Tag Archives: DCC

RPGs

Game Systems & Scenarios At Cons

April 15, 2019 admin Leave a comment

While organizing my thoughts and notes for the games I will be running at Marmalade Dog and Gary Con in 2019, I made a list of all the RPG systems I’ve run. I noted what modules/scenarios I ran and what con I ran them.

Since 2015 when I first DM’d at a convention at Marmalade Dog, here in Kalamazoo, I’ve run for at least 10 different RPGs. I have run 16 different scenarios, one is Village of Homlet, the other is Stop the Flow by Mark Hunt. The other 14 are all scenarios I wrote myself.

The systems I have run are:

AD&D, Delving Deeper, The Front, Gangbusters, Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World, Boot Hill, DCC, White Star, and Stars Without Number. [Affiliate Links]

Since 2015 when I GM’d my first game at a convention, I have GM’d a couple dozen times at 4 conventions: @marmaladedog @GaryCon @GameholeCon and @ucongames.

I’ve run 10 different RPGs for 16 different scenarios/modules. 14 of those I wrote myself.

It’s taken me 3 hours since I uploaded the podcast (#80) to locate all of my notes for the scenarios and rule books for reference. I realized I needed to organize what games I have and will run by Rules System, name of the scenario, and which con(s) I’ve run each one.

Had I thought this through, I wouldn’t need to dig back 4 years and have to do searches on my blog to determine some information.

My notes during each session help me improve those scenarios I am running again. I need all notes for each scenario consolidated into a master document for the scenario. Then I can find it when I need it.

Run it from a tablet or press print.

This is what I mean by minimalism at the table.

RPGs

UCon 2018 Recap

November 18, 2018 admin Leave a comment

I talked about my Ucon 2018 experience on my podcast. But I want to share pictures, so here’s a blog article. I did share pictures to various social media, but I wanted to have them all in one place so they are found more easily. I also have some pics I didn’t get shared to social media.

While the lobby restaurant/bar was not as packed as years past, the con itself was well attended. There were three other cons this weekend, the two closest were Gamehole Con in Madison, WI and Con On The Cob in Ohio, and the Mace convention in North Carolina [EDIT 13 Dec 2022 – URL no longer exists & not in the Internet Archive]. On the podcast, I incorrectly said it was Pax Unplugged in PA. PAX Unplugged is the last week of November.

I got busy and didn’t sign up for games before the con. I got an all access pass, so any game with an opening, I could drop in and play.

I saw several old friends, and met some new friends face to face, and made more friends.

Thursday night, I ran into a couple of friends and made a new friend, and the four of us played my card game. They liked it, and had some suggestions for the two player game. I also played a two player game Friday night with one of the 3 players who played in the first two games at Gary Con 10 in the spring. Since the last rough edge was knocked out in the third game, he hadn’t played it in it’s current form. He really liked the change, as it dealt with the one issue I hadn’t worked out yet.

Thursday night play test of the card game at the bar.

I ran my Gamma World [Affiliate Link] scenario, Vault of the Ancients at 9 am Friday morning I had a sold out table of 8 players, and one of them didn’t show. Last year in that time slot, I was going to run Metamorphosis Alpha and had one player, who decided to go to another game rather than attempt a solo game. I forgot to get a picture of the table during play. We had a blast and lots of laughs.

Friday Afternoon, I ran my DCC [Affiliate Link] funnel, Amongst the Fungus, with 6 players and they all had a blast and liked the weirdness of it. I had calls to publish it, which I am considering, but need a lot of writing, polishing, and play testing.

Saturday morning, I slept in and took my time to review things for my evening Boot Hill game, since I hadn’t played it in at least 35 years.

Saturday Afternoon, I ran my DCC [Affiliate Link] funnel, Amongst the Fungus with 5 players and they also enjoyed it. I love how the play test on Roll20 ended one way, and each con game was also a different game. For both games, I used a table of 200 items from Doug Kovacs, that Doug and Adam Muszkiewicz, and some other DCC game masters use. It’s up to the players to decide what those items do and can be used for. For some, it’s just a role playing device, for others, they might help advance the adventure, or solve problems. It’s all up to the players to be creative and use their imaginations.

Saturday Evening, I ran my Boot Hill 2e [Affiliate Link] game, A Posse For the School Marm. The 6 players were ready for the game. All but one, a young woman, had played before. The young woman I think her name was Laura was so excited to play that she bought the PDF, printed it off, read the rules, and generated a character. She had read the rules and understood them, and was so eager she was looking up things as part of our prep before I could get to them. I had pregens, but gave her the choice to use a pregen or her self made character, and she chose her self made character. The players accomplished their goals and ended up with a lot of money and decided to pool it and buy a ranch. They has so much fun that they asked if I could run a game next year to find out what happens to their cattle ranch. I’ve always had players like the games I run, but this is the first time that any have asked for a sequel! I am pumped and am definitely starting to think how that might work.

Sunday Morning, I finally played in an RPG session at UCon. I played my first game in the Contessa track.

Stacy Delorfano was the UCon special guest two years ago, and I was there Thursday night and was asked to help give guests a ride to the guest welcome dinner, since I’m friends with a couple of the con staff, and my youngest son was with me and we gave Stacy a ride. So she remembered me when we ran into each other either Friday or Saturday night this year between games.

She played in the game ran by Emily Danvers, in a game they are working on. I found out that Contessa plans to open a publishing arm and will help those who are marginalized get their name on a published item, to give them a leg up with larger publishers.

The game is an OSR based system, using the standard 6 abilities, but wisdom was renamed to Spirit. The game is a werewolf theme, where the players are all werewolves in addition to having classes. Character generation was easy. We each got a note card that had the name of our class, and only the abilities that had positive bonuses. Abilities not listed were +0. Each class also had a couple of skills they could use, like hacking, healing, combat, and one skill that could be used to give a player advantage. There was also a Rage track where if you failed something miserably, you had to roll a DC to see if you lost control and became a wolf. To start the DC is 2, and each time you check it goes up. Some particularly challenging things cause the DC to go up before you roll the check. We also got to pick from a group of cards a personality trait and two background cards. My character was a spiritualist with an anxious personality and was a conspiracy theorist and had a spiritualist background. A spiritualist can identify paranormal, non-human things and communicate with the magical overlay on the WWW.

We had a good time with lots of laughter. One round of play, everyone was rolling 1’s and failing miserably. I rolled a 1 on my Rage check and became a wolf, and chomped onto a chain of a possessed whirly theme park ride and was struggling like a dog you can pick up on the end of a rope in tug of war. I may have been the only straight guy there, I guess the term is cis, and was definitely the oldest. I think the ones who didn’t know me were a little skeptical of my presence until they got to know me.

This was the first time I had ever played in a game that used the X card. I understand it better, but not enough to explain it properly.

I caught up with several friends, I’ve lost track of what days I spoke with each of them.

Donn Stroud author of Dead Planet [Affiliate Link] for the Mothership game
[Affiliate Link]is a friend I knew online. UCon is his local con as he only lives a few miles away. I bought Mothership [Affiliate Link] and Dead Planet
[Affiliate Link]. Then he signed them. I have yet to find time to read them. Donn is working on more adventures for Mothership [Affiliate Link]. Donn flattered me by telling me he had my PDFs from DriveThruRPG and liked them!

Adam & Katie Muszkiewicz and Stanley made it and Adam & Donn talked a bit. They have several episodes recorded of Drink, Spin, Run, and may release them. Life gets in the way, so they haven’t recorded new episodes.

My schedule didn’t match up with Brendan LaSalle’s until Sunday afternoon, but he was running the scenario he ran at UCon two years ago, so I didn’t get to play, but we did catch up a bit between games.

I also saw BJ Hensley and got to talk with her briefly, She was another special guest. I met her at Gary Con 10 earlier this year.

One of the vendors, whom I know, John Reyst of D20PFSRD had something come up and had to cancel last minute, so the small room full of vendors was a bit less crowded than in years past.

I had a great time. I’m tired and thinking about what is next, which is submitting games for Marmalade Dog before December 31, and getting my Gary Con submissions in.

If you’ve never been to a convention, I recommend it. Keep in mind that a small local convention may not be an example of a great convention, but they are more affordable and give you an opportunity to play with new people and new GMs and new game systems. If you like board games, you can get your fill of them at cons.

RPGs

Free RPG Day 2017

June 17, 2017 admin 1 Comment

Life happens. I did not get to my FLGS, Fanfare Sports and Entertainment until after 11:30 AM. The things I was interested in were already gone.

There were a couple of Pathfinder games. I don’t think there were any other games today. I went prepared to run a pick up game, but things died down after the DCC Game.

I did get to play in a DCC funnel ran by +Adam Muszkiewicz called Sky Ov Crimson Flame. There were five players including myself.

We made a decision to go in a direction not covered by the module, which had us wrapping up quickly. Adam told us about this, but he made it work well.

Adam had pre-printed blank character sheets. He dislikes pre-gens, so had us roll d100 for our occupation and d30 for our birth augur to start. We did not roll any other stats until we needed them. For example, no strength roll until we needed to make a melee attack or strength check. No agility until we made missile attacks or to determine our armor class. No stamina until we needed our HP.

I first encountered this play style with Adam in my introductory game of DCC. I think I played a funnel before that, but it was my first game with a level 1 character. I wrote about that experience here. It is a fun way to develop as you go. It works best with rules systems the GM is comfortable with. I like the idea of using it with one of the many retro clones. This is something that Adam and Doug Kovacs have been doing for years.

I met a couple of new people, one in Kalamazoo, and the other from St. Joseph. Two other players I met at Marmalade Dog a coupe years ago. They were college friends of Adam. After the game there was talk of trying to set up something for a regular game in Kalamazoo. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to commit to it, but I look forward to the possibility.

Our youngest player, Joel, is probably in his mid-20’s probably about the age of my oldest son. He likes DCC and also has an interest in the OSR, so he said he’d check out my blog. Bryan the other new person has only played DCC online, so this was his first in person game. He’s been an RPG player for a long time. He also said he’d check out my blog. So here’s a shout out! Always good to meet people who are interested in my take on things.

RPGs

Marmalade Dog 21

March 20, 2016 admin 2 Comments

Marmalade Dog 21 was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 18-20, 2016, at Western University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I had planned to attend today and play in the first slot, but I woke up with a stuffy nose and ear, and a sore throat.

We did not have an official OSR slot this year, like we did last year. I have decided that once we find out when Marmalade Dog is next year that I will step up and coordinate an OSR track. The exception is if it is the same weekend as Gary Con. Last year, the convention was in early February, so I asked if they know yet when it will be next year. The answer is that the university tells them what date they can have, or occasionally what dates they can choose from. So such a variable makes it understandable why it isn’t consistent with the month they have it. I live in southern Kalamazoo County, so am only about 20 minutes away from campus.

Normally the deadline for GM sign up to run games, and get free admission, for each day that they run a session, and a t-shirt, is December 31. I didn’t get signed up to run a game by then. In February, I looked and there were some OSR type games, but three sessions the first, fifth, and seventh, did not have any. So I signed up at the website for the first and fifth session, and was not automatically rejected. I never got an email for confirmation that I wasn’t rejected. So last weekend, I went to the website and checked, and my sign ups were on the list of scheduled games. I then hurried up and got ready.

Session 1: 3:00 pm on Friday. As with last year, no one showed up to my game. If things work out to coordinate an OSR track next year, we’ll have to drum up enough players to commit to a first session game. I ran the same thing for Session 5 on Saturday.

Session 2: Friday was 7:30 pm – 11:30 pm. +Forest Ray ran a Swords & Wizardry Complete setting, called Muskets & Magic Users. It was S&W with muskets. We were first level adventurers hired by the town to go stop the pirates who raided their town. Non magic users got issued a musket that did 1d12, that fired once per round. Magic users got a wand of magic missile that had 5 first level spells per day and regenerated its charges overnight.

That was a fun little session, and my magic user used Charm Person to make a “friend” of one of the pirates that was on the raiding party that came into the tavern where we were. This made it easier to find the other pirates in the raiding party, secure their boat, and go out to their ship. We managed to take the ship and go clean out the pirate hideout, then go fight the dragon ship of the pirate queen. It was a fun game.

Forest always hands out goodies for his games, and we each got a bag of dice and a button with the name of his game, and the rules system. Forest came down from Lansing and got a hotel to run and play games all three days. In addition to swag, he brought 3 copies of Swords & Wizardry Complete for reference. I didn’t bring mine as I was already lugging three AD&D Player Handbooks, the OSRIC Player Handbook, and a DMG for my earlier session.

Charles, who played in one of my sessions of Homlett from last year, and was looking forward to my game Saturday night. He said he runs Swords & Wizardry sometimes. He actually lives in my town, but I lost his number. I put it in my cell so I can’t lose it. We also had a couple, Joseph and Priscilla, who played S&W for the first time and had a blast. They were both experienced gamers. He lives in a town about 15 miles south of me, so we are planning to get together IRL for gaming. She lives about a half hour away in the other direction. We had one other player, and I am blanking on the name. I did not think to take a picture of play at the table.

Session 3: 10:00 am on Saturday, I played DCC’s Frozen in Time as a 0-level funnel, by +Mike Carlson. Mike came down from Lansing for the day. I played this funnel with him last year. Others had played it, but I didn’t remember most of the key details, so it was like a new adventure. I only remembered things as we encountered them. It was a good time. We had a full table with 6 players. Four of us were experienced gamers with DCC experience. The other two were a couple, Seth had RPG experience, and this was Gretchen’s first roleplaying experience. She had a good time. This couple lives about an hour away, in Benton Harbor, so they are having a challenge finding a group. +Clayton Williams from Lansing and +James DeYonke and his friend Dave, from Ann Arbor, one and two hours away, respectively.

Session 4: 3:00 pm, Saturday. +Forest Ray ran Da Orkz Iz Back, a White Star scenario. I meant to bring my White Star books, but didn’t think to set them out, or put in my bag before I went to bed. This was the first time I had played White Star. Mike Carlson joined in, as did Charles, Joseph, and Priscilla from the night before in Muskets and Magic Users.

This was a scenario that needed at least one Star Knight and one pilot with the rest mercenaries. I rolled up a very uncharismatic Star Knight, and we had two pilots and two mercenaries. We were hired to investigate the loss of contact with Altair 6, a relatively new colony. There was no contact with the Star Knight Monastery, the city, and the star port. We found that legendary orcs who were thought to be myth were real, and were working with a couple of Void Knights. My Star Knight couldn’t hit the Void Knight with his star sword. The rest of the party gunned down the other Void Knight and one of the pilots picked up his void knight sword and managed to stab the void knight I was fighting. In another combat, I finally managed to hit something with my star sword. I was much better when I was shooting my blaster pistol.

Session 5: 7:00 pm on Saturday. I ran a scenario based on an area of my home campaign that I wanted to flesh out – Ogre Island and the Black Crate. I will write up a separate article on this.

Sunday has two sessions, Session 6 at 11:00 am and 7 at 3:30 pm.

Session 6: Forest ran Mutant University using the Mutant Future system. I had planned to attend that before I woke up with a cold and no energy.

Session 7: did not have any what I thought were obvious OSR games. I was thinking of playing a game of Fate, which I have never played. Maybe next year.

What I learned from this experience.

I need to commit to this local con, since it is in my backyard. As long as it does not conflict with Gary Con or other things I want to do, I will go.
- If it is the same weekend as Gary Con, I can still try to coordinate an OSR track, for any not going to Gary Con. I can recruit an assistant to handle things of the actual weekend.
Last year, after I saw how much time it took me to get ready to run Village of Homlet, I decided it would have been just as easy to come up with my own scenario that I would know like the back of my hand.
- This idea proved true. I used the opportunity to flesh out an area of my campaign I had been wanting to do for a long time.
People will drive from a couple hours away to come for Saturday. A strong OSR presence could attract a lot more people.
- Advertising on G+ an other outlets could increase the attendance.
- Keep the line of communication open with other players from the region.
If you run a 6 person game, you get one folding table that is just big enough. If you run an 8 person game you get two folding tables.
Swag is cool. Perhaps publishers would provide swag, or templates for GM’s to make their own swag.
- DCC has some cool stuff with bookmarks, buttons, pens, pencils, and more.

RPGs

Mark Hunt – An Interview – The Return of GangBusters

March 16, 2016 admin Leave a comment

I knew +Mark Hunt from G+ and just happened to meet him at +John Reyst’s Open Gaming Store booth. I recalled seeing a post about Gangbusters, but it had not clicked that it was back. Mark has a license to the GangBusters game! I first learned of Mark with his prolific postings of items for White Star. Many know him for his DCC setting Drongo.

Mark was signing a Gangbuster’s box, and it had the look and size of what I remember from 30+ years ago. The guy asked Mark to sign it and I was really puzzled, thinking it was an original boxed set, until Mark explained that it was his game.

We talked about collaborating on some things in multiple genres/rule systems, one of them being Gang Busters! Wow! I haven’t played in 30+ years, so I guess I need to brush up on the rules….

I did a phone interview with Mark on Saturday, March 12th. Before I started asking interview questions, he mentioned that he is good for the next 3 or 4 years of putting stuff out on a regular basis.

Interview Questions

When did you get your start in RPG’s?
Summer 1979. D&D Red Box and Blue Box. One day in Jr. High, we talked about it in the Lunch room & met up after school.

What games have you played?
Call of Cthulhu, AD&D, probably hundreds since then. Powers & Perils, Champions, you name it, I played it. I have played every year since then. I once played Champions two years straight.

What games have you ran?
I have ran pretty much just about every game. Which helped a lot with game design, you have to play games and know what is out there, if you want to make games.

I’ve been running GangBusters since 1983. I have enough stuff on hard drive to fill a dozen books without even trying.

What games do you still play or run?
GangBusters, D&D, Swords of the Empire, DCC, Basic, Swords & Sorcery, C&C, Call of Cthulhu, and boardgames, just games, our group tries to keep playing.

How many women players have you had in all of your games?
Dozens, our first group had women back in 1979, and 3 or 4 at a time all the way to the present. It’s easy.

Does you wife play?
No

Does it cause problems?
No, she plays computer games, some are RPG’s, just not table top.

What does she think of your endeavors?
She likes it, especially when they start cashing in. I take what I make and roll it into producing the next game.

Have you ever had a woman GM?
Yes, a few. They are just like everyone else. I’ve played all over the world so I had all the kinds of game masters that you can think of.

You played all over the world because you were in the Air Force?
Yes for six years and it included the1st Gulf War. We used to play Twilight 2000 in Germany back in the 80’s. A game where we go to war with Russia and get stranded in Europe when it happens. We used all the strategies and tactics we knew, and we had more authenticity than most people.

You seem to have an eclectic taste in genres and historical periods, do you find it hard to focus with so many different irons in the fire?
No.

Why not?
I like to read all kinds of stuff. I know a lot about this, this and this. If there is something you need to know, read a book. My dad says, They hide things they don’t want people to know in a book. A game designer should always be reading, and learning more stuff.

You got your start, at least in my experience, of publishing ships, classes, and supplements for White Star. Was that your real start?It was actually Drongo, then Planetary Transmission and some free items for White Star.

NOTE: Drongo is a DCC compatible setting.

I know you have a Napoleonic era game in the works, and other things, what can you tell us about that?
Swords of the Empire will be ready by the beginning of next month. People can follow on the G+ page [Private link, unable to archive when G+ ceased.] and watch development of it, and see how it has changed and evolved. I revise based on feedback from others’ comments in the community.

The latest project seems to be a runaway success – GangBusters.
Is that a game you played back in the day?
NOTE: See above, he’s been playing and GMing it since it came out in 1983.

What made you decided to go for a license to GangBusters?
It was just sitting there and I just asked if I can use it and it went from there. If I like it, there has to be others that like it. If I can sell enough and it can pay for the effort I put into it, all the better.

Is it an exclusive license, that is, are you the only one licensed to do anyting with GB?
So far, I’m the only one out there. I’m working on several things, just making stuff work. I can’t go into more detail at this time.

How hard was it to get the license to do this?
More or less I just asked Rick Krebs and he was receptive. I can’t get into any details on that either. There is stuff [other famous IP] that people can probably pick up if they put in some effort to research it. It is not impossible, is the best I can say.

What did Rick Krebs say when you asked him, was he excited?
Others had talked to him and it never went anywhere, so I showed him what I can do and he purchased it and reviewed it. When the writer likes it and says keep doing it, that’s a seal of approval.

Why the twist with the “Weird Tales & Paranormal Investigations?“
Actually it existed in the original setting. In Polyhedron magazine, they had an adventure with giant bugs that took over a farm. I did not create it out of thin air, it existed in some shape or form in the original game.
The original game talked about various ideas for how to expand it. All I did was expand it. I read all the articles where they mentioned GangBusters. I am making it modular so you can use or not, or expand or not, cause at the end of the day it is still a game of cops & robbers. If you can’t find an adventure after a night of watching TV, with so many police procedurals that are on now, I can’t help you, NCIS, X-files, etc. Warehoue 13, Thin Man, etc. There is so much that fits.
Me – It’s seeing the connections.
Mark – Exactly. I increased the book size to show what you can do with it. It doesn’t have to be just gangsters. You can do journalists. The Incredible Hulk is about new reporter chasing the Hulk cross country. The players could be a pool of reporters in an Enquirer type organization.
Me – GangBusters is set in the same time period as H.P. Lovecraft was writing.
Mark – I’m staying away from the Cthulhu mythos, there is more out there than just that.
If you want to play Call of Cthulhu play it, it’s a great game. If you want to go in different directions, play my game. Play GangBusters, there is enough out there to keep you busy

I really like the NPC card decks, what was your inspiration for those?
Old police mugshots. I make cards with mugshots, with enough stats to run. I made the first 18, then another 18, and eventually I’ll have a full deck of 52 cards. Literally take a card and you are ready to play. At Gary Con I passed out cards, and said, this is what stats mean and we were up and running in minutes. NPC’s, bad guys, players, etc. They are small and portable. Once you know the rules that’s all you need. Keep it in your wallet and you’re ready to play whenever and wherever. [See this YouTube video for a sample of the cards.]

Me – They make a great tool for a pick up or convention game for pre-gens. There was a lot of buzz from those who played in the games Mark ran.

It’s been mentioned on the G+ TSR GangBusters Community, that you plan to do a Kickstarter. I know that you have a goal to have everything ready before the Kickstarter and to keep it manageable. How much can you tell us about that?
I’m still working on it. Eventually there will be a box set, hard back book, GM screen, and modules, plus add ons will all be figured out and done. So once we hit our goal and are funded, I will order and ship. I did a test run of box sets, and people are impressed with what I have now. Some have shipped to Spain, England, all over world now. I hope a Kickstarter will help it reach a bigger area.

When might we get wind of the Kickstarter?
Depends on when I get done with something in the background – I can’t talk about it – then preparing for the Kickstarter will start to speed up.

What is the secret to your prolific output? I ask, because it is an amazing story that just floored me. I was giving you a hard time at Gary Con to slow down because you’re making the rest of us look bad.
Last year was my last chemo – I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and going through treatments. I said to myself, “If this is my last year, I’m going to do what I want to do,” and I literally drove myself to do these games, even if only 5 words in a day. After a year, I had a lot. I just hacked it out piece by piece. “Never give up, never surrender,” as they say. Marks’ wife can be heard in the background: “He’s not going to do anything else. By Grapthar’s hammer….”
To the outside world it appeared like I was cranking it out fast, it seemed like a lot real fast. As they say, an overnight success is ten year’s worth of work. A lot of games that blew up were simmering in the background and no one paid attention until they got done.

You mentioned you were seeking a license to do a game with a big name, and well-know IP, but it fell through.
Any clues to other IP’s you have your eye on? (Probably not, since you don’t want to spoil it.)
Exactly. I’m always looking for more stuff, but can’t mention them, so I don’t get scooped. If it’s not being used, why not? A Lot of stuff is just sitting quietly. It’s not hard if you do the work and ask. The worst they can say is, “No.”
Drongo for DCC is mine and I can always go and do a BX version. As long as I don’t compete with one of their [Goodman Games] products it should be OK.

Any hints about projects coming up?
Oh geeze, let me look at my hard drive. I’ve thought about one or two retroclones, but will mention those when the time is right. I don’t want it all at once, that is, I want to spread it out. Cloaked Avengers is a new class for GangBusters in the next month, like the Shadow. You can add to an existing GangBusters game with mysterious powers. I’m also working on a WWI alternate history for GangBusters. I plan to stage so it’s not out all at once, and do one or two adventures to flesh out stuff I already have.

Joe’s Diner was 6 or 7 pages, then 18, then 32, then I made little booklets. The PDF is automatically updated, so it’s done. The only way to get it in book form is in the boxed set.
Me – That’s a smart way to drive sales.
Mark – Exactly.

Have you seen all the talk about yesterday’s press release about the new TableTop Library site?
Yes. I’m thinking about trying to sell stuff there, it’s one more avenue for sales.

Anything else you want us to know about?
Hit me up on G+ if you see me, and help out get the word out, Swords of the Empire, GangBusters , Fantasy game – no name yet. Everything is just falling into place so fast it is ridiculous. I might have Boxed sets [of the yet to be named and released fantasy game ] at NTRPGCon.

GangBusters boxed sets and T-Shirts, and Swords of the Empire boxed sets will definitely be at North Texas RPG Con.

– – –

Mark is a really nice guy, easy to talk to, and inviting. Other aspiring game designers were asking him to look at their stuff, and he was looking forward to it. He knows game mechanics. Just wjile talking about general ideas, he had an idea for something. Being in his presence, I couldn’t help but be infected by his enthusiasm for games. If we lived in the same town, I’d find a way to play in his games.

Mark is enjoying life and riding this dream of designing games and having a blast while doing it. I expect to hear exciting things in the coming weeks.

RPGs

Near Misses – Thieves

November 23, 2015 admin Leave a comment

I had an idea for thieves picking pockets from an experience prior to my last game at UCON. The idea coalesced as I was in that dreamy, glad to be sleeping state before I woke up this morning. (I’m off all week; so I got to sleep in today to recover from both low quantity and quality of sleep the last few days.)

As I have mentioned in at least one other article, my Dad was a locksmith and I was drafted to help from the time I was about 13 until I went off to college. Dad gave me my own basic set of lock picks. I thought it would be fun to plop them down at a game, if I ended up running a thief.

I was getting stuff out of my bag, dice, paper, pen, pencil and other things so I wouldn’t have to keep rummaging in my bag during the game and slow things down. I was wearing many layers, including a jacket sort of like a hoody with out the hood. It has packets inside next to each outer pocket.

I put my picks in my pocket, or so I thought. I felt both sides of my hand feel fabric, so I thought it was in my pocket. I had just placed something else in that pocket and realized that I was about to drop it between my jacket and shirt instead of my pocket, so I corrected. I then checked and my picks weren’t there, so just as I was getting ready to bend down to get them, +Laura Rose Williams says, “Here, Larry, you dropped this,” as she hands it to me.

This morning in my dreamlike pre-wake state, this idea hit me, and I can just see a thief picking someone’s pockets and rolling 1 or 2 under what they need. So from now on, I will rule that a thief doing this, gets what they were after, or at least something, and they “pocket” it. Some kind soul will see them drop it and come up and give it to them in full view of all around. The “FUN!” will then ensue.

I did not play a thief as planned, +Laura Rose Williams wanted me to play a wizard along with her, which I did. So I got out my picks after the game to share what I was prepared to use as a prop.

RPGs

Michicon Follow Up

August 23, 2015 admin Leave a comment

Last Saturday I went to Michicon. It starts on Friday, but I was not able to get the day off. Note to self – Alert social secretary to be more on the ball next time. Oh, wait, that’s me….

I had heard of Michicon last year, but this is the first year I attended.

It was held at Oakland University on the NW side of the Detroit metro area. I had a late start and there was road construction that made it a challenge to get there, but I finally made it about 2:30 or so.

I found +Roy Snyder with his booth and spent money on a few items. I got a second pristine Tramp cover AD&D Player’s Handbook, and another Player’s Handbook with the Wizard cover for the table. I went ahead and got Legends and Lore. I realize it is the same content as the Dieties & Demigods – without Cthulhu & Melnibone, but I didn’t have one. I already had the PDF of Legends & Lore.

I also picked up Oriental Adventures. That is one that I keep thinking I have, but don’t. I lost my original with the water leak incident. I have it in PDF. I now have all of my original AD&D manuals from back in the 1980’s re-built. I know I said that before when I wrote about getting two Chulhu/Melnibone mythos Dieties & Demigods on the same day.

I have items I added to my PDF collection of manuals that I did not have back in the day. I have a hard copy of all the ones I have in PDF, except Manual of the Planes. I don’t need it, but want it for “completeness.” While I have Greyhawk Adventures in PDF and hard cover, I am not interested in the book for Forgotten Realms or others they may have.

Now the only D&D item I don’t have from my original collection is the Greyhawk Gazeteer. I was glad to get it in PDF, but I miss those gorgeous maps. Maybe someday.

I also got a GM screen for Metamorphosis Alpha, I finally gave it a through reading and I like what I see. One less excuse to not run a game.

The con was not well marked. The center where it was held was having remodeling and there was no food available on site. There were only vending machines for drinks. I chatted with Roy and bought stuff from him and got directions from Roy to the registration table. It turns out I came in the back entrance. It wrapped around and I came up the stairs that led to the game room, I just went in the door closest to the stairs – on the left. No outside signs and no inside signs. It is $10 for the day. Not a bad amount.

The big open room had maybe a half dozen vendors along two walls. The tables were numbered on the sign up sheet, but there were no numbers on the tables. Thankfully, I was there to play DCC, and +Jared Randal was running an open game 0 level funnel next to Roy’s tables. I dropped in and played all the way until the con closed. Jared ran a great game. The module was Sailors of the Starless Sea. I only lost one of my original five 0-levels. I ended with a full compliment of five, since we divvied up the characters of players who could not play the whole time. I had not played that one before. We used a d200 table of “special” items that each character got, and we had a blast using them in creative ways.

Finally, I won a door prize, a still sealed dice game of Walking Dead. I don’t play a lot of board games, so if I can’t sell it I plan to keep it sealed and see what I can get out of it in a few years.

RPGs

Free RPG Day 2015

June 21, 2015 admin 4 Comments

Free RPG Day, 2015 in Kalamazoo, Michigan at Fanfare Sports & Entertainment.

We had three co-GM’s: +Doug Kovacs one of the artists for DCC and other Goodman Games products; +Adam Muszkiewicz of +Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad & +Drink Spin Run – An RPG Talk Show Podcast, one observer – Adam’s wife Katie (She didn’t to play today. It was something about being in the last trimester of pregnancy and the inside of her ribs being used for kickboxing practice.), and +Roy Snyder and 6 players. {See here [G+ post not archived.] for Roy’s write up.]

I was expecting more players. the only other game as part of Free RPG Day was D&D Attack Wing. they had one demo game going when I got there. I wasn’t paying too close of attention. I am not sure if they did one or two other demos. Their last demo closed out the store with us.

It was interesting to see the three GM’s trade off and take turns with different parts of the adventure, each working their own particular twist into it.

Play was scheduled to start at 1:00. We played until about 3:30 PM for a food break, and had a few different groups we broke into to go to different places. After we got back from eating, we resumed play until finishing right before 8:00 PM.

We had some cool freebies. Afterwards, Adam and his wife, Katie, Doug, Roy, and I went to Louie’s Trophy House and Grill. Several taxidermied animals, either heads hanging on the wall or free standing full body animals. We went until a bit after 1:00 AM. They have $1 off local drafts on Saturdays, which was cool. We had a Garbage Pizza which is really good. My son has been there, which didn’t surprise me. He is a beer snob. We may go there sometime.

I was good to see Adam again and play with him as a GM, and meet his wife, Katie. I enjoyed meeting Doug, playing in his game, and getting to know him. He had an interesting idea for DCC, called “Fleeting Luck”, that he said they used at NTRPG Con. The GM would award luck for various things, but if it was fleeting, any time someone rolled a natural 20 or healed, the GM collected all the fleeting luck. Bad puns and jokes earned fleeting luck. I earned 2 and lost each of them in the same round because my initiative was after both most of the other players and the monsters we faced. One player rolled a LOT of 20’s, so I don’t think anyone got to use their fleeting luck. Their might have been one, maybe two, I don’t recall.

CAM00821 — The GM’s setting up and smiling, that’s a good thing, right?

CAM00823 — Our lovely product model Roy, showing off the mysterious Super Prize and the Other Super Prize.

CAM00825 — Other side of a fleeting luck token. They could be converted to +1 luck and the GM couldn’t take it back. One player managed this.

CAM00826 — If you’ve ever seen Adam run a game, you know he had to use his hands, a lot!

CAM00827 — Roy and Doug smiling at what Adam is setting us up for…. (Is that enough prepositions at the end to negate that rule?)

CAM00828 — Things just got serious, you can’t see Adam’s hands.

CAM00834 — I got one of these posters, which Doug and Adam signed.

CAM00843 — I got this poster for being the first of the first levels to die. We had a choice between 1 first level and three 0 level characters. Doug was kind enough to sign both sides!

CAM00844 — Here is the other side of mt signed poster.

CAM00842 — Of course, I also got my Free RPG Day Screen! Doug also graciously signed it!

CAM00839 — Our server was kind enough to take a picture of us. My bald head shows up well, but I failed my illumination check to help light up the others.

RPGs

Free RPG Day 2015 – Preview

June 19, 2015 admin Leave a comment

Tomorrow is Free RPG Day, and I will be in attendance at my FLGS, Fanfare Sports & Entertainment. [This is their new website.]

From the official announcement [G+ link not available to archive.] by +Roy Snyder.

Along with the immortalized +Doug Kovacs; +Adam Muszkiewicz of +Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad & +Drink Spin Run – An RPG Talk Show Podcast we bring that special blend of original 1974 gaming to Kalamazoo… “Yes! There Really Is a Kalamazoo!” home of Marmalade Dog marmaladedog.org – Over 20 years of con gaming at Western Michigan University.

I met Adam at Marmalade Dog 20, I had read his blog, and we both gushed about how much we liked Delving Deeper. I played in two sessions of Adam’s Kickassistan, which was my introduction to DCC. I had a blast. I also interacted with Roy Snyder as a player in those sessions, and am now in Roy’s semi-irregular DCC game.

I am looking forward to more DCC!

Sunday’s post will be a write-up of what we did for the day.

Here’s an image of the cool poster for the event! See the official announcement mentioned above, for a link to the PDF.

Free RPG Day 2015 - Kalamazoo — Free RPG Day 2015 – Kalamazoo

RPGs

DCC Dice Arrived – Unpacking & Review

May 24, 2015 admin Leave a comment

I ordered some DCC dice from the Goodman Games website several weeks ago, and they finally arrived this past Wednesday. Just in time to use in +Roy Snyder’s DCC game this afternoon. (Yes, I mentioned I had a lot of dice and was slowing down buying more. Jut remember, you can’t have too many dice. I know plenty of people that have way more dice than I do. I don’t have a problem! – See no denial here.)

My dice came and I was not happy about the d7, until I saw this post [G+ link to: https://plus.google.com/+MichaelHazen/posts/9GQkoThzCPv removed before February 10, 2019, no record now exists.] on the DCC RPG Community which clarifies that this is normal, that the numbers are always on top and not on a face of a die. This is because of the shape of the d7, more than one side of the die is up, so the numbers are on the edges that join the two sides. Now I get it. Don’t judge a die by how the numbers are printed on it. 😉

The d10 and the d00 are not the same size. Every other “full set” of dice I have ever purchased, i.e. d4, d6, d8, d10 -with a matching dDecade, d12, and d20, the percentile dice were the same size. From comments on the DCC RPG Community on G+, evidently a lot of people had size mismatched d%. Perhaps they have so many different dice that they just grab what they need and don’t stick to rolling a matched pair of dice. Until the last few months when I added a huge bag of WizDice, and bought a few more standard sets of dice, I only had 5 sets of dice, plus a ton of d6’s from WalMart.

Until I bought the DCC Dice, every d10/dDecade (d%) in the same set were the same size, so even if I mixed up all of them, they would all be the same size, or nearly so. I should have known before I opened the package that DCC would be different in how they made their dice. Impact Miniatures, the manufacturer, indicated that this size difference is intentional to make them as easy as possible to use.

The d5 is weird looking, but it seems to roll correctly.

The d4 is a pyramid with the points shaved off and the numbers are where the points would be, and the large faces are smooth. The thing I like about this d4, is the way the points are “missing” you can easily get a hold of it to pick it up. Some of my other d4’s are tough to pick up because you can’t easily get a grip on them. I usually have to slide them off the edge of the table.

Like the rest of DCC, the dice are meant to challenge your expectations of dice.

The dice in my Blue Box Homes Basic D&D challenged me that dice could have more than six sides, but kept me on the path that the numbers have to be on a face and not an edge.

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Tag Archives: DCC

Game Systems & Scenarios At Cons

The systems I have run are:

UCon 2018 Recap

Free RPG Day 2017

Marmalade Dog 21

Mark Hunt – An Interview – The Return of GangBusters

Near Misses – Thieves

Michicon Follow Up

Free RPG Day 2015

Free RPG Day 2015 – Preview

DCC Dice Arrived – Unpacking & Review

Ramblings of an Old Gamer