstrous Manual
D&D 3E Player's Handbook
D&D 3E Dungeon Master's Guide
D&D 3E Monster Manual
D&D 3E Revised (3.5E) Player's Handbook
D&D 3.5E Dungeon Master's Guide
D&D 3.5E Monster Manual
D&D 4E Player's Handbook
D&D 4E Dungeon Master's Guide
D&D 4E Monster Manual
D&D 4E Player's handbook II
GURPS 3E Basic Set (1st Print)
GURPS Deadlands: Weird West
GURPS Cliffhangers
Toon Deluxe RPG
Toon Tales
Tooniversal Tour Guide
Toon ACE Catalog
The Edge of Midnight RPG
Theatrix The Core Rules
Savage Worlds (SW)
Savage Worlds Revised (SW)
Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition 2nd Printing (SWEX)
Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition 3rd Printing
Realms of Cthulhu (SWEX)
Low Life (SW)
Mars (SWEX)
Runepunk (SW)
Fantasy Companion (SWEX)
Super Powers Companion (SWEX)
Paranoia 25th Anniversary Edition
Ring Wielder


Board Games

Red November
Advance To Boardwalk
Deadlands: The Battle For Slaughter Gulch
Don't Go To Jail
Ticket to Ride
Cranium Cadoo
Dicecapades
MidEVIL Deluxe (Includes MidEVIL, MidEVIL 2: Castle Chaos, & MidEVIL 3: Subteranian Homesick Blues)

Lots and Lots of Dice

In the Filing Box to the Right are the Following:

Zombies!!!
Zombies!!! 2: Zombie Corps(e)
Zombies!!! 3: Mall Walkers
Zombies!!! 4: The End?
Zombies!!! 5: School's Out Forever
Zombies!!! 6: Six Feet Under
Zombies!!! 7: Send In The Clowns
Zombies!!! 8: Jailbreak
Zombie Town
Zombie Town 2: Road Rage
Humans!!!
Humans!!! 2: Seafood

In the Back Pack:

Carcassonne
Carcassonne The River
Carcassonne The River II
Carcassonne The Count of Carcassonne
Carcassonne King & Scout
Carcassonne Abbey & Mayor
Carcassonne Cult Siege & Creativity
Carcassonne Games Quarterly Mini Expansion
Carcassonne Inns & Cathedrals
Carcassonne Princess and the Dragon
Carcassonne The Tower
Carcassonne  Traders & Builders
Bang!
Bang! A Fistfull of Cards
Bang! Dodge City
Cranium Zigity
Zombie Fluxx
Martian Fluxx
Guillotine
Lord of the Fries
Battle Cattle
Are You a Werewolf
Lupus in Tabula
Trax
Ticket To Ride USA 1910 Expansion
Settlers of Catan: The Card Game
Settlers of Catan: The Card Game Expansions

In the Backpack under the Back Pack:

Pirates of the Spanish Main (SWEX)
Day After Ragnarok (SWEX)
Slipstream (SWEX)

Not Visible, But Definitely In There:

Deadlands: Reloaded (SWEX)
Necessary Evil Explorer's Edition (SWEX)
Zombie Run (SWEX)
Deadlands: Murder on the Helstromme Express (SWEX)
Deadlands: Don't Drink the Water
Deadlands: Saddle Sore
Deadlands: Marshalls Screen
Green's Guide to Ghosts (SWEX)
Fear Effects (SWEX)
Gaslight (SWEX)
Advanced Dungeons & Savages  (SW)
The Making of Savage Worlds
Wizards & Warriors (SWEX)
Savage Beasts (SWEX)
Boot Hill Replica
Chainmail Replica
FUDGE
Villains and Vigilantes (V&V) DNAgents Sourcebook
V&V Most Wanted Volume 1
V&V Most Wanted Volume 3
Marvel Super Heroes Deluxe City Campaign Set (Adventure Book Only)
Hollow Earth Expedition—

Kidnapped in the Hollow Eart

h 

(Free RPG Day Adventure 2009)

D&D 4E—Khyber's Harvest (Free RPG Day Adventure 2009)

Martians!!!
Give Me the Brains
The World According to Ubi
Agricola
Bump in the Night
Shut the Box

Lots and Lots More Dice

A Set of Juggling Balls
A Set of Juggling Clubs

Not in the Trunk Currently—Because It's In My Back Pack that I Take Everywhere:
(I.e. What I'm Currently Running/Using Actively)

Deadlands: The Flood
Deadlands: Coffin Rock
Savage Worlds: Explorer's Edition 1st Printing
Lots and Lots More Dice
Lots and Lots of Mini Poker Chips (For Bennys/Fate Chips)
Two Decks of Face Cards With Jokers (For Savage Worlds)

This Quiz Amused Me

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

You are a d100: You're a bit odd, to put it mildly. We're not sure whether you're socially inept, brain damaged, or just trying to be funny. We've given up on trying to figure it out, and have to accept that it might be all three. For you, non-sequitur are the most common form of non-communication. You are given to great flashes brilliance, but don't have the attention span to carry out any of your most ingenious plans. We don't know what color the sky is in your world, and frankly, we're afraid to ask.

Now—Where Did I Put That Mine?

Saturday's game went well, I think.

I've been running this game a little more open than the last one I ran. Apparently only one of the story hooks that I've thrown out managed to latch onto the minds of the players. Now, If I could only figure out why that latched on and the others did not, so I could throw some of the others out again in the manner of the one they decided to bite, then I'd really be in business. (Did you manage to follow that thought?) [I really want to say something here, but that would spoil things for my players.]

I managed to actually remember to hand out Fate Chips for once—but there wasn't really much of a chance to use them in game. P ended up asking for a retcon at the end of the session, which I allowed—so he did use a fate chip to fix a bad roll that kept him out of a vision quest.

My wife is really into her character, she speaks in-character a lot. I however am not speaking in character for most of the NPCs at the moment which caused her a little confusion. I need to work on some of my descriptive skills.

Two of the characters are very mistrusting of each other at the moment, which completely fits their characters, and the situation I've placed them in, and the back story intertwining that I asked everyone to create. I just hope it doesn't tear the party apart.

I missed an opportunity Saturday, and it just occurred to me, unfortunately I can't say what it was. I'll just point out that what happened when the Posse slipped into town after dark should have been interrupted by something that would probably have distracted them from the task at hand.

They spent a good portion of the game trying to track down the Cooked Earth Mine. I changed the story a little from what it is in the book. This posse is good. That's all I'm going to say. That and I think my Indian Shaman came off a little crazier than I intended. That's okay, Yoda acted pretty crazy when Luke first showed up in Dagobah.

My last comment will be this—this game is headed precisely where it was intended to go, but this Posse paid for Express tickets. I guess I need to start reading through the Flood a Lot faster.

Oops, I guess I had another comment in me. When I first started reading The Flood, I didn't think that it was going to fit the concept I had in mind for the party—but I just read a little snippet that leads me to believe that it's actually going to fit like a glove. Time to bust out the old speed reading skills...or just take a break from Barsoom.

Cinderella: Space Ranger

So my daughter wanted to stay up late and read a book the other night, but it was already far past her bedtime, so I told her we could play a dice game tomorrow.

The Dice Game indicates that we play a little improvised role playing game using her jumbo, over sized, plush dice.

The Game generally starts with the traditional, "once upon a time..."

Usually we end up sending a princess on some mad cap adventure—okay, this time was no different. She wanted the story to be about Cinderella. She was wearing Buzz Lightyear pajamas. Let the Mash-up begin!

Granted, I didn't take it as far as I could have. I didn't make her step-relatives show up to aid Emperor Zurg. The story ended up pretty good, due mostly to the both of us rolling badly.

I use a very simple system derived from Savage Worlds—(are you surprised?)

• She picks a single Die (She started with the d12, but I had her switch when I realized it was giving us d2 results [plush dice aren't exactly precision random number generators])
• Every character has every attribute and skill represented by that die, the target number for success is four.
• Dice explode (re-roll and add the result if the highest number on the die is rolled)
• I take raises into account when narrating the story (Raises being every result that is +4 over the target number of 4 [i.e. 8 is one raise 12 is two etc.]). Raises make the results even better.

She doesn't know all this, she knows that anything over four is a success and she loves it!

Cinderella and Buzz Lightyear of Space Command went to face the Evil Emperor Zurg. They fired on his ship and missed, he fired back and missed, they fired again and missed, he fired back and got them. They crashed into a cargo bay and then deployed the wings on their Space Suits and flew out to face Zurg. There was a fist fight, Cinderella had the upper hand and was about to put hand cuffs on him when Zurg managed to land a desperate punch which knocked her out. Then Buzz Stepped in and kept Zurg occupied while Cinderella tried to regain consciousness, once she was up again they tag teamed him and managed to get him into hand cuffs and then took him to the space dungeon.

Good times!

A Year Of Traffic

So, I started monitoring traffic with Google Analytics one year ago. Feb 18, 2009—Let's look at the traffic stats.

Feb18, 2009–Feb 18, 2010

I've had 1,660 visits, 697 unique visitors

2,567 page views


1,257 of the page views were to The Blog's main page
The page visited the most excluding the main page with a total of 389 page views:
Guess What?! I've Got a Fever, and the Only Prescription... is More Dice!
Perhaps I need to blog about dice more often, though none of my other Dice Posts have been quite that popular.


Most of my traffic comes from a direct hits.
Though, in very close competition are referrals from my cousin's blog.
The next three sources are Google related and then things drop to double digits.


The Browser Usage I find interesting

	Firefox			38.55%
	Internet Explorer			32.59%
	Safari			19.88%
	Chrome			6.51%
	Opera			1.45%
	(not set)			0.42%
	Googlebot			0.36%
	Camino			0.06%
	Mozilla			0.06%
	Mozilla Compatible Agent			0.06%
	SeaMonkey			0.06%

Sea Monkey? I'd never heard of that one. (not set) makes me curious.

Browsers is also an interesting Stat.

	Windows			73.07%
	Macintosh			24.70%
	(not set)			0.96%
	Linux			0.84%
	Android			0.18%
	iPhone			0.18%
	iPod			0.06%

Hmmmm? (not set) again?

That's everything that caught my eye that I found interesting.

My Journey to the Game Master's Chair (or: How I Ended Up Behind the Screen)

[I actually posted this on a Forum of one of the podcasts that I listen to. Predictably, it ended up being ridiculously long, and no one read it—so I'm posting it here where an equal number of people won't read it. Changes or comments made for the sake of the blog format to be denoted by brackets.]

Buckle Up, this is going to be a long one! 

Again I feel compelled to comment [referring to the content of the podcast]—this does not happen often, but this episode hit close to home, and I just feel compelled to share my experience. 

To begin, I want to point out that I have only Game Mastered [Fifteen] sessions (Technically a few more than that, but we'll get to that later) and as such I still consider myself a beginner.

Let me start at the beginning. 

Growing up I was into all the same pop culture as my peers (Transformers, G.I. Joe, Thundercats, He-Man, etc. etc. etc.) At the same time I've always been a bit of an old codger since birth—I also enjoy the pop culture of my Father's and Grandfather's Generations. Even as a kid I used out dated catch phrases. 

Back to the point, I was not the kid that was into sports. I was the small kid everyone teased, I lived in my own little world inside my head, I watched educational programming of my own accord, I was a Geek in Embryo...

By all accounts I should have gotten into Role Playing back when the Red Box Dungeons and Dragons burst onto the scene in the late 70's/early 80's. I was intrigued by the advertisements for it in my Smurf and Goofy Comic books, I watched the Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon every Saturday Morning; granted I was a little on the young side, but I always had a longer attention span than my friends of the same age. My reading comprehension was above where it "should" have been. I enjoyed full length movies as a kid, I was excited when certain movies were to be broadcast on television, and I would try to get my friends to watch them with me, but they never lasted more than probably half an hour and had wandered off to play elsewhere by the time it got to the really good parts.

The reason I never got into it back then was because my mother bought into the D&D is Evil Vibe.

I come from a religious family—I won't get into religion here [they avoid religion and politics on the podcast and on the related forum], I just want to point out that that is part of the reason I never tried D&D. I honored my mother by listening to her instruction that D&D was something to be avoided. 

I only really encountered D&D once as a Kid. I went to the next door neighbors house to play one day and they were sitting on the porch of the house with paper and pencils and being kind of secretive about what they were doing. When I asked what they were doing, they said they were playing a game—but that I would probably not be interested. They said they were playing D&D—so I went home. 

Looking back on that I think they thought they were playing D&D, but were probably just trying to emulate someone that they had observed playing. I remember they had lined paper and pencils only. No Dice. I only came to that recently as I was reflecting on things and applied what I know now of D&D. At the time I was just obeying my mother's instruction to avoid that game. 

My next encounter with Role Playing Games didn't happen until Junior High School. An English teacher of mine used a d20 and some tables to give us random items to incorporate into a story, for a creative writing assignment. Understanding that D&D had a bad reputation, the teacher explained that it was a Role Playing Game, and that it was only as good or as bad as you made it. I think a book was even passed around class. [Which I found very intriguing.]

I came to be good friends with this teacher, but as interested as I was in this Role Playing Game thing, I never broached the subject. 

In High School, I was friends with quite a few people that I knew played Role Playing Games—I was interested in the concept—I wanted to play, but I was never invited (probably because I never asked). My friends played Rifts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Heroes. 

Interested, but too timid to ask I researched it a little, but as the internet was just fledgling I was limited in resources. I liked the Idea of the game GURPS [Generic Universal Role Playing System] because it is "universal" and could cover any possibility. 

On a Bulletin Board System I found a free RPG called Ringwielder. (Which I managed to find Here, if you're curious)

Here is my first attempt to GM. I read the text file, I liked the concept and wanted to play. I talked my parents into taking me to the local Comic Book Store, I had seen the special dice needed when I was there. Thus my obsession with dice was born (but that's another story). [Actually, I think the obsession truly started when my Jr. High English teacher showed us a die with more than six sides—I wanted one immediately.]

Here's how I attempted to run a game. I explained the concept to a friend of mine and got him interested. Then, we sat in the back of Math class and passed notes. I wrote what was happening and he wrote what he wanted to do. We rolled dice and what not. We never got very far because I still had no real Idea what I was supposed to be doing, I was trying to do it all on the fly. I didn't understand the concept of Preparation, story, etc..

That died after just a few classes—and I didn't include it in my count of sessions run above.

After High School I went on a proselytizing mission for my church for a couple years. While on that mission I picked up GURPS in a used bookstore [on a preparation day]. It was in good condition, but it was kind of Old, and it started falling apart shortly after I brought it home. I put it aside, because it wasn't the sort of thing I needed to be focusing on while I was doing God's work.

I had one more attempt at this Role Playing thing on my own accord. 

I was attending the local community college. I had a large group of friends, and I convinced a bunch of them to try role playing. We got together and created characters, and again I was trying to do things on the fly. Our Characters were very random. The Universal in GURPS said to me that it was a game where anything could happen. 

My Girlfriend at the time (Now My Wife) Created a Fairy in the vein of Tinkerbell, one person created himself, I created a creature that I had been making comics about since High School. I remember that when we "played" the game, the guy that created himself got up in the morning and was brushing his teeth, wearing a bathrobe and suddenly found himself standing in the middle of a field between two opposing armies (medieval fantasy—cavalry) charging each other. I'm not sure what exactly I had in mind, I was winging it based on the characters that they made. Making characters had taken so long that we didn't get much play time in. 

And we never got together to play again. I didn't count this in the sessions at the top either.

So I graduated from Community College (Three associate Degrees!—LOL), got married, got a job in a field completely unrelated to what I studied in school—and was introduced to the Widening World of Board Games. We play all kinds of Board Games and this is what led me to my first Real experience with a Role Playing Game.

Our church held a night of Games for an activity; everyone was to bring their favorite games. I brought unique games no one had heard of before, while every body else brought the usual.

Talking to a member of the Bishopric he asked if I had ever played D&D. I told him no, but I wanted to. He invited me to his game. His group (mostly made up of his family) played once a month. Thus I was introduced to 3rd Edition D&D.

Shortly thereafter I met someone at work that played and I went to one of his sessions. It had fewer people and they played more often (weekly, for the most part)—so I dropped out of the original campaign that I attended. 

The new group stopped playing, understandably, when the wife of the GM delivered a premature baby. 

I still had a desire to play, but I'm not the sort of person to go down to the game store and look for a group. I still have no desire to do that, it doesn't interest me at all.

Some time later I ended up talking to an acquaintance from High School via a social networking site (not Facebook—I'm still being stubborn about joining Facebook). We knew each other and had some of the same classes, but that's about it. 

He invited me to a GURPS Supers game. Which fell apart after a few sessions. [Not his fault, but that of some of the other players.]

He also introduced me to Fear the Boot. In some of the earlier shows one of the hosts was going on and on about Savage Worlds, and I was intrigued. I picked up the book. 

After reading the Book, I was dying to play—but really had no one to play with, or any Idea what kind of game to play, if I chose to run a game. 

Then Necessary Evil Explorers Edition came out and I bought it with the intention of running the plot point campaign. Then my Wife planned to go out of town one weekend, and I saw an opportunity to invite some people over for a test run of the system. I didn't want to Run Necessary Evil because I knew that my wife would want to join in if I ran a full on campaign. I get a kick out of zombies, so I was thinking maybe a zombie game.

That very week, Zombie Run was released updated for Savage Worlds Explorers Edition. I picked it up thinking it was just a few sessions type of adventure. 

I run a game every two weeks. There are approximately fifteen players invited. I've never had more than five actually show up. I've only had two sessions where I didn't have enough show up to actually play. I have one player that is a very experienced GM. I have seven people that are familiar with playing Role Playing Games, and to the other seven this is a completely new experience.

So here I am, [eight] months later. [Just Finished] the Explosive [unfortunately Anti-climatic] Conclusion to Zombie Run. My first Real Experience as a GM.

What I think of your discussion topic. [Referring to the particular episode of podcast. Topic: pros and cons of using Adventure Modules]

I've never been really good at improvisation. I'm creative, but not really quick about it—so running an adventure has been good and bad. 

Good because there was a lot of stuff there for me that I didn't have to think up on the fly. 

Bad because the players almost derailed me a few times—which made me feel like a deer in the headlights. 

I think running Necessary Evil would have been better because of the Plot Point Campaign rather than Scripted Adventure model. 

Listening to your podcast has helped, but nothing truly prepares you for the GM chair.

I think you need to play in a Role Playing Game (any game) before trying out the GM seat, just so you have an Idea about how Role Playing Games work—no book really explains it well enough. I can sort of imagine what it was like for first timers back when D&D originally came out.

Also, when you decide to GM, make sure your story is prepared, make sure the world is fleshed out in your mind. Knowing the Rules is good, but I've found looking a rule up slows things down less than when I'm stalling and trying to figure out what to do story wise. This may just be part of my improvisation deficiency.

I didn't have a mentor GM to help me. I could have, if I had taken the initiative to talk to a few of the people that I know that GM. However that didn't occur to me. Also, as much as I enjoy the social aspect of gaming—I'm kind of an introvert and would not feel justified in making someone take time to hold my hand along the way. In this case I just wanted to branch out on my own and see what happens. 

So Having an adventure module, in my mind, became essential. In essence the module became my mentor. It does take a lot of creativity at times to railroad your players without them feeling railroaded.

When we finish this campaign, we're going to take a break from RPG. Have a couple weeks where we play Board Games or Video Games [Video Games almost always refers to the advanced version of Karaoke known as Rock Band and Guitar Hero, we have most of them and they are great party games]... and then Jump into Deadlands: Reloaded. [My wife changed her mind and we're no longer taking a break—next session is character creation for Deadlands: Reloaded]

I've read the Book Cover to cover it's taken me a while to get through it (due to time constraints)[okay, mostly because I read it on the bus and I fall asleep on the bus a lot—actually, I fall asleep every time I read lately, I don't think I'm getting enough sleep]—I'm planning to read The Flood, Murder on the Hellstromme Express, Coffin Rock, and Don't Drink the Water [all Deadlands: Reloaded Supplements and Adventure modules] before I start. Hopefully I can run a less railroaded campaign this time, but not make it so much of an open sand box that the players feel lost and directionless—I know my wife has felt that way in other games she's played.

More Role Playing With a Three Year Old

When I was putting her to bed the other night, she asked for a story.

This is not unusual. She Desperately wants to delay bedtime. I will only read her a book at bedtime if she's been fast and gotten ready on time. If it's past bedtime due to dawdling, I tell her that we'll have to read a book at another time.

Well she was actually a good fifteen minutes early, so a story was definitely in order. I started to tease her by making up a story (she doesn't always like that for some reason)—"Once upon a time..."

But she interrupted me, and surprised me by saying, "Nooo, a Story with Dice!"

I grabbed the top die in her giant tube of Plush Dice (a d10) and handed it to her.

She was wearing her new Buzz Light-year Footie Jammies and so I told a Buzz Light-year story wherein Buzz was attempting to escape from the neighbors house and trying to get home. Unlike previous foray's into the wonderful world of Dice Story, she was a little lack luster in creativity. I'm wondering if that is due to the fact that I was using a character she knows from a movie. Though she generally gets very creative with her "mini-figs" most of which are from movies she knows; so, I don't know what it was—I think that mostly she wanted a reason to toss a die around (That's My Girl!) and read to me the numbers (because she recognizes the numbers now).

I was roughly using Savage Worlds rules (4 as a Target Number) and she was rolling very, very well.

More Roleplaying with My Three Year Old

When I put her to bed last night, she was a little disappointed that we had not played Candyland for family night. I told her that we could play tomorrow, and she suggested that we play the story game with the dice again.

This time she told a story with Princess Mommy. I introduced a ghost that made an etherial wooooo sound. She wanted to smash the ghost and I told her that her hand went right through the ghost. She didn't want to accept that outcome. I suggested that we roll the dice to see if she was scared by the ghost (an opposed guts check for the Savage Worlds savvy). She send the plush d6 across the floor for a four. I rolled for the ghost and got a two. I told her that she scared the ghost with all her trying to smash it and he ran away. She said that she smashed the ghost and it's head came off and it went down the stairs and outside to the car and that she took the head to the ghost —she really gets a kick out of making up these outlandish stories. 

I'm not sure where she gets these ideas about smashing and decapitation of the incorporeal undead. She almost exclusively watches Disney Princess Movies—some of which are scary I'm aware; she prefers to stick to the non scary ones like Cinderella. I suppose the most violent thing we've exposed her to are stories from the Book of Mormon—and some of those are fairly brutal.

I know I watched a lot of violent cartoons and such as a kid, and I'm a very non-confrontational non-violent person. In fact, I was watching some Tom and Jerry a while ago and was a little shocked—it had been so long since I had seen anything like that—even the "violent" Saturday morning cartoons presently in syndication pale in comparison. It was almost a little unnerving, but then I read some of the Grimm Brothers collected fairy tales and realized that there is a rich history of exposing our children to the cruelties of the world through "entertainment." It's almost better to expose them to such things in a safe environment where you can explain that things aren't always nice, but we should always strive to be civil and Christlike. Seriously, the Scriptures contain some of the most Brutal and twisted "stories" I know—and these are the stories we use to teach our children to differentiate wright and wrong.

To bring things back around to the original topic. Role Playing is an excellent tool for teaching kids, especially when they are young and have no social stigma associated with games of imagination—which kids just take to naturally notwithstanding. They can learn cause and effect in an environment of parental control. They can learn math. They can learn social interaction. They can learn the highly abstract subject of statistics in a practical hands on way and so much more.

More Role Playing With My Three Year Old