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RPGs

Game Systems & Scenarios At Cons

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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

Gary Con XI Recap

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Gary Con XI in 2019 was yet another awesome experience! Here’s the companion podcast episode.

I rode with Steve Fridsma, from Grand Rapids, MI who I met last year. We were supposed to play in two AD&D [Affiliate Link] games, but the first one was unexpectedly cancelled, so I offered to run the
Gamma World [Affiliate Link] scenario I was running the next day, and some of the players elected to do that and we had a blast. Then we played in Chgowiz’s AD&D [Affiliate Link] game the next day. We kept in touch on social media and tried to coordinate rides that included one of my con roommates, but the travel days didn’t work out.

Steve and I arrived Wednesday right around check in time and I unloaded my bags to my room ASAP then picked up my badge and GM packet. We again got a lot of books, some duplicates of others. I may use them for a giveaway.

I had my card game and notebook with me, and met up with Steve and some others who wanted to play my game, and drummed up some interest from some others. We had a UX designer, architect, and game designer among that play test. This is rules that are basically the rules I had as of the end of play testing last year at Gary Con X. The deck had a few tweaks from last year, 5 cards were swapped out for some other cards to add some more interest to the game. Most importantly play text deck number 2 fixed the font color and placement of the numbers and added some explanatory verbiage to some cards. This group had lots of great suggestions.

After the game, Thaddeus Moore asked me to sign his copy of
The Front [Affiliate Link], as Mark credited me as proofreader. This is the first time I’ve ever signed a book in my life, other than to indicate it was my book.

Thursday morning I ran a scenario for The Front [Affiliate Link], a WWII RPG based on The Black Hat 1st edition [Affiliate Link] , by Mark Hunt. See here for The Black Hat 2nd Edition [Affiliate Link] . Mark joined in the game and had a copy of the rules from Lulu for everyone. Mark signed them all, and since Thaddeus got me started, I did the same.

With Mark there, we did a lot of belly laughing and had a great time! Mark and the other players had a laser focus on the objectives to “win” and we were done early. The players didn’t care as they had a blast. I now see a need for a few more modular encounters/events to bulk up this scenario to take up more of the slot. I plan to start publishing my con adventures on DriveThruRPG [Affiliate Link] , but it won’t be my scenario for The Front [Affiliate Link].

Thursday evening I sat in on a seminar by Satine Phoenix and Ruty Rutenberg which was different aspects of GM issues.

I then got in some more card game play testing and had a lot of fun. Some events I don’t recall which day they happened as I was so busy with running or playing and visiting, I didn’t keep track of what day I did which thing.

Friday morning I played in The Brazen Mask of Zenopus by Zach Howard of the Zenopus Archives blog. It was the Holmes Blue Box Basic, which is what started me on this whole RPG journey. I had not played those rules since the final AD&D book, the DMG came out over 35 years ago. It was a cool scenario that used characters from a book Dr. Holmes wrote. I played the hired help, two vikings, Olaf & Haldor. The dungeon in the back of the Basic rules was used, with some changes due to the passage of time.

We worked together and managed to avoid the death of all characters, and avoided a situation that could have been a TPK. For the first time in play, I encountered a purple worm and Olaf was swallowed! How cool is that! The halfling, Boinger was also swallowed. It was entirely a bonus that the worm was killed and the party cut both of them free, so that they lived to continue the adventure with minimal injury.

We found the baddies and had the boss fight and so not to spoil it we were within a few bad dice rolls of disaster, but we made the crucial rolls needed and prevailed. I really enjoyed it and would play a game with Zach again!

Friday afternoon I ran my DCC funnel, A Fungus Among Us. I had seven players, two of whom had played funnels before. One teenage boy, a young woman, and two fellows that I am pretty sure were older than I. I am used to being the oldest one in the game in recent years, so this was great. The father of the teenager made decisions and dice rolls that had three of his four 0 level characters dead in less than an hour into the session. He then had his last stay out of the way, and he survived the final encounter. Of course in the boss fight at the end, my poor BBEG had a fumble that had him on his back and unable to attack for a round. His attacks that hit only had minimal effect. The two older gentlemen must have double-booked their time as they could only stay for half the session. The remaining players did well, and lost a few more of their characters. Everyone survived with at least one character.

Friday night I saw, Eye of The Beholder about the artists of TSR who formed the image most of us have of what D&D is. I backed the Kickstarter and had seen the film online. Several of the artists were there and there was a Q&A. Just before the con they sent out a note that the CDs and other things were in the shipping process, but I didn’t have my CD waiting for me. and my CD was waiting in an unexpected location when I got home.

Friday night I ran more play tests. I finally remembered to have my 5 x 7 index cards with the quick rules on one side and what the cards to on the other. I made the players read it to ensure they could learn the rules from that, since most people will learn a game that way. I also have index cards I cut to playing card size with bullet points of the steps of one’s turn and what the cards do on the back. Of course, they identified typos of words that I spelled right, but were in the wrong context. They also identified things I need to clarify. So the cards worked, but need some improvement.

Saturday morning my schedule was clear. I met up with Ray Otus of the Plundergrounds podcast and Coddy Mazza of the No Save For You podcast. Ray’s first Gary Con was last year, but we never crossed paths. This was Cody’s first. We played my card game in the open gaming area and a father and 13 year old son joined us. The son was the youngest play tester yet, so I was really interested in his reaction. Ray and Cody loved my game, and had some suggestions. The boy liked it and thought the placeholder art was cool and thought I could just use that. He also will have a credit as a play tester so he will have some extra cool factor with his friends when he gets home.

Ray, Cody, and I did a joint podcast on Ray’s Plundergrounds and they both were too kind about what they thought of my card game. You can catch that episode here.

Saturday afternoon I ran my Boot Hill [Affiliate Link] scenario, A Posse For The School Marm. I had a lot of players who had never played it, but they all had fun. One character was injured and stunned by dynamite. Another got one bad guy and almost got the last one, but he shot her character in the chest for a mortal wound. She thought it was epic and fitting to go down fighting. She later told me that she hadn’t played an RPG in 30 years and I made it easy and walked them through what to do and she felt comfortable and welcome at the table. Also they said up front that they had another game and would have to leave early. They ended up not leaving early because they were having so much fun. Her husband is not much of a gamer, but he had a blast. I just love hearing that sort of thing.

Saturday night was supposed to be a showing of The Dreams In Gary’s Basement by Pat Kilbane, but unfortunately he was sick and it was cancelled. I backed that Kickstarter and have been cheering it on since I met Pat at Gary Con VIII when he premiered an early showing of a few interview snippets. You can read about that here.

Saturday evening I went to a party to see the teaser and a behind the scenes of Peter Adkinson’s Chaldea. It is a series of videos to highlight a campaign world setting of Chaldea. Very cool effects. Met some new people, and a player from my Gamma World [Affiliate Link] game last year and he was gushing about that memory, which is so cool!

Matt Mercer was at the con and was in the lounge, I was able to tell him a Vecna story and congratulate him on the Kickstarter and get a picture with him. Unfortunately, someone from the party who I only met at the party was drunk and not taking the hint to give people space. I was asked to escort him away from the celebrities since I knew him better than some. The fellows social intelligence was gone and he obviously wanted to communicate something, but was unable to do so beyond repeating an innocuous platitude.

Unfortunately, he was stumbling into people and flopping his arm into them. He did not react well, but we got him out of the lounge and then out of the building. We had to call for security to ensure he didn’t try to drive or something. I heard nothing more about that, but if you go to a con, don’t go past your limit to control your motor skills or communication ability. That’s how you get banned from cons. I don’t know if it got to the level of the con knowing about it or not, as I was no longer privy to the situation. I have not witnessed anything like that at a con. In the current environment, I was disheartened to witness such a thing. Please don’t drink and be stupid, it is not fun to witness nor to be the problem person who sobers up and finds they’ve got a bad reputation. I almost didn’t report this, but I don’t want to whitewash a bad situation.

I also told Vecna stories to Joe Manganiello and got a picture with him. I showed him my shirt that says, Follow Me, And Die! and he said it and then said, “Nice!” I knew he’d get a kick out of that.

Another thing that occured at the con was rumors. Someone told me X about so and so. I will not repeat that as that does no good. I will only repeat facts I can verify or I witness personally. Rumors of game stuff and game personalities always occur, sometimes there is a grain of truth, but I won’t spread something I can’t verify.

Sunday I did not sign up for any games. I was in the lounge all day apart from moving my bags from the room I shared with my normal con roommates, to that of my ride.

I played my card game at least a dozen times. One player from earlier in the weekend really latched onto the game and has probably played more than anyone but me, and knows the rules as well or better than I do. She played nine games on Sunday, and was teaching the new players and we worked on how to cut the deck in half. Since there are an odd number of some cards we did a large half and small half deck. We played one hand with the large half deck as a two player game and it feels like the full deck and is faster. One game is not enough, but it does tell me I have the numbers of each card right.

After all the play testing and suggestions for little things to improve the cards, I know I need a third play test deck and more play testing. I don’t have an artist lined up, since the rules and cards are not locked in. Unfortunately, my hopes of Kickstarting this year are not realistic. I want to avoid rushing things, as I want to do it right. I will do all I can to make launching during the first quarter of next year. This means that I need to go to more cons and FLGS’ for more play tests. Once I have a new test deck and play it a few times I will know if the cards need any more game play tweaks or only need art. The rules are really close, and I think we have to options for play, one that will be perfect for learning the game. Two player play may be as simple as a half deck, but more play test will tell.

If you are interested in knowing when the Kickstarter is launched, you can click this link to join the mailing list. It is ONLY for announcing the Kickstarter launch, and possible future launches.

Wednesday night, my roommates and I went to the same restaurant as last year and while waiting for a table, someone behind us saw my Follow Me, And Die! T-Shirt and asked if I was the guy behind the blog. I believe his name was John Zach from Atlanta (He messaged me on social media to correct me. I then recalled that I used the mnemonic that his name is the same as my youngest son’s.). I didn’t think to get a picture together. A couple other people told me they liked my blog and/or podcast. Erik from the Chicago area, as I recall said he’s been reading my blog for the last seven months. I did have the presence of mind to get a picture with him.

I got pictures with many others and posted a lot of them on social media. I need to find time to make an album to share to make it easier to have all the pictures in one spot. Not sure when I’ll get to that.

I had a blast at Gary Con and I will be back next year!

I will have my card game there from hopefully the final pre-Kickstarter test deck and can play with those who want to see what it’s all about. I will have it at every other con I attend.

If you will be at Gary Con next year, or any other con this year that I attend, be sure and say, “Hello!” I’d love to meet you and get a chance to game together!

RPGs

RPGs That Influenced Me

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This was making the rounds on various social media sites. I shared there, but wanted to make a record of it here.

1.) Holmes Blue Box Basic – This is how I got started all because my brother convinced me to buy it.
2.) AD&D 1e Because Holmes Blue Box said that’s what you had to buy.
The rest in the order they come to mind, I don’t remember the order we first played them.
3.) Metamorphosis Alpha 1e
4.) Gamma World 1e
5.) Boot Hill 2e
6.) Top Secret 1e
7.) Gangbusters 1e
8.) Star Frontiers
9.) Marvel Superheroes
[Affiliate Links]

We tended to buy the latest RPG from TSR. I subscribed to The Dragon, and was up to speed on all the newest RPGs.

We made up our own space pirate game, very rough. It had an interplanetary war component, even rougher. There was also an RPG component that took ideas from all the other Science Fiction RPGs we could get our hands on. A lot of creativity, world building, game development, and fiction. All that survives are memories and most likely my brother’s short stories. Unless one of my brothers has any notes or documents we had, it is lost to the mists of time.

We had one session experience with Traveller, Tunnels & Trolls, Runequest, and perhaps others. Those were presented by younger players who thought they were cool, but couldn’t present them well. For some, the character creation was too cumbersome. Some consider AD&D to be difficult, but one can still roll up a character and be up and running quickly compared to a lot of games.

I cam to appreciate later versions of Basic D&D with the old school movement that showed me that our trained response from the verbiage in Holme’s Blue Box that it was for babies was misplaced.

I like the simplicity and creativity of all the retroclones getting back to simpler times.

I always struggled with aspects of game mechanics and making my own back in the day. It isn’t as difficult as I led myself to believe, and am glad I finally stepped out of my comfort zone to try my hand at it.

Back in the day, I’d rather play than GM. Now I think for the most part, I’d rather GM than play. It ebbs and flows with my current interest/focus.

I like to play with creative people who see things in the scenario I didn’t necessarily describe and who run with their idea of the world and make a new thing that is alive.

I have many more ideas than I will ever be able to implement as a GM, so I share them in hopes that others will get some fun out of them. I owe a lot to my brother who got me started so long ago when he convinced me to buy Holmes Basic.

RPGs

UCon 2018 Recap

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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.

1st session of my DCC funnel.

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.

2nd session of my DCC funnel.

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.

My Boot Hill 2e session.

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

My Awesome Gary Con X!

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I had a packed Gary Con schedule compared to the prior two years. This was the first time I ran games. I ran 3 four hour games, and played in 4 games. Three were four hours and one 5+hours. Next year, I think I will run three games, but I won’t pack my schedule. I need more sleep.

THURSDAY

Gangbusters – Stop The Flow
Two Kolchaks

Two of the three games I ran were Thursday. I started with Gang Busters. I had 8 pre-gens using the templates from +Mark Hunt’s version of Gangbusters. I proofread his current state of the rules from the fall, so I used his version with my edits. The pre-gens made character creation fast. Mark was going to play in my game, as I told him that I would run so he could play. Unfortunately, his dad went in the hospital and he couldn’t make it. I had no reception with my chrome book in the part of the hotel they  had us. Mark had hoped to do a Google Hangout for a Q&A after the game.

I never saw so many players botch a roll and then make the luck roll I gave them. At least, make the luck roll when it counted. Most lucks were under 30. I had 3 or 4 players in a row make their luck roll. The players were all law enforcement. One played a state trooper and played it so well, the others asked if he was a real officer, and he laughed as he was not in law enforcement. The characters found the source of the secret shipments of alcohol. I can’t give it away, or I can’t run that scenario. No characters died, but a couple got shot up really bad. One caught himself on fire, and another kept falling in the water. It was awesome how they played smart and rolled well, and foiled the bad guys. They got done an hour early.

Stars Without Number

In the afternoon, I ran Stars Without Number. I used the revised edition rules for the Kickstarter that delivered in January. I had never played it, so running was the first time I played it. I built 8 pre-gens. The first pre-gen took a long time as I was figuring out all the bits to do it, even with the spread on character generation. I did that to help me grasp all the pieces. I then used the quick character generation and did most of the rest in the time it took to do the first. The character sheet is a form-fillable PDF, so I have those NPCs for future use.

7 people signed up. It was fun to finally play in a game with +Forrest Aguire. All of the players made a lot of awesome rolls for skill checks. My usual poor rolls for the NPCs made things really easy for them. They also made smart decisions, and had a plan of action that was direct and simple and their good rolls compensated for how daring it was. Skilled players making smart choices, they also finished about 45 minutes early. One guy who made the most great rolls on skill checks saw me the next day and said that he didn’t make any rolls at his next game.

FRIDAY

Against the Dwarfs
Against the Dwarfs

I had three games Friday. The first was AD&D in the morning. It was Against the Dwarfs by Bryan Skowera. This was the third of a series mirroring the Against the Giants modules. I played in the second one last year and had a blast. We made some poor tactical decisions early in the session and managed to luck into a plan that let us beat the bad guy.  I was able to play the Kobold cleric that I played last year, which was a lot of fun.

Friday afternoon, I played DCC with Brendan LaSalle. It was a hilarious scenario. We sang the songs of Electric Potato.

DCC with Brendan LaSalle
DCC with Brendan LaSalle
Lego Dice Tower by the Daughter of one of the players Friday night.
Lego Dice Tower by the Daughter of one of the players Friday night.

Friday night I was supposed to play in +Joseph Bloch’s game in his  AD&D Castle of the Mad Archmage setting. Unfortunately, Joe never showed. One of the people at the table found out he had told the con staff, but they never told us. I saw him the next day and totally understand why he did. For the con, I bought a rolling catalog case with a telescoping handle, so I could carry all of my stuff around the con and just pull it. I ended the con with no back or shoulder pain. It is a wise investment I will use at every con. Because I that, I had my Gamma World 1e book and my scenario that I would run the next day, so I offered to run it for the table. Two left for other things, and someone else joined in when they were walking by. It was a lot of fun for those who hadn’t played since back in the day, and those who had never played. It is very similar to Metamorphosis Alpha, so I kept asking what Radiation Resistance they had, instead of Constitution. They had fun, and I would end up playing other things with two of them later.

SATURDAY

Gamma World
Gamma World

Saturday morning I ran Gamma World and all 8 showed up and I squeezed in two others, for ten total. I only had 8 pre-gens, so we had them quickly roll up characters for the two. I am glad I did that, they all had fun and it worked out to be a jam-packed and fun scenario. I used the additional secret papers with some background for the 8 pregens. I did not use those the night before as a secret, but told those players what the secrets were. Several of the players latched onto the information on their info paper. All I asked was that they not reveal it right away, which worked out great.

Player of the Character Tree made a sketch.
Player of the Character Tree made a sketch.

In less than 30 minutes they went to the weird hermit on the edge of town to get help with something. He figured out their issue was a dead battery, but he had no way to charge it. Then the gorilla with an electric shock attack like an electric eel said, “I’ll charge it!” I said, “That’s a great idea! How much damage does it do?” “Uh, 4d4.” “Great, roll 4d4!” I picked up 8d6 and rolled those once he gave me his total. “OK, the hermit falls over dead and you all take 15 points of damage!” I started laughing because the hermit had information for them. I was already short on sleep, which makes me either cranky or slap happy. I was so tickled, I laughed so hard I had tears. I’ve never had my players bring me to tears before. They eventually got on the right track and found what they were looking for and we ran out the clock on the session. They all had an excellent time.

The GM in Tears from Laughing at what the players just did.
The GM in Tears from Laughing at what the players just did.

After a long break in the afternoon, I had AD&D with +Michael Shorten. I should have taken a nap, but I play tested my card game. I ran out of steam and had to back out early. One of the players in the cancelled AD&D game who played in my Gamma World scenario the night before is an architect and offered to be out mapper. he did a rough sketch map, and you could tell he is used to working from verbal descriptions and his map was clear and easy to follow. He mapped at a scale we could place our minis. That was a really cool thing. He also lives in Grand Rapids, so we’ll probably game together occasionally.

AD&D with Michael Shorten – AKA Chgowiz
Full scale mapping by a real life architect.

SUNDAY

Sunday morning, it was up bright an early to finally get to play Top Secret with Merle Rasmussen. It was the new Top Secret from the Kickstarter. It will finally ship from the US and European TSR warehouses this week or next. I liked how he randomized the map by each player building one section. It was serendipitous how my map worked to make an easy ending to a nearly out of control scenario, and we managed to get done early. I really like the simplicity of how the map works and how it randomizes the scenario.

That was a good thing, as I met Tom Wham going one way as I came down stairs, and he was not in a rush,  so I finally got my copy of Awful Green Things from Outer Space signed. I forgot to bring it to Gary Con 8, last year at Gary Con 9, it was always raining and since I wasn’t in the venue’s hotel, I didn’t want it getting wet. I also had him sign my Gamma World 1e, which he edited.

Top Secret: New World Order with Merle Rasmussen.
Player built map. Gets players involved and randomizes the scenario.

PLAYTESTING

First Gary Con X play test of the card game with the roommates. Dave Weeks & RJ Thompson of Gamers & Grognards.

I had a long break and ran several play tests of my card game. I had a total of 12 play tests at Gary Con X with 31 play testers from Wednesday through Sunday. Some played more than once. My game was a big hit with all who played it, and one person asked the name of it, and that was enough to hook them to want to play it. Nearly all asked, “So when’s the Kickstarter?” without prompting. My response was either, “yeah, so when IS the Kickstarter?” or “Ummm, when I announce it?” It was awesome to have the rough edges worked out on the third play test, and very little changed after that. It is a much smoother and faster playing game than what I wrote about in the first two play tests before Gary Con here.

Paul reads my blog. We played in Laura Rose Williams DCC game at the Contessa Track at UCon in November. He play tested my game.
2nd Gary Con X play test. Paul, Clay Williams, and Laura Rose Williams (AKA “Meat Dwarf”). It was nice to get a woman’s perspective on my game. She liked it!
Clay is a bit of an artist and sketched some trucker he saw somewhere.
It looks like a police artist sketch of a serial killer. I think Clay was getting ready to run a horror game….

I have lots of offers to help with various aspects of card design, art, card production, etc. One person told me he had an idea that might not require Kickstarter. Two recognizable companies said they could help me with one or more aspects related to Kickstarter/fulfillment.

Nate of WASD20
The Initiative Coffee Co.
Ruty Rutenberg took a lot of notes about my game.
Jayson Elliot of the new TSR and Peter of Mythwits.

I find the whole thing hilarious as I don’t play many card games anymore since I don’t have a regular group that plays card games. I have a catchy title, an interesting premise, and rules that make it quick to catch on. I was saying, “I’m not a card game guy.” but not that I have a card game I realized that I am so I started saying, “I am a card game guy.”

I finally played the game today with my oldest son, and he gave me more suggestions about where to take it once it hits critical mass. He also is really good at card tricks, and made a joke with two of the cards and made it look like he turned it into another card. Now THAT will be in an announcement/Kickstarter video.

There is nothing to announce yet, as I have someone doing some sort of statistical analysis, and he had some other ideas, so I am waiting on that. One cool thing a play tester said, “I like the simplicity of the game with simple rules to learn in 5 min. at a noisy bar at Gary Con.” Sunday, I was really tired, and I was making lots of mistakes in play. the rules are so simple that players can correct an exhausted creator of the game on his errors. Out of 15 games that have been played, I have played them all and managed to win 5 of them. I am usually spending so much time helping run the game that I am mostly reliant on getting good cards. However, it is so cool that people like my game and want to play it, that I’m OK with never winning a game. I’m usually very competitive in such games, but I find I’m much more relaxed about my own game. It is because I’ve already won the grand prize of the multiverse by making a game that works and people want to play. “I made a thing and people think it’s fun and want to play it!”

IF I do a Kickstarter, I will be very careful, and stretch goals will only be card game related, like better paper, better finish, etc. I will have all the work done on typing up the rules, lining up card printers, etc. I know it will be a success as one established RPG You Tuber played it and said he’d mention it when it was time for the announcement of something. I’m not mentioning the name of the game, or anything specific until I work out a few more things. I think I also need to consult a lawyer, among other things. Patreon is in my future. I know have all kinds of ideas for card games, along with my ideas for RPG supplements, and YouTube videos. I now have a new focus to make game stuff that I never really had before. That too, will not be overnight.

All I’ve managed to do today is type up my play test notes, write a big thank you to all the EXCLUSIVE Gary Con X play testers on social media, and watch a little TV so my brain can decompress. I also managed to crank out this article, as I know work will be crazy tomorrow.

If you plan to go to Marmalade Dog, March to , 2018, I will be there running one session of Metamorphosis Alpha, and one of AD&D, and I will have my prototype card game. Be one of the EXCLUSIVE Marmalade Dog play testers and get mentioned in the credits as a play tester.

IRCA

IRCA – Larry Hamilton (me), Nate Vanderzee, and Zachary Ruhnke (he went to high school with Alex Gygax) Bill Allen and the Initiative Coffee Co. crew were not around when the rest of us were. It was great to meet face to face.

WASD20

Nate Vanderzee of WASD20 was hoping to interview Satine Phoenix. I helped introduce them and watched him do a great interview. Satine is so fun. She teased us with her excitement of something big she can’t talk about. Man, am I curious.  Nate lives in Grand Rapids, so maybe we can get a chance to game together. It was really cool that he played my game and liked it!

Getting ready to interview Satine Phoenix

Getting ready to interview Satine PhoenixYou can see the interview here.

RPGs

My Gary Con X Events Are Now On The Schedule

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I got the email confirmation today that the three events I submitted to run at Gary Con 10 are now on the Schedule. Two are on Thursday, and the third is on Saturday.

Here is a listing of my games with links to the details on the Gary Con Tabletop Events page.

I told Mark Hunt at Gary Con IX last year, that I would run a game of Gang Busters so he can play. Mark is a lot of fun as a GM, it will be fun to see him in action as a player. Of course, it will be Mark’s version of the rules.

Way back when, I was more into reading science fiction than fantasy, and while we played various science fiction themed RPGs and even kluged together one of our own, AD&D was always our go to. I love D&D and fantasy RPGs, but I also love science fiction. I was inspired when I read H. Beam Piper’s Space Vikings [Affiliate Link], to come up with a scenario for a convention. Stars Without Number really caught my attention about that time. So much so, that I backed the Kickstarter for the revised edition. I even have ideas for a campaign, just not enough time to run another campaign right now.

I was the first to submit a game for Stars Without Number [Affiliate Link], and may be the only one. The final schedule of all the games is not yet posted, so time will tell. I got the email with the shipping tracker number for my SWN Revised Edition [Affiliate Link] book from the Kickstarter. It is backward compatible, and I have the new PDF, it will just be cool to have the final book in my hands as I do final preparations. Using the new form fillable character sheet will be fun too!

I’ve run several games of Metamorphosis Alpha [Affiliate Link], the first science fiction RPG, both online and at conventions. I describe it as Gamma World in space, since the rules are so similar. I managed to get a 1st edition boxed set, and will be using that to run my game. It’s not in mint condition, and even though Jim Ward signed it, games are meant to be played. I just love the art by Dave Trampier.

 

RPGs

Metamorphosis Alpha & Gamma World

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In our gaming group I GM’d for Metamorphosis Alpha [Affiliate Link]. I am not sure whatever happened to our game materials. I remember a big map for the starship, and that the rulebook had tables for the characters to determine if they figured out how stuff they found worked.

I remember one session where I had the party find an airlock and a hangar bay, and in the hangar bay was a Cylon fighter. I grew up when the original BattleStar Gallactica series was new. We often “stole” ideas from TV and movies and books. I think I even had some token Cylons for them to fight. The players got to the ship and figured out how to fly it and flew around the exterior of the Warden.

We cracked up at some of the ridiculous things we through into the game and were able to do. We did not play more than a few sessions, but we cracked up and had a lot of fun.

I do recall, although it has been a long time, that the rules had a lot of similarity to Gamma World. I did a little Googling, and am right, MA was before GW and had an influence on the rules, which were based on D&D.

Gamma World [Affiliate Link] was a game where we had a lot more sessions. I am not sure what happened to those materials over the years.

I see the Gamma World has been updated several times over the years, and that a company has licensed it from WoeC for the current incarnation.

I also found that Jim Wrad still controls MA and has a new version soon to be released. There are also MA materials on DriveThruRPG and RPGNow. The first edition PDF is availabe, and there is a lot of information in the free 6 page preview PDF. It is amazing how well a single rulebook can encompass all one needs to know to play an RPG. I guess it helps if you have played one already, or have experienced players to show you the ropes.

I remember when the High School Science Fiction club was the focus of an article in our school paper. It had a hilarious typo in the list of games that we played, “Camel World” instead of Gamma World. Our group made a lot of references to mutant camels after that, and is an inside joke that still brings a chuckle to this day.

I am not having success finding a science fiction book that reads like an adventurer’s log of MA or GW. It was easy to tell how much that book influenced both MA and GW. It finally came to me and was able to Google it: “Hiero’s Journey” by Sterling E. Lanier. I have not read it since the 80’s.

One person in our group was fond of DMing modules from TSR, and one time we did play Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and encountered the ferocious Vegepygmies. That is about the only thing I remember from that module. I am not sure how much our DM stuck to the module, and how much he modified it. I did not have the cash to afford lots of modules, so I only purchased two for AD&D, Village of Hommelet and Ravenloft. I remember the ooh and ahh factor of the perspective maps in Raveloft. We never played those modules, but we loved the cool maps. I bought my copy of the Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide this year, just for the information on how to do these maps.

We did do our own home-brew games. One was a space pirate combat game, that morphed to be a two planets in a solar system at war game. We did not play those more than a few times once we bought Imperium, and had a friend with the Star Treck game with ship to ship combat.

We did play Traveller a few times. It was unusual in that it relied solely on six-sided dice. The person who introduced us to it was not very skilled as a DM so his interest in the game did not translate well for the rest of us in the Science Fiction Club in high school.

We did come up with our own RPG, called Scout. Scouts were interstellar explorers who also were like a combination of marines and modern day Spartans. They were tough and could take you out hand-to-hand or with weapons. Although when we played we tended to focus on the use of weapons. We borrowed from other games to cover the situations that we needed. We played several sessions. My brother, Robert, was GM, and he wished that our characters would rely on martial arts before resorting to blasters and disintegration grenades. We just sort of stopped playing, but Robert started a couple of short stories, based on Scout, and his vision of what a scout was. We were all anxious for his next installment every few days. Robert is the kind of writer who can just sit down and write high quality stuff of the top of his head. Soon the bits of the story just stopped too.

I am sure we could probably resurrect Scout as either a module/add-on for another system, or update our home-brew rules. Robert may still have them, I will have to check. It would be fun to have our old materials as a PDF and used by other gamers around the world. Maybe even making a little money via RPGNow might be possible.

What games did you explore and play for awhile, but then settled on one game as “your game”? For me my game is AD&D.

Did you ever make up your own games? Board game or RPG?