Tag Archives: Modules

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UCon 2019 Post-Con Post

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UCon 2019 ended on Sunday, November 24 and I am finally writing about what happened. I mentioned what was on my schedule in my last post.

Pick Up Games

Brendan LaSalle, Clayton Williams, Laura Pirkola

I met up with friends Thursday night and we had a pick up game of my card game. Laura Pirkola and Clayton Williams invited me to join in a pick up DCC [Affiliate Link] game with Brendan LaSalle. It had a hard start time so we didn’t get through the full card game as we had many interruptions. The most important of which was ordering a pizza. This was critical as I got so busy with packing and so forth before the two hour drive, that I didn’t have lunch.

Brendan describing the situation.

The DCC scenario was play testing something that should be appearing as a new module sometime in the future. I don’t recall if there was a specific time frame or not. We ended up playing two characters each, until we were joined by another husband and wife who joined in at the halfway point. It was a great time, as always with Brendan.

I stayed up way too late visiting with friends in the lounge. I didn’t get to my room until 2:30 AM, and took forever to fall asleep. Then I kept waking up. Part of the issue was being dehydrated as I hadn’t had enough water during the day, then had a tall glass in the bar, after a short glass during DCC and pizza.

Hommlet

My copy of Village of Hommlet

I slept as long as I could before going down for breakfast before my morning game, where I ran Village of Hommlet [Affiliate Link]. I realized I had forgotten to grab my 1e DM screen when I packed up all my table copies of the Player’s Handbook. It seems I no longer had the PDF of the DMG [Affiliate Link] on my Dropbox nor my I got on my Google Drive. So I got on my DriveThruRPG account, since I purchased the PDF, I can just download it again…. NOT.

For some reason, I could not find it in my library. Next, I tried pulling up the PDF on its listing. Turns out I found a bug in the mobile site. On the desktop version of the website, you can click on the product listing for something you’ve already purchased, and it gives a link labeled, “Click to get it.” I got on Discord and mentioned it to the DriveThruDiscord and they said to report the issue, it’s probably a bug. [Which reminds me, I need to report it if it is still an issue after I finish this post.]

I only needed it for the combat charts. I then looked up the Target 20 System mechanic. When we were at the table, one of the players had the DMG on their tablet, so I used that to track combat, turning undead, etc. I planned on 8 players, but one person really wanted in, so we squeezed in nine players plus me around the table.

My PHB I got for Christmas the year it was released.

All of my other preparations were in place. I had five table copies of the Players Handbook [Affiliate Link] for players, plus my copy. I had them all sign my copy. This is the original, well-worn copy I got for Christmas back in the day. I’ve also gotten it signed by several TSR notables from back in the day. Sadly, not Gary or Dave.

Players in the Hommlet game.

I also have 18 AD&D Characters I created. I have form-fillable PDF character sheets for each one, and I update their information for each level. So I always have a stock of characters for whatever AD&D adventure I run at a con.

The players had a great time. I started them at the gate house instead of making them start at the edge of town and figure out where to go. Most of my rolls were in the party’s favor. Things such as surprise, finding secret doors, etc. While they did not manage to find the big bad and his minions, they did find the ghouls and it was a near fought thing. The best fighters were getting paralyzed and they were just not hitting the ghouls. In the end, they bested the ghouls and we were out of time.

In the various instances of combat, some had been knocked down and I used the -10 HP is death in AD&D. They were stabilized and clerics were able to give them enough HP to have positive HP. I handle negative HP as serious and the player is unconscious for one hour per point of negative. This forces characters to be encumbered with an unconscious character, if they push on, or having to find a place to rest in relative safety. They were all experienced players and chose to hole up and rest each time players were incapacitated.

During the ghoul fight, several characters went into negative HP. They were pretty chewed up, but had find some nice treasure. I didn’t keep track, but I don’t think it would have been enough XP for 9 characters to level.

Boot Hill

Boot Hill sequel to last year’s game. The two in the middle played last year.

Last year, I ran a Boot Hill 2e [Affiliate Link] game, A Posse For The School Marm. All of the players asked for a sequel for next year. So I brought a sequel, Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch , that we played Friday night at the same table as Hommlet that morning.

Two of the players from last year made it, and brought their character sheets. The group played smart and rolled well. The rules for Boot Hill 2e [Affiliate Link] are very light. I realized I was not using an option that would have made the gunfights last longer. I made the big bad tough, but not fast enough. The players grabbed the pregens that had the fastest characters, which I forgot I rolled some really nice scores for the pregens. (Why can’t I roll that well for my own characters?)

We had a lot of fun and there were requests for another sequel, so I will have to scratch my head on that one. I didn’t have a ready made scenario like I did after last year.

I ended the day in the bar, but went to bed earlier. I was able to sleep in as I didn’t have my first scheduled game until 8:00 PM Saturday.

Macchiato Monsters

I slept in Saturday and got in on a game of Macchiato Monsters [Affiliate Link] ran by Brett Slocum. I had a play games all weekend pass, which makes it easy to slip into games with openings.

I had never played Macchiato Monsters [Affiliate Link] , but it is described as a cross between Black Hack [Affiliate Link] and White Hack. I’ve played Black Hack and have both 1st and 2nd edition. I’ve never seen nor played White Hack.

It has a great deal of freedom in character creation and requires players to be creative, as one chooses a self-defined character within the parameters set by character creation.

It was a fun time and a full table. We all played as a team and ended with a whirlwind wrap up by the GM, as there was more module than time would allow, but we got a feel for the rules. It is much more reliant on role play but dice do come into play. Creativity and an open mind are key. I’m definitely intrigued and will look into picking up both Macchiato Monsters [Affiliate Link] and White Hack.

NOTE: White Hack is only available on Lulu and does not have a PDF.

Playtesting The Card Game

Ready and waiting for the players.

While I have had lots of playtesting of the card game at two game stores, two Gary Cons, two Marmalade Dogs, and now two UCons, this was the first time I had a playtest on the official schedule at a con. This was also the first time I had played in the board game area. I had strolled through it just to see what was going on in prior years.

I had one person pre-registered, and two other players for the first round of playtesting. One player, the youngest, in his 20’s left before the first hand was played. He went to join a game one of his friends was running. I had one person walking by who we invited to join the second game.

The consensus was that they all liked it, but felt it needs something more. The big thing is the game lasted nearly an hour. This is because the end condition for the game is dependent on how long it takes for a control card to come up twice. In this case, it was very late in both halves of the game.

While I understand the suggestions, it runs the risk of either breaking something that works, or making a very simple game more complex. It is interesting that about half the players who have played it, likes the rules as is, and the other half want something more.

I have some ideas for how to have two ways to play, a simple rules default and a full rules option.

In the current rules, each card does one thing. That is the strength of the rules. The challenge is to have additional rules and options for some cards that will not break the game or make it overly complicated.

I also honed my elevator pitch for the card game: Each player is building their own army in the midst of challenges. The player with the largest army (most points) wins.

All in all, I had great feedback from people who play a lot of games, and one of them also designs his own games. He had a WWII war in the Pacific naval simulation that I and another player from the playtest played after the time was up. It was a lot of fun and while it needs a bit of polish, I look forward to seeing it again next year.

The game developer player’s game partner stopped by midway through the WWII game and they are working on a space combat game that they have been playtesting at conventions for several years, including Gencon. They had a game slated for the next morning and invited me to join. I was very intrigued by their description.

[Earlier today I got the first piece of complete line art in preparation for the coming Kickstarter. I’ve got concept sketches for over a dozen cards, and hope to have many more soon.]

Space Combat Game

Setting up for the battle.

The name of the game is Star Blast. This was the last play test prior to publishing. Their plan it to put the rules on DriveThruRPG to get it out there, then do a Kickstarter to make a board game out of it.

They use Excel to make the ship sheets. Each ship has sensors, power, shields, weapons, etc. This very loosely reminds me of the original Star Fleet Battles from the mid 80s. I played a lot of Star Fleet Battles with my brother, Robert, and our friend Darryl.

Another player and I were space pirates out for resources. The other team represented the system with the resources. We had a railgun battle cruiser and a torpedo cruiser and a beam cruiser. They had a carrier with two fighter squadrons and a frigate. Our ships outclassed theirs.

We won almost all of the rolls to determine turn order. The first turn we elected to let the other team go first, so we could react to them. We then tried to move in and find a clear shot. There were lots of asteroids and gas clouds that limited the effectiveness of long shots.

I commanded the torpedo cruiser and beam cruiser. I moved to intercept and fired on their frigate and got a long range hit. Their carrier moved to a certain range and released fighters, then it got behind a gas cloud. The fighters and the frigate did some damage to one of the light cruisers, but damage control repaired it.

Our side focused on the fighters before they could get back to the carrier to get more torpedoes. We managed to hurt them a bit. Another few shots on the frigate and it had “fires”. Since a fire in space could easily be put out, it was explained that fire was shorthand for cascading system failures.

The damage control rules required a certain roll on a d6 to repair. One either failed to repair, or the roll revealed that damage control discovered the system was irreparable. The problem with fires is if you don’t put them out, there is a chance they spread.

That is what too out the frigate. It had a huge number of fires and eventually it fell apart.

My torpedo cruiser took a few hits as it went in to help the battle cruiser against the carrier and the fighters. The battle cruiser just couldn’t line up a killing shot on the carrier. We managed to shrink one fighter squadron, but the weapon on the carrier plus the speed and torpedoes of the fighters started fires on the torpedo cruiser and those fires multiplied until it was weakened enough that it basically fell apart.

We reduced the fighters some more, but time ran out before we could line up fatal blows to the carrier. The pirates won the scenario as we had the most ships remaining.

The frigate was no match for our ships and was better suited to screening the carrier than trying to face us. The fighters with their speed and torpedoes were killer if the carrier was in a safe position to launch and able to recover them for re-arming with their tough weapons. Fighter also had beams, but had to be in close.

I had a lot of fun, and had not played any sort of miniatures battle since the early 90’s. I am looking forward to seeing this released. When I know more, I will be sure to mention it hear and on the podcast.

Final turn of the battle before one of my ships was destroyed.

Farewells

I said my goodbyes to those who left before I did. I joined friends in the lounge to chat for a couple hours before I decided I better head home before dark. I really didn’t want to leave. I’m looking forward to next year.

You can hear the companion podcast here.

RPGs

UCon 2019

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I will be at UCon 2019 in Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor, Michigan this weekend (November 22-24). I leave today and will enjoy the pre-con catch up with friends and pick-up games. Here’s a link to the PDF of the Con Book.

Friday morning, I will be running the AD&D [Affiliate Link] module, Village of Hommlet T-1 [Affiliate Link] . This is an homage as this was the first thing I ever ran as a DM/GM at a convention. That was at Marmalade Dog, here in Kalamazoo, a few years ago. I am now much better at running convention games. Since I put in the time to learn this module all those years ago, I wanted to give it a go and do a better job. I know I can do a lot better than when I ran it the first few times at Marmalade Dog. [You can see all my posts that mention Hommlet here.]

Friday evening, I will run a follow up scenario to last year’s Boot Hill 2e [Affiliate Link] adventure, “A Posse For The School Marm.” At the conclusion of the game, all the players asked for a sequel. I just had to oblige them. I hope I do it justice. [You can see all my posts about Boot Hill here.]

Saturday evening, I’m scheduled for 4 hours to have play testing of my card game. I will also be available for pick up games for those who are interested. The art is not moving as fast as I want it to, so I’m trying not to get ahead of myself.

As always, I look forward to some me time out of the house and away from work. Visiting with friends, making new friends, and playing games is a great mini vacation. If you’ll be there and we haven’t met, I’m the one with the black Follow Me, And Die! T-Shirt. I have several of them so I can wear one each day.

RPGs

More On The Screaming Swamp

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My Patrons have spoken and have voted for me to work on an expansion of my hex, The Screaming Swamp, from the Tenkar’s Landing Project, Eilean Dubh. This was a community world building project, focused on an islands and the area around it. It started on G+ and finished a few months before the end of G+.

I’ll flesh out some hinted options for encounter tables and such. I plan to make it a stand alone swamp area with improved encounter tables from those in Eilean Dubh , with some ideas for adventures.

I packed a lot in a 6 mile hex, as published in Eilean Dubh. Making it a larger area with some ideas for generating swampy areas will fit with my theme of useful collections of tables as in my more well received PDFs.

You can get the free map and PDF at Dropbox.

You can order a softcover book from LuLu, here. (At cost for printing & shipping.)

You can get a canvas map of the Isle here. 

I discuss the release of Eilean Dubh in episode 6 of my podcast.

You can read what I’ve written about Eilean Dubh elswhere on my blog at this tag.

I look forward to discussing the details of this project with patrons on the monthly-pdf channel on the Patron Discord. 

RPGs

The Black Isle Released!

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My last post was about the 9th anniversary of the blog, which was yesterday, July 18th. Another cool event yesterday, in addition to session 210 of the Wednesday night AD&D game on Roll20 was the release of The Black Isle, AKA Eilean Dubh.

The Black Isle is the fruit of an OSR collaborative project that started back in 2014 to stat out a region centered on an island. Originally, the project was called Tenkar’s Landing, which is the main settlement on the island. We then decided to name the island. The project had most contributions in about 18 months, as I recall. Editing and layout are what took so long, for one person a 433 page PDF with contents, art, and an index is a huge task.

Fifty-four people stepped up and populated six mile hexes on and under the island and the surrounding area. There is a lot packed in, and some of us, like me, packed a lot into our hex. My contribution is The Screaming Swamp. I had a lot of fun putting it all together. A separate more realistic sized area for what I crammed in my hex is a project I have long thought about, but waited for the completion of this project. I blogged about it here and here. It doesn’t appear I went into detail of the finished product on the blog.

There are tables, new monsters, and I believe also new spells and items. This is a rich resource to run as is, or cherry pick for ideas. There are many years of adventure in this free supplement.

Podcast

I talked about it on episode 6 of my podcast.

Settlement

The second phase of the project is Tenkar’s Landing. As I recall all the work on that is done. There is a map by Dyson Logos. Now that the island is done, the next step is the town. I don’t know if there is the oomph to get it done, but it would be very cool to see the finished town to go with the rest of the setting.

The price is right, it is free and open source. You can see a lot of creativity and you get so many ideas, it would be difficult to use them all.

Where to Get It

You can download the 433 page PDF and 1 page map PNG from Google Drive.

The Black Isle PDF – Drop Box with both Map and PDF

The Black Isle Map PNG – Google Drive Map only

Elsewhere

Discussion on Reddit. [Added 08/12/2018]

RPGs

Gary Con Panel – Goodman Games – How To Write Adventure Modules The Don’t Suck

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I have played a few DCC funnels at conventions and a few modules at the gaming table. I’ve even been a player in a play test of a module. I can’t mention that, but if my name shows up in the acknowledgements, you’ll know which one(s).

DCC seems to have a lot of interest in their modules, so I wanted to hear what their designers had to say. If I never have a published module, at least I can use the information to help design my own sessions, and games at conventions.

The panelists were Joseph Goodman, Michael Curtis, Jobe Bitman, Brendan LaSalle, and Bob Bledsaw, Jr. There were 20-25 in attendance, among whom were 3 women. When it came time to ask questions, only one of the women asked a question. That’s a significant ratio. What I wonder, is were the other two just there with their male S.O.’s, or were they really gamers with an interest in such things. Just my musings, no data to back up any of it.

What follows are just the transcription of my hastily scribbled and sometimes illegible notes. There are a lot of good points here for planning adventures in your own games, in addition to developing modules for publication.

Joseph Goodman started off by telling us that they have done this seminar multiple times before, and this time wanted to start off with each person telling what things inspire them.

1.) Things that inspire us to get a good output.

Michael Curtis

  • All writers are readers
    • Always have a notebook when reading – make note of certain words that evoke ideas, feelings, etc.
    • Follow up on ideas an author does not pursue.

Jobe Bitman

  • Movies, especiall humor.
  • Camping & hiking
  • New museum
  • New locations and feeling what the experience is like and relate to a fantasy world setting.
    • For ex. hiking is hard work, and there’s no way characters pack all the stuff they say that they do.

Brendan LaSalle

  • Big reader
  • Movies
  • Good TV
  • Poetry
  • Music – Heavy Metal Power Cords
  • Steals a lot of bad guy lines from comic books.

Bob Bledsaw, Jr. (Insight on how his dad prepared for campaigns & modules, from all the materials he left.)

  • Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Heilein, A. C. Clarke, poetry
  • Actually running campaigns
    • Notebooks filled with names of inns, NPC’s with brief designations, random monsters, and names & backgrounds for magical items.
    • Village book, fantastic weapons, Temple book, etc.
    • His father didn’t like to lead players.
    • Look at an inn as each class. How does a mage see this inn, a cleric, a thief?
    • What about a monster or obstacle is a problem for a cleric?
    • Leave world open

Joe Goodman

  • Goes to places with unique features
    • Elephant seal hatchery – they are 2,000 pounds and the size of a VW.
  • Monarch butterfly breeding ground – view through fantasy lens
  • Hurst castle
  • Wild zebras on beach near California coastal highway.
  • Alcatraz was a military island citadel before it was a prison.
  • Art and comic books

I think it was Brendan LaSalle who said these two things.

  1. Read Strunk & Whites Manual of Style once per year.
  2. Read what you have written out loud, or have someone read it to you with the Last Draft. If it doesn’t read well, it won’t play well.

A common theme was to playtest a module multiple times to get the flow and pacing right. You have to know how it will play out before you publish it. Someone said if it is a TPK every time, then it’s too hard. If about half the party survives, then it’s about right.

2.) One thing they love and one thing they hate.

Brendan

Love: Brilliant little detail, for ex. Legacy of Savage Kings has a dragon in a cavern with the coins of his treasure lovingly stacked along the wall.

Hate: No matter what happens, you can’t change what happens. He gave examples of NPC’s you can’t kill, or some other thing that no matter what they do it won’t change. It is better to think of what will happen if they kill this NPC, etc. Trust your DM (who will run the module). ALWAYS put the players center stage as the main characters of the story.

Michael

Love: Enjoys ambiguity to cause reader and player to imagine options, avoids set in stone. Leave it up to recipient to fill in the blanks.

Hate: Story should emerge and not be stuck in a narrative since it is a participatory game.

Bob

Be a storyteller, not a story dictator.

Jobe

Hate: Really long details with buried information the DM or player’s need. Make it easy to find.

Joseph

Players are the audience, but the GM is the customer. Word count for GM/Judge is wasted, 1-2 pages at most. Pages should be for the benefit of the players.

3.) How bring ideas together?

Bob – List of Hobbits, only with warrior sounding names. His father’s notes were rich in lore from the books he read.

Michael – Pick three things and create a riff on it. Then come up with a brief synopsis, elevator pitch.

Brendan – Do like Shakespeare – Steal/steal/steal. What if it is a murder mystery?
Take random ideas and throw them at specific thing for the background to see where it goes and what happens.
He is a firm believer in a crappy first draft, just get it done, then refine it.

Michael – If nothing else, do something that you enjoy and are passionate about. Find a way to make it an adventure.

Bob – Don’t let your own misgivings stop you from paying or publishing.

Joseph – Get practice, especially with random stuff.

Bob – Some people have favorite modules that are not what is the most popular. Someone will like it, even if not everyone.

4.) How break out of the linear mindset?

Michael – Don’t make decisions for the players, just set the scene.

Bob – If there is an intriguing hook, it will draw them in.

Mike – For publication there is a set word count. How might players overcome this obstacle. Come up with 3 or 4 things.

Brendan – Billy goat Gruff, but 25th level character. Create a setting and villains. You can’t cover all your bases. Trust your GM.

Joseph – Mental checklist of

  • Player choices
  • There is a chance for every player to shine.
  • Visual Descriptions – Use hulking humanoid instead of just saying orc.
  • No ziggurats – New and exciting ideas.
  • Good title
  • Good summary  – Focused enough to do a 2 or 3 sentence description – elevator pith.

5.) Bad guy development –

Leave as many decisions as possible up to the players.

Base on someone you don’t like.

Don’t lock the front door to the dungeon.

Don’t leave necessary information in an inaccessible place.

No lock without a key. This can be a secret door, or another way around the obstacle. Always a way around it.

Brendan – Once you decide what he is, Imagine as your character or you personally. Such as a dragon or necromancer.
What will you do to stop adventurers?
What will you fail at?

Q&A

How get into the situation?/Start the setting for the adventure? (This was my question. I have trouble getting a good starting point for adventures.)

Brendan – In media res [In the middle of the action/story.] especially for a module, one-shot, or convention game.

Joseph – Robert E. Howard – In media res.

Brendan – Let the players screw themselves. Maybe they are all clerics, so they need hirelings to fill in the gaps. Always have a situation that requires dealing with magic.

Jobe – 1.) Be comfortable with system you are using, and just knowing the system might give you an idea.

2.) Avoid crating bottlenecks, have some secondary way to achieve the goal. A “key” to every lock doesn’t have to be literal.

Joseph – Easter Egg – Some benefit to players that test everything and one room *. Game changers – Players wreck the story line, handle it at the table.

Word count/size?

Brendan – Have a set number of encounters for four hours. For a convention setting, 6 to 8 encounters for four hours. Most modules can be played in four hours.

Jobe – Word count – Write as expressively as possible in the lowest word count.

Joseph – c. 10,000 words is about 16 pages in the format of Goodman Games’ modules.

How develop balance in a module? How do you know you have it right?

Brendan – Playtest/Playtest/Playtest as much as you can before publishing. Run at conventions, local game store with people you don’t know. A minimum of 3 times to playtest, once with friends, twice at conventions, no upper limit really.

Michael – Six months after it is released, you will know if the balance is right.

Jobe – If more than have killed, then still needs work. If less than half killed, then it’s probably pretty good.

Bob – Be prepared for anything. There should be enough source material to plan for unexpected things players do. Always leave a way out of a tough situation, but don’t make it easy.

RPGs

Mark Hunt – An Interview – The Return of GangBusters

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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

The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor – Reprint

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I received a review copy of The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor, a softcover reprint of the Judges Guild module, including printings 1-4 and some new material. This is a portion of the Judge’s Guild Deluxe Colector’s Edition. The deluxe edition will be a hardcover over sized book, but the various parts can be purchased separately in softcover. You can get a PDF of the original here.

This reprint uses the same cover as the first printing, and a sample of the cover for each printing is on the inside back cover.

I must confess that back in the day, my brother and I judge the products from Judges Guild unfavorably, and for not good reasons. We judged the books by their covers, and not the quality of their information. Thus, until the internet showed me what helpful information and tables Judges Guild had, I was ignorant of many of their good ideas.

One major example is Ready Ref Sheets. It has many helpful tables for assisting a DM with various aspects of game prep.

Fortress Badabaskor is a town, fortress, and four level dungeon. It has a backstory, intrigue and can easily fit into an existing campaign. This town could prove to be a base of operations for adventurers even after they had delved the depths beneath Badabakor. In the 40 pages of this mini setting/module are 8 maps showing the surrounding area, the town, and the dungeon levels with a side-view of the elevation.

Judges Guild uses a stat block that I could figure out easily, except for one thing. CLASS, ALIGN, LVL, HTK, AC, SL, S, I, W, CON, DEX, CHAR, WPN. On my first skim through, HTK had me scratching my head until I started over and read it. An earlier NPC spelled out Hits To Kill, which is used instead of Hit Points/HP. Why, I am not sure. I am sure there are those out there who can comment and enlighten the rest of us. Thus remains the bit I don’t understand, SL. I managed to find this link via a google search, and SL is Social Level. It is an interaction mechanic for encounters. That is something that would be good to define in a re-print that can stand alone. If not for the internet, I would have to find someone with the answer to what this is. Now how does this mechanic work? Which book explains that?

[EDIT: Thanks to +Guy Fullerton for pointing out that a list of these abbreviations and their definitions are at the bottom of the table of contents page.]

Before the room descriptions for level one, is this note, and thus a key to what Old School was/is. “Note that each dungeon chamber has a recommended description and some alternate descriptions have been provided to assist the designing judge. Please alter these to suit you campaign!” [emphasis added]

The “designing judge”. That is a helpful turn of phrase. To me, it implies that this setting/module is just an outline for an idea that the GM can modify in whole or in part to suit the campaign. Too many people get on the path of “this is he way it must be”, and lose site of the ability to improvise and shape it to meet the situation.

I really like the alternate descriptions that one can choose to use in place of the ones already there. In some ways, one can mix and match the descriptions in a lot of old school dungeons and not impact much how they play.

Between the town description and the dungeon levels is a table for generating random traps. Like a lot of similar tables from Judge’s Guild, like Ready Ref Sheets, there is a percentile roll to determine the type and then a series of 1d6 tables to further define that trap. There are lots of sub-categories used to flesh out various aspects of traps that get one to think about the depth of such tables, and not just a large number of one line traps. This is a concept akin to story dice that give you words and phrases that you can use to build a description of a trap.

The final eleven pages are a supplement added by Goodman Games, by Michael Curtis. It goes into more detail about some things on level three, and presents some factions for level 4.

Since this is designed with D&D in mind, it is generic enough within that mold to work with little or no modification for various clones. It could even be used for ideas for use with different genres.

The last four pages are re-prints of the ads for various Judges Guild products and sending in S.A.S.E.’s and your money to have it mailed right back to you. That brings up memories and gives a taste to the younger generations how things were before about 15 or 20 years ago.

One thing I soon noticed, on an earlier page halflings are mentioned, and later it mentions hobbits. Seems like the Tolkien estate may not have gone after Judges Guild as stridently as it did TSR over the use of hobbit.

This volume is of much heavier stock than the original such, as I remember them. The pages and cover and slick and shiny. The shininess makes certain angles in some light wash out the test, but otherwise it is very legible.

This is $19.99 from Goodman Games, a PDF of the third printing is on DriveThruRPG/RPGNow for $3.99, which does not have the new material. If $20.00 plus shipping is too much for you, and you can use the PDF, you have options. There are also periodic sales and so forth that can make it easier to dive in.

I have some ideas for how I might use this. Mashed potatoes and aliens anyone?

RPGs

READ AN RPG BOOK IN PUBLIC WEEK – 2015 – July 26th – August 1st, 2015

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Just a little reminder that next week starting this Sunday, July 26th through August 1st, is the second of the three annual weeks for Read an RPG Book in Public Week.

This year, I have not managed to read an RPG book in public during an official week, but I have read part of the 5th Edition Player’s Handbook while in my hammock, between two big trees in my front yard. If the weather cooperates, I should be able to manage to actually meet this challenge.

 

RPGs

2015 One Page Dungeon Contest – Winners Announced

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The winners of the 2015 One Page Dungeon Contest were announced a few days ago. Check out the 1PDC Google Community.

My entry, The Dire Druids of Delver’s Deep, was not among them. I did not expect to win. I knew that there were many who had massively better entries in look, layout, and more from prior years. My entry was an exercise to see what I could do with an idea.

From what I have seen of the winners of the last couple of years, one needs an idea that is solid and well defined with a great hook. The Artwork needs to be top notch, and the layout has to make it all “flow” and draw the reader into it.

I am curious to watch the recording of the Google Hangout with the judges [Link Broken, no alternative, August, 2017], to see if there are any “simple” dungeons that had ideas they liked, but due to art or layout, did not make the cut. Set aside about 45 minutes if you want to watch it all in one go. I missed the live hangout.

Out of all the submissions, there were 3 first place winners, 6 second place winners, 13 third place winners, and 5 honorable mentions. Based purely on first names in each category, it looks like there is one women in each of the last three categories. This makes 97 new dungeons. Since 2009, seven years, that’s about 700 dungeons. Not all are fantasy, not all are dungeons. Still, that is a lot of ideas if your creative well has ran dry. I like to grab and re-purpose the maps for my own use.

One blogger, +Aaron Frost,  of Wasted The Game, is going through all the 1PDC entries and giving his thoughts on them. He has a lot of material.

Daddy Rolled A 1 was a judge last year and again this year. Here is his take on the process.

After watching the hangout video there are a few things one can take away about how to approach this contest.

  • The Past and Storytelling are not as important.
    • What is going on NOW?
    • What situation will the characters encounter when you run it?
  • Brief yet Complete.
  • Set up well in the beginning with an answer to how does it end/get resolved?
  • White space/Imagery/Readable
  • The art is not as important as an idea that is presented well.
  • Spelling and Grammar – i.e. after you spellcheck and grammar check it, get a proofreader.
  • Put enough time into it to do it well.

I know that I had a lot of text. Paring that down to something that “pops” would improve it. That is, express the intent without requiring too much detail.

The hangout mentioned one winning submission that had excellent 2 sentence NPC descriptions that made for NPCs that could be plugged into any campaign.

I would suggest reading through the submissions and learning from them. What did the winners do well? What did the others not do as well that might best be avoided?

One more shout out, +Random Wizard [UPDATE: Random Wizard is no longer on G+. Check out his blog: https://www.kirith.com/random-wizard/] has sold off unused items in his personal collection to ensure that there are prizes for all 13 of the third place winners, a $25 store credit at Wayne’s Books! Talk about a class act! Not only has he given his time to organize the contest, he made sure that third place had prizes out of his own pocket!

There will always be grumblers who complain about things, and complaining is their ONLY “contribution.” It is easy to say that this or that wasn’t right, fair, or the way you would do it. If you are not willing to step up and add something of value to the hobby, why are you tearing down others who are? I don’t know who these complainers are about the 1PDC, they must be ranting on some forum to which I don’t belong. Of that, I am glad. I only know about it, because I saw mention of it on another blog. If the complainers would put forth the energy they spend complaining into making something to share with the others in the OSR, we’d all be better for it. It reminds me of my sons when they complained about doing homework or cleaning their room. If they would have shut up and just done the task at hand, it would have required less energy. Oh well, it is the loss of the complainers. Once we learn what an internet troll is, we know to ignore it, and it becomes as static. It is annoying, but we can learn to tune it out.

I for one am interested to read through the entries. I also am interested in attempting a submission for next year. I may come up with an idea and start working it out to boil it down to the good stuff. Better yet, I’ll take more time on the layout and presentation.